Quite a few blockchain services have been added to the Microsoft Azure blockchain cloud-based project. Just recently, the program has enlisted some new memberships to the system such as BitPay, Manifold Technology, LibraTax, and Emercoin. These new partnerships have signed up for the Blockchain-as-a-Service platform (BaaS) and will work with Microsoft Azure accelerator.
Also read: Fear Mongers Falsely Condemn Anonymity in Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin.com got together with Jason Cassidy, Chief Communications Officer for Emercoin, to discuss the currency’s platform and what it does. Cassidy gives us insight into the Azure BaaS project, thoughts on Bitcoin, and how the team believes the Emercoin project has great potential.
“In our view, the concept that you must have Bitcoin involved to have a functional blockchain is quickly becoming an outdated stance.”
– Jason Cassidy
Bitcoin.com (BC): What is Emercoin?
Jason Cassidy (JC): Emercoin is a leading digital currency and shared ledger platform that focuses on creating innovative, scalable services for both business and personal use. The name “Emercoin” is derived from the word “Emergence”, which speaks to the philosophy of the company which is to constantly push the limits of innovation. In this light, we are a digital currency of emergence, bringing forth actual solutions to real world problems for the World to adopt and make use of.
BC: What does proof-of-ownership mean in regards to the Emercoin protocol?
JC: One of Emercoin’s blockchain services is EMC DPO – Digital Proof of Ownership for any type of physical or digital goods or services. DPO solves many real-world problems related to the validation and authenticity of numerous products and services available today. By outsourcing the factor of trust to the Emercoin blockchain, physical and digital goods can now be assigned immutable proof of ownership to their respective owners. Currently, there exists a myriad of problems with the validation of ownership in key areas of economic activity such as software licenses and subscriptions, land titles and deeds, music, artwork, diamonds, vehicle registrations and much more.
By outsourcing the factor of trust to the Emercoin blockchain, physical and digital goods can now be assigned immutable proof of ownership to their respective owners.
The costs to validate and authenticate ownership in several of these industries is burdensome, opening up the possibility of fraud, counterfeiting, and even theft. Currently, in the physical world, the common solution for ownership assignment is done via database entry or written record. With digital asset ownership, the solution is almost exclusively a database entry relating back to an ownership identifier (license key, product number, etc.) In both cases the possibility of mismanagement and corruptibility of these records is high.
EMC DPO offers a solution to this problem by utilizing the power of blockchain technology. One of the many innovative Emercoin blockchain services is the NVS (Name-Value Storage), which allows for the safe storage of relevant ownership information via Name-Value key pairs. The Emercoin blockchain provides a universal service in this respect, allowing for the storage and maintenance of Name-Value pairs without imposing a narrow set of specializations and limitations. Because of this flexibility, the NVS service is the ideal solution for the validation of recorded ownership of virtually any product or service.
The NVS service is extremely extensible and allows for numerous types of data to be stored such as DNS records, SSL and SSH certificates, business contacts, proof of ownership and much more. For a more detailed walk-through of the NVS service, please see here, and to learn about the EMCDPO technology, please study the PDF white paper.
BC: Can you give our readers a short description of the services you offer?
JC: Since Emercoin’s focus in on delivering functional services on our blockchain, we have been able to build a suite that offers a wide range of solutions. We have many more innovations that we will be making available to the public to use on the Emercoin blockchain later in 2016. Here is a sample of our current suite of services:
- EMC SSH – Our decentralized solution for secure shell management (PKI)
- EMC SSL – Our decentralized solution for online security and passwordless authentication
- EMC DNS – Censorship-resistant domain name system that improves upon Namecoin
- EMC TTS – Our trusted time stamping service
- EMC STREAM – Micropayment library for streaming digital media of all types
- EMC LNX – The first decentralized pay-per-click advertising network of its kind
- EMC DPO – Our digital proof of ownership solution for physical or digital goods and services
- EMC InfoCard – Storage for digital business cards for use with EMC SSL
BC: Emercoin has teamed up with Microsoft’s Azure project can you tell our readers how this began?
JC: Now that we have a complete suite of ready-to-use blockchain services and much more in development, the next step was to look for partners to work with. We approached Microsoft and offered the Emercoin blockchain services where we felt they would have the most impact, the Azure cloud. They came back with interest in working together and offered us to join their Blockchain-as-a-Service platform (BaaS).
We approached Microsoft and offered the Emercoin blockchain services where we felt they would have the most impact, the Azure cloud.
BC: Does your team have access to seeing some of the other platforms such as Ethereum implemented with Azure?
JC: Naturally, being involved in the program itself gives us an increased level of visibility into what is happening in the Azure marketplace. As this is a relatively new partnership we have been focused on integrating our services into the BaaS. Once the program begins to pick up more traction, we expect to see more synergy between the partners involved, including Ethereum.
BC: Where can one find an exchange to purchase Emercoin and do you have plans to enter other exchanges?
JC: We are working with many exchanges currently to have Emercoin listed with a BTC / EMC pair and when it makes sense an accompanying fiat pair (example: USD / EMC). Currently, we are listed and can be found on the following exchanges: Livecoin, Bittrex, Cryptopia, and Yobit.
BC: How did you become part of Emercoin?
JC: Last year I was approached by the Emercoin team through my consultancy at CryptoConsultant.com. The original request was to take a look at their services and offer some help and feedback in a few areas. During this process, I took a deep look at the Emercoin currency and blockchain and was astonished to see so much development in a relatively obscure currency. The small market cap of EMC only served to further spur my curiosity.
I agreed to offer some advice and help when time permitted and this lead to some early successes between my consultancy and Emercoin. Due to the tremendous potential of the currency and the relationship we had developed, I accepted an official role on the team as Chief Communications Officer. Emercoin provides an opportunity that is once in a lifetime and with my background in the industry through BlockchainTV.com and my consultancy, it was a match made in heaven for both parties.
BC: The Emercoin value has spiked in Q4 of 2015 and is showing a steady rise. Why do you think this is?
JC: I believe this is a direct reflection of the market realizing that Emercoin has a tremendous amount of value to offer the digital currency landscape. The most common response I receive in my role as Chief Communications Officer at Emercoin is “I cannot believe how much innovation EMC has, between the currency itself and the underlying blockchain services.” People are generally surprised to see this much innovation on a blockchain that is free, scales well and is ready to use today.
The landscape is currently saturated with many cryptocurrencies and blockchain platforms that have yet to actually deliver features and services.
Because we decided to focus on under promising and over delivering, we have flown under the radar, to so speak. Now that industry leaders are taking notice of what we have accomplished and forming partnerships to use the Emercoin blockchain, the awareness of EMC is increasing. If you notice, the value of Emercoin has been rising steadily well before we formed our partnership with Microsoft. The market is maturing and with that comes a more refined palate towards new entrants.
I believe that for a digital currency and blockchain platform to survive the next few years they must offer something unique to the market beyond hype in terms of promotion and promises of future technical achievements. The landscape is currently saturated with many cryptocurrencies and blockchain platforms that have yet to actually deliver features and services. And out of the list of ones that have, very few offer scalable solutions to real world problems.
This is where Emercoin stands alone as an industry leader, and it is why we expect the Emercoin market cap to grow considerably over the course of 2016. I may be biased however at the current price levels of 0.15 cents USD per emercoin (EMC); the currency is vastly undervalued relative to the host of top digital currencies that hold significantly higher values. When you look at factors like active development, actual innovation and the ability to deliver blockchain services that the market wants to use, Emercoin is an absolute steal at its current valuation.
BC: What is the Emercoin team’s opinion of Bitcoin currently?
JC: Bitcoin is a tremendous accomplishment in that it is the first app to showcase the power of blockchain technology. What we are seeing is that this technology is revolutionary in the sense that it is going to single handedly transform virtually every area of business and personal use.
Medical, transportation, accounting, law enforcement, supply chain, and banking are just some of the sectors that we believe will see an explosion of development in blockchain development in the coming years.
Blockchain technology will encapsulate much more than just Bitcoin. There will be many variants of blockchains coming into the industry in the next few years that specialize in key areas. Medical, transportation, accounting, law enforcement, supply chain, and banking are just some of the sectors that we believe will see an explosion of development in blockchain development in the coming years. The level of transparency a blockchain can employ is also a paradigm that is shifting. Open, closed, consortium and permissioned blockchains all will have a place in the future. In our view, the concept that you must have Bitcoin involved to have a functional blockchain is quickly becoming an outdated stance.
BC: Can you tell our readers the overall mission of Emercoin?
JC: To become the top blockchain on earth for business and personal use. The important part is how we achieve this: By constantly pushing the threshold of innovation and under promising while over delivering. There is a severe lack of functional, adaptable blockchain services in the industry and Emercoin is setting the new standard for what a top blockchain should look like.
Expect many more forward thinking technologies from Emercoin later in 2016. We have some big developments that will be cementing Emercoin’s status as the most innovative currency and blockchain in the World.
Thanks Jason for speaking with us and we look forward to seeing your project bloom. Good luck with the teams endeavors.
What do you think about Emercoin? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of Crypto-graphics.com, Emercoin
