The bullish cryptocurrency year of 2017 has attracted a vast range of worldwide projects and attention. Now that this industry has a $300+ billion market capitalization, there’s one question growing larger with economists and tech watchers; what is the real economic value of these Blockchain startups and how will they make an actual impact on our lives? How will they perform over time and will they manage to keep up with the promises they made during their ICOs?
These burning questions cannot be answered with discussions. They can be answered with actual product usage and road map execution. Knowing when a project falls short with those is critical for safeguarding your investments throughout the bumpy 2018.
We’ve already seen a lot of projects to have completely imploded (e.g., , Swisscoin, the DAO) which further increased the level of scepticism among investors and validated that the level of success of an ICO should not be confused with the amount of money that the same ICO had managed to raise, as the latter is by no means any guarantee for a good return on your investment.
Vitalik Buterin himself (the mastermind behind Ethereum) has stated, “It is an established fact that ninety percent of startups fail. And it should also be an established fact that 90 percent of these ERC20s on CoinMarketCap are going to go to zero.”
In between all these Blockchain companies and all the scepticism that the current bearish market is experiencing, looks like there’s one running at the front that can actually already make an impact on our everyday lives – and its name is .
Locking onto your Hotel on the Chain
Simply put, is an online booking platform for hotels and properties. Much like other booking sites that today’s travelers use, they have their booking platform (which is currently up and running in alpha) connecting hotels and properties to guests looking for a stay somewhere. What makes LockChain unique is their ability to offer this service to the end customer for 20 percent cheaper on average compared to other large booking websites. How? Simply put, LockChain doesn’t take any commission on their booking. Where regular booking sites take anywhere from 15 to 35 percent commission and other additional fees, LockChain connects the hoteliers and property owners to consumers directly without any middle-man, by leveraging Blockchain technology capabilities and by utilizing a true shared economy.
Booking accommodation with LockChain on laptop or phone is already functional. Courtesy of LockChain Ltd.
They just announced that they’ve launched 100,000 hotels deployment with global coverage which are fully available for booking.
This essentially means that any human being that is interested in traveling from now on, can save up to 30 percent on future travel expenses without the necessity of changing his consumer behavior.
LockChain’s price 66 EUR vs competitor price 94 EUR (30 percent cheaper).
A Service you can use Immediately and a Token that Brings Real Life Value Irrespective of Market Conditions – Fundamentals for Success
The value proposition is obvious; cut commissions so travelers can travel cheaper while hoteliers and property owners get more profit. According to research, most travelers compare prices across platforms to pick their hotel or property of choice on the right price. Half of those stumble upon a website they’ve not been acquainted to prior. For your next booking, that can be Lockchain, and you would still end up in the same hotel that you wanted to go to. More importantly, LockChain is not small a player in the online bookings field: They’ve secured over 100,000 hotels with global coverage for their marketplace, which are already live and ready to be booked, and there’s a nicely growing index of properties to be found there, too. Now and then property owners and organisations go into their to raise questions regarding a listing or possible partnership. Of course most of those communications go behind the scenes, but LockChain seems especially interested to answer all of the community’s questions and interests – as long as their business practice is maintained.
Customer-centric Strategy with near Zero Percent Dependency on Third Parties
The other great thing about LockChain is that they have a strategy where they cut down third-party dependency to near zero. Unlike most other projects that are developing “protocols” or complex b2b technologies without clear idea of how and when the retail adoption will take place, LockChain seems to take care of the whole vertical – building the underlying Blockchain engine together with a centralized application that can immediately provide the service to their users and to all users in general.
This essentially means doubling the amount of work in order to ensure retail utility of the end product as soon as possible.
LockChain CEO, Nikola Alexandrov who is engaged in regular discussions in the company’s Telegram channel, commented:
“We have a 100 percent focus on providing a retail service that can make an impact on our everyday lives, without asking the users to make any changes to their current consumer behavior. Our first goal is to make sure the investors love our service and they start to use it. If we can make it work for 5,000 people, then there’s no reason not to make it work for millions of people afterwards. Our goal was never to raise too much money during the ICO, but rather, to build an innovative and yet accessible service of maximum value. That value could easily multiply over time with the right strategy.”
A Blockchain App for the Long-run
LockChain (LOC token), currently having a market capitalization of only $10 million according to contrasts with many of the Top 100 multi-billion dollar valued crypto projects. Some of those don’t even have a basic wallet to support their tokens and completely depend on third parties for the execution of their road-map.
Now after LockChain have implemented the 100,000 hotels and wallet capabilities into their marketplace, they’re focussing on a payment process where users can pay with fiat as well. The fiat payments would be converted into LOC as a background process through API connectivity with exchanges, which would make it a win-win scenario for both non-crypto and crypto users.
The CEO, Nikola, stated that he expects this to occur within the next two to three months. Once that is in place, the marketplace will be truly consumer ready and there will be no stopping back for the growth towards its real $550 billion industry potential.
Several investors online are talking about LockChain being the underdog that you must watch and they might be right; with a small marketcap and being up over 300 percent since their ICO, LockChain is one of the few altcoins that is remaining stable in a competitive and harsh market. It’ll be an interesting jump for them the next couple of weeks when the hotels are fully deployed.
Their mobile apps for Android and iOS are also almost completed and are scheduled to be launched within the next two months.
Further in these couple of months when features will be added they are only a few steps away from official public launch. With their new advisor on board, it also seems they are aiming to be listed on more prominent exchanges. While they’re currently only on a handful exchanges, the most interesting being , it can prove to be a good moment to step in the LockChain game before they reach a wider audience.
The Only Project in the World with a President of a EU Member State as a Team Member
LockChain is run by two individuals at the top; Nikola Alexandrov (CEO) and Hristo Tenchev (COO). They both are award winning entrepreneurs with extensive knowledge in internet start-ups and in the Blockchain industry. They’re supported by a large team of developers that Nikola and Hristo have acquired through years of running IT projects. Furthermore they’re supported by some serious specialists. Let’s name a few. Nevena Petrova as head of Development, who prior to LockChain worked with Nikola on Bitcoin7 which was a well-known and established bitcoin exchange back in its time. Harold Kim as Advisor who prior to Lockhain was involved in getting serious projects listed on large exchanges. Then, not the very least, is Rosen Plevneliev as Chief Advisor. He is formerly known as the Bulgarian President and advises LockChain on strategic developments. Check out their entire team on .
The LOC token has a circulation of only 9.3 million and a total supply of 18.6 million (which is three million less than ).
LOC is priced at around $1.10 at the time of writing this article, and is already tradeable at HitBTC, Yobit, Mercatox, IDEX, and Gatecoin.
This is a paid press release. BTCManager does not endorse and is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy, quality, advertising, products or other materials on this page. Readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company. BTCManager is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release.
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Arguably the leading computer company in the world, has produced the world’s smallest computer, no bigger than a grain of coarse salt. Although “nanotech” is a term usually applied to medical and other micro-machines that have motion or effects that impact upon their micro-environment, IBM’s latest offering nonetheless fits the bill.
Source: IBM
Concurrent with the company’s announcement that it has partnered with the sea and land freight giant Maersk to develop a blockchain-based supply chain protocol, IBM’s new micro-computer is on a par with a 1990s . While that might seem a step backward, when one considers that a microscope is needed to inspect it, it does, in fact represent a huge leap forward.
Welcome to the IBM Future
Billed as ideally geared toward tracking shipments of goods, and flagging irregular transactions, non-compliance, fraud and theft, the nano-computer can also perform essential functions like monitor and sort data, “analyze, communicate, and even act on data,” head of research at IBM, Arvind Krishna said.
Landing at a manufacturing cost of ten US cents, the mini-computer comes laden with “several hundred thousand transistors,” he said. For IBM, this is only a beginning.
Anticipating extensive application in the IoT, Krishna said that “Within the next five years, cryptographic anchors – such as ink dots or tiny computers smaller than a grain of salt, will be embedded in everyday objects and devices.” IBM micro-computers are quite literally the components that future IoT devices will incorporate in their design. A release date for the new IBM offering has yet to be determined, although in-house researchers are busy testing an initial prototype.
IBM Illustrates its Position as a Market Leader
The blockchain project collaboration between is set to just to simplify and secure, but also save the shipping industry billions of dollars off when compared to the current practices that are in place. Having launched the world’s smallest computer at their IBM Think 2018 conference on March 19, 2018, IBM’s collaboration with Maersk shows the diversity and global intent of the computing giant.
While there have been many of to investigate blockchain’s application to the worldwide fraternity, it’s clear that the is aiming at a wholesale revolution of an industry bedeviled with more paperwork than the average municipal offices’ storeroom.
Two major European banks, ING Groep and Societe Generale, have been in pursuit of a blockchain supply chain solution too, aimed at the international bulk commodity trade.
On February 22, 2018, it was announced that the three business partners had concluded their first ever live oil trade, employing their Easy Trading Connect system. Therein, documentation is digitized, and any previously duplicated action has been eliminated by employing a decentralized ledger construct.
In 2014, Maersk reported that a refrigerated shipment from East Africa to Europe could involve as many as 30 different stakeholders and generate over 200 mandatory communications and other interactions.
Were blockchain technology applied to the shipping industry, several thousand tons of paper would be saved daily, errors and the possibility of fraud would be eliminated and, in an industry where speed is of the essence yet slower than land, rail or sky, turnaround times could be dramatically lessened. The IBM-Maersk supply chain solution is to be offered to all industry players, such as ocean carriers, freight forwarders and global port and customs authorities.
IBM Poised to Revolutionize a Global Industry
Senior VP of Industry Platforms at IBM, Bridget van Kralingen, “this new supply chain solution will be a transformative technology with the potential to completely disrupt and change the way global trade is done.”
Having worked closely with Maersk for several years, Van Kralingen confirmed that they have “long understood the challenges facing the supply chain and logistics industry and quickly recognized the opportunity for blockchain to potentially provide massive savings when used broadly across the ocean shipping industry ecosystem.”
In a pilot project involving the Netherlands custom authorities, merchandise from Schneider Electric was shipped by Maersk from to Newark. Arrivals at Rotterdam, oranges from California, flowers from Kenya and Columbian pineapples, were also included in the trial run to ensure that the digital management system was legitimate and delivered on its promise.
The Chief Digital Officer at Maersk, Ibrahim Gokcen, said that “As a global integrator of container logistics with the ambition to digitize global trade, we are excited about this cooperation and its potential to bring substantial efficiency and productivity gains to global supply chains while decreasing fraud and increasing security.”
“The projects we are doing with IBM aim at exploring a disruptive technology such as blockchain to solve real customer problems and create new innovative business models for the entire industry.”
Gokcen is also optimistic that a new protocol such as this will lower costs to consumers as well as enable emerging market players to get into the global shipping industry.
Nanotech Good for a Myriad of Blockchain Apps
The developments at IBM have those positioning themselves for the wholesale emergence of the IoT taking a good look at the implications. The cryptocurrency project has, since its launch, been a DApps-focused outfit and made much of its distinguishing features and also its future vision and role within the emerging IoT. With IBM now able to supply an essential ingredient, companies like are likely to see their ambitions pushed forward.
The new IBM-Maersk blockchain supply chain solution has been based on Hyperledger Fabric. It is expected that IBM, Maersk will be seeking global application by late 2018, once initial trials are over. The VeChain cryptocurrency started January 2018 at $2.26, rising to the month’s high of $9.55, to close out January 2018 at $5.58; it is currently trading at $3.68.
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