Categories
Blockchain and DLT Crypto

Security in Blockchain: Myths and Truths

Around security in blockchain some interesting myths have been created that make this technology look like a total panacea and something almost surreal, for that reason, we dedicate this article to break these myths and make see the truth about this technology.

Safety is certainly one of the main, or perhaps the main, requirement for blockchain technology. In fact, in a way, security has become the first bastion of defense of this technology that now conquers more and more spaces. And it is not for less, the security in the blockchain is excellent, but reaching it takes a lot of work. In addition, it is not a magic solution, because as in any computer system always reigns the premise of cybersecurity:

“There is no 100% secure computer system.”

That is the harsh reality of the computer world, and blockchain, being a computer technology, is not exempt from this rule. So why our confidence in your safety? Why have so many myths been created around this technology? What is the truth? Let’s try to show that several of the myths that have been created around blockchain technology.

Myth 1: Blockchain is unhackable.

One of the first myths we see in the blockchain world is about the inability of blockchain technology. The truth is that this is not 100% true. Certainly, blockchain technology presents a high level of security, and more if we compare it with any type of sector that is based on centralized technologies.

Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency, has shown us several times that it has errors that can be dangerous for everyone. So what protects us from the blockchain catastrophe? Simple, the assurance that the community will detect and correct those errors, as it has always done. And in the worst-case scenario, in the event of an error that has not been detected early, the network can always agree to return to a block where that has not happened.

This is in addition to the continuous work to develop security measures that avoid serious problems, and the always reliable decentralization, which will allow us to rebuild everything in case the worst comes to pass. But we can also be sure of something, that a project like Bitcoin has accumulated 46 serious errors, is an incredible achievement, because in contrast Windows 10 (developed by one of the corporations that dominate the world) in just a period of 4 years accumulates more than 8100 errors.

Myth 2: Blockchain is absolutely immutable.

Another common myth in the blockchain world is the “absolute immutability” of the blockchain. Something that is not true. The truth is that the blockchain can be rectified or modified under very specific conditions, and we know that from those who have read about the 51% Attack. This attack has the ability to modify the blockchain significantly despite the attempts we make to avoid it, and all within the parameters allowed by the protocol because after all, most of the nodes (51%) have decided to do so.

The attack we have already seen in action, Ethereum Classic (ETC) recently suffered another attack of this type. Bitcoin Gold was another recent victim of such attacks, and other cryptocurrencies are constantly suffering it today. But isn’t Blockchain supposed to be immutable? The answer to this is: It is under certain circumstances. If a blockchain network has its power distributed among its nodes so that none of them has the most power in their hands, then that network will be secure. Otherwise, it’s a recipe for disaster.

Myth 3: All blockchain is highly decentralized.

Decentralization may be the worst myth of all, and it is because decentralization in blockchain projects is misunderstood (or misused). And many projects, and companies, use the word “Blockchain” to confuse, trying to convey that they are a decentralized network when they are not.

For example, Bitcoin is a fairly decentralized network, but there’s still a long way to reach a “safe zone of decentralization”, that area where Bitcoin users turn to their own nodes instead of third parties to perform their operations. The latter may sound utopian, but it would be the perfect example of absolute decentralization. Still, Bitcoin is a good example of decentralization.

However, if we choose other projects such as Ripple, Stellar, Tether, Bitcoin SV, Tron, UNUS, IOTA, Compound, BAT, Theta,… that decentralization is lost. Yes, these projects are blockchain, some with great renown and great economic level, but each and every one of them have of decentralized what of decentralized has a Bank.

In short, they are projects that use the words “blockchain” and “decentralization” to disguise an almost absolute centralization existing over their systems. And we are not talking about centralization at the level of development, but also at the level of nodes, miners, and other structures that make it possible to function. In this sense, this myth falls for the clear evidence that a “blockchain project” is not automatically decentralized because it is blockchain.

Myth 4: Cryptography makes Blockchain secure.

This myth, surely, is one of the most difficult of all to understand. The reason for this is because it is a half-truth. Cryptography is certainly the basis of blockchain security, but cryptography is constantly broken.

An example that breaks this myth can be seen in IOTA. This cryptocurrency is based on DAG (Directed Acyclic Graphs) technology and uses a cryptographic function that was considered secure. However, a hacker managed to break that algorithm and as a result, thousands of users were affected, with theft of funds and access to the seeds of their purses. A serious problem where cryptography was not enough to maintain security. As a negative result, the IOTA network was out of service for 14 days until the problem was fixed.

However, the operating model of Bitcoin, the management of its development, and its active community is a successful formula to combat the problems that could come along this line.

Myth 5: Smart contracts are the ultimate programming tool.

Smart contracts are often seen as the biggest breakthrough achieved thanks to blockchain, and that vision is correct. However, smart contracts are not inherently secure by running on a blockchain, as many show, on the contrary, a public smart contract is subject to public scrutiny, and if there are malicious actors in that audience who can see a vulnerability, they’ll exploit it for a profit.

Yes, smart contracts are very powerful, but their security is far from perfect, in fact, we could say that it is still a work in progress, as we can see to platforms like Ethereum, where they seek to constantly improve their language to enable the most secure development of such tools.

Computer security has always been a space where the impossible always ends up being possible. There are many systems that claim to be “ineligible” and always end up giving in to some error in their systems sooner or later. It is something that reaches even the big ones, such as OpenBSD, the most secure operating system in the world, and that in all its history (23 years) has only had two errors in its installation by default.

That being said, blockchain although it is a very secure system, perhaps one of the safest to handle our money, is not an all-powerful and perfect solution. We are certainly far from that, and that, however illogical, is a good thing. 

In this sense, the future of blockchain security will always be positive, it will always go in the interest of being able to improve what we currently have, to face the challenges of the future. That way we can stay calm, blockchain security will improve, and with it, our impression of a technology that is changing the world.

Categories
Blockchain and DLT Crypto Daily Topic

5 Portals That Rate And Rank DeFi 

There’s never a dull moment in the Defi sector. Continuous innovation in the space affords us products and solutions that ease our transactions. Additionally, the thriving Defi sector provides alternative investment avenues. Further, the investments attract better returns compared to those from conventional finance. It isn’t a wonder that investors in their droves keep boarding the Defi juggernaut.

In a sense, the ballooning of Defi is both a blessing and curse, A blessing in that it expands our choices and gives us greater say over our funds. On the other hand, many competing products could cause us headaches in product choices. The fact that genuine and fake projects dot Defi’s landscape further exacerbates this dilemma.

Luckily though, we’ve portals whose mission is to take the difficulty out of Defi investments. These scour the Defi sector, analyzing projects and trends for our consumption. In them, we have crucial allies for navigating the Defi maze. This article examines five portals that rate and rank Defi to our gain. We shall proceed to explore the features that make them a must-have tool in our investment journey.

1. DeFi Pulse

DeFi Pulse site enables you to find analysis and rankings of Defi protocols. Its salient features include:

Total Value Locked

This metric shows the amount of funds locked up in various DeFi contracts. A high TVL is indicative of a thriving economy. Defi Pulse uses a graph to capture the daily TVL progression.

Market dominance

This standard ranks projects according to their liquidity levels. Projects with higher liquidity are a stable and attractive investment option.

The Market Leader Share Metric

The Market leader share metric gives you a glimpse of the Defi categories available on Defi Pulse’s site. Major types include Lending, DEX’s, Derivatives, Payments, and Assets.

DeFi Pulse Farmer

The DeFi Pulse Farmer is the site’s newsletter. It covers the latest news and opportunities in the Defi space.

DeFi Lending

The Defi lending feature shows the interest that these protocols generate per year. Through this ranking, you can determine the most profitable investments. The platform also has a calculator that shows you how much interest you’d draw per month by locking a given amount of an asset.

DeFi Pulse Token List

The Token list is a directory of the legitimate tokens trading on Ethereum.  It serves to reassure users that they are dealing with a genuine project.

2. CoinMarketCap DeFi page

CoinMarketCap (CMC) has distinguished itself to be a trustworthy platform. Its Defi page lists tokens simply and conveniently, allowing for faster searches. Its other standout features are:

Cryptoasset Ranking

Here you find all the assets that CMC lists. You get to see the asset’s market cap, price changes within a day or week, its volume, and circulating supply.

Coin Details Pages

These provide in-depth information regarding a coin. The “market pairs” tab features prominently on these pages. Market pairs have unique confidence indicators that aid you in picking an exchange to trade. This confidence score mirrors the exchange’s liquidity.

Exchanges

Here you get to compare how the different exchanges fare. The exchanges fall into different categories, including spot exchanges, derivatives exchanges, and decentralized exchanges.

CMC’s Watchlist

The watchlist feature allows you to mark your favorite cryptos. In this way, you can easily track their performance.

Headlines

Keep abreast of the happenings in the crypto and blockchain space with this tool. The embedded Signals feature sends you news directly from a project or a given crypto protocol.

3. Etherscan

Etherscan is an Ethereum based platform providing analyses of the Defi sector. It debuted in 2015 and one of the longest-running independent projects built on the network. Its mission is to provide fair access to blockchain data. Some of its key features are:

DeFi Leaderboard

Through Etherscan’s leaderboard feature, you get to find up to date analytics and rankings of DeFi protocols. The rankings take into account the total value locked into the smart contracts. From the leaderboard, one can skim the following information:

  • The project’s rank
  • The project’s name
  • Its category
  • TVL in USD
  • Price changes in a day
  • Price changes over a week
  • The project’s market capitalization
  • The market cap to TVL ratio

Token Tracker

Etherscan tracks and ranks two kinds of tokens. First is the ERC 20 token, and secondly, the ERC 721 token, also known as the Non-Fungible Token.

ERC 20 token Tracker

In ranking the ERC 20 token, Etherscan identifies the project by name, states its trading price, and changes in 24 hours. Additionally, it indicates the token volume within a day, the token’s market cap, and its total number of holders.

Non-fungible Tokens Tracker

This tracker ranks the top ERC 721 tokens. It identifies the project and its volume first within a day and finally in a week.

Yield Farms Tracker

Yield farming is an essential component of Defi. Accordingly, Etherscan has provided a rank for the top yield farming ventures. You’ll find the project’s name, its start date, addresses, trading prices, and market cap in this ranking.

4. Loanscan

Loanscan is your go-to platform in matters of Defi lending. It gives you access to financial information and analysis for credit issued on the Ethereum blockchain. The platform supports loans from Compound, dYdX, Dharma, and Maker DAO protocols. However, it plans to introduce additional protocols and blockchains in the future. Minimalist in nature, it has two significant features:

Earn Yield

Here you get to know the amount of interest you’ll earn investing in a given platform. Besides showing the earning in terms of USD, Loanscan also compares the yield across cryptos. 

Borrow

This feature enables you to determine the cheapest platforms to seek credit. Again it lists the platforms and their lending rates for different cryptos. 

5. DeFiprime

DefiPrime is a feature-rich portal offering comprehensive information on different Defi projects. On this site, you’ll find news and blog articles relating to Defi. Additionally, you can conveniently search for projects under several categories. Some of the main categories include  Alternative savings, Daos, Payments, and Staking. The site eases the process of finding projects as it arranges them in niches. Thus, it saves you time.

Final Thoughts

The growth of Defi has placed us in a quandary. On the one hand, we celebrate the convenience of transactions, expansion of financial options, and notably, the financial freedom Defi affords us. That said, their proliferation introduces challenges in determining which products to choose. As the sector has its fair share of legit and fraudulent projects, this difficulty gains in significance. All is not lost, though. Some portals undertake analysis of the Defi market to keep us in the know. Using these portals takes the guesswork out of investing, guaranteeing us fruitful experiences in the space. 

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic Cryptocurrencies

The Best Use Cases For Decentralized Finance Projects

There’s hardly a facet of our lives left untouched by blockchain technology. From the most ubiquitous to the complex of our engagements, its effects are discernible. But perhaps the one sector where its effects are most discernible is in finance. The shortfalls of the legacy financial systems provide the right environment for innovation to sprout. Fintech firms are outdoing themselves in the production of products and technologies aimed at bettering users’ experiences.

This year has seen the emergence of many disruptive technologies. However, non features as prominently as decentralized finance(DeFi). DeFi is technology’s response to an inadequate financial system. 

In this article, we tackle two significant aspects of Defi. First, the significance of Defi projects. We also present the best use cases to give you insight into this revolutionary technology. 

Let’s get into it!

What is the Significance of Decentralized Finance Projects?

Defi projects are universally beneficial. The buzz they continue to generate emphasizes this truth. Here’re a few of the benefits associated with them:

  • They streamline transactions- smart contracts execute exchanges increasing efficiencies.
  • Increase the security of transactions- they draw on the Ethereum blockchain’s Immutability to secure trades.
  • They are scalable- Ethereum’s composable software ensures that DeFi protocols and applications are interoperable, giving the developers and product the flexibility to build on top of existing ones. 
  • Increase transparency of transactions- distributed ledger technology enables one’s peers to access and verify their transactions, curbing fraud.
  • It is permissionless- DeFi facilitates anyone with a crypto wallet and the Internet to access its applications regardless of their location.
  • Gives the user control over their data- Web3 wallets like MetaMask interact with permissionless dAapps and protocols to provide users custody of their assets data. 

What are the Best Use Cases for Decentralized Finance?

From the preceding, it is clear that DeFi projects are beneficial. The question then arises, where can we best use this technology? DeFi technology has wide usage. The following are some of the prominent use cases.  

i) Management Of Assets

DeFi protocols give users full custody of their funds. Additionally, Crypto wallets help one easily and securely interact with decentralized applications (dApps) for different transactions. These transactions range from trading and transferring crypto to earning interest on their crypto holdings. Tracking one’s assets becomes easy this way.

ii) Gaming

Defi platforms are interoperable. This feature has opened up opportunities for developers to build cross-platform protocols across a variety of verticals. 

Ethereum-based games have gained popularity due to their inbuilt economies and rewards. Take the case of the PoolTogether game. Its users acquire digital tickets using the DAI stable coin. They then pool their tokens for lending on the Compound money market.

iii) Provision of Credit

DeFi allows the creation of P2P lending pools and borrowing contracts. For instance, Compound -an autonomous interest rate protocol- integrates with most DeFi platforms, enabling users to earn interest in crypto that they’ve lent.

Compound’s smart contract automatically matches creditors to borrowers. Additionally, it determines interest rates by comparing the volume of the borrowed to supplied funds.

iv) Decentralized Exchanges

Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) are crypto trading platforms allowing P2P transactions. They achieve this by eliminating central authorities. As they’re non-custodial, they mitigate price manipulation, hacking, and theft.

DEXs are the mainstay of token projects. They enhance their access to affordable liquidity as they allow projects to list without fees. This way, they differ significantly from centralized exchanges that charge higher prices per listing.

The degree of decentralization varies with the exchange. Whereas exchanges may centrally host order books and other aspects of a users’ account, they don’t hold their private keys. Examples of popular DEXs in the DeFi space currently include AirSwap, Liquality, Mesa, Oasis, and Uniswap.

v) Decentralized Insurance

Investing in cryptos (DeFi included) comes with its fair share of risks. As such, different products that hedge against risks in this space are available. They help protect against market crashes, hackings, failure of smart contacts, among others. Nexus Mutual is one such example.

The players within the Defi space underwrite the risk. That is to say, they pool resources to acquire the premium providing the cover. Utilizing smart contracts makes the products transparent. Anyone can access the payout terms via the Blockchain.

vi) Issuance of Synthetic Assets

Synthetic assets are tokenized representations of derivatives. An Ethereum based smart contract locks them to the Blockchain. These derivatives may represent real-world assets, including fiat currencies, bonds, commodities, or even cryptos.

Synthetic assets are tradeable. Consequently, they allow the disposal and acquisition of assets that are illiquid or difficult to obtain. The Synthetix protocol is essential to their issuance. It employs a 750% collateralization ratio that guards against price shocks.

vii) Liquidity Mining

Liquidity Mining, also known as yield farming, is holding digital assets for rewards. Through smart contracts, owners of crypto assets get incentives for keeping rather than trading them.

Participation in these projects requires stacking liquidity provider (LP) tokens. One obtains these through providing liquidity to a DEX, such as UNISWAP. Users then stake their tokens to mind new ones for exchange.

viii) Identity Management

Traditional financial systems rely on KYC guidelines to comply with AML and CFT regulations. Defi, on the other hand, uses Know- your-transactions (KYT) protocols to deter fraud and other financial crimes. KYT uses the behavior of participating addresses rather than individual IDs to assess and stem the risk for financial crime. The assessment is in real-time. 

ix) Enhancing Financial Inclusion

In tandem with Blockchain-based identity systems, DeFi opens up financial opportunities to those previously excluded. It eases collateralization requirements for those seeking credit. Again it delinks creditworthiness from such aspects as income and ownership of property. Instead, it shifts it to attributes like financial reputation and activity. 

x) Development of Stablecoins

A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency whose value depends on a stable asset or group of assets. The supporting assets could be fiat commodities or other cryptocurrencies.

Intended to mitigate the volatility of cryptos, they have found a home in the DeFi space. They are essential in remittances, borrowing, and lending. Another area they’re gaining prominence in is the Central Banks Digital Currencies.

xi) Provision of Marketplaces

Many marketplaces have arisen to exploit DeFi functions. These allow P2P exchanges globally. From them, traders and consumers enjoy a wide variety of products and services.

Final Thoughts

The year 2020 could be defined as the year of Defi. During this period, interest in this disruptive technology peaked. The heightened interest attests to its significance. Not only will it increase access to financial services, but also ease transactions besides securing them. The technology has wide useability. For instance, it is essential in credit provision, creating market places, and even combating financial crimes. Even though it is still developing, it has shown the potential to alter our economic landscape for the better. As we expand research and development in the area, we can only look forward to exciting products and solutions in the space.

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic Cryptocurrencies

What Exactly is Proof of Keys?

In crypto, there’s a saying: “not your keys, not your coins.” This means that if you do not have sole custody of your private keys, you cannot really claim to have ownership over your funds. If your keys are with a crypto exchange or any other third-party custodian, you may as well forget about being the true owner of your funds. 

Many crypto owners today make the mistake of leaving their funds on exchanges. But considering the insecurity history of crypto exchanges, they are far from the safest place to keep your cryptocurrency. Millions, (or perhaps billions) worth of crypto has been lost through hacks on exchanges. The most famous one is Mt. Gox, in which people lost vast sums of Bitcoin and are yet to be compensated up to this day. And while that may be several years ago, crypto hackers are always upping the game. This is to say exchanges are not a safe place to store your crypto. 

So, how does that have anything to do with proof of keys? 

Understanding Proof of Keys 

Proof of Keys is actually ‘Proof of Keys Day’ in full. The event is the idea of crypto investor Trace Mayer, who came up with the concept so as to spread awareness of the need for crypto owners to practice self custody of their private keys and, in so doing, reclaim their financial independence. Proof of Keys is an annual celebration every January 3rd. 

Proof of Keys day is an idea geared at preventing crypto investors’ reliance on exchanges to store their funds. The first Proof of Keys event happened on January 3rd, 2019 – to intentionally coincide with the day of Bitcoin’s genesis block. 

In essence, Proof of Keys Day is a day to celebrate financial autonomy. The bigger picture is to remind crypto investors of the importance of keeping their private keys in their personal wallets. By having full control of their keys, they can rest assured that no one has access to their crypto holdings. 

Crypto holders have access to numerous types of crypto wallets – from online wallets to paper wallets to desktop wallets to hardware wallets. However, hardware wallets are the most secure options out there – and among the most reputable of these is Ledger, Trezor, and KeepKey. Hardware wallets are not connected to the internet. This renders them immune to hackings and other online vulnerabilities. 

What are the Intended Outcomes of Proof of Keys Day? 

The philosophy guiding Proof Of Keys Day is perfectly in step with that of Bitcoin: to eliminate third-party intermediaries and operate in a trustless electronic money transfer system where parties can operate securely and confidently without sacrificing their financial sovereignty. With that, let’s look at the intended outcomes of Proof Of Keys Day: 

#1. Teach new crypto investors how to move funds around

Crypto holders should be knowledgeable and comfortable enough to move their coins around. While this may be as easy as ABC for veterans, it can be intimidating for newcomers. From the (seemingly) complex key numbers to the wide range of wallets, it can all look absolutely bewildering. For this reason, Proof of Keys Day encourages investors to familiarize themselves with the different types of cryptocurrency wallets and how to use them. It also reminds them how the transfer of value happens on the blockchain. 

#2. Remind crypto holders to actually own their funds 

Like we’ve mentioned before, the main objective of Proof of Keys Day is to encourage crypto investors to take ownership of their private keys. When you leave your funds on an exchange, you essentially forfeit complete control of your money. Though it takes place only once a year, Proof of Keys Day is a chance for people to reclaim control of what’s theirs. 

#3. Expose dishonest crypto exchanges

Financial entities are known for fractional reserve banking – which is the practice of leveraging existing customer deposits by lending out more funds than what they truly have at hand. While this profits the institutions, it’s risky for the real owners of the money since a ‘bank panic’ could cause bankruptcy for the institution. In the crypto space, Proof of Keys Day could encourage holes of crypto investors to withdraw their money from exchanges. If enough investors do that, it may expose exchanges engaging in fractional reserve tendencies or those that lie about their actual reserves. That’s if the publicly verifiable nature of blockchain networks has not already done so.

#4. Celebrate Bitcoin’s genesis block

Last but certainly not least, Proof of Keys Day allows investors from all over the world to celebrate the Bitcoin genesis block – the first day a block was mined on the Bitcoin network. The genesis block was the first-ever Bitcoin transaction. In the transaction, Satoshi Nakamoto sent 50 BTC to Hal Finney – an early Bitcoin developer. It’s also, to an extent, a day to remember the first ‘commercial” Bitcoin transaction when somebody bought two pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoins.

How to Participate in the Proof of Keys Movement

Whether you’re a newcomer to crypto or a veteran, you’ll find that participating in Proof of Keys Day is very easy. Again the idea is to express financial independence by moving all funds from exchanges or other custodial services. 

To get started, take an inventory of all crypto coins you have on exchanges. This will show you who really owns what in regards to your money. Then, proceed to choose a crypto wallet of your choice. Ensure to choose a wallet that you’re comfortable with and one with a sufficient level of security. Next, transfer your funds from custodial platforms to your personal wallet. This means you can now control your private keys and, with them, your funds. 

Some crypto investors celebrate Proof of Keys Day, even if for one day. This involves moving their coins from exchanges for one day in a symbolic move to affirm their financial autonomy. Active traders are the ones more likely to engage in this kind of practice. This is because they need to have their crypto funds in exchanges to facilitate trades. After the symbolic transfer of funds to their personal wallets, they usually move them back to exchanges. But for long-term investors (HODLers), it’s better to keep their money in their personal wallets. 

Final Thoughts

Proof of Keys Day is a simple concept – but quite monumental in meaning. It’s a day to remind crypto holders to take back ownership of their funds by taking control of their private keys. Hordes of crypto investors participate in the event with a single goal of affirming their financial sovereignty. It’s a day to educate people and remind them about crypto security principles in general. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Blockchain in Fashion  and Luxury Retail

Nearly every industry these days is discovering the potential and power of blockchain. Even fashion, which you may not expect, is slowly onboarding the tech. The fashion industry is one where fraud is all too common – at least when it comes to sourcing authentic materials. But putting aside the solving of problems, are there ways in which blockchain can make the fashion industry better?

In this article, we’ll discover that yes, there are. In fact, several brands are spearheading the shift to the blockchain, including the luxury jewelry industry. Whether it’s increasing transparency, giving fashion workers a fairer shot, reducing wastage, blockchain can do so much for fashion. 

With that, let’s dive into how blockchain can be good for the fashion industry. 

#1. Monitoring deliveries 

With blockchain, fashion companies can be assured of items and parcels, making their way to the desired destination. Participants to every delivery can monitor real-time where an item is. Having to wait for deliveries is a tedious and productivity-decreasing process. This becomes even worse when a project relies on several deliveries. It can be a tall order keeping track of every single delivery. And in case of losses, that might turn up bad real fast. 

Blockchain-powered tracking of deliveries and purchases can reduce the likelihood of losses and the confusion that arises from customers having to run around trying to retrieve persons that didn’t make it on time/at all. Every single step can be monitored on the transparent blockchain, where everyone can see the progress, making for an efficient and desirable experience for everyone involved.

 #2. Reducing counterfeits

The blockchain could help dramatically reduce counterfeits. In fashion, authenticity is highly valued, and in the future, a QR code to verify genuineness will be the standard. If an authentic item has been switched for a fake in the distribution process, it will be very easy for the blockchain to smoke that out. 

The Italian government recently pumped €15 million into blockchain technology to help reduce ‘Made in Italy’ counterfeiting in various industries, including fashion. The introduction of the technology will go a long way to protecting authentic ‘Made in Italy’ goods. 

#3. Reclaiming ownership

With the rise of nonfungible tokens (NFTs), people’s interest in blockchain ownership has also spiked. Blockchain allows people to own their data and intellectual and physical property in a trustless and verifiable manner. 

Fashion designers are already taking advantage of this possibility. Martine Jaelgaard, a London-based designer, incorporated QR codes in her garments, which allows them to be recorded and tracked on the blockchain. 

Paris-based Satoshi Studios sells high-quality sneakers that can be tracked using the blockchain using a QR code. This allows an individual to track the origin and supplies for the material and every process in manufacturing. 

#4. Provenance

The luxury industry of diamonds benefits from blockchain as companies use it to trace every step of the supply process. From mining to transporting to molding to sales, it’s easy to monitor every component of the process. 

Major diamond brand DeBeers is leading an industry-wide move into blockchain adoption, as blockchain-based diamond tracking platform Tracr becomes more influential. London-based diamond retailer Taylor & Hart has teamed up with blockchain company Everledger to authenticate the source of diamonds using the blockchain. Brilliant Earth, a San Francisco-based jewel retailer, is also using the Everledger platform for the same end. 

Such transparent processes ensure that buyers have more confidence in what they’re purchasing – together with its source, businesses in the diamond industry can keep their reputation. 

#5. Supply chain management

Blockchain can infinitely improve supply chain management for all kinds of industries. A lot has to do with transparency: it’s possible to track the movement of materials from the manufacturer to the retailer and, in some cases, ownership. 

Fashion giant Burberry recently partnered with IBM for a blockchain-based protocol that would allow customers to register their items and allow the viewing of the history and information about the garment and its impact on the environment and even people. 

The protocol, dubbed ‘Voyage’, allows customers to view an item’s supply chain before purchasing and registering them on the blockchain using corresponding serial numbers. Voyage is a pioneering information tool that will allow end-users to ascertain whether the right material has been used and if working conditions were good for workers.

#6. Improve employee welfare/reducing the recalling of products 

The transparency accorded by blockchain means fashion businesses can look at the data surrounding the supply chain’s employees. We hear reports all the time about poor working conditions or pay for workers all over the world. With blockchain in fashion, it will be easier to highlight concerns and improve employee welfare. This can include logging in the hours worked in the blockchain – and these hours being accounted for fairly. 

Also, blockchain-powered quality assurance can help prevent unnecessary costs, and items are less likely to depreciate in quality while being taken to the customer. 

#6. Blockchain-based warranties and coupons 

Maintaining open-source records of when goods were purchased could make it infinitely easier for manufacturers, retailers, and consumers to track when goods were purchased and keep records of warranties and guarantees. 

Customers will no longer have to hang on to physical receipts for years. All they will need to do is log into an account and access the same purchasing information as to their manufacturer and retailer.

Also, it will be easy for retailers to offer digital coupons to their customers. Such an issuance process is not only transparent; it also allows retailers to reach wider audiences in a more effective and cost-efficient process. 

#7. Consumer data ownership

Blockchain tech will help participants in fashion track items, but consumers can also have more control over their data. When fashion brands enter customer’s data on the blockchain, customers can view any activity surrounding it. 

This is incredibly important, especially in an era when concerns around data privacy become more prevalent than ever, and companies like Facebook face increased regulatory pressure around their treatment of user data. 

Final Thoughts 

Blockchain can offer so much to the fashion world. Between facilitating transparency to ensuring fair work practices to cost efficiency to the reduction of waste to improving customer experience, there’s no end in sight for the incredible potential of blockchain to positively disrupt the fashion world. Ultimately, the tech will serve to improve the relationship between brands and customers for the good of everyone involved. Blockchain can herald a new future for fashion. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Introducing ARPA: Privacy and Security for the Blockchain

One of the biggest selling points of blockchain is privacy, which is enabled by ultra-modern cryptography. That quality is only enhanced by the tech’s decentralized nature, which means there’s no single authority calling the shots. These and more features of blockchain make it ideal as a solution for countless modern-day issues. 

ARPA is a project utilizing blockchain to secure privacy-oriented computation and data sharing. It also supports high-level security, flexibility, and cross-chain interoperability.

This article looks more closely at the ARPA Chain network. 

Breaking Down ARPA Chain 

ARPA is a layer 2 solution for achieving unprecedented blockchain security. Powered by Multi-Party Computation (MPC), ARPA aims to promote data privacy while enabling its renting. The MPC protocol allows multiple participants to collaboratively analyze data while maintaining each party’s data’s privacy and security.

Entities can secretly share private data, with the accuracy of computation verified through an information-theoretic Message Authentication Code. Use cases of the native token, ARPA, include but are not limited to computation costs, security deposits, data usage fees, network governance, etc. The ARPA token is currently based on Ethereum. 

On the ARPA network, developers can build privacy-preserving decentralized apps compatible with the protocol. Use cases of ARPA a wide-ranging, but they include credit anti-fraud, data wallet security, precision marketing, key management systems, etc. 

ARPA: Features 

Privacy and security: MPC allows participants to collaboratively compute functions while ensuring the utmost privacy

Flexibility and compatibility: The ARPA network is flexible and interoperable with existing blockchains like Ethereum and EOS. 

Scalability and Efficiency: ARPA is capable of implementing fast transactions for mass adoption. It can also support off-chain, industrial-level computation, and storage.

ARPA Listed on ForTube

In September this year, ARPA was listed on ForTube, a crypto lending and yield farming platform. ARPA token holders can now stake ARPA at the platform to get a share of 500,000 FOR tokens awarded to users every day. They can also deposit ARPA and get up to double rewards. 

The ARPA token can also be used in the platform as collateral to borrow a wide range of crypto assets, including ETH, USDT, HBTC, WBTC, USDC, BUSD FAI, FOR, BNB, etc. You can also transfer borrowed assets to any address of your choice – for yield farming and other purposes. 

The current Annual Percentage Yield of lending ARPA on ForTube is 1.99%, while the loan-deposit ratio is 40%. ARPA’s listing in ForTube is good tidings for the project. It is beneficial in the long term to increase token value, ecological development, and promote community consensus. 

Community Growth Strategies of ARPA

The ARPA team is currently implementing various growth strategies. These include: 

  • Social media and community programs to spur interaction and growth
  • A global supernode program to promote ARPA on the global stage
  • Host or co-host blockchain and crypto-related events
  • Organize monthly physical meetups, starting with the China, Korea, and Southeast Asia region
  • Release multi-language technical and community updates every two weeks

Future Strategies include: 

  • Hosting blockchain in cryptography related meetups, hackathons, and conferences
  • Collaborating with tech-focused to advance privacy-preserving computation
  • Recruiting top media coverage and collaborating with research institutions, policy gurus, and thought leaders

Who’s Behind ARPA? 

ARPA is the brainchild of a global research team where every member has graduated from leading universities such as UC Berkeley, UMich, and NYU. Several team members have previously worked at Google, Uber Amazon, CircleUp, MIT Lab, and Fosun. 

The team has partnered with professors in academia, including universities such as NYU, Zhejiang University, and Hong Kong Polytechnic. The team has advisors in the blockchain space, such as former Blockstream Product Director, TechCrunch founder, and various high-level crypto investors. 

ARPA: Tokenomics

As of October 31, 2020, the ARPA token traded at $0.014210, with a market cap of $12,271,817 that placed it at #444 in the market. The token’s 24-hour volume was $5,445,575, while it’s circulating and total supply were 863,580,274 and 1.49 billion, respectively. The token’s all-time high was $0.062323 (July 15, 2019), while its all-time low was $0.003472 (March 13, 2020). 

Where to Buy and Store ARPA 

You’ll find ARPA listed as a market pair of USDT, BTC, BTC, ETH, USD and KRW in any of several exchanges, including Binance, BitHumb, Huobi Global, Coinbene, HitBTC, Gate.io, LBank, LongBit, KuCoin, Bilaxy BKEX, Balancer, CDAX, Hanbitco, CITEX, Hydax Exchange, Bibox and more. 

ARPA is Ethereum-based, so that means it can be stored on any Ethereum-compatible wallet. Good choices include MyEtherWallet, Parity, Guarda, Atomic Wallet, Trust Wallet, MetaMask, Ledger Nano, and Trezor. 

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic Cryptocurrencies

Can WazirX (WRX) be the Queen of Exchanges?

While it may appear as though crypto has received a lot of support and adoption, the reality is that penetration is yet to even go beyond 1%. The reasons for this are the massive obstacles standing between Fiat and crypto, such as high fees, complex procedures, regulatory hurdles, etc. Also, existing on-ramp solutions grapple with high deposit and withdrawal fees, delays, and users not truly owning their own money. 

WazirX is a decentralized crypto exchange that wants to solve these and more problems to provide users with the means to adopt cryptocurrency. Based in India and acquired by Binance, the platform’s name, Wazir, is another name for the “queen” in chess. The queen piece can not only play any move; it’s also the strongest. WazirX wants to live up to these characteristics. 

What’s WazirX? 

Launched in 2018, WazirX is a crypto exchange with advanced buy, sell, and trade functionalities. It features a live and open order book on which users can trade over 80 crypto assets, including Bitcoin, Litecoin, BNB, Dash, and more. 

On WazirX, you can also deposit or withdraw crypto and cash in or cash out stablecoins such as USDT in a fast, secure, and peer-to-peer manner. WazirX’s goal is to bridge the chasm between Fiat and crypto. 

WRX’s native token is the backbone of the ecosystem and has several use cases, including trading fee discounts, participation rewards, payment for margin fees, and more. WazirX supports five platforms at the time of writing: Web, Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac.

History of WazirX

The WazirX team launched the platform to respond to the Indian government’s banning of crypto businesses, exchanges, and shops. Banks had also been banned from engaging in any crypto-related activities. 

Today, the platform is, first and foremost, the go-to platform for Indian users to trade in crypto – in an uncensorable manner. But that’s not where the team is stopping. They intend to take the WazirX proposition to more developing and underdeveloped countries for Fiat on-ramp solutions. 

Binance acquired WazirX in November 2019. However, it continues to operate independently with a focus on peer-to-peer crypto trading. The WazirX team shares a vision with Binance, and that’s to increase the freedom of money around the world and improve people’s lives. 

How Does WazirX Realize Security? 

The WazirX team ensures security for the network through the following actions: 

  • Majority of funds kept in cold storage
  • A muti-sig wallet system
  • Two-factor authentication system for transactions
  • Strong KYC/AML procedures
  • Regular security audits

WRX Value 

WRX token holders will receive perks, including but not limited to discounts in payment of fees. The discount structure is as follows: 

  • 1st year: 50% trading fee discount
  • 2nd year: 25% trading fee discount
  • 3rd year: 12.5% trading fee discount
  • 4th year: 6.25% trading fee discount

Users will also earn participation rewards for performing P2P trades. Also, token holders will have voting power to determine issues such as future listings, update releases, etc. 

WazirX will burn 10% off WRX tokens every quarter based on the trading volume. In the end, about 100 million tokens will be burned – in a bid to prevent the token from overflooding the market. 

Who’s on the WazirX Team?

WazirX is the brainchild of a core team of members. We have founder and CEO Nischal Shetty, who is also the founder of Crowdfire and is an awardee of Forbes 30 under 30. 

Co-founder and CTO is also a co-founder of Crowdfire Sameer Mhatre is a full-stack developer and designer. He describes himself as “a huge Java and JS fan.” 

Co-founder and COO Siddharth Menon also co-founded Crowdfire. He’s also the founder of 3Crumbs, one of the early mobile startups in India. 

Community Growth Strategies of WazirX 

The WazirX team intends to implement several community growth strategies in a bid to expand the growth of the network. Current strategies include: 

  • Innovative participation reward programs, e.g., the WRX Trade Mining program
  • Publish media content including guest posts and features
  • Conduct AMAs and both virtual and physical conferences
  • Conduct interviews with influencers
  • Release progress updates every month
  • Headline events and partner with industry influencers

Future strategies include: 

  • Create dedicated Telegram channels for various countries
  • Headline and participate in more events such as meetups and conferences to grow further its offline presence
  • Continue to innovate with rewards programs
  • Collaborate with various wallets and decentralized finance apps to explore Fiat gateway solutions

WRX: Token Supply Distribution 

The ERX token was distributed in the following manner: 

  • Launchpad sale tokens: 10%
  • Private sale tokens: 5%
  • Foundation tokens: 30%
  • Product and marketing tokens: 20%
  • Partnership and ecosystem tokens: 20%
  • WRX Airdrop tokens: 11.10 percent
  • WRX trade mining tokens: 3.90%

How’s the WazirX Token Doing in the Market? 

As of October 31, 2020, WRX traded at $0.088615 with a market cap of $20,718,698 that placed it at #323 in the market. The token had a 24-hour volume of $8,866,743 and a circulating and total supply of 233,817,289 and 995,833,334. WRX has an all-time high of $0.229263 (Mar 07, 2020) and an all-time low of $0.055241 (Mar 13, 2020). 

Where to Buy WRX

You’ll find WRX listed as a market pair of USDT, BTC, BUSD, BNB, TRX, and more in several exchanges. They include but are not limited to WazirX, Binance, BinanceDEX, Bilaxy, Sistemkoin, BiKi, Poloniex, FTX, and Bitsonic. 

Final Thoughts

WazirX is relatively young, but it has done well. With its plan to spread its wings to more countries, the project is poised for more success and could very well compete with more established exchanges like Huobi, Coinbase, etc. Here’s to hoping it succeeds in both expanding and democratizing money for populations. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Blockchain Tech Growth and What It Means for You

We are living an important growth of applications based on Blockchain technology, what would be the definition of this technology?

In 1968, young Americans died far from home in a war they did not understand, French students took to the streets contrary to the consumer society… people began to demand liberal self-management mechanisms, far from regulations imposed by leaders, of which no one knew their true intentions… In that ecosystem, attractive ideas began to be forged that, far from the violence of ancient revolutions, defended property and pure capitalism, a capitalism that was managed from the will of individuals and that sought social justice from the conscious distribution of resources.

In the following years the theories that underpinned these ideas were written, the ideas that established the foundations of the collaborative economy as we understand it today. Currently, Blockchain is the technology that makes these ideas possible. Blockchain is the technology that makes individuals possible to interact with each other, without the need for an external regulator imposed by the system. That is, Blockchain does not need governments, ministries, or large corporations to regulate relationships between individuals. Blockchain is an intelligent arbitration system that through a fair consensus system, provides validity and trust to all transactions between individuals.

So the question is no longer what is Blockchain? The question is, if like the youth movement of May ’68 was cannibalized by the consumer market that was attacked, will the current market be able to absorb the Blockchain movement? We have seen that it has a multitude of applications Can you give us some examples of the use that is currently being given to this technology and what it can be given in the future?

Rivers of ink are being written about the things that can be done with Blockchain, but the reality is that getting out of the conceptual definition is not that easy. The real applications for the market are appearing now, and the most immediate possibilities are in financial transactionality, document certification, digital identity, and cybersecurity… Use cases are landing right now: Object traceability… and people, intellectual property, or virtual banks are already a reality.

And what will come? Blockchain can reduce costs in management processes in any company, including public administration. Blockchain securely reduces the time and price of financial transactions and information. Blockchain proposes transparent distribution systems that parameterize the signed contracts obliging compliance, systems that execute orders agreed automatically… The future is magnificent.

Why this blockchain boom? We come from a global economic crisis, a crisis in which bankers, businessmen, and leaders have not turned out very well, some morally, and others, also judicially. A crisis in which we have all suffered, if not in our own experience, if in of a close relative or friend, it has also been a public crisis, televised: televised the scavengers, televised the refugee children dying on the beach, televised trials in which everyone loses their memory, televised politicians, elected by the citizens and guarantors of democracy and the values of society, covering their faces to get into police vans… being aware of what’s going on, and seeing it every day in the media… Isn’t it tempting to cling to the mysticism of a technology that allows anyone to create a bank, that allows benefits to be democratized, that allows you to believe that you can get out of a system that no longer provides moral referents?.

The public networks of Blockchain, cannot be fooled, cannot be hacked, cannot be bribed… How can I not allow myself to dream of a world that works better? Dreaming is legitimate and human, as is hope… That’s why the gap I was referring to earlier, between the conceptual and real Blockchain, because, for many people, Blockchain is still the Grail, or even, for some, an exercise in alchemy. We must balance expectation and reality.

What are cryptocurrencies and what are their current utilities? Cryptocurrencies are the money of the future, digital money where instead of relying on a centralized system is used a “peer-to-peer” system with thousands of anonymous nodes that verify the transaction, thus avoiding 90% of the cost and increasing the speed of operations, with the ability to make transactions in seconds, whatever the recipient and regardless of their location: a few days ago, I was told how a transfer could be made to Hong Kong in 6 minutes and totally secure.

Its use can be purely economic, as if they were euros or any other fiduciary currency, for example, so the Bitcoin or Ether, can have an application as an investment in a company or project, where the currency is valued or devalued according to the total capital that supports the project, its initial offer to launch the currency is called ICO and currently exist around 800 different cryptocurrencies where the predominance of bitcoin over the rest is around 40%. And in other cases, cryptocurrencies can be used for a mere exchange of goods and services, as a digital “barter”.

Why this rise of cryptocurrencies and what is expected in the future of them? The boom is because people don’t want long waiting times, nor do they want to pay high commissions, we are in a society where we want everything already and as cheap as possible. And with Blockchain technology this is possible. In addition, the other great advantage is that they allow the distribution of “dividends” of a company in a very simple and equitable way depending on the number of tokens (cryptocurrencies) that are held of a project. People are also providing them as a future investment because the growth of the market, the trend, is sustained and bullish.

What are the main cryptocurrencies and what differentiates them? The main currencies for me are two, on the one hand, Bitcoin and second Ether, although there are many who will want to come out and growing in volume and quotation. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency considered as such, after several failed attempts in the ’90s, Satoshi Nakamoto, in January 2009, announced the creation of Bitcoin and since then has gone from being worth cents to approximately $2,500 worth today, its end is entirely economic and transactional and can easily predict significant growth in the near future, with an estimated $10,000 by the end of next year.

On the other hand, Ether that works on the Ethereum platform emerged as an improvement over the Bitcoin network, where transactions are made faster and are better adapted to run Smart Contracts, which are intelligent contracts that allow the network itself to carry out operations if certain premises are automatically fulfilled.

More and more coins will appear with new projects, I can recommend ReddCoin RDD, a project that integrates a digital currency platform in a transparent way in the main social networks so that the process of both sending and receiving money is very simple and rewarding for everyone. Another emerging currency is LBRY, which has created a free, open, and community-managed Blockchain digital marketplace. But, again, there are 800 digital coins and each one has its own particularity.

Going back to Blockchain technology, what is it based on and how is it built? Although it is a complex technology, I will try to explain it as simply as possible:

Imagine a thousand computers, scattered around the world, each in the home of a normal person, a family, a student… individuals who do not know each other and make independent decisions. Well, let’s imagine, those computers are part of a blockchain network.

And I’m sure you’re wondering: why are they part of the network? Because very simple, apart from believing in it, they also do it for money. For each of those computers, every time you transfer information or digital money, you get a small commission.

Once we have answered why a computer is put at the service of a public Blockchain network, we can now imagine that someone decides to send a transfer in a cryptocurrency to pay for tickets to a theater function. Well, all those computers, they distribute the commission money that costs me that transfer, but in turn, they also validate the transaction.

Let’s take an example of how a blockchain action is validated and what are the advantages of distributing the information: if I send to the thousand computers the information 1, the thousand computers keep the information 1. If someone tried to change the information of a computer and said that the information is 0 and not 1, a complex system of arbitration based on the theory of games would have the remaining 999 computers tell the changed computer “you made a mistake, the information is 1” and the changed computer would give back the correct information.

Returning to our example of ticket purchases, the thousand computers validate that from my account a transfer of an X value has been made to the theater account, if someone wanted to change or hack that information, they would have to “change their mind” to the thousand computers.

Why are more and more banks (and non-banks) using this technology? In my opinion, Blockchain is a wonderful technology, the best-built data certifier, and validator. In addition, as noted above, the deployment of distributed data chains reduces management costs and can optimize process times. With this argument… How can companies and organizations not want to have this technology?

There is a special case, which is the financial institutions. Their situation with Blockchain is very special. On the one hand, they are forced to understand and play on the Blockchain board, because the reality is that anyone can create a virtual bank, the financial startups, the so-called fintech, are creating financial ecosystems independently of the big banks, and regulations such as the PSD2 directive are coming on top of them, which makes the growth of this new competition even more possible… All this encourages them to move forward.

But also, they have very strong regulations that they must comply with, they have spent a lot of money to generate operating systems that, effectively, work, the average age of customers earning money is high enough and far enough from an on-line industrial revolution to worry about now, and its conservative nature, makes them afraid of a technology they fail to fully understand. We’ll see in the future, whether the brake was stronger than the advance or… vice versa.

How could this technology revolutionize personal and institutional relationships? In personal and institutional relationships I am clear about the next step with Blockchain, and it affects two basic characteristics of both personal and commercial relationships: reputation and truthfulness.

As digital identity systems and data validation systems advance, it is going to be very difficult to cheat or lie on the network. I am aware of the European Union’s intention to move forward on the issue of unique digital identity registers so that our identity as citizens transcends the virtual world.

Categories
Crypto Guides

Will Audius be the Next Spotify?

Introduction

Nowadays, advanced technology has made it possible for everyone to showcase their talent in front of the whole world without hassle. The Internet also provides you with a platform where you can gain fame and recognition within no time. For both these purposes, you just need three basic things: incomparable talent, correct stage, and proper strategy. While skill and strategy rely entirely on you, finding the right platform has become easy with Audius.

Don’t worry if you haven’t heard the name Audius before. We have collected all the information about this new title in the music industry. So you will be able to see how it can change your life. Let’s get into the details.

What Is Audius?

If you are aware of the concept of Ethereum, that runs the cryptocurrency Ether, it will be convenient for you to understand Audius. Ethereum has used its blockchain-based set up to provide this music streaming service to everyone in the world. Audius promotes its motto that states, “We give everyone the freedom to share and listen.”

Basically, Audius is a music streaming platform that runs on blockchain and provides ample opportunities to everyone who wishes to share their music with the world. This means it has eliminated the hassle and process of indulging with major labels and corporations for music production. Therefore, artists can share their music with their intended audience without any middlemen.

How Does Audius Work?

Audius seems to work the same way as Spotify or SoundCloud. A few steps involved in using this platform include:

Buying Tokens: There is a concept of Audius Tokens that both artists and listeners should be aware of. Being a user, you can either spend money to buy these tokens or earn them just by listening to the ads.

Spend and Listen: Once you have tokens in your wallet, you can use them to listen to your favorite music. For each song that you listen to, a fraction of a cent will get cut from the total amount.

That was from the perspective of the listeners. When we talk about the artists, they will get approximately 85% of the entire money earned on their music. This percentage is higher than almost all similar apps that offer a maximum of 70% cut.

The remaining 15% of the amount will be given to the following people:

  • Song host
  • Audius developers
  • Other associated people

What Is The Benefit Of Audius?

The primary benefit of Audius is that artists can conveniently showcase their talent to the world, while listeners can get a chance to explore more diverse music. However, this isn’t the only perk of this platform.

When we talk about the music industry, most artists often get stuck between corporations and big labels. Most of the earnings on music are taken by these middlemen, leaving a minimal cut for the artists. But with the help of Audius, they can get almost 85% of the total revenue generated by their song. Hence, they will get paid well for their efforts and talent.

All in all, Audius is an excellent initiative by Ethereum because it will be beneficial for both artists and listeners. So there won’t be any hassle or complications associated with producing some quality music.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin and Blockchain Will Completely Change the World and Here’s Why…

Most large companies are already adapting to the Blockchain, such as IBM or Microsoft, and more and more are accepting Bitcoins as a payment method. Many others join in consortiums to enter this new sector. We are at the beginning of a real revolution.

The Bitcoin is…

Bitcoin has risen a lot since its inception. Is it too late to invest?. This is a fairly recurring question today. My answer would be categorically negative, as the cryptocurrency market is only in its infancy and will continue to grow. And if we compare the capitalization of Bitcoin, 44 trillion dollars, with the capitalization of other financial assets, we realize how small this market still is.

Is a bubble forming in cryptocurrencies?

No. If I walk down the street right now and randomly ask 10 people, “What is Bitcoin?”, only one of them will know what it is, and surely will possess none. And if he then asked “And ethereum?” none of them would know. So, until the day comes when I hear recurring conversations from people who are investing in cryptocurrencies, there won’t be a bubble.

In addition, if we compare it with the dot-com bubble in the year 1999-2000, the market capitalization of American technology companies at its peak, was 1,750 billion dollars, which considering inflation, today equals 3,745 B$. If we compare it with the capitalization of all cryptocurrencies, 87 B$, we realize that the cryptocurrency market is very far from those levels, and especially if we think that in this case, the market is global, not only from the US.

What do I like most about bitcoin?

There are attractive advantages due to the use of Bitcoin against the Euro or other conventional currencies, such as decentralization, speed, immutability, divisibility, privacy (no one has to know my personal data), transparency (everything is registered in the Blockchain without being able to be removed or modified), lower costs, greater security (when there have been robberies of hackers, have been to companies that contained Bitcoins, but have never hacked the Bitcoin protocol or any other Blockchain system)elimination of intermediaries, etc.. The problem of double spending is fundamentally solved. If for example, I send a PDF document or an image, what I really do is send a copy and I can send it to as many people as I want, but until the creation of Bitcoin, There was no way we could send money with a technology that would ensure that the issuer did not keep the money.

However, in my opinion, the biggest problem that is solved is that of the constant fall in the purchasing power of our currencies. Before the Federal Reserve was created (in green color) the purchasing power of the dollar did not diminish, but once there existed a Central Bank capable of “playing” with money by printing new units, and the gold standard was abandoned allowing printing new dollars without limit, the value of the currency has been falling constantly, in the same way as all other conventional currencies. The value of $1 at the beginning of the last century is less than 5 cents today.

This constant loss of value of the coins we have in our pockets occurs because when Central Banks print many new coins the money supply is increased in this way. The creation of money is based on the creation of debt, a system that does not seem sustainable in the long term (global debt today amounts to more than 200 trillion dollars).

What is shocking is that in the wake of the last crisis of 2008, the Central Banks have printed a stratospheric amount of money, which will considerably aggravate this situation in the nearest future. But also, we can observe that the monetary offer of the Bitcoin presents a totally opposite panorama since less and less new Bitcoins are generated until in a few years no more will be created, having reached the limit of 21 million units (the vast majority of other cryptocurrencies follow the same line).

For this reason, I associate bitcoin as a kind of digital gold. If for example today we want to buy a motorcycle for 5,000€, we can also do it using four ounces of gold. In 30 years, for example, it could be that with this €5,000 we only got to buy the wheels, while using the four ounces of gold we will continue to be able to buy the entire bike.

The Blockchain is…

It is the technology that appeared with the creation of Bitcoin, the one behind the other cryptocurrencies, and that allows its decentralization. I see the Blockchain as the new internet and cryptocurrencies as an element within it. In other words, I think that on the assumption that cryptocurrencies would not succeed, the Blockchain would.

The Blockchain also allows, for the first time in life, make transactions without trusting the other party. We can make transactions with people we don’t know without the need for intermediaries such as banks or companies like Visa or Paypal that today act as “referees” generating the confidence to exchange money. Then we can be sure by saying that we are changing from the age of the internet of information to a new phase of the internet of value because the Blockchain allows this transfer of value.

I also think that the Internet of Things (IoT) is another revolution that will be presented in the coming years, since the Internet of Things (IoT) needs a record of things, this record cannot be other than the Blockchain.

But… What is the real problem you solve?

In my view, the power of the Blockchain goes beyond… It solves the big problem in our society today, which is the exponential increase in the gap between rich and poor. Every day the rich get richer and more control over others. I don’t see how sustainable it is that the 62 richest people on the planet already have more money than 3.6 million people (half of the world’s population, the poorest), or that companies like Apple, Facebook, or Google already have a value higher than the GDP of most countries.

While companies have continued to increase their profits and the pace seems to be accelerating, wages have remained flat even falling. And if we look at countries like Spain, in the wake of the 2008 crisis, we would see how this difference is much more noticeable.

So how does the Blockchain solve it? Distributing wealth from its origin in a fair way instead of trying to redistribute it a posteriori with taxes on high incomes, or other measures, which are not really implemented, since the greatest fortunes are those that tax less in percentage.

With the use of the Blockchain, I imagine a future where artists will be able to sell their own music, paintings, etc.. directly without the need for intermediaries to keep most of the revenue. A singer can upload their songs on the Blockchain and with the use of Smart Contracts can define the conditions of use of their music. For each user that plays the song, the author will receive fractions of cents. If radio stations use it or are added to corporate advertising spots, for each broadcast you will automatically receive the money. Then many investors will be able to live on their abilities.

The large technology companies and social networks that earn billions of dollars a year with our personal and private information must pay us for every information they want to know about us (age, nationality, what we like, etc..) and companies that want us to see their ads will also have to pay us to view or listen to them. So what do we do with this money we’re getting? Without thinking, it will be used to consume all kinds of products such as music or reading (for each display of an article your author will receive fractions of euros). In this way, instead of almost all the wealth that is created going into the hands of a few large centralized companies, there will be a decentralization of the system allowing much of this wealth to be distributed fairly among users.

And… why do I like Ethereum better than Bitcoin?

Precisely for this reason, because it is the Blockchain system that using Smart Contracts allows using this new technology in many different cases. Apart from performing the function of currency and value storage without the loss of purchasing power (like Bitcoin), it allows building any kind of decentralized business/projects or other cryptocurrencies.

It is for this reason that Bitcoin associated it as the currency of the future and Ethereum as the commodity of the future. In the same way that many companies need oil, especially since the first industrial revolution, or need the internet since their revolution two decades ago, in the near future I think the Blockchain will be needed for virtually everything imaginable. In this way, if Ethereum is positioned as the leading platform of Blockchain, the demand for its tokens will be huge making ethers worth tens of thousands of euros per unit.

And how to invest in Blockchain?

Unless the project we like creates its own tokens and launches an ICO where we can invest, then it is more difficult. There are very few shares listed on Blockchain, and most of them are listed funds that in my humble opinion do not have too much value.

There are curious cases like GBTC (Bitcoin Investment Trust) that tries to replicate the price of Bitcoin (so no, it does not represent the investment in Blockchain) And if you go to a website and are able to analyse all information on how many Bitcoins each represents their stock in circulation, you realize that currently, their shares are trading almost twice as much as they should. In other words, investors buying this stock are paying double for each Bitcoin.

In my opinion, the best option and the only quoted company focused 100% on Blockchain is BTL (BTL Group Limited), which has created the “interbit” Blockchain platform. One of the sectors in which they are present is energy with BP, Eni, and Wien Energie already testing their platform. And one of the reasons I like to invest is because of the fact that it capitalizes 58 million euros, when the capitalizations that are being achieved by similar Blockchain private companies, are around 1 billion euros.

In conclusion, investing in Blockchain and cryptocurrencies is a very smart idea. The risk is asymmetric because in the medium and long term the probability of prices falling I think is low, and in this case obviously the most we can lose is the capital invested. But if cryptocurrencies and the Blockchain are successful, the capital invested will be multiplied many times, making it statistically worthwhile to be exposed to these markets.

Today there are already more than 900 cryptocurrencies and I think we are going towards a future of “tokenization of everything”, where any company or person can have their own tokens for very different purposes.

Categories
Crypto Guides

Heard of Suterusu? One of the most interesting cryptocurrency!

Introduction

Cryptocurrencies have come into the limelight even since Bitcoin hyped in the market. As the demand for cryptocurrency increased, a few new names also joined the list. One of the well-known titles from those is Suterusu. It is a bit different from the usual cryptocurrencies, which makes it more exciting and beneficial for people.

You may or may not have earlier heard about Suterusu. Either way, we are here to help you out. Here, we have brought all the crucial information about Suterusu to help you learn more about it, making the concept clearer to you. So without further ado, let’s begin with the details.

What Is Suterusu?

Security and anonymity is a big concern for almost all blockchain platforms. In order to resolve this, Suterusu has brought in a new concept. It allows these blockchain developers to implement an additional layer of zk-SNARK-based privacy without any hassle. That is why its motto of “launchpad for privacy-preserving interoperable blockchain” gets appropriately fulfilled.

In other words, Suterusu helps bring new privacy to blockchain platforms or apps that match the ZCash level. Moreover, they need not implement this security layer to their protocol level. Therefore, even mainstream blockchains like Ether, Bitcoin, and Decentralized Finance can benefit from this new concept.

How Is Suterusu Different From Other zk-SNARK Implementations?

The other applications of zk-SNARK called for the need for one of the following:

  • Logarithmic proof sizes
  • Trusted setup: Under this, a set of original parameters are created. These are further used to generate a key, which makes and verifies the proofs of future transactions within the network.

These two factors contradict the anonymous cryptocurrency’s transparent and decentralized nature.

On the other hand, Suterusu undertakes zk-SNARK’s updated version to get rid of both of these concerns. This version is called zk-ConSNARK. So, basically, there is no trust set up promoted by Suterusu that destroys the trusted set up entirely and keeps the proof size low. It not only amplifies the throughput but also maintains security and privacy by keeping the transaction participants anonymous.

What Is Suterusu’s Cryptocurrency?

Suterusu runs its own cryptocurrency named the SUTER Token, which has a total of 10 billion supply. It is further divided into percentages made for different sections:

  • Suterusu’s team has over 4.8% of the tokens.
  • 2% of the tokes are specified for the foundation.
  • 16% of the total tokens are for participants of a private sale.
  • Stake miners can go up to 76% tokens.

Like any other cryptocurrency, SUTER is also subjected to an annual supply halve seen every couple of years. Moreover, these tokens have the lowest inflation rate as compared to other anonymous coins in the market.

In case you want to run a validator node for Suterusu, you will need to deposit at least 1 million SUTER Tokens. Based on your mortgage token and voting token, your mining power will be determined. Further, this will decide the total reward you can receive as a validator node.

Conclusion

By maintaining the anonymity factor, Suterusu has a high chance of becoming the next big thing in the cryptocurrency market. Now that you have learned its basics, we recommend you to get into more details and see how to benefit from this rising concept.

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic Cryptocurrencies

What’s Carry (CRE) All About? 

Today’s commerce environment is extremely fragmented: merchants don’t know what consumers want, consumers don’t have control over their own data, and advertisers’ campaigns are ineffective. It’s particularly unfair for consumers, who, by clicking “I agree” to terms and conditions, effectively hand over the rights to their data. 

Blockchain has the potential to change this skewed state of events. The Carry Protocol, launched in 2018, is a project that’s using blockchain technology to fulfill this endeavor. Carry allows every participant of the commerce ecosystem to benefit in a transparent, fair, and trustless environment. 

This article studies the Carry Protocol more closely. 

Understanding Carry 

Carry is a data management ecosystem where data owners are accorded complete control over their own data, plus the ability to monetize that data. On the Carry, the platform is consumers, advertisers, stores, and more players in a collaborative and transparent environment where everyone gets their fair share. 

Carry provides a bridge between offline merchants and consumers. This is in cognizance that despite a surge of e-commerce in recent years, most consumption still happens offline. And the offline market is, to a large extent, yet to embrace technology in so many ways. Offline commerce faces the following challenges: 

  • Due to fragmented data, merchants have very little understanding of the behavior and preferences of customers
  • Customers have little control over their own data, with powerful corporations benefiting from it instead
  • Offline advertising is ineffective and lacks transparency

Carry aims to solve this through the following initiatives: 

  • Provide an environment for merchants and customers to communicate and understand each other better
  • Empower customers to have full control over their own data and be able to monetize it 
  • Offer more effective and transparent advertisement channels

The Carry Protocol

As we’ve noted already, Carry brings together merchants and consumers through the blockchain. These two are the most important participants in the ecosystem. The other participants are advertisers. 

The protocol consists of two major parts: 

  • the blockchain, which hosts the transaction database and smart contracts
  • APIs that connect the blockchain to third-party applications such as wallets

The transaction database is the storage location where data is uploaded by consumers and generated by merchants. Carry smart contracts are in charge of issuing the protocol’s token: CRE. Carry wallets allow users to manage their crypto, control their transaction data, and manage their privacy. 

Carry’s Data Ecosystem

Carry wants to create a system where merchants, customers, and advertisers can all benefit. Stores can have a better understanding of their consumers with the purchase data they willingly share. Advertisers can create more effective ad campaigns, and consumers can own the rights to their data and monetize it. 

#1. Merchants

Merchants can better understand the preferences and expectations of consumers.

#2. Consumers

Consumers can control their information and get rewarded in CRE tokens for sharing it and viewing ads.

#3. Advertisers

Advertisers can better target the right consumers through better analysis of their information.

Smart Contracts

Users can get access to the Carry protocol features through smart contracts. To do so, they must first stake in Carry tokens (CRE). This can be done in a one-off or pay-as-you-go way. Staking in a certain amount of tokens, allows usage up to a certain level. When usage exceeds that level, the user must pay for excess usage. 

The rationale is that executing smart contracts uses up the protocol’s resources, which incurs costs. The staking model also protects the protocol from attacks – whether abuse by malicious participants or denial of service attacks. 

The per-use fee can always be set higher than the stake’s opportunity cost, which would encourage users to stake in more CRE. If a merchant wants to conduct more transactions than their stake allows, they can offer perks to other platform users, e.g., customers, who will then stake in more tokens on their behalf. 

Community Growth Strategies

The Carry team plans to expand the growth of their protocol by engaging in the following strategies: 

  • Participates in high-profile industry events and conferences
  • Conduct regular online and physical meetups
  • Conduct social media Ask Me Anything sessions
  • Monthly project updates through Medium posts and newsletters
  • Regular airdrops to reward top participants of community projects
  • Engage traditional companies looking to onboard blockchain services

Future strategies include: 

  • Engage in cross-marketing activities with other blockchain and crypto-projects 
  • Share data-sharing processes with the community

CRE Token Uses 

The CRE token is Carry’s native utility cryptocurrency, playing the following roles: 

  • As a staking mechanism to qualify to use various Carry features to build smart contracts
  • Merchants can use it to come up with their own branded tokens
  • Advertisers must pay CRE tokens to consumers for accessing the transaction history
  • As payment to consumers for watching ads

Token Distribution

The Carry token was distributed in the following manner: 

  • Token generation event tokens: 40%
  • Partner program tokens: 25%
  • Market activation tokens:15%
  • Team tokens: 10%
  • Reserve tokens: 5%
  • Advisors’ tokens: 5%

Key Metrics

CRE’s marketplace figures were as follows on Oct 28, 2020. The per-token value was $0.001614, with a market cap of $9,357,848 and a market rank of #528. The token’s 24-hour volume was $431,939, while its circulating and total supply were 5,799,469,081 and 7,329,872,058. CRE’s all-time high was $0.079546 (Jun 05, 2019), and its all-time low was $0.000810 (Mar 13, 2020).

Where to Buy and Store

The Carry token is listed against currencies such as KRW, USDT, BTC, and HT on several exchanges, including Upbit, Huobi Global, BiKi, Bilaxy, UPEX, and Oasis Exchange. 

You can store CRE in a wide range of wallets, including Trust Wallet, Atomic Wallet, MyEtherWallet, Ledger, and Trezor. 

Closing Thoughts

Carry is one of many blockchain protocols that want to do better for millions of consumers whose data is generally used without their authorization. And it doesn’t stop at just consumers; it aims to improve things for every other player in the commerce arena. Will it stand out in the years to come? That will depend on if they can continue to innovate. If not, they risk being phased out by more forward-thinking similar protocols. 

Categories
Crypto Guides

What Should You Know About Non-Fungible Tokens?

Introduction 

The word tokens mostly bring the concept of currency in our minds, i.e., something that we can exchange for something else. However, this isn’t entirely correct. Rather than just being a currency, a token represents any fact, feeling, quality, etc. visibly and tangibly. A few common examples of a token can be:

Voters ID: It is a token of the fact that you are eligible to vote.

Driving License: It is a token that shows you have undergone the process of proving that you can dive responsibly.

Coins: These are the tokens that show the value of something like a pair of glasses is $10 worth.

There can be several such things that can be considered as tokens. Now, these tokens can be divided into two categories: Fungible and Non-Fungible. You must be aware of the concept of fungible tokens that can be exchanged for something. Let’s now learn what Non-Fungible Tokens are.

What Are Non-Fungible Tokens?

If we dive into the cryptocurrency market, you will see that the most prominent tokens are fungible. For instance, you can exchange a Bitcoin for another Bitcoin without affecting its price. On the other hand, Non-Fungible Tokens are the ones that don’t hold this property of being exchangeable. Each of them has its own value, like your car and watch has its own.

In simple words, fungible tokens can be replaced by something identical to it, while Non-Fungible Tokens can’t be. Another difference between the two is divisibility. Like you can divide a Bitcoin into two parts, you can’t split a non-fungible token due to its uniqueness.

Where Did The Concept Of Non-Fungible Tokens Arise?

Many people still don’t know how Non-Fungible Tokens came into the market. If you are one of them, then it is time to get aware of this factor. Non-Fungible Tokens’ concept came into notice when a blockchain-based platform, CryptoKitties, made $12 million worth of transactions of virtual kittens. As each cat has its own features and traits, it was sold and bought at different prices.

Therefore, these kittens followed with the two essential qualities of Non-Fungible Tokens:

  • One kitten can’t get exchanged with another one as their price differs.
  • One kitten can’t get divided into two or more parts.

And all these transactions took place in Ethereum. After CryptoKitten came into the limelight, several gaming platforms seem to opt for this method of transaction.

What Is The Future Of Non-Fungible Tokens?

Non-Fungible Tokens or NFTs hold a significant market in the gaming industry. Plus, more and more gaming platforms are now incorporating cryptocurrencies, giving more space for the use of NFTs. Players can make in-game purchases conveniently with the help of these NFTs, just like the kittens were sold on CrytoKitten. For example, buying and selling game skins, armours, and other similar assets will become even more accessible. But this isn’t the only use case of NFTs. With their advancements, they indeed will find a place of their own in the world.

We hope all this information will make the Non-Fungible Token’s concept clear to you. So now you can see how you can benefit from them and use them wherever possible.

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic Cryptocurrencies

What’s Troy Trade (TROY) All About?

With decentralized finance edging closer to the mainstream every day, all manner of DeFi products have been launched to cater to a fast-growing user base. You can now carry out your usual trades and a raft of other activities in a decentralized, secure, and borderless environment powered by the blockchain. 

Troy, launched in 2018, is one such platform. Troy claims to “redefine trading beyond exchange,” signaling to the many possibilities it avails to users. Troy incorporates modern technology like artificial intelligence to achieve safe and frictionless interactions with its products. The Troy platform currently runs on Ethereum but plans to switch to its mainnet in December 2020. 

This article is a deeper dive into the Troy ecosystem. 

Breaking Down Troy 

Troy is a full-stack, blockchain-powered environment for financial and brokerage services. Both individual and institutional traders can access a raft of services such as spot and margin trading, derivatives, lending, borrowing, and staking. Troy wants to achieve this main objective: provide users with decentralized, diversified, and affordable brokerage services for people of all regulatory backgrounds and financial habits.

Some of the project’s highlights include: 

  • Aggregated trading: Troy offers users direct access to the aggregated liquidity of multiple exchanges. Some of the functions on offer include dark pools, assignment services, and smart order routing. 
  • Data analytics: Troy helps customers make informed trading decisions by providing them with blockchain, trading, market, and media data. This data is optimized by artificial intelligence and quantitative models. 
  • Diversified brokerage services: Users can access a range of brokerage services from real-time fund transfer to settlement to OTC trading
  • Broad range asset management solutions: Troy users have access to a full-stack solution complete with straight-through processing, historical data, and a strategy assessment tool

Troy: Architecture

The Troy network is divided into smaller core subsystems, with each running independently of the other but all interoperable. Some of the core subsystems include, but are not limited to: user subsystem, market subsystem, trade subsystem, management subsystem, and gateway subsystem.

The trade subsystem is the most important of the subsystems, hosting the order transaction module,  scheduled scheduling module, etc. Users can create new trading accounts on the platform and immediately get to depositing, withdrawing, and sending and receiving crypto assets. They can also link existing trading accounts on various crypto exchanges to the Troy protocol through the use of application programming interfaces (APIs). 

You can also authorize other users to trade using your account and generally manage your account using the risk management module. Troy’s trading interface also allows you to move seamlessly between accounts and carry out cross-exchange trades. 

The platform’s data monitoring interface allows you to keep tabs with real-time market movements and utilize the mainstream trading execution algorithm to make better trades. And lastly, the data analysis module allows you to access real-time data from the most popular exchanges, as well as spot and margin trading data. 

Community Growth Strategies of Troy

The Troy team will deploy several strategies to expand the project’s growth and recruit more members into its fold. The Troy community is made of these participants:

  • Crypto investors, which are the main user base of Troy
  • Stakers and relayers: Network participants who update and record orders on the blockchain
  • Exchanges: These are liquidity and custodial service providers
  • Ecological partners: These are projects both in the blockchain and traditional finance space which contribute to the Troy ecosystem one way  or another

Troy will engage with these community groups in the following ways: 

  • Partner with programs such as the Global Financial Partnership Program to help expand global reach
  • Expand user base through programs like the Troy Token Challenge and the Troy Hercules Ambassador Program
  • Offer users incentives like mining rewards, staking rewards, etc. to attract more users

Future strategies include the following: 

  • Partner with product-oriented platforms such as quantity providers, wallets, and exchanges 
  • Open access for more Fiat channels such as JPY, EUR, USD, etc

The Troy Token

The native token of the Troy network is stylized as TROY. The token has these use cases: 

  • As a means of access to various Troy services 
  • As a deflationary mechanism: the Troy token will be occasionally burnt to rebalance supply and demand
  • As gas fees for interacting with the protocol
  • As fees for various functions, like trading and settlement
  • As an incentive mechanism for brokers for their contribution in maintaining the platform
  • As an incentive mechanism for relayer nodes to update, broadcast and  synchronize orders in a timely and accurate manner
  • As a staking mechanism for brokers to maintain global networks

Token Distribution

The Troy token was distributed in this fashion: 

  • Private sale tokens: 12%
  • Binance launchpad sale tokens: 8%
  • Team and advisors’ tokens: 10%
  • Ecosystem tokens: 10%
  • Mining rewards tokens: 60%

As of 27th October 2020, the TROY token traded at $0.002708, with a market cap of $24,854,424 that placed it at #293. The token had a 24-hour volume of $828,108, with a circulating and total supply of $9, 176,552, and 10 billion, respectively. TROY’s highest-ever price was $0.010834 (Dec 06, 2019), while its lowest-ever was $0.001330 (Mar 16, 2020). 

Where to Buy and Store TROY

TROY token is listed as a market pair of BNB, USDT, BNB, and KRW on exchanges such as Bilaxy, Binance, Binance DEX, XTheta Global, Bitribe, and HBTC. 

Troy is an ERC-20 token, meaning you can store it in any Ethereum-compatible wallet. Great choices include MyEtherWallet, MetaMask,  Ledger, Parity, Guarda, Atomic Wallet, Coinomi, and Trust Wallet.

Categories
Crypto Guides

Brief Introduction To Flexa And SPEDN Crypto Payment Apps

Introduction

Cryptocurrencies are becoming bigger and bigger with each passing year. While they were an unknown topic a decade back, they have now become a prominent income source for many. But have you imagined if these cryptocurrencies overtake the physical currencies entirely? Well, Flexa has made this possible by bringing in the use of crypto payments in the retail world.

This means the cryptocurrency usage won’t be limited to investment purposes, and retailers will benefit from it. Flex has now begun its work with a mobile application named SPEDN. There is nothing to worry about if you haven’t heard about Flex and SPEDN before because we will provide you with all the necessary details on these two.

What Are Flexa And SPEDN?

As stated above, Flexa is a mobile payment startup that has been working to develop a unique cryptocurrency payment network for retailers. Its primary motive includes the following factors:

  • Reduce frauds
  • Eliminate processing costs
  • Build better relationships between buyers and sellers
  • Preserve privacy

Flexa offers one of its kind platform for payments that is entirely decentralized, making commerce more efficient and accessible. In straightforward terms, it can be stated that Flexa works to cut out the unnecessary hassle that is often incorporated into the payment processes of retailers. Thus, reducing the overall complexity and costs of conventional payment systems.

The startup is doing so with its first app called SPEDN. The application will be available for both Android and iOS platforms. It will serve as a digital wallet that uses cryptocurrency as the payment method. So you can use it for direct payments in retail stores.

Which Cryptocurrencies Are Supported By SPEDN?

The very first factor people notice in a digital wallet is the type of currencies supported by it. And it is the same for SPEDN. It is vital to know whether this platform provides you with the flexibility to use your preferred cryptocurrency for the purpose.

Currently, it supports the following cryptocurrencies:

  • Bitcoin
  • Bitcoin Cash
  • Ethereum
  • Gemini

However, Flexa has assured the users that they will soon be able to use a variety of coins on SPEDN as they are working towards the development.

How To Use The SPEDN App?

Using the SPEDN application is as simple as using any other digital wallet. You just have to follow four simple steps:

  • Deposit Money: You first need to have enough cryptocurrency in the app to function further. For this, you can choose the amount that has to be deposited, and SPEDN will provide you with a deposit address.
  • Shop: Once you have enough cryptocurrency in the wallet, you can shop for whatever you want from any specific retail store.
  • Get Barcode: You will then have to select the store name from the app, and you will receive a unique barcode.
  • Scan: The shop’s cashier will then scan the code, and the payment will get debited automatically.

Currently, it may be challenging for you to spot retail stores that accept cryptocurrency payments. But once this platform becomes popular and people become aware of its benefits, you will be able to use it like any other digital wallet.

Conclusion

Flexa is working to change the entire retail shopping experience for you. Plus, they are making the transactions more beneficial for the shopkeepers. SPEDN is its first app to fulfill the initiative. However, this is just the beginning, and people expect Flexa to bring up more ideas to make the platform even more convenient.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

How Coti (COTI) can change Payments and Money Transfers

The traditional payment system is defined by long waiting periods, expensive fees, and error-prone transactions due to the single point of failure inherent in centralized systems. Blockchain was supposed to help with most of these problems, e.g., by facilitating peer-to-peer, fraud-free transactions. However, the first and second-generation blockchains, i.e., Ethereum and Bitcoin, face challenges like low scalability that prevent them from competing with the fastest traditional models such as Visa. 

However, it’s doubtless that blockchain tech offers the best possible alternative to the traditional payment models. For this reason, a litany of blockchain projects seeking to provide better scalability, security, etc. than Ethereum and Bitcoin’s blockchain has sprung up over the years. 

Coti is one of these. Formed in 2018, Coti wants to fix traditional finance issues such as high fees, low latency, and lack of inclusiveness. 

This article is a deep dive into the Coti ecosystem. 

Coti: Core Elements

COTI supports the following elements to realize a safe and cost-efficient payment structure:

  • Scalability: The COTI network can support up to 100,000 transactions per second (TPS), which is incomparable with the 25,000 TPS managed by traditional payment systems and 20 TPS by most blockchain protocols
  • Simplicity: COTI has designed its user and merchant-facing tools to be friendly and very easy to use
  • Buyer-seller protections: COTI provides a dispute resolution system to act as a safeguard against fraud, errors, and so on
  • Cost-effectiveness: On the COTI platform, there’s no need for intermediaries or power-intensive mining, which drastically cuts costs.
  • Price stability: The COTI team is creating price stability technology, an indispensable factor for blockchain to realize wide adoption
  • Instantaneity: COTI’s architecture makes for fast transactions, payments, and remittances, as opposed to the hours or days common with the traditional system
  • Security

Thanks to its use of a distributed ledger, COTI eliminates the possibility of a single point of failure

COTI: Infrastructure

Below, we’ll be taking a look at some of the core technologies on the Coti platform.

#1. Trustchain

This is a consensus algorithm based on machine learning. Trustchain decreases transaction costs while increasing transaction processing speed. Trustchain utilizes a directed acyclic graph (DAG) data structure to maximize scalability, supporting up to 100,000 TPS. The Coti team wants to revolutionize crypto by having decentralized payment solutions built on Trustchain. The Trustchain will offer the following innovations: 

  • Single-click payment requests

Coti will use the Trustchain to realize one-click payments. Merchants will be able to embed the functionality on the websites for easy checkouts.

  • Buyer-seller protection

The Coti team has developed an arbitration service in readiness for potential disputes. The arbitration service is made of a decentralized collective of trusted network members.

  • Node manager

Through the node manager, anyone can join the network as a node operator and start running various types of nodes.

  • Privacy

Coti has enabled privacy specifications that prevent transactions from being tracked down to their originator. These specifications include implementing a multi-address for transactions through a one-way hash function.

  • Proof of Trust (PoT) consensus

Coti implements a DAG-based decentralized ledger that achieves scalability through the use of Trust Scores. The higher a user’s Trust Score, the faster the confirmation time.

  • Fees

Coti implements a transparent and equitable fee structure where all fees are distributed in a balanced manner amongst network participants.

  • Trust Score Update Algorithm (TSUA)

This tool is designed to collect data on user behavior and transfer the info to Trust Score Nodes. Trust Scores are used by Trustchain Algorithm to verify and confirm transactions quickly.

  • Smart contracts

Coti will introduce smart contracts for a DAG distributed pledger, the first-of-its-kind. Smart contracts are recorded in the MultiDaG Cluster and are verified severally before being confirmed. 

  • Stablecoin framework

COTI’s MultiDAG, coupled with Coti smart contracts and the infrastructure for genesis transactions, creates the possibility for high-performance stablecoins

#2. Loyalty Networks

Coti has developed an end-to-end solution on which businesses can build blockchain-enabled loyalty networks. Such networks allow businesses to retain customers and earn more revenue. 

Marketplaces are currently proliferated with loyalty programs, which lead to customers accumulating loads of loyalty cards, all with different terms and conditions. 

On their part, businesses have to manage their own loyalty programs, a task that’s often demanding in terms of money and time. And even those loyalty programs often never maximize their potential due to low account activity, low redemption rates, account maintenance costs, and time limitations.

Coti’s solution

Coti provides cheaper, time-saving, and more interactive solutions for loyalty programs. These solutions are as follows: 

  • Branded wallet and token

Coti will allow businesses to build a branded wallet complete with customized tokens. Users will be able to hold multiple loyalty tokens from different businesses.

  • Simple integration

Businesses will have the ability to create a loyalty program fast and easily. 

  • Tradability

Users will have the ability to trade their loyalty tokens. 

  • Earn tokens

Uses will be able to earn tokens as a reward for purchases, referrals, and engaging with businesses.

  • Global alliance

Businesses will be able to collaborate with other companies to exchange tokens and share ways to enhance customer loyalty and retention.

#3. Stablecoins

Coti also provides the first-ever blockchain-powered environment for creating stablecoins. Users can issue their own stablecoin that they can have total control over. Stablecoins are a kind of cryptocurrency that is not volatile. They cushion users against the potential losses that could happen overnight with a regular cryptocurrency. Coti enables companies to create their own stablecoins and apply a stability mechanism to any asset of their choice. The stablecoin feature will benefit users in the following ways: 

  • Higher profits

Businesses can dramatically increase revenues by not having to depend on external stablecoins

  • New markets

Businesses can reach entirely new markets by offering stablecoins as a means of payment.

#4. Community and Advanced Nodes 

These are a mainnet full nodes that utilize a delegated staking mechanism to verify and confirm real-world merchants’ transactions. These nodes are technically operated by a node operator who has the requisite skills for the task. To become a community node, you must first stake in 5,000,000 COTI. 

There are also advanced nodes, which are also mainnet nodes in how they function. However, advanced nodes will need to stake between 500,000 – 5, 000,000. 

#5. COTI Pay 

COTI Pay is a digital payment tool that can process online and offline payments, including crypto, stablecoins, businesses’ native coins, and credit cards. On the tool, users can also earn passive income through interest on deposits. 

Coti Pay seeks to solve the following problems with traditional finance payment models: 

  • Long settlement periods, sometimes taking even weeks
  • Costly processes
  • Cross-border transaction constraints
  • Involvement of costly third-parties
  • Error-prone transactions
  • Millions of people excluded from the global finance system

Community Growth Strategies of Coti

The Coti team plans to undertake several growth strategies to expand the growth of the community: 

  • Partner with similar projects such as Cardano, Chainlink, Celsius, and Fantom
  • Launch a Community Ambassador Program
  • Work with platforms like Xangle and Binance Info V-Label for data transparency partnerships
  • Carry out regular community updates via a bi-weekly newsletter, GitHub updates, etc
  • Conduct AMAs on platforms like Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook
  • Create and disseminate visual content such as tutorials, 3D videos, and more
  • Have Telegram groups hosted by community members in a variety of languages, including Korean, Vietnamese, and Brazilian

Future strategies include: 

  • Push the project to the global stage through global ambassador activity
  • Conduct joint AMAs with leading blockchain projects 
  • Conduct and participate in hackathons
  • Launch Coti Pay Business mobile app

COTI’s supply distribution was done this way: 

  • Seed sale tokens: 2.90%
  • Private sale tokens: 10.04%
  • IEO tokens: 2.31%
  • Team tokens: 15.00%
  • Advisors tokens: 10.00%
  • Ecosystem reserve tokens: 59.75%

Key Metrics

On October 20, 2020, COTI traded at $0.029472, placing it at #380 with a market cap of $16,740,885. The token had a 24-hour volume of $2,492, 122, with a circulating supply of 568, 032, 883, and a total and maximum supply of 2 billion. COTI has an all-time high of $0.127076 (July 02, 2019) and an all-time low of $0.006226 (Nov 09, 2019). 

Where to Buy and Store COTI

You’ll find COTI listed as a market pair of USDT, BTC, BNB on exchanges such as Binance, CoinDCX, KuCoin, BitMax, BitHumb Global, Bidesk, Coinbit, Gate.io, and Binance.DEX. 

Coti provides its official wallet known as the COTI Pay VIPER. See here

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic

How Chainanalysis Helps Crack Down on Crypto Crime

Since the inception of cryptocurrency tech, cybercrime has spiked in the space tremendously. And with cybercriminals devising methods every day to obtain crypto illegally, companies and individuals are seeking solutions to protect themselves and their funds. Even governments are pumping a lot of resources into cracking down on such individuals. 

What’s Chainalysis? 

As the saying goes, there’s a reaction to every action. As crypto crime intensifies, other forces are working to counteract the trend. One of the most visible of these is Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics company that harvests and analyzes crypto-related data by studying the history of blockchain transactions. 

The birth of Chainanalysis resulted from one of the biggest crypto hacks in history – Mt. Gox, which resulted in the loss of around 650,000 Bitcoins worth around $500 million then. 

Michael Gronager, CEO and founder of Chainanalysis, decided to create tools to prevent or mitigate such losses in the future. In 2017, Jonathan Levin – Chainanalysis co-founder, confirmed that Chainanalysis had tracked down 650,000 stolen Bitcoins to BTC-e. This successful case skyrocketed Chainanalysis’ reputation as more and more entities began approaching the company.

Chainanalysis received its first government contract in 2015 when the FBI paid $9000 for data software services from the company. The recent spike in criminal activities within the crypto world has prompted the federal agencies to invest more money in Chainanalysis. Today, Chainanalysis is receiving contracts from 10 U.S government agencies willing to pay millions of dollars for their assignments. According to CoinDesk, federal agencies have spent $10,690,760 in American tax dollars on Chainanalysis tools and training since 2015. 

Cryptocurrency Crime Rates and Activities

Criminals worldwide have taken advantage of crypto to engage in illegal activities. These criminal cases surged from 3.5% in 2016 to 7% in 2017. In 2018, according to Cointelegraph Group-IB, CipherTrace and Carbon Black reported that hackers had stolen cryptocurrencies amounting to $1.1 to $1.7 billion. Out of this amount, $960 million had been sourced from exchanges. 

In September last year, losses from cryptocurrency hit a whopping $4.4 billion,  per CipherTrace. This was a 150% increase from the year 2018. A report compiled by Chainanalysis indicated that cryptocurrency criminal activities spiked from 0.04% in 2018 to 0.08% in 2019. 

A more recent report presented in June by CipherTrace shows that crypto criminals are still finding new ways to accrue wealth illegally. In July, hackers posed as President Obama, Bill Gates, and Kanye West on Twitter and convinced followers to send $1000 in Bitcoin with a promise of accruing $2000 in return. They milked this scheme for a while before getting shut down, but not before accruing Bitcoins worth $100,000.

Pseudonymity of Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s pseudonymity makes it harder for stolen crypto to be tracked. Therefore, tracking these transactions is tedious and, at times, impossible. This fact makes Bitcoin more appealing to criminals. The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation has flagged Bitcoin as the most popular cryptocurrency used for criminal activities.

While tracking the movement of thieves is fairly simple, tracking the money movement is not as easy. The criminals are usually aware that their movements can be traced.  To ensure the stolen money is not recovered, these criminals transact to the targets of hundreds and thousands within a short time. According to Chainanalysis, some criminals have a plethora of wallets that they use to move their illicit money back and forth. Some of them use the ‘mixer’- software that can break Bitcoin into smaller pieces and then ‘mixes’ it with other people’s transactions. In the end, the criminals acquire the same amount they put in but not the same Bitcoin.

How Chainanalysis Helps Track Down Crypto Thieves

When Gronager was starting Chainanalysis in the year 2014, his main idea surrounded the creation of a tool capable of combing through public blockchains to track down stolen money and suspicious transactions.

The blockchain records all the transactions made using crypto coins. The tools designed by Chainanalysis can go through these records and trace Illicitly acquired funds.  

More intricately, Chainanalysis identifies the flow of transactions of a known address to an exchange and then notifies the exchange that they have received illicit funds. In other instances, Chainanalysis can notify law enforcement when they identify a suspicious address transferring Bitcoin to another address. It gets easier to nab the thief if the recipient address happens to have posted their wallet address on any social media platform.  

The Kryptos tool invented by Chainanalysis is used by financial institutions to establish whether some cryptocurrency businesses are genuine or not. Another popular tool from Chainanalysis is the Know Your Transaction (KYT) software. This software is used by various entities such as law enforcement agencies and crypto exchanges to trace illicit cryptocurrency transactions. 

On the other hand, Reactor is the most widely used tool.  This tool, also by Chainanalysis, is used by agencies to trace cryptocurrency movements across a blockchain. Additionally, the Reactor also flag addresses that are involved in shady activities. 

The Downsides of Chainanalysis

Since the allure of privacy is what draws in most cryptocurrency investors, there has been concern over the close relationship between governments and Chainanalysis. Simply put, Chainanalysis undermines the privacy promise of cryptocurrency.

Final Thoughts

Crypto crime is dwindling with Chainanalysis tools, closely watching the movements of Illicitly acquired funds.  Chainanalysis estimates that the total fraction of cryptocurrency transactions heading to the dark web has significantly fallen since they started their company in 2015. Will this trend continue, or will we see crypto crime surge again? That seems unlikely. 

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic Cryptocurrencies

Is Helium (HNT) the Future of Wireless?

The Internet of Things is already a billion-dollar industry, with billions of connected devices as of today. Also, IoT spending is on track to reach almost $1.4 trillion by 2021. While the IoT industry continues to grow, it needs a secure and readily available internet to flourish. However, the available solutions, i.e., cellular, WiFi, and Bluetooth, are either too expensive, too energy-intensive, or too limited in range. 

The Helium network is a blockchain-powered wireless network that allows devices from anywhere in the globe to connect to the internet and establish their location without needing power-intensive satellite location hardware or costly network plans. Helium wants to utilize the blockchain to bring decentralization to an industry long dominated by powerful monopolies. The result is that an affordable wireless network becomes a commodity available to anyone. 

Helium’s secure and open-source network also allows developers to build energy-saving, internet-connected devices in a fast and low-cost manner. With this, the project wants to ‘Start a Wireless Revolution.’ 

At the time of writing, the network had 10,426 total hotspots, with close to 8 billion credits spent, per its website. 

Breaking Down Helium

Launched in 2013, Helium is a decentralized wireless network that seeks to offer a secure and cost-effective way for low-power devices to join the IoT industry. The Helium protocol runs on blockchain technology and uses the HoneyBadgerBFT consensus model. 

Helium has the following core features: 

  • Helium hotspot – A tool that’s both a miner and users’ pathway to the Helium blockchain
  • Proof of coverage – A novel mining mechanism that uses radio waves to verify the location of Hotspots
  • LongFi – a technology that combines the wireless protocol LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network) with the Helium blockchain so compatible LoRaWAN devices can transfer data over the Helium network

Helium: Existing Products

#1. Helium Hotspot

The Helium Hotspot is a wireless router by Helium. Just like other LoRaWAN devices on Helium, the Hotspots support miles of wireless network for anyone to carry out mining and help maintain and support the network. 

#2. Helium Console 

This is an internet-based management tool through which developers can register, verify, and manage their devices in the network. The Helium Console is responsible for managing user-level permissions, registering devices IDs, onboarding new devices securely, and utilizing data credits. 

#3. LongFi

This tool combines LoRaWAN with the Helium blockchain, so any LoRaWAN device can plug in and start transferring data on the network. LongFi supports the following: 

  • Easy device onboarding: Users can onboard as many devices as possible without them having to undergo endless configurations or verification by third parties
  • Device roaming: Devices on the network have IDs that are stored on the blockchain, allowing them to transfer data to the network through any Hotspot 
  • Earning HNT tokens: Via LongFi, device owners can earn HNT tokens for transferring data over the network
  • LoRaWAN Support: Any LoRaWAN device can transfer data through the network with little configuration required
#4. Helium Tabs

These are location trackers enabled by Helium. They can track all sorts of things: from pets to luggage, to keys, and pretty much anything that’s covered by the Helium network.

Helium: Technical Infrastructure

Here, we look at the infrastructural highlights of Helium. 

#1. Proof of Coverage (PoC)

PoC is a variation of the Proof of Work consensus algorithm that utilizes radio waves to verify hotspots’ location on the Helium network. PoC constantly requires routers to prove their wireless coverage quality by decrypting and transferring LongFi data over the network. Helium Hotspots stand to earn HNT for submitting valid coverage proofs. 

#2. The Helium Consensus Model

Helium’s consensus mechanism involves 16 participants – who form the Consensus Group (CG) – elected once every epoch. Any active Helium Hotspot on the network is eligible for election to become part of the CG, although they’re more likely to be chosen if they pass the PoC challenge. 

For every election, 4 new CGs are added to 12 members from the previous election. A Hotspot can participate in no more than 4 consecutive CGs. If a CG member performs poorly, they’re likely to be removed before the 4 epoch limit. Mining rewards are distributed among participating members at the end of every epoch. 

Participants in the Helium Network

The participants of Helium can be thought of as these below: 

#1. WHIP

This is an open wireless protocol that is long-range, low-power, and most fitting for use with commodity open-standards hardware. Hardware that’s compatible with WHIP can communicate over many square miles, whether in dense urban settings or rural areas. Such hardware can also last for many years using standard batteries. WHIP utilizes public-key cryptography for security, with verification taking place on the Helium blockchain.

#2. Hotspots

These are physical network devices that transfer data back and forth between routers and various devices. Hotspots also generate proof of coverage, and they can also geolocate devices through the Helium network without any additional apparatus. 

#3 Devices

Devices are hardware products embedded with a WHIP-compatible radio transceiver and can interact with Hotspots on the network. Devices are powered by the typical battery and can last for several years with them. Devices can exist in many forms depending on their use case, and the performance and battery life can be optimized through a variety of transmission strategies.

Helium: Community Growth Strategies

The Helium team is currently undertaking several strategies to advance the growth of the project. These strategies are as follows: 

  • Rewarding network participants who deployed more than 15 Hotspots
  • Educating IoT developers on how to use the Helium platform
  • Hosting Helium Hacks, a weekly video chat session by the Helium team
  • Carrying out local and online meetups
  • Engaging with the community via social media channels

Future strategies include: 

  • Releasing blockchain and IoT-related content via podcasts, videos, blogs, and interviews with industry experts
  • Providing the community with sponsorships to empower them to build apps on the Helium network

Who’s on the Helium Team? 

Helium is the brainchild of Amir Haleem, Shawn Fanning, and Sean Carrey. The trio began working on the idea in 2013. 

Haleem has a strong background in game development. Fanning is known for creating the popular music sharing platform Napster, one of the first of such platforms to employ a peer-to-peer approach. Carry has several years of development experience, including Where, an advertising platform since acquired by PayPal. 

The product team comprises members with combined experience in “radio and hardware, manufacturing, distributed systems, peer-to-peer and blockchain technologies.” 

Future of Helium

The Helium team considers where they are to be just the beginning. They view decentralized wireless networks as a still novel concept that needs more research so it can meet the demands of the modern-day internet. Given this, the team has or intends to undertake the following initiatives: 

  • Identify whether it’s possible to apply blockchain and the decentralized wireless service idea to WiFi Bluetooth and cellular networks
  • Add the possibility for more proofs of coverage to strengthen the Helium network as it grows
  • Formally illustrate the algorithm behind Proof of Coverage
  • Investigate the possibility of deploying smart contracts beyond their current limitations

The Helium Token

HNT is the native cryptocurrency of the Helium network. The token has several uses, including the two most important ones: 

  • Mining rewards: Hotspots earn HNT for contributing to the running and security of the network by transferring data
  • Payment: HNT is used by users to generate data credits with which to pay for network services

HNT: Tokenomics 

On October 20, 2020, HNT traded at $1.12, with a market cap of $57,123,035 and a market rank of #131. HNT’s 24-hour volume was $1,848,021, and it had a circulating and total supply of 51,005,233 and a total supply of 55,960,199. And finally, the token had an all-time high of $4.03 (Sep 24, 2020) and an all-time low of $0.0253391 (June 10, 2020). 

Where to Buy HNT 

HNT is listed as a market pair with USDC, USDT, PERP, and USD in exchanges like Bilaxy, Binance, Binance.US, Hoo, FTX, and Serum DEX. 

Categories
Crypto Guides

What Should You Know About The ‘Concordium’ Blockchain Platform

Introduction

Business payments have to be made secure and transparent. It is true that blockchain and its products have always helped businesses in providing the right efficiency. Yet again, a blockchain-powered product has made its inception into the industry, offering better privacy and accountability of the payments. Concordium platform is a reformed open-source and permissionless blockchain product made with business applications. In this article, we are going to talk about the Concordium articles and everything you need to know about it.

What is Concordium?

It is a proof-of-stake blockchain that has been created with business applications. Concordium is also the first blockchain that comes with identification embedded in the protocol that helps in meeting the requirements facilitating a user-friendly platform. It is primarily designed to be cost-effective, secure, and fast. The identity layer offers on-chain identity compliance centric payments and better privacy for the users.

What About Its Structure?

The two-layer consensus protocol comprises Nakamoto-style blockchain, and the finality layer is meant for faster transaction confirmation. The sharing design facilitates high transaction throughput and enhanced privacy for the business’s sensitive data. Another feather in the cap is designing two new languages for the smart contract code, making the development much easier. The platform also has a transparent incentive structure with predictable fees and cost-effective transactions.

What Are The Best Features of Concordium?

Now that you have understood the platform, let’s take a peek into the feature that will give you a better understanding.

Regulatory Compliance By Design: It is primarily designed to make business transactions faster, secure, and cost-effective. Concordium is designed in a way to integrate the financial system with the user’s identity. It helps the developers, businesses, and individuals to build blockchain products that comply with regulations.

Privacy and Verification of Users: The identity layer of Concordium offers a compliance-centric balance in accountability and anonymity. The user’s identity will remain anonymous, but it can be revoked against a valid request from the government or legal channels.

Fast Transactions: The most important takeaway of this platform is its fast transactions. It has set a benchmark by making the transactions fast enough in accordance with transactions per second. Concordium is made to meet the ever-evolving needs of businesses on a global scale. The platform has taken a major leap compared to other blockchain technology.

Consistent Uptime: The platform is designed for dynamic business use cases with a focus on the uptime requirements. The two-layer consensus is designed to ensure that the platform is secure and available for the changing conditions. So far, the platform has achieved speedups and efficiency.

The Bottom Line

Concordium is created to bring innovation and efficiency to the business transaction. The platform vision to unlock blockchain’s potential and put it to best use for the future economy. The community of Concordium currently involves developers, investors, business leaders, and technologists who are advocating it throughout the world. If you are also willing to enter the arena, you can connect via attending the event, joining the online communities, or entering the ambassador program.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What Ankr Network (ANKR) can do for Cloud Computing? 

Businesses worldwide are using cloud computing to reduce costs, maximize efficiency, and increase deployment. Cloud service providers (CSPs) like Amazon’s AWS, Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, and others have been providing online storage services to companies worldwide for years. 

But even as these big companies dominate the industry, the potential of data centers remains vastly underutilized. There remains so much idle computing power around the globe that could be harnessed to provide cheaper and more efficient cloud computing services. 

What is Ankr?

Ankr is a cloud computing platform backed by the power of the blockchain. With blockchain comes increased speeds, transparency, and more inclusivity. The Ankr team believes idle computing power needn’t go to waste and that it can actually replace the need for CSP’s altogether. 

In view of this, they want to create a system where people from everywhere can utilize others’ idle computing power. And it’s not just setting its sights on repurposing idle computing resources: Ankr wants to go beyond and provide an infrastructure to power the Internet of Things (IoT) and other emerging economies.

Suppliers of idle computing power will be able to make money off it, whether they’re using a mobile phone, an on-premise data center, a private cloud, etc. Ankr wants to help companies create a production environment where they can leverage people and the latest technology independent of a centralized entity and vendor contracts. 

As of the time of writing, Ankr has over 8,000 nodes deployed all over the world. 

Breaking Down Ankr

Ankr is a decentralized cloud computing platform supporting all manner of players in an industry that includes resource providers, end-users, app developers, and more. The Ankr team believes that cloud computing is the best way of the future, and that should be avoidable for everyone instead of being monopolized by tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Alibaba Cloud, and Amazon AWS. 

Ankr will give developers the ability to deploy more than 100 types of blockchain nodes. The idea is to offer a pragmatic business model where data owners monetize their idle cloud resources, and developers can utilize them to run various services more effectively. 

Some of the highlights of Ankr include: 

  • Single-click node deployment
  • Truly decentralized infrastructure
  • Automated management based on cloud-native tech and Kubernetes

Ankr: Architecture

The Ankr blockchain runs on four core layers:

#1. Core Layer

The core layer supports the network’s full nodes. It uses the Proof of Service Level and Stake Byzantine Fault Tolerance (SLSBFT) consensus mechanism. SLSBFT ensures that bandwidth, computation, and distributed storage maintains the highest quality standards. 

On this layer, blocks are generated until the block producers reach consensus. Users interact with this layer in either of two ways: as validator nodes or regular nodes. Validator nodes are approved by the network’s DCCN (Distributed Cloud Computing Network), while the regular nodes are open to everyone. 

#2. Relay Layer

This layer supports fast network routing. All nodes on the relay layer support full nodes, except these full nodes will not produce blocks or participate in the consensus. Users have the option to add more efficient networks on top of this layer. They also stand to earn ANKR coin rewards for Proof of Network Contribution (PNC). The amount of rewards will depend on a node’s relayed packet number, network bandwidth steadiness, and service quality. 

#3. Access Layer

This layer supports data center nodes, mining nodes, and edge computing nodes. All these contribute to the safety of the network by preventing illegal node access. 

#4. Micro-node layer

This layer supports device nodes and transaction hashes. Smaller nodes, such as phone-based ones, are the ones referred to as micro-nodes. 

Ankr’s DCCN System 

Ankr’s DCCN system is deployed across various computing resources over varied geographic locations. The Kubernetes system manages these resources, arranging them in clusters through the Ankr Hub. The Hub is responsible for relaying and dispatching tasks to working clusters. 

The Ankr team wants to utilize DCCN to offer an experience like that of centralized computing platforms. Through its Graphic User Interface and Command Line Interface, users can deploy apps, services, or even infrastructure for supporting such. 

Resource Scheduler (and Fairness Algorithms)

A Resource Scheduler on Ankr selects and assigns tasks to nodes, who will then run them in the desired state. The scheduler will utilize the Weighted Dominant Resource Fairness Algorithm (WDRF), which evenly distributes the available resources to nodes depending on availability and the degree of urgency. 

SLSBFT Consensus

Ankr utilizes the Proof of Service Level and Stake Byzantine Fault Tolerance (SLSBFT) consensus mechanism. It verifies transactions through these three phases: 

  1. Propose
  2. Prevote
  3. Pre-commit

The SLSBFT and the standard BFT differ in that the former features Block Producer ‘BP’ nodes. BP nodes are selected based on their contribution to the network as well as their stake. This promotes decentralization and fairness in that not just large token holders can participate in the network, but any node that contributes positively. To protect the network against attacks, validator nodes are chosen in a random fashion. 

Smart Contracts 

The Ankr network supports smart contracts. The smart contract system has the following characteristics:

  • Support for multiple programming languages including C/C++, JavaScript, Rust, Python, and more
  • A virtual machine compatible with WebAssembly 1.0
  • When smart contracts are being executed, the Ankr protocol is capable of invoking the contracts’ application programming interface tools via a service bus
  • Ankr charges transaction fees according to the smart contract instructions
  • Support for smart contracts’ interaction with the Ankr blockchain
  • Support for smart contracts’ interactions with the off-chain system

Incorporation with DCCN 

The DCCN blockchain supports the functions of Ankr’s communication in several ways, which include:

  • Providing the payment interface for cloud service providers and users
  • Rewarding users with returns upon their completion of computing tasks
  • Rewarding validators for their formation in the maintenance of the blockchain and processing transactions
  • Facilitating communication between the DCCN hub and DCCN daemon

Ankr: Incentive Mechanism

Ankr utilizes an incentive mechanism to promote healthy development of the platform and provide users with high-level services. The rewards are measured based on several yardsticks, including: 

  • Rewards for ANKR staking
  • Rewards for utilizing the ANKR stake  
  • Rewards for producing and offering services
  • Rewards for node reputation

The ANKR Token

ANKR is the native cryptocurrency of the Ankr platform. It’s the mechanism through which network users pay fees. Enterprise clients can pay for hosting fees via the token. Such enterprises could be crypto exchanges, staking platforms, fund management companies, etc. Individuals can also use the ANKR token to donate to non-profit Cloud computing platforms such as BOINC. And lastly, cloud service users can use ANKR to pay for the service. 

Supply Distribution of ANKR

The ANKR token was distributed in the following fashion: 

  • Public sale tokens:5%
  • Private sale 1 tokens: 3% 
  • Private sale 2 tokens: 12%
  • Private sale 3 tokens: 15% 
  • Team tokens: 17%
  • Advisor tokens: 1.5%
  • Marketing tokens: 5%
  • Mining rewards: 40%

Key Metrics

On October 20, 2020, the ANKR token traded at $0.007870, with a market cap of $45,876,543 that placed it at #156 in the market. The token has a 24-hour volume of $9,728,854, a circulating supply of 5,829,566,044, and a total supply of 10 billion. ANKR’s all-time high was $0.018332 (August 10, 2020), and its all-time low was $0.000711 (Mar 13, 2020). 

Where to Buy and Store ANKR

You’ll find ANKR listed as a pair with BTC, ETH, USDT, KRW, BNB, BTC, TWD, HT, on either of these exchanges: Binance, Upbit, MXC, CoinDCX, Huobi Global, HotBit, BitMax, WazirX, CoinTiger, Gate.io, Coinone, BiKi, Sistemkoin, BitAsset, BinanceDEX, BurgerSwap, and ViteX. 

Once you grab some ANKR, you can store it in any of several wallet options, including Trust Wallet, Atomic Wallet, MyEtherWallet, Trezor, and Ledger.

Categories
Crypto Guides

An Introductory Guide To NEAR Protocol

Introduction

NEAR Protocol is a smart contract compatible cryptocurrency, a highly scalable and low-cost platform for developers, allowing them to create dApps or decentralized apps for various purposes. In the cryptocurrency space, the competition can turn out to be vicious. Nevertheless, cooperation is also widespread in the crypto space, particularly because it is a new asset class.

Crypto creators and experts have understood that it is highly beneficial to cooperate rather than to compete for the time being. And you will struggle to find any crypto project better than NEAR Protocol when it comes to cooperation in the cryptocurrency space. If you are interested in understanding what NEAR Protocol actually is, including its elements and features, this post will explain everything you need to know about it. Let’s get started.

What is NEAR Protocol?

NEAR or NEAR Protocol is a cryptocurrency blockchain that features smart contract functionality. NEAR Protocol is designed and developed to facilitate the creation of decentralized applications. It is also developer-friendly and is interoperable with Ethereum as well.

Coming down to its functionality, NEAR Protocol uses a block generation mechanism known as ‘Doomslug’ that processes over 100,000 transactions per second and a Sharding mechanism known as ‘Nightshade’ that splits the entire cryptocurrency network into multiple portions. The transaction fees on NEAR Protocol are so low that it requires a special unit of measurement for quantification called ‘yocto.’

Furthermore, the developers at NEAR Protocol are working to make the platform secure enough to handle valuable assets like identity or money. And with the likes of proof of stake, combined with sharding, the platform can prove useful for everyday customers.

How does it work?

NEAR Protocol is a dedicated proof of stake blockchain, which, to optimize performance, uses sharding. Sharding is quite different in NEAR Protocol as compared to other cryptocurrencies. That is, all shards on NEAR Protocol are considered a part of the same network. Using Nightshade, the cryptocurrency is interoperable with ETH using Rainbow Bridge. The Nightshade works to add a single snapshot of each shard’s existing state on the NEAR Protocol blockchain. Each shard has its own set of validator nodes that broadcast the shard’s existing state each time a block is produced.

Elements and Features of NEAR Protocol

NEAR Protocol comes with numerous functionalities that cater to the validators, end-users, and developers differently.

  • NEAR Protocol allows the developers to prepay and sign the transactions in the end-users’ best interest, significantly reducing the need for the users to know about how the decentralized application works and other technical anomalies.
  • It boasts a ‘Progressive UX,’ which is specifically designed for users so that they can use the platform without requiring to use tokens or wallets.
  • When we talk about the validators, NEAR Protocol allows them to create an assortment of offerings for the users.

Conclusion

It is still too early to say whether people will accept NEAR Protocol or will it dethrone Ethereum. But it is certainly not impossible. Given the features and functionalities of the cryptocurrency, it can be said that NEAR Protocol is the future of the cryptocurrency market, especially because it can help create state-of-the-art decentralized applications.

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic

Investing in ICOs – What You Need to Know

An ICO (Initial Coin Offering) is a strategy startups use to raise capital to fund a project by selling digital tokens. The project’s nature could vary from building an app to creating a new service to developing a new cryptocurrency. It is a similar concept to an Initial Public Offering (IPO) – the sale of shares by corporations to raise lump sum capital. 

ICOs, just like IPOs, often excite investors, which is why: at the launch of an ICO, tokens are usually sold at an outrageously discounted price. If the project goes well, the startup will become attractive to investors, and so will be the tokens. At this point, early-bird investors can sell their tokens at much higher prices and walk away with their newly-acquired wealth. This is the same thinking IPO investors have.

Despite the potential to gain massively from these investments, the risk of losing everything always lingers. If the project is a false start, the startup behind the ICO will fail to attract investors, and the tokens will be, at best, a little more than useless.

This article explains ICOs in detail, the benefits of investing, and the risks involved. Read on to know if they are a worthy venture.

How ICOs Work

First, it’s worth noting that cryptocurrency startups typically offer iCOs. Startups have limited access to funding. To make it worse, crypto startups lack the assets to back up liabilities such as credit, and this fact makes them particularly unattractive to creditors. 

When such organizations want to raise capital, ICOs come to their rescue. It all starts with publishing a technical paper detailing their idea. The whitepaper will explain the capital requirements, what the project will achieve at the end, how many tokens investors will keep, how the tokens can be redeemed, and so on. An elaborate paper is crucial in convincing investors to jump aboard. 

During the offering, those who have read the paper and see potential in the idea will buy the tokens using fiat money or crypto. In the future, issued tokens can be redeemed for cash. However, there are cases where the tokens only represent a stake in the organization and only entitle the holders to dividends. 

If the ICO fails to raise the amount needed to pursue the project, the startup may refund investors. Otherwise, it will use the funds collected to implement the proposed project. It is important to note that ICO activities are not regulated – and that’s a huge risk. Luckily, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) can intervene if it believes the ICO is illegal and may harm investors, as was the case with Telegram’s 2018 ICO. Nonetheless, the SEC’s jurisdiction is limited to the United States, something that you need to keep in mind. 

Comparison with IPOs/ Stocks 

ICOs and IPOs have a lot in common, especially in terms of how they work. Below are some of how the two compare:

  • Both are used to raise funds from the public 
  • Investors receive a token that represents their contribution. In ICOs, digital tokens are issued while IPOs feature shares
  • Both are supposed to be tradeable or redeemable 

Despite the similarities, there are notable differences between the two. For instance: 

  • ICOs are not regulated, while stocks are regulated by government agencies (SEC does this in the US)
  • Returns on IPOs are straightforward – stockholders reap annual dividends. On the other hand, ICO tokens do not grant investors ownership of the project. Still, they can be redeemed at a fixed rate, grant buyers access to the startup’s offices, entitle them to a share of the company’s profits, or whatever the whitepaper says – it’s usually all in the whitepaper.
  • IPOs are restricted to specific stock markets, while ICOs can be purchased anywhere the internet has reached.
  • IPOs usually have a high minimum amount of shares that one can purchase. ICOs, on the other hand, offer more flexibility when it comes to the minimum number of tokens that can be purchased.

How to Participate in an ICO

There is no specific process for venturing into ICOs. However, the general guide below can help you get started.

  1. Search online for upcoming ICOs. Using Google search terms like “upcoming ICOs” should be sufficient. You can also check out icodrops.com. The website provides a summary of active, upcoming, and concluded ICOs. When contemplating which ICO to settle for, take your time to read and understand the whitepaper. If you can, consult an investment expert for advice.
  2. Once you have made a comparison and settled on an ICO of your liking, register with an exchange. Since you are likely to purchase the tokens using crypto, you will need to exchange your fiat money for the said crypto. Most ICOs can be paid for using Bitcoin or Ether – that’s if they are not accepting fiat money.
  3. Buy crypto from the exchange and transfer that to your private wallet. 
  4. Go to the ICO’s official website and follow the participation guide. Most of them have simple well-explained guides. That’s it.

Pump-and-Dump ICO Schemes

Not all ICOs are established with genuine intentions. Like it is the case with any other investment alternative, you should be extra-careful when approaching an ICO investment. Pump-and-dump schemes involve overly hyping an idea to mislead investors into thinking that the proposed project will be super successful. In a typical pump-and-dump scheme, ICO owners will make outrageous claims about the potential of their idea. Then, clueless investors will buy the tokens in large quantities. Naturally, the project will fail after the capital collected has been spent, meaning the startup will have no money to pay investors.

It might be difficult to read the intentions of ICO owners from the start. However, if you see an influencer promoting a certain ICO, you should be vigilant. Using authoritative figures to market ICOs is among the best-known tactics pump-and-dump schemers use.

The ICO Bubble

ICO critics have long speculated that the concept is just a fanfare whose curtains are due to close. In 2017, Wired predicted that the ICO bubble was about to burst, but obviously, it didn’t. In 2018, cryptocurrencies saw an all-time decline in market capitalization, with Bitcoin losing over 70% of its value. The thing is, cryptocurrencies ride on speculation, and speculation cannot be predicted. Therefore, we cannot validate claims of a looming ICO bubble burst. What’s more important is to do your due diligence before diving into this unpredictable business.

Final Thoughts

ICOs present an exciting investment alternative to crypto enthusiasts. They offer many benefits that traditional IPOs lack. For instance, you can invest for as low as a few dollars. You are also not restricted to any country – provided you can access the ICO’s website, you can participate. Generally, ICOs have opened up investment opportunities to more people. However, it would help if you exercise caution when dealing with them. Their unregulated nature means if anything goes wrong, legal redress might be impossible. But since all investments are risky anyway, you might want to give it a try regardless.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What Venus (XVS) can do for DeFi? 

Project after project is now rushing to cash in on the DeFi wave as the new blockchain-powered industry takes over the space. One of the latest DeFi projects to enter the scene is Venus Protocol, a liquidity pool and money market based on the Binance Smart Chain

What’s Venus all about, and what innovations does it bring to DeFi? Let’s dive in. 

Understanding Venus 

Venus is a DeFi protocol on the Binance Chain that supports digital asset lending, borrowing, and generation of synthetic assets. Venus wants to provide a much better financial ecosystem than both centralized and current decentralized platforms.

The Problem with Today’s Finance Protocols

In the traditional finance system, users have to go through a multitude of steps just to get a loan from KYC processes to a credit history check to days or weeks of awaiting confirmation. Also, the centralized lender can decide to deny you a loan arbitrarily. And let’s not forget about centralized platforms’ security concerns, thanks to their single point of attack. 

For its part, DeFi has revolutionized the crypto space by introducing blockchain-based products and services that are transparent, cryptographically secure, and not controlled by third-party authorities/decision-makers. But there’s a problem with DeFi: most of these platforms are built on Ethereum, which has faced scalability challenges since the beginning. Lack of scalability means slow, costly transactions and a poor user experience.

Again, these protocols lack the high market cap that could attract more users or put them at the top of the chain. There’s also the less-than-obvious issue of some of these platforms being not fully decentralized – mostly at the beginning. Such a platform will have equity investors controlling the platform, not users, and the community. 

Venus’s Solution

Venus seeks to address these problems by providing an environment where a traditional approach is woven into a synthetic stablecoin generation process. Users will be able to enjoy high-speed transactions with low minimal transaction costs on the Binance Smart Chain. The possibilities are many: deposit collateral, earn interest on the collateral, borrow against the collateral, and mint stablecoins in seconds. 

Venus: Highlights

  • Ability to borrow cryptocurrencies without intrusive KYC and credit checks
  • Ability to deposit crypto and stablecoins as collateral and earn good annual percentage yield returns 
  • Mint stablecoins from your collateral, with the collateral having the ability to be used more than 60 million places in the globe.
  • Governed by the Venus token for fair and transparent coin launch and distribution 

How Can You Use the Venus Protocol? 

You can take advantage of the Venus platform in several ways. From depositing assets and earning from them to borrowing crypto at competitive rates. 

#1. Depositing Assets

Venus users can deposit any of several supported digital assets in the protocol. Borrowers will take out these funds and use them to speculate in the market. In return, suppliers of the funds – or stakers, will earn interest on their deposit. 

When users supply collateral, they participate as lenders while contributing to the security of the protocol. All deposited assets are put together in a pool so that users can take out part of/the whole of their supply at any time, provided the protocol balance is positive.

Supplying crypto to the protocol will get you a vToken (vETH, vBTC, vUSDC, etc.) Only vTokens can be used to redeem the underlying deposited crypto. Redeeming the crypto will allow you to hedge against other assets in the market or move them to offline wallets that support Binance Smart Chain.

#2. Borrowing Assets

To borrow assets from the platform, you need to stake in collateral. The collateralized assets should be over-collateralized, making for at least 75% of the amount to be borrowed. The community will determine the collateral ratio through a governance process. Once you deposit the collateral, you can proceed to borrow an amount based on the collateral ratio of the particular asset. 

Usually, collateral ratios are anything between 40% to 75%. For instance, if ETH has a collateral ratio of 75%, it means you can borrow up to 75% of the value of your ETH. But if your collateral value drops below 75%, it could cause your assets to be liquidated. To return the collateral, a borrower must pay the borrowed amount together with the compounded interest.

Protocol Architecture

Venus’s code is forked off both the MakerDao and Compound protocols. The architecture is made of these elements: 

#1. Controller Smart Contract

Binance Smart Chain’s controller contract is much like a 

decentralized processor, facilitating the interactions between all other smart contracts on the platform. The Venus protocol does not automatically support tokens. Rather, it will support specific markets that are whitelisted by the Controller contract. The controller contract accesses whitelist markets by deploying the support Market admin function on the protocol. Every interaction and function on the protocol must be verified on the controller contract before it’s executed. 

#2. Collateral value

When a user deposits, borrows, or mints from the protocol, they’re usually using the underlying asset, usually held as collateral. The underlying assets are held as collateral and have dollar values that are also tied to the vTokens. For this to work accurately, these collateral values are taken from prevailing market rates. 

Governance Approach of Venus

The Venus team takes community governance very seriously. There were no pre-mined tokens for the team, foundation, and developers. As such, users who mine the Venus Token will get to control how the network runs. 

Governance features include, but are not limited to: 

  • The introduction of new assets on the protocol
  • Adjustment of market rates
  • Fixing interest rates for synthetic assets
  • Voting on protocol upgrade proposals

Venus Token

Venus is governed by the platform’s native token, the Venus Token (XVS). The token was designed to be “fair launch,” meaning there were no pre-mined tokens for the team, advisors, or the Foundation. You can only earn tokens through the Binance Launchpool project or by injecting liquidity into the protocol.

Initially, 20% (6,000,000) of the total supply will go to the Binance Launchpool project. The remaining amount will be dedicated to the protocol, with 23,700 000 XVS being mined in the next four years at 18,493 per day. 35% of the award will go to borrowers, 35% to suppliers, and 30% to stablecoin minters. XVS will officially become the governance mechanism of the protocol after 10 million tokens have been mined. In the meantime, an interim token, ‘Swipe Token’ (SXP), is being used to fulfill this purpose. 

Community Growth Strategies

The Venus team is going to implement various strategies in a bid to expand the community. 

  • Conducting Ask Me Anything (AMAs) to shed more light on the project to the community.
  • Regularly publishing DeFi-related news.
  • Hosting/co-hosting DeFi and blockchain events
  • Putting out weekly updates on Medium
  • Engaging with the community and the public via social media
  • Coming up with governance protocols

Future strategies include the following: 

  • Launching a governance protocol
  • Launching an incentive campaign to attract liquidity investors
  • Increasing the number of supported tokens

Tokenomics of Venus

At the time of writing, the Venus token’s market performance was as follows: its price was $3, and its market cap was $12,696,581, which placed it at #453. XVS had a 24-hour volume of $6,606,914, with a circulating supply of 4,227,273 and a total and maximum supply of 30 million. Finally, the token’s highest price ever was $4.77 (Oct 17, 2020), while its lowest ever was $2.22 (Oct 13, 2020). 

Where to Buy and Store XVS

XVS is currently listed on the Binance exchange. 

As a Binance chain token, the XVS token can be stored in Ledger Nano S, Guarda Wallet, Enjin Wallet, Atomic Wallet, Trust Wallet, Edge Wallet, and Coinomi Wallet.

Closing Thoughts 

On the Venus Protocol, users from everywhere can supply crypto and earn returns, take loans, and mint synthetic assets. Since it runs on the Binance Smart Chain, its transactions are fast, low-cost, and transcend the native blockchain. Active participants will get to contribute to the future direction of the protocol in a truly decentralized fashion. Venus joins multiple protocols offering the same product – will it stay ahead of the curve? We’ll be watching to see how it evolves.

Categories
Crypto Guides

Looking For Easy Crypto Payment? Switch To NOWPayments!

Introduction

Digital payment has undoubtedly blessed the financial industry by offering a seamless transaction mode. With the inclusion of blockchain, things have become even more efficient. More and more blockchain platforms have been introducing their tokens and coins to facilitate blockchain-based transactions. Crypto holders are making use of their crypto coins to conduct everyday financial transactions.

Owing to the increasing demand for crypto payments, blockchain platforms are designing their currency. ChangNow has also been working to introduce NOWPayments to offer a convenient blockchain payment service that will accept crypto coins all over the globe. In this article, we are going to talk about NOWPayment and everything that has to be discovered regarding this revolutionized payment service.

What is NOWPayments?

NOWPayments is powered by ChangeNOW and has been operating in the industry since 2019. It is also tied up worth Ledger, Binance, and Atomic Wallet to increase its services’ efficiency. NOWPayments has been designed to primarily offer a crypto payment gateway for both customers and merchants and make transactions seamless. It allows merchants to accept crypto payment on their online stores, social media accounts, and website. Being a non-custodial service, NOWPayments will not store funds in any means. It supports more than 50 cryptocurrencies and facilitates transactions at lower fees.

What Are The Benefits of Choosing NOWPayments?

As online/offline merchants and crypto coin holders are increasing at a staggering rate, it has become essential to introduce a hassle-free payment gateway. NOWPayment is that one-stop destination where you can conduct crypto transactions without any hassle. It has partnered with all the popular crypto exchanges to strengthen its potential and meet customers’ needs. Here are a few crucial benefits of using NOWPayments-:

Faster Payments: NOWPayments is known for its lightning-fast payments. Unlike other gateways, NOWPayments will complete the transaction within minutes.

Non-Custodial Services: There are no intermediaries involved in the transactions except holding the fees. So, the payments are directly forwarded to the merchants.

Comprehensive Support: Complete guidance and inclusive support is another major takeaway of this payment gateway. From installing plugins to integrating API, you can get all answers to your queries via a 24/7 support team.

Transparency Compliance: NOWPayment prioritizes the safety of the clients and partners. The legal team dedicatedly works to ensure compliance. It secures all the transactions and safeguards it from illegal acts, and protects the users’ rights.

How To Integrate NOWPayments?

NOWPayment claims to be the easiest and best way to accept crypto payments. The easy-to-use interface makes NOWPayments offers hassle-free, secure, and simple API that you can integrate into any platform. Follow the below steps-:

  • Sign up for NOWPayment with email and set up your account
  • Access the Dashboard after signing up
  • Go to Add New Key and save the API
  • Visit the Outcome Wallet page to access your digital wallet
  • Use the API to send and accept crypto payments

The Bottom Line

NOWPayments has established a safer, reliable, and faster crypto payment gateway that everyone needed. It can be embedded in online stores and websites to make payment easier for customers and merchants. The above mentioned were all the vital information you need to know about this amazing payment gateway.

Categories
Crypto Videos

The Amazing Chainlink – Solving Real-World Problems!

 

Chainlink – Beginners Guide

During the long and hard crypto winter of late 2018, many projects failed to stay afloat, but during all this, Chainlink managed to actually keep growing and defied the bearish market. At the moment, Chainlink is one of the leading cryptocurrencies in the DeFi sector. How did it manage to grow as consistently, and what sets is apart?

Problem

Blockchains use math–cryptography and practically guarantee security, trust, and decentralization. However, the problem is that each blockchain is its own universe, which means that getting information from and to another blockchain would require a trusted source. To retrieve information about event outcomes or even something as simple as Bitcoin’s price meant that you are required to trust a source to tell the truth.

What is Chainlink?


Chainlink figured out how to get any type of information in and out of a blockchain while remaining secure and decentralized, but also trustless. Sources of data between the blockchain and the “outside” world, known as oracles, are no longer a single point of failure for a smart contract. Chainlink created a network of nodes that can provide information to and from the blockchain, which created a vital part of smart contract infrastructure as a result. This “blockchain middleware” meant that Chainlink oracles could provide essential information without sacrificing on decentralization or security.
Chainlink essentially created a secure bridge to the “outside” world.
To minimize the potential failure of the aforementioned oracles, Chainlink focused on the distribution of data sources, distribution of oracles, as well as the use of trusted hardware.

Origins of Chainlink

Chainlink was founded by the current CEO Sergey Nazarov and the current CTO Steve Ellis. The project started in Sept 2017, when the project raised $32 million in an ICO, thus creating 1 billion LINK tokens. In May 2019, Chainlink launched on the Ethereum mainnet. At the moment, Chainlink is the 7th largest cryptocurrency by market cap, as well as the largest DeFi cryptocurrency by market cap, and is very close to the $4 billion dollar mark.

Use Cases

Chainlink is different from most projects in terms of having real use cases, as it is demonstrated by its list of partners, with most notable being Polkadot and Synthetix from the crypto sector and SWIFT and Google coming from the traditional business world.
As an example, Chainlink could be used to send a real-world money transfer from SWIFT and via Chainlink. The proof the payment could then be sent back via Chainlink to SWIFT. This use of Chainlink by SWIFT has created a seamless interaction between the traditional world and the crypto world, all while minimizing the potential points of failure.

So how does it all work?

Chainlink can be defined as a decentralized oracle network that consists of purchasers and data providers. Purchasers request data, while providers return it in a secure way.
Purchasers select the data they want to obtain, while providers bid to provide that data. Providers have to commit a stake of LINK tokens when making a bid, which serves as proof that they are honest. Once providers are selected, their job is to bring the correct answers on the chain.

Chainlink uses something called “oracle reputation system” to aggregate as well as weigh the data provided. If everything goes well, providers get paid, and everyone is happy, but if the providers misbehave, they lose their stake.

How do you get Link tokens?

The Chainlink network uses an Ethereum-based ERC-677 token that inherits the ERC-20 token standard’s functionality while allowing token transfers to contain a data payload. This token protocol is also used for payment of data providers who are bringing and translating data into the blockchain.
Besides earning LINK tokens by being a provider, you can also buy LINK tokens on various exchanges, such as Coinbase, Binance, and Huobi.

The Future of Chainlink

Two of the key objectives Chainlink focused on to ensure the security of its network are the distribution of data sources and the distribution of oracles. Like all networks, Chainlink’s main goal is to add more people and operators to become more robust and valuable.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

GoChain (GO): Where Reputation Matters

Blockchain has so much potential to transform not just how we do business but society itself. Its qualities of decentralization, immutability, and distributedness make for transparent, trustless, and fraud-free interactions. 

And while this potential is huge, blockchain is currently hindered by issues like low scalability, lack of true decentralization, and excessive consumption of power. 

GoChain is a decentralized platform that wants to bring blockchain closer to businesses while solving the issues encumbering it. The platform is designed for its apps to be immediately integrable with Ethereum. 

Before we delve deeper into Gochain, let’s see why the current blockchain setup is problematic.

The Issues With Existing Blockchains

#1. Speed and Volume

Current blockchains suffer from slow transactions and low throughput. For instance, Bitcoin can process just 7 transactions per second, while Ethereum can process 15, at the time of writing. On top of that, it can take anything from minutes to hours to verify a transaction. This is a sharp contrast with Visa, which can process 1700 transactions per second. This demonstrates that the current blockchain setup is too slow for real-world and high volumes of transactions. 

#2. Power Consumption

As in proof of work (PoW consensus, the process of approving and verifying transactions gobbles up massive amounts of energy. The computational work that goes into the process is meant to protect the network against bad actors, but it comes at a cost. For instance, Bitcoin today uses the equivalent of the power that would run 3.5 million US households. This is just unsustainable in the long run.

#3. Questionable Decentralization

Decentralization is a central tenet of cryptocurrencies. Decentralization means any single company or government does not control a blockchain network. However, true decentralization remains a pipe dream. For example, the largest number of Bitcoin miners is situated in China, where electricity is cheap. In true decentralization, miners would be spread proportionately all over the world. 

#4. Rigid Contracts 

Ethereum supports smart contracts, which are contracts that are self-verifying and enforcing. Smart contracts operate so that all parties must commit to a set of rules before the contract is enforced. However, smart contracts are not that smart in some ways, especially when it comes to a fast-paced world. The parties to a smart contract cannot change the contract in any way, whether to upgrade the terms or fix a security bug. Smart contracts are also known to have been victims of attacks, meaning they’re not as safe as touted.

What’s GoChain?

GoChain is a decentralized, peer-to-peer network that uses Proof-of-Reputation consensus mechanism to power smart contracts and DApps. The network is 100% compatible with Ethereum wallets, and it had the mission of being “10x more decentralized, 100x faster and 1000x greener than Ethereum.” By greener, GoChain means utilizing a consensus model that does not consume as much power as PoW. 

Here are some of the main features of GoChain: 

  • GO-20 tokens, which are compatible with Ethereum
  • 1300 transactions per second with low to very minimal gas fees
  • A Proof of Reputation (PoR) consensus mechanism that relies on participants’ good reputation to secure the network
  • ‘Authorized Signers,’ who are 50 reputable companies picked from various industries and countries
  • Malicious nodes can be removed from the network

GoChain’s Fees and Rewards

Just like on Ethereum, GoChain users need to pay ‘gas’ to conduct transactions on the network. Authorized signers are in charge of creating, signing, and distributing blocks to nodes, for which they earn GO tokens in return. Reward tokens were 4.4% of the total supply, and they will decrease over time. 

The Voting Process 

GoChain will use a two-phase voting process. Initially, GoChain will have the first 50 signers enforcing decentralization and protecting the network against any outside interference. These signers will be picked from varying industries and jurisdictions. This is in line with the PoR consensus mechanism, in which a signer must already possess a reputation that’s too valuable to jeopardize/lose. When these signers are established, the network will hand complete control to them in a true self-governing version. 

GoChain will choose signers based on these credentials: 

  • Number of years in operation
  • Number of company employees
  • Annual revenue
  • Brand recognition
  • Company’s annual revenue

Proof of Reputation

GoChain uses a Proof of Reputation consensus mechanism to keep the network secure. A participant must already have a reputation that’s too prized to risk with any dishonest behavior. It’s why the PoR mechanism chooses larger companies – which have more to lose, over small companies. 

Once a company submits its reputation credentials, they may be voted in as an authoritative node, after which they can approve and verify blocks. GoChain is based on Ethereum’s network because the team believes that it’s “much more than just a store of value.” As well, Ethereum apps such as wallets and tools will be interoperable with GoChain. 

Why Reputation? 

GoChain relies on reputation because it’s one of the most crucial aspects of a business. For a company, acting unethically could bring consequences such as fines, a customers’ walkout, PR disaster, and so on. Trust is a key part of any business, and once that trust is lost, it can take years to repair. 

Hence, GoChain utilizes this model to keep companies in check and keep the network secure. PoR works for more risk-averse companies and wouldn’t be inclined to a PoW or Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus model. In PoR, everyone knows who the other is, and they know who they’re trusting with their data. 

GO Tokens 

GO is the native token of the GoChain ecosystem. The token’s distribution was done this way: 

  • Private and public sale: 51%
  • Team tokens: 10%
  • Advisor tokens: 6%
  • Token treasury: 10%
  • Marketing and legal expenses: 14%
  • GoChain fund: 10%

Key Metrics of GO Token 

Go token rounded up at these figures on October 14, 2020. Its price was $0.008448, with a market cap of $8,800,176, which placed it at #522. It had a 24-hour volume of $489,598 and a circulating supply of 1,041,653,540, and a total supply of 1,106,653,550. The token has an all-time high of $0.116462 (July 09, 2018) and an all-time low of $0.003994 (Mar 13, 2020). 

Where to Buy and Store GO

You can find GO listed on several popular exchanges, including Binance, VCC Exchange, KuCoin, Bilaxy, Bittrex, CoinDCX, DragonEx, Beaxy, and Coinall. BTC, USDT, and ETH are some of the currencies it’s listed against. 

For storage, options include ZenGo, CoolWalletS, Coinomi, Trezor Model T, and Ledger Nano S. 

Final Thoughts

GoChain is a solution for the persistent issues in blockchain, and its ready-to-go approach makes it an immediate DApp and smart contracts solution for users across the globe. GoChain promises a faster, more scalable, and more decentralized blockchain. The only caveat is, it’s not the first or the last project to offer that promise. Will it stand the test of time in the competitive crypto space? Only time will tell. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Introducing Electra (ECA)

Before blockchain, people had to contend with slow and expensive cross-border transactions, and merchants had to give up high percentages of their revenue in the payment process. Well, it’s still pretty much that way, but it doesn’t have to be any longer. The revolutionary features of blockchain, such as decentralization, high-level security, and transparency, should change the game. 

Electra (ECA) is a blockchain effort that seeks to revolutionize how the world views payments. Founded in 2017, Electra is a financial management system that will allow merchants everywhere to use an alternative payment method free from intermediaries or centralized control. The protocol will offer users what traditional systems have failed to do for ages: friendly fees, instant transactions, immediate access to funds, state-of-the-art security, and more. 

The Electra protocol is embedded with the Lightning Network, atomic swaps, and PoS 3.0e. In the future, it intends to integrate SegWit as well as smart contract functionalities. 

Understanding Electra

Electra (ECA) is an open-source crypto and blockchain project for facilitating peer-to-peer payments across the globe. The project wants to provide a secure, cost-effective, and more flexible alternative to the traditional payment model where merchants pay up to a 3% processing fee. 

Using Electra, merchants can pay for transactions at the negligible rate of 0.0001 ECA. This is compared with the flat merchant discount rate (MDR) rate that gives businesses, especially small businesses, the shorter end of the stick. And, they usually have to wait for days to receive payments. 

Electra seeks to facilitate micropayments. To achieve this, the Electra blockchain can process up to 800 transactions per second (TPS) with a confirmation time of 64 seconds. This allows merchants to receive payments in milliseconds. Just like on Bitcoin, merchants can ultimately decide their transactions’ finality based on how many blocks have passed. Electra also removes the need for intermediaries between merchants and customers, providing for a leaner and more cost-effective process. No intermediaries mean more secure transactions as well, since the possibility of fraud is vastly reduced. 

Electra: Existing Products

Over the years, Electra has rolled out various products to realize its mission of more affordable and secure payments. Let’s look at each one by one. 

#1. ElectraPay

This is a tool that allows merchants from anywhere in the world to register and accept e-commerce payments. When they sign up, they generate an API key – a unique identifier that authenticates payment and billing requests. Currently, Electra supports the WooCommerce plugin. The WooCommerce plugin can be used on WordPress sites. 

With the plugin, a merchant can track the status of every order via the portal. They can also track their account information and update it if necessary. Finally, they can see all changes made in the order records and by whom. Transactions via the Electra network can be seen by both the merchant and the customer in near real-time. 

#2. Point-of-Sale System

Electra also supports a Point-of-Sale solution that’s directly linked to the ElectraPay merchant account. This integration allows the merchant to plug in on both the online and physical environments. 

User Benefits

The Electra protocol provides multiple benefits for users – whether active users or just fans of the project: 

  • Ability to join the community and contribute to the monetary value and market standing of the project and coin
  • Seamless installation of ElectraPay complete with a plugin for both online and offline environments
  • Enjoy safe and secure payments based on the NIST5 algorithm.
  • Negligible transaction fees of 0.00001% – way lower than debit or credit card options
  • Near real-time transactions with a 64 seconds confirmation time
  • Worldwide ATMs for easy integration with the Electra debit card
  • Zero exchange fees
  • Rewards upon staking Electra coin

Key Metrics of Electra Coin (ECA)

ECA is the native cryptocurrency of Electra. It plays a pivotal role in the ecosystem, from facilitating payments to staking. Let’s see the coin’s current market standing: 

As of October 16, ECA traded at $0.000173, with a market cap of $4,954,908 that placed it at #713. The coin had a 24-hour volume of $383.80, a circulating and total supply of 28,712,458,937, and 29,579,615,490, respectively. The coin’s all-time high was $0.010651 (Jan 04, 2018), while its all-time low was $0.000001 (Dec 01, 2017). 

Where to Buy and Store ECA

ECA is listed on several legit exchanges, including CoinFalcon, Crex24, HitBTC, Coindeal, STEX, Fatbtc, Altilly, and Coinbene. 

The Electra team provides several official wallets, including a Windows Wallet (32 and 64 bit), MacOs wallet, Linux/RPi wallet, and wallets for Android and iOS. The team also recommends these third-party wallets: Magnum, My Staking Wallet, Ellipal and Secux. 

Closing Thoughts

Electra is one of several blockchain projects that are making things easier for merchants all over the world. With near real-time settlements, fast speeds, and incredibly cheap transactions, it helps bring blockchain benefits to real-life use. Hopefully, projects like these can push blockchain to wider use and acceptance.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s Alpha Finance Lab (ALPHA)?

DeFi is the hottest topic in the crypto and blockchain space now, and the reason it’s so popular is the countless benefits it affords users. Financial instruments have been a preserve of the top few elites for too long, and DeFi is set to change that. As of now, we have multiple DeFi projects aiming for the top spot in terms of offerings, user experience, and more. 

Less than a year old, Alpha Finance Lab is one of many DeFi contenders emerging. The Alpha tram wants to empower people to “reclaim control over their digital presence.” So what does it offer potential users? We answer that question in this article. 

Breaking Down Alpha Finance Lab 

Alpha Finance Lab is a DeFi ecosystem that will integrate various products and bring users the experience of different blockchains, starting with Binance Smart Chain and Ethereum. The Alpha team wants to “drive cross-chain DeFi and cross-chain liquidity through building interoperability among Alpha products and integrating with leading ecosystem partners to drive the next stage of DeFi.” 

The Alpha team wants to achieve the following: 

  • Sustainable yield generation upon users’ depositing of supported assets
  • Eliminate or reduce the risk if impermanent loss (IL)
  • Facilitate privacy-oriented asset exchange
  • Support lending with already-provisioned interest rates 

Alpha: Existing Products 

The Alpha platform is building a mix of products that will be interoperable across Binance Chain and Ethereum and will support more blockchain platforms in the future. With that, let’s look at the platform’s current offerings: 

#1. Lending

Alpha supports lending through its Alpha Lending protocol. On the protocol, users can earn interest by depositing supported assets. Deposited assets will be transferred into a smart contract that will allow users to borrow money for trading. When borrowers pay back interest, it will be pooled and proportionately awarded to liquidity providers depending on their contribution. 

If you want to be a lender, they can deposit any of the supported tokens, e.g., Ethereum, into the protocol. After this, you’ll receive aITokens (such as aIETH), which are interest-generating tokens that will represent your share of the deposited ETH. 

#2. Borrowing

If you wish to borrow from the Alpha protocol, you first have to deposit supported assets as collateral. After that, you’ll receive aITokens. Assets eligible for collateralization have been assigned a Loan-to-Value (LTV) ratio. Let’s say the LTV for ETH is 70%. If you deposit ETH as collateral, you can borrow any asset in the pool and up to 70% of the value of the ETH you deposited. 

#3. Interest rate 

The interest rate will be determined by the asset’s utilization rate; in other words, the amount of deposited assets that have been borrowed. The bigger the utilization rate, the higher the interest rate. 

#4. Risk and Liquidation

Risk of liquidation is when the total value of the assets you borrow exceeds the maximum value you can take. Due to the volatility of cryptocurrencies, it’s recommended that you borrow at a lower value than the maximum value you can borrow. This will cushion you against the risk of liquidation. 

#5. Alpha Homora 

This is a protocol that allows users to leverage their position in liquidity mining pools. As a user, you can participate in the protocol as a yield farmer, lender, or liquidator. You can also participate by finding bugs in the protocol for which you’ll earn rewards. 

ALPHA Token 

ALPHA is the native cryptocurrency of the Alpha protocol, and it has the following current and planned roles: 

  • Liquidity mining: Users can earn ALPHA tokens for providing liquidity to the platform
  • Staking: Token holders can stake ALPHA tokens and get a share of the platform’s revenue
  • Governance: ALPHA token holders can participate in the governance of the platform by voting on project proposals

The Alpha token was distributed in the following manner: 

  • Binance launchpad sale tokens: 10%
  • Binance launchpool tokens: 5%
  • Private sale tokens: 13.33%
  • Liquidity mining tokens: 20%
  • Team and advisors’ tokens: 15%
  • Ecosystem tokens: 36.67%

Community Strategies of Alpha Finance Lab

The Alpha team intends to conduct several strategies to expand the growth of the project. 

These strategies include: 

  • Hosting and co-hosting DeFi conferences and related events to engage with potential users
  • Publishing blog posts every two weeks to update the community on technical updates
  • Engaging with the community via social media channels 

Future strategies include: 

  • Launching the Alpha Finance Lab Program to promote partnerships with similar projects
  • Launching yield farming programs 
  • Launching joint yield farming programs with other industry players

Key Metrics

The ALPHA token was trading at $0.034681 on October 16, 2020. It had a 24-hour volume of $2,489,546, an all-time high of $0.106884 (October 10, 2020), and an all-time low of $0.033573 (October 16, 2020) per Coinmarketcap

Where to Buy Alpha Tokens 

ALPHA has been listed on Coinone, Binance, and VCC Exchange. 

Closing Thoughts 

The Alpha team wants to push DeFi to the next level by focusing on cross-chain interoperability. Like many other DeFi protocols, Alpha provides an opportunity for people everywhere to make money by simply staking in crypto. The project is still young, so let’s see its future innovations. 

Categories
Crypto Guides

Secure Trades using Safex- A Decentralised, Open-Source Crypto Marketplace

Introduction

If you are frequently updated with the blockchain trend, then you must have come across Safex. Unlike most blockchain technologies used for security and transactional purposes, Safex is focused on e-commerce. Even since Bitcoin emerged as a P2P electronic cash system (peer-to-peer), the idea of a decentralized system on which people could easily trade with each other without requiring a centralized governing body has been at the forefront of every technological leap in the blockchain industry.

Living up to crypto enthusiasts and professionals’ expectations of wanting a truly borderless and open P2P trading system that helps both sellers and buyers. Safex is a community and a decentralized protocol built and designed on the original concepts of the individual rights to control, security, and privacy over transactions.

Let’s understand why Safex is the real attraction for crypto investors all across the globe.

What is Safex?

Safex is a privacy-based, decentralized, and open-source e-commerce marketplace designed to help both sellers and buyers and make transactions hassle-free. It allows you to create powerful web stores that are powered by blockchain. Safex has been using the heavily modified blockchain technology called cryptonote that leads to a world-class marketplace. What’s interesting about Safex is that the platform boasts a unique type of commerce-focused smart contract function.

Since data breach is the major vulnerability suffered by most centralized commerce platforms, Safex primarily focuses on privacy, addressing issues like opaque and unfair system for visibility of listings and trades, snooping on online behavior, unwarranted collection of personal data, and arbitrarily large and non-transparent commissions.

Industry experts claim that Safex has revolutionized the e-commerce sector by streamlining the processes and providing the e-commerce ecosystem with sheer privacy, which was previously not there.

More than 10,000 individuals have already invested in Safex Token and Cash after recognizing the project’s potential.

Why Safex?

Credit card fraud, privacy issues, and unfairness to small to medium-scale sellers are a few of the many problems affecting everyday users. With Safex, users get a solution in the form of secure online payment, an embedded privacy coin for free, and a marketplace on a blockchain. Safex combines Shopify, Upwork, and Amazon’s functionalities into a single platform, creating a new future for online shopping that eliminates the difficulties and challenges that users have to deal with every day.

Safex Features and Functionalities

With Safex, small sellers from across the world will have access to a global client base.

Engine for E-Commerce – Safex offers a decentralized database and an integrated global payment engine, which adds security and a privacy layer to online stores.

Safex Marketplace – Safex is a decentralized marketplace on a privacy blockchain, allowing sellers to gain exposure to the wide network of Safex users.

Privacy Blockchain -Safex uses functionalities like One-Time Address and Ring Signatures to maintain the senders’ anonymity and recipients of transactions.

Conclusion

Safex has already developed a strong community of users who believe in the project. Since blockchain is the future of online payment, Safex can prove to be a game-changer in how people carry out online transactions.

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic Cryptocurrencies

What’s PIVX All About?

Bitcoin has inspired thousands of cryptocurrencies. At the moment, there are 7,434 cryptocurrencies, according to Coinmarketcap. Each cryptocurrency comes with aspirations of being better than the last one in one way or another. Others want to solve the issues inherent with Bitcoin, such as lack of complete privacy, scalability issues, etc. 

PIVX is one of such cryptocurrencies. Launched in 2016, PIVX was the first to use a two-tier staking reward model and both cold and hot staking. 

This article explores the PIVX protocol and what innovations it brings to the space. We’ll also see its native token and how it fits in the puzzle.

Understanding PIVX

PIVX, Private Instant Verified Transaction (Tx), is a decentralized, Proof-of-stake (PoS) cryptocurrency dedicated to privacy, fungibility, community governance, and real-world utilization. PIVX wants to achieve this with the power of several key characteristics: 

#1. Dash/Bitcoin core source-code: The PIVX protocol is forked off of the source code for Dash, which in itself forked off Bitcoin’s source code. Dash’s code is fortified with a tailored PoS algorithm and an enhanced privacy protocol.

#2. Customized PoS algorithm: PIVX’s improved PoS is intended to achieve true decentralization while using as little energy as possible. This PoS also implements a community governance system to be “the ultimate people’s fungible cryptocurrency.” After transitioning from Proof of Work (PoW), PIVX has solely relied on PoS to generate new blocks. Block generation is done by holders of the PIVX token

#3. Masternode network: PIVX features a second-tier network of masternodes through which users can set up specialized full-node wallets if they stake in at least 10,000 of PIVX tokens. The masternodes are entitled to network governance, a role for which they are rewarded with more PIVX. All payouts are done in a completely decentralized manner.

How Does PIVX Differ From Other Blockchain Networks? 

PIVX distinguishes itself from other blockchain networks with the following characteristics: 

#1. Private and Public Staking:

PIVX utilizes a customized Proof of Stake model in which users can stake in PIVX using both hot and cold wallets. Through this, users can mint new tokens and get rewards. Masternodes are also rewarded for every new block that’s minted.

#2. Cold Staking: 

This feature allows users to store coins in one wallet, with the possibility of delegating those coins for staking by another node. This means a staker can have their wallets online and still stake without necessarily having spending access to the coins. Cold staking ensures security for coins and ensures the user can still stake and get rewards even if their coins are stored offline.

#3. Sapling

This is a faster and more efficient replacement for the Zerocoin protocol. 

#4. PIVX Foundation:

PIVX features its own legal footprint, which supports the project legally and financially. The foundation stepped in in 2019 as a subset of the Sustainable Development Goals Impact Fund (SDG) – a Public Charity Donor Advised Fund (DAF). This DAF is the only one in the US that’s not controlled by a bank, uses cryptocurrency, and is focused on helping advance the United Nations’ SDGs. 

How to Stake PIVX

There are two ways to stake PIVX (PIV). One is hot staking, which involves installing PIVX’s core desktop wallet and unlocking it in Staking Only mode. When you deposit coins, they’ll start when they gain 600 confirmations. Hot staking requires that the wallet be online for the process to take place. 

The other method is cold staking, which can be done by installing the core desktop wallet, depositing crypto, and delegating the staking of those coins via the Cold Staking tab to an offline staking address. That address could either be your own wallet or one belonging to a third-party cold staking service provider.

Specs of the PIVX Token 

  • Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm (both hot and cold staking)
  • Block size of 2 MB
  • Block time of 60 seconds (which re-targets after every block)
  • 173 transactions per second (TPS)
  • Stake-able, with rewards for ownership
  • Masternode support upon staking 10,000 PIV

Key Metrics 

As of October 16, the PIVX token traded at $0.368337, ata market cap of $20, 914, 580, placing it at #337. PIVX has a 24-hour volume of $705, 146, and a circulating and total supply of 56, 781,166. The token’s all-time high was $9.20 (Jan 23, 2018), while its all-time low was $0.000422 (Feb 16, 2016), per Coinmarketcap.

Where to Buy and Store PIV

Today, you can find PIV listed on a variety of exchanges as a market pair of BTC, KRW, ETH, EUR and USDT. Some of the exchanges include Binance, Finexbox, VCC Exchange, Bithumb, Bittrex, KuCoin, Graviex, YoBit, LiteBite.eu, Birake Network, HotBit, Txbit, and VALR. 

You can hold PIV tokens in the PIVX core wallet (Desktop), PIVX Light wallet (desktop), Ledger Nano S (hardware), PIVX Mobile, Coinomi (Mobile/Desktop), and Satowallet (Desktop/Mobile/Web). 

Final Thoughts

PIVX manages to provide something novel for the crypto space, whether its pioneering the Zerocoin protocol or supporting both cold and hot staking. However, its place in the market is not exactly enviable at this point, and if it means to stay relevant, it will need to up its game or risk being relegated to oblivion. 

Categories
Crypto Videos

New Wave Of Crypto Banks Will Destroy Fiat Banks in 3 years!

“Crypto Banks Will Eat Fiat Banks in 3 years — or even less” – Opinions of a CEO


Mark Binns, the CEO of BIGG Digital Assets Inc., believes that the future of crypto will be a bit different than what most people think. He believes that the crypto sector will become a safe, compliant, and regulated environment. He voiced his opinions in an article published by Cointelegraph, where he spoke of the future of crypto he imagines.
Binns said that a future where customers are going to be able to walk into any bank and gain access to credit products, investments, and savings accounts that can host both crypto-assets and fiat assets.

Kraken, a San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange giant, has become the first-ever cryptocurrency business in the US to become a bank. At the moment, being an officially chartered bank would mean that Kraken will be able to offer even more banking and funding options to existing customers than it is offering now. It also means Kraken Financial will be able to operate in multiple jurisdictions without any fear of having to deal with state-by-state compliance.

Kraken is currently working with Silvergate Bank in hopes of offering its US customers SWIFT and FedWire funding options. More and more partnerships such as this one will become the status quo in the future. Binns is calling out traditional banks, saying that now is the time for the ones lagging behind to start paying attention to the market development.


Silvergate Bank is one step ahead of the rest at the moment, as it is currently having almost 900 digital asset companies as clients. Those clients have made deposits of over $1.5 billion with the bank. While this is still a small amount of money in relative terms, clients dipping their toes in the crypto sector will almost certainly choose this bank. Consumers will most likely define a “full service” bank as one that offers financial services in fiat as well as crypto.

Blockchain forensics tools

 

Just like crime scene investigators can use a black light or fingerprint powder to detect all kinds of evidence, blockchain forensics investigators can do similarly to Bitcoin and other blockchains. People claiming that Bitcoin is completely private has been dispelled again and again. In fact, blockchain-based cryptocurrencies are much more open to investigative methods than regular fiat currencies. Binns said that, as it is certainly possible to uncover blockchain transactions’ origins, blockchain will become a part of the traditional banking system rather than “putting banks out of business.”

Blockchain forensics tools already exist. They allow investigators to follow digital paper trails across multiple addresses, wallets, transactions, blockchains, and other digital entities, all by using clustering and heuristics techniques. Companies in the blockchain forensics space are developing proprietary searching algorithms designed specifically to detect concealed funds’ origins. On the other hand, traditional fiat is still the currency of choice for most money laundering professionals, simply because it is very hard to track.

DeFi is not for everyone


The decentralized finance sector has been the hot topic of the crypto sector for a while now, as it holds virtually endless promise. While yield farming may be all the rage, the DeFi sector is so much more than just that.
Some examples of DeFi usage are:
 Allowing you to take technical and fundamental trading advice from experienced traders and only pay a fee if the call is correct.
 You can put your capital into various digital investment portfolios without having to pay fees to mutual funds.
 Investors can hold derivatives of their desired cryptocurrencies without having to switch between blockchains.
These innovations are just some of the opportunities that DeFi provides. As the market continues to mature, more DeFi projects will allow us to do things that we aren’t even thinking about right now.

However, there is one fundamental problem with all the benefits decentralized finance provides: the average banking customer isn’t going to engage with DeFi protocols for decades. While the most avid crypto enthusiast knows how to dig up the contract address of an ERC-20 token, then trade it on decentralized exchanges, and then invest that token through lending platforms or liquidity pools, the average person will still likely want to talk to a banker from time to time. On top of that, governments around the world are already working on their own government-backed digital currencies, which the average consumer will go for instead of DeFi, at least at first, and simply due to the trust people have in the government.

What if banks don’t comply?

Binns said that any bank that is still approaching cryptocurrency with fear over the next 18 months is at great risk of finding itself dead in the water, while Kraken and other banks that enter the market will create a huge advantage for themselves.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Everything You Need to Know About RCHAIN (REV)

We always hear how blockchain is poised to change the world. But in reality, the technology hasn’t really penetrated the real world in any significant way. The reason for this is flaws within the original blockchain setup, such as low scalability.

RCHAIN is a project that wants to bring blockchain to real-life utilization. The RCHAIN team has big dreams, such as solving the unprecedented problems of our time. But how does it intend to do this? We’ll examine that in this article. 

Understanding RCHAIN

Launched in 2016, RCHAIN is a blockchain-based effort that wants to solve the problems of lack of scalability, low speeds, and safety in the current blockchain. The RCHAIN team believes that these and other shortcomings hinder the mainstream success of blockchain and that the blockchain concept needs to be rethought.

For that end, the RCHAIN team has imagined a better design for blockchain: 

#1. Speed 

RCHAIN can support the processing of up to tens of thousands of transactions per second (TPS). The initial goal was 40,000 transactions, and the ultimate goal is 100,000 TPS. 

#2. Developer Tools

The RCHAN team will avail developer tools unparalleled by any current offerings in the space. Developers of all backgrounds and coding languages will easily acclimatize to the platform.

#3. RCHAIN Cooperative

RCHAIN Cooperative is a public entity comprising RCHAIN developers, investors, and users. Through the outfit, members can access and interact with the open-source blockchain. The RCHAIN Cooperative offers a climate of community, giving members the ability to contribute to the platform’s future.

#4. Trust

RCHAIN will empower developers from everywhere to create more secure, scalable, fast, and fraud-proof decentralized solutions.

RCHAIN: Goals

Aided by these functionalities, the RCHAIN team wants to achieve the following goals: 

  • Provide solutions for the most challenging global solutions and crises
  • Achieve unprecedented scalability and speed to solve the biggest issues of our time
  • Unlock blockchain solutions to empower people to work in a holistic fashion
  • Connect with thriving communities to unlock solutions for complex global challenges

How RCHAIN Works 

The RCHAIN network was built with scalability in mind. It can support multiple blockchains at once, secured through a Proof of Stake consensus mechanism. RCHAIN provides support for both public and private blockchains. With that, let’s see some of the core features of the platform: 

#1. Rho Virtual Machine Environment

RCHAIN features the Rho Virtual Machine Execution Environment, which lends speed and scalability to the platform’s applications. The Execution Environment can run several Rho Virtual Machines simultaneously. The Rho Virtual Machines are also capable of creating replicas of themselves to handle extra loads. 

RCHAIN has a multi-chain architecture that enables its blockchain to operate in a coordinated and parallel manner. Each virtual machine can also execute an independent set of smart contracts on a yet independent set of blockchain networks. 

#2. Smart Contracts

The RCHAIN platform uses its proprietary smart contract language – Rholang, which is short for reflective higher-order language. Rholang supports internal concurrent programming and allows contracts to be fast and versatile. 

RCHAIN’s smart contracts have to go through a verification process to make them highly scalable before being compiled and executed by the Rho Virtual Machine.

#3. Namespaces

RCHAIN is different from other blockchains that use public keys to distinguish virtual identities. RCHAIN achieves this by dividing its virtual address space into namespaces. In very general terms, a namespace is a set of named channels that can report a particular network resource location.

Namespaces enable smart contracts on one blockchain to be visible by system contracts on other network parts. Namespaces also allow developers to come up with various security tools and protocols for the network.

The RCHAIN Cooperative

The RCHAIN Cooperative is a development and governance platform for the community. Members of the entity are fully responsible for the open-source platform, and they can offer and implement suggestions and updates for the platform. 

Anyone can join the Cooperative after paying a one-time membership fee of $20. This fair amount was chosen so that people of all financial backgrounds can join it and that in the spirit of decentralization, there’s not a barrier for joining. 

Joining the Cooperative gives you the following benefits: 

  • Ability to join and interact with other community members on RCHAIN’s Discord channels
  • Ability to participate in governance
  • Ability to vote on project proposals and budget allocations in a fair process of one vote per member, regardless of how many REV tokens they possess

The Cooperative has a Board of Directors, where different board seats have different term lengths of one, two, and three years. 

RChain Use Cases 

RCHAIN can support countless applications of many types, including but not limited to, the following: 

  • Wallets
  • Exchanges
  • Oracles and external adapters
  • Custom protocols
  • Smart contracts
  • Smart properties
  • Decentralized Autonomous Organisations (DAOs)
  • Social forums
  • Marketplaces 

The RCHAIN Team

The RCHAIN team is composed of a team of diverse backgrounds. The core team members are:

Founder Greg Meredith, who is also co-founder, board member, and president of the Cooperative. Meredith has thirty-plus years of experience with thought-leading tech projects. He was also the leading architect behind key projects for Microsoft and AT&T. 

Eykhholt is a co-founder and board member of the Cooperative, having under his belt more than thirty years of experience in the tech industry. He has been the principal architect of multiple tech projects in various companies, including Microsoft and Alston Grid. Eykhholt is also the founder of LivelyGig.

Board member and CEO of the Cooperative Kenny Rowe has years of experience in blockchain governance community building. Rowe is also the head of operations at MakerDAO and is a senior consultant of Coin Fund. 

Secretary and General Council Evan Jensen has experience in crypto-related law. Jensen holds a J.D. and Master’s in law from Seattle University. 

CFO Lisa Rice has twenty-plus years of experience in finance, from planning to accounting to corporate treasury.

RHOC, REV, and RCHAIN’s Private Token Sale 

RCHAIN held a private token sale on August 29, 2017, hitting a high of $15 million in under two weeks. 

RHOC tokens were selling at $0.2. While the sale did not have a maximum purchase cap, it had a cap on the highest amount – $50,000. 

RHOC tokens were ERC20 tokens before the mainnet launch. After RCHAIN moved to its own mainnet, RCHAIN token holders had to convert them into REV at a rate of 1:1. 

REV tokens play several roles in the ecosystem, including:

  • Staking
  • As payment for transaction fees
  • Facilitate the deployment of smart contracts
  • As a governance mechanism for the DAO

Tokenomics of REV

As of October 15, 2020, the Rchain token traded at $0.020066, with a 24-hour high and low of $0.021509 and $0. 019151, with a 24-hour volume of $256,578, a market cap of $9,689,508, and a market rank of #496. REV has a circulating and total supply of 482,890,386 and 870,663,574, respectively. 

REV tokens can be bought at MXC, Uniswap, CryptalDash, HotBit, and many more exchanges. 

Closing Thoughts

RCHAIN wants to not only improve blockchain but also bring it to solve real-life issues. The project’s team seems to know their stuff, and they seem to have quite forward-looking features and ideas. If the project keeps innovating and succeeds, it will be good for the blockchain space and society. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Introducing Flamingo (FLM): A Beginner’s Guide

As DeFi becomes more and more of an indispensable idea, blockchain platforms are rushing to capitalize on the wave. DeFi provides endless opportunities for users: lucrative gains on staking, instant borrowing, fraud-proof transactions, and more. 

Blockchain platforms are now incorporating DeFi to not just accord users more value but also to remain relevant. Neo, the blockchain platform founded in China, is one of the latest to integrate DeFi in its offerings. 

Neo’s DeFi platform is known as Flamingo, and it stepped into the space just September this year. This article will bring into focus everything you need to know about the platform. 

Understanding Flamingo

Flamingo (flamingo.finance) is a decentralized finance protocol built atop the Neo blockchain. The platform integrates various modules to offer a comprehensive DeFi architecture, where users can take part as traders, stakers, borrowers, and liquidity providers. Flamingo is a pillar of the Neo DeFi’s ecosystem, and it comes with innovative solutions for the space such as the following:

#1. Friction and lack of cross-chain interoperability: Flamingo will be powered by the Poly Network to support cross-chain asset transfer, ensuring single market limitations are a thing of the past

#.2 Limited efficiency due to fragmented capital sources and overcollaterization: Flamingo will integrate the automated market maker (AMM) protocol and collateral asset pool, which will ensure capital is utilized to the maximum

#3. Short community participation periods: Flamingo will incentivize users with FLM tokens to reward them for their participation in the community

Project Features

The Flamingo platform will be guided by these three key elements: 

#1. Interoperability

Flamingo will heavily feature interoperability, a factor that lacks in most DeFi platforms. Through the Neo-owned interoperability protocol Poly Network, Flamingo will be collected with various blockchain networks such as Ethereum, Ontology, and Cosmos-SDK. Flamingo users can capitalize on this interoperability to access more assets within a broader DeFi ecosystem. 

#2. Capital Efficiency

Flamingo is designed to integrate its Swap feature’s liquidity pool with Vault’s collateral pool. In the existing AMM decentralized exchanges, capital efficiency is usually held back by Liquidity Provider (LP) tokens, which causes some AMMs to be provisioned way below the baseline. 

Flamingo will maximize capital efficiency by letting liquidity providers stake LP tokens in Vault while simultaneously minting Flamingo USD (FUSD).

#3. Fair Launch

Flamingo will distribute FLM tokens as transparently as possible, with no pre-mine launch or some reserved for the team. The community will decide the long-term distribution formula via voting.

Flamingo: Components

Flamingo is defined by several core features, which are: 

#1. Wrapper

This is a multi-chain asset gateway for blockchains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Neo, Ontology, and Cosmos-SDK. You can wrap tokens like BTC, ETH, NEO, USDT, and ONT , upon which they’ll become NEP-5 tokens (nETH, nNEO, nUSDT, nONT, and so on.) You can also unwrap tokens back to their original form. 

#2. Swap

Swap is Flamingo’s automated market maker and makes wrapped assets, FLM, and NEP-5 tokens. The swap works much like Uniswap by adopting the Constant Product Market Maker (CPMM) model. On Swap, users can exchange tokens or provide liquidity to a quality pool of their choice by simply depositing tokens. 

#3.Vault

This an asset manager by the Flamingo team. On Vault, users can stake in NEP-5 assets and get FLM token rewards. 

#5. FUSD

This is a synthetic stablecoin mintable by users. FUSD is pegged to the price of the US dollar. Users will be offered FLM that’s in proportion to the amount of FUSD minted. 

#6. Perp

This is an AMM-based contract exchange. Just like on Swap, traders can exchange perpetual contracts using the CPMM model, this time with a ten times average. Stakers need to deposit FUSD, upon which they’ll receive FLM as rewards. 

#7. DAO

DAO is a protocol for governance on the Flamingo platform. The Flamingo team intends for decision-making to be taken over by the community. Cabinet members can contribute to the platform using Flamingo Improvement Proposals and Flamingo Configuration Change Proposals. On the DAO, FLM token holders can vote on critical decisions such as increasing/decreasing tokens, software upgrades, parameter configurations, etc. Voters who contribute to governance are awarded FLM tokens. 

What’s Flamincome?

Flamincome is Flamingo’s dedicated platform for the new trend in DeFi, known as liquidity mining. Flamincome provides pretty much the same services as in Yearn.Finance (YFI). The tool features both an optimizer and normalizer. An optimizer increases yield by converting original assets (USD, USDC, DAI, ETH, wBTC, wETH, etc) to interest-focused assets (fUSDT, fUSDC, fDAI, fwETH, fwBTC, etc). 

A normalizer changes back interest-bearing assets into original assets. Interest-bearing assets such as fUSDT, fUSDC, fDAI, fwETH, fwBTC, etc are changed into synthetic assets (nUSDT, nUSDC, nDAI, nwETH, nwBTC, etc). This conversion takes place on a 1:1 peg ratio to the underlying asset. The synthetic assets can be used in other DeFi platforms for more yield farming. 

Is Flamingo Audited?

Yes, the Flamingo platform is audited. Several independent auditing outfits have audited various stacks of the platform: 

  1. Normalizer contracts on Flamincome: PeckShield and Red4Sec
  2. Flamingo contracts: PeckShield
  3. Poly Network: Certik 
  4. Poly Network Neo contracts: PeckShield
What are the Risks of Interacting with the Flamingo Platform? 

While Flamingo is thoroughly audited, mistakes/bugs are bound to occur. While there’s no inherent risk in Vault’s staking process, using the Swap module can set you up for impermanent loss (IL). 

However, as Neo founder Da Hongfei noted, this risk is often overestimated: “Only by providing liquidity to Swap may you bear IL. After all, IL is not as terrible as many people think. To provide liquidity to a trading pair A/B, after a period of time if the price of A has fallen by 50% relative to B. How much do you estimate the impermanent loss to be? The answer is 5.72%. This means you would only lose 5.72% by providing liquidity compared to holding A/B in your wallet. That’s not as bad as most people’s intuition.”

How is the Flamingo Platform Secured? 

The Flamingo network is NEP-5-compliant. NEP-5 is Neo’s token compatibility standard, which means Flamingo is secured by the underlying Neo blockchain. Neo itself is secured by SHA-256 (the hash algorithm that secures Bitcoin) and RIPEMD-160 hash function. 

Community Growth Strategies of Flamingo

The Flamingo team intends to implement several strategies to expand the growth of the community. These strategies include the following: 

  • Conducting physical marketing events and meetups
  • Engaging with users via social media platforms
  • Conducting online Ask Me Anything (AMA) to engage with current and potential users 

Future Strategies include: 

  • Conducting daily weekly progress updates
  • Kicking off the Developer Grant program 
  • Initiating voting functionalities for the Flamingo decentralized autonomous organization (DAO)

Future of Flamingo

Flamingo wants to be the stepping stone for the acceleration of DeFi in the Neo ecosystem. The Neo team doesn’t plan to stop at Flamingo but intends to launch other products like lending, insurance, and asset management products. 

For now, the team is exploring ways to introduce more asset types, decide which oracle implementation to integrate, and examine how the governance mechanism will function in the future. The Flamingo team encourages input from the community. Users can submit proposals on how to optimize the platform and build a more robust protocol.

The FLM Token

The FLM token is the native token of Flamingo. Holders of the platform can participate in decision-making for things like new tokens issuance, platform parameters, etc.

Other uses include: 

  • Staking multi-chain assets 
  • Staking LP tokens, minting FUSD
  • Depositing FUSD to trade in perpetual contracts

The Flamingo token was distributed in the following fashion: 

  • Binance Launchpool tokens: 4.17%
  • Mint Rush tokens: 29.17%
  • LP Token Staking: 53.33%
  • FUSD Minting: 10%
  • Perp Margin Rewards: 3.33%

Flamingo: Key Metrics

The FLM token price was $0.254369 while ranking at #3587 on October 16, 2020. The token’s 24-hour volume was $7,296,347, with a total supply of 150 million. FLM had an all-time high of $0.307385 (Oct 9, 2020) while it’s all-time low was $0.249290 (Oct 11, 2020). 

Buying and Storing FLM

The FLM token is listed as a market pair of USDT, BTC, BNB, USDT, BUSD, NEO, and PERP in exchanges such as Binance, OKEx, MXC, HotBit, Binance, BitZ, LBank, Hubi, Switcheo Network, VCC Exchange, and FTX. 

FLM tokens can be stored in NeoLine (Chrome Extension), O3 desktop wallet (supports Ledger), MetaMask Chrome Extension, Cyano Chrome Extension, and ONTO mobile wallet. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s Dusk (DUSK) All About?

Bitcoin actualized the idea of a decentralized currency, one that is beyond the control of any controlling authority and which lets users transact in a purely peer-to-peer fashion, removing the need for intermediaries. Built on top of the novel tech, ‘blockchain,’ Bitcoin inspired countless other cryptocurrencies and decentralized applications (DApps). 

However, Bitcoin’s creator did not envision some of the problems that impede it today, such as lack of anonymity – a highly prized factor in today’s world. There’s also the issue of extreme energy consumption that’s required to maintain and secure it. Then there’s the issue of not-so-guaranteed security, which has been another point of contention. The network’s 51% hypothetical attack hovers over it throughout. 

Throughout the years, the Bitcoin community has tried to come up with various solutions, but these either proved flawed or did not stand the dynamic nature of the blockchain space. Others presented with solutions but still missed the mark – e.g., by still lacking in robust security. 

Dusk is a blockchain and cryptocurrency protocol that attempts to meet the main challenges facing the space today, with the bonus of providing auditability of transactions. 

We’ll explore the Dusk protocol in detail while getting a closer look at its native token, DUSK, and how it fits in the puzzle. 

What’s Dusk? 

Launched in 2018, Dusk is a privacy-oriented blockchain protocol that wants to provide privacy, seamless programmability, and the ability to audit smart contracts. Based in Amsterdam, Dusk is the brainchild of a team that collectively has a wealth of experience in entrepreneurship, engineering, and blockchain, and have worked in some of the biggest companies in those fields, like Amazon, Mozilla, Reaktor, Zcash, NEO Research and so on. 

Dusk Network will be a blockchain protocol that will facilitate easy deployment of programmable DApps, hence becoming the backbone of a global and permissionless DApp ecosystem. The Dusk team hopes to eliminate the technical barriers that have held back crypto’s mainstream adoption. 

Some of the project’s highlights include: 

  • Private proof of stake consensus model through which block producers can stake in DUSK anonymously
  • Implementation of ZeroCaf, which allows it to achieve fast, safe, and elliptic curve-secured transactions
  • Built by a team of entrepreneurs, engineers, and blockchain experts with a work history at some of the most elite companies 

The Dusk team wants to guarantee on-chain privacy and programmability without compromising on scalability. The network can achieve this thanks to the following features: 

  • Private Proof-of-stake: The network implements a private version of the Proof-of-stake consensus protocol, a Segregated Byzantine Agreement (SBA) that runs on a ‘Proof of Blind Bid’ that enables block producers to stake in private
  • Decentralization: This means centralized staking pools do not apply in the staking process. Instead, participants are encouraged to do so autonomously.
  • Replaceability: Block generators are chosen in a random fashion without reference to earlier outcomes

For their part, these features are enabled by the following characteristics: 

  • A three-layered consensus model consisting of block generation, block reduction, and block agreement.
  • ZeroCaf for efficient, fast, and elliptic curve-secured operations 
  • Poseidon, a zero-knowledge hash function
  • Browser nodes that facilitate zero-knowledge verification and support Dusk’s virtual machine architecture
  • Instant Transaction Finality: On the Dusk protocol, transactions are final – as in they’re verified and recorded on the blockchain as soon as they’re produced

Value Proposition of Dusk

The Dusk team has designed Dusk to be an open-source network to become “the privacy infrastructure of choice for an entire ecosystem of solutions, whether in finance governance, cybersecurity, or something completely new.” With that, the value proposition of Dusk included the following: 

#1. Privacy: The Dusk network provides speed and decentralization without sacrificing on decentralization. DApp issuers on the platform can create zero-knowledge proofs, checks, and balances.

#2. Permissionless: The Dusk network is permissionless, meaning anyone from anywhere can join the network without requiring permission from any centralized party

#3. Public: Users do not need authorization from a trusted party to take part in the Dusk platform. They also need minimal processing power and inexpensive IT resources to join the network. Users that have staked in DUSK can participate in the network’s consensus.

#4. Compliance: By using zero-knowledge proofs, users can design real-life applications that adhere to legal requirements while simultaneously offering top security for them. And they vastly reduce costs by doing this on-chain. 

Compliance: through zero-Knowledge proofs, companies and projects can create real-world applications that can adhere to strict compliance requirements while still offering data privacy. This increases the ability to perform business processes on-chain, leading to significant cost reduction.

A Unique Consensus Model

Dusk implements a unique three-layered consensus mechanism to secure and maintain the network. 

These layers are as follows: 

Blind Bid Phase:

In this phase, network participants who wish to be block generators stake in DUSK tokens to get access to the block generation lottery. The staking process is known as a ‘blind bid’ because the amount staked and the staker’s identity are kept private and confidential. The blind bid is stamped with a secret number chosen by the block generating algorithm. This way, the stake owner can claim their transaction anytime while still preserving the privacy of their identity and the staked amount. 

Block Generation and Selection Phase:

For each round, block generators use their blind bid to enter the lottery. After that, they run a score, which is positively affected by the number of tokens staked. Since the protocol relies on zero-knowledge proof, the Blind Bid is significantly more secure than public Proof-of-stake systems while still exhibiting equal resilience to Sybil attacks. The candidate with the highest score is finally selected. 

Block Reduction Phase: 

After the block generators selection phase, a committee of participants known as ‘Provisioners’ conduct ‘Block Reduction,’ which is a process of gathering signatures and establishing the candidate block if the signatures pass a 75% threshold. The block reduction phase is also the Block Agreement phase, which is an additional phase designed to provide instant finality to the selected block and protect it against any attacks. 

The DUSK Token

  • DUSK is the native cryptocurrency of the Dusk network. It plays several roles, including the following: 
  • As a staking mechanism in order to participate in network consensus
  • As payment for on-chain transactions, deployment of DApps, and as gas fees
  • As an incentive/reward for consensus participants
  • As a governance mechanism, through which token holders can vote on critical decisions affecting the network

Key Metrics

The DUSK token posted the following metrics as of October 27, 2020. First off, it traded at $0. 039706, while ranking at #478. It had a market cap of $10,872,265, a 24-hour volume of $131,695, a circulating supply of 273,821,673, and a total supply of 500 million. DUSK had an all-time high of $0.614791 (July 22, 2019) and an all-time low of 0.011059 (March 13, 2020). 

Where to Buy and Store DUSK 

DUSK tokens are currently listed on a variety of legit exchanges, including Binance, HotBit, CoinDCX, Bittrex, Bitfinex, Binance DEX, Switcheo Network, and LiteBit.eu. In these exchanges, the token is listed against BTC, USD, BNB, ETH, EUR, and USDT.

The DUSK tokens can be stored in any Ethereum-compatible wallet, with choices including MetaMask, Guarda, Atomic Wallet, Trust Wallet, Parity, Ledger Nano, and Trezor. The network also provides an official Command Line Interface (CLI) wallet for the more tech-savvy. 

Final Thoughts 

The Dusk network brings novel concepts to solve some of the most persistent issues in blockchain. Its zero-knowledge proof implementations assure users of high-level security, and its three-way block consensus protocol ensures the process is as unbiased, legit, and safe as possible. Dusk ushers a new era of auditable smart contracts, ensuring users can make necessary upgrades to them anytime. Here’s to hoping the Dusk team holds more surprises for the future. 

Categories
Blockchain and DLT Cryptocurrencies

Introducing Fetch.AI (FET): What’s Is It

Blockchain has been touted as a solution to countless modern-day problems. But what if it could be seen as a catalyst for innovation? You know, innovation that brings us products and services that we simply hadn’t fathomed about before. 

Fetch.ai is an intelligence lab that wants to harness blockchain to power a decentralized digital economy. The platform will enable the sharing and connection of data globally and driven by machine learning and artificial intelligence. Fetch.ai will be open-source, allowing anyone from anywhere to connect to the network and carry out safe and secure tasks in a modern economy. 

This article explores the Fetch.ai network in-depth, from how it works to use cases, right down to its native token and where to purchase it. 

Understanding Fetch.ai

Fetch.ai is an artificial lab that wants to bring together tools and develop an infrastructure to power a decentralized digital economy. Based in Cambridge, Fetch.ai intends to create a distributed ledger platform to facilitate secure and safe sharing connection and data transfer on a global scale. 

Fetch wants to automate countless markets that currently require a lot of manual intervention. The goal is to have frictionless transactions at digital speeds. The Fetch.ai team imagines an evolved world where everybody has numerous economic agents on the platform, each operating to provide solutions for some of the most challenging today and tomorrow’s problems. 

Some of the highlights of the platform include: 

  • A near-autonomous integration for various components of complex systems
  • Frictionless integration and the deployment of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) in decision making without necessarily understanding how the two technologies work
  • Combining machine intelligence and human intelligence model to optimize decision-making processes

Key Features of Fetch.ai

Some of the notable features of Fetch.ai include: 

  • A digital infrastructure optimized for multi-agent systems.
  • A scalable ledger to power massive transaction volumes 
  • Synergetic computing to support ‘intelligent’ smart contract contracts 
  • An economic infrastructure to support dynamic market places
  • Navigation based on semantics and geography, and through which autonomous agents can oversee the smooth solving of problems

Key Products of Fetch.ai

#1. Consensus Mechanism:

Fetch.ai utilizes a combination of proof of stake consensus and other protocols that oversee the delivery of the consensus. New blocks are produced via the PoS protocol, with the transaction verified through the work put in between every two blocks. The work is then recorded on a directed acyclic graph (DAG) created between the two blocks. The DAG is ‘stamped’ by the blockchain, removing the need for a supervisor. 

#2. Fees and Rewards 

Fetch.ai runs a fees and rewards program, whereby processing nodes are incentivized with system incentives. Processing nodes are also in charge of data mining – the process through which transactions are produced and confirmed. 

Performance of the Fetch.ai Network

The Fetch.ai ledger is designed to scale, and its performance will differ depending on the current configured resources at the given moment. However, the network claims to have achieved speeds of up to 30,000+ transactions per second (TPS). The network is expected to increase configured resources as demand balloons. 

Open Economic Framework

The Open Economic Framework (OEF) is a second-layer protocol that provides services to participants (agents). Agents connect to the framework to connect with other agents to do business together. OEF is created to show the semantic, geographic, and economic views of that time to participants. 

Network nodes can either be just blockchain nodes or be both blockchain/OEF nodes. Initially, the OEF nodes will be either “trusted” or “trustless.” The “trustless” nodes can support the network anonymously, as can the pure blockchain nodes. However, the “trusted” nodes are eligible for access to agents’ information so they can render their intelligence and discovery capabilities to the network. Operators of trusted nodes must submit a legitimate public and legal identity and be accredited by the Fetch.ai Foundation.

Example Use Cases of Fetch.ai

Fetch.ai could potentially revolutionize a lot of industries, helping to improve efficiency and optimize processes. The project wants to increase efficiency and enhance solutions to daily problems via intelligent data sharing, ML, and AI. 

#1. Decentralized marketplace and decentralized finance

Fetch.ai will be used for decentralized commodity exchange, an innovative platform that will support improved liquidity in the trading of base metals and other commodities. Fetch.ai will assist market participants in circumventing barriers to entry via innovative technology. It will facilitate the digitalized trading of various materials, enabling market players to have at their disposal new risk management tools. 

#2. Transportation

Current transportation systems are mainly self-service, with commuters having to do so much just to move from one point to another. Fetch.ai will feature Autonomous Economic Agents who will do the heavy lifting on behalf of individuals. The Autonomous Economic Agents will be able to adjust to individuals’ preferences as they go, and they’ll be able to react in real-time to any unforeseen scenarios. 

#3. Smart parking and congestion solution

Fetch.ai’s autonomous agents can search and inform you about the available parking space and book it for you in advance. When you come back to your car, the system calculates the bill for you and completes the payment. This not only saves time, but it also removes the hassle of a manual process. And it can greatly help reduce congestion in cities. 

#4. Powering electric cars

Fetch.ai wants to be at the forefront of powering the next generation of cars, which are likely to take on in the near future like never before. For the technology to advance, major changes will have to be made. 

Fetch.ai’s intelligent ecosystem will enable the autonomous agent in your car to scour for the nearest charging system, book a space and direct you there, instead of having to go and wait at a filling station. As smart vehicles become more popular, more users will be flocking at recharge points. Smart optimization tech powered by Fetch.ai will ensure that increased demand is met by the nearest possible charging point. The system will also guide users to charging points near a coffee shop or playground, making their charging stop more enjoyable. 

#5. Supply chain 

Fetch.ai-powered supply chains will allow businesses to study future patterns, which will enable them to plan for potential disruptions for months while responding appropriately to changing customer behavior. 

Both AI and blockchain tech will assist companies in achieving more efficiency. For instance, AI can use real-time info to enable a company to choose the best trading partner for their current business situation.

The FET Token

FET tokens will be the native tokens of the Fetch.ai system and will play many roles, including the following: 

  • Connect participants and nodes to the Fetch.ai ecosystem: agents and network nodes will have to stake in FET to demonstrate their goodwill and intention to maintain good behavior. As the cost of joining the network escalates, it will be more difficult for undesirable elements to attempt to join the network. 
  • As a value exchange mechanism: FET tokens will be required to exchange value between and among agents, no matter their location. FET will be infinitely divisible, which means it can support very low-value transactions.
  • Facilitate access to the Fetch.ai search engine: Network users will have to stake in FET to assess search and discovery capabilities of the Fetch.ai perform. 
  • Facilitate access to Fetch.ai’s multi-dimensional space: Agents on Fetch.ai will need agents to interact with its digital world geographically, semantically, and economically. 

FET Token Allocation

As of October 15, 2020, Fetch.ai traded at $0.047499, with a market cap of $35,439,353, which placed it at #175 in the market. The token’s 24-hour volume was $4,706,418. It had a circulating supply of 746,113,681, a total and maximum supply of 1,152,997,575. FET had an all-time high of $0.0432695 (Mar 03, 2019) and an all-time high of $0.008270 (Mar 23, 2020), according to Coinmarketcap. 

Buying and Storing FET 

The FET token is currently listed on quite a variety of exchanges, including Binance, BitMax, MXC, HotBit, Bitfinex, Folgory, KuCoin, WazirX, BiKi, CoinDCX, Omgfin, IDEX, Bitsonic, Coinall, Fatbtc, Giotus, and Bitbns. 

FET tokens are compatible with the ERC-20 standard and hence can be kept in any wallet supporting Ethereum. Great options include Trust Wallet, MetaMask, Ledger, ethaddress, Parity, and more. Once Fetch.ai migrates to its mainnet, token users will be able to “easily convert ERC20 FET into native FET tokens and back again.” 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s NKN All About?

When the internet came, the idea was to have a reliable, safe, and diverse web where people from anywhere could visit and gain knowledge and information. But decades down the line, we have an internet that’s increasingly censored, user data is insecure, and is vulnerable to more inefficiencies. 

With the promise of blockchain, we have the opportunity to make the internet a safer, more secure, and reliable place. 

NKN – ‘a new kind of network’ is a blockchain-based platform that wants to change the internet’s trajectory by powering a decentralized, more anonymous and peer-to-peer online ecosystem. Hopefully, this will steer the internet into more efficiency, sustainability, and safety for users. In this article, we delve deeper into the NKN ecosystem and its native token, NKN. 

What’s NKN?

The New Kind of Network is a peer-to-peer internet protocol powered by a new kind of blockchain. It uses incentives to attract users who share their idle bandwidth and connectivity to keep the network going. The end goal is to create an open, efficient, and decentralized internet so developers can create a low-cost and more accessible internet for everyone. At the time of writing, NKN has about 28183 full nodes. 

The Problem with Today’s Internet 

The internet’s original idea was to democratize information, making it accessible to everyone everywhere at little to no cost. However, that idea is getting more endangered every day. For instance, we have net neutrality, which is being threatened. Information, which is supposed to be free, is usually under the threat of censorship in some jurisdictions, and user privacy is not guaranteed. All this points to the fact that the internet, as we know it, requires a reform. 

Limitations of Peer-to-peer Networks

Peer-to-peer networks have been proposed to solve this issue. However, they face certain challenges that hold them back. These include but are not limited to vulnerability to malicious attacks, no economic incentivization, and scalability is often sacrificed. 

NKN wants to help solve these problems with the following solutions: 

  • Any node can connect to the network remotely
  • Supporting network sharing
  • Promoting net neutrality
  • Support an open and scalable network
  • Support efficient routing
  • Tokenize the connectivity of networks and reward active nodes with incentives
  • Design a more secure, economically viable, and scalable blockchain network

Core Components of NKN

NKN is built on several core components that keep it running. 

#1. Decentralized Data Transmission Network (DDTN) Scheme

This is an attempt at ‘blockchainizing’ the building blocks of the NKN infrastructure. The goal is to support network connectivity and data transmission efficiency by using independent relay nodes to keep the network lean at all times. 

#2. Cellular Automata powered DDTN: This is a tool that reimagines the blockchain. It supports concepts like peer equivalence and concurrency. 

#3. Cellular Automata Driven Consensus: The NKN network can achieve consensus in a high fault-tolerant manner, thanks to Cellular Automata.

#4. Proof of Relay: NKN will implement Proof of Relay (PoR). This mechanism will incentivize participants to contribute to the network by sharing their connectivity and bandwidth and getting token rewards in return.

#5. Tokenization: NKN will implement the tokenization of data and its transmission to incentivize participants to share bandwidth resources and get rewards in return.

#6. Toolkit for DApp development: NKN provides a toolkit for developers to build DApps quickly and painlessly. Because these tools are already provided, developers can concentrate on creativity, satisfactory user experiences, and economic viability.

Proof of Relay 

NKN reaches network consensus through Proof of Relay (PoR), a ‘useful’ Proof of Work (PoW) mechanism, where a participating node is rewarded based on their network connectivity and how fast they can transmit data. Nodes prove their contribution by adding digital signatures on data before transferring it. 

The power expended by PoR is used by the whole network. Also, ‘mining’ involves providing transmission power to the system. 

Current DApps Powered by NKN

#1. nMobile

This is a mobile app supporting the NKN wallet, a chat tool known as D-Chat, news, and IOT capabilities.

#2. D-Chat

This is a serverless chat tool for both open and private chatting, depending on the participating parties.

#3. nFTP

This is a secure, peer-to-peer, and serverless file transfer service.

#3. NShell

This is a remote shell that’s safer than Secure Shell.

Why NKN?

NKN proposes these advantages over other blockchain networks: 

#1. A large number of nodes

The NKN mainnet currently features up to 25,000 full nodes, making it highly scalable.

#2. High speed

NKN supports the ‘aggregated speed’ of various routes. With more nodes, the throughput of the whole network can be scaled. 

#3. Zero server

The NKN network is fully serverless, operating in a fully decentralized and peer-to-peer fashion. This significantly cuts on maintenance costs as well as complexity. It also removes a single point of failure that would attract malicious attacks. 

#4. Unique and global ID 

NKN supports unique ID addresses to facilitate services from anywhere around the world and so that more people can engage with the platform

#5. Extra security

NKN supports cryptographic, end-to-end, and hop-by-hop encryption, protecting users’ data and info from third-party prying eyes. 

#6. Low latency

NKN can support a broad range of applications such as 3D gaming, augmented and virtual reality, edge computing, as well as IOT. 

NKN Community Strategy and Overview

NKN’s community growth strategies are as follows: 

  • Working with various players in the crypto and blockchain community to host activities such as conferences, hackathons, and so on
  • Attracting non-crypto users to the fold via its mobile app, which has an in-built private messaging and wallet
  • Publish content to make DApp development easier for developers
  • Incentivize mining nodes in developing countries with extra token rewards 

Key Tokenomics

As of Oct 13, 2020, NKN traded at $0.018891, with a market cap of 11 million, which placed it at #455. The token’s 24-hour volume was $1,102,790 and a circulating, total, and maximum supply of 583,666,666, 700 million, and 1 billion, respectively. The token has an all-time high of $0.545913 (June 02, 2018), an all-time low of $0.006411 (Mar 13, 2020). 

Buying and Storing NKN

NKN is being offered on various exchanges, including Binance, Bilaxy, LATOKEN, MXC, Huobi, VCC Exchange, CoinDXC, Gate.io, IDEX, Huobi, Upbit, Bittrex, and Uniswap. The token is listed as a market pair of BTC, USDT, BNB, HT, WETH, ETH.

For storage, NKN offers official wallets, including nMobile, nStatus, and Vault by NKNx. 

Final Words

NKN provides a safe and scalable platform for DApp developers to create secure and low-cost apps for users everywhere. Thanks to an accessible DApp creation toolkit, they can focus on creativity, user experience, and business logic. And NKN’s incentive model encourages people to join and support the network. Will NKN succeed in providing better connectivity to people and revolutionizing the internet? We’ll be watching.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Introducing Loopring: A Step By Step Guide

The idea of blockchain was to empower people to have real ownership and control over their finances. However, that’s not what we have today – at least when you consider a powerful player in the crypto space – exchanges. 

The biggest crypto exchanges in the space are centralized – which means users do not have explicit ownership of their funds, and they have to rely on intermediaries such as banks to exchange, transfer and send crypto. 

But centralized exchanges (CEXs) are beset with security and lack of transparency – factors that result in the loss of users’ funds. On the other hand, we have decentralized exchanges (DEXs), which are not perfect either. From scalability problems to liquidity issues, they also come up short. 

Loopring is an exchange protocol that seeks to unite exchanges in a way that people can make trades in a secure, scalable, and decentralized environment. Trades on Loopring happen off-chain, meaning they are not affected by shortcoming for the blockchain, such as low scalability. 

This article takes a closer look at how the Loopring network works. We’ll also check how the Loopring token (LRC) is doing in the market. 

Understanding Loopring

Loopring is a decentralized exchange protocol based on Ethereum that allows traders to transfer crypto-assets across different exchanges. Loopring is not an exchange per se but rather a protocol that facilitates the decentralized exchange of cryptocurrencies. 

At its core, Loopring works this way: the protocol pools all orders sent through it and then matches these orders through the order box of other multiple decentralized exchanges. Loopring supports both decentralized and centralized exchanges, and it’s also blockchain-agnostic, meaning it can be deployed on any blockchain that supports smart contracts. That means blockchains like Ethereum, Qtum, Neo, and others are in play. 

The Qtum team believes that “crypto-assets trading should be and will be risk-free and worry-free in terms of custody. Traders should have strong cryptographic guarantees that the assets cannot be wrongfully taken from the platforms where they trade – not by hackers, not by exchange owners, and not even by state-level adversaries.” 

The Problem with Centralized Exchanges

Centralized exchanges are one of the biggest gaps in the race to full decentralization. The primary risks of CEXes are lack of guaranteed security, lack of transparency, and lack of liquidity. 

#1. Lack of security

Lack of security is underscored by the fact that users typically surrender control of their private keys – and hence funds – to the exchange. This exposes users to potential security breaches – and there have been many – which could cause loss of funds. There’s also the issue of honest mistakes, whereby CEX developers make accidental, loss-causing errors in the protocol. 

#2. Lack of transparency 

Users can simply not explicitly trust exchange operators’ intentions. This means they cannot know whether the entity is acting unfairly or dishonestly for whatever reason. Exchanges can be compelled by authorities to shut down or freeze your account. They can also go bankrupt or pull an exit scam

#3. Lack of liquidity

The CEXs landscape is characterized by fragmented liquidity. It’s usually a winner-take-all scenario, where the exchange with the biggest volume or most trading pairs wins as most users prefer to use one exchange. This creates a barrier for new exchanges, which find it difficult to build up liquidity. The result is an unfair and fragmented landscape where the big exchanges have all the power, a situation that resembles the legacy financial system. 

The Problem With Decentralized Exchanges

Decentralized exchanges mainly differ from centralized ones in that in the former, users have complete control over their private keys and can perform peer-to-peer exchanges. 

However, DEXs grapple with the problem of low performance, liquidity issues, and infrastructural limitations. Low performance is a result of low scalability, which in turn is caused by structural constraints such as caps on the number of transactions that can be held in one block at a time. Liquidity issues arise when users have to search across disparate blockchains for matching orders. 

How Loopring Works

On Loopring, users do not deposit funds into an exchange to start trading. The trader’s funds remain in their wallet throughout. This affords them complete autonomy over their money during the whole process – meaning they can modify the order at any point if necessary. 

Placing an Order

Placing an order happens entirely on the loopring.io wallet. After you clear the order to go through (via your private key), it is relayed to smart contracts on the Loopring network and a series of relay nodes outside the blockchain. Smart contracts facilitate the exchange of the money for the desired currency, while the relay nodes maintain order books and broadcast trade requests to ring-miners. 

Ring Miners

Ring mining is a feature of relay nodes. Relay nodes with this feature are known as ‘ring-miners,’ and they create order-rings by stringing together orders from disparate blockchains. This happens until all orders are filled. In return, ring-miners are compensated with Loopring (LRC) tokens. Relay nodes can communicate with each other, build order books, and mine order-rings the way they choose. 

Settling Trades 

When an order passes through, smart contracts evaluate them to verify their authenticity. If everything is in order, the desired currency is transferred to the right recipient. This procedure happens on a wallet-to-wallet basis.

Participants in the Loopring Ecosystem

The Loopring ecosystem is kept alive by a number of participants who jointly contribute to its running. Let’s get a look at them: 

#1. Wallets 

This is a common wallet interface through which users can access tokens and relay orders to Loopring. The network incentivizes wallet owners to create orders by rewarding them with LRC, just like with ring-miners. 

#2. Consortium Liquidity Sharing Blockchain

This is a network that facilitates the sharing of orders and liquidity. Nodes can join an existing network through the relay software, creating a system for order and liquidity sharing. This all happens on a consortium blockchain designed for near real-time ordering and getting rid of old history to keep the network light and scalable. Relays do not have to join a network; they can work alone or create their own sharing network. 

#3. Relays/Ring-miners

Relays are nodes in charge of broadcasting orders to the network, as well as maintaining order books. They also stitch together orders from different blockchains so that they can be filled.

 #4. Loopring Protocol Smart Contracts (LPSC)

These are public and free smart contracts that receive and evaluate orders, transfer and settle them in a trustless manner, and incentivize ring-miners and wallets with Loopring token rewards. 

#5. Asset Tokenization Services (ATS) 

This is a bridge that connects assets that cannot be exchanged via Loopring. ATS is run by centralized companies that have been vetted by the Loopring team. 

Why Loopring? 

The Loopring team argues for a case of security, scalability, and low costs as to why users should adopt it. According to the website, the Loopring network is: 

  • Secure – Loopring is an open-source and decentralized exchange protocol – meaning users do not have to trust each other. It’s also noncustodial, meaning users have complete control over their money.
  • High throughput – Loopring can support highly scalable DEXs by processing massive volumes of orders off-chain. The problems of the underlying blockchain network are no longer a concern.
  • Low cost – Since the majority of operations are conducted off-chain, gas fees are dramatically reduced.

Key Metrics of Loopring 

As of Oct 10, 2020, the Loopring token traded at $0.207983, with a market cap of $237,920,359 and a market rank of #59. The 24-hour volume of the token was $79,890,576, while it had a circulating and total supply of 1,143,941,524 and 1,374,513,897, respectively. The atoken has an all-time high of $2.59 (Jan 09, 2018), and an all-time low was $0.019861 (Dec 18, 2019). 

Where to Buy and Store LRC

LRC is currently listed on a handful of exchanges. You’ll find the token on Coinbase Pro, Binance, Bilaxy, OKEx, MXC, HBTC, BitHumb, Coinsbit, Hoo, Bitvavo, ProBit Exchange, Gate.io, Huobi Global, Folgory, KuCoin, 1inch Exchange, and of course the Loopring exchange. 

Closing Thoughts 

Loopring distinguishes itself from other exchanges, both centralized and decentralized – by not being a competitor but bringing them together. If the network succeeds, it has the potential to increase liquidity across markets and help push cryptocurrency closer to the mainstream.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What is Bella? Here’s All You Need to Know

It’s safe to say the future of finance is DeFi. DeFi, short for decentralized finance, is not only the idea of a democratized finance system but one with new and bold propositions for users. Blockchain-based finance will phase out intermediaries and inject transparency and fairness into the system. 

Bella is one of the projects in the middle of the DeFi action. It provides an array of DeFi products to benefit users and push DeFi into the mainstream. 

The Bella team believes “users deserve much better mobile products with elegant design and smooth user experience.” It aims to avail crypto to mobile – the gadgets we most interact with – like never before. 

Bella stands out as the first DeFi project hosted by Binance’s Launchpool platform – an initiative by the world’s largest crypto exchange to actualize the DeFi concept to Binance users. 

Breaking Down Bella

Bella Protocol is a suite of DeFi products such as yield farming, automated lending, one-click savings, a robot advisor, and more. The Bella team wants to make crypto investment more accessible for everyone with the aid of automated smart contracts and the security of the blockchain. 

The Bella team wants to correct the current situation in which users are barred from entering DeFi by high gas fees, slow speeds, and poor user experiences. On Bella, users can simply deposit crypto and gain back high returns. 

The Bella team comprises blockchain veterans with years of experience in finance, cryptography, and engineering. Bella has been imagined by the same team behind the ARPA project. 

Motivation Behind the Bella Protocol

The Bella team wants to address certain pain points that encumber the DeFi space right now. Thus, Bella protocol development is guided by the following: 

  • DeFi is a trillion-dollar market whose rise is much due to stablecoins
  • Despite all the hype and buzz, just 1% of crypto users are actively engaged in DeFi.
  • DeFi users still have to grapple with things like high gas fees, poor user experience, and the complexity of smart contracts. 
  • DeFi users are highly motivated by the promise of high yields through liquidity mining.
  • There’s a need for interoperability across various DeFi platforms for the best user experience.
  • The mobile phone will be the next big thing in both DeFi and CeFi (centralized finance)

Planned Products

#1. Liquidity mining: Users can stake in a variety of crypto tokens and gain BEL rewards. Currently, you can stake in Curve ARPA/USDC, BEL/USDC Liquidity Provider tokens.

#2. Flex savings: Bella supports optimized arbitrage yield farming strategies for both stablecoins and cryptocurrencies.

#3. One-Click Asset Deployment.

#4. Bella supports a smart portal for deploying popular DeFi products with minimal gas fees. 

#5. Lending: Bella supports flexible, secure, decentralized money markets where users can earn yields from staking, earn referral bonuses, and more.

#6. Robo-advisor 

This tool generates customized user risk profiles of indexes, stablecoins, and other crypto assets.

Main Features of Bella Protocol

#1. Automation

Bella plays heavily into automation. It enables a one-click investment process, where you can “sit back and watch your assets grow” while the code does all the work.

#2. Very Minimal to Zero Gas Fees

The Bella team believes everyone should have access to premium financial services. As such, you’ll encounter very minimal to zero gas fees while interacting with the platform.

#3. Best Yield 

Bella wants the particles to be a route for some of the best competitive returns in the market.

The BEL Token 

BEL is the native cryptocurrency of the Bella ecosystem, and it plays the following roles: 

  • Fee Collection: Part of transaction and service revenue from the ecosystem will be channeled towards BEL token stakers, referral channels, operations, and the risk reserve (an insurance resolve of salts to composite uses in the event of security breaches)
  • Discounts: BEL token holders get to enjoy discounts on services. For example, if you use the robo advisor and pay in BEL, you pay less.
  • Staking: Users will be able to earn staking rewards when they hold BEL tokens 
  • Voting and governance: Holding BEL tokens will entitle users to make their voice heard on major decisions such as product upgrades, new releases, partnering products, and so on 

Distribution of BEL

BEL tokens were distributed this way:

  • Binance launchpad tokens: : 5%
  • Private sale: 6%
  • Public auction tokens: 2%
  • Ecosystem tokens 18%
  • Project reserve tokens: 4%
  • User growth tokens: 40% 
  • Staking rewards tokens: 10%
  • Team tokens: 15%

Bella Community Growth Strategies 

The Bella team plans to implement several strategies in a bid to expand its community growth in the coming months and years. Current strategies include: 

  • Carrying out token auctions
  • Carrying out token airdrops to ARPA token holders
  • Actively engaging the community on social media platforms.
  • Launching the liquidity rewards program

Future strategies include the following: 

  • Partnering with other DeFi lending protocols to push BEL usage 
  • Partnering with decentralized exchanges (DEXes) so they can list BEL.
  • Collaborating with other DeFi platforms for BEL to be accepted as part of incentivized staking pools
  • Launching the Flex Savings and One-Click Portal to push the referral program
  • Enabling Fiat gateways to cater to a wider user base 

Tokenomics of BEL

As of October 8, 2020, BEL is trading at $1.08, with a market cap of $15,648,898, which places it at #381 in the crypto market. The token has a 24-hour volume of $3,960,114, a circulating supply of 14,500,500, and a total and maximum supply of 100 million. BEL’s all-time high was $10.03 (Sep 15, 2020), while its all-time low was $1.20 (Oct 03, 2020). 

Buying and Storing BEL

Currently, BEL is listed in Binance, Binance.KR, MXC, and Bilaxy, BKEX, HotBit, BitAsset, and Fatbtc. You’ll find the token paired against either USDC, BTC, BNB, BUSD, USDT, and more. 

You can store BEL tokens in either of several great wallets, including Ledger, Trezor, Atomic Wallet, Trust, and more. 

Closing Thoughts 

Bella is a DeFi lending protocol that seeks to differentiate itself by offering services for very little to no fees, a robo advisor to help users make the best out of their portfolio, and by targeting mobile users. And while other DeFi projects seek to avoid the CeFi space as much as possible, Bella works with it to provide a hybrid experience to users. Will these factors propel the protocol ahead or not? That remains to be seen. 

Categories
Crypto Videos

RUON AI Digital Currency – Crypto In Space!

RUON AI digital currency certainly isn’t lost in space

 

Thank you for joining this Forex Academy educational video. In this session, we will be looking at the RUON AI digital coin and how the concept is helping people in need all over the planet.

SovereignSky, RUON AI, and Sovereignaid bring together space-based technology and blockchain in an AI app, which provides banking, chat in a social mobile application that will allow RUON AI to help disadvantaged people from all over the world; the aim is to eradicate extreme world poverty.

The concept is to run the technology from space, which really does take decentralized finance to a new level. Two microsatellites were launched from Vandenberg Air Force base on December 3rd, 2018, by Space Quest, their satellite strategic partner.

One of the principles is Tim Burke. Tim is a movie producer and has a love of Si-fi, so he is bringing his love for this into the real world. Tim used to be a producer on MTV and personally interviewed more A list of celebrities than anyone else. He counts many of them as his friends.

So, what is it? 

RUON AI is pronounced Are You On, and is a social app which is available on Android and IOS and received $20M Round A closing investment and expects to launch in Q4 2020 and are planning an IPO in 3 years.

It allows users to post on certain social media platforms using patented technology and where the user is paid in RUON coins. Users can also get paid in this way by selling products on social media hubs such as TikTok and Instagram, plus Amazon and Alibaba. The money can then be spent via a RUON debit card. Users get the option to divert a portion of their income to charity, and where they claim that at least 97% of that will go directly to the people who need it.

RUON AI has partnered with RUONwallet,  Open Transactions, and Zapple to provide a crypto-friendly bank with sort code connected smart card allowing users to spend Fiat currency digital assets and cryptocurrencies wherever MasterCard is accepted.

The Social Media platform is designed to make money for users while offering full privacy, encryption, transparency, and control over users’ data. RUON AI gives its users the choice to earn revenue using data points and splits the revenue 60/40 in favor of the user.
In December 2018, Sovereignsky launched the first of eight satellites to provide Wi-Fi connectivity to the third world. In December 2019, it was one of the first companies to successfully process a blockchain transaction in space for its mission to eradicate extreme poverty.

Other Partners in the venture include Stan Larimer, founder of Bitshares, Larry Castro founder and CEO of Stealthgrid, who has an awful lot of experience in quantum cyber security Technologies, JC Oliver, and Michael Taggart.

We look forward to bringing you more details about this exciting new digital coin in the future.

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic Cryptocurrencies

What’s Sandbox (SAND): A Beginner Guide

Online gaming is a favorite pastime for millions of players around the world. However, the current structure is beset with problems such as fraud, lack of guaranteed security, and game creators not getting their fair share of the revenue. In an extremely skewed version of events, it’s powerful entities that own the rights to games and not the actual owners. 

What if this changed? What if game creators owned their content and could generate revenue from them in a decentralized, secure, and safe environment? What if players explored their favorite games in that environment and earned from simply participating? 

This is what Sandbox, a blockchain-powered gaming project, wants to achieve. This article explores the protocol as well as its native cryptocurrency, SAND. We’ll also look at the brilliant team behind the project. 

Understanding Sandbox 

Sandbox is a platform where players worldwide can experiment with games – including building, owning, and earning from them. The Sandbox team wants to disrupt the current centralized gaming environment and create one in which content creators can truly own their work. Ownership will be in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and participants will be rewarded in the network’s native SAND tokens. 

In the existing gaming environment, game developers’ give up nearly all control of their rights to ownership. This, in turn, means they don’t get the fair value of their creation. On top of that, it can be challenging to prove the original owner of a creation, especially after being modified, copied, or built upon. 

Sandbox says its vision is “to offer a deeply immersive metaverse in which players will create virtual worlds and games collaboratively and without a central authority.” 

It aims to do this by promoting the concept of blockchain in the gaming world in general and providing a voxel gaming platform for players to build, share, play, and trade in games without centralized control. Game creators will also have complete ownership of their content, and they also get to earn crypto tokens for simply participating. Copyright ownership will be accomplished through non-fungible tokens, with in-game items having a unique and fraud-prone identity on the blockchain. 

With that, let’s explore

How exactly the Sandbox environment works. 

A User-generated Content Ecosystem

The Sandbox environment comprises three core products that work together to provide a conducive environment for content creators and players. Let’s take a look at them: 

#1. VOXEDIT – This is a 3D voxel tool that allows users to create and animate objects such as animals, buildings, people, etc. and then relay them to the Sandbox marketplace as assets.

#2. MARKETPLACE – This is an internet-based marketplace where users can export, publish, and offer their creation (assets) for sale.

#3. GAME MAKER – This is a tool that asset owners – either by creating them in VOXEDIT or purchasing them, can place and use them in a ‘land’ in a virtual world.

Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) in the Sandbox 

The Sandbox ecosystem utilizes blockchain tech and non-fungible tokens to provide an empowered gaming experience to participants. Each token is unique, indivisible, and not interchangeable. Through NFTs, Sandbox users will benefit in the following ways: 

#1. True Ownership of Creations – Developers and gamers are the true owners of gaming content. Sandbox will operate in a blockchain-powered environment where every digital item is tokenized in an immutable and fraud-free way. Game owners can then do with their game items as they wish – trade, sell, or gift people.

#2. Security and Immutability – On Sandbox, game owners can tokenize and trade/sell their creations in both primary and secondary markets. This would attract fraud and theft in a centralized environment, but such risks are stamped out thanks to the distributed and cryptographically secured nature of the blockchain. 

#3. Trading – Thanks to the blockchain-powered ecosystem, users can buy and sell game items in a secure way and without concern that they might be defrauded.

#4. Cross-application InteroperabilityBlockchain enables an app to share assets such as LANDS, avatars, and other game elements compatible with it. In short, game elements are not constrained in just one digital environment. 

What’s the SAND Token? 

SAND is the native cryptocurrency and an essential part of the Sandbox platform. The token is based on Ethereum, and it plays the following roles: 

  • Accessing the platform: To participate in the Sandbox platform, i.e., playing games, buying game tools, customizing their avatar, and so on, players must spend SAND tokens. Creators stake in SAND to acquire assets and LANDS, while artists spend SAND to upload export assets to the marketplace.
  • Governance: SAND token holders can take part in governance decisions by voting for proposals. Such proposals may include how the foundation grant will be allocated, how the roadmap will be prioritized, and so on. Token holders can vote themselves or for any other participant of their choice.
  • Staking: SAND token holders can stake in the crypto and get more revenue on LAND
  • As an incentive: A percentage of the total transaction fee shall be channeled to reward SAND token holders. Token holders contribute to the resilience of a blockchain network. 

SAND Stakeholders

The Sandbox team has come up with a stakeholders’ approach to work towards a model where the value of the ecosystem, in general, accrues value to the SAND token. Revenues generated will be distributed among four stakeholders. The goal is to support high-value gaming experiences and provide growth resources to expand Sandbox’s reach. 

The stakeholders will be as follows: 

#1. Foundation pool: for making sure revenue generated through the ecosystem accrues value to SAND

#2. Staking pool: for providing yield and value to participants who stake in SAND. Token holders who are also active gamers get to generate extra yield.

#3. Company treasury: these are tokens owned by the company and are proceeds from the sale of assets. Tokens generated this way will be sold back to the market to cater for operational expenses.

$4. Company reserve: this is the company reserve of 20% of the total token supply. It will be funded with the proceeds of the sale of assets with a six-month lock-up

The Sandbox Team 

Sandbox has assembled a team of 42 to execute its vision. 28 of these are in Argentina, while 11, 2, and 1 are in France, Korea, and Japan, respectively. That said, let’s look at the core team: 

Director Arthur Madrid is the co-founder and CEO of Pixowl and has years of experience in social gaming. He’s also an advisor to gaming and social media startups.

COO and Director Sebastian Borget is also the COO and co-founder of Animoca Brands. He’s very passionate about blockchain tech and is one of the most visible evangelists of non-fungible tokens’ potential. Borget is the president of the Blockchain Game Alliance as of 2020. 

CFO Marcelo Santurio is co-founder of the first-ever online payment company in Latin America and has over 20 years of finance, tech, and gaming experience. Santurio has an MBA with a focus on finance from the London School of Business. 

The inventor of the Sandbox idea, Pablo Iglesias, has 10+ years of research and development experience in emerging procedural systems.

CTO Lucas Shrewsbury is the ex-CTO of Gameloft, a gaming company, where he managed a team of 200 people and has 10+ years of experience in mobile gaming. 

SAND: Tokenomics

As of Oct 8, 2020, the SAND token is trading at $0.046725, with a market cap of $27,952,641, which puts it at #274. It has a 24-hour volume of $4,085,734, a circulating supply of 598,238,245, and has a total and maximum supply of 3 million. The token’s all-time high and all-time low was $0.086577 (Aug 14, 2020) and $0.033405 (Sep 06, 2020). 

Buying and Storing SAND 

SAND tokens can be exchanged for BTC, USDT, BNB, WETH, EUR, and HT on various exchanges, including Huobi, Binance, Upbit, CoinTiger, BKEX, 50x, Poloniex, BitAsset, Dcoin, WazirX, Binance.KR, and more. 

SAND tokens are Ethereum-based, meaning they can be stored in any Ethereum-compatible wallet. Great choices include Trust Wallet, Atomic Wallet, MyEtherWallet, MetaMask, Guarda, Exodus, Mist, Exodus, Edge, Trezor, and Ledger Nano. 

Closing Thoughts 

Sandbox wants to change how things are done in the online gaming world by injecting more transparency, fairness, and creativity. Let’s see how the team continues to innovate in the future.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s PerlinX (PERL) All About?

Following Blockchain’s birth, the financial landscape is changing very fast. Now we’re talking of decentralized finance (DeFi), synthetic assets, liquidity pools, and other concepts that simply didn’t exist before. And all these are to the benefit of millions of people across the globe who were previously excluded from the financial system. 

PerlinX is a DeFi project that wants to “democratize the trading of real-world assets through decentralized liquidity pools and synthetic asset generation.” 

It’s among the many DeFi projects that are recently catching on and providing unparalleled value to users. In the traditional finance system, you can put up your money to generate yield. And sure, it will, but meager yields which take forever to add up to anything substantial. 

With PerlinX, you can earn nice rewards for simply staking in the PERL token. Let’s dive into the protocol and see how it works. We’ll also see the platform’s major driver – the PERL token, and how exactly it keeps the ecosystem moving. 

Understanding PerlinX 

Perlin is a DeFi platform where users can create and trade assets through a synthetic liquidity pool. Perlin will initially be focusing on synthetic assets. Platform users will be able to stake PERL tokens and earn rewards. Rewards will be in the form of PERL, UMA, and BAL tokens. PerlinX will also utilize the UMA protocol for the generation of synthetic assets. 

On the PerlinX platform, each asset will have its own real-time price feed, supported by the Data Verification Mechanism (DVM) supported by UMA. The DVM is designed to provide accurate and incorruptible price feeds. 

Synthetic assets on PerlinX will begin with the prefix ‘px’, as in pxGold, pxETH, pxCarbon, and so on. Also, for users to create synthetic assets on PerlinX, they must first deposit PerlinX as collateral. For now, the PerlinX protocol will support five assets, namely TUSD, BUSD, USDC, BAL, and ETH. 

What Can You Do on PerlinX? 

Below is how you can interact with the PerlinX platform: 

#1. Deposit crypto and earn rewards 

Platform users can stake in PERL and earn incentives as a result. Staking provides liquidity to the platform for borrowers who pay back with interest. 

#2. Create synthetic assets 

Users can utilize the PerlinX platform to create network assets of any type. To create a synthetic asset, a user must first deposit PERL as collateral. 

Roadmap for PerlinX 

After enabling users to earn incentives for staking in PERL, the team plans to embark on the following steps immediately: 

  • Start minting pxTokens.
  • Identify potential security loopholes on the platform and fix them immediately.
  • Improve user experience to facilitate staking and things like liquidation procedures and settling disputes.
  • Come up with a long-term incentivization mechanism for liquidity providers and synthetic asset creators.

Future Roadmap

  • Work to narrow the gap between the existing financial system and DeFi, and rally for more support for digital assets and more emerging complex assets like regulated securities
  • Work to improve the underlying Automatic Market Maker and synthetic assets mining process to realize better efficiency.

The PERL Token

PERL is the native utility token of the PerlinX platform. It will play a central role in the running of the ecosystem – and the two key roles will include the following: 

  • As a staking mechanism to earn incentives 
  • As collateral to be able to create synthetic pxTokens

How PERL Tokens Were Distributed

The PerlinX team distributed PERL in the following fashion: 

  • Seed sale tokens: 20%
  • Strategic sale tokens: 19.49%
  • Private sale tokens: 8.36%
  • Public sale tokens: 8.38%
  • Team tokens: 15%
  • Advisors: 9.65%
  • Treasury tokens: 19.12%

Key Metrics of PERL

As of September 29, 2020, the PERL token traded for $0.026798, with a market cap of $12,947,152, which placed it at #436. PERL had a circulating supply of 483,139,908 and a total supply of 1, 033,200,000. The token’s all-time high was $0.132243 (Aug 26, 2019) and an all-time low of $0.010643 (March 28, 2020), per Coinmarketcap. 

Buying and Storing

Today, you’ll find PERL listed as a market pair of BTC, USDT, BNB, WETH, BUSD, PERL, TUSD, BTC, and BAL in either of these exchanges: Binance, Bilaxy, CoinDXC, HotBit, TOKOK, Balancer and Uniswap (V2). 

You can store PERL tokens in Ledger, Trezor, Trust, Atomic, and MyEtherWallet wallets. 

Closing Thoughts

PerlinX is one of the bold projects that we’re seeing emerging in the DeFi space. The more these projects are, the more choices for DeFi users.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s Wing (WING)? 

Blockchain opened the way for all kinds of imagination for finance. Thanks to the tech, we now have DeFi – short of decentralized finance – which is the idea that people can have total power and control over their financial lives. This contrasts with the current system where we lack autonomy over our own money, and we have to rely on centralized entities like banks to safeguard it. 

Of course, centralization means the banks can freeze our assets at will, in the case of real or imagined offenses against, say, the government. It also means if we’re sending money overseas, we have to rely on the long chain of approvals by third parties before it reaches the recipient. 

We’ve already said DeFi opens up so many opportunities for finance. One of these is the ability to loan cryptocurrency and reap big in returns. Another is the ability to lock down your crypto and earn rewards. 

Wing, a product by the team behind Ontology, is one of several DeFi projects that are emerging and offering users such revolutionary financial prospects. 

This article will delve deeper into the Wing platform, including the key highlights that distinguish it from similar protocols. We’ll also see how the WNG token is doing in the crypto market. 

Breaking Down Wing 

Wing is a blockchain-powered lending platform. The platform has a decentralized governance model designed to provide the maximum – and equal value to all participants, including borrowers, creditors, and guarantors. 

The WING team wants to support two types of lending: 

  • Over-collateralized lending – in which users deposit assets with at least 125% or higher than the borrowed assets 
  • Credit-based lending in which users who have an OScore can deposit assets with 80% or higher than that of the borrowed assets

Wing: Highlights 

#1. Flash Pool: this was the first Wing product, and it supports asset lending. Flash Pool also features an Insurance Pool to compensate lenders in the event of losses. Users can earn rewards through loaning, lending, or depositing crypto in the pool. It currently supports ONT, ETH, USDT, DAI, and wBTC.

#2. Credit-lending: Wing will support the IF Pool, a credit lending tool through which users with an OScore (credit-scoring system by Ontology) can deposit assets whose value is 80% or higher than that of the borrowed assets.

#3. Community proposals: Wing has a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) where network participants can submit and approve proposals for the growth of the community. Such proposals may include the adjustment of the interest rate, the introduction of new products, and the termination of existing products. 

At the time of writing, Wing has $243,429,803.26 assets deposited. That’s incredible for a project that was only launched in August this year. 

Wing: Vision 

Wing wants to position itself as a strong contender in the DeFi space. It intends to differentiate itself in the following ways: 

#1. New types of collateral: Wing plans to roll out various types of collateral, and with that, expand the digitalized collateral ecosystem 

#2. Decentralized credit: Wing will integrate the element of self-sovereign, decentralized credit scores so that users’ data can play a part in bringing financial value to them 

#3. Enlarge Wing’s decentralized autonomous organization (Wing DAO): Wing plans to create a DAO for financial services. Platform users are encouraged to put forward proposals towards the direction of such services. The WING community will have the power to determine critical issues like which products are launched, which ones should be canceled, which platforms to integrate with, and so on. 

Why Base Wing on Ontology? 

Wing is based on the Ontology network for two key reasons. 

First, there’s the need to support a wide variety of collateral types. Ontology is scalable enough to support a collateral pool of multiple digital assets from multiple blockchains via cross-chain support. The Ontology network has collaborated with the Poly Network for this end. 

Ontology also supports centralized and self-sovereign and identity and data protocols that enable the digitization and authentication of new and existing digital asset types. New collateral types could be either simple non-fungible tokens or more complicated ones, unlike real-world assets such as real estate. 

Second, there’s a need for the platform chain to be supported by decentralized and smart contracts-based credit evaluation.

Ontology features decentralized identity and decentralized data protocols that enable self-sovereign identity and the management of identity data. These two protocols can also support smart contracts-based credit evaluation. 

Additionally, Ontology has created a credit-scoring system known as OScore, which considers users’ crypto-owning info and their lending and borrowing history. Users have self-sovereign ownership of their data, and they can generate their OScore count safely and privately. 

Community Strategy

The WING team plans to undertake several actions to expand the community. These actions will include the following: 

  • Publishing DeFi related content to become an authoritative source of the subject.
  • Hosting and co-hosting DeFi and blockchain-related events.
  • Conducting Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions on popular blockchain and DeFi communities.
  • Collaborating with existing DeFi platforms.
  • Updating the community on developments every fortnight.
  • Actively engaging the community on various social media channels.

Future growth strategies include the following: 

  • Conducting referrals for mining pools.
  • Overseeing promotional campaigns for liquidity mining pools.
  • Engaging in collaborative marketing efforts with partners across various industries.

The WING Token

WING tokens are the native cryptocurrency of the Wing platform, and they’ll play the following roles in the ecosystem: 

  • Governance – WING token holders can take part in the project’s governance by voting for products, allocation of funds, upgrades, and governance proposals.
  • Interest discounts – Wing tokens are used as payment interest on the platform.
  • As insurance payment – Platform users use Wing tokens to purchase insurance contracts to increase their platform exposure.

Token Distribution 

The WING token distribution was done in the following manner:

  • Binance launchpool: 6.5%
  • Community incentives 68.5%. The community incentives are divided as follows: 50% to the lending pool, 40% for the borrowing pool, and 10% for the margin pool.
  • Ecosystem development: 25%

Key Metrics 

As of September 29, 2020, the WING token traded at $20.50 with a market cap of $5,124,447 that placed it at #653 in the market. It has a 24-hour volume of $5,124,447, and a circulating supply of 250,000 total supply of 2 million. It has an all-time high of $140.81 (Sep 16, 2020) and an all-time low of $14.42 (Sep 30, 2020). 

Where to Buy WING 

You can find WING tokens listed as a market pair with USDT, BTC, BNB, BUSD in Binance, OKEx, MXC, and Binance.KR. 

Since they’re based on the Ontology blockchain, WING tokens can be supported by any wallet that supports Ontology. Great choices include Ledger, OWallet, ONTO Wallet, Exodus, Guarda, O3, Cyano, and Cobo wallets. 

Final Thoughts

Wing is doing remarkably well for a product that is not a day older than 3 months. It joins other trailblazing projects in DeFi, and it will be interesting to watch how it grows and competes with already established ones. It’s also yet another brilliant project by the Ontology team. Is this the last of them, or should we expect more innovations in the future? Keep it here for updates.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s V-ID (VIDT) All About?

Our lives are very much dependent on the internet these days. Whether it’s everyday work, or file storage, social media, it’s nearly impossible to imagine a non-digital life. 

The problem is, our digital lives are not so safe. Indeed, the occasional data breach has become almost an accepted part of it. But it doesn’t have to continue being this way, especially with blockchain’s introduction, a new tech that provides for immutable and transparent records. 

V-ID is a new project looking to change the way we interact with digital storage services. It aims to reduce fraud and increase transparency with the use of blockchain. 

Let’s explore more deeply what V-ID is about, as well as its native token – VIDT. 

Breaking Down V-ID 

V-ID is a blockchain-enabled network for data validation. The V-ID team wants to “safely certify and secure all digital assets, so fraud and errors no longer hold back society’s innovations in digitalization.” The platform works this way: anyone can register a file on the network, which will then be marked with a hash that corresponds to the file, upon which the hash will be stored on the blockchain. 

Now, any change made on the file will correspondingly reflect on the hash. This means any attempt at tampering with the file will be easily and quickly detected. 

Use Cases

The use cases for V-ID are many and varied, but the more readily identifiable ones include the following: 

  • Certificates of any nature, including diploma, inspection certificates, etc
  • Reports – whether it’s financial, medical, and so on
  • Due diligence trails and audit trails 
  • Tracking data
  • Supply chain and logistics documentation
  • Video footage 
  • Pictures

Blockchains supporting V-ID

File info is kept on the immutable and transparent blockchain. V-ID works with several blockchains for users to save this info. Let’s take a look at them: 

Ethereum – Ethereum has tens of thousands of nodes, which ensures security for the network

LTO Network – LTO is built for business – meaning it’s fast and is General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant

Hyperledger – this blockchain has the advantage of privacy, and hence more control is exercised over the network.

DigiByte – DigiByte is a blockchain-focused on complete decentralization. It has a high node count, which means strong community support and security.

Bitcoin – BTC is the most popular blockchain, with hundreds of thousands of nodes, signifying high-level security.

Community Strategy of V-ID

The V-ID team wants to undertake several strategies in a view to expanding the community. Current strategies include: 

  • Liaising with Business-to-Customer service providers to integrate with V-ID
  • Updating the community on progress on various media channels

Future strategies will be: 

  • Co-hosting crypto and blockchain-related conferences with other partners in the space
  • Collaborating with thought leaders in the space to expand the integration of the platform

V-ID Token 

VIDT Datalink (VIDT) is the native cryptocurrency of V-ID. It pretty much powers the validation process. A VIDT transaction involves recording all the necessary file info of a data package – such as type of file, location, timestamp, and identity.

Distribution of V-ID tokens was done in the following manner: 

  • Public sale: 19.07%
  • Private sale: 10.08%
  • Team tokens: 3%
  • Advisor tokens: 2%
  • Validation pool tokens: 12%
  • Ecosystem development fund tokens: 10%
  • Bounty program tokens: 7.15%

Tokenomics of VIDT 

As of October 7, 2020, VIDT traded at $0.494948, with a $24.5 million market cap, which placed it at #300. The token’s 24-hour volume is $378,555, its circulating supply is 49,428,303, while it’s total and maximum supply is 57,386,799 and 58,501,137, respectively. VIDT’s all-time high is $1.22 (August 15, 2020), while its all-time low is $0.042714 (March 16, 2020). 

Buying and Storing VIDT 

Currently, VIDT is listed as a market pair with WETH, BTC, USDT, BNB, and ETH on several exchanges, including Bilaxy, KuCoin, HotBit, Uniswap, Hoo, IDEX, Binance DEX, Fatbtc, and Kyber Network. 

Being Ethereum-based, you have a wide range of options when it comes to which wallet to store VIDT. Trust Wallet, Atomic, MyEtherWallet, MetaMask, Guarda, Exodus, Mist, Ledger, and Trezor are some of the great options. 

Closing Thoughts

Blockchain can be used for so much good in society – not just finance. And if it can help reduce fraud in the digital storage world, why not? V-ID may prove to be a very timely project. 

Categories
Blockchain and DLT Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin, Blockchain and Its Use in the Financial World

In this post, we will explain a new payment method and also a new way of making transfers that is simpler and safer than the SWIFT that is currently used. We are talking about Bitcoin and the Blockchain that have already been in use for several years, although it has not yet been generalized so that it can change our lives. Specialists say that both can have the effect that had Internet or mobile phones at the time, eventually, we’ll figure out if this prediction is fulfilled or not.

What is Bitcoin?

To know what the Blockchain is, we start with the definition of what Bitcoin is: it is the decentralized virtual currency that is traded through the internet. The key aspect is that issuer and receiver trade directly, without going through a bank or intermediary entity, so costs are reduced. They are currently used to buy any type of daily products; in addition, you can exchange bitcoins for real currencies.

Due to the complexity of the algorithm that uses Bitcoin cannot be falsified. Its founder Satoshi Nakamoto did it in such a way that the more people use it, the more complicated the algorithm is. Therefore, you do not need any competent authority to regulate Bitcoins.

To sum up, you can say that Bitcoin resembles cash, with similar characteristics. It also allows us to maintain control over the funds at all times because it is we who have them, not a bank or fund. And because it is done by digital means, it also highlights the immediacy it offers.

What is the Blockchain?

Also, we have the Blockchain that can resemble a public accounting book, a database, in which each block of information is connected to another block of information. In this kind of book where they write down all the movements that take place with bitcoin being in continuous growth. These annotations are inscribed in what is known as a block and are added in a linear and chronological manner. Therefore, in the blockchain, the information cannot be modified unless all the component parties agree.

The difference with other methods is that the information cannot be changed once recorded and cannot be erased. It is transparent because the transactions are public but at the same time are anonymous since the information contained in each block cannot be associated with any of the parties involved in the operation.

Mining in the Blockchain

As you are commenting above it works by blocks where all operations are packaged and have to be confirmed by mining. Mining is a mechanism with mathematical calculations that confirm all transactions safely. Some users may be miners and receive some remuneration for the work they are doing.

Mining is a mechanism in which a user puts their computer to work to create new blocks and authorize transactions and operations. You would have to run a software that connects to the P2P network of the currency that uses much of the processing power of the miner’s computer, thus obtaining a commission for the service performed.

The Blockchain Today

The appeal is that the transmission of data via the Blockchain is done by cryptography not by real data as SWIFT does. Recall that the latter is the acronym of the Society for World Interbank Financial Telecommunication, a company formed by banks mainly on which it relies on trust for carrying out transactions. The Blockchain is based on cryptography that makes it much safer, plus it is more economical.

As every new financial product has certain disadvantages, with the Blockchain there is some controversy as banks are likely to lose an important role in the financial world and that is to be intermediaries. On the other hand, as it is still in its infancy, usability is still reduced due to the number of users who use Bitcoin on a recurring basis. Security is an important issue as it may be exposed to attacks because it is open-source; there are many users who support its operation but at the same time can misuse the system.

The main global banks, of which Santander, BBVA, JP Morgan, ING, BNP Paribas are part of a group called R3 that develops applications with Blockchain technology. This new technology works like the Blockchain but with a private blockchain.

These financial giants want to transform the current banking structure by speeding up payments and stock market operations. We are working from three of the most powerful spotlights such as Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and the City.

The largest multinationals are adopting these new technologies; Citigroup is creating Citicoin, a digital currency of its own. Goldman Sachs funded a company that uses bitcoins to manage payments, called Circle Internet Financial. PwC states that around 300 startups are dedicated to improving the blockchain so that it can be used effectively and safely in the financial world. Therefore, its use is likely to spread widely in the coming years.

Startups and the Blockchain

Several startups were acquired by the main banks to develop their presence in the online world. BBVA acquired 29% of Atom to be a leader in online banking. The president of the second Spanish bank said that digitalisation is key today and that anyone who is not able to adapt to the current situation will be left behind.

Santander, in turn, created its own venture capital fund by investing $100 million in two years to catch up with competitors. iZettle will allow Santander to improve payments via mobile and táblet; on the other hand, Ripple that develops solutions for the Blockchain.

Currently, there are companies that are dedicated to developing products using Bitcoin. Blockstream develops Bitcoin for companies that use them. One of the novelties is the fact of performing simple operations in bitcoins that can be done more quickly with an even lower cost. Another startup is OpenBazaar that aims to compete with eBay. A decentralized buying and selling platform with lower costs than eBay currently has. A company that carries out the mining of which we have spoken is BitFury; carrying out the necessary mining for the correct functioning of the blockchain.

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic

What You Need to Know About DigixDao 

Would you have thought that it was possible to own gold even if you’re not a millionaire?  That is now possible thanks to blockchain-enabled tokenization. 

DigixDAO is a blockchain project that wants to make this realization true for many people across the world. Launched in March 2019, DigixDAO has created a cryptocurrency backed by actual, physical gold – which users can invest in and sell off for profit at any time. The Digix team says that it creates “a world where 99.99% fine gold bars are made divisible, transferable and redeemable.”

Why should you care about DigixDAO? Well, for one, you can own actual gold, something that’s long been a preserve for the minority few. Second, you can diversify your crypto portfolio, and third, it provides much-needed stability in the crypto space. 

With that, let’s look into the Digix platform and how exactly it tokenizes gold. We’ll also explore the platform’s dual-token system and the role of each token.

Features of DigixDAO

Digix utilizes Proof of Asset (PoA), which works this way: 

Users record the audit trail of an asset on the Ethereum blockchain to generate POA Asst Cards. Digix says, “the asset cards are certified using sequential digital signatures from the entities in the chain of custody, mainly Vendor,  Custodian, and Auditor, which are further validated with proof of purchase and depository receipts uploaded onto IPFS (IterPlanetary File System) for permanent record.” 

The Vendor in question is ValueMax Singapore, a mainboard-listed company that sells certified gold bars and products like luxury jewelry and timepieces. The auditor in question is a multinational auditing group Bureau Veritas Inspectorate, which checks the gold’s quality and quantity. And the custodian is MalcaAmit, a state of the art vault located in Le Freeport, Singapore. 

A Proof of Asset Cards contains the following info: 

  • Timestamp showing the date when the card was created
  • Stock keeping unit of the gold bar
  • The serial number of bar
  • Digital signatures of the vendor, custodian, and auditor
  • Receipt of purchase
  • Documentation of audit trail
  • Depository receipt
  • Storage fees due 

Digix’s DGX Tokens

DGX tokens tokenize gold in the network. One DGX token represents a gram of gold. Investors can redeem 100 DGX tokens for 100 grams of gold. DGX tokens are based on the Ethereum EIP20 protocol. DGX tokens are made to make gold accessible to the average person. Users can liquidate on their gold holdings at any time. 

Digix’s DGD Tokens 

The DGD token is the other token of Digix. DGD token holders can claim rewards based on how much DGX tokens they’ve used as transaction fees. Again, token holders can vote on network proposals and get rewards. Digix says they can make “active managerial decisions to any proposals submitted to DigixDAO.”

Unlike DGX tokens, you can’t redeem DGD tokens for gold. 

Key Metrics of DGD

On Sep 29,2020, DGD traded at $68.66 with a market cap of $10,220,244 that placed it at #479 in the market. Its 24-hour volume is $69,49.29, while its circulating and total supply is 148,863. The token’s all-time high was $597.66 (Feb 28, 2018), while its all-time low was $4.10 (May 03, 2016). 

Where to Buy and Store DGD Tokens

DGD token is listed as a market pair of ETH, BTC, INR, WETH, and USDT at Huobi Global, Bitrue, Livecoin, HitBTC, Bitbns, Coinbene, IDEX, Radar Relay, and Gate.io.

The token can be stored in any Ethereum-compatible wallet such as imToken, MyEtherWallet, Parity, Guarda Wallet, Trust Wallet, Trezor, and Ledger Nano. 

Final Thoughts

Digix manages to come with an original concept: one to make gold “cool again” with the help of a decentralized, secure blockchain. Anyone anywhere can now own the precious metals and liquidate their holdings at their own desired time. Perhaps this sets a new precedent for the precious metal industry and indeed the crypto and blockchain world. 

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic

What’s Measurable Data Token All About? 

Living in the digital age means we leave digital footprints every time we log in to an application. This data is very lucrative to the companies behind these applications – it’s like the new oil, and yet the owners of that data do not benefit from it in any meaningful way. Additionally, they have almost no control over their data privacy.

What if data owners had more control over how their data is handled and earned from it? Blockchain can make this possible. The technology’s qualities of decentralization and transparency can help make this a reality. 

Launched in 2017, Measurable Data Token is a token designed to achieve this through a decentralized data exchange ecosystem. It connects data providers, users, and buyers, and ascribes value to data to make economic sense to owners. 

How MDT Works 

#1. Decentralized Data Trading Economy

Through MDT, the team wants to end the era of corporates trading user data without their consent. It wants to create a decentralized data ecosystem that is fair and beneficial to all parties, and it wants to do this by creating a new platform and assigning economic value to data. The MDT token is the unit of data exchange that will connect platform users. 

It will compensate data owners for sharing their anonymous data while offering data buyers and providers a more effective and transparent model. In the MDT ecosystem, data owners can finally reclaim the true value of their data.

On their part, buyers will have a better trading model in terms of security, transparency, and speed. Cryptographically secured smart contracts will eliminate the potential risk of fraud, as will a completely transparent process. Unlike a traditional data exchange model, where buyers are at risk of purchasing invalid data, they can participate in the validation process in MDT. The MDT platform is held together by MDT token – which is the most significant component of the ecosystem. 

#2. MDT Technology and Participants

The MDT platform relies on several technologies to accomplish its big picture. Below, we’ll take a look at the main pieces of technology. We’ll also see the participants of the ecosystem. 

  • Measurable Data SDK 

This is a free software development kit by the MDT team that users, including providers and developers, can use. The kit also includes a wallet address that users can leverage to store and track their rewards. 

  • Data Provider

This is an entity that obtains users’ anonymous data and uses rewards data owners (users) with MDT tokens.

  • User

These are users who share their data in the MDT ecosystem and receive rewards in the form of MDT tokens.

  • Data Buyer 

The entity buys the rights to the use of owners’ data. They could get this data either through accessing the database or by buying it from providers. At the moment, buyers do not get the ownership rights of such data. 

  • Measurable Data Point

This is a data point that results from every transaction. It has a denomination that ascribes value to it in the ecosystem. 

  • Measurable Platform

This is a decentralized data exchange (DEX) that facilitates transactions between data owners, providers, and buyers. It provides for secure and immutable transactions. Initially, those actions would be administered by the MDT platform. However, the network will, in the near future, switch to a purely smart contracts-based model.

#3. MyMDT App 

MyMDT app is a decentralized application (DApp) based on Ethereum through which users can get rewarded for sharing data on the platform. It’s the user-facing part of the ecosystem, and you can join the MDT ecosystem through it. The app currently supports three features: 

  • Allowing users to join the MDT ecosystem and share anonymous data so they can earn MDT tokens
  • Allocates rewards to users 
  • Allows users to earn rewards for completing certain tailor-made tasks for third-party applications

Community Strategy of MDT

The MDT team plans to pursue several strategies in the future to advance its growth. 

Current strategies include: 

  • Carrying out marketing campaigns on various social media platforms
  • Partnering with other industry players such as exchanges in joints campaign efforts including seminars
  • working together with prominent institutions such as Nanyang Technological University of Singapore to hold blockchain hackathons
  • Curating content for various video formats to increase awareness of data rewards
  • Updating community members weekly on the program’s development

Future strategies include the following: 

  • Introduce data reward apps in various data formats to sell the idea to the mainstream
  • Launch an ambassador campaign
  • Work with artificial intelligence companies to increase awareness on data reward responsibility in the public

The MDT Token

The Measurable Data Token (MDT), which has the same name as the platform, is based on the Ethereum blockchain and is used to monetize their own data 

Measurable Data Token was distributed in the following manner: 

  • Seed sale: 15%
  • Private sale: 35%
  • Equity investors: 10%
  • Team tokens: 10%
  • Advisors’ tokens: 1%
  • User growth pool: 15%

Key Metrics 

On Sep 29, 2020, MDT traded at $0.013749, with a market cap of $9,043,789, which placed it at #528. It has a 24-hour volume of $229,322, a circulating supply of 657,790,346, and a total supply of 1 billion. It has an all-time high of $0.858288 (Jan 10, 2018) and an all-time low of $0.001614 (Dec 17, 2018). 

Where to Buy and Store MDT 

There’s no shortage of where to purchase MDT tokens. The token is listed on several reputable exchanges, including Binance, DigiFinex, Gate.io, Poloniex, Bittrex, Uniswap, BKEX, Uniswap, and Bancor Network. You can find it listed against currencies such as BTC, ETH, WETH, TRX, BNB, and USDT. 

Options for storing MDT include Ledger, Trezor, KeepKey, MyEtherWallet, Coinomi, Exodus, and My Data Token Wallet. 

Final Thoughts

The MDT platform is among many blockchain-based platforms that seek to solve the problem of big and powerful companies profiting off user data while the users walk away with nothing. What sets it apart is its MyMDT app that allows users to get on board the platform and start trading data conveniently. The MDT team will need to keep innovating if it’s to go toe-to-toe with similar projects in the space.

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic

Introducing the Standard Tokenization Protocol (STP)

Security issuance in the traditional world is faced with so many challenges. And many of these challenges stem from the centralized nature of the system – from costly intermediaries to inaccurate records to fraud-prone processes.

Blockchain technology provides an opportunity for the industry to rectify these shortcomings. It facilitates the decentralized and peer-to-peer exchange of assets as it does trustless and fraud-free transactions. 

The Standard Tokenization Protocol is a blockchain effort that wants to make this possible. And it has the bonus of making sure these assets are legally compliant, eliminating any potential friction with authorities. 

How does it achieve that? This article is an attempt to answering that question. 

Breaking Down STP

The Standard Tokenization Protocol is a blockchain effort aimed at cross-chain assets tokenization. It wants to differentiate itself from similar protocols by supporting assets in a way that makes them compliant with various jurisdictions. The end goal for STP is to popularize the knowledge and usage of digital assets around the world.

The STP whitepaper describes itself as “a decentralized platform for digital asset issuance powered by the STP token, a new smart contract protocol framework for compliance offerings.” It also states that it aims to “enable the movement of digital assets in a globally compliant manner.” 

STP wants to address the issues of traditional security-issuing platforms. 

The Problems with Traditional Options

  • Security issuance in the traditional system involves intermediaries who add to the bloat and expenses of the process
  • Often, there’s a limit on the scale of participants that can be involved in security issuance and trading at any time, in an attempt to minimize the manual process 
  • The restrictions lead to the securities being less liquid in the market

Benefits of Digital Assets

#1. Digital assets are programmable

Blockchain enables programmability for digital assets. Blockchain-enabled smart contracts can automatically move value in a peer-to-peer manner from one party to another when certain thresholds are met. This massively reduces costs.

#2. Fractional ownership

Fractional ownership enables investors to purchase part of traditionally valuable assets such as rare art and antique cars, and even assets that were previously a preserve of the wealthy such as real estate. This enables such assets to be liquid as opposed to if the process involved looking for one single buyer. 

#3. Increased liquidity

Liquidity is how fast a product is sold once it’s listed on the market. It’s the opposite of illiquidity, which is when a product takes too long to find an exit position once it’s listed. Fractionalization of assets increases liquidity since it increases the number of buyers interested in purchasing a product. 

#4. Peer-to-peer transactions 

At its core, decentralization stands for the transfer of assets between parties without the involvement of overseeing authorities or intermediaries. The STP protocol ensures the peer-to-peer transfer of assets executed via smart contracts. 

#5. Automated compliance

Traditional compliance procedures involve lengthy Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) procedures to ensure trust. On the other hand, blockchain-powered transactions are inherently transparent, making them trustless and legally compliant. 

The STP Standard 

The STP Standard is a protocol that oversees the generation, issuance, and transfer of tokenized assets. The protocol has a Compliance Validator that checks whether token issuance meets all the requirements -whether it’s accreditation, AML, and so on. There’s a validator committee whose work is to ensure this compliance is met. The STP network enables assets to move across geographical borders in a compliant manner. 

Use Cases of the STP Protocol

The STP standard can be applied to several use cases across different industries. Let’s take a look at three of them: 

#.1. Compliant asset tokenization 

Asset owners from anywhere can use the STP protocol to tokenize their assets on the blockchain, increasing their liquidity. 

#2. Mobile platform 

Various users, such as retail investors, can access the STP platform conveniently via their mobile app. Not only will they be able to access wealth management tools, but they can also find projects to invest in, and if they’re the owners of a project, they can find the right audience in the platform. 

#3. Blockchain-based crowdfunding

With the native cryptocurrency, STP, investors will be able to access new financial tools such as blockchain-based crowdfunding via smart contracts. Such onchain crowdfunding is safer, more secure, and more transparent than traditional crowdfunding. 

STP Protocol’s Community Growth Strategies

The STP team plans to implement several strategies in the near future in a bid to build a bigger community. These strategies are as follows: 

  • Team up with various industry players so as to expand its ecosystem
  • Hold airdrops and similar marketing campaigns to build community engagement
  • Engage with the community on various social media platforms
  • Keep the community updated on quarterly initiatives
  • Launch Ambassador Programs to promote the idea of decentralization everywhere

The STP Token

The native cryptocurrency of the STP network is known as STPT. The token will serve several crucial roles in the network, including the following: 

  • Enable users to fractionalize assets or features of those assets
  • As ‘gas’ for powering verification processes and transactions
  • As staking so as to take part in the proof of stake consensus mechanism
  • As a governance mechanism through which to contribute to major decisions of the network
  • As a reward for good behavior 

STP’s token distribution was as follows:

  • Bittrex IEO token sale – 3.75%
  • First private sale – 25%
  • Second private sale – 5%
  • Team tokens – 18.75%
  • Token treasury tokens – 7.5%
  • Token reserve tokens – 40%

Key Metrics of STP Token

If you’re interested in buying the STP token, then you need to know its current standing in the market. As of Sep 22, the token is trading at $0.019297 while ranking at #396. It has a market cap of $15,793,071, with a 24-hour volume of $2,738,104, a circulating supply of 818,409,893, and a total supply of 1,942,420,283. The token’s all-time high was $0.094944 (June 27, 2019), while its all-time low was $0.005800 (Sep 30, 2019). 

Where to Buy STP Tokens

You can purchase STP tokens at any of several crypto exchanges, including Coinone Upbit, Coinone, VCC Exchange, Bithumb Global, BitMax, Huobi Global, Bittrex Poloniex, Bitsonic, Gate.io, and CoinDCX. 

Closing Thoughts

STP is leading from the front to set a new standard for assets issuance. Issuers no longer have to deal with the burden of complying with regulations. All in all, users can expect a more accessible, inclusive, and efficient token issuance platform. 

Categories
Crypto Guides

Is Tezos The Most Robust Cryptocurrency?

Introduction

Tezos is a decentralized, highly secure, transparent, and smart contract enabled blockchain governed by itself. It is a blockchain network associated with a digital token known as Tez or Tezzie (XTZ). Tezos doesn’t mine Tez. Instead, the token holder is rewarded under the consensus mechanism for participating in the proof-of-stake system.

A digital commonwealth group, sharing common interests and goals, is linked together to govern the Tezos platform. Tezos aims to become the most robust cryptocurrency blockchain by working together with its token holders to build more democratic protocol with the time. 

What is Tezos Attempting to Achieve? 

Tezos team wants to develop the most adaptable cryptocurrency project. It provides a token holder with equal governing power and is trying to avoid a hard fork situation. In which a community splits and starts competing with each other like in Bitcoin cash and Ethereum DAO. Tezos is implementing soft forks in which the community regularly updates the blockchain for constant growth. They are using (DAO) Decentralised Autonomous Organization system where every decision is taken after community discussion. This will make this more self amendable and upgradeable system.  

How Tezos Works? 

Tezos uses a proof of stake algorithm, and it can support 40 transactions/second on the network. It uses the Michelson coding language, which proceeds with formal verification to avoid any bugs in the network. To create error fee smart contracts, they use a mathematically provable code. In this network, the stakers are known as bakers.

To make delegate changes, you need to have 10,000 Tezos tokens and a bond. Most probably to make the system more democratic, Tezos has removed the miners to reduce their control power in the network. It is absorbing good elements from different blockchains to make it self-governing, self-evolving, and adaptable. If you notice anything appealing in any other blockchain, you can propose it to the community that approves the change for the Tezos network. 

Tezos Architecture

The protocol is divided into layers:

Network Protocol  – Here, the peer-to-peer communication is done to broadcast the decisions between the nodes.

Transaction Protocol – Here, the blockchain accounting model is implemented. 

Consensus Protocol – This consensus protocol verifies the agreement to confirm transactions. 

The Tezos Accounts

Implicit Account – It’s the most commonly used account. It has a public key and private key held by the account owner to secure the account balance. 

Originated Account – The formally verified smart contract account with the implicit account is known as an originated account.

Tezos Unique Capabilities

  • Self-amending and on-chain governance
  • Formal verification of smart contracts
  • Liquid proof of stake system 

Is Tezos a Good Investment?

Tezos is the youngest of all existing cryptocurrencies and focused upon the chain governance system. They claim to become a future-proof platform through on-chain governance that attracts a huge number of investors. Thus, Tezos seems to be a good investment. The good news is that most of the popular cryptocurrency investors are getting involved in Tezos. We should also consider that they don’t have a clear road map for the future, but the other dominating cryptocurrencies community is working in a specific direction. To conclude, despite Tezos being one of the most robust cryptos out there, its success or failure depends on active community decisions. 

Categories
Crypto Videos

What Are The Key Components of DeFi?

 

Key Components of DeFi

The crypto and DeFi sectors are growing exponentially, and there are currently more DeFi apps than ever. These projects are already saving businesses and customers both time and money. In fact, DeFi platforms started to emerge across nearly every branch of the financial sector. As the DeFi sector expands, it is important to understand what characteristics all DeFi applications have in common, and what they offer.

Open-Source

DeFi applications have to be open-source, or they are not truly decentralized. Open source coding means that the project’s code is made public. By being open-source, these apps can be audited it and its functionalities, security, and capabilities validated. Open-source codes are more stable and secure than fully-private codes simply because of community interaction. Additionally, being open-source provides more confidence in the platform as users can rest assured that no malicious coding is hidden in the background.

Transparent

DeFi projects provide the world with new levels of transparency. As most DeFi apps operate on public blockchains such as Ethereum, all transactions are fully available on the public ledger. As a matter of fact, all activity on the blockchain is completely public. The main difference in this approach vs. a traditional bank account is that the accounts are not bound to anyone directly. Instead, user accounts are pseudo-anonymous and list only a numerical address rather than show identity.

Global

While this characteristic is not only bound to Dapps, it is an extremely important one. Anyone can participate in DeFi platforms from anywhere across the globe. All you need is a smartphone with internet access.
Consequently, DeFi Dapps have the ability to solve the problem of certain areas being unbanked or underbanked, as they can bring them the financial services they are looking for. This openness is a major upgrade from the current banking system, which leaves around 40% of the population without any form of banking.

Permissionless

The DeFi sector operates without gatekeepers. As such, anyone can create a DeFi application and offer it to the world. On top of that, anyone can participate in DeFi apps without any concern for approval. This strategy is a massive change from the current financial system that requires every single potential user to be a part of many regulatory verification systems before even participating in the global economy.

Interoperable

Another trait of the DeFi space is interoperability. Interoperability is critical as it ensures that, as more developers enter the space, all the previous work is not suddenly lost. Instead, users can stack their own DeFi products to expand exposure. As an example, it’s common for a single user to utilize stablecoins, decentralized exchanges, as well as wallets. This strategy is only possible due to the seamless integration that DeFi applications possess.

Flexibility

Due to the open nature that DeFi provides, developers are able to exercise way more flexibility in their platforms than they ever could. Users gain considerable options by integrating third-party application integrations as well. If the current options are insufficient, users can even choose to build their own interfaces.
Check out the next video in our DeFi series, where we will show examples on how DeFi is used.

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic Cryptocurrencies

The FIO Protocol: A Beginners Guide

Everyone who has interacted with crypto one way or another knows how daunting it can be – especially if they’re just beginning. This is due to the complexity of crypto transactions and the knowledge that your funds could be gone forever with a tiny mistake. 

What if there was a seamless way that you could operate your account? What if you could interact with crypto using an everyday name instead of an intimidating public address? 

Launched in April this year, FIO protocol (Foundation for Interwallet Interoperability) is an initiative that wants to make this possible. FIO says it wants to “make crypto products easier so anyone can use them.” It’s a platform that integrates exchanges, wallets, and more so people can have a better experience dealing with cryptocurrency. The FIO team believes the blockchain-based value wave is the inevitable future, and that “the masses are coming and we owe it to them to give them the experience they deserve.” 

In this article, we’ll examine the FIO protocol from a closer vantage point. We’ll also look at the utility token of the protocol and what role it plays. 

What Problem is FIO Hoping to Solve?

FIO’s vision for the blockchain space is based on actual research. The team conducted a survey in 2018 to establish the challenges that crypto users face – whether just operating their own account or sending money to others. They were then able to come up with the following feedback: 

  1. Almost every user finds using public addresses such a hassle
  2. Almost 75% of users are uncomfortable or less than confident when sending crypto
  3. Nearly 1 in five users has conducted a failed transaction or one that led to the loss of funds 
  4. 1 in 20 people has witnessed an attempted man-in-the-middle attack on their public address

The team then concluded that interacting with crypto generally is pretty stressful and requires a user to be extremely vigilant. 

What are the Goals of the FIO Protocol? 

The FIO team wants to create a better way for people everywhere to interact better with blockchain assets. This way encompasses several features, which are: 

  • Human-meaningful – enable users to interact with crypto using identifiers that are easy to understand and remember, e.g., “tom@trustwallet” or “alice@bitcoin” 
  • Decentralized – supported by a public blockchain that doesn’t rely on a centralized entity or third parties
  • Secure – FIO transactions are conducted securely since they require an FIO non-custodial private key
  • Private – sensitive information like transactions’ metadata and public addresses is cryptographically encrypted on the blockchain
  • Interoperable – the FIO platform is capable of working with any blockchain crypto network once it’s integrated with any wallet
  • eCommerce ready – the FIO protocol enables fast, safe, wallet-to-wallet and immutable payments with all metadata kept private

Features of FIO

The FIO protocol can support a variety of features – which we’ll look at below. 

i) FIO Addresses – intelligible wallet identifiers such as tom@trustwallet” and “alice@bitcoin,” which are more friendly to use. With the addresses, users will not come across public addresses. The icing on the cake? The addresses can support any crypto in any wallet or exchange.  

ii) FIO Requests – a functionality that allows users to request funds from any wallet via simple approvals. The requests are cryptographically secured and are only seen by the involved parties. FIO requests will not interfere with underlying blockchain transactions in any way

iii) FIO Data – this is encrypted metadata that can accompany transferred funds in transactions

These are just the current features of FIO. The network hopes to add more in the near future.

Technical Makeup of FIO

The FIO protocol utilizes delegated proof of stake (DPoS) for network consensus. Token holders are responsible for choosing block producers (BPs). Anyone can sign up to be a BP if they can garner enough votes. Every voting round is known as an epoch, and it involves the generation of 126 blocks. The BP selection process is repeated after every epoch – which involves 42 BPs – half active and a half on standby. 

After each block is produced and recorded on the chain, the network mints new rewards. 40% of the reward is equally shared among the 21 active BPs, while 60% goes to all 42 BPs in a manner proportionate to the number of votes each BP received. 

Additionally, BPs can change system settings if they have two thirds plus one (at least 15) majority. 

How Do You Use the FIO Protocol? 

As of now, the FIO protocol supports wallets, exchanges, and payment processors. The team is also planning to develop a suite of software development kits and APIs for developers that desire to use them. 

Now for the everyday user – using FIO is so simple. You just need to register an FIO address and immediately access loads of FIO capabilities. 

The FIO Token 

FIO token is the utility token of the FIO platform. It will be used as payment for transactions done on-chain. Other uses include fees for registering addresses and staking so as to vote for block producers. To hold FIO tokens, all you need is a pair of private/public keys. Transfers can be done through an FIO public key – which means one can hold FIO tokens without relying on a complex process. 

The team envisages demand for FIO arising from:

  • Platform users needing the token to register for addresses and other fees
  • Users needing to stake in the token so as to vote on on-chain governance and block producers
  • The possibility for some entities such as wallets and exchanges compensating users who have staked in the token 
  • Future software upgrades that will create more demand for the protocol and with it, the token

How Was FIO Distributed?

  • 16.42% went to equity investors
  • 0.04% went to the first private sale
  • 0.04% went to a second private sale
  • 1.33% went to the third private sale
  • 17.53% went to the team
  • 22.01% went to the FIO Foundation
  • 0.32% went to the foundation service provider
  • 3.59% went to the future token sales reserve
  • 12.5% went to the bounty program
  • 11.39% went to Integration Incentives
  • 12.5% went to the FIO address giveaway
  • 1% went to block producer incentives
  • 0.28% went to the airdrop program

Tokenomics of FIO

FIO traded at $0.162027 on September 14, 2020. It ranked at #402, with a market cap of 14.6 million, a 24-hour volume of $1,520,360, and a circulating and total supply of 90,017,353 and 714,376,155 respectively. FIO has a maximum supply of 1 billion. Its all-time was $0.425260 (July 31, 2020), while its all-time low was $0.083187 (July 19, 2020). 

Where to Buy FIO

The FIO token can be bought/exchanged at a variety of exchanges, which include Binance, BitMax, BitHumb, HotBit, Binance.KR and Hoo. 

Closing Thoughts

FIO might just deliver the most important of all crypto initiatives: making it extremely easy to send and receive crypto. Interacting with crypto may sound like a walkover, but the story is starkly different for many users. FIO’s solution is simple yet potentially revolutionary. For us here, it will be thrilling to watch the project evolve.