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FlorinCoin

What is FlorinCoin?

FlorinCoin is a scrypt minable digital coin designed to offer faster processing speed compared to other coins such as Bitcoin and Litecoin. The cryptocurrency was forked from Litecoin and released on June 2013. Though the development team targeted to address issues that were reported in the pioneer coins especially Bitcoin and Litecoin, many functions are pretty similar.

The entry of blockchain technology into the finance sector opened a new chapter that has been evolving rather fast and offering new solutions in the industry. When he launched Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto motivated developers  to start looking at the blockchain and even extend it to other niches.

One such development is FlorinCoin that was created by a group of developers only referred with the term Skyangel (part of the Bitcoin.org community) that closely followed in the footsteps of Satoshi Nakamoto.

Like Satoshi, they opted to remain anonymous in order to advance the core concept of decentralization and avoiding third-party seizures.

  • A brief history of FlorinCoin

The most notable addition in the FlorinCoin blockchain was “transaction comments” that allows users to include unique applications and enhancements. Even with its focus on anonymity, the development team has been consistent in improving the network to enhance its value.

  • The performance of FlorinCoin in the market

When FlorinCoin was released, a total of 160,000,000 coins were created. Because the cryptocurrency and its platform were launched without an ICO (initial coin offering), all the coins are minable through scrypt proof of work (PoW) algorithm.

The performance of the native coins, FLC, in the market has been impressive. In November 2013, the value of FLC was $0.0003 before rising by about 13,000% to $0.04 in mid-December. In the subsequent months, the price shot down to $0.001 in April 2014.

Between April 2014 and April 2017, the price of FLC remained below $0.01. Starting from May 2017, the price took an upward turn growing steadily to hit a high of $0.32 on January 13th, 2018. This was the highest point in the coin’s history.

It is important to mention that 2017 saw the price of many coins take a bearish trend hitting the highest points in their history by the close of the year. For example, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple prices grew to the highest marks in their history in 2017. But the gains were short-lived.

By early February 2018, the price of FlorinCoin had dropped by more than 300% to $0.08. This bearish trend continued culminating to $0.05 by the close of October 2017. The community is, however, optimistic that the price will take an upward trend in the coming years.

What is the problem that FlorinCoin Solves?

When the pioneer cryptocurrencies such as BTC and LTC were released into the market, the founders did not anticipate that a lot of issues would emerge. Some of these issues arose from the direct application of blockchain technology and the growing community. FlorinCoin targeted to address these issues as well as others associated with conventional financial institutions. Here are some of the issues that FlorinCoin address.

  • The high cost of sending value using the conventional financial institutions

By 2013 when FlorinCoin was created, a lot of people were sending money through traditional financial institutions such as banks and credit card companies. However, these organizations charge a lot of money to facilitate the transfer of value because they are profit based.

But the problem with conventional financial organizations goes beyond the cost of transactions. Because the organizations are run in line with local laws, banks are required to implement know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) strategies that result in delays in sending value. In some cases, wire transfers can take more than 3 days.

  • Centralization of mining services

After the launch of Bitcoin, companies specializing in the manufacturing of advanced mining equipment sprung into action to help people mine more coins. The specialized equipment such as ASICs (Application specific integrated circuits) were highly effective because they generated high computing power required for mining coins especially Bitcoin.

Though the ASICs might sound appealing because they help user’s mine more, they also have a negative side associated with their costs. Because they are very expensive, it is only the well to do in the community that can afford them. This resulted in the serious issue of centralized mining that means only a few people could own the coins. This raises the danger of 51% attack.

  • Poor adoption of blockchain technology in the community

As the blockchain technology grew rapidly, the advantages of its application in different areas became even more evident. For example, people could send fund faster, any time, and at a lower cost. Despite these benefits, the uptake of the technology by the community was very poor.

Many people felt that the cryptocurrencies, like governments’ posited, were risky and could result in major losses. FlorinCoin sought to correct this perception by providing an easy to use platform for both tech and non-tech people in the community.

How does FlorinCoin Solve the problem?

From the beginning, the FlorinCoin’s development team knew that they had to develop a stronger code that appealed to both developers and the larger crypto community. Here are the strategies and features used to address the above issues.

  • FlorinCoin implemented a decentralized layer referred as floData

To make the FlorinCoin platform progressive, receptive to the community, and easily adaptable, the platform used a decentralized applications data layer referred to as floData. The layer allows developers to easily read and write on the blockchain.

Though the layer is not as advanced as the DApps developments platform offered by Ethereum, it allows the members of the community to easily contribute to the platform’s growth. Remember that as a completely decentralized platform, anyone is welcome to join and help define the direction of the platform.

Some of the main applications developed through floData support include Flotorizer that notarizes files in the FLO blockchain and Shared Secret that allows users to encrypt data added to the blockchain.

  • The transaction comment

While FlorinCoin was designed to largely operate as a platform for sending value, the development team wanted to keep it different. They enriched the code by adding the transaction comment. This is a text field that is attached to the blockchain when sending value.

The text field of transaction comment is 528 characters and allows users to send a special message to the recipient. You could also use it to simply attach a thank you or greeting message. One thing you need to appreciate is that the message is public unless you decide to encrypt it before sending value on the network. You can use Flotorizer DApp to encrypt the message.

  • FlorinCoin uses scrypt proof of work mining algorithm

To address the problem of centralized mining, FlorinCoin opted to deviate from the SHA-256 proof of work (PoW) mining algorithm used at Bitcoin for the advanced scrypt proof of work. The scrypt mining algorithm was first used at Litecoin blockchain.

The main distinction between SHA-256 and scrypt used at Bitcoin is that the later is memory intensive. This means that on top of being able to generate numbers fast, these numbers are stored in RAM (random access memory) of the processor that must be accessed before results are submitted.

The overall effect of scrypt proof of work (PoW) was that it was resistant to ASICs and allowed people to mine with GPUs and CPUs. While this early intervention was effective at the beginning, manufacturers soon created scrypt ASICs. This implies that the problem of centralized mining still persists in the FlorinCoin network.

What makes FlorinCoin better than its competitors?

When FlorinCoin entered the market, the competition was largely against other coins in operations such as Litecoin and conventional banks. Today, the competitor’s list has grown. The following are the main things that make FlorinCoin better than its competitors:

  • The coin has been in the market for some time and won trust from the community. When a new coin enters the market, the community rarely trusts it until all the features are tested and proven to work. It takes more than three years for the community to have the assurance that a coin is not a pump and dump scheme.

FlorinCoin has won the community support because it has been in the market for more than five years. This implies that its features have been tested and proven to work. It is because of this trust that the FLC coin price has been performing relatively well in the market.

  • It is a cheap and prompt method of sending value across the globe. If you want to send funds through a wire transfer, it is very expensive. Indeed, even using Bitcoin, Ethereum or BTC to send value is still relatively high because of the high value of their native coins

However, FlorinCoin has proven to be a cheaper alternative because of its low value compared to both banks and higher value coins such as Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. However, it could suffer the same fate if the price rises in the coming years.

  • People on the network enjoy using and owning the network. As a completely decentralized platform, the network is not owned by the founders. Rather, all the nodes spread in its network are involved in making related decisions. This implies that when you open a node to send value or mine the network, you become part of its governance system.
  • It has a very aggressive team that progressively works on new features. The effectiveness of a cryptocurrency is dependent on the development team working behind the scenes to support it. The FlorinCoin development team has demonstrated its commitment to develop the platform and compete against the emerging networks.
    For example, they have been releasing updates regularly to keep the platform secure.
  • The price of the coin has been impressive in the market. Though there are more than 1600 cryptos in the market today, many are those that have been performing dismally.

    Despite most cryptocurrencies being on a bearish trend especially from January to the third quarter of 2018, FlorinCoin still maintained a positive show. For example, FLC coin was still over 10,000% above the starting price.

How can FlorinCoin be categorized?

FlorinCoin can be categorized as a completely decentralized cryptocurrency designed to provide the blockchain industry with a stepping stone to the next level. The cryptocurrency provided early insights on supporting decentralized applications. For example, Vitalik Buterin used the idea of FlorinCoin’s support for decentralized apps to broaden his focus on designing Ethereum platform.

What’s FlorinCoin’s vision on Security?

The FlorinCoin’s vision on security is to become the most secure platform and coin for all. The FlorinCoin platform was created at a time when attacks on cryptocurrencies and related platforms such as Mt. Gox had become very common. Therefore, the Skyangel team wanted to demonstrate that things can be done differently. Here are some of the methods used to keep the FlorinCoin platform, native coins, and user information secure.

  • Progressive review of the network to identify vulnerabilities and addressing them.
  • Operating as a completely decentralized platform.
  • The system is based on the Bitcoin and Litecoin core code.

Examples of FlorinCoin’s use cases /applications.

One of the methods used to gauge the effectiveness of a cryptocurrency in the industry is acceptance in the market. For example, Bitcoin has gained acceptance in the gaming, retail stores, and even payment of official services in some jurisdictions.

FlorinCoin development team has also worked hard to ensure that its native coin is accepted as a means of payment in different niches. Here are the main FlorinCoin use cases.

  • You can use FlorinCoin to pay for goods and services in stores that accept it.
  • Use the native FLC coin to trade in the markets that list it. These are exchanges such as Bittrex and Novaexchange that allow users to exchange FlorinCoin with other coins.
  • FLC coin is also the main method of payment for transaction charges in the FlorinCoin network. Note that the cost is not targeted at raising profit. Rather, the charges are directed at supporting the platform’s development.
  • If you reside in a jurisdiction that supports digital coins such as Arizona or Singapore, it might be possible to pay for government services using FLC coin. For example, Arizona started allowing residents to pay taxes using cryptocurrencies after passing bill HB 1091 in April 2018.

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Groestlcoin

What is Groestlcoin?

The entry of blockchain technology into society marked an important point that would change the entire world. Though Satoshi Nakamoto targeted the finance sector with Bitcoin, it was only the beginning before the desirable traits of decentralization spread to other areas.

A few years after Bitcoin launch, new digital coins started entering the market in record numbers. By mid-2018, the number of cryptocurrencies had reached over 1600. One of these digital currencies was Groestlcoin that was launched in 2014.

  • A closer look at Groestlcoin

Groestlcoin is a cryptocurrency and a decentralized blockchain platform created by a person only known as Gruve_P in 2014. As a coin dedicated to providing optimal privacy, nothing much is known about Gruve_P or his background.

To understand how Groestlcoin came about, it is important to look closer at the events that preceded it. In reality, the coin started way before Bitcoin was launched. In 2007, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) held a hash competition that was targeted at developing a new hash function referred to as SHA-3.

Though the contest was won by a group referred to as Keccak, one of the finalists was Groestl. It is the Groestl cryptographic model referred to as Groestl-0 that was used to build the Groestlcoin.

Unlike the SHA-2 and SHA-3, the Groestl algorithm uses a tool referred to as the wide pipe that is based on Merkel-Damgard construction (a system of creating collision-resistant cryptographic hash functions from one-way compression functions). This was the technology that the Gruve_P used to work on reliable solutions to address issues in the crypto niche.

  • The Groestlcoin coin (GRS) and its performance in the market

GRS coin is one of the coins that have demonstrated an impressive show in the market since launch. Between April 2014 and September 2018, the value of Groestlcoin grew by more than 24,000%. This implies that if you invested some money in the coin around the time of inception, the growth on investment would have been 24,000%.

Between launch in April 2014 and April 2017, the price of GRS remained between $0.002 and $0.007. But things changed in 2017 when the price took a bullish turn reaching $0.1 in mid-June 2017.

The bullish trend continued in the remaining part of 2017 breaking through the $1 mark early in December and edging up further to $2.25 in December 2017. This was approximately 1,100,000% growth from the starting price and the highest mark in its history.  But this impressive growth did not last.

Between December 2017 and April 2018, the price shot down to $0.6 before rising to $1.5 early in May and then falling to $0.5 by close of September 2018.

What is the problem that Groestlcoin Solves?

When Groestlcoin was created in 2014, the blockchain industry was going through major challenges that have persisted to date. Though the decentralized design of operation had been demonstrated to be highly effective, it was starting to choke from its own weight.

For example, scalability at Bitcoin was becoming a serious challenge that limited the transactions that could be performed on the network. Here are some of the main issues that Groestlcoin solves.

  • Scalability problem

When a financial payment platform (banking, credit card, or crypto related) is launched, its success is largely gauged through the ability to support more transactions securely. However, this proved to be a nightmare in both conventional and crypto related platforms especially the pioneers.

In conventional banking systems, a person targeting to send funds on to another part of the country or globe cannot do it instantly. The transaction has to be scrutinized based on the jurisdictions’ know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) laws.

These procedures make the process complicated and painfully slow. It is the main reason why some wire transfers take up to four days before they can be effected. However, many blockchain networks did not manage to comprehensively address the issue.

For example, Bitcoin can only support seven transactions while Ethereum can only handle 20. Even the seemingly more advanced Bitcoin Cash, a fork of Bitcoin, can only handle 60 transactions every second.

When these figures are tabulated against the industry leaders such as Visa that can handle over 20,000s transactions every second, it shows that blockchain networks are lagging behind. This is one of the problems that Groestlcoin addresses.

  • Centralized mining

The entry of decentralized networks such as Bitcoin and Litecoin was used to celebrate the liberation of the financial sector. People had finally come to see the light because they could operate without relying on centralized organizations such as banks.

However, the technology developed fast and companies started designing advanced mining equipment that generate high hashing power to help people mine more coins. Though the idea might have been noble, the impact was catastrophic.

The mining equipment such as the Antminer S9 are very expensive and out of reach for the average person. This implies that the process of mining and creating new blocks to earn new coins was only left in the hands of the rich.

The centralized mining equipment such as ASICs are fast taking the blockchain industry back the centralized past. By funneling the new coins only to a few individuals/ parties/ pools, the centralized mining also raises the danger of 51% attack on the crypto networks.

  • Privacy

When you decide to send funds through a banking system, a long list of people and parties can easily get access to the account history. These include cashiers, bank management and political administration. Nothing is secret.

However, even some crypto networks such as Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash are not private. At Bitcoin, the encryption only uses pseudonyms that are easy to uncover by following multiple transactions for individual users.

How does Groestlcoin Solve the problem?

To address the outlined issues, Groestlcoin implemented the following strategies and features.

  • Implementation of segregated witness (SegWit)

Groestlcoin was the first coin to implement segregated witness in the blockchain niche. SegWit is the process of limiting the block size on a blockchain network by clearing off some parts (details from the block). This implies that some space is freed to allow for more and faster transactions on the Groestlcoin platform.

By freeing some space, Groestlcoin is not only faster, but it also supports decentralized apps and smart contracts. This is the main reason why Groestlcoin platform is now offering additional services such as tipping through GroestlTip application service.

  • Use of Grøstl-512 hashing algorithm

To address the problem of centralized mining and advance the concept of total decentralization, Grøstl-512 Groestlcoin uses Grøstl-512 mining algorithm which is part of the proof of work (PoW) derivative designed to be completely ASICs resistant. This implies that Groestlcoin can be mined using GPU and CPUs. Other coins that have effectively employed Grøstl-512 hashing algorithm are Verge and Digibyte.

  • Application of Lightning Network

To address the problem of scalability and increase the uptake of Groestlcoin in the community, the development team also employed the lighting network. Lightning Network operates as an additional layer on the Groestlcoin platform to help run transactions faster between the participating nodes and the users.

The process involves allowing the participants to transfer value without making the transactions public on the Groestlcoin blockchain. It operates as a smart contract where the funds are held in an escrow account and participants allowed to draw them after meeting the basic requirements.

By adopting the lightning network, the Groestlcoin team indicates that it will be possible to even surpass the scalability rates achieved by competitors such as Visa.

  • Use of Samourai wallet

One notable thing about Groestlcoin is that it uses the same pseudonyms that have been demonstrated to deprive users off privacy when running transactions at Bitcoin. To enhance their privacy, Groestlcoin uses Samourai private wallet.

The wallet has been very effective in enhancing the privacy of Groestlcoin because it uses stealth addresses and also has Tor support. These features have made it possible for Groestlcoin users to operate in the network without worrying about third-party seizures.

What makes Groestlcoin better than its competitors

Even as the list of cryptocurrencies continues growing, Groestlcoin has managed to stay ahead of most of them. Here are some of the things that make Groestlcoin better than competitors.

  • The Groestlcoin platform and its native coin have been around for more than four years. The lengthy period of operation is used to demonstrate the strength and stability of structures used in a blockchain network.
  • The Groestlcoin system uses the advanced Grøstl-512 hashing algorithm that has helped to address the problem of centralized mining. The algorithm has helped Groestlcoin to take advantage of the strengths of both proof of work and proof of stake to make the platform more stable.
  • The founders have managed to address the problem of poor scalability that has remained a serious challenge to Bitcoin and other altcoins. The development team indicates that it has the capacity to handle more transactions and outdo the industry leaders.
  • The platform is faster and cheaper when sending funds across the globe when compared to conventional banks and even other crypto networks such as Bitcoin. These special traits are achieved through full decentralization. This implies that users can send funds on a peer2peer basis without involving centralized operators such as banks.
  • The Groestlcoin platform allows users to operate privately without worrying about third-party seizures. By working together with Samourai wallet, users on the Groestlcoin are able to enjoy total privacy for their transactions. This implies that you do not have to worry about the personal details falling into the hands of third-parties.

The stealth addresses, advanced encryption, and TOR support ensures that your details are hidden. Indeed, even a court of law cannot know of order the production of transactions run under Groestlcoin because cryptocurrencies are not regulated.

  • The price of Groestlcoin in the market has been impressive. Unlike other coins in the markets that are suffering from low prices or are at the brink of fading off, Groestlcoin is performing very well. Even after a poor show between 2014 and 2017, the price of GRS started growing to become one of the top performers.

By early November, GRS market capitalization was $36.2 million. This was way higher than other more popular coins such as Ethos, Crypterium, and Salu S.

How can Groestlcoin be categorized?

Groestlcoin is a next-generation cryptocurrency and platform created to offer reliable solutions to the blockchain industry. The development team of the platform demonstrated the commitment and capability to enrich the blockchain niche.

The platform has demonstrated that unlike pessimists who have been indicating that blockchain could soon come to an end, creativity demonstrated at Groestlcoin shows it is possible to improve the technology and deliver high customer value.

For example, Groestlcoin demonstrated that even if a coin is not private, it can integrate a completely private wallet to make transactions anonymous. The platform was also the first to implement Segregated Witness technology.

What’s Groestlcoin’s vision on Security?

Groestlcoin’s vision of security is to guarantee users that their transactions, coins, and personal info are free from attacks. This vision was targeted at helping Groestlcoin weather the wavers of insecurity that rocked the industry in the early years of blockchain niche. Here are some of the methods used to guarantee users of optimal security on the network.

  • Advanced encryption.
  • Use of Samourai wallet to enhance anonymity.
  • Use of Grøstl-512 hashing algorithm has helped to advance decentralization and lowered the danger of 51% attack.
  • The development team works progressively to identify gaps and seal them through updates.

Examples of Groestlcoin’s use cases /applications

To outdo competitors in the blockchain niche, Groestlcoin’s development team targeted to take it to more users through diverse applications. Here are some of these use cases.

  • You can use GRS coin to send value across the globe on a peer2peer basis.
  • The GRS coin can also be used to pay for transaction fee when using the Groestlcoin platform.
  • GRS can also be traded in the exchanges such as Binance, Bittrex, Huobi, and Upbit.
  • Use GRS coins to pay for goods and services in the stores that accept them.
  • Pay your taxes using GRS coin in jurisdictions that allow cryptocurrencies. Good examples include Arizona, Switzerland, and Singapore.

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