We have also released a brand-new DAA manager rebalancing page and integrated another exchange. This combination of releases further improves on the user-friendly and effortless management of your digital assets.

Upgraded Trading Engine

At the end of July we silently released our new trading engine, which was slowly ramped up in capacity up to today’s full release. From the start of August to today, we have already processed almost twice the number of trades compared to the entire month of December 2017, which was our busiest month since the ICONOMI platform went live.

The new trading engine allows for faster and more robust processing, enhancing DAAs by allowing greater volume in a shorter period of time. For DAA managers, this means more active DAA management and rebalancing opportunities (which means more fees paid in ICN).

Moving forward, the trading engine will be continuously monitored and improved.

DAA Rebalancing Page

DAA managers are now able to propose their preferred digital assets and assigned weights with just a few clicks. This release represents an important step in the complete automation of the rebalancing process to the greatest extent possible by regulatory frameworks.

Additional Exchange Integrated

Finally, we integrated a new exchange, and we plan on integrating at least two more by the end of the quarter. Each new integration enables us to get better rates, a wider range of digital assets, and better overall system stability.

Subscribe to our Medium and mailing list for more insights. Follow our official channels for more updates and news:

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Trading Engine Upgrade, DAA Rebalancing Page, and a New Exchange Integration was originally published in ICONOMI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We will continue to release periodic development updates as the platform evolves.

DAA Managers

Possibilities for risk reduction

The TrueUSD stablecoin has been added to the list of supported digital assets to help DAA managers reduce risk. Further methods for risk reduction may be considered in the future.

DAA Management Phase 2

• Rebalancing submission automation — This feature has been implemented and will be deployed when the new trading engine is released.
• Create DAA submission automation — Waiting for implementation.
• Manager reports — The first exportable CSV report on assets under management and net asset value has been released to production.

DAA tokenization process optimization

Some internal steps will be optimized to ensure that the tokenization process is seamless. The process will probably be optimized as part of one of the next DAA tokenizations.

Support for company accounts

• Internally flagging an account as a company with company name — In production.
• Withdrawal two-factor authentication — In production.
• Multiple users linked to the same company account — Currently, there can only be one direct manager of a DAA. With this update, multiple users will be able to view and interact with the DAA management page.
• Different roles for different users managing company accounts, including multisignature processes — Development of this feature can proceed once multiple users can be linked to the same company account.

DAA Management Phase 3

• User country report — DAA managers will be able to see where holders of their DAA are located, which will enable them to make better decisions about which countries to focus on.
• Referral tracking — DAA managers can set up multiple referral codes and track how many users register using each of these codes. This makes it easier for managers to track their marketing efforts across different channels. Referral tracking is currently in beta release in production.
• Additional items are also planned. See our Q1 development overview for some ideas.

Platform

Introduction of fees

Fees payable in ICN have been introduced and are being collected. More information will be available in our quarterly financial report. Read our blog post for an overview.

Big Four Proof of Solvency

The Big Four proof of solvency has been completed. Visit our website for more information.

API

Over the past month we have been focused on the fiat ramp-up and the trading engine upgrade. Because of this, the API release has been pushed back by approximately one month. The first stage of implementation is in progress.

Charting

The full history of each DAA is now available to users.

Affiliate program

Referral tracking — a prerequisite for the affiliate program — has been implemented. Future steps are to be determined.

Trading engine upgrade

A major rework of our price feeds has been deployed to production that has quadrupled our system capacity to take in feeds from exchanges. The trading engine upgrade has been completed and is currently in testing.

Custodial services

More information will be released as implementation progresses.

Users

Ongoing upgrades

This work is done on a continual basis as we receive feedback from users and DAA managers. As such, it is prioritized in an agile manner as our platform evolves.

• Volatility and max drawdown indicators have been added to the DAA page.
• The Android mobile application now has Tier 2 verification. The next upgrade will allow users to view DAA rebalancing history.

Fiat ramp-up

The first phase of the fiat ramp-up, OTC deals, is now available. We are currently working on broadening access.

DAA discovery page redesign

Due to the continually increasing number of DAAs, the DAA discovery page will need to be redesigned to support better searching. Design and requirements are currently being defined.

DAA manager page

Implementation of a dedicated separate page for DAA managers listing all their DAAs is currently in progress.

Website renewal

We have made some additions to the landing page of our website. A much larger redesign is currently in the planning stages.

Major user statistics upgrade

The first phase of this upgrade has been implemented: full price history with charting is now available, as well as several additional indicators.

Debit card

Implementation of a debit card is on hold. We are currently investigating third-party providers.

Direct purchase of digital assets

Requirements are being prepared for direct purchase of digital assets.

Follow our official channels for more updates and news:

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Subscribe to our mailing list.

Development Overview: Q2 2018 was originally published in ICONOMI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

After completing our ten-day campaign of adding new digital assets to the ICONOMI platform, we have a surprise: the addition of our first stablecoin, TrueUSD.

Access to a stablecoin will give DAA managers the chance to hedge in times of volatility, minimizing losses. By adding a stablecoin to our platform, we have also achieved another of the milestones we promised for 2018.

What is a stablecoin?

A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency with stable price characteristics. This stability can be achieved in different ways, such as being pegged to one or more stable assets such as the US dollar. The stablecoin we are adding to the platform is TrueUSD. In creator TrustToken’s own words:

“Our first asset token is TrueUSD, a stablecoin that you can redeem 1-for-1 for US dollars. TrustToken partners with registered banks and fiduciaries to securely hold the funds backing TrueUSD tokens.

“In the mainstream economy, most businesses still find it impractical to use digital currencies. In the decentralized economy, many decentralized applications will be difficult or impossible without a basic medium-of-exchange token.”

What does this mean for DAA managers?

Access to a stablecoin allows DAA managers to mitigate losses during times of high volatility. For example, if a market correction is expected, TrueUSD can be used in the structure of the DAA to preserve its value.

What does this mean for ICONOMI users?

Digital assets can be highly volatile. The addition of a stablecoin to the platform allows for better management of volatility, which can result in more stable DAAs that our users can buy into. It will also lead to the creation of a wider variety of DAAs for more conservative buyers.

Check the full list of digital assets available on the ICONOMI platform or go straight to exploring Digital Asset Arrays and diversify your digital portfolio with a single click!

Follow our official channels for more updates and news:

Facebook / Twitter / Reddit / Medium

Stablecoin Added to the ICONOMI Platform was originally published in ICONOMI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We are constantly working on adding features and enhancements to improve our users’ experience with our products. Today, mobile users are on an upsurge, and so is the demand for iOS and Android apps.

iOS

The latest release of the official ICONOMI iOS app has two major changes:

1. Users can now verify their accounts to both Tier 1 and Tier 2 directly from the app.
2. Buy/trade functionality for DAAs has been removed due to Apple’s restrictions on some specific digital assets.

Note that the deposit feature will still be in place.

Android

We are currently working on implementing Tier 2 verification directly from the Android app.

New Supported Countries

Additionally, eight new countries are now available for Tier 2 verification: United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Ghana, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Malawi, Peru, and Serbia. Visit our knowledge base for the full list of supported countries.

If you haven’t done so already, be sure to verify your account for higher deposit and withdrawal limits.

Follow our official channels for more updates and news:

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ICONOMI App Updates was originally published in ICONOMI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Our goal for the blockchain audit was to prove our solvency and our digital asset holdings using best practices from the traditional financial industry merged with the transparency of the blockchain world. This is why we decided to work with Deloitte and to utilize the Merkle tree approach.

Transparency vs. Anonymity

A Merkle tree is a structure that allows for efficient and secure verification of content in a large body of data. Using Merkle trees, each individual user can verify his or her account balance and calculate all liabilities without disclosing any personal information.

Measuring Solvency

Solvency is defined as the ability of a company to meet its long-term financial commitments. Solvency is proved once the total reserve balance acquired using proof of reserves is shown to be sufficient to cover the total liabilities acquired using proof of liabilities. Using these two different methodologies, Deloitte proved that ICONOMI’s reserves are greater than its liabilities. As such, all of ICONOMI’s digital assets have now been verified.

Proof of solvency is built from two parts:

Proof of liabilities: We have established a procedure for putting all our user and DAA holdings into Merkle trees. Using Merkle trees enables each user to check that they were included in our liabilities without revealing any personal information. The more users who check that their balances were included in the tree, the more certainty the proof achieves, so we encourage as many people as possible to check their balances once the tools are made available.

Proof of liabilities has been split into two parts:

• Assets held by users (such as ETH, BTC, and ICN held on the platform, as well as any DAA holdings)
• Assets held by DAAs

Proof of reserves: Total reserves is defined as the sum of all ICONOMI’s digital assets and fiat holdings in bank accounts. Deloitte has received all our blockchain addresses, bank account information, and exchange account information. Along with our blockchain addresses, we prove ownership either by signing messages with private keys or by creating predefined transactions from those accounts.

All eighty assets currently held by ICONOMI have been blockchain audited.

Proof of Liabilities

The Merkle Tree Approach

By using the Merkle tree approach, we enable users to check that our liability/obligation toward them was included in Deloitte’s report.

Let’s say we have four users on our platform with the following balances. For each user, we generate a unique random identificator (salt) called the audit ID.

We take each user’s data and put it through a hash function. Hash functions are one-way functions that take input data and return a fixed-size result (a hash). Since they are one-way functions, you cannot get the original data used for the hash just by knowing the result. By using hash functions, we are able to provide transparency and make data publicly available for verification while still keeping user data private (i.e., nobody can see anyone else’s email addresses or balances).

Note: We used SHA256 for our hashing function. Data is separated by using the pipe character as a delimiter: SHA256(user email | balance of asset | audit id). Values are fixed formatted with trailing zeros stripped.

All user hashes with their balances are then inserted as leaves into a tree:

We then calculate each internal node by summing the balances of its two children, combining their hashes, and then hashing the result. For example, the highlighted node in the image below would be a hash of the following data:

• Sum of balances: 3 BTC
• Hash 1: a3j5
• Hash 2: 49j3

Note: We used SHA256 for internal nodes and separated the data with the pipe character as a delimiter: SHA256( children_sum | left_hash | right_hash).

By using this procedure through all the tree levels up to the root node, we get a root node with the sum of all balances.

We ran the same procedure for all the assets on the ICONOMI platform and built a tree for every asset to get multiple root nodes. These root nodes are extremely important because they show the liabilities we have for each asset. Additionally, using hashes all the way up to the root node makes the data in the tree tamper-proof: we cannot change any of the data in the tree without also changing the hash of the root node.

Procedural Difference for Digital Asset Arrays

The same procedure is used for generating Merkle trees for DAAs except for the data used in the leaves. In the hashing function for DAA Merkle trees, we use DAA tickers instead of user emails. For example:

How to Verify Merkle Trees

How Deloitte Verified our Merkle Trees

Deloitte received the full Merkle trees (balances and hashes only, so no user data was shared) and checked all balances and hashes up to the root node. They were able to check that there were no negative balances and that all nodes were summed and hashed correctly. They also listed the root node hashes publicly, meaning if we ever tried to change any balances or add or remove users in these trees, it would be publicly known.

Coming Soon: Verify Your Branch from the User Dashboard!

Users will be given tools on our platform to verify their branch of the tree and make sure their assets were included in the tree sent to Deloitte. Users can only see their own partial tree, but liabilities are still fully verifiable.

All users who had assets on the ICONOMI platform at the time of the blockchain audit will see the following data on the platform blockchain audit page:

• User email used at snapshot time
• Audit ID generated for the user
• For each asset they were holding at snapshot time: asset or Digital Asset Array ticker, balance, and a link to their partial tree

Here is an example of what a partial tree would look like for the user from the previous example:

Users can see the path from their leaf to the root node. By using any online SHA256 calculator, information on the user’s individual blockchain audit page, and the information provided in this blog post, users should be able to verify that all the hashes from their leaf node up to the root node are correct. Users should also verify that the hash of the root node matches the one listed by Deloitte for that asset. DAA managers will also be able to verify the holdings for their DAAs.

Once the user blockchain audit interface has been implemented, we will publish a dedicated blog post explaining how you can verify your own assets. More updates will follow.

Proof of Reserves

We provided Deloitte with all our exchange balances, all our bank account balances, and all our blockchain addresses holding assets.

Exchange and bank accounts were verified in person. We proved ownership of blockchain addresses either by generating signatures with the private key(s) for those addresses with random strings provided by Deloitte or by creating transactions with an amount and target address agreed on in advance.

Note: For the wallet involved in the Parity hack at address 0x376c3e5547c68bc26240d8dcc6729fff665a4448, we were able to prove ownership by signing messages with private keys, but we cannot access those assets at this time.

Proof of Solvency

All eighty assets were blockchain audited. We have $133.6M of liabilities and $210.2M of reserves. The full data is available on our website.

In conclusion, by proving we have more assets in our reserves than liabilities to our users, we have proved that we are solvent.

Follow our official channels for more updates and news:

Facebook / Twitter / Reddit / Medium

or log into our platform to explore more DAA strategies.

Proof of Solvency: Technical Overview was originally published in ICONOMI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We will continue to release periodic development updates as the platform evolves.

DAA MANAGERS

Possibilities for risk reduction

Options for this feature, such as stable coins, are under active discussion.

DAA Management Phase 2

• Rebalancing submission automation — Implementation for this feature is complete and we are in the internal testing phase.
• Create DAA submission automation — This feature is still in the planning states.
• Manager reports — Exportable CSV files for daily and hourly reports for assets under management and net asset value have been implemented and are being tested.

DAA tokenization process optimization

The process will be optimized for seamless DAA tokenization. Gathering requirements.

Support for company accounts

• Internally flagging an account as a company with a company name — In production.
• Withdrawal two-factor authentication — In production.
• Multiple users linked to the same company account — With this update, multiple users will be able to use the same DAA manager page. Gathering requirements.
• Different roles for different users managing company accounts, including multisignature processes — Development of this feature can proceed once multiple users can be linked to the same company account.

DAA Management Phase 3

Development on this phase will begin once Phase 2 has been completed. We are currently gathering requirements.

• Additional reporting — Depending on the needs of DAA managers, additional reporting options will be prioritized and implemented.
• Backtesting strategy option on rebalancing page
• Out of balance indicator on DAA manager page
• Support for active DAA management
• Additional analytics — Gathering requirements.

Platform

Introduction of fees payable in ICN

Our roadmap for fees payable in ICN is available here. DAA creation and rebalancing fees will be introduced in May, together with a suite of back-end features related to these aspects of the platform. DAA tokenization fees will be introduced in April, and the adjusted buyback system will take effect on July 1.

Big Four audit

We have signed a contract with a Big Four firm. More technical information will be published in the coming weeks. The development team is currently implementing all procedures and code required to allow the audit to go forward.

API

Implementation is in progress. We are making the architectural changes necessary to develop an open API. The first stage will provide read-only data such as the list of DAAs and ticker prices, to be followed later by trading functionality.

Charting

Implementation is in progress. We are upgrading our backend infrastructure to support dynamic charting for users over longer time periods.

Affiliate program

We are gathering requirements and determining the best way to proceed.

Trading engine upgrade

Several upgrades are planned. The first phase involves refactoring existing logic to support future upgrades. This refactoring is complete and in the testing stage.

Custodial services

Implementation is in progress. More information will be released as implementation progresses further.

Users

DAA page improvements

Implementation is in progress. Charting will be upgraded to support the selection of custom time periods for the entire lifetime of the DAA. Additional indicators to measure the performance of DAAs and enable better comparisons and strategies are being planned and will be rolled out in several phases.

Fiat ramp-up

Implementation is in progress. The first stage of the fiat ramp-up will support larger deposits and will still involve manual processes. By public launch, it will be fully automated.

DAA Discovery page redesign

Design and requirements are being defined. Due to the increasing number of DAAs available, the DAA Discovery page will need to be improved to accommodate better searching.

DAA manager page

Implementation in progress. This will be a separate page for DAA managers listing all their DAAs.

Website updates

Smaller upgrades like the new events page and DAA list have been released. Smaller updates will be released on a continual basis, and we are gathering requirements for bigger ones.

Major user statistics upgrade

The scope for user statistics upgrades is being defined.

Debit card

Implementation is on hold while we choose a third-party provider.

Direct purchase of digital assets

Gathering requirements.

Follow our official channels for more updates and news:

Facebook / Twitter / Reddit / Medium

or log into our platform to explore more DAA strategies.

Development Overview: Q1 2018 was originally published in ICONOMI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.