Mind you, I drew those lines a few weeks ago, and BTC's price continues to play out with the trend.
It's speculation - not for everyone, but everyone is able to participate in the gambling.

Maybe that's the whole point of BTC?

To prove that anyone

Regardless of what fiat currency they use,

Whatever religion they believe in, or

Who they claim to be,

Can engage in degeneracy?

Happy Saturday :D

Introduction

Web browsers are the primary method that most people in the world today access the internet. Whether on a desktop PC or on a mobile device, everyone uses one.

You know the usual suspects by name: Safari, Edge, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, even TOR Browser.

Fundamentally, the core use case of a web browser has remained largely-unchanged in the past 25 years.

For those old enough to remember, America Online (AOL) helped bring internet access to the masses and shape the modern digital world we know today.

With so many choices, how is a potential internet user to choose? What makes any of those web browsers worth using? Do they offer users any value other than merely accessing URLs?

DecentrNet looks to change the conversation around Web Browsers, as well as incorporate and integrate blockchain technology to enhance the user experience (UX) and provide a positive environment that is comfortable and familiar to the end user.

DecentrNet is a Cosmos SDK-based L1 Blockchain, first launched onto mainnet in 2022.

In the two years since, DecentrNet has demonstrated a different approach to L1 development and decentralized application (DApp) focus than many other DeFi-focused blockchains.

DecentrNet features several built-in blockchain technologies that seek to differentiate it from your standard, run-of-the-mill Chromium web browser.

DecentrNet looks to offer users a different kind of user experience (UX) by integrating blockchain wallet service providers natively into the user interface (UI).

DecentrNet is more than just a Web Browser, though. DecentrNet has been working carefully behind the scenes to assemble a DeFi Hub, composed of multiple Decentralized Exchange (DEX) Aggregators, Bridges, and Routers.

This creation seeks to offer the best possible swap rates between the Cosmos and Ethereum blockchain ecosystems.

With a growing array of DeFi applications joining the DecentrNet, it isn’t difficult to see a trend: Axelar & SquidRouter, Gravity Bridge, Unizen, Ctrl+, Leap Wallet, and MetaMask.

DEX Aggregators all offer their own advantages, but what we have not seen yet, is a proper Cosmos-focused Meta DEX Aggregator.

With these strategic partnerships, DecentrNet seeks to insert itself into the DeFi landscape by building the Mother of All Aggregators; with all the best connections needed to offer an intuitive User Experience.

In order to combat spam attacks and prevent bottlenecks in the governance process, DecentrNet requires a participating user have 10,000 DEC tokens in order to put a proposal to a vote.

Anyone can put up a proposal to a vote, and that threshold can be adjusted at any time, by a separate vote.

DecentrNet Governance is currently handled through multiple interface - whether internally within Leap or Keplr Wallet, on PingPub or others that are listed at the end of this article - there are many ways to participate if you are interested.

A decentralized community is only as active as its participants, so, the more active users are in governance, the more active the overall network becomes.

Since each token holder has a right to participate in governance votes, it is important that users keep themselves up-to-date with the latest proposals to make sure to offer feedback and provide support or rejection to whatever is proposed.

After several months of work behind the scenes, DecentrNet rolled out version 2.0 of its unique PDV system.

The Personal Data Value is calculated based on primary data points, which are provided with the consent and expressed permission of the user, and include but are not limited to: Browser History, Cookies and Location Data.

As per the official press release:

1. The PDV (Personal Data Value) feature will remain internal for the next few months as we refine our system and implement sophisticated anti-fraud measures. Once these enhancements are in place, the PDV value will be displayed in a newly designed user interface. During this period, users can verify their rewards through the explorer.

2. To incentivize participation, we will introduce additional multipliers to the PDV rewards for users who hold, stake, or purchase $DEC tokens. Moreover, we will offer an optional KYC (Know-Your-Customer) process, which will also provide a reward multiplier. Users will have the flexibility to choose from various KYC service providers. To qualify for the initial rewards, ensure that your balance is at least 100 $DEC by the end of July. Note that the requirements may be updated as we proceed.

3. Rewards for July will be disbursed on August 1st. The initial reward pool is set at 200,000 $DEC equivalent, distributed among the top data contributors. The exact amount will be adjusted based on the prices provided by data brokers. Moving forward, reward distribution will transition to a blockchain-based mechanism, ensuring decentralized signing, encryption, and distribution to data brokers.

It appears that DecentrNet has more ambitious plans for the PDV, not just through testing and implementing new features to give users even greater control over their data, but also giving users the adoption to KYC for further staking benefits and rewards.

DecentrNet has currently released two blockchain-based decentralized applications (DApps) under its branding.

#1) The first is familiar to anyone who knows the DecentrNet name: the Web Browser.

In the development process of the DecentrNet Web Browser, Nikita and the team removed more than 232 Google API callbacks from the Chromium Web Browser code.

Through the team’s hard work, DecentrNet offers full Chromium compatibility, allowing you to use all the same web browser extensions you have come to love, without all the bloatware and surveillance tech that is built-in to all Google services.

The DecentrNet team stays busy, releasing a new version of the DecentrNet Web Browser for iOS, Android, Windows, MacOS, and Linux, epitomizing the essence of what it means to be a truly OS-agnostic application! The MacOS, Windows, Android and iOS applications are all configured to auto-update to the latest version as it comes.

#2) DecentrVPN: Powered by Sentinel (Released in March)

Built directly into the DecentrNet Web Browser, DecentrNet users can pay for VPN service with the DEC token!

DecentrNet handles the conversion process with Sentinel on the back-end, so that the user can use DEC without having to purchase DVPN as they would have to otherwise.

This gives the DEC token off-chain utility by making it a medium-of-exchange (MoE) for a real-world software product that serves a vital function in helping to protect user data privacy.

2024 has been a long year for DecentrNet, as the PDV 2.0 re-design took many months to revamp and reconfigure to be less gamified.

With the close of August, we saw the first distribution of PDV rewards under the new system. It remains to be seen what the next developments are in adding value to the PDV system.

However, based on DecentrNet’s past actions, one can assume that the current four-component PDV2 is not the final form - only a first step - in creating a valuable service for web browser users.

Control over one’s data is vitally important in the 21st century digital world, and, the more control one has over their own data, the better.

✅Click Here if you’d like to learn more about DEC Tokenomics

✅Token Contract information can be found on: Etherscan, CoinMarketCap & CoinGecko

✅You can buy the DEC token on two Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs): Astrovault & Osmosis, via TFM cross-chain bridge & AscendEX (Centralized Exchange)

✅ Explorers / Staking: Decentr Native Explorer, PingPub, ReStake, AtomScan or Staking Explorer

✅ Natively-Supported Wallets: Leap Wallet, Keplr, MetaMask, Terra Station & Ctrl+ (currently in beta)

✅ Download the Web Browser Here

—————————-—

If you would like to learn more about DecentrNet, make sure to follow DecentNet on X, Join the Telegram Community, and if you are a Degen:

Check our the Official DecentrNet Degen Telegram Channel!

Introduction

Alter Network: born in the depths of the 2021-2022 bear market, Alter carved out a critical niche where Alter, and Alter alone, solves a fundamental problem with blockchain technology and the internet as a whole.

From the moment you login to your Alter account, you are protected by encryption conferred to all users via Smart Contract. No one, from Alter or otherwise, have any access to your data: You are in control from the very get-go!

Instead of entrusting your data to a third party, the AlterDApp removes that possibility entirely. Once the subscription cost has been paid, the AlterDApp user is able to utilize all the included services and features provided by the Alter Network, without further expense.

Step #1: Choose Your Password
Step #2: Choose Your Subscription Package Tier
Step #3: Securely Store Your Private Key (DO NOT SHARE WITH ANYONE!)

That’s It! You are ready to use the AlterDApp and enjoy its privacy protections while chatting with friends and loved ones.

The AlterDApp addresses two fundamental problems: Modern-day e-mail is un-encrypted and public by-design and communications platforms are fundamentally dependent on centralized, global corporations with zero accountability or responsibility to provide their customers a modicum of user support and customer service.

Enter Altermail: An End-to-End-Encrypted (E2EE) private mail client for sending secure communications between AlterIDs. This mail client is not publicly-facing, so that there is no external sources to spam your inbox, as per the norm with centralized providers such as Gmail, Yahoo, and many others.

Just like with any traditional email client, you are able to send all manner of file types as attachments to Altermail messages, whether it be a video, picture, PDF, or other sensitive information. Altermail protects the contents of those messages from third party eyes, ensuring that your sensitive communications stay private.

Due to the always-changing regulatory environment we now live in, it is more important than ever before to protect user data and privacy, as this is a human right - NOT a privilege. You are entitled to privacy, regardless of whether you “have anything to hide,” as the popular saying goes.

Chatting with friends is a core reason most people have these always-on tracking devices in their pockets at all times. P2P messengers are a dime a dozen in today’s saturated communications technology space.

Whether you’re a user of Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp, iMessage, Skype, or Slack, you have no way to confirm that any of your communications are private, and kept only between the participants involved.

I don’t have to tell you how inefficient and poorly-structured the social communications strategies are for the vast majority of businesses and startups - especially in the blockchain and Web3 space.

The vast majority of blockchain startups and Layer-1 Networks fundamentally divide and segregate their community between two main communications platforms: Discord and Telegram.

Enter AlterChat: The Only E2EE Private Group and P2P Messenger application in the world. AlterChat has developed a unique, proprietary method of ensuring that group chats remain invisible to a new entrant, and past chat history remains encrypted and outside the knowledge of the new entrant.

This ensures that information shared in a Group Chat is not at risk the same as it would be in a Telegram group, where the entire conversation history is typically viewable to everyone, including Telegram bots and lurkers.

AlterChat currently supports Group Chats with membership up to tens of thousands of users since our most recent infrastructure upgrade earlier this year. AlterChat offers a value that no one else can match. Telegram lacks any encryption for group chats and Discord does not have meaningful moderation tools to help stem the endless flow of bots and scammers that permeate the platform and ruin the flow of discussion.

As is the case with every other messenger application, AlterDApp contains an integrated Address Book for storing the AlterIDs of friends and loved ones, as well as general Account Settings to enable users to choose their Account Nickname and manage their private key.

Alter Network has also popularized a new way to enjoy services while helping to secure the IBC and other connected Layer-1 Blockchains that are connected with Alter. Instead of having to pay a recurring subscription fee or an upfront bill, Alter users are able to stake a certain number of tokens (depending on the cost) to their preferred Cosmos L1 (from the list) and gain access to the platform!

Currently, Alter supports the following L1 Cosmos Blockchains and their tokens for Stake-To-Access:

1. Agoric (BLD)

2. Akash (AKT)

3. Cosmos Hub (ATOM)

4. Evmos (EVMOS)

5. Juno ($JUNO)

6. Osmosis (OSMO)

7. Persistence (XPRT)

8. Secret (SCRT)

9. Stargaze (STARS)

10. Stride ($STRD)

Note: This list is not final, and further Cosmos L1 Networks will be added over time, as Alter Network builds better bridges and brings new communities into the fold.

Additionally, with the mainnet launch of the ALTER ACCESS Token-Bonding Contract (read the official PR here), Alter users are able to use the $ALTER token to pay for access and gain additional benefits depending on the size of their stake.

As you can see, Alter currently offers 4 options for ALTER Access: 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, and 24 months of access, for pricing between 1800 ALTER and 3100 ALTER (at current prices of approximately $0.003808 USD per ALTER), this amounts to the following approximate prices (in USD terms as of 7:50 pm CDT, Wednesday, August 7th, 2024:

3-Month Subscription Cost: 1800 ALTER x $0.003808 = $6.85 ($2.28/month)
6-Month Subscription Cost: 2250 ALTER x $0.003808 = $8.57 ($1.43/month)
12-Month Subscription Cost: 2650 ALTER x $0.003808 = $10.09 ($0.84/month)
24-Month Subscription Cost: 3100 ALTER x $0.003808 = $11.80 ($0.49/month)

I don’t have to tell you that is an extremely low price for a full year of Private Messaging power! Consider this much:

Facebook generated more than $71 billion in revenue for Meta, Inc, in 2023 (source here).

Supposedly, Facebook claims to have over 3 billion users, today. 3,000,000,000 users earning Facebook $71B? That’s $23.66 PER USER in extracted value PER YEAR.

Wait, I thought Facebook was Free to Use?

For the users who don’t wish to stake their ALTER tokens for ALTER Access, they may also pay for their Alter subscription upfront, either ALTER or ALTER Pro. The differences are pretty dramatic on the included cloud-storage facet of the service. Alter provides all of its users 10GB of cloud storage, which is currently provided to the platform by Storj.

Storj offers a reliable, cold cloud storage solution for added Alter utility. In the future, Alter Network will be offering expanded options for extra cloud storage, as well as introducing other premium features in coming upgrades to the DApp.

To anyone interested in trying out AlterDApp, a Free 14-Day Trial Option, which comes along with the included 10GB of cloud storage. This is a fantastic value for anyone looking for an encrypted communications platform that does not harvest (or have the ability to collect) any user data.

When it comes to the cybersecurity space, Alter Network has clearly set itself apart by offering a superior product to those already used by Fortune 500 and government-sponsored enterprises.

Alter Network is clearly designed to be THE Go-to for Enterprises and Teams looking to protect their sensitive data from the prying eyes of Google, Microsoft, Zoom, Discord, Facebook, or Telegram.

Visit Our Official Website Here

Join the Community Chat on Telegram

Follow Maestro Consulting Co on X

Join the Matrix Community Chat

To learn more, check out Alter Network’s Website and Official Blog

Link to the 2024 Alter Roadmap

Join the Community Chat on the AlterDApp

Follow Alter Network on Twitter

Join the Discord Community

Join the Conversation on Telegram

Introduction

It’s no secret that the world has changed dramatically in the past few years, with a large emphasis placed on remote work and more efficient workflow. Enter the blockchain industry, still very much in its infancy and experiencing growing pains.

You don’t need a degree in rocket science to realize that most of the so-called “businesses” that populate the blockchain industry are mere science fair projects with VC backers.

What did you expect would happen? Hand over millions of dollars of cash to a bunch of mostly young, unproven developers and dreamers, and you are bound to receive mixed results.

We have seen countless examples of good ideas that have come along, raised a ton of capital, and then proceeded to rug and dump on their retail investors. VCs have been an extreme roadblock to realizing practical business valuations, and have led to bloated, unsustainable token models that bleed value and extract it all for the benefit of the insiders and early investors.

Take all the components of traditional business that are excess drains on capital, and now apply blockchain solutions to those problems. There are visible efficiencies to be had from adopting certain blockchain technologies for enterprise solutions.

In the Cosmos ecosystem, there are a handful of viable projects with real business models and revenue. To name a pair of strong contenders (so far, but not exhaustive): Astrovault, and Jackal Protocol.

While there are other L1 blockchains with viable products or services to sell to consumers, it remains to be seen if a sustainable business can be built solely from the solutions offered.

Building a sustainable business also involves decentralizing components of your business that would normally be drags on your bottom line. One particular problem that enterprises run into is their storage expenses.

Jackal has achieved what no one else could: Offer E2EE hot cloud storage with 3x global redundancy, all while offering better value than the legacy providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Dropbox, and iCloud).

Jackal operates an L1 Cosmos SDK-based blockchain that sells cloud storage space, and sells a lot of it! Jackal has been absolutely on fire this year, with a recent rework of the JKL token being implemented in Version 4 (ongoing).

Version 4 not only positively affected the JKL token’s usage within the ecosystem, but also reconfigured the pricing model of Jackal storage, so that the storage is more competitive when compared side-by-side to its legacy predecessors.

While the cost per TB was $8 per month earlier this year, that rate has now been raised to $15/month, with rates all-but-guaranteed to increase as storage costs increase globally.

Due to the combined retail and enterprise demand for cloud storage, and the data centers that host the data, Jackal is on a path to a sustainable business with recurring monthly revenue to support scaling globally.

The latest rumors suggest that Jackal is nearing completion of testing their EVM deployment. Once this goes live, Jackal will truly be THE storage layer for both the Cosmos and Ethereum ecosystems!

If you’ve been a Cosmos ecosystem participant in the past four years, you know all about the issues DEXs have faced trying to scale and produce real revenue to sustain their model(s). OsmosisDEX has been known as the L1 gas token trading hub for the Cosmos, but does not efficiently use its blockspace, and the user experience can be extremely tedious, sifting through the overwhelming number of liquidity pools and tokens to swap.

Astrovault seeks to simplify the UI and improve the UX with a cross-chain liquidity hub, utilizing its own Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs), referenced with an “x” before the regular ticker, to earn perpetual yield on liquidity, thereby eliminating the concept of dead capital.

It doesn’t take much time to realize that Osmosis (and other DEXs) are hosting a lot of dead, static capital, which cannot move and/or has no retail demand (and thereby very low trading volume in the associated Liquidity Pools (LPs).

Astrovault has begun its DEX deployment journey with the Archway Network, where the DEX has accumulated approximately $4.2 million in Total Value Locked (TVL) and $3.5 million in liquidity.

Where Astrovault sets itself apart from Osmosis, is in the utilization of Protocol-Owned-Liquidity, wherein the Protocol earns liquidity from the staked derivatives in the liquidity pools.

As of September 15, 2024, the top 10 components of the Astrovault DAO POL includes:

1. 5.56M AXV ($236.98K)

2. 624.92K JKL ($96.03K)

3. 2.82M ARCH ($91.82K)

4. 5.89K ATOM ($23.83K)

5. 2.08M PLQ ($19.55K)

6. 0.31 WBTC.axl ($18.24K)

7. 106.45K FLIX ($14.07K)

8. 31.17K OSMO ($13.66K)

9. 11.27K USDC.nobl ($11.26K)

10. 2.76K AKT ($6.69K)

With the exceptions of AXV, WBTC.axl, and USDC.nobl, the other seven components of the PoL are earning revenue from the underlying staked x-Assets.

Astrovault also offers yield farms for AXV, ARCH, ATOM, FLIX, PLQ, OSMO, and JKL, with yields ranging from 7% to 24%. These relatively moderate rates are much more sustainable on Astrovault than they could be on Osmosis, since the PoL is earning PEL every day to support the yields.

This also offers Astrovault additional flexibility with increasing incentives on any of the farms, should the DAO choose to do so. This also extends to the LP incentives, which can be adjusted in either direction to meet DAO-chosen rates.

I know, Outbid isn’t technically a separate business from Astrovault, however, its unique design warranted its own section!

Outbid is the gamified launchpad that was built on Astrovault by the High Vault team. Instead of VCs getting the best prices for a newly-launched token, Outbid puts the retail users into the seat of power.

Be Your Own VC is the Outbid motto, and it so far has proven this to be a successful approach, with 2 token launches so far in 2024, with the AXV token and the LSE token for Lunarspace.

The AXV Outbid raised over $310,000 for Astrovault DAO with zero VC investors involved! That is an unheard of raise for a grassroots fundraising round!

That $310,496.62 represents what Outbid could do with no prior track record nor close competitors to measure up against. Just imagine what Outbid is going to do once its Solana franchise launches on mainnet!

Much like Astrovault and Jackal, Outbid is a Decentralized Business (DeBiz) with its own source of revenue. With further franchises planned for the EVMs and other Cosmos L1s, Outbid looks extremely promising as a platform and as a tool in the toolkit of a financially-sovereign individual.

Decentralized Business is not just a passing fad: it is the way we reach mass adoption for blockchain technology. A limited userbase in the Cosmos ecosystem demonstrates a need for more cross-chain connections between Ethereum and Solana with Cosmos: that more users can gain access to the underlying Cosmos technology that is so useful.

If you enjoyed reading this and would like to learn more:

👉 Check out the Maestro Consulting Official Website

👉 Subscribe to my Telegram Channel & Join the Conversation

👉 Join the Maestro Community Chat on Matrix

👉 Keep up with the Latest News on Warpcast & X

👉 Check out my Podcast and Radio Show