What Is OkCash?
OkCash is an open source and decentralized cryptocurrency created to help people take control over their finances. It was created in 2014 when it went by the name Pimpcash. It rebranded to OkCash in 2015 under the lead developer OkToshi.
Cryptocurrencies were designed to be the ultimate solutions to issues in conventional banking systems. But one of the most pressing issues was slow transactions volumes or scalability. OkCash was created to help make transactions fast and reliable. The network targeted to redefine the crypto space by empowering all stakeholders to own and protect the network.
- The history or OkCash
OkToshi developer has made a name for being a top developer in the computing niche. For example, he developed ROKOS, one of the most successful linux-based operating systems for the Internet of Thing devices like the Raspberry Pi. Indeed, Raspberry Pi is sold installed with OkCash client.
- Performance of the OkCash coin in the market
OkCash is one of the coins whose performance in the market has been impressive. Between launch and mid-September, the value of OkCash grew by about 599,000%. This was impressive. Though the price of OkCash took a bearish trend starting from January 2018 when the value was $0.6 to early November when the price hit $0.03, it is still high compared to the starting mark of 2014.
What is the problem that OkCash Solves?
The OkCash platform was created with the purpose of being the best in the market. Therefore, the development team targeted and addressed the following issues.
- Centralized mining
One issue that has become a major obstacle to the growth of pioneer coins is centralization of mining services. The centralization happens through the requirement of advanced mining equipment such as ASICs that generate very high hashing power. But the problem arises from the high cost of the equipment because only a few well-to-do in the community can afford.
The impact of centralized mining is that more tokens are likely to fall into the hands of a few wealthy people or mining pools. This raises the danger of the network suffering from 51% attack.
- The high cost of power in standard mining systems
Today, it is estimated that that Bitcoin mining consumes about 343 megawatts of power every second. This is equivalent to the power that 285,833 homes in the United States. Some analysts have indicated that mining Bitcoin and other proof of work coins is unsustainable.
The alternative is going for a mining algorithm that is not reliant on computing power. The selected mining system should also help to ensure that more people can mine the networks using standard devices such as CPU and GPU.
- Centralized financial services
The conventional setting of financial services is highly centralized. This implies that transactions have to be processed by the banking management. When your deposits are entrusted to a manager, it means that their safety depends on that management acting professionally and ethically.
However, if they mismanage the funds resulting in bankruptcy, the deposits in the facility could get lost. In many cases, the banks are taken over by receiver management that is expected to investigate what went wrong before clients can get their deposits.
- Poor scalability
Though the blockchain networks are considered the ultimate solutions to most issues affecting the society today, they also have some issues related to their operations. One of the issues is scalability. For example, Bitcoin can only manage seven transactions every second while more advanced networks such as Ethereum can only handle 20.
When the rates are compared to industry leaders such as Visa that can handle in excess of 20,000 transactions every second, it implies that something needs to be done on the blockchain networks. OkCash was created to address the problem.
How Does OkCash Solve The Problem?
When OkCash was created in 2014, the founding team wanted to make the coin an example that others could emulate to provide better services and take the industry to the next level. Here is a demonstration of how OkCash addresses the problems.
- Proof of stake consensus above protocol
When OkCash was created, it was operating as a proof of work cryptocurrency. This means that it was pretty like Bitcoin or Litecoin. The development team was quick to note that if the network continued with PoW consensus protocol, it would incur the same issues that faced Bitcoin.
The development team and the community agreed that a better alternative was needed. They settled for proof of stake protocol. The good thing with proof of stake protocol is that miners do not need to use expensive mining equipment such as ASICs. Instead, they only need to own some stake in the network to be selected to mine the network.
Because mining in proof of stake is not based on computing power, it implies that more people including those with GPU and GPUs can mine the network. It also means that the native coins are distributed more evenly to lower the risk of 51% attack.
- Full decentralization
Decentralization is seen as the solution to many issues in the financial and payment systems. The OkCash platform operates as a completely decentralized system. This means that users who want to run transactions do not need to go through centralized companies such as banks or credit card firms.
The transactions are completed on a peer2peer basis to make them fast and cheaper. It does not matter whether you are in one side of the globe and recipient on another. All that is required is for both of them to be on the same network and the sender to have ample coins to send.
- Partnership with many stakeholders
OkCash development team has been working on bringing more parties onboard to drive its value up and encourage more people to use cryptocurrencies. Some of the partners include Microsoft, and exchanges such as Kraken and Poloniex. They also help to facilitate faster payment of services offered in their systems of related affiliates.
What makes OkCash better than it’s competitors?
The fast-growing cryptocurrency community in the industry means that the competition is expected to intensify. The OkCash development team has been working extra hard to win a bigger market and deliver value to clients. Here are some of the things that make OkCash better than competitors.
- OkCash has a very aggressive development team. The team comprises some of the top brains that the industry is relying on to grow to the next level. For example, the team has added private messages to help users embed short messages to their transactions.
- The coin is a completely decentralized platform. This implies that users are able to join and use the network without going through centralized financial services such as banks. This makes the transactions fast, cheap and reliable.
- The OkCash is a reliable platform for using and owning the network. When you swipe a debit card and make payment for a product or service, there is a sense of passiveness. You are not involved in deciding the charges on the platform. But OkCash is different.
As a decentralized network, it implies that users spread on the network also own the system. This means that if you own some OkCash coins; you have a right to vote on governance issues such as the introduction of new features.
For examples, all members of the OkCash community voted when the network shifted from proof of work to proof of work protocol. Note that you only need to stake the OkCash coins to be able to mine and participate in voting.
- Using OkCash allows users to invest or send funds without worrying about third-party seizures. Unlike banks that expose user details to many users such as cashiers and political leaders, the OkCash system does not involve any third party. As a decentralized network, the transaction takes place only between the sender and recipient. Even miners who come to confirm transactions can only check the balance in the public address.
How can OkCash be categorized?
OkCash is a truly anonymous and decentralized network created to help grow the crypto industry. The design of the platform has helped to demonstrate that though there are challenges in the implementation of cryptocurrencies, it is possible to get reliable solutions.
In their roadmap, the OkCash team has demonstrated that it will keep reviewing the system to take the coin at the top and make it compete with others such as Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash. Though this will require a lot of work because other coins have very large communities, the commitment of the team can make it possible.
What’s OkCash’s vision on Security?
The OkCash vision on security is to become an enviable secure network that will draw users from the conventional financial systems as well as other networks. To achieve this objective, here are some of the methods and features used by the development team:
- Regular update of the OkCash core code to identify and seal gaps.
- Use of proof of stake protocol to facilitate even distribution of coins to prevent 51% attack.
- Use of advanced encryption to ensure that no unauthorized person can access your details
It is crucial to note that even with the commitment of the development team, security of your coins will also depend on the personal ability to protect them. It is important to always keep the private keys private and avoid using the computer with the main OkCash client to access risky websites. You should also acquire a reliable and secure wallet such as Ledger Nano S or Trezor.
Examples of OkCash’s use cases / applications
If you want to know the acceptability of a coin in the society, a reliable method is looking at the applications. As the competition intensifies, the OkCash founder has been working on winning more players and stores to accept OkCash. Here are the main use cases of the coin and its platform.
- You can use the OkCash coin to pay for goods and services in the market. As other coins such as Bitcoin and fiat currencies are used to pay for goods in stores downtown, so is OkCash. You only need to identify a store that supports OkCash to pay for the goods of choice.
Note that even if the targeted store only supports s different coin, it is still possible to buy with OkCash by converting it to the supported coin in exchanges such as Huobi or HitBTC.
- Use OkCash to pay for utility bills and government services. If you live in a jurisdiction that supports digital coins, it might be possible to pay for government services using OkCash. One example is Arizona.
In April 2018, the Arizona government passed bill HB 1091 that allows users to pay taxes with cryptocurrencies. The bill requires the tax department to immediately convert the digital coins to USD when a resident pays taxes. Other jurisdictions that support the use of cryptos include Singapore and Switzerland.
- Use OkCash to trade in the cryptocurrency markets. These are platforms that bring together buyers and sellers so that prices of cryptos are driven by the market forces. The markets work like forex markets but they are not regulated and deal with digital coins as opposed to fiat currencies.
- Use OkCash to end value on a peer2peer basis. If you want to send value to a recipient in another country, the cheap and reliable method is the use of decentralized networks such as OkCash. Simply ask the recipient to sign up on the OkCash or open a supported wallet to receive the coins in seconds.
- The OkCash is a reliable coin to save your money or invest as opposed to a bank. The unique features and the committed team have made the community believe that the price of the native coin is likely to grow in future. Therefore, buy some stake in the OkCash network and expect good return on investment when the value goes up.
However, it is important to appreciate that the expected value growth is speculative. The ultimate price of the token can be influenced by factors such as competition and new technology.
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