Tag: Scalability

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Crypto Guides

Is EOS A Better Investment Than Ethereum Right Now?

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

EOS and Ethereum both are popular blockchain smart contract platforms. To know whether EOS is a better investment or Ethereum, we will need to compare the two technologies by exploring basic concepts and comparing their mechanisms to draw out the necessary conclusions. After Ethereum was introduced in the crypto industry, two years later, EOS was launched and claimed to fix the flaws in Ethereum. EOS is a strong, scalable contender and might outperform Ethereum. The battle of EOS vs. Ethereum is the most interesting and happening space in the crypto industry. 

What is Ethereum?

Ethereum is a blockchain platform launched in 2015 by Vitalik Buterin. It allows users to send and receive funds independently without the assistance of any third party. It was the first blockchain project to install the smart technology contract. In this technology, some predefined conditions are applied, and users are needed to justify the conditions to proceed with transactions without the need for an intermediate body. This decentralized blockchain has its own cryptocurrency called Ether (ETH), which is tradable in most of the crypto exchanges. 

What is EOS?

EOS is a new blockchain platform that can also manage smart contracts. The Block.one company launched this project in 2017. It has created history by raising the highest Initial Coin Offering(ICO), worth more than $2.5 billion. It has its own EOS coin, which can be transferred from wallet to wallet. EOS aims to become the most scalable, cheapest, and fastest blockchain platform. 

Scalability

Presently Ethereum can support 15 transactions per second, whereas EOS can serve up to at least 10,000 transactions/second. EOS using IoT provides for inter-blockchain communication, which creates blockchains to allow more transactions. Ethereum is working on two protocols called “Plasma” and “Sharding” to increase transaction numbers per second. 

Transaction Cost

On Ethereum, users need to pay gas for each transaction, but EOS works completely in a different way. EOS blockchain users deposit their token to cover the bandwidth required for the transaction. 

Consensus Mechanism

Ethereum is based upon the proof-of-work model, and EOS follows the proof-of-stake model. The transactions are verified without the support of any intermediate system. Ethereum generates random puzzles at every node before confirming the transactions. These puzzles are so difficult to solve that you need to take the help of experts called “Miners.” While EOS offers to stake your coins to verify transactions, the stakers have a chance to earn the rewards. 

EOS Vs. Ethereum: Who holds the future?

Ethereum, just after Bitcoin, is the most popular cryptocurrency across the world. EOS, right from its initial days, is performing exceptionally well. EOS is yet to achieve growth that Ethereum has already achieved, but EOS is significantly better than Ethereum. EOS is a more user-friendly cryptocurrency than ETH. It’s still too early to think about how far EOS will go because the blockchain ecosystem is highly unpredictable. 

Conclusion 

EOS is younger than Ethereum and has improved scalability and transaction fees as compared to Ethereum, but still, it’s under so much controversy because of its more centralized layout. If Ethereum successfully implements the proof-of-stake mechanism, then EOS might not be able to outperform it. On the other hand, if Ethereum doesn’t reduce it’s transaction costs, then EOS will easily overtake Ethereum soon is what crypto experts believe. Cheers! 

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Crypto Guides

Defining Callisto Network & Its Fascinating Features!

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

Callisto Network is a blockchain-based Ethereum protocol developed by Ethereum Commonwealth, an ETH development team.

The Callisto Network is missioned towards boosting the Ethereum ecosystem by enhancing the methods of smart contract development and implement the experimental protocol. These implemented protocols are incorporated within smart contracts using merged protocol-level config.

The Callisto Network has been developed to use built-in mechanisms like smart contracts, which can be used to implement the vital features of the platform. The network wants to define and standardize the protocol with a governance system, cold staking, and a funding system for development. All these will be based on smart contracts.

In simple terms, the primary goal of the Callisto Network is to create an ecosystem that is self-funded, self-sustaining development, and self-governed. Note that, Callisto Network always creates new enhancements on the protocol level. This is because the ETC community typically has a conservative approach.

Quite some enhancements come from the CLO network when the other ETC development teams acknowledge them. Examples of the same include cold staking protocol and on-chain governance system.

How does Callisto Address Scalability?

A significant issue that Callisto addresses is the scalability of both ETC networks and CLO networks. The team developers realized that it would be time-consuming to discover their mechanism for implementing sidechains and relaying transactions. As an alternative, they are planning towards implementing the cross chain-relation mechanism.

This is a mechanism that can be spotted on third-generation blockchains like EOS and AION. In essence, Callisto will be improving the scalability of ETC and CLO with mechanics that already exist in the market and have proved their effectiveness.

Features on Callisto

Cold Staking

An issue encountered with Ethereum Classic is that the users receive no incentive for holding their coins. With the introduction of “Cold Staking” by Callisto Network, users will now be rewarded with interest in holding CLO tokens. This is possible when users add their tokens into a smart contract for over a month. Apart from that, there are no other requirements, unlike Masternode coins that require running a node.

CLO coin

The Callisto Network has its native currency – CLO token. It is currently listed on BiteBTC, Stocks. Exchange, SimpleSwap, EXRATES, OOOBTC. The list is expected to expand in the coming months.

Mining Pools

CLO tokens can be mined just like ETC is mined. Various pools support the mining of Callisto. The mining pools include clopool.pro, 2miners.com, coinfoundry.org, callisto-pool.com, epool.io, callistopool.org, callistopool.io, solopool.org, clopool.net, clona.ru, minerpool.net, comining.io, mole-pool.net, etc.

Callisto Network Wallets

As Callisto Network is growing at a good pace, presently, several wallets support Callisto. Some of them include Trust Wallet App, Classic Ether Wallet, Guarda Wallet, and coinomi Wallet. One can verify the compatibility of Callisto by checking if it allows exporting your account.

Conclusion

The Callisto Network developed by Ethereum Commonwealth is based on the Ethereum protocol. With this network, Ethereum Commonwealth addresses the issues relating to Ethereum Classic, specifically security and scalability of smart contract ecosystems. Besides, it has a Cold Staking feature, which is compelling to the platform as it encourages the holding of CLO tokens.

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Crypto Guides

What are Sidechains & What is their Purpose?

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

Sidechains are mechanisms that enable the transfer of existing tokens or digital assets from a blockchain platform to another blockchain platform. The tokens or digital assets can be transferred back to the original blockchain if required. The primary platform from which we transfer the assets is called the parent chain or main chain, while the other platform is called sidechain. Ardor blockchain calls the sidechain as childchain.

Sidechains have enormous potential to transform the existing issues of scalability in the blockchain platforms. The transfer need not be only digital assets or tokens, but we may transfer computing or for speeding purposes as well, depending on the processing requirements. We can have many sidechains for a single parent chain.

How do they work?

Sidechain is indeed a separate blockchain platform connected with the leading blockchain platform using a two-way peg. The two-way peg is a method to convert one digital token to another type of token like BTC to ETH. The two-way peg facilitates the transfer of digital assets at a predetermined rate. A user on the parent chain first sends coins to an output address so that they can be blocked.

To ensure that these coins aren’t spent elsewhere, a protocol is followed. Once the transaction is complete, the information is sent to all the chains. Some extra period is used to wait as well to increase security. Once this is done, the same number of coins are released in the sidechain for user access and spending. The same process can be repeated when the tokens are to be sent from sidechain to the main chain. Some other entities come into the picture to run the sidechains seamlessly. They are as below.

Federations

A federation can be called as a group or server which acts between the main chain and a side chain. The sidechain creators can decide federation members. They decide on when to lock the coins and release the coins for spending and vice versa.

Security

The core reason for anyone to move to the blockchain platform is security. So, one may question what about the security aspects in the sidechains. Even though they are connected, they are on their own in terms of security. Both platforms are individual blockchain platforms and are very secure individually.

Further, if there is any disturbance in one platform, the disturbance will not be carried out to the other. The sidechains use separate miners from the main chain. They are incentivized using merged mining. Merged mining refers to the mechanism of mining two or more cryptocurrencies at the same time based on the same algorithm.

Platforms using Sidechains 

Rootstock or RSK

RSK has two-way peg connectivity with the Bitcoin platform. RSK’s vision is to enable smart contracts functionality for bitcoin blockchain, increase scalability, thus faster transactions. Miners are rewarded through merged mining. As of now, the platform supports 100 TPS.

Liquid

Liquid sidechain proposes instant movement of funds between exchanges without waiting for the delay in confirmation from the bitcoin blockchain. This is the first commercial sidechain developed by Blockstream.

Advantages of Sidechains

  • Enhances the scalability of the mainchain, thus increasing the number of transactions per second.
  • Need not create a sidechain again and again; once created, they can be used for any purpose.
  • They enable the communication between two different coins, which helps in the testing of beta coins in the sidechain before the official launch.

Conclusion

The scalability issues of blockchain technology are addressed in different ways, but sidechains are very promising. The communication between two different cryptocurrencies paves ways to multiple features. Transactions costs and time will be reduced as the burden is less for the mainchain. The concept is going to create a massive change in the blockchain technology in the upcoming future.

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Importance of ‘Interoperability’ In The Blockchain Technology

What Is Interoperability?

What Is Interoperability?

What Is Interoperability?

Interoperability is the ability of software systems or two different systems to connect and exchange information. In this connected world, there are always different systems that would connect so that the required data is provided as needed. The best example of interoperability can be termed as a web page working on a web browser if they are of the same standard.

Why do we need interoperability in blockchain?

In today’s world, we use different software, which essentially integrates to provide the resultant output. In the case of varying blockchain platforms are being developed for various purposes. Often in the same industrial space, different platforms are built, and these platforms do not know another platform.

For example, the bitcoin blockchain has no information about Ethereum blockchain. This creates a lot of siloes in the industry. Often new platforms come into picture claiming there more secure, scalable, immutable competing with the rivals. This creates a wastage in terms of resources, money, and energy of different teams.

Why is it crucial for blockchain?

To make mass adoption possible for blockchain technology. Every other platform is competing with each other to increase the scalability of blockchain. The original bitcoin blockchain was capable of sending only seven transactions per second. Later new projects came up and eventually achieved around 40,000 TPS. While Visa, Mastercard achieve approximately 24,000 TPS, but in reality, they need only 1700 TPS as per the real-world stats to be viable even with the ever-present demand.

Hence 40,000 TPS is not essential at all. Instead of concentrating on scalability, it would be better to consider improving the technology as such. Even if scalability is achieved as required in case of no interoperability, one cannot use the blockchain tech wherever needed as we use a MasterCard/visa as they can be used anywhere across the world. Hence interoperability is essential for blockchain for mass adoption.

Let us see some of the examples of platforms which allows the blockchain interoperability below:

Polkadot

Polkadot was developed by Gavin Wood, a co-founder of Ethereum. Polkadot is essentially a multichain or cross-chain technology that allows different blockchain platforms to be plugged into a more extensive system. Technically, Polkadot accomplishes parachains i.e., it will enable the processing of transactions parallelly between different blockchains and relays to the main blockchain through bridges. Polkadot not only transmits transactions between blockchains but also data is transferred. Information is transferred in the form of smart contracts and the abilities that come up with them.

Cosmos

Cosmos is just like Polkadot; it also follows a cross-chain principle. The essential difference between cosmos and Polkadot is that it only concentrates on facilitating transactions between blockchains but not data across them. Cosmos doesn’t require the blockchains to forfeit their consensus algorithm when plugged into the network. It establishes inter blockchain communication (IBC) to establish blockchain interoperability. The IBC serves as a TCP/IP like messaging protocol for blockchains.

Though these startups are at a very early stage of development in their roadmap, we have to wait and watch how it plays out. Blockchain is a niche technology, but many big players are coming into the picture to incorporate blockchain to achieve more success, and the interoperability of blockchain will make that. For any technology to gain momentum, adaptability is essential where interoperability is one thing to be achieved for the mass adaptability.

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What’s Stopping Blockchain’s Mass Adoption?

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

Blockchain technology came into the picture with the advent of cryptocurrencies. Since the value of cryptocurrencies is increasing exponentially day by day, people have started exploring its base technology, which is Blockchain. Blockchain has a lot of use cases in various industries say Supply chain, healthcare, agriculture, energy, data storage. In spite of all the use cases and numerous numbers of projects, consortiums in action today still the technology is considered to be nascent. Any technology takes time to reach masses, but Blockchain has certain hindrances that are stopping it from mass adoption. Let’s see some of them below.

No Universal Use Case

People often compare Blockchain as a new age internet. Just as the Internet changed the world forever, Blockchain is considered to do the same in the digital world. The Internet was created to provide information worldwide with the worldwide web. It created an industry for itself and reigned it. When it comes to Blockchain, it doesn’t have an industry of its own. It surely promises enough to revolutionize most of the existing sectors, but if there were one industry of its own, then the adoption and results would have been very promising. The combination of next-generation technologies, Artificial intelligence, machine learning, Blockchain, and the Internet of things may create an industry of its own that could be revolutionary.

Complicated Usage

The technology is quite complicated to use provided its secure nature. To perform a transaction in the bitcoin network, there should be an address with a string of numbers, wallets, transaction time, transaction fees, and a lot of stuff. All this terminology is pretty new to a novice user and finds it pretty challenging to use. Mass adoption will be possible only if we educate people enough. Most of the people know about Blockchain only through cryptocurrencies, and that notion should change. People should understand that Blockchain is much more than just cryptocurrencies.

Scalability

One of the significant issues with mass adoption is scalability, i.e., the number of transactions per second (TPS). When we take cryptocurrencies, the original bitcoin blockchain processed only 7 TPS. As the adoption of cryptocurrencies increased, processing time and transaction fees increased drastically, which will discourage people from using cryptocurrencies. Visa/Mastercard supports 24000 TPS, which is used worldwide and is very reliable. Even though some platforms are claiming 40000 TPS, we should check whether they are safe enough or not.

Standardization of Smart Contracts

Smart contracts have received popularity, and many enterprises have started using the same for their business needs. But there is no standardization, and there are a lot of vulnerabilities when it comes to smart contracts. The code is not standard. There is a scope for a lot of vulnerabilities. Hence if certain standards are established like formal verification of contracts to check vulnerabilities, the security of the system increases more.

Energy Consumption Issues

It is a well-known fact that proof of work, which is mainly used in bitcoin blockchain as of today, consumes a lot of energy. Environmentalists throughout the world are entirely against it. Hence the usage of energy friendly consensus algorithms like proof of stake should be used if mass adoption is to be made. Recently Ethereum has shifted to proof of stake from proof of work, which is a welcome move.

Regulation by Governments

Finally, governments should agree or accept the trade, registrations, or any legal matter of the sort to be done in blockchain platforms. As per the government rules, if certain transactions should be done only on paper, then it is not possible to use Blockchain. Governments across the world are at least trying to regularize cryptocurrency, considering the widespread usage. Hence, technology use in other aspects should also be considered.

These are some of the reasons that are holding back the mass adoption of this amazing technology. It is important to note that there is a lot of research and development being done in this space to overcome the above-mentioned hurdles.