Parachute (in collaboration with Google) is looking for Blockchain Projects to join their Community Building and Accelerator Platform

   Introduction

• Parachute is currently accepting applicants, early stage blockchain startups, to join their community building platform
• Ideal applicant is a Blockchain project that can benefit from Parachute’s community building platform and the vast resources provided by Google by way of the partnership
• Parachute will be offering resources and community growing services, including organizing and executing aidops on behalf of partners

     What is Parachute?

Parachute is a platform that partners with crypto projects and startups to help increase project exposure and build their initial communities. We pair projects with our engaged Parachute community. We also enable our partners to utilize community talent via the Parachute Freelance Marketplace and provide partners an initial Parachute Token (PAR) incentive to utilize the marketplace. If your Crypto Project has a native token, Parachute has capability to facilitate air drops and rewards to all community members to increase project interest. A key focus of Parachute is building engaged communities. This is fostered by connecting community members with new projects they love. Engagement is also stimulated by targeted rewards to the highly engaged community members (via PAR or a partner’s native token where applicable). Engagement is further reinforced by a culture that is positive and respectful, use of games/tournaments/prizes, and a focus on having fun as well as philanthropy. This ecosystem has a demonstrated track record of being mutually beneficial to community members as well as Parachute partners.

    What's in it for your blockchain startup?

Google wants to reach startups, which is why they partner with companies like WeWork, Y-Combinator, and now Parachute. Parachute and Google will be sharing a great amount of resources to help your startup grow. Resources and benefits offer thanks to the Google partnership are the following:

• $20,000 USD worth of Cloud and Firebase Credits; good for 12 months
• Dedicated startup technical office hours
• In-depth 1:1 architecture reviews with Google engineers. G-Suite credits for new domains.
• Invitations to exclusive local Google Cloud events
• A smaller Google, via introductions internally where it matters to startups: Ads, Play, Maps, Chrome, and more...
• A streamlined application process to our Surge

These benefits are in addition to Parachute committing itself to actively build a highly engaged and organic community for your startup, stimulating the community to be helpful, engaged and feedback eager by organizing and providing tiered rewards of PAR tokens / your native token to the community. As a Parachute partner you will also have the opportunity to spend 2.5 Million PAR to use in our Freelance Marketplace, set aside exclusively for Parachute Partners. The community is the best in the biz, with the most fun and inspirational members and team that will bring your crew and project to the next level.

Are you and your team ready?!?! Get On Board and Apply!!     Parachute Application

You should check out 2gether, they have a working product already available in Spain. https://www.2gether.global/

Has everyone noticed that the ethereum network is extremely clogged and slow these past few days? I've found several contracts and wallets that are sending out minuscule amounts of tokens one at a time at extreme gas prices. Do you think that if they were to send at reasonable gas levels (<10gwei) that the network would come down as miners are willing to confirm all the transactions, or is this truly an easy way to disrupt the network by simply paying extreme gas levels and sending through thousands of transactions?

I have heard people talk about sharding coming in to save the day, but does anyone have an idea when this might be implemented?

Other thoughts on how to keep the network running smooth and without enormous delays?

There is a lot of good information here

I think that in time this will become the case with cryptocurrencies. They just need some time to be adopted by the majority.

Congratulations to the 2Gether team on hitting that 1k mark!! 

This team and project is going to change the way we operate crypto and normal banking, combing both worlds!! It's really what we need for more global adoption, is merging the two into one glorious app and model so that they are interchangeable.

Trust wallet is pretty awesome for ERC20 based tokens. And I think Ethos is going to make huge strides for both ERC0 and other coins that may change the game.

I don't know if Airdrops are good for every token, but they can be a useful mechanism to build an early community. There are a lot of airdrops happening now, and the proliferation of airdrop listing sites, though a few communities do it right in my opinion, like the parachute community. If the airdrop brings around actual community and support for the new project, then it's worthwhile. the risk is in getting spammers who just are out there to get free tokens and care little about the actual project's success, just want a 'free lunch'.

You should really just have it in your decision making about when you buy where you are willing to sell, and how much you are willing to lose before selling. so if I buy $1k of ETH, i should know if I'm just day trading that if it hits $1200 i'm selling out, and waiting for it to dip back down, and if it goes below $800, then Im also limiting my losses. Then you just keep same strategy for each buy & sell you do, and if you just sold at $1200, don't buy back in when it goes to $1300, it'll dip back down to like that original $1k level. It's all cyclical, can't get caught up in the fomo but instead play the cycle game.

I think we'll see big growth in ETH this year as more and more people see use cases for smart contracts beyond just currency uses. Opens up the crypto world to whole new level.

Ethereum has so many values in the solidity language and ability for projects to build on top of it. There are many fake companies and scams, agreed, but overall its a valuable project with a lot of use cases.

Ethereum is here for good. It has so many uses and building options, it's not going away. At the end of the day the cost of ether is not as important as what it can be used for. sure you have to buy it to pay for gas, but at the end of the day the smart contracts and solidity, ever evolving, is the building blocks of the next huge internet style network. Its honestly better for the community if eth remains at a stable reasonable price, because it will result in the mass adoption and acknowledgement that it's not a scam get rich quick scheme, but rather a legit tech with amazing features.

there's always going to be alt coins popping up. The key is really getting education out there about the coins that are just in for a quick buck to scam some newbies. The arise of all the altcoins makes it harder for governments to really back anything crypto, because its so easy to create a new currency without any business or real work.

You could do an offline exchange, where he gives you cash and you sell him BTC in exchange for that cash. You could set up a wallet for him, and transfer BTC from your wallet and existing amount to that BTC wallet. Could keep it offline or online, either way, and thus he's now purchased legally BTC from you. You could agree on the price set and there's nothing illegal about it, could be a market rate you both agree on, or could charge him higher for the liquidity and work.

     What is Parachute?!?

Parachute is a community, it's a marketplace, it's a platform, it's a token. Parachute is building the best crypto community, and bringing that community to the world.  
Parachute is a community engaged in helping early-stage companies gain exposure and build their initial community through organized airdrops on the Parachute platform. We meet the team, perform our due diligence and if the company is right for the Parachute community, we'll get the crew activated!

     Community

Parachute is a community engaged in helping early-stage companies gain exposure and build their initial community through organized airdrops on the Parachute platform. We meet the team, perform our due diligence and if the company is right for the Parachute community, we'll get the crew activated! Parachute itself organizes and executes airdrops of the Parachute Token (PAR) to our community based on milestones of 100 members, 1K members, 10k members, and 100k members. We're giving away 20MM PAR at each milestone for our supporters.

The Parachute community is unlike any other in the crypto space. Everyone is active and contributes, it is diverse and everyone brings different areas of expertise and interest to the group. Our members want to see the companies succeed and be a part of the story. We're about transparency, feedback, involvement, and good vibes. We appreciate feedback about our website, community, product, and our partnerships. We take that and build our product around what we see as most important and benefits the community and ecosystem in which we plan to operate.

     Platform

The Parachute platform is the core product. The Parachute team is very active in the NYC startup and crypto communities, and continually exploring opportunities for partnerships. When we meet another team and project that is aligned with our approach, we establish that partnership and onboard our community. Once milestones are hit, typically in the form of social media engagement, we execute airdrops of our partners ERC20 tokens. The web based (beta) platform is a place to explore the awesome new projects, connect and engage, and learn the milestone calculation, status and how to ensure members are included in the next airdrop.  We envision a mobile app as the primary platform application, containing all of the following and more!
    

• Token Cards for each partnership
• Active Airdrop Campains & Countdowns
• Upcoming Partnerships
• Tokens you are or have participated in
• Status of Parachuter! (Users may obtain higher levels based on participation, active engagement, and other metrics)
      
• Treasure Chest Hunts!
• Tracker of your tokens and amounts you own
• Average prices on Parachute Exchange or other public exchanges

     Token

The Parachute Token (PAR) will have several uses. In the early stages, the token is used as a mechanism to build our community and spur engagement. However, the token will be deployed and used on the Parachute Marketplace, and as a medium of exchange on the Parachute Exchange. The token is an ERC20 token, leveraging smart contracts for higher utility and functionality.

Token Details
Name: Parachute Token
Symbol: PAR
Contract Address: 0x1beef31946fbbb40b877a72e4ae04a8d1a5cee06
Decimals: 18
Total Pre-Mined Supply: 1,000,000,000

     Future Applications

Parachute envisions two other major product launches. The first is Parachute Marketplace.

Parachute Marketplace is an open freelancer marketplace, using PAR as the medium. This is where the real engagement between our community and our partnerships meet. Our partnered projects can post desired freelance services and our community can claim them. Our community members also can make suggestions and feedback that our partnerships can take. The marketplace would leverage smart contracts designed and customized by the Parachute team used to ensure delivery of the services, and PAR, by each party. We envision opening the marketplace not only to our partnerships, but to the larger crypto community and even non-crypto companies and projects can join in on the fun. Our members would build portfolios of work done as way to showcase their work to projects. We also envision a licensing and leasing option for intellectual property and other digital assets, such as video, photo, audio, that companies could use. The Parachute Marketplace has several advantages over standard freelance markets.

1. PAR is borderless
2. Smart Contracts will be built for standard freelance services that any project can use
3. Customized smart contracts for more complex transactions and arrangements can be built
4. Smart Contracts ensure that upon confirmation from both sides, services and PAR are exchanged simultaneously and without risk of default


Parachute is also building the Parachute Exchange.

One of the biggest challenges for early stage crypto projects is listing on a meaningful exchange. Parachute envisions an off-block chain exchange that utilizes PAR as the medium of exchange. Users can buy and sell our partnered tokens on the exchange for PAR. We would list our partnered tokens for free on the decentralized exchange for free and immediately. We would look to build an off-block chain exchange that is relayed to the block chain on a regularly scheduled basis, using an aggregated transaction method. We believe that fees shouldn't hinder liquidity and the market. Every transaction on chain costs gas, but on our exchange there would be no gas fees. We believe it doesn't make sense to pay more in gas than the current value of the token you're buying. Utilizing off-block chain contracts allows for immediate exchange on our API, no fees, and transparency of the size and liquidity of the market. Leveraging relay technology and contracts to aggregate allows for Parachute to build this efficiency.

         parachute roadmap

Hi all, new to Bitcointalk but huge supporter. I do have many thoughts on the problems we face as a bitcoin community and getting global adoption. It’s certainly possible, but will just take a lot of effort from the community on the dev front, education of the masses, and really convincing companies and governments to get on board. I think there are a few key areas of focus in my opinion;

1.   Adoption by ‘average person’ (relies heavily on all below items)
2.   Adoption and acceptance by retailers and businesses
3.   Adoption and support from financial institutions
4.   Allowance from governments

I think the end goal is really to have global adoption of bitcoin, which means that it needs to be much more widespread than current form. My points are stemmed from a background in corporate finance and banking, rather than the sole investment perspective. It's great to invest and hold bitcoin, but the real value is driven if there are continual transactions and an active market place. If there isn't liquidity and use case and utility, then people will not invest in mining, and average people will feel discouraged to get involved for fear of being 'taken'. We really want the average person to be able to buy bitcoin as an investment, but simultaneously have the ability to walk into a Walmart and buy a new tv, or a restaurant and buy a burger and a beer with that bitcoin. The issue with viewing bitcoin as solely an investment and holding on undermines the core purpose of it, so simply advising people to buy and hold is not a good strategy to get the masses in the movement. Take, for example, if there were 10,000 that discovered gold for the first time (back in the day). Had they decided gold, as a precious metal (commodity) is a great investment and simply held on until some later date when they could sell gold to others, there wouldn’t be a market for it, and the masses would not even consider purchasing gold. To really get people into the market, there needs to be active sellers and buyers, and use cases. Gold is interesting in that it has three core values, it’s held as an investment because of its consideration as a precious metal, it also can be used as a medium of exchange because it has the store of value and more recently it has utility and use as a key substance in electronics. For the masses to really adopt bitcoin, it needs to be shown that it can become all three. I’m sure that most of us already believe that bitcoin does contain all three of these value cases, but simply need to convince the rest of the world it can be used these ways. Thus, the need for large retailers and business adoption.

2. Large retailers are needed to help average people see that bitcoin can be traded for investment and also used to buy stuff. If an Amazon or Alibaba were to start accepting bitcoin, this would be huge for the community and bitcoin market. The issue for these companies that bitcoin needs to overcome is two main items of concern: the first is the acceptance of bitcoin by its suppliers, the second is the liquidity and volatility, both of which are somewhat interrelated. Obviously for Amazon, when they receive bitcoin in exchange for something, they want the ability to pay their supplier for that good. If, however, they set the price in BTC, then the supplier needs to accept that at the time equivalent wholesale price in BTC. For that supplier to accept that BTC amount/price, it would need to be able to pay for the underlying parts in BTC. So then we see that it’s not just Amazon accepting bitcoin, but really the whole system from start to finish. Now the alternative to this is if Amazon were to accept bitcoin and then flip it into USD or local currency immediately. However, with high volumes, the transaction processing time and liquidity of the market does not lend itself for Amazon to quickly convert BTC to fiat money and reduce it’s exposure. If Amazon were to sell goods for BTC, and not immediately convert it to USD, then it’s in a huge exposed position to crypto risk. One option is to hedge this with the new CBOE contracts, however given the volatility of BTC, this may be quite an expensive hedge, especially if AMZN cannot accurately predict what percentage of sales may be in BTC rather than fiat money. This is where financial institutions are needed.

3. Financial institutions (broker/dealers, banks) are necessary in providing liquidity for markets, derivatives to reduce exposed positions, and for depositories options to earn interest and borrow. The marketplace for BTC would need to be established with exchanges of significantly higher liquidity, which can only really be established using financial institutions. Individuals cannot be active enough or hold enough on hand to really perform this function. The problem is of course providing liquidity without charging fees (an underlying advantage of BTC over all fiat and commodities)! So how do we incentivize financial institutions to participate?

4. Governments probably pose the largest threat to BTC however. Governments are in the business of control, and of course bitcoin eliminates that control. I don’t have a great answer, except that we need to change the way governments view bitcoin. One of the biggest issues for governements, especially those that love to control their currencies and borders (ie China, Korea, Argentina, Brazil…) is monitoring the capital and trade flows. But if they don’t have a way to track these, they would be reluctant to play along (until of course they read some basic economic literature in reference to the clear advantages of an open policy vs closed policy). Would it ever make sense to add in some tracking of the trends and flows of BTC, not on an individual basis, but on a large macro level?