It’s been brewing for some time, but 2021 is finally seeing established payment companies take the opportunities of cryptocurrency seriously, and among those leading the pack is Visa V . 

An industry that was previously plagued by volatility and speculation is beginning to see its enterprise-friendly side blossoming, and according to the card network, the opportunities are abundant. 

“The world of digital currencies and crypto has moved and evolved quite significantly since the 2009 launch of Bitcoin,” explains Nikola Plecas, head of new payment flows, Visa Consulting and Analytics, Europe at Visa. 

“Visa's strategy is to be a network of networks and really be able to originate and terminate new payment flows outside of card rails. We have made tremendous push into these new flows over the last couple of years with products such as B2B Connect, Visa Direct, Push to Pay – and digital currencies naturally fall into that category.”

However, this doesn’t mean that the world’s most famous cryptocurrency – Bitcoin – features heavily in the card network’s plans. Instead, Visa characterises the industry as made up of two distinct groups: conventional, untethered cryptocurrencies and fiat currency-backed digital currencies, often known as stablecoins, which are attracting greater interest from institutional and government organizations despite currently a smaller part of the overall market.

The former is seen by the company as a tradeable asset with limited industry potential – CEO Alfred Kelly described it as “digital gold” in the company’s Q2 2021 earnings call. However, the latter is where Visa sees significant potential for payments.

“We see these as having the potential to be used by consumers and merchants in the same way as existing fiat currencies are,” says Plecas. “And when it comes to areas of opportunity, there are many for organizations such as ours.”

While many use the terms cryptocurrency and digital currency interchangeably, Visa has chosen to characterize the area it is focusing on – the stablecoin side of the industry – as digital currencies. 

Visa’s digital currency efforts currently fall into five areas. Some of these are well-established and already contributing to the company’s revenue growth, while others are in the early stages and are unlikely to make a meaningful impact on Visa’s top line in the near future. However, they together represent a long-term view of the market.

The first is perhaps the most obvious: making it easy for consumers to buy cryptocurrencies, which has involved working with wallets and exchanges “drive acceptance”. This area earned a mention in Visa’s most recent earnings call as being the second biggest contributor of growth in its card-not-present excluding travel segment – the biggest growth was the surge in ecommerce.

Second is a natural progression from the first: enabling cryptocurrency to be cashed out to fiat. 

“We want to make sure that you as a consumer, once you exit your cryptocurrency positions in exchanges and wallets can cash onto a Visa credential and then start spending at any of our 70 million-plus merchant endpoints,” says Plecas.

While those two are in full swing, a newer development is the third pillar, which is the use of digital currency APIs to enable banks and neobanks to add cryptocurrency options for their clients. This is in the early stages, with US neobank First Boulevard becoming the pilot customer earlier this year, however Plecas highlights that Visa is “looking to extend to other markets and regions” with the product.

“We quickly realized that there's potential to be the next gen of neobanks,” he explains. “They're also doing a lot of their treasury operations, paying vendors and employees already in stablecoins.”

In order to do this, the company needed to enable customers to “stay within their ecosystem when they also settled their obligations” with Visa, which is where pillar four, settlement in stablecoins comes in. This has seen Visa settle its first transaction in a stablecoin, US dollar-tethered USDC, this year. 

“Settling in USDC is very similar to settling in USD,” he explains.

“What we've done is an upgrade of existing treasury infrastructure operations to be able to receive these assets, because actually receiving them is now done through public blockchain rails. And as time evolves, we want to support other stablecoins.”

The final pillar, however, is the most long-term: central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). According to the Bank for International Settlements, 86% of the world’s central banks are now considering the launch of CBDCs of one form or another, with more than one in ten currently engaged in pilots. 

CBDCs have a variety of benefits, including the potential to better reach the underbanked, and Visa argues that their implementation will require public-private partnerships.

“That way, they will be integrated in the right way into the existing payments' ecosystem,” says Plecas.

“At Visa, we want to make sure that our products and services are acting as a bridge between our existing clients and the new clients and blockchain rails involved with digital currencies.”

While much of this is focused on the consumer side of cryptocurrency and digital currencies, Visa also sees significant potential in B2B payments.

“B2B is an area of high growth, high importance and high interest to all of Visa. And we see that digital currencies can supplement and compliment some of the existing solutions that we have in the space,” says Plecas.

However, while digital currencies can impact the B2B space, and in some cases are already doing so, broader institutional adoption is likely to take time. 

Nevertheless, in areas with poor infrastructure, the potential of CBDCs in particular is strong for B2B.

“In some countries the infrastructure is just not there yet, and for these types of countries and regions, digital currencies can complement what we already have.”

One of the areas that is often raised in digital currency discussions is cross-border payments, with many citing potential speed and cost benefits. However, Plecas stresses that while there is potential, it is not a simple clean fix.

“The cross-border space is highly complex, and it has a large number of actors who are trying to solve for consumer experience in terms of end user price and time efficiency,” he says.

“It's not easy to solve for this, even if you're trying new technologies that would give you some advantages theoretically with this aspect.”

However, he says Visa sees particular opportunities in global marketplaces that bring together buyers and sellers from different currencies.

“In those instances, potentially digital currencies can help them reach some of these markets in a more time and cost efficient way.”

Daniel is Founder and CEO of FXC Intelligence, a financial data company specializing in the cross-border payments, cards and ecommerce industries. Daniel is a leading

Daniel is Founder and CEO of FXC Intelligence, a financial data company specializing in the cross-border payments, cards and ecommerce industries. Daniel is a leading influencer in the cross-border payments space globally. He is frequently invited to speak at industry conferences and provide insights and data on the sector. His weekly industry newsletter is the most widely read in the international payments market.

Many things have been said about blockchain-based cryptocurrencies in recent years. Like it or not, in 2021 the space made a huge milestone reaching a true competitor to the centralized financial systems as we know them today. These blockchain solutions, also known as DeFi (decentralized finance), are bringing to the front some fresh, user-friendly, and much more efficient financial tools that can easily replace the banks in the future.

However we are still early in the game. Some say blockchain solutions are currently at the same stage of development as the internet was back in 1996. Too early to utilize DeFi tools? could be. But with that being said, it is also a great opportunity to seek the next Google, Amazon and Apple of the blockchain. 

The market correction in May pummeled most cryptocurrency assets. Any time a market corrects is a great opportunity to redesign your portfolio and a great entry point to the space if you haven't jumped in already.

A proper gem should have great fundamentals, a solid team, and preferably a major catalyst that could spark a wave of adoption and a price rally. Here is a list of 9 projects that satisfy some or all of these criteria, which may be worth considering in your cryptocurrency portfolio.

Wanchain

Wanchain is a dedicated network for bridging assets cross-chain between all types of blockchains, powered by Wanchain’s decentralized infrastructure of PoS nodes and the Storeman Group, a permissionless and rotating council of asset swap facilitators. Currently, the Wanchain network can be used to bridge assets between Bitcoin, Ethereum, EOS, the XRP ledger, Binance Smart Chain and the Wanchain ledger itself.

Wanchain is the interoperability engine for DeFi, allowing you to use EOS or Bitcoin on Ethereum, and vice versa. It’s a modular platform that can support virtually any blockchain. The project has been quite under the radar but an upcoming release of X-Rollup may change things. As a much faster, much more interconnected blockchain, Wanchain could become the next Polygon or BSC for DeFi. It already has all the key infrastructure pieces, including the WanSwap DEX, supporting all cross-chain assets, and the WanLend money market.

Though there are no major releases planned for June, the correction may be an excellent opportunity to accumulate a position before everyone else wises up to its potential!

Celer

Celer Network is a project focused on bringing a variety of layer2 solutions like state channels, optimistic rollups and zk-rollups to blockchains like Ethereum, Polkadot and others. State channels are basically like Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, a two-way connection between two peers in a blockchain network that can transact with almost unlimited throughput. Add enough of these channels in a network, and you’ve got yourself a hyper scalable smart contract network. Recently, the project also turned its focus to innovative rollup architectures.

The project recently released a revolutionary product, layer2.finance. The platform allows you to access DeFi projects like Compound, Aave and Curve while staying in Celer’s unique layer-two solution. The system “brings L2 to DeFi” and thus doesn’t require them to deploy new versions on its chain. You just need to pay the deposit fee once, and then benefit from nearly free transactions. 

The team has been quietly working on it in the test phase, but soon the floodgates will open. That is bound to take the community by surprise, reflecting well on the project as a whole.

Metis

Metis is a newcomer to the scaling arena offering a decentralized optimistic rollup architecture. Not many people know that these rollups are usually operated by very centralized entities. Though nobody can steal any money, these operators have immense power in terms of front-running transactions and MEV. In addition, the weakness of the implementation means that other providers must introduce a one week delay period for withdrawals.

Metis fixes all this by creating a decentralized network of sequencers, backed by Decentralized Autonomous Companies (DAC). The DAC is a blockchain-native company, which can set its own rules and permissions. By creating a DAC-based ecosystem of rollup operators, the architecture can be made more decentralized and thus accommodate a much shorter fraud proof window.

Metis has been flying low so far, but its design could be a gamechanger for Ethereum L2s. Mainnet release is scheduled for Q3 2021, around the same time as everyone else. In the meantime, this could be a great chance to take a look at its token, METIS.

Edgeware

Edgeware is one of the most promising Polkadot parachains, the components of the Polkadot network where most of the activity will take place. You can think of them as customizable shards in a future Ethereum 2.0, only deployed now.

Edgeware specializes in DAO and community building, being governed by the community of EDG holders, and it’s one of few projects that really deliver on this.

Like other parachains, it accepts both EVM and Wasm code, meaning that developers have full access to the full scale of blockchain development tools.

Best of all, it’s already seeing some significant traction from projects, for example the dTrade derivatives exchange. Like all Polkadot projects, Edgeware is waiting for parachain slot auctions on Polkadot to activate. In the meantime there’s Hedgeware, its Kusama cousin, which should be launched soon now that there’s finally a roadmap for Kusama parachain auctions. This should make for a very interesting June for Edgeware and the rest of the Polkadot projects.

QAN Platform

QAN is another recently launched but promising project. The QAN platform is a quantum-resistant blockchain designed to be as familiar and performant as possible. The project occupies the niche of hybrid blockchains that can be both private and public depending on necessity. This means that enterprises and other companies can create a private network for their own needs, but they’re still able to connect to a public blockchain network to transact with other tokens and blockchains.

QAN has launched recently and its network is still in closed beta. But prospective developers can get started with coding smart contracts right away. A major benefit of QAN is that it supports standard Rust and many other types of languages compiling to Wasm. This means that any developer coming in to code only needs to learn a few specific libraries, not a whole new language. This makes QAN a much more promising platform for new developers, so its potential is limitless.

XinFin

XinFin is another hybrid blockchain project with a heavy focus on enterprise. The platform is a fork of J.P. Morgan’s abandoned Quorum project, which was itself based on Ethereum. XinFin uses a proof of stake mechanism called XDPoS, which guarantees very high performance. It’s basically an enterprise Ethereum on steroids, with full support for the EVM and Solidity as well.

XinFin places much more emphasis on its enterprise side, and a recent partnership with R3 made XinFin into Corda’s window into public blockchains. Partnerships with companies like Travala and XcelTrip are just some of the ways the blockchain could be used in the real world. The team is active and the project is expanding, and a truly ground-breaking partnership could be just around the corner, making this an interesting project for a “wait and see” approach. Cook Finance

Cook Finance is one of the newer protocols that recently came out through an IDO. While the quality of these projects is generally questionable, Cook Finance stands out as an exception. For starters, it’s an originally developed protocol, instead of forking some other successful project. The project offers a decentralized platform for performing cross-chain asset management. The protocol allows anyone to create strategies for earning yield, which can be used passively by the Cook community. Fund managers have complete freedom in creating strategies and deploy them on multiple blockchains. Strategies can range from simple yield farming aggregation to advanced index funds and derivative-based trading systems. The platform recently launched liquidity mining, allowing anyone to deposit Uniswap pool tokens to earn COOK. Though Cook is not the most original platform out there, it shines due to its team’s ability to adapt, showing good marketing prowess. Compared to the others in this list, it is extremely undervalued at an approximate circulating market cap of less than $2 million.

Premia Finance

Premia Finance is an extremely promising platform for trading decentralized options. As you may have heard from the Wall Street Bets stories, options are a derivative that let you gain leveraged exposure on an asset while risking a much smaller part of your portfolio. Depending on what you buy, it’s not uncommon to have a 30-to-1 risk/reward ratio. The caveat is that you need to get the timing of the price move exactly right.

Options are a very promising new tool for trading crypto, and in traditional finance it’s a multi-billion dollar market. Premia has a wide selection of assets and has a deployment on BSC to ensure low fees. The platform has a slick interface and it’s very intuitive, which should make a mainstay of DeFi options, unlike many other platforms that are much more limited in asset selection.

JigStack

JigStack is a pretty innovative project that aims to create a DeFi investment DAO. Essentially, STAK token holders would act like investors in a venture capital fund and earn returns from the fund’s activity. This was a similar concept to The DAO, the original organization that aimed to invest in projects on behalf of the Ethereum community. The DAO hack quickly put an end to those plans, but that was an issue of poor smart contract security and not the concept itself.

JigStack wants to recreate something similar to the original DAO, potentially going outside of the realm of crypto as well. Owning the STAK token is akin to holding equity in an investment fund, and it’s a great way to make specialization work: instead of wasting time trying to figure out the best projects to invest in, you delegate this to specialists. 

JigStack also offers a bunch of interesting side products like the Lemonade IDO platform, and it’s a rapidly evolving project that shows great potential

ETH + ERC-20 token wallet with an encrypted chat and built-in blockchain explorer. - Full control of private keys and wallet access.- Store hundreds of ERC20 tokens.- Transact as easily as sending a message.- Choose USD, EUR, GBP as a base currency.- View transaction status real-time without leaving the app.We are building the world’s best cryptocurrency and token wallet that will become the dashboard for your digital life. The goal of the Pillar Project is to return control over personal data back to its rightful owner - you.Starting with an open-source wallet to store, transact, and track cryptocurrencies and tokens, the Pillar Wallet will evolve into a decentralised, personal data-management platform.Learn about Pillar Project and join the movement!

HomepageFollowSign inGet startedPriyab SatoshiBlockedUnblockFollowFollowingJul 15, 2017ICO Review — Pillar ProjectSummarySymbol PLRCrowdsale opening date 15 July 2017Crowdsale closing date 17 July 2017Country of origin SwitzerlandPlatform for the ICO EthereumMy ViewThis project has a big vision to address issue like data security, privacy, seamless integration of various service and actions using Blockchain and Smart contracts. But this project does not reflect to be an original idea but rather an amalgamation of various ideas. The idea tries to put into action the ideas that were envisioned by David Siegel in his book Pull. While the vision is from 2000 and the book was published in 2009 but implementation using smart contracts and blockchain is something which I feel many projects & ICOs are implementing in different capacity.My biggest concern is that PLR or pillar token which is a ERC20 token based on Ethereum platform is pinned as the underlying token for paying or accessing services in the Pillar ecosystem but ERC20 has a major issue of getting trapped in smart contract addresses where it is not intended to go because of which ERC23 token has been mooted. Also, Ethereum platform is itself facing scalability issues with so many ICO projects making as its basic platform of transaction. Now given the kind of scalability that Pillar wants to bring, would not it have been prudent to create an entirely a new ecosystem as Tezos or even peg their platform on ETC platform that Corion does.Another major issue is the vagueness in the way they want to build the team, the kind of value proposition they are providing to the token investors. While there are talks of building a community, the only social interaction that they have during the token-sale is a Telegram channel, Facebook page, twitter handle and many Youtube videos and pages which is their major medium of outreach. Today one of the key mediums for any standard ICO is to either have a Slack channel or Telegram Group chat through which they can help clarify all their issues and points.Much of their ideas rests on the Pillar wallet which seems more like a clone of Lykke wallet and from their public commit also it seems the pillar github account just started from April and some of the github repos like 2020 ICO makes me wonder if the focus was more to develop an ICO for Twenty Thirty rather than pillar platform.Again, these are my personal observations and may not mean anything if their product development is in progress in backdrop.Who should Invest?As the key value proposition of this token is as the transaction token for pillar platform, hence currently the only value of this token is for speculative trading or for those investors who buy into the idea of Pillar platform.Key HighlightsProblemOur data is getting more and more concentrated in the hands of a few large institutions. Many of the Big Internet companies use the user data to monetize huge gains.Following are some key issues with the current landscape related to User Data management & privacy:Users do not have control over their own data and protect privacy.Current internet companies do not provide diversity, pluralism and a right to choose.There is concentration of data in a few proprietary platforms.VisionThe Pillar Project wants to solver the above problems give people a better, safer digital experience:They have two main objectives:Replace accounts with atomic ownershipReplace apps with servicesBy launching a meta-token, they are telling consumers they will have a single interface into their digital lives.OverviewThe Pillar project is the brainchild of David Siegel, whose 2010 book, “Pull”, described a future with no apps and with the personal data locker at the center of your life. Twenty Thirty, a Swiss blockchain company, is behind this project to create a next-generation wallet known as “THE PERSONAL DATA LOCKER” which is designed to converge Wallets, browsers, and exchanges into a single platform designed to hold all your assets and become your personal digital assistant powering all the devices.PlatformPersonal data lockerPersonal data locker puts your assets on the blockchain and the private key is in your control so you do not have to rely on third party or worry about data theft. Personal data locker does not consist of apps but it provides information and services for all aspects of your life.Atomic ownership of private keys means that personal data, currencies, and assets are not held or controlled by any third party. Only you have the keys to this data. If you lose your keys, your data or value is lost (there are several ways to help consumers manage their keys safely).Accounts involve logging in and creating an account with a company you must trust to back up and safeguard your data, including credit-card info, passwords, etc.. If your account is compromised, you lose your data, identity, or value.Pillar Multi-chain WalletPillar is a next generation wallet can store all important data, information of users at one spot. All the different things a person may need for his day to day life will come at his finger tips and on a digital dashboard in the pillar wallet. Pillar wallet commands requests from the web via smart contracts on the blockchain so giving you an ease of no more logins or remembering several passwords or downloading several different apps.Pillar Multichain Wallet has the following features:Multi-chain: able to see hundreds of kinds of tokens and coins.Open source.Not tied to any one browser.Not tied to any one exchange — you can choose your exchange.Easy for software companies to incorporate into their systems.Both on desktop and mobile.Stand-alone and OEM.They will upgrade the multi chain Pillar wallet to an exchange platform, escrow messaging, browser etc. In future Pillar wallet, will expose APIs using which users can put buy-sell order and exchanges will compete to provide the best rate. And also, they want to make Pillar wallet smart contract aware in which one can search new smart contracts and using smart contracts and blockchain one can perform many actions of their life seamlessly.Pillar TokenThe native utility token for Pillar ecosystem is the Pillar Token which is a ERC20 token based on Ethereum Blockchain. Users will pay for the various services with pillar tokens (PLRs) as they use them. Also in future, they want to integrate with Brave Browser and exchanges and pay for using pillar tokens.Key FocusThe focus is to create a stack that has many usable layers that can complete the vision of pillar project to create a complete ecosystem by integrating around the pillar wallet.TokensaleThe Token Sale will take place over 60 hours, on July 15, 2017.(a) US IP addresses are blocked from the ICO sale.(b) There will be 800 mil tokens issued and 70% will be for sale to the public (560 mil).The minimum raise will be around $8 million, set ahead of the sale and priced in ether (approximately 80 million tokens).The target is $30 million at the sale-time price.The cap will be 528 million tokens.Allocation24 million (3%) will be used to pay people who helped with the sale and will be locked up for 9 months in a smart contract.80 million (10%) will go to Twenty Thirty AG and will be locked up for 9 months in a smart contract.120 million (15%) will be reserved for liquidity, later sale, giving to entrepreneurs to build on the system, contests, or transfer to a consortium.More details in https://pillarproject.io/terms/Benefits to Token HoldersThe pillar token along with Pillar wallet can be used to access various services of the Pillar platform and ecosystem.RoadmapExecutionThe following are key aspects of their execution plan:Team Building — An open initiative without focus on resumes but as a community building exercise with focus on generalists.Architecture — They want to keep a fluid and flexible architectureFoundation: Collaboration — They plan to collaborate with various projects and groups to collaborate in cryptocurrency space.Data Conversion — Develop a flexible API & a semantic intuitive integration platform which helps external applications integrate into pillar platform.Data Security — Create a access platform using Pillar wallet for external application based on the concept of least privilege.Budget ProjectionsApproximate Budget Projections:TeamDavid Siegel, founder (Switzerland)Vitor Py, founder (Brazil)Tomer Sofinzon, founder (Israel)Yogesh Gaikwad, founder (India)The team will be based in London to start and project will have its own P&L which will be available on the project’s web site and updated monthly.ConclusionThis project has a great potential to impact e-Government services, identity, defense and security, wealth management, employment etc and other high valued verticals. But it remains to be seen how much of the pillar platform reaches some of its big goals that it has setup given that the vesting for the founding team is only 9 months and there is not much clarity on the creation of the team to build the actual product.But again, the best thing about this project is its vision and the way the focus on agility and community participation to build the pillar ecosystem. That is one of the key reasons I am sure many will be part of this ICO. The ICO is realistic about their future roadmap that while they have big goals to achieve, being agile is the key and given there are rapid changes in the Blockchain ecosystem to give an inflexible plan will not be correct. Also by promising to help to setup a Blockchain hub in London they are adding a great value to one of the most important financial centers of the world and I am sure Pillar project will help bring some of the best future innovations by building upon existing platforms if executed properly.ReferenceWebsiteBlogWhitepaperFacebookTwitterTelegram chatGithubBlockchainEthereumICOReviewPillarOne clap, two clap, three clap, forty?By clapping more or less, you can signal to us which stories really stand out.71BlockedUnblockFollowFollowingPriyab SatoshiFollowCRYPT BYTES TECHArticles on ICO, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Fin-Tech, Security & Cryptography. If you like the blog then please help support the publication via https://www.patreon.com/cryptbytestech. You can join to chat with me at https://t.me/joinchat/E-6WAkQsiIyJ2tQ4423hrA.71Never miss a story from CRYPT BYTES TECH, when you sign up for Medium. Learn moreNever miss a story from CRYPT BYTES TECHGet updatesGet updates .u-resetSpectrum .u-baseColor--placeholderNormal ::-webkit-input-placeholder {color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2980392156862745);} .u-resetSpectrum .u-baseColor--placeholderNormal ::-moz-placeholder {color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2980392156862745);} .u-resetSpectrum .u-baseColor--placeholderNormal :-ms-input-placeholder {color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2980392156862745);}

4th pillar technologies is developing blockchain-based solutions to help any type of entity or corporation to impulse its digital transformation. The team developed a working eDelivery protocol and a digital identity mechanism that allows the exchange of sensitive data and documents in a safe and cheaper way.

This is our 18 page presentation about 4th Pillar Technologies. If you are a mobile user, we recommend you to turn your screen sideways.

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Research by Jonathan Habicht, Simon Dedic, Joao Leite and Igor Davidov.

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Ecosystem Zoom Out Ep. 2 Pillar & ShapeShift As the Pillar Platform grows its ecosystem of products, services and breakthrough technical integrations, we want to celebrate and showcase the minds behind the code. 4 min readEarlier this year we partnered with leading cryptocurrency exchange. A part of our highly anticipated Offers Engine launch, it was one of our most exciting integrations, helping to power our in-app exchange feature. to make the most of the Engine and open up the world of cryptocurrency in just a few convenient steps.We met up with Chase Thompson, ShapeShifts Director of Business Development, to catch up on crypto and bank on the future of blockchain.Who is ShapeShift? It would be hard to find someone in the crypto-sphere who hasnt come across this platform. ShapeShift is a leading blockchain company and online marketplace which gives you the power to seamlessly and securely swap dozens of coins and tokens. ShapeShift started out as one of the first decentralised projects which let people easily swap their cryptocurrencies cross-chain, such as BTC to LTC, while always in full control of their private keys .At the time of its launch, this was still a pretty novel approach, as a large majority of people were trusting their coins to centralised services. As weve seen time and time again with the likes of Mt Gox and all the way through to exchange hacks and exit scams up to just one week ago this always puts your funds at risk.The ShapeShift philosophy is, Not your keys, Not your crypto. Where does Pillar come in? Chase says the ShapeShift team loves partnering with teams like Pillar because we make the most of their developed technology. While you can always use their , the real magic comes alive when the ShapeShift API is plugged into other platforms and wallets, such as Pillars. Thats because we provide user-centric interfaces and experiences, making it not only easy, but also enjoyable to play with crypto.Theres also a lot less room for error if youre using Shapeshift through Pillar Wallet, because you dont have to copy and paste addresses or keys. In fact, you can swap until your thumbs hurt, without ever having to leave the safety of your wallet. Chase says these kinds of partnerships and collaborations are really what drives the industry forward. In fact, partner integrations are critical to ShapeShifts core business, providing lots of transaction volume and spreading the value of crypto further.The ShapeShift team also recently launched their new platform, kickstarting a whole new variety of partnerships. These will enable a range of value-added services that are still difficult for people to navigate today, whether thats predictions markets, lending, borrowing, or similar DeFi tools. These new types of integrations just like our own partnership at Pillar will invite everyone to interact with crypto.Making your tech 99%-proof Chase believes that the industry still has huge usability challenges today and they want to help solve that problem. Building for people who arent strictly developers or tech-savvy is something the industry continues to tackle. If we want to bring more people into the crypto ecosystem, says Chase, we still need to make it much easier to use.Theres many different ways this is being addressed, especially through collaborative efforts. A number of different protocols and interoperability projects are being driven forward by developers and teams throughout the industry worldwide.Beyond that? Scalability continues to be a concern across the entire ecosystem. While theres no timeframe for when this will be solved, were already starting to see some real progress in making these crypto projects and blockchains more scalable.Until we reach those heights, well just keep on BUIDLing and never miss an update again ! Or subscribe to your channel of choice weve got something for everyone., , , , , and.Stay in touch via the .

Cryptocurrencies, like any technology based projects, are constantly evolving and upgrading. Whether it is to keep up with their competitors, enhance security and performance or increase their user base, crypto projects need to advance. And in this regard, a roadmap is the pathway to the expected evolution. This article will focus on the three pillars of the Bitcoin Cash roadmap, and its key stages for the development of the project.Bitcoin Cash (ABC) was spawned in mid-2017 when a group of developers wanted to increase Bitcoin’s block size in order to improve its chances at becoming a transactional currency, as opposed to a store of value. Since the hard fork in August of the same year, the team has continually strived to improve BCH. The corresponding roadmap highlights what is in store for the future of the world’s fourth largest cryptocurrency. There are three pillars of the Bitcoin Cash roadmap, and its contents state:“This roadmap is intended to provide high-level technical direction, and enable different technical teams to work together towards a common goal for advancing Bitcoin Cash. The role of developers in furthering this goal is to produce high-quality professional software that serves the needs of its users, miners and merchants.”The improvements in the roadmap have been broken down into three categories based upon scaling, usability and extensibility. According to bitinfocharts.com there are currently 25 BCH transactions per minute. However, the network can currently handle just over a hundred transactions per second. Nonetheless, the team has lofty ambitions of over 5 million Tx/s which dwarfs even Visa.Instant and secure payments are also high on the list and a target of transaction security within three seconds has been set. An extensible protocol to make future improvements less disruptive is the third pillar of the road map.A number of developments on the scaling side are already underway such as faster block propagation, UTXO commitment and Schnorr signatures. The signature improvement will replace the single sig per transaction method currently used, thus improving scalability. In a nutshell, a single signature will be used for multiple transactions, and this will decrease the block size occupied by one transaction. According to the official website, Schnorr signatures will be part of the May 15 protocol update.Bitcoin ABC 0.19.3 is now released! The Bitcoin Cash protocol is upgrading on May 15th. Prepare today: https://t.co/UbokNjiT97 This release includes more RPC improvements. Check it out! #bitcoincash #bch #bitcoinOver the past couple of months, BCH developers have also been working on a pre-consensus method called Avalanche. In technical terms ,Avalanche is a proof-of-concept consensus algorithm adding Byzantine fault tolerant proofs to the blockchain network, so nodes can differentiate between two conflicting transactions. The system is still experimental at the moment but it is another step on the improvement roadmap for the BCH team. Early testing in February indicated that Avalanche could be up to ten times faster than Ethereum.The pre-consensus developments come under the usability category for BCH improvements. It would vastly advance security for merchants providing almost instant secure verifications. Sighash and CashAddr, new Bitcoin Cash address formats, have already been implemented to the network.Fee improvements and cheaper transactions are a goal for any crypto project if it is to become a dominant form of digital cash. Currently, the average transaction fee is 0.000015 BCH (or $0.0045 USD), so it is already way ahead of rival Bitcoin which is $0.68 on average at the moment.To keep fees low, the BCH team has proposed fractional Satoshis further down the roadmap. This would benefit users in the form of virtually free transactions if the price of crypto assets skyrocketed again. Joannes Vermorel pointed this out in a blog post during the crypto peak in 2017;“Bitcoin Cash needs to be designed in such a fashion that it is possible for mankind to spend less than 0.001% of its whole monetary supply per year in order to transact freely. Over the lifetime of a human, 100 years, the total transaction fees would remain below 0.1% her or his average monetary capital, which feels about right.”Several extensibility improvements have already been made, but more Opcodes are in the pipeline with the ultimate goal of a new transactional format and a complete token economy in the future.The recent squabbles involving the Bitcoin SV chain and its proponents have the negative effect of distraction from the real issues of building a working and usable decentralized crypto currency. The Bitcoin Cash ABC team is still highly focused on this task on taking the digital currency to the next level.The above is to be considered opinion and not investment advice in any way, as an unbiased media, no one interferes with the Editorial content of CryptoInsider.com, writers have freedom to choose their own direction, members of Crypto Insider do not participate in trades based on content. Like what we wrote? Donate to us today so we may continue to write! BTC: 1HozPdTTJahPigLXwMShErhubZLobBhFPL ETH: 0xDf4d2529D777a80717E85Ed2269830ad6265951B LTC: LMT3LCbCSvActkVo4dgzbHjn1HPrCgKch2 BCH: 17sFsLgZq9jibtqi5Bo5SiUcCD4TG8RQwE Crypto Insider is brought to you by Crypto Taco, a blockchain and crypto marketing team.© Crypto Insider 2018 –

Dear Hotbit users,

Hotbit will launch PLR (Pillar) on July 13th

2020.07.13  17: 00 (UTC+8)  opens PLR deposit 

2020.07.13  18: 00 (UTC+8)  opens PLR/USDT, PLR/ETH, PLR/BTC trading pairs

What is PLR ？ Click here for more details 

Risk warning:

The investment on cryptocurrency projects is subject to high market risks. Please make your investments cautiously. Hotbit will make best efforts to choose the cryptocurrency projects with high quality, but Hotbit will not be responsible for any of your investment losses.

Thank you for your support！

PLR >

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TLDR: In the following article, I outline Pillar’s product vision and planned functionality for 2019 starting with larger, long term goals and moving to soon-to-be-released features. The following addresses our intended support for multiple blockchains, smart contract accounts with enhanced security, identity management laying the foundation for the Personal Data Locker and our off-chain first design approach as a way to solve known network scalability and user experience challenges. I also address specific user feedback including enhanced connection functionality, biometric login, Pillar’s in-wallet offers exchange and our upcoming referral program to help drive wallet installs. Much of the following functionality has legal and/or network upgrade contingencies outside of our control and may impact our timeline or priorities accordingly. This list is not intended to be final and we expect there can and will be changes.The Pillar Project recently launched its first product, the Pillar Token Wallet, which lays the foundation for the development of the Pillar personal data management platform and services ecosystem. I am excited to share with you a detailed product vision that will extend upon the token wallet functionality and increase the overall utility of the PLR token and platform.Our first step, driven by strong user demand, is to increase the number of blockchains supported in our wallet. We recently hosted the NEM, Digibyte and Radix teams at our offices in London for a hackathon in order to explore integration with our platform. Due to this collaboration, particularly with the Digibyte team, we have also been evaluating integration of other UTXO coins including Bitcoin, Litecoin, etc. For those unaware, Pillar has developed its own open source blockchain explorer in order to provide increased visibility and functionality for token transfers. The first iteration of our blockchain explorer was focused on the Ethereum network including ERC20 tokens, however, we are now extending support for other standards (ERC721) and blockchains.In order to provide support for multiple blockchains, we need to develop a robust key management system. This will allow user wallets to maintain and control multiple private keys for different blockchains. It also allows wallets to have many different associated Ethereum keys + addresses as well, so that not all funds are stored in a single key and associated with a single address.In the current Pillar Token Wallet design, there is a 1:1 relationship between username and ETH address. Funds are stored directly in private keys and each wallet’s private key is held and maintained locally on device. However, Pillar is working to upgrade all wallets to smart contract-based accounts.Utilizing smart contracts for user accounts provides numerous security and functionality benefits. Specifically, it will allow user funds to be stored in a contract while the private key lives separately on a user’s device. This highly reduces the vulnerability of complete loss by separating funds and keys. Smart contracts also allow users to enable multi-signature protection, set daily spending limits, require secondary confirmation for large transfers or set up (learn) security parameters to flag and hold any strange transfer requests (automagically).The need for a proper key management system is also driven by the goal to offer our users a federated identity solution. The concept of owning your own data means the ability to store, access and manage your information as you determine. The advent of blockchain has facilitated this possibility by providing a root of trust and allowing for the fluid movement of identity without the need for each platform acting as a centralized custodian. The Pillar wallet will act as a decentralized key manager allowing each user to control which aspects of their identity to assign, store and share for a particular use. In the past, society has often thought of identity as an all-encompassing concept. With decentralization, we can enable each user to create and manage their identity through a series of independent, decentralized identifiers known as DIDs. By doing so, we will allow for separation of identity, persona, and context.Each account will include a wallet-specific smart contract that maintains all logic with multiple underlying persona-specific proxy contracts to manage identity. All contract accounts will have a primary username with numerous associated personas. Users will be able to independently associate specific personal information, contacts and functionality (recovery, limits, etc) with each persona. Each persona is managed by its own proxy contract that holds the state and interacts with the root, wallet contract. At a user level, this provides easy control of all funds without needing to manage separate wallets specific to each persona. Personas are designed to represent separate, blanket identity associations allowing a user to easily manage related groups of contacts (i.e. family, friends, coworkers, etc.)One key security benefit of smart contract accounts is the ability to set up social recovery. Users can empower known Pillar contacts, hardware wallets, or third party service agents with limited permissions to help with account recovery should something go wrong. Even missing your phone and seed phrase, it would now be possible to recover your wallet and funds completely. You could even provide permission to social contacts to lock a wallet account in the case of emergency. In general, a user will be able to set varying permission levels for any proxy contract that may interact with their wallet account.As users begin to build out their personas and associated identities, a decentralized data storage solution will be required in order to allow for backup and easy recovery of personal information. That said, its particularly important that Pillar utilize an off-chain storage solution as any information that is stored on-chain will be publicly exposed forever. While permanent and public transaction data is one of the core benefits of blockchain technology, it has the potential to circumvent identity platforms that are designed to preserve privacy. With the growth of machine learning, the ability to analyze publicly-available blockchain data for correlations is becoming easier and more prevalent. This approach can be used to expose an individual’s identity and tie it to transactions or other blockchain events such as dapp login and usage.In order to satisfy user storage needs, but protect from such potential threats, Pillar will offer a user-managed, cloud-based storage solution based on 3box. 3box is an open source data storage solution for web3 that allows end users to manage their public and private information on the decentralized web. User data is stored on IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) and managed via OrbitDB. Each user’s information including personal identifiers, chat history, etc. will be encrypted with access available only to the account with the correct private key and/or authorized permission. Users will be able to easily backup and share their information without compromising privacy.On-chain data not only presents challenges from an identity and privacy perspective, but also when it comes to general network health and scaling as well. It is the goal of many dapps and blockchain projects including Pillar to achieve millions of users similar to the popular web2 applications of today. However, as evidenced most famously by the launch, success and resulting network congestion caused by the release of Cryptokitties, the Ethereum network is not yet capable of supporting millions of concurrent, on-chain users for even a single decentralized application, let alone many.Solving network scalability problems also directly solve usability challenges as well. As anyone who has ever tried to purchase or acquire cryptocurrencies knows, it is not a very intuitive experience. Navigating the current web3 requires a moderate understanding of decentralization and how blockchains operate, as well as the importance of private key ownership and choosing the right wallet solution. Even more confusing, you need to own ETH in order to use it or any tokens/collectibles that operate on the Ethereum network. Taking an off-chain first design approach, we can solve many of these challenges and offer a better overall user experience.With the upcoming Ethereum blockchain fork, one of the specific improvement protocols being adopted is EIP 1014, also known as CREATE2. CREATE2 is primarily designed to solve scalability problems and enable Layer2 solutions, however, one additional benefit is the ability for developers to pre-determine and reserve smart contract addresses without actually deploying them on-chain.Once the fork is complete and CREATE2 is live, Pillar wallets will be able to come standard with smart-contract based accounts that start off-chain. Users will be able to transact with others, set up account recovery and more all before the contract is actually live. As James Young notes, “CREATE2 makes contract addresses as easy to generate as keys,” which provides much greater functionality and lower risk to novice users. Users no longer have to immediately concern themselves with private key security as Pillar can directly act as a recovery agent should a user lose access.Pillar will offer the option to act as a centralized recovery agent for new accounts, however, users will still retain primary control over their funds with the ability to remove access keys and take complete control over their account at any point. Any attempt by Pillar (or any other limited-permission key holder for that matter) to access or move user funds will prompt a permission request to the primary account holder. At that point, the user can choose to revoke access, remove Pillar’s control of the account, and have complete self-custody.It is important to keep in mind that every user is different and if we hope to onboard millions to the world of direct, personal data ownership, Pillar needs to facilitate an onboarding experience and security options that users are familiar with. CREATE2 provides Pillar with a valuable tool to allow users to choose their level of comfort and engagement until they understand the risks involved and are ready to take complete control over key management. Most importantly, it allows for an onboarding and application experience that lives entirely off chain, solving network scalability challenges and providing a path for mass adoption/usage. Contract deployment can be delayed until users accrue enough value in their wallet without preventing them from engaging in asset transfers with the rest of the Pillar ecosystem.With a solution for off-chain account creation provided by CREATE2, we can easily provide a path for off-chain transactions as well. Most users have been conditioned to expect immediate payment confirmation for digital money transfers, however, truly decentralized blockchains are slow due to requiring block confirmation. Users also do NOT expect to pay transaction fees as the cost to operate traditional payment networks are generally absorbed by the service provider, however, it costs gas to maintain a decentralized network like Ethereum. These are two major hurdles in the path to mass adoption of cryptocurrencies as a competitive digital payment alternative.State channels in their basic form are simply private payment channels. Two users agree to stake a certain amount of cryptocurrency or tokens to a mutually shared smart contract. They can now transfer funds back and forth, drawing from each’s staked contract value. They can keep this channel open as long as they want. Transactions occur off-chain, so they are not subject to network fees (gas). They also happen instantly because they do not require confirmation from miners. At any time, either party can choose to close the channel and withdraw the funds from the original smart contract. Once a party requests to close a channel, they send a message to print the final balance to the blockchain. Any dispute that may arise is handled by a challenge period. The challenge period can be for any duration, but is generally suggested at a week in order to provide enough time for each party to submit their most recent transaction record. The most recent transaction would be seen as correct and have the final say in the dispute. All individual transactions between the two parties remain private. It is only the final total that is made public when submitted on-chain. This would be the digital equivalent of opening a bar tab, spending freely and then closing the tab only when you are ready to leave the establishment.By acting as a state channel hub, Pillar can allow all of its users and service providers to open payment channels with each other without being directly involved or knowing the specific balance of each. State channels will provide a way for users to transact assets with connections instantly, privately and for free (until the channel is closed and gas is required to print the final balance on chain). Additionally, in a robust ecosystem full of users and services, like the one we are building at Pillar, there is much less of an incentive to close a channel.Pillar also wants to make on-chain transactions as easy as possible for our wallet owners and specifically incentivize PLR token ownership and use. Instead of having to pay for gas using ETH, Pillar is developing a relayer network, based on EIP 1613, that will incentivize the payment of network fees in PLR instead. Pillar will operate the first initial relayer, but will invite third parties to also offer relay services in order to cultivate a competitive market with multiple providers.Relayers will post their fee, denominated in PLR, in order to handle the gas costs required to post a transaction on-chain. Upon agreement, relays will accept a signed transaction + PLR fee from the user, wrap the signed message in ETH to cover the gas, and send a successful confirmation message back to the user ensuring that the transaction will be posted without waiting for the block to be mined. Failed transactions are quickly identified and the user is notified. At that point, users can then choose a different relay. Performance will be tracked and allow users to select a relay based on reputation, as well as price.A smart contract that acts a relay registrar, known as a RelayHub, will be deployed in order to manage all offers and transactions between relayers and users. In order to participate, all relayers will be required to stake ETH in order to prevent denial of service or censorship attacks. In the words of TabooKey, the team behind EIP 1613, “Honest relays will earn fees and dishonest relays will lose their stake. The network is censorship resistant as long as there is at least one honest relay.”The addition of a relayer network will allow for a more intuitive user experience, while also increasing the overall utility of the PLR token. More relayers increase the decentralization of our platform and also offer an additional layer of transaction obfuscation and privacy. A decentralized relayer network provides a great business opportunity for third-parties to offer a valuable and needed service to Pillar wallet users.Although these are our stated long term goals, due to the reliance on network upgrades, potential regulatory restrictions and more, we cannot make any guarantees. We do, however, promise to continue pushing forward building the best product possible for our community and customers given a constantly changing legal landscape and market conditions.Now that I have shared a bit of the longer term vision and goals for the Pillar Project in the coming year, allow me to touch on some of the more immediate updates that you can expect coming soon to a wallet near you.First and foremost, we are working hard to expand the wallet’s existing social connection management features. In the near future, users will now have the ability to mute, block and delete connections. While this is normally rather simple application functionality to implement, we hold user privacy to the highest standard. As such, it has been important for us to design and implement a system wherein Pillar does not retain specific connection details while still allowing our users to easily manage their contact list. The Pillar connection database is based on decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and is obfuscated in such a way that we cannot tell which users are connected to which. Sorry over-reaching government agency, we couldn’t tell you user connections details even if we wanted to (we don’t). We have also begun to explore group chat functionality as we know this will be a huge benefit to our users and community.We are currently working to support the ERC721 token standard in order for users to store and manage crypto collectibles or non-fungible tokens (NFTs) directly in wallet. We believe there is massive potential for NFTs across multiple use cases including art, game assets, digital collectibles, financial instruments like mortgages or invoices and more. Our first step will be implementation of the Opensea.io API, which will allow us to easily fetch a variety of non-fungible ERC721 assets to display in Pillar wallets.Our current wallet users are familiar with many of the social features that we have chosen to develop in order to make the crypto experience more intuitive including easy asset transfer via usernames (vs. alphanumeric address strings), encrypted chat based on Signal protocol and more. Our next step is to provide a fun way to earn achievements and establish reputation. Our first implementation of collectibles will come in the form of badges. Users will be rewarded for engaging in certain actions (wallet creation, back up, first transaction, etc.), being a part of a particular community (Pillar development team, community ambassadors, beta testers, etc) and more. These badges will live as non-transferrable collectibles tied to a specific username allowing users to signal reputation and share accolades with their contacts. Not only does this provide a fun gamification layer to wallet usage, but we believe it will help to prevent malicious actors from impersonating, scamming or phishing other users. Welcome to the Game of Badges!Another feature that our users have been requesting is biometric login and transaction signing instead of the current pin code implementation. We have already started development on this and expect to have it completed shortly. Users will now be able to quickly and easily unlock their wallet using thumbprint or face ID instead of needing to type in their pin every time — a particularly useful update for those consistently using the encrypted wallet chat functionality.Next up, Pillar is collaborating with Pedro Gomes to integrate the new and improved WalletConnect. WalletConnect is an open protocol for connecting desktop dapps to mobile wallets using end-to-end encryption by scanning a QR code. Instead of using cumbersome and confusing browser extensions like MetaMask to sign transactions, users will now be able to use their Pillar wallet directly. Users should also never enter their private key in order to engage with dapps and WalletConnect is the solution. After much feedback and research, Pedro has decided to update the WalletConnect protocol in order to increase security, privacy, offer push notifications and more. It also extends the use of WalletConnect from dapp-to-wallet to include wallet-to-wallet connections, as well as eCommerce and point-of-sale transactions as well. Pillar is excited to be among one of the first mobile wallets to integrate the new and improved WalletConnect implementation.I know that many of you have been patiently waiting for the integration of an exchange directly within the wallet. As you can imagine, the challenges in offering this functionality are primarily driven by legal and jurisdictional complications. That said, we have been working hard on a solution and have already started testing a proof of concept for quick and easy token transfers.The Pillar wallet exchange model is more accurately described as a decentralized offers engine and operates very similar to that of Shapeshift where users control their private keys at all times. When purchasing, users will first choose a base currency or token, then select the token they wish to buy. They will be presented with offers from pre-qualified market makers based on their parameters. When a user accepts an offer, the transfer is executed. In the case of a sale, a user sends a specific token and the market maker sends back the appropriate amount of purchased tokens based on the offered exchange rate. There will be multiple market makers placing buy/sell offers on the exchange with Pillar’s sister company, 2030, acting as the first. Initially, all offers will be market orders, but we expect to offer limit orders in the future as well.In order to use the exchange, users will need to pay a subscription fee in Pillar tokens. We anticipate this fee to initially start at roughly one pound or euro per month. When the subscription runs out, users will be asked to renew, otherwise, they will no longer be able to utilize the exchange functionality. That said, it will always be free to purchase PLR tokens in ETH (but not the other way around). Pillar will waive all fees associated with users buying PLR tokens. We will also never take a cut of the spread.Due to legal advice and the tenuous nature of crypto regulations, we intend to enforce Know Your Customer (KYC) rules including basic identity verification before users can trade through our exchange. This KYC process will also satisfy the requirement of other regulated/institutional services offered in the Pillar wallet. All personal information will live under the user’s control and will only be shared when required and at the user’s discretion. For legal compliance reasons particularly regional restrictions, we cannot guarantee that all users will have access to the exchange. This is still being evaluated.Last, but not least, its time to start spreading the word! What better way than by rewarding our users and their friends for trying out what we believe to be the most intuitive mobile wallet available on the market. We will shortly be introducing a referral program that will reward users for inviting others and those who sign up to create a new account.Pillar is partnering with Volcà to offer a linkdrop referral program which allows users to invite others using just a link. Linkdrops are similar to airdrops except that the receiver does not actually need to have a wallet. Claim links unique to each user will be generated in wallet and shared in any form a user chooses — text, email, skywriting, etc. prompting the receiver to install the Pillar wallet and create an account. Specific reward details and how to participate will be announced shortly. We hope that you are as excited as we are to spread the word about the current Pillar wallet and all of the new, upcoming features, but a few extra PLR couldn’t hurt, eh?It is important to emphasize that Pillar is an open source project and we intend to work with many of the talented researchers, developers, designers and overall smart minds across the blockchain and decentralized identity industries. A special shout out and big thank you to the following teams and people for their contributions and support in helping us to realize our vision so far:Tarmac, E-Bros, HackerOne, Zimbani, iMAS, NEM, Digibyte, Radix, uPort, 3box, OpenSea, Volcà, the MetaCartel, IPFS, OrbitDB, James Young, Pet3rpan, Pedro Gomes + WalletConnect, Yoav Weiss + TabooKey, and of course the entire Pillar team and community — particularly our ambassadors!Applied Research + Product Strategy @ PillarProject.ioWe are building on open-source cryptocurrency and token wallet that grows into your personal data locker. #PersonalData #Decentralization #Blockchain. https://pillarproject.io

Introducing The 3 Pillars of aUseful Blockchain 5 min readBlockchain in general seems to suffer from a problem of not being useful despite the best efforts of numerous well funded groups and foundations really the only things that tokens are being used for is to:Exchange as the price goes up and down. This would be BTC (Bitcoin)and nearly everything elseFuel SmartContracts to Easily mint new tokens such as ERC-20 and BEP2 standardsExchange tokens that facilitate the exchange of A+BSo, we are basically still at square one as we were 10 years ago when BTC was born with little to no practical innovation except that these coins being easier to mint and trade.The Ethereum Foundation has made amazing strides to attempt real-life adoption but any attempt at scale on a massive shared public network quickly gets squashed when it becomes apparent that high value financial transactions such as coin speculation, gambling and pseudo-gambling (CryptoKitties, etc) will always capture network resources over low value transactions such as tracking thousands of points in a supply chain.So, the answer for making blockchain useful besides buying and selling coins- lays in the single word of predictability. For useful work to be done on a blockchain at scale, the operators need to know exactly: How much it will cost today and for that matter how much will it cost in one month or one year.What is the speed this transaction will be executed and am I guaranteed to have this transaction executed.If these two points can be guaranteed, then we can be in business. Now there are existing technologies which allow these and they are called private blockchains or as some like to describe them as glorified databases but the point of a blockchain is to secure the trust of counter-parties to effectively manufacture a trustless environment.This brings us to the solution of Unification and the Hybrid Blockchain, merging the best of both worlds to effectively scale Distributed Ledger Technology (Blockchain) to Enterprises and then the masses. Technical note: the core Unification technology is a fork of the Ethereum technology, modified for scaling and enterprise usage.How this is implemented practically can be in three different forms which we will attempt to explain in most simple terms. These methods are BEACONS, WKRCHAINS and TOKENFORGE which we will now discuss in detail to determine which solution is best for your entity.BEACONS Plainly put, a Beacon is a plugin that you add to your existing database structure (AWS, Oracle, MySQL etc..) that will periodically (every few seconds to hours depending on configuration) take a snapshot of this database and reduce this snapshot to a 48 character one-way encryption key which represents the entire database. We call this a BEACON and it is then uploaded to the Public Unification Blockchain for forever keeping.The advantage here is it requires no restructure or change to existing structures but provides an immutable security tracker to ensure that the database was not maliciously tampered with. For example, an evil administrator could quietly and retroactively change records and erase his tracks a BEACON prevents this as it would result in a mismatch and security alert.A BEACON can be a highly useful and low-touch way to start exploring the industry but obviously is only for very specific cases for a more wider approach, many entities are implementing what we call WRKChains.WRKChain or, Work Reconciliation Key Chain, are semi-private consortium blockchains. WRKChain was designed so that the deploying agent gets to select the initial validators in the network. A practical example would be: there is a consortium of insurance companies who want to share some data with one another to prevent multi-billing fraud, but also needed to not give away the farm and maintain a competitive distance with certain details.In this case, the consortium would come together and agree to each host a node on the WRKChain. All of the heavy lifting would be done by this private consortium, but periodically their conclusions would then be timestamped and sent to the immutable public UND Mainchain. This situation ensures the following:Data speed and cost is controlled in a private environment meaning that for each transactions/query- there is no public blockchain being accessed or fee to be paid as all the Tx happen privately within the consortium.The actual cost occurs when the conclusion (headers of each block produced) is sent to the public Mainchain and this cost is fixed and predictable.The usefulness of a WRKChain is for when there needs to be trust created in a trustless environment typical examples will be supply chains and industry consortiums.A WRKChain is typically a closed environment that does not require a token. When a client believes that a token may be required, we direct them to the 3rd pillar of Blockchain, the TOKENFORGE.TOKENFORGE may have the qualities of a WRKChain where it is run by a trustless pool of peers or it may be de facto centralized however, the key element of TokenForge is it allows two distinct types of tokenization:Fungible Tokenization This is when all tokens are the same- so for example, Bitcoin is considered fungible where 1 Bitcoin always equals 1 Bitcoin. Applications like this typically find ground in government/institutional issued/backed stable coins and for tokenization of loyalty points/in-game currency for consumer endeavors.Non-Fungible Tokenization This can be executed in conjunction with Fungible Tokenization but follows the premise that a unique asset exists on the blockchain so for example a piece of fine art or real estate could be tokenized and shares of this token subdivided and sold; another example would be in-game items, such as a magic sword where only one unique copy of that asset exists. This would allow the player to immutable own and transfer this item beyond the confines of the game.Now it should be stated clearly that the above use cases can theoretically be implemented on the public Ethereum Blockchain (via ERC20/721 standards) however as described at the beginning of the article, the public Ethereum chain is not suitable for a production environment because each Tx will require holding and spending ETH for every single user. For example; to transfer your magic sword would require holding the 3rd party currency of ETH and be subject to price and gas fluctuation.TOKENForge and WRKChains are based in the Ethereum codebase designed by Ethereum engineers but are made to be scalable and usable in a production environment by Unification. We consider these not a competitor, but rather an evolution.This article should be considered a primer or a calling card to the possibility of blockchain for your organization. There are numerous configurations and use cases not discussed in this article, that can be explored on the enterprise section of the If you would like to speak to one of our discovery engineers you can visit or email hello@unification.com to schedule a presentation where we can go over some of the other use-cases and implementations to discover which path is right for your cause.Connect With Unification One Pager WhitePaper Twitter http:// Telegram GitHub

Twenty Thirty (https://2030.io/), a Swiss blockchain innovation company, has launched the Pillar project (http://pillarproject.io), which will raise money through a Token Sale on Saturday July 15 2017 to create the next-generation crypto wallet. The Pillar Wallet will hold people’s assets and become their personal digital assistant powering all of their devices. The Pillar project is the brainchild of David Siegel, whose 2010 book, Pull (Penguin), described a future with no apps and with the personal data locker at the centre of people’s lives.  David Siegel, a serial entrepreneur and business expert who spent 20 years in Silicon Valley said, “There are a lot of platforms now, and those platforms mostly belong to companies.  But what if you had your own secure personal platform?  What if you had a digital assistant that did everything for you without having to go to each app, log in, and work within that silo?  And what if no company owned that platform?” The Pillar project will start as an open-source digital wallet to hold all assets – health records, financial records, money, ownership of things, resume, and much more.  All the ownership will be on various blockchains, with an individual’s password, replacing numerous accounts.  Then, the personal assistant will help find what people are looking for and interact with many digital services automatically.  As people travel, buy things, eat, consume media, use services – the personal data locker will pay its way ‘as you go’, without having to log into hundreds of apps. The Pillar system will use its own native utility token, called the pillar (symbol: PLR).  The pillar is a meta-token.  As David Siegel says, “The current Token Sale craze means that tokens are going to be everywhere, used for everything from identity to energy to coffee to golf. “The Pillar wallet manages all those tokens for you ‘automagically,’ so you only see and deal with pillars, even though there could be hundreds of tokens underneath.  By launching a meta-token, we’re telling consumers they will have a single interface into their digital lives. “We’re starting with a wallet, but we’re aiming for iOS and Android. Look at your phone – all your apps are miniature desktop apps that trap your data and keep your credit-card number on their servers.  The apps don’t talk to each other, so when you want to do something, you end up using several apps. “The Pillar system has no apps.  It uses tokens, smart contracts, and a growing ecosystem of online services that let you pull the information you want, find what you’re looking for, buy what you need, manage the ownership, and interact with hundreds of other systems easily. “Walk into a new doctor’s office – all the paperwork, test results, prescriptions, billing, and insurance are taken care of automatically, without filling out any forms.  We envision all consumer devices and wearables being powered by the Pillar wallet. “Because the data is decentralised and stored in secure blockchains, it is of little interest to hackers, providing high-level security.” Entrepreneur Richard D Titus, a USA-based adviser said, “Pillar will be the new platform for digital natives.  It’s open-source, and it replaces the Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook domination of our devices.  This is a world changer.” Pillar is staffed by a group of over 30 global volunteers, who are part of the Twenty Thirty blockchain community.  As well as David Siegel, the founders include Tomer Sofinzon from Israel, Yogesh Gaikwad from India and Vitor Py from Brazil. Advisors to the project include USA-based Kirt McMaster, Phil Windley and Kaliya Hamlin plus Efi Pylarinou, from Switzerland, and UK-based Anish Mohammed and Thomas Power. The Pillar Token Sale plans to raise $25 to $50 million to build their open-source personal-data ecosystem.  The Token Sale will take place over 60 hours, from 1:00 AM GMT on July 15 to 1:00 PM GMT on July 17 2017.  After a successful Token Sale, the team will set up the UK’s first blockchain-only innovation centre in London.  The Pillar project (http://pillarproject.io) web site is now open. Pillar Project website: http://pillarproject.io DecentralStation website: http://www.decentralstation.com/ Video of David Siegel talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaYDrkAMD2k Video explaining the Pillar Wallet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X7RUo2vyXU Due to regulations, the offer is not available in the United States of America. Learn more at www.2030.io and www.pillarproject.io David Siegel (https://www.linkedin.com/in/siegelventures/), is a founder of Twenty Thirty AG, a corporation registered in Zug, Switzerland.  He is a web pioneer, author, and serial entrepreneur.  He is the world’s first web designer, started one of the world’s first web-design agencies, and sold it to KPMG.  He was a figure in the semantic web movement and is now a central player in the blockchain world.  He is the creator and curator of decentralstation.com, a blockchain learning web site.  To learn more, see OpenStanford.com, BusinessAgilityWorkshop.com, GlobalBetaVentures.com, and Dsiegel.com. The founders of Twenty Thirty (https://2030.io/), have the aim of creating the decentralized networked world that will be mainstream in the year 2030. Purpose drives them: they are united in their quest to realize the decentralized world. Community sustains them: they need each other to succeed. A new world of work is coming, based on freedom, empowerment, participation, and joy. They swarm where they are needed and collaborate. Autonomous, decentralized systems empower people and innovation. Build blockchain innovation centres around the world, starting in London. To solve existing business problems by removing middlemen. Find new market opportunities and build solutions for them. Create a mesh network of learning, cooperation, empowerment, excellence, and joy. Launch their own coin and use it to accelerate innovation at a worldwide. Mark is a 24 year old cryptocurrency entrepreneur. He was introduced to Bitcoin in 2013 and has been involved with it ever since. He used to mine bitcoins and altcoins but now focuses on blogging and educating others about digital currencies.

Blockchain Monitoring: A Pillar of AML/CFT Compliance for Crypto by GDF Member at 5 min readCryptocurrencies are often portrayed as the perfect safe haven for criminals seeking to hide their illicit funds.However, by analyzing data on transparent public blockchains, its possible to lift the veil on the flow of criminal funds through cryptocurrency ecosystems. have become an essential component of regulatory compliance in the crypto space, enabling , , and other regulated financial institutions to mitigate risks and satisfy AML/CFT requirements.In this blog post, we look at the role of blockchain monitoring solutions in AML risk management and explain why regulators increasingly see them as a key component of AML/CFT compliance for the crypto space.The Role of Blockchain Monitoring Solutions in Risk Mitigation In the world of fiat currencies, automated that scrutinize customer behaviours are an effective way for financial institutions to satisfy AML/CFT requirements.Despite the common misperception that cryptocurrency transactions are indecipherable, blockchain monitoring solutions allow regulated businesses to achieve these same ends when it comes to handling cryptocurrencies but with some important technical distinctions from traditional fiat transaction monitoring techniques.As Diagram 1 below shows, traditional fiat transaction monitoring techniques focus on identifying anomalies in behaviour at the immediate point where customer funds are deposited or withdrawn from a financial institution.The reason for this is simple: a financial institution cannot view the entire history of fiat funds flows from or to their ultimate source or destination, and so must look to patterns or characteristics of the immediate transaction to determine if the activity in question presents any unacceptable risks, or is suspicious.Where financial institutions facilitate fiat currency transactions, they will always know who is sending or receiving those funds, but they generally will not have further information about the flow of funds that precedes or follows their direct interactions with their customers.In the world of crypto, this situation is different.As Diagram 2 below demonstrates, a cryptocurrency exchange may not always know the identity of the individual or entity that is behind the immediate transaction with its customers. However, the transparency of public blockchains makes it possible for the exchange to view the history of the flow of funds to or from its ultimate source or destination, revealing further information that can provide an informed view of risk.Customer activity monitoring in the crypto space, therefore, can entail scrutinizing not only information about the immediate interaction between a business and its customers, but obtaining further information about the flow of funds to determine if its customers are engaged in activity that is high risk or suspicious.This allows for a level of scrutiny that is not possible in the fiat currency world, and that allows crypto companies to mitigate their exposure to risks.Blockchain Monitoring is a Regulatory Standard Regulators around the world are to ensure that cryptocurrency services can operate in line with high AML/CFT standards.As part of those efforts, regulators have begun to clarify that blockchain monitoring plays a critical role.In May 2019, the US Treasurys Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) noted in that regulated businesses can comply with their AML requirements by incorporating procedures into their AML Programs that allow them to track and monitor the transaction history of a [cryptocurrency] through publicly visible ledgers.The has stated that it expects cryptocurrency exchanges to employ technology solutions which enable the tracking of virtual assets through multiple transactions to more accurately identify the source and destination of these virtual assets.In Abu Dhabi, the has stated that crypto businesses, should be able to assess the ultimate beneficiaries wallet addresses and their source or destination of funds as appropriate.Whats more, in its June crypto , the global standard-setting Financial Action Task Force (FATF) underscored that to mitigate the risks associated with pseudonymous transactions, cryptocurrency businesses should have the ability to conduct monitoring beyond the immediate transaction between the VASP or its customer or counterparty.Blockchain Monitoring Fosters Trust and Reduces Criminality Blockchain monitoring is about far more than just ticking a box off the regulatory compliance checklist.Blockchain monitoring enables cryptocurrency businesses to make informed decisions about risk, and to offer new, innovative products and services with confidence, fostering greater trust in the cryptocurrency space.are allowing us to refine monitoring approaches, offering the promise that blockchain monitoring will only become even more sophisticated at enabling effective AML risk management over time.Whats more, blockchain monitoring contributes to a broader culture of transparency in the cryptocurrency world that ultimately reduces its attractiveness to criminals.As Ellliptics , illicit activity accounts for less than 0.5% of all transactional activity involving bitcoin a fact that we believe is at least partially attributable to the availability of monitoring solutions that enable crypto businesses to prevent illicit activity from occurring in the first place.Global policymakers are right to draw attention to the risks that cryptocurrencies pose, and to demand accountability and AML/CFT compliance.Fortunately, blockchain monitoring solutions are already here that enable financial institutions to meet those emerging standards.About Elliptic empowers financial institutions and cryptocurrency businesses across the world to confidently manage AML risk and detect criminal activity on the blockchain. To date, Elliptic clients have used our products to assess risk on several trillion dollars worth of transactions, and uncover activity relating to money laundering, terrorist fundraising, fraud and other financial crimes. Our software is recognized as the global standard for regulatory compliance in the cryptocurrency industry.

The long-awaited Pillar Wallet (PLR), designed to be the”easiest” mobile token wallet to use, is now live.Pillar described the product as “crypto humanized” with friends, usernames, chat, notifications, and support, and told users this morning to “get the app and claim your username”.We woke up to good news – #PillarWallet is now LIVE on iOS and available on both platforms! 🎊Get your wallet here ⤵https://t.co/s7XQN4BVjw pic.twitter.com/qbGRc8Raa8The Pillar project began in July 2017, shortly after their ICO raised $20 million in ETH. The goal of the project is to create “the world’s best cryptocurrency wallet”. They plan to do this by creating a “personal data locker” that can securely enable the management of your digital assets.This data locker concept very much fits into the self-sovereignty philosophy popularised by many early crypto adopters.Pillar listed a number of essential features of the wallet, including: “Full control of private keys, hundreds of ERC-20 tokens, the ability to view real-time transactions (without leaving the app), and the option to use USD, EUR, or GBP as a base currency.”There has been no mention of any native fiat links with the initial release. However, one would assume users can operate with any number of private stablecoins available on the market today (under the supported ERC-20 standard).Now that the wallet is available, next up on the agenda for Pillar is the Offers Engine, which is due for release in Q4 2018 – Of course, we already know that the wallet is late from its promised Q3 delivery, and with the year almost over, the Offers Engine is likely also delayed.The Offers Engine will allow users to buy and sell tokens and cryptocurrencies. Although initially focused on digital assets, this engine will also serve as the foundation for Pillar’s e-commerce platform.It will be interesting to see how this will impact partnerships between the platform and other entities like 20/30 Labs Ltd. This company helped launch the project, so I’m intrigued to see if they’ll get involved in activities like market-making and as an initial liquidity provider for new ICO markets.Future plans also include an active ICO marketplace that will act as a “regulated platform for companies and start-ups to launch ICOs directly to qualified investors”.Since Pillar’s inception, the project has had a focus on direct community engagement. It has managed to build a community by adopting a transparent approach to funding, spending and development.A lot of the potential believers in the Pillar wallets are seduced by a roadmap pointing towards self-sovereignty and the promise of a “pull-ecosystem”.In terms of the market, the Pillar Token is up nearly 50% since last week to reach a lofty market cap of $13 million, that’s $7 million less than they raised in their ICO.Keep up to date with all the latest news from Coin Rivet. By signing up, you agree to our terms & conditions and privacy policy Bringing you news, analysis, opinion and insight from the fast-moving blockchain world. Our team of journalists and contributors cover the likes of cryptocurrencies, wallets, exchanges and ICOs across a wide range of sectors including retail, fintech, banking and gaming. We go beyond the press releases and marketing hype to tackle all the industry topics that matter. Keep up to date with all the latest news from Coin Rivet.By signing up, you agree to our terms & conditions and privacy policy

Keep up to date with all the latest news from Coin Rivet. By signing up, you agree to our terms & conditions and privacy policy The cryptocurrency bear market has been dragging on for 14 months, beginning in January 2018 when the parabolic advances of the previous year came to a grinding halt.The bull market that preceded it was spurred by a hype-driven Initial Coin Offering (ICO) revolution that saw companies capitalise on a new wave of capital fundraising.Coin Rivet recently spoke to the honest and upfront CEO of Pillar Project David Siegel, who has experienced the highs and lows of starting a company at the height of a bull market and the subsequent period of consolidation after raising $20 million in July 2017.Pillar’s amount raised was dwarfed by the likes of FileCoin, who raised more than $250 million in 2017, while it wasn’t uncommon for other projects to eclipse the $100 million mark.2019 – the year of the STO? pic.twitter.com/nNMzTaIxE6— Alex Libertas II (@alexlibertas2) February 24, 2019The increased open-interest surrounding ICOs came after the success of projects like Ethereum, which went from raising $16 million during an ICO to hitting a market cap of $133 billion a few years later.The potential of high returns in a short space of time allured an eclectic mix of new investors, many of whom had no concept of how blockchain technology would disrupt industries or even how to invest in general.For many, it was a tough lesson in choosing the right time to invest in a project. Since Bitcoin’s all-time high of $20,000 in December 2017, the entire cryptocurrency market cap has fallen from more than $800 billion to less than $130 billion, with the vast majority of altcoins losing 95% of their value, demonstrating clear signs of a painful bubble.But it wasn’t just the investors who have been hit hard by the gruelling bear market; the companies who raised funds in 2017 have also faced the daunting prospect of their capital being wiped away, with liquidating cryptocurrency into fiat proving to be increasingly difficult.“It’s been difficult,” says David Siegel, who spoke to Coin Rivet at the recent London Blockchain Week. “We held Ethereum when it was high, we tried to get out but no one was doing KYC. It was very hard as the banks kept saying no. Exchanges could exchange the Ethereum but banks wouldn’t take the money.”Pillar’s CEO continued by saying that the difficulty of liquidating funds into fiat has been a common theme among many ICOs.“Many ICOs have had the same problems,” he added. “I met a company last week that raised the same amount that we did and they have as little as we have now.”Siegel’s solution to keep Pillar Project running is simple: “We have to find new ways of raising money.”The bear market has dug its claws into a number of cryptocurrency projects over the past few months, with ShapeShift having to lay off 37 members of staff while ConsenSys confirmed that 13% of their staff have been made redundant.Speaking on how hard the bear market has been for Pillar, Siegel admitted that “the budget has gone way down,” before revealing that “the monthly burn rate has been cut in half.”“We magically need a bunch of rich donors who can give us around $10 million a year and that would be great,” he joked, amid nervous laughter.Regulators in the US and across the globe have been clamping down on cryptocurrency projects over the past year, with several ICOs including Airfox and Paragon being slapped with penalties by the SEC.Zachary Coburn, founder of decentralised exchange EtherDelta, which was the first exchange to list the Pillar token, was also charged by the SEC for “operating an unregistered exchange.”In light of the ongoing regulatory crackdown and in response to the question of whether it will halt further innovation, Siegel responded: “I think it already has, big time.”He added: “I think they have done tremendous damage, and much of it in the last eight months. They say ‘this project looks fishy, let’s investigate it,’ which means every project can be captured by regulators. What isn’t a target now for the SEC? If you’ve sold an ICO to one American, the SEC can bring you in and shut down your project.”The UK’s regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), is also looking at setting up some regulatory frameworks around cryptocurrency this year, but Siegel believes their effort may be in vain, with investors not being protected outside of crypto.“What makes me sad is that regulators aren’t doing a good job to keep people safe outside of crypto. I challenge regulators to present evidence that what they do works, because a lot of it is just red tape and bureaucracy, and there are still major hacks and violations. There are still billions of dollars in fines to customers of banks and insurance companies. We are trying to do the right thing, and they’re trying to maintain the status quo, which is not particularly beneficial.”Pillar released its long-awaited Pillar Wallet in December, with native apps launching on the iOS and Android app stores.The app, which acts as a personal data locker that securely manages digital assets, was the first major product release since the July 2017 ICO.When asked about the upcoming offers engine, which was scheduled for release in Q4 2018, Siegel said: “That will start with the exchange. It’s coming, there are a lot of legal regulatory hurdles we need to overcome. I would love the exchange to be available to Americans, but I don’t think we’re going to be able to do that, at least not initially, until our lawyers sign off on it. Everyone will have to do KYC.”He continued: “We’ve published a roadmap recently that’s pretty ambitious – we can never say when because our engineering team is good but not fast, but if we can achieve all of that this year that will be pretty exciting.”Download NOW: https://t.co/QdGAx93YRY pic.twitter.com/8jkfMZ6U9AAlthough he remains confident of achieving the milestones set in the roadmap, Siegel reiterates that Pillar will “definitely need to raise more capital” in order to keep operating.“We will definitely need to be raising more capital. We hope that token economics can start to move, and the token starts to move and have a higher exchange rate. But realistically, if it goes up too much then speculators will come in again and regulators will come back to us. The economic model needs more alternative sources of income for us, so we’re looking at a bunch of possibilities.”He concluded the discussion by talking about an unexpected revenue stream, the Pillar Academy.“One thing I want to ask is for more people to join the Pillar Academy,” he added.“It’s a movement of young people to try and solve the big problems of the world. If it gets going it will become its own charity, because it’s meant to be non-profit. That could invite a lot of donations, and that’s another way the Pillar Project could get more money.”“Pillar Project is the software side, Pillar Academy is the community of world changers who want the next 30 years to be much different than if today’s trajectory continues to run.”To watch the video interview with David Siegel, click here. Bringing you news, analysis, opinion and insight from the fast-moving blockchain world. Our team of journalists and contributors cover the likes of cryptocurrencies, wallets, exchanges and ICOs across a wide range of sectors including retail, fintech, banking and gaming. We go beyond the press releases and marketing hype to tackle all the industry topics that matter. ©2019 Coin Rivet Limited | VAT registration: 313019451Keep up to date with all the latest news from Coin Rivet.By signing up, you agree to our terms & conditions and privacy policy