All Things Alt: The Internet of Block Chains and an Injunction Against Moolah

The altcoin community has often been rocked by scandals and platform crises, and the past two weeks have been no exception.

Despite the controversies and occasional market panics, however, project development soldiers on, aspiring toward ever more lofty goals in the face of this adversity.

Emergency injunction granted against Moolah

The syscoin development team released a legal update in its ongoing battle for custody over the remainder of the 1,500 BTC it raised during a crowdsale managed by Moopay LTD, the embattled digital currency services company at the center of a scandal surrounding ex-CEO and alleged scam artist Alex Green.

Today, the syscoin team, represented by UK-based law firm Selachii LLP, was granted an emergency injunction against Moopay, also known as Moolah, by the High Court in London following an effort to resolve the situation out of court.

@moolah_io Mr Justice Hamblen in the High Court of Justice has granted an Injunction against you this evening A copy has been emailed to you

— Selachii LLP (@Selachii_LLP) October 24, 2014

Team manager and coder Dan Wasyluk said that the syscoin team will be seeking damages in their case against Moopay, in addition to the roughly 750 BTC that the company claims it is owed.

Wasyluk told CoinDesk:

“We observed activity this morning clearly indicating [Green] was moving BTC funds, funds which he claimed he had no access to. We passed on all relevant information to our counsel and an emergency injunction was granted by the High Court.”

Notably, the Moolah Twitter account posted a response to the legal action prior the injunction, suggesting that a response was being crafted. According to Wasyluk, no response has yet been received.

Wasyluk said that they have since reported Green to law enforcement agencies and anti-fraud groups, including Interpol. He added that he hopes that the situation can be resolved so that the development of syscoin can continue with the funds that it raised months ago.

“We are (as I think many others in the community are) tired of these scams happening every month,” he said.

Viacoin developer: The block chain is speech

The viacoin team recently released its block chain notary implementation, which enables cryptographically proofed timestamping to authorize the veracity of legal documents or contracts.

CoinDesk recently caught up with viacoin developer BTCDrak, who in conversation argued that the block chain should be looked at as a ledger of speech rather than a ledger of asset exchanges.

BTCDrak explained:

“The reason why people are saying that bitcoin is really speech is that the block chain is simply proof of publication. In bitcoin’s case, you’re publishing what are basically digitally signed checks, saying that Alice pays Bob, Bob pays Charlie, etc. There’s no actual asset in the block chain – it’s just a bunch of messages being published.”

On a conceptual basis, this is where the use case of the block chain for smart contract creation and documentation comes into play. BTCDrak said that the next step is the creation of a decentralized system for establishing identity and reputation, which he stated is a clear requisite for a functioning ecosystem in which no central authority exists to certify who is who.

BTCDrak also discussed the developmental strategy that he and viacoin advisor and Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd have adopted for viacoin. He said that the daily work being done on bitcoin is integrated into the viacoin network, and cited the wealth of knowledge available in the bitcoin development community as an asset for development on his altcoin project.

He added that other altcoin projects stand to benefit from adopting many of the fixes that core developers have instituted, particularly as much of the work is being done for free.

“It would be ludicrous for cryptocurrencies to not keep up to-date with upstream development,” he said.

XCurrency developer proposes ‘Internet of block chains’

The XCurrency development team is working on a digital currency superstructure called the BlockNet that’s designed to link the functionalities of multiple altcoin networks.

Dubbed the “Internet of blockchains”, the BlockNet will seek to allow for node-to-node communication across multiple block chains, essentially creating bridges between them over which different services can be rendered to users off of the block chain. The graph above details the infrastructure layers connecting coin networks and decentralized exchange services.

The infrastructure will include its own native asset, called blocks, which are set to be distributed in an initial token offering scheduled to begin on 29th October. Tokens can also be acquired during the operation of BlockNet nodes, according to the official Bitcoin Talk post. The offering will be hosted by several altcoin exchanges, including Bittrex, Bter, CoinGateWay and Poloniex.

A number of altcoins, including utilitycoin, swiftcoin, and apexcoin, among others, have voiced support for the project and will connect their networks to the infrastructure when launched.

Developer Dan Metcalf told CoinDesk that the project is aimed at creating an ecosystem in which coin projects can offer services to a broader audience, creating greater degrees of cooperation and opportunity than currently possible in a fractured and volatile market.

“The possibilities are endless from cloud storage to anonymous virtual private network (VPN) and beyond when deployed on the blocknet application platform‏,” he said.

Strange alt of the week

It’s been said that the altcoin developer represents the project as a whole, serving as both the public face for new updates and the leading voice against detractors.

In recent months, calls for a new direction in the altcoin community have resulted in several altcoin launches that claim to be breaking existing moulds for development by putting forward fresh ideas. Recent controversies surrounding both old and new coins have dampened hopes that such salvation is possible.

A recently announced project called nopecoin is staking its own claim to becoming the self-described “savior of alt coins[sic]”, pledging to “prevail where others have failed”.

The announcement post on Bitcoin Talk takes an unusually combative tone, earning nopecoin this week’s Strange Alt of the Week award.

A FAQ posted to the forum includes, as one might imagine, a long series of negative answers to common questions surrounding road maps, exchange listings and other speculative angles. With a planned max supply of roughly 20 million coins, this X11-algorithm proof-of-stake sports a 13% interest rate.

The nopecoin development team declared that its efforts are necessary within the altcoin community, saying:

“Seriously though nopecoin is saying Nope to all the BS that has clogged up the alt coin process. We are the plunger and here to unclog the toilet that everyone swims in right now.”

Images via Shutterstock, Bitcoin Talk, XCurrency

Have a tip about a notable happening in the altcoin world? Email CoinDesk at stan@coindesk.com.

Disclaimer: This article should not be viewed as an endorsement. Please do your own extensive research before you consider investing in the altcoin space.