What’s new in crypto events? Upcoming mainnet launches, forks, testnets etc

ChainLink (LINK): Launching Mainnet for Ethereum today, May 30

ChainLink, which is a decentralized oracle network that allows smart contracts to connect and respond to real-world events such as market prices, IoT and shipping data, will be launching its’ mainnet on the Ethereum network today. It will mark the first functioning, decentralized oracle network and will be a "significant step beyond theory and into practice" according to Chainlink CEO Sergey Nazarov.

In addition to providing a secure middleware between crypto smart contracts and fiat payments, as well as data and events streams (oracles), ChainLink also wants to create a marketplace for all existing smart contract inputs and outputs with support for smart contract networks that hold value and need oracles. Smart contracts that are on the marketplace will be able to connect to any external API and source data and accomplish other functions such as sending and receiving payments. This is according to an earlier statement by Nazarov. 

Some of their partners include SWIFT, with which they aim to see smart contracts connected to banks via APIs, and many other startups inside and outside the blockchain industry.

Polis (Polis): Releasing PolisNodes today, May 30

The release of the PolisNodes platform will enable masternode hosting, meaning anyone can set up and run a masternode. A PolisNode will cost $2.99 per month and will allow clients to create masternodes in an efficient, cost-friendly and trustless way.

The platform supports over 50+ coins with more to be added every month.

Clients can use the PolisNode platform to purchase different masternodes and install hosted masternodes, while monitoring their earnings and other statistics. Users are able to control multiple remote masternodes from a single wallet. Perhaps most importantly, the required collareral is 1000 coins per masternode. Apart from this feature, Polis Coin is itself, a masternode coin. In addition to that, the upgrade features a revamped Shift UI, a change of Shift rates so users can get fairer rates overall, and other minor bug fixes.

In addition to enabling instant peer-to-peer payments with an average confirmation time of less than a second, the PolisPay ecommerce payment solution will also be setup in a manner that allows for the spending of POLIS coins on IKEA cards, Netflix cards, Apple cards and more with certain payment cards.

With PolisPay, the end goal is that anyone will be able to accept and spend cryptocurrencies at any store.

ABBC Coin: Launching shopping mall platform today May 30

ABBC's first shopping mall platform will be introduced in New York. During the launch, the team will demonstrate the system flow of the project. The new platform, which uses the X13 algorithm and allows [transactions to settle instantly at a high level of security, will include ABBC’s payment system which means when it is installed, users can spend their ABBC coins to purchase the cheapest and fastest shippable items from any of the top e-commerce sites around the world that are listed below. This will hopefully expedite the adoption of cryptocurrencies as a widely used payment method.

The platform has already integrated with Amazon.com, eBay, Yahoo Japan, Alibaba, Taobao.com, and Walmart, among others. It plans to have lower transaction fees and exchange rates compared to fiat currencies and credit cards. Users can also collect reward points that can also be later spent on purchases. In addition to this, users have the ability to store multiple cryptocurrencies and rewards on the ABBC Multi-Crypto storage Wallet. 

As if all of this wasn’t enough, the ABBC coin is also mineable but dependent on both a Proof-of-Work algorithm and a Proof-of-Stake algorithm, which means it runs on a hybrid consensus mechanism.

Tron (TRX): Launching DappChain Testnet May 30

Tron's DappChain is the network's side chain expansion project and the launch of the testnet will see the implementation of smart contracts to allow for the secure expansion of the network. The second phase, which is set to launch on August 10, will enhance the network’s overall decentralization and asset security, as well as provide better support to the community in fully activating the ecosystem on the basis of the first phase. Phase 3 of the network’s optimization efforts is expected to launch on September 15, and will concern itself with improving the network’s overall ease of use, as well as making it easier to deploy and integrate side-chains based on the foundations that laid in phases 1 and 2.

DappChains are use case-specific blockchains hosted on the platform as sidechains (which in Tron’s case, present themselves as sidechain scaling solutions) that will be interconnected. In other words, launching a dApp will be equivalent to launching a dedicated blockchain with interoperable features with other chains. You’ll be able to customize and optimize these side-chains for a specific use case. This solution aims to make blockchain interoperability more of a reality. Users will be able to more easily move data, value and their profiles from one chain to another. All of this will likely also increase the overall processing capacity of Tron and make the blockchain more efficient and faster.

Benz (BENZ): Launching e-commerce prototype today, May 30

EaglePay has been developing an blockchain-based e-commerce solution that aims to allow users to spend crypto for any kind of item and service at low fees and with ease, and the conversion of all tokens to fiat. Fiat is supported through fiat tokens that are digital representations of their respective fiat currencies. The exchange plans to allow item and service trading as well as the exchanging of fiat tokens to offer fiat tokens on a peer-to-peer basis through a DEX.

At the same time, startups and companies will conduct ICOs on it and the platform token EagleX will be the main currency used by investors to buy ICO tokens once the decentralized exchange is live. EagleX holders can also cold-stake the coins and receive rewards. By holding EagleX tokens, users can receive BENZ coins as rewards. The ICO platform will be a decentralized application that will also support smart contracts.

The IronGeekChain blockchain will depend on the Iron dBFT consensus mechanism, which will be quantum-resistant to prevent a possibor, future, massive attack from quantum computers. In addition to this, it will be accessible through desktop, mobile and web wallets. Already, they have released a light wallet for Windows, Mac, and Linux. EagleX (EGX) supports smart contracts for creating decentralized applications, which are powered by the BENZ token.

IceChain: Launching Testnet v.1 today, May 30

With blockchains currently struggling with and looking for workable scalability solutions, IceChain wants to use features and technical frameworks like doublechain setup, sharding and hash power distribution to be able to scale to handle over 100,000 transactions per second across many industries like finance, electronics, electricity, telecommunications, food, autonomous vehicles, and real estate to name a few.

For the purpose of securing transactions, 50% of the network’s hash power will be allocated to the main chain to prevent double spending. That's in addition to the network being able to handle cross-blockchain transactions and permissionless mining.

Block rewards will be issued on a proportional basis to decrease the overall energy needed for mining and overall, make the platform less energy intensive.

Duality (DYN): Mobile wallet, May 31

Duality is working in the decentralized or distributed computing space with the goal of replacing conventional business software with their integrated products. The platform currently only provides online wallets (Dynamic, Sequence and Bitcoin) and live market prices presented in the format of simple graphs. In the future, it will provide users with the ability to export their transaction histories into CSV/PDF files, host Dynodes, and run atomic swaps between Dynamic and Sequence modes, as well as access their accounts via a secure API.

This will be done via the Duality platform, which will act as a portal for all BaaS (Blockchain as a Service) products provided by Duality. With it, organizations will be able to reduce resourcing requirements and directory maintenance costs and do not have to reduce resourcing requirements and directory maintenance costs. Additionally, it’s hoped that they will be able to eliminate the need to employ trusted third parties for hosting and managing data.

Through the Dynamic (DYN) blockchain, the cryptocurrency can be mined with its’ proof of work algorithm on CPUs and GPUs. This blockchain also has a second layer of incentivized nodes called Dynodes, which have the purpose of validating blocks and transactions. In addition to this, it hosts BDAP and dApps created by Duality. The Sequence (SEQ) blockchain, on the other hand, uses a PoS (Proof of Stake) consensus algorithm that allows for the staking of its’ coin.

In general, they provide blockchain as a service (BaaS) projects with which organizations can reduce expenses and expertise needs on the blockchain. Other products include NoID, an irreversible biometric hash algorithm for healthcare records and accurate patient identification while saving lives, pShare for peer-to-peer file, application, and folder sharing, and pSign for superior digital document signing and workflow-management which is bundled with templates, libraries and supporting full automation. There also is a supply chain platform that aims to prevent counterfeit products and tainted supply chains, and improve damage detection and product tracking.

XinFin Network (XDCE): Launching Mainnet on June 1

The XinFin Mainnet will introduce some changes in XDC token allocation and the network’s hedge pool mechanism. There also will be considerable changes made across the whole XDC ecosystem including features related to token swapping, private key access to wallets, masternode setup and staking, token supply, side chain or private network setup, burning of XDC, etc.

The total supply has been curbed to 37.5 billion while XDCs are given as reward to masternode hosting institutions and as incentives for the community participants on the platform to promote better governance. After the mainnet launch, this incentive will be lower than 10%. Subsequently, the ecosystem development pool will be reduced to 5 billion. The Hedge pool which was initially set at 10 billion, has already been reduced to zero.

XinFin will work with smart contracts similar to Maker DAI-grade smart contracts to provide better hedging and price stability through their underlying, stable smart contract token (XRC20), which is pegged against the value of XDC.

 With the mainnet launch, users will now have full access and control over their private keys.

XinFin also has Masternode and XDC Staking features with masternode collateral set at 10 million XDC per node.

Further details are located on this link.

MetaMorph (METM): Launching creation platform June 1

The METM started closed beta testing for their token creation platform on May 23. This cryptocurrency portfolio management platform helps a user manage their crypto portfolio after connecting their wallet or wallets with MetaMask’s API. Their platform allows users to interact with the blockchain and manage orders off-chain in order to reduce overall fees, as well as exchange certain cryptocurrencies in-wallet.

The platform also offers daily portfolio charts, reports, an address book and many other features. It is atomic-swap enabled for the peer-to-peer trading of coins and its’ order books can, through the 0x Protocol, be connected through Relayers to open up the doors to increased liquidity, less congestion on the blockchain and lower fees.

Apart from the trading/exchange of tokens, portfolio management, reports and their wallet, they also provide the opportunity to backup all data, which includes the private storage of keys.

Einsteinium (EMC2): Forking June 1

For EMC2 coin guys, Mil Coin will fork at the block height of 2402717 on approximately June 1. Every holder of EMC2 Coin will get three MIL coins. The new coin contains elements of LTC, ETH and EMC2 and can be mined with GPUs. It also uses the ETH, KMD dPoW, Wormhole, SegWit and DigiShield consensus algorithms. Mimblewimble will be the first upgrade (soft fork) after the initial MIL release.

Further details about the fork can be found on this link.

GenesisX (XGS): Releasing SPS V1.0 June 1

GenesisX will be releasing the Genesis X Secure Private Storage (SPS) Platform V1.0 soon. Being a masternode coin, anyone with an updated version of the wallet will be able to submit proposals for integration, promotion, new exchange listings, and marketing or development, and get the requested XGS coins if Masternode owners support their proposals with **Yes** votes.

This PoS masternode coin focuses on security, privacy, transparency & governance and they are working with the Zerocoin protocol to increase anonymity and privacy across the GenesisX blockchain. Additionally, they plan to implement Two Factor Authentication (2FA) to the reduce possibility of hacking and scamming. The team will also employ the IPFS (Inter-Planetary File Systems), which promotes the decentralized internet in order to allow for a decentralized cloud server for privacy and security.

ICON (ICX): TX Challenge Starts June 3

The ICON TX challenge is a blockchain development contest with a total prize pool of 1 million ICX. The team will provide operating costs and technical support to participants during the contest and this will run for about two months starting from June 3rd to July 31st.

The total prize pool will be 1 million ICX (ICON's cryptocurrency). During the competition, participants will produce their own DApps (decentralized applications) or websites and will be open to anyone including developers, university students, and anyone who wants to implement blockchain technology in building services or wants to experience new technologies.

The contest will run for two months and teams participating in the competition will also receive a smaller reward of 0.01 ICX per 1 TX for transactions occurring through the SCORE during the contest. 6 teams selected based on the impartial evaluation of their dApps or websites based on completeness, business value, technicality and overall blockchain utility, will receive 50,000 ICX. Other benefits include helping participants attract further investors and providing opportunities for recruitment by the ICON office in Korea or other internship opportunities.

Further details can be found on their Medium post here. 

Bitcoin Cash (BCH): Launching Local.Bitcoin Marketplace on June 4

Bitcoin.com will be launching an online peer-to-peer marketplace called Local.Bitcoin.com to help users from around the world buy and sell Bitcoin Cash (BCH) locally with fiat and with virtually any payment method available to their locality like PayPal. The marketplace is very similar to LocalEthereum.com or LocalBitcoin.com in how they facilitate the buying and selling of Ethereum and Bitcoin.

NEO (NEO) - Demo Workshop June 4

In case you will be around the Seattle Public Library-Central Library on June 4 (6:00 pm to 7:30 pm) and you want to learn how to build smart contracts using NEO-ONE (neo-one.io), this workshop is for you. If you also missed the introduction to building smart contracts with NEO-ONE and how to begin development of a NEO dice contract by implementing the deposit phase, this workshop is still for you.

Participants will develop a NEO dice contract by implementing the house bet and reveal phases and then adding unit tests for betting functionality.

Tron (TRX): Forking June 8

Tron Legacy will fork on June 8, with the goal of providing a truly decentralized ecosystem and bringing in better scaling capabilities, high transaction speeds, and overall better conditions for miners. Each holder of TRX coins will receive TRL coins at a ratio of 1:1.

Overall, Tron Legacy will be its’ own trading platform. Utilizing sharding, the network will be capable of processing in excess of 5,000 transactions per second compared to just the rate of 25 per second that the Ethereum network currently averages, the 2000 that Tron boasts, and the often cited 3 for the Bitcoin network. Tron Legacy will also introduce some changes to DPoS, including improvements to voting and the validating of participants. Network members with the right to vote in the system will not subsequently act as transaction validators; a subset of participants will select another subset, which in turn will form blocks.

Finally, the platform will allow for the development of dApps. Reportedly, this means creators will be able to build dApps even with minimal programming knowledge.