Bitcoin transactions have been called a “trustless” process, in that the nature of the network removes the need for a middleman to act as a central point of trust between the two exchanging parties. Yet outside of pure peer-to-peer transactions, Bitcoin usage requires a great deal of trust in platforms and services that are vulnerable to intrusion, sabotage and failure.
The solution, many agree, is the use of decentralized platforms that mitigate or eliminate points of failure that can cause crippling losses for users and dampen perception of what is still an emerging technology. Next-generation platforms built using digital currency technology concepts are in development, yet several months ago, the first decentralized two-party smart contract quietly entered public beta and has been pushing the boundaries of its original design.
According to David Zimbeck the solution, many agree, is the use of decentralized platforms that mitigate or eliminate points of failure that can cause crippling losses for users and dampen perception of what is still an emerging technology. Next-generation platforms built using digital currency technology concepts are in development, yet several months ago, the first decentralized two-party smart contract quietly entered public beta and has been pushing the boundaries of its original design.
One of the main hallmarks of a healthy cryptocurrency is the community that springs up around it. When that community then takes the ideas and the codebase and creates new products, services, or movements, a type of self-sustaining ‘ecology’ emerges. That community inertia can keep an altcoin moving forward past all expectations (Dogecoin), and it will probably be the deciding factor
CoinDesk spoke with developer David Zimbeck, who said that the open-source BitHalo works around several problems that keep smart contracts from being built on top of the bitcoin block chain. The drive to solve these issues has lead to the creation of smart contract platforms like Counterparty and ClearingHouse, as well as the next-generation block chain project Ethereum.
The solution, David Zimbeck explained, is maintaining the integrity of the block chain by avoiding bloat, or excess information that can prove problematic for the network and results in a situation where network users have to download and constantly update a massive amount of data.
BitHalo avoids this through a peer-to-peer client that connects users directly, using bitcoin and blackcoin has means for value exchange and encrypted email as a means of distributing contract data. Among the potential applications include joint banking accounts, sales escrow, employee contracting and payroll and anonymous transactions.
The solution, many agree, is the use of decentralized platforms that mitigate or eliminate points of failure that can cause crippling losses for users and dampen perception of what is still an emerging technology. Next-generation platforms built using digital currency technology concepts are in development, yet several months ago, the first decentralized two-party smart contract quietly entered public beta and has been pushing the boundaries of its original design.
According to David Zimbeck the solution, many agree, is the use of decentralized platforms that mitigate or eliminate points of failure that can cause crippling losses for users and dampen perception of what is still an emerging technology. Next-generation platforms built using digital currency technology concepts are in development, yet several months ago, the first decentralized two-party smart contract quietly entered public beta and has been pushing the boundaries of its original design.
One of the main hallmarks of a healthy cryptocurrency is the community that springs up around it. When that community then takes the ideas and the codebase and creates new products, services, or movements, a type of self-sustaining ‘ecology’ emerges. That community inertia can keep an altcoin moving forward past all expectations (Dogecoin), and it will probably be the deciding factor
CoinDesk spoke with developer David Zimbeck, who said that the open-source BitHalo works around several problems that keep smart contracts from being built on top of the bitcoin block chain. The drive to solve these issues has lead to the creation of smart contract platforms like Counterparty and ClearingHouse, as well as the next-generation block chain project Ethereum.
The solution, David Zimbeck explained, is maintaining the integrity of the block chain by avoiding bloat, or excess information that can prove problematic for the network and results in a situation where network users have to download and constantly update a massive amount of data.
BitHalo avoids this through a peer-to-peer client that connects users directly, using bitcoin and blackcoin has means for value exchange and encrypted email as a means of distributing contract data. Among the potential applications include joint banking accounts, sales escrow, employee contracting and payroll and anonymous transactions.