Module Twelve: History of Other Popular Tokens 

This module offers a concise overview of the origin of other popular tokens; including, Ethereum Classic, Zcash, Bitcoin Gold, IOTA, and Populous. Crypto tokens represent fungible and tradable assets or utilities that reside on their own blockchains. 

Lesson 1: Ethereum Classic

Who Created Ethereum Classic?

Ethereum Classic (ETC) is a decentralized, open-source, blockchain-based distributed cryptocurrency platform that runs smart contracts. Originally known as Ethereum, Ethereum Classic was created by Vitalik Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation and launched in 2015.

Although an entire community initiated Ethereum Classic, when researching anything related to Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin is still the name that is most commonly associated with the platform.

After the DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) attack occurred, Buterin and the development team differed strongly with the community on an appropriate response.

Since there was no agreement reached, a hard fork had to be implemented; this split Ethereum into two, resulting in Ethereum Classic.

Lesson 2: Who Created Zcash?

Zooko Wilcox is the person most associated with Zcash.

Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn was born Bryce Wilcox in Phoenix, Arizona on May 13th 1974. Zooko is an American Colorado-based computer security specialist and self-proclaimed cypherpunk. His role as CEO of the for-profit Electric Coin Company (ECC) facilitated the creation of Zcash.

Many experts contributed to the development of Zcash; including the founders of Zerocoin from John Hopkins University (Ian Miers, Matthew Green, Aviel Rubin, and Christina Garman).

Other contributing professionals were Eran Tromer, Eli Ben-Sasson, Alessandro Chiesa, and Madars Virza; these experts were from Tel Aviv University, Technion, and MIT.

Lesson 3: Zcash Development Team

To complete the initial Zcash development team, Zooko Wilcox made sure to include blockchain technology experts and professionals with extensive cryptography experience.

The founding team, that created and advanced Zcash, was expanded to include a group of engineers, including Daira Hopwood, Taylor Hornby, Nathan Wilcox, Sean Bowe, Jack Grigg and Maureen Walsh.

Gavin Anderesen, Arthur Breitman, Vitalik Buterin, Andrew Miller, and Joseph Bonnaeu also joined the Zcash blockchain as advisors.

Lesson 4: Bitcoin Gold Creators

Jack Liao and Alejandro Regojo are considered co-founders, and creators, of Bitcoin Gold.

Bitcoin Gold (BTG) is a fork of Bitcoin. Jack Liao is the person who first came up with the idea for Bitcoin Gold. Liao is well known in the cryptocurrency community due to his involvement with ASIC mining equipment.

Lighting ASIC, of which Jack Liao is the CEO and founder, is a company that specializes in producing Bitcoin mining equipment.

Lesson 5: ASIC Miners

Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miners are computerized devices. They are hardware that use ASICs for the distinct purpose of mining bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Liao was concerned that access to Bitcoin mining opportunities was exclusive to the wealthy because mining equipment was very expensive.

Liao was fully committed to the ASIC technology. His dedication increased the trust that members of the Bitcoin Gold network had in its ability to grow over time to attain the level of Bitcoin.

Liao distinguished himself from other cryptocurrency founders by being available to his followers and sharing personal opinions via social media. His transparency contributed to expanding, and increasing the faith that people had in, the BTG network.

Lesson 6: Co-Founders of IOTA

David Sønstebø, Sergey Ivancheglo, Dominik Schiener, and Dr. Serguei Popov are co-founders of IOTA.

The IOTA project was announced as a token sale, in an online bitcoin forum, October 2015. The IOTA network is called Tangle.

Serguei Popov, one of the founding members of the IOTA Foundation, is responsible for the mathematical concept behind the IOTA Tangle.

Subsequently, Dominik Schiener and Sergey Ivancheglo coded this into a programming language.

According to IOTA, the Tangle, immutably (in an unalterable and unchangeable manner) records the exchange of data and value. It also ensures that information is trustworthy, tamper-proof, and indestructible.

Tangle, designed for the IoT (Internet of Things) environment, is a modern type of distributed ledger technology (DLT).

David Sønstebø, a well-known businessman, managed the IOTA project.

The group of founders conducted research of the blockchain technology for years, before finally implementing a successful launch in 2015.

Lesson 7: IOTA Crowdsale

December 2015, IOTA initiated a crowdsale. All of the proceeds were distributed to the participants of the crowdsale.

The crowdsale was very successful; it generated 1,337 Bitcoins.

Impressed with the substantial success of the crowdsale, the participants were moved to donate much of their own resources to help establish the IOTA Foundation. Beta testing for the project began in 2016.

During 2017 several major corporations invested in the Tangle distributed ledger system. IOTA participants continued investing in the projects for sustainable growth of the ecosystem.

Lesson 8: The Populous Token

Steve Nico Williams is founder and CEO of Populous World. He created Populous in 2017. Steve is an expert in Big Data and finance domains.

The Populous platform is built for buying and selling invoices online using blockchain technology. This trading ecosystem is based on several blockchain technologies including smart contracts, XBRL, and Stable tokens.

Lesson 9: Pokens

Pokens are the digital currency used by Populous. Invoices are bought and sold with Pokens, which in turn can be redeemed with real world currencies. Poken is a blockchain platform for creators.

Williams was also involved with the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), a freely available global framework of accounting standards used for exchanging business information.

Lesson 10: Populous Business Model

Williams focused his initial design goals on creating a tool for extracting lists of enterprises he deemed to be rich in assets but cash poor. A prime target was businesses that have invoices as assets waiting to mature but lack the cash for managing day-to-day operations.

He began promoting his ideas by going to businesses one-by-one. He received substantial support for this endeavor. Many businesses were enthused to get clients willing to secure their invoices with direct cash payments.

While blockchain technology was advancing, Williams diligently pursued his business model. He scaled XBRL data, running on the Ethereum blockchain, to create a real-time financial marketplace.

The CTO, Zvezdomir Zlatinov, and Jonathan Millar, an Invoice Risk Financing Specialist, are experts who contributed to the growth and success of Populous.