1 of 12 “I believe in innovation and that the way you get innovation is you fund research and you learn the basic facts.” -Bill Gates

A new advisor from Stanford, an official partnership with a film platform, and a personal donation from one of our founders to MIT to help lead from the front on the technology that will shape our world.

Oh, and now you can get your Elastos updates on Blockfolio Signal beta.

Elastos continued its forward momentum this week. Let’s recap.

Technical Dynamics

The React Native framework for creating Elastos DApps is now in development. We welcome everyone to contribute to the framework by visiting https://github.com/cyber-republic/elastos-ReactNative-framework

faucet.elastos.org is now up and running to request for testnet ELA tokens

The Elastos testnet is officially open for public use. If you are a developer, you can now view our repositories on GitHub. More information can be found here: http://elanews.net/2018/07/26/elastos-developer-news-testnet-launch/

Useful links:

A Developer Beginner’s Guide

Developer Portal in Cyber Republic

Developer Documentation on Github

Elastos Smartweb Alpha

Elastos Community

Elastos Community Global

Community News

The Elastos Foundation would like to announce the onboarding of our new advisor, Stanford Professor Dr. Lei Xing, the Jacob Haimson Professor of Medical Physics and Director of Medical Physics Division of Radiation Oncology Department at Stanford University. Link: https://www.elastos.org/en/notice/

Elastos is pleased to formally announce our official partnership with WeFilmChain. WeFilmChain empowers filmmakers and video content creators to modernize their industry through the use of blockchain technology. Read more about this partnership here: https://elanews.net/2018/09/26/elastos-partners-with-wefilmchain/

Elastos is happy to announce that our co-founder, Feng Han, has made a personal donation of $5 million USD to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to establish the university’s blockchain research wing. For more information: https://elanews.net/2018/09/26/feng-han-funds-blockchain-research-pillar-at-massachusetts-institute-of-technology/

Elastos is now on Blockfolio Signal beta.

September 18-20

Feng Han released an update on The Elastos Ecosystem Fund with Co-Founders of Bitmain, Huobi, Newton, and Elastos

“I have recently reached an oral agreement on a fund that has been in discussion for several months. At this point, the fund is still in an exploratory phase, however, I wanted to update everyone on what is being planned so that our community can clearly understand the good news that is ahead for the development of Elastos. At this point, Jihan Wu of Bitmain, CEO of Huobi Lin Li, former NEO Co-Founder Tao Rongqi, and Newton project founder Xu Jizhe, have all agreed to pledge ELA to this fund that aims to support DApp development projects for Elastos.

To be absolutely clear, this fund is being carefully planned to ensure that no ELA is sold as the funds are used for development projects. Our plan is to have investors pledge ELA that will be held for a time period of three years while an equal amount of USDT is used for the actual funding. After this time period, investors can expect a return on their investment. This process shows the deep faith in the success of ELA while also responsibly funding the success of the infrastructure without selling any ELA in the process. We even plan on allowing the public to participate in this fund with the same terms.

As this fund develops and more information is available, I will update the community with all information available. Currently, nothing has been funded and all agreements are still exploratory, but everyone involved is thrilled to be part of the success of Elastos and its DApp development. This fund expresses the confidence of the investment community and the belief in our ever-growing global project.

Thank you all for your support”

September 26

Elastos hosted a meetup in Shanghai. Presentations were given by Rong Chen, Fay Li, Shijun Song, Jinye Niu, Elastos DMA and Titan Network.

September 27

KP hosted the Elastos Virtual meetup. The agenda for the meetup was:

Review since Last Virtual Meetup

Questions from the community

Status of CR100 and Empower35

React Native Framework for Elastos DApps

September 28

Elastos was a sponsor at the Blockchain Impact Investment Summit 2018 in Toronto where Feng Han gave a speech about adoption of blockchain in Wall Street, practical applications of DApps and his personal investment in the Blockchain Research Pillar at MIT

Events and Meetups

Auckland

Link: https://www.meetup.com/Elastos-New-Internet-Smart-Web-Powered-by-Blockchain/

Los Angeles

Elastos is a sponsor at the Hollywood Entertainment Technology Festival. Zach Warsavage will be a speaker at this event. For more information visit: https://hetfest.com/

Manila

Link: https://www.meetup.com/Elastos-Philippines-Community/events/254502830

Tokyo

Community Art Assets

Elastos and Cyber Republic wallpaper designs are now available for desktop and mobile: https://bit.ly/2CwJe8g

Community Contributions

KP Woods posted a 3 part video series:

Elastos at Tokenfest: Pitch #1

Elastos at Tokenfest: Pitch #2

Elastos at Tokenfest: Pitch #3

Famous Amos released part 3 of Elastos TV BOX Series – Exclusive Interview with Ghandi / China / Viewchain/ TV BOX

Diego Delriu released his episode of Waves of the Cyber Republic – #1 – Genesis Block (with Kiran Pachhai)

Elastos Interview Series

This week we are introducing a relatively new member of the team who has already become a vital pillar of communication between the East and West.

Let’s Meet Rachel Critelli.

A lot of people are going to hear your name for the first time, so tell us about yourself and your background.

Rachel: My name is Rachel Critelli and I am a Chinese to English translator. Born and raised in a small town in California, I later moved to San Francisco, which is where I have lived ever since. I studied French in high school, which allowed me to discover my passion for languages and ultimately led me to pursue a B.A. in Chinese. Recently, I worked at a Chinese medical device company, and prior to that, I was employed at a tech startup.

After I moved to San Francisco for college, the richness of the Chinese-American culture here spurred me to continue learning the language. My language skills often come in handy: from talking to the grocer to reading the Chinese names of restaurants in Chinatown, knowing the language really adds another layer of culture to my daily life. In the future, I hope to gain further skills in simultaneous interpreting.

Mandarin Chinese and Chinese characters are a joy to work with. Many of my family members are literature geeks, so they had me reading victorian novels at a young age. I find Chinese to be reminiscent of the flowery language of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, which makes the language familiar yet mysterious. Even when I am working with technical texts, or subjects that other people might consider to be “boring,” I still find it fascinating.

What is your role at Elastos?

Rachel: As a CN-EN Communication Specialist, I help the Chinese and English speaking teams communicate more effectively by relaying messages and translating documents. I have seen the same situation in multiple companies: members of the same department who are separated across two countries and they can’t speak the same language. What an incredible challenge to face! My goal is to facilitate communication between all team members so that work can go as smoothly as possible for everyone, regardless of where they are or what language they speak.

How does it feel to be working at Elastos and what is your opinion on Elastos?

Rachel: I feel very excited to be working for Elastos, a company that is clearly on the cutting edge of blockchain internet technology. Over the past month or so, part of my duties have been to get up to speed in terms of what the Elastos project is and after learning so much, I find myself so excited for this ecosystem to come to life. I find myself thinking, “Wow, I can’t wait to use this!”

When did you first hear about blockchain and how did you get involved?

Rachel: This is my first experience with blockchain. I joined Elastos about one month ago, after a friend connected me with Feng Han. After translating some of his essays, I was immediately intrigued and am really excited to learn more.

You worked at tech startup and now a blockchain startup, anything particular that intrigues you about technology?

Rachel: The reason that I like working in tech is because I am a “how” person. I really enjoy learning the details of how things work. When I was younger, I had a lot of different hobbies. I was a synchronized swimmer, jazz saxophonist, knit and sold goods to my classmates, and was President of the Adventure Club, among many other things. My parents also had interesting hobbies. My father is a coder and talented carpenter and my mother is an avid naturalist. I think all this exposure to different subjects and activities has made me a very effective generalist. So to me, learning about a new technology feels like I am just learning about a new hobby. We live in a time when tech companies are coming up with really creative solutions to tackle some of humans’ greatest problems, so I am really interested in coming along for the ride.

Communication between the East and West is paramount, how do you aim to improve this?

Rachel: A few ways that I plan to improve communication between east and west is by translating for the international PR team while maintaining regular hours during a time that is convenient for my Chinese colleagues. Each morning, I begin translating communications that were sent overnight with an obvious focus on the most important conversations. It is true that there is a “translate” function in some apps, but this is never a good option for any lengthy piece of information and certainly not core communication. I also hope that by being available during Chinese business hours, I can keep the door open for open communication. It shows that even that we aren’t there in person, we are still there in spirit.

Aside from work, what do you enjoy doing in your free time?

Rachel: In my free time, I enjoy riding bikes around the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as volunteering at St. Anthony’s Dining Room serving meals to the community.