In the recent past financial intermediaries- Banks, Financial Institutions, Money exchanges, etc. were all so skewed against the vast majority of small and middle level people and businesses that when Bitcoin came on the scene it was an instant hit. Bitcoin and Blockchain technology promised freedom from plodding Central banks, middlemen, cumbersome procedures and abject situations.
On the one hand blockchain tech gave birth to a variety of cryptocurrencies and on the other the number of users keep growing dramatically. Two issues were central to this popular financial revolution- speed of transactions And security of the platforms. The Liquidity Network has come up with a viable cost friendly solution.
The Liquidity Network ecosystem is a secure, fast, non-custodial and reliable platform built on the Ethereum Blockchain. This is possible because of
- NOCUST- "which allows the operation of a non-custodial finance intermediary, that by design can achieve the same transaction throughput as traditional custodians." - NOCUST Liquidity Network Paper
- The Revive- "It is an algorithm that enables different hubs to rebalance their payment channels off-chain." - Source
The Liquidity Network allows maintaining control of your private keys just as you would with decentralized services but accruing benefits of an "off- chain" transaction. Further benefits for users who have LQD. LQD is the token for for the Liquidity purse network.
This means The Liquidity Network makes it possible for users to make multiple payments inside the network with executions as fast as 10,000 Transactions per second at ZERO cost. This is revolutionary, Bitcoin for example works at a speed of less then 10 Transactions per second and the exchange charges are horribly expensive for low value (which is what most transactions are) transfers. This project is already on and working. The first payment hub was tested in 2017 and they have been the network eversince. On the basis of this work they raised $23,600,000 in via an ICO in July 2018.
- source
With Liquidity Network ecosystem we are looking at a far bigger market reach for cryptocurrencies. But Cryptos are so popular and the market is growing already! Cryptocurrencies are only a small fraction of the financial transactions across the globe. With The Liquidity Network we may be looking at thousands of new users- to begin with. Arthur Gervais has this to say on Telegram- "We’ve been working constantly and hard the last months. One of the next releases you can expect is a new mobile app that enables you to transmit offchain ERC20 tokens along with offchain ETH."
Liquidity Network is based on the Ethereum blockchain. It is a "second layer scaling solution" where "hubs can rebalance their channels off-chain" This results in a fast low cost platform where the transactions are secure and transparent with no extra load on the blockchain. Essentially it makes 10,000 Transactions per second possible in a safe and reliable way. This is a game changer, something which will attract the masses to cryptocurrency. This is what The Liquidity Network is: You would no longer have to trust your bank to look after your funds. In addition, they wouldn’t be able to run away with your funds or invest them poorly. Whatever happens, your money is always safe, you can always retrieve it and you can sleep at night…phew!- Liquidity Network Blog
Let me illustrate by a few examples, other than using the Liquidity Wallet instead of my digital credit card- You can try out the Liquidity Wallet here and verify for yourself, it is that good. You can also download the mobile wallet- Liquidity Network Apple App Store (IOS)
Liquidity Network Google Play Store (Android)
USE CASE-1 GLOBAL TEAM WORK:
This is happening more and more today. Experts from across countries and continents are brought together to work on a single project. With increased connectivity and ease of data transfers this is becoming the norm. The best people, the experts are accessible today. Using The Liquidity Network any business can leverage this technological boom, whatever the size of the project. With micro-payments becoming fast and cheap you can involve more than one person to get the result you want. An internet portal in India can get a graphics designer in Mexico to visualize the front end, a software engineer in California to create the basic working platform, a systems integration expert to refine and add the required apps, a web- host in Singapore to upload it and a social networker in London to advertised it. All get paid through The Liquidity Network without the problems of banks and depositing money in exchanges and breakdowns.
USE CASE-2 FINANCIAL INCLUSION SCHEMES AND MICRO-LOAN GIVING CO-OPERATIVES:
With income- inequality being highlighted in recent years there are a slew of projects which aim at empowering people with an alternate source of basic income OR a small amount of money on loan to tide over the month or even the week. They attempt to reach millions of people with really small amounts of money. The Liquidity Network is the ideal platform for these schemes. with speed and cost reduced drastically they can benefit the maximum number of people with the minimum loss of value and in a safer, better way than the regular banking channels.
USE CASE-3 GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES :
Governments put in place schemes for the poor which do not reach them either due to middlemen or slow infrastructure. The number of people identified is in millions and the amounts accruing to them may be so low that they can not afford to spend money to collect them. On the other hand the government machinery is not equipped to reach them. I think that The Liquidity Network can be the solution. Each member can receive the subsidy direct to his wallet. The governments can distribute and monitor the process using a fraction of the manpower any other distribution system would require. Just imagine if The Liquidity Network would have a good number of members in Venezuela, Somalia or Egypt- where people and businesses desperately need a financial framework but there is none.
USE CASE-4 DISTRIBUTION OF INTEREST OR DIVIDEND :
The Liquidity Network is in my opinion, the best placed framework for a periodic distribution of monies to a particular set of members. Be it dividend on shares or interest on bonds. Safety provided by being a 'non-custodial' entity and a speed almost like regular commercial platforms combined with the decentralized ledger of blockchain to make it tamper proof- This is an unbeatable advantage over any current financial service channels.
What The Liquidity Network can achieve is make exchange of cryptocurrencies an uncomplicated task, a simple, fast and cost effective routine for all. A platform where transferring cryptocurrencies is simple as making a bank transfer, in fact it does away with unnecessary costs both to the user and the blockchain.
Liquidity.Network co-founder and Imperial College London assistant professor Arthur Gervais told CoinDesk: “What we’re providing is a payment hub which allows you to do bi-directional payments among however many people you want, which we think could be big for ethereum in general.”- source
The difference is using The Liquidity Network's NOCUST solution combined with the Revive algorithm procedure to finalize payment transfers "off- chain". These are innovative marvels leveraging the Ethereum blockchain to provide better than ever services at no corresponding load increase on the blockchain- this is a common problem all the altcoin blockchains are trying to surmount- to give us security and speed without making the interface complicated and costly- again, these two are also problems faced by many altcoin blockchains. "By utilising payment hubs, Liquidity.Network allows multiple users to send cost efficient Ethereum micropayments for the very first time. The Liquidity team will also be launching a mobile-friendly app, which will make it more convenient than ever to carry out blockchain payments in everyday life."- Source
The Team:
CONCLUSION: The Liquidity Network is a potential corner stone in the way people use cryptocurrencies. It has simplified and speeded up the process which to me feels no different than using Visa or Paypal. To quote icobench.com : "This ‘trustless Paypal’ will upgrade the Ethereum network, and have far-reaching implications for the blockchain world as usage grows, enabling higher number of users to use the Ethereum network."
Resources:
Liquidity Network Website
Liquidity Network Wallet
Liquidity Network WhitePaper
Liquidity Network NOCUST Paper
Liquidity Network REVIVE Paper
Liquidity Network Apple App Store (IOS)
Liquidity Network Google Play Store (Android)
Liquidity Network Telegram Group
The contest: https://steemit.com/crypto/@originalworks/2500-steem-sponsored-writing-contest-liquidity-network
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