QASH (pronounced “cash”) is the native currency for the Quoine (pronounced “coin”) which is now rebranded to Liquid. Liquid is a global cryptocurrency firm looking to solve the liquidity problems that have surfaced with crypto investments. Liquid brings liquidity to the cryptocurrency space by providing a means for you to easily buy cryptocurrency with and cash-out to fiat. Currently, each crypto exchange has its own level of liquidity that differs between the trading pairs it offers. This creates individual silos that may have great liquidity on one exchange but not on another. The Liquid platform connects these silos into one combined pool to give you the greatest liquidity possible. The Liquid World Book compiles the orders and prices from exchanges around the world into one order book for you to use. This gives any trader, no matter their location, the ability to use the fiat currency of their choice when purchasing or selling crypto. It removes the liquidity silos of separate exchanges and gives more trading power to previously underserved markets. The Prime Brokerage half of the Quoine Liquid platform basically gives you access to the features outlined in the previous World Book section. With Prime Brokerage, you have direct market access to all exchanges in the World Book without having to create an account on each individual exchange. Furthermore, Quoine has been building partnerships with a network of banks over the last several years to ensure the quick transfer of your fiat funds. QASH is an ERC20 token you use to pay for services on the Liquid platform. Beyond that, QASH holders may also receive discounts, promotional products, and ICO investment opportunities with coins that Quoine helps to launch. The team also emphasizes in their whitepaper that other organizations may use it for their own purposes similar to how some financial institutions use the Ripple XRP token. Because Quoine enters a few different financial sectors, the company has quite a few competitors. As a credit facility, the company competes with SALT. On the exchange side, there are numerous other businesses like Binance specializing in alternative coins or Gemini and Coinbase focusing on fiat to crypto conversions. Mike Kayamori (CEO) and Mario Gomez Lozada (President and CTO) founded Quoine in 2014. Kayamori was previously a Senior Vice President at SoftBank Group and was the Chief Investment Officer of Gungho Asia. Lozada was the CTO of Merrill Lynch in Japan for 11 years before taking the Chief Information Officer role at Credit Suisse Japan. Quoine is the first cryptocurrency firm in the world to be officially licensed by the Japan Financial Services Agency (FSA). The Liquid platform is actually the result of combining two previous platforms, Quoinex and Qryptos. At one time, those two trading platforms were performing over $12 billion of transactions each year.
Waltonchain is a genuine, trustworthy and traceable business ecosystem with complete data sharing and absolute information transparency. It is created by the combination of technologies of RFID and blockchain, which push forwards the integration of block chain and the Internet of Things. Waltonchain combines blockchain with IoT (specifically RFID) to create a management system for supply chains. The project is named after Charlie Walton, the inventor of RFID technology and a pioneer in the space. Logistics systems are complex and commonly involve several different parties. As these systems grow, it becomes increasingly tough for businesses in the same vertical to coordinate with each other. On top of that, individual entities may have different processes that further hinder the ability to transfer data back and forth. Waltonchain uses RFID identification to track products during each step of production and distribution. The data associated with each item is stored on an immutable blockchain that ensures its accuracy no matter where in the process it is.The Waltonchain team is loaded with supply chain experience. Do Sanghyuk, one of the co-founders, was previously the Director of the Korean Standard Products Association. The other co-founder, Xu Fangcheng was the Supply Chain Management Director of Septwolves Group Ltd. The team is getting support from their Chief Scientist Advisor, Kim Sukku – a former vice president of Samsung. Waltonchain has no shortage of partnerships – several of which are with Chinese provincial governments. The team is working with the Fujian government to create a “smart maritime” blockchain incubator, and with the Jinhu government to build smart air purification and monitoring systems. The Waltonchain architecture makes use of a novel consensus mechanism known as Proof-of-Stake & Trust (PoST). Waltonchain innovates on the traditional proof-of-stake (PoS) model and integrates a node reputation based system into the consensus mechanism. PoST provides for adjustable difficulty for each node, to ensure that integrity in the ecosystem is rewarded. Waltonchain also gives sub-chain developers the option to choose their own consensus mechanism, for example, sub-chains can strictly just have PoS as a consensus mechanism, and not PoST. Waltonchain, by use of its RFID technology, has introduced a novel way with which blockchain can solve not only the inefficiencies found with supply chain management, but also IoT.