HAPPY NEW YEAR!

EVERY CRYPTO ENTHUSIAST'S ESSENTIAL RESOURCE

JANUARY 2018
ISSUE 15
US$10

GILLETS
ALSO
Telegram: @LeaksNetwork JAUNES
WHAT IT MEANS FOR CRYPTO
GET IN-THE-KNOW
DISCOVER GADGETS, DAPPS, SECURITY, AND #THE21
LEARN HOW TO AVOID GETTING SCREWED MUST WATCH PROJECTS FOR THE NEW YEAR
FEATURE
A Decentralized History of

BITCOIN’S
FIRST DECADE

P.080 To celebrate bitcoin's 10 year

anniversary, James McGirk
revisits the cryptocurrency's
incredible 10-year history, and
shares with us his journey along.
BLOCKLAND
FEATURE

A City Gone Crypto

Jen Hill visits Blockland in Cleveland, Ohio,
where she meets Bernie Moreno, the founder
of the event, and gets involved with the
decentralized art movement with Snark.Art.

P.
093
is in partnership with

@XSNofficial

Stakenet.io
 Read about Poseidon Foundation, a non-profit
LAUNCH P. 011
that is using blockchain technology to rebalance
Trending news, the climate impact of any product or service
infographics, and
interviews
IN #THE21 ON P.049

FUEL P. 028

3 Reasons Why 2019 is the

Year of the Security Token
2019 is the proving ground for
a new classification of crypto
asset

The Crypto Pharmacy

Crypto is used in the medical
black market industry - and
whether it's helping people
where doctors fail

The Gilets Jaunes

Movement & What It
Means for Crypto
The French revolution is here,
and crypto is at the forefront

The New Kids on the

Block: A Story of Global
Blockchain Adoption
From Africa to Europe

IN THE KNOW P. 070

The Protocol Problem

In How You're Getting
Screwed

Rise of the blockchain

phones
In Gadgets & DApps
#THE21 P. 047
Gambling
21 projects you need to
In Meet the Projects
know about for the month
ahead
How to protect yourself
when trading
In Security 101
COIN EVENT P. 104
CALENDAR
An Introduction to Take a look at some of
Decentralized Exchanges the key upcoming events,
In Crypto Understanding conferences, and meet-ups
Chief Editor Researcher
What did our readers think?
V @GameOfCryptos Íris @IRIS21CM

Head of Development Art Director

Ananke @AnankeStudio Tiff @tiffchau

“
Just grabbed a monthly subscription to read
Anyone who thinks they " know" the
THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS space is either delusional or lying. It's
(In alphabetical order)
constantly changing, evolving, and we need
to constantly be learning and studying.
Carl Gunaratnam FlatOutCrypto @21CRYPTOS is, for me, a great source of
@EricCointona @FlatOutCrypto
quality analysis on current issues and news.
David Akilo Dean Steinbeck
@Kilo_Darv
James McGirk ”
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We retain full copyright and ownership of this magazine and all the content within. We retain full
rights to public distribution. Any unauthorised public distribution will be (and is) followed up with the
relevant companies and authorities and legal entities.

Content
This magazine is a collection of resources and opinions, it is not direct financial advice. We’re not
responsible for the accuracy or validity of the information the pros choose to provide to us. The opinions
of our content providers are not necessarily our opinions. We aim to provide unbiased information with
no ulterior motives as a service to the crypto community. Our primary source of income comes from
magazine sales, we do not want to influence the market in any way to our own or others’ benefit.

You
We love hearing from our readers, good
Please do you own research in addition to reading the content provided within. We’re not saying this to things AND bad things. So don’t hesitate
cover our backs, we’re saying it because we want to create better traders who don’t lose their money.

• • Never EVER trade more than you can afford to lose.

to get in touch with us on all social media
• • ALWAYS trade safely after extensive research. platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and
• • Do NOT follow pump and dump schemes, they damage our community in a massive way.
LinkedIn) or through email.
• • REMEMBER that Crypto trading has elements of a gambling nature - so ensure you avoid addiction,
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Editor’s Note

The last 10 years have

been one heck of a
ride for the cryptocur- TURNS
10!
rency industry. From
small beginnings, a
world class currency
was born. But bitcoin
is much more than a
simple currency - it’s
a movement, a way
for the people to take
back their power from
the governments and
financial institutions,
a way for those peo-
ple to own that power
themselves.

A huge amount of peo-

ple still say bitcoin is a
fad, a way to make a
quick buck, and that
one day soon it will go
all the way down to
zero. If you look closely
at these people, you’ll
see that they usually
have vested interests
in seeing bitcoin fail. If bitcoin wins, they can’t control
the world’s finances, and so they can’t control the peo-
ple. If bitcoin was really destined to go to zero, it would
have done so a long time ago - and it wouldn’t have gath-
ered the world’s attention along the way. It’s this atten-
tion that will now propel it into future dominance.

In 10 years, we’ve went from a few cents to thousands of

dollars in price, and at each point along the way, through
each correction (yes, these 80-90% corrections have hap-
pened many a time), people have feared the end. This
is a sentiment which has become a self-fulfilling proph-
ecy, and has indeed caused each historical price drop.
But what happens afterward? Bitcoin rises up again and
reaches new highs. With the world now increasingly behind
t h i s n e w m o v e m e n t , a n d w i t h m o r e u s e c a s e s t h a n e v e r,
now much more than before we can see a future where
cryptocurrency dominates over traditional finance.

Bitcoin is now officially 10 years old, so lets welcome it to

the terrible teens in style!
V @GameOfCryptos
Chief Editor of 21 Cryptos Magazine
 MASTERNODESSASSAASERVICE
THE STAKENET WAY

Many people believe only traders, who analyze and time the market correctly, are the ones that make money in the
crypto world. Well, this may be true though not completely, as the crypto world does ooer a lot of other
opportunities, apart from investing, where individuals and teams can make a good amount of money. One such
way is by running a masternode.

WHAT IS A MASTERNODE?

Masternodes are incentivized cryptocurrency wallets or full nodes that record and keep a complete copy of the Blockchain. Masternodes are functionally diier-
Ma

ent from other normal nodes as they perform a variety of functions, such as increasing privacy or taking part in governance and voting, in addition to keeping a

record of full Blockchain and replaying blocks. Whilst there is no prerequisite to becoming a masternode, to ensure that they don’t turn malicious, the master-

node owner needs to commit or collateralize a certain amount of the coins. As well as these minimum coins, the individual also needs a VPS or server to host

ma
the masternode wallet 24/7 on a dedicated IP address and enough disk storage to save the Blockchain data.

WHY INVEST IN A MASTERNODE?

A masternode owner has more power and responsibilities than just a normal cryptocurrency holder. Being a masternode operator, the individual has a say in

the process and decisions that are being taken for the betterment of the coin. Besides these powers and responsibilities, masternodes also get an opportunity

to make some great profits, which may be a combination of passive income (block rewards) and rewards for service providing which are distributed on daily,

weekly or monthly basis depending on network specifications.

XSN MASTERNODE NETWORK

Just like others, Stakenet’s masternode can be run on any computer that runs an XSN wallet with a locked balance of 15,000 XSN. These coins act as the re-

quired collateral to run the masternode. Having an XSN masternode, the operators become eligible for multiple income sources against the services rendered.

These include:

• Block Rewards: For providing their services to the network, masternodes will be rewarded with 45% of the block rewards.

• Stakenet dx trading fees: As masternodes will be playing an important role in the functioning of Stakenet dx (the trading framework using lightning

swaps), they will receive 100% of the trading fees.

• TOR service fees: At Stakenet, masternodes will also receive 100% of all fees for the TOR service they provide.

This doesn’t end here. Along with block rewards, as Stakenet ooers additional fees for every service that a masternode runs, there is more potential for earning

other types of fees over the years once Stakenet utilizes its network for decentralization. Being code agnostic, Stakenet ooers a perfect platform for developers

to launch their DApp’s and to utilize the masternode network services which in turn, would ooer additional income for the operators.
 CONTINUED

STAKENET’S MASTERNODEEASSAASERVICE MNAASS

As setting up and maintaining a masternode requires familiarity with Linux commands, novice users usually find it diicult to run a masternode. To provide a

solution to this technical knowledge entry requirement and open the opportunity of running masternodes to a wider audience, Stakenet has launched MNaaS,

a masternode hosting service. It provides a trustless service allowing users to own their private keys at all times so that the coins do not leave their local con-

trol wallets.

Using Stakenet’s cloud to run masternodes, operators can now save a lot of time, money and energy which they may have utilized setting up masternodes

conventionally. Currently, XSN cloud supports only XSN coin whilst the cloud team are working on adding more coins in the days to come. Using this service

has some clear advantages which include:

• Setting up of masternodes has just gotten easier with Stakenet’s MNaaS.

• Masternode operators now don’t need to maintain their own dedicated VPS and also provide additional storage, making it economical for the operator.

• It will allow operators to run multiple coin masternodes from one single platform with a monitoring service, thus giving them a better overview of their

node activities.

• Stakenet Cloud, on behalf of the operator, will make sure that the VPS is always online and also will keep the wallet software up to date making things

easier for the owners and also easing their worries about missing income due to downtime or incorrectly configured software.

• Being a trustless service, the operator has complete command over his own coins as the coins do not leave the locally controlled wallet.

• As Stakenet is creating a trustless world, masternode services are bound to increase, thus creating a high potential for earnings.

As Stakenet believes masternodes are critical elements for a successful decentralized world, its hosting service is definitely a game changer. With MNaaS, a

wider audience can now become masternode operators and thus help Stakenet to achieve its vision in creating a trustless decentralized world.

Providing MNaaS is also beneficial for XSN ecosystem as a whole, as the XSN masternode network will hold databases and run full nodes of multiple block-

chains, that will allow Stakenet to create a multicurrency wallet that can securely send, receive and confirm transactions on separate blockchains via

one-click lightning swap solution. Therefore, MNaaS could play an important role in network stability and security.

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 WHAT BY THE LAUNCHES CRIMINAL CRYPTO SUPER-
THEY NUMBERS ENTERPRISE VS STARS
SAY THE
WIRKD

LAUNCH

JANUARY 2019
TRENDING NEWS, INFOGRAPHICS, AND INTERVIEWS

Jeremy Epstein, CEO of

Never Stop Marketing and
author of “Decentralized
Marketing Organization”,
profiled in SUPERSTARS on
page 17
LAUNCH
CRYPTO INVESTMENT
WHAT FIRM SAYS BULL RUN
STARTS NOW!
THEY
SAY
Crypto investment firm Sarson Funds
came out swinging in 2019, announc-
ing that the next bull run has already
begun!
what pub- Managing Partner John Sarson said:
lic figures “On 2nd January, banks will re-open
are saying and hedge funds holding on to new
this month deposits will be clear to wire depos-
its to cryptocurrency exchanges. We
expect it to be more than enough buy-
ing power to cause a massive surge in
[digital asset] prices.”
The Sarson Funds blog also suggests
the recent bounce from yearly lows
was caused by “pockets of " nimble"
investors taking positions before this
institutional money gets deployed”.
CRYPTOORACLE VC
SAYS BITCOIN COULD REPLACE
GOLD AS ‘DOMINANT STORE
OF VALUE’.
Lou Kerner, Founding Partner of
New York venture capitalists firm
CryptoOracle told Bloomberg he
expects big things for the ‘big daddy’
of Crypto.
“What it’s evolved into today is a
store of value. And today, the main
store of value is gold. It’s an $8 tril-
lion thing. Bitcoin today is around
$60 billion, so I think it has an oppor-
tunity to actually replace gold as the
dominant store of value, in which
case it can go up more than 100-fold
from where it is today.” He said.
$300k
The amount of money
Floyd Mayweather and
DJ Khaled will pay in
penalties for endorsing
ICO sales this past year
$50k
BINANCE’S CZ SAYS THERE ARE “MORE
OPPORTUNITIES NOW” THAN WHEN BTC
WAS WORTH $20,000
While 2018 was a year many in crypto may wish to
forget, one of the year’s enduring success stories was
Binance.
Cryptocurrency’s #1 exchange by volume apparently
grew from strength to strength despite the general
market down-turn. In an open letter to the crypto
community, CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said; “2018
was a #BUIDL year for Binance”.
He’s not wrong. In the last 12 months alone Binance
launched several new business units and initiatives
including fiat-to-crypto exchanges in Uganda and Jer-
sey, free education portal ‘Binance Academy, a philan-
thropy programme – Binance Charity, and a #SAFU
fund to insure users against accidental losses.
In 2019 Binance continues work on its own blockchain
which includes a native decentralised exchange. CZ
hopes the new chain, “with 1-second block times and
1 confirmation finality… will serve a few niche func-
tions other blockchains haven’t covered”.
After achieving such growth in even the most barren of
market landscapes, it will come as no surprise that CZ
believes crypto really still is a land of opportunity, for
those willing to keep their head down and build; “There
are more opportunities now than when the price was
near the ATH (all-time-high). Project valuations are
more reasonable, stronger teams have emerged from
the ashes, and govern-
ments around the world
are studying crypto and
racing to see who adopts
it first.” He said.
Binance
CEO Zhao >
Changpeng
Anthony
Kwan/
Bloomberg via
Getty Images

LAUNCH
BY
THE 15% OF AMERICANS
NUMBERS WHO SEND MONEY
ABROAD, DO SO
USING CRYPTO
Clovr, a blockchain com-
pany known for its eSports
and iGaming token, sur-
veyed 707 people who sent
money abroad from the
USA.
The results show that Cryp-
tocurrency has already
overtaken other popular
methods such as wire-trans-
fer via post office, pre-paid
cards and cash via mail, as
a medium of transfer.
Indeed, only online ser-
vices such as PayPal, tra-
ditional wire transfers (via
banks) or money trans-
fer services like West-
ern Union, are more pop-
ular than cryptocurrency
remittances amongst those
surveyed.
15%
40% OF CHINA RESIDENTS WOULD BE
‘WILLING TO INVEST IN CRYPTOCURRENCY’
The largest cryptocurrency survey ever conducted in
China has revealed that 40% of respondents would
be willing to invest in crypto “in the future”.
Of the 4200 surveyed by PANews only 75 (1.78%) had
never heard of cryptocurrency or blockchain tech-
nology at all.
It wasn’t all good news for crypto advocates however,
with 63% of respondents believing that cryptocur-
rency is “not required as a means of payment”.
29% OF US BASED FREELANCERS WOULD
LIKE TO BE PAID IN CRYPTO
With tech-savvy freelancers increasingly working
across borders, the industry is ripe for cryptocur-
rency adoption.
As it turns out, according to a humans.net survey,
U.S. based freelancers tend to agree.
Of the 1100 freelancers surveyed, 18% would happily
accept their full salaries being paid in cryptocur-
rency, with a further 11% willing to receive partial
payment in crypto. Indeed, 4% of respondents had
already received payment from clients in cryptocur-
rency at least once.
Even greater evidence that crypto-adoption is hap-
pening within the freelance community is that 38%
of those surveyed said they already owned some form
of cryptocurrency.
If a similar survey undertaken by Lendedu in Septem-
ber 2017 is taken into account, in which 14% of those
polled had owned crypto, the year on year growth in
adoption is clear – an almost three-fold increase in
fact.
This should be no surprise. The benefits of crypto-
currency closely align with the needs of profession-
als working with global clients and requiring fast,
frictionless payment across borders. Indeed, 13% of
those surveyed believed international payments was
the main advantage of cryptocurrencies, with 12%
citing a lack of middlemen and 12% favouring secu-
rity. 8% believed low commission was a key advan-
tage, with another 9% choosing ‘transparency’. 11%
selected all of the above.
LAUNCH
LAUNCHES
HUOBI TO LAUNCH THE FIRST
EOS EXCHANGE
Huobi Pool, the mining arm of Singa-
pore-based Huobi Group is to launch an
EOS dedicated exchange, in Q1 2019.
EOS will be the base pair on the new
exchange, and users will be able to trade
it against a number of other, as yet unan-
nounced, cryptocurrencies.
This is the latest in a series of collabora-
tions between the Huobi Group, whose
turnover exceeds US $1 trillion, and Block
One’s EOS – currently the 5th largest cryp-
tocurrency by market cap.
Cao Fei, Huobi Pool's CEO said: "Launch-
ing this EOS exchange is simply the next
logical step in our support."
FACEBOOK TO LAUNCH ITS
OWN STABLECOIN?
Several sources are claiming that Facebook
is working on its own stablecoin.
Pegged to the value of 1 US Dollar, it has
been reported that the stablecoin would
initially be rolled out through WhatsApp
for users in India to settle remittances,
before a possible global launch.
Bloomberg, who broke the news, reported
that “Facebook is far from releasing the
coin, because it’s still working on the strat-
egy, including a plan for custody assets, or
regular currencies that would be held to
protect the value of the stablecoin”.
163.025%
how much your money would have
appreciated if you had invested in
NXT coin back in 2013
ETHEREUM FORK COULD PROVIDE
NEW YEAR PRICE BOOST
The knives are well and truly out for blockchain forks
after several contentious ones in 2018. However,
many industry observers believe Ethereum’s upcom-
ing ‘Constantinople’ hard fork will provide a bullish
start to 2019.
What is Constantinople?
Unlike the recent Bitcoin Cash Fork where two tribes
went to war over differing visons for the cryptocur-
rency’s future, Constantinople is simply an upgrade
to the Ethereum network that requires a hard-fork
because it is not backwards compatible with the exist-
ing chain.
The upgrade includes five different Ethereum
Improvement Proposals (EIPs). In simple terms these
are:
EIP 145: A more efficient means of processing data on
the Ethereum blockchain, known as ‘Bitwise shifting’.
EIP 1052: Optimizes large-scale code execution on the
Ethereum blockchain, or ‘faster and more economi-
cal smart contracts’ to you and me.
EIP 1283: One for smart contract developers – this
upgrade provides a fairer pricing method for updates
made to smart contract code.
EIP 1014: Scalability is a constant cloud hanging
over almost every blockchain project in existence.
This upgrade, provided by Ethereum founder Vitalik
Buterin himself, aims to facilitate progress on a ‘State
Channels’ solution. ‘State Channels’ is a way of scaling
the Ethereum network by allowing some transactions
to be executed off-chain on a separate network layer
– a similar approach to Bitcoin’s Lightning Network.
EIP 1234: If there is any contentious element to the
Constantinople fork, it’s this one. Constantinople will
reduce the block reward for Ethereum miners from 3
to 2 ETH per block. Whilst potentially hitting miners
in the pocket, this particular proposal is the one that
has led to suggestions we will soon see a price surge
in ETH – similar to historical Bitcoin price spikes fol-
lowing “Halvings”.
That said, it is also worth noting that the Ethereum ‘dif-
ficulty bomb’ – an algorithmic feature that increases
mining difficulty will be delayed by 12 months. So
while market supply will be reduced after Constan-
tinople, blocks should be mined faster than previ-
ously anticipated.
When is Constantinople happening?
Whilst Constantinople has already been postponed
once after bugs were found in the testnet code back in
October, current estimates place the fork date at 16th
January. If the Ethereum bulls are correct about Con-
stantinople’s impact, we could be set for fireworks
early in the new year.
LAUNCH
CRIMINAL
ENTERPRISE
UK FINANCIAL
REGULATOR
PROBES
18 CRYPTO
BUSINESSES
The FLiK token, brainchild
of the infamous US rap-
per known as T.I., is the
centre of controversy this
month. The token appears
to be failing, and failing
badly, so a group of individ-
ual investors have taken it
upon themselves to sue the
rapper for $5 million USD.
The alleged crime being
committed is that T.I. used
investor funds to fraudu-
lently drive up the price
of the token, then sold out
at the top, leaving inves-
tors with no money, and a
token with no value. FLiK
traded at a peak of $0.21,
and at a low of $0.001, 200
times less than the highest
investable price.
< The Ledger
Nano S that
was allegedly
vulnerable
6,000
The number of
crypto laundering
crimes in Japan in
2018
HACKERS STEAL NEARLY $1BN FROM
CRYPTOCURRENCY PLATFORMS IN 2018
If you thought your crypto portfolio had a bad
2018, spare a thought for those affected by the
exchange and platform hacks that caused losses
of over $927million in the first three quarters of
2018 alone.
According to Ciphertrace’s Anti Money-Laun-
dering Report an additional $60million has also
been stolen but not reported publicly, with the
overall total for 2018 believed to be well over
$1billion.
Some of the largest single losses were reported
by South Korean exchange Bithumb ($30m),
‘decentralised’ exchange Bancor ($23.5 million)
and a 51% attack on the Bitcoin Gold blockchain
that netted crooks around $18 million.
One of the first ‘new year’s resolutions’ on every
crypto-investor’s list should be moving funds
safely from exchanges into a wallet to which they
own the private keys.
LEDGER SAY VULNERABILITIES
FOUND IN HARDWARE WALLET “NOT
CRITICAL”
“Don’t worry, your crypto assets are still secure
on your Ledger device” was the official response
from Ledger, after researchers exposed alleged
‘vulnerabilities’ within the nano S and Ledger
Blue hardware wallets.
During a presentation at the 35th Computer
Chaos Congress in Leipzig, researchers Thomas
Roth and Josh Datko claimed they were able to
hack both Ledger products as well as the Trezor
One hardware wallet.
However, in an official response on their Medium
blog, Ledger said: “they presented 3 attack paths
which could give the impression that critical vul-
nerabilities were uncovered on Ledger devices.
This is not the case. In particular they did not
succeed to extract any seed nor PIN on a stolen
device. All sensitive assets stored on the Secure
Element remain secure. Don’t worry, your crypto
assets are still secure on your Ledger device”.
Trezor also moved quickly to calm fears about
the vulnerability of their own devices, via Twit-
ter: “Please keep in mind that this is a physical
vuln[erability]. An attacker would need physical
access to your device, specifically to the board—
breaking the case. If you have physical control
over your Trezor, you can keep on using it, and
this vulnerability is not a threat to you”.
LAUNCH
CRYPTO
VS
THE
WORLD
RESERVE BANK OF INDIA “AXES
PLANS TO LAUNCH DIGITAL CURRENCY”
After a series of crackdowns in 2018 saw many
Indian cryptocurrency exchanges cease opera-
tions, a new blow has been delivered with the news
that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is backing
away from plans to launch its own ‘crypto rupee’.
A source told the Hindu Business Line that, amid
fears of cyber threats and money laundering, “the
government doesn’t want the digital currency any
more. It thinks it is too early to even think about.”
ABKHAZIA GOVERNMENT CUTS
POWER TO CRYPTO MINING FARMS
Amid concerns over electricity consumption, the
government of the Republic of Abkhazia has cut
power to 15 cryptocurrency mining facilities on
the eastern coast of the Black Sea.
State electric utility Chernomorenergo RUE con-
firmed the move in a Facebook post, which stated;
“A total of 15 facilities were disconnected with a
total capacity of 8950 kW / h. This is equivalent
to the consumption of 1,800 households or equal
to the consumption of the Sukhumi district.”
The dawn of a possible trade war between USA and China
$16B
gone in crypto markets following
the 3% loss in Wall Street after
the detention of Meng Wanzhou,
daughter of Huawei’s founder.
FIRST ‘PROOF OF KEYS’ DAY
FIGHTS FOR MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
January 3rd saw the first annual ‘Proof of
Keys’ event – a day on which crypto investors
were encouraged to take back control of their
digital assets from exchanges and other third
parties.
Promoted by renowned crypto enthusiast
Trace Mayer, www.proofofkeys.com calls the
event a “celebration” whereby “HODLers every-
where [can join in] by withdrawing all their
bitcoins to wallets they control that perform
network consensus and use best practices”.
The campaign slogan is a stark reminder of
one of the most important, and potentially
costly lessons in cryptocurrency; “Not your
keys; Not your bitcoin.” Thousands of inves-
tors have already fallen victim to scams,
exchange hacks or have simply lost coins
because they failed to safely store them on
wallets for which they owned the private keys.
Proof of Keys has been described as a “fight
over monetary sovereignty” and as if to illus-
trate the point, both Mayer and fellow influ-
encer John McAfee were prompted to high-
light allegations that popular exchange
HitBTC had frozen user accounts 24 hours
prior to the event. Mayer tweeted: “Has
@hitbtc failed #ProofOfKeys? I do not have
an account. Asked a friend to initiate a with-
drawal. BEWARE! Result: "Withdrawals are
temporarily disabled on your account."
The Proof of Keys event is not intended as an
attack on exchanges and third parties in gen-
eral, more a “readiness drill” for crypto hold-
ers should they one day have to save them-
selves from malpractice “then on the 4th of
January there can be a return to business as
usual with renewed confidence based on proof
of keys” their website states.
LAUNCH

SUPER-
STARS

JEREMY
EPSTEIN
> YOU HAVE AN IMPRESSIVE PROFESSIONAL
BACKGROUND– CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF
AND YOUR CAREER HISTORY?
While I was a history major in college, my professional
career has been all about technology. I have spent the last
twenty years trying to bring emergent technologies on the
edge to the mainstream. A humanities education
has been helpful with this as a historical perspec-
tive has helped me recognize technologies that will
affect the way we work and the way we live. I saw
this with social media. My former company where
I was the chief marketer, Sprinklr, grew to a valu-
ation over $1 billion during my tenure. We recog-
nized how social media would change marketing
and advertising. The blockchain is no different.
Well, it is different in one way, Blockchain has the
risk takers have begun to move. Those who recognize the
potential to improve dynamics and paradigms that
possibilities are all in. I have been blessed to position
so well entrenched in our everyday experience that
myself in a place where I can be of service to Blockchain
it's hard to predict just how much will be changed
projects while also helping cultivate the next generation
by it.
of Blockchain marketers.

TELL US ABOUT NEVER STOP MARKETING, AND HOW
IT BEGAN.
I guess you could say the siren call of crypto caught
me. While it may seem early to some, getting into
Bitcoin at eighty dollars is not as early getting it
while it was at two cents. But we get there when we
get there; we can't regret not seeing something ear-
lier. What I did notice, and still do see, is the poten-
tial that this revolutionary technology is bringing
to the world. In the time that I have been involved in
crypto, I have seen its use cases skyrocket. For exam-
ple, our Blockchain Martech Landscape tripled in
2017. And when you put our landscape against the
established Marketing Technology Landscape, you
see what potentialities are there. The growth is far
from done regardless of the price.
YOU’VE WRITTEN SOME FANTASTIC BOOKS BEFORE, DO
YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR MORE?
I have published three free e-books that you can find on
my website. The most recent, The Decentralized Market-
ing Organization, is for established and aspiring crypto-
marketers. We are all looking for an edge, and knowledge
of blockchain technology will be requisite, I believe, in
the future of the marketing industry. I do plan to write
more as the overall goal of my work is to bring knowl-
edge and awareness of blockchain not only to marketers
but to the world.
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR YOU PROFESSIONALLY
AND PERSONALLY?
Things are moving quickly.

Last summer we released a course based on another of

WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE YOUR COMPANY’S GREAT
SUCCESS TO MOST?
A company is successful based on its people. One
good thing about the bullrush of 2017 was the
amount media attention given cryptocurrency.
Now, especially in this bear market, we are seeing
talent still stream into the space. A lot of people
are curious. But there are a small minority of peo-
ple who have, like me, jumped in feet first. There
is an excitement to it and talented people who are
my e-books, The CMO Primer For The Blockchain World
at the Online Marketing Institute. We have plans to
release other classes based on The Decentralized Mar-
keting Organization soon. Also, we are in the works of
establishing Never Stop Marketing Research where we
will continue to build and expand upon our Blockchain
MarTech landscape.
It's a hard question to deal with in the crypto-world. No
one knows what will happen. But I have a deep sense,
and I may be wrong, but if I am I' m in good company,
that the genie is out of the bottle. Blockchain will spread
through the world as thoroughly as the Internet has in
the last twenty-five years.

Follow Jeremy Epstein

on Twitter @jer979,
LinkedIn @jer979, and
check out his Decen-
tralized Marketing and
Consulting Agency Never
Stop Marketing Research.

21 CRYPTOS
 BOBBY
SINGH
PLEASE TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF AND
YOUR BACKGROUND.
I’ve always had a strong interest for technol-
ogy and innovation, and as founder and CEO
of Luxury Ledger, I’m able to harness that pas-
sion within blockchains and cryptocurrencies.
Prior to this I was a consultant at several global
financial services firms, working in data tech-
nologies in both banking and retail sectors.

TELL US ABOUT LUXURY LEDGER, AND HOW IT

PLANS TO STOP COUNTERFEIT PRODUCTS.
With fraud costing the global economy more
than $600 billion a year, everyone in the global
supply chain, from companies to consum-
ers, are at risk of being affected by counter-
feit goods. Luxury Ledger provides innovative
solutions in both anti-counterfeit and dis-
tributed-ledger technologies to deliver trust,
efficiency, and transparency in global supply
chains. We tag and monitor high-value assets
on the blockchain to ensure provenance and
authenticity of goods in both business and con-
sumer commerce.
CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THE
COMPUTERS YOU USE THAT ARE SMALLER THAN
A GRAIN OF SALT?
IBM developed cryptographic anchors is a rev-
olutionary advancement in asset tracking and
anti-counterfeit solutions. These crypto-an-
chors offer superior technology versus cur-
rent RFID and NFC chips. They are the world’s
smallest computers to date, smaller than a grain
of salt; containing several thousand transis-
tors that can monitor, analyze, communicate
and act on data. Adopting IBM crypto-anchors
within the Luxury Ledger ecosystem leverages
the ability to tag and monitor high-value goods,
providing a powerful means of ensuring prod-
uct provenance and authenticity.
YOU’VE RECENTLY PARTNERED WITH IBM - CAN YOU
SHARE SOME DETAILS ON WHAT THIS PARTNERSHIP
MEANS TO YOUR COMPANY?
Luxury Ledger is an early adopter, partner and pro-
moter of IBM blockchain technologies in enterprise
and consumer applications. Partnership with IBM
has positioned Luxury Ledger at the forefront in pro-
viding innovative anti-counterfeit and blockchain
solutions to global brands and consumers.
WHAT’S IN STORE FOR THE FUTURE OF YOURSELF AND
LUXURY LEDGER?
We are aggressively scaling Luxury Ledger digital
solutions that strengthen business networks and
eradicate counterfeiting in supply chains and con-
sumer transactions. As the founder, building Luxury
Ledger is a labor of love as I am passionate in build-
ing technologies that bring positive and measurable
change to our society.
Follow Bobby Singh on
Twitter @Bobby_Crypt0
and learn more about his
blockchain-backed startup
Luxury Ledger.
NEXGEN
DECENTRALIZED
RIDE-HAILING
PLATFORM
Mobility is a Big Business
For as long as human civilization has
existed, the need to move from one
place to another has been a profound
constant. This particular character-
istics of human behavior has evolved
over time, people humans seeking new
ways to transit from one point to anoth-
er in order to make life simple.
Mobility in itself is a huge econom-
ic factor and an opportunity of itself.
Without going into too much statistics
(apologies to our pedantic readers),
in the more recent years, the numbers
of cars on the roads have increased
and drivers have taken their econom-
ic empowerment more personal, with
lots of ride-hailing platforms out there
to choose from – yes, it’s a buffet!
In short, mobility is a big business with
the global taxi market worth approxi-
mately $108 billion USD. These figures
are constantly being challenged by
the increasing new forms of ride- hail-
ing experiences, however, experts put
the current global mobility as a service
(MaaS) value at about $24.1 billion USD
and expect this to grow to a value of
$230 billion USD in less than a decade
(by 2025).
SPONSORED
Decentralized Sharing Economy is the Future
The advent of the blockchain, smart contracts, and the
decentralized distributed economy has opened up the
world to a whole new scope of opportunities. These oppor-
tunities have given rise to a host of tokenized digital assets
and a prospering new Internet- based economy. While
these concepts are still nascent and propose a brighter
future, their current development and application streams
are magnificent.
Basically, what the decentralized sharing economy does
is to bridge the gap between value creators and enhance
financial opportunities. This means that it kicks out the
middleman, directly connects buyers and sellers of com-
modities or services, and everyone’s happy.
Leveraging the sharing economy has empowered many
developers and investors to build a new economy upon
the foundation of smarter systems than those currently
available in the world today.
Ride-Hailing Economy
Ride-hailing as a multi-billion-dollar venture has influ-
enced many urban and suburb regions to a large degree,
bringing new scopes to drivers’ economic empowerment.
Currently, the major regional coverage for the industry
spans through USA, EU, Japan, China, India, and Southeast
Asia.
The current valuation for the ride-hailing market is about
$36 billion USD. Analysts have projected this sum will be
approximately $285 billion USD by 2030 which is 8 times
the current valuation.
Ride-Hailing is Evolving
Unlike the taxi industry, which dates back centuries ago,
ride-hailing in this age, has the advantage of technology
and a driver’s motivation for independence.
DR I F E 21
Taxi companies regulated by either
the state or transport authorities
have made income earnings for driv- PROBLEMS IN CURRENT
ers more difficult with stringent pol-
icies and bottleneck bureaucracies; RIDE-HAILING
the worst is envisaged when central-
ized middlemen entities disrupt the
INFRASTRUCTURES
income flow of drivers through huge While there are quite a number of problems existing within the
commissions. This has created an current ride-hailing business infrastructure, it all comes down
opportunity in this transport sector to centralization. However, we have detailed other problems in
and many industries today are lev- our whitepaper as to why the current ride- hailing businesses
eraging projected economic analysis aren’t efficient.
and high-end technologies to proffer
solutions.
Centralization
Market prospects for the ride-hailing
Since the beginning of industrialization, the problem of central-
industry now cover mobile application
ization which is the basic infrastructure of private sectors and
developments, rising market demands
government systems has plagued every major industry. Gen-
due to population increase, region-
erally, it describes a middleman structure that concentrates
al expansions into emerging mar-
the flow of power, decision making and the economy to itself, it
kets, autonomous economic empow-
ishard for any meaningful growth or development to take place
erment and speculative instruments
with this type of structure in place.
on the financial and capital markets.
Like every other growing business, the It’s a given that the existing taxi aggregator firms have a cen-
ride-hailing business in just under a tralized system in place, and since this transport model has
decade ago, has drawn the spotlight been mirrored by ride- sharing/hailing industries, the problem
to itself, as many entities continue to percolates.
show interest either as investors or
as commuters and even more rapid- Centralization in the ride-hailing industry stifles growth as it
ly by drivers who want to be their own concentrates control towards larger corporations and entities
boss and maintain a decent income. that host these platforms. This essentially leaves other value
creators void of rights and less income.
Decentralized Ride Hailing and
Emerging Markets

Applying blockchain technology to

the ride-hailing service industry will
serve to improve the throughput of the
entire ride-hailing ecosystem. While
there are other organizations with the
intentions of creating a wholesome
system out of the ride-hailing econ-
omy, very few of them hit their princi-
pal objectives, and yet do not achieve
a wholesome ride- hailing decentral-
ized entity.

DRIFE’s role in this economy is not just

to stabilize but also harmonize the dif-
ferent stakeholders in such a way that
key players and value creators are
at their best in sustaining the growth
and implications of the ride-hailing
industry. Howbeit, this is not without
the proper incentive to do so willingly
– hence the decentralized infrastruc-
tural model of the DRIFE ecosystem.

21 CRYPTOS
A typical centralized company uses discriminatory
strategies to manipulate the prices which riders pay
per trip. The aim often time, is to create a stream of
higher revenue at the expense of the rider and often
times the driver also.

Another problem frequently observed in centralized

infrastructures is the breach of user data. These firms
actively collect data from riders and drivers, which
are fed to proprietary algorithms to find the best pos-
sible match. This has facilitated the growth of these
firms by allowing them access to more markets and
customers receiving affordable rides. In turn, these
models have helped in creating highly valued pri-
vately held corporations across the globe. But what
eludes most people is that it is also the perfect exam-
ple of a centralized structure.

A recently report of a data breach in 2016 was WHAT’S

released, where the names, phone numbers and
email addresses of more than 20 million people who
use the Uber Technologies Inc.’s service in the U.S
were leaked.
Moreover, there are cases of exploitation in the
name of the commission, data breach and high lev-
el of control to a central authority. Currently, there
are a couple of major players operating in different
regions and are engaging in price wars which results
in a high burn rate of their investments. The ulterior
motive of such endeavors is to create a monopoly
or duopoly market where they can inflate the prices
and commissions at will, and with an iron hold over
the governance.
As for these commissions, current ride- hailing plat-
forms charge drivers high commissions and, have
increased the commission from an initial range of
15- 18% to as high as 20-30%. This is a relatively large
share among companies that likewise run online
marketplaces to connect buyers and sellers.
So technically, what we have of a centralized infra-
structure is the manipulative hike in commissions,
data breaches and centralized control over drivers
and their income.
OUR
SOLUTION?
DRIFE is a completely decentralized ride-
hailing platform powered by the EOS block-
chain with the intent of empowering val-
ue creators within our ecosystem – these
include the drivers, riders, and communi-
ty developers. DRIFE plans to disrupt the
existing business model and remove the
corporate intermediaries involved in the
transactions.
What we’ve created in the DRIFE ecosystem
is a new paradigm for the ride-hailing indus-
try. We are the first platform in this niche to
express the full features of the decentral-
ized ride-hailing economy.
DRIFE Ecosystem: Value Creators &
Extractors
At the core of our ecosystem are our value
creators (Drivers) and extractors (Riders) -
we take good care of them:

A. Drivers: DRIFE aims at shifting the focus

from the existing commission- based plat-
forms to a decentralized network with a new
economic model, where 100% of the fare paid
by 'Rider' goes directly to the 'Driver’. We at
DRIFE are determined to make an economy
of Zero commission on rides, only annual
Membership Fee from the driver which will
give them access to DRIFE platform to get
connected with the riders.

DR I F E 23
The platform fee can be paid in either
DRIFE token or Fiat currency and will
accrue annually, with the first year
Membership Fee paid by the drivers
acting as a security deposit. Drivers
will be given equivalent DRIFE tokens,
which is locked into the DRIFE platform
as long as the Driver remains in the
community. Anytime the driver wants
to exit from the community, they will
be free to liquidate their DRIFE token
for themselves.
The second-year membership fee will
give drivers access to DRIFE platform
only with no DRF token equivalent giv-
en. Funds collected through member-
ship fee will be used for pay day to day
expenses to run the platform.
What We Offer?
We are initiating the creation of a utility token called the
DRF token, which will power our platform and give its hold-
ers an opportunity to leverage on the best services the
ride-hailing industry can provide.
I. To the drivers, we offer the opportunity to earn full fares,
no hidden commission or charges. II. To the riders we offer
the experience of the best of safety, security and afforda-
ble ride- hailing. III. To our investors, we offer open access
to the growing global MaaS economy.
It is important to note that our AI component functions
as a buffer system, giving it the ability to self-learn and
adapt to the changing environment in order to provide
the best of services anytime and anywhere.

In summary, our economic model (GET model) encour-

B. Riders: passengers receive spe-
ages active participation from the community members
cial exclusive discounts (T&C applies)
towards the building and maintenance of the ecosystem.
when DRIFE tokens are used to make
payments for trips. Further, as incen-
tives and bonuses when they behave
appropriately during rides. More so,
feedbacks on the driver, trips, overall JOIN OUR REVOLUTION
DRIFE platform use, and network build-
ing are incentivized through the DRIFE

“LETS
token.

Other key participants in our ecosystem:

C. Developers*: a community of
DRIFE
open- source developers are incentiv-
ized through bug bounties and for oth-
WITH
er potentially creative in-app devel-
opments that will user experience FREEDOM”
through UI interaction for both riders
and drivers.

D. Investors*: it’s our desire that our

product will have an indirect impact
on adopters ‘outside’ our user ecosys-
tem. This will include long-term inves-
tors, traders on both decentralized and
centralized exchanges and all future
potentials the DRIFE token will have as
a result of interaction with our prod-
uct and is adoptability. Incentives here
will involve periodic airdrops, self-
drops, and air grabs. More so, staking
rewards are competitive and far ben-
eficial than what is currently obtaina-
ble on other decentralized projects.

21 CRYPTOS
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Gillets Jaunes & Crypto

P/034

3 Reasons
Why
2019 is the
Year of the
Security
Token
After much anticipation, the SEC
has spoken. In recent guidance, the
SEC established its definitive stance
that ICOs are securities offerings.
This means that all token offerings
soliciting US persons must be regis-
tered with the SEC or fit within a reg-
istration exemption.
While many continue to discuss the
future of ICOs, the fact is: the debate
is over. ICOs in the US are dead. But
fear not, 2019 will be the year of the
Security Token Offering (STO).
Before you panic, let me clarify that
a Security Token Offering (STO) is
FUEL
simply an industry term for a token offering that
complies with applicable securities laws.
So how hard is it for an ICO to become an STO?
For starters, it will require registration with the
SEC. As those of us with traditional securities expe-
rience can attest, proper registration with the SEC is
time consuming, expensive and difficult. Depend-
ing on the type of lawyers and accounts used, an
Issuer can expect to pay several hundreds of thou-
sands of dollars or more to have a compliant secu-
rities offering.
Seem like a lot? Just consider the following cost: an
Issuer of a token offering will need audited finan-
cials. This process is surprisingly long, painful and
expensive. Accountants are nearly as bad as law-
yers. No matter how good your quickbooks account-
ing is, an audit by a big accounting firm is a painful
undertaking.
Not convinced? Here’s another likely hoop the
Issuer will need to jump through.
If the Issuer is going to use a traditional broker-dealer
to assist with the raise, there is a ridiculous amount
of due diligence the broker-dealer must perform on
the Issuer. It takes 4 to 6 weeks for highly regulated
US entities to pass broker-dealer due diligence.
Imagine what the process would be like for a Mal-
tese corporation with no history? Long and painful
is what should come to mind.
However, despite the significant burdens and
expenses involved, we still believe that 2019 will be
the year of the STO for the following 3 reasons:
– – Crypto startups still want to raise money
– – Institutional money wants to invest in crypto
– – A number of STO exchanges and platforms are
ready to launch
Read on to learn more...
29
 1. CRYPTO
STARTUPS STILL
NEED CAPITAL
For the past two years, the
ICO market has allowed pro-
jects from around the world
to tap into funding like never
before. Even though the SEC
is clamping down on ICOs,
the desire to raise money by
crypto-related startups is
stronger than ever.

As time consuming and

costly as it may be to regis-
ter with the SEC, the fact is that companies both
on and off the blockchain will always seek to raise
capital for their ventures. For decades, companies
have raised capital through IPOs and other types of
securities offerings, which are fully regulated by
the SEC. STOs require no more effort than tradi-
tional securities offerings.
Above:
U.S. Securities The primary businesses that will be hurt by com-
and Exchange plying with additional regulatory requirements are
Commission those that (i) cannot raise early stage funds, and (ii)
headquar- are not legitimate businesses. Thus, the added time,
ters in
costs and difficulty in registering with the SEC will
Washington,
D.C., United prevent some viable startups from raising money,
States however they will also help to weed out lower-qual-
ity projects.

Given the number of scams we’ve seen in the market

over the past two years, this might be a good thing.
More credibility will bring along more institutional
capital. Which brings me to my next point...

2. INSTITUTIONAL MONEY IS
POISED TO ENTER CRYPTO
Institutional investors have long wanted to partic-
ipate in the crypto boom. But, for the most part,
institutional capital is regulated, which means
they have to follow the rules set by different finan-
cial regulatory authorities around the world. Obvi-
ously, without guidance from those regulators,

21 CRYPTOS
their participation has been incredibly
limited.

However, now that the SEC has given pro-

jects a clear path to launching fully-com-
pliant token offerings, US based institu-
tional investors’ regulatory conundrum
has been solved. So as the number of STOs
rise, we expect to see an influx of insti-
tutional money in response. CONCLUSION
That said, while the move to STOs does a Although ICOs are dead in the US, you should be ready for an
great deal to open up the market to insti- explosion of STOs in 2019 and beyond The fundamentals are too
tutions, there’s one more key thing that powerful. Companies need money. Institutions are looking to
institutional investors need before they invest in crypto-related businesses. And the platforms that can
can fully dive in... make this all happen are nearly ready.

This trend might be disappointing to many crypto old school-

3. STO INFRASTRUCTURE IS
ALMOST READY
The last missing ingredient that’s been
holding institutional investors back from
entering the crypto market has been a
lack of institutional-quality investment
structures that can accomodate STOs.
ers who are still intellectually tethered to the decentralized,
government-resistant benefits offered by traditional ICOs. But
the long-arm of the US government is indeed long and wise Issu-
ers are electing to follow the law.
So get ready, the next big wave in crypto is coming this year. Will
you be prepared to ride it?
Dean Steinbeck

So far, there are very few institutional

grade crypto exchanges that meet the strict
security requirements demanded by reg-
ulators and institutional investors, not
to mention the technical requirements.

Fortunately, that will soon change as a

tremendous amount of institutional cap-
ital has already invested in building insti- Dean Steinbeck,
tutional grade STO exchanges and plat- Managing Director
forms and several are poised to launch in of Crypto Law Insider
and General Counsel
2019.
of Horizen (formerly
ZenCash) is a legal expert
Among the list, we have projects like
with over 15 years of
tZero, Templum, Polymath, and Harbor,
experience working with
all of which are vying to become the lead- cutting-edge technology
ing platforms for STOs and are setting the startups, software devel-
foundation to tokenize traditional secu- opment companies, and
rities offerings. cryptocurrencies.

FUEL 31

The Crypto
Pharmacy
Cryptocurrencies have long been
associated with the trade of ille-
gal drugs. Indeed they owe a part of
their recent prominence to historic
marketplaces such as Silk Road,
which combined increased anonym-
ity with amazon style convenience.
Needless to say the moral impli-
cations of purchasing drugs with
cryptocurrencies are more or less
the same as with any currency. The
power of these platforms appears
to have also increased the illegal
purchase of licit pharmaceuticals,
for self medication. These market-
places are able to offer specialised
medicines that would be difficult
to acquire on a street corner, often
with increased authenticity. This
goes in hand with a boom in symp-
tom checkers and medical forums
where sufferers can attempt to self
diagnose - often to the anguish of
medical professionals.
The Global Drug Survey’s 2018
report showed major increases in
21 CRYPTOS
purchases on darkweb markets since 2014. Pharma-
ceutical purchases indicated by respondents to the
survey have increased from 16% in 2014 to 19.4% in
2018. Prescription opioids specifically show a more
significant increase, however, this is perhaps bet-
ter explained by the non-medicinal usage which is
booming in the United States. The motivation here
often starts as legitimate medical usage for pain
relief, yet the cases where drugs are obtained ille-
gally are more often the result of subsequent addic-
tion. The majority of illegal supply coming from
street dealers or friends and family. But what about
the use of medical drugs obtained illegally?
I spoke to several people who have been self med-
icating from drugs purchased with cryptocurren-
cies. There were varied reasons, In some cases peo-
ple had been denied treatment or did not wish to
have the treatment on their official medical records
or the drugs were not available in their country. One
thing that was clear from the people I spoke to was
that they were all law abiding in all other aspects of
their life. They did not move in the circles required
to find specialist drugs illegally on the street, most
would not have been able to purchase even the most
common narcotics. One woman who wished to
remain anonymous, who we shall call Emma, only
chose to pursue their medical treatment due to the
recent popularity of Bitcoin. They saw Bitcoin’s
privacy features as suitably secure to purchase ille-
gally sourced medicine without recourse - whether
or not Bitcoin is particularly untraceable is moot,
but it certainly is the currency of choice for many
online dealers.
In the case of Emma she wished to purchase hor-
mone therapy drugs to aid in transitioning to her
gender identity. This was denied by the heath ser-
vice due to budgeting and psychological evalua-
tion. It would be prescient to mention that nothing
in this article is an endorsement of subverting pro-
fessional advice - go see your doctor. However, this
does represent an interesting ideological question.
Emma believes strongly that this is the best course
of action and is willing to pay for it. Only with the

advent of cryptocurrencies
as a payment method has
she been able to go ahead
with treatment. Now Emma
acknowledges there is still
a monumental risk to pur-
chasing unregulated med-
icine. Yet Emma has been
able to administer her treat-
ment due to the decentral-
ised ideology, where pri-
vacy and freedom is king
- for better or worse. The
first is the wealth of free
medical advice online, with
varying degrees of quality,
which comes from dense
forums and digitised med-
ical journals. The second
is the access to the unreg-
ulated Dark Web with the
(Above)
Dosage
of pills
packaged
for patients
who require
medication
every day
help of VPN’s and specialist browsers.
The third and arguably most impor-
tant factor is the use of cryptocur-
rencies as a payment option, making
the Darknet markets tangible. Now
Emma’s situation is certainly contro-
versial as it goes against, in part, the
medical advice she was given. Not to
mention the continued support and
care you receive through the correct
channels.
Cryptocurrencies are global by
design, usable across the world far
more seamlessly than fiat currencies. This has helped Mark, another
anonymous interviewee, to acquire medication. In this case Mark
requires a new drug that is entirely legal in the US, passing all the
strict regulation. However, in the UK where Mark lives the drug is
still undergoing trials and yet to be approved by NICE as cost effec-
tive, despite success in clinical trials. Mark was suggested the drug
by a UK specialist but was too late to take part in the UK testing. He
is able to purchase the drug from an American source using cryp-
tocurrencies. For Mark his chronic illness has left him in a state
where he is willing to take the risk on purchasing from an unregu-
lated source. Although the people I spoke to were concerned about
the illegality of purchasing the medicine, by far the biggest concern
was the authenticity of the products they received.
It would appear that with the blooming of freedom provided by
decentralised currencies and marketplaces we must make sure to be
aware of which institutions and authorities we are undermining.
Every country has its weakness when it comes to health care, be it
corporate interests, nationalised services or critical underfunding.
The impulse to globalise health care through a universal currency
is understandably appealing, especially when an identical pill such
as Lipitor can cost $6 in New Zealand and $124 in the US. Alterna-
tively, wait times and accessibility in the UK can often make free
state care unattractive. After conducting these interviews it appears
that cryptocurrencies are used to bypass perceived inadequacies with
local health care, rather than as a preferred option. This is analo-
gous of other industries being disrupted by crypto. However when
it comes to self-medicating, unlike other sectors, the repercussions
aren’t only financial, but physical.
Ronan, @AnankeStudio
FUEL 33

The Gilets
Jaunes
Movement
& What It
Means for
Crypto
The subject of climate change has
become a controversial topic which
has transcended the field of science
and has now firmly established itself
as part and parcel of global geopol-
itics. President Donald Trump rose
to power by playing to his conserv-
ative base, promising lower taxes,
smaller government, limiting immi-
gration and pulling America out
of the Paris Climate accord to curb
‘wasteful spending.’ The last item
on Trump’s list put him at odds with
several world leaders, particularly
the French president, Emmanuel
Macron, who promised to demon-
strate that nations can still grow their
21 CRYPTOS
economies while adhering
to the Paris Accords. He
was going to ensure France
becomes a shining exam-
ple to the world in the fight
against climate change.
Making good on his pledge,
Macron sought to enact
policies which will help
his country cut down its
carbon emissions faster.
His government proposed
an ecological tax hike;
where petrol/diesel prices
will be increased by four
euro cents a liter. This carbon tax plan will put a
‘true cost on fossil fuels’ and will discourage people
from using them, in other words, punish those who
patronize hydrocarbon fuel. This plan was slated to
take effect this January, forming part of a broader
French policy to cut down its carbon emissions by
40% by 2030.
THE RISE OF GILETS JAUNES
The Macron’s “polluter pays” plan turned out to be
a faux pas; it didn’t sit well with the French people
and it wasn’t long before they took to the streets en
masse to express their dissatisfaction with the gov-
ernment. As it turns out, a large number of people
were already disillusioned by the Macron led admin-
istration; the tax hike was simply the last straw that
broke the camel's back.
On the 17th of November, the protests became more
organized. Motivated by the higher taxes and the
rising costs of living, about 280,000 people sport-
ing yellow vests took part in demonstrations across
the country, calling for the abolishment of the new
tax plan and the resignation of Macron. The yel-
low vest was chosen as a symbol for the movement
because it was widely available, inexpensive and
easily recognizable.
 (Left)
Gilets Jaunes (Yellow
Vests Movement protes-
tors) protesting in Paris. /
Image via Crimethinc
(Next page)
Protestor wearing yellow
vest with "Buy Bitcoin"
written on it spotted in
Paris in early Dec 2018.

But is this enough?

Macron’s measures seem to

touch on the tax plan and mini-
mum wage, but it fails to address
many other demands of the yel-
low vests.

EVOLVING DEMANDS…
The popularity of the movement began to grow to encompass both rural
CRYPTO TO THE
and urban areas, even French schools got involved. Soon Gilets Jaunes RESCUE
began to spread out of France’s borders to other European nations like Bel-
The number 5 proposition of the
gium and Turkey. Fearing the spread of yellow vest movement, the Egyp-
Gilets Jaunes official charter is
tian government placed a ban on the sale of yellow vests in the country. As
titled “BANKS” and demands
their numbers grew, the campaign garnered more attention from both the
that the government breaks up
local and international media, they became too hard to ignore. The Gilets
the banking monopoly; reduc-
Jaunes demands also evolved to a list of 25 propositions cutting across the
ing their power by making
economy, policy decisions, health and geopolitics, all condensed into a
banks smaller. Cryptocurren-
document, an official charter titled “The People’s Directives.”
cies like Bitcoin were created
The Gilets Jaunes promised to end the civil unrest provided their demands for this exact purpose; to serve
were met. as a deterrent to the overreach-
ing power of government and a
The yellow vest movement was no longer merely an outcry against unfair solution to the heavily central-
tax hikes, with “The People’s Directives,” they began to shape up as a polit- ized and broken global finan-
ical movement. The government not only viewed the demands of Gilets cial system. Cryptocurrencies
Jaunes as absurd propositions but also inferred that the group could be promote decentralization, put-
taken over by more radical elements causing problems for France’s sta- ting power back in the hands of
bility. Speaking on the gravity of the situation, France's Interior Minister the people, which is basically
Christophe Castaner stated that: The weekly demonstration had "created the theme of the yellow vests.
a monster that escaped from its creators."
Cryptocurrency may not be a
Initially, the French government said there will be no changes to their tax universal solution, but crypto
plan, but after weeks of consistent protests, Macron appeared to cave; he enthusiasts agree that it can
announced that the government will adopt certain measures to soothe the play a key role in tending to cru-
public. This included an increase in the minimum wage and a suspension cial issues contained in the “The
of the intended tax plan to allow for negotiation with all stakeholders. People’s Directives.”

FUEL 35
 REVAMPING THE GLOBAL
FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Following the great depression, cen-
tral banks took up more responsibili-
ties due to the critical role they played
in stabilizing the economy which
ironically, was in disarray due to their
tight monetary policies. This made
them much more powerful than ever
before. Central bankers are unelected
officials and thus are immune to the
checks and balances provided by a
democratic process, but despite this,
they wield powers which determine
the economic destinies of nations.
By printing more money, influenc-
ing interest rates or setting reserve
requirements, central banks are able
to control the amount of cash in cir-
culation; this allows them to deter-
mine a nation’s micro and macroeco-
nomics. On the macroeconomic level,
central bank policies affect interest
rates, overall growth, GDP, and even
unemployment rates, all which are
of serious concern to the yellow vest
movement.
Cryptocurrency offers a permis-
sionless and trustless alternative to
this government/bank monopolized
financial system which based on his-
tory is prone to failure, inflation, and
a shrinking purchasing power. With
the use of digital wallets, individuals
can become their own banks and carry
out both local and cross-border trans-
actions without the need for banks or
any other third party interference.
Global adoption of cryptocurrencies
will see banks lose their power as indi-
viduals shift from printable fiat to the
more economically sound and infla-
tion proof cryptocurrency. A grow-
ing number of people are now turning
to cryptocurrencies to hedge against
inflation and other forms of govern-
ment manipulation; this loss of con-
trol is what scares big banks. The core
ideology of cryptocurrencies like Bit-
coin profoundly resonates with the
Gilets Jaunes battle against the ‘pow-
ers that be.’
21 CRYPTOS
Yellow Vest protesters rec-
ognize this, and some have
been showing up at the pro-
tests with “buy Bitcoin”
written on their vests. Else-
where, crypto evangelists
like Max Keiser have pro-
posed that the movement
converts their bank deposits into Bitcoin to collapse the Banks and
shut down government while some developers have gone ahead to
create a Gilets Jaunes cryptocurrency which claims to act as a facili-
tator of the growing movement. The project’s team affirms that the
crypto is based on the Ethereum blockchain and inspired by Bit-
coin’s ideology. The authenticity and viability of this token remains
debatable since it is unclear if it is actually affiliated to the real yel-
low vest movement.
THE FORGOTTEN PURPOSE OF
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Studying the situation, some analysts have suggested that the Gilets
Jaunes movement may eventually coalesce into a political party pro-
vided they are able to grow their numbers and remain organized.
Others, however, feel the movement will ultimately collapse since
protest turnout has reduced since Macron jettisoned his tax hike
plan.
Regardless of what happens, the yellow vest movement proves that
people are truly disenchanted with the way governments and the
current financial system operates. Like the yellow vests, many indi-
viduals around the world are seeking people-centric systems that
uphold their rights and guarantees financial and economic freedom.
This is what cryptocurrency offers, and this is the very same reason
it is becoming an attractive tool for fighting overpowered banks and
governments while maintaining individual liberty.
Today, many people see crypto as merely an investment vehicle to
make some quick cash. One can't really blame them since this men-
tality was mainly driven by the crypto boom of 2017. However, it is
important not to lose sight of the true purpose of cryptocurrency
which is to give individuals economic freedom, not through invest-
ment but through real world utility.
David Akilo @Kilo_Darv

The New
Kids on
the Block:
A Story
of Global
Blockchain
Adoption
Today’s tech-driven world has
brought about improved commu-
nication systems, advanced edu-
cational techniques, digitization,
electronic commerce, and space
travel. Technology has forced us to
rethink the way we do things, to
innovate and to create applications
that makes life a little bit easier for
everyone. Aside from artificial intel-
ligence and the Internet-of-things,
blockchain technology is another
highly disruptive invention which
FUEL
is poised to transform global industries and bring
about an era of decentralization and transparency.
Blockchain’s first major application was Bitcoin,
a cryptocurrency created to unleash a new finan-
cial system which will curb the demerits of central-
ization, allowing individuals to make transactions
without requiring the intervention of third parties.
Today, blockchain technology has now evolved to
encompass solutions which transcend the finance
sector touching areas like supply chain manage-
ment, food security, energy trading, identity man-
agement, and electoral conduct. In the wake of
numerous blockchain solutions being championed
by several mainstream companies like Walmart,
IBM, Deloitte, and even BMW, the whole world is
sitting up and paying attention to this new emerg-
ing technology. Blockchain use cases are snow-
balling, from Africa all the way to Europe; we are
starting to witness a new trend of blockchain adop-
tions in countries that were once indifferent to the
technology.
WHO ARE THESE NEW PLAYERS ON
THE BLOCK?
Considering the fact that the blockchain and Bit-
coin were invented as a response to the global finan-
cial crisis back in 2008, it isn't far-fetched to reason
that these decentralized solutions will be benefi-
cial for societies dealing with economic and finan-
cial problems. In fact, many experts have predicted
that these countries will be the focal point that will
spark the global blockchain revolution.
THE RISE OF BLOCKCHAIN IN
AFRICA
Several African nations have started paying close
attention to blockchain technology. New applica-
tions ranging from food supply chain solutions to
government based services are springing up all over
the continent. So far, the nations of Kenya and Nige-
ria appear to be leading the charge when it comes to
blockchain adoption.
37
NIGERIA
Nigeria, the most populous
black nation on earth is rich in
culture, diverse in ethnicity
and abundant in resources.
However, the country has
suffered several setbacks in
its development; the conse-
quences of corrupt practices
and mismanagement; two
key areas where blockchain
application could help put
the nip in the bud. The gov-
ernment-owned company,
National Identity Manage-
ment Commission (NIMC),
whose functions encompass
identity management, iden-
tity verification, data authentication, as well
as the enrolment and issuance of national elec-
tronic IDs, is now looking to expand beyond
Nigeria's borders by creating a unique block- to build a blockchain based plat-
chain identity solution for the entire African form for fighting crime in Nigeria.
continent. This project is called Interport and
will allow Interpol to manage stake-
Speaking at the 2018 World Blockchain Summit holder engagement and easily access
in Nairobi, Tunji Durodola, an identity consult- crime-related data. Although the
ant at NIMC said that: Nigerian federal government has
been somewhat cautious about cryp-
“One of the things we had to look at is to see tocurrencies, cryptopreneurs are still
how we can possibly come up with a solution on the rise. Samuel Benedict Ogbon-
that will not just be generic to Nigeria but naya oversaw the creation of Satow- Workshop
to create something that will be endemic to allet, a multi cryptocurrency wal- held by
all Africans. [….] With this common iden- let which has now become one of the NESA
tity, we’ll offer e-services for the public and biggest African blockchain startups, (New
private sector.” processing $3,450,955 (1,242,344,000 Economy
Naira) in a month. Satowallet has also Skill Accel-
The new identity system is called IBIBIO (named erator)
managed to secure partnerships with
after a Nigerian tribe). IBIBIO operates on the in Lagos,
big names in the crypto space like
principle of “common identity” whereby an indi- Nigeria
the TRON Foundation and Changelly
vidual’s data is collected to form a singular iden-
and is currently being used in over 70
tity profile which is stored on the blockchain
countries.
and recognized anywhere on the continent. The
IBIBIO “Integrity Index” incentive concept will
reward users with points for being exemplary
citizens. This approach will allow honest indi- KENYA
viduals to build a credible profile and will help
eliminate bias and simplify the process of visa Kenya is very open to cryptocurrency
confirmations. IBIBIO will also be “idiot proof,” and blockchain. The federal govern-
easy to use and readily accessible to everyone. ment has set up a community task
force to study blockchain and cryp-
Interpol's also partnered with VougePay, an tos and look into creating a roadmap
online service provider. The partnership seeks

21 CRYPTOS
for adoption in the country. The govern-
ment also initiated an application which
allows for the efficient management of
land records, putting an end to the men-
acing problem of land grabbing. Kenya
also seeks to strengthen its democracy
by employing blockchain technology
for conducting more credible and trans-
parent elections.
Speaking on the urgency of blockchain
adoption across Africa, Kenya’s presi-
dent, Uhuru Kenyatta had this to say:
“It is true that the previous industrial
revolutions have passed us by. This time,
I hope the fourth industrial revolution
driven by digital transformation will
not leave Africa behind.”
KEY PLAYERS IN EUROPE
European nations have started to cozy
up to blockchain tech, with programs
like the EU blockchain Observatory and
Forum aimed to support cross-border
engagement with the technology across
the continent and more recently, a dec-
laration signed by 7 EU nations and
championed by Malta which mandates
that the signatories push for further
blockchain innovations in their respec-
tive countries. Upcoming blockchain
friendly nations in Europe include:
AUSTRIA
Austria, a central European nation has
begun pursuing some blockchain initi-
atives. In September, it was announced
that $1.35 billion in government bonds
will be auctioned off using the Ethereum
blockchain. This was the first time that
“a blockchain-based notarization ser-
vice will be used as part of a Federal Bond
Auction in Austria.”
Most notably is the Digital Roadmap
strategy presented by the Austria gov-
ernment in 2017, which detailed over 100
technological measures that will be utilized in solving the coun-
try’s various challenges as well as improve digitization. The paper
cites artificial intelligence, the Internet-of-things, big data, 5G,
and blockchain as instrumental technologies that will help Aus-
tria overcome its problems.
Regarding blockchain, the paper reads:
“This technology can revolutionize the way in which we
enter into contracts, trade on stock exchanges or carry out
banking transactions. In the future, for example, digital
contracts could be made forgery-proof using blockchain
technology.”
Crypto awareness is also on the rise in Austria, as statistics released
by the ING Banks puts the crypto awareness rate at an outstand-
ing 79%! The federal government is also supporting blockchain
efforts in the area of crypto economics via the Research Institute
for Cryptoeconomy at the University of Vienna. The government
has committed EUR 8 million towards this effort alongside the
enhancement of other digital services.
FINLAND
Immigration has become a global problem; various leaders around
the world are yet to agree on a suitable method for handling mass
immigration. Paperwork for sorting refugee or asylum seekers
makes the process even more tedious for legal authorities. To solve
this problem, the Finnish Immigration Service Migri has part-
nered with MONI a Helsinki-based startup to offer refugees a digi-
tal identity system linked with a MasterCard; data and other trans-
actions carried out with the card are recorded on the Ethereum
blockchain. There might be no one size fits all solution for the
immigration problem, but the Finnish government believes that
blockchain integration could help streamline the process.
Finland has also partnered with Essentia.One – a decentralized
interoperability protocol to build blockchain based solutions to
target the niche of smart logistics. This new pilot will help tackle
logistics problems arising in administration, data management,
and transportation. With this new project, Finland is looking to
secure itself as a global leader for logistics solutions.
FUEL 39
 SOUTH AMERICA EMBRACES
BLOCKCHAIN
The whole world shook when Venezuela
announced it was launching its own cryp-
tocurrency dubbed “Petro” which was sup-
posed to be pegged to the nation’s crude
oil reserves (a fact quickly debunked by
experts). However controversial the petro
may be, it serves an indication that crypto-
currency could be extremely beneficial in
promoting financial inclusion in a region
where 70% of the population remains
unbanked. Many Latin Americans are
turning to crypto more than ever, consid-
ering the fact that nations like Venezuela
and Argentina suffer from inflation and
fiat instability; this has made these coun-
tries to become some of the most notable
pro-crypto nations in South America.
ARGENTINA
Despite the rising popularity of cryptos in
Argentina, the government has chosen to
adopt a cautious approach to digital money.
Exchanging digital coins is still legal since
the Argentinian parliament recognizes
crypto as property not money; the govern-
ment also permitted the installation of 200
Bitcoin ATMs in the country last year.
Blockchain startups are also springing
up in the country. For instance, CoinFab-
rik offers Blockchain as a service (BaaS)
solutions for its clients while RSK Labs
has partnered with Universidad de Buenos
Aires (UBA) to provide blockchain courses
as part of an information engineering pro-
gram. Ripio, another prominent Argen-
tine blockchain startup is developing elec-
tronic payment solutions for merchants all
over Latin America, allowing them to com-
plete cross-border payments using Bitcoin
or international credit cards.
(Top Right)
Streets of
Buenos
Aires,
Argentina
21 CRYPTOS
BRAZIL
As the largest South American economy, Brazil has been plagued
with issues of corruption, fraudulent electoral practices, and
other illegalities. The country is now looking to use block-
chain technology to combat these issues. A government-run
tech startup known as Serpro is seeking to curb corruption with
regards to land title regulation through its blockchain platform
which permanently records actions taken by officials and pre-
vents data manipula-
tion. The Brazil cen-
tral bank also plans to
integrate blockchain
tech.
WHY IS
BLOCKCHAIN
& CRYPTO
BECOMING
POPULAR?
Kaspersky Lab the infamous cyber-security and
anti-virus software provider recently released a
report stating that blockchain and cryptocurrency
is just a fad and will hit a wall in 2019.
Could this be true?
The widespread adoption of blockchain technol-
ogy and increased interest in cryptocurrencies tell
a different story. All over the world, distributed
ledger technology (DLT) researchers keep find-
ing new ways to leverage the capabilities of block-
chain technology to provide custom fit applica-
tions that are able to solve many of the world’s
problems.
The inherent features of the blockchain allow for
robust functionalities, interoperability, and inte-
gration with other technologies like virtual real-
ity, Internet of Things and artificial intelligence.
As the blockchain community continues to grow
and more governments adopt the tech to solve var-
ious problems, one thing is certain… Blockchain
is no fad, it is here to stay, and it will help shape
the global industries of the future.
David Akilo @Kilo_Darv
OPTYIELD
THE
OPTION TOKEN
Distributed Ledger Technol-
ogy and Blockchain will cer-
tainly change our lives in many
areas. But this will happen in a
different way than many peo-
ple imagine. When the hype
about cryptocurrencies and
the blockchain began, every-
one talked about decentrali-
zation and how it will change
the world. But only a public,
permissionless blockchain is
decentralized, a private per-
mission-dependent block-
chain is centralized. Some
people say that blockchains
which are used centralized,
are not real blockchains.
SPONSORED
Anyone who deals with the
public blockchain will quick-
ly recognize a basic problem:
What motivates someone in the
private sector to set up such
a decentralized blockchain?
If you analyze it, the purpose
of a decentralized blockchain
is precisely to make the peo-
ple and companies who earn
from this intermediary activi-
ty superfluous. But only they
will have an interest in invest-
ing in this. On the other side,
at the same moment when
an economic interest is built
in, the blockchain is centrally
controlled and the blockchain
becomes a private blockchain
and often gets pointless.
 WE ARE NOT A BLOCKCHAIN
COMPANY, BUT WE WILL MAKE
AN ICO.
Anyone who still believes that there
will be a purebred decentralized or ful-
ly distributed cryptosystem does not
live in the real world or is an incorrigi-
ble idealist.

Also at innovative technologies, prag-

matism is much more successful than
pure idealism. That was the case with
the Internet, that was the case with
WE HAVE NO MINIMUM VIABLE Linux and that will be the case with DLT.
PRODUCT (MVP) BUT WE HAVE
Decentralised, distributed databases
A WORKING BUSINESS CASE
will enter our lives, but there will con-
WITH REAL ASSETS
tinue to be centralized structures at all
levels.

Every system must be supported by the

motivation of the participants and this
ranges from pure greed to profitable
business models to the simple necessi-
ty of being able to live from one's work.
And this is exactly what will continue to
produce central structures in addition
WE HAVE ASSETS OF MORE to decentralized, distributed technol-
THAN 100 MILLION EURO, ogies. Also, the institution's obsession
WHICH PRESENTLY RETURNS with control, but also that of many peo-
MORE THAN 8% PER ANNUM. ple, will promote central structures.

A world of technology without people

could be ideally decentralized and dis-
tributed, but that cannot be the aim.

I think it is not a fight between cen-

tral and decentral technologies and
organizations, I think we have to
arrange a good coexistence from both
philosophies.
WITH OUR OWN TOKEN WE
WILL LEVERAGE THIS PROFIT,
YOU CAN BE A PARTNER!

21 CRYPTOS
A public blockchain can only be
realized by idealists, non-gov-
ernmental organizations, gov-
ernment organizations and the
like. These are the best applica-
tions: Identification, any kind
of verification, public regis-
ters, money and payment sys-
tems, and many more.
The purpose of economically
operating companies can only
be to use these public block-
chain services, but not to oper-
ate them. Of course, you can
also operate your own private
blockchains. But also,
the question will often arise
whether a much faster normal
clustered database does not
make more sense.
OP T Y I E LDT H E OP T I ON T OKE N
Therefore, here at YIELD, we
use e.g. the public Ethere-
um Blockchain to define our
own token and to perform an
ICO. We regulate it classical-
ly with touchable real assets
(not tokenized) and the prof-
its from them. We are talking
about assets with a value of
over 100 million euros. These
also yield a return of at least
8% every year in a classic, ver-
ifiable way.
Most assets are existing solar
plants of up to 20MW located
here in Europe and Asia.
With these tokens, the holders
can invest in these assets via
our portal. This is based on a
private blockchain because of
the planned scaling. By using
our tokens, we can lever-
age revenue and liquidity and
thus create real added value
by using the public Ethereum
blockchain.
But in the actual sense, we are
not a blockchain company and
do not want to be that.
www.euroyield.com
43
NEWSLETTER
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1+ico

Moozicore
• IN BRIEF

Have you ever had a perfect restaurant meal

ruined by the unmistakeable sound of Enya
sailing away in the background? Or had your
workout momentum stopped in its tracks by
Michael Bublé slithering on to your gym’s
playlist?

Moozicore plans to save us all from the hor-

rors of venue-imposed background music by
“creating personalized, social music experi-
ence for each customer”. •••• TOKEN METRICS

Customers with the Moozicore App (a free
Beta version is available to download now
for Android and iOS) can pick songs from a
venue’s pre-approved playlist and vote on
what gets played next. They can also inter-
act with other users at the same venue and
share plays on social media – tagging friends
and photos.
The Moozicore service can also interface with
TV’s at participating locations. App users’
song selections and votes will be displayed
on screen as well as any promotions or new
menu items, for example.
•• STANDOUT FEATURES
A beacon solution implemented within the
Moozicore system can also increase foot-
fall for venues. The Moozicore app will send
push notifications to users within the vicinity,
letting them know their favourite songs have
been added to the venue’s playlist.
The total supply of MZG tokens will be set at
1,000,000,000 with a fairly common 14% reserved for
the Moozicore team. Interestingly, while Moozicore
users can transfer tokens to other users through the
Moozicore app, once MZG tokens have been sent
from an exchange to the app, they can never leave.
In theory, if Moozicore’s platform becomes popular,
this should generate demand for MZG tokens that are
available on exchanges – though of course they will
still be purchasable directly from the app too.
••••• WHO’S ON THE TEAM?
Moozicore counts John McAfee as one of its advisors.
The man famous for creating McAfee Anti-virus now
wears many hats in the cryptosphere, including his
position as CEO at Luxcore. McAfee has promised to
run for the presidency of the United States in 2020.
Moozicore’s CTO, Szymon Piekarz is a co-founder of
several other enterprises, including Tokensgate, Smab-
lo, Clientlist and Geco One OU.

Unlike non-commercial apps such as Spoti- + ICO DATA

fy, Moozicore will be fully licenced for use at
all kinds of venues, from gyms to restaurants
PRICE 0.032 USD
tokensale.moozicore.com

Twitter @Moozicore

LinkedIn Moozicore

and bars.
BUY AT Official Website

ICO DATES Nov 26, 18- Jan 28, 19

••• WHERE BLOCKCHAIN
NO. OF TOKENS 498,000,000
TECHNOLOGY COMES IN
PRICE PER TOKEN 0.032 USD
Moozicore’s MZI and MZG ERC20 tokens cer- CEO Adam Krzak
tainly have utility. They are used through- CFO Hubert Kawicki
out the Moozicore App to vote for upcom-
CFO Szymon Piekarz
ing songs, add songs to venue’s playlist or
request songs to be played next.

21 CRYPTOS
 #
2
2+ico

Poseidon
Foundat ion

• IN BRIEF

Through its reduce platform, the non-profit

Poseidon Foundation is using blockchain tech-
nology to rebalance the climate impact of any
product or service, in real-time, at the checkout.

Carbon credits are received in return for off-

setting one metric ton of carbon dioxide emis-
sions. Through these carbon credits, organisa- Eroded ground
tions can negate their climate impact or even in Florence,
become “climate positive”. Arizona, USA.
Arizona hasn't
reduce will link retailers and customers directly recieved rain
to forest conservation projects, allowing them in a long time,
to make micro-donations that offset the climate the grounds
impact of their products. pictured used to
be a water hole
that has held
•• STANDOUT FEATURES water every year
until 2017.
Initially, Poseidon is focusing on the retail mar- Photo by Joshua
ket in order to maximise positive environmen- Brown.
tal impact. When a consumer buys a product
from a retailer using the reduce platform, Posei-
don’s Footprint-AI engine will automatically
work out the carbon footprint of the item. The
user’s OCEAN and CARBONCREDIT cryptocur-
rency tokens will then be used to fund an Emis- The Poseidon whitepaper explains that its systems
sion Reduction project with an exact amount will interact with the Stellar blockchain through a
required to offset 110% of the product’s foot- RESTful API called Horizon. “This allows us to build
print – making the purchase climate-positive. hundreds of variations of software that sit outside
the blockchain to perform complex tasks that sat-
Poseidon is also working on a consumer mobile isfy global carbon market requirements. The out-
app that details the carbon footprint of their come of these operations, the available amount of
purchases, and the positive impact of the car- carbon credit in a specific emission reduction pro-
bon credits they have acquired. It is hoped that ject for example, is then published to accounts on
an achievement sharing feature within the app the Stellar network”.
will promote wider use and increase the posi-
tive impact potential.
•••• TOKEN METRICS

••• WHERE BLOCKCHAIN
TECHNOLOGY COMES IN
Poseidon has opted to build on the Stellar net-
work because it has “an architecture that uses
far less electricity and offers significant environ-
mental advantages”.
Two Stellar assets; OCEAN and CARBONCREDIT, will
be used on the reduce platform. CARBONCREDIT
represents one ton of carbon credit as purchased
from a real emission reduction project for a particu-
lar year. OCEAN is used for speedy payments and
is the only means of purchasing carbon credits on
the reduce platform.

#THE21 49
OCEAN can be purchased during Poseidon’s token + ICO DATA
sale and has a fixed supply of 36 billion. 50% is avail-
able to buy through the token sale, 30% will be
PRICE 0.22 USD
locked up in a liquidity pool for the sole use of the
BUY AT Official Website
reduce platform, and 12.5% will be allocated to the
Poseidon Foundation to support the growth of the ICO DATES Feb 16- Mar 24, 19
platform. The remaining 7.5% goes to the Poseidon NO. OF TOKENS 17,986,537,775
team and its advisors but all are subject to a vest-
PRICE PER TOKEN 0.22 USD
ing period and daily selling limits – to protect the
CEO Laszlo Giricz
interests of regular investors.
CTO Cesare Tagliaferri

COO Chidi Akutu

••••• WHO’S ON THE TEAM?
www.poseidon.eco
Laszlo Giricz, Founder and CEO counted JP Twitter @Poseidon_NGO
Morgan Chase, Deutsche Bank and UBS as clients
LinkedIn Poseidon Foundation
during his time as a business and technology expert
for some of the world’s largest investment banks.
Chidi Akutu, COO, secured over $100,000,000 in
partnerships during his 12 year stint as Accenture’s
UK Trading Platforms Business Lead.

21 CRYPTOS
 3+staking

Stratis (STRAT)

• DECENTRALIZED BLOCKCHAIN + COIN DATA

SOLUTIONS
TRADING PRICE 1.16 USD
Stratis is a smart contract platform which MARKET CAP 105,774,412 USD
can be used by customers to build their
CIRCULATING SUPPLY 99,127,569 STRAT
own blockchain applications based on their
open-source code. The platform gives free- TOTAL SUPPLY N/A

dom for many use cases, such as scientific DAILY TRADING VOLUME 3,385,911 USD
study transparency, product tracking, data CEO Christ Trew
recording of IoT (internet of things), and
C# DEVELOPER Nicolas Dorier
identity management.
BLOCKCHAIN DEVELOPER Dan Gershony

+ REASON TO WATCH www.stratisplatform.com

1% staking rewards might not look like a lot,

but remember that it’s still one of the most
fundamentally strong coins that has been
through thick and thin.

4+mining BitTube (TUBE)

+ COIN DATA • AD-FREE AND ALWAYS MONETIZED

TRADING PRICE 0.031164 USD BitTube is the alternative, decentralized solution to You-
MARKET CAP 3,237,033 USD
Tube and other centralized video streaming services. It
combines proof-of-work (70% of total block rewards) and
CIRCULATING SUPPLY 105,693,362 TUBE
a system that rewards users with new coins, the quan-
TOTAL SUPPLY 107,473,362 TUBE tity depending on airtime watching (30% of total block
DAILY TRADING VOLUME 9,580 USD rewards). Every user becomes a storage node in the
CEO Saber Maram network, giving them incentive for mass adoption and
usage.
CFO Kai-Uwe Schnier

www.bit.tube + REASON TO WATCH

#
4
One of the most profitable coins to mine at the moment.

• IN BRIEF
iCasting’s pilot platform
matched over 35,000 talents in
has
the Netherlands with clients since
its launch in 2015. Now, iCasting is
adding blockchain technology to
its offering in a bid to disrupt the
global talent market.
iCasting will bring talents, be they
actors, singers or even magicians
together with clients around the
world, while facilitating all transac-
tions and smart contracts between
them, and giving talents complete
control of their own profile data.
•• STANDOUT FEATURES
iCasting has a unique matching
algorithm that uses detailed search
inquires and talent profiles to come
up with perfect matches.
Not content with ‘only’ being a tal-
ent-matching service, the iCasting
academy will provide 24/7 online
talent development courses. Also,
talents and clients will be able to
meet each other face-to-face at
a series of iCasting Live Events.
••• WHERE BLOCKCHAIN
TECHNOLOGY COMES IN
iCasting uses blockchain technolo-
gy to optimize the connecting, hir-
ing, payment and agreement pro-
cesses between talent and clients
– creating a global, decentralised
talent marketplace.
Talents and Clients can create
extensive profiles and portfolios
5
#
21 CRYPTOS
5+ico
iCast ing
including video and audio files and all data will be encrypted
and stored on IPFS. A reference to this profile data will be creat-
ed from the specific user’s Ethereum wallet and referenced by
smart contracts during the casting process.
Smart contracts manage the hiring, agreement and payment
processes and an iCasting wallet holds funds in a blockchain
‘escrow’ until the terms of the smart contract are met. iCast-
ing’s reputation program also relies on blockchain technology
to immutably record client and talent ratings.
•••• TOKEN METRICS
The ERC20 TALENT (TLNT) token globalizes the casting economy
by eliminating exchange rate issues. As well as being used for
payments on the platform’s smart contracts, iCasting say the
TLNT token has a host of other utilities including “unlocking pre-
mium features like skipping adds, gaining extra job information,
sending PM’s to clients, unlocking iCasting Academy lessons,
buying goods and merchandise on iCasting events, signing up
for workshops”.
According to the iCasting whitepaper, there will be a total token
supply of 350,000,000, 55% of which will be made available dur-
ing iCasting’s crowdsale, with a further 19% allocated to bonus-
es. 12% will be reserved for founders and the team, but these are
subject to 6 and 12 month lock-ups to protect investor interests.
••••• WHO’S ON THE TEAM?
Erwin Arkema Founder & CEO, and Yillmaz Schoen, Founder also
launched TradeCast – an award-winning Dutch start-up that is cur-
rently disrupting the global television and broadcasting markets.
+ ICO DATA
PRICE 0.08 USD
www.icasting.io
Twitter @iCasting_NL
LinkedIn iCasting
BUY AT Official Website
ICO DATES Mar 6-27, 19
NO. OF TOKENS 350,000,000
PRICE PER TOKEN 0.08 USD
CEO Erwin Arkema
COO Bob Breeman
CCO Joris van Hittersum
 6+ico

Instant
Sponsor Andy Murray
playing in the
Australian
Open, a
• IN BRIEF company which
Instant Sponsor
Instant Sponsor connects brands has already
with rights holders across sports, delievered
Esports and entertainment results for.
to create blockchain-powered

6
sponsorships.

#
By creating a real-time sponsorship
opportunity marketplace and using
smart contracts to expedite the
transacting process, Instant Spon-
sor say they will “reduce the spon-
sorship acquisition process from up
to 5 months to under 5 hours”.

•• STANDOUT FEATURES

Instant Sponsor has a proprietary

AI-powered algorithm that match-
es the demographics of a rights
holder’s audience with a sponsor’s
target demographic.

Also, because the algorithm works

in real-time, offering up-to-the min-
ute opportunities, a brand could
unlock huge discounts by sponsor-
ing a player mid-tournament.
Instant Sponsor says they are “in
discussions with multiple teams
and athletes across English Premier
League (EPL), Women’s Tennis Asso-
ciation (WTA), National Basketball
League (NBA), Professional Golf
Association (PGA) and Association
of Tennis Professionals (ATP)”.
representing a legal binding agree-
ment including payment terms,
legal structure and standard terms
and conditions”. Verified transac-
tions are then stored immutably on
a blockchain. The Ethereum smart
contracts and instant token pay-
ments are key to allowing Instant
Sponsor to release inventory and
transact in real-time – an upgrade
on their current offering.

••• WHERE BLOCKCHAIN •••• TOKEN METRICS

TECHNOLOGY COMES IN
When a sponsor wants to buy an
opportunity, they do so by purchas-
ing a SponsorCoin. Instant Sponsor’s
whitepaper explains that “each
SponsorCoin acts as a smart contract
While the SponsorCoin (SC) is a sta-
blecoin only used within the Instant
Sponsor system to facilitate transac-
tions between users, SponsorToken
(SPON) is an ERC20 utility token that
will be made available to purchase
during a Token Generation Event (TGE).
SPON offers holders discounted platform
fees, premium features and early access
to inventory. There will be a maximum
supply of 636,363,636 SPON. 63% of the
total supply will be made available dur-
ing the TGE (including bonuses) 15% will
be allocated to the team, but is sub-
ject to vesting periods.14% will be used
to incentivise community growth and
early adoption, while 8% will be used to
attract strategic industry partners.

••••• WHO’S ON THE TEAM?

Anthony Puntoriero, Founder & CEO

also founded VR educational platform
Success Series. They also have FC Lau-
sanne-Sport footballer Diego Berchtold
as an ambassador. Berchtold already
has crypto involvement on his CV as an
Independent consultant for SwissBorg
and Blockchain Unchained.

+ ICO DATA

PRICE 0.1 USD

BUY AT Official Website

ICO DATES Jan 14- Feb 28, 19

NO. OF TOKENS 400,000,000

PRICE PER TOKEN 0.1 USD

CEO Anthony Puntoriero

BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT Jevin Canning

COMMUNITY & PUBLIC

RELATIONS Mike Murphy

www.instantsponsor.com

Twitter @INSTANTSPONSOR

LinkedIn Instant Sponsor Inc

 7+big rise

Bankera (BNK)

• BANKING FOR THE

BLOCKCHAIN ERA

Bankera is currently working on becom-

ing a one-stop-shot for all financial servic-
es, by reducing the need for a middleman.

#
8
By adopting blockchain technologies such
services become transparent, more relia-
ble, and secure. All these services can be
performed using the SpectroCoin which
comes with its own wallet.

+ REASON TO WATCH

It has increased 49% in December.

8+big dip
+ COIN DATA
Factom (FCT)
TRADING PRICE 0.003897 USD

MARKET CAP 39,724,529 USD • FOR A MORE TRANSPARENT AND

CIRCULATING SUPPLY 10,900,000,000 BNK HONEST WORLD
TOTAL SUPPLY 25,000,000,000 BNK
Factom is a platform that was created for the pur-
DAILY TRADING
pose of keeping otherwise hackable and sensitive
VOLUME 25,029 USD
data such as medical records, criminal records,
CEO Vytautas Karalevičius mortgage data, and public registries safely stored
CCO Mantas Mockevičius on the blockchain. In order store this informa-
CTO Justas Dobiliauskas tion, Factoids (Factom's utility tokens) are spent to
avoid spamming, which in return grants immuta-
www.bankera.com
bility, censorship resistance, and easy verification.

+ REASON TO WATCH

It had one of the biggest dips this past month fol-

7
lowing a small spike, but the fundamentals are still

#
there.

+ COIN DATA

TRADING PRICE 8.37 USD

MARKET CAP 74,005,432 USD

CIRCULATING SUPPLY 8,745,102 FCT

TOTAL SUPPLY N/A

DAILY TRADING VOLUME 106,921 USD

CEO Paul Snow

CFO Zachary Lynde

COO Laurie Pyle

www.factom.com

#THE21 55
 #
10

9+big cap 10+low cap

Steem (STEEM) RepMe (RPM)

Steem is a social community powered by block- • TRANSPARENT LINKING AND

chain technology. It makes immediate revenue
streams possible for users by rewarding them
for sharing content. It also includes social apps
such as Steemit (similar to blogging), eSteem
(mobile app for Steemit), DTube (decentralized
video platform), Utopian (funding open source
projects), and Steem Monsters (digital collecti-
ble trading card game)
SOCIAL RECRUITING
More than a decentralized competitor to
LinkedIn, Repme aims to retain individual’s
self-sovereignty and receive benefits com-
mensurate with distribution.
+ REASON TO WATCH

+ REASON TO WATCH With no ICO, a stellar team, and a clear vision

A big cap that is fairing well against all odds.
While other communities are quiet, Steem is
always buzzing with creatives and content
creators.
of what the world needs, RepMe will definite-
ly fight for the throne in the Big Data industry
to give power back to the users and enable
them to monetize their data.

+ COIN DATA
+ COIN DATA
TRADING PRICE 0.000011 USD
TRADING PRICE 0.276040 USD MARKET CAP 396,857 USD
MARKET CAP 80,259,698 USD CIRCULATING SUPPLY 36,220,523,483 RPM
CIRCULATING SUPPLY 302,427,603 STEEM TOTAL SUPPLY 100,000,000,000 RPM
TOTAL SUPPLY 319,401,697 STEEM DAILY TRADING VOLUME 88,689 USD
DAILY TRADING VOLUME 383,713 USD LEAD SOFTWARE ENGINEER Ruslan Olkhovsky
CEO Ned Scott SOFTWARE QA ENGINEER Olga Kolosova
CO-FOUNDER Dan Larimer PROJECT MANAGER Andrey Romaniuk
www.steem.com www.repme.io

21 CRYPTOS
 11+ico

#
11
What’s On Pic
• IN BRIEF

What’s On Pic allows consumers to monetize their own

photos by tagging products within them, and earn-
ing rewards when other users purchase items they’ve
tagged.

Retailers will also benefit from wider exposure of their

products, and will attract sales from consumers who are
more trusting of ‘real life’ photos.
marketplace or pay for advertising on the
Consumers themselves will benefit from a more honest platform.
representation of products in everyday use, as well as a
The total supply of AWT will be limited to
simplified shopping experience. Users can click on any
7,213,925.00, 70% of which will be made
product tagged in a What’s On Pic photo and see a
available during token sales with 6% held in
host of details and size or colour options before making
a reserve fund. The founding team, devel-
a purchase from their choice of linked stores.
opment and advisors will share a 21% allo-
cation, and 3% will be retained for boun-
•• STANDOUT FEATURES ties and referral programmes.

What’s On Pic already has 5,000 active website or iOS

app users. The app uses an AI algorithm that matches ••••• WHO’S ON THE TEAM?
publishers’ tagged photos to real products in What’s On
vEugene Kalyada, Lead Front-End Devel-
Pic’s database of online stores. Photo publishers receive
oper has several years’ experience devel-
cashback every time a purchase is made from one of
oping iOS tools and has been involved in
their photos. Users can even create their own ‘store’
testing a new crypto gateway payment
with their tagged photos.
method. Nikita Alekseev, CTO has over 15
years’ experience in enterprise application
••• WHERE BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY development with Neural Networks, Data
COMES IN Mining, High-End Configuration and Prod-
uct Content Management.
There isn’t a tonne of detail in the What’s On Pic white-
paper about how blockchain technology will be used
at an infrastructure level. They do say that through the + ICO DATA
use of their ERC20 AWT token and integrating their wallet
PRICE 1.13 USD
with the Ethereum blockchain, What’s On Pic will “cre-
ate a mechanism to speed up the calculation of the BUY AT Official Website
cashback and stimulate our publishers”. ICO DATES Feb 22- May 19, 19

NO. OF TOKENS 5,050,000

The introduction of an instant, transparent, verifiable
pay-out system that works across borders would be wel- PRICE PER TOKEN 1.13 USD

comed by anyone who has experienced the drawn-out CTO Nikita Alekseev
‘tracking’ procedures commonplace on most existing INVESTMENT DIRECTOR Semen Kakaulin
cashback sites.
HEAD OF MARKETING Daria Zubko

www.whatsonpic.io
•••• TOKEN METRICS Twitter @WhatsOnPic

Photo providers will earn AWT as a token incentive, in LinkedIn WhatsOnPic

addition to cash rewards, at a fiat 10:1 ratio every time

a purchase is made through one of their pictures. Tokens
can be used to buy products from the What’s On Pic

#THE21 57
 12+masternode Alqo (XLQ)

• A DECENTRALIZED, ALL-IN-ONE + COIN DATA

FINANCIAL AND CLOUD SERVICES
TRADING PRICE 0.063834 USD
ECOSYSTEM
MARKET CAP 3,326,366 USD
ALQO is a newer fast, private, and secure
CIRCULATING SUPPLY 57,412,659 XLQ
cryptocurrency which has a 'Planetary Sys-
TOTAL SUPPLY 57,512,660 XLQ
tem' upon which services and products
can be built and distributed. They intend to DAILY TRADING VOLUME 5,823 USD
become a gateway to cryptocurrencies by CEO Jared Grey
allowing easy and accessible ways to pur- CTO Kevin Collmer
chase and trade in Europe, especially Ger-
COO Moritz Heimberg
many, before moving onto North America,
Russia and Asia. www.alqo.app

#
12
+ REASON TO WATCH

A 25.5% annual ROI

13+just hit the market

Online (OIO)

+ COIN DATA • CHANGING THE INTERNET, TOGETHER

TRADING PRICE 0.004061 USD Online aims to disrupt the data industry by salvaging
MARKET CAP 3,293,363 USD
people’s privacy online. Today big corporations buy and
sell our data to advertisers and governments in a trade
CIRCULATING SUPPLY 877,660,690 OIO
where people have no say. Online was built to protect
TOTAL SUPPLY 2,500,000,000 OIO the privacy of users and guarantee their security with
DAILY TRADING VOLUME 702 USD blockchain technology.
CEO A. Iulian Florea
+ REASON TO WATCH
CTO Alexandru Eftimie

DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Sebastian Dracopol Just hit the market with a successfully accomplished
www.online.io
ICO in an era where people demand their privacy rights
back.
 14
14+ico

SOAR
• IN BRIEF

Soar is a blockchain-pow-
#
ered ‘super-map’ that
uses drones, aerial and
satellite imagery to
change the way we look
at the world.

Unlike Google Maps,

Soar’s super-map will be
decentralised, high res-
olution and constantly
updated. It will harness
haps – and providers of mapping data for this
the 80% of all high-quali-
area would then be rewarded in Soar’s native
ty mapping imagery that
SKYM cryptocurrency token.
has hitherto been the pre-
serve of tier 1 organisa- While Google Maps only offers single-use nat-
tions and governments, ural colour imagery, Soar’s super-map will fea-
and share it with the ture any kind of imagery that can be mapped,
world. such as natural and false colour, thermal and
3D.

•• STANDOUT
FEATURES
Soar also plans to launch
the world’s first app store
for maps, which it says
will “encourage experts
to upload specific image
analysis algorithms to
help further process data
relating to niche appli-
cations such as farming,
mining, urban planning,
security and even media
and news.”
••• WHERE BLOCKCHAIN
TECHNOLOGY COMES IN
Smart contracts play a major role on Soar’s
platform – storing all of the specific satellite,
aerial or drone information. Soar says “this
ensures all payloads such as the geoHash, content storage addresses,
wallet address and sales transaction history, are stored directly onto the
blockchain”.
The actual content though will require cloud storage, as it’s simply too
large to be stored efficiently on the blockchain. Soar has a partnership
with Alibaba Cloud but as the system is totally decentralised, users are
free to chose their own cloud storage provider.

The economic model

behind Soar – known as
“SkyBounty” will ensure
market forces of sup-
ply and demand gener-
ate continuous mapping
activity where it is need-
ed most. A user can place
a SkyBounty over a par-
ticular area of interest –
an urban planner look-
ing to expand into a new
geographic location per-
•••• TOKEN METRICS
The maximum supply of SKYM tokens will be 350,000,000 of which 130,000,000
were made available during the private and public crowdsales. 14.3% of
the total supply is reserved for the team and advisors.
••••• WHO’S ON THE TEAM?
Amir Farhand, CEO, has over 15 years of geospatial technology exper-
tise. Non-executive Director Guy Perkins is a co-founder of aerial imag-
ing technology company NearMap and Spookfish, which was recently
acquired for $136M.

#THE21 59
+ ICO DATA

PRICE 0.20 USD

Ao Nang,
BUY AT TBA
Thailand.
ICO DATES Nov 19-Dec 19, 18 This photo was
NO. OF TOKENS 130,000,000 taken with the
DJI Phantom 3
PRICE PER TOKEN 0.20 USD
drone by Denys
LEAD BLOCKCHAIN SCIENTIST Chris Lowe Nevozhai after
HEAD OF PARTNERSHIPS Charlie Caruso he treaded
through waist-
BLOCKCHAIN DEVELOPER Market Tlacbaba
deep water
www.soar.earth from mainland
Twitter @Soar_Earth to the Sirithan
Beach (sandy
LinkedIn Soar island pictured).

21 CRYPTOS
 16
15+old but gold

#
Bitcoin (BTC)

• OPEN SOURCE P2P MONEY

Born after the housing market crash in 2008,

Bitcoin was created out of the need to
make a decentralized currency that is not
pegged to government-issue money. Its
creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, is a total mys-
tery to everyone. This person (or group of
people) stays in the shadows and removes
the focus from being a person with a polit-
ical stance, to an entity who has revolu-
tionized our world forever.

+ REASON TO WATCH

Some are saying the bottom’s in, and it’s 16+unique

Nexus
only up from here.

(NXS)
+ COIN DATA
• TECHNOLOGY TO INSPIRE
TRADING PRICE 3,742,70 USD
DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS
MARKET CAP 65,389,950,470 USD

CIRCULATING SUPPLY 17,419,162 BTC Nexus provides a scalable architecture, tak-

TOTAL SUPPLY 21,000,000 BTC ing blockchain solutions to businesses in a relia-
ble, immutable and secure manner. This has been
DAILY TRADING VOLUME 4,658,784,678 USD
named "Multi Dimensional Chaining", for having
www.bitcoin.org three core dimensions that define its structure.
This time-based mechanism is used to improve the
security of the network.

+ REASON TO WATCH

#
15
Its chart had a sudden spike in the last week of
November, and has recently received a Gold Label
award from Binance exchange, which promotes
reliable and trustworthy projects.

+ COIN DATA

TRADING PRICE 0.346923 USD

MARKET CAP 20,219,754 USD

CIRCULATING SUPPLY 59,707,886 NXS

TOTAL SUPPLY 59,907,495 NXS

DAILY TRADING VOLUME 394,423 USD

SOFTWARE ARCHITECT Colin Cantrell

DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT Brian Vena

CHIEF SATELLITE ENGINEER Phil Swazey

www.nexusearth.com

#THE21 61
 17+ico

17
WorkChain
• IN BRIEF

Why wait to get paid? WorkChain uses block-

#
chain technology to allow workers to get
paid the moment they ‘clock out’ rather than
waiting for slow payroll systems to catch up,
sometimes weeks later.

•• STANDOUT FEATURES
In return for staking WATT Tokens, Work Record Validators
Back in September 2018 Workchain success- “will have the potential to earn an additional income
fully completed the first salary payments on stream for their business through rewards earned for
their platform- the technology works. their work on the network” according to the WorkChain
whitepaper.
The first payment was made in TrueUSD at the
offices of Humanity, a company known for
its employee-scheduling software. As in this •••• TOKEN METRICS
first case with Humanity, WorkChain seam-
There is a total supply of 1,000,000,000 WATT tokens.
lessly integrates with existing HR systems so
50% will be made available in token sales. A relative-
that as soon as the user clocks out, the work
ly large percentage (45%) will be held by the Compa-
record is sent to WorkChain.io to enable
ny, given to advisers and investors or used for Partner
instant payment.
Incentivisation – though all of these allocations will be
WorkChain is working on integrations with vested transparently using smart contracts, for 2 years.
Humanity and WorkPuls, which it says will
“put WorkChain.io in the hands of more than ••••• WHO’S ON THE TEAM?
a million users”.
Ryan Fyfe, CEO also founded Humanity, the company
that conducted the first WorkChain salary payment.
••• WHERE BLOCKCHAIN
He has a track record of success as Humanity.com is
TECHNOLOGY COMES IN used today in 40,000 workplaces globally, including
Nike, Lyft and CNN. Vladimir Cvejanovic, CTO has built
The WorkChain.io protocol uses blockchain
cloud solutions that serve millions of people worldwide
smart-contracts to manage the payment pro-
including those at 9000 UK schools.
cess between each employer and employ-
ee. Employees can be paid in any Ethereum
ERC20 token. All payments are fully decen- + ICO DATA
tralised using ‘work validators’ who release
funds when the terms of smart contracts are
PRICE 0.014 USD
www.workchain.io

LinkedIn WorkChain.io
Twitter @workchain_io

met. Although WorkChain say “the security

and operation of payments are guaranteed BUY AT Official Website
by the public blockchain” they also insist ICO DATES Jan 15, 2019
that transactions are pseudonymous so no NO. OF TOKENS 70,000,000,000
individuals can be identified.
PRICE PER TOKEN 0.014 USD

WorkChain’s native ERC20 WATT token grants CEO Ryan Fyfe

users access to the WorkChain platform and COO Ivan Petrovic
its features. Users wishing to stake WATT tokens
CTO Vladimir Cvejanovic
will also have access to the platform’s P2P
lending ecosystem for salary advances. Busi-
nesses will need to stake a number of tokens
in order to use the system.

21 CRYPTOS
 18+ico

Gigtricks

• IN BRIEF

GigTrick’s solution provides an entire ecosys-

tem for freelancers and entrepreneurs under-
pinned by blockchain technology. From a
marketplace that connects blockchain ver-
ified freelancers with clients anywhere in the
world, to an e-learning centre of excellence
and even a POS system, GigTricks is primed
to disrupt the freelance market.

•• STANDOUT FEATURES

The use of the GigBit (GBTC) cryptocurrency

token opens up a world of opportunity for
freelance workers used to paying up to 20%
in remittance or foreign currency exchange
fees, or who simply avoided taking on work
from clients based abroad.

Also, GigTricks POS devices that are linked

directly to the GigTricks Blockchain gives
freelancers the opportunity to serve local
offline customers. Users will still be able to
record these offline sales and ratings on the
blockchain –and accept GigBits as payment.

••• WHERE BLOCKCHAIN

TECHNOLOGY COMES IN

As well as managing transactions using the

GigBits ERC20 token, blockchain technolo-
gy is used on a slew of other features within
the ecosystem.

For example, GigTricks Pro will allow free-

lancers to create blockchain-verified pro-
files that provide a shop window for their skills
and give prospective clients the security of
knowing they are not being duped. When
a freelancer decides to add a skill to their
profile, GigTricks Pro will automatically pro-
vide them with a test – the results of which
 will be analysed by AI and
machine learning algorithms
before the skill is verified on
the blockchain.
GigTricks will also have an
authenticated review sys-
tem, whereby clients can
review and verify freelanc-
er’s individual skills after they
have paid for a service. The
results and ratings will be
stored transparently on the
GigTricks blockchain.
•••• TOKEN METRICS
There will be a maximum
supply of 1Billion GBTC, 25%
of which will be made avail-
18
# + ICO DATA
Freelancers
working in
Bat Haus
Coworking
and Event
Space,
United
States.
Photo by
Shridhar
Gupta
21 CRYPTOS
able in the Initial Token Sale. 30% will
be held by GigTricks in a treasury fund
in case future investment is required-
though GigTricks say they will notify the
community before these are unlocked.
15% will be allocated to the team, advi-
sors and some community members -
all will be subject to 12 month lock-ups
and subsequent sale limits. 25% will be
used for ecosystem incentives and mar-
keting, and the remaining 5% saved in
a liquidity fund.
••••• WHO’S ON THE TEAM?
Amir Shaikh, Founder & CEO has pro-
gramming expertise in C++ and Java
and has managed over $450m worth
of international projects. Nathan Chris-
tian, listed on the GigTricks website as
an advisor, has over 35 start-ups in his
portfolio and is a top 5 ranked member
of the ‘People of Blockchain’.
PRICE
BUY AT
ICO DATES
0.24 USD
Official Website
Sep 1-Dec 31, 18
NO. OF TOKENS 250,000,000
PRICE PER TOKEN 0.24 USD
CEO Amir Shaikh
COO Omair Latif
CBO Sadiq Hameed
www.gigtricks.io
Twitter @gigtricksglobal
LinkedIn GigTricks
 19+under the radar

19
Aeron
#
(ARN)

• BLOCKCHAIN FOR AVIATION

SAFETY

As flight log records can be easily forged,

flight schools can be corrupt, and aircraft
operators may underreport flight hours, it's
become evident that this deceptive way
to record information needs to shift, to low-
er the average of 3302 air transport acci-
dents every year. Aeron will do this by keep-
ing reports on the blockchain, which grants
immutability and safety.

+ REASON TO WATCH

Gaining market cap slowly and steadily,

with a real world case, this is one to keep
your eye on. And, of course, if you’re terri-
fied of planes this should be of interest to
you.

+ COIN DATA

TRADING PRICE 0.274507 USD

MARKET CAP 4,626,383 USD

CIRCULATING SUPPLY 13, 000,000 ARN

TOTAL SUPPLY 20,000,000 ARN

DAILY TRADING
VOLUME 1,931,469 USD

CEO Artem Orange

CTO Nadezhda Barkanova

CDO Konstantin Gertman

www.aeron.aero

Photographer
William Topa
was able to sit
at the front of
a small aircraft
in Montreal,
Canada, and tell
the story of how
far aviation has
come through
his images.
 #
20
20+ico Triffic
• IN BRIEF

Triffic bundles together augmented reality and

blockchain technology to allow users to earn
cryptocurrency simply for travelling around.

The platform also offers businesses an opportu-

nity to create ‘immersive loyalty programmes’
that reward customers for visiting their stores.

•• STANDOUT FEATURES
The famous
Once Triffic App users have watched a short Shibuya Crossing
advertisement – the mechanism through which in Tokyo, Japan
Triffic generates its own revenue – they are is the busiest
awarded 30 minutes of ‘fuel’. Any travelling the intersection the
world. With 2500
user does within that 30 minutes will be reward-
pedestrians
ed in Triffic’s native GPS cryptocurrency token
crossing at the
according to ‘Proof of Effort’ smart contracts same time and
which take into account method of travel, dis- 10 lanes of cars,
tance, speed, terrain and traffic. the potential
for monetised
The real potential of the Triffic app is unlocked travelling is huge
by businesses who can use its technology for a in this sort of high
variety of customer engagement activities. traffic area.
Photo by Ryoji
For example, a restaurant could place an aug- Iwata.
mented reality ‘treasure chest’ of tokens with-
in its premises which users could earn a portion
of by visiting in person, or by liking their social
media page.

Individuals could also offer GPS bounties for

location-based tasks like dog-walking or house
cleaning.
Future planned developments include the abil-
ity for charities to create augmented reality
donation boxes for passers by to donate GPS
tokens on the go.
of assets will be burned from the internal private
blockchain. The same will happen in reverse when
a user transfers tokens to the public blockchain.
Triffic believes this approach will avoid “numerous
attack vectors and other hard-to-solve technologi-
cal problems”.

••• WHERE BLOCKCHAIN

TECHNOLOGY COMES IN •••• TOKEN METRICS

Triffic will use a combination of Ardor public and
private/permissioned blockchains to secure its
system. The private/permissioned blockchain
will manage user profiles and to distribute GPS
tokens to users.
When a user wishes to “cash out” their GPS, they
will move their tokens to a wallet on the public
blockchain, at which point the same number
1,000,000,000 GPS tokens will be created, with any of
the 400,000,000 allocated to the ICO that go unsold
being burned, reducing the final supply.
7.5% of the total supply will go to the Triffic team
and advisors, 45% will be retained for app users and
7% used for bounties. 0.5% of the total supply will
go to a ‘Scavenger World’ project created by Trif-
fic founder James Malach.

21 CRYPTOS
••••• WHO’S ON THE TEAM? + ICO DATA

Christian E. Wallace, COO, provided contract

PRICE 0.05 USD
advice and support for NATO’s Resolute Support
Mission in Afghanistan as a Procurement Advi- BUY AT Official Website
sor for DynCorp International. CTO Alex Shepherd ICO DATES Jan 28-Mar 29, 19
has worked in DevOps since 2014 and has experi- NO. OF TOKENS 400,000,000
ence using Python, PHP and other web develop-
PRICE PER TOKEN 0.05 USD
ment/scripting languages including HTML, CSS and
JavaScript. CEO James Malach

CTO Alex Shepherd

COO Christian Wallace

www.triffic.world

Twitter @trifficworld

LinkedIn Triffic World

#THE21 67
 20+ico

MulTra
News App
• IN BRIEF

The MulTra News App pays you for MulTra News calculates that they can “convert at least 20% of
reading the news while also ensur- potentially free readers into paid readers by using the MulTra
ing publishers can monetize their Token as a nudge”.
content.

•••• TOKEN METRICS

•• STANDOUT FEATURES
The MulTra News App will personalise
a user’s news experience, using AI to
ensure that they only receive stories
that are of interest to them.
There is a total supply of 1,000,000,000 MTT tokens, of which
20% were allocated to Advisors, Bounties, Lockups, 40% are
available to be earned through the app, and 40% were made
available during the ICO.

If successful, the app may very well
be many people’s first introduction
to cryptocurrency as it automatical-
ly creates an Ethereum ERC20 wallet
for every user.
••• WHERE BLOCKCHAIN
TECHNOLOGY COMES IN
••••• WHO’S ON THE TEAM?
MulTra GmbH, the company behind the MulTra News App
already has European Commission Award-winning digital
content products and a stellar list of clients, including BMW,
Huawei, Johnson & Johnson, Samsung and Deutsche Bank.
Founder & CEO of MulTra GmbH, Onik Mia has been appoint-
ed Vice Chair of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance Media Work-
ing Group.

Users automatically earn ERC20 MTT

tokens while reading news from their + ICO DATA
preferred provider on the app. They
can then spend these tokens on pre- PRICE 0.07 USD www.multra.io

LinkedIn MulTra.io
mium news subscriptions to access
BUY AT Official Website Twitter @multranewsapp
paid content from those providers.
ICO DATES Sept 6-Dec1, 18
The MulTra News App automatically
purchases these spent tokens at mar- NO. OF TOKENS 400,000,000
ket value so that content providers PRICE PER TOKEN 0.07 USD
receive income in fiat. CEO Onik Mia

COO Veronika Tinnis

CIO Deniz Daskin

#
21 CRYPTOS
21
WRITE

ARE YOU A BUDDING

CRYPTO WRITER?

JOIN OUR TIGHT-KNIT WRITING TEAM

FOR COMPETITIVE PAY PER ARTICLE AND BENEFITS

We’d love to see your samples, send them to

CONTENT@CRYPTOS.COM
 COMPLETE
YOUR
CRYPTO
LIFESTYLE
GET
CRYPTO
SAVVY

ALL WORDS BY FlatOutCrypto

 S
How You're Getting
Screwed
THE
PROTOCOL
PROBLEM
> to seed investment funds or provide grants
Previous editions of this column have largely focused
on duplicitousness. However, falling prey to a scam is
far from the only way to lose your shirt in crypto.
While the meteoric rise in prices in 2017 saw DApps
rise considerably, the upper order of the most valuable
projects is dominated by protocols such as Bitcoin
and Ethereum. 37 of the top 50 projects (strip out the
growing plethora of stablecoins and that number rises
further) and over 80% of the total crypto market value
currently resides with protocols.
This leads to an obvious issue; what mature
technological industry sees so many competing
standards survive? It simply doesn’t happen. Most
current protocol valuations not only fail to factor in the
very high and real risk that the project has little chance
of ever securing users, but also fail to recognize that the
first users they must secure are developers themselves.
Many protocols do not have this concentration of
developers, and as such nothing of consequence will
ever be built upon them. This will then lead to no end
users - and therefore no value. If a project has not got
such a groundswell of developers, and has no realistic
means to attain them, then its chance for success
should be seen as miniscule.
Ethereum clearly leads the pack with the number
of developers building upon it (Bitcoin should be
considered as exempt from this conversation, although
I N T H E KNOW
the same premise holds with the many Bitcoin
forks that currently populate the top 50), with
competitors such as EOS and TRON being forced
to developers to lure them to the platform.
Platforms lacking this capability (particularly the
older protocols which do not have the financial
resources the likes of EOS can boast) will
particularly struggle.
The second issue facing most protocols is that they
offer nothing different. Accepting that Ethereum
has the most developers and projects building
upon it, this means that competing projects must
offer something different. This could be increased
scalability without sacrificing decentralization, a
focus on privacy or another such specialization.
However, most suffer from the same drawbacks
that afflict Ethereum but with less chance of being
able to solve them (thanks to their comparative
lack of developer base). Furthermore, the more
scalable solutions make sacrifices elsewhere.
Whether or not these improvements are worth
such cuts is yet to be seen. And, of course, there is
also probably just room for one or two winners out
of the privacy protocols, yet there are numerous
alternatives currently in the top 100.
As a result of this, there are too many protocols to
survive and inevitably many will die as the space
continues to mature. With no activity on them,
and no potential for any significant activity in the
future, their prices will go into freefall as the sole
point to owning protocol tokens comes from the
fees generated by the underlying activity.
71
 G
Gadgets and DApps

RISE OF THE
BLOCKCHAIN
PHONES
>
The growing popularity of cryptoassets and blockchain has led to a number
of manufacturers entering the race to supply the first ‘blockchain phone’.
But what does it mean in practice? And what are some of the current
competitors?

SIRIN LABS FINNEY
Cost $999
What is this After raising $158m
at ICO in 2017, Sirin Labs have
recently released their FINNEY
to early purchasers. Similar to
the Exodus, the FINNEY runs
on Android but uses a forked
version called Sirin OS, which
the firm claims to have increased
security. Sirin Labs have recently
run into controversy, with the
firm announcing it had only
enough funds for another six
to 12 months of operations –
despite boasting Lionel Messi as
a sponsor. The FINNEY is Sirin
Labs’ second phone, following up
on the $16,000 SOLARIN phone
which first appeared in 2016 and,
by most accounts, failed to find an
audience.
Features The FINNEY has a DApp
store of its own, in addition to
the Play Store, which features
Ethereum based DApps and will
subsequently be expanded to other
networks. It also allows for peer
to peer resource sharing, using
smart contracts to enable two
FINNEY users to transact ETH
between one another simply.
While limited in real world
usage at present, it could lead to
interesting developments in the
future. Interestingly, the phone
has a slide out ‘Safe Screen’ which
has its own hardware, software
and power switch and is used to
verify transactions in a manner
similar to hardware ledgers like
the Ledger Nano S. Finally,
FINNEY users can exchange
their cryptoassets for another
using Sirin Labs own exchange.
Specs 6GB RAM, 128 GB
Storage, six inch screen and a
customized Google-certified
Android fork.
Launch Date December
(Above)
Sirin Labs crypto
phone FINNEY.
[Image from Andy
Boxall/Digital Trends]

21 CRYPTOS
HTC EXODUS 1

Cost $1,000 (payable only in BTC,

ETH or LTC)

What is this A former giant of the

smartphone market, HTC’s Phil
Chen said earlier in 2018 that “we
envision a phone where you hold
your own keys, your own identity
and data, and your phone is the
hub.” Each phone acts as a node
on HTC’s own blockchain network
through which users can trade
cryptoassets, while the phone
boasts a number of blockchain
related features.

Features One of HTC’s biggest

differentiators to other Android
phones comes with its ‘Secure
Enclave’, which acts as a separate
vault independent of the rest of
the phone. This is intended to keep
your data secure, even if the phone
is compromised. It also features
HTC’s ‘Zion crypto wallet’, which
can be used to store cryptoassets
in a similar manner to other
wallets, and has native support for
DApps. Finally, the phone features
the Brave browser as default, the
browser which enables users to use
the token BAT (recently listed on
Coinbase) to pay for online content.

Specs Boasting equivalent

specifications to most top tier
phones, the Exodus 1 has 6GB
RAM, 128GB storage, a six inch
screen and is waterproof.

Launch Date December

(Above)

HTC's much-hyped
blockchain phone,
the Exodus 1.
[Image from HTC]

I N T H E KNOW 73
 P ETHEROLL
Meet the Projects
GAMBLING
> ETHORSE
Gambling has been one of the most obvious and well-worn
use cases for crypto since Bitcoin initially rose to public
consciousness, with the likes of SatoshiDice (a simple dice
game) taking in millions of dollars in bets as early as 2013.
It is a natural fit, being an industry suffering from varying
regulatory attitudes worldwide, in which users can be afraid
to gamble for fear of being stigmatized or having to deal
with untoward operators, and which has often suffered from
a lack of transparency and high costs.
As such, there are multiple gambling focused DApps ranging
from simple dice games to more complex offerings which
are currently running and available to users.
FUNFAIR
FunFair differs from BetDice and Etheroll, with the
project instead providing the building blocks for
casino games upon which providers can build. The
team have built a number of games already, ranging
from simple card based games such as blackjack
to casino favourites like roulette. They have also
produced a number of more slot machine like games.
Once a provider licenses FunFair’s technology, they
are able to ‘skin’ the games to offer a customized
appearance whilst retaining the underlying benefits
of blockchain based gambling. Users do not have to
trust the casino providers as all gambling is handled
by smart contracts. This sees funds locked up in
escrow prior to the bet starting, before them being
released to either the casino or the user depending
on the outcome of the bet.
21 CRYPTOS
Another dice-based game in which users bet
upon the results of a 100 sided dice and can
set their own odds, Etheroll sees the house
receive a 1% edge. The project conducted an
ICO in early 2017, with the token (DICE)
holders receiving dividends based upon the
quarterly profit the house makes. To date, this
has amounted to 2,655 ETH, although there
have been two quarters in which the house has
made a loss, including one quarter in which
the house lost 804 ETH.
A small and niche DApp with far lower
volumes than the above, Ethorse allows users
to bet on the outcome of ‘races’ between
different cryptoassets. Although the current
offering limits users to betting on 1 or 24 hour
races between just ETH, BTC and LTC, the
intention is to expand that to include a wider
range of race types and cryptoassets in the
future. Dividends are then shared between
HORSE holders.
BETDICE
An EOS based DApp, BetDice allows users to
gamble on rolls of the dice and has recently
shot to prominence after reporting the highest
volume of any DApp since CryptoKitties.
With over $60m gambled in a single day in
December, and frequently seeing weekly
volumes over $250m, BetDice has quickly
risen in popularity. It allows users to gamble
on a variety of different types of games,
including Baccarat and Sic Bo, the latter being
a multiplayer dice game where users wager
upon the results of three dice.
 S Furthermore, when rapid appreciation
Security 101
HOW TO
PROTECT
YOURSELF
WHEN
TRADING
> can do too. Simply taking the time to
Every crypto crash brings with it tales of woe, those who
have lost it all trading. There are a number of similarities
across most of these stories.
The most frequent mistake is that people over-leverage in
an attempt to make more profits. They take out loans or
buy crypto on credit cards, or they leverage themselves up
on exchanges which allow them to buy 100x the amount of
crypto than the collateral they put up. When they lose, they
are forced to repay the full amount.
As with poker, bankroll management is key to avoiding
losing everything. One of the most important lessons to be
learned is that remaining solvent has to be prioritised at all
costs. You will always face unexpected events and need to
remain in the market long enough to give your investments
time to appreciate. You can’t make money when you have no
money.
I N T H E KNOW
does happen, it’s important to make
sure you take profits. When to do so
depends upon your risk appetite, but it
is important to have a plan as to when
and how much profits you will take.
Doing so provides protection against a
downturn, but it also allows you to take
profits on the principal you invested
originally and therefore leave you
with pure upside on what is left. This
plan helps in other ways. Having pre-
set limits at which you will cash out
takes the emotion of trading in volatile
markets. The other benefit of this is that
it provides reserves with which to buy
back in the case of a market dip.
Another key attribute to learn is simply
patience. It is easy to get dragged into
the ‘FOMO’ of a global asset class on
the rise, but many cryptoassets have
now hit not just 1Y lows, but in some
cases 5Y lows. Having the ability to
recognise a market which is overvalued
is only useful if accompanied by the
wherewithal to wait it out until prices
drop. So too is waiting to buy back in
until a reversal has been confirmed.
Those who bought BTC following a
50% drop are now down nearly 66%
themselves. Timing the bottom is
difficult.
There are other, smaller things traders
put in buy/sell orders rather than selling
at market price can net an extra 1-5% in
many cases in crypto, such is the lack of
liquidity of many tokens. Furthermore,
users should not trust service providers
such as exchanges to safely hold their
tokens – there have been too many hacks
and lost user funds proving otherwise.
Finally, users should be honest with
themselves if they should actually be
trading at all. It is not for everyone and
there is no shame in simply buying and
holding. For many, trading cryptoassets
is actually pure gambling. As with any
form of gambling, the odds are stacked
against you - arguably more so in crypto
as a result of manipulation and the lack
of regulation.
75

Crypto Understanding
AN INTRODUCTION TO
DECENTRALIZED
EXCHANGES
>
Crypto trading has been largely restricted
to exchanges operated by third-party
organizations, known as centralized
exchanges (CEXs). Users deposit funds
to the exchange, and the CEX is then
responsible for the safekeeping of these
funds until withdrawn again. CEXs act in
a similar manner to banks – user funds
are pooled together upon deposit and are
then only split up at withdrawal. Because
of the centralized management, trading
is swift and transactions can happen
instantly because everything is stored on
an internal database.
By contrast, decentralized exchanges
(DEXs) are implemented by a third-
party operator, but are not managed
in the same way. Trades are peer to
peer, with the two parties trading
between themselves. As a result of this
decentralization, DEXs boast several key
advantages:
>> Owing to the frequency of exchange
failures, including fraudulent
owners and cybersecurity risks such
as hacks, potentially a DEXs biggest
advantage is allowing users to always
21 CRYPTOS
U
be in control of their own funds (as trades
are P2P)
>> Listing fees can run into millions on larger
exchanges, but DEXs can allow for any token
to be traded easily and quickly, providing a
lifeline for smaller projects which cannot
afford to pay for listings. In the case of
DEXs such as EtherDelta, there isn’t a
listing process – users can trade against the
contract address
>> DEXs don’t use passwords, usernames or
2FA, as trading is direct from the user’s
wallet. By removing the need to log-in, the
process is considerably streamlined
>> Unlike CEXs, which must (or should have to)
comply with stringent Know Your Customer
(KYC) and Anti Money Laundering (AML)
rules, DEXs can have no operator and allow
trading direct from user wallets. As such,
DEXs can operate across jurisdictions and
without needing to submit to KYC/AML
laws. Whether or not this is perceived as
an advantage of disadvantage depends upon
your perspective
However, DEXs have their disadvantages
too. Because all transactions take place
on the blockchain, they are slower
than CEXs. They are also less reliable
as a result, with already filled orders
sometimes not being removed from the
order book quickly enough, leading
to frustration from users who are left
wondering why the order they are trying
to fill won’t let them.
Furthermore, they have significantly
less users than the largest CEXs and
accordingly have less volume too. While
the largest CEXs will transact billions
daily, even the leading DEXs will transact in the low millions
(although this has been as high as $20-40m in January to
March). This lack of liquidity makes DEXs borderline unusable
for many token pairings, with spreads (the difference between
the highest buy and sell orders) high. Finally, some DEXs are
not wholly decentralized; for example IDEX, one of the larger
DEXs, terms itself as a hybrid CEX/DEX, and as such intends to
implement KYC and has delisted tokens it deems as securities.
Thus far the DEX space has seen hundreds of entrants struggle
to attain dominance. However, the exchange juggernaut Binance
recently showed off its plans for a DEX of its own, a move that
will radically alter the landscape.
REVOLUTION
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FEATURE
A student interrupted my lecture to announce
he was selling Bitcoins. He told us he was a
tree surgeon, fast-tracked into the Marijuana
Horticulture program at the University of
California Davis.

“So do your clients buy drugs with them or do

gamble?” I asked him as I googled “Marijuana
Horticulture UC Davis” and debated whether
to project the results on a screen in front of
his peers.

He shook his head. “My clients are mostly

guys, doing divorces who wanna hide their
assets. Hey man, if you ever wanna buy a
Bitcoin or two, just let me know…”

As a professor you accept that negotiating

extensions and exceptions are rather like
transacting in a third world bazaar. Students
lie shamelessly and constantly but in the deep
rural South they often did with amusing flair.
The year was 2014. Bitcoin was in a holding
pattern around $300-$700 and there were no
Marijuana horticulture programs at UC Davis.

In the beginning God created the heaven and

the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void;

and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of
the waters.

And God said, Let there be light: and there

was light.

And God saw the light, that it was good: and

God divided the light from the darkness.
My student (what was his name?) did not marijuana-prodigy Bitcoin-
inspire confidence in Crypto. I was reading wholesaler knew I didn’t have
about cryptocurrency, and wanted in, but was a clue what was going on,
worried he would rip me off, sell me a ‘used’ and could have handed me a
Bitcoin; or it was all plot to humiliate in frontrandom string of numbers and
of the class. swindled my little scrap of
an adjunct professor’s salary.
We often clashed. Silly things. I thought it Assuming he hadn’t just read
was good natured but you can never really about Bitcoin online that week
tell. Still, I thought about scraping together and was making up another
a hundred dollars. (Had I, and had I HODLed fantasy about himself: Another
and hadn’t lost my private key or sell-cucked student in his class claimed
my hundred bucks worth of Bitcoin would be an on the Supreme Court was
worth a cool thousand today down from a cold about to write a grade appeal on
six this time last year). But I didn’t trust him his behalf, another, whose glib
enough to take the plunge. charm suggested a spot on the
opposite side of the spectrum
The point of Bitcoin is that trust shouldn’t
told she had cured herself of
matter. Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper
autism, turned down Harvard
explains how a transaction between two
to stay on the family farm,
people can be verified using a peer-to-peer
and that her book of short
network and a concept called “proof of work.”
essay had been scouted by a
From the abstract:
literary agent. Then
I received the same
The network timestamps transactions by funeral program flyer
hashing them into an ongoing chain of hash- for a dead grandfather
based proof-of-work, forming a record that “excused absence”
cannot be changed without redoing the proof- in two subsequent
of-work. The longest chain not only serves as classes--and they were
proof of the sequence of events witnessed, but not related.
proof that it came from the largest pool of CPU
I did not buy in 2014.
power. As long as a majority of CPU power is But to me now it felt
controlled by nodes that are not cooperating to like the beginning.
attack the network, they' ll generate the longest The first time I felt the
chain and outpace attackers. The network blockchain. The first
itself requires minimal structure. Messages are time I could sense it as
broadcast on a best effort basis, and nodes can a real thing slithering
leave and rejoin the network at will, accepting through society
the longest proof-of-work chain as proof of and not a flicker of
what happened while they were gone. nothing to leer and
smirk at.

A blockchain is a snapshot of where

everyone’s transactions (recorded as ‘hashes’)
stand at any given moment in time. Nodes on
the network verify transactions by comparing
their databases to one another’s, and keeping
up to date. The node with the most verified
hashes (the longest blockchain) is the “real”
database and unless you’re willing to spend
exa-flops of computing power to surpass all
the other nodes on the Bitcoin network, your
transaction is safe.

At the time that wouldn’t have mattered

to me; because my tree-scrambling

BI T COI N’ S F I R S T DE CADE 83
While I was researching this
article I finally figured out who
Fake Satoshi is.

I’d never bothered looking up

Fake Satoshi before, just kept
randomly coming across the word
string and not quite quilting to
fact that it was separate thing
from the real Satoshi Nakamoto.
Bitcoin Cash’s Craig Wright
is also called Fake Satoshi
sometimes. But he’s a usurper, or
maybe he’s more of a destroyer.
He might also be the real one!

Anyway, in 2014, the same year

I was offered Bitcoin for the
first time, a journalist working
for Newsweek, Leigh McGrath
Goodman, after months of
“forensic reporting” tracked
down an unemployed engineer
with software experience named
Satoshi Nakamoto to Los Angeles
suburb Hal Finney lived in.
Finney was the cypherpunk hero
programmer who received the
very first transfer of Bitcoin
in 2009. (He was diagnosed
with Lou Gehrig 's disease
shortly after, and died in 2014.)
Goodman tracked Nakamoto
down and apparently confronted
him and allegedly extracted a
confession, which Nakamoto
and now everyone else associated
with the article vehemently
denies.

His first name is Dorian, by the

way, Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto,
and he looks the part perfectly:
a stately Japanese American who
holds himself with the kind of
quiet dignity you’d associate
with someone sitting on what
was once worth $19 billion. Fake
Satoshi accepts tips these days
(his wallet had over $200K worth
before he cashed out) and has
become a minor crypto celebrity,
appearing at conferences and
serving as a kind of living totem
of how foolish the mainstream
media is when it comes to
anything tech-related.
 One reason, maybe the real reason I
mentioned teaching English above was
so I could scream out: Look! His name
is Dorian, like Dorian Grey--he’s a cut-
out for the real Satoshi Nakamoto--
and the Genesis block is loaded with all
kinds of cheeky not-so-subtle allusions
to the Old Testament, and a chunk of
newspaper headline referring to the
financial bailouts; it’s all so geekishly
laced with Easter Eggs, those little mini
programming treats programmers sinter
into their code to seem clever (or, ahem, *
waggles pricey Latin diploma* Nabokov’s
Pale Fire).

Here’s my theory about who the real

Satoshi is (we all have one): it had to be
Hal Finney, poor dying Hal Finney the
privacy program developer who left the
original wallet untouched and probably
named himself Satoshi after a neighbor
or a name in the phonebook. Finney
denied he was Satoshi. I can offer no
evidence he was other than the aesthetics
of verisimilitude. This feels like the right
answer to this trained mimic of reality.
Plus people like to weave themselves into
narratives. And Finney’s dead so he can’t
complain.

So Finney knew he was dying and locked

up the first few hoards of coins (980,000
BTC) to create scarcity and conjure value
or else the degenerative nerve disease
he was suffering from swallowed the
memory of where his private keys were.
Or there was a glitch.

Equally plausible to me is the idea of

a group of prominent cryptonaughts who’d worked on
earlier versions of cryptocurrencies and recognized the
importance of weaving a mysterious narrative into the
fabric of the world’s first real electronic currency. Or else
they did it out of programmer’s cheek. But would they
really have been able to leave the 980,000 Bitcoin Satoshi
mined untouched?
 “The identity of Bitcoin's inventor is
probably as relevant today as the identity of the
person who invented paper.” (Bitcoin.org FAQ ,
which presents Satoshi’s anonymity as a liability.)
Satoshi released the first version
of Bitcoin on January 9, 2009.
(six days after the newspaper
headline announcing the
possibility of a second financial
bailout to prop up a dying
financial system). The Bitcoin
software operates the nodes. Each
node maintains its own copy of the
blockchain, meanwhile the coins
themselves are mathematically
locked until miners can crack the
cryptographic code containing
them.
There’s an amusing viral video
going around of a news interview
of someone incoherently
mumbling bitcoin and
cryptocurrency-related buzzwords
in response to an interviewer’s
questions: Who the real Satoshi
was doesn’t matter anymore.
There used to be an ongoing
demographic survey of Bitcoin
users. Zero Hedge recorded what
it is said in 2013: “The 'average
Bitcoin user ' is male (96%), 32.7
years old, libertarian / anarcho-
capitalist (37%), non-religious
(61%), with a full time job (43%),
and is in a relationship (56%).
The biggest motivation for new
users are curiosity, profit, and
politics; and 39% of users do not
drink, smoke, gamble, or take
drugs. Just over half of users have
mined bitcoins and the greatest
community fear for Bitcoin is
“regulatory/legal intervention”
followed by ”reputation
problems”. Overall more people
seem to find Bitcoin intellectually
rewarding (70% have learned
more about cryptography) than
socially rewarding (22% have
made friends).”
It’s gone now. There are tens of
thousands of men and women
all over the world tinkering
with the database, mining, and
maintaining nodes and repairing
problems. The real Satoshi is
millions of hours of labor poured
into the code.

The 2013 demographics capture my nameless student
(and yours truly). He was older than a traditional student
(in his mid to late twenties) and clearly interested in
internet communities, while at the time I was in my early
thirties and also essentially living entirely online.
His offer was far less suspect than the one that eventually
me reeled in. I had watched one of the earlier Bitcoin
boom and bust cycles play out on an online forum for Ivy-
league educated lawyers, economists and other folk in the
‘professions’ (they’ve asked me not to mention which one).
Many of them work in Silicon Valley and a few made
substantial fortunes creating iPhone apps and games.
Basically it’s a text-only anonymous forum where people
conceal themselves with witty monikers and spout
unspeakable vulgarities and make (and occasionally prove)
wild claims about bedding beautiful men and women, etc.
During the 2013 Bitcoin Bullrun one of most obnoxious
trolls on the board invested all of her money in Bitcoin and
gloated as it soared up in value and then created enormous
glee in the community when it plunged back to earth and
she panicked and capitulated (or did she?)
In February 2017 the Silicon Valley types began investing
heavily into Ethereum and organizing secret coordination
groups on Slack and occasionally giving away tens and,
once, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Ethereum.
At the time it
seemed like pure
exuberance, but
now it seems like
a more deliberate
way to draw
wealthy investors
in. (As an itinerant
academic, my
invitation to join
this secret Slack
never arrived).
True to that market
psychology graph
that’s always
trotted out, I’d
spotted an asset as
it was beginning
to rise in value but
held off.
Once again, watching Ethereum starting to
rise and seeing the eruptions of gloating and
glee on the board, I decided I was ready to
take the plunge and almost did around March
or April. But then when one of the wags
on the board made a thread contrasting the
sudden wealth of one of the most despicable
characters on the board with the short
story Flowers for Algernon (where a man
with Down’s syndrome is injected with an
experimental drug and becomes a genius for
a few days before sliding back into brainless
oblivion): “Flowers for Algernon only it’s X
and he’s rich for a week instead of smart.”
I couldn’t do it; I couldn’t pull the trigger
(besides I was flat broke). And still the price
of cryptocurrency rose. It was such a strange
year in the United States: Donald Trump--
who had always been a kind of Robin Leach
“Lifestyles of the rich and famous” fringe
figure from the 1980s--had suddenly become
the President, and stranger still, people
were frothing at the mouth about it, seeing
him as either a messianic figure--as they
did in my neck of the woods--or accusing
him of being both Mussolini and some kind
of Russian plant simultaneously. Anything
seemed possible, especially weird things,
and what would come true seemed to have
no tether in reality whatsoever. Someone
machine gunned five hundred people in Las
Vegas, people were seriously talking about
normalizing relations with North Korea…
why wouldn’t it keep going up?

On the board, a series of punctuation marks

shaped like a crocodile, someone claiming
to be a fugitive who’d just finished gender
reassignment surgery, a demented Tinder
philosopher, a pair who called themselves
“GC Casino Nightmare Machine” and a self-
proclaimed ‘magical Asian mystic’ flashed
links and donated money from crypto
wallets worth tens of millions of dollars
and they all were leading a conga line into
what seemed like infinite wealth. That’s
what a bubble looks and feels like, by the
way, and here comes the bear signal.

My birthday was Christmas Eve and I was

alone at the computer, drinking hard.
The richest of the whales was handing out
chunks of 0.18ETH which at the time was
worth well over a hundred dollars. All
year I’d resisted the disgusting spectacle
of people begging him for money and his
occasional boons (he once gave someone
an entire Bitcoin near the peak). But as he
went through a list of dozens of wallets
sending currency I was feeling very sorry
for myself and I capitulated: I created an
Ethereum wallet and sure enough within
an hour there it was... a little digital chunk
of money that was shuffled in without a
bank, without anything at all, and then it
hit me--this was a revolution; after years
of living on the margins of poverty with
bad credit, at the mercy of slow paying
finicky freelance assignments, essentially
as an enemy of money, this was magical;
all the inconvenience of buying and spend
and shuttling money around online would
melt away; it was like the last wall between
the digital and the tangible was about to
fall, but I won’t lie, most of all I felt like I
was getting in on a gold rush years before
anyone else had spotted it.
God help me, I think I used that first chunk
of Ethereum to buy Ripple. I paid $45 in
mining fees to send $30 worth of Bitcoin a
few days later. I tried trading, managing to
net dollar gains but Bitcoin losses, as the
market-cap swelled to its maximum. You
know what happened next.
Imagine a graph of the price of Bitcoin over time
plunging into Hell right here.
(Nah… The truth is I never had enough money in the
game to actually get into trouble. But some of those
people on that forum are down over a million dollars. But
that’s what happened in 2013 too, it’ll go back up again;
Bitcoin is just clearing out its fairweather friends.)
The reason for the herky-jerky style of this essay is not
just to mimic the decentralized structure of the Bitcoin
blockchain and the way its growing through society
in fits and starts, nor is to just a cheesy way for me to
personalize the story of a collective hallucination (my
year in crypto as a node in the ten year long Bitcoin
blockchain).
I think the seeds of the future are baked into the Bitcoin
blockchain. Money is memory: The original proof
of work. Writing was developed to record financial
transactions. Iranian deserts are littered with the clay
remains of ancient transactions. The thicket of stories
woven around Bitcoin is an emergent phenomenon,
the squishy messiness of human brains confronted
with truth carved into collective memory. We come to
realizations about things like trading and technology in
quasi-digestible chunks like this. We connect moments
into chains of our own, they just don’t have the smooth
sweep of the blockchain.
On holiday in Istanbul a few months later I
met a beautiful Kurdish ICO advisor at the
Museum of Modern Art who told me that all
technologically-astute Turks were hoarding
Bitcoin as a hedge against their increasingly
worthless currency. She made millions of
Euros from Bitcoin and wasn’t too worried
about the drop from 19K to 11K. “Percentage-
wise there were other bigger falls,” she
said. It’ll come back. Bitcoin makes borders
pointless, the only way to defend against the
monstrosity of governments and artificial
intelligence and automation. She grew up
under the yoke of a strictly conservative
family. Bitcoin let her flit all over the world
and live out her fantasies of
wearing neon dresses and fairytale
backdrops. You can pry open your
own reality with it she said.

You’re a writer; in ten maybe

fifteen years with algorithms
churning through databases and
optimizing each word you’ll be
obsolete. She showed me how
Google Translate could turn a
menu of gibberish into broken English as
proof. The words shifting from Cyrillics to
English felt like a wink from the future.I told
her I wanted to move to Berlin, that I’d had
a taste and was desperate to leave academia
and get in. Not Berlin, she said, go to San
Francisco instead, and she gave me an unpaid
assignment to write for her on the plane.

Their idea was so bad, something about

monetizing comment systems and I couldn’t
bring myself to invest in the thing. But I did
move to California and I remain convinced
that the development of distributed ledger
technologies is *the* story of the early 21st
Century, and that it’s more than a payment
system that--by yanking off unnecessary
layers of bureaucracy--can bring the digital
world even closer to the tangible one.

It seems like a new writing tool. Something

as potentially powerful as the printing press
or the clay tablet; that maybe you could
wield cross-linked databases squirming with
personalities and schema and create a kind of
living hallucination out of it. You could play
God, fork off of reality, and the blockchain
would be the motor running through it.

(Computer programmers I’ve spoken to tell me

this is overstating the case, to put it mildly.)
 Looking through
ten years of price
charts and crypto
startups blossoming
and wilting; I think
it is crucial we look
at Bitcoin’s roots,
specifically its release
during the credit
crunch in 2008; I
think Finney et al
deliberately waited
for what they thought
was the ideal moment
to release the code.
The crunch wasn’t as
devastating as many
of us were hoping it
would be at the time.

Quantitative easing
and other sluices of
government money
kept the global
financial system
going, but the cracks
seem to be forming
once again, and these
days the world is a
lot more like Turkey,
and we’re much more
vulnerable this time,
much more politically
polarized here in the
West, and suspicious
of big government, it
feels we’re near the
brink again and the
next shock could send a critical mass of people looking for a better alternative,
which I think is what it would take to really accelerate the adoption of
Bitcoin, which remains the most robust, decentralized currency out there.

My student, John was his name, I remember it now, gave me a very strange
polemical essay about censorship and immigration in Australia (subject
matter no doubt influenced by 4chan’s /pol/ board) before he disappeared.
This was sad because he was smart, and despite his confabulation, he was
letting himself rot in a bad polytechnic in the deep rural South. I hope he
escaped the state like I did or took advantage of the way they relaxed cannabis
laws this year and put his tree surgeon skills to use (and that much was true:
he showed me his ropes and harness once). Or that he really had amassed an
enormous digital wad of bitcoin.

So in ten years the Bitcoin blockchain has seeped out of the deep technical
recesses of the earliest of early adopters, and into the hands of people like
John and I: the technology adjacent weirdos.

This story is near the beginning.

 Jan 3 Genesis Block Mar 1 $4.92
Kicks Off Oct 5 New Liberty Linode Hacked, Over Nov 15 $11.04
Standard Published 46,000 BTC Stolen Wordpress Accepts
Oct 12 First Bit- Bitcoin
First Exchange Rate
coin-to-Fiat Exchange
Occurs

Mar 11 $47.41
Bitcoin 0.8 Causes
May 14 $114.33
Aug 15 $0.07 Jul 18 $0.07 Brief Hard Fork
DHS Seizure Warrant
Protocol Bug Causes Mt. Gox Opens for Against Mt. Gox
Hard Fork Business Dec 5 $1,022.37
Chinese Government
Bans Financial Insti-
tutions From Using
Bitcoin
Mar 27 $0.83
Jun 1 $9.21
Britcoin Launches
Gawker Publishes
First Bitcoin-GBP
Article About The Silk
Exchange, followed
Road
by Bitcoin Brazil and Feb 7 $717.83
BitMarkets Major Bitcoin Feb 24 $547.09
Jun 29 $17.77 Mt. Gox Shuts Down
Exchanges Hit with
Mt. Gox Hacked
DDoS Attack
Jun 13 $598
Mining Pool GHash.
Oct 6 $323.47
io Reaches 51% of Net-
The Slaying of Bear-
work Hashing Power
Whale, the Unknown
Trade Who Placed a
30,000 BTC Sell Order

Jan 4 $275.07 Jan 25 $281.26

Bitstamp is Hacked Coinbase Launched US
Licensed Exchange
Aug 1 $283.05
Mark Karpeles (CEO of
Sep 18 $234.65
Mt. Gox) Arrested in
Bitcoin Declared as
Japan
a Commodity by the
CFTC
Oct 8 $245.48
Gemini Exchange
Launched
 Jul 9 $625.14 Aug 2 $594.86
Second Halving Day Bitfinex Hacked
How many days it took for Bitcoin to reach:

$0-$1000
1798 days

Jan 3 $1020.47 $1000-$2000

1271 days
Apr 1 $1,085.03
Aug 1 $2,787.85 Japan Declares Bitcoin $2000-$3000
23 days
Bitcoin Hard Forks as Legal Tender
into Bitcoin (BTC) and $3000-$4000
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) 62 days
Sep 15 $3,606.08
$4000-$5000
China Shuts Down All 61 days
Oct 13 $5,128.05
Bitcoin and Cryptocur-
rency Exchanges $5000-$6000
Dec 18 $19,498.63 8 days

Bitcoin Price at All $6000-$7000

Time High 13 days

$7000-$8000
14 days

$8000-$9000
7 days
Jan 13 $13,830.70
Mar 14 $9,208.96 $9000-$10000
80% of Bitcoin's Total 5 days
Facebook, Google
Supply Has Been
and Twitter have $10000-$11000
Mined 2 days
all banned Crypto
Advertisements $11000-$12000
Apr 13 $9,021.75
3 days
Goldman Sachs
Aug 8 $6,352.28 $12000-$13000
Announces to Open
Over $9 Billion Wiped 1 day
a Bitcoin Trading
Off Bitcoin's Value
Operation $14000-$16000
After SEC Postpones
1 day
Key ETF Decision
Dec 3 $4,030.84 $16000-$17000
Bitcoin Faces Sec- 1 day
Dec 7 $3,284.79
ond Largest Difficulty $17000-$18000
Bitmain, Roger
Drop in History 10 days
Ver, Kraken Sued
for Alleged Bit- $18000-$19000
coin Cash Hard Fork 1 day
Manipulation
 BLOCKLAND:

A CITY
G O N E
CRYPTO
FEATURE

BY JEN HILL
Photos by OMER KATZIR

Bernie Moreno (pictured) told local

WKSU– "I know LeBron James, and I' m no
LeBron James. Let's get that out of the way."

Moreno's goal is to turn Cleveland into

a hub for companies that use blockchain
technology.
“My son was 20 and came to me three or
four years ago and said ‘Dad, take all of
your money and invest it in Bitcoin’ and
I said ‘What the hell is Bitcoin,” stated
Bernie Moreno, legendary for his suc-
cessful gaggle of Mercedes-Benz dealer-
ships in Notrtheast Ohio.
Today, Moreno is quickly becoming
known for Blockchain business. From
concept to conference, the notion for
‘Blockland’ was born out Moreno and
friend’s trip to New York’s Consensus in
April 2018. Cleveland did it its way fea-
turing keynotes by ConsenSys Founder
Joe Lubin; Mark Hurd, Oracle CEO; John
Donovan, CEO AT&T; Jerry Cuomo, VP
Blockchain IBM; Beth Mooney, CEO Key-
Corp; Larry Sanger, Co-founder Wikipe-
dia and dozens of the usual suspects shar-
ing the current and future prospects for
Blockchain and Cryptocurrency. In fact,
Moreno says it was more than just a con-
ference. To elevate Cleveland to a Block-
chain capital Moreno and friends are leap-
frogging over a non-technical history of
an industrial city, turned dead, turned
sports city, turned dead, to a Blockland.
Cleveland today is rich in medicine and
education with some of the best medical
care in the Midwest and hordes of edu-
cational institutions, was the first major
American city since the Great Depres-
sion to enter into a financial default on
federal loans in 1978. Since then, the
city has gone what some may see as an
identity crisis that may actually repre-
sent the State’s defining characteris-
tic of being unpredictable,
unaligned, and dynamic.
By 2007, Cleveland, once
“The Mistake by the Lake”,
became known as the
‘Comeback City’. In 2014
they hosted the Gay Games
and in 2016 the Republi-
can National Convention
where Trump was chosen as
the Republican Party Presi-
dential Nominee. Trump’s
appointment took place at the Huntington Conven-
tion Center where the Blockland Conference was
held from December 2nd through the 5th, 2018.
I was born and raised in North Canton, Ohio about
45 miles south of Cleveland where the four-day con-
ference took place. Yes, near the Pro-Football Hall of
Fame and kind of close to where LeBron James grew
up. If you aren’t into American sports, you haven’t
heard of my hometown.
Ohio, in general, is by many considered unremark-
able and “filled with cows”. Yet, as of last month,
Ohioans can pay their State taxes in bitcoin. What
has the State’s politicians and many of its most influ-
ential leaders clamoring to create a foundation for
cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology compa-
nies to flourish? It isn’t the only factor, but I am sure
a major one was a conversation between a son and a
father, not unlike many of us have had.
I sat down with Monero at the tale end of the event.
Honestly, he nailed it. Passerbys interrupted us to
congratulate him and he expressed pride in a job
well done. The conference was a hit among attend-
ees and may have achieved a very lofty goal. That
is, shifting the perspective of a pretty practical com-
munity of manufacturing and medicine to one that
assumes extraordinary vision to incubate an emerg-
ing technology.
Jen Hill
returns to her
birthplace,
Ohio, to cover
the city driven
conference,
Blockland.
 FEATURE PERSON
“MY SON WAS 20 AND CAME
TO ME THREE OR FOUR YEARS
AGO AND SAID ‘DAD, TAKE
ALL OF YOUR MONEY AND
INVEST IT IN BITCOIN’ AND
I SAID ‘WHAT THE HELL IS
BITCOIN.”
 Jen I want to know how you got started in this
world because it's different than your past.

Moreno (Flashback to Moreno’s conversation with his son

when bitcoin was worth about $300 a piece.) I called my
financial advisor as a joke on speaker phone and said
hey, my son says take all of my money out of your
account and put it in bitcoin. He said, don’t do that,
which was bad advice by the way. From there he started
to studying bitcoin and blockchain and started to see
it for what it really is, a revolution in the sense that
it is changing the way data is organized in the world.
Saying it’s just another database is like saying “Iphone
is just another phone”. I started to make some invest-
ments in companies that use blockchain. Votem is one
of them. We don’t see a lot of companies in Cleveland
that buy out companies in California and we just did.
*He is referring to Votem Corporation’s recent pur-
chase of California based firm “Everyone Counts” that
offered web-based voting products, including voter registration
since 1997.
I realized that in Cleveland we could build out an ecosystem
that was really special. So we set about to it. Part of it is a
conference, which we just did, you could see this as a coming
out party. Cleveland is in the blockchain business. This came
together in three and a half months. We think we have a really
special city here - in the sense that we have all the sophisti-
cation of a big city and all the charm of a small Midwestern
town at the same time. A cost of liv-
ing that you can’t beat. I love talking
to young people because young peo-
ple will advise you will the future
is going because if you look at their
behavior, by definition that is where
the future is going.
epiphany for us to realize that block-
chain yes is the underlying tech, bit-
coin is an ap cryptocurrency are aps,
but it’s the big application of block-
chain now. If you don’t build out that
infrastructure you won’t be able to
do other cryptographic assets, or at
least not meaningfully. So we now
say that want to focus on the business
and government solutions, but that
we want to build out this infrastruc-
ture. (He then listed the companies
that accept bitcoin in the area.) The
Great Lakes Science center across the
street from where the conference is
held, the art museum of the state of
Ohio, Case Western Reserve is look-
ing at accepting bitcoin for tuition
and fees, the Cavs and Indians are
looking at doing that, my car dealer-
ship do, a local barbershop does.

I am sure you are part of what is hav-

ing the businesses and the government
here accept bitcoin as payments. Bit-
coin and blockchain are very differ-
ent and at the same time, there are
intersections. When the people who
are involved in cryptocurrencies, do
you image that will attract compa-
nies using blockchain technology?

One of the things I have found in the

blockchain or bitcoin movement,
there is a bifurcation of both things.
There are the crypto people and the
people who shun crypto and focus on
blockchain, as we got more educated,
we learned that not only you can’t do
that, you shouldn’t do that. It was an
One of the things I am personally
Waverly
convinced about, cryptocurrency for sure
Willis, The
I see how it is a future because it solves
Bitcoin
so many problems. However, if it is only
Barber
an investment vehicle though it won’t ever work. In
other terms, if the only reason you would buy crypto Owner of Urban Kutz Barbershop
is to make it go up or down or trade it, it won’t work, in Cleveland followed the trends.
you have to use it. He mentions Ron Richards,
Executive Director of the Cleveland
The idea is that somebody comes to Cleveland and says,
Foundation, Bernie Monero the
I can come here and use cryptocurrency and I can use
auto tycoon turned tech investor,
it anywhere I want and use it how I want. We are clari-
fying laws and have a couple of other statutes we want and Akram Boutros, President of

to pass. Full 360 government, business, non-profits, Metro Health. "These are successful

everybody pulling in the same direction and that’s how people from different spectrums

I think we can create this eco-system. that I look up to and admire, so

when these people are endorsing
Do you own crypto? How did your son know to buy something, I sit up and listen."
it?

Oddly enough I do not. I feel like I missed my chance

and when I saw it dip down under $3,000 I considered
it. I probably should of because it went
back up again. My son looked at it and
said that he is not going to trade it right
now because he is firmly convinced it
will go to $100,000

Joe Lubin said something on twitter the

other day which is taking the specula-
tors, or what he calls tourists out of the
market so that the workers can get back
to doing what they are supposed to be
doing. I think that the drop has gotten
a lot of that out. If you were just buying
bitcoin at 10k and thinking it was going
back up to 20 and then it goes back, you have to find a
functional use for it. We sold an Aston Martin to a cli-
ent using bitcoin for no other reason then it was more
functional, by far, then an international wire transfer.
Though Ohio might be considered unremarkable by
many, those who know better wouldn’t be surprised if
the city became a major hub of blockchain business.

Joe Lubin responds to: "What is the potential impact of quantum

computing on blockchain?"

"Quantum is, like blockchain, over-hyped right now. I don't think we will
be blindsided by it. Ethereum is building its next version to be quantum
safe. If something came totally out of the blue, the world has much more
to worry about than the blockchain systems being hacked."
 A BLOCK OF

FEATURE COMPANY
ISRAELI CEOS AND
If you ever need an example of
a real application using block-
VCS CELEBRATED
chain technology, reference
Votem. Votem has conducted nine AT VOTEM'S SKY
HIGH VIP PARTY
elections for both pri-
vate and public cli-
ents. That includes
2018’s mid-term elec-
tions in November,
where Votem’s prod-
ucts allowed military
and absentee voters to
cast ballots online for
elections in Colorado,
Washington, Alabama,
Montana, and Wash-
ington DC.

Votem’s mission is to
have 1 billion people
around the world vote
through the Votem plat-
form using their mobile
device by 2025.

To meet this impres-

sive target, Pete Mar-
tin, CEO, and his team
called on the brightest
minds on the planet.
In the summer of 2015,
Votem ran a $230,000
global innovation chal-
lenge through InnoCentive where For years, they have been responsi- From left: Iris
experts from around the world ble for collecting the general public Granot; Tamar
submitted detailed architectures vote for artists inducted in the Rock Bitton, chief
for a mass hack-proof voting sys- and Roll Hall of Fame. The 1,880,525 marketing
tem. Out of 110 submissions from votes for the Rock Hall Fan Vote is officer, vice
32 countries, the winning solution the largest use of online voting using president
utilized blockchain and became the Blockchain to date. People from all of business
architecture for their platform, 50 states and the District of Colum- development and
called Proof of Vote. bia accessed the Rock Hall voting site co-founder of
from 100 different countries and cast ATOZ; Lilach Hod,
their votes for their favorite rock art- iAngels; Agada
ists – 60% of those voted from their Nameri, general
phones. manager of
iCapital, a
female-founded
and led Israeli
venture capitalist
firm out of Israel
 FEATURE PROJECT

SNARK.ART LAUNCHED
THEIR INAUGURAL PIECE IN
DECEMBER OF 2018 WITH
EVE SUSSMAN’S 89 SECONDS
ATOMIZED.
Everyone has heard of
crypto collectibles and
companies that provide
storage of digital art on
the blockchain. Snark.art
co-founder Andrey Ale-
khin remarks that they
consider art tracking on the
blockchain, “a bit boring”.
Until now, there hasn’t
been the sort of decentral-
ized and unscripted art that
requires participation and
evolves dependant on the
collectors. Artist Simon
Lee explains the challenge
taken on by the artists and
developers at Snark.art is
that “the art needs to take on
the medium of blockchain”.
The technology labora-
tory, Snark.art is a differ-
ent sort of beast operating
at the intersection of block-
chain and art. On the lab’s
website, when your mouse
hovers over the names of
their founders Andrey Ale-
khin and Misha Libman,
clickable Ethereum wal-
let addresses are revealed.
Each wallet shows a year’s
worth of transactions on
Etherscan, some of those
transactions going out to an
account with “Crypto Kit-
ties” in the name. I am not
sure the statement here, but
after meeting these folks, I
am sure there is one.
Snark.art launched their
inaugural piece in Decem-
ber of 2018 with Eve Suss-
man’s 89 seconds Atom-
ized. The piece has as steep
of a learning curve as does
crypto and as many cor-
relations to the underpin-
nings of blockchain as a
piece of art could. Let’s
start with Sussman’s 2004
short film that inspired the
piece. 89 seconds at Alca-
zar is a nearly ten minute,
360-degree fluid Steadicam
single-shot take that imagines the moments before and
after Pablo Diego Velazquez’s 1656 painting, Las Meni-
nas (Spanish for ‘the Ladies-in-Waiting). The video
brings to vivid life what is considered by many as one
of the most important paintings in Western art his-
tory. The film features your favorite Game of Thrones
character, Lord Tyrion - actor Peter Dinklage. The film
debuted at the 2004 Whitney Biennial and has since
been widely acclaimed, awarded, and exhibited.
Now, Sussman has shattered the video into atoms and
tokenized them on the Ethereum blockchain with the
technological backing and logistical support of Snark.
art. “Each piece is an “atom” that is irrevocably tied
to the blockchain, thereby creating a new artwork, 89
seconds Atomized. An atom is a unique acreage of 400
pixels of the entire video’s image area and running time
of the film.
The piece, or pieces rather, use blockchain as a medium
and allows art owners to experience decentralized art.
By owning a piece, each collector becomes responsi-
Andrey Alekhin
ble for the ongoing life of the short film 89 seconds at Founder. Snark.art
Alcazar.
Andrey is the
Each atom, or “digital thing”, Sussman says, “is indeed founder of MIGZ, an
its own discrete artwork It also is a ticket to take part iconic music, and
in the shared experience of reassembling 89 seconds media arts summer
Atomized.” As explained on the website, “By tokenizing event for Russian
the atoms on the blockchain, the uniqueness of every millennials. He is
atom is guaranteed and their provenance archived for also founder and
CEO of Apogey, a
all to see.”
metals company
acquired by Africa
Israel Investment.
He holds an MBA
from the University
of Chicago’s Booth
School of Business.
“We are hoping and expecting that owners will be
engaged and will allow the work to have a life. In a
way, you are also turning the piece into an organism,”
explains Sussman, “Inevitably there will be atoms that
get lost, someone will lose their wallet, someone might
die and not pass their atoms to their kids, so there will
be atoms that start to disappear, so overtime, the video
will disintegrate in the same way that an organism does
disingeratras. The piece does have a life now.”

“This is a test and a lot of things could happen,” con-

tinues Sussman, “We don’t know how many ultimate
owners we will have. Some people will buy more than How does an artist feel about losing control of
one atom. What percentage of those owners will come their art? Sussman is familiar with technology as a
forward for that first showing?.” This work of techno- medium and letting go of artistic control. In a pre-
logical art combines past and future in a wonderfully vious piece, she used artificial intelligence to pro-
participatory piece that will be deliberately recreated duce, and re-produce a longer film. For this piece,
in ways that are unknown and unpredictable. Sussman asked, ‘What if you didn’t throw out all
the footage shot in making a
film. With that question in
mind, she created a film that
“had at least 100 hours,” she
describes, “we created a data-
base with 3,000 clips and 100
voice-overs and 100 pieces
of music and then we wrote
an algorithm that would edit
the film live.”

Fellow Snark.art artist,

Simon Lee says, “I am work-
ing with a randomized one-
armed bandit, like with a
slot machine, and lentic-
ulars.” He shows the audi-
ence at Blockland what the
randomized spin could pro-
duce, and what individuals
could then receive printed
as a holographic-ish framed
piece whose image changed
depending on your position
(lenticular), once they sort
out exactly how this art will
Snark.art function that is. The spin itself could be filmed
representing in and captured as data within your purchase of the
Cleveland (top right). ability to participate in creating the piece. These
ideas are in their infancy and the conversation
Eve Sussman and surrounding them is not unlike that which swirls
crew on the set for around crypto conferences where the talk is a bit
the short film 89 abstract and reliant on technologies that haven’t
seconds to Alcazar been fully developed, experienced, or evolved.
(middle).
Pre-sale started in December. They are selling the
atoms in batches. 1,136 out of 1,300 available atoms
have been sold as of the publication of this issue.
 How does a collective screening work?
Am I obliged to participate?

Eve Sussman's One of the goals of 89 seconds Atomized is screenings form a crucial part of the
89 second to to increase the visibility and accessibility of on-going life of each atom, and any
Alcazar (left) artwork that would otherwise be seen by a collective screening requires the coop-
atomized (right) very limited audience. That's why collective eration of a network of collectors.

While we don't expect everyone to par-

ticipate, the ever-changing mosaic of
atoms on loan should create a compel-
ling, ever-shifting experience for the
audience.

If an individual or institution would

like to screen 89 seconds Atomized,
they can request a loan of each indi-
vidual collector 's atom or atoms.
Collectors will, by default, opt into
automatically lending the piece upon
request; however owners may discon-
tinue the loan at any time. When the
atom is on loan, it is no longer visible
to the original owner.

*Full disclosure, since interviewing

Sussman and attending her Blockland
presentation, the author, Jen Hill, became
a collector of one atom of 89 seconds at
Alcazar.

PRESS RELEASE

LITECOIN FOUNDATION AND X9 DEVELOPERS ANNOUNCE

COLLABORATION
The Litecoin Foundation has formalized a collaboration with X9 Developers in the maintenance,
debugging, and hardening of ltcd and potentially other Lightning Network(LN) technologies.
X9 Developers are a blockchain agnostic dev team whose founders are core developers and fully
funded by Stakenet (XSN). As Stakenet’s overall vision is to build an interoperable cross-chain
future built on the LN, both parties incentives are aligned to work together.

X9 Developers have already implemented a beta version of cross-chain Atomic Swaps via the
Lightning Network available for testing between XSN and LTC. Their current focus is to improve
the user experience of the LN and develop a “one click” solution for Atomic Swaps on the LN. They
have also recently brought ltcd up to speed with the latest on btcd which will enable Litecoin sup-
port on neutrino, a Lightning Network light client. This marks an important first step in making
LN app development easier as a full node will no longer be required to run a LN wallet or applica-
tion for lnd implementations.
 CSI-SPIT BLOCKCHAIN
CONNECT
CRYPTO CONFERENCE CALENDAR
HACKATHON CONFERENCE:
Mumbai, India ACADEMIC
JANUARY 2019
San Francisco, CA,
2019 USA

5-6SAT-SUN
11
FRIDAY

BLOCK- THE NORTH 2nd Annual

CHAINGE AMERICAN
BITCOIN CHAINERS
DC 2019
CONFERENCE Blockchain Week
Washington, DC,
USA Miami, FL, USA
Seoul, South Korea

13-15 SUN-TUE
16-18 WED-FRI

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CONFERENCE
Tampa, FL, USA
St. Moritz,

23-24
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16-18 WED-FRI
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SUMMIT 2019 Berlin, Germany

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17-18 THUR-FRI
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