Kyber’s on-chain liquidity protocol allows decentralized token swaps to be integrated into any application, enabling value exchange to be performed seamlessly between all parties in the ecosystem. Tapping on the protocol, developers can build payment flows and financial apps, including instant token swap services, erc20 payments, and innovative financial dapps - helping to build a world where any token is usable anywhere. Kyber Network maintains liquidity through the dynamic reserve pool. The pool contains all of the Reserve Entities in the system. Having multiple entities in the pool prevents monopolization and keeps exchange rates competitive. When a user requests an exchange, the Kyber smart contract makes the exchange through the Reserve Entity with the best exchange rate for the user. By allowing external Reserve Entities, Kyber Network prevents centralization and opens the door to low-volume token listings. External reserves may be fine with taking on the risk of storing less popular tokens that the Kyber reserves don’t list. To prevent bad actors in the reserve pool, Kyber Network has few safeguards. The network will flag any exchange rate for special approval that’s greatly outside the norm. To protect funds in a public reserve, Kyber makes all exchanges using them available through a transparent fund management model. The Kyber team is impressive. Loi Luu, Yaron Velner, and Victor Tran are the founders behind the project. Luu previously created Oyente, the first open-source security analyzer for Ethereum contracts, and cofounded SmartPool, a decentralized mining pool project. Velner has been active in the Ethereum bug bounty program, and Tran is also a lead developer at SmartPool. The team has a well-rounded advisory board with the most notable member being Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum wunderkind. In August 2017, Kyber successfully launched their testnet beta. They plan on releasing their live product in Q1 this year in which you’ll be able to trade between Ethereum and ERC20 tokens. The project has an extensive list of partners including Request Network, Wax, and Storm. Because it’s an ERC20 token, you can store KNC in any wallet with ERC20 support. MyEtherWallet is the most popular online option. MetaMask works as well. Many investors choose to use a hardware wallet for additional security. You can’t go wrong with either the Trezor or Ledger wallet as both supports KNC.
Setting up a blockchain infrastructure is an expensive and complicated ordeal, and many may certainly be on the lookout for a solution that handles this for them. Simple Token is that solution.Simple Token enables all types of businesses to tokenize their assets. It empowers mainstream apps to have their own branded tokens, helping them set up their own crypto based economy on the Ethereum network. The Simple Token website lists over 35 people as part of its team, with other sections listing even more people as it advisors and extended team. Jason Goldberg is the CEO, with an 18 year career and experience in multiple countries and sectors. He is assisted by Sunil Khedar at the CTO position, and Ben Bollen as the Chief Blockchain Strategist. The team is well recognised by the investor community and markets in general. This is easy to see when you observe that it is backed by multiple VCs, including 500Startups, Greycroft, and China’s Tencent among others. OST is the future of business tokenization, allowing companies to have their own branded tokens without the costs of setting up a blockchain infrastructure. Faster transaction times, since transactions are run on their own side chains rather than the Ethereum Main Net, avoiding the Ethereum network congestion. With the team providing monthly updates, it’s evident there is still a lot of work to be done. The ostKIT alpha is close to being released, and serves as the first public version of the complete blockchain toolkit for businesses. ostKYC is already live, and uses the OST token for all billing purposes. Other tools currently in development include a block explorer and an enterprise-grade email marketing solution. There’s also the consumer-oriented wallet to keep an eye on, as well as an updated version of the Simple Token protocol itself. Check out CoinBureau for the complete review of OST.