Coin News

Witek Radomski — co-founder and CTO of Enjin Coin — has developed ERC-1155, a new standard for defining video game tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.

Radomski’s journey to improve the gaming experience began 12 months ago in June 2017, when he created code for the first non-fungible token. It was released on GitHub two months later, and it led to the creation of the ERC-721 token, which is widely considered the standard for blockchain-based gaming and digital art. Several decentralized applications (DApps) have implemented the ERC-721 onto their platforms to create a wide array of gaming collectibles.

Unfortunately, ERC-721 was found to exhibit several limitations, and Radomski knew he had to take the standard to the next level.

“The non-fungible tokens being used today have defined a new class of user-owned virtual items,” he explained. “However, there are many problems with the existing token model. It is very expensive and inefficient to deploy large databases of items that mainstream game developers use.”

Radomski explains in a blog post that the new ERC-1155 protocol allows for an infinite number of both fungible and non-fungible items to be deployed through a single contract. It is also lightweight and easy for most networks to handle.

“If this does take off, the gaming industry alone will require tens of millions of new items — but the application of this standard is by no means limited to the games market,” he commented. “ERC-1155 tokens could be used to certify all forms of ownership, tangible or digital.”

In the past, individual tokens were defined by single contracts. In addition, item swapping between game players would often require as many as four separate steps because Ethereum’s network approves and processes each traded item separately. ERC-1155 could alleviate wait times between swaps by grouping multiple items together, so several trades could potentially occur at once and cut down the once four-step process to two steps. This would also reduce both congestion and gas costs on the Ethereum blockchain.

Prior to the introduction of ERC-721 tokens, ERC20 tokens were predominantly used in gaming, though they were later deemed inefficient as they were minted by the millions for use as currency. Each token was virtually identical, which meant each one contained repeat data. You also could not add a provenance, history or identity to any coin.

ERC-721 tokens allowed users to create unique, one-of-a-kind coins, but ERC-1155 works to combine the best of both ERC20 and ERC-721 by giving game developers a choice in whether they mass produce a specific kind of token or build unique metadata that cannot be replicated.

ERC-1155 has been posted to Ethereum’s GitHub as a discussion thread. Executives are looking for feedback from users before submitting it as a “pull request.”

“After a year of working to develop ERC-1155, this is a very proud day for my team,” Radomski explained. “We hope to see some amazing inventions born out of this token standard, so if any projects need assistance implementing it, they should feel free to contact us at Enjin.”

Anti-fraud software company MetaCert has a fix for the simplistic yet frequently effective rackets that have come to plague cryptocurrency’s online communities: Twitter scams.

Cryptonite, as it’s playfully dubbed, is MetaCert’s solution to safeguard users from the fraudulent accounts that orchestrate fake giveaways under the guise of industry leaders. Typically, these accounts masquerade as the blockchain industry’s high-profile individuals. Within the Twitter statuses of the individuals in question, these fraudsters mimic verified accounts with picture-perfect doppelgängers, advertising giveaways that ask users to send cryptocurrencies, usually bitcoin or ether, to an address to receive a larger sum in return.

If you’ve ever glanced a verified Twitter handle for a popular industry figure that reads “Not giving ETH or BTC away,” these schemes are the reason.

Sometimes, these scams are easy to snuff out, especially if the individual being mimicked is verified by Twitter. But Twitter doesn’t verify everyone, especially not in an industry still so niche as crypto.

“How do you know the Twitter account is verified? How do you know it’s not a fake account or a bot that’s going to apply to legitimate messages in the crypto world?” Paul Walsh, CEO of MetaCert, told Bitcoin Magazine in an interview. “Those are the kind of questions we’re looking to answer.”

MetaCert’s answer is Cryptonite, a panacea for the unscrupulous practices Twitter can’t fend off on its own. As a browser ad-on, internet users can install Cryptonite on to Chrome, Firefox or Opera. Once active, Cryptonite will display a green shield for legitimate Twitter accounts to give users a green light for their authenticity. Fake accounts, on the other hand, will be blacklisted with a gray shield to warn users to stay away.

“We built [Cryptonite] because it’s impossible to stay on top of every phishing attack, because they happen so frequently,” Walsh said in the interview.

Built specifically for Twitter, Cryptonite leverages similar verification techniques that MetaCert has already employed for its Slack and Telegram plug-ins. These integrations were built for the crypto community after Walsh was introduced to the financial losses unsuspecting retail investors had suffered via scam bots or phishing links. Like Cryptonite’s preventative software, MetaCert monitors these groups and scans links and accounts to identify and bookmark bad actors to prevent potential foul play. As MetaCert’s multiple cybersecurity iterations demonstrate, Cryptonite’s functionality could have far-reaching ramifications for any number of social media, websites and online applications.

Going forward, the company will experiment to see if it can “decentralize the decision-making process” to verify accounts.

“There’s no way in the world that MetaCert can validate all social media accounts and all bots and all apps — if you combined all the cybersecurity companies together you couldn’t scale it across the entire internet,” Walsh admitted in our interview.

The experiment launched this Wednesday, June 20, 2018, in the form of a private token sale. The idea behind the MetaCert ICO, Walsh explained, is to establish a distributed ecosystem of cyber watchdogs who will verify and upkeep MetaCert’s database of authentic and fraudulent entities.

META, the network’s token, will be used as an incentives system to keep verifiers honest. Under this model, anyone can submit a suspicious link or identity to the network for scrutiny; once it is evaluated and the network’s verifiers (cybersecurity professionals, white hats, etc.) reach a consensus regarding its status, its authenticity or fraudulence is broadcast to the blockchain for reference.

If a company or person would like to have their wallet address, domain name or social media account verified, they will pay in tokens,” Walsh explained in the interview. “The validators then get paid from this for doing the work.”

You don’t, however, have to be the organization or business in question to submit links, profiles and applications for review. Walsh indicated that anyone can submit a request to the network; they just need to stake tokens to have it fulfilled.

“If a person would like to submit domains, social media accounts, bots, apps or APIs for the purpose of classifying as phishing, malware, xxx, sports entertainment or one of the other 60 categories, they must stake some token before they submit. When the validators agree, everyone gets paid in tokens, including the submitter,” he iterated.

MetaCert is launching a token sale to realize such decentralized cyber surveillance, and MetaCert’s suite of offerings have been guiding lights for the crypto community. But Walsh conveyed in the interview that MetaCert’s software has relevance that extends far beyond the cryptocurrency realm.

“We’re building a different version of the WHOIS database. But it’s credible, verifiable, on the blockchain, and it’s not just about domain names, but all web resources: social media accounts, websites, bots, apps and APIs,” he stated.

MetaCert’s protocols, he continued, can be integrated by search engines, social media and potentially even ISPs and Wi-Fi hotspots down the road. Under a decentralized ecosystem, this would mean an internet that’s constantly policing content for malicious actors across every industry and every medium.

This is Walsh’s long-term goal. He claims that “if you’re in the crypto community, chances are, somewhere, you’re being protected by MetaCert and you don’t even know it.” The next step means implementing MetaCert’s cybersecurity services in every niche that might need them.

“I see a world where you feel safe opening a link. I believe in you being able to have the freedom of choice in an open web but giving you the tools to avoid the stuff you don’t want to see. I see ours as the new security protocol for ISPs, Wi-Fi hotspot providers, the Wi-Fi router in your home or office, your browser — whatever it is that provides access to a URI, a source. I want them to integrate MetaCert. That’s my vision.”

To learn more about MetaCert and test its software, visit the company’s website.

The China Center for Information Industry Development (CCID) released the second iteration of its monthly Global Public Chain Technology Evaluation Index. As part of the Ministry of Industry and Technology Information, the CCID is releasing the monthly reports on behalf of the Chinese government. The public index, which the Chinese government called the first of its kind, was first released last month.

According to domestic news outlet Cena News, the organization unveiled this month’s index on June 20, 2018, at the Shanghai Science Hall.

In the fresh report, EOS has supplanted Ethereum as the number one rated asset. Ethereum, now number two on the list, is followed by NEO, Stellar, Lisk and Nebulas, respectively.

The report’s top 15 assets are as follows:

1. EOS (161.5)
   
2. Ethereum (138.4)
   
3. NEO (109.0)
   
4. Stellar (108.3)
   
5. Lisk (105.3)
   
6. Nebulas (105.3)
   
7. Steem (104.5)
   
8. Bitshares (104.1)
   
9. Ripple (102.9)
   
10. Qtum (100.3)
    
11. Waves (100.2)
    
12. Cadano (96.1)
    
13. Monero (95.9)
    
14. Ark (95.0)
    
15. Ethereum Classic (94.8)
    

Perhaps more noteworthy, Bitcoin has fallen out of the report’s top 15. Cryptocurrency’s flagship coin received a less-than-impressive grade in the CCID’s inaugural report with a 13th place ranking. But now, at 17th, it has depreciated even further in the eyes of the report’s authors.

These authors are “first-rate domestic experts and scholars,” according to the CCID. The working group also evaluated the new grades using additional parameters and revamped algorithms, the CCID claims.

“The second-phase assessment model has been optimized compared to the first phase. The security assessment algorithm has been improved and the evaluation indicator for ease of deployment of public-chain nodes has been added,” the center indicated.

Still, the foundational metrics of the report are the same. Above all else, the center still judges each cryptocurrency based on technological fundamentals, applicability/real-world usability and level of innovation.

Apparently, EOS met each criteria with more than enough wiggle room to inch its way into the report’s top position.

“The EOS main network went live on June 10. Although there was an accident such as a short-term suspension, it was highly active in technological innovation, and the software update speed was still one of the new generation public chains that are currently most concerned by the industry,” the CCID stated, explaining its reasoning.

The center did admit that “due to [EOS’s] short online time, the stability of the network remains to be observed.” Even so, the platform earned a 161.5 overall grade — 30 points more than Ethereum’s rating when it took the top spot last month.

Consequently, EOS is entering the limelight of the CCID’s report at a time when it’s under the scrutiny of the international cryptocurrency community. After a near-faltering launch of its main net two weeks ago, the platform has attracted criticism for account freezes and network censorship.

According to private Telegram correspondence, the EOS Core Arbitration Forum (ECAF) instructed the network’s 21 block producers to freeze all transaction activity for 27 public keys. The order, signed by Interim Emergency Arbitrator Sam Sapoznick, freezes the accounts without justification. The document concludes that “the logic and reasoning for this order will be posted at a later date.”

This is not the first time EOS block producers have put a stopper in account activity. On June 17, shortly after the EOS main net went live, they froze seven accounts that were allegedly involved in cyber theft.

Some community members have taken these account suspensions as proof that EOS is not as decentralized as it may claim. In response to the initial freezes, Charlie Shrem, for instance, tweeted, “If you can freeze reverse, control anyone’s accounts by the single a few. What’s the point of a cryptocurrency?”

Speaking to the EOS constitution, the document that vests block producers with their censorship capabilities, Nick Szabo’s has also taken to Twitter to criticize EOS’s governance structure.

“In EOS a few complete strangers can freeze what users thought was their money. Under the EOS protocol you must trust a ‘constitutional’ organization comprised of people you will likely never get to know. The EOS ‘constitution’ is socially unscalable and a security hole,” the forefather of smart contracts stated.

The China Center for Information Industry Development (CCID) released the second iteration of its monthly Global Public Chain Technology Evaluation Index. As part of the Ministry of Industry and Technology Information, the CCID is releasing the monthly reports on behalf of the Chinese government. The public index, which the Chinese government called the first of its kind, was first released last month.

According to domestic news outlet Cena News, the organization unveiled this month’s index on June 20, 2018, at the Shanghai Science Hall.

In the fresh report, EOS has supplanted Ethereum as the number one rated asset. Ethereum, now number two on the list, is followed by NEO, Stellar, Lisk and Nebulas, respectively.

The report’s top 15 assets are as follows:

1. EOS (161.5)
   
2. Ethereum (138.4)
   
3. NEO (109.0)
   
4. Stellar (108.3)
   
5. Lisk (105.3)
   
6. Nebulas (105.3)
   
7. Steem (104.5)
   
8. Bitshares (104.1)
   
9. Ripple (102.9)
   
10. Qtum (100.3)
    
11. Waves (100.2)
    
12. Cadano (96.1)
    
13. Monero (95.9)
    
14. Ark (95.0)
    
15. Ethereum Classic (94.8)
    

Perhaps more noteworthy, Bitcoin has fallen out of the report’s top 15. Cryptocurrency’s flagship coin received a less-than-impressive grade in the CCID’s inaugural report with a 13th place ranking. But now, at 17th, it has depreciated even further in the eyes of the report’s authors.

These authors are “first-rate domestic experts and scholars,” according to the CCID. The working group also evaluated the new grades using additional parameters and revamped algorithms, the CCID claims.

“The second-phase assessment model has been optimized compared to the first phase. The security assessment algorithm has been improved and the evaluation indicator for ease of deployment of public-chain nodes has been added,” the center indicated.

Still, the foundational metrics of the report are the same. Above all else, the center still judges each cryptocurrency based on technological fundamentals, applicability/real-world usability and level of innovation.

Apparently, EOS met each criteria with more than enough wiggle room to inch its way into the report’s top position.

“The EOS main network went live on June 10. Although there was an accident such as a short-term suspension, it was highly active in technological innovation, and the software update speed was still one of the new generation public chains that are currently most concerned by the industry,” the CCID stated, explaining its reasoning.

The center did admit that “due to [EOS’s] short online time, the stability of the network remains to be observed.” Even so, the platform earned a 161.5 overall grade — 30 points more than Ethereum’s rating when it took the top spot last month.

Consequently, EOS is entering the limelight of the CCID’s report at a time when it’s under the scrutiny of the international cryptocurrency community. After a near-faltering launch of its main net two weeks ago, the platform has attracted criticism for account freezes and network censorship.

According to private Telegram correspondence, the EOS Core Arbitration Forum (ECAF) instructed the network’s 21 block producers to freeze all transaction activity for 27 public keys. The order, signed by Interim Emergency Arbitrator Sam Sapoznick, freezes the accounts without justification. The document concludes that “the logic and reasoning for this order will be posted at a later date.”

This is not the first time EOS block producers have put a stopper in account activity. On June 17, shortly after the EOS main net went live, they froze seven accounts that were allegedly involved in cyber theft.

Some community members have taken these account suspensions as proof that EOS is not as decentralized as it may claim. In response to the initial freezes, Charlie Shrem, for instance, tweeted, “If you can freeze reverse, control anyone’s accounts by the single a few. What’s the point of a cryptocurrency?”

Speaking to the EOS constitution, the document that vests block producers with their censorship capabilities, Nick Szabo’s has also taken to Twitter to criticize EOS’s governance structure.

“In EOS a few complete strangers can freeze what users thought was their money. Under the EOS protocol you must trust a ‘constitutional’ organization comprised of people you will likely never get to know. The EOS ‘constitution’ is socially unscalable and a security hole,” the forefather of smart contracts stated.