Quarkcoin is a coin which increases security by using 9 rounds of hashing from 6 different hashing algorithms - blake, bmw, grøstl, JH, keccak, skein. 3 of the hashing rounds apply a random hashing function. This compares with Bitcoin's solitary use of SHA-256 algorithm. There is no pre-mine for this coin. A new block is generated every 30 seconds and 2048 Quark is given out as reward per block at the beginning. This reward halves every 60480 blocks or roughly every 3 weeks. The initial supply of Quark is 247 million and this is expected to be mined in roughly 6 months since launch date. The supply will then continue to increase at an inflationary rate of 0.5% per year. Quarkcoin was launched on 21 July 2013.
Blue Whale Foundation, The Decentralized Ecosystem for the Self-Employed Blue Whale is set to rock the gig economy’s boat by building a decentralized ecosystem to allow freelancers and the self-employed to reap rewards and employment benefits from their contributions Against the backdrop of technological disruption and offshoring, the “gig/sharing economy” is burgeoning globally. Freelancers will make up a whopping 58% of the US workforce by 2027. Consequently, peer-to-peer booking platforms like AirBnB and Uber have seen a meteoric rise in demand accompanying these shifts in the job market. As the definition of work changes and evolves, the difficulties encountered by freelancers and part-time workers such as the lack of protection, and the insecurity of self-employment will only worsen. This not only affects the growing mass of freelancers, but also ruptures the social contract between workers and governments. Consumer protections have also weakened because of the murky legal relationship between freelancers and their host platforms. This simmering dissatisfaction has created popular backlash, as concerned governments in several countries such as France have begun to crack down on platforms like Uber and AirBnB. Despite these worrying trends, no workable remedy has been proposed - until now. The Blue Whale Foundation’s ICO is set to rock the boat of the gig/sharing economy by leveraging on blockchain as a service to provide freelancers with employment benefits such as paid-time-off, and retirement pensions traditionally available only to salaried employees.