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chaos-of-the-abyss · 6 years

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[Death Note] Near: Anime vs. Manga Potrayals

I love Death Note. But, I have to admit that when it comes to the anime and the manga, the latter has my preference. This is for several reasons, primarily that it adds more detail, but another crucial point in which I favor the manga over the anime is Near's portrayal. I didn't think much of it at first, but when I read the manga, I couldn't help noticing just how different of an impression that Near made on me, as opposed to his anime counterpart. The more I thought about this, the more hate I saw Near get in the fandom, the more it bugged me.

Of course, there will always be those people who hate Near just for existing, pretty much, but the most common reason I saw for disliking Near was that "he was too emotionless", and "a boring, dull character. As I also found, many people who believed that also had not read the manga.

I have to say, unfortunately; in my experience, the anime's portrayal of Near did make him seem like such unless you dug really, really deep - almost irritatingly so. When I first watched the anime, I was on Near's side. For one thing, I found his emotionless persona to be cool and unique from most heroes in any series. For another, I really, really wanted to see Kira die, so...yeah. Despite this more favorable opinion of him, after I finished the anime, my love for Near was nowhere near (Death Note and its endless puns) what it is now.

In contrast, after I read the manga, I found myself much more invested in Near as a person. As I read the manga, layer after layer was added to the character of Nate River; by the end of it, Near was on the road to his current position as one of my favorite characters in any fictional work to date. After doing more analysis on him and discussing him with other DN fans on Quotev (thank you so much to all of those who analyze Death Note with me, I have so much fun during our debates about it and I've learned a lot of things), my adoration only increased. If I have to rank him in my favorite fictional characters (and believe me, I'm familiar with a lot of fiction, be it games, manga, anime, books, visual novels, you name it), Near would definitely be in my top ten.

I love that boy.

To put things in perspective, I'll begin with a list of similarities between Near's anime and manga portrayal (and I'm obviously speaking characteristics, not physical appearance):

1. His puzzle/toys obsession

2. His antisocial nature and complete lack of life skills

To be honest, that's pretty much all that I can recall that remains nearly identical between the anime version and manga version of Near.

Now, let's get into the differences.

1. His intelligence

Yes; Near is a clear genius in both the anime and the manga. However, the manga shows more examples of this. For one thing, Near's extremely complex explanations in the manga are nearly paragraphs of text long. The anime never shows him giving any such detailed analyses, which is probably part of the reason why there are those who complain that Near gets too much plot armor. For example, the infamous "figuring out who X-Kira is scene": I have to say, the anime utterly failed in that, if you ask me. The scene blatantly seems like filler and just completely unrealistic. I mean really - Near's eyes lighting up like his superpowers are being charged and hyperspace blurring behind him? Yeah...no. I can understand why that seems like plot armor. In contrast, the manga actually bothers to thoroughly explain Near's thought process and the evidence backing up his conclusion.

Also, there are two plans of Near's that are cut out from the anime (that I can remember):

- His plan to get the mafia to return the Death Note (if I remember correctly): (Confession time - I forgot the contents of this plan, aside from it requiring Light to pose as L and threaten the mafia somehow.) Obviously, coming up with plans takes intelligence, but Near appears to come up with this strategy on-the-spot, making it all the more impressive. Light cracks his own plan (that gets his dad killed, so touching) so it becomes immaterial, but it still shows the levels of Near's intelligence.

- His plan to get a member of the Task Force on his side: A.K.A. we see how badass Near is. He requests that a member of the Task Force meet with the SPK in person - that member turns out to be Mogi. As they talk, Demegawa unleashes the mob on the SPK's headquarters, cueing the "drop the money from the sky" scene. Now, this was a failed plan of Light's to take out Near and the SPK, but not only does Near counter this plan - he actually uses it for his own benefit. He orders Mogi to be bound and gagged to prevent him from making any noise, and when the Task Force contacts them to ask if everyone is safe, Near lies straight to their faces and says Mogi had a heart attack on the way to their new base - meaning, Kira is aware that Mogi is in the SPK's hands and is trying to prevent him from giving any information. Naturally, the only ones who know this are the Task Force and the SPK, which means that Kira is among the two groups. This is what ultimately leads Aizawa to ally himself with the SPK - the suspicion towards Light that reblossomed thanks to Near's machinations.

2. His snarkiness

So, in both the anime and the manga, Near has some snarky moments, though significantly more in the manga. However, in my opinion, the anime left out the most significant snark from Near in the series. When Light comments that the SPK members all died despite Near's best efforts (this was after Sayu's kidnapping, where Mello acquires the Death Note and kills most of the SPK), Near replies, "Yes...I was somewhat prepared for this the moment you handed over the notebook, but it sure does hurt." He throws the implied insult back at Light's face (who is the placeholder of L at that point in time). Near shows more willingness to take the initiative and be a little more aggressive in the manga (given the fact he snarked off at L the Second). In fact, the second one of the plans cut out of the manga that I mentioned earlier also shows this difference between anime and manga Near.

And now, we arrive at what is my biggest problem with Near's anime portrayal -

3. His humanity

I can actually understand why anime-only people saw Near as a soulless robot. The anime does not provide any show of emotion from him whatsoever unless you dig ridiculous deep into the situation to the point where you almost feel like you're reading too much into things. Near is not a robot - he is a human being, and on a human being, this is simply unrealistic. On the other hand, the manga cleverly throws in subtle nuances that lead you to question and analyze Near's softer sides without directly showing them to you. It adds a much more interesting spin to his character and makes you question what exactly caused him to become the way he is - all in all, the manga's portrayal makes Near much more interesting than the anime's.

Let's begin.

- The mass murder of most of the SPK

Alright, so Mello writes all the names of the SPK that he has access to, promptly killing them. In the anime, Near simply sits in his chair with a stone-cold expression, and doesn't look at all concerned as his colleagues literally fall to the ground, dead, around him. By contrast, in the manga, he actually looks pained. From the way his gaze is intently focused on the dice structure and his bothered expression, it's almost as if he doesn't want to look. Obviously, this makes for a much more relatable and realistic character in the eyes of the audience - showing visible pain at the death of his coworkers. It also makes you begin to think about Near's character specifically because he seemed so emotionless. We're introduced to Near and see how devoid of feeling he seems to be the first few chapters of his appearance, and then bam - he's clearly upset as his colleagues die. At least for me, it got me thinking about Near's more human sides

- His interactions with his subordinates

Near's interactions with the members of the SPK remain largely the same in the manga and the anime. In my opinion, though, two important scenes were cut out from the anime that adds a lot more to Near's character. For one, there's the scene where Near disbands the SPK officially and explains that they'll now have to operate as an underground organization. He goes on to warn his subordinates of how dangerous their positions will be should they choose to continue under his lead, as he will keep trying to catch Kira. This is significant to me because he actually offers them a way out. Going even further, he admits that he's afraid - "I'm scared, so I'm not going outside". This ability to understand and sympathize with the possible fears of those who work under him adds yet another layer of complexity to Near - he prefers to seem almost inhuman and strange and his behavior, but has no trouble admitting to a very human quality - fear. I should also add that this line is refreshingly vulnerable in a way, meaning that Near is close enough to and trusts his subordinates enough to drop the facade at least a little.

It also displays his capability to see through and grasp the perspective of others emotionally and not just pragmatically. This is something that I find Light, and to a lesser extent, L, to be lacking in. They can both accurately predict the next moves of their opponents by putting themselves in their foe's tactical situation and practical mindset, much like Near. However, unlike Near, they fail to do the same when it comes to more sentiment-based areas.

And the other interaction is when Near admits that Mello is dangerous, but he also remarks on his belief that his subordinates will be fine. "That may very well happen. But I have faith in your excellent skills."

As you can tell from this quote, Near praises his subordinates for their abilities. Unlike L or Light, who use the Task Force/Kira followers like chess pieces almost all of the time, Near allows his subordinates some freedom in their actions. Notice that he doesn't tell them exactly what to do should Mello try something - he simply states that people of their caliber will be able to get out of a difficult situation. This is very different from the condescending way that L and Light tend to treat people working under them. The Task Force/Kira's followers are older than L and Light, yet they treat them like children because they know that their intelligence is inferior in comparison to their own. This shows a blatant lack of respect. In contrast, Near, despite knowing this, respects his subordinates and holds them in high enough regard to give them free reign over such things. It may also be influenced by the fact that Near is aware that despite his ingenuity, he is still a teenage boy and his subordinates likely have more general life experience than he does. And we as humans tend to hold the opinions of our elders in high regard.

- His words about L

In the anime, Near doesn't say much about L at all. There's barely anything suggesting that he feels any kind of attachment to L - in fact, it seems as though he actually doesn't see L as all that great. In the manga, however, either Aizawa or Mogi calls Near out on his use of borderline illegal methods. His response is, "For Mello and I, L is the only person we adore, and the only person who deserves our respect. And the one person we respected was killed by Kira, so we're willing to use any methods necessary to defeat him...don't you think it's only natural for us to feel that way?"

This quote proves two things about Near. First, he did respect L. Second, it reflects on his humanity once again. Near is basically saying that it's only natural for himself and Mello to want revenge on Kira for killing the one person they respect. The desire for revenge is also a very human trait, and the fact that Near shows a deeper understanding of such matters says a lot about him.

- Speaking of everyone's contributions

In the anime, Near states that his victory is thanks to Mello. In the manga, he elaborates upon this, giving credit to the people who had a hand in defeating Kira and placing special emphasis on Mello - basically, he's indirectly thanking all of them. This is already interesting in itself, but what really stood out to me is the way Near dismisses any contribution he made to the case. Even though he provided the backbone for the defeat of Kira during Death Note's second arc (without his initial plan, nothing anyone else did would have meant jack shit), he gives himself no credit. He seems to place more value on his gratefulness towards the others for helping him rather than savoring the feeling of his own success, which is, to me, an admirable trait.

- His reaction when Light tries to write his name on a scrap of the Death Note

Light, sneaky little bastard that he is, managed to write 'Nate Rive' on the scrap of Death Note paper that he had hidden in his watch. One more letter and Near would have...you know, died. The thought is too painful.

We never do see Near's reaction to this in the anime, which I found almost offensive. Seriously, Near almost died and his reaction to his brush with the grim reaper isn't even shown? By contrast, the manga shows that he's alarmed. Though he regains his composure within the next few seconds, the single panel of his shocked expression was all that we needed. It's very understandable, as a human being, to fear death. The fact that Near showed surprise at the very least when he came close to meeting his end makes him more relatable.

And finally...

- Eating chocolate at the end of the manga

When working with the Task Force to solve a new case some time after Light's death, Near is seen playing with his toys and...eating a bar of chocolate. For one thing, this is an obvious way to honor and remember Mello. This alone is touching, as it shows that Near really does miss Mello and wish that he hadn't perished.

But recently, a friend of mine pointed something out that I hadn't thought about before (I love hearing her theories about Death Note, they're always so insightful and well thought-out, not to mention that talking to her is just enjoyable in general). Chocolate is a commonly known stress reliever, and Near is now the new L. Him eating chocolate at the end of the manga, in his new position, could be signifying that he is, understandably, like any sane person would be, stressed out. He now has to bear a considerable burden on his shoulders for the rest of his life as the new World's Greatest Detective.

So, there we have it, my rant analysis on my problems with the anime's portrayal of Near. Overall, the manga just made Near a more complex and interesting character. Thanks for reading.

#death note #near #nate river #death note analysis #near analysis #nate river analysis #this is all my opinion #l lawliet #light yagami #the task force #the spk

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michaelbennettcrypto · 6 years

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Telegram Completes Second ICO, Raising $1.7 Billion, a Third ICO May Be on the Horizon

Telegram Group Inc., the encrypted messaging platform, has completed its second initial coin offering (ICO) — the world’s largest — bringing the amount raised to $1.7 billion. The ICO was held to help establish the Telegram Open Network (TON), a “fast, scalable, and user-friendly” cryptocurrency and blockchain platform.

In addition to the $850 million Telegram raised in February of this year, $850 million has been raised from 94 investors this month. Further, the company “may pursue one or more subsequent offerings,” the British Virgin Islands-registered firm stated in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The company, founded by self-exiled Russian Pavel Durov, plans to use the ICO proceeds to develop the TON blockchain, which includes its in-house cryptocurrency, the Gram. It aims to enable transaction speeds faster than the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains — using multi-blockchain technology — and may seek to compete with global payment processors Visa and Mastercard, according to Telegram documents. The total supply of native TON tokens (Grams) will equal 5 billion.

Interest in the Telegram ICO has recently helped the company surpass the threshold of 200 million monthly active users, “with over 700,000 new users signing up each day.” The company projects that it will have 1 billion users by 2022.

According to Telegram’s white paper, Q2 and Q3 of this year will see the launch of the TON “Test Network,” and well as “Testing and Security audits.” In Q4, the “Stable Version” of TON will be deployed and the “Telegram Wallet” will be launched. For 2019, in Q1, Telegram plans to create the “TON-based economy,” and Q2 will see the launch of “TON Services, TON Storage, and TON Proxy.”

Skepticism

Despite the popularity of Telegram’s messaging service, and the fact that investors are willing to invest such large amounts of money (those taking part in the ICO had to invest at least $1 million), some in the cryptosphere are skeptical about what the company can actually accomplish. Its white paper describes a suite of blockchain based services including file storage, DNS service, and an ad exchange network with the ability to process millions of transactions per second, but with no explanation of how.

Matthew Green, cryptographer and professor at Johns Hopkins University is impressed by some parts of the blockchain project, but finds many of the claims in the white paper unrealistic:

“I’ll be honest, the white paper reads like someone went out on the internet and harvested the most ambitious ideas from a dozen projects and said ‘let’s do all of those but better!’ It feels unachievable, at least at the scale they’re aiming for now.”

Just this week Telegram admitted it had connection failures in Europe and the former Soviet Union, blaming the interruptions on its data center provider. These issues have been dealt with.

In other news, Telegram is under threat of being blocked in Russia after it refused to provide encryption keys to the Federal Security Service to comply with legislation on fighting terrorism.

Image Courtesy of ShutterStock

The post Telegram Completes Second ICO, Raising $1.7 Billion, a Third ICO May Be on the Horizon appeared first on NewsBTC.

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brettzjacksonblog · 6 years

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Telegram Completes Second ICO, Raising $1.7 Billion, a Third ICO May Be on the Horizon

Skepticism

Matthew Green, cryptographer and professor at Johns Hopkins University is impressed by some parts of the blockchain project, but finds many of the claims in the white paper unrealistic:

Just this week Telegram admitted it had connection failures in Europe and the former Soviet Union, blaming the interruptions on its data center provider. These issues have been dealt with.

In other news, Telegram is under threat of being blocked in Russia after it refused to provide encryption keys to the Federal Security Service to comply with legislation on fighting terrorism.

Image Courtesy of ShutterStock

The post Telegram Completes Second ICO, Raising $1.7 Billion, a Third ICO May Be on the Horizon appeared first on NewsBTC.

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joshuajacksonlyblog · 6 years

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Telegram Completes Second ICO, Raising $1.7 Billion, a Third ICO May Be on the Horizon

Skepticism

Matthew Green, cryptographer and professor at Johns Hopkins University is impressed by some parts of the blockchain project, but finds many of the claims in the white paper unrealistic:

Just this week Telegram admitted it had connection failures in Europe and the former Soviet Union, blaming the interruptions on its data center provider. These issues have been dealt with.

In other news, Telegram is under threat of being blocked in Russia after it refused to provide encryption keys to the Federal Security Service to comply with legislation on fighting terrorism.

Image Courtesy of ShutterStock

The post Telegram Completes Second ICO, Raising $1.7 Billion, a Third ICO May Be on the Horizon appeared first on NewsBTC.

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cryptswahili · 5 years

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Holochain Digital Asset Report: HOT Token Review And Investment Grade

Holochain Digital Asset Report: Introduction

Holochain is a scalable, “agent-centric” distributed computing network. Unlike other decentralized platforms, the “consensus” engine utilizes a validating distributed hash table (DHT), requiring only nodes that are actually exchanging data with one another to reach a state of agreement.

As of Q4, 2018, Holochain is entering an important phase in the development of the project. An upcoming release of Holochain Rust Beta and sneak peak developer preview mark a moment when real development of hApps (dApps built with Holochain) can properly begin and growth of the ecosystem could take off. Uncertainty around the delay of the surrounding Rust Beta release is mitigated by tangible signs of development on GitHub and clear communication from the team.

The terms HOLO and Holochain refer to two projects that are, in effect, separate- Holochain is a generalized p2p framework for distributed computing- it has no fees, no platform, no currency- but is rather a pattern akin to html.

According to a discussion with the team, the driving motivation behind the creation of Holochain is the idea that people should be able to communicate in a direct and secure manner without relying on any 3rd party intermediary. As a result, there is no business model for Holochain itself, as the creators are giving it away for free.

However, giving Holochain away presents the team with two issues:

1. How to incentivize participants to join the ecosystem if they want to achieve growth?

2. How to accelerate adoption of the framework on a wider scale?

To solve these key factors, the team established HOLO, a p2p web hosting company. When an hApp is created and released to the public, anyone who downloads it can use the app and act as a peer among other app users.

HOLO enables that community to invite visitors who aren’t contributing their computing power to utilize the app for its specified purpose.

Simultaneously, network participants, such as developers or application providers, use HoloFuel to pay for the hosting power they serve to frontend app users.

The example of AirBNB serves to illustrate the model. Regular users want to book a room for without paying for use of the site, in line with the current paradigm. AirBNB uses, for example, AWS, which they pay to serve their websites to the rest of the world- Holochain enables that as well, instead through a marketplace of distributed hosts where people use their spare computing capacity to serve outsiders on their hApps.

To sustain the maintenance of this model, HOLO, the organization, receives a 1% cut of all transactions, 50% of which goes to support the development and maturation of Holochain. HOLO, therefore, acts as a means for members of the hApp to serve websites or applications to anyone outside the network, without being a peer.

Initiation Report Summary

Holochain is a unique project in the cryptospace that offers an alternative to the data-centric blockchain paradigm where consensus is not at the center of the network

Major questions exist regarding the ability of the network to compete with established blue chip players as the primary value proposition rests with provision of decentralized hosting resources which will be difficult to offer for a lower price than existing players

The real value proposition of Holochain can only be realized with the timely Q1 release of the most crucial tech components, and more than likely the support of a major enterprise to compete in the highly-saturated distributed hosting market; the project retains an above average level of risk as it stands at a crossroads.

This report is the Initiation Report – our first deep dive into the performance and risk/reward factors. The analysis, verdict and accompanying grade reflect our opinion on the long-term value prospects of a given token based on the current state of project development and indicators of future commercial viability – they are not designed to be indicative of short-term trading opportunities.

You can see a full explanation of how our reports are constructed and what they mean at the bottom of this page.’s

Part One: The Business Case

Holochain Market Opportunities

HOLO has set sights on becoming a large-scale player in the cloud computing market. To capture a piece of that market through a decentralized play, the project aims to solve two major issues preventing p2p web hosting from becoming the norm.

Traditionally, blockchain-based approaches to web hosting require hosts to store high loads of content on a device- in the instance of a decentralized Facebook, it would be unrealistic to expect a small group of nodes to accomplish this. In the case of Holochain, when a host device is queried, other members of that community supply the photos, etc. all packaged as an html file, so you don’t have to have the entirety of that app and all its data on a single device. This approach is similar to what cloud computing companies already do – except those machines are all behind one shop’s door instead of distributed across a network.

HoloFuel is incorporated to solve another purported problem for p2p web hosting- transactions and fees; historically, making payments on decentralized networks has been expensive. Paying a host 1/3 of a penny doesn’t make sense if the transaction fee exceeds the micro-payment.

In the crypto world, the accounting cost more often than not outweighs the worth of whatever dApp is being utilized (see almost any ETH based dApp at the moment); HoloFuel enables members of community to produce microtransactions without prohibitive costs, by storing transaction data exclusively on nodes that have an interest in interacting with one another, rather than across a global chain.

As a “framework for the distributed web”, HOLO has a protocol layer to build dApps (Ethereum), scalable distributed computing (iExec) and utilizes a non-blockchain-based means of achieving agreement between parties (Hashgraph).

While there are no direct comparison points to Holochain in the cryptospace, the above mentioned projects represent the most prominent ones that maintain a level of overlap on particular functions and use cases. The most prominent competitor on the protocol level is the Ethereum network, as both projects provide platforms for the development and deployment of decentralized applications (dApps).

Further, the Ethereum network plans on implementing both sharding and plasma (dApp-specific side chains), creating a functionality that is in some ways similar, but not the same as, the distributed hash table (DHT) model employed by Holochain.

The successful deployment of Plasma and sharding on the network in 2019 not only represents a significant threat to HOLO, but a number of other high-throughput focused protocols, though the exact timing of the launch still remains an unknown factor.

Hashgraph represents a large-scale competitor in the cryptospace for Holochain as a decentralized platform for building and hosting dApps that utilizes hash-chains. Hashgraph incorporates the use of secure hash-chains and directed acyclic graph (DAG) tech, in addition to other features shared with Holochain such as a focus on application-level data integrity.

The most obvious point of differentiation is that Hashgraph still is designed to achieve global consensus across the entirety of the network and relies on one specific route to consensus for doing so. In essence, Hashgraph proposes a data-centric model with the goal of reaching global consensus; conversely, Holochain proposes an agent-centric model where nodes act independently and or in coordination with local actors.

While there is overlap and potential for competition in the dApp space and incorporation of similar means for carrying out transactions in a distributed manner, the projects do not represent a direct threat to one another in the short-term, as Hashgraph has taken aim at initial deployment scenarios that are more suited to networks geared toward global consensus, such as cross-border transactions.

The most analogous network in terms of functionality and use case in this sense would be iExec, an open-source platform where dApps can utilize on-demand cloud computing infrastructure through a secure p2p network built on the Ethereum network.

Similar in a sense to Holochain, there is a great degree of latitude in terms of availability of functions offered by iExec, such as Software as a Service (SaaS applications), web hosting, data management, and other infrastructure-related products. However, iExec does not offer the full developer suite along with access to services, instead relying on Ethereum for this.

Were iExec to generate significant development on the network in time for higher throughput levels on the Ethereum network, the project would stand a chance at greatly benefiting from its reliance on the network.

Furthermore, iExec’s plans for serving regular dApp users with no knowledge of the cryptospace remain unclear. With HOLO’s plan for DNS integration, hApps have the ability to serve anyone with a browser, with no need to connect to a network such as Ethereum.

At this stage, as HOLO offers developers a one-stop-shop for development of dApps and provision of related hosting infrastructure along with DNS integration, though formidable, the moat still remains open to make a foray into this market.

While both Hashgraph and Holochain differ in their initial target markets, if both ecosystems see solid growth over the next year, the $100 million dollar raise conducted by Hashgraph offers a much longer runway and pool of resources for the project. With 10% of 50 billion tokens expected to be in circulation within one year, at ICO price ($0.12) this implies a $600 million valuation.

When it comes to sheer amount of resources available to Hashgraph (the same story for Ethereum) and network effect, Holochain faces an uphill struggle for raising brand awareness and converting users once the network is fully useable. This represents a significant threat to Holochain as a much lower-cap project as 2019 approaches.

Competitor Comparison – Emerging Tech

According to Director of Communications, Matthew Schutte, HOLO ultimately aims to become the largest distributed cloud computing company on Earth as a p2p web hosting provider.

With the level of competition from existing players in the cloud hosting space offered by centralized services at highly competitive prices, this ambition is by no means an easy task. With the cloud computing market projected to reach a value of $411 billion by 2020 (including Software as a Service, Platform as a Service and Infrastructure as a Service markets), the project’s ability to capture a small piece of the market of users who value decentralized alternatives to centralized hosting infrastructure is absolutely crucial for the long-term value of project.

However, HOLO has not yet exhibited evidence of the project’s ability to achieve that end. An example of some competitors in this realm are provided below.

Competitor Comparison – Mature Tech

The most pressing threat to HOLO is the ability for established industry giants with consistent revenue and an established user base. With scale comes the ability to compete on price- an issue HOLO has highlighted themselves from the start.

When comparing HOLO to AWS for example, the primary differentiation is that HOLO distributes hosting services throughout the network, much in the same way as TOR, but for a cost that will be higher than AWS from the get go (rather than free like TOR).

For the network to compete at any meaningful level with centralized services, an enormous amount of HoloHosts, along with owners of HoloPorts (the premade hosting hardware offered by HOLO for providing hosting services on the network) would be required to reduce hosting costs.

Although the project initially sold around 2000 HoloPorts, HOLO plan to offer HoloPorts for sale again in the near future, which would help facilitate ease of hosting on the network; but the prospects for a future market of HoloPort buyers rests on the quality of the hApps on the network itself, which have yet to be proven.

As for any shot at truly competing on a commercial level anywhere close to that of centralized hosting providers, the much touted rumors of a partnership with Mozilla offer one of the only conceivable routes to such a position through provision of additional infrastructure and integrated use case scenarios.

On the performance end, while HOLO plans to offer DNS integration, the network will also likely face issues with latency and uptime on the hosting end, especially in the beginning phases. While HOLO maintains a mechanism through HoloQuery for boosting the most reliable, fastest hosts in the DNS cycle, this remains an untested solution and will face challenges in competing with the reliability of centralized services like AWS, Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud and even smaller-scale, semi-open source enterprises like Digital Ocean.

These issues around cost and performance place HOLO at a significant disadvantage from a regular consumer standpoint, and, at least in its present form, make any likely future prospects for the project appear more akin to a crypto-based TOR than a decentralized competitor with centralized hosting providers with billions of dollars in annual revenue.

In August, Holochain engaged in preliminary talks with Mozilla. With the results of these talks expected sometime before the end of the year, the implications of any major cooperation between the two organizations could be a potential game-changer for HOLO when it comes to competing at commercial-scale among decentralized competitors, save Ethereum.

A Mozilla partnership would provide additional financial resources, a boost in market awareness of the project to a broader base of consumers, and likely produce a positive effect on the value of the token, giving the project more time to grow.

Moreover, from a technical standpoint, a partnership with Mozilla would act as a tacit endorsement of the underlying technology over competitors, lending the weight of a huge name in the IT industry behind the value proposition of the project.

While the effect would certainly be positive for HOLO, Mozilla is likely most interested in the underlying tech the project has to offer and what future applications might be developed from that.

Whether a potential partnership eventually translates into a direct benefit to the HOLO ecosystem or not is no guarantee. For now, however, this variable remains almost entirely under wraps and is highly speculative.

Ecosystem Development

Network Participants

Hosts – The HOLO ecosystem relies on hosts that provide processing power and hosting for distributed applications while earning redeemable credits. Hosts choose which apps to serve, setting their own priorities and filters according to app categories, price brackets, and usage demands.

Application Providers – Application Providers are responsible for the maintenance and security of apps they publish on the HOLO marketplace. They also agree to timely payment of Proof-of-Service invoices. Since unpaid invoices are visible to all, it is easy enough for a Host to demonstrate a failure to pay. No central authority needs to intervene, and no smart-contract needs to enforce payment. Besides receiving payments in HoloFuel, if apps take payments in other currencies, they can use their revenue to purchase additional hosting credits from HOLO Reserve Accounts.

End User Participants – An end-user accesses crowd-hosted applications via standard web browsers, so their defining characteristic is that they have not installed Holochain. Holo is designed to help such end-users reach their applications and make it easy to conduct crypto-transactions. End users can participate to various degrees on hApps depending on the rules established by each respective hApp in the ecosystem; no HoloFuel is required if hosts or app providers deem it so, or, the end user participates within the parameters of a pre-established net positive balance

Developers – Participants who develop hApps for Application Providers within the ecosystem.

Infrastructure Provider (aka HOLO) – The Holo Application Delivery Network manages bridging from the web to Holochain. With the support of Reserve Accounts, it also provides the backing for the asset-backed, mutual-credit currency and manages value flows between ecosystem participants, including allowing Hosts to convert HoloFuel to other currencies.

HOLO holds HoloFuel in reserve to ensure there is substantial liquidity for conversion to other currencies. HOLO will initially provide the sole Reserve Account in the network, which the team has stated will be run in a transparent manner, demonstrating proof of funds, in addition to the ongoing receipt and disbursal of funds.

Holochain Ecosystem Diagram

Ecosystem Participants

To drive organic growth of the network, the team have provided hands on support for developers building with Holochain, establishing “office hours” when they can communicate with Holo engineers directly.

The team has also launched an open source app for communication with the team and community. Three online dev camps are also planned between November 2018 and January 2019.

A look at the Holochain Hackathon calendar shows around nine meetups since September until present, in locations that include Cyprus, Amsterdam, Barcelona, São Paulo and, NYC.

The timing and effort by the team to foster growth of the developer community both globally and online is a prudent step in maximizing the number of hApps that result from the upcoming Beta release – the results of such efforts though, are far from quantifiable at this phase in the project’s development.

While HOLO is exerting efforts toward sparking development and has seen some ICOs (OurWorld, Promether, ProducersToken) develop on the platform, there is not yet much in the way of tangible signs of an ecosystem, as the project is still in its early stages.

iExec, on the other hand, has already achieved visible progress on this front. Extensive development of the iExec ecosystem has resulted from the network’s first mover status in the space. An alpha version of the marketplace is already available, similar to the forward facing marketplace planned for release by HOLO next year.

First mover advantage does not guarantee prominence over the entire target market if iExec cannot develop an ecosystem of dApps that are actually utilized at scale, but at this stage it remains too early to make a definitive call – however, if we use the $15 million valuation of iExec (in comparison to the $130 million valuation of HOLO) as a gauge for investor sentiment toward future prospects of both projects, HOLO comes out on top.

Decentralization

Holochain does not maintain a traditional governance model for establishing network parameters, as the agent-centric model allows for disparate forms of decision making within an open framework.

From the perspective of a network participant, this gives the project a much wider degree of flexibility that could prove attractive to developers and end users alike.

However, the supporting organization, HOLO, receives a percentage of transaction fees, which has been criticized for its potential to centralize a substantial amount of authority with one organization. The team argue that this model is necessary for continued funding of network maintenance, in addition to backing whatever hosting power is provided by the organization itself with HoloFuel, which should help stabilize value.

Regardless, despite introducing a new model of governance on the user level, the overall ecosystem is subject to the indisputable decision making power held by HOLO over network updates, which is arguably analogous to that of any developer team behind large crypto-projects like Bitcoin or Ethereum; but with no viable way to fork the network as HOLO maintains the infrastructure for DNS services.

This structure presents another downside to the project and makes HOLO as a whole much less decentralized than it first appears.

When it comes to the question of nodes accumulating large enough amounts of HoloFuel to destabilize the price, the framework also holds potential flaws. While a mechanism for DNS rotation exists so that traffic is delegated to hosts according to statistics stored on the DHT (such as activity from gossip protocols, percentage of uptime, latency, and bandwidth speeds), this does not stop a number of “super” hosts from accumulating enough computing power to centralize large sums of HoloFuel.

How HOLO would deal with such a scenario remains unclear, despite the fact that the risk persists at all conceivable stages of development, from initial deployment to a large-scale network.

Ecosystem Comparison

While Holochain attracted quite a lot of attention for its unique take on decentralized networks upon its introduction, user engagement is only on par with iExec and comparatively low with Hashgraph.

The upcoming release of the Rust Beta and deployment of HoloPorts/HoloHosts in Q1, if on time, could provide a much needed catalyst to launch awareness, support and adoption levels ahead of iExec.

Holochain still retains a strong support base among the project’s community, which could serve as an important springboard for the network in the beginning of 2019. The question remains- how will community growth efforts serve to grow these figures that can drive adoption at mass scale on a comparable level to top protocol tokens? Anything short of the success for these upcoming milestones will likely close the moat for Holochain, so hitting milestones on-time in Q1 remains critical.

Token Economics

HoloHosts who offer their computing resources to hosting the distributed web are rewarded in “credits”, called HoloFuel. Developers that want to host their hApps pay for hosting using HoloFuel.

Prior to launch of the network, however, Holochain has released HoloToken (HOT), an ERC-20 representation of Holochain’s own resource power, which serves as a temporary coupon exchangeable for HoloFuel.

With the introduction of HoloFuel, Holochain will attempt to achieve a certain degree of price stability because the credits are, in theory, a means of transacting value backed by a real asset; i.e. computing power.

As more hosts come online and share computing power, the network becomes more valuable, giving each individual credit more purchasing power in relation to the service they are designed to support.

As the price of computing goes down, each unit of HoloFuel will buy more computing power, meaning users can accomplish more with the same amount of credits; the model is designed so that at a certain point, the price of HoloFuel settles at the cost approximate cost of providing hosting services in a distributed manner (which will in all likelihood remain above that of centralized providers).

Asset Distribution

The price structure of HOT during the ICO was set at a calculated margin high enough from where the team predicts the it will settle to encourage early participation in the marketplace and reward early supporters.

Early investors and hosts theoretically receive far more value for their purchase as the market reaches a more competitive price point, contingent upon the sustained growth of the ecosystem.

As an early host on the network, if a host provides 10GB of hosting power from the launch of the network, later on, that same HoloFuel earned as a reward could be worth 1TB of hosting power if demand continues to grow.

As an early stage project with no real signs of ecosystem development yet, long-term investors going in on the project are making a wager that this ecosystem will grow to a large enough level that the asset-backed economics underlying HoloFuel bring real returns.

What happens in the theoretical scenario that demand for hosting rises, driving the price of HoloFuel up?

In such a scenario, high-reputation Hosts can issue their own HoloFuel, backed by a level of credibility established through a track record of low latency and high uptime; this, in turn, creates a downward pressure on the price. Since hosts won’t offer services at a price lower than operating costs, the system is in essence anchored by the cost of hosting.

If hosts themselves leave the network and supply of HoloFuel drops, upward price pressure should in theory attract new hosts, again raising supply of HoloFuel and bringing the price down.

In this sense, the economics are fluid, allowing for a quick response in the price of HoloFuel to any fluctuation in demand for hosting power.

However, two problems arise from this scenario- use of HoloFuel is not imperative to deployment of hApps on Holochain. While HoloFuel is required for provision of DNS services to mainstream users of hApps, it is not needed for anyone to build their own p2p system on Holochain.

This is important for long-term value, as any developer or application provider aiming to build a product on the network for use among regular users on browsers will require HoloFuel for hosting, driving demand for hosting if attractive enough hApps exist to pull large numbers of users into the network.

Secondly, the ability of Hosts to issue HoloFuel when demand rises in proportion to supply will always act to counter any significant rise in value, limiting the amount of returns for holders of HoloFuel.

At this stage, the primary driver behind the price of HOT is speculative. However, Holochain stands at an important crossroads where the release of the full Beta Rust to the wider developer community, planned Q1 2019 distribution of HoloPorts, and launch of the p2p web hosting marketplace for non-Holochain peers to access hApps, will establish the groundwork for the token economic model envisaged by the team that is based on real hosting power.

The more adoption that occurs within the coming two quarters, the more demand for hosting power will occur, which will become the major force behind the price of HoloFuel.

The early stage nature of the project, however, means investing in the stand-in token, HOT, will be subject entirely to speculative forces and market sentiment for the time being.

Token Comparison

In comparison to competing projects, HOLO has the biggest total coin supply. While the HOLO organization’s economic model for fee collection is based on the idea of stabilization, a high concentration of assets by the organization and large-scale Hosts still leaves HoloFuel open to inflation events if the currency is not managed responsibly.

Because the token is inextricably bound to hosting hApps on the network accessible to everyday users, and Hosts can set their own price for provision of computing resources, the potential for a relatively high ratio of utility demand for HoloFuel to support the price once the network is in operation is only achievable with a flourishing ecosystem, which remains a ways down the road.

Lead Team

Project Founders

The Co-founders of Holochain are Arthur Brock and Eric Harris-Braun. Arthur serves as Chief Architect, while Eric Harris-Braun fulfills the role of Executive Engineer.

Arthur Brock is the Founder and Systems Architect of the Metacurrency Project, which he founded in 2008. The MetaCurrency Project involves the design and deployment of multi-currency platforms with a broad range of configurability for different currency solutions, and eventually led to the Holochain project itself.

Between 2003 – 2007, Arthur worked on another currency-related project, Targeted Currencies Network, where he served as CTO and Lead Currency Designer. Arthur led initiatives targeting the development of alternative currency systems for a diverse array social and economic issues. Having made his foray into the world of alternative currencies as far back as 2003, Arthur has extensive experience in the space.

Eric Harris-Braun is a Co-Founder of the MetaCurrency Project as well. In 1993, he founded Glass Bead Software, a cross-platform p2p communication company that is still in existence at present and has provided him with ample know-how in engineering distributed networks. He has served on the boards of both the New Economics Institute from 2004 to 2013 and has continued on as a board member with the Schumacher Center for New Economics since 2013.

Most notably, both Arthur Brock and Eric Harris-Braun have been in the alternative currency space longer than most teams in the cryptospace. Arthur’s experience with alternative forms of currency dates back 15 years, and has given him firsthand experience experimenting with usage of various forms of asset-backed means of value exchange.

Team Composition

While this is not the Co-founders’ first foray into creation of a currency or asset-based economy, the extent of their previous efforts never reached large-scale proportions. This is not to detract from the competitive advantage such experience brings to Holochain, but serves to underscore the need for a marketing wing that is capable of bringing awareness of the project to a level that makes a mark in the wider crypto community.

When it comes to awareness, the community support indicators reflect this need for more efforts to support awareness of HOLO.

Compared to Ethereum, support for HOLO is several orders of magnitude lower in number. Out of 31 core team members, around 7 are dedicated to community building, forging partnerships, and “coordinating” people and culture.

For the project to compete on the scale envisaged by the team, the human resources devoted to expanding use of the product will inevitably require a sizeable increase in skilled personnel.

Part Two: The Technology Case

Underlying Technology

Consensus Mechanism

Holochain provides cryptographically secured data integrity for decentralised p2p transactions without using consensus. Data integrity is ensured on hApps through establishing provenance of data published from each agent’s local, immutable chain.

In other words, HOLO focuses on p2p coordination without relying on 3rd party web servers, something blockchain could achieve if ordinary users had the capacity to maintain a full record of global consensus on a typical home computer or mobile phone. Public entries are then shared to a content addressable DHT, with cryptographic signatures, enforcement of data schemas, and application logic by randomly selected peers.

With Holochain, each different dApp scenario can establish unique parameters for the level of provenance required among peers. To illustrate this, the rules for a Holo Twitter would likely differ from an hApp for transfer of assets, as the risk associated with the latter is much higher.

One way to ascertain this critical difference is to look the implications of this model from the perspective of users: whereas data-centric approaches like Hashgraph prioritize reaching consensus across the network, Holochain prioritizes the information contained within the hash-chain of the user, and only seeks to achieve consensus between those agents who require it.

The flexibility and scalability offered through the use of DHTs will open up a plethora of use case scenarios immediately upon deployment of the network which will be untenable for the time being on traditional-blockchain networks due to the oft-repeated bottlenecks surrounding network overhead.

As pointed out in our Holochain code review, this architecture especially lends itself to p2p platforms, social networks and collaborative work scenarios.

As a proof-of-concept for ease of ecosystem expansion, HOLO has already developed HoloChat, a multi-room P2P chat platform similar to a distributed Slack, and Clutter, a distributed version of Twitter, which can already deployed on local networks using Holochain.

iExec, by contrast, remains strongly limited by its reliance on the Ethereum network, and will remain this way until sharding/plasma is implemented. While iExec theoretically aims at becoming blockchain agnostic and partnered with the likes of Rootstock (RSK), no signs of development of an ecosystem are visible to this end. In fact, while iExec was a first mover in the distributed cloud computing space, the network limitations posed by Ethereum leaves open an important moat for HOLO to take advantage of in Q1 2019.

Security

Holochain establishes a level of security on each hash-chain through the use of “DNA”, which effectively acts as an application specific contract. Like all user roles, major rights and responsibilities involve following the rules encoded in the HOLO app DNA and anything that would go against an applications DNA structure, changes the hash of the block, and effectively forks the user into his or her own private malicious chain, unable to affect anyone else.

This provides an additional functionality advantage over iExec, which aims for network-wide consensus and would stand to hinder performance until Ethereum implements a scaling solution.

By and large, users are incentivized not to defraud others on the system with the understanding that when they are caught all privileges on HOLO may be revoked (referred to as an “immune system response” much like the reaction of an organic organism against malignant cells).

On Holochain, every communication and element of data is signed by its author to their individual immutable chain (or it won’t propagate). If a participant acts maliciously, their actions are published on a non-repudiable record, akin to digital fingerprints that result in rejection of the next transaction. In the case of collusion, the first actor that witnesses this behavior alerts other nodes. The node which notices the collusion alerts others as well- a distributed enforcement mechanism moves to take action by refusing to engage with those nodes on the network.

This is the basis of the “immune system,” as any node can create a “warrant” that flags fraudulent behavior and provides the original signed records of the malicious actor as proof. Warrants can then spread as proof of fraud, so other nodes move to blacklist colluders.

This app-to-app approach to security stands in sharp contrast to the monolithic approaches deployed by iExec and Hashgraph which apply across the entire network.

For developers and users alike, the advantage here is that not all dApp scenarios will require the same level of security, so app builders are free to choose, and users to vote, on what rules they will follow.

In many ways this is structure represents a radical shift away from the current network-wise paradigm that could serve as an attractive alternative for future projects, as it embodies a level of flexibility that is unparalleled among crypto-projects to date.

Pace of Development

A look at the commit activity on GitHub activity shows development of Holochain Rust has steadily risen since the week of August 12th (34 commits) up to the week of October 21st (219 commits). From the week of October 28th onward, less development activity is reflected in the number of commits. Between the period of October 19th – November 19th, 11 developers have pushed 614 commits to develop and 666 commits to all branches.

Considering the numbers overall, it is fair to say development on Holochain Rust is highly active, and with it, there is reason to believe an imminent release that includes the network stack is indeed a possibility.

As Hashgraph has not made development progress publicly available, it is impossible to judge precisely at what stage the project stands in comparison to Holochain. In the case of iExec, during the same period from October 19th – November 19th, the project has had 4 authors push 30 commits to master and 30 commits to all branches. Progress on iExec is demonstrably lower in comparison at the moment, but the project still maintains a lead position in comparison to Holochain in terms of where product development currently stands. Come Q1 2019, that position could shift in favor of Holochain.

Holochain GitHub Commits

The Hedera Hashgraph Platform will initially support smart contracts written in the industry standard coding language, Solidity, arguably giving the platform an advantage over contenders like Holochain and iExec, which rely on WebAssembly and Javascript respectively. Like Holochain, Hashgaph also has an API for mobile and desktop devices, which can be programmed in any language and opens up a plethora of use case scenarios.

Roadmap

Holochain updated the project roadmap in early August with revised milestones. Below are the main project milestones from the original roadmap, followed by the updated version.

Original Milestones

Q1 2018: Holochain GO Alpha 1 and Clutter release

Q2 2018: Alpha 2 release, Holo Alpha made available to Indiegogo supporters

Q3 2018: Alpha 3, including security audit and introduction of DHT parameter adjustment, HoloPorts shipped to hosts, first test transaction on Holo using Holo fuel

Q4 2018: Beta release, App Store launch, 50+ hApps launch, partnerships established with projects launching other asset-backed currencies, testnet of Holo on 10,000 host devices

Updated Milestones

Q3 (August) 2018: Holochain Rust Alpha 1 release

Q3 (September) 2018: Holochain Rust Beta 1 release, Holo Pre-Alpha made available to Indiegogo supporters who contributed to first raise pre-ICO

Q4 (October) 2018: HoloPorts ship to investors, Holochain Dev camps

The latest roadmap initially had the Alpha 1 Release of Rust scheduled for 2018. Holochain has already released several pre-alpha and alpha iterations, most recently the May 26th Alpha 0.1 (Scout) in Go language. After May, a decision was made to shift to Rust.

In a discussion with Matthew Schutte, Director of Communications for HOLO, he outlined several reasons for this shift which contributed to a delay in the Holochain Rust Alpha 1 release.

First off, Rust supports mobile devices, meaning Holochain will support full nodes on cell phones through WebAssembly.

Secondly, Rust will better enable support for more diverse configurations of hApps, which is a primary aim of the project.

Finally, the GO version of Holochain made use of Libp2p for IPFS networking between peers, but did not enable the level of functionality the developer team requires for particular roadblocks like punching through firewalls. While the shift makes sense in terms of capturing a broader market and increasing functionality, HOLO inevitably lost precious goodwill by missing their earlier scheduled launch.

On October 31st, Holochain released the second iteration of the Rust rebuild, which is effectively the first part of the Rust Beta 1 release- the team have dubbed this the “Developer Preview Prerelease”. With the prerelease, Holochain is limited to local-node actions only, with the networking stack still under development. While commits can be made to a local chain and published to a local DHT, the ability to connect with other nodes is still absent.

With the developer preview release, developers can gain begin building hApps with the latest version of Holochain, and now have the ability to both run apps locally and build UIs, putting Holochain within close reach of crossing the crucial milestone of the network stack launch.

The API is aimed at jump-starting development of hApps before the network comes online, defining a constructive step forward in enabling real growth of the ecosystem.

Importantly, the Rust version of Holochain uses a WebAssembly interpreter for all Holochain DNA code, enabling developers to essentially utilize any programming language that is WebAssembly compliant for hApp development.

Development of the network stack itself is underway and is planned for release in Q1 2019, meaning hApps will be able to connect to other nodes across the network.

The shipment of HoloPorts to investors has been postponed until the beginning of 2019, from the original Q4 2018 milestone. It should be noted while HoloPorts were sold to ease the process for onboarding Hosts, they are not required for the launch of the network, but will nonetheless still play a critical role for expansion, especially if they prove a viable means of generating income.

Looking ahead, announcements that signal the full release of the Rust Beta, distribution of HoloPorts and finalization of the network stack could all serve as potential price catalysts.

With the level of work the team is currently putting into both development and ecosystem growth, delaying the launch past Q1 2019 would serve to stifle the current momentum of the project and have a highly negative impact on the future of the project.

Part Three: The Investment Case

HOT Token Performance

Daily Price Change

A comparison of daily price change of HOT against Ethereum (ETH) and iExec (RLC) from August 19th until early December reveals some significant divergence in the performance of the tokens over the preceding three month period, in which there were diverging periods when each token took a lead over the other in gains.

Holo (HOT)

Price

$0.00045

Market Cap

$80,594,015.84

From the period of September 9th onward, HOT has largely followed ETH closely until December, representing much lower price volatility in comparison to RLC, which on October 13th achieved a 10% gain in price over Ethereum and on November 11th a 12% gain, both of which were short lived.

Daily Price Change Over 90 Days

Trade Volume

HOT has experienced several periods of fluctuations in trade volume over the preceding three month period, adding to the risk level associated with the project. In the same period, HOT fell from a peak daily volume of $81 million on September 3rd to the present mark at $6 million closing out November.

On November 1st, iExec daily trading volume managed to temporarily surpass that of HOT by $2 million, but has consistently remained below it, at times dipping into the six figure mark.

The steady downward trend of HOT volume, out of step relative to the rest of the market, may indicate a declining interest and sentiment from traders who are betting on the future success of the project. The downtrend in volume has also significantly reduced overall liquidity of HOT, making it more difficult to move in and out of positions.

Aside from the short lived frenzy around September 7th, where volume tripled to around $18 million, liquidity levels have remained consistently low. On November 17th, HOT experience a drop in volume in line with the rest of the market down due to BCH to $1.6 million, but has recovered slightly in the days that followed back to around $3 million in daily trading volume.

Daily Trade Volume Over 90 Days

Base Trading Pairs

HOT volume by currency is almost entirely limited to BTC and ETH, with approximately 62% traded in BTC and 36% in ETH.

Outside of Binance, the lack of more well-known exchanges brings into question what level of real demand exists for the token. Further, trade volume in BTC is exclusively limited to Binance. Pairings with other tokens aside from BTC and ETH remain nearly non-existent, as is BTC trading outside of Binance, where the majority of volume by currency and exchange exists, exposing HOT to the vulnerabilities from trading on one major exchange.

Unless some sort of exclusivity agreement is in place, the lack of interest from other exchanges in listing HOT does not reflect well on sentiment toward real demand for the token from traders.

More live data and more information about Holochain can be found here.

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Holochain Initiation Report: C+

Market Opportunity7

Ecosystem Structure5

Token Economy6

Token Performance5

Core Team7.5

Underlying Technology8.5

Roadmap Progress5

6.3

Final Grade And Verdict

With the delayed release of the Rust Alpha and shipment of HoloPorts, several important milestones have been missed that add above average risk to the project. However, the recent track record of development and communication from the team clarifying the reasoning for such delays, combined with a real effort to foster the growth of a developer community are both positive signals for surpassing rescheduled milestones and help to mitigate some of the uncertainty.

What remains paramount is that refinement of the code and commitment to release of the functional beta product within a reasonable timeline, to give HOLO a sufficient lead ahead of the competition.

Since the Holochain ICO ended on April 28th, 2018, the team has demonstrated a substantial effort in developing the code base and building support for what is one of the most innovative projects in the space. Still, at this stage, Holochain stands at an important crossroads where both solid deliverables in Q1 2019 and an enterprise partnership to take the project mainstream will be necessary to achieve the vision of mass adoption espoused by the team, especially given the high level of competition from both players in the cryptospace and traditional blue chip enterprises.

The uncertainty associated with these variables is palpable. Additional questions around adoption and low daily trading volume remain present, contributing to an above average level of risk for HOT.

We define a C+ grade as meaning that the project exhibits moderate indications of progress but still faces above average level of risk; the token price is highly volatile, prospects for adoption are uncertain due to factors such as poor marketing, lack of developers or dApp projects, there is the possibility of irrelevancy of tech, or there may be critical governance issues.

Additional Information

Holochain Website

Digital Asset Evaluation & Report (DARE) Methodology

Introduction To The Framework

The Digital Asset Report and Evaluation (DARE) is a standardized, dynamic approach to evaluating blockchain-based projects and identifying value in the associated crypto-assets.

The report is the result of an exhaustive research and analysis process based on seven fundamental factors. Based on a weighted grading of these seven project fundamentals, a verdict and letter grade conclude each report, which is followed up with periodic updates, released over a quarterly basis.

The analysis, verdict and accompanying grade reflect our opinion on the long-term value prospects of a given token based on the current state of project development and indicators of future commercial viability.

The state of product development and indicators of commercial viability derive from an analysis of seven principle project fundamentals – market opportunity, ecosystem structure, token economics, core team, underlying technology, and roadmap progress.

The underlying methodology involves both quantitative and qualitative analysis to ensure that we produce the most accurate picture possible at the time we conduct our evaluation.

As a publication focused on assessing the long-term value and associated risks of a token project, we do not encourage the use of DARE as a short-term buy/sell indicator and this report does not represent financial advice.

The Initiation Report

Our first look at a token or cryptocurrency employs the Initiation report as a vehicle for delivery. Initiation reports provide readers a comprehensive analysis of the project fundamentals and draws hard conclusions from our assessment.

The details of the Initiation report include a project summary, project introduction, presentation and analysis of seven key project fundamentals, concluding with a grade and final verdict derived from our weighted evaluation system.

The Update Report

Each initiated token or cryptocurrency will undergo a sequential reevaluation, with Update reports presenting the latest, most relevant analysis on a quarterly basis. The content contained in the update report is confined to analysis of changes in project fundamentals that influence the long-term value prospects of the token or cryptocurrency.

Updated project grades and verdicts are provided based on a reassessment of the seven factors underlying our methodology.

Grades assigned to tokens or cryptocurrencies in Update reports can reflect a change in our opinion of the project or provide a reaffirmation of the Initiation report.

Methodology

We consider the project-asset paradigm from seven key angles: market opportunity, ecosystem structure, token economics, core team, underlying technology, and roadmap progress.

The evaluation examines the current state of the project, how it relates to the initially stated goals, and provides an analysis of each fundamental to approximate an accurate outlook for the future.

These factors are all, in some way, codependent, so they are analyzed both individually and in the context of the overall scope and progress of the project. The evaluation process utilizes a proprietary scoring system comprised of weighted variables based on the follow project fundamentals.

Market Opportunity

It is important to examine the market opportunity of each blockchain project to determine the prospects for future growth. The market opportunity(s) of a given project are assessed according to the addressable target market size and competitive advantages, if any, held by the project.

The addressable market size is a reflection of the potential number of consumers and valuation of the target industry of the project.

The competitive advantage(s) of the project and closest contenders both within and outside the blockchain space are weighted heavily in the analysis of the market opportunity.

addressable target market size

attractiveness of product

existence of industry leaders

moats or windows in market

competitive advantage of project

Ecosystem Development

Blockchain projects are highly dependent on network effects. It does not matter if the project is very innovative, if its acceptance in the community and the market is low. This is especially important for network projects that are being built for future dApp development and rely on exponential ecosystem growth for success.

We take a comparative look at variables such as number of active addresses, on chain transactions and number of community supporters to determine the health and potential of the ecosystem.

The number of existing dApps and quality of partnerships are other variables taken into consideration to assess this fundamental.

Of great importance to any ecosystem is the level of decentralization – to establish this, we ascertain the spread of assets, structure of governance and role of validators in the network.

An ideal project will have proven partnerships and active dApps on its network, and a strong community of supporters and developers to foster expansion. The network architecture should also be in line with the target level of decentralization. In its entirety, the evaluation incorporates, but is not limited to:

network analysis (dApps)

comparative size and quality of community support

social media

asset allocation and on-chain data analysis

governance

Token Economics

Examination of the token economics begins with a comparative analysis of the project market cap with respect to its relative position to other projects. Analysis also includes evaluating the role of the token, potential drivers of demand, and other factors that may lead to appreciation in value over time.

Token Economics

Assessment of the token economics primarily incorporates variables such as:

market cap of project

role of token and demand potential

drivers of value

relevant news

incentive mechanisms

Token Performance

Here we consider price volatility risks associated with underlying asset. Token performance is weighted slightly lower than the other fundamentals because of the more transient and dynamic nature of price movement, volume and liquidity.

We look at the price and volume performance trends of the tokens in the context of the overall market, as well as, individual project dynamics. It is important to note that while volatility reflects risk, it is not necessarily an accurate indicator of the commercial viability of the project or long term value of the token.

The ideal project will have an asset with positive long, medium and short-term price momentum, in addition to strong, steady volume on major exchanges with a low level of vulnerability to price swings. The evaluation incorporates, but is not limited to:

trading data analysis

relevant news

social media

token economics

value modeling

Core Team

The core team takes into consideration the influence of the leaders and central developers on the prospects of a given project.

Team competency and capability are assessed according to an analysis of their credentials and the espoused ambitions of the project. In addition to credentials that are backed up by strong evidence from a demonstrable track record of prior successes in previous business and engineering pursuits, the size and balance of the team are also assessed in relation to the goals and scope of the project.

Moreover, the overall stability and sustained growth of the team are used as indicators of project viability.

Variables which are factored into the core team score include, but are not limited to:

team credentials

changes to lead personnel

size and balance of team

evidence of instability

team growth

Underlying Technology

Technological development is a central aspect any blockchain-based project. Here we assess the functionality of technology and quality in comparison to competing projects.

The ideal project will have relevant technological solutions, be keeping on track with the stated milestone schedule and be producing quality code. The evaluation incorporates, but is not limited to:

network components (i.e. structure, consensus, throughput)

GitHub activity

pace of development

relevancy of tech

Roadmap Progress

The espoused goals laid out by the team, the initial plan and updated iterations of the roadmap, represent crucial indicators of the ability of the team to deliver on promises in addition to providing a critical metric of commitment to the project.

Timely delivery on milestones is assessed, in addition to upcoming catalysts or windows of opportunity that could prove crucial to the long-term project prospects. Accountability of the team is also taken into consideration through an evaluation of the team’s communications with the community, and is given additional weight when evidence is available to corroborate claims.

roadmap evaluation

upcoming catalysts

team communications

progress announcements

upcoming milestones of competition

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The Chase Files Daily Newscap 5/17/2018

Good Morning #realdreamchasers! Here is The Chase Files Daily News Cap for Thursday, 17th May 2018. Remember that you can read full articles via subscribing to Nation News Online, purchasing a Daily Nation Newspaper (DN), via Barbados Today (BT) or Barbados Government Information Services (BGIS).

NOT MY DAUGHTER – It was an emotional Elliott Mottley who faced the media today to rebut allegations made against him this week by former Prime Minister Owen Arthur, and to refute suggestions that his daughter, Barbados Labour Party (BLP) leader Mia Mottley, was behind a near half-million dollar tax write-off for him back in the mid-1990s. The matter was first raised by Prime Minister Freundel Stuart when he told a meeting of his Democratic Labour Party at Carlisle House car park, The City on Sunday that the elder Mottley “had two judgments lodged against him for monies due and owing to the Income Tax Department upwards of $1 million. In 1998, I walked in the registry one morning and everyone had frowns on their faces. They were saying that here it is that we have to pay our taxes but yet over $400,000 of that tax obligation was being written off by the Owen Arthur administration”. Stuart also left the impression that the current BLP leader had something to do with it by by stating that Arthur had denied the request for the write-off, while he called on Mia Mottley, who acted as prime minister in Arthur’s absence from the island, to reveal who was behind the decision. But it was a clear-the-air explanation by Arthur at a news conference on Monday that angered the 78-year-old prominent Queen’s Counsel and former Member of Parliament, and brought a strong denial from the elder Mottley. Arthur, who was also Minister of Finance, had contended that Mottley had applied to him for a waiver of income tax arrears which would have required approval by both Cabinet and Parliament. This is believed to have happened in 1995. The former Prime Minister said he rejected the application on the grounds that Mottley’s daughter, Mia, was part of his Cabinet, and he was surprised when he learned of the tax write-off, which, along with interests and penalties, amounted to more than $1 million. However, flanked by his attorney Roger Forde, QC, and his sons Warren and Stewart, both lawyers, Mottley this morning told reporters at his Strathclyde law office that Arthur’s claims were “entirely untruthful and misleading”. “I, Elliott Deighton Mottley, categorically state that at no time did I ever apply to Mr Arthur for a waiver of arrears of income tax which I owed the Inland Revenue Department, as it was then called,” the former Consul General to New York said. He explained that what he applied for and received from the Minister of Finance was a waiver of the interests and not the penalties or the income tax arrears. Mottley admitted that he had owed income tax arrears for the years 1987 to 1993, including interests and penalties, and had two judgments against him for $20,587.91 and $1,031.284.37, for which he had made arrangements with the Ministry of Finance to settle. He provided copies of letters and memoranda of satisfaction exchanged between his lawyers and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs and the Inland Revenue Department as evidence that the minister had waived the interest but not the tax or penalties. “Let me make it very clear that there was no need for the Cabinet to be involved in my application because it was made under the Income Tax Act and not the Duties, Taxes and Other Payments (Exemption) Act CAP 67B of the Laws of Barbados,” he stressed. A letter dated March 22, 1996 and signed by June Chandler for the Permanent Secretary and addressed to Mottley’s tax consultant, the late Blair Haynes, stated: “I am to inform you that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs has considered the application and it has been decided that Mr Elliott Mottley, QC, will be allowed a waiver of the interest payable in respect of outstanding income tax on the condition that the outstanding principal and penalty is cleared on or before March 1, 1997.” A subsequent letter dated March 7, 1998, also signed by Chandler and addressed to Mottley’s attorney Sir Henry Forde, QC, stated that the Minister of Finance had approved an extension of the time given to Mottley to clear his income tax liability and that he was being allowed a waiver of the interest payable. Other memos revealed that the then Commissioner of Inland Revenue Frank Forde had received various sums of money towards the interest due. Mottley broke down in tears as he denied that his daughter had a hand in any dubious actions aimed at benefitting him, prompting his son, Warren, to complete the prepared speech. “I also wish the public to know that at no time during the period 1994 and 1999 did my daughter, Mia Amor Mottley, ever act as Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs of Barbados. Copies of the Official Gazette will corroborate this statement,” Warren read. The 78-year-old’s attorney Roger Forde, QC, also hinted that Mottley would go after those who repeated “those mischievous and defamatory allegations”, sending the media a clear warning that they could be sued for defamation. “Arthur’s statements are likely to have further consequences which will certainly extend to others who repeat and republish the untruthful allegations. The public is warned that it is no defence to a claim in defamation to say that ‘I am merely repeating what some other person had said,’” cautioned Forde. Efforts to reach Stuart proved unsuccessful up until the time of publication, while Arthur promised to comment in due course. (BT)

MOTTLEY SAYS DLP MANIFESTO "INSULT" TO PEOPLE – Leader of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) Mia Mottley caused quite a stir by producing a copy of the Democratic Labour Party's (DLP) 56-page manifesto which is set to be launched tomorrow night. "Who put this in my bag? DLP manifesto 2018?" she asked pulling the book from her red handbag, much to the delight of the crowd gathered at a spot meeting at Cleavedale Road, Black Rock, St Michael. "They laugh at my mini edition . . . . . Stand strong, Barbados stand strong against the DLP. It got in nuff pictures. If they laugh at my mini-manifesto, then this is kindergarten," she said flipping through the document. Turning to page 29 of the DLP's manifesto, reading aloud she highlighted how the DLP intended to deal with tertiary education by "continuing to work with the University of the West Indies for funded education". Comparing that to the BLP's manifesto, she said: "I see in here mission critical, that immediately under No. two, debt profiling will allow us to pay for students at the University of the West Indies," she said to thunderous applause, noting that the manifesto spoke nothing of improved transport, accommodations for old people among other critical issues. "When I read this blue and yellow document I am mortified that I have to work every single minute of every day for the next eight days . . . .This document could not have been written by anybody in Barbados. It is a lot of techno babble and gobbley gook. . . . . Nothing in here meets your current realities in this country. It is gobbly gook intended for another country but not Barbados," she said, adding that if that was what they called a manifesto it was an insult to the people of Barbados. (DN)

MIA UPSTAGES DLP MANIFESTO LAUNCH – Ahead of Thursday’s manifesto launch by the incumbent Democratic Labour Party (DLP), Barbados Labour Party (BLP) leader Mia Mottley took Barbadians by surprise on Wednesday night, as she pulled out what was said to be a copy of the DLP’s promissory election document. The unexpected development came during a BLP meeting at Clevedale, St Michael. Mottley, whose party’s 70-page manifesto released last Thursday has come in for heavy criticism, also proceeded to knock the plans contained in the DLP document, which she said lacked substance and described as “an insult” to the people of Barbados. “What is this technobabble and gobbledygook? What is it? When done, your children will be in the same position next year, the year after, and for each of the next five years as they are today,” Mottley said, in specifically attacking the DLP’s policy of making students pay tuition fees at the University of the West Indies. Mottley, whose BLP is promising to abolish those payments and also to increase non contributory pensions, suggested that the DLP document fell short in both respects. “What does this manifesto tell us about pensioners? Hold tight,” she said in rejecting the DLP’s policies outright, including those outlined for street vendors. She also dismissed the DLP’s promises to vigorously enforce laws pertaining to illegal dumping, while asking “How you gine do that if you don’t have garbage trucks?” She also expressed amazement that no mention was made in the manifesto of buses, even though the state-run Transport Board is currently faced with an acute shortage of vehicles. However, in a preview to Thursday’s event in Oistins, DLP campaign manager Robert Bobby Morris has promised that the manifesto for the May 24 general election will be a tough but responsible one. While dismissing the recently released BLP manifesto as unrealistic and unattainable, Morris further promised that the DLP document would be focused on fixing the island’s ailing economy. “Our manifesto launch is on Thursday night at Oistins and I don’t want you to be wary yet . . . but it will be a responsible manifesto. Don’t look for giveaways that are impossible,” Morris told the crowd gathered at the DLP’s spot meeting in Kingsland, Christ Church on Tuesday night. “If you have a flat roof we are not promising that we are going to make it gable. I don’t know how many there are and I don’t know what that would cost,” he said in poking fun at the BLP’s 70-page promissory document released last Thursday.And “I am not telling you that it makes sense moving from road tax paid by the individual to a tax of gasoline,” he said in reference to another BLP proposal, adding, “don’t look for an attempt to buy votes”.Release of the DLP’s manifesto comes against the backdrop of a 0.7 per cent contraction of the island’s economy for the first three months of this year.Delivering the disappointing news at his quarterly media conference earlier this month, Central Bank Governor Cleviston Haynes said the decline was due mainly to a slowdown in construction, a decline in tourism activities and the late start of this year’s sugar harvest. Haynes said while the island’s foreign reserves grew by $14 million to reach $423 million for the period under review, this was still below the 12 weeks import benchmark with decisive action needed to further drive down the national deficit, which declined by 1.5 per cent to reach 4.2 per cent between January and March this year. With this in mind, Morris, a former trade unionist and ex-Caribbean Community diplomat, maintained that even though Barbados had been through trying times, Government had made all the tough decisions in an effort to save the country. He cautioned persons that there was no easy fix to the country’s economic woes. “I hope that in your hearts and in your eyes you can say, ‘well done DLP’. It has not been easy, but we are moving onto the Promise Land and after May 24, 2018, this DLP will tell you that if the things in the world remain as they are and don’t get any worse, then we in Barbados will see a new beginning.” (BT)

DLP PROMISES RESPONSIBLE MANIFESTO – Campaign manager for the incumbent Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Robert Bobby Morris has promised that its manifesto for the May 24 general election will be a tough but responsible one. While dismissing the recently released Barbados Labour Party (BLP) manifesto as unrealistic and unattainable, Morris further promised that the DLP document would be focused on fixing the island’s ailing economy. “Our manifesto launch is on Thursday night at Oistins and I don’t want you to be wary yet . . . but it will be a responsible manifesto. Don’t look for giveaways that are impossible,” Morris told the crowd gathered at the DLP’s spot meeting in Kingsland, Christ Church last night. “If you have a flat roof we are not promising that we are going to make it gable. I don’t know how many there are and I don’t know what that would cost,” he said in poking fun at the BLP’s 70-page promissory document released last Thursday. And “I am not telling you that it makes sense moving from road tax paid by the individual to a tax of gasoline,” he said in reference to another BLP proposal, adding, “don’t look for an attempt to buy votes”. Release of the DLP’s manifesto comes against the backdrop of a 0.7 per cent contraction of the island’s economy for the first three months of this year. Delivering the disappointing news at his quarterly media conference earlier this month, Central Bank Governor Cleviston Haynes said the decline was due mainly to a slowdown in construction, a decline in tourism activities and the late start of this year’s sugar harvest. Haynes said while the island’s foreign reserves grew by $14 million to reach $423 million for the period under review, this was still below the 12 weeks import benchmark with decisive action needed to further drive down the national deficit, which declined by 1.5 per cent to reach 4.2 per cent between January and March this year. With this in mind, Morris, a former trade unionist and ex-Caribbean Community diplomat, maintained that even though Barbados had been through trying times, Government had made all the tough decisions in an effort to save the country. He cautioned persons that there was no easy fix to the country’s economic woes. “I hope that in your hearts and in your eyes you can say, ‘well done DLP’. It has not been easy, but we are moving onto the Promise Land and after May 24, 2018, this DLP will tell you that if the things in the world remain as they are and don’t get any worse, then we in Barbados will see a new beginning.” (BT)

STUART CANNOT BE TAKEN AT HIS WORD, SAYS TOPPIN – Barbados Labour Party (BLP) St Michael North candidate Ronald Toppin has launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, suggesting that the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) leader cannot be taken at his word. Speaking at a BLP meeting in Redman’s Village, St Thomas on Tuesday night, Toppin specifically accused Stuart of reneging on a promise made over six years ago not to abolish free tertiary education. “He stood [before] a graduating class at the Barbados Community College on November 24th, 2011, and said that tertiary education would remain free. “His words were, ‘I firmly believe that it would be a retrograde step if we were to dismantle free education in Barbados.’” Toppin said. However, the BLP spokesman charged that about 20 months later the Prime Minister sat in silence as Minister of Finance Chis Sinckler stood on the floor of Parliament in his 2013 Budget presentation and imposed the tuition fees on Barbadian students attending the University of the West Indies. “When he was pressed by us he said, ‘in life things change’, [but] if you can’t trust the word of your own Prime Minister, whose word can you trust?” the St Michael North representative asked, while suggesting that Stuart was hypocritical. “This man who always professes his humble origins and saying that they [the DLP] understand the importance of education, after he gets through, he kick down the ladder. “I’m not only talking about the sheer incompetence of Freundel Stuart because that is well known, I am talking about the untrustworthiness of his words . . . . Without people trusting the word of their leader, they can never go forward,” he cautioned, while complaining that the current DLP-led administration had left the country in its worst position ever. “We cannot say that we are better off today than we were ten years ago. The failure of this country has to do with the leadership of this country over the last eight years or so,” he said before suggesting that the public could have a trustworthy leader in Mia Mottley. “We have Mia Amor Mottley whose words can always be trusted when it is given.” (BT)

SINCKLER RUBBISHES MARSHALL’S HILTON CLAIM – Absolute rubbish! That was how Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler described an alarm raised by Barbados Labour Party (BLP) spokesman Dale Marshall this evening that Cabinet was set to go through with the sale of the Hilton Barbados Resort before the end of this week, without the approval of the shareholders. Sinckler told Barbados TODAY Marshall’s concern was nothing but garbage, while explaining that there was a step-by-step process that had to be followed in order to sell the property.“That is absolute rubbish. It can’t be done until there is a shareholders meeting and a recommendation is made to Cabinet. It can’t be done. The shareholders have to meet and then make a recommendation to Cabinet,” Sinckler stressed, going on to state that Cabinet would meet briefly tomorrow, but there were absolutely no plans to deal with the Hilton sale. It was at a news conference at the BLP headquarters in Roebuck Street, The City this afternoon that Marshall told reporters he was reliably informed that the matter would come up for discussion at tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting, the last by the current Freundel Stuart administration before the May 24 general election, and he feared the sale would get the go-ahead. Marshall explained that while the Companies Act required that a company intending to dispose of its assets must first obtain approval from its shareholders, there was no law that required the approval to be sought before the agreement for sale is reached. It was on this premise that the former attorney general raised concerns that the Stuart Cabinet could approve the proposed deal before getting the shareholders’ approval. Needham’s Point Holdings Ltd (NPHL), the owner of the Hilton Barbados Resort, is established under the Companies Act of Barbados, with Government being the largest shareholder. The National Insurance Board (NIB) and the Caribbean Development Bank are minority shareholders. Marshall’s concern came a day after a meeting scheduled for Monday to approve the proposed sale of the resort was abruptly called off. “The Barbados Labour Party has been made aware that the Cabinet of Barbados is to be moved tomorrow by way of Cabinet papers, to agree to the sale of the Hilton Hotel by Needham’s Point Ltd. This notwithstanding that the meeting of the shareholders which was scheduled for Monday, May 21 has now been cancelled,” he told the news conference. “The essential point is that the agreement, once made between the parties can be enforced, even though at the time it was signed, the shareholders had not as yet met. It is enforceable even though the shareholders might not so approve, unless a court later decides to set aside the agreement under the oppression provisions of the Companies Act. In other words, the fight against the sale of the Hilton Hotel is not yet over so long as this Government remains in office and remains resolute to its sale at this gross undervalue,” he stressed, while charging that Government was proceeding “with indecent haste to commit the country to a sale of this asset” at US$80 million, far less than what it is worth. However, Sinckler said the sale could not take place as easily as Marshall suggested. He explained that while Cabinet would agree as a matter of policy to sell the property, it was NPHL that was responsible for negotiating its sale. “Needham’s take charge of the process, they negotiate with the [buyers], they settle on a price, which they inform Cabinet of the price, Cabinet says, ‘fair enough, that seems reasonable, go to the next step’. The next step is the shareholders meeting. That meeting, which was scheduled for May 21, then would be held, that decision is taken ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ and they come back to Cabinet and say, ‘at the meeting of so and so Y resolution was passed approving the sale of the Hilton for the following price under the following condition’, then Cabinet would note [and pass the resolution]. Until that meeting happens, the shareholders meeting, the Hilton cannot be sold,” Sinckler explained. One media house reported earlier this week that the NIB was seeking to stop the shareholders’ meeting in order to avoid a showdown between the insurance scheme and NPHL. Meanwhile, addressing a BLP meeting at Wellington Street, The City last night, party leader Mia Mottley contended that Government was forced to back down after she revealed details of the pending meeting at a rally in Oistins, Christ Church on Sunday night, at which she said the sale must be stopped “at all cost”, and called on supporters to turn up in their numbers, if needed, to prevent Monday’s meeting from taking place. However, Sinckler told Barbados TODAY the decision to call off the shareholders’ meeting was taken several weeks ago because of the “political environment” that developed after the announcement of the general election. “Once the elections were called a decision was taken to call off that [shareholders meeting],” Sinckler said. At Sunday’s meeting in Oistins, Mottley produced a document which she said was a copy of a memorandum from the NPHL giving notice to shareholders of a meeting at 10 a.m. on Monday, May 21 at Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre to “consider a shareholders’ resolution” on the sale of the hotel. The document, purportedly signed by NPHL Corporate Secretary Henderson Williams, is dated April 30, 2018, four days after Stuart called the election. (BT)

NICE MOVE MIA – The privately owned transport sector is welcoming a recently announced campaign promise by the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) to grant the sector concessions on clean energy vehicles. Head of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT) Roy Raphael has called the promise a step in the right direction, as the sector continues to be encumbered by aging fleets.However, Raphael told Barbados TODAY a BLP Government would have to do much more than simply placing the offer on the table, as most operators would need to warm to the idea of going green. “We will be happy with any form of duty-free concessions, but I want to clearly state that we have to educate our operators on clean energy vehicles such as electric vehicles. A lot of them are not yet comfortable with the idea, so we need to do a pilot project with electric vehicles before we can embrace it,” Raphael said. During the BLP’s manifesto launch at Kingsland, Christ Church last Thursday night, candidate for St Philip South Indar Weir explained that PSVs would be given incentives in order to fast-track plans for making Barbados 100 per cent green and carbon-free by the year 2030. “We will give duty-free concessions to PSV operators to import vehicles powered by clean energy and alternative fuels,” Weir said, while also promising that all Government vehicles and street lights would run on clean energy by 2025, should the BLP be elected to office in the May 24 general election. However, the Raphael explained that with the entire PSV fleet in operation running on fossil fuels, the offer of duty-free concessions on green vehicles was a medium-term solution, and more immediate action was required to assist the sector. “We would want to discuss our proposals with a new administration because 100 per cent of our fleets are fossil fuels. We still need assistance with getting vehicle parts in the interim in order to maintain the efficiency of our operations,” Raphael said, adding that the BLP’s plan to replace the road tax with a tax on fuel would assist the sector greatly in the short term. “The idea of abolishing the road tax is something that we welcome and would have talked about before. We recognize that the PSVs use the road more than normal vehicles, [but] . . . we won’t have to find a lump sum payment for road tax,” the AOPT boss said. Raphael drove home the point that PSV owners had to contend with annual payments of over $2,000 for road tax and permit fees, as well as approximately $30,000 for insurance. He argued that while operators may have to pay more at the pumps it would be less burdensome, especially if the permit fees were removed. “If they remove the permit fees as well then at the end of the day we will not feel it as much if they take it out at the pump. So it is something that we welcome and we also believe that we can look at a toll at the bus terminal instead of the permit,” he recommended. (BT)

NEW TERMINAL ‘MIGHT NOT CHANGE VAN CULTURE’ – While some commuters and public service vehicle (PSV) operators are ecstatic about the opening of the new Constitution River Terminal, they say it may not change the “culture” of the van stand as expected. Over the years, rowdy behaviour, poor lighting, flooding and disorder have painted a negative picture of the terminal. During a tour of the facility in 2015, Minister of Transport and Works Michael Lashley announced that the new facility, which cost $3 million, would bring about a major change in operations and with that, the bus stand would be a safer and more orderly place of business. However, when a DAILY NATION team returned to the terminal yesterday after its official opening on Tuesday, some PSV operators, vendors and commuters said there were other serious matters that needed to be addressed. Michael Brathwaite, a conductor of over 30 years’ experience, said more security was needed. He added: “Most of the street lights don’t work, so it is not safe for people to walk in here at night.” Brathwaite also said some PSV operators needed to be more professional in their work, which would help raise the standards of the industry. Owner of Jacob Juices Fusions, Jerry “Jet Li” Taylor, who sold natural drinks in the terminal, said the area needed more than a “facelift” to change the atmosphere there. “It is great, it is okay, but I hear it may be bad for some vendors as some of the shops have to move to accommodate shelter. “And out here needs to be raised because as li’l rain falls, out here is flooded. That is dangerous, especially since some of the light poles get lick down and electricity still runs to the base, so you could get shocked,” he said, adding that “loiterers” needed to be banned from the stand as they “cause confusion”. Dereck Maynard, who has been working on the Bush Hall route for more than 19 years, said he could not understand how the facility, which was built for public usage, was officially opened on Tuesday yet it was not “opened to the public”. Commuter Yvette Davis, who lives in Silver Sands, and Jason Boxhill of Dover, both in Christ Church, agreed with Maynard, adding they had to wait and see if the facility would generate a sense of order as was promised. Democratic Labour Party (DLP) candidate for St Michael North East, Patrick Todd was also spotted in the terminal. Just before hopping into a Route 11 ZR to go to a function, he said he was pleased with what Minister Lashley did. (DN)

VANDALISED POSTERS NO BIG DEAL FOR Grant – Democratic Labour Party (DLP) candidate for St Michael South East Rodney Grant is not fazed by what he believes was the deliberate vandalism of his posters in the constituency. "Posters never win an election yet! Tear them down because after the 24th I won’t have to pay nobody to take them down for me,” he said while speaking at a spot meeting on Monday night at Factory Avenue, Wildey, St Michael. The first time political hopeful told party faithful that even if the action continued, it still wouldn’t stop him from carrying out the mandate which he has had for the past 40 years. “I know you can’t stop me from going in the people’s houses and talking to them and as Bob Marley said ‘you have fi tired fi see me face but yuh can’t get me out of the race’. Don’t be misguided; don’t get side-tracked; don’t be disillusioned because you may not see my posters. You have seen me for the last 40 years, more than you can say of my opponent. So decide what you want and decide not only what you want now but what you want after the 24th,” he said. While touting his intentions to USE sports and culture to empower constituents and Barbadians at large, Grant urged the public not to get caught up in the “ism and schisms” contained in the Barbados Labour Party’s manifesto, which he criticised. He charged that the BLP had not outlined a vision that spoke to moving the country forward post 50 years Independence. “Where is the vision in all the giveaways. . . ? How will we change and create a new dynamic of the education that moves us into the global future? These are the things that are missing. So don’t live for now. Your future cannot be contained in a now, a handout, a $100, a fete, a party, a picnic, next day yuh brek, yuh hungry, yuh can’t pay yuh bills, can’t send school yuh children. We are greater than that and we are worth more than that. So if you want to give away your life [and remain trapped in your history] for a $100- go right ahead . . . ." Though he expressed confidence of a victory, Grant maintained that whatever decision is made come May 24, he would be comfortable because he has stayed true to the people of the constituency “Win or lose I here to stay . . . . I know I have done my tour of duty not as a Member of Parliament but as somebody who cared about this constituency, somebody who is committed to this constituency and I don’t have to be a representative to care about my people or to represent them. "I’ve built houses in Lower Burney, sent to school children, supported education, supported businesses, trained people in music – I’ve done it all and I’ve never been a Member of Parliament. I have come to this point to say to you, give me your stamp I can do more for you than I have done before – simple as that.” (DN)

MARSHALL SOLICITS SUPPORT FOR GOODING-EDGHILL – Former constituency representative for St Michael West Central Rommell Marshall, is asking constituents to throw their weight behind Barbados Labour Party hopeful Ian Gooding-Edghill. "Ian Gooding-Edghill was always with me. He worked from dusk to dawn to make sure the benefits were there for you all. Ian has served this constituency well. I want you to make sure Ian wins in every box, and you give him all the assistance," he said to the growing crowd gathered for the spot meeting at Cleavedale Road, Black Rock, St Michael. The constituency he said had ten polling districts that both he and Gooding-Edghill were able to transform after the Urban Development Commission was introduced in 1994-1995. Adding that he had won the constituency by margins of 163, 1 000 and over 800 votes, he urged the people to put their 'x' in the right place next Thursday. "I know we lost some supporters over the years, but think about the good old days you had. Then think of the bad days you are having, and rid St Michael West Central of James Paul on May 24, and make sure Ian is victorious by over 2 000 votes," he said. (DN)

WELFARE OFFICERS NEED 'ATTITUDE CHANGE' – A major problem is facing Barbadians who are recipients of the island's welfare services. According to ex-Minister of Social Transformation in a previous Barbados Labour Party (BLP) administration Hamilton Lashley, it is the systemic discrimination by some welfare officers. Lashley made the charge on Monday night as he endorsed the candidature of Democratic Labour Party (DLP) hopeful Rodney Grant for the St Michael South East riding. The social activist, who served as MP in the same constituency for four terms, posited that Grant was the right man to correct this injustice. “There are some welfare officers in this country that leave a lot to be desired. The way they treat poor people, the way they belittle poor people, leaves a lot to be desired,” he added. While calling for a change in the attitudes of these people, Lashley maintained that government was not to blame for this. Particularly, not the DLP Government, which he said has always argued that Barbados is more than an economy. He said: “It is about caring for people. We have to care. You can’t treat people as chattel or animals and then pun a Sunday you gone long to church or pun a Saturday and praise God and feel that God gine hear you. And then pun Monday you wake up and [hurt] people. You can’t do that, you got to get serious. For all of you who have become victims of the social system in this country, that will be corrected because I have faith and hope in this young man [Rodney Grant]. “I have been called many things. I have been called a traitor, I have been called a grasshopper, I have been called many things but one thing that nobody can call me is being a traitor to the people of this country. People come first [after God],” Lashley added. (DN)

NO GAY PUSH – Less than a week after the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) released its May 24 election manifesto in which it explicitly states that it has no policy on same-sex unions, the party’s St Thomas candidate, Cynthia Forde, is assuring that if elected, the BLP will not be pursuing any gay agenda. “Nobody in the Barbados Labour Party is interested in any same sex marriage. We have neighbours that believed in same sex. They were discreet, both man and woman, we tolerated them, we have learned to tolerate people, [but] I am not interested in any man marrying a man or a woman marrying a woman. That is their private life. Do what they feel like in their bedrooms, but do not bring that as part of the Barbados Labour Party’s agenda. “We are not interested and we are not pursuing it as a Government at all,” Forde assured during a political meeting at Redman’s Village, St Thomas on Tuesday night which followed the release of the party’s 70-page manifesto last Thursday in which the BLP said it had no policy on same-sex unions and that the matter would have to be put to a national referendum. “We have said that repeatedly. We believe that no 30 people should be allowed to make decisions on issues that go to the heart of the nation’s collective values. This issue can only be determined by the outcome of a referendum,” the BLP manifesto states. However, while responding to comments made by Minister of Environment and Drainage Dr Denis Lowe on the controversial topic, Forde either intentionally or unintentionally ended up articulating a similar position to that of Lowe, who, in putting the issue of same sex marriage squarely before the electorate in the lead up to next week’s poll, declared stiff opposition on his part and that of the incumbent Democratic Labour Party (DLP) to any such unions. “I stand in opposition to any attempt to legalize same sex marriage in Barbados. I stand firmly against it. If you want to do that [be involved in a same-sex relationship], do it in the privacy of your home. Don’t tell me there is going to be a law that will tell me I have to be subjected to that,” he said during a meeting at Carter’s Gap, Christ Church on Monday night. It was not the first time that Lowe was publicly denouncing what he saw as advocacy to legally wed persons of the same gender. However, on this occasion he went to greater lengths to explain his strident position on the issue, over which he had warned exactly a year ago that “there is an attempt in certain quarters to advance a legislative call for same-sex marriage, and I do not have any intention, within or without the legislator to support any such notion because I still believe in the biblical way of life”. To that he added a further caution that “there is to be no law in Barbados saying that I have to be subjected to two men walking up an aisle, one in a wedding dress and one in a tuxedo. “I don’t want to live in that kind of Barbados and that is what we are fighting right now,” he said. “I don’t want them telling me how to live in my society by creating a law in the statutory books saying that I have to accept a man marrying a man. I am not doing it and I don’t care who don’t agree with me, that is my personal opinion,” the Minister of Environment and Drainage stressed. However, while accusing Lowe of being fixated with the subject, Forde suggested that there were much more urgent matters – including the current shortage of garbage trucks – for the Cabinet minister to attend to. “I don’t know how that [same-sex unions] got in his agenda or the Democratic Labour Party’s agenda . . . . His mantra is that Barbados under the Democratic Labour Party’s watch will not have same sex marriage . . . . That is all he saying all the time.” However, she said her party was far more interested in dealing with the issues that matter to the people. “We are focusing on the NSRL [National Social Responsibility Levy] that is killing the people. We are focusing on him [Lowe] coming in for ten years and has not bought a sanitation truck and every six weeks we got to be picking up garbage, the rats, the bush and everything that bad in rural buses,” the St Thomas candidate said. She also blasted the DLP for not having enough conversations with the people on critical decisions. “When we [BLP] were looking at gambling we had to have a referendum on it. When it came to abortion we had to go across the length of Barbados to discuss it. When it was capital punishment we had to go in Barbados and open up the dialogue. That is a part of the agenda that Ms Mottley has in our manifesto that we have dialogue with people,” Forde stressed. (BT)

INSURANCE COMPANIES SAGICOR AND HARMONY MERGE – Locally-based firms Sagicor General Insurance Inc and Harmony General Insurance Company Limited have announced a merger of their businesses in a deal whose value has not been disclosed. In an agreement dated December 8, 2017, but which was only made public this week, the two companies agreed to establish a new business, Sagicor General Insurance Inc. Sagicor General’s President and Chief Executive Officer Keston D Howell announced the deal to policyholders in a circular dated May 14, 2018, but said the merger was awaiting Financial Services Commission approval. “Sagicor is presently rated by A M Best as ‘A-Excellent,’ which is a financial-strength rating measuring Sagicor’s ability to pay claims. Harmony is not presently rated,” the document cementing the merger states. The agreement governs the corporate structure of the proposed amalgamated company and as such will not affect the operation of the businesses of the merged firms. Policyholders have also been assured that their rights would not be affected by the changes made to the articles and by-laws of both companies or to the board of directors on the proposed amalgamation. “On the proposed amalgamation of Harmony and Sagicor there shall be no transfer of any contract by an insurer to another company,” the agreement reads. It also explains that the property of each company becomes that of the merged firms and that the absorbed institution would be liable for the obligations of each prior independent business. Canadian actuaries said the policy liabilities consist of a provision for unpaid claims and adjustment expenses on the expired claim liabilities and a provision for future obligations on the unexpired part of the premium liabilities. “For Harmony General Insurance Company Limited, the method and assumptions used to estimate the policy liabilities are reasonable and appropriate to the circumstances,” Cynthia M Potts, a fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries said. “For Sagicor General Insurance Inc, the methods and assumptions used to estimate the policy liabilities are reasonable and appropriate to the circumstances,” Potts added.

(BT)

FLYING HOSPITAL ARRIVES IN BARBADOS – For the first time ever, the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital has landed in Barbados. And for the next two weeks the world's only United States accredited Teaching Hospital on board an MD-10 aircraft, will provide training for local ophthalmologists, anaesthesiologists and other medical practitioners. This is thanks to an invitation from the Opthalmological Society of the West Indies, supported by the Ministry of Health and hosted by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. During the opening ceremony at the Grantley Adams International Airport this morning, acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Kenneth George, thanks the Orbis international team for bringing what he described as a "unique experience "to Barbados. "First proposed by the Opthalmological Society of the West Indies in 2016, the suggestion was embraced by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Ministry of Health threw its full support behind this endeavour," George said during his speech on behalf of ministry of health John Boyce. "Two years later, here we are exhibition launch of the Orbis international regional skills training conference," he added. (DN)

GUNNED DOWN – A Christ Church family is today in a state of shock over the untimely and unexpected death of 51-year-old Winston Bynoe, who was gunned down a short distance away from his St Matthias home last night. Bynoe was at the residence of a friend when two masked men pounced around 11:30 p.m. Police say the unidentified gunmen entered the gate of the home and fired gunshots, causing both the victim and his friend to run for cover. However, when the commotion subsided, it was discovered that Bynoe was injured. He was transported to the Accident & Emergency Department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital by private vehicle and was later pronounced dead. Today, when Barbados TODAY visited the deceased man’s home at Block 4C, St Matthias Housing Area, family members, including his parents Winston and Yvonne Bynoe, were in no position to speak. However, one community spokeswoman, who requested anonymity, told reporters she was startled by last night’s deadly incident. “I hear somebody say, ‘gunshots’ and I say, ‘gunshots?’ I ain’t looking for no gunshots to be out this side,” she explained, adding that to her further surprise, the victim was someone she knew and loved dearly. “Afterwards, I heard someone say, ‘Trevor get shoot’. I say, ‘Trevor get shoot?’” she said still in disbelief over the incident, which has also rocked his close-knit community. “I didn’t know what to do,” the grieving neighbour stressed. And while suggesting that his shooting death may have been a case of mistaken identity, she was adamant that Bynoe was no troublemaker. “He don’t get into no trouble and he is a nice painter. That is all I can say about Trevor. He would do anything for anybody out here. You could call Trevor and he would go anywhere for you. A very nice person, I have nothing bad to say about him.” Today, the two main political candidates contesting the May 24 general election in Christ Church West, where last night’s tragedy occurred, also expressed profound sympathy to Bynoe’s family. “We regret this loss of life and we hope the perpetrators are brought to justice,” said Democratic Labour Party candidate Verla De Peiza, while the Barbados Labour Party’s William Duguid called for an end to gun violence on the island. “I am very saddened by what has happened in the Pleasant Hall, St Matthias area. I have been to visit the man’s family and obviously they are extremely distressed. “I join with the rest of the community in condemning this senseless violence that continues to plague our country and I hope and look forward to a time where we can get back to law and order in this country, where we no longer have this violence perpetrated,” Duguid said. There have been a dozen killings so far this year, compared to 31 for all of last year. (BT)

BECKLES FINALLY OWNS UP TO ROBBERY – For his role in trying to put a plastic bag over a man’s head and robbing him, Junior Nathaniel Beckles was sentenced to 12 months at HMP Dodds. On his previous court appearance, the 54-year-old, of Combermere Street, St Michael, had pleaded not guilty to robbing Tyrone Beckles on April 17, 2018, of a Samsung J2 cellular phone valued $500, along with $910.88 in cash and a watch valued $80. However, when he returned to the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court today, he changed his plea and owned up to the offence. Prosecutor Sergeant Cameron Gibbons told the court that the complainant was socializing at a bar in Nelson Street, and around 3:10 a.m., he asked for a ride to his home in Beckwith Street. As he sat in the passenger seat of the parked car, the accused and another man tried to put a plastic bag over his head. A struggle ensued and the complainant was cuffed in his face. The accused then pushed his hand through the window and took the cellular phone, the money and the watch before running off. The matter was reported to police and the accused was subsequently picked out in an identification parade. “I plead guilty because I did it . . . . I don’t normally walk in court and plead guilty. I really sorry about this case. I am sincerely sorry for this one,” he told Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sergeant. “I would like you to be lenient on me and look at giving me probation.” However, the magistrate stopped him in his tracks, telling him he would have to spend some time in prison. “Don’t ask for a fine, community service or probation because you do not qualify. You know where you will continue to reside,” she said. When told that she was considering a sentence of 18 months, the repeat offender sighed. “At 54 [years old], 18 months too long for me,” was his response. The magistrate then sentenced him to 12 months in prison with the month he has already spent on remand to be taken into consideration. (BT)

ALLEYNE SENT OFF TO ‘MENTAL’ – A 42-year-old man, who threatened to stone two people, has been admitted to the Psychiatric Hospital. After pleading guilty to unlawfully assaulting Yvette Layne-Walcott and Jervis Holder, as well as to damaging a car belonging to Sabrina McClean this morning, an incoherent Vincent Allan Alleyne stood babbling in the dock of the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court. When the magistrate asked the barefooted and unkempt Alleyne, who has no fixed place of abode, if he had anything to say, in a barely audible voice he began to babble. After giving him several opportunities to explain himself, Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant remanded him to the Black Rock mental institution until June 6. In presenting the case, prosecutor Sergeant Cameron Gibbons said Layne-Walcott was exiting her car at the entrance of the court when the accused approached her with a rock in his hand and said, “I would hit you wid this rock. You feel I mekking sport.” When a security guard came to her assistance, Alleyne aimed the rock at him and said, “I going to burst your face with this rock.” He was seen by police, but ran off in the area of Walrond Street with lawmen in pursuit. It was then that he broke the left side mirror of McClean’s car which was parked in the car park of the Supreme Court. (BT)

HOWARD ACCUSED OF ASSAULTING ANOTHER MAN – Davino Shakell Howard can consider himself lucky not to have spent the night in jail. Howard, 24, of Foul Bay, St Philip, was granted bail after he pleaded not guilty to assaulting Lamar Wilkinson on April 28, 2018, occasioning him actual bodily harm. And while there was no objection to bail by the prosecution, Howard had failed to provide a surety by the time the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court had closed for the day. However, instead of remanding him, Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant ordered him to return to court tomorrow. “If you do not come to court tomorrow I will issue a warrant for your arrest and when you come to court you won’t be getting any bail,” she warned. “Yes ma’am. I will be here at 9 o’ clock tomorrow morning sharp,” was Howard’s reply before rushing out of the courtroom. (BT)

SOUR DEAL – In desperate need of a car loan, Alicia Sargeant thought she had found a saviour in Johan Fernando Nekens Prescod. Unfortunately for her, Prescod turned out to be a con man. The good news for her though, is that Prescod has agreed to pay back the $2,000 he stole from her between October 18, 2017 and March 2, 2018. Prosecutor Sergeant Cameron Gibbons, in presenting the case, said the complainant had hired several vehicles from Prescod in the past. However, unable to secure a loan because of her length of employment, Prescod promised to help her and as a result she gave him $2,000. That assistance never came and the complainant asked for her money back. He promised to repay, but never did. She made a complaint to the police and he again agreed to repay the money, but on the agreed date he sent a message saying he had been involved in an accident and was at the hospital. Frustrated, the complainant made another complaint to the police and he was eventually arrested. Prescod told Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant his mother had agreed to pay $1,000 on Friday and the remainder in installments. But after revealing to the magistrate that he had started a new job and was being paid bi-weekly, she ordered him to pay $500 every payday until the balance was cleared. “Go and take your money and put it back on the financial institution you got it from,” the magistrate told his mother. She then adjourned the matter until May 31, when Prescod is to return to court with $500. (BT)

ZULU AND MOLE PLEASED WITH RESPONSE – He has one of the most popular songs for 2018, Do It For Daddy and Bashment Soca artiste Mole said he is humbled by the overwhelming response that he has received from Barbadians. Speaking to the media on the sidelines of Zulu International’s inaugural cruise dubbed Apollo 13, Mole said that it is a good feeling to know that people are listening to and appreciating his music. “It is great that people actually like my material and when I come out to perform, they actually want to hear it. It makes me feel really good,” he said. With Crop Over 2018 fast approaching, Mole said he will soon be releasing new material. “Crop Over is we thing. I love it, it does be nuff fun. I like a lot of wukking up . . . but I have a lot of material coming out for Crop Over, some sweet, some Bashment and some groovy,” he said. When asked about the new rules to the Bashment Soca competition, Mole said he agreed with everything, despite the winner taking all the winnings. Public Relations Officer for Zulu International Andre Wharton said the inaugural cruise will be bigger and better next year. He also thanked Barbadians for continuing to support Zulu International’s events. “It has been a fantastic night thus far. This is our first official cruise and the response has been overwhelming. We could not have asked for a better turn out from Barbados. We are happy for your support and we want everyone to continue to believe in the brand Zulu International and grow with us, because next year it is going to be bigger and even better,” Wharton said while adding that the Crop Over band has sights on the regional and international markets. “We have plans to go into the Caribbean and to take it a little further as we have partners in the UK and Guyana and we’re just about ready to speak with some partners in Trinidad as well. So we want to take the brand further but we are also cognizant of what needs to happen in Barbados as well. Home drums beat first for Zulu International,” he said. (BT)

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