æternity is a new blockchain-based smart contract platform that synthesizes, streamlines, and expands upon the Bitcoin blockchain, Ethereum smart contracts, and Augur prediction markets. Instead of coding and storing complete contracts on-chain, æternity enables real-world data to interface with smart contracts through the use of a decentralized oracle mechanism. æternity allows true scalability by facilitating an exponential increase in throughputs, which, in turn, will invite mainstream adoption. Trustless, Turing-complete state channels also set æternity apart from Ethereum, the prevailing smart contract platform.
æternity is unique in many ways, but the major innovations are:
Hybrid PoW/PoS (proof of work/ proof of stake) power grid
Oracle Machine real-world interface
State Channels, or "Off-chain transactions" and "Off-chain contracts" execution that will allow for faster transaction time, improving anonymity when executing contracts and while transacting
Governance via a prediction-based consensus mechanism
Expanded Merkel-tree navigation and address naming system
æternity seeks to develop a highly scalable blockchain architecture with a consensus mechanism that is used to support the oracle machine. In other words, the goal is to create a blockchain that is as efficient and cost-effective as possible. With the oracle machine, we can avoid the unnecessary layering of one consensus mechanism on top of another (e.g. Augur and Gnosis on top of Ethereum). With state channels, privacy and scalability will be improved. Tokens in these state channels can be transferred using function-based smart contracts that have access to network-wide oracle answers. By not storing the contract code or state on the blockchain, smart contracts are easier to analyze and faster to process, with no substantial loss in practical usage and fact-based (de facto functionality). Contracts are safer and will not bloat the blockchain.
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