New Kids On The Blockchain: Homeschoolers Explore The World of Blockchain In New Summer Project - Report #2
Hey, Steemians! We were recently assigned a new homeschool summer project and, so far, it has been a very eye opening experience! We wrote about our project in more depth in our first blog of this report series. Feel free to check it out here.
For this second post of New Kids on The Blockchain, we’d like to talk about the new hype in the crypto community…digital tokens! Digital tokens have been popping up like crazy. A large majority of the tokens we have discovered run on the Ethereum blockchain, but there are others as well.
Today, we are going to talk about what we learned about digital tokens, how we chose what tech we would to support, and which ones we are excited about.
Please note that this is a homeschool report written by kids and is not investment advice. We are still very new to the crypto-world so if we misunderstood some information, please let us know in the comments section.
What’s a Digital Token?
A digital token is similar to crypto-currency. The main difference between the tokens and crypto-currencies is that most tokens are made up resources created by software. It’s value promised by the creator of the token for use in their space.
We already use this token concept in society today - we just call it something else. It’s like a store coupon or rewards points earned at a particular retailer. It can be thought of like a gift card. It’s retailer specific – or in the case of crypto tech, it’s platform specific.
Alternatively, the tokens could be used outside of the retail space if someone wanted to barter. For example, if Johnny had a Pokémon card Jimmy wanted, Jimmy could trade a gift card (same as tokens) in exchange for that Pokémon card.
In the crypto-space, a digital token can also be a kind of robotic legal contract. As Blockchain becomes more advanced, tokens can become more complex.
How To Choose A Token Project
As we have been studying Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies, we have been hearing things like, “You are your own bank. If you want to have your funds secure, you have to take the responsibility as your own banker.”
To us, this means we need to be extra choosy about which crypto projects we want to support. Since it’s our allowance on the line, we want to be really sure we support something that is going to be successful. So if we chose to support a token that ends up not following through, or the developers take the funds and run, it is partially on us that our allowance is gone.
How can we tell if a token project is trustworthy? Based on our research for this report – and listening to our parents as they chose digital token tech, we have learned to research, research, and research some more!
Here are some key aspects we took into consideration:
What is the background of the development team? Do they have experience in what they are creating?
Do these developers have a good reputation? If they have a good reputation already, they would most likely not risk running off with the funds because they wouldn’t want to damage their good name.
What is the developers’ incentive to continue their project? How much has the developers invested in their token? When a developer is invested in their token, they have more incentive for it to succeed.
Are they showing progress? Sometimes, people say they are going to get something done, but for one reason or another, it gets delayed.
And lastly, are they consistently active on social media? Who is writing about their project?
We often go to the project website, find YouTube videos about the project and check articles from reputable crypto-sites like CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, etc. We also like listening to interviews where the project leader explains what the project is about and its future goals.
We also subscribe to @dollarvigilante and our parents share Clif High’s Web-bot Crypto Reports with us. So far, both have been great resources as we continue to study crypto currencies and tokens. For years, The Dollar Vigilante has claimed that Bitcoin would see higher gains. Fast forward a few years and we can see @jeffberwick at the Dollar Vigilante has a good track record.
And, according to our parents, Clif’s bot has been spot on about the recent jump in crypto. There are many other great resources – like the YouTube channels we listed in our last homeschool report (which you can find here).
Tokens We’re Researching
So far, based on information from researching, help from online resources like The Dollar Vigilante and Clif High, and of course our parents, we have found the following three tokens to be promising.
Veritaseum
Veritaseum is a new token created by Reggie Middleton, a very well-known entrepreneur. Reggie started his career in in the world of finance and has now worked his way into the world of crypto. Our parents support this token based on praise from online resources they trust, and the fact that Reggie Middleton has spent years building up his good name. Veritaseum is also showing good progress. In fact, Reggie came out with a big announcement recently:
“We, succeeded… In a big way. We have a signed MOU with the Chairaman of the Board and the Managing Director of the Jamaica Stock Exchange to do a rapid buildout of a digital asset exchange via joint venture. This is the most significant anouncement the cryptocurrency space in years, particularly considering the flexiblity of the products that we will design under my watch. We are looking for a launch date of approximately August 31st.”
Here is a video from Reggie Middleton, where he introduces Veritaseum.
GigaWatt
GigaWatt is a new company that allows the “average-joe” to have mining tech for Bitcoin, Litecoin and/or Ethereum. According to their website, GigaWatt is, “The world’s first full service mining solution provider”. What makes GigaWatt extra unique is that you don’t have to physically set up the miners. They hold your miners in one of their facilities so you don’t have to sweat over having a physical miner. GigaWatt has been around for only a few months and they have already sold out of all of their miners!
The main feature we wanted to write about is the ability of the “average-joe” to make passive income by renting out their tokens. This was a new concept for us and we think we finally understand the idea now.
Let’s say that we want to mine Bitcoin, but we can’t afford to buy/run a full miner. Instead, we could buy some Giga-Watt tokens (now at $1.05/each during their ICO) and rent them out at a later time to miners. The great idea behind this is that as the price of renting goes up over time, we would have already locked in a lower price for however long the contract is.
FunFair
Last, but certainly not least, we are looking forward to FunFair, “The world’s fastest Ethereum casino platform”. While there are many blockchain gaming projects in the works, FunFair seems to have the most development, and the most demand. Their ICO came out last week and they reached their goal in less than a day! The ICO was supposed to end on July 12th but since they got the funds they needed, they were able to close it early.
What we like about FunFair is that before they asked for crypto investors, they worked on the development of the project. Our parents were telling us that many developers often ask for funding first, then work, receiving support via a whitepaper only. By having the FunFair developer team work, then ask for crypto funds, this makes them more trustworthy. The main developer/project leader is also very experienced in the world of online gaming. He has spent 20 years in the industry and now is incorporating the blockchain to the world of gambling.
We looked at a couple of online demos of FunFair and their progress was amazing! The graphics were very well done and we could tell that they put a lot of thought into their casino games. We frequently use the Adobe suite for our homeschool projects so we understand that the designing process is very time consuming. The FunFair developers hold roughly 40% of all FunFair; so they have incentive for it to succeed.
Thanks for reading! What are your favorite tokens? Do you have any advice for investing in tokens? We’d love to hear your thoughts. After all, this is a homeschool project.
Cheers!
For those who are interested in supporting our homeschool education, consider buying one of our music pieces, here, or one of our children's books, here.
Related Posts
Homeschool Kids Learn About The Internet of Money - Summer Reading Project
Image Sources:
Photo by LeapRate - $11 million raised to fund Giga Watt Project, an Airbnb for Bitcoin Mining
Photo by FunFair Technologies – Platform, How It Works (https://funfair.io/platform/)
Photo by Inside Bitcoins – No Need to Wait for Overstock or NASDAQ. Veritaseum Already Put Wall Street on The Bitcoin Blockchain
Photo by Digital Journal - The Fastest Ethereum Blockchain Casino FunFair Announces Token Generation Event
Photo By Inside Bitcoins – Investors Can Capitalize on Cryptocurrency with the Token Fund
Photo by SmartToken Chain – Blockchain Challenges (http://smarttokenchain.com/blockchain-challenges/)
Resources:
Great overview! I learned so much from this.
Thanks so much :-)
Great job, kids! Your project looks quite neat, with lots of research. I admire your work, even though I cannot really judge the content, as I don't know much about these things. Still, I've read all your post as I hope someday my own homeschooled kid will be studying these new concepts. He's already curious about this Steemit as he's noticed I spend a lot of time on it. He already has a YouTube channel and hopefully he'll want to be here too.
Keep up the good work.
Thank you @ladyrebecca! If your son is already on YouTube, hopefully he will enjoy Steemit too. What is your son's YouTube channel? We'd like to check it out.
It's Pnod Gaming... deals with games, obviously, because he wants to be a gamer when he grows up!
That's cool. We'll check it out . :-)