Achain is a public blockchain platform that enables developers of all levels to issue tokens and create smart contracts, decentralized applications, and blockchain systems. Achain is committed to building a global blockchain network for information exchange and value transactions. Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, Achain utilizes a modified version of DPoS — RDPoS (Result-delegated Proof of Stake) to establish node consensus. Shortly, DPoS suggests that all coin holders vote for the validator nodes that will produce the next blocks. On the project website, only info about CEO Tony Cui is listed. Cui has a few significant accomplishments, including winning the Future Star award from the Zhongguancun Alliance and being listed in the 30 under 30 on CYZONE, a famous venture capital magazine. On LinkedIn, 51 people are listed as employees at Achain. Most of the team is based in Beijing. Achain also has a few key industry partners. It has even co-organized a “Blockchain Technology Open Course” with Tsinghua University, which is widely recognized as one of the world’s top universities. The roadmap for Achain development is fairly detailed. However, most goals listed are development-oriented rather than marketing or design. Still, it’s important to note that focusing on making the protocol interoperable and building a technology that is more accessible to mainstream adoption could also be considered a marketing-oriented part of this project. There are three major phases with projected completion dates listed. These include Singularity (completed Q1), Galaxy (ongoing), and Cosmos (complete at the end of Q4). One thing to note is that dates for these phases are not consistent between the homepage and the whitepaper. This could be simply due to a scenario in which phase names remain the same while new goals and timeline dates within those phases continue to change. In January 2019, the project will update the website to reflect roadmap goals for the new year. Looking at the current landscape of blockchain projects, Achain certainly offers the possibility of much-needed technical innovations. The ability to easily create an Achain fork, as well as, the protocol’s unique RDPoS consensus algorithm make this a promising project. It will be interesting to see how Achain builds upon its accomplishments, and how the project team continues to develop a long-term strategy for improving the protocol’s technical capabilities and increasing participation in its ecosystem.
Basic Attention Token (BAT) is an open-source, decentralized ad exchange platform built on Ethereum platform. Basic Attention Token held an initial coin offering on May 31, 2017 for its eponymous ERC-20 utility token, raising approximately $35M USD at the time in less than 30 seconds. The Basic Attention Token aims to fix digital advertising, which is broken, fraudulent and opaque. Basic Attention Token work by having advertisers pay BAT to website publishers for the attention of users. The BAT token is designed to correctly value and price user attention within the platform. The Basic Attention Token comprises various components, including attention measurement systems, analytics dashboards and machine learning algorithms. Integration of BAT into a given host application involves implementing BAT Ads, a system that matches and displays ads to users based on locally stored data. Ad targeting is performed wholly on-device, removing the need for third-party tracking. BAT is focused on the Brave browser. Brave is an open-source, privacy-centered browser designed to block trackers and malware. It utilizes blockchain technology to anonymously and securely track user attention, which translates into rewards for publishers. A user's attention, meaning his or her focused mental engagement on digital content like advertisements, is logged through Brave. The makers of BAT indicate that the user's private data and tracking information is stored only on the user's device, ensuring that it is anonymous and private. Created back in 2016, the Basic Attention Token has one of the biggest names behind it, that of Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript and the legendary co-founder of Mozilla. Other noteworthy team members include Brian Bondy, lead developer and co-founder of Brave and Scott Locklin, senior engineer, and co-founder of Kerf Software.' Basic Attention Token is created by the team that built the Brave browser, an open-source, privacy-focused browser that blocks ads and trackers. The browser measures user attention and rewards publishers for users attention. Use the Brave browser to protect your privacy and support CoinGecko at the same time: https://brave.com/coi600