What do we know about the Orchid cryptocurrency and the company behind it?
Orchid crypto project explained: idea, usage, economy. Source: orchid.com
PaySpace Magazine has recently released an article on how coronavirus has affected the cryptocurrency market, and what to expect from it in times of crisis and pandemic. Today, we have decided to tell you about one interesting crypto project called Orchid.
Orchid Labs
First, it would be reasonable to mention the company that stands behind the cryptocurrency, which is Orchid Labs Inc. Basically, this firm was founded in 2017, and it provides software solutions. The San Francisco–based (CA, the US) company has dеvеlорed an орen-sоurсе prоtосоl, which is a blосkсhаin-bаsеd dесеntralised pееr-to-peer netwоrk thаt роwеrs a mаrkеtplаce for buуing and sеlling internet bandwidth. Orchid Labs mostly serves customers in Germany and the United States. In other words, the company’s primary aim is to develop a decentralized open-source internet protocol for the global community to ensure anonymous access to the internet. The project is aimed at people who live in countries where governments interfere with the network activity of their citizens too much.
Sometime after the launch of the company, the founders also added that they are aiming not just to create open-source software, but also to make the internet accessible to all users in the world as a natural resource.
Orchid Labs mostly serves customers in Germany and the United States. Source: orchid.com
Orchid Labs intends to build a global network using the capabilities of Ethereum micropayments, with which users will be motivated to share their bandwidth with other people. Using relays (repeaters), a protocol, operation principle of which is similar to the one from the anonymous browser Tor, will be able to split traffic by sending it through various nodes of the network, which should make it difficult to determine the user’s IP address and make it almost impossible to reveal their identity.
Orchid token
Orchid claims that it is taking a new аррroach to digital рrivаcу with thе first рееr-to-реer, incentivized рrivаcу nеtwork. On the network, any user can buy and sеll bаndwidth using thе Orchid token (OXT). Users are able to browse privately and access different соntent without bеing limitеd bу their gеоgrарhy. So, what are the essential component of the project, which makes it so promising and interesting? First, it’s certainly a decentralized design. Secondly, such things as multi-hор аrchitесture and Open Source ethos give the project some added value. Therefore, Orchid is able to offer users what they called “unprесеdented digital рrivaсу in a trustless context”.
The first offering of the company is the Orchid client, which is an open-source tооl that allows clients to surf through the web with the privacy level they need, powered by Ethereum. The nodes of the network are clearly displayed on the network, which give a user the ability to choose which routes they desire to use.
Let’s sum up what do we know about the project:
The idea of the project
The major idea of Orchid is the creation of an anonymous internet, or the way they call it “we can reclaim the internet together”. Indeed, we frequently use VPN and Proxy when we want anonymity, but we still leave traces, even using these tools. The practical value of the idea is bringing anonymity wherever is needed. You may say it can be useful mostly for hackers and scammers, but in fact, it can help with absolutely legal things, such as, for example, restriction of intrusive ads and spam.
The major idea of Orchid is the creation of an anonymous internet. Source: orchid.com
How it works
Those who want to earn tokens provide their internet resources, forming a certain gateway. Anonymous users (or payers) use it, while data encryption is implemented. After that, encrypted data goes through the proxy right where you want it to go. The payment system is a peer-to-peer one.
Thus, users who want to access the uncensored network pay Orchid tokens to these very “nodes”. Since neither traffic nor payments can be controlled by central authorities, both users and “nodes” use the entirely anonymous, unsupervised internet.
Economy
Target audience: advanced internet users and innovators.
The opportunity to make money on the internet through the provision of computing power will attract a wide audience, but there will be a systematic issuance of tokens for sale as well. This will not significantly affect the price reduction since these volumes will be less than the volumes purchased by anonymous users (payers).
OXT and the market
As of the time of writing the OXT price was $0.192. Source: orchid.com
In 2018, Orchid Labs attracted more than $43M of investments for further development of the project. However, the company planned to raise no less than $125M. Namely, this sum was the amount the company stated to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in April 2018.
The project received mostly positive feedback from both crypto experts and enthusiasts. Orchid is also supported by such companies and venture capital firms like Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, DFJ, MetaStable, Polychain Capital, Blockchain Capital, Compound, and BoxGroup.
Nevertheless, notwithstanding this support, OXT didn’t show good performance on the market. On December 16, 2019, the OXT Orchid digital currency was immediately available for trading on Coinbase Pro, a major US cryptocurrency exchange. After launching the Orchid network, OXT lost more than 20% of its value. According to publicly available Coinbase Pro data, the token was priced at $0.251 at that time. As of the time of writing the OXT price was $0.192.
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