There is currently a big hype around cryptocurrencies and a kind of battle between Bitcoin and all the Altcoins (alternative Coins). Bitcoin seems to have the first-mover advantage, as techologically, it is lacking behind a majority of other coins.
Bitcoin created a brand and this is rewarded with an explosive up-drift in their exchange rate. Based on Coinmarketcap [1] Bitcoin holds more that 50% of the cryptocurrency market, while more than 1000 alternative coins shares the rest. Still to be mentioned should be Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash. But within this article I will not go into details of their technology and the differences between them.
Having that said, you soon realize that certain cryptocurrencies are:
- the perfect wonderland for gamblers,
- while others have the power to be a game changer.
For gamblers, for which I see the majority of the cryptocurrencies, the advantages are:
- the market is never closed, you can buy/sell 24 hours, 7days a week
- the volatility is rather high - changes of more than 20% a day are not unusual
- there are plenty of market platforms with low rates
- More than 1000 cryptocurrencies according to Coinmarketcap [1]
- as there is no authority, platforms are located offshore, most people don't pay taxes for their cryptotrading profits
While many of the cryptocurrencies seems to be created either for fun, for world domination - where the most fails, the minority are seeking for real-world applications and having a real vision behind.
Starting with my - just for fun - mining pool project [2] to set up mining pools with 0% fee, I came across Expanse [3]. Operating a pool for Expanse [4] I soon got into the community and the activities behind this project. And to be honest, Expanse is a project I would consider as a possible game-changer.
Beside the fact that Expanse is very community driven there is direct contact to the core team via a Discord Expanse channel [5] which makes the project quite family like. Aside to the chat, there is a bi-monthly newsletter [6] and a Twitter channel [7] keeping the community up to date.
Coming back to the real-world applications and visions, I would like to highlight some of the Expanse core ideas and applications that convinced me:
- Tokenlab [8]: Its basically an integrated system to create tokens on the Expanse Blockchain. The platform helps to create ICOs with smart contracts, with time-locked distributions to protect investors from funds being dumped.
- Votelock: a core idea for the integration of voting within a blockchain. This would be a real benificary for elections having a proper infrastructure and security mechanism.
- exp.life [9]: not yet life, but I checked the whitepaper [10] and it looks promising to me. Putting experience and achievements in a blockchain sounds like an interesting idea, kind of a mixture of facebook with LinkedIn in a 2.0 version.
- Charity: Expanse.tech and the people behind are into charity, making them human and caring about others. This gives them an extra point from my side.
Please note that those are just the highlights from my side, I think there are plenty of more features and applications.
Summing it up, I am curious and forward looking for the Expanse project.
[1] https://coinmarketcap.com/coins/
[4] http://exp.ethertrench.com
[5] https://discordapp.com/invite/xqMwbpg
[7] https://twitter.com/ExpanseOfficial
[8] https://crowdsale.tokenlab.io/
[10] http://www.borderlesscorp.com/docs/explife-whitepaper.pdf
The orignal post of this entry can be found on my blog at http://jvr.at/blog/?p=836