Tag: Blockchain

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s WINk (WIN) All About? 

Gaming has been a favorite pastime for millions of people across the world. And with the blockchain, online gamers are set for an even more phenomenal experience – honest payouts, transparency, cryptographically-secured infrastructure, and more. 

Gaming has been a favorite pastime for millions of people across the world. And with the blockchain, online gamers are set for an even more phenomenal experience – honest payouts, transparency, cryptographically-secured infrastructure, and more. 

Gaming has been a favorite pastime for millions of people across the world. And with the blockchain, online gamers are set for an even more phenomenal experience – honest payouts, transparency, cryptographically-secured infrastructure, and more. 

Multiple blockchain-based gaming platforms have emerged in recent years, seeking to offer gamers a fundamentally different experience. WINk (formerly TRONbet), a project based on the Tron blockchain, is one such platform. 

The WINk team has created an entire ecosystem to provide users with high-level gaming experiences. On the platform, developers can also build decentralized applications (DApps) with a raft of available tools.

In this article, we’ll explore the WINk platform as well as its utility token, WIN. 

How WINk Works, and Participants 

#1. Developers 

WINk features a set of development tools for developers to create high-performance DApps while the network handles the rest. Developers then pay a small fee out of their DApp income back to the system. 

#2. Community

These are users of the platform. The more a user plays, the more tokens they can earn. Users can choose their favorite DApps and stay loyal to them in exchange for rewards, promotions, and special access.

#3. Token HODLers 

Token holders are the backbone of the WINk network. DApps on the platform will share their wins with WIN holders through the “WinDrop” program, whereby users are incentivized through TRX tokens. The amount of TRX tokens awarded to a user depends on how much Win Power they hold. 

The WINk Ecosystem

The WINk team believes the future of blockchain is made of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), cryptographic voting systems, and up-to-date collaboration interfaces. This is a responsibility that WINk intends to tackle head-on by providing high-performance DApp creation tools. 

On the platform, users can choose the most premium games, with the certainty that their money is safe in a rigorously tested environment. The user community will be actively involved in projects and have a say on what updates to be made. 

With that, the WINk ecosystem will support the following features.

#1. Developer Portal

WINk will enable the latest software development kits, application programming interfaces, and the latest technology to seamlessly connect everything. This photo will also feature tools for developers to use the blockchain, join mining pools, use social tools, and more. With these, both experienced and beginner developers can enjoy the creative process – for the benefit of the whole network. 

#2. DApp Store

The DApp store is where developers will deploy their DApps distribution. If a DApp passes the approval, it will be listed in the store. The editorial team at WINk will also review DApps and provide feedback to users from time to time. 

Developers can also pay for ads on the DApps to attract new users to their games. Part of the payment will go to WIN holders based on how much Win Power they have. 

#3. Payment Services

Developers can deploy WINk’s payment service into their applications, making for easy and frictionless payments. And users can make payments with crypto, as well as with their credit and debit cards. They can also withdraw their crypto to Fiat money at any time. 

#4. Wallet 

The WINk team will create first-class wallet services that are optimized for the WINk ecosystem and community. There’s also plans to expand access for the platform so that any crypto holder, no matter which crypto it is, can take part in the ecosystem. 

#5. Regulatory Compliance

The WINk team will play by the regulations for different jurisdictions and obtain the requisite licenses to operate in these jurisdictions. This is geared towards preventing the platform from being shut down by authorities and so that the platform continues to provide value to gaming fans all over the world. 

Some of WINk’s Key Products

As a gaming platform, WINK has already on-boarded a variety of super fun products for users. Some of these include the following: 

#1. Dice 

Dice fans can be assured of a good time on the WINk platform. The game was the platform’s flagship product when it started in 2018. 

#2. Moon

Care to experience some of that exhilaration of the crypto market? Then Moon is the game for you. You get paid by a multiplier that begins at 1x and can go all the way to 250x. The multiplier increases slowly but can come crashing down to the lows of zero at any point. You can cash out at any multiplier level, depending on your appetite risk.

#3. Ring and Duel 

This game lets you “cross your fingers and go for the gold.” The game is pretty simple, but you stand a chance to reap a 50x payday. The game involves choosing which color you think the wheel will land on. Grey rewards you two times the wager, red three times, blue five times, and gold 50 times. 

#4. Slots

WINk has teamed up with first-rate slots machine developers to give users a genuine casino experience. Games like Bison Trail are a ubiquitous feature in the casino world, and now you can enjoy it, together with over 30 more slot games. 

#5. Table Games 

If you’re a table game fan, you find all your favorites, including sic bo, blackjack, roulette, baccarat, and Russian poker. 

#6. Poker 

WINk also features poker, and the platform helps to add more exciting features like tournaments to its already vibrant poker atmosphere. WINk hopes to become the go-to blockchain poker hub, injecting decentralization, transparency, and affordability to the game. 

#7. Hyper snakes 

Developed by MixMarvel, the acclaimed creator of Hyper dragons, Hyper snakes is a thrilling and competitive game that allows you to win crypto just for participating. You can also stake TRX and gain access to compete for massive prizes. The Hyper snakes game’s mechanics go like this: control your avatar, connect dots to become the biggest snake in the arena, and defeat other snakes to walk away alive – but only if you’re good enough. 

The WINk Token 

WIN is the native cryptocurrency of the WINk platform. It’s based on Tron’s blockchain, which the team picked due to its high scalability and free transactions. WIN holders are the core users of the platform and are rewarded for their support of the token. The token has the following uses: 

  •  As a staking and governance mechanism
  • When users HODL WIN, they help preserve resources by decreasing the cost of transactions
  • Much like in gaming establishments in the real world, WIN token holders will gain access to exclusive experiences and treats
  • WIN holders will get the benefit of gameplay discounts in various forms

WIN’s Distribution

WIN’s distribution was done in the following fashion: 

  • 3.75% to the project’s reserve account
  • 5% to the launchpad sale
  • 7% to future platform development
  • 9% to gaming partnerships
  • 6.25% to strategic partnerships
  • 5% to the airdrop program
  • 12% to the initial community
  • 15% to the seed sale
  • 10% to the team
  • 27% to the ecosystem reserve

Tokenomics of WIN

As of September 2020, WIN traded at $0.000106, with a market cap of $33,356,866 that placed it at #187 in market rank. The token’s 24-hour volume was $2,628,280, its circulating supply was 313,607,571,387, and its total supply was 999 billion. WIN’s all-time high and all-time low was $0. 000472 (Aug 01, 2019) and $0.000041 (March 13, 2020) respectively. 

Buying and Storing WIN 

You can find WIN tokens in a variety of reputable exchanges, including Binance, Poloniex, PoloniDEX, DigiFinex, BitHumb, DragonEX, KuCoin, JustSwap, HitBTC, and more. The token can be found paired with USDT, TRX, and BNB. 

WIN is based on Tron, meaning it can be stored on any wallet that supports TRX. Examples include TronLink, imToken, Trust Wallet, Ledger, Huobi, and Cobo Wallet. 

Final Thoughts

Gaming fans are guaranteed a ton of fun in the safe, secure, decentralized environment that is WINk. Not only does it feature your favorite games, but you also get to earn crypto for simply participating. The WINk platform is worth keeping an eye on.

Categories
Crypto Guides

Understanding Crypto Trading Bots & The Pros/Cons of Using Them

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

Crypto trading bots are gaining popularity with rapid digitalization happening all across the globe. The automated trading programs built and designed for trading different cryptocurrencies are called trading bots. They have gained popularity because cryptocurrency trading has been expanding like never before.

Trading bots are very useful and can serve ample benefits because they are programmed to study and analyze complex data, including prices, market volume, trends, and trades. Also, a trading bot is employed 24*7, and the user will not have to worry about the holdings all the time. Crypto trading bots are generally used by users who do not have the physical time to analyze the market all the time. 

One should also remember that not all the cryptocurrency trading bots available in the markets are the same. There are only a few features that are found common in all of them. The crypto trading bots implement four aspects when they work i.e.

  • Backtesting
  • Strategy implementation
  • Execution
  • Job scheduler

Backtesting collects different market data, like slippage and fees, for analysis purposes. During strategy implementation, different strategies are implemented for generating returns. Execution allows users to test their ideas and strategies in real-time. Once the execution is done, then its time for the automation of the entire process and set-up a job scheduler.

Why can Crypto Trading Bots be the best decision? 

A Crypto trading bot brings a plethora of benefits to help a user. Apart from 24*7 monitoring of market data, these bots can analyze pre-defined criteria as well as complex metrics in a short period of time. A bot is responsible for conducting a lot of multi-tasking, but the best thing is that this multi-tasking is super-efficient. Another reason why crypto trading bots can be the best decision is the fact that they are immune to the emotional side of trading and human errors. Hence, a bot will never trade out of greed or disappointment. 

Why can Crypto Trading Bots be the worst decision? 

There are a lot of advantages that have been discussed until now, but sometimes, a crypto trading bot can become the worst decision of a user. To start with, they are extremely expensive. Hence, before choosing a crypto trading bot, it is necessary to conduct proper research and ensure that the bot they intend to use is reliable and profitable. There are a lot of developers who provide dodgy bots that cannot be trusted.

If a user is not experienced with trading in cryptocurrency, then it is not advisable to use a bot because it requires ace level skills to do configuration and monitoring. Also, if there is a failure to set stop-loss limits, then it can cause a lot of troubles for the inexperienced users. There are also some security concerns in the past associated with cryptocurrency trading bot. For example, Bitconnect has been labeled as one of the biggest cryptocurrency scams, and it was claimed that a trading bot was in use. 

Conclusion

Trading bots have different advantages as well as disadvantages. Going with a bot can either be your best decision or the worst decision. However, if a user has professional experience and expertise in configuration and monitoring, then he or she can use a trading bot to gain maximum benefits. Doing the proper research before selecting a bot is also important. 

Categories
Crypto Videos

The Craze Behind DeFi – Explained!

https://youtu.be/VgFS4GWT5EA

https://youtu.be/VgFS4GWT5EA

 

The Craze Behind DeFi – Explained

There are many reasons that the DeFi sector has been experiencing a surge of interest lately.
First off, we need to mention that the regulators have been behind the curve in terms of DeFi, which has been able to flourish in this vacuum. As an example, in traditional unsecured lending, a legal requirement that lenders and borrowers know one another’s identities exists. On top of that, the lender always assesses the borrower’s ability to repay their debt. In DeFi, on the other hand, there are no such requirements. Instead, every part of the process is about mutual trust and preserving privacy.

Regulators always have to weigh the delicate balance between deterring innovation and failing to protect society from risks. In July, the US SEC made a major shift towards embracing decentralized finance by approving an Ethereum-based fund called Arca.
This is welcome and extremely important since one of the major challenges with financial innovation is the hostile environment that is created by archaic regulations. This had caused many cryptos and DeFi projects to fail, including major ones such as Basis, which returned $133 million to investors back in 2018 when it concluded that it couldn’t work within the SEC rules.


The second reason for the DeFi craze is that mainstream players are not-so-slowly and surely getting involved. Many financial institutions are beginning to accept DeFi, as well as seeking ways to participate. Seventy-five of the world’s biggest banks are now trialing blockchain technology to speed up their payment system as part of the Interbank Information Network, led by JP Morgan, Royal Bank of Canada, and ANZ. Even though most of these banks are testing centralized versions of blockchain, this is one step closer to DeFi than the current system.
Major asset management funds are starting to get interested in DeFi seriously as well, with the most prominent one being Grayscale, the world’s largest crypto investment fund.

The third reason for the craze is the effect of COVID-19. The pandemic has evidently driven global interest rates even lower, with some jurisdictions, such as the eurozone, now offering negative interest rates.
DeFi potentially offers much higher returns on investment to savers than high-street institutions. As an example, Compound has been offering an annualized interest rate of 6.75% for people that save with stablecoin Tether. Not only do you get the interest, but you also receive Comp tokens, which adds to the attraction of this offer. With as much as two-thirds of people without bank accounts having a smartphone, DeFi also has the potential to offer its services to the so-called unbanked.

One final reason for the surge in people putting money into DeFi projects is FOMO – fear of missing out. Many tokens are worth nothing or very close to nothing in terms of their utility, so we see a lot of irrational investment and pure speculation. But, people see certain tokens rise in value exponentially and want to turn their life around as well.
Like it or not, we are certainly heading towards a new financial system that will be more liberalized and decentralized than before, and DeFi will be at the forefront of these changes.

Categories
Crypto Videos

What Is DeFi – Beginners Edition!

https://youtu.be/_dtgkxL4lAg

https://youtu.be/_dtgkxL4lAg

 

What Is DeFi –Beginners Edition

One area in cryptocurrencies that have recently attracted huge attention is certainly DeFi or decentralized finance. DeFi refers to financial services using smart contracts, automated enforceable agreements that work without intermediaries like banks or lawyers. Instead, they use online blockchain technology.
Between September 2017 and now, the total value locked up in DeFi contracts managed to go from $2.1 million to over $7 billion. The hype it has gotten in the past couple of months has risen over $3 billion.

This has, in turn, driven a massive rise in the valuation of all the tradable tokens that are using DeFi smart contracts. The total market cap of DeFi projects now exceeds $15 billion, almost doubling the value it had in July. Numerous tokens have exploded in value this year. For example, Synthetix Network Token has increased its valuation by more than 20-fold, while Aave did an almost 200-fold increase. So if you had bought $1,000 worth of Aave tokens in August 2019, your position would now be worth nearly $200,000.

So why is DeFi so disruptive, and what does it bring to the table?

DeFi projects are mostly built on the Ethereum blockchain network. They are the next step in the financial technology revolution that began 11 years ago with Bitcoin. One area in which these decentralized applications have taken off is cryptocurrency trading on DEX’s (short for decentralized exchanges) such as Uniswap. These exchanges are entirely peer-to-peer, without any person, company, or other institution behind the platform.
Other DeFi services allow you to:
Borrow and lend cryptocurrencies in order to earn interest using platforms such as Aave or Compound Bet on the outcome of certain events using Augur Create and exchange real-world asset derivatives such as currencies or precious metals on platforms such as Synthetix.
Buy stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrencies that are pegged to the value of a particular currency or commodity.

DeFi is often called “Lego money” because you can stack decentralized applications together to maximize your returns. As an example, you could buy a stablecoin such as DAI and then lend it on the Compound platform to earn interest.
Though many of today’s decentralized applications are niche, future applications could have a massive impact on everyone’s day-to-day life. As an example, you will probably be able to purchase a house or a piece of land through a DeFi platform under a mortgage smart-contract whereby you repay the price over a certain number of years.

The deeds would be tokenized on a blockchain ledger as collateral, and they would shift to the lender automatically in the event of you defaulting on your repayments. Because no lawyers or banks would be required in the process, it could make the whole process of buying and selling houses cheaper, smoother, and easier.

To learn more on how DeFi works, check out our next video where we will talk about the current DeFi craze and how it came to be.

 

Categories
Blockchain and DLT

What Exactly is the Blockchain?

All cryptocurrencies operate using blockchain technology or Blockchain (BC). If you are considering a long-term investment in a cryptocurrency, we recommend that you first try to have basic knowledge about the blockchain technology, as well as about the technological platform on which your chosen cryptocurrency works. Even if you’re just poking around in short-term speculation […]

All cryptocurrencies operate using blockchain technology or Blockchain (BC). If you are considering a long-term investment in a cryptocurrency, we recommend that you first try to have basic knowledge about the blockchain technology, as well as about the technological platform on which your chosen cryptocurrency works. Even if you’re just poking around in short-term speculation […]

All cryptocurrencies operate using blockchain technology or Blockchain (BC). If you are considering a long-term investment in a cryptocurrency, we recommend that you first try to have basic knowledge about the blockchain technology, as well as about the technological platform on which your chosen cryptocurrency works. Even if you’re just poking around in short-term speculation or trade and not long-term investments, it’s an excellent idea to understand the basics of how blockchain technology works.

Blockchain’s technology is an encrypted, decentralized, peer-to-peer database. Its virtue lies in the fact that it is decentralized. For example, let us say that a stock exchange has a single database with all the owners of each share that is exchanged in it, and that is constantly updated. The entire database is stored in a single physical location: a server. What happens if the database is hacked, destroyed, or corrupted by a computer virus or a natural disaster? Of course, the database is likely to be at least backed up at another location, but it remains relatively vulnerable and can be easily manipulated.

Block strings, however, are decentralized databases “peer-to-peer” (Peer-to-Peer or P2P), where content files are divided, encrypt and store differentially on thousands of nodes around the world that communicate with each other to produce a seamless array. This makes fraud or piracy extremely difficult, as changes in transaction and ownership records must be agreed by a majority of all parts (blocks) to be valid. This is why cryptocurrency transactions take some time to process, as any changes to the Ledger or Ledger, which is publicly distributed, must be agreed upon and verified on all sides. This solves the problem of “double spending” which could naturally affect any digital currency. There is not a single central authority or server that can manipulate this.

Blockchain technology is considered a potentially “disruptive” technology, with the power to change the world. It has many potential applications and, if implemented, should replace the power of any central authority with rules that cannot be ignored: there will be a government, but a government where abuse, embezzlement, or bribery cannot be accommodated. There may be “forks” (forks), an issue that we will see a little later. They actually change the rules, but at least they are open and transparent to everyone.

Exciting Cryptocurrencies Why Should I Get Excited About Cryptocurrencies?

Cryptocurrencies, cryptodivisas, or simply cryptos (and blockchain technology in general) is new and has the potential to significantly change the way the world works economically. Early investors or speculators in new, successful, and disruptive technology can get spectacular returns, but not without risk. For example, $10,000 invested in Microsoft shares in 1986 would have been worth more than $3 million in 25 years. The same amount invested in Apple shares in 1980 would now be worth approximately 4 million. Then, in the medium to long term, even relatively small investments could yield significant sums that could change our lives.

Looking at a shorter time frame, the most important cryptocurrencies fluctuate dramatically in value, as they are subject to an enormous amount of speculative short-term interest. There has been considerable buying and selling by investors during 2017, maintaining high price volatility in cryptocurrency markets. It is statistically likely that, if a financial asset has gone up a lot, it will soon continue to rise or fall by a similar amount due to “clusters” or clusters of volatility. If today’s volatility is high, It’s also very likely to be bigger tomorrow. This means for sure that there is likely to be opportunities to speculate on cryptocurrencies during 2020, either by purchase or by sale.

At the beginning of this section, we have said that cryptocurrency is something new and potentially disturbing. The disturbing potential lies in the fact that cryptocurrency could completely replace national currencies, such as the euro and the dollar, as cornerstones of the global financial system. Central banks and governments have the capacity to devalue, thereby reducing our savings, eliminating their ability to act as a “reserve of value” and forcing us to become speculators until we are old. If cryptocurrency is safe and fully interchangeable, who wouldn’t rather save money on cryptocurrencies?

Politically, cryptodivisa is a libertarian and monetarist dream, so if you like those political philosophies, you’ll surely appreciate what cryptocurrencies can offer. If national governments cannot or do not want to stop cryptocurrencies, it seems likely that the global financial system will change back to something like the gold standard, which would probably eliminate the worst excesses of inflation and manipulation. However, many economists argue that the gold standard caused its own problems of excessive deflation, unnecessarily prolonging economic depressions.

You may have heard of the War on Cash, which refers to the growing shift away from cash to debit and credit cards, which has been promoted by many governments because restricting or replacing cash transactions makes life difficult for criminals and terrorists. Governments must also see another potential advantage: without cash, it will be easy to force negative interest rates on their populations, if they so desire, either openly (as in Switzerland and Japan now) or covertly, through bank charges. As cryptocurrency is truly private, its full acceptance should eliminate the concept of negative interest rates.

By now, you will probably understand why cryptocurrencies are highly controversial and why their widespread adoption as a means of change will face severe opposition from governments (as we see now in China). It is possible that governments try to take control of the dominant cryptocurrencies, or even create their own versions! Governments are likely to say that they need to maintain control over currencies in order to prevent tax evasion and crime, which, realistically, are valid concerns.

The best question remains whether governments will have the ability to stop or block the use of cryptocurrencies within their borders. If they can’t, then this is likely to be a large long-term investment. If the world’s governments can find how to block or restrict the use of cryptocurrencies, in that case, the investment potential, of course, decreases. 

Categories
Crypto Guides

Is Investing In Binance Coin a Good Decision In 2020?

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

Binance coin is a widely known cryptocurrency made by the Binance exchange. It is by far the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and offers a wide range of crypto-to-crypto pairs. This cryptocurrency runs on the Ethereum blockchain with ERC 20 standard. Binance coin is also responsible for expanding the scope of the operation of the Binance exchange because the currency supports various utilities on the platform like paying for exchange fees, trading fees, listing fees, and other fees that are payable on the Binance exchange. 

It was made available to the users for the first time during an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) on July 25, 2017. Angel investors were offered 10% of the BNB tokens, the founding team was offered 40% of the tokens, and the various other participants were offered the remaining 50% of the tokens through the ICO process. The funds raised through the ICO process were planned to be allocated for various purposes like: 

  • Branding and marketing of Binance
  • Development of the Binance platform.
  • Upgradation of the Binance ecosystem. 

During April 2018, the market cap of the Binance coin was $1.4 billion.

The Binance coin has also collected support with the help of partnerships that have helped the usage period of the coins. One such partnership was done with Uplive, a premier live-video streaming platform of Asia that sells virtual gifts to the users in exchange for BNB tokens to an extensive user base of 20 million on Uplive. 

Is Binance Coin a Good investment or not?

There are a lot of factors that help to determine whether an asset will be a good investment or not. Market structure, daily trade volume, and USPs (Unique Selling Points) are some of the most relevant factors to make this judgment. Market structure can be defined as the macro price activity of an underlying asset. In the case of BNB, the market structure seems promising.

The currency took off in the year 2019 at an approximate price of $6 and climbed its all-time high price of $38.54 as of June 21, 2019. After that, the price has been significantly retraced along with the rest of the cryptocurrency market and has maintained a good price. Also, at any point in time, the price action of BNB coin remains above the key price levels as well as market structure. 

The daily trading volume of BNB is also impressive. At the time of writing this article, the last 24-hour trading volume $2,193,941,846. Apart from the market structure and daily volume, there is an important factor, i.e. tokenomics, that can help to determine whether an asset will be a good investment or not.

Tokenomics means the design of the cryptocurrency and its characteristics that impact its value. These characteristics include game theory, economic incentives, computer science, and cryptography. The tokenomics of Binance coin are very strong. It has been designed in a way that allows easy adoption and utilization, which increases the price of the coin even more. 

Conclusion

Binance Coin (BNB) is a popular cryptocurrency and can always be found ranked on the top 10 spots of the CoinMarketCap platform. It is a leading token in the crypto exchange ecosystem and is utilized on a large scale on the Binance platform. If Binance will continue to invest efforts in expanding the products, it has to offer and onboards new users. Then there won’t be any reason to classify Binance coin under the ‘not a good investment’ category.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Introducing TomoChain (TOMO)

Ethereum brought a ton of possibilities to the blockchain space. Before it, the world didn’t know that blockchain could be used for so much more than a digital currency platform. The Ethereum initiated support for decentralized applications (DApps) – a new kind of applications that are totally free of any kind of centralized control. This means users also have total control over their privacy and data. 

Ethereum brought a ton of possibilities to the blockchain space. Before it, the world didn’t know that blockchain could be used for so much more than a digital currency platform. The Ethereum initiated support for decentralized applications (DApps) – a new kind of applications that are totally free of any kind of centralized control. This means users also have total control over their privacy and data. 

Ethereum brought a ton of possibilities to the blockchain space. Before it, the world didn’t know that blockchain could be used for so much more than a digital currency platform. The Ethereum initiated support for decentralized applications (DApps) – a new kind of applications that are totally free of any kind of centralized control. This means users also have total control over their privacy and data. 

Thanks to DApps, totally unprecedented types of markets are now in play. From virtual real estate to the ability to breed cute virtual cats, we’re seeing the idea of games and making money pushed to new and exciting boundaries.

But as with any emerging technology, Ethereum faces serious scalability issues. No single event illustrates this better than the CryptoKitties saga, where the game grew so popular as to nearly bring the Ethereum network to its knees. 

Several solutions have emerged in the past few years to address this issue. Most of these are independent blockchain projects that want to support DApps in a far more scalable environment than Ethereum’s. 

One of these solutions is Singapore-based TomoChain. Launched in Dec 2018 and, TomoChain intends to tackle the problem of blockchain scalability. So, how is it different? What unique solution does it bring to the table? In this guide, we’ll answer those questions in a detailed version. We’ll also look at the platform’s native crypto: TOMO. 

Understanding TomoChain

TomoChain is a public blockchain ecosystem that aims to support the highest levels of privacy, usability, and speed for various projects. The TomoChain team wants to accomplish this while still adhering to the tenet of decentralization. To do this, they’ve deployed a Proof of Stake Voting (PoSV) consensus mechanism. 

TomoChain says their mission is “to accelerate the onboarding of millions of users by empowering today’s applications with technology that masks the friction of blockchain all the while retaining its underlying benefits.” 

To achieve this, TomoChain employs a variety of features, including: 

  • A PoSV Consensus: this is a consensus mechanism enabling fair voting, fast confirmation times, and rigorous security 
  • Double Validation: This involves confirming the authenticity of a block twice. When a masternode creates a block, another randomly selected masternode must verify it before it’s added to the blockchain.
  • TomoZ: A frictionless payment protocol through which users can pay for transaction fees
  • TomoZ: A highly-secure and decentralized crypto exchange protocol
  • TomoP: A privacy-oriented transaction protocol featuring an anonymizer and high transaction speeds

We’ll be looking at these features in more depth from here on out. 

TomoChain’s PoSV and Masternodes

The TomoChain network is maintained by 150 masternodes via the PoSV consensus. Masternodes are participants in the network who are chosen by token-holders to produce and confirm blocks. To become a master node, you need to stake at least $50,000 TOMO tokens. 

Each block creation period is known as epoch. Masternodes take every block through the double validation process. After every epoch, voters who voted in the participating masternodes are rewarded, as are the masternodes. 

Generally, for every block, the rewards are distributed as follows: 

  • 40% for masternodes
  • 50% to voters, with each voter’s reward based on how much contribution the masternode they voted for, has made for the last 900 block
  • 10% goes to the Masternode Foundation

Double Validation

TomoChain utilizes a double validation process to achieve an almost unassailable security level. When a block is produced by a masternode, it must be verified by one more masternode before it’s pushed to the blockchain. The second verifying master node is randomly selected from the pool of masternodes. 

The double validation mechanism enhances the security and stability of the TomoChain platform. It reduces the probability of hard forks, nothing-at-stake attacks, and ”garbage blocks”. 

Some Decentralized Apps by TomoChain

  • TomoMaster: this is a staking DApp that allows token-holders to vie to become a masternode, or to vote for such candidates. This is accomplished through the use of wallets such as TomoWallet, Ledger, MetaMask, and so on
  • TomoSwap: this is a decentralized exchange protocol integrating Kyber Network. With TomoSwap, users can seamlessly exchange assets among each other and various applications
  • TomoPool: this is a service that allows users to earn dividends on their staking yield
  • MaxBet: this is a decentralized, secure, and transparent gambling game 

What’s Tomo Token? 

TOMO is the native cryptocurrency of the TomoChain network. It was initially created as an ERC20 token before moving to the mainnet in Dec 2018. TOMO plays essential roles in the TomoChain ecosystem, for instance: 

  • As a reserve currency for DApps
  • As funding for the future development of the TomoChain protocol
  • As an incentivizing mechanism for developers to contribute to the ecosystem
  • As a governance mechanism of the network

TOMO was distributed in the following manner: 

  • 15.65% went to the seed sale
  • 31.45% went to the private sale
  • 4% went to the public sale
  • 15.9% went to the team and advisors
  • 16% went to the token treasury reserve
  • 17% went to the mining rewards reserve

Key Metrics of TOMO

As of September 3, 2020, TOMO traded at $0.813238, with a market cap of $58,396,765, a 24-hour volume of $10,737,756, a circulating supply of 71, 807, 725 and a total supply of 100 million. TOMO’s highest-ever and the lowest-ever price is $2.30 (April 29, 2018), and $0.140721 (March 13, 2020). 

How to Buy and Store TOMO

TOMO token can be purchased from a range of exchanges, including Binance, BitForex, MXC, KuCoin, TomoDEX, WazirX, VINEX Network, Gate.io, CoinDCX, Beaxy, BitAsset, FTX, ATOMARS, and more. 

TOMO tokens can be stored in any of these wallets: TomoWallet, Atomic Wallet, Coinomi Wallet, MetaMask, Trust Wallet, and industry favorites Ledger Nano and Trezor.

Final Thoughts

TomoChain brings new concepts to the blockchain space like PoSV consensus and double validation. These and more innovative protocols by the TomoChain team sets it apart from the sea of projects looking to best Ethereum. It remains to be seen whether the project can thrive in the ultra-competitive crypto and blockchain space.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s Chromia (CHR)? A Befinner’s Guide

Decentralized applications (DApps) are key to the blockchain revolution. DApps are a new kind of applications that grants more control to users and are not beholden to an owner or any central authority. DApps are possible thanks to blockchain tech. Blockchain is synonymous with decentralization, advanced cryptographic security, and worldwide reach. This presents a ton of possibilities for developers everywhere. 

Decentralized applications (DApps) are key to the blockchain revolution. DApps are a new kind of applications that grants more control to users and are not beholden to an owner or any central authority. DApps are possible thanks to blockchain tech. Blockchain is synonymous with decentralization, advanced cryptographic security, and worldwide reach. This presents a ton of possibilities for developers everywhere. 

Decentralized applications (DApps) are key to the blockchain revolution. DApps are a new kind of applications that grants more control to users and are not beholden to an owner or any central authority. DApps are possible thanks to blockchain tech. Blockchain is synonymous with decentralization, advanced cryptographic security, and worldwide reach. This presents a ton of possibilities for developers everywhere. 

Ethereum, often referred to as the second generation of blockchain, introduced the idea of decentralized applications. It showed the world that blockchain could be used for more than money. For this reason, the DApp space owes a ton of gratitude to Ethereum.

However, Ethereum is far from the perfect DApp platform. And this has implications for not just user experience, but also the DApp industry. 

Chromia, formerly known as Chromapolis, is a blockchain effort wanting to improve the experience of DApp users. It takes the approach of a ‘relational’ blockchain to offer better security, scalability, and affordability. 

In this guide, we’ll look at the Chromia project together with its platform token: CHR. 

Breaking Down Chromia

Chromia is a decentralized application platform that seeks to address the shortcomings of such platforms that came before it. Chromia wants to power a new generation of DApps that can scale further than current platforms can allow. 

Existing platforms, such as Ethereum, started the game. Other DApp platforms have sprung up through the years, seeking to improve the developer and consumer experience one way or another. But Ethereum remains the most popular and the most go-to platform for developers. However, the platform has yet to sort out so many of the limitations that users experience on the platform – from high fees to slow confirmation times. 

Things like these prevent DApps from going mainstream, and with it, the blockchain. The Chromia team believes that for DApps to go mainstream, the entire blockchain concept needs to be rethought. As such, it wants to create a platform that will power DApps to millions of users, improve user experience, and afford developers a more interactive and creative environment. 

To achieve this, Chromia relies on what it calls the ‘relational ‘blockchain.’ The whole idea behind the relational blockchain is a solution that appeals to the real world, to the everyday user like you and me. Chromia expounds on the concept: “it is all about…combining blockchain into traditional databases creating something that people actually can relate to in an environment that people are familiar with and in language that everyone can learn.” 

Issues with Existing Platforms

Ethereum broke ground with its support for decentralized applications. However, it faces several problems that hold back its ability to exploit this to the highest potential. DApp developers face the following problems: 

  • Limited capacity and expensive fees – Ethereum’s capacity and scalability is limited, meaning the network cannot handle large volumes of transactions. This makes it expensive for developers to create applications, especially for the more complex applications
  • The smart contract language by Ethereum has several loopholes, a factor that has resulted in security breaches and loss of funds
  • Contract upgrades have to be implemented in a separate layer, which is more resource and time-consuming and makes things more complex
  • Users have to pay for every single interaction with DApps, which, combined with high fees, makes for unsatisfying user experiences

Features of Chromia

The Chromia network aims to play the role of a shared database in the most optimized way possible. This database features the following: 

  • A relational model – Transaction history of the blockchain as well as t application state are kept in a relational database, which optimizes several qualities such as consistency
  • Relational programming language – Applications on Chromia are written in a relational programming language which meshes very well with the relational database model
  • Horizontal scaling – this means every application runs on its own blockchain. Each blockchain is maintained by a subset of nodes, which means it’s possible to increase efficiency by multiplying the number of nodes
  • Rich indexing – this means applications can retrieve data fast from the nodes as and when needed, and they can perform complex transactions without a drop in performance
  • High input and output throughput – processes such as system updates occur in the relational database, allowing DApps to process huge amounts of data and operations
  • Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerant (PBFT) consensus mechanism that confirms blocks in just three seconds
  • First-class decentralized applications – traditionally, DApps are highly-dependent on smart contracts. This is not the case with Chromia, where developers wield more control over the process
  • Allocation of resources to DApps – Chromia focuses on allocating funds to DApp development rather than to contracts, affording developers more flexibility and control

Chromia’s Current Projects

Chromia is currently undertaking several projects to advance its brand. Let’s take a look at some of them.

#1. Chromunity 

‘Chromunity’ is the moniker the Chromia team has assigned to its loyal base of users. The Chromunity operates entirely on top of Chromia’s relational blockchain and is the project’s iteration of a social media platform. Unlike centralized social media platforms, Chromunity members can engage on their own terms, with complete control over their data and identities. 

#2. Mines of Dalarnia

Mines of Dalarnia is an action-adventure game where you guide your avatar through multiple blocks of earth to discover a variety of cool minerals. You can even buy virtual real estate in the game. 

#3. Green Assets Wallet 

Chromia’s Green Assets Wallet is the first-ever blockchain platform green bonds, which are bonds that are specifically for raising environmental safety funds. On the platform, bond issuers can carry out impact reporting and communicate their achievements to market investors. On their part, investors can access transparent data on-field results. The wallet is Chromia’s first enterprise decentralized application. 

Main Features of Chromia

1.Block Explorer

Chromia features an in-house block explorer that enables users to retrieve data from blocks on the blockchain fast. The explorer is powered by the network’s relational blockchain technology.

2. Chromia Vault

Chromia Vault enables users to manage their DApps and asset portfolio more safely and effectively – kind of in an ‘under one roof.’ It’s designed so that you can move from one application to another without logging out or canceling any transaction.

3. Chromia Vault Single Sign on (SSO)

The Single Sign On is a feature that lets users log in without having to enter a password all the time. This, and without compromising on security. 

Chromia Token (CHR)

CHR is the native cryptocurrency of the Chromia network. Users can use it in these ways:

  • As payment for transaction fees
  • As rewards to block producers
  • As compensation to investors of various DApp projects
  • As a source of income opportunity for DApp developers

Distribution of CHR

  • 19.40% went to the private sale
  • 4% went to the IEO sale tokens
  • 2.98% went to the team
  • 4.5% went to founders
  • 1.92% want to advisors
  • 25% went to the promotion fund
  • 37.2% went to the ecosystem fund
  • 3% went to the Automatic Conversion Contract
  • 2% went to the compensation pool

Key Metrics

Interested in purchasing the Chromia token? If so, see how it’s doing in the market. As of Sept 3, 2020, CHR traded at $0. 052745, with a market cap of $21,924,935 that placed it at #339 in the market. The token’s 24-hour volume was $4,673,071, with a circulating, total, and maximum supply of 415,676,699,478,191,731, and 1 billion, respectively. The token’s highest and lowest price ever was $0. 128535 (May 28, 2019), and $0.008369 (Mar 13, 2020) respectively. 

Buying and Storing 

CHR is listed in various reputable exchanges, including Binance, CoinDXC, Huobi Global, Bilaxy, BitHumb, HotBit, KuCoin, WazirX, BitMax, Poloniex, Bittrex, Upbit, BitHumb, and Bilaxy. 

CHR is currently an ERC-20 token, which means it can be stored in any Ethereum-compatible wallet. There are many great options, including MyEtherWallet, Guarda, Mist, Exodus, Edge, Trezor, and Ledger. 

Final Thoughts 

Chromia introduces the unique concept of a relational blockchain to solve the thorny issues plaguing existing DApp platforms. Even if that doesn’t reel users in, its exciting projects should do the trick. Chromia is one to watch.

Categories
Crypto Guides

What Should You Know About BitDegree & Its Usage?

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

Cryptocurrency projects mostly start with Initial Coin Offering (ICO). Through ICOs, companies in the cryptocurrency industry raise funds to launch new coins or services in the industry. The trio of Arnas Stuopelis, Andrius Putna, and Roberto Santana was previously serving web hosting company “Hostinger” presented BitDegree ICO to the world. This ICO managed to convince over 12 thousand contributors and raised 32 thousand ETH. In this system, students are offered with the study course and paid with a BitDegree token in return for studying. 

What is BitDegree?

BitDegree is the world’s first e-learning platform powered by Ethereum blockchain. The goal of BitDegree is to gamify the learning process with fun and rewards. Here, gamification in academics means students will be awarded cryptocurrency for completing any study course. Every academic activity performed by the student will be saved in their BDG account and can be accessed anytime and anywhere.

The BitDegree platform not only gives incentives but also provides study material for easy understanding. The official portal is available in English, Russian, and Portuguese language. Is there any other better platform for study, where you are paid with cryptocurrency tokens for studying? No, It’s only possible with the BitDegree platform.  

You can also earn tokens by referring BitDegree to your friends. At every level, you need to qualify an online test to enter the next stage, and qualifying students are rewarded with “BitDegree” tradable tokens. To offer merit students with employment opportunities, BitDegree recently collaborated with companies like Huffpost, Marketwatch, Mogul, etc. After you complete your studies, you can trade with the currency earned, or you can also ask for a cash-out.  

How to Use BitDegree?

BitDegree is a utility token, which means the holder can use it for payments but doesn’t have any voting rights in the company. All community members like teachers, learners, and employers work together and pay each other with BDG token for their efforts. BitDegree accounts can be operated on mobile and desktop as well. Almost all courses are free except for a few professional courses which are available at a subsidized fee. 

Some of the important highlights of the BitDegree portal are: 

  • Learners will be rewarded with tokens for course completion.
  • Learners will pay teachers and for courses via BDG tokens.
  • Donors and employers will issue a token to learners for specific courses.

The payment system is handled through a smart contract system. Once a specific task is completed automatically without any error or delay, the reward is delivered through a smart contract. In computer, conditions are entered in the code like:

IF John completes 6 lessons THEN send John 300 BDG Tokens

BitDegree is classified as an ERC-20 token, and you don’t need an ETH wallet to store your earned token as it will be stored in your BitDegree account itself. To earn from BDG, you can convert it to blockchain for cryptocurrency trading and get them stored in an Ethereum wallet. 

Conclusion

Bitdegree brought huge transparency to the education system and is the first e-learning platform integrated with blockchain technology. It has introduced innovations and developments in the landscape of education. BitDegree’s global education revolution is offering everyone a common platform to learn and share skills to grow together.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s CocosBCX All About?

The game industry was one of the earliest industries to adopt blockchain tech. And as the years go by, blockchain developers are discovering more frontiers for blockchain applications in the industry. 

The game industry was one of the earliest industries to adopt blockchain tech. And as the years go by, blockchain developers are discovering more frontiers for blockchain applications in the industry. 

The game industry was one of the earliest industries to adopt blockchain tech. And as the years go by, blockchain developers are discovering more frontiers for blockchain applications in the industry. 

Blockchain offers a lot for the gaming community: better safety and security, a decentralized gaming environment, and no geographical barriers. 

CocosBCX (CocosBlockchain Expedition) is one of the gaming solutions’ effort to emerge from the blockchain space. The platform provides a fairer, safer, and more interactive gaming environment for both developers and players. And players don’t just play – they too can make money from the experience. 

In this article, we break down CocosBCX and how it hopes to vastly improve the gaming experience for gamers across the globe. We’ll also see its unique approach to the thorny ‘blockchain trilemma’ issue. And lastly, we’ll look closely at the platform’s token and its role in the picture. 

Understanding CocosBCX

Launched in November 2017, CocosBCX is a blockchain endeavor to provide a decentralized, safer, and more dynamic environment for game developers. It features visualized development kits with which developers can create games graphically in a blockchain environment. And they get to do this without dealing with the technical part of the blockchain – which removes the barriers of entry for developers around the world. 

CocosBCX says its mission is to “bring users a whole new gaming experience, unprecedented gaming status, and with all the assets obtained in the games being wholly owned by the users.” 

The CocosBCX team envisions the following for game developers and players: 

  • a just, fair, and transparent environment without the unfair item drops prevalent in centralized game environments. Instead, players can save their assets permanently and securely
  • Enable developers to make money through a fair economic model supported by the blockchain
  • Provide developers with convenient and safer distribution channels for their games
  • Help players gain more from the time and energy they spend on games. This time and energy can be assetized, stored, and commercialized

Key Elements of CocosBCX

To achieve these goals, CocosBCX relies on a stack of key elements, which are: 

  1. Cocos Blockchain Expedition – It aims to create a full array of solutions for blockchain-based game development and game economy
  2. CocosChain – CocosBCX’s public blockchain, which uses the delegated proof of stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism to achieve consistency and fairness for all block witnesses
  3. NHAS-1808, an in-house token standard for both fungible and nonfungible tokens

Core Features

  1. CocosChain, which supports game-centric data, interoperability of various blockchains, and so on
  2. An environment supporting the compatibility and interoperability of various systems and blockchains
  3. A crypto exchange enabling transactions and traits of both homogeneous and non-homogeneous assets
  4. A cheat-proof mechanism complete with authentication systems that’s fair to all network players

How CocosBCX Solves the Blockchain Trilemma

CocosBCX attempts to solve the blockchain trilemma, or what it calls the ‘Impossible Triangle.’ In blockchain, the blockchain trilemma refers to the notion that a blockchain cannot support the features of decentralization, security, and scalability all at the same time. The idea is that for a blockchain to achieve two of these features, it has to sacrifice the third one. 

CocosBCX admits the complexity of the blockchain trilemma but attempts to solve it nonetheless. The team says they have “made the ‘length’ of the impossible triangle as short as possible” through several design approaches. Let’s do a run-through of how – by looking at all the three elements. 

#1. Decentralization

CocosBCX aims to achieve the highest levels of decentralization via several design principles – a DPoS mechanism, enabling a low risk for hard forks, and light nodes. 

  • A DPoS mechanism

CocosBCX utilizes an improved DPoS mechanism where all active witnesses equally participate in block generation and get equal rewards. 

  • Low forking risk 

CocosBCX’s DPoS consensus layer removes the need for miners. Unlike in a mining network where a large group of miners can hijack a large share of computing power, increasing forking risk, DPoS increases decentralization, effectively reducing the probability of forking

  • Light nodes

A light node is the opposite of a full node. Unlike a full node, a light node does not store the whole copy of the network’s data, just the most recent transaction information. A light node contributes to the network while consuming fewer resources than a full node. Such design is not only time-saving but also allows capacity for interaction with the network. Users can use a light node and get to interact with the CocosBCX blockchain. 

#2. Security

The CocosBCX network tries to achieve the maximum possible security for players. Let’s see how: 

  • Assets operation by the player only 

Things like in-game props are owned and can only be discarded by the player if they so wish

  • Multi-step verification process

Apart from the verification needed for transactions, game developers will set up a 2-step authenticator involving a random code to provide an extra layer of security

  • Modern cryptography

CocosBCX utilizes elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) to provide the highest level of security for player assets

  • Iterative smart contracts

CocosBCX supports tech updates and regular bug fixes, so that smart contracts are not just secure but also timely. 

#3. Scalability 

CocosBCX’s upper-most layer is designed to handle an entire business ecosystem with support for decentralized gaming and a game economy. The layer consists of a game engine, a conducive game creation environment, and a blockchain-based game chain that takes it global. 

DPoS Consensus Mechanism

As we’ve mentioned previously, Cocos-BCX utilizes a DPoS consensus mechanism for block generation and continuation of the network. Scheduled participants in the DPoS network are known as witnesses. At any time, a network requires a minimum of 11 active witnesses and a maximum of 101.

All active witnesses have the same block generation probability, and block generation rewards are consistent across the board. New blocks are generated every 3 seconds and are considered valid when 70% of active witnesses complete production. 

If the scheduled witness does not produce blocks, no blocks will be minted for that time slot. The network will wait for the next scheduled witness to generate blocks. The voting of witnesses is done every 12 hours. 

COCOS Token

COCOS is the native cryptocurrency of CocosBCX. It is an essential part of the network, playing the following roles: 

  • As payment for gas fee by developers
  • For staking so as to take part in the DPoS consensus
  • For staking to participate in the governance of the network

Distribution of COCOS

COCOS token was distributed as follows:

  • 6.3% went to the first private sale
  • 16.1% went to the second private sale
  • 17.0% of went to the CocosBCX team
  • 4.0% went to the project’s advisors
  • 7.6% went to the user incentives program
  • 10% went to Eco partner incentive
  • 9% went to the treasury
  • 30% will go to the DPoS reward mechanism

Key Metrics

As of September 3, 2020, COCOS traded at $0.000399 with a market cap of $15,690,510, which placed it at #398 in the market. The token has a 24-hour volume of $1,222,863, a circulating supply of 39, 326, 586, 220, and a total and maximum supply of 100 billion. Also, the coin’s highest and lowest ever price was $0.002425 (Aug 21, 2019) and 0.000194 (March 13, 2020). 

Storing and Buying CocosBCX

If you’re interested in grabbing some COCOS, you can find it in a variety of exchanges, including Binance, MXC, HotBit, Gate.io, CoinDCX, Hoo, Citex, DragonEx, HitBTC, and Sistemkoin. The coin is listed as a pair of both Fiat and cryptocurrencies such as USDT, BTC, and BNB. 

The CocosBCX team offers an official wallet available for Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, and Explorer. 

Final Thoughts

CocosBCX provides fresh blockchain-based solutions for gamers and game developers everywhere. Users can expect diligently designed solutions when it comes to decentralized, secure, and scalable gaming experience – thanks to the team’s methodical approach to the impossible triangle dilemma.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s Mithril (MITH) All About?

We live in a highly socialized internet age. Applications like Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin have a combined user base of billions. And these users utilize these platforms for the financial benefit of the platform’s owners, while they (users) walk away with nothing. This is unfair to users, especially because it’s their user-generated content that keeps these platforms alive. 

We live in a highly socialized internet age. Applications like Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin have a combined user base of billions. And these users utilize these platforms for the financial benefit of the platform’s owners, while they (users) walk away with nothing. This is unfair to users, especially because it’s their user-generated content that keeps these platforms alive. 

We live in a highly socialized internet age. Applications like Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin have a combined user base of billions. And these users utilize these platforms for the financial benefit of the platform’s owners, while they (users) walk away with nothing. This is unfair to users, especially because it’s their user-generated content that keeps these platforms alive. 

Then there’s the hot-button issue of social media privacy or lack of it. Recent scandals like Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica saga have cast aspersions on the industry in general. The question of whether we should trust these entities to protect our data is more pertinent than ever before. 

There’s also the increasingly strong sentiment that users should be compensated for their contribution to these platforms. After all, content generators such as singers, writers, and songwriters make money from the content. What about individuals who create content outside of this professional model? We, the users of these platforms, are the reason the owners are able to generate economic value. Surely we should get a share of that value? 

This is the school of thought that the Mithril team subscribes to. As people from all walks of life contribute value through video blogs, live streams, and more, Mithril believes that “everyone who adds value to the network should benefit from their work.” 

To create an ecosystem where every participant is compensated for their work, Mithril has created a token known as MITH. The MITH token will serve as the pivot point for user rewards. On Mithril, the more network value you bring to the network, the more you earn. On the network, too, your data is highly secured, thanks to a decentralized and cryptographically-secured network. 

Understanding Mithril

Mithril is a decentralized ecosystem for social networks. Content contributors are rewarded via a “social mining” process. Social mining incentivizes various ecosystem participants to be active and get rewarded with MITH tokens. It also allows content publishers to earn value from that content. Consumers of that content, for their part, can earn value for interacting (liking, sharing, and commenting) with that content.

Mithril has three core components that interact with each other to achieve a fully-functioning ecosystem. 

#1. MITH Token 

MITH is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Both content creators and consumers can earn it for their contribution to the ecosystem. It can also be staked, traded with other cryptocurrencies, and used for payments in the ecosystem.

#2. Lit

Lit is a social media app and the first to implement the social mining process. Lit features an instant messaging tool and a Stories and Explore section.

#3. Mithril Vault

Mithril Vault is a wallet that allows you to store your MITH rewards. On Vault, you can also stake your MITH tokens or trade them for other crypto assets. When you win MITH rewards through social mining, they are held in the Mithril Vault. The wallet also facilitates seamless payments for goods and services. 

What’s Social Mining Really About? 

Mithril introduced the concept of social mining. The underlying idea is pretty simple. Users generate engaging content and earn MITH. A user’s rewards are directly proportionate to their influence and reach within the community. It all comes down to the network value a user brings to the platform. 

35% (350 million) of the total supply will go to social mining in the next several years. The amount that is available for this purpose will be halved every year for a predetermined period. After this period is over, 350 million tokens will have been distributed. 

MITH Token

The MITH token previously ran on top of the Ethereum blockchain but has since migrated to the Binance chain. It plays three major roles in the Mithril ecosystem: 

  • Social mining – as a user, you can earn MITH via generating and publishing content, liking, sharing, and commenting on user-generated content
  • Staking – you can stake MITH tokens using Mithril Vault and earn more as a result
  • Payments – you can use MITH tokens to purchase items in the Mithril Merchant Network as well as other products and services on the platform such as dating apps, premium content, and all manner of apps available. You can also exchange MITH for ETH, BTC, and other cryptocurrencies

Mithril and Binance Chain

MITH’s price soared after the announcement that the token was moving to Binance Chain as the first ever to do so. In a blog post, the project told users that “By migrating to the Binance Chain, MITH token holders will be the first to experience the speed, security, and user-friendliness on the new Binance DEX platform while maintaining full control over their own funds.” 

How was MITH Distributed? 

Tokens reserved for the Mithril team unlocked in November 2019 for a two year vesting period

Tokens for advisers unlocked in March 2018 and head of vesting period for up to February 2019

Token treasury tokens – which are tokens for future funding needs for the company have no release date yet 

Community tokens – which are for funding community events, promotions, and social media activities were unlocked in February 2018

35% of the total supply will go to social mining for the next several years based on a predetermined distribution schedule

Key Metrics 

As of September 1, 2020, MITH traded at $0. 011202, with a market cap of 10.2 million that placed it at #522. Its 24-hour volume is $3,430,589, with a circulating supply of 912,362,500 and a total supply of 1 billion. The token’s highest and lowest ever price was $1.55 (April 26, 2018) and $0.002405 (March 13, 2020). 

Buying and Storing MITH

MITH can be found as a market pair of USDT, BTC, BNB, ETH, TWD, and USD at several reputable exchanges, including Binance, OKEx, CoinDCX, BitForex, Folgory, Gate.io, DigiFinex, HitBtc, BitRabbit, and MAX Exchange. 

For storage, Mithril recommends the following wallets: Trust, Jaxx Liberty, imToken, Ethos, Atomic Wallet, Exodus, Coinhako, Dether, Dove Wallet, Dapp Pocket, Huobi Wallet, and Lumi.  

Final Thoughts

Mithril combines two hot concepts of today: social media and blockchain. The security and decentralization provided by the blockchain make for a platform where users can interact with each other with absolute freedom. Being able to earn cryptocurrency by simply participating is the icing on the cake. Mithril is a timely idea, and whether they succeed depends on how they can reinvent themselves in the face of an ultra-competitive environment. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Introducing DREP: A Beginner’s Guide

The current setup of blockchains is extremely fragmented, with each individual blockchain existing in an isolated island of sorts. This has severely limited the adoption of blockchain. Another pain point is every blockchain has its own ‘adherents’ or fans who prefer it over the rest. As a result, developers have to make decentralized applications (DApps) that cater to multiple bases. This promotes further segregation of data and users. 

The current setup of blockchains is extremely fragmented, with each individual blockchain existing in an isolated island of sorts. This has severely limited the adoption of blockchain. Another pain point is every blockchain has its own ‘adherents’ or fans who prefer it over the rest. As a result, developers have to make decentralized applications (DApps) that cater to multiple bases. This promotes further segregation of data and users. 

The current setup of blockchains is extremely fragmented, with each individual blockchain existing in an isolated island of sorts. This has severely limited the adoption of blockchain. Another pain point is every blockchain has its own ‘adherents’ or fans who prefer it over the rest. As a result, developers have to make decentralized applications (DApps) that cater to multiple bases. This promotes further segregation of data and users. 

DREP is a new blockchain project that wants to solve this. It intends to use cross-chain technology and proprietary development kits to make it easier for developers to create and deploy smart contracts on multiple chains.

In this guide, well explore how the DREP team hopes to accomplish this. We’ll also examine the platform’s ‘native token, DREP, and where it fits in the picture. 

Breaking Down DREP

Launched in October 2019, DREP is a blockchain effort that wants to facilitate the interoperability of blockchains. The DREP team wants to build a more open blockchain network that will replace the current segregated setup of blockchains. DREP believes this fragmented setup of blockchains holds back the potential of blockchain. Any single blockchain can only support a limited number of applications, while a large, interconnected network can accomplish so much more. 

The DREP platform wants to provide “connectors and toolkits” for developers to easily integrate decentralized applications, built-in wallets, crypto exchange platforms, and so on. DREP Chain relies on the Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus algorithm to secure the network. DREP Chain smart contracts are also compatible with Ethereum Virtual Machine’s smart contracts.

DREP envisages the following for blockchain: 

  • facilitate its commercialization
  • provide a personal and customized experience for both individuals and entities
  • resolve user fragmentation and promote data connectivity and sharing across chains

Below, we’ll take a look at how exactly DREP proposes to accomplish these goals.

Smart Pipeline

DREP proposes the idea of a ‘Smart Pipeline’ that can process data more efficiently. A Smart Pipeline is capable of processing more complex applications than smart contracts. Let’s see how and why: 

  • The maximum data that a block can handle is limited. Consider, for example, that on Ethereum, the maximum gas one can use for one block is 10 million. This means developers can only process data up to a certain limit or they risk congesting the network. This restricts the creativity and scope of DApps that can be deployed
  • Smart contracts do not have an ‘active calling function.’ This means they cannot complete tasks that need external scripts

Smart Pipeline has the following advantages: 

  • It can handle more complex processes
  • Unlike smart contracts, it doesn’t rely on gas, and that means it can support more advanced applications
  • Thanks to its use of the WASM virtual machine, it supports all types of programming languages. Developers can write code in any language and then compile it into WASM bytecode

Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerant (DBFT) Mechanism

DREP utilizes DBFT, a consensus mechanism that borrows from both Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) and Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerant (PBFT) consensus mechanisms. In DBFT, participants known as trustees are in charge of maintaining a healthy operation of the network. Trustees are interested with the following responsibilities:

  • Ensuring a stable server network for normal node operations
  • Ensuring nodes receive transactions that have been broadcasted on the blockchain
  • Ensuring the verification of transactions
  • Ensuring nodes add transactions on the database after they’re verified
  • Taking part in the governance of the DREP network

The DREP Token

DREP is the native token of the DREP Chain, and it plays the following roles in that ecosystem: 

  • As payment for transactions across subchains
  • As an in-game currency for games based on the DREP blockchain
  • As payment for assets in the DREP client

The token was distributed in the following manner: 

  • 1.85% for the Strategic Token Sale 
  • 4.50% for the Private Presale
  • 9.30% for the Public Presale
  • 6% for the Public Sale
  • 10% for the Gate.io Startup Sale
  • 18% for Ecosystem Development 
  • 15% for the Developer Community
  • 17.8% for the Team and Advisors
  • 17.55% for the Foundation Reserve

Key Metrics 

As of August 21, 2020, DREP traded at $0.002998, and it had a market cap of 10.3 million that placed it at #494 amongst all cryptocurrencies. The token had a 24-hour volume of 1, 160, 272, and it had a circulating supply of 3, 449, 682, 632, and a total and maximum supply of 10 billion. DREP’s highest and lowest ever price was $0.005878 (May 21, 2019) and $0.000689 (March 13, 2020), respectively.

Buying and Storing DREP

Today, you can find DREP at Binance, HotBit, BitMax, Gate.io, Binance DEX, and BitHumb for the exchange of USDT, BTC, BNB, and ETH. 

You can store DREP tokens in the official DREP wallet available for both iOS and Android. 

Final Words

DREP is trying to solve the persistent problem data silos in blockchain with its ingenuine Smart Pipeline concept and more. It’s certainly not the first blockchain project trying to do so, but its unique approach to the issue may well get it ahead. Blockchain interoperability proponents and enthusiasts will be watching the project closely. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s the Origin Protocol?

In recent years, e-commerce has exploded such that a large number of people shop online more than on physical stores. This is because online shopping provides more diversity, more comparison for prices, gives shoppers more control, and so on. 

In recent years, e-commerce has exploded such that a large number of people shop online more than on physical stores. This is because online shopping provides more diversity, more comparison for prices, gives shoppers more control, and so on. 

In recent years, e-commerce has exploded such that a large number of people shop online more than on physical stores. This is because online shopping provides more diversity, more comparison for prices, gives shoppers more control, and so on. 

However, the traditional online marketplace is owned by a centralized entity that controls every aspect – from user data to transactions to fees and more. In many ways, this infringes on user freedom. 

But thanks to blockchain, this is set to change. The tech, along with other distributed technologies, is going to usher in a new era of decentralized commerce. Users of e-commerce places will have more control over their data, buyers can buy directly from sellers, transactions will be more transparent, and a slew of other benefits. 

Origin Protocol, a blockchain project, is a leading contender in this endeavor. Launched in 2017, Origin wants “to lower fees,  increase innovation, free customer and transaction data, and decrease censorship and unnecessary regulation.” 

In this article, we’ll discover what the Origin protocol is about, as well as its native cryptocurrency, OGN. 

Understanding Origin

Launched in 2017, Origin is a platform that supports peer-to-peer marketplaces and decentralized and open commerce. Owners of products and services can market them on the platform, and customers can buy them securely and anonymously. Similarly, developers can create decentralized applications (DApps) on the platform. 

Origin says its mission is to “enable true peer-to-peer commerce.” 

Origin: Features

Origin hopes to accomplish this mission by providing the following features: 

  • Low fees: a decentralized marketplace features no intermediaries, and this saves money
  • Better incentives: Anyone can earn rewards on Origin by simply performing any of several value tasks such as referring new users, promoting market listings, creating apps, and so on
  • Expanded access: Origin does not discriminate against anyone, including the traditionally unbanked and underbanked
  • Censorship resilience: as a decentralized marketplace, it’s impossible for any authority to shut down Origin

Origin: Key Highlights

#1. Enhanced user experience: Origin was one of the early projects to Ethereum’s meta-transactions, a concept that allows users to interact with the network without paying gas fees

#2. Developer tools: Origin provides a developer platform replete with libraries and software development kits for developers to create applications in a resourceful and conducive environment 

#3. Team and backers: Origin is one of the few projects in the space that is backed by high-profile investors. The project is supported by YouTube founder Steve Chen, members of the PayPal team, Google, Dropbox, Pantera capital, and more. 

Core Team

The Origin team is made of a seasoned team with experience in business, computer science, and blockchain. Co-founder Josh Fraser was coding from age 10. He’s the founder of 3 successful startups: EventVue, Torbit, and Forage. 

Co-founder Matthew Liu is a former exec at YouTube and vice president at Qwiki and Bonobos, which have been acquired by Yahoo and Walmart, respectively. 

Coleman Maher, who is in charge of business development, is a crypto investor and real estate investor who owns multiple Airbnb properties. 

Research and Development Engineer Yu Pan is a member of the founding team in Paypal and was the first-ever YouTube employee. 

Product Manager Micah Alcorn is the co-founder of WellAttended, an event planning and ticketing platform. 

Origin Token (OGN)

The Origin token (OGN) is the native and utility cryptocurrency of the network. It serves several functions in the network, including the following: 

  • as a medium of exchange between buyers and sellers
  • as a governance asset/mechanism through which users can vote on various proposals
  • as an incentive to fuel purchases and for users to refer others to the network, and so on
  • as a future staking mechanism for the platform

How OGN Was Distributed

OGN token was distributed as follows:

  • 4.38% for the Advisor Sale
  • 23.5% for the Strategic Sale
  • 4.84% for the CoinList Sale
  • 20.24 for the Team
  • 1.69% for Advisor Grants
  • 31.37% for the Foundation Reserve
  • 12.99% for Ecosystem Growth
  • 0.73% for Long-term Partnerships

Key Metrics

If you’re interested in buying OGN, then it’s important to know how it’s fairing in the market. On Aug 11, 2020, OGN had a per-token value of $0.399904, and it had a market cap of 47.6 million, which placed it at #148 overall. It had a 24-hour volume of $17,315,554, a circulating supply of 119,125,949, and a total supply of 1 billion. The token’s highest and lowest price ever was $0.542432 (Mar 09, 2020) and $0.103215 (Jan 30, 2020), respectively. 

Where to Buy and Store OGN

You can obtain OGN from a variety of trusted exchanges, including Binance, BitZ, MXC, Bilaxy, Hoo, CoinDCX, Upbit, Omgfin, Huobi, Bittrex, Balancer, 1inch Exchange, Bamboo Relay, and Fatbtc. You’ll find the token paired with USDT, BTC, ETH, BNB, WETH, and so on. 

OGN token is based on Ethereum’s blockchain, meaning it can be stored in any wallet that supports Ethereum. Great choices would include MyEtherWallet, MetaMask ethaddress, Guarda, Trust Wallet, Atomic Wallet, Ledger Nano, and Trezor. 

Closing Thoughts

Many people are moving to online shopping more than ever before. And while it provides certain upsides, users give up their data, their anonymity, and have to subscribe to the whims of the platform’s owners. With blockchain, users can once again enjoy the conveniences of e-commerce, but this time with more control over the whole experience. The Origin project is leading in this front, and blockchain and e-commerce proponents are rooting for its success. 

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic Cryptocurrencies

Can Blockchain Help the Protection of Human Rights?

Blockchain was created with a new dawn of finance in mind. But more than ten years later, it’s proving to be the tech that could finally heal many ills of modern-day society. One of these is the violation of human rights all across the globe. 

Blockchain was created with a new dawn of finance in mind. But more than ten years later, it’s proving to be the tech that could finally heal many ills of modern-day society. One of these is the violation of human rights all across the globe. 

Blockchain was created with a new dawn of finance in mind. But more than ten years later, it’s proving to be the tech that could finally heal many ills of modern-day society. One of these is the violation of human rights all across the globe. 

Most of us take everyday common things like freedom of speech and movement for granted. It would be a shock to learn that for many people around the globe, many people do not have those rights. An Amnesty report recently revealed that in many countries, governments are denying citizens basic rights such as freedom from discrimination, freedom from slavery, freedom from torture, freedom of opinion, and so on. 

How are Human Rights Being Violated? 

In recent history, we’ve seen the most egregious of human rights in countries such as Venezuela, Yemen, Turkey, Russia.  In Yemen, as the country is embroiled in a civil war, millions lack access to basic rights like food and water. In Turkey, journalists pursuing the right to information are met with a hostile reception. In Russia, opposition leaders are routinely clamped down upon, and murders are commonplace. 

Most people would think human rights violations are a thing of developing countries and autocratic governments. But Amnesty has put countries like the EU and Australia on the spot for the “callous” treatment of refugees. US President Donald Trump has been called out for his administration’s border ban that violates the freedom of movement as well as his utterances that many perceive to be religious discrimination. 

So, let’s see how blockchain could help the cause for human rights all over the world. 

How Blockchain Can Help 

Blockchain could go a big way in helping the cause for human rights across the globe. Features of the tech like transparency, immutability, and decentralization could start with bringing more accountability to various processes that previously overlooked or undermined human rights. 

#1. The Right to an Acceptable Standard of Living

The right to an acceptable standard of living means that everyone should be able to access the very basic of human rights, such as having nutritious food to eat, nothing, and housing. It also means living in peace and without the fear of persecution or being forced to live in a conflict-affected country. The essence of this is that people can enjoy these rights without having to degrade themselves or being stripped of their dignity, such as through begging and/or forced labor. 

Some of the situations that could lead to the deprivation of these rights is hyperinflation in countries. Hyperinflation often leads to the loss of the average person’s life savings, putting them in danger of losing their basic rights. With blockchain-based cryptocurrency, hyperinflation could be avoided. For example, in Venezuela, residents turned to Bitcoin and Dash cryptocurrencies to cushion themselves against the hyperinflation of the nation’s currency. 

Cryptocurrency also makes micro-trading and micro-lending possible. Many cryptocurrencies are divisible to infinitesimal quantities. Bitcoin, for example, is divisible up to 8 decimal places. When you assign value to the tiniest of quantities, the size of a trade becomes smaller and hence very affordable. In the same way, people can sell their products at more affordable prices and make a profit. 

Blockchain could also support human rights through decentralized finance (DeFi). DeFi is the idea that anyone anywhere can participate in the global financial system as long as they have an internet connection. 

#2. The Right to Participate in Government and in Free Elections

This right implies that everyone should be able to participate in decisions that impact their interests. This means that people should be able to defend their interests and to help create a society where those interests are upheld. The right to vote and participate in elections and the freedom of association translates into these rights. 

In many places across the world, these rights are denied to people. In these places, electoral fraud is rampant, distorting the true will of the people. Even in the United States – ‘the land of liberty,’ the 2016 presidential election is still mired in controversy. A Senate report released in August 2020 showed that Donald Trump’s election might have received help from foreign countries. 

In many parts of Africa, electoral malfeasance is often commonplace. The 2017 Kenyan election was rife with voter intimidation, allegations that the electoral commission was compromised, and chaos. The supreme court had to cancel the election, leading to a second one. However, the opposition party boycotted the second round, calling it a sham election. The result was the incumbent winning the election with 98% of the vote. 

But election fraud is not limited to politics. It happens too in private organizations. 

With blockchain, unfair election unfairness can be a thing of the past. Through blockchain, people can vote without fear of intimidation and in the privacy of their homes. And after votes go on immutable the blockchain, they cannot be interfered with. 

#3. The Right to Freedom of Opinion and Information 

The right to freedom of opinion and expression gives people the right to receive and also impart information of any kind and on any medium. 

All over the world, this right is often violated. This includes the clampdown on journalists. China, Turkey, and Egypt are three places with the dubious distinction of harassing and imprisoning journalists. The right to receive information is also violated when governments restrict information, such as by shutting down websites. For example, Wikipedia has been banned in countries such as Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, and Turkey. 

Blockchain can help address this by providing a platform where no one can censor, delete, or edit information. Decentralization also means no one party can shut down such platforms. 

Closing Thoughts

These examples are just a few of the many examples where blockchain could aid in the protection of human rights. Other scenarios include fighting modern-day slavery and human trafficking through blockchain-based identity management. Blockchain’s immutability could also help protect people’s right to property. In short, when it comes to blockchain and human rights, the possibilities are endless.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s the Melon Protocol? 

The professional management of asset funds is nothing new. However, the fund management industry is ineffective due to a lack of standardization across-the-board. This makes operations and auditing processes fairly opaque endeavors – and this does no favor to the industry. Another pain point is the usually high cost of setting up an asset management fund, both timewise and financially. And there’s yet another issue – the industry is plagued by outdated infrastructure. This makes room for errors and inefficiencies. 

The professional management of asset funds is nothing new. However, the fund management industry is ineffective due to a lack of standardization across-the-board. This makes operations and auditing processes fairly opaque endeavors – and this does no favor to the industry. Another pain point is the usually high cost of setting up an asset management fund, both timewise and financially. And there’s yet another issue – the industry is plagued by outdated infrastructure. This makes room for errors and inefficiencies. 

The professional management of asset funds is nothing new. However, the fund management industry is ineffective due to a lack of standardization across-the-board. This makes operations and auditing processes fairly opaque endeavors – and this does no favor to the industry. Another pain point is the usually high cost of setting up an asset management fund, both timewise and financially. And there’s yet another issue – the industry is plagued by outdated infrastructure. This makes room for errors and inefficiencies. 

The Melon Protocol is an asset management platform that relies on blockchain technology. Melon grants both fund managers and asset owners a decentralized, fraud-free, and secure asset management environment. 

This article delves deeper into how exactly the protocol hopes to achieve this. 

Understanding Melon

Melon is a blockchain protocol and a digital asset management platform based on Ethereum. Initially built to support asset management on Ethereum only, the team plans to expand this possibility to other blockchains in the future. It enables asset owners to create and manage pooled digital assets on-chain. Melon supports both traditional and crypto-assets. 

Through the deployment of smart contracts, Melon automates the back-office processes that are involved in managing assets in the traditional world. This, and in a decentralized fashion – which means you’re fully in charge of your assets, and no other party can control any aspect of them. 

The Melon Protocol allows for the following possibilities: 

1. Fund managers can manage assets more cheaply and securely than ever before.

2. Investors are protected from issues like fraud because the management of assets is done within specified parameters. In a way, it’s like a regulated environment, but this time with technology. Blockchain-based smart contracts ensure this. All parties have to adhere to the rules by default.

3. The barrier to entry to professional asset management is lowered. It’s now infinitely simpler and cheaper to set up an asset management fund – on the blockchain. Individuals who would wish to access such a service can now do so. It’s not a preserve for the wealthy any longer.

4. Melon will do standardized fund calculations that will establish a fund manager’s track record. Users will know right off the bat if to trust a service provider or not.

5. Asset owners can have their money professionally managed while preserving their anonymity. Your fund manager does not have to know you or your name. No intrusive KYCs.

6. You can monetize your knowledge in asset management by charging a fee for the services.

Components of the Melon Ecosystem

  • The Protocol

This is a set of agreed guidelines that run the system. They comprise a “vault” and a “module” (more on that later).

  • The Portal

This is a user interface through which you can access the protocol.  It’s also where you interact with the platform.

  • Melon Token (MLN) 

This is the native cryptocurrency of Melon. It gives users design rights, as well as an incentive for them to keep engaging with the platform.

  • The Ecosystem

This is the collective of all current participants and technologies that contribute to and are affected by the platform.

Features of the Melon Ecosystem

#1. Vault 

This a digital treasury where fund calculations and audits are conducted. The vault is also the brick on which modules (more on that next) are built. The vault is designed with the highest level of security.

#2. Modules

Modules are ‘specifications’ that allow each fund manager to address the unique needs and requirements of each different fund. 

The Melon team breaks down modules into these themes: 

  • Data feeds: these are ‘conduits’ that supply real-world data for various calculations
  • Universe: a system that defines available assets for funds managers, including digital tokens
  • Risk management: this is a set of rules to control the behavior of fund managers
  • Exchanges: These connect the fund to various external exchanges to facilitate trading
  • Rewards: a system for setting various fees for the fund
  • Participation: a system that allows various participants to invest and redeem funds
  • Compliance: a set of rules that enables funds to operate within the regulations of their jurisdiction

Participants of the Melon Ecosystem

#1. Fund managers

These are individuals/entities that create and manage asset funds. Fund managers can choose the modules that suit their specific use case. They can also compete for a position on the Melon platform’s leaderboard. Fund managers are Melon token holders and can also use those tokens to vote on the direction of the Melon protocol. 

#2. Module builders 

Module builders create tools for use by the fund managers. These modules could be anyone – including a law firm that develops compliance rules, or one that creates a decentralized asset exchange for users to trade assets. 

#3. Related entities

These are individuals or entities that provide various types of support to the Melon ecosystem. An example is a digital wallet, e.g., MetaMask, that would allow Ethereum users to plug their accounts into the protocol. Or a tool/software that monitors the system for security issues. 

The Melon Token (MLN)

MLN is the cryptocurrency of the Melon protocol and is an essential part of the system that plays several roles. The melon token is an Ethereum-based token. Among other roles, the token serves as a voting mechanism. Melon token holders can vote on the monetary policy of the token, the technical design of the system, and so on. It’s also used to withdraw earnings on the platform. 

Key Figures of MLN

As of Aug 09, 2020, Melon is worth $25.89, according to Coinmarketcap. It ranks at #179, with a market cap of $32,111,211, a 24-hour volume of $3,030,829, and a circulating and total supply of 1.25 million. Its highest and lowest ever price was $270.04 (Jan 04, 2018) and $1.80 (Mar 13, 2020), respectively.

Where to Store and Buy

You can trade BTC, USDT, EUR, USD, ETH, WETH, LPT, REQ, UXD, WTBC, AND, or NMR for MLN in any of the following exchanges: Kraken, MXC, Hoo, CoinEx, Bibox, Bitfinex, HotBit, HitBTC, Livecoin, Kyber Network, Balancer, 1inch Exchange, Fatbtc and more. 

MLN is an ERC20 token, and that means when it comes to possible wallets, you have endless choices. Great options include MyEtherWallet, MetaMask, Exodus, Guarda, Coinomi, and of course, hardware and user faves Trezor and Ledger Nano.

Final Thoughts

Melon hopes to overturn the traditional way of asset management. Thanks to its application of blockchain to the industry, all players can expect more transparency, security, and effectiveness in the future. The Melon Protocol is one to watch.

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic

How Blockchain Can Transform Social Impact Investing

The creation of purposeful change and innovation in communities is always at the center stage of social impact finance. Such impact investments make use of the most recent technological innovations and continuously challenge the status quo. 

The creation of purposeful change and innovation in communities is always at the center stage of social impact finance. Such impact investments make use of the most recent technological innovations and continuously challenge the status quo. 

The creation of purposeful change and innovation in communities is always at the center stage of social impact finance. Such impact investments make use of the most recent technological innovations and continuously challenge the status quo. 

With this, many initiatives like blockchain prove that they can act as a catalyst when it comes to data democratization. They can also open new possible worlds to stakeholders and users across the globe.

According to recent research by Harvard Business, blockchain is not only able to transform governments and businesses but also society.

Ethical and socially responsible investing isn’t a new endeavor; among the most popular social investment programs, Grameen Bank, Bangladesh, was started in 1976. However, using digital, innovative, and app skills to try to solve these economic and social challenges underpins the fintech trend.  Fintech has had an exceptional digital take-on. According to the 2019’s adoption survey of Fintech, on average, up to 75% of the world is using fintech products. However, in India and China’s global markets, the figure is relatively high, up to 87%.

Ways In Which Blockchain Will Transform Social Impact Investing

1. Financial Inclusion

Access to banking is one of the areas where Fintech already has a tremendous social impact, mostly in India and other countries with limited access to banking facilities.

However, mobile technology uptake is relatively high.

Blockchain, which is a data chain that is held by the user community, has the capability of revolutionizing operational systems as well as record keeping. It serves as a ledger or journal of events occurring digitally and shared among its users.  Blockchain algorithm applications have lots of things to offer to the over two billion people who don’t have bank accounts. For instance, BitPesa, which is part of AZA, a group, a group focusing on converting the bitcoin to Tanzanian or Kenyan shillings. The number of people using BitPesa has been on the rise in the two countries, which signals that more and more people are starting to use bitcoin. 

2. Tracking

Blockchain has the potential to offer accessible, even real-time data tracking environmental or social needs. Its benefits are very clear; the distributable blockchain community nature makes it possible for the reconciliation of information that has been entered by different parties. When you use a shared infrastructure, the data will be time-stamped and is less vulnerable to fraud and manipulation.

3. Impact Prediction

What if the blockchain could be made to predict the trends and impact on new initiatives? With the predictive markets already existing, this is achievable.  This will enable people to choose outcomes on the application or other platforms and invest based on a specific approach that will ensure you achieve certain outcomes.  Those with accurate predictions will receive financial rewards. After some time, the model can be used in predicting the possibility of particular social needs and the best ways to improve them.

4. Increases Trust Between the Stakeholders and Users

The successful blockchain projects help increase trust since they have been designed as collaborative, protect with higher transparency levels, and decentralize the consensus process. They offer great rewards to people who contribute to the evolution of projects and integrity protection. They are successful due to the broad buy-in and support of community users and stakeholders.

An impact token that is well designed is made based on such principles. The Natural Capital Finance Alliance and Climate Chain Coalition are among the communities that have shown a commitment to the collaboration. However, there is still no impact token, which has been designed based on these principles.

5. Open Source and Transparent

The investment community impact exists within the broad stakeholder base impact. It will have to be accessible to all and responsive to the interest of the public. With this, any blockchain used for impact token management will have to be based on freely available and open-source code.

SolarCoin Foundation does set a positive example when it comes to transparency issues. Its source code has been published on GitHub while the SolarCoin browser offers access to every SLR transaction.

6. Helps In Keeping Consumption of Energy in Check

Environmental effects that come with creating and managing impact tokens should be addressed in a design process. There are currently several websites and studies that reveal the amount of energy used together with the GHG emissions, which are released by the Ethereum and bitcoin operation, which are the two leading cryptocurrencies. According to the new study published in the Joule magazine, the first to be taken through the rigorous peer review reasons that worldwide, mining of bitcoin consumes at least the amount of electricity consumed in Ireland in the whole year.

Even worse, it still contends that the use of energy is doubling after every six months and can get to the yearly consumption of the Czech Republic, which stands at 67 TWh before the end of 2018, which is about 0.3% of electricity consumption in the world.

7. Helps In Accelerating Impact Investments Flow

The current impact-related financial tools like development impact bonds are difficult to scale due to the difficulty in monitoring and verifying the progress of set milestones.

According to the UN principles for the Responsible Investment Initiative, different areas have already been listed, including a secure recording of the local schools’ educational certificates, energy trading systems, and medical data access. 

Blockchain is capable of accelerating the financial flow by making the systems simpler while noting that most of these areas have not been widely penetrated.

The most common ‘Blockchain for good’ application is the use of Building Blocks platform by the World Food Program to help make payments to the refugees that have so far resulted in millions of dollars being saved.  Blockchain technology is used to provide a unique digital identity to the eligible beneficiaries. In most cases, they can scan the retina or fingerprint to reveal their identity and make the transfer of regular cash with no transaction costs.

Conclusion

Blockchain is a game-changer. It contributes to the impact investment scale by offering transparency, trust, and low transaction costs.  It is still early days for the impact tokens, and the impact investment community will have to be prepared for an error and trial approach. As it has been demonstrated by the establishment of a complex carbon market that makes one of the first large scape payments for impact schemes in the world with the priority, have to be in trust development that will lead to building consensus around processes and procedures in the community. In the future years, it is anticipated that the use of blockchain will lead to a great transformation in social impact investing worldwide. 

Categories
Blockchain and DLT

What makes Cardano blockchain unique?

Cardano is a promising smart contracts development platform that is built on a Proof-of-Stake blockchain protocol. The platform was launched in 2017 by its founder, Charles Hoskinson, who is also the co-founder of Ethereum. 

Cardano is a promising smart contracts development platform that is built on a Proof-of-Stake blockchain protocol. The platform was launched in 2017 by its founder, Charles Hoskinson, who is also the co-founder of Ethereum. 

Cardano is a promising smart contracts development platform that is built on a Proof-of-Stake blockchain protocol. The platform was launched in 2017 by its founder, Charles Hoskinson, who is also the co-founder of Ethereum. 

ADA is the native digital currency of the Cardano blockchain used to pay smart contracts developers and other participants on the blockchain network. As such, its value is tied to the participants’ activities on the platform. As more developers build solutions on the platform, the demand and value of the ADA coin increases. Besides acting as an asset, ADA is also used as a medium of transferring and receiving funds instantly at an affordable fee. Since the platform was launched, Cardano’s ADA crypto has seen an increase in the value of up to 1,520%, with a current market cap of over $3 billion. 

What’s Unique about Cardano blockchain 

There are two main attributes of Cardano’s blockchain that sets it apart from the rest of the blockchain networks. First is its academic and mathematical framework, which is committed to maintaining a provably secure blockchain that is less prone to security attacks. 

Building on its academic approach, Cardano blockchain also aims to solve the scalability and interoperability problems facing the blockchain ecosystem. Additionally, the platform seeks to offer financial services without thwarting global regulators, which isn’t the case with other competing blockchain networks. 

Given its ambitious objectives, Cardano describes itself as the third generation blockchain. 

Essentially, this means that the platform is improving on the shortcomings of the previous blockchain generations. Let’s look at each of the two generations for a better understanding: 

i. First blockchain generation

The first blockchain generation started with the conception of Bitcoin. At this time, Proof-of-Work was the only known algorithm that facilitated the mining of new cryptos – in this case, Bitcoin. However, with time the protocol’s underlying issue, scalability, became apparent as Bitcoin transactions increased. This gave birth to the second Bitcoin generation.

ii. Second blockchain generation

The scalability problem resulted in slow Bitcoin transaction speed, which the second blockchain generation managed to solve through the introduction of the Ethereum blockchain that is expected to run on the Proof-of-Stake algorithm. Usually, Bitcoin’s block time takes almost 12 minutes while that of Ethereum takes less than 14 seconds. Moreover, Ethereum managed to prove that blockchain technology can be used for more than just cryptocurrency transactions, as evident from the introduction of smart contracts. 

Despite the success, transactions on Ethereum blockchain are relatively slow compared to those of traditional systems such as Visa. Also, the governance systems of the two blockchains proved to be unstable after both Bitcoin and Ethereum cryptos hard forked. It is at this point where Cardano blockchain comes in. 

iii. Third blockchain generation

As a third blockchain generation, Cardano is built as a comprehensive set of tools that allow for greater scalability and interoperability of existing cryptocurrencies and blockchain concepts. Also, unlike other blockchain networks, Cardano doesn’t attempt to replace global regulators. Instead, the platform has placed much emphasis on accommodating financial regulators to increase the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies. Further, the non-profit foundation that maintains Cardano has partnered with researchers to ensure all development concepts on the platform are of the highest quality. 

Cardano’s Architecture 

Cardano’s blockchain architecture is multifaceted to achieve its three main objectives: increased scalability, interoperability, and sustainability. To start with, the blockchain itself is designed as an open-source project written in a security-focused programming language, Haskell. Unlike other coding languages, Haskell is compiled ‘ahead-of-time,’ making it ideal for high-throughput data processing. 

Besides the secure coding language, Cardano’s blockchain runs on a unique Proof-of-Stake protocol known as Ouroboros. This protocol defines the way nodes reach a consensus on the state of the ledger. Additionally, the Ouroboros protocol facilitates the secure transfer of the native ADA coin while also maintaining the safety of smart contracts on the blockchain. 

How the Ouroboros supports mining of new blocks

Similar to a typical Proof-of-Stake algorithm, the Ouroboros rewards token holders who stake their ADA on the network. From this pool of token holders, block miners are randomly selected using a mathematical model that guarantees all holders have a fair chance of mining a block and receiving the associated reward. 

Once a token holder is selected, they are assigned the role of a ‘slot leader.’ With this role, the leader has the power to publish a new block, which is then validated by the rest of the network participants. After validation, the slot leader receives an ADA token as a reward for mining a new block.

Cardano Layered design

As part of its architecture, Cardano’s blockchain network consists of two main layers – the Cardano settlement layer (CSL) and Cardano computational layer (CCL). The (CSL) is the primary layer that manages the staking of ADA cryptocurrency under the Proof-of-Stake algorithm. It also facilitates the transfer of ADA from one wallet to another and enables participants to create their assets. Just the same way, Ethereum blockchain actors can create ERC-20 tokens. 

The CCL, on the other hand, allows users to create rules for evaluating transactions before they pass to the CSL. This gives Cardano the ability to compute and evaluate transaction settlements on different layers, unlike in Ethereum blockchain, where it all happens on the same network. 

Solving inherent Blockchain problems

Having understood Cardano’s architecture, here’s how the integrated design works to solve the three main blockchain challenges; 

1. Scalability

As mentioned earlier, Cardano runs on the Proof-of-Stake algorithm, Ouroboros, which, unlike Proof-of-Work, doesn’t require all nodes to keep a copy of the entire blockchain. This approach enables faster transaction processing while reducing the energy cost needed to publish a new block. Moreover, the Cardano blockchain can split into slots, which are basically sub-blockchains. These slots are known as epochs from which the mining node is given the aforementioned ‘slot leader’ role.  

A single epoch can be partitioned infinitely, meaning that Cardano blockchain is, in theory, infinitely scalable. As such, it is possible to run as many transactions as needed without hitting a snag. 

2. Interoperability

Interoperability, in the blockchain’s context, refers to the ability of different blockchain networks to exchange data. With this in mind, Cardano aims to establish interoperability between blockchains and legacy systems of the financial industry. Think of transferring money from Ethereum ICOs, for instance, to a bank account via SWIFT. 

To achieve an ecosystem of connected networks, Cardano is exploring the concept of side chains. The concept works by linking both off-chain and on-chain networks via a two-way peg. Cardano is also exploring ways for individuals and financial institutions to selectively broadcast transactions metadata in compliance with Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) policies. 

3. Sustainability

Cardano’s sustainability seeks to promote the future development of the blockchain network by ensuring the project is under sound management and has access to sufficient funds. 

While ICOs and patronage are the most common models for raising funds and managing a blockchain project, they pose a risk of centralization. This risk arises when a well-endowed company invests a huge amount of grant to a project and thus has authoritarian control over the development of a project. For this reason, Cardano has adopted a long-term financing model similar to the one created by Dash cryptocurrency. 

In this model, there is an entity known as the Treasury that holds grants. Every time a new block is added to the chain, part of that block’s reward goes to this entity – the Treasury. 

So, when developers want to contribute to the Cardano blockchain’s growth, they’re required to submit their proposal to the Treasury to ask them for grants. The Cardano ecosystem stakeholders will then vote on the viability of the proposal and decide whether to give the developer grants. If approved, the developer will be awarded the grant for development. 

Using this financing model, the control and development of the entire Cardano blockchain is left at the hands of the participants, thereby eliminating bureaucracy. This also goes a long way in preventing forking since changes/development of the network are implemented if only a majority of the voters approve it. 

Conclusion

Cardano can be described as a futuristic project committed to driving mass adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Its academic and research-driven approach to blockchain advancement is indeed a noble and worthy cause to solve the problems hindering blockchain adoption. However, the project’s feasibility remains theoretical; therefore, its success depends largely on the execution of the development plans. 

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How Blockchain Technology Can Empower Influencers and Content Creators

Every advertising model in the history of marketing has experienced a plateau effect after a period of massive success. From the era of billboards, audio-visual mediums, to print media, advertising agencies have learned not to be fixated on one advertising model if indeed they want to keep up with the dynamic consumers’ behavior and connect with the target audience. This explains why digital advertising, as a new marketing strategy, has become increasingly popular among advertising agencies. By 2021, statistics show that the digital advertising budget will grow to more than $330 billion. 

Every advertising model in the history of marketing has experienced a plateau effect after a period of massive success. From the era of billboards, audio-visual mediums, to print media, advertising agencies have learned not to be fixated on one advertising model if indeed they want to keep up with the dynamic consumers’ behavior and connect with the target audience. This explains why digital advertising, as a new marketing strategy, has become increasingly popular among advertising agencies. By 2021, statistics show that the digital advertising budget will grow to more than $330 billion. 

Every advertising model in the history of marketing has experienced a plateau effect after a period of massive success. From the era of billboards, audio-visual mediums, to print media, advertising agencies have learned not to be fixated on one advertising model if indeed they want to keep up with the dynamic consumers’ behavior and connect with the target audience. This explains why digital advertising, as a new marketing strategy, has become increasingly popular among advertising agencies. By 2021, statistics show that the digital advertising budget will grow to more than $330 billion. 

Within the digital advertising space, influencer marketing is fast-rising as a new marketing tool. The model capitalizes on social media users with a huge following to whom they recommend products or services. Similarly, brands are also aligning themselves with digital content creators whose craft is used on social media platforms as a marketing tool. As such, hiring the right content creators and influencers is considered an effective way of reaching customers as it can shift a brand’s image from obscurity into the limelight. 

Obstacles in Influencer Marketing and Content Creation 

Despite the success of influencer marketing, various hurdles are threatening the effective operation of this advertising model. They include:

1. Fraudulent influencers

With brands expected to increase their influencer marketing budget, it’s unfortunate that not all of them will get appealing results from influencer campaigns. The poor results can be blamed on fraudulent influencers who have created bogus followings and engagements using bots. When a brand hires such an influencer, it’s likely that their marketing campaign won’t be as effective as expected. 

While there are tools to scrutinize influencer campaigns’ effectiveness, the data collected is highly questionable since influencers can manipulate the engagements and even buy fake followers. That said, there is a need for a trusted tool that can evaluate influencers’ success and validate their engagements. 

2. Unreliable settlement systems

Usually, influencers and content creators are paid a one-time fee for their craft. On the other hand, brands and marketers use this craft to earn more engagement and impressions, which translates to more sales. However, there are huge discrepancies between profits from the increased sales and the one-time fee paid to influencers and content creators. Brands end up making more money than the initial amount they pay influencers and content creators for their marketing services. Similarly, brands may also pay way too much for influencer marketing, yet fail to achieve the marketing campaigns’ desired results. 

An ideal payment system would evaluate the impressions, engagements, and successful sales from influencer marketing and compensate them accordingly. This way, influencers will be fairly paid, while brands will be assured of getting value for their marketing budget. 

3. Third-party agencies

Brands spend a significant amount of money and time when hiring an influencer or content creator to market their product. From the actual budget for paying an influencer to the amount paid to marketing agencies who outsource influencers, the cumulative cost of influencer marketing is quite high, especially for small businesses. Moreover, the platforms on which influencers use to market the products tend to take a huge chunk off the marketing budget, which in turn reduces eats into the amount paid to an influencer. 

Blockchain as a solution

Blockchain is already known as the technology driving cryptocurrencies, but its application exceeds the digital assets space. In the influencer marketing niche, this technology can be used to overcome obstacles and streamline processes in the following ways: 

1. Guarantee authenticity of influencers

Blockchain can be used as a distributed ledger to create a system that logs influencers’ data such as previous works, number of followers and engagements, and reviews. The data is recorded in real-time, which allows brands to evaluate genuine comments and engagements, thereby ascertaining an influencer’s authenticity. Moreover, the system can also verify an influencer’s followers’ identities, mitigating the fraudulent influencer menace. 

2. Efficient payment systems

To ensure that influencers are fairly compensated, a blockchain-powered payment system can be built to include marketing data such as reach, clicks, impressions, and conversions. These datasets detail the value generated from the marketing campaign, which means that an influencer will be paid based on their craft’s success. Also, Brands will be guaranteed of marketing return on investment (ROI) as it is possible to track marketing goals and pay influencers depending on whether these goals have been achieved or not. 

Additionally, the use of smart contracts in these payment systems will help avoid settlement delays experienced in the traditional payment processes. As such, influencers and content creators will no longer have to wait long before they’re paid their dues. Payments are automatically disbursed once the marketing team approves the content. 

3. Decentralize marketing

By implementing a blockchain-driven influencer marketing platform, third-parties such as marketing agencies become obsolete. Therefore, brands and businesses can interact directly with influencers and content creators without incurring outsourcing fees charged by marketing agencies. Influencers are also freed from the conventional centralized platforms, the likes of Instagram and YouTube that charge a substantial amount of money for running ads. With the monopoly of centralized platforms out of the way, micro-influencers will have an equal opportunity to showcase their craft without facing unnecessary stiff competition from macro-influencers. 

At the moment, there is little hope, if any, that blockchain-based influencer marketing tools will fulfill their promises to content creators and marketers working on influencer campaigns. This is because developers tasked with building these tools have no experience in influencer marketing; thus, they may fail to address the fundamental issues ailing the industry. Nonetheless, there are some noteworthy tools with a feasible work plan that makes them likely to succeed in offering solutions to the influencer market. These include: 

i) Steemit

Steemit is a decentralized microblogging and social media platform where users are rewarded with the native STEEM cryptocurrency for creating and curating content. Similar to Reddit, Steemit has upvotes and downvotes functions that measure the value of the content. 

ii) Boosto

Boosto takes a unique approach in empowering influencers in that it enables them to build their online stores on the Ethereum blockchain. This way, influencers, who also double up as content creators, have absolute control of their crafts and thus can choose who views it. The craft can be digitized or rather converted to digital tokens, which can be auctioned to followers. 

Boosto has also partnered with dApps developers to build sales tracking tools that monitor genuine engagements. This goes a long way into ensuring that influencers on the platform are genuine and have real followers, unlike traditional social media platforms. 

iii) Creator coin

Creator coin is a digital currency launched by Rally, a startup company committed to promoting interactions between content creators and their fans. Using this digital currency, influencers can recreate their customized cryptocurrency, which they can use to reward their followers and build engagements. For instance, an online streamer can create a cryptocoin and award it to fans who spend time watching their live streams. In turn, the fans could use the custom-branded crypto to buy virtual items from the same streamer or another one who shares the same platform. Influencers can also sell their services and products to fans who pay for them using Creative coin. 

Conclusion 

Influencer marketing, being a relatively new model of advertising, is faced with unprecedented obstacles that existing technologies have failed to address adequately. Emerging technologies, particularly blockchain, can be deployed to offer solutions that mitigate these challenges and build a virtual economy that supports the growth of content creators. As influencer marketing grows, it, therefore, becomes necessary for stakeholders to utilize blockchain technology to increase the effectiveness of this new marketing model. 

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How Blockchain Can Transform the Tourism Industry 

Since the introduction of online flight booking, the global tourism industry has grown exponentially – thanks to the convenience of making flight reservations from a mobile device. Despite the efficiency brought by such technologies, the travel industry is populated by a myriad of intermediary companies that make traveling quite a hassle. From flight companies, travel agents, tour operators, to destination management companies, all of which defeat the purpose of using travel solutions for convenience. Additionally, throughout the travel, customers’ data is exchanged numerous times, which ends up compromising their privacy, especially if the systems used aren’t secure enough. 

Since the introduction of online flight booking, the global tourism industry has grown exponentially – thanks to the convenience of making flight reservations from a mobile device. Despite the efficiency brought by such technologies, the travel industry is populated by a myriad of intermediary companies that make traveling quite a hassle. From flight companies, travel agents, tour operators, to destination management companies, all of which defeat the purpose of using travel solutions for convenience. Additionally, throughout the travel, customers’ data is exchanged numerous times, which ends up compromising their privacy, especially if the systems used aren’t secure enough. 

Since the introduction of online flight booking, the global tourism industry has grown exponentially – thanks to the convenience of making flight reservations from a mobile device. Despite the efficiency brought by such technologies, the travel industry is populated by a myriad of intermediary companies that make traveling quite a hassle. From flight companies, travel agents, tour operators, to destination management companies, all of which defeat the purpose of using travel solutions for convenience. Additionally, throughout the travel, customers’ data is exchanged numerous times, which ends up compromising their privacy, especially if the systems used aren’t secure enough. 

Just as Bitcoin was conceived as a method of bypassing financial intermediaries, its underlying technology – blockchain, can also be used in the tourism industry. The technology will enable customers to interact directly with service providers making traveling less of a hassle while also safeguarding their privacy. 

Potential use cases of blockchain in travel 

Blockchain technology is lauded for its high data security, immutability, and decentralization. These are the fundamental properties most industries seek to leverage. Here’s how the tourism industry can make use of this revolutionary technology: 

1. Decentralized booking marketplaces

Although intermediaries in the tourism industry aim to make traveling less hectic, their services make traveling expensive. For instance, online travel agencies (OTAs), despite helping customers book flights and accommodation, usually charge a service fee, which adds to the overall cost of traveling. 

With the employment of blockchain technology, a decentralized booking marketplace is created where intermediaries become obsolete. Travelers are connected directly to flight companies, hotels, and other service providers, making traveling more affordable. Moreover, without intermediaries, customers’ experience is enhanced as they can make seamless transactions with minimal delays. 

Smart contracts could serve as automated intermediaries that utilize data oracles to source a range of relevant services like traditional OTAs. Smart contracts will hold funds in escrow as remotely executable agreements and release them when and if services are properly offered. 

2. Secure payment systems

The traveling process is characterized by numerous payments right from flight booking to accommodation and everything in between. Unfortunately, customers’ privacy of their financial details isn’t guaranteed, which means they are at risk of identity theft or even losing their funds to hackers. Also, to make these payments, travelers must carry debit cards or fiat cash, which can be cumbersome, not to mention the risk of theft. 

If the tourism industry was to integrate blockchain technology into their payment model, all transactions would be done using cryptocurrencies. As such, travelers’ financial details will be secured, protecting their privacy while minimizing fraud. What’s even better is that paying using cryptocurrencies eliminates the need to carry cash or use third-party payment processors such as Visa and MasterCard. With the intermediaries out of the way, payment transactions become more affordable, especially cross-border payments. 

Since blockchain technology can create a seamless inventory tracking mechanism, it can also be used to track payments. This will ensure flights are booked to a maximum capacity only, preventing overbooking, which can ruin an airline’s publicity. 

3. Identity management

Identification services play a crucial role in the tourism industry as it helps promote security. Immigration officials are always keen when verifying travelers’ identities in compliance with national security guidelines. However, identity verifications tend to be time-consuming and repetitive, resulting in long queues at airports and hotel check-ins. 

Blockchain can transform the current identity verification process by creating an immutable database containing the necessary details of a traveler. This way, identity verification will be reduced to a simple fingerprint or iris scan instead of the traditional document verification. As a result, there will be fewer check-in times and shorter or no queues in airports, facilitating a time-efficient experience. 

Relevant authorities can also share the necessary data required for identity verification without compromising travelers’ privacy. This is enabled by blockchain’s zero-knowledge protocol that allows parties in a peer-to-peer network to verify specific data’s accuracy without revealing it to each other. 

Also, if all governments were to use blockchain in identity verification, passports would be rendered obsolete. This would, in turn, reduce verification time and unite all nations in providing digital passports for efficient traveling experience. 

4. Baggage management

It is estimated that airlines lose about two bags for every 1,000 passengers. While the odds may seem almost negligible, it’s disappointing to lose your luggage, especially if it contains essential business documents or other valuables. In most cases, baggage mishandling and loss is as a result of human error since multiple parties are involved in the handling process throughout one’s journey.

Moreover, each of the involved entities in the baggage handling process, from the airline, security personnel to ground staff, all have different baggage tracking infrastructures that operate in isolation. As such, when reconciling their databases, discrepancies may occur, resulting in loss of luggage. 

In collaboration with AI and sensor technologies, blockchain can be used to monitor and track travelers’ luggage. Also, tracking data is recorded on a distributed database that can be shared among entities responsible for handling baggage, eliminating the baggage loss menace facing the tourism industry. 

5. Customer reward system

Airlines, travel agencies, and even hotels offer customer reward systems to win new customers and incentivize loyal ones. However, there have been complaints that these programs are too restrictive and limited to a small set of rewards. 

Moving the reward system to a blockchain network means that rewards will be issued in the form of digital tokens. This enhances transparency in the way rewards are issued, which then improves customers’ trust. The tokens can be exchanged or rather redeemed for a variety of products from different providers, unlike traditional loyalty programs, where the rewards are restricted to specific rewards. Various entities within the travel industry can also collaborate in offering digital token as rewards. This way, the tokens can be exchanged easily between the entities, allowing customers to compare the relative value of schemes and rewards they offer. 

6. Transparent business rating

Before traveling to new destinations, it’s common for one to read reviews of either the hotel or airline one will be using. There are even dedicated platforms where users share their experiences and rate destinations, airlines, and accommodation hotels. Although some of the reviews may be genuine, others are outright fake and fabricated by the service providers to attract more customers. These fraudulent activities have become rampant due to increased competition among service providers. If a user’s experience is different from what they read in online reviews, it breeds mistrust and ruins the reputation of the service provider. 

The transparency offered by blockchain technology could go a long way into ensuring that online reviews are genuine, therefore, restoring consumer trust. In this case, the reviews of customers are made public in a secure blockchain platform, ensuring everyone sees and verifies its accuracy. 

7. Travel insurance

Blockchain is best suited for application in travel insurance to ensure data integrity for fair compensation of claims. For instance, say, an insured customer loses their bag and makes a claim to the insurance company. A smart contract using data oracles within a decentralized network could validate a claim and ascertain if the agreed thresholds have been met. Upon verification, the claim is automatically settled through cash deposits or refunds in delayed flights. 

Conclusion 

The travel industry is a fertile ground for blockchain technology to thrive, given the wide network of intermediaries that create a tangled web of interaction in a travelers’ journey. That said, only the established industry players can lead to the adoption of blockchain in tourism. This is because they hold the resources needed to materialize proof of concept of blockchain solutions and advocate for their use. 

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What does Blockchain technology have in store for the Insurance Industry 

The insurance industry has had a tough time trying to adapt to maturing markets, economic turbulence, and dynamic customer preferences. This has forced insurers to seek a “winning formula” that will ensure profitability and sustainable long-term growth in an industry overwhelmed by constant disruptions. Part of the ‘winning formula’ for most insurance firms is integrating newer technologies and business-model innovations into their legacy environments. 

The insurance industry has had a tough time trying to adapt to maturing markets, economic turbulence, and dynamic customer preferences. This has forced insurers to seek a “winning formula” that will ensure profitability and sustainable long-term growth in an industry overwhelmed by constant disruptions. Part of the ‘winning formula’ for most insurance firms is integrating newer technologies and business-model innovations into their legacy environments. 

The insurance industry has had a tough time trying to adapt to maturing markets, economic turbulence, and dynamic customer preferences. This has forced insurers to seek a “winning formula” that will ensure profitability and sustainable long-term growth in an industry overwhelmed by constant disruptions. Part of the ‘winning formula’ for most insurance firms is integrating newer technologies and business-model innovations into their legacy environments. 

Blockchain technology can potentially disrupt the insurance industry by improving operational efficiency and mitigating the obstacles facing the insurance sector. As such, insurers are becoming increasingly open to embracing this disruptive technology. Here is how Blockchain is being used in the insurance industry.

1. Fraud detection and claim processing

Insurance firms have for long grappled with fraudulent claims, which accounts for $80 billion in losses per year. Even after investing in anti-fraud technologies, insurers have not been successful in curbing fraud, which eventually robs them off. What’s worse is that consumers are equally affected by fraudulent claims as they are forced to pay more for insurance premiums. 

Most of the fraud cases stem from data fragmentation in the insurance industry. It’s, therefore, possible for fraudulent claims to slip through traditional anti-fraud technologies leading to losses. Besides, claims processing is mainly paper-dependent, which creates room for criminals to modify information and hence make fraudulent claims. 

Blockchain helps insurers solve the fraud problem by providing a transparent and decentralized platform on which data is recorded. In turn, this eliminates the paperwork required in claim processing, meaning that the data can’t be modified. Most importantly, the data can be shared among the involved parties, making it easy to validate a claim.

For example, in travel insurance, an airline company can share flight cancellation data with an insurance firm to ascertain that indeed the flight has been canceled. The insurers will then compensate the consumer who is insured against flight cancellation. Moreover, blockchain is tamper-proof, meaning fraudsters can’t modify the recorded data. 

2. Data management

In the insurance industry, data is essential in the formulation of more customer-based insurance policies rather than just mere products. For example, the automotive insurance sector can draw valuable insights from such data as driving time, behavioral statistics, acceleration, distance covered, and breaking patterns. With these insights, an insurance firm can develop accurate actuarial models and user-based insurance policies. 

For most insurance firms, collecting this type of data has been easy, especially with the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices. However, the problem comes with managing the collected data and storing it in an accessible fashion. With the existing infrastructure, insurance firms store their data in centralized data centers, making them prone to breaches. Even worse, these databases work in isolation, which jeopardizes the collaboration of different departments within a firm. 

Blockchain can be used to manage the large volumes of data collected by insurance firms. Instead of expensive data centers, the technology offers a decentralized and secure network to store and process data. In turn, this promotes collaboration within a firm and even with other entities such as police departments, which also results in efficient claim processing. 

3. Streamlining reinsurance

Reinsurance is a cover for insurers. Simply put, it is when an insurance firm buys an insurance policy from another firm to protect itself against certain risks. For example, a firm can take an insurance cover from another firm to protect itself against the increased cost of claim settlements resulting from mass health epidemics or natural disasters. 

Inefficiencies plague the current model used in reinsurance. First off, the operations are manually processed and determined by a one-off contract. As such, a single contract is explicitly written to cover a  specific event. This results in a single policy being divided between numerous insurers creating data silos that take lots of time to process. Also, an insurer doesn’t just negotiate with one reinsurer but with several of them, which further complicates the whole process. Each of these involved parties uses different data infrastructure resulting in slow data exchange, making the process costly and time-consuming. 

Price Waterhouse Coopers estimates that if the reinsurance industry improves operational efficiency, then they can save up to $10 billion. The primary way to achieve this is by using a blockchain consortium network, which will allow the insurers and reinsurers to communicate and efficiently share data about policies. Besides, considering the fragmentation of a single policy, unified record-keeping in reinsurance is particularly essential. 

4. On-demand insurance

As the name suggests, This is a flexible insurance model where policyholders easily turn their insurance policies on and off. Currently, the on-demand insurance market requires humans to pass a policy from quote, underwriting, to eventually issuance, which costs significant amounts of time and money while also exposing a policy buyer to risk. 

On-demand insurance providers can trade blockchain technology for structured record-keeping from the policy’s inception to disposal. This would eliminate the clerical errors experienced in the current manual model. Built-in Smart contracts can also be deployed to initiate and terminate policies based on predetermined criteria automatically. This would mean fast policy formulation as well as quicker claim processing. 

5. Micro-insurance

Micro-insurance is a policy that covers specific risks for regular premiums. The policy is designed for low-income families and individuals who, in most cases, are unbanked. As such, insurers rely on third-parties such as banks to link them with the policy clientele base.

To make reasonable profits from micro-insurance policies, an insurer needs high volumes of policies. However, the increased distribution cost may sometimes beat the low-profit margin despite a ready market for the policy. 

Blockchain can be used to link insurers directly to the market, thereby eliminating the third-parties, thus reducing the cost of distribution. Digital tokens can be used to make insurance payments, making the policy even more affordable due to the reduced cost of transactions that come with digital assets. 

Achieving widespread adoption of blockchain technology in the insurance industry 

Like any other technology, it will take time before the insurance industry fully integrates blockchain into its systems. But, it doesn’t mean the industry can’t achieve widespread adoption of the technology. For that to happen, the following criteria must be met:

Internal proof of concept

The first step towards adoption is for insurance firms to start in-house projects experimenting with blockchain. This will help them first solve their unique problems affecting efficiency in the firm before trying to solve the challenges facing the wider insurance industry. At the same time, experimenting with blockchain allows firms to learn how blockchain works, which then opens their understanding of how this technology can be applied in the industry. 

Design customer-centric solutions

Blockchain solutions in the insurance industry should be designed with the needs of the customers in mind. Designing solutions-focused entirely on helping a firm may lock out customers since their needs are not met, or rather they are sidelined. 

Conclusion 

The need for blockchain is becoming more apparent in industries seeking to improve operational efficiencies for sustainable long-term growth. With this in mind, the insurance industry needs to embrace blockchain technology to solve the industry’s challenges and, consequently, improve customers’ experience. 

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Tokenized Bitcoin on Ethereum – Explained

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

Bitcoin owns a stable use case and plays an active role in the industry as a public good. Although, it has limited features, leaving almost a very little space for future innovations encouraging Bitcoiners to explore what else can be done with Bitcoin. From this, an idea evolved that Bitcoin can be used on other blockchains. This is how we reached to tokenized Bitcoin on Ethereum. As the name suggests, Bitcoin is tokenized so that it can be used on other blockchains.   

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a reserved asset in the cryptocurrency world. It has the highest adoption rate, highest trading volume, best liquidity, and holding a superior position in the crypto capitalization market. In fact, entrepreneurs believe that Bitcoin can serve all required purposes in the market, so there is no need for any other cryptocurrency. Bitcoin with an uppercase b is a network whereas with a lowercase b is a unit of account. 

What is Bitcoin Tokenization?

The tokenization of Bitcoin means processing it to deliver a blockchain security token, specifically having real tradable value. Security tokens can refer to company shares, real estate ownership, or investment fund. These can be used as exchange units for trade in a secondary market. 

Why tokenize Bitcoin on Ethereum?

Bitcoin is designed to deal with a few things only and has inherent limitations, but we know that it is the most valuable crypto out there. Technically, we can execute smart contracts using Bitcoin, but it has limited opportunities as compared to Ethereum. Bitcoin is an amount we are holding, while Ethereum provides us with an opportunity to build something with it. 

Tokenising bitcoin in other networks can improve its utility. It can enable various functionality that the native Bitcoin doesn’t support. The security model and core functionalities of Bitcoin remain constant, with other advantages like the increased speed of transactions, high privacy, and tangibility.

DeFi was raised with a potential composability idea, which means the same public is executing the applications. It is an open-source platform with a permissionless base layer so that all the users can work together seamlessly. The composable layer of Bitcoin has introduced a new form of financial framework blocks that could enable is to implement Bitcoin in various types of applications.

You can tokenize Bitcoin on various blockchains like Ethereum. All are having different degrees of decentralization, various assumptions regarding risk factors, and trust issues. Transactions with the launch of Ethereum become cheaper and faster. But it’s quite dangerous also if the holder loses bitcoin due to any contract bug as there will be no alternative way to unlock those bitcoins on the blockchain. 

Conclusion

The prime reason behind tokenizing bitcoin on Ethereum is to enhance bitcoin’s utility. Ethereum has captured significant share in bitcoin transactions; there is an increase in the involvement of Ethereum in the global network for value transactions. Blockchain industries are developing to bridge the gap between the cryptocurrency networks.

The tokenization of bitcoin created a new financial scheme that is more efficient, vast, and democratic. Through tokenization, players in the traditional market are growing rapidly, and new contenders are showing interest in adopting the technology. 

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6 Blockchain can Transform Human Resources Management 

In a world where the talent pool is in a constant influx of professionals, hiring the right person for an open position is quite overwhelming for any human resources (HR) department. Recruiters often have to go through numerous résumés, conduct interviews, and chase down references to find the right candidate for a job position. Even with the advent of career networking sites such as LinkedIn and Google jobs, finding qualified professionals is far from seamless. 

In a world where the talent pool is in a constant influx of professionals, hiring the right person for an open position is quite overwhelming for any human resources (HR) department. Recruiters often have to go through numerous résumés, conduct interviews, and chase down references to find the right candidate for a job position. Even with the advent of career networking sites such as LinkedIn and Google jobs, finding qualified professionals is far from seamless. 

In a world where the talent pool is in a constant influx of professionals, hiring the right person for an open position is quite overwhelming for any human resources (HR) department. Recruiters often have to go through numerous résumés, conduct interviews, and chase down references to find the right candidate for a job position. Even with the advent of career networking sites such as LinkedIn and Google jobs, finding qualified professionals is far from seamless. 

It gets even worse considering that millennials, who make up the largest percentage of the job market, are constantly changing their employers after every 2.8 years. In recent years, career paths have evolved in such a way that professionals rarely work their way up to retire as CEOs. Career ladders have become career webs fuelled by globalization, which has empowered professionals to change jobs quite often. 

Given the tedious hiring process and the detrimental consequences of hiring an ill-fitting candidate, HR departments need to upgrade their existing framework by leveraging newer technologies. Blockchain is one such technology though known for disrupting the financial industry; it has the power to transform the way HR interacts with the growing talent pool. 

Most promising Blockchain use cases in HR 

The HR departments being the storage of loads of employees data, blockchain finds various use cases in helping recruiters manage this data. These includes: 

1. Verification of employees

It is estimated that more than 60% of job seekers misrepresent themselves on their résumés. This lack of honesty has breached the trust between job seekers and HR departments, promoting the latter to rely on third-parties such as recruitment agencies who conduct background checks on potential candidates. Unfortunately, traditional verification processes used by these third parties aren’t effective and often resource-draining in terms of time and money. 

Blockchain has the power to transform employees’ verification process by creating a distributed database containing a candidate’s credentials and background data. Universities and colleges can publish an employee’s academic credentials, which are then shared with future employers. The database can also contain an employee’s previous position in another company with additional details such as performance indicators and general workplace conduct, which can be used to determine if a candidate is a good fit. 

All the data logged in this blockchain system is immutable, meaning that job seekers can’t alter nor falsify their credentials. As a result, résumés will become obsolete as recruitment agencies’ role diminishes, saving organizations time and money spent verifying employees’ data. 

2. Enhance data security

Human resources management involves dealing with voluminous data from financial transactions of an organization to sensitive employees’ data related to pay, healthcare, disciplinary records, and banking. This places HR departments at risk of data breaches in the face of rising cybercrimes. 

By implementing a blockchain-based database, HR data is secured, making it almost impossible for cybercriminals to gains access to employees’ and organizations’ records. Moreover, access to data on a blockchain network is limited and controlled, meaning that even those with access can’t arbitrarily make changes to the records. This protects organizations from both internal and external data breaches. 

Adding to its high-security standards, blockchain effectively decentralizes data as a key defense strategy against hacks. Unlike storing data in centralized silos, decentralization of data spreads across a large network of computer nodes, mitigating the risk of data being wiped in a single hacking event. 

3. Streamline payrolls and contractor payments

Most HR’s payment processing is done manually, resulting in time lags as invoices have to be reviewed. Also, banks that process an employee’s payment tend to charge extra fees cumulatively, eating into the overall salary. 

Blockchain payment systems can replace many manual processes, thereby eliminating time lags within the current payroll systems. As such, payments will be reconciled faster with less paperwork ensuring employees get their salary in time. Unlike bank transactions that charge expensive transaction fees, payment processed through blockchain systems charge almost zero transaction fees. This makes them ideal for sending cross-border payments in organizations that hire a remote workforce. 

The introduction of smart contracts can further improve blockchain payment systems by automating payouts ensuring employees are paid quickly without delays. For instance, say, a company hires a contractor and pays them on an hourly basis. Once an agreed number of work hours has been completed, the smart contracts automatically pay the contractor by executing the agreed terms of payment. 

For seamless transactions, smart contracts are linked to the company’s bank account and that of a contractor. As such, the HR department doesn’t need to regularly do a payment run since transactions are recorded in real-time, keeping track of invoices. 

4. Automate taxes and mitigate audit bottlenecks

HR is constantly grappling with evolving tax laws, which are further complicated by other factors such as bonuses, commissions, overtime pay, accumulated paid leaves, and other additional payments. Accounting for all these payments when filing taxes has proven to be daunting, given that the current systems are majorly paper-dependent making them prone to clerical errors. 

Blockchain’s ability to accurately record payment transactions can be deployed to streamline the taxation processes for HR. Therefore, it will become easier for auditors to trace all cashflows within a shorter time, freeing up organizations to concentrate on core business goals. 

Additionally, an organization’s in-house auditors can securely share the cashflow records with the relevant authorities to maintain compliance with tax laws. In the spirit of promoting transparency, all data entries in the blockchain network are protected from manipulation. So, organizations can have peace of mind knowing that they won’t get in the wrong books of the law for fraud or any other accounts manipulation crimes. 

5. Record employee attendance

Along the same line of accurate record-keeping, blockchain offers an ideal way of keeping employees’ attendance data. This is necessary in processing payments based on the number of working hours where disputes may arise in case of inaccurate data. 

ID 2020 is already using blockchain technology to store and verify biometric data such as fingerprint and iris scan. Similarly, human resources can use blockchain solutions to record employees working hours with accurate details of the exact time an employee reported and left the workplace. This data can be used to track attendance and payment systems to ensure fair compensation for wages and claims. 

6. Monitor employees’ professional life

It is possible to record the entire professional life of an employee in a blockchain network. Right from internship to various roles, an employee was assigned, including promotions, which all form a clear picture of the nature of an employee, thus taking subjectivity out of the hiring process. 

Additional data like whether an employee was promoted or the reason they were fired/left a company can also be recorded to help document their successes and failures. This way, employees will be encouraged to embrace their failures and learn from them rather than acting oblivious to them. Most importantly, the data will help companies make better decisions and allow strong performers to rise to the top. Additionally, an employee’s professional data can be shared among employees for efficient referencing. 

Conclusion

Embracing blockchain in human resources management goes beyond streamlining an organization’s operations. Employees are the ones set to benefit immensely from the adoption of blockchain in HR, as it means an organization has the best interest of its workers at heart. This is evident from timely and fair payments, meritocratic hiring process, and other benefits of HR blockchain solutions. Therefore, it important for all organizations to consider experimenting with blockchain to promote a good relationship with their workforce.

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic Crypto Guides

OneCoin Scam – What Should You Know?

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

OneCoin was promoted as a blockchain-based cryptocurrency through an offshore company OneCoin Ltd. registered in Dubai and founded by Ruja Ignatova, a Bulgarian national. According to the claims made by the company, OneCoin is a cryptocurrency that works like any other digital currency system whose coins can be made through a mining process, and the coins can be used for making payments anywhere in the world.

But there is no specific clarity of the working blockchain model of OneCoin. OneCoin is also known for selling educational materials and courses for cryptocurrencies, investments, trading, and other subjects related to financial analysis. However, OneCoin has been labelled as a global Ponzi Scheme and the biggest cryptocurrency scam ever. Let’s navigate the details.

What is a Ponzi Scheme?

A Ponzi scheme is a type of financial fraud or investment scam where the investors are promised high rates of returns and profits with minimum risk. The scheme traps the investors into a false belief that the returns are generating from the sales of a product or any other means; however, they remain unaware of the fact that the source of funds is other investors. The returns for the early investors are generated by collecting the funds from the new investors. 

OneCoin: A Cryptocurrency Scam

OneCoin is an international Ponzi scheme and was created as a fake online cryptocurrency by its founders to deceive the investors. The company used the terminologies of real digital currencies to reflect a genuine and authentic impression of its business model. The target audience of OneCoin included all those people who were not aware of the cryptocurrency and technology mechanism. Even the education material and packages sold were plagiarized. 

The worst part of the entire scam is the company never had a blockchain, to begin with. The concept of ‘mining’ was fake, and the new miners were told to wait for at least three to six months before their currency can be mined. The transactions were observed without the use of blockchain technology. It was believed that they were using a centralized database to run OneCoin. Eventually, the company also revealed that the SQL database that was put into use was not capable of operating a blockchain.

OneCoin had an organizational structure similar to a pyramid scheme where everybody was actually paying to the individual above. So, there were two sections of the company. The first section was OneCoin itself responsible for marketing and spreading the platform.

In contrast, the other section of the company was composed of affiliates who were bringing in people for earning a commission. Local promoters would organize meetups to spread OneCoin, and even the webinars were also hosted. They had gathered maximum growth in Asia, particularly China, and that’s why the country was hit the hardest. OneCoin was successful in running a $2 billion cryptocurrency pyramid scheme in China. 

Conclusion

The founders of OneCoin and many other associated executives were formally charged, and the US Authorities had declared OneCoin to be a fraud. It is crucial for us to know the basics and fundamental concepts of crypto and blockchain to avoid getting affected by such scams. We should be able to identify the scams by analyzing and understanding the platforms properly before investing our money. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s Polkadot: The Complete Guide

It’s the age of the internet. That means we can’t avoid using the web, even if we wanted to. But the problem is, by doing so, we have to entrust our data to a handful of powerful corporate entities – who cannot really be trusted to keep it safe. If you have to use an app, you have to agree to terms and conditions that you will probably never read, and even if you did, you’d have little choice than agreeing to. 

It’s the age of the internet. That means we can’t avoid using the web, even if we wanted to. But the problem is, by doing so, we have to entrust our data to a handful of powerful corporate entities – who cannot really be trusted to keep it safe. If you have to use an app, you have to agree to terms and conditions that you will probably never read, and even if you did, you’d have little choice than agreeing to. 

It’s the age of the internet. That means we can’t avoid using the web, even if we wanted to. But the problem is, by doing so, we have to entrust our data to a handful of powerful corporate entities – who cannot really be trusted to keep it safe. If you have to use an app, you have to agree to terms and conditions that you will probably never read, and even if you did, you’d have little choice than agreeing to. 

This effectively hands over control of our data to them – data that are so detailed as to create accurate psychographic profiles of us. And get this – in the modern advertising and marketing space, nothing is as valuable as this kind of data. 

When you think of the fact that we surrender this data for free and entrust these entities to keep it safe and not misuse it, you’ll realize what big of a gamble it is. 

Meanwhile, the advent of blockchain technology has proven that we can create systems that place this power in the hands of data owners only. But current blockchain systems are held back by factors such as low scalability and lack of interoperability. Issues like these are the reason why we’re yet to see the real-life deployment of blockchain on a wide scale. 

Polkadot is a blockchain effort that intends to solve these issues and, while at it, allow users to exercise complete control over their data – as it’s supposed to be. 

We look at how the project intends to achieve that in this article, as well as familiarize ourselves with DOT, the native Polkadot’s cryptocurrency. 

Understanding Polkadot

Polkadot is a blockchain-based and decentralized effort to create a network of interoperable, unified blockchains. It’s part of recent increasing efforts to create a decentralized web where users have the power, and not big and powerful internet companies such as Google and Facebook. 

Polkadot wants to achieve this by enabling various features that we’ll look at below.

Polkadot: Features

#1. Scale

If every blockchain is operating in isolation, then how much transactions it can process at any time will always be limited. Polkadot utilizes shards to process a heap of transactions across multiple chains in a parallel fashion. 

This removes the ‘walled garden’ type of transaction processing that is prevalent in the blockchain ecosystem. The parallel processing achieves dramatically more transactions per second (TPS) than a single blockchain would hope to. This creates the right environment for the growth and wide-scale adoption of blockchain. Polkadot’s sharded chains are known as ‘parachains’ because they process transactions in parallel.

#2. Specialize

Today’s blockchains have to sacrifice some features in order to optimize others. For instance, one blockchain might choose to optimize for privacy, while another optimizes for file sharing. Polkadot allows blockchains to come up with a ‘novel design’ optimized for specific features. This will allow blockchains to offer better and more efficient services to users. Polkadot utilizes what it calls a ‘Substrate Development Network’ where developers can create customized blockchains for faster and more efficient performance.

#3. Collaborate

Polkadot creates an environment where applications do not have to operate in silos. Instead, applications can share data and functionality – and that’s without banking on centralized entities whose handling of user data is questionable. The interoperability created is a beginning to the creation and sharing of innovative new products and applications, while allowing users to share data. For instance, a chain that specializes in identity management can communicate with one that provides financial services.

#4. Self-govern

Communities and fans of Polkadot blockchains have the autonomy to check the direction and future of the network any way they see fit. Whether it’s changing governance to meet their needs or overhauling existing modules for more efficient ones, teams on the Polkadot network can customize governance with varying needs and conditions.

#5. Easy Upgrading

Just like any technology needs to continuously upgrade, blockchains need to change with time to cater to the changing needs and preferences of users. The problem is, upgrading has traditionally constituted what’s called ‘hard forks’ – which are often contentious and split communities into factions. Besides, these forks usually take protracted periods – sometimes running into months and months. Polkadot facilitates blockchain upgrades that do not require forks, enabling them to adapt quicker and easier to new technologies and making for happier communities. 

Polkadot: Structure

Polkadot hopes to achieve these ambitious goals by relying on a structure of three components: relay chain, parachains, and bridge. 

  • Relay Chain – This is the core layer, so to speak, of the Polkadot network. It secures the network, runs the consensus protocol and facilitates the interoperability of chains
  • Parachains – These are parallel blockchains or networks on which blockchains can carry out highly scalable transactions
  • Bridges – These are blockchains on which shards of the Polkadot network can exchange info/data with external chains like, say, Bitcoin

Polkadot’s Governance Protocol and Network Participants

Polkadot will utilize proof of stake consensus mechanism. For network users to be chosen as blockchain validators, they need to stake in the network’s native token, DOT. 

The Polkadot network will feature ‘Collators,’ who will be responsible for operating parachains, which will involve aggregating transactions and relaying them for validation by the validators. 

Finally, we have Nominators and Fishermen. Nominators will be responsible for choosing good validators and staking in the native token and hence contributing to the overall security of the network. For their part, Fishermen will monitor the network and report any suspicious activity to validators. 

The DOT Token

DOT is the native token of Polkadot. This is how it fits in the equation: 

  • Governance: DOT holders have utter control over the network. They get to participate in events such as protocol upgrades and fixes, a privilege usually reserved for miners in other blockchain networks
  • Staking: DOT is used for staking so that a user can participate in the network’s consensus protocol
  • Bonding: This is the process through which new parachains are added. Old and outdated parachains are retired from the network by getting rid of bonded tokens

What’s Kusama? 

Kusama is a testnet of the Polkadot network. Here, parachain developers can experiment with various incentives and, of course, parachains in a ‘real’ environment. Currently, Kusama is maintained and secured by a base of supporters who also hold KSM tokens. Even after the Polkadot mainnet is launched, Kusama will continue existing as a decentralized and functional network.

Key Metrics

Despite being relatively new, Polkadot seems to be a hit with sections of the crypto community, which probably explains its $234.31 per-token value on August 8, 2020. The currency’s current market position is 2110, while its market cap is not known, according to Coinmarketcap. DOT’s 24-hour volume is $27, 047, 678, and it has a total supply of 10 million. Its highest and lowest price ever was $308.45 (March 8, 2020) and $69.03 (April 27, 2020), respectively. 

Where to Buy and Store DOT 

DOT can be found as a market pair of BTC, ETH, and USDT in various exchanges, including but not limited to: Huobi Global, HotBit, BigONE, xFutures, Binance, Gate.io, Bilaxy, BitForex, BitZ, TOKOK and MXC. 

Available storage options include Polkawallet (available for iOS and Android), Atomic Wallet, and Math Wallet. 

Closing Thoughts

Polkadot has a solid plan to provide much-needed interoperability of blockchains. If it’s successful, internet users can expect to finally have more control over their digital existence. Blockchain projects will also have more room for innovation and flexibility than is possible with today’s siloed blockchain networks. By creating an environment for specialized blockchains to operate, Polkadot paves the way for blockchain tech to go to the next level. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s Balancer (BAL) All About? 

DeFi is currently the hottest thing in the crypto space, thanks to DeFi protocols that challenge everything we know about money. Smart cryptocurrency investors are rushing to DeFi platforms to passively earn money, trade with the best prices, and find ways to multiply their portfolio. 

DeFi is currently the hottest thing in the crypto space, thanks to DeFi protocols that challenge everything we know about money. Smart cryptocurrency investors are rushing to DeFi platforms to passively earn money, trade with the best prices, and find ways to multiply their portfolio. 

DeFi is currently the hottest thing in the crypto space, thanks to DeFi protocols that challenge everything we know about money. Smart cryptocurrency investors are rushing to DeFi platforms to passively earn money, trade with the best prices, and find ways to multiply their portfolio. 

Balancer is one such DeFi protocol. The project is making waves in the space with its cutting edge ideas like customizable liquidity pools, the ability to acquire BAL tokens by simply staking in pools, and a smart order routing protocol that finds traders the best prices. 

Let’s examine Balancer more closely and see how exactly you can start benefiting from the protocol! 

Understanding Balancer 

Launched in September 2019, Balancer is an automated market maker (AMM), a portfolio manager, exchange, and liquidity provider that runs on top of Ethereum. Balancer enables traders to exchange various cryptocurrencies with minimal cost and slippage. It aims to replace centralized market makers with peer-to-peer and non-custodial trading and exchange services. 

Decentralized trading platforms can use the Balancer protocol to determine the best exchange rates and trading prices. The protocol provides liquidity for the trades, using the funds deposited by stakers/investors in the platform’s various liquidity pools. 

Balancer is not the first AMM in the DeFi space. What makes it special is that it supports up to eight assets, including ETH, DAI, and USDC per market. 

Balancer Pools

Balancer Pools are liquidity pools, in which anyone can stake crypto and hence inject liquidity into the protocol. Unlike other liquidity pools in the DeFi space, Balancer Pools don’t require you to split between just two tokens. Instead, you have at your disposal up to eight tokens. For instance, a pool could have 30% DAI, 30% LINK, 30% MKR, and 10% WETH, while other pools can only support, let’s say, 60% USDC and 40% MKR. 

Balancer employs smart order routing (SOR) to provide the best rates and trading prices possible. Balancer pools are like index funds; only this time, instead of being charged for portfolio management services, you’re the one that actually gets paid for contributing liquidity.

Balancer pools are also customizable, meaning users can optimize them for different needs. For instance, we have Liquidity Bootstrapping Pools (LBPs) in which you can create deep liquidity for your token. There’s also stablecoin pools that support zero impermanent loss.

How can You Use the Balancer Pools? 

You can use balancer pools for two purposes: providing liquidity and trading. 

#1. Providing liquidity: you can deposit any of the eight supported tokens into pools, providing liquidity to traders of that particular pool. Liquidity providers stand to earn a fee (paid by the traders). However, volatility and other market factors can sometimes cause liquidity providers to lose part of their investment. Studying market patterns keenly and not investing more money than you can afford to lose are some of the ways to mitigate potential losses.

#2. Trading: Users can trade tokens in a safe and peer-to-peer manner. Balancer’s SOR protocol works to ensure the best prices.

How to Provide Liquidity to Balancer

The process of providing liquidity to Balancer is pretty straightforward.

  • Visit Balancer pools and connect MetaMask, WalletConnect, Portis or Coinbase wallets
  • Take a look at the listed pools and choose which one you would like to go inject liquidity to
  • Click Add Liquidity
  • Click Unlock to view the tokens you chose in the previous step. This step authorizes the Balancer protocol to use your deposited tokens
  • Indicate how many tokens you want to deposit
  • Confirm/Complete the transaction on your wallet

Before you get started, ensure that you have a sufficient balance of the tokens you want to deposit. 

Liquidity Mining

Balancer announced that it will be supporting liquidity mining starting from June. To this end, the protocol will be distributing 145,000 BAL tokens (roughly 7.5M per year). 

All you need to do to earn the token is to provide liquidity to the pools. Rewards will be paid out every week. The process is enabled for all pools on the platform, but with this condition: “a USD price can be extracted from CoinGecko for at least two tokens present in the liquidity pools.” 

Staking in Balancer doesn’t just earn you BAL. It gives you an opportunity to make your voice heard in the direction of the protocol. 

The BAL Token

BAL is the native cryptocurrency of the Balancer platform. The team introduced the token to make the platform decentralized by “diversifying governance.” Announcing the move, the team said: “We believe BAL tokens are the vehicle to drive alignment and participation in the protocol. BAL tokens are not an investment; BAL token holders should be people that interface with the protocols in some way, are committed to its future development, and want a seat at the governance table.” 

BAL token holders will help the platform achieve its highest potential. The team gives the following examples as to how: deploy the platform on other blockchains apart from Ethereum, implement scaling solutions, and the introduction of fees to start generating revenue. BAL holders can be at the front seat in actualizing these and more. 

The Hack That Shook Balancer

The world of DeFi and indeed crypto, in general, are constantly targeted by hackers, phishers, and all manner of bad actors. Balancer was the victim of such an attack on June 29 this year that led to the pool losing about $500,000 worth of crypto. Since Balancer is decentralized, anyone can create an asset pool with whatever parameters they wish. Let’s go through what happened: 

A hacker took a flash loan of $23million worth of Wrapped Ethereum (WETH) tokens from dYdX then proceeded to trade the WETH with Statera (STA) tokens against themselves, back and forth, 24 times. This almost completely drained the STA liquidity pool. By the time the hacker was done, STA balance was one weiSTA (one billionth of a coin). 

The Balancer protocol was tricked into releasing WETH equivalent to the original balance, granting the hacker a bigger margin for every trade. The attacker didn’t stop with WETH – they did the same thing with WBTC, LINK, and SNX, all against STA. 

Analysts at 1inch exchange said, “The person behind this attack was a very sophisticated smart contract engineer with extensive knowledge and understanding of the leading DeFi protocols.” The attacker’s address was not identified because they used an Ethereum mixer to cover their tracks. 

BAL’s Token Distribution

The Balancer token’s total supply is 100 million. So far, just 35.4 million of that has been minted, with its distribution being as follows: 

  • 22.5M went to the developing team, and stock options, advisors and investors 5.65M, or 25% of this  is currently locked, with the remaining 75% subject to 3 year vesting period
  • 2.5M was reserved for future team members stock options
  • 5M was reserved for the Balancer Ecosystem Fund
  • 0.435M was reserved for liquidity miners
  • Out of the remaining token’s supply, only 1.74 BAL is set to be released each year.

Key Metrics

At the time of writing, BAL trades at 16.01 with a market cap of $111, 162, 211, that places it at #87 in the market. BAL’s 24-hour volume is $10, 665, 976, and it has a circulating supply of 6, 943, 831. The coin’s highest price was  $23.73 (June 24, 2020), while its lowest was $7.88 (July 15, 2020). 

Buying and Storing BAL

If you wish to acquire some BAL tokens, the platform’s in-house exchange, Balancer Exchange, is the best place to do so. Alternatively, you can grab some BAL from any of several exchanges, including Binance, Huobi, BKEx, OKEx, Hoo, Poloniex, FTX, Bibox, Switcheo Network, BiKi, Bitribe, Uniswap, Bamboo Relay and dex.blue. You’ll find the token as a pair with LEND, DAI, ETH, BTC, USDT, BNB, WETH, MKR, and so on. 

BAL is an ERC20 token, meaning it can be stored in any wallet that supports Ethereum. Great choices include MyEtherWallet, MetaMask ethaddress Parity, Guarda, Trust Wallet, Atomic Wallet, Parity, Ledger, and Trezor. 

Closing Thoughts

Balancer is not the average automatic market maker. It supports an impressive number of tokens so users can stake in a wide variety of them. Traders can also get the best possible deal, thanks to the platform’s SOR protocol. And even better, staking in BAL gives holders the ability to shape the Balancer protocol into what best shape they envision it to be. The Balancer protocol is only beginning to wow DeFi investors with greatness. 

Categories
Crypto Guides

Decentralized File Sharing – An Efficient Approach To File Transfers?

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

An efficient file storage method, decentralized file-sharing uses multiple nodes to store files instead of using a single centralized server. With the growing complexities on the internet due to the increasing rate of web data and files communicating through HTTP, it has become highly essential to use an efficient method to store data. When the online traffic is increased, the volume of information to be transferred mounts up automatically. As a result, if we want to transfer large files, we will need more bandwidth.

What Are The Issues And How Decentralized File Sharing Helps?

Addressing all these issues, decentralized file sharing emerged as a robust solution. Torrenting was the best solution for sharing available to the general public. It is used to transfer larger audio or video files over the internet without getting hampered by the challenges of HTTP. However, there were some drawbacks to the file-sharing protocols wherein the volunteers can restrict the services and disable the nodes that can limit the transfer.

With the help of blockchain technology, the decentralized file-sharing networks can be made robust. With this file-sharing network, users are provided with incentives for their contribution. This helps in ensuring that there are enough nodes to fuel the network.

The Potentials of MultiChain File Sharing

Multichain refers to an open-source structure, which enables users to deploy private blockchain for any enterprise. MultiChain supports Mac, Linux, and Window servers and offers a streamlined API as well as Command Line Interface.

This framework addresses the issues of privacy, openness, and mining through integrated user permission management. MultiChain is essentially a permission-based private blockchain that allows nodes to join and form a network. By enabling teams to create a well-integrated and secure network, MultiChain facilitates an efficient way of file-sharing.

Security Levels of Blockchain File Sharing

In the blockchain, we get enhanced security in file sharing. This technology offers multiple levels of security, including:

  • AES key encryption with RSA enables file access to merely by the receiver. Even if the files are accessible at all blocks, only specific receivers will have access to the file.
  • Files of equal size are divided and encoded through Hex encoding, which proves to be a potential way of sending files in the streams (blocks).
  • This is the most vital, powerful, and the highest level of security. Blockchain network offers the highest level of security by ensuring the fact that a file transfer occurs when all the nodes approve it within the network.
  • All nodes can certainly see when a transaction is happening between the senders and receivers without interfering with the process. The security level offers a guarantee that merely legitimate files can be transferred via the network.

The Bottom Line

By harnessing the full potentials of decentralized file sharing, we can enjoy stress-less and efficient file transferring that is not dependent on the nodes. Blockchain technology is an emerging technology that can make the file sharing process streamlined and more efficient. The above mentioned were some key highlights of decentralized file-sharing that we need to understand.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Introducing THORChain (RUNE)

-The idea of crypto is for it to be a decentralized and trustless currency. But since crypto became an idea, users have never been able to exchange it in a decentralized and trustless manner. Today’s cryptocurrency exchanges are just like legacy financial exchanges: centralized, custodial, and prone to regulatory interference. If the means through which users exchange cryptocurrency is centralized, then cryptocurrency is far from reaching its ideal status. 

-The idea of crypto is for it to be a decentralized and trustless currency. But since crypto became an idea, users have never been able to exchange it in a decentralized and trustless manner. Today’s cryptocurrency exchanges are just like legacy financial exchanges: centralized, custodial, and prone to regulatory interference. If the means through which users exchange cryptocurrency is centralized, then cryptocurrency is far from reaching its ideal status. 

-The idea of crypto is for it to be a decentralized and trustless currency. But since crypto became an idea, users have never been able to exchange it in a decentralized and trustless manner. Today’s cryptocurrency exchanges are just like legacy financial exchanges: centralized, custodial, and prone to regulatory interference. If the means through which users exchange cryptocurrency is centralized, then cryptocurrency is far from reaching its ideal status. 

What the crypto world needs is the ability to exchange value in a decentralized manner, and in a way that’s free from the arbitrary decisions of powerful entities. 

THORChain is a network that not only does this but is also chain-agnostic, meaning it does not favor or discriminate on any blockchain. This means users can connect to and interact with any blockchain in a cross-chain fashion. On THORChain, you can even earn passive income by simply staking the network’s native currency: RUNE.

THORChain network allows you to do the following: stake money and earn rewards, seamlessly transfer value across chains, and run a validator node, and get paid for it. 

THORchain Features

The THORChain protocol has the following key features. 

#1. Cross-chain Asset Swaps

THORChain allows you to swap any supported asset in a peer-to-peer fashion. All you need to do is connect your wallet and follow the prompts for swapping various tokens. Token swaps are carried out instantly at a minimal and transparent fee. 

#2. Provide liquidity

Users can stake crypto assets on THORChain and earn fees. Staking assets also gets you paid in block rewards.

#3. Earn Rewards for Running a Node

THORChain users can run nodes (and hence maintain and secure the network) and get rewarded with two-thirds of the collected network fees. Nodes are refreshed every three days to promote the dynamicness and inclusivity of the network. Nodes can also leave at any time after submitting a request. Such a request is processed within a few hours. 

Who Created THORChain?

The THORChain team is intentionally pseudonymous in order to “protect the project.” They believe that “figureheads, personalities, and founders undermine the project’s ability to decentralize.” Instead, the team believes that transparency and other facets, such as handling of funds, research, and the THORChain code, are enough to prove the authenticity of the project. 

With that, the THOR Chain team began researching the project in June 2018, going on to launch the first testnet in the fourth quarter of that year. After the testnet, the team continued researching and went on to launch the first bridge in the second quarter of 2019. The network went live in the first quarter of 2020. 

The project’s native token, RUNE, was launched on the Binance blockchain in June 2019. 500 million tokens were issued, after which the token was listed on Binance’s decentralized exchange. The token was also distributed for free community members who promoted the project in various ways. 

Where does RUNE fit in the THORChain Ecosystem?

The RUNE plays various key roles in the THORChain ecosystem. From staking to covering transaction fees to providing liquidity, RUNE is essential to the running of the system. 

  • Staking – Network participants who wish to become nodes must first stake RUNE tokens. Staking is required for a certain period of time to prevent nothing-at-stake attacks.
  • Payments – Users engaging with the THORChain network pay fees in RUNE – whether it’s a transaction, trading, bridging or liquidity fees
  • Backing liquidity – When you add liquidity to the THORChain network, that liquidity is backed by RUNE in what’s known as ‘Continuous Liquidity Pools.’ In this way, RUNE acts as a settlement currency for the network
  • Block Rewards – Block validators are rewarded in RUNE for protecting the network.
  • RUNE is required as liquidity to join Liquidity Hubs

Products by THORChain 

THORChain supports a few powerful products, which include the following: 

#1. BEP Swap

This is an application powered by THORChain that allows Binance coin (BNB) BEP2 token holders to swap assets or deposit them for liquidity and earn commissions from trades. It also enables traders to stay on top of pool prices and trade them more profitably. 

#2. Flash Network

Flash Network is a layer-2 network that supports instant asset swaps on the THORChain network. It supports exchanges across multiple tokens and liquidity pools. Also, Flash Network is compatible with other layer-2 solutions such as Lightning Network, Raiden, and Bolt. 

#3. RUNEVault

This is a staking interface that allows THORChain users to stake in and earn more RUNE. The team created RUNEVault to observe user behavior interactions and learn how to make an improved project for THORChain’s mainnet launch. When the mainnet launches, the platform will be retired. 

#4. Bitfröst Protocol

The Bitfröst Protocol is a cross-chain protocol that facilitates connectivity between disparate blockchains. It solves one of blockchain’s most persistent problems: interoperability. This way, THORChain users can seamlessly trade assets across any blockchain.

THORChain Nodes

These are individuals who maintain and secure the network by verifying the authenticity of transactions. Other duties include monitoring transactions on external chains, approving outgoing transactions, and operating the network protocol. 

To run a validator node, you need to have high-performance software and hardware, as well as stake a minimum of 1 million RUNE. Though that’s a bit on the high end, RUNE validators are compensated in RUNE for their work. They receive what’s known as ‘bond rewards’ – which is 67% of the system’s revenue, while liquidity providers get 33% of the share. 

If node operators do not perform any of their duties the right way or attempt to defraud the network, they will be penalized. 

How to Earn RUNE

You can earn RUNE in two ways: running a validator node and staking in RUNE. RUNE holders can currently stake the token in RUNEVault and earn a share of 1 million RUNE that’s being distributed weekly. 

You can also earn RUNE by running a validator node. Validator nodes maintain the blockchain and earn in the form of liquidity fees and block rewards. 

Where to Buy and Store RUNE

The safest way to acquire summer RUNE would be through a cryptocurrency exchange. You’ll find RUNE paired with either BTC, BNB, USDT, ETH, EUR, and BUSD at any of the following exchanges: Binance, FTX, Hoo, Bilaxy, Eterbase, BitMax, and Binance DEX. 

RUNE is a BEP-2 compliant token, which means you can store it in any Binance supported wallet. Popular options include Trust Wallet, Guarda, Atomic Wallet, Binance Chain Web Wallet, Ledger, and RUNEVault (which allows you to stake and earn more RUNE).

Key Metrics of RUNE

At the time of writing, RUNE is trading at $0.682046, with a market cap of $108, 058, 013 that places it at position 89 in the market. The token has a 24-hour volume of $5, 077, 431, a circulating supply of 158, 432, 088, and a total supply of 500 million. RUNE’s highest and lowest price ever was $0.719599 (July 24, 2020), and 0.007939 (Sep 27, 2019). 

Closing Thoughts

The THORChain team has made a product that truly works – and benefits the DeFi space. Few protocols have what DeFi has – an in-house DEX, the ability to swap assets cross-chain safely and securely, as well as enabling users to earn by simply staking their idle funds. THORChain has already carved out space for itself in the DeFi world, and if it keeps the same level of innovation, it will even be a bigger force to reckon with. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s Kava.io (KAVA)?

In a fast-developing DeFi landscape, new projects are being launched that defy the very concepts of traditional finance. After all, that’s what decentralized finance is all about – the idea that the rules can be made by the average people and not just by the government and powerful entities.

In a fast-developing DeFi landscape, new projects are being launched that defy the very concepts of traditional finance. After all, that’s what decentralized finance is all about – the idea that the rules can be made by the average people and not just by the government and powerful entities.

In a fast-developing DeFi landscape, new projects are being launched that defy the very concepts of traditional finance. After all, that’s what decentralized finance is all about – the idea that the rules can be made by the average people and not just by the government and powerful entities.

Kava.io is a DeFi platform that empowers users to earn crypto just from staking and locking up collateral. Users stand to earn yields that are way more exciting and superior than traditional savings accounts that offer meager returns. 

In this guide, we dive deep into how the Kava ecosystem works and get a closer look at its two tokens: KAVA and USDX.

Understanding Kava.io

Kava is a DeFi and blockchain platform offering services like collateralized loans to crypto users. The platform has its own stablecoin, USDX, which users receive when they collateralize their assets. It also features a native cryptocurrency known as KAVA, which facilitates staking and governance of the protocol.  

Specifically, KAVA supports the following: 

  • Collateralized loans: Crypto users have an open and decentralized interaction with loans, stablecoin, and hedging services
  • Hedging with interest: Users can hedge USDX, the platform’s stablecoin and earn yields in return 
  • A variety of derivatives: Kava intends to integrate a wide variety of innovative synthetics and crypto derivative products

Use Cases of Kava

The Kava platform aims to provide the following use cases, with the plan to roll out more in the future in the works: 

  • Users can earn USDX simply by locking in collateral
  • Users can stake USDX and earn more of it
  • Users can take collateralized loans and create leverage positions for supported cryptos

Features of the Kava Platform

#1. Auction 

This is a module that oversees the creation and implementation of various auction types that are necessary for the platform to function. This could include forward auction, debt auction, forward reverse auction, surplus auction, and surplus reverse auctions

#2. BEP3

This is a module that oversees the functioning of the BEP3 protocol. BEP3 is a cross-chain asset transfer protocol that facilitates swaps between Kava and BEP3 standard-compliant tokens

#3. CDP

CDP is a module that creates collateralized debt positions (CDP). It allows users to create stable assets pegged against a real-life asset, such as the US Dollar. It also implements the governance parameters of the system, which can be changed at any time through a vote. Such parameters could be the amount of debt that’s allowed to be in circulation, the debt limits, and collateralization ratio for collaterals.

#4.Committee

This is a governance mechanism that allows platform users to make their voices heard as far as the direction of the platform is concerned. Users can vote on and implement proposals, including in emergency situations. The makeup of the committee is decided through a traditional vote, in which coin holders ‘elect,’ remove and update committee members if and when necessary.

#5. Incentive

This is an incentivization mechanism to reward users who open CDPs. The committee defines the collateral awards as well as the period in which users can claim them. It also could change the type of award at any time. 

#6. Kavadist

This is a ‘factory’ that mints coins for the platform. Each minting period has a specified annual percentage rate. Kavadist only creates coins. It’s not involved in their distribution or spending.

#7. Pricefeed

A module responsible for posting various markets’ prices. The median price is stored on the blockchain after each block

The Tokens

The Kava platform features two tokens: KAVA and USDX. KAVA is the native cryptocurrency of the Kava platform, and it plays the following roles in the ecosystem: 

  • Security – A 100 nodes are responsible for verifying the authenticity of blocks and adding them to the blockchain. By doing this, they maintain and secure the network. They are then rewarded with KAVA tokens in the form of block rewards and transaction fees. The nodes face losing these rewards if they fail to uphold any of their duties, such as not preventing the double signing of transactions
  • Governance – KAVA token holders can vote on and enact proposals within certain parameters of the CDP system
  • Lender of last resort – In the event, the Kava system runs out of collateral or is undercollateralized, KAVA token steps in as a reserve currency

In the same way, USDX has its own uses: 

  • Providing leverage – Platform users can use USDX tokens to leverage many other cryptoassets
  • Hedging – Traders can use USDX as a stable asset to cushion against the volatility of other cryptocurrencies 
  • Payments – USDX token is used to settle various forms of payments on the Kava network

 Distribution of KAVA

KAVA’s Distribution was as follows: 

  • 30.05% for the first private sale that took place between Jun 15 to Jun 30, 2019
  • 5.02% for the second private sale conducted between Jul 15 and Jul 31, 2019
  • 4.93% for the third private sale conducted between Aug 15 and Aug 31, 2019
  • 6.52% for the Binance Launchpad sale conducted on October 2019
  • 25% 4 Kava Labs shareholders
  • 28.48% was reserved for the Token Treasury

At the time of writing, Kava.io traded at $4.30, and it had a market cap of $144,014, 710, which placed it at #70. It had a 24-hour volume of $80, 817, 704, a circulating supply of 33, 485, 395, and a total supply of 106, 274, 714. KAVA’s highest and lowest price ever was $4.46 (Aug 08, 2020) and $0. 299967, (Mar 13, 2020).

Where to Buy and Store KAVA

You can grab some KAVA from a variety of legit exchanges, including Binance, Upbit, Bilaxy, Kraken, BitMax, Gate.io, Hoo, BiKi, HitBTC, Bitsonic, Bitrue, Coinone, CoinDCX, and HotBit. The token is paired with either USDT, ETH, USD, BTC, and BNB. 

You can store KAVA tokens in Trust Wallet and Ledger. 

Closing Thoughts

Kava.io is an exciting investment alternative for the modern investor. Instead of depositing your money to a lifeless savings account offering minuscule returns, you could consider a not just more dynamic investment platform, but also a decentralized one where you get to contribute to the rules. Kava.io is a strong contender for such a platform. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s Elrond Blockchain About?

Blockchain is a brilliant idea. It gives people the reins to be in charge of their own finance because it’s peer-to-peer and, refreshingly, no authority is calling the shots. This is enormously important because unlike traditional money, the state/bank cannot freeze your funds at will.

Blockchain is a brilliant idea. It gives people the reins to be in charge of their own finance because it’s peer-to-peer and, refreshingly, no authority is calling the shots. This is enormously important because unlike traditional money, the state/bank cannot freeze your funds at will.

Blockchain is a brilliant idea. It gives people the reins to be in charge of their own finance because it’s peer-to-peer and, refreshingly, no authority is calling the shots. This is enormously important because unlike traditional money, the state/bank cannot freeze your funds at will.

But the pioneer of blockchain and crypto, Bitcoin, is remiss in that it’s not sufficiently scalable, and it exists on its own (preventing interaction with other blockchains). These factors, and others such as the questionable decentralization of the network compromise, in a way, the promise of blockchain.

Elrond is a network that seeks to remedy some of these shortcomings. In this guide, we explore exactly how, as well as look at the platform’s token and how it fits in the picture. 

Understanding Elrond

Elrond is an open-source blockchain network that wants to solve persistent problems in blockchain, including security, scalability, and interoperability. It wants to enable near-instant transaction speed, high throughput, and low-cost transactions. With these features, Elrond wants to prepare for the IoT economy. The platform’s Adaptive State Sharding and Secure Proof of Stake consensus will help accomplish these goals. 

Challenges Faced By Blockchain Today

The Elrond team believes for blockchain to break into the real-world economy, it must meet the following criteria:

  • Complete decentralization: a blockchain should have full decentralization such that there are no central party influencing operations. It also should have no use for a trusted third party. These qualities eliminate the chance of whimsical decisions and a single point of failure
  • Robust security: a blockchain network should be able to keep potential attacks at bay – especially those from already known possible attack vectors
  • High scalability: a blockchain should be able to achieve a high throughput equivalent to or exceeding that of established legacy systems
  • Efficiency: The ability to meet every network obligation with as minimal computing power as possible
  • Bootstrapping and storage: a blockchain should be able to support efficient data storage at a competitive cost
  • Cross-chain interoperability: the ability to support unlimited connections with external blockchains as well as services

In view of these, the Elrond team has rethought the entire blockchain concept as we know it. It implements the SPoS consensus and state sharding, as previously mentioned, to meet the criteria. State sharding partitions the distributed network state into multiple shards. The SPoS mechanism is an improved version of Proof of Stake. It facilitates high-level security and true decentralization while avoiding the resource-intensive Proof of Work mechanism. 

Features of the Elrond Network

Both Adaptive State Sharding and SPoS are two of the backbones of the Elrond network. These and the Elrond Virtual Machine make up the main features of the platform. 

Let’s look at each more closely below:

#1. Adaptive State Sharding

By now, you already know that sharding is the process of dividing the data on the blockchain into multiple shards. The idea is to enable data to be more manageable. Sharding is usually in three variations: state, transactions, and network sharding. Elrond combines these three together to form ‘Adaptive State Sharding.’ This dramatically improves transaction throughput and overall performance. Adaptive State Sharding is able to achieve the following: 

  • Scalability without sacrificing availability: this means even if the number of shards was to be increased or decreased, or network state was being updated, this would not affect, or it would affect the overall performance very negligibly
  • Quick dispatching and near-instantaneous traceability: this means the computing of shards is in such a manner that communication rounds are eliminated
  • Efficiency and adaptability: this means the distribution of shards is as balanced as possible at any time
#2. Secure Proof of Stake

This is a unique rendition by Elrond of the Proof of Stake consensus. SPoS eliminates resource wastage, as is typical with Bitcoin’s Proof of Work. SPoS combines staking with random validator selection. SPoS maintains a high level of security through not just random sampling, but also the constant reshuffling of nodes. In the end, we have ‘unbiasable randomness,’ which promotes both security and integrity as well as promotes decentralization. 

#3. Elrond Virtual Machine

The Elrond Virtual Machine is a ‘factory’ for creating and executing smart contracts based on the WASM standard. The virtual machine supports more languages for developers to experiment with smart contracts, including Rust, C/C++, C#, and Typescript. This is good news for developers who can now develop smart contracts in whatever programming language they’re familiar with. 

Elrond’s Network Structure

The network structure comprises shards, metachain, and nodes. 

Shards, which we’ve already discussed, are more manageable divisions or chunks of the network. Each shard handles just a fraction of the network state – whether it’s transaction processing, accounts, payments, storage, and so on. This makes things quicker and more scalable. 

Metachain is a ‘special’ blockchain that runs on a separate shard. Its responsibilities include verifying block headers, relaying info across shards, handling the registry of validators, solving any issues faced by fishermen (more on that later), and rewarding validators. Metachains also oversee the slashing of rewards for the validators who misbehave.

Nodes are participants that run the Elrond client. Nodes are distributed all over the world – it could be a computer, a tablet, a smartphone, or whatever kind of server. A node can play any role: validator, observer, or fisherman. These participants provide various levels of support and earn rewards. 

Who are the Participants of the Elrond network? 

Elrond hosts three types of participants: and these include validators, observers, and fishermen. 

#1. Validators

Validators process transactions and add new blocks to the blockchain. They take part in the consensus mechanism, which facilitates the continuation of the network while securing it. Validators are compensated with Elrond tokens and part of transaction fees. To qualify as a validator, one must stake in ERD tokens. This is to help keep the activities of the validators in line with the goals on the network. If a validator’s activities cause disruption within the network, they could lose their stake. 

#2. Observers

These are passive members who function as a read and relay interface. An observer can either be Full or Light. A Full observer maintains the entire transaction history of the blockchain. A Light observer keeps only two epochs of this history. Observers needn’t stake in ERD, and neither are they rewarded for their participation.

#3. Fishermen

Fishermen are nodes that verify the authenticity of the proposed blocks. They detect and challenge any invalid blocks that would result from bad actors. Fishermen are rewarded for their participation. Both validators and observers can act as fishermen. For validators to play as fishermen, they have to be not part of the current round of consensus. 

Elrond’s Token and Monetary Policy

Elrond has a utility token known as ERD. ERD is essential for the running of the network, and it fulfills the following roles: 

  • as payment for processed transactions
  • as payment for deploying smart contracts and DApps on Elrond
  • as a reward for participating in various roles in the network
  • for participating in-network governance 

When a transaction happens, the Elrond protocol emits ERD. The biggest percentage of this goes to validators, another percentage is burned, and another percentage is allocated to the Elrond Community Fund or also burned. 

The token’s distribution was as follows: 

  • 25% for the launchpad sale
  • 19% for the private sale
  • 19% went to the team
  • 17% went to the reserve treasury
  • 2.5% was reserved for advisors
  • 7.5% was reserved for ecosystem rewards
  • 8.5% went to marketing
  • 2% was reserved for the community

Key Figures

According to CoinGecko, Elrond trades at $0.02163702, with a market cap of $292, 746, 731 that makes it the 47th largest cryptocurrency in the world. It has a 24-hour trading volume of $21, 654, 993, with a 24-hour low of $0.02106083 and a high of $0.02225527. ERD’s circulating supply is 13.5 billion out of the maximum supply of 20 billion.

Buying and Storing ERD

You can exchange BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, and BUSD for ERD at Binance, Binance DEX, Bilaxy, Huobi, BitMax, CoinDCX, and WazirX. 

You can keep ERD in Coinomi, Ledger, Trezor, and KeepKey wallet. 

Closing Thoughts

Elrond is doing what many blockchain projects are attempting to do, solving the security and scalability issues of the first and second-generation blockchains. Its approach towards this is quite innovative, with its new twist to the concept of sharding and intriguing participant types overseeing the network. It will be exciting to see how the network grows from here.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s Waltonchain (WTC) All About?

Waltonchain is a project that wants to “serve the real economy with blockchain technology.” It cleverly combines the immutability and transparency of blockchain with RFID tech to create effective and modern solutions for the supply chain industry. 

Waltonchain is a project that wants to “serve the real economy with blockchain technology.” It cleverly combines the immutability and transparency of blockchain with RFID tech to create effective and modern solutions for the supply chain industry. 

Waltonchain is a project that wants to “serve the real economy with blockchain technology.” It cleverly combines the immutability and transparency of blockchain with RFID tech to create effective and modern solutions for the supply chain industry. 

In this guide, we’ll prod further how the Waltonchain team intends to achieve this. Also, we’ll get a closer look at the platform’s token and how exactly it fits in.

Understanding Waltonchain

Waltonchain is a project that wants to combine blockchain and radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to create fast, traceable and transparent management of supply chains. The project is named in honor of the inventor of RFID tech, Charlie Walton.  

Logistics systems are already incredibly complex, and this is not helped by the different moving parts that are mostly siloed. You find there’s no unified way to share data and information, and every part has its own processes. This makes for a not just expensive, but also a frictional supply chain. 

Waltonchain proposes a more seamless system that can track products at each stage of the production and transportation process. The info concerning each product is entered into the immutable blockchain so that all parties involved can track it, no matter what stage it is.

How Waltonchain Works 

Before we get down to the intricacies of how Waltonchain works, we need to point out that apart from being a tribute to Charlie Walton, WALTON apparently stands for Wisdom Alters Label, Trade, Organization, and Network. This doesn’t make any actual sense, but since the team made it up, the rest of us will just ride along. 

Value Internet of Things (VIoT)

Value Internet of Things is a concept introduced by the Waltonchain team to describe the integration of blockchain and RFID tech. Using RFID, Waltonchain wants to create representations of physical devices on the blockchain. This is done by using RFID tags – which can help in, say, tracking inventories by using electromagnetic fields. 

Waltonchain wants to create a platform where users only need to scan an RFID tag, which will then reveal all the info behind the tag instantaneously. Think: what’s the product, what’s its origin, who handled it, any alteration along the way, and pretty much any important detail. This also eliminates the need for trust. 

Applying VIoT to logistics management has a number of benefits, including the following: 

  • Enhanced security
  • Accurate and transparent tracking of items from source to end destination
  • Stamping out counterfeits
  • Decentralization, such that there’s no overruling authority over other parties
  • Reduced costs across the board

Subchains on the Waltonchain Network

Waltonchain employs subchains to achieve high-level scalability. Waltonchain is the main chain, and it manages the subchains, handles smart contracts, and more. Users/developers on Waltonchain can come up with their own sub-chains, along with accompanying tokens. They can also use a totally different consensus mechanism from that of the main chain.

Having the ability to create sub-chains is important for two reasons. First, it allows each user (both individuals and entities) to customize their blockchain according to their needs. Second, it helps make sure the network maintains scalability even when it scales. This way, no activity or app will bog down the network. 

The Ethereum CryptoKitties saga illustrates why subchains matter. Ethereum does not employ subchains (at least not yet), so every DApp deployed on the platform impacts it. The game became too popular that it threatened to bring down the network. If the Ethereum blockchain had sub-chains, this phenomenon would have been avoided. 

Waltonchain Token (WTC)

WTC is the native currency of the Waltonchain ecosystem. At launch, 100 million WTC were issued. There will be no further issuance of the token. Out of the 100 million, 70 million are currently the total supply. At the time of writing, almost all those tokens are circulating. WTC plays various roles on Waltonchain, such as facilitating the creation of sub-chains, as a voting mechanism, facilitating cross-subchain communication and rewarding nodes which keep the network going. 

Consensus Mechanisms

The Waltonchain team originally intended to create a proprietary consensus mechanism known as Proof of Stake and Trust (PoST) for their network. PoST would work as proof of stake in that ‘elected’ participants would verify and validate transactions. But it would also integrate a reputation mechanism that would reward the most honest nodes. 

However, Waltonchain seems to have taken a different turn. They now intend to implement Waltonchain Proof of Contribution (WPoC) consensus. WPoC combines Proof of Work (PoW), Proof of Labor (PoL), and Proof of Stake (PoS). PoL facilitates the exchange of data between various chains. 

Who’s on the Team?

The Waltonchain team has a load of experience where the supply chain is concerned. Co-founder Do Sanghyuk is former Director of the Korean Standard Products Association. Xu Fangcheng, who was Supply Chain Management Director of Septwolves, is the other co-founder.

Key Metrics of WTC

WTC is trading at $0.496156, with a market cap of $34, 559, 308, while ranking at #175 in market cap. It has a24-hour volume of $9, 607, 797, a circulating supply of 69, 654, 138, and a total and maximum supply of 70 million and 100 million, respectively. Similarly, WTC’s highest and lowest ever price was $45.96 (Jan 28, 2018) and $0.142135 (Mar 13, 2020), respectively.

Where to Buy and Store WTC

You can exchange BTC, USDT, USD, ETH, EUR for BTC for WTC in either Binance, HitBTC, Alterdice, CoinDCX, Bitfinex, Bitrue, LATOKEN, KuCoin, BitHumb, and Bitvavo. 

You can store WTC in the platform’s official wallet. It’s available for Windows, Android, and iOS. Other options include Atomic Wallet, Trust Wallet, and Ledger. 

Final Words

Supply chain, blockchain, decentralization – this is a subject that has been explored many times over. But Waltonchain adds a fresh twist to it by utilizing RFID tech and subchains – two innovations that improve scalability efficiency. Individuals, companies, and even governments can capitalize on this to dramatically improve their processes. The project is one to keep an eye on. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s Powerledger (POWR) All About? 

Electricity all over the world is controlled by big powerful entities who make all the rules. From distribution to pricing, to availability, the average person never had a say on how much they are billed, what time power goes on/off, and whether their area is connected to the national grid, to begin with. In other words, worldwide power today is heavily centralized, and that’s not worked for the good of the consumer in any way.

Electricity all over the world is controlled by big powerful entities who make all the rules. From distribution to pricing, to availability, the average person never had a say on how much they are billed, what time power goes on/off, and whether their area is connected to the national grid, to begin with. In other words, worldwide power today is heavily centralized, and that’s not worked for the good of the consumer in any way.

Electricity all over the world is controlled by big powerful entities who make all the rules. From distribution to pricing, to availability, the average person never had a say on how much they are billed, what time power goes on/off, and whether their area is connected to the national grid, to begin with. In other words, worldwide power today is heavily centralized, and that’s not worked for the good of the consumer in any way.

What if you could have more control over how and when you get power? What if you could make money off your rooftop by selling energy? This is now possible thanks to Power Ledger, a platform that “allows devices and humans to trade the power they need when they need it” in a trustless, decentralized and scalable manner. 

In this guide, we’ll take a deeper look into the offerings of Power Ledger and how exactly it reimagines the concept of energy ownership and distribution. We’ll also examine the platforms’ two tokens and how exactly they fit into the ecosystem.

Understanding Power Ledger

Formed in 2016, Power Ledger is an Ethereum-based, peer-to-peer platform that employs blockchain tech to facilitate energy trading between buyers and sellers without the need for intermediaries. 

Power Ledger wants to democratize power and free populations all over the world from reliance on centralized utility companies that usually make arbitrary decisions unfavorable to users. 

Its use of the blockchain eliminates a single point of failure. How many times has the power gone off in your area, with no recourse, because the national grid is controlled by a single powerful entity? Power ledger wants to distribute energy in such a way that even if one source fails, the other sources can still supply energy. 

Network Features

The Power Ledger platform is driven by several functions which we’ll explore in detail below. 

#1. µGrid

µGrid is a platform that enables Power Ledger users to trade energy with each other, whether it’s in marketplaces, office complexes, and villages. Through the platform, residents can monetize their roof space. Everything is handled transparently through the blockchain, and anyone can log in and view the transactions. 

#2. xGrid

xGrid is a platform through which customers connected to the same energy grid can sell energy to each other. It handles everything from generation to consumption and settles all the transactions between parties in a transparent and peer-to-peer (P2P) fashion. xGrid supports quite a wide variety of this type of P2P transactions: whether it’s loyalty P2P (e.g, shoppers rewarding their favorite brands), gifted P2P (customers gifting their friends, neighbors, the community) or cross store P2P (commercial customers selling rooftop electricity to each other). 

#3. VPP

This is a virtual network through which households and businesses can sell their excess solar energy during price peaks, making a profit or earning passive income. 

#4. Vision

Through the Vision platform, consumers can choose the preferred type of energy, whether it’s solar or wind, based on their location and the quantity they consume. People are becoming increasingly conscious about the type of energy they consume. Power Ledger facilitates complete transparency so that consumers can know and verify the source and origin of their energy. 

#5. Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) Vision

This is a management and settlement system that allows energy owners to manage output and billing of transactions. If, for example, a local business is entering into a power purchase agreement with an energy operator, they can utilize the transaction software so that every involved party can see updates in real-time. 

#6. Trace 

This a digital registry on which owners or operators of renewable energy can track, record, and issue assets such as energy certificates and carbon credits. It’s a way to streamline such existing processes and make them more secure. 

#7. TraceX

This a digital marketplace on which energy operators can trade and settle renewable energy certificates anywhere in the world. Users can connect to already existing platforms, or they can start a new one with it. It’s a way to settle transactions faster, more affordably, and efficiently. 

Dual-token System

Power Ledger operates on a dual-token system. These tokens are SPARKZ and POWR. What role does each play? Let’s find out below: 

The SPARKZ Token

SPARKZ token is how the platform monitors the movement of energy between trading participants. SPARKZ is added or removed from the seller and buyer, respectively. What this means is everyone gets their end of the bargain almost instantaneously. The buyer receives energy, and the seller receives payment. SPARKZ is pegged against the local Fiat currency for each jurisdiction. 

The POWR Token

POWR tokens are the fuel that keeps the ecosystem going. POWR tokens are necessary for the generation and trading of SPARKZ tokens. POWR tokens also act as some sort of value guarantee for SPARKZ tokens, and can also be converted into SPARKZ tokens

All in all, POWR tokens play these roles in the Power Ledger ecosystem: 

  • Platform users can vote on major changes/direction of the platform
  • Opening up access to the platform
  • Acts as loyalty reward points to participants
  • Facilitates contribution to renewable energy organizations
  • Helps to protect platform users via Smart Bond technology

Who is Behind Power Ledger? 

The Power Ledger core team is made of sustainability and blockchain experts. Executive Chairperson and Co-founder Jemma Green has a Ph.D. in electricity market disruption and has sat on the boards of sustainability companies such as Water Corporation, Carbon Tracker, and Climate-KIC in Australia. 

Technical Director and Co-founder John Bulich is the co-founder of Ledger Assets, a blockchain company that provides provenance of evidence photography, medical records management, etc. 

Head of Business Development Vinod Tiwari brings a wealth of energy experience to the table, having worked in the Australian energy sector for years. He was the chief operating officer of Regen Power, general manager of sales at Perth Energy and senior adviser to Future Effect.

Tokenomics of POWR

As of August 5th, 2020, POWR traded at $0.097355, and it had a market cap of $41, 108, 687, which placed it at #153 amongst all cryptocurrencies. The token has a 24-hour volume of $2, 637, 999, a circulating supply of 422, 257, 509, and a total supply of 999, 506, 123. POWR’s all-time high was $2.01 (Jan 04, 2018), and its all-time low was $0.031830 (Mar 13, 2020). 

Where to Buy and Store POWR

You can find POWR as a market pair with ETH, BTC AUD, EUR, and BNT at several popular exchanges, including Huobi Global, Huobi Russia, LATOKEN, Binance, UpBit, BitHumb, Bitkub, Folgory, P2PB2B, CoinEx, Bitvavo, DigiFinex, Alterdice, Kyber Network, and Bancor Network. 

POWR is an Ethereum-based token, and that means it can be stored at any wallet that supports Ethereum. Popular options include MyEtherWallet, Parity, Trust Wallet, Coinomi, Atomic Wallet, and user faves Ledger Nano and Trezor. 

Closing Thoughts

Power Ledger allows us to imagine a future where the ordinary user like you and me has control over the power they consume, and even sell excess energy and make money. It’s helping usher in the sustainable energy revolution, as well as making clean energy affordable more than ever before. If it succeeds, Power Ledger could very well upset legacy energy systems and take back the power, literally, to the people. The project is one to keep an eye on. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s Bluzelle All About? 

Blockchain tech is set to completely change how internet users interact with all manner of products and services. Decentralization will grant users more control over their own data while removing costly intermediaries from the equation. Decentralized apps, which will define the new web, will manage tons of data that will need secure management and storage. 

Blockchain tech is set to completely change how internet users interact with all manner of products and services. Decentralization will grant users more control over their own data while removing costly intermediaries from the equation. Decentralized apps, which will define the new web, will manage tons of data that will need secure management and storage. 

Blockchain tech is set to completely change how internet users interact with all manner of products and services. Decentralization will grant users more control over their own data while removing costly intermediaries from the equation. Decentralized apps, which will define the new web, will manage tons of data that will need secure management and storage. 

However, existing blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are not optimized to handle such massive volumes of data. The Cryptokitties game, which became so popular as to nearly bring the Ethereum network to a halt, is a perfect testament to this. 

Bluzelle is a project that wants to securely, effectively, and scalably manage the next generation of the internet by providing the perfect environment for decentralized data management and storage. Through its unique ‘swarm’ technology, Bluzelle is well set to accomplish this. 

What’s Bluzelle all about? We find that out, as well as take a look at the network’s two tokens and how they fit in in the picture. 

Understanding Bluzelle 

Bluzelle is an Ethereum-based blockchain effort that wants to change how data storage and management is conducted. On the Bluzelle platform, developers, entities, and single users can store data safely and securely on a decentralized network that’s more flexible than centralized services.

The Bluezelle team believes that as projects like Storj provide decentralized solutions for file storage and management, there should be decentralized solutions to fill in the gap for data storage and management. The idea, thus, is to complement programs such as iExec, Siacoin, and Golem to complete the puzzle of a decentralized internet. 

How Does Bluzelle Work?

The basic functioning of the Bluezelle ecosystem is to connect consumers who want database space with providers who have extra computing space. DApp developers can utilize this data storage to optimize their applications, thanks to a fast, safe, and reliable platform. For this service, providers are rewarded with the two tokens of the Bluzelle ecosystem: BLZ and BNT. 

Nodes on the network are known as ‘swarms,’ and they are the cornerstones of the entire ecosystem. ‘Singleton metaswarm’ refers to the entire swarm framework, while a ‘virtualized metaswarm’ denotes a large grouping of ‘leaf swarms.’ Leaf swarms are another name for the individual groups of swarms in the network. Leaf swarms store data and share it with the metaswarm. When a data owner sends over data, it’s split into smaller chunks (shards), which are then distributed across all the leaf swarms.

Sharding is important to ensure the security and safety of the data. It replicates it and distributes it across the entire network so that in the event a node or a few nodes go down data will not be lost. This also means that even if a few nodes are compromised, the safety of the data will not. When a data owner wants to retrieve their data, they must produce the private key that matches its value hash. All data and info on the network are encrypted, and no one, including providers, can access it unless they provide its private key. 

Features of Bluzelle

Bluzelle implements ‘swarming’ technology to achieve high levels of scalability, reliability, and performance. In the Bluzelle universe, a swarm refers to a massive group of nodes that work alongside each other. Even if a few nodes were to go down, the rest of the nodes in the network would continue managing and storing data. The Bluzelle network is a ‘meta-swarm’ made up of swarms upon swarms. These swarms work to realize the following features: 

#1. Performance

Bluzelle’s proprietary swarming concept has been designed to achieve high-level performance. Bluzelle avoids latency this way: the Bluzelle protocol retrieves data from the nearest nodes, multiplying the speed of doing so by retrieving the data in parallel. 

#2. Reliability

The Bluzelle network is distributed across the globe, with every single chunk of data duplicated across swarms. This means that data owners can access their data fast and at any time. A single point of failure is eliminated, meaning that any outages caused by human or non-human factors would not affect the running of the network.

#3. Scalability

The Bluzelle protocol facilitates both high horizontal and vertical scalability. Every swarm is responsible for horizontal scaling at the state level. And inside every swarm, each node is designed to automatically accomplish horizontal scaling. 

#4. Privacy

Bluzelle employs state-of-the-art cryptography and sharding to protect user data. Also, thanks to a distributed network, it would be impossible for a bad actor to take down the network, compromising user data.

#5. Immutability

Bluzelle deploys blockchain tech to ensure immutability. This means once records go on the network, they cannot be altered. 

#6. No Intruders

Bluzelle uses a consensus protocol, which is the only source of truth in the network. All records can only be updated on the distributed ledger this way. This eliminates fraud.

Participants in the Bluzelle Network

The Bluzelle network has two main participants: consumer and producer. 

  • Consumers – these are participants who ‘consume’ Bluzelle tokens to store and retrieve data.
  • Producer – these are parties that provide computing resources to the network and earn Bluezelle tokens (BLZ) in return. Producers must first stake in BLZ to show their commitment. Bluzelle encourages a competitive environment whereby producers who provide good quality of services can charge more. 

Both consumers and producers are required to create an Ethereum account and be responsible for their own private key. The private key gives access to both ETH and BLZ tokens. It also encrypts data before it’s stored on the network.

Karma and Governance of Bluzelle

Bluzelle uses a ‘Karma Index’ to ensure integrity on the network. A high Karma Index denotes a favorable reputation, and the opposite is true. If a network participant behaves poorly, their Karma Index will be lowered. If your Karma Index is lowered, you’ll be penalized, restricted from privileges, and given reduced responsibilities. Note that operators can run more than one node. A lowered Karma Index applies to every node run by a single individual. 

On the other hand, node operators with consistently good behavior are rewarded with high Karma. A high Karma Index comes with benefits such as the opportunity to lead your swarm. 

Bluzelle Tokens

Bluzelle runs a bi-token ecosystem. The BLZ token runs on the Ethereum network, while BNT is the network’s token. The role of the BLZ token is to bridge the Bluzelle and Ethereum protocols. BNT is used for payments on the network. The Bluzelle team wanted to avoid the congestion issues of the Ethereum network, which is why they did not make BLZ – an ERC20 token – to be the payment token. 

BLZ is also used for staking on the network. Node operators must stake BLZ according to how many nodes they control. Operators with a high Karma Index can charge more, but they also must stake more BLZ. BLZ staking acts as some sort of collateral. By staking in the network, operators are incentivized to secure the network at all costs in order to protect the stake. 

Key Metrics of BLZ 

As of August 8, 2020, Bluzelle traded at 0.113986, and it had a market cap of $27, 192, 756, which placed it at #196 in the market. The token’s 24-hour volume was $5, 135, 145, and it had a circulating supply of 238, 562,278, and a total supply of 500 million. BLZ’s highest and lowest price ever was $0. 913922 (Feb 07, 2018) and $. 0.006067 (Mar 13, 2020). 

Where to Buy and Store Bluzelle

You can find Bluzelle for ETC, ETH, USDT, and BNB at a variety of trusted exchanges, including Binance, Huobi, Gate.io, WazirX, MXC, HitBTC, Kyber Network, BiKi, Balancer, IDEX, and Fatbtc. 

BLZ is an Ethereum-based token, meaning you can store it in any wallet that supports Ethereum. Great choices would include MyEtherWallet, Parity, Atomic Wallet, Trust Wallet, MetaMask, Ledger Nano, and Trezor.

Closing Thoughts

Bluzelle doesn’t offer any new solution to the world of blockchain. However, there’s something to be said about its swarm technology that ensures high levels of scalability, security, and performance. Its decision to not use the Ethereum network for transactions is also a smart one – many an Ethereum-based project would offer better scalability if they took this route. Here’s to watching how Bluzelle evolves in the future. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s Aave (LEND)? A Beginner Guide

With blockchain came the concept of finance that’s outside the control of the state and government. Cryptocurrencies have been the rage these past few years. But now a bolder and fresher idea is emerging, and it’s called decentralized finance (DeFi). DeFi is the notion that the people have the power, and they don’t have to trust traditional finance systems to make the calls. 

With blockchain came the concept of finance that’s outside the control of the state and government. Cryptocurrencies have been the rage these past few years. But now a bolder and fresher idea is emerging, and it’s called decentralized finance (DeFi). DeFi is the notion that the people have the power, and they don’t have to trust traditional finance systems to make the calls. 

With blockchain came the concept of finance that’s outside the control of the state and government. Cryptocurrencies have been the rage these past few years. But now a bolder and fresher idea is emerging, and it’s called decentralized finance (DeFi). DeFi is the notion that the people have the power, and they don’t have to trust traditional finance systems to make the calls. 

Aave is a DeFi project that allows users to borrow crypto without depositing collateral. Lenders can also deposit money and start earning interest right away without lifting a finger.

Describing itself as “an open-source and non-custodial protocol enabling the creation of money markets,” Aave introduced the idea of uncollateralized loans, carving out for itself an influential position in DeFi. 

With that, let’s find out more about the project!

What’s Aave?

Launched in 2018, London-based Aave is a DeFi platform running on the Ethereum blockchain that lets you lend and borrow a wide range of cryptocurrencies in a decentralized and peer-to-peer manner. Aave takes its name after the Finnish word for “ghost.” The team chose this name to reflect the constant evolvement and imaginative technology that intrigues users. 

The project brings distinguished features to the DeFi space, such as uncollateralized loans and “rate switching.” Aave utilizes the Aave Protocol to create various types of crypto markets where users can build an investment portfolio. 

Background of Aave

Aave was originally known as ETHLend, a crypto lending platform established in 2017 by Stani Kulechov. The company raised about $600,000 worth of Ether in exchange for 1 billion LEND tokens. 

ETHLend rebranded into 2018 in order to incorporate even more platform features, suiting the current cryptocurrency consumer.  

Aave’s Offerings

Aave offers quite an impressive range of unique collaterals for any DeFi lending protocol. 

#1. Flash Loans 

Flash loans are one of Aave’s biggest selling points, and that’s especially because you don’t need to deposit any collateral to use them. Instead of using collateral to ascertain payments, flash loans use the timing of the loan’s repayment. Flash loans were invented by Aave, and they work this way: 

  • Borrowed and repaid in the same transaction
  • No collateral needed
  • Borrow and return the borrowed amount plus a small interest
  • All this needs to happen at the same time, or the transaction will not be approved

Flash loans can be applied in the following kind of scenarios: 

  • To take advantage of crypto price differences in two or more exchanges without necessarily having the principal amount to do so
  • Debt refinancing, or swapping collateral long positions without having to pay the repay the debt of the loan position

#2. Flexible Rates 

Unlike most lending platforms that use either fixed or variable interest rates, Aave implements a “rate-switching” function that allows borrowers to switch between “stable” and “variable” rates, a very handy feature in the extremely volatile crypto market. For high-interest rates, a borrower can opt for the fixed-rate, but for volatile rates that might likely take a dip, they can go for the variable rate. 

Thanks to this new and exciting option, Aave has witnessed particularly strong growth for stable rates loans after their introduction in May 2020. Note that ‘stable’ here does not imply ‘fixed.’ Rather, Aave’s stable loans are more stable variable interest rates that are resilient against wild price swings. This ability to rate-switch gives users more control over their loans by allowing them to choose the best possible rates. 

How to Lend on Aave

Getting started on Save is fairly simple. Visit https://app.aave.com/ and connect using a web 3.0 wallet such as Walletconnect, Coinbase Wallet, or Fortmatic. You can also connect with the Ledger hardware wallet. 

Depositing is easy. Just select an asset and enter how much you wish to lend. Next, allow Aave to access the asset. Then, you’ll need to sign to approve the transaction. Your deposited funds will go to the lending pool, after which you start monitoring real-time how much interest you’re gaining on the Aave dashboard. 

Aave’s interest-earning tokens are known as aTokens, which are similar to Compound’s cTokens. However, unlike the cTokens, aTokens retain the value of the underlying asset and increase only in amount. On the other hand, cTokens appreciate in value with interest.

The LEND Token

LEND, an ERC20 standard token is the native token of the Aave ecosystem. LEND token holders get the right to make their voice heard on any proposals advanced by the Aave team. Such proposals include interest rates, the addition of new assets, liquid configurations, and so on. 

LEND also is burned so as to prevent inflation and increase its value over time. 80% of platform fees are regularly burned on the open market for this end. 

In the future, Aave plans to increase the staking ability of users who’ll then get to participate in protocol governance as well as have a claim in exchange fees in exchange for helping secure the Aave network against malicious borrowers. 

LEND’s distribution was as follows: 

  • 30% to core developers 
  • 20% reserved for user experience development
  • 20% reserved for management and legal
  • 20% reserved for promotions and marketing
  • 10% result for unexpected costs

Which Assets Does Aave Support?

Aave currently supports a variety of tokens, including but not limited to Basic Attention Token (BAT), Synthetix USD (SUSD), Chainlink (LINK), Synthetix (SNX), Decentraland (MANA), Kyber Network (KNC), Ethereum (ETH), Dai (DAI), Aave (LEND), TrueUSD (TUSD), Tether (USDT), Wrapped BTC (WBTC), 0x (ZRX), USD Coin (USDC), Maker (MKR) and Augur (REP).

Who is the Team Behind Aave?

Aave is the brainchild of CEO Stani Kulechov, who originally founded ETHLend. Jordan Lazaro Gustave is the COO, and Nolvia Serrano is the CMO. Both Gustave and Serrano bring over their experience from ETHLend. All in all, the team is made of 22 members with eclectic skills ranging from blockchain, fintech, Ethereum, smart contracts, lending, payments, custodial services, and gaming. 

Aave: Tokenomics 

As of July 30, 2020, Aave is trading at $0.0324118, and with a market cap of $421, 352, 978, it’s the 30th biggest cryptocurrency in the world. Aave has a 24-hour volume of $64, 663,115, and a circulating and total supply of 1, 299, 999, 942. The token’s all-time high was $0.442615 (Jan 07, 2018), and its all-time low was $0.003353 (Sep 06, 2019).

Where to Buy and Store LEND

You can grab some Aave from any of several exchanges, including Binance, MXC, Bilaxy, Bibox, Gate.io, Poloniex, Alterdice, Uniswap, dex.blue, Eterbase, Fatbtc, and Loopring. 

As an ERC20 token, LEND can be stored in any wallet that supports Ethereum. You will not go wrong with any of these choices: Atomic Wallet, Trust Wallet, and of course, the hardware wallets (and hence ultra-secure) Ledger and Trezor. 

Final Words

Given its constant re-invention, Aave’s ghost reference is fitting. Its uncollateralized loans and rate-switching features are two of its radical innovations to ever be seen in the world of finance. And that’s what DeFi is all about: disrupting norms to deliver real value. 

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic Cryptocurrencies

Best Security Token Issuance Platforms 

Thanks to blockchain, asset tokenization is now a possibility. This is the process of converting the ownership rights of real-world assets into digital rights on the blockchain. Assets are tokenized to improve their market liquidity, and also to open up your asset to a global market through the power of blockchain. 

Thanks to blockchain, asset tokenization is now a possibility. This is the process of converting the ownership rights of real-world assets into digital rights on the blockchain. Assets are tokenized to improve their market liquidity, and also to open up your asset to a global market through the power of blockchain. 

Thanks to blockchain, asset tokenization is now a possibility. This is the process of converting the ownership rights of real-world assets into digital rights on the blockchain. Assets are tokenized to improve their market liquidity, and also to open up your asset to a global market through the power of blockchain. 

Several tokenization platforms are scrambling for the spotlight in a bid to become the go-to place for tokenizing assets. Let’s look at some that are hacking the game right now. 

#1. Securrency 

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in the US, Securrency is a one-stop token issuance platform. It supports token issuing, post-issuance support, and the interoperability of tokens across several blockchain networks.

The platform also came up with the CAT-20 and CAT-721 token standards. Tokens created with this standard can be transferred across blockchain networks (including Stellar, EOS, and Ethereum) and legacy financial systems. This interoperability with several blockchain platforms gives it an edge over other platforms that are only compatible with Ethereum. 

Securrency has also embedded customer management applications that customers can utilize to manage investors and token buyers without having to rely on external applications. 

The platform has entered into partnerships with fintech companies SharesPost, AX Trading, Entoro, Vertalo, OpenFinance, and SeriesOne.

#2. Securitize

Securitize is a token issuance platform founded in 2017 and based in Tel Aviv. The company raised $12.75 million from Blockchain Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Xpring (Ripple), NXTP, and Global Brain Corporation. Securitize has also partnered with fintech companies Tzero, Blocktrade, OpenFinance, Airswap, ShareSpost, Hyperion, and Bnk to the Future. The platform offers the tokenization of equity, funds, and real estate, and plans to add debt in the future. 

The company created the DS Protocol, which generates “DS tokens” that can run on top of the ERC-20 token standard. This means the tokens are only compatible with Ethereum. There’s no mention of compatibility with other blockchain networks. 

Securitize tokens can be traded on crypto exchanges as well as be hosted on clientele systems. The platform has a record registry that supports KYC details, a regulations compliance layer, and a communication protocol that notifies investors of industry trends.

Some of Securitize’s clients have been Blockchain Capital, SpiceVC, Augmate, 22x Fund, and Science Blockchain. 

#3. TokenSoft 

TokenSoft is another trusted token issuance platform that features a ton of functionalities. It’s been funded by investors such as eVentures, Base10, Coinbase Ventures, and Fidelity Ventures. The company has partnered with several other platforms, both in blockchain and fintech, such as OpenFinance, Stellar, Hyperledger, R3 Corda, and Tierion, to enhance its service delivery capabilities to customers. 

Services offered include token issuance and distribution, payment of dividends, trading of issued tokens, post-token issuance support, and digital asset custody solutions. 

TokenSoft developed the ERC-104 standard that enables token issuers to manage investor whitelists and investor limits, and issue tokens globally. Some of the clients that have used TokenSoft for token issuance include Andra Capital, Hedera Hashgraph, and the Tezos Foundation. 

#5. Polymath 

Polymath is a security token issuance platform based out of Toronto and founded in 2017. The platform has partnered with various industry players in finance, legal, custody, and escrow such as SelfKey, IdentityMind, OpenFinance, Pegasus Fintech, Vertalo, Blocktrade, Prime Trust, Monarch Wallet, Netcoins, Genesis Block, Tokenizo, Athena Blockchain, Blocktrade, Prime Trust, Glyph, Cassels Brock, Aird & Berlis, and Messner Reeves LLP to provide the highest level of customer experience to users. 

Polymath features a token marketplace, a token studio for token creation and issuance, and token compatibility with the Ethereum network. On the Polymath Token Studio, token issuers can customize and launch their own security token offering (STOs), and still be able to select a Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) service provider of their choice.

Examples of companies that have issued security tokens via Polymath include Corl, 7PASS, MintHealth, IPwe, and BlockEstate. 

#6. Harbor 

Founded in 2017, Harbor is a tokenization platform based in San Francisco. The company is led by individuals with a ton of experience, including former PayPal COO David Sacks, who is also the founder of Yammer, Craft Ventures, and Zenefits. The company managed to raise over $38 million from VC firms Founders Fund, Pantera Capital, Fifth Wall, Kindred Spirits, Andreessen Horowitz, Valor Capital Ventures, Future Perfect, and more. 

Through integration with BitGo, Harbor facilitates investor onboarding through KYC/AML procedures, accreditation, tax forms, e.t.c. 

Harbor supports an ERC-20 token known as R-Token that ensures supported ERC-20 wallets or exchanges are compatible with the necessary requirements for trading. It also uses an Oracle feature to act as the go-between for peer-to-peer token transfers and exchanges.

#7. Swarm 

Swarm is an ”open infrastructure for digital securities.” The company has partnered with several companies such as OpenFinance, Maker, Tron, Security Token Network, Jaxx, Mercury, Copper, MVP Workshop, Monarch, Standard Consensus, Glyph, Blockpass and STOCheck to avail the best services to clients and other platform users. 

It uses the SEC20 protocol that facilitates the creation and issuance of security tokens. Swarm allows users to tokenize all manner of assets, including real estate, renewable energy, agriculture, tech companies, cryptocurrency hedge funds, and so on. Swarm makes it easy to manage, transfer, and trade tokens. 

Other supported functions include STO fundraising and post-issuance and support such as token redemption and the issuing of dividends to clients. Swarm features the Market Access Protocol (MAP), a protocol that supports token interoperability between various players, including issuers, investors, exchanges, and qualification providers. 

Swarm allows users to purchase security tokens with either of several supported cryptocurrencies, which include a native token called Swarm (SWM), BTC, ETH, BNB, DAI, MKR, XLM, XRP, TRX, ADA and DASH. 

#8. Tokeny

Tokeny is a Europe-based tokenization platform founded in 2017. The company serves over 180 jurisdictions and has had $27 billion worth of assets tokenized so far. 

Tokeny allows for the issuance, management, and transfer of tokens. Properties such as individual, company and government assets, business equity, investment funds, and even goods and services can all be tokenized on the platform. 

The platform features a cloud-based T-REX (Tokens for Regulated Exchanges) that allows investors to manage securitized assets such as by paying and receiving dividends and carrying out audits. T-REX also offers interoperability with crypto wallets, exchanges, and identity providers. It also allows clients to issue and transfer assets globally. 

Some of Tokeny’s past clients include Black Manta, Property Token, Lition, Bakari, Mash, Vivo Play, Key Pasco, Neovate, Block Port, and b40Lux. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s Ren (REN)? Here Is a comprehensive Guide

A few years ago, cryptocurrencies were derided as a fad, and Bitcoin was called a bubble that would burst sooner or later. Those predictions couldn’t have been more wrong. As we speak, cryptocurrencies are so successful that they were the most traded assets last year, and Bitcoin was crowned the most successful asset in the […]

A few years ago, cryptocurrencies were derided as a fad, and Bitcoin was called a bubble that would burst sooner or later. Those predictions couldn’t have been more wrong. As we speak, cryptocurrencies are so successful that they were the most traded assets last year, and Bitcoin was crowned the most successful asset in the […]

A few years ago, cryptocurrencies were derided as a fad, and Bitcoin was called a bubble that would burst sooner or later. Those predictions couldn’t have been more wrong. As we speak, cryptocurrencies are so successful that they were the most traded assets last year, and Bitcoin was crowned the most successful asset in the past decade. What this signals to is increased consumer interest in this emerging (or firmly established depending on who you ask) asset class. 

The only problem is, each cryptocurrency currently exists in its own universe. Why is this not ideal? Because it creates a fragmented marketplace that partly impedes cryptocurrencies from going mainstream. It also confuses users. With the thousands of cryptocurrencies available today, how will users keep up with each, separately? 

In light of this, it’s clear that the current blockchain infrastructure needs changing. Ren is a cryptocurrency and blockchain project that wants to facilitate interoperability between blockchains. The Ren team hopes that with this, blockchains can interact with each other for the good of both the industry and users. 

What’s Ren? 

Formerly known as Republic Protocol, Ren is a blockchain-enabled protocol that aims to provide liquidity and interoperability (through cross atomic swaps) for cryptocurrencies. The Ren protocol relies on a decentralized network of Darknodes to provide the highest level of security for transactions and network participants. Ren allows anyone anywhere to “transfer any token between any blockchain.” That’s the long-term goal, at least. For now, only four cryptocurrencies are currently supported: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and ZCash. 

Ren says: “We facilitate cross-chain trains through atomic swaps and implement proper economic incentives to ensure these trades are executed thoroughly. Compared to a centralized dark pool or exchange, the Republic Protocol removes the risk of asset theft confiscation or the possibility of interference from a malicious exchange operator. The Republic protocol is available universally and is highly transparent with regards to how the underlying protocol operates.” 

Why is Interoperability Important?

While cryptocurrency was invented for the noblest of reasons, it’s hard to achieve those goals if every blockchain operates on its own, like some island. Instead, if blockchains could work together, it could provide better liquidity for traders and a more seamless, intuitive experience for users.

Ren elaborates this, saying: “Without interoperability, it is impossible to connect different boxes together in a way that the decentralized applications can benefit from each other’s liquidity and provide a simple and complete experience for their users.”

Interoperability would also help to eliminate barriers to access to decentralized finance products, enhancing financial inclusivity. 

Ren’s Darkpool and Secure Multi-party Computation (SMPC)

Ren uses a ‘secure multi-party computation’ (SMPC) to protect users’ and funds’ privacy. At its core, SMPC facilitates the matching of orders while keeping the price and the volume under wraps. The idea is to facilitate large-volume trades with as little price slippage as possible, while still playing by the rules of the dark pool. 

Ren has the following features that support that make up a dark pool: 

  • RenEx dark pool: a decentralized exchange whose price, volume and transacting parties are hidden
  • Hidden order book: a book where orders are kept private until they executed
  • Cross-train asset trading: a functionality that allows the exchange of digital assets across chains
  • Large orders infrastructure: a functionality that allows traders to place rust raids with little or no price slippage
  • Darknodes: network participants who match orders and collect trading fees

The Ren Virtual Machine (RenVM) 

RenVM is a decentralized and permissionless virtual machine that powers the Ren platform. The machine contacts operations in secret using zero-knowledge proofs (protocols are methods that allow for data to be verified without revealing that data). All info fed and put out by the RenVM is completely hidden such that not even the dark nodes can access it. This enables the machine to secure private keys across different blockchains, facilitating the travelers and decentralized exchange of tokens across those chains. 

RenVM has four core characteristics: 

  • Shamir’s Secret Sharing: a cryptographic algorithm that’s a form of secret sharing in which a secret is distributed equally in a network. To reconstruct the secret, a minimum number of parts must be used. 
  • Secure Multi-party Computation(SMPC): a mechanism that allows the exchange of inputs and inputs to be run without revealing the content
  • Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) algorithm: a feature that allows a distributed network to reach consensus even if some nodes act maliciously
  • Hyperdrive: modification of the tournament call algorithm that supports SMPC

The Ren Token 

REN is the native token of the Ren network. It powers transactions by being used as payment for trading fees. It’s also used as a staking bond that both traders and Darknodes have to submit before participating in the dark pool exchange.

This is how REN is currently performing in the crypto market. It has a per-token value of $0.187840 and a market cap of $162, 747, 417, which makes it the 58th biggest cryptocurrency. The coin has a 24-hour volume of $10, 995, 073, a circulating supply of 866, 416, 516, and a total supply of 999,999, 633. REN’s all-time high was $0. 199440 (July 08, 2020), while its all-time low was $0.015394 (Nov 27, 2018). 

Buying and Storing REN

REN can be purchased at a variety of exchanges, including Binance, Huobi, Bilaxy, MXC, Hoo, HitBTC, Poloniex, IDEX, Uniswap, Fatbtc, Kyber Network, and Omgfin. 

For storage, you’ve got several options, including user favorites Trezor and Ledger Nano, as well as Atomic Wallet, MyEtherWallet, and Trust Wallet. 

Final Thoughts

Ren’s proposition for interoperable blockchains is not a novel one in cryptoverse. However, there’s something to be said about its pioneering secure multi-party computation, Darkpool and Dark nodes technologies that hide everything regarding trades and transacting individuals, guaranteeing complete and utter security and privacy. The Ren project is one to watch. 

Categories
Crypto Guides

Understanding The Topical Problems In The DeFi Ecosystem

Introduction Decentralized finance or DeFi is a collective term given to a wide range of products and technologies that help manage the finances more innovatively without the interference of the central bank or any financial institution. The decentralized applications that are generally are called DApps built on top blockchain like Ethereum and Bitcoin. The major […]

Introduction Decentralized finance or DeFi is a collective term given to a wide range of products and technologies that help manage the finances more innovatively without the interference of the central bank or any financial institution. The decentralized applications that are generally are called DApps built on top blockchain like Ethereum and Bitcoin. The major […]

Introduction

Decentralized finance or DeFi is a collective term given to a wide range of products and technologies that help manage the finances more innovatively without the interference of the central bank or any financial institution.

The decentralized applications that are generally are called DApps built on top blockchain like Ethereum and Bitcoin. The major highlight of DeFi is that they use smart contracts giving complete control over the finances. It helps in individual savings, payments, or investments, but it also facilitates better and efficient lending, margin trading, market predictions, etc.

With the help of DeFi tools, you can access the services that have any centralized authority. The significant idea behind launching DeFi is to make the entire process safer and more efficient than other traditional financial solutions. Though DeFi is efficient than other financial solutions, some roadblocks are preventing significant issues.

What Are The Major Problems Involved in Decentralized Finance?

Some of the major risks that revolve around DeFi are related to user errors, smart contracts, lack of insurance transparency, price mechanisms, etc. Irrespective of all the advantages DeFi holds, the initiative still remains an infant, making it vulnerable to risks.

Smart Contract Vulnerabilities

One of the significant issues that DeFi is going through is smart contract vulnerabilities. When a contract is released with a flawed code, it can result in fund losses. There have been instances where these particular issues with the smart contract have resulted in compromising blockchain.

User Error

The issue of smart contracts is also connected to an underlying problem of user error. Even if the code seems right, there can be some unexpected issues that can become a hindrance. Due to the user errors, millions of dollars have been lost in the name of DApps.

Internal Governance

Another crucial issue witnessed in DeFi is the internal governance and the external regulations of the assets. There are chances to control who can run and operate the platform. Along with that, the government can anytime issue regulations that can restrict the processes of DeFi.

Other Issues

Other common issues are related to the market unpredictability, lack of insurance, etc. that makes the individuals lose sums of money even if they haven’t made any mistake.

To realize the full potentials of DeFi, is essential to address the issue and find out how it can be managed. It is true that DeFi holds many advantages for the growth of the financial world. It depends on how well you utilize it by eliminating the issues.

The Future of DeFi

Addressing the current underlying issues of DeFi, there have been plenty of solutions that have emerged so far. For instance, Atomic Swaps and pTokens are likely to improve the DeFi and make it increasingly impressive for the finance industry.

The above mentioned were the major hindrances that are blocking the development of DeFi. Different types of solutions are being worked out to cater to the pain points of DeFi. With efficient use of bug bounties, audits, open-source commitments, etc., problems related to smart contracts and errors can become less frequent.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s Ravencoin (RVN) All About? 

Blockchain opens up a ton of possibilities for the world. One of them is creating a token for any purpose, and having the ability to transfer it to other users in a safe, peer-to-peer, and decentralized fashion. 

Blockchain opens up a ton of possibilities for the world. One of them is creating a token for any purpose, and having the ability to transfer it to other users in a safe, peer-to-peer, and decentralized fashion. 

Blockchain opens up a ton of possibilities for the world. One of them is creating a token for any purpose, and having the ability to transfer it to other users in a safe, peer-to-peer, and decentralized fashion. 

Ravencoin is a blockchain effort optimized for this role. Because creating and transferring assets is its only function, it fulfills it pretty well. Ravencoin derives its name from the raven – the bird the Westeros people use to send messages in George R.R. Martin’s fantasy series, “A Song of Ice and Fire.” 

The Raven reference reads:” In the fictional world of Westeros, ravens are used as messengers who carry statements of truth. Ravencoin is a use-case focused blockchain designed to carry statements of truth about who owns what assets.” 

In this article, we’ll take a peek into the world of Ravencoin. 

Breaking Down Ravencoin

Ravencoin is a free and open-source blockchain and cryptocurrency platform explicitly designed for the creation and transfer of assets. Ravencoin is built off of a fork of the Bitcoin code; hence, it follows its unspent transaction output (UTXO) model. However, to optimize it for its main function, Ravencoin has implemented a few changes, including a block reward time of 1 minute, more coins – hence supply. 

Ravencoin’s goal while handling user assets is to prioritize “security, user control, privacy, and censorship resistance.” Anyone from anywhere can utilize the Ravencoin platform to create and transfer almost any asset of their choice. As we’ll see below, Ravencoin differs from other cryptocurrencies in some quite interesting ways. 

How is Ravencoin Unique? 

To begin with, the Ravencoin idea is sustained by a large network of volunteers, nodes, and devs from all over the world. Ravencoin has no official staff or headquarters or budgets. 

Again, Ravencoin is ASIC-resistant, ensuring powerful ASIC miners and farms do not edge out the average user from the network. This cements its inclusive policy and prevents the network from becoming too centralized. To accomplish this, Ravencoin deploys its X16R hashing algorithm – which was created, to lock out ASIC equipment. 

Also, everybody has a chance to earn Ravencoin either through mining or buying. There was no pre-mining or allocations for any private, public founder or developer. 

What’s the Difference between Ravencoin and Bitcoin? 

As we saw before, Ravencoin is based on the Bitcoin code. For this reason, it’s important to highlight the differences between the two.

  • Issuance: The Ravencoin mining reward was initially 5000 RVN, while Bitcoin’s was 50 BTC
  • Block time: Ravencoin’s block time is 1 minute, while Bitcoin’s is 10 minutes
  • Coin supply: Ravencoin has a total supply of 21 billion, while Bitcoin’s is 21 million
  • Hash algorithm: Ravencoin implements the X16R algorithm while Bitcoin utilizes SHA-256

Ravencoin’s Asset Creation and Transfer Process

#1. Creating Tokens

Ravencoin supports the creation and transfer of almost all manner of assets. Creating your own token has never been simpler. To create one, you need to burn some RVN and then provide a unique name for your token. Then, proceed to indicate the quantity of the tokens, any decimal places, and whether or not more tokens will be issued in the future. 

#2. Creating Rewards 

Token creators can also distribute RVN to token holders with a single click. These rewards can be for anything that the token creator wishes. For example, you can create tokens and sell them to people. With the money raised, you can start a business. When the business takes off, you can send profits – denominated in RVN, to the people who believed in and contributed to your venture. This extremely easy built-in function allows anyone, anywhere to do this on their mobile phones, on Windows, Mac or Linux. 

#3. Creating Unique Tokens 

Ravencoin allows you to create unique tokens – the only ones guaranteed to be existing and cannot be replicated. Unique tokens are non-fungible and are proof of authenticity. Below are some use cases for unique assets: 

  • Software licensing
  • In-game assets
  • Automobile registration
  • Fine art collecting
  • Proof of authenticity tokens to accompany items that are prone to be counterfeited
  • Messaging tokens on communication channels

Use Cases for Assets

You can create a set of tokens for pretty much anything your imagination can conjure. The following are examples of such use cases. 

Representing Real-world Assets

  • Gold bars
  • Fiat money
  • Property deeds
  • Energy ( e.g., electricity, water, oil, wood)
  • Silver 

Representing a Project’s Shares

  • Stocks and shares being in tokens instead of a physical certificate
  • Issuance of dividends in RVN
  • Tokens representing partnerships and royalty rights 

Representing Virtual Items

  • Tickets to events, with the ability to transfer or resell
  • Access tokens to allow individuals to receive a service
  • In-game currencies and other items

Representing a Credit

  • Gift cards
  • Airline miles
  • Loyalty points

Who is Behind Raven? 

Ravencoin was conceptualized by blockchain adviser Bruce Fenton and Tron Black. Fenton has previously worked as an adviser to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and former Executive Director of the Bitcoin Foundation. Tron Black is the software developer lead for Medici Ventures. 

Raven Tokenomics

At the time of writing, Ravencoin (RVN) is the 67th largest cryptocurrency. It’s trading at $0.020481, with a market cap of $136, 888, 279, and it has a 24-hour volume of $12, 871, 915. RVN’s circulating and a total supply of 6, 683, 800, 000. According to Coinmarketcap, the currency’s all-time low was $0.080258 (June 03, 2019), and its all-time high low was $0.08794 (Mar12, 2020). 

Where to Buy and Store RVN

You can grab some RVN through either of two ways: mining or purchasing from an exchange. If you’d prefer to mine, check out these pools listed on RVN’s website. If you prefer buying, then you’ll find the coin listed on several exchanges, including Binance, BKEX, DigiFinex, Huobi Global, OKEx, Gate.io, Bitrue, Bitvavo, and LATOKEN. 

Ravencoin is complete with its own wallet for Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, and Linux. Third-party wallets recommended by the team include DCENT, Dove, Edge, Flare, and Guarda. Check out more here.

Final Thoughts

Raven coin is another blockchain project that doesn’t try to promise the world. Instead, it focuses on getting one thing right: the creation and transfer of assets. We’re also witnessing the unstoppable shift towards tokenized assets. With Ravencoin in the middle, it’s certainly bound to see its usability; hence its value will go up. Of course, this will depend on the community’s continued innovation in the face of a fast-changing crypto landscape. Let’s wait and see how the project holds up in the future. 

Categories
Crypto Guides

Can ‘Discreet Log Contracts’ Potentially Gear Bitcoin for DeFi?

Introduction The term “DeFi” has gained significant popularity in the cryptocurrency space since the beginning of 2020. Over hundreds of projects have already been implemented on Ethereum based on the intersection of blockchain and decentralized financial systems. The appealing ones being collateralized stablecoins and derivatives products. Given that the ecosystem can be feasibly built on […]

Introduction The term “DeFi” has gained significant popularity in the cryptocurrency space since the beginning of 2020. Over hundreds of projects have already been implemented on Ethereum based on the intersection of blockchain and decentralized financial systems. The appealing ones being collateralized stablecoins and derivatives products. Given that the ecosystem can be feasibly built on […]

Introduction

The term “DeFi” has gained significant popularity in the cryptocurrency space since the beginning of 2020. Over hundreds of projects have already been implemented on Ethereum based on the intersection of blockchain and decentralized financial systems. The appealing ones being collateralized stablecoins and derivatives products.

Given that the ecosystem can be feasibly built on a smart contract using Ethereum, the concept of open finance cannot be excluded from Bitcoin. For instance, sidechains like RSK (rootstock) can upgrade their smart contract capabilities, enabling more advanced financial products to build on Bitcoin.

That said, there are some other enthralling ideas on extending the Bitcoin’s structure to more sophisticated financial applications. Out of which, one exciting proposal that is in the talks over a few years is the discreet log contracts.

Bitcoin for DeFi – A Sustainable Approach?

Developers are uncertain about bringing in DeFi applications on Bitcoin. People believe that the reason for its significant value to date is due to its simple, stripped-down reliable design.

Contrariwise, ideas such as the lightning network for Bitcoin has resulted in an entirely new design for it. With the feature of layered scaling, applications can be still be created without hindering the security model of bitcoin’s core protocol.

The success has hence opened doors for exploring applications that help leverage bitcoin without having to compromise on its existing design.

But limitations exist…

The most significant trade-off is the complexity of DeFi applications. RSK could no doubt prove to be a valuable sidechain for Bitcoin, but federated peg sidechain essentially requires trust in controlling the chain.

Additional improvements in the underlying technology can reduce trust even further. The compelling DeFi projects on the Ethereum protocol is not possible to incorporate on Bitcoin’s protocol without compromising trust.

Cutting through the interesting project ideas, let’s get our feet wet to understand and generalize the concept of Discreet Log Contracts.

What are Discreet Log Contracts?

Proposed by Thaddeus Dryja, discreet log contracts are an ecosystem for minimizing the trust in blockchain oracles – assimilating data from external sources to the blockchain. Discreet log contracts pivot using Schnorr signatures to disguise the agreed upon contract information from the oracles.

This creates a scenario where payouts on data (public) are possible between three parties. The advantages of it being better security and flexible contracts without having to compromise on the trust.

Useful Ecosystem?

When applied to DeFi, the two parties can maximize their discreet log contracts and unleash the potential of derivatives, futures, and several other financial instruments. More advanced financial products when knotted to bitcoin, institutional practices like hedging risk on assets can become viable through the Bitcoin’s network. With the reliance on oracle-sourced data for payouts, micro-insurance contracts are possible using the discreet log contracts.

Conclusion

The prevalence of DeFi systems built on the Ethereum is hindering the notion of open financial products for Bitcoin. But considering the robust security model and consensus rules, the Bitcoin network does put forth a captivating medium for decentralized finance. And discreet lot contracts are an appealing tool that can help developers develop a more advanced open finance ecosystem with Bitcoin.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s Request(REQ) All About?

When you think of what blockchain can do for payments today, you can’t help but notice the flaws inherent in current payment models, from data breaches to fraud and error-prone transactions, to incredibly high fees, especially for cross-border transactions. Blockchain, aided by its decentralized and immutable features, can help dramatically improve how things are done in the payments industry. 

When you think of what blockchain can do for payments today, you can’t help but notice the flaws inherent in current payment models, from data breaches to fraud and error-prone transactions, to incredibly high fees, especially for cross-border transactions. Blockchain, aided by its decentralized and immutable features, can help dramatically improve how things are done in the payments industry. 

When you think of what blockchain can do for payments today, you can’t help but notice the flaws inherent in current payment models, from data breaches to fraud and error-prone transactions, to incredibly high fees, especially for cross-border transactions. Blockchain, aided by its decentralized and immutable features, can help dramatically improve how things are done in the payments industry. 

Request is a blockchain-powered platform that aims to help businesses globally tap into the potential of blockchain. The Request team believes payment processes should be seamless and more intuitive for users and has created an infrastructure to help businesses offer this to customers. 

So, what’s Request all about? This article is a deep-dive into the Request ecosystem, as well as a close look at its native token, REQ. 

Breaking Down Request

Request is an Ethereum-based effort at making payments easier to manage than ever. On the Request network, anyone can request payment and get paid via just a few clicks and in a secure way, without the need for intermediaries. All the sections are stored in a decentralized ledger, where every party can click to view at any time. Request wants to become the backbone of the world’s trade, and to achieve that it makes use of a ledger that is: 

  • Universal – designed to support transactions around the globe regardless of currency, legislation or language
  • Smart – because it integrates a computerized trade code that can handle a myriad of payment terms

How Does the Request Network Work? 

The process of requesting and receiving payments over the Request network is pretty simple. 

  • Bob creates a request invoice and relays it to Alice via the blockchain.
  • Alice’s wallet detects the Request and makes the payment in one click.
  • Bob gets his payment.

This is the basic formula of payments on the request platform. Request payments can also be made for online purchases, B2B invoices, and payments across IoT devices. 

Request offers the following benefits over the current payment systems:  

  • Security, since you don’t need to share banking information.
  • Simplicity, since Request and payments are made in single clicks.
  • Savings, since transactions are not dependent on third party processors (e.g., PayPal)

The Request Network Ecosystem

The Request Network is supported by 3-tiered architecture comprising the Core Layer, the Extensions Layer, and the Applications layer. Let’s examine more closely what role each plays in the ecosystem. 

#1. The Core Layer 

The Core is the bottom layer of the Request network. It handles consensus and state transitions. It comprises basic smart contracts that facilitate the creation of requests for payments and records when payments have been made. The layer is immutable, meaning no one can change records once they’re updated. It’s also completely transparent (anyone can log in and view any information that is relevant to them), it’s intelligent (which allows it to detect when an invoice has been completed per the conditions set in the invoice). 

#2. The Extensions Layer 

This is the second layer, and it handles more complex transactions than the ones in the Core Layer. One such transaction is one coming from an organization – and it might include complex calculations including taxes, escrows, advance payments, and so on. All of these conditions exist in the form of ‘extensions’ that the user can tailor or make into a request. 

This layer will also, in the future, support “continuous bills.” For example, a tenant can choose this module to make automatic payments via their bank account to their landlord. The Request network will always deduct the exact amount every month, and the tenants only have to worry about making sure there is enough money in the account. Request will handle any taxes and any charges related to the transaction. Individuals using this layer will be charged a fee, which will be partially burned and partially paid to the extension developers (outside developers, apart from the Request team who have contributed to the network). 

#3. Applications Layer

This is the topmost layer, and it takes place off-chain. Companies can plug into this layer and create various requests, including accounting, auditing, payment systems, debt collection, e.t.c. When a payment system plugs into Request, it will access the invoice of the user and be able to respond instantly. 

This layer is also equipped with the Reputation Application, a system that protects against phishing attempts and other malicious activity. All companies/entities in the network have a reputation system. If, for example, they attempt phishing or ignore submitted invoices, they will be penalized through their reputation taking a hit. The Reputation System also has other purposes, such as being used to reward cooperative and honest members. Members with the highest reputation ranking can receive perks such as reduced fees and access to customized extensions. 

Use Cases of the Request Network

As a decentralized payments network, Request could help businesses in ways traditional payment models cannot. Let’s get a closer look.

#1. Invoicing

Request facilitates automated payment functions, which are also transparent, and with almost zero downtime. Its reputation feature also incentivizes honest behavior amongst transacting parties, reducing instances of fraud.

#2. Online Payments

Online shopping has become a necessity of modern life. However, online shopping is mostly done by e-commerce giants such as Amazon and eBay, which require users to submit KYC information. The downside of this is that information could fall into the hands of malicious parties. 

Request keeps user info cryptographically secured – not even companies get access to it. Additionally, there’s a very minimal fee for transactions. Smart contracts also automate everything, saving time and money. Also, they remove the need for time-consuming and error-prone paper trails as everything is digitized. 

#3. Accounting 

Request will improve accounting processes in so many ways. No more manual confirmation of records, invoice fraud, and irregularities as information is input in an immutable and transparent system. The Request whitepaper calls these possibilities “smart audits.”  

Uses of the Request Token (REQ)

REQ is the native token of the Request network. It has various uses in that ecosystem, including the following. 

  • As an incentive for various parties to participate and help build the Request ecosystem
  • As a voting mechanism for members of the Request community to make their voice heard on the future direction of the project
  • As an incentive for good behavior, and to promote the health and technical independence of the network, as stakers in the coin would be wary of engaging in activities that would devalue the token

Tokenomics of REQ

Let’s look at REQ’s market position as of July 21, 2020. To begin with, the coin is trading at $0.041768 and ranking at #157 with a market cap of $32, 762, 973. The token has a 24-hour volume of $868, 218, a circulating supply of 784, 401, 135, a total supply of 999, 966, 002, and a maximum supply of 999, 983, 984. REQ has an all-time high of $1.18 (Jan 06, 2018) and an all-time low of $0.004651 (Mar 13, 2020). 

Where to Buy and Store REQ

The REQ token is available on several exchanges, including Binance, IDEX, Huobi, KuCoin, BitVavo, Gate.io, Bitfinex, Bancor, Kyber Network, Radar Relay, Fatbtc, WazirX, Mercatox, and Uniswap. 

Being an Ethereum-based token, REQ can be stored in any Ethereum-compatible wallet. Popular options include MyEtherWallet, MetaMask, Guarda, Trust, Parity, Ledger Nano, and Trezor. 

Closing Thoughts 

Request is attempting to make the everyday function of making payments cheaper, quicker, and more intuitive. More than a payment platform, Request also allows developers to create payment solutions on its platform and charge for them. If Request can remain consistent with their goal, then they have a real chance at dethroning legacy payment systems. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s Nimiq (NIM)? Here Is Your Guide

Cryptocurrency’s original idea was a peer-to-peer currency that individuals could interact with without the need for third parties. But evidently, that hasn’t quite worked out, putting in mind the proliferation of third-party players in blockchain today. Whether it’s exchanges or cryptocurrency payment gateways, there are just too many go-betweens. And these go-betweens, in turn, create […]

Cryptocurrency’s original idea was a peer-to-peer currency that individuals could interact with without the need for third parties. But evidently, that hasn’t quite worked out, putting in mind the proliferation of third-party players in blockchain today. Whether it’s exchanges or cryptocurrency payment gateways, there are just too many go-betweens. And these go-betweens, in turn, create […]

Cryptocurrency’s original idea was a peer-to-peer currency that individuals could interact with without the need for third parties. But evidently, that hasn’t quite worked out, putting in mind the proliferation of third-party players in blockchain today. Whether it’s exchanges or cryptocurrency payment gateways, there are just too many go-betweens. And these go-betweens, in turn, create a complex system that prevents millions of users from participating in the blockchain revolution. 

Nimiq is a blockchain platform that wants to inject more simplicity into crypto. Indeed, with just your browser – including your phone’s browser, you have a direct pass to the Nimiq ecosystem. No complicated KYC procedures, no taking up precious space in your device, no expensive middlemen. With this, Nimiq hopes to be an ‘it just works’ blockchain and crypto solution. 

So, does Nimiq really offer an ‘it just works’ solution? We’re about to find out!  

What’s Nimiq? 

Nimiq is an effort to help propel blockchain into the mainstream. It wants to achieve this by deploying a blockchain payment protocol that’s easier to use than the current blockchain platforms. The Nimiq team has written the code in JavaScript, so users can plug right in without having to sync to a node. 

Individuals can interact with NIM tokens using a browser across multiple devices. Nimiq’s main point is simplicity. So much so, that even the biggest crypto novice can get up and running – in a matter of seconds. You can even mine NIM tokens using only your browser without having to set up special software. 

Nimiq is derived from the Inuit language, and it means “an object or a force which binds things together.” This reflects in Nimiq’s mission of bringing blockchain closer to people. At the time of writing, Nimiq has 406k accounts and16k active members. 

How Does Nimiq Work? 

As we’ll discover down below, everything Nimiq is browser-focused. You simply need to go to the Nimiq website and create an account that will allow you to start sending or receiving NIM. 

Browser-First Blockchain

As we’ve previously mentioned, Nimiq’s goal is to make it easier than ever for everyone to interact with the blockchain. People today already use crypto to pay for things, usually through intermediaries. But the spirit of crypto is to be as independent as possible from central entities and third parties. The original goal of cryptocurrency was to have transactions in a decentralized and peer-to-peer manner. 

Nimiq’s simplicity-focused approach means bringing blockchain solutions to where the user is: online. Thus, Nimiq wants to offer the ability to conduct blockchain payments in a manner that’s as simple as interacting with any web app like let’s say, Twitter. The only requirement is to have your device connected to the web. No more downloading apps, plug-is, installations, and so on. 

Nimiq’s Design Approach

Nimiq wants to make blockchain payments as easy as browsing a web page. Apps have become the standard of how users interact with various web-based products. From Wikipedia to Microsoft Office to Google Docs, web apps are increasingly the go-to medium for users due to the following reasons: 

#1. Installation-free: With web-based applications, there’s no installation needed. Users can quickly open a website and get to using an application right away. 

#2. Compatibility across devices: By focusing on the browser rather than a specific downloadable application, users can get a more seamless and consistent experience across devices.

#3. Security and privacy: Browsers are traditionally fortified with layers of security. Thus, interactions with a browser are usually inherently secure, provided the user adheres to all security protocols

#4. Intuitive: Most users already established a familiarity with their everyday browser. Nimiq taps on this to design a smooth user experience that ‘just works.’

#5. Future-proof: Web apps have carved out a long-lasting place for themselves in the blockchain space. There’s no threat of web app software being overtaken by the winds of time.

Nimiq Use Cases

The Nimiq token is up for several uses cases as laid out on its website. Some of these include: 

  • Making and receiving payments
  • Store of value
  • As donations for content creators and charities, eliminating intermediaries
  • Claiming cash rewards in the form of Nimiq Cashlinks
  • Facilitating in-game purchases
  • Sending money cheaply across borders
  • As a reward for maintaining the network
  • Facilitating tamper-proof voting

How to Mine Nimiq 

Nimiq is one of the very few cryptocurrencies that can be mined with only a CPU. Anyone, ranging from the complete novice to the dilettante to the expert can quickly log in and start browser-based mining. The process is refreshingly simple, really. All you need to do is to create an account, log in, and connect a wallet. 

You can either choose to go solo or join a mining pool. However, it’s important to know that joining a mining pool is always the most lucrative option. This is because several participants combine their computing power to discover blocks faster. Some pool options include Nimpool.io, siriuspool.net, drawpad.org, balkanminingpool.com, nimiq.watch, and more.

The Nimiq Team

Nimiq is the brainchild of Robin Linus and Philip von Styp-Rekowsky. Currently, there are several team members listed on the website with expertise in various specialties such as communication and research, front end engineering, blockchain core development, and law. 

Around Jan of 2019, major cracks within the team became apparent when Linus returned from an extended leave and publicly posted (in a since deleted post) his grievances with the project on Reddit.  

In response, the Nimiq team hit back in a Medium post, addressing the concerns raised by Linus and effectively announcing his discontinuation with the project. 

Nimiq’s Supply, Distribution, and Current Tokenomics

NIM is the native token of the Nimiq network. The token has a total supply of 21 billion. The minimum unit of NIM is called Luna. 100’000 Luna makes 1 NIM, which makes a total supply of 21e14 Luna, which matches the total supply of Bitcoin’s 21e14 Satoshis. 

NIM is distributed as follows: 

  • 88% will go to validators rewards (throughout a mining period of 100 years)
  • 5% went to the token sale 
  • 2.5% will go to Long-term Project Endowment Foundation (10-year vesting)
  • 2% will go to Good Cause Partnerships and Sponsorships (10-year vesting)
  • 1.5% went to early contributors 6-month vesting)
  • 1% went to the creators (3-year vesting)

With that, let’s look at NIM’s current market performance. On July 20, 2020, the current traded at $.008583, ranking at #125 with a market cap of 53.6 million. It has a 24-hour volume of 6, 248, 420, 704, and a total supply of 7, 074, 420, 704. The coin’s all-time high was $0.013658 (July 19, 2020), and its first all-time low was $0.000283 (Jan 02, 2020).

Buying and Storing NIM

If you’d rather save yourself time and purchase NIM directly, you’re in luck because several popular exchanges support the coin. Some of them include KuCoin, HitBTC, Changelly, Changehero, BTC-Alpha, Coinswitch, and CoinDCX. 

Regarding wallet support, Nimiq provides the Nimiq Keyguard, which is an online wallet to get users started right away. Other options include Ledger Nano S, Ledger Nano X, and Trust Wallet. 

Final Thoughts

There’s no denying that Nimiq’s solution is fresh. Its simple proposition might be what crypto really needs. Just the ability for people to derive value from cryptocurrency in the simplest way possible. Crypto adoption has been partly set back by its complexity, and Nimiq is helping to break down that barrier. 

Categories
Crypto Guides

How Beneficial Are ‘Watchtowers’ In Diminishing Malicious Activity on Bitcoin LN?

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

The concept of watchtowers was originated from the Lightning Network (LN) and has improved drastically since its launch as Bitcoin’s Lightning Network seems to be growing at a large scale in the P2P payments system.

What are Watchtowers?

Watchtowers are fundamentally an ecosystem of third parties employed by the users to outsource monitoring the on-chain transactions of their lighting channels.

Watchtowers can be related to “watchdogs” of the Bitcoin blockchain that play the role of identifying and penalizing malicious users for cheating other users within the channel. Precisely, they verify whether a participant in a channel has properly broadcasted a prior channel state. If they find it malicious, they can claim back the funds after closing the LN channel with an invalid state.

Since it is a third-party service, they receive funds from their clients. The clients sometimes outsource the channel monitoring to multiple watchtowers, in case of failure from one. The LN channel users must check the status of correlation between off-chain channels and on-chain activity occasionally. Watchtowers 24/7 keep an eye on the security risk posed by any invalid LN channel, however.

How Exactly do Watchtowers Work? 

In simple terms, watchtowers are third parties that monitor their clients’ Bitcoin blockchain all day long. They check for any ambiguity between on-chain and off-chain channels with invalid states.

Here is a basic flow of how watchtower mechanism functions between two users in a common payment channel.

  • Joe sends a few Bitcoins to Jeff and updates the state channel within their channel.
  • Additionally, Joe sends a hint of the transaction to a watchtower to keep an eye on the transaction without disclosing its contents.
  • Moreover, Joe sends her signature to the watchtower to pre-authorize the channel funds, allowing it to be sent back in case of a channel breach.
  • The watchtower then cross-verifies the hints received from the client (Joe) and the Bitcoin blockchain.
  • If the watchtower identifies a channel breach by Jeff through an invalid state broadcast, a penalty transaction is created using Joe’s signature and finally reverses the channel funds back to him.

Hence, Joe is protected from a channel breach without having to be online as it was taken care of by the watchtowers.

Development and Challenges

The watchtower market is still in the development stage and is yet to be accepted in the mainstream as the lighting network is gradually inching into a more extensive P2P payment system using Bitcoin.

That said, researchers and enthusiasts believe that this field will provide a compelling future for LN watchtowers. We are uncertain how much-biased will users be towards using the watchtower services, but for the security assurances they provide, it is worth to be considered.

The service enabled by watchtowers would undoubtedly take away the abstract of complexity in components from the users, but considerable progress in both time and developments is vital when aiming for high-end features in the lighting network.

In conclusion, the fact that watchtowers present a prospective thinking approach to security risks imposed by the evolving Bitcoin indicates a sustainable ecosystem in the future.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s Blockstack (STX)?

The internet has proved to be something of a necessary evil. Thanks to the world wide web, we can now have interactions with other people from all corners of the globe and get information right on our fingertips about events unfolding in the world. All this is enabled by remote servers. Cloud computing, which offers on-demand computing resources, is an evolution of the basic internet model. Today, cloud computing allows users to store private data, run applications, manage applications’ access control, and a lot more.

The internet has proved to be something of a necessary evil. Thanks to the world wide web, we can now have interactions with other people from all corners of the globe and get information right on our fingertips about events unfolding in the world. All this is enabled by remote servers. Cloud computing, which offers on-demand computing resources, is an evolution of the basic internet model. Today, cloud computing allows users to store private data, run applications, manage applications’ access control, and a lot more.

The internet has proved to be something of a necessary evil. Thanks to the world wide web, we can now have interactions with other people from all corners of the globe and get information right on our fingertips about events unfolding in the world. All this is enabled by remote servers. Cloud computing, which offers on-demand computing resources, is an evolution of the basic internet model. Today, cloud computing allows users to store private data, run applications, manage applications’ access control, and a lot more.

But currently, we’re contending with the negative implications of cloud computing. Mass data and privacy breaches, users having little to no say over their own data, lack of trust in tech giants, etc.

Even with that, computing is indispensable in our lives at this point. But that doesn’t imply we have to stick with the highly flawed current computing model. We’re already seeing an evolution of cloud computing into decentralized models. Decentralized computing gives the power to users, not tech giants like Facebook and Google. It gives developers tools to develop decentralized applications that are third-party manipulation-proof. It facilitates a more satisfying consumer-software relationship. Most of all, it prioritizes users’ safety above everything else. 

Blockstack is an open-source platform that’s at the forefront in trying to achieve this. The Blockstack team believes that the new web frontier is a user-owned internet powered by the innovative blockchain. The project made headlines for being the first token sale in the history of the US to be cleared by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

So, what’s Blockstack, and what’s it all about? Let’s dive in already. 

Understanding Blockstack

Blockstack is a blockchain-enabled project that wants to offer a “fair and open internet that puts users in control of their data.” The big idea is to accord data users complete control over their data and identity as opposed to the current situation where individuals have little to no control over how big companies do with their data. The Blockstack team is accomplishing this goal through a suite of very affordable and easy-to-use developer tools that developers of all over the world can use to create decentralized applications (DApps). 

According to the Blockstack white paper, “Blockstack is an open-source effort to design, develop and grow a decentralized computer network that provides a full-stack alternative to traditional cloud computing. Blockstack is reimagining the application layer of the traditional internet and provides a new network for decentralized applications; applications built on Blockstack enable users to own and control their data directly.” 

Blockstack’s Design Goals

Before we do a deep dive into the inner workings of Blockstack, let’s first see the design goals it envisions for DApps: 

#1. Ease of Use. Blockstack wants its decentralized applications to be as easy to use as conventional internet applications, such as Facebook, are. In the same vein, they should be as easy to develop as it is on cloud computing today. 

#2. Scalability. Blockstack intends for DApps built on it to be able to support millions to billions of users. For this to be possible, the Blockstack blockchain should be able to scale with an ever-growing number of users.

#3. User Control. Ultimate user control is very important to the Blockstack team. DApps running on the Blockstack network must put users in complete control over their data and identifying information by default. 

How Does Blockstack Work? 

The Blockstack network relies on numerous components that work with each other to provide an environment creating and implementing DApps. Let’s examine some of the key ones. 

i) The Stacks Blockchain. 

This is the foundation of the Blockstack network. The Stacks blockchain enables users to register and control digital assets such as usernames – which in turn allows them to control how the data is stored. The blockchain also allows users to register and execute smart contracts. Stacks has two kinds of participants: miners and stackers. 

Miners on the Stacks blockchain need to post Bitcoin to mine a block. The BTC will then be distributed across a network of nodes (stackers), maintaining the blockchain. The Stacks blockchain uses a proof-of-transfer (PoX) consensus mechanism. According to the whitepaper of Blockstack’s version 2 blockchain, “PoX can help to solve a bootstrapping problem for new blockchains. Participation rewards in a separate, more stable base cryptocurrency can be a better incentive for encouraging initial participation than offering participation rewards in a new cryptocurrency.” 

ii) Gaia Storage System. 

The Blockstack white paper describes Gaia as a “user-controlled storage system that enables applications to interact with private data lockers.” Users, and not the Stacks blockchain, get to host these data lockers. This can be either on a cloud provider, local disk, or remote storage. Users also choose the storage provider. Users can discover data lockers by looking up on the Stacks blockchain. As with any centralized data storage, Gaia removes the need for third-party storage solutions such as Google and Amazon. 

iii) Blockstack Authentication

Blockstack has a feature known as the Blockstack Authentication protocol that facilitates decentralized authentication on the platform. With the feature, users can establish their identity and provide information on which Gaia location should be used for that user’s data storage. Instead of commonplace passwords, Gaia utilizes public key cryptography to secure user data. Authentication happens entirely on the Blockstack blockchain and is maintained by the Blockstack Naming System. 

iv) Blockstack Libraries and SDKs

Blockstack provides a host of libraries and software development kits (SDKs) for developers to build DApps as easily as it would be for traditional internet applications. Blockstack provides SDKs for Android, iOS, JavaScript, and Facebook’s mobile application framework React Native. For new developers, Blockstack provides a tutorial that can get them started in an hour. Also, the libraries and SDKs help users to interact with the Blockstack network, e.g., creating and managing their own identities.

v) Clarity Smart Contracts

Blockstack implements a programming language for what it calls ‘predictable smart contracts.’ Clarity-based smart contracts unlock interesting use cases for DApps. Some potential use cases include: 

  • Access control (e.g., pay to play)
  • Creation of both non-fungible and fungible tokens 
  • Business model templates (e.g., financial projections and sales strategies)
  • Application-specific blockchains
  • Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) 
  • Language design

Charity differs from the majority of smart contract languages in two key ways: it is interpreted (not compiled), and it’s decidable (not Turing complete). Interpreted means the contract source code is published and executed by nodes on the network. This removes the need for compiled representation (as with the Ethereum Virtual Machine bytecode for Ethereum’s smart contract language Solidity, for instance), which minimizes the possibility for bugs occurring. 

Clarity is also decidable. Decidability helps to determine exactly when a code is going to be executed and what exactly it will do in certain situations. The intention of using a decidable language is to avoid incidents like the DAO attack. Because Solidity is an undecidable language, it’s impossible to know how a contract will behave in specific circumstances without actually executing in those circumstances. 

Token Overview and Use Cases

Stack (STX) is the native token of the Blockstack blockchain. Use cases for Stack include, but are not limited to: 

  • Payment for registering blockchain-based identities which include usernames, domains and so on 
  • Payment for publishing and executing Clarity smart contracts
  • Rewards to miners for hosting nodes and securing the network

Tokenomics of Stack

Let’s take a look at how Stack is, well, stacking up in the crypto market. As of Jul 21, Stack is trading at $0.158618, and it ranks at position #93 with a market cap of $84 million. It has a 24-hour volume of 3.4 million, and a circulating supply of 530, 526, 315. STX has a total supply of 764, 449, 681, and a maximum supply of 2, 048, 913, 488. The token has an all-time high of $0.258708 (Feb 12, 2020) and an all-time low of $0.045008 (Mar 13, 2020). 

Where to Buy and Store STX

You can purchase STX tokens at a variety of exchanges, including Huobi, IDEX, HashKey Pro, and Binance. However, US residents cannot buy STX tokens from these exchanges – at least not yet. 

For storage, Blockstack has provided an official wallet available on Mac and Windows. If you prefer a more secure solution, consider a hardware wallet such as the Trezor One, Trezor Model T, Ledger Nano S, and Ledger Blue wallets. 

Final Thoughts

The Blockstack team wants to turn the tables on how the internet operates. It envisions a web where users have agency – not one where their privacy and data is controlled by powerful corporates. This is certainly a timely idea. The blockchain community and people who care about privacy are keeping their eyes peeled on this one.

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic

Benefits and Drawbacks of Blockchain in Philanthropy

Donating to charity brings a heartwarming experience in knowing that you’ve helped improve someone else’s life. It could be a fundraiser to help settle a hospital bill, feed the homeless, or even raise money for environmental causes. But, have you ever stopped and considered where your donations end up?

Donating to charity brings a heartwarming experience in knowing that you’ve helped improve someone else’s life. It could be a fundraiser to help settle a hospital bill, feed the homeless, or even raise money for environmental causes. But, have you ever stopped and considered where your donations end up?

Donating to charity brings a heartwarming experience in knowing that you’ve helped improve someone else’s life. It could be a fundraiser to help settle a hospital bill, feed the homeless, or even raise money for environmental causes. But, have you ever stopped and considered where your donations end up?

Unfortunately, charitable giving is not as charitable as one would wish. A good number of fundraising organizations are overwhelmed with mismanagement and bad records, which results in lost funds. Others are outrightly fraudsters whose intentions are to siphon funds from unsuspecting donors. 

In a report from UK’s The Guardian news outlet, global development workers admitted that 2 to 5% of funds raised in charities are lost to fraud. This translates to losses of $276 million from a total of 7.46 billion intended for humanitarian aid in a single year. Some organizations have even agreed to dissolve after being found guilty of embezzlement of donors’ funds. 

As the public’s trust in charities declines due to numerous scandals, there’s a new player on the scene poised to change the face of charitable donations forever. This is blockchain technology. 

Where Blockchain can make a difference

Blockchain, a distributed ledger system, can resurrect the image of charities in the following ways: 

1. Promote transparency and accountability

One of the most attractive features of Blockchain for philanthropists is that it makes it possible to trace all the donated funds. All the donated funds are recorded in a distributed ledger, making it possible for donors to monitor the entire sequence of transactions. As such, a donor can be sure the funds will reach the intended recipient, which in turn promotes accountability from the organizations. 

Also, every transaction in the blockchain network is cryptographically encrypted, rendering it immutable. This means that entries cannot be modified but can only be updated by adding new transactions. Not only does this offers unparalleled transparency, but it also minimizes the wastage of funds, thereby building trust between donors and an organization.

An excellent example of a blockchain-based donation system is Charities on the Chain, designed by China’s e-commerce giant – Alibaba. The system accepts donations from customers and allows auditors, the media, and the donors themselves to track information on how the donations are used. 

2. Reduce administrative costs

Besides fraud, charities grapple with expensive administration costs that eventually eat into the total amount for money raised. Sure, some of these overhead costs are unavoidable, such as office supplies and employee salaries. However, expenses such as those incurred when transacting with financial intermediaries can be brought down. Through smart contracts, the intermediaries involved can be reduced, in turn lowering the administration costs. For example, when donating, funds are often sent to a financial institution, which later sends them to the charity organization after taking a cut off the raised amount. Smart contracts can facilitate direct transfer of funds from donors to an organization while also ensuring that the charity receives the funds once certain objectives have been achieved. 

3. Facilitate fast and affordable transactions

Sending donations via traditional banking channels is usually expensive, especially for cross-border transactions. Also, during the transaction, the funds are subjected to taxes in addition to other deductible expenses. However, Blockchain can be used to facilitate the transfer of funds from the donor to an organization at a reduced cost with minimal red tape delays. Moreover, every transaction is recorded on a public ledger in real-time. This, in turn, helps decrease the cost of annual reporting on a charitable organization’s budget, while increasing its overall transparency. 

The donation process becomes even more efficient if an organization uses a native cryptocurrency/token to raise funds. Cross-border transactions will be efficient without a minimal daily limit, as it is the case with conventional money transfers. On the downside, using cryptos to raise funds means that charity organizations will be subjected to capital tax gains. This is especially true in countries such as the United States, where they are treated as assets. Also, digital currencies are usually volatile, which can lead to loss of value. To mitigate this risk, charities can consider accepting stablecoins that are less volatile. 

Potential Risks of using Blockchain in philanthropy 

Despite the advantages, there are few concerns to be considered when adopting blockchain technology in charity organizations.  

i) Regulatory pressure

Although blockchain technology has been around for more than a decade, policymakers are still trying to understand the long-term implications of this technology. So, it’s uncertain how they’ll choose to regulate it. Additionally, for organizations looking to accept cryptocurrencies as donations, they’ll have to bear with unfair tax laws imposed on digital assets. 

ii) Ease of use

Blockchain solutions work differently from traditional systems and are more complex than the latter. As a result, charity organizations face an inevitable learning curve when exploring Blockchain’s potential. As such, besides the high cost of application of blockchain solutions, organizations will also have to spend more resources on training their staff on how to use these solutions. 

iii) Security

While blockchain technology is inherently secure, smart contracts are prone to bugs, which can create security loopholes. Hackers, therefore, can exploit bugs on the code resulting in loss of funds. 

Also, the loss of private keys can as well lead to the permanent loss of funds. Not to mention that the same keys could land in the wrong hands.

Conclusion

It is beyond doubt that blockchain technology has the potential to redefine philanthropy and bring in the much-needed transparency and accountability. But before implementing this technology, charities will need to evaluate the cost of implementation, in terms of finance and management, and then weigh these costs against their charitable objectives. It is crucial to note blockchain technology is not necessarily appropriate for all operations in an organization. There already exist traditional infrastructures that can process transactions efficiently or even better than blockchain solutions. 

Categories
Blockchain and DLT

Can GDPR and Blockchain Coexist? 

The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect more than two years ago. The law gives residents of the European Economic Area (EEA), power over their personal data and how it is used by organizations. This includes the right to ask for its erasure, the mandate for informed consent, and right over whom that information is shared with. The law applies not just to organizations based in (EEA), but also those based in other countries while serving European residents. 

The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect more than two years ago. The law gives residents of the European Economic Area (EEA), power over their personal data and how it is used by organizations. This includes the right to ask for its erasure, the mandate for informed consent, and right over whom that information is shared with. The law applies not just to organizations based in (EEA), but also those based in other countries while serving European residents. 

The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect more than two years ago. The law gives residents of the European Economic Area (EEA), power over their personal data and how it is used by organizations. This includes the right to ask for its erasure, the mandate for informed consent, and right over whom that information is shared with. The law applies not just to organizations based in (EEA), but also those based in other countries while serving European residents. 

With this in mind, it is clear that there is a direct clash of intentions between the GDPR Law and Blockchain – an emerging technology that is increasingly winning the attention of many organizations across the world. At what point exactly do the two collide, you ask? 

Well, by definition, Blockchain is a distributed and immutable ledger. This means that once the data is recorded on the network, it is impossible to alter it, let alone delete it. But, with respect to the GDPR Law, individuals have the right to revoke consent or ask for their personal data to be deleted. This puts organizations at crossroads, especially if they are looking to use Blockchain in the future to serve European clients. Now let’s examine the incompatibilities of these two entities: 

Personal Data

Personal data is a broad term used to define any information that can be linked to an individual. The same definition is used in the context of GDPR, where data consist of a variety of personal details from email addresses, health details, IP addresses, to device identifiers. This extends even to pseudonymized data that can be attributed to a specific individual by the use of additional information.

In the case of Blockchain, the technology uses anonymized data to record events associated with an individual. This is made possible by the use of public cryptographic keys that link a participant to a particular transaction. Even so, the mere use of an identifier — in this case, cryptographic keys — doesn’t mean that the data on the Blockchain is outside the scope of personal data as defined by the GDPR Law. Moreover, if an organization was to use blockchain solutions to establish customers’ identity under Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) policies, it becomes even more subject to the GDPR Privacy Law. What causes even more friction between the two entities is that Blockchain is a permanent system of records. As such, the stored data, whether anonymized or not, can’t be erased even if the cryptographic key is destroyed. 

Data Controller and processor dilemma 

The GDP Law was first proposed by the European Commission long before blockchain technology was a trend. It is, therefore, not surprising that the law follows a centralized logic where the focus is entirely on data collectors who also play the role of processors. Articulating this logic in the case of Blockchain — a decentralized technology — definitely, there will be discrepancies. Here’s is why, in a decentralized system, anyone who joins the peer-to-peer network becomes what is called a ‘node.’ 

The nodes keep a local copy of the Blockchain and connect with others on the same network to verify each entry. Simply put, nodes take over the role of a data processor as defined by the GDPR Law. Yet, the nodes don’t have control over how the entire system works. In a similar fashion, the party that designed the blockchain network can’t really fit into the data controller description, since they are merely platform providers. Without a clear definition of who’s playing the controller’s role, the parties can’t enter into a ‘controller-processor’ agreement as mandated by the law. 

Additionally, the data on the network is made public for all nodes to see and verify. This goes against the principle of “data protection by default” under GDPR, which states that data shouldn’t be accessible to an indefinite number of persons without the subject’s intervention. Further, if the data is recorded in a public blockchain, it becomes even harder for data subjects (i.e., individuals) to exercise their right to revoke the consent of their data. 

Compliance with the privacy law can only be maintained in a private blockchain where the network is owned by one specific party. The party assumes the role of a data controller as the nodes take their place as processors. However, a private blockchain is less secure compared to its public counterpart, which, as a result, puts users’ data at risk. 

Storage limitation

Under the principle of storage limit, GDPR law stands for the proposition that personal data cannot be stored for an unlimited time. Therefore, a data retention period must be defined according to the purpose of data processing. In contrast, one of the core characteristics of Blockchain is that once the data is recorded on the network, it cannot be altered or deleted. As such, the data will be stored for an infinite period of time, which is clearly against the GDPR Law.

One of the viable solutions to this problem is to store data in an alternative database. Consequently, Blockchain will then be used to store data that doesn’t necessarily point to an individual e.g., the hash generated from a keyed hash function. Also, organizations can use permissioned Blockchain to store the data and later incentivize all the nodes to ‘delete’ it by forking the network. Admittedly, doing so will break the hash pointers between blocks. However, it is possible to re-harsh the blocks since permissioned blockchains do not need Proof-of-work, and thus the process wouldn’t require much computational power. 

Using Blockchain to ensure compliance with GDPR Law

In an ironic twist, blockchain technology can be used to maintain compliance with the GDPR Law. This can happen in two main instances: 

Data accuracy 

One of the principles of GDPR Law is the emphasis on data accuracy. All organizations operating or serving clients in EEA are required to maintain an accurate record of their clients’ data. They are also required to have sound procedures to check and verify the accuracy of the data. Blockchain technology, with its virtually incorruptible trail, can be used by these organizations to guarantee the accuracy of the recorded data.

Data integrity 

Under the principle of data protection by design and default, organizations are required to protect clients’ data from manipulation or unauthorized access. In this case, Blockchain is the perfect tool for safeguarding data from third-party party intrusion while ensuring no single node alters what is already recorded. 

Conclusion 

Clearly, there is a direct clash between the newly imposed GDPR Law and blockchain technology. But on ideological grounds, the two entities share the same goal, which is the protection of data. By virtue of sharing a common ground, Blockchain can be used to enhance compliance with the GDPR data law. This will help organizations within and outside EEA embrace this revolutionary technology while still respecting the privacy of their clients. 

Categories
Crypto Guides

Plasma – The Perfect Solution to Ethereum Congestion?

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

Plasma is an ongoing development of the Ethereum second-layer scaling solutions. After state channels, Plasma will be the second completely deployed scaling solution on the Ethereum mainnet.

What is Plasma?

Plasma is a structure that facilitates the development of child blockchains using the main Ethereum as an arbitration and trust layer. Plasma is primarily being created to meet the demand for specific uses cases that are unavailable on the current Ethereum network.

Understanding Child Chains

The underlying goal of both plasma and state channels is the same, where they try to divert as much transaction bloat off away from the main Ethereum chain as possible.

In case of disagreements, the child chain state update can be reverted to the Ethereum network. The same applied to cases if a user wants to pause transacting on the child blockchains.

On the features front, child blockchains can digest on varying complexity. They are given the ability to have their consensus algorithms, their block sizes, and confirmation times. Their design is relatively flexible for each application. Moreover, some developers are researching the possibilities of child chains within a child chain, and so on.

How secure is Plasma?

As mentioned, Plasma maximizes the use of the Ethereum network as an arbitration layer. In suspect of a malicious part, users can always regress to the main Ethereum chain as a trusted source.

Another feature is that the main Ethereum blockchain and the child chains are connected via ‘root contracts.’ Root contacts are simply smart contracts on the Ethereum network containing the rules guiding each child chain.

Root Contracts and its Necessity

The most important component in the plasma network is the existence of root contracts. Root contracts as a bridge allow users to seamlessly move between the main Ethereum chain and the child chains. As a matter of fact, all assets must be created through the main Ethereum.

Thus, no malicious activity on the child chain can ever be reverted to the main Ethereum chain. For instance, if a user moves some crypto-collectible tokens onto a child chain, they can anytime withdraw from the child chain and the asset on the main chain, only if the user proves they didn’t spend them.

Drawbacks of Plasma

The only considerable drawback of Plasma is the duration taken for the withdrawal of funds. Plasma users must wait for a predetermined arbitration window that typically lasts 7-14 days, while state channel users can instantly withdraw their assets.

The Prospects

The growing congestion in the Ethereum network leads to the creation of frameworks such as state channels and Plasma, which drastically eased the overcrowding in the network. Plasma will allow users to transact with lower fees and higher throughput and help developers scale their dApps. This, hence, can be an excellent opportunity for Ethereum to reach the masses.

Furthermore, the combination of plasma and state channels can help produce a leveraged product. In fact, the developers are already working on building state channels within the child chains. With this implementation, users will incur significantly less or no fee while transacting in the network. Cheers!

Categories
Crypto Guides

Universal Protocol – A Potential Platform to Connect Digital Assets

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

The Bitcoin blockchain became a success as people realized the power of the decentralized technology. Then came Ethereum, offering many features and abilities in the existing technology. Given the enormous potential of this decentralized technology, it will take platforms like Universal Protocol for blockchain to be widely accepted in society.

The Universal Protocol offers various products and has partnered with well-known firms like Cred, Bitcoin.com, Blockchain at Berkeley, Uphold, and Brave.

The vision of the Universal Protocol

Universal Protocol was created with a vision to connect every possible financial market participant with Cryptocurrencies, be it publicly traded equities worth millions of dollars or merely buying anything from a local departmental store.

Precisely speaking, the Universal Protocol Platform is visioning to attract 100 million new users to the world of Cryptos and facilitate a company or group to make a seamless platform to create digital assets. The goal might seem far-fetched, but present stats show that it has made impressive progress.

Problem and Solution

The Universal Protocol addresses the non-existence of scaled interoperability. The platform allows users instant and seamless transfer of value across various decentralized networks. It mainly provides a common language via which incompatible protocols can ‘reason’ against one another, and at the same time, reduces the time, risk, and cost of exchanging digital assets.

With an advanced architecture for interoperability, the UP platform will allow users to interact with several cryptocurrencies on a single blockchain. The Universal Protocol combines the revolutionary smart contracts and reserve functionality to enable highly secure and convertible proxy tokens through its platform.

Applications and Benefits

As stated by the vision of Universal Protocol, we can affirm that everyone in the financial industry can make use of the platform. Below are some ecosystems where the platform can be employed to make digital assets a part of the everyday financial system.

Financial Institutions

The Universal Protocol tries to solve the custodial challenges that some major financial institutions have faced since the past. The model created by UPP provides single standard compatibility with the help of Proxy Token, which can be used for tokenizing any financial asset. Thus, it will remove the requirement for multiple types of custodial programs, and the institutions will have to print their business logic only once, on Ethereum.

Centralized Exchanges

The process of listing new coins on a centralized exchange is a complex, expensive, and time-consuming process that could take up to months of work. But with the help of the Universal Protocol Platform, centralized exchanges can dramatically streamline the process of listing new cryptocurrencies. With UPP, exchanges will have to add ERC-20 to list proxies representing any digitally tokenized asset.

Innovators

For developers as well, UPP is an excellent tool for innovation. The best part being, developers will only have to deal with one type of network, even if they’re looking to build their blockchain. The Universal Protocol model would ensure system-wide compatibility and also simplify the use of dApps and smart contracts.

Conclusion

The goal of the Universal Protocol is still intact, and apart from that, it has been working on other projects as well. This has hence led to the emergence of new opportunities in the world of blockchain. And we believe that it worth keeping an eye on the further developments on the Universal Protocol Platform.

Categories
Crypto Guides

Introduction To LApps – The Revolutionary Second-layer Scaling Solutions

Introduction  

Introduction  

Introduction  

Second-layer scaling solutions such as Lightning Network have shown immense potential. One of the most underutilized abilities the second layer scaling solutions is the development of decentralized-like apps. However, Lightning Network Apps or LApps have leveraged this potential to the fullest and developed an extensive decentralized ecosystem that is scalable, versatile, and boasted with valuable features. The decentralized abilities of LApps will help in expanding the applications of cryptocurrencies and eliminate the many existing pitfalls that the landscape is dealing with.

What are LApps?

Lightning Network Apps (LApps) accessibility on the blockchain aims to address two critical points – lack of decentralized platforms and expansive transactions. The lack of decentralized apps is one of the biggest challenges that might impact the cryptocurrency’s future, and the core foundation of LApps is to eliminate this roadblock.

Secondly, LApps are built on the lightning network, which means that they are designed for micro-transactions. These significantly lower the entry barriers, increasing the potentials of LApps.

The existing use cases for Bitcoin are limited to financial activities. LN does not merely widen the application but also provide affordable experiences. Prior to LApps, a majority of cryptocurrency transactions needed to be executed through third-party cryptocurrency exchanges.

However, with LApps, peer-to-peer transactions can be performed efficiently on a large scale. LApps are currently in its early stages, and its capabilities are yet to be explored.

Types of Lightning Apps Available

As of now, there are five prominent types of LApps available including-

Wallets

While it is not ready to be used, HTC is gearing up to release the crypto phone – Exodus, which will be integrated with Lighting Network Hardware.

Integrations

LNCast is an excellent example that signifies Lightning Network capabilities with a specific product like a Lightning Network Podcast.

Bitrefill is another example of amalgamation between the Lightning Network and the retail landscape. LApps allows Bitrefill users to recharge their smartphones using Bitcoin or Litecoin.

CoinMall (now rebranded as Toffee) is another decentralized ecosystem for digital products that allow buyers and sellers to perform transactions through Zcash or Bitcoin. 

Tipping

The LApps have simplified the application of the Lightning network and allowed more people to adopt the same. For instance, Lightning Tip is an effective LApps that is currently in Beta. It basically enables users to create an easy platform for users to accept tips via the Lightning network. Additionally, Tippin.me is another popular tipping LApps that everyone loves to use.

Protocol Services

Protocol services assist innovators and developers in using Lightning Network. For instance, 1ML is a Lightning Network search and analysis engine.

Developer Tools

With the growing innovation, development tools are also becoming more robust. For instance, the WooCommerce plugin is a gateway that accepts lightning payments.

Moreover, Radar Ion also announced the launch of a series of developer tools based on the Lightning Network.

Conclusion

The landscape of cryptocurrency is growing at an exponential rate. But its mainstream adoption will pave the way for prolific opportunities. By facilitating a decentralized ecosystem LApps, is allowing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be more efficient. It allows users to leverage quick, cheap, and scalable transactions. By extending a seamless transaction experience, LApps holds the potential to expand the potentials of cryptocurrencies across different industries in the coming times.

Categories
Crypto Videos

US FDA Considers Using Blockchain for Food Security – Blockchain Is The Future!

 

 

 

US FDA Considers Using Blockchain for Food Security

The US Food and Drug Administration recently released a blueprint as well as a pilot study for food safety, which highlighted blockchain as a viable option for many of the identified challenges.

The blueprint, which was released earlier this week, breaks down some of the challenges that the food distribution throughout the country faces, as well as looks at how smart technologies such as blockchain could solve them:
“Our world is evolving and improving at a breakneck pace. With the evolution comes new technologies, from new digital tools to even new sources of food ingredients. This advancement provides new tools and approaches for tackling food safety issues, but also presents new issues to consider when trying to regulate food safety.”
The technologies mentioned in the blueprint include artificial intelligence, the IoT, sensor technologies as well as blockchain. They are looked at in terms of tech-enabled traceability, retail modernization, prevention, and outbreak response and food safety culture.

The FDA didn’t just realize that blockchain has potential recently. In fact, it has been talking about it for the last two years. Stephen Hahn, the FDA’s Food and Drugs Commissioner, as well as Frank Yiannas, the Food Policy and Response Deputy Commissioner, noted the devastating impact of COVID-19 on the food supply chain sector. They both stated that blockchain is one of the technologies that will make it easier to track products through the supply chain and certainly improve how the industry operates.

IBM has laid the groundwork

IBM is the one that brought blockchain to the agriculture and shipping industry by implementing its FoodTrust program that launched in conjunction with Walmart. This program is servicing many of the major retail giants in America, while the blockchain records food product information as well as certification, therefore reducing pain points such as certification storage and product recalls.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s One (Harmony)? The Definitive Guide

Bitcoin, the first blockchain and cryptocurrency was designed to facilitate a peer-to-peer payment system that operates beyond the centralized control of governments and without intermediaries such as banks. But as the cryptocurrency has gained more popularity and more users crowd the network, so has the transaction speed slowed down, and transaction fees became prohibitively expensive. 

Bitcoin, the first blockchain and cryptocurrency was designed to facilitate a peer-to-peer payment system that operates beyond the centralized control of governments and without intermediaries such as banks. But as the cryptocurrency has gained more popularity and more users crowd the network, so has the transaction speed slowed down, and transaction fees became prohibitively expensive. 

Bitcoin, the first blockchain and cryptocurrency was designed to facilitate a peer-to-peer payment system that operates beyond the centralized control of governments and without intermediaries such as banks. But as the cryptocurrency has gained more popularity and more users crowd the network, so has the transaction speed slowed down, and transaction fees became prohibitively expensive. 

Succeeding blockchains have attempted to improve Bitcoin one way or another. One of these is Ethereum, which enables developers from all over the world to build ‘smart contracts.’ Smart contracts are a new kind of contract that is self-executing and self-enforcing. But even Ethereum failed to solve the scalability problem, averaging only 15 transactions per second.

Other projects like Zilliqa have sought to solve the scalability problem by implementing sharding – the technique of partitioning a database so as to enhance network speed. Still, this approach came short. First, it does not support state sharding, preventing nodes with limited computing power from participating in the network. Second, it uses a proof-of-work mechanism for the random generation of transaction validators. 

Harmony is a project that seeks to address the enduring issue of blockchain scalability by providing a fully scalable, secure, and environmentally friendly blockchain. 

Breaking Down Harmony

Harmony is a public blockchain network that aims to provide scalability for decentralized applications. It aims to do this by dividing the network states into shards, effectively “scaling linearly in all three aspects of machines, transactions and storage.” 

Harmony differentiates itself from other scaling blockchains in the following ways: 

  • Fully Scalable – Harmony divides up not only the network validation process but the blockchain state itself, making it a fully scalable blockchain
  • Secure Sharding – Harmony’s sharding process is secure thanks to its reliability on distributed random generation (DRG) protocol that is unpredictable, free from bias, and verifiable. 
  • Fast and Efficient Consensus – Unlike other scalability blockchains that rely on Proof-of-Work consensus, which gobbles up a lot of energy, Harmony is based on the more energy-efficient proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. Also, network consensus is reached via the Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) mechanism, which is faster than the Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) mechanism. 
  • Adaptive Thresholded Proof of Stake – Harmony implements an ‘adaptive thresholded proof of stake,’ which adjusts the threshold of stakes needed for a node to qualify to join the network in such a manner that malicious nodes cannot take control of a single shard.
  • Scalable Networking Infrastructure – Harmony utilizes an ‘Adaptive Information Dispersal Algorithm’ to quickly assign transaction-containing blocks across shards on the network. 
  • Consistent Cross-Shard Transactions – this is a protocol that helps achieve the consistency of cross-shard transactions by enabling shards to interact one-on-one with each other.

How Harmony Works 

The Harmony platform runs on two major pieces of technology, namely:

  • PoS consensus based on BLS signature algorithm
  • Adaptive state sharding

#1. PoS Consensus and BLS Signature Algorithm

Harmony utilizes a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism based on what it calls (FBFT) to facilitate faster transactions. On top of that, it uses BLS (Boneh-Lynn-Shacham) signatures – a signature technology that verifies user authenticity. The BLS signature allows Harmony to scale faster than if it were using the traditional PBFT algorithm.

#2. Adaptive State Sharding

Harmony employs sharding, which involves partitioning network data into smaller and more manageable chunks. This is to achieve high-level scalability by facilitating faster confirmation of transactions. However, it goes further to incorporate ‘state sharding,’ also known as network sharding. State sharding involves splitting the entire network’s state across all the nodes and yet again across shards, paving the way for nodes to interact with each other without verification conflicts.

Who’s on The Harmony Team?

The Harmony team comprises experts who bring to the table experience in cryptocurrency and blockchain, coding, engineering, decentralized protocols, and business. The core team is made of Stephen Tse, Rongjian Lan, Nick White, and Sahil Dewan.

Stephen Tse is an experienced engineer and coder with more than 15 years of experience. He has a Ph.D. in security protocols and compiler verification from the University of Pennsylvania.

Rongjian Lan is a decentralized protocols enthusiast who was also a search infrastructure engineer at Google’s Play Store. Lan is the author of more than ten academic papers on Spatio-temporal and map-based visualization.

Nick White is an artificial intelligence and applied mathematics researcher who has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

Sahil Dewan has a degree in business from the Harvard Business School, where he also served as president of the blockchain and cryptocurrency Club. He’s a former employee at the Draper Dragon Fund.

Harmony has also onboarded several advisors, namely Hakwan Lau (neuroscience and machine-learning professor at UCLA), Ka-yuet Liu (medical data and network analysis professor at UCLA) Zi Wang, who’s worked for nine years at Google, Bruce Huang, who’s worked for eight years at Microsoft and is a director at Alibaba. 

The Harmony Token (ONE)

Harmony has a utility token known as ONE, which runs atop the network’s mainnet since June 2019. The token plays the following roles in the Harmony ecosystem;

  • Staking – network participants must hold the talking in order to take part in the PoS consensus and earn block rewards
  • Payments – ONE is the medium through which individuals pay for storage and transaction fees
  • Voting – The token is used to purchase voting rights for members to participate in decision-making on the direction of the Harmony protocol

ONE’s Distribution

ONE’s distribution was as follows: 

  • 22.4% went to the seed sale conducted in May 2018
  • 12.5% went to the launchpad sale which took place in May 2019
  • 16.9% went to the team
  • 26.4% point to protocol development
  • 21.8% went to ecosystem development

The following is ONE’s market performance as of June 29, 2020. The cryptocurrency is trading at $0.004421 while ranking at #145. It has a market cap of $27, 653, 568, 24-hour volume of 4, 650, 278, a circulating supply of 6, 255, 461, 110, and a total and maximum supply of 12, 600, 000, 000. ONE has an all-time high of $0.030689 (June 06, 2019), and an all-time low of $0. 001257, (March 13, 2020). 

Where to Buy and Store ONE

You can buy ONE tokens from a variety of exchanges, including Huobi, Binance, WazirX, KuCoin, BitMax, Gate.io, MXC, HitBTC, Bilaxy, and Bitsonic.  With storage, you also have a variety of options, including Trust, Ledger, Math Wallet, and Guarda Wallet. 

Final Words 

Harmony manages to solve the decade-old, thorny issue of blockchain’s lack of scalability. By its use of state sharding, and it’s a unique twist to the traditional practical Byzantine fault tolerance mechanism, the blockchain can scale faster than other existing blockchains. Harmony excels where other blockchains have fallen short, and perhaps we’ll see more blockchains adopting some of its techniques in a bid to attain increased scalability. 

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Crypto Daily Topic

Is Blockchain the New Frontier in The Fight against Corruption? 

At its core, blockchain technology aims to resolve issues pertaining to the security and integrity of data. As such, the technology comes at a ripe time – when the general public is losing trust in governments and other central authorities that are entrusted with maintaining records. 

At its core, blockchain technology aims to resolve issues pertaining to the security and integrity of data. As such, the technology comes at a ripe time – when the general public is losing trust in governments and other central authorities that are entrusted with maintaining records. 

At its core, blockchain technology aims to resolve issues pertaining to the security and integrity of data. As such, the technology comes at a ripe time – when the general public is losing trust in governments and other central authorities that are entrusted with maintaining records. 

In line with the aforementioned solutions, the technology works by decentralizing and cryptographically encrypting the stored data, thereby promoting data transparency and traceability without the need for authentication by a central authority. Through decentralization, blockchain also makes it possible for parties to share records in a consensus database, which in turn renders it impossible for a single party to alter the data. By leveraging these properties, blockchain is positioned to lead the fight against corruption as it can verify records and protect them from being tampered with. 

Unlocking Blockchain’s Potential in Fighting against Corruption 

It seems counterintuitive to market blockchain as a tool for fighting against corruption, yet it’s the same technology that allows criminals to perpetrate crimes such as money laundering and tax evasion. In addition to supporting anonymous transactions, virtual currencies also lack a central regulatory authority, which further promotes financial crimes.

On the bright side, the technology can be used to curb these financial crimes and other corruption atrocities.

1. Registering Assets

For starters, the most obvious entry point of blockchain in the fight against corruption is in maintaining immutable public registries. These include property registry and land titling to ensure transparency between buyers and sellers. Essentially, it would work as a proof of identity/ ownership system. 

Registering assets ownership on the blockchain creates an immutable system that can help stamp out fraud, which results from forgeries and simple clerical errors. In fact, these forgeries are so severe that the United States has a massive title insurance industry to cover monetary losses associated with these frauds. As such, if implemented, the system would save taxpayers millions of dollars and incentivize banks to lend loans to property owners against their land – thanks to the transparency of the system. 

Sweden is leading the way in developing a blockchain-powered land registry system. The government has partnered with a telecommunication company, Telia, and two other Sweden banks in a bid to eliminate paperwork, reduce fraud, and speed up transactions. 

The system will run on a consortium blockchain that brings land authorities and banks – who hold copies of the land records – together. When a land title changes hands, each step of the process is verified and recorded on the network, with the help of smart contracts. 

Other countries working on developing a similar system include Georgia, Ukraine, and Ghana – where it is estimated that huge chunks of land are unregistered. 

2. Verifying Identity

As the world continues to embrace digital systems, identity theft becomes a more pronounced concern with people trying to cover their digital footprints. Corporations also aren’t spared from this menace as several of them have fallen victim to intimidating threats from hackers and online vigilantes who exploit loopholes in their public registries. 

A blockchain-powered database can be used to manage and authenticate the identity of individuals and corporations in a Know Your Customer (KYC) infrastructure. This would also make it easier to maintain anti-money laundering regulations. Such is the goal of the ambitious Dubai Blockchain Strategy, which seeks to digitize most government administration processes such as license renewals, visa application, and bill payments. When fully implemented, the system will not only reduce identity theft – especially in visa applications, but also save the government the expensive administration costs associated with physically running these procedures. 

Also, the Jamaican government is planning on establishing a national identity (NID) system, which is essentially an online database with a citizen’s personal details. This will help in streamlining identity verification and counter financial crimes in Jamaica. Although the government hasn’t shown any interest in blockchain, the NID system could benefit immensely if this disruptive technology was to be used. 

3. Tracking transactions

High-risk transactions such as cash transfers and public contracts are susceptible to third-party interception and even fraud by the involved parties. Currently, various solutions have been introduced to provide end-to-end transparency using advanced analytics to detect bid-rigging, price-fixing, phantom vendors, among other irregularities. Blockchain can still be deployed to further enhance transparency by recording vital information at every stage of the contract or procurement chain. 

In the same vein, government payment systems and cash transfers are vulnerable to fraud due to multiple points of human discretion. Limiting the physical interaction between citizens and government officials using smart contracts will reduce falsification/fraudulent transactions, in addition to cutting the red tape.

So far, there have been only a few programs experimenting on blockchain as a means of recording government transactions. Nonetheless, the United Nations, through the World Food Program, recently conducted cash transfers to Syrian refugees in Jordan. This pilot project was done using a blockchain system as a means of recording entitlements to ensure transparency, eliminate chances of falsified claims, and reduce transfer costs. The success of this project may perhaps inspire governments across the world to embrace blockchain as a means of fighting against corruption. 

In a humanitarian context, blockchain can also be used to curb slavery and civil wars experienced in resource-rich third world countries. A good example is in the case of ‘blood’ diamonds witnessed in Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sierra Leone. ‘Blood’ diamonds, as defined by the United Nations, are gemstones mined by militia groups who, in turn, sell them to fund their military actions against the recognized government of that particular state. Often these militias exploit slaves and children to mine these gems and perpetuate state violence. 

Even though most consumers do not want to buy these diamonds, they have no practical way of ascertaining whether they were ethically sourced. However, blockchain as a data storage system can be used to record all diamond transactions throughout its supply chain, making it easy for anyone to access and verify the history of a diamond before purchasing. This would, in turn, discourage the sale of blood diamonds to unsuspecting customers, bringing an end to slavery, child labor, and perhaps, cripple the criminal activities of the militias.  

Conclusion 

Blockchain technology may not be the silver bullet it’s often touted to be, but its enormous potential to root out corruption can’t be ignored, especially in a world scarred by unending corruption scandals. Besides strengthening integrity, the technology can add an extra layer of security to records and transactions that are often exposed to high risks of corruption. Nonetheless, it’s anticipated that government-wide application of blockchain systems is yet to be realized as the technology is still in its early stages. For now, we can only rely on pilot programs to lead the exploration of blockchain as an anti-corruption tool.