The first step in usable information on the blockchain has been taken

We recently launched our username registration service on the beta version of our discovery app, Kasakasa. This is the first brick to be laid in the ecosystem we are building. In the two weeks since this app launched, over 3,000 users have signed up and registered their usernames. These are 3,000 people who can now start sending transactions without having to worry about dealing with hash addresses or any other technical details in using cryptocurrency. If you haven’t yet, register your username today: https://discover.tipblockchain.io/

While this is a great start for us, this is just a drop in the bucket in terms of the long term objectives of our platform. This does represent a significant first step in making cryptocurrency usable by the average non-technical user. No longer do users have to deal with address hashes or QR codes. Each user on our network now has an identity. An identity that is represented by a username, which can be discovered by other users on the network. They can use this identity to transact with their friends, family, other people on the network, and businesses.

Information on the blockchain

The Tip Blockchain is the first of its kind. Blockchain technology, in general, is more like a black box. Information stored on the blockchain is almost impractical to retrieve and use. I am not even talking about the privacy focused chains like Monero or Zcash. Even on public ledgers like Bitcoin and Ethereum, information on such networks is next to impossible to decipher and use. The only bits and pieces of information available on these networks are not much more than random streams of blocks, transactions and addresses.

The Tip ecosystem has these as well, as they form the basis of blockchain technology. Where Tip differs is that we are able to tie this information back to user, and formulate insights based on this. Random hash addresses are replaced with a digital identity of a user or business. Transaction hashes are replaced by a transaction payload which contains all the necessary metadata about a transaction for it to be useful to the recipient, be it a merchant or just another user.

Privacy is obviously a concern on any blockchain network. This is even more important on a platform that allows the sharing of sensitive information such as a user’s purchase history. This is also not a problem in the earlier generation blockchains as addresses are practically anonymous. While there are ways to tie an address or transaction to a person, this information is not accessible to the average user. In Tip, the privacy of transaction metadata is paramount as such data is easily attributable to an identity. To protects this information, transaction payload is encrypted by default with a key shared between the sender and recipient. While other users on the network will be able to see the transaction, just like in other blockchain projects, they can not decipher the transaction payload. Thus, to other players on the network, the transaction payload would be almost as useless as a Bitcoin transaction.

Once this wealth of information is stored on our blockchain, the next point to be solved is making it easy to access and use this information. The information on the network is indexed on chain and stored in an off-chain database. Using this index, the information is easily searchable and retrievable by users who have access to this info. This is how users will be able to retrieve information about their transaction history for example, and businesses will be able to retrieve their customer information, perform analytics and make inferences on this information. This is another first in blockchain technology.

The Ecosystem

The biggest distinguishing factor between the Tip ecosystem and others is we are building a network rich in usable information. Information about users, merchants and how these two parties interact on the network. Businesses can now identify their users on the blockchain and form insights on users based on the associated information found on our chain. The core features of the network centre around ease of use, discovery of useful information and providing value to users. These features all come together to create an ecosystem that stimulates the user of cryptocurrency, as it naturally provides value to both end users and businesses. We are looking forward to creating this ecosystem. 

$TIP token is now listed on IDEX. Check out the TIP/ETH market on IDEX: https://idex.market/eth/tip