Bitcoin Plaza

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

PeerTracks Will Allow CryptoHipsters to Profit by Discovering a Band Before Anyone Else

You know that friend who always tries to score indie snob cred by saying he thinks a specific band’s “early stuff was better?” P2P music startup PeerTracks might have devised a way for your hipster fr

PeerTracks: Paradigm Shift In Music World

The time has come for starving artists to finally make real money from their music. As the Internet disrupted the way record labels make their money, the blockchain is taking this another step by threatening to render them useless. PeerTracks is matching the artist up with the audience and allowing them to both make money, all the while spreading knowledge of the blockchain to the mainstream.

I got a chance to speak with Cédric Cobban, the individual who, along with Eddie Corral, is orchestrating the unique Peertracks effort.

cedric

What is Peertracks?

PeerTracks is a music streaming/retail website that plugs into the BitShares Music blockchain. It’s a user friendly front end aimed at the masses, allowing them to benefit from all the advantages crypto brings without the need to understand or even know what a blockchain is.

What does PeerTracks do?

For an artist, it’s a platform to sell your music and engage your fans through the creation and sale of your own artistcoins, whose value is tied to the sale of your music. This incentivizes artistcoin holders to promote you, get you to stardom and increase your sales – all this without a middleman taking a cut.

For a fan/regular user, it’s a place to buy cheaper music and know all your funds are going to the artist. It’s a place to discover new music and benefit by buying the coins of artists you think will be big. Being avant-garde has never been so lucrative!

PeerTracks essentially ties price discovery with talent discovery since the value of an artist’s coin is tied to his music’s sales.

How does it work?

Everything PeerTracks allows is made possible by the BitShares Music blockchain. BitShares Music is essentially a spinoff of BitSharesX, only tweaked to make it better suited for the music economy.

PeerTracks users will spend and earn BitUSD, a crypto-currency market pegged to the US dollar. This shields our users (which are not day traders) from the volatility normally present with crypto-currencies while still benefiting from the many advantages like low fees.

This blockchain is a decentralized exchange; many things trade on it. First, there are Notes, the unit of the blockchain. Then there are artistcoins, which are user issued assets created by the artists to sell (or give away) to their fans. Think Snoopcoin, Biebercoin, etc.

Third and finally, there are BitAssets, like the BitUSD, which are market pegged to their real world counterparts and are collateralized by Notes, meaning all BitAssets are backed by units of the blockchain.

All trades are done ON blockchain. No centralized exchanges required in:

the purchase of music (a fan sending BitUSD to the band)

the trading of artistcoins (Snoopcoin for Rihannacoin, or Biebercoin for BitUSD)

the trading of Notes for BitAssets or artistcoins

PeerTracks never holds any funds. All trades are done peer 2 peer, on blockchain, no trust required.

What is your vision for PeerTracks?

PeerTracks and BitShares Music are going to change the entire digital content economy.

Not only does Peertracks cut out extremely inefficient middlemen, but it also links the fans, the artists and the promoters’ incentives towards the same goal: getting songs and albums out to the world and generating as many sales as possible. Napster changed the world, yes, but it shortchanged the content creators. Incentives did not align… simple as that. This project will change the way small time artists are funded, how they are promoted and how they make a living from their music. The artist’s coin being tied to sales of music is one thing but combining this with “token controlled access” allows artists to bring value to their fans at relatively low cost. For example, an artist could grant backstage passes to anyone with over 100 of his artistcoin.

The model does not stop at music. This concept can be used for movies, ebooks, and even physical goods traded online (eBay could adopt this model for example)

What are you currently busy with?

We are getting BitShares Music and PeerTracks launched. We are presently focused on our pre-sale which started october 6th. Anyone can claim their stake in the future of music by going to http://ift.tt/1suC8nv

What is your professional background?

Eddie Corral’s background is 25 plus years working with the biggest names and companies in the music business. He brings years of copyright, publishing, marketing and promotions experience with independent and major label artists – from sheet music to download he has taken many artist from recording studio to radio.

For myself [Cédric Cobban]: I am a small time entrepreneur in a relatively small town called Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada. Co-owner of an MMA gym + real estate investments (not too relevant to technology!)

My interest in Austrian economics and investing led me to Bitcoin in 2011 which led me to BitShares… which consumed me!

What would you like to tell our readers?

We would like them to know that they have about 45 days left to participate in the NOTE pre-sale. If you see value in what we are doing and realize that this technology we can displace a multi billion dollar industry, check out the pre-sale at http://ift.tt/1suC8nv and be a part of it.

CoinFest 2015: Journey Around the World

When CoinFest started in 2013 as a relatively small gathering of 100 or so Bitcoiners, celebrating the adoption of Bitcoin at a Waves Coffee House in Vancouver, it was conceived as a way to incentiviz

The Digital Currency Dilemma: Anonymity vs. Privacy (Op-Ed)

If you want to be viable player on financial markets then the rules of Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti Money Laundering (AML) measures need to be central to company policy. Fundamentally Bitstamp’s

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Bitcoin Trader.Biz Shuts Down: Scam or Theft? (Plus, Details on Panamanian Bankruptcy Laws)

Bitcoin Trader goes down, and its former customers are left out in the cold. The only question left is, Scam or Theft?

INTERMARKET ANALYSIS: Where Bitcoin Fits In

George Samman encourages everyone to quickly go through the slide deck to check the pulse of the global economy. The macro environment looks like one of deflation rather than the inflation that centra

PayPal Co-Founder Peter Thiel: ‘Unlike PayPal, Bitcoin Succeeded in Developing a Currency’

PayPal co-founder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel believes Bitcoin has succeeded as a currency, but still lacks as a payment system.

Bitcoin is Not Backed by Anything (And That’s OK!)

Whenever you hear, “That currency is not backed by anything!,” it’s almost always meant as criticism. Hard-money enthusiasts are quick to point out the horrible track record of fiat currency. Nearly without fail, currencies “backed by nothing” get heavily devalued through inflation, and they often collapse within decades.

The best solution, so far, has been to tie currency to a commodity whose supply can not be arbitrarily inflated by governments or central banks, or to use that commodity directly as a currency. Gold and silver have served this purpose best, and they have been used successfully for millennia. Backing any currency in precious metals restrains the possibility for inflation.

But, when we look deeper, the connection between being “unbacked” and being at risk for inflation is not a necessary connection. It’s a reasonable connection to make, especially given the history of fiat currency, but it’s conceivable to think of a currency which is inflation-proof and not backed by anything. It might sound fanciful, but thanks to Satoshi Nakamoto, it’s not just possible – it currently exists, and it’s called “Bitcoin.”

Bitcoin is not backed by anything; you can’t “redeem” your Bitcoin for gold at a bank. And it’s not even “backed” by declaration of law. To hard-money folks like myself, that sounds like a recipe for inflationary disaster. But, as implausible as it sounds, Bitcoin is not susceptible to arbitrary inflation. It was intentionally designed this way.

Inflation ultimately happens for one reason: central control over the power to create new money – whether it’s a government trying to pay its debts, or a central bank trying to ease monetary policy. This is one reason why Bitcoin avoids arbitrary inflation: its supply is not controlled by any central authority. The supply is regulated by software and mathematics, not politics. Power in the Bitcoin world is decentralized over an enormous network of computers.

In fact, the software is so precise, we can predict a hundred years into the future almost exactly how many bitcoin will be in existence. You can’t say that about any other currency which is “not backed by anything.”

But it’s not only the production of Bitcoin which is decentralized; it’s also their record of ownership. Every single Bitcoin which has ever been created can be traced back to its inception – including every transaction and change of ownership. This ledger, called “the blockchain,” is publicly viewable, and it is practically set in stone. The ledger is not stored on a central server; it’s not controlled by a few gatekeepers. It is stored on every single computer serving as a node around the entire globe. I’d suggest there’s nothing else you can own which comes with such a clear proof of ownership.

All put together, this means you can’t forge Bitcoin records; you can’t fake ownership; and you can’t create new Bitcoin out of thin air. And it’s all possible through complex mathematics – no trust in a third party, government or corporation is required. In a sense, if Bitcoin is backed by anything, it’s backed by the strength of clever mathematics.

Bitcoin might represent the first currency which is not backed by a physical good and still prevents arbitrary inflation. It has expanded the limits on our traditional conception of money. So, next time you hear “Bitcoin is not backed by anything!” understand it as a deep compliment to the ingenuity of Satoshi Nakamoto.

BitLicenses Deadline is Here: BitPay and EFF Weigh In

Back in August, the New York Department of Financial Services pushed back the deadline for public commentary on its proposed BitLicenses. That deadline, October 21, is here.

Bitcoin: US’ Next Unwinnable War? (Op-Ed)

Will Hammer is the Libertarian Party candidate for the 6th Congressional district in Virginia. “The only special interest Will will serve is you, the individual,” reads Will’s official website.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Talking Bitcoin and the future of music with Premier Studios Owner Sandy Schneiderman

UK Bitcoin Exchange Coinfloor Expands, Plans on Launching BTC Fund

London-based Bitcoin exchange Coinfloor plans on raising funds for expansion and launch a Bitcoin exchange traded fund linked to traditional commodities. UK Bitcoin exchange platform Coinfloor announc