THE ELECTRA PROJECT
“We have the pooooooooowwwwweeeeerrrrrrrrrr!!!”
-He-Man, Master of the Universe
The Electra Project’s (Electra [ECA]) whitepaper dropped yesterday. It’s a bid deal for several reasons. The first is fairly obvious: the ECA project team needs to define where the project came from (VISION), where they are now (AS-IS), and where they see the project going in the future (TO-BE [Roadmap]). A whitepaper helps the internal project team understand their identity just as much as it assists prospective cryptocurrency buyers with assessing its value. In addition, a whitepaper, from what I overheard, is also a requirement levied by exchanges as part of the listing application process (as well as a hefty ass fee). I’m glad that exchanges have this requirement, but who knows how exchanges rate whitepapers, or even read them thoroughly. Lastly, ECA is community-driven. Publishing the whitepaper on time is a big deal because it solidifies the bond with the ECA community by building trust and kicks off what looks like a year jam-packed with epic development milestones. Before I peer into the future, here is what you will find if you “pop the hood."
COMMUNITY
"it takes a village to build a cryptocurrency"
-Kryptonaut
I put community before technology because without strong community support from everyone, not just the ECA team, ECA’s probability of success plummets – HARD. If the ECA team is the “Head”, then the ECA community is most certainly the “Heart” of what is making ECA great.
Personally, I’ve had a positive experience interacting with community members and I think a lot of the credit goes to the ECA’s Telegram moderators that ensure everyone is aware of the rules and respects each other.
If you don’t believe me, check out ECA on Telegram and Discord for yourself.
A group member created a tip bot in Discord and members can tip each other as well as make it “rain” for everyone that is currently in and active in the channel. Tipping also serves a double purpose. Members can make the community aware of critical tasks to complete and reward the community for hitting certain targets.
If you want to have some fun and feel like a BOSS, join ECA Discordand make it rain ECA!
CURRENT TECHNOLOGY (AS-IS)
Algorithm
ECA uses NIST5 algorithm that guarantees security using the best features of the five SHA-3 finalist algorithms selected by the National Institute of Science Technology (NIST) which are:
- BLACK
- Grostl
- JH
- Keccak
- Skein
The Electra Blockchain
| PROPERTY | SPECIFICATION |
| Block Size | 1MB |
| Block Time | 5 minutes (288 blocks per day) |
| Max Supply | 30,000,000,000 |
| Pre-mined* | 1,000,000,019 (Approximately 3.34%) |
| Difficulty Target | Retarget occurs every 15 minutes (every 3 blocks) |
| Fee | 0.00001 ECA |
*Pre-mined funds are maintained by a trusted Community Funds Manager. Distribution and use of funds is determined by consensus. Pre-mined funds will be used for various purposes including but not limited to the following:
Maintaining the security and usability of the platform
Funding further development projects as outlined by our roadmap
Application to new exchanges
Fast Payments
ECA transactions are received in the recipient’s wallet almost instantly and the ECA received is spendable as soon as the transaction is confirmed in the blockchain. The confirmation process requires less than five minutes.
Transaction Fees Approaching Zero
With transaction fees on the Electra network of 0.00001 ECA, it takes 100,000 transactions to accumulate one ECA worth of transaction fees (approximately $0.004 USD at time of this publication). This results in a cost per transaction of approximately $0.00000004.
Staking Rewards
ECA features a 50% annual stake reward rate. There is no fixed reward per block. Each stake reward is proportional to the amount staked relative to the total ECA in circulation. Additional information regarding the Proof of Stake reward structure for ECA can be found at:
https://electraproject.org/crypto-wallet-staking-guide-electra-project
Optional Privacy
Future developments within the Electra ecosystem will allow for the use of privacy gateways, including but not limited to the following: TOR | IP2network | Kovri
The Electra Blockchain
Future developments within the Electra ecosystem will allow for the use of privacy gateways, including but not limited to the following. l TOR l IP2network l Kovri 11
Users will be able to select the privacy functions best suited to their individual needs. The Electra community is continually working to identify the most scalable and efficient gateway configurations to ensure privacy of transactions.
Environmentally Friendly
The NIST5 algorithm utilized by the ECA cryptocurrency is more environmentally friendly than competing technologies and has proven to be a sustainable option for deployment of blockchain-based systems. NIST5 requires significantly less energy to run than competing algorithms without compromising the security of network members.
Furthermore, Electra does not have an extended Proof of Work (PoW) phase. Electra’s blockchain network is now Proof of Stake (PoS) which results in no miners and a greatly reduced carbon footprint.
FUTURE TECHNOLOGY (TO-BE)
“plan your work, work your plan”
-some smart dude
ECA’s roadmap is ambitious. I don’t plan to go into each area in detail as I would just be regurgitating from the whitepaper like I did with the previous section. However, I will summarize what is in store for the future by categorizing the development. Think of ECA as an ecosystem of products and services:
PRODUCTS
- Wallets (Destop/Mobile/Web)
- Merchant Applications (Plugins/Mobile apps/Desktop software/payment gateway)
SERVICES
- Integrated Merchant & user support
- ElectraPay
- SocialPay
- Atomic Swaps
- Masternodes
In my opinion, building out the ElectraPay system and merchant applications are the most important items on the roadmap for 2018. For ECA to be successful, it has to be in demand. That means it has to be commerce-ready and used. ECA commerce adoption rate might be slow at the start, but all it takes is one big player to partner-up and others will follow suit.
FINAL THOUGHTS
There are many community members that have ECA trapped in coinsmarkets.com exchange (CM), including myself. CM crashed because of the increased volume of ECA buyers. Despite the set-back, the majority of the ECA community stayed the course instead of trying to tear the house down. I think that is a testament to the strength of the community and belief that ECA has a bright future.
Speaking of future, I don’t own a crystal ball so I won’t claim that you will end up driving a Lambo if you buy ECA. I will say that it’s fun to be part of a community that is working hard to make it great.
Some people like to think of time as a path where, at any given moment, the future is unwritten, and there are infinite number of paths to choose from that lead to different outcomes. If so, I like to think of ECA in 2018 as the year where they are “loading the dice” to eliminate the unwanted paths and increase the chances for a favorable destination in the future.
That said, I’m confident that the ECA team and community will work together to forge the right path and adjust accordingly to ensure a safe and successful arrival.
ECA REFERENCE LINKS
ECA Website
Whitepaper
Twitter
FAQ
1st image created by ECA member Patrick Francisco
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Traversing the Cryptosphere,
Kryptonaut
(GeneralCryptoZod on Telegram and Discord)
