David Alexander

The first presale sold out within 4 hours and the second presale sold out within 2-3 hours. In the first presale on June 28th, 20172016 stars (each representing 64k planets) were priced at $205, with a planned increase to $256 the next day. Tlon held its second invite-only presale at 3PM PT May 17th, 2017, where two stars were given out by invite codes.

Because there is no single provider of internet access, each Althea node can switch connectivity by constantly searching for the cheapest bandwidth provider. Users can benefit by paying for the cheapest internet service available, while equipment owners are compensated for their contributions to the network. Althea has implemented mesh networks in various localities across the world, many of which have limited internet access and can benefit from alternative ISPs. Althea networks have been established in communities such as MedellínMedellín, Colombia, ClatskanieClatskanie, Oregon,and Abuja, Nigeria.

Because there is no single provider of internet access, each Althea node can switch connectivity by constantly searching for the cheapest bandwidth provider. Users can benefit by paying for the cheapest internet service available, while equipment owners are compensated for their contributions to the network. Althea has implemented mesh networks in various localities across the world, many of which have limited internet access and can benefit from alternative ISPs. Althea networks have been established in communities such as Medellín, Colombia, Clatskanie, Oregon,and AbujaAbuja, Nigeria.

Althea enables the creation of decentralized cryptocurrency powered networks. Because there is no single provider of internet access,each Althea node can switch connectivity by constantly searching for the cheapest, cryptographically verified bandwidth provider. Users benefit by paying for the cheapest internet service available, while equipment owners are compensated for their contributions to the network.

Althea is a decentralized web stack aimed at creating an open marketplace to enable individuals to create their own ISPs and provide bandwidth to end users in local communities. The project consists of open-source hardware specifications, routing software, and blockchain-based registration and payment systems. A local Althea network is a radio mesh that includes end users, intermediaries who forward packets, and gateway nodes that connect to exit nodes internet. Gateway nodes connect to exit nodes located in nearby data centers and accept legal responsibility for content trafficked over the local network. The exit node may be run by the owner of the data center or an individual who leases bandwidth from the owner of the data center Packets are encrypted to prevent relay and gateway nodes from seeing what they forwarding and shifting the liability of trafficked content to the exit nodes. Payments are made to intermediary nodes using cryptocurrency and are paid on a per-packet basis using a semi-automated escrow system. Users are required to top-up their escrow accounts regularly to maintain their balances, and fees are automatically transferred from the escrow account.

Because there is no single provider of internet access, each Althea node can switch connectivity by constantly searching for the cheapest bandwidth provider. Users can benefit by paying for the cheapest internet service available, while equipment owners are compensated for their contributions to the network. Althea has implemented mesh networks in various localities across the world, many of which have limited internet access and can benefit from alternative ISPs. Althea networks have been established in communities such as Medellín, Colombia, Clatskanie, Oregon,and Abuja, Nigeria.

Althea Hardware Demo

Every local Althea network is considered an independent Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). Althea subnet DAOs are Token Curated Registries that run on the Aragon Network and are maintained by bandwidth providers. Subnet DAOs identify all participants in the local network by pairing an IP address with a blockchain address. This gives providers the ability to accept new nodes into the network and remove bad actors.

Although Althea currently has functioning networks with payment support for the Ethereum and xDAI blockchains, a dedicated chain is planned to launch in the future. The Althea main net will launch as a Cosmos side chain and will use Proof of Stake consensus. The native token will be ALTG (ALThea Governance Token) and will be staked by validators who process transactions. ALTG will also be required for bandwidth providers to stake in order to create and maintain their own Althea subnet DAOs. ALTG is not intended to be a payment token for end-users, who are likely to opt for using less volatile stablecoins instead.

In order to garner community interest and incentivize early adoption, Althea began an airdrop campaign in conjunction with startup incubator Republic on August 1st, 2019 and planned to run through May 1st, 2020. 1,000,000 ALTG tokens were allocated to the airdrop, of which 93,844 ALTG have been claimed as of March 15th, 2020. Participants are able to earn up to 20 ALTG for watching educational videos and passing quizzes, and up to 560 ALTG for starting their own local Althea network with an additional 20 ALTG for each onboarded subscriber.

Founder of Althea

A lockdrop is a modified version of an airdrop used for distributing newly minted coins among participants. It involves locking up cryptocurrency in a smart contract in order to receive new coins. The concept of the lockdrop was introduced by Commonwealth Labs in late 2018 with the announcement of the Edgeware lockdrop. In order to receive EDG coins, participants were required to lock up ETH in a personalized smart contract. They also had the option to simply signal their address for a snapshot, but for a much smaller allocation. The primary purpose of the lockdrop was to bootstrap a community from the greater cryptocurrency community by enticing longterm ETH holders to participate. It also involves some sacrifice on the part of the participant, who must put in some effort to receive their coins and also give up liquidity of their ETH for a specific period of time. The Edgeware lockdrop began on June 1st, 2019 at 00:00 UTC and ended August 31st, 2019 at 23:59 UTC. It resulted in 1,199,728 ETH locked up and 4,346,544 ETH signaled.

Since the Edgeware lockdrop, other cryptocurrency projects such as Supernova have considered the use of lockdrops to bootstrap their communities. Supernova intends to allocate coins to Edgeware lockdrop participants, but will also allow additional ETH and BTC lockups, as well as distributing coins to ATOM holders who have their coins bonded to validating nodes.

Edgeware will be launched via a lockdrop, a modified airdrop where participants timelock ETH to receive EDG.

Edgeware is a proof-of-stake smart contract blockchain developed by Commonwealth Labs that was created as an experiment in cryptocurrency community building and on-chain governance. Edgeware was built using Parity's Substrate library and intends to integrate with Polkadot as a parachain after Polkadot's main net launch. Edgeware introduced a novel token distribution mechanism called a lockdrop- a modified version of an airdrop that requires participants to send ETH (or other cryptocurrency) to a personalized timelocked contract in order to receive an EDG allocation. Edgeware contains mechanisms for community members to establish on-chain identities, as well as vote on changes to the protocol and allocate communal treasury funds.

The lockdrop began June 2019, and distributed 90% of 5,000,000,000 initial coins to participants who either timelocked their ETH for a period of time (3 months, 6 months or 12 months), or signaled an address. Signaling took a snapshot of an ETH address balance and did not require locking up ETH. Participants generated their own timelock smart contracts, and are able to received 100% of their ETH back after the lockdrop contract expires. Unlocked ETH is retrieved by sending a zero-value transaction to the personal lockdrop contract.

The lockdrop will take place in early 2019, and will distribute >90% of initial tokens to participants who timelock their ETH for 1 - 2 years. Participants will be able to use their own timelock contracts, and will get 100% of their ETH back afterwards.

The Edgeware lockdrop took place over three months, beginning June 1st, 2019 at 00:00 UTC and ending August 31st, 2019 at 23:59 UTC. There were tiered lockup bonuses based on the time participants locked up and the duration of the lockup. Participants who locked up earlier and for longer periods of time received larger allocations of EDG per ETH. The lowest tier of participation was for signaling. Signalers received 20% of the token allocation that they would have received had they chosen a 3 month lockup, with 75% of their EDG allocations locked until a year after main net launch. Ethereum smart contract owners were able to signal on behalf of their deployed contracts, and were eligible to submit a generalized lock appeal, which is a request to consider a signal as a 3 month lockup. In order to bootstrap the network, participants were also able to register as Edgeware genesis validators on-chain when deploying their lockdrop contracts.

Although the Lockdrop contract was audited and verified by third parties such as Quantstamp, a vulnerability was discovered after the lockdrop began that allowed for potential Denial-of-Service attacks to preemptively block participants from deploying their lockdrop contracts.Because this exploit did not affect anyone that had already locked up their ETH, a new contract was deployed with the bug patched and initial EDG distribution was calculated based on both contracts.

By the end of the lockdrop on September 1st, 2019, 1,199,728 ETH had been locked and 4,346,544 ETH had been signaled, and over 4000 EDG addresses registered. Relative to the total supply at the time (107,568,123 ETH), this equated to approximately 1.12% of total ETH in existence locked and 4.04% signaled. Notable participants include Binance, who signaled on behalf of users holding ETH in their accounts and intend to distribute EDG accordingly.

The original Edgeware main net launched on September 15th, 2019 at 00:00 UTC. Several issues were identified with initial EDG balances and validator slashing, prompting the relegation of the network to a test net and a relaunch. The new Edgeware main net launched on February 17th, 2020.

Initial coin supply was allocated as follows:

• 90% (4,500,000,000 EDG) distributed to lockdrop participiants
• 4.5% (225,000,000 EDG) allocated to Commonwealth Labs
• 3% (150,000,000 EDG) allocated to Parity Technologies
• 2.5% (125,000,000 EDG) reserved to compensate open-source contributors to the project and early community members

Edgeware currently has a 158 EDG block reward with a 6-second target block interval. This equates to roughly 997,220,160 EDG emitted annually. 50% of newly minted EDG is allocated to a treasury that community members may use to fund further development of the Edgeware ecosystem. Similar to Dogecoin and Grin, there is no planned reduction in block reward, however a constant emission rate reduces inflation percentage over time and may eventually result in deflation when accounting for coins inevitably lost by misplaced or deleted private keys. A high initial inflation rate also incentivizes lockdrop participants to stake their coins in order to avoid dilution of their holdings. Using Edgeware's on-chain governance, this emission rate is subject to change if the community votes in favor of a new inflation policy.

Edgeware users are given the opportunity to create on-chain identities. In order to establish an on-chain identity user must link their Edgeware address to an external accounts. The identity needs to be verified by addresses that meet a minimum EDG balance requirement before a user can participate in certain identity-based votes.

Handshake was forked from the Bcoin Javascript implementation of Bitcoin in 2017, and development was incubated by Purse.io and Private Internet Access. The Handshake Foundation was formed prior to launch in order to promote awareness and foster interest in the project among the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) developer community.

Handshake was forked from the Bcoin Javascript implementation of Bitcoin in 2017, and development was incubated by Purse.io and Private Internet Access. The Handshake Foundation was formed prior to launch in order to promote awareness and foster interest in the project among the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) developer community. The foundation raised $10,200,000 in venture capital funding in exchange for HNS allocations. Notable institutional sponsors include a16z, SV Angel and Draper Associates. These funds were then donated in their entirety to various FOSS and nonprofit organizations. HNS allocations were also awarded to some of these grant recipients, and an extensive airdrop of HNS was conducted to Github and Hacker News users. The Handshake Foundation was then dissolved and the Handshake project is now considered a community-led initiative.

The foundation raised $10,200,000 in venture capital funding in exchange for HNS allocations. Notable institutional sponsors include a16z, SV Angel and Draper Associates. These funds were then donated in their entirety to various FOSS and nonprofit organizations. HNS allocations were also awarded to some of these grant recipients, and an extensive airdrop of HNS was conducted to Github and Hacker NewsHacker News users. The Handshake Foundation was then dissolved and the Handshake project is now considered a community-led initiative.

The foundation raised $10,200,000 in venture capital funding in exchange for HNS allocations. Notable institutional sponsors include a16z, SV Angel and Draper Associates. These funds were then donated in their entirety to various FOSS and nonprofit organizations. HNS allocations were also awarded to some of these grant recipients, and an extensive airdrop of HNS was conducted to GithubGithub and Hacker News users. The Handshake Foundation was then dissolved and the Handshake project is now considered a community-led initiative.

Handshake was forked from the Bcoin Javascript implementation of BitcoinBitcoin in 2017, and development was incubated by Purse.io and Private Internet Access. The Handshake Foundation was formed prior to launch in order to promote awareness and foster interest in the project among the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) developer community.