The dawn of a new year is upon us, ringing in 2020. What better way to begin a brand new year than to bring to you the introduction of significantly improving the globe as we know it. If memory serves me correctly, I recall stating that they would never be able to steal my vision. In order to maintain the truth in this statement, I along with my fellow gladiators have had to endure such a great deal of barriers and had to fight nothing short of epic battles, within an impossible arena. After all of these considerable trials and tribulations, to keep this promise true, I am beyond ecstatic to say that this primary mission has now been accomplished. Over the past three years, I have grown to fully realize this monumental endeavor to decentralize the world, from the internet itself to the central banking system, to even software like social networks and inventions like a decentralized operating system. That vision continues to grow, refine and expand to the boundless horizons of one's imagination.
In 2017, I was working on a dream, a dream that would effectively provide the human race a completely decentralized version of the banking system. Expounding on the existing crypto technologies, like wallets, merchant services and exchanges, while creating a simple user interface, although sophisticated in the background, would have provided the average user all the conventionality of a central bank, yet would be utterly and completely decentralized. There were many that offered the opinion that this was a path planted with landmines that some would even say could be perceived as some sort of serious challenge to the current banking systems and the cronies that govern it. I along with many of those who support me in the community, saw this for what it was, a revolutionary and evolutionary technology that would once again empower the people. All I really wanted to do, as an innovative programmer, was to simply innovate. I didn't realize the gravity of interest I would garner from those dated individuals, that felt an overwhelming and somewhat existential threat to their conventional way of doing things.
As trite as this may sound, I was actually attacked by the Texas Department of Banking for using the word "bank". Yes, you read it right, for using the word "bank". I think it would be prudent to take you through these events wearing my lenses, in order for the story to be told as a first person experience. The fact is, I was the one there, living it and going through this reality, while the government created an alternate reality based on a fairy-tale narrative that proved to be so confabulated, it no longer even remotely resembled the truth. Little did I know at the time, that AriseBank would be labeled as the first project sued by the SEC, resulting in my indictment for "Securities Fraud", where I would become the first software developer ever criminally charged while in the process of launching a blockchain, that ultimately took me eleven months to build. It was evident that I had garnered the attention from the federal government, so much so, that they had been following me for quite some time.
It was mere hours before I would initiate the launch of what promised to be an alternative solution to the current banking system. Upon the arrival of federal agencies, ranging from the FBI, IRS, CFTC and SEC, I ended up on the wrong end of the barrel of their weapons. It was at this point that I was introduced to Mr. Chris Davis of the SEC, demanding that I turn over all computers, software, accounts and coins related to the hard work I had procured for humanity. Before doing so, I made sure to ask the court-appointed receiver Mark Rasmussen, whether or not we were the first cryptocurrency case the government had ever litigated, to which he replied - "Yes". I then glanced over at our team and loudly proclaimed - "We made it!". In truth, the government had built a stage for us to showcase our ideas. They would plaster my vision across just about every magazine and newspaper in the world for weeks on end. While their narrative was that AriseBank was a fraud and that the blockchain would never exist, many in the community were already beta testing the software and watching Sean Worthington's development team build a VR experience around the AriseBank application. Mr. Worthington even posted a YouTube video showing himself, walking into a virtualized decentralized banking branch. AriseBank was as real as the grass is green and many people knew it.
The months following the raid and the seizure of the project were, to put it lightly, epic. Just hours after the SEC announced SEC vs. AriseBank, many of the ICO contributors took to Twitter to respond to the SEC's script, that AriseBank was a fraud, where major contributors began posting #wewantourbankback all over their announcement's comment section. Stan Larimer and Cryptonomex, both mainstays in the industry, would end up contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to my legal fees, several community members even opened a legal fund, so I was able to feed my family. If you care to know how all of that made me feel, well, I was very motivated to say the least. Days later, a community member would buy me a MacBook Pro and I was back in the game, determined and focused on delivering on my promises, only this time, I was also determined to keep my work from being seized. I worked day and night, mostly three days without sleep, studying different decentralized projects from around the globe. After months of research, I decided to combine the Dat Project and Dan Larimer's EOS into one cohesive solution ultimately creating a toolset for developing truly decentralized applications and a platform that allowed for true end-to-end decentralization that was capable of supporting billions of users. After ten months of excruciating work, I was ready to finally launch the blockchain project I had worked hard to bring to life prior to the raid. Only this time, there wasn't a decentralized banking system involved. In fact, there weren't any dApps at all. Instead I focused on building a foundation for developing the decentralized applications of the future. For the record, I was determined to create a toolset that would allow our team and others to build systems that could compete with the centralized powerhouses of the world, apps that could never be seized again.
Our fork of EOS would become known as "Arisen" and our fork of Dat would birth an entirely new alternative to the http:// protocol known as dweb://, giving way to a decentralized web. Although, just 24 hours after announcing their launch, I was arrested by FBI agents and jailed without bond. I had failed to launch again. My pride was truly on the line and I felt defeated. For the past 12 months, I have been incarcerated in a federal detention center (FDC), while labeled a "threat to society", working hard to pick up the pieces. Learning from our past failures, public announcements have seemed to hurt us more than anything, so this time, I decided to work in the silos, through attorneys and some of AriseBank's largest contributors, to finally bring this project to life. As I currently write this, I have coded on well-over 5,000 pages of notebook paper that have recently been mailed to my attorneys for archiving. I have been blessed to bring on a group of 31 blockchain developers last month to carry on the future development of the Arisen and dWeb code bases and have worked hand-in-hand with them as well as an army of others throughout this process. Our team continues to grow larger by the day. It truly is amazing. There are many to thank for that.
Exactly one year after being arrested, the Arisen Network was launched on November 28th, 2019 and ArisenCoin (RSN) was distributed to the AriseBank contributors that we could locate, at 4x the amount they would have originally received during the ICO. Not only have we finally launched, Arisen and dWeb are both the first softwares ever launched from prison, during a time when prison reform is a major topic of discussion. All of this was done with a computer that allows me to type messages in a simple text box that can be sent to email addresses of my choice. There aren't any IDEs, there isn't even an option to format text, which forces me to write documents like this one in Markdown language so it's formatted correctly. So much for Mr. Davis' narrative that I wasn't a software developer right?
As we have chipped away at their narrative, the truth has slowly began to find its way to the surface, as it should. Below, I'm going to run through everything that has been launched to-date and what to expect over the next few weeks, from the new Arisen website, ArisenCoin being placed on a plethora of exchanges and a well-funded venture called Peeps, that is using Arisen and dWeb's protocols to compete with the likes of Facebook, Google, Amazon, Uber and more. Soon you will understand why we're so excited about the future and why I'm so proud of the lengths we've gone to bring our vision to fruition.
In the end, we never needed an ICO to raise money. That mistake was simply apart of our climb to clarity. In truth, I'm happy to announce that Arisen is funding itself, its original community members have become a close-knit family and after three years of hard work, I can safely say that these projects will never die. As a matter of fact, Arisen will forever be apart of crypto history, because of what we have all accomplished together. So, I'd like to welcome you all to a blockchain project that never quit and a team of visionaries who have battled through the toughest odds to take on the cronies nobody else had the guts to fight. From the very beginning, I gave you my word that I would never give in, no matter what they did to me. I'm glad I was able to keep my promise.
I authored several whitepapers breaking down Arisen and dWeb's technologies from the Federal Detention Center I'm currently serving time in. Below, you can find the links to those whitepapers:
Arisen Whitepaper
dWeb Whitepaper
dAppDB Whitepaper
dDatabase Whitepaper
dBnk Whitepaper
dSocial Whitepaper (Launching January 5th, 2020)
dRide Whitepaper (Launching January 10th, 2020)
We are currently looking for new translations and have a new Translation Program that pays RSN (ArisenCoin) to those who are willing to provide accurate translations of the above whitepapers.
As I write this, the Arisen network has 26 nodes and 25 registered block producers, of which, 21 are producing blocks. One of those 26 nodes is the Genesis Node, located at:
https://greatchain.arisennodes.io:6620
Since its inception, we have called Arisen the "Great Chain", referencing the "Great Chain" of Revelation 20:1. Since Revelation is the 66th book of the Bible and the verses pertaining to the "Great Chain" are in Chapter 20, the Arisen network communications on a peer-to-peer basis over port "6620" by default.
Installing Arisen is easy. First you will need a machine that has the following minimum specifications:
8GB RAM
200GB DISK
4 vCPUs
Here are a few providers you can utilize for launching Arisen:
Scaleway
Digital Ocean
Amazon AWS
To install Arisen as a full API node on Ubuntu 16.04, follow the instructions below:
apt-get install git -y
git clone https://github.com/arisenio/arisen.git
cd arisen
./arisen_install.sh
Arisen typically takes several hours to compile, depending on the server's available resources. Once it has finished compiling, you will need to first start aWallet. aWallet is used to store your private keys and to assist in the signing of transactions. When running Arisen, you must have aWallet running. aWallet runs on port 12518, by default, referencing the date the SEC filed its case under seal, against AriseBank. To run aWallet you should do so by using screen or tmux, while running the following commands:
awallet --http-server-address 127.0.0.1:12518
Then exit out of the screen and run:
arisecli ---wallet-url 127.0.0.1:12518 wallet create --to-console
This will spit out a password that will be used to unlock the "default" wallet, used by aWallet.
DO NOT LOSE THIS PASSWORD
Every Arisen account has two default permission levels, known as owner and active and each requires its own keypair. In any event, to generate a keypair using arisecli run the following:
arisecli create key --to-console
You will have to run the above command twice, in order to generate a keypair for each.
To startup the blockchain and run a node on the network, you will need to use the aos daemon. You can do so very easily, by running the following command:
aos --http-server-address 127.0.0.1:12618 --p2p-listen-endpoint 127.0.0.1:6620 --p2p-peer-address greatchain.arisennodes.io:6620 --plugin arisen::chain_api_plugin --plugin arisen::net_api_plugin
If you would like to startup a node, as a block producer, you will have to follow an entirely different set of instructions, which I will be posting here later today.
Once you generate the owner and active keypairs, you will need to register a user on the network. Due to the way Arisen is designed, it costs ArisenCoin (RSN) to create an account. Meaning, you will need an existing account that can "stake" RSN on the network, in order to create a new account. This is because storing an account's data on-chain, costs network resources (RAM, CPU & NET), so that bad actors are incapable of abusing the network's resources for the dApps that utilize it. For this reason, new users will be able to use a signup service to create their account, starting January 8th, 2020.
You will be able to access the Arisen signup service here: https://signup.arisen.network on 01-08-2020 at 12:00:00AM. For the first month, Arisen Foundation will cover the RSN costs. In the meantime, community members can assist in the creation of accounts via the Arisen Telegram Channel. All that will be needed will be the owner and active keypairs generated via arisecli in the previous step. Make sure you stop by and let them know you would like to create an account, along with the public keys and the username you want to reserve.
DO NOT FORGET TO NOTATE WHICH KEY IS ASSOCIATED WITH THE OWNER PERMISSION LEVEL.
In order to register a user via arisecli (as long as you have an account already, with RSN in it), run the following command:
arisecli system new account <username-creating-account> <new-username> <owner-public-key> <active-public-key> --buy-ram '1000000.0000 RSN' --stake-net '1000000.0000 RSN' --stake-cpu '1000000.0000 RSN'
Arisen Core's 1.0 release is based around EOS 1.3.0. Arisen's development team is in the process of updating to EOS 2.0.0. We simply felt it was best to launch the network using 1.3.0, due to the many changes within EOS's core software since its 1.3.0 release. That means that all nodes on the network will need to update to Arisen Core 1.1.0, once it is released in the next 30 days or so. We expect Arisen 1.1.0 to be released around February 1st, 2020.
I have officially handed off the management of Arisen Core's code to Christian Fernandez and DevGenesis. If you would like to help out with the project, please email them at [email protected]. You can also contact community leader 
Our core wallet aVote has officially been launched. aVote is currently available for MacOSX, Linux and Windows. We're currently working on a mobile version for Android and iOS which should debut in a few days.
To download aVote for desktop PCs, go to this link.
Using aVote is quite simple. When logging in, you will simply need to enter the private key associated with the owner permission level of your account, which will automatically log you in. aVote will allow you to vote on block producers, network proposals, view your latest transactions, send/receive transactions and handle other settings on your Arisen account.
We are currently working on two explorers, one that I'm very excited to show today. I'll be debuting an entirely new explorer next week. For now, you can explore Arisen's network here:
We have a really awesome explorer debuting in the next few days, as we're working on fixing a few bugs here and there. We're also updating the market data to match the current price of RSN on the BitShares exchange. That should begin showing in the next few days.
We have a developer tools application that we have been working on and should be ready to debut in the next few days, you can view the code here. Developers will be able to generate keys and much more from within their web browser. We're also readying the debut of the Arisen IDE for developing and testing Arisen-based smart contracts. As for developer documentation, we're also finalizing all developer docs as it pertains to the current 1.0 release of Arisen which should be released in a few days.
Many community members, as well as several lawyers have been working hard to ensure that ArisenCoin (RSN) will be found on several different cryptocurrency exchanges, beyond the BitShares DEX. Those community members are working with those exchanges to secure placement, as well as RSN's listing on many valuation sites like CoinMarketCap. All of this will be taking place throughout the weeks that follow this announcement. Bringing value to the community has always been a goal of ours and I'm glad those community members have stepped up to bring that goal to fruition. The best part for me, is bringing value to those who originally contributed to AriseBank - it feels great. I'll keep you guys up to date with all the happenings surrounding RSN's placement on exchanges, as well as anything else pertaining to its listings on valuation websites, via Steemit and Medium.
January 12th, 2020 is the big launch day for Arisen's official website. I've been working hard from where I am, with a team of web developers, to bring to life a website that truly shares our story, Arisen's technology, as well as the tools needed to build the applications of the future upon Arisen's blockchain. On January 12th, 2020 at 12:00:00AM CST, you will be able to access the official Arisen website via: https://arisen.network
The decentralized foundation provided by Arisen and dWeb bring to life the tools that developers need to build truly decentralized applications, which is where my focus has moved, considering many have taken over the Arisen and dWeb projects to ensure that this foundation stays strong for the foreseeable future. With that said, my vision has moved on to a new company called "Peeps" where we're building the dApps of the future -- many of which are already under development and have been for several months. We see Peeps as a decentralized competitor to not just Apple but most of the major tech companies in Silicon Valley. My eyes are no longer set on just decentralizing the banking system, I won't stop until we decentralize the world. Below is a preview of several projects being built on the Arisen and dWeb protocols at Peeps. There isn't a need for an ICO. Many people in the community have already stepped up to fund the development of the following projects, with many more to follow:
PeerOS is a decentralized operating system, built on Android's OS, featuring the world's first truly decentralized application marketplace (dApp Store) and many other dApps like dBrowser, as well as the dApps listed below. Development of PeerOS is underway and we will be posting many updates on its development in the coming weeks.
Expected BETA Release: December 2020
dBnk, dPay and dExg are the 2020 rebirth of the AriseBank project. You can follow the projects' development starting today, at https://github.com/dbnks/.
Expected BETA Release: June 2020
dSearch will be the world's first truly decentralized search engine and will be powered on Arisen's blockchain. dSearch will give users the ability to search dweb://-based websites and browse the decentralized web.
Expected BETA Release: June 2020
dAdvertising will be the world's first truly decentralized advertising platform, allowing companies to advertise on dApps like dSearch and dSocial with ease. dAdvertising will be the first decentralized alternative to Google's Adwords.
Expected BETA Release: June 2020 (With dSocial launch)
dSocial will aim to be the world's first completely decentralized social network, from end-to-end. We also plan on integrating features that ultimately allow dSocial to compete with centralized social networks like Facebook, by integrating dApps like dBnk, dPay, dPass, dMessenger, dAdvertising, dVideo and dPhone which will allow users to easily communicate like they do on a platform like Facebook, while also earning cryptocurrency for the content they curate on the platform itself.
Expected BETA Release: June 2020
dMessenger is a P2P messaging dApp that is built-in to dSocial, although it is an entirely separate application on its own and can be used separately. dMessenger is expected to release when dSocial launches in BETA.
Expected BETA Release: June 2020 (With dSocial launch)
dPhone is a P2P telecommunications dApp that will make its initial debut on dSocial as a solution for handling voice calls between friends. Although, dPhone will also be the inception of peer-to-peer telephone calls, when we finally debut the full application via PeerOS Mobile around December 2020.
Expected BETA Release: June 2020 (With dSocial launch)
dRide is a P2P alternative to Uber and Lyft that will be used for much more than rides. In fact, it might help out with P2P logistics and shipping for future competitors to Amazon. Hint, hint. :)
Expected BETA Release: September 2020
I'm motivated and so are many others, to bring to life not just a banking system - we're determined to put all of the world's centralized powerhouses on notice. 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 around it. Although, it's important that we understand that turbulence is the price we'll always 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 bring the truth about our community, our movement and our technology to the surface, in order to drown out the fake news that has overtaken the airwaves since AriseBank was first seized. When it mattered most, nobody looked out for our community, so we all had to look out for ourselves. JonesDay, as well as Kroll Security have spent a lot of the money they seized, on a frivolous investigation and they're still asking for more. The SEC is far more concerned with getting me to pay their fines than protecting the contributors they swore to 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 that they were going to protect.
They knew all along that I would have refunded every one of you. 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 would never die. Now it's time to embrace many newcomers to our movement as we bring this network to the world, build a new development team around Arisen's core software and expand our vision 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 will join us on 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.