Going the Extra Mile (August 2019)
Welcome to the CyberMiles Foundation’s monthly newsletter #20
Aug. 5, 2019
Hello, CyberMilers! This month we’ve released a new, improved version of the CyberMiles app, while a new project from the creators of CyberMiles have raised VC funding for an exciting business venture. Read on for more, along with other blockchain and cryptocurrency news.
Announcements
New version of the CyberMiles app is now available
Ahead of rolling out our new decentralized C2C marketplace, we’ve released the latest version of the CyberMiles app. Improving on the CMT Wallet, this version lets users not only manage assets but also now browse applications on CyberMiles’ public blockchain.
With the CyberMiles app, you can:
- Earn — Stake your CMT to earn more and participate in governance
- Win — Participate in FairPlay e-commerce product giveaways
- Manage — Deposit, store and manage your CMT assets safely
- Transfer — Transfer your digital assets quickly, safely and free
- Buy/sell — Buy and sell products via our decentralized marketplace (TBA)
- Play — Explore other “DApps” on the CyberMiles blockchain
Have you tried out the current staking feature? If not, go to app.cybermiles.io to download the CyberMiles app today.
Second State, from the creators of CyberMiles, gets Series A funding
Second State is, as we mentioned in our last community update, a provider of turn-key blockchain technology solutions for businesses. This new venture, which develops smart contracts that are completely open source, programmable by enterprise customers, optimized for business use cases, and supported by commercial service agreements, has caught the attention of leading venture capitalists, several of whom (SIG, Ethereum Classic Lab, etc.) have invested in it — to the tune of $3 million in Series A funding. Learn more about this developement at siliconangle.com.
In the News
Alternative reality: China (and Russia) might be Libra’s refuge
When Facebook published its Libra white paper in June, the company seemed fairly optimistic. The project came with a mission of humanitarian goodness— banking the unbanked, lowering the cost of remittances, and enabling access to more efficient financial services for all. But then the regulators pounced.
Even without Libra, regulators could continue to ride the crypto wave and create regulations for the industry, with the possibility that nationally-backed digital currencies could come to fruition. China, however, is a special case. According to CyberMiles’ co-founder, Dr. Michael Yuan:
Neither the Chinese government nor state-supported Chinese companies like WeChat want an RMB competitor, which works just fine in China.
This may be why the Chinese government won’t permit companies like AliPay and WeChat to create cryptocurrencies or their own.
WeChat has a widely-used mobile payment system in China. It is digital RMB. Therefore, there’s no real need for WeChat to issue another currency for payment.
In short, so far there hasn’t been much desire for the use of native cryptos in Chinese payment apps from any end. Learn more at financemagnates.com.
Blockchain projects flourish in Africa
While China is home to the world’s largest population of unbanked, which means that no one in the household has a checking or savings account, African countries like Nigeria represent a significant share as well. In fact, African countries have the highest percentage of foreign currency holders in the world (more than 12 percent of the continent’s population). This money often is held in mobile accounts rather than traditional bank accounts, which has influenced an increased investment — or at least interest — in digital and cryptocurrencies.
Among the blockchain projects that have created excitement in Africa is CyberMiles, which has built a passionate community of participants and supporters — from Botswana to Ghana, Nigeria to Uganda and Zimbabwe. In fact, CyberMilers throughout Africa have been eager to help CyberMiles make the decentralization (and democratization) of e-commerce as we know it a reality.
Read more at coinratecap.com.
What are the challenges to — and the trends shaping — blockchain in the energy industry?
Energy traditionally has been controlled by gatekeepers, which tend to be well-established in a particular region, have control over essential infrastructure, and are often slow to adapt (unless forced to). But certain blockchain startups are working to upend the way people buy and sell energy, despite regulatory murkiness that could threaten their vision.
Along with issues of scalability and security, CyberMiles’ Dr. Michael Yuan offers a perspective:
Households need to trade frequently in order to establish an efficient-energy market. As the trading volume grows geometrically with the number of households in the network, the frequency of trading (maybe millions of transactions per second in a typical country) could exceed the capacity of any blockchain. Fortunately, most of the energy trading also is limited within microgrids; that is, most trading happens between stable groups of households in the same neighborhood or community. That allows for network scalability by building side chains, each representing a microgrid.
But energy companies are not alone in a lack of — and need for — innovation. According to Dr. Yuan:
Layer 2 networks, e.g. plasma and state channels, are lightweight in the sense that each channel transaction is of the same type. It’s easy to design an automated computation solution to validate transactions. In a payment channel, all transactions must be signed by both sender and recipient. When a dispute arises later, the computer code in the smart contract can easily tell which party is lying — the last transaction with valid double signatures always wins. The goal is to automate much of the verification workload and reduce the complexity of crypto-economic games.
Read more at disruptordaily.com.
Blockchain technology adds value to all types of businesses
Altcoin Magazine has a roundup of insights from technologists that illustrate the importance of blockchain — complete, secure and uniquely safe — in today’s modern business arena.
Valuing the potential of blockchain as a sophisticated network for businesses, Dr. Yuan reckons that in order for networking to be formed to enable all types of businesses, blockchain technology first must be utilized in a proper way. Read more at medium.com/altcoin-magazine.
Internet of Things: Three real-world smart contract use cases prove the benefits of blockchain
Blockchain-based smart contracts may render third-party intermediaries, such as credit card processors, one day obsolete. Dr. Lucas Lu, one of CyberMiles’ co-founders, notes that there’s a push-pull now at play:
Despite certain political and institutional resistance to decentralization…there’s extraordinary potential for blockchain technology and smart contracts to transform entire industries and economies. [This is] especially true in less developed or emerging economies with “nothing to lose.”
Today, real-world companies are testing IoT smart contracts and finding value in various industries, from entertainment to utilities to advertising. For more, visit internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com.
What is the future of advertising, and which technologies will have the greatest impact on the ad industry?
Speaking of advertising, the ‘Mad Men’ days of years-long ad campaigns are ancient history. Advertising has gone digital, now bite-sized and everywhere. Today, too often advertising is thoughtless, shameless, and passionless.
But with technologies like blockchain, A.I., and machine learning promising to impact advertising to varying degrees, what does the future hold? CyberMiles’ Dr. Michael Yuan suggests:
On the horizon are blockchain-based advertising systems that can be set up via “smart business contracts” so that ad revenues are shared automatically among “members” based on their levels of activities and engagements, or securely distributed to buyers in the form of price reductions. With cryptocurrency, members also can be rewarded by advertisers to upvote an advertisement to gain higher visibility.
Modern technologies — the internet and mobile phones, to name a couple — fundamentally have changed the way we deploy and consume ads. But what will happen when even more cutting-edge technologies come along? According to Dr. Yuan, it may be happening already with blockchain.
Smart contracts (e.g. applications on the CyberMiles network) are automated contracts to transfer funds in cryptocurrencies once certain conditions are met. From a marketing standpoint, consumers will be able to earn cryptocurrency for watching video(s) or other advertising messages that most skip over or tune out today.
Read more at disruptordaily.com.
The Crypto Countdown
- AT&T Fails to Get Cryptocurrency Case Thrown Out as Plaintiff Puts Loss at $24 Million (Source: The Business Journal)
- Brazil’s Fifth-Largest City to Accept Bitcoin Payments for Public Transportation (Source: The Block)
- Chinese Court Declared Bitcoin Legal as Virtual Property (Source: CoinTelegraph)
- Facebook Libra Backers Are Not Official Partners Yet, Says Visa CEO (Source: CoinDesk)
- First Legally Valid DAO Under U.S. Law Purportedly Formed (Source: CoinTelegraph)
- Germany’s Financial Regulator, BaFin, Approves $280 Million Blockchain Real Estate Bond (Source: The Block)
- Huawei CEO: Why Wait for Facebook? China Can Issue Its Own ‘Libra’ (Source: CoinTelegraph)
- Ireland-Based Crypto Exchange Absconded with Users’ Funds (Source: Forbes)
- ‘Phase Zero’ of a New Ethereum Blockchain Could Go Live Next January (Source: CoinDesk)
- Ripple Directly Addresses U.S. Congress in Full-Page Wall Street Journal Ad (Source: DailyHodl)
- SEC Officially Approves the First ERC-20 Token Sale (Source: CoinTelegraph)
- Square Crypto Selects Former Google Director as Its First Hire (Source: The Block)
- There’s a Bitcoin CBD Gym Now (Source: The Cut)
- Tron’s Sun Apologizes to Regulators for ‘Over-Marketing’ Buffett Lunch (Source: CoinDesk)
- What Happened with West Virginia’s Blockchain Voting Experiment? (Source: Slate)
- World’s First ‘Bitcoin Bond’ Now Available on Bloomberg Terminal (Source: CoinTelegraph)
Thanks for your support, CyberMilers! Help us spread the word, won’t you? — Mark Brinkerhoff, Community Manager
Mark Brinkerhoff, a CyberMiles advisor and VP of Communications at 5miles, writes about the mainstreaming of emerging technology in business.
Have questions? Anything that you want to see included in our next newsletter? Email mark@cybermiles.io.
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