Terra is a public, proof-of-stake blockchain network built using Tendermint consensus and the Cosmos SDK. Terra provides a suite of stablecoins collateralized by the network’s native token, LUNA, which captures the value of economic activity on the network and is used in governance and staking.

Terra stablecoins underpin the network’s economic activity, serving as the basis for interacting with applications built on top of Terra’s blockchain for payments (Chai), earnings (Anchor) and investing (Mirror). Terra is the first and largest (by market cap) algorithmic stablecoin network today, and only trails Bitcoin and Ethereum in annualized on-chain transaction fees.

The Terra blockchain is designed to provide fiat-pegged stablecoins that can be used for payments, earnings and other applications. It combines the stability and wide adoption of fiat with the security and efficiency of blockchain solutions.

Terra is secured with a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm based on Tendermint. The native LUNA token can be staked as collateral to validate transactions, with rewards proportional to the amount of LUNA staked.

Besides securing the Terra network, LUNA also plays a crucial role in pegging the value of Terra stablecoins to fiat currencies.

Terra achieves price-stability by algorithmically adjusting coin supply according to fluctuations in demand. For instance, an increase in demand for US dollars on Terra (the UST stablecoin) manifests in an increase in the volume of UST transactions and a surge in the price of UST. As a result, Terra must ensure that its price does not deviate from its peg. In this scenario, the supply of UST must increase to compensate for the extra demand. This is known as expansion.

In the opposite scenario, a fall in demand for UST results in decreased transactional activity and a drop in the price. In this case, the supply needs to be cut to keep the peg within the acceptable stability bounds. This is called contraction.

Expansion and contraction of coins supplies on Terra are achieved by naturally efficient market forces and the opportunism of individual arbitrageurs. LUNA holders are incentivized to swap LUNA for stablecoins at profitable exchange rates, expanding and contracting the stablecoin supply appropriately. For example, if demand for UST is increasing, arbitrageurs will mint 1 UST by burning $1 worth of LUNA and selling that 1 UST on the open market for a riskless profit.

In the short term, LUNA stakers absorb the volatility of stablecoins on Terra. In thelong term, they are rewarded with increased mining rewards from the adoption of the network’s stablecoins via apps built on top of the network.

Watch this video for a simple explanation:

Terra currently offers stablecoins pegged to the US dollar (UST), South Korean won (TerraKRT), Mongolian tugrik (TerraMNT) and the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights basket of currencies (TerraSDR).

New stablecoins pegged to additional fiat currencies can also be minted if voted for by the Terra community. Proposals were recently accepted to mint stablecoins for the Chinese Yuan (CNY), Japanese Yen (JPY), British Pound (GBP, Indian Rupee (INR), Canadian Dollar (CAD), Swiss Franc (CHF), Hong Kong Dollar (HKD), Australian Dollar (AUD) and Singapore Dollar (SGD).

Terra hosts a number of applications for payments, earnings and investments that make use of its stablecoins. These have already seen significant adoption, with billions of dollars in transaction volume and TVL.

All of the applications built on top of Terra increase demand for the network’s underlying stablecoins, which accrues value to LUNA stakers that share in payment and swap fees. Additionally, as demand for a coin like UST increases, more LUNA is burned, making LUNA more scarce than before.

Terra applications include:

One of Terra’s many fiat-pegged stablecoins, TerraKRW, powers Chai, which is already one of the largest e-commerce wallets in Korea. Through an API called I’mport, Chai enables merchants to accept payments via 20 different options (e.g. debit, credit, PayPal, etc.) with low fees and fast settlement. On the back-end, Chai uses Terra’s stablecoins to settle transactions faster and cheaper than legacy counterparts. Notably, users of Chai are never actually exposed to interfacing with Terra directly, making the user experience extremely smooth.

Chai hosts over 2 million users and has generated over $2 billion in annualized transaction volume. It recently raised a $60 million Series B.

Mirror

Mirror is a synthetic assets protocol built on the Terra network that is designed to provide real-world exposure to all types of asset classes such as US tech equities, commodities, ETFs and crypto assets. It allows for the creation and trading of “Mirrored Assets” (mAssets), which allow users around the globe to trade on the price action of real-world assets, such as Amazon (AMZN) stock.

Minters of mAssets enter a collateralized debt position (CDP), where they collateralize the minted mAsset with UST at a specific collateral ratio as determined by the Terra community’s governance (derived from the volatility of the asset). mAssets can then be trivially traded on multiple chains including Terra, Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain.

Minters of mAssets are effectively taking a short position against that asset, which means that if its price increases, they will need to add collateral to their CDP to avoid liquidation. In Mirror V2, inverse tokens will alleviate this by allowing positive exposure to mAssets for minters.

Mirror has accumulated more than $2.3 billion in TVL and $1.2 billion in liquidity since its December 2020 launch.

Anchor

Anchor is a savings protocol offering low-volatile yields on Terra stablecoin deposits. It offers incentives in the Anchor token (ANC). The “Anchor Rate” (the target APY Anchor seeks to pay out to depositors) is powered by a diversified stream of staking rewards from major proof-of-stake blockchains. This makes up the “real yield”. If the real yield is greater than the Anchor Rate, the excess yield is stored in a UST denominated “yield reserve”. ANC incentives to borrowers drop by 15% every week. If the real yield is less than the Anchor Rate, the yield shortfall is drawn down from the yield reserve until it is depleted. Additionally, ANC incentives to borrowers increase by 50% every week until the real yield converges to the Anchor Rate.

Anchor currently holds $1 billion in TVL.

Terra was launched by the South Korean company Terraform Labs (TFL) in January 2018, founded by Daniel Shin and Do Kwon. Before Terra, Shin co-founded the South Korean e-commerce platform Ticket Monster (TMON) and start-up incubator Fast Track Asia. Kwon previously founded Anyfi, a startup providing decentralized wireless mesh networking solutions.

Investors in Terraform Labs include Galaxy Digital, Coinbase Ventures, Pantera Capital, Arrington XRP Capital, PolyChain Capital, Binance Labs, Huobi Capital, FBG Capital and TransLink Capital.

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Terra is a decentralized payment system on the blockchain. Its goal is to facilitate global payments in a secure and less volatile way than traditional cryptocurrencies. 

Terra is part of the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry, which seeks to replace traditional financial services with a decentralized alternative on the blockchain. DeFi has attracted crypto investors as a more efficient and less expensive option to send money globally.

Ready to be part of the DeFi industry? Learn how you can buy Terra (LUNA) today. 

Terra is a decentralized global payment system made specifically for transferring stablecoins. Stablecoins are pegged to other currencies like USD, so payments on Terra don’t fluctuate with the cryptocurrency markets. This limits the risk of buying volatile cryptocurrency while still providing all the benefits of a decentralized payment system. 

Unlike most DeFi protocols that operate on Ethereum’s network, Terra operates on the Cosmos blockchain. Cosmos has many operational benefits over Ethereum’s network, such as quicker transactions and less expensive transaction fees. 

However, there are downsides to Terra on the Cosmos network. Ethereum has the most applications built on its platform, and only other applications built on Ethereum can directly interact with these programs. Because Terra isn’t built on Ethereum, the platform has less liquidity and a smaller user base than many of its competitors.

Terra has recently developed its own stablecoin, Terra USD (UST) that can be used on more than one blockchain platform. This is a valuable upgrade to Terra’s platform because it allows users to send stablecoins to Ethereum and Solana’s blockchains. 

Terra was made with a focus on price stability and user experience. Daniel Shin and Do Kwon founded Terra in January 2018 when the cryptocurrency market bubble popped. The cryptocurrency has grown significantly since its inception, appreciating over 1,000% this year.

Institutional investors that purchased LUNA during its initial coin offering include Binance, OKEx and Huobi. Terra raised $32 million from its ICO in 2018, minting 385,245,974 LUNA, and the total market has grown to over $2.8 billion at the time of writing.

Luna is the native cryptocurrency to Terra’s platform. Luna is used to provide liquidity to the platform, as decentralized finance programs need its users to provide liquidity in its smart contracts. Smart contracts are code on the blockchain that is capable of performing financial functions with cryptocurrencies. 

Terra offers rewards to incentivize users to stake Luna on its platform. Users can earn interest from transaction fees and arbitrage on Terra’s platform. Staking is necessary not only for liquidity, but to adjust the prices of stablecoins through the smart contract’s rebalancing algorithms. 

Luna has a maximum supply of 1 billion tokens, but technically more than 1 billion tokens can be minted. If more than 1 billion tokens are available in the ecosystem, the program will burn extra supply in its treasury. At the time of writing, Luna is $6.33 per coin.

To get started investing you need to open an account with a crypto brokerage that supports Luna. Luna isn’t supported by major crypto exchanges like Coinbase and Gemini, so you’ll need to make an account with a lesser-known brokerage. The largest exchange that supports Luna is Binance, but you can also make an account with Bittrex, Huobi or Kucoin exchange. 

Like an account with a stock brokerage, you’ll have to provide personal identification information for tax purposes. To make an account with these exchanges, you’ll need to provide your name, Social Security number, address, email and birthdate. 

In order to hold your cryptocurrency securely you need to store your assets on a cryptocurrency wallet. Storing your cryptocurrencies on exchanges makes your crypto at risk of being hacked –– many exchanges that claim to be secure have been breached in the past. 

Cryptocurrency wallets can be software wallets or hardware wallets. Software wallets are mobile apps or computer programs that store cryptocurrencies, and hardware wallets are physical devices that store your cryptocurrency offline. Hardware wallets are the most secure way to store your crypto, as it’s impossible to access your funds without the physical device.

If you plan on trading your crypto regularly, you’ll need to keep your funds on the exchange to do so. Binance is the most secure exchange to use for trading because it has a reserve account to insure your assets against security breaches. 

There aren’t many choices when it comes to hardware wallets that support Luna. Most multi-coin wallets support major cryptos like Ethereum and Bitcoin, but few support smaller cryptocurrencies like Luna.

The Ledger Nano S is your best bet for storing your Luna in a hardware wallet. Out of the package, the Ledger Nano S doesn’t support Luna. You need to use the Ledger Live application to download Terra Station on your hardware wallet. Once the program is installed, you can send Luna to your Ledger wallet. 

The Ledger Nano S comes in at an affordable $51 on Amazon. Ledger also offers a premium version called the Ledger Nano X for just over $100, but it’s currently out of stock on Amazon. No matter what Ledger wallet you choose, they all offer great security features to keep your crypto safe. 

Terra Station is by far the best software wallet to store your Luna. Terra Station was made by Terra for its users, and it has many unique features. The wallet displays information like market supply, current market price and current interest rates.

You can use Terra Station to stake your Luna to earn interest directly from your wallet. The current interest rate for staking Luna on Terra’s platform is 5.4%. This is a great incentive to stake your Luna, but keep in mind that a 5.4% return is not guaranteed. 

Not only does the interest rate fluctuate, but Luna’s price is highly volatile, so most of the risk associated with staking Luna comes with the price movements of the coin. 

Once you’ve chosen a crypto wallet to store your funds on, you’re ready to make your purchase. You can place your buy order for Luna  as either a limit or market order. 

Market orders will purchase Luna at the current market price, while Limit orders will execute at a specified price you set. If the market price of Luna never reaches the price specified in your limit order, it won’t be filled.

Soon after your buy order for Luna is fulfilled, you should see your Luna coins credited on your brokerage account. It’s not recommended you keep your Luna, or any other crypto, on an exchange unless you are actively trading. 

You can’t trade crypto you store on your wallet. In order to sell your Luna you’ll need to transfer it back to a supported crypto exchange.

It’s a good idea to watch the cryptocurrency markets to get an idea of how the prices are moving. Cryptocurrencies are very volatile assets and can move up or down 10% in a single day. 

With Bitcoin in a bull market, many altcoins are moving up fast. But if you keep a close eye on the market, you could get Luna at a discount during a market pullback. 

Terra offers a unique approach to decentralized payment solutions. There’s a clear benefit for users to be able to transact stablecoins globally in a quick and secure way, and Terra has many competitors with more daily users on their platforms.

Terra may be a good investment for you if you believe that the Cosmos blockchain is a better platform for DeFi than Ethereum. Cosmos has more efficient transactions and is far more scalable than Ethereum, but the platform suffers from a small user base. 

Terra is working hard to integrate their tokens on the Ethereum network, which may expand the user base of the platform significantly.

There’s no shortage these days of blockchain-based projects to build or develop a digital version of U.S. dollars: private efforts including tether, USDC, diem, dai and the Federal Reserve’s research into whether to issue a central bank digital currency. But one project, Terra, appears to be outperforming the rest – at least based on the issuer’s governance token price so far in 2021. 

Terra is a three-year-old project from the South Korean developer Terraform Labs, built to support a basket of decentralized stablecoins. Demand has surged in cryptocurrency markets for Terra’s LUNA token, which works as part of an automatic balancing system that helps to keep prices for the stablecoins, well, stable.

The LUNA price has climbed a flabbergasting 25-fold this year, outpacing the already-impressive sevenfold gain for larger rival MakerDAO’s maker tokens. LUNA’s market capitalization has jumped to about $6 billion from $300 million in less than five months, overtaking MKR at $4.7 billion.  

Cryptocurrency analysts see value in Terra’s two current major use cases: Mirror protocol, which allows users to create tokens that track the price of real-world assets like stocks, and Anchor protocol, a lending and saving platform. Both protocols make use of Terra’s own stablecoins such as TerraUSD (UST), which is pegged to U.S. dollars, and TerraKRW (KRT), which is pegged to the Korean won.

LUNA serves as a governance token and is used as part of an algorithmic balancing system that helps the stablecoins maintain their pegs. For example, when TerraUSD trades above $1, users can send $1 worth of LUNA to the system and receive 1 UST in return – a trade that helps to bring the stablecoin’s price back in line.

The combination of Anchor and Mirror creates “a flywheel that effectively retains and grows monetary inflows,” Messari analyst Phang Jun Yu wrote May 6 in a report. 

“When the market is bullish, users will turn to equities and start using Mirror,” he wrote. “When the market is bearish and people are wary of investments, they turn their assets back into cash and deposit it into Anchor.”

Stablecoins – whether centrally managed versions like tether and USD coin, or decentralized versions like dai that are managed by blockchain-based protocols – have proven popular assets in digital-asset markets, as alternatives to major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether, whose prices can be volatile.

An emerging subcategory is “algorithmic stablecoins” like Ampleforth (AMPL) and Fei Protocol (FEI), which use software-coded procedures embedded into the protocol to maintain the currency peg. While some of these projects have encountered mixed success with keeping the peg at an on-target reading of 1-to-1, proponents say they have advantages.

“The advantage you get with algorithmic stablecoins is that nobody can take that away from you and it retains all the censorship-resistant properties of bitcoin,” Terraform CEO Do Kwon told CoinDesk in an interview. 

Of course, it’s important to note that prices for newer cryptocurrencies like Terra can be extremely volatile, and these decentralized blockchain-based protocols have short track records and can be prone to glitches and snafus. Fei’s recent difficulty keeping its stablecoin at a 1-to-1 peg might be seen as a cautionary tale.

Kwon said that some algorithmic stablecoin projects are struggling because they failed to recognize the importance of mainstream adoption and limited their projects’ use cases – such as staking the stablecoins to earn rewards.

“These protocols don’t natively print stablecoins to incentivize the users to hold, which would be like a recursive incentive,” Kwon said.

Since the UST dollar stablecoin was first minted in December, the amount outstanding has climbed above $2 billion, according to CoinGecko. While that’s still a fraction of tether’s $58.5 billion, it’s not too far behind the $4.6 billion for two-year-old dai. 

Kwon said the rapid value growth of UST is backed by the success of protocols like Mirror and Anchor. 

At least 50 different protocols have announced plans to support the Terra-backed stablecoins, including an options protocol on top of Mirror.

“For the next six months, what we are going to be focusing on is to make sure that these new projects that are launching are successful and then sort of help to compose them into use cases leveraging our existing assets,” Kwon said. 

Working as a globally-acclaimed digital asset custodian for DeFi and CeFi systems, Hex Trust has announced its strategic collaboration with Terra, a leading brand name in stablecoins and blockchain firms. The two powerful blockchain-focused entities will lay in joint efforts to expand their network coverage and widen their service range for customers. They will strive together to curate an infrastructure that will streamline the overall financial processes for crypto lovers. As part of the collaboration, Hex Trust will infuse Terra blockchain into its fully licensed custody portal and also leverage support for the staking of Luna Token. Luna is the native token of Terra’s Delegated Proof-of-Stake blockchain network that facilitates staking and governance within the network for the owners. Terra offers a strong channel of powerful stablecoins that are pegged to reliable fiat currencies. This helps the owners to enjoy stability and liquidity for their Terra-supported digital assets effectively. Stablecoins uses a well-defined protocol and algorithm that ensures price stability by fluctuating the overall money pool at the right phase. For providing security and other stability services to the ecosystem, the stakers of Luna Token are given rewards out of transaction charges and seigniorage. Its investor pool includes Polychain Capital, 1kx, Kenetic Capital, Binance Labs, Arrington XRP, FBG Capital, Hashed, etc. The Chai payment app built on the Terra blockchain has added on to the network’s popularity. The app is used by more than 3% of South Koreans to pay for various services. On the other hand, Hex Trust provides security to digital assets through its duly licensed and regulated custodian portal, Hex Safe. It facilitates secured access to DeFi and CeFi networks along with other third-party channels offering lending, borrowing, exchange, and staking services. Regarding the partnership, Calvin Shen, Chief of Sales and Business Development in Hex Trust, stated that his team is excited to collaborate with Terra that has proved its mettle in the Korean crypto market. They will help Terra in its aim to evolve as a leading blockchain payment solution across countries.

Terraform Labs has raised $25 million in a new round from Galaxy Digital, Coinbase Ventures, Pantera Capital and others.

The stablecoin for e-commerce creator has already proven people will use its volatility free tokens in decentralized finance (DeFi), to buy synthetic stocks, and plans to attract blockchain denizens to even more use cases.

“We look forward to using the funds for building key pieces of infrastructure in the Mirror Protocol for synthetics, Anchor Protocol for savings and other killer DeFi applications to make Terra’s algorithmic stablecoins the centerpiece of the decentralized finance movement,” Terraform’s co-founder Do Kwon said in a press release.

Terraform Labs is behind a platform for minting different stablecoins for e-commerce that mimic the value of various fiat currencies. It’s also behind the Chai payments app, an e-commerce wallet that’s widely used in Asia and powered by stablecoins.

“The Terra ecosystem has brought the benefits of programmable money to commerce and will do the same for finance,” Pantera Capital’s Paul Veradittakit said in a press release.

Previous investors Hashed, Arrington XRP and Kenetic Capital also participated in what Terraform Labs is calling a “growth fundraising round.”

“Terra has already made a successful payment case for more than 2 million users in the Korean market, and is also rapidly growing in the DeFi space,” Simon Kim, CEO of Hashed, said in a press release.

Founded in 2018, with a co-founder behind one of Korea’s larger e-commerce sites, Terra launched with $32 million in backing from Binance and Polychain, among others. Each Terra stablecoin (such as TerraUSD or the one tracking the South Korean won, TerraKRW), relies on the system’s LUNA token to maintain its peg.

LUNA is the governance token for the blockchain, as the white paper explains. It is minted and burned in order to enforce the peg for any Terra stablecoin, so the governance token absorbs the volatility to defend its stablecoins’ utility.

Most entrepreneurs on Ethereum agree that DeFi Summer never would have happened had stablecoins not proved they could stay stable.

The Terra stablecoins are notable because they operate outside the Ethereum ecosystem, the platform most associated with DeFi. Terra’s blockchain is Tendermint-based, making it part of the larger Cosmos ecosystem.

Terraform says that its blockchain generates $13 million in fees annually. Its payments system, Chai, has 2 million users and sees $1.2 billion in transaction volume using its TerraKRW stablecoin, which tracks the price of the South Korean won.

Last summer, Terraform teased a DeFi savings platform called Anchor, which generates a better interest rate for savers by backing proof-of-stake networks. Originally slated for October 2020, it’s currently projected to go live in the first quarter of 2021.

“On Anchor the protocol work is done but we are doing integrations with a well known partner so we can launch together. Almost there,” Kwon told CoinDesk in a followup email.

Terraform also dropped a new synthetic equities market last month called Mirror. This enables anyone anywhere to buy tokens that follow the price of any equity in the U.S. stock market.

The new funding will be used to expand those use cases, build new DeFi projects that use its tokens and extend its interoperability to additional blockchains, Terraform said.

“We love the expanding use case of the base payments product and the incredible new demand for LUNA that products like Mirror are creating,” Michael Arrington, founder of Arrington XRP, told CoinDesk in a text message.

Enter your e-mail to join other freedom seekers who choose to see the world as it really is... and get a free report that explains the big picture. We respect your privacy,plain and simple. Ten years ago the cypherpunks were almost entirely forgotten. But now and quite shockingly to those of us who were involved cypherpunks are cool again. More than that, the discoveries of the cypherpunks are starting to change the world in a serious way.That being so, Id like to briefly recap what the cypherpunks discovered, because what these people found was a new world a terra nova.Our new territory was created by a combination of the internet and encryption. The internet gave us unlimited community, and encryption became our city walls, allowing us to separate ourselves from the rest of the world.The first cypherpunks, being clever lads, began using the internet and encryption because they were interesting and fun. Shortly, however, they realized that they were actually building a terra nova and were instantly confronted with a huge question: How should we arrange our new world? That cranked everything into high gear.I didnt know this passage from Tom Paines Common Sense (1776) at the time, but it captures the astonishing thought that sprang from the discovery of terra nova:We have it in our power to begin the world over again.Not all was sweetness and light, however. Encryption was considered a munition, and exporting it was highly illegal. But it was easy to see that public key encryption (actually key exchange, published by Diffie and Hellman in 1976) was the perfect technology for the internet and the internet was not limited to the USA.So, a group of the clever lads hatched a plan in 1991: Theyd write a nice little encryption program and send it around the world. An anti-nuke advocate named Philip Zimmerman drove the project but everyone involved wanted to avoid the jail sentence that would come from exporting their new program. They did have one trick available to them, however: the First Amendment.So, they took the program, called Pretty Good Privacy, or PGP, and printed it as a book. And since books are protected speech, they pushed copies of the book into envelopes and mailed them to friends in Europe. Once on the far side of the Atlantic, the books were keyed back into computers and turned back into a program and then distributed everywhere.Zimmerman very nearly went to jail (based upon an upload to a BBS system), but the world received strong encryption.Once you begin exchanging encrypted messages with friends, one of the next ideas to cross your mind is, Gee, some kind of electronic currency would be really nice to go with this. (David Chaum, for example, began working on digital cash after he invented cryptographic mixes back in 1981.) And once you start imagining encrypted commerce, you quickly realize just how radical this technology can be.One by one this thought dawned upon us all. I wasnt among the very first to grasp it, but by the mid-1990s I was struck by it as well. In a continuing education course I conducted for Iowa State University, I wrote this:Another huge thing in years ahead will be electronic cash for Internet commerce. Electronic cash can be transferred on-line instantly, inexpensively (almost free), and, if encrypted, privately. Think about this for a minute it will change the world.The awesome power of encryption is not something that is instantly grasped.The quote above is from Julian Assange (also a cypherpunk), and its quite true. Encryption, after all, is merely applied math, and math is built into the structure of the universe.Now, to illustrate just how strongly the universe favors encryption, please consider this:It is roughly 2100 (2 to the 100th power) times harder to decrypt a message than it is to encrypt it (unless you have the key).Engineers debate this number of course, but its clearly in that range. Here it is precisely:1,267,650,600,228,229,401,496,703,205,376So, when people like Satoshi Nakamoto, creator of Bitcoin, talk about an arms race between cypherpunks and old-world power, dont simply assume that the old way will win[1]You should also know that post-quantum encryption already exists and is being incorporated into leading edge systems. jQuery("#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1").tooltip({ tip: "#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1", tipClass: "footnote_tooltip", effect: "fade", fadeOutSpeed: 100, predelay: 400, position: "top right", relative: true, offset: [10, 10] });.But while the cypherpunks dropped off the radar for a couple of decades, they still produced things like BitTorrent, The Onion Router network (aka Tor, or the darknet), I2P (an even better darknet), a variety of digital cash systems, privacy systems (including the first commercial VPNs), and even commercial tools like digital escrows and dispute resolution.The big, new cypherpunk creations, however, everyone knows: WikiLeaks and Bitcoin. Ive explained WikiLeaks before and we have a report on Bitcoin, so Ill leave those aside for today. But suffice it to say that a cypherpunk world has been building for some time and may form much further in the years ahead.A Planet Cypherpunk would be a radically different place from our current Planet Status Quo, and that scares some people very badly.That fear isnt rational of course. The ancient world is very happily long gone. We live better and behave better. The rational choice, then, is to keep that progress going, and that necessarily includes change, including radical new adaptations.Status quo systems, however, major on fear. Thats the secret ingredient that keeps their game together. And so right-thinking moderns have been trained to fear anything new. Thats not rational, but it makes people feel safe.But rather than conducting a further discourse on why Planet Cypherpunk would be better than Planet Status Quo, Ill simply leave you with the conclusion of one of the very first cypherpunk documents: Timothy C. Mays Crypto Anarchist Manifesto, published in November 1992:Arise, you have nothing to lose but your barbed wire fences!* * * * *A book that generates comments like these, from actual readers, might be worth your time:Get it at Amazon ($18.95) or on Kindle: ($5.99)* * * * *Paul Rosenberg www.freemansperspective.comReferences[ + ] We respect your privacy,plain and simple. I am sorry to announce that John Perry Barlow, the author of The Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace (also lyrics writer for The Grateful Dead, founder of EFF, and much more) , died February 6th. He will be missed. er-1947-2018http://projects.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.htmlThe WikiLeaks emails are still mostly secret, but weve put together a free short report containing the most important ones. These are things that every Westerner, and certainly every American, should see. Theres way more going on behind the scenes than you ever imagined.You are not currently logged in.Many of us, either in whole or in part, have withdrawn our consent from the current ruling regime. Up till...

In this opportunity I’m glad to present you DENARIS: the Terrae game cryptocurrency. DENARIS is an ERC20 token built on Ethereum platform and will facilitate players trading digital assets inside game. Since DENARIS complies with ERC20 standards, it will be also posible to trade it in crypto exchanges against other cryptoassets.While some players will become great warriors and base their economy charging taxes over ruled lands, others will become land workers and will base their economy on businesses, selling raw materials like wood or food, or processed materials like bronze or steel. Due to its location, some players will be able to obtain more scarce and precious materials such as diamonds and other precious minerals. If these materials become a necessity in the dynamic evolution of Terrae, players will be willing to exchange them for other owned resources. Finally, some players may specialize in training long-range archers, or high-resistance warriors, which will motivate other players to hire their services.These dynamics explain almost naturally the need for a market where the supply and demand of players can be found. Likewise, it is necessary to have a universal currency in the world of Terrae, which allows assigning value to the different assets to facilitate exchanges.We believe that in the long term Terrae will develop a complex economy, which will assign value to the assets evolving organically. Some players may have significant monthly income by selling their production, trading or simply collecting taxes on their land. It would not be desirable for the value assigned to the assets within Terrae to depend on an external economy, which is not related to the game. For example, if the exchanges were made using ether, the value of the assets would fluctuate all time, giving an economic uncertainty to the players and demotivating them. If, however, Terrae’s economy is based on its own currency, we believe that the value of the currency will be given by the value that users give to the game resources, which were ultimately produced with their own time, work and dedication. The economy of Terrae will be an independent economy, skeptical of other crypto platforms.1/ To buy/sell units and economical resources in the marketplace:Suppose I’m gold producer and I need archers to defend my frontier. I can train them in my own lands, or instead, I can sell a portion of my gold production in the marketplace and then use the DENARIS tokens I got in return, to buy archers from another players.2/ To receive taxes payments: Land rulers will be able to charge fees on marketplace when trading involves players who live in lands under their domain. These fees will be payed in DENARIS tokens. Land rulers may withdraw that tokens out of the game and exchange them by bitcoins, or just use them to strengthen their armies and expand their kingdoms.3/ To buy cosmetic collectibles: Cosmetics are digital goods that players demands to express themselves customizing their characters. Their main feature is that they don’t generate any competitive advantage within the game. Banners, flags, shields, buildings, armors and other assets could be customized. All collectibles are stored in blockchain as Non Fungible Tokens and could be traded in the marketplace.4/ DENARIS can be used in future games produced by Sideblock Studios, the company behind Terrae Game.5/ DENARIS may also be used in third party games in case we set partnerships.At the beginning of the game, 10 million DENARIS tokens will be minted. The amount of DENARIS tokens will be fixed Instagram — LinkedInProject Lead at Terrae Game. Blockchain Researcher at CoinFabrik. My GitHub: https://github.com/fedecacciaMassive Multiplayer Online Blockchain Based Strategy War Game

KuCoin, a leading cryptocurrency exchange has added support for Terra (SDT) stablecoin and Luna (LUNA) on its bitcoin (BTC) and Tether (USDT) markets.Terra, a blockchain project focused on building the next generation payment system, has announced that its stablecoin, Terra SDT (SDT) and mining token Luna (LUNA) is now live on KuCoin, with several trading pairs including LUNA/BTC, LUNA/USDT, and SDT/USDT.The Terra payments network is powered by its native altcoins, Terra SDT and Luna. Terra SDT is backed by both the IMFs SDR and Luna mining token which derives its value from transaction fees on Terra. Terra SDT is the primary unit of account in the Terra ecosystem.Terra is aimed at promoting blockchain-based payments by incentivizing consumers and merchants alike. Terra eliminates the middlemen and uses revenue from the growth of its stablecoin economy to offer 5-10 percent discount to shoppers.Terra has forged alliances with several highly reputed entities including Asia-Pacific giants like TMON, Woowa, Carousell, and Tiki, in a bid to promote broader adoption of its stablecoin.Thats not all, Terra has also joined forces with Koreas music-streaming firm, Bugs and Sinsang Market, the regions largest B2B fashion platform.Terra has also attracted investments from HashKey Capital, Singapores LuneX, and U.S. hedge fundUlysses Capital.Terras Luna token is listed on top exchanges like Bittrex and Bitrue.As the peoples exchange, KuCoin is committed to empowering promising blockchain projects and providing a wide range of digital assets to crypto investors. The next-generation payment network created by Terra has the potential to grow the blockchain economy. We are happy to see this great project join our trading platform and we really appreciate their contribution to driving the mass adoption of cryptos.Since launching in June, Terras transaction volume has been growing at a rapid pace, with users already exceeding 400,000. We are excited that a global exchange like KuCoin is listing Terra and Luna at a time of unprecedented growth, and we look forward to continue growing Terras economy as more e-commerce partners offer Terra as a payment option, declared Daniel Shin, co-founder of Terra.About TerraTerra is aimed at creating a price-stable cryptocurrency that will revolutionize the payments ecosystem. Terra has partnered with a vast array of platforms to offer users cost-efficient transactions.Website: https://terra.money/Email: jing@kucoin.comDisclosure/Disclaimer:This article is paid for and produced by a third-party source and should not be viewed as an endorsement by ZyCrypto. Readers are urged to do their own research before having anything to do with the company, goods and/or services mentioned in the above article.The post KuCoin Crypto Exchange Lists Terra and Mining Token Luna appeared first on ZyCrypto.Source: zycrypto.com

Blockchain payment system and stablecoin issuer Terra has added South Korean music streaming platform Bugs to its e-commerce alliance.As CoinDesk reported Aug. 14, there are now 25 partners in the Singapore-based companys South Korea-focused payment ecosystem.The Terra Alliance uses payment solutions provider CHAI as its front-end. CHAI incorporates a mobile payments app which connects to 15 major local banks. Terras blockchain-based platform then sits in the background, linking payments to e-commerce sites.Terra co-founder Daniel Shin said that the platform is smoother than the legacy payment systems in South Korea, The value chain for payments is convoluted. There are six or seven players, and everyone takes a cut. We streamline the process.Earlier this month, Terra announced a partnership with fashion platform Sinsang MarketSouth Korean regulatory uncertainty is a hindrance Shin notes that regulatory clarity would be helpful for the cryptocurrency sector, explaining the difference between South Korea and the United States. In the U.S., if something is not illegal then it can be done. However, in South Korea, entrepreneurs should not attempt something unless it is specifically codified, according to Shin.Before, it was crypto no, blockchain yes, he said. Now it is more like blockchain yes, private crypto yes, public and listed crypto no.While regulators in the country may still view crypto assets with some skepticism, blockchain technology is enjoying adoption across various sectors with South Koreas oldest bank recently announcing that it is building a blockchain-based security system.

U.S produce distributorTerra Exports accepted its first Bitcoin transaction in early November this year, when a customer in Singapore casually mentioned they were looking into using cryptocurrency at a business level.Were all about entrepreneurial thinking and embracing change, so if that means we need to innovate on how we get paid, we are happy to do it, company president Nils Goldschmidt said.Since then, Terra Exports has received Bitcoin payment on three other occasions, from customers both in the U.S. and in India.Personally I see cryptocurrency as a game-changer thats here to stay, and what our customers need today. Our role as Terra Exports is to simplify and stream-line our customers purchasing needs, so they can in turn focus on what really matters to them. If accepting Bitcoin facilitates this, then we are happy and proud to say we are already making it happen, he said.The company said offering the ability to be paid in Bitcoin goes hand in hand with its entrepreneurial vision but its not something it is pushing onto customers.When asked about the currencys stability, Goldschmidt said: Im not nervous about a bubble at all, because were not holding the coin and speculating (thats not our business).As soon as we receive payment, we convert it to USD immediately and deposit the funds into our bank account. While were all about embracing change and innovation, were also quite risk-averse and fiscally conservative.Bitcoin is described as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system, an electronic coin that would replace money transfers that are currently controlled by the financial system.www.freshfruitportal.comName (Required) E-Mail (Required) Destination E-Mail Message Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment Name * Email * Website E-mail Password Remember Me E-mail First Name Surname Password Confirm Password Your Name (required) Your Email (required) Subject Your Message Photo Your Name (required) Your Email (required) Subject Your Message Photo

Blockchain payment system and stablecoin issuer Terra has added South Korean music streaming platform Bugs to its e-commerce alliance.As CoinDesk Aug. 14, there are now 25 partners in the Singapore-based companys South Korea-focused payment ecosystem.The Terra Alliance uses payment solutions provider CHAI as its front-end. CHAI incorporates a mobile payments app which connects to 15 major local banks. Terras blockchain-based platform then sits in the background, linking payments to e-commerce sites.Terra co-founder Daniel Shin said that the platform is smoother than the legacy payment systems in South Korea, The value chain for payments is convoluted. There are six or seven players, and everyone takes a cut. We streamline the process.Earlier this month, Terra announced a partnership with fashion platform Sinsang MarketSouth Korean regulatory uncertainty is a hindrance Shin notes that regulatory clarity would be helpful for the cryptocurrency sector, explaining the difference between South Korea and the United States. In the U.S., if something is not illegal then it can be done. However, in South Korea, entrepreneurs should not attempt something unless it is specifically codified, according to Shin.Before, it was crypto no, blockchain yes, he said. Now it is more like blockchain yes, private crypto yes, public and listed crypto no.While regulators in the country may still view crypto assets with some skepticism, blockchain technology is enjoying adoption across various sectors with South Koreas oldest bank recently announcing that it is building a blockchain-based security system.

by Stephen DeMeulenaere | Jun 17, 2014 | Alt-Coin, Bitcoin, Community Currency, Complementary Currency, Crypto-Currency, Network Currency | 0 comments We Bitcoin enthusiasts need to brush up on our alternative currency history. Since 1980, alternative currency enthusiasts around the world began to tinker, individually and collectively, with new forms of money. Their tool? The computer. Long before the internet was invented, the computer helped us to organize our thoughts and design new concepts in ways many of us would have found impossible otherwise. Bernard Lietaer is often mentioned as one of the leading theorists of alternative currencies, in fact there was a post on the Ripple website that mentioned him just this morning, about financial inclusion, the idea that anyone, not just those who have money, should have access to money and banking services. 40% of the world’s people do not have this access. Bitcoin is financially exclusive. You can’t just go online somewhere and download it for free, like you can with other kinds of complementary currencies. Bitcoin as a commodity currency harkens back to the days of Empire, while those of us working with complementary currencies believe that the future is with interest-free mutual credit currencies. My point here is that many of the elements of better forms of money have been designed already, and designers of new cryptocurrencies should take a quick look back to see if there’s anything interesting. Freicoin, for example, draws from the work of Silvio Gesell and has implemented the concept of Demurrage, negative interest, into its cryptocurrency. Now, regarding our ongoing discussion of stable currencies, Bernard Lietaer introduced the concept of the Terra Trade Reference Currency in 2010, as a way to “systematically stabilize the effects on the business cycle and re-align financial interests with long-term sustainability.” [Sustainability? What’s that? We can design a currency without unlimited planet-destroying growth built in? We’ll talk about that later…] According to the Terra Whitepaper, the lack of an international standard of value is behind much of the world’s currency instability, the boom-bust cycle and political-military conflict. The Terra, in summary, would be a privately-issued currency circulating alongside (complementary to) national currencies, “backed by a standardized basket of the most important commodities as well as some standardizable services traded in the global market”, with Demurrage at a rate of around 3.5-4% per year, charged in order to incentivize circulation over investment or hoarding, as well as to be inflation-proof by being issued only to assist the exchange of goods or services. To convert back from Terra to a national currency, a 2% fee would be charged. The Terra concept sounds very much like what Bitcoin could have become, a stable international currency to replace the dominance of the US Dollar and whatever we know is backing it. Since Bitcoin is not going to become what the Terra had designed, will another alt coin be able to achieve this goal? Oddly enough, Terracoin has nothing to do with Bernard Lietaer’s Terra currency, instead opting to become a prepaid-Bitcoin card. Gogocoin is not related to the Gogo, the completely stable currency I wrote about in my last post, whose design predates Gogocoin by about 15 years.  Too bad. You must be logged in to post a comment. ©1992-2017 Stephen DeMeulenaere. All Rights Reserved.