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What is Skycoin (SKY)?

Skycoin is a complete ecosystem of blockchain technology with an aim to promote the actual use of cryptocurrency and public ledger technology, instead of just speculating on its valuation.

Skycoin leverages its own specific distributed consensus algorithm, called Obelisk, instead of other commonly used algorithms like proof of work (POW) and proof of stake (POS). Obelisk uses the concept of ‘web of trust dynamics’, distributing influence over the network and making consensus decisions depending upon the influence score of each node.

Skycoin operates on the CoinJoin protocol, which increases the user’s privacy and anonymity by having multiple participants agreeing to form a single transaction where some of the outputs have the same value.

Partnerships and Beta Products since ICO End

Skycoin has so far entered partnerships with well-known names in the blockchain space, such as Binance, LunarX Middleware Platform, and more.

Skycoin operates as an ecosystem of blockchain and includes various products it supports. For instance, a blockchain application called SkyWire has been developed with an aim to not only decentralize the Internet and bandwidth at the hardware level but also to provide for storage and computation in a decentralized manner.

Holding one Skycoin for an hour in the Skycoin wallet entitles the holder to one Coin Hour, which is another currency on Skycoin network that can be used for trading bandwidth and other services within the platform.

Skycoin operates its own initial coin offering platform called Fiber, a decentralized messaging system called Sky-Messenger, a decentralized social media channel called BBS, and its own programming language called CX, based off Golang.

To download Skycoin wallet and check out other products available, click here: https://www.skycoin.net/downloads/

Read more in the company’s whitepaper: https://downloads.skycoin.net/whitepapers/Skycoin-Whitepaper-v1.0.pdf

ICO Results, Info, News

Skycoin has had multiple distribution events, beginning in 2015. It is not clear how much money was raised at these events.

At the moment, Skycoin, which are based on the Fiber Architecture, are valued at $3.00 USD.

They are currently traded on exchanges like:

  • Binance;
  • Cryptopia;
  • CoinCodex.

The market cap at this moment (November 12, 2018) is around $30.26M USD, with an all-time high reached in December 2017 with the price of $53.83 USD per token.

Community around Skycoin:

  • Telegram: 9,757 members;
  • Facebook: 366 followers;
  • Twitter: 12.9K followers.

Skycoin regularly communicates their updates on their Medium blog and social media channels. Here are some of their highlights:

Competitors

Beside the large names such as EOS and Steem, Skycoin has a few upcoming competitors to watch out for, although not with exactly the same agendas. These include HetaChain and Trezor.

HetaChain (HETA) is a DPoS + BFT hybrid blockchain 3.0 network focused on addressing the scalability issue and pushing forth a democratically governed platform built for industry scale transactions while also uniquely designed for private users. Hetachain’s 3rd Generation Blockchain Technology addresses the problems of previous generations, such as network congestion, slow transactions, high network fees, and high-energy consumption by solving the problems of scalability, energy efficiency and increased transactions per second, and bringing Blockchain technology closer to mass adoption.

Trezor is a platform with a hardware wallet, a device for operating with bitcoins that work independently of the Internet. Trezor’s wallet consists of owner’s private keys that can operate transactions offline. The device operates as a small computer and confirms all the transactions in it, making it possible to check the amount, receiver, and other details at any time. According to its creators, not even a virus-infected computer can pose a threat to the Trezor wallet.

Team

Although the platform has been continuously developing for around 8 years, it was officially launched in 2017 by a group of developers who were earlier involved in Bitcoin and Ethereum, including Synth, Houwu Chen, and Steve Leonard.

You can check out the rest of the team here: https://www.skycoin.net/team/

Verdict

Skycoin is indeed an impressive platform and a well-developed ecosystem with a strong team of individuals who boast with experience in Bitcoin and Ethereum. They are trying to solve a problem not yet tackled by the blockchain community, and that is the ISPs and their anti-competitive behavior, who can actively adjust bandwidth speeds on the basis of the websites you choose to visit. Decentralizing the Internet in the way Skycoin plans to, can make this less likely. This is what separates Skycoin from its competitors.

There will be some more time before the platform is fully up-and-running, but we are certain that the Skycoin team knows what they’re doing and will doubtlessly attract success. This is evident in the level of development of the ecosystem and extensive knowledge on the matter shown in the company’s blogs and on their social media channels. We are looking forward to seeing how Skycoin will change the Internet.

Recently the famous John McAfee has shown its support for Skycoin with a tattoo on his body, leading the price of the Skycoin to increase.

Contacts

By Sead Fadilpasic

 

Rating

9

PLAN

 9.0/10

TEAM

 9.0/10

MARKETING

 8.0/10

MARKET GROWTH

 10.0/10

COMPETITORS

 9.0/10

Pros

  • Experienced team, supported by some of the big names in the industry, including John McAfee
  • Transaction speed of only 2 seconds, zero fees
  • No need for heavy computational energy, as it can function with a meager 30-watt cell phone processor
  • Backed by a real asset (bandwidth) facilitating its practical usage
  • Users are incentivized to earn and use Skycoin as they have to both utilize and contribute to network resources.

Cons

  • Some bad rap from the community, who say the platform is “too good to be true”