ANU #7 — ASF SDK, ASF Wallet Alpha 3 and Working Groups

AppCoins News Update, or ANU for short, is a regular bi-weekly update by the AppCoins team. As usual we are going to cover dev updates, market reports, team members and upcoming events. This week’s focus is on AppCoins Protocol (smart contracts), ASF Wallet, ASF SDK, and the ASF Website, Tech in Asia Conference and Working Groups. You may expect the next ANU on the 25th April.

**Quicklinks**Dev UpdateAPPC Markets ReportFeatured Team MemberUpcoming EventsWorking Groups

Another fortnight, another Dev Update! In the last ANU, we’ve detailed what would be the next steps for the next major release — Alpha 3 — of the AppCoins Protocol and the tools to interact with it. As previously stated, Alpha 3 will consist in the first version of the Advertising use case, where developers (advertisers) can create campaigns to promote their apps and users can earn APPC for giving attention to and using their apps.

In the past two weeks, we’ve been working on all fronts: AppCoins Protocol (smart contracts), ASF Wallet, ASF SDK, and the ASF Website. Alpha 3 will consist of delivering all these components ready for the Advertising use case.

AppCoins Protocol

When we talk about the protocol part of the AppCoins project, we’re talking about the logic and functionalities that rely on the Ethereum blockchain, i.e. the smart contracts we need to develop.

For the Advertising use case, the smart contract logic allows developers to create and stop campaigns, as well as to check which campaigns are currently open, and from which campaigns users can earn APPC. It can also register and validate each Proof-of-Attention (PoA) that is computed by the ASF Wallet and the ASF SDK. This proof states that a user has given his attention and has used an app which is associated with a currently open campaign.

So far we’ve created the functionality to create campaigns and check which campaigns are live. Feel free to check the code in the dev branch of our smart contracts repo.

ASF SDK

The SDK removes from the developer the logic of checking if the app is running and of triggering the ASF Wallet so that it registers the PoA components and computes the full PoA, once the required 12 components are registered. Please refer to the ASF Wallet section of the last ANU to check the format of both the PoA components and the full PoA.

So far we have the first version of the SDK with the aforementioned functionality developed. We’ll be polishing some edge cases to make it ready for publishing. If you want to check how it is going, please go to the dev branch of our SDK repo.

ASF Wallet

For the Advertising use case, the wallet is responsible for registering the PoA components and for computing the full PoA once it has registered the necessary 12 components.

Registering a PoA component requires the computation of a nonce to help mitigate the risk of click spoofing. The nonce is computing using the same mechanism used for Bitcoin mining but with a difficulty adjusted to the smartphone being used, i.e. the number of required leading zeros in the computed hash is set depending on the smartphone.

Please visit the dev branch of the wallet repo to check the development status.

ASF Website

Regarding the website, we’ve been working in the restructuring of information. This enables visitors to better understand the mission of the Foundation and the status of the protocol’s development.

In addition, we’ve also been including more information about becoming a member of the Foundation. This will open the access to working groups that work with us and give us feedback that helps us develop the protocol in a way that delivers the most value to users, developers, and app stores.

We have also been working on webpages that enable developers and users to interact with the protocol regarding the Advertising use case. These pages enable developers to create campaigns — a Create Campaign page — and allow users to check which campaigns are open — an Offer Wall page. The latter will be a responsibility of the app stores and they should be the ones showing the active campaigns to their users. The page we’re developing serves as a showcase of the technology and, together with the SDK and the Wallet, it enables developers and users to have a view of the entire flow of the Advertising use case.

We will release documentation and examples on how to create campaigns with Metamask and how to see them in the browser.

The current market cap is close to $34.39 Million USD, with $3.11 Million in volume in the last 24 hours across these exchanges: Binance (44.52%) and Huobi (55.48%).

AppCoins continues to be tied to Bitcoin. During the past two weeks, AppCoins value has seen an increased volatility having seen a high of $0,437 USD and a low of $0,288 USD. The main reasons for this increased volatility can be explained by the current trade wars between the US and China, which have taken an impact on cryptocurrency, as well as in all markets; and the Tax deadlines in the US, on the 17th April. You can see more info about APPC markets at Coinmarketcap.

Name: Ren TangRole: VP of ProductBio: Previously incubating mobile games and apps at Goodgames, EA and Disney. Ren Tang is VP of Product at AppCoins and has been working on team development and product vision.

The first ever TIA — Tech in Asia Conference happened in 2012 and has since grown to become one of the largest technology conferences in Asia. Its mission is to connect the startup ecosystem in an offline setting in order to help businesses around the world uncover the latest trends and insights, and build connections with industry leaders and passionate individuals in the tech community.

We are proud to announce that Tiago Alves, VP Asia Pacific of AppCoins, will be part of what can only be described as an impressive line up of speakers, where industry experts, CEOs of blockchain-based companies, and VCs will share their thoughts and experiences on this technology.

Tiago’s presentation called “What’s Next: Life After ICO” will occur on the second day of the event and it will be held on the Blockchain Stage. As the name suggests, it will cover insights on how businesses can prepare their strategy and future steps after the ICO. Tiago will base his speech on AppCoins successful experience.

TIA — Tech in Asia, will be held at the Suntec Convention & Exhibition Centre on May 15 & 16, in Singapore.

The App Store Foundation is currently working on the creation of Working Groups for the protocol discussion. There will be three different groups: in-app purchases, app advertising and developers’ reputation, this way the ASF members can have discussions that are more focused on the different parts of the protocol. The Working Groups purpose is to provide an opportunity for the app ecosystem players to share insights, and also to help the AppCoins team to understand how to improve its solution in order to better tackle the app economy inefficiencies.

WG1 — App Advertising

The App Advertising WG aims to devise new procedures for improving the app advertising flow of AppCoins. These procedures have the goal of optimizing the consumer acquisition while facing app industry issues like ad fraud and the high intermediation in the app advertisement processes. This WG is open to the participation of all ASF members, with special focus on app stores and developers.

WG2 — In-app Purchases

The In-app Purchases WG has the mission of promoting the innovation of the AppCoins flow related with in-app purchases. Focused on increasing the accessibility to the app economy for app users by shrinking or eliminating the entering barriers, this WG aims to leverage blockchain technologies to provide worldwide consumers with seamless means to be active in this economy. Members of the ASF like app stores and developers are welcome to contribute, as well as the payment industry players, adjacent blockchain projects and researchers in related areas.

WG3 — Developers Reputation

Transparent app approval processes, developers’ reputation and cybersecurity are the main topics in the Developers Reputation WG. This WG intends to devise and propose new procedures that optimize the cybersecurity processes of app stores in terms of efficiency and performance, and the security of app consumers. All ASF members can contribute to this WG, particularly app stores, and also cybersecurity companies, related blockchain projects and researchers in the area.

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