Graphic by Kenneth Kao

Intro

Elastos was born in both the US and China; the Cyber Republic has always been an international community. In this issue we want to remind the community that progress is being made all over the world, especially in these two powerful countries. Though politics can often interfere with progress in traditional governance systems, the Cyber Republic presents a unique opportunity to forge relationships that would otherwise be unavailable.

The simply massive potential of our united front into technology and progress is thrilling. English is considered the global “language of business”. China’s charge into future technology and commerce is second to none. We have influence plus manpower. Reputation plus resources. Vision plus vision.

It’s not an easy role to play, but we are the seeds of a very large tree that will span the entire planet and root itself into every aspect of the modern age.

In this issue we’ve included several tasks and teams within Chinese communities, and we plan to conduct Chinese-focused interviews in the future. If you are tapped into Chinese communities, we encourage you to join our Weekly Update Team.

Also, our team would like to thank CR members who have contributed content to the Weekly Updates. For each update we’ll gift $100 USD-worth of ELA to content creators who have caught our attention as a token of appreciation for their noteworthy contribution. Refer to the community section to view the latest winners and learn to submit your own content.

Summary

Recent CR Analytics (Week of Nov 22-29th)

Top referrers: Elastos.org, Coinmarketcap.com, github.com

New visitors: 2,032

Page views: 29,407

English Speaking Visitors: 1545

Chinese Telegram Users: 7726

Reminder: Take a look and share feedback on these two particularly important topics: Elastos DPoS Proposal and the CR constitution.

Virtual Meetup

Past Meetup: Friday, November 23rd, 2018 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u1mJWcdtFs

Upcoming Meetup: Thursday, December 6th, 2018 1:00 PM Eastern Time – https://elastos.zoom.us/j/467695121

Projects Update

Cyber Republic Website

Main Project Repo: https://github.com/elastos/Elastos.Community/tree/master/ElastosBountyProgram

Git Activity and Updates

[User feedback] Profile editor now opens in a modal

[User feedback] Links in comments are now clickable

Fixed comments on mobile

Blocked task editing for task creators after acceptance by the CRC

Notify users that their bid won or lost

Bug fixes

Elastos on React Native

Git Activity and Updates

Project in GitHub has been set up with the following flow:

To do -> In progress -> Blocked -> Needs review -> Reviewer approved -> Done. Link available at https://github.com/orgs/cyber-republic/projects/1

Worked on carrier session api part for android, and rebuilt ios sdk to prepare session api for iOS

Worked on switching the react-native-elastos-wallet-core to use the Elastos.ELA.SPC.Cpp library for iOS (instead of the C library we used previously)

Switched C library to Cpp one on react-native-elastos-wallet-core

Will continue to work on session part api for iOS

Will publish version 0.0.2 of plugin as the alpha release in next week

Implement interacting with the chain so that we can proceed transactions

Need to confirm the rebuild iOS sdk could be work or not

(The next release of Carrier native SDK will be Feb 2019, so we can not wait for it)

The iOS version of the cpp library is still under development, that was the reason we originally switched from the cpp lib to the c lib. Currently working with the core team to get the cpp library working properly for iOS

Converted to Cpp library for Android wallet. Two problems persist. The test only can be conducted on the real device – not an emulator – because the cpp library doesn’t support x86. Also, the cpp library doesn’t interact with the chain at present

Upcoming Meetups

Meetups are the bread and butter of the ecosystem’s growth. Be sure to attend if you’re in any of these areas:

Recent Chinese Telegram Meetup: Dec 1, on DPoS consensus mechanism and supernode election by Elastos Chief Architect Yipeng Su and Elastos Foundation COO Heng Li.

Tasks

Task Spotlight: “Merged-Mining” Article

The first part of a 33-page piece discussion on merged-mining has been released by the “Elastos in a Nutshell” Cyber Republic team. It’s written for a less technical audience, but it offers detail in questions such as, “What is merged-mining and how has Elastos made it so energy-efficient and scalable?

Check out the first half of the article here: https://blog.cyberrepublic.org/2018/12/03/elastos-in-a-nutshell-a-laymans-perspective-merged-mining-part-1-2/

Stay tuned for the second half of the article next week.

The “Elastos in a Nutshell” team has taken on the goal of distilling sophisticated components of Elastos’ technical infrastructure into layman’s terms, without taking away from its elegance. Read the interview with Charles, team lead, at the end of this week’s update.

These are tasks still in progress. Earn some ELA with your contributions.

We have a great community task to share. Submit your video of why you love Elastos to this task: I Love Elastos Task



Teams

Teams seeking additional members are:

TEAMS ON CYBER REPUBLIC THIS WEEK Team Name Description “The Developers” by Jono Kirk This team is for Developers who are new to the project in the U.K who would like guidance and onboarding onto various projects within the Cyber Republic. The first meet up will be in Sheffield on Tuesday 8th January 2019. Venue and time TBA. “Elastos in a Nutshell Team” by Charles Coombs-Esmail A team of community members that do deep dives into certain aspects of the Elastos technology. The goal of this team is to explain all of the aspects of the Elastos technology in a comprehensive manner to both the developer and non-developer community. The purpose it to create an informed community, which leads to more fruitful discussions and more involved voters. Half of the team tackles these topics from a non-developers perspective, while the other half explains them from the perspective of a developer.Both the developer and non-developer team will explain each topic through an article, and an accompanying video. Each team will need 2-3 people, with at least one content creator/YouTuber. “Elastos News Website” by 贵周 梅 亦来云新闻网是一个自发的非盈利组织，我们用业余时间收集并翻译新闻。如果您愿意给我们提供亦来云新闻素材，我们将为你提供1~10Ela奖励。

“Elastos News Website is a non-profit organization that collects and translates news in its spare time. If you are willing to provide us with Elastos news material, we will provide you with 1~10 Ela reward.” “Doing” by William Tang Doing是基于区块链技术的下一代分布式的健身激励与社群应用，通过区块链的分布式储存与D-IoT等基础技术让用户可以从每一次有效的健身中获取Token奖励，给用户以直接的健身激励。通过布局到健身房中的D-IoT和DApp中的数据记录，用户运动过程中产生的所有数据都将被收集并放入属于每个用户的区块中，用户对其有充分的确权，第一次真正实现用户的数据的确权，并可以选择是否将数据分享与Doing和其他具备资质的合作公司；每一次分享都将通过D-Encryption技术与合约，使数据完全匿名化，用户则能从安全的分享中获取报酬. Doing作为侧链应用，接入第三方主链（Elatos），利用智能合约、D-AI交易搜寻引擎等，将全国健身房纳入交易链，用户与健身房将可以通过智能合约把交易流程充分简化；与Doing合作的主链（Elatos）与其Token（Ela）将得以使其所有成员（Member）在全国所有健身房使用该Token（Ela）进行交易。同时基于区块链技术的机制，用户对于健身房的每一个评价将无法被篡改或删除，这将保证每一个评价的真实性。

Doing旨在建立一个全新的、用户有真正权利的、未来的健身生态.



“Doing is a next-generation distributed fitness incentive and community application based on blockchain technology. Through the distributed storage of blockchain and D-IoT, users can get token rewards from every valid fitness activity. By on data records in the DApp and D-IoT in the gym, all the data generated during the user’s fitness activities will be collected and placed in the block owned by each user with which the user has full control over the data. The user can choose whether to share the data with Doing and other qualified partners. Every sharing of data will be fully anonymized through D-Encryption technology and contract. Users can get paid from secure sharing. Being a sidechain application, Doing accesses third-party main chain (Elastos), uses smart contracts, D-AI transaction search engines, etc., to integrate all gyms across the country into the blockchain. The smart contract simplifies the trading process; the main chain with Doing (Elastos) and its Token (Ela) will enable all of its members (Member) to trade with the Token (Ela) in all gyms across the country. At the same time, based on the mechanism of blockchain technology, every evaluation of the gym for the user will not be tampered with or deleted, which will guarantee the authenticity of each evaluation.



Doing aims to build a new, future-oriented fitness ecosystem where users truly own their rights.” “Ela Smart Meetups” by Rog Hat We acknowledge the power of face to face,and human to human interaction. We Cryptonize through decentralized meetups worldwide. We empower, plan, support and execute elastos Smart Meetups on every city,every village, every corner worldwide

Join them and get involved, or create your own, here: https://www.cyberrepublic.org/developer/search?lookingFor=TEAM

Community

This is our first week rewarding ELA to community members for their contributions. Of particular note is this stunning montage created by Nate Maturo.

The Chinese Community also recently concluded a video competition. Check out the cute winning video.

Top Community Contributions this week are:

These contributions will each receive $33.33 in ELA as a token of our thanks for their efforts.

If you’d like to have us consider your Cyber Republic-related work, make sure to apply to the task on the Cyber Republic here, otherwise, we won’t be able to consider your contribution for ELA.

Community shout-out:

We really appreciated CNOTE CRYPTO’s DPoS Infographic: https://www.easel.ly/infographic/ax2pku

When you share something cool for the Cyber Republic, make sure to tag it so that we can find your contribution and feature it in the Weekly Update! #WeAreTheCyberRepublic

Additional content from the community:



CHINESE COMMUNITY Language Description Reference Link Chinese Elastos participated in International Blockchain Conference 2018 held in Changsha from 28-30 Nov https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/pqfqoFiIPfQk9Or8KQMclQ Chinese NeoWorld shared the latest status of the game and GAEX shared Hybrid-Token-Economy based on Elastos in the Chinese Telegram group on 23 Nov https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/l_aULtZmk9LsG2fd24mb1g Chinese Elastos Interview IoT Manager, Zhang Yuxin https://www.chainnews.com/articles/814038828528.htm

Interview with a Cyber Republic Community Member

1) Could you introduce yourself and your background, as well as how you came across Elastos? What won you over about the project?

My name is Charles Coombs-Esmail. I’m from Pennsylvania, but I currently live in Los Angeles. I went to the University of California Santa Barbara where I received a degree in Physics. Like many, I came across Elastos during the crypto craze in February. During that time, there were tons of new projects emerging, and I was doing my best to research every one that sounded interesting. I read countless whitepapers and learned all that I could about Blockchain over a 3-month period from December to February. However, when I came across Elastos, it became my only interest.

From my research, I’d become increasingly skeptical that Blockchain could solve all the problems it was purported to solve. I started to see through the hype and marketing, and realized that 90% of projects themselves did not even know the limits of Blockchain technology. Reading about Elastos, I came across the concept of the Network Operating system. Essentially, a Network Operating system could make the internet a safer place, which would reduce the need to run everything through Consensus. Furthermore, through the C++ runtime, this Network Operating system could use the computational power of the underlying device without compromising security. It became clear to me that this is what was needed and not the “band-aid” solution of running code redundantly on thousands of computers for every possible operation. For the first time, the concept of a massively adopted DApp seemed plausible.

My interest peaked when I read the “Thoughts and Conclusions” section in an Elastos weekly update, written by Zach. In his piece he talked about Jeremy Rifkin and the “Third Industrial Revolution” lead by IoT. This vision of IoT creating a “Zero Marginal Cost Society” is truly profound, yet totally unattainable without something akin to a Network Operating system. After this moment, I felt compelled to contribute in any way I could to help the world attain this vision. Elastos was that way.

2) Could you tell me about your team “Elastos in a Nutshell” and what it is trying to achieve?

The purpose of the “Elastos In A Nutshell” team is to produce a series of articles and videos that comprehensively explain each aspect of the Elastos technology, both from a developer’s and a layman’s perspective. The goal is to have a sort of Elastos “booklet” in one place that anyone can read to become quickly acquainted with all things Elastos. It will help further educate the Elastos community to create informed voters. As a community, we should strive to be shining examples in terms of knowledge and decorum. If we are to have meaningful and productive discussions, we all need to know how the underlying technology works, at least at a basic level. Part of this team’s job is to research and discuss potential issues and challenges that may arise to spark productive discussion amongst the community on these challenges.

Kiran Pachhai (KP) was actually the one who brought this team together. The team is half developers, and half non-developers. Each group produces an article and an accompanying video for each topic. I am the article writer for the non-developer group. Many of you may know my team members: Amos Thomas and Michael Ekpo. They are in charge of creating the videos.

3) You’ve just released an article, “Merged-Mining and Elastos”. Could you tell us a little about it and what it took to write it? Is there anything “in a nutshell” that you could give us about what makes merged-mining so special?

Yes, and there will also be two accompanying videos (part 1 and 2) created by Amos and Michael. Although we each had our own task, it was definitely a collaborative effort–in research in particular. Also, shout out to Alex Shipp for helping with the writing.

Merged-mining is a very important part of the Elastos ecosystem. Not only does it help secure the main-chain, it also can be used to secure side-chains. In short, merged-mining allows Elastos to use the same work done on the Bitcoin blockchain to simultaneously secure the Elastos main-chain and side-chains.

For two blockchains to be merged-mined, they need to have the same consensus algorithm. This means Elastos uses the same consensus algorithm as Bitcoin, which is the ‘parent’ chain Elastos merge-mines with. So in order to explain merged-mining well, you need to have a good understanding of how the Bitcoin blockchain works. As such, a large portion of the article is dedicated to diving deep into Bitcoin, explaining exactly how it works. So if you’ve been putting off learning how Bitcoin works (something that every crypto enthusiast should do), I highly encourage you to read the article and watch the videos.

4) How can people support your team? What kind of involvement and changes from the Cyber Republic community and leadership would you like to see?

People can support the team by reading, watching, and sharing the articles and videos. The more people that see this series, the more value they generate. I ask that community members do their best to spread this content to other community members and to those who have yet to learn about Elastos.

Every Cyber Republic community member is an evangelist. We need to collectively make an effort to spread the word. Too much video and content has no engagement. As early members, every CR member is on the ground floor. There is not too much beneath the ground, meaning that if we want to see quick changes, we are the ones that can act.

That being said, the CR is in its early stage. It’s still under construction. It’s not going to spring up into a vibrant and efficient entity overnight. Some are frustrated by this, and I understand. If you see something that needs changing, bring it up. Garner support from other community members. Create a report and share it with an admin/team member. If they don’t listen, try someone else. Stay persistent, but also stay respectful. Even if a core team member does not directly respond to you, in my experience, they are listening to the collective voice.

To the core team members: even if you are busy, at least acknowledge that you heard the suggestions and that you are keeping them in mind. Simply being acknowledged goes a long way.

5) Are there other Cyber Republic CRcles you’re part of? Are there any other projects that you’re particularly excited about you’d like to share with us?

I am part of the DApp consultant and DApp analyst CRcles. As of now, I have not been very active in these CRcles just yet. The “Elastos In A Nutshell” project has been keeping me busy. However, I definitely plan on getting involved in the future. I gained some good experience working for a DApp project over the past year, and think I could bring some valuable insight to the future DApps being built on Elastos.

6) Lastly, for our silly question of the week, would you mind taking a shot at writing a short poem about the Cyber Republic?

Roses are red,

Violets are Blue,

Cyber Republic is great,

and so are you 😊

Thanks so much for your time, Charles!

CR Guides

Feel free to leave a comment with your concerns, questions, and suggestions (or praises), for the Cyber Republic.

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