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topic: Financial Freedom by Design
layout: default
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  <div class="title">
   <h2 id=#aboutus>BitShares Europe</h2>
   <span class="byline">We bring your business into the smart
    blockchain age.</span>
  </div>
  <p>
  <strong>BitShares Europe</strong> is a group of enthusiasts that
  follow the purpose to best serve the BitShares ecosystem and help
  establish the decentralized exchange and its corresponding
  technology.
  </p>

  <p>
  It is our aim that decentralized and open technologies will be
  <strong>developed, deployed, nurtured, promoted and
   maintained</strong>. A dominating but not exclusive focus is set
  on the promotion of the development of the BitShares ecosystem and
  the relevant technology to it as well as the promotion and support
  of applications and libraries using the <strong>BitShares public
   ledger</strong>. 
  </p>

  <p>Additionally, we support and advocate the underlying
  Graphene&trade; technology in a variety of forms and and fill the
  need for a qualified partner in the blockchain business.
  </p>
  <a href="/#contact" class="button">Contact us directly</a>
 </div>
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    <h2>Business Services</h2>
    <ul class="style2">
     <li>Business Consulting</li>
     <li>Deployment</li>
     <li>Integration Tools</li>
     <li>Education Seminars</li>
    </ul>
   </div>
   <div class="sbox2">
    <h2>Development</h2>
    <ul class="style2">
     <li>Wallet Customization</li>
     <li>Smart Contract Development</li>
     <li>Public API</li>
     <li>Network and Connectivity</li>
    </ul>
   </div>
  </div>
 </div>
</div>

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  <div id="content">
   <div class="title">
    <h2 id="bitshares">Bitshares</h2>
    <span class="byline">The internet revolutionized how <strong>information</strong> was exchanged.<br />
     BitShares revolutionizes how <strong>money and value</strong> is exchanged. </span>
   </div>

   <p>BitShares exists entirely as a decentralized transaction ledger
   (i.e. a <strong>blockchain</strong>) maintained by a network of
   individual computers owned by regular people all over the world.
   It offers a free market for transactions of <em>any kind</em> that
   can be performed between person to person over the internet
   without any third party middlemen.</p>

   <p>BitShares offers the world's first <strong>decentralized
    exchange</strong> for cryptographically secured financial assets,
   that allows you to trade in euro, gold, bitcoin, and more without
   counterparty risk.</p>

   <p>BitShares is based on the <strong>Graphene</strong>&trade;-technology
   which has several orders of magnitude better performance than
   first-generation Bitcoin-derived systems. Graphene&trade; based systems
   go beyond mere "checkbook" style payments and offer a wide range
   of transparent and inherently incorruptible financial services
   that can be extended by any <strong>smart contracts</strong> to
   add more functionality.</p>

   <p>BitShares is a business in its own that offers products that
   generate a revenue. Owning the core token in BitShares (BTS) not
   only allows to take part in business decision making, but allows
   makes you an owner of a bank, an exchange and the future financial
   transactions platform.</p>

   <p>
   <a href="http://bitshares.org" target="_blank" class="button">Learn More about BitShares</a>
   <a href="http://docs.bitshares.eu/" target="_blank" class="button">Documentation</a>
   </p>
  </div>
  <div id="sidebar">
   <div id="stwo-col">
    <div class="sbox1">
     <h2>Business Ledger</h2>
     <ul class="style2">
      <li>Decentralized Verification</li>
      <li>3 Seconds Confirmation</li>
      <li>Public P2P Network</li>
      <li>Industry-Grade Security</li>
      <li>DPOS Consensus</li>
      <li>Decentralized Decision Making</li>
      <li>Stakeholder-Approved Project Funding</li>
     </ul>
    </div>
    <div class="sbox2">
     <h2>Features</h2>
     <ul class="style2">
      <li>Decentralized Exchange</li>
      <li>Counterparty-Risk Free Trading</li>
      <li>Own your Identity</li>
      <li>Integrated Payment Solution</li>
      <li>Price-Stable Cryptocurrencies</li>
      <li>Referral Program</li>
      <li>Prediction Markets</li>
      <li>Recurring &amp; Scheduled Payments</li>
     </ul>
    </div>
   </div>
  </div>
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  <div class="major">
   <h2>Under the hood</h2>
   <span class="byline">Power by Graphene&trade;</span> </div>
  <div class="column1"> <span class="icon entypo-trophy"></span>
   <div class="title">
    <h2>Stable Crypto Currencies</h2>
   </div>
   <p>
   Market Pegged Assets (MPA) or SmartCoins&trade; allow to use a
   digital asset that represents a <strong>physical
    counterparty</strong>. In other words, MPAs can be considered as
   derivatives and are subject of <strong>contracts for
    difference</strong> (CFDs).
   </p>
  </div>
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    <h2>The DEX&trade;</h2>
   </div>
   <p>
   BitShares, has its own <strong>decentralized exchange</strong>
   (DEX) integrated that allows to trade any arbitrary asset against
   any other asset at real-time speed. All markets have global order
   books and operate <strong>24/7 on a global scale</strong> without
   the need for middlemen and no single point of failure.
   </p>
  </div>
  <div class="column2"> <span class="icon entypo-language"></span>
   <div class="title">
    <h2>Own Your Identity</h2>
   </div>
   <p>
   With BitShares, there is no credit card number that some malicious
   actor can collect in order to impersonate you. In fact, it is even
   possible to send a <strong>payment without revealing your
    identity</strong>, almost just like with physical money. You
   should however take note that some effort can be required to
   <strong>protect your privacy</strong>.
   </p>
  </div>
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   <div class="title">
    <h2>Smart Contracts</h2>
   </div>
   <p>
   BitShares was designed with <strong>extreme flexibility</strong>
   and the <strong>smallest possible delay</strong> in mind. It can
   not only be extended by <strong>new types of
    transactions</strong>, but can also have its protocol completely
   upgraded <strong>on-the-fly</strong> if the shareholders agree.
   </p>
  </div>
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</div>
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 <div id="featured" class="container">

  <div class="major">
   <h2 id="apps">Applications</h2>
   <span class="byline">"BitShares is useful ... very useful"</span>
  </div>

  <div class="column1"> <span class="icon entypo-chart-line"></span>
   <div class="title">
    <h2>Global Trading</h2>
   </div>
   <p>
   With Smartcoins&trade;, a market-pegged derivative of a physical
   counterpart, e.g.  <tt>bitUSD</tt> or <tt>bitGOLD</tt>, the BitShares Decentralized
   Exchange (DEX) allows world-wide trading of arbitrary market
   pairs. The DEX not only reflects classical FOREX pair such as
   <tt>USD:EUR</tt> using the corresponding Smartcoins&trade; but also allows trading of commodities like
   <tt>bitGOLD</tt>, <tt>bitSILVER</tt>, etc.
   </p>
  </div>

  <div class="column2"> <span class="icon icon-money"></span>
   <div class="title">
    <h2>Cheaper Internet Payments</h2>
   </div>
   <p>
   Today, convenient payments are performed electronically by using a
   3rd-party service, such as Paypal, Neteller, or Dwolla.  They all
   require you to register an account, reveal your personal identity
   and hobbies and ask for high fees. By using a decentralized
   business, the transaction <strong>fees can be significantly
    reduced</strong>, the need for trust is eliminated and
   <strong>transfers execute in seconds</strong>.
   </p>
  </div>

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   <div class="title">
    <h2>Easier Stock Trading</h2>
   </div>
   <p>
   Besides trading of the market-pegged Assets, BitShares also offers
   to issue your own stock in the DEX at comparably low cost. These
   user-issued assets (UIA) can <strong>fully comply with the
    regulations</strong> of most governments and offer additional
   functionalities for issuer and investors. Furthermore, with
   <strong>privatized Smartcoins&trade;</strong>, it is possible to
   trade derivatives of indices, such as Dow Jones, DAX, or Hang
   Seng.
   </p>
  </div>

  <div class="column4"> <span class="icon fa-users"></span>
   <div class="title">
    <h2>Faster Crowd Fundraising</h2>
   </div>
   <p>
   With BitShares, <strong>decentralized crowd funding</strong> never
   was easier. Technically the process breaks down to as few as two
   steps: a) Create a new token that should represent your project,
   and b) issue and sell your shares on the DEX. It's your choice
   whether you want to sell them for <tt>bitUSD</tt>,
   <tt>bitEUR</tt>, or any other token and you define the price for
   the share.
   </p>
  </div>

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  <div class="column1"> <span class="icon entypo-gauge"></span>
   <div class="title">
    <h2>Prediction Markets</h2>
   </div>
   <p>
   All that is needed to create a Prediction markets is a proper
   prediction criteria in the description for a new asset that
   anybody can issue by putting up collateral. The price of this
   asset reflects the probability of an event to occur. Participants
   that have voted correctly will be able to sell their shares back
   to the network at a higher price and make a profit. This feature,
   in combination with the <tt>bitUSD</tt>, allows to reimplement
   most binary prediction and information markets currently
   established in a <strong>decentralized and trust-less
    manner</strong>.
   </p>
  </div>

  <div class="column2"> <span class="icon fa-clock-o"></span>
   <div class="title">
    <h2>Recurring Payments</h2>
   </div>
   <p>
   A debit card for <tt>bitUSD</tt>/<tt>bitEUR</tt> or any other
   bitasset is easily implemented using the Recurring &amp; Scheduled
   Payment functionalities of BitShares. Here, any costumer can
   <strong>authorize a credit card issuer</strong> to withdraw
   <strong>up to a predefined amount</strong> of bitUSD from your
   account <strong>in a defined period</strong>, e.g. $1k per month,
   or $100 per week. With this, it also becomes possible for your
   landlord to obtain your rent simply by allowing him to withdraw
   from your account once per month.
   </p>
  </div>

  <div class="column3"> <span class="icon icon-plus"></span>
   <div class="title">
    <h2>And many more .. </h2>
   </div>
   <p>
   <ul style="text-align:left; padding-left:35px">
    <li>User-Side Authentication,</li>
    <li>Gift Cards</li>
    <li>Initial Public Offerings,</li>
    <li>Membership Identification,</li>
    <li>Ownership Tracking,</li>
    <li>KYC/AML</li>
    <li>Societies</li>
    <li>Bond Market</li>
    <li>Privacy Mode</li>
    <li><em>and more</em> ...</li>
   </ul>
   </p>
  </div>

  <div class="column3"> <span class="icon icon-book"></span>
   <div class="title">
    <h2>Technical Details</h2>
   </div>
   <p>
   <a href="http://docs.bitshares.eu/bitshares/papers/" target="_blank" class="button">White Papers</a>
   </p>
   <p>
   <a href="http://docs.bitshares.eu/bitshares/user" target="_blank" class="button">User Guide</a>
   </p>
   <p>
   <a href="http://docs.bitshares.eu/integration" target="_blank" class="button">Integration</a>
   </p>
   <p>
   <a href="http://docs.bitshares.eu/" target="_blank" class="button">Documentation</a>
   </p>
  </div>

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</div>

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  <div class="major">
   <h2 id="contact">Contact</h2>
   <span class="byline">Reach us, Talk to us ...</span> </div>

  <form action="//formspree.io/contact@bitshares.eu" method="POST">
   <input type="hidden" name="_subject" value="[BitShares.EU] Form submitted!" />
   <input type="email" name="_replyto" placeholder="Your email" />
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