There's a big difference between anonymity and privacy. As we move more towards regulation we can expect the shift more towards privacy and away from anonymity.

I think with the roads now open to "Agenda 2030" it is more natural that people will loose more jobs and everything will get automated.

Blockchain technology is changing the way we interact, the way we build and understand the internet. Blockchain has been described as the technology that can power the next generation of the internet, the decentralized web, and the web 3.0 generation.

It is important to understand how the internet is currently “centralized” and the problems this creates. “Centralization” refers to one or a small number of entities holding sway over a network.

A few companies control most of the action on the internet, and they are known as the FAANGs (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google, with other companies like Microsoft and Twitter rounding out the oligopoly). Together, they effectively control the internet. This can be seen in two related areas: data privacy and control of information.

Blockchain on the other hand is all about powering the internet in a decentralized manner such that no single entity has complete control. A move from centralization to decentralization would be a significant change in how information is stored and shared online. A decentralized internet would not use centralized servers. Instead, it would rely on a network of many computers and widely distributing data.

Bitcoin and Ethereum has shown us how Public Blockchains can change the way we interact with the internet. There are projects like Concordium that are heavily researched by researchers from some of the best universities and research centers across the world changing the way blockchains are perceived by businesses. With regulatory compliance by design and fast transactions and high throughput at a global scale. Provable finality helps them prove Finality as a Service ( FaaS) helping business adapt to the new technology with ease.

Some of the smartest individuals are building the new internet. With business on blockchain the final transition will happen and internet will change forever.

I have not come across any other stronger contender that has come this close to replacing the internet as we know it today. Sure, machine learning, VR, AR are revolutionary too but they are not replacing the internet.

Consumer behavior is changing with an increase in e-mobility and on demand services. People are now willing to share data and use more technology which is accelerating a digital experience in everything we do. Ride sharing is becoming more popular among urban riders. Not only is it eco-friendly but also great to cut down expenses. This also comes with many unforeseen risks. Use of blockchain technology can help reduce these risks very accurately and help create a safer and more sustainable environment for all.

A friend told me about Concordium and how regulation can be a good thing. It got me wondering. Using blockchains like Concordium which are designed to bring 'Blockchain to Business' can help greatly reduce the risks, since it has regulatory compliance by design. It can make sure that the co-passengers sharing the ride with you do not have any criminal background without actually putting their privacy at risk by revealing too much information to the other passengers too which would reduce any malicious actions by other co-passengers that they might take to advantage incase too much information is revealed.

It even has a verification feature both on chain and off chain, at the same time maintaining privacy of all, ( basically using ( Zero Knowledge Proofs to privately verify information )  so you can safely share rides with people you don't know.

Using blockchain can help track many things like the the usage times and share vehicle data to owners, manufacturers in a safe and secure way without being tampered with.

Can help link data held by different businesses across industries, can enable “pay as you go mechanisms” and help both consumers and retailers help boost businesses especially in a time where economies these days are hit by the Covid19 pandemic.

There are many more applications I was thinking of. How else is blockchain being used in the Automotive industry? Are there any cryptos in particular catering to the automotive industry?

Automotive industry is a very big sector that can generate billions in revenue if done correctly.

The core tenet of any proof-of-stake blockchain is ensuring that all participants have skin in the game. You can’t just show up empty-handed to this potluck!

By having participants put something down in order to have a seat at the table, PoS blockchain not only uses its distributed wealth to protect the network from attacks but also has better mechanisms for handling inflation cheaply.

Some Projects are trying the tried and tested DPos with Zero Knowledge proofs variants.

Delegated Proof-of Stake :

This system contains a fixed number of validators on the network who have to be voted by the network. However, rather than having a rowdy system where voters, across different landscapes and timezones, may possess an undue advantage, the community is represented by elected entities known as delegates.

Candidates vie to be nominated as a delegate through community votes. Using their token, the community votes for delegates and the candidates with the most votes wins. Once appointed, users can send their tokens to delegates who will stake for them on their behalf. Block rewards earned by the delegate are shared proportionally among stakers.

However, delegates may also get to charge service fees ranging from 1–20% of the block reward. If a delegate misbehaves, the community can vote them out and vote in another candidate just as quickly.

dPoS is the most widely adopted and fastest-growing PoS consensus algorithm due to its fast transaction ability, scalability, cheap transaction fees, and novel democratic system that encourages honesty and efficiency from delegates.

Ongoing research and development on this protocol have resulted in variants addressing custodianship and liveliness.
These are:
Liquid Proof-of-Stake and
Bonded Proof-of-Stake

Liquid Proof-of-Stake: Liquid Proof-of-Stake makes delegation optional, allowing users to transfer their right to vote to another user without having to send their tokens along. It also gives users the right to vote in changes to the protocol (not just who delegates) and will penalize validators trying to exploit the network.

Bonded Proof-of-Stake: bPoS spots the same features as Liquid Proof-of-stake with one caveat; the network will penalize the validator and the stake delegated to them for jeopardizing the network’s safety and/or liveliness.

The democratization of blockchain through dPoS (and its variants) is ushering a free and fair ecosystem where anybody can participate in a peerless and distributed consensus system where their participation not only counts but is also rewarded. This is one of the reasons why privacy preserving projects like Concordium have chosen to deploy a Delegated Proof-of-Stake Consensus to both use the features of this consensus but also because they are certain that this model fits the best the current and future enterprise needs when it comes to new and agile technologies.

They also implement Zero Knowledge variant to help preserve privacy. Its mainly being used to make sure the DPos system that has been implement is a fair one without being able to track the delegates and also for various other reasons.

Have we seen any such variants before? Seems like a lot of academic research behind this in the past 1.5 - 2 years.

Quite often we hear about privacy preserving protocols. And their application in many different cryptos. Cyphers and code breakers are not new, however, the medium through which we use them has been evolving. Privacy-preserving protocols are the backbone of blockchain technology, a technology that has promised secure transactions and communication.

Let us compare two popular protocols.

ZK-SNARKs

Zk-SNARK stands for Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge.

Zk-SNARKs involve the construction of a proof of some specific knowledge without revealing the information. In other words, ZK-SNARKs allow for any entity to prove something to another that a statement is true without having to reveal any information other than the statement itself.
The “succinct” in zk-SNARKS is related to the amount of space required for a proof, only a few hundred bytes. This makes storing ZK-SNARKS on a blockchain more reasonable.

The drawback of zk-SNARKs is that they require a trusted setup. If a malicious actor has access to all the information used to generate the initial keys, that actor can then create proofs that look valid to the verifiers but are false. Many participants in a SNARK setup go to great lengths to ensure the randomness of the key generation is protected.

Imagine a situation in which you must prove membership of a specific group (i.e., individuals over the age of 18), however due to privacy concerns, you do not wish to reveal the exact date of your birth; then, you can use a zk-SNARK to prove this.

There have been various different projects employing ZK-SNARKS in different ways. Good examples are ZCash for its baselayer protocl, Ethereum for scaling strategies,Coda to have a succinct blockchain, Concordium to enable privacy amongst a regulated public chain with identity and regulation at a protocol level.

ZK-STARKs

STARKs are like SNARKs, but there are some very critical distinctions. First STARKs do not require a trusted set up to work. Secondly, zk-STARKs are post-quantum secure.

This is because STARKs rely on cryptographic functions that are not known to be susceptible to large quantum computations.

In other words, STARKs rely on weaker cryptographic assumptions than SNARKs. This feature is very important if we seek to build digital protocols that will stand the test of time. However, these features come at a cost. STARK proofs are at a minimum an order of magnitude larger than SNARK proofs. ZK Starks was manily introduced through Starkware.

The size of STARKs could lead to unnecessary blockchain bloat or worse, turn into a bandwidth sink for an active network.

As you all know the bull markets have officially begun. This is just the beginning of what is going to be the most epic bull run of all times. I expect a full fledged bull market by 2021. Let us look at the current trends in the market I am not going to be doing TA here or doing a technical analysis but instead looks at the kind of sales that are happening.

Current trends in the markets :

1. Uniswap Tokens :
Uniswap is an exchange protocol that allows users to trustlessly swap ERC20 tokens. Rather using the traditional order book model, Uniswap pools tokens into smart contracts and users trade against these liquidity pools. Anyone can swap tokens, add tokens to a pool to earn fees, or list a token on Uniswap.

Massive gains were seen in projects first introduced in Uniswap. Craziest gainz werenot on centralized exchanges but on Uniswap. Tokens cile Compound, Balancer ,

2. Private Sales :
We saw private sales for many reputed projects.
The Atari Group, one of the world’s most iconic consumer brands and interactive entertainment producers, announced the closing of the first round of private sales of the Atari Token in April 2020, reserved for qualified investors and implemented by Atari Chain. unit price of US$0.08 per Atari Token.
Many private sales happened in projects like Skale Network , Edgeware ,Polkadot dint hesitate to take the private sale route for a portion of their tokens.

3. Lockdrops :
Somenotable projects that did lockdrops are Supernova , Dusty network, Plasm , Darwinia Network were soem notable lockdrops of 2020.

4. Incentivised Testnests :
Incentivized testnets have been a huge flavour the market. Many reputed projects think that thismight be the fair method to onboard legit community members who might contribute and also want them to have some skin in the game. Some projects having/ had incentivised testnets are :
Kusama , Cosmos ,Cardano , Near , Coda , Oasis , NuCypher , Concordium. Concordium is a project I am super excited because it brings regulation and ID on the blockchain so finally it makes sense for businesses to get involved in the public blockchain domain. They already seem to have had 2 rounds of testnet. 3rd round is roumoured to be an incentivised testnet. So do not miss it in case you want to get some GTU.

5. IEO :
IEO is the new IPO. Binance had some cool IEO's this year. Namely,  Kava , Troy , WazirX , Cartesi , The Sandbox ( which will happen in a few days ).

Privacy-preserving protocols are the backbone of blockchain technology, a technology that has promised secure transactions and communication. What are the Privacy-preserving protocols available to blockchain-based technology?

Some projects are still in the research phase, some of them do not even have a token yet. Some of them yet to launch their mainnet, like Concordium its a very interesting project and well researched but could not find much details about the token. Lets make a concrete list of them.

Some of the of the projects I have heard of are :

1. Monero

2. ZCash

3. Concordium

4. Komodo

5. Grin

6. Beam

7. Priate Chain

8. Horizen

9. Particle

10. Tari

11. Verge

12. Ghost

Do you know any more? Did I leave any famous projects? What do you think will happen to our privacy in the coming years?

Why not I see no worry as long as "they" hav the money printer. Brrrrr is too easy.

Eventual fall of economies. The system is hacked!