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ETH is used outside of the blockchain ecosystem: https://www.coindesk.com/united-nations-sends-aid-to-10000-syrian-refugees-using-ethereum-blockchain https://ww

ETH is used outside of the blockchain ecosystem: https://www.coindesk.com/united-nations-sends-aid-to-10000-syrian-refugees-using-ethereum-blockchain https://www.coindesk.com/united-nations-sends-aid-to-10000-s.... BAT has the Brave browser as its adoption mechanism. Personally it's my favourite browser for some months now both on desktop and mobile. OMG is from a company (OmiseGo) who operate a payment network in SE Asia. They are quite big and the adoption of OMG by their traditional service is planned as part of the Plasma project.

timoth3y 8y ago
The ETH example you mention was a PoC. It did not generate revenue and is not a business. Don't get me wrong. I think it's great, and it might be technically very impressive, but it's not generating money. It's not a business. Omise is interesting in that they clearly have a product and users. They were one of the first ICOs to put a valuation of the tokens at over $1B. Do you have any idea what kind of transaction volume they are handling? I've never seen any numbers. Augur is technically interesting as well, but earlier this year Coindesk noted they have a valuation that amounts to $4.8 million per active user, which seems to me to be unsustainable. https://www.coindesk.com/where-have-all-the-augur-users-gone https://www.coindesk.com/where-have-all-the-augur-users-gone
- decentralised 8y ago
  The setup was a PoC, but the help it generated was real. Axa's fizzy is live and it's a revenue generating business: https://fizzy.axa/en-gb/ https://fizzy.axa/en-gb/ Omise hasn't launched it's blockchain platform yet (see Plasma) so their volumes are in local currencies. I understand it's in the MM USD but have no data on them atm. Mind you that the valuations are often the sales price of the token times the total supply (market cap). This is not a realistic metric imho. The issue of price discovery is / was addressed in many ICOs using auction theory (English, Dutch, Vicory, etc) but after the sale is completed the market sets the prices. Personally I'm more interested in Token Bonding Curves that guarantee a fixed price along a supply curve.
- justsee 8y ago
  Eich's Brave browser and BAT token ecosystem is the only really exciting ICO project in the space at this stage (from my perspective). While only ~5 million monthly active users that's a) still significant in the crypto (but not browser!) space and b) these numbers are before 1.0 is released in February at which point the first marketing push happens. I'd go as far as to say Brave / BAT will likely be the poster child for the hoped-for utility wave in the crypto scene: the time is right to challenge the surveillance capitalism model (publishers are very receptive to new funding models now) and a fast, secure, crypto-native browser is an obvious onramp for the general public, and if it works their first experience of 'owning' crypto will be through having earned BAT. Apart from the security and privacy benefits Eich's model offers, I really like the idea of browser-native tipping, donations and microtransactions and can see how it's potentially a much bigger threat to the dominant players and models than people realise.
- davidgerard 8y ago
  > The ETH example you mention was a PoC. It did not generate revenue and is not a business. Don't get me wrong. I think it's great, and it might be technically very impressive, but it's not generating money. It's not a business. It's not even technically impressive. They're literally using Ethereum as the backend database so the guy running it can say "Blockchain!!" a lot, 'cos he's a hodler. I tracked down the details: https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2017/11/26/the-world-food-programmes-much-publicised-blockchain-has-one-participant-i-e-its-a-database/ https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2017/11/26/the-world-fo... The programme does great work! But nothing whatsoever about it is Good News for "blockchain", except for PR purposes.
  - decentralised 8y ago
    It doesn't (shouldn't?) be technically impressive, it really isn't about the tech. The news of course benefited from the "blockchain hype" but if the outcome proved to be as expected, real people got real help and the tech did the job just fine, then aren't we bikeshedding by arguing it?
logifail 8y ago
>> ETH is used outside of the blockchain ecosystem This claim seems a stretch. How can you not require the basic elements of a "blockchain ecosystem" to be in place in order to actually exchange vouchers based on ETH for food? >> by giving [refugees] cryptocurrency-based vouchers that could be redeemed in participating markets. Can anyone explain what value was specifically added to this project by basing these vouchers on a cryptocurrency?
- decentralised 8y ago
  The problem is moving money into war zones in a way that is immune to theft and abuse. The vouchers are 100% digital and unique.
  - logifail 8y ago
    I thought the vouchers were going to people living in refugee camps? Presumably along with "100% digital vouchers", you need to ship out any required infrastructure, stuff like iris scanners and computers. Are these computers and iris scanners also immune to theft and abuse? They sound amazing :) Does the system require a working power grid?
    - decentralised 8y ago
      The infrastructure of iris scanners and computers already exists in refugee camps (edit: for security reasons). It does require power but something like what we're building for the Sun Protocol (http://thesunprotocol.io http://thesunprotocol.io) can be deployed in hours and support token based payments instantly. I briefly worked with a startup whose founder is a Syrian refugee. Smart-phones and crypto wallets is what allows many of them to survive.
      - logifail 8y ago
        >> The infrastructure of iris scanners and computers already exists in refugee camps (I'm genuinely curious) what kind of coverage across the globe are we talking about here? Things have obviously come a long way, it's not that long ago that the UNHCR was talking about "water, sanitation and hygiene". More infrastructure questions: does the system also require a working internet connection? If so, when the internet connection goes down, can vouchers no-longer be "redeemed" until it comes back up?

timoth3y 8y ago

The ETH example you mention was a PoC. It did not generate revenue and is not a business. Don't get me wrong. I think it's great, and it might be technically very impressive, but it's not generating money. It's not a business. Omise is interesting in that they clearly have a product and users. They were one of the first ICOs to put a valuation of the tokens at over $1B. Do you have any idea what kind of transaction volume they are handling? I've never seen any numbers. Augur is technically interesting as well, but earlier this year Coindesk noted they have a valuation that amounts to $4.8 million per active user, which seems to me to be unsustainable. https://www.coindesk.com/where-have-all-the-augur-users-gone https://www.coindesk.com/where-have-all-the-augur-users-gone

decentralised 8y ago
The setup was a PoC, but the help it generated was real. Axa's fizzy is live and it's a revenue generating business: https://fizzy.axa/en-gb/ https://fizzy.axa/en-gb/ Omise hasn't launched it's blockchain platform yet (see Plasma) so their volumes are in local currencies. I understand it's in the MM USD but have no data on them atm. Mind you that the valuations are often the sales price of the token times the total supply (market cap). This is not a realistic metric imho. The issue of price discovery is / was addressed in many ICOs using auction theory (English, Dutch, Vicory, etc) but after the sale is completed the market sets the prices. Personally I'm more interested in Token Bonding Curves that guarantee a fixed price along a supply curve.
justsee 8y ago
Eich's Brave browser and BAT token ecosystem is the only really exciting ICO project in the space at this stage (from my perspective). While only ~5 million monthly active users that's a) still significant in the crypto (but not browser!) space and b) these numbers are before 1.0 is released in February at which point the first marketing push happens. I'd go as far as to say Brave / BAT will likely be the poster child for the hoped-for utility wave in the crypto scene: the time is right to challenge the surveillance capitalism model (publishers are very receptive to new funding models now) and a fast, secure, crypto-native browser is an obvious onramp for the general public, and if it works their first experience of 'owning' crypto will be through having earned BAT. Apart from the security and privacy benefits Eich's model offers, I really like the idea of browser-native tipping, donations and microtransactions and can see how it's potentially a much bigger threat to the dominant players and models than people realise.
davidgerard 8y ago
> The ETH example you mention was a PoC. It did not generate revenue and is not a business. Don't get me wrong. I think it's great, and it might be technically very impressive, but it's not generating money. It's not a business. It's not even technically impressive. They're literally using Ethereum as the backend database so the guy running it can say "Blockchain!!" a lot, 'cos he's a hodler. I tracked down the details: https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2017/11/26/the-world-food-programmes-much-publicised-blockchain-has-one-participant-i-e-its-a-database/ https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2017/11/26/the-world-fo... The programme does great work! But nothing whatsoever about it is Good News for "blockchain", except for PR purposes.
- decentralised 8y ago
  It doesn't (shouldn't?) be technically impressive, it really isn't about the tech. The news of course benefited from the "blockchain hype" but if the outcome proved to be as expected, real people got real help and the tech did the job just fine, then aren't we bikeshedding by arguing it?

logifail 8y ago

>> ETH is used outside of the blockchain ecosystem This claim seems a stretch. How can you not require the basic elements of a "blockchain ecosystem" to be in place in order to actually exchange vouchers based on ETH for food? >> by giving [refugees] cryptocurrency-based vouchers that could be redeemed in participating markets. Can anyone explain what value was specifically added to this project by basing these vouchers on a cryptocurrency?

decentralised 8y ago
The problem is moving money into war zones in a way that is immune to theft and abuse. The vouchers are 100% digital and unique.
- logifail 8y ago
  I thought the vouchers were going to people living in refugee camps? Presumably along with "100% digital vouchers", you need to ship out any required infrastructure, stuff like iris scanners and computers. Are these computers and iris scanners also immune to theft and abuse? They sound amazing :) Does the system require a working power grid?
  - decentralised 8y ago
    The infrastructure of iris scanners and computers already exists in refugee camps (edit: for security reasons). It does require power but something like what we're building for the Sun Protocol (http://thesunprotocol.io http://thesunprotocol.io) can be deployed in hours and support token based payments instantly. I briefly worked with a startup whose founder is a Syrian refugee. Smart-phones and crypto wallets is what allows many of them to survive.
    - logifail 8y ago
      >> The infrastructure of iris scanners and computers already exists in refugee camps (I'm genuinely curious) what kind of coverage across the globe are we talking about here? Things have obviously come a long way, it's not that long ago that the UNHCR was talking about "water, sanitation and hygiene". More infrastructure questions: does the system also require a working internet connection? If so, when the internet connection goes down, can vouchers no-longer be "redeemed" until it comes back up?