Blockchain has advanced rapidly in recent years, enabling previously impossible things to become a reality. One of these possibilities is the ability to tokenize real-world assets in order to increase their security and liquidity. But when it comes to a seamless way to incorporate physical assets into the digital world, traditional blockchains have yet to crack it.
Bytom is a blockchain and cryptocurrency project designed to fill this very gap. As an asset management platform, Bytom aims to build a decentralized network where individuals, enterprises, and institutions can trade and exchange all manner of digital and physical assets.
Understanding Bytom
Launched in 2017, Bytom is a blockchain framework designed for bridging the real and virtual world by providing a secure and decentralized environment for financial and digital assets. On the Bytom platform, anyone – including individuals and organizations, can register and start trading both real-world assets, e.g., securities, real estate, bonds and so on, as well digital assets such as cryptocurrency.
Bytom wants to be the bridge between the digital and physical worlds, creating a cohesive manner in which the physical assets can be mapped to the digital world. By utilizing the Bytom protocol, entities should be able to register, buy, sell, and exchange both types of assets in an interoperable and streamlined environment. Hopefully, this will steer the world’s economy to be truly “tokenized.”
In Bytom’s own words: “Bytom is an interactive protocol of multiple byte assets. Heterogeneous byte-assets (indigenous digital currency, digital assets) that operate in different forms on the Bytom Blockchain and atomic assets (warrants, securities, bonds, intelligence information, forecasting information and other information that exists in the physical world) can be registered, exchanged, gambled, and engaged in other more complicated and contract-based interoperations via Bytom”.
How Does Bytom Work?
Bytom works by providing a decentralized network where various assets can be freely exchanged and traded in a peer-to-peer manner.
There are three types of access on the Bytom platform:
#1. Income Assets: These are assets such as filmmaking, local government investments, home-stay property and so on
#2. Equity Assets: These are assets such as equity of non-listed companies, shares of private internet investments, private equity funds, and so on. The transfer of these assets requires investor verification.
#3. Securitized Assets: These assets include debts, car loans, and other asset-backed securities that have a predictable cash flow.
You can buy, sell, and exchange, all these assets on the Bytom blockchain. Being able to do this in a decentralized and secure system has many advantages. First of all, it eliminates the swell-up associated with intermediaries. Plus, not having intermediaries dramatically reduces costs and saves up on much-needed time.
It also grants you, the asset owner, absolute control over your assets. Thanks to the publicly available and immutable ledger, you don’t have to rely on third parties to maintain accurate records of your assets. Also, a bad actor cannot attack and manipulate the data since records are kept on a distributed worldwide network secured by thousands of nodes.
The Bytom platform also supports cross-chain transactions via side chain technology. If you want to do this as a developer, all you need to do is create a smaller version of the Bytom blockchain and, using application programming interface software, create smart contracts that will enable you to monitor/follow main chain activity. In this way, you can transfer assets across chains.
Bytom’s Architecture
Bytom operates atop three architecture layers: the application, contract, and ledger layer.
The Application Layer is what you as a user interacts with. It allows you to interact and manage your assets on mobile and other web terminals.
The Contract Layer, which uses two types of contracts, the Genesis contract, and General contract. The Genesis Contract issues smart contracts and ensures on the platform adheres to standardization protocols. The General Contract facilitates assets’ exchange between platform users, in addition to verifying the distribution of dividends.
The Ledger Layer, which is the foundation of the whole architecture and where the protocol connects to the blockchain, is permissionless and utilizes the proof of work consensus algorithm to verify transactions.
Who’s on the Bytom Team?
The Bytom team is headquartered in China, and it includes some of the most influential figures in the blockchain space. Founder Chang Jia is also the founder of 8BTC.com, one of the largest crypto websites in China. Jia has been a long-time advocate and campaigner for blockchain tech in China. Also an award-winning science fiction author, he co-authored one of the first books in Chinese about Bitcoin: Bitcoin, A Real Yet Virtual Financial World.
The other co-founder is Duan Finding, former Vice President of OKCoin, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges. He’s also been the Executive President of 8BTC.com.
Bytom Token (BTM)
BTM is the native currency of the Bytom blockchain. The Token plays three main roles in the ecosystem:
- Payment for assets trading
- Dividends of income assets
- As a deposit for issuance of assets
Currently, there are 1.08 billion BTM tokens in circulation out of the total supply of 2.1 billion. The Token’s distribution was as follows:
- 7% for private equity investors
- 30% for the ICO distribution
- 20% for the Bytom Foundation
- 10% for business development
- 33% for mining
Tokenomics of Bytom
As of June 14, 2020, BTM is trading at $0.069876, with a #83 market ranking. It has a market cap of $75, 214, 070, a 24-hour volume of $11, 412, 286, a circulating supply of 1, 076, 386, 694, a total supply of 1, 597, 671, 525 and a maximum supply of 2.1 billion. The Token’s all-time high was $1.17 (April 24, 2018), and its all-time low was $0.031290 (March 13, 2020).
Where to Purchase BTM
BTM is listed on some of the big hitter exchanges, but also on some of the lesser-known ones. You’ll find the Token on OKEx, Gate.io, Binance JEX, HBTC, HitBTC, CoinEx, Huobi, DragonEx, and Bibox. The Token is paired with proxy coins such as ETH, BTC, and USDT.
For storage, Bytom provides an official Wallet available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Great third-party options include Coinomi, Exodus, Trezor, Ledger Nano, and Ledger Blue.
Final Words
Bytom is creating a decentralized, interoperable, and safe and secure protocol for anyone anywhere to register from CFA and exchange physical and digital assets. Platform users do not have to deal with expensive and time-consuming intermediaries, and they can log in anytime and monitor their assets in the immutable and public blockchain.
The team is led by a couple of blockchain and crypto heavy hitters, and based on the milestones they have achieved so far, the future looks bright for the project.