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.
https://coincheckup.com/coins/florincoin/charts’
https://coincheckup.com/coins/florincoin/purpose
https://coincheckup.com/coins/florincoin/analysis
https://coincheckup.com/coins/florincoin/news
https://coincheckup.com/coins/florincoin/markets
http://florincoin.org/florincoin.pdf