Huobi, the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, recently announced and launched a new currency. The Huobi Token (HT) rewards exchange users for their loyalty with lowered transaction fees while also carrying its own value in tradable pairs against popular currencies. The hope was to bring greater value to Huobi’s millions of users, mostly located in Asian countries. The launch of the Huobi Token follows in the footsteps of other loyalty-building tokens that other exchanges have launched. The first and most successful of these tokens has been Binance Coin (BNB). The creation of BNB secured Binance’s place as the world’s leading exchange. It offered discounted trading fees in exchange for customer loyalty, primarily functioning as a loyalty rewards system. Huobi officially announced its intentions to launch a new token on January 22, 2018. Over the course of 15 days, Huobi would distribute 300 million HT (60% of the total supply) to its pro users who purchased a discounted service package. Each morning, a new batch of HT would become available on a first come, first served basis. Huobi declared this token distribution scheme, “not an ICO,” due to the nature of the offering. Users are buying a specific service package, part of which includes HT that give a discount toward trading fees. The exchange launched the Huobi Token as part of an overall strategy to recover its user base after tightening regulations in China severely restricted cryptocurrency trading. In an interview with CoinDesk, Leon Li, Huobi’s founder, revealed that Chinese rule changes had decimated the trading volume on Huobi by 95% between September 15 and November 1, 2017. The HT token distribution began on January 24 and wrapped up on February 7, 2018. Each day of the distribution, millions of tokens sold out in mere minutes after going on sale. At that point, 300 million HT had been distributed to Huobi Pro members who bought packages. That’s 60% of the total supply currently in public circulation. Another 200 million HT, 40% of the total supply, was set aside. 20% goes toward user rewards and platform operation. The other 20% is vested for four years and constitutes the team reward. Huobi isn’t the first exchange to issue its own token. Binance (BNB), Bibox (BIX), KuCoin (KCS) and Coss (COSS) have all issued their own tokens as well.
VeChain is a blockchain-enabled platform that is designed to enhance supply chain management processes. By utilizing tamper-proof and distributed ledger technology, VeChain provides retailers and consumers with the ability to determine the quality and authenticity of products that are bought. From product source materials, to servicing history, and spare part replacements, every single piece of information about the supply chain movement of a product can be recorded and verified to bring about a supply chain management ecosystem that is secure for all participants. VeChain plans to achieve this secure supply chain management ecosystem via the method of asset digitization. VeChain enables manufactures to assign products with unique identities to the platform. This will allow manufacturers, supply chain partners, and even consumers, to track the movement of products through their supply chain. There is also the VeChain Foundation. The Vechain Foundation is a non - profit entity established in Singapore in July 2017 and is responsible for the construction of the network, and technological research and development. The Foundation also plays an important role in business development. The Foundation encourages and supports partnerships with enterprises that may be interested in utilizing blockchain technology as a service. This includes payment services, private key management, smart contract development, and wallet development. There is no doubt that blockchain technology can be an important innovation to supply chain management. With a growing list of business partnerships and technological developments, VeChain is positioning itself to be THE disruptive, and innovative force that reshapes the way we think about supply chain management. The solution of 'hard forking' has made people question the idea of 'de-centering' of Ethereum and even Blockchain. This way of governance is not so much a 'democracy' as an 'anarchy.' VeChain development team highly regards blockchain’s decentralizing nature, yet intends to adopt some traditional corporate governance and thus improve the efficient formulation and implementation of the VeChain development and strategy for the benefit of the community to prevent and avoid serious blockchain design philosophy differences and irreconcilability. Sunny Lu is the CEO of the VeChain Foundation and has already become an important figure in the blockchain space. Before he established VeChain, he co-founded the Chinese Internet start-up which developed Qtum, a very important digital asset in the crypto space. He was previously the CIO and COO of Louis Vuitton China.The team behind VeChain consists of over 90+ employees, most of them being developers. Chief Technology Officer, Gu Jianliang, has over 18 years of experience in areas such as mobile devices and the IoT field, and has created over a 100 patents in several technological fields. Kevin Feng serves as the Chief Operations Officer of the VeChain Foundation. Feng has been actively involved in many technology projects in his 12 years working for VeChain’s partner, PWC, as a consultant and assurance advisor.