It’s been a while since we’ve released any meaningful information around what we’re working on and why. In this article, we’ll provide a top level overview of all the elements we’ve been busy with over the past few months, and explain a little about what we’re aiming to achieve with this work.

Over the coming months, we will publish more in depth articles dealing with specific aspects of what we’re introducing below and providing resources and utilities to support our community and our partners as we progress.

In summary, we’re building a platform, or eco-system of tools and systems that provide real-world utility on a number of fronts!

What does that actually mean I hear you asking yourself. Well, if we take a step back and look at a crypto-currency on it’s own, most of you will be aware that there are two major barriers to real-world utility. These two major barriers are “transaction speed” and “price volatility”. There’s plenty of information on the web about these issues so, we’re not going to dive into that in this article, but rather explain how we’re aiming to provide services that mitigate against these barriers as well as bring the benefits of public ledger technology to our user base and partners. Within the African context that we’re aiming to serve predominantly, a 3rd major barrier exists as a high number of potential end users lack basic education and therefore find it extremely difficult to grasp the concept of what a Crypto-Currency actually is, and how it works.

It’s no small undertaking, and there’s a lot we still have to learn, but our research and testing to date has lead us down a path that we are excited to be progressing with!

First, some foundations….

In order to achieve our goals of providing easy to use and easy to integrate tools, certain pre-requisites are fundamental to the future success of the project. These include solid foundations within the blockchain itself (longevity, incentive to miners etc. that we’ve discussed in the past), as well as helper libraries, api’s and boilerplate applications that assist developers (including ourselves) and users in spinning up their own services. Over time, we’ve been working on a number of these foundations and services that form the building blocks of the Plenteum Application Services Platform.

In summary, these include:

1. Blockchain Data Collection Agent

Collects and stores blockchain information in a simplified, queryable relational databases that allow for faster, API based access to the blockchain without having to run your own physical node(s).

2. Blockchain Cache API

The API to interact directly with the blockchain cache.

3. Payments API

The API allowing you to send and receive PLE and Asset/Token payments for any PLE Asset Platform token (see below).

4. RPC Helpers

Various NodeJS Helper libraries to assist with and simplify RPC interaction with the main blockchain and para-chain services.

5. Wallet-Backend JS

Helper library to simplify sync’ing of wallets with the PLE Blockchain and assets / tokens on the PLE Asset Platform.

6. Plenteum-Crypto

A helper library providing access to the core crypto functions used in PLE and the App Service Platform.

And others….

Some of these foundations are already in use by services and applications we have produced, such as our web wallet, our new website and block-explorer and our new react-native mobile wallets (soon to be released) for Android and iOs which we’ve included some introductory detail on below.

In addition to this, we also continue to work on our Core Software and Supporting services and applications such as wallets.

Introducing: Plenteum Application Services

We understand that as things stand today, there is no “one size fits all” approach that caters for all potential distributed ledger technology applications and use cases. Open public blockchains such as Bitcoin or our own Plenteum Core Blockchain rely on a Proof of Work algorithm to validate transactions, and in isolation are potentially limited by physical design constraints that make it almost impossible(or extremely difficult) to use these blockchain networks and their primary currencies as a method of proof for anything other than payments in the native crypto-currency of that network. Coupled with that, price volatility, transaction speed and transaction cost are seen as barriers to real world utility.

Plenteum Application Services is an ecosystem of different, but complimentary technology stacks, utilizing open source technologies that are being actively researched and developed to mitigate against the already mentioned barriers to real world utility. By leveraging these technologies, we are able to create a unique experience for our users, and provide Blockchain-as-a-Service solutions for both Public and Private use-cases in different industries.

In a nutshell, Plenteum App Services provides a set of API’s, integration helpers (SDK’s in Python & Node.JS so far) and Boilerplate applications that are dependent on underlying blockchain networks that enable simplified setup and operation of independent and inter-dependant blockchain based services. This will allow new and existing users to make use of our suite of tools with clear integration guidelines and processes.

It’s built on Hyperledger Iroha at is core (Version 1.1 for current testnet). We have been doing constant R&D for how different use cases can be implemented using a Proof of Authority Sidechain / Parachain as a scalable solution and an easy but robust Permissioned Distributed Ledger, that allows for careful crafting of assets, domains, user accounts & most importantly user permissions, which can be assigned in “permission groups” or roles depending on required functionality.

The vast set of commands & queries with the unique YAC (Yet Another Consensus) BFT algorithm has allowed internal Proof of Concepts that would not have been possible or at least taken a vast amount of time to carefully plan and develop, and the mature set of libraries available from Hyperledger Iroha has accelerated things to the point where we are approaching readiness for public beta testing.

The components behind Plenteum App Services are tightly integrated with each other at varying levels of operation. For purposes of explanation these can be defined in terms of layers:

Layer 1: The Plenteum Blockchain (Master Blockchain)

Plenteum serves as the Main Payment Settlements Currency on the extended network(s). Costs & Fees are calculated via the API(s) and the user + transactional data gets stored on our ID Network (see below).

Layer 2: The Plenteum Asset Platform & ID Network (Iroha)

P-o-A (Proof of Authority) Public & Private Permissioned ledgers. The core service where users manage their accounts, create assets and transfer those assets between participants.

Layer 3: API’s and Helper Libraries

Purpose built, easy to use APIs and Helper libraries are created for the sole use of interacting with PLE App Services. These can be easily customized & extended for each use case, resulting in a standardised environment where other ID Network users are able to interact with domains, their accounts and assets.

Layer 4: End User Applications

These are various purpose built and boilerplate applications that facilitate development and interaction with the various elements of the network. They include, but are not limited to Mobile Wallet & Network User management apps, Web Administration Portals, SMS & USSD Gateways, Authentication helpers etc..

In a future series of posts, we will break each of these layers down into more detail, explaining the component parts and how these layers interact with each other to provide real world utility.

Staking PLE

In order to run a Parachain (Iroha) node, PLE will need to be staked. Stakers, or App Services Node operators will earn a percentage of the total income the entire network generates from asset registration, asset transfer and/or transaction fees on the Public Assets Platform & ID Network.

More details on Staking PLE and how to setup the Iroha nodes will be provided in due course.

Our use cases…

As most of you are probably already aware, we are an African coin, conceived and born in South Africa.

Africa faces numerous challenges, both economically and operationally due to a number of factors, including;

- Lack of governance

- Lack of accountability

- Corruption

- Informal Traders and Markets

- Lack of Basic Education

Our ultimate end goal with Plenteum Application Services is to allow for simplified implementation of solutions that cater to, or mitigate against, the risks that these challenge pose to economic growth and upliftment in the region.

Working with our partner entities, we have identified and run test scenario’s against a number of possible and probable usages of the technology stack to build the solutions they need to solve these very real challenges. This includes, but again is not limited to, transaction throughput rates, permission based security, configuration options and data storage and protection of private data on the network.

Specific details will be revealed when we are able, but in summary we’re working on the following:

1. An Identity Solution

This is a consolidated identity solution, that allows for various entities to request KYC and identity information for end users, with the end users permission in every instance. Many, many people in Africa lack basic identity information due to not being registered in national registers, not having any formal accommodation arrangements or bank accounts and utilising barter systems in their daily lives. However, the majority of these people do have limited access to online services through mobile devices predominantly. By linking biometric data and leveraging mobile device capabilities, this will enable entities to identify and register individuals for their own services, as well as leverage identity verifications made by other platform users (with the end users permission) to ease the administration burden. This aspect of the network enables many other services to be delivered on top of this, such as:

2. Micro Banking and B2B Lending solutions

Targeting the very hard to reach informal markets in Africa specifically, our solutions will enable informal traders to register and provide KYC for loan applicants, receive tradeable and transferrable digital tokens, tethered to and backed by the local market currency (it’s important to reiterate here that in under educated markets, crypto-currencies are not understood and it will always be very difficult to gain traction purely with a crypto-currency due to simple lack of understanding). These tokens can then be swopped for local currency cash using Informal Merchants as Micro Banking Agents (through Mobile App Wallets), traded directly with other users or transferred back to the original lender as re-payment.

3. Online retail services

Simple online payment gateway integrations allowing for payments to be made in digitised tokens tethered to local currencies and/or Plenteum itself where enabled.

4. Proof of Ownership (Provenance)

Proof of ownership of real-world physical assets can be a daily challenge in Africa. Transferring of those assets between individuals and entities often goes undocumented and results in a reduction in value, or largely increased cost associated with future transfers as this often requires significant manual documentation and filing & beuaracratic “red-tape” processes.

Assets such as vehicles, real-estate, jewellery etc. can be registered, identified with detail and transferred between end users at a lower cost, maintaining a complete history of ownership and ultimately a full provenance record of the physical asset and any changes associated with it. This allows these markets access to services such as insurance, re-finance, loans where collateral is required and many others often not possible or difficult to access today.

As already mentioned, we’ve also been working on our Core Software, a new Website and new Mobile wallets.

The New Mobile Apps

There’s not too much to say about the new mobile wallets, but we’ve included some screenshots below for your interest. These are build in react-native, backed by the cache-api and sync in the background, making the user experience far better than our existing mobile wallet based on the web-wallet.

The new wallet includes biometric security, QR code transfers and push notifications for received amounts.

Various settings allow you to control how your wallet sync’s (wifi only), which currencies you display your balances in, locked vs. unlocked balances and allows you to share your address / QR code without revealing your balance.

The New Website

Our new website will be launching soon as a one stop resource for all things Plenteum and Plenteum Application Services. We’re not going to dive into too much detail here, as you’ll be able to see and access the site relatively soon, but below is a summary of the main things we’ve included in the new site along with a few screenshots

Note that the screenshots below are previews and may be subject to change as we progress with content and imagery for the new site.

The home page

Documentation & FAQ

One of the most important sections of the new site will provide full documentation for all Plenteum tools, utilities and App Services Applications and API’s.

Documentation listing

Blockchain Cache API documentation

News, Insights and Updates

News, insights and updates section

We understand that news and updates of our progress and information around what is in-progress is important for crypto communities and their members. We also understand that as a team focussed on the tech and cautious of not overpromising what we can deliver on, we have been slow at providing those regular updates to our community.

This section of the site is aimed at helping us get better at keeping our community informed. While we won’t commit to specific deadlines or ever make promises we are not at least close to delivering, we hope that this section of the site will help with keeping the community up to speed with what we’re working on, and how it’s progressing when applicable.

Web Miner

We’ve integrated a web-miner into our website to allow for easy introduction to mining for new miners and mobile phone users, as well as simple way for users to earn PLE for use as GAS within Plenteum App Services context.

The web miner

Block Explorer

Our new Block explorer, dependent on the Blockchain Cache and Cache API has been integrated with the website.

The new block explorer

There are some additional tools and charts still to be added to complete this section of the new site.

Conslusion

Hopefully from this very high level overview, you can see that we’re not just aiming to provide a set of tools and utilities that make it easier to use Plenteum itself, but that also provide the tools to access previously difficult to reach markets, utilities to enable blockchain application development, and turnkey solutions for service provision.

If you’re interested in joining us on our journey and have skills you feel can contribute to our goals, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line on support@plenteum.com, or reach out in our social channels.

We’d love to hear from you!