Community Spotlight — September 2018 Edition
September is a wrap! We at ARK are proud of our determined and bright
community, and our monthly Community Spotlight newsletter will keep you apprised
on some notable community activities. Let’s dive into just some of the ways the
ARK community shined in September 2018.
FEATURED COMMITS
As they say, the best things happen with help. That’s why ARK runs monthly
bounty programs for coders who contribute to our codebase on the ARK Ecosystem
Github. Independent programmers can work side
by side with our international team and make the ARK toolkit even more powerful
and stable. Earn ARK tokens for ‘commits’ (completed tasks) and win larger
monthly ARK
prizes
as well.
Here are some featured commits for September. Features may not be live until
the next update:
- We saw Github member ‘dated’ successfully implement Oleg’s “Dark Theme” for
the mobile wallet. This was a highly anticipated feature (at least by Travis :)
that gives the ARK mobile wallet a second skin, allowing you to finally check
your ARK transactions in a movie theater (not that you should!). - Github member ‘ItsANameToo’ completed a number of small tasks that add up to
a big improvement in the Explorer codebase. More notably, itsanametoo updated
known exchange wallets, which gives users useful information on the customer ARK
stacks of Upbit, Binance, and Changelly. - Meanwhile, in the docs.ark.io repository, member
‘JeremiGendron’ made huge strides in the Core (JS) SDK. It goes without
saying that sometimes a project is only as useful as its documentation, and
docs.ark.io is a wonderful resource for developers and
researchers to get the answers they need with ARK.
Multiple coders are contributing to the ARK toolkit 24/7, and you can, too -
it’s fun, rewarding, and you can earn and win ARK tokens, as well!
This guide will show you how to get
started.
NOTABLE REDDIT POSTS
The Ark Ecosystem Subreddit is a great
place to seek ARK knowledge, and you can always find new and engaging content
there.
Here are some notable September posts:
- ‘BroadcastJunkie’ wrote a handy guide on how to set up your ARK wallet
safely, to highlight his service ArkForIT.com, where
Ark users can exchange ARK for powerful security tools and advice from an
experienced industry professional (and ARK enthusiast). Here’s the
guide. - ‘Rekted1’ got a discussion going, asking the ARK subreddit whether ARK
could replace
Ethereum.
Different users chimed in with their own unique perspectives, including ARK CTO
FX Thoorens. - ‘Rekted1’ also asked if ARK is planning to partner with payment processors
like
Square.
CSO Matthew DC helped give some insight on the matter. Incidentally, the new
‘ARK Pay’ solution recently appeared on the roadmap, which is a plugin allowing
seamless integration of ARK during e-commerce payments. - ‘Rekted1’ kept the momentum running with a third query, asking for more
details on deploying a blockchain with a custom
token,
and what that entails. Users notified Rekted1 that while currently, some light
programming knowledge is required, the barrier to entry will be severely reduced
in 2019 with the advent of the Push Button Blockchain GUI. - ‘Meesterich’ put some food for thought forward, citing a
chart
showing ARK as firmly within the top 10 ICO all-time returns, position five, at
over 6000%. - ‘Skeuo’ released a very cool 21:9
wallpaper
featuring ARK founders, and a 16:9
wallpaper
featuring ARK delegates. - Community member ‘Ukyuu’ A.K.A. Djenny Floro provided some insight into Ark
Tribe,
a media project featuring an ARK Bridgechain. Ark Tribe also has a
Discord. - Delegate ‘ItsANameToo’ launched a
campaign
to add the ARK logo to Font Awesome, a useful glyph project many developers use
daily. You can help by heading there and making a supportive
comment. - An AMA with Ø Crypto Union, a project that wants to
issue loans on fiat credit cards backed by crypto, including ARK, was conducted
this month. They are also running a closed beta test with some European ARK
users. Here’s the
transcript. - An AMA with Hiway.io, a platform aiming to join human
resources with hiring managers in the blockchain space and beyond, was conducted
this month. Here’s the
transcript.
You can browse more content and contribute your own voice to the ARK Subreddit-
who knows, you may even receive an ARK tip from a community member using
Delegate Cryptology’s intuitive ArkTippr Reddit
tipbot.
SEPTEMBER 2018 PODCASTS
COMMUNITY SERVICE SPOTLIGHT
Some members mentioned in the community newsletter are ARK delegates, who secure
the ARK network and provide community services. Their inclusion in the
newsletter is in no way an endorsement from ARK.io to vote for specific
delegates, and you should always do your own research and consider all the
options when choosing a delegate for whom to vote.
ARK.io does not run the ARK network.
Here’s the September 2018 Community Service Spotlight:
- The ARK Crypto Podcast, hosted by me,
launched in September on the ARK.io
Twitter. Subscribe
for free on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, or Google Play, and the podcast also
streams directly inside the ACP Twitter.
There are currently seven episodes for you to enjoy, with more every Friday. - The ‘Describe ARK in 1 Block
Time’
contest launched and concluded, where community members tried to describe what
ARK is in eight seconds. The top and only prize of 180 ARK was graciously
provided by delegates fun, deadlock, rising_sun, pieface, thegoldenhorde,
thefoundry, arkade_delegate, yin and goose. Listen to the entries and discover
the winner this Friday on the ARK Crypto Podcast, in a special double-episode. - The team from Delegate ‘Arkade_Delegate’ ran a Fortnite video game
tournament featuring ARK prizes on September
1st
and League of Legends September
8th,
September
15th
and September
23rd.
These tournaments occur regularly, and you can stay up-to-date on the ARK
Subreddit. - BuyWithArk.com shipped additional commemorative coins
out this month. That retail website is run by Delegate Arkmoon. - Delegate ‘Pieface’ initialized an ARK Christmas
Sweepstakes.
Guess the price of ARK on Christmas Day and win the pool! By the end of the
registration period, the pot had grown to over 2000 ARK, last I checked. - Delegate ‘Jarunik’ continued his ARK recap video series, subscribe
here. - ‘Colby’ of Delegate Golden Horde continued the ARK Community Digest
miniblog, highlighting the community similarly to this newsletter, but going
into deep detail on a specific ARK community member every Monday. September saw
interviews with Djenny
Floro,
Marc
‘Cryptology’,
Matthias
‘SuperCool’,
and
Jorma. - ‘The Golden Horde’ also opened up a community ARK and ETH design
contest,
and provided a September update
here.
TGH decided to extend the contest to November 30th, allowing anyone to compete
by creating ARK or ETH visual assets. The contest sports an impressive $4000 USD
equivalent prize pool sponsored by multiple sources, including ARK.io,
GhostfaceUK, and the ArkCommunity.Fund. TGH also
launched a French Blog and
Twitter account. - ArkForIT.com hosted a September Security Solution
Giveaway. - Delegate ‘biz_classic’ launched an ARK Exchange Watcher Twitter
bot, that sends alerts when large sums of
ARK move to and from exchanges. - The Ark Community
Committee**
**made big strides in September on its first collaborative project, codenamed
Project ‘CHRONOS’. Testing and final improvements are underway. The purpose of
this group is to give opportunities to people who want to get involved with ARK,
with an emphasis on non-coding related projects. Learn more or get involved on
the new Ark Discord. - The ACC also collaborated on our new logo, and payments to lead designer
‘dvd_ptr’ and other committee members were handled via
ArkTippr.
- New Delegate ‘Rising_Sun’ started forging in September, and concluded the
first month of its Community Bounty
Program.
Any community member can earn and win ARK for their creative expressions each
month. Here’s how it
works. - ‘Msdhere’ updated ARK Trend
Statistics
for September. - Delegate** ‘Jarunik’** was very active in September, launching a collaboration
with Delegate
Biz_Classic
to offer a 120 ARK jackpot on the biz_classic faucet. The faucet rewards
visitors with free ARK daily. Jarunik also
offered a whopping 320 ARK for a ‘Twitter Comment Marathon
Contest’.
Over on Steemit, Jarunik executed a ‘Separator Design
Contest’.
Keep up with all Jarunik’s exploits over on his
Twitter, so you don’t miss the action. - Delegate ‘Del’ gave away free ARK in a ‘Fast Twitter Lottery
Series’. - Delegate ‘Fun’ launched a new infinite runner
game
called Bold Ninja, offering daily ARK prizes for top scores. This is the second
in Fun’s lineup of games, which premiered with the title ‘Match 3’. - ‘CEOofNothing91’ deployed a push notification
feed
for desktop and mobile, that delivers ARK Subreddit posts of minimum 60 Karma. - Delegate ‘Deadlock’, keen on furthering ARK Core v2 Testing, deployed a
faucet on
DevNet
so testers can easily get access to DARK (Testing Tokens). - Delegate ‘Ark.Business’ delivered a sneak peak
at their upcoming site. - ‘Cam’ of the Ark Community Fund board and
ArkLogoWorks.com launched a Fantasy Football
League
with ARK prizes supplied by ReConNico and Delegate Ark.Business, supplemented by
a Community
Raffle
as well.
ARK COMMUNITY FUND
If you have an idea for an ARK project, small or large, and you are looking for
funding, consider submitting a proposal to the ARK Community Fund for review.
The ARK Community Fund started as a community initiative, and the elected board
reviews ideas and projects that enhance ARK. Their website is
ArkCommunity.Fund.
The opportunities that ARK Ecosystem provides are ever growing, and there are
many ways you can get in on the action. To reach me, you can contact me on the
ARK Slack or
Discord: @ Justin (doubled1c3).
Looking forward to October!
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