Author: Norah Amboko

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Mysterium

What is Mysterium?

Mysterium is a cryptocurrency and a decentralized open-source platform designed to democratize the world of VPNs (Virtual Private Networks). In their site, Mysterium describes itself as an open source network that allows nodes to rent unused network traffic while offering a secure connection to those in need. But the vision of the Mysterium Foundation for the network is even bigger.

The foundation targets to make Mysterium a big marketplace where both clients can easily buy VPN services from network providers. The mandate of the development team revolves around peer2peer operations, smart contracts, state channels, and blockchain operations. This is why they have settled on a progressively improving model to deliver greater value to users and outdo competitors.

The Mysterium project was founded by Robertas Visinkis, Paulius Mozulas, and Valdas Petrulis who wanted to promote a trustworthy and sustainable network that guarantees seamless access and protection for internet users. To make the goal a reality, Robertas and his team created the Mysterium Foundation that foresees the development of the network. Mysterium Network also partnered with other parties such as Bitcoin Suissie, TokenMarket, and MME to promote faster development.

The price of Mysterium dropped by more than 2000% between June 2018 and August 2018. Though this was the trend reported in the market by most cryptocurrencies, the Mysterium foundation has demonstrated its commitment to growing the value of the platform through new features development.

What is the problem that Mysterium Solves?

Poor privacy of most internet networks

Today, the internet has become the primary driver of most industries. From e-commerce sector to government departments, everything largely relies on internet connection. However, privacy has become a serious issue as online users’ information easily get leaked or stolen by third parties without seeking consumer consent.

  • Many administrations progressively monitor the internet with the target of constructing political profiles. This monitoring and data manipulation has replayed in many situations with serious repercussions. For example, private data harvested from social media networks has been cited as one of the campaign pillars during the 2017 US presidential elections.
  • Many internet service providers have become unhinged to one of the core goals of guaranteeing privacy to their users. The providers are also harvesting data on users’ communication habits and selling the data to every willing buyer.
  • While the development of peer2peer technology and blockchain based platforms such as Bitcoin and Ethereum brought a lot of hope, it has emerged that it is still possible to pull out personal data. On Bitcoin, transactions are no longer private as cryptocurrency enthusiasts expected.

The looming cryptocurrency regulation

When the blockchain technology was born and popularized after Satoshi Nakamoto launched Bitcoin, most administrations felt that their powers were being usurped. Because the cryptocurrencies are decentralized, and transactions run on a peer2peer basis, the ensuing danger to financial transactions has caused panic. Now, many governments are crafting regulations targeting to get information about cryptocurrency users. This data could be used for tax, prosecution, and other third party related operations.

Note that while Mysterium is primarily aimed at enhancing privacy, it also targets to facilitate faster adoption of blockchain technology across all sectors.

How does Mysterium Solve the problem?

The Mysterium multi-layered architecture

To provide a reliable solution to the above issues, the Mysterium founders and development team opted for a layered architecture with the following components.

  • Decentralized service infrastructure and database layers: These two layers are the foundation of the Mysterium platform. They use smart contracts to help nodes identify themselves, discover each other, and send payments on a peer2peer basis.
  • The service provider layer: This layer comprises a network of Mysterium nodes that serve as VPN providers. They are the nodes that want to rent their unused internet traffic.
  • The service client layer: This layer comprises of various client applications created on the Mysterium network and even third parties.

Advanced cryptography and the Ethereum blockchain

The VPN consumers search and pay service providers using the inbuilt smart contracts that predefine all the terms and conditions. The network relies on the Ethereum blockchain for transparent processing and distributed storage. Registered identities also help to enable the use of limited trust when offering the services and processing payments.

The VPN service and VPN service providers even allow negotiations on terms and conditions. When the negotiations are completed, they are captured and implemented by the smart contracts on the Ethereum platform. Both parties are required to deposit some MYST tokens as collateral, and payment is only effected by the smart contract when all the conditions are met.

To run the computational costs correctly and factor all the limitations of operating on Ethereum Virtual Machine, Mysterium uses keccak256 hashing, ECDSA signature verification, and identifier recovery functions. The advanced encryption has been crucial in keeping user information more private.

What makes Mysterium better than its competitors?

Mysterium was created at a time when the growth of cryptocurrencies had reached the peak. This implies it has to fight for space and market share in a market with more than a1600 other cryptocurrencies and blockchain networks. Here are the main components that make Mysterium better than its competitors.

  • The platform utilizes smart contracts to run transactions: Smart contracts in Mysterium are designed to make processing of transactions easy and direct. Because the rules of the transactions are predetermined, and users have to agree with them, even complex transactions are inviolable.
  • The Mysterium network has targeted the high potential internet traffic niche which that is drawing a lot of interest from different stakeholders. At a time when more people are becoming conscious of the need for enhanced internet privacy, Mysterium network’s demand is likely to grow exponentially. This could ultimately increase the value of the network and price of the native token.
  • The Platform provides users with a secure and private method of making transactions such as sending value. This implies that you can now send funds across the globe using the Mysterium network without worrying about third parties knowing about personal details or even risk of seizures.
  • By offering internet traffic on a peer2peer basis without involving centralized profit-seeking entities, users are assured of lower transaction fees. This is likely to draw more traffic to Mysterium resulting in faster growth of the network.
  • The Mysterium development team has lined list of highly attractive features on its roadmap. Some of the features such as API for app developers and private end-to-end communication channel have become the pacesetters in the industry. More cryptocurrency networks are now following Mysterium for ideas on what to launch in their platforms.
  • Mysterium provides users with an opportunity to sell unused traffic in the network. This is a great way for users in the network to increase their revenue from the network. They can also mine the network and cut transaction costs because all operations are peer2peer.

How can Mysterium be categorized?

Mysterium is a new blockchain network created to help redefine the internet services by promoting the focus on security. Its design and operations are helping to wrestle internet traffic from decentralized operators and empowering more users to become providers. As a decentralized network, it implies that all people can participate in determining the nature of the internet they want.

While some have argued that most top internet providers are likely to put up a spirited fight, the blockchain technology is an irresistible technology whose time has come. The incentives provided for maintaining the network and decentralized governance implies that more people will get involved in promoting the system to make it better.

The aggressive development team has demonstrated it is willing to go to every length to deliver greater value to users. This is evident from the high profile features that have been lined up for implementation in their roadmap. The community is gearing up for positive price and value shift of the Mysterium network

What’s Mysterium’s vision on Security?

Security of people’s data when operating online and their digital tokens has become an important factor in defining the design and implementation of decentralized networks. The Mysterium’s development team aims at decentralizing and making user data as private as possible. The founders believe that no one should access your data, whether personal or for business, without requisite consent. To guarantee users the needed safety and privacy, here are the main strategies used at Mysterium platform.

  • Mysterium is based on the Ethereum network: While this design comes with some disadvantages because the network is not fully independent, it is capable of utilizing the advanced Ethereum network as an additional layer of security. For example, the Mysterium development team was able to advance applications of the Smart contracts for faster growth safely.
  • The development team is very aggressive in identifying gaps in the core code: Even with its strong core code, the Mysterium development team appreciated the complex and evolving nature of internet security. Therefore, it progressively identifies gaps and addresses them to keep the network more secure. This is why no successful network attack had been reported on the network by August 2018.
  • The token distribution model is not based on proof of work (PoW) or proof of stake (PoS): Rather, it is premised on the basis of the bandwidth that a node has shared on the network. This has been crucial in even distribution of the tokens to avoid the risk of 51% attack.

Examples of Mysterium’s use cases / applications.

Though Mysterium is one of the newest networks, the development team has been working extra hard to increase the value of the network via more use cases. However, Mysterium development team will have to work harder to win the market from industry leaders such as Ripple, Bitcoin, and Ethereum.

  • Use Mysterium coin to pay for the network traffic on the Mysterium marketplace: Mysterium coin is the primary currency for paying network traffic in the platform. Note that you have the opportunity to negotiate for better conditions such as prices.
  • Paying transaction fee when trading Mysterium on the markets: If you have more MYST and want to trade them in the markets such as Liqui and ForkDelta, the transaction fee can be paid using MYST. Note that the charges vary depending on the selected exchange. To enjoy lower transaction costs you should consider using decentralized exchanges such as ForkDelta that allow users to exchange their tokens directly from their wallets.
  • MYST can be used to pay for products and services in the markets: Like other cryptocurrencies, Mysterium tokens can be used to pay for products and services in online marketplaces. If you have ample coins in the Mysterium wallet, you will only need to identify a platform that accepts the coins. Note that even when a store accepts another coin; do not consider it out of reach. You only need to change it for the accepted coin in the exchanges.
  • It is a reliable way to save and invest your funds: Though the price of MYST has been was on a negative trajectory by August 2018, the community and experts are optimistic that it will finally take a positive trend. Therefore, people who want to save their funds only need to buy MSYT from the exchanges. Remember that the native coins are completely encrypted to ensure that no third-party can easily know about your details.
  • The best way to send funds anonymously: As a decentralized blockchain network, users on the Mysterium network are allowed to send funds directly anywhere across the globe. The network helps users to bypass centralized networks to make the transactions faster and cheap. All that is required is for both the sender and recipient to be on the network.
  • Creating a decentralized application to grow your business: One of the things making Mysterium network to attract a lot of users is allowing them to develop and plug decentralized application. Whether you are a developer or a business, this is a unique channel to advance the business. For example, a new store can create a decentralized application to help a business operate on a 24 hour basis.

https://coincheckup.com/coins/Mysterium

Mysterium Network

https://medium.com/mysterium-network

https://mysterium.network/whitepaper.pdf

 

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SaluS

What is SaluS?

SaluS (SLS) is an open source and decentralized blockchain network designed with a profit-based approach to help raise the net asset value of crypto coins. It was created to operate on an experiential basis. The net asset value (NAV) is the sum of an asset valued correctly and less all the associated liabilities.

The profit-oriented approach of SaluS has made it include some transaction fees such as the Foundation TX fee that is pegged at 0.001 SLS. The fee is used to reward the clients. When the project was launched, a total of one million coins were released. To trade or use SaluS, you are required to hold at least 50 SLS.

The SaluS coin has been performing relatively well in the market. In January 2016 when the coin debuted in the market, its price was only $0.02. It remained within this range for about one year and started rising in April 2018 when the price broke above the $1 mark. On December 24th, the price had skyrocketed to $120.0, a whopping 599,900% growth. But this was short lived as the prices sharply fell to $16.7 in August 2018.

The rise was caused by the sudden rise in demand of most cryptocurrencies towards the end of 2017. However, a lot of people have been skeptical about the cryptocurrency because of its unclear operational model. This was the reason for the sharp drop between December 2017 and August 2018.

What is the problem that SaluS Solves?

Many cryptocurrencies in the market today are built with one core objective; to help advance the blockchain technology. SaluS project is aimed at helping to bring more value to the digital coin holders. In their website, they indicate that the idea was born of necessity to assist people in the crypto community trade more profitably. Here is a closer look at the core problems associated with trading cryptocurrencies that SaluS wants to address.

  • Poor understanding of the markets: While the cryptocurrency trading platforms in many cases have been likened to the forex markets, the underlying factors are very different. From the experienced to new traders, cryptocurrency markets are very unpredictable. The problem is compounded by the fact that cryptocurrencies are still unregulated. This implies that even poorly designed tokens can easily enter and sweep the market off the ground in no time.
  • Lack of ample trading tools: Unlike the forex markets that have been around for ages, cryptocurrencies were only introduced in 2009 when Satoshi Nakamoto launched Bitcoin. Therefore, the markets, as well as their associated trading tools, are still in infancy. This means that market analysis and proper decision making is still an uphill task.
  • The fast-changing cryptocurrency markets: The cryptocurrency market has been changing rather fast. It responds to every piece of information in the financial, regulatory, and cryptocurrency niches. As these parameters change, the price and value of the targeted cryptocurrencies also shift.

How does SaluS Solve the problem?

While the problems that SaluS targets to address are clear, its approach has not been conclusive. Though it is true that the cryptocurrency was launched on an experimental basis, the succinctness of the approach compared to other networks such as Ethereum and Ripple is indeed lacking. Here are some of the methods adopted by SaluS.

Staking

When users join the SaluS network, they are required to own some native tokens. The network requires all nodes to hold a minimum of 50 SLS for a period no less than 8 hours. Holding the tokens and being part of the network is considered part of supporting the system. Therefore, you will get rewarded in SLS.

Holding

When nodes hold the SaluS coins, they are entitled to get an interest of 1%. The profit is meant to help motivate the nodes to continue supporting and being loyal to the network. All the interest paid to the nodes comes from the SaluS reserve that holds the profits generated in the network. SaluS indicates that it channels all the profits to the reserve to promote a growth-oriented approach. It also targets to provide users with a low inflation rate.

This approach has been criticized in many platforms because it is seen as a form of centralization. Though SaluS commits to paying the nodes an interest, there is no clear mechanism for achieving it. It is indeed a perilous approach considering that some networks such as Burst have seen the initial founders disappear leaving the network without a lead.

Direct technical analysis

Any type of currency trading, whether forex or crypto-based, requires correct analysis of the market. The SaluS technical analysis and charting are meant to help users predict direction and trading signals of the market. The focus is on providing members an edge in the current market.

ICO related and token sale news analysis

When new ICOs are released, a lot of people flock to the markets to get their share before the prices shoot up. But this has also become an easy target for a pump and dump tokens as well scammers. Now, people have been wondering how to identify the right ICOs and leave out the fake ones. SaluS provides a comprehensive analysis of various ICOs so that investors do not invest in projects that will result in losses.

Providing advanced trading tools

If you are new in the cryptocurrency markets, trading can be a difficult thing. Many people keep wondering where to start and how to go about it. However, SaluS targets to help traders get a softer landing when they decide to join the market by providing advanced trading tools. The tools are meant to assist users to see the market from both short and long-term perspectives before making their moves.

What makes SaluS better than its competitors?

When SaluS was founded in 2016, the creators targeted to provide a new model that would help users realize higher value by joining the network. But this puts it in direct competition with thousands of competitors fighting for the same space. Here are some of the main reasons that make SaluS better than its competitor.

  • SaluS cryptocurrency, unlike other coins, provides users with an annual interest of 1% from the reserve. This implies that you are sure of growing the overall value by simply holding the coins. It makes the cryptocurrency a great investment option that could easily rival most financial institutions in the market today.
  • The cryptocurrency value has grown steadily and delivered good return on investment. This makes it one option for people targeting to join the crypto niche and invest in cryptocurrencies. Between January 2016 and close of August the price of SaluS coin grew with more than 90,000%. This is very unique because most of the cryptocurrencies were reporting negative growth.
  • SaluS platform provides users with the best opportunity to operate anonymously. Unlike banks where user’s details, transactions, and balance are known to many parties such as cashiers and bank management, it is only the user who knows about account details. The node’s information on the SaluS platform is encrypted so that even the miners who confirm transactions can only follow back the public address and not the individual user information.
  • To motivate users, SaluS provides the top ten addresses with exclusive access to transaction and currency trading. This helps them to evaluate the market and make the right decisions easily. However, this model can also demotivate other people who fall below the top addresses in the SaluS platform.
  • The cryptocurrency uses a hybrid consensus model of proof of work (PoW) and proof of stake (PoS). This model helps the network to deliver the benefits of both consensus algorithms to the users.
  • If you want to trade SaluS on the markets, it provides advanced trading tools that help to customize trading, monitoring and alerting tools. This makes it different from other cryptocurrencies that only concentrate with the native tokens. The trading information has been very helpful especially for newbies who still need insights on optimizing profits from crypto trading.

How can SaluS be categorized?

SaluS is a highly ambitious project that focuses on a high potential niche. As more people join and accept cryptocurrencies, trading them in the exchanges is becoming very important. The focus of the project has resulted in its current price growth in the markets. However, their approach to crafting or collating the tools to help users trade profitably still remain unclear.

What’s SaluS’s vision on Security?

SaluS vision for security is to become the most secure platform for users who want to optimize the net asset value (NAV) of their crypto coins. The development team targets to achieve this through a decentralized approach to promoting value for users’ tokens.

The development team indicates that it is always working on improving the network to protect users’ information and their native assets. Apart from indicating that it will use both proof of work (PoW) and proof of stake (PoS), it does not provide additional information on how the security vision will be achieved.

Examples of SaluS’s use cases / applications

When Satoshi Nakamoto launched the first blockchain based cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, he wanted to demonstrate that a decentralized digital coin can be used just like the standard fiat. As more cryptocurrencies enter the market, their uses have also diversified. Here are the main use cases for SaluS.

  • As a decentralized cryptocurrency network, SaluS allows users to send value on a peer2peer basis. This implies that users are able to send value directly without involving centralized institutions such as banks. Because the value of SaluS coin is still relatively low compared to other top cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, the transaction cost is still very low. However, the transaction cost pegged at 0.001 could easily go up when the value of SLS goes up.
  • Trade SLS in the markets. If you have been trading in the forex markets and want to try something different, a great option is the cryptocurrency markets. These are crypto-based trading platforms that operate like forex markets but use digital coins as opposed to fiat. To trade SLS coins, you need to identify the right market, open a user account, and pair the token with another coin such as Bitcoin or Ethereum.
  • Use SaluS coin to make purchases in online and conventional stores. As the blockchain sector continues growing at a rapid rate, more stores are coming out to accept the digital coins as a direct method of payment. You only need to identify the stores that accept the tokens to make a purchase. Note that even if the store accepts a different coin, you can still purchase by converting SaluS coin in the exchanges.
  • Use SaluS coin to pay for your taxes. Unlike a few years back when many countries cautioned their residents against using cryptocurrencies, things are changing. More jurisdictions are now opening up and allowing their residents to use cryptocurrencies. In Singapore, the government indicated that there is no difference between making payment in cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies. Besides, the state of Arizona is now allowing citizens to pay taxes using cryptocurrencies such as SLS after the passing of HB 1091 into law.
  • Use SaluS coin to game in the casinos. The gaming niche has particularly found SaluS to be highly reliable because of its commitment to growing the asset value. Therefore, you can gamble with SaluS coin in casinos such as Bitcasino, BC Casino and Directbet.

SaluS is a highly ambitious project with a lot of potential to propel not just its native coin to higher levels, but the entire blockchain too. This is the reason it has performed relatively well since launch in 2016 despite carrying the tag “experimental” project. But the market and investors are worried that the project does not provide all the structures needed to support its operational model.

The crypto community appears torn into two. Even the investors who are joining the market have indicated that they like the concept but the implementation mechanics are wanting. The platform will need to shed the experimental tag and showcase its commitment to users through comprehensive structures for faster growth amid growing competition in the industry.

https://coincheckup.com/coins/SaluS

http://saluscoin.info/