#playing EoS might also be a contributor to this

[absolutely-normal-about-x]

DIGGER LORE EXPANSION: The Guild

This will be an elaboration or continuation to the Carbon lore about diggers that was briefly touched on society/Diggers. Some expanded information about the Diggers guild their history, its ranks and identifying the threat level of certain ruins and islands.

There are guilds spread at a good chunk of Terra. It’s common to find an island that houses a guild building where the resident diggers live. However even diggers who aren’t connected to the guild can sign up for a job to support themselves.

The guild also provides inns for traveling diggers or guild members a place to stay for the night. Some members stay in the guild buildings until they can save up money for a while, others live with the guild.

Jobs/Requests

When it comes to Jobs Diggers have different assortments of jobs. These jobs/requests are posted at the town’s local bulletin board for diggers to take up these jobs or it can be requested through the guild itself. It can be used for going on expeditions on ancient ruins; it can also be included of Rescue missions (rescuing fellow diggers, citizens), retrieval jobs, and bodyguards. In exchange for completing these jobs the digger obtains rewards as in the form of payment, additional resources etc..

Half the resources (During long digging expeditions) that were acquired are given to the guild to be trained for better supplies and then it gets distributed to the settlement and its denizens to support them. The harder the job is the greater the reward/reputation.

The requests that are given to the townspeople to help them out in their troubles or warding off pirates.

Ranks

Unlike independent Diggers, who can just go to any ruin. When it comes to the Digger’s Guild, ranks determine the skill level and experience of a digger and how they can deal with jobs and the danger level of ruins. This is a safety measure that ensures the safety of the Diggers when going on to Digs or having specific jobs that come with it. It also gives the Digger a unique reputation the higher the rank is.

D Rank: The lowest and starting rank for low leveled diggers when they are first starting out. They mostly obtain simple jobs at least. They aren’t allowed to partake dangerous jobs or most of them are rookies who are still figuring out how Digs work. Mostly being mentored by higher ranked members.

C Rank: above D rank, while still a lower rank but is an improvement of than its previous rank. C rank is where diggers are allowed to go to ruins by themselves. But they still needed aid by their fellow diggers on occasions.

B Rank: The most common rank that a digger can be at that point. At this point they are already doing jobs and digs by themselves. Especially that at rank is where they can join up guild expeditions with their fellow guild members.

A rank: The highest rank a demonstration of skill of what it means to be a Digger. Taking on dangerous jobs and leading certain expeditions. That have more responsibilities than a normal digger as they also help mentor the lower ranked members. Can actually access islands that they aren’t allowed to go.

S Rank: The best of the Best, the cream of the crop. Is the highest rank of all the Guild. Only a few can achieve such a high rank and are usually one of the strongest, skilled diggers ever known. Commonly most of these members are leaders and can go on to solo missions by themselves. They are either feared or respected by other guild members and diggers alike even sky pirates wouldn’t dare to face one head on. Essentially they are legends.

The guildmaster: basically the leaders of the guild basically the one in charged of maintaining it. Most of these leaders are mostly chosen and have to earn the position. There are guild leaders that run some of the guilds on Terra

[theresattrpgforthat]

Hello! I’ve been following you for a bit now, and all of your recommendations have been super cool and interesting! If you don’t mind me asking, do you have any recommendations for really long indie ttrpgs? One that could match the length of dnd or CoD books, I mean. The specifics don’t matter as much, I just really like sinking my teeth into long game books like that.

THEME: Long Indie Games

Hello friend! Fear not, I have a multitude of long indie games to recommend for you!

Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, by Jenna Moran.

Length: 578 pages.

The Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine RPG is the diceless RPG from Jenna Katerin Moran, author of the well-regarded Nobilis and an important contributor to Eos’ Weapons of the Gods and White Wolf’s Exalted RPG.

Chuubo’s is a special beast. I personally don’t know how one actually plays this game, but the book itself is fascinating to read. It has recognizable parts such as character skills, Health Levels, and XP, but I think I’d want to sit down with a physical copy to be able to properly read it and get a handle on how you play through a story. If you enjoy a challenge, or even just something enchanting and evocative, I’d recommend Chuubo’s.

Part-Time Gods, by Third Eye Games.

Length: 318 pages.

The gods of today are shadows of what the old gods possessed. Their power has been heavily diminished, and many choose to live a regular, mortal life, revealing themselves as gods only when absolutely necessary. The reason for this is twofold. First, fate doesn’t like it when the gods share their secrets with a mortal. Unless they are the god’s worshipper, terrible events and horrific accidents have a way of happening to the people closest to the god. Secondly, divine works attract creatures and monsters called Outsiders, created by the Source (after its capture) to destroy any god they encounter.

This is a game that’s on my TBR shelf - and it might stay there for a while, because this is another pretty lengthy book. I am very grateful for the index at the back of this book, because I think this would be pretty difficult to navigate. Part-Time Gods is set in the modern-day, but the premise behind your god-hood is very unique, so one of the first chapters is dedicated to telling you what exactly it means to be a part-time god, part-time taxpayer. The book also contains small pieces of prose set in the world, meant to give you a flavour of the genre and tone intended by the designer. I’m really interested in the concepts expressed in this game, and I hope I have enough brain space to read it in the future!

We Are All Mad Here, by Shanna Germain.

Length: 226 pages.

Jack climbing the beanstalk. The little mermaid finding her voice. Alice struggling with the madness of a place unruled by the laws of reality. The queen. The child. The woodsman. The knight. When you think about fairy tales, who do you become? Where does your imagination take you?

We Are All Mad Here is a tabletop game about fairytales and mental health, providing you with new options for the Cypher System while also creating a setting about visitors to a magical land called the Heartwood. In the fiction, only those who have had some kind of struggle that affects their mental health are able to travel to this magical land. Germain intends this to be a way to tell a narrative about mental health using allegory and metaphor. The Cypher system itself is pretty complex, and you probably won’t be able to play a game of We Are All Mad Here without the core rulebook, so it might be worth it to take a gander at the Cypher System Rulebook while you’re at it.

Coyote & Crow, by Connor Alexander.

Length: 484 pages.

More than 700 years ago, a massive disaster changed the course of history. The world was plunged into centuries of darkness, but the event also introduced the Adanadi — the Gift — a strange mark that appeared on all life. This mark would have an enduring impact on humanity. Centuries later, the Earth is healing. New, advanced nations have risen. Ancient legends stir.

Coyote & Crow is a pretty extensive and unique game, using pools of d12s pulled from your stats, as well as narrative beats such as character motivation, Gifts and Burdens to help give your character a personality. Because it introduces an alternate history and a drastically different future, the core book as a decent amount of lore to acquaint you with the city of Cahokia and the world that surrounds it.

This game has quite a bit of support out there, with adventures such as Stolen Heart, Laughter Lost & Found, and The Case of the Great Underwater Panther.

Impulse Drive, by Adrian Thoen.

Length: 242 pages.

Play a crew of misfits and scoundrels living a life of danger and adventure as they explore space and try to make their ship a home in a technicolor sea of stars. Fight dangerous organizations, investigate unnerving mysteries, and find trouble in a game that rewards you when your characters face their shortcomings. Grow your characters and ship with new gear and abilities as you discover and create the universe together, as a group.

For a PbtA game, Impulse Drive feels pretty substantial. It provides a quick primer on Powered by the Apocalypse games, and includes advice for the players as well as the GM. This might be because the game includes a lot of details about gear and vehicles, as this is a space game that cares what your party has on hand and what their ship can do. There’s also advice on changing the game, extra moves, and a roll table for mutations! If you’re looking to see how to play out a space adventure in a more narrative-focused system, you might want to check out this game!

The Shrike, by Alice the Candle.

Length: 162 pages.

The Shrike is a game about fantastical voyages aboard a skyship. It's inspired by Avery Alder's The Quiet Year, John Harper's Lady Blackbird, Italo Calvino, Ursula K. Le Guin, and utopian and dystopian fiction. It features four complete adventures (two multiplayer, two for solo play). 

This indie game is on the short side of this list, but it’s definitely long by indie standards. The author has provided 4 different adventures that you can read through, which will likely spark your imagination along the way. Interestingly, the voyages are placed in the first half of the book, while the information about Solo, Co-operative. and Guided Play embody the second half of the book. I’m not sure how I feel about this layout choice, but if you’re mostly looking for a book that you can read, flipping through the voyages might be more interesting to you than the rules of play.

Games I’ve Recommended in the Past

Lancer, by Massif Press. 431 pages.

The Wildsea, by Felix Isaacs. 364 pages.

Exceptionals, by Sahoni. 253 pages.

Gubat Banwa, by makpatatag. 399 pages.

Monster Care Squad, by Sandy Pug Games. 176 pages.

[nissakii]

Squid Game: First Impressions

In a world where money doesn’t just buy you comfort, but is detrimental to your livelihood and how you’re brought into the world, financial ruin is a destination that can lead to horrible conditions and heartbreaking situations.

Money can’t buy happiness, and while it is true in some cases it’s also no lie that money is the biggest contributor to comfortable living in this society, and we all work hard or even as hard as we can to ensure a safe life for us and our loved ones.

This is our main focus for today’s ‘First Impression’ post, as we will be going over the new Korean Drama: Squid Game or in the original Ojing-eo Geim. If you’re interested in more first impressions, you can look at our Jujutsu Kaisen, Tokyo Revengers and Vanitas no Carte post that we made so far!

In our ‘First Impression’ posts, we look at the premise and first episodes of anime and in this case a Korean Drama to see what really lies behind the series. This will mean major spoilers for the entire first episode of Squid Game, so if you wish to have a fully blind experience make sure to watch the first episode first and then come back!

If you’re okay with a little spoiling before deciding if the series is right for you, let’s continue on together!

As a child, Gi-hun used to play a game with his friends called the squid game, in which if you persevered through the end you would feel like the king of the world, but if you lost you would be left dead.

You heard it right, dead.

Of course as children it was merely a funny joke and no one was harmed supposedly, but many years later as Gi-hun is an adult the game becomes much more lethal suddenly.

With a dark premise that is all about innocent childrens games but a grimy and dark look from the start, the series starts off realistic with that finish of imagery that is pretty similar to our world right now as well.

But before we go further in the plot, let us first check out more about the production of the series.

The Netflix series with the genre tags of drama, action-adventure and survival has sparked a huge fanbase very quickly especially through social media and trends on the platform TikTok it has grabbed onto many viewers internationally and was the first ever Korean Drama to make the Netflix US’ number one spot in their top ten.

It was published on September 17th in 2021 after two years of production overseen by Siren Pictures Inc. and distributed as a Netflix original as an exclusive series.

The first season consists of nine episodes so far, with no announcement on any sequel coming out, but Netflix has been known to wait and see for the popularity of a series before continuing it, and since it has topped the charts a season two may not be confirmed but is not impossible.

Written and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk, who has had experiences writing and directing popular works such as “My Father” and “The Crucible (Silenced)” which both had very dark themes and seem to be a signature motive in Hwang’s directing.

The realism and crushing messages that are delivered in his dramas are not far from his newest series ‘Squid Game’ to which he stated himself that “I wanted to write a story that was an allegory or fable about modern capitalist society, something that depicts an extreme competition, somewhat like the extreme competition of life. But I wanted it to use the kind of characters we’ve all met in real life.”

Since he wrote the series all alone until he asked some friends for further ideas on how to continue the story, we will look at the cast who will represent these relatable characters.

The main protagonist Seong Gi-hun who we see from the first seconds of the episode is played by Lee Jung-Jae who one might know from “Oh! Brothers” (2003)” or the high grossing heist movie “The Thieves” (2012), whith many won awards and interesting roles in all sorts of movies he now steps into the role of a deadbeat dad.

Other interesting choices for the surrounding cast are Park Hae-Soo who plays the cunning Cho Sang-Woo and the female model that debuted as an actress Hoyeon Jung who plays Kang Sae-byeok also known as No.67.

Even the music was made by none other than Jung Jae-il, who’s name might not immediately ring a bell but is known to be the composer of the soundtrack for amazing movies such as Okja and Parasites, both having won multiple awards.

Now that we know more, we can start to let the plot unravel itself.

The Plot:

Gi-Hun is more than just a little short for money, since we see him for the first time as an adult living off of the money his elderly mother makes.

He gets mad at her for working so hard yet seemingly doesn’t contribute much to buy groceries and provides just a little money with his job as a driver. As he remembers darkly, his young daughter’s birthday was today, so he begs his mom for a little more money to take her to eat some nice food and buy her a present.

As she reluctantly does so, she walks out of the house and when she does Gi-hun steals her bankcard and runs away to try and steal money from her.

As sad as it sounds, Gi-hun has a serious gambling addiction as he somehow even after losing the first time has luck and makes some serious cash.

Totally ecstatic, he tips the young girl working at the counter and runs out into the world, happy to have won the money. He even calls his daughter telling her he’ll buy her a very expensive meal.

Soon enough, some loan sharks spot him and run after him to presumably get their money back.

After cornering him and trying to take his freshly earned money, he realises that it’s gone and with that he gets beaten up by the one in charge of all of the loans he’s taken on so far. With debts he can’t pay, he’s forced to sign some sort of paper with his fingerprint and gets left alone.

He then realises he has no money left to buy something for his daughter, and tries to play with a stuffed toy at an arcade, which only fuels his money loss.

His mother had told him beforehand that his daughter merely wanted some fried chicken, but even for that there was no money left.

As he picks up his daughter from school, they can only eat some tteokbokki, to which his daughter said it’s fine since she’s already eaten a nice steak with her stepfather. Even the present Gi-hun got from the arcade was a pistol shaped lighter, another disappointment for his daughter.

He promises that the next time her birthday comes around, he will get her an actual present and pinky promises her this time.

Dejected as he brings her back to her mother who only cusses him out, and frustrated when he misses the subway home he plops down on a bench to let the day loom over him.

Things change when a nice businessman sits down next to him and suddenly gives him the opportunity to bet on a game called ddakji, in which he will win 100.000 won if he succeeds, and gets slapped in the face if he loses the round. After multiple failures he makes some money and gets a card from the gentlemen who tells him there are other games like these where he can make even more money.

Gi-hun brings the earned money to his mother who accuses him of gambling again and promptly informs him that his daughter and her new family are moving to the US.

Struck by the realisation that he won’t have another birthday with his daughter in which he can redeem himself if he doesn’t sort out his financial situation and fight for custody, he calls the number on the business card he was given to play more games and get his life back.

Shockingly enough, he gets picked up by a weird guy in a pink overall and put to sleep in the car. When he wakes up he is in a warehouse with 455 other people all dressed in the same green overalls ready to play the games.

All the other players are in just as much debt or even more as him, and they all are on the brink of financial ruin, all playing to get the announced prize money.

All seems well until the first game rolls around, a seemingly innocent game of “Red light, green light” which spirals out of control completely as every person who moves is not just “eliminated” but actually shot and killed on the spot.

And so the bloody games begin.

Expectations vs. Reality:

In looking at the first episode and giving you my first impressions I hope to shed some light onto this new series so you can decide for yourself if you want to watch it or not!

Squid game was introduced to me via videos and trends on TikTok, showing just how much influence social media can have in terms of advertising.

From what I could see from the start, we’re very mysterious and dark vibes with the stark contrast of the neon colours of the overalls all of the staff and players were donning. Even the scenery of the games was curiously childlike themed although the story is very much the opposite.

With a general premise of a battle royal type of gameplay and very interesting and three dimensional characters with relatable flaws, I was pleasantly surprised by the realism that was playing into the series.

With Squid game, I expected something along the lines of sci-fi, and while there are elements of a future reality it is still the dark realism of a capitalist world and the struggle of staying afloat financially that sets the tone.

Another positive point is the genre of survival and action-adventure is no false promise, the events of the games and the characters leave you at the edge of your seat with iconic characters such as No.1 who is an old grandpa with not much more time to live.

The fear the viewer feels for the character with bloody violence scenes and hopeless and anxious characters that seem to have nothing left to lose is a refreshing and new rendition of older dystopian works such as “The Hunger Games” or other anime like “Danganronpa”.

If you are a fan of a lot of mystery and suspense building paired with children’s games that have more to them than first meets the eye, then you will surely enjoy Squid Game as it mixes different in testing aspects such as realistic characters with mysterious games that is an enjoyable watch!

Already watched the first episodes? I would love to know what you think of the series and what you expected and how your experience was! Share it in the comments below if you so desire!

Until then, make sure not to move too much!

Green Light! (Run!)

-Nissa

[release-info]

CoinDesk Bitcoin News Blockchain 101 Technology Markets Business Data & Research Events Stay Up to Date on Crypto & Blockchain With Our Suite of Newsletters. Subscribe Here! Block.One Is Launching a Social Media Platform on the EOS Blockchain Brady Dale Brady Dale Jun 1, 2019 at 23:00 UTC Updated Jun 3, 2019 at 13:59 UTC While Facebook pursues crypto, crypto is pursuing social media. Block.one – the multibillion-dollar startup that built the EOSIO platform – is the latest blockchain firm with social-media aspirations. Announced Saturday at a glitzy event in Washington, D.C., the new platform is called Voice. Block.one says Voice will stand out by not turning its users into products. In a release, CEO Brendan Blumer said: “Our content. Our data. Our attention. These are all incredibly valuable things. But right now, it’s the platform, not the user, that reaps the reward. By design, they run by auctioning our information to advertisers, pocketing the profit, and flooding our feeds with hidden agendas dictated by the highest bidder. Voice changes that.” Voice will run on the EOS blockchain, which is also upgrading to a faster Version 2.0. By using the public chain, everything posted to EOS will be public. Meanwhile, the leading social network in the world, Facebook, announced earlier this year it would move in the opposite direction – with CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlining a “privacy-focused vision for social networking.” Excitement in DC At an event with the production values one might expect from a company that has raised $4 billion in funding, Blumer came out on stage and offered a manifesto against social media as we know it. (You can watch the full keynote here.) “Our attention has been captured,” Blumer told the crowd. “Social media has not been a good friend to us.” He promised that Block.one’s new social media product would not let algorithms decide what dominates. Everyone, he said, would have an equal shot to be heard. “Everyone – the user, the platform, the contributor – plays by the same rules,” Blumer said. Block.one CEO Brendan Blumer announces Voice, June 1, 2019. (Screenshot via Block.one livestream) He also promised that Voice will do a better job of keeping out bots and trolls than previous social networks, without really going into the mechanics of doing so. Previously, though, Block.one brought on stage a product lead from Yubico, the makers of YubiKey, to talk about ways in which EOS would integrate with WebAuthn, a password-less standard recently approved by the W3C, which governs the worldwide web. All attendees at the event were given a new YubiKey. At the end of Blumer’s talk, the massive screen behind him exhorted viewers to “Unlike shady algorithms” and “Unfollow being followed.” Then it was Block.one CTO Dan Larimer’s turn. “Social media was intended for good,” said Larimer, who previously co-founded a blockchain-based social media site, Steemit, before leaving for Block.one in 2017. He came on stage to announce a new token, the Voice token. “Everyone who signs up for Voice will get an EOS account,” he said. The chief mechanic Larimer showed off was one in which users could stake Voice tokens to move to the top of a chain of comments. If someone else staked tokens to go above them, the first user would get their tokens back and then some. This additional pressure on the EOS blockchain should be partially offset by another announcement Larimer made: EOSVM. “This is a WebAssembly engine designed specifically for blockchain,” Larimer said, promising it would run 12-times faster than the original EOSIO software, which was released on June 1, 2018. Signups for Voice beta access are now open at Voice.com. “We can’t wait to see what people will do with it,” Larimer said. Block.one CTO Dan Larimer announces the Voice token. (Photo by Brady Dale for CoinDesk) Earlier attempts Social-media-oriented crypto projects up to this point have largely resembled Tumblr or Medium, with the occasional Twitter imitation. While the argument for incentivizing contributions is compelling, the model has had a hard time catching on. For example, in 2016, Tsu, a social network that promised to share its earnings with its users, shut down. It claimed to have 5.2 million users when the service ended. A frequent complaint about Tsu was that its promise of remuneration generated spammy behavior. Steemit, meanwhile, is the Medium-like social network built on top of the Steem blockchain. According to Dapp.com, it was the only major dapp blockchain where social media was the dominant use case, with 93 percent of users touching its social dapps (of which, Steemit dominates). A recent estimate from May put the active users in that month at 75,644. Other crypto social networks have come along since, such as Coil (which uses XRP) and Cent (which uses ETH). Dapp.com estimated that Steem had over 386,000 active users for the year, while it gave EOS slightly over 171,000 active users in 2018, with 67 percent using its betting products. It’s worth noting that EOS only had six months in which to build up a user base. After a yearlong ICO that generated more than $4 billion for Block.one, EOS officially launched on June 15, 2018. Block.one CEO Brendan Blumer announces Voice, screenshot via Block.one livestream The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. Social MediaBlock.one About Blog Press Jobs Events Editorial Policy CoinDesk logo Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy Advertising Newsletters http://bit.ly/2wzcnd9

[cryptoquicknews-blog]

New Post has been published here https://is.gd/s6eZMt

Block.One Is Launching a Social Media Platform on the EOS Blockchain

This post was originally published here

While Facebook pursues crypto, crypto is pursuing social media.

Block.one – the multibillion-dollar startup that built the EOSIO platform – is the latest blockchain firm with social-media aspirations. Announced Saturday at a glitzy event in Washington, D.C., the new platform is called Voice.

Block.one says Voice will stand out by not turning its users into products.

In a release, CEO Brendan Blumer said:

“Our content. Our data. Our attention. These are all incredibly valuable things. But right now, it’s the platform, not the user, that reaps the reward. By design, they run by auctioning our information to advertisers, pocketing the profit, and flooding our feeds with hidden agendas dictated by the highest bidder. Voice changes that.”

Voice will run on the EOS blockchain, which is also upgrading to a faster Version 2.0. By using the public chain, everything posted to EOS will be public. Meanwhile, the leading social network in the world, Facebook, announced earlier this year it would move in the opposite direction – with CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlining a “privacy-focused vision for social networking.”

Excitement in DC

At an event with the production values one might expect from a company that has raised $4 billion in funding, Blumer came out on stage and offered a manifesto against social media as we know it. (You can watch the full keynote here.)

“Our attention has been captured,” Blumer told the crowd. “Social media has not been a good friend to us.”

He promised that Block.one’s new social media product would not let algorithms decide what dominates. Everyone, he said, would have an equal shot to be heard.

“Everyone – the user, the platform, the contributor – plays by the same rules,” Blumer said.

Block.one CEO Brendan Blumer announces Voice, June 1, 2019. (Screenshot via Block.one livestream)

He also promised that Voice will do a better job of keeping out bots and trolls than previous social networks, without really going into the mechanics of doing so. Previously, though, Block.one brought on stage a product lead from Yubico, the makers of YubiKey, to talk about ways in which EOS would integrate with WebAuthn, a password-less standard recently approved by the W3C, which governs the worldwide web.

All attendees at the event were given a new YubiKey.

At the end of Blumer’s talk, the massive screen behind him exhorted viewers to “Unlike shady algorithms” and “Unfollow being followed.”

Then it was Block.one CTO Dan Larimer’s turn.

“Social media was intended for good,” said Larimer, who previously co-founded a blockchain-based social media site, Steemit, before leaving for Block.one in 2017.

He came on stage to announce a new token, the Voice token. “Everyone who signs up for Voice will get an EOS account,” he said.

The chief mechanic Larimer showed off was one in which users could stake Voice tokens to move to the top of a chain of comments. If someone else staked tokens to go above them, the first user would get their tokens back and then some.

This additional pressure on the EOS blockchain should be partially offset by another announcement Larimer made: EOSVM.

“This is a WebAssembly engine designed specifically for blockchain,” Larimer said, promising it would run 12-times faster than the original EOSIO software, which was released on June 1, 2018.

Signups for Voice beta access are now open at Voice.com.

“We can’t wait to see what people will do with it,” Larimer said.

Block.one CTO Dan Larimer announces the Voice token. (Photo by Brady Dale for CoinDesk)

Earlier attempts

Social-media-oriented crypto projects up to this point have largely resembled Tumblr or Medium, with the occasional Twitter imitation.

While the argument for incentivizing contributions is compelling, the model has had a hard time catching on.

For example, in 2016, Tsu, a social network that promised to share its earnings with its users, shut down. It claimed to have 5.2 million users when the service ended. A frequent complaint about Tsu was that its promise of remuneration generated spammy behavior.

Steemit, meanwhile, is the Medium-like social network built on top of the Steem blockchain. According to Dapp.com, it was the only major dapp blockchain where social media was the dominant use case, with 93 percent of users touching its social dapps (of which, Steemit dominates). A recent estimate from May put the active users in that month at 75,644.

Other crypto social networks have come along since, such as Coil (which uses XRP) and Cent (which uses ETH).

Dapp.com estimated that Steem had over 386,000 active users for the year, while it gave EOS slightly over 171,000 active users in 2018, with 67 percent using its betting products.

It’s worth noting that EOS only had six months in which to build up a user base. After a yearlong ICO that generated more than $4 billion for Block.one, EOS officially launched on June 15, 2018.

Block.one CEO Brendan Blumer announces Voice, screenshot via Block.one livestream

#crypto #cryptocurrency #btc #xrp #litecoin #altcoin #money #currency #finance #news #alts #hodl #coindesk #cointelegraph #dollar #bitcoin View the website

New Post has been published here https://is.gd/s6eZMt

[cryptswahili]

Five Years in the Making, Bisq Exchange Launches Its Bitcoin DAO

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are one of crypto's more novel and ambitious applications — one that Bitcoin, until recently, has had nothing to do with.

In practice, they're a bit younger than Bitcoin forks and older than smart contract-focused blockchains. The idea is that you can devise a decentralized governance system using the blockchain's cryptographic controls — rule of code, so to speak. Using tokenomics and technical schemes, the DAO affects certain laws over its participants, incentivizes them to play by the rules and encourages the community to hold itself accountable.

Dan Larimer's BitShares, with its delegated proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, was the first DAO, followed by Dash. Since these trailblazers went live, DAO endeavors have become dominated by the Ethereum ecosystem, including, most notably, the eponymous and disastrous The DAO — best known for forfeiting millions in ether to the void after an incompetent coder unwittingly deleted a wallet library — and Maker, among others.

Perhaps because of Bitcoin’s limited scripting language and, conversely, Ethereum’s rich scripting language, Ethereum has been the frontrunner for popular DAOs in recent memory, while one has never launched on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Until now, that is.

Bisq Gets an Upgrade

Bisq, one of the Bitcoin community’s only truly decentralized exchanges, introduced version 1.0 of its software this week. Along with other ancillary upgrades, the release dropped a bombshell by furnishing Bitcoin with its first DAO.

“Bisq's DAO, launched on Monday, April 15, is (to my knowledge) the only attempt of its kind to decentralize a project's management and funding to the extent it does,” Steve Jain, a Bisq contributor, told Bitcoin Magazine.

With its intention to migrate toward distributed governance, Bisq will strive for an even greater degree of decentralization than it already features. Its software operates on Tor, and each user must run their own separate instance of the program (akin to running a node on a much smaller scale) to access the exchange, making it completely peer-to-peer.

The privacy-minded exchange offers a rare, KYC-resistant fiat ramp for bitcoin trading, allowing users to facilitate fiat exchange with payment apps, bank wires and even hard cash swaps, like LocalBitcoins offers. With each trade, bitcoin is locked away in multi-signature contracts, requiring arbitrators to resolve any conflicts should a dispute arise in a trade.

Jain said that this version upgrade was a long time coming.

“The DAO was intended to be a part of Bisq from the day it was first conceived in 2014,” he revealed, adding that this launch has been in the works for five years — meaning that its development predates even the infamous Ethereum DAO. Now that it’s live, he believes that the program has realized an even truer version of itself, one that separates it from the pack.

“From this standpoint, Bisq is a totally different beast —in terms of software and governance — than any other exchange,” he claimed.

How the DAO Works

Bisq’s governance will revolve around a token, but speculators need not apply — the project isn’t launching an ICO. Instead, each BSQ token will be minted through a process known as coloring.

Colored coins, so-called because they are distinguished from regular coins on the blockchain, are simply satoshis marked for a specific use case. To create tokens for Bisq, for example, users submit satoshis to the DAO, which are then “painted over” to represent BSQ. These tokens give users the ability to participate in the Bisq DAO.

This participation can take many forms. For traders on the platform, BSQ will give them trading discounts, not unlike BNB coin for Binance users, but this token’s use case is more dynamic than that. Contributors, for instance, can submit a compensation request to the network for payment in BSQ after finishing a project for the DAO. The community then votes on whether or not compensation should be awarded, and the developer submits satoshis to mint the colored BSQ tokens.

More than just developers, DAO contributors could be designers, support staff, social media managers or writers. These contributors can also stake BSQ in a bond to fill a high-trust position in the DAO, like a back end engineer, copywriter or social media representative. If these de facto employees are caught slacking off or acting up, the community can confiscate their stakes as punishment.

“It's a dynamic system of stakeholders acting in their own best interests … And notably, there are no gatekeepers to manage it all,” Jain said. “BSQ is bought on the open market, and it's issued by collective stakeholder voting. Personal vendettas, bank tantrums, government policies, company rules … none of these things can get in the way of someone doing work and getting paid for it.”

To start, 3,657,480 BSQ has been minted to compensate a team of more than 200 contributors for their five years of labor to get Bisq and its nascent DAO up and running. Going forward, Jain told us that new BSQ will be put into circulation every month to fulfill compensation requests. Any BSQ used for trading fees, on the other hand, will be burned and taken out of supply entirely.

Should I Trust the Government?

For some, the DAO’s attempt to realize cohesive-yet-anarchic governance is utopian at best and foolhardy at worst. Critics point to Ethereum’s DAO and the ensuing hard fork as a bailout of sorts — the crypto equivalent of the windfalls Washington bestowed on Wall Street during the Great Recession.

Other criticisms point to the notion that incentives aren’t powerful enough to keep bad actors in line, or that governance systems, depending on structure, give these bad actors mechanisms to game the system and circumvent checks and balances.

Bisq’s own governance is twofold. Voter clout is determined on a weighted basis (how many BSQ tokens you own) and on merit (your reputation on the network). Voting based on token count is a red flag for many — it’s one of the reasons people look at EOS’ block producer elections as a pay-for-play playground, for instance. When asked if he felt that a stake-based voting model might enable vote buying and give the 1 percent an opportunity to out-influence the other 99, Jain noted optimism around the intentions of stakeholders.

“[To vote you must] allot a certain amount of the BSQ you own for your voting weight,” he said. “You must own this BSQ, and yes, you can buy as much of it as you want on the open market. We think that's fair. Presumably, assuming no bad intentions, someone with a lot of money who really believes in the Bisq network may want to buy a lot of BSQ to have a big influence in its decisions.”

He continued to qualify that merit “is worth more than pure stake weight.” Basically, someone who contributes to the network has more of a say in voting than someone who bought their tokens; if I earn 10,000 BSQ tokens, for example, even if I sell them, my vote holds more clout than someone who bought 10,000 BSQ on the market. Merit will decay on an annual basis, as well, meaning contributors have to keep working on the ecosystem to maintain or bolster their reputations.

“Lastly, the merits ‘stack,’ so if I have 10,000 BSQ of merit and 5,000 BSQ in my BSQ wallet, I can stake 5,000 BSQ for a combined voting weight of 15,000 BSQ,” Jain said.

With this governance structure in place, Jain emphasized that one of the most significant — and exciting — differences with this version upgrade is that contributors can finally get paid for their work. This work, he continued, includes “growing liquidity, expanding to new markets and finally integrating SegWit.” Lightning Network integration is a bit further off, though, as it doesn’t fit well into Bisq’s complex architecture.

Even as the DAO is launched and Bisq has achieved a greater degree of decentralization than before, Jain said that Bisq’s community is “focused on further decentralizing the network.” This means a new trading scheme which removes arbitrators from the multisignature process and replaces them with mediators “for a more private, quick and decentralized trading experience where less trust is required.”

Ultimately, he concluded, the idea and final goal is that “users shouldn’t have to trust Bisq for anything.”

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

[Telegram Channel | Original Article ]

[cryptobrief]

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are one of crypto's more novel and ambitious applications — one that Bitcoin, until recently, has had nothing to do with.

In practice, they're a bit younger than Bitcoin forks and older than smart contract-focused blockchains. The idea is that you can devise a decentralized governance system using the blockchain's cryptographic controls — rule of code, so to speak. Using tokenomics and technical schemes, the DAO affects certain laws over its participants, incentivizes them to play by the rules and encourages the community to hold itself accountable.

Dan Larimer's BitShares, with its delegated proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, was the first DAO, followed by Dash. Since these trailblazers went live, DAO endeavors have become dominated by the Ethereum ecosystem, including, most notably, the eponymous and disastrous The DAO — best known for forfeiting millions in ether to the void after an incompetent coder unwittingly deleted a wallet library — and Maker, among others.

Perhaps because of Bitcoin’s limited scripting language and, conversely, Ethereum’s rich scripting language, Ethereum has been the frontrunner for popular DAOs in recent memory, while one has never launched on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Until now, that is.

Bisq Gets an Upgrade

Bisq, one of the Bitcoin community’s only truly decentralized exchanges, introduced version 1.0 of its software this week. Along with other ancillary upgrades, the release dropped a bombshell by furnishing Bitcoin with its first DAO.

“Bisq's DAO, launched on Monday, April 15, is (to my knowledge) the only attempt of its kind to decentralize a project's management and funding to the extent it does,” Steve Jain, a Bisq contributor, told Bitcoin Magazine.

With its intention to migrate toward distributed governance, Bisq will strive for an even greater degree of decentralization than it already features. Its software operates on Tor, and each user must run their own separate instance of the program (akin to running a node on a much smaller scale) to access the exchange, making it completely peer-to-peer.

The privacy-minded exchange offers a rare, KYC-resistant fiat ramp for bitcoin trading, allowing users to facilitate fiat exchange with payment apps, bank wires and even hard cash swaps, like LocalBitcoins offers. With each trade, bitcoin is locked away in multi-signature contracts, requiring arbitrators to resolve any conflicts should a dispute arise in a trade.

Jain said that this version upgrade was a long time coming.

“The DAO was intended to be a part of Bisq from the day it was first conceived in 2014,” he revealed, adding that this launch has been in the works for five years — meaning that its development predates even the infamous Ethereum DAO. Now that it’s live, he believes that the program has realized an even truer version of itself, one that separates it from the pack.

“From this standpoint, Bisq is a totally different beast —in terms of software and governance — than any other exchange,” he claimed.

How the DAO Works

Bisq’s governance will revolve around a token, but speculators need not apply — the project isn’t launching an ICO. Instead, each BSQ token will be minted through a process known as coloring.

Colored coins, so-called because they are distinguished from regular coins on the blockchain, are simply satoshis marked for a specific use case. To create tokens for Bisq, for example, users submit satoshis to the DAO, which are then “painted over” to represent BSQ. These tokens give users the ability to participate in the Bisq DAO.

This participation can take many forms. For traders on the platform, BSQ will give them trading discounts, not unlike BNB coin for Binance users, but this token’s use case is more dynamic than that. Contributors, for instance, can submit a compensation request to the network for payment in BSQ after finishing a project for the DAO. The community then votes on whether or not compensation should be awarded, and the developer submits satoshis to mint the colored BSQ tokens.

More than just developers, DAO contributors could be designers, support staff, social media managers or writers. These contributors can also stake BSQ in a bond to fill a high-trust position in the DAO, like a back end engineer, copywriter or social media representative. If these de facto employees are caught slacking off or acting up, the community can confiscate their stakes as punishment.

“It's a dynamic system of stakeholders acting in their own best interests … And notably, there are no gatekeepers to manage it all,” Jain said. “BSQ is bought on the open market, and it's issued by collective stakeholder voting. Personal vendettas, bank tantrums, government policies, company rules … none of these things can get in the way of someone doing work and getting paid for it.”

To start, 3,657,480 BSQ has been minted to compensate a team of more than 200 contributors for their five years of labor to get Bisq and its nascent DAO up and running. Going forward, Jain told us that new BSQ will be put into circulation every month to fulfill compensation requests. Any BSQ used for trading fees, on the other hand, will be burned and taken out of supply entirely.

Should I Trust the Government?

For some, the DAO’s attempt to realize cohesive-yet-anarchic governance is utopian at best and foolhardy at worst. Critics point to Ethereum’s DAO and the ensuing hard fork as a bailout of sorts — the crypto equivalent of the windfalls Washington bestowed on Wall Street during the Great Recession.

Other criticisms point to the notion that incentives aren’t powerful enough to keep bad actors in line, or that governance systems, depending on structure, give these bad actors mechanisms to game the system and circumvent checks and balances.

Bisq’s own governance is twofold. Voter clout is determined on a weighted basis (how many BSQ tokens you own) and on merit (your reputation on the network). Voting based on token count is a red flag for many — it’s one of the reasons people look at EOS’ block producer elections as a pay-for-play playground, for instance. When asked if he felt that a stake-based voting model might enable vote buying and give the 1 percent an opportunity to out-influence the other 99, Jain noted optimism around the intentions of stakeholders.

“[To vote you must] allot a certain amount of the BSQ you own for your voting weight,” he said. “You must own this BSQ, and yes, you can buy as much of it as you want on the open market. We think that's fair. Presumably, assuming no bad intentions, someone with a lot of money who really believes in the Bisq network may want to buy a lot of BSQ to have a big influence in its decisions.”

He continued to qualify that merit “is worth more than pure stake weight.” Basically, someone who contributes to the network has more of a say in voting than someone who bought their tokens; if I earn 10,000 BSQ tokens, for example, even if I sell them, my vote holds more clout than someone who bought 10,000 BSQ on the market. Merit will decay on an annual basis, as well, meaning contributors have to keep working on the ecosystem to maintain or bolster their reputations.

“Lastly, the merits ‘stack,’ so if I have 10,000 BSQ of merit and 5,000 BSQ in my BSQ wallet, I can stake 5,000 BSQ for a combined voting weight of 15,000 BSQ,” Jain said.

With this governance structure in place, Jain emphasized that one of the most significant — and exciting — differences with this version upgrade is that contributors can finally get paid for their work. This work, he continued, includes “growing liquidity, expanding to new markets and finally integrating SegWit.” Lightning Network integration is a bit further off, though, as it doesn’t fit well into Bisq’s complex architecture.

Even as the DAO is launched and Bisq has achieved a greater degree of decentralization than before, Jain said that Bisq’s community is “focused on further decentralizing the network.” This means a new trading scheme which removes arbitrators from the multisignature process and replaces them with mediators “for a more private, quick and decentralized trading experience where less trust is required.”

Ultimately, he concluded, the idea and final goal is that “users shouldn’t have to trust Bisq for anything.”

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

[cryptswahili]

Five Years in the Making, Bisq Exchange Launches Its Bitcoins DAO

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are one of crypto's more novel and ambitious applications — one that Bitcoin, until recently, has had nothing to do with.

In practice, they're a bit younger than Bitcoin forks and older than smart contract-focused blockchains. The idea is that you can devise a decentralized governance system using the blockchain's cryptographic controls — rule of code, so to speak. Using tokenomics and technical schemes, the DAO affects certain laws over its participants, incentivizes them to play by the rules and encourages the community to hold itself accountable.

Dan Larimer's BitShares, with its delegated proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, was the first DAO, followed by Dash. Since these trailblazers went live, DAO endeavors have become dominated by the Ethereum ecosystem, including, most notably, the eponymous and disastrous The DAO — best known for forfeiting millions in ether to the void after an incompetent coder unwittingly deleted a wallet library — and Maker, among others.

Perhaps because of Bitcoin’s limited scripting language and, conversely, Ethereum’s rich scripting language, Ethereum has been the frontrunner for popular DAOs in recent memory, while one has never launched on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Until now, that is.

Bisq Gets an Upgrade

Bisq, one of the Bitcoin community’s only truly decentralized exchanges, introduced version 1.0 of its software this week. Along with other ancillary upgrades, the release dropped a bombshell by furnishing Bitcoin with its first DAO.

“Bisq's DAO, launched on Monday, April 15, is (to my knowledge) the only attempt of its kind to decentralize a project's management and funding to the extent it does,” Steve Jain, a Bisq contributor, told Bitcoin Magazine.

With its intention to migrate toward distributed governance, Bisq will strive for an even greater degree of decentralization than it already features. Its software operates on Tor, and each user must run their own separate instance of the program (akin to running a node on a much smaller scale) to access the exchange, making it completely peer-to-peer.

The privacy-minded exchange offers a rare, KYC-resistant fiat ramp for bitcoin trading, allowing users to facilitate fiat exchange with payment apps, bank wires and even hard cash swaps, like LocalBitcoins offers. With each trade, bitcoin is locked away in multi-signature contracts, requiring arbitrators to resolve any conflicts should a dispute arise in a trade.

Jain said that this version upgrade was a long time coming.

“The DAO was intended to be a part of Bisq from the day it was first conceived in 2014,” he revealed, adding that this launch has been in the works for five years — meaning that its development predates even the infamous Ethereum DAO. Now that it’s live, he believes that the program has realized an even truer version of itself, one that separates it from the pack.

“From this standpoint, Bisq is a totally different beast —in terms of software and governance — than any other exchange,” he claimed.

How the DAO Works

Bisq’s governance will revolve around a token, but speculators need not apply — the project isn’t launching an ICO. Instead, each BSQ token will be minted through a process known as coloring.

Colored coins, so-called because they are distinguished from regular coins on the blockchain, are simply satoshis marked for a specific use case. To create tokens for Bisq, for example, users submit satoshis to the DAO, which are then “painted over” to represent BSQ. These tokens give users the ability to participate in the Bisq DAO.

This participation can take many forms. For traders on the platform, BSQ will give them trading discounts, not unlike BNB coin for Binance users, but this token’s use case is more dynamic than that. Contributors, for instance, can submit a compensation request to the network for payment in BSQ after finishing a project for the DAO. The community then votes on whether or not compensation should be awarded, and the developer submits satoshis to mint the colored BSQ tokens.

More than just developers, DAO contributors could be designers, support staff, social media managers or writers. These contributors can also stake BSQ in a bond to fill a high-trust position in the DAO, like a back end engineer, copywriter or social media representative. If these de facto employees are caught slacking off or acting up, the community can confiscate their stakes as punishment.

“It's a dynamic system of stakeholders acting in their own best interests … And notably, there are no gatekeepers to manage it all,” Jain said. “BSQ is bought on the open market, and it's issued by collective stakeholder voting. Personal vendettas, bank tantrums, government policies, company rules … none of these things can get in the way of someone doing work and getting paid for it.”

To start, 3,657,480 BSQ has been minted to compensate a team of more than 200 contributors for their five years of labor to get Bisq and its nascent DAO up and running. Going forward, Jain told us that new BSQ will be put into circulation every month to fulfill compensation requests. Any BSQ used for trading fees, on the other hand, will be burned and taken out of supply entirely.

Should I Trust the Government?

For some, the DAO’s attempt to realize cohesive-yet-anarchic governance is utopian at best and foolhardy at worst. Critics point to Ethereum’s DAO and the ensuing hard fork as a bailout of sorts — the crypto equivalent of the windfalls Washington bestowed on Wall Street during the Great Recession.

Other criticisms point to the notion that incentives aren’t powerful enough to keep bad actors in line, or that governance systems, depending on structure, give these bad actors mechanisms to game the system and circumvent checks and balances.

Bisq’s own governance is twofold. Voter clout is determined on a weighted basis (how many BSQ tokens you own) or merit (your reputation on the network). Voting based on token count is a red flag for many — it’s one of the reasons people look at EOS’ block producer elections as a pay-for-play playground, for instance. When asked if he felt that a stake-based voting model might enable vote buying and give the 1 percent an opportunity to out-influence the other 99, Jain noted optimism around the intentions of stakeholders.

“[To vote you must] allot a certain amount of the BSQ you own for your voting weight,” he said. “You must own this BSQ, and yes, you can buy as much of it as you want on the open market. We think that's fair. Presumably, assuming no bad intentions, someone with a lot of money who really believes in the Bisq network may want to buy a lot of BSQ to have a big influence in its decisions.”

He continued to qualify that merit “is worth more than pure stake weight.” Basically, someone who contributes to the network has more of a say in voting than someone who bought their tokens; if I earn 10,000 BSQ tokens, for example, even if I sell them, my vote holds more clout than someone who bought 10,000 BSQ on the market. Merit will decay on an annual basis, as well, meaning contributors have to keep working on the ecosystem to maintain or bolster their reputations.

“Lastly, the merits ‘stack,’ so if I have 10,000 BSQ of merit and 5,000 BSQ in my BSQ wallet, I can stake 5,000 BSQ for a combined voting weight of 15,000 BSQ,” Jain said.

With this governance structure in place, Jain emphasized that one of the most significant — and exciting — differences with this version upgrade is that contributors can finally get paid for their work. This work, he continued, includes “growing liquidity, expanding to new markets and finally integrating SegWit.” Lightning Network integration is a bit further off, though, as it doesn’t fit well into Bisq’s complex architecture.

Even as the DAO is launched and Bisq has achieved a greater degree of decentralization than before, Jain said that Bisq’s community is “focused on further decentralizing the network.” This means a new trading scheme which removes arbitrators from the multisignature process and replaces them with mediators “for a more private, quick and decentralized trading experience where less trust is required.”

Ultimately, he concluded, the idea and final goal is that “users shouldn’t have to trust Bisq for anything.”

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

[Telegram Channel | Original Article ]

[cryptobrief]

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are one of crypto's more novel and ambitious applications — one that Bitcoin, until recently, has had nothing to do with.

In practice, they're a bit younger than Bitcoin forks and older than smart contract-focused blockchains. The idea is that you can devise a decentralized governance system using the blockchain's cryptographic controls — rule of code, so to speak. Using tokenomics and technical schemes, the DAO affects certain laws over its participants, incentivizes them to play by the rules and encourages the community to hold itself accountable.

Dan Larimer's BitShares, with its delegated proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, was the first DAO, followed by Dash. Since these trailblazers went live, DAO endeavors have become dominated by the Ethereum ecosystem, including, most notably, the eponymous and disastrous The DAO — best known for forfeiting millions in ether to the void after an incompetent coder unwittingly deleted a wallet library — and Maker, among others.

Perhaps because of Bitcoin’s limited scripting language and, conversely, Ethereum’s rich scripting language, Ethereum has been the frontrunner for popular DAOs in recent memory, while one has never launched on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Until now, that is.

Bisq Gets an Upgrade

Bisq, one of the Bitcoin community’s only truly decentralized exchanges, introduced version 1.0 of its software this week. Along with other ancillary upgrades, the release dropped a bombshell by furnishing Bitcoin with its first DAO.

“Bisq's DAO, launched on Monday, April 15, is (to my knowledge) the only attempt of its kind to decentralize a project's management and funding to the extent it does,” Steve Jain, a Bisq contributor, told Bitcoin Magazine.

With its intention to migrate toward distributed governance, Bisq will strive for an even greater degree of decentralization than it already features. Its software operates on Tor, and each user must run their own separate instance of the program (akin to running a node on a much smaller scale) to access the exchange, making it completely peer-to-peer.

The privacy-minded exchange offers a rare, KYC-resistant fiat ramp for bitcoin trading, allowing users to facilitate fiat exchange with payment apps, bank wires and even hard cash swaps, like LocalBitcoins offers. With each trade, bitcoin is locked away in multi-signature contracts, requiring arbitrators to resolve any conflicts should a dispute arise in a trade.

Jain said that this version upgrade was a long time coming.

“The DAO was intended to be a part of Bisq from the day it was first conceived in 2014,” he revealed, adding that this launch has been in the works for five years — meaning that its development predates even the infamous Ethereum DAO. Now that it’s live, he believes that the program has realized an even truer version of itself, one that separates it from the pack.

“From this standpoint, Bisq is a totally different beast —in terms of software and governance — than any other exchange,” he claimed.

How the DAO Works

Bisq’s governance will revolve around a token, but speculators need not apply — the project isn’t launching an ICO. Instead, each BSQ token will be minted through a process known as coloring.

Colored coins, so-called because they are distinguished from regular coins on the blockchain, are simply satoshis marked for a specific use case. To create tokens for Bisq, for example, users submit satoshis to the DAO, which are then “painted over” to represent BSQ. These tokens give users the ability to participate in the Bisq DAO.

This participation can take many forms. For traders on the platform, BSQ will give them trading discounts, not unlike BNB coin for Binance users, but this token’s use case is more dynamic than that. Contributors, for instance, can submit a compensation request to the network for payment in BSQ after finishing a project for the DAO. The community then votes on whether or not compensation should be awarded, and the developer submits satoshis to mint the colored BSQ tokens.

More than just developers, DAO contributors could be designers, support staff, social media managers or writers. These contributors can also stake BSQ in a bond to fill a high-trust position in the DAO, like a back end engineer, copywriter or social media representative. If these de facto employees are caught slacking off or acting up, the community can confiscate their stakes as punishment.

“It's a dynamic system of stakeholders acting in their own best interests … And notably, there are no gatekeepers to manage it all,” Jain said. “BSQ is bought on the open market, and it's issued by collective stakeholder voting. Personal vendettas, bank tantrums, government policies, company rules … none of these things can get in the way of someone doing work and getting paid for it.”

To start, 3,657,480 BSQ has been minted to compensate a team of more than 200 contributors for their five years of labor to get Bisq and its nascent DAO up and running. Going forward, Jain told us that new BSQ will be put into circulation every month to fulfill compensation requests. Any BSQ used for trading fees, on the other hand, will be burned and taken out of supply entirely.

Should I Trust the Government?

For some, the DAO’s attempt to realize cohesive-yet-anarchic governance is utopian at best and foolhardy at worst. Critics point to Ethereum’s DAO and the ensuing hard fork as a bailout of sorts — the crypto equivalent of the windfalls Washington bestowed on Wall Street during the Great Recession.

Other criticisms point to the notion that incentives aren’t powerful enough to keep bad actors in line, or that governance systems, depending on structure, give these bad actors mechanisms to game the system and circumvent checks and balances.

Bisq’s own governance is twofold. Voter clout is determined on a weighted basis (how many BSQ tokens you own) or merit (your reputation on the network). Voting based on token count is a red flag for many — it’s one of the reasons people look at EOS’ block producer elections as a pay-for-play playground, for instance. When asked if he felt that a stake-based voting model might enable vote buying and give the 1 percent an opportunity to out-influence the other 99, Jain noted optimism around the intentions of stakeholders.

“[To vote you must] allot a certain amount of the BSQ you own for your voting weight,” he said. “You must own this BSQ, and yes, you can buy as much of it as you want on the open market. We think that's fair. Presumably, assuming no bad intentions, someone with a lot of money who really believes in the Bisq network may want to buy a lot of BSQ to have a big influence in its decisions.”

He continued to qualify that merit “is worth more than pure stake weight.” Basically, someone who contributes to the network has more of a say in voting than someone who bought their tokens; if I earn 10,000 BSQ tokens, for example, even if I sell them, my vote holds more clout than someone who bought 10,000 BSQ on the market. Merit will decay on an annual basis, as well, meaning contributors have to keep working on the ecosystem to maintain or bolster their reputations.

“Lastly, the merits ‘stack,’ so if I have 10,000 BSQ of merit and 5,000 BSQ in my BSQ wallet, I can stake 5,000 BSQ for a combined voting weight of 15,000 BSQ,” Jain said.

With this governance structure in place, Jain emphasized that one of the most significant — and exciting — differences with this version upgrade is that contributors can finally get paid for their work. This work, he continued, includes “growing liquidity, expanding to new markets and finally integrating SegWit.” Lightning Network integration is a bit further off, though, as it doesn’t fit well into Bisq’s complex architecture.

Even as the DAO is launched and Bisq has achieved a greater degree of decentralization than before, Jain said that Bisq’s community is “focused on further decentralizing the network.” This means a new trading scheme which removes arbitrators from the multisignature process and replaces them with mediators “for a more private, quick and decentralized trading experience where less trust is required.”

Ultimately, he concluded, the idea and final goal is that “users shouldn’t have to trust Bisq for anything.”

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

[cryptswahili]

GOLD.IO – A Decentralized Exchange With Built in Self-Governance

Exchanges have always been an integral part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Whether the trading of coins happened on forums, centralized platforms or decentralized exchanges, trading cryptocurrency is one of the first things anybody who is introduced to crypto does. We have seen many models of exchanges and have seen evidence of the difficulties that come as a result. Whether it’s the fall of MtGox or the EtherDelta hack, there is no shortage of problems with these businesses. This is where Gold.io comes into play. The platform features a decentralized exchange based on the EOS platform, but with a twist.

What is Gold.io exactly?

Before we talk about what Gold.io has to offer, let’s go over some of the issues with current exchanges. Centralized exchanges suffer from the following issues:

Vulnerability to malicious attacks.

The need for clients to provide personal details

High trading fees

Charging assets an exuberant amount for listing fees

Insolvency

While the creation of decentralized exchanges does solve most of the above issues, some problems still remain. DEX’s suffer from the following issues:

No pairing to fiat

Centralized hosting (EtherDelta hack)

Lack of efficient inter-chain communication.

These are only a few problems that plague the current models of Decentralized Exchanges. GOLD.IO aims to solve the above issues with the help of a Decentralized Autonomous Community or DAC. Along with a revised infrastructure on the EOS platform, implementing a DAC will create self-governance that will allow the community to “steer the direction of the exchange.” According to Gold.io’s goldpaper:

“The GOLD.IO community will self-manage the majority of the operational aspects of the exchange process through the pre-established smart contract functionality.”

In order to solve the first problem of pairing assets to fiat, Gold.io’s infrastructure will allow the listing of stablecoins which is made possible with the use of cross-chain transactions. Centralized hosting is avoided with the use of sisterchains, whose producers are geographically dispersed. Last but not least, lack of efficient inter-chain communication problem is solved with the instantaneity of the exchange, which is made possible by using EOS as the underlying platform.

Funding Process

According to their funding document, Gold.io will initially distribute roughly 570 million GIO tokens – which comes down to 21% of all the airdrop and funding supply. The funding stages are shown below:

“Participants in this funding round will be able to trade the tokens after the three phases are complete and the token is listed. Also, the contributors are awarded significant discounts as compared to the airdrop claiming fees. Unsold tokens are burned.”

The funding will be used to cover various expenses such as marketing, operations, legal and development. You can find a detailed chart below:

To recap, the total token distribution is as follows:

Total supply: 3,018,735,360.00

Team tokens: 300,000,006.00

Funding distribution: 570,934,424.34

Airdropped: 2,147,800,929.66

One concept that might confuse people is how the airdrop is not free and is instead frozen. The funds raised from the airdrop will be used by the DAC to vote what to do with them. The plan is to back all tokens with real gold, but the at the end of the day the community will decide exactly what happens.

If you are looking to participate in the airdrop check out this youtube video for an explanation:

Another point worth mentioning is the soft cap (2M) and hard cap (11M) for the project. Keep in mind the tokens raised from the airdrop do not count towards either of the caps.

Eugene Goldenberg, managing director for Gold.io said:

“The community that invested in the early stages of the seed funding and the seed drop will be voting (we are a DAC) on what to do with the frozen tokens, and the raised amount from the airdropped tokens. The first proposal that we would do for voting is to back the tokens with gold from the proceeds of the airdrop.”

About the Gold.io team

When looking at the Gold.io website you will notice there are no LinkedIn profiles. While some may criticize the project for a lack of transparency, the Gold.io team instead has included the Github accounts of the project’s contributors. After all, what is more important to a crypto project, a bunch of linked in profiles with 500+ connections or robust developer accounts with proven track records?

Looking at the Gold.io website you will find a list of 15 Github accounts. Furthermore, there is a chart with the amount of commits per day, the activity by far exceeds most established crypto projects.

Gold.io promises a revolutionary decentralized exchange built on the EOS platform. Furthermore, with their tiered funding system and airdrops it provides ample opportunities for anybody interested in becoming a part of the project.

Useful Links:

If you would like to join the Gold.io team you can send them an email at info@gold.io

Visit the Gold.io website here: https://gold.io/

Checkout the goldpaper for more info.

Checkout more info about the funding process here.

This is a sponsored article and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of NullTX. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

The post GOLD.IO – A Decentralized Exchange With Built in Self-Governance appeared first on NullTX.

[Telegram Channel | Original Article ]