Every blockchain platform claims to be decentralized. But are they really? What does it mean to be truly decentralized?

If your cryptocurrency can be rendered unusable by governments, invading forces, or natural disasters, then is it really a decentralized currency?

The problem with all blockchain platforms is that they rely on the Internet. Without the Internet, Bitcoin simply doesn’t work. Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and every other cryptocurrency is completely dependent on Internet access.

Except one. Skycoin.

That’s because Skycoin is building a new Internet. A fully decentralized global peer-to-peer meshnet in which nodes connect to each over directly over dark fiber, or wirelessly, thus bypassing traditional Internet Service Providers.

Why is this important?

How do you make money from cryptocurrencies? With Bitcoin and most other cryptos there’s really only one option. You buy some coins or tokens and sell or trade them to somebody else, hopefully for a profit.

Skycoin is different. It’s a complex blockchain ecosystem with many working parts. Skycoin is not simply a currency to be traded on exchanges. It’s a comprehensive and functional platform designed to be actively used. This means the Skycoin ecosystem offers many ways to generate a steady income.

These are nine options you might consider.

Skycoin recently announced the launch of its CX Labs Project, giving everyone the opportunity to build decentralized applications using the world’s most powerful blockchain language, while also being financially rewarded for those efforts.

But what exactly is Skycoin CX? Here are seven key facts you need to know.

The impact of blockchain technology on the video game industry is likely to be one of the biggest talking points of 2020 and beyond. As game developers strive to stand out from the crowd, one way to achieve this will be to incorporate blockchain and cryptocurrency support into their products.

The Skycoin CX programming language, together with the Skycoin Fiber blockchain platform, offer the most powerful and comprehensive solution for developers who wish to leverage this groundbreaking new technology. And gamers are the ideal audience, because they’re already accustomed to making online payments, and they understand the value of digital assets.

So let’s examine some of the ways in which Skycoin Fiber and CX can enhance the gaming experience.

Ethereum is the world’s second largest cryptocurrency platform by market capitalization. Instrumental to Ethereum’s success has been its native programing language, Solidity, which developers have used to launch countless ICOs, games and applications.

But ask yourself this. Four years after Ethereum’s launch in July 2015, what are some of the most widely adopted business applications on the platform? And what are some of the most popular games?

Can you think of any?

In fact, the top Ethereum application (based on daily active users) is IDEX, an exchange for trading ERC-20 tokens. And the top game is CryptoKitties, a digital cat trading game that enjoyed brief popularity in 2017 when it infamously caused the entire Ethereum network to grind to a halt.

As for business adoption… well, there hasn’t been any business adoption at all.

So why have Ethereum and Solidity struggled to gain a foothold in the apps/gaming industry?

(This is a French to English translation of Blévenec’s original article. Images not included.)

In my last article I discussed the Skycoin cryptocurrency. This attracted the interest of many people who kept asking me how to obtain this amazing coin.

As a digital currency, the first step is to create a wallet in which to store and transact with Skycoin.

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear"
― George Orwell

Have you ever been shadowbanned on Twitter? I have, on several occasions. As have many well-known public figures including Donald Trump, Malik Obama, and Rose McGowan.

Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are all known to censor content, encourage certain views over others, and promote the platform’s own political or religious agendas. And if you’re overly persistent in posting material that the site owners dislike, they’ll simply delete or shadowban your account.

Shadowbanning is even more insidious than regular banning, because users are given no indication they’ve been shadowbanned. They still see their own posts, but they don’t realize nobody else can see them. They’re just left to wonder why nobody ever responds.

Even Google, which abandoned its “Don’t Be Evil” motto last year, is in the midst of a dangerous drift towards censorship.

And on r/cryptocurrency, Reddit’s largest and most popular cryptocurrency subreddit, the administrators are known to favor certain coins and tokens over others. If you post a thread about a crypto platform they don’t like, the thread will be down-voted to oblivion, or never approved for display in the first place.

Skycoin is one of the projects most hated by r/cryptocurrency. Threads about Skycoin are simply not allowed, unless they’re FUD threads, in which case they’re eagerly encouraged.

But I’m not here to talk about Reddit or Google or Twitter. Today I’d like to focus on Wikipedia, supposedly a bastion of free speech and democracy.

Let’s find out how true that really is.

I recently published an article comparing Skycoin’s Skywire service to 17 potential competitors. The article generated considerable controversy on social media. In particular, members of the Elastos community argued their platform would deliver a superior decentralized internet solution, whereas I had concluded that Elastos is not really a competitor to Skycoin due to its very different objectives and approach.

So lets take a deeper dive into these two projects to learn more.

In the wake of recent tragic events in New Zealand, governments around the world accelerated their censorship of the Internet. Immediately following the Christchurch massacre, ISPs in New Zealand blocked access to sites that persisted in hosting Brenton Tarrant’s manifesto and footage of the attack.

Heavily controlled sites like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit remain accessible, because administrators on those sites are quick to remove copies of the material and repress discussions deemed objectionable. But alternative forums like 4Chan and Voat are blocked, because users on those sites remain free to post the manifesto and video, and discuss events openly without fear of censorship. This has led to robust debate on those sites, with many members questioning the official record of events relayed by the mainstream media.

This week, Australia’s major ISPs including Telstra, Optus and Vodafone joined NZ in blocking access to a range of websites deemed to be subversive. A list of banned sites is shown below (with a link to each site’s Wikipedia entry).

The first batch of Skycoin Skyminers were sold in 2018 for 1 Bitcoin each, and the purchaser was reimbursed with 1 BTC worth of Skycoin, minus the cost of the components ($600). For example, when Bitcoin was worth $10,000, a Skyminer buyer was reimbursed with $9,400 worth of Skycoin, which they could sell to recover the majority of the initial 1 BTC cost. This approach was designed to help distribute Skycoin to the community.

A new cost model was introduced in 2019. Skyminers sold in 2019 cost $2000, and the purchaser is guaranteed repayment of $2000 worth of Skycoin over 24 months, in addition to the normal Coin Hours earned by the Skyminer. This means official Skyminers are now effectively free, because the cost of the Skyminer is fully reimbursed.