Your Burning Dagcoin Questions Answered

As of today, around 650,000 people are now using dagcoins, and this number is continuously on the rise. But for those of you who are new to cryptocurrencies, or Dagcoin in particular, just how and where do you get dagcoins? How do you store them? And, finally, what exactly can you do with them? Let’s find out… How to Buy Dagcoin? Off the bat, let’s talk about obtaining coins in the first place. Buying dagcoins couldn’t be easier or more straightforward. All that’s really required is a quick visit to SwipeX and a short sign up process. To protect you from identity theft you’ll need to go through a quick verification process. A copy of your ID card, passport, or proof of address will be needed here, so be sure to have one of the above on hand. Once you’ve signed up, we’d highly recommend enabling 2-factor authentication. This works in a very similar way to most banks and Facebook in that it doesn’t just require a username and password, but also confirmation from your phone in order to gain access. It’s always better to be safe than sorry, especially when it comes to your finances. With that all out of the way, there’s just one thing left to do before beginning your Dagcoin journey — buy some dagcoins. However, if you’re a very lucky individual who’s received a Dagcoin Gift Card from a friend or relative, you can simply redeem this instead. Get your Dagcoin Wallet Now that you have dagcoins, you’ll need somewhere to keep them. In the same way you need a physical wallet to store regular money, you need a digital wallet to store your dags. For that reason, you’ll need to click here to download your free Dagcoin wallet. It doesn’t matter if you use Android or iOS, PC or Mac, there’s a wallet version for you (even you, Linux users!). If the idea of a wallet stored on a physical device doesn’t work for you, then you can set up a web wallet which is accessible via any device that can access the web. Now that you either have the DagWallet app or the online web wallet, you not only have somewhere to store your dags, but the possibility to send and receive them too. Just send your dags to your wallet, and you’re all set. - You can save them with Dagcoin Grow! Dagcoin Grow works in a very similar way to a fixed bond. For those unfamiliar with a fixed term bond, you choose the timeframe you want to invest for, and you receive a guaranteed percentage as a return at the end of the period. With Dagcoin Grow you can invest your dags for 12, 24 or 36 months. The length of time you invest for and the amount you invest will dictate how many extra coins you receive at the end of your investment period. To learn more about Dagcoin Grow, click here! - Spend them at one of the 1,500 merchants who accept Dagcoin! There is nothing many of us like more than to spend our money. With Dagcoin’s Merchant Finder site it couldn’t be easier to find the best place to spend your dags. You can search to see which stores and businesses accept Dagcoin in your local area or by category, for example, groceries, clothes or restaurants. If you are looking for something, in particular, you can simply type in the search box the kind of business you are looking for. Depending on the type of business you may be able to order online, visit the business in person, or do either. At all of these businesses, you will be able to pay in seconds with your Dagcoin wallet for Dogecoin Card. To see what kind of businesses are on the Merchant Finder, click here! - Spend or earn dags at the Dagmarket or Dagitally! Dagmarket is a place where people can sell items that they no longer want or need, very similar in many ways to websites like eBay and Gumtree. However, on Dagmarket Jobs, people also can sell their services too. This is the perfect place to find web developers, copywriters, graphic designers, and other freelancers. Dagmarket is somewhere where you can buy and sell anything. But what about if you just want to buy or sell something that’s digital? Say a piece of software, digital artwork, or presentation template? That’s where Dagitally comes in, and it works just the same as Dagmarket! - Call anyone at any time with Dagtelecom! Dagtelecom is an app for Android and iOS smartphones and tablets that allows users to make and receive calls and SMS messages, and pay for these using their dags. Dagtelecom users can call each other free of charge too. - Bet high or low with TwiceDice! TwiceDice is an online casino and betting platform that features hundreds of different games, from casino games, to slots, to esports, you name it, it’s there. TwiceDice utilising a specialised token known as Dagchip, which can be converted from dagcoins via SwipeX. It’s safe to say this is the way to make some serious extra coins for those of you that are bold enough.  All the options above are just the tip of the iceberg of what it is possible to do with your dags. A quick scroll through our blog will show you a whole stream of different options, along with many that are in development and are due for release in the near future, so watch this space! Conclusion Buying dagcoins and getting started couldn’t be easier. All you have to do is create an account with SwipeX and buy your dagcoins. Once you have your dags you will need somewhere to store them. Simply download the DagWallet app to your phone, tablet or computer and you are ready to go.  The question now is what are you going to do with your dags? You could invest them into Dagcoin Grow, and in 12, 24 or 36 months see a fixed return on your investment. You could also go to the merchant finder and search for businesses in your local area or beyond where you would like to spend your dags. In turn, you could also go to the Dagmarket and see what second hand or unwanted items you might want to buy. There are many other things that you can do with your dagcoins that we did not have time to mention here, and many more that are in the final stages of development such as Dagtelecom, Dagcoin Games, and the online content portal Dagitally. Whether you are looking to send money cheaply and quickly around the world, take your business to the next level, or a viable alternative to cash and fiat currencies, the Dagcoin ecosystem is the place for you. Join the growing community utilising the currency of the future, today.

In order to achieve a more accessible currency globally, the cryptocurrency sector needs a serious change of direction. It is right and natural for each country to have its own currency based on crypto technology and transparent solutions. Currencies and money that aren’t nationally issued, can exist alongside cryptos. These can be “people’s money” that is based on community and people’s trust.  These alternative currencies, i.e. cryptocurrencies, however, will not be anonymous Wild West-type payment methods. They have to be transparent, providing assurance to the country that its people cannot use these monies for participating in or supporting criminal activities, avoiding taxes and hiding assets. Individuals’ transactions, as well as governments’ transactions using national cryptocurrency, need to be transparent. In this way, we can move towards a society in which we can talk about having trust in government and monetary policies, as the technology behind cryptocurrency can offer the necessary transparency. Today, even legendary Estonian banking and finance experts have publicly admitted that if sooner or later, an alternative to money will be found and a cryptocurrency with the right goals will be taken into use, then it’s better to be the one to take the bull by the horns. Estonia has the capability to take the initiative as the interest in developing different versions of cryptocurrency in a digital country like Estonia is enormous. What might be the solution? Dagcoin’s community is mainly in developing countries where the need for cryptocurrency is greater. We’ve been guided by the principle of smaller amounts of crypto to larger numbers of people, in order to avoid the accumulation of capital to only a few individuals. To avoid price fluctuations caused by a volatile market, we’ve also created a new way of pricing cryptocurrency. The price is based on fundamental values, which are the number of users and the number of vendors. The more or fewer there are users and vendors, the higher or lower the value of Dagcoin. As a result, the currency will have a more transparent value and users and vendors needn’t worry about the price fluctuating from hour to hour, day to day or week to week.  Unlike Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Dagcoin is not after anonymity. This is best shown by the analytics we’re currently developing, which will, in the future, provide regulatory bodies the opportunity to check that the currency is not being used for unlawful transactions. At the moment, the cryptocurrency world is like traffic without traffic lights and traffic signs. Dagcoin wishes to change this, but still maintain people’s right for making transactions freely and comfortably.  In order to achieve this, Dagcoin is using directed acyclic graph technology (DAG). The operating principle of DAG-chains differs from blockchains, as validating transactions doesn’t require expensive mining, instead each new transaction helps validate previous transactions. Thanks to our technology, Dagcoin is faster, has inexpensive (almost non-existent) transaction fees, and is more environmentally friendly than Bitcoin. Thanks to affordable transaction fees and accessibility, Dagcoin is going to make digital currency and banking available to nearly 2 billion people, who have, so far, not had these opportunities. Dagcoin has the largest number of users in developing countries like India, Indonesia and Columbia. Today, we’re already changing the way in which these countries’ communities trade with the rest of the world and how they sell their products and services. For example, it is now also possible for an Estonian to buy Columbian design services using dagcoins. A Columbian design company can then use those same dagcoins to pay their employees, who can go on to use dagcoins to buy food from the local café or shop. The food vendors can, in turn, buy produce like meat and cheese from local farmers using dagcoins. Farmers can then pay their employees in dagcoins. Building similar payment chains, we’re changing the economic system of the world. It is undeniable that the cryptocurrency market still needs a lot of work to achieve the goal for which the currency was initially created – usability. It is important for people to notice the problem and not see cryptocurrency as just a financial instrument.

More and more often, the opinion is heard that cryptocurrency will start to replace our current fiat money (i.e. legal tender backed by a central government) because all transactions, including international ones, will be faster and more affordable than what the current banking system can enable. It is not possible to “print” more cryptocurrency and people have full control of their transactions.  While people living in Europe, for example, find making bank transfers and instant payments in a matter of seconds over smartphones to be commonplace, there are about 2 billion people in the world who have no access to banking at all, which means they also have no access to digital currencies. They have no credit score to show financial institutions, telecommunications or even insurance companies their creditworthiness. Therefore, if they wanted to apply for a loan to advance their life or business, financial institutions would not be able to provide it. They can buy and sell products or services only on the limited local market for cash, leaving them without access to greater product choices or a larger client base.  The way cryptocurrencies are designed, gives these people access to digital currency, as anyone with access to the internet can create their own cryptocurrency wallet and then make transactions. Access to the internet varies regionally but it is only a matter of time until it spreads everywhere in, for example, Africa. However, as infrastructure and general societal preparedness is simply not quite ready for cryptocurrencies to be taken into daily use, the internet still has time to spread wider. Bitcoin is often thought of as digital gold. While not its primary goal, Bitcoin has set a course for the financial world and future digital currencies. Of course, today, ten years later, there are better and faster solutions and a different financial model available for this. Bitcoin will likely never be this kind of “people’s money” to help those 2 billion we mentioned earlier, but at best, it could become “people’s gold”. There is no cryptocurrency today that is truly and widely usable and proper competition for our everyday currency. Depending on the cryptocurrency, you might be able to purchase products and services here and there, but more often than not, this process goes through a third party, i.e. a platform that converts the cryptocurrency from the client into fiat money, like the Euro, that the provider then receives into their account. This service tends to carry huge fees or use terrible conversion rates. Cryptocurrency should properly be used without a conversion process. The vendor should accept cryptocurrency and use it to pay their supplier. Today, we’re at a point where this is implausible for many, as price volatility has made vendors very cautious. Merchants don’t want to accept money whose price fluctuates day-to-day.

Alvar Johannes Alev is a 27-year-old Estonian cross-country skier whose results have been adversely affected by the poor winters at home, a lack of supporters, and the scandals that have torn through Estonian skiing circles in the past few years, making a career in skiing an even more difficult undertaking. However, Alev has a brighter outlook towards the future, as he has secured two training seasons with the Norwegian ski club, Heming. For nearly half a year now, Alev has been training with Heming, one of the best ski clubs in Norway and as a part of Team OBOS Norway. The skier knew that if he wanted to accomplish anything in the field he loves, he’d have to look further afield from Estonia. That’s how he ended up choosing between four Norwegian ski clubs and finally picking Heming. “Norway is the best skiing country in the world, so who better to learn from than the best? Secondly, the conditions here are great with regards to weather and there are still things to learn from Norwegians about technique,” says the young skier, optimistic about the future. Taking into account what has happened in the Estonian skiing field in the past years, both formal and private financial support for skiers has practically dried up. Thus, Alev has had to deal with his career on his own. Looking for training and competing opportunities, financial support and everything else that goes with this profession. Inevitably, this will have an effect on skiing results and as it is, his results have remained below his true potential. Because the athlete gets to focus mainly on the sport itself while training in Norway (the club is responsible for administrative tasks) Alev is hopeful, “Thanks to coming to Norway, I can at last focus almost only on the sport itself and I hope that with the support I have behind me, I can show some results in the 2021 WC and the 2022 Olympics.” Dagcoin and Alev crossed paths or, more appropriately, skis, in the spring of 2020, when Nils Grossberg, the owner of the company, saw that despite the poor state of Estonian skiing, Alvar Johannes hadn’t let his wish to ski and dream of making it to the Olympics fade. Therefore, it was decided to support the determined athlete for the following two seasons, without which, the skier admits, he’d only have been able to participate in the preseason training. Alev is really making the most of this sponsorship, with training hours clocking in at nearly a hundred a month and competitions every weekend. “I’m not complaining, but living in the moment and being happy that I still get to ski today,” says Alev, currently a student of Physical Education and Sport at the University of Tartu, who has also previously studied and skied in the USA. “In light of the current situation, I can see an opportunity to rebuild the skiing field in Estonia. Of course, athletes themselves will have to show good results but they still can’t do it alone. If, in addition to the physical and mental preparations, you have to take care of the administrative tasks, then inevitably, in a field where every hundredth of a second counts, your results suffer,” Alev says, explaining why support for athletes is so important. On our part, we wish Alvar Johannes success in and determination for the upcoming and following seasons and we hope that the best in Estonian skiing is yet to come!  Alvar Johannes Alev is an Estonian champion in both the 15 km freestyle and the 15 km + 15 km skiathlon. Additionally, he has placed 2nd in the 20 km mass start freestyle of the esteemed North-American students’ NCAA Championships. He has won the Balkan and Slavic Cups in, respectively, 10 km and 15 km Classical, and 10 km freestyle events. His results also include an 11th place in the Scandinavian Cup classical-style sprint and a 20th place in the FIS Junior World Ski Championships 10 km freestyle event in Liberec. He has been a member of different Estonian teams since 2012. He has taken part in the Lahti WC and represented Estonia on several occasions in both the Junior and U23 Championships.

Cryptocurrency is the better, simpler, and inexpensive version of our regular everyday currency, which is mainly used for interpersonal transactions. Most people have, unfortunately, misunderstood the idea behind cryptocurrency. It is often thought to be similar to stocks and only meant for trading on the stock exchange – buy cheap and sell for profit. According to Kris Ress, the strategist and visionary behind the Estonian cryptocurrency Dagcoin, “(...)if we don’t change this attitude and continue to ignore the significant benefits of alternative currencies, then the future of cryptocurrency will become uncertain.” In September 2019,  a short and snappy news title announced: “Bitcoin Chaos Continues”. The contents were ominous – “Cryptocurrency values have collapsed this week and bitcoin has lost nearly a fifth of its value. Bitcoin currently costs 7,346 Euros. As recently as on Monday, the cryptocurrency was valued at over 9,000 Euros.” If you weren’t familiar with the background, you’d think that it was indeed an awful story. Someone will have lost a lot of money. Sadly, this is just another news story that adds to an already distorted picture of cryptocurrency as something to be traded. How has this image developed? We’ve all heard incredible stories in the media of people becoming millionaires almost overnight by investing in the right cryptocurrency at the right time, or the kinds of price changes this or that crypto has undergone. A large part of mainstream media focuses primarily on price changes and money-making. We’re also told that institutional investors, consisting of investment funds, venture capital funds, pension funds, insurance companies and commercial banks, are just about ready to enter into the crypto market, explaining that when this happens, cryptocurrency will become real money, causing a huge buying craze and a price increase. They paint a hopeful picture to get more and more people to start buying crypto right away so that when institutions do finally enter the market, their investment values will be increased. In reality, it isn’t known if, when and in what direction institutions will enter the crypto market as it will be influenced by future regulations and global developments. However, if these investments are made and funds buy up large amounts of coins, the division of crypto assets will change from what has already been criticised as a very concentrated distribution, where large amounts of assets or coins are held by a small number of people, to even more condensed distribution. As a result, the danger of volatile crypto prices will increase even more, as holders of large amounts of coins can flood the market, causing a great rise in offer and decrease in price, which in turn can cause serious financial losses to many people. Ideologically speaking, the holders of one cryptocurrency should be quite dispersed and hold small sums to guarantee stability and wide distribution. However, as cryptos are currently seen as investment options, everyone looks for opportunities to increase the value of their investment portfolio. There’s no room here for wide distribution and use. In addition to the media, training courses and crypto chat groups are very one-directional: how to trade better with crypto? When to buy and when to sell? Which project to invest in? How to read graphs and patterns? What news to follow and what not to take seriously? On the other hand, groups and courses that talk of long-term holdings, the true uses of projects or cryptocurrencies and real value creation, are like the proverbial needle in a haystack. The future of cryptocurrencies is uncertain if things go on like they have, with the mainstream media and instructors talking of crypto as a financial instrument.

The second Dag Tech Day was a DeFi special, taking a closer look at the pros and cons of one of the fastest-growing sectors in the crypto industry: decentralised finance. Often referred to as the future of finance, DeFi is seen as a shift from traditional centralised financial systems to peer-to-peer finance enabled by decentralised technologies built on decentralised solutions.  The concept of decentralisation stands in contrast with the everyday traditional financial services that are generally centralised, meaning controlled by a single entity such as a central bank or financial institution which also gives them total control over their users money. As said, DeFi applications do not require intermediaries or arbitrators, it’s sometimes referred to as ‘open finance’. From lending and borrowing platforms. to stablecoins and tokenized Bitcoins, the DeFi ecosystem has launched an expansive network of integrated protocols and financial instruments. The code of DeFi specifies the resolution of every possible dispute, and the users maintain control over their funds at all times. This reduces the costs associated with providing and using DeFi products and allows for a frictionless financial system. With over $15 billion worth of value locked in smart contracts, decentralised finance has emerged as the most active sector in the blockchain space today, with a wide range of use cases for individuals, developers, and institutions. What are the primary features of a DeFi?  First of all the system foundation of DeFi blockchains are permissionless funds, which allow anyone to access the application on a DeFi protocol and trade over the network without requiring anyone to sanction it. Secondly, the features are open source and transparent. The coding on a DeFi system is open source so the code is visible to every user, allowing everyone on the network to audit and verify the security and functions. This transparency of the network doesn't tamper with the user's privacy either, since all users are identified by their digital signatures. Additionally, open-source coding ensures DeFi's credibility. Another important component is interoperability. DeFi is easily compatible with the integrations of other applications. It, therefore, has the scope to expand further, offering new financial services and even developing new financial marketplaces. Also, accessibility. Anyone with a computer or a smartphone and a decent internet connection from any corner of the world can join a DeFi network. This feature, in particular, gives decentralised financial systems the upper hand over traditional banking systems. Especially for communities which cannot avail of essential banking services due to geological issues. The driving idea behind cryptocurrencies has always been the intent to decentralize power and improve our current financial system to become more transparent and less vulnerable to fraud.  DeFi is nothing but a step further in that direction. The real strength of DeFi lies in taking the current system, that on a large scale depends on human processes which also includes bureaucracy and a lot of paperwork, and automating it while at the same time cutting costs and improving transparency. Decentralised Exchange aka DEX As you may have figured out, DeFi is a very wide term, so let's cover some of the most popular use cases within it. A decentralised exchange (DEX) for example, is a cryptocurrency exchange which operates without a central authority. Decentralised exchanges allow peer-to-peer trading of cryptocurrencies and do not expect the user to transfer their assets to the exchange. DEX therefore also reduces the risk of theft which might occur from exchange hacks.  The most obvious benefit to using a decentralised exchange over a centralised one is their trustless nature. You are not required to trust the security or honesty of the exchange, since the funds are held by you in your personal wallet, and not by a third party. Another advantage to the decentralised model is the privacy it provides. Users are not required to disclose their personal details to anyone, except if the exchange method involves bank transfers. In that case, your identity is revealed only to the person that is selling or buying from you. The downside of DEX is that they're generally more difficult to use, especially for beginners, as they tend to have relatively complicated ways of depositing to the smart contract. For example, wrapping Ethereum or Bitcoin. Also, the possibility to exchange fiduciary to crypto is very, very rare as DEXs usually only exchange cryptocurrencies. Stablecoins Another case worth mentioning is stablecoins. Stablecoins are essentially cryptocurrencies that have their value tethered to the value of another cryptocurrency, a physical currency like the U.S. dollar, the price of a valuable physical asset like gold, or some other exchange-traded commodity. The primary goal of stablecoins is to reduce the risks associated with the price fluctuations of a regular cryptocurrency and to offer price stability. Currently, most stablecoins exist as tokens on the Ethereum blockchain across the DeFi space and are used for payments on DEXs or for lending and borrowing purposes. Some most popular stablecoins that you may have heard of are USDT, USDC and DAI. Decentralised lending protocols and yield farming All the major decentralised protocols are based on Ethereum, meaning that one could lend or borrow any ERC-20 token. Peer-to-peer lending and borrowing platforms are one of the most extensively used applications of the decentralised finance system. DeFi lending platforms give out loans to individual borrowers or organizations in a trustless way that requires no third-party interference. This allows lenders to earn interest in the form of crypto coins on the funds they deposit.  DeFi lending platforms are easily accessible to both lenders and borrowers, which is one of the advantages DeFi lending platforms offer over traditional lending procedures. Secondly, it’s the instant fund settlements through smart contracts. On DeFi platforms the transparency of the fund flow is much higher. Therefore risks are reduced and the whole lending process is more flexible.  Compound is a good example of a DeFi lending and borrowing protocol. Compound is an algorithmic autonomous interest rate protocol, that by providing interest rate markets on Ethereum, allows lenders to earn interest on the assets they have deposited in the Compound lending pool. The Compound smart contract is coded to match borrowers and lenders and calculate the interest rate for every specific situation. AAVE, Compound and Maker are the major lending protocols with billions of dollars of value locked up in their smart contracts and they all have a simple concept. You can loan out cryptocurrency tokens or borrow them and as mentioned above, they are all non-custodial, meaning that the protocol's creators do not have control over your holdings. Yield farming, also known as liquidity mining is one of the most recent DeFi use cases. This is the practice of locking up digital assets in return for rewards, which are usually automatically delivered by a smart contract. In many cases yield farming projects will require that one stakes liquidity provider tokens that are received after providing liquidity, in terms of assets at certain decentralised exchanges, for example, Uniserve. These tokens are then used to mint a new type of token that can either be sold or used. Yield farms are generally considered high risk, high reward since locked assets can be lost if there is a backdoor or loophole in the farm's smart contract.  Before you leave! Having a look at the numbers in the DeFi world which go up to billions, it’s definitely something worth taking a closer look at. It’s an interesting time to be alive and witness all these changes taking place right under our eyes. So let's continue the work towards the goals of crypto usability and adoption.  Before you leave, however, we’d like to remind you to listen to the DTD video, too. It covers many more DeFi related topics such as the flaws in the use of token assets, peer-to-peer protocols, token markets, minting schedules etc. A lot of interesting and useful information if you’re just as excited about DeFi as we are! You can find it here: https://bit.ly/3xfZQcS

Just over ten years ago. If you wanted to send money to someone on the other side of the world, you would have sent it via a traditional bank transfer. For those of you that made such transactions, you will remember all too well how they took five business days or more to be received. And to top it off, you were hit by a transaction fee of around 5%, which could become very costly if you were sending a lot of money. When Bitcoin hit the scene in the early 2010’s it revolutionised everything. It was now possible to make a transaction to anyone, anywhere in the world, within a maximum of 30-40 minutes and for a fee of around 1%. It changed everything, literally.  Over the past decade, our thirst for speed in every aspect of our lives has increased exponentially. Yet Bitcoin and other blockchain-based cryptocurrencies have gone the other way and are actually getting slower and more expensive. How has this happened, and are there any solutions? In this week’s article, we will go through some of the most pressing issues facing blockchain cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, and how Dagcoin solves these… Why are Blockchain-based Cryptocurrencies Getting Slower? It is fair to say that in the past year, the interest in cryptocurrencies has gone through the roof. With Bitcoin rising from its lows of around $4000 at the beginning of the pandemic,  to just under $60,000 (at the time of writing). But with this increasing popularity comes a big problem for blockchain-based cryptocurrencies. They are painfully slow at processing transactions. To put this into perspective, VISA process over 1700 transactions per second, whereas Bitcoin can handle just 4.5. Ethereum doesn’t fair much better at around 8.  All of this means that the more transactions that are placed on these blockchains, the slower they will become. This is why the average time for an Ethereum transaction has risen from 15-30 seconds on its release in 2015 to more than 5 minutes today. With the growing popularity of Tether, DApps, smart contracts and online gaming, and other processes on the Ethereum blockchain playing a big role in that slowdown. In Ethereum’s case, this is why there is growing pressure to make fundamental changes to the currency to make it quicker. With it possible that Ethereum may drop the mining form of payment confirmation altogether for something quicker.  It is this increasing slowdown that some fear may curb the rising price of Ethereum, although it is believed this will have less of an effect on the price of Bitcoin. However, where Bitcoin is encountering more serious issues is in the soaring fees attached to transactions, with the average transaction fee rising from around 50 US cents in April last year to more than $20 today.  The Banks are Catching Up Another big issue for blockchain-based cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum is the fact that the banks haven’t just sat back and watched over the past decade, they have been working hard to cut transaction times and costs for their customers.  Within the European Union, for example, SEPA (the Single Euro Payments Area) was established in 2014, with the aim to lower costs and the time to complete a transaction within the block from three business days to less than one. Fast-forward to today, and not only are almost all SEPA payments received within 24 hours, but many are also being received as quickly as within 30 seconds. Making the traditional banking system in the EU often faster than a blockchain transaction. We spoke earlier about how the average fee of a Bitcoin transaction is on the rise (the same can be said for Ethereum, too) and now rests at more than $20. The opposite is true for the banks. In SEPA, an international transfer now costs the same as a domestic one (which is usually free). However, some banks may charge a small fee to make a transaction.  All of this means that the conventional banking system (at least in developed parts of the world) is fast catching up or has superseded blockchain cryptocurrencies in terms of both speed and cost. Another reason why there is growing pressure to reform Ethereum to cut the costs and time associated with mining.   Dagcoin - A Faster and Cheaper Solution What slows down blockchain-based cryptocurrencies the most and drives up fees is the payment confirmation process (mining). Not to mention the huge amounts of energy this process takes up. Recent estimates show that Bitcoin mining uses more electricity than the whole of Argentina – a country with nearly 50 million people.  This is why DAG-chain based currencies such as Dagcoin payments are processed through a centralised network, which removes the need for confirmation and mining entirely. This means that Dagcoin payments are processed within 10-30 seconds. Making it possible to make a payment in a store with Dagcoin as quickly and easily as using a debit or credit card, something not possible with a blockchain cryptocurrency. Without the need to pay miners for payment confirmations, this also makes Dagcoin a much cheaper alternative as well. In fact, it doesn’t matter if you are sending 20 or 20,000 dags, the transaction fee will still be around 0.0005 dags. To put that into perspective, based on Dagcoin’s current price of 73 euro cents, this is less than one cent per transaction.  Whereas blockchain-based currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are hardwired to continue getting slower over time. DAG-chain technology means that payments will only get faster and faster, the more people use them. And, with no miners, they use a fraction of the electricity – helping to combat climate change too.  Conclusion  Blockchain-based cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have a big problem, they are getting slower and more expensive over time. To put this into perspective, VISA process 1700 transaction per second. Bitcoin can handle 4.5 and Ethereum around 8 in the same timeframe. All of this means that the more people use these currencies, the slower they will become. This is why Ethereum transactions have gone from 15-30 second when it was released in 2015 to more than 5 minutes on average today. And with it only set to get slower over time, many in the Ethereum community are even pressuring for mining based payment confirmations to be dropped altogether.   This has been made worse by the banks, which have got much faster and cheaper in the past decade. In the EU’s SEPA region, for instance, international payments can be received as quickly as 30 seconds and for the same fees as a domestic payment (often free).  Dagcoin solves both of these issues because not only do transactions take just 10-30 seconds to be processed. The bigger the community gets, and the more people make transactions, the faster it will get. Add the fact that a Dagcoin transaction costs less than 1 euro cent no matter how much you spend, and you have a cryptocurrency that is a cheaper and quicker alternative to both blockchain-based cryptocurrencies and the traditional banking system.  Join a growing community of almost 600,000 people using Dagcoin. 

It is almost certain that you have been asked to verify your identity when signing up for or using services online (particularly financial products and services). The reason companies ask you to verify your identity by providing a copy of your passport, ID card or driver’s license is to meet Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti Money Laundering (AML) laws put in place by countries all over the world. But why are governments introducing these laws, and why are some companies doing this, even when no such laws exist in their country? The answer is simple, fraud! In the US alone, 14.4 million people were victims of identity theft in 2019. That is a staggering one person in every 15. In total, more than 33% of Americans have experienced identity theft at some point in their lives.  Identity theft and fraud don’t just affect individuals. It is also costly for businesses too, with around 5% of all business revenue globally believed to be lost to fraud each year.  That is over $5 trillion dollars a year. To put that into perspective, this amount is higher than the GDP of every country in the world except the USA and China.  It is, therefore, no wonder that countries around the world have, are in the process of, or thinking about introducing KYC and AML laws. And why Dagcoin created Verify Once.  In this article, we will explain the costs of online fraud on both individuals and businesses and how using Verify Once can reduce that risk for all those using Dagcoin… For Businesses In 2020, the average number of fraud attempts on e-commerce merchants in the US was 344 per month. Of those, only around 34% were prevented. Meaning that almost two-thirds of all fraud attacks on online merchants were successful last year. And when you add that attacks were up almost 25% in 2019, online fraud is not just incredibly costly for businesses, it is also worryingly on the rise. It isn’t just eCommerce merchants who are at high risk in this way either, banks and other financial service providers, online gaming companies, and social media companies are too.  Businesses large and small are also at risk of criminals using them and/or their products or services as a way to launder money. In 2019, Danske Bank (one of the largest banks in Europe) closed all personal accounts for clients in Estonia as a result of a money-laundering investigation, which may have played a role in the suicide of the bank’s CEO in the country. Therefore, whatever kind of company you have, Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti Money Laundering (AML) laws provide an excellent base for businesses to work from to combat these attacks. And, it isn’t just about employing a specialist or consultant to set up these new processes for your business and to sporadically update them according to changes in the law. This very often means employing specialised AML and fraud staff to constantly monitor and verify customer accounts.  For companies who do this well, there are big rewards. For example, if you are able to verify new customer accounts quickly, you are more likely to gain and keep new clients. Likewise, good monitoring will reduce the fraudulent use of your business greatly, saving you potentially a lot of money. The harder your processes are to break, the more likely criminals will target other companies who are less prepared than yourself. Giving extra impetus to put secure KYC and AML procedures in place at your business. Verify Once processes and verifies all of your Dagcoin customers, so you don’t have to. While at the same time, meeting all KYC and AML regulations. Saving you both time and money. It does this by using state-of-the-art technology, which is not only fast but also secure. Its integrated AI means that as the criminals adapt and improve, so will Verify Once.  To learn more about Verify Once or sign up, click here or email support@verfyonce.com.  For Individuals We know that it can be pretty annoying to verify your identity with each new company online that you wish to use. Taking a picture of your ID card, driving license or passport, submitting this and then waiting for a number of hours or even days until you are able to properly use the account, make a deposit or withdrawal. This can be especially frustrating if you desperately need to use the service and do not have time to wait.  With Verify Once, you only need to verify your identity once, you can then use any company in the Dagcoin ecosystem that accepts Verify Once without having to go through the verification process again. Pretty great, right? It gets even better, getting verified with Verify Once is much easier and quicker than any verification process you have probably ever used because it takes just a couple of minutes. All you have to do is enter your personal details, upload a copy of a valid identity document, such as an ID card, driving license or passport (we accept documents from 194 countries), and a proof of address - and you will receive an answer in just 60 seconds.  Once your documents have been verified, they will be linked to your password-protected account with Verify Once – making identity theft much harder. Within this account, you will not just be able to see your personal details and documents, but also all the companies/websites that you have verified accounts with, as well as the possibility to use others whose products or services you wish to buy.  Verify Once, and never have to do it again, click here. Conclusion Fraud isn’t just incredibly costly for individuals and businesses in terms of the money lost. It is also costly in terms of the time it takes to recover from being a victim of fraud and the mental stress that it causes. This is why countries around the world have or are working hard to introduce Anti Money Laundering and Know Your Customer regulations.  Despite the fact that businesses are asking their clients to verify their identity for all the right reasons (to protect you and them from being a victim of fraud, and to meet KYC and AML regulations). The verification process is costly in both time and money for businesses, and frustrating for clients having to go through the process again and again for each new company whose services they want to use.  Verify Once solves both of these issues. For companies, Verify Once handles the verification of clients and all of the KYC and AML regulations regarding this, saving both time and money. And for individuals, Verify Once provides exactly that, the opportunity to verify their identity just once in the Dagcoin ecosystem, and to do that in just a couple of minutes. Saving untold time in verifying their identity with each new company whose services they want to use.  To learn more about Verify Once or to sign up visit: https://verifyonce.com/ 

Doing stuff together is great — a necessity even (albeit a slightly difficult one given the current global situation). Cooperation allows us to understand each other better and takes us forward. But there’s one thing that should only be for ourselves. Money. It should always be a party for one. It should always be you who’s the sole owner of your finances. Not banks, and certainly not other institutions. And guess what? Cryptocurrency makes that a reality. Unfortunately, it’s rather common that money has many “owners.” What does it mean? When your funds are stored in a bank (chances are yours is), the bank is a tertiary owner of that money — your money. Some people even go as far as saying that once your money is in the traditional banking or credit card system, you turn over your stewardship of the funds to a third party. As we all know, three’s a crowd. The issue here lies in the fact that the third party, or bank in this case, will have power over your assets. Ouch. But cryptocurrency is different Do you know what makes cryptocurrency better than anything else out there? It’s just so easy. Unless you’ve willingly given access to your crypto wallet over to a third party, it’s you who’s the sole owner of anything within it, including the public encryption keys! If it wasn’t enough that only you, and you alone, can move your cryptocurrency around, it’s also ultra-safe. The future is now It almost sounds silly to say outright, but this finally means that you can own your own money.  The era is cryptocurrency is finally upon us, and very soon we’ll be doing away with the financial institutions that have forced us to relinquish control of our own assets to them for far too long. If you feel like taking control of your own capital, then be sure to grab a Dagwallet of your very own. We can’t wait to have you aboard!