What is An Initial Coin Offering? ICOs are basically blockchain crowdsales, the cryptocurrency version of crowdfunding. The ICOs have been truly revolutionary and have managed to accomplish many amazing tasks: They have provided the simplest path by which DAPP developers can get the required funding for their project. Anyone can become invested in a project they are interested in by purchasing the tokens of that particular DAPP and become a part of the project themselves.
What is EOS? How Does it Work?
EOS is a smart contract platform much like Ethereum. EOS, however, promises the ability to perform millions of transactions per second, without any fees! How could this be possible, given the scalability of other major blockchains? In this guide, we dive into what EOS is doing differently to achieve this, and what those choices mean for the network.
What is an STO? Security Token Offering
Security Token Offerings (STOs), like ICOs, are fundraising tools. However, they have certain regulations which hold the token issuers accountable for their actions. Unlike the regular utility tokens, STOs generate “security tokens” which are real-time digital assets that operate within legal boundaries.
Benefits Provided by STOs
There are three main advantages:
- Superior liquidity options
- Reduced cost against IPOs
- Segmented ownership
Superior Liquidity Options
Fully licensed exchange platforms will now soon be available for security token trading. This will significantly increase trading confidence because of the added credibility. Since a real-world asset can be represented via security tokens, it will enable investors to liquidate security tokens against any product.
Reduced Costs vs. IPOs
In the non-crypto world, only a handful of companies go public because that transition requires a lot of money in the first place. As such, investors have the option of buying the shares of a very few companies.
However, STOs can be started right away since they are a lot cheaper than public companies. They reduce costs by completely removing the middlemen. Also, having more STOs will allow more people to invest in the shares of more companies.
Segmented Ownership
Security tokens will make high-priced assets a lot more accessible for the common man. Security tokens can easily segment an asset into smaller sub-divisions making it possible for an investor to own a fraction of the asset instead of the complete product.
Conclusion: Security Tokens Explained
STOs may become the preferred mode of crowd-funding in the near future. They are a lot more regulated and secure than ICOs while being a lot cheaper than IPOs. STOs also have the potential of opening up asset-ownership to a wide variety of people.
How Does Game Theory Affect Blockchain Networks?
Game Theory is the study of strategic decision making.
Game Theory is a core principle of blockchain systems. If you’ve wondered how every individual Bitcoin node works together, Game Theory is your answer.
Game Theory incentivizes people who don’t know each other to work together successfully.
Utility Tokens vs. Security Tokens
A token represents a security or utility that a company has and they usually give it away to their investors during a public sale called ICO (Initial Coin Offering), in the case of utility tokens, and STO (Security Token Offerings), in the case of security tokens.
While utility and security tokens might seem similar on the surface, there’s actually some pretty complex differences behind them. Are they regulated or unregulated? Who can they be sold to? What is the purpose of the token? All of these questions can decided what is or isn’t a utility token. What about the Howey Test?
In 1946, the Supreme Court handled a monumental case. The case was SEC vs Howey which would lay down the foundation for the, now infamous Howey Test. The case was about establishing a test of whether a particular arrangement involves an investment contract or not.
The SEC and Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) have broken down tokens into two broad categories:
- Utility Tokens
- Security Tokens
Because most of the ICOs are investment opportunities in the company itself, most tokens qualify as securities. However, if the token doesn’t qualify according to the Howey test, then it classifies as utility tokens. These tokens simply provide users with a product and/or service. Think of them like gateway tokens.
What is the Basic Attention Token?
Developed by Brendan Eich, the Basic Attention Token is a project that aims to make the online advertising space better for everyone.
The Basic Attention Token (BAT) is a digital advertising token which is built on the Ethereum blockchain. The purpose of BAT is to create an ad exchange marketplace which will connect advertisers, publishers and users in a decentralized manner so as to monetize user attention and remove all the other needless expenditure related to ad networks.
In brief, users get paid to provide their attention to ads. The system has to be fair to all the participants: users, advertisers and content publishers.
BAT works in the Brave browser which gets rid of all ads, but if you turn them on, you get paid for watching ads.
Metax and adChain
MetaX is attempting to solve the problem of fraud in the digital advertising world by establishing a common language and universal data set called adChain on blockchain, in this case Ethereum.
This Canadian Genius Created Modern AI
For nearly 40 years, Geoff Hinton has been trying to get computers to learn like people do, a quest almost everyone thought was crazy or at least hopeless – right up until the moment it revolutionized the field.
Balancing the Human Experience with Artificial Intelligence
Digital technologies are transforming the ways in which content and creative are developed. Heat President, Mike Barrett and Deloitte Digital Chief Creative Officer, Alan Schulman discuss the use of AI to forecast future trends and generate creative content based off of these predictions.
How Quantum Computing Works
Quantum computing can solve problems that would take classic computer a lifetime to process. Quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, that researchers believe will be able to process information exponentially faster than any computer we have today. Researchers also believe that quantum computing will help humanity solve some of the toughest problems facing our existence. This video also discusses topological qubits, which are considered to be more stable.