High-Performance Blockchain tackles the concept of scalability from a completely different angle. Rather than just looking at the software side of things, the project also tackles the hardware aspect. To realize the optimal performance of blockchain applications, things will need to change in the near future. As such, this team is building an architecture which uses thousands of CPU and FPGA resources to create a more versatile and scalable ecosystem. There are a few aspects of the High-Performance Blockchain project to take into account. First of all, there is the chip-level acceleration engine which provides accelerated hardware chips to power this entire ecosystem. Secondly, the software side of the High-Performance Blockchain is integrated with the new dedicated hardware accelerated engine and focuses on depth and scaling customization. Third, the project claims it can produce a throughput in the millions of transactions without any major problems. While all of this sounds amazing, it is difficult to come by any real information regarding the technical aspects of either the hardware or the software side of High-Performance Blockchain. While the team mainly focuses on blockchain integration for real-world business cases, it remains to be seen how their chips will operate and how their algorithms are created. It seems the High-Performance Blockchain project is closely connected to the NEO infrastructure, which could introduce some interesting developments down the line. Building the High-Performance Blockchain infrastructure will take a lot of time and money. As such, the roadmap is filled with milestones which the team aims to achieve in the coming years. A testnet version of this project will be launched at some point in 2018, which will undergo further improvements for several months. The actual manner will launch in Q2 of 2018 if things go according to plan. However, the official version will not go live until mid-2019 at the earliest.
Dropil offers a full investing suite including financial planning, retirement savings, and of course trading. Their primary target market is inexperienced investors who are looking for an easy way to enter into the cryptocurrency markets, but they also have something to offer the more experienced investor, cryptocurrency and otherwise. And they claim to be able to set-up investment planning for anyone, regardless of their risk tolerance or background. Of course the main selling point of Dropil is the automation of the cryptocurrency trading process. The platform requires little input from investors and claims it will deliver high profit margins and minimal risk of losses. A second part of the Dropil platform is the Arthur bot. This bot is the risk management bot, which manages investor portfolios and also provides arbitrage analysis. While it is less complex than Dex, it is still important as it will monitor up to 13 different exchanges and 10 different coins to find arbitrage opportunities for you. What is most important to note is that this can all be done without the use of an API as well as no user accounts needed. Future plans include expanding this functionality. The final aspect of the Dropil ecosystem is the DROP token, which is an ERC-20 token that was created to help ensure privacy, while also powering the internal economy of Dropil. The team chose to use the ERC20 protocol to help foster compatibility and quick exchange executions to benefit the entire community. The DROP token has a total supply of 30 billion coins, which was determined to be an optimal amount for asset management by the developers. It was also chosen with the optimal user base in mind, as well as the need for coins to be traded and achieve widespread adoption. The need to use the DROP token to access the feature of Dropil should ensure a good implementation and demand for the token. Dropil looks like an interesting project that is tackling the complexity of investing in cryptocurrencies. The idea of automated trading, investing and arbitrage is a compelling one, but it does sound familiar. Stocks, commodities and forex all have these types of automated systems, or robots, that promise guaranteed returns. I have yet to come across one that is reliable in the long term. Perhaps the artificial intelligence algorithm is advanced enough to change that. Perhaps cryptocurrency market movements are easier to analyze and predict.