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.
Binance Coin is the cryptocurrency of the Binance platform. It is a trading platform exclusively for cryptocurrencies. The name 'Binance' is a combination of binary and finance. Thus, the startup name shows that only cryptocurrencies can be traded against each other. It is not possible to trade crypto currencies against Fiat. The platform achieved an enormous success within a very short time and is focused on worldwide market with Malta headquarters. The cryptocurrency currently has a daily trading volume of 1.5 billion - 2 billion US dollars and is still increasing. In total, there will only be 200 million BNBs. Binance uses the ERC20 token standard from Ethereum and has distributed it as follow: 50% sold on ICO, 40% to the team and 10% to Angel investors. The coin can be used to pay fees on Binance. These include trading fees, transaction fees, listing fees and others. Binance gives you a huge discount when fees are paid in BNB. The schedule of BNB fees discount is as follow: In the first year, 50% discount on all fees, second year 25% discount, third year 12.5% discount, fourth year 6.75 % discount, and from the fifth year onwards there is no discount. This structure is used to incentivize users to buy BNB and do trades within Binance. Binance announced in a buyback plan that it would buy back up to 100 million BNB in Q1 2018. The coins are then burned. This means that they are devaluated to increase the value of the remaining coins. This benefits investors. In the future, the cryptocurrency will remain an asset on the trading platform and will be used as gas. Other tokens that are issued by exchanges include Bibox Token, OKB, Huobi Token, and more.