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Bitcoin Diamond claims faster transactions, better privacy and lower costs.
Cryptocurrencies can be novel from the point of view that they bring their own nomenclature into existence, which makes users who do not know about these terms nervous or filled with anxiety. Add to this, the confusion that media generates surrounding certain events like hard forks, which are just a change to a protocol of a cryptocurrency that makes previous invalid blocks or transactions on the Blockchain valid. In a hard fork, there is a permanent moving away from a previous version of the Blockchain and the older version nodes would not be accepted by the newest version. So, in essence, there is a split in a cryptocurrency.
These splits are in a way a form of market democracy and supporters of various chains get a chance to take their own stance and stand. A famous hard fork for example was in Ethereum, post the DAO hack when the team of Ethereum (ETH) tried to rollback transactions to try to restore the stolen funds. The resulting disagreement led to the birth of the new cryptocurrency called Ethereum Classic (ETC). Bitcoin is not immune to such hard forks either. The latest hard fork being that gave birth to Bitcoin Diamond (BCD), which was forked at block 495866 and assumed its very own chain. The fork took place on Nov. 24, 2017, due to the efforts of Team EVEY and Team 007, two Bitcoin miners who, Reuters report, “were not happy with some of the major downsides of Bitcoin.”
Bitcoin (BTC) has been the most popular cryptocurrency of its times. However, it is not free from its shortcomings. BTC transactions have been taking notoriously long time to process and they have gone expensive over time. This is because BTC blocks have been limited to one megabyte in size, which translates into around three transactions per second. BCD, on the other hand, has now raised the block size limit to eight MB, this will improve transaction capacity and blocks will be generated five times faster. The cost of BTC transactions has been rising, which has been casting a shadow on its practical applications. BCD, on the other hand, seeks to bring down costs related to transactions. A BCD executive was quoted at a press conference as saying:
“Our primary objective is to lower the cost for participation thresholds by reducing the transaction fees and the cost of participation. The total amount of Bitcoin diamond is 10 times as much of Bitcoin, which translates into reduction of the cost for new participation and reduction of the thresholds.”
Finally, at the moment BTC transactions are visible in the public domain and anyone can see data related to how much amount is in another person’s wallet and their conducted transactions as well. BCD will encrypt the amount and balance, which will afford greater privacy to users of the new cryptocurrency.
At the time of writing of the article according to the Bitcoin Diamond Foundation, BCD had already been launched at 33 exchanges around the world. Some of the exchanges that have embraced this new cryptocurrency include Binance, OKEX, Huobi.Pro and Bit-Z. EXX.com has also announced futures trading of Bitcoin Diamond. The foundation also claims that there are at least six wallets that will support BCD, which are BitGo, Bitpie, Coldlar and ATOKEN.
The BCD Foundation has also announced the accession of Linke Yang, co-founder of BTCC to the foundation. Yang, co-founded BTCC, which was the first digital currency exchange in China. It is thought that the Yang’s role as BCD advisor, would come as a shot in the arm for Bitcoin Diamond and help it gain ground in China. In an emailed communication by Bitcoin Diamond Foundation, Cointelegraph has been informed that the Chinese, Italian and Korean community teams have been established. The foundation says that the North American and Australian community are ‘progressing.’ We were also informed that more ‘pioneers’ may be joining the BCD advisor team, which is likely to boost the cryptocurrency’s R&D efforts and also lead to an increase in popularity.
As Bitcoin Diamond starts to go mainstream, they have a plan for the future in place. We are told that the medium-term plan with a time frame of December 2017 - December 2018 (Q2), which is based on communications between BCD development teams EVERY and 007 laid out the hard fork for Bitcoin block at height 495866 on Nov. 24, 2017. This gave birth to Bitcoin Diamond.
By December 2017, there are plans to have the Bitcoin Diamond mainnet, wallet, nodes code and API release as well as the open source on GitHub in place. (Follow BIP-044, Index999). It will be possible to mine BCD either with a full node client or alternatively with a pool. Three pools will support BCD mining and mining will commence after mainnet releases. BCD will support both AMD and Nvidia based GPU mining. Finally in December, there are plans to conduct an algorithms upgrade for BCD main chain encryption, this will encrypt both the transaction and balance amounts.
Whether or not Bitcoin Diamond is a better Bitcoin, depends on who you ask. In recent days, there have been hard forks that have led to the emergence of Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold and now Bitcoin Diamond. The idea behind a hard fork is that a new chain emerges, and hopefully a better one. The stated and ultimate aim of Bitcoin Diamond is to become “the better coin,” which does not suffer from a lack of privacy protection, slow transaction confirmations or a high threshold for new members. This will allow them to provide better solutions to financial companies worldwide.
The total supply of Bitcoin Diamond would be 210 mln or 10 times more than that of Bitcoin. 170 mln of these coins would be on the market, while the rest would be reserved for the community in a ‘rewards pool’ for the purposes of tributes and mining. One of the criticisms that has been made about Bitcoin Diamond was that the teams behind the cryptocurrency have remained anonymous, but we should not forget that to date the founder of Bitcoin has remained an enigma as well. Anonymity should not come in the way of adoption and at the end of the day markets will reveal if Bitcoin Diamond offers features that they think are worth their while. For now, you can pick the Bitcoin that you like.
Disclaimer. Cointelegraph does not endorse any content or product on this page. While we aim at providing you all important information that we could obtain, readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company and carry full responsibility for their decisions, nor this article can be considered as an investment advice.
South Korea’s Deputy Prime Minister revealed that the government is investigating various methods to better regulate the local Bitcoin market and tax Bitcoin users.
Kim Dong-yeon, South Korea’s deputy prime minister and the minister of strategy and finance, revealed earlier this week that the government is investigating various methods to better regulate the local Bitcoin market and tax Bitcoin users accordingly.
While the South Korean government and its local financial authorities are actively discussing the possibility of enforcing a policy on Bitcoin taxation, at a press conference, Deputy Prime Minister Kim stated that the government does not intend to include any Bitcoin taxation policy in 2018’s amendment of the tax law.
Since the beginning of this year, the South Korean government has introduced light regulatory frameworks for Bitcoin businesses and investors that are structurally similar to that of the policies imposed by the Japanese government and the Japan Financial Service Agency (FSA).
Currently, cryptocurrency exchanges and trading platforms have the freedom to operate in both regions, with minimal government interference and oversight.
As a part of a major initiative to facilitate the growth of the Japanese cryptocurrency market, the Japanese government eliminated the eight percent consumption tax on Bitcoin in July, with the intent of sustaining the rapid growth rate of the Japanese Bitcoin industry and growing demand from the traditional finance sector.
It is likely that the South Korean government will implement a similar Bitcoin tax policy to that of the Japanese government, given that most of the regulatory frameworks provided by the South Korean financial authorities in 2017 focused on providing freedom and flexibility to businesses, like Japan.
Several agencies, Bitcoin communities, and government officials have expressed their concerns with the centralization of trading within South Korea. Bithumb, South Korea’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency trading platform behind Bitfinex, accounts for nearly 70 percent of South Korea’s Bitcoin trades.
South Korea’s Ministry of Strategy and Finance will explore potential methods of distributing cryptocurrency and Bitcoin trading volumes across a wider range of cryptocurrency trading platforms within the market.
Additionally, some of the country’s largest and most influential financial institutions such as Shinhan, South Korea’s second-largest commercial bank, have already begun testing Bitcoin wallet and vault systems, with a long-term strategy to provide a safe and insured platform with which Bitcoin users can store funds.
Shinhan emphasized that a vault service for Bitcoin users, especially large-scale investment firms and institutional investors, is necessary, given that Bithumb was hacked twice this year.
However, it is also important to consider the structure of the Bitcoin network and its decentralized nature. Because the Bitcoin network exists on a peer-to-peer protocol, the safest way to store Bitcoin is on non-custodial wallet platforms, wherein the user obtains absolute control of private keys and funds.
Overall, it is highly optimistic that the South Korean government has started to acknowledge the rapid growth rate of Bitcoin and drafted several solutions to standardize the South Korean Bitcoin industry.
At a Blockchain conference hosted in Taipei, Ethereum Co-founder Vitalik Buterin outlined the long-term roadmap of Ethereum development.
At a Blockchain conference hosted in Taipei, Ethereum Co-founder Vitalik Buterin outlined the long-term roadmap of Ethereum development.
According to Buterin, most of the underlying issues of the Ethereum Blockchain network fall under the following categories: scalability, smart contract safety, consensus protocol and privacy. Several network updates including the most recent Byzantium hard fork provided solutions in the four major areas. But, as Buterin noted during an interview with South Korean mainstream media outlet Joong Ang, it may take at least two to five years to truly solve scalability within the Ethereum network. Buterin said:
“I would say two to five, with early prototypes in one year. The various scaling solutions, including sharding, plasma and various state channel systems such as Raiden and Perun, are already quite well thought out, and development has already started. Raiden is the earliest, and its developer preview release is out already.”
In regards to scalability, the Ethereum Foundation and the open-source development community of Ethereum made significant progress with the upcoming launch of the Casper testnet and the introduction of Plasma, a second-layer scaling solution developed by Buterin and Bitcoin’s Lightning Co-author Joseph Poon.
Casper is a long-term scaling solution that employs a hybrid proof-of-work (PoW) and proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus protocol onto the Ethereum network. Currently, similar to Bitcoin, the Ethereum network solely relies on the PoW consensus protocol to maintain the network and to verify transactions.
As Christian Reitwiessner, the team lead for Ethereum’s Solidity and Ethereum C++ implementation, explained in a recent paper, solutions like PoS is necessary to eliminate the workload of users, nodes, and dependence on miners. Reitwiessner wrote:
“Scalability does not come from the fact that Blockchains are relieved from their load by creating a big number of smaller chains and moving the transactions there. Scalability is only achieved once a user does not have to verify every single transaction that is sent to the system.”
Structurally, Ethereum is different from Bitcoin because it operates as a platform for decentralized applications (dapps). Hence, Ethereum urgently needs a scalable network which can handle dapps with millions of users through PoS solutions like Plasma.
To improve privacy measures of the Ethereum network, developers of Ethereum integrated Zcash’s implementation of zk-SNARKs, to potentially settle anonymous and private transactions. The image below demonstrates a zk-SNARKs transaction processed on the Ethereum testnet. The transaction does not show the amount of the payment, recipient, and the sender.
JP Vergne, a professor at Ivey Business School, noted in a study that developer activity is the most accurate predictor of the price of a cryptocurrency. Vergne said:
"We found that the best predictor of a cryptocurrency's exchange rate is the amount of developer activity around it.”
Ethereum is the only public Blockchain network and cryptocurrency in the market which comes close to Bitcoin in terms of developer activity and hence, given the introduction of innovative solutions such as Casper, Plasma, sharding, and zk-SNARKs on Ethereum, Ether price will likely surge throughout 2018.
Mike Novogratz, the billionaire hedge fund legend, stated that he sees the price of Ether growing by three-fold by the end of 2018.
Bitcoin has surpassed the market cap of General Electric, which was once the largest company in the world, by $30 bln.
Bitcoin has surpassed the market cap of General Electric, which was once the largest company in the world, by $30 bln.
At $160 billion, Bitcoin's market cap just passed GE's.
— Charlie Bilello (
Yes, that GE:
Founded in 1892
Once the largest company in the world
295,000 employees
$123 billion in revenue$BTC.X $GE pic.twitter.com/XDqjW2l5Ns@charliebilello) November 27, 2017
GE, with a $123 bln annual revenue and 295,000 employees globally, still remains as a leading US-based conglomerate. In July of 2016, the market valuation of GE briefly surpassed $300 bln, nearing the market cap of other major firms like JPMorgan. But, since 2015, GE has struggled, as its market cap fell by nearly 50 percent.
Meanwhile, since 2015, the market cap of Bitcoin has increased from $2.5 bln to $185 bln, by 74-fold.
As a store of value and a digital currency, the market valuation of Bitcoin should rather be compared to other assets, stores of value and currencies such as gold and reserve currencies. But, it is important to acknowledge the rapid growth rate of Bitcoin in comparison to companies in leading industries because the transformation Bitcoin has brought upon the finance industry has been truly impactful.
Bitcoin has surpassed leading currencies on the M1 index as well this year. This week for instance, the market valuation of Bitcoin surpassed the total money supply of the British pound.
Many experts and analysts including billionaire hedge fund legend Mike Novogratz have stated that Bitcoin price could easily reach $40,000 by the end of 2018, or $1 tln in market cap. Novogratz said:
"Bitcoin could be at $40,000 at the end of 2018. It easily could. There's a big wave of money coming, not just here but all around the world. What's different about these coins than other commodities ... there is no supply response here. So it's a speculator's dream in that as buying happens there's no new supply response that comes up. So every price move gets exaggerated. It's going to get exaggerated on the way up. There will be 50 percent corrections. It will get exaggerated on the way down.”
As Bitcoin price enters the $45,000 range and the market cap of the cryptocurrency achieves $1 tln, analysts will begin to compare Bitcoin with conventional safe haven assets such as gold.
Currently, the entire Bitcoin market is about three percent of the multi-trillion dollar gold market. But, if Bitcoin continues to increase in value and reaches $40,000 by the end of 2018 as noted by Novogratz, it will soon be able to compete against the gold market and other stores of value such as reserve currencies.
Ethereum’s so-called world computer is being taken over by a viral cat game, responsible for 4% of network’s total transactions.
Cute, cuddly kittens are taking over the Ethereum network, and are presently responsible for 4% of the transactions taking place on the so-called “world computer.” That’s right, the smart contract platform that could potentially disrupt multiple industries is now playing host to a viral cat game.
The game, CryptoKitties, launched just a few days ago on November 28 but is already the second most popular application on the Ethereum network. Unsurprisingly, the premise of CryptoKitties is to acquire an array of different cat cartoons, each having different attributes or “cattitudes.”
These attributes are coded into a virtual genome, with each cat displaying certain physical features, phenotypes, depending on their genetic code, or genotype. If this sounds a lot like your high school biology class, that’s because it is. Users “breed” different kitties together to acquire new cats with different and possibly rare features. There are four billion possible combinations.
Just as you can buy swords and armor in online games such as World of Warcraft, rare kitties can be traded for real money, fetching prices as high as $5,000 each. However, unlike virtual items in online games, which are lost if the game shuts down, kitties last forever. That’s because they are actually discrete tokens that exist on the Ethereum network, so even if the game developers disappear, players’ kitties will remain.
The game developers insist that it’s impossible for them to game the system. Technical architect Dieter Shirley said:
“The CryptoKitties economy is entirely decentralized and impossible for the development team to manipulate. Anyone on the team with knowledge of the breeding algorithm is prohibited from playing.”
Marketing director Elsa Wilk wrote:
“Our approach to brand and marketing is, in part, a tongue-in-cheek critique of the ICO market today.”
With the red-hot digital currency market generating rapid games and reaching new highs on an almost weekly basis, investors have become frenetic. Speculators search for the hottest ICOs with the intention of selling their tokens quickly for massive profits. With such seriousness abounding in the cryptocurrency market, games like CryptoKitties provide a refreshing note of humor.
As Wall Street continues to show great interest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Main Street may catch on to digital currency in the most unusual possible way: by playing cat games on the Blockchain.
Senior researchers at the Bank of Canada have released a report examining the feasibility of creating “central bank digital currency.”
The Bank of Canada's Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions has released a report which examined the benefits and disadvantages of the central bank issuing its own digital currencies. Such currency would be called “central bank digital currency” (CBDC).
The research report was prepared by two senior researchers - Walter Engert, Senior Director, Research - Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Canada, and Ben S. C. Fung, Director of Economic Research and Analysis in the Currency Department of the Bank of Canada. Their main role is to provide leadership in the department’s economic research program.
Engert and Fug also provide advice to the department on issues related to developments in retail payments and their implications for the demand for cash. This is important, because even though the authors noted that the report is their opinion alone, and not necessarily the position of the bank, their advice carries weight.
Part of the report reads:
"Is it sufficient for a central bank to supply only reserves to qualified financial institutions? Put differently, is a 'cashless society' a sound outcome?"
Based on the document, there are six possible benefits that a central bank can reap via the issuance of a virtual currency. The authors primarily focused on three advantages, however: payments for consumers, financial inclusion and financial stability. According to them, CBDCs would lessen friction for online payments and cause smaller merchants to provide services over the Internet. Central bank-backed cryptocurrencies could also reduce costs for retail payments, according to report.
The authors argued that financial inclusion may greatly benefit the economies of developing countries, but will have limited impact in advanced economies like Canada.
"Financial inclusion does not provide a compelling motivation for CBDC in most advanced economies, including Canada.”
For the financial stability benefit, the authors claimed that the CBDCs can offer consumers a safe way to store value without confronting the risks currently facing the financial systems of advanced countries like Canada.
“The financial systems in Canada and other countries feature highly leveraged banks conducting liquidity and maturity transformation and operating at the core of the payment system. It is well known that under some conditions this setup can be unstable, and in severe cases, the stock of inside money can contract, with adverse negative externalities for the economy."
The US Senate Judiciary Committee considering “modernizing” AML laws to outlaw concealment of digital currency ownership.
The US Senate Judiciary Committee is currently tackling bill S.1241 that aims to criminalize the intentional concealment of ownership or control of a financial account. The bill also would amend the definition of ‘financial account’ and ‘financial institution’ to include digital currencies and digital exchanges, respectively. According to ranking committee member Senator Dianne Feinstein, the proposed bill is needed to modernize existing AML laws.
The bill would amend the definition of ‘financial institution,’ in Section 53412(a) of title 31, United States Code, to include:
“An issuer, redeemer, or cashier of prepaid access devices, digital currency, or any digital exchanger or tumbler of digital currency.”
If passed, the bill would likely have far-reaching effects for users of digital currencies both in the US and abroad.
Several industry commentators have issued their opinions on the proposed law. Tone Vays claimed that he expects a confrontation between the Bitcoin team, including the holders and users, and the US government.
“It’s bad…I think it’s gonna end in a very confrontational way between Bitcoin—even Bitcoin holders and users—and the US Government.”
In his testimony during the hearing, John A. Cassara claimed that the issue of virtual currencies is interesting:
“Senator, I’m just glad I had my career when I did because I don’t know what I’d do trying to follow the money when it comes to digital currencies, it’s extremely, extremely challenging…I think if you look at the metrics, the metrics suggest today [that] digital currencies are a small fraction of the threat that we face. That’s not to say it’s gonna be the case in 5-10 years from now. We’re right at a crossroads, and it’s going to be very, very interesting to see what goes forward.”
Earlier reports also indicate that the White House is actively monitoring cryptocurrencies which could only mean more attempts to regulate the world’s first successful decentralized monetary system. With the growing involvement of Wall Street and the ever escalating media attention, it is not surprising that governments are stepping up their attempts to regulate digital currency.
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Telcoin is focused on connecting with mobile networks globally, enabling easy conversion between telecom mobile money, prepaid credit and postpaid billing platforms.
Despite the popularity of Blockchain technology and the solutions that it has brought so far in various industries, its relative level of adoption is still considered to be low. The inherent potential of Blockchain is so huge that all we are seeing at the moment is described as “the tip of the iceberg.”
Becoming involved in the crypto industry is usually an entirely new concept to a lot of newbies who may not have the slightest idea about Blockchain and cryptocurrencies. The natural tendency of humans to resist change, especially when it affects a part of their lives that is considered precious, like wealth, makes it only natural for there to be some level of reluctance, and in some cases, resistance to such adventure. This process adopting blockchain and cryptocurrencies often involves signing up for an initial crypto wallet with any of the popular blockchain platforms. Most of the time, despite discovering the convenience offered by Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in terms of transactions, the complicated processes involved in the initial acquisition of these cryptos ironically become moments of discouragement to people who are already looking for an excuse to stay away.
Cumbersome processes such as the acquisition of some technical knowledge, registering in an exchange, going through KYC, signing up for a wallet, etc have contributed to the reluctance of the wider population in adopting the novel technology and the benefits that come with it. Therefore, it can be deduced that the non-acceptance or relatively low adoption of Blockchain and cryptocurrency is not a matter of rejection, but rather a subject of compatibility.
Now imagine a subtle process of seamlessly leading the public through a gradual process of adoption using platforms that they are already comfortable with and used to. A process which makes crypto adoption easily compatible with existing telecom and mobile network processes would simplify and make it easy for the public to welcome the novel technology that would eventually become an intrinsic part of their lives. Hence, Telcoin is focused on connecting with mobile networks globally, enabling easy conversion between telecom mobile money, prepaid credit and postpaid billing platforms.
The Telcoin cryptocurrency is based on the Ethereum Blockchain that will be distributed by national telecom operators and made available to everyone, anytime, anywhere. The Telcoin business model is centered around mobile network operators with already existing infrastructure and global customer base. This model will enable a seamless and uncomplicated entry process for over five bln mobile network users across the globe, hence functioning as a viable tool for the adoption of cryptocurrencies into the mainstream.
In the beginning, Telcoin will initially be offered to mobile network partners, providing their customers with seamless access to the digital economy: online remittances, transfers, payments and e-commerce. The company will also provide the necessary marketing and product development resources to nurture the Telcoin ecosystem, in a joint effort with these telecom partners.
Telecoin’s major objective is not to compete with telecom mobile money, but to cooperatively participate in the overall mobile money ecosystem as a complementary solution; a tool that will increasingly bring users to mobile money, cryptocurrency-backed solutions and mobile wallets.
By partnering with mobile operators, Telcoin can avoid key points of friction that have prevented similar projects from succeeding: trust, reach and KYC compliance.
Disclaimer. Cointelegraph does not endorse any content or product on this page. While we aim at providing you all important information that we could obtain, readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company and carry full responsibility for their decisions, nor this article can be considered as an investment advice.
BTC is the sixth highest currency in terms of total circulation.
Bitcoin is now the sixth most circulated currency in the world, behind five super powers, and outranking the Pound, the Ruble, and the Won, according to the Bank for International Settlements. The figure is based on a value of Bitcoin at $10,765 each, meaning that the total value of all Bitcoins in circulation is $180 bln.
While the number is substantial, should Bitcoin rise to $15,000, it will overtake the next highest circulating currency, the Rupee. The other four currencies outranking Bitcoin are the Yen, Yuan, Euro, and Dollar, all of which have dramatically greater levels of currency in circulation (the Dollar, for example, stands at $1.4 tln).
Other cryptocurrencies are also following suit, with Ethereum ranked at #17, and Bitcoin Cash at #20. Ripple falls just outside the top 20. However, both BCH and XRP are still above both the Krona and Rand for total circulation.
These numbers are, of course, somewhat skewed, because the value of notes in circulation is not reflective of the total value of a currency. Nevertheless, the numbers reveal the substantial power of Bitcoin in terms of currency interactions.
After the biggest week in Bitcoin’s history, is there a change of sentiment coming for the cryptocurrency?
As a wave of good sentiment washes over the perception of Bitcoin, naysayers still abound - banking establishment.
The latest ramblings from a banking head came at a conference this week in China., Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau reacted to the market volatility after Bitcoin hit the $11,000 milestone:
“We need to be clear: Bitcoin is in no way a currency or even a cryptocurrency. It is a speculative asset. Its value and extreme volatility have no economic basis, and they are nobody’s responsibility. The Bank of France reminds those investing in Bitcoin that they do so entirely at their own risk.”
While the Bank of France remains bullish on their stance of cryptocurrencies, America is gearing up for mainstream trading of Bitcoin this month.
On Friday, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission granted permission for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board Options Exchange to forge ahead with plans to launch Bitcoin Futures.
After a week of seesawing Bitcoin prices, the market reacted positively to the news and prices stabilized, hovering around the $11,000 mark on Saturday.
What remains to be seen is whether there will be an about turn in the perception of high profile banking figures towards Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon hit out at Bitcoin a month ago, all while the bank announced their plans to launch Bitcoin futures on the CME. Trading is expected to get underway mid-December, so we should be hearing from Dimon in the next two weeks.
PriceWaterouseCoopers’ Hong Kong offices announced that they’d started receiving payments for their accountancy services in Bitcoin this week.
What is the reason for their decision? To embrace new technology, according to their Asia-Pacific Chairperson Raymund Chao.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that big banks around the world are threatened by the rise of decentralized cryptocurrencies. Heads of the industry are constantly warning against or hitting out at the likes of Bitcoin.
Some are well-informed, cautioning against un-educated trading. Others seem completely oblivious to the underpinning Blockchain technology and uses of virtual currencies.
Their reactions seem like death throes, as they fight against the coming revolution in the way we do transactions and approach the current financial system.
As more financial institutions embrace cryptocurrency, pressure will continue to mount on the banking establishment. The question is when will they start playing a different tune?
Different types of databases and how they work.
A database is an organized collection of information or data.
Nowadays there is a large stream of information, and the challenge is to store it in a way that you can easily find and use it whenever you need it. The databases can be divided into three types:
Centralized. All the data is a unified body that is stored on one computer. To get the information you have to connect to the main computer called server.
Decentralized. It means that there is no central storage. Some servers provide information to the clients. The servers are connected with each other.
Distributed. There are no data storages. All the nodes contain information. The clients are equal and have equal rights.
Though they have been used for a long time, there are a number of issues.
Security. If someone has access to the server with the information, any data can be added, changed, and removed.
Reliability. If there are a number of requests, the server can break down and no longer respond.
Accessibility. If the central storage has problems, you will not be able to get your information unless the problems are solved. In addition, different users have different needs, but the processes are uniformed and can be inconvenient for the clients.
Data transfer rates. If the nodes are located in different countries or continents, the connection with the server may become a problem.
Scalability. The centralized networks are hard to scale since the capacity of the server is limited, and the traffic cannot be infinite.
Decentralized and distributed databases can solve these problems.
Well, they do not have any centralized storage.
And it means that all the data is distributed between the nodes of the network. If something is added, edited or deleted on any computer, it will be reflected in all the computers of the network. If there are some legal amendments accepted, new information will be spread among other users throughout the network. Otherwise, the data will be backed up to coincide with the other nodes. Thus, the system is self-sufficient and self-regulating. The databases are protected from deliberate attacks or accidental changes of information.
Decentralized networks can withstand the significant pressure on the network.
All the nodes of the network have the data. So, the requests are distributed between the nodes. Therefore, the pressure doesn’t fall on one computer, but on all the network. In this case, the total capacity of the network is much larger than the centralized one has.
Since the number of computers in the decentralized or distributed network is large, DDoS attacks are possible only in case their capacity is much larger than that of the network. But that would be a very expensive attack. In a centralized model the response time is very in this case. Therefore, it can be considered that decentralized and distributed networks are safe.
The users might be located all over the world, and don’t forget about possible Internet connection issues. In decentralized and distributed networks the client can choose the node and work with all required information.
A centralized network cannot expand significantly.
In a centralized model, all the clients are connected to the server. Only the server stores all the data. Therefore, all requests about receiving, changing, adding or removing the data passes through the main computer. But the server resources are finite. Consequently, it is able to carry out its work effectively only for the specific number of participants. If the number of clients is larger, the server load may exceed the limit during the peak time. Decentralized and distributed models don’t have this problem since the load is shared between several computers.
The databases accelerate the communication between different parties in the production lane.
Let’s consider the following example. In the entire life, the car passes many stages: from assembly, sale, insurance, all the way to utilization. At each step, a lot of documentation and reports are developed. If any clarification is needed, the requests to different authorities are sent. It takes a lot of time. Locations, language miscommunication, bureaucracy may become serious problems.
The Blockchain is able to avoid these problems. All the information about each car is stored on the network. This data cannot be removed or changed without a participant’s approval. And you can access the information you need anytime. And smart contracts facilitate the Blockchain implementation. A really great example of how this actually works is CarFix. The team is working on developing the whole vehicle life cycle using Blockchain. To find out more go here.
Disclaimer. Cointelegraph does not endorse any content or product on this page. While we aim at providing you all important information that we could obtain, readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company and carry full responsibility for their decisions, nor this article can be considered as an investment advice.
