Hello everyone!
This is my first blogpost. In this post I will be talking about Upfiring (UFR). I will divide my post into:
- Introduction.
- Upfiring P2P Network.
- The Application.
- Exchanges and Partnerships.
- Current Situation and Team.
- Future.
1 - Introduction.
Upfiring is a peer-to-peer (P2P) distributed file-transferring platform designed at its core to
enhance the way files are shared between users. By decentralizing the file-sharing process,
Upfiring completely removes the middleman and allows users to directly exchange information via the blockchain network.
It utilizes the Ethereum blockchain (It is a ERC20 Token) as its primary platform for transaction-processing.
By encrypting communications on the blockchain and allowing
nodes to communicate directly, Upfiring can function as a fully-decentralized exchange for files and value transactions - allowing users to download or seed their own files at will.
Smart contracts regulate all transactions by overseeing the encryption of files,
verifying proof-of-ownership, and guaranteeing a seamless transfer of value. The use of smart contracts allows for the objective management of transactions without requiring authoritative supervision.
2 - Upfiring P2P Network.
Normal P2P networks/sites are centralised, which means they have been and are more easily targeted by shutdowns, governments, and strict regulations. By removing the central server and allowing nodes in the network to communicate directly without outside interference the network/site is more secure. The network utilizes redundancy and breaks files into fragments that are distributed across the network, further strengthening security.
Upfiring Tokens:
"Upfire (UFR) tokens are the core of Upfiring’s incentivization protocol. Users can “spend” UFR in exchange for files being offered by other users on the network. To accumulate UFR, users can share files with the network (seeding) and be rewarded with UFR each time their file is downloaded. UFR can also be acquired on numerous cryptocurrency exchanges on the web, and will be directly exchangeable for Ethereum." - From the UFR Whitepaper.
From the whitepaper we can see that the UFR Tokens do have a use and are not just used for funding the project as in some other cryptocurrencies.
The Upfiring application will support the sharing of "safe" file types (.doc, .pdf, .wav) .torrent extensions, and magnet links. They plan to expand their support over time. They do mention some cases of students using the platform to download each others files that are excede the limitation of services like Dropbox, artists sharing their own music, writers sharing their work, and programmers releasing applications/browser extensions.
Seeding (One of the things that is going to revolutionize the P2P Industry)
Traditional torrent and file-sharing programs offer no rewards to seed files after a download is completed, often resulting in long download times for users or the complete inability to download files altogether.
One of the best things about the Upfiring application is that by seeding files you will be passively rewarded with UFR Tokens, depending of the price of the file (The original seeder gets 50% of the rewards, the other 50% is evenly split between other seeders)
They believe that "file-sharing should be decentralized and utilize blockchain technology for maximum security. Traditional file-sharing protocols are vulnerable to breaches of security and shutdowns that will be non-issues for Upfiring users. Because the network will be decentralized and run on the Ethereum blockchain, there is no central point of failure - making the network extremely resilient and reliable".
3 - Application.
"Upfiring will employ several technologies to create a successful peer-to-peer system:
- Block Exchanges - allows for peers to trustlessly distribute pieces of files to each other.
This technology can track the availability of file pieces and order them efficiently. - Node Identities - Nodes will be identified by a node_id, which will be cryptographically
hashed to create a public-key. Nodes first exchange public keys on initial contact. - Network - Upfiring uses a hash checksum to check the integrity of messages, and can
provide reliability through uTP (LEDBAT) or SCTP - Smart Contracts - UFR as a distributed ledger - upon successful completion of the proofof-transfer
protocol, UFR tokens are sent from the downloaders UFR wallet to the
seeders wallet across the blockchain" - taken from the UFR Whitepaper.
Looking at some features of the UFR Application I bellieve the application will be great.
4 - Exchanges and Partnerships.
-Currently UFR is being listed on a top 50 Exchange (On January 13 they posted a medium post that said it is going to be listed in 10 days, which was an estimate given by the Exchange and due to technical and scalling issues is being a little delayed)
-It will be listed on a new Exchange called Nebula that is going to launch this February and looks promising, firstly with a UFR/ETH pair but later this month and into March with a UFR/BTC and a UFR/USDT pair.
- They will use 1/3 of the *Contribution Period v.2.0 tokens (Total of 3.6 million) to fund new exchange listings.
- The possible partnerships are endless, some could be torrent sites on the internet.
5 - Current Situation and Team.
With all the FUD that has been happening in January we have seen the market in a big crash, but It will recover in the next days,weeks or even months, but in the longterm we will see it go up.
My prediction for this year is between 1 trillion $ and 2 trillion $.
UFR has been suffering with the current situation ( from a high of more than 2$) but is recovering very nicely the last two days going from the lowest point of 0.34$ to a high of 0.45$ (At the time of writting it is 0.42$)
Note that the market is very volatile.
The Team is currently unknow due to the nature of the project and will stay like this until the launch of the application when we will probably see then for the marketing of the application.
6 - Future.
I see great thing for UFR in the future. It has a great project, idea and tech and it would help a lot of people to download files more securely. The seeding idea/tech could see a new way of mining with more profitability. I would recommend in investing into the project.
Note: I am not a financial advisor, I am a Computer Science Student and Crypto Enthusiast.
Sources:
Upfiring Whitepaper: https://www.upfiring.com/Upfiring_Whitepaper.pdf
Medium: https://hackernoon.com/the-upfiring-dapp-mid-january-2018-update-2fe0d4d3a6e6
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Upfiring/comments/7snelu/quick_update_on_exchanges/