Ark quietly goes about its business, giving frequent updates & for those who research its clear to see Ark’s future prospects and use cases. This is by no means, a full list of current projects & partnerships, but rather the most promising to date.
Persona
You can find a previously written, detailed rundown of Persona & its ICO here
https://steemit.com/ark/@nweng/persona-ark-fork-and-ico
What is Persona?
Persona will be the first consumer project that uses Ark's new services to create its own chain. This will be connected to the Ark main-chain at a protocol level, allowing transactions and contract interaction to an unlimited amount of coins & tokens. In addition, access to a wealth of developer tools.
An Identity management solution, aligned with the latest EU Data regulations, the individual spends less time updating their data and service providers can access the latest version of the customer data.
What does that mean?
You upload your files(documents, copies of your ID) on an IPFS implementation over Persona blockchain. They are encrypted by the blockchain itself using your private key. Let's suppose you want to sign up for a contract with a new mobile carrier. You have your identity checked on Persona blockchain. What the mobile carrier staff will do will issue a request to have read access to your details. They will generate a QR code that you scan with your phone and you'll see that X company is requesting access to your date birth, address and ID. You'll sign with your private key and give access to your uploaded documents on Persona blockchain to see if the person they have in front is the same with the person from the documents. And that's all. Every company that has an on boarding process they have just to make sure that the person they have in front of their eyes is the same with the person of which documents they are checking.
Partnership details
Stefan Neagu a key Ark cofounder & project manager set his sights on this project, its been in the works for some time. Advisors also feature Ark team members such as Mike Doty - Managing Director & lead Dev. It seems as if this project is the first in the ‘grand vision’, stipulations state that 12,000,000 PRS must fund 10 other start-up projects that use persona for verification. An excellent way to improve an encourage use of the system. It’s clear this will be a deep partnership, I imagine Ark will use Persona heavily, vetting delegates, KYC checks for fork projects, expanding into current company structures (read the steemit article above for more info) etc. It’s an ambitious, unique project, forget civic or selfkey this is better, it will ensure Ark is best placed to deal with any upcoming regulation and will a driving factor in Arks growth.
Blockport
https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@nathalie22/blockport
https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@ramsteem/blockport-1st-social-crypto-exchange
What is Blockport?
Blockport is the first social crypto exchange, based on a hybrid-decentralized architecture, trades being centralised, your private keys being decentralised. It aims to offer a wide array of fiat pairs and allows the user to own their private keys. Users can follow their favourite traders, executing the same trades and communicating directly with them.
Blockport was born out of Amsterdam and is all about adoption. A familiar user interface & ease of use for new market entrants, coupled with the ability to follow other experienced crypto traders will ensure growth is a given. It will also aggregate liquidity across public exchanges to ensure buyers and sellers are always available at, or as close to, market price.
Partnership details
Maximising exposure and growth Blockport has partnered with Ark, the only registered and regulated EU crypto company. Blockport will be funding a buy in function for Ark wallets, trades will be executed in the background and users will receive Ark at the click of a button, no more buying through exchanges, users just download the Ark wallet & buy through paypal, debit or credit card. This will propel Ark’s growth, adoption & price upwards. Combine this with a fully fleshed out ACES service and it’s easy to see how close the relationship between the two will be, struggling to with liquidity on a new token? Utilise an ACES service to fill the gap.
EduCTX
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=8247166
What is EduCTX?
EduCTX is a blockchain higher education credit transfer system, based on the European credit transfer system. It offers a trusted, decentralized higher education credit and grading system that can offer a globally unified viewpoint for students and higher education institutions (HEIs), as well as for other potential stakeholders such as companies, institutions, and organizations. EduCTX will process, manage and control ECTX tokens, which represent credits that students gain for completed courses such as ECTS. HEIs are the peers of the blockchain network. It will remove many language and administrative barriers, especially as adoption builds.
Partnership details
The project was created by a Slovenian team, led by Muhamed Turkanović & KRISTJAN KOŠIČ - Ark cofounder & core developer, as an advisor. EduCTX utilises Arks chain creation technology (Push button blockchain) to create its own forked, independently valued chain, but with all the benefits that come with using ark – developer tools, connections and contract execution of other cryptos. You could, say, pay your admin fee using any crypto, which would automatically settle in whichever other crypto EduCTX decides to accept.
The main takeaway from EduCTX is that it improves on existing systems, using Ark, placing it at the forefront for Academic institutions. Academia has long been a focus for Ark’s growth, attending hackathons at various universities, attempting to scoop up developers, being the first useful blockchain interaction for many.
Increasing exposure via a targeted, well thought out, useful project will bode very well for Ark. Students may not know that their credit & grading system is on the blockchain, but you can be sure higher learning institutions will know of Ark and its capabilities. It's likely that they will look to Ark to provide solutions & improvements, increasing administrative efficiency or utilising Ark in academia projects.
With upcoming regulation and adoption Ark is placing itself in a unique position, their initial projects improve and solve specific problems, their work with universities will provide developers, partnerships and exposure. These partnerships provide a solid base for Ark to build on, and some peace of mind for investors.