NEO

This week, the decentralization of the NEO smart economy began with the election of a City of Zion (CoZ) consensus node onto the NEO MainNet. In preparation of its election, the CoZ consensus node has been running smoothly on the NEO TestNet for six months. Other independent nodes waiting to be voted on include one hosted by KPN (a Dutch telecom provider) and Fenbushi Capital (a blockchain venture capital firm), which have been running on TestNet since April of 2018. 

Multiple NEO ecosystem projects are urging users to withdraw their funds from Bitpaction exchange after increasing red flags. As of July 9th, projects and users of the platform alike are still reporting no communication from Bitpaction.

Events and Community

The NEO Black Sea Community was launched on July 1st by developers and entrepreneurs in Georgia and its surrounding countries. Spotcoin, one of the NEO Black Sea founding members, was joined by other NEO-based projects Travala, Thor, and Effect.AI for the launch of the community group.

Alchemint was invited to the JBaaS Tokyo Blockchain Summit, held on July 7th. JBaaS is an offline community group that caters to cryptocurrency enthusiasts, and has garnered a number of media resources in the blockchain field and cryptocurrency market. Chris Qi, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Alchemint, was lined up to speak at the Tokyo Blockchain Summit. 

New Projects

The Construct, a crowdfunding platform built on top of NEO, aims to provide a unique fundraising structure that specifies tasks the project intends to complete. The Construct aims to help bridge this gap of trust between investor and founder by starting small and working towards progressively larger milestones. Each major task will be funded individually through milestones and funding stages that unlock incrementally as the project progresses. With this fundraising model, projects can receive the right amount of funding for a specific milestone, while also building trust with its project backers through the completion of major tasks.

Reports and Developments

Narrative has released the alpha version of its flagship project, “Chaucer” to the general public. Chaucer allows users to suggest and secure niches to be carried over to the Beta when it’s released. So far, it’s claimed that “over 300 niches have been created ranging from cryptocurrency to politics and music.” Following its release to early investors, Chaucer is now open to the general public with the Claim Your Spot campaign, which is described by Narrative as a “digital waiting line.” 

Effect.AI announced 200,000 image classification tests had been completed within 48 hours of launching Effect Force, a marketplace that connects AI developers to paid contributors. 600 workers were given access to the platform and the first batch of microtasks, which was to classify images as a “selfie” or “not a selfie.” The 600 workers collectively earned 20,000 EFX tokens for their work.

PikcioChain announced the deployment of its TestNet. PikcioChain aims to let businesses exchange personal data with security and confidence, while giving individuals complete control of their personal data. The TestNet will allow developers to test and validate some upcoming features before its MainNet launch in August. 

Alphacat released its monthly progress report for June, which highlights its community growth, event and conference attendance, branding efforts, partnership, and product development.

APEX Technologies received a #1 ranking as an artificial intelligence (AI) company by China Internet Weekly. The company placed above household names like Huawei, Alibaba and Baidu’s AI Nemo.

Partnerships

THEKEY have reached an agreement with the Information Center of Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS), and China’s Social Insurance Association (CSIA) to co-operate on research in the area of social insurance blockchain applications. As a result of this agreement, and with the full support of the leadership of the above national ministries and agencies, THEKEY has launched a USD $20 million scientific research fund focusing on understanding, innovation, and promotion of blockchain-based social insurance applications.

Alphacat partnered with The Blockchainer, a global marketing company that offers solutions for blockchain projects at different stages in their development. Alphacat has entered the partnership in an effort to expand into overseas markets, receive assistance in building its global ecosystem, and to access The Blockchainer’s exchange resources and relationships.

Ontology partnered with CCX Credit Technology Co., Ltd., (CCX) and China Financial Certification Authority (CFCA). CCX is amongst the first in China’s enterprise-credit-information industry to be qualified for “enterprise credit investigation business operations and recording.” The CFCA is an authoritative, national-level safety certification body established by the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) in 1998, and has received approval from the National Information Security Administration.

Ontology partnered with Business Data Network (BDN), a decentralized global business data ecology that connects enterprise and personal users through the tokenization of business data. The partnership will focus on production logistics, new retail, offline business, and co-building a business-oriented distributed trust ecosystem, to minimize data islands and propel data-driven market growth.

Tech Updates

nOS launched its nOSNet TestNet for decentralized applications (dApps). nOSNet will allow for the registration and management of domains, and smart contract deployment. Developers can now apply for a “nos://“ domain name using the nOS Client, as well as apply for the nOSNet GAS required to launch a smart contract.

Aphelion launched its decentralized trading platform on the NEO TestNet, which will aim to enable token trading in a decentralized and trustless environment using its Distributed Exchange Asset Ledger (DEAL). Users will be able to trade tokens directly from their wallet interface without having to visit an external trading platform. The initial version only allows for trading of GAS/ATI (Aphelion Trading Initiative), and TestNet GAS or APH tokens will be required to trade.

Token Sales and Airdrops

Moonlight released an overview of its LUX token presale, held from May 14th through May 20th. Moonlight received a total of 1,184 applications from participants in 22 countries. The three largest concentrations of applications came from China, Australia, and the United States. As a result of the token presale, 47 strategic partnerships with “well known organizations, and collaborators” have been formed. LUX’s public token sale will be held soon, with more details to follow from the Moonlight team.

O3 Labs and Alchemint have partnered and announced a SDT airdrop. 250,000 SDT tokens will be distributed to users of the O3 mobile wallet. The first 5,000 registrants will receive an airdrop of 50 SDT per wallet / user / device. At least 25 NEO must be held in the registrants O3 wallet, with a snapshot taken at 2:00am CT on July 12th.

Meet the Developer

This week, NEO News Today spoke with Yak Jun Xiang (@Snowypowers), a CoZ developer and maintainer of the neon-js project. Neon-js is a JavaScript library that allows applications to interact with the NEO blockchain. Snowy was among the first five individuals to translate NEO documentation in the Summer of 2017. Snowy is part of the City of Zion delegation heading to Shanghai this month to co-ordinate on the neo-sharp sprint. 

Upcoming Events

The developers of NEOTracker.io and NEO-ONE are hosting a social event in Seattle, WA on July 11th, from 7:00pm – 9:00pm. The event will be held at Optimising Brewing with an open format for discussion and networking. The primary focus will be the NEO ecosystem, however, there is room for discussion of all facets of blockchain.

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