This Post is about a way to improve Ethereum codebase that solves the scaling problem and a way to improve on the smart contract system, and a Company, GoChain
With a very interesting project about it. Create
a powerful Blockchain platform 10x More Decentralized, 100x Faster
and with 1000x Less Energy consumption.
Once entered, the information can not be erased. It is a database that only allows writing, but under consensus.
How is built?
All the transactions that take place are packaged into blocks (set of confirmed transactions and additional information that has been included in the blockchain) that the miners (dedicated computers that provide computing power to verify the transactions that are carried out) are in charge to verify.
Later them will be included in the chain once validated and distributed to all the nodes that make up the network of Blocks.
To be able to make an exchange, each user must have a cryptographic key and the system allows to discount the amount of bitcoin to whoever buys and increase the amount of bitcoin of the account of who sells. It does not have intermediaries when making a collection or payment. It can count on several accounts and has an uninterrupted operation 24 hours.
The only support of this currency is the technological algorithms which in theory could not be penetrated. This cryptocurrency can not be intervened. It is not necessary to reveal identity when doing business.
Although Ethereum and Bitcoin share these some similarities, the two platforms have different objectives. Where Bitcoin is strictly a digital currency, designed to function as a means of payment or a securities store, Ethereum takes a broader approach. Fundamentally, Ethereum works as a platform through which people can use Ether to create and execute applications and, most importantly, establish smart contracts.
Through its use, with the prior consent of both parties, it is the platform that is responsible for executing the prescribed and agreed upon when the conditions for it are met.
In very general terms, it would be like establishing an executor program so that, when a certain factor X occurs, a fixed Y action is carried out.
Ethereum is not like most existing crypto currencies, since it is not only a network to reflect monetary value transactions, but it is a network for feeding intelligent contracts, which are automatically executed when their conditions are satisfied by both parties and informed to the network.
These contracts can store data, send and receive transactions and even interact with other contracts.
These contracts can be used to safely execute a wide variety of services, including: creating decentralized applications (DAPPS), voting systems, financial exchanges and autonomous decentralized organizations.
Despite the benefits mentioned above, the Blockchain currently have a serie of limitations.
The largest and most immediate problems are about scalability, lacks of real decentralization, and a very important problem, this platforms using absurd amounts of energy to work.
Scalability
The popularity of Bitcoin and Ethereum brings as a consequence a big bottleneck in regards to speed and volume, both are Public decentralized cryptocurrencies platforms. Slow transactions and low transaction volume are a big headache in these platforms. Bitcoin can only process 7 transactions per second and Ethereum can only process 13 per second, and does not end here, depending on current volume, the range of time to verify transactions can vary between several minutes to several hours.
In other hand, private company can handle better times, like Visa, Inc. this company handle an estimate from 150 million transactions per day and is capable of handling more than 56,000 transactions per second. Figures that currently the Public cryptocurrencies can not even dream.
Decentralization
4 companies in China account for 80% of all mining activity for all major coins and tokens including Ethereum.
Any drastic change in that country can affect the world of cryptocurrencies.
Changes in the rates of energy sources can directly influence the value of the cryptocurrency, China includes a large part of the miners for being cheap the source of energy and mining equipment requires a large energy consumption.
On the other hand, government regulations can affect from the speed of transactions to the risk of their safety.
The ideal to achieve a true decentralized network, is to have nodes distributed throughout the world.
Security
Taking into account the previous point, the fact that such a high percentage of miners are focused on a geographical area, makes them vulnerable to cyber attacks targeting those companies.
It is also important to take into account that some governmental measures, such as privatizations, can put the security of transactions at risk.
Smart Contract - Not smart at all
the Ethereum's platform with its smart contracts was an improvement over the Bitcoin platform. These smart contracts allow users to write unmodifiable programs that ensure all involved parties are
committed to a set of rules with absolute certainty. However, these Smart contracts can not be altered in any way, that means, can not be updated in case of detecting any potential failure in their algorithm or any security vulnerability, and can not be adapted to external changes in case the conditions for the smart contract required be modified by some change in the real world
Energy Consumption.
The most popular cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin and ethereum, are becoming great competitors for fiduciary money, the one we manage in our day to day. The main drawback of digital currencies is the high consumption of electrical energy them need for its operation.
The mine process by which new blocks are added in the chain of blocks, is responsible for this problem.
This process provides, among other things, security and reliability to the network, but it is very costly computationally and, therefore, energetically.
As of today, 3.5 million US households could be powered by the energy used to run the Bitcoin network, while Ethereum uses the equivalent power of 1 million households
This factor in my opinion is the most important of all for affecting the environment, when talking about the problems in the blockchain, usually focuses on the problems of scalability and decentralization, but this problem is really important because it goes beyond the world of cryptocurrencies.
The large amount of energy consumed by cryptocurrency mining can have effects on global warming.
GoChain is a scalable, high performance, low cost, and decentralized cryptocurrency and blockchain that supports smart contracts and distributed applications.
Gochain is a Blockchain platform built upon an improved Ethereum codebase that solves the scaling problem. It has its nodes distributed in a considerable group of countries, guaranteeing a higher percentage of decentralization.
In a simple way, the GoChain goal is to build Better BlockChain and Cryptocurrency. providing a public cryptocurrency, Fast transactions, decentralized applications and a new management of smart contracts. All Completely compatible with all existing Ethereum wallets and smart contracts.
We believe Ethereum is one of the better blockchain protocols today, due to supporting smart contracts. Smart contracts will have a huge impact on so many industries. And while we love what the Ethereum org has done, they are progressing on their path, and we would like to take it in a different direction. We believe we can improve on some core things (speed, energy, etc) and also we plan to improve on the smart contract system to make it easier to use and less chance for error.
We believe Ethereum is one of the better blockchain protocols today, due to supporting smart contracts. Smart contracts will have a huge impact on so many industries. And while we love what the Ethereum org has done, they are progressing on their path, and we would like to take it in a different direction. We believe we can improve on some core things (speed, energy, etc) and also we plan to improve on the smart contract system to make it easier to use and less chance for error.
GoChain improve next generation smart contract platform, making them easier to use and with less chance for error. As well make it with the ability to be changed, altered, paused, and / or terminated in case the conditions change. The intention of GoChain is to make them look just like the contracts in the real world, which can be modified if required, but without renouncing the benefits of Smart contracts.
And no less important without having to change its programming, it is completely compatible with the Ethereum platform.
Faster.
GoChain will support very high transaction volumes with fast verifications thanks to improves over the Ethereum core. Ethereum can only process 13 transactions per second, GoChain will initially target 1300 transactions per second. The Gochain TestNet show around 1300 transactions per second ongoing with stability and top rate about 2400 transactions per second. Currently GoChain is live with their MainNet Live. The Goal is reach 100x more transactions per second.
Decentralization.
Is 10 times more decentralized. Gochain has its nodes distributed in a considerable group of countries, guaranteeing a higher percentage of decentralization. When we talk about decentralized platforms, we usually tend to visualize only the software part, leaving aside the part of the real world ... most of the miners are in China run by just a few companies, any drastic change in that country can impact in the world of cryptocurrencies, whether they are regulations for cryptocurrencies themselves, changes in telecommunication tariffs or in energy sources (currently in China it is economic) telecommunications.
Energy consumption - 1000x Less in Energy.
As soon as possible, the energy required to run Bitcoin and Ethereum network is very huge, GoChain will use a small portion of the energy used to run both.
But how?
The process of mining blocks uses an enormous amount of energy because of a consensus algorithm called Proof-of-Work (PoW. GoChain introduce a new consensus algorithm called POR (Proof of Reputation). It is faster, cheaper and easy to implement.
Proof of Reputation (POR)
GoChain change the consensus algorithm from Proof of Work (POW) to Proof of Reputation (POR). GoChain uses this model to allow companies to keep each other in check and keep the network secure. PoR is more attractive to the broader business community than untrusted networks.
Proof of Work, is a computer algorithm, used to reach a decentralized agreement, that determines which of the blocks will be added to the chain after mining. As well This protocol aims to avoid cyber attacks such as denial of service (DDoS).
Proof of Work is carried out by solving complex and variable mathematical problems, where the miners try to give the corresponding solution to obtain a reward in the chain of blocks.
Proof of Work is highly criticized, it is considered that an incredible amount of energy is spent to do a lot of calculations that some consider unnecessary to validate transactions.
POR is an upgraded, stronger, and more secure form of Proof of Authority (POA).
In PoA-based networks, transactions and blocks are validated by approved accounts, known as validators. Validators run software allowing them to put transactions in blocks. The process is automated and does not require validators to be constantly monitoring their computers. It, however, does require maintaining the computer (the authority node) uncompromised. The term was coined by Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum and Parity Technologies.
With PoA individuals earn the right to become validators, so there is an incentive to retain the position that they have gained. By attaching a reputation to identity, validators are incentivized to uphold the transaction process, as they do not wish to have their identities attached to a negative reputation.
This system is used mainly in private networks and companies for the fact that the identities of the validators are publicly disclosed.
However, this does not mean that these people do not incur deviations.
We don’t think this goes
far enough because as the value of the network grows the incentive to cheat will become larger and larger.
This is why POR uses companies as validators instead of individuals.
A company with a high reputation has much more to lose than a simple person. Not only would it put on risking its reputation,. It would be risking its entire market cap and the reputation of all team members. Without a doubt, it is much less likely then that there will be some case cheating between companies.
What is the GoChain plan?
Gochain plan to use 50 companies (50 nodes) in 50 different countries as the validators to have a truly un-traced network. With this, one of the main problems presented by the Ethereum platform is solved by having practically 80% of the mining in China and in the hands of a few companies. Allowing in turn to have a network very difficult to be compromised.
The Proof of Reputation (PoR) consensus depends on the reputation of its participants to keep the network secure. A participant must have a reputation that is important enough that they would face dire consequences if they were to cheat the system. In short, it is preferable Larger companies with more to lose will be chosen
over smaller companies with less to lose. When a company provides its reputation, they are just like a Proof of Authority network (PoA). Only authoritative nodes can sign and validate blocks.
How will the validators be chosen?
Initially, GoChain will choose the validators and then the selection process will be turned over to the network.
What kind of companies will they be?
Market Cap
Easy, Companies with a large market cap have more to lose than small cap companies. Tabien takes into account the staf of the company.
Publicly Traded
Lost of reputation affects more publicly traded companies than private companies.
Brand Significance
Without a doubt, the more prestige the company has, the less likely it is to incur deviations.
Tokenomics
For more technical support you can check the GoChain documentation.
The GoChain network is currently operational
It is assumed that when talking about blockchain all are praise about the progress that this implies for humanity, because thanks to Ethereum this goes beyond a financial system, with smart contracts we can see in the future presidential elections completely transparent, takes of decisions that represent the collectives, and a whole series of improvements, but all this reality collides when we see Smart contracts rigid and in some cases completely divorced from the real world. This new generation of Smart Contract proposed by GoChain will mean a real revolution in the blockchain.
Another very important factor has to do with the consumption of energy, it is a really impressive improvement the reduction in energy consumption by the GoChain platform, this has a very big contribution for the preservation of the environment.
This entry was create to participate in the @OriginalWorks sponsored writing contest - GoChain
If you want know more about this fantastic project built on the Blockchain, check their:
gochain2018
