Lunyr (pronounced Lunar), however, is one of the most unique implementations of blockchain yet, aiming to be a decentralized, and peer-to-peer knowledge database, aka the “Blockchain-based Wikipedia”. It strives to be the most innovative and comprehensive source of knowledge in domains like crypto projects, technology, finance, law, investment, and more, on the web. The cofounders of Lunyr are Arnold Pham, Andrew Tran, and Christopher Smith. The Lunyr ICO ended on 26th April 2017, with around USD 0.3 million in capital being generated. The open beta was then launched on 30th January 2018. It is based on the Ethereum network. The reward system which enables writers to earn rewards for authoring articles was also launched at the same time, allowing writers to earn LUN coins in exchange for quality pieces. Initially, Lunyr will mostly focus on the world of cryptocurrencies and related domains, with emphasis on up and coming projects. After an active and dedicated community of readers and writers is developed, Lunyr will branch into other areas such as science and technology, investment, finance, etc. Lunyr is unique in its vision, and usage of the blockchain technology in order to provide a comprehensive, decentralised, crowdsource, and peer-reviewed vault of knowledge, open and free to everyone. Lunyr aims to not only be a knowledge encyclopedia for the web, but also intends to enhance the blockchain technology by giving DApps (Decentralised Applications) the ability to tap into the knowledge base and access real-time data. This innovative feature can be used in applications ranging from Virtual Reality to Artificial Intelligence. The decentralised and peer-to-peer nature of Lunyr allows all content on the knowledge-base to be free from manipulation, and censorship. Since all submissions are peer-reviewed by the community, the chances of incorrect or dubious data making its way onto the encyclopedia are very low.
Shift is cryptocurrency that was launched in August 2015 based on Ethereum by a group of cryptocurrency enthusiast. Shift Storage Cluster - The default state of the IPFS infrastructure is represented as a globally shared network. This can lead to problems when it comes to verifying data integrity, availability, and custom implementation details such as earning token rewards for running a storage node. For this reason, Shift runs a private swarm. The storage nodes use a custom swarm key to ensure that they can only talk to other nodes using the same key. This also prevents Shift nodes being used to host and deliver content that was added outside of the Shift network which should improve reliability and performance. In order to store data permanently, IPFS implements a concept called pinning. Pinning content means that the content will be available permanently (or until it is unpinned). By default the pinning only applies to a single peer that it is pinned to, but that means if that machine goes offline, the content can be lost. The way around this is by using an IPFS cluster: a subnet (or private net) running the IPFS daemon, containing only Shift peers. The Shift cluster runs as a wrapper around the IPFS daemon. It allows the end user to connect a group of IPFS nodes together so that content can be stored and replicated within the group. The cluster elects a leader to be in charge of keeping track of which content is available in which locations. Shift is meant to disrupt the web hosting industry. The company has created Phantom which is a decentralized app to host websites. It does so through the Shift IPFS rather than the normal way a website is hosted. By using this ‘killer dApp’, the company is of the opinion that a business gets a chance of succeeding in the current competitive world. Because Shift is an open-source platform, developers of dApps are free to use the company’s script. This is made even easier by the fact that Shift Company has used Javascript which is popular language among dApp developers. According to the company, every dApp created using the Shift script can access the IPFS cluster to store data. This will be made possible by the use of a P2P hypermedia distribution protocol, an interplanetary file system which the company created. Even though the Shift has been around since 2015, the team only released the whitepaper on March the 5th 2018. The whitepaper is a bit technical but well detailed. Remember that the crypto is built with dApps developers in mind. It might not be a very good investment opportunity for a person who doesn’t understand dApps and Javascript. But at the end of the day, it is a volatile crypto which is one of the most important features to look for as a trader.