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The EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum has built a new interactive map to highlight Europe’s crypto ecosystem. The map points startups and events in the sector, helping make blockchain enterprise exploration easier. Companies on other continents can also be mapped on the platform.

By

 Viraj Shah

Europe’s premier blockchain organization, the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum has built a new interactive cryptocurrency map for the continent. The map points out crypto companies and highlights related events in an area.

It could help users find informationabout various startups and what they do. The map is open to users from around the world, who can filter results or mark startups in their respective continents.

A Map for Detailed Crypto Exploration

The interactive map marks crypto and blockchain companies and provides relevant details of their objectives, purpose, year of establishment, etc. It also displays the website and other important information about the company.

Blockchain events will also be listed on the map for easy access to enthusiasts. Users can create filters in the search criteria to find companies or events in an area or find blockchain initiatives in a certain sector.


The Observatory designed the map with Europe in mind. However, it welcomes global users to add companies and events from other continents too. Currently, only European entities are available. The agency warns users that the map is crowdsourced, but entries are reviewed before submission.

Therefore, it will be vital for users to do their research before adding any companies.

The Observatory Takes a Giant Leap With Multiple Projects

The interactive map project was first announced In March. The agency stated that they are:

“Creating a public map of existing blockchain initiatives; regrouping key players, projects, and regional activities driving the ecosystem’s development. The end result will be a dynamic, geographical map, available on the Observatory and Forum website. Such map is highly valuable for both the European Union and other participants in the blockchain ecosystem.”

Every company submission takes 10 to 15 minutes, for which a user needs to fill a form. Event submissions are made through a separate form.The agency has been very active recently in educating citizens about blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

Apart from several workshops, it also announced a 90-minute ‘Ask Me Anything (AMA)’ session on its website to answer questions related to the blockchain, its use cases and its future in the world.
https://blokt.com/news/an-interactive-map-lets-you-explore-eus-cryptocurrency-startups

Smart contracts are a major technological breakthrough that will affect our society substantially. So far, interfacing with said smart contracts is still a bit challenging for the average user. Even developers sometimes struggle to do so. This is where ChainLink comes into the picture, as it provides a fully decentralized oracle network called LINK.

ChainLink is an Interesting Venture


It is certainly true that smart contracts can make a big impact on our society as a whole, although a lot of use cases have yet to be identified. Interfacing with a smart contract on any platform is a major challenge right now. This is especially true for financial institutions and other organizations looking to explore this technology.

Rather than using public blockchains, they will often develop a private and a permissioned version to use similar technologies. In the long run, these private and individual efforts still must communicate with one another, as well as with public blockchains in the future.

Connecting a smart contract to external sources is currently not possible in a convenient manner. Off-chain data and even APIs need to be introduced to smart contracts and vice versa. Currently, this is a major hindrance which can’t be resolved all that easily whatsoever.

ChainLink may be the solution for all these problems in the future. That is what its developers are hoping, at least. In fact, some new solutions are required to make this concept work in the first place. ChainLink is capable of connecting any smart contract to an external system and an API.

This secure blockchain “middleware”, as the team calls it, provides the bridge for the gap between smart contracts, APIs, and any other form of external data one might need. While it may not be the perfect solution, it should be useful for at least 90% of current and future use cases.

The project revolves around a fully decentralized network of oracles which are compatible with Bitcoin and Ethereum. It is possible other blockchains will be supported in the future, but those are the two main points of focus for the time being. In a perfect future world, this new platform would allow anyone in the world to use the LINK network.

All service providers would be able to securely provide smart contracts with access to key external data and potentially even off-chain payments. This latter point will be of particular interest to a lot of companies and service providers, for obvious reasons. Do keep in mind you will need LINK tokens to do so, though.

While it is commendable to see such a decentralized network, the use of proprietary tokens will not necessarily make it more appealing. This is the first solution of its kind, though, and we may see more competing services in the near future.

ChainLink will certainly find its place in the market, as users can become node operators to monetize their API experience. It’s a very intriguing concept, although it remains to be seen how many companies will actually use it.

Discover even more blockchain articles on Merkle here: https://themerkle.com/what-is-chainlink/

Nuco, a startup founded by a group of former Deloitte employees, has released a new white paper detailing its latest blockchain initiative.

Dubbed Aion, the proposed technology aims to connect different blockchains, including private networks operated by enterprises. The idea is that, as more companies turn to the technology for a variety of applications, there will need to be a public layer through which these future networks can communicate – and that's where Aion comes in.

As the white paper outlines, Aion would act as a kind of "bridge" between those networks, serving as "a mechanism to transfer data and value securely between them." Aion, as a public blockchain, will utilize a token aimed at incentivizing the various parties involved in both validating transactions and putting up the resources to transact between the different networks.

The paper explains:

"The AION 1 itself can be used to deploy decentralized applications on, as well as will maintain a public record of transaction between bridges. Essentially, facilitating a network that is to blockchains what the internet is to computers."

Aion's public nature is notable among enterprise-facing solutions on the market today, which have tended toward private, permissioned networks in which only approved parties can participate. Aion's "Connecting Network", according to the paper, would link both private and public networks alike.

Nuco also details a built-in governance structure that functions by way of a voting system, with the aim of .... continue reading: 
http://www.coindesk.com/nuco-builds-tokenized-blockchain-bridge-enterprise-applications/

Refugees fleeing conflict zones around the world have to deal with hardships like illness, hunger, exhaustion, and culture shock. They have to keep their families together and find shelter and food in safe environments far from what drove them from their homes.Amid all this, worrying about their economic identity doesn’t sound like it would be foremost in refugees’ minds.

The same goes for the extremely poor, whose day-to-day focus is likely to be on fulfilling basic needs like food or water.But according to Ashish Gadnis, cofounder of a blockchain platform for digital identification called BanQu, establishing an economic identity is fundamental to breaking out of the cycle of poverty.“Think about refugees,” he told the audience at Singularity University’s Exponential Finance Summit in New York this week.

“Everything that happens to them will get reset every time they move. Owning your data is the baseline that will allow you to break through and not just be a number.”




Ashish Gadnis and Jane Barrat at Exponential Finance.In a joint talk with Jane Barrat, founder of an online investment portfolio tool called GoldBean, Gadnis explained why economic identity is crucial to ending extreme poverty, and how technology can help.

BanQu defines economic identity as “the marriage of identity and commerce, resulting in a global, vetted, and manageable asset.” In the developed world, our economic identities are constantly monitored, and they’re closely tied to our ability to make transactions in our daily lives. Want to buy a car, apply for a mortgage, rent an apartment, or get a new credit card? Having a good credit history will make it all a lot easier.

Banking the 'unbankable'

But what about people who not only don’t have a good credit history, they don’t have a credit history at all—in fact, for the purposes of financial markets, they don’t even exist?“If you’re a poor farmer who’s providing grain or coffee in a large supply chain, no one knows the farmer,” Gadnis said. “This is where technology can matter, because it can allow the farmer to participate equally in the transaction.”Many aid programs around the world work by simply giving money to the poor, with the idea being that once people can stop worrying about basic needs like food, water, or shelter, they can shift focus to their longer-term wellbeing.

That’s a start, but what happens when those same people—people who have never had a recorded transaction with the larger supply chain—go to open a bank account or try to take out a loan for a new business? They find that they’re completely disconnected from the global economy and are therefore powerless even to manage their own assets.

"Banqu estimates 2.7 billion people around the world lack an economic identity. But of those 2.7 billion, 60 percent have mobile phones."

BanQu estimates that 2.7 billion people around the world are “unbanked,” meaning they lack an economic identity. But of those 2.7 billion, 60 percent have mobile phones. BanQu’s platform enables people to use an app to set up a digital identification profile where they can record transactions like remote purchases, funded wallets, and cash disbursements, as well as property, health, and education records.... continue reading: https://singularityhub.com/2017/06/11/how-blockchain-is-helping-in-the-battle-against-extreme-povert...

Augur is a decentralized prediction market built on the Ethereum blockchain. It allows you to forecast events and be rewarded for predicting them correctly.

Stunningly accurate forecasts on any topic

Augur's prediction markets provide powerful predictive data - you can think of the current market price of any share in any market as an estimate of the probability of that outcome actually occurring in the real world. For example, a share priced at 64 cents has a 64% probability of happening.The accuracy of prediction markets rests in the idea of the

"The Wisdom of the Crowd". This states that the average prediction made by a group is superior to that made by any of the individuals in that group. Markets are the perfect way to aggregate this collective wisdom - which is made up of all the information, analysis and opinion held by members of the group. With these individuals buying and selling shares in the outcome of real-world events, based on their personal knowledge and opinion, the market prices reach an equilibrium that reflect the opinion of the entire group.

Prediction markets have proven to be more accurate at forecasting the future than individual experts, surveys or traditional opinion polling. They provide real-time predictive data and are traded using real money - which incentivises market participants to reveal what they think will happen, rather than what they hope will happen. Traders are putting their money where their mouths are.... Learn more:
https://augur.net/