Introduction
It’s been just over 12 months since Byteball first began operating. It was early days back then, and most cryptocurrencies -including Bitcoin- were nowhere near the heights of value attained in recent times.
Still, Byteball persisted, and in July 2017, the company launched its somewhat unconventional ICO.
Byteball News!
– please welcome Eli Taranto as our new PR and Marketing Manager
– Byteball at World Crypto Economic Forum in San Francisco
– Byteball at Altcoin Meetup in Zurichhttps://t.co/7bBFu1EMG6 pic.twitter.com/l12PHHAUD7— CryptKeeper (@CryptKeeperBTC) January 13, 2018
Instead of going down the ‘normal’ route of taking payments in Ether, Bitcoin, or fiat currencies in exchange for the company’s own currency, Byteball took the hitherto unheard decision of giving away its tokens to Bitcoin holders for free. In other words, if you owned Bitcoin at the time you’d get bytes, Byteball’s native cryptocurrency.
The reasoning behind this unusual approach was that the developers firmly believe that Byteball’s success hinges on the amount of people owning and using the platform. Hence, the more people holding Byteball’s bytes, the more likely the enterprise is likely to succeed in the long run.
The event was made to coincide with a period of full moon, and the tradition that started that night persists to this day.
Byteball is gearing up to do another airdrop, this time giving away bytes to subscribers of the cryptocoin.news website’s newsletter!
Byteball: One year on
Byteball is an ICO with a rather unique approach to cryptocurrencies.
It does not operate on a blockchain, for starters, relying instead on a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) approach. In a very simplified way, a DAG approach means that new transactions are stacked on top of the old ones, confirming them in the process. The very name Byteball in fact was chosen because of the theoretical resemblance of a DAG structure with that of a snowball.
DAG has many advantages, such as fast, irreversible transactions with instant confirmation, true anonymity when required, and effective defence against flood attacks due to Byteball’s blockless structure.
Byteball developers created the platform with the idea of user-friendliness behind it. They want to ensure that as many people as possible use the platform in an easy, accessible way.
And the initial gamble has so far paid off. One year on, the price of Byteball’s asset has tripled since January 2017.
The force awakens.
After the release of #textcoin, our user base started growing again. pic.twitter.com/Xe2zfQomXZ— Obyte (@ObyteOrg) January 2, 2018
Metcalfe’s Law: Byteball’s credo
Byteball took a holistic approach to its unusual method of distributing coins. The developer referred to Metcalfe’s Law, which in this context stipulates that bitcoin’s value is proportional to the square of the number of active users. So, it stands to reason that Byteball should be part of as many wallets possible to be successful.
Textcoin: Byteball’s innovative approach to sending cryptocurrency to an email address
Sending cryptocurrency to email https://t.co/yNgrlNvlQU pic.twitter.com/Lz4qcd1PmX
— Obyte (@ObyteOrg) December 9, 2017
Uptake and accessibility to cryptocurrencies by the general public is one of the main drawbacks currently holding back mass adoption.
The need for a crypto wallet, access to somewhat cryptic computer technology, and the requirement to be tech-savvy mean that many people are put off by the idea.
Byteball has come up with an innovative approach to resolving this problem. Textcoin.
Tutorial2 – Claiming Bytes received via a link https://t.co/raRmlAjbVS
— Obyte (@ObyteOrg) January 15, 2018
Most people have an email address, right? We use email every day, it is a commonplace thing. What if people could use their email to send and receive cryptocurrencies?
Enter Byteball Wallet 2.0. This new piece of technology enables a Byteball user to send bytes to an email address, even if the owner of that address is not on the Byteball platform yet.
The recipient receives a link, and when clicked, whatever amount of bytes were sent is added to the recipient’s balance. If the recipient does not have a wallet, the person is prompted to install it to receive the funds.
Simple and clever, huh.
Byteball: Incoming airdrop for subscribers to the newsletter issued by cryptocoin.news
Byteball’s ethos of distributing its tokens for free (according to Metcalfe’s Law, remember) through airdrops has become one of its most prized assets and distinctive feature, elevating Byteball to a level above most other ICOs.
There is an incoming airdrop, which will happen on March 2, 2018, again coinciding with a period of full moon.
Same rules as the 2017 airdrop will apply: For every 16 BTC you own, you receive 0.1 GB. For every 1 GB, you receive an additional 0.1 GB.
Conclusion
Byteball is certainly an ICO with a difference, and this is good. Uniqueness coupled with experience is a distinct advantage.
The company has been operating long enough to be established, so it has a good foothold on the market.
But its most charismatic feature is undoubtedly its approach to token distribution through free airdrops. It’s unmatched in the ICO world at this point in time.
Finally, the Textcoin feature is likely to be widely accepted as a new standard of sending and receiving cryptocurrencies, which will be made as easy as sending or receiving text messages.
#Byteball 2.0 released: send money by email or via chat apps https://t.co/2BpMQ5VL6Z pic.twitter.com/gfdZ9DnWmb
— Obyte (@ObyteOrg) December 9, 2017
