Going the Extra Mile (June 2019)
Welcome to the CyberMiles Foundation’s monthly newsletter #18
June 3, 2019
Anew season is upon us, and what do we have in store for the CyberMiles community? A MainNet upgrade (for CMT Wallet staking), a blockchain-based enterprise solution (for businesses), and more. Read on for this news, as well as the latest in the world of crypto.
Announcements
MainNet upgrade: CyberMiles Token holders can use the CMT Wallet now to stake
The CyberMiles team has completed a successful upgrade of our MainNet following a validators vote. As part of the upgrade, MainNet now allows CyberMiles Token (CMT) holders to use the CMT Wallet to stake, although CMT Cube owners will have a higher staking reward.
In addition, this MainNet upgrade, which was completed May 23 without forking, will make CyberMiles validator and delegator block rewards easier to understand and calculate. Learn more at blog.cybermiles.io.
Postmortem: CyberMiles’ blockchain service disruption incident
In the spirit of true transparency and responsibility, be aware that last week the CyberMiles blockchain suffered a technical failure that paused blockchain operation for 17 hours. During that time, no transaction was accepted or recorded on the blockchain. There was neither data loss nor transaction rollback, and our engineering team worked long and hard to resolve the issue. Check out Hackernoon for a recap.
CyberMiles partner, OpenFinance, announces new digital assets-trading platform
OpenFinance, the secondary market for trading digital alternative assets, announced this month that it’ll be opening up trading of third-party digital securities to U.S. investors — the first trading platform to do so.
As TechCrunch reported, OpenFinance already has been supporting the trading of third-party digital assets in Europe — i.e. securities that have been migrated onto the blockchain, which now are traded on the blockchain-based platform. In the U.S., however, OpenFinance had been unable to provide the same capability due to minimum holding periods required by U.S. regulators for new tokenized securities.
The idea, as CyberMiles’ co-founder and chief scientist noted, is that small businesses will issue any security token offering (STO), including loans, on the CyberMiles blockchain to facilitate e-commerce activities. This type of STO, in turn, will require CMT gas fees and deposits. More to come!
CyberMiles to launch a blockchain-based, peer-to-peer marketplace creating a Decentralized Autonomous Organization
Following 5miles’ data migration, the CyberMiles team is set to launch a blockchain-based marketplace for peer-to-peer transactions. In so doing, CyberMiles will create a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) to ensure but improve upon the promise of the defunct “Silk Road” concept.
So, what is a DAO anyway? It’s an organization represented by rules encoded as a computer program that is transparent, controlled by shareholders and not influenced by a central government. Essentially, it’s a way to guarantee democracy cryptographically.
Read more about our upcoming DAO, and what it means for the future of e-commerce, at blog.cybermiles.io.
In the News
Blockchain on its way now to becoming mainstream
Since the first blockchain advocates began promoting the technology’s capabilities more than a decade ago, leaders across industries often have seemed unsure what to do with it. But this now is changing, according to a 2019 Global Blockchain Survey.
In fact, CyberMiles’ own Dr. Michael Yuan has weighed in on how far along we already are:
Supply chain and financial services have seen significant adoption of (or at least investment in) blockchain technology, in part due to an ever-growing need for enhanced security as well as the availability of mobile and online banking in global economies.
As CMS Wire reports, there is a shared recognition among enterprises and industries that blockchain can be a pragmatic solution to business problems across industries and use cases. Even leaders wary of tech-based solutions have come to see the larger, transformational importance of the technology.
Read more about blockchain’s significant enterprise adoption at cmswire.com.
Forget ICOs — crypto paradigm leaping towards STOs
Like an initial public offering (IPO) on a stock market, the advent of an initial coin offering (ICO) has enabled people in the crypto space to invest in projects they find promising. But the ICO boom a couple of years ago also led to “scam coins” and fraudulent or “fake” ICOs.
More recently, however, security token-based offerings have emerged as an alternative. According to Dr. Michael Yuan, CyberMiles’ co-founder:
In the world of crypto, security tokens, compared to regular (or utility) tokens, are valued based on actual, tradable assets. Like securities in the conventional world of finance, such tokens are typically subject to government securities and exchange regulations.
A security token offering (STO) provides the same mechanism of selling crypto tokens to the masses, but as a digital form of a tradeable financial asset (i.e. securities).
For the (crypto) investor community, we see the securitization of assets as a push towards accuracy, transparency and truth through a trustless system would benefit borrowers, lenders, and investors worldwide. Having countless currency tokens on the market is of course not sensible, so we believe that security (and utility) tokens can empower the next generation of global e-commerce, notably peer-to-peer marketplaces.
Will STOs overtake ICOs? Read more at blockpublisher.com.
Bitcoin vs. gold: What Bitcoin has managed to do in 10 years, gold couldn’t do in 100
Did you know that the current price of one Bitcoin could buy 10+ million of them a decade ago?
Since its first recorded price, the cryptocurrency’s growth over the last 10 years has been nothing short of remarkable. With a market cap of more than $130 billion, Bitcoin has experienced a 720,000,000% price surge since its inception. On the other hand, the price of gold has increased a mere 64 times over in the last century.
Yet, as noted by CyberMiles’ Dr. Michael Yuan, cryptocurrency has a long way to go to be accepted as payment option. Why?
Neither Bitcoin nor any other cryptocurrency (ex. Ripple) is currently used as an everyday currency because they’re treated as a store of value” vs. a true utility token to pay for everyday goods and services.
Read more about this and the prospect of cryptocurrency as a payment option at bitcoinexchangeguide.com.
The state, future and benefits of blockchain in banking, retail and energy — explained
Distributor Daily continues to analyze a variety of global industries that are ripe for decentralization. Asking CyberMiles for insights on where we are — and where we’re going — with blockchain technology, founders Dr. Lucas Lu and Dr. Michael Yuan shared their expertise at disruptordaily.com.
The Crypto Countdown
- ‘Amazon of Japan’ Begins Registrations for Cryptocurrency Exchange Ahead of June Launch (Source: CoinTelegraph)
- Bitcoin Featured on 60 Minutes Documentary (Source: The Daily Hodl)
- Coinbase Brought in $520 Million Revenue in 2018 (Source: Chepicap)
- Facebook Reverses Policy on Crypto-Related Ads Ban, Will Roll Out ‘GlobalCoin’ Cryptocurrency in 2020 (Source: Facebook, BBC)
- Fidelity to Start Bitcoin Trading (Source: TrustNodes)
- Forbes Releases List of Billion-Dollar Companies Using Blockchain (Source: CoinTelegraph)
- Goldman Sachs-Backed Crypto Startup Lays Off 30 Employees (Source: The Block)
- Hackers Used Microsoft Email Accounts to Steal Users’ Cryptocurrency (Source: CoinTelegraph)
- HTC Releases Smartphone with Bitcoin Full Node Capabilities (Source: The Block)
- Member of Congress Calls for Bill to ‘Outlaw’ Cryptocurrencies (Source: The Block)
- ‘Millennials Love Bitcoin’ - Survey (Source: Blockchain Capital Blog)
- Quebec Allocates Additional Electricity to Local Blockchain Ecosystem -Canada (Source: BTCManager)
- U.K. Watchdog Reports $34 Million Lost in Crypto, Forex Scams Last Year (Source: CoinTelegraph)
- U.S. Copyright Office Does Not ‘Recognize’ Craig Wright as Satoshi (Source: CoinDesk)
- WeChat Bans Cryptocurrency Transactions in Its Payment Channels (Source: The Block)
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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