I have been very sluggish blog wise so far this year – mainly due to work (big system going to release candidate if you really must know), so I thought I’d do a catch up post and take a look at what we ‘might’ be looking at in the next month.
The market – well what has happened here?
Bitcoin, and most other crypto currencies have taken a massive dive since December although the last week or two has seen a bit of recovery… or bull trap if you listen to the TA (technical analysis) guys. Although I’m not hugely into TA myself there are a few who get a lot of respect from me, in particular John Wilson – read his “Will The futures market do to Bitcoin what it did to gold?” from December 9, 2017.
Anyway, the market has been a bit depressing so to avoid looking at Blockfolio throughout the day I am tracking the markets by seeing what the reward is on FreeBitcoin1 – at least on the dice roll you get more as the price of $BTC drops, but that’s not much consolation.
Despite the slight volatility ? in the market ICOs have been coming thick and fast. It is impossible to keep up with what is coming up. The problem is that unless you can get in on a good pre-sale deal it’s often better to wait until it hits the markets. Some that have caught my eye are Debitum, Neon Exchange, Hoard and some others.
Getting involved at Middlesex University
Had a great time giving an introductory lecture on blockchain as part of the Middlesex University Science and Tech Employability series. Giving talks is great for making you assemble your knowledge in a sensible way rather than just have all over the place in Evernote. Something I enjoy, so if any conference organisers are looking for a speaker, get in touch.
All gone quiet on the Carbon Coin Slack?
Well, simple answer, yes. There was a lot of active flurry of activity during the coin swap (see my interview with Chris), but the promised ICO is on hold as they cover off the regulatory and legal aspects needed. Who’d have though 12 months ago that “ICO, regulatory and legal” would appear in the same sentence? Anyway, the objective is still good and we wait for the outcome of this work and the white paper. Take a look at the website and forum.
The only problem with the delay is that there are others coming into this space, a space that Carboncoin has had to itself until now. I’ll be taking a look at this area soon.
Gems – what a gem of an ICO…not!
As you have probably seen in earlier blogs, I liked the Gems project a lot. It really looked a great application of the blockchain and looks like it could reduce the cost to consumers and increase the pay of producers. To get on the presale you had to show support for the project and the level of support dictated the level of bonus. As a nice touch they used their own app to get turkers (read the blog post linked to above) to evaluate submissions. All seemed going great guns, and then they announced the ICO structure……
That didn’t go down well at all! Just look at Reddit for some idea of the angst it caused. But fair dos to the team they listened, pulled the ICO and have come back with a different approach – an airdrop, as well as announcing the first paid task. Take a look at the update here.
On the blog soon(ish)
These are the areas I have been looking at and will probably write on them soon.
Pascal Coin: Pascal Coin ($PASC) is one of the hidden delights of the crypto world. Launched in 2016 this is self funded without an ICO or airdrop, Pascal Coin is not a Bitcoin clone, it is written from the ground up in Pascal, providing infinite scaling (you don’t need much of the blockchain thanks to its SafeBox tech), friendly account numbers rather than wallet addresses, and reliable and instant transactions. Lots of things happening I’ll blog about this soon.
ICO Listings: Where you can list your ICO will be out lists of listing sites.
Blockchain and other animals: a brief look at the Bitcoin chain and alternatives.
Identity and the Blockchain: This is an area of anticipation and there are a few offerings here: CivicKey, CoveIdentity, SelfKey and others.
Climate Coins: as mentioned above I’ll be taking a look at coins that try to address the power consumption issues at some point.
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© copyright 2018 Russell Weetch
