The world is changing with a power and a speed that could easily leave the observant in a state of trembling awe; provided they possessed enough objective capacity to see these changes clearly.
When we think of the dark web, mostly what comes to mind are things like the availability of chemical substances that alter the usual states of body/mind consciousness.
We think of the sheer volume and variety of everything else there is to be had, should you be lucky enough to encounter an honest vendor.
Lately-and we know this from personal observations and what others have told us-there is more and more dishonesty taking place where items are never sent to the users that ordered them, and the offenders are coming up with slick work-arounds that make it look like they have been and are trustworthy, but they are not.
Just like in the real world, the forces of greed and trends of degeneration are brought about by a whirlwind of materialism.
And it is becoming harder to trust people, since more them are becoming untrustworthy.
As the population increases, the pressures of being pressed up against each other also intensifies.
And it becomes routine for people to look for any avenue where they can cut corners.
Users find themselves more and more out of luck than was once the case.
Meanwhile, you come across some genuinely funny offerings like "The Scarface Special," which is composed of a machine gun and an 8-ball of Cocaine.
Dark as it may seem when viewed from certain perspectives, I still had to laugh out loud when I saw it.
I remember coming across some news that the fellow offering this combo got arrested but I can't find the link anymore.
Still, the Scarface Meme keeps developing into ever more complex levels of sophistication.
This brings us to something that's been hovering around in the atmosphere of the dark web like some kind of holographic drone; one that occasionally makes certain entrepreneurs wealthy or sent to jail.
It's also been slipping in and out of operation like offshore banks that come and go; hopefully not with your money when (or if) they do go.
We're talking about the online betting industry, specifically what it is that Blockchain is betting on.
Bitcoin is a Blockchain construct and there are now a lot of people that are using Bitcoin to fund their sports betting, and a virtual revolution is about to take place.
The long-entrenched gambling syndicates are not happy with this new state of affairs, which is literally right around the corner.
As is always the case where substantial amounts of money come into play, there can be pressures of all sorts, spinning dangerously in the ethers above our heads, or...benignly sailing by like a Frisbee, waiting for a lucky few to get their hands on it.
Now, we are talking about something just as revolutionary with the potential for investor profits that are truly astronomical, meaning (grin), "the sky is the limit."
Rather than walking you down the garden path of this curious new world of possibilities, let me connect you with the opinions of others for whom this is their very field of endeavor.
Let us consider The Racing Post as well as The Betting Business.
What we are talking about is Blockchain technology, and the industry it is growing.
Let's run a brief exposition of Blockchain:
A Blockchain is an immutable ledger, whose platform can be accessed anonymously from anywhere in the world with an internet connection-even in countries with extreme government firewalls like China and Turkey.
The implications of this are profound and have the potential to organically shift power, money and control away from TPTB.
Blockchain projects ("cryptocurrencies") will throw gas on the next financial crisis because some re-allocation of investments will go to untraditional crypto-projects that are not controlled by TPTB.
Each Blockchain project has a "core-asset" or "token" that represents the value of the project, much like stock in a company.
This asset is often called "cryptocurrency," but in reality it is more like stock than currency.
Most Blockchain projects have a poor value proposition and the value is purely speculative, based on a promise of future development and potential.
Most projects start with a group of developers with an idea, then they get funded, and then they get to work building the project.
This process can lead to unfulfilled promises, or the project can simply become technologically obsolete, and a new direction is needed.
Investing in these kinds of projects is dangerous.
Blockchain tech first attracted people who are highly technical and philosophical, but now projects have become more user-friendly, technologically-advanced and applicable to more niche industry sectors.
The next wave of Early Adopters have pumped the industry full of speculative "fear of missing out" investments, which is blowing several bubbles.
The Blockchain industry is currently where the internet was in the late 1990s.
It has an identity, a direction and momentum, but most projects are inflated with speculation and will somehow either phase-out, or the developers will get cannibalized by another project.
The exciting prospect is knowing that some Blockchain projects will grow by 10 to 100-times, or more.
Let's look into Blockchain vs. DApp:
A Blockchain is the core back-end technology that records information ("blocks").
Blockchains include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Graphene, and others.
A Decentralized Application (DApp) is a project built on top of a Blockchain. Most Blockchain projects are in reality just DApps, and do not actually launch their own Blockchain.
Now, let's flashback for a moment to Bitcoin:
BTC was the first Blockchain (and currently the largest market cap), but is essentially a prototype for Blockchain technology.
BTC is revolutionary and genius, but compared to second and third generation Blockchains, it is one-dimensional and slow.
The only thing you can do is send BTC back-and-forth, and it currently takes from 10 minutes to an hour to confirm a transaction.
The larger the user base grows, the slower the network runs. So, this isn't properly conducive to scalability.
BTC will become the "digital gold" of the "crypto-world" because everyone agrees that it has value, but it is slow to transfer.
And now... other Blockchains:
Ethereum is currently the second largest. ETH is a second-generation chain that is very user-friendly for developers to build DApps on.
ETH, however, has not solved the scalability or speed problems that plague BTC, and is more like a sandbox for developers.
Some even call it a junk drawer. Despite the technological disadvantages of BTC & ETH, both have strong popularity.
Graphene is measurably the most technologically advanced Blockchain based on transactions per second (tens of thousands), block confirmation intervals (under three seconds), governance (shareholders can vote on new initiatives and projects) and overhead (it's the least expensive network to run).
Projects that use Graphene to launch their own Blockchain include BitShares, Steem and Peerplays.
For sake of comparison, BTC is like the first calculator in the '50s, Ethereum is the first personal computer in the '80s, and Graphene is like the newest iPhone.
At this point, it makes sense to look into the Peerplay's Blockchain Standards Association, also known as the PBSA.
The PBSA is a non-profit organization committed to researching and developing open-source Blockchain technology.
The PBSA does not own or operate the Peerplays Blockchain in any capacity (due to legal reasons).
The Peerplays Blockchain exists independent of the PBSA. Much like the Bitcoin Blockchain exists independent of any organization that has "Bitcoin" in their name.
Let's take a deeper look into Peerplays:
Peerplays is an open-sourced decentralized Blockchain that uses the Graphene core protocol as a foundation, and is customized for gambling and gaming.
Peerplays is a peer-to-peer network and does not have a "House" to bet against.
It's also a Decentralized Autonomous Coop (DAC).
Decentralized meaning owned and supported by a global community that is tens of thousands strong, and autonomous meaning core token (PPY) holders can vote on new initiatives and projects.
Coop means members of the community can receive dividends from the project.
The Peerplays Blockchain platform just recently launched and will soon have many DApps: Peer-to-peer sports betting with significantly less fees, lottery that pays out 95 percent of the pot, no-rake poker, peer-to-peer games and tournaments, etc.
Because of Graphene's speed, gaming can happen on-chain and in real time.
Peerplays is capable of hosting and wagering with any cryptocurrency (not just the core token), and also has a built-in asset-exchange.
Peerplays does NOT host fiat currencies, only cryptocurrencies.
Peerplays is the first crypto-project that pays dividends to holders of the core-asset (PPY).
The Peerplays Blockchain collects fees from the users in the form of whichever "cryptocurrency" was used, and then distributes those fees as a dividend every single day.
For example, if BTC, ETH and PPY were wagered on Peerplays, then fees would be collected and distributed in BTC, ETH and PPY to holders of PPY, thereby creating a bread basket of cryptocurrencies.
Peerplays will also have a referral program that can make the project go viral. It's a single-tier referral program, NOT multi-tier pyramid scheme.
Moving right along, we come to Bookie. This is the flagship DApp of Peerplays. Bookie will be the first betting exchange fully accessible from anywhere in the world.
It is completely decentralized (not owned by any one party, specifically not the PBSA) and cannot be shut down, just like how the Bitcoin Blockchain cannot be shut down.
There are a few other crypto-gambling projects, such as Auger, Wagerr, FirstBlood, GameCredits, etc.
These are all DApp's built on the Ethereum Blockchain, and have limited capabilities due to technological restrictions and narrow niche focus.
Now I'd like to point out some of the benefits of Blockchain:
Improve sports integrity: The largest area of sports integrity and betting fraud is called "spot-betting." This is when bets are placed not on who wins, but on something happening within a game (a player gets a red-card, fouls-out, strikes-out, double-faults, etc.).
This is the easiest way to manipulate and win, and the best way for a low-paid athlete to make extra money.
Blockchain betting helps shine a light on this problem because all bets are transparent.
Although betters are anonymous, the transactions (what they bet on) are completely transparent. Therefore, abnormal betting patterns become more obvious.
Currently, centralized betting companies like Betfair keep betting patterns secret in order to protect their business.
That means exposing fraud is NOT in their best interest, because they do not want to expose suspicion of their clients.
The industry can have Know your Customer (KYC), or transparency, but not both. If there is KYC, then people expect their privacy to be kept.
If there is transparency, then people expect anonymity. Technology is forcing the industry into transparency, and therefore the best has to be made of the situation.
It is best to establish new standards from the beginning, as the transition is being made from the old system to a new one.
Betfair and other betting companies have a history of canceling or heavily taxing professional bettors who win frequently.
Peerplays is not centralized and does not have the ability to restrict or discriminate.
Many problem-gamblers get into trouble by taking out credit with a casino and over-extending themselves.
On Peerplays, you can only bet the cryptocurrencies that exist in your account. Therefore, one cannot bet more than they have.
Peerplays is a provably fair peer-to-peer network. There is no house that tilts the odds.
Provably fair gaming: All games are auditable to prove that no one has a disadvantage-accessible anonymously from anywhere in the world with an internet connection.
In conclusion... so, what's next?
How does or could any of this involve you?
Now might be the time to take a closer and much more focused look at platforms like Peerplays.
We know that the new is going to explode around the world.
Bitcoin did and it WILL BE followed by more and more new generations of similar potential and possibility.
My job is to tell you some of what's out there and hope it makes you curious. What you do with anything is up to you. You won't be able to say you weren't told.
As for what can be known about Peerplays at this moment, this is what I know:
Peerplays is a new community built on technology that has been in commercial use since 2014.
PPY will be available soon to purchase on crypto-asset exchanges, just like buying BTC. If you hold PPY in your personal digital wallet, then you will receive network dividends after DApps are launched.
You can join Peerplays by getting involved with the community on forums including BTCTalk, Reddit, Telegram, etc.
Peerplays is an idea whose time has come, built with the world's most advanced Blockchain technology. It is community-driven and is gaining momentum as its community grows.
We are on the edge of the greatest transformations of the technology revolution, and the exponential combustion of virtual 4th of July to end-all 4th of July...
Those who put themselves in the possession of valuable information may soon find themselves in a position to use it to their great advantage.
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