What is LEOCoin?
LEOCoin is a digital currency. What makes it unique in an industry where altcoins are cropping up all over the place is that it is a pioneer. LEOCoin was the first digital currency ever to be launched in the UK. By design, LEOCoin aims to get the attention of the average people; small businesses, people who engage in small to medium transactions on a daily basis.
The goal is to integrate LEOCoin into people’s lives so that they can use it for simple and mundane things like paying for a coffee date, or plumbing services.
With LEOCoin, users should be able to take advantage of a peer-to-peer (P2P) network to make transactions that are safe, fast and cost-effective. Given these features, LEOCoin is an easily accessible digital currency, whose usability should make it a currency of choice for most businessmen and entrepreneurs.
There is a lot of room for growth for LEOCoin. As a digital currency, LEOCoin borrows a lot from Bitcoin, the largest digital currency in the world. By projection at the time LEOCoin was introduced into the market, Bitcoin had around 13 million coins in circulation. Of these 13 million, only 2.6 million individuals were using Bitcoins at the time, with more than 100,000 transactions being carried out on a daily basis.
Based on this knowledge, there is a lot of room for growth, and innovation in the digital currency space and this is what LEOCoin is out to make use of.
What is the problem that LEOCoin Solves?
One of the primary goals behind LEOCoin is inclusivity. A careful look at most of the digital currencies we have at the moment reveals a technical element that makes them the preserve of very few, especially those who understand the technology behind digital currency.
This is one of the biggest challenges facing blockchain in general. The team behind LEOCoin, however, want to make digital currency accessible to everyone.
The belief is that digital currencies like LEOCoin have so much to offer, especially for local businesses. In light of this, the team behind LEOCoin works hard to make their platform as simple as possible, so that users do not necessarily need to understand the technical details behind LEOCoin to use it.
LEOCoin also sets out to solve some of the problems that users currently experience with traditional banking systems.
Primarily, third parties involved in the traditional banking system have an upper hand in that they have access to a lot of information about the transaction, and the parties involved in the transaction.
Throughout a transaction, third parties usually have lots of information regarding the person’s personal and financial data. This has often been the reason behind lots of privacy concerns, fraud, and exorbitant costs that are passed on to the customer.
LEOCoin sets out to get rid of third parties, and in the process, make transaction costs as close to zero as possible. This means that LEOCoin is getting rid of payment processing agents, credit card fees and so many other unnecessary costs that are involved in the legacy banking system.
Let’s talk about inflation, for a minute. The rate of inflation will almost always affect the value of your disposable personal income, hence diminishing your purchasing power.
However, when using digital currency like LEOCoin, the rate of inflation might affect your purchasing power, but not at the same level as with fiat currency.
Users are somewhat shielded from adversities of inflation. This is because, over a given duration, only a fixed amount of LEOCoin are produced. Apart from that, there are no institutions, not even governments, that are in play, manipulating the price or the quantity of LEOCoin that is produced and released to the market.
And, of course, these players would also want compensation for their role.
How does LEOCoin Solve the problem?
There have been a lot of lessons learned by LEOCoin and a host of other digital currencies, in the journey of Bitcoin. It is through these lessons that digital currencies have emerged, albeit to solve some of the problems inherent to Bitcoin, and at the same time carve a niche for themselves.
Experts believe that Bitcoin might not even be the digital currency that becomes the future all digital currencies promise to be. The leading digital currency that will eventually take the world by storm and usher in the future will be one that has resolved all the challenges associated with digital currencies at the moment, such as a reduction in energy consumption and 51% exposure to attack.
Initially, LEOCoin was running Scrypt-Jane, a hashing algorithm that increases the RAM demand, a process referred to as Proof of Work (PoW). This essentially meant that your ability to mine digital currency depended on the processing power of your computer. Therefore, those with supercomputers were always enjoying an unfair advantage, and this locked out so many willing participants who had average computers.
This is no longer the case since LEOCoin currently uses Proof of Stake (PoS). Instead of rewarding users for the processing power of their computers contribute to the LEOCoin network, they are rewarded for the number of coins that they hold. This means that you earn more when you hold more LEOCoins.
This is a good alternative, given that it does not hog computing resources, and levels the playing field for average users who have basic computers. Therefore, small business owners, stay at home moms, virtually anyone is now able to invest in LEOCoin.
Innovation
To live up to the vision behind LEOCoin, the team is constantly working on improving the technology behind this blockchain platform. This is to ward off attacks and make the LEOCoin ecosystem a robust business economy where merchants and customers feel safe.
Interface
LEOCoin also has a user-friendly interface that has made it very easy for users to access. This has also helped overcome the stigma associated with blockchain applications, where they are often assumed to be the preserve of people who have in-depth knowledge of the technical workings of blockchain technology.
Security, privacy, and flexibility are some of the things that are at the heart of LEOCoin. This is an assurance that customers and merchants can go about their business with ease, while at the same time enjoying the lowest transaction fees.
What makes LEOCoin better than the competitors?
One of the biggest advantages that LEOCoin has is that it has a large community of users. These are people who already trade amongst themselves in LEOCoin, thereby creating an economy of sorts.
Other than that, the LEOCoin Foundation is on a mission to further educate a wider audience on the simplicity and ease of access, to increase the uptake of this digital currency.
But, what are the inherent features that make LEOCoin better than the competition?
We look at this from two perspectives; the merchant and the consumer.
- Consumers
The following are some of the advantages that consumers stand to gain from using LEOCoin in the course of their normal transactions.
- Privacy
There is no need to link your personal information to transactions. This is aimed at doing away with the dangers posed by identity theft. Transactions are fully independent of personal information.
Your personal information, or identity, for that matter, are not necessary for the blockchain technology. Unless you choose to reveal your identity, it is always secure and hidden. All transactions you carry out are encrypted.
- Transparency
All transactions that have been finalized are available on the blockchain for everyone to see. However, personal information is not visible. This means that you can tell when and how many LEOCoin have been spent on the network, but you cannot tell the people involved in the transaction.
Public addresses might be visible, but the information of the person who owns the public address is not.
- Security
The PoS model reduces the risk exposure of 51% attacks that are common across blockchain networks. Any transaction has to be verified and approved by the P2P network. This makes interest in security a concern for the entire community.
- Value
Compared to the cost of using traditional currency, it costs almost nothing to use the LEOCoin network. This is possible since the elimination of third parties. All the coins are accounted for in the public ledger. Therefore, there is no merchant that can charge hidden fees for the services or goods they are offering without raising red flags. Before engaging in any transaction, the fees have to be communicated upfront.
- Ease of access
One of the areas where LEOCoin has succeeded is embedding itself into the lives of the underbanked and the unbanked in the society. This makes it easier for such people to manage their wealth. They are making capital flow easy for everyone, which has helped a lot of people get out of poverty.
- Control
There is always a risk of freezing or requisitioning of traditional currency. Many people have had this problem with their banks in the past, and in most cases, the customer has nothing to do with the concerns. Digital currencies are not within the confines of the conventional regulators. Therefore, unless an illegal activity takes place on your account, it is very rare for you to lose access to your LEOCoin.
Merchants
Merchants have access to a market that includes the unbanked, people who barely use financial institutions to manage or store their money, but have some money to spend. These are people who would often resort to cheque cashing services or cash transactions only. The World Bank estimates that ¾ of the world is unbanked.
Transactions in LEOCoin are not reversible. Therefore, merchants are protected from fraud. It is now possible for merchants to conduct business with customers in places where fraudulent activities would normally make it difficult for banks to engage or back a transaction, or charge very high fees if they do.
LEOCoin has a merchant program in place to roll out the coin to a lot more people, especially by training them. Merchants who engage in this become LEOCoin ambassadors, which helps to build a wider and stronger community.
LEOCoin is an energy-efficient currency. It uses less energy than most of the digital currencies you can come across, which makes it a sustainable alternative. To distribute all the LEOCoin to the community, it will theoretically take 100 years.
How can LEOCoin be categorized?
LEOCoin is a digital currency that runs on the blockchain. All transactions that are carried out are recorded in a public ledger and processed by decentralized computers. There is no central repository or single administrator for LEOCoin.
What’s LEOCoin’s vision on Security?
LEOCoin is a secure platform. There are very few regulations that have been imposed on digital currencies like LEOCoin. It is virtually impossible to impose dire regulation on such digital currencies without affecting their fundamentals.
LEOCoin supports any development steps that are taken by governments to create more confidence in digital currency within the population, while at the same time encouraging innovation and continued protection for the privacy of users.
Examples of LEOCoin use cases/applications
LEOCoin targets enterprises. From small businesses to medium scale businesses, these are entities that are usually on the wrong end of high transaction fees, whether conducting international or domestic transactions. These are businesses that cannot walk into the bank and negotiate a better deal or rates for their transactions. They simply take what is given to them.
More than 33,000 merchants are already offering their services and products in LEOCoin value. There are more than 200,000 users who hold the LEOCoin.
LEOCoin leverages services on the user database. With hundreds of thousands of users already on board, this presents a wide membership and market for merchants.
While most digital currencies spend a lot on advertising, marketing and making their platforms accessible to those who understand how the cryptocurrency world works, LEOCoin simply involved members from the beginning, built a community of traders, consumers and merchants, and this is one of the reasons why LEOCoin has enjoyed a faster uptake.
In order to increase the adoption and integration of LEOCoin into daily lives, LEOCoin Foundation introduced two products, My LEO Travel and LEOCoin Merchants.
Through My LEO Travel, users are able to plan their holidays and trips accordingly, booking hotels, and paying through LEOCoin.
LEOCoin Merchant, on the other hand, indicates all the merchants that are currently accepting LEOCoin as a form of payment. This creates a ready market for them and makes work easier for customers.
Resources
https://www.leocoin.org/News.aspx
https://www.leocoin.org/faq.aspx
https://coincheckup.com/coins/LEOcoin
https://www.leocoin.org/media/1027LEOcoinWhitePaper_V2.pdf