Introducing: Tokenize all the Things

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How Ujo helps fans own a slice of their favorite musicians

Hoodies, sneakers and bricks? How streetwear could benefit from crypto tokens

Listen: A new kind of crypto sale - The Asset Token Onboarding

How crypto helps sell CBD

Why Treum is so interested in getting high

Luc Falempin: How trying to buy stocks led to building a securities token machine

Collectible cats: How Alan Carr helped bring tokenization to the masses

How crypto is helping set gamers free

BUIDL: A 10-step guide to tokenizing an asset

The world is built on a giant $256 trillion pile of assets. Everything from property to art, to stocks to oil. Blockchain wants to change all that. This collection explores the industries being disrupted, by whom, and what that means for both consumers and enterprises.

We've delved deep into the tokenized world to uncover the people, the projects and the potential of this technology to change capital forever.

Blockchain’s promise of a more liquid world

Tokenize all the Things

The Ethereum community gathered in Osaka, Japan, for its fifth developer-focused conference. Here are all the highlights and everything you need to know.

Breaking news and features live from Devcon's fifth conference.

Devcon 5

Telegram, one of the largest messaging platforms in the world—and used by many in the crypto industry—is launching its own blockchain platform. But it's up against a deadline: October 31. Will it deliver the GRAM cryptocurrency on time or will it be forced to backtrack on its ambitious plans?

Insights on Telegram's upcoming blockchain platform

Telegram's crypto play

Shuyao Kong

Here’s an insider's look at who’s getting funding among China’s crypto-related startups. Rhino Data, a data-driven investment platform, just released a 2019 blockchain investment and financing report, in collaboration with Xinhua Finance. The latter is the official financial news outlet of Xinhua, the government mouthpiece.

First, here’s the tl;dr:

 	* There were 245 investment and financing deals in China, with some $3.5 billion invested overall. Both numbers are roughly 50% lower than in 2018, though significantly higher than 2017.
 	* Early-stage investments (pre-seed, seed, and series-A) dwindled as the year went by, and amounted to 43% of total investments. In the second half of 2019, strategic investment and acquisition became more prominent.
 	* Popular investment areas included: blockchain news/market intel, exchanges, and defi.
 	* Traditional VCs took a back seat in 2019. Most investments came from newly formed crypto funds.
 	* Cannan IPO’d, becoming the first blockchain firm to see a public market exit.
 	* Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou tended to attract more blockchain startups, though second-tier cities were catching up.

Among the top 10 companies that got the most funding, we see traditional industries such as exchanges (including Bitfinex), mining (Canaan’s series B was listed) and blockchain-based financing platforms. And some old-school, “put-everything-on-the-blockchain” companies made an appearance as well. Examples include a gaming startup and an e-commerce startup. Oddly, DeFi startups, a sector that attracted many crypto enthusiasts and is hot in the west, has yet to produce a top10 winner in 2019

It’s interesting that, apart from exchanges and mining, most of these startups are still trying to find an actual value proposition.

For example, Changyou, which received $50 million in Series A funding, is the first “cross-industry, reliable, points-oriented, digital-assets-financing and settlement platform.” According to its website, the company wants to be everything: a fintech platform, a personal finance expert, _and_ an entertainment go-to place.

How did such a company receive funding? Let’s take a closer look at its business partners: Bank of China, China Mobile, China Eastern, and CCB international. These state-owned companies seem to be on board with whatever cockamamie blockchain solution Changyou throws at them.

Indeed, the sudden approval of Chinese regulators is having a huge impact on China’s blockchain funding scene. Before Xi’s endorsement, many Chinese entrepreneurs preferred to launch their startups abroad. Still serving primarily Chinese customers, those startups preferred to either settle in adjacent countries, such as Singapore, where regulation is famously friendly, or faraway lands, such as Silicon Valley, where technical talent is abundant.

But now that Xi has sanctified blockchain technology, we’re seeing companies such as Huobi set up shop in mainland China. In addition, the national blockchain movement will also push tech giants, such as Tencent and Alibaba, to make moves in the space, either through internal innovation or external investments.

Fundamentally, tech investment is about product-market fit. China might see a burgeoning blockchain market given the Government’s boost. However, it’s not certain whether talent will return—or even remain—in China. Real blockchain is borderless. Like any other network technology, its power is a function of how many nodes are connected, all over the world. If China continues the blockchain-not-crypto approach, we will only see Government-backed investments on the Rhino report in the future.    

THREE OTHER BIG THINGS THAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK

#1: BITCOIN-SV DEBATE IN CHINA: WHO ARE THE TRUE FANS?

Bitcoin-SV’s sharp rise in price  was definitely the talk of the town in China last week. And the skeptical sentiment there mirrors the global tone.

However, the price surge and corresponding media frenzy revealed many hidden, die-hard BSV fans. One such group is the mysterious BSV Skull Club.

According to Blockbeats, a Beijing-based crypto media company that ventures into some of the exclusive Skull Club’s WeChat groups, most BSV supporters aren’t aren’t so much supporters of Craig Wright as they are of the currency he championed. Wright, as you probably know, helped create the BSV fork, and claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s inventor.

So why are these fans following Wright’s antics?

It turns out that most loyalists describe themselves as“ idealists” who insist on Nakamoto’s original vision: bitcoin as the ultimate P2P payment layer. But to facilitate such a vision, bigger blocks were required from a protocol level. When Wright proposed a BCH hard fork, these loyalists were following the bitcoin-as-payment vision, rather than Wright himself.

However, not all die-hard fans in the groups are really that ideological. Many are simply your usual crypto speculators. For example, one member claimed that they made enough money from last week’s BSV bull run to purchase three apartments. That claim was derided by the group owner as “speculative” because, rather than sell high, a true believer should hodl until BSV becomes _the_ dominant crypto.

#2. BEIJING TO LAUNCH NEW FINTECH SANDBOX - ONLY ONE BLOCKCHAIN APPLICATION MADE IT TO THE TRIAL

Creating a “fintech sandbox” is a common technique used by governments all over the world to test innovative solutions within a safe environment. Beijing jumped on the train as the first city in China to launch such a program.

According to the Peo­ple’s Bank of China (PBOC), Beijing has approved a set of six trial applications to be included in its sandbox. Applications include IoT, SME financing, mobile phone Point-of-Sales, and interbank settlement solution.

Blockchain, the newly anointed tech for the country, only made it to one of the use cases: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)’s Prod­uct trac­ing-cer­ti­fi­ca­tion man­age­ment and sup­ply-chain fi­nanc­ing, based on the In­ter­net of Things (基于物联网的物品溯源认证管理与供应链金融). The idea is a combination of two classic blockchain use cases: tracking and tracing products from manufacture IoT devices, and invoice financing.

It’s hard to know how ICBC tackles the “Garbage In, Garbage Out” issue, a challenge that troubles most blockchain-based supply-chain solutions. However, with its vast network of customers,  ICBCc ould potentially innovate on the supply-chain financing aspect.

#3: PLUSTOKEN IN CHINA: HARD TO DIE

Your correspondent spent her winter break in China, and ventured into one of the poorest cities in China—and encountered a group of PlusToken fans. Given that the Chinese has already cracked down on and the platform administrators closed down operation in June, how can it still be running?

 	* A municipal coordinator runs the show. Each town has one, and they function as a sort of PlusToken group head, in charge of pumping positive messages daily to local WeChat groups, and answer questions regarding the token’s future. No offline activities were explicitly advertised.
 	* Mix real & fake news. The latest pumping message was about DCEP, China’s own digital Yuan. The idea is that once DCEP goes online, users can exchange their PlusToken with DCEP at a favorable rate. Of course, DCEP is real; the exchange with the PlusToken is a fiction.
 	* It’s a Ponzi, all the way down. Ponzi schemes are deeply embedded in Chinese society. Those who are in the scheme know that the only way to get out is to continue pumping, until someone else takes over their position. Only then can they move up the Ponzi pyramid.

While operation has been halted, plus continues to sell the prospect of re-opening its operation. Guess hope makes anything hard to die.

DO YOU KNOW? 

Craig Wright, the Australian computer scientist who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, has a well-known twitter name, Faketoshi. The Chinese crypto community also gives him a nickname: 澳本聪, which means Australia Nakamoto. When typed fast, 澳本聪 turns into 奥本聪; the typo carries an additional hint of ridicule.

_[ _Da Bing_ is a weekly round-up of the most important crypto-related news that happened in China last week.]_


Craig Wright is an entrepreneur, and according to him, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Craig S Wright

#China

bank of china

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China Telecom

Startups

Insights into the biggest events shaping the crypto industry.

News

Chinese blockchain startups got $3.5 billion in funding in 2019, half as much as in 2018 according to a new report from Rhino Data

Robert Stevens

Two years ago, Bhasksar Deo, an engineer, was riding in a taxi when he heard a radio presenter spell out a URL to a website. Who has the time to remember _that_, he thought?

The whole thing gave Deo an idea, though, and led to him creating Trillbit, a Boston-based startup that uses sound to transmit encrypted information across devices as diverse as smartphones, payment machines and drones. He calls Trillbit the “Internet of Sound.”

At CES this month, Trillbit announced a product that targets blockchain companies, who can now use Trillbit’s technology to sign transactions through sound. “If my device transmits a sound, essentially a token with a cryptographic hash, your device can receive the sound and confirm it on a blockchain,” he explained in an interview with _Decrypt_. 

 How to sign crypto transactions with your smartphone camera

Deo, whose last job was using sound waves to build 3D models of mile-deep wells for an oil and gas company, said it’s useful to establish that two devices were at a certain location at a given time. A drone, for instance, could emit a small “bing” to announce the delivery of a package, which would be picked up by a receiving dock, which would issue a corresponding “bong.” All undetectable to human ears, of course, so you won’t go mad. 

The benefit of using sound over, say, bluetooth or NFC, is that a company doesn’t have to install bespoke chips to transmit information, said Dao. “There are more speakers in the world than there are people, so why not build an entire network using these speakers?” he said. 

> Power your events and exhibitions through our proprietary Data Over Sound technology. Save cost, enrich experience, elevate revenues. #DataOverSound #ExhibtionMarketing #ProximityMarketing pic.twitter.com/Bo9oXaPuBt
> 
> — TrillBit (@Trill_bit) January 18, 2020

Deo’s contention is that using sound waves to send encrypted messages is only possible now, since most speakers, microphones, and processors are of high enough quality to send and transmit sound, even in busy rooms, at pitches human ears can’t pick up. Deo said that Trillbit’s range can stretch from 3-10 meters for phones, to around 150 meters for stadium speakers.

So, a coffee shop might use its speakers to set up a payments network based on sound, even if it is playing music; your smartphone would send an inaudible beep to the machine, which would boop right back at it to confirm a transaction. All without buying extra hardware. 

Deo said Trillbit is yet to find a customer for its new blockchain integration, but has plenty for its original, non-blockchain variant; it’s working with payments giant Western Union to increase the speed of its payment systems at stores. Deo said it’s increased payments speeds by around four times.

Sounds, er, promising!


Blockchain

cryptocurrency

finance

Technology

trillbit

At CES this month, Trillbit announced a product that targets blockchain companies, who can now use Trillbit’s technology to sign transactions through sound.

The Tezos Foundation earlier this week released the “Tezos Foundation’s Faucet,” available to everyone with a Tezos wallet. Enter your Tezos wallet address and complete the ReCaptcha puzzle to join a queue, whereupon you’ll receive up to 0.01 XTZ every 12 hours, currently worth $0.0148—down almost 90 percent from its all-time high of nearly $11 per coin.

Up to 10 Tezos addresses can receive the funds from the faucet at any one time, and those who’ve received Tezos tokens from the faucet are blocked for 12 hours before they’re re-added.

According to the Foundation’s announcement, the faucet is aimed at developers and intended for “testing purposes.”

Development faucets are nothing new, but it’s rare that they’re used to disburse real funds; usually, they’re reserved for dishing out testnet tokens. (_Decrypt _has reached out to the Foundation for further comment, and will update accordingly.)

 Why Tezos' price surged after Coinbase deal

Given its paltry payout, it’s unlikely that anyone should expect to get rich from this, and the Tezos Foundation advises that “no one,” not even the developers it was intended for, “should depend on this faucet’s continued availability.” Tezos reserves the right to “turn off or change the faucet’s parameters in the future.”

Still, it’s a sweet deal for anyone interested in trying out some tezzies, but maybe not as sweet as airdrops, where cryptocurrency companies straight-up give users digital currencies for nothing. Coinbase and Blockchain.com have given away a combined total of around $250 million worth of Stellar Lumens (XLM) over the past few years, and Bancor gave some of its users $2.6 million in a new token, BNT, at the start of the month.

Either way, as the Tezos faucet website warns, “drink responsibly!”


money

Tezos

Tezos is a cryptocurrency and network that allows users to create smart contracts and Dapps, like Ethereum.

The Tezos Foundation earlier this week released the “Tezos Foundation’s Faucet,” available to everyone with a Tezos wallet.

Adriana Hamacher

Malta’s technicolor blockchain dream has turned an ominous shade of grey. Last weekend, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat—chief architect of the tiny Mediterranean island’s pioneering policies in blockchain, gaming and AI—was obliged to step down amid the crisis surrounding the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Under his policies, Malta was meant to become a utopia for cryptocurrency startups and investors. Instead, the legions that came in 2018—lured by flashy conferences, tax breaks and the promise of regulatory clarity—find themselves out of pocket, in limbo or have ditched the island altogether. 

Increased international scrutiny over the events that led to the departure of Muscat has driven the island’s leaders to pursue more conservative policies towards the blockchain startups that it had previously courted. Scapegoats have been found—such as the Maltese legal firm that was the first in the world to tokenize itself, and had its license revoked last month. In a bizarre twist, there’s even a connection with another journalist’s murder.

> Well boys and Girls ...
> 
> There goes Malta as a tax haven and supporter of Crypto ....
> 
> New Prime Minister going to shut us down.
> 
> I warned everyone:
> 
> Basing the future of Blockchain technology on the whims of politics,
> 
> Is a sure fail.https://t.co/j1xYNJPQwy
> 
> — John McAfee (@officialmcafee) January 15, 2020

But many of those _Decrypt _spoke to for this article believe that Malta’s blockchain dream began to sour long before recent revelations. Daphne Caruana Galizia was one of the first to see it, and her accusations—many of which are proving correct—may only be the beginning. 

BLOCKCHAIN BEGINNINGS

In the years before her October 2017 assassination by car bomb, Caruana Galizia leveled accusations of corruption against Muscat’s government and business associates via a blog voraciously consumed by many of the island’s 450,000 inhabitants.

She criticised Malta’s "cash for passports" program; it grants foreign business people Maltese citizenship, and therefore EU citizenship, in exchange for their large investments into a national development fund. She revealed the links of Muscat’s associates to the Panama Papers and more. Muscat called her his harshest critic. 
[Joseph Muscat]Joseph Muscat is accused of shielding his chief of staff and childhood friend Keith Schembri, who has been implicated in Caruana Galizia's murder. (Image: Shutterstock)
“Malta is set to become the Bitcoin money-laundering capital of this part of the world—and preparations are already being made for it,” she wrote, on news of the island’s plans to become a leader within the cryptocurrency industry. “Whoever has a vested interest in the heightened use of cryptocurrencies is already [funneling] money into the Labour Party and a couple of Panama companies, and calling the shots.”

 The bitter secret of Blockchain Island

Anonymous Maltese blogger BugM, one of many determined to bring Caruana Galizia’s killers to justice, believes that an aggressively pro-blockchain policy was seized upon by the government to distract attention from the high-profile murder investigation that ensued.

“The problem was that the government overhyped it. It was in the wake of a snap election called to bury some very serious allegations of corruption (which is now clearly linked to Daphne’s murder) and followed by Daphne’s assassination so the government was looking to find something to show off,” the blogger told _Decrypt_. 

If that was indeed the plan, it was—initially at least—successful beyond its architects’ wildest dreams.

BINANCE TAKES THE LEAD 

Malta’s plan to allow cryptocurrency exchanges and others to operate until 2020 without complying with anti-money laundering (AML) laws saw swift results. With a year to apply for formal authorisation (the cut off date was October 2019) and generous tax laws, the advantages were obvious. 

 To date, the Malta Financial Service Authority has yet to issue a single license.

In March 2018, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, announced its move to Malta, after receiving warnings about its lack of AML compliance from Japan, China and Hong Kong.

It was soon followed by other exchanges, notably OKEx and BitBay. 

In July 2018, Malta published headline grabbing cryptocurrency legislation—the first comprehensive, regulatory framework for distributed-ledger technologies.

By the end of 2018, Malta was the leading country in terms of cryptocurrency exchange volume.

On Twitter, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao personally thanked Muscat for welcoming the company, and heaped praise on Malta’s aim to be a global trailblazer in the regulation of blockchain-based businesses.

> Government of Malta works on Saturday for blockchain initiatives. How about yours? https://t.co/IIWNFh8xRf
> 
> — CZ Binance (@cz_binance) June 2, 2018

The exchange enthusiastically announced its plan to hire a staff of hundreds, and even wanted to set up a bank. But earlier this month, BugM cast doubts as to Binance’s actual physical activities on the island, alleging that the exchange was but a ghost, and that its 2018 financial records contained no transactions, no trades, and no tax paid. When _Decrypt_ asked Binance about BugM’s allegations, the exchange did not respond.

> The accounts of each company as at 31 December 2018 each confirm that neither did any trading whatsoever. 3/ pic.twitter.com/Q9FBWOl7Nz
> 
> — BugM (@bugdavem) January 6, 2020

THE UNRAVELLING OF BLOCKCHAIN ISLAND

To date, the Malta Financial Service Authority (MFSA) has yet to issue a single license. Malta has, in fact, been outdone by Estonia, Switzerland, Germany, Finland and Austria.

Out of the 340 preliminary applications the MFSA received from cryptocurrency exchanges and other service providers, only 34 resulted in completed applications. 

> 90% of crypto funny stuff operators who rushed to #Malta to benefit from the 1 year “transitional period” (ie a further year of operating ignoring rule) have either run away, imploded or are planning on operating illegally. #BlockchainIslandhttps://t.co/T4GuoFYwJk
> 
> — BugM (@bugdavem) November 2, 2019

Malta’s legislation has been praised as innovative and robust, yet the final result has fallen victim to two flaws. The first is unfortunate timing; it was published in the midst of crypto winter. The second is that it’s a very tough set of regulations and requirements, necessitating the employment of Malta’s army of legal advisors and accountants.

Many would-be applicants have been deterred by their onerous fees, not to mention the €10,000 (approximately $11,000) the MFSA required to process a preliminary application. Ultimately, fewer than a dozen licenses are expected to be issued, more than one source told _Decrypt_. Those that are will likely be the biggest players, and established companies looking to fund a new project.

The MFSA did not reply to a request for comment. 

While Binance’s deep pockets mean that Malta is not the only jurisdiction where it’s seeking a license (the exchange is reportedly applying to the Isle of Man and Singapore, among other localities), other exchanges have sought more hospitable shores. At least three have packed up and left within recent months.

The plight of the startups left on the island is compounded by the lack of banking. After the owner of Malta’s Pilatus bank was charged by US prosecutors with alleged money laundering, the European Central Bank revoked the bank’s license. Malta’s banks have been unwilling to lend to cryptocurrency firms for fear of further damage to their reputation.

 "We're the first firm in Malta’s history that's about to lose their license."

But some crypto businesses on the island appear to be thriving, and have partnered with foreign banks to ensure competitiveness. For example, the Malta-based ZBX exchange has teamed up with Switzerland's Dukascopy Bank, to allow its users to link a bank account directly to the exchange.

Dave Pulis, CEO of ZBX, told _Decrypt _that the company is optimistic about acquiring its license from the MFSA, and, later this year, plans to submit a further application in order to list security tokens. But, “only time will tell if Malta will be the global hub for exchanges,” he said.

Others are not so optimistic, and point to Malta’s Virtual Finance Agents—local firms who paid substantial fees to act as a kind of sherpa for cryptocurrency firms during the application process—who are left with a vastly diminished pool of clients.  

THE WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY HAS CLOSED

“The hype is really over. Internationally speaking, [Malta] is not a hotspot anymore. Germany now allows their banks to hold custody on bitcoin wallets. That means this little time window for a small country to come up with an attractive framework is over,” Leon Siegmund, co-founder of Malta’s Bitcoin Association and founder of community hub and ATM operator BitClub Malta, told _Decrypt_.

Germany is also the first country (and is unlikely to be the last) to stipulate that exchanges and other crypto services must hold a local license to provide services to German nationals.

As a result, Siegmund said a Maltese license is now far less desirable: “It’s too expensive; it doesn’t provide any value. As long as it’s not passportable, it’s a small market, so it’s not really useful.”
[Malta blockchain]BitcoinClub Malta founder Leon Siegmund said that countries need to better tackle the rapid innovation that has come with Bitcoin. (Image: Leon Siegmund)
He believes that the architects of Malta’s regulations were very bold but failed to consider their position within the European Union, and its aim to align policies under the 5th Anti-Money Laundering directive. Non-compliance will bring yet more unwelcome scrutiny to the island. Malta’s oldest banking institution, the Bank of Valletta, lost its correspondent banking license and stands to lose its US dollar one. Hence the authorities can ill-afford any risks, he added.  

THE WORLD’S FIRST TOKENIZED LAW FIRM

And reprisals are coming.

In March 2018, Maltese law firm E&S Group made history, becoming the first legal firm in the world to tokenize its business, linking its tokens to earnings—the aim being less of a financial one and more to demonstrate having skin in the game.

Branching out after 10 years in gaming, shipping and aviation, the firm had become one of the first to offer services for the ICOmarket. The lawyers developed early expertise in the area, onboarding as many as 120 crypto clients that year, including Binance and eSports tokenization platform, chilliZ.  

But, on November 28, 2019, the Malta Financial Services Authority stripped the firm’s corporate services arm, E&S Consultancy, of its license—making it the first firm in Maltese financial services history to lose its licence without having ever even incurred a fine. The action coincided with Malta’s worst anti-government demonstrations in decades—against the handling of Caruana Galizia’s murder.

Speaking exclusively to _Decrypt_, E&S cofounder Christian Ellul said that the action was highly unorthodox.

“It's factually unprecedented. It's never happened before,” he said. “No one's ever lost their license, so we're the first firm in Malta’s history that's about to lose their license, but it's not on the back of any wrongdoings by ourselves directly.”

Its high profile and lack of political affliliations made E&S an easy target for the authorities—who seized on the opportunity presented by an investigation into the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak.
[E&S]E&S Group cofounders Christian Ellul and Karl Schranz. (Image: E&S Group)
Kuciak and his girlfriend were gunned down at their home in Slovakia in 2018. The man charged with the crime is millionaire entrepreneur Marian Kočner, who happens to be Ellul’s former father-in-law. The MFSA claims that, by setting up Maltese companies for Kočner, the law firm had aided a client who was not “a fit and proper person.” Ellul told _Decrypt_ that allegations that the two companies he established for Kočner were used for money laundering and tax evasion were unproven, and that he provided services on the understanding that the businesses were legitimate.

No regulatory action has been taken against other Maltese service providers, including those who aided the billionaire businessman named as a prime suspect in Caruana Galizia’s murder, Jorgen Fenech. But the search for scapegoats could be just beginning.

THE DREAM IS OVER

The idealism surrounding “Blockchain Island” is fast dissipating. Perhaps the unofficial end came at the end of November, when Malta’s problems could no longer be masked by evasive politicians and slick branding; when self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventor Craig Wright preached about blockchain’s ability to counter fraud at one end of the island, while protestors bayed for the blood of corrupt politicians at the other.

In December, officials in the European parliament accused Muscat of presiding over “serious and persistent” threats to democracy and rule of law. 
[Malta blockchain]Malta's capital Valletta was the scene of daily protests before Prime Minister Joesph Muscat finally agreed to resign. (Image: Wikimedia)
But many Maltese will tell you that the country is already the highest regulated in the world—for 98% of the population. Doing business in Malta is now harder than ever for this majority as a result of the recent furore. 

With Muscat finally agreeing to step aside, the nation’s new prime minister, Robert Abela, was sworn in on Monday.

Caruana Galizia’s son, Matthew Caruana Galizia, has said that much of the new cabinet is formed of Muscat’s assoiciates, guaranteeing him indemnity from prosecution over his role in the murder. 

 Bitcoin, murder and mafia on “Blockchain Island” Malta

It also suggests there may not be radical changes to the blockchain-friendly policies initiated by Muscat.

What’s certain is that Malta’s rivals Singapore, Switzerland and Liechtenstein will be noting “Blockchain Island’s” mistakes. 

“Malta has very good and high level regulations. But possibly in this kind of environment, they are maybe too onerous for most potential clients to consider,” said Ellul. 

E&S still councils blockchain firms, although it’s a much smaller part of its business. The firm is challenging the loss of its license. While it’s able to function without it, the challenge is a matter of reputation, and Ellul is reasonably confident of success. “We will fight this unjust and discriminatory decision whatever it takes,” he said. 

That could open a Pandora’s box of questionable activities among Malta’s service providers, banks, lawyers and accountants—including those that have serviced the country’s cryptocurrency startups—aired like the laundry that hangs from the balconies in Malta’s ancient streets.


Changpeng Zhao

banking

Blockchain island

Daphne Caruana Galizia

malta

regulation

the European parliament accused Muscat of presiding over “serious and persistent” threats to democracy and rule of law." IMAGE: Shutterstock.

Deep dives into Web 3.0, future and present.

Features

Malta has a new prime minister, replacing trailblazer Joseph Muscat. What will happen to the startups lured to Blockchain Island by his visionary promises?

Daniel Phillips

The Trezor Model One (or simply Trezor One), was the first cryptocurrency hardware wallet released by SatoshiLabs, and the first widely available commercial hardware wallet in general.

Released in January 2014, the Trezor Model One gives users a way to securely store a wide variety of cryptocurrencieson a single device.

Costing just $59 direct from Trezor, or slightly cheaper from official Amazon stockists, the Trezor Model One is a direct competitor to the popular Ledger Nano S.

However, since its launch, the cryptocurrency hardware wallet market has become increasingly crowded, and SatoshiLabs now faces stiff competition from the likes of Ledger, KeepKey, CoolWallet and more.

Can the world's first cryptocurrency hardware wallet still compete in 2020? Let's find out.

_Hint—just barely!_

TREZOR MODEL ONE REVIEW: BUILD QUALITY AND DESIGN

 [Size comparison]Size comparison. Trezor One (left), Ledger Nano S (right). (Image: Decrypt)
At just 60mm x 30mm x 6mm, the Trezor One is certainly small. So small, in fact, that it can fit into most wallets without much of a struggle. It also weighs just 12g, and can be attached to a keyring or pocket thanks to the included lanyard, making it extremely portable.

Satoshi Labs took a different design route from its rival Ledger—forgoing the thumb drive-like form factor of the Nano S and later Nano X in favor of something that looks more like a fancy car key.

The Trezor One is made primarily of plastic and features a 128 x 64 pixel OLED display, a micro-USB port and two buttons as its main design features.

Although its construction is solid, the Trezor One's light weight and lack of premium materials do give it a slightly cheap feel, particularly when compared to the aluminum-clad Ledger Nano S and X.

TREZOR MODEL ONE REVIEW: WHAT'S IN THE BOX?

 [Box contents]Yes, the USB cable is that short. (Image: Decrypt)
The Trezor One comes packed in a small, 100mm x 100x box that's sealed at both ends with a tamper-proof holographic seal.

Inside, you will find a cellophane-wrapped Trezor One device, an incredibly short micro-USB cable, a lanyard and a user manual.

The device is also supplied with two booklets that can be used to backup your 24-word recovery seed, as well as a selection of Trezor stickers.

TREZOR MODEL ONE REVIEW: EASE OF USE

 [Close up]Two buttons and a screen (Image: Decrypt)
The Trezor One is designed to be as small as possible, which does pose a challenge as far as usability is concerned. After all, the device only features two buttons and a small screen with which to navigate its menus. Although the screen's dinky, it can display a good amount of information without requiring you to scroll left and right—a common gripe with the Ledger Nano S.

Fortunately, except when you're first setting up the Trezor One, you won't usually need to interact directly with the device; the associated Trezor Bridge software is used to handle most tasks, such as initiating payments and verifying messages.

As such, you'll only tend to use the left and right buttons to confirm payment addresses, verify security changes and authorize logins.

Unlike its main competitors, the Ledger Nano S and Nano X, you don't need to download individual apps to the device in order to store multiple different cryptocurrencies. Instead, the wallet setup process automatically creates accounts for multiple different crypto assets, making for a simpler user experience.

However, we can't help but feel that the included micro-USB cable could have been at least slightly longer. At just 200mm long, the cable can make connecting to a computer and using the device more challenging than it needs to be—particularly if your computer isn't in an accessible location.

Overall, though, the Trezor One is simple to use, and should pose few challenges for even the least experienced cryptocurrency investors.

TREZOR MODEL ONE REVIEW: GETTING STARTED

 [Trezor Bridge Wallet]Most cryptocurrency wallets can be accessed from within Trezor Bridge (Image: Trezor)
Getting the Trezor One up and running is a relatively painless process that should take around five to ten minutes.

To begin, connect the device to your computer using the included micro-USB cable, and download and install the Trezor Bridge application for your device. Once installed, navigate to trezor.io/start and connect your Trezor device.

You will then be prompted to create a wallet, after which you'll be prompted to back up your 24-word recovery phrase. Follow the on-screen prompts and store your recovery phrase in a safe place, as you will need this to recover your wallet should anything happen to your Trezor device.

Lastly, you will probably want to create a PIN code that will be used to load up the Trezor and confirm payment information. To set this up, click the 'Enable PIN' option in the Basic device settings menu, and use the grid displayed in Trezor Bridge to select a PIN.

That's it! Once this has been completed you'll be able to access your wallets via the Trezor Bridge web app.

TREZOR MODEL ONE REVIEW: FEATURES AND BENEFITS

When looking at the functionality offered by the Trezor Model One and comparing it to that offered by modern wallets such as the Ledger Nano X and CoolWallet S, it's clear how much things have progressed since the Trezor wallet was first released almost six years ago.

The Trezor One requires a wired connection, which makes it less portable than modern Bluetooth-enabled hardware wallets like the Nano X, and leaves it feeling dated. Likewise, a lack of multi-signature support outside of the third-party Electrum wallet can make the Trezor less suitable for those wielding large portfolios.

 Ledger Nano X review: an expensive step in the right direction

On the plus side, the Trezor Bridge client does feature built-in exchange functionality as well as a simple fiat on-ramp—allowing users to purchase and trade cryptocurrencies with hardware wallet-grade security.

In terms of compatibility, the Trezor One works with all major operating systems, including Windows, MacOS and Linux, and can also connect to Android devices using an OTG cable (sold separately). Unfortunately, iPhone users will need to look to alternatives, since Trezor Bridge isn't currently available on iOS.

The Trezor wallet can also be used as a two-factor authentication U2F security key for services like Google, GitHub and Dropbox, as well as a huge variety of other platforms. Once configured with a service, you'll need to have the Trezor to hand in order to log into that service in future.

Overall, the Trezor Model One offers a robust feature set, which, although limited, is still worthy of consideration thanks to its low price point.

TREZOR MODEL ONE REVIEW: SUPPORTED ASSETS

 [Asset support]Several top 10 cryptocurrencies are not supported (Image: Trezor)
When it comes to cryptocurrency support, SatoshiLabs has left little to the imagination; the vast majority of cryptocurrencies with any value can be securely stored on the Trezor One.

In total, the device supports well over 1,000 different crypto assets, including just over half of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, such as;

 	* Bitcoin (BTC)
 	* Ethereum (ETH)
 	* Litecoin (LTC)
 	* Tether (USDT)
 	* Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
 	* Stellar (XLM)
 	* Zcash (ZEC)
 	* Dash

As such, it might be more informative to provide a brief list of cryptocurrencies the Trezor One doesn't support. As of writing, the Trezor Model One DOESN'T support;

 	* XRP
 	* EOS
 	* Tron (TRX)
 	* Tezos (XTZ)
 	* Cardano (ADA)
 	* Monero (XMR)
 	* In addition to a handful of other, less notable crypto assets.

However, many of the crypto assets not supported by the Trezor One, _are_ supported by its similarly-priced main competitor, the Ledger Nano S.

With that said, it appears SatoshiLabs has reserved much of its development firepower for the more expensive Trezor Model T, since the newer device is compatible with a much wider range of crypto assets. As a result, the number of new coins added to the Trezor One has stagnated as of late.

TREZOR MODEL ONE REVIEW: SECURITY

 [PIN]Strangely enough, the PIN is an optional security feature. (Image: Decrypt)
As you might expect from a hardware wallet, one of the main selling points of the Trezor One is its security. Compared to the security offered by most standard wallet solutions, including mobile and exchange wallets, the Trezor One can be considered a giant leap forward.

One reason the Trezor One is so secure is that the device stores all crypto asset private keys in an offline environment, while ensuring they are never exposed to connected devices. Because of this, the Trezor One provides owners with immunity to most known methods used to steal crypto assets—which typically revolve around using fake wallets or compromised web services to exfiltrate user funds.

Access to the Trezor One itself can also be protected by an optional PIN. If used, this PIN will need to be entered before the device loads up, and is practically impossible to brute-force, since the firmware enforces an increasingly long delay between each attempt. This delay (in seconds) is equal to 1.8 to the power of the number of failed attempts. As such, 10 failed attempts would lead to a delay of almost 6 minutes (1.8⌃10 seconds), whereas the device is wiped after 16 attempts.

Fortunately, even if the device is wiped, the 24-word recovery seed provided during setup can be used to restore your wallet. This can also be extended with an optional 25th word, which can further boost security if stored separately from the original 24-word recovery phrase.

SatoshiLabs has also taken steps to ensure the Trezor One itself cannot be easily modified or compromised, by sealing the enclosure with ultrasound. This makes it difficult to pry the device open in order to install something like a wireless transmitter without suspicion, since it would be nearly impossible to conceal the entry point. It is also possible to set a custom home screen on the device, which should make it difficult for somebody to simply replace the device with a fake designed to capture your pin.

The Trezor One also features a write-protected bootloader with a disabled JTAG to prevent firmware modification, and will only run if the firmware is properly signed by SatoshiLabs—making firmware modification attempts futile.

TREZOR MODEL ONE REVIEW: VERDICT

At around $69, the Trezor Model One features top-notch security and support for a good range of crypto assets. However, the wallet falls short when measured against modern solutions like the Ledger Nano X and Trezor Model T.

When compared to wallets in its own price range, the Trezor One does fare slightly better—being roughly comparable to a Ledger Nano S in terms of features, while exceeding the feature set of the cheaper KeepKey wallet.

 Trezor Model T Review: Buggy, odd UX but easy set up process

Moreover, though the Trezor One does support a good array of crypto assets, it isn't compatible with several highly popular digital assets, including several in the top 10 by market cap. As such, those with a diverse cryptocurrency portfolio could find it to be overly restrictive—particularly considering that several other wallets on the market that do offer support for these.

Overall, the Trezor One is certainly past its heyday, but it could be worth a look when it's available on discount.

RATING: 2/5



CoolWallet S

KeepKey

Ledger Nano S

Ledger Nano X

SatoshiLabs

Trezor Bridge

Trezor Model One

trezor model t

Trezor One

Trezor

Editorial reviews and ratings for blockchain and cryptocurrency products.

Reviews

How does the Trezor One, the world's first cryptocurrency hardware wallet, measure up to today's standards? Let's find out!

In London, so-called “challenger banks,” such as Starling, Monzo, and Revolut, have shaken up traditional finance in the last five years. These are app-based, virtual banks—without physical branches—that enable users to exchange currencies without fees, and use debit cards in dozens of countries, hassle-free. 

Challenger banks have been incredibly successful in the 18-45 demographic, with the top few banks stealing some 13 million customers from traditional banks, according to Accenture. The play has worked so well that now, one of its pioneers is challenging the challenger banks—by making it easy to use crypto.

Mark Hipperson, who co-founded Starling, has been developing a virtual bank, Ziglu, that handles a wide range of digital assets. His big idea: simplify and integrate crypto into personal finance and undercut the transaction fees levied by crypto exchanges. 

 The European Central Bank’s found a way to keep the digital euro private

“Why should [crypto] be just for the few people who know how to use it? We want to make it regulated, mainstream, and legitimate,” he said, in an interview with _Decrypt_. 

Ziglu, which will launch in the next few weeks, has been under development in London since late 2018. Beyond a typical wallet-based savings and checking account, there’s a separate crypto wallet, where one can buy and sell cryptocurrencies. 

Ziglu expects to more than $1 billion through exchanges, Hipperson said—the names of which will be announce once the exchange goes live. As a big customer, Ziglu will get discounts on the hefty fees exchanges charge to retail users, and pass on some of the discount to consumers. 

“Despite us charging a commission for the purchase of a cryptocurrency, it still works out cheaper because we get a better price than you can get,” he said. The economics are similar to how challenger banks can provide customers with favorable currency rates, undercutting money transfer shops.

> Our Ziglu beta app is getting great feedback from our first group of customers! Buying and selling crypto instantly. If you would like to be part of the next wave, get involved @ https://t.co/DP9qwt5hEq #crypto #fx #globalpayments #ZigluMoney pic.twitter.com/4ysB6MT7Fx
> 
> — Ziglu (@ZigluMoney) October 15, 2019

“If we happen to have the best price for Bitcoin on Kraken, we’ll sell your Polish złoty, buy dollar, sell dollar, buy Bitcoin on Kraken instantly, avoiding the whole concept of currency pairs, and ensuring that we can get the best price at the best time, no matter what currency you’re looking to buy,” he said.

There’ll also be a MasterCard debit card, which customers can use to make crypto payments in stores.

Ziglu has been in private beta since October 2019, and will support Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Ripple at launch, with more to come. No stablecoins or DeFi products are available yet, but Hipperson said that might change.

Hipperson headed Barclays’ technology department throughout the 90s, ran a highly successful software consultancy company, then co-founded Starling as a CTO. 

So why _crypto?_ By Hipperson’s own acknowledgment, fewer than 1 percent of the population owns cryptocurrencies, and most traditional banks won’t even take crypto exchanges as customers?

Hipperson points to the rise of stablecoins, both private and government-run, and says crypto is the “inevitable march of the way forward.”

He’s set up Ziglu as a form of regulatory arbitrage: Because of the peculiarities of British financial regulations, regular banks—Starling included—can’t use crypto unless they completely reform their corporate structure, said Hipperson. 

But Ziglu was structured with crypto in mind, and is in the process of applying for an e-money license, which is required to issue digital money. Regulation will probably change in time to help retail banks stay competitive, Hipperson said his company has the advantage here, at least for now. 

The challenge is on. 


europe

starling

ziglu

Mark Hipperson, who co-founded Starling, has been developing a virtual bank, Ziglu, that handles a wide range of digital assets.

Its name couldn’t be more fitting; Brave is the little software company that could. Not only is it taking on tech titans like Google with its privacy-focused browser; it’s aiming to upend the advertising model that underpins the Internet, with a revolutionary loyalty rewards programme that pays users in cryptocurrency for watching ads.

2019 was a crazy whirl of breakthroughs for the San Francisco based startup. In 12 months, Brave officially launched its browser following a long beta, it’s rolled out its Basic Attention Token to a score of countries, and it’s enlisted 350,000 publishers on its Brave Rewards platform. Just last month, Brave browser’s user base hit 10 million—admittedly, that’s not a patch on the billion plus users of Google’s Chrome browser, but hey, they took a decade to get there.

Brave’s cofounder Brendan Eich told _Decrypt _that 2019 was a pivotal year for the startup, “with the launch of several major components of our platform.” But 2020 promises to be transformational—with Brave planning moves into e-commerce, machine learning innovations and big-brand partnerships to beef up Brave’s pioneering ad offering. The browser itself won’t be neglected, with Brave adding new features such as the ability to sync cryptocurrency funds between devices.

BRAVE’S PUSH FOR PRIVACY

Eich is well versed in browser tech. Back in 1995 he invented JavaScript, the browser code that makes websites interactive (as opposed to static pages of text and images). Somewhat ironically, JavaScript was subsequently co-opted for the data-intensive, targeted ads that Eich is now focused on blocking with Brave browser. He was also a co-founder of Mozilla’s Firefox web browser.
[Brendan Eich, Brave browser]Brendan Eich in 2010, IMAGE: Wikipedia
Eich founded Brave along with fellow Mozilla veteran Brian Bondy in 2015, as an antidote to the data harvesting employed by popular web browsers controlled by gigantic corporations like Google and Microsoft.

Eich and Bondy set out to create a browser which put users in control of how their data is stored and shared with advertisers. From the outset, Brave was designed to be “privacy-first”, blocking tracking cookies and scripts by default.

Intrusive targeting has become a hot-button issue over the last year, not just because of consumer privacy but because of concerns over the manipulation of elections through targeted advertising. But Brave’s blocking of adverts, trackers and cookies gives it another key advantage over its rivals: it offers faster page loading speeds. Brave loads pages at least twice as fast as its competitors on desktop, and up to eight times as fast on mobile—with lower battery consumption to boot.

Until a few weeks ago, Brave Browser was said to be in beta release—meaning users could expect a fully functional, but not quite complete experience.

That all changed in November 2019, with the release of Brave 1.0.,"which offers three to six times faster browsing than other browsers,” according to Eich.

“This led to a 19% growth in monthly active users, from 8.7 million in October to 10.4 million in November—a 2x increase in one year,” he said, adding that daily active users tripled in the last year, to more than 3.3 million.

 Brave 1.0 launches with Brave Rewards on iOS, prompting BAT rally

Brave’s growth milestone suggests that it’s not only privacy-conscious users who are starting to move away from more established web browsers like Safari and Chrome; it’s also those seeking a faster user experience. 

STEPPING UP TO BAT

Protecting user privacy is all well and good, but completely blocking online tracking threatens to break the advertising model that pays for much of the content on the web. Brave’s solution is to pay _users_ for watching ads, in its own Basic Attention Token (BAT) cryptocurrency. The users then reimburse websites and creators, either by automatically allocating BAT based on how much time they’ve spent on a website, or by directly tipping sites and creators.

In May 2017, the startup’s ICO raised $36 million for the Ethereum-based Basic Attention Token; its Brave Rewards platform went live in April 2019 on desktop, in July on Android, and in November for iOS. It aims to place the control of data sharing firmly in the hands of the user, and to create a system where publishers can be rewarded directly for their content. 

“With Brave Ads, we introduced the first advertising platform built on privacy,” said Eich. “Now Brave users on all platforms can opt into privacy-preserving ads and get rewarded with 70% of the ad revenue, which they can keep or use to support their favorite content creators via Brave Rewards.” The idea is to balance the flow of BAT income from advertising with payments made to content creators.

By October 2019, the Brave Rewards program was supported in 31 countries, and, by December, over 350,000 publishers had registered for it, making them verified and eligible to receive BAT. 

It’s an astounding achievement—an 820% jump in less than a year.

According to Brave’s data, the majority of registrants are content creators, such as Youtube channels connected to the Brave ecosystem—which make up 231,865 of the registered publishers. 

Websites account for a further 38,819 and include publishers such as the _Washington Post_, _The Guardian_, _Barrons_, _Vice_, the _LA Times_, _LADBible_ and, of course, _Decrypt_.

BRAVE’S PARTNERSHIP BONANZA

To make it easy for users, including verified content creators, to cash in or exchange BAT, Brave announced a partnership with digital money platform, Uphold In October. The result is a wallet “which lets Brave users transfer BAT out of Brave Rewards and convert the tokens to digital assets and fiat currencies (after completing a verification process with digital money platform Uphold),” said Eich. 

 Major initiatives will support the growing utility of BAT, on the one hand, but also the expansion of our ad platform into mainstream online advertising.

And that’s not the only significant partnership Brave has bagged this year. It’s teamed up with other industry leaders including news site Cheddar, censorship-resistant online encyclopedia Everipedia; rewards and data platform TAP Network; hardware authenticaton solutions provider Yubico, and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

“We also worked with numerous advertisers and brands as we delivered over 475 privacy-preserving ad campaigns from brands such as Intel, Pizza Hut, Amazon, Home Chef, and more,” said Eich.

BRAVE’S 2020 PLANS

More partnerships are in the pipeline for 2020, he said. And Brave also plans to significantly enhance its ad offering. 

“Our aim is to scale Brave Ads and to make them even more relevant to users with the development of more machine learning in the browser, and more partnerships with leading brands,” said Eich.  

Meanwhile, publishers will get more rewards, “with an in-page, consent-based publisher ad model that gives them 70% of ad revenue for ads they choose to feature on their pages.” 

There are intriguing plans for Brave’s token, too. 

“You will also see further decentralization of our Basic Attention Token platform with the BAT Apollo roadmap phase, where we will start testing on-chain payments and campaign confirmations,” said Eich.
[Brave Browser]The Brave BAT partnership crest. Image: Brave
Brave also has further designs on its wallet functionality:

“We also plan to enable users to move their BAT from one device to another, with the implementation of wallet sync,” said Eich. 

“These major initiatives will support the growing utility of BAT, on the one hand, but also the expansion of our ad platform into mainstream online advertising—all while preserving privacy and putting users first.”

TOWARDS PRIVACY BY DEFAULT 

Eich’s argument, that the unfiltered web is invasive, unpleasant and slow, is persuasive, and Brave’s achievements over the past year are certainly impressive—it’s even led to copycat platforms. In April, Gab, the free-speech absolutist social media network, built its own web browser, a forked version of the open-source Brave browser.

But let’s not forget that Brave is still one of the smaller web browsers and not yet even in the top ten by market share. 

It could reach reach as many as 50 million users by this time next year, and a place in the top ten. But its success will depend on whether advertisers migrate from the existing business model favored by browsers like Google, and if it can scale its user base enough to make it a serious competitor. 

Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger is a fan. Another is Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buetrin, who praised the browser—which integrates with Ethereum apps—for contributing to the growth of the Ethereum ecosystem.

But Eich believes that Brave’s biggest advantage is the privacy that it provides. 

“This is crucial, because Internet giants that thrive on tracking users are facing backlash not only from users, but also from regulators,” he said. 

Brave has persistently pointed out that Google, for one, is actively violating European Union regulations by allowing companies to share sensitive customer data with ad partners.

“The privacy wave will continue to rise,” predicted Eich. “Established companies that are stuck in surveillance capitalism business models they cannot change, due to shareholder pressure, will start to feel the pressure from advertisers and users that demand more accountability, less fraud, and a privacy-by-default approach.”

In other words, a Brave new world. 


advertising

brave browser

INTERNET

Basic Attention Token

Brave browser has big plans for 2020 (Image: Brave)

Brave's privacy-focused web browser was one of 2019’s tech success stories. Co-founder Brendan Eich lays out his grand plans for 2020.

For Bitcoin’s scaling solution, the Lightning Network, 2019 passed in a flash of innovation. 

Developers made major progress in enabling large sums to be transferred across the network; the first neutrino mobile wallet was launched; the first Lightning conference opened; the first major exchange integration went live, and more. “Huge milestones,” as Ryan Gentry, lead analyst at crypto investment firm MultiCoin Capital, told _Decrypt_. 

But for Lightning, a super-fast payments layer on top of the Bitcoin blockchain that allows users to send and receive bitcoin quickly and cheaply, 2020 promises plenty more thrills, and perhaps some spills too.

“This is a very exciting time for Lightning,” said Samson Mow, chief strategy officer at Canadian blockchain services provider Blockstream. “For 2020, I expect to see continued growth of the network and further privacy improvements as well.”

MAKING LIGHTNING PAYMENTS EASIER

Payments on the Lightning Network are becoming easier, with developers anticipating further progress with multi-path payments. These allow for multiple channels to be used together in concert, meaning that payments can be split into smaller chunks. That, in turn, means that large amounts of bitcoin can be sent both quickly and cheaply. 

But multi-path payments aren’t the only option being worked on. 

Roy Sheinfeld, co-founder of bitcoin wallet and payment services provider Breez, said that the startup is working on asynchronous payments via Lightning Rod, a new offline-style payments protocol that will enable users to make payments without the need for mobile nodes to be online at the same time.

Channel capacity is also set to increase, he predicted. So-called Wumbo channels are in the works. These would not only remove the current 0.167 BTC channel limit, but leave payment participants free to set it as high as they wish.

Another upcoming innovation to look out for is “Trampoline routing.” This should enable clients to simplify their network transactions by relying on a so-called “trampoline node” to relay payments, instead of having to do it manually. 

LIGHTNING’S POWERFUL PARTNERSHIPS

We’ll also see more exchanges jumping on board. Bitfinex just added support for the Bitcoin Lightning Network, and Bitfinex wallets can now send and receive bitcoin using Lightning.

In February, Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey announced that Square’s Cash App will integrate Lightning capabilities sometime in the future. Dorsey is a high profile Bitcoin cheerleader as well as an investor in Lightning; he’s recently doubled down by funding the development of Lightning. 

In the same month, Jeremy Welch, the chief executive of Casa, which provides Bitcoin multisig key security and Lightning nodes, told _Decrypt_ that Dorsey’s support for Lightning via Square would simply be “huge.”

Messaging functionality is in the works, too. A peer-to-peer, instant messaging protocol, “Whatsat”—a portmanteau of WhatsApp and satoshi—was created for Lightning in November. It enables encrypted messages to be sent without the use of a third party, like Facebook or WhatsApp. For the time being, it’s free; implementing a low-cost version is the main challenge. 

There’s even a Lightning ATM in development that will allow you to convert all your spare change to satoshi.

 How to make your own Bitcoin ATM 

LIQUIDITY VS. PRIVACY

All that progress comes at a price, however.

“For 2020, I'm anticipating tension between those on the network that want to onboard millions of users now, and those that want to go slow and prioritize user privacy first,” said Ryan Gentry, lead analyst at crypto investment firm MultiCoin Capital. 

Gentry questions whether the network’s liquidity management tools are currently robust enough to handle a sudden influx of payments. “It will be very interesting to see how the network holds up if a game like Litenite or Raiki goes viral,” he said.

“We have to check that the network can scale, that the clients can scale,” admitted Sheinfeld. 

With Breez, Sheinfeld’s ultimate aim is to improve Lightning’s UX. “We want to obfuscate complexity, and make it a seamless experience, like with the Internet,” he said. Lightning service providers, he believes, will play a leading role in onboarding users, performing a similar function to Internet Service Provider (ISPs).

“If we want to provide UX that’s on a par with fiat, we’re not there yet, but I think we’ll be there in six to 12 months.”

If the Lightning network’s going to achieve mass adoption, it has some hurdles to overcome, then—but it’s going flat-out. In the meantime, why not help things along by building your own Lightning node.


bitcoin

innovation

lightning network

Bitcoin is the world's first peer-to-peer cryptocurrency. It was invented by a mysterious inventor Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009 and is regarded as the first digital currency to fix the double spend problem.

Bitcoin

Better privacy and liquidity management, trampoline routing, Wumbo channels, messaging and more—in 2020, Lightning is on course to change the world.  

Matt Hussey

Tal Kol is the co-founder of Orbs a blockchain infrastructure provider for enterprises. Prior to co-founding Orbs, Kol co-founded Appixia, a mobile app startup acquired by Wix.com, and was head of mobile engineering at Wix.com. Soon after that, Kol made the jump to blockchain, where he became the head of engineering at Kin by Kik Interactive. Below he explores that journey, and why founding a business in blockchain is like trying to build a colony on Mars. 

HOW DID YOU FIRST GET INTO BLOCKCHAIN AND THE DECENTRALIZED WEB?

I have a long history working in app development and with open source. For years I’ve worked with React Native, the open-source mobile application framework created by Facebook, which is used to develop apps for Android and iOS. As a huge open-source believer, during my time at Wix.com I led the effort to transform the company from being traditionally closed-source to one of the largest open-source contributors in the world–ranked 11th globally in 2017, Facebook was ranked 6th at the time.

While open-source changed software forever, when I first heard of blockchain it was clear to me that it was the next evolutionary step. Rather than sharing only the source code, public blockchains act as collaborative platforms for live and open-data. This is mind-blowing.

From the outset, I wanted Orbs to be something built by developers for developers.

> Building a blockchain company is like setting up a colony on Mars. The go to market strategy is different. Spinning up is different. Literally everything is different. 

WHEN DID YOU SET UP YOUR COMPANY?

We founded the Orbs project in 2017 as a public blockchain infrastructure designed for enterprises. What we are building bridges the gap between the needs of enterprise businesses and the benefits of a public blockchain. By using blockchain as a neutral third-party to display data, businesses can prove indisputably that their data and algorithms are reliable. Trust must be earned. We call it “digitally verifiable trust.”

Before Orbs, I managed the entire technical side of Kin, the cryptocurrency created by the popular messaging app Kik. While there I learned a lot about the hurdles of developing a decentralized product that supports a massively networked community of users. The main obstacle there for the team was the realization that Ethereum can’t support a real business in a production environment.

Scalability was one issue, but useability was another. These infrastructures were built for token-based dApps, not regular “for-profit” businesses. They also lack certain “non-starters” such as isolation, customization, low and predictable fees, and existing knowledge - like using common languages, rather than creating new ones.

That’s where Orbs comes into play. We started Orbs because no existing public blockchain solutions were suited for real corporate or enterprise use. We found “disintermediating” or replacing enterprise apps like Uber with a purely decentralized smart contract version wasn’t only unlikely, it was unnecessary. Why not work together with these existing businesses, making Uber Inc better?

WHAT NEED DOES IT SERVE?

In today’s world, any company holding large amounts of user data needs to show consumers it can be trusted, whether it’s showing how it handles personal user data or how they run their algorithms. Companies and other entities are also pressured more and more to prove their trusted processes in a variable way, which is what public blockchain is all about.

Right now, the most interesting work in the space has to do with showing actual use cases for either solving a trust problem or adding real commercial value. For example, in the US and around the world there’s a certain distrust in the public procurement process. If service providers feel public tenders can be influenced by bribes, that destroys the legitimacy of the entire process. Blockchain could remedy this. Orbs expands the offerings of public blockchains by supporting permissioned apps developed by existing businesses.

HAVE YOU LAUNCHED OTHER COMPANIES BEFORE? WHAT WERE THEY?

Before I entered the world of blockchain I co-founded three startups. Appixia was a platform for building mobile apps similar to what Wix.com is doing for websites. Wix liked it so much they bought it, making it their first acquisition post IPO. I also helped launch two smaller startups.

I also spent time at Hexa Labs which is a blockchain consultancy that helped real businesses spin up decentralized applications. Working here with large companies served to refocus my approach to addressing discrete needs with specific applications. 

WHAT HAVE BEEN THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES YOU’VE FACED IN BUILDING A BUSINESS IN THIS SPACE?

The ICO craze from 2016 to 2018 tried to rebuild the internet without middlemen. But, to put it plainly, cutting out the middleman has failed. You’ve got a blockchain landscape with 3,000 dApps failing to mature to successful products.

Real businesses are not building dApps and blockchain isn’t close to mainstream adoption. It’s not an infrastructure problem. The value-add of pure decentralization is unclear. The first hurdle is that existing infrastructure isn’t suited for blockchain.

In the beginning, Orbs was a part of the “decentralize everything” movement, helping big companies spin-off and create blockchain solutions but over time we found token-based models weren’t working. There weren’t users to support them. DApps are currently failing and the decentralized business model doesn’t support their growth for now. They’re meant for the future.

WHAT’S THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU WERE GIVEN WHEN IT COMES TO BEING AN ENTREPRENEUR IN THIS SPACE?

Focus on making progress during every stage of development. That’s all that matters. This keeps you in touch with what your clients and the industry at large needs. One thing that I always keep in mind is “What can make a difference now?”

These blockchain projects (and many startups in general, really) get so much initial funding, everyone entertains grandiose ideas. Don't build a spaceship just because you can.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO SOMEONE SETTING UP A BUSINESS IN THE DECENTRALIZED WEB?

My number one piece of advice is don’t just decentralize for decentralization’s sake. You must understand that true decentralization is a means, not an end. It’s the means to give partners and users better verifiable trust. Decentralization is inherently more expensive. Put simply, something that costs 10x more should bring 10x the cost in returns.

Additionally, startups and developers must drive education and accessibility to the benefits of blockchain. This is where innovation will originate, both at new startups and internally at large companies.

IF YOU BUILT YOUR BUSINESS ALL OVER AGAIN, WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY?

Mistakes are a part of the startup world. It’s what you learn from your mistakes that sets apart companies.

Orbs’s initial focus on dApps was wrong. Distributed apps are technology built for the future. Taking real businesses and making them change their entire backend to something fully dApp-based that was token reliant was a fool’s errand. It doesn’t work with existing systems and existing business logic. Our initial mission there was misguided, but it let us refocus on what is important in blockchain and identifying the guarantees that are important to devs.

WHAT PROJECT OR PROJECTS ARE YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT (THAT AREN’T YOURS!)

I think StarkWare, the company that developed ZK-STARKs, is a really great project. ZK-STARKs compress large amounts of data into small proofs (the “STARKs”) and use zero-knowledge proofs to keep the information private.

 At the age of 15, one of the first things I programmed professionally was an expansion to the game Quake. That's how I learned the C programming language. This mod added some crazy features to the first-person shooter like drawing a pistol from a holster Wild West style, remote control spider mines that could latch onto other players and sniper rifles with laser sights that indicated where camping snipers are hiding. 

WHAT IS (OR WHAT WILL BE) BLOCKCHAIN’S “KILLER APP”? 

Fake news is a threat to world democracies and I think blockchain will be able to solve that issue, the technology isn’t there yet but I think it will be in a few years.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SETTING UP A COMPANY IN THE DECENTRALIZED SPACE VERSUS REGULAR BUSINESS?

Building a blockchain company is like setting up a colony on Mars. The go to market strategy is different. Spinning up is different. Literally everything is different. 

> My number one piece of advice is don’t just decentralize for decentralization’s sake.

One specific thing I’ve experienced is that it isn’t easy finding great marketing team members. Because blockchain is such a new space, it’s hard to find marketers that can navigate between enterprise, crypto communities and so on. Interestingly, we’ve found that people who have experience in politics quickly adapt to crypto. Building a business here is like running a campaign. You need to develop a passionate base that actively promotes evangelism and mobilizes their communities.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE BLOCKCHAIN TO SOMEONE WHO HAS NEVER HEARD OF IT BEFORE?

Think of it as open-source for data. 


Tal is the co-founder of Orbs. <span style="font-weight: 400;">Prior to co-founding Orbs, Tal co-founded Appixia, a mobile app startup acquired by Wix.com, and was Head of Mobile Engineering at Wix.com. He is an expert in blockchain applications and former Head of Engineering at Kin by Kik Interactive. </span>

Tal Kol

Tal is the co-founder of Orbs. Prior to co-founding Orbs, Tal co-founded Appixia, a mobile app startup acquired by Wix.com, and was Head of Mobile Engineering at Wix.com. He is an expert in blockchain applications and former Head of Engineering at Kin by Kik Interactive. 

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The co-founder of Orbs and former head of engineering at Kin explains why setting up a business in blockchain is like building a colony on Mars.

Ki Chong Tran

There are plenty of stable digital currencies available, but only one can claim to be widely used, decentralized, and trustless. In this article, we find out why DAI stands out from the rest of the stablecoin pack.

Crypto with steady value isn’t new or rare. Tether(USDT) has been around for years and is by far the largest stablecoin available. We also have stablecoins such as USDC, PAX, Gemini Coin, and the upcoming Libra all competing to be the stable cryptocurrency of choice, but they all rely on trusting someone to honestly keep dollars in the bank. DAI changes that.

WHAT IS DAI

DAI is an ERC20 token on the Ethereum blockchain that has a steady value of one US dollar. It is also the key to the MakerDAO lending system. When a loan is taken out on MakerDAO, DAI is created. It’s the currency users borrow and pay-back. 

Once DAI is created, it functions simply as a stable Ethereum token. It can be used to pay for things and is easily transferred between Ethereum wallets.

WHO INVENTED DAI?

DAI is a product of MakerDAO, which was founded by Rune Christensen, the current CEO.

 The current version of DAI is technically an updated version of the stablecoin called multi-collateral DAI because it allows multiple types of crypto assets to be used to create DAI. The old version of DAI is now called SAI and known as single-collateral DAI because it could only be created by using ETH as collateral. The first crypto asset besides ETH accepted in the new multi-collateral DAI system is Basic Attention Token (BAT). 

WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT IT?

The price of DAI is kept in check through a system of smart contracts automatically executing themselves. If the price of DAI fluctuates too far from one dollar, Maker (MKR) tokens are burned or created in order to stabilize the price of DAI. MakerDAO’s algorithms automatically manage the price of DAI so no one person needs to be trusted to keep the currency steady. If the system works as intended and one DAI equals one US dollar, MKR holders benefit because the total supply of MKR decreases–making MKR more rare and valuable. 

To date, DAI has remained stable for two years with only minor fluctuations from its one dollar price peg.

 MakerDAO recently upgraded their system to include the DAI Savings Rate in which DAI holders can lock their DAI holdings into the MakerDAO’s Oasis app to earn interest. 

WHAT ELSE IS DIFFERENT?

Since DAI is simply a token on Ethereum, anybody can use or build with DAI without permission. As an ERC20 token, DAI functions as a building block that can be incorporated into any dapp needing a stable asset or payment system. 

Developers can also wrap DAI in different smart contracts and modify it for different uses. For example, xDAI takes DAI and puts it on a superfast and low-cost sidechain to make transfers and payments easier and more efficient. Chai and rDAI takes normal DAI, puts it in an interest generating pool, and lets users control what happens to the interest as it accumulates. 

HOW IS DAI PRODUCED?

DAI is created whenever someone takes out a loan on MakerDAO. DAI is destroyed when loans are paid back.

HOW DO YOU GET HOLD OF DAI TOKENS?

The most direct way to get DAI is by taking out a loan on MakerDAO’s Oasis platform. You can also trade DAI on that same platform or use a centralized exchange such as Coinbase.

WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH DAI?

One of the main uses for DAI is as a stable hedge or counterweight against the volatility of more popular crypto-assets such as Ethereum or Bitcoin. The stable value of DAI means it is good for investors or traders who believe the market is about to go down. 

Since DAI is stable, it’s also one of the most ideal crypto assets to spend. The Coinbase Card allows users to spend DAI and other crypto assets by converting the crypto into fiat on a Visa card. If you are in the UK or Europe, you can also spend DAI using the Monolith Visa debit card. 

THE FUTURE

MakerDAO is working hard to brand DAI as the “world’s first unbiased currency” and it’s starting with the logo, which they want to be as ubiquitous and recognizable as symbols for the dollar ($), euro (€), and pound (£). In the quest to become the first trustless mainstream currency, DAI will have to be adopted and used by millions of people–a task requiring not only branding, but also marketing and education. Though not an easy task, no other stablecoin is better positioned to make it happen.


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What is DAI? A 3-minute guide to the Ethereum stablecoin - Decrypt

DAI is an ERC20 token on the Ethereum blockchain that has a steady value of one US dollar. It is also the key to the MakerDAO lending system.

According to DigiByte, blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum are not secure or scalable enough. DigiByte claims to have a proven and tested solution that is faster and safer than the competition. 

WHAT IS DIGIBYTE?

DigiByte is a complete blockchain network based on three different layers. The top layer is for smart contracts, decentralized applications, and customizable tokens. The middle layer is the public ledger where the DigitByte native coin can move throughout the network and serve as its base asset. The bottom layer is the core infrastructure of the system and includes the decentralized nodes, the client software, and the communication between each. 

WHO INVENTED DIGIBYTE?

Jared Tate is the founder and creator of DigiByte and has been working on the project since 2013. 

 Both DigiByte and Bitcoin use Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO), which is a technical method for keeping track of blockchain transactions between accounts. However, DigiByte has over 9 million blocks as of July 2019 compared to Bitcoin’s less than 600,000 blocks. DigiByte is also 40 times faster than Bitcoin, making it the fastest and longest UTXO blockchain in the world. 

A BRIEF HISTORY OF DIGIBYTE

 	* January 2014 – DigiByte is officially launched
 	* April 2017 – Segwit is activated on DigitByte becoming the first major altcoin to do so
 	* May 2019 – DigiAssets is launched

WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT IT?

Secure and battle-tested in the wild for over 5 years, DigiByte has proven that its security as a blockchain is for real. It’s most unique feature is the fact that the blockchain network uses five mining algorithms when most only use one. These five different mining algorithms are meant to prevent mining centralization and make the network more secure and decentralized.

In addition to having five mining algorithms, DigiByte also claims to have the “most advanced difficulty stability” of any current blockchain. The advanced difficulty adjustments are meant to protect the DigiByte blockchain from malicious attacks and further improve security.

 DigiByte has had over 275,000 full nodes downloaded since April 2017 and 15,000 nodes active globally.

WHAT ELSE IS DIFFERENT?

The newest innovation from DigiByte is DigiAssets, which is the top layer of the DigiByte blockchain that allows for smart contracts, decentralized applications, and programmable tokens. Because of DigiByte’s heightened security and scalability, the team believes that it offers the ideal base protocol for a platform like DigiAssets.

The first two DigiAssets were created by DigiByte founder, Jared Tate, in April 2019. The DigiTorch and DigiFlame are both meant to be passed on from different DigiByte community members as they build new projects on DigiAssets.

HOW IS DIGIBYTE PRODUCED?

DigiByte has a fixed supply and distribution schedule. A total of 21 billion DigiByte will be created within 21 years. Since there was no ICO or Token Generation Event, new DigiByte have been and always will be created through mining. The first DigiByte was mined in 2014 and the last of the 21 billion coins will be mined in 2035.

HOW DO YOU GET HOLD OF DIGIBYTE?

DigiByte can be purchased and traded on major exchanges such as Huobi. To use DigiByte off an exchange, you will have to download a DigiByte wallet. You can also earn DigiBytes through mining.

WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH DIGIBYTE?

Like Bitcoin, DigiByte can be used for payments or transferring value. However, DigiByte is also used as the fuel to run the DigiAsset smart contract network. In this context, DigiByte functions like gas in Ethereum to pay for transactions or as the carrier for other assets and code to be sent and received. 

THE FUTURE

Besides continually developing technical upgrades and improvements to the core protocol, the DigiByte launched DigiStats in the fall of 2019 to provide interactive and historical blockchain statistics, increase mobile and payment processing options, and create more fiat and USDT stablecoin pairings on different exchanges.

In January 2020, as the network turns 6, the company is also planning on launching the DigiByte Foundation which is designed to help with fund-raising inside the community.

> January 2020 is going to be the start of the #DigiByte Foundation. 
> Please make sure to follow us to stay up to date, and get involved. Soon we will publish bylaws, and get registered. Next steps will be community involvement, board completion, patron sponsorships, funding, etc.
> 
> — DigiByte Foundation (@DGB_Foundation) January 3, 2020

However, the biggest and most important upcoming plan for DigiByte will be growing DigiAssets. If all goes according to plan, an entire ecosystem of dapps and ICO will be an integral part of the network. 


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DigiByte (DGB) is a UTXO PoW based blockchain with a focus on cybersecurity, digiassets, payments, and secure communications technologies.

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What is DigiByte? A 3-minute guide to the OG of blockchains - Decrypt

DigiByte claims to have a proven and tested solution that is faster and safer than blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

If blockchains want to be able to host mainstream applications that hundreds of millions of people use on a regular basis, they will have to be able to handle millions of transactions quickly and securely. This is where the Internet of Services Token (IOST) blockchain comes in. The team is creating a blockchain that can handle real usage and real volume. Learn why IOST is contending to be the prime destination for the future world of dapps.

WHAT IS IOST?

IOST is its own fully-fledged blockchain network and ecosystem with its own nodes, wallets, and consensus protocol. Speed is the name of the game for IOST, a blockchain dedicated to being “ultra-fast” through a combination of unique technologies such as Proof of Believability (POB) and Efficient Distributed Sharding (EDS)–more on these later.

WHO INVENTED IOST?

IOST was founded by Jimmy Zhong, Terrence Wang, Justin Li, Ray Xiao, Sa Wang, and Kevin Tan who are alumni of some of the world's most prestigious universities and companies in the world.

 The IOST ecosystem has a $50 million incubator and accelerator called Bluehill. Bluehill is designed to be similar to Ethereum’s ConsenSys with the goal of supporting critical infrastructure and projects that will help grow the IOST ecosystem. 

A BRIEF HISTORY

 	* Early 2017 – Development of IOST is started
 	* January 2018 – IOST token sale raises over $31 million
 	* February 2019 – The IOST mainnet called Olympus v1.0 is live
 	* May 2019 – IOST releases OnBlock a web-based platform that will allow anyone to interact with decentralized applications on IOST's network, just by using an email address or mobile phone number to log in.

WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT IT?

Understanding IOST means comparing it to its nearest competitors; Ethereum, the most popular smart contract platform for developers, and EOS and TRON, highly scalable smart contract platforms with high usage. The biggest differentiator is that IOST claims to be able to process up to 100,000 transactions per second compared to Ethereum’s 20, Tron’s 2,000, and EOS’s 4,000. 

To reach these transaction speeds that far surpass the competition, the IOST team has created a novel blockchain architecture, which introduces and combines several innovations including Distributed Randomness Protocol, Efficient Distributed Sharding, TransEpoch, Atomix, Proof-of-Believability, and Micro State Blocks.

 Like the ERC20 standard on Ethereum, the IOST platform has its own token standard for implementing tokens on the IOST blockchain called IRC20.

WHAT ELSE IS DIFFERENT?

Servi or Partner Nodes produce blocks for the IOST blockchain and these nodes are selected via votes from the IOST community. Both voters and those selected as nodes are rewarded with tokens. Organizations or individuals interested in becoming a node must apply and receive at least 2,100,000 votes. 

HOW IS IOST PRODUCED?

There is a total supply of 21 billion tokens in the IOST blockchain and the system issues 2% more tokens every year to reward official nodes, partner nodes, and voters. An additional 1% of tokens are designated to reward those who help further grow and develop the IOST ecosystem. 

HOW DO YOU GET HOLD OF IOST?

Originally the IOST token was an ERC20 token that was sold during the ICO, but since the launch of the IOST mainnet, holders have been able to swap their old ERC20 tokens for the new IOST mainnet tokens. IOST tokens can be purchased on major exchanges like Huobi and Binance, which support automatic token swapping from the old to new tokens. 

WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH IOST?

The IOST token can be used for payments between users and services, transaction fees for using the system, and as part of the “believability scores” that is unique to the IOST platform. 

THE FUTURE

IOST has a high number of dapps and dapp users, which is very impressive considering that it is a still a relatively new blockchain compared to the others in the “Big 4”. Gambling, games, and exchanges are the most popular IOST dapps at the moment. The team has big ambitions of bringing in over 100 million users in 2019 and to do this they will need to continue increasing dapp and dapp usage as well as increase their partnerships with different organizations. They will continue partnering with more exchanges and bringing in more developers and nodes into their ecosystem in order to create the “world’s first scalable AND decentralized blockchain project.”


IOST is an ultra-fast, decentralized blockchain network based on the next-generation consensus algorithm “Proof of Believability” (PoB).

IOST

What is IOST? A three minute guide to the Ethereum rival - Decrypt

IOST is its own fully-fledged blockchain network and ecosystem with its own nodes, wallets, and consensus protocol. Find more in our helpful guide.

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