Cardstack is an open-source framework and consensus protocol that makes blockchains usable and scalable for the mass market, creating a decentralized software ecosystem that can challenge today’s digital superpowers. Cardstack Token (CARD) is a utility token allowing end- users and businesses to use applications that interact with multiple blockchains, decentralized protocols, app-coin-backed dApps, and cloud- based services while paying a single on-chain transaction fee. The main value proposition of the Cardstack ICO is to breakdown the user experience of disparate software, cloud and blockchain silos which now exist on various levels of the digital world, allowing both developers and users to engage in customizable workflows. To overcome these disparate app silos, Cardstack offers a new UI, deployed via the web or as a peer-to-peer app, which turns each service created by open-source developers into a “card”. Each card comprises a visual embodiment of key information, whereby users can then connect related cards for any type of workflow or utility they desire. These cards are the point of interaction between local services, cloud-based services and blockchain services all on one interface called Cardstack Hub. Underlying the Cardstack ecosystem is the Cardstack Token (CARD), an Ethereum-based ERC20 token. The Cardstack Team comprises many open source contributors. Check out the full list of contributors here. Heading the development of Cardstack is Christopher Tse. Christopher holds a BSc in Computer Science from Columbia University and is the Co-Founder of Monegraph and dotBlockchain Media. He has also served as Senior Director of Innovation at Businessweek. Ed Faulkner is the Lead Developer at Cardstack. He holds a Master of Engineering in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT. He has founded three of his own tech ventures of which all are currently operational. Hassan Abdel-Rahman is the Lead Blockchain Developer for Cardstack. He holds a BSc in Computer Science and Mathematics from Colorado School of Mines. Previous roles include over 2 years as Senior Software Designer at Monegraph and Principal Engineer at McGraw-Hill Education. One of the most important features Cardstack will deploy is an entry channel payment system that does not require users to purchase cryptocurrency from an exchange. Users can simply pay with fiat, such as a credit card, to purchase CARD tokens directly on the platform, bypassing the need for any prior familiarity with crypto. Once users purchase CARD tokens, they are stored on a native wallet accessible from the Cardstack Hub. CARD tokens held in the native wallet are then used to purchase SSCs for every app and service they users with to access. To make any project appealing to the mass consumer market, this type of simplified entry into the cryptospace is a necessity. Cardstack have made some progress on the development front. The code for over 30 initial modules on the Cardstack platform has been made available via their Github. Also, the Solidity code for the Scalable Payment Pool has already been open-sourced. The Scalability Payment Pool is one of the core back-end mechanisms of the platform that issues rewards to developers for their work. Cardstack aims to create an economically-sustainable software ecosystem that avoids the problems of today’s centralized platforms. It’s an “experience layer” for the decentralized internet of the future, allowing users to combine services across cloud apps and decentralized apps. The ecosystem revolves around the use of Cardstack tokens, or CARD.
Electroneum has coined the phrase 'enablement currency' as it is going to enable a new 3 trillion dollar market (Price Waterhouse Coopers predicts this market to be as large as USD 3 trillion in their 2017 Global Fintech Report) by allowing over 350m smartphone users in the developing world to enter the digital market for the first time. With immediate benefits to the mobile operators in those regions, including meaningful transactional cost savings, there are operators who could take us to well over 100 million users and many more operators in negotiation. Our unique mobile miner puts a small amount of ETN into the hands of users every day, providing market liquidity and driving viral growth. With 2,341,445 million registered users, we have a faster viral growth than both Facebook and Twitter over the same time period. The Electroneum manage to raise 40 million dollars through ICO. Their Github release was November 1st. However, before the launch of the mobile app, they were hit by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. The team had to shut down their servers and work over 26 hours straight to deal with the attack. Eventually, after some delay, ICO investors were distributed their coins and Electroneum continued working towards their goal of spreading ETN to the masses. Over 690 million ETN were transferring during the first 24 hours, requiring only 430 ETN in fees. Electroneum calls itself the first British based cryptocurrency. The team of 12, based in Kent, is led by Richard Ells, the co-founder of SiteWizard and Retortal.com. James Atkinson is the head of the Electroneum Development Team with over 10 years of experience in development. He’s leading the charge on the Electroneum App. Great respect is given to Dean Cole, the “member of the team with the least sleep… consuming giant quantities of caffeine.” He maintains and develops the servers required for mining and transacting in Electroneum. There are several gambling websites already accepting Bitcoin, but the problem is that it’s hard for most people to obtain it. The majority of online gambling takes place outside of America, where it’s especially hard to acquire Bitcoin. Most countries do not have access to Coinbase or Gemini and their local exchanges often have 7% fees or higher. Electroneum once again hopes to reduce friction and encouraging gambling sites to accept the currency. As mentioned previously, due to the ASIC resistant nature of the Electroneum mining algorithm, it’s still feasible to mine coins with just your CPU. You can complete a quick download and join a mining pool right away here. The average block reward is about 7000 ETN. Electroneum has also increased its palatability to the average consumer by capping the total number of coins at 21 billion, moving the decimal point two places to the right when compared to Bitcoin, which is capped at 21 million. Whereas a pizza in Bitcoin might cost 0.005 BTC, with Electroneum it would be a much more ‘real money’ figure. Richard Ells, founder of Electroneum and experienced tech entrepreneur, said: “I don’t know if you’ve ever tried buying any Bitcoin, but it’s really hard to do! I realized that what the world needs is a cryptocurrency that is genuinely easy to access and use. We’ve developed Electroneum with the ordinary mobile user in mind.”