![Headline_moon_16_Used.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmdnhrvX8gXRWTpeCFdB52NrhPXgCvffayFy5aQrgzVbbx/Headline_moon_16_Used.png)

[Subscribe here for the very latest Obyte news via email](https://content.obyte.org/newsletter)

At the start of 2018 Obyte became one of the first platforms to bring [secure identity verification](https://medium.com/obyte/bringing-identity-to-crypto-b35964feee8e) to the cryptocurrency space. Identify verification has since been heavily used with various distributions, and we are pleased to expand this even further.  

From April 10 2019, residents of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and e-residents of Estonia can have self sovereign identity on the Obyte platform. Tarmo from the Obyte team played a key role in making this happen, and has written [a detailed post](https://medium.com/obyte/new-methods-for-identity-verification-3d5045287533?source=friends_link&sk=b9bc90970e633d92300bdeb15e6649cf) on how this works and why this matters. 

Important to note: this is not just for residents of these 3 countries, as it also works for e-residents of Estonia, which anybody in the world can become part of! So far, around 50,000 people from 160 countries have signed up to become e-residents of Estonia, in addition to the 6  million people that live in the 3 countries.

Also, during the real name attestation bot update, it was discovered that non-US attestation had not been working properly for the [last 6 months since smart-vouchers were introduced](https://medium.com/obyte/introducing-smart-vouchers-a-new-way-to-earn-referral-rewards-by-sending-bytes-to-new-users-38972ec645a7). Unfortunately, since the real name attestation bot holds only 7 days worth of attestation data, only those who attested during the last 7 days can type “attest non-US” (without quotes) to the bot and force the bot to try to attest the non-US attestation data again.

## New Bit-Z exchange listing

Bytes can now be traded on Bit-Z! This is our first listing that will introduce a direct stablecoin pair with [GBYTE/USDT](https://www.bit-z.com/exchange/gbyte_usdt). A GBYTE/BTC pair is also available. 

## Garage48 Hack-A-Train in Ukraine

There will be a Hack-A-Train (like a hackathon but partly on a train) taking place 19-21 April from Mariupol to Lviv, Ukraine. Tarmo from the Obyte team will be a technical mentor and part of the jury that decides who should get the prize in Bytes.

In total $1000 worth of Bytes will be given as prizes to teams that solve problems using the Obyte platform or help bring user adoption to decentralized systems in some other way.

The event is open for everyone (just like Obyte platform), but tickets are limited (train size is fixed), with only about 20 tickets remaining. [Register through Garage48 website](http://garage48.org/events/garage48-hack-a-train)  if you are in Ukraine and interested in participating. 

## Exchange Bot improvement

A command suggestion feature has been added to the in-wallet Exchange Bot. This makes trading easier, so users no longer have to copy and paste prices themselves. Now they can simply click and confirm how much they want to buy and sell! Also, the minimum order fee was increased to 2000 bytes to make cancelling orders easier for users (affects only new orders). Casper from the Obyte team has also written a long [guide how to use Exchange bot](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n4DIR_IQwuyOn7MFNIJlxtYYbg3XAtwSzjnugHjI10w/edit?usp=sharing).

Reminder  - the Exchange Bot enables trading of Obyte-issued tokens against Bytes or token vs token. The exchange is based on smart contracts, so you don't have to trust the exchange operator  - [screenshot](http://i.imgur.com/Se19oa1.png).

## New Obyte FAQ & Resource Sticky

We wrote an [updated FAQ and Resource Sticky](https://www.reddit.com/r/obyte/comments/b8xmn0/obyte_faq_resource_sticky/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x) for the subreddit. If you want to send people to a place to learn about Obyte without going into lots of technical details, you can do it by just sending them the link. It’s written quite informally, is easy to read and covers important stuff like how Obyte may be a better platform on which to build applications than Ethereum for many cases. 

----------------------------------------------

## In case you missed it
Most popular Dapp [chooses Obyte](https://medium.com/@pauljamesmurray/most-popular-dapp-chooses-obyte-to-issue-their-new-in-game-token-the-latest-obyte-email-631bb08b8e03) to issue their new in-game token.

## Developer?
Consider Obyte. It’s written in Node.js and is [developer friendly](https://developer.obyte.org/).

## Would you love to see Obyte become a major platform in the crypto world?
Then please give this article some Steem love!

Thank you