CROWN Platform — FAQ: frequently asked questions
Long-term Crown contributor crowncoin_knight recently published an article for the Czech audience. Here we present the translation for the English-speaking community.
What is Crown Platform (CRW), what does it bring to society?
Crown is a computer program (a code) and a"utility token" inspired by the revolutionary technology introduced by Bitcoin: blockchain and cryptography. Crown aims to become a global blockchain technology platform for creating new economy applications / businesses, offering its users the ability to efficiently store and trade created value in instantX transactions, register ownership of physical and digital assets, and organise contractual relationships: all via blockchain technology where individual transactions within the network are decentralized, traceable and fully transparent.
The operation and security of the Crown network is maintained by Masternodes and Systemnodes, a kind of internet based super-nodes: IP addresses run by its users and directed to the network.
The blockchain is represented by the symbol of the Crown: billions of people in the world, from Australia to America, are able to identify and understand this symbol immediately. It represents stability, justice and strength. The idea of the founders was that this symbol would be re-born in a digital form and, by using blockchain technology, it would contribute positively to humanity on its way to a more advanced society. This time, however, no king or a single CEO wears the Crown, it is a code that is created, managed and directed by its users within the Crown DAO: Decentralized Autonomous Organisation. As one of our community members puts it: “The Crown belongs to everybody and to nobody at the same time.”
Why was Crown created?
Crown was created as an experimental bitcoin clone in October 2014, when it was launched fairly and from zero (not as an ICO) by a small community of bitcoin and blockchain fans. In 2013-2014, when it was being created, this small community often heard widespread public opinion that bitcoin does not have an underlying asset to support its purely digital value. It was very difficult for an ordinary person to understand and identify with this revolutionary technology.
This was one of the reasons why the Crown symbol was chosen, and connected to the blockchain - so that people all over the world had the opportunity to visualize this technological novelty within their own and familiar mental boundaries, and began to develop their thinking on top of it.
Another important reason for its launch was the stagnating technological development in the fintech area, where financial transfers from one bank to another still takes 24-48 hours. The idea that human-generated values will be stored outside of central entities in hardware devices such as computers, mobile phones, and other smart devices in the future also contributed to the vision. With the upcoming rise of IoT's (Internet of Things) economy, all these devices are connected to the network and exchange information, possibly performance/power and created values. The world as we know it today has to catch up to the significant technological innovations that can help to steer it into a much more efficient direction.
How does the Crown Platform work and what technology does it offer?
Launch as a Bitcoin clone
Crown was launched as a bitcoin clone - based on the BTC SHA-256 algorithm. In order for its users to mine it, it was necessary to extract it using powerful computers. This system is known in the world of cryptocurrency as POW - Proof of Work: the user proves the value of the payment instrument by using the labor spent: by utilizing the computational power of some cryptocurrency miners as BTC to calculate cryptographic algorithms and then create blocks.
Similarly as in Bitcoin, Crown's main user infrastructure are its hardware, mobile, and online wallets, in which users store CRW units with the ability to send them to other users. These transactions are executed within seconds. CRW can also be purchased and traded on leading crypto exchanges.
The Crown code is open source and anyone can freely follow its development here.
Masternode model implementation
In 2016, Crown was inspired by the DASH project, implementing the Masternodes system into its BTC code and creating a hybrid system. Masternodes are internet nodes that through a collateral, allow you to stake CRW without having to own a powerful mining computer. The main reason for this move was the diversification of the project to the hands of the CRW community with longer-term goals from the miners whose primary objective is mostly short term profit.
A masternode operator needs 10,000 CRW as collateral. (For a systemode - a smaller "node", the collateral is 500 CRW). These coins enable the operation of a node that utilizes the power of a virtual private server (VPS). VPS is a server running on virtualized hardware operated by a hosting service. The VPS is connected to the Crown blockchain ecosystem, creating its backbone network, and its own transaction and confirmation system.
Move to a proprietary and industry leading POS system
In 2019, Crown completely moved from the POW and Masternode hybrid system to an industry leading and proprietary MN-POS algorithm - the Masternode Proof of Stake: a system where Masternodes (10,000 CRW) and Systemnodes (500 CRW) create blocks and confirm transactions, completely replacing the POW system. By moving to this unique world, the Crown blockchain completed the move away from miners (impossible to compete with in terms of mining power), into the hands of the community: Masternodes and Systemnodes operators. Crown is one of the projects that firmly believes that the future of blockchain lies in PoS systems, as evidenced by the shift of several giants, including Ethereum and Cardano, from POW to POS announced for 2020.
A decentralized governance budget based on Masternode voting
Another advantage of Masternode operators, in addition to its “staking” feature, is their voting right within the Crown Decentralized Budget, which is automatically released once a month: paid to community members who submit their proposals ranging from technological development, marketing, ambassadorship or creating interesting projects which bring value to the Crown blockchain.
The Crown asset registry: The NFT (Non-fungible Tokens) framework
One of the main pillars of the Crown platform is its registration system (currently in the testing phase), which allows wallet owners to register ownership of any assets, documents and objects through the so-called Non-Fungible tokens. Fungible tokens are units such as cryptocurrencies, or USD, or rice: in simple terms, units that are identical and there is no difference between them.
But a non-fungible token is for example an airline ticket: although it looks the same, it contains unique information about the passenger and its destination.
The community believes that the professional solution allowing the registration of assets on the Crown Blockchain will enable hundreds of real-world applications. The first of these is the https://chronovault.co application, which will allow its users to register luxury items such as vintage watches, including their precise features and characteristics to protect and create a clear "history book". The Czech platform Busyman.cz is working to create comprehensive protection of intellectual property of startups via NFTs.
In the next releases, the NFTs will be tradeable between wallets allowing a global asset exchange on a completely different level as we know it today.
What problems does Crown TECH solve?
Blockchain technology is a response to the global trend of decentralization. Just as we see it with global companies such as Uber, Airbnb and other platforms on which people exchange and trade their skills, services and assets directly with other people outside traditional centralized entities.
Blockchain also allows ANY transaction between two parties, and not just financial transactions introduced by Bitcoin - to be transcribed and thus recorded forever on a blockchain network maintained by thousands of computers or nodes: the computing power of network users. This phenomenon creates a space for a whole new dimension of interaction between people, businesses and organizations, including governments.
Any transactions between two entities can therefore be processed effectively, creating space for contractual relationships, notarial records, asset registration: cars, real estate, medicines, medical records, claims, personal registers, bookkeeping, registration of intellectual property: know-how, etc., and of course, financial transactions TO TAKE PLACE, GLOBALLY AND WITHIN SECONDS. Each individual transaction has its own "hash" or fingerprint in the network.
What benefits can an individual or business get for using the platform and potentially owning CRW?
Crown is primarily a community of people from all around the world who believe that blockchain technology is beginning to play an important role in the modern and efficient organization of both commercial and non-commercial relationships. These relationships are organized as online transactions between people, businesses and institutions. Each single transaction is transcribed into a blockchain network, which the users themselves maintain through running nodes - masternodes and systemnodes.
People who choose to use the Crown platform today have several options:
- Buy and sell CRW units for BTCs or EURs on global exchanges such as:
Bittrex (US, Europe, other parts of the world) https://global.bittrex.com/Market/Index?MarketName=BTC-CRW
Upbit (Asia) https://upbit.com/exchange?code=CRIX.UPBIT.BTC-CRW
Crex 24 (worldwide) https://crex24.com/exchange/CRW-BT
Litebit.eu (for Euros) https://www.litebit.eu/en/buy/crown
Cryptobridge (decentralized exchange) https://wallet.crypto-bridge.org/market/BRIDGE.CRW_BRIDGE.BTC
2. Pay with CRW for selected services https://www.crownplatform.com/where-to-use-crown
3. Set up a Masternode (10,000 CRW) or a Systemnode (500 CRW) in their wallet and stake Crown.
4. Get a voting right and participate in shaping the future of Crown: In the case of a Masternode, they receive the right to vote on a monthly basis on proposals that the community is submitting into the system. One Masternode equals one vote. Proposals with over 10 percent of positive votes from the amount of all Masternodes running, are elected to be paid out by the code.
5. They can submit their own specific proposal into the system, and get CRW tokens if they are voted in. Community proposals can range from code development, marketing, different forms of ambassadorships, development of new applications on the Crown blockchain or any other ideas that could help the project to get traction and strengthen the Crown idea.
6. Within the upcoming launch of the NFT framework, they can use the platform to register assets on the blockchain by "inserting" a specific asset, object, document, idea, etc. into the NFT - a nonfungible token that represents its ownership on the blockchain. In the next phase of NFT technology development, it will be possible to trade registered assets with other users in a similar way as sending CRW units from one wallet to another.
Are there any guarantees?
The global community has been maintaining the Crown Blockchain for five years. It is one of the longest running blockchains in the world. As already mentioned, Crown is a computer program powered by the nodes of the ecosystem users who create it and enable it to produce blocks and execute transactions on the network.
The good news is that the operation of the project is not dependant on one individual, but rather thousands of nodes and several contributors dispersed all over the world. However, it must be reiterated again, that blockchain technology is still in its very experimental phase and competition is high. There are thousands of cryptocurrencies, tokens and blockchain networks in the world. Every one of them is trying hard to find the “right application”, becoming the next Bitcoin and offering its users capabilities beyond instant crypto transfers as we know it today.
One of today's problems in both blockchain and cryptocurrency sectors in general is that following the hype created in 2017 when the mainstream public got in the space seeking a thousandfold appreciation of their capital, funds were also directed towards several projects that didn't deserve it. When the sector sobered up and the flow of money stopped, the whole market collapsed, dragging solid projects with it. This resulted in lack of capital to support smaller blockchain technology projects such as Crown to its next phase.
Presently, it will be primarily about the foundations and strength of individual crypto communities. Can they cope with the difficult market situation and move beyond it or not? Communities and projects that are able to demonstrate that their blockchain can offer real usecases, might have a chance to succeed. Any newcomers entering the space should always bear in mind that the risk of failure is extremely high.
Why should people join the Crown community?
The Crown community is a mix of contributors and users from around the world. Several cultures interact here. Crown has strong communities in Europe, especially in Great Britain, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Ukraine and Russia. Crown also has an important community in the US and Canada as it is traded on the US-based Bittrex Exchange (parent of Bittrex Global). One of the key developers behind the MN-POS "presstab" system is American, and one of the first CRW miners and devs "infernoman" is Canadian. In Asia, Crown has the strongest position in Korea, again due to being traded on the Korean Upbit. However, members of the community are also present on other continents such as Australia - New Zealand, Africa or Central America where our Cuban community is growing.
The community has been meeting regularly since 2016, always in a different part of the world. So far 8 meetings have taken place in London, Prague, Toronto, Amsterdam, Miami, Essen, Malta and Manchester.
The aim of these inspiring meetings is to get to know each other face-to-face, exchange views and present the project to new fans. Of course there are official active groups on Telegram and Discord. Discord is the main communication channel for developers and contributors. The groups on Telegram, whether the international group or the regional ones - Spanish, Italian, Czech, Brazilian and German are rather places where people get quick and general information of non-technical nature.
The Crown community is a group of people with a similar vision of the future who help each other on this exciting journey. If someone has a wallet problem, he or she shares the problem in one of the communication channels, others are always there to help solve it. The members of the community are people with diverse skills, they are developers, security experts, designers, communication experts, businessmen and other professions that always bring a new perspective and enrich the project in a certain way.
Anyone who likes the Crown idea and wants to learn more about blockchain and cryptocurrencies can become a member of these groups, there is no need to own CRW tokens.
What makes the Crown platform unique to other blockchain projects?
Crown chose one of the most difficult directions in crypto - the path of openness and decentralization of the code and community development from point 0. Following the example of Bitcoin, there are no positions such as CEO, CFO and so on, the code is publicly available on the Gitlab / Github repository, development, communication channels and project strategy are open to the public and everyone can contribute to them, there was never a public ICO-type of fundraising. Crown is a true DAO.
Since the launch of the blockchain in 2014, Crown has come a long way, these are the most important features and differences from other blockchains:
1. Openness to new ideas: since its inception, Crown has followed the trends and breakthrough innovations in blockchain technology, taking inspiration from them: the greatest strength of blockchain is its open source nature! Whether from Bitcoin, Namecoin, Peercoin, PIVX, Dash, Ethereum or EOS, Crown is creating a unique technology platform built on the pillars of the best ideas in crypto.
2. Proprietary MN-PoS technology: an advanced algorithm where masternodes and systemnodes generate blocks, execute transactions, and keep the blockchain running. Everyone has therefore the opportunity to stake Crown, not just those with high computing power and cheap energy. All that is needed is VPS hosting, simple as hosting a website. The fact that Crown has migrated to its own Mn-PoS does not exclude that as a Bitcoin clone it has a significant portion of its code based on Bitcoin - the most audited code and blockchain with the largest community not only of developers. One of the Crown developers, Ashot, is currently finishing upgrading the Crown codebase to the recent BTC version 0.17.
3. Decentralized budget based on Masternode Voting: Masternode operators have voting rights within the Crown Decentralized Governance System. This system is one of the reasons why, despite the last two years of altcoin bearmarket, Crown development is still ongoing.
4. A shared responsibility blockchain: the future of Crown is fully dependent on its community, which creates it and is largely responsible for the success or failure of the project. This is a new model of responsibility brought to the world by Bitcoin. Only time will tell whether this innovative model of decision-making and co-shaping our future will prove successful, or is it just a vision that cannot be realized. At a time when Bitcoin’s capitalization is approaching $ 200 billion, the Crown community firmly believes that it will not stay at the vision level.
5. NFT Technology: The Crown community made a bet on a card called NFT (Non-fungible Tokens) — registration of assets, documents and ideas on the blockchain and their subsequent trading in instantX transactions. The community sees the registration aspect as the genesis of the next phase of the blockchain, which will drive the real emergence of use cases for the new blockchain economy.
First, we need to register our world on this network, if we want to make meaningful use of the blockchain.
6. Blockchain-as-a-service: One of other characteristics of the Crown platform is the idea that developers will use its blockchain in accordance with the principle of software-as-a-service. The Crown community maintains a simple, safe, flexible and generalistic blockchain and leaves people free to use it according to their own needs.
Is it possible to define what Crown wants to become in one paragraph?
After the community manages to release the NFT technology into mainnet, it will be possible to define Crown as a community governed “utility” token and blockchain platform that enables easy registration of assets, documents, objects and ideas on the blockchain facilitating their exchange among people, businesses and institutions in the form of instantX transactions: simply, efficiently and globally. Bitcoin started with a financial payment (the final stage of any transaction process), Crown adds the “asset value” to this payment in the form of NFT, which behaves as an instant transaction.
Learn more about the Crown platform at https://www.crownplatform.com or the official blog https://medium.com/crownplatform
