Oh, the end of the year… Time to take that well-deserved break, meet your family and friends, throw a party and, of course, remember the best moments of the year that is coming to an end! We at OriginalMy, thanks to you, have much to celebrate, so we decided to write this special post with our highlights of 2018! Let’s go?
2018, for OriginalMy, was a year filled with hard work and deserved recognition for our effort! We participated in many events, were cited a reference by various media outlets, participated in social impact initiatives and, for these and many other factors, we saw our community and the use of our token, ABC, grow exponentially.
Events & media
Our team was present in more than ten events all over the world to showcase OriginalMy’s project. There were events in Brazil, England, Finland, Estonia, South Korea, Japan, Russia… Phew!
At the Bitcoin Summit 2018 in Brazil, Edilson, our CEO, talked about the uses and challenges of blockchain technology, explaining it from the most basic concepts to those who want to start to venture into the subject.
In August, at the Forum Exame of Information Security, which included the participation of Edward Snowden, our CEO gave a lesson on how to build a collaborative culture on Infosec and also participated in a panel on data protection.
In September, he was invited to go to South Korea to talk about identity, authentication, and proof-of-authorship at the Ethereum Classic Summit. HE ROCKED!
In addition to that, we pitched at Sleetmakers, the main legaltech event in Europe, in early December in Helsinki. We also participated in the Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference in London and Helsinki, Arctic15 in Finland, Latitude 59 in Estonia, ISO in England and Russia, and LOOOOTS of meetups: in Japan, South Korea, Estonia, Brazil …
And we also appeared on TV! Rede Globo’s Fantástico program interviewed our CEO about how Estonia is developing a startup culture and using technology to reduce bureaucracy in the country.
He was also interviewed on Sem Fronteiras, from the same network, and by the Jornal da Cultura, about how the Baltic country and initiatives to reduce bureaucracy, which you can watch in the video bellow.
Besides, the folks from Ethereum Classic have apointed us as one of the main global projects using blockchain technology. With that, we also got the great news that OriginalMy was selected to participate on the first batch of Ethereum Classic Labs’ accelator program at Sillicon Valley, which will start in 2019!
Social impact
2018 was a year in which we participated in various projects to contribute to our society, from our role in the elections to campaigns for minority rights. Some of the highlights of the past year were:
The #CasamentoLGBT
As part of the #CasamentoLGBT campaign (#LGBTWedding), in which people from all over Brazil came together to help love win, OriginalMy made the use of the platform 100% free for same-sex couples who wanted to sign their civil union contract and register it on blockchain. You can learn more about this initiative in the video below!
We were featured on B9, Cointimes and Canal das Bee, which talked about our participation in the campaign and the use of blockchain in the fight for human rights.
Participating in democracy
In Brazilian politics, 2018 was a troubled year, marked by the presidential election and all the debate that surrounded it. It was precisely in this scenario that OriginalMy was present to help strengthen the national democratic process.
In an election context marked by fake news, we have created a tool to help fight them, aimed at producing evidence about the existence of online content. The plugin scans the page containing the fake content and generates a PDF report that it was posted that way at that time. This document is then registered on the blockchain, so even if the content is removed, proof that it existed will remain and the affected person can take the appropriate legal measures!
Still in the context of the presidential election, one of the candidates used our platform to register his government plan, helping to prevent fraud and creating a solid proof against rumors and fake news. This was reported on Criptomoedas Fácil, IDG Now, LiveCoins and Decred!
These initiatives are in the same line that we have followed for years, as can be seen in our participation in Mudamos+, which uses, internally, the identity, signature and registration engine developed by OriginalMy for the collection of verified signatures for public petitions. Thus, we are contributing to the fullfilment of the constitutional right of direct participation in the country’s democracy, which has received praise by the government, with the recognition by the City Councils, the Attorney’s Office, and others. In the fourth edition of the “HackFest + Legislative Turn: For a Politically Participatory Society”, in August, TWENTY-SEVEN initiative proposals were presented through the app!
Groundbreaking cases
2018 was a year of pioneering also in the registers that we made in the blockchain. The world’s first birth certificate using the Decred blockchain was made by OriginalMy in September. In the same month, we also registered the first same-sex union in Brazil.
Anti-Bureaucracy Coin (ABC)
Our token, ABC, was highlighted this year. Through the four bounty programs we ran, more than TWO MILLION ABCs were distributed to more than TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND community members! With the #HackTheNotaries, people from all over the world shared their photos. Seeing so many different people united by our project was definitely one of the high points of 2018.
In addition, this year our token began to be listed in exchanges. The first one was Braziliex (and this was the first time that a Brazilian exchange listed a Brazilian token, after undergoing compliance by Cy2Law!). And then came Idex, TokenJar, Bomesp and Kompler. In total, FIVE exchanges listed our ABCs, being two domestic and three international. It is also a means of payment in Coinpayments and is listed in the Blockfolio and Delta applications to track your crypto portfolio.
Finally, ABC holders gained an additional advantage in 2018: progressive discounts for using our blockchain document register, the BitRegistro. Those who used our service with ABC already received a 70% discount, and now a new percentage will be calculated based on the number of tokens they own: the more tokens, the higher the discount!
Conclusion
2018 has been quite the year, hasn’t it? Much has been achieved, but there is still A LOT of work to be done! Our goal is for people and businesses to have more time to realize their full potential, and we believe that this can be done by creating tools that combat bureaucracy and establish trust in an absolute, incorruptible, verifiable, and immutable truth.
In 2019, we will remain dedicated to this purpose. And in 2020… 2021… 2022… Well, you got my point! For this, we are counting on you, members of our community! Thank you so much for believing and supporting our project and to have been part of our journey this year (and hopefully for many years to come!). What we do is for you. Here’s to all of us and to our future together. Bring it, 2019!