Hmmm... Not really what I was thinking of. Who do you pay for your email addresses? Who mines PoS coins? I can see your point (sort of) in the personal stock value (in the same way that lots of twitter followers is deemed to make a twitter account 'valuable'), but I'm thinking more of personal and private blockchains, more akin to email addresses.

In the same way that a username/password combination is used to secure email addresses, a cryptographic key of some sort (make it quantum!) is used to secure the privacy of your blockchain. You, the blockchain owner, can grant or revoke access to it. It's not an open ledger. It's your personal private blockchain.

Want to see my CV? Show me a QR code and I'll send you the latest copy that's stored on my blockchain. My choice. You do not have free access to it. Something like that.

Nice extrapolation!  

I was thinking more about it being on a device rather than being part of the human body! I don't ever see a robosapien future. Some people will only ever use tech for what it can do for them rather than giving their body and soul over to it.

It does sound familiar. Sounds like computer networks and FIAT the way you've put it. Everything you've listed is happening already.

THE FUTURE - A Blockchain for Everyone

The number of coins in existence (and also the number that have ever existed) has got me thinking and speculating about blockchains. Recently I've been speculating on the possibility of a blockchain (or even blockchains) for everyone, for personal use. I've been wondering if the blockchain could evolve to become something like an email address, but an email address with a magnitude of difference. So, in effect, people could have personal blockchain addresses. Not an address (or series of addresses) on a blockchain, but entire personal blockchains with their own public addresses.

The blockchain could then be used to store all personal data e.g documents, pics, music, bookmarks, letters, medical history, search results etc. Compression technology could be used to reduce the size of items stored on the blockchain. Though blockchains can bloat, the size of a personal blockchain would be nothing compared to other items we store for personal use. Forget hard disks or cloud drives, blockdrives will be global, personal, anonymous, secure, and shareable, simultaneously. Every item will be bookmarked and indexed with an associated block number and stored in the blockchain's own local sidechain.

No-one need run their own wallet or even think about how to keep their blockchains sync'd, in the same way that people don't run their own mailservers, or worry about whether their email address(es) will be sync'd. If it's profitable to host blockchains (in the same way it's profitable to host email accounts) then services will spring up to accommodate these new personal blockchains.

Merchants, advertisers, and other services will all have to operate sidechains and fight for our business (i.e the blockchain owners decide if a sidechain has access to their blockchain, or blockchains). Of course, the other services will also run their own blockchains, once again, in the same way that all organizations also have their own email addresses.

So, what happens to the personal currencies on all these personal blockchains? Who knows? Maybe employers will buy them off individuals rather than paying in return for labour. Maybe employers/services will operate sidechains that pump value into personal blockchains (somehow). Maybe personal blockchains start with a zero sum and owners have to tout existing sidechain holders for currency/value (e.g employers/friends/family/services). And then a mass of profitable background crypto exchanges arise, facilitating the free flow of all these different personal currencies around the globe, finally offering an instantaneous global currency service that knows no boundary.

By that time, of course, we've colonized Mars and my personal butler is a wookie.

Just a thought...
 

Thanks!

There's a lot of truth there in what you say, and I completely agree that it's about survival. I've gone to great pains to make sure that the network is robust (and fast), and that the blockchain is also secured for the long term. The mobile and desktop wallets are also syncing happily (and I personally think kobo has the best looking Schildbach wallet out there - not that looks matter!).

I think mobile wallets are a great asset to any crypto. Just look at how Apple Pay is pushing it's service globally. it's introducing more people to the concept of mobile finance (and ironically helping with the future awareness of how cryptos work imho). Apple Pay is only doing what mobile crypto wallets have been doing for some time now (but Apple Pay still cannot do person-to-person the way a mobile crypto wallet can). I'm glad I got kobo's mobile wallet out before Apple Pay took over the world of advertising (and also before Apple Pay's UK launch). Bragging rights matter!  

Good luck with the Order of Mobius. Elite: Dangerous is one awesome piece of software! Not even sure it can be defined as a game any more. It's definitely more simulator than game. If you can bring unity to the pilots order then maybe you guys can also try working on unifying the BCT community!

Thanks for the encouragement and your continued support. It's really appreciated. Keep minting!
 

This is excellent. Thanks! 

Thanks. There's a few issues. The block explorer is down (as you pointed out). I'm working to resolve the issues.

Thanks! That's the plan (the news being fine tuned for crypto and Africa, though not only). I'll also write some pieces, and I will get some proper marketing out there. I'll look into getting a kobo forum on the website once the new wallet is released.

There's a lot going on in finance, especially now that Apple Pay is out hoping to take over the world. A lot of banks are getting into crypto as well, but the systems they're looking into building seem to be so intrusive that I believe they'll end up being worse than the current credit system. The principles behind what they're trying to achieve sound promising, but just wait and see what happens when you try to transfer money abroad with these new blockchain (cashless) systems. Their restrictive practices will encourage/push people to find an alternative. We need to make sure we're still here with good reliable systems when that time comes.

I've been spending the last few weeks thinking of how we can move things forward with Kobo. I was trying to find some way of evolving Kobo without it being dependent on user/merchant acceptance of the principles of crypto technology (in the short term - I believe this will change over time). I think I have a solution for the short term. Your feedback is appreciated.

I'm going to develop the kobo mobile wallet to double up as a news aggregator, with an emphasis on crypto and mobile money news stories (maybe even a crypto prices function as well). This will mean the evolution of the existing mobile wallet to include a splash screen and a default news feed function. I'll also look into what's required for adding a news feed to the desktop wallets. I'll also setup the twitter account to pull news and price info from feeds so the account is more dynamic.

This doesn't mean that other merchant acceptance plans are being forgotten or shelved. This just allows for further development of the kobo infrastructure while public perception of cryptocurrencies grows. It will mean that we have a constantly updating mobile wallet with a lot of relevant news features. Over time this will be added to. I'm also going to look into pulling online items for sale into the feed as well. Initially, people will still have to use FIAT to buy any items pulled into the feeds from online merchants, but kobo will have that association with news and mobile shopping. It may also open up doors to other new ways to evolve e.g. the beginnings of kobo micropayments and subscriptions.

It's a platform to move into other areas of commerce without, initially, being wholly dependent on exchange volume. If the platform is developed then hopefully exchange volume will grow with it as well.

This is not going to happen overnight but I'm hoping there will be something tangible to show by the end of the year. I will be farming out this development work.
 

Also, when needed, I do this (more than $2) on Yobit as well.

Thanks!
The Bittrex delisting comment has been there for a very long time (and it seems to be getting updated each time one date passes). It seems to have been on permanently since July. I've been buying to stop delisting for a very long time. I'm in danger of holding too much kobo.

I'm in the process of updating the ABE server which is supplying validhashes to the mobile wallets. The Kobocoind on that server crashes every few days and it takes half a day to rebuild the ABE database. It has to be resolved.

Thanks! I'll PM you.

Thanks. Good ideas and advice there. I think you're right in that I need to forget about how other coins are doing (though sometimes I think it helps to gauge where you are).

Let me mull over some of the points you've raised there. I'm happy to delegate, but I have to make sure I know what direction kobo's heading before doing that. Getting interest back up is important. As you said, updates and successes will do that. Getting on cointopay was good but with low exchange volume it was hard to start offering it to merchants.

I'm on it. As for life showing no mercy, it's never shown me any mercy, anyways. I've fought for every scrap I've ever had. I'm that alley-cat wailing into the night because it's leg's been caught in a trap (but it still won't let go of the chicken leg in it's mouth). We'll prevail. It's a long game and we're still in it. We also have great infrastructure to build on.

Thanks guys. I could do with some help on those fronts but so far the offers of help haven't materialized. I've also had some other major personal issues that I won't go into here that really took me off the project, so yes, the SWOT analysis was spot on there. The kobo community is small but loyal. I'll keep the updates coming, and keep things moving forward.

@b1007 What do you mean by online wallet trading?

I want to integrate kobo into African webshops. It only take one site to jump on to make a difference but getting that one site is a real challenge. Webshops aren't there to be friends with new projects. They wants their money for their products. Some devs have bought products and sold them for their currency. I'll look into that. Noblecoin was very good with gift vouchers, and at one time, users in Australia could pay bills using NOBL (but look at NOBL price now - it can get disheartening).

I'll look into selling kobo direct from the website. My only concern is making sure I don't fall foul of the authorities.

One thing I've been wondering about is alts having a committee of some sort. We could help move each other forward, but sometimes I think the alts industry is just too cutthroat for that to happen.

Hi everyone, sorry for the long delay. I've had to find some paid work (bills need to be paid). I've semi-relocated from London to Edinburgh (Scotland) and started working full time again, so my time had been really limited.

I have to be honest with everyone here.

There's a few issues that are slowing the development of things with Kobocoin. We've got to a certain point but things have stalled. As I've gone further into getting Kobocoin out there into the public domain, there's 2 challenges I've faced that seem to be impacting on how things can go forward from here

1. Cryptos as a whole seemed to have stalled. Over the last few weeks there's been a marked decrease in interest from the wider public with newer cryptos. Some might say that the Ethereum trading launch has taken interest away from the smaller projects. Maybe.
2. Kobocoin lacks the exchange volume to sustain a payment gateway or remittance model. There needs to be a lot more volume on the exchanges. It's a tough one to admit, but it needs to be recognised. There's no point getting people to use Kobo if they can't redeem it at this point in it's development. A full currency (non-redeemable) model like FIAT seems like a long way away at the moment.

I've been thinking about how to move forward from this point. It's a tough one. My current thought are to start developing the wallets to do a lot more than just perform transaction processing/recording. I'm really looking at taking wallet development forward to encourage people to use it, and maybe not just for mobile money.

There's more that's possible but that's where I am. The lack of exchange volume is a really serious issue. I was thinking of giveaways, but all that might encourage is more dumping. I'm being a bit philosophical about how to get things moving again with Kobo. I'm trying to be more creative.

The network is still fast (that won't change as I've got servers online ensuring the integrity of the network), but I'm having to rethink how I get to market. It's not an easy task.

Again, sorry for the lack of updates.

Well, I guess the world and crypto economies appear to be stuttering for now. Please be aware that KOBO may soon be delisted from Bittrex. Get ready to withdraw your coins. There's been no real activity (I can't even call it volume) since 21st August. As I said in previous posts, I'm just grateful for the YoBit listing. If I had money to throw at Bittrex I would, but I don't.

The network infrastructure is still up and running very efficiently. Android wallets are still sync'd. Unfortunately there's been no real forward progress in the last few weeks as everything appears to have dried up. People I'd been talking to seem to have disappeared (maybe on their holidays). It appears that a lot of interest has left the crypto industry recently and a lot of projects are just sitting and waiting. KOBO network is still ultrafast compared to others I'm happy to say.

We already have a sidechain for private messaaging. I'm looking into what other features sidechains can offer us. Also still waiting to hear back from 37coins regarding an SMS wallet for KOBO.

Probably like everyone else I've been watching the the Ethereum trading launch with great interest. It'll be interesting to see where the price and marketcap goes from here. I'll also be watching closely for the promised apps (and how to use them!).

Has anyone else noticed that overall crypto market cap has dropped from about $4.7bn to now $3.9bn over the last two weeks? I've also been watching the debate with BitcoinXT. All interesting stuff. Personally, I've observed that when an altcoins' price drops substantially that the community normally cries out for a hard fork (or sometimes forces the issue). I'm a bit surprised that bitcoin fell prey to this (maybe that's a naive and simplistic view of what's happened - who knows - it seems like a pattern to me).

At the moment, the only development to talk of with Kobocoin is that I've been chatting with the 37coins team. I'm hoping that KOBO will soon have an SMS wallet available using their technology. I'll keep pushing through this weird time to get more real world tech on the platform. It's all about what's necessary for the future. Marketcap and trading hasn't been positive over the last few days (I guess Ethereum is the talk of the town right now), but ups and downs are part of the industry.

I think this has been a VERY interesting month for cryptos in general. I do think the loss of almost $1bn in market cap is significant but I'm not sure what it's signifying. All will be revealed in the coming months!

To those who got into Ethereum in the last few days, I hope you made some gains.
 

It's very lean times in the crypto world right now. Apart from the launch of Ethereum trading, most of the crypto world seems to be on holiday, or just twiddling their thumbs.

Unfortunately, 37coins is closing. It was an SMS remittance service. A real shame.

http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-remittance-startup-37coins-announces-closure/
https://medium.com/@37Coins/thank-you-59baedb13c50

It's not an easy sell.

Kobo has no external funding so there's less pressure in these lean times. I am making headway and speaking to the right people but it's slow progress. I'd love to have big news every week for you but sadly it's not the case. Doors are opening and there seem to be possibilities, but it all takes time.

Rest assured that I'm not dissuaded in any way, and Kobo is here for the long run. I am pounding that beat daily. We're now 6 months old (as of August 7th). It feels like a lot longer, for sure. We are getting there, and we will get there.
 

Who said so?

Apologies for the lack of updates.

There's been positive things going on in the background. I've had to give myself a crash course in our APIs and how to integrate them into other services. There's a possible partnership opportunity brewing that should be interesting (if I can get it finalised).

I've changed the website a bit so that merchants and services interested interested in kobo can see our APIs without having to contact me directly (it's happened twice now). http://www.kobocoin.com/Tech.html - I'm no API expert but I'm getting the hang of it.

It's also the start of the summer holidays so I have to devote time to family as well.