Core Magazine September 2016

core Harnessing the benefits of technology for the good of humanity

http://coremedia.info

ISSUE #13 SEPTEMBER 2016

BLOCKCHAIN NEWS - INTERVIEWS - RADIO Interview with Waves Platform & Wings DAO

PAGE INDEX Ethereum Classic Bitfinex's socialisation of losses The Summer of SegWit?

Wings DAO Interview The Blunder of Western Diet SuperNet News

Core Radio

Komodo

Stratis Intro

DECENT Platform

CryptoCompare: New features

Waves Q&A

TV: The teacher of our collective

Incent

Intro

EOM Report

Interview

WHAT IS BITCOIN?

You may have heard of Bitcoin on TV, or in a conversation with friends. Truth is, Bitcoin is more than just “funny money”, in fact it is now a force to be reckoned with. Dig a little further and you will find Bitcoin is actually an extremely fascinating concept.

Bitcoin is an internet digital currency. Unlike other digital currencies like PayPal, Bitcoin is decentralized.

Decentralization, in the context of Bitcoin, means every transaction made on the Bitcoin network can be viewed by anyone around the whole world.

Furthermore, all the information of Bitcoin transactions is downloaded onto every Bitcoin users computer making it impossible to shut down the Bitcoin network.

The Bitcoin protocol cannot be hacked and if backed up correctly can be even safer than storing your money in a bank.

Bitcoin can be used to buy things in the real world. Want a new TV? A cup of coffee to start the day? Try paying for it with Bitcoin.

“At its core, bitcoin is a smart currency, designed by very forward-thinking engineers. It eliminates the need for banks, gets rid of credit card fees, currency exchange fees, money transfer fees, and reduces the need for lawyers in transitions… all good things” - Peter Diamandis

OCKCHAIN NE ETHEREUM CLASSIC: CRYPTO FAILURE OR THE FREE MARKET AT WORK?

There’s been a lot of talk about the ideologies of Ethereum and Ethereum Classic. But maybe it’s much simpler than it seems.

You can read former Ethereum CEO Charles Hoskinson’s eloquent blog post about his return to Ethereum, to support Classic, here. The issue he pinpoints is this: ‘The leadership of the ethereum project have made a decision to fork the protocol to eliminate the social contract of computational apathy. This fork is not about returning stolen money. It’s not about protecting the interests of the Foundation from a legal or regulatory perspective. It’s simply about changing the code is law paradigm to code is usually law until it’s not.’

On the surface or it, the fork was not particularly controversial - at least within the Ethereum mining community. Miners voted overwhelmingly to fork; of those who indicated a preference, some 95% The failure of The DAO casts a long were in favour. That’s as near to shadow on Ethereum. The massive hack of the smart contracts application was the unanimous as it’s reasonable to expect. direct reason Ethereum miners agreed to The fork duly went ahead. fork the underlying protocol. But And yet, subsequent events suggest that rectifying the theft - an ostensibly things weren’t that cut and dried. At the sensible thing to do - had serious time of writing, Ethereum Classic has implications. around 20% of both the network hashrate and market cap of Ethereum.

What happened? Did a silent minority, who hadn’t chosen to vote, come out of the woodwork? Did a proportion of miners change their minds?

Money talks, loud

3

EWS BLOCKCHAIN NEWS It’s possible that partly explains things, but in my mind something simpler is going on. The Ethereum chain was duplicated. With the exception of the funds held in the DAO hacker’s address, balances on one blockchain were instantly created on the other.

Ethereum Classic (ETC) soon began trading on exchanges. The result: free money. If you had Ethereum (ETH), you now had ETC. And money is a powerful incentive.

was on 23 July, after which there was a noticeable drop-off. It seems too much of a coincidence that ETC started trading on Poloniex on 24 July. Its trading volume is currently around 3 times that of ETH. Classic has a different philosophy, which goes beyond the immutability of the blockchain. It’s interesting that Hoskinson supports a continued proof-of-work model, whereas Ethereum will move to proof-of-stake in due course. ‘When ETH takes the leap to [PoS] Casper, the miners have somewhere to go.’

Is the Ethereum fork really about ‘returning stolen money… [or] protecting the interests of the Foundation from a legal or regulatory perspective.. [or even] about changing the code is law paradigm to code is usually law until it’s not’?

Cynically, none of the above. It’s about money. Ethereum’s divergence is the result, or victim, of the free market.

ARTICLE BY BITSCAN

Miners soon realised there was money to be made mining ETC rather than ETH. If the price of ETC rose ahead of the hashrate applied to the network, there was incentive to shift and mine that instead of ETH. Peak hashrate for ETH

OCKCHAIN NE BITFINEX'S SOCIALISATION OF LOSSES IS UNACCEPTABLE

The hacked exchange has responded to one theft with another.

News of the Bitfinex hack is now almost a week old and has circulated not only the crypto world but the mainstream media (bad news travels fast) Almost 120,000 BTC were stolen from the exchange, with a value of over $60 million.

It goes without saying that the hack should never have happened, but in this case, that statement takes on a new edge. It’s not just that we’re in a postGox era where lessons have been - or should have been - learnt. It’s not just that the sector as a whole has become steadily more professional over th last two years. It’s that Bitfinex had implemented security measures tha should have been enough to protect customers. ´

Rather than pool funds in a hot or cold wallet, Bitfinex opted for individua customer wallets protected by two-of-three multisig, provided by leadin wallet company BitGo. One key was held by BitGo, two by Bitfinex, of which one was supposed to be offline. One way or another - BitGo has claimed its software is not to blame - the hacker or hackers were able to access two keys for a large number of customer wallets, which they drained of funds over the course of three hours. Bitfinex is a huge exchange, and in total the sum represents around 0.75% of all bitcoins in existence. The situation is particularly shocking, since Bitfinex experienced a hack of around

5

EWS BLOCKCHAIN NEWS 1,500 BTC last year. Once bitten was not enough.

An unconscionable solution

Faced with tens of millions of dollars of customer funds gone, Bitfinex has opted to share the losses amongst everyone. Rather than those individua customer wallets remaining empty, whilst the unhacked ones are left intact, Bitfinex is unilaterally imposing a 36% haircut on all its users.

t ). On the surface of it, this may seem to make sense, but it is an appalling breach of trust. Bitfinex was hacked. Individual customers had their BTC stolen. This is bad enough. But Bitfinex’s solution is to steal funds from the remaining two-thirds of customers who were not directly affected. It is a lazy s response, a denial of responsibility and an admission that they have acted - unprofessionally. t he Language of ‘socialised losses’ is misleading. This is a further theft, pure and at simple. In doing this, Bitfinex are demonstrating that they are no better than

al ng f s o d n e d

the hackers.

OCKCHAIN NE

OF threshold of 95% is high, arguably too high, since there will always be a proportion of dissenters, quit It’s coming, honest. Soon (™). apart from those who forget to update their software. SegWit wa After a few months of delays, announced back in December 2015 SegWit really will be coming to aand has been tested thoroughly bitcoin release near you. Soon. but the developers want to include The next update to Bitcoin Core -the community more in tha 0.13.0 - will pave the way for the process. Presumably, this is not jus eventual release of code includinga means to ensure the security o the Segregated Witness patch,such a significant addition to the which could not only solve the protocol. It will also engage the malleability bug but allow forcommunity and make them more significantly higher transactionlikely to use the updated version volumes. of Bitcoin Core themselves - raising the odds of SegWit reaching its activation threshold in terms o hashrate.

THE SUMMER SEGWIT?

‘Could’ because there is, of course, no guarantee that SegWit will be activated and therefore used as partThe issue of block size and how to of the bitcoin protocol. The

7

BLOCKCHAIN EWS NEWS

y increase transaction volumes hassponsored attackers. As a website, sbeen the subject of a protractedBitcoin.org does not have the teand bitter battle, with stakeholderstechnical resources to guarantee o- miners, users, wallet companiesthat we can defend ourselves from sand other businesses, large holdersattackers of this calibre. We ask the 5 and prominent advocates - pullingBitcoin community, and in y,in different directions. Consensusparticular the Chinese Bitcoin eis critical, and the example ofcommunity to be extra vigilant atEthereum and Ethereum Classicwhen downloading binaries from stshows what can happen when our website.’ ofeven a relatively small minority do enot agree with a decision.

TL;DR: it’s not over yet. e e ARTICLE BY n BITSCAN g s of In a separate issue, a post on the prominent bitcoin.org site - which also distributes the Bitcoin Core software - warned that the upcoming release may be compromised by malicious parties. ‘Bitcoin.org has reason to suspect that the binaries for the upcoming Bitcoin Core release o will likely be targeted by state

INTRO

TRATIS INTR

The Stratis Platform will be built using C#, which is considered to be a safer language and it is widely used by highly skilled developers. The C# Stratis Bitcoin full node will be developed on top of the NBitcoin library which is being worked on by Nicolas Dorier since May 2014 and has 1,296 commits. The C# NStratis node has many advantages over Bitcoin's C++, since NBitcoin was developed in C# and uses the .NET framework it wil be easier to maintain and develop.

The Stratis Platform managed to gather 915 Bitcoins during its ICO period. Private Blockchains & Fiat Gateways During this period 84 million StratisPrivate Blockchains offer obvious coins (85.7% of the total supply) was advantages over public ones, such as distributed to investors, and theBitcoin, when developing applications remaining 14 million (14.3%) will be since they can be customized to kept by the Stratis core team in order perform in the manner that best suit to develop the platform and pay for the application's function. bounties, marketing, and partnerships.

See ICO terms.

Since Stratis' protocol will be Proof of

Stake, companies won't need to have The Stratis platform shows promise inexpensive mining hardware to run its features and potential use cases, nodes for their Private Blockchains or which are directed at corporate use forfor the Stratis Mainchain, which can financial applications. Stratis is aalso be accessed via lite client or API flexible Blockchain-as-a-service making it possible to participate in (BaaS) Platform that allows companiesblock validation (Staking) in any device to easily create their private or public(Browsers, Desktops and Mobiles). custom Blockchains.

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STRATIS INRO TRO

g see which might fit their needs best. r Stratis is also being built to support yfiat gateways for private blockchains Consultancy Agency sthat will allow fiat tokens to be easilyStratis will also act as a London-based ntransferred on the blockchain andconsultancy service that will advise s across the globe without exposingbusinesses on which features or financial organizations to the volatilityblockchain specifications should be associated with cryptocurrencies. implemented and how to do so. Stratis s is currently U.K based, but may be , Custom Blockchain Deployment extended internationally if there is a # Stratis, the native value token in the need or demand for it. llStratum Platform, will be required in order to create and fuel a private or STRATIS PRICE public blockchain, which can be CHART customized in most every way in order s to accommodate businesses of all s sizes. Block time, size and rewards s can be set as variables. Transactions ocan be public or private as well as the tsaccess to the blockchain itself.

Permitted transaction types can also be set by the deployer, which is only frequired to go through a fast "one e click process". n Developers will be able to combine r features from multiple block chains n like Ethereum, Lisk or Waves between I,themselves, as well as with Stratis' nown Mainchain. Companies will be e allowed to test these provisioned Price data by www.cryptocompare.com blockchains individually in order to

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TELEVISI-

Once it's introduced it's considereda drug that makes you forget a luxury and then after a while ittomorrow. It even makes you forget becomes a very normal item.the present moment and everything Ultimately not having it brings upthat is going on around you. questions and is considered out of the ordinary.

“All television is educationa television. The question is: what i “Television! Teacher, mother, it teaching?” secret lover.”

Nicholas Johnson Homer Simpson, The Simpsons Television is in fact a very Why does a television play such a dangerous device as it affects you big role in our life? In fact it is like whole life, even after you turn it a furniture that always gets the bestoff. While you are sitting there with location, like a trophy; and it isyour eyes open and all muscles always on, like your light bulb. Try relaxed it is telling you a story which to invite a few friends over and thengoes right into your mind. In othe observe how it will suck all thewords, the television puts ideas int attention and you will end up your head. If this would not be the staring its flashing lights in silence.case, then why would anyone pay to get their products appear in a “Television is simply automated movie or commercials? day-dreaming.”

“Whoever controls the media Lee Lovinger controls the mind” Jim Morrison Indeed, it sends you to a magical place out of this world where you Television broadcasting is a can forget your worries and the centrally controlled operation tha things you should be doing. It’s likeis used to steer the public opinio

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- THE

TEACHER OF OUR COLLECTIVE

t into a certain direction. It is apeople to believe in. t powerful tool for propaganda that geveryone wishes they had. “If you came and you found a Businesses want to advertise theirstrange man... teaching your kids products, industries want to steerto punch each other, or trying to alyour preferences, politicians wantsell them all kinds of products, you'd isto appeal to you, intellectuals wantkick him right out of the house, but to boost their career, and so on.here you are; you come in and the The TV teaches people a certainTV is on, and you don't think twice world view, a moral understandingabout it.” y and even behavioural guidelines. Jerome Singer ur t “The marvels - of film, radio, and Then where does this all lead to? htelevision - are marvels of one-way “If the television craze continues scommunication, which is not with the present level of programs, hcommunication at all.” we are destined to have a nation of er Milton Mayer morons.” to Daniel Marsh, 1950 eThe television has casted a ycollective spell over people. TheI'm afraid that is exactly what we aspell is reinforced by the have become. Thankfully though programmed as they will pass ontoday the arena is getting more a,their understanding to theirdecentralized as anyone can tune children and the those aroundin to the alternative media. The key them. Anything not talked aboutdifference is that on the Internet the in television is considered radical,number of “channels” is not limited, a dangerous, or untrue. Thus thestarting a new one is practically free, atones doing the programming canthe content is usually highly neffectively create a reality for thefocused, and its censorship is really

TELEVISI-

decentralized as anyone can tune in to the alternative media. Th key difference is that on the Internet the number of “channels” is not limited, starting a new one is practically free, the content is usual highly focused, and its censorship is really hard.

In fact, if I would watch TV daily I would not have found the time or knowledge to write this article, and likewise you would not have had the time to read it! I would rather sit alone in pitch-dark room than corrupt my mind in this so called “entertainment”.

I hate TV and so should you!

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WINGS DAO INTERVIEW Rootstock and other blockchain pegs are operating).

What security measures is Wings DAO looking to implement in order to prevent another "DAO hack"?

What is Wings?

Wings is a platform for Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs).

The platform enables anyone to easily create DAO proposals and submit them for community discussion, review and forecasting, before being promoted to full-fledged DAOs and starting their Wings will be implementing a multi crowdsale. level security approach: Wings DAO is a cross-chain DAO, Formal verification of the smar correct? how does that work? contract code to ensure it performs a Wings DAO aims to become one of expected the first cross-blockchain projects, byFunctional programming (instead o pegging into the most popular imperative) when possible, to reduce blockchains, thus enabling to launch human errors and govern DAO’s on top of these Last resort transaction recovery multiple block chains in parallel. This enabled by the Rootstock Federation is planned to be achieved by using an system intermediary Wings token that will pegProtecting projects by creating a and lock coins from the supportedunique set of smart contracts, tokens blockchains (resembling how and private keys for each DAO Adhering to short and simple to audi

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DAO OWINGS INTERVIEW s smart contracts code governance system to be used by the

Hiring multiple security firms to auditnew project (which initially will include the contracts direct democracy, futarchy, and liquid Promote white hat rewards based ondemocracy), and can be later changed smart contracts, encouraging by community majority consensus. responsible vulnerability disclosure Additionally, the creator selects the Tools to update all the DAO projects total supply of coins and the portion smart contracts on the platform withto be allocated to an optional advisory security patches (after being pool, whether Wings token owners will greenlighted by the relevant projectbe compensated for their forecasting communities) services (using the new project’s tokens or a mix of new tokens and a portion How will the Wings Platform of collected funds), the crowd sale time work? period and the early bird bonuses rates.

If the creator plans to create a The first step for a project creatormilestone-based project, he also enters i-would be to submit a new proposalthe milestones deliverables. to the Wings platform, via an easy Finally, the creator pays a listing fee in step-by-step wizard. The creatorWing's tokens to list the proposal and rtenters the proposal content via richinitiate the discussion and forecasting asformatting editor, uploads media suchperiod. as photos and videos, and attaches ofany other documentation, in order to After the listing, the project creator has edeliver to the Wings DAO community a certain period of time to modify the as a complete and clear description proposal description and terms, in order y,of the project as possible. Theto improve it following the community n description includes the productfeedback. Once this period has ended, highlights, unique selling points andit will be no longer possible to change acompetitive difference, the unique the proposal anymore, and the stechnology used, and of course, theremaining amount of time will be used team behind the project. The creatorto allow the community to forecast the it also has to specify the initialsuccess level of the proposal.

WINGS DAO INTERVIEW and terms, in order to improve it following the community feedback. O

this period has ended, it will be no longer possible to change the prop anymore, and the remaining amount of time will be used to allow community to forecast the success level of the proposal.

Once the forecasting period has ended, a new and unique set of smart contr are generated, that in turn generate a new token dedicated for the proj Wings also promotes the proposal into active projects area for all to launches a dedicated bounty cabinet for it, and begins the countdown to sale start.

At the start of the DAO’s crowdsale, the platform starts providing stati and live updates regarding the amount collected and tokens distribution course, anyone can participate in the new DAO’s sale.

After the sale has completed, the Wings token owners are rewarded for t forecasts. The project is switched into live projects area, with the ch governance model becoming active. The creator and the new tokens ow are now able to submit new ideas regarding the project and begin opera as an individual DAO. Can anyone use Wings Platform to create a DAO?

Anyone can use the Wings platform to create a DAO, as long as the lis fee is paid in order to avoid spam, and to ensure quality proposals are submi

Is there any DAO planned to be created on the Wings Platform upon release?

Yes, there are several DAOs with high potential that are in the Wings pipel with at least one being launched at Wings platform release.

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DAO OWINGS INTERVIEW Once When will the DAO ICO take place, and how will the funds be used?

posal w the The offering date has not yet been announced however it can be expecte later this year. The funds will be used for: (i) platform development, with emphasis on security and multiple extern racts audits ject. (ii) global marketing in order to promote Wings as the new generation o o see, crowd sale platforms o the (iii) legal services, in order to ensure that both Wings developers and use are compliant with the law

istics When do you think the Wings Platform will be ready? n. Of The public beta version of the platform is estimated to be released by end 2016. heir hosen wners ating

ting itted.

n

line,

THE

BLUNDER WESTERN DIET

OF

There must be something wrong withUsually the truth is simple — and no the western lifestyle as obesity, heartone can make money out of simple disease, diabetes, cancer, andtruths — so don’t expect to find th Alzheimer's are rapidly becominganswers from advertisements o more and more common. They have expensive products. in fact become so common that they are regarded as normal.

Forget all the medical studies for a moment and lets look at this issue from There could be other sources for thosea general perspective. What have we diseases, but I’m fairly certain that oureaten for hundreds or thousands o diet plays a major role. There is a years? What are we eating today in problem though, as it seems there arethe west compared to the rest of th infinite amount of conflicting studiesworld? I have found there to be at least and opinions. One has to wonder if it two distinctions: is even possible to get the hang of it without spending years studying1) highly processed foods, and 2) high nutrition and human digestion. consumption of meat and diary.

Almost all of the shelfs of a grocery Most people have concluded that thestore are filled with processed foods safest thing is to keep eating what theymeaning foods that come from were taught they ought to be eating. factories rather than nature. The However, keep in mind that the price demand for healthy foods has made of learning how to eat correctly is wellthe situation even worse, as the food worth it as you will reap the benefitsindustry has come up with even greate for the rest of your life. Healthy foods selection of processed foods that the will give you a long, productive, and then advertise as healthier alternative happy life.

In reality, if people would like to ea healthy they should begin by walking Coming to an approximate conclusion past the prepared food and soda of where the truth lies won’t take thatsections. long. A few days or weeks of study The greatest secret of meat and diary might change the course of your life. industry is that many researches show

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THE F

BLUNDER WESTERN DIET

OF

oanimal based foods to be a potentialone of the least inexpensive foods in e cause for the major diseases. Therethe supermarket. Throughout history heare many beliefs that I now consider and also in a few scientific studies orto be false, such as “meat makes you people have successfully lived months strong” and “there’s no such thing asby eating potatoes alone. too much protein”. The problem is aalways somewhere else but never in The answer to all our health problems mprotein. Furthermore, a plant basedcould be simply an inexpensive potato e diet is seen as unhealthy or even that can be grown in most climates. ofdangerous.

Yet, it is believed potato contains n almost no nutrients and is eaten only eWe have generated so much wealth out of tradition. Lately the situation has t that we can produce more meat thanbeen getting even worse as there is a we can eat. For the most human wide spread fear for carbs. history meat has not been the primary hsource of energy. Instead people have been eating rice, potato, wheat and ycorn. These foods contain complex s,carbohydrates also known as starch. m They give you the energy required to ekeep you going throughout the day. eFurthermore, all the major western ddiseases are absent in areas where erpeople eat limited amounts of meat eywhile having starch as their staple es.food. at Wheat, rice, potato, and corn are the gvery reason for our civilization. They aare high density foods that are easy to grow and store. A potato, for yexample, contains most of the wnutrients human body needs. It is also

THE

BLUNDER WESTERN DIET

OF

By going into extreme with those two simple guidelines (no meat, diary o processed foods) there isn’t much left for you to buy in a supermarket. For me that is really liberating. I just go straight for the potatoes, rice, vegetables and fruits. Then I head straight to the checkout while walking past all thos meat and diary sections, microwave foods, juices, sodas, and candy. It’ simple, easy, and cheap.

I hope this was enough to spark some interest, so I will stop here as I’m by no means an expert. I’ll provide a few talks below that I found really informative and convincing.

The Starch Solution, by John McDougall MD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XVf36nwraw Dr. T. Colin Campbell Lecture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEuRMm-a6mo Neal Barnard MD discusses the science behind food addictions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VWi6dXCT7I

25

F

or r s, se ’s

y y

SUPERNET NEWS

SUPERNET NEWS

We also got Samir Uzunovic (@usamir in our team, who’s doing fantastic job on various DevOps related tasks. He’ has managed to fix issues with Android, Windows and iOS builds of iguana. Having Windows builds of iguana working means we can expec the target user base for iguana product by 10x than before. So, that’s very noticeable and valuable update. I reall “In terms of iguana development, hope future updates don’t break thes James seems like finished a bigbuilds. marathon on redoing almost 20% codebase change of iguana code itself.Regarding EasyDEX, since James There were issues with implementationmade big change to iguana code base, of how Real Time blockchain synced he closed all existing issues, and i blocks and stored the old blocks asgoing busy with new bugs/issues being bundled files. I’m not so good withfound by team. All these can be tracked tech details on this change, but it’s beston his github repo. if someone wants to catch on such updates, best place is to followjl777’s @pondsea is also doing fantastic job steemit profile. He constantly updates He’s not doing some things himself iguana related statuses there. but hired a dev to just test and verify any well known cryptocurrencies And Kashif Ali (@kashifali) is doing which works with iguana. It’s not a amazing job with testing iguana APIbig job, neither a small job, but it need and helping iguana HTML GUI wallet some time investment, a little bit tech team wherever he possibly can. knowledge, to find relevant He did some testing scripts to automateinformation abotu these supportin the API testings, as well as updated.crypto currencies and confirm the http://docs.supernet.org work perfect. Thanks to him we now

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SUPERNET NEWS

also got DogeCoin (DOGE), DigiByte development team is working on to r)(DGB) added to the list of confirmedmake wallet GUI the way it can support band working coins like Litecoin (LTC), the existing wallets like bitcoin-qt, ’sSyscoin (SYS), BitcoinDark (BTCD), bitcoindark-qt or any other similar hand Bitcoin (BTC). I also see iguana tested and supported coins to give them also been tested with ZCasha lite pretty HTML GUI, even in case f Testnetwork, so hope to have it if there’s no iguana service installed. ctsupported too when ZCash launches. SuperNET Project is offering a pretty ts HTML GUI to other projects who wish y I’m not sure if you know, but to have nice looking wallet GUI for ly@pondsea got Bitcoin Explorer whichtheir crypto coin, if not as main, then seis running using iguana at the a supporting wallet GUI implantation. backend. It works fine so far I have We hope to get good results from this seen, and the devs he hired arepoint of view and contribution to crypto s hopefully working on to make it lookcurrency ecosystem. , better. More details can be found from is@pondsea As I test and progress with EasyDEX g UI development, when I’ll find it works dThere’s more good tasks happeningas expected I’ll inform in this #iguana in backend, which are still in progress.channel when it’s ready for testing.” I don’t know all, but the ones I knowSatinder Grewal b.and is good one is to make life of f, iguana users easier. The tasks like to ymake a desktop app for iguana which sacts just like a wrapper for the console a iguana binary that we get after dscompiling from source. Since the end huser doesn’t know how to fiddle with t the console application and it’s best ngto give them something click work eykind of application. wThe iguana HTML Wallet GUI

K

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KOMODO PLATFORM

BitcoinDark is a privacy-centric Delayed Proof of Work (dPoW) cryptocurrency, following the consensus method will make ideals on which the first forms ofBitcoin the center of all PoS/dPoW cryptographic currencies were cryptocurrencies, allowing the created upon. BitcoinDark has energy that is used in bitcoin mining always been on the forefront of to be utilized to secure other anonymous transaction cryptocurrencies, thus making technology with innovations likeBitcoin more energy efficient, while Telepathy or Teleport making other cryptocurrencies transactions. Years of research has safer. this will add value to the entire led the BTCD team to the alternative cryptocurrency sphere realization that more is requiredand to bitcoin itself as it becomes to create a completely anonymous a vital part of other currencies and and safe cryptocurrency, and that platforms. it cannot be achieved with the current BitcoinDark technology, The Komodo blockchain itself will hence the creation of Komodo. be maintained by an NXT style Proof of Stake protocol after a block Built from scratch, Komodo will is created through this same PoS bring about the anonymity ofsystem, a group of pre-voted Zcash along with the NXT style witnesses or notary nodes will take PoS security, the witness basedthe block hash generated in the consensus system inspired by Komodo blockchain and create a Bitshares, and the security andcustom transaction that includes reliability of the Proof of Work that same block hash in the Bitcoin Bitcoin Blockchain, which is a blockchain. tested and proven system kept by thousands of nodes.

Once this transaction enters the Komodo's greatest innovation, the Bitcoin blockchain, the block on

KOMODO PLATFORMK

Once this transaction enters the Bitcoin blockchain, the block on the Komodo chain, to which the block hash relates to, will be notarized along with all the transactions within that block. This system is calle Delayed Proof of Work (dPoW) and it allows the same computational power that is put into Bitcoin to secure the Komodo blockchain, which in turn provides users with two security layers. DPoW is a consensu mechanism in itself, as the block hash information pertaining to th Bitcoin block in which a specific set of Komodo blocks were notarized is also introduced in the Komodo blockchain, meaning that notary nodes need to agree that the information on the Komodo blockchain matches the one on the Bitcoin blockchain.

This system completely mitigates any kind of attack risk on the Komodo blockchain, as any attempt to rewrite the blockchain would result in failure, as the notary nodes would, through the informatio on the Bitcoin Blockchain, realize that the Komodo blockchain does not match the information present in the Bitcoin custom transactions in which the Komodo block hash information is stored.

Since being a notary node will require a certain degree of hardware resources, most of the block rewards is given to these nodes, along with the full amount of transaction fees.

Komodo will have two transaction types: Anonymous and norma transactions. Using Zcash-based zero knowledge proofs, users ca retain full anonymity while still enjoying the Proof of Work securit provided by Bitcoin or they can choose to transact normally with fu blockchain disclosure.

In order to develop and market the Komodo project, an Initial Coin Offering period will be hosted that will take start on the 15th of

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KOMODO PLATFORM

e October and last until the 20th of November (5 weeks), during this d time anyone will be able to buy Komodo tokens for Bitcoin. A limit edof 30000 bitcoin has been set as the maximum amount of funds l collected in the ICO. h s Komodo will launch with an initial supply of 100 million coins, 90% he of which will be sold during thecrowdfunding period, the remaining d 10% will be used for development, advisors and bounty campaigns. y Early investors will be rewarded with the first day 25% bonus, followed n by a 20% bonus that will be reduced incrementally by 5% each week (7 days) until it reaches 0% on the last day.

e d n s s,

e g

al n ty ull

n f

DECENT PLATFORM

33

DECENT PLATFORM

DECENT is a decentralized content distributionplatform that seeks to eliminate unwanted and unnecessary middleman fees and manipulation by connecting content creators (such as bloggers, musicians, painters) and consumers directly to each other. This is done using blockchain technology and a modified version of BitTorrent protocol.

Decent allows anyone to upload media files and to determine what price users should pay for it, if any price should be paid at all, and since the platform is "owned" by its users, no one can dictate which content is more or less important, meaning that everyone has equal publishing and viewing rights that associated with a reputation, recommendation, and feedback (which stays recorded on the blockchain) system will allow consumers to have easy access to relevant content.

Due to the DECENT peer to peer system no political or geographical barriers will exist in content sharing and consuming, since the content can pe published and viewed anonymously and it is shared by multiple nodes there is no main server to firewall or disconnect. Miners that act as seeders to the content and mantain the blockchain do not have access to the information on which content is being seeded, therefore it is unfeasible to censor a specific piece of media.

Decent has its own blockchain that is mantained through a proof of custody system in which miners or "publisherminers" have to prove they are in possession of an encrypted (published content) file using zero knowledge proofs. Decent's native value token is DCT and it is used to view or publish content. No fee or percentage is taken from the content creator or viewer by the DECENT platform, which is completely free to use, this means that content creators will get 100% of all proceeds created through the Decent Platform and that users will pay no fees or subscriptions to view or use the content.

DECENT PLATFORM

The blockchain is maintained by minersit with the content consumer's public that are also considered as "publishers"key. The content consumer can then within the Decent dapp context. Thedecrypt and reassemble the decryptio content that is created by the authorskey, which in turn will decrypt the fil is encrypted, and the encryption keydownloaded via BitTorrent protocol. is then split, encrypted using theThe DCT paid by the consumer is then publisher's (miners) public key, and sent to the author, minus a fee that is sent to those publishers, that act aspaid to the publishers. seeders that are ready to store content of a given size and to make the file available for download even though they have no knowledge of the file content. When the content is published, all the information about it such as title, description, price, list of publishers, etc. is recorded on the blockchain through a content-submit transaction. The transaction fee required to publish content is paid by The Decent project will be developed the author and it is used to reward maintained and promoted by th miners (like Bitcoin transaction fees)Decent Foundation, which is a nonand to prevent spam. profit entity that is also in charge of handling the DCT kept for bounties A content consumer can then buy theand marketing, while the ICO or content he/she wishes to view and Software sale itself will be organize make a request-to-buy transaction thatby the DECENT Services, a non-profit will lock the value of the respectiveorganization in charge of initia content price. When the Publisher thatoperations. is hosting the specific content viewsDuring the Sofware SaleDCT tokens this transaction on the blockchain, hewill be made available to investors a decrypts his share of the encryptiondescribed in the DECENT sale page key with his private key and encryptsthese tokens, while pegged to the

35

DECENT PLATFORM

cBitcoin price during the ICO, can be as Coiniran, 8btc, BitRush, Webglobe, n purchased with both Bitcoin or Ether.Hideez, Bitalo, Forklog, NewsBTC, onThe DCT total supply will, in this caseCryptoCurrency Magazine, Blockchain lebe determined by the amount of BTCNews, Bitcoin News, ICO Countdown. . and ETH received during the ICO, Decent team is putting a great amount nsince DCT is exchanged or sold for of effort into the divulgation and sBTC at fixed exchange rate, and there marketing of the Decent Network is no limit for the ICO investments, attending several conferences and the total supply will increase aspresentations including the most recent investments are received. The China Tour that included several premined tokens will constitute 70%presentations across Shanghai. of the DCT total supply in which bounty, marketing and investment Users can learn more about Decent by funds are also included, along with aengaging with the community through 10% portion (out of the tokens sold the desginated communication during the ICO) that will be kept by channels like Slack and Telegram. In the Decent Foundation. The order to stay updated you can follow remaining 30% of the total supply Decent onsocial media and subscribe d,will be mineable over time. Clickhere to the newsletter. efor more ICO details. f After the ICO, The Decent Core, s which is written in C++ and currently r in alpha stage will be developed and dfinished. The Decent Platform launch t itself is set for Q1 – Q2 / 2017, as l well as DCT trading on multiple exchanges. Click here to see the Decent Roadmap. as e, Over time, Decent has made a number eof significantmedia partnershipssuch

WAVES Q&A

37

WAVES Q&A

Core Radio Interview with Sasha Ivanov of the Waves Platform: Angelo: “Sasha is an “idol” in the crypto universe. He’s an inspirational leader with a great business mentality. In my opinion, Sasha is an investor’s dream because he doesn’t say “hocus-pocus”; …he gets things done. He focuses on one technology, and he makes it work. I believe this is what you’re trying to do, right Sasha?”

Sasha: “Thank you Angelo, for having me here on your great show, and thank you for the kind words. I hope you are right. That is the way I intend to proceed. I like to be focused on real word use cases and real world applications – try to realize what can be done now and not wait for some development… or fancy smart contracts. I want to disrupt existing business practices, right now. So, we are focusing on value transfer and crowd funding with waves. Some alternative to existing venture ecosystem where you would go to a venture fund and ask for money with money. For Blockchain projects, it is pretty hard to raise money in Silicon Valley. There was some hype there recently but, it’s sort of over now…

WAVES Q&A

Angelo: “You’re speaking about to the USD currency. Will there be crowd-funding. Is this one of the mainseparate tokens for the other features (of Waves Platform) that will currencies?” roll out soon?”

Sasha: “Yes it will be done the same Sasha: “Absolutely. So because it is a way more or less as Ripple did it. So, general platform, it isn’t so focused on you have gateways that will maintain one application. It will be similar tothe token; they make sure the token Ethereum eventually, in that it can do is backed to USD, for example. They basically anything. So in the beginning,sell the token for $1.00, and they buy we will start with certain areas likeit back for, probably, $0.99 so that value transfer, fiat transfer, and crowd-they can make money via market funding. So for that we will be making… They will buy it back launching fiat tokens with payment cheaper. So that’s where their profit systems soon. You will be able to come from. It isn’t like in Bitshares transfer USD or Euro (among others) where you have pegged assets. (For on Waves Blockchain and use these the pegged assets) There is a dynami tokens to invest in projects. So as youmechanism that tries to make sure tha know all the ICO’s (initial coin the value of the token remains pegged offerings) were done with Bitcoin, you This is quite complicated and many could only raise Bitcoin. We hope to projects that (go this route) have issues enable people to raise dollars, to raiseIt is done by running scripts; bots buy fiat currency on the blockchain. This and sell on an exchange (in an attempt could be better for more mainstreamto) maintain the peg. It can just brea start-ups because not everyone wantsdown. It is better to allow traditiona to be with Bitcoin. You just go to payment systems to use the blockchain Waves, you issue a token, you as the transaction layer. So they jus announce a crowdsale, and you raisehave their normal USD, and they outsource their infrastructure t dollars, Euro, or whatever.” blockchain. So potentially, you could Angelo: “So the token will be pegged have PayPal on blockchain. You could transfer your PayPal dollars on

39

WAVES Q&A

e blockchain too. Of course, it may not many things with custom tokens; r happen, or may happen in 20 years, crowd funding, value transfer, loyalty but it technically is possible. So weprograms… tons of applications. The want to have partners with financialcrypto-currency community was e licenses who will maintain these fiatfocused on Ethereum, they have , tokens. You can buy it from them, another structure (for custom tokens) n transfer to other users, or use thembut it cannot cover everything. Their nfor crowd-funding to support approach is cool, but it has some issues. y projects.”

I think a simpler approach just lies in y the shadows. That system, when you t Angelo: “So a big problem with can just create your custom token, and t crowdfunds is that they’re for example, sell it at a crowd sale, k centralized. Waves’ method will should be created. As of now, it is sdecentralize blockchain, correct?” difficult for a normal user to do s Sasha: “Absolutely. We will have a something like that. It’s hard to create r separate blockchain. We are trying to your own blockchain token. There are iccreate a system that is secure, andsome products, on Bitcoin, like Colu atproduction ready and that will notthat works on the Bitcoin blockchain d.have issues with forks. It is a but it has its issues. If lightning network ydecentralized, proper crypto currency,works, it could change things, but for s.and it will have ‘fancy stuff ‘that other now, it’s not really usable. So you have ycryptos have like smart contracts.to have an accessible platform for t Those features will come later. Fornormal users to create and transfer their know, we are focused on custom blockchain tokens. Bitshares tried to altokens. So we want to offer the do that, but they had their issues. nopportunity to create and transferThey’ve focused on too many things stcustom blockchain tokens. This is at once.” y what NXT was trying to do. It was Angelo: “You mention assets; there’s toquite successful, I think. They hadgoing to be an asset system (on d some issue, but the approach was nice.Waves Platform) similar to NXT’s, The amount of use cases for customright?” n tokens is immense. You can do so Sasha: “Yes. You can call them

WAVES Q&A

issues. They’ve focused on too many probably happen again in the future things at once.”

Sooner or later, we need to offer people another way to deal with cryptoAngelo: “You mention assets; there’s currency trading. There can be a going to be an asset system (on Waves decentralized platform on the Platform) similar to NXT’s, right?” blockchain, but they are slow, and there will always be speculators who Sasha: “Yes. You can call them custom will trade on centralized platforms tokens, or you can call them assets.They need to do high frequency They are two different names for the trading, and cannot wait minutes fo same thing. We are going to have a orders to be executed. We have to decentralized exchange.

The combine the best of both worlds. We difference (between NXT need to combine centralized matching decentralized exchange and Waves where orders are matched instantly Platform decentralized exchange) willwith decentralized settlement, wher be the following; we want to have the user will not need to give thei centralized order matching. When you funds to the exchange. Users keep thei go to Bittrex or Poloniex and you funds. All settlement is done on the deposit funds, you can trade veryblockchain, and order matching will quickly. It’s not like trading on NXT be centralized. I think this is the way blockchain when you need to wait 1 to go for crypto currency exchanges, minute for your order is executed. It and maybe in the future, for al will be just like trading on a normalexchanges. The exchanges don’t hold exchange where the orders are users’ funds; the user has their fund matched with a central server. at all times. It will be the best of th However, we are going to have order centralized world; blazingly fast high settlement on the blockchain. The frequency trading, as per usual. We centralized server will not hold any want to realize this vision, and it is funds from users, so you don’t risktechnically doable. You have to figure your money. There have been so many out how to do the settlement, because hacks recently as we all know. The there are issues with attacks that nee Bitfinex hack was very big, and will to be taken care of. For instance, maybe

41

WAVES Q&A

e.one of the trade participants doesn’tinvolvement with CoinoUSD?” e want to confirm the matched order.

- There are some ways to mitigate that. Sasha: “That was one of the first a We have that figured out almost attempts to create a fiat token on the ecompletely, and we are writing codeblockchain. We started around the d now. So, we will have some test same time that BitUSD was created. osystem within a month.”

So that was one of the first attempts s. to do that, on the NXT blockchain, but y Angelo: “Can you give a real world NXT blockchain has its problems. orexample of how a company could They’re actually more or less restarting o utilize Waves?” it with Ardor. I wish them all the best e of course, but it’s pretty complicated g,Sasha: (Speaking about ‘Incent’, a to have fiat tokens on NXT blockchain ycompany that plans to use Waves in its current state. So, CoinoUSD will ePlatform to issue loyalty tokens) be moved to Waves blockchain as soon ir“Their company wants to realize theiras we have tokens. Now, why do I think rloyalty program on Waves. Web shops it’s important to have fiat tokens on ethat participate in the program willblockchain? It makes you understand l use ‘Incent’ tokens that will run onthat blockchain is just a technology. yWaves to incentivize buyers. They will You can have a normal payment system , be giving the tokens away when a realized on blockchain, and its llcustomer buys a product. The loyaltyinteresting for settlement systems. d token is distributed to buyers from theThey do not need to have infrastructure; dsweb shop. There is also another they just outsource the infrastructure eproject in Australia.” to blockchain. Then they just need to h Angelo: “I understand you have lots do KYC (Know Your Customer) AML e of experience in creating these trading(Anti Money Laundering). I think this splatforms. You created CoinoUSD is the way to go for payment systems e and that was 3 years ago. You created in the future.” ethe first concept for what eventually Angelo: “KYC AML is regulatory, dbecame Shapeshift, Coinomat. It was correct? Everything will be legitimate every successful. What was your on Waves Platform then?”

WAVES Q&A

settlement systems. They do not need to have infrastructure; they just outsourc the infrastructure to blockchain. Then they just need to do KYC (Know Your Customer) AML (Anti Money Laundering). I think this is the way to go for payment systems in the future.”

Angelo: “KYC AML is regulatory, correct? Everything will be legitimate on Waves Platform then?”

Sasha: “Absolutely.”

43

ce r r

n

WAVES Q&A

INCENT, WAVES AND THE REWARDS

Incent Launching on the Waves The reality? Not many of them work Platform nearly as well as they should, and some even end up costing businesses money Customers don’t spend a large proportion of their rewards – a look in your own wallet will probably confirm that – and merchants don’ receive the benefits of repeat custom Moreover, there is some risky maths involved. Every time a reward is issued it represents a liability to the merchant The loyalty and rewards sector is If too many customers redeem thei broken. Blockchain has a lot to offer rewards without buying anything else in fixing it. That’s just what BitScanprofitability will be hit. So the scheme will do with the Incent programme,are, bizarrely, predicated on a large launching on the Waves platform later proportion rewards not being redeemed. this year.

Transferability Loyalty programmes are popular. From Frequent Flyer miles to Starbucks These loyalty points are almost alway points, the principle is simple: givenon-transferable by design. One customers a token that can be spent atreason is that if you can transfer tokens your store or business, and they willthey become more valuable to keep coming back. It’s an idea put into customers – and a greater liability to practice not just by the big global merchants. Imagine if you could send brands who can afford smartphoneall your unwanted loyalty points to a apps and credit card-style loyalty cardsfriend, who would then spend them. but by hundreds of thousands of smallThat’s a problem for businesses who outlets who run schemes with paperwant to incentivise repeat custom, bu on their own terms. cards and stamps.

45

INCENT, WAVES AND THE REWARDS a token truly transferable, different profit margins. They can also

Make k though – say, by using a popular configure what discount they offer for eblockchain platform – and you customers to pay with Incent. So a y.dramatically change the economics ofcustomer might pay $100 and receive e the situation. Imagine the Starbucks$5 worth of Incent at current market k ‘Star’ token was as transferable as a prices – which could be worth $6 at y crypto coin. Now you open up the merchant’s own store. BitScan acts ’tsecondary markets as the tokens tradeas primary broker, with merchants m.on exchanges. Starbucks will redeempaying a slice of the transaction to s15 tokens for a cup of coffee, so it’s them, and BitScan sending the d reasonable to expect one Star toappropriate amount of Incent to the t.approximate a 15th of the price of a customer’s smartphone app. Of course, ircoffee, with some small discount. Aif customers want to send their Incent e,Star token is now not a token similar to someone else, or trade it on an esto a casino chip: it is a form of parallel exchange (including on Waves itself, emoney. It has real value. against many different national g currencies) they can, reacquiring the BitScan and Incent cash value.

Crypto business hub BitScan is launching a scheme like this, using It’s not hard to see the value of this ysthe Waves platform due to its highly proposition. The more merchants sign e flexible approach to token issuance up for the scheme, the greater buy s,and trading. Whilst the Starbuckspressure there is (some proportion of o example above is a basic illustration,tokens will always be bought off the oIncent will be a more sophisticatedopen market, with some being newlyd approach. issued). Thus the price of Incent should a gently and steadily rise over time – m. Participating merchants will be ablebenefiting merchants, customers and o to configure what proportion of thethe initial investors who will fund the uttransaction they divert back to thefinal stages of development and customer as Incent. This is importantmarketing. And remember, Incent is because different businesses havenot a token that can only be traded

INCENT, WAVES AND THE REWARDS bought off the open market, with some being newly-issued). Thus the pric

of Incent should gently and steadily rise over time – benefiting merchant customers and the initial investors who will fund the final stages of developme and marketing. And remember, Incent is not a token that can only be trade with one business. As such, it has value and so there is no forward liabili to merchants who issue it. Everyone wins.

Development and marketing It’s a great pitch for those who recognise the power of blockchain technolog for transforming the rewards sector. But a good pitch isn’t enough any mor There have been too many crypto projects that got stuck in development, o turned out to be vapour.

BitScan has spent months developing some remarkable software that allow merchants to configure the terms of how they issue and redeem Incent (se screenshots). The proof-of-concept is already up and running. The crowdfun scheduled for October, will raise the money required to bring it to mark and integrate it into merchant systems.

47

ce ts, ent ed ity

INCENT, WAVES AND THE REWARDS

gy e. or On which subject: there has already been significant interest from businesses ws in the UK and Australia. At present at least one business ($4 million annual ee turnover) has signed up on the grounds that they recognise the potential for nd, growing their business, with two others seriously considering their involvement. ket That means being able to hit the ground running with few delays.

The Incent ICO is scheduled for October(pre-ICO early bird discount in September), with the first businesses going live with the scheme in the new year. For more information, keep an eye onhttp://bitscan.com/articlesand the Waves Slack.

core View CORE's End of the Month Report HERE

core asset CORE is an asset listed on the NXT Asset Exchange. We generate revenue from multiple investments as well as "dynamic revenue" streams. CORE is a big believer in the WAVES, NXT blockchain and SuperNET. SuperNET is difficult to define, however, in its simplest form it is a web of services centered around decentralized cryptocurrencies. CORE is also backed by gold, silver, USD and BTC while also investing in technologies which we believe are beneficial to humankind as a whole.

July CORE Dividend: Distribution of 2.25 superBTC and 8377.3 NXT to 112 assetholders. 0.00000268 superBTC and 0.0099 NXT per asset.

CORE ID: 18026565504333172181

core media asset www.coremedia.info CORE Media is an initiative that will give legitimate assets built on innovative platforms a megaphone to pitch their ideas to the world. CORE Media also has a range of writers dedicated to bringing the most up to date blockchain and asset news from across the globe, good or bad. As the internet is riddled with scams, CORE Media aims to praise legitimate assets and to shame scam assets. Along with our website, we have also issued a CORE Media asset on the NXT blockchain. Content that is created for the website will be paid for by this asset which creates another opportunity to bring returns for asset holders on a monthly basis. The CORE Team intends to create a vast network of media contacts inside and outside of crypto, acting as a bridge between the two worlds.

CORE Media ID: 1584198250936051677

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