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.
Vidy is the world's first decentralized ad network, powered by the Ethereum blockchain. Vidy's ad platform allows advertisers to embed video ads directly into hyper-relevant website text, improving user experience, ad conversions and publisher payments. Vidy is one of the few crypto companies in the world that is actually live in production and presently working with the largest and most prestigious companies of the world. Vidy is revenue positive with tier 1 advertisers buying the Vidy ad unit, and has over 3 billion monthly pageviews on major publishers around the globe. Vidy plans to harness this massive userbase to facilitate major adoption of VidyCoin as a means for ad rewards and purchases on every page. Vidy has invented the world's first single-page invisible embed layer for video that is completely decentralized. With just a hold, users reveal tiny hyper-relevant videos embedded in the text of any page on the web that supplement their reading experience effortlessly. All video ads are placed with an NLP consensus protocol driven by miners. Each time a user unveils a video ad, he earns rewards in the form of VidyCoin that can then be used in the various forms: 1) Redeem / Purchase goods and services on the Vidy Ecosystem 2) Purchase advertising campaigns 3) Staking VidyCoin to get access to premium advertising and/or publisher features With a team of veteran engineers, industry-leading advisors and world-class brand partners, Vidy is on its way to reinventing digital advertisement, e-commerce, and video entertainment. For the first time, cryptocurrency application will be available to the masses without any switching cost. Vidy has already integrated its technology and signed commercial agreements with more than 40 publishers globally. This gives Vidy an exposure of more than 3 billion page views a month or more than 150 million unique visitor exposures a month across Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, Philippines, China, Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam and America. At the current moment, Vidy is receiving datapoints from these integrations that are in the billions, and has seen click through / view-rates of more than 30% consistently across the various publishing platforms.