The Skycoin Platform is the most advanced blockchain platform in the world. Developed by early contributors to both Bitcoin and Ethereum, Skycoin’s platform is completely secure, infinitely scalable, and ISP independent. It uses its own specific distributed consensus algorithm, called Obelisk, instead of other commonly used algorithms like proof of work (POW) and proof of stake (POS). Obelisk uses the concept of ‘web of trust dynamics’ which distributes influence over the network and makes consensus decisions depending upon the influence score of each node. Each node subscribes to a select number of other network nodes, and the density of a node’s network of subscribers determines its influence on the network. Skycoin is very fast. With transaction speeds close to 2 seconds and no transaction fees it can rival any other cryptocurrency on the market as a payment method. The transaction costs of Skycoin are covered by Coin Hours. This is value paid to Skycoin holders for each hour they hold a Skycoin. Skycoin is against charging transaction costs and mining incentives as it only drives up the costs of the network. The biggest benefit of Skycoin is that it is energy efficient due to the Web-of-Trust social proof. It can even run on a 30-watt cell phone processor making it great for mobile payments. Centralization becomes less of an issue when anyone can participate in the blockchain. Sia stores tiny pieces of your files on dozens of nodes across the globe. This eliminates any single point of failure and ensures highest possible uptime, on par with other cloud storage providers. A major goal of Skycoin is to promote actual usage of cryptocurrency rather than speculation. Skywire, the flagship application of Skycoin, has the ambitious goal of decentralizing the internet at the hardware level and is about to begin the testnet in April. However, this is just one of the many facets of the Skycoin ecosystem. Skywire will not only provide decentralized bandwidth but also storage and computation, completing the holy trinity of commodities essential for the new internet. Skycoin also has its own ICO platform called Fiber, their own deterministic programming language, CX, derived from Golang, a private decentralized messenger system called Sky-Messenger, and a decentralized social media platform, BBS. Here is another way to think of Skycoin: An open-source, community-owned, hardware-based peer to peer internet designed from first principles and leveraging the incentive system of the blockchain.
Consensus is the open-sourced, decentralized artificial intelligence platform, powered by native cryptocurrency, and built with the vision to improve the governance mechanisms at all levels of organizational structures: community, startup, non-profit, enterprise, city, county or the entire country. Once fully realized, Consensus AI will be able to offer automated, data-driven solutions to the most complex problems of our collective co-existence by modelling the potential outcomes of proposed changes. Consensus will help govern communities, societies and countries in a more cost efficient, transparent and progressive manner. This will be implemented via collective voting, initiatives proposal and funding, execution reporting and intelligent algorithms that will perform project analysis and model the outcomes with the efficiency, budgetary concerns, social, environmental and other factors under consideration. Mission The mission of Consensus is to achieve collective governance based on interdependence using advanced technologies. Abstract There are three main components to the Consensus system: the Sentient blockchain network built with verified nodes that allows running distributed machine learning, the Research Platform with extended data collection and modelling capabilities and the AI Advisor — a standalone system constantly monitoring and learning from the incoming available data that is used to make predictions. Later stages of development will include internally and externally built Dapps for various governance applications.