'Founded by OS expert Rong Chen, Elastos is building the blockchain industry’s most comprehensive and interoperable open source platform. Using a hybrid consensus that combines the secure hashpower of Bitcoin and the democratic ideals of Delegated-Proof-of-Stake, the SmartWeb of Elastos is a suite of software for an entirely decentralized internet. Elastos employs not only blockchain technology, but a peer-to-peer network for communication, decentralized data storage services, and a decentralized ID (DID) system for all digital assets. With sidechains like Ethereum, Elastos is not merely the foundation for securing truly decentralized applications that can scale, it is the foundation for true data ownership. elastOS, the flagship product of the Elastos Smartweb, brings the entire decentralized ecosystem into a single App, currently available for Android and in development for both iOS and desktop. Elastos is also actively searching for both new and existing dApp projects through its Cyber Republic initiative. Cyber Republic possesses a community-governed grant fund designed to help startups and existing businesses explore blockchain. You can read more about Cyber Republic at https://www.cyberrepublic.org.
Zcoin (XZC) is a cryptocurrency focused on privacy and decentralization. It is the first coin to implement the Zerocoin protocol that enables financial privacy through the power of zero knowledge proofs with a focus on making privacy easy to use. It is also set to be the first to release MTP an ASIC resistant, anti-botnet proof of work algorithm that remains lightweight to verify to ensure fair distribution of coins and decentralized security. Zcoin is an open source decentralized cryptocurrency that focuses on achieving privacy and anonymity for its users while transacting. To achieve this privacy and anonymity, Zcoin uses zero-knowledge proofs via Zerocoin protocol which is one of the most cited cryptography papers at this point in time. In other words, when you transact using Bitcoin or Ethereum or something similar, your transaction history is always linked to your coins by default which makes you vulnerable. That, because all it takes is one link to your personal information or IP to find out the origin of the coins.However, if you transact using Zcoin’s Zerocoin feature, none of your transaction histories is linked to the actual coins and only the receiver and sender know that you have actually exchanged funds. Zerocoin is a cryptocurrency proposed by Johns Hopkins University professor Matthew D. Green and graduate students Ian Miers and Christina Garman as an extension to the Bitcoin protocol that would add true cryptographic anonymity to Bitcoin transactions. Zerocoin was first implemented into a fully functional cryptocurrency released to the public by Poramin Insom, as Zcoin who is also the lead developer, in September 2016. At the initial stage, Zcoin uses the Lyra2z algorithm for proof of work, then they will transition to a Merkle Tree proof of work algorithm, known as MTP. MTP is a unique memory hard algorithm that aims to solve several problems. Memory hard algorithms help prevent the development of ASICs which lead to centralized mining farms. Memory hard algorithms also prevent the use of botnets infecting computers for mining purposes. If a botnet was using up multiple gigs of memory, you’d be likely to notice something is wrong. “The basic concept is that it should establish the same price/cost for a single computation unit on all platforms meaning that there is no single device that should gain a significant advantage over another for the same price hence promoting egalitarian computing.