Crypto World November 2019: Bitcoin Lightning, BTC ATMS, Ripple acquired MoneyGram

Crypto World November 2019: Bitcoin Lightning, BTC ATMS, Ripple acquired MoneyGram

Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Can Be Used for Private Messaging

Lightning Labs revealed an experimental project: Whatsat, an application of the lightning network which may be utilised to send private messages.

Just like bitcoin, it is censorship-resistant. However, unlike encrypted programs that morph messages to info, securing the text to keep the messages private from prying eyes, there is no central thing to prevent users from using the system.

The developer Joost Jager said:

“Lightning is a peer to peer network in which anyone can participate. There is no central entity that has the ultimate power to decide on [what] users are allowed to communicate.”

Personal messaging is a huge thing in the electronic era, but it is still simple for bad intentioned actors to intercept messages which are not encrypted.

Ghana May Issue Digital Currency in ‘Near Future’

The governor Ghana’s central bank, Ernest Addison, stated that Ghana might issue an electronic form of the country’s currency, the cedi in the”near future”. He also said they are in discussions to develop a pilot project in a “sandbox environment”.

Addison’s opinions, made in Ghana’s Annual Banking Conference, were revealed in a public transcript.

The Bank of Ghana governor said Ghana is experiencing rapid digitization with the help of the mobile banking industry. “Mobile cash” transfers grew by 70% from 2017 to 2018.

Addison said he’d approved that the central bank to issue digital money backed 1:1 by cedi and held electronic wallets Monday. But the digital money is different from cryptocurrency. The governor stated in the press conference:

“It is just electronic money backed by currency,”

So [the central bank] cannot create money; they are only having an electronic representation of the cedi that the Bank of Ghana puts into circulation. So it is not crypto.”

Simon Malls Has 5 New Bitcoin ATMs

Bitstop set up five bitcoin ATMs at Simon Property Group locations within the last month: Carlsbad Premium Outlets in Carlsbad, California, Mall of Georgia in Buford, Georgia, Miami International Mall in Miami, Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise, and The Avenues at Jacksonville, Florida.

They are a part of Bitstop’s drive to woo crypto beginners: individuals who shop at malls, do not know much about blockchain and have a bitcoin wallet.

The co-founder and CEO Andrew Barnard explained these places are similar to the old cliche: “If you build it, they will come.”

“Once you put these ATMs down and you give people easy access, the people go and figure out how to use it,”

With these new places, Bitstop is continuing to build out vulnerability among novices and handhold them through the process of purchasing their very first bitcoin. He explained the kiosks represent a gateway to first-timers.

He said individuals buy from an ATM within an investment, but also to then purchase on the internet or send remittance payments residence.

The average purchase is $160 bucks. And Barnard said traffic is particularly heavy around the 1st and 15th day of every month, which he explained is money back for many consumers.

China’s Digital Yuan Will Target Retail Payments First

Speaking in the Caixin Hengqin Forum at Zhuhai, former leader of the People’s Bank of China Xiaochuan Zhou said the nation will highlight the retail usage of electronic payment to the electronic yuan.

“There are two goals for international digital currencies,”

“The first one, which is also what China envisions is to develop digital payment and its use for retail system in the country, while the other goal is to cross-border payment for international financial institutions.”

According to Zhou, both of these aims will need different technical designs for the electronic yuan, and China may expand its capacities once it implements the electronic payment role.

Zhou said China is a challenging environment to try the new electronic money, and a country with a smaller population might be better because the cycle for money flow is briefer.

“In case there is something wrong, it will be easier to steer the boat into a different direction,”

Ripple Has Acquired MoneyGram For $50 Million

Ripple made the final payment to purchase MoneyGram at a cost of $4.10 per share, which is over a dollar per share of the stock’s recent price of approximately $3.00. The action first started in June 2019.

Ripple owns just under 10% of MoneyGram’s outstanding common stock.

MoneyGram plans to utilize this funding inflow to support its operations, specifically since it expands its usage of Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity product, the renamed xRapid payment system which uses the XRP cryptocurrency.

Since June, MoneyGram has started using XRP to run trades in Europe, Australia and the Philippines, and now transacts approximately 10% of its own Mexican peso foreign exchange trading volume.

In an announcement, MoneyGram chairman and CEO Alex Holmes said that the venture was “transformative,” noting that the corporation could settle trades “in seconds.”

South Korea Takes Legal Step to Stamp Out Unregistered Crypto Exchanges

South Korea passed a legal amendment to oblige assets exchanges to register with the  Financial Services Commission (FSC).

This change was made to align fight money laundering,  and it asks crypto exchanges to have so-called actual name virtual bank account – sub-accounts for consumers inside a market’s main account – to avoid falling foul of the laws.

The opposition lawmakers had voiced worries that exchanges without real-name digital balances would be made to shut, bringing additional contraction of the national cryptocurrency market.

In 2018, the FSC outlawed anonymous digital balances with the consequence that just four exchanges were abandoned with real-name digital balances through contracts with local banks: Bithumb, Upbit, Korbit, and Coinone.

Ukraine Plans to Tax Crypto Gains at Low 5% Rate

Ukraine’s parliament received a cryptocurrency tax draft bill.

Written by 13 members of the parliament, the bill defines crypto-assets as a “special type of valuable property in the digital form, created, accounted for and disposed of electronically,”, for example, cryptocurrencies, tokens and other forms are not defined in the draft.

“We are confident that the adoption of this [draft] law will create conditions for the launch of the virtual assets market in line with the legislation of Ukraine, taking into account the balance of interests of entities engaged in transactions with virtual assets and the state, which will get additional tax revenue from such transactions,” said the ministry.

If the bill passes parliament, the earnings from trading assets will be calculated as the difference between the buy price and the price received in the sale. Profits should be declared as “other” form of earnings, while reductions might not be balanced to decrease the whole financial result before taxation, the record states.

Crypto income will generally be taxed at the normal speed, which will be 18% in Ukraine. However, in better information for dealers, there is a first 5% rate on private income from the selling of crypto assets to get a five-year period after approval of the invoice (assuming it moves).

Revenue of crypto assets wouldn’t be responsible for value-added tax (VAT).

Tokenized assets would observe another tax program, being described as electronic assets certifying possession or non-property rights. In such cases, tokens are taxed in precisely the exact same manner as the products or services financing them.

Michael Chobanian, creator of this Ukraine-based crypto trade Kuna and president of this Blockchain Association of Ukraine, stated he considers the law would operate, however, there are additional challenges confronting the business which have to be dealt with.

“If the National Bank of Ukraine doesn’t allow banks to open accounts for crypto businesses in Ukraine nothing for the industry will really change,” Chobanian said.

The ministry lately declared a partnership with all the Binance cryptocurrency market for help developing regulations for crypto from the nation.

Coinbase has added support for 5 new crypto options to its Visa debit card

Coinbase declared that holders of Coinbase Card are now able to spend XRP, basic attention token (BAT), augur (REP), 0x (ZRX) and stellar (XLM). These add to the already available options: bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), bitcoin cash (BCH) and litecoin (LTC).

Coinbase clients in Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Hungary, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Poland, Romania and Sweden have also been given access to Coinbase Card.

Zeeshan Feroz, CEO in Coinbase UK, said in a statement:

“By more than doubling the number of assets our customers can spend on Coinbase Card, as well as introducing the card to 10 new countries, Coinbase continues to help drive crypto’s role as a utility, and not just an investment.”

The Coinbase Card has been introduced back in April to function both the U.K. and EU states. Coinbase issues it “immediately” and converts cryptocurrency into fiat money when clients make a trade using the debit card.

According to the company, the card may be used anywhere that accepts Visa. There are charges for ATM transactions over the value of $200 – 1% domestically and 2% international, and fees for some trades.

Coinbase also supplies an iOS and Android program which allows users to create Visa obligations on their cellular devices. The Coinbase Card is issued by Paysafe Financial Services Limited, a company approved by U.K. regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority.

Stellar giveway: Stellar announced a huge airdrop on Keybase platform

Stellar giveway: Stellar announced a huge airdrop on Keybase platform

Stellar (XLM) is the 12th largest cryptocurrency in the world at a market capitalization of $1,142,091,322. But its price started to slumped after the announcement of the incoming airdrop of XLM, Stellar’s network tokens.

While Ripple, among the largest blockchain and cryptocurrency businesses, has been selling off its XRP power holdings, valued in the hundreds of millions of bucks, one of its cofounder decided to part ways with the project.

After departing Ripple some decades back, Jed McCaleb started Stellar in 2014. Today, the main topic on all cryptocurrency involved circles is the Stellar giveaway. Stellar is giving away about $124 million in XLM.

Keybase and Stellar partnered for a huge airdrop of Lumens (XLM), the token of the Stellar network. The Keybase’s CEO claims that this giveaway will be different,  but many aren’t convinced by the benefits of it. Nevertheless, the purchase price of XLM fell 76% since the very first event of the type was declared.

Stellar Giveaway

On September 9th, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) announced it would be giving up to 2 billion Stellar Lumens (XLM) during the next 20 weeks to customers of Keybase.

The Stellar Development Foundation is a nonprofit company started in 2014 to help grow the Stellar network.  Keybase is a key directory where people can connect their identities to their private keys.

The effort, which will operate for no less than 3 months based on consumer attention, is defined to automatically dispense 100 million XLM ( valued at approximately $6 million USD at the announcement moment), on a monthly basis throughout the offering to anybody who maintained a confirmed Keybase account prior to the airdrop’s statement.

Why is Stellar giving away free XLM tokens?

The SDF made it clear once more that the SDF is a nonprofit, and a non-stock entity. Therefore, the simple goal of the initiative will be to reevaluate the fiscal space by enabling more people to possess decentralized assets. In so doing, the CEO of SDF, Denelle Dixon considers the unbanked are going to have the ability to transact cross border transactions immediately and also to additionally be practice own-banking.

They started earlier this September, to airdrop 100 million XLMs (worth ~$6.1 million) to 300,000 Keybase users. The rest of the tokens will be given away over the next 20 months on the 15th of each month, starting in October. Each batch will consist of 100 million XLMs.

Every Keybase consumer is eligible to get a maximum of $500 value of XLMs, according to the statement. The limitation per-person implements over the whole path of this airdrop, Dixon told The Block. Users have to get a documented Keybase accounts to be eligible, a measure meant to stop bot signups, stated Keybase.

What is Keybase?

“By giving out free Lumens, SDF hopes that Keybase users can be more familiar with blockchain as well as the Stellar network.”

Keybase is a free messaging app, community and document transport hub minding encryption for consumer security. Keybase cofounders Max Krohn and Chris Coyne also constructed two other successful apps: SparkNotes and OkCupid.

Keybase isn’t crypto-native, meaning that its users don’t have blockchain knowledge.

The founders expect that this airdrop will bring new users to their platform.

“We definitely expect the Airdrop will bring new users to Keybase,”

On May 14, 2019, Keybase announced via a blog post, that the platform will make it easier for its users to send cryptocurrency, which is considered to be a complex task. Back then, Keybase noted that it is not only prone to human mistakes the task of sending digital assets to a complex string of numbers and letters, but one can be the victim of social engineering hacks. The article clarified that Keybase brings safety to the mixture and incorporates the capacity to deliver XLM from 1 individual to another, in a more straightforward manner on its own platform.

One of the founders explained:

“Keybase is linking strong cryptography to real-world identity, and our partnership with the Stellar Development Foundation means that users can interact with people financially in the same way they do socially without worrying about hackers or data breaches,”

Football and blockchain: The new trend of fantasy football blockchain games

Football and blockchain: The new trend of fantasy football blockchain games

Let’s talk about blockchain and football. These two don’t seem to work together, at first, but actually there are more than a few ways we can use the two concepts in the same sentence. This rather new technology has quickly started to be used in a wide array of domains, including football. Today, there is a special branch of gaming called fantasy football blockchain games.  Blockchain is a radical invention that has disrupted the finance industry. In addition, it has great potential in several different businesses, too. And football, or soccer, is the newest among a series of businesses taking steps to embrace blockchain technology.

Apart from offering different methods to play sports, blockchain engineering can also be providing new options to guarantee data integrity (such as scoring) is transparent and secure. The possibilities are quite diverse in using this technology. To sum up some of the situations in which blockchain can help the football industry, we would say tracking of tickets sale, easing the compliance with the GDPR law in Europe, an alternative to fiat/cash in football-related events, public record-keeping.

For individuals searching for new or even more secure approaches to play fantasy football, blockchain tech provides some interesting options. Some are functional, others are just announcing their development, while others are constantly postponing the launch. So what are the most sought after fantasy football blockchain games? After some internet digging, we came up with this list. Let us know what we should add, as we are always trying to keep fresh all data we present on digitaltokens.io.

Let’s take a look at the companies what we found so far to be uniting the two industries.

Bitcademy

What is Bitcademy? Bitcademy is a decentralized platform, which promises to offer tech solutions to the current football industry.

They aim to become an industry standard, by turning to tokenization of gamers and decentralization of the marketplace.

Football and blockchain: The new trend of fantasy football games bitcademy

The  services available at the marketplace are:

  • Talent management
  • Football players stats
  • Trading player tokens
  • Predictions

Bitcademy is a strong believer of the blockchain technology and the impact it can have in football. They recently stated in a medium article:

We will continue to push the market towards modern football solutions because we believe that player tokenization and market decentralization is the only way to go for the future.

Blockchain Football

Blockchain Football is a work in progress project, with non-fungible Ethereum tokens, which represent collectable football player cards.

The scope is to create a new ecosystem, in which the player can decide what role to have: Manager, Agent, Sponsor, Punter. This is the game in which virtual teams play using real stats from the players. Since this is using an Ethereum ERC-721 Non-Fungible Token (NFT), you will need to install  MetaMask on Chrome, and it will not work on mobile devices.

CashBet

A next generation solution designed to improve the gaming experience for players

This is the first phrase Cashbet uses to describe themselves.

CashBet is a new generation of monetization platform for social and mobile gambling.

It is a modular game system, comprehensive, and fiat-and-cryptocurrency prepared. They offer everything from back-of-house solutions to customized apps.

Last year, Arsenal signed a sponsorship deal with CashBet, with the aim to promote CashBet’s Initial Coin Offering (ICO) at the 60,000-seat Emirates stadium. This deal was regarded as the first time a major global sporting team has officially partnered with a cryptocurrency company.

CashBet said it is “actively targeting a global, multibillion-dollar marketplace of i-gaming content providers, operators and players”.

CoinDeal

CoinDeal is a cryptocurrency exchange, launched in 2018. They brag to be one of the best exchanges in the world, considering their daily volume, which is stated on CoinMarketCap. CoinDeal offers over 40 trading pair and users have the possibility to vote for their favourite crypto to be added to the platform.

Football and blockchain: The new trend of fantasy football games bitcademy

CoinDeal has just entered into their 2nd year of partnership with a Premier League team. After a successful 12 months with Wolverhampton, CoinDeal has now become the first permanent sleeve sponsor upon the club’s promotion into the Premier League.

The company will be the first in their country to host a Premier League club and also have seen a rapid increase in interest and habit since connecting with Wolves.

Crown League

Crown League is a US-based fantasy football project, in development, which strives to bring a decentralized American football platform for fans who lack ownership. Basically, this platform will somehow add the missing link between fans and football teams and players. It is advertised to be the “world’s first professional fantasy football league”, built entirely on blockchain.

The platform was due to launch this season. However, they have postponed it for next season. To add some sarcasm to the situation, how can this be the first platform of its kind, when it wasn’t even launched? Sounds more like a PR agency than an actual blockchain project.

eToro

eToro was founded in 2007 and is a global multi-asset investment platform, easy to use, with a database of over 6 million users. The platforms provide tools to invest in and create a portfolio with cryptocurrencies, stocks, commodities, ETFs and more.

The eToro system has two unique instruments, which ease the trade of cryptocurrency: CopyTrader and CopyFund. CopyTrader is an advisable tool for crypto newbies, who aren’t certain what crypto to select for investing. It unlocks access to best dealers’ strategies an assists beginners to analyze and gain their private trading experience. CopyFund, allows more experienced users to diversify their portfolio instantly, leveraging the ability of artificial intelligence.

etoro premier league clubs

Recently, eToro announced its second year as their biggest sponsor of six Premier League teams: Southampton, Tottenham, Crystal Palace, Leicester City, Aston Villa and Everton.

Fantastec SWAP

Remember those collectable albums we had as kids? Now, it’s all digital and on the blockchain. the aim of the game is to complete all the clubs’ albums. This is done by buying collectable packs and swapping them with others, hence the name of the game, Fantastec SWAP.

“Collect your favourites” is the headline of this digital collectable blockchain platform. Every new football season, new collectables are added, “featuring player autographs and exclusive content.” The game is available exclusively on mobile platforms, iOS and Android.

This seems to be a game for football team fans, players and collectors. They developers promise they will sign more partnerships in the 2019 season, and users of the platform will have the rare chance to collect new football player cards, autographs and more.

The game lists the logos of 3 prestigious football clubs from European leagues on their homepage: Arsenal, Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid.

The blockchain on which the entire platform is built upon will ensure that transparent and secure trades are made, while the available pack are drawn fair.

Fantasy Manager Football 2019

Fantasy Manager is a mobile football simulator.

The users are the managers and you can choose your team, using real-life players. The stats of the players are based on real-life players. The game is available only on mobile platforms, iOS and Android.

Fantasy Manager Football 2019 is developed by From The Bench, who claims to be the biggers sports game developer in the world, “with the biggest official franchise of football clubs as well as official licenses of the NBS, NFLPA and MLBPA.”

PRO Football Supervisor 2019 Cup brings you the very best experience of true performance with the greatest soccer player rosters by engaging a leading manager and battles coming from all football fans globally. Contain Cristiano Ronaldo, Diego Costa, Bacca, Higuain, Griezmann, Bale or even Neymar in OFFICIAL CLUBS like Juventus, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona, etc on your roster. Start developing your livelihood of football manager and reach the best in this sport game by winning matches.

Download PRO Football Supervisor 2019 Cup, trainer in the true league at no cost and direct a formal group in this soccer game! Handle your favourite clubs utilizing the very best approach and be the ultimate winner! Are you going to visit Russia to score a winning goal?

FootballCoin

FootballCoin is a daily fantasy football blockchain game, that includes 11 of the top leagues. Players are judged on their real performances and winners are awarded XFC cryptocurrency for their knowledge.

FootballCoin is not just another fantasy game, but it’s the first game built entirely on blockchain. There is a major difference between blockchain games and crypto games and FooballCoin proudly represents the first category. DigitalTokens team considers this to be an important milestone in the blockchain adoption process by the mass, as FootballCoin is clearly one of the top fantasy football blockchain games.

footballcoin Football and blockchain: The new trend of fantasy football games bitcademy

FootballCoin promises real winnings, real-life stats, collectables and manager experiences. The game uses crypto to run its own economy, and they used their own blockchain, where anyone can check the transactions of the game’s cryptocurrency. All the major European leagues are featured in the game, as well as the Chinese and American ones.

FootballCoin is a rather complex game, that uses collectable cards for each footballer, and depending on their real-life stats, some are ranked higher and are in limited number on the blockchain. These collectable cards are regarded as assets, which can be traded or sold inside the game. The cryptocurrency used within the game is also available for trading on different cryptocurrency exchanges, such as CoinDeal.

The key points FootballCoin takes pride in these 3 key points: free to play, positions itself as a blockchain game and it has a reality-based scoring system. And by using your football knowledge to create football teams using real-life footballers, you will earn real crypto which you can use to buy collectables or exchange for other cryptos or sell from fiat.

FottballCoin is playing big and acts in real-life too, and earlier in the 2019 football season, FootballCoin has become one of the sponsors of a top team from the Romanian football league.

FootballStars

FootballStars is a free football manager game, with 2 different play modes, which take football fans to a new level.

Divided into two fully functional modes – Challenge-Mode and Manager-Mode – Football-Stars offers whatever football fan hearts desire. While the Challenge-Mode lets users face new challenges with their self-assembled teams on a daily basis, Manager-Mode users manage their individual teams to fight for the title over the course of an entire season. Both modes are based on the football players’ real-life performance data, which are being tracked through our data provider, “Opta”.

FootballStars Football and blockchain: The new trend of fantasy football games

FootballStars brags to have the rights for using the official photos and logos of the Bundesliga but also featured the top 5 leagues in Europe. The game is free to play, and the coins won in the game can be ultimately exchanged for amazing gift cards or other products.

Football-Stars is incorporating blockchain technologies to deliver token-based interactions, through the STRYKZ token (the token of the founding company), to its own platform.

Soccer Manager

Since 2018, Chimaera, the self-proclaimed first blockchain gaming platform, has entered a partnership with Soccer Manager to build a blockchain football management game.

The Chimaera blockchain functions as a decentralised gaming backend that’s scalable, secure, and trustworthy. They stated:

Play-to-Earn gaming will make freemium gaming as we know it obsolete. Players are no longer burdened to keep shelling out money the further they progress in a game. The opposite is true- the more they play, the bigger the earnings.

Football and blockchain: The new trend of fantasy football games

The game features League and friendly matches as well as tournaments. Players can also challenge themselves directly and compete against each other, in the quest of SMCs (Soccer Manager Coins).

Socios

Becoming more than just a fan of your favourite football club or player, is what Socios is all about. The app aims to give a voice to the true fans of football and let them vote and decide on club matters. Socios doesn’t look like one of the fantasy football blockchain games you’d expect, but it promises to involve football and blockchain, and hence, its appearance on our list.

Socios calls it making an impact:

When you own Fan Tokens, you join a pool of supporters whose collective decision-making power is absolute. Our partner teams will seek your input on club matters by running binding and non-binding polls – binding poll results are an instruction which clubs agree to follow.

Football and blockchain: The new trend of fantasy football games

Other milestones are highlighted on their homepage, such as rewards, leaderboard, games, market place, and a fan shop. So far, Socios has become partner with some prestigious European clubs: Paris-Saint Germain, Juventus, West Ham United, AS Roma and Atletico Madrid. They have also partnered with an e-sport team, OG.

 

SportyCo

SportyCo is a decentralized sports investment platform, who has recently become an official sponsor of RCD Espanyol. The investment platform is supported by footballers like Roberto Carlos and Ronaldinho.

SportyCo believes that each and every promising athlete deserves the chance to pursue their professional career and each little investor hass to have the ability to back an athlete they believe in. Why is this shift necessary?

The up-and-coming athletes at the beginning of the pro careers face a good deal of issues associated with financing their training and involvement in events throughout the world. Additionally, many sports clubs and other sports businesses cope with acute financial and liquidity problems. That is why SportyCo makes a direct appeal towards investors and athletes

SPF Token is at the base of SportyCo’s ecosystem. The blockchain-based system is supplying the best, most secure, and transparent crowdfunding mechanism.

Football and blockchain: The new trend of fantasy football games

Each crowdfunding effort on SportyCo’s system is going to be recorded in SPF Tokens. SPF Tokens are also used to buy extra services which SportyCo provides to athletes, sports clubs, investors, and other participants at the ecosystem.

From a technical standpoint, SPF Token is an ERC20 compatible utility token and it is currently listed on several cryptocurrency exchanges.

 

SUPERBLOKE

SuperBloke is a Korean start-up, build on blockchain, that collects and grows football players.

How Blockchain technology can bring new kind of fun for football fans?

According to SuperBloke, a user can grow a footballer from rising star to superstar level, which is based on real-life match stats and can also compete with other users. Basically, users can train and build their own digital version of real-life footballers by collecting digital player cards using real-life match stats and in-game training.

This is all done via the blockchain-powered collectable dApp “FC SUPERSTARS” where users can hold these player cards as digital assets. After a footballer’s growth is completed, “it can be registered on Ethereum Blockchain and become a digital asset.”

Football and blockchain: The new trend of fantasy football games

Earlier this year, Superbloke announce that it will be Manchester City’s official blockchain-based Gacha partner in Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia.

There are many online games related to popular sports like football have been concentrating on virtual players which the user trains and builds his team. But this is different because it is based on real-life stats and events. Is SuperBloke one of the fantasy football blockchain games? We would put it in the collectable assets category, but it’s pretty close to what we were looking for.


The list of fantasy football blockchain games is meant to bring together today’s top applications and projects. We are constantly looking for new projects to add to the list, so feel free to email us (contact@digitaltokens.io) if you know of any suitable project which is not yet listed here.

IBM Blockchain World Wire promises to move money further and cheaper than ever before

IBM Blockchain World Wire promises to move money further and cheaper than ever before

Everybody knows that among Bitcoin’s most important resource is its borderless character and it may be utilized as a cross-border payment alternative. On the other hand, the decentralized character of Bitcoin has hamstrung its widespread adoption marginally, and many businesses have thus seen a market in the standard industry.

To begin with, there was Ripple, among just three blockchain-first businesses that were recently appointed from the Forbes Blockchain 50 listing, which has created its mandate to associate with big and institutionalised financial banks and institutions.

Some think this has happened. JP Morgan Chase this season also declared its blockchain-based cross-border payment alternative experimentation, the JPM Coin.

IBM has a substantial stake in the burgeoning blockchain marketplace with Hyperledger Fabric the most-used from the Forbes Blockchain 50 record, accounting for 26.

So, the race is really to supply a cross-border blockchain payment option, but are such enterprise businesses overlooking the mark somewhat, and even overlooking their key market altogether? Many companies and companies may see the significance of utilizing IBM’s solution, although the guy in the road, who are fed up with the standard financial system, may be more prone to use decentralised alternatives like Bitcoin.

However, where’s the viable, simple to use, user-friendly alternative which produces cryptocurrencies and their cross border possible available for everybody?

Ripple wishes to function as go-to for banks, JPM coin has been born of a lender, as well as the World Wire alternative has software predominantly for fiscal and business associations.

None of those solutions is made for the different side of this marketplace; the customers and the people who wish to have the ability to profit on the effectivity and worth of sending cash across boundaries throughout the blockchain.

Nowadays, many here will state Bitcoin, along with other cryptocurrencies, fill this market; they’re resources for your people and planned to aid people who wish to operate out the standard financial regime. However, it also has to be recalled that cryptocurrency adoption is nowhere close wide enough to attain critical mass.

On the flip side, there’s the decentralised cryptocurrency world which nonetheless has a gigantic ‘Wild West’ standing, this leaves a huge marketplace stranded in the centre.

“The biggest barrier for something like World Wire to get off the ground is the traditional banking system and its resistance to innovation,” explains Elizabeth White of The White Company, a company hoping to give cryptocurrency solutions which appeal to both customers and companies.

“Large intentional banks have been using systems like SWIFT for decades and have whole ‘wire departments’ dedicated to processing transactions. While blockchain would significantly modernize, automate, secure and speed up the whole process, it would require retraining and reworking a bank’s entire operations to implement,” White stated.

“IBM is using World Wire to compete with SWIFT for international bank transfers. While the system has a lot of potential and has a real chance of supplanting SWIFT; Individuals or companies cannot use World Wire, so they would still have to go through the regular banking process to send international payments.”

“For many banks, moving to XRP, JPM Coin, or World Wire is just not worth it because their customers are not yet demanding the speed and low cost of blockchain transactions, and in fact banks are making a lot of revenue on wire fees and the like.”

“There is also some apprehension amongst many banking professionals about using ‘blockchain’ because sadly there are quite a few that still don’t understand the technology and may even associate blockchain with money laundering, completely missing the significant anti-fraud prevention advantages of distributed ledger.”

A hybrid payment method

The growth of the cryptocurrency area was required thanks to its tumultuous and tumultuous past. It started as this bewitching online cash that could interrupt every business possible and captured the imagination of swaths of individuals, but in addition, it opened the doors for fraudsters, scammers, and speculators.

The backlash was a far more controlled, controlled and quantified approach to 2019. It has opened the other door for its business companies and major associations to join, but these polarised sides have left a major gap open from the centre.

White, along with the White Company, consider they’re on the ideal path to achieve this abandoned over target market since they’re providing stability and safety of important financial institutions because of supplying things like insurance by a leading UK Bank Lloyds, in addition to using a blockchain, Stellar is endorsed by IBM.

However they also feel the offering of a simple to use and user-friendly end, using a coin that is stable, and chances to exchange different cryptos, will help lure even more customers.

“Our payments platform, for example, is built on Stellar, which is a dedicated payments protocol supported by IBM, Deloitte, Stripe and others, and is focused on optimizing speed and efficiency of payments,” adds White.

When it’s to be considered at across a spectrum – based decentralised cryptocurrencies on one end, venture cross-border blockchain options on another – a middle ground has to be constructed and established. Users would like to have the safety of financial and banking institutions, with no bureaucracy and heritage connected with that.

What’s IBM World Wire?

72 countries, 47 currencies, 44 banking endpoints and more than 1081 unique currency trading pairs. IBM Blockchain World Wire is here.

In March 2019, IBM announced the launching of World Wire, a worldwide payments system, which is using the Stellar network.

The great news is that this system can be used by any financial system in the world, and it’s not limited to banks. By using the speed and flexibility of Stellar, World Wire intends to replace the heritage correspondent banking system using easy point-to-point transactions. At the moment of the launch, World Wire was handling 47 currencies in 72 nations, and it is just likely to rise from that point.

World Wire promises to unlock the planet’s financial potential making money more fluid, wider markets.

BUT…

Since IBM launched  World Wire, a global payments alternative which uses Stellar, some have been disappointed because it is not exactly a blockchain infrastructure. Basically, if the trades aren’t placed in”Blocks”, then it isn’t a Blockchain. And they’re not.

IBM has created a worldwide online banking protocol which sits between two transacting banks. It is faster but not as quickly as Blockchain (when we factor in resolutions). In global settlements, there are 3 Important variables:

Messaging . The sender and the recipient are notified of the transaction status.
Clearing . All intermediary activities that contribute to the settlement.
Settlement.  The funds are in the receiver’s account.

While PayPal incorporates the preceding three functions into one port, IBM’s World Wire goes a step further and incorporates them completely rather than only via the frontend.

Considering that the IBM World Wire essentially assimilate everything into information pieces and sets them onto a uniform ledger, it’s confronted with the most frequently encountered issue of cryptography: Asset Transport without inflating the strength worth. Consider it like this. If I wish to send you a car within the Blockchain, I would be able to only move the ownership rights, but not the asset itself.

Escrowmybits ibm world wire

(credit: Escrowmybits)

This is the point where the crypto-tokens come in the picture. I am now able to send the car into an escrow at the same time you move a sum of cash (or even cryptocurrency) into the escrow. We need to trust that the escrow will ease the exchange, not run off with both, your cash and my painting.

Thus, you and I get substituted with our individual banks and as all of us know, they’re wiser than everyone.

How does IBM World Wire work?

IBM World Wire need tp create a stablecoin for each transfer to take place. Why? Because the purchase price of the car varies in real-time, as does the cost of the money the receiver pays when the 2 individuals have decided to make the trade. That’s why IBM World Wire enables both banking associations to come up with a stablecoin on the Stellar protocol and use it an exchange currency.

IBM world wire

Credit: IBM

Let’s take the example of sending money from one country to another. If X from the UK wants to send money to Y in the US, the two corresponding banks have to create a settlement, or better said, a stablecoin for them to trade.

This means that X from the UK, or his bank, has to purchase that stablecoin created for this transaction, using the local currency, the pound, and then the bank in the US buy US dollars using that stablecoin. the entire operation is set to take place in minutes.

This alternative to the old transactional methods focuses on the rate of transport and the simplicity of producing resources (cryptocurrencies generated on Stellar are called resources ). If, however, IBM can attract the Central Banks into the dining table, the World Wire could address an important issue that the banks from all over the world face every day.

A route to the future

It’s fairly pleasant that blockchain tokens, digital resources, cryptocurrencies, or anything type of tag lands on these, are the long run.

There will however have to be a middle-out expansion which will help lure the majority of users to this brand new and largely misunderstood area. If the businesses are searching for themselves along with other large businesses, along with the cryptocurrencies are used by people in the know, then humanity is still waiting for the groundbreaking moment when your smartphone will bring this to the masses.

33 Cryptocurrencies Described in Four Words or Less

33 Cryptocurrencies Described in Four Words or Less

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and Litecoin which are the major cryptocurrencies have been good and bad investments. It has been a good investment for all those who have purchased them early and sold them in their high times, at the end of 2017. It has been bad for all those who have purchased in the all-time high and sold it in the recent week when the prices dropped down. The investors who have taken the risk during the dip can be richly awarded for their bravery and patience.

But this the past about these currencies, what can the future be? Are they good or bad investments?

Few economists see cryptos as a more technological invention than a quick to get rich scheme, if someone plans to invest in crypto then they should invest in the technology behind it because it is a technological revolution which has the potential to disrupt the fundamental aspects of the global financial systems.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and Litecoin are the major cryptocurrencies right now.

Bitcoin is one of the most battle-hardened networks at present. It is one such cryptocurrency that can be relied upon and with its lightning network in the early stages, great things are coming. Bitcoins correction at present is due to many extraordinary market pressures and can hold value for now.

Ethereum is considered as the general purpose scripted blockchain which is found by the greatest minds of the present generation. It has the potential to one day rival Bitcoin. Ethereum took a large correction after the major market moves with high profile ICOs and is facing pressures from Bitcoin.

Ripple though is not truly decentralized but is lightning fast, it has the power to improve on the legacy banking systems and also help the streamline money transfer internationally.

Litecoin which is Bitcoins younger brother is the first true Altcoin that does not offer any technological developments over the protocol of Bitcoin. But it is likely a permanent fixture in the crypto world for many years yet to come.

33 Cryptocurrencies Described in Four Words or Less

In the meanwhile, the value of some lesser known tokens and altcoins can get the potential to fizzle out and certainly, the big players can see a surge in value before it’s too long. So it always doubtful about investing in cryptocurrencies because, if the investment is the speculative gamble for the user then it has the potential for short term gains or losses. But on the contrary, if the investment is a well-disciplined, strategy, academics and diversification for maximum returns, then it is closer to a game of roulette than to investment.

Investing with the major cryptocurrencies can be a risky game for the speculators than the investors, who can afford to lose a part or all the invested funds. If these cryptocurrencies can bring you huge profits, they also carry one more thing and that is to lose money. The predictions won’t always be right. None of them truly knows what is going to happen with the price of cryptos. It is always important to know which strategy works the best and also a good understanding of what makes a good investment.

33 Cryptocurrencies Described in Four Words or Less

The following infographic on 33 Cryptocurrencies Described in Four Words or Less is developed by our friends at Mrbtc.org, check out the infographic and let us know your thoughts.

Digital Tokens 101: What is a digital token?

Digital Tokens 101: What is a digital token?

Digital tokens are a relatively new addition to our everyday vocabulary, and it’s closely related to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, but also with electronic tokens which are used to symbolize various resources on a blockchain. What is a digital token? How can you use a digital token? Read this short guide to understand the different types of digital tokens and to be able to join a conversation nest time someone mentions digital tokens.

 

Digital Tokens 101: What Does it All Mean?

The term ‘token’ can lead you to think about the plastic casino chips, or that thing used to swap to get a beer under a particular platform or within a particular market such as a festival.

Let’s explore the origin of this term ‘digital token’, and then have a look to the area of cryptocurrency tokens, differentiating between blockchain-native tokens like BTC on Bitcoin or even ETH on Ethereum, along with asset-backed tokens like IOUs on Ripple.

How Digital Tokens appeared

 

Chances are that we’ve all seen a digital token before, even though we didn’t realize it. Let’s think about when subscribing to an online service or newsletter.

After you enter an email address into a site to join a mailing list, you are often asked to look at your email and click a hyperlink. The link you get to confirm your subscription may look something like this:

https://www.website.com/confirm_email? token=4bdebebc-135b-4748-b7ab-25b31a285df8

In cases like this, the ‘token’ is that this series of characters that was delivered to you. This number or string of characters is unique, so the company who sent you the confirmation email will know it’s your email address if you click on it.

So, the site sent you a token, and you shipped it back, demonstrating you had control of the email address.

But the term ‘token’ is presently being utilized in a totally different manner to identify different items in the cryptocurrency world.

 

Cryptocurrency Tokens

 

Cryptocurrency tokens do not exist as a number like the one in the example above (they’d be simple to replicate ), but instead, they exist as entrances on a ledger (a blockchain). You have those ‘tokens’ since you’ve got a secret which allows you to make a new entrance on the ledger, re-assigning the possession to another person. You do not store tokens in your own pc, you save the keys that allow you to access or reassign the amount.

Those ‘tokens’ could be considered as electronic resources that you can have control of, and you may reassign control to somebody else.

“Cryptocurrency” can refer to both tokens and coins, but differences exist between the two labels.

We’ll cover two kinds of token:

  1. “intrinsic”, “native” or “built-in” tokens of blockchains
  2. “asset-backed” tokens issued on the blockchain by a third party onto a blockchain, which can be redeemed at a later time

1. Intrinsic tokens (also called ‘native or ‘built-in’ tokens)
Intrinsic tokens are conceived for their usefulness.

Here are some famous examples of intrinsic tokens are:

  • BTC (Bitcoin blockchain)
  • XRP (Ripple network)
  • NXT (NXT platform)
  • ETH (Ethereum)

Check out the top 100 cryptocurrency tokens, and the entire list on Coin Market Cap.

All these ‘coins’ or ‘digital tokens’ stand at the core of their projects and blockchain. Without them, the blockchain wouldn’t work. It’s not rare to find digital tokens as part of a reward system, which encourages users to create blocks by validating transactions on the blockchain. Each blockchain has its own digital tokens system, although some can look alike.

How are intrinsic tokens created?

These tokens are created by computers and are not backed up by anything. It’s like writing down on a piece of paper “I have 1 billion coins”.

In reality, if you did this, then kept a fantastic record of those friends you gave them to, and in the event that you could record forward trades as your buddies gave them to other friends, you’d do pretty much exactly what these digital ledgers do.

Let’s take the most famous digital tokens for instance:

Bitcoins are ‘mined’ according to a schedule. The recently created coins are made to reward to the block-maker. The entire amount of bitcoins increases with time. They can be then traded.

The digital tokens XRP, were ‘pre-mined’ (created all the beginning) and shared among key participants. Each trade has a small XRP fee. These XRPs are destroyed over time. The entire amount of XRPs circulating goes down with time.

  • NXT, NXT

The NXT tokens were pre-mined. Each trade on the NXT system includes a commission in NXT. The fee goes into the block-maker (in NXT that is known as a ‘forger’ as opposed to a ‘miner’). The entire amount of NXT stays constant with time.

Ethereum has been pre-mined. Transactions and smart contracts require an ETH fee to be created and to operate, and the block-maker is rewarded with ETH. The block-maker also receives a block reward.

coin_issuance bitcoin ethereum ripple what is digital token

What is the purpose of intrinsic digital tokens?

The primary purposes of intrinsic digital tokens appear to be:

  1. Block validation incentives (‘miner rewards’)
  2. Transaction spam avoidance (if all trades cost a token, it restricts the capacity to create spam transaction and jam the network)

Even though these coins have worth (you can purchase and sell some of them on a cryptocurrency exchange for some other cryptocurrencies or fiat), they are not supposed to represent anything. They just exist as a digital token.

2. Asset-backed tokens

If we take a look at the history of money, we can observe an antique practice people had. In the old times, you could deposit gold at your goldsmith’s shop, and get a receipt or “I Owe You” (IOU) note from them. These notes could be moved from person to person, and anyone holding these notes could go back to the goldsmith and get into the possession of the actual gold.

Asset-backed tokens would be the electronic equivalent. They’re claims within an underlying asset (such as the golden), that you have to maintain from a particular issuer (the goldsmith). The trades are listed on the blockchains, as tokens become passed between individuals, and also to maintain the underlying asset, you ship your token into the issuer, and the issuer sends you that the underlying asset.

Asset-backed tokens are claims on an underlying asset, by a particular issuer.

Popular assets for all these schemes are currencies (USD, EUR, etc) and precious metals (Cryptocurrencies seem to attract the same crowd as silver and gold). People monitoring these assets on ledgers by producing a digital token to represents each of them.

How do asset-backed tokens work?

Let us take the case of Coins-R-Us, a false Bitcoin exchange, issuing Euro-backed digital tokens.

You send fiat money to Coins-R-Us by logging into your internet banking. It’s like a normal bank payment you sent Eur to the Coins-R-Us’ bank accounts. Let’s say you sent 100 Eur. Then you log into your account and see 100 electronic asset-backed tokens known as Coins-R-Us-EUR.

The production of the tokens is listed on a blockchain. This could be on the Bitcoin Blockchain, or as a resource on Ripple or NXT, or even a smart contract on Ethereum. Now you can send these digital tokens to your friends (possibly in return for some thing or as a present), and also the tokens continue to be monitored on the exact same blockchain.

At some point, one of your friends will want to exchange this asset-backed token to get something real. He would have to go back to Coins-R-Us, set up an account on their platform, tell them his bank account number, and send them the Coins-R-Us-EUR he got out of you. They would then sent him Eur to his bank account from their bank account.

token_workflow
The advantages of using asset-backed tokens are that they are a good way to keep records of transactions and are easy to transfer, but the users still need to go back to the issuer if they ever want to transform it into liquidity.

cryptocurrency vs digital tokens what are digital tokens

What are Cryptocurrencies?

What is the definition of cryptocurrency?

A cryptocurrency is a virtual or digital currency which is encrypted (secured) using cryptography. Cryptography refers to the usage of encryption methods to secure and check the transport of trades. Bitcoin represents the very first decentralized cryptocurrency, which can be powered with a general public ledger that lists and validates all trades chronologically, known as the blockchain.

A Cryptocurrency is a math-based, decentralized digital money that’s protected by cryptography

Cryptocurrency is a short expression for “cryptographic” money. Cryptocurrency integrates the principles of cryptography to execute a distributed, decentralized, protected information market.

Cryptocurrency is a kind of “virtual money” compared to fiat money that’s used more commonly, like the dollar or the euro. Virtual currencies are supposed to be utilized as money; they are mainly meant to be utilized as a medium of trade. Though some persons speculate about the value of one currency versus different money, the aim of these currencies is to be used as a medium of trade rather than as an investment.

In 2015, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) from the United States, declared that “Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are encompassed in the definition and properly defined as commodities.” However, because virtual currencies aren’t securities, they aren’t regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Briefly, this is how a blockchain functions:

digital tokens

(Source: The Bernie Group)

Cryptocurrencies have been around before Bitcoin was created, but its creation marks a significant milestone in the domain of digital currencies, mainly because of its decentralized blockchain and user adoption.

The development of Bitcoin precipitated the growth of a verdant and much more varied ecosystem of different coins and tokens, which are frequently regarded as cryptocurrencies generally, even if a lot of them don’t fall under the definition of “money”.

Digital tokens vs Cryptocurrency

Tokens, on the other hand, are usually an addition to a blockchain and reflect an asset or a utility. Digital tokens belong to a platform (e.g. the Ethereum network), to exist and function, and are created when a crypto project launches an Initial Coin Offering (ICO). Tokens, also known as crypto-tokens and digital tokens, are often given to early investors in exchange for cryptocurrencies such as Ether, Bitcoin, or even some other Altcoins, and can also be used as a kind of payment for utilizing a platform, or app.

Now, how do you tell exactly what token does what? There is a number token and they all exist independently. However, the main types of tokens are security tokens and utility tokens.

In the crypto space, people refer to digital tokens as crypto tokens.

Think of digital tokens the same as you would think of the tokens that we utilized in actual life actions. The most important intention of the tokens would be to provide clients with an equivalent priority for maintaining an item or something that the tokens belong to.

For example, in banking, they utilize tokens to facilitate the customers’ access to their account.

Digital tokens work in a similar manner, but they’re primarily utilized at the idea of ICO.

 

Coins vs Tokens: Categorization of Cryptocurrencies

 

It’s essential to be aware that all coins or tokens are considered as cryptocurrencies, even though the majority of the coins don’t be a currency or medium of exchange.

The expression cryptocurrency is a misnomer because money technically signifies a unit of account, a store of value and a medium of trade.

These features are inherent inside Bitcoin, also since the cryptocurrency area was kick-started by Bitcoin’s production, some other coins conceived following Bitcoin is normally believed to be a cryptocurrency, although most don’t meet the aforementioned qualities of genuine currency.

The most frequent categorization of all cryptocurrencies are:

  • Choice Cryptocurrency Coins (Altcoins)
  • Tokens

 crydigital tokens ptocurrency altcoin tokens

Altcoins

Cryptocurrency which is not Bitcoin is also known as altcoin or just “coins”. They are frequently used interchangeably. Altcoins only refers to coins which are an option to Bitcoin. Nearly all altcoins are a version (fork) of Bitcoin, constructed using Bitcoin’s open-sourced, first protocol with modifications to its inherent codes, thereby simplifying a totally new coin with another set of attributes. A fundamental notion of changing open source codes to make new coins is known as hardforks. To understand better what a hardfork means, you can study Bitcoin Cash which is a hard fork from Bitcoin.

This normally results in the introduction of a new coin. There are various sorts of forks like hard fork, soft fork or casual fork.

You will find different altcoins which are not derived from Bitcoin’s open source protocol. Instead, they’ve established their very own blockchain and protocol which affirms their native currency.

Interesting fact: The very first Altcoin has been Namecoin, that was made in April 2011. It’s a decentralized open source data registration and transport system.

Tokens

Tokens are a representation of a specific utility or asset, that generally resides on a blockchain. Tokens can signify essentially any resources which are fungible and tradeable, from commodities to loyalty factors to other cryptocurrencies!

Creating tokens is a far simpler process since you don’t need to change the codes from a specific protocol or design a blockchain from scratch. All you need to do is follow a standard template around your blockchain (e.g. Ethereum, Waves system), which permits you to produce your own tokens. This performance of producing your personal tokens is made possible via the usage of smart contracts.

What is a smart contract? A smart contract is a self-executing programmed computer codes which don’t require some third-parties to function.

This is how the process works:

digital tokens how smart contract work
Tokens are made and distributed to the general public via an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), which is a method of crowdfunding, through the launch of a newly created cryptocurrency or token to finance o project development. It’s very similar to an Initial Public Offering (IPO) for shares, but there are some crucial distinctions. Many eagerly participate in ICOs, and see it as a fantastic method to invest in projects which may offer excellent returns of investment.

Interesting fact: A template for token creation is fantastic since it provides a standard interface for interoperability between tokens. This makes it much easier for you to save different sort of coins inside one wallet. An illustration is that the ERC-20 standard on the Ethereum blockchain, which is utilized by over 40 tokens.

What is a Security Token?

Security tokens are synonymous with an investment contract. Security tokens could represent shares in a business, earnings flows, an entitlement to dividends or interest obligations. From a financial view, they’re similar to stocks, bonds or derivatives.

The national laws apply to ICOs, and they are different from country to country. This means that securities, asset tokens fall under these laws. That’s why it’s important to know the country in which the ICO is launched, to know the regulations which apply to a token.

How to know if a token is a security token?

Usually, If the answer to the question “Is the token increasing in value over time, and is that increase connected to the company’s performance?” is Yes, then that is a security token.

A Security Token is an electronic token that represents debt, equity, an investment contract, or other security in an enterprise.

It isn’t a coin nor is it meant to be money. The four conditions that have to be fulfilled in order for the tool to be considered a security are:

  • It’s an investment of cash;
  • There’s an expectation of gains from the investment;
  • The expense of cash is in a frequent venture; and
  • Any gain comes from promoters or third party.

This is called the Howey test, which was a Supreme Court case, between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Howey. They determined that if a digital token fulfils the four requirements of this test  (such as other securities) it’ll be controlled by the SEC. So these digital tokens are securities, not commodities or currencies, and therefore they’re not governed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Summary

  • Regulatory framework, depending on the country
  • Expectation of return
  • Similar to a stock

What is a Utility Token?

Utility tokens are much like the tokens you would purchase at an arcade, and grant you access to an organization’s services or products. They are not regulated, and therefore utility tokens are not investments.

From time to time, the lines between a security and a utility token may become confusing, especially once you add in unclear regulations, which are added in the absence of a globally-accepted frame. But when a utility token is correctly structured and functions as a “voucher” for the organization’s services, it stays a utility and usually exempt from rigorous regulatory oversight.

A Utility Token is an electronic token created for utilization only, not for investment.

It’s not a coin.

If a person is buying a utility token for investment purposes, it’s very likely to be regarded as a security token, ( the SEC stands by this view). A utility token is a token which can only be utilized on the 1 platform or network (where it is issued) and can’t be converted into fiat or electronic money.

It’s somehow similar to loyalty points and gift cards. Gift cards or loyalty points can only be used on a single platform or community and are often representative of a prepayment for services.

In discussing the gap between utility tokens and security tokens, SEC chairman Jay Clayton said: “A token that represents a participation interest in a book-of-the-month club” shouldn’t be a security token.

On the flip side, tokens in “a yet-to-be-built publishing house with the authors, books and distribution networks all to come” will probably be a security token since “prospective purchasers are being sold on the potential for tokens to increase in value — with the ability to lock in those increases by reselling the tokens on a secondary market — or to otherwise profit from the tokens based on the efforts of others.”

Summary

  • Not, or less, regulated
  • Aren’t investments
  • Give Accessibility to a product/service

Security Tokens vs Utility Tokens: Why It Matters

Knowing the distinction between a utility token along with a security token is an essential aspect.

Whether you are holding tokens or are arranging a crowdsale, then you want to be aware of the difference.

To begin with, you do not wish to purchase something without understanding exactly what it is, and secondly, you have to understand what legislation the token should be compliant with pre-launch of a token crowdsale.

Prior to picking what coin to start your own ICO with, you will need to ask yourself a question: “Which are the requirements of my ICO?”. And make sure you don’t fall into these common traps:

Avoiding Security Tokens

Even if you intend to avoid regulations and call you token a utility token because that doesn’t make it a utility token. By calling a token a “utility” token or structuring it to supply a utility doesn’t stop the token out of being a safety.

In case a security token gets the features that your ICO needs, then pick a security. When there’s absolutely no demand for a security token, then do not make one unnecessarily.

Underutilizing Utility Tokens

Utility tokens are of numerous types and with different attributes and can cover the needs of an ICO. Utility tokens are dynamic. Many overlook their features, however, it is crucial that you do your homework before ignoring the choice completely. By exploring all the features, one can get a better understanding of the capabilities of a token, have a better chance to successfully launch their own token or invest in a profitable project.

Altcoins vs Tokens

The most important difference between altcoins and tokens lies within their construction. While altcoins are different currencies using their ow blockchain, tokens function within a blockchain that eases the introduction of decentralized software. Nearly all coins in  (near to 80%) are tokens because they are much simpler to make.

Cryptocurrency vs Digital Tokens

Can you answer the question “What are the common for a dollar bill, the stocks of a company and a prepaid gift card?”

They don’t have a lot of things in common. Now let’s take this analogy to cryptocurrency (or virtual currency), security tokens and utility tokens. Again, they don’t have that many things in common.

But if you comply with that the world of digital translators from the media and popular media, you’d believe virtual currencies, security tokens, and utility tokens are very similar as they’re often simultaneously and discussed under the subject of “cryptocurrency.”

Many online publications and even investment guides use the term “cryptocurrency” to describe virtual currencies, security tokens, and utility tokens. But these three terms describe extremely different concepts, each of which can be subject to various legal frameworks and regulations.

While every one of the items is made on distributed ledgers using the blockchain technology, from both a legal and a practical standpoint, the similarity ends there. We should rethink using the term”cryptocurrency,” and instead use the phrases that are particular to the classes that have grown: virtual currency, security tokens, and utility tokens. Within our descriptions below we supply more details about the significance of each one of those classes.

digital token and icos what is a digital tokens

Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and Digital Tokens

ICO is the abbreviation for Initial Coin Offering. This is similar to crowdfunding or IPO. The essence of this process is that cryptocurrency projects are inviting anyone to become an investor in their project. The majority of these crypto projects launch a new cryptocurrency.

Let us clarify the usage and term of “ICO”

ICO stands for First Coin Offering. The normal ICO denotes the offering of electronic tokens that are generally either safety tokens or utility tokens. Furthermore, an ICO is generally not the first offering of the issuer. While ICO rhymes with IPO and is still a tricky term, it shouldn’t be confused with the public offering of securities.

As the marketplace rises, the terminology used in the field of cryptocurrency will hopefully get a wider spread and be understood properly. The differences between the different kinds of tokens are important. By understand their purposes, we can better apply the laws on their sale, use and the way they are created.

By ‘participating’ in an ICO, an investor is actually funding the project developers with more famous cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. With these funds, the project owners will be able to develop the project, and the investors are holding the digital tokens similar to stocks.

If a trader holds an electronic token, he then owns those shares from the project.

Digital Tokens Plays Important role in ICO:

The importance of digital tokens is revealed when we started learning about the fundraising which many startups need and acquire through ICOs. The creation of a crypto token requires some particular features and need to fulfil a certain task, while registered on the blockchain. Nowadays, there are websites willing to help with any part of the creation of a blockchain project.

Cryptocurrencies can be hard to understand, particularly because of their inherent blockchain technologies, which it’s all about complex math calculations and terminology you haven’t heard before. But we have you covered. Here are some resources to help you get started in the crypto world:

The concept of Tokenization

Tokenless Blockchain

As in Tim Swanson’s excellent report on permissioned ledgers, there is the concept of tokenless blockchains. This might imply a blockchain or decentralized distributed ledger that lacks an intrinsic token (eg Ripple with no XRP), nevertheless, asset-backed tokens are most likely to still be utilized. ‘Tokenless’ doesn’t refer to the lack of the asset-backed token, but to the lack of intrinsic token.

We do not always require a token. Based on the blockchain system, you might or might not require an inherent token.

Generally, permissionless ledgers where anybody may add a block, want some type of incentivisation scheme for block validators to perform their job. But in distributed ledger systems in which you control both the validators and block-creators, they then might do their task for a number of motives (perhaps the task is part of a contract). , such as since they’re contractually bound to do so. There is a bit more about it here.

Dematerialization and Tokenising legal constructs

Presently there’s a great deal of buzz in the blockchain circles and all sorts of things are tied to a blockchain: stocks, gold, debt, businesses, IPOs, diamonds, artwork, decentralized organisations, wine, music, countries and so forth.

Sometimes the objective is to have the ability to transfer resources (or IOUs) fast and easily while maintaining the physical thing secure (in a warehouse).

Other times, it is to get a digital token whose electronic possession matches the physical travel thing. For instance, once I offer you an actual diamond, I send you the electronic diamond-token, so you can control it now, and thus that the blockchain recordings the provenance of this diamond, such as a supercharged certificate-of-origin that contains a complete listing of possession.

Seeing legal constructs, notably stocks and companies, I think there’s a gap between monitoring claims to inherent objects onto a ledger, and really lawfully dematerialising the thing.

Dematerialising

Dematerialising something is the process in which we replace a material item with an electronic one. For instance, paper share certificates have mostly been replaced by possession entries in databases. Some paper contracts are replaced with pdf documents.

Even though you’re able to declare “this digital token represents a share of a company”, and you’ll be able to send this to somebody else, this does not have any legal position. The token is not the share, even in the event that you possess the share in actual life, and you issue the token on the rear of it. The token is something beyond the law that you’ve created.

Sure, since the owner of stocks, you might devote to others that should they own that token, you then are going to pass the privileges (such as if you have this token, I’ll pass any dividends I purchase (from actually possessing the shares ) to you.

But if the shares are registered on your name in the shares registry, the authentic and legal shares registry, not the blockchain ledger that you’re using to monitor the electronic token you’ve created, then you own them.

That is why it’s untruthful when people say they’re generating *insert legal construct here* on the/a/some blockchain. They are not, It’s just as someone would create a business by writing “I create a business with 100 stocks” on a napkin, without doing all of the actual work of lawful firm creation and registering the business to a national authority of the country he lives in.

Sure, even if the legislation changed and a particular blockchain becomes part of the system or has been deemed equal to the country’s register of organizations, then yes, on this statutory blockchain, you might create a business. This is something all blockchain enthusiasts are looking forward to seeing: how legislation will gradually adapt to the blockchain technology.

Crypto Resources To Get You Started

If you are beginning your journey into the world of cryptocurrencies, then here is a list of useful guides and resources which can get you started:

Trading & Exchange