A group of proactive community developers seek to create their own open-source plugin for VeChain.
Since Totient exited the ecosystem, Comet, the previous plugin, has been a major headache for platform developers. The “End-of-life” plugin no longer has developers actively upgrading, marketing, or preventing security flaws from exploiting it. For a cryptocurrency wallet and blockchain interface, this presents a security threat to users, despite the high quality of design that went into it originally.
This leaves dApp creators with two choices, either develop their own, or force users to download Sync, a secure web-browser built on Chromium, the open-source software behind Google Chrome. Sync is a great solution, but it is a lot to expect new users to download an entire web browser just to try out a dApp.
Stuck without a great solution, a few community developers decided to take the initiative. After receiving a quote from a professional development team, they began sharing a VeChain address in the VeChain Devs Telegram group, where a number of projects, such as Plair, Safe Haven, and Veriarti expressed their interest in a product like this. Within 2 hours, the generosity of the community had spoken, and the project had been fully funded. This response shows that belief in the future of the ecosystem is strong among the developers building on it, and those involved are willing to cooperate for the greater good.
This puts the community in charge of their own tools. An open-source nature means that anyone can contribute source code, and anyone can inspect the source code to ensure the security. The plugin will have the chance to grow with the community projects, implementing new features as the need arises. As the progress continues, the team behind it plans to keep the community updated, and even allow them to help with the naming process.
However, it’s worth mentioning there are still many risks associated with this. Open source projects that aren’t actively maintained are easy for hackers to exploit, with potential vulnerabilities in source code transparent for all to see. Cryptocurrency wallets are a major point of weakness for the decentralized technology, and putting it into the hands of an uncoordinated group of individuals could cause problems down the line. The initiators behind this will have a great responsibility making sure that professional security standards are adhered to.
For users, the ideal solution is to practice rational token management, by storing tokens in secure offline wallets, and using browser plugins only for active use. Never import the private keys of important wallets or node wallets into unsecured wallet browsers.
Introducing Follow from Taraniscix– Finnish innovators trying to reduce vehicle emissions and promote sustainable living through IoT and blockchain
It all started with a simple idea – encourage Finnish car-owners to change their driving habits. Finland is a sparsely populated country, with less than ⅓ the population of the Netherlands, but 8 times the size. With distances more spread out, car owners are forced to drive further for essential transportation. This increases the potential impact of carpooling, ride-sharing, and public transportation in one of the most socially progressive countries in the world.
A couple of entrepreneurs began looking at how blockchain technology could be used to reduce the negative effects of emissions and greenhouse gases. They recognized the effectiveness of using blockchain to incentivize the public, and realized that Finland’s 3 million cars, with an average age of 12 years, were causing major damage to the environment. They soon calculated that even by reducing average vehicle emissions by 10%, they could have the same impact as planting 11.4 million trees, or the equivalent of 38 per vehicle.
Despite global efforts, oil & gas usage continues to increase, causing headaches for conservationist efforts
In 2018, they decided to make this a reality, forming a company and prototyping hardware and software that could deliver this solution without making sacrifices on convenience or affordability. With many years of experience in the auto industry, they had little difficulty adapting current technology to fit their needs. They began working with prominent risk-management company DNV GL, who gave them guidance and professional support.
The solution
Follow has begun work on a mobile app and digital asset wallet that can integrate with existing onboard diagnostic readers. The OBD2 port can be found below the steering wheel, connecting to the onboard computer and providing information regarding emissions, mileage, speed, and other diagnostic data. Their vision for this project is quickly expanding – they’ve found opportunities to expand this to government organizations, insurance providers, and other business use cases. Vehicle emissions are just the start – Follow has plans to include fitness trackers, public transport records, and other oracles that can acquire data regarding sustainable consumer behavior.
Data collected from a successful prototype in Finland
The key to this solution is the blockchain: users have a verified record of their history, with data acquisition happening in an automated and immutable environment. Digital assets, or tokens, can be distributed automatically, instantly rewarding users for good-behavior. Leaderboards can “gamify” the experience, encouraging users to compete for more than just financial rewards. Follow initially selected VeChain as an infrastructure provider, based on the stable developer ecosystem and unique fee delegation features, allowing devices to write to the blockchain without using any cryptocurrency to pay for transactions.
The advantages don’t stop with the end consumer. Insurance companies could reward users for their responsible driving history, and secondhand sales platforms could show verified reports about the state of the vehicle, adding value to the ownership. Governments could have better access to driving history, in exchange for tax deductions or additional benefits.
The increase in hybrid vehicles means that revenue from gasoline tax is steadily dropping, an income previously relied on to improve roads and maintain infrastructure. This puts pressure on the government to innovate and find more ways to balance taxation between those who use public resources and those who don’t, a fair and sustainable compromise. Follow could be the key to balancing taxation by charging high-volume drivers for their emissions and road usage, while offering deductions to those that find alternative methods of transportation.
Follow has plans to account for businesses as well, by building a fleet management system. The benefits include:
Driver performance tracking
Insurance benefits
Automated mileage reporting
“Eco-friendly” brand enhancement through CSR
Streamlined administration processes
Expanding the Scope
After meeting with DNV GL, Follow recognized that demand for their solution wasn’t limited to Finland. They had talks with representatives from the San Marino Republic, which for years has positioned itself as a leader in emerging technology adoption. With prototypes already on the roads in Finland and Spain, the key is to find more professional partners to expedite adoption. They are planning to start a private fundraising round as they seek investment to expand their operations.
Finding other countries with dense urban populations are key opportunities as well. Reducing the emissions of San Marino’s 43,000 vehicles by 10% would be the equivalent of covering 22% of the small country with forest – a substantial improvement for a Republic intent on becoming carbon neutral in the upcoming years.
While initially the focus is on automotive solutions, Follow has one eye on smart homes and other fuel-burning industries. According to Finnish environmental agency Ymparisto.fi, in Finland, fossil fuels are relied on for heating purposes, responsible for more than double the emissions caused by automobiles.
Our vision is to bring actionable awareness and responsibility of CO2 emissions to individuals and companies by means of smart applications that will become a part of everyday life.
Jason McIvor – Co-founder
This puts Follow in a strong position as they expand into an open ecosystem for individuals, companies, and government organizations to share and incentivize sustainable initiatives on the blockchain. For now, they are still quite early in development, but with a product that can save money while contributing to a cleaner environment, Follow is a project to watch for.
VeChain’s video playlist turned up on China Media Group’s Yangshipin, a new national-level video platform aimed at the next generation of 5G devices. The platform is optimized to handle 4k and 8k videos and livestreams. CCTV is managed under the State Administration of TV, Film and Radio, a top-level government organization. The app has around 90 million downloads on major app stores, and is a great way to gain more recognition among Chinese enterprises, business owners, and regular citizens.
The playlist includes a number of videos introducing VeChain’s blockchain solutions, as well as their partnership with DNV GL, the low-carbon ecosystem, vehicle solutions, and other information about VeChain.
This appears to be part of VeChain’s plan to keep promoting their blockchain platform in a responsible way, within existing regulation structures. With China forbidding many aspects of cryptocurrency marketing, to have been included in a national-level platform shows that their compliance efforts are not being wasted. By having the blessing of the strict national government, VeChain will continue being one of the only blockchain platforms with access to a lucrative national and private industry sector.
Host Ben Yorke of Vechain101.com talks with Real Items co-founders David and Ken about their application suite built on VeChain. Real Items has had a busy start to 2020, led by the announcement of their integration with Shopify. Listen in to hear their vision for the company as the year begins to unfold.
With China locked down to slow the spread of the deadly nCoV outbreak, VeChain’s main office in Shanghai began working remotely, with each member completing their tasks from their own homes.
The biggest announcement was from ShareRing, which announced the VET would be a payment method on their upcoming travel platform. This opens up payment options for up to 2.5 million hotels in 190 countries, according to the ShareRing website.
Recently, VET as a payment token has gathered more steam after Jur announced users paying in VET would receive a 5% discount for buying luxury property in Cyprus. The ShareRing platform is set to launch on February 8th of this year.
Another third-party project Real Items also made their presence felt with the announcement that “mass adoption” would begin on February 22.
Real Items is a SaaS platform that allows companies to tokenize and tag products with 2FA QR codes, establishing ownership of and sharing product information with consumers. They recently announced their plugin was live in Shopify, one of the most common eCommerce portals online, used by over 1 million businesses.
Another third-party partner, Fresh Supply Co, was active on social media with the founder David Inderias announcing that “Big things [are] developing”. In the past, he has spoken often about his work with large producers in Australia and New Zealand. Fresh Supply Co’s solutions tag natural products like avocado, crabs, and honey, which they then consume locally or export to regions like China. Inderias is a big believer in presenting blockchain solutions with an attractive user-friendly style, including data, media, and additional info that makes the consumption process more engaging.
Our last third-party of the roundup is board game producer PlayTable and 8Hours Foundation, creators of tabletop digital board game consoles. PlayTable announced they were nominated for the Innovation in Connecting People Award at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. SXSW is one of the biggest cultural festivals in North America, showcasing the biggest contributors to music, film, and entertainment.
This caps a busy few weeks for PlayTable and the 8Hours Foundation, who recently announced the addition of Guitar Hero founder Kai Huang as an advisor. Their consoles have begun shipping, with the first pre-ordered batches beginning to arrive.
Before we go, a quick teaser for next week: VeChainstats.com Founder Fabian and Vesign.io’s Marcel are set to release their latest dApp – a manager dApp compatible with Ledger Nano. Users will be able to send funds, manage nodes, transfer, sell… ah never mind, just wait till next week to get the exhaustive list of features.
Despite global efforts, oil & gas usage continues to increase,
