FAQ What innovations are participating coins offering? SSD: Here is a very incomplete list of innovations: First steganographic anon transaction over mobile. This means that you can embed a transfer of SSD into an image that you take from your mobile and not have it traced – the image doesn’t suggest that a transaction has occurred. Development ongoing. XST: World’s first anonymous SMS transaction. Ideal for mobile, non-smartphone applications and for markets in developing countries. Development ongoing. APEX: Developing everything from in-wallet social networking to casinos. Aggressive dev team; moving towards enabling in-wallet web merchant transactions. UTIL: Content filtering to protect exit nodes from malicious and illegal content. Distributed VPN service. S W I F T : geoSwift, a way to GPS locate and connect sellers/buyers via mobile. LXC: BlueTooth transactions, that is, mobile transactions without internet connection. Sidechain research and implementation planned. F I B R E : An aggressive dev team that has already created their own OS and have integrated FibreLock (an Android style password system that renders keyloggers obsolete) into a BTC Modded wallet in addition to their own. NHZ: Asset Exchange and further expansion of NXT code. XC: Xnode protocol (end-to-end encrypted, fully distributed communication between nodes), trustless distributed mixing, ad hoc mesh networking, multipath transaction fragmentation (obscures tx amounts), XC TOR Stick, XChat (private chat), the XBridge protocol. Wh e n a c o i n j o i n s t h e B l o c k n e t , h o l d e r s o f e v e r y ot h e r c o i n w i l l b e a b l e t o u s e it s f e at u r e s . D o e s n ’ t th i s w a t e r d o w n t h e v al u e of a c o i n ’ s t e c h n o l o g y ? - No. This is like thinking that Google’s value is watered down because it’s on the internet. - The internet enables a company’s products and services to gain a potentially enormous user base, it gives a company global reach, and it significantly lowers a company’s operating costs. The Blocknet does exactly the same thing for cryptocurrencies. - The Blocknet significantly expands a coin’s user base. - It facilitates the discovery of a coin’s features. - It enables a coin’s community to earn revenue. Owners of a node get paid whenever their node renders a service for a Blocknet user. T h e Bl o c k n e t i s, e s s e nt i al l y , a ll th e f e at u r e s o f a ll p a rt i c i p a t i n g c o i n s r o l l e d i nt o o n e. D o e s th i s m e a n t h at b y j o in i n g th e B l o c k n et , a c o i n g i v e s u p i t s t e c h n o l o g y t o t h e B l o c k n et ? - No, coins retain every single one of their features and do not give up any of them. - Coins’ features are offered as services to other coins – for a fee – on the Blocknet. - Nodes that render these services are remunerated for their role. - The Blocknet also receives micropayments as fees for supporting the rendering of these services – the profits for which go to token-holders. - So instead of stealing coins’ features, the Blocknet does two things: o The Blocknet increases a coin’s userbase for its services. No longer are coins only used by their (generally tiny) communities. o By extending the reach of a coin’s service, the Blocknet serves as the most effective form of advertising possible for a coin: actual usage. Nothing will attract users more than trying a coin’s service and enjoying it. - Furthermore, the Blocknet removes multiple barriers to entry for would-be users of a coin, like a) Making it trivially easy to discover a coin amidst the thousands in existence. b) Not requiring a user to research a coin and understand it before adopting it. c) Not requiring a user to download new software and learn how to use it. d) Not having to do market analysis to calculate the risks of buying a coin before one can use it. For the first time the Blocknet makes it possible for coins’ services to be used without one first having to buy coins, and coins can be traded without having to use their services. Ho w d o c r y p t o c u r r e n c i e s b e n e fi t b y j o i ni n g t h e Bl o c k n e t ? - The Blocknet massively expands a coin’s user base. It is analogous to a product’s reach once it has a retail website, versus before it has one. - The Blocknet is a revenue-generating platform for cryptocurrencies to offer their services. - The above two factors significantly increase the use-value of a coin, and, by implication, will significantly increase its price. Wh y d o e s t h e B l o c k n e t b e n e fi t C r y p t o ? - At present there are thousands of isolated cryptocurrencies, each with discrete networks, separate developer resources, and isolated (and often small) communities. Their utility is small and their benefit to society often negligible. The Blocknet integrates coins’ technologies via the XBridge, unites communities through collaboration, fosters quality development through its incubator, and streamlines development through its dev platform. The Blocknet is poised to transform the face of crypto permanently. - At present, pump-and-dump scams are effectively the norm in crypto. It is all too easy to clone existing technology, give P&D teams a large portion of the money supply, and convince hundreds of people to lose their money. But henceforth, coins that are not part of the Blocknet will simply be unable to compete with Blocknet-compatible coins, since their user base and usability will be significantly reduced. Only coins with genuine innovation and real, useable services will be able to join the Blocknet. This will significantly hinder the ability of malicious actors to successfully pump and dump a coin. Wh y t r u s t t h e Bl o c k n e t F o u n d a t i o n w i t h y o u r in v e s t m e n t ? - The Blocknet’s dev incubator is the largest pool of the most innovative developers in crypto. If you have any concerns about the Blocknet’s ability to deliver, take a look at XC's timeline. Now pool all the developer talent from all the participating coins. No other project has comparable capacity. - It is in our interest to lower the risk to investors as far as possible. As such we are looking into potential avenues like (a) structured escrow contracts that either release funds or return them to investors if a given milestone is reached/not reached. (b) Proof of developer and (c) proof of concept are in the works too. - The rules of the ITO are clear and thus the risks are not hidden. Investors are therefore in a position to calculate risk and reward, and invest accordingly. - Perhaps most significantly, investors aren't locked in to their investments. You will be free to buy and sell Blocknet tokens on any timescale. As such you do not bear the risk of the project not launching, never mind failing to develop to completion. T h e I T O h a s a m a x i m u m v a l u e o f 2 5 0 0 B T C ? T h at ’ s a l m o s t a m i l l i o n d ol l a r s! Wh y d o you need so much? - First off, the ITO is not requesting this amount, and we will provably destroy any unsold tokens, giving holders a larger share in the Blocknet. - Imagine the ITO offered only a small amount of tokens and many people were unable to buy one. They’d be upset. Better to offer a large amount and then destroy any unsold tokens. - So what we’re really doing with a 2500 BTC ceiling is limiting the amount of investment, not encouraging people to buy all the available tokens. We feel this respects the possibility that hype could lead to overbought conditions during the ITO and prompt a selloff that harms investors. - In summary, we believe that it’s best to set the limit high – but to still have a limit – and then to allow the public’s assessment of the value of the Blocknet to run its course. - If the Blocknet raises this amount, continued development is ensured, risk of non-completion is minimised, and maximum market impact can be achieved. Wi l l th e I T O c o l l e c t a l a r g e n u m b e r o f c o i n s a n d t h e n d u m p t h e m t o c o v e r e x p e n s e s ? - No. Coins will not be dumped. They will be paid to developers in little amounts, over the duration of the project. Therefore the ITO will not decrease the value of participating coins. - What this does is increase actual usage of the coins. It won't suppress their price. Wh y a r e B l o c k n e t f e e s n e c e s s a r y ? C a n 't t h e B l o c k n et j u s t b e f r e e t o u s e ? - Because the Blocknet is the infrastructure that allows a coin to render a service, the Blocknet microfee expresses the value that the Blocknet adds. - As such, fees are not just for performing a currency conversion. They're for every time a node provides any service (and there's an indefinite number of potential types of service). - For clarity, Blocknet fees are not used to secure the network (and there won't be any mining). - Blocknet fees are partially analogous to transaction fees in a proof-of-stake currency, where they don't go to miners, but are destroyed and thereby deflate the money supply. This effectively expresses the value of the usage of a currency to holders. In the same way, fees in the Blocknet express the value of the usage of the currency to holders. - Outside of matters pertaining to currency design, fees are there for a really simple reason: funding is required to develop a significant number of next-gen technologies. S o I 'l l p a y f or a s e r vi c e on t h e B l o c k n e t , a n d t h en p a y t h e Bl o c k n e t t o o. Wh y s h o u l d I have to pay twice? - You won't pay twice. You’d pay the service provider, and the service provider would pay the Blocknet fee. Blocknet fees will then be distributed to holders. - Service provider fees are set by the service provider, allowing coins to compete for value and quality of service. - Blocknet fees will be a set micropayment (the amount is yet to be determined). S e r v i c e p r o v i d e r s o n t h e B l o c k n e t h a v e t o p a y B l o c k n e t f e e s . D o e s n ’t t hi s m e a n t h a t B l o c k n et - e n a b l e d w a l l e t s n e e d t o s o m e h o w st o r e B l o c k n e t t o k e n s a s w e l l a s t h e i r n at i v e c u r r e n c y ? I s n 't th i s u n d u l y c u m b e r s o m e ? - No, any node on any network can provide a service, but it will not be necessary for that node to store Blocknet tokens in addition to its native currency. - The node would simply render the service. A fee in its own currency would be deducted from the transaction, sent to a decentralised exchange, and automatically exchanged for Blocknet tokens. If f e e s a r e p a i d i n B l o c k n e t t o k e n s , t h en w o u l d n 't t hi s c a u s e t h e i r p r i c e t o s k y r o c k e t a n d c a u s e p r o b l e m s w i th hi g h f e e s ? - Paying in a wallet's native currency has the advantage of the fee levels automatically adjusting even if the price of Blocknet tokens skyrockets. - We may pick a baseline price in the most stable currency (or by a smart index that tracks USD, or the BTC price…) and use it to determine fees – or even exchange for this currency initially before converting to Blocknet tokens.