Blocktrak

People often wonder how Cryptocurrencies can be used. The answer to that problem is in Crypto debit cards. They will allow Crypto users to buy whatever they want, wherever they want using a chip linked to their Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash, or other choice Crypto. Perhaps in the near future we may end up seeing mass adoption with these. One of the major players in the Crypto card business is TenX. On their website you will see an example of a young man purchasing a coffee at Starbucks using his TenX pay card and the simplicity of it. Initially launched in June 2017, this brand of Crypto payment cards has grown to a market cap of nearly $444 Million dollars. Clearly, investors believe in the potential of TenX.

“At TenX we work on making any blockchain asset spendable instantly. When we as the co-founders of TenX got together to start this company, it was our vision to have assets on the blockchain be not only available to industry insiders, but rather something that can be used by any individual user in the “real world”. 

Currently TenX is still working on their partnerships and continuing to develop and I see this as being a more widespread mass adoption card. The team behind it is lead by CEO Toby Hoenisch and investors include Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum Blockchain platform.

“Number one, cash is king…number two, communicate…number three, buy or bury the competition -Jack Welch

 

If you think TenX was going to be the only player in town, you were wrong. Monaco, is calling itself the world’s best cryptocurrency card. They claim to have perfect interbank exchange rates without markups or fees. This creates an incredible convenience for international travelers. Currently Monaco is working on Ethereum & ERC20 friendly currencies to be used with it. The market cap is $196 Million as of August 30th 2017.

Could This Be a Game Changer for Cryptocurrency?

The idea of Cryptocurrency cards is highly disruptive. It will allow anyone to spend these currencies simply by integrating what is known as COMIT or Cryptographically-secure off-chain Multi-asset instant transaction network. It will be interesting to see what will happen to these projects and others like it in the coming years ahead.

All the discussion in Fintech these days seems to be surrounding Cryptocurrency. However there are Blockchain projects more akin to Social Media than any sort of currency, and they do pay. Steem classifies itself as an incentivized, blockchain-based social media platform and was launched in March 2016 by Blockchain developer Dan Larimer and his team. According to their White Paper:

“Steem is a blockchain database that supports community building and social interaction with cryptocurrency rewards Steem combines concepts from social media with lessons learned from building cryptocurrencies and their communities. An important key to inspiring participation in any community currency or free market economy is a fair accounting system that consistently reflects each person’s contribution. Steem is the first cryptocurrency that attemps to accurately and transparently reward and unbounded number of individuals who make subjective contributions to the community.”

Market Cap as of August 23rd 2017: $305,577,005

Blockchain has not just spawned digital currencies but just about any other real world uses such as Blogging. Steem users are rewarded by others for posting content that is valuable. Popular articles are up-voted and users earn Steem dollars. You earn money by posting and voting good content. As the market cap and user base continues to grow, it seems that Steem has incredible potential and should be considered one of the most valuable projects in Blockchain world.

Social Media Transitioning to the Blockchain

As we continue into this new age of Blockchain technology we discover connections between the past and present. It’s the evolution of human discovery and of doing things differently. We have seen similar ideas such as Library Credits taking a position to become a decentralized YouTube. This is indeed revolutionary and will empower more peer to peer networks. We can only expect this trend to continue.

 

 

In the vast Blockchain ecosystem there are thousands of Tokens or Coins. Behind many of these are ambitious projects forming around the idea of Decentralization. One of these is “District0x” and it aims to be a sort of Decentralized Craigslist. The difference is that people will vote for a District’s existence, instead of being forced what Districts to visit. This is what Decentralization projects are all about. According to their own White Paper:

“Districts exist as decentralized autonomous organizations on the District0x. Network, built upon a standard open source framework comprised of Ethereum smart contracts and front-end libraries, hereafter referred to as d0xINFRA. d0xINFRA provides districts with the core functionalities required to operate an online market or community. Namely, the ability for users to post listings, filter and search through listings, rank peers and amass reputation, and send invoices and collect payments. The d0xINFRA framework is designed to be open an extendable, allowing districts to be customized and granted additional functionality through the use of auxiliary modules.” 

Blockchain Projects for the People

Currently, anyone can vote for a District here. This is a clear sign that this is not just conceptual but a work in progress. It also shows us what District0x aims to become. As of now there are 3 Districts in the works. Ethlance, Name Bazaar, and Meme Factory.

Future Potential

I see this project as being an evolution of the Social Media age, in the sense that the users will have potential to gain more influence and lower the barriers of entry that currently exist. All new things and ideas are subject to ridicule especially in the vast Cryptocurrency world. Here we see clear evidence of a work in progress. District0x will certainly be one of the key players in the future of the Blockchain network.

 

 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology has setup its own digital currency department and in my view this is a harbinger of the coming importance of this new worldwide ecosystem. Here is what MIT says:

“The Digital Currency Initiative is a group at MIT focusing on cryptocurrency and its underlying technologies. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin enable open, trustless digital payments and contracts. In the spirit of the Internet’s wide reach, this technology, and the people behind it, have the potential to impact billions of people and become a crucial part of daily life. We seek to push the envelope on the development of this technology with fundamental research, while shedding light on the associated benefits, risks, and ethical quandaries. Beyond research centered at MIT, we also help support open-source cryptocurrency communities and diversity, and hope to foster broader academic community in this space.”

Use Cases

Blockchain will enable a radical change in how things are currently done on the internet, that ultimately means decentralizing what is currently available. According to MIT, these fields include healthcare and medical records, global rights management, decentralized publishing, user controlled credit identities, digital currency at central banks, securitized financing for solar microgrids. What they did not mention are real estate, law, online gaming, travel, crowd funding, e-commerce, and just about every other niche that could be decentralized. This is clearly a revolutionary new technology that has been created since Satoshi Nakamoto’s original white paper in 2008. You can read the original white paper here.

The 4th Industrial Revolution

It has been said that we are in the 4th industrial revolution. With the inception of Bitcoin, there has been an explosion of competing ideas on different platforms written in different coding language. There are well over 1,000 ideas and many of these are just that-conceptual. Some of these are actively used such as Bitcoin and Etherium. The space is not stranger to jokes & scams as many of these so called “currencies” have ridiculous use cases but have managed to raise significant amounts of money in a very short period of time. This has led to suspicion by many who are new to the space and rightfully so, but we cannot deny the technology behind some of these projects.