ARK: good long term hold?

In this post, I review ARK coin.

Intro:

ARK is a system that allows bridging between blockchains. You will be able to take apps, tokens, coins produced on the blockchain and allow them to be utilized beyond the borders of their own blockchain.

Other blockchains are able to connect with the ARK ecosystem by adding a code snippet. Now, at first glance this seems like a major hurdle as existing chains would need to modify their code which would likely lead to a hard fork. However, ARK has developed a brilliant solution - if the other chains can't add a code snippet then they can make use of SmartBridge technology. [1]

Below is a table summarizing all important data:

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Disclaimer: This is my personal opinion, I am not giving biased recommendations. The article references an opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. All information in this blog post is provided "as is", with no guarantee of completeness, accuracy, timeliness or of the results obtained from the use of this information.

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According to the whitepaper [2], ARK wants to be/provide:

1. Community
2. An underlying token secured by a cryptographic blockchain network
3. To provide the bridge between multiple blockchains through SmartBridge technology
4. Security - guarantee a secure core
5. Privacy - optional privacy when sending ARK transactions
6. Self-Sustaining - make blockchain technology easily accessible to consumers

ARK is a Cryptocurrency Blockchain forged from Lisk.

What is ARK's Delegated Proof ​of​ ​Stake?

51 selected delegates are verifying transactions and maintaining ARK's network.
So there are:

• token owners
• delegates

Token owners vote and elect delegates.

The 51 forging nodes with the highest number of votes are eligible to Forge ARK
blocks. This design eliminates the possibility that any single large ARK holder or an
organization holding large percentages of ARK are able to gain control over the
entire network by voting for all of their nodes into forging positions, thus effectively
taking complete control over that DPoS Blockchain. Votes from ARK Tokens held by
ARK Crew may be used at ARK Crew's discretion. [2]

ARK​ ​SmartBridges

SmartBridge, which acts as an encoded listener between two chains, is one of the major advantages of ARK as it allows almost any entity (including centralized ones!) to interact with the ARK ecosystem. Not only that, but SmartBridge allows these functions to live on a side chain therefore not burdening the main ARK blockchain. [1]

The Team

I like transparency and regular feedback on the project's progress. They seem to work silently and without much noise and speculation around the project and they deliver results regularly. The team is active on social networks. You can find them on Steemit (@arkecosystem).

PROS

• They are on almost all major exchanges
• Active on Steemit with regular updates and new information
• They solve a real existing problem
• They have steady progress
• Strong community
• A very ambitious project with tremendous potential

CONS

• I did not find a marketing specialist among the team
• Among the team, I did not find any advisors
• They are not highly specialized in one thing - they build an ecosystem

Sources:

[1] https://www.cryptoadvocate.net/single-post/ark-ecosystem-of-linked-chains
[2] https://ark.io/Whitepaper.pdf
[3] https://ark.io/

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