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Crypto Developers to Train at Platypus Labs
February 28, 2018 February 28, 2018 AlexH
Jimmy Song, one of the most experienced and respected developers in the field of cryptocurrency, has joined Blockchain Capital in January, as a venture partner, and this month he has already announced a new project: the so-called Platypus Labs for open-source developers.
Jimmy is known for his detailed and comprehensible analysis of the technical aspects of cryptocurrency. He recently joined Blockchain Capital to render technical assistance in the areas related to investment and research and establish connections between the company and the developers working with crypto.
When describing the new initiative, Jimmy has stated that he wants to reward the developers, because they bring great benefit to the ecosystem, and the company would like to see them compensated for it.
As part of this bridge-building process, Jimmy has announced a new project that aims at providing the open-source developers with a revenue stream and supporting them with a number of fellowships and residencies. The project, informally nicknamed "Platypus Labs", will first of all focus on those working on Bitcoin Core, which is currently the most widely-used version of bitcoin software.
While the project is still in the early stages of development, some of the Blockchain Capital's portfolio firms and investors have already shown interest and bought into the funds of the company. This hardly comes as a surprise, considering that the numbers of posted blockchain jobs are skyrocketing; for example, in the U.S., the number has increased by mind-boggling 207% in the course of 2017. Bart Stephens, the co-founder of Blockchain Capital, has confirmed that all the companies in the venture capital's portfolio (62 in total) are in need of the engineering talent, and gladly welcome Song's project which comes at just the right time. In the following two months, Song, avidly supported, already plans to launch a residency or fellowship program.
The Labs are located in San Francisco. The first objective is to create the developer ecosystem that is focused on the bitcoin, but in future the project will grow to support other types of cryptocurrency.
Not All Developers Agree
Despite all the enthusiasm and support, convincing the developers to take part in the project might turn out to be a bigger challenge than it seems at first.
Initially, when bitcoin was still a novelty known only to a relatively small number of crypto enthusiasts, the developers who worked with it were either fans working on the code for free, as a hobby, or owners of bitcoin (sometimes, fairly large numbers of it) who were eager to improve the code to protect their assets. Jimmy Song himself belonged to the latter group: he says that is was owing a lot of bitcoin that made him begin contributing to Bitcoin Core.
As bitcoin grew in rate and popularity, the developers started to get hired by various companies, from startups, such as BitPay, to educational institutions (for example, MIT). However, some of the developers declined these job offers, feeling that working for an organization would compromise the concept of altruistic work done autonomously, to contribute to the common good. Those who have chosen to work on bitcoin code for other reasons than monetary reward, are difficult, if not impossible, to catch for the project.
Train, Repair, Hunt for the Best Ones
Another focus of Song's Platypus Project is to provide support and training for the developers who are interested in the blockchain technology but do not have sufficient resources to get the training on their own.
Jimmy, who has committed a total of fourteen changes to the bitcoin codebase, is first of all known as a tutor. He made himself known to the wider public through the two-day Programming Blockchain seminar that was aimed at teaching Python developers how to write code for the bitcoin apps. He is now planning to continue his educational activities at the Platypus Labs and teach the developers the skills of updating the core infrastructure (something that has been neglected for a while).
Song points out that there are many old open-source bitcoin libraries, such as bitcoin (already old when Mike Hearn, who had created it, stopped working with bitcoin in 2016), that are in a very poor state. These need to be repaired and maintained, for the good of the whole ecosystem, as well as for the sake of Blockchain Capital's portfolio companies. Currently, Jimmy is contacting every one of these 62 companies to ask them which are the coding libraries that they use, what new instruments they need, and how the Platypus Labs may be of use to them altogether. After these interviews are over, he expects to be able to announce the official criteria for the developers who want to join the Labs.
Additionally, he plans to investigate which companies it would be advisable for Blockchain Capital to invest in. These companies are expected to be run by the business people who can code the basics "really well". As Jimmy himself says, he likes seeing companies that are "innovating, not rent-seeking".
Russia is testing blockchain payments
Vneshecomombank, (VEB), a development bank that is owned by the Russian government and meant to fund the projects aimed at the development of Russian economy, has recently signed a contract with Kaliningrad regional government to create a pilot version of the new payment system that is going to be based on blockchain technology.
The meeting took place last week and included the governor of Kaliningrad Anton Alkikhanov and the chairman of VEB Sergei Gorkov. Alikhanov and Gorkov met in Sochi, at the Russian Invenstment Forum (an annual event "for pesenting Russia's inventment" attended, among others, by Dmitry Medvedev, the Prime Minister of Russian Federation). The two officials signed the agreement laying the foundations for testing the new technology. Alikhanov stated that "the competence of the bank's development lies in the area of the blockchain technology" which is expected to help Kaliningrad, the westernmost region of Russia, to "improve the quality of the administrative decisions".
Gorkov was also very optimistic about the innovative project. In his statement, he called Kaliningrad "one of the most active subjects of Russian Federation in the area of implementing advanced technologies which support the development of Russia's digital economy." He also said that the pilot blockchain project "touches upon the social sphere – the area in which one of the basic functions of the state is actualized. Implementing the new technologies allows to significantly improve the quality of these services – enhance the transparency of the system, get rid of the unnecessary paperwork, simplify the service and make it more comfortable for the citizens." In addition to these prospective benefits, according to VEB chairman, the integration of the blockchain technology can help Russia save a lot of money: "Blockchain technology will give us the opportunity to save the expenses in this area, which currently comprise trillions of rubles across the country."
Previously, there have already been attempts to research the potential of blockchain implementation for the public sector, when Russian government decided to test a land registry system based on blockchain, but the agreement signed between VEB and Kaliningrad is a significant new aggregation of public and private interests.
The parties plan to work together to bring cutting-edge technologies and solutions to Kaliningrad region to enhance the efficiency of the corporate and state management. The expertise to support the project in the area of social payments using blockchain technology will be provided by the Blockchain Technology Research Center, an initiative of VEB that was revealed in the autumn of 2017. VEB has worked together with Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Communications and Mass Median, and the Ministry of Finance to "create the first center that focuses on blockchain and quantum technologies at the National University of Science and Technology (MISIS)", as Sergei Gorkov said in his press release. He also added that there were plans "to create a group on investment funds with external financing from both Russian and foreign investors."
In recent years, Russia has expressed increasing interest in blockchain and in its possible application in the area of public services. As early as August 2017, Vladimir Demin, advisor to the VEB's Chairman, said that VEB aims at changing the paradigm of the state's functions, and that blockchain is likely to completely transform Russia within five years. According to Demin, "I presume that, if someone falls into lethargic sleep today and wakes up in five years, they will not recognize the country."
Read more here – https://www.coindesk.com/regional-government-russia-test-blockchain-payments/
Who'll dethrone Bitcoin? The 3 best alternative coins
2017 has been the year of cryptocurrencies, with more people realizing their value and investing in them. Major corporates that initially had tried to stifle the growth of cryptocurrencies have jumped on the bandwagon and started utilizing the blockchain technology that is the basis of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency and continues to dominate this field. It has gained worldwide attention this year, with its price rising from below $1,000 to over $20,000.
While most of the attention has been on Bitcoin, several other digital currencies known as alternative coins or altcoins have risen to challenge Bitcoin's dominance and have quite a few cases even experienced higher growth in value compared to Bitcoin. The number of altcoins has however seen a tremendous rise with more than 1,300 altcoins currently being offered. While some have shown great promise and offered great value and features to their users, most of these altcoins have just perpetuated the features of other currencies and hence have found it difficult to rise in value.
The three most promising altcoins are:
1. Ethereum
Ethereum is a revolutionary cryptocurrency whose technology has been adopted by very many global organizations with great results. It was developed by the then 21-year-old programmer, Vitalik Buterin in 2015 and in two years, it has become Bitcoin's biggest competitor. It currently has the second-highest market capitalization after Bitcoin with a market value of $90 billion. While most cryptocurrencies have focused on value transfer exclusively, Ethereum has set itself apart with its revolutionary smart contracts technology. These are self-executing contracts that contain agreements between two parties written in code and recorded on a decentralized ledger known as a blockchain. This technology has become widely integrated by many industries, with the major beneficiaries being supply chain management, logistics, law and insurance.
This has driven the price of Ether, Ethereum's native cryptocurrency, through the roof and currently stands at $929 having begun the year 2017 at $8. This represents an unbelievable 10,000% price rise! With more industries adopting smart contracts, the value of Ethereum will keep rising.
2. Ripple
While Ethereum has set itself apart through smart contracts, Ripple has established itself as the currency of choice for money transfers. This sector has long been dominated by global financial institutions which were not only slow and inefficient but also very costly. A cross-border transfer used to take three days using the Swift protocol and would cost a significant amount of money, but this has all been changed by Ripplenet, Ripple's blockchain-based transfer network. Using Ripplenet, these transfers only take seconds and their price has been reduced by close to 90%.
This has led many reputable financial institutions to adopt Ripple for transfers. These include JP Morgan, Bank of America, Santander, UBS, Barclays, Unicredit, American Express and Credit Suisse. This endorsement by these institutions has seen Ripple rise to become the fourth most valuable cryptocurrency worth over $43 billion. This cryptocurrency, whose native token is XRP, is making strategic partnerships that will see it become the default transfer medium and thus will keep its price soaring high.
3. IOTA
IOTA has been grabbing the headlines of late thanks to its meteoric rise in value. This has resulted mainly from its recently launched data marketplace with the participation of the biggest tech companies including Cisco, Samsung, Fujitsu and Microsoft. This data marketplace will provide a decentralized and secure platform where users can sell data collected by various devices.
This is just one of the many strategic partnerships IOTA is taking to cement its place as the cryptocurrency of the future. IOTA is a cryptocurrency that focuses on the Internet of Things (IoT) and which seeks to provide secure machine-to-machine communication which will form the basis of the IoT revolution. The Internet of Things has grown rapidly over the past few years with over 20 billion devices currently interconnected. With this number expected to grow to 75 billion by 2025, IOTA will be the most important cryptocurrency in the near future. IOTA also provides many of the other features such as privacy, fast transactions, zero transaction fees and more but its focus on the IoT industry which is expected to be worth $100 billion by 2020 is what sets it apart from its peers.
While the number of altcoins is huge, these three are set to dominate 2018 with their unique products. They are the most likely to dethrone Bitcoin as the king of cryptocurrencies as the world focuses more on extra value of cryptocurrencies apart from what Bitcoin offers.
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