What is LCX (LCX)?

LCX, the Liechtenstein Cryptoassets Exchange, is a blockchain ecosystem for professional investors. LCX will provide crypto custody service called LCX Vault, a crypto trading desk called LCX Terminal, an advanced trading platform for security tokens and other cryptoassets called LCX Exchange, and an international fiat-to-crypto exchange called Binance LCX, which is a joint venture with Binance.

B. Industry

Cryptoassets exchanges are classified into two catagories: centralized exchanges and decentralized exchanges. According to the data from CoinMarketCap on September, there are only 18 decentralized exchanges among top 200. Comparing to other centralized exchanges, the specialty about LCX is that they will offer trading between Swiss Francs (CHF) and Euros (EUR) against major cryptocurrencies pairs. According to the H1 crypto exchange report by Blockdata, there are 177 effective exchanges by the end of April 2018. Among 177 exchanges, there are not many of them provide international fiat-to-crypto exchange. Bitfinex, Coinbase Pro, Bitstamp and Kraken are the big exchanges that offer trading between Euros against major cryptocurrencies pairs. There is no exchange offer trading between Swiss Francs against major cryptocurrencies pairs right now. It is because there are only two countries use Swiss Francs, which are Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Switzerland does not have an exchange offer trading between Swiss Francs so far.

Liechtenstein and Switzerland are members of the European Economic Area, but not the European Union. So, the advantage being that financial services based there, including those working on cryptocurrencies and blockchain, can skirt some of the most onerous EU regulations while still trading across the continent because of financial ‘passporting’ rules. It’s part of the reason why Liechtenstein’s banks are still handling crypto investments on behalf of their clients, and even offering advice on initial coin offerings, while the rest of Europe’s financial sector has shied away from digital currencies. Crown Prince Alois even implied that his royal family could soon use blockchain to manage the day-to-day administration of their monarchy, and he’s made mention of diversifying his family’s assets into digital tokens.

Although crypto exchange is a very competitive market, there is not many direct competitors to LCX. With the help of Binance, LCX has a potential to be successful in Europe. (7.5/10)

C. Mode

LCX, the Liechtenstein Cryptoassets Exchange, is a blockchain ecosystem for professional investors. LCX will provide crypto custody service called LCX Vault, a crypto trading desk called LCX Terminal, an advanced trading platform for security tokens and other cryptoassets called LCX Exchange, and an international fiat-to-crypto exchange called Binance LCX, which is a joint venture with Binance.

· LCX Exchange: LCX Exchange is a stable, scalable, and secure professional trading platform for utility and security tokens. LCX is designed to satisfy the strict requirements of institutional investors: custody, compliance, stability, transparency and auditability.

The LCX Trading Platform will be built on scalable infrastructure, matching engine and a secure backend infrastructure. It will incorporate the LCX custody solution, analytical tools and a variety of reporting capabilities. The trading interface will be available in English, German and Chinese simplified. Additional languages will be rolled-out over time. The LCX Trading Platform will be rolled out in several phases, first listing a variety of cryptoassets and at a later point of time listing security tokens. The listing of security tokens is in accordance to the international Financial Market regulations and will be launched after final approvals.

· LCX Terminal: The LCX Terminal is an advanced crypto assets autotrading, portfolio management and analytics platform with API integration of major exchanges.

· LCX Vault: An institutional-grade crypto asset vault using dedicated hardware security modules that support multi-signature authorization. LCX will offer custodian storage of cryptocurrencies for financial institutions, corporations, asset and wealth managers, family offices and HNW investors. The LCX Vault bridges the gap between hot wallets and cold storage. LCX will closely work with market leaders in secure hardware for storing crypto assets and implement their custodial solutions. The LCX Vault will provide clients with an end-to-end security solution and operational service, while allowing clients to maintain control of their private keys at all times. LCX’s advanced crypto wallets will be based on certified Hardware Security Module (HSM) technology. The hardware security modules will secure the private keys and manage the multi-authorization process.

· Binance LCX: Binance LCX is a joint venture between Binance and LCX, that will launch a fiat-to-crypto exchange in Liechtenstein. The experienced team at Binance will provide and maintain the technology platform, while Binance LCX manages customer support, legal requirements, due diligence, KYC, AML and government communication. Binance LCX plans to build up a team of 10–15 people for its Liechtenstein office and will immediately start the hiring process. The exchange will offer trading between Swiss Francs (CHF) and Euros (EUR) against major cryptocurrencies pairs, and add more trading pairs overtime subject to regulatory approval.

According to the telegram, there will also be $LCX, the utility token of the LCX ecosystem. Comparing to other exchanges, LCX provides more comprehensive service to investors, for both individuals and institutions. As a centralized exchange, LCX will face some trust issues in the future. Comparing to decentralized exchanges, centralized exchanges are more likely to be attacked by hackers. Moreover, since transaction data will not be on-chain, funds in exchanges are more likely to be embezzled (7.5/10)

D. Technology

LCX is a centralized exchange with its own platform’s cryptocurrency, just like Binance. As it was mentioned above, the experienced team at Binance will provide and maintain the exchange. Although LCX is not open source, people do not have to worry about the trading performance and security of LCX.(7/10)

E. Operation

Telegram — 2699 members, admins are always online to answer. Most people are asking if there will be ICO or fundraising; Twitter — joined twitter on February 2018, 96 tweets and 2249 followers; Facebook — 48 followers; LCX is a recent project, so it is understandable that they do not have many followers.(6/10)

F. Team

There are no members listed on their official website. But according to the LinkedIn, there are 5 members listed. Monty Metzger is the CEO of LCX. He is a serial entrepreneur that graduated from Harvard Business School. According to the LinkedIn, the size of the companies he had created is quite small which implies that his past experience is not that successful. Yeshu Agarwal, the CTO of LCX, is founder of Coinally.io. Coinally.io is the cryptocurrency auto trading & portfolio management platform featuring API import support for most major cryptocurrency exchanges such as Bittrex, Poloniex, Binance, Coinbase, Bitfinex, GDAX, Kraken, and Liqui. The rest of the team members is on marketing and community end. According to their job posting, they are currently hiring developers in New Delhi, which we can conclude that they will build up a technical team in India. The CTO is Indian as well. Like it was mentioned above, the experienced team at Binance will provide and maintain the technology platform, while Binance LCX manages customer support, legal requirements, due diligence, KYC, AML and government communication. So, with the help of Binance and an experienced CTO, the technology of LCX is guaranteed.

On advisory end, they have some big names. They have Don Tapscott, the author of “The Blockchain Revolution”, Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, and Prof. Dr. Shoucheng Zhang, the Founding Chairman of Danhua Capital. LCX has a quite luxuries lineup. (8/10)

G. Conclusion

LCX will highly likely to be the first crypto exchange in Liechtenstein. LCX intends to obtain a MIFID II license in accordance with the Liechtenstein Banking Act and further licenses under the Blockchain Act. While conducting its business LCX will take all required efforts to comply with existing Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations applicable in the regulated financial market. With the technical support of Binance, as long as LCX can operate lawfully, they are very likely to be successful in Europe.

Which products support LCX? 

 Send/ReceiveTrading
Coinbase           ✔      ✔
Pro           ✔      ✔
Wallet           ✔     ✖️

What regions support LCX? 

 USNYCANEUUKDESGJP
Coinbase   ✖️  ✔ ✔ ✔ ✖️✖️✖️
Pro   ✔✖️   ✔ ✔ ✔ ✖️✖️✖️
Wallet ✔ ✔   ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔✖️


Crypto to fiat trading pairs

 USUKEU
USD  ✔ ✖️✖️
GBP ✖️ ✖️✖️
EUR ✖️  ✔ ✔

Note: Coinbase Wallet does not support direct bank transactions. You’ll need to transfer your crypto to Coinbase.com or send it to an external address in order to cash out.


Crypto to crypto trading pairs 

  USDCBTC
ETHUSDT
LCX    ✖️  ✖️
 ✖️   ✔

See the full list of countries that Coinbase supports for crypto-to-crypto trading.

Note: Only assets hosted on the Ethereum blockchain can be converted through the Coinbase Wallet mobile app at this time. Learn more about trading on Coinbase Wallet.

How many confirmations are needed for LCX?

LCX requires 35 network confirmations. Learn about transaction confirmations.

Which blockchain network hosts LCX?

LCX is hosted on Ethereum. 

What are the minimum and maximum withdrawal amounts?

Coinbase has implemented safeguards to ensure a healthy and efficient network both on-chain and through our platform.  

These safeguards include both minimum and maximum amounts for each cryptocurrency we allow customers to send through the blockchain.

Minimum: 0.000000000000000001 LCX

Maximum: 180,000 LCX

By EVALUAPE and Coinbase

Published
Categorized as Hot Crypto

What is OriginTrail (TRAC)?

  • OriginTrail is a neutral Web3 protocol enabling trusted data sharing between companies, organizations, and blockchains. End-to-end information is shared and secured in a fully decentralized knowledge graph network, monitored with AI and oracles. Connecting and searching vast amounts of linked data between organizations (such as in supply chains) in a verified way has not previously been possible.
  • At the core of OriginTrail is a decentralized network of nodes that share or hold data for a specific length of time. The TRAC token is the glue between all entities and is used as both a collateral (to keep data holders/creators honest and data immutable) and a payment (to compensate data holders for their time and resources). Sensitive data can be set to expire and is protected using zero-knowledge methods in a privacy-by-design approach. TRAC is integral to utilizing the protocol and is used in at least 6 different ways.
  • OriginTrail/TRAC is used by Home Depot, Walmart, Target, & the US Department of Homeland Security for factory audit verification.
  • Team recently backed by Coinbase/Twitter VC Greg Kidd and internet pioneer Bob Metcalfe (Metcalfe’s Law of network effects).
  • Adoption is catalyzed by building on globally recognized standards for sharing information and data. Together with GS1 (the global bar code registration body), they are developing the next generation EPCIS/CBV 2.0 supply chain standard.
  • Multi-chain technology strategy by connecting to Ethereum, Polygon, xDai and [soon] Polkadot. OriginTrail complements other blockchain projects and does not compete.

Which products support TRAC? 

 Send/ReceiveTrading
Coinbase          ✔      ✔
Pro          ✔      ✔
Wallet          ✔     ✖️

What regions support TRAC? 

 USNYCANEUUKDESGJP
Coinbase    ✔   ✔ ✔ ✔✖️✖️✖️
Pro   ✔   ✔ ✔ ✔✖️✖️✖️
Wallet ✔   ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔✖️

Crypto to fiat trading pairs

 USUKEU
USD  ✔ ✖️ ✖️
GBP ✖️ ✖️ ✖️
EUR ✖️  ✔  ✔

Note: Coinbase Wallet does not support direct bank transactions. You’ll need to transfer your crypto to Coinbase.com or send it to an external address in order to cash out.

Crypto to crypto trading pairs 

  USDCBTC
ETHUSDT
TRAC   ✖️  ✖️
 ✖️    ✔

See the full list of countries that Coinbase supports for crypto-to-crypto trading.

Note: Only assets hosted on the Ethereum blockchain can be converted through the Coinbase Wallet mobile app at this time. Learn more about trading on Coinbase Wallet.

How many confirmations are needed for TRAC?

TRAC requires 35 network confirmation. Learn about transaction confirmations.

Which blockchain network hosts TRAC?

TRAC is hosted on Ethereum. 

What are the minimum and maximum withdrawal amounts?

Coinbase has implemented safeguards to ensure a healthy and efficient network both on-chain and through our platform.  

These safeguards include both minimum and maximum amounts for each cryptocurrency we allow customers to send through the blockchain.

Minimum: 0.000000000000000001 TRAC

Maximum: 284,091 TRAC

A 20 Minute Overview of OriginTrail

In This Article…

The OriginTrail Decentralized Network (ODN)

OriginTrail is a neutral, open-source protocol enabling data sharing between companies and organizations. It utilizes decentralized nodes and an off-chain technology stack to interface with legacy systems as well as other blockchains (permissioned and permissionless). OriginTrail allows businesses to improve interoperability among systems and facilitate trusted data exchange.

Network Features

The ODN Mainnet has been operating since December 2018 with actual enterprise “data jobs” being posted by data creator nodes and stored by data holding nodes (continue reading for examples). The OriginTrail protocol and the ODN has been built from the ground up with four core features: 

  1. Interoperability and Data Integrity: OriginTrail has been built to take advantage of globally recognized GS1 and W3C standards. This allows for efficient alignment of data from multiple sources, including both legacy systems and newer blockchain-powered systems. This data could be anything: tracking and tracing data, Internet-of-Things (IoT) data, descriptive attributes, etc. Once data is aligned, consensus checks to verify datasets from different stakeholders can take place; additionally, auditing via compliance organizations can be authorized automatically. Due to the sensitive nature of many supply chain and business use cases, the ODN is designed to provide a “zero-knowledge” method to prove data validity.
  2. Data Immutability: A tamper-proof fingerprint (cryptographic hash) of the data is generated and placed on the a blockchain when first published to the ODN; this is then used to verify that data has not been modified in any way.
  3. Stability & Cost Efficiency: As the “heavy lifting” of interoperability and data integrity takes place off-chain, the OriginTrail graph database operates cheaply and efficiently. Its open-sourced nature enables easy deployment and does not “rip and replace” legacy systems as other blockchain-based supply chain solutions do.
  4. Network Incentivization via Token Staking: As detailed in the section below, the TRAC token is the means of compensation between data creators, data holders, and data consumers. It uses an innovative staking system to keep all parties honest; nodes are therefore incentivized for performing consensus checks and delivering data on demand.

With all of these factors in mind, the OriginTrail Decentralized Network overcomes a significant barrier to centralized blockchain solutions: keeping trust between all parties on the network.

At the core is a decentralized network of data providers, data creators, data holders, and data viewers:

Schematic of the interaction between network nodes, enterprise connections, and the blockchain layer

Data enters the OriginTrail Decentralized Network through a Data Creator node. This data source could be from any number of business functions, including existing ERPs, blockchains (permissioned and permissionless), etc. A cryptographic data hash of the data is first fingerprinted to a blockchain to ensure data immutability. This data is then passed (via a bidding process) to 3+ Data Holder nodes that agree to hold the data for the terms of a contract. Data holder nodes are essentially decentralized, interconnected servers and provide that data upon demand to relevant parties.

The data can be treated exactly how the data creator wants. Data creators can set the data to be public or private, have the data expire after a certain number of weeks/years, or have that data (or parts of data) shared only with appropriate parties. Sensitive data is protected using zero-knowledge methods in a privacy-by-design approach. These data holding nodes also function as a vast, decentralized knowledge graph to connect data sets across companies and/or supply chain partners quickly and efficiently. This core feature of the ODN is one of the major selling points for protocol adoption, as searching for inter-related data between partners has not been possible before. This writeup on the decentralized knowledge graph is highly recommended to learn more.

Data holding nodes were designed to be very decentralized. They are open to anyone with 3000+ TRAC, and if the data job meets your criteria (job length, data size, etc.) then your node could be randomly assigned the job. All data holding nodes are equal; having more TRAC per node only means you can accept additional jobs compared to others. There are currently 800+ data holding nodes as of May 2021.

The ERC-20 Trace Token (TRAC) is the glue between all entities and is used as both a collateral (to keep data holders honest and data immutable) and a payment (to compensate data holders for their time and resources). More information on TRAC utility and economics is in the following section.

For more information, there is also an official breakdown of network incentives and market forces.

Achieving consensus between two stakeholders

Blockchain Interactions

As the ODN is a middle-layer protocol, it has been designed to interact with a number of blockchains. While the data is kept off-chain on the ODN, the cryptographic hashes of the data are stored on a given blockchain. There are currently four blockchains supported, with a Polkadot expected after the blockchain goes live.

  • Ethereum: The Ethereum blockchain was the first supported blockchain supported by the ODN. An example of this can be seen here, which is the cryptographic data hash for this data job from the British Standards Organization. However, the rise in gas prices over 2020 caused data job prices to be almost prohibitively expensive. Other blockchains, such as layer-two solutions xDai and Polygon, enable much cheaper fees for data jobs.
  • HyperLedger Fabric: HyperLedger Fabric connections (in the form of smart contract integrations) was first achieved in late 2018. A recent example can be seen in this Oracle-developed usecase in the milk supply chain.
  • xDai: This L2 blockchain connection went live in March 2021. xDai was chosen due to the high maturity of the xDai ecosystem and production-grade/security audited bridges to Ethereum. It has been the workhorse blockchain for 2021.
  • Polygon: The connection to the Polygon L2 blockchain went live in August 2021 and jobs have been increasing in frequency.
  • Polkadot (via OriginTrail Parachain): The OriginTrail developers have stated they will be bidding for a Polkadot parachain slot soon after the network goes live. The OriginTrail Trace Alliance and Parity (Polkadot Developers) have had a partnership since September 2020 and OriginTrail co-founder Žiga Drev was selected as one of 6 project talks at the Mainstage of the 2021 Polkadot Decoded conference. Parity developers have also contributed to the OriginTrail Parachain codebase on Github, highlighting their collaboration.
    • Details on the exact timing/plan for parachain auction bidding have not been released as of October 2021.
    • Additional network utility is unlocked in the form of knowledge tools, where TRAC is used to transact knowledge from producers to consumers. It will be open to the entire Polkadot ecosystem. The developers have been working steadily towards this over several years, and the 2021 Expanded Roadmap suggests that this will expand TRAC utility by orders of magnitude. The roadmap is well worth reading for details.
Flow of data and TRAC tokens among ODN participants

A comprehensive overview of the technical side of the OriginTrail protocol can be found on the official OriginTrail website, the Whitepaper, and in the official documentation. The knowledge graph and privacy aspects can be read about in detail here. The Expanded 2021 Roadmap is well worth reading. There were also Technology office hours in July 2020 and September 2019. A Tech Discord exists for questions about node running.


TRAC Token Utility and Economics on the ODN

TRAC Facts

  • 500 million total. Non-inflationary, all pre-mined and distributed during ICO
  • Markets with liquidity: Coinbase, Kucoin, Uniswap, Bancor
  • Token Sale Complete: January 17, 2018
  • ICO price: $0.10 (0.00007968 ETH)
  • Contract Address: 0xaa7a9ca87d3694b5755f213b5d04094b8d0f0a6f (18 decimal)

The Trace token (TRAC) is the utility token that drives the entire ODN. It is a pre-mined, non-inflationary token, and only 500 million will ever exist. Fractions of TRAC (out to 18 decimal places) can and have been used on the network, so supply will never be an issue. This means that the price of a data job (which is paid for in company fiat currency) can be relatively stable as the price of TRAC rises due to utility and adoption. For example, a data job in 2020 could cost 50 TRAC for $2.00 (in fiat) while 3 years later could cost 0.5 TRAC for the same $2.00 rate. TRAC is an ERC-20 token and there are no plans to change blockchains.

Token Utility

TRAC is utilized on the OriginTrail Decentralized Network (ODN) in six ways, and the network (and its decentralized nature) cannot function without it. These mechanisms are:

1. Engaging in the OriginTrail Ecosystem. Data creators and data holders must have TRAC staked in their nodes to take part in the ODN. More TRAC staked in nodes means more data jobs can be published or held.

2. Publishing data to the ODN. Data creators publish data jobs on the ODN using TRAC to compensate 3+ data holding nodes for their time and resources. The exact value of TRAC for each data job is dependent on market forces, but parameters like job length and data size affect it. This TRAC is locked in a smart contract until the job’s completion.

3. Collateralization by Data Holders. To prevent data tampering and as a promise to hold data for a set period of time, TRAC from a data holder’s stake is also locked via smart contract for the length of the data job. Failure to provide data on-demand leads to loss of this staked TRAC to the data creator. Upon completion of the terms of the job, the data holder earns back their original stake AND the TRAC staked by the data creator.

Note that data holding node is not like a typical crypto “masternode.” They actively accept and provide data and are more akin to servers; most (all?) people run them on VPS providers due to the potential to lose TRAC staked (by failing to provide data if there is downtime). Some knowledge of a Linux environment is essential.

4. TRAC Usage as a Polkadot Native Token. As discussed above, OriginTrail will bid for a parachain slot on the Polkadot network. There will be a native token for use on Polkadot, which is like a “wrapped” form of TRAC. No new TRAC tokens are ever created, thus constricting the supply (i.e. the total number of Polkadot TRAC + ERC-20 TRAC = 500 million). A bridge will exist to allow easy movement between chains.

5. Staking TRAC. Individuals will soon be able to stake their TRAC on Version 6.0 of the ODN. Stakers will be able to get a share in the profits of the data job. This locks TRAC into the network for months and years, constricting supply. More information is coming soon.

6. Knowledge Incentivization. The final usecase for TRAC is through a data ecosystem that allows data creators to sell their data on the open market. For example, the recently announced EU-sponsored Food Safety Market aims to develop an industrial data platform for food certification in Europe by 2023. There are also Data Markets being built for both pharmaceuticals and satellite imagery; this has the potential to unlock valuable proprietary siloed data previously thought unsellable.

The OriginTrail Parachain super-charges these data marketplaces with the addition of knowledge tokens, knowledge wallets, the knowledge marketplace, and knowledge tenders. They allow individuals to buy and sell data in a trusted, private way; the developers say this will increase TRAC’s utility by orders of magnitude. Because this is tied into to the Polkadot ecosystem, all Polkadot/Kusama projects will be able to utilize this feature. Please see the 2021 Roadmap for a very in-depth look at this usecase.

The OriginTrail Knowledge Economy

Token Economics

Given the four components of TRAC utility described above, the price of a TRAC token should be well-correlated to the usage of the OriginTrail Decentralized Network. TRAC token scarcity (via utility) is subject to a “triple effect” as described in the 2019 OriginTrail Vision Paper:

“When the TRAC token economics and all of the above utilities are put into practice, they create a triple effect. When data gets published on ODN, the publisher creates a certain demand for TRAC that is used to compensate the nodes in the network for holding the published data. At the same time, the same demand gets created for TRAC that is put as collateral for that particular job. While that collateral gets locked, it effectively also lowers the entire available supply of TRAC, thus creating the third effect.”

One could easily argue there is a fourth effect, based on investors/speculators locking tokens away from the ODN. This further reduces supply and would positively impact TRAC price. A very comprehensive look at market forces and incentives of the network was also released by the team and is worth reading to understand more.

Upward price pressure on TRAC will happen in two ways (beside speculation/investment):

  • Token Lockup (by Staking, Nodes and Data Jobs). Token utility (discussed above) locks up a lot of TRAC in the network (per job) for months and years at a time. Reducing effective supply should positively impact price. The team stated in a September 2020 AMA that they expect to have 100k data jobs flowing over the network per day by 2023. Staking could lock up 20% of the total supply at the outset, reducing effective supply further.
  • Direct Exchange Integration. The developer-created Network Operating System (nOS) directly links existing enterprise software to the ODN. TRAC is automatically purchased with company fiat by directly market-buying TRAC on exchanges. This also solves the problem of mainstream companies needing to purchase and hold cryptocurrency. nOS is discussed in detail below.

Further, Alpha Sigma Capital, a prominent crypto venture capital fund, released an updated report in August 2021 that said TRAC is significantly undervalued, and should be priced at $3.53 based on their metrics. They expect more token price and team growth over the next 4 years. Alpha Sigma Capital confirmed they currently hold TRAC tokens.

Of the 500 million TRAC tokens, 358.6 million tokens have been distributed. Founder and team tokens (75 million total) were fully distributed by January 2020 according to the two-year vesting schedule.

The following table shows the current TRAC token distribution. As described in the 2020 Q1 Report, all of the TRAC available in the “soft lock” column will be used in the protocol development fund for future improvements (132.5 million total).

Updated distribution of TRAC tokens.

The following is a bit of speculation from a long time TRAC holder and node runner.

As discussed above, the token economics model is incredibly well thought through, with TRAC serving as a true utility token. Data job length varies, but node runners have seen job lengths as little as 3 minutes and as long as 5 years (average is 6 months). Each data job requires a lot of TRAC to be locked in the smart contract for the duration of the job: some from each data holding node for collateral and an equal amount from the data creator node to compensate each of the data holders. It will not take much to reduce the supply of TRAC dramatically, and there are numerous paths to enterprise adoption as outlined in the section below.

It is also interesting to note that when configuring any node parameters, the notation is always in micro-TRAC units (mTRAC); this suggests that “fractions of TRAC” data jobs were planned from the beginning and will be a common feature of the network. This would imply massive utility and enormous price potential.


Path to Enterprise Adoption

The OriginTrail Decentralized Network has been fully up and running since late 2018, and current job offers can be seen on the community-built network explorer, OT Hub. Since OriginTrail was developed as an open-sourced protocol for data sharing and supply chains, anyone can run nodes to create or hold data. The OriginTrail/TraceLabs team confirmed in the June 2020 Office Hours that there are jobs running on the ODN that even they do not know what they are. This shows that the network is being used as intended: a trustless, permissionless system to exchange data.

Nevertheless, there are a number of features and initiatives that will encourage adoption of the OriginTrail protocol: 

TraceLabs

TraceLabs is the for-profit entity started by the same team that developed OriginTrail and serves as the core developers of the protocol. They are catalyzing the adoption of the OriginTrail Decentralized Network by developing custom solutions for companies (some examples of which can be seen below). The TraceLabs team has venture capital backing and have consistently said they have ample funding to continue development. As of October 2021, there are 25 members on the TraceLabs team (not including contractors and advisors). Their website currently shows 12 open positions. TraceLabs has a goal of connecting 100,000+ organizations to the ODN by 2023, as shown in a recent conference presentation. In a September 2020 AMA, they stated they hope to have 10k-100k data jobs flowing over the network by 2023.

The team has a number of high profile advisors; these include Coinbase/Twitter venture capitalist Greg Kidd, Electronic Arts (EA) games knowledge graph strategist Aaron Bradley, and internet pioneer Bob Metcalfe.

Network Operating System (nOS)

The biggest catalyst for ODN adoption is the development of the TraceLabs-built Network Operating System (nOS). This is a custom software solution for businesses that directly connects the OriginTrail Decentralized Network to their legacy system and other permissionless and permissioned blockchains (including HyperLedger). It easily allows for existing ERP integrations, consensus checks for data discrepancies among partners, supply chain/track-and-trace applications, and data/sourcing provenance. TraceLabs estimates that nOS decreases implementation time and deployment costs by 10-fold. Demo pictures can be seen on the TraceLabs website.

nOS is already integrated into several legacy enterprise suites,including Oracle Cloud, Salesforce, SAP, and Microsoft Navision. This enables 10,000+ businesses ready access to nOS functionality with a single click.

Further, and perhaps most importantly for adoption, nOS enables the spending of credits purchased with company fiat to directly purchase TRAC via Uniswap and other exchanges; TRAC is only utilized in the background, is directly purchased when needed, and used in nodes immediately (see this writeup for details). As cryptocurrency never touches the company’s accounting books, it solves the problem of mainstream companies needing to purchase and hold cryptocurrency to use the protocol. Because of this consistent buying pressure, it should create upward pressure on TRAC price over time.

Oracle and TraceLabs have had a partnership since late 2018, and nOS has been listed on the Oracle Cloud Marketplace since early 2019. The Oracle partnership also brought increased support for Hyperledger integration. https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3NwYWNlX2NhcmQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib2ZmIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1070678005763190784&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Forigintrailexplained.info%2F&sessionId=3c62e9633a0472adabd02299ebae9da1a132894e&theme=light&widgetsVersion=f001879%3A1634581029404&width=550px

Open Standards (GS1 EPCIS/CBV and W3C integration)

The entire global supply chain runs on standards developed by the GS1 organization. Systems to identify, capture, and share information among supply chain partners (including the ubiquitous bar code), were all developed over the past 45 years by GS1. These standards allow for interoperability between different systems and supply chain architectures across the globe. Any blockchain-based solution to improve traceability should integrate with these legacy systems, and the OriginTrail protocol was designed from the ground up to do this.

The OriginTrail protocol fully supports the GS1 EPCIS 1.2 and CBV standards in the protocol data structure. This ensures full compliance and integration with legacy systems. In July 2020, TraceLabs confirmed that they joined the 54 company working group to develop the next generation EPCIS/CBV 2.0 standards, to be ratified soon. This puts OriginTrail in an incredible position to shape next-generation intelligent supply chain interactions.

In August 2020, TraceLabs announced an integration of the ODN and the upcoming GS1 Digital Link standard.

The OriginTrail protocol also supports the Web of Things (W3C) recommended standard. This will ensure wide compatibility with IoT devices and has already been utilized for a number of European Union-wide use cases and pilots (see below).

OriginTrail/TraceLabs has been a member of GS1 since 2018, which gives them access to the development of supply chain standards and their implementation. OriginTrail/TraceLabs co-founder Žiga Drev was invited to speak at several local and global GS1 conferences, including the GS1 Global Forums in 2019 and 2020. OriginTrail was also featured in a 2018 GS1 position paper on blockchain technology. GS1 members are intimately aware of the protocol through these endeavors. 

OriginTrail’s standards-based approach also caught the attention of the World Economic Forum (WEF), who detailed OriginTrail as one of the top blockchain-based supply chain solutions in their 2020 Blockchain Deployment Toolkit report. They also published an article on OriginTrail’s Essential COVID-19 Supplies Repository as an effective use of blockchain technology.

Lastly, the German Federal Office for Information Security praised OriginTrail as one of two future leaders in blockchain-assisted supply chain management.

Trace Alliance

Trace Alliance

The Trace Alliance is a global network of 100+ business enterprises, service providers, developers, and research institutions that share knowledge gained using the OriginTrail protocol. They have direct access to OriginTrail knowledge resources, use cases, and the latest technology releases/solutions. The goal is to aid in the adoption of the OriginTrail protocol for the benefit of all members. Members include Deloitte, OneAgrix, TE-Foods, Oregon Tilth, and TMA Solutions. A full list can be seen here.

In September 2020, Parity (core developers of Polkadot) partnered with TraceLabs and will be part of a working group on decentralization and tokenomics.


Current and Near-Future Adoption of the ODN

The OriginTrail Mainnet has been up and running since December 2018. The following is a sampling of organizations that have used the technology on either the mainnet or testnets. It is not meant to be a complete list.

BSI (British Standards Institute)

The British Standards Institute (BSI) is the national standards body of the United Kingdom and has 86,000 clients in 190 countries. They produce and update hundreds of thousands of standards and certifications per year. OriginTrail and BSI have had a partnership since January 2019, and certification data from BSI is already flowing over the OriginTrail Decentralized Network (see example here).

In June 2020, BSI released a whitepaper detailing how the SCAN initiative (led by BSI) will utilize the OriginTrail Decentralized Network to monitor and audit factories servicing major United States brands in their Trusted Factory Blockchain Program. SCAN members (including Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Lowes, and Walt Disney) have over 18,000 factories that will be part of this initiative. This official writeup and the whitepaper are highly recommended reading. A video of how this works in action was also presented at the December 2020 OriginTrail Liftoff event.

SCAN members participating in factory audit initiative through BSI

In addition, BSI also trains and certifies 200,000 students per year on topics from business improvements to environmental management. The BSI white paper (and team confirmation in the June 2020 Office Hours) indicate that these certifications will be verified using the ODN over time.

EVRYTHNG

EVRYTHNG is an internet of things software company performing supply chain logistics for a number of global brands. These include Coca Cola, Ralph Lauren, Puma, and Avery Dennison, among others. EVRYTHNG has made a big push over two years for blockchain integration for their brands. OriginTrail has had a partnership with EVRYTHNG since May 2018 and a number of pilots by EVRYTHNG have made use of OriginTrail technology and testnets. These include:

  • May, 2018: EVRYTHNG partnered with OriginTrail and created an IoT/provenance connected “Barry the Bear” stuffed animal in advance of the GS1 Global Forum conference. 
  • June, 2019: EVRYTHNG upgraded their partnership and used OriginTrail and IOTA to create a traceability solution using Avery Dennison IoT products and fashion brand 1017 ALYX 9SM.

EVRYTHNG recently streamlined its blockchain integration hub in May 2020, with OriginTrail still being seen as an essential partner for blockchain connectivity. In January 2020, CTO of EVRYTHNG Dominique Guinard also confirmed by a tweet that future use cases for EVRYTHNG blockchain integrations will be on the ODN mainnet.

European Union Consortia/Blockchain Accelerators

The European Union might be the biggest supporter of blockchain integration on the planet; details of which can be read about in this 2019 EU report. OriginTrail/TraceLabs is involved in at least eight EU initiatives and pilot programs in the supply chain space. Over time, this will encourage the adoption of the protocol by individual companies.

TraceLabs received funding from the EU to build the Open Provenance Knowledge Graph (OpenPKG). It will help organizations automate their GDPR compliance and have a transparent way of handling personal data; a use-case is currently being rolled out with the British Standards Institute.

Other initiatives include:

  • Food Safety Market: Announced in June 2020, this project aims to develop an industrial data platform for food safety certification in Europe. This consortium is also part of the Trace Alliance.
  • SmartAgriHubs: A consortium of 160 partners in the European agriculture space to aid in the adoption of 80 new digital solutions. OriginTrail is part of a flagship integration experiment, and is using both blockchain oracles and their Oracle partnership to improve the milk supply chain in Europe. A demo can be viewed here.
  • DEMETER: A project that is building an interoperable, data-driven, and sustainable European agri-food sector using IoT technology.
  • LEDGER: TraceLabs is part of an initiative to create a Food Data Market for sustainable food production and data distribution. TraceLabs is one of only 16 companies selected out of 300 applicants. The Food Data Market has also gone global with the EU Commission’s NGI Atlantic initiative.
  • Blockchers: TraceLabs is part of a program for automation and incentivizing sustainable farmers using public blockchain-based technology.
  • Block.IS: TraceLabs is developing a laboratory data market as part of the Blockchain Innovation Space initiative, helping to contribute to lab and pharmaceutical safety and trust. They are one of 10 finalists entering the commercial phase.
  • PARSEC Accelerator: TraceLabs is developing a verifiable sustainability scheme for food supply chains based on satellite data. It will be part of its data market solution.
  • EIP-EKOPAKT: TraceLabs is part of a consortium developing a farm-to-fork traceability system. The first pilot will take place in Slovenia with the goal of other countries in Europe following thereafter.

Additional project information on these EU-funded endeavors can be found here.

Individual Companies (selection)

Perutnina Ptuj is the largest poultry producer in Southeastern Europe and has had a six-year partnership with OriginTrail/Tracelabs. They recently introduced a QR code-based IoT scanning platform to track poultry provenance on the OriginTrail Decentralized Network. A demo video can be seen here

OneAgrix is a Singapore-based online marketplace for Halal products. Two billion people in the world consume halal food products, and blockchain is increasingly a part of the certification. TraceLabs and OneAgrix have partnered to allow for halal certification on the OriginTrail Decentralized Network. Data has already been moving over the ODN and a live demo can be seen here.

OBE Organic is an Australian organic beef producer. They have been investigating OriginTrail technology for 1.5 years now. Public data from OBE Organic was recently observed on the ODN Mainnet. 

AppsPro has a strong presence in the Middle East and is a Platinum Oracle solutions provider. AppsPro and OriginTrail announced a partnership to bring the protocol through the AppsPro network.

By origintrailexplained

Published
Categorized as Hot Crypto

马斯克的极端个性是成功的必备要素吗?

有人在Quora上提问:如何才能成为像盖茨、乔布斯、马斯克、或理查德·布兰森那样伟大的人?马斯克的第一任老婆(Justine Musk)回答总结了七点(意译):

第一,极致的成功需要极致的个性,这样的成功一定是需要——以其它方面的牺牲为代价的。

极致的个性,就是通常人们眼中的怪咖、少数、另类、偏执狂与“格格不入者”,但只有拥有这种“怪异”的个性,才会被迫走上一条非同寻常的体验世界之路。接着,他们会找到自己的生存策略,并会随着年龄的增长,想法设法把这些策略应用到其它事情之中,从而为自己创造独特且强有力的优势。

他们的思维方式不同于常人,他们总能以全新的角度看待问题,找到极具洞见的创意,同时人们也会认定——他们就是疯子

事实上,极度的成功跟人们认为的“成功”是不一样的,人们不必成为像理查德或者埃隆那样的人,其实也能过上富裕和优质的生活,并且你获得幸福的概率,比成为伟大人物的概率更高。

但如果你的本质就是一个极端人物,那么你必须做你自己,此时幸福生活对你来说——已经不是人生最重要的目标了。

第二,着迷(Obsessed)痴迷(Obsessed)疯魔(Obsessed),如果没有这种热情做现在的事情,那就需要立刻停下来,然后去寻找能够让你“彻底疯狂”的事情。

第三,学习承担能够打垮大多人的压力与痛苦。

第四,可以担心、害怕、恐惧失败——或是不怕,但无论如何都要继续前进。

第五,不是阅读网络新闻或舆论是非观点,而是直接阅读看书,看伟大人物的传记——如亚历山大大帝或凯瑟琳大帝的传记,并从中获得启发。(马斯克从小积累了巨大的阅读量,远远超过大部分人)

第六,极致的人身上混合了高智商、天赋、才华和近乎疯狂的勤奋,所以如果工作本身不是你最大的驱动力,或说你在为你的兴趣而奋斗,那么你很快就会燃尽自己半途而废,然后那些极致个性的竞争者会将你碾压到“爆”——然后只能痛哭流涕地嗷嗷直叫。

极度痴迷,这个特征的本质会耗损一切(活物与死物)——包括耗损这个人本身和他身边的人——除非你亲眼目睹或亲身经历,否则很难理解。 ​

第七,你得把注意力从——自己想要什么(如10亿美金),转移到——世界想要什么和需要什么上面去,并且你必须对后者拥有深深的、无法抑制的好奇心进取心

事实上,拥有“自我和自负”(Ego)并不是坏事,但你必须在拥有它的同时,真心臣服于比自己的“自我和自负”伟大得多的东西,即「Something Bigger Than Yourself」,只有这样你才能吸引和激励——那些你需要的人才,来为你工作,并和你一起“彻底疯狂”

关系人士的侧写

特质

按照神经心理学家的描述,马斯克的行为显示他是个天才。这样的人在童年时往往会显示出不凡的智力,能够在智商测试中获得高分。这样的孩子往往会认真地观察这个世界,发现其中的缺陷,例如系统中的小故障,他们会在脑中构思逻辑路径来排除故障。

在小罗伯特·唐尼看来,《钢铁侠》中的主人公托尼·史塔克,和马斯克就是同一类人——他们一旦抓住一闪而过的创意,就为自己的想法倾其所有,他们一秒都不会浪费。

才能

马斯克,可以像逻辑学家那样清晰简洁地表达,同时非常准确地从一个要点转移到下一个要点。但马斯克真正突出的地方在于,他将复杂的物理概念商业计划相结合的能力。不仅如此,他还显示出了将一项科研成果,转化为营利性企业的非凡才能。

皮特沃登(美国空军上将,国防部顾问)的工作需要随时关注尖端科技,他感觉自己遇到过的很多人只是在做白日梦,但马斯克看起来有理有据、知识渊博而且能力不凡。而历史已经证明,马斯克的目标在某个时间点听起来荒谬无比,但只要给他足够的时间,他总是能够无比坚定地实现它们——比起其他人,他总是基于对现实的不同理解来开展工作。

马斯克,能够迅速做出重大的决定,这是需要有充分的自信,对未来清晰的愿景,和对现实的明确认知。他事必躬亲并且无所不知,简直不可思议,他想要基于物理学基本定律的答案。他可以同时参与两个讨论,然后即时在脑子里解开所有的方程式。他多年以来积累的知识量令人震惊。

如果有人告诉马斯克,例如:作动器绝对不可能降到他的心理价位,或者在他确定的截止日期前无法造出某个部件——他会说:“好吧,这个项目跟你无关了,从现在开始我是项目的CEO,在担任两家公司CEO的同时,你的工作也由我来做,但我可以完成。”

作动器——又名激振器,是用于进行动力学试验的出力装置,是实施振动主动控制的关键部件。

布罗根说:“最疯狂的是马斯克真的这么做了。每次他解雇了某个人,他都会接替那个人的工作,而无论是什么项目,他都能完成。”

抗压

格雷西亚斯说:“马斯克比我认识的任何人都更刻苦,并且能够承受更多压力,他在2008年所经受的一切可能早就让其他人崩溃了,而他不仅生存了下来,并且持续专注于他的工作。”

在2008年的金融危机中,马斯克曾处在即将一无所有的破产边缘,他的第二任妻子妲露拉莱莉(Talulah Riley)见证了一切, 莱莉回忆道:

“那时他满脸愁容,看起来就像是在死亡的边缘徘徊,经常半夜噩梦并尖叫着惊醒,甚至会在睡着的情况下,爬到我的身上开始尖叫。”

“要知道,经历过那种压力的人大多数都退缩了”,格雷西亚斯说,“他们会出现决策失误。但是马斯克却变得更加理性,依旧能够做出清晰并且有远见的决定。压力越大,他做得就越好,任何见识了他所经历的一切的人都对他怀有敬意,我从未见过比他更坚毅的人。”

而对此,马斯克曾说道:“所谓创业生活,就是——嚼着玻璃渣凝视着深渊,然后浸透在莎士比亚式的悲剧之中。”

可见,失败似乎完全没有影响马斯克对未来的展望,也没有令他质疑自己的能力,这仿佛表明了——玻璃心就是需要被摔的稀碎,然后用钛合金重建。

事实上,正是在危机中依旧专注工作的能力,让马斯克在其他管理人员和竞争者中脱颖而出。

工作

马斯克,永远要求同事们去考虑——“实现路径”,而不是争论——“是否可行”。实际上,他的思维模式是站在未来的远景看待眼前的处境——这具有某种超越性。

显然,他无比清楚的知道自己在做什么,经过一次又一次的会议,他淘汰了那些唱反调的人,最终留下了一群志同道合的精英工程师。

所以在SpaceX,没有西装革履,也没有老气横秋、双手麻木的技工,取而代之的是精力充沛、乐观积极的科技狂人,仿佛全然没有意识到他们的目标远大得——近乎不可能。

马斯克,基本上是要求员工在完成不可能的任务之外,还要达到不可能实现的目标。一位SpaceX的前高管,用“永动机”来描述当时的工作氛围——这台永动机依靠“永不满足”“永恒希望”结合在一起时所产生的动能来运转。

所以在SpaceX,做事的原则就是全情投入你的工作并把事情搞定,等待指导或详细指示的人将会举步维艰,习惯得到反馈意见的员工也是一样。而最严重的错误,就是告诉马斯克他的要求——是无法实现的。

马斯克,曾告诉一名员工:“我要你考虑到超前的事情,我要你能够用力地思考,每一天都思考到头疼,我希望你每天晚上睡觉的时候头都会疼。

在和候选人面谈时,多莉·辛格(Dolly Singh)会鼓励他们,也会开门见山地告诉他们SpaceX和马斯克的标准。“SpaceX招聘的是一支特种部队,” 她说,“如果你愿意接受最高难度的挑战,那太好了。如果不是这样,你不应该来这里。”

除了每周工作90小时以上之外,另一些人离开的原因,是他们无法接受马斯克和其他高层在会议中的直言不讳

“埃隆不了解你,而且他不在乎一些话是否会伤害你,”多莉·辛格说,“他只知道需要搞定这些事情,如果不能适应他的说话风格,你往往会感到无所适从。”

“如果我们在你前进的道路上堆满了屎,你就必须把屎给吃了!这种方式不被其他地方广泛接受,但这里是SpaceX。” 马斯克的这些话,或许听起来刺耳,但你必须接受。

显然,马斯克严苛的管理风格,源自于他超凡脱俗的企业愿景,但在他咄咄逼人的同时,也会耐心听取有理有据、分析性很强的观点。而且,只要你的理由足够好,他会改变想法。

愿景

在太阳能、汽车和太空产业,一直充斥着对现有玩家有利的监管和官僚主义作风。由他们看来,作为初来驾到的竞争者,马斯克是一个天真的技术专家,可以完全不予理睬,并且常常被当成笑话来谈及,差不多就是一个介于捣蛋鬼满嘴胡话之间的竞争对手。

但马斯克基于愿景,而不会从商业模式来思考模式。例如:太阳城——是笃定太阳能的潜力,特斯拉——是对清洁能源的信心,SpaceX——是对太空之殖民的愿望。他的成功你可以说是运气,但在运气背后是他的使命,与独特的思考模式,其核心就是人类的未来,与宇宙第一原理

如果说,乔布斯把演讲本身,都看成了一次用户体验之旅,那么马斯克就只有终极目标,和为终极目标所服务的体验过程——例如:SpaceX和特斯拉已经率先将电子、软件、金属、燃料、科技与速度融合在了一起。

显然,马斯克是个肩负使命的人,而且始终如一。他具有的强烈使命感,远远超乎我们多数人所能承受的。

所以,戏剧性的风险,将一直伴随着他正在做的每一件事,及其以后的每一件事。如果马斯克纵情于此,他将一直伴随着这些风险,并牺牲大多数人所珍惜的一切。

马斯克自己曾说道:“我是个复杂的人,但我的需求很简单、很明确。或者说,没有人会是一座孤岛,除非他既强大又乐观。

但事实上,他一直是在尝试独自去到那座孤岛上,这或许是因为他想要的愿景——只能在那座孤岛上才能实现!

马斯克的B面

从前文的表述来看,马斯克无疑是一位无比强大的人,但以下事实是隐藏在其成功背后的故事。

  • 马斯克的第一个孩子夭折,第一任妻子说她都能感觉到他的巨大痛苦。
  • 在PayPal时期,利用马斯克计划休假补过蜜月的机会,董事会策划了一场“政变”把他赶下了CEO的宝座,最后只能妥协的担任顾问——这相当于脱离了公司的管理和运营。
  • 《PayPal》一书中,马斯克被表述为极端自私、固步自封的混蛋,并且在每个紧要关头都做出错误的决定。
  • 马斯克被很多PayPal的员工质疑,是否可以算作PayPal的联合创始人。
  • PayPal和Zip2两家公司的联合创始人,一致认定马斯克“不是当CEO的料”。
  • 马斯克的批评者们,无论是在公开还是私下场合,都指责他是没有商业道德的人,像是个夸夸其谈的推销员——总是在自夸自卖自己公司的技术。
  • ……
  • 特斯拉当年被奥巴马政府给予4亿美元的低息贷款,这事被总统候选人罗姆尼一直拿来说,他认为马斯克是个失败者,奥巴马总统在乱花钱。
  • 当2008年金融危机来了之后,特斯拉面临资金短缺和员工离职的双重打击,马斯克说:“我没想过我会精神崩溃,但真的崩溃了。”
  • 电视台主持人曾大喊大叫着说:“华尔街将特斯拉列为最不可能成功的企业,别买特斯拉的股票,你买了只是浪费钱,甚至不应该租特斯拉的车。”
  • SpaceX在5次发射失败的情况下,马斯克把自己豪车和私人飞机都抵押了,没人相信他能成功——而他只想最后发射一次(结果成功了)。
  • 登上过月球的尼尔·阿姆斯特朗与尤金·塞尔南,都觉得马斯克的太空计划就是在瞎扯淡,并质疑他是否真正了解航天与火箭,对此马斯克说道:“这些人都是我心目中的英雄,真的很艰难,我真希望他们能来看看,我的工作有多么艰难。”
  • ……

马斯克在接受(CBS 60 MINUTES节目)采访的视频中,双眼湿润、眼眶泛红、时而哽咽,非常感性的讲述了他创业过程中,所经历的巨大困境与挫折,当主持人问他是否考虑过放弃时,他的回答是——“我不知道什么叫放弃,除非我被困住或者死去!”

是的,真正成功的人都具有同一种品格,那就是——永不放弃,而或许在第一原理之中,就有一条叫做——“失败只会出现在放弃的那一刻”——只要你还没开始自暴自弃,仍然在思考、决策并行动,即使被打趴下,也不算失败。

然而,在2018年,马斯克在Twitter上违规且“欺诈性”地宣布特斯拉私有化,以及在YouTube上直播抽大麻(此州合法,只抽了一口,但展现出了耐人寻味的表情,如题图),这些行为已经给他的个人声誉和公司股价,带来了巨大的冲击和损失,并且从此我们也可以看出——他的决策失误、情绪起伏与难以自控。

接着2018年末,在特斯拉总部接受(Recode的卡拉·斯韦什尔)采访时,马斯克说:

“如果你每周工作120小时,那么你会疯掉。有那么一段时间,或许是几个星期,虽然我没有准确地计算过,但每天我只睡几小时,然后工作,工作之后再睡几个小时,每周7天,天天如此!在这一段时间内,我每周工作时间会长达120小时,甚至更长。”——这俨然就是在实践达芬奇睡眠法了。

最新研究表明,短睡是由基因控制的,携带hDEC2基因平均睡6.25小时(可以更少),携带ADRB1基因平均睡5.6小时(可以更少)。

马斯克表示,他现在已经把每周的工作时间“减少至80或90小时”,这样的工作安排表是“可管理的”。他认为,虽然“每周工作80小时是可持续的”,但工作时间若超过这种水平,痛苦就会大幅度增加。也就是说,工作时间若超过80小时,痛苦程度的增加将不再是线性的,而是呈现指数增长。

事实上,在“特斯拉私有化”之后,接受《纽约时报》采访时,马斯克就动情地承认——他服用处方药安必恩(Ambien),是因为他难以入睡。

为什么马斯克要如此努力的工作?

因为他热爱这份工作,他所做的事情无比艰难,他希望赶快做出结果,他对未来充满野心且雄心勃勃……这都有可能,或混合有之。

那为什么马斯克的睡眠很少,却还会失眠,需要依靠药物入眠呢?

这个问题的答案,显然只可能是他承受了——巨大的精神压力,从而产生了生理上的问题。

最后,马斯克为什么要这么折磨自己呢?

在YouTube的直播中,马斯克谈论到自己的脑海中,总有各种想法在蹦来蹦去,甚至到了“永无止境的爆炸”这种地步,甚至在他只有 5、6 岁的时候,他就已经感知到了自己的与众不同。

或许从此可以看出,折磨自己与创造未来,就是他注定的使命!

综上可见,或许只有极端才能获得极致,马斯克的故事,不禁让人想到了萧伯纳曾说过的一句话:

理智的人都适应世界,没理智的人都要世界适应他,所以世界所有的进步,全靠没理智的人。

当然,万事万物都A面与B面,那么从B面来看,没理智或说是极端的人——除了改变世界,当然也可以毁灭世界——显然,这也算是改变世界的一种结局。

那么,难道这里的逻辑就是:

有时候不推翻先前的设计,进行完全地重构,就无法抵达那个至关重要的质变点?所以在废土之上的重建,才是抵达那个无比光明未来的必要路径?那么,光明的未来,到底是取决于迭代,还是推倒重来?

结语

一个人想要实现自己的梦想,有所成就,最快的捷径就是学会——放弃、牺牲与疯狂:

  • 放弃——所有不重要的东西,
  • 牺牲——安逸的生活与娱乐,
  • 疯狂——去追求内心的目标,
  • 最终——才有可能梦想成真,
  • 虽然——这话听起来很偏执与狂热,但却是最现实不过的道理。

事实上,马斯克开始两次创业的成功,运气的成分很大,但成功的结果给予了他信心和资本,去执行心中的使命与偏执,而把事情做到极致,最终连全世界都会给你让路的,此时运气——就由量变的随机涌现为了质变的必然。

最后,请记住这些关键词:阅读、行动、试错、追求、坚持、努力、思考、付出、忍痛、蜕变、做事——无尽地循环

另外,如果若问——怎样才能像马斯克那样成功与强大?

答案是,没有办法。因为一个人只能成为自己,而不能成功地活成另一个人的翻版或克隆。

后记:压力、混蛋与独裁

马斯克的压力源是什么?

从事后看,成功者的路上,那是一个正确连着一个正确,一个胜利接着一个胜利,但这是事后看。如果从过程中看,你就会发现,在他的路上,那是一个非共识连着一个非共识,甚至在别人看来,是一个错误接着一个错误。在他自己看来,是一个压力连着一个压力。

为什么人们会崇拜敬仰马斯克,尽管他有很多的“混蛋”特质与行为?

因为,我们往往把一个人和他所做的事混为一谈,然后把他们变成一个符合传奇故事世界观的虚构人物。我们的文化中,总是需要坏蛋和英雄,傻子和天才,替罪羔羊和道德楷模。

对于马斯克的“暴君”与“独裁”的管理风格,他的员工是如何忍受的?

拿破仑完全意识到了自己的名望,所拥有的神秘力量。他知道,如果他把自己身边的人看得还不如马夫,他的名望就会更上一层楼,这些人中——包括国民议会里的一些,令欧洲心惊胆战的显赫人物。

旺达姆将军,他对元帅谈到了拿破仑:“那个魔鬼般的人物对我施用的幻术,我自己也搞不懂为何如此厉害,我既不怕神,也不怕鬼,但一看到他,我就像个小孩子一样禁不住打颤。他简直能够让我钻进针眼,投身火海。”

事实上,变成大人物后,拿破仑的名望与他的荣耀同步增长,至少在他的追随者眼里,他和神灵的名望已不相上下。并且,拿破仑对和他接触过的所有人,都能产生这种神奇的影响。

答案就是,名望对大脑结构的影响和塑造——从而激发产生了,崇拜、敬仰、卑微、逆来顺受,甚至是自虐的本能反应。

By scott.cgi

游戏创作者如何把握时代机遇

有时候,游戏制造商和玩家之间的差异就在一线间,不过后者打通关游戏的速度可要比前者创造游戏的速度来得快得多。因此,在游戏这种高风险、高回报的行业,创造力就显得很重要,但就目前来说创造力比较匮乏。人才对于该行业来说可以算是最大的瓶颈之一,这也是为什么对于游戏工作室负责人来说,用户生成内容可以成为孕育创作者经济的肥沃土壤。人们可以在 YouTube、TikTok 和 Twitch 这类平台上进行创作和消费,这类大型参与社区现在已经成为了不断增长的创作者经济中心。而现在,创作者经济已经进入到了游戏行业。

当然,这几十年来,游戏工作室一直深挖粉丝潜力,为自己提供创新源泉。Doom 可能是有史以来最著名的第一人称射击游戏,在上世纪九十年代就取得了成功,这不得不说要归功于它的一个做法 : 向任何愿意额外构建关卡和附加组件的人开放其底层源代码——它是推动「修改」现象的原创游戏鼻祖。在完成了第一人称射击游戏《Half-Life》的发行后,Valve 公司逐渐从一家发行商发展成为了一个成熟的数字平台(包括世界上最大的 PC 游戏数字市场 Steam)。 时至今日,Valve 推出过有史以来最为成功的游戏之一《反恐精英:全球攻势》,这也是它们自制衍生品的产物。

尽管游戏里的用户生成内容有着悠久且丰富的历史,但在传统意义上,用户对于游戏的这种贡献被认为是一种自我表达的形式或只是小众行为:参与者创造内容是因为他们热爱游戏、具有社区意识,而不一定是为了金钱收益。而如今,这种情况正在发生着变化:游戏工作室逐渐意识到,创造者为他们游戏带来的价值是值得实实在在的现金奖励的。比如,Roblox 是一款广受欢迎的多人在线创作游戏——去年向外部开发者的支出增加了将近两倍;而像 The Sandbox 和 Mythical Games 这样的新生代游戏,玩家则可以在其中建立和拥有属于自己的基于区块链的游戏体验。

我们看到,创造者经济正在逐渐渗透到游戏行业,玩家正在探索将贡献进行货币化的新方法,无论是通过构建原创游戏世界、在区块链上创建和销售游戏内商品,还是通过新的游戏流媒体工具与粉丝互动。与此同时,工作室和游戏开发商意识到,给玩家创造机会做出贡献——同时分享利润——其实是一种竞争优势。这对于重振游戏设计及发行中潜在的经济来说是非常关键的。

UGC 繁荣背后的经济学

用户生成内容(UGC)的兴起其实并非偶然:在很大程度上是一种必然。要知道,制作游戏的成本在持续上升。游戏设计传奇人物 Raph Koster 在新冠疫情前进行的一项分析发现,假如以每兆字节来计算的话,500 万美元的独立手机游戏和 1 亿美元的跨平台大型游戏的有效创造成本是一样的。这就解释了为什么大型发行商倾向于规避风险——或者至少是非常仔细地权衡过他们的投资。

不过,即使是大型发行商的投资也无法成为不断创新的驱动力。游戏工作室的竞争优势源于其开发酷炫新体验的能力,假如有「太多相似,略有不同」的话,则在点击量驱动的市场中很难生存下去。通过向玩家和外部开发商开放创作,发行商相当于有效地将创新过程进行了外包,并降低了他们的业务风险。通过将开发职责从一个专业设计师的小团队转移给一大群粉丝和热情的玩家,可以极大地扩展整个设计过程。开放游戏构建模块,鼓励玩家访问并为他人开发游戏内物品和体验的做法可以发掘出更多新颖的内容,这也是早期一直进行的 Beta 测试过程。

据 Electronic Arts 高级副总裁 Samantha Ryan 称,在过去五年中,Electronic Arts 游戏开发商 Maxis 为模拟人生游戏《The Sims》制作了大约 5,000 件个人服装。她在最近的一次小组讨论中指出:

「但如果你看看我们最大的用户生成内容网站之一,你就会看到他们在同一时期创造出了 39,000 件作品。作为一个职业开发公司,我们竟然无法跟上我们玩家的步伐。」

像 Samantha Ryan 这样的游戏高管现在正披露着这一事实。众所周知,传统出版商在采用新颖的收入模式以及技术方面往往动作非常缓慢(VR 就是一个典型的例子)。他们更倾向于「观望」,直到最后迫不得已,花高价进入某领域,而通常是通过收购的模式。举个例子:当 Activision Blizzard 最终于 201 6 年进入手游领域时,花了 59 亿美元的价格收购了 King Digital。在这个新时代——大规模的粉丝参与加上游戏货币化——可见游戏的创造力和病毒式的传播并不是由保守的传统公司所驱动的,而是由外部(通常是社会)力量所驱动的。

对于游戏开发商来说,还有另一个好处:现在大部分的公开交易和私有行业都是通过服务模式产生收入的,因此存在着内容过剩的情况。数字化以及随之而来的免费游戏收入模式使得每个人都可以接触到游戏。在大量的可用游戏中,将消费者与内容联系起来变得更加昂贵。而用户生成内容则抵消了营销成本,因为通过它,公司可以更加容易地留住玩家,降低玩家流失率。成为活跃社区的一员,并为自己喜欢的游戏提供源源不断的新内容,这种做法可以鼓励玩家坚持更长的时间。同时,这也对平均游戏生命周期产生了积极影响,并减少了来自对手的威胁。

制作社交类游戏,不仅仅只是玩

在参与大多数传统娱乐形式的时候,其实我们都是很被动的:比如 Netflix 带来的「鱿鱼游戏」狂欢潮;再比如去看一场音乐会等。而游戏却截然不同,观众可以积极参与其中,甚至是将娱乐精神体现出来,所以游戏正在改变着这一切。通过对 Roblox、The Sandbox 和 Rec Room 等游戏的体验,我们发现这些游戏的重点子在于制作游戏。用户原创内容不仅仅是一种新的游戏方式——它也是一种逐渐可行化的货币化方式、一种身份形式以及一种社交纽带。

角色创造在长期以来一直是角色扮演类游戏的核心。通过用户生成内容,游戏中的角色变得更加丰满、更具表现力。与此同时,量身定制的这些虚拟形象,不仅可以在游戏中获得独特的冒险体验,还能帮助用户增进情感联系。(通过 Itsme 和 Genies 等公司的打造,这些角色变得越来越个性化。)值得一提的是,我们不是通过匿名化身或是游戏代币来游览游戏世界,而是透过角色独特的技能和不同个性来对游戏世界进行探索。在一轮游戏中,我有可能会成为狙击手,一头扎入战斗;也可能会化身为一个打不死的小混混,自己去做任务。游戏玩法会逐渐地从一种娱乐形式转变为一种表达形式。

当然,游戏更深层次的部分仍然是社交——用户对于情感上的需求不仅是可以进行联系,而是要能进行创造和贡献。通过开发出新颖的游戏物件或是体验,我们能够与他人进行分享而不仅仅只是纯粹的玩游戏。如今,许多社交媒体的互动方式仅仅局限于刷刷屏,与之不同的是,在游戏世界里玩家可以以虚拟身份进行实时互动——一些用户甚至可以在 Rec Room 这类可定制的游戏世界中结婚。当然,原画稿(游戏出品前泄露的游戏制作时使用的角色、场景图片素材)已经存在很长一段时间了,不过它并没有成为一种收入模式,因为它现在被放进了游戏中。

在过去的三十年里,随着游戏经验的慢慢丰富,玩家开始更深入地参与到越来越重要的决策制定中,最终走向更高阶的定制,而这意味着我们正在向单一的客观体验挥手告别。也许,我们正在玩着同一个游戏,但我们却逐渐开始按照自己的方式去体验。如今,通过用户生成内容的发展,我们还能够与他人分享并出售这些量身定制的体验。

与此前的媒体、教育和加密世界一样,如今创作者经济正体现在更广泛的游戏行业。以前,修改原创内容和用户生成内容被视为是为游戏粉丝保留的增值收入来源,但现在,制作游戏、参与战斗、交易和销售游戏内创品的做法也将成为玩家体验不可或缺的一部分——毫无疑问,游戏创作者经济的未来已来。

By Odaily星球日报

What is Storj (STORJ)?

The Storj (pronounced as “storage”) platform bills itself as a decentralized file storage solution which combines the benefits of cloud-based storage and blockchain technology. At the heart of the project is the Storj network which, among other things, allows the users to put up their free disk space for rent. Users which are required to store files and assets online can access the Storj network and rent the available storage resources from the renters in this ecosystem (“farmers”). The payment is effected with STORJ tokens on the blockchain and their use is supposed to encourage users to become a sort of small-scale cloud storage providers.

What Is Storj Trying to Achieve?

In order to be able to ultimately challenge the dominant cloud storage providers such as Google and Amazon, Storj’s model had to be designed to meet several challenges.

Lower Costs

  • Current infrastructure costs incurred by centralized storage systems could be driven down by the decentralized model offered by Storj. With their focus on decentralization, the Storj team hopes to present its platform as an affordable cloud storage solution. By eliminating the need for running data centers, the cuts in costs promised by Storj should reduce the current prices offered by the centralized storage providers by at least 1/3. This is to be achieved by cutting the costs of maintenance, bandwidth and utilities via utilization of what the Storj team describes as underused storage resources existing at the network edge.
  • These are to be particularly beneficial for small businesses which need storage yet do not have the capacity or funds to build and maintain full-blown data centers, hard disk arrays etc. The end users would be able to pay for what they actually want to use, with no minimum usage requirements or setup fees.

More Secure and Private Storage

  • The storage model proposed by Storj would operate in the manner similar to that of the internet itself, in the sense that there will be no control by a single entity over billions of devices in use. According to the Storj developers, the decentralization of the internet did not reach the management of data that come through it. Actually, these data are rather centralized and entrusted for storage to several global providers running a network of data centers. This comes with a variety of risks, including data breaches, global interruptions in the provision of services and higher storage costs.
  • Bytom aims to take on the popular cloud storage services such as Google Drive and Dropbox by reducing its reliance on the bandwidth or electricity resources available to data centers. It will offer temporary storage of large files which can be shared or distributed as part of point-to-point transfers.
  • Security and privacy would be ensured by the end-to-end encryption by which only the owners of files would be given access to their data, instead of having the companies exhibit full control over their documents. At the same time, the global distribution of files offered by Storj is also promoted as a more reliable solution compared to more centralized storage.

Better Scaling

  • In an age of rising demand for data storage resources, the Storj network promises more flexible scaling model. Storing exabytes of data can be challenging at the time when whole economies rely on their effective use. The Storj team went on to design a network which promises to meet the demand for faster data storage and larger formats, while leaving enough room to be eventually expanded in line with popular demand. With the help of its sharding technology, encryption and data distribution across the nodes, the Storj hopes to beat the traditional on-premise storage systems and offer better performance and reliability across the board.
  • Storj also wants to establish itself as the media transfer and backup platform. Going beyond the commercial cloud storage, the Storj developers are working on offering additional services for its platform. Its long-term storage support should make it suitable for the creation of archives and storage of backup and recovery files for regulatory or compliance purposes. At the same time, Storj wants to become a general-purpose media content delivery platform, with the support for the storage of large amounts of video, audio, photo and other files. They will be available for concurrent downloads based on their segmented and distributed nature.

How Does Storj Work?

Working out the manner in which the Storj network operates starts with its apparent similarity with the torrent technology. Torrents operate as peer-to-peer networks on which each stored file is split into numerous small segments which are then distributed to the users. The users both store and keep copies of the same file. A person desiring a copy sends a request to the network, in the hope of receiving fragments of the desired file from the users who have it (“seeds”). Finally, the torrent client software compiles the file pieces from different seeders and recreates the original file. A similar system is employed on the Storj network:

  • The process of division of files on the Storj network is called file sharding. Instead of sourcing an entire file from a single source, the Storj network will allow the user to download fragments of the desired file from several sources at the same time. This decentralized file transfer system should allow Storj to present itself as a faster downloading solution compared to other storage providers.
  • By breaking the files into pieces or shards, Storj removes the possibility of a single organization or company having access to complete files. While the torrents publish information on file pieces publicly, only the uploaders remain in the know regarding the location of files on the Storj. In this manner, the Storj wants to promote protection of privacy of the parties involved in the file transfer process.
  • Locating the shards of the original file on the Storj platform is the task of its distributed hash table technology of Kademlia.

Redundancy and Deletion Systems on Storj

The sharding system implemented by Storj faces several risks which the developers had to counter with the appropriate technologies. Knowing that file pieces are distributed to various computers on the Storj platform, the users may rightfully wonder what happens after some users decide to stop using Storj or shut down their systems for any reason. In order to prevent the lack of access to desired shards, the Storj platform has implemented a redundancy system on its network:

  • This system is based on the use of so-called parity shards. Storj will help the users determine the strength of the redundancy for each file they upload and create parity shards. Based on this, the system is supposed to shield the network from the unwanted loss of files.
  • Yet, the parity shard system can hardly function as a water-proof solution in the long run, when the loss of files becomes more likely with passing time. The Storj developers hope to counter this by organizing periodic audits and checkups of the network, while advising the users to do the same for their files whenever they want to reupload them.
  • At the same time, there are some concerns that Storj’s redundancy system might cause the network to become sluggish. In order to prevent this, the network has come up with a set of rules governing the deletion of files which get duplicated too many times as part of the redundancy system.

File Protection on Storj

One of the key differences separating the Storj network from torrent-based systems is the encryption of each piece of the desired file. This system was put into place to lower the risks of users getting unauthorized access to the files which are distributed as part of the platform’s sharding system:

  • The possibility that the users who have the file pieces may get insights into the content of shards may be problematic for those who feel that this may compromise sensitive information. This is the point at which the Storj calls upon its “tenants” or file uploaders to both compress and encrypt the files before submitting them to the sharding system. Encrypting is done by assigning a unique key to a single file.
  • Since the data gets encrypted with the user’s private key on their own device, the data hosts or “farmers” are prevented from knowing what a complete file actually contains. Instead of this, they will receive a piece of a larger file which has been encrypted and thus made unusable unless they get their hands on both the encryption key and the remaining shards.
  • Potential hackers wanting to gain illicit access to a desired file would have to find all of its shards, which is hardly possible without the private key. Unless they manage to somewhat persuade farmers to send their shards and steal the key from the tenant, they will be arguably powerless against this system.

What is the Storj Bridge System?

Being central to the platform’s decentralization and security efforts, the Storj’s network of tenants and private keys needs to be flexible enough to meet potential changes in the current technological landscape. One of the trends which may have an impact on the underlying Storj system is the tendency of users to switch their devices every now and then. Considering that the tenants have their encryption keys stored on local devices which may get changed, the Storj developers had to come up with the Bridge server architecture to account for the situations in which the users do not need to access files from the same device.

With that in mind, the Storj team went to develop and implement the Bridge server technology. It allows for the secure storage of the encryption keys on a dedicated server which holds the relevant metadata.. The Storj team hopes to see this technology implemented alongside the future file sharing system, as the identity verification and storage would both take place in the cloud.

Role of STORJ Token

The Storj token (STORJ) is the currency with which the payment operations on the Storj platform are managed. Fees paid by tenants are turned into funds which the farmer receive for providing both the storage and bandwidth resources to the main platform.

In order to make sure the payments reach the right address, the Storj requires farmers to verify the existence of shards which are sent to them. The Storj maintains a file audit and verification system which involves sending a request to farmers to which they need to respond. This system is called the Proof of Retrievability and relies on sending a Merkle challenge to the farmers on an hourly basis. They will be able to provide answers only if the shards kept on hard drives remain intact and free from tampering.

In case they attempt to modify or delete the file in question, all payments will be automatically stopped. To expand the existing system with additional incentives to play fairly, the Storj team will work towards establishing a dedicated reputation system for its farmer nodes. In 2018, the Storj network has been estimated to have around 40k active farmer nodes.

As of March 2019, the market cap for Storj stood at just above USD 30 million. More than 135 million tokens have been in circulation in the same period, out of the planned supply of 425 million units. While the Storj Labs company pre-mined its entire supply of tokens, the tokens can be acquired either by becoming a farmer or via trading on cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance, Bittrex and others. STORJ is usually traded in combination with Bitcoin, Ether, Tether and other currencies. Since the STORJ is based on Ethereum, ERC-20 wallets are a suitable option for storing the acquired tokens.

Storj Team and Competitors

The Storj open source project was started in 2014, while the ICO took place in May 2017. The project shares the name with the Storj Labs company which is headed by the founder and CSO Shawn Wilkenson, Ben Golub (executive chairman) John Quinn (co-founder) and Philip Hutchins (CTO and principal architect). The core team has about 45 members with various professional backgrounds ranging from Bitcoin mining to managing startups.

In addition to cloud storage providers such as Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive, the main competitors of Storj include Siacoin, as yet another decentralized cloud storage platform, Filecoin and MaidSafe Coin.

Which products support STORJ? 

 Send/ReceiveTrading
Coinbase           ✔      ✔
Pro           ✔      ✔ 
Wallet           ✔     ✖️

What regions support STORJ? 

 USNYCANEUUKDESGJP
Coinbase    ✔  ✔ ✔  ✔ ✔ ✔✖️
Pro   ✔
  ✔ ✔  ✔ ✔ ✔✖️
Wallet  ✔ ✔  ✔ ✔ ✔✖️

 Crypto to fiat trading pairs

 USUKEU
USD ✔ ✖️ ✖️
GBP ✖️ ✖️
 ✖️
EUR ✖️ ✖️ ✖️

Note: Coinbase Wallet does not support direct bank transactions. You’ll need to transfer your crypto to Coinbase.com or send it to an external address in order to cash out.

Crypto to crypto trading pairs

 USDCBTCETHUSDT
STORJ     ✖️  ✔  ✖️
   ✖️

See the full list of countries that Coinbase supports for crypto-to-crypto trading.

Note: Only assets hosted on the Ethereum blockchain can be converted through the Coinbase Wallet mobile app at this time. Learn more about trading on Coinbase Wallet.

How many confirmations are needed for STORJ?

STORJ requires 35 network confirmations. Learn about transaction confirmations.

Which blockchain network hosts STORJ?

STORJ is hosted on Ethereum.

What are the minimum and maximum withdrawal amounts?

Coinbase has implemented safeguards to ensure a healthy and efficient network both on-chain and through our platform.  

These safeguards include both minimum and maximum amounts for each cryptocurrency we allow customers to send through the blockchain.

Minimum: 20 STORJ

Maximum: 275,000 STORJ

By CryptoNews and Coinbase

Published
Categorized as Hot Crypto

What is Alchemy Pay (ACH)?

I. What is AlchemyPay?

Wallet?

POS machine?

APP?

AlchemyPay is a payment consensus protocol system used to create “the world’s most adaptive decentralized (DeFi) encrypted payment ecological infrastructure”.

II. What are the characteristics of AlchemyPay?

Simple to use and highly adaptable

1. Use the simplest operation interface on the front end to allow the payee to realize cryptocurrency collection without too much learning;

2. Compatible with mixed payment of legal currency and encrypted currency;

3. Compatible with real-time exchange of different legal currencies and different cryptocurrencies;

4. Compatible with almost all mainstream payment methods such as POS, APP, and Web;

5. Compatible with almost all scenarios such as offline retail, e-commerce, online entertainment,

Alchemy Pay’s easy-to-use aggregated fiat currency payment channels

block transactions, supply chain finance, and transnational transactions.

III. Why can AlchemyPay be “easy to use and adaptable?”

Behind the simplicity is the fusion and pursuit of complex technologies: To achieve “easy to use, highly adaptable”, it is necessary to integrate dozens of complex technologies, and let the payee be in the front end with the simplest operation interface. Realize cryptocurrency collection without too much learning.

Technical advantages of AlchemyPay:

1. Blockchain network adaptation layer: Through the adaptation layer of the blockchain network, the AlchemyPay payment consensus protocol can be seamlessly deployed in various public chains; integrate LightningNetwork, RaidenNetwork, and StateChannelNetwork into an integrated network;

2. Commercialized payment based on various networks: zero-block secure payment confirmation technology; fast routing algorithm; multiple tokens multiplexing the same channel; lightning network channel capital intelligent balance; support for various payment modes, including PULLPAY, combination Payment, split account (split), batch collection/payment, etc.;

3. PULLPAY protocol: supports two payment modes of blockchain pre-authorization PULLPAY and lightning network PULLPAY to meet the needs of various subscription and repeat payment scenarios;

4. Cross-chain payment based on AtomicSwap: Cross-chain lightning payment is realized through AtomicSwap and PayChannel; many coins that do not support the Lightning Network support the Lightning Network through AtomicSwap and SubmarineSwaps to achieve fast payment; cross-chain combined payment of multiple blockchain currencies;

5. Machine learning-based risk control anti-fraud and quantitative transaction model: payment risk control anti-fraud based on machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to ensure the security of the payment network; based on big data risk control to ensure the security of smart contracts; based on quantitative transaction models The collected cryptocurrencies are converted into stable currencies or mainstream currencies through a variety of quantitative strategies to hedge against the risk of currency price fluctuations and depreciation;

6. Smart contract template engine: Provides a visual and procedural smart contract customization interface, uses natural language to describe smart contract business rules, so that business personnel can understand and verify smart contract implementation logic; provide solutions to the smart contract and product level, Component-level, and interface-level packaging to meet application requirements at different levels and lower the threshold for smart contract use;

By integrating dozens of complex technologies, it provides various payment technology application solutions that are easy to use, safe and fast, and convenient to access for all kinds of developers who need digital currency payments, such as:

1. Game developers: SDKs that support mainstream fiat currency wallet payments and Crypto payments; RPG blockchain games based on StateChannel;

2. Wallet developers: With PULLPAY, offline merchants scan the QR code of the user’s wallet with a code scanner to directly deduct money; with PULLPAY, users will automatically deduct money from the user’s wallet after a certain deduction (such as a taxi);

3. DAPP developers: fiat currency and encrypted currency payment gateways for various DAPP applications; users directly use Token to pay, without ETH to pay for Gas;

4. E-commerce platform developers: use AlchemyPlugin/SDK/API to quickly have the ability to acquire legal currency and encrypted currency;

5. Payment service developer: quickly own a payment system of its own brand, support global mainstream fiat currency wallet payment, encrypted currency payment; based on the AlchemyPay platform, develop applications such as split accounts and local fiat currency C2C exchange;

6. Industry application developers: customer loyalty management developers, issue general points based on the Alchemy platform, and support general point consumption and exchange.

IV. What is the value of AlchemyPay?

Provide a set of feasible solutions for the further popularization of global digital currency.

1. Through the integration and optimization of technology, the problems of slow digital currency payment and excessive exchange rate volatility have been solved, and the feasibility of digital currency payment has been technically realized;

2. Through the combination of cryptocurrency and legal currency (users pay digital currency, merchants receive legal currency), it is customary to enhance the willingness of merchants to accept digital currency;

3. Through the upgrading of collection units and the continuous expansion of merchants through important companies with core resources, so as to create payment scenarios for digital currencies in the world;

V. On the basis of the AlchemyPay consensus agreement, which business sectors will be established?

Alchemy Pay Eco Map

1. Payment: establish a hybrid payment system combining digital currency and legal currency by integrating legal currency, digital currency, exchanges, and digital wallets;

2. Network (Merchant Network): By integrating banks, payment companies, SaaS companies, consumer groups, etc., who have merchant resources, it is enough to establish real digital currency transaction scenarios on a global scale;

3. DeFi (Decentralized Finance): Build an aggregated decentralized financial platform by integrating digital wallets and DeFi applications;

4. Trust (trusted assets): through the integration of banks, payment companies, and other channels, we propose a hybrid financial scoring system that combines digital currency and legal currency.

Remarks: AlchemyPay’s business segments are currently in their infancy. Among them, Payment and Network have been launched and put into application, while DeFi and Trust are still in the underlying technical architecture stage and have not yet been put into application.

VI. What achievements have been made in AlchemyPay’s business so far?

In the two major business segments of Payment (payment) and Network (merchant network) that have been launched, they are currently implemented in 18 countries and regions around the world and have more than 100,000 supporters in communities such as Telegram and Twitter. , Payment institutions, enterprises, digital currency exchanges, digital wallets, etc. to complete the integration.

Payment:

At present, it has integrated WeChat Pay, Alipay, Visa, Master, Dash, GrabPay, Nets, and other legal currency payment systems, and supports mainstream digital currencies such as BTC, ETH, USDT, BCH, BNB, and is compatible with hundreds of digital currency wallets such as ImToken and Trust. It has reached deep business cooperation with Binance, Huobi, Gemini, Celo, Cobo, and other well-known blockchain institutions on a global scale to jointly establish a digital currency payment ecosystem.

Network (Business Network):

At present, more than 2 million reserve merchants have been signed up, of which more than 3,000 are actually in operation. Access includes:

1. Shopify (an international e-commerce giant with a market value of more than 120 billion US dollars);

2. Arcadier (SaaS organization serving enterprises in more than 130 countries around the world);

3. QFPay Group (with more than 1.2 million merchants worldwide);

4. Singapore has more than 2500 business courtesy cars located in high-end consumer places such as airports, Universal Studios, and five-star hotels;

5. CeLaVi, the top floor of Singapore Sands Hotel, a global landmark;

6. The famous fashion brand Aldo;

7. Pricerite, a listed company on the Hong Kong Main Board, etc.

AlchemyPay embeds QFPay and Shopify’s digital currency payment

VII. Why can AlchemyPay contract more than 2 million reserve merchants?

AlchemyPay is different from traditional payment companies in terms of operation. It adopts a one-to-one contracting model. Instead, it cooperates with institutions with many merchant resources and adopts a 2B2C business model to find partners with merchant resources (such as payment institutions, SaaS companies), E-commerce groups, etc.), so that you can integrate as little as a few hundred, as many as tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of merchants.

VIII. Why does AlchemyPay issue ACH?

Use ACH to make payments in global stores

The purpose of ACH issuance is to govern the AlchemyPay ecosystem and promote the popularization of digital currency through the governance of the AlchemyPay ecosystem and rewards for early contributors to the system.

For example: At present, more than 2 million reserve merchants have been signed, and more than 3000 of them are actually in operation. Most of these merchants are connected directly before the issuance of ACH, so AlchemyPay needs to bear a lot of market costs and training costs, and It is very difficult to control budgets and distribute rewards reasonably; but after enabling ACH incentives, the value of ACH will be anchored with marketing costs, and supernodes (such as payment institutions, SaaS companies, e-commerce groups, etc.) will assume the market The responsibility of promoting and training nodes (merchants), the system will be based on the supernodes and nodes that accept digital currency payments, and will be rewarded based on the connection time, node level, and transaction volume, so as to promote the digital currency payment scene in the world more quickly set up;

IX. What behavior can obtain ACH?

1. Through the AlchemyPay payment system, supernodes (banks, payment companies, SaaS, etc.) and nodes (merchants), accept digital currency payments;

2. Merchants who use the AlchemyPay payment system choose to use digital currency instead of legal currency to pay;

3. Participate in specific activities or purchase specified goods on the platform supported by the AlchemyPay payment system;

Note: The 51% mining of ACH is expected to go online for half a year, that is, 2021.3.7. Before that, if the trial run reward is enabled, the monthly community & team incentive quota will be occupied.

What products support ACH? 

 Send/ReceiveTrading
Coinbase           ✔     ✔
Pro           ✔     ✔
Wallet           ✔      ✖️

What regions support ACH?

 US NY EUUKCASG
Coinbase ✔  ✔   ✔ ✔ ✔✖️
Pro ✔  ✔   ✔  ✔ ✔✖️
Wallet ✔  ✔   ✔  ✔ ✔

Crypto to fiat trading pairs

  USUKEU
USD   ✔ ✖️ ✖️
GBP ✖️✖️✖️
EUR ✖️✖️✖️

Note: Coinbase Wallet does not support direct bank transactions. You’ll need to transfer your crypto to Coinbase.com or send it to an external address in order to cash out.

Crypto to crypto trading pairs

 USDCUSDTBTCETH
ACH   ✖️  ✖️ ✖️ ✖️

See the full list of countries that Coinbase supports for crypto-to-crypto trading.

Note: Only assets hosted on the Ethereum blockchain can be converted through the Coinbase Wallet mobile app at this time. Learn more about trading on Coinbase Wallet.

How many confirmations are needed for ACH?

ACH requires 35 network confirmations. Learn about transaction confirmations.

Which blockchain network hosts ACH?

ACH is hosted on Ethereum.

What are the minimum and maximum withdrawal amounts?

Coinbase has implemented safeguards to ensure a healthy and efficient network both on-chain and through our platform.  

These safeguards include both minimum and maximum amounts for each cryptocurrency we allow customers to send through the blockchain.

Minimum: 0.000000000000000001

Maximum: 83,250,000

By Alchemy Pay and Coinbase

Published
Categorized as Hot Crypto