See Also
How decentralized is Bitcoin? How can Bitcoin be secure if nobody controls it?
Bitcoin’s decentralized consensus system is the key to understanding how it can be secure without anyone in particular having to verify every transaction. In the same article, we’ve discussed the particulars of the Byzantine Generals’ problem and how Bitcoin solved this classic dilemma when applied to digital currencies. Here we will discuss what controlling Bitcoin […]
ELI5 What is Nakamoto consensus?
Cryptocurrencies are an application of the more general distributed computing field of research. While Bitcoin’s potential impact on financial markets sent it straight to the spotlight, the reality is that the technical concepts behind Bitcoin have long been the subject of intense research. Many peer-to-peer technologies came before Bitcoin and attempted to solve various different […]
ELI5 : What is Proof of Trust (PoT)?
Proof of Trust is a consensus mechanism where users “stake” the trust they’ve earned in a network in order to verify cryptocurrency transactions. In a proof of trust system, users will earn a virtual value called “trust” every time they acquire a role in the ecosystem. A highly trusted node will be able to verify […]
Opinion: Decentralized blockchains can only survive having a valuable token, like Bitcoin, attached to them [Feb 2018]
We’ve heard this time and again, especially from folks in the financial sector: “blockchain is here to stay, Bitcoin not so much”. Is this really so? We disagree, and in this article we discuss the origins of Bitcoin and how the problem it solved only makes sense when there’s a reward for participants to join […]