Friendz is a digital marketing company whose main goal is to connect brands with their target audience, taking advantage of the most powerful marketing tool ever: “word of mouth”. When we look at what the future holds for us we see global expansion, larger communities of users, more services provided and happier clients. All this made possible by the use of the blockchain technology and the adoption of Friendz Coins, the new standard currency for buying digital services and activate community of engaged users all around the world. Friendz has been actively present in the market since 2016. As of year 2018, we have offered services to more than 200 brands. Our team is composed of 35 people, with different backgrounds and skills, operating in our offices in Switzerland, Italy and Spain. Friendz app boasts over 200,000 organic users who have published well over 3,000,000 pictures in the last two years. In 2016 Friendz received €500,000 worth of financing from Triboo Group, a public company and important player in the digital marketing industry, enabling it to hit the market and create its network. At the end of 2017 revenues amounted to € 1,200,000. Roadmap 1. We plan to use blockchain technology to provide an even safer and reliable experience to our clients. Through the use of a decentralized blockchain technology that the safe transfer of funds and the completion of services will be certified. Friendz platform will become even safer and more advanced technologically thereby protecting the interest of our community and clients worldwide. 2. We plan to decentralize the digital advertising business, creating a traceable single tool that can be adopted globally to activate users and involve them in the creation of advertising campaigns. We are planning to introduce a transparent system that will track the flow of marketing spending on Friendz platform, in a totally revolutional way to digital advertising. The use of Friendz Coins will in fact provide brands with the opportunity to spread their advertising messages and to reach the friends of Friendz users in a genuine and creative way. Users will be rewarded for being active and will use the reward to purchase other services from Friendz. 3. In the long term we want to provide every online activity-as-a-service, in and beyond the world of digital marketing. The idea is to develop a platform where companies can activate large communities of users to perform various activities that will enhance their brands. Our plan is to maintain a focus on digital advertising but with an open eye on new markets and opportunities. Friendz platform will be available to any company that requires services such as validation systems, quick content generation, bug testing, market research and app review. Our clients will not only be B2C companies, but also B2B, and those coming from the blockchain industry, all with the common goal of reaching the final users. The automation of all activities will ensure that Friendz’s role becomes that of merely guaranteeing community participation and engagement in the activities proposed.
IOST is building an ultra-high TPS blockchain infrastructure to meet the security and scalability needs of a decentralized economy. Led by a team of proven founders and backed by $40 million from world-class investors, including Sequoia and Matrix, IOST aims to be the underlying architecture for the future of online services. The powerful consensus algorithm “Proof-of-Believability” enables next-gen transaction throughput speeds while ensuring nodes stay compliant, using factors including IOST token balance, reputation-based token balance, network contributions and user behaviors. A faster grade Byzantine Fault Tolerance mechanism, microstate blocks, Atomic Commit protocol and a dynamic sharding protocol (Efficient Distributed Sharding) all ensure transactions are safeguarded, consistent and lightning fast while reducing storage, configuration costs and processing power for validators. Anyone is able to participate in every layer of our system, from using services on our blockchain to running a node and validating transactions. Our rules and code are open for all to see and no preconditions will limit participation. IOST aims to fundamentally disrupt previous methods of business by creating a self-operated, trustless network that maximizes network value for all parties. The project places great emphasis on decentralized and secure ways of storing information. It also provides for Dapps and smart contracts, and anyone who is familiar with blockchain technology knows just how integral these two concepts have become. Adhering to the quintessential egalitarian values of blockchain technology, IOST is creating a censorship-resistant and trustless network that is open to all, using blockchain technology to cut out middlemen and maximize network value for all parties. Terrace Wang, Kimmy Zhong, and Ray Xiao, who are extremely brilliant, have co-founded the project. In addition to these original three, the project has 12 employees and 4 advisors. It is also worth noting that Ryan Bubiski, a co-founder of CodeAcademy and a winner of Times Most Influential People award plays a major role in the advisory board of the project. The team has partnered with about sixteen blockchain and cryptocurrency oriented companies such as Sequoia, Nirvana Capital, and DFund. The project, therefore, has strong investors.'