After the release of our Proof Of Concept, we have been working unrelentingly in order to release our MVP. We took things a step further this time. Hereby we want to invite you to create an account and try out our platform, you can do it here: https://portal.allianceblock.io/
If you have any questions about the MVP or need assistance, please reach out to us on our Telegram channel.
In this article we will share some insights about the most important features of our MVP and some tips to help you get on your way. Please bear in mind that our portal uses the Ropsten Ethereum testnet at this stage.
What can you do in our MVP?
Besides a completely redesigned state-of-the-art layout versus the Proof Of Concept, there are numerous features available now in the MVP:
- Participate in listed projects and automatically receive tokens after the target goal has been raised
- Swap your tokens with others in a safe (trustless) environment without having to wait for an exchange listing
- Follow or be followed by other users and broadcast messages to them (in BETA)
- Make friends and exchange private messages (in BETA)
- View detailed information about each project
- Share insights and ask questions on each project’s collaboration feature
- View your transactions, send funds and export the private key of your AllianceBlock Smart Wallet
- Keep track of your portfolio
- Be able to see your portfolio in different currencies (USD, EUR, GBP or ETH)
Ropsten testnet
Instead of Mainnet, the MVP uses the Ropsten Ethereum testnet. Because of this you can add test ETH to your AllianceBlock Smart Wallet and use it on the portal. The easiest way to add test ETH to your wallet would be by installing MetaMask (a browser extension for Chrome, FireFox, Opera and Brave). When finished setting up a wallet, you should switch your network to Ropsten:
In order to get test ETH, you’ll need to visit a faucet, which you can do by following this link: https://faucet.metamask.io/. There you can press this button to receive 1 ETH in your MetaMask wallet:
Tip: you can request more test ETH if necessary; up to a total of 10 ETH in your MetaMask wallet.
Creating an account
If you have created an account earlier on our Proof of Concept environment you will still have to create a new account for the MVP.
Go to https://portal.allianceblock.io/ and click the "Create account" button. Fill in your details and click "Sign up". Make sure you provide a correct email address, as you will receive an email with a link that has to be used to activate your account.
Using your account and first test ETH
After the first time logging in, you will be prompted with the following dialog:
On our portal you are the only owner of your private key, consequently you are always the owner of your funds, not us. This means you can also import your AllianceBlock Smart Wallet into MetaMask and MyEtherWallet.
Tip: Make sure to download your private key and store it safely. We cannot recover it for you.
If you want to send your ETH from MetaMask to your AB wallet, simply go to the Wallet menu item in the top right menu:
You will find your wallet address there as well. Click the copy button to copy your address. Then go to MetaMask to set up a transfer to that address.
After a confirmation from MetaMask you should see your test ETH in your wallet.
Tip: To see more of your wallet, like transactions and the export private key option, click "Go to Wallet Section" in the Wallet popup.
Participate and collaborate
Now it's time to find a project. Go to the projects section by clicking the projects button in the left menu:
While browsing projects you can switch between card view and table view, set filters and click on them in order to see the various details.
When you want to share insights about a project or ask a question to its team or your fellow community members, choose "Collaboration" from the project submenu.
Finally, when you are ready to participate, click the button on the top right corner of the project page.
Tip: Check out the project details to see the key numbers of the project so you can get a feeling of the number of participants currently, the amount raised so far, the maximum contribution per individual, etc… :
Shortly after the cap has been reached and 100% has been funded, you will receive your tokens automatically in your AllianceBlock Smart Wallet. You can track your portfolio (top right menu).
Tip: Don't want to continuously refresh your portfolio to see whether your tokens have been distributed? Just wait for the notification:
Token Swap
Once you have received tokens in your wallet, you can immediately swap them for other tokens in the Token Swap (left menu) feature. Token Swap is anonymous and trustless. This means that the swap takes place in a Smart Contract from where the swap can ultimately only be executed by the ones holding the private keys to the wallets from which the tokens will be swapped.
To setup a new swap, simply press the "Offer Token" button.
- Select the token you want to offer
- Select the amount of tokens (Offer Quantity) you want to offer from that token
- Select the token you want to receive
- Select the amount of tokens (Bid Quantity) you would like to receive if the other user wants to accept the offer without bidding (like an auction's buy now price)
- Choose the expiry date
- Set the Minimum bid amount that a user can bid if they do not want to swap for the amount set in Bid Quantity, but would like to make a bid regardless
Practically this means that any user can bid between "Minimum bid amount" and "Bid Quantity".
Once you complete filling your offer, your tokens will be held in the Token Swap smart contract until you either cancel the offer or until the swap is executed.
After the swap has been completed, you will see your new tokens in both your wallet and your portfolio!
Bug Bounty Program
Did you find something that doesn't work like it should? Please send an email to bounty@allianceblock.io (subject "AllianceBlock Bug Bounty Program") and describe the bug as extensively as possible including how to replicate it. Are you the first to mention it? You will be rewarded with 50–500 ALC tokens, depending on the impact of the bug.
Please note: in the current state of the MVP be aware that not all features are implemented, and not all links (to help sections for example) work right now. Currently we do not consider them as bugs, but as work in progress. Please check out our Telegram channel, Subreddit or our Medium blog regularly to know which features have been implemented/finished and which features will be next.
What’s next?
In the coming weeks we are adding two factor authentication, KYC, community pages and user settings (including privacy settings). From now on we will update you weekly on our development progress through Medium, our Telegram channel and our Subreddit.
Web Summit
We will be exhibiting at the Web Summit! Read more about it in our other blogpost.
Questions and support
If you have any questions about AllianceBlock, our MVP or our roadmap, please join our Telegram channel if you haven't done so already and come chat with us! Or visit our Subreddit and post your questions/insights there.
