Day: March 8, 2018

Competition in the cryptocurrency space can only be considered a good thing. Right now, there is no one currency which checks all of the right boxes for everyone. UTRUST thinks it can change that by providing a cryptocurrency payment platform with buyer protection and convenient crypto-to-cash settlements.

The UTRUST Vision

It is evident that cryptocurrency can make a positive impact in the world of global payments. As of right now, traditional payments pose a lot of different risks which affect both retailers and buyers alike. With cryptocurrency, it is possible to avoid fraud, chargebacks, and protect users up to a certain degree. UTRUST aims to take this one step further, even though it seemingly provides a lot of functionality which traditional cryptocurrency payment providers offer as well.

Under the hood

The way UTRUST works is relatively simple to explain: it provides one payment system capable of supporting multiple currencies. Anyone who has ever worked with CoinPayments will have a basic idea of how such solutions operate in the real world. Moreover, UTRUST ensures every payment is instantly converted to fiat currency. This is on par with how most cryptocurrency payment processors work already.

Protecting merchants from cryptocurrency volatility is not an easy feat. All crypto markets are notoriously volatile in nature, yet it seems there is little that can be done about it. Protection from market fluctuations will be accessed by ensuring users receive the exact asking price for products and services at all times. Again, that’s pretty similar to how most cryptocurrency payment processors work right now.

What does set this venture apart, though, is the focus on buyer protection. After all, buyers risk sending money to a fraudulent merchant. As such, the UTRUST ecosystem will act as a mediator to ensure the money returns to the rightful owner. All purchases are protected from payment to delivery, which is a very positive aspect. It is evident this requires a lot of trust in UTRUST, as it is the escrow party presiding over every transaction.

The UTRUST Token Explained

As is always the case with any new project, there is a native token to contend with. In the case of the UTRUST token, it can be used to receive instant discounts from participating merchants and improve buyers’ purchasing power. There is no requirement for participating merchants to opt in to the UTRUST token, although doing so will bring some more visibility to their businesses. What’s more, making a purchase using the UTRUST checkout with the native UTK token eliminates all transaction fees.

The Road Ahead

As of right now, the UTRUST team is in the process of testing the platform API for merchants. Additionally, we will see a streamlined integration with merchant checkout mechanisms in early Q2 of this year. The minimum viable product will be showcased on April 19, which will mark a major milestone for the UTRUST team. Later this year, we should see a web wallet app, native apps for iOS and Android, and support for over 200 merchants.

CFTC commissioner Brian Quintenz reiterated his position on Wednesday that the crypto industry should establish a self-regulatory organization.

At the moment, the Asian continent seems to be taking the lead in pioneering the way for both app development and blockchain innovation. Countries like China, Japan, and South Korea, which are all global leaders in technology development, have built vibrant developer communities and have long been known to have some of the strongest mobile application, including gaming markets. Because OPEN enables developers to connect existing applications with their payment technology, the Asian market is a giant opportunity for mutual growth.

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One of the biggest markets in Asia that OPEN is interested in servicing is gaming. In 2017, the gaming industry in Asia brought in $51.2 billion – almost double the amount of revenue generated in North America in the same industry. Furthermore, South Korea has one of the region’s most robust gaming developer communities. And many of the games produced in South Korea are purchased and played across the region, where they’re especially popular among Chinese consumers. The OPEN Platform integrates seamlessly with games, providing payment solutions for initial purchases on the app store, subscriptions, and in-game transactions.

Asian Markets and Blockchain Adoption

China has expressed interest in exploring ways to help blockchain technology receive mainstream acceptance and adaptation.

They have also quickly gained over the US market in blockchain innovation, and their position as a dominant blockchain-driven country could be a reality given China has already has mass adoption of mobile wallet payment methods.

Along with China, countries like Singapore, South Korea, and Japan have also been receptive to integrating blockchain into various aspects of society. Each of these countries has been on the forefront of developing creative and innovative apps, which OPEN believes will create a need for quicker, more secure payment solutions for app-based purchases.

With OPEN, developers have the opportunity to integrate blockchain-based payment solutions into new and existing apps without having extensive knowledge of blockchain technology and programming languages like Solidity, which is used for writing smart contracts. Application developers can easily port an existing application onto a blockchain and begin accepting cryptocurrencies directly into their application backends with minimal effort This means that virtually every developer can use OPEN as a means of processing cryptocurrency payments – not just those who can write smart contracts.

Capturing Trends in the Market

There’s currently a growing trend in Asian countries for games like CryptoKitties, where characters, upgrades, and other rare in-game items are stored in the game’s underlying blockchain network. OPEN can assist these developers by giving them a streamlined payment platform without excessive transaction fees and network lag.

With OPEN, developers also don’t need to have their entire codebase written in Solidity just to process transactions. The biggest benefit of using OPEN is that it allows developers to program their apps in a language that they’re comfortable with. The OPEN API, and a unique process known as Scaffolding, allows the developers to easily run payment systems on-chain, while keeping their primary codebase off the blockchain.

Developers that integrate the OPEN platform into their apps become part of the OPEN Developer Program, where they’re airdropped OPEN Tokens based on their network activity as incentivization to use OPEN to process payments. For countries like China, Japan, and South Korea, which have always been on the forefront of developing innovative mobile apps and games, OPEN gives more developers the opportunity to create innovative software that reaches more people and surprises us all.

In 2016, Apple earned $26.5 billion in app revenue – that number increased to $28 billion the following year. Between Apple and the Google Play Store, the app store economy is worth approximately $500 billion.  With the help of OPEN, developers in Asian markets will sell apps and process in-app transactions without the need for Apple and Google’s promotional platforms, or their middlemen fees. This means that the future of app development will be determined by the creativity and ingenuity of the developers, not the online marketplaces.

China’s Huawei may be working on a Blockchain-based verification system to protect intellectual property rights #NEWS

The crypto world appeals to a number of gamers and individuals involved in the gaming industry, as there are many similarities between the two ecosystems. The most obvious similarity, though, is the idea that virtual goods can be exchanged for fiat money.

For example, dating back to the World of Warcraft (WoW) days in 2004, gamers started to understand that “virtual game items” won while playing these games (weapons, gold, etc.) could be exchanged for money.

“In 2007, World of Warcraft got really big and the virtual items market started gaining popularity,” long-time gamer and CEO of BitGuild, Jared Psigoda, told me. “Many people were buying World of Warcraft gold and weapons to power level their accounts. I started a business while I was traveling abroad in China to sell virtual goods to U.S. and European gamers who didn’t want to spend that much time playing video games, but wanted the same benefits as someone who had.”

It’s apparent that gamers have long understood the value that virtual items can have when traded in the real world. And as the cryptocurrency market continues to gain traction, virtual gaming items, such as swords and metals, are now being “tokenized” across “blockchain games,” allowing gamers to own assets and trade them within networks to earn profits.

The CryptoKitties Evolution

The popular blockchain game CryptoKitties is one of the best examples of the impact that tokenized assets are having on the gaming industry.

Since the CryptoKitties game was launched in late November, players have spent more than US$19 million on trading cartoon kittens living on the Ethereum blockchain network. According to the third-party data site CryptoKitties Sales, nearly 50,000 cats have been bred or released. At one point, the game was responsible for nearly 25% of all Ethereum transactions, which caused major traffic jams on the Ethereum network.

Yet the real value in CryptoKitties goes well beyond just trading and creating cute, virtual kittens. For gamers, there are big profits that can be gained from playing CryptoKitties. In the game, each cat comes with a specific set of attributes, and the rarest ones can be extremely expensive. It’s important to understand that gamers own each of the kitties they create or buy, which serves as a tokenized asset that is an ERC721 token with a smart contract that goes into each player’s wallet.

This is why gamers playing CryptoKitties are interested in the first implementation of the tokenization of virtual assets, as they know that they have full ownership over them. After all, gamers wouldn’t pay hundreds of dollars for a virtual sword that they could lose at any moment if the game’s publisher went bankrupt. Like Bitcoin, virtual assets acquired through blockchain games are permanent and remain in gamers’ wallets until traded or sold.

“Blockchain Games” Will Become the Next Big Genre For the Gaming Industry

The rise of CryptoKitties and the concept of tokenized virtual assets have paved the way for the creation of more blockchain games. As a result, a number of blockchain gaming platforms have been created.

An idea that started out as selling virtual game items to U.S. and European gamers eventually led Jared Psigoda to become the founder and CEO of BitGuild, one of the most innovative blockchain-gaming platforms on the market. The company’s public ICO launches on March 15, when the team plans to raise funding with the sale of their PLAT token.

“The crypto world reminded me so much of gaming economies. I think some of the biggest names in the crypto space came from video game item trading because they understood the concept of virtual tokens being worth real money way before everyone else understood this,” Psigoda explained. “We had the idea to build a platform for blockchain gaming, which is how BitGuild developed.”

When the CryptoKitties blockchain game gained popularity in December of last year, Psigoda understood that it appealed to so many gamers because players actually owned these kitties. Moreover, the kitties that each player acquired served as “virtual tokenized assets” which lived within each player’s digital wallet.

In order to advance the blockchain game evolution, BitGuild’s platform will allow game developers to directly implement blockchain into any game and tokenize all of the gamers’ assets by putting them directly in their own wallets. Through BitGuild, gamers will be able to own each of their virtual assets, craft them and also trade them.

Being able to both tokenize and trade virtual assets are a major reason why blockchain games are disrupting the billion-dollar gaming industry. Unlike other blockchain-gaming platforms that entice existing developers to tokenize all of their assets on the blockchain, BitGuild is building entirely new blockchain games that tokenize everything and have trading systems built to run on the blockchain.

The first game to be built on BitGuild is expected to launch in early May and will be called BitGuild: The Game. This game will allow users to create avatars on the blockchain, which will serve as “blockchain” versions of themselves. Users will be able to share their virtual selves with others on the blockchain, and all items will be tokenized, allowing gamers to buy, sell and trade their avatars between games on the blockchain.

“I view blockchain games to be an evolution of an entire new genre of games for the gaming industry,” Psigoda explained. “Blockchain games utilize smart contracts, have tokenized assets and provide open trading systems. There is potential for many new blockchain games to be developed and it will be interesting to see how things evolve in the next year.”

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While there is weight to the argument that the success of one cryptocurrency promotes the success of all cryptocurrencies, there are certainly a number of coins whose communities and even development teams have adopted a position of spite and rivalry toward competing projects. Here are five of the best rivalries throughout cryptocurrency.

5. Binance Coin vs KuCoin Shares

While Binance emerged as the premier altcoin exchange in 2017, high withdrawal fees, dust issues, and registration closeouts led many traders to seek something better than even Binance. From this search, KuCoin emerged late last year. Binance Coin (BNB) and KuCoin Shares (KCS) are the tokens that provide privileges to and represent the exchanges in contention.

Currently, BNB, with a market cap of almost US$900 million, is worth more than three times as much as KCS. As an exchange, Binance’s 24 hour volume, which currently leads all cryptocurrency exchanges with close to US$2 billion, is magnitudes larger than that of KuCoin. However, the daily dividends accrued by KCS have attracted a number of investors, and could potentially overtake BNB if KuCoin saw a significant increase in trading volume.

4. EnjinCoin vs GameCredits

Since EnjinCoin (ENJ) began to rebound from all-time lows in November of last year, the holders of the coin that emerged have been out for blood. EnjinCoin doesn’t just want to beat other gaming currencies; ENJ wants to be the gaming currency. Its biggest roadblock is GameCredits (GAME), the first gaming cryptocurrency and only project that has consistently been valued higher.

While GAME has largely ignored the ENJ rivalry, EnjinCoin’s continued growth to a current market cap of US$108 million is only about US$20 million less than that of GameCredits, and if GAME doesn’t fight back, it may see its market cap overtaken by ENJ in the immediate future.

3. Ripple vs Stellar Lumens

Ripple (XRP) has faced consternation from the overall cryptocurrency community for quite some time due to its being a centralized coin for the benefit of bankers, two concepts that go against the core values of cryptocurrency. While XRP has maintained a position as a top currency since its inception, at one point even overtaking Bitcoin in terms of market cap, it’s now being challenged by a friendlier, decentralized alternative, Stellar (XLM).

Fundamentalists support XLM as an ethically superior approach to payment processing, and its close ties with IBM have caught the attention and enthusiasm of cryptocurrency speculators across the board. With a market cap of US$5.8 billion, XLM still needs to see significant growth to eclipse that of Ripple, but its recent strength suggests this is not impossible.

2. Bitcoin Cash vs Litecoin

Once upon a time, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) supporters were calling for “the flippening” – a reality in which Bitcoin Cash was valued higher than Bitcoin, and therefore would shine as “the true Bitcoin”. However, the more likely future that others are calling for is “the flappening”, where Litecoin (LTC) surpasses the value of Bitcoin Cash.

The 2011 Bitcoin fork known as Litecoin is far older than that of BCH, and it has played a supplementary role to BTC for many years. With recent developments of Litepay and pushes for greater exposure as a payment option, LTC can be seen as technologically superior to BCH. The coins are very close in value, and a “flappening” may happen soon.

1.  Bitcoin vs Ethereum

Ethereum (ETH) is another coin that has many times vied to overtake Bitcoin. Its market cap has exceeded that of Bitcoin on a couple of instances, and Ethereum maximalists would suggest that the fundamental values and functions of the coins do not even compare. While ETH has proven itself as a legitimate, widely used, and valuable cryptocurrency, these discussions took place even when it was worth very little.

Cryptocurrency supporters active on Reddit early in 2016 likely remember the private message campaign undertaken by the Ethereum community when the coin was trading at less than US$1. Depending on your position at the time, you were either very supportive or annoyed by the unsolicited messages sent to /r/bitcoin participants explaining why Ethereum was superior. Below is one of a dozen messages I personally received urging me to check out Ethereum.

Stellar makes a bet that Keybase can port easy end-to-end encryption over to person-to-person payments in cryptocurrency.

Bitt, a Barbados-based blockchain payment startup, has received a $3 million investment from Overstock’s Medici Ventures.