ANU #1 — The first AppCoins News Update

This is the first AppCoins News Update, or ANU #1, for short. This will be a regular bi-weekly update by the AppCoins team. This means you may expect the next update on January 31. Each ANU will be made of four components: the Dev Update, the APPC Markets Report, Featured Team Member and Upcoming Events.

**Quicklinks**Dev UpdateAPPC Markets ReportFeatured Team MemberUpcoming Events

The past two weeks were spent researching and further testing tools and functionalities that we consider relevant for the AppCoins protocol. The tools we have been testing are Microraiden and Casper FFG.

Integrating Microraiden

Microraiden is the simplified version of the Raiden Network and can be used to perform off-chain transactions between predetermined peers (many-to-one approach). Although it doesn’t support multi-hop transfers and bidirectional payment channels, its functionality can still be potentially relevant for the AppCoins protocol.

Our approach to start testing Microraiden’s functionality was two-fold:

1. Implement the client in Java
2. Test the server-side functionalities

Regarding the 1st approach, since the AppCoins protocol is to be integrated by app stores and be used from mobile apps, a Java implementation enables us to test Microraiden off-chain transactions using an Android frontend app. This is specially relevant since Aptoide will be showcasing the AppCoins protocol from within its Android app. If you want to see the PoC we released during the Web Summit, follow this link.

As for the 2nd approach, deeply understanding Microraiden’s core functionality is key to know the true potential of its technology and to see if it can really be used inside the AppCoins protocol and how. The AppCoins protocol will need to define Resources (refer to Microraiden’s GitHub) that will be exchanged for APPC tokens, as off-chain transactions will be used throughout all the protocol’s use cases: in-app purchases, mobile advertising and developers/apps reputation.

We’ve synchronised the blockchain in the Rinkeby testnet and put up the Microraiden example running for this testnet.

Rinkeby testnet synced

Microraiden demo proxy example running

Testing Casper FFG

The Casper project is especially important as it’s directly related to sharding (an easier explanation can be found here), which will enable Ethereum to scale its TPS and become a better solution in the crypto space. Casper FFG is one of the two parallel work streams being currently developed in order to promote the transition of Ethereum from a PoW to a PoS blockchain.

Since the AppCoins protocol is done relying on an ERC20 token, any change and update to the Ethereum protocol can have a very important impact on what our protocol can achieve. Therefore, understanding the current state of the Casper FFG and its functionality can help us prepare for what may come from it in the near future.

In addition, the AppCoins team also wants to contribute to the Ethereum network, in this case by helping to test the current implementation of Casper FFG, as AppCoins wants to be an active player in the community.

For this, we’ve decided to setup a Casper FFG node in our infrastructure, running on an AWS machine with Ubuntu 16.04 using the docker image that is available here. In the following screenshot one can see the node running.

Casper FFG node logs

The Casper FFG can also be run in a testnet instead of connecting to the mainnet. We’ll probably try it out while developing and testing the AppCoins protocol for the three aforementioned use cases.

Market Cap and 24h Volume (Jan 8–17 2018). Source: CoinMarketCap.

AppCoins is a blockchain based protocol, but it’s also a token being currently traded in two exchanges: Binance and Huobi. The APPC token has witnessed a healthy trade volume during these first few weeks, peaking at 201,140,000 USD on Jan 11 2018 (00:14:19 UTC).

As a result of the ICO (which ended back in December), the maximum supply is made of 246,203,093 APPC. However, of this, only 100,054,312 APPC are circulating.

This is due to the fact that the tokens on this wallet are currently locked for a number of purposes. These include the Team (locked for 12 months, with the Advisors tokens already distributed), Aptoide (locked for 6 months), AppCoins Foundation (locked for 12 months) and the Bootstrap (locked for 6 months).

You can see the current circulating supply, maximum supply and market capitalisation info on CoinMarketCap (CMC). We’ve been in communication with the CMC team to keep the information always up to date, as soon as new exchanges are announced.

In our Telegram channel, or via private message, you can use the following @AppCoinBot commands:

/priceReturn the current APPC price in USD from the Coinmarketcap API.

/coinmarketcapAPPCReturn the current APPC market cap from the Coinmarketcap API.

/exchangesReturns exchanges where APPC is currently listed on.

Booth Presence at Mobile World Congress

Mobile World Congress (MWC) is the largest mobile industry event taking place in Barcelona between February 26th and March 1st. AppCoins will be having a booth as way of raising awareness about the project within the industry. The main objective is to secure partnerships with other app stores and OEMs.

Presenting at Kyber Network — Developers Competition in Seoul

Additionally you can also meet Aptoide’s VP of Asia Pacific, Tiago C. Alves which will be presenting AppCoins at the event organized by Kyber Network (which as you know are one of our partners) taking place at the JBK Convention hall in 🇰🇷 Seoul on Jan 20. If you’re in town don’t miss this opportunity to learn more about APPC. More info on their event page (website in Korean).

Name: Diogo PiresRole: Dev Team LeadBio: Expert in robotics and deploying scalable solutions in large-scale backend systems. Diogo Pires likes to solve real-life problems. Specifically hard-to-solve ones involving Blockchain technology, AI and Big Data. He was one of the co-authors of the AppCoins protocol definition document and is currently leading the dev team efforts for its implementation.

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