Ravencoin as an Asset Platform

Ravencoin began life as a code fork of Bitcoin on the ninth anniversary of the Bitcoin blockchain. This was not a coincidence. Ravencoin shares a lot with Bitcoin besides code. The zeitgeist of Ravencoin is similar to that of early Bitcoin before the bickering began. The price per RVN is low, fees are low, and the community is open, welcoming, and friendly, and our forums are not unnecessarily censored. If you just want to ease into a crypto-currency, Ravencoin is great choice.

But Ravencoin will soon diverge from Bitcoin because Ravencoin has a masterplan to become a platform for assets.

Most in the crypto space are familiar with the term “ERC20” which is a simple smart contract named after “Ethereum Request for Comment” number 20. This template smart contract allows issuance of a token of any quantity and a transfer function. This standardization caused ERC20 to be the platform of choice for most ICOs

Ravencoin improves on ERC20 in four ways.

1. It’s easier to use because it removes the complexities of navigating smart contracts, and Ravencoin is purpose built for asset issuance and transfer. Ethereum, on the other hand, runs general purpose code contracts, and wasn’t designed with asset transfer as its primary use case, and therefore can never be as easy to use as Ravencoin.
2. Ravencoin allows messages to be broadcast to token holders. This capability is extremely important and valuable. Many ERC20 token issuers have learned the hard way that Ethereum doesn’t have a message broadcast system.
3. Ravencoin allows voting by the token holders. Vote tokens can be distributed to your token holders. Vote tokens can be sent to specific addresses to vote.
4. Ravencoin allows asset token holders anywhere in the world to be paid (in RVN) if desired. This reward or dividend feature is very powerful, and allows a capability that didn’t exist before the advent of crypto-currency. Ravencoin makes it simple and easy to reward your token holders and early believers in your project.

Ravencoin, the crypto-currency, is not a security and had a very clean pathway to development. In the current environment, it’s important to know how the platform was developed, as some projects have regulatory overhang because of way their development was funded. Ravencoin (RVN) were never sold to fund the project. The only issuance of RVN is by the protocol, to miners who help secure the network by validating transactions and adding proof-of-work to every block.

The new features of Ravencoin will create an ecosystem. The use cases for assets on the Ravencoin blockchain are limitless. Tokens that represent gift cards, shares, property, commodities, money, licenses, etc. can be issued and transferred quickly and easily by anyone.

Ravencoin is a technology platform which brings the best features of crypto-currency to the issuance of tokens. It has the security and immutability of a UTXO based crypto-currency, with an ease of use and cross-platform ambitions that haven’t been seen yet in the crypto ecosystem.

Some jurisdictions require registration when the token represents a security, and we expect further clarification of the rules as the regulatory agencies continue to adapt to the tectonic shift that occurred when bitcoin launched on January 3, 2009. But even under the strictest regulatory regimes, there are exemptions like Rule 504 for Regulation D for smaller projects that would be perfect for Ravencoin. In some jurisdictions, the issuance of shares as tokens is perfectly legal and Ravencoin will thrive in those jurisdictions.

Ravencoin is jurisdiction agnostic and is designed to operate as a censorship resistant ledger for tracking asset issuance, asset ownership, and asset transfers. Additional features like rewards, messaging, and voting make it the perfect platform for many projects.

Ravencoin has also added several features that will help bridge the gap between the secure tokenized asset and the token’s real world value. Each issued token can include an Interplanetary Filesystem (IPFS) hash which includes metadata related to the token. This metadata can provide contact info, purpose, description, and even a digitally signed file linked to the token. The metadata can also include proof that the document was signed by the token issuer. All of the metadata is optional, but will prove beneficial when evaluating tokens, and the economic value proposition from the issuer.

Metadata spec: https://github.com/RavenProject/Ravencoin/blob/develop/assets/asset_metadata_spec.md

Ravencoin cannot enforce the real world behavior of the asset issuer, and cannot guarantee that the issuer will live up to their promises, but Ravencoin does allow the issuer to prove they’ve signed the documents that are immutably associated to the token. This additional link to the real world can bring a level of transparency, and accountability that is needed and is unique to the Ravencoin platform.

Beginning August 2018, the testnet will be live with Ravencoin’s asset capabilities. Messaging, voting, and rewards will be introduced as soft forks before the end of the year. Assets will begin activating on mainnet starting on Oct 31, 2018, which is the one year anniversary of the post introducing Ravencoin.

Try it out.