Ethereum: Slock.it Receives $ 2 Million for Universal Sharing Network – WeTrust Acquires Over 5 Million Trusted Lending Circles

This dualnews is about Ethereum startups that want to build blockchain platforms that will allow people around the world to borrow money and things safely and uncomplicatedly. Slock.it from Mittweida will receive $ 2 million through Seed Investment to develop the Universal Sharing Network, and WeTrust will invest more than $ 4 million through an ICO to form global lending circles.

As Bitcoin rolls in his Blockize drama, on the basis of Ethereum almost daily, a new project begins with the declared intention to improve the world. Today we want to introduce you to two projects whose goals are loosely interrelated and which have in common that they have recently received capital to realize their plans: Slock.it and WeTrust.

Slock.it and the Universal Sharing Network

Slock.it is already known to many of you. The Ethereum startup from Mittweida around Christoph Jentzsch, somehow involved in the DAO, plans to bring the Internet of things to the blockchain, cooperates with the energy giant RWE and has recently received an award from the Ministry of Transport. Now Slock.it has secured a funding of $ 2 million in a seed to build the “Universal Sharing Network” (USN).

The USN is intended to “swap the barter economy by enabling both companies and individuals to exchange, share, or share smart, connected objects,” said Stephen Tual, co-founder of the company. “The USN will be built on the public Ethereum Blockchain and will provide apps for smartphones and desktop computers that allow users to locate, locate, borrow, and use any type of object, no matter where they are in the world, through smartcontracts.”

The “Universal Sharing Network” circumvents all the work, all the trust and the payment problems, which limits the previous exchange and loan management to small circles. Paid with Ethereum, and the contracts are part of the app. This should lead to a radically simplified user experience. “There is only one key (your smartphone) for everything, and you do not have to register or log in, but just deposit a decent deposit.”

The USN is to start the following year as a B2C business-to-consumer product. Say: Companies should be able to lend their drills, lawn mowers, cars, bicycles and so on to the users of the App of Slock.it against Ether. At the same time, Slock.it will work on a B2B version that allows companies to become part of the network. Manufacturers of suitable goods are requested to contact us by email at [email protected].

At the same time, Slock.it wants to strengthen the Enwickler community in 2017 by providing the Ethereum computer as free and source-based software based on Ubuntu. Instead of continuing to sell hardware in the form of computers or locks, Slock.it now wants to provide the software that connects the Ethereum blockchain and its smartcontracts with just about everything a processor has.

WeTrust – bank and insurance for the bankless

While Slock.it has earned capital on a traditional round with a seed round, WeTrust is taking the more innovative and often used route of the ICO. ICO stands for “Initial Coin Offering” and means that you sell a coin in advance to finance the development. Until recently, an ICO was used only to form cryptic stimuli. However, with the rise of Ethereum’s Smart Contracts, ICO has been increasingly used to raise funds for projects that somehow include a coin that is sold in advance.

With the release of the Trustcoins, WeTrust has already taken nearly 1,000 Bitcoin and 75,000 Ethereum or nearly 5 million dollars.

WeTrust’s idea is to replace banks and assurances. The basic idea is that such financial institutions themselves offer all the same product without leading to falling profits and prices, as in the case of comparable products. The reason is that banks and insurance companies not only sell a product, but also monetize their role as a “trusted third party”. Trusted Third Party was, incidentally, one of the favorite words of Satoshi; And basically Bitcoin and WeTrust want to make the same: Trusted Third Parties superfluous.

WeTrust wants to provide a decentralized platform for insurance and credit, using a Web of Trust, a reputation system and scoring to ensure security. All this is, of course, to the ethereum blockchain. The first product is to be a Rosca platform. Rosca is a “Rotating Savings and Credit Association” and is a popular choice for developing countries without the need for banks. Every member of the Rosca throws a certain amount of money into a pot every month, and then all the deposits are in a rotating order A person. So you can save money for larger purchases or company foundations without having to store money at home and fear that it will be stolen.

Thanks to Smart Contracts, the Rosca concept will work with WeTrust without trust and direct presence. However, this is only the first step in building the platform that WeTrust has devoted to. The Startup is a spin-off from the University of Berkely, one of the US elite universities. The team is international, with a strong proportion of people of Asian origin. Since there are community managers for China and South America, this seems to be the target markets for WeTrust. The start-up is supported by prominent consultants such as Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum), Emin Sün Sirer (Cornell University) and Brian Hoffmann (OpenBazaar).

The trustcoins will have several, not yet clearly defined, functions. Thus, they are awarded as proof of trust, but also used to pay services to others and finance the development. During the ICO, 100 million trustcoins were created, some of which have been sold so far. The ICO will come to an end tomorrow or over.

The Bitcoin News