Akroma Review – the Hottest Ethereum Fork You might want to Start Mining ASAP

Note: This is a sponsored post. I have been provided with an Akroma masternode to test this new platform out and review it. While this does not really make me biased towards the project, I thought it was important to clarify this before we move on.

This review is written from a miner’s standpoint. As usual, I am looking to mine new coins that are part of a working or promising project. I find even more interesting coins that I can mine and then hodl for as long as it takes the project to grow and mature.

Therefore, let’s first review what this coin does and why it might be a good idea to mine and hold it. Unless you want to be like this cat, of course

(meme proudly stolen from @OGTeamCrypton)Akroma – Why does it exist?

Cryptocurrencies have boomed really fast and people from all over the world keep trying new applications and improvements for the blockchain technology. As we know, hundreds of community members are working each on a different project that aim to address different issues and be better alternatives to existing systems and cryptocurrencies. Dozens of new coins are being created every month but only few of them manage to leave the shitcoin state and become truly valuable.

The issue is simple – because of a lack of any sort of regulations, there are a lot of projects that rely on the pump and dump strategy. ICOs, pre-mines and presales are the bane of most modern crypto-related projects. The amount of unnecessary buzz created by new project prevents many serious investors from noticing projects that are truly valuable.

There have been a lot of initiatives to discern money grabs from legit projects. John McAfee is one of the many people who are trying to analyze ICOs and choose the ones that are worth investing into. Those efforts are indeed valuable, though having a development platform with a unified governance model that would reward long-term, sustainable development and design could solve the issue on a higher level. Akroma aims to be exactly that.

Akroma – the Project that Aims to Prevent Pump and Dump

Akroma is a platform that offers application development. The aim is to create a governance model that would reward long-term sustainable development and design. This model offers a cohesive ecosystem where every element is branded Akroma, instead of being delegated to third parties.

As any ecosystem, Akroma is comprised of several key elements. Let’s review those to give you a good idea of what Akroma is.

Since the project is fairly new, some features are still work in progress. As always, I am going to be talking about those features as if they were already implemented to make things easier. Then, I will share the roadmap so we can see which of the features are already there.

Akroma Coin (AKA)

AKA is an Ethereum blockchain fork. It is used to pay the costs of building out the Akroma platform. As one of the core developers said, “AKA is not money, but it has value.[…] AKA are the credits that developers can use for building applications on Akroma and users can use for interacting with those applications that developers build”

Based on the Ethash algorithm, AKA benefits from a masternode system to further secure the network.

True to the initial purpose of the project, AKA (the coin for Akroma) has got no ICO, pre-mine or genesis block allocation. The project is self-funded. The code is open and can be found on GitHub.

Thanks to the relatively low masternode creation fee, Akroma masternode mining might become quite a profitable thing in the future. I will get back to it in a bit. In this guide, we will also learn how to set up and operate one.

Here is a full guide on how to mine Akroma.

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Akroma Masternodes

Masternodes are meant to ensure faster transactions and protect the blockchain from network attacks. Besides, unlike PoW miners, masternode holders are often more loyal to the network – Say, you can easily switch from mining Akroma to Ethereum if you have a GPU rig. Can’t make your Akroma masternode mine ETH. People who have invested in Akroma masternodes will more likely stick to the coin a tad longer, which gives the whole project a bit more stability.

Side note: there is still a misconception that only PoS cryptocurrencies can have masternodes. In reality, we can see a lot of minable (PoW) coins that support masternodes and Akroma is one of them.

There are three main things that make masternodes different from the classical hodl:

1. Masternode entry price is fixed and often quite high. A fixed and high entry price makes investing into a masternode a bit riskier than buying a couple of randomcoins. I have to mention that Akroma is a bit different here because its entry price is lower than its closer competitor – Pirl. As for today, the entry price is $605 USD (5000 AKA)
2. The income you get from investing your money in a masternode is constant – the longer you hodl, the more you earn, no matter how good or bad the coin market it.
3. A masternode requires hosting. You will either have to have dedicated computer with a static IP for that or you can pay a small monthly fee and use a third-party service like Vultr or DigitalOcean.

Hosting a masternode is one of the three ways to earn passive income from cryptos. The other two are PoS staking and reaping utility token rewards. Masternode hosting is quite interesting because of the additional benefits masternodes offer to the network, though as somebody else said: “don’t invest in masternodes, invest in the project”

Check this guide if you want to know more about Akroma masternodes and how to set up your own one. (soon)

Akroma Wallet

Akroma has decided to not fork the standard Mist Ethereum wallet, instead they are building their own one. As for today, we have the desktop wallet on Alpha and the Android on version 1.1.0.

Here is a short official guide on how to set up your own wallet. Do remember that it is IMPOSSIBLE to recover your wallet file or password, so make sure you write those down on your cryptosteel, billfold or somewhere else where they can be secure.

Smart Contracts and Oracles

The Akroma platform will allow users to build dapps on it. Those EVM-compatible smart contract applications are meant to be smarter than dapps on other platforms thanks to the implementation of Oracles.

Oracles provide trusted input to smart contracts. Allowing decentralized applications to trust data from the “real world” unlocks the ability to create decentralized versions of systems instead of having a 3rd party intermediary. This might prove very useful for areas such as estate planning, gambling, and insurance businesses.

Oracles are on-chain smart contracts that hold information that other smart contracts can use. Oracles are the element that hold and keep that vital information up to date. This will assure that the information used in smart contract is safe from any sort of external threats and is accurate.

The community will also be able to vote through special tokens on what kind of data should be put on chain.

Akroma Roadmap

• Website launch (complete)
• Web wallet (complete)
• Main net (complete)
• Mobile app [android] (complete)
• Exchange listing (in progress)
• Akroma Foundation (in progress)
• Explorer rebuild (completed)
• Added 17 mining pools (+11 since Q1 2018)
• Masternode Platform (Beta Released)
• Mobile app [iOS] (Working on version 1.0.0)
• Release of Akroma Client v 0.1.1 – Baneslayer*

Q3 Roadmap:

• Smart contract support in Explorer and Desktop.
• Smart contract support (and general fixes) for Web Extension.
• Developer documentation at wiki.akroma.io.
• First generation Oracles.

(*) The Baneslayer is the second release of the Akroma client. Besides numerous fixes, it also expands certain Akroma features. Some of the features worth highlighting are a limited coin supply (around 100m AKA) and reward schedule and an upgrade to the masternode system (fixes and added password/login form for enhanced protection).

Akroma Team

Akroma block rewards are distributed on a way that developers are motivated to keep the project afloat. With a block reward of 10 Akroma, 7 go to the miners, 2 to the masternodes and 1 to the Akroma foundation. By having a fixed 10% share of every mined block it is no mystery that developers are less likely to see this project as quick cash grab. No ICO or pre-mine only reinforces this vision.

The core developers are Ian DesJardins, Eric Polerecky and Stephen Koller. They all have active Github accounts with hundreds of contribution over this last year. Gunveer Natt and Victor Reza are developing for Android and iOS, respectively. Unlike most modern startups, they also have a team member who is solely dedicated to design. No wonder why the interface and user experience of any Akroma element is so well polished, especially considering that the project is on alpha.

According to Eric Polerecky, those people have been working in team for a while now. They have been helping startups for some time, which is where the idea of creating Akroma has been conceived.

What I like the most is that team members are not afraid to show their faces to the public and are active on their growing social media and discord channels. You can check their LinkedIn and Tweeter profiles to learn more about them.

Downsides

Here are three downsides/details to keep in mind. Some of those might change over time, hopefully for the better:

• Akroma is not really unique. There are several other projects out there that are attempting (or claiming to attempt) to do the same things. Pirl is one of them, though Akroma might be more accessible to people because of the lower entry fee for a masternode. Plus,
• Since trade volumes are low, it might be challenging to buy or sell large quantities of Akroma for now. Which might also be an upside for us miners, as long as you want to mine and hold for several months or even a couple of years.
• As for today, Akroma is relying on several centralized elements. While the devs promise to switch to a fully decentralized modus de operandi as soon as possible, all we’re left to do is to trust their word. It’s a bit of a leap of faith and it’s up to you whether you will trust them or wait till they fully deliver what they have promised.

Useful Links

Whitepaper

• https://akromablob.blob.core.windows.net/images/Akroma-Whitepaper-0.0.7.pdf

Contact and Community

• https://akroma.io/
• https://github.com/akroma-project
• https://medium.com/akroma/
• team@akroma.io
• https://discord.gg/KWC8wtT
• https://t.me/akroma_official

Guides

• How to mine Akroma with your GPU
• How to set up your own masternode

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In Conclusion

Ethereum mining difficulty is getting higher by the day. Many people are looking forward reconfiguring their mining rigs to mine something else. Is Akroma a viable alternative?

As always, the answer is up to you. Do your own research and don’t risk money you can’t afford to lose. Personally, I am giving Akroma a try. I am not expecting this to pay off anytime soon. The whole idea of Akroma is to be the exact opposite of quick buck and ‘pump and dump’.

What are your thoughts on this project? Would you mine Akroma?

Thank you for reading. As always, your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome.

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