A centralized database on a standard gigabit network can execute 710,000 transactions per second when transactions are no more than 176 bytes size on average. Without compromising decentralization, it is challenging for a blockchain to have such a high-speed transaction capacity. Solana has accomplished an impressive transaction per second capacity without compromising decentralization much. It is an open-source project that is a new permissionless and high-performance blockchain. The Solana Foundation manages the open-source project, situated in Geneva, Switzerland. It is the high-speed layer one blockchain, with a max capacity of 65,000 transactions per second. It has a transaction finality of around 13 seconds. How does Solana work? Proof of Stake (PoS) and Proof of History (PoH) are used by Solana Network to process its transactions efficiently with high speed. PoH is a simple method for validating all the transactions without communicating with other nodes. PoS is also used for validating transactions, for this, you have to stake your token. PoH is based on a simple method. It assigns a leader position randomly to a particular node after every new block creation. Any node which is the leader node must generate the whole proof of history statement. After being given the responsibility, the leader node coordinates with other nodes to construct a proof of history statement. The leader node also pushes the currently executed transactions, and then it publishes the transactions with verifiers in their final nodes. Verifiers repeat the process again to verify transactions. Verifiers also make copies of transactions and make them public. There is only one leader node in each Solana network at a time. The verifier node performs intelligently and has the same capabilities as a leader node; however, the verifier node can subsequently be elected as a leader through proof of stake elections. Compared to Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchain networks, a combination of PoH and PoS works well for Solana, allowing it to process data at a cheap cost. Solana’s high-speed blockchain is built using eight major technologies mentioned below: Proof of History: a clock before consensus. Tower Byzantine Fault Tolerance: a PoH-optimized version of PBFT. Turbine: a block propagation protocol. Gulfstream: a Mempool-less transaction forwarding protocol. Sealevel: the world’s first parallel smart contracts run-time. Pipelining: a transaction processing unit for validation. Cloudbreak: a horizontally-scaled accounts database. Archivers: Provide distributed ledger storage. Key characteristics of Solana:  Proof of History: For authorizing and restricting entries on its ledger, Bitcoin and Ethereum’s blockchain networks use a Proof of Work technique (proof of work means that every node on the blockchain network must reach consensus before every new entry). Proof of Work (PoW) is a complicated method that slows down the speed of transactions.  To address the drawbacks of the PoW system, Proof of History (PoH) was developed. Proof of history simply means that a new block can be added to the blockchain network without the need for mutual consent of other nodes. Every node in Solana has its clock and makes choices without consulting the others. Proof of History improves transaction speed while simultaneously ensuring an efficient blockchain network and recording all transactions.     Tower Byzantine Fault Tolerance: The BFT system functions as a safety net for the whole Solana ecosystem. It ensures that a single node failure does not disrupt the entire operation of the system. This approach enables the nodes to work even in case of multiple failures. Gulfstream: Gulfstream is a system that eliminates memepool requirements. Memepool can be viewed as a holding area where all unprocessed transactions await their turn. Solana’s network can handle a memory pool with a capacity of 1,00,00 transactions.   Validators are present in every blockchain ecosystem (validators select transactions and add them to the blockchain network). Solana’s network sends the transactions to its validators even before a new transaction is added. Validators empty the memepool region simultaneously, ensuring no ‘unconfirmed transactions’ in the Solana ecosystem. Sealevel: Solana allows for the simultaneous execution of numerous smart contracts. Solana becomes a time-saving and cost-effective blockchain network as a result of this. Sea level is the technology that allows Solana to run many smart contracts simultaneously. Cloudbreak: Solana uses a horizontal scaling method, which allows the blockchain to expand its scalability. Cloudbreak manages a database that can read and write transaction input data. It is also in charge of bridging the gap between hardware and software.  Pipeline: Most tasks in Solana’s ecosystem are separated for processing transactions quickly. Solana distributes the input data throughout the various hardware components of the network. It is a procedure that quickly checks the information blocks using various devices. Turbine: Solana splits various blockchain nodes into smaller packets. It helps in increasing the transaction speed of the network. Smaller data packets can be evaluated more quickly, which aids Solana in addressing bandwidth difficulties. Two main ways which make Solana … Continued

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Nowadays, people are spending more time in the virtual world in comparison to the real world. People are using mobiles, laptops for both work and leisure. An introduction to the 3D world will create a more immersive experience for people. Websites and applications where people spend most of their time are controlled by a centralized entity. People don’t have any control over these applications. Decentraland, unlike other social networks, games are not controlled by a centralized entity. The community owns and has full control over this shared virtual world.  What is Decentraland? Decentraland is a shared virtual world that is powered by the Ethereum blockchain. Its users can create content and monetize it. Users can pay for experiencing various applications in Decentraland. The community permanently owns the land in Decentraland and has full control over it. The ownership of land can be claimed by users through a blockchain-based ledger of parcels. Each portion of land can be identified by a set of cartesian coordinates (x,y). Landowners decide what type of content can be published to their land, content can be static 3D scenes, interactive games. All the land in Decentraland is an NFT, stored in an Ethereum smart contract. To acquire land in Decentraland, the MANA token is used. Digital goods and services can also be purchased by MANA. How does Decentraland work? Decentraland has built a framework for supporting shared virtual worlds. A decentralized ledger stores all the data of ownership of land, contents of each parcel of land and also provides a peer-to-peer network for user interactions. Users can participate in governance functions and can propose policies and vote on upcoming LAND auctions. Decentraland’s protocol consists of three layers : A consensus layer: This layer is used for tracking ownership of land and its content. A LAND content layer: This layer uses a decentralized distributed system to download assets and for rendering content in the virtual world.  A real-time layer: This layer is responsible for enabling users to connect with each other.   The above diagram shows the steps executed by the Decentraland client to provide the experience of a virtual world in a decentralized manner. Each piece of land is marked by a unique set of cartesian coordinates. Content created by users can vary from 2D scenes to 3D scenes giving an immersive experience.  The consensus layer is responsible for tracking ownership of land, land content is referenced here as a hash of the file’s content. The content can be downloaded from IPFS or BitTorrent by using reference. The downloaded file of content contains a description of objects, sounds, textures, and other elements needed to render the content scene.  Decentraland has two important systems which enable its economy to develop : Payment Channel Infrastructure: It enables fast payment with low fees. Identity System: It allows users to prove their ownership over their creations.  Tokenomics   Decentraland has an ERC-20 token called MANA. It is used to buy, sell digital assets and can also be used for gambling in virtual casinos. It is also a governance token. Holders of MANA tokens can participate in governance functions. They can propose their own policy and can also vote on the different proposals.  Decentraland is controlled by MANA holders through Decentraland DAO. The DAO owns the important smart contracts and assets such as the LAND contract, Estates contract, Wearables, Content servers, and Marketplace.  1 MANA token gets you 1 vote and owners of LAND and Estates get 2000 votes. The maximum supply of MANA tokens is 2.193 billion. As of writing this article, the circulating supply of MANA tokens is 1.32 billion, the market cap is 3.7 billion, and the price is 2.84 US dollars. Applications of Decentraland Content Curation  Decentraland users can create content of shared interest of their neighbors. If a creator is living near a high traffic hub, then more users will drive to the creator’s content. Advertising Brands can drive users to their products, services, and events by using billboards to advertise in high-traffic hubs. Brands can create shared experiences to engage their audience so that users will be interested in using these experiences in their own land. Digital Collectibles  Digital assets are published, distributed, and collected by users on the blockchain. These digital assets can be traded easily by users in the Decentralnd. Rare or old digital assets are traded at a very high price. These digital collectibles are used to identify users and their land.  Social All the groups which are present in online forums, chat groups, discords can port their communities into Decentraland. People can form different communities on various subjects and can propose their policies through governance. Conclusion Decentraland has opened a new world of possibilities for internet users. Users can create their own content on a decentralized platform and can receive all … Continued

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All of us think that the information uploaded on the internet always remains there. However, this is not the case, in reality, the websites, data that make up the whole internet are often censored, changed, and sometimes removed also. Big centralized enterprises such as AWS, Google Cloud, IBM, DELL EMC store most of the data on the internet. They act as a medium in providing users access to applications, websites and can easily revoke our access anytime. In case these companies don’t have enough funding to maintain the servers, our data can also disappear. Long-term data storage is a big problem faced by internet users currently. Arweave solves all of these problems by following a decentralized approach. What is Arweave? Arweave is a decentralized protocol that allows you to store data permanently on the internet by paying fees only one time. It connects people who need storage to those people having disk space on their hardware devices. It is designed to provide internet users with permanent, cost-efficient data storage. Arweave is built differently than any major blockchains such as Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana, etc. It is built on the blockchain-like data structure called blockweave. In blockweave, each block is linked to the previous block and to a recall block (a random block from the history of the blockweave). The blockweave supports a permanent and decentralized web called the permaweb. It is a collection of websites, data, and decentralized apps (dApps) that can be easily accessed by users through internet browsers. Arweave’s native token AR is used for transactions fees on the network and also used to incentivize miners for storing copies of data and mining new blocks. Comparison between Traditional Web and Permaweb                     The Traditional Web                     The Permaweb Information is mutable Information is immutable The traditional web is centralized Permaweb is decentralized Monopolized  Users have control over their data Link Rot issue exists Zero upkeep Storing is expensive Pay once and store forever How does Arweave Works? The above diagram shows the structure of the Arweave Protocol. Similar to traditional blockchains, all the information of websites and applications on the permaweb is stored in the collection of blocks that form blockweave. In a traditional blockchain like Ethereum, each block is linked to its previous block. However, in the case of Arweave’s blockweave, each block is linked to its previous block and another random block from the blockweave history known as its recall block. Recall block is a key element of Arweave’s consensus mechanism, known as PoA.  Here’s how Proof-of-Access works:  Miners provide data storage and also store copies of data stored in the network in exchange for AR tokens. They are responsible for maintaining the blockweave network. Miners have to provide cryptographic proof that they have access to the recall block, then only they can mine or verify a new block. This is the reason, why Arweave’s consensus mechanism is called PoA. Arweave’s goal of long-term data storage is made possible due to miners following the rules set by the proof of access consensus mechanism. When a rare recall block needs to be linked, miners storing that rare block have to face less competition against other miners, and the probability of receiving block reward increases. Thus, for miners who also store rare blocks, their chances of getting more rewards increase in the long term. It is not compulsory for miners to store all the data in the network. Miners can choose which block or transactions, they would like to store. Miners can also create their own “content policy” which will restrain certain information from being stored on their hardware devices. Whenever data distribution takes place, it scans the content policies of each miner, and if the content is restricted by the miner’s content policy, that particular data will be not accepted by the miner’s transaction pool. Tokenomics of Arweave AR tokens are used for payment by users for storing their data permanently on the Arweave network. AR tokens are also received by miners for storing data and mining new blocks. All the transaction fees of the Arweave network do not go to miners at one time. The majority of transaction fees go to a storage “endowment”, fees are gradually disbursed to miners over time from this endowment. User pays fees only one time and interest accrued on it is distributed to miners. This incentivization cliff measure is taken to minimize the AR token volatility while also preserving the long-term survival of the mining-based consensus mechanism. Arweave’s blockweave data structure uses Proof of Access as a consensus mechanism. AR tokens have a maximum supply of 66 million. AR tokens have a current circulating supply of 50 million. On the network’s launch, 55 … Continued

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People use bitcoin by sharing their payment address that looks like this : mp525tN8b3v4aos32hQT8E6cepdhZVyqVC Let us suppose this bitcoin address belongs to a shopkeeper. The shopkeeper puts this address on a poster behind the shop in the form of a QR code. Now, customers can scan that code with their bitcoin wallet application to pay for their bought items.  The problem is anyone can look for that address in the bitcoin blockchain and can see every incoming or outgoing transaction of that address and the total bitcoin balance of the address. Anyone with that information can get an idea of how rich the shopkeeper is and how successful the shop has been in the past. This information can be exploited by bad actors such as robbers for their personal gains. Also, if we are sitting next to someone while they pay for their bought items, then we can get the idea of how rich the customer sitting next to us is, by seeing the most recent incoming transaction to the shopkeeper’s address and then looking up the balance of the sending address i.e the customer address. So, Bitcoin does not provide full financial privacy, and your average innocent user gets no privacy whatsoever. There are various examples like this, where user privacy can be breached and information gained through it can be exploited by bad actors for their personal gains. Zcash protocol solves this problem of financial privacy for the users. It allows users to send money anywhere without risking their privacy.  What is Zcash and How does it enhance privacy? Zcash is a privacy cryptocurrency that provides anonymous value transfer using zero-knowledge-proof cryptography technology. Zcash is a bitcoin fork and most of the Zcash code is built from bitcoin’s original open-source code but there is a key difference that it uses encryption techniques in payments for privacy. The protocol provides two choices to the user when they transact, they can choose a shielded address for their transaction which will be fully anonymous or they can choose a transparent address where their transactions will be fully visible on the blockchain. When the user uses a shielded address for their transactions, details of transactions are not available for the public to see on the blockchain. Shielded addresses transaction information is encrypted and is not visible to the public. All the transactions that are executed by transparent addresses are visible publicly on the blockchain. How does Zcash Works?           The above diagram shows the whole process of Zcash transactions Zero-knowledge proofs are required to be generated when the user uses shielded addresses for transactions. It allows others to verify transaction details by keeping them private and not revealing them to the public. Shielded addresses always start with a ‘z’ and are called ‘z-addrs’. Similarly, when the user uses transparent addresses, all the transactions interact with the Transparent Value Pool and transactions details are publicly available in the blockchain. These transparent addresses always start with “t” and are called ‘t-addrs’. All the details of transaction fees of both transparent addresses and shielded addresses transactions pass through the Transparent Value Pool and are easily visible in the blockchain.  Tokenomics Zcash token symbol is $ZEC. Similar to bitcoin, the maximum supply of Zcash tokens is 21 million. All Zcash tokens will be mined by 2032, and Zcash block rewards will get halved every four years. In the initial four years after the starting of Zcash mining, 20 percent of its block rewards will be distributed to Electric Coin Company, and 80% of its block rewards will be distributed to miners. At the time of writing this article, the circulating supply of Zcash is 11.99 million, the price of Zcash token is 144.40 US dollars and the market cap of Zcash is 1.73 billion US dollars. Main Features of Zcash Low-Fee Transactions Transactions fees on Zcash protocol are very low i.e 0.0001 Zcash. Zcash token is supported by various crypto wallets and exchanges. Encrypted Memos   When a user does transactions from a shielded address, a memo field is available to fill in any information. Encrypted memos allow the sender to send information that is encrypted and not available for the public to see. Messages and important information can be passed in the memo field. The Rules of compliance made by the Bank Secrecy Act “Travel” are also followed. Viewing Keys For the purpose of regulatory compliance or auditing, transaction details can be revealed by the owner of shielded addresses. The owner can reveal all the incoming transactions and the info in the memo field but can’t disclose the sender’s address unless any information identifying the sender’s address is already mentioned in the memo field.  Multi-Signature Transactions Zcash also supports transactions that require signatures of multiple parties and after their approval, the funds … Continued

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