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Musicoin

What Is Musicoin?

Musicoin is a cryptocurrency and a platform created to help link musicians to listeners and fans without using third party companies.

The music industry has been reeling with undertones of unsatisfied and cheated musicians looking for better ways to earn more from their work. The answer is the blockchain technology.

The Musicoin platform was created in early 2017 by Isaac Mao who wanted to change how things were working out in the music industry. Mao has a background in software engineering with a lot of experience in social media research.

The Musicoin system seeks to meet the needs of both the listeners and artists by allowing them to meet on a peer2peer basis. This implies that the artist will easily know how his followers are taking the new songs and even get improvement ideas without involving third parties. Think of that song you cherish so much; it will be possible to interact with the artist directly on Musicoin.

  • The performance of Musicoin in the market

When the Musicoin token was released into the market in March 2017, the value was $0.0009. Then, it grew significantly to reach $0.008 by the close of the March before rising further to $0.02 in May and $0.03 in early June.

The value dropped slightly to reach $0.01 in August before increasing to reach a peak of $0.1 in early January 2018. But the good price did not last.

The value dropped sharply to reach $0.015 in early February. After gaining marginally in February, the value continued with the downward trend that culminated to $0.003 by the close of October 2018.

Because of the unique features, the community is optimistic that the value of Musicoin will take an upward trend and deliver good returns on investment. Note that the negative price growth as affected other coins in the market including Bitcoin. The drop is a correction to the sudden growth that most coins reported in December 2017 and January 2018.

What is the problem that Musicoin Solves?

The music industry has been held hostage by the big multinationals. Now, Musicoin targets to restore the power of music to the musicians. Here are the main issues that Musicoin addresses to help achieve the target of empowering the musicians.

  • Musicians do not have control over their music in streaming services

In the world of music, the most notable entities are Spotify, YouTube, and ITunes because they stock a lot of tracks from musicians and listeners can listen with ease. However, the giant companies have usurped the power of musicians by acting as third parties between them and listeners.

One issue is that most listeners interact with the music streaming services and not the musician. This means that getting direct feedback about the songs on the market is not easy. The danger is that the musician might miss an important component that could have helped him improve the future albums. This could even result in the loss of fans in the industry.

  • The profit that trickles to the musicians is very small

Most of the big companies that stream artists’ songs are driven by profits. However, the profits only end up in the respective company’s accounts while very little reaches the singer. These companies have been accused of impoverishing musicians and making it impossible for them to advance their careers.  This is the reason why a decentralized platform such as Musicoin has become an important stepping stone for both musicians and listeners.

  • The uptake of the blockchain technology has been poor in niches such as music

As the blockchain technology continues growing at a fast pace, some niches are underserved. The main focus of many crypto networks has been the financial sector. Many cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ripple are targeted at the facilitating faster transfer of value on a peer2peer basis.

The music industry has lagged behind as other sectors such as video gaming and medical records management take to blockchain technology. Musicoin targets to bridge this gap by creating a decentralized system that gives musician greater control over his music and listeners more options to enjoy entertainment.

  • The centralization of payment services

The problem of centralized payment services remains a major challenge in the community. Though other networks such as Litecoin and Bitcoin have helped to introduce some changes, the traditional centralized systems still persist.

The main issue of the centralized services is high inefficiency. When you initiate a transaction, it is picked by the management that has to counter-check and verify all the details. The management must also ensure that the sender and recipient are not associated to money laundering or terrorism.

These checks make the transactions very slow. In some cases, wire transfers can take up to four days. Musicoin targets to address the issue to ensure that payments are cleared immediately.

How Does Musicoin Solve The Problem?

To address the outlined issues, the Musicoin founder designed the platform to make it easy to share music and get bulk of the benefits. Here are some of the main methods used to address the problem:

  • The Musicoin smart contracts

One of the important components of the Musicoin system that facilitates direct interaction between musicians and listeners is the use of smart contracts. The smart contracts operate like the standard contracts but they are automated and implemented in the blockchain networks.

At Musicoin platform, the smart contracts allow the musician to set the conditions for fans to listen to his music. For example, a smart contract can be customized to allow a visitor access to a   specific song or album after paying a specified amount of money.

The contract can even specify the bonus and execute them when the listener reached a specific viewership limit. The contract also allows the listener a chance to communicate directly with the artist. The automation makes it easy to sell music, meet with fans, and create communities around specific songs or brands.

  • $MUSIC payment platform

This is a music tipping feature that allows listeners to tip their musicians directly using the MUSIC coin. To promote accountability, the tipping system was designed to be open so that any person can visit the Musicoin website and see the artist that has been tipped. The artist is paid through the $MUSIC.

This method is a departure from the centralized streaming services that often take the tips and rarely remit to the artists. Even when the tips are related, a big percentage is slashed to meet the cost of the streaming service.

  • Complete decentralization

The Musicoin platform is run as a completely decentralized network. This implies that it is not run by a centralized management. Rather, it is run by a network of nodes spread in the system to help confirm transactions when they are initiated.

Whether you want to stream a song for pay, send value, or tip an artist using MUSIC, the platform uses the nodes spread in the system follow back the public address to ensure that it has ample coins. The miners also add new blocks to the Musicoin public ledger.

Decentralization services imply that both musicians and listeners can operate on a peer2peer basis without involving music streaming companies or centralized financial services. The transactions are also instant and cheaper.

What makes Musicoin better than it’s competitors?

To win a bigger market share, the Musicoin founders appreciated that they had to work against giants such as YouTube and Spotify that have won millions of followers. Here are some of the things that make Musicoin a better option:

  • The Musicoin system is completely decentralized. This means that artists can enjoy more profits from their work. As the blockchain technology grows, artists are assured of a bigger audience and more returns.
  • The Musicoin system has diverse applications that make it more appealing. Musicians can upload and live stream their music to the clients while any user can use the network to send value. This design makes the Musicoin better than other conventional platforms that either stream music or send value.
  • By operating as a completely decentralized network, sending value on a peer2peer basis is cheap and fast. Whether you want to send funds across the globe or in the neighboring county, the process is fast and efficient.
  • Musicoin allows users to send value without worrying about third-party seizures. Using advanced encryption, users can now send value without worrying they will be discovered by third parties such as tax authorities or courts of law.
  • The Musicoin network allows users to join and own the system. When you join the Musicoin as a node, you become part of its governance system. This means that you will be called to vote on governance issues when they arise.

How can Musicoin be categorized?

Musicoin is a completely decentralized platform designed to empower the musicians. It was created to help artists understand that they do not have to rely in the centralized companies that take the bulk of their profits. Instead, the blockchain system allows the artists to funnel all the revenue to their pockets.

Though the Musicoin might be less elaborate because the blockchain is still young, it is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years. Therefore, this could be a great opportunity to invest in its coins and hold them waiting for the price to go up as the demand increases.

What’s Musicoin’s vision on Security?

The security mission for Musicoin is to provide musicians and listeners with a secure and reliable platform for their music, personal info, and native tokens. Though still considered young after entering the market in 2017, the Musicoin system’s features have demonstrated it is reliable and secure. Here are the main features that help Musicoin to achieve its security mission.

  • The Musicoin development team progressively evaluates the platform to identify gaps and fix them before attackers take advantage of them.
  • The platform employs advanced encryption that helps to keep user details and coins encrypted. This is crucial in making it hard for unauthorized people or attackers to gain access to your account.
  • The Musicoin system used smart contracts that define the rules of engagement between musicians and listeners. The contract makes it very difficult for people outside it to break and change the content or steal from musicians/ listener.

Examples of Musicoin’s use cases / applications

Musicoin was established at a time when the streaming services were approaching the peak. Therefore, it was considered a major disruption for the giant music streaming services that used to make millions from artists. Here are some of the things that make Musicoin better than competitors.

  • The Musicoin system has helped to empower musicians and listeners. The musicians no longer have to worry that their profits will not reach them because listeners pay directly to them. Indeed, even tips that listeners pay when they like a specific music are also channeled to the musician.
  • The Musicoin token can be used to pay for streaming services on the Musicoin platform. Listeners enjoy more using the blockchain platform because the cost is low since the profit-seeking streamlining companies have been removed.
  • Musicoin token, like other coins, can be used to send value on a peer2peer basis across the globe. Instead of using centralized baking or credit card companies that very expensive, consider sending the funds in MUSIC. Note that the recipient will also be required to be in the Musicoin platform to receive the payment.
  • If you are a resident in a jurisdiction that supports cryptocurrencies, it might be possible to pay for government services. A good example is Singapore. Early in 2018, the Singapore authorities indicated that people were allowed to make payments using digital coins because the primary goal was to relay value. Other jurisdictions that support crypto coins include Venezuela and Arizona.
  • The native MUSOC coins can be used to pay for goods and services in the market. As more stores start accepting cryptocurrencies because of their efficiency especially in facilitating instant payments, you will find it easy to buy house or office items with MUSIC.

Note that even in the event that MUSIC is not supported in your store it is still possible to buy by changing to the supported coin. One common store that allows users to pay goods and services with cryptocurrencies is Overstock.

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Unobtanium

What Is Unobtanium?

The most valuable items/ things in life are the rarest to get. This is the mantra that can be used to describe Unobtanium cryptocurrency. The digital coin was created to be rare.

The founders only created 250,000 coins that make it very scarce to get and use. The coin was launched in 2013 by an anonymous person only referred to as BLAZR2.  The founder brought in a developer referred to as Bryce Weiner who has been helping to improve on the network over time.

  • A closer look at the Unobtanium performance in the market

The Unobtanium network was forked from Bitcoin core. This implies that it resembles Bitcoin in many respects but features some differences including the limited coin supply.

The price of the Unobtanium coin was $5.10 when it entered the market in December 2013. Then, it rose to $22.4 in February 2014 before taking a downward trend that hit a low of $1.20 in early 2016. The price remained around $2.0 until the close of the first quarter of 2017.

In April 2017, the value started rising steadily and hit a record $379.22 in 19th October 2017. This was reported to be a pump and dump scheme that took advantage of the low supply volume.

Indeed, the value crashed to less than $75 in the subsequent few days. The downtrend continued to hit a low of $39.31 in mid-November. Starting from late November 2017, the price started rising again growing steadily to $168.24 in 23rd June 2018.

The trend was interesting because it was moving against others coins in the market. Between January and June 2018, most of the coins in the market were experiencing a bearish trend. This trend is seen as an indicator of what the Unobtanium community should anticipate.

The bearish trend of Unobtanium started in July 2018 and continued until early November 2018. It will be interesting to see the direction that Unobtanium will take in the coming years.

What is the problem that Unobtanium Solves?

The conventional financial services are faced by problems such as the high cost of sending value and lack of privacy. This resulted in the creation of Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency. However, Bitcoin and other cryptos have also come with unique challenges that limit their growth. Here are some of these problems that Unobtanium addresses.

  • Centralization of financial services

The conventional financial services in the market today operate in a centralized manner. This means that transactions and storage of value take place in centralized areas. For example, when you decide to send value using wire transfer, the transaction has to be evaluated by the banking staff before it is allowed to go through.

The complex verification procedure implies that transactions take longer and are more expensive. In some cases, it can take up to five days before the value you sent reaches the recipient.

The centralized services also manage the facility and take care of users deposits. This means that if the bank leadership mismanages the facility, all the saved funds could be at risk. For example, if a bank files for bankruptcy, the chances are that your funds will be locked until a receiver is selected and investigations about the causes of the problem are completed.

  • High volatility

If you take a closer look at the standard banking system, the most notable thing is the effort to control inflation. Central banks print and release new coins or mop oversupply to ensure that inflation is maintained at the acceptable levels. But it is different when it comes to digital coins.

Because cryptocurrencies are not regulated, their price movement can be wild. The coins’ value in the market responds to various occurrences and raises the danger of causing major losses. For example, reports of an upcoming partnership between a cryptocurrency and a major company can cause the value of the coin to grow steadily.

Other things that can cause the value of coins to drop or go up include new regulations, entry of competitors, report of new technology, and attacks. These are some of the main reasons why most digital coins shot to their highest possible marks towards the end of 2017 and early 2018.

  • Complexity in mining cryptocurrencies

Mining is the process used by cryptocurrencies to release new coins into the market. The target of mining is ensuring that the supply is steady and in line with the growing demand. It is also used to help keep the nodes in a crypto network fully motivated.

Even with these important roles, the process of mining is very complex. In many cases especially the coins that use proof of work (PoW) protocol, the mining difficulty keeps rising steadily. This means that one requires expensive mining equipment and complex setup.

The impact of this is that many people opt to stay away from mining or simply go for other coins that do not require very high hashing power. This is the problem that Unobtanium addresses.

How Does Unobtanium Solve The Problem?

The founders of Unobtanium wanted to create a system that would reflect rarity from all angles. Here are some of the methods they employed to address the above issues.

  • Using proof of work consensus protocol

The proof of work mining protocol uses the SHA-256 algorithm to generate complex puzzles that miners must solve to confirm transactions. Unobtanium opted for this protocol to ensure that the mining difficulty is as high as that of Bitcoin. The main reason for adopting proof of work algorithm was to ensure that the Unobtanium network remains secure from attacks.

  • Network decentralization

In their website, the development team indicates that the cryptocurrency network is completely decentralized. This means that it is managed by nodes spread in its system across the globe. When users want to send value, they can complete the process on a peer2peer basis without involving centralized third parties.

  • Merged mining

To simplify mining, Unobtanium adopted merged mining in 2015. The process is targeted at allowing Bitcoin miners to use the same hashing power to mine the Unobtanium coins. The method is also aimed at helping to enhance the supply of the coin and keep the network safe.

What makes Unobtanium better than it’s competitors?

For more than nine years since Bitcoin opened the gates of cryptocurrencies, it has been a race that does not appear to slow down. More cryptocurrencies have been entering the market and raising the competition to the already existing coins. Here are some of the things that make Unobtanium better than competitors.

  • Unobtanium native coin supply is very small. The low coin supply and high difficulty make the coin very rare. This was the original target of the founder. The few coins are expected to help keep the demand high and price stable.
  • The Unobtanium system operates as a completely decentralized system. This implies that the network is not owned by the founders or the development team. Rather, it is owned by the users spread in its system. If you run a node on the Unobtanium network, you will be called to vote in line with the proof of work protocol.
  • Users enjoy low cost of sending value on the network. Unlike banks that operate as decentralized and profit-seeking organizations, the Unobtanium network is a peer2peer model. Users can send value directly without involving third parties. This means that the cost of sending value is low and the time required for transactions is relatively small.
  • It is a reliable method of sending value anonymously. When people join the Unobtanium network, their details are encrypted. This makes it difficult for third-parties to access user information or attackers to break and steal the native coins.

How can Unobtanium be categorized?

Unobtanium can be categorized as a unique cryptocurrency designed to be rare. It is unique because its model appears to go against the target of reaching more people and bring them to cryptos. For example, Bitcoin has 21 million coins and Litecoin has 84 million coins while others hold even more coins.

Its commitment to ensure that the mining difficulty is also high to ensure that all the coins will take close to 300 years makes the coin even rarer. But it is unclear whether people will be interested in the coin because its value is still relatively low compared to other coins such as Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum.

What’s Unobtanium’s vision on Security?

The Unobtanium’s vision on security is to become the most secure network for the rarest coin. The goal is targeted at ensuring that long-term investors can rest knowing that their coins or investment is secure and free from attacks.

Examples of Unobtanium’s use cases / applications

The effectiveness of a cryptocurrency can be determined partly by looking at its use cases. Here are some of the main use cases of Unobtanium.

  • You can use the Unobtanium coins to trade in the markets. Like other cryptocurrencies, Unobtanium coins can be traded in the markets that list them.  Good examples include Bleutrade and C-CEX. To trade the coins you will need to register for a user account and pair Unobtanium with another token such as Ripple.
  • The Unobtanium coin can be used as a saving platform. Instead of keeping money in a bank, a user may consider buying the Unobtanium coins. The coins are preferred because they are stable and allow users to keep their funds free from third party seizures.
  • Use the coin to send value on the Unobtanium network. Because Unobtanium operates as a decentralized payment platform, you can use the native coin to send value across the globe. Note that both the sender and recipient must be on the network before the transaction can be initiated and completed.
  • Unobtanium coin can be used to pay for products and services in the market. As more stores come out to support cryptocurrencies, it is now possible to make direct payment for goods and services. You only need to look for the store that supports Unobtanium coin to make a purchase.
  • Use Unobtanium to pay for government services. If you live in a jurisdiction that supports cryptocurrencies, it might be possible to clear utility bills and other government services. One such jurisdiction is Singapore.

In Singapore, the leadership indicated that there is no difference between making payment using fiat or cryptos. In Arizona, residents are allowed to pay taxes using cryptocurrencies after the government passed bill HB 1091. The bill requires the tax authority to convert the cryptocurrencies to USD and credit in the respective resident account. Other countries that support cryptos include Venezuela, and Switzerland.

NOTE: While the primary goal of Unobtanium is to operate as a rare coin though limited supply, the model has attracted a lot of criticism from the community. Here are some of the concerns that should help you take extra caution when targeting to invest in Unobtanium.

  • Though the target is making Unobtanium rare and stable, the movement of the price does not reflect the stability. For example, the movement of the price from October 2017 to October 2018 has been highly volatile. Therefore, do not simply buy the idea that your funds will be stable because the development opines that.
  • The limited supply of the Unobtanium coins imply that they could easily fall into the hands of a few people and risk progressive manipulation that is characteristic of pump and dump schemes. This is the trend that was manifested in October when the price of the coin grew steadily and almost crossed the $400 mark.
  • By adopting very high difficulty that indicates all the 250,000 coins will be mined in 300 years, it does not make sense to run a computer for such a long time only to mine a low-value coin.

If you target to invest in Unobtanium, it is advisable to take every precaution to avoid losing your funds. It is advisable to spread investment between different coins and target the high-value options. For example, you could compare Unobtanium coins to EOS and Stratis coins.

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