OmiseGO-[OMG]: Defined
What is all this talk about OMG?
OMG is an Ethereum based “decentralized exchange” according to its white paper.<
It’s, OmiseGO-OMG, also described as an asset-backed blockchain gateway.
In simpler terms, it’s designed to be a decentralized and distributed platform through which assets of almost any kind can be exchanged,
moved, and stored.
It could be used to transfer money internationally,
exchange fiat money for other fiat money, crypto assets for fiat, and
fiat for crypto assets, among potentially thousands of other use cases.
OMG is run by the Omise group, which is a reputable and long-standing
payment processing company based in Southeast Asia.
As such, they are currently putting a strong emphasis on the Southeast Asia region, and
it’s remittance (sending money) markets.
As someone who used to live in
Southeast Asia, Singapore specifically, I can attest to the importance
and value of remittance services.
In Singapore, many of my coworkers at
my previous office job would be from nearby Southeast Asian countries
like Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Brunei, and other nearby
nations.
About:
OmiseGO is building a decentralized exchange, liquidity provider mechanism, clearinghouse messaging network, and asset-backed blockchain gateway.
The OmiseGO is not owned by any single one party. Instead, it is an open distributed network of validators which enforce behavior of all participants.
It uses the mechanism of a protocol token to create a proof-of-stake blockchain to enable enforcement of market activity amongst participants.
Owning OMG tokens buys the right to validate this blockchain, within its consensus rules.
Transaction fees on the network including payment, interchange, trading, and clearinghouse use, are given to non-faulty validators who enforce bonded contract states.
The token will have value derived from the fees derived from this network, with the obligation/cost of providing validation to its users.
OmiseGO-[OMG]: Website
What is OMG?
OMG is an Ethereum based “decentralized exchange” according to its white paper. It’s also described as an asset-backed blockchain gateway.In simpler terms, it’s designed to be a decentralized and distributed platform through which assets of almost any kind can be exchanged, moved, and stored.
It could be used to transfer money internationally, exchange fiat money for other fiat money, crypto assets for fiat, and fiat for crypto assets, among potentially thousands of other use cases.
OMG is run by the Omise group, which is a reputable and long-standing payment processing company based in Southeast Asia.
As such, they are currently putting a strong emphasis on the Southeast Asia region, and it’s remittance (sending money) markets.
As someone who used to live in Southeast Asia, Singapore specifically, I can attest to the importance and value of remittance services.
In Singapore, many of my coworkers at my previous office job would be from nearby Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Brunei, and other nearby nations.
OmiseGO is a cryptocurrency created on the Ethereum blockchain protocol for use in the mainstream world, particularly in Japan and Southeast Asia.
OMG is aiming to switch over to its own proof-of-stake blockchain by the fourth quarter of 2017.
OMG’s Thailand-based mother company, Omise, was founded in 2013 and has since expanded to hold offices Singapore, Indonesia, and Japan.
OMG was created for use “in mainstream digital wallets” with the intention of “[enabling] real-time, peer-to-peer value exchange and payment services agnostically across jurisdictions and organizational silos, and across both fiat money and decentralized currencies.”
Essentially, OmiseGO wants to be the Venmo or Square for Southeast Asia and Japan.
This, with the added function of integration and interchangeability across a wide range of eWallet payment platforms (ie PayPal and WeChat Pay), digital currencies, and other assets.
Decentralized Currency Exchange:
Though OMG runs through the Ethereum mainnet, users will be able to use the OMG platform to exchange fiat, digital currency, and other assets interchangeably.This will provide an important set of services to areas of the world that lack banking infrastructure, as no such infrastructure is required under OMG.
Additionally, the creation of a decentralized exchange solves the problems associated with centralized exchanges, such as Poloniex and Bittrex, which include susceptibility to hacking and high trading fees.
The Omise Company and its All-Star Team:
Omise was the first company to back the Ethereum foundation’s ÐΞVgrants program with a $100,000 donation.ÐΞVgrants seeks to provide funding to lower-level projects that further the foundation’s vision of “re-organizing the very fabric of our society around a more transparent and inspectable ‘stack’”.
Omise CEO Jun Hasegawa said, “We are honored by the opportunity to support the decentralization revolution, beginning with our contribution that will restart the Ethereum ÐΞVgrants program.”
OmiseGO has an all-star team of developers and advisors, including Joseph Poon of the Lightning Network, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder Dr. Gavin Wood, and Bitcoin “Evangelist” Roger Ver.
Practical Use of OmiseGO:
According to OmiseGO’s website, the three central tenets of the currency are access, scalability, and security.OmiseGO’s product development lead, Wendell Davis, explained that OmiseGO allows the end user to “send money locally, so they can send it to their family, they can make payments, and it also allows them to send remittances across borders”.
Davis provided the example of a migrant worker from Myanmar sending money back home to her family.
OmiseGO will also help serve underbanked regions.
There is no bank account required to use OMG, and the services that OMG will provide users with have the power to facilitate faster economic growth in the regions of the world.
So far, OMG has been marketed mostly in Southeast Asia, but it could (and likely will) spread to underbanked areas across the globe.
Scalability:
The currency was designed with anticipation of large scalability in mind, so all transactions on the OMG blockchain happen in real time, even though there are a variety of assets being exchanged.This is accomplished with the use of payment channels (similar to the Lightning Network) and smart contracts.
Smart Contracts:
OmiseGO’s use of smart contracts allows it to function without centralized stewardship.Therefore, fees for exchanges made on the network will be as low as possible. This can be verified in the blockchain records.
A Secure Coin with Encryption and Fraud Protection:
OmiseGO has been designed as an extremely secure coin that uses end-to-end encryption.Omise will never share its users’ data with third parties, although it does not offer the same level of anonymity as some other cryptocoins, such as Monero or Zcash.
Fraud protection is a priority for Omise, and they have developed safeguards that utilize geolocation, proxy detection, machine learning fraud protection models, risk threshold, tokenization, and behavior analysis.
Partnerships:
One of OmiseGO’s goals is widespread integration into pre-existing economic and financial services, and they have a growing list of partners.As more partnerships are added, the value of OMG tokens will continue to increase.
One of the more significant partnerships so far is AliPay.
AliPay is the third-largest online payment provider in China.
Additionally, McDonald’s Thailand has recently announced that they will accept payment in the form of OMG.
