Edgeless Casino

Online gambling was valued more than $40 billion in 2016. However, when you engage in online betting you have two main problems: Transparency and Price. There are unfriendly users rules, all players have to wait for payouts and gamble with more than 5% house edge. What is maybe most important is that players don't know what is going on inside the servers and how everything function and work. So that means that it could be rigged. Users must rely on the casino because cooperation is the only way to keep the customers happy and satisfied. 2008 was a great year for online gambling because Bitcoin casinos solved the gambling price problem. 

They offered instant money transaction with anonymity and small house edge. Crypto currency gambling has grown by 37% from 2015 and it has become the main choice for many online gamblers. But still, it has not solved the problem of transparency. The edgeless casino is the solution for your problems because it is the first casino with 0% edge with full transparency and possibility to increase your market shares in order to become a sustainable business. Edgeless betting is a form of gambling that uses 0% of house edge equation as a playing principle. 

How to make a profit by using Edgeless Casino?

There are several different ways to make Edgeless Casino profitable business. First, it provides you with games that depend on a combination of luck and skill and most important, sports betting. 

The difference between Edgeless and traditional casino:
• 0% house edge — Games are based on skill and luck, if you play perfect, you can have 0% edge gambling service. However, if you make the mistake that could give you a disadvantage.
• Instant and free money withdrawals — If you transfer your tokens to provide an instant money deposit or withdrawal you don't have to wait anymore for two days, everything happens instantly.
• Full transparency — It is based on number generator in Ethereum Smart Contact that is completely public. Everyone can see everything that is happening inside the servers.
• No registrations/logins for casino users and 100% anonymity — Wallets are anonymous and there are no any registrations because edgeless casinos protect your anonymity

Phases of Edgeless Casino Project:

1. In the first phase, you can engage in decentralized price pool with more than 40% of casinos profits. You have a chance to win EDG tokens, and to relocate your investments into a bankroll in order to pay out wins for the first wave.
2. The second phase is important because funds must be allocated into a prevention Edgeless Casino's bankroll in order to pay out larger wins. If the bankroll is increased, then the wager is bigger, too.
3. In the third phase, we can expect a development of a new game that is based on luck and skill, similar to black Jack and the game with micro limit dice.
4. In fourth, it is important to engage in sports betting scale that could provide you additional funds that could compensate your investment in order to stay competitive.
5. The Grand Vision is a platform where you can easily develop your own casinos in order to make an impact on casino industry all around the world.


TheCrowdsale begins on February 28th at 3 pm GMT and in the first week you can expect for 1 ETH 1100 EDG, in second 1050 EDG and in the thirds one for 1000 EDG. 
US citizens are not legally allowed to participate in Edgeless Project crowdsale 

Resources

Bitcointalk.org 
Website 
Whitepaper

Decentralised Edgeless Casino

Have you been disappointed by many casinos that are not fair and transparent to their players? Currently, many casino players are forced to believe that they will obtain fairness though most of them rig the game in secret for them to record huge profits. Most players have the odds placed against them. There are more than 50 casinos that have been blacklisted for their unethical practices. Transparency and trust are the most difficult practices to find in many online casinos. Online casinos can easily cheat their players, without them noticing it. This is because it is even hard for them to determine whether they cheated on their customers or not. This article will provide all the technical information about Edgeless Casino that you need to know. 

The Edgeless project aims at tackling transparency as a major casinos problem and probably become the best casinos in the world. Features that make edgeless casino unique compared to other casinos

100% transparent

This is a unique feature that completely redefines how players will approach this gambling industry. This is made possible because the casino has Ethereum smart contract that will help players to achieve 0% house edge. This makes the servers of the casino to be accessed by almost everybody who might be interested. Most players have faith that the casino cannot cheat on them. The shareholders disclose the amount of profit they have earned during a specific period. The casino sets aside about 40% of its revenues to go to Edgeless lounge price pool. 
- The casino has a strong competitive advantage than other players because of its high degree of transparency.
- The casino will offer many online gambling games that include;0%edge video poker, dice, black jack, and sport betting
- The edgeless casino has completely revolutionized how casinos operate and the changed the way people approach it.
- The casino will be launched soon, but the company is raising money through its crowd sale event popularly known as the initial coin offering.



Crowdfunding is where the shareholders can purchase digital tokens that can be used as currency and to validate your membership. Players who hold the EDG tokens can request to take part in a lottery when they can earn a lot of money.

The crowdfunding campaign is scheduled to start on 28th February 2017 at 3.00PM GMT. The campaign targets to raise around 360000ETH only by selling tokens to players.The Edgeless casino is no doubt the most transparent casino that you absolutely need to try out! 

Please note: US citizens are not legally allowed to participate in Edgeless Project crowdsale 

QTUM | UTXO based POS Smart Contract Platform

A new project called Qtum has been made by the Singapore-based Quantum Foundation that arrangements to merge the Bitcoin convention with QTUM Innovation. The open source project incorporates the Ethereum Virtual Machine with Bitcoin's Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) model and intends to give brilliant contracts to organizations around the world. 

The Qtum team has been looking closely at the territories in which Bitcoin fails to adapt and grabs this opportunity to differentiate itself. Banks and other financial institutions for example, find in bitcoin a strong competitor, however not all banks and institutions have the resources, funds and knowledge in-house available to adapt or exploit the possibilities of the blockchain. And this is where Qtum steps in. With Qtum's Blockchain for businesses, they can easily adapt and integrate this praised technology in their mainstream operations. Question is however; if and when these organization will adapt this technology? 

A Project That Mixes Bitcoin Code With Ethereum's Virtual Machine

The project Qtum is an intriguing decentralized app (Dapp) that joins the Bitcoin customer 0.13, Proof of Stake (PoS), and the Ethereum Virtual Machine to empower shrewd contract administrations. The project has likewise gotten $1 million in subsidizing from speculators, for example, Fenbushi accomplice Bo Shen, Ethereum prime supporter Anthony Di lorio, BitFund originator Xiaolai Li. Qtum will likely give an esteem exchange convention Dapp stage with the best properties of both projects. 

"Qtum incorporated the EVM onto an UTXO-based blockchain, and composing contracts for this ought to be similarly as simple with respect to Ethereum, yet you get the advantages of the UTXO show," clarifies Qtumdesigner Jordan Earlz. "These advantages incorporate versatile/light wallet bolster by SPV, a more steady model (while Ethereum has forked commonly to settle issues with this), and similarity with existing Bitcoin apparatuses and conventions." 

The Qtum Project Will Deploy Master Contracts and Incentivized Proof of Stake

The Qtum improvement group subtle elements how the stage will permit both brilliant contracts and ace contracts that incorporate off-chain information. The Qtum project discloses to the distribution 8btc that ace contracts finish a great deal more than average keen contracts. 

"An agreement marked by two banks could be ended with the accord of the two banks alone," states the Quantum Foundation. An ace contract gives add up to control to the agreement endorsers over the execution or end of the contracts. That is a copy of genuine situation. The Master Contract is an extraordinary stride forward, conveying new potential to the blockchain application and augmenting the idea of the savvy contract. 

The project additionally claims to be the first to actualize a savvy contract framework using Bitcoin's UTXO while likewise coordinating a Proof of Stake instrument. The system agreement is alluded to as IPOS (Incentivized Proof of Stake) which the engineers say compensates the system members. 

Extensive Testing, Sparknet and Utilizing the Most Stable Blockchain

The Qtum group has constructed two Dapp projects so far including Spring Email and Qloha. Both administrations use cryptocurrency arrangements that improve informing applications and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (STMP). As per the group, the Qtum project is amidst making desktop and portable wallets for its client base. After broad testing, the engineers plan to reveal its testnet application named "Sparknet" which will be the prelude to the official stage dispatch. Qtum additionally has revealed that the group will search out code surveys from autonomous people and associations willing to explore different avenues regarding the project. 

The project is satisfied to use the Bitcoin convention inside the Qtum project, expressing that the Bitcoin blockchain is the most tried and true openly appropriated record accessible. 

"Bitcoin is the most developed, steady and secure blockchain accessible, in contrast with Ethereum, Bitshares or others which are still viewed as flimsy with the various issues and security issues they had since they were propelled," says the Qtum group. Notwithstanding Bitcoin having the greatest support from the group which offers a huge gathering of devices and programming identified with Bitcoin which can be utilized by quantum too, rather than alternate blockchains which now and then need even the least difficult programming. 

The strengths of the Qtum project will make Qtum, if they will al be released, a strongholder and perhaps the only true bitcoin killer app. Because it's interesting to see their technical approach in action and hopefully we will be able to see it in the near future. 

Ethereum

Ethereum, what is it? It could best described as a public - blockchain based distribution platform, having smart contract functionality as one amongst it main features, it basically partakes in the approval and working of peer to peer contracts, bought through their own personalized cryptocurrency called the "ether".

How do you buy "ethers"?
Well, it's as simple as it could be, just top up your BTC account using your debit/credit card, create an Ethereum e-wallet on the website, and convert those BTC to ethers and you are good to go! But should you even buy ethers, and what is all this hullabaloo about smart contracts?Smart contracts are basically a means to an end, a facilitator to help you reach the end desired goal, it could help you in one of these many ways for contracting, facilitating, neglecting or putting to use, and checking the performance of the contract based on set rigid standards and parameters.

They could be called as metahumans if we are to indulge! Smart contracting helps you offload the task that you could bring tedium and boredom in your day to day tasks, it could automate the most repetitive of tasks without much human intervention, helping you create an additional amount of free time to spend with yourself, doing what you like or charting greener pastures. Applications, where do you use this product?The applications are wide and varying and not restricted to some particular field of work, let me elucidate it for you a little further,Since it is an artificial intelligence based app, let's start from that avenue itself!Some of the hip apps being developed utilizing the Ethereum platform are the ones as mentioned below, it should be read as the ones under construction that add the most amount of value.

1. Creative 
Making google maps more creative, interactive and easier to use A company by the name of the vevue project has already made forays under this category, allowing any or everyone to put 30 seconds or more duration videos on their platform giving a 3D view of a site or street in question.

The incentive provided would be pocketing a few and apt amount of BTC along the way, consumer and the product, all gay and happy!

2. Identity Protection 
We live in a world wherein everything has gone 'digital', and there is a marked possibility of the identity of a person being used to elicit ill-conceived gains, this is where Ethereum comes into the picture! With the rigorous blockchain based identity safe proofing mechanism, it would be easier to pinpoint the exact identity of the person in question!

3. Crowdfunding. 
Let the ideas flow in. Have a well-meaning, researched, world-altering idea at your disposal? Don't know how to get funding to embark upon a territory much unknown?

Then Ethereum could help you still be on track, with the extensive pool of block chain created, it becomes easier for a person to access pots of funding from any willing investor, having related to your project idea. And while utilizing Ethereum, you don't have to worry about the contractual part, this intricately build service takes care of all of the heckles for you!

So, what are you waiting for douse your fingers in this venture, and Ethereum away! Because with Ethereum you got the freedom about your own money and yes you have many options to use is.

If Ethereum is a bitcoin killer, the future will tell, but having used if for over a year now, I have to say I love Ethereum!

Umbra Buy, Trade and Chat while ensuring your privacy

Almost all the people who communicate or do transactions via the internet are concerned about their privacy. In fact, it is extremely important to ensure your privacy if you don't want to run into any trouble in the future. Several methods are available for you to communicate or do transactions via internet while ensuring your privacy. Umbra can be considered as a perfect example for such a method. 

What exactly is Umbra? Umbra can simply be defined as a complete solution for privacy. It was developed by Shadow Project after conducting an extensive research about the online privacy requirements of people. A lot of people are concerned about their online privacy, but they don't have a clear understanding on the necessary measures that they need to take in order to ensure it. That's the main reason why the developers of Umbra wanted to make it user friendly as much as possible. 

Features

Umbra comes along with a wide array of impressive features as well. These features range from communication to commerce. The entire platform is based on Shadow Network. As a result, it uses the private and untraceable currency offered by Shadow, which is known as Shadow Cash. People who use Shadow Cash are provided with the freedom and privacy to transfer cash according to the way they want. In other words, people who use Shadow Cash don't need to worry about anything when doing transactions. 

Another impressive feature about Umbra is its anonymous chat system. This messaging system is based on Shadow Chat. Shadow Chat is an encrypted and decentralized instant messaging system, which has the ability to keep all conversations private. In fact, all the messages that are sent through this system are encrypted by AES-256-CBC algorithm. Moreover, all the messages are transferred in between nodes in such a way to keep away all the recipients from being inferred by assailants. This chat system can be used to send direct messages to anyone completely secure and private. Or else, the users are provided with the freedom to organize team conversations through channels. In fact, the users can create a channel for a specific team or a topic. If you are planning to communicate sensitive information within a group, you can create a private channel while inviting the trusted team members. 

As mentioned earlier, Umbra has been designed to deliver the best possible user experience to all the users. Therefore, any person will be able to access it and use available functionalities without much hassle. The setting up process is convenient as well and the users can easily get connected to I2P or Tor within a short period of time. 

Umbra is compatible with Windows, Linux and Mac OS operating systems. Moreover, it is backed up by an excellent community forum, which can be used to clarify all the doubts in your mind. Therefore, Umbra can be considered as the best system designed for people who are looking to do transactions and communications in a secure manner. 

ShadowCash Specifications

• Block time: 60's
• Difficulty re-target: every block
• Nominal stake interest: 2% (PoSv3 – static inflation annually)
• Min. stake age: 8 hours (no max age)
• P2P port: 51737
• RPC port: 51736

Read more about the Shadow project here. Information about Umbra can be found here. 

Ethereum - The Next-Level Virtual Platform

Ethereum is a platform which is capable of creating applications that speed up program transactions without the need for a 3rd party or a middle company. Since it functions independently, it eliminates the presence of delays, discrepancies and breach to information. 

This highly advanced platform is mainly centered on three major smart contracts. These contracts allow you to:

• Build, issue and develop your own virtual currency
• Create a crowdfund for an upcoming project
• Start an organization

1. Build, issue and develop your own virtual currency
Ethereum creates applications which allow you to build your own form of currency and payment system with the use of a digital token that has its own business value. With the use of this application, you can set your digital tokens to a form of currency that can be stored, transacted and accepted by any virtual wallet that runs with similar preprogrammed codes. The value of these digital tokens can be set to a certain amount and operated based on your personal preference. Apps, specifically games, can run based on this type of currency. Hence, if you are a developer who wants to put value to an app that you created, you can turn transactions to digital coins or tokens that can take up the value of real money.

2. Create a crowdfund for an upcoming project

If you have a project which needs a certain amount of budget, you can create a crowdfund contract where interested individuals can contribute their money without the fear of being ripped off. This crowdfund contract can be set in a way that the money will be released after a certain goal is reached or accomplished. If you have a great idea which needs heavy funding, you can utilize Ethereum to carry out the process of obtaining appropriate resources to support your projects. 

Safe crowdfunding is a win-win situation for you as a creator as well as that of your contributors. You can accumulate funds for a project you want to start. On the other hand, your contributors feel safe knowing that their money is directed towards a meaningful goal that will also bring them gains in the long run. 

3. Start an organization

Ethereum's application enables you to start your own democratic organization while utilizing the skills of a virtual robot that takes care of all voting processes and releases the results among all members. This kind of autonomic organization takes care of all proposals and credits all selections for a completely unrestricted and unbiased form of virtual administration. 

You can start an organization without personal biases affecting the voting, decision-making and agreement between you and your members. 

The Benefits of Ethereum

Ethereum is a platform that is capable of creating applications that eliminates breaches and downtimes in a project and organization. It operates based on its Ethereum Virtual Machine which is a form of online system that accepts tokens as a form of value exchange. 

This blockchain platform executes its functions based on a series of computer protocols or smart contracts which were previously mentioned in this article. 

Powered by: CryptoDir.com

https://www.cryptodir.com/news/news/ethereum-the-next-level-virtual-platform.html 

Taas - Token as a service

TaaS is a revolutionary project that allows investors to capitalize on the rise of block chain markets. This business model does not involve all those technicalities barriers that are associated with transferring or trading crypto currencies. For you to have the clearest picture of what the project Taas is all about, you need to have very good knowledge on what the block chain is Block chains is a peer-to-peer database that maintains a list of Records called blocks. The blocks are linked by state-of-the-art cryptography which secures the data This makes alterations virtually impossible. The first block chain was conceptualized by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 as a key component of the digital currency bit coins where it serves as the public ledger for all transactions. The invention of block chain for Bit coin inspired entrepreneurs all over the world to design crypto currencies and tokens for other decentralized applications. There is a unique chance for enthusiasts, early adapters and professional investors to join this project not just ideologically, but also financially. 

What makes the TaaS project unique?

The traditional investment funds pool capital from individuals and then attempt to produce consistent capital. This is how the traditional model operates. The drawback of old economy however is that investors have to rely on management's trustworthiness and credibility to make sure they get the value of their money. Taas allows any investor to capitalize on the rise of block chain markets without dealing with technical barriers associated with owning, transferring or trading crypto currencies. TaaS is the first ever tokenized closed-end fund designated to crypto currencies. TaaS tokens are built on a profit-sharing smart contract that utilizes its cerium technology. Every three months, a smart contract rewards token owners with fifty percent of TaaS fund profit. An additional twenty five percent is reinvested back into the fund allowing net asset value of token growth overtime. 

How does the Taas model work?

The closest real-world example of the TaaS model is a closed-end fund. Just as a company going public, a closed-end fund offers its shares during the first offer to the public. 

The best thing about the TaaS project

The obvious expectation that every investor will be looking for is transparency. The Taas project has built an innovative cryptographic audit technology. Cryptographic audit is a complex software the monitors trading activity and hashes data onto a block chain. It makes possible for anyone to validate Taas trading history and portfolio balances. The TaaS project is a revolutionary model that is one of its own as far as investment in crypto currencies are concerned. 

The Goals TaaS has announced

1. Proof of Reserves

   We will give preference to using exchanges that have Proof of Solvency (PoS) implemented; cold storage reserves can be audited, as in Poloniex and Kraken.

2. Auditable Exchange Accounts

   For each account that is going to be used for trading on the exchanges we will create a view-only API key that will allow anyone to verify the balance and trade history of the account. We believe that this does not increase security risk, as it is already known that exchanges are managing large volumes of cryptocurrency and we have an account with every major exchange. TaaS will be hosting an audit page with full list of API keys and aggregate account information, automatically pulled from the exchanges by our service. It looks similar to Tether implementation.

3. Proof of Reserves for Non-Exchange Accounts

   For all non-exchange accounts, such as cold storage addresses, that will be used for storage of our funds we will provide a proof of ownership: transaction with special marker in OP_RETURN (or similar feature, depending on a blockchain protocol) will be sent from each account in order to verify that the account in question belongs to TaaS.

4. Proof of Reserves for Fiat Accounts

   We will use TLSNotary or similar solution to provide a cryptographic proof of fiat currency reserves in our bank and exchange accounts. In short, this can be achieved by recording SSL signatures of online banking sessions.

5. Regular Blockchain Snapshots

   To have the proof that nobody mismanaged data between the audits, a special smart contract will be developed to hold the daily snapshots of audit data forever. The contract will be supplied with a convenient contract explorer.

The upcoming Bitcoin ETF

A couple of bitcoin ETFs are undergoing the approval process of regulation. The one that has undergone the process for the longest time is the Winklevoss bitcoin ETF. This process has been ongoing for the past 3 and so years. 

Bats has filed a proposed change of rule, which would necessitate listing of the ETF.Bats is the exchange that ETF would be listed on. The process has taken long since the SEC has chosen to extend the decision-making time. However, the decision will be, made by Match 11.

The SEC is considering a few factors in the process of coming up with this decision. The main factor is Bitcoin itself and the SEC is wondering if the digital cash is suitable for ETF since it is not under any form of regulatory monitoring. The SEC is also wondering about the stability, fairness, and efficiency of the markets in which the Bitcoin trades on and if the markets are subject to any form of market manipulation.

Moreover, SEC is considering the Bitcoin reference price and how the Bitcoin would securely be stored.

In the case Bitcoin would be adopted after approval by SEC, it would attract at least $300 million in the first week. A lot of institutional capital would flow into the Bitcoin due to its registration since most institutional fund managers have mandates that make them put funds into registered securities.

The effect of this is drying up of liquidity since everyone wants to buy the Bitcoin and hold it. Additionally, the public will stop seeing Bitcoin as a currency for purchasing illegal goods leading to a lot of People saving Bitcoins. Hence, the chance that regulators would enact regulation against Bitcoin would decrease. All these positive effects would eventually lead to an increase in the price of Bitcoin.

About Bitcoin

Bitcoin is digital cash that is peer to peer and that is also not issued by any central authority. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority or banks; managing transactions and the issuing of bitcoins is carried out collectively by the network. Bitcoin is open-source; its design is public, nobody owns or controls Bitcoin and everyone can take part. Through many of its unique properties, Bitcoin allows exciting uses that could not be covered by any previous payment system

A helpful guide into Bitcoin crowdfunding; Initial Coin Offering (ICO's) and initial public offering (IPO)

Most people know about coins like Bitcoin and Litecoin as well as Ethereum, but there are many other altcoins out there and many ICOs that you can invest into- but what are they and how do you join one? It's actually very simple and can be profitable if you select the right ones.

First of all, Altcoins are just all cryptocurrencies that aren't Bitcoin. Monero, ZCash, you name it, they are all altcoins. There are also tokens like Iconomi in the world that are incorrectly called altcoins- they are actually assets and not even that closely related to coins. Some of them use different algorithms to mine like Burstcoin which uses hdd mining to distribute its coins to users and some even only have PoS, and some with PoS and PoW like Peercoin. No matter what they do and what they are, they are all mostly called altcoins and you can call them altcoins as well.

ICOs are a way for altcoin makers to make money and help distribute coins to the community. Some very successful ICOs include Iconomi and Ethereum, of which the latter was very, very successful. If you invested in the Ethereum ICO you would have made many times your initial investment- this is not common nowadays as there are many more investors than there were previously, but profit is still possible. If you're looking for profit by investing into ICOs, you'll find there are a lot of coins that want attention and money, and it can be difficult trying to find the right ICO.

Some guidelines to follow with altcoins include effort and the method of coin distribution after the ICO, total supply, and also coin price. Be wary of poorly created coins and ones that don't have much effort in them as chances are the coin will be dumped for money or something similar if there is a premine. If a coin has a very fast method of distribution but a high price, the price of the coin will drop very quickly and you will lose money if you invest into it most of the time. Some coins also have too high of a price to be viable to invest in, even if the cause is good. Most such coins with high prices are hype coins and they usually die out very quickly, as do their prices- an example would be Zcash, which had an initial price in the thousands with no ICO or big premine. Price fell like a stone in the following weeks down to where it is, and there was even a big fork dividing ZClassic and normal ZCash. Striking the right balance is rare in the ICO world, but if you find a good altcoin to invest in, go with your gut. It can make you money or lose you money, but you have a good chance of making money either way if you follow these guidelines.

Tips

Look for a dev team not a one man team

Always check the company behind the crowdsale (website whois, members linkedin etc).

Check the portfolio/ skillset of the developers

How realistic is the roadmap; can it be executed

Never, but never invest more that you can afford to lose

Umbra - a new, privacy-centered cryptocurrency and messaging platform

With the advent of cryptocurrencies, privacy has gone to levels we would never have thought of just ten or twenty years ago- but despite all of that, there are still issues with privacy everywhere. You need to tumble and mix coins and make new wallets just to be able to send an 'anonymous' transaction that can possibly be traced right back to its source- why not just have a simple platform where all of that is removed and security is still there? Umbra does just that, and if you're interested in a plaform like it, stick with us. 

Encrypted Messages

Many platforms like Skype all have one major flaw- and that is the fact that the ip of the person you are chatting with can easily be retrieved and used. You don't want a DDOS against you, or malicious things done, right? Umbra makes this easy and secure with seamlessly easy transfers- all you need is the address and a private key from that address, and you are ready to go. All transfers are heavily encrypted, so there is no need for mixing, unlike Bitcoin. Note that you can transfer your funds from a private address to a public address and vice-versa; by using the public address transfers, you're getting slightly better support than with the Bitcoin platform, but private is an entirely different story. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, you can even make open channels and groups with Umbra- similar to Teamspeak or Mumble. You can discuss whatever you wish to discuss on that platform, and everybody has access- it's all transparent. Or if you wish, you can opt for private channels that are invite-only- the possiblities are endless. You can even Direct Message with Umbra- they provide a great messaging system for you to send messages, and as always, it's completely encrypted and constantly being updated for your convenience. 

The Currency

As with all cryptocurrencies, there has to be a main currency being used with transfers- in this case, it's Shadowcash- similar to Monero, Umbra's Shadowcash uses dual-key addresses and ring signatures that automatically 'tumble' coins to make sure transactions are completely private- all with a touch of a button. Like we mentioned before a few sentences ago, Umbra has a private and public account- you can stake easily with the public account balance( note that this is not completely anonymous; for complete secrecy, you may want to use the private account) and send stealthy funds to whoever you wish to send the funds to. And all of it is transferrable with a touch of a button- you won't get stuck coins with Umbra! As such, you will be able to create digital marketplaces with this coin using its anonymous sending features- just like with Monero, we expect this coin will be adopted onto darkweb markets; it's not a guarantee, but it's probably a good choice for those sites since this coin is so private. If you want even more added security, because there's already so many basic features inside of it, you can even further encrypt data to make your account and messages even more uncrackable! With so many features added into it and so many way to use it, Umbra will be a very useful coin in the future, especially for those who like keeping their data intact and uncrackable. More about the Umbra project can be found on: umbra.shadowproject.io

LBRY – A new way to publish and share content online

People in today's world were looking for a convenient platform in order to publish content and get paid for them. LBRY came out in order to cater that demand. LBRY can simply be defined as a sharing platform, which is based on the blockchain technology. People can easily publish their content on this platform and monetize them through the built in payment system. It combines BitTorrent and Bitcoin services together in order to impress people who are looking forward to share content. 

People can publish all sorts of content, including eBooks, songs and movies on LBRY and share it in a cost effective manner. On the other hand, people who are looking for content can also think of visiting LBRY. LBRY comes along with a user friendly interface and people will never come across any issues when going through its interface. 

As mentioned earlier, LBRY is a combination of Bitcoin and BitTorrent. As a result, people can expect the unique features that they experienced from these two services through LBRY. They include flawed incentive structure, power of blockchain and many more. In addition, LBRY is a platform that was inspired by Uber and Airbnb. That's because LBRY provides an excellent platform for the young entrepreneurs in order to increase the productivity with minimum resources. 

LBRY helps people who publish content to monetize them in a convenient manner. This is powered by the built-in payment system. It comes along with its own payment system, which is facilitated through a crypto currency named LBRY Credits. When someone publishes something on LBRY, he/she is provided with the ability to set a price to it. People who wants to download or stream that content will have to make a payment. A large percentage of the payment goes directly to the publisher. The remaining amount is sent to the hosting providers who store the uploaded files. Apart from these two parties, nobody else gets a cut out of LBRY. The content publishers can also earn micropayments through LBRY. This flexibility in payment can impress both content publishers as well as people who access them. 

LBRY is designed in such a way so that it can become the first mass market crypto application. A large number of financiers and programmers in today's world prefer to use Bitcoin because of the convenience associated with it. However, people rarely use Bitcoin in their day to day life. LBRY is expected to change that trend. 

People access media content that is published on the internet in their day to day lives. LBRY can help them to make their lives easy. On the other hand, content publishers will be able to earn the right amount of money for the content that they publish on this platform. These benefits can contribute a lot towards the popularity of LBRY in the long run. Therefore, it would soon become the most preferred method among people to publish, share and access content they need. 

The pros and cons of Bitcoin ICO and crowdsales

Bitcoin ICO and crowd sales is a way of raising funds by floating a new cryptocurrency in the bitcoin market. It's more or less similar to a company's initial public offer (IPO) of shares in the stock exchange market. Whereas IPO's are highly regulated, ICO is not. Regardless of the above, bitcoin has enjoyed high success rate and this explains why many bitcoin altcoin ico projects are popping up. Indeed, going public is a pleasant experience and an exciting event as it offers countless advantages to both the bitcoin operations as well as the investor. Sadly, the move also has certain disadvantages.

Here are the pros and cons of bitcoin ICO and crowd sales to the investor.

Pros

Capital gain

Capital gain in ICO is an increase in the value of the initial investment that results to a higher worth than the offer or purchase price. Without a doubt, this is perhaps the major advantage of undertaking an ICO. A capital gain may be realized in short-term (a year or less) or in long-term (more than a year). There are countless bitcoin investors out there who have joined the millionaire's club by taking advantage of ICO's.

Ease of trade

Whether you intend to fully immerse yourself into cryptocurrency market or engage the services of a market expert, investing in bitcoin is as easy as a click of a mouse. Remember, the market is unregulated and so there are few hurdles or restrictions to its accessibility and participation. But just like any other investment, utmost diligence, as well as in-depth research in the sector, is critical to success.

Flexibility

There are a greater ease and flexibility of investing in Initial coin offer. There are no strict regulations and so one can choose to invest as much or as little capital as she wants. Actually, to hedge against the future poor performance of a given bitcoin, you can spread the risk by investing in several ICO's. Should the venture not go as predicted, an investor can easily change the strategy by simply chickening put. In ICO, no one is locked in for a fixed term and there aren't penalties for exiting.

Liquidity

Most cryptocurrencies are highly liquid assets. Should there arise a need of cash after a successful ICO, the investor can easily sell the bitcoins. So long as the bitcoins are from reputable platforms they will be sold within a short notice.

Abundant and rich Information

Investing blindly without understanding and knowledge is just pure speculation and relies entirely on luck. This need not happen when undertaking an ICO. Today, there is a lot of valuable information available online and from industry experts. Indeed, this information can help even greenhorns in the industry make an informed decision before buying into an ICO and afterward help them manage their bitcoin portfolios.

Cons

Scams

Bitcoin market isn't immune to scams and up to now, many investors still consider the industry new and simple industry jargons like bitcoin, cryptocurrency, ICO's and much more are new to them. Well, lack of knowledge common with new investor may be considered a risk in bitcoin altcoin ico projects. Many investors have fallen into scams in the name of ICO ripping them off their hard earned money. Therefore, transparency is key in any ICO and the investors need to be on the watch out before parting with their money. To be on the safe side, learn to work with industry experts.

Volatility

Like any other financial instrument, bitcoins are highly volatile. Do not be surprised if a well-performing bitcoin acquired in ICO suddenly fall in price. Countless factors can lead to this including industry speculation

Taas - Tokenized closed-end fund dedicated to blockchain markets

TaaS, the principal, ever tokenized shut end Finance (CEF) committed to blockchain resources, today reported its up and coming Initial Coin Offering, initiating March 27, 2017, and running until April 27, 2017. Using the Ethereum blockchain and its spearheading Cryptographic Audit innovation, TaaS will offer another approach to take part in and advantage from capital raising, support administration, and cryptocurrency contributing, all with full reviewing straightforwardness to financial specialists. 

Not at all like regular shut end stores, TaaS will issue tokens based on a benefit sharing savvy contract where token proprietors gather half of quarterly benefits. To develop the store's capital pool without pulling in the other venture, 25% of profits will be reinvested again into the reserve. The commence is, as the Net Asset Value of token increments after some time, TaaS tokens will have its esteem expressly fixing to the execution of its parent extend, hence presenting a Token-as-a-Service (TaaS) plan of action. 

Cryptographic Audit is an arrangement of self-ruling inspecting strategies that track, record and timestamp exchanging work. This innovation was worked by TaaS to guarantee all benefits are appropriately recorded, cash stream is straightforward, and the organization is in control of every pronounced store. By outline, it will disentangle financial specialists' expected perseverance and give instruments to greatest straightforwardness. 

TaaS will be open for speculation solely amid their month-long ICO. By consolidating a reward framework for early speculators, TaaS will offer 25% reward for the initial 1000 BTC raised with the reward framework diminishing all route logically up to 9000 BTC. TaaS will save 2% of the gathered assets for abundance programs. Notwithstanding their reserve, TaaS is building Kepler, a first Bloomberg-like cryptocurrency portfolio administration, and examination stage. Kepler will cover the whole range of the speculation procedure, giving statistical surveying, due to persistence and request management and additionally hazard presentation and execution estimating. 

Board individuals incorporate store management master John Wong and legal advisor Sergey Rabenko. Wong, in the past a venture investor at Lehman Brothers, has over 25 years' experience taking organizations openly and overseeing reserves. Rabenko is a legal advisor at the International Finance Corporation (an individual from the World Bank Group) with over 12 years' experience exhorting on legitimate, mergers and acquisitions, and duty issues.Token-as-a-Service (TaaS) is the last era shut end subsidize that permits its financial specialists to benefit from the ascent of blockchain markets. Using Ethereum blockchain and its Cryptographic Audit innovation, TaaS offers a fresh out of the box new far-reaching way to deal with capital raising, finance administration, and reviewing with full straightforwardness to its speculators. TaaS was helped to establish by Blockchain pioneers Konstantin Pysarenko, Ruslan Gavrilyuk, Dmytro Chupryna, and Maksym Muratov and has proficient colleagues from USA, Ukraine, Poland, South Africa and China.

'Shark Tank' Backed Blockchain Fantasy Game 'Augmentors' Launches ICO, over 890 BTC collected

Augmentors, a game created by Micheal Deon, is featured in many news magazines because it is the first ever blockchain-based created. With many famous backers like Vinny Lingham and Gil Oved, the Augmentors ICO became very popular in a short time. Over 250 Bitcoin was raised in just over 6 hours. A tremendous start for Micheal Deon's team. However they are not there, the initial goal of the ICO is to raise 1 million dollar, which is needed to fully develop the game.

The Game
The game will consist of 50 rare creatures (Augmentors), based on your package you will get access to this rare creatures. Choose what you are, a good augmentors, or do you like to play the bad guy? Within the game you can choose a various of creatures. You need to decide on a robust player, as once you decide on a augmentor, you're able to begin the battle along with your creatures round the world. Once you begin the sport, you would like to win upon your opponents to level up your game the maximum amount as high. you've got to additional to create your augmentor sturdy. This can undoubtedly increase probabilities to create your creature, the simplest one. you may get relics in between the battle. Relics ar such sort of equipments which will step up the energy of the creature.

Additionally you can purchase these equipments from the shop or either you've got to play a battle to win most of the equipments. Once your creature can gain expertise they're going to be able to unlock next spherical, skin and far instrumentality too. You may additionally get a chance to play with multiplayer round the globe, simply play Augmentors and go within the globe of battle along with your creature to beat other players. The game will be avaiable on both the Google Play and Apple App store, thus enabling mobile players to play this game with a console or PC. "It's been a long but exciting journey to conceptualize the mechanics of the game, design the 50 characters and their stories, as well how the token sale will work,"
According Micheal Deon

And yes he is writing, it's hard to launch a succesfull ICO, but with just 1 week to go, they almost finished their goal!

Augmentors Information
- The ICO starts on January 30th 2017 and will end on February 28 2017.
- Goal of the ICO is to raise a total of $1 million dollar.
- The total supply of the coins will be 100.000,000 Databits, where 70% will be sold in this ICO.
- 30% of all coins (The remainder of the total supply will be spread accros the development, marketing and promotion of the game, which is planned later this year).
- The ratio of the coins: 15.000 Databits equals 1 Bitcoin.
- The release of the game is set on May 2017
- Where the game will be launched in both the Google Play store and the App store.


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ICO Structure
The first Augmentors ICO went live today on January 30, 2017, with the aim of raising $1 million, required for completion of the game. During the 30-day ICO ending on February 28, 2017, the DTB tokens will be available in a ratio of 15000DTB: 1BTC. The ratio of DTB tokens to BTC will be reduced by 1000 at every 5 day intervals throughout the ICO period. Even if the platform fails to raise the required $1 million by the end of the stipulated timeframe, all funds raised will be directly put to use for developing the Alpha version of Augmentors, set for release by the end of May 2017 on Google Play Store and the App Store. The Beta version will soon follow. Meanwhile, throughout the development process, the team will continue working on updates and new game features to create a wholesome game experience for the players of Augmentors. Upon completion of the ICO or the goal of $1 million, all unsold DTBs and Creature tokens will be burnt to protect the tokens' value. The team will continue development by utilizing all the funds raised till date to ensure its completion on time.

Bounty Program
The Augmentors Bounty Campaigns offers an additional way for gamers and cryptocurrency enthusiasts to earn DTBs. Each campaign has a stake attached to it, which can be earned by completing the stated objectives. The detailed structure of all bounty campaigns is explained on the website's "Bounty Campaign" section. The bounty distribution will be executed according to the campaign structure, and the allocated DTBs for each campaign will be divided amongst all its participants. The number of stakes each participant accumulates will be divided by the total number of stakes accumulated in each section and later multiplied by the total number of DTBs allocated to each bounty campaign to determine the share of each participant. The table of participation for each part of the bounty program is available here.

Pre-Sale Success
In order to realize its vision of interplayable in-game assets, Augmentors had organized a pre-sale of DataBits tokens, exclusively for the backers of Spells of Genesis. During the presale, held between 5th and 11th December 2016, the platform offered a limited-edition collaboration creature - "Genesis of Light" interplayable on both Spells of Genesis and Augmentors. During the pre-sale, Augmentors raised a total of 45.2 BTCs, equivalent to $42,400 by selling 678000 DTBs. Early investors in Augmentors bought 67 units of Genesis of Light. Additional 20 units were sent to Spells of Genesis and the remaining unsold 913 units were ultimately burnt.

QTUM | UTXO based POS Smart Contract Platform

A new project called Qtum has been made by the Singapore-based Quantum Foundation that arrangements to merge the Bitcoin convention with QTUM Innovation. The open source project incorporates the Ethereum Virtual Machine with Bitcoin's Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) model and intends to give brilliant contracts to organizations around the world. 

The Qtum team has been looking closely at the territories in which Bitcoin fails to adapt and grabs this opportunity to differentiate itself. Banks and other financial institutions for example, find in bitcoin a strong competitor, however not all banks and institutions have the resources, funds and knowledge in-house available to adapt or exploit the possibilities of the blockchain. And this is where Qtum steps in. With Qtum's Blockchain for businesses, they can easily adapt and integrate this praised technology in their mainstream operations. Question is however; if and when these organization will adapt this technology? 

A Project That Mixes Bitcoin Code With Ethereum's Virtual Machine

The project Qtum is an intriguing decentralized app (Dapp) that joins the Bitcoin customer 0.13, Proof of Stake (PoS), and the Ethereum Virtual Machine to empower shrewd contract administrations. The project has likewise gotten $1 million in subsidizing from speculators, for example, Fenbushi accomplice Bo Shen, Ethereum prime supporter Anthony Di lorio, BitFund originator Xiaolai Li. Qtum will likely give an esteem exchange convention Dapp stage with the best properties of both projects. 

"Qtum incorporated the EVM onto an UTXO-based blockchain, and composing contracts for this ought to be similarly as simple with respect to Ethereum, yet you get the advantages of the UTXO show," clarifies Qtumdesigner Jordan Earlz. "These advantages incorporate versatile/light wallet bolster by SPV, a more steady model (while Ethereum has forked commonly to settle issues with this), and similarity with existing Bitcoin apparatuses and conventions." 

The Qtum Project Will Deploy Master Contracts and Incentivized Proof of Stake

The Qtum improvement group subtle elements how the stage will permit both brilliant contracts and ace contracts that incorporate off-chain information. The Qtum project discloses to the distribution 8btc that ace contracts finish a great deal more than average keen contracts. 

"An agreement marked by two banks could be ended with the accord of the two banks alone," states the Quantum Foundation. An ace contract gives add up to control to the agreement endorsers over the execution or end of the contracts. That is a copy of genuine situation. The Master Contract is an extraordinary stride forward, conveying new potential to the blockchain application and augmenting the idea of the savvy contract. 

The project additionally claims to be the first to actualize a savvy contract framework using Bitcoin's UTXO while likewise coordinating a Proof of Stake instrument. The system agreement is alluded to as IPOS (Incentivized Proof of Stake) which the engineers say compensates the system members. 

Extensive Testing, Sparknet and Utilizing the Most Stable Blockchain

The Qtum group has constructed two Dapp projects so far including Spring Email and Qloha. Both administrations use cryptocurrency arrangements that improve informing applications and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (STMP). As per the group, the Qtum project is amidst making desktop and portable wallets for its client base. After broad testing, the engineers plan to reveal its testnet application named "Sparknet" which will be the prelude to the official stage dispatch. Qtum additionally has revealed that the group will search out code surveys from autonomous people and associations willing to explore different avenues regarding the project. 

The project is satisfied to use the Bitcoin convention inside the Qtum project, expressing that the Bitcoin blockchain is the most tried and true openly appropriated record accessible. 

"Bitcoin is the most developed, steady and secure blockchain accessible, in contrast with Ethereum, Bitshares or others which are still viewed as flimsy with the various issues and security issues they had since they were propelled," says the Qtum group. Notwithstanding Bitcoin having the greatest support from the group which offers a huge gathering of devices and programming identified with Bitcoin which can be utilized by quantum too, rather than alternate blockchains which now and then need even the least difficult programming. 

The strengths of the Qtum project will make Qtum, if they will al be released, a strongholder and perhaps the only true bitcoin killer app. Because it's interesting to see their technical approach in action and hopefully we will be able to see it in the near future.

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