Now that the two main pools are evenly balanced, it is our recommendation that new miners choose HODLPool and ubiq.minerpool.net as their first choices, further reducing the % of hashrate any one mining pool has over the network and is an important step towards proper decentralization of the mining ecosystem.

Advertising / Marketing Updates

Invest In Blockchain post (2019 predictions)

Community Manager Kris Lester has been featured in Invest In blockchain, with a series of predictions for 2019. As you can imagine Ubiq featured heavily in the predictions explaining some predicted events in the crypto space and why Ubiq made the development decisions to mitigate some potential threats these will cause.

You can read the article using the link below:

Augmentum update

Earlier this month, we launched our new Incubator program code-named ‘Augmentum’, designed to assist fair launch, non-ICO tokens in swapping to the Ubiq network by providing some financial assistance when applying for a grant.

Augmentum is community funded and successfully raised over $2000 by donations in its first week of operating. Eventually this program will be merged with the NDF officially opening a larger funding source for token swaps, however this is subject to a governance vote which we will look at soon.

We would like to encourage all community members to raise funds for this project with small donations for as little as $1 appreciated. If many community members donate a small amount per-month, this will soon evolve into a large funding source to improve utilization of the Ubiq, strengthening the value of the network.

We will also grant donors who contribute over $100 in crypto the new ‘Project Donor’ tag in Discord. You can contribute by following the blog post link or going directly to our crowdfunding website on BTCPayJungle.

Our new ‘Project Donor’ tag in Discord

We would like to take this opportunity to personally thank all of our donors and will call out our donor list on the Augmentum channel in discord on a monthly basis.

Community Projects

New Node Guides and ‘Full Noder’ role

Node guru and community member Matt has released several updates to his full node guide aimed at improving node up-time by installing supervisor and updating the initial guide to make the installation process easier.

He has also just released a guide with automatic node configuration that handles most of the process for the user.

We have also launched an incentive to our community for nodes listed on the Ubiq network stats page. We will grant any community members that run a node and list it on this page the new discord ‘Full Noder’ role

Our new ‘Full Noder’ tag in Discord

We would like to thank all community members who went to the effort of listing a node and engaging in the process.

Cryptanthropy (Update from Aaron)

Cryptanthropy kicked off 2019 with a return to the #RandomActOfKindness that started it all! Off they went out to the local grocery store with $400.00 CAD worth of gift cards purchased with bitcoin from Coincards.ca.

Here is a link to all the pictures so you can follow the story as it unfolded on Twitter.

The evening and reactions were just as special as the first endeavor and it looks like Cryptanthropy might be finding its groove looking at all the groceries they have been able to purchase. Since their last update the website has expanded to include GEO as a supported donation channel, this will be a really cool way to get out and collect or drop coins in future fundraising efforts!

It was also noted there is the beginnings of an online T-Shirt shop featuring logos and designs from the Ubiq platform and community under the Gear tab, check it out if your into crypto gear. Last but not least a big thank you to the individual donations and community inspired Hashanthropy campaign (editor: mentioned in more detail later in the article).

What a cool effort by all the miners that have been donating a few hours a day sharing hash power to fund our project along with a few others within the platform, it really means a lot to support each others efforts with belief and kindness. I’m sure they would enjoy a follow on Twitter @cryptanthropy if you are so inclined.

Don’t forget to smash that Hashanthropy button on the bottom of their site to join the party!

Hashtanthropy

Long-term Ubiq and Decred enthusiast Sambiohazard has launched a community project which we are naming ‘Hashtanthropy’. With several Ubiq programs launched and funded by the community, Hashtanthropy allows users to now donate hashrate to one of three addresses which support either our community site, Cryptanthropy and the new Augmentum program.

Within a short time of launching hashtanthropy, we had several community members donate their hashing power first to the community site and then Cryptanthropy.