We would like to formally introduce ONFO to the Bitcointalk.org community. We launched in March 2019 and have seen dramatic growth: our current user-base is about 64,000 and climbing in 189 countries.
Check us out at
https://www.onfocoin.com/.
Watch our Youtube promotional video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s36ODTq9QHE&t=29s (also available in Arabic, French, German, Spanish, Hindi, Mandarin, Russian, Korean, and Portuguese)
How to create an account:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COk5rEfgPs8&t=4sWhat is ONFO?ONFO is an application-driven, Stellar Consensus Protocol fork with distribution via a fractal growth model and price stabilization through symmetric inflation. ONFO's primary innovation is "Network Mining": the generation and distribution of its cryptocurrency tokens through account creation and referral rewards. ONFO is also a stable coin that seeks to regulate its relative trade value through network performance-based injections of supply to optimize the suitability of its tokens for everyday commercial use.
Cryptocurrency TodayWhile 80% of Americans have heard of Bitcoin and claim to basically know what it is
i, only 40% know much about it and many are confused; and only an estimated 8% of the US population hold some form of crypto
ii. The technology seems to be more well-known in places like China, Japan, and South Korea, where trading and mining dominate, but only a relatively small minority of potential investors are involved.
Perhaps even more telling is that most crypto-owners hold only Bitcoin; and of those, a fraction of accounts control a large portion of the total supply of tokens. Bitcoin was designed to spread far and wide, but it’s being hoarded, and most would even say controlled by elites. These
whales, as they are often called, have more power than was intended to manipulate the market and coordinate small players out of meaningful participation. And alt-coins are not faring much better.
A now widely-published 2018 survey by Finder.com has revealed that many investors still consider crypto to be too complicated or high-risk
ii, and only 8% of respondents plan to buy in future. People who are getting involved are self-starting market leaders who do their own research, are not particularly afraid of risk, and are comfortable with the technical details. The spread of cryptocurrency has not yet met its potential or the world’s need to promote transparency and decrease waste. It largely remains a hobby for nerds and the wealthy. Bitcoin in particular is complicated to buy, keep, and use. It’s not as fast or as cheap as it needs to be for mass adoption, and it’s being hoarded and controlled by a small number of elites. And while many early investors did well with Bitcoin and its alternatives, prices have been volatile, causing many merchants to avoid adoption for everyday commerce.
Cryptocurrency is too expensive, too risky, and too complicated for the masses. We’re still waiting for the big one, the "killer application" of digital money.
The Potential of CryptocurrencyCryptocurrency is highly valuable as a service and as a digital product because it solves a wide range of problems regarding inefficiency, corruption, and waste. It's an alternative approach to finance with enormous potential global appeal that seeks to decentralize monetary policy and many aspects of financial products and services. Decentralized digital ledgers bring certainty to transaction verification and can be made to be transparent for actors who are accountable to public trust, where transaction risk calls for greater clarity, or in support of efforts to stop bad actors. Monetary policy can be hard coded in to the functionality of a self-executing cryptographic system, preserving itself from the whims of the political cycle, human error, and malicious intrusion, all the while remaining adaptable where a critical mass of stakeholder consensus exists.
Real decentralized blockchain ledgers cannot be falsified or hacked, and platforms built for means-of-payment feature transactions that clear in a few seconds. These transactions are also cheap, potentially less than $0.01 per batch. Cryptocurrencies are also transnational, and so they potentially eliminate exchange costs, and they mitigate or bypass most financial rules and restrictions, including citizenship tests.
How can cryptocurrency help us?:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuA02QjDXnQ&t=4sThe Problem with CryptocurrencyWith such apparent value, why is it so hard to sell the idea of crypto? The answers are technical and financial barriers to entry: the market is dominated by tech savvy people and the wealthy individuals they assist. Crypto wallet services and exchanges have made some impressive websites and apps, and they’ve convinced some people to create accounts and even buy, but not nearly enough. The average person tends to be intimidated by concepts like
private key and
public address,
proof-of-work, and
mining—they become insecure about how to manage and secure their digital assets. And where it has the potential to do the most good, many lack accesses to funds, education, internet, and the appropriate hardware.
Furthermore, most merchants avoid direct contact with crypto because of price volatility, transaction fees, and tax difficulties. They don’t want to sell a cup of coffee for .00094 BTC today, only to find that the value has halved two days later and tripled three days after that. Even if they end up with a profit, the accounting can be discouraging. Alternatively, instantly selling their incoming crypto for more traditional currency carries certain (and sometimes uncertain) costs and is too complicated for most. Only large institutions can bare the investment risks of such a practice, and too few are willing.
Also, slow and niche adoption, the spread of junk-cryptos (through countless and dubious ICOs), click-bait advertising, and misinformation by media and government maintain the image that cryptocurrency is not legitimate.
And while many may be willing to embrace the idea that value in money comes down to consensus, the value proposition of cryptocurrency is too murky for the real masses, especially for those who need it most.
Right now, cryptocurrency is niche hobby and financial shelter enjoyed only by the intellectual and financial elite. We at ONFO want to take it mainstream.
The Solution: ONFOFor a cryptocurrency to succeed on a large scale, it must achieve deep and widespread participation fast. Only truly viral systems can create the bandwagon effect needed to outpace mainstream resistance and government quagmires. To go viral, it must appeal to both merchants and the masses. To do this, it should:
(1) require no direct purchase for early adopters,
(2) be extremely easy to use,
(3) only require internet access or a smart phone ,
(4) maintain a stable price,
(5) and generously incentivize the one critical attribute that determines value in cryptocurrency: network strength.
ONFO is designed to fulfill all the above.
Network MiningONFO is distributed free to the public through a web and smartphone-based application and something we call
Network Mining.
With Network Mining, the only way to earn or generate ONFO is by creating an account and then inviting others to do the same.
Users are prompted to create a unique invite code upon joining that they can share with others. Signing up earns them ten ONFO tokens, and each successful invite with a referral code from within their country earns them another ten ONFO tokens, while each foreign invite that results in a new account earns them fifteen ONFO tokens. Users also get a reward when their invites bring in new people for up to three generations. So, if a user invites a friend and she invites another person, both get a reward for sharing.
This method of distribution is key because most rules and regulations involve the exchange of government-issued currency for crypto. This can slow things down quite a bit because it's expensive, it takes a lot of time, the rules of the game often change, and there are many legal systems to comply with around the world.
The sale of crypto for cash also increases the need for an aggressive and costly sales pitch, to which people have natural resistance. The internet is full of high-profile cryptocurrency advertisements with incredible claims. Many people are desensitized, and the average person is still skeptical about trading traditional money for crypto. It’s much easier to convince someone to create and earn ONFO by creating an account and referring others. It practically sells itself.
But most importantly, crypto cannot spread to so many people if they can’t afford it, and we want as many people to be included as possible. All they will need is internet access or a smart phone. But they must be invited to use the platform by a current member—new users will not be allowed to join unless they enter a referral phrase provided to them by a current user. As the network grows, the system tracks these recruitment relationships and publishes them to the user, showing an individual user how many people have signed up due to their personal efforts. Everyone will be able to follow over time the number of accounts added to the platform from their efforts. The larger the network effect of an individual, the larger their daily compensation potential will be in ONFO.
Easy to Use Application and TransparencyOur app is very simple in its design, and it needs to be because people will change their minds fast if creating an account takes too many steps, and they don’t want to mess with lengthy private keys and addresses. Users send invites and interact with people and businesses through social media contacts, or by adding friends and acquaintances with email addresses or cell phone numbers.
In fact, we only permit account creation and login with a proven social media account (e.g. Facebook or LinkedIn) for early adopters, which makes sign-up fast and simple. Social media accounts form the basis of our onboarding process because of their robust security underpinnings and ability to verify individuality. All account holders also have the option of using an independent and open-sourced wallet but are excluded from reward participation unless they have enfranchised with the centralized application.
The Mobile ApplicationIt is projected that there will be about 3 billion smart phone users around the world by 2020
iii. According to The Pew Research Center, 77% of all Americans in 2018 have a smartphone device, and that’s up from 35% in 2011
iv. The number is closer to 90% for people under the age of 50—both figures well above personal computer use . Smart phone numbers have skyrocketed across the globe since 2013 as well, with much of Asia, Europe, Australia, and South America matching or exceeding the US in percentage of users. And while other areas lag, there is still significant access in even developing countries, and smartphones are much more accessible around the world than traditional computers.
It makes sense for a cryptocurrency to be application-based because it means more people can gain access. We would call attention to third-world nations where smart phones are sometimes more commonly used than indoor plumbing. With access to free apps, a widely distributed cryptocurrency such as this could become extremely popular, perhaps even as popular as the larger social networks. ONFO naturally rewards the early adopters more robustly, but as the system grows, large numbers of individuals could gain significant value simply by leveraging the power of their social connections and networks.
The best way to increase transparency of cryptocurrency is to base it on web and smartphone applications. An owner of a cell phone is uniquely verifiable to a significant degree, and that information, as well as other associated metadata, is easily reportable to authorities when circumstances require (i.e. criminal investigations). It also provides a significant level of security for the individual to claim an asset. It's difficult to spoof ownership of a cell phone contract and most of them are registered to a person or entity with legal status.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9mifc72mtnm8e9k/JRF%20Sample%20Screenshot.jpg?dl=0https://www.dropbox.com/s/7orw3wbn6gpb3d8/JRF%20Sample%20Screenshot%202.jpg?dl=0ONFO is currently deployed as a "web app", with dedicated mobile applications ready to deploy. We launched the platform on the web first so more people world-wide would have access. Only a web browser and internet access is required. It is currently operational and as you read, people all over the world are signing up.
Coin Splits and Bonus SplitsLimited supply is a key feature of both Bitcoin and most altcoins. For example, Bitcoin will only ever have a maximum of 21 million units in circulation—once they are all released. Without some mechanism to stop inflationary practices like this, any system of money is potentially subject to abuse. Deploying supply limitations into the back-end coding of open-sourced cryptocurrency is great for investors because it creates the presumption that trade value will continue to go up over time. And many people see cryptocurrency as an alternative to the stock market, but with fewer rules.
This does not help Bitcoin and other cryptos to achieve mass adoption, however. While Bitcoin has performed very well as an investment since 2009, it has seen significant volatility, or rapid change in value over short periods of time. This causes most investors to hoard their crypto, which decreases the degree to which people use it in commerce as an alternative to traditional money. It also intimidates potential investors and many of them ultimately feel like they missed the opportunity. Further, merchants generally don’t like the unpredictability of cryptocurrency values. It makes profitability on sales and correct pricing less certain, so many won’t accept it directly.
ONFO solves this problem by regulating the value of one coin to be below the value of one US dollar. This is done through the increase of ONFO supply through "coin splitting" (think stock split) at any point that its trade value exceeds one USD. This effect is generally achieved in one of two ways:
1) A coin split which would increase the total supply of tokens in existence. All coins would be multiplied at a fixed ratio, analogous to a stock split. (e.g. 200 billion total tokens become 400 billion post-split in a 2:1 inflationary event.) All accounts would be automatically credited their respective proportional increase in tokens.
2) A bonus split could also occur where tokens from the general supply are awarded to the population in a similar manner, with pre-qualifications for participation. This would have the effect of increasing the existing user accounts' relative ownership of the entire possible pool of tokens which is extremely favorable to early adopters.
As time goes on, the number of ONFO will always be proportional to the size of the network, causing a stabilizing effect to the value of the currency. So, if you happen to hold 1% of all ONFO supply and an inflation event is triggered, you will receive enough additional units to maintain your percentage. This way, anyone who uses the system can think of their ONFO holdings much like their bank account, except that their ONFO holdings will increase as more people use it—another way to benefit from inviting lots of users.
Rather than promoting the rising speculative value of each ONFO, we supply more units via splits as market demand requires. Tracking the US dollar and keeping ONFO in step with fiat value helps people to think of it more as currency than an investment, and this will promote frequent use in commerce and demand for acceptance by businesses. For merchants, stable pricing and predictable profit becomes much easier, so they’re more likely to accept it for goods and services.
It is projected that the mechanism of adjustment and approximation of the US dollar will be a short-term solution that will eventually give way to a limited supply in proportion to total use. In other words, splits will likely only occur in the early years of the token. The need for this kind of adjustment will reduce in time.
Initial Outlay of TokensThe total initial supply of ONFO available for deployment over time is 200 billion tokens. Only a fraction of these tokens (3 million) are currently in circulating supply.
ONFO has "pre-mined" all tokens and secured them into multi-signature accounts for deployment to the users as they recruit others. Reward mechanisms have been instituted to spur growth as stated. Some of the referral reward processes are subject to change based on the needs of the network or to adjust for ongoing growth. These amount to 80% of all tokens in existence which at the time of writing is 160 billion ONFO.
The core development team has also placed in multi-signature protection some 40 billion or 20% of tokens to be used for ongoing administrative support costs over time, similar to other cryptocurrency programs. This would include an organizational allotment of 12% (24 billion) and founders' allotment of 8% (16 billion). History has shown us that the health of the organizations that support a particular token must have adequate resources to fund ongoing operations.These tokens may be used to forge strategic partnerships over time to leverage the success of the program. The tokens sitting in multi-signature designations should not be considered for inclusion in calculating circulating supply. If at any time these tokens are transferred to the general circulation in any way, the organization will make this well known beforehand. Organizationally, the founders are bound to specific rules as far as utilization of any of these reserved tokens and are not free to deploy them into the market without consent of the organization. Stability of price and supply trust is of paramount concern to the developmental organization and will continue to be.
i -
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-12-12/most-americans-don-t-know-Bitcoin-while-some-guess-xbox https://gizmodo.com/survey-most-americans-remain-blissfully-unaware-of-the-1820027828ii -
https://www.finder.com/why-people-arent-buying-cryptocurrency;
iii -
https://www.statista.com/statistics/330695/number-of-smartphone-users-worldwide/iv -
http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/mobile/
