In a crowded field of altcoins and ICOs coming up every other day, ARK aims to stand out from the rest through its technology and vision. Yes, it is also going to go through an ICO, but it isn’t one of those copy-paste coins (and if it were, we likely wouldn’t be covering it on our blog anyway). As usual, if you decide to invest in any ICO, do your due diligence and remember not to invest your rent money into any. Also, if you’re interested, here’s the link to its Bitcointalk announcement thread.

Technology

So let’s tackle the technology piece first. ARK is built on the backs of Lisk (and Crypti) and Bitshares. As you might have guessed, it borrows its consensus algorithm from Bitshares, via the delegated proof of stake (DPoS) system.

More interestingly, ARK is building a ‘smartbridge’ technology. It is a custom piece of information embedded in transactions that allow it to transact in a different blockchain. This way, ARK can easily adjust whichever way the wind flows, and borrow from the more successful blockchains even as it grows and expands its services and technology.

The ARK technology gives it a lot of technical flexibility to steer its direction in the future. As the space is really emerging at the moment with no clear winners or a clear sense of which way the ship will turn, ARK provides a framework to capture the best of the cryptocurrency space.

In addition to just cryptocurrency/blockchain technologies, the team has plans to work on implementing smart cards that can allow users to spend their money. We’ll cover more details in the Vision section below.

Vision

In addition to its technology and technological vision, ARK is really positioning itself as a crypto for the long-term. It is trying to build an entire ecosystem that isn’t just geared to do the fancy-word-of-the-day type uses, but plain old cryptocurrency. The currency aspect of cryptocurrency really.

It is also working on technologies for smart cards using NFC that will make it easier to spend ARK at in-person venues and not just online. This should give ARK a good boost in terms of adoption if it is able to convince enough merchants to accept payments and enough users to pay using ARK.

The bridged blockchain technology via smartbridge will also allow the ARK team the flexibility to expand its vision for its customers in the future.

If you believe in its vision and see some utility for it down the road, you can invest in its ICO. Do your research and due diligence as always.