CORE MAGAZINE March 2018 | Page 17

Blockchain News need to change much more”. Lisk’s relaunch includes a modified front- end design, dashboard, and wallet. Kordek explains that one of the main objectives for the changes is to enhance user accessibility for the newcomers to the crypto space, as well as for the more experienced users. While describing his company’s rebranding process, the director said that it started off “like a tech project”. However, it then progressed to being more about “enabling people” by allowing them to easily incorporate blockchain technology into their existing business practices. Forked From Blockchain The Crypti Lisk’s public blockchain platform was introduced in early 2016  and began as a fork of the Crypti blockchain. Soon after the fork, an ICO was launched by its founders to raise funds for its development and also to determine its distribution. Through their ICO, the company was able to accumulate 14,000 BTC and this helped  Lisk’s mainnet go live, allowing it to be traded on cryptocurrency exchanges. Lisk’s developers want it to become a modular cryptocurrency. This type of design places every Blockchain App on a separate “sidechain”. The Lisk development team describes sidechains as “an independent cryptographic ledger” that latches onto the main blockchain, without affecting network speed and security. Moreover, sidechains are created for the purpose of maximizing scalability as more apps are added to the network. Notably, scalability issues have been a major concern with Bitcoin and even the Ethereum platform. Plans To Improve Accessibility Lisk’s developers recently announced the launch of a fund that will be used to create “high-quality sidechains”. In fact, Kordek stated that he has set aside $50 million (1,700,000 LSK) for the project and expects more investments to pour in, some even around 500,000 Euros. Kordek also said that his company will be trying “to attract new people, and these people don’t know anything about blockchain. So we also have to find ways that we can teach and educated [sic] them about this technology”. Based on these new developments, Lisk’s team seems to be focusing a lot on the academic side of crypto. In order to help increase awareness and understanding of distributed ledger technology, the Lisk group will be launching a blockchain “academy”. While discussing this initiative, Kordek remarked that Apple taught everyone how to use the iPhone. Therefore, his company wants to educate people about blockchain and its potential use cases while also getting them to start using Lisk’s technology. Omar Faridi [email protected] Core Magazine 17