"This story is for all cryptocurrency enthusiasts out there, but in particular it is for new enthusiasts and those still learning the dynamics of the cryptospace. I’m going to explain some of the most common scams, how I was scammed, and how you can avoid a similar fate."

Full article: https://hackernoon.com/lessons-i-learned-from-being-scammed-twice-in-the-cryptocurrency-space-43658f4753e8

CyberFM is Levelling the Playing Field for New and Artists

As anyone familiar with the music industry knows, there are royalty payment systems enforced in most countries through government regulation. The reason for this is to ensure that musicians and artists are compensated for the use of their performances. Benefitting from these royalty regimes requires being a member of a recognised rights performance organisation (for example, SOCAN in Canada and SoundExchange in the United States, which collects online broadcast payments through a membership system for multiple performance rights organizations). As a way to offset the costs associated with these payments to artists, large online radio networks that broadcast music have monetized content using subscription systems, membership perks and traditional broadcast advertising.

Cyber-FM challenges this model of online radio in a number of ways. First, Cyber-FM Radio has been a leader for the past 10 years in providing listeners access to music that is not normally available on mainstream radio at no charge. Now, it is working with Mainstream for the Underground (MFTU) to add a new system in which everyone (listeners and artists) are rewarded with tokens for each song they listen to. MFTU uses an open-source online royalty payment model that functions worldwide through a distributed ledger (blockchain) system. To operate globally while also negotiating varying government regulations, the system uses a dual token ecosystem involving the CYFM token and the MFTU token. Both tokens are built on the ETH blockchain, which can be used to create a universal payment system that enables royalties to be collected and paid throughout all countries.

The CYFM token represents a regulatory compliant cryptocurrency for artists that are currently registered locally in their home countries. It will be used for payment to government regulation agencies worldwide. This means is that the CYFM tokens will not be totally decentralized as it will have to conform to regulatory requirement in different countries. The MFTU token is similar to CYFM, but it is architecturally decentralized and as such represents the only truly internationally accepted, transparent, fair, legal and cryptographic performance rights royalty system for independent artists. Any artist can register with MFTU, have their music broadcast on Cyber-FM and receive royalty payments in MFTU tokens regardless of individual membership to the performance rights organization in their home country. Fans and listeners alike can use either token in stores for merchandise, song downloads, and “tipping” directly paid to the artist (this is separate from MFTU artist royalties).

In Conclusion, Cyber-FM has an established record of bringing independent music to listeners and promoting artists through user outreach. Its new plan with Mainstream for the Underground is exciting because it provides a way of protecting artist's rights and payments across the globe while they maintain current copyright registrations locally. At the same, it gives a way for artists who are not officially registered the chance to have their music broadcast on CYBER-FM and be paid royalties through MFTU tokens. This means the ecosystem can effectively function in the current context of government regulation of copyright and royalties, while also helping to usher in a new era of decentralised and global royalty payment processes.

More information:

https://www.cyber-fm.com/
https://www.mftu.net/

#CyberFM #Investment #Cryptocurrency #DistributedLedger #RadioOnline #CYFM

The Datum Network: Bringing Data Privacy to the People

Perhaps you have heard people saying things like “data is the new oil”. What does this mean and who is profiting for it?

The Problem the Datum is Solving

In the last few years, vast amounts of digital data have been generated. Currently, 2.5 Quintillion bytes of data are generated each day through online activities and digital actions, such as browsing the internet, interacting on social networks, uploading personal files, syncing devices and shopping online. The rate at which this data is being generated is growing exponentially. 90% of the world’s data was created in the last 2 years alone and the rate of stored data stored grew 4x faster than the world economy.

This exponentially growing mass of data has become a significant source of value and economic power for those who are able to control and monetize it. Individuals lose control over their data when signing up to various services such as Facebook, Google, Instagram, Twitter etc., which offer ‘free’ services in exchange for exploiting user data, e.g. Google’s Gmail service reads emails and shows targeted ads as a result. The data is stored and owned by these large private organizations in huge silos where it is vulnerable to profiteering, tampering, theft and other exploitation. This is where the new Datum Network comes in. It is a decentralized storage network and personal data marketplace powered by the Data Access Token (DAT). Datum will run on a secure smart contract blockchain that allows users to retake control of their data and benefit from its value, both the personal and habitual data they produce every day (e.g. an individual posting an image or making an online purchase), and also data from the devices they control (e.g. location information).

Through the Datum Network anyone can store personal data securely in a decentralized way and earn tokens for sharing that data with Datum’s pre-screened partners. The DAT smart token allows for optional selling and buying of stored data while enforcing usage rules that are set by individual data owners. Users will also be able to inspect the data that is being transmitted at any time and trace who accessed their data at any time. In this way, Datum lets individuals control and profit from their own data while also providing access to high quality data to researchers, companies or individual consumers. This is in stark contrast with current corporate silos that collect vast amounts of data under restrictive licensing terms (e.g. an individual giving up most rights to their image when posting it on Instagram).

Token Economics

DAT is a utility token that can be exchanged for certain privileges on the Datum Network, such as participation in the data market and registration as the storage node. Tokens exchanged for these activities will be destroyed, as the supply of DAT is fixed at the net effect of these activities is that the supply of DAT will decrease over time (deflation). Storage Nodes are paid fees for storing and transmitting data.

Conclusion

It is likely that government regulation of the data industry is on the horizon in various countries, which will be welcome if the regulations are well-crafted. However, Datum is offering a tool that individuals can use to directly take control of their data without needing to appeal to state-base legal systems. The more users on the Datum network the more powerful the momentum becomes, eventually if enough users join they would be able to insist that data is stored and handled through the Datum network. Individuals could change the data market without having to depend on governments. In this sense, the Datum project embodies some of the spirit that animated the development of blockchain and cryptocurrency technology in the first place. At the same time, without such large-scale adoption it seems hard to imagine Datum’s data marketplace succeeding.

Website: https://datum.org/
Whitepaper: https://datum.org/assets/Datum-WhitePaper.pdf
Bounty: https://beta.CCX/hosts/Datum
Like this article on Linkedin: https://No link shortners - please include original link/2JJMn2M


B.o.u.n.t.y.0.x Profile: frauswif

Yeah, this one seems to have a lot of future potential.

For most projects, the whitepaper is just an idea projected into the future. Only rarely is there a prototype or actual existing product.  When I read whitepaper I try to think about how realistic the plan is and what kinds of assumptions about the market and competition are being made. For example, I've read whitepapers for projects with great ideas but the feasibility depends on huge user adoption. How is the project going to get the users it needs in order to have a working product? Sometimes the whitepaper will discuss the marketing campaign that is planned, sometimes it doesn't mention anything about this issue at all. In other cases, I've read strong whitepapers but when you take a step back you see that the market niche the project is aiming for is already quite saturated one is forced to ask why people would stop using existing services that meet their needs to try something new and unproven? The question of how some of these companies will break into the markets they plan to "disrupt" remains too often unclear. In general, I think it's smart to read whitepapers with an to how practically feasible an idea is. Is the assumption of user adoption realistic? Is there an existing market for the services being offered? What is the competitive advantage over existing services? Etc.

Dataeum: Putting Humans at the Center of the Data Ecosystem

Dataeum is a blockchain-based platform that uses crowdsourcing to enable the accurate collection of physical data anywhere in the world. It does this using a mobile app and a distributed workforce of “collectors” who are incentivized in XDT tokens to submit physical data (stores, ATMs, gas stations, traffic signs, landmarks, etc.). Once validated through a decentralized process, the data is accessible to data consumers on the Dataeum marketplace.

Data is the New Oil

The global data market is estimated to be worth over 3 Trillion Dollars USD and 90% of this data has been produced over the last two years. However, upwards of 80% of online listings currently display inaccurate or missing data, and only 0.5% of all the data available has ever been analyzed and used. Who creates this data? Without realizing it, humans have become instruments of data collection through their online actions, behaviors and movements, creating value for others.

Dataeum aims to disrupt the existing paradigm and overcome the limits of current data generation methods (database matching, content analysis, tracking devices, etc.) using a blockchain-based platform to enable the collection of global physical data with 100% accuracy. In the process, Dataeum will put humans at the center of the data ecosystem. Data users can obtain reliable and accurate data in real time and data collectors are rewarded for the data they generate. Dataeum’s whitepaper claims that the by using a mobile app, the solution has already proven its efficiency and profitability during three collection campaigns completed in Paris, Barcelona and London where 300 000 physical data were successfully collected.

Use Cases

Dateum’s whitepaper offers several convincing examples of use cases for its product.

Market Research: Urban planners may want to access locations of trees, benches, street, road signs, etc. for future city planning purposes. The Dataeum platform can provide this highly accurate information.

People: Thanks to power of crowdsourcing, Dataeum will bring the value of data to the people.

Maps and Geolocation Services: Companies like Google Maps, Bing, Tomtom, Baidu, OpenStreetMap, and Here map will be provided an API where they can plug in and get real-time updates on global physical data. This will increase the quality of service delivered to their users.

Emergency Response: Any type of risk (car accident, chemical leak, natural disaster, crime in progress, etc.) can be updated by the community anywhere in the world. This will alert the community to potential dangers and facilitate rapid intervention by the appropriate authorities.

Targeted Advertising: Businesses need to address very specific audiences and access to accurate data. For example, if a company is selling cash registers, it might want all the phone numbers of small businesses that opened in a given city in the past 6 months. This information will be accessible in the Dataeum marketplace.

Online Visibility: To increase online presence, local stores need to be accurately listed. The community will provide this information to mapping services so that these stores can better compete with large companies.

Conclusion

There are two central benefits of Dataeum. First, humans are rewarded for the data they generate. This changes the existing paradigm of data generation currently exploited by large corporations at the expense of individuals. Second, the crowdsourcing model will address the inaccuracies of digital data, making it more useful for data consumers. Human users will be the main resource (as opposed to centralized social media platforms, like Facebook) as they will be paid to collect, verify and update millions of physical data around the globe. Thereafter, each validated data point will be available on a decentralized marketplace that will allow any token holder to retrieve data for consultation, rental, or acquisition. If the project is able to deliver on its app, Dataeum has a lot of potential.

ICO Details

Tokens created: 1,000,000,000 XDT
Tokens issued: 500,000,000 XDT
Hard cap: 35,000 ETH
Accepted currencies: ETH/BTC/FIAT
Pre-sale: August 20, 2018
Public sale: September 24 to October 21, 2018

More Information

Website: https://dataeum.io/
Explainer Video:
Read this article on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dataeum-putting-humans-center-data-ecosystem-mina-down/

Depository Network: Digital Assets as Loan Collateral

The easiest way to describe the Depository Network is that it combines traditional lending and blockchain technology. DEPO is a decentralized depository service for banks and other money-lending institutions (sub-prime lenders, consumer finance companies, crypto lenders and P2P lending platforms) world-wide that allows them to accept digital assets as loan collateral. Thereby, unlocking the financial value of the cryptocurrency market, estimated at roughly $400 billion. Considering this untapped value, it is no wonder that the financial industry is looking at crypto as the new collateral. Will digital asset lending become the new norm? If so, how are fin-tech companies going to secure digital asset collateral in a viable marketplace? This article will explore how the Depository Network intends to answer both questions.

What Needs does DEPO Meet?

The development of the Internet has led to the creation of digital assets. A digital asset is anything that exists in a binary format and includes usage rights. Examples include cryptocurrencies, tokens, asset tokens, tokenized shares, and digital bonds. These globally are traded assets that have seen a dramatic rise in value with predictions of more massive growth in years to come. In addition to newly created blockchain assets, we are witnessing the beginning of blockchain digitalization of a huge number of assets from the traditional economy. In the near future, all commercial assets and shares, and most corporate bonds, government securities and globally-traded derivatives could be digitized or tokenized - enabling anyone worldwide to access them.

The problem is that currently financial institutions use depository services for real asset collateral but no such depositories exist for digital assets. This results in locked financial value for a market with huge capitalization. Thus, how enable the value of digital assets and develop the necessary blockchain infrastructure for their use? On the one hand, digital assets do not have the necessary liquidity for borrowers to be able to take advantage of their value quickly and easily. Borrowers must sell these assets to take advantage of their value, which involves high fees/taxes and eliminates the opportunity to profit from these assets in the future. On the other hand, it is expensive, time-consuming, and inefficient for lenders and private companies to build their own digital asset depositories.

Unlocking the Value of Digital Assets

Enter: DEPO. Any lender can use the DEPO infrastructure to build custom depository platform and accept different types of digital assets as collateral. The terms for the collateral contracts are defined by every lender individually. This service makes digital asset holders eligible for secure loans from certified banks or credit institutions. The system uses cryptographically-secure multi-signature wallets and smart contracts, and the borrower always has one of the keys for signing a transaction. Thus, holders retain ownership for the entire loan period.

What Makes DEPO unique?

There are several peer-to-peer lending platforms that accept certain types of cryptocurrencies – usually Bitcoin and Ethereum - as collateral for loans. However, these platforms work either as a marketplace connecting lenders with borrowers (thus bearing the entire risk for KYC and personal identification), or as lenders who use their own funds to issue loans to the borrowers. The DEPO model is very different. It does not provide loans directly, but enables lenders to integrate with the Depository Network and use it to accept digital assets as collateral. This avoids the risk of keeping personal data or having to be compliant with the regulations of different government – the lenders are responsible for this part. DEPO is solely providing a customizable solution to broaden their loan portfolio.

Token functions

The DEPO token will be used for lenders' annual membership. No membership is required from borrowers. The borrower will pay small fees for deposit collateral in every case. The total supply of DEPO tokens will be 3 billion with half being available for purchase through the token sale.

Conclusion

If successful, Depository Network will be the world`s first multi-platform network that enables digital assets to be used as collateral, which is crucial for mass adoption of using blockchain assets in traditional lending. DEPO would remove the need for state-owned, centralized depositories and allow any lending institution to build independent depositories within the system. At the same time, it would allow digital asset holders access to the full values of what they own. There is definitely a need for such a service but it remains to be seen whether DEPO will be the player that meets it successfully.

Website: https://depository.network/
Explainer video:
Read this article on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/depository-network-digital-assets-loan-collateral-mina-down/