Core Magazine September 2017

http://coremedia.com

ISSUE #25 SEPTEMBER 2017

HARNESSING THE BENEFITS OF TECHNOLOGY FOR THE GOOD OF HUMANITY

INTERVIEW WITH

OCEANLAB A Community-Based Project for WAVES-based We have a lot of applications and features planned, probably years of work if I follow all my ideas.

Sphearis

INTERVIEW WITH

ParagonCoin pag. 29-32

WAVES NEWS The Waves Platform partners with Gazprombank Digital

The Waves DEX arrives to Android ICOhub winner Oceanlab launches ICO

SuperNet NEWS SuperNET Comes To Save The Gambling Industry

Segwit, check. What’s next for Bitcoin? pag. 21-22

TABLE OF CONTENTS PUBLIQ: The first 3rd party app on the Decent Network

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Ergo Platform: “Revisiting Difficulty Control for Blockchain Systems”

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A Free Market Approach to The Bitcoin Cash Situation

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Oceanlab: A Community-Based Project for Waves-based apps

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An Interview with OceanLab: Why Waves Needs Infrastructure Built Around It To Go Mainstream

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Kuna Exchange: A tool for Initial Coin Offerings

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Belfrics Bitcoin Exchange Has Come To Kenya

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Decentraland: Control your reality

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SegWit, check. What’s next for Bitcoin?

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DMarket: A Decentralized Marketplace for in-game items

25

Cryptocurrency Exchange Users Continue To Flee From Poloniex After Damaging Rumours

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IwToken: Bringing Ease-of-use and Interoperability To Crypto

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ParagonCoin Interview

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The Waves Platform partners with Gazprombank Digital

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The Waves DEX arrives to Android

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ICOhub winner Oceanlab launches ICO

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SuperNET Comes To Save The Gambling Industry

43

Can’t join the Filecoin ICO? Don’t worry!

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BarterDEX: The First Fully Decentralized Exchange Has Finally Arrived

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BlockChain News

PUBLIQ: The first 3rd party app on the Decent Network Although the Decent Network is still in its infancy, having recently completed its first month in the beta stage, companies and developers are already taking note of the possibilities provided by this technology. An earlier blog post by the team reads:

“ We are pleased to announce that the first, 3rd party application built on top of DECENT Network, PUBLIQ, is being developed!�

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BlockChain News

Pioneering the Decent Network, Publiq is an independent decentralized application built specifically for sharing news and articles. The Publiq dApp plans to change the way media works by leveraging blockchain technology as a reward system for the “generation, selection, assessment and publishing” of independent and authentic content. The white paper reads:

within the context of the dApp, it can also be used for other instances (job interview or resume) given that it represents a lifetime reputation that is traceable and transparent on the blockchain.

The reputation within the platform is also the base for the reward system employed.

After making a popular post, the Publiq

“The PUBLIQ team is building our future media ecosystem based on blockchain technology combined with analytics and artificial intelligence (AI). PUBLIQ is rebuilding trust in media by empowering authors and readers to be part of a safe, impartial and fair ecosystem.”

Publiq is a community-driven project in which anyone can create immutable and uncensorable content that is “cryptographically sealed[...]and timestamped” on the Publiq blockchain. While the cryptographic hash of the content is stored on the Publiq blockchain, the content itself is encrypted and stored off-chain, using the DECENT blockchain content distribution network.

reward system will credit the author with the PBQ token, the native value token within the dApp. The reward is given according to the received Publiq score. Not only is the this score relevant for rewards It is also the basis for the AI-powered recommendation engine which makes suggestions based on what readers chose to read and what they like about articles.

Although Publiq can function without Although Publiq gives everyone a platpaid advertisement or content, advertisform in which they can speak their mind ers can still purchase placement by buyor share the latest news, the content is still ing PBQ which is then distributed among subject to an anti-spam fee which is folthe ecosystem participants. What we’re lowed by a review and curation process. left is a completely fair, independent and This process is conducted by the readers uncensored news source for the decenthemselves through a reputation system tralized future. The website reads: that encourages users to post relevant “PUBLIQ is reshaping the media industry and interesting articles/news stories. by enabling censorship free generation, This same reputation is measured through selection, assessment and publishing of the Publiq score, a weighted average of content. It offers a unique experience the different feedbacks given to every sin- where the wealth generated is fairly and gle author. While the Publiq score is used exclusively distributed to the network 2

BlockChain News

Ergo Platform: “Revisiting Difficulty Control for Blockchain Systems” as an attack.

One of these attacks, coin-hopping, is described in a recent paper dubbed “Revisiting Difficulty Control for Blockchain Systems”. The author, who coined the term “coin-hopping”, describes the fundamental flaw that makes this attack vector possible and how it causes a negative impact on the health of the Bitcoin network and, consequently, on its end users.

Since its inception, Bitcoin mining has gone from being a “garage project” to a competitive industrialized practice. According to the “Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study”, a research paper recently published by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), electricity consumption for Bitcoin mining facilities can be estimated at around 462MW. In this competitive environment, miners are expected to take every advantage they can get their hands on. This can range from ways to cut power costs, acquiring faster hash rate, and more. However, there are flaws in the Bitcoin network that have allowed for certain miners to gain an unfair advantage at the expense of the well-being of the network itself, which should not be considered as an incentivized advantage anymore, but rather 3

The paper, which can be read here, also provides a solution for this problem, which is to be implemented in the upcoming Ergo Platform, a project that aims to provide solutions for various cryptocurrency problems.

So, what is the problem, exactly?

The Bitcoin network has a fixed issuance rate which means that when new miners join the network, this issuance rate doesn’t increase. Instead, the “mining difficulty” changes, ensuring that the aforementioned issuance rate remains somewhat stable.

However, the current readjustment algorithm in Bitcoin assumes that the network hashing power doesn’t change drastically between the difficulty retargeting periods (2016 blocks) but the paper demonstrates that due to the “continuous non-linear growth” of computational power, delay

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between blocks differs from the expected time by 7%, a worrying figure that is intensified by the coin-hopping attack. The paper reads:

If you want to understand how this new difficulty adjustment algorithm can work, make sure to read the “Revisiting Difficulty Control for Blockchain Systems” paper.

More information about the Ergo Platform “In this paper we also consider a new type can be found here. of miner behavior with regards to difficulty adjustment which provides an unfair Dmitry Meshkov will present this work advantage to the miner, and also makes during a blockchain workshop associated inter-block delays worse. We call the diswith ESORICS’2017: http://www.deic.uab. covered strategy the coin-hopping attack.” cat/~jherrera/CBT/.

In this attack, miners switch from one coin to another in the beginning of an epoch (difficulty retargeting event), switching back to the first one in the beginning of the next epoch when difficulty becomes lower.

This means that the miner leaves coin1 to ensure that mining difficulty is reduced by the lack of his presence and goes on to mine another coin2, returning to coin1 once the difficulty re-targeting period has made mining easier again. This means that until the next epoch, the network will not adjust to the presence of the miner.

The paper adds: “Remarkably, under such an attack the mean time between blocks in both chains will be bigger than the planned time.”

In order to fix these issues, an Improved Difficulty Adjustment is proposed: An algorithm that is both resistant to the aforementioned attack (and others that may be based on difficulty manipulation) and that allows for an almost constant desired block rate under real-life circumstances.

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BlockChain News

A Free Market Approach to The Bitcoin Cash Situation that there is nothing wrong with competing cryptocurrencies. While it is true, the Bitcoin hard fork is far from a perfect solution, what conspired was inevitable in that Bitcoin holders were split from the get go on Bitcoin’s future. The only solution to this matter is to give Bitcoin holders a choice; the choice to hold or sell Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash.

Will Bitcoin Lose Value?

Theoretically, Bitcoin should decrease by the value of Bitcoin Cash as that value has been transferred to Bitcoin Cash (keeping in mind traders may have foreseen the drop in advance). However, Bitcoin prior On August 1st, the Bitcoin community to the split was already on an uphill trend witnessed the very first blockchain split of the Bitcoin network. What this means is and it was only the continuous usage of users who owned Bitcoin prior to the hard the Bitcoin blockchain that prompted a scaling solution. If Segwit2X is implementfork now have Bitcoin, as well as, Bitcoin ed, there is no reason why Bitcoin won’t Cash. Whatever side you take in the Bitcoin scalability debate, it may be far from continue that uphill trend. Furthermore, those with access to their private keys a perfect solution. After the Bitcoin comwho receive Bitcoin Cash shouldn’t lose munity made the decision to implement any money for the value lost in Bitcoin is 2X, Bitcoin Cash immediately reacted to counteracted by the value backing Bitcoin the news in protest by announcing they Cash. would hard fork Bitcoin in order to keep the intentions of the creator Satoshi Nakamoto intact.

Does this undermine Bitcoin?

Initially, most likely. The current debate Does Bitcoin Cash Have The is similar to a debate on Gold and Silver.

Imagine a society that is solely run on Right To Exist?

Whatever your beliefs on Bitcoin; whether currency backed by Gold. Suddenly, the you think Segwit2X should be implement- government decides that Silver is now a legitimate medium of exchange along ed or not, it should be important to note 5

BlockChain News

side Gold. Because there are individuals that prefer to use Silver over Gold, this may cause a drop in the value of Gold. In the end, society will choose whether they prefer Gold or Silver through the market.

Now think of Gold as Bitcoin and Silver as Bitcoin Cash.

What does Mises say?

According to Ludwig von Mises in his famous Theory of Money and Credit treatise, the common medium of exchange is determined via the free market. What this means is that society, with all it’s options available, will decide amongst themselves on what commodity is the best medium of change. Mises states the commodity must be liquid and stable. Liquidity refers to a coins marketability.

The infrastructure sounding Bitcoin, along with the huge market cap and volume, gives Bitcoin a legitimate case to maintain its spot as the common medium of exchange. Stability, on the other hand, refers to a commodity that remains consistent. Unfortunately, it is this point alone that makes the Segwit2X implementation worrying for Bitcoin holders as the original vision of Bitcoin has changed. With the changes to the Bitcoin protocol moving away from the creator’s original vision, the future of Bitcoin is uncertain. According to Mises, this would make Bitcoin an unlikely candidate for a medium of exchange.

Conclusion

Adding Mises’s definition of a common medium of exchange into the equation, we get an interesting phenomenon. For speculators that believe liquidity is important, Bitcoin is your coin. Due to the wide ranging infrastructure surrounding Bitcoin, Bitcoin is far more liquid than Bitcoin Cash. However, if the speculator views stability as important, Bitcoin Cash is your coin. Bitcoin Cash follows the vision of Satoshi Nakamoto and is not set to change drastically. Once we view things in this way, the Bitcoin split was inevitable.

Now it is time for the free market to work it’s magic; for we will finally see which coin will be the medium of exchange for the future.

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BlockChain News

Oceanlab: A Community-Based Project for Waves-based apps At present, investing in cryptocurrencies can be hit or miss. While the technology behind the coin serves as a good indication, without a strong community backing the project it may remain in the shadows.

One of the things that is obvious once entering the Waves slack channel is the community that backs the coin; a community 100% dedicated to the project. In order to push home this point, meet Oceanlab.

Coming second in Waves ICOhub contest out of a total of 135 blockchain initiatives, it is clear Oceanlab has already won over the Waves community. What makes this investment so enticing is its ability to stimulate the economy in the Waves Platform at the same time. The applications Oceanlab plans to build are vital for Waves to reach its full potential, especially with a wide range of ICOs planning to raise funds Oceanlab is a community driven project on the Waves platform. It is essential to that aims to build applications on top of present blockchain data in a clear and the Waves blockchain. The two developers precise way both for developers and for behind the project, future investors.

Fabrice Distefano (aka Sphearis) and According to the white Olivier Saintelet paper, Oceanlab intends (aka Dibatch) got to build a wide range of involved during the services built on top of Waves ICO, but got the Waves platform. All hooked when asked of these services will be to build a faucet built in due time, deengine called Wavespending on how much drop. The two again funds are raised in the doubled down by building the website ICO. The ICO itself is the most unique and https://gravit.ws/ which is still in its proto- diverse to date. Oceanlab, showing their type phase. The purpose of this website is love for Waves, are accepting BTC, USD, to simplify complex blockchain data into EURO, Waves and ETH, as well as, 20 toan easy to read format as if one is reading kens built on top of the Waves platform. a newspaper. External websites will be Clearly, a project built to support the able to extract data from Gravit.ws which Waves network and community, Sphearis had this to say about supporting multiple will be presented in an easy to read format. projects in the Oceanlab ICO, “We believe in the success of most pro7

BlockChain News

jects launched on the platform so far because they’re all bringing something different and new. We planned a very conservative budget for our first year of operation as well as a no cash-out policy.

That’s also stepping towards the community as we probably won’t have to spend any of these tokens on our first year of operations. We want to set new standards for ICO creation and avoid the mess it created on the Ethereum platform. Having several assets at our disposal will allow us to split our spendings between multiple coins and lower the market moves it could generate.”

Talking further with Sphearis, it became clear Waves was a perfect fit for Oceanlab,

search engine, separate spam from legit assets from investors portfolios, create a chat box with tipping and upvoting/ downvoting, ads on the Waves blockchain, a bulletin board for upcoming ICOs, node information including leasing calculator and leasing reports and advanced stats. This is just a fraction of the huge business model laid out in the Oceanlab whitepaper. What is clear, is that while ambitious, the Oceanlab team have the brains and willpower to complete the job.

If you wish to invest in Oceanlabs, go to http://ico.oceanlab.eu/. If you wish to talk to the Oceanlab team, you will find them in the Waves slack at https://wavesplatform.herokuapp.com/.

“I’ve spent nearly 2 years analysing a lot of new crypto platforms and trying to understand how it could be applied in the real world, none of them seemed to provide the features Waves did and none of them seemed as intuitive/easy to work with.

After having spent a few years without developing myself, I just fell in love with the platform and got a lot of new ideas, Waves was providing me with what I needed to start and is constantly adding a lot of new amazing features to work with.

Waves is not only a blockchain platform to me, Waves is an innovation vector that will prove itself with time.”

Browsing through the white paper gives the reader an in depth perspective of the wide ranging applications that are planned to be built. In the short term, Oceanlab aims to add DEX trades to their 8

Interview

An Interview with OceanLab: Why Waves Needs Infrastructure Built Around It To Go Mainstream Being involved in the cryptocurrency industry for extended periods can at times blind regular users to realising there are new investors entering the industry everyday. The first investors were technologically literate and could foresee the potential built into the technology. However, we are now at a stage in the cryptocurrency movement where we see more and more new users that are less technologically literate. This crowd is to be welcomed with open arms, however, we must as a community create simple applications that simplifies blockchain data in order for these investors to stay within the space.

it. Windows 3.1 could only have thrived with the creation of third party applications built around the system.

Bitcoin itself, whilst being the first and most “vanilla” cryptocurrency, has a vast range of applications built around its blockchain. All of the infrastructure and applications built around Bitcoin are large contributing factor in maintaining the price above opposing cryptocurrencies.

With this reasoning, it is essential for rivaling cryptocurrencies to do the same. One clear Bitcoin contender, the Waves blockchain, is using this very approach. Waves, with its 16 million dollar backing in fundThe obvious example of this is way back at ing, are themselves building an infrastructhe beginning of the computer age when ture in order to support its goal of hosting MS-DOS was released. MS-DOS by itself ICOs. Despite the great work by the Waves was revolutionary, but by itself it was not team, time and personnel are always limuser friendly because of its use of complex ited and it is impeccable for third parties command lines and unappealing look. to assist in building around Waves. This is In this analogy, think of MS-DOS as raw where Oceanlab, an experienced jack-ofblockchain data. Along comes Windows all-trades team comes into play.

3.1, a simple but user friendly interface built on top of MS-DOS; it’s fair to say that It is no secret amongst Waves circles that Windows 3.1 played a significant role in the Oceanlab team, Fabrice Distefano normalizing the use of computers around (aka Sphearis) and Olivier Saintelet (aka the world. Windows 3.1 can be thought of Dibatch), are a duo that have the brains, as all of the cryptocurrency wallets such knowhow and will to complete the tasks as the Bitcoin wallet. But Windows 3.1, at hand. Oceanlab aims to create simple and the Bitcoin wallet, whilst being impor- and understandable applications built tant, needed more infrastructure around around the currently existing Waves infra10

Interview

structure. According to Oceanlab whitepaper, Oceanlab has a wide range of applications they plan on building, however, being a community based project, Oceanlab will work on the most important applications at that present moment. What this means is Oceanlab may shift gears if a particular application is in desperate need of being built. The goal of Oceanlab is to support the Waves project and the community around it by building the much needed applications for that particular moment in time.

To get a better grasp of Oceanlab, I asked none other than Sphearis a few questions about why they picked Waves, about their unorthodox method of accepting 20 Waves tokens (as well as ETH, BTC, EURO, USD and Waves) for their ICO and what applications, out of their large catalogue of planned applications, do they consider to stand out from the rest.

Why did you choose Waves and did you decide to build applications around it?

“Waves was an obvious choice to us because its main purpose is clearly to build custom blockchain applications for anything. Creating a token on the platform is accessible to anyone, you’re one form and one click away from creating an asset which has directly access to a high quality network, fast transactions, trading... That’s simply amazing.

And you can also specify your own parameters (like amount or decimals) and define its own personality: By using a personal name and description, you can link your token to your project right away.

That’s what Oceanlab has been looking into from the start: the human readable data provided is registered on the blockchain and clearly visible to anyone, that makes Waves blockchain far more interesting than the usual system where you send one or several units of a cryptocurrency from a point A to a point B. But it’s still a hard task to filter everything manually, even from the actual 100 transactions/minute network (which will be even faster soon). From asset names to attachments, and also with the help of real time trading data and valuation, we can provide investors and users a clear view of what’s going on, we use our own engine to run our ICO and show the investments in real time. Our budget will also benefit from these function11

Interview

alities. Waves blockchain allows that level of transparency and every project creator should be able to use these data to communicate more efficiently with investors and clients.”

Why did you choose to fund your ICO with an array of Waves Tokens?

“We invested in Waves since the beginning, I had a lot more time than funds to invest personally. Like every other project creators around the Waves blockchain, we are pioneers and we’re showing the platform possibilities to the world. Taking the decision to dedicate my career to a platform that didn’t have yet the success it deserved requires to be a strong believer, I already spent a massive amount of hours developing new features, on evenings and week-ends while still working on my day job. And as I know how intense it can be, I also want to support other projects. Waves has a very strong community, we’re intimately connected to the platform’s success and we continuously act towards it. Even in the adversity of a contest, we were all discussing as friends and planning future partnerships, I’ve never seen that in any other cryptocurrency community. We at Oceanlab have a no cashout policy and we believe in the future of all the other pioneers projects as much as we believe in ours, we allow them to benefit of a storage of their tokens away from the markets for a while: We will work with a very limited budget in our first year of operation meaning we probably won’t have to spend any of these tokens for a whole year. And having several assets at our disposal will allow us to split our expenses between several assets, preventing unwanted strong moves on the markets for a particular one.”

What applications do you think are the most important you plan on building and why?

“We have a lot of applications and features planned, probably years of work if I follow all my ideas. But the first one we want to focus on is our actual prototype Gravit. The engine is the foundation of our ecosystem, and the website will benefit from any new feature we bring to the platform (encryption, trading analysis, blockchain storage, automation...). This website will become the first blockchain powered social network with many automated features and content. It’s an evolving system able to analyze the depths of 12

Interview

the blockchain as well as a lot of external sources, integrate users interactions (submitted with the help of the Waves blockchain) and mixing that in automatically generated pages that will adapt to any new content available.

We’ll also work on an exclusive Waves payment system, the buyer will be able to buy something from a retailer in any valuable token he owns on his Waves wallet. Conversion will be done with real time market data from the Dex (order books) and the retailer will receive its chosen token as payment(or Waves, BTC, Eth...), transaction will be done on the Dex in real time with the available buy orders. This payment functionality may be added to Waves payment terminals we’re already working on for a future family entertainment center.

Other projects we’re currently working on are PoS4All (An automated Proof of Stake system we will release as a community service available to any asset created on the Waves platform) and several data storage/analysis tools (A serverless Wikipedia on the blockchain as an experiment, why not?).”

As the value of Waves increases, with the rise of ICOs, applications built around Waves will become vital for Waves to become mainstream. Other than increasing the value of Waves, buying OceanLab tokens also gives investors revenue share. Furthermore, funds raised will not be dumped onto the market initially and the team will work with a low budget. With the only maintaining 5% of the supply for future development, and 93% available for the public through the ICO, the OceanLab team are being extremely generous with their ICO. OceanLab is a well rounded token that is not only likely to increase in value as the revenue from applications are shared, but also indirectly boosts the value of Waves too.

It’s clear that OceanLab has a strong grasp on blockchain technology and Waves Platform’s valuable contribution to that technology. There is an unmistakable logic in Sphearis’ position and the upcoming ICO for OceanLab obviously has very strong legs to stand on. This will certainly play well in the coming weeks as more people examine the OceanLab whitepaper and make their decision to support the organization and the rock solid technology surrounding it.

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BlockChain News

Kuna Exchange: A tool for Initial Coin Offerings

The Waves Platform has been on a roll as of late, securing long term partnerships, such as the Gazprombank Digital and the National Settlement Depository for Moscow to name the most recent. Waves investors and users have barely had a moment to breathe and take in all the information. With Waves moving like a bullet train, it is not surprising that Kuna’s partnership with Waves has been well under the radar.

The Kuna Exchange is a Ukrainian cryptocurrency exchange that has been live for nearly half a year. Exchange’s first ICO (In14

itial Coin Offering) raised a total 274 BTC. As it stands, the exchange is currently focused towards Ukrainian users with multiple pairs for the Ukrainian Hryvnia against cryptocurrencies such as BTC, WAVES and ETH. Currently online is an Audit report of the Kuna Exchange up until June 17, 2017, where you can review its performance.

Now, with an intuitive and functional exchange, Kuna Exchange is looking to expand its services. The Kuna Exchange and Waves struck a deal in order to facilitate potential Waves ICOs, providing support and services. In order to fulfill these

BlockChain News

requirements, the exchange has begun a Second Coin Offering (SCO). The SCO will help fund these “ICO-as-a-Service” (IaaS) features. Essentially, IaaS is a premade template for those seeking to hold an ICO based on Waves. This much-needed service eliminates the need for potential ICO creators to hire web designers to create a platform to host their ICOs. All that is needed to use this service is for ICO creators to set the terms, for example, minimum or maximum funds they wish to collect, and then send the tokens to the Kuna Exchange website.

The ICO service will be one of a kind in that there will be built-in unique features.

Firstly, ICOs will be a bidding war rather than a traditional “first in best dressed” system. The higher the rate per token the investor is willing to pay, the more likely their orders will turn into token offered.

Users can continue to bid higher and higher by canceling old orders and putting in new orders. At the end of the ICO, tokens will be awarded to the highest bidders.

Secondly, as soon as the ICO is over, a “side order book” will appear where anyone can buy or sell these newly created ICO tokens immediately. These side order books are not official Kuna Exchange pairings so users are warned in advance of the dangers of unvetted order books. If there is a lot of liquidity, and the token is vetted, then the token is likely to be added to the main exchange.

All of these services will be provided free of charge. The model is that these side markets, as well as potential markets moving to the main exchange, will provide enough liquidity to make a profit off transaction fees. These transaction fees will be the source of revenue sharing for exchange investors in the future.

One of the great appeals is that it will be marketed and focused on the ex-Soviet Union like Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Belarus and Turkey. As of late, this region of the world has started to embrace cryptocurrency technology with open arms. It is the focus of Kuda Exchange to initially market to these countries; the great untapped cryptocurrency market.

In order to participate in this ICO, head to https://kuna.io, sign up and place an order.

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BlockChain News

Cindicator: Leveraging Hybrid Intelligence for effective asset management Technological progress can be somewhat scary. Blockchain technology, for example, is a disruptive piece of technology that can eliminate all kinds of middlemen in the financial sector, a prospect that can be worrisome for those that play the middleman role themselves. The same can be said for artificial intelligence. The prospect of having computers do all the thinking for us, can make us feel somewhat worthless.

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However, as each technological revolution comes, the same cycle is repeated.

Mankind is able to dedicate itself to more intricate and rewarding tasks, bringing forth innovation and prosperity. In fact, artificial intelligence is already used for a lot of things, many of which we are not even aware of.

An interesting approach to artificial intelligence is what is called “Hybrid Intelligence�, a mutualistic symbiosis between

BlockChain News

human intelligence and machine intelligence, where both kinds compliment each other in accordance with the task at hand. Although it sounds a bit like “sci-fi tech”, this concept is already being leveraged in the blockchain field.

Cindicator is a blockchain project that uses the Hybrid Intelligence for effective asset management, taking the input of a diverse group of analysts and enhancing it with A.I. The project white paper reads:

In order to interact with the platform, users must hold a certain number of Cindicator tokens or CND. The level of access to services like indicators, ratings, and internal analytical products is defined by the amount of tokens each user holds. These tokens can be acquired in the upcoming ICO or on exchanges, once integrated. The CND token is also used to reward forecasters for their participation within the platform.

“By combining a large number of diverse financial analysts and a set of machine If you are interested in learning more or learning models into a single system, we joining the Cindicator ecosystem, visit the are developing a Hybrid Intelligence infra- official website. structure for the efficient management of investors’ capital in traditional nancial and crypto-markets.”

Cindicator uses the forecasts generated by thousands of analysts on the platform everyday to answer specific questions about “financial assets, macroeconomic indexes, and events significantly influencing the market”. The information generated by these forecasts is then put through machine learning models that calculate various weights for each forecaster.

This Hybrid Intelligence system allows the collective opinion of a diverse group, os “Wisdom of the Crowd”, to be perfected according to the specifics of each forecaster.The machine learning models take into account systematic errors of each user and their respective corrections, eliminates noise and generates final predictions and trading signals based on the enhanced data.

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BlockChain News

Belfrics Bitcoin Exchange Has Come To Kenya

Praveen Kumar, CEO of Belfric demonstrating their mobile wallet

John Wainaina Samson Karanja, CEO of Bithub Africa has lauded Belfrics Global entry into the Kenya Bitcoin Exchange Market. The launch of Belfrics Global’s Kenya took place on Saturday in Nairobi, Kenya. During a chat with Core Media, following the launch, Karanja pointed out that the company’s presence should increase Bitcoin liquidity and become a major force for cryptocurrency adoption in the region as well.

Kenya is one of the leading countries in Bitcoin adoption in Africa among Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa. It is currently experiencing a burgeoning community 19

unprecedented in any other country. “I strongly believe we are going to see volumes available to the community. It has always been difficult getting the needed quantity one needs around here,” John noted.

Professionalism and Adoption

He maintained that the coming into the Kenya market by Belfric Global will also provide professional services which have actually been unavailable fully. It is his understanding the era where you can stay at home and order Bitcoin has come to the doorsteps of Kenyans.

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More significantly, BitHub Africa’s CEO was of the opinion the move will also drive adoption further in the East African nation. Kenya has come a tortuous way to get to where its adoption rate is at the moment.

how they are going to compete with Bitpesa, Kenya’s first ever Bitcoin Exchange, he had this to say:

“We have lined up competitive rates and commission which no one can beat. More importantly, you can buy any amount of In 2015, the Central Bank of Kenya warned Bitcoin you can afford.” the Kenyan public to stay away from Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies since these are not a legal tender and some may be considered a scam. However, the Kenyan populace ignored the warning and kept developing the space.

Belfrics in Africa

In his speech during the launching of the Bitcoin Exchange, Praveen Kumar, CEO of Belfrics Global revealed his company will be opening up Bitcoin Exchanges across Africa starting with Nigeria, Ghana and Botswana in a few months. He explained that the volumes that came out of the trial test in Kenya are convincing enough to prove that the African market is ripe.

Praveen praised the entrepreneurship spirit in Africa and said he is cocksure Belfrics will do well on the Continent. The CEO also announced they operate the top notch exchanges in all the countries they operate.

Belfrics which has its headquarters in Malaysia brings to three the number of countries with Bitcoin Exchanges. They currently operate in Singapore, India and Kenya.

When Core Media inquired from Justus Mutui Kimasyu, Director, Belfrics Kenya, 20

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Decentraland: Control your reality Filecoin is a Decentralized Storage Network that leverages both the IPFS protocol and blockchain technology. The Filecoin blockchain itself acts as an “incentive layer” that works on top of the IPFS. Although several other projects are attempting to use this technology, Filecoin is a project spearheaded by Protocol Labs, the creators of the aforementioned protocol.

unprecedented heights. Virtual worlds are now more immersive than ever, and every year the difference between physical and virtual reality gets thinner. Although the technology still has a lot to evolve, virtual reality will definitely have its place in the future. We can be only a few years away from having an immersive environment so similar to the real world that it’s hard to tell the difference.

Since their inception, video games have captured the imagination of both children and adults. With the invention of Pong in the 70’s and the evolution from 2D to 3D, video games have evolved to

So, why not bring two of the most interesting pieces of technology today together? Decentraland is the first decentralized virtual world. It enables users to interact, create, share and monetize their own con-

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tent in a virtual reality setting. The project is similar to social platforms like second life but, because of blockchain technology, it is able to skipe middlemen fees and offer lower prices. It also doesn’t have strict policies, making it possible for many applications to reach the market.

completely different experience. Users can explore the virtual world for content and discover districts devoted to a special topic or theme. This is great for users, they can travel themed neighborhoods or high traffic hubs, and for content creators, enabling access to targeted traffic.

Decentraland first began as a 2D grid where users could own digital real estate on the blockchain, represented by pixels on the grid. Developers called this Decentraland’s Stone Age. In late 2016, it evolved to Bronze Age. Users are now able to own land parcels in 3D and each parcel was associated with a hash reference to a file. This file is where where the textures and models of the land parcel are located and it’s possible for users to download it.

Decentraland is powered by the Ethereum blockchain and will have two different digital assets: LAND, the scarce and non-fungible parcels of land of the virtual world; and MANA, and ERC-20 token that is used to make in-world purchases and also burned to claim LAND.

If done correctly, Decentraland has the potential to overthrow other social platforms and become a metaverse, an infrastructure to support a shared virtual The next version will be Decentraland’s world. It lets you create your dream world Iron Age. Developers aim to add economy with a liberty that other social platforms to the virtual land. Users will be able to simply cannot afford you. It will become create dynamic applications and monethe closest thing to the matrix yet, and tize them to others, so not only will it be a if you’re dream was to create and live in distribution of land but of content as well. your own world, with the possibility of A payment system will be added to allow even making some income out of it, Deglobal, instant, and cost-effective paycentraland might be the experience for ments between any two users. Also, the you. entire social structure will be developed, https://decentraland.org/whitepaper.pdf implementing peer-to-peer communications with voice chat, positioning, posIf you want to learn more about Filecoin, tures, and other features. visit the official website.

What makes Decentraland different from web domains is the adjacency factor. Web domains can have an unlimited number of hyperlinks, that may not even be related or share a common topic. But the virtual setting of Decentraland offers a 22

BlockChain News

SegWit, check. What’s next for Bitcoin?

The long-awaited Segregated Witness (SegWit) update has finally been activated, although you wouldn’t know it if you were looking at a price chart. SegWit has been the main focus within the Bitcoin community and although many were expecting the price of BTC to go crazy, not much has changed in the markets.

SegWit was activated on the Bitcoin network at approximately 2:00 UTC. The first SegWit block was mined by the China-based BTCC pool. The update allows the block size limit to be replaced with a block “weight” in which each Witness data Byte is counted as 0.25 Bytes. Given that witness data accounts for nearly half of the transaction size, the SegWit upgrade will allow for a 2x increase in capacity.

Most importantly, SegWit will also fix the tx.malleability bug, paving the way for payment channels like the Lightning Network (LN) to be built on top of Bitcoin and allowing off-chain scaling solutions to be persued.

What about the price?!

So what happened? Were you also expecting a huge pump/crash? Well, Bitcoin never ceases to amaze and given the wild volatility we have all grown used to, many were actually surprised to see Bitcoin trade sideways following the update.

Bitcoin has remained fairly stable in the 23

BlockChain News

various factions of the community, something that was never accomplished before the SegWit2x agreement.

As for BitcoinCash, the UAHF blockchain has recently gone through a difficulty retargeting event, reducing profitability for miners. However, there are still those who are betting on the new Bitcoin, as can be $4100-$4200 range with no huge spikes in seen through the recent mining uptick here. volume. So what caused traders to shrug off SegWit? Well, when one looks at the huge rally that has taken BTC to the $4000 mark, it’s easy to see that SegWit was already being factored into the price.

Given that the proposal had been locked, SegWit was pretty much a sure thing.

However, the scaling debate isn’t quite over yet.

What’s next for Bitcoin and BCH?

Now that SegWit is “out of the way”, there is still the 2MB hard fork that will increase Bitcoin’s transaction capacity even further, bringing it up to the equivalent of 4MB. Although this isn’t a definitive solution for Bitcoin, it will allow it to accommodate the current upsurge in user base.

Some members of the developer community have voiced their concerns and complaints regarding the technical dangers and lack of planning that has been put into the SegWit2X agreement, claiming that it’s a rushed upgrade and that an hard fork should be better planned.

However, one must also realize that there are compromises that need to be made in order to find a solution that can please 24

BlockChain News

DMarket: A Decentralized Marketplace for in-game items

The first ICO-Hypethon commenced August 16th and continues thru the evening of the 17th in Saint Petersburg, Russia at a creative arts studio known as Street Art Museum.

Online video games have opened up a whole new universe for people of all ages and nationalities where they can explore the far reaches of their imagination and test their skills, determination, and patience against others’. While some games have grown to a point where secondary markets arise, allowing users monetize items and currency within the game, there is actually no system in place that allows users to profit from their hard earned items. This isn’t exactly the end of the world, as we do get a kick from playing the games anyway, but once you get bored of a certain game there is no way to “transport” your previous efforts to other games or to your real life.

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Well, there wasn’t. Luckily, blockchain technology is here to change that. Blockchain technology and gaming have a somewhat long and mutualistic relationship. There are several projects in the space using blockchain technology for skins and games/casinos that accept cryptocurrencies as payment for bets or upgrades in the game. However, DMarket is taking this symbiosis between crypto and gaming to a whole new level.

DMarket is a blockchain-based marketplace for virtual items. It allows users to sell, buy, trade and get an appraisal for “every virtual item between all games on

BlockChain News

any platform”. This concept allows players to profit from their in-game efforts in many different ways. For example, if you are done with a certain game and want to start playing another one, you can actually sell your items or even trade them with a player that wants to do the same thing, even though these are different games.

To achieve this, DMarket leverages the immutability offered by the blockchain to turn each item into an asset, making it unique and impossible to forge. This characteristic also provides each item with its own history. The white paper reads: “Smart contract technology will ensure immutable records of one’s assets, adding a unique form of memorabilia that will create a natural game certification process, forever safe on the blockchain. Thus,

digital goods become truly unique. They can adapt over time and develop a different value, creating a new realm of memorabilia and collectable assets, as well as a sense of history for users. This will also add a sense of history through digital goods globally.”

Following an exchange, a smart contract system that logs changes of ownership in each asset is able to verify if the item has been transferred and will then carry out the previously agreed payments. The result is a decentralized marketplace, like eBay or amazon, where one can sell, buy or trade any item.

Within the platform, all operations are carried out with DMARKET, an Ethereum-based token that will be available during the Initial Coin Offering. The campaign started at 16:00 GMT. To learn more about Dmarket, visit the official website and read the whitepaper.

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BlockChain News

Cryptocurrency Exchange Users Continue To Flee From Poloniex After Damaging Rumours After rumours of Poloniex facing insolven- had these words: cy spread across the crypto community, the number of migrating exchange users “How long can it has substantially increased. last? I’m AMAZED people are still The origin of the rumours traces loosely using them (Polback to a disgruntled customer of Polooniex). I was new niex on July 2, 2017 who boldly accused to the cryptocurthe exchange of being “definitely insolrency scene and vent”. Within days the complaint was didn’t realise it joined by dozens of Poloniex users who had the history it had similar misfortunes due to an assort- does. So let this ment of problems. be a warning to others: they’re The vocal social media posts and forum lazy, and don’t rants quickly multiplied into hundreds of reinvest. Thereusers griping about mishaps they faced fore probably not with Poloniex. The buzz was definitely secure, either, negative, with claims involving poor cus- certainly longtomer interactions, lackluster support term.” options and even a few flat out scam accusations.

When searching in any search On August 3, 2017, a similar complaint engine or interwas posted that said: net browser for the term “Poloniex” the “Have submitted multiple tickets to reauto-suggestions immediately pop up solve a frozen account issue. My account as “Poloniex Scam” “Poloniex Rumor” and has been frozen for over 1 month without worse. The bad word of mouth is imposthe ability to trade or withdraw funds. sible to avoid while researching Poloniex, Completely unacceptable that they don’t and the results are so numerous, it’s hard respond to any tickets.” to tell if the ship is sinking due to growing community dissatisfaction with Poloniex Then, on August 4, 2017, an angry review as a service or if the ship was already sink27

BlockChain News

ing before the birth of the angry mob.

Either way, it appears as if that vessel is ...going down.

According to data pulled from Coinmarketcap.com and the Poloniex.com API, there has been a sharp change of heart for Poloniex users who have been steadily flocking to Bittrex and several other exchanges.

The steep incline from Spring 2017 at Poloniex is paled in the wake of the even sharper decline in total volume of Ethereum And Bitcoin exchanges as shown in the chart below.

As of August 2017, Poloniex has dipped below its Bittrex, by landslides coming in Still ahead of Kraken and Gdax.

The recent numbers for Poloniex speak loudly on the power of the voice of individuals in the crypto-community. Speak up if you want to see changes because clearly it works! Don’t forget to praise the services and sites you frequent too; because positive reinforcement means everyone gets to enjoy more of the good stuff.

This, now, is certainly one reason many developers and users are pushing ever further into decentralized exchange territory. The majority of problems that crypto-currency has had to overcome have been mainly due to human intervention.

In many respects, I think that at this point the community almost expects Poloniex to fall. It’s not that anyone wishes it’s proprietors any ill will, it just seems that this is a story we’ve heard too many times already. We all want to be the optimist and see things turn out the best for all parties involved. But one fact remains. Humans are unpredictable, and a trustless environment may be the only environment that we can trust in.

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BlockChain News

IwToken: Bringing Ease-of-use and Interoperability To Crypto The IwToken ICO will allow participants to be part of one of the first global crypto-services network, featuring a wide range of technologies that aim to bring crypto onto the mainstream stage.

Starting with the feature that gave IwToken its name, the integrative wallet

Although cryptocurrencies are beginning to gain traction amongst traditional investors and users, there is still a lot to be done when it comes to ease-of-use and interoperability. Crypto supporters often find themselves paying extra fees or having to exchange their coins due to this same problem, something that may actually keep other users away.

Focused on making cryptocurrencies a part of users’ everyday lives, the IwToken plans to create an ecosystem comprised of integrated services and technologies, universal wallet, an ATM network, and more, allowing several cryptos to be used in a wide range of use cases. The white paper reads: “We highly believe cryptocurrencies will keep gaining the place they deserve and start to be used more frequently, for everyday transactions all across the world, used just as a payment for a service like buying something at a supermarket, making a high net worth transaction between two entities or just for sending some money from you to a friend or a family member who might be in another city.”

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will allow its users to hold all available cryptocurrencies/tokens in the space providing encrypted json files for the users’ private keys blocking off any attack vectors that could be opened up to cyber criminals or to the wallet creators themselves.

The wallet UI will be intuitive, acting as a gateway for nontechnical users and it will be configurable to only show the desired tokens or additional features. There are

BlockChain News

also plans for a mobile wallet. Further down the line, IwToken will also feature a configurable options menu for card security which brings us to the second product by the IwToken project, the Integrative Cards.

Lastly, the IwToken ATMs will allow users to interact with cryptos on the go, making quick fiat withdrawals or crypto purchases simple and affordable. These ATMs are intended to be distributed globally throughout a network of shop owners.

All of these services come together to form the IwToken ecosystem, whose token represents a share in the ecosystem itself. Profits made from the fees charged are distributed to token holders, further motivating them to spread awareness and to contribute to the project on a personal level. The IWT can be acquired in the upcoming Initial Coin Offering (ICO) which will take place on the the 31st of August at 13:00 UTC and finish the 28th of September at 13:00 UTC. To learn more about IwToken or to participate in the upcoming ICO, visit the official website.

The IwToken cards are just like any other debit card, allowing the user to purchase items and services on or offline. However, these debit cards allow the user to spend any cryptocurrency, automatically converting it into fiat and transferring it to merchant. The fees charged by the card are used to pay transaction costs and to be distributed throughout token holders.

Coremedia and the information contained in this article or any other is not intended to be a source of advice or credit analysis and the information, documents or media contained in this website do not constitute investment advice.

30

Interview

ParagonCoin

What is Paragon?

It’s a blockchain solution and an offline ecosystem built around PRG token. It is being built to improve efficiency, transparency, compliance and trust for the legal cannabis industry in the US and around the world.

What problems will Paragon solve?

Paragon plans to create a structure and technology that will solve the issues surrounding the legal cannabis industry such as: • Create an immutable ledger for all industry related data via ParagonChain • Offer payment for industry related services, contractors and supplies through ParagonCoin • Establish niche co-working spaces via ParagonSpace • Organize and unite global legalization efforts through ParagonOnline

How did the idea for Paragon come about?

Paragon came from all of the problems I dealt with while running AuBox, a premium monthly subscription box with cannabis products. Problems I came across were things like verifying patient IDs (something that should be very easy and all on one database), not all IDs can be verified online and even ones that are verifiable online are not always accessible through API and often provided by different companies. Trusting lab results from suppliers was an issue, a few times I found potentially dangerous inconsistencies in the information provided by a suppliers and the confirmation I got back from the labs they claimed to have tested their products with. Renting office space as a cannabis startup is very difficult — real estate in the green zones can be very expensive and rarely fit into startup budgets. Paying everyone in cash from my delivery guys to my lawyers is a hassle, because cannabis startups can’t legally open a bank account.

Paragon has its own token, ParagonCoin, what purpose does it serve?

32

Interview

ParagonCoin (PRG) is a payment solutions for cannabis-related services such as: labs, logistics, marketing, legal, PR, equipment and so on. Basically, everything but the sale of cannabis itself. We’re not a coin for the actual purchase of cannabis. There are some coins that claim to be a payment solution, but unfortunately those solutions are mostly federally illegal. We’re not just a cryptocurrency, we’re building an entire ecosystem around our token: co-working spaces that members will pay rent in PRG, labs that members will pay for lab fees with PRG, a decentralized and open-source cannabis product supply chain tracking system, and verification mechanisms. We’re aiming to create a lot of demand for our token and building mechanisms to decrease supply on increased demand.

Paragon will help cannabis-related business on many levels. What kind of features will the Paragon smart contracts provide to its users that they could not find in other existing projects?

I’m afraid current existing cannabis-related solutions are not really offering any functionality and mostly are forks of existing cryptocurrencies that according to federal regulations are basically illegal in the US. We’re fully compliant with all regulations and are aiming to become the golden standard for the industry in terms of trust, verification, compliance, etc. We’ll offer voting, document validation, escrow and industry specific blockchain-based applications.

Why choose the Ethereum blockchain for the development of Paragon?

We’re using ERC20 tokens for the initial launch and Ethereum platform, however we’ve collaborated with IOTA and will be building a hybrid product that will offer a much easier vertically integrated product for the end users.

Can you tell us more about the Paragon centers and the ParagonChain technology that will be incorporated in them?

ParagonCenters are conceived to unite like-minded people under the same roof, give safe, comfortable and affordable work space for cannabis-related companies. We’d like to have an in-house laboratory, host events, conferences, startup incubator programs at ParagonCenters and we are even thinking about a cafe and or a SPA offering CBD products. We want PRG to be the only way to access ParagonCenters, pay for rent and services on premises to create additional demand for our token.

33

Interview

Although ParagonCoin is providing a wide range of technical and business solutions for cannabis business, there is also a lot of focus on the legalization movement for cannabis. Can you tells us how ParagonCoin plans to advance this cause?

We’re going to build an online platform somewhat similar to steemit where our members will pitch their ideas and even get crowdfunding in PRG to bring their ideas and initiatives to life.

In your opinion, how will the legalization of cannabis benefit mankind?

Wow, this list could go on and on, but I’ll just rant off a few things that it can help.

- Marijuana can be used to treat Glaucoma.

- Marijuana can treat inflammatory bowel diseases, like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

- It can help control epileptic seizures and it also decreases the symptoms of a severe seizure disorder known as Dravet’s Syndrome.

- A chemical found in marijuana has been seen to stop cancer from spreading by turning off a gene called Id-1.

- Weed reduces some of the horrible pain and nausea from chemo, and stimulates appetite.

- It relieves arthritis discomfort.

- Cannabis helps soothes tremors for people with Parkinson’s disease.

- THC may be able to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

- Marijuana helps man veterans suffering from PTSD. - Cannabis can help ease the pain of multiple sclerosis.

- Now cannabis is being studied to see in what ways it might protect the brain from concussions and trauma.

- Marijuana can help people trying to cut back on drinking and help people get off of addictive painkillers.

Aside from health benefits, - Marijuana stimulates major creativity in the brain.

- Each state can benefit from taxes on cannabis.

- By removing the criminal penalties for some marijuana-related offenses, thousands of individuals will avoid a criminal record.

- Consumers will be able to enter a safe and secure environment, where 34

Interview

they can purchase products grown under controlled conditions.

When can we expect the project to be in full motion?

We’ll introduce a public beta of our online platform shortly after the end of our token crowd sale event and will be expanding our tech team to work on the expansion of the features and functionality. The Real Estate part will take longer, we’ll first let our community members to decide on where they want our HQ to be opened, once we decide on that we’ll acquire our first property and it will take about a year to rebuild it, furnish and get all necessary licenses.

There has always been a strong relationship between crypto currency and marijuana beginning with CannabisCoin and CannaCoin in 2014. Roughly coinciding with the medicinal as well as recreational legalization of the plant in several US states, there still remains a large financial gap in the booming industry due to the fact that many mainstream financial institutions will not accept or hold cannabis related funds. As of September 2017, twenty-nine states as well as the District of Columbia have broadly legalized marijuana in some form. So the stream of income from the industry found a natural home for innovation within the crypto-space. Unfortunately, as of yet - there hasn’t seemed to be any true cohesion between the two worlds. ParagonCoin definitely has a unique edge when compared to other cannabis related coins, so it’s possible that the time for these two fledgling markets to meet has finally come.

35

Waves News

The Waves Platform partners with Gazprombank Digital Russia’s most recent stance on cryptocurrencies has proven to be a more friendly one that allows for companies in the country to explore the benefits brought about by their underlying technology, the blockchain. This is the case with Gazprombank, the third largest bank in Russia, which has recently partnered with the Waves Platform.

The partnership will allow the Gazprombank Digital division to provide clients with “comprehensive initial coin offering (ICO) services and customised blockchain solutions”. These services will be directed at the Russian metals and mining sector, 37

an idea that is already being explored as an open blockchain project, ZrCoin.

GPB Digital, the digital arm of Gazprombank, will focus on developing financial technology solutions and exposing them to their corporate and investment banking clientbase. Waves, on the other hand, will develop and introduce the necessary digital financing mechanisms. Maxim Ermilov, Chief Executive Officer of GPB Digital stated: “Blockchain technologies are gaining ground, already allowing technology start-ups to raise significant amounts

Waves News

of funding in cryptocurrencies. ICOs are best-suited for small- and mid-size venture projects, but should not be limited to the technology sector alone. We see big potential in bringing cryptocurrency financing innovation to the real sector of the economy — in particular, to metals and mining exploration and development projects. We are pleased to cooperate with the Waves Platform and are confident that our joint efforts will help bring real projects that meet very high standards of financial soundness and risk disclosure to cryptocurrency investors.”

al cryptocurrency investors. It is an important step forward for the entire blockchain industry, in Russia and across the world.”

To learn more about the Waves Platform, visit the official website.

The “relaxed” stance of the Russian government with regards to the current ICO landscape contrasts with countries like the U.S and China, the former of which has already taken action to regulate token sales as a securities. To the east, however, GPB Digital will work to promote this new method of crowdsourcing funds.

The presence of GPB Digital will also help raise the bar for the current ICO scene, bringing “the standards of financial analysis and risk disclosure closer to the ones qualified investors in traditional financial instruments expect.” Sasha Ivanov, CEO and founder of the Waves Platform stated: “Our partnership is a significant step towards mass application of blockchain technology. Presently, initial coin offerings are not regulated and carry significant risks for investors. Our strategic partnership with GPB Digital, the daughter company of Gazprombank, will allow us to generate a high-quality deal flow for glob38

Waves News

The Waves DEX arrives on Android Sticking to the pattern of fast-paced development, partnerships and news that the community has grown used to, the Waves Platform has recently announced the integration of the Decentralized Exchange (DEX) on its Android client. The latest move provides mobile users with an intuitive and light solution that allows them to exchange blockchain tokens in a completely trustless environment.

in the hands of anyone and everyone who wants to use it. The DEX is right at the core of the Waves ecosystem and I’m pleased to be able to announce it’s now an integral part of the Android client. Once again our dev team deserves credit for this important new milestone.”

The Decentralized Exchange can be found in the latest Waves Android client release, which now allows users to access the complete set of features from the Waves lite client itself. These include token issuance, leasing, access to the portfolio and now to the DEX. The Android client can be found here. The launch of the Decentralized Exchange for Android also coincides with the addition of the DEX to the CryptoCompare Index.

The latest update by the Waves team aims both to lower the entry barrier for new cryptocurrency users and to increase the security standards in the space. Sasha Ivanov, CEO and founder of the Waves Platform stated: “Waves was designed from the outset to make blockchain tokens accessible to What is the DEX and what it means everyone and to bring cryptocurrency to for users the mainstream. The ability to access all the functionality of the platform from a mobile Although centralized exchanges provide device isn’t just a desirable add-on — it’s a convenient service to cryptocurrency a fundamental requirement to put crypto users, they have also become a point of 39

Waves News

failure that is repeatedly explored by hackers and criminals. Luckily, the blockchain world has evolved to a point where these exchanges have been outgrown and tokens can be traded with no counterparty risk.

Crypto Hacks

The recent update by the Waves team comes at a time when problems caused by centralized exchanges are becoming more evident every day. From the infamous Mt. Gox hack to the most recent Bitfinex attack, exchanges have proven to be This is exactly what the Waves DEX is, a de- a primary target for cyber-criminals. Even centralized market where users can trade worse, centralized exchanges themselves waves-based assets, including Waves, fiat may also be a threat to user’s held funds as the recent BTC-e case has shown.

Overall, evolving decentralized exchanges like the Waves DEX can be the answer to one of the main impediments to mass adoption, the lack of security. To learn more, visit the official announcement made on Waves Blog mentioned at the beginning of this article.

tokens and cryptocurrency tokens like wBTC and wETH among others. Users can trade with no counterparty risk as all operations take place on the Waves blockchain itself, ensuring that absolutely no trust is required.

40

SuperNet News

ICOhub winner Oceanlab, officially launches ICO One of the three winners of our ICOhub competition is beginning its crowdsale today!

Back in June we ran our ICOhub competition. 135 different blockchain initiatives competed in a community vote to win cash prizes and — as importantly — gain help to run their ICOs and launch their platforms successfully.

Oceanlab was one of the three winners, picking up 36 votes out of the total of 220 cast. OceanLab is an exciting and far-reaching project that will apply block41

chain technology across a wide range of applications.

The project’s creator, Sphearis (Fabrice Distefano) has been involved in Waves since the very beginning and had already created a number of tools for the community, including the faucet engine WavesDrop. A series of these tools were combined and evolved into the Oceanlab project — at the core of which is the Gravit engine. This engine conducts in-depth and real-time analysis of blockchain and DEX transactions, enabling the creation of advanced statistics and additional research. The Gravit Bot can also automate

SuperNet News

transactions based on specified conditions.

The whole engine is now being extended to link assets and transactions with external sites like news organisations and social media applications. Oceanlab will enable anyone to extract and interpret blockchain data to learn what is going on in the Waves markets and platform.

A final facility will be anonymous chat facilities that the community will be able to access via their Waves address or by linking an alias to an address. This system will generate unique chatrooms for any token based on assetID, meaning that sub-communities have secure places to discuss a project.

The Oceanlab ICO will run from the 8am GMT on 7 August to 8am GMT on 31 August. For the first time, investors will be able to deposit using any verified Waves token that has market value (Ripto Bux, Euro, Ethereum, WCT, and so on). There will be a Day #1 bonus of 15%, a Day #2 bonus of 10% and a Day #3 bonus of 5% for all deposit currencies. From Day #4, a permanent 5% bonus will be applied for WAVES deposits. The crowdfund is targeting a minimum of $1 million.

For more information, see the Oceanlab ICO website or visit the bitcointalk thread.

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SuperNet News

SuperNET Comes To Save The Gambling Industry

As cryptocurrency grows, we see many crypto projects consolidating themselves in one particular industry. The one industry that makes the most sense, and is a perfect fit for blockchain technology, is the gambling industry. Gambling, as it stands, is a pet hate for governments around the world and for some economically unfree nations gambling is banned online. The reasons for the ban can range from preventing corruption in sport to saving people from using unregulated markets. Nevertheless, the choice to gamble is a human right and banning one’s choice to restrict gambling is a violation 43

of freedom.

The crackdown is flowing to economically free countries too. For example, in 2017, Australia tightened online gambling laws by banning loop-holes allowing users to play poker, blackjack and roulette. Unfortunately, every country has specific laws regarding online gambling and the laws are always subject to change. It’s no surprising then to see a variety of cryptocurrency projects looking to take on the gambling industry.

As it stands, there are already some cryptocurrency projects tapping into the

SuperNet News

online gaming industry, but none have the technology quite like SuperNET. The SuperNET project is a horizontal organization that plans to build useful decentralized technology. Addition to other SuperNET projects, SuperNET aims to tap into the online gambling industry too. Well known coder behind the project, JL777, has already implemented the backend of the supposed decentralized gambling structure. This coding signifies years of work in the making, as the poker project, named Pangea Poker, was first announced years ago.

to the dealer. In order to make sure the dealer does not run away with the funds, the dealer will need to issue a performance bond beforehand with an arbiter.

Before the game, the dealer must own CHIPS, at least as much as all the players in the game combined. At the end of each round, the dealer distributes the CHIPS accordingly. About the dealer’s performance bond and reputation, JL777 stated,

“In the event the dealer does not make the required payment, the arbiter would be contacted, and the validated amount would be distributed from the perforSince the announcement of Pangea Poker, mance bond. There is some risk of a dealer the code has seen significant upusing the same performance bond for grades with the lead developer upgrading many games and waiting until there is the code to the latest technology of the more than his performance bond in his day. Now SuperNET is moving forward, hands. So, a reputation of the dealer will and fast. JL777 has announced a new coin need to be a factor in how much people named CHIPSS which will act as the inwould feel safe in betting per game.” game currency for these online games.

The creation of CHIPS is essential, for it al- With the mechanics in place, all that is lows the use of micropayments, a compo- needed is a slick front end to complement nent much needed for online gambling. the backend. Currently, SuperNET already CHIPS is a Bitcoin 0.14 fork that will utilize has the funds to pay GUI developers, but the Lightning Network and Segwit. they have yet to find a GUI developer for this project. If you wish to apply for the “For Pangea Poker I needed a way to imjob to help build the GUI, contact JL777 plement gaming chips. Lightning network via http://slackinvite.supernet.org. For an (LN) seems a very attractive solution. in depth analysis on CHIPS, proceed to the However, because LN requires the latest CHIPS blog post or the CHIPS bitcointalk BTC I had to fork Bitcoin 0.14 to get a test- thread. able environment.” - JL777 The mechanics behind Pangea Poker are very interestingly thought out. Players must buy CHIPS in order to play poker at the table. The player sends the CHIPS 44

BlockChain News

Can’t join the Filecoin ICO? Don’t worry!

Filecoin is a Decentralized Storage Network that leverages both the IPFS protocol and blockchain technology. The Filecoin blockchain itself acts as an “incentive layer” that works on top of the IPFS. Although several other projects are attempting to use this technology, Filecoin is a project spearheaded by Protocol Labs, the creators of the aforementioned protocol.

Although Filecoin has got the cryptocurrency community abuzz, many were saddened to see that they will not be able to participate in the Initial Coin Offering 45

(ICO) campaign. In order to comply with the recent SEC funding regulations, the Filecoin token sale will be held through the Coin List platform and will only be available for verified investment firms, banks, and individuals with a net worth of $1 million or an annual salary of $200,000.

The ICO will start in two days and the project has already gathered $52M from investors like Sequoia and Union Square Ventures. Just in case you are actually able to join the ICO or if you want to learn more about the ICO and Filecoin itself, then you can do so here.

BlockChain News

Most of us don’t have a million dollars laying around but it’s not all bad. The decision by Filecoin also has its advantages as it will ensure that U.S citizens can also participate and that ICOs may start moving towards a more compliant model in which investors are safeguarded. With all this being said, what can you do to ensure your spot on the Filecoin network?

Filecoin runs on a “Proof-of-Storage” system that rewards miners for their idle computer space while recycling their Proof of Work computations towards this goal. This means that if you have some extra HDD space, you can earn Filecoin by providing hosting space. The Filecoin website reads:

where for the time being! Check out Sotrj and SiaCoin, two other blockchain-based storage platforms that are up and running today. You can also mine BurstCoin, a Proof of Capacity (PoC) cryptocurrency that uses HDD space instead of computational power to mine.

If you want to learn more about Filecoin, visit the official website.

“Join the Filecoin Storage Market to rent your hard drives, single disks, racks, whole data centers, every Terabyte you are not using. All you need to do is to connect to the Filecoin network and the protocol will handle the file transfers and transactions for you. The more space you put on the market, the more Filecoin you get.”

So even though you may not be able to join the ICO, not all is lost! Filecoin isn’t out yet, but you can already enlist for the “Early Miner Program” and guarantee your spot in the Filecoin ecosystem. To join the program, fill out this Google Form, which also gives you a chance to be in the beta tester program.

That’s not all! If you don’t really want to wait for Filecoin to be up and running, you can always take your HDD space else46

BlockChain News

BarterDEX: The First Fully Decentralized Exchange Has Finally Arrived

News of hacks and scams continue to pop up on the cryptosphere every week or month. From the recent issues with BTC-e to the Bitfinex hack and the Mt.Gox disaster, one thing is clear: Security has become a major problem in the cryptosphere, one that is keeping new investors away and is alienating people that were once excited to be part of the crypto world. Not to mention the millions of dollars that hackers make, creating incentives for more shady individuals to show up in the future.

However, the problems found in centralized exchanges go far beyond hack and 48

thefts. From fake volume to price manipulation, there is a lot of nasty stuff exchanges can do to get ahead or to make profit, something that has been proved to be true in the Mt.Gox case. Other times, exchanges can simply act in a dishonest manner, accumulate coins and then list them or delist them once these have been sold. All of the aforementioned problems have also helped to create a toxic environment in the cryptosphere.

Well, they say “necessity is the mother of invention� and it can also be considered the mother of adoption. This is exactly what has happened with cryptocurren-

BlockChain News

cies. The 2008 financial crisis was one of the breaking points that gave way to Bitcoin and the continuous faults of the traditional financial system have helped speed its adoption. Now, all the problems we’re seeing with centralized exchanges and other types of security issues are giving way to new and exciting technology like the BarterDEX.

coin and trade against dozens of coins without risk of central exchange.”

Not only will the BarterDEX exchange allow the project to provide liquidity and volume for token holders, it will also provide complete visibility from within the space as well. All coins that are on the BarterDEX will also be integrated in the Agama Wallet, a multi-coin (GUI) wallet with The BarterDEX is a decentralized exseveral advanced functions. Many popular change developed by SuperNET that coins will be included at launch, including allows coins to be bought or sold without but not limited to Bitcoin, Litecoin, Komodo, Dash, Stratis, ZCash, DogeCoin as well the need to trust a third party service or entity. Although the concept of decentral- as support for several fiat currencies. ized exchanges is not new, the SuperNET Anyone who would like to test or use team took it one step further, allowing the exchange is welcome to do so here. coins to be exchanged directly without To learn more about BarterDEX, visit the the use of proxy tokens. official website and read the white paper.

You can also learn more in the latest interBarterDEX was launched during June and views with SuperNET members Diemaster it features a wide selection of cryptocurand Ca333 here. rencies, whose teams have collaborated Surely, the crypto-currency landscape of with SuperNet in the listing process. The today is rapidly changing - moving ever exchange will also feature fiat currencies closer to a welcome environment of total powered by Komodo’s powerful asset decentralization. chains. All of these can be exchanged directly between the buyer and seller, as the coins are never handed over to a node or operator at any time.

The exchange is also open to any developers that are willing to work with the team in listing their own coin or token. A prospect that provides several advantages all around, specifcally for the token itself.

Jl777, lead developer for the SuperNET project stated: “You can directly ensure liquidity for your 49

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