Author: Michael Gu

Mithril aims to disrupt our perceptions on social media- to decentralize and reward social media content creators fairly and openly. 

For a long time, content creators have not been earning for firing up their creative juices. Their followers have also been left dry after interacting with content. But this is now in the past since the launch of Mithril, a platform employing blockchain technology with content creators and their followers in mind. 

The team behind Mithril comprises of top minds like Wilson Huang who is a former software engineer at Yahoo and Jeffry Huang, the former chairman of M17 Entertainment. 

Since its launched in 2018, the decentralized social media platform has already made notable milestones. For example, it has secured a partnership with PiePie, a social platform where content creators can earn MITH tokens (more on this shortly). 

Mithril does this through “social mining”. Unlike other social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, Mithril rewards users for their content according to the popularity it attracts. 

What makes the Mithril ecosystem 

The Mithril ecosystem is made of the MITH token, Lit, and the Mithril Vault which are intertwined to bring a comprehensive experience to content creators. 

The MITH token (MITH) is the platform’s native token and which is used to reward publishers in a process called Social Mining (more on Social Mining later). The token is built using the ERC-20 standard on the Ethereum blockchain. It can be used to purchase goods and services on the Mithril Merchant Network, or it can be traded for other digital currencies. Apart from being used for payment and Social Mining, MITH can also be used for staking.  

Lit, on the other hand, is an already developed social media app that is available to those using iOS or Android-powered mobile devices. Just as with other top social media apps like Facebook, Lit can be used for messaging and posting personal stories using the ‘stories’ feature. 

The third core component of Mithril is the Mithril Vault, a secure virtual wallet for the MITH tokens. 

Key Features Of Mithril

Social Mining

Though their mobile app- Piepie (available on iOS and Andriod), users can post 6 second videos and share it with over 154,000 (and growing!) other users globally who can follow, like or comment on them. 

Users who post on Piepie will be rewarded with Mithril’s (MITH) tokens.

Mithril recently expanded their ecosystem by partnering with Yeemos (available on iOS and Andriod). Yeemos is an app where users can post photographs. Other users can then interact with the posts by doodling, posting stickers, emojis, reactions or comments on them.

Yeemos is expected to support the MITH reward system soon.

Mithril Vault

Users can link their Piepie (and eventually Yeemos) accounts to the Mithril Vault. The Mithril Vault has several functions:

Funds: Users can withdraw and/or deposit their MITH, Binance (BNB) and Ethereum (ETH) tokens. Support for more tokens is expected.

Staking: Users can “stake” some/all of their MITH for a minimum of 14 days. Staking increases the amount of MITH earned when using Piepie.

Shift: Users can “shift” their MITH to ETH and vice versa.

Exchanges

MITH tokens are currently traded on most major exchanges including Binance, Bitfinex, Bithumb, Lbank, OKEx and HitBT etc.

Uses for MITH Token

The MITH token can be used as follows:

Staking: As mentioned above, MITH can be staked in the Mithril Vault to increase the MITH earned from social mining on Piepie.

Shifting: Also as mentioned above, the MITH Vault allows users to shift their MITH into ETH.

Payments: MITH is accepted as a form of payment in the Mithril Merchant Network. For now this includes some Taiwanese cafes and merchants. Globally, MITH can be used to pay for other products/services relating to dating apps, paid content and other applications.

The Mithril roadmap

Mithril has been hard at work meeting its milestones, and in some cases ahead of schedule.

For Mithril, the milestones covered form the footing for a bright future ahead. While the future will be comfortable for Mithril network users, the developers have already rolled their sleeves up. 

For instance, the team behind Mithril is yet to develop an ad network, conduct a vault merchant network onboarding, among other high profile developments. 

Those already partnering with Mithril include, Qtum, M17 Entertainment, Swag, SOLA Foundation, bytepay, Simple Swap, Atomic, among others. 

In short, Mithril has just left the runway. 

Resources:

Website: https://mith.io/

Whitepaper: https://mith.io/whitepaper.pdf

Blog: https://medium.com/mithriltoken

Telegram: https://t.me/MithrilChat

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MithrilToken

Binance research report: https://info.binance.com/en/research/MITH-2018-11-15-46831.html

Elastos is a third generation technology that leverages blockchain technology in giving internet users complete control over their digital properties. The protection that Elastos provide is beyond cryptocurrencies or private data. It covers other intellectual properties such as books, games, movies, and business ideas.

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Elastos is a new Internet technology that is revolutionizing online security and smart technology. Elastos is built on the concept of removing middleman, monetizing computing power, protecting digital assets and offering incentivised digital properties transactions with enhanced security and speed at an affordable cost.

How does Elastos work?

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Elastos operates in an isolated environment called a virtual machine that runs on elastos runtime. Its is a lightweight operating system kept in a little box. To penetrate the system, an attacker has to create their own box and connect to the user’s data.

If hackers manage to breach the security, Elastos does not grant Internet access so the information derived cannot be sent out or uploaded to the third-party websites like YouTube, Facebook or Dropbox.

Alternatively, the hacker may try to download it to external storage, but elastos requires that the owners of the data grant permission from their end. Therefore unless the owners voluntarily share their digital assets, hackers cannot take possession of it giving owners exclusive protection over the data they secure with elastos.

In another instance, assuming the hackers try to connect another virtual machine like engineering artificial intelligence (AI) scanner, it can only scan and check the data, but it is not transferable as it is an isolated device. The information cannot be passed on to the outside world.

In another real-life instance, assuming you have a session with your doctor and he connects to your virtual machine, he can only read your medical report but will not be able to save a copy. It is also imperative to the point that the moment you close your Elastos machine, the information viewed by the doctor will be permanently erased guaranteeing you topmost security.

The Blockchain Technology Behind Elastos

Now that we know how Elastos works, it is possible for readers to conclude that Elastos does not need a blockchain technology to function in reality, the blockchain provides the secure ID to access Elastos.
In a case where a hacker tries to override the user’s security, it is the blockchain that will be responsible for the assurance that the ID is authentic, not tampered with, void of virus and malware, and perfectly matches with the one registered in the block.

Blockchain provides a layer of trust for all the virtual machines that want to connect to a system.

Real Life Application of Elastos

Business and Enterprise

It helps businesses and enterprises to protect the trade secrets, for instance, Coca-Cola can use it to store their recipe menu which will not be available to anyone without their permission

Professionals

To safeguard valuable private data and ensure that only people with permission can access the information stored on it

Content Creators

Authors, content creators, movies and game developers can leverage the use of elastos in securing the ownership of their intellectual properties. With that, they can scale up their earnings and prevent illegal distributions of their contents to unauthorized users.

Also, the content owners can use elastos to create a scarcity of their digital asset thereby increasing its value.

Developers

Elastos provides large blockchain applications in a secure environment and keeps contents intact after multiple uses

Ethereum vs. Elastos

Ethereum operates on a single main chain structure leading to speed limitation while elastos adopts main chain and side chain structure that speeds up the transaction, payment and smart contract support for several applications and services

Ethereum experiences network congestion and data redundancy while Elastos is the more secure runtime with the independent operating system, software development kit (SDK) that speed up the operating process and prevent data congestion.

Ethereum exposes data to risk as it employs a front end decentralized application (DApps) while elastos make use of a safe DApps prevented from accessing the networks thus protecting data from DDos. Also, elastos doesn’t make use of IP addresses which implies that hackers cannot track users’ activities.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Elastos is a disruptive third generation blockchain technology that offers total protection of data and vital confidential information for an individual or a corporate body. The innovative technology will help content owners to maximize the returns on the sale of their digital assets thus making more from their intellectual properties. Elastos is a very beneficial technology that every user of the internet should have in their possession to create a more secure internet environment for all.

Monero is a rather unique member of the cryptocurrency family thanks to its focus on privacy and absence of the traditional open blockchain network like those found on Bitcoin. It is, in a nutshell, a system that makes use of three key technologies — Ring Signature, Stealth Address and Ring CT (Confidential Transaction) — to ensure that the sender, receiver and transaction amount are concealed from view.

On a traditional blockchain, you can freely click to see who sent any transaction, how much it was, and who the receiver is. For many this was the logical way to do things because an open book meant less suspicion of dubious activities on the network. Going into “stealth mode”, as you can choose to on some platforms, is a sure-fire way to attract raised eyebrows. Monero tried to eliminate this problem by making its transactions 100% private.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Monero

+ Users don’t have to worry about fraudulent chargebacks or multi-day holding periods. What’s more, there are no capital controls which restrict flow for traditional currencies. The user truly is in control.

+ Protection by CryptoNote’s hashing algorithm, “CryptoNight” makes it more resistant to ASICs (but not 100% ASIC-proof). The thinking is that it would be so costly to produce an ASIC for Monero that the benefits couldn’t possibly be worth it.

+ For better or worse, privacy is more attractive to more users. Privacy has always been a hallmark of any online industry’s success. Online shopping, for instance, was never going to be a reality unless people had ways to conceal their purchase histories and keep things private.

– On February 19^th 2017, the CryptoNote currencies, including Monero, were subject to a bug that allowed for stealthy creation of an unlimited number of coins, untraceable unless the viewer, too, knew about the flaw and what to look for. Fortunately, after scanning their system, Monero found it had never been exploited using this flaw, and by February 21^st the problem was patched. To be fair to Monero, they have been open and disclosed full details of the error and all measures taken to rectify it.

– The privacy element means there are view or no wallets available for full viewing, and so it’s impossible to know about past transactions and what’s really going on in the network. It may be a pro for existing users, but for newcomers it can be a little unsettling.

It’s clear that one of the biggest pulls of Monero is the ability to remain anonymous without the same suspicion being leveled at you on other platforms where “stealth” is optional (and only used for dodgy transactions, people think). But, after the open-ledger and dominance of more “typical” cryptocurrencies, Monero represents a radical, even revolutionary approach that has a potent allure.

RandomX CPU mining

RandomX is a new cryptocurrency mining algorithm designed improve the distribution of mined cryptocurrencies more evenly to a broader base of users. The idea is that everyone with a computer has a CPU, and hence an algorithm that favors the CPU will be more inclusive. Random is is designed to only function on CPUs, with strong resistance to both GPU and ASIC mining. This is achieved by making use of functions only available on modern day CPUs, such as virtualization. RandomX has already been audited and is currently deployed on Epic Cash and will be deployed on Monero.

Monero – How does it work?

So how does it work? Each piece of aforementioned tech is used to protect a different element of the transaction.

The sender is protected by the “Ring Signature,” which attaches multiple names to each transaction, forming a ring around the true sender and obscuring their true identity.

The receiver is protected by the “Stealth Address,” which sends transactions to a single-use address that will flag up as non-existent should anyone try to look into who the transaction was going to.

The amount of each transaction is concealed by the “Ring CT,” which only shows each exchange as being more than zero and valid — that’s it!

The conscious crypto user who wants to be anonymous for innocent reasons, but doesn’t want to arouse suspicion, will find the perfect partner in Monero. Privacy is a right, and Monero is one of the platforms offering it openly and genuinely. Not everyone agrees. Some people see universal anonymity as limiting, as it makes it impossible for new users to look into past transactions and determine if everything is kosher. There are even additional tools like their “Kovri” tool which masks IP addresses. To the experienced observer of the Bitcoin ledger, this secrecy can be rather off-putting.