Tip Blockchain
DISCOVERY ON BLOCKCHAIN
Powering
mass adoption of cryptocurrency through discovery of information on the
blockchain.
WHO WE ARE
Tip
is a third-generation blockchain platform powering mass adoption of
cryptocurrency by creating an ecosystem that connects end users and businesses
on a network where they can transact easily across international borders. Our
solution for end-users provides user-friendly usernames that are easy to
remember, and discovery, so it is easy to find other users on the network.
Our vision is to create the
most user-friendly and easy to use platform in the cryptocurrency economy, that
connects businesses to end users, and removes the technical barriers that users
face today when using cryptocurrency. Tip will be a strong catalyst for mass
adoption of cryptocurrency.
Problem Statement
To illustrate the main problems users face when using cryptocurrencies today, let us present a few
scenarios. These scenarios will illustrate how present-day solutions are inadequate for day-to-day use
of cryptocurrencies by the average user
1. Peer to Peer Cryptocurrency Exchange
For our first scenario, let us assume we have two users, Bob and Alice. Bob needs to send Alice a
cryptocurrency transaction to repay her for lunch she bought him today. With existing solutions, Bob
would somehow have to get Alice's wallet address from her. If they are in person, Bob could scan a
QR code containing Alice's wallet address. If they are not in the same location, Alice could send Bob
her address hash by copying, pasting and sending it to Bob over text messaging, another messaging
app, or by email. These additional steps to initiate a transaction create unnecessary friction.
Most users who are not used to cryptocurrencies would think these steps to be too much of a hassle
and not even bother using cryptocurrency. With so many options to send fiat currency between
users, for cryptocurrency to compete, it needs to be easier than sending fiat transactions
2. Small Business Accepting Cryptocurrency
In the second scenario, we will consider the case of small businesses accepting cryptocurrency for
the payment of goods or services. These could be your neighborhood coffee shop, restaurant or
shoe repair store.
Assuming a business, let's call it Gino's Pizza, wants to accept cryptocurrencies for payment, a
common practice used today is the business displays QR code that can be scanned by customers to
get the business' wallet address. Customers can then send transactions to this address using their
own wallet application. This again creates barriers to entry for users who are not used to dealing in
cryptocurrencies.
Secondly, what if the business in question is a restaurant that delivers, and requires payments to be
made when orders are placed? With fiat transactions, users can give their credit card numbers to the
order taker over the phone. This is not possible with cryptocurrencies. The closest thing to giving a
credit card number over the phone would be the order taker reading out the store's cryptocurrency
address over the phone. This would be very highly error-prone and impractical to use, as if the
customer misses a single character, the transaction could be lost forever.
3. Contextual Information Around Transactions
The third scenario pertains to contextual data for transactions. Let us go back to our neighborhood
restaurant. Let us also assume that Gino's Pizza is a popular joint, thus, and several transactions are
processed in an hour. If several orders are placed over the phone or by users scanning the business
address QR code, the restaurant operators have no way of knowing which transaction corresponds
to which order.
One ineffective solution would be to match the value of transactions with orders. This would not
work if there is more than one transaction with equal or similar value. Another option would be the
customers reading out the source address out over the phone, and the order taker recording this
address, and then match addresses when transactions come in to attribute them to the correct
customer. With only addresses hashes to go by, this is technically infeasible. Now imagine that the
pizza shop is expecting deposits from multiple customers. It would be a total nightmare for the store
employees to match transactions to customer addresses.
Another ineffective solution used presently is the businesses generating multiple addresses, one for
each customer or order. This is a tedious and cumbersome process for small businesses to manage,
as it leaves them with an ever-increasing number of addresses to manage over time. This is another
non-solution to this problem.
Key Features
Using CRyptoCurrency Has Never Been Easier
Once users discover other and contents on the network, they will be able to freely chat with them over peer-to-peer connections.Transaction can be sent over the wallet interface or directly from chat
Payment solutions for merchants.
Friendly usernames and transaction metadata give us the
power to deliver customized solutions businesses need to make accepting
payments in cryptocurrency easy. Our solution for merchants is a Point of Sale
(PoS) systems which make managing sales, orders, and customers a breeze
Powered by search and discovery on blockchain
cryptocurrency users today have to deal hashed addresses, QR codes, and other contraptions. this creates friction and makes cryptocurrencies seem foreign to average user.
Wit Tip Blockchain, users and businesses can register usernames which can then be searched and discovered by other users. they will the be able to transact in a fast, easy, and user-friendly ways.
Tip Blockchain enables ease of use by discovery on the blockchain!
The Solution: Tip Blockchain
Before we get into the details on how the Tip solves the specific problems presented above, let us
first understand the solutions the platform provides.
High Level Overview
Human-friendly
Addresses
The first solution presented by the Tip is unique, user-friendly addresses or address aliases. Each
address on the Tip Blockchain is created from a cryptographic hash, just like with Bitcoin or
Ethereum. However, this is an implementation detail users should not have to care about. With Tip,
users will be able to create human-readable names or aliases on their accounts and transact using
these aliases. The network maps the alias to the corresponding address, so transactions are routed
correctly to the intended recipient.
An analogy to this issue is if users had to find websites using IP address instead of host names. This
would have been an untenable situation that would have hampered mass user adoption of the
internet. The Domain Name Service was created, which maps human-readable names such as
google.com to the IP address 172.217.1.174. Just as hostnames were a critical feature for mass
adoption of the internet, user-friendly address aliases are a critical requirement for mass adoption of
cryptocurrency.
Transaction Metadata
In addition to address aliases, Tip also provides the ability to attach arbitrary metadata to both
accounts and transactions. Actually, attaching an alias to a wallet address can be thought of as a
special case of attaching metadata to an address. This metadata can be protocol dependent, such as
an alias, or arbitrarily specified by the user. It will be stored in the form of key-value pairs. This
metadata would allow for the storage of arbitrary data the user chooses to specify.
Metadata storage on the Tip Blockchain will support both private and public data. Public metadata
will be stored in plain text on the network, thus, would be accessible to anyone on the network.
Private data will be encrypted by the account holder and stored on the network. This data can then
only be decrypted and viewed by the holder of the private key, the owner of the account.
Discovery
So now we know that data can be stored alongside addresses and transactions. What can this data
be used for?
The Tip Blockchain is a fully indexed, searchable platform. Users will then be able to discover other
users and new content on the network by searching through the data using client applications.
Network nodes will expose a RESTful API that store and access this information on the network.
Decentralized apps (DApps) can then be built to use this RESTful API to discover information. DApps
will be able to create their own custom fields and protocols to extend the usability of the platform.
Peer to Peer Instant Messaging
The first DApp built on the Tip Network, by the Tip team will be a wallet app, incorporating several
features of the platform. Account aliases, search and instant messaging will be bundled into this
wallet application. Instant messaging will be a central feature of the application, as the primary goal
of Tip is to drive mass adoption of the Tip Blockchain, and instant messaging provides a way to do
that. Users will be able to send transactions directly from within messaging conversations, or by
using the traditional wallet interface.
Users can also find other users or businesses by username (alias) by searching the network, and by
adding contacts from their phone's address book. Various messaging formats will be supported,
including:
- Text messaging
- Picture messaging
- Voice messaging
- Animated gifs
- Video calling
All messages will be exchanged over peer to peer connections without being routed through a
centralized server.
. Point-of-Sale System
At the other end of the spectrum the cryptocurrency adoption problem, is businesses. The solution
Tip provides to businesses will be another DApp, built specifically for retailers.
This is a point-of-sale system, which will include features such as:
- Transaction management
- Order management
- Customer management
- Sales reporting and analytics
- Third party integrations
How Tip Solves Problem Statement Issues
With the example problem defined earlier, having gone over the high level solutions provided
by Tip, we are now ready to consider how Tip solves those issues presented.
Peer to Peer Cryptocurrency
Transactions
In the first scenario, Bob needs to send Alice a cryptocurrency transaction to pay her back for lunch
she bought him. With the Tip solution Bob has a few options:
1. Bob asks Alice for her Tip account name. @AliceBlake2000 would be a lot easier to
remember than Bitcoin address 16rCmCmbuWDhPjWTrpQGaU3EPdZF7MTdUk.
2. Bob searches the network's database for Alice using her name. If she has saved this
information on her account, he would be able to find her with a simple search, come up with
a list of suggestions, and select the correct user. Bob will then be able to confirm Alice's
identity by initiating a chat conversation with her. Once Bob and Alice find each other on the
network, they can then chat and send transactions easily across the network.
This process is much easier than other cryptocurrency solutions available today.
Small Businesses Accepting Cryptocurrencies
With the Tip solution, Gino's Pizza can put their account alias, @GinosPizzaBaySt on their website.
Regulars visitors will get to know the account name off hand. This will also make it possible to take
orders over the phone, paid for by TIP Token.
Gino's Pizza will also be able to tie transactions to specific orders or customers using the Tip
point-of-sale system.
Contextual Information Around Transactions
Tip Network's transaction metadata fields, allow for additional information to be attached to
transactions, which can be used for arbitrary reasons. One obvious use-case of this would be to send
identifying information along with transaction.
In the case of Bob ordering pizza over the phone, using the customer management feature of the
point of sale system, Gino's Pizza can send a payment request to Bob. The payment request will
contain all the information needed to settle the order. Using the Tip wallet app, Bob will be able to
attach this order number to the transaction. The wallet app will append the following transaction
metadata:
address: BobJones1989
memo: 4
topping extra large pizza
order #: 37
price: 19.57 TIP
Once the transaction is received at Gino's Pizza, the point-of-sale System at the pizza shop is
immediately able to identify the source address as customer Bob's, and the order this transaction is
associated with. The order is then settled with no further work needed on the part of store
employees.
The flexibility of the Tip platform means that various customized DApps can be built. These are just
some examples of what is possible with the platform. Developers will be able to create a limitless
number of applications to utilize the power of discovery on the Tip Blockchain.
The Tip Token
The TIP token, is the unit of account on the Tip network. It is the native currency on the network,
thus is used to pay for transactions, storage and other services on the network.
TIP is a utility token that the users will be able to use it to:
- Transfer between peer to peer.
- Use it to buy things in the real world with merchants who accept TIP.
- To store data on the Tip decentralized database.
- To pay for transaction fees on the network.
- Reward developers for creating apps that run on the Tip Network.
- To vote for delegates to secure the network.
- For delegates to stake their coins and earn staking rewards for securing the network.
The Tip platform provides an ecosystem that will allow users to purchase both digital goods and
services on the platform, and also tangible goods in the real world from merchants that accept Tip
token.
Token Distribution
Total Token Supply - 1,000,000,000 TIP
Token Type: Ethereum ERC20
Purchase with: ETH
Base Price: 1 ETH = 10,000 TIP
Hard Cap: 46,450 ETH
Token Sale
In order to generate financing to fund the research, development, and marketing of the Tip
Blockchain, Tip Inc will be launching a sale of TIP tokens which will be open to the general public.
Users will be able to purchase TIP tokens using Ethereum tokens (Ether). The sale price for Tip will
be 1 ETH = 10,000 TIP, or 1 TIP = 0.0001 ETH.
The token sale will run for four weeks. During this time, 60% of the total TIP supply will be available
for purchase by the general public. Any unsold tokens will be burned.
Bounty Program
Besides purchasing TIP tokens during the token sale, users will be able to acquire TIP tokens by
participating in bounty programs that Tip will be launching.
More information about bounty programs will be announced on our social media profiles.
Token Emission
Token emission is the rate at which new tokens are generated. In blockchain projects, token
emission plays a very important role in securing the network. Public blockchain networks are secured
and kept running by operators who run nodes to confirm transactions. As stated earlier, TIP uses the
Delegated Proof of Stake (DPOS) consensus protocol, where delegates are responsible to
processing transactions and securing the network. These delegates are rewarded by collecting the
transaction fees in blocks they process, as well as the block reward for blocks they mint. The block
reward is the reward delegates receive for creating new blocks.
The TIP emission rate will be 24 TIP per block in year 1. This translates to 84,096,000 for the first
year, or an 8.4% annual emission rate.
The TIP emission rate is significantly lower than other blockchain projects. For comparison purposes,
the maximum block emission rate computed annually for other blockchain projects are: Ethereum
14.97%[5]
, Monero: 19.1%[6]
, Neo 30%[7]
, Lisk: 15.7%[8].
Allocation of Funds
Token Price Structure
Competitive Advantages
Next, we will cover other blockchain solutions that provide a subset of the features provided by Tip.
We will then indicate how the Tip solution compares with those other projects.
ENS: Ethereum Name Service
ENS offers a secure and decentralized way to address resources both on and off the blockchain
using simple, human-readable names.
ENS eliminates the need to copy - and worse, type - long hexadecimal addresses. With ENS, you'll
be able to send money to your friend at 'aardvark.eth' instead of '0x4cbe58c50480...', interact with
your favorite contract at 'mycontract.eth', or visit a Swarm-hosted site at 'swarmsite.eth'
While ENS is a step in the right direction, by moving away from cryptographic addresses, it is not
really a platform targeted at the average non-technical user. ENS is akin to the internet's Domain
Name Service (DNS), in that webmasters and site operators are the only ones who are concerned
with the service. Everyday internet users do not know how to use DNS, and largely, do not even
know of its' existence. To use ENS, users have to buy names on third-party sites as webmasters
would buy domains on GoDaddy. ENS does not provide an ecosystem that makes name registration
easy and straightforward. Also, after names are registered, there is not much that users can do with
these names.
Tip is a better system than ENS because we provide an ecosystem where users can easily register
names, search and find other users and businesses, and transact freely and easily using the apps in
our cohesive ecosystem. Usernames are also stored on-chain, so any Dapps built to interact with the
Tip blockchain will have access to the usernames, without having to rely on an external service like
ENS.
Status Network
Status is an open source messaging platform and mobile interface to interact with decentralized
applications that run on the Ethereum Network
Status offers various features such as human readable usernames and instant messaging. While these
features are a step forward in cryptocurrency, without true discovery, the applications of this
technology are limited. Also, by not providing any solutions to businesses, half of the problem of
cryptocurrency adoption remains unsolved.
KIN: Kik Network Token
Kin token is the token released by the Kik platform as the primary currency used within the Kik chat
app and the Kin ecosystem.
Kin provides a decentralized ecosystem of digital services, where users can exchange value. The Kin
cryptocurrency is currently integrated into the primary purpose of the Kin platform is to serve as a
rewards engine for Kik's existing messaging platform. Based on the Kin whitepaper, Kin token is
used primarily within the Kik ecosystem, and not a general mass adoption cryptocurrency.
While the Kin cryptocurrency is an exciting project, by not having solved the issues of discovery
mentioned in this whitepaper, such as friendly usernames and on-chain discovery, the obstacles to
mass adoption will persist.
Telegram
Another cryptocurrency project that has generated a huge amount of publicity is the Telegram Open
Network (TON).
Telegram is a messaging platform which boasts over 100 million users. While a lot of information
about this project is not presently available, Telegram is expected to launch a token sale to fund the
creation of a blockchain project with features including:
- Instant messaging
- Two dimensional distributed ledgers
- Infinite sharding
- Side chains
- Many more features.
This is a very ambitious project which aims to raise up to $1.2 billion to fund the project
[12]
. This
project will undoubtedly take years before a solution is on the market.
Mass market adoption of cryptocurrency needs to happen now. Which is why Tip Network is focused
on solving the most pressing issues pertaining to user adoption, and have a solution out to market
ahead of the competition.
From the above comparisons, it is clear that Tip Network provides the most value to the user in
terms of the holistic approach we are taking towards solving the problem of cryptocurrency mass
adoption. While the ability to send cryptocurrency over chat is a neat one, we believe that coupled
with the other features we propose, such as on-chain transactional metadata supercharged with
discovery provide a multitude of everyday use-cases other chains can just not support. Thus, Tip
Network is obviously superior to anything in the cryptocurrency space in terms of solving the mass
adoption problems
ROADMAP
Conclusion
Tip proposes innovative solutions to the problems users face in using cryptocurrency for day to day
transactions. We do this through the power of discovery on-chain, and building applications that
harness the power of discovery on-chain to create customized solutions for end users and
businesses. Discovery is made possible by a blockchain that supports storing arbitrary metadata
off-chain in IPFS, and indexing this data on-chain so it is searchable and discoverable by end users
and decentralized applications. This provides an extensible platform on which various other apps can
be built to utilize this data stored on-chain.
The first decentralized app built on the Tip Network is the Kasakasa wallet, which supports address
aliases or usernames, and makes sending transactions as easy as sending an instant message. The
second application, targeting businesses is the Tip point of sale system, Sika, which makes
receiving cryptocurrency payments as easy as using other point-of-sale systems retailers are used to.
With these solutions in place and the solid foundation of on-chain discovery, Tip is poised to be at
the helm of the cryptocurrency revolution.
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