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Introduction

They say information is POWER and YES it is. That is why most people put a lot of premium in accessing timely and valid information. It is so important that most technology that relates to accessing, disseminating and receiving information has been attributed as main drivers of industrial revolutions: technological milestones that affects how we live our day to day lives.

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Information revolution

The 2nd industrial revolution is characterized by major technological advances in telephone and the Phonograph both of which revolutionizes how we access, transmit, receive, record and retrieve information. For the first time in human history, through the use of the telephone man was able to communicate thousands of kilometers apart instantaneously. This has changed the way we communicated and accelerated our ability to exchange information.

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Digital Revolution

The 3rd industrial revolution dubbed as the digital revolution is basically the digitization of information and communication with the technological advancement in personal computers and the internet . In this digital revolution we have seen industries disrupted. Industries from publishing, retailing, education and even business services sector where companies were able to leverage more cost effective workers abroad in processing some of its business processes. This revolution is ongoing and is said to be laying the groundwork for the 4th industrial revolution.

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Internet Evolution

The 4th revolution is said to be marked by emerging technological breakthroughs in Artificial intelligence, 3D printing, Virtual Reality/Augmented reality, Robotics and Drones and Blockchains. A lot of these nascent industries in some form or another are evolution of the internet. They are the result of more data (Big Data) being shared in the internet network, more cloud computing power that has increased exponentially in the last decade and new programming innovation coming from visionaries that sought to solve real life problems through the use of information technology. Of all the drivers of the 4th industrial revolution, blockchain is widely seen as the technology that will most probably disrupt industries that affects our daily lives.

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The Blockchain and Bitcoin

The disruptive power of this Blockchain technology was demonstrated by the creation of Bitcoin by an anonymous person or group called Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin was designed to be an alternative to traditional fiat currency that is backed and controlled by one central authority that can be influenced by political agendas of sovereign states. The failings of the traditional financial mechanisms during the 2007-2008 financial crisis made a perfect entry point for Bitcoin to introduce itself in the world of finance. Backed by a robust and secure technology Bitcoin (BTC) throughout the years have gained worldwide acceptance as a new asset type that can be used to store value and can be used for payments for products and services.

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With this new financial innovation, Bitcoin started a new type of asset class called cryptocurrencies that will help the internet to involve from a network of information to an internet of value in which billions of people from around the world will be able to exchange value (through cryptocurrency) as quickly as they can exchange information.

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In Bitcoin's journey towards acceptance several other cryptocurrencies were created with different types of technologies that brought new features in the space. Cryptocurrency like Ethereum (ETH) which introduce smart contracts that enable developers to create their own tokens. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) a forked version of Bitcoin that was released to address the scalability and transaction cost issues plaguing the value network which were thought to be one of the primary reasons for the slow adoption of cryptos. There were even Cryptos created with different consensus protocol to address the power hungry requirements of a Proof-of-Work algorithm coins (ETH, BTC and Litecoin). These includes Proof of stake and Blockless distributed ledger technology like Directed Acyclic Graph used by IOTA and ByteBall.

Cryptocurrency Exchanges

As more decentralized blockchain-based value networks become more prevalent and more cryptocurrencies being created using a multitude of blockchain platforms being developed every day we can say that cryptos are here to stay and will continue to co-exist serving each of their own use cases and niches free from a centralized authority. New distributed ledger technology (DLT) features and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) have lowered the barriers to minting cryptocurrency tokens. However, not all of these tokens will thrive as only those with true value will have a fighting chance of survival.

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Cryptocurrencies that are deem legitimate and have the fair chance in succeeding in the space will be listed in cryptocurrency exchanges. These exchanges are venues for listing and trading cryptocurrencies. As not all cryptocurrencies will be listed in exchanges this will help cryptocurrency traders to avoid acquiring useless cryptos. They will also provide information to its users that will enable them to discriminate their choices of cryptocurrencies and make an inform decision whether to invest ore not in a particular crypto.

Problems of Exchanges

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Cryptocurrency exchanges were suppose to be safe venues to conduct buying and selling cryptocurrencies. However, time and again, despite the many efforts of cryptocurrency operators, cryptocurrency exchanges have been a source agony for many cryptocurrency traders due to security breaches, non-compliance to regulations, lack of transparency and outages of service. Knowing this weaknesses a new breed of cryptocurrency exchange was needed. There were efforts to address the problems identified in using centralized exchanges. They came in the form of decentralized exchanges but failed to take off as it presented new set of problems intrinsic to its type such as liquidity issues. Thus we are presented with a peculiar problem as centralized exchanges and decentralized exchanges does not fully address all the problems besetting crypto traders worldwide. We need a solution to address this and we need it now to accelerate the rate by which the internet evolves to an internet of value.

A solution and an Opportunity: Blockchain.io

Knowing this problem a group of experts and professionals have set out to initiated a project that would bring the best practices of both centralized and decentralized exchange. The name of the Project is aptly named Blockchain.io.

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Blockchain.io is the brainchild of of a full time bitcoin entrepreneur, coder and internet of Value evangelist, Pierre Noizat. He is one of the pioneers of cryptocurrencies in Europe which he started working on since 2009 and has launched the first fiat-to-crypto exchange in Europe in 2011 named Paymium. As a testament to the level of professionalism and expertise on how Paymium conducts its business it has been operating Hack-Free since 2013. In addition it is said to be the only crypto exchange in Europe whose financial accounts are audited by a fully licensed external auditor. More importantly, the exchange also complies with all stringent regulatory requirements of European banking for Anti-money laundering and Know-your-customers. All these best practices will also be implemented to the soon-to-be released crypto-to-crypto value exchange Blockchain.io.

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Blockchain.io will play a vita role in the internet of value ecosystem. It will serve as a market place or a gateway that will bridge different value networks (cryptocurrencies). In is attempt to be a new breed of crypto-to-crypto exchange that leverages both the advantages of centralized and decentralized exchanges it will incorporate the operational efficiency of a full pledge centralized cryptocurrency exchange with a decentralized "trust" cross-chain settlement utilizing the latest development in cross chain atomic swaps, cryptographic protocols and payments networks. In doing so Blockchain.io will overcome scalability issues of decentralized blockchains allowing it to transact through heterogeneous blockchains, increasing speed and lower cost of transaction making the new internet of value ready for mass adoption.

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The value proposition of Blockchain.io is simple to understand but challenging to implement as it requires the company to apply the highest standard in security, reliability, compliance and accountability. It requires them to have exceptional knowledge of cryptographic technology. Have an in-depth understanding of the dynamics of this seemingly fickle nascent industry. Observe strict discipline in software development to always be ahead of both competition and nefarious actors in the industry. Most important of all, always align itself to its longstanding commitment to compliance and accountability.

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With all the challenges that lies ahead in truly creating the Internet of Value it is not hard to see that the people behind blockchain.io have thoroughly thought of what exactly they want to be and how they would want to contribute to its realization. With a mindset that always seeks the best whether in management and development team, business practices, technology and compliance Blockchain.io seems to be a guaranteed success in the cryptocurrency world. But don't take my world for it. Go ahead and read their Manifesto I am sure that you will be also impressed as well. If and when you finally decided to join this amazing organization as an ICO participant and want to be part of this amazing evolution towards the internet of value then please join me here. Be part of this amazing team and together let us help in the realization of its inception.