Utah to Facilitate Voting for Disabled Individuals through Blockchains
So far, numerous case studies regarding blockchain’s usability as a voting platform
have been carried out by local governments, NGOs and private entities. So far, the results look promising, in the sense that blockchain can easily facilitate secure and transparent voting, thus completely eliminating fraud, while also making the process more seamless.
Despite this aspect, blockchain is currently mostly used for voting purposes by platforms that have implemented the system for their self-governance. Luckily, recent reports indicate that blockchain technology will soon be used in Utah, as part of a trial project meant to allow disabled individuals to cast their votes. To put things into perspective, the local council and government of Utah have decided to allow blockchain-based voting via smartphones in the upcoming municipal election that will take place in November. The platform that disabled voters will be using for this election represents the result of a fruitful partnership between the Utah Country Elections Division, the National Cybersecurity Centre, Tusk Philanthropies and Voatz, a local voting app development company.
The decision comes after a study conducted by the National Cybersecurity Centre has determined that the blockchain-based voting platform does in fact work, following a few trial runs. The idea here is to initially test the platform on a small group, and if everything goes according to plan, it may be very well integrated into all future elections that take place in Utah. A recent press statement given by Michela Menting, a director for ABI Research, reads: “I think it’s a great expansion on the mobile voting project. There is certainly potential to extend such technology to the general public, but it is always contingent on succeeding in smaller focus groups first, and especially those which may often find it more difficult to vote – due to location or disability as in this example.”
So far, several audits were also conducted on even smaller groups. With this in mind, the same platform has been used for overseas voters in the West Virginia elections, but also in Denver. All trials that have been carried out so far have been audited, and the results were completely accurate, as anyone might expect from blockchain technology. An important aspect worth keeping in mind is that for the past trial runs, very few people actually registered to use this platform. However, this makes sense since not a lot of publicity was carried out. For the upcoming elections in November, Amelia Gardner, a clerk, and auditor for the Utah County has stated that this time around, more people are likely to register, since the election authorities are working directly with the Disability Law Centre to further promote the project. Leveraging this technology is great news for disabled voters since transportation to polling stations is often difficult.
Apart from allowing individuals to cast their votes via the blockchain, the platform has several other functionalities. For instance, it features ID verification, but can also display a verification receipt, an image of the tabulated ballot, alongside the reference for the blockchain transaction. This data can then be printed out on a traditional ballot, which can be scanned just like traditional ballots. The platform also features solutions meant to simplify the process associated with absentee ballots, which can be quite labor-intensive. While everything looks great, some experts believe that further research and development efforts are still required to facilitate secure, fast, and cheap blockchain-based voting. For instance, Jeremy Epstein, who is the VC of the U.S. Technology Policy Council, has stated that challenges include, but are not limited to malware infections on the voter’s side, disruption attacks, server penetration, alongside DDoS attacks.
Our take on the matter is that these issues mostly exist since the blockchain being used for the voting platform isn’t distributed and decentralized enough, thus creating way for vulnerabilities. Mass implementation of this system would likely entail technical investments that would make the process secure and seamless from all points of view. After all, no widespread blockchain system has been hacked so far. The issue here is that the innovation stops right after the vote is cast – in other words, the vote counting and registration system remain outdated since ballots are still introduced in urns and counted by hand. However, we cannot expect to see the system implemented across Utah without several trial runs. After all, elections are no joke and failure is not an option.
BLOCKCHAIN – Knowledge Is Power. Wisdom Is Power With A Purpose
“Quote” accredited to Solitaire Parke
Blockchain is defined as one of the most significant technological advances in modern history, potentially on a par with the internet, which has led to it being dubbed “The Internet 3.0”. Despite the incredible potential of blockchain to reshape the world as we know it, there is still little understanding of what it is, what it does and why it is so revolutionary.
The Real Origin Of Blockchain
Blockchain was first conceptualized by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta back in 1991, although they didn’t call it blockchain. They wrote a series of papers and patents. One, in particular, was How To Timestamp a Digital Document, published in 1991, which involved a cryptographically secured chain of blocks. This is what many consider to be the first incarnation of blockchain technology. Basically, they set out to create an immutable ledger.
Stuart Haber and W.Scott Stornetta
As Stornetta stated in an interview, “It’s unfortunate that so few people actually read all the papers and patents, because there are a few ideas that can be mined from there that some have since reinvented because they never read the papers.”
Nevertheless, Stornetta is humbled by the fact that his 1991 paper about Timestamping ended up inspiring the whole blockchain movement. Interestingly, even after the “blockchain” work they did, the connection between it and money was overlooked. It was not until Satoshi released the Bitcoin whitepaper in 2008 that the connection became a reality and a peer to peer monetary system was created.
There were references made to Haber and Stornetta in Satoshi’s whitepaper, 3 in fact…
Blockchain 101
Blockchain technology is not a company or an app, but an entirely new way of documenting data on the internet. The technology can be used for social networks, messengers, games, exchanges, storage platforms, voting systems, prediction markets, online shops and much more. This can be seen as a new internet, which is why some have labeled it “The Internet 3.0”
The information recorded on a blockchain can assume any form, whether it be signifying a transfer of money, ownership, a transaction, someone’s identity, an agreement between two parties, even how much electricity a lightbulb has used. However, to do so would require a confirmation from several devices namely computers on the network.
Once an agreement also acknowledged as a consensus is reached between these devices to store any data on a blockchain, it is unquestionably there. It cannot be disputed, removed or altered without the knowledge and permission of those that made that record as well as the wider community.
Why Is It Called A Blockchain?
Blockchain owes its name to how it works and the manner in which it stores data, namely that the information is packaged into blocks, which link to form a chain with other blocks of similar information.
It is this act of linking blocks into a chain that makes the information stored on a blockchain so trustworthy. Once the data is recorded in a block it cannot be altered without having to change every block that came after it, making it impossible to do so without it being seen by the other participants on the network.
Distributed ledgers have 4 key attributes:
Recorded: stored information is timestamped.
Immutable: Nothing that is recorded can be changed.
Transparent: anyone can see the ledger of transactions
Decentralized: the ledger exists on multiple computers, often referred to as nodes.
Essentially, each block contains the data it is recording. For example, a transaction like 1 MHV coin being sent from Tom to Jerry, as well as timestamps of when that information was recorded. It will also include a digital signature linked to the account that made the recording and a unique identifying link, in the form of a hash (think of it as a digital fingerprint), to the previous block in the chain. It is this link that makes it impossible for any of the information to be altered or for a block to be inserted between two existing blocks. In order to do so, all the following blocks would need to be edited too.
As a result, each block strengthens the previous block and the security of the entire blockchain because it means more blocks would need to be changed to tamper with any information. When combined, all of these create unquestionable storage of information, one that cannot be disputed or declared to be untrue. It is important to note to be absolutely sure where you are sending money. On a blockchain, once a transaction is sent it is sealed and cannot be reversed.
The Three Pillars Of Blockchain Technology
Let’s go into more depth about the three main properties of blockchain technology which are;
Decentralization
Transparency
Immutability
Pillar #1: Decentralization
For decades now we have been subject to and use a centralized entity that stored all our data and we would have to interact solely with this entity to transact or acquire whatever information we required.
A perfect example of a centralized system is the banks. They store all your money, and the only way that you can pay someone is by going through the bank.
When you google search for something, you send a query to the server who then gets back at you with the relevant information. That is called a simple client-server.
We have used centralized systems for many years, thinking all is well, however, they have several vulnerabilities.
Firstly, because they are centralized, all the data is stored in one spot. This makes them easy target spots for potential hackers.
If the centralized system were to go through a software upgrade, it would halt the entire system.
What if the centralized entity somehow shuts down for whatever reason? That way nobody will be able to access the information that it possesses.
Worst case scenario, what if this entity gets corrupted and malicious? If that happens then all the data that is there will be compromised.
So, what happens if we just take this centralized entity away?
In a decentralized system, the information is not stored by one single entity. In fact, everyone in the network owns the information.
In a decentralized network, if you wanted to interact or send money to someone, then you can do so directly without going through a third party. That was the main ideology behind Bitcoin and also the ideology of Markethive Coin. You and only you alone are in charge of your money. You can send your money to anyone you want without having to go through a bank.
Pillar # 2: Transparency
One of the most interesting and misunderstood concepts in blockchain technology is “transparency.” Some people say that blockchain gives you privacy while some say that it is transparent. Sounds contradictory, doesn’t it?
The simple fact is a person’s identity is hidden via complex cryptography and represented only by their public address. So, if you were to look up a person’s transaction history, you will not see “Tom sent 1 MHV” instead you will see “1MF1bhsFLkBzzz9vpFYEmvwT2TbyCt7NZJ sent 1 MHV”. This makes the person’s real identity secure and private while still being able to see all transactions that were done via their public address – transparency.
This image shows what the blocks and transaction details of each public address on Blockchain Explorer
This level of transparency has never existed before within a financial system. It adds that extra, and much needed, level of accountability which is required by some of these biggest institutions.
Speaking purely from the cryptocurrency perspective, if you know the public address of one of these big companies, you can simply pop it in a blockchain explorer and look at all the transactions that they have engaged in. This forces them to be honest, something that they have never had to deal with before.
That’s of course if these companies integrate the blockchain. You can see why something like this can be very helpful for the finance industry right?
Pillar # 3: Immutability
Immutability, in the context of the blockchain, means that once something has been entered into the blockchain, it cannot be tampered with. Imagine how valuable this will be for financial institutes!
Imagine how many embezzlement cases can be nipped in the bud if people know that they can’t “work the books” and fiddle around with company accounts.
The reason why the blockchain gets this property is that of the cryptographic hash function. In simple terms, hashing means taking an input string of any length and giving out an output of a fixed length. In the context of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, the transactions are taken as input and run through a hashing algorithm (Bitcoin uses SHA-256) which gives an output of a fixed length.
Let’s see how the hashing process works. We are going to put in certain inputs. For this exercise, we are going to use the SHA-256 (Secure Hashing Algorithm 256).
As you can see in the above image, in the case of SHA-256, no matter how big or small your input is, the output will always have a fixed 256-bits length. This becomes critical when you are dealing with a huge amount of data and transactions. So basically, instead of remembering the input data which could be huge, you can just remember the hash and keep track.
These hash functions make it ideal for cryptography. There are certain properties that a cryptographic hash function needs to have in order to be considered secure, however, there is just one property that we’ll focus on today. It is called the “Avalanche Effect.”
What this means is even if you make a small change in your input, the changes that will be reflected in the hash will be huge. Notice the change in the hash in the image below? Just because one letter was changed from a capital letter in the input hash, to lower case, it drastically affected the output hash.
The blockchain is a linked list that contains data and a hash pointer that points to its previous block, hence creating the chain. What is a hash pointer? A hash pointer is similar to a pointer, but instead of just containing the address of the previous block it also contains the hash of the data inside the previous block.
This one small tweak is what makes blockchains so amazingly reliable and trailblazing.
Imagine this for a second, a hacker attacks block 3 and tries to change the data. Because of the properties of hash functions, a slight change in data will change the hash drastically. This means that any slight changes made in block 3, will change the hash which is stored in block 2, now that in turn will change the data and the hash of block 2 which will result in changes in block 1 and so on and so forth. This will completely change the chain, which is impossible. This is exactly how blockchains attain immutability.
Conclusion
With any disruptive idea, like the Internet was back in the day, not every company will benefit or embrace this new technology immediately. Banks are clearly in the path of the disruption of the blockchain, the Big Data social network systems, the online auction, and shopping centers are as well. And companies that resist blockchain will be left behind in the Internet 3.0.
Forward-looking companies that convert to the blockchain to improve the privacy and security of their data and create an environment that is unfettered from political and nefarious agendas, will be the winners on top.
Just about every company that migrates to the blockchain and new companies launch built upon the blockchain, will prosper, as long as they deliver and make their prime agenda to benefit their customers.
In the next article, we’ll see what companies have already adopted blockchain technology including Social Media and Market Networks and how it proves to benefit the user.
A Crypto/Blockchain enthusiast and a strong advocate for technology, progress, and freedom of speech. I embrace "change" with a passion and my purpose in life is to help people understand, accept and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals.
Is South Korea Following China on Blockchain Adoption?
China recently announced its endorsement of Blockchain Adoption in the country.
Following this, the crypto industry got very excited and as a result, Chinese Stock prices increased. Following the lead, the South Korean Government has pledged its own Blockchain adoption. On October 28, 2019; The government announced it’s interested in Blockchain. The South Korean Government will carry out support projects to develop the blockchain industry. The Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) will invest 10 billion won ($9.0 million) funds in blockchain-related projects in 2020. Moreover, KISA will focus on promoting the blockchain project to generate institutional interests in space-related education. Some USD 3.4 million in funding will be given by the government-run National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA). NIPA will further introduce blockchain-related courses to cater to the country’s young developers, entrepreneurs, and technology enthusiasts.
KISA “We will find more blockchain businesses this year”
Min Kyung-Sik, head of KISA said “We are going to discover a lot of ‘blockchain things’ when we say that it is a characteristic of the next year’s blockchain business. We continue to communicate with the public demand agencies to find a lot of projects to discover these projects. ” KISA till now do not have plans to invest in crypto-related projects.
NIPA “Support technology verification to discover blockchain company”
NIPA wants to focus more on technology verification business, regulatory improvement research group operation, consulting support business, and human resource development business. Yong-Joo Bang, head of the team, said, “This year, it will be conducted in the form of identifying and supporting the areas that companies need. The budget will be about 400 million won per project. I look forward to taking the lead. ” About 10 projects will be chosen for next year while one or two of them will receive funding over a number of years. Both public sector and private sector projects will be eligible to apply and application will be taken through Nov. 11
How the ICON will be affected?
ICON (ICX) is the biggest South Korea based coin. It allows information to easily be exchanged between government, banks, financial firms, healthcare providers, educational institutions, and private companies. Earlier, a crypto trader had predicted ICON prices will increase if South Korea is to accept blockchain. However, the technical indicators as of now do not show potential growth for ICON. This Blockchain Adoption news from South Korea could cause cryptocurrencies based on the country to increase, the current price position and its technical indicators provide a bearish outlook.
Article Produced By Qadir AK
Qadir Ak – Co-founder of Coinpedia Blog – His interest as crypto Author, Editor, Speaker at cryptocurrency conference has made him known as passionate blogger and startup in Asia.
Libra Will Not Hit the Market Without US Approval, Says Zuckerberg
The crypto sphere is known for being a disruptive force,
but even this sector got a disruptive jolt of its own when Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) announced it would be launching its own cryptocurrency, Libra, in 2020. However, ever since the company announced the launch of its own stablecoin, it has come under fire from regulators from all over the world.
Major Setback?
As a matter of fact, even the United States President slammed the project and asked the company to instead apply for a banking license. It has now emerged that Mark Zuckerberg is going to tell the US Congress that the company is going to delay the eventual launch of the cryptocurrency.The project has come under intense pressure from lawmakers, regulators, and even other companies that had initially agreed to participate in the project. Recently, some of the big names like PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) have decided to exit the project altogether, and the whole thing is looking quite grim for Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg seems to have conceded that the backlash against Libra is currently too strong, and hence, it would be better if the company delayed the launch altogether. In the statement, the Facebook founder wrote, “I believe this is something that needs to get built, but I understand we’re not the ideal messenger right now.”
Ripple Boosts Regulatory Focus With Opening of DC Office
The company had announced its very own cryptocurrency at the height of the crypto rally this year in 2019 and had scheduled the launch at some point in 2020. After the regulatory issues were raised by officials in the different parts of the world, the company stated that it was willing to wait until all issues are solved and launch the stablecoin afterward. While it is true that the company may have explored the idea of a delayed launch in the past, the Libra project seems to now have reached an impasse from which Facebook is struggling to recover.
Article Produced By Ankit Singhania
Based in India, Ankit is a financial content writer and stock market analyst. He has worked for almost a decade on several financial projects related to the stock market news, fundamental research and technical analysis for several websites. He obtained his Masters Degree In finance (MS – finance) from ICFAI. Currently, he serves as a financial consultant and technical analyst at Tradersinsights.com.
How blockchain can power the electric vehicle industry
Blockchain technology has proven that there are no boundaries to its application
as it continues to disrupt diverse industries. The electric vehicle (EV) industry is one that has yet to fully experience the benefits of integrating blockchain technology. However, this is gradually changing, with the electric vehicle industry recognizing the benefits that accrue from integrating blockchain technology.
In a recent study by researchers from the University of Waterloo, the impact of blockchain to the EV industry was highlighted better than ever before. The researchers studied how blockchain can be used to solve the challenges that face the vehicle charging systems. With EVs becoming more common across the globe, EV-charging services providers have sprung up seeking to capitalize on the new opportunity. However, since they can’t set up their own structures everywhere, they partner with property owners and then get to share the profits generated by the venture.
In their study, the researchers identified lack of trust as one of the key impediments to the success of such relationships. The EV owners have no way of knowing if they are being overcharged for the service, while the property owners have no way of knowing if they are being underpaid. Christian Gorenflo, a PhD candidate at Waterloo explained, “Energy services are increasingly being provided by entities that do not have well-established trust relationships with their customers and partners. In this context, blockchains are a promising approach for replacing a central trusted party, for example, making it possible to implement direct peer-to-peer energy trading.”
The researchers further identified the critical steps necessary to incorporate blockchain technology into the EV industry. The first is identifying the level of trust between the involved parties. The trust level should be recognized as a significant impediment if it limits the success of the endeavor. The parties must then design a blockchain system, based on smart contracts that can solve the issue of trust. In cases where the existing systems need to be replaced by blockchain systems, the new system must be designed to closely resemble the existing interfaces. This makes it easier for the users to migrate into the blockchain system gradually.
“Mitigating trust issues in EV charging could result in people who have charging stations, and even those who just have an outdoor outlet, being much more willing to team up with an EV charging service provider resulting in much better coverage of charging stations,” Gorenflo said. The transformation is already happening, with such initiatives as Share&Charge relying on distributed ledger technology to build a resilient and highly efficient network in the EV community. Share&Charge’s Open Charging Network is a decentralized network where every participant gets to run an Open Charging Network Client which creates a decentralized messaging system for authorization, communication and data sharing.
Blockchain technology will also go beyond just the EV charging to disrupt the Internet of Things (IoT), an important facet in the EV industry. Blockchain will enable the vehicles to communicate autonomously with the charging stations and with other EVs as well, ensuring a seamless ride for the owner. Gorenflo remarked, “In the end, we could even have a system where there is machine-to-machine communication rather than people-to-machine. If an autonomous vehicle needs power, it could detect that and drive to the nearest charging station and communicate on a platform with that charging station for the power.”
BeatzCoin to be officially listed on Probit Exchange on October 21, VibraVid.io surpass 2,000 registered users in 2 weeks
BeatzCoin (BTZC), the Tron-based cryptocurrency used to transact on the VibraVid audio and video platform,
will be formally listed and begin trading on Probit Exchange on October 21 at 9PM (EST). ProBit hosted the BeatzCoin IEO and will also host the first official listing of BeatzCoin, although more exchange listings for BTZC will be revealed in the coming days and will come into effect next week. Probit is a global cryptocurrency exchange based in South Korea, with an easy and fast on-boarding process for international and US-based users via probit.com. The exchange boasts a quick and easy KYC process, order speed of over 1.5 million orders per second and advanced security while having one of the simplest user interfaces on the market. Probit.com will be listing BeatzCoin on October 21 at 9PM (EST) as the first exchange to officially commence trading of BTZ
VibraVid is a decentralized media sharing platform built on the Tron blockchain that aims to become a decentralized answer to industry video giants like YouTube and music apps like SoundCloud. The platform transforms how consumers interact with digital content through the use of cryptocurrency, as its new economic peer-2-peer model significantly increases the revenue for artists and content creators as well as viewers. VibraVid.io launched its MVP on September 29 and has attracted more than 2,000 users since then.
The platform aims to deliver content directly from creators to users, thereby eliminating the presence of intermediaries in the form of record companies, labels and middlemen. By introducing a new peer-2-peer economy in the music and content sharing industry, VibraVid will greatly benefit both artists and viewers. All transactions, deals, products, services, bounties and giveaways are instantly recorded on the TRON blockchain ledger, removing the need for revenue-grabbing middlemen. VibraVid.io has officially launched its MVP, with music and video content for a global audience. The platform has attracted more than 2,000 new users in the first weeks of operation
VibraVid provides the tools and empowers artists and content creators by offering a direct link between creators and users. By facilitating a new peer-2-peer economy, we eliminate the middlemen that has hurt the music and content sharing industry for decades and instead give the ownership of the art back to its true creator.
As recently highlighted by an article written and published by Forbes about VibraVid and BeatzCoin,
“a platform such as VibraVid could encourage thousands of upcoming artists to pursue their goals knowing they will benefit from their hard work.”
The VibraVid platform is also keeping true to the original vision and values set out by the Tron Foundation by providing a free platform for content creators to earn peer-2-peer, while the platform’s storage solution is built on top of the newly released BitTorrent File System (BTFS). VibraVid’s choice to use BTFS not only enables a decentralized storage solution for uploaders and viewers but also attests to BeatzCoin’s decision to utilize new and progressive technological solutions put forth by BitTorrent Inc and the Tron Foundation. VibraVid’s ultimate goal is to upend the media sharing industry by assisting one artist at a time to earn a living from their work while giving them the ownership and power to price, sell and distribute their creation as they see fit.
Article Produced By Ishan Garg
Ishan is a cryptocurrency trader and a journalist. He is the founder of Blockmanity. He trades cryptocurrencies and holds some but he prefers holding USDT.
FunFair Technologies launches pioneering wallet solution across partner brands
CasinoFair and CryptoCasino to benefit from ‘any device, any browser’ wallet and updated user interface
25th September 2019, Dublin – FunFair Technologies, the market-leading decentralised casino provider, has launched a pioneering new crypto wallet and updated user interface which now supports any browser and any device. The new ERC20, non-custodial FunFair Wallet has been developed specifically to provide a seamless user experience for existing and new players gambling with FUN across its CasinoFair and Crypto Casino brands, marking a significant step forward in the name of blockchain mass adoption. Blockchain projects have so far struggled with onboarding friction due to complicated funding mechanisms, security features which differ significantly to mainstream offerings and a lack of usability on mobile devices and certain browsers. The FunFair Wallet addresses these issues with the introduction of more identifiable sign-up processes and security features, while most importantly ensuring the wallet can run on any browser and any device without the need for any third-party plug-ins or apps.
CasinoFair and Crypto Casino players will also engage with a far more immersive, social and Guaranteed Fair casino experience with an updated front-end, offering more intuitive access to their favourite casino games coupled with the most generous and varied promotions in blockchain casino. Jez San, CEO at FunFair Technologies, said: “Since launch, we’ve maintained our position as the most progressive blockchain casino provider and the launch of the bespoke FunFair Wallet and second generation platform interface will confirm this position as we strive for mass adoption.
“Onboarding has been a struggle across the wider decentralised sector but our new wallet, built specifically for use at our partner casinos, will fix this immediately with a seamless, recognisable sign-up process, straightforward security features and simple crypto funding choices.” FunFair’s first live casino brand, CasinoFair, has also relaunched its brand identity in-line with the new wallet and UI. It now features a more vibrant and progressive aesthetic which is expected to appeal to the millennial blockchain audience, while also staying true to its ‘Famous for Fairness’ foundations which underpin every aspect of its gaming experience.
About FunFair Technologies
FunFair is the leading B2B blockchain casino platform provider, changing the gaming industry for the better. Running on the blockchain, FunFair is empowering a new breed of operator with a low-cost platform, game developers with access to a vast new audience, and players with a Guaranteed Fair experience superior to anything else on the market. Its team has over 100 years of combined experience in the gaming and casino space, as well as 20 years of blockchain expertise, providing a platform to deliver the best slots, table and unique instant win games in a transparent, fair manner.
Article Produced By Globalcoin
Independent ICO Research and Reporting on the Biggest Cryptocurrency Winners From a Top 10 Crypto News Site
Neobank Juno Raises USD 3M from Polychain, Sequoia and Dragonfly
Juno aims to provide a high-yield account for savings
Juno, a neo banking platform that leverages decentralized digital assets to provide customers a high-yield account for savings, has announced that the completion of a USD $3 million seed round. Investors include prominent firms such as Polychain Capital and Sequoia Capital’s Surge. The platform is set to launch in select markets next year and is taking a radical approach towards creating an open and global financial system for everyone, regardless of location or income.
Banks in developed countries – including the US, Europe, Japan, and Singapore – traditionally offer between 0.01% and 0.10% interest through checking and savings accounts. This interest will be distributed daily and will fluctuate regularly. Clients will also be able to send and receive money anywhere in the world without intermediaries and at no cost. Additionally, the company plans to introduce a debit card with a partner bank in the future. Juno is built on the Ethereum blockchain and uses Nuo protocol for its core functionality. Its main feature is to enable decentralized lending and borrowing of digital assets to earn a high yield on stablecoins such as USDC. Juno is leveraging these assets to build the next generation of global decentralized financial and banking services (DeFi).
Varun Deshpande, co-founder of Juno
“Today, we are excited to unveil Juno – a neo banking platform that aims to provide everyone a high yield account for their savings. Our goal with Juno is to help create an open financial system for the world by providing equal opportunity and access, no matter where you are born or how much you earn. We are also delighted to partner with Polychain Capital, Sequoia Capital’s Surge and Dragonfly Capital on this journey as we build a new age banking platform from the ground up.”
Olaf Carlson-Wee, Managing Member, CIO of Polychain Capital
“We were early supporters of decentralized finance and stablecoin systems, both of which have continued to gain meaningful traction in the market over the past couple of years. We believe Juno is well-positioned to bring decentralized finance to the mainstream with their neo banking platform for digital assets. We are particularly impressed with the team’s focus on simple user experience, unlocking liquidity using smart contracts, and their Asia first strategy.”
Juno was founded in July 2019 by Varun Deshpande, Ratnesh Ray, and Siddharth Verma after creating the Consensys-backed Nuo protocol in 2018. Using Nuo smart contracts, lenders can supply crypto assets and earn daily interest, while borrowers can instantly access credit using their digital assets as collateral. Smart contracts allow for algorithm-driven pricing, disbursals, and collections, ensuring efficiency and transparency. Nuo protocol has grown organically to USD $25 million in deposits and USD $20 million in loans disbursed, making it the most popular DeFi app in Asia.
The founders’ past ventures also include BeeWise, an alternate credit analytics platform acquired in 2017 by Aditya Birla Money. As a serial entrepreneur, Deshpande was the co-founder and CEO of TopTalent, a high-end recruitment platform as well as AVP marketing at Topper, a Fidelity-backed edtech platform in India. He holds a degree from BITS Pilani. Ratnesh Ray graduated from IIIT Allahabad and was the head of data science at TinyOwl, a Sequoia India backed foodtech app. Prior to that, he was a software developer at Toppr, where he helped create personalized tests and social features. Siddharth Verma was part of the early team at Arista Networks where he worked on their flagship product consisting of high-density switches. He was previously a software developer at Cisco and an alum of BITS Pilani.
The seed round also saw the participation of Dragonfly Capital, Consensys Labs, Astarc Ventures, Singapore Angel Network and notable angel investors Balaji S. Srinivasan (Ex-CTO, Coinbase and General Partner, a16z), Amrish Rau, Jitendra Gupta (CEO & MD, PayU India), and Loi Luu (Founder, Kyber Network), Nitin Sharma from Incrypt, Venu Palaparthi (CCO, Dash Financial), Rajesh Chelapurath (President, Ceera Investments), Brian Ma (Founder, Divvy Homes), Sanjay Mehta from Mehta Ventures, and Prashant Malik (Creator of Apache Cassandra).
Article Produced By Globalcoin
Independent ICO Research and Reporting on the Biggest Cryptocurrency Winners From a Top 10 Crypto News Site
Ripple Explains FUDs, Decrease in XRP Sales in Q3 Report
Ripple Inc. has released its Q3 report, a move geared towards increasing the transparency of XRP ecosystem.
When the digital currency was launched in 2012, nothing more than 100 billion units of XRP was created, but “Ripple was gifted a portion of this XRP,” out of which it sells out to enlarge the XRP ecosystem by investing in ideas capable of reshaping the Ripple ecosystem. In the released report, Ripple stated that it decreased the sales of XRP by 74.5% compared to Q2 sales. This quarter, Ripple sold $66.24 million worth of XRP compared to $251.51 million it sold in Q2. During the last quarter, 3 billion XRP were released out of escrow and 2.30 billion XRP returned back. For now, Ripple is now available on over 140 exchanges worldwide, the report indicated.
During the quarter, Ripple’s investment arm Xpring launched developer platform to strengthen the relationship between developers and entrepreneurs and give them the advantage to build on the XRP Ledger while making use of XRP token. The developer platform is open-sourced and can accommodate the 23 million developers across the globe by giving them the chance to enable payments in any of their innovation. As well, Ripple invested in Logos, Coinme, BRD, and XRP-centric Coil partnered Mozilla and Creative Commons to launch Grant for the Web. Also in Q3, Bitpay and Xpring deals were sealed, and the formal is now supporting XRP, bringing the digital currency to its thousands of customers worldwide.
FUDs Everywhere.
Ripple tagged those making FUDs about XRP are only spreading misinformation purposely to undermine the nascent and innovative idea. It said bot accounts on Twitter are now more active at condemning Ripple’s XRP, and more unique bots are being created every time to do the same. Conversation about Ripple “dumping XRP” and “flooding the market” from bot accounts, increased by 179% quarter over quarter. While Ripple claimed it cannot manipulate the price of XRP, the company pointed that there is no difference between what is obtained in BTC, Ethereum community and XRP community. The same way large holders exist in many crypto community is the same way it
exist in XRP ecosystem.
“We do not see evidence that large holders of XRP are behaving materially differently than BTC or ETH ‘whales’.”
The company pointed that around 49% of conversation alleging Ripple of being involved in XRP price manipulations came from bot accounts.
Article Produced By Olayode Yusuff
Olayode has made meaningful contributions to Huffington Post, Thrive Global, Oracle Times, The Independent Republic, Forbes, Washinghton Post and a host of other news magazine. He’s a blockchain enthusiast covering news on notable cryptocurrencies and seminars from far and within.
Stuart Trusty And Augmented Reality Meets Markethive
Who Is Stuart Trusty?
Stuart Trusty was the original technologist for Alibaba and mentored Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba. He is a man of many talents with a humanitarian philosophy towards technology and what can be achieved with blockchain and ultimately leveling the playing field for all entrepreneurs without centralized supply chains.
Stuart was the CEO of Linux Labs for many years, an early proponent of mesh networking technologies and operated the 3rd ISP at VBN. He has had numerous high profile technology clients and currently the founder of WorldBit, an Augmented Reality based blockchain eCommerce system.
WorldBit CEO Stuart Trusty said,
"As the e-commerce marketplace has become increasingly tilted to favor large scale producers, the ability of small buyers and sellers to compete in the market has been greatly diminished. WorldBit levels the e-commerce playing field by harnessing the power of blockchain to bring more transparency in a decentralized platform that allows entrepreneurs to compete on equal footing with established businesses."
WorldBit is an immersive AR (Augmented Reality) eCommerce experience for businesses and individuals and offers extended capabilities to legacy ecommerce companies, but without centralized supply chains, excessive fees, or exposure of buyers to risky transactions. It enables merchants, makers, and consumers to engage in legal commerce without the need for banks, middlemen, or a centralized structure.
The WorldBit platform makes every user their own Alibaba, their own leasing company, their own Amazon, their own eBay, their own rental company, and it creates a user family wherein WorldBit functions as a kind of pawnshop wherein the user maintains control over their goods until a transaction is completed in a novel augmented reality environment.
In September Stuart Trusty attended the Wyoming Hackathon where he met with Thomas Prendergast, CEO, and founder of Markethive and it became evident the augmented reality interface could be put to great use within our Storefronts here at Markethive. This serves to create exciting interactive experiences with you as the store owner and the customer.
In an augmented reality setting you can walk out the front of your storefront to greet the customer. These engaging AR displays can enhance your product and marketing campaigns with the next level of personal interaction and excitement that will delight the customer.
This video shows just one short example of a complete augmented reality setting. Imagine standing outside of your storefront! Thomas Prendergast explains it succinctly…
There is no real limit to the way Markethive can build the interface as we move forward with Bee Lancer and the group storefronts that will have this augmented reality built into them.
Conclusion
At Markethive, we have automated and managed advertising and marketing campaigns. We can set up Co-ops and automate members' contributions and shares to any particular campaign. Build contribution blogging among groups and reward activity with a smart rotator. And now looking forward to integrating augmented reality into our Storefronts. This is really the next level!
But it doesn’t end there. Create a massive reach with our WordPress plugin and our SNAP (social network auto poster) Department. Reward your members with waited traffic and leads based upon their engagement within the group. Also, track and monitor 3rd party article submissions and Press releases. Additionally, build backlinks and monitor with Markethive’s exclusive data matrix display tracking system.
Anything you do in Markethive, whether it be to promote Markethive as your business or a completely separate and private business, you are receiving Markethive Coin (MHV) as a reward for your efforts. Now is the time to accumulate as much coin as you can and be ready for the launch of our wallet. Think about becoming an Entrepreneur 1 Upgrade as it will be the last thing you ever need to do to secure your future.
Be sure to attend the Markethive weekly meetings held on Sundays at 10 am Mountain Time to hear all the latest news and updates from CEO Thomas Prendergast and CTO Douglas Yates. The link to the Zoom Room can be found in the calendar on the home page at Markethive.
Deb Williams
A Crypto/Blockchain enthusiast and a strong advocate for technology, progress, and freedom of speech. I embrace "change" with a passion and my purpose in life is to help people understand, accept and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals.
