Preface
Nearly three years ago I started the "AriseBank" project, in an attempt to create the world's first decentralized bank. I knew at the time that it was a bold move and would certainly be met with some sort of opposition. While it was a risk, it was one that I was certainly willing to take. I went as far as to publicly predict the attacks AriseBank would go through, in a manifesto that I wrote in November 2017, just as the AriseBank ICO had launched off. Those predictions came true when The State of Texas tried to force me to drop the word "bank" from the name of the blockchain we were building. I publicly took a stand for the Arise community and the crypto community at-large, citing the fact that AriseBank wasn't a company that could be regulated; instead, it was a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that made its own decisions. I let the State of Texas know that I refused to comply with their ridiculous request and cited their attempt to attack innovation as one that greatly affected the constitutional rights of "We The People". They didn't like that response, one that I published publicly (can be found on Steemit here: https://steemit.com/arisebank/@wallop/arise-governance-we-the-people-a-response-to-the-texas-banking-commissioner). After The Texas Department of Banking refused to respond, I decided to attempt the acquisition of an FDIC-insured bank, by purchasing one with cryptocurrency, in an effort to learn more about centralized banks and to put the Texas Department of Banking on notice -- that the future of banking had arrived. In truth, I saw it as the future, buying the past. Little did I know, our think tank was being infiltrated by many people who weren't around for the success of the project. Not only were they inserted to purposely frame the project as a scam but to also frame me as a scammer (there are so many moving parts to this, I'll let our upcoming documentary speak on it, there simply isn't enough room in this article to speak on all the moving pieces to the fake news that surrounded AriseBank).
Underground efforts would commence in an attempt to destroy the Arise project, before it could be launched on its publicly announced launch date of January 26th, 2018. In fact, on January 25th, 2018, myself along with several other community members readied the launch of the public Arise network, while also preparing the distribution of ACO coins to all contributors, for the following morning's launch. On January 26th, 2018, we were raided by the FBI, SEC, JonesDay and Kroll Security at 6AM CST., where they would demand access to cryptocurrency wallets that held contributor funds, while pulling each of our team members into separate rooms for individual interrogations. The FBI agents that day would inform me that I was "lying to investors" about AriseBank's acquisition of an FDIC-insured bank, a bank I had put a down payment of $100,000 (in PIVX coins) as a requirement to move forward with the acquisition (important: no contributor funds were used, only PIVX coins that were acquired through a partnership, not through a contribution.). The agents also informed me that AriseBank did not have a partnership with a company known as "Marqueta", as we purported to have in the AriseBank whitepaper. The truth is, our PR provider did distribute a press release in mid-January, which falsely stated that AriseBank had acquired 100% ownership of an FDIC-insured bank, when in fact "AriseBank" as I had stated to the Texas Department of Banking on January 5th, 2018 was nothing more than a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). I issued a public correction on January 18th, 2018, stating that AriseBank was NOT an FDIC-insured bank and that a company known as "AriseBank Global" was only in the process of acquiring an FDIC-insured bank. Because of this, we offered refunds to contributors, backed by our public Telegram chat logs (https://t.me/arisebank), something no other ICO would have considered for a press correction. To put it lightly, I trusted people I was dealing with to spread our message honestly. When I realized that the message that was spread was in fact false, I fixed it and did what I believed to be the right thing -- offer refunds.
Despite the public corrections, the public refunds, Marqueta featuring our partnership tweet on their homepage for an entire week (backed by Archive.org evidence), Marqueta following us on social media or even re-tweeting our posts about utilizing their platform to develop AriseCard -- the SEC insisted that AriseBank was nothing but a fraud. They would viciously attack me and the project through the mainstream media for weeks, while most of the Arise contributors called on them to return the funds to me via Twitter, by posting screenshots of our PR correction, as well as proof of our obvious relationship with Marqueta. In the days that followed, Marqueta would un-follow us from Twitter, deny that we were ever on their website (despite the Archive.org proof) and the news continued to roll in on how AriseBank was nothing but a scam. It's important to note, that these efforts to destroy AriseBank were spearheaded by an individual named Cody Marx Bailey, the President of the "North Texas Blockchain Association" and a personal friend of the court-appointed receiver Mark Rasmussen of Jones Day. It is also important to note that another individual by the name of Arnold Spencer, a former US Attorney and counsel for "CoinSource" (crypto ATM service provider), a clear competitor of the AriseBank DAO -- was deeply involved in the efforts to destroy our movement. In fact, Spencer and Bailey to this day, still publicly comment in the media about how much of a "joke" AriseBank was. The attacks on AriseBank were so ridiculous, they became obvious. Looking back on them, I should have responded differently but what happened to us, ultimately helped guide our project to new heights.
Post-raid, we built a new internet protocol known as dWeb (Distributed Web), where it would be impossible to seize our work, websites or domains ever again, so we could ultimately deliver on the promises that we had originally made to the Arise community. A community of helpers that were made up of the biggest Arise contributors, who were by no coincidence referred to as "victims" by the government throughout these efforts, collectively pressed on with me to deliver one of the most powerful projects I've ever been apart of. After ten months and the contributions of many, on November 11th, 2018 community members were able to take the dWeb and the Arise blockchain for a test drive. Although, just days later, a day before the publicly announced launch date, the project was once again interrupted when I was arrested by the FBI, jailed without a bond and was ultimately deemed a public safety risk, where my free work for the community was used as evidence to detain me.
Through the last ten months of my incarceration, many of you have watched me push myself to the brink of insanity, trying my hardest to simply launch the Arise project. Finally this morning, we were able to distribute RSN (formerly known as AriseCoin (ACO)) to 200+ original Arise contributors via BitShares' decentralized exchange. This week we have brought on the necessary engineers and developers to launch the dWeb, all of its off-chain components and will be launching what is now known as the "Arisen" blockchain over the next few weeks. As we near the launch of our three-year long vision, I want to catch all of you guys up on the happenings surrounding the launch, what separates us from other projects and why this is the greatest project I've ever worked on.
dWeb+dDrive+dDatabase+dDNS+Arisen = E2E Decentralization
The launch of the dWeb protocol (https://steemit.com/dweb/@dweb/the-dawning-of-the-dweb), along with many of its related "off-chain" components like dDrive, dDatabase and dDNS, give developers a toolset for creating web applications that are truly decentralized from end-to-end. When trying to build a toolset and environment for decentralized applications, one must consider all the possible aspects of an application that may be decentralized:
- Backend Software (Application Logic)
- Frontend Software (Files + Media Uploads)
- Database / Data Storage
- Message Communication
- Name Resolution
-- Unique Network Identifier
-- Human-Readable Identifier - Payments
The dWeb brings to life a truly P2P (peer-to-peer) network that exists without a blockchain. This is very important for several reasons. The most important reason being that blockchains are only great use-cases for:
- A backend software's application logic via smart contracts
- Decentralized payment functionality
Blockchain developers have recognized that dApps simply utilizing smart contracts for their application logic and payment functionality are not completely decentralized. This is because:
- The files for the frontend software, as well as the media uploads that derive from it, are typically stored on centralized servers and hosting providers.
- These servers use centralized internet-proxy addresses (IPs) for unique network identifiers and centralized TLDs (top-level domains) as human-readable network identifiers.
- Data from these applications are stored on a blockchain, sometimes a local database and in some crazy cases a centralized database, typically located alongside the frontend software.
This results in:
- Semi-decentralized applications that can be seized (servers and domains).
- The clogging and slowing of blockchains, that can hardly process payment-related transactions, much less millions of data-related transactions on a per-second basis.
dWeb's protocol, its off-chain components and the Arisen blockchain bring to life:
- A truly P2P data sharing network that is completely off-chain.
- A P2P content-addressable storage network for storing files and media uploads related to the frontend software (this eliminates the need for servers). dWeb's off-chain component for this, is known as dDrive.
- A decentralized and off-chain database management system (dDBMS), where dApps have a way of efficiently storing data off-chain, in an immutable state, so that blockchains remain free for actions related to application logic and payment-based use-cases. dWeb's off-chain components for this, are known as dDatabase, dSiteDB and dAppDB.
- Decentralized name resolution, both unique network identifiers (dWeb Keys) and decentralized human-readable names (dTLDs). dWeb's off-chain component for this, is known as dDNS.
- A decentralized messaging protocol (dMemo) for application to application messaging, as well as peer-to-peer messaging.
- A protocol known as dweb:// , to resolve network identifiers, including human-readable network names (.dcom, .dnet, .dorg, .eos, etc.).
This ultimately creates a powerful developer toolset for creating truly end-to-end decentralized applications and websites. One where tyrannical governments, law firms and greedy corporations have no way of censoring or seizing apps and websites that threaten their existence. dWeb and Arisen are truly censorship-resistant.
RSN Distributed To Original Contributors + Global Air Drop
One of our goals throughout the development of Arisen was to make sure contributors received 4x the amount of RSN (formerly ACO) than what they originally paid for during the ICO. On September 8th, over 200 original contributors received RSN via the BitShares exchange, where a tokenized form of RSN is currently being traded as of this morning. Soon, RSN will launch natively on the public Arisen network, where those who hold its tokenized version on BitShares, as well as Ethereum and EOS (coming soon), will be able to exchange them "atomically" for RSN's native coins, at any time. This also means Arisen will be inter-operable with the Ethereum, EOS and BitShares networks, so RSN on Ethereum's network can be easily exchanged for ETH or ERC-20 tokens, BTS or any BitShares-related tokens and EOS or any EOS-based tokens, with ease.
In the coming weeks, we will continue our efforts to distribute 4x the RSN to those remaining on the original contributor list. In fact, as you read this, many dedicated community members are working around the clock to reach out to many of those remaining contributors in order to facilitate those transfers. Over the next few weeks, the remaining RSN (1B in total circulation), will be evenly air-dropped to ETH, BTS and EOS holders around the world. I will elaborate on this in a future post.
Note: Jones Day still hasn't refunded contributors.
Arisen Whitepaper
The Arisen whitepaper is currently being readied for release, while dWeb's whitepaper has been published (https://github.com/distributedweb/whitepaper) as of last week. We are going over our whitepaper with a fine-tooth comb, to ensure that all statements within it are backed by factual evidence. We promise, we'll leave partnerships out of this one.
Arisen Website
The Arisen website is nearing completion and will be launched in the coming weeks. It will cover all areas of the network, the features of the network, as well as the core dApps that Arisen's core development team will be managing. The Arisen website is also made up of several other websites for many sister-chains that will be launched by the community, using Arisen's software.
These sister-chains include:
- aHealth
- aFood
- aWater
- aEnergy
- aTelecom
- aCommunity
- aCommerce
- aGov
I will post a follow-up post about these sister-chains and why we're launching multiple blockchains in a later post. The Arisen website, along with the websites for these sister-chains will all be launching over the course of the next few weeks.
Arisen Core Wallet
We are currently preparing a core-wallet for web, desktop and mobile that should release within a week or so of the initial network launch. aVote (a core-dApp that I explain in further detail below), has a built-in wallet for the launch and accounts can easily be created using ArisenID (another core-dApp explained in further detail below). I will have several future updates regarding Arisen's core wallet.
ArisenID
ArisenID (formerly known as AriseID) is also nearing launch. It was tested by many community members a few months back and is ready to go, the day the public network is launched. ArisenID allows users of the Arisen network to manage all of their Arisen-based identities and accounts from one interface. It also allows for users to login to dApps with one-click, rather than typing their Arisen username and password every time you want to login to an Arisen-powered dApp.
ArisenID will be available for MacOSX, Linux and Windows. We will later release a version for Android, as well as iOS that have support for biometrics, including facial recognition.
aVote
Voting has been a prominent feature in DPOS-based blockchains, since Dan Larimer invented the algorithm for the BitShares blockchain. aVote is a dApp that allows Arisen users to manage their Arisen accounts, while also voting on different proposals and block producers within the network. aVote will also be released the same day the public network is launched and can be installed on all MacOSX, Linux and Windows-based operating systems.
I will have a separate post regarding aVote's key features, screenshots and some other cool things, very soon!
Arisen Blockchain Explorer
Some in the community were lucky enough to see a few of Arisen's blockchain explorers in action. We were definitely testing many solutions and have come to a decision on which one we'll be using during our public launch. We'll be leaving that as a surprise for now. :)
aBank
Many have awaited the aBank dApp and I understand their pain. I have been writing code for the aBank project, behind bars and have had a blast doing so. While that sounds crazy to some, writing code on paper is not as bad as one may think. I know many programmers who do this, even with a computer. Now I have a team of developers behind me, who I'll be communicating with on a daily basis, in order to further the development of the aBank project.
The aBank project is nearing completion, for desktop and mobile. I will have an update on its release in a future post in the VERY near future (few days).
dSocial, dTunes and dVideo -- OH MY!
We have so many community projects in the works, it's truly insane. There are far too many projects in the works for me to mention in this post but different community members will begin posting on these projects in due time. For the past year, we have acquired the following domains:
- dsocial.io
- dwiki.io
- dbuy.io
- dvideo.io
- dsite.io
- dpress.io
- dgive.io
- dtunes.io
In short, we are preparing to launch some really sweet decentralized projects over the next year, that are not only really sweet, they're 100% decentralized.
A Brewing Class Action
I have heard through the grapevine that there is a class action lawsuit brewing against Jones Day and others who were involved in the AriseBank takedown. Join the Arisen telegram for more on this effort, put together by several community members.
The Truth
What was done to this community, my family and myself, will never be ok. I will never forget what happened to us and how this situation turned into a nightmare for the many who have been involved within it. Although, it's important to note that turbulence is the price you pay for trying to fly high. With that said, we have pressed forward and have ultimately defied all the odds placed against us. While we have a lot of work to do, it's time to launch off the initial Arisen and dWeb networks to ultimately bring the truth about our community, our movement and our technology to the surface, to drown out the fake news that has overtaken the airwaves since AriseBank was first seized. When it mattered most, nobody looked out for community, so we all had to look out for ourselves. Jones Day, as well as Kroll Security has spent a lot of the money they seized and they're still asking for more money. The SEC is far more concerned with getting me to pay their fines, than protecting the contributors they told the courts needed their immediate protection. It has been two years and the most contributors have been offered is 5% of what they originally contributed. That's not only sad, it's a slap in the face of the people who they said they would have protected. They knew all along that I would have refunded you all of your money. That's why they never wanted me involved. As for us, we never took our focus away from making contributors whole, keeping our promises and making sure our vision for a decentralized future never died. I'm so glad that we're able to offer 4x what contributors originally purchased, rather than the measly 5% they 're being offered now.
Now it's time to embrace many newcomers as we bring this network to the world, build a new development team around Arisen's core software and expand the network as far as we possibly can. I'm far more excited than you know and we're just getting started. I hope all of you join us in this monumental effort, to decentralize the world and protect our most important constitutional and human-rights. As I said over two years ago, I'm with you in this fight and I'll never give up. I meant it.
It's time to fight back.
- Jared Rice Sr.
Arisen and dWeb's Chief Developer
Congratulations @arisenio! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPVote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!
Well done, Jared. I believe in you, always did. God bless.
Thank you, Jared, for persisting. :D
😄😇😄
Keep on keeping on. The tip of the spear is always the first to get chipped, but that doesn't stop the rest of the metal from plunging into the heart of a corrupt centralized banking system. Be strong and courageous.
Will you be acquiring any DECENTRALIZED on Bitshares? :)