The Problem and the Solution
Existing blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum have a severe problem which lies in the number of transactions they can perform per second. Bitcoin blockchain can only perform 4 TPS and Ethereum 10 TPS. Why does this present a topical issue? For instance, a very popular collectible blockchain-based game CryptoKitties slowed down the whole Ethereum network months ago and if one DApp can do this, then where can it all escalate from there? We need a solution and that is where QuarkChain comes in with their proposed product.
QuarkChain aims to achive a whopping 100.000 TPS and up to 1.000.000 TPS, which would really bring some fresh air into the whole crypto scene. They are not intending to sacrifice any of the 3 main pillars of blockchain techologies, which are security, decentralization and scalability but rather try to find a workaround in order for them to work together with equal importance. They will try to do that with a new sharding-based architecture, which is being developed at the very moment of writing and will provide a very high-throughput stable network.
What Does Sharding Mean?
It simply means breaking up a large system into its smaller parts similar to how centralized networks behave and address their scalability problems. Imagine smaller blockchains under one root blockchain. For example, Ethereum team is working on further adopting similar technology within 3 to 5 years after concluding their Phase 1, but QuarkChain team on the other hand is aware of the fact that we need to solve this problem sooner than later. The main challenges on the horizon will be the implementation of cross-shard transactions along with solutions for some scalability and security issues.
Principles for Designing the System
- Enhance the scalability and in the meanwhile provide security and decentralization
- Implement cross-shard transactions
- Provide simple client account management
- Develop open standards that are going to support different Dapps
- Create an ecosystem that is driven by incentivization
The idea behind the QuarkChain network lies in 2 layers, one of them being the root blockchain layer and the other sharding layer, respectively. Sharding layer contains all the shards (minor blockchains) and serves a a ledger while rootchain confirms transactions coming out of them.
Users will be in possession of two accounts, primary and secondary, but won't need to worry about the secondary one, because with the use of smart wallets, total balance will always be visible on the primary account, which makes the whole management simpler and more user-friendly.
Token and Sale Details
QKC is a native utility token with the intention to be used on the QuarkChain Network for exchange between participants. Its most important attribute will be that of a value carrier. Participants will also be incentivized to contribute and the team will distribute QKC to them in return.
ICO Token Price: 1 QKC = 0.0234 USD
Hardcap: 20,000,000 USD (of which 16,000,000 USD were already raised in private sale)
Total Supply: 10,000,000,000 (20% available for public token sale)
Whitelist Date: 7 May 2018 - 21 May 2018
Sale Date: May to June (will be announced on all official channels beforehand)
Token Distribution:
- 20% intended for public token sale
- 15% reserved for team and 5% for advisors with both having 2 years lockup period
- 15% will go for foundation along with 45% for mining, community and marketing
Find more about the whole whitelisting process and KYC timeline in this official document and blog post: https://steemit.com/quarkchain/@quarkchain/quarkchain-whitelisting-kyc-
Important Roadmap Dates and Team
Upcoming Milestones:
- Q2 2018: Testnet 1.0 will be released with support for smart contracts
- Q4 2018: QuarkChain Core 1.0 and Mainnet 1.0 (with Smart Wallet 1.0) released
- Q2 2019: Release of version 2.0 for aforementioned products
Some Members of the Team:
- Founder: Qi Zhou, software engineer and former Googler with 15y+ of experience
- Software Engineer: Zhaoguang Wang, expert in large scale distributed systems
- Research Scientist: Xiaoli Ma, full professor at Georgia Tech
A Few Advisors:
- Bill Moore, engineer at Sun Microsystems
- Mike Miller, PhD physicist with 100+ publications
- Zhiyun Qian, expert in cyber security
Find the rest of the team following the link to the official QuarkChain website
Conclusion
The idea behind the project is well designed and the team is devoted to make it happen. The crypto scene is very unpredictable and nobody knows what the future will bring, but more I get to know about this project and the people associated with it, the more I believe that they can pull it off. The project will need the support of its community and the team needs you now more than ever.
Additional Links and Information
Website: https://quarkchain.io/ and whitepaper
Interesting FAQ section: https://quarkchain.io/faq.html
Social Channels:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quark_Chain
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quarkchain.io
- Medium: https://medium.com/@quarkchainquark
- Telegram: https://t.me/quarkchainio
- GitHub: https://github.com/QuarkChain
- Weibo: https://weibo.com/QuarkChain
- Steemit: https://steemit.com/@quarkchain
- Contact for additional questions at contact@quarkchain.io
Disclaimer
Originally written by @xodiumnostrumx (Telegram: https://t.me/OdiumNostrum) and posted on my profile for higher outreach!