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Topic: [ANN][CLOAK] Private, Secure, Untraceable & Decentralized Digital Currency - page 3. (Read 810894 times)

newbie
Activity: 64
Merit: 0
Quote

As pointed out here Cloak is functional and secure. If you don't like it then go graze another pussy and leave the community in peace. Criticism is easy but art is difficult. Action!

Cloak coins are made to be used, if you don't use it or you don't understand that then I can't help you.



The argument that every single idiot is using - Bravo!

Today it is clearly not a nice move, from anyone, to warn people against the risks they are taking by investing in a project like Cloakcoin. A project that hasn't delivered on any parameter, if so then please tell me which?

And again, I mentioned a few pointers, also regarding security and transactions that are uncrackable. Please point out where I am wrong?
You are also saying, more or less, that the community should try to move together and help out the team. I can for myself say that I tried to contact the project, years ago about their pitch etc. so I could go out and contact danish companies personally and establish some kind of acceptance or partnerships.
- The answer was, it was better to just give the contact details to the team and let them do it. So please, the team don't even want the help, to some extend.

I will once again stand by my statement: Cloakcoin is and has been managed so unprofessional so it is the closest thing to a scam, that any legit project will ever be.
- That is the result of poorly management, communication and developments all in all.
member
Activity: 205
Merit: 10
If the Cloak coin is unique and stands out from the competitors then users are needed and so the platforms will even list them for free provided that real synergy is created. Collusion is usage Wink
Cloak is unique for those who believe on it, particularly the investors, however, Cloak is still part of the altcoins where majority of the coins are still struggling until now. Cloak use to have a good trading volume but now it seems gone, I can't remember anymore what exchange has brought it big trading volume, I think it's bittrex, but bittrex is not as big as it was before, or as popular as it was before.

The competition is fierce between the exchanges, but, bittrex.com still popular even in terms of volume.

Bittrex rank is in the top 15 among 320 exchanges + 56 DEX
source https://coinmarketcap.com/rankings/exchanges/

Bittrex rank class to date according to Alexa Traffic Rank Global 5,864 website.

Top Traffic Rank: US United States 4,174

211 Sites Linking In.


Yep i agree with you Cloak remains popular among its community, but, for this to global happen, it needs the right user networks, advertising, influencers.... marketing plan.... https://www.cloakcoin.com/ don't hesitate to communicate to your friends, networks, etc Grin
hero member
Activity: 3178
Merit: 661
Live with peace and enjoy life!
If the Cloak coin is unique and stands out from the competitors then users are needed and so the platforms will even list them for free provided that real synergy is created. Collusion is usage Wink
Cloak is unique for those who believe on it, particularly the investors, however, Cloak is still part of the altcoins where majority of the coins are still struggling until now. Cloak use to have a good trading volume but now it seems gone, I can't remember anymore what exchange has brought it big trading volume, I think it's bittrex, but bittrex is not as big as it was before, or as popular as it was before.
member
Activity: 205
Merit: 10
If the Cloak coin is unique and stands out from the competitors then users are needed and so the platforms will even list them for free provided that real synergy is created. Collusion is usage Wink
member
Activity: 205
Merit: 10
It's written by the leader of Cloak, on standby with Bittrex.
.

It would be unlikely that the guy would lie like that openly by the way I don't think lasvegas83 is the type to lie, this guy and his collaborators hold the helm of Cloak.

I read here that it's easy to criticize, what do some members of the community do? Nothing at all, they don't build anything and wait for it to fall, wait all baked in the mouth. Unity is strength and misery divides it!

Some decide to shoot themselves in the foot, others decide to spit in the soup - this is the extent of total stupidity, out of jealousy and greedy selfishness.

As one member pointed out build is a solution, I would like to add this that you could apply to your daily life:

Quote
"Maybe it's time to stop being a victim who has suffered, I propose to step back and turn the page, to ignore what has forged you to focus, understand and then learn to release your potential, that of "who you are becoming" day after day .... To build your art, your thoughts, your dreams day after day in the battle that is life! "If you don't work for your dreams, someone will hire you to work for theirs". On the basis of this principle, I propose to ask yourself the question "don't ask what the system can do for you, ask what you can do for the system" is one of the keys to successful human investment in a society governed by very disproportionate social ranks. Building, learning, innovating at all levels can make you gain in quality in all respects; knowledge is a weapon, no matter, you can take it with you everywhere, but if it seems far away or impossible then to get there I suggest this: if you don't change in yourself, then don't ask for the world to change. Everything is possible, it is a matter of deep will. The safest investment is yourself. You have access to the possible, it is time to leave what is holding you back and move forward!"

As pointed out here Cloak is functional and secure. If you don't like it then go graze another pussy and leave the community in peace. Criticism is easy but art is difficult. Action!

Cloak coins are made to be used, if you don't use it or you don't understand that then I can't help you.



Totally agree with you, i add:

The real jackpot is not necessarily what you think it is. It's the technology used, the synergy it creates, that's the jackpot, it's not just an exchange platform, it's more global. If this is made possible, then the technology will be worth well over $1. But for that you need a battle plan and dedicated teams, in short, building for everyone and for real use + a product distribution network + multi-cultural communication + unfailing leaders and representatives + create a real economic attractiveness, come out of the hole, openly...

Beware of costs and bottlenecks. Beware of the technology used.  Where Cloak stands out is in its private/confidential aspect with a public register but ultimately addressed to whom? to companies, street people, IoT push?

It is necessary to see the scalability, for example the blockchain 4.0 are already in preparation. version 3 allows smart contract, nft, very low cost, with a multitude of possibilities. Built in or out of the layered core. Anything is possible with a good team, funds, and impeccable management.

If you want to create value you need trust. Blockchain is built on a model of trust, its strength is there, the recipe for success is not necessarily what can I do for the blockchain but rather what can the blockchain do for us?

Blockchain is a forgery-proof trust machine. It's same for Cloak



I think you complete the picture if people don't get their heads out of their asses Cheesy They'll stay in their shit!!!
member
Activity: 205
Merit: 10
It's written by the leader of Cloak, on standby with Bittrex.
.

It would be unlikely that the guy would lie like that openly by the way I don't think lasvegas83 is the type to lie, this guy and his collaborators hold the helm of Cloak.

I read here that it's easy to criticize, what do some members of the community do? Nothing at all, they don't build anything and wait for it to fall, wait all baked in the mouth. Unity is strength and misery divides it!

Some decide to shoot themselves in the foot, others decide to spit in the soup - this is the extent of total stupidity, out of jealousy and greedy selfishness.

As one member pointed out build is a solution, I would like to add this that you could apply to your daily life:

Quote
"Maybe it's time to stop being a victim who has suffered, I propose to step back and turn the page, to ignore what has forged you to focus, understand and then learn to release your potential, that of "who you are becoming" day after day .... To build your art, your thoughts, your dreams day after day in the battle that is life! "If you don't work for your dreams, someone will hire you to work for theirs". On the basis of this principle, I propose to ask yourself the question "don't ask what the system can do for you, ask what you can do for the system" is one of the keys to successful human investment in a society governed by very disproportionate social ranks. Building, learning, innovating at all levels can make you gain in quality in all respects; knowledge is a weapon, no matter, you can take it with you everywhere, but if it seems far away or impossible then to get there I suggest this: if you don't change in yourself, then don't ask for the world to change. Everything is possible, it is a matter of deep will. The safest investment is yourself. You have access to the possible, it is time to leave what is holding you back and move forward!"

As pointed out here Cloak is functional and secure. If you don't like it then go graze another pussy and leave the community in peace. Criticism is easy but art is difficult. Action!

Cloak coins are made to be used, if you don't use it or you don't understand that then I can't help you.



newbie
Activity: 29
Merit: 0
It was and still is a decent project. If it is so old and survived it proves its value. Listing on bittrex would be interesting. But for now it is just a rumor. Given the recent bad press for the private coins I do not think it is likely though.
newbie
Activity: 24
Merit: 1


I understand you. Maybe, we can give a chance and building can be more useful?

I hope Cloak will continue in the direction of the phoenix, the piece remains very useful in terms of confidentiality and speed.

Re-listing on Bittrex can be a new breath of life for the community. We will see in time Smiley




Yeah i'm ready Grin take me to other moons Baby  Kiss
newbie
Activity: 64
Merit: 0
Okay. Honestly hope they are not getting listed again, so people can (hopefully) invest in more fundamental strong projects.
- I also need to question why a team again is prioritising a listing, like Binance, instead of money toward a developer and improving the fundamentals, the product

We always hope to turn losses to wins again, but again, I would rather take my loss here than to see new money go in. Given this project's history, they have managed themselves so poorly and honestly screwed the community, IMO. Of course, some would probably argue with me, but that is fair, they can have their own opinion on this case, but then they should please tell me where I am wrong.

I have read everything Cloak has published, so I know Cloakcoin has commented on the event, but way too late given when the news broke out.
- It is not hard to give people a quick and short statement ''It seems like we are gonna be delisted from Binance, we will look into this and why. Statement to follow''

Regarding Yogibear, I didn't know he was just on a pause - So clearly this one is on me, I might not have been up to date.

About the wallet. Yes, it is functional, so is Windows XP. If you don't follow the developments you will not be in any position to even be a player in the market, IMO.
What goes for secure and uncrackable transactions. Who would want to try and put in hours of work to crack the transaction for a small project without any value in dollars or impact for news in the space? It simply wouldn't be worth the effort at this point in time. Hence why I don't think we have seen many try.


It is nice of you to wonder what you can do for the project, it is the right spirit, just for the wrong project. But that is of course up to you to decide.


newbie
Activity: 24
Merit: 1

It seems that discussions are underway with Bittrex for a new listing (relisting) according to a private message discussion with my friend and lasvegas83 (main leader of the Cloak project) which states:

"Bittrex approved a relisting and we are currently negotiating the price".

@Kingoamn Maybe you'll get from bottom to top again? (I wish you this)

I remember Binance ejected Cloak in 7 days without any real justification,

listing Binance: https://www.binance.com/en/support/articles/360002826891-Binance%E4%B8%8A%E5%B8%82CloakCoin-CLOAK-
delisting: https://www.binance.com/en/support/articles/360023570292-binance-will-delist-cloak-mod-salt-sub-and-wings

Everything was published on Cloak's blog, Binance is like that apparently. The crypto Asian projects are more popular with Binance. Binance need volume and users... Just like Bittrex and others exchange because on the tax they do their business.

https://www.cloakcoin.com/en/blog/binance_delist

Yogibear hasn't left, he indicated, (like others) on the rocket chat at https://chat.cloakcoin.com/ that he's taking a step back because he's dedicating himself full time to his personal projects and that Cloak doesn't currently allow him to pay his bills, to know that he experienced like many here Cloak at +$5 (same for me, after the takeover by the new team in summer 2018) before being untied in coordination by Binance, Litebit, Bittrex in less than a few days= delisting result = create unprecedented panic sell (as often happens when a big delist platforms). This had the effect of slow down drastically everything over time. After this exclusion it seems that Cloak is still moving forward but at a very slow speed.

That said, Cloak is still functional, secure and reliable, and still uncracked! Cloak remains has an unique technology crypto multy solutions and when the last block is extracted many of us will have died of old age!

Maybe there will be updates in the official blog but I can't speak for the Cloak team. Personally, I'm not wondering what Cloak can do for me, but what can I do for Cloak at my level?
newbie
Activity: 64
Merit: 0
I see the price is moving. any reasons for the same?


No there is no specific reason other than a single person or multiple are trying to press the price up through the order book by setting big buy orders in, without the real intention of buying.

I have to warn new guys about this project as it is nowhere as legit as you might think.

I have been, and unfortunately still are due to bad investment strategy, a holder of Cloakcoin and have been for many years now and followed their travel up and downs.

- They have no clue about how to manage a project and no funds to push things forward. The funds they had they used on listings like Binance, which they apparently spend up to 1 million USD on. Did I mention that they got delisted months later? And wouldn't inform their investors/community through official channels themselves until days later. We can all speculate on the reason why.

- They have not had any real updates on their software for years and if you think they don't have to as the current one is working, then tell me why is everyone else or big tech companies trying to keep up with the tech space and keeping on developing their software?

- Old members have left the team, most importantly Yogibear who had been around since the very beginning in 2014. Now he is gone, without a word from him or the team. Interesting as they have always been quick to announce new members/listings but not the other way around to inform investors/community.

- What happened to the contacts in the cannabis industry with a worldwide magazine?

- What happened to the update for raspberry pi so people could stake on one? The software that was promised worked without problems in 2017 but still can function correctly without problems.

- What happened to the Turkey coordinator, who for months said a payment gateway was weeks away?

- Why has the core team only (officially) been to one conference to get Cloakcoin out, shows some lack of engagement?

- What has Cloakcoin had out of their partnership with NEM?

- What has Cloakcoin had out of the PoS alliance?

All above is something to consider before moving your funds into Cloakcoin, as they haven't done anything. So back to your question again, Cloakcoin is pumping because of old holders, maybe even teammembers who is trying to pump the shit out of Cloakcoin once again.
(I forgot to mention that the first team/guy who invented Cloakcoin actually did pump and dumps before moving away from the project. Maybe that is something the team can/could see value in as the can't manage to bring real value to it)


I remain strong in my believe of this project is probably the closest thing to a scam you will ever see without it probably being one. The team has for years had many opportunities to show great leadership and transparency, but didn't.
newbie
Activity: 29
Merit: 0
I see the price is moving. any reasons for the same?
full member
Activity: 153
Merit: 100
legendary
Activity: 2660
Merit: 2229
https://t1p.de/6ghrf
Quote
Privacy, we don't know

Do you have a source for your quote?
newbie
Activity: 24
Merit: 1
Quote
Source from: https://journalducoin.com/actualites/vie-privee-compte-pas-five-eyes-attaquer-chiffrement/

Privacy, we don't know - Intelligence agencies and governments are looking for solutions to access the encrypted communications of the population. In their sights are the tech companies that produce end-to-end encryption tools.

The Five Eyes call for the end of end-to-end encryption
FVEY (Five Eyes) is the alliance of the intelligence services of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

This supranational alliance calls on technology companies to cooperate with governments. FVEY expects these firms to provide access to the encrypted content being exchanged on their platforms.

Five Eyes

The international declaration, dated Sunday 11 October, is also signed by government representatives from India and Japan.

"Particular implementations of encryption technologies pose significant challenges to public security, including highly vulnerable members of our societies, such as sexually exploited children. We urge the industry to address our concerns when encryption is used in a way that completely excludes legal access to content. »

The "reasonable and technically feasible" solutions proposed in this statement are as follows:

Firstly, companies must design communication systems that enable them to act effectively against illegal content and activities. These systems should facilitate investigation and prosecution, while protecting vulnerable persons;
Second, law enforcement authorities should be able to access the content of these systems, in a readable and usable format (subject to legally issued authorisation);
Finally, technology companies should engage in consultations with governments to design such systems.
In concrete terms, this means setting up backdoors. These secret breaches in the encryption functions would allow the authorities to access the content of exchanges.

The European Union has the same desire
The EU also wants to put an end to end-to-end encryption.

It wants to combat child exploitation and paedophile crime. On 9 June, the European commission and the parliament's intergroup on the rights of the child hosted a webinar on the subject.

Ylva Johansson, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, called for "technical solutions" to the "encryption problem".


The Politico website leaked the document describing these solutions. Paradoxically, the idea is to access encrypted data ... while keeping the benefits of encryption.

Client-side scanning is considered particularly effective. This technique is used before the data is encrypted. The application scans their content in real time, on the user's device, and compares it with a "black list".

First of all, the app hacks the user's data (unencrypted) before sending. Then the hashes are compared with the black list. This database includes hashes of data deemed illegal (e.g. child pornography images). If there is a match, the content of the message is deemed illegal and the application will not encrypt it.

Homomorphic server-side encryption
https://i.goopics.net/97WDg.jpg

A long-lasting war... everywhere
The Chinese government has chosen this approach to combat the use of WeChat. Of course, it is the death knell for end-to-end encryption. End-to-end encryption means that only the sender and recipient of a message can access its content.

By design, this technique does not allow the contents of the blacklist to be known. Indeed, the hash functions are one-way. As a result, only the holders of the illegal data can know whether the blacklisted hashes are limited to paedo-criminal content.

The American agencies have been leading the fight against end-to-end encryption for several years. Now they can count on allied governments and European authorities.

Of course, the fight against paedo-crime is more than commendable. However, tackling end-to-end encryption is a lost cause in the fight against this scourge. Criminals will only have to go through open source applications, not those of the big companies that will set up these surveillance systems.

Cloak is a secure alternative that provides a concrete solution to the undesirable surveillance of your financial activities.
newbie
Activity: 24
Merit: 1
Quote
Source https://www.perkinscoie.com/en/news-insights/anti-money-laundering-regulation-of-privacy-enabling-cryptocurrencies.html

This is an astonishing report in favor of so-called "anonymous" cryptomoney that has just come out. Contrary to what one might have thought, these would pose even less of a risk of money laundering than other cryptomoney schemes. Explanations.

Anonymous cryptos can be compatible with regulations
The law firm Perkins Coie provides an astonishing answer to the following question:

"Is it possible for regulated entities to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) obligations when accepting anonymous cryptography? »

"Amazing", because the experts' answer is a resounding yes!

In a report published on September 15, Perkins Coie's lawyers have put several of these anonymous transaction cryptosystems under the microscope of regulatory compliance.

Thus, 4 cryptos were put on the grill, as well as a method of anonymization:

the unavoidable Monero (XMR), unfortunately very popular with hackers who love ransomwares;
Grin (GRIN), based on the MimbleWimble protocol;
Zcash (ZEC) and its optional shield transactions;
Dash (DASH), a Bitcoin clone with anonymization options through its private send transactions;
the CoinJoin method, which consists of mixing (or "mixing") Bitcoin transactions (BTC).
Is Bitcoin more to be monitored than anonymous cryptos?
"Anonymous cryptos have an inherent lower anti-money laundering risk than other cryptos when considering evidence of illicit use in practice. »

Apart from their ability to protect the financial privacy of individuals and businesses, anonymous cryptos did not present any real problems in the regulatory framework defining Virtual Asset Service Providers (or VASPs).

Lawyers cite regulations such as those of the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), the Financial Services Agency (FSA) in Japan, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom, and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) internationally. All would be compatible with anonymous cryptoactives.

Indeed, the level of customer identification (KYC) of regulated VASPs would mean that anonymous transactions between individuals or businesses would not be a problem if they subsequently pass through these platforms.

This type of cryptos would therefore not require further regulation, which would be deemed "too burdensome" by these lawyers. Indeed, they believe that the current regulations are a sufficient compromise between the prevention of money laundering and the development of innovative technologies, which are beneficial for the protection of privacy.

It is therefore a real and argued plea in favor of anonymous cryptos that the lawyers of Perkins Coie have led here. But whether this will be enough to calm the regulatory fever of government authorities remains unfortunately very uncertain.

The time will come when anonymous crypto will come back in force like Cloak coin, it is cyclical as in the whole crypto sphere sector.

In addition Cloak coin has several added values that make it unique, cloakshield, enigma, mixing, everything is included to allow secure transactions from end to end and completely confidential. These are facts! Cloak coin has never been hacked unlike many other crypto currency mentioned above. It's a question of publicity finally, to be known and adopted it is necessary to be recognized. Cloak has everything to stand out.

newbie
Activity: 4
Merit: 0
hi everyone i'm a new cloak coin user  can someone explain to me how to verify a transaction with cloak coin encryption? tk
member
Activity: 323
Merit: 19
This is a small note for those who have donated to the Cloakcoin development fundraising.


The question is whether those who paid for the fundraising has a right to refund.

The decisive factor is whether an agreement has been entered into.

An agreement has been entered into if there is an «offer and accept», see Unidroit Principles article 2.1.2, DCFR II.-4: 201. Alternatively, an agreement can be entered into if someone has been given reasonable grounds to believe that an agreement has been entered into. The rule is a result of case-law. I’ll discuss the questions separately.

To conclude if there is an “offer and accept” it is important to assess how “clear, definite and final” the statement to the one who makes a promise is. The website of cloakcoin uses terms like "donate for development" and "donate with bitcoin ...". A natural linguistic understanding of the words "donate for development" indicates that the cloak team offers development for a fee. The statement is clear, definite and final. In my opinion, the fact that "donate for development" is aimed at an indefinite circle of people cannot exempt the statement from being characterized as an offer.

Alternatively, the question is whether the recipient of the promise has been given reasonable grounds to believe that an agreement has been entered into. The answer will depend on an overall assessment of which not only information on the website, but also other statements that the cloakcoin people have made.


Effects of the agreement

Given that an agreement has been made the main rule is that agreements shall be kept (pacta sunt servanda). To begin with, a recipient of a promise can demand to uphold the agreement.

The one who has made a promise can as an exception withdraw from the agreement in exchange for paying compensation. The recipient of the promise has an unconditional right for refund. The recipient is also entitled to compensation if the conditions for compensation are met (financial loss and causation). Also check out rules and regulations around interest for overdue payments.


Lastly is whether this might become an illegal/unlawful conduct.

To begin with a donation does not mean that the ownership of the money passes from the donor to the recipient. Even if someone can control a thing physically, it does not mean that that person has the right of ownership. Using the money for another purpose without the donor's consent might be embezzlement or financial infidelity. Pure inaction on the part of the donor is not a consent. Usually it will be illegal under any country's law to use other people's money without their consent.





Lawyered
newbie
Activity: 24
Merit: 1
i m in cloak in and out from the real begining  Wink maybe i wil come back dont know  Wink


The choice is yours it has always been Wink however, i can afford to share a piece of reflexion writing with you and the Cloak crypto community which i hope... will reason with you:

Quote
To understand why the blockchain is important, look beyond the wild speculation about what is built underneath.

The Internet bubble of the 1990s is generally regarded as a period of mad excess that ended in the destruction of hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth. What is less often discussed is how all the cheap capital of the boom years was used to finance the infrastructure on which the most important Internet innovations would be built after the bubble burst. It financed the roll-out of fibre optic cable, R&D on 3G networks and the construction of giant server farms. All this would make possible the technologies that are now the foundation of the world's most powerful companies: algorithmic research, social media, mobile computing, cloud services, analysis of large data sets, artificial intelligence, and so on.

We believe that something similar is happening behind the wild volatility and hype in the stratosphere of the crypto-money and blockbuster boom. Blockchain sceptics have grumbled with joy as cryptographic prices have plummeted from last year's dizzying highs, but they are making the same mistake as the crypto fanatics they mock: they associate price with intrinsic value. We can't yet predict what cutting-edge industries based on blockchain technology will look like, but we are confident that they will exist, because technology itself is about creating an invaluable asset: trust.

To understand why, we have to go back to the 14th century.

That's when Italian merchants and bankers began to use the double-entry method of accounting. This method, made possible by the adoption of Arabic numerals, provided merchants with a more reliable record-keeping tool and enabled bankers to assume a new and powerful role as an intermediary in the international payment system. Yet it is not only the tool itself that has paved the way for modern finance. It was how it was inserted into the culture of the day.

In 1494, Luca Pacioli, a Franciscan and mathematician, codified his practices by publishing a textbook on mathematics and accounting which presented double-entry accounting not only as a means of keeping track of accounts, but also as a moral obligation. In Pacioli's manner, for everything that merchants or bankers had of value, they had to give something back. Hence the use of offsetting entries to record separate balancing values: a debit coupled with a credit, an asset with a liability.

Pacioli's morally honest accounting granted a form of religious blessing to these previously decried professions. Over the following centuries, clean books were considered a sign of honesty and piety, enabling bankers to become payment intermediaries and speed up the circulation of money. This financed the Renaissance and paved the way for the capitalist explosion that was to change the world.

Yet the system was not immune to fraud. Bankers and other financial actors often failed in their moral duty to keep honest accounts, and they still do: just ask Bernie Madoff's clients or Enron's shareholders. Moreover, even honesty comes at a price. We have enabled centralised trust managers such as banks, stock exchanges and other financial intermediaries to become indispensable, turning them from intermediaries into gatekeepers. They charge fees and restrict access, create friction, limit innovation and reinforce their market dominance.

So the real promise of blockchain technology is not to make you a billionaire overnight or to give you the means to protect your financial activities from inquisitive governments. It could significantly reduce the cost of trust through a radical, decentralized accounting approach - and, by extension, create a new way of structuring economic organizations.

The need for trust and intermediaries allows giants such as Google, Facebook and Amazon to turn economies of scale and network effects into de facto monopolies.

A new form of accounting might seem like a boring accomplishment. Yet for thousands of years, since Hammurabi's Babylon, ledgers have been the foundation of civilization. Indeed, the exchange of values on which society is based forces us to trust each other's claims to what we own, what we have and what we owe. To build this trust, we need a common system for tracking our transactions, a system that gives definition and order to society itself. How else would we know that Jeff Bezos is the richest human being in the world, that Argentina's GDP is $620 billion, that 71% of the world's population lives on less than $10 a day, or that Apple shares trade at a multiple of the company's earnings per share?

A blockchain (although the term is vaguely used and often misapplied to things that are not really blockchains) is an electronic ledger, a list of transactions. These transactions can in principle represent almost anything. They could be real exchanges of money, as in the case of block chains underlying crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin. They could mark exchanges of other assets, such as digital share certificates. They may represent instructions, such as orders to buy or sell shares. They could include smart contracts, which are computerized instructions to do something (for example, buy a stock) if something is true (the price of the stock has fallen below $10).

A blockchain is a special type of ledger, in that instead of being managed by a single centralised institution, such as a bank or government agency, it is stored in multiple copies on several independent computers within a decentralised network. No single entity controls the ledger. All computers on the network can make changes to the ledger, but only by following the rules dictated by a "consensus protocol," a mathematical algorithm that requires the majority of the other computers on the network to agree to the change.

Once the consensus generated by this algorithm has been reached, all computers on the network update their copies of the ledger simultaneously. If one computer attempts to add an entry to the ledger without this consensus, or to modify an entry retroactively, the rest of the network automatically rejects the entry as invalid.

Typically, transactions are grouped into blocks of a certain size that are chained (hence "blockchained") by cryptographic locks, themselves a product of the consensus algorithm. This produces an immutable and shared record of the "truth", a record which, if properly prepared, cannot be altered.

Within this general framework, there are many variations. There are different types of consensus protocols, for example, and often disagreement on the safest type. There are public "no-permission" registries, to which anyone can, in principle, attach a computer and be part of the network; this is what Bitcoin and most other crypto-currencies belong to. There are also "authorised" private ledger systems which do not incorporate any digital currency. These can be used by a group of organisations that need a common record-keeping system, but are independent of each other and may not have complete confidence in themselves - a manufacturer and its suppliers, for example.

The common denominator is that it is mathematical rules and impenetrable cryptography, rather than trust in fallible humans or institutions, that ensure the integrity of the record. It is a version of what cryptographer Ian Grigg has described as "three-way bookkeeping": one entry on the debit side, another for credit and a third in an unchanging, undisputed shared ledger.

The advantages of this decentralised model become apparent when comparing the cost of trust in the current economic system. Consider this: In 2007, Lehman Brothers recorded record profits and revenues, all approved by its auditor, Ernst & Young. Nine months later, a fall in those same assets led the 158-year-old company to bankruptcy and triggered the biggest financial crisis in the last 80 years. Clearly, the valuations quoted in the books of previous years were very bad. And we learned later that Lehman's ledger was not the only one with questionable data. American and European banks have paid hundreds of billions of dollars in fines and settlements to cover losses caused by inflated balance sheets. This was a stark reminder of the high price we often pay for trusting numbers designed in-house by centralised entities.

The crisis was an extreme example of the cost of trust. But we also see that this cost is rooted in most other sectors of the economy. Think of all the accountants whose firms fill the world's skyscrapers. Their work, reconciling their firm's books with those of their professional counterparts, exists because neither party trusts the other's track record. It's a long, expensive, but necessary process.

The other manifestations of the cost of trust are felt not in what we do, but in what we cannot do. Two billion people are being denied bank accounts, keeping them out of the global economy because banks do not trust records of their assets and identities. Meanwhile, the Internet of Things, which it is hoped will contain billions of autonomous, efficiency-enhancing interacting devices, will not be possible if gadget-to-gadget microtransactions require the prohibitively expensive intermediation of centrally controlled ledgers. There are many other examples of how this problem limits innovation.

Economists rarely recognize or analyze these costs, perhaps because practices such as reconciliation of accounts are assumed to be an integral and inevitable feature of business (much as pre-Internet firms assumed that they had no choice but to pay large postal expenses at the post office. monthly bills). Could this blind spot explain why some influential economists have no hesitation in rejecting blockchain technology? Many say they cannot see the justification for its costs. Yet their analyses generally do not compare these costs with the social cost of trust that the new models seek to overcome.

However, more and more people understand this. Since Bitcoin's quiet publication in January 2009, its supporters have expanded considerably to include former Wall Street professionals, former Wall Street professionals, technology specialists from Silicon Valley, and development and aid experts from organisations such as the World Bank. Many see the rise of technology as a vital new phase in the Internet economy, one that is even more transformative than the first. While the first wave of online disruption saw brick and mortar companies being displaced by leaner digital intermediaries, this movement is challenging the very idea of for-profit intermediaries.

The need for trust, its cost and dependence on intermediaries is one of the reasons why giants such as Google, Facebook and Amazon are turning economies of scale and the benefits of network effects into de facto monopolies. These giants are, in fact, centralized ledger keepers, building vast registers of "transactions" in what is arguably the world's most important "currency": our digital data. By controlling these records, they control us.

The potential promise of overturning this entrenched, centralised system is an important factor behind the scene of the gold rush in the crypto-token market, with its rising but also volatile prices. There is no doubt that many investors, perhaps most of them, simply hope to get rich quickly and have little concern about the importance of the technology. But quirks like this one, however irrational they may be, don't appear out of nowhere. As with the advent of the transformative platform technologies of the past - railways, for example, or electricity - unbridled speculation is almost inevitable. Indeed, when a big new idea comes along, investors have no framework for estimating the value it will create or destroy, or for deciding which companies will win or lose.

Although major obstacles remain to be overcome before block chains can deliver on the promise of a more robust system for recording and storing objective truth, these concepts have already been tested in the field.

Open and freely accessible source code is the foundation of the future decentralised economy.

Companies such as IBM and Foxconn are exploiting the idea of immutability in projects that seek to unlock trade finance and make supply chains more transparent. Such transparency could also give consumers better information about the sources of what they are buying - if a t-shirt was made with workshop labour, for example.

Another important new idea is that of a digital asset. Before Bitcoin, no one could own a digital asset. Because copying digital content is easy to do and difficult to stop, suppliers of digital products such as MP3 audio files or e-books never give customers ownership of the content, but rent it out and define what users can do with it in a licence. This can lead to serious legal penalties if the licence is broken. That's why you can lend your Amazon Kindle book to a friend for 14 days, but you can't sell or give it away as a gift, like a paper book.

Bitcoin has shown that something of value can be both digital and unique. Since no one can change the register and "double the spending", nor duplicate a Bitcoin, it can be designed as a "thing" or a unique asset. This means that we can now represent any form of value, such as a title deed or a music track, as an entry in a blockchain transaction. And by digitising different forms of value in this way, we can introduce software to manage the economy around them.

As software elements, these new digital resources can be assigned certain "If X, then Y" properties. In other words, money can become programmable . For example, you can pay to rent an electric vehicle with digital tokens that are also used to activate or deactivate its engine, thus fulfilling the coded conditions of an intelligent contract . This is quite different from analogue tokens such as banknotes or metal coins, which are agnostic as to their use.

What makes these programmable money contracts "smart" is not that they are automated; we already have that when our bank follows our programmed instructions to automatically pay our credit card bill each month. It's that the computers running the contract are monitored by a decentralised blockchain network. This ensures that all signatories to an intelligent contract will be executed fairly.

With this technology, the computers of a shipper and an exporter, for example, could automate a transfer of ownership of goods once the decentralised software they both use sends a signal that a payment in digital currency - or a cryptographically unbreakable payment undertaking - has been made. Neither party necessarily trusts the other, but they can nevertheless carry out this automatic transfer without involving a third party. In this way, intelligent contracts take automation to a new level, enabling a much more open and comprehensive set of relationships.

Programmable money and smart contracts are a powerful way for communities to govern themselves in pursuit of common goals. They even offer a potential breakthrough in the "tragedy of communes", the long-standing idea that people cannot simultaneously serve their personal interest and the common good. This was evident in many of the blockbuster proposals of the 100 software engineers who took part in Hack4Climate at last year's UN climate change conference in Bonn. The winning team, with a project called GainForest, is developing a blockchain-based system that allows donors to reward vulnerable tropical forest communities for their demonstrable actions to restore the environment.

Yet this utopian, frictionless "symbolic economy" is far from reality. Regulators in China, South Korea and the United States have severely cracked down on token issuers and traders, viewing them as speculative schemes to make quick bucks that avoid securities laws rather than changing new business models. They are not entirely wrong: some developers have pre-sold tokens in "initial coin offerings" or ICOs, but have not used the money to build and market products. Public or "no-permission" blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, which offer the best promise of absolute openness and immutability, are facing growth difficulties. Bitcoin still cannot process more than seven transactions per second and transaction fees can sometimes rise, making it expensive to use.

In the meantime, centralised institutions that should be vulnerable to disruption, such as banks, are getting involved. They are protected by existing regulations, which are ostensibly imposed to keep them honest, but inadvertently constitute a compliance cost for start-ups. These regulations, such as the burdensome reporting and capital requirements imposed by the New York State Department of Financial Services' "BitLicense" on crypto-money transfer start-ups, become barriers to entry that protect incumbent operators.

But here's the thing: the open-source nature of the blockchain technology, its enthusiasm and the increasing value of the underlying tokens have encouraged a global pool of intelligent, passionate and financially motivated computer scientists to work to overcome these limitations. It is reasonable to assume that they will constantly improve the technology. As we have seen with Internet software, such open and extensible protocols can become powerful platforms for innovation. Block chain technology is evolving far too rapidly for us to assume that later versions will not be improved on the present, whether in Bitcoin's encryption-based protocol, Ethereum's smart contract-oriented block chain, or a as yet undiscovered platform.

The cryptographic bubble, like the Internet bubble, creates the infrastructure to build the technologies of the future. But there is also a key difference. This time, the funds raised are not used to subscribe to a physical infrastructure, but to a social infrastructure. It creates incentives to form global networks of collaborating developers, beehive minds whose interactive and iterative ideas are codified in lines of open-source software. This freely accessible code will enable the execution of countless ideas that are still unimaginable. It is the foundation on which the decentralised economy of the future will rest.

While few people in the mid-1990s were able to predict the emergence of Google, Facebook and Uber, we cannot predict which blockchain-based applications will emerge from the wreckage of this bubble to dominate the decentralised future. But that's what you get with scalable platforms. From the open protocols of the Internet to the essential components of algorithmic consensus and distributed record keeping in the blockchain, their power lies in creating an entirely new paradigm for innovators ready to imagine and deploy world-changing applications. In this case, these applications - in whatever form they take - will be aimed squarely at disrupting many of the control institutions that currently dominate our centralised economy.

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