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QWINWORLD/QWIN ICO ANALYSIS

Qwin is a crowdfunding game platform that allows participants crowdfund desired items (e.g. phones, tablets, laptops, and even cars). In addition to contributing, however, all participants have the opportunity to make the last contribution and, as a result, go home with the prize.

QWIN ICO Review Highlights

ICO Platform Ethereum (ERC 223) Rating 3.3/5 Grade B- Industry Gaming Price N/A Bonus N/A Soft Cap N/A Hard Cap N/A Total Number of Tokens (Available for sale) 500 million QWIN (275 million QWIN) Website URL Qwinworld.io Whitepaper URL Qwinworld Whitepaper Social media accounts URL Qwinworld Telegram Qwinworld Facebook Qwinworld Twitter Qwinworld Medium Qwinworld Reddit

Let’s decrypt Qwinworld Use Case!

What Problem is Qwinworld Addressing?

To make things more interesting for existing customers and attract new ones, many companies across various industries are looking into gamification. Gamification is the application of gaming activities in non-game situations. For example, a luxury perfume store decides to give a 30% discount to randomly chosen customers OR an electronics store runs a campaign to gift free TVs to selected customers. This random choosing of winners has proven very successful over the years, and millions of people steadily apply for a chance to take home the prize—even though the odds are quite long. However, in recent times, questions have been raised about the lack of transparency in the process. How can customers tell that the process to choose a winner was fair? What can be done to ensure fairness?

Qwin attempts to fix these issues by providing a gaming platform that is fair, transparent, and rewards participants using smart contracts. That way, nobody can rig the system and all participants have a chance to win the prize.

Qwinworld Value Proposition

The Qwin platform allows participants to get involved in, and even create their own, games in which specific prizes (either a product or service) are determined by the organizer. To enter the game, contestants must contribute a block (consisting of a predetermined number of Qwin tokens). The participants’ contributions are used to fund the prize and when the number of pre-determined blocks has been contributed, the game ends. The participant who contributes the last block in the game ends up as the winner of the prize.

Through this system, Qwin tackles the issue of randomness in gaming systems. For anyone to emerge a winner on any games hosted on the Qwin platform, they must have made the right decisions in relation to the contributions of other players.

Another issue that Qwin attempts to deal with is that of transparency and fairness in gameplay. With the use of blockchain enabled smart contracts, the gaming system is decentralized and no single participant can tamper with the game history. Furthermore, the game’s history is made public after the last block is contributed and the prize is won. This means everyone can crosscheck what happened and agree on the fairness of the system.

Qwinworld Leadership Team

The Qwin team is an interesting combination of entrepreneurs and technology experts. Justinas Basalykas is the CEO, co-founding the platform with Marius Rajeckas who also serves as the project’s CVO, they are both investors and entrepreneurs with a combined 35+ years of business experience. The CTO, Paulius Grybauskas, has over 15 years’ experience in managerial accounting consulting. He has worked with (or for) reputable companies like IBM, Panasonic, British American Tobacco, Nissan, Jaguar Land Rover etc.

Qwinworld Target Market

Theoretically, the prospective market for a crowdfunding gaming platform is quite promising. Small and big businesses seeking to connect with their clients and buyers on a more engaging level will find the Qwin platform very useful. However, it remains to be seen whether providers of products and services will be able to convince their clients and customers to invest in purchasing the Qwin tokens need to participate in the games.

There are other blockchain-based gaming platforms, but none with the exact structure of operation that Qwin offers. Provided the team keeps working to provide a sublime experience for users, and more users adopt the platform, Qwin might well be a gaming platform to watch out for in the not-so-far future.

Qwinworld Roadmap

Qwin already has an MVP and interested parties can try it out here. The project’s token sale is billed to take place in the 3rd quarter of 2018 and Qwin aims to produce the first “Qwin millionaire” in the same quarter. Furthermore, they plan to release a mobile app beta and implement on the blockchain in Q1 2019. The full Qwin platform with complete functionalities is scheduled to be released in Q3 2019.

Qwinworld SWOT Analysis

Strengths

The solution they aim to provide is different, interesting, and it aims to leverage a popular trend.

The project has a working MVP.

Short developmental roadmap. They plan to launch a completed platform a year after their ICO.

Weaknesses

Qwin is not solving a pressing problem; it is more of a vitamin than a painkiller.

The project’s ICO was scheduled for Q3 2018, there are only 30 days left in the quarter and token sale details have not been released.

No team member with profound experience in the blockchain/cryptocurrency scene.

Opportunities

If the idea catches on, it has the potential to expand massively.

They have no notable competition in the crowdfunding game sector.

Threats

Lots of marketing may be needed to sell this idea to the public.

The cryptocurrency scene is currently filled with projects that aim to solve one real-world problem or the other. While Qwin is not looking to do the same, their proposition is no less interesting. Imagine 30 people crowdfunding the latest iPad with all of them are vying to be the one that wins the prize. This activity offers just the right amount of fun and competition that young people are bound to become obsessed with. The question now is, does the Qwin team have enough technical expertise to build this platform? Does their marketing team have enough expertise to attract users? The answers to these questions will determine the success of the platform.

In conclusion, this is a project worth looking out for. As always, however, invest smartly and remain informed on happenings in the market.

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from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8284204 https://www.digitalassetdb.com/qwinworld-qwin-ico-analysis/ from DigitalAssetDB https://digitalassetdb.tumblr.com/post/178104352957

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ZICHAIN ICO Review: A Blockchain-based Asset Management Ecosystem

Zichain’s ecosystem is home to 4 products that work independently of each other. When combined, these products provide an entry point into the world of cryptocurrency asset management.

ZiChain ICO Review Highlights

ICO Platform Ethereum Rating 4/5 Grade A Industry Asset Management Price Presale price: 1 ZCN = $0.08 ICO price: 1 ZCN = $0.1 Bonus 25% (during presale) Soft Cap $3 million Hard Cap $25 million Total Number of Tokens (Available for sale) 703,125,000 ZCN (450,000,000 ZCN) Website URL Zichain.io Whitepaper URL Zichain Whitepaper Social media accounts URL Zichain Telegram Zichain Twitter Zichain Facebook Zichain Reddit

Let’s decrypt ZiChain Use Case!

What Problem is ZiChain Addressing?

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts insist that the digital currency market is here to stay and that in time, it will provide a viable alternative to the fiat currency market. The blockchain technology and the benefits it brings have also been extensively extolled. However, research shows that only about 0.5% of the world population is taking advantage of the opportunities that the blockchain and cryptocurrencies offer.

If cryptocurrencies offer as much as—perhaps even more than—fiat currencies, why is it being ignored by a large majority? Why aren’t more people fighting to enjoy the blockchain’s benefits? The answer is simple: the entire cryptocurrency setup is complex, inconvenient, and very confusing for prospective investors. People don’t understand it, so they are reluctant to invest in it. To simplify the setup and make it viable for all comers, it may be important to introduce some tools that made the traditional markets and fiat currency so uncomplicated and easy to use.

ZiChain Value Proposition

To solve the problems outlined above and position cryptocurrencies as a significant investment alternative to fiat, Zichain attempts to combine the best practices of the conventional financial markets with the innovative technologies that the blockchain offers. To that effect, Zichain is currently working to develop the following 4 products:

1. Cryptoeye.com

This is an information and analytical platform for cryptocurrencies. It will provide users with an extensive outlook into the cryptocurrency market and provide relevant details about all blockchain projects and their cryptocurrency tokens. The platform will also help investors collate news and analytics for their personal portfolios.

2. Theindex.fund

The Indexfund provides automated cryptocurrency index funds and it offers medium- and long-term investors access to a fast-growing digital asset class. The platform has a highly transparent investment approach and it is dependent on 5 major indices. Additionally, users have the option of choosing their risk-return profile, degree of diversification, and sector exposure.

3. BAMP

BAMP is short for Blockchain Asset Management Platform and it allows users create customized investment funds within minutes. The platform is fully automated and it comes with decentralized storage for assets, financial reporting, fees accounting & withdrawal, and so on. In a nutshell, BAMP allows its users to manage cryptocurrency assets on a simple and convenient trading platform.

4. Zichange.io

Zichange will facilitate the quick exchange of cryptocurrency to fiat. The project claims that, when launched, the platform will offer users “the best rates with low fees”, users will be able to choose from a wide range of payment options, and large amounts of cryptocurrency may be exchanged hitch-free.

ZiChain Leadership Team

The Zichain team is led by Co-founder and CEO, Khachatur Gukasyan, an Investment Manager with over 10 years’ experience in private banking and asset management. Co-founder and COO, Serge Geller, is a veteran project manager and business restructuring specialist. He has over 15 years’ work experience in the technology, construction, and energy sectors in the USA, Russia, and Austria. Zichain’s CTO, Stepan Tsaturyan is an award-winning software engineer with over 15 years’ experience in software development. He holds a doctorate degree in Computer Science and he has authored 12 scientific publications.

The team is made up of other well-educated and highly-experienced professionals.

ZiChain Target Market

According to CoinMarketCap, the cryptocurrency market currently has a market cap of over $260 billion (as at the 6th of July 2018). When the market cap was pegged at $350 billion, Zichain estimated that cryptocurrency asset management has the potential to grow into a 75-billion-dollar industry. If Zichain can spearhead the development of this industry and hold a significant portion of its market share in the years to come, the project and its token will no doubt skyrocket significantly.

ZiChain Roadmap

A beta version of Cryptoeye.com is available here. According to the Zichain website, the indices for Theindex.fund have already been developed, BAMP already has an MVP, and the licenses required to run Zichange.io have been obtained.

Cryptoeye 2.0 will reportedly be released in Q2 2018 and Zichain’s private sale will take place in the same quarter. ZCN public sale is scheduled for the 3rd quarter of 2018 along with the release of updates to BAMP, Theindex.Fund, and Zichange.

ZiChain SWOT Analysis

Strengths

A use case that seeks to address a prominent problem.

The project has made significant developmental progress. All their products have a working prototype or an MVP.

Weaknesses

No significant weaknesses.

Opportunities

Estimates show that a cryptocurrency-based asset management industry will be worth billions of dollars. This provides companies in the industry with room for substantial growth.

Over the past 20 years, index funds have been the fastest growing asset management class in the traditional markets. Zichain believes that they can replicate this trend in the cryptocurrency markets.

Threats

Some of the biggest exchanges in the world e.g. Coinbase, OkEx, Huobi etc. have launched their own index funds. These will provide Zichain with some competition.

In conclusion, Zichain is attempting to provide tools that will make trading—and investing in—cryptocurrencies less complicated and more convenient for everyone involved. Given the potential size of the crypto asset management market (~$75 billion) and how far along Zichain are as regards product development, the project seems quite promising. As always, however, prospective investors are advised to tread carefully and seek out information & updates before investing in the project.

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Disclaimer: The information contained herein is not intended to be a source of advice and the information and/or documents contained in this website do not constitute investment advice.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8284204 https://www.digitalassetdb.com/zichain-ico-review-a-blockchain-based-asset-management-ecosystem/ from DigitalAssetDB https://digitalassetdb.tumblr.com/post/175750839007

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COVALENT ICO Review: A Decentralized Data Utilization Protocol with Military-Grade Security

Covalent is a protocol that aims to make it possible for private models to utilize private data in a secure ecosystem. Data “owners” make their data available in return for financial reward and companies that need the data pay for access. Covalent makes sure that the data is encrypted to ensure maximum security and some people describe the platform as “an Amazon for Data”.

Covalent ICO Review Highlights

ICO Platform Ethereum Rating N/A Grade N/A Industry Data Security and Privacy Price N/A Bonus N/A Soft Cap Yet to be announced Hard Cap Yet to be announced Total Number of Tokens (Available for sale) Yet to be announced Website URL Covalent.ai Whitepaper URL Covalent Whitepaper Social media accounts URL Covalent Telegram Covalent Medium Covalent Twitter

Let’s decrypt Covalent Use Case!

What problem is Covalent Addressing?

When the internet (the TCP/IP protocol) was introduced, it defined and simplified data transfer. People from all over the world could share files, information, and personal experiences within minutes and without stress. Then the IPFS protocol came and simplified data storage. These 2 protocols led to the generation of a ton of data and presently, the internet is home to billions of terabytes of important data. Due to privacy concerns and the absence of a value network, however, an overwhelming percentage of this data cannot be utilized.

According to the Covalent Whitepaper, in 2017 alone, 22 zettabytes (22 billion terabytes) of data were generated and only about 1% of the total was utilized. As a result, in a manner similar to how the internet revolutionized data transfer, the world needs a protocol that allows the maximization and utilization of data—a network that brings the world’s data together and allows it to be leveraged in a manner that is beneficial to both the owner of the data and the sectors (e.g. healthcare, financial markets, education and so on) that need the data for significant advancement.

Covalent Value Proposition

Covalent aims to develop the protocol described above by providing a decentralized network where data is made available to all parties that need it and those that provide their personal data are incentivized. Here’s a fitting illustration: a research company needs patients’ records to prove that there is a relationship between eating habits and depression in young adults. The information needed to confirm/refute this study exists and the internet makes it possible for patients to share them with the company. However, because of the private nature of the information, the company will struggle to find people willing to send their information in. The data owners fear that once the information is out, they lose control over it and it may be abused.

Covalent’s proposed protocol removes this risk by keeping the raw patient data secured with military-grade encryption, providing access only to the summary that companies need for their studies (and algorithms). With the risk of information abuse removed, people will likely become more willing to share their records. This, combined with the promise of financial reward should make private data sharing more prevalent.

Covalent Leadership Team

Covalent’s core team members include Raymond Gao, an alumnus of Princeton University, a venture capital & startup veteran, and an early adopter/miner of Bitcoin and Ethereum; Vincent Li, a Harvard grad with years of experience in cryptocurrency research and trading, and a veteran coder and engineer; and Tarik Moon, a Harvard-trained distributed database engineer with work experience at eBay and Goldman Sachs.

Other well-trained and well-experienced personnel make up the team.

Covalent Target Market

By providing a protocol with a shared data layer, Covalent aims to give developers and corporate bodies a platform where they can gain access to tons of data without infringing on the owners’ privacy. This development has the potential to replicate the success enjoyed by sectors where data is readily available (online advertising, ecommerce, and online search engines) in sectors where data is quite scarce (healthcare, manufacturing, education, and the financial markets).

At present, no other project has a decentralized data utilization platform that incentivizes data owners. As a result, the market potential of Covalent in the coming years looks quite promising.

Covalent Roadmap

The project’s developmental roadmap and token sale details should be announced in due course.

Covalent SWOT Analysis

Strengths

A strong use case that seeks to tackle a significant problem.

A good team and an advisory board that includes the Founder of FBG Capital.

Weaknesses

The project is still quite young and there is no working prototype or a timeline on when an MVP will be ready.

No information on hard cap and token sale.

Opportunities

The project recently closed a multi-million-dollar investment round.

The global market has a pressing need for a protocol that makes data utilization more viable.

Threats

Negligible social media hype; there is no post on the Covalent Medium page.

In conclusion, the presence of an exciting idea is just one of the factors that make for a successful ICO. At the moment, however, that is all Covalent has—well, along with the financial backing of some VCs. This may be a promising project in the future, but at the moment, it is just an idea with a long road ahead.

NB: Ratings will be published when token sale details are made available.

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from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8284204 https://www.digitalassetdb.com/covalent-ico-analysis-a-decentralized-data-utilization-protocol-with-military-grade-security/ from DigitalAssetDB https://digitalassetdb.tumblr.com/post/175581792492

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COSMOS vs POLKADOT: The Battle of Multi-Chain Infrastructures

There are a number of startups that plan to provide inter-chain operability, scalability solutions, and improved efficiency on the blockchain. Here is a comparison of 2 projects that show significant promise in solving the foremost problems facing blockchain technology.

NAME COSMOS POLKADOT Token ATOM DOT Industry Blockchain Services Blockchain Services ICO Hard Cap Raised 4,868 BTC + 246,892 ETH (as at April 6, 2017). Raised over $359 million (as at October 26, 2017). ICO Price _____ varied Number of Partners _____ 12 Telegram Followers 5377 followers No Telegram Channel Project Start Date February 2016 October 2016

The Blockchain Interoperability Challenge

The advent of Blockchain technology has opened up a world of possibilities in technology, finance, payment services, business management, transportation and logistics, file sharing and many other sectors. Moving forward, the expectation is that the blockchain will birth many more technological advancements that will revolutionize the way we live, work, and interact.

The technology, however, has some disadvantages that threaten to limit its effectiveness and mass adoption. Energy inefficiency, low scalability and the lack of interoperability amongst blockchains are some of the biggest problems; Cosmos and Polkadotaim to provide solutions to these problems.

Cosmos vs Polkadot: Value Proposition(s)

Cosmos aims to provide a network of decentralized blockchains. The Cosmos Network will be deployed on an architecture that allows blockchains to exchange data and payments between themselves, scale infinitely without compromising on security, and improve on blockchains that are already in existence.

Polkadot, on the other hand, is a heterogeneous multi-chain technology that facilitates the secure (and anonymous) exchange of data and payments between different blockchains. With this technology, Polkadot aims to connect multiple blockchains into a single and completely decentralized internet—they call it “Web3”.

Cosmos vs Polkadot: Competitive Advantage

Both Cosmos and Polkadot aim to connect independent blockchains but while Polkadot is focused on enabling secure transactions and interactions, Cosmos aims to do way more than that.

Cosmos wants to provide users with a decentralized distributed exchange, ability to bridge to other cryptocurrencies, and multi-application integration.

However, the Polkadot ICO raised over $350 million, giving the project a significant advantage over Cosmos.

Cosmos vs Polkadot: Roadmap & Future Outlook

According to the Cosmos website, the Cosmos Network is almost ready and they have completed 90% of the milestones required before the network can be launched officially. The project also exceeded the hard cap they set for their crowdsale and while they have a big enough community, to attain mass adoption, they need more participants than the 1090+ people that donated during their ICO.

The Polkadot project has also completed major milestones and the network is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter of 2019. They have also secured some support and partnership agreements with the likes of ZCash, OmiseGo, Melonport, Grid Singularity, Waves Platform, and many others. Given how much the project raised during ICO and their user-friendly use case, there is a lot of positive attention on this project. Whether or not this translates to mass adoption remains to be seen.

Cosmos vs Polkadot: Strengths & Weaknesses

POLKADOT COSMOS Easy-to-use platform with non-complex & minimal functionality. A developer friendly platform equipped with a Tendermint-based toolkit that makes building DApps easy. STRENGTHS Raised $359 million during ICO. Their roadmap is 90% complete. Polkadot aims to provide developers that want to deploy smart contracts on their platform with Turing-complete parachains Chains built on Cosmos are interoperable among themselves as well as with external blockchains. WEAKNESSES The network won’t be launched till Q3 2019. Their website does not mention any notable partnerships. Ethereum is already working on a solution to its scalability problem. This may remove a significant part of both project’s target market

Cosmos vs Polkadot: Conclusion

Cosmos and Polkadot have similar goals (a decentralized network of blockchains that work together) and while this may position them as rivals, both projects have unique propositions that set them apart. Smartly, both of them have decided to put a cap on trading their cryptocurrency tokens, Cosmos Coin (ATOM) and Polkadot Coin (DOT), until their networks are fully launched. This action signals a certain serious-mindedness. Furthermore, by doing so, they are ensuring that the positive performance of their platforms will have a positive effect on the value of their tokens—and by extension, the value of their company.

Given how far along they are on their roadmap, Cosmos is expected to launch sooner than Polkadot (Q3 2019). However, regardless of when both projects make their tokens available for trading, ATOMs and DOTs seem like good options to consider investing in.

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from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8284204 https://www.digitalassetdb.com/cosmos-vs-polkadot-the-battle-of-multi-chain-infrastructures/ from DigitalAssetDB https://digitalassetdb.tumblr.com/post/175240773907

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DAV NETWORK Project Review: A Decentralized Ecosystem for Autonomous Transportation

DAV Network aims to create a decentralized, highly-secured, and highly-scalable ecosystem that brings all the participants in the transportation industry together. The project’s target is the future autonomous vehicles market but they have use cases that will impact the current system in place.

DAV Network ICO Review Highlights

ICO Platform Ethereum Rating 3.8/5 Grade B+ Industry Transportation Price 1 DAV = 0.0001 ETH Bonus ______ Soft Cap ______ Hard Cap 63,123 ETH Total Number of Tokens (Available for sale) 2 billion DAV (777 million DAV) Website URL DAV Network Official Website Whitepaper URL DAV Network Whitepaper Social media accounts URL DAV Network Telegram DAV Network Twitter DAV Network Reddit

Let’s decrypt DAV Network Use Case

What problem is DAV Network Addressing?

The transportation industry is going through its “biggest revolution since the invention of Henry Ford’s assembly line in 1908” ( DAV Network Whitepaper, 2017). Uber, Lyft, and other ridesharing companies are disrupting the industry and redefining how people are transported. Another consequence of this advancement in technology in the transportation industry, however, is the emergence of autonomous vehicles, and in a matter of years, self-driving vehicles would have populated the market considerably.

When this happens, the current closed-platform model that ridesharing companies current adopt would no longer be very effective. A decentralized ecosystem that allows the different participants in the transportation industry—consumers, businesses, hardware companies, software developers, insurance providers, maintenance workers, and arbitrators—benefit from/contribute to the growth of the network is urgently needed.

DAV Network Value Proposition

Decentralized Autonomous Vehicle (DAV) Network aims to develop a highly-scalable and open-source ecosystem where all contributors can operate without a central authority. Using the DAV Network, users may order for a drone, send it to deliver an item to a specific address, and pay for the service using DAV tokens. This will be particularly useful for delivery companies; last-mile delivery accounts for 55% of delivery costs today. Taking a delivery truck to an area and having drones deliver parcels from house-to-house is more cost-efficient than driving the filled truck to every house.

In the future, when autonomous vehicles have populated the market, individuals may order for driverless rides and pay using DAV. Owners of these vehicles may make them available and earn tokens too. Maintenance workers may earn DAV for looking after and running checks on the vehicles in the ecosystem, and hardware and software companies may also earn DAV for making their products and services available to consumers in the ecosystem.

DAV Network Leadership Team

Founder and CEO, Naom Copel, is a veteran strategist and expert in blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, and encryption. In 2003, Copel developed the first smartphone encryption system in the world; it was distributed to almost 50 countries. Co-founder and CCO, John Frazer was External Relations Lead for the Ethereum Foundation and a senior member of the Devcon3 team. Co-founder and CMO, Joe Lopardo worked with reputable companies like Google, Oracle, SAP, and Salesforce as a brand developer and marketing strategist.

They are joined on the team by other well-qualified personnel and an advisory board that includes a former executive at GM, an astronaut from NASA and many more prominent names. ( DAV Network website, 2018).

DAV Network Target Market

The emergence of autonomous vehicles is expected to kick-start the “Passenger Economy”, and according to a report by Intel, this economy will be worth $800 billion in 2035 and in excess of $7 trillion by 2050.

DAV Network aims to be a significant part of this economy and if they succeed in securing even a portion of the market share, any investment now will definitely yield significant returns. The project sold $20 million worth of DAV during their presale.

DAV Network Roadmap

According to their website, the DAV network was launched in May 2018 and their drone charging service was launched in the same month. May 2018 also saw the first autonomously-completed vehicle charging on the network.

DAV token sale commenced on the 11th of June 2018 and it should go on till the 25th of June or when all tokens have been sold. DAV network’s decentralized non-autonomous ride hailing network should be released in Q4 2018.

DAV Network SWOT Analysis

DAV Network Strengths

A strong team with a large community of open source contributors.

Well-connected advisors with ties to IBM, GM, NASA, UPS, SAP etc.

The Passenger Economy is an emerging market that holds ample potential.

DAV Network Weaknesses

Long developmental roadmap.

Given current market conditions, $38 million is a considerably high hard cap.

DAV Network Opportunities

A Network has been launched and they have working prototypes.

The project raised $20 million during their presale.

DAV Network Threats

Their use case piths them against more recognizable companies like IOTA and IoT Chain.

Mass adoption may not happen until autonomous vehicles populate the market; there is no timeline for this at the moment.

In conclusion, DAV Network has many good parts—the team, their advisors, prototypes, future potential etc. They also have the public’s sentiment on their side despite the fact that their most important features may not be launched soon. Because of this, DAV Network may be one of the few projects whose tokens hold both present and future promise. As always, however, prospective investors are advised to keep their eyes open for future updates and information.

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from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8284204 https://www.digitalassetdb.com/dav-network-project-review-a-decentralized-ecosystem-for-autonomous-transportation/ from DigitalAssetDB https://digitalassetdb.tumblr.com/post/175039157162

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Cryptocurrency Weekly News Roundup (Sun 03th – Sun 10th June)

Ripple in Lawsuit for Alleged Sale of Unregistered Securities

In May, investor Ryan Coffey filed a class action lawsuit against fintech company Ripple Labs. According to Law.com, the investor claims that he has lost $555.89 trading on Ripple’s XRP tokens. He also claims that Ripple benefitted from the increase in the cryptocurrency’s price at the expense of investors, since Ripple maintains a centralized XRP ledger.

Coffey is willing to rescind for over $300 million in XRP purchases, as well as setting up a trust to oversee the proceeds of Ripple’s alleged sales of digital currency.

Debevoise & Plimpton’s Mary Jo White and Andrew Ceresney have been employed to represent Ripple Labs in the lawsuit. Interestingly, Mary Jo was previously the chair at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Ripple’s spokesperson commenting on the lawsuit stated that “we continue to believe XRP should not be classified as a security… We feel confident that the claims regarding XRP are completely unfounded both in law and fact.”

If Ripple XRP token becomes classified as a security, then the existence of the cryptocurrency and their business model may be threatened.

Binance Joins Forces with Blockchain-Based chiliZ

World’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance has invested in blockchain-based esports platform, chiliZ.

According to a press release dated June 5, Binance has contributed an undisclosed amount to the Malta-based platform, chiliZ. chiliZ is part of a global sports and entertainment company, Mediarex Group. And both companies will be joining forces to provide “fan-driven token ecosystem for traditional sports teams.”

It is worth noting that chiliZ has already raised $27 million in an ongoing private placement. The company claims that Binance’s involvement will help facilitate and “enable the sharing of technical knowledge, innovation and creativity”.

PBoC to Digitalize Paper Checks

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has ironed out plans to introduce a blockchain-powered framework for digitalizing paper checks. Local news media, Financial News on covering the announcement stated that the framework will target financial fraud, as well as lower the costs of printing checks.

An official of the bank, Di Gang revealed that the platform has been under development for a year. He added that paper checks will be tokenized and all operations will be conducted using smart contracts. By doing this, it is expected that current system will become more transparent and less prone to fraud.

Japan’s FSA Turns Down Crypto Exchange License

The Financial Services Agency of Japan (FSA) has stopped a crypto exchange from receiving an operating license. This is the first time the agency is turning down the application of a crypto exchange.

The crypto exchange, FSHO which is based in Yokohama has already been suspended twice by the FSA this year, over issues bothering KYC and AML, Nikkei Asian Review reports. This time around, The FSA has come to a conclusion that FSHO does not have the necessary infrastructure to operate an exchange in the country.

Since Coinchecks hack earlier this year, the FSA has rolled out stricter measures and policies for crypto exchanges to follow.

Coinbase to Become SEC-Regulated Broker Dealer by Acquisition

Top US cryptocurrency trading platform, Coinbase, has taken steps towards becoming a fully regulated broker approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to an announcement on the platform’s blog, Coinbase has bought securities dealer, Keystone Capital Corp. This is an addition to Venovate Marketplace, Inc., and Digital Wealth LLC.

The acquisition could see Coinbase expand their product offerings, even into non-crypto financial products. The company looks forward to working with regulators to tokenize existing securities, an action they believe will democratize access to capital markets. The CEO and President of the exchange, Asiff Hirji, commented that:

“If approved, Coinbase will soon be capable of offering blockchain-based securities, under the oversight of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). This step forward is being made possible by our acquisition of a broker-dealer license.”

World’s First Crypto Art Sale

Blockchain technology has been applied to in the art market to tackling issues bothering around provenance, copyright, ownership, and authenticity of a piece. This time, blockchain is being employed in the world’s first cryptocurrency auction, which is set to happen on the 20th of June, at UK’s fine art gallery Dadiani Syndicate.

Maecenas which is a blockchain platform announce the art sales on June 7. The sale involves fractional ownership of Andy Warhol’s 14 Small Electric Chairs, estimated at $5.6 million. The sale will let of 49 percent ownership interest in the painting and will allow participants to purchase digital certificates using Maecenas ART token, as well as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

The platform went further to note that all participants must comply to KYC and AML checks. Also, the reserve price for the painting is set at $4 million, even though a smart contract run on the Ethereum blockchain will determine the final price for the painting.

How Much Cryptos Has Been Lost to Hackers This Year?

A cybersecurity company, Carbon Black has revealed that over $1 billion worth of cryptocurrencies has been stolen just this year.

As reported by CNBC, the security company noted that criminals are exploiting the dark web to facilitate large-scale transfers and theft. They estimated about 12,000 marketplaces and 34,000 offerings linked to crypto theft hackers.

The Security strategist, Rick McElroy, told CNBC that a basic malware costs about $220 and can go for as low as $1.04. This malware can come in form of customer support.

Cryptocurrencies Are Now Commodities on Indonesia’s Stock Exchange

Cryptocurrencies have now become legally tradable commodities on a stock exchange in Indonesia. The Indonesian Trade Ministry’s Futures Exchange Supervisory Board (Bappebti) signed this into a decree this June.

Local news media, The Jakarta Post reports that this development is coming after a four-month study into cryptocurrencies. An official of the bureau added that the Indonesian government will also release legislation on regulating crypto exchanges, collecting taxes, as well as money laundering and terrorism financing.

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[hannahichase]

Cryptocurrency Weekly News Roundup (Sun 27th – Sun 03th June)

Adoption: India’s TRAI to Test Blockchain in Fighting Telemarketing Spam

Spam messages are without a doubt pesky. In order to tackle telemarketing spam in India, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is exploring blockchain solutions to prevent unsolicited messages in the telecoms industry.

According to a report by Business Standard, TRAI was affirmative that blockchain can help regulators track telemarketing spammers who are able to bypass the system. They do so by using unregistered 10-digit phone numbers. The chairman of the regulatory body, RS Sharma, explained that:

“Blockchain will ensure two things — non-repudiation and confidentiality. Only those authorized will be able to access details of a subscriber and only when they need to deliver service… [and in cases where consent] is misused… the subscriber will be able to revoke consent whenever they desire through a TRAI app.”

The chairman also noted that subscribers in India currently receive about 30 billion commercial messages every month, many of which are unwanted. Up to 230 million people have registered for TRAI’s “Do Not Disturb” registry, which has been in effect since 2010. However, the current systems have not been able to crack down on telemarketers. It is expected that by bringing in blockchain, this problem can be solved.

Upcoming $300 Million ICO by Beats Headphones Inventor

A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the US has confirmed that headphone manufacturer, Monster Products Inc. has applied to launch an enormous Initial Coin Offering (ICO) of $300 million.

The manufacturer which had earlier signed away its right to the Beats headphones, has plans to release 500 million “Monster Money Network (MMNY)” tokens in its ICO action. This is equivalent to 60% of the entire tokens.

The proceeds from the ICO will be used to create am Ethereum-based platform, which supports the use of MMNY tokens.

Considering the fact that regulations are tightening in the US and Canada with regards to fundraising, and consumers have launched some customer lawsuits against some ICOs for failing to distribute tokens, Monster’s SEC filing has factored in delays in issuance of tokens beyond two years. It reads,

“The holders of the Tokens may convert all or part of their Tokens to Common Stock of the Company at a ratio of four Tokens to one share of Common Stock in the event that (i) our Tokens shall not have become publicly tradable on June 30, 2020 or (ii) our Tokens shall have ceased trading publicly due to certain governmental enforcement actions on June 30, 2020.”

Adoption: DNB ASA to Explore Possible Applications for IOTA’s Tangle

IOTA has been on the news for both positive and somewhat negative reasons. However, this time, they are on the news for a positive reason. Norway’s largest bank, Den Norske Bank (DND ASA) signed a memorandum of understanding with the IOTA Foundation. This will allow both parties to cooperate and explore possible applications of IOTA’s Tangle system, in the financial sector.

According to Head of distributed ledger (DLT) at DNB, Lasse Meholm, the collaboration is geared towards better understanding the technology and finding possible use cases. Meholm noted that:

“Among other things, the technology is designed to handle hundreds of thousands of microtransactions per second. We will not let go of the market associated with this ecosystem that arises around these transactions.”

In response to the country’s rather stiff stance on cryptocurrencies, one of IOTA’s founders, David Sonstesbo is positive on the outcome of this relationship. He added that:

“I hope and believe it. The IOTA Foundation will contribute to separating useless crypto-projects from the serious ones.”

Laws & Taxes: FSA Probes Crypto Exchanges Over AML Compliance

Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) has been on the heels of crypto exchanges in the past few months. This may not be unrelated to Coincheck’s recent hack. According to a report dated June 1, this time, the Agency has issued business improvement warnings to twelve domestic crypto exchanges.

The primary concerns of the warnings are on compliance to Anti-Money Laundering (AML), and Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements. The agency noted that crypto exchanges need to do more to confirm the identity of their customers and prevent fraudulent individuals from trading. Additionally, the FSA raised concerns about separating customer assets from that of exchanges.

Laws & Taxes: Bithumb Exchange Bans User Accounts From 11 Countries

In a bid to comply with standard AML practices, the fifth largest crypto exchange in the world, Bithumb has ban users from 11 countries, effective from May 28.

According to a press release by the exchange on May 27, they confirmed that citizens in Non-Cooperative Countries and Territories (NCCT) will no longer be able to use their services. Affected countries include Iran, Iraq, Ethopia, Tunisia, Serbia, and Sri Lanka.

New account applications from these regions are no longer accepted, while older accounts are expected to leave the exchange by June 21.

Bithumb in trying to explain their actions noted that:

“NCCT users will be prevented from using the exchange so that cryptocurrency is not used to fund international terrorism… We will strictly enforce our own rules and protect our investors, and we will actively cooperate with the authorities.”

World’s First Crypto Clinic for Trading Addicts

In what may come across as a joke, a Scottish hospital, Castle Craig Hospital in Peeblesshire is treating people addicted to crypto trading.

Experts in the hospital in speaking to Evening Standard noted that crypto trading can become a form of addiction because traders can become obsessed with the minute-by-minute fluctuations of the market.

Chris Burn who is a gambling therapist at the hospital was quoted saying:

“The high risk, fluctuating cryptocurrency market appeals to the problem gambler. It provides excitement and an escape from reality. Bitcoin, for example, has been heavily traded and huge gains and losses were made. It’s a classic bubble situation.”

ICOs May Become Legal Again in South Korea

In September 2017, South Korean government placed a ban on ICOs in the country. However, the country is working towards reversing this ban, according to local news media, Business Korea.

A National Assembly committee has been set up to look into what has been dubbed the ‘Forth Industrial Revolution’, and examine the legal basis of cryptos in the country. Excerpts from the committee reads:

“We need to form a task force including private experts in order to improve transparency of cryptocurrency trading and establish a healthy trade order, …We will also establish a legal basis for cryptocurrency trading, including permission of ICOs, through the National Assembly Standing Committee.”

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[hannahichase]

ROLECOIN Project Review: Blockchain-based Educational Proof-of-Progress Mechanism

STEAMRole aims to provide an ecosystem where students, professionals, corporate bodies, and organisations looking to invest in the education of the students meet. Rolecoin is the digital currency that powers this ecosystem.

Key Stats

ICO Platform Stellar Lumens Rating 4.32/5 Grade A Industry Education Technology Price 1 ROLECOIN = $0.1 Bonus _______ Soft Cap $10 million Hard Cap $35 million Supply (for sale) 1 billion (350 million) Website URL RoleCoin Official Website Whitepaper URL RoleCoin Whitepaper Social media accounts URL Rolecoin Telegram Medium Twitter Facebook

Let’s decrypt RoleCoin Use Case

What Problem is RoleCoin Addressing?

Every year, billions of dollars are spent on developing STEM/STEAM-related (science, technology, engineering, art design, and mathematics) educational programs in a bid to improve the quality of the future workforce. While there has been some progress, a report released by Randstad in 2016 highlights how much more effort is needed. According to the report, the United States alone had over 3 million STEM job openings with no skilled workers to fill them.

Despite the huge amounts of money spent, this scarcity of STEM professionals points to a flaw/inadequacy in the system. Rolecoin offers a way to optimize the EdTech ecosystem, making sure amounts invested translate into tangible advancement.

RoleCoin Value Proposition

In order to provide young and fledgling students with easy access to professionals in their fields, STEAMRole launched a skill- and career-development mobile app, a platform where students can receive mentorship, educational guidance, and career advice from professionals that walked the career path that they plan to. For example, a high school student that plans to become a Software engineer can receive advice and mentorship from an engineer that already works at SpaceX. Additionally, STEAMRole offers individuals and organizations the opportunity to make donations and afterwards, track the effectiveness of their investments.

Rolecoin will be used on STEAMRole’s platform to track proof-of-progress and the project’s whitepaper describes it as “a digital currency that tracks, measures, and rewards the skill and career development progress of its recipient.” Steamers (aspiring students) and Role Models are rewarded in Rolecoin for contributing to the ecosystem. Corporate partners pay in Rolecoin for access to the platform and an opportunity to contact emerging talents in their fields. Conversely, non-profit organisations, foundations, and impact investors get a platform that allows them to track the progress of the students that receive their donations.

RoleCoin Leadership Team

Founder and CEO, Clarence Wooten, founded VentureFund.io, a company that uses data to connect startups that need funding with investors using data. He was also a co-founder at Progressly, a company that helps projects find and execute business processes. He is joined on the team by Advisors: Roberto J. Rodriguez, Deputy Assistant for Education under President Barack Obama’s administration, Yoli Chisholm, former Director of Digital Marketing at Microsoft, and Keith Teare, Founding Shareholder at TechCrunch among many others.

RoleCoin Target Market

Annual investments in STEAM-related educational programs exceed $100 billion according to Rolecoin’s whitepaper. Given how flawed the current system is, if STEAMRole and Rolecoin succeed in providing a functional ecosystem that is beneficial to all participants, they stand to carve out a significant portion of a multi-billion-dollar market.

The more the platform is adopted, the higher the value of their token, providing early investors with an incentive to invest in Rolecoin.

RoleCoin Roadmap

The project plans to release a public beta version of the STEAMRole app by Q2 2018 and Rolecoin crowdsale is set to start on the 15th of June, 2018.

Their proof-of-progress dashboard is to be released in Q3 2018 and by Q4 2018, STEAMRole’s aim is that Rolecoin will be accepted by online course providers as a viable payment option.

RoleCoin SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Rolecoin is powered by the Stellar Lumens blockchain, meaning instantaneous transactions, guaranteed security, and near-zero transaction fees.

Strong team.

Partnership agreement with Hewlett Packard.

Weaknesses

The project’s hype and publicity could be better.

Opportunities

In a sector worth $100 billion, there is ample room for STEAMRole and Rolecoin to grow.

The inefficiency of the current system makes the sector ripe for the taking.

There are 5 prospective participants in the STEAMRole ecosystem, this may help the ecosystem grow faster.

Threats

They plan to raise $35 million during their crowdsale, a lofty ambition.

In conclusion, STEAMRole seems to have come up with a use case that addresses a pressing need in a lucrative sector. If in the future, their ecosystem turns out to be the steady source of professional talent that they expect it to be, Rolecoin will be the cryptocurrency at the heart of a million-dollar platform. It is an exciting thought. As always, however, prospective investors must exercise caution and remain informed on developments concerning the project.

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from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8284204 https://www.digitalassetdb.com/rolecoin-project-review-blockchain-based-educational-proof-of-progress-mechanism/ from DigitalAssetDB https://digitalassetdb.tumblr.com/post/174596569352

[hannahichase]

Cryptocurrency Weekly News Roundup (Sun 20th – Sun 27th April)

OKEx CEO Resigns to Join Rival Exchange Huobi

Li Shufie, otherwise known as Chris Lee has resigned from his position in OKEx and joined rival crypto exchange Huobi, barely few days after his resignation.

Before leaving OKEx, currently the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Lee was the CEO of the exchange and the CFO of parent company, OkCoin. He reportedly left to become the VP of international Business Development and Board Secretary in Huobi.

Effective from May 18, Lee is to begin his duties at Huobi which includes supporting the exchange’s business development in countries like Japan, Korea, APAC, and the Middle East.

News of Lee’s resignation and movement came as a shocker, considering the fact that OKEx recently outperformed rival crypto exchanges like Binance and Huobi, thus becoming the world’s largest digital exchange in terms of trading volume.

Blockchain: Fighting Tax Fraud in Shenzhen

The government of Shenzhen through the Shenzhen Municipal Office of the State Administration of Taxation has entered into a partnership with tech firm, Tencent. According to an official announcement dated May 25, the partnership is geared towards establishing an “Intelligent Tax” Innovation Lab that will propose and implement modern tax management solutions, as well as combat tax fraud with the help of blockchain tech.

The newly established lab is expected to employ innovations from cloud computing, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and big data to solve current challenges with tax management such as buyers using fraudulent receipts to evade taxes or defraud people.

Deputy director of the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of State Taxation, Li Wei, in commenting about employing blockchain tech and the partnership, said:

“The digital invoice based on blockchain technology has features such as complete traceability of the whole process and non-disruptive information, which consistent with invoice logic, can effectively avoid false invoices, and improve the invoice supervision process.”

Adoption: Maersk Adopts Blockchain for Maritime Insurance

Transport and logistics giant, AP Moller-Maersk, popularly known as Maersk for short, has started using a blockchain platform for maritime insurance.

The platform, Insurwave was developed by EY and Guardtime. It uses decentralized ledger technology from Microsoft Azure and adopts global insurance standards.

The Seatrade Maritime News captured Lars Henneberg, the head of risk and insurance at Maersk, saying that “marine insurance takes up considerable resources for us… Moving it to [Microsoft Azure] is helping us automate manual processes and alleviate a range of inefficiencies and frictional costs in the way we have used to trade marine insurance.” As part of plans to lower this cost, Maersk will be using Insurwave to manage 1,000 vessels and support 500,000+ digital ledger transactions.

It is important to note that the Insurwave blockchain platform has also been adopted commercially by XL Catlin, Willis Towers Watson, and MS Amlin. There are plans by EY and Guardtime to widen the application of the platform to global logistics, aviation, and energy sectors.

One Dead in ICO Publicity Stunt in Ukraine

In a rather sad turn of events, a publicity stunt for an upcoming Initial Coin Offering (ICO) of Ukrainian social network, ASKfm, ended in the death of one person.

The Financial Times Alphaville reporting on the incident noted that ASKfm had sponsored three crypto enthusiasts; Taras Pozdnii, Dmitrii Semenko, and Roman Gorodechnii, to climb Mount Everest in a stunt. The stunt involved placing a Ledger wallet containing 500,000 ASKfm tokens at the peak of the mount, while a second token with the same number of tokens was to be offered in a contest.

The tokens at the top of the mount is worth about $50,000 and it was a challenge to anyone who is brave enough to go get it.

Unfortunately, one of the accompanying members of the team, Lam Babu Sherpa, was reported to have died during the descent. Two possible causes have been referenced with regards to his death; snow blindness or physical exhaustion.

CEO of ASKfm, Max Tsaryk confirmed the incident to FT said, “we have become aware that a Sherpa who successfully assisted one of our sponsored climbers on a part of their journey, prior to assisting other non-related groups of climbers, later became missing:

The last official update we received was that the condition and location of the missing Sherpa was unknown and it was not our place to make public statements which could’ve resulted in false information being circulated.”

Singapore Regulators Warn Crypto Exchanges & Halt ICO Sales

All across the world, regulators have been coming hard on crypto exchanges and ICO projects. This time, the Central Bank of Singapore has issued a warning to eight crypto exchanges over compliance measures. They have also ordered an ICO to stop distributing its tokens.

Singapore is working towards providing a permissive yet regulated business environment for blockchain and cryptocurrencies. The warnings were in line with this narrative, and exchanges “are responsible for ensuring that they comply with all relevant laws”, said the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), in a press release.

The Assistant managing director of capital markets, Lee Boon Ngiap said: “The number of digital token exchanges and digital token offerings in Singapore has been increasing… We do not see a need to restrict them if they are bona fide businesses. But if any digital token exchange, issuer or intermediary breaches our securities laws, MAS will take firm action.”

India Considers Taxing Cryptocurrencies as Intangible Property

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes in India is working on plans to apply an 18 percent tax to cryptocurrency transactions, making them subject to goods and services tax (GST). Under this new taxing, crypto exchange operations would be considered as intangible goods.

Sources told Bloomberg that: “Purchase or sale of cryptocurrencies should be considered as supply of goods, and those facilitating transactions like supply, transfer, storage, accounting, among others, will be treated as services.”

Crypto Scams in Australia: How Much So Far?

It is not usual for crypto enthusiasts to get caught up in the euphoria of prices going up, thus forgetting that scammers are in the crypto space, which have been loosely described as a wide west.

However, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Australian consumers lost over $2 million to cryptocurrency scams in 2017. The Commission noted that the last quarter of the year marked the peak of scams. In December over $700,000 was lost to scams, a huge difference when compared to $100,000 between January and September.

This significant increase in the number of scams in late December can be linked to the sudden spike in the prices of cryptocurrencies. The Commission also identified that major scam schemes included ICOs, ransomware payments, and pyramid schemes.

Talao and DAOstack Partner to Take on the Global Freelancing Landscape

Traditional freelancing platforms have been said to be restricted and limited in their applications. Freelancers are without a doubt subject to the terms and conditions of these platforms. These centralized platforms are left to gain, at the expense of clients and freelancers. Talao and DAOstack have partners with the aim of decentralizing the “talent-on-demand” marketplace.

Talao is the first protocol and decentralized organization for freelancing, while DAOstack is creating a framework for decentralized governance. DAOstack will be providing the technical building blocks for Talao DAO to build an efficient, self-governing freelance platform.

The partnership will see Talao and DAOstack interact closely. Talao will be using the stack framework to govern freelancers, and their goal is to have 200,000 freelancers using the platform by the end of 2018. Both projects will also exchange tokens; DAOstack (GEN) and Talao (TALAO).

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from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8284204 https://www.digitalassetdb.com/cryptocurrency-weekly-news-roundup-sun-20th-sun-27th-april/ from DigitalAssetDB https://digitalassetdb.tumblr.com/post/174403709087

[hannahichase]

DAOstack Project Review: The Future of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations?

DAOstack has been dubbed the Wordpress for DAOs. They aim to catalyze decentralized companies, funds, and markets to collaborate and take fast, innovative decisions at scale.

DAOstack Profile

Platform Ethereum Rating 4.32/5 Grade A Industry Blockchain Services ICO Price 1 GEN = $1 ICO Bonus _____ ICO Soft Cap $5 million ICO Hard Cap $30 million Supply 100 million GEN Website https://daostack.io/ Whitepaper DAOstack Whitepaper Social media DAOstack Telegram Twitter Reddit

Let’s decrypt DAOstack Use Case

What Problem is DAOstack Addressing?

The advent of blockchain has made it possible to create open, reliable, and decentralized systems, consequently leading to the creation of the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). DAOs are open, decentralized, and self-organized networks coordinated by crypto-economic incentives and self-executing codes. Put differently, these networks are not controlled by any single individual or organization.

In comparison with traditional governments, this seems like a quantum leap in the right direction. Coordination of large and even small groups in the bid to point them towards collective action is often based on traditional top-down hierarchy, as evident in the military, government, corporate organizations, and even families. And there’s no arguing the fact that it is easier to point the ship in a single direction when there is only one captain.

Despite the obvious benefits of top-down hierarchies, they are fundamentally flawed because individuals can be subject to bad judgement, bias, or bad influence. Also, as in the case of corrupt governments, the interests of a few powerful individuals may supersede that of many less powerful individuals.

This flaw in traditional systems and the idea of eliminating middlemen and bosses, as well as replacing centralized mechanisms with decentralized systems has made DAOs popular. The mere thought of having hundreds and even thousands of people working together to solve major world problems without any hierarchy of command seems promising. Decisions will be made through the wisdom of the crowd, and rewards are distributed based on the value contributed.

Unfortunately, blockchain tech and DAOs are still in their infancy stages, and DAOs in particular still remain a largely abstract idea, because there are a handful of limited use cases. In addition to lack of widespread adoption, one of the biggest challenges of DAOs is inefficiency.

As earlier referenced above, it is easier to move a ship in a single direction if there is only one captain. While decentralized applications may be giving everyone in the system a voice, decision-making processes will become susceptible to noise (a situation where everyone is talking and trying to steer the ship in his own favor). Such a scenario makes it difficult, if not impossible to reach consensus.

Additionally, there is a programming barrier in the execution of Ethereum smart contracts. Developers and users need to be familiar with Solidity in other to execute smart contracts. This is arguably one of the barriers to widescale adoption and implementation of smart contracts.

DAOstack aims to solve this problem that is bound to arise in DAOs, by building a decentralized governance system for these organizations.

DAOstack Value Proposition

In line with the inherent problem of DAOs, solving it would require a technology or system that tallies and manages collective attention. Questions like who can make a proposal and how, need to be answered. Also, which proposals out of the possibly numerous proposals should get the attention of voters? Who has the right to vote and what are the criteria towards deciding this – reputation or subject-matter credibility?

Upon answering all of these questions, a critical aspect that should not be neglected is vulnerability to corruption. That is to say, decisions or voting power within these decentralized networks should not be easily bought or sold; everyone should be incentivized to work towards the greater good.

DAOstack provides the framework for answering the questions and for the creation, governance, and interoperability of DApps, DAOs, and Web companies. With the framework, content creators, freelancers, and individuals with relevant skillset can cooperate in producing DApps.

According the DAOstack architect, Matan Field, “The first principle of designing the DAO stack was not to build a specific protocol or a specific application, but rather to build the soil, the ground from which a whole ecosystem can grow and thrive.”

With this in mind, DAOstack provides a sandbox for experimentation of different governance structures for DAOs. Each DAO can customize its own governance structure; add and remove certain elements, define agency functions, and specify what can and can’t be done. Additionally, DAOs have the ability to manage, maintain, and curate their own collective databases.

One of the main components of DAOstack is its reputation scoring system. This allows for a fair decision-making structure in decentralized organizations. By integrating a reputation assignment system, DAOs can assign reputation scores, which are non-transferable to its members. In order to increase in ranking, members have to make positive contributions to the DAO.

DAOstack is also working to remove the learning barrier present in using Ethereum’s native programming language, Solidity. Many developers are still illiterates in this regards because of the infancy of blockchain tech. DAOstack’s solution is a valuable service, as many developers who are keen to enter the industry can create decentralized applications using JavaScript.

DAOstack’s technological stack comprises of:

Arc: This is the base layer of the stack and comprises of a framework for governance. It is a library of smart contracts that can be modified, mixed, and matched to create, deploy, and operate governance protocols for any given DAO on the Ethereum blockchain.

Arc.js: Arc.js is a JavaScript library which allows front-end developers to easily build apps on top of Arc without being familiar with Solidity.

DApps Layer: DAOstack has envisioned individuals and developers building decentralized applications on their platform.

Alchemy: Alchemy is the first browser DApp built on the stack. Its function is to enable interoperability between DAOs and other applications in the ecosystem.

Archives: These are a set of public and shared registries gathered by the community to enhance interoperability and collaboration within the ecosystem. DAOstack is starting with 3 key registries; the Hive, Compendium, and Mosaic

DAOstack Leadership Team

DAOstack is made up of a decent and balanced team with experience spanning from entrepreneurship, to blockchain, and academic backgrounds. Currently, there are 7 members and two advisors, mostly based in Israel.

The CEO and Architect is Matan Field who has a background in education, with a Ph.D in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics from the Weizmann Institute of Science. He has worked as a research fellow at the Technion-Israel Insitute of Technology. He also has a strong entrepreneurial and blockchain background, having co-founded La'Zooz (a decentralized collaborative transportation system) and Backfeed (a social OS for decentralized organizations).

Adam Levi is the CTO of the organization. He has a Ph.D in Physics and has worked as a radar engineer at the Israel Defense Forces.

On their team of advisors are Jordan Greenhall and Seth Taube. Greenhall is the co-founder and former CEO of DivX, and also has affiliations with Harvard law School and Backfeed. Taube on the other hand is the CEO of Sierra Income Corporation and Director of Medley Capital Corporation.

DAOstack Target Market

Considering the fact that blockchain tech is still at its infancy and it is expected that as more and more individuals and institutions adopt the tech, there will be a need for some structure in governance. DAOstack is positioning itself to tackle this need when it arises. It is expedient to note that some various blockchain projects are already integrating the services of DAOstack. Some worthy mentions on the list includes Sapien, Gnosis, Menlo, iAngels, and NfX.

Competition in the marketplace is quite stiff. Aragon which as a market cap of $77 million is DAOstack’s direct competitor. Aragon already has a working product that allows the creation and management of organizations on the Ethereum blockchain. Other competitors include DigixDAO and Maker.

DAOstack roadmap

DAOstack already has a MVP – Alchemy on the Kovan Ethereum Testnet, which was released on Mainnet along with the crowd-sale. With regards to the entire stack, they have the full DAO stack architecture and the Arc framework for governance. Other upcoming milestones on their roadmap includes:

Genesis Release and Pilot Program in Q4 2018

Release of a second version of Alchemy in Q1 2019

Genuine Release in Q2 2019

A third version of Alchemy in Q3 2019

Generosity Release in Q4 2019

DAOstack SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Active code development

Strong team and advisory board

Lucrative market

Effective token structure

Partnerships with other solid blockchain projects

Weaknesses

Untested market

CEO Matan failed with Backfeed, a similar project

Opportunities

DAOstack are at the forefront of solving the problem of decentralized governance. Pulling through will send them to the skies.

Threats

Highly competitive landscape

Conclusion

In general, DAOstack is a promising and exciting project. They have been able to reach a remarkable stage in product development. As with most blockchain projects, competition is stiff in the marketplace. However, considering the fact that blockchain tech is still new, we can only but hope that the team pulls through.

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from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8284204 https://www.digitalassetdb.com/daostack-project-review/ from DigitalAssetDB https://digitalassetdb.tumblr.com/post/174364654662

[hannahichase]

ZILLIQA Project Review: A Blockchain-based Platform with High Scalability

Zilliqa has successfully solved one of the major problems plaguing blockchain technology, scalability. Now, it aims to serve as an infrastructure for the deployment of DApps and smart contracts that need high throughput to function maximally.

Key Stats

Platform Ethereum Rating 4.32/5 Grade A Industry Blockchain Services ICO Price 1 ZIL = $0.0038 ICO Bonus _____ ICO Soft Cap _____ ICO Hard Cap $22 million Supply 21 billion ZIL Website Zilliqa.com Whitepaper Zilliqa Whitepaper Social media Zilliqa Telegram Twitter Slack Reddit YouTube

Let’s decrypt Zilliqa Use Case

What Problem is Zilliqa Addressing?

One of the issues hindering the mass adoption of blockchain technology is scalability. The biggest players in the industry, Bitcoin and Ethereum can only process at most 10/15 transactions per second (tps), and if blockchain technology plans to provide the next mass payment or smart contract infrastructure, this is a real problem.

For one, centralized payment platform process thousands of transactions per second, making them vastly superior to Bitcoin in that regard. On the other hand, a platform that wants to facilitate the development and deployment of hundreds (if not thousands) of decentralized applications, smart contracts, and cryptocurrencies needs to provide a network that can process significantly higher than 15 transactions per second.

To become a technology worth reckoning with, the blockchain needs a solution to its scalability problem—and it needs it quickly.

Zilliqa Value Proposition

Zilliqa plans to launch a blockchain-based platform that can process thousands of transactions in an open, secure, and permission-less distributed network. Furthermore, the project also plans to develop an “innovative special-purpose smart contract language and execution environment” that takes advantage of their network’s underlying architecture to provide an extensive and efficient computation platform.

Not long ago, Zilliqa launched their private testnet and they were able to attain a transaction rate of 2,488 tps by leveraging the 3,600 nodes in the network. Since the network was designed such that transaction rates will increase with increasing nodes, if Zilliqa’s network grows as big as Ethereum’s (with ~30,000 nodes), the platform will be able to attain tens of thousands transactions per second. ( MasterCard and VISA transact at ~5,000 tps).

Zilliqa Leadership Team

CEO Xinshu Dong (Ph.D. University of Singapore) has considerable development and leadership experience. He built secure systems, from web browsers and applications to blockchains, and he was Lead Engineer on the team that developed Anquan, a secure and scalable blockchain for ecommerce applications. He is joined on Zilliqa the team by Chief Scientific Advisor, Prateek Saxena (Ph.D. Computer Science, Berkeley), Head of Technology, Yaoqi Jia (Ph.D. University of Singapore), Head of Research, Amrit Kumar (Ph.D. Université Grenoble-Alpes), and Head of Business Development, Ong En Hui.

The Zilliqa team consists of other well-educated and highly-experienced members.

Zilliqa Target Market

Zilliqa’s use cases put the project in competition with Bitcoin (funds transfer) and Ethereum (smart contract deployment). Since both of these platforms control market shares in excess of $2oo billion, Zilliqa has considerable room for growth. However, Bitcoin and Ethereum have been around for years, so, even though it offers a significant upgrade in scalability, it may take years before Zilliqa upstages the 2 biggest platforms on the blockchain.

During its ICO, 1 ZIL token was worth $0.0038. As of when this post was published, 1 ZIL was valued at $0.143, meaning the token has appreciated in value by over 3663%. This bodes well for the project.

Zilliqa Roadmap

The project released a public testnet in the 1st quarter of 2018 and they plan to launch a public mainnet (with computational sharding for smart contracts) before the end of Q2 2018.

By the 3rd quarter of 2018, Zilliqa aims to be functional enough to deploy DApps.

Zilliqa SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Well-educated and highly-experienced team.

They have a working testnet that confirms their technical theories.

Their testnet has transaction rates that compete with centralized networks, even with a smaller network size.

Weaknesses

Ethereum is about to fully release a mechanism that should solve its scalability problem. This may take away some of Zilliqa’s advantage over the platform.

Opportunities

For a start, Zilliqa aims to target projects that require particularly high throughput (payment systems and advertisement platforms). By doing this, the project avoids being thrust into direct competition with Ethereum, NEO and other smart contract giants AND positions itself as the first high throughput platform in the market.

ZIL is already doing well in the market, with a market cap of over 1 billion dollars (as at May 22, 2018).

Threats

No significant threats.

In conclusion, Zilliqa is one of the few blockchain-based projects that tick all the right boxes. A relevant use case, a unique value proposition, a strong team, a token that is already performing well in the market, and a working testnet. All the signs are looking good for this project but as always, prospective investors must remain informed and invest wisely.

Similar Projects:

QuarkChain

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Cryptocurrency Weekly News Roundup (Sun 13th – Sun 20th May)

Adoption: World’s First Blockchain-based Trade Deal

UK-based HSBC has in a deal with Cargill, successfully completed the world’s first ever trade finance transaction on blockchain. HSBC is the world’s largest trade finance institution, and Cargill is the largest private company in the US in terms of revenue.

The deal involved a letter of credit which saw a shipment of soya beans travel from Argentina to Malaysia. While this may not seem at much, the success of this trial transactions confirms that there is potential for blockchain and use cases in the global finance market; a market that is reportedly worth $9 trillion.

Head of Innovation and Growth for commercial banking at HSBC, Vivek Ramachandran remarked that: “We don’t envisage the platform as anything other than a utility”. And this could go on to mean top corporations turning to blockchain in a bid to streamline their processes and save costs.

Adoption: Blockchain Payment System Launched in Taiwan

The city of Taipei, Taiwan appears to be at the forefront of blockchain adoption and experiments. Early this year, in January, they partnered with IOTA with the intent of turning into a “ smart city”. The project was to employ blockchain tech in providing technological advances like health history tracking and pollutions sensors. Barely a month later, Yang Chin-long, the governor of the state’s central bank announced that they were exploring ways to improve “the security and efficiency of payment systems.”

This time, Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank has become the first bank in Taiwan to implement a blockchain-based payment system.

Local media Taipei Times reported that the bank deployed its blockchain-based payment system for restaurants and merchants around the National Chengchi University. The pilot project ran on the Ethereum network and utilized the Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus protocol. According to the bank, the protocol reduces transaction times to less than a second, and also cuts the cost of transactions.

The bank also reported that the volume of transactions of cooperative merchants who have tested the project have quadrupled in a two-week period following the launch.

Adoption: Cryptocurrencies Will Become Legal in Ukraine

Ukraine is in the process of legalizing cryptocurrencies. According to a Facebook post by Alexei Mushak, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, the country has drafted legislation to make this happen, and calls for inputs from members of the public with regards to regulations for the crypto space.

A part of his post introducing the draft legislation document reads:

“We go to the home stretch to create conditions for digital tokens and cryptocurrency in Ukraine. This is the outcome of many meetings and work of many people. There are many more nuances left to figure out. The final version will be ready in two weeks. I ask you to comment and edit. The thoughts of market practitioners are especially important.”

In summary, the legislation targets a free and transparent crypto market in Ukraine, with measures to prevent the use of digital assets for terrorists financing, money laundering, and other criminal activities. The country is aiming at implementing blockchain tech in health care, education, and public relations areas, amongst others.

Coinbase Releases New Products Targeting Institutional Investors

Popular US crypto wallet provider and exchange service, Coinbase has announced the launch of new products aimed at meeting the needs of institutional investors. In an official blog post dated May 15, they revealed that they will be releasing four products – Coinbase Custody, Coinbase Markets, Coinbase Institutional Coverage Group, and Coinbase Prime.

Each of these products aim towards removing the barriers hindering institutional investors from testing the crypto waters, with particular focus on security and regulatory compliance.

Vice President of Coinbase, Adam White was excited telling CNBC that:

“We think this can unlock $10 billion of institutional investor money sitting on the sideline. We’re seeing a rapid increase in attention awareness and adoption in the cryptocurrency market.”

Coinbase have recorded some success managing over $20 billion worth of client’s crypto assets. It is expected that the products will be welcomed, considering their present positive ratings.

Bitcoin Mining: 0.5% of the World’s Energy to be Spent on Mining

One of the downsides of Proof of Work protocols is the need for mining. Mining which involves solving complex mathematical algorithms is power-intensive. In February for example, it was reported that bitcoin mining in Iceland would consume more electricity than households in 2018.

In an article titled “Bitcoin’s Growing Energy Problem,” Economist Alex de Vries told the Independent that Bitcoin mining will consume as much as 0.5 percent of the world’s energy by 2018.

BTC network currently consumes about 2.55 GW of electricity. This value is expected to rise to 7.67 GW by the end of this year. However, with the implementation of Lighting Network and other novel ideas, the amount of energy consumed by mining activities may be reduced.

De Vries was quick to tell the Independent that: “It’s an extreme difference compared to the regular financial system, and this increasing electricity demand is definitely not going to help us reach our climate goals.”

Chinese Cryptocurrency Ratings: Ethereum Tops the List

In what may seem like an irony, considering the rather strict stance of China towards cryptocurrencies, the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has released an official cryptocurrency rating of 28 leading cryptocurrencies on the 17th of May.

Based on their rating, Ethereum was awarded the 1st position as the world’s best blockchain network, following Ethereum is Steem, Lisk, NEO, and Komodo. Surprisingly, Bitcoin which is the most popular cryptocurrency ranked 13th out of 28.

The first tranche of ratings focused on only 28 cryptocurrencies. However, the ministry is looking towards expanding the review to more public blockchain assets and projects. Blockchain projects were ranked based on three indexes: technology, application, and innovation.

Responding to the ratings, commentators on Twitter found it difficult to understand the methodology employed by the ministry. Eric Zhao an engineer at the Chinese Academy of Science pointed out that “most old-school experts haven’t followed the crypto space long enough to grasp some of the traits of [the] tech and community that can’t be found elsewhere.”

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from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8284204 https://www.digitalassetdb.com/cryptocurrency-weekly-news-roundup-sun-13th-sun-20th-may/ from DigitalAssetDB https://digitalassetdb.tumblr.com/post/174119080332

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Cryptocurrency Weekly News Roundup (Mon 7th – Sun 13th May)

European Cryptocurrency Exchanges Call for Regulations

The cryptocurrency space has come under a lot of regulatory fire of recent. KYC and AML policies have forced some crypto exchanges to shut down or temporarily halt operations, particularly in Japan and India.

In a bid for transparency, European crypto exchanges have called for regulations. Austrian exchange, Bitpanda and UK trading platform, eToro, expressed concerns over the rather inadequate and demanding AML & KYC regulations, which could put them out of business.

Bitpanda CEO, Eric Demuth pointed out that they would “be happy to have regulations, so [they] know where [they] stand.”

600 Stolen Bitcoin Miners from Iceland May be in China

In late December and January, 600 Bitcoin mining hardware valued at around 200 million Kronur ($2 million) were stolen from data centers in Iceland. Efforts to recover the miners have been futile. However, the Icelandic police arrested two suspects in February this year with regards to the heist. One of the suspects managed to escape in mid-April to Sweden, and now faces an international arrest warrant.

The Icelandic police may have however gotten some lead because 600 bitcoin miners were seized in the northern city of Tianjin, China. Authorities were drawn by a pattern of highly irregular electricity usage coming from the region. Icelandic media outlet, RUV reported that although Iceland’s police has issued an enquiry to Chinese authorities, they are yet to respond.

Oracle Entering Blockchain Space with Blockchain-based Products

The world’s second largest software company, Oracle Crop., is set to launch blockchain-based products over the next two months. According to a report by Bloomberg, Thomas Kurian who is the President of software development announced that Oracle will release a platform-as-a-service product in the month of May, and decentralized ledger-based applications in the following months.

Oracle is currently working with Banco de Chile to log inter-banks transactions on a hyperledger, as well as with the government of Nigeria. The government of Nigeria is seeking to utilize blockchain tech for documenting customs and import duties.

This is coming weeks after Spanish BBVA bank became the first bank to issue a loan on blockchain. Based on the pilot project, a €75 million loan was completed in hours, instead of days.

There’s no doubt that many countries and organizations are turning to blockchain tech in a bid to understand and harness its potentials.

Colorado Bill: Blockchain for Data Protection and Cyber Security

Many states and organizations are beginning to open their doors to blockchain tech. One of the recent adopters is Colorado. On May 7, the Colorado Senate passed a bill to use blockchain tech for government cyber security and record keeping.

Tennessee and Arizona are already on the list of states that support this new tech. In March, Tennessee passed a bill which recognizes the legal use of blockchain and smart contracts for electronic transactions. The next month, Arizona okayed sharing of data on blockchain by corporations, and also allowed residents to pay their taxes with cryptocurrencies.

Colorado’s Bill, SB 18-086 would see the governor’s office of information technology, the department of regulatory agencies, and the department of state, adopt blockchain tech to protect confidential state records from manipulation, theft, or unauthorized access.

According to the bill, blockchain tech can help mitigate some data breach threats to the government:

“In 2017, the cyber threat to the Colorado government included six to eight million attempted attacks per day […] There are increasing threats to the theft of […] information within government data [and to] networks. […]

The expanded use of distributed ledger technologies, such as blockchains, may offer transformative improvements to data security, accountability, transparency and safety across dispersed state departments and jurisdictions.”

Cryptocurrencies as Financial Instruments in Ukraine?

Cryptocurrencies may soon become recognized financial instruments in Ukraine. Following a Facebook post by Timur Khromaey, head of the Ukrainian National Securities and Stock Market Commission (SSMCS), the crypto market has grown to become an “integral part of economic and financial relations.”

Khromaey noted that “the point of no return is in the past”, and it is time to legally recognize cryptocurrencies and bring in regulations. According to him, the digital form of cryptos does not matter. What should be considered is how to fit crypto assets and operations into existing legal frameworks.

It is however ironic that this is coming from Ukraine, considering the fact that in August 2017, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), issued a statement confirming that no other currency except the national one can be used as a form of payment.

NYSE Considers Plan to Add Crypto Trading

New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has hinted that customers may soon be able to buy and hold Bitcoin in swap contract deals. Emails and anonymous sources all confirmed this claim. It is expected that in the coming months, the exchange will offer future crypto trading contracts.

There is already CME and CBOE offering futures contracts. However, settlements are performed in fiat. NYSE’s parent company, the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) plans on BTC settlements. This will be a significant milestone that could see mass adoption of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general.

Analyst Robert Kelly explained that:

“Physical delivery of Bitcoin…means that ICE has a custody solution. That has been the big hurdle. How do you hold onto these assets? These are generally bearer instruments…and so you have to have a third-party custody person. That’s the big deal, they have come up with a custody solution for institutional holders.”

US First Blockchain-based Elections

History has once again been made with regards to blockchain adoption. West Virginia has successfully completed the first blockchain-supported voting in US history. ETHNews reported that voting accommodated regular voters who used ballots, as well as special voters who exercised their rights on a mobile blockchain-based platform.

The blockchain voting platform was developed by Voatz and made available to certain voters. Either ways, the potentials of blockchain has been further revealed, as Secretary of State, Mike Queen puts it:

“[The office of the Secretary believes] blockchain does provide a heightened level of security on this type of mobile voting app. We’re genuinely hoping that will allow this type of a mobile app to be made available in the future – as early perhaps as our general election – to military voters.”

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QuarkChain ICO Review: Solving Blockchain’s Scalability Issues

QuarkChain aims at solving blockchain’s scalability issue without compromising security and decentralization. Its blockchain is scalable, permission-less, and decentralized.

Rating: 4/5

ICO Grade: B+

ICO Platform: Ethereum (to be converted to QuarkChain after Mainnet 1.0 launch)

Industry: Blockchain Services

Price: $0.0248

Bonus: TBA

Soft Cap: TBA

Hard Cap: $20 million

Total Number of Tokens (Available for sale): 10,000,000,000 QKC (2,000,000,000 QKC)

Website: QuarkChain

White paper: QuarkChain Whitepaper

Telegram: Telegram

Let’s Decrypt QuarkChain ICO Use Case

What Problem QuarkChain is Addressing?

Although blockchain has been praised as the technology that will change the world as we know it, it has its limitations. Limitations that stand in the way of implementing and adopting this new technology. Three of the biggest obstacles the technology has to overcome before achieving widespread adoption by businesses bother around scalability, security, and decentralization.

Scalability: If you were in the crypto space around December 2017, when the price of Bitcoin spiked, as well as when the notorious Cryptokitties came onboard on the Ethereum platform, you’d agree that the network was highly congested. Transactions went unconfirmed for hours and days, and transaction fees also hit the roofs.

Now think about the number of transactions payment processors like Visa and Alipay handle every day in order to meet the demand of their customers. While Visa can handle about 45,000 transactions per second (TPS), and Alipay over 250,000 TPS, Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains, which are legacy projects, can handle only 7 TPS, and 15 TPS, respectively. Shocking, right?

Blockchains currently does not have the infrastructure to un-sit these companies. Blockchains like Bitcoin are struggling to scale. And as we see increased adoption and increased transactions, there will be a need for larger storage, bandwidth, and computing power.

And while the Lightning Network has been hailed as the solution to the scalability problem, it introduces a centralized payment processing for a supposedly decentralized blockchain, thus threatening the future of blockchains that utilize it. In trying to scale the network, security and decentralization challenges arise.

Security: There is a notable security flaw in blockchains. Because of the ways blockchains have been built, if more than half of the computers working as nodes to validate the network decide to tell a lie, then that lie becomes the truth. This is known as the 51% attack, where a particular person or group of persons have the ability to manipulate the network. Although this is currently very unlikely because of the associated costs of setting up a mining pool with such computing power, breakthroughs in quantum computing can see this happen.

Decentralization: Blockchain transactions have been hyped as decentralized, and rightly so – meaning they are not controlled by any central government. However, in reality, we have seen the formation of mining pools, and organizing several nodes into voting blocks. This is a threat to the decentralized nature of blockchain because an uneven distribution of power (hashrate) creates a centralized system. In 2013 for example, the top 6 mining pools of Bitcoin had 75% of the coin’s overall hashing power. Now think about what happens if they secretly come together.

QuarkChain Value Proposition

QuarkChain aims to solve blockchain’s scalability problem. Their target is 1 million on-chain transactions per second. To achieve this, the project takes a two-layer structure. The first layer consists of “elastic sharded” blockchains, while the second is known as the root blockchain.

Elastic sharding will allow large databases to be partitioned into smaller, faster, and more manageable components known as data shards. Legacy blockchain projects currently have to deal with large databases as the network grows.

Shards from the first layer are then pushed to the root blockchain which confirms transactions (blocks). Interestingly, the second layer can be further sharded, without changing the root layer.

In addition to a two-layer structure, another unique feature of QuarkChain is market-driven collaborative mining which will add an extra layer of security. Put differently, 50% of the network’s hash power will be devoted to its root blockchain in order to prevent double spending attacks. Additionally, multiple, smaller, and cheaper nodes can come together to create a super node.

The bottom line of all these technologies is that QuarkChain will have 8 minor blockchains with a target block time of 10 seconds, as well as a root blockchain with a target block time of 150 seconds.

Other noteworthy features of QuarkChain is its efficient cross-shard transactions which comprises of in-shard and cross-shard options. For in-shard transactions the input and output addresses of the transaction are in the same shard. Cross-shard transactions on the other hand have their input and output addresses in different shard. Ideally, as the number of shards increase, the speed of cross-shard transactions will increase.

Developers can also deploy their smart contracts to QuarkChain because the network supports smart contracts running within the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

The QuarkChain’s Leadership Team

QuarkChain is made up of a team of 10 members and 6 advisors. The team boasts of individuals with adequate academic and working credentials. Some members of the team do not work full time and appear not to have an extremely blockchain-rich experience. However, we can cut them some slack on this, the technology is still new.

QuarkChain was founded by Qi Zhou who has degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science. He is a software engineer and an expert in high performance systems, and carries over 15 years of development experience. He has experience working as a software engineer in Google, DELL, and Facebook (all notable companies).

Some other members of the team include:

ZhaoGuang Wang (Senior Software Engineer)

Ting Du (CMO for China)

Anthurine Xiang (CMO)

Kyle Wang (COO)

Highlighted below are some members of the advisory board working with QuarkChain

Leo Wang – Head of Pre-Angel VC and ardent crypto investor

Mike Miller – Liquid2 Ventures, Founder and Chief Scientist at IBM Cloudant

Bill More – Founder/CEO of DSSD

Arun Phadke – Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering at Virginia Tech

QuarkChain Target Market

For a start, QuarkChain is trying to solve blockchain’s scalability issues by significantly increasing the number of transactions per second. This will provide a congestion-free network that will facilitate the adoption of blockchain by big industries and businesses. This is not limited to social media, IoT, high frequency trading, gaming, and financial payments.

Top contenders in this space include Zilliqa, Kaadena, Ethereum, Thunder Token, Bitcoin, and several others.

QuarkChain Roadmap

QuarkChain already has an MVP. Their closed Testnet demonstrated a capacity of 2,000 transactions per second, which puts it ahead of most blockchain 3.0 projects with higher valuation. A public Testnet is expected in May, 2018.

Other milestones on their roadmap include Testnet 0.2 which will support features like smart contract, and reshard as well as 10,000 TPS. This is scheduled for the second quarter of 2018.

By Q4, they are expected to release QuarkChain Core 1.0, Mainnet 1.0, and Smart Wallet, with a target of 100,000 TPS. Achieving 1,000,000 TPS is expected to happen in Q2 of 2019.

QuarkChain SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Working Testnet ahead of schedule

Strong team and advisory board

Positive MVP feedback

Seamless integration with Solidity, which provides low barrier of entry to use the platform

Weaknesses

No official partnerships

Large number of tokens

A promise of 1 million transactions per second seems far fetched

Lack of very technical whitepaper

Opportunities

Stiff competition trying to solve blockchain’s scalability issues. QuarkChain can become pace setters if they succeed first.

Threats

Highly competitive landscape

In conclusion, QuarkChain has a novel idea because scalability is one of the key issues which stays in the way of mass adoption of blockchain technology. Finding a project that doesn’t compromise on security and decentralization while trying to solve scalability issues is a hard one. However, if QuarkChain is able to pull this off then they’ll be on their way to the moon.

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TALAO ICO Review: A Worker-Controlled Ecosystem for Freelancers

Talao is an Ethereum-based ecosystem that aims to provide freelancing talents with a platform to store/retain control of their work reputation and certificates and at the same time, a marketplace to sell their skills to the world. The entire ecosystem will be governed by Talao’s utility token, also named TALAO.

Rating: 4.2/5

ICO Grade: A-

ICO Platform: Ethereum

Industry: Freelance Services

Price: $0.65

Bonus: N/A

Soft Cap: $5 million

Hard Cap: $20 million

Total Number of Tokens (Available for sale): 150 million TALAO (100 million TALAO)

Website: Talao.io

White paper: Talao Whitepaper

Telegram: Telegram

Let’s Decrypt Talao’s Use Case

What Problem Talao is Addressing?

The Work-on-demand or Freelancing—industry has grown into a billion-dollar industry and every year, it grows even stronger. The total number of freelancers in the world is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions, with the United States alone serving as home to over 57 million freelancers. This growth can be credited to the efforts of the freelancers—the talents—and the platforms that provide them with a marketplace.

The problem is, the current setup in the freelancing industry was built to favour the platforms and the talents have little to no power. Reputations, reviews, and certificates earned while working on a platform belongs to the company and not the talent. Therefore, if a freelancer decides to leave a certain platform for another, they have to start afresh and build an entirely new profile. To make matters worse, most freelancing platforms charge freelancers 20% commission on every completed job while at the same time, charging the client a fee for using their platform.

This model is very predatory and it is stifling the growth of this industry. A fairer, more effective alternative is urgently needed.

Talao’s Value Proposition

Talao is offering a solution to the problem outlined above and they have come up with a model that cuts out third parties—the freelancing platforms—completely. Talao offers freelancers a secure digital vault where they can store their online work reputation, reviews, and certificates. The data is owned and controlled by the freelancers and they can choose how they want it to be shared with prospective clients.

Talao also provides a marketplace where clients can find freelance talents and employ them to work on their projects. This marketplace is powered by Ethereum smart contracts and there are no third parties, just clients and talents. Also, no fees or commissions are charged and gig prices are set by the Talent communities.

Talao is the blockchain-based and autonomous version of the French freelance marketplace, eMindHub, a company that used tokens to facilitate freelance payments for ~2 years.

Dock.io offers a service similar to Talao’s, but the former only provides a platform where work data is stored and controlled by the freelancer. Talao offers much more than that.

The Team Behind Talao

The Talao team consists of well-experienced professionals. Co-founder & CEO Nicolas Muller founded eMindHub in 2015, he has work experience in Engineering, Aerospace, and Manufacturing. Co-founder & COO Thierry Thevenet was the Founder and CEO of Fi System, the first French digital agency to leverage the internet disruption.

Fellow Co-founder and Head of Growth, Denis Lafont-Trevisan is an Outsourcing and Technology Markets Specialist. Blockchain Team Leader, Maxime Hagenbourger worked on conception and development at CERN and Hewlett-Packard. He works now as the CTO of Blockchain Partner, one of the top blockchain companies in France.

Talao’s Target Market

As mentioned above, the work-on-demand industry is valued at over $5 billion. Talao’s business plan is to provide talents with an environment that gives them control over their work data and their gig prices. This should attract the best talents and this will, in turn, translate to satisfied clients. With their token, TALAO, at the heart of the entire system, Talao hopes to amass 5 million users over the next 5 years and cement their place as one of the top 3 talent-on-demand platforms in the world.

In a billion-dollar industry that is as flawed as the freelancing market, there is ample room for the token, TALAO and the company to grow—if they deliver as promised.

Talao’s Roadmap

Talao’s ICO is scheduled to take place sometime in Q2 2018, per the project’s website. They plan to release the Talao marketplace with token functionality on Ethereum mainnet by mid-Q3 2018.

Talao’s SWOT Analysis

Strengths

A strong team with some background in the industry.

The project comes across as very solid. The team seems to have done their due diligence as regards research and all bases seem adequately covered.

Weaknesses

A new entrant in a competitive market, Talao may struggle to attract enough users to ensure self-sustainable growth.

Opportunities

Both clients and talents are dissatisfied with the freelance platforms available currently. The industry is ripe for “takeover”.

Talao’s predecessor eMindHub didn’t struggle to attract users, this bodes well for the project.

Threats

Residents of the United States are banned from participating in Talao’s ICO. The US has more freelancers that any other country in the world (~36% of the workforce).

In conclusion, Talao is trying to break into one of the fastest growing markets in the world. Not just that, the major participants—the clients and the freelancers—in the industry are not satisfied with the system in place. Combine this with a strong team, a solid use-case and a slightly-successful predecessor (eMindHub), and Talao is looking like top ICO to invest in. As always with cryptocurrency-based projects, however, prospective investors are advised to be as cautious as they are enthusiastic.

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