Hubcoin - Mapping Pico-Economies With Cryptocurrency - Part Three, Final Thoughts
Opportunity
As decentralization will continue to pervade the standard way of processing transactions, the old, monolithic model of social organization will change as well. In my opinion, we will not witness the rise of an all-mighty individual, overlooking corporations and oppressive regimes, but rather a huge ecosystem of ad-hoc pico-economies, interacting with each other. Economic value will shift from standard, centralized processes, into decentralized webs of hubs, which will function, internally, by adopting their own governance model and currencies.
From this point of view, a crypto-currency able to map these pico-transactions is not only plausible, but necessary.
As of now, pico-economies are recognizable mainly in co-working spaces or professional guilds, but as decentralization kicks in, we may see other communities aspiring at the status of a pico-economy, in which transactions are mappable on a currency, transparent and in sync with the perceived value of the community.
Pico-economies are everywhere, from a class in school, to a neighborhood. From a football team (along with its fans) to a circle of friends.
Identifying the processes in these pico-economies and mapping them can only contribute to a more frictionless, fulfilling and enjoyable life.
Technical Status and Potential Platforms
As I am still working on the mathematical model of token generation, the choices for a development platform are on hold.
The current status is that I deployed a currency called HUBCOIN on the NXT blockchain and I'm using it as test project. Please be aware that this token, while it is as real and as fungible as any other token on the NXT blockchain, it is NOT the final version of the token and it doesn't carry any value (other than tipping me) when you buy it. Most likely, it will act as a lab for future enhancements.
As I said, the choice of a development platform is still unclear, but as I advance with the actual minting procedures (which are a mix of Proof of Stake/Delegated Proof of Stake, Proof of Work, Proof of Existence and Proof of Burn) I am heading towards these options:
Steem FABRIC
As I understand, the new FABRIC technology will be available this year and will allow a plugin-based architecture. I am still waiting for the actual implementation, but since Steemit is already battle tested and quite mature, it may be an obvious choice. Still have no information about licensing options, though.
Tendermint / Comsos
Lured by a recent article of @dantheman I discovered Tendermint / Cosmos, a consensus engine. I devoured a lot of their documentation and, to be honest, they are the ideal candidate so far. I like how they separated the logic of consensus from the actual application requirements. This, in practice, should allow for super fast prototyping and deployment.
Algorand
I don't know yet if Algorand has a real life implementation, but the algorithm sounds very promising.
There are many things to be added and I hope to put them all in the white paper.
This article concludes the series in which I make public my intention to start this project. Thank you all for the feedback and for the support (implicit or explicit). This is that type of project, which, even if it fails, will bring about a lot of knowledge and experience.
Links to the previous article(s) in this series:
- Hubcoin - Mapping Pico-Economies With Cryptocurrency - Part One
- Hubcoin - Mapping Pico-Economies With Cryptocurrency - Part Two
Significant parts of these articles are taken from the Hubcoin whitepaper, which is a work in progress now, and are published with the intent of gathering feedback, suggestions and criticism. The official Hubcoin whitepaper could be available in the second half of February 2017.
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
https://steemit.com/~witnesses
Happy to help where I can... ;)
Thanks, point taken :)
And now a comment or two...
I've read all three of your Hubcoin articles now, and I find it quite intriguing. I've been a code jockey for most of my life, gradually adding new and other skills to the mix. I've wanted to get involved in the whole blockchain/crypto world, but have as yet to "dive in" to any depth. The closest I've come (so far) has been trying to pull together some things at a system level to facilitate private banking using crypto...
I'm still all too busy trying to get an enterprise to the self-sustain level, but I hope to keep reading and learning. Articles like yours are helping, and perhaps may ultimately push me "over the edge" and get me rolling. I thank you! 😄😇😄
Glad to hear that. I'm not an expert in blockchain programming either, I'm just starting t learn, but being quite a hardcore coder over the last 20 years (self-taught, basically) helped me. I got to a level where at least I can forecast the amount of work needed to be done. Still having shortages at the algorithm level, but I'm learning to cope with it.
Very cool! I wish you good success, and look forward to reading more about your work in the area.
I've done a little reading at the conceptual level (mostly @dantheman's stuff) here on Steemit about how the architecture is an improvement over other systems, and I find it quite interesting.
Will do my best to keep this idea going. Thanks for the encouragement.