Author: David Canellis

QLC Chain, an ICO borne from the NEO blockchain and formerly QLink, has announced that its next generation Network-as-a-Service platform has partnered with Montnets Group, premier cloud communications service provider in China and publicly listed company.

The partnership will be realised through a joint venture that will target ‘hundreds of thousands of enterprise customers’, according to an official release.

Among those hundreds of thousands are some revered names: Alibaba, Bank of China, Ping An Insurance Group, Baidu and Tencent are just a few already serviced by Montnets Group. The overarching goal of the venture will be to integrate QLCChain’s technology with the telecom industry as a whole.

“The new venture is a step further for QLC Chain to apply the blockchain technology to business usage. The Blockchain technology will encounter massive adoption in multiple vertical industries such as telecom which is underpinning the whole digital economy. Montnets is a leader and veteran in cloud communication, and we are very honored to partner with Montnets to build the decentralized telecommunication infrastructure and provide ultimate secure mobile network services.”  said Susan Zhou, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of QLCChain.

QLC Chain itself is a completely public blockchain that provides businesses, organizations and individuals the ability to become service providers using their own network resources. It also supports decentralized app development through smart contracts. A fully-fledged QLC Chain would allow for services, such as the delivery of internet, to be provided in a completely decentralized and open manner by anyone with network resources to donate.

The EOSIO blockchain’s native token, EOS, has rebounded along with the rest of the cryptocurrency market today as it looks to shake off more controversy over the weekend.

On June 17, this Sunday passed, the top 21 EOS block producers (BPs) collectively decided to lock seven accounts that they deemed had been subject to phishing attacks, specifically those accounts with private keys that were confirmed compromised.

It is understood that the specifics were generated through data gathered by the EOS911 community initiative, which allows for victims of phishing attacks to register the compromised private keys.

The decision to lock affected accounts came at a sensitive time in the EOS timeline: the EOS Mainnet had launched, which meant all tokens controlled by stolen private keys could be transferred after the 72 hour unstaking period directly following the launch. If this happened, there could be no recovery of tokens stolen.

The act of locking the affected accounts has been the source of some controversy within the EOS community. While just how decentralized the EOS blockchain is may be debatable, it is the first blockchain to be governed by a structure defined by a Constitution, much like the structure of the American government.

A Steemit post by EOS New York, a top 21 block producer, detailed the politics of the decision to lock the accounts, particularly in the transitional period in which the EOS Mainnet was switched on.

We initially received a preliminary notice from the EOS Core Arbitration Forum (ECAF) that they were likely to issue an emergency order to freeze certain accounts affected by the scams. But this didn’t happen. Despite ECAF’s initial notice that they would opine on the matter, they instead responded to our request with the stance that they did not have the authority to act during this gray period wherein only an interim Constitution existed. When we learned the ECAF would not change its position, it was clear that the judiciary was not available to the community and these affected community members at this time. We now found ourselves thrust into a position of acting as both executive and judiciary, which we initially resisted.” the statement reads.

The controversy comes as it appears the Block Producers have unanimously acted outside of their jurisdiction, manipulating the blockchain without prior approval from the ECAF – who frustratingly would not give consent with only an interim Constitution in play.

Whether the locking of accounts is to be seen as justified is yet to be determined. EOS New York have requested a formal response from the ECAF, due today, and in an act of good faith, they have also submitted claims against themselves and the other top block producers for the decisions taken without consent of the ECAF.

We will continue updating this story as it develops. EOS New York have declared that if no ruling is handed down today, then they will remove the freeze and have added that no further ‘extra-judicial’ action will be undertaken.

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Global powerhouse cryptocurrency trading and investment platform eToro has today revealed that Cardano (ADA) is to be the eleventh tradable digital asset supported by its service.

Cardano’s token will be made available to over ten million eToro users today. ADA boasts being the world’s first blockchain to be completely peer-reviewed. It has a goal of being the adopted solution to scaling problems associated with Bitcoin and Ethereum while providing infrastructure for smart contracts, while acting as its own native cryptocurrency.

The increasing variety of popular altcoins is understood to be a reaction to increased demand from investors turning to budding blockchains as a means of diversifying their cryptocurrency portfolios.

The high volatility of markets combined with rapid development of major altcoins such as Tron (TRX) and EOSIO (EOS) has led to possibilities of a new market landscape and investors are seeking new opportunities.

We are seeing growing interest in new cryptocurrencies increasing all the time. We are committed to bringing the top traded crypto assets onto our platform for our users to invest in,” said Yoni Assia, eToro co-founder and CEO.

Cardano will automatically be added to eToro’s Crypto CopyFund, a tool that allows the automatic spreading of investment across all supported cryptocurrencies, weighted by market cap.

It was reported last month that Cardano is to be integrated with South Korean mobile payment platform Metaps Plus, which would see the ADA token be made usable in over 33,000 franchise stores by the third quarter of 2018.

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Premier cryptocurrency hardware storage solution Ledger have added development of ICON (ICX) support to their roadmap ahead, while the official team has released the specific timeline for their token swap, commencing this week.

Currently, most ICX tokens in circulation are actually ERC20 tokens – powered by the Ethereum smart contract platform. Investors have been nervously awaiting the official token swap following the launch of the ICON mainnet in January.

While the release of the official ICON wallet did occur without problem, there is currently no suitable cold storage solution for those looking to hold on to their ICX tokens post-swap. The development update on the official Ledger Trello is surefire relief that users will soon enjoy a supported cold wallet come time to move their freshly minted, fully-fledged ICX tokens off-exchange.

The development team have also released an official schedule for the swap, beginning June 20. Three major exchanges will be supporting it, Binance, Upbit and Bithumb. Users are also able to download the ICONex wallet and initiate the token swap themselves.

Users looking to have their tokens swapped by their chosen exchange must have their tokens deposited by June 20 for Binance and Upbit, with Bithumb conducting theirs the next day.

The exchanges will automatically swap the tokens for users and once it commences, deposits and withdrawals will be suspended until it completes.

Anxiety has been widespread following discovery of a critical bug in the ICX ERC20 smart contract, which allowed for any user to enable and disable token transfers.

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The world’s first tokenized hedge fund has launched on the Stellar Network blockchain after raising US$1.7million in investments during its presale.

The token is Apis (APIS), managed by Apis Capital Management (ACM), and is the gateway investors use as means to access the ACM Market Neutral Volatility Strategy Fund, a proprietary volatility-based trading strategy developed by ACM.

By registering investment and purchasing tokens, buying and holding the APIS token sees investors automatically take advantage of the sophisticated fund management strategy.

Apis Capital Management is an innovative asset manager specializing in unique strategies designed to build your wealth during all market conditions. Through careful market analysis and our trading experience, we are able to profit in rising, flat, and declining markets, generating consistent profits for our clients. Our flagship investment vehicle, the ACM Market Neutral Volatility Strategy Fund, has achieved industry leading returns since inception.”

The Apis hedge fund looks to do away with several barriers for entry that plague the traditional investment sector. There are no lock-up periods as the APIS token itself can be resold at anytime, making any investment completely liquid.

There is also no minimum investment and the hedge fund’s track record is made completely transparent by the Stellar Network – Apis Capital Management report that the strategy has posted annualized returns of almost 80% over the past 28 months.

“We have had very high interest. Due to this being a unique opportunity for investors to access a professionally managed and profitable strategy through the simplified and investor friendly token model.” said Dr. Edgar Radjabli, Managing Partner of Apis Capital Management.

All profits will be redeemable in either US Dollars or Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) or Stellar Lumens (XLM).

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