Mithril is a decentralized ecosystem on the ethereum blockchain. It is a system that rewards users who engage in “social mining”. Mithril rewards users for the impact their content may have in viewers and the popularity it attracts, such as number of likes and views. In the blockchain network and cryptocurrency, Mithril is a very innovative idea that aims to change the way we think about social media entirely. This particular innovation will decentralize and reward social media content creators in a fair and open way.The process of building a social media platform from the scratch is a long, rigorous and exhausting one. Even though blockchain based social media platforms are not new innovations, they usually cannot interact with existing platforms. The Mithril integration protocol permits MITH mining on all social media networks. Therefore, Mithril can also leverage existing sites for their own purposes. In addition, it permits content influencers to make use of their pre-existing followers network to mine Mithril. This acts as a big plus to the Mithril ecosystem. It requires less stress and work than establishing followers on an entirely new platform. It also helps Mithril to have an edge and a bigger pool of users. This means that, content providers only need to start making use of the Mithril integration protocol in order to make more money. Instead of an ICO, Mithril held a private crowdsale where 400,000,000 MITH was distributed and 50,000,000 was retained by the Mithril team for development and marketing. Mithril MITH tokens are mined by participating on partner applications and this social mining is a gamechanger. Creating and sharing content earns Mithril MITH, which can then be spent with partner applications. Because mythril is a crafting ingredient in the Final Fantasy video game series, online searches for how to spend MITH have these pages mixed in, which will likely continue for several years until the platform gains enough big-name retail spending partners to rise up SEO rankings. MITH is currently available on Bithumb and OKEx, but more exchanges will likely list the token soon. Although exchanges are never the best place to store your cryptocurrencies due to security concerns, this is one possibility. Better would be to store them using an ERC-20 wallet that allows you to add custom tokens, such as MyEtherWallet, MyCrypto, or Coinfy. Although the Mithril platform and its flagship social network Lit are still in fairly early development, as an early mover, they are poised to be a leader in the decentralized social networking space. If Mithril gets its way, centralized social networking companies may soon have worthy competitors that offer users more control of their data while rewarding people for creating the content that is ultimately the life-blood of all social networks.
Crypto.com, the pioneering payments and cryptocurrency platform, seeks to accelerate the world’s transition to cryptocurrency. The MCO Token Sale was conducted in May-June 2017 and raised US$26.7 million. MCO Card is a Visa-branded debit card that draws from a cryptocurrency-funded bank account. Since it’s a Visa card, you can use your MCO Visa card just like you would any other card. The card and bank account are free for holders of cryptocurrency. In order to open an account, you simply sign up, verify your identity, and transfer any of the various accepted cryptocurrencies to your account. At this time, the Visa card is available to customers in Asia. They also have a waitlist for European customers. Customers in the United States does not have access to it at the moment. However, there are plans to change that. Solving the problem of everyday payments has the potential to be huge for cryptocurrency. However, MCO Visa card is not the only project attempting to create crypto-backed debit (or prepaid) cards. Other projects, such as TenX, are working on the same issue. All of these projects run into challenges implementing such cards in a large scale, compliant manner. Crypto.com hopes to crack the code, ultimately getting cryptocurrencies and popular payment methods to play nicely together. Crypto.com was founded in June 2016 in Switzerland and rebranded from Monaco on 6th July 2018. Their first prototype was developed in October of that year. In February of 2017, they were accepted into a Hong Kong Government backed Cyberport incubation program, where they developed their platform until they were ready to launch their token sale in 2017. The sale closed in June with $26.7 million in funding. Their app became available to pre-registered users in August 2017, followed by the official partnership with Visa in October. The team consists of seasoned veterans in the fin-tech space, most of whom have experience in Asia, where Monaco Cards have first been made available. Since MCO Visa cards are backed by cryptocurrency, they don’t have border issues like fiat currencies. As a result, you can use your card anywhere you go. The card will automatically default to the local fiat currency when you make a purchase. The low fees and exchange rates also apply in other countries. Transactions take place at the exact exchange rate that Crypto.com receives as an institutional trader. In contrast, when you use your debit card across borders with most banks, they’ll add an additional percentage to the exchange rate or include a transaction fee. Crypto.com has connections with eight of the top ten international foreign exchange banks to facilitate currency conversion. The MCO Visa card is a compelling option for anyone looking to make everyday purchases with cryptocurrency. It also makes sense for cross-border travelers. However, we can expect the rollout to take a long time and hit a lot of bumps along the way. The financial industry is highly regulated and cryptocurrency-backed payments is a complex issue, even if Crypto.com's solution seems to make it simple and user-friendly.