Norah Amboko – Page 52

July 23, 2018

Veritaseum

What is Veritaseum?

Veritaseum is a gateway to peer2peer capital markets. It establishes blockchain based and decentralized capital markets as a software at the international level.

This means creating platforms that give investors access to various capital markets through smart contracts as well as advanced financial machines that help in transferring value and investment faster.

The project was created by Reggie Middleton and his team to allow enterprises and individuals perform capital related trading without involving third parties such as brokers, lawyers or even banks.

By utilizing the fast-growing decentralized technology, Veritaseum enables people and businesses to take full control of their own money, transfer it almost for free in the entire globe, conduct speculation, hedging transaction, and investment without falling into the risk of credit loss or fraud.

What is the problem that Veritaseum solves?

Veritaseum’s goal is helping to completely eliminate brokers and middle-men of the capital marks ecosystem.

These are centralized operators who have been making the process look overly complex and impossible in many instances. This is the reason most organizations often opt to walk away and use alternative models.

The Veritaseum platform is built on the premise that it is simply a service vendor, distributed serverless software that facilitates users to act as both middlemen and consumers.

How does Veritaseum solve the problem

To address the problem of brokers in the capital markets, Veritaseum creatively employs the blockchain technology to provide completely decentralized operations and a native token for buying rights through smart contracts.

The entire Veritaseum process aimed at addressing the centralization process can be broken down into two key components.

1) The centralized solutions

This is a software program designed to cater to organizations that do not prefer to immediately join the distributed capital markets. Veritaseum operates servers under the client and employs 2 primary components.

The centralized digital exchange designed for the exchanges or prime brokerages.
Smart arbitrage component that helps to provide cross-platform liquidity. An exchange can utilize the Veritaseum centralized solution for trading digital assets such as NXT and Bitcoin.

2) Veritaseum’s Distributed Solutions

The autonomous products at Veritaseum sit at the top of the decentralized offering for helping legacy institutions join the blockchain niche.

The solutions are anchored in research and analysis that further help during the creation of financial machines. The ideas believed to be of value are Veritized (converted into Veritas tokens) and added to the financial machines. One of these machines is the VeADIR (Veritaseum Autonomous, Dynamic, Interactive Research).

According to Veritaseum site, VeADIR is a package comprising of several smart contracts that help to drive distributed software application on the public blockchain. There are more than 2300 lines of solidity codes with some still under review. Here are some of the main components of VaDIR.

VeADIR: This is an Autonomous Software and Financial Software and a Veritaseum machine targeted at providing exposure to different assets. It also provides opportunities that help facilitate asset growth based on research.
VeRent: This a special Veritaseum interface for assisting seekers and buyers to acquire Veritas tokens from various projects. These tokens will be needed to access the VeADIR software package Veritaseum Financial Machines).
VeTokenization: This is a Veritaseum automated system that helps users spin custom Veritas tokens every time that new assets are available, a new opportunity pops up or new exposure is available at VaDIR.

Users in the Veritaseum system can create own tokenized assets by establishing new addresses on the Ethereum platform. Here is a pictorial demonstration of the tokenization process.

VeExposure: This is a special Veritaseum facility aimed at helping people who have access to VeADIR access opportunities available there.
VeManagement: This is an application that provides users with the opportunity to access the portfolios at VeResearch. It further enables them to adjust or accept portfolios with private keys.

What makes Veritaseum better than it’s competitors?

The capital markets are the primary platforms for individuals and corporate entities to raise capital for development and growth.

The main competitors of Veritaseum are the traditional brokerages that often stand in between the corporates and individuals who want to access and use the markets. Here are the main reasons why Veritaseum is better compared to its competitors.

Veritaseum is a completely decentralized platform that allows all users to join and access international capital markets. This implies that businesses have better access to funding for their enterprises not just at the local level, but internationally too. Therefore, you do not have to stick to localized solutions that come with numerous limitations; simply go global with Veritaseum.
As a peer2peer capital markets platform that helps to bypass brokers, Veritaseum makes accessing capital markets and their services direct and easy. This makes the services cheaper and encourages more people to get involved.
The Veritaseum platform pools together advanced features that do not just seek to provide users access to more capital markets across the globe, but further help with management to ensure that users make the right decision. This implies that you have more resources and support to make better decisions on the capital markets options available at any one moment.
Veritaseum, unlike its competitors, has a native asset (VERI) that is used to access various features and resources in the network such as the VeADIR. While other capital markets use fiat currencies, Veritaseum has its native token that is anonymous and more stable in the market.
As a fully decentralized platform, it implies that Veritaseum provides users with complete protection from third-party seizures. Unlike with standard capital markets where your details can easily be accessed by staff and government authorities, Veritaseum helps users to operate in total privacy.
Veritaseum is a unique platform that allows users to tokenize their assets through the creation of new contracts on Ethereum blockchain. Whether you are a new enterprise or your business is more established, it implies that managing tokenized asset is very easy via product admin app. Indeed, anything from government bond, real estate, precious metals, and even other cryptocurrencies can be tokenized using Veritaseum.
The Veritaseum DApp allows users to hold their funds or assets and trade for 24/7 without requiring brokers. You can, therefore, rest assured of trading more and make a lot of profit because of more access to larger markets. This means that you can trade and make more for the business.

How can Veritaseum be categorized?

Veritaseum can be categorized as the first fully decentralized peer-2-peer gateway to capital markets.

The blockchain technology has been growing steadily and expanding to many areas. Bitcoin introduced the peer2peer payment platform while other platforms such as Golem and Siacoin took the technology to computing power and storage renting respectively.

Now, Veritaseum has taken the technology to the capital markets to help eliminate brokers.

Because of the unique position that capital markets hold for most businesses, Veritaseum is among the high potential platforms that investors are looking for rapidly grow their ventures. It is because of this that the value of Veritaseum has done very well since inception.

What’s Veritaseum’s vision on Security?

The main vision of Veritaseum’s on security is offering individuals and corporates a chance to directly access the capital markets in a secure manner.

Like other blockchain based platforms, Veritaseum platform is subject to numerous attacks at different levels; the network, wallet, and even the exchange. Here is how Veritaseum ensures that its security vision is achieved.

Veritaseum has a very aggressive development team that looks for gaps and updates the core code regularly. It is because of this that its network has never been hacked. Every time that there is a hacking attempt, the team easily identifies and updates the core code to keep the network safer for users.
Advanced cryptography. Like other cryptocurrencies, Veritaseum employs advanced encryption that helps to conceal all users’ details. This implies that it is very difficult for attackers to pull out your trading or personal information from the network. Indeed, even the miners who confirm the Veritaseum tokens transactions on the Ethereum platform can only follow back to check the account balances but can never get the personal details of respective account holders.
The Veritaseum token, VERI, is based on the Ethereum blockchain. This implies that all transactions involving VERI have to be verified by miners. The model further makes sure that VERI holders enjoy advanced security provided by the Ethereum network.

As Veritaseum works extra hard to meet its mission of securing the network, it is important that individual users on its network also play their part. Here are some recommendations that help you remain safe at the network, wallet, and exchange levels.

Never share the private keys and seed phrase with third parties. When a third-party gains access to your digital wallet, he has absolute control over the stored VERI and main operations. Besides, these two codes are your main components to help restore VERI in the case of a loss.
When trading VERI in the exchanges, only select the most secure ones. This is very important because the exchanges have proven to be the easiest points for attacking cryptocurrency users. Ensure to check for security features such as two-factor authentication and use of cold storage. Where possible, consider only trading from decentralized exchanges that allow you to operate from the wallet.
When sending VERI or making payments in the Veritaseum network, it is important to triple check the public address/ target address. This helps to keep low the chances of sending your funds to the wrong address.
To make it difficult for attackers to gain access to your account, it is advisable to designate one computer for all the Veritaseum operations. If you must use the device for other operations, ensure to avoid visiting risky websites.
Make sure that the computer and the Veritaseum client are always up to date. This will help to prevent a lot of malware and bugs that target exploiting gaps in old applications.

Examples of Veritaseum’s use cases / applications.

The primary target of Veritaseum is the capital markets, a crucial point for enterprises to raise funds for development and trading opportunities. Here are the main use cases.

Direct access to local and global capital markets to raise capital for companies’ development. Your business can target the markets to either source funds for product development, expansion, acquisitions, or asset acquisition.
But it is not just businesses that might need Veritaseum. Individuals can also access the platform to check for trading opportunities. You can opt to follow specific companies’ shares or focus on emerging international markets.
Veritaseum has presented people with an opportunity to tokenize their assets. Now, you can tokenize almost anything and get them in the market. For example, you can tokenize precious metals, real estate, or even government bonds and use Veritaseum to trade them.
The native coin, like other cryptocurrencies, can be used for standard trading in the exchanges. You can opt to pair VERI with top cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or newer assets in the market such as EOS. Still, in the exchanges, you can opt to use the tokens to pay the transaction charges.

NOTE: Veritaseum is a great project and targeted at a very rich niche, the capital markets. This means that its potential for growth is really high. However, take a swipe at Google and search for the term “Veritaseum Scams” and the information that will come up is really shocking.

Veritaseum does not have a white paper, and the bulk of the information posted on their site and related blogs is incomplete. Not providing ample details of how the project was conceptualized, its roadmap, and progress achieved in making the core code stronger, users have developed a lot of skepticism about it.

It is, therefore, critical to comprehensively review the structures of Veritaseum to understand how it works and make the right investment decision. It is especially critical to compare every point with other blockchain platforms in the same niche when planning to venture into it.

References

https://coincheckup.com/coins/Veritaseum

http://veritas.veritaseum.com/

https://veritas.veritaseum.com/frequently-asked-questions

https://gnosis.pm/resources/default/pdf/gnosis_whitepaper.pdf

July 23, 2018

Augur

What is Augur?

Augur is an Ethereum based, peer2peer, decentralized oracle and market prediction platform.

It allows users in its platform to craft markets for questions they might have on different issues and make profits from trading that allows people to buy positives or negatives for future events.

The Augur system allows users to trade in the prediction markets at a very low cost. The main expense involved is that participants compensate the creator and those who make the correct prediction.

A small amount is also used to reward those who provide the correct information about the markets. The platform was founded by Jack Perrson and Joey Krug, is written in JavaScript and Solidity, and runs as a decentralized app (DApp).

By employing smart contracts in the Ethereum network, the markets are automated so that no one has control over how it resolves questions or spends funds. This implies that no one, not even the market creator can approve or reject a trade, modify, undo trade, or even cancel orders. When a position is taken, it must hold until the end.

What is the problem that Augur Solves?

In the past, prediction markets were highly centralized. The markets had to rely on trustworthy entities to maintain public ledgers. This opened them to huge manipulation.

In many cases, the betting organizations easily manipulate the outcomes and at times cancel orders to ensure that the creators pocket hefty profits. Most of them can easily turn into theft and serious corruption rigs with little motivation to users.

The centralized market prediction system implies that the traditional market prediction systems could not be trusted. Besides, they also limited the markets such that you can get a betting platform that only limits operations to Soccer, Athletics, or even racing. Others even limit participation to specific regions.

The design of most traditional prediction markets makes them highly inflexible. Their design locks out any suggestion or even introduction of new markets which limits those who can get involved. Most prediction markets will not allow you to venture into unlisted markets.

For example, it is impossible to predict a political event or an entertainment competition on a common sportsbook. These are the issues that Augur targets to address.

How does Augur solve the problem?

The main method used to address the problems of the prediction markets platforms is decentralization. Augur created a platform that allows every person to create markets around major questions and make huge profits from them. This is achieved through two main things; creating markets and trading event shares. But in this case, the list has been extended to include the native token, Reputation (abbrev REP) that is used for payments in the Augur system.

Creating markets

In order to create a market, a user is required to put forward a small amount in Reputation (REP). Once you create a market, you are required to set the fees for the maker and taker. The fee is the cost of purchasing and selling shares on Augur. The taker fee at the platform is required to be within the range of 1.0% and 12.5%. Then, the maker fee cannot surpass the taker fee by 50%. When the market closes, this is the fee you will receive as the market creator.

Augur plans to set a creator fee that will help to address the ups and downs of calculating the maker/taker fees. The creator fee will be taken from rewards of traders who win positions and channeled to the market creator.

To attract more people, the market creator should try to keep the fee low. However, the fee should be high enough to meet the original cost used to create the market. This implies that you need to have the bigger picture of the market and get the expectations right. This is why market creators are advised to focus on areas that evoke a lot of interest.

Trading event shares

In addition to creating markets, users in the Augur system are allowed to buy and trade shares representing odds that the picked event will have a specific outcome. For example, a common question that a market creator would have posted towards the close of 2017 about Bitcoin was, “will Bitcoin price hit $20k by the close of 2017?”

Because of the huge interest in Bitcoin by 2017, this market would have been of great interest to you. If you are fairly confident it will hit $20k mark, you can opt to buy about 100 shares. The higher the price of the shares you go for, the stronger is your belief that an event will happen. Note that this is an example of a binary prediction (yes/no) model, but other prediction models can still be used.

As a trader, you can make money in two ways. One, you can take advantage of price fluctuations where shares are bought at a lower fee and then sold at a higher rate when the sentiments change. It is important to look for real-world catalysts when planning to cash on price fluctuations.

Two, you can make cash if you made the right prediction and still hold shares by the time the market closes. In such a case the payout will look something like this.

Payout=No of Shares *Price/No of Ticks. (The ticks are the number of possible price points between the lowest and highest price in the markets)

It is also important to appreciate that you are required to pay the settlement fee for every winning. This includes curator fee and reporting fee for the Decentralized Oracle System. The higher your earning, the higher the fee.

The Augur Reputation Tokens (REP)

The Augur Decentralized Oracle System is powered by the REP token. Users are required to stake REP in order to report outcomes of events for various markets. When the market closes, you are required to report the outcome of the event and put some REP to back the claim. If the event did not happen, it becomes invalid (you cannot report on it).

After the market closes, a window of 27 days is available for submission of reports. If the report is the same as the majority of other reporters, the REP you had put forward will be returned plus a reporting fee. Here is the fee for reporting calculation formula.

Reporting fee=the present reporting fee*(open interest on Augur*5/REP Market Cap).

Note that new reporting fee is calculated every thirty days. If you staked more when submitting the report, the reporting fee will be greater.

Other important components in the Augur Decentralized Oracle include;

Appeals bond: This is the bond posted by anyone on the Augur system to have an Open Market Re-adjudicated.
Blockchain fork: When the number of transactions divide into two separate timelines because of reconcilable disagreements.
Early resolution bond: This is a bond paid by a person in the Augur system to request a specific market to be resolved prior to its expiry time.
Fork bond: This is a bond posted by a person who wants the reputation history fork in order to contest the consensus that was reached at the appealed markers re-adjudication.

What makes Augur better than it’s competitors?

The main focus of the Augur development team was to disrupt the prediction market by empowering users to get actively involved.

By changing how the markets are identified and prediction run in a decentralized manner, Augur set itself against the top prediction giants such as casinos.

Here are the main things that make Augur better than its competitors.

The transaction fee at Augur is very small

Augur is a platform that allows users to create the markets and incentivize more people to get involved directly. This implies that there are no third parties that make the conventional prediction markets expensive. Because payment is paid on a peer2peer basis, there is no middleman or company seeking to profit from predictions. Since payment uses Ethereum based REP, the payments are also not effected via centralized organizations such as banks or credit cards that further raise associated costs in conventional prediction marketing.

There is no limit on the markets that can be created

In the Augur system, there is no limit on the markets that can be created. This implies that there are limitless prediction opportunities for prediction enthusiasts. You can opt to create a market in sports, politics, or any other area. This makes it a better option compared to the conventional prediction markets that only focus on major events such as major sports events in major leagues or racing events.

Anyone can create a market on the Augur system

While the traditional prediction markets only allowed their administrators to create the markets, Augur empowers anyone on its system to create markets. This means that you do not have to look at standard betting events and wonder how they were done. Simply join Augur to get an equal opportunity to also create such markets and generate huge returns from it.

Augur system implements automated payments

In standard market prediction systems, payments after making a correct prediction are never direct. In most of the cases, a raft of conditions has to be met before a win is released to your wallet. For example, you might be required to roll the win on a number of times before withdrawals can be effected. However, Augur system is run via smart contracts where payment is automatically effected once the correct prediction is confirmed.

The Augur system is open to all

A closer look at the traditional prediction market indicates it is highly selective. Most of them are run under strict local and international laws which limits those who can be involved. In some cases, countries have very strict laws that prevent their citizens or specific groups of people from getting involved. However, Augur is open to all. No matter where you are located, the platform is a decentralized system where anybody can get involved without worrying about getting discovered by third parties.

Augur ecosystem has its own cryptocurrency

Most conventional prediction markets lack their own currencies. This implies that they have to rely on the fiat currencies and payment services such as credit cards that easily push the cost up. However, Augur is a step ahead of them because it has own cryptocurrency. This means that everything is housed in the same ecosystem. From market creation to information gathering, prediction by users and payments are all done in the same system. The only point where Augur relies on another party is basing its native tokens, REP, that are based on the Ethereum blockchain. But even this approach helps to amplify the integrity of the tokens because Ethereum is a highly effective and stable platform. This has helped to grow the popularity of Augur and give its value an upward trending approach.

What makes Augur better than it’s competitors?

Augur can be categorized as the new decentralized prediction market that will help to redefine the industry. While the prediction markets is a very huge niche, it has been chocking with the players trying to seek alternatives.

Now, a new option that is Augur has demonstrated that it is possible to free the industry from shackles of centralized monolithic operators. Whether you want to create a market about a local event or a global one, Augur is a reliable platform whose value is expected to grow rapidly because of its structure, rich target, and fast emerging demand.

What’s Augur’s vision on Security?

The main vision on security for Augur is providing users with a completely decentralized and secure market prediction platform. Starting from the beginning, the Augur founders and its development team have been seeking to progressively improve the core code and assure users of optimal security for their assets, information, and predictions. Other methods used to help achieve this goal include;

Advanced encryption that helps protect user information at all levels.
The Augur native token, REP is based on a highly reputable Ethereum blockchain.
The tokens are distributed as rewards to those who make the right predictions or provide correct market info to the Augur system. This helps to prevent 51% attack.

Examples of Augur’s use cases / applications.

Political forecasting: Augur allows users to turn the political knowledge into strong predictive power by trading outcomes. This can be anything from an upcoming election outcome, policy decision, bills on the pipeline, and other political events.

Event hedging: The Augur prediction market allows users to hedge against catastrophic events such as natural disasters, market crashes, and even geo-political. When summer approaches, think of predicting the occurrence of a tornado and trade on the outcomes.
The weather prediction: Augur allows you to use the power of the crowd to create a highly accurate weather prediction such as daily averages temperatures, heat waves, and others.
Company forecasting: For people in businesses, Augur can be a great guide for decision making. The company management can use Augur to predict projection completion timelines, sales, and project completion timelines.
In the conventional market such as sports prediction: If you are into sports betting such as soccer and athletics, you can easily cash on creating own markets. You do not have to stick to the old betting model, create your own market and make a huge profit from it.

References

https://coincheckup.com/coins/Augur

http://veritas.veritaseum.com/

https://veritas.veritaseum.com/ve-blog

http://bravenewcoin.com/assets/Whitepapers/Augur-A-Decentralized-Open-Source-Platform-for-Prediction-Markets.pdf