Ubiq is a ‘fairly launched’ (meaning fair for everyone, no pre-mining, no insta-mining, nor ICO) project that began in 2014. The project was originally launched under the name Jumbucks (JBS). JBS began as proof-of-work and later switched to proof-of-stake when they eventually made the swap on the Ethereum-chain. With the swap came the name Ubiq and immediate forking. Now, just because it’s a fork of Ethereum, doesn’t mean that it’s a copy of Ethereum.

UBQ is the first Ethereum fork that brought about consensus level changes in the form of new code, which basically means that it was majority agreed on by the developers, miners, and investors. On top of that, it also has all the advantages of the Ethereum Virtual Machine while being able to learn from the mistakes Ethereum has made and avoid repeating them.

Possibly the best innovation that UBQ has over its predecessor is the implementation of their ‘flux difficulty algorithm’. This is important for anyone who mines UBQ because, after the completion of each block, the flux algorithm will automatically retarget the difficulty of the next block. This allows for a smooth increase in the difficulty of mining instead of the crazy, random spikes that many miners see in BTC and ETH. This smooth increase means higher accuracy and predictability of profits for miners.

UBQ generates a new block every 88 seconds using a proof-of-work system which is the same as both Ethereum and Ethereum Classic. It also has decentralized applications (DApps) which is a new building model for more scalable applications, as well as smart-contracts which are used to facilitate and verify the performance of a contract that’s then fueled by its UBQ token as fees for transactions and computations.

It’s worth noting that smart contracts and DApps aren’t entirely unique anymore, in fact, they’re actually quite common now, yet many projects are still failing. A lot of issues in the crypto world involve the development teams and what they are capable of accomplishing. A common cause of failure is a team that is ill-equipped to anticipate potential problems or fix issues that arise. This leads to projects that end up too buggy or vulnerable, that we (the consumer, miner, trader or investor) see no long-term viability in. Though the issue of bugs is generally only for newer projects, it’s also an issue that giants like BTC and ETH are dealing with involving clogged networks. Fortunately, UBQ has a veteran development team full of individuals who have consistently contributed to the crypto-community with their innovation and creation. And to top it off, the team is lead by one of my personal favorite developers, Julian Yap.

Who is Julian Yap?

Without getting too fanboy about him or his work, Julian Yap is the Lead developer and mastermind behind UBQ. Before his time with UBQ, Yap worked on the development of Bittrex, another cryptocurrency called Decred (DCR), and blocktech, along with having a lot of great contributions on Github.

How can you buy UBQ?

You first need to buy Bitcoin or Ethereum on Coinbase and then transfer it over to your account at Cryptopia to exchange it for UBQ. If you get stuck or need help, send us a message through our Facebook page or use our contact page and someone on staff will walk you through the process.