To celebrate the launch of QLC Chain MainNet (GO-QLC), QLC Chain and BitAsset are hosting a campaign for QLC and QGAS IOU token holders, scheduled to begin on Monday, April 29th. Additionally, a “Hacker Challenge” is underway until Wednesday, May 1st. Lastly, QLC Chain announced the upcoming release of its first consumer-oriented product, Confidant.

In March 2019, QLC Chain launched GO-QLC along with its first application, the Global SMS Billing System. The Global SMS Billing System allows for enterprise clients to conduct instant SMS billing and clearance with their service providers, while simultaneously storing “the message log on chain for fraud protection and security.” The system is designed to remove friction in the global application-to-person (A2P) SMS market and to help reduce operational costs for enterprises and service providers.

QLC Chain’s MainNet token: QGAS

In addition to the GO-QLC launch, QLC Chain also introduced its fuel token, QGAS. QGAS is “consumed when a communication service provider deploys its service” on GO-QLC. A total of 100 million QGAS tokens are coded for release over 33 years, with a minting schedule of roughly 8,300 QGAS tokens daily.

For the foreseeable future, QLC tokens are to remain as the NEO NEP-5 standard, and an interoperable staking protocol is under development. According to COO Susan Zhou, staking NEP-5 QLC tokens will allow users to claim MainNet QGAS through a cross-chain application. Zhou told NEO News Today that QLC Chain is currently in communication with NEO Global Development on the development of its framework for this functionality.

To receive QGAS, users will be required to stake QLC tokens via the GO-QLC wallet. (NOTE: The wallet does not support the NEP-5 QLC token yet. Pay attention for future QLC Chain updates.) The amount of QLC tokens held in each wallet determines the amount of QGAS to be distributed. QLC Chain aims to release a step-by-step guide to staking and receiving QGAS before the release of the tokens.

QGAS token distribution is planned to begin at noon (UTC+4) on Tuesday, May 28th.

BitAsset listing and competition

In early April, QLC was listed on the BitAsset exchange with USDT and BTC pairings. Beginning at 3:00pm (UTC+8) on Thursday, April 25th BitAsset user’s can purchase QGAS “IOU” tokens using USDT. A limited amount of 150,000 IOU tokens are allocated for trading.

On May 28th, BitAsset will automatically swap the IOU tokens for QGAS tokens and offer a USDT trading pair.

Further, QLC Chain will airdrop 100,000 QLC to BitAsset users to celebrate the launch of GO-QLC and the release of the IOU tokens. Two separate trading periods are established for participants to become eligible to receive an airdrop. From April 29th through May 1st, the top 50 QLC holders and the top 50 IOU holders will each receive 500 QLC tokens. Then, from May 2nd through May 4th, the same metrics and rewards will be used for a second airdrop.

“Hacker Challenge”

QLC Chain is also conducting a “QLC Hacker Challenge” to conclude on May 1st, where a reward of 10,000 QLC can be claimed by the winning participant.

The challenges requires participants to solve a challenge posited by QLC Chain:

“If one of the largest mobile carriers in the world submits a packet with 15mn destination numbers of messages at the same time to QLC mainnet for the billing process, what’s your idea to process such a large pack in the trusted environment, and to guarantee that no number is lost and all sent status is checked? ”

Those interested in participating can submit their responses in the following GitHub repo:

https://github.com/qlcchain/go-qlc/issues/293

QLC Chain’s Confidant

QLC Chain is releasing its first consumer-oriented product, Confidant, a privacy-focused hardware and application package that allows users to host private chat networks and cloud storage. QLC Chain aims to incorporate QGAS into Confidant by using the token for ID authentication, data storage, peer-to-peer file transferring, encrypted messaging, and more.

The Confidant suite includes a private network station node and a private messaging application. Node account owners will be able to conduct encrypted messaging through private channels, serve as encrypted cloud storage providers, and offer select access to an owner-defined peer-to-peer network.

QLC Chain tentatively aims to begin shipment of Confidant station nodes in June 2019 and is currently recruiting regional distributors. At the time of press, each station costs US$699 when purchasing with fiat currency, or $559.20 when using QLC or TrueUSD tokens.

Looking forward

QLC Chain’s development team is refining the framework for cross-chain interoperability between NEO and QLC Chain, and integrating the test NEP5-QLC chain contract.

GO-QLC v1.1.0 is currently under development and scheduled for release shortly.

Lastly, the development team expects to begin optimizing peer-to-peer performance and implementing the Oracle node.