The momentum of the cryptocurrency space has snowballed exponentially over the past decade. Each market cycle to this point has brought a cornucopia of new strides and breakthroughs in blockchain technology. The rapid growth has led to immense profits for an uncountable number of long-term participants.
Adoption continues to spread with increased institutional backing and consumer payment channels. Indeed, all signs point to cryptocurrencies reaching a new plateau on the stage of global commerce. An essential question must be asked at this transitory junction in what appears to be the early stages of another bull market. How far will profit allow the underlying blockchain technology to deviate away from the roots of its essence and justification? There is no better source to reflect upon than the Cypherpunk Manifesto.
That which ages among the best is that which only becomes more biting and significant over time. Originally published by Eric Hughes in March of 1993, the Cypherpunk Manifesto has a short, sweet, and directly to the point message with an especially understated foresight about it that’s decades ahead of its time. It is a must-read for any digital native. It emphasizes the essence of digital privacy, decentralization, censorship-resistance/immutability, and the freedom to remain anonymous at-will. It argues that these principles be made manifest for any form of communication or commerce. Its backbone lies with every individual coder who cherishes the fruits of civil liberties and dares to counter and obsolete the many intrusive and invasive forms of technology with open-source, cryptographically effective solutions for the greater good of society.
These were the principles that Bitcoin was constructed with and designed to honor. While its inherent technology stays true to this nature (mining aside), the infrastructure that has been built up around it is flawed by design and sacrifices a good number of strengths and freedoms. Most notably are the many vulnerable points of exchange run by central authorities on trust where funds are at risk to be frozen or stolen, KYC (know your customer) policies, and the traceability, restrictions, and risks that come from these two points.
Shortly after BTC found a value that could be directly pegged to the USD (and with the USD, every global currency), a number of exchanges offering trade between the two opened for business. The first of these exchanges was the infamous Mt. Gox which implemented KYC policies by 2011 before exit scamming in early 2014. KYC policies were initially introduced to comply with the many regulations regarding the exchange of various fiat currencies for crypto in addition to demanding a deeper sense of customer accountability. Up until the point that they were introduced, the only sure way it would have been possible to trace specific addresses is if the recipient publicly disclosed their wallet address. KYC brought a considerably more advanced form of traceability with it. In addition to e-mail addresses and bank accounts, everything from names, addresses, full ID info, and pictures of each and every customer became tethered to their respective deposit and withdrawal history. Though somewhat convoluted with the nature of exchange wallets, there are patterns that can be followed and traced.
As BTC continued to grow, so did the number of its forks and competing cryptocurrencies pegged to its value in satoshis. The forks grew to be numerous and with them, the number of centralized C2C exchanges where you could trade them for BTC. Like the fiat-to-crypto exchange points before them, KYC was implemented on numerous C2C exchanges as well.
Centralized exchanges of all sorts are perhaps the weakest link in entire cryptocurrency space. They have repeatedly proven to be weak in terms of security. This year alone, the following exchanges have been compromised: Binance, Bithumb, Coinbene, Coinbin, Cryptopia, and QuadrigaCX. What’s worse, they’ve sacrificed many of the core principles of the cypherpunks that built Bitcoin in the first place.
How can crypto be censorship-resistant and immutable if exchanges can decide to freeze funds or put a certain wallet into maintenance at whim? How can it be private if every account has every bit of trade, deposit, and withdrawal history it has done tethered to its name? How can it be anonymous at-will if full documentation is demanded, sometimes as a ransom for frozen funds? How can it be secure when billions of dollars have been hijacked from weak security? It could be argued that these exchanges are the antithesis of the cypherpunks: an easily-exploitable honeypot of funds and user data with a central authority.
Consider the efforts of the X9 Developers building Stakenet. True to the nature of the cypherpunks, they have been working to make these numerous vulnerabilities in the cryptocurrency infrastructure obsolete. To strengthen censorship-resistance and decentralization in this space, they have been implementing an immutable and purely decentralized exchange into their network where no central authority can freeze funds, where exit scamming is impossible, and where security is as tight as the blockchain technology it runs atop. To restore the principle of at-will anonymity, their immutable DEX will have no KYC, nor will it require registered accounts. In the interests of privacy, they have built a solution that allows for one-click TOR lightning swaps that strengthen the privacy of every participating coin and the Lightning Network itself. To strengthen the nature of the decentralized exchanges that are already out there, they are working on a DEX aggregator that pools together the offerings of many promising DEXes suffering from low volume or difficulty of use.
Put briefly, this team has the foresight and skill to acknowledge and address the numerous risks and shortcomings that anyone coin may face the second it is sent from a private wallet to any other point in trust. They are compounding these solutions into one streamlined and convenient wallet where funds are firmly secured, trustlessly staked, and instantly tradable from one singular point.
To build up the world of cryptocurrency is to honor the ways of the cypherpunks and carry on their torch. It is to fight for freedom from the intrusiveness and corruption of centralized authorities by obsoleting them. It is preserving the privacy of funds, resisting mutability, and decentralizing any and everything which stands to benefit from it. Whether that be a store of value, the means by which that value is secured and traded, or the platforms on which these mechanisms are discussed. This era of mass-censorship, intrusiveness, digital balkanization, and monopolies from many of the premier digital spaces not only shows how right they were 26 years ago but that there is still a considerable amount of work to do.
Frank Amato > Executive Director J.P.Morgan March /7 years, 1 month/ > Managing Director Bear Stearns & co. /11months/ > Vice President J.P Morgan /10 years, 4months/
XSN > Digital money > Decentralized > Trust-less proof of stake
DEX > Masternodes > 45% block rewards > 90% Passive income from user fees > Almost fee-less > No kyc > Instant transactions 24/7 > Infinite scalability > Decentralized > Lightning swaps > Cross chain proof
Stakenet has been dormant for years, during these years stakenet has constantly been working towards their product. DEX is going to released this year. They have a legit professional team with a real product. You can try the beta version for yourself. I really think it's going to be huge, I can see myself and the majority of crypto-currency using the DEX on a daily basis, its really easy to use. The best part is that you can always get the cheapest price on whatever you're investing into.
You're unironically going to make it, if you hold a masternode in this.
>Stakenet is the third coin (Right after BTC/LTC) to implement lightning swaps on mainnet. >They also partnered up with the Litecoin Foundation to help with lightning tech. >They are working on their OWN Hardware Wallet- VIPER (Competing with Ledger, Trezor, and Xeeda) Which is the first crypto project EVER to work on that. >Stakenet is soon launching a multi currency wallet with inbuilt lightning and atomic swaps (HUGE) >Stakenet will also soon launch the first masternode powered DEX. Which requires NO registration, NO KYC, no bullshit at all.
Cameron Turner
Multi-Currency Wallet and Lightning Swaps — Stakenet Solution
Whilst a lot of blockchain projects are struggling with scalability and trying to prove their decentralization, Stakenet (XSN) is swiftly moving forward in creating interchain capabilities and services that will help in fulfilling its vision of a trustless profit-driven economy. In this article, we will be discussing two important pillars that we are pioneering to provide a highly secure interchain economy for cryptocurrencies and making the world free of centralization. >Stakenet Multi-Currency Wallet
A cryptocurrency wallet is an important and integral component of the cryptocurrency universe. It is a secure digital wallet which helps in storing and transacting digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Most of the coins and tokens have their official wallets but with changing times a lot of independent third-party wallets have surfaced providing a variety of features. Here comes the problem; for every cryptocurrency that a user holds, he also requires a wallet to store it, thus making it cumbersome for the holder to have so many wallets.
Stakenet provides a solution to this problem as Stakenet’s Masternode Network will hold databases and run full nodes of multiple blockchains allowing Stakenet to create a wallet that can securely send, receive and confirm a transaction on separate blockchains. These separate blockchains are held in the second layer which communicates with the first layer nodes providing users a single wallet which can house multiple wallets.
With decentralization slowly finding its roots in today’s world, people are showing an inclination towards replacing centralized intermediates with decentralized ones. Although the acceptance of a complete decentralized organization is still distant, there has been the emergence of a lot of services which now help people in carrying out transactions without an intermediate party. Atomic Swaps are one of these. In simple terms, an Atomic Swap is a smart contract technology that enables the exchange of one cryptocurrency for another without using centralized intermediaries, such as an exchange. In August 2018, we released a new Lightning upgrade along with the implementation of Lightning Network and Atomic Swaps. The combination of Lightning Network along with Atomic Swap allowed the execution of “Lightning Swap” which is an instant and nearly fee-less cross chain trade. The successful execution of Lightning Swap has taken us a step closer to our trustless one-click Lightning Swap solution which provides the user with a unique interoperable peer to peer solution that is only available with Stakenet. To elaborate, Lightning nodes validate transactions between two separate chains. A Lightning node is an endpoint communicator that should have data from both chains. In other words, it needs to monitor both chains and thus is able to validate the transaction. With the upcoming development of the Multicurrency Wallet, Masternodes will be holding the separate chains in a decentralized manner, so you won’t need to download both chains. The Masternodes will also provide Watchtower services, so if anything goes wrong it will execute automated scripts to claim the punishment rewards.
Crypto exchanges are the mainstay support for the cryptocurrency market as they allow trading of coins thus providing liquidity. Even after being such an important component of the crypto markets, most exchanges are centralized and are operated out of a single central server making them vulnerable to hacking or forced closure by the regulatory authorities. Also, once a user places a trade with a centralized exchange, their coins leave their possession and are stored with the exchange, thus making the user lose the utility and benefits that one receives from the coins. These are some of the potential risks which Stakenet aims to answer with its proposed Stakenet dx (Cross-Chain Lightning Swaps).
With important components such as the Multicurrency wallet and Lightning Swap in place, we are only a few steps away from creating this solution. There are some DEX’s which are currently operating but all of them have some vulnerabilities of centralization, whereas Stakenet would be the first to operate a completely decentralized solution which would be entirely run by Masternodes and not supported by a centralized entity.
Apart from that, the other advantages of the Stakenet’s Cross-Chain Lightning Swaps are:
>The coins which the users hold never leaves them unless the transaction is completed giving them unlimited access to their coins. >With coin in their wallets, they also benefit from all the utilities, features and staking rewards of the coin. >The user remains anonymous as he doesn’t have to provide any Know Your Customer (KYC) details to anyone providing the user with complete anonymity and freedom to trade fearlessly. >Not being in hands of central authorities, the Stakenet dx cannot be shut down by anyone, not even Stakenet. >All transactions are done on a peer to peer basis without the involvement of a central authority, making the transaction more secure and less expensive as the fees are lower.
The question is what’s the point of a native token on a chain that facilitates Lightning Swaps? There have been two main criticisms of Lightning Network thus far:
1. Decentralization 2. Liquidity
By using the XSN native blockchain to host a one-click Lightning Swap solution, it gives the advantage of utilizing its second layer Masternode collateral to solve both of these issues. Masternode collateral can only be achieved by using a native blockchain, since the rules need to be baked into the first layer to have secure Masternode’s in the first place, so you cannot use DApps or off-chain tokens to have the same effect or solve the problems that require a dedicated Masternode network.
With our native blockchain you will be able to take this collateral and allow Masternode owners to make that collateral work for them by generating fees from routing Lightning payments, becoming Watchtowers, holding other chains, providing Light Wallet TX broadcasting services and liquidity for the Lightning Network as a whole. Furthermore, all major infrastructures will be built using Masternodes to provide a decentralized service without hurting normal users on the base protocol.
XSN users and owners will be rewarded accordingly via demands for XSN to set up these Masternodes or using it as a medium of exchange, because it will be one of the most liquid Lightning Networks necessary for high volume trading and general payments.
This is one of the major selling points along with other exciting capabilities our second layer will allow in the future. As new technologies regarding smart contracts, DApps, and scaling come into the scene we will also be able to uniquely solve problems that these technologies might face using the same approach we are taking with Lightning for example.
In short, all services running on the Masternode network will generate fee’s that will be paid in XSN in one way or another. Many users may not even realize they have paid in XSN as it will all be handled by Lightning swaps in the background. For example, if someone wants to trade BTC/LTC then the fee will be initially collected in BTC, however this BTC will be converted into XSN via a Lightning Swap in the background. That XSN will then be distributed back to the MN holders for providing the services.
This will happen for every service that is run on the XSN Masternode network, such as the Privacy features and upcoming DApps. We believe this economic model will provide a constant demand for XSN with fees collected constantly being converted to XSN and then distributed back to Masternode holders.
We have also partnered with professional trader Frank Amato (current Block 5 Capital Co-Founder, Former Executive Director of JP Morgan, Former Managing Director of Bear Stearns), to help design the Stakenet dx, as he provides insights on how the one-click Lightning Swaps can meet the expectations and requirements of seasoned traders. It will have a “Pro-Trader Mode” which will serve ambitious and also seasoned retail fund investors.
Thanks OP, heard about this right before it did 5x a while ago, immediately dismissed it as overbought but am starting to actually look into it now in earnest -- this extremely thoughtful thread is exactly the sort of insight that I've been wanting to get. Clearly the team has been working on this for a very long time, has thought about all these things and is attempting to build a product with the idea being the first to finally unite the crypto ecosystem and return it to its decentralized cor values.
I do have a question about liquidity. I seem to remember reading elsewhere that masternodes will essentially create high liquidity to all trading pairs... is that correct/ any insight as to how the problem of low liquidity (which can make even the most well though out DEX fail) will be addressed?
Connor Myers
will users unfamiliar with how LN works be spooked away by renting - opening - closing channels etc? whats your hot take anons
not trying to shit on DEC (all i know about it is that it is about securing/monetizing data), but i dont really see what DEC and XSN have to do with each other --- completely different uses no?
Luke Evans
A Masternode is a dedicated fullnode of a blockchain that resides on servers around the world to ensure decentralization and redundancy. While a staking node is responsible for the validation of the blockchain, a Masternode provides several services for the network. To operate a Masternode a valid collateral output of 15 000 coins for each Masternode is required. This was made to counter a wild growth of the nodes and to avoid rogue nodes. In addition to Masternode default features like instant send and decentralized democracy, our Masternodes are aimed to be one of the most powerful stations within the crypto industry and will earn a passive income based on the services they provide. They will: − Host and run XSN Dex. − Host all needed blockchain explorers to ensure true decentralization. − Host all blockchains needed to keep XSN Dex decentralized and light. − Handle Lightning Swaps and Tokenized Swaps between different blockchains. − Be used as watchtowers to host and monitor Lightning Channels. − Use their collateral to provide Lightning Network liquidity. − Authorize and secure the transfer of tokenized coins between different blockchains. − Facilitate instant and private on-chain transactions. − Provide onion routing and ensure secure exit points for the network. − Host dApps for Stakenet and other blockchains. − Be used for the decentralized democracy of the network. − Offload CPU and database capacities for everyone within the Stakenet mesh.
Thanks to the Masternodes, the Stakenet blockchain becomes an ecosystem in which no single entity can govern and serve the entire network.
Jaxson Bennett
>renting - opening - closing channels etc too ignorant to even be concerned about that at all -- whats the gist of what that means/ why it might be a barrier? I'd imagine that any such thing would be operating under the hood of the UI and that users wouldn't have to be concerned with scary technical things
Users will not have to be concerned with how anything on the DEX actually works, it will all be under the hood like user here suggests The entire point of the Stakenet light wallet is to be a hub where anyone, professional or retail can store their coins and trade from a single place easily, instantly and privately
Hudson Garcia
holy smokes... offering just a few of those features would be a big deal anywhere else. I literally cant wrap my head around the implications of all those features. I thought that XSN what just a cross-chain dex, but this is soooo much more than that.
I have to ask -- is this all even possible? ie does the team (which based on all this, it must be huge and filled with a very diverse knowledge base) has the resume to pull all this off?
Easton Lewis
not yet but after this thread i will be very soon. i've heard all it takes is a message to the team on discord to get access to beta. is that correct?
I don't get how the channel limits work. what is the point of using BTC to open a channel if you're trying to obtain BTC. you can't operate the wallet unless you already have a balance of both pairs you're trying to buy
Matthew Edwards
Whoops meant DEX.
Jacob Hall
>implying test it yourself.
I wouldn't have invested 90% of my portfolio in this if I couldn't personally verify it functioning.
Brody Sullivan
reactions like are why i asked in the first place kek
Gavin Barnes
Channel rentals allow you to buy coins you don't have.
Elijah Evans
I don't get the complaint.
you're renting the channel, you don't need coins on both sides of the pair to open the channel, you just need enough total balance to pay for the rental (in either coin in the pair).
Gavin Moore
is there a big martket for trading LTC/BTC/BSV and other BTC iterations? im wondering if how much volume it will get until the end of the year. any thoughts?
