We are suffering a campaign perfectly orchestrated by commercial banks, central banks, and governments to discredit the crypto-sphere, which unfortunately has an effect on the ignorant and people of good faith who approached the ecosystem with good intentions, but who have no instruction regarding how it works, and then they get scared and run away in terror. That is exactly what the banks, and the governments, are looking for so that people are scared and do not investigate much about this new tool that totally takes away the power of centralized dictatorships.
I think this is going to go on for a long time. The stakes are high, and there are very few suitable media that can provide valid information about the technologies generically encompassed by the name of blockchain. Most of the mass information is provided by unpresentable journalists who have neither the talent nor the necessary education to convey the fundamental concepts. If you use these mediocre men and women as mercenaries to transmit false information, then you have a very effective destructive mix. The result cannot be other than to consider cryptocurrencies as objects "without intrinsic value" and "Ponzi schemes".
Hahahaha. As if the debt ballots that central banks print had some "intrinsic value". Please, what a ridiculous argument!
It is up to those of us who understand the quantum leap value of blockchain technology, to accurately disclose the new tools, and very particularly to counteract planned misinformation by all possible means.
The traditional banking system is conceived as a control system for the transfer of value between households and companies. The MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) "legalizes" the issuance of promissory notes by a Central Bank that in this way gives value to the money in circulation every day. The common man and woman are unaware of the pernicious manipulations of this system and have no idea how they have been manipulated for centuries. The whole apparatus is mounted on debt. The fundamental premise is to get into debt so that that we can never get out of the trap and have to spend our lives feeding the machine.
When we deliver a fiat bill (promissory note) to the greengrocer, we are transferring a debt that the Central Bank had with us. The greengrocer in turn is going to transfer it to another by buying something from him/her, or he/she is going to deposit it in his/her bank. What we call "market", thanks to the MMT framework, ends up being a vulgar debt clearing box.
And it is here that explanation must be emphasized. Cryptocurrencies are "assets", they are not "debt papers" like fiat bills are. Just by understanding this, we realize that we are in the presence of a conceptually different economy. No debt but assets are exchanged. It is almost like bartering. And nobody could regulate it.
How are they going to regulate it?
a- Banning mining? Unless they remotely tap into each computer, I don't see how they could do it.
b- Interrupting the Internet? Well, in this case, they are also left without commercial banks, central banks, and governments. No need for cryptocurrencies to be involved.
c- Confiscating computers and smartphones from house to house? I know they are idiots, but I don't think they can get to this point.
d- Prohibiting operations with cryptocurrencies? In such a case, how long would it be before the distributed talent of developers from all over the planet put together a new infrastructure?
e- Banning the manufacture of computers and smartphones? In that case, if they don't also ban the making of picks and shovels, we will rebuild a new civilization as the Celts did 14,000 years ago.
f- Imprisoning the cypherpunks, the anarchists, the communists, the subversives from all over the world who continue to use cryptocurrencies? This case is interesting because the most prosperous business would become the building of prisons, and all the resources would be derived here.
g- Establishing an abusive tax scheme for those who pay with cryptocurrencies? In this case, they would only set in motion the development of a new informal economy, the crypto-informal economy.
h- Prohibiting the operation of exchanges? Guys, have you heard of P2P?
i- Seizuring your bank accounts? Oh boy, in case you did not know, that can be done today quietly, protected by "the law" and without the need for cryptocurrencies in between.
In other words, we are in the presence of what in chess is called “zugzwang”.
Zugzwang is a situation in which a player is at a disadvantage because it is his/her turn to play but any move he/she makes will disadvantage him/her. Zugzwang positions tend to emerge late in the game when the number of pieces and possible moves is reduced. Creating a zugzwang position is the only possible way to win some games. To discover the possibility of a zugzwang you not only need to plan your own game but also to control the possibilities and the opponent's moves.
Source The example looks like a draw, but White wins the game by putting Black in a zugzwang situation with move 1.Rxh6 !! Black is in zugzwang: if the bishop moves, then Rxh7 mate, and if 1… gxh6 then a good mate for 2.g7x!
Zugzwang is a German word that means "compulsion to move" and the concept is based on creating a situation in which a player is put at a disadvantage by his obligation to make a move, in other words, the fact that the player is compelled to move means that his/her position will become significantly weaker. A player is said to be "in zugzwang" when any possible move will worsen his/her position.
But beware. The player who is losing and knows that he/she has to take the game to a draw will try to avoid the zugzwang, causing a "drowned king" position.
Source A drowned king situation occurs when the king is not in check, but it is the only piece the player can move, and to any valid square that the king could go, it will be checked. This situation gives the losing player the chance to draw a game. These are the rules of chess. The queen's move on the previous board is not good.
I believe that the current situation of the traditional corporate-financial-governmental system based on the issuance of debt for the control of all world economic activity, is in zugzwang, desperately trying to achieve at least one draw. And we do not want a draw. We want them to lose as humiliatingly as possible, for all that they have been stealing from us for centuries. We want the common man and woman who today believes that banks are helping him/her, like commercials and communication in general say, to know that they are scamming him/her by making him/her play a macabre debt game in which only banks and politicians win, and those of us who work pay for that party.
A politician is by definition, an illiterate with power. It is not that he/she does not understand that blockchain technologies put them out of work, it is that he/she has not the capabilities to understand those technologies. Those who can understand them are their consultants who research, and who realize that the change in the rules of the game is brutal. We must not let them lead us into a drowned king situation.
Blockchain is teaching traditional economists how money works.
But it is also true that Sun Tzu told us in The Art of War written in 700 BC, as one of the great concepts of him:
The enemy must never be left cornered with no way out. This is a serious strategic mistake. If the enemy discovers that he/she has no way out, then he/she will fight for his/her life with superhuman forces that he/she didn't even know he/she had. Sun Tzu.
In other words, the strategy that we should implement is that of zugzwang, showing the enemy some possible situations of a drowned king, without letting them reach those situations, of course. This is the way to make them believe that there is a chance of a draw. And let them settle for that.
Don't forget three things:
1- Blockchain is not just Bitcoin. It is a quantum leap in human history.
2- You do not earn anything until you cash out your crypto and buy the objects that give you happiness.
3- You do not lose anything until you sell the crypto that you had.
With that said, let's move on to today's two tokens.
ICX
https://iconrepublic.org/ ranking CoinGecko #109
ICON and its cryptocurrency ICX is a platform based on its own blockchain technology, created to integrate and manage an infinite number of blockchains within its own system. In addition, it allows you to program DApps and start ICOs. ICON can group infinite Blockchains within a single system through its distinctive protocol.
Initially, ICXs were created as ETH tokens, but later in 2018, they have been swapped for coins of their own blockchain. ECX tokens are useless now, so don't buy them instead of an ICX coin. The process of migration ended in October 2018. ICON cannot be mined. There is a total number of 800,460,000 ICXs, of which the vast majority have practically already been released.
ICON has smart contracts known as SCORE that is written in Python, an improved algorithm based on BFT (Byzantine Fault Tolerance) known as Loop Fault Tolerance (LFT), a governance mechanism known as Delegated Proof of Contribution (DPoC) to reward those contributors to the ICON network, and a concept known as "Virtual Step" that allows SCORE operators to cover user transaction fees.
ICON's main goal is to solve the problem of "walled gardens" in the enterprise blockchain space. The ICON Project was born to act as a bridge between various implementations of the enterprise solution, while providing the benefits of a general-purpose public blockchain platform, with enabled smart contracts.
On most blockchain platforms with network fees, the sender of the transaction incurs the fee. Instead, ICON introduces a concept known as Virtual Step. Virtual Step enables an ICON smart contract developer to deposit ICX (the native protocol token on the ICON blockchain) to the smart contract and earn non-transferable and non-exchangeable interest on the deposit. This interest is for the sole purpose of covering the transaction fees associated with the interaction with the respective smart contract. Developers can set a share percentage, between 0% and 100%, for those who interact with the contract. This significantly improves the user experience, as users of the application will not be responsible for paying transaction fees.
Rather than having control of the network in the hands of those with the most hashing power (Proof of Work) or those with the greatest wealth (Proof of Stake), DPoC will likely result in developers having more control over the network.
Thanks to the LFT (Loopchain Fault Tolerance) consensus algorithm, ICON can process transactions at much higher speeds than Bitcoin or Ethereum. In addition, it is multi-channel, that is, it executes transactions simultaneously through different channels of the same network, being able to configure each one independently.
ICON network is made up of five main elements:
1- Community. It is a network made up of various types of nodes with the same governance system. The following community examples are given in ICON's whitepaper: financial institutions, schools, e-commerce platforms, bitcoin, or Ethereum. Each community has its own characteristics and structures, according to the composition of the nodes in the network.
2- C-Node. They are the basic nodes of a network and are in charge of consensus and decision-making in a community. They can be organizations, but also individuals, whose policies are determined by community members.
3- C-Rep is a community representative or community representative. The c-reps make up the "ICON Republic" and govern the operation of the network. They have the right to vote and verify transactions on the network. C-Reps may change according to the situation and purposes of the network.
4- ICON Republic. It is the connector of the different communities in the ICON network. It is made up of representatives or CReps and other «citizen nodes».
5- Citizen node. It is a component of the ICON Republic. Anyone can participate as a Citizen Node through decentralized applications built on the loopchain, an underlying ICON technology with a high capacity for transaction processing. Other characteristics of loopchain is its tiered structure, multichannel nature and constitutes the ICON consensus algorithm, called LFT (fault-tolerant loopchain).
The work that ICON is doing is really important. Its main function is to act as a link between the blockchains so that they are compatible and can act independently, but, at the same time, doing it as nodes of the ICON network. The Republic Community has the function to let other projects freely interact with each other by implementing Community Nodes (C-Nodes). Using them you can broadcast transactions or use dApps. Anyway, their power is restricted only in the Republic network, but they're considered the base of the ICON project, since being responsible for verifications, elections and delegating tasks to other participants. This is an innovative way for projects to work together while keeping their autonomy at the same time.
The Korean company Dayli Financial Group is leading the development of the ICON (ICX) project. This company was created under the name of Yello Financial Group, one of the leading Fintech companies in Asia. The company is made up of 159 professionals, including its founders. 98 of the team members are dedicated to its development, 49 to business and operations, and the remaining 12 to operations. Among the team members, we find specialists in artificial intelligence, specialists in marketing, design, and security, among other specialties.
Conclusion. The ICON (ICX) helps two independent blockchains Bitcoin and Ethereum to connect and transact with each other. It can work like this by opening the cross-chain with an interop layer which is ICON.
Backed by 25 securities firms, it is the leading cryptocurrency in terms of loopchain technology and the group plans to expand its services to other sectors of the market. Something very interesting about ICON is undoubtedly the firm alliances it has made with the Korean government and other international giants such as Ripple Asia, and Samsung. On the other hand, its impressive technology has earned it the support of the community and the trust of other big names. ICON seems to have come to stay and it is surely one of the currencies that you should consider.
By default, a blockchain is managed by a certain network and a different blockchain cannot be connected. ICON is an attempt at such a connection. Centralized payment systems, like Visa, require companies to adhere to the policies and guidelines they have developed. By allowing individual communities to take control of their own policies, ICON seeks to reduce potential barriers to adoption. The communities are connected to the ICON network through a decentralized exchange. This allows the maintenance of a large checkbook within the community network itself. This LEDGER reduces the need for third parties, which can reduce transaction costs.
The ICON team has dedicated significant resources to R&D for interoperability between enterprise and public blockchains, with a long-term version of connecting many heterogeneous public blockchains. Building an application on ICON Blockchain ensures that any network connected to ICON Public Blockchain will have access to operate with it.
DCR
https://www.decred.org/ Ranking CoinGecko #54
Decred is a cryptocurrency that was born to compete in the same segment as Bitcoin, as a store of value. It has its own hybrid blockchain with a Proof-of-Stake component and another Proof-of-Work component. The original idea came from an article written by one of the creators of Monero and was later materialized by a team of developers working on Bitcoin.
Launched in 2016, the Decred network incorporated Bitcoin components such as the block- and transaction-based blockchain, the 21 million limit, and the Proof-of-Work mining system. But it differed from this by including systems dedicated to network governance that allow users with DCR to participate in decision-making. In turn, a Treasury accumulates a portion of the DCR generated and allows them to finance projects without depending on investors or companies.
To participate in PoS voting, users block their DCR in exchange for tickets. The blocked amount is adjusted every 144 blocks (12 hours). The algorithm tries to always have 40,960 tickets. Each ticket represents the possibility of casting a vote. Doing so returns the locked DCR and also a portion of the block reward. In practice, the hybrid consensus works as a double authentication system, the blocks must go through two controls: PoW and PoS. Each time miners find a block, five Proof-of-Stake voting tickets are randomly chosen.
Tickets also provide voting power on an off-chain platform called Politeia. This off-chain discussion and voting system is what allows controlling how Treasury funds are used by voting for or against development proposals.
Any cryptocurrency that only uses PoW depends mainly on its miners for government decisions since they are the only ones who enforce the consensus system and provide its security. However, Decred (DCR) relies on both its stakeholders and miners for consensus and security. The bottom line is that Decred's hybrid PoW/PoS consensus system is considerably fairer and more secure than PoW-only systems.
The Decred team recently announced the release of version 1.6 of their software. This is one of the technological updates that qualify as one of the most important of the project to date, in which the Lightning Network (LN) is integrated into its platform.
Decred (DCR), announced the launch of DCRDEX in October 2020, the first decentralized cryptocurrency exchange of its kind. In an unprecedented move, DCRDEX does not collect trading fees and is the first exchange to utilize a new order matching system that levels the playing field between retail and professional traders. Other notable features are added security, as servers never take custody of client funds and privacy as it’s completely permissionless. The initial release allows users to exchange Decred, Bitcoin, and Litecoin cryptocurrencies. However, DCRDEX will be open to all cryptocurrencies.
Decred's code was built on the code base of btcsuite, an alternative full-node implementation of Bitcoin written in Go, developed by Company 0 LLC. Although Decred is based on the code of Bitcoin, it is a self-contained cryptocurrency, not a "fork of Bitcoin". This work began in February 2014 and continued with the help of Company 0 LLC until the launch of the mainnet in February 2016.
Decred has its own wallet called Decred Wallet. It can be downloaded from the Play Store or the Apple Store. They are available for mobile devices. Hack-proof DCRs can be easily stored in the Decred Wallet.
Conclusion. Decred favors those investors who want to participate in the development, contribute their ideas and make decisions. These mechanisms present new opportunities, especially greater adaptability and speed of response to external events, but they also put the future of the network in the hands of stakeholders. By gaining the ability to make decisions, their community also risks making poor decisions. If it decides to change the rules and incentives to profit, it could be left without miners or developers.
Decred's approach puts this cryptocurrency competing in the same category as Bitcoin, the long-term store of value, but stakeholders could explore other opportunities by making use of the Treasury.
In the short term, it remains to wait how the Decred decentralized exchange is going to work and see what the impact of this is on the liquidity of the currency, one of its main debts with the community. In the medium term, the implementation of new privacy tools could further differentiate the Bitcoin project and at the same time position it as an alternative to the better-known privacy coins such as Monero or Zcash. Whether Decred succeeds or fails depends exclusively on its stakeholders. And that’s good, a great challenge.
As usual, none of the things written in this post are financial advice and are not intended to replace personal research.
Thank you for reading!
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