“I was waiting for something extraordinary to happen, but nothing ever did unless I caused it.”

– Charles Bukowski

This week ELA was listed on HBUS, its first U.S. based exchange and a milestone in western expansion. Speaking of compliance, Fay Li is helping to host a Compliance Meetup in San Francisco next week with representatives from some of the top projects in the space. If you are in the Bay Area, find the sign up link below.

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

Technical Dynamics

1. Completed the mobile wallet to support the development of various tokens in the Token sidechain. Java Util Library now supports the Token sidechain;

2. Started preparations for Token sidechain deployment;

3. Created a multi-sign wallet on the mobile side to increase the creation and mnemonic export function by importing mnemonics;

4. Mobile wallet ID function integration;

5. Main chain was optimized after post stress test and SPV light node pressure test;

6. The main chain supports DPOS super node registration, cancellation, and voting;

7. The main chain adds support for locking related OP_CODE for interfacing with other chains;

8. The main chain blockchain browser corrects the problem that too many transactions on the address cannot be displayed normally, and optimizes the transaction query, and modifies the main chain blockchain browser corresponding to the new version of the main chain node;

9. DPOS logging interface adjustment and related database operations are added to implement DPOS abnormal state recovery related processes;

10. The Ethereum side chain runs through the cross-chain transfer process, and the next step is to coordinate with the main chain voting;

11. Implemented Elastos Runtime rights management;

12. Added plugins that require built-in support to the Elastos Runtime project to begin plugin compatibility and thread model validation;

13. Upgraded the Elastos Carrier base library version and upgraded Bootstraps synchronously;

14. The new Carrier Group API is merged into the trunk, and the Android SDK now supports the Group API.

15. Added a carrier Android SDK session part of the unit test case set;

16. Added a crawler script to collect the number of DHT active nodes in the carrier network.

17. Carrier iOS SDK repository integration supports Travis CI and also revised test cases for Windows platforms;

18. Started the Elastos Storage agent for IPFS Cluster development;

19. Completed the Storage Cluster node function adjustment.

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

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/

The following has been published to aid Elastos developers working on the testnet:

Testnet coin request address:

https://faucet.elastos.org/

Testnet web browser address:

https://blockchain-beta.elastos.org/

*Testnet wallet address:

https://wallet-beta.elastos.org/

*Please note that this wallet is strictly for the testnet ELA tokens, sending your mainnet ELA to this wallet will result in them being lost forever

Useful links:

A Developer Beginner’s Guide

Developer Portal in Cyber Republic

Developer Documentation on Github

Elastos Smartweb Alpha

Elastos Community

Elastos Community Global

Cyber Republic

Watch the amazing new Cyber Republic Video:

Community News

In October, the Elastos Carrier was distributed in 220k set top boxes, reaching a total of 450,000 units. While Shijiu continues to ship an increasing amount of sets – cooperation to begin working on the first real DID application is underway!

Elastos is more than a mere idea. Over the last year, the Elastos team has laid down the foundation of a working ecosystem with several live products and a great deal more in development. At this stage, the Elastos Foundation is pleased to update our community as to the current state of our product list. Read the Product List here: https://elanews.net/2018/11/06/elastos-products-list/

The Elastos Foundation is pleased to announce the listing of ELA on HBUS, the U.S. strategic partner of Huobi (https://www.hbus.com/). This listing is a direct result of Elastos’ recently achieved degree of international compliance standards and the first of many steps for our project as we successfully expand into the western landscape. For more info: https://elanews.net/2018/11/06/ela-listed-on-first-u-s-exchange/

Read Donnie Bullers comment on “Digital Marketing On A Budget: Tips For Startups: Part 1” by DMN News: https://www.dmnews.com/channel-marketing/article/21029289/digital-marketing-on-a-budget-tips-for-startups

October 29-30

MIT Connection Science and the well-known MIT Media Lab hosted Innovation Day and the Trust::Data Annual Conference. Elastos cofounder, Feng Han, was invited to attend the launch ceremony for the MIT Blockchain and AI Systems Consortium, where he was able to learn from the approximately 20 innovative projects by MIT graduates and students currently on a promotional tour. Many digital property projects described the necessity of the Elastos efforts and trust computing in the field of digital assets.

During the Trust::Data Annual Conference, the white paper titled Blockchain + AI + Human was published and MIT Connection Science Director and Professor, Alex Pentland, discussed the possibility of working together in academic fields in the future. After the conference, Feng Han attended the MIT Sloan School of Management salon on blockchain and voting.

October 31

Shijun Song attended a traveling lecture series to the global top 100 schools of higher education, the 2018 Beijiing University of Posts and Telecommunications Blockchain Technology Seminar sponsored by BC Spark, hosted by the Research Student Association of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, jointly hosted by BC Spark and ChainDD, was held in the Chang Nian Lecture Hall. Shijun Song, leader of the Elastos ecosystem applications group, and others special guests discussed development trends in topics such as blockchain technology and smart contracts and held in-depth discussions with the 500+ students who attended the event.

Using the two examples of “automatic vending machines” and “toy cranes,” Shijun Song conveyed the concepts of “usability” and “trust,” while also raising the view that “trust is implied, usability is a necessity.” In his view, centralized organizations are guilty of several “original sins,” such as being profit-driven, not being transparent, forcing the regulations, and pursuing monopolies. Ethereum can be seen as a representative for blockchain infrastructure which has achieved “trust,” but “usability” is still lacking.

November 3

Cogo Labs partners, Rob Chaplinsky and John Werner invited Elastos cofounder Feng Han to visit their incubator in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Cogo Labs is a leading startup accelerator in the Boston area focused on the field of data science, currently home to about 180 data scientists and engineers. After John and Feng interacted at the MIT Media Lab discussing the Elastos effort in the field of digital assets, they set a date to talk more, and hope to see Cogo Labs and Elastos collaborate in the Data+Blockchain area.

The Cogo Labs management team has many of the top minds from Harvard and MIT. CEO Mira Wilczek is a scientist in the field of computing and her father, Frank Wilczek won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2004 for his discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction.

November 1-4

The 2018 Beijing International Finance Exposition was hosted at the Beijing Exposition Hall with the theme of “Finances: Openness, Reform, and Innovation.” Over 150 financial and finance-related organizations from domains such as banking, foundations, securities, and blockchain participated in the expo, Elastos being a major participating enterprise from the blockchain space. The blockchain area at this financial expo was jointly hosted by the China Blockchain Application Research Center and the China Mergers and Acquisitions Association and undertaken by Jinglian Media.

During the four-day expo, there were many visiting guests who came to the Elastos exhibition area to discuss technology, to share experiences and who hoped to find opportunities for collaboration through interactive discussion. On the afternoon of November 1st, at the Blockchain Special Forum at the Beijing Finance Expo, Elastos Ecosystem Application Group Leader, Shijun Song gave a speech titled “How Personal Data Can Become Personal Wealth.”

November 3-4

Elastos participated in the DoraHacks Hackathon in Berlin, (DoraHacks is China’s biggest and most active hackathon organization and hacking community). At the event, two teams selected Elastos competition topics. Team ELA Bloggers were honored with third place in Germany after using the Elastos DID and other tools to construct a decentralized blog. Elastos also issued a special prize for the team.

Events and Meetups

Tokyo

Elastos will Participate in the DoraHacks Blockchain Hack held in Tokyo on November 10 & 11.

Brisbane

Link: https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/Elastos-Australia/events/pphwjqyxpbtb/

San Francisco

Link: https://www.meetup.com/elastos-Open-Source-Meetup/events/256127489/

Auckland

Link: http://meetu.ps/e/G0QQn/8MjXP/d

Illinois

Link: https://www.meetup.com/Elastos-Chicago/events/255675161/

Community Art Assets

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

Thoughts & Conclusion

“There are several kinds of love. One is selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you…of kindness and consideration and respect…not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second kind can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn’t know you had.”

—John Steinbeck

This week the United States held a midterm election in the midst of some of the greatest political division in the nation’s history. On the very same day, ELA was listed on its first U.S. exchange in direct result of international compliance standards enabled by the unwinding of the lock-in program. With this as a backdrop, it is now and interesting time to look at the rule of law and government—not a look into the regulations of cryptocurrencies, but the role of government and society within the Elastos community. If it is not clear by now, The Elastos Foundation, led by the philosophy and decision of Founder Rong Chen, has given nearly half the coin supply of ELA to the decentralized global community that supports Elastos called Cyber Republic. This is no small move and is one of the boldest statements for a culture of decentralization of power and wealth in the space. This act needs to be clarified.

The Elastos Foundation is a global organization that is based in China and contains a western team that is decentralized across the United States. The Foundation currently holds less than 4 million ELA. Cyber Republic, the democratic community and talent pool that supports and grows the mission of Elastos, is a global project and will have access to more than 16 million ELA after democratic elections for the Cyber Republic Council next year. The metrics on this are quite clear. Cyber Republic has been handed the majority of the economy and asked to set up a government and a society that the citizens within it will control collectively. The Elastos Foundation is not in charge of Cyber Republic. At the moment, Elastos team members sit on the interim council and help facilitate some of the management of the website and project. However, these are temporary overlaps. The responsibility and the power and the accountability of Cyber Republic has been placed onto the global community. These are projects that overlap in mission but will not overlap in management and governance. Cyber Republic is a democracy—The Elastos Foundation is not.

But what kind of democracy is it? The truth is, as fascinating as Elastos is, it is not nearly as interesting or modern as the potential for Cyber Republic. But again, what is Cyber Republic? To be clear, this piece of writing is not allowed to define it. The culture and definition of Cyber Republic must be decided by the citizens in it as a whole. Having said that, an earnest admiration and look into what Cyber Republic evokes, and has potential to be, will follow.

Cyber Republic is not quite capitalistic and not quite communistic or socialistic— but more of a, and those reading this, feel free to expand on or adjust this term, a form of “democratic economics.” This is to say, it is a holistic meritocracy.

Cyber Republic is a group of global citizens formed around something that inherently has value— and that value—ELA—preceded the formation of Cyber Republic. But more importantly when viewing it in terms of other forms of societies, CR seeks to balance the basic selfish/selfless ratio that is always in a state of imbalance in both purely capitalistic and purely communistic societies.

In a capitalistic society, one can gain value whether their actions improve the whole of society or do not improve the whole. This is a free market. Forces like the invisible hand help dictate what is a winner and what is a loser, but as we know, destructive actions are also extremely profitable in a capitalist society. On the other hand, and there is a case to be made that these two opposing systems are two hands of the same body, in a communist society, the state dictates what is good for the state, and in this sense, can dictate how value is distributed per that standard. Yet at the same time, the state centrally controls the value and is not typically held to truly democratic elections. Citizens do not vote on how value can be used nor can they really influence it as much as in a capitalistic society.

With capitalism and communism both being 19th century ideas, it only makes sense that CR would not rely on one or the other in building a modern society. The simple fact is, both systems create a centralization of wealth. One to corporations or individuals at the top of the pyramid and one to the state, also at the top of the pyramid. Both systems can also be ripe with corruption. An example of the oligarchic potential for corruption in CR could be expressed in the idea of burning the 16m ELA of CR in a move to increase value to large holders of ELA. This decision, if it comes to a vote, will be CR’s decision. But the optics on this self-destructive move appear to dramatically tip the selfish/selfless scale towards a clear imbalance in favor of selfish.

In theory, in CR, there is a mix of both incentives and thus we may have a balance. On the one hand, any task or proposal that is approved and pays ELA will automatically fall under selfish reasons as the individual will receive value for themselves, but simultaneously, all distribution of value will serve the selfless function of improving CR and Elastos. To extend this idea one step further, if one believes Elastos is good for global society, all actions are also inherently selfless in their goal of improving the global internet. In this line of thought, it can be seen that CR is not capitalistic nor is it communistic, but a modern balance of the two where one must always act in accordance of selfishness and selflessness in order to gain value. This could solve the incentive to contribute and the incentive to contribute productively and holistically towards the whole. For to gain value, one must first bring value, and second, one must contribute to the whole of the project and by extension the whole of the global internet. What is truly remarkable is that the economy is a cloud of resources and value with the sole purpose to distribute value to those who can grow the mission and is not designed to help the so-called “state” or so-called “bourgeoisie.” The economy is for everyone who has value. This is a truly interesting philosophic “dilemma.” The question becomes, how can someone gain value and not correspondingly give value to the whole of the project and everyone in it? This is a good question to have and to monitor the execution of through proper leadership.

Imagine for a moment if each CR citizen is considered their own country, their own company of one. Each citizen can then work on behalf of themselves in a centralized manner but as part of a larger decentralized system. This balance of selfishness/selflessness and centralization/decentralization, is at the heart of democratic economics and CR.

Everyone in CR should want to see everyone else do well and also see CR and Elastos do well. Being a citizen is an optional choice and therefor everyone in the republic should be there because they want to achieve the ideals of the whole. The spirit of trust, collaboration, and love are paramount.

So–we can now establish that in this new society, you must have value to gain value and that value must be in accordance with growing and contributing to the success of the whole. What is absolutely modern is that there are no requirements for having value other than the value itself. Because CR is borderless and accepts all people with zero discrimination, anyone can contribute and gain value if it is in accordance with this system. What other country can say that? Because citizenship is open to anyone who can contribute well, all citizens are inherently productive members of this society and if they are deemed to stop being productive, or start being destructive, they no longer gain value. This is a semi-autonomous system where the incentives propel the productivity and never lose sight of the whole. As CR grows, the autonomous nature, in theory, could speed up.

What must be looked at, though, in the context of capitalism and communism is that all systems inherently fail in some ways because all systems involve human beings and more specifically the human mind. No system can work as it does on paper for the very reason that the madness, the negativity, the greed, and the attack of the human mind always travels with the citizen to a new system. Cyber Republic, as lovely as an idea as it is—is no exception. This brings us to our final point, and one that cannot be elaborated on but must be acted upon but everyone in CR.

Cyber Republic needs to be about love. Before the word love is questioned, refer back to the quote at the top of this section. Cyber Republic does not need politicians who systematically sow division and campaign for themselves in the name of some greater cause. That is the old government. But beware, the old style politicians will emerge, with their smiles and their innocent plans for the future. But we must be able to spot who is genuine and who is a politician. We must all be leaders if we are to spot the true leaders. Let us make CR different. We cannot change the human condition and all of the negative aspects that come with it. We cannot prevent the problems that come with any idea or structure. We cannot avoid the human mind. But we can spot its tricks. We can prepare for its narratives and its FUD and its complaints. We can hold ourselves accountable. We can hold each other accountable too. We can create a culture, “of kindness and consideration and respect…not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable.”

The culture and government and society of Cyber Republic is yours to create. Make it different. Make others feel inspired to be part of something different. Make yourself feel different by helping to create a world where people can work together differently. We have a society forming with people scattered all over the world and those people can be given value for bringing value. But value will not enough. We need culture. We need leaders. We need people who collaborate before they castigate. We need people who are kind, who are respectful, who are considerate and who are immensely determined to take this democratic start-up to the top of this industry and to the highest reach of its potential. Do not merely ask what Elastos can do for you, but also, what you can do for Cyber Republic.