Let’s take a glance at his life and contribution to the cryptocurrency industry in this detailed article.

Who is Hal Finney?

His complete name is Harold Thomas Finney II. So who is he? He is considered to be the pioneer and developer of Bitcoin currency.

In fact, the story of Bitcoins would be incomplete without mention of Hal Finney and his tremendous contribution towards its development and worldwide recognition and acceptance.

It is even widely believed that he himself is Satoshi Nakamoto who introduce Bitcoin transactions that could only take place between two persons. People believed that he hid behind the made-up name. He may be worried about the backlash of the establishment. This is because the concept was a challenge to the US Dollar.

For more details, you can check out this article on Satoshi Nakamoto here.

Finney’s Struggles

However, there is far more to the life of Hal Finney other than his instant recognition as a pioneer of Bitcoin. Particularly, his heroic struggle with his illness. His courage in face of the sickness, and maintaining focus on the work in hand, is an inspiration for many of us.

This singular feat alone, of remaining focused and contended in the face of creeping disability and certain death is not what we come across in everyday life. In order to get a glimpse of how his thoughts literally transform into words, you must read his last ‘post’. The post itself is a source of inspiration for many.

To be honest, if someone ask me who is Hal Finney? Above all his contributions to cryptocurrencies, he is the man who fought with a deadly diseases with courage, and kept working on his passion till the last day.

Early Life & Career

Born in Coalinga, Ca. in 1956, Hal Finney acquired his professional education from ‘California Institute of Technology.  He completed his B.S. in Engineering in 1979 from the University. For more details about his early education, please check here.

A year prior to his graduation, Hal was hired by ‘APh Technology Consultants’ (hired by ‘Mattel’). He was initially assigned to work on their cash register software.

Image Credits: Wikipedia

Hal Finney then worked on the sound effects of the video games developed by the company. He did so successfully and was even able to come up with some new effects. Soon enough, he was developing video games independently. Apart from games, he also developed a number of other software as well.

In particular, he designed & developed a spectrometer for Bausch & Lomb. He also developed some innovative camera control software for a Hollywood special effects house. Hal continued working for APh right till 1986.

Because of his intuition for encryption, Hal started working jointly with Phil Zimmermann in development of PGP (Pretty Good Privacy).  Thereafter when Phil set up the PGP Corporation in 1996, he joined him immediately. He remained in that organization right up to his retirement in 2011.

Professional development

If you look around, you will only find a few professionals who develop a passion for their expertise. Thus reverting to the question of who is Hal Finney, he was one of such individuals. While at PGP Corporation, he continued honing his software encryption skills and experimenting with innovative ideas no matter who initiated them.

That was how he got familiar with Cypherpunks and even developed the first so-called ‘anonymous remailer’ (a cryptographically-based remailer) which he ran for some time. He also created reusable proof of work RPOW in 2004.

He also become instantly interested when Satoshi put forward the concept of cryptocurrency in 2008. Read more about what is cryptocurrency and how it can be used in our previous blog post.

Hal Finney became the first person to acquire the first-ever release of cryptocurrency software. He also became the first recipient of Bitcoins. From then on, he became so engrossed in the development and spread of Bitcoins that many people still believe that it was he himself, and not Satoshi Nakamoto who actually was behind it throughout.

This is more so since Satoshi’s true identity has gone into oblivion, thus raising the issue as to who is Hal Finney?

Over the next few years, once he ensured that development, as well as spread, of Bitcoins was up & running, he focused more towards his software upgrade which, it seems, could not at times keep up with his insatiable needs of working through far into the future. He improved the Bitcoin software significantly and also operated as one of the first miners of the Bitcoins network.

Then in the year 2010, when Bitcoins had already become a buzzword in the press and media, he developed an ‘off-line’ wallet system to store the Bitcoins. That concept too gained instant acclaim.

Personal Health issues

Right up to his early fifties, Hal Finney remained super fit physically. He even ran marathons and intended to undertake longer runs progressively.

But then suddenly he was diagnosed with ALS syndrome (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). His strength gradually gave way, his muscle movements got shaky and even his voice slurred. At that defining moment, Hal decided to face it all boldly and to adapt to his deteriorating physical constraints.

He continued working ceaselessly, adjusting to his ever-deteriorating physical state and yet remaining cheerful. His mental faculties were still functioning and so was his ever-inquisitive brain that kept on exploring and experimenting with new ideas.

Despite being on a power wheelchair and fed and breathing through tubes, Hal continued with his work. He even developed a means to adjust his wheelchair just by using his eye motions by interfacing with an arduino for this purpose. He similarly used a commercial eye-tracker system to operate his computer.

Nothing could hinder his remarkable resilience and a yearning to keep on working on what has been his life’s passion. Right up to his last, he continued programming and writing codes and accomplishing his self-allocated targets.

Obituary

Hal Finney breathed his last on August 28, 2014. In accordance with his wish & plans, his body has been cryonically frozen and preserved at a special-purpose facility managed by Alcor Life Extension Foundation. Click here for more details.

This is in keeping with his own futuristic trend and outlook which have been the hallmark of his life-long efforts throughout.

A year before his death, he wrote his autobiography aptly captioned “Bitcoin and me”. This simple one-pager seems more focused on his work and excitement to do more, than his own serious health issues that had overshadowed his physical faculties, but not his strong determination and Will.

If at all, he only mentioned his health, as if in passing, never wanting to drift from his passionate narrative of work-in-hand. That autobiography that seemed to have ‘flowed right from his heart’ has been read over hundreds and thousands of times with an incredibly large number of comments and well-deserved commendations from his innumerable fans from across the globe.

Ever since his death, Hal Kenney is duly remembered by the ever-growing ‘Bitcoin community’ who remember and pay homage to him each year at the annual anniversary of Bitcoins.

EULOGY

Hal Finney had a unique personality. And for this, he remained satisfied, thankful and optimistic right till his death. Even in his state of sickness, where he could discern his fast approaching end, he remained cheerful and ever adaptive to his deteriorating physical state.

Few in his place would have been as brave, realistic and could remain focused to their ‘work-in-hand’ as Hal did. The only other person who comes to mind as having been of an equally strong Will and remarkably similar stature is Stephan Hawkins. His life and accomplishments shall remain a source of inspiration for the coming generations.

Hal Finney & Bitcoins

The concept and the very word ‘Bitcoin’ shall always remain synonymous with Hal’s name. As a matter of fact, whenever you read about Bitcoins, you may also want to know who is Hal Finney? To be honest, he is the most mysterious personality in the cryptocurrency world.

Even if he was not the real originator and author of this futuristic currency (he never actually claimed so), yet Bitcoins would never have been transformed into practical reality had it not been to Hal Finney’s quick and proactive approach.

His revolutionary ideas literally ensured Bitcoins taking off and their universal acceptance as such. His quotes on the efficacy of cryptocurrency have been instrumental in infusing credibility of Bitcoins. You will particularly like to read his pertinent comments here.

Hal made the very first Bitcoin transaction thereby strongly conveying his own conviction in the practical use and real-term value of this unique crypto-currency. He thus ensured to transform it into reality. Initial skepticism quickly diminished when he himself become the first purchaser of Bitcoins. He also worked on its software to ensure its authenticity and acceptability.

Running bitcoin

— halfin (@halfin) January 11, 2009

Even as early as in 2009, Hal believed in the idea that eventually each Bitcoin will reach US$ 10 million in value.

That was at least five years before the said cyber-currency spiked to unimaginable levels. For details thereon, click here. The rest is all history and we are living through it.

Life & Achievements

I find Hal Finney’s life as one of consistency, extreme passion and singular focus on innovation and futuristic approach. It seems that ever since he left his University, there had been no turning back in his life.

Right from the start of his professional career, Hal was working on programming projects, and developing programs for various video games. Perhaps he was lucky (or maybe it was the other way round!) that he soon got in touch with Phil Zimmermann. Luckily, both shared the similar interests thus making a great team.

His joining thus, of Phil’s PGP Corporation was a logical progression and culmination of identical ideas that also ensured the resounding success of PGP Corporation itself. The very fact that he derived full professional satisfaction working for PGP is amply manifest in his decision to continue with this organization right till his retirement which he took because of his (then) deteriorating physical health.

Nonetheless, glancing through Hal’s relatively brief, yet remarkable career, we find that his heart was where his passion lay. Thus even while at PGP Corporation, he continued in his pursuits for innovating for the future.

It was because of this yearning, that Hal got involved with ‘cypherpunks’ – somewhat freelance developers. They have freely acknowledged his unflinching support and encouragement that they got at that defining moment of their early lives; many of them later transformed into experts ‘par excellence’ in their respective areas of software development.

Simplicity & Focus

Several of Hal’s interviews – given before as well as during the period of his illness, reveal his simple nature, a candid admission of failures along with successes, his firm commitment to the future as well as his yearning to look and talk beyond his own physically paralyzing state and issues.

You may go through his one such interview for further knowledge on the subject. Here’s his last post once again to show you what a remarkable inspiration he was.

Family life

Last, but not the least, who is Hal Finney for his family? Despite his virtually workaholic passion for his never-ending thirst for development, customization, innovation, adaptability and results-oriented approach, Hal Finney was a simple family man.

He nurtured his kids, a son, and a daughter to also become tech-savvy, not by compulsion but by choice. His loving wife remained by him till he breathed his last. He died a peaceful death, fully satisfied and comfortable with his legacy.

Who is Hal Finney? The Final Words

Hal Finney was known for his warm-heartedness and generosity by his colleagues. He is considered as a genius who contributed to cryptocurrency while fighting with a deadly disease.

When Satoshi is a still a mystery figure, many believe Hal Finney was actually Satoshi.

If it is true, then the answer for the question Who is Hal Finney is – he is founder of Bitcoin.

But to be honest, a lot of things about him are still a mystery. Is is really Satoshi? Is he the man behind Bitcoin? It looks like, it will remain a mystery unless Satoshi come forward or Hal’s wife breaks her silence.

The post Who is Hal Finney? Was He the Real Man Behind Bitcoin? appeared first on 101 Blockchains.

Hongfei is a celebrated achiever in the blockchain industry of China. He is known to be a creator of the first few blockchain firms in China. He’s also an inventor of many renowned cryptocurrency apps that are used all over Asia.

This piece of writing is dedicated to Hongfei, his role in the Chinese and global cryptocurrency, and how has he increased the awareness of blockchain technology in Asia. Simply put, in this article, I will answer in detail who is Da Honfegi.

I’ll also shed some light on how he began his career and what are his notable services in this field.

Who is Da Hongfei?

Da Hongfei is the mastermind behind a renowned blockchain podium for distributed applications called NEO. In addition, he also created a blockchain progress firm named Onchain.

The firm is aimed to help institutions and enterprises. The headquarters of both of these ventures are located in China. What’s great about these ventures is that they hold the honor of being the first ever blockchain expansion projects that are based in China.

For the same reason, Hongfei is a well-known figure in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency in the Asian region. Hongfei is now probably the most esteemed experts in cryptocurrency, particularly in China. He is considered as an authority over enterprise apps, Chinese user adoption, and even state ruling.

Due to his high repute in the Chinese blockchain industry, state officials took the initiative to get in touch with him for his expert’s advice before giving out the Sep crypto and ICO exchange prohibitions.

Da Hongfei’s Education

He went to the SCUT that is located in the state of Guangdong. SCUT is one of the most esteemed alma maters in China. He attended that institution from 1997 to 2001 where he studied arts. He holds a BA degree with English and Technology as his major subjects.

Career Before Stepping Into Blockchain

Before he stepped into the universe of blockchain technology, Da Hongfei used to work at IntPass Consulting that was located in Shanghai. He worked there for almost a decade, from 2005 to 2013 to be precise. Before leaving the firm, he was working there as a panel member and the Chief Executive Officer.

Early Interest in Blockchain

Da Hongfei came to know about Bitcoin in 2011. However, he was smart enough to comprehend and identify all the repercussions, both societal and methodical, behind this technology. Since his experience of studying in a university had already provided him a broader view of the world, it also helped in sparking his curiosity for Bitcoin. He shifted his focus towards this technology to learn about it in complete detail.

Who is Da Hongfei in the World of Blockchain?

As we mentioned above, Bitcoin caught the interest of Hongfei in 2011. At that point, he was still working in IntPass consulting.

So naturally, nobody then knew who is Da Hongfei and how is he going to bring on a revolution in PRC in the next few years.

In 2011, China was not much aware of this technology either. Therefore, there were no dedicated  Bitcoin communities anywhere in the country or the whole of Asia. The tiniest bit awareness that a few people had regarding this technology was still in its embryonic stage.

This lack of knowledge drove him to start a campaign for letting people know about Bitcoin in his country. His efforts resulted in the creation of an active Bitcoin community in PRC.

Seeing that, he doubled his efforts to encourage more and more people to adopt this technology. His enthusiastic attempts ended up in significantly increasing the popularity of Bitcoin all over China.

In fact, the true answer of the question, who is Da Honfegi is that he is the guy who introduced Bitcoin and the concept of cryptocurrency to China.

It only took him a few years to upturn the growth of this community countrywide to a notable extent. Hongfei doon earned the reputation of being one of the most prominent luminaries in this whole progress.

During that time, he came to realize the need for starting a new blockchain platform in China that could outdo Bitcoin in terms of performance. This led him to begin working on his own blockchain platform.

Who is Da Hongfei? The Founder of NEO

After the realization of how desperately his country needed a new blockchain podium, Hongfei declared the inauguration of AntShares in the January of 2014. The venture was for the creation of distributed applications. The platform officially unveiled in the following month and instantly became the preferred choice for the majority of blockchain ventures in the country.

Hongfei changed the name of the project from Anshares to NEO in 2017. I am sure people who have heard about NEO have already a pretty good idea of who is Da Hongfei.

NEO currently ranks 13^th among the top cryptocurrencies in the world based on market cap.

NEO is pretty much like the Ethereum blockchain in many ways. First off, both of them allow the decentralized apps to expand and develop. Secondly, both of them make use of smart contract practices. That’s the reason – NEO is often called Chinese Ethereum.

However, it is not entirely similar to the Ethereum. It has some unique features as well that make it better than Ethereum. Hongfei and his crew specially designed NEO to a delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance or dBFT consensus procedure. This first-ever protocol by China was issued as a whitepaper by the team in 2016.

The use of this new mechanism enables NEO to provide much swifter and stronger deal optimization performance. NEO can deal with 1000 transactions in a single second. This functionality gives it a remarkable edge over Ethereum that can only take on 15 transactions in a second.

Motive Behind NEO

Da Hongfei dreamed of making NEO a high-frequency blockchain platform that could be used for extensive and significant tasks. He also wanted to turn it into the technology of the new marketplace economy in several ways.

That’s the reason, he and his squad deliberately designed the platform to provide sustenance to smart contracts that operate on simulated machinery. NEO allows them to be encrypted using all the mainstream computer languages that include Java, Python, and more.

This means you do not have to learn an altogether new language for coding the smart contracts.

Conversely, while using Ethereum, the designers are required to use solidity for operating such agreements on the EVM. That’s one of the prime reasons behind NEO’s fame among a vast majority of blockchain task creators.

Onchain

Image Credits: OnChain

In the same year when AntShares was introduced, Hongfei teamed up with the CTO of NEO/Antshares Erik Zhang to create another company Onchain. In fact, both of them started their careers pretty much at the same time. Onchain is primarily a commercial blockchain firm that provides its services to private firms.

Instead of mixing up with NEO, Onchain made its separate identity for keeping the essential blockchain expansion efforts distinct from the digital money.

By the year 2016, Onchain gained enough popularity to get a significant place in the individual market. This resulted in the augmentation of the lineage of the NEO blockchain.

Creation of Distributed Networks Architecture (DNA)

Following this wide acceptance, Onchain joined forces with Hyperledger, which again made it the pioneer blockchain related venture in China to have done that. While working with Hyperledger, Onchain got the opportunity to create its principal product named Distributed Networks Architecture, or DNA for short.

The DNA modus operandi makes Onchain capable of integrating various business procedures and methods. The protocol also allows it to provide sustenance for distinctive cross chain and cross-platform compatibility.

This efficient product DNA also enables both of the firms, i.e., Onchain and NEO to easily accomplish their fundamental directives. DNA protocol is particularly designed in such a way that it can be used by more or less any business procedure for effectively implementing blockchain in their tasks.

The great thing about DNA is that it connects various blockchain implementations. As a result, a possibility for cross-platform assimilation is created, which is vital for implementation in the setting where systems are connected to each other.

DNA also enables using blockchain for numerous purposes while taking care of the state regulations, adopting a consensus protocol, or being incapable of bonding with other such apps. It even allows you to use it while searching for developers for creating your personal blockchain or apps.

Onchain’s Collaborations With Other Companies

Onchain joined forces with Microsoft China in 2016. In addition, the company also teamed up with FaDaDa for finding the legal sequence for addressing the many deficiencies of the authorized digital apps. That’s not it, Onchain was also added to the list of KPMG’s best 50 Fintech firms in China. This resulted in another collaboration of the firm with Alibaba for an email proof repository for businesses driven by blockchain.

In essence, DNA is one podium that enables other prevailing podiums to use blockchain technology without needing to create a whole new platform.

Who is Da Hongfei and How Did He Communicate with the Chinese Administration?

Image Credits: Youtube

If you ask the PRC’s blockchain community who is Da Hongfei, you’ll be surprised to see his high reputation. A major reason behind this reputation is his noteworthy effort behind the creation of a fruitful way of communication with the State officials.

After the ICO-Mania, China began to clear-out the cryptocurrencies because some of them were highly suspicious and they were feeding off of the innocence of inexperienced investors. China, being one of the most prominent nations in technological advancement, would have been unlucky if the door of crypto would have been shut for it.

It would have caused a great loss of opportunities for numerous entrepreneurs in China and all over Asia. Da Hongfei simply proposed a solution that was acceptable to Chinese administrators and the market.

Da Hongfei was hopeful. He once said that regulation is not going to be an issue for him because the government likes his technology and how he works. His confidence drove him to not only talk to the Chinese government, but he also convinced them to lift off the ban. This resulted in creating a healthy environment that helped this technology thrive without any phony ventures.

China’s ICO Bubble and Hongfei’s Response

According to Hongfei, the ICO state in China was similar to the dot-com bubble that occurred at the beginning of the 2000s. As per him:

“When a firm/business you begin ends in the dot-com, drawing finance get easier and same is the case with ICO buzz.”

He further mentioned that because financiers get rapidly enthralled in comparison to the speed of technological advancement, new technologies keep on, and will continue, creating bubbles. But, the thing is, it doesn’t stay this way. Once the bubbles are gone, the market gets back to normal and technology draws near.

Future Plans

De Hongfei is aiming big for his both projects. The past two years have been great for particularly NEO so far. It’s continually gaining more success with each passing day. But, that doesn’t leave Onchain behind as Hongfei is quite positive about its future too.

He aims to make Onchain a global blockchain structure. He believes that by making use of various plug-in units, his structure could be used for any chain, be it public, private, or syndicate. Da Hongfei further mentioned that his cross chain unit that is currently in the process would be able to generate interoperability between all of these chains.

Ultimately, his master plan includes combining both NEO and Onchain. He will not turn them into a single platform, but he will connect both of the services to each other in the near future. How will he do that? We will have to wait and see.

For NEO, Hongfei plans to start NeoX, a podium for cross blockchain dealings. If it turns out to be successful, NeoX would be able to connect private blockchains to the grander community market.

Once NEO and Onchain are linked, both of them will be able to provide a midway for the entire blockchain centered economy. Not only is this major plan excellent, it is also completely workable.

Who is Da Hongfei – The Final Words

So, Who is Da Hongfei?

He is one of the leading names in crypto and blockchain at present.

He is the founder of NEO and Onchain.

Da Hongfei is the one who actually made cryptocurrency familiar to Chinese audience.

He actually made cryptocurrency happen in China through his efforts and talks with government officials, who were reluctant of the concept.

His endless endeavors and initiatives combined with his brilliant plans indicate that he will continue being a leading light in the expansion of cryptocurrency in China.

Even though the crypto market in China is pretty convoluted, Da Hongfei still managed to clean up space. As long as people like Da Hongfei are present, China’s scuffle for technology can surely witness further development.

You can follow Da Hongfei in his twitter account.

References

Cryptocurrency Industry Spotlight: Who is NEO’s Da Hongfei?

https://hackernoon.com/neo-onchain-and-its-ultimate-plan-dna-4c33e9b6bfaa

NEO and Blockchains Across China

https://www.bloomberg.com/technology

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2017/12/04/its-okay-for-a-bubble-to-form-in-blockchain-and-bitcoin.html

The post Who is Da Hongfei? The Leading Light appeared first on 101 Blockchains.

Alex Tapscott, a Canadian by nationality was born in the year 1986 to the family of Mr Don Tapscott and Mrs Ana Paula Lopes, an author of the bestselling book Wikinomics, The Digital Economy. Alex Tapscott is an author, advisor and venture capitalist. Most of his works revolve around business strategies, ideas, and technological innovations.

He was given birth to in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Cryptocurrency came into limelight in the year 2009, and Alex started reading about it, began studying what the blockchain is, how cryptocurrencies are used, etc. Thus, most of his literary work revolves around blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies and its application with a particular interest in Bitcoin being the first mainstream cryptocurrency.

Alex is a venture capitalist by choice of Career, with a particular interest in cryptocurrencies and the blockchain, he founded a company called NextBlock Global. Just like his father, Alex has a passion for business. His father, Don Tapscott has written several books, published several articles in areas such as technology, business, and society. And funnily, he has co-authored on a book with his son before titled “Blockchain Revolution: How the technology behind Bitcoin is changing Money, Business, and the World.“

Image Credits: @alextapscott

Dan Tapscott is also the chancellor of Trent University and a professor at Rotman School of Management. With this level of experience and environmental help at Alex disposal, he has grown to become a prominent figure in the blockchain community such that he gets invited to seminars and conferences to speak on Blockchain and cryptocurrencies just like he did recently on 21st June 2018 attending @ideacity’s organized blockchain conference.

He has a personal website where he posts stuff related to him such as videos, interviews, publications, etc. His website is www.alextapscott.com. He can also be contacted on Twitter, with his handle “@alextapscott.” His company NextBlock Global is an investment company with a focus on financial “assets” such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies. Also, it is involved with helping Blockchain startups do well. Alongside the fact that Alex is the CEO and Founder of NextBlock Global, he is also the co-founder of Blockchain Research Institute alongside Don Tapscott.

WHO IS ALEX TAPSCOTT? FAMILY, CAREER, AND EDUCATION

Born into a family of four, the family of Don Tapscott and Ana Paula Lopes, Alex grew up with a family that had a significant influence on his life and career. He has a sibling by the name Nicole Tapscott. Mr. Dan Tapscott twelve years older than his spouse was given birth to in the year 1947, June 1st to be precise. He is the CEO of Tapscott Group. He has authored and coauthored about fifteen books.

He is involved in cross-industry groups looking to put forward solutions to political issues in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. He also attends a summit with his son Alex where they both speak on blockchain related issues. Don holds a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree in Psychology and statistics from the University of Alberta. He also holds a Master of Education (M.Sc.) degree in Research Methodology. Lastly, he is a member of the order of Canada.

Alex’s mother, Ana Paula Lopes, a Portuguese by nationality was given birth to in the year 1959. She lives in Toronto, Canada with her husband and she is a social innovator & entrepreneur, public speaker. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.Arts) degree from the University of Toronto. She is recognized in her country after the president of Portugal in 2014 gave her an Order of Merit award. And just like her husband, she was made a member of the order of Canada in 2011 four years before her husband.
Alex is happily married to Amy Welsman.

Alex has via his book which he co-authored with his father gotten a lot of recognition. The book is a Toronto Star bestseller, and it also became a Globe and Mail. Financial Times amongst other notable organizations read and reviewed the book. Harvard Business review also reported in the book. In Financial Times review they said

“The Tapscott’s in their book provided a thorough, well written and balanced guide to the next big thing in technology”.

Alex’s first exposure to provide a TEDx talk was in October 2016 in San Francisco. He functions presently as an advisor on the advisory board of Canada’s independent agency for maintaining federal elections, ELECTIONS CANADA. He is also an advisory board member for startups like Paycase and Nuco. On March 16, 2017, he announced the launch of the International Blockchain Research Institute at the DC Blockchain Summit which was hosted by the Chamber of Digital Commerce.

INTERNATIONAL BLOCKCHAIN RESEARCH INSTITUTE

The International Blockchain Research Institute is an initiative that brings together the government of Canada, other governmental bodies, and private sector corporations to work together in bringing brilliant minds in both public and private sector research, help them to build blockchain based economies all around the globe. Funding for this institute would be drawn from a purse funded by governments, public and private corporations as well as blockchain startups.

With this initiative in place, a new era would be ushered in that would encourage blockchain and cryptocurrency community to develop just like the internet tech startups developed. The Founding members of this initiative are IBM, Accenture, SAP, Digital Asset, NASDAQ, Centrica, PepsiCo, Liberty Global, Ontario Government, University Health Network and blockchain companies such as WISeKey, YouBase, Cosmos, Votem, Artlery, Paycase, Nuco, etc. This list is expected to grow to include members of governments, private companies as time goes on.

When Alex made this announcement, he noted the advantages of such institute stating the relationship Canada has with some of the world’s leading blockchain researchers and startups. This institute is saddled with the responsibility to work on different strategies with startups to make happen a blockchain economy. This massive role is the work of experts in blockchain in which they also give the startups a free hand in proposing new ideas such that it seems more like a collaborative effort.

The first phase of the program began on 3rd April 2017 to be completed 20th December 2017. The “Program Deliverables” consist of reports and tools that project the program’s conclusions amongst the members of the institute, i.e. member organizations, webinars and executive briefings.

ALEX TAPSCOTT & NEXTBLOCK GLOBAL

This company founded by Alex Tapscott and Charlie Morris in the year 2017 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada is a digital asset investment company. NextBlock is one of the world’s leading tech startups support the blockchain technology movement. There are only two members of this company, and they are the aforementioned of which the Latter also function as the Chief Investment Officer. In the same year, the company went through a funding process in which they realized about twenty million dollars ($20,000,000). The funding process ended on July 31st, 2017. The official website of the company is www.nextblock.co, there is little or no information available there. But, presently, the website is temporarily available.

After it was founded in the year 2017, Alex announced that NextBlock would focus on making investments in the space via ICOs. Little did we know that these investments would be pulled off by false ICOs.
The firm has been trailed off with several controversies. On Nov 1st, 2017, Forbes reported that the firm falsely named four prominent blockchain personalities as members of its advisory board. After this allegation was pulled off and investigations were carried out, it was discovered that the allegation was true. As an aftermath, the company aborts its public listing plan and would return the money to the investors.

BLOCKCHAIN REVOLUTION: HOW THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND BITCOIN IS CHANGING MONEY, BUSINESS, AND THE WORLD.

This book is the first publication Alex wrote with his dad. Because they share similar sentiments on the future of blockchain and cryptocurrency. The book was launched on 5th May 2016 at the Rotman School of Management. After that, the duo started with a ten-hour city tour at the University of Toronto where they talked about the topics in their book. Along the line in their journey, they had an indoor meeting with a couple of business and technology leaders and argued clearly how blockchain technology would change how businesses are run, how the internet is used to make financial systems better. The blockchain is known as a public ledger in which transactions are stored, recorded, confirmed and processed. This technology gained prominence via the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and has gone ahead to be a template for other cryptocurrency projects.

However, the Tapscott in their book argues that the blockchain which is revolutionizing the world would have much more impact than being used for digitized currency. Since the blockchain is an uneditable program and every information on it is in erasable, it brings about a sense of security to financial assets. Every participant on the blockchain is assigned unique identities in the form of mixtures of numbers and letters such that when there is a transaction is enacted on the chain, the source and destination is traceable.

With this kind of identification, the Tapscott’s argue that the blockchain can be used for things like voting processes. As known in different climes, voting is done by individuals, and there are a lot of challenges attached to it which involves rigging, double voting, etc. The use of blockchain could help reduce and eradicate such problems since there’s a particular key to an individual and if the individual votes, the vote is recorded and made available on the chain, uneditable nor in erasable.

Also, the blockchain takes away the fallibility of third parties in making transparent, accessible, cheap transactions available. Although the internet has been around for thirty years now to change how we related with ourselves and our social consciousness, he said, the way we did commerce was the same old, inefficient process of third parties. Being a decentralized network also, the blockchain can exist as an independent structure for running the affairs of corporations.

The book covers a lot of topics from what is bitcoin, blockchain, crypto assets, and use of blockchain and so on. It demystifies the understanding many have about blockchain. The rise and fall in the price of Bitcoin have over time made many lose their investments and label the industry as a scam.

However, this is not so, and this book explicitly explains so. In the book, we learned about the types of crypto assets which are seven in number i.e. cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, platforms like Ethereum where the participants can carry out smart contracts, the third are applications that run on these networks. These applications are called Dapps i.e. Decentralized applications, and many of them run on Ethereum, NEO or IOTA. Also, there are security tokens, and these tokens are used for representing equity in a company. The fifth type is called the natural asset tokens, i.e., These tokens are digital assets that have a corresponding physical asset. The sixth is called Crypto collectibles, e.g., CryptoKitties. And the last is crypto fiat currencies such as the USD Tether.

In the review by Harvard business review published on March 1st, 2017, the book was explained in the light of how Blockchain is changing global finance with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin being frontiers.
The book also discusses the volatility of the cryptocurrency market and how to grow its economy. This book is a must-have for every crypto enthusiast and anyone wishing to found a tech-startup.

You can read more about the Book here.

References:

1. http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/talks-at-gs/alex-tapscott.html
2. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/05/05/don-and-alex-tapscott-predict-upcoming-digital-revolution.html
3. https://m.nasdaq.com/article/don-tapscott-announces-international-blockchain-research-institute-cm762234
4. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Tapscott
5. https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2017/11/01/alex-tapscotts-crypto-vc-firm-going-public-with-100m-cad-falsely-touted-4-blockchain-stars-as-advisors/
6. https://blogs-images.forbes.com/laurashin/files/2017/11/AlexTapscott_c-Max-Power.jpg?width=960
7. https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2017/11/05/alex-tapscotts-crypto-vc-firm-aborts-public-listing-will-return-money-after-falsehoods-revealed/
8. https://www.trendingtopics.at/alex-tapscott-blockchain-revolution-ethereum-bitcoin-crypto-token-coins/
9. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/nextblock-global
10. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-digital-asset-investment-company-nextblock
11. global-announces-closing-of-oversubscribed-20-million-financing-637605983.html
12. https://www.futuretechpodcast.com/podcasts/nextblock-global-investing-in-the-next-era-of-the-internet/
13. https://hbr.org/2017/03/how-blockchain-is-changing-finance

The post Who Is Alex Tapscott? The Blockchain Revolutionary appeared first on 101 Blockchains.

He may not be a household name like Vitalik Buterin or Satoshi Nakamoto. But, as far as Crypto city is concern he is so close to the mayor of the city. Don’t you believe me? Well, here is a fact that will blow your mind. You know of Smart contracts? Yes, the famous smart contracts which are a household name. He conceived them. That’s how much influence he has in the crypto city.

On that account, you want to know more of this guy Nick Szabo. All you know from above is a tip of the iceberg. Hold on, and you will be amazed.

Who is Nick Szabo?

Not much of this man is known. The guy certainly enjoys his privacy. Other than tracing his roots to Hungary, the rest is blank. He maintains a blog on whose biography section is a collection of reviews on his works.

Education and Interests

Nick Szabo is an American. He holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Washington. He also holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from George Washington University of law. For his continued work in academia, Universidad Francisco Marroquín awarded honorary professorship.

Nick has interests in history, law, and research.

Nick Szabo Research.

His passion for research has seen him publish a lot of literature. His papers, essay, and tutorials on a variety of topics are genius, the most notable of his research is papers on BitGold and smart contract. We will explore the two later on.

He tackles all his topics with authority. But, his work on cryptography, blockchain, and Bitcoin are exciting reads. He goes into details of the functionality of the crypto world.

Nick Szabo goes around the globe giving lectures on cryptocurrency.

What gives him so much Relevance in Crypto City?

Wondering on what gives the man so much influence? How about I tell you he laid the foundation on which Bitcoin was built. Bitcoin was conceived in 2007 and released to the public in 2009. Bitcoin exploited the idea of smart contracts. Nick Szabo visualized the idea over a decade before Bitcoin.

Additionally, Nick’s writings in his 2003 paper on Bit Gold give him an Edge. Some people believe he is the mysterious creator of Bitcoin – Satoshi Nakamoto.

So is Nick Szabo Satoshi Nakamoto?

The mystery on who is Satoshi Nakamoto is endless. The endless debate seems to be with us a while longer. Nick Szabo has been linked to being the Real Satoshi Nakamoto. Claims he has come out to refute.

Why though is the hunch that Nick Szabo is Satoshi Nakamoto? Research by a team of researchers from the Aston University in Birmingham, England has a say. The center of Forensic Linguistics at the university analyzed Nick’s literature. They found out that his writing style was like that in the Bitcoin White paper.

So, does that make him Nakamoto? We do not know for sure. However, what we know is he is genius. Besides, we know he might be the real Nakamoto. Or at least may have been part of a Bitcoin creation team. Though, the mystery is a story for another day.

Nick Szabo on Trusted Parties

In his paper, ‘Trusted Third Parties Are Security Holes’ he gives his thoughts. To him, trusted parties betray that which they are made to solve. Trusted parties are designed to improve commercial Security. Commercial security involves protection against; breach of data, privacy, integrity, and property. In Nick’s argument, he is against trusted parties. Besides, he feels trusted parties are too costly and risky.

Here are some of his reasons. They limit imagination. Designing third party relying on protocols is easy. Thus, it limits imagination to come up with those that do not. Trusted parties have hidden agenda and interests. Besides, the transaction costs are too high.

“A trusted third party is one that does not exist” – Nick Szabo.

He, thus, is a great anti-trusted third-party crusader.

Nick Szabo’s Crypto Journey

Before the invention of the first cryptocurrency, Nick was into cryptography. He has a lot of work to prove this. Besides, he created smart contracts in 1996. Thus, when Bitcoin was released in 2009, he was ready. Together with some notable names; Hal Finney and Craig Wright. He was among the first to throw his weight behind Bitcoin blockchain. They took up the idea almost instantly.

Other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, EOS and plenty others followed Bitcoin. With these entries, his influence only keeps growing. His smart contracts idea can’t stop growing. So much is his involvement in crypto that he is a unit. 1 millionth of an Ether is 1 Szabo. Ether is the Ethereum token.

These far we have established that Nick is a force in crypto. Furthermore, it is evident that the guy is a genius. However, there is much to this guy. You don’t want to leave before you get the rest of the story. Hang in there and learn more about who is Nick Szabo.

Why is Nick Szabo so Private?

The topic of Nick being such a private guy is unchartered. There is no clear-cut evidence on why he keeps so much to himself. However, we can only speculate. Can we?

Well, the most reasonable explanation is, Nick loves his works to speak for him. As earlier mentioned his biography section in his blog is reviews of his work. Besides, the blog is all on literature he has researched, this is one man who prides more in his work than he does in himself.

However, there might be other reasons. I have given you mine, will you give me yours? Well, I wait.

Who is Nick Szabo: Projects and Ideas

Nick is a silent cryptographic master.  Though pulling strings behind the scenes, Nick has his contributions in blockchain.

You could easily say the best thing to happen to him is designing a mechanism for a digital currency. The mechanism was the inspiration for the Bitcoin blockchain.

From the connection of Bit Gold mechanism and Bitcoin, Nick is ‘Satoshi Nakamoto.’ Also, people have gone further to call him ‘Nickimoto’. For efforts and first relations to the first blockchain.

Nick is one of the developers and promoter of blockchain. Nick has also made ideas that are part of the blockchain industry today.

Top of his contributions is smart contract idealization and Bit Gold design. Inclusive of them are thoughts he has shared to advance blockchain. So, explore what and how he has made his name tick.

Smart Contract Conception

A contract is a legal agreement between parties outlining their responsibilities to each other. Nick`s idea was to make this digital.

If you happen to read about crypto and blockchain, you will stumble on smart contracts. Their potential is unimaginable. With smart contracts, how an industry works will change.

Heard of ICOs and their tokens? They are the foundation of the smart contract invention.

Nick Szabo conceived smart contracts in 1995. The best current implementations of the smart contract are Ethereum and EOS. Fulfilling promises with regard to other promises is the basis of smart contracts. These digital contracts are run within computer networks.

The proponents of this concept admire its property of doing away with third parties.

Nick smart contract coinage refers to traditional paper-based contracts as wet code. The coinage goes further to declare the benefits of smart contract as a dry code. Also, precise and secure within a blockchain. The different interpretation of Wet code discredits it. Additionally, it is hard to enforce a paper-based contract.

In 1996, Nick detailed the advantages in a paper. In the paper, he outlines other earlier forms that us smart contracts. They include Point of Sale systems and Electronic Data Interchange.  Used by large corporations and SWIFT used by banks.

In the 1996 paper, the smart contract design has to include the contractual clauses. The clauses are embedded in the hardware and software. Making contract breaching expensive for the breaker.

The fundamental objectives of the smart contract concept are verifiability, observability, privity, and enforceability. So, with the smart contract, you can expect an efficient system.

Forerunner to Bitcoin: Bit Gold

Bit Gold stands for two key properties of online transactions. While Bit stands for sending and receiving information. Gold stands for the system not using third parties.

Nick developed the Bit Gold mechanism in 1998. Being a cryptographer, Nick proposed a digital money system. In efforts to change the gold market system. Overly, he aimed to do away with third parties who made the gold system inefficient. So, he suggested a secure cryptographic process.

Nick`s paper that outlined the Bit Gold was not implemented. Even with that, the paper is a direct forerunner to the Bitcoin blockchain. As a result, you can enjoy the benefits of blockchain with Nick`s idea.

Trusted third parties are security holes -Nick Szabo

The quote by Nick discredits third parties. Although he mentions them as trusted, Nick wishes for a protocol where there is minimal influence by the third parties. To him the system should be transferred, stored and tried.

Trusted third parties are vulnerable to attack. Notably, the mere fact of centralization creates security holes on third parties that are very costly. Worse off, you will have to factor for the additional costs as a third party. Do you know who will suffer the cost? The end users of the system.

Bit Gold Steps

Here are Nick`s Bit Gold proposal steps:

1. Creation of a public string known as challenge string
2. Generation of proof-of-work string from the challenge string by one of the computers in the network
3. Time stamping of the proof-of-work string in a distributed way
4. Addition of the challenge string and time stamped proof-of-work string to a distributed title registry
5. The next challenge string is created from the preceding last challenge bits
6. Unforgeable chain of the title is checked for verification of ownership
7. Verification of challenge bits, proof-of-work string and the timestamp to ascertain the value of a string.

The steps work in a distributed system with different servers providing same services like time stamping and title registry operations. Trust of the system is relied on when the security of time stamping and title registering is ensured.

The blockchains you see today all started as a result of this concept and other technologies.

Thanks to the Bit Gold concept. Now, you know who is Nick Szabo in the start blockchain.

Nick`s Thoughts on Currency

Nick has a good understanding of history, money, and cryptocurrency. All these make his writings well informed more so with a legal background. You cannot miss the invaluable resource from his writings.

He has written several kinds of literature concerning what he loves best – blockchain and cryptography. They span from 1993 to date. Some literature may seem irrelevant. But they will still be valuable in the thought process how the blockchain works.

Besides writing valuable literature about cryptography, money, and property, Nick indulges in opining about cryptocurrency and blockchain.

Image Credits: @NickSzabo4

In a recent tweet, Nick shares the important areas of improvement in cryptocurrency. He says in the next few years secure storage than before and having decentralized exchanges are important. With more focus on the consumer, he emphasizes the importance of user-friendly systems.

With regard to security, Nick criticized EOS for its centralization issues. He stated the aspect of EOS centralization makes the project vulnerable to breach and attacks. Even worse to account holders, EOS can seize and suspend accounts.

Another good analysis by Nick is of the history of money and its evolution. The insight from this analysis has provided useful information in cryptocurrency. In the analysis, he says we exist in a multiple currency status sourced from the barter system. However, even with technology, you will still see numerous currencies.

 Conclusion

Less can be said of Nick`s profile. But his body of work speaks volumes of he is in blockchain, law, technology, history, cryptography, and commerce.

Albeit the confusion in his role as Satoshi Nakamoto, he makes valuable contributions. And for that matter respectable and influential ones in the world of cryptography.

If you are a crypto enthusiast like me, then you should take the time to know who is Nick Szabo.

Morre Resources

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/05/07/blockchain-as-an-application-platform/2/#788264649eb0

https://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/04/16/bitcoin-creator-satoshi-nakamoto-unmasked-again/

http://uk.businessinsider.com/nick-szabo-ethereum-bitcoin-blockchain-history-satoshi-nakamoto-2015-11?IR=T

https://en.bitcoinwiki.org/wiki/Nick_Szabo

https://coincentral.com/who-is-nick-szabo/

http://unenumerated.blogspot.com/

https://archive.is/H8UGk

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/233143

The post Who is Nick Szabo? The Magician of Smart Contracts appeared first on 101 Blockchains.

Charlie Lee is the man behind one of the earliest derivatives of the Bitcoin, the Litecoin. He was one of the many computer scientists that jumped on the cryptocurrency bandwagon back in the early 2010s. At the time, not many people knew or expected cryptocurrencies to be so valuable but he believed in the concept. Which is why he kept working on something that later emerged as Litecoin, a popular cryptocurrency.

So the simple answer to the question, who is Charlie Lee is – he is founder and the actual mind behind the sixth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Litecoin.

Lee enjoys celebrity status in the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Still, many people wonder who is Charlie Lee? His journey towards making Litecoin is an inspirational one as he failed once but did not give up.

Today, even when Litecoin may not be as big as Bitcoin or Ethereum, but it still enjoys a highly loyal group of supporters and is quickly climbing up the ladder in the ever-changing world of cryptocurrency.

Charlie Lee’s Early Life

Charlie Lee was born to Chinese immigrant parents in the West African nation of Ivory Coast. His parents moved there in the 60s when Africa was getting rid of the colonial rule, and the economies were opening up to the world. However, he only spent his early childhood in Africa.

When he was 13 years old, his parents moved to the United States.

Education: He went to Lawrenceville High School in Lawrenceville, Illinois. In 1995, he graduated from high school and went on to attend the prestigious college Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In college, his major was Computer Science, and he earned back to back undergraduate and graduate degrees. He completed his Masters in Computer Science in 2000.

Early Professional Life

A bright student like Lee could only end up at some of the best tech companies in the country, and that is exactly what happened. After graduating from MIT, Lee found a job as a Software Engineer at Kana Communications. He worked there for three years until he joined Guidewire Software. At that company, he worked for four years and left in mid-2007.

Working at Google

In 2007, Lee started working at Google as a Software Engineer. He worked on a number of quintessential Google projects like Chrome OS and YouTube Mobile. It was around this time that he first came across Bitcoin and got interested in the idea of cryptocurrency.

Before being involved in cryptocurrency, he was interested in the gold trade. It is very much clear now that as much as he was interested in Computer Science, he was also equally interested in trade and economics. He worked at Google for 5five years after which he left the company to pursue his career in blockchain and cryptocurrency full time.

The Beginning in the Cryptocurrency World

Lee has repeatedly disclosed that he got involved in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency while he was at Google. Initially, he started mining Bitcoin much like other developers who came across this new digital currency. He bought his first Bitcoin after correspondence with Mike Hearn, one of the developers behind the blockchain for Bitcoin.

As Charlie Lee himself was an experienced Software Engineer, he decided to create his own cryptocurrency. He was not alone though as many developers were trying to copy the idea of Bitcoin, but he succeeded when many failed. However, he also experienced his own share of failures before he found the success in the form of Litecoin.

Who is Charlie Lee? Founder of Fairbix

You may know Charlie Lee from Litecoin but that was not his first cryptocurrency creation. His first project was called Fairbix. When Bitcoin first came out, it was all the rage among developers around the world. They were trying to produce the next blockchain-based payment system.

Fairbix was cloned from Tenebix – a cryptocurrency released a year prior to Fairbix. Lee and several other developers cloned the source code and made few changes for Fairbix.

The only thing common between Fairbix and Litecoin is the proof-of-work consensus protocol. Fairbix did not fare so well from the beginning. About 8 million Fairbix were pre-mined initially. This followed a lot of bad press. It tanked within a few weeks of release. The cryptocurrency community and enthusiast were not buying the idea behind Fairbix.

Fairbix was supposed to be fairly distributed alternative to the currency it was cloned from. It was also based on the same proof-of-work algorithm as was the case in Tenebix. But Tenebix started with only 100 pre-mined blocks before it was released to the public. With Fairbix having nearly 8 million pre-mined coins, it was bound to fail.

Fairbix’s failure became even more permanent when an unknown attacker carried out a 51% attack on its network. The attacker stole 1500 blocks. This basically destroyed the value of Fairbix and ended its small journey.

Who is Charlie Lee? Founder of Litecoin

Fairbix was a failure, but that did not stop Lee. He learned his lessons from the mistakes he made with Fairbix and decided to improve his strategy. He was not ready to abandon his part to play in the creation of cryptocurrency economy.

Image Credits: Litecoin

Just under one month from Fairbix, Lee released another cryptocurrency the Litecoin. He cloned the core source code of Bitcoin and made adjustments to improve the system. Bitcoin was not without its faults, and Lee tried to get rid of those with Litecoin. He changed the hashing protocol, the GUI, the average block transaction time, and total maximum supply cap value. He managed to create a truly effective alt-coin.

Bitcoin uses the SHA256 algorithm for hashing protocol. Litecoin, however, uses the Scrypt-based algorithm. This change also affected the transaction time and reduced it by 75 percent. Now, the block transaction time on average was just 2 and half minutes. The maximum supply of Litecoin is 84 million which was much higher than that of Bitcoin.

Charlie Lee: A Visionary

It was during his days at Google that Lee lost faith in the Federal Reserve and how money was traded in the world. It was only natural for him to jump into cryptocurrency and create Litecoin, even after failing once. He once said:

“I believe that cryptocurrency will take over fiat currency and become the reserve currency.”

So, the answer to who is Charlie Lee is, he is a visionary, a man who refuses to accept failure. Even when he faced failure in the form of Fairbix, he never bowed down to difficulties he faced.

Lee holds that Litecoin is not a competitor of Bitcoin. His vision of Litecoin is sort of a digital currency that is suited best for small transactions like online shopping. You could use this currency to buy coffee or order a new shirt. Bitcoin, as you know, is better for international trade and payments. He said in an interview once:

 “I wanted to create something that is kind of silver to Bitcoin’s gold”

He quadrupled the supply from 21 million to 84 million to make the Litecoin more accessible. Also, the GUI saw significant improvements to make the system more user-friendly.

He created Litecoin while he was still at Google. 2 years after the release of Litecoin, he finally left Google. His new cryptocurrency took some time but started getting some traction in the cryptocurrency industry.

Litecoin Success

Litecoin succeeded because it was based on the idea of fairness. Only the Genesis block and two blocks after that were pre-mined. It was evident from the very beginning of Litecoin that Lee had finally cracked the code of a successful cryptocurrency.

When it was released in 2013, user base was growing in the thousands. Obviously, this led to an increase in value and the over market cap. It was only a matter of time that the market cap increased and was in billions of dollars.

Work at Coinbase

Lee joined Coinbase in 2013 in the capacity of Engineering Manager. Coinbase is the most popular digital currency exchange out there. He worked at Coinbase when there were very few people. His position was changed to Director of Engineering in his tenure at Coinbase. In this capacity, he was in charge of security and privacy operations. He left the company in the summer of 2017. Now, Litecoin is his sole focus.

Litecoin is an ongoing full-time job for Lee who currently serves as the Managing Director at the Litecoin Foundation. His primary job is to oversee development of Litecoin. We have already seen many improvements since its start.

Who is Charlie Lee? A Social Media Influencer

Charlie Lee’s twitter account has over half a million followers and the number keeps growing as more people become familiar with him and his cryptocurrency. Since he has an avid following on social media, he is sometimes accused of leading the market because of his tweets and comments.

Who is Charlie Lee?  A Litecoin Founder with No Litecoins

Litecoin went mainstream and the price increased when Litecoin was finally allowed in Coinbase in 2017. Lee, however, decided to sell all of his Litecoins and donate the money to his foundation. He did not want any conflict of interest. He writes after people accused him of using his social media influence to lead the market in favor of Litecoin:

This move was also met with criticism with some claiming that this move was actually in his own personal interest. A Twitter cryptocurrency investigator was behind these accusations, Bitfenex’ed. The same used his leaving Coinbase as a proof that he indeed dumped all his coins to make money.

However, Lee debunked the theories in the series of explanatory tweets later.

There are supporters as well that believe his decision was adequate and ethical. They believe it was what was best for Litecoin. If you take a look at Litecoin’s standing today it seems that it all just worked fine. Now, Lee can express his opinions and offer support to the community without coming under fire. Litecoin users now listen to him more than ever.

He still continues to hold influence and his tweets go out to tens of thousands of cryptocurrency enthusiasts. He has even come under fire for promoting other cryptocurrencies especially when he offered support to Nano.

In response, he claimed he believe there is space in the crypto world for more than one currency.

Charlie Lee Present & Future Endeavors

After Coinbase, Lee is focusing solely on Litecoin and bringing about some positive changes. Litecoin became the first ever currency to have segregated witness. It is a soft fork that ultimately reduces transaction size and therefore increases the transaction capacity. To understand this better, you should first study what fork is.

The Segwit was implemented in May 2017 during a conference called Litecoin Global Roundtable Resolution.

Lee today serves at the Litecoin Foundation that works to advance Litecoin to help improve society. They aim to use state of the art technology for this cryptocurrency and give the users what they want. They are also working on making the concepts easy to understand so that more people can take interest in cryptocurrency.

So if you look into it, he doesn’t only focus on his own cryptocurrency, he is putting effort to create a world that is more open towards the cryptocurrencies and is more familiar with the concept.

The foundation also has an active hand in the development of Litecoin. They also contribute money using Lee’s own donations and from other sources. Since Lee himself is a software engineer, he still contributes to the core developer team. His main mission in the near future is to work on Lightning Networks and Confidential Transactions.

He tweeted about this and claimed that he is excited about the expected progress by confidential transactions. He also showed his eagerness to add fungibility as a feature to Litecoin, and claims it is a possibility especially with the use of soft fork.

His vision to make Litecoin the silver to Bitcoin’s gold seems to be becoming a reality. Now, with the currency being independent of him and left only under the influence of users, it is truly decentralized.

Who is Charlie Lee – The Final Words

He is the force behind Litecoin.

He is a supporter of fair cryptocurrency and holds an avid interest in economics.

Charlie Less is a seasoned software engineer and he is a very smart thinker regardless of which side you swerve to about the controversy of his selling his Litecoins.

He is a social media influencer.

He is a genius, a visionary, and someone who is putting genuine effort to change the world.

Lee’s future plan is about making Litecoin even bigger and making sure that people soon enough use it to buy things online.

Simply put, if you’ve an interest in cryptocurrency, or Litecoin, needs advice from the industry leaders and experts, follow Charlie Lee on social media and on news.

References

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coinbase
• medium.com/the-mission/
• https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/20/litecoin-founder-charlie-lee-sells-his-holdings-in-the-cryptocurrency.html
• http://www.businessinsider.com/litecoin-creator-charlie-lee-sells-entire-ltc-holding-2017-12
• https://ambcrypto.com/litecoins-ltc-charlie-lee-says-most-excited-about-lightning-network/
• https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/14/litecoin-founder-charlie-lee-talks-bitcoin-cryptocurrencies.html
• https://cointelegraph.com/news/charlie-lee-to-make-litecoin-more-decentralized-eventually-i-would-step-away

The post Who Is Charlie Lee? The Litecoin Light appeared first on 101 Blockchains.

Every industry has its masters. So, does the blockchain industry. One thing you may ignore is the masters wield a lot of influence wherever they come up with any whiff of information. So, to know all about Dan`s effect, stick around.

Have you heard of the ‘Ethereum Killer’? Oh! The Ethereum killer is EOS. And do you know who created it? Daniel Larimer. Daniel is a top executive in the blockchain industry and has shifted through projects he has created.

Dan Larimer is a developer and has taken part in previous projects. The previous projects he has served are still on. He is currently on the latest trending project – EOS. For this reason, his influence and power in the blockchain industry are unrivaled.

His contribution in the crypto verse has reaped him massive returns besides the influence.

Now, let me give you who is Dan Larimer in the blockchain world. What has he attained and how he managed to be accomplished.

Who is Daniel Larimer: Bio

You have by chance encountered EOS, Bitshares online. And then some of the content you have read has probably come from Steemit. But do you know the one who has seen them from start to the heights they have achieved? These among other projects have been created by Dan Larimer. And like I said, you have likely used his products.

Every token and project you have heard of has its owner. Of great importance is the role played by Dan.

Dan is a software programmer. He is founded BitShares in 2014, Steemit in 2016, and EOS token and its blockchain. Additionally, EOS is owned by block.one in which Dan serves as CTO. Dan is also the CEO of Cryptonomex, Inc, a company they founded with the father. Now, this shows how immense and active Dan Larimer is in the blockchain industry.

Besides being a developer, Dan is also a contributor in blockchain conferences. He has offered knowledge to others. I could call this a very good form of social responsibility.

Dan operates on a progressive philosophy rather than a conservative one. His projects are based on this mantra. This philosophy goes on to incite his dislike for the government as a centralized unit.

In his high-ranking profile, there must exist contentions and accords sprouting from his life growing up. Let us now look at Dan` youth and background. It must have contributed to what he is today.

Background of Larimer` Youth

Dan is an American. He was born in Colorado. But he was privileged to grow up in 2 states: Virginia and Florida.

As a growing child, Dan was exposed to computers at such a tender age. He would further toy with computers. With curiosity comes freedom of exploration. And with freedom comes the creation of things. This is how Dan moved to know his way with computers.

In Virginia, he attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. And he later on in 2003 graduated with an undergraduate in Computer Science. Within the same breadth, he learnt about economics. And economics got him into volunteerism and sparked the synergy in anti-state control.

Even with knowing about computers another skill in needed to become a software engineer – programming. So, where did Dan get his coding skills? How fortunate to have a mentor programmer for a dad. Dan`s programming skills were learned from Stan Larimer, his dad while in elementary school.

Another skillset for you to be something in any corporate world is entrepreneurship. Dan became a serial entrepreneur from his youth. And that entrepreneurial mindset set him up to do great things now.

So, after college, he created something with friends. He partnered with friends and launched a virtual reality company. Albeit making money every year, they closed the company after five years. And then they went on to do other things.

Dan` First Blockchain Discovery

Dan being an active software programmer made him predisposed to knowing blockchain and crypto easily.

Dan`s quest for something to do led him to realize state control in money matters. Remember Dan learning about economics. This chapter in his life proved useful in identifying the state control in money matters.

Money was and still is the reason for the huge government power. Since the use of money is voluntary, the initial idea was to embrace the use of silver or gold. However, this was not accepted by the government.

The opposing nature of the government against other forms of currency drove Dan to seek for other currencies. Promoted by his anti-state personality he researched for other currencies against state-controlled and property related fiat money.

The result was a stumble upon Bitcoin in 2009. The discovery of Bitcoin was as a result of ‘decentralised currency’ online search. The result was Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym for the Bitcoin developer.

It is alleged that Dan soon after the online search result began communicating with Satoshi. The chat between the two inspired Dan to learn more about blockchain.

In the same time of doing research on blockchain, he attempted to create a digital currency. With the discovery of Bitcoin as his arsenal, Dan became an instant promoter of Bitcoin. And this encounter endeared him to the crypto verse.

Dan`s Blockchain Career

The pursuit of truth about everything – Dan Larimer

The quote is a pillar of Dan`s career. In Ron Paul presidential campaigns Dan was stimulated to be curious about how the world works. On the same note, Dan became a libertarian having a passion informing his unique fusion of innovation, politics, economics and the common good.

All his innovations are geared towards limiting government control. Admittedly, he shares that he believes in voluntary associations. The idea is to move from a contract society where you are forced to do things. To him, contracts are government forced. And that raises the costs and misery in transactions.

So, Dan wants business to be about reputation and not coercion. This thought bases its argument on the Golden rule.

Do unto others as you want them to do unto you – Golden Rule

Another principle that guides his way in limiting government control. You may think that Dan is an economist. But that is not the case as his way up was to learn how the world works. And in so doing he now knows about economics. Hence, identifying 3 key elements of demand.

Life, liberty, and property are the key elements of demand that guide his projects in the quest to improve the standard of living.

Let us look into another part of Dan life that has informed his choices and decisions. And that is family life.

Family Life and Affairs of Dan

Before you see Dan`s direct effect and efforts in the blockchain field, the family also mattered to him. At least that is what we know after his bad experience with divorce. And it laid down how Dan reasons.

Around the same time, he was first hooked to Bitcoin, Dan was engaged in a marriage tussle. What a painful event to him? He was going through a divorce due to his thoughts about how the world works. Specific of interest was his rejection of old Christian beliefs. The result was a conflict.

Though the divorce disturbed him, he picked useful lessons. Surprisingly, his method of voluntary conflict resolution to divide property and settle child custody and support was in vain.

Though somewhat achieving what he wanted, he realized the government owns our property even kids. That parents having no say in custody of their children infuriated him. In the arrangement, Dan would pay huge spouse and child support and the wife would live within 30 minutes.

The arrangement did not please his ex-wife. So, she challenged the outcome in the courts. How hypocritic for her to do that? Yet she values Christian beliefs – beliefs Dan questions. From the court outcome, Dan realized how biased the process was as he had to follow the court`s orders.

Also punitive in Dan`s imagination, his salary was predetermined by the court not considering his desire to switch careers. He was forced to live with his parents due to the former wife taking over half of his pay. This was humiliating for Dan. Though, bankrupt and broke from legal expenses spanning 2 years Dan did not despair in his quest for the common good.

He still went further with his blockchain interests. And that’s what we see today in as BitShares and EOS.

Dan`s Blockchain Energy and Projects

The events in his younger ages hammered him into shape. As a result, his prolific nature has established him to be a creator.

The experience Dan has is sourced from the roles he has played in different sectors. Dan served as software developer intern for SAIC. Then went on to become a research assistant at Virginia Tech. After college, he became the CEO at Open Tech demonstrating managerial skills.

Dan`s software skills were enhanced when he was tasked as a software engineer at Raytheon, TORC Robotics, Park Intuit, and Phoenix Integration.

The fusion of entrepreneurial and programming skills is exhibited in the starting and growth of Bitshares, Steemit, and EOS. He has also managed to be if not chief executive then chief technologist of Invictus innovations, Cryptonomex and BlockOne. These are companies that he started.

BitShares

After his divorce, Dan had renewed commitment to blockchain. In the same period of meditation from divorce, Bitcoin grappled with government closure or exchanges and their bank accounts. The thought of this technology`s death made Dan unsettled and made him create an alternative to exchanges.

So, he came up with the Graphene framework. The framework is the basis of Bitshares. The framework has hence then been used to create his other projects.

BitShares, a decentralized exchange is his first blockchain platform built in 2014. He proceeded to invent the Delegated Proof of Stake. This system delivered the fastest and most decentralized blockchain of 10-second blocks then.

Within this project, Dan has seen growth from the first version of BitShares to the current one. Particular improvements have been to scalability and performance. Markedly, their software boasted of 100, 000 transactions per second.

In 2015, Cryptonomex was started by Bitshares developers. Additionally, later in the year the company licensed Graphene and upgraded BitShares blockchain to version 2.0.

Though, with a lot of potential BitShares` price did not reflect to support its developers. Therefore, the investors preferred stabilization of the business over taking new employees.

As you read this piece, BitShares is self-sustaining and whoever wants to be a developer is elected by shareholders. At this instant, Bitshares is among the top exchanges.

Steem and Steemit

Another sector that Dan Larimer exploited is social media. In 2016, Dan and his friend Ned Scott teamed up to create Steem and Steemit on concepts of mutual aiding the society. Yet again, Graphene was the basis of this project.

They agreed Dan be the CTO while Ned became the CEO. They built a working blockchain and website within a few months. In effect, Steem token was mined using the proof-of-work system.

It did not attract people at first. Therefore, Steemit mined 80% of Steem. Facing a challenge of costly transaction costs, Steemit gave new user $5 in Steem for reading, voting, and posting.

Now, with the introduction of rate-limited transactions, Steem transactions do not cost any fee. The improvement limits bandwidth instead of asking for a fee.

Steemit was criticised of being unsustainable. The premise bases its argument on Steemit having less than 50% of Steem within 6 months due to inflation. But Steemit has maintained a minority stake giving it the ability to pay its developers.

Amidst Dan`s desire to build a general purpose digital contract blockchain outside Steemit made him quit together with his friend Ned. It was amicable but to quell false rumors Dan and Steemit gave a joint statement.

Now, Steemit is stable and boasts of wide attraction to several new users even after he left.

His desire to have a blockchain supporting parallel processing and no-fee services have been forefront. Thus, the reason for his departure.

EOS

Dan again got involved in blockchain in 2017. With him as CTO of Block.one, Dan has built EOS blockchain. It is a blockchain developed to support commercial-scale digital contracts.

EOS is a big competitor to Ethereum which also is the forerunner of smart contracts.

EOS platform supports parallel processing to enhance horizontal scalability and ensure no transaction fees for DAOs and dApps. Would this be the reason he left Steemit? I think so because it’s a thought he has had till recently when EOS started.

EOS protocol outstanding feature is using different programming languages for dApps and 16 times faster apps than those using Ethereum`s Solidity.

Final Thoughts from Daniel Larimer

People have questioned his dedication after he left his previous projects. But as for now, Dan has concentrated his efforts to develop EOS platform and build all of his future projects on it. Nonetheless, his ingenuity has sometimes caused him to be arrogant and somewhat misunderstood.

But even with his arrogance, he can touch you by his inspirational recommended reading. Among the many books he has been able to read, he shares with you 13 of his best reads.

All in all, you now know who is Daniel Larimer. What he is capable of. And now you can write and earn crypto on Steemit.

Resources

https://hackernoon.com/dan-larimer-visionary-programmer-of-bitshares-steem-and-eos-7e6d94b241d7

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2018/02/07/fintech-crypto-billionaires-dan-larimer/

https://bytemaster.github.io/

The post Who is Daniel Larimer? The EOS Shotgun appeared first on 101 Blockchains.

If you are new to blockchain and have just started reading about blockchain, then it’s normal to have questions regarding its existence. Ethereum – now of the most popular blockchain platforms in the market was founded by Vitalik Buterin.

He is one of the co-founders of Ethereum and Bitcoin Magazine. From the look of it and his achievements so far, he is a gifted millennial who was only 21 years old when Ethereum first launched. Let’s see who this man is and how did he launch one of the most successful cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology in the world.

Enroll Now: Ethereum Development Fundamentals Course

Who Is Vitalik Buterin?

Vitalik Buterin is a Russian-Canadian programmer who devised and founded Ethereum. He was born on January 31^st, 1994, in Kolomna, Russia. When he was only six years old, his parents immigrated to Canada.

Here is an interesting fact from his childhood, when he was just in third grade – he was placed in a class for gifted children in his elementary school. Well, you can say Vitalik Buterin was destined for something big from the very beginning.

He is good at mathematics and can add three digits numbers in his head faster than an average human. He was also interested in computer programming from a very early age. His father, Dmitry Buterin, was a computer scientist himself.

When he was 17, he was into playing World of Warcraft, just like any other 17 years old would be. However, he got interested in something else as well –Bitcoin.

Initially, Vitalik Buterin was not much invested in the idea of cryptocurrency, but his father was. Over a short period, this new technology grew on him. Keep in mind that at the time, even the most experienced financial experts did not know what Bitcoin was and what it would become.

The Ethereum founder attended Abelard School in Toronto and went on to enroll at the University of Waterloo. It was then that he got even more involved in Bitcoin.

He started writing forum posts about cryptocurrency at a rate of 5 Bitcoins. It was around this time that the skinny and nerdy college kid decided to pursue this full field time. He became so interested in cryptocurrency that he even left the university to invest all his time in his newly found passion.

Co-founding Bitcoin Magazine

Before he became the Ethereum founder, he actually co-founded Bitcoin Magazine. It was during his university days that his posts about Bitcoin picked up momentum, and his views about this novice technology were considered insightful. As he was seen as the authority on the subject, so to make the most out of his newly found fame, he co-founded the Bitcoin magazine along with another Bitcoin enthusiast, Mihai Alisie, in 2012.

The Bitcoin magazine was founded when he was still in university. It was a hectic time for him as he was taking courses at the university and serving as the Head Writer for the magazine at the same time. The Bitcoin Magazine can be regarded as Buterin’s first success as the magazine turned out to be a great influencer for Bitcoin.

How Vitalik Buterin Became the Ethereum Founder

When you search ‘Who is Vitalik Buterin,’ the answer is the Ethereum founder most of the time. It was Ethereum that made Vitalik Buterin what he is today. In reality, when he wrote the Ethereum white paper, he did not anticipate that it would do so well. However, he is not the sole founder of Ethereum. He is one of the co-founders.

The Ethereum founder almost believed that it will be criticized by crypto analysts and would be debunked fairly sooner. To his surprise, instead of getting criticized, his idea received recognition and praise. This was the point when all of it started, and Vitalik Buterin became all the more certain that this is the way to go.

After all, he had dedicated his life to cryptocurrency, and it was only natural for him to take his efforts one step ahead.

What Is Ethereum?

Ethereum is an open-source, public, and blockchain-based platform that has scripting functionality. The Ethereum network lets users use all facilities within the blockchain for Ether, the token of the Ethereum platform.

Ethereum was established to overcome the limitation of the Bitcoin protocol. Bitcoin changed the way global transactions worked and removed the third party from the process. It gave birth to a system that recorded transactions in a distributed public ledger that works under the proof-of-work consensus algorithm.

The blockchain technology for Bitcoin had its limitations. For security purposes, the protocol written for Bitcoin was deliberately designed to handle non-complex operations only. Therefore, complex transactions between a payer and payee could not be executed under this blockchain protocol even though the idea of such a blockchain had been in the works for quite some time then. Also, it was drastically slower and somewhat flawed to a great extent that no enterprise companies will use it.

This is where the Ethereum founder started to work on a better version of Bitcoin. Now, Ethereum is one of the well-known platforms on the market.

Want to learn more about the Ethereum Technology? Enroll Now: The Complete Ethereum Technology

An Upgraded Version of Bitcoin?

Vitalik Buterin realized the limited protocol of Bitcoin and decided to use Turing-complete programming to create such a blockchain technology, capable of creating all kinds of applications and Smart Contracts.

More so, the public chain is easier to use for developers as it’s the perfect platform where they can develop dApps (decentralized applications).

In fact, there are already many applications out on the market that uses Ethereum as the base technology. One of the prominent niches are the decentralized finance applications, which are getting a lot of traction at present.

Enterprise Ethereum

But what about the Enterprise companies? As far as we know, Ethereum is a public blockchain, so companies can’t use that technology because of certain privacy issues. This is why the private version of Ethereum became live. Although the founder of Ethereum – Vitalik, wasn’t directly connected to the new launch, he still mentioned his interest in collaborating with the initiative. To this day, Enterprise Ethereum uses features from the public version, and they are both connected in every way.

More so, it also features Ethereum smart contacts that can offer private contracts within companies. It’s a wonderful feature that any company can use.

Vitalik Buterin Net Worth

If you are wondering that the founder of Ethereum must have made a fortune from his creation, you are not entirely wrong. Ethereum’s market cap is valued above $193 billion, and he is the head of the second most successful cryptocurrency in the world.

In February 2016, he revealed how much of his own cryptocurrency ETH he has. At the time, he held 630,000 ETH. After a few months, he liquidated one-fourth of those. Even after that move, he has plenty of ETH left.

The interesting thing is that because Ethereum is such a transparent blockchain, anyone can keep track of how much ETH he has at any time. At this point, he currently may own 365,000 Ether, and at the time of this writing, the net worth of Vitalik Buterin is around $584 million. But that’s not all; his Ethereum white paper is also worth more than $500 million.

The transparency about the system and Vitalik Buterin net worth makes Ethereum so trustable. We have seen enough schemes and scandals revolving around cryptocurrencies to have our reservations. However, the founder of Ethereum has earned credibility fair and square. It would not be wrong to say that Vitalik Buterin represents the true and positive face of cryptocurrency.

Hyperledger Fabric is another blockchain platform in direct competition with Ethereum. Check out the Ethereum vs Hyperledger Fabric to understand how they are different.

A Staunch Supporter of Decentralization

It goes without saying that Buterin supports the decentralization movement. It is in its early stages only, and the world is gradually moving towards blockchain technology. We are only beginning to see the possibilities, and there is much more to come. The founder of Ethereum is one of the masterminds behind this and in that sense.

A shared economy is going hand in hand with decentralization, and big corporations are stepping onboard, and you know it is big if companies like Microsoft are peeping into it. Cryptocurrencies are thriving mainly because of decentralization. See how decentralized apps are changing our world.

Final Thoughts

So, now you know who Vitalik Buterin is. He is an entrepreneur. Most definitely a technology genius. Also, he is the founder of Ethereum and a mastermind behind the success of the second most popular cryptocurrency in the world.

He is what the world needs today as we strive to improve our economies, protect our data, and prepare for the future. There are many out there who still think cryptocurrency is a hoax, but the truth is people like Buterin are very real, and what they produce is far from a hoax. Not only cryptocurrency, but the main focus is the underlying technology which is blockchain technology. If you want to learn about Ethereum, then enroll in our Ethereum development course now!

The post Who is Vitalik Buterin? Ethereum Founder appeared first on 101 Blockchains.

If you have sought someone to read on, then you have probably met all kinds of people. Most of the times the most influential people in the crypto space are the project development teams and leaders. Oh, chief executives also have a share in influencing the crypto space. But there are others who cut their share of influence.

In the streets of the crypto city, you have probably met Andreas Antonopoulos. If you have not met Antonopoulos, then you are losing a voice relating to your crypto interests. Moreover, he is a respected specialist in the cryptocurrency industry. Therefore, you cannot afford to miss out on him.

Image Credits: antonopoulos.com

This article will give you a view of who is Andreas Antonopoulos. Additionally, his way up to the top in his industry.

Who is Andreas Antonopoulos: Bio

In the recent past, there has been a spike in information about cryptocurrency. Notably, famed catchphrases are like ‘how to buy crypto,’ ‘how to mine crypto’ and ‘what is the price of bitcoin’? If you google search about crypto, those will be some of the trending topics.

Every crypto project wants to make itself known. Hence, you so much of crypto-related information will hit you. Surely, the information will be from a community of developers, advocates, opposers, investors among other people. But, how and where does Andreas Antonopoulos come in?

Andreas Antonopoulos is an accomplished cryptocurrency advocate and commentator. He has made many aware of cryptocurrency and DLT. Oh! It is the basis of crypto assets.

Being a top educator of crypto and related technologies, Andreas has attended conferences, seminars, and written several articles. Most notably, he has written two books. Besides, the books have a good standing in ensuring you know about crypto.

Andreas has a history and where all the enthusiasm for blockchain started.

Background of Andreas` Youth

Andreas Antonopoulos is Greek and also Briton. At an early age, he had an interest in technology. Fortunately for him, he was introduced to computers at ten years. A young mind with his curious nature will explore any computer machinery. As a result, an obsession grew in him wanting to know about computers.

Another experience in his young age of direct importance to blockchain was network exposure. At 14 years old, Andreas made the first contact with a modem and the internet also amazed him.

In his late teens, Andreas had decided to do business. On the contrary, the corrupt society of Greece did not give him the freedom to prosper after a couple of businesses. Due to the hard economic times in Greece, he opted to move to England.

In England, Andreas rose through the ranks and attended college. He is a University College London undergraduate with Degree in Computer Science. Additionally, he is a Masters graduate in Data Communications, Network, and Distributed Systems.

After his college, Andreas moved to the US and cofounded Nemertes Research. He was also involved in the Cypherpunk Movement. The movement was against the control of the right to privacy by the US Government. And in the process, he discovered crypto tokens.

Andreas` First Bitcoin Discovery

Andreas previous position as an expert and speaker to businesses and forums made him vulnerable. Not vulnerable to a bad thing. But vulnerable in knowing about Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the first step Andreas made in knowing about crypto.

Andreas Bitcoin step was a stumble that opened doors for him. It is an experience you will want to happen to you. It’s a story he loves to say on the ways he made his first step.

Andreas encounter Bitcoin in 2011. His thought was this was nerd money. And probably thought this was not his thing. After a trying to know about Bitcoin. Not knowing crypto will be his thing, he ignored it for six months. Most of the times, he compares his experience to others who have suffered the same ignorance.

Andreas` Second Bitcoin Stumble to Career

The second time Andreas stumbled upon crypto was in a mailing list chat. In the chat was a white paper by Satoshi Nakamoto – Bitcoin`s founder. He decided to read it. Up until then had not known what Bitcoin was. He now was enlightened. In his appreciation, Bitcoin was not a currency as most people know. Most importantly, it was a network of trust.

Now, Bitcoin being a network of trust is a thought that exists. This thought or rather a reality has been used to dispute how people perceive Bitcoin. One popular tweet asserts:

Blockchain is not a system of currency. But rather a platform of trust. So, Currency is one of its use. – Andreas Antonopoulos

The encounter with the whitepaper opened Andreas’ eyes. The knowledge from his campus day proved useful. He was able to read, write, code and learn all he could about cryptocurrency. With more hours into finding what this new monster entailed, Andreas lost weight. Can you starve yourself for the sake of finding information? Andreas did that by having inconsistent meals.

The obsession with Andreas was too much. For this reason, all the efforts focused on the undeveloped industry. He further went on to seek ways to make money. However, you could not make money let alone have a career. But all efforts were not in vain. He is now able to neuter blockchain jargon for you.

Andreas` Blockchain Career

The skills and grasp of blockchain have seen him appointed as teaching fellow at the University of Nicosia from 2014. In the same year, he consulted with the Canadian Senate and Australian Senate on cryptocurrency laws. He has also consulted with Blockchain.info at higher roles of chief executive of security and member of the board.

Antonopoulos is a special type of expert. So much so that, he subjects his advice to education, culture, politics, economics and human perception perspectives.

Who is Andreas Antonopoulos: Blockchain Energy

Amidst all roles he has performed for businesses, he has also had to contend on his own. Andreas has managed to put his name out there for you. So, you can easily get opinions shared by him.

Andreas has commentated of the relationship between Bitcoin and its adoption. Andreas shares that Bitcoin started in 2009. The same year there was the global financial crisis. Bitcoin gained massive support from the monetary policy that followed. Financial institutions denied their duty following great pain from the middle class. So, with little trust Blockchain as a platform of trust became an option.

ICOs

He also warns of the potential for greed. Accordingly, there is potential for scammers to set up their Initial Coin Offerings. Another reason for scammers is Initial Coin Offering has attracted funding from investors clamoring for crypto.

Exchanges as Wallets

Another warning is potential for insecurity for exchanges. Exchanges act as ways to access and trade crypto. But all this process is riddled with risks. Exchanges work as wallets where people store their money. Sounds like Banking, right? A system blockchain wants to do away with. Money is not secure as the security model is ignored. Keys are centralized, and the exchanges will get hacked. Yobit was hacked, 4000 Bitcoins stolen and forced to declare bankruptcy.

Crypto Independence

Andreas being an advocate of Bitcoin will defend its ways. In one instance, Andreas asserts the importance of Bitcoin`s geographic independence. The independence makes miners close to cheap electricity. This claim comes from the criticism; miners use a lot of electricity. An instance of cheap electricity is in Sichuan province, China. This province is home to abundant hydropower with less distribution. He further compares card transaction as another wasteful activity.

The energy of Andreas Antonopoulos is exhibited in his two books he has written to educate you.

What is Bitcoin: Mastering Bitcoin

Mastering Bitcoin is the first book released in 2014, and The Internet of Money is another published in 2016. You can expect to learn much from these two books.

Mastering Bitcoin is the perfect work and skills put on paper for you. It is an acclaimed book for you wanting to start learning about Bitcoin and blockchain technology. Andreas wrote the book for him to learn. Very selfish of him you could say. But in the end, it’s a blessing in disguise. You are now able to learn from his selfish act.

One of the ways to learn something is to teach it – Andreas Antonopoulos

Mastering Bitcoin is a guide to coders. But being skillful in neutering jargon, Andreas describes the blockchain in plain language. So, you can read regardless of your background.

The book starts with the basics of Bitcoin. And it builds you to the most complex. ‘What is bitcoin’ and ‘its history’ are covered in depth with associated success stories. In the same book, you can expect to learn intricate details of design and operations of the blockchain.

What is Bitcoin: The Internet of Money

The Internet of Money is another book from Andreas sharing to you, why Bitcoin. It is a book detailing the talks Andreas has given, for you. You do not want to miss the authority from profound content.

In this book, Andreas looks at the view of Bitcoin`s possibilities. He is bold in his statements and predictions. And it continues to argue Bitcoin as the most valuable innovation in the last two decades. He further goes on to say bitcoin is an opensource technology, network, and currency.

In this book, he is harsh on banks. He notes on the importance of banking. Nonetheless, proceeds to say the combination of government and money is harmful. The cooperation results to corrupt institutions that charge high fees than bitcoin.

Beware the book has a second volume. So, you would not miss any of the speaking events by Andreas.

Community breaks loose over 100 BTC

Just like you and me, Andreas can have challenges. But these challenges are overcome by the support of others. You would easily think Andreas was and is a billionaire – considering his position. However, that only happened recently when Roger Ver attacked Andreas investment options.

Roger Ver questioned Andreas millionaire status. Roger said if Andreas had invested $300 in bitcoin in 2012, he would be a millionaire. Andreas responded by saying he was working for and he had only got out of debt. He was able to meet his bills from subscribed supporters at $5 per month.

Additionally, Andreas said he had invested in Bitcoin but sold after family obligations like rent. Now, this put him as a family man. You won’t crucify a man for putting his family first.

This whole online incidence pulled many supporters to contribute. Overnight, Andreas had become a millionaire by the mercies of his followers.

Over 100 Bitcoins were donated to him. I bet this is the world’s known largest donation to an individual. More so, to one who is a top crypto advocate.

He appreciated the donations in a blog post explaining the state he was in.

The crypto community acted to support one of their own.

Foresight of Cryptocurrency

For you to be called ambitious, then you will have to aim for the future. Andreas has done that. He is preparing you to know what the future will entail.

Andreas is writing a book. The book proves Andreas commitment to crypto and its growth. Another monster that has come up is Ethereum. You will think Andreas has all bias to Bitcoin. However, Andreas is covering Ethereum in Mastering Ethereum. The book is expected this year.

In Mastering Ethereum, you will expect the ways of how Ethereum operates and how to write smart contracts and dApps.

Andreas in a recent interview, explains his expectations for cryptocurrency and Bitcoin development. Further, he outlines four key things you can expect: more exchanges, continued wallet development, education systems and issuance of ATMs.

More exchanges will ensure crypto services are global. Additionally, most exchanges relate with the local context. The attachment hinders the ability to sustain a flow of funds in the crypto market. Andreas recommends four exchanges per country.

Wallet development will ensure to secure crypto. Andreas, explains wallets that are easy to use and intuitive are features you will look out for. Not forgetting, the application of cutting-edge innovations.

ATMs will push to make instant transactions. For crypto, unlike bank ATMs, charges required will be cheaper. You will want more affordable options to run your finances.

Finally, you have an idea who is Andreas Antonopoulos. And what he can do for you.

References:

http://fortune.com/2017/12/08/bitcoin-prices-anton-antonopoulos-rich/

https://cointelegraph.com/news/andreas-antonopoulos-icos-are-total-shit-right-now-revolutionary-in-15-years

http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/19/technology/security/bitcoin-black-market/index.html

The post Who is Andreas Antonopoulos? The Expert in Bitcoin appeared first on 101 Blockchains.

Elizabeth Stark is a graduate of Harvard University where she got her J.D. in Law. She was given birth to in Brooklyn, New York and currently resides in San Francisco, the United States of America, she is the co-founder and CEO of Lightning Labs. Lightning labs is a company that “scales blockchains”. (What does it mean to scale blockchain? Find out later.) As a cryptocurrency enthusiast, she is a fellow at Coin Center. Coin Center is a research center established (non-profit) to advocate for the implementation of good government policies towards cryptocurrencies, i.e. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin etc. and other decentralized technologies. Although she is not very much involved in the academia as it seems to the crypto community, she, however, has not cut ties with academia. She is a visiting fellow at Yale’s Information Society project, and she teaches at Yale University also. In both universities, she has taught about P2P technology, open-source protocol, and other technologies. As a mentor the Thiel Fellowship, she works with the intention to provide support, i.e. financial, guidance to students under 23 years with the intention to drop out of school to pursue other projects. It would interest you to note that Stark is not a developer; however, her interest in technology is remarkable.

LIGHTNING LABS: HOW THE LIGHTNING NETWORK WORKS

Lightning labs is a tech startup that is developing an open protocol layer, leveraging on the availability of blockchain and smart contracts features to make transactions to anyone across the world cheap and fast. It is designed to help blockchain scalability. This is evident on the bitcoin blockchain with the activation of the Lightning network in 2018. By scalability, rather than the usual process whereby information is processed to all nodes to confirm transactions, this protocol streamlines the number of nodes involved in individual transactions. That way, the time it takes transactions to would be faster than usual, and it will also result in reasonable fees. Pairs of nodes mastermind these transactions. These nodes link the sender in a transaction to the receiver, and they are connected by payment channels existing on the original blockchain. When a channel is created, the two parties involved in the transaction puts funds on the blockchain into an entry with the two parties signing off for transactions to take place.

Image Credits: Lightning Labs

However, there are advantages and disadvantages to these type of transactions. Since the transaction require the consent of both parties to sign off the transactions, the non-availability of one of the party can result into either cancellation of the transaction or the unavailable party forfeits his funds. It is of importance to note that this lightning effect doesn’t work for only Bitcoin but other blockchains as well. In fact, there can be cross blockchain implantation using lightning such that there can be token swap anytime. Lastly, according to Lightning labs mission statement, they are on a mission to but the next generation’s resilient, decentralized & financial system.

“We believe systems based on cryptography, blockchain, and smart contracts will enhance financial cooperation around the world in unprecedented ways at scales both large and small.”

Watch her speak on the importance of Layer two here.

ELIZABETH STARK CONTRIBUTION TO THE CRYPTO COMMUNITY

Going by actual history, cryptocurrency didn’t start in 2008. In the 90’s of the 20^th century, there were people called the cypherpunks, looking at their contribution via their writing, we find a striking resemblance between them and Bitcoin. Thus, we can say their crypto community finds a spot in the present age. In 2008, Bitcoin was invented with its official release in January 2009 by a man (or group, identity unknown) called Satoshi Nakamoto.

So, as said earlier that Elizabeth Stark is the CEO and co-founder of Lightning Labs, she has contributed to the community in the area of blockchains. First, what is a blockchain? The Blockchain is a ledger on the digital network in which transactions made in bitcoin or another cryptocurrency are recorded chronologically and publicly. With lightning labs, scaling of blockchains is possible. What does it mean to scale blockchains? This process deals with the number of transactions possible on the blockchain per unit time. The blockchain records transactions from the beginning, and this works by the passage of information from one node to the other. A blockchain is made up of nodes which confirms transactions on the chain. As at the creation of Bitcoin, it was given a block size limit of 1MB, and thus, when transactions are carried out, the information is stored in a block after the nodes have confirmed it and when the 1MB is exceeded, another block is created. So, by statistics, it is observed that the number of transactions processed per second on an average is between 3.3 to 7. Thus, this defines the scalability of the blockchain as a result of the traffic in processing information. So, to resolve this issue for future adoption, she introduced a concept tagged “Layer Two”. This is widely known as the Lightning network, which Bitcoin Core developers clamored for when people called for SEGWIT activation in 2017.

KEY CHALLENGES OF BITCOIN AND ITS BLOCKCHAIN

• Time: Earlier, it was mentioned that once a block is filled, a new block is created, thus, on an average, every ten minutes, a new block is created. This delays transaction procedures as transactions that are queued up following the filling of a block would wait for confirmation by the miners. These transactions that are queued following an overflow are in what we call “the bitcoin mempool”. Due to this rigorous process, while some transactions are still being queued up, other transactions come into the queue. Thus, it is understandable that the bigger the transactions are queued up, the more percentage of them get stuck in the mempool. As of January 2018, the average confirmation time reached an all-time-high of 190 hours 53 minutes or approximately eight days. This processing time delay coupled with the increased transaction fees made many investors nervous where there was a plan to activate SEGWIT 24 on the blockchain which would raise the block size limit and give room for forks on the blockchain. The aftermath of this decision resulted in two significant hard forks with the resulting currencies named Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold respectively.
• Transaction Fees: In cryptocurrency, as said nodes are the authority figures on the blockchain, and they are not privatized, it’s a universal consensus that decided what happens on the blockchains. The people operating these nodes are called miners. Cryptocurrency mining is a lucrative part of cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is a Proof of Work currency, and thus, the way the miners get paid is via solving complex cryptographic puzzles. Their work is to process every transaction and in turn, add their transaction memory to the blockchain. As a reward for their work in sustaining the blockchain, they are paid in Bitcoin; these rewards are from the transaction fees and payouts for keeping the blockchain in check. So, even though the high TX fees are beneficial to the miners, it is however unprofitable to the transaction participants on the blockchain. Besides, high TX fees would not support micropayments. So, in resolving these issues, Elizabeth started Lightning Labs proposing a Layer two open source protocol on the original blockchain such that the problem of having transactions in the Bitcoin mempool causing time delays in the transaction and the high fees is cut off.

This video by Manuel Stages titled “The Blockchain and Us” features Elizabeth’s interview too.

LIGHTNING LABS: SMART CONTRACTS

The lightning effect brings a contractual impact to the bitcoin blockchain. It can be said to be a smart-contracting system. In this structure, however, the blockchain serves as the court that cannot be bribed. Remember, that every transaction on the blockchain is in erasable and uneditable. So, when the smart contract is prepared and everything that the contract details are predetermined. Lightning makes sure the contract is rightfully executed.

In understanding this better, let’s say two persons want to transact namely Rice and Water as payment for an online service charge. They both would enter into a 2 -of- 2 multi-signature agreement (this can be likened to a bank’s joint savings account where both signatures are required to perform a fund withdrawal action) on the original blockchain. Then this action takes them to Layer two which reads the transaction between the two. Imagine Rice and Water put in $50 and $100 respectively making a $150 payment channel. It would be that every time they transact, they exchange their digital signature to update the transaction history of their off-chain channel. It is important to note that the transaction is in the open source protocol and the coins don’t leave the blockchain, what is recorded is a transaction. A channel is open when the transaction is taking place and is closed when the transaction is completed such that the final transaction history is added to the blockchain. So, since the blockchain protects the participants against the theft of coins, in cases of attempted theft, the thief loses his tokens in the process as a penalty and his funds is credited to the participant whose tokens was to be stolen. It is, however, advisable to broadcast the most recent legitimate status of the channel in any case of attempted stealing before the final transaction is sent to the blockchain.

The instance explained above is that which exist between two participants, what about a network between channels such that Rice wants to send $25 to Dan but they don’t have an open channel, but Water has an open channel with Dan. Thus, instead of Rice to open a new channel with Dan, Rice can send the payment through Water. However, in this scenario, Lightning network works such that Water sends the funds to Dan first before he retrieves his money from Rice even though it might come at a fee because he’s acting as a lightning node. This structure prevents Water from stealing the funds. It is important to know that this system doesn’t exist based on trust. Thus, everything is done carefully and in order.

HER CRITICISMS

Since the crypto space is a technologically oriented space, there has been quite a number of criticisms towards her due to her supposed inability to explain deep technical concepts behind her project. Though she has a legal background, her enthusiasm is seen every time she speaks and has in vivid ways using examples to explain complex issues in her project. However, we can say that the criticism of her on upspeaking is perhaps due to the main reason why the interview was conducted which is to allow her to talk more about her project but the community wants more of which no one at any time has sent up proofs to back up their claims.

So also, it is observed that while Lightning helps to make micropayments easier, faster & cheaper, the same cannot be said of a bigger transaction as it raises a lot of questions of distrust within the system. For instance, under the penalty transaction, imagine someone with $10 funds being penalized for alleged theft attempt and he has his funds transferred to the other, although the funds are small, however, the penalty transaction would raise a lot of eyebrows. That said, now imagine someone whose funds is $100,000 and is told about penalty transaction of which his funds would be transferred to aggrieved bitcoiner who complained of token theft, if this is not well managed, that single act can turn away users from setting up smart contracts on the bitcoin blockchain using Lighting network. Whilst the Lightning network has delivered on its promise of making bitcoin transactions easier, cheaper and faster, it has to improve itself because large-scale vendors are effective contributors in any economy.

References:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/lightnings-elizabeth-stark-2017-will-be-the-year-of-smart-contracts

www.hackernoon.com/5-notable-women-in-the-blockchain-and-crypto-industry-6dd5981c0e7d

www.ccn.com/lightning-chief-its-a-bitcoin-not-blockchain-world/

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