Qtum (QTUM) ran from $12 a piece during the middle of last week to more than $72 during the session yesterday, a gain of more than 500% across what amounts to little more than a week. The company behind the coin is garnering a lot of attention on the back of this rise and picked up coverage across a number of major news media outlets, including here at Forbes.

While many outlets are talking about the price rise and where QTUM currently stands in relation to some of the other major cryptocurrencies in the space, very few are discussing the fundamentals that underpin Qtum and, in turn, serving up any reasoning that explains the action we are seeing.

So, in the absence of this approach, let’s fill in the gaps.

Let’s start with this: Qtum is a decentralized blockchain application platform. What does this mean? It means that the technology is a platform built using blockchain as a base that serves as a layer through which individual developers can build applications using and manipulating the underlying blockchain.

There are a number of these sort of blockchain application platforms in development right now, one example (and one that many see as a major competitor to Qtum) being NEO, but Qtum stands out in a couple of key ways.

First, the blockchain technology that underpins the application platform is the bitcoin blockchain. Qtum then combines this with what’s called a virtual machine (VM), which is the layer that allows for the execution of smart contracts and, in turn, the creation and development of decentralized applications. What’s interesting here, however, is that the VM that Qtum uses is the Ethereum VM (EVM). Normally this would be possible (integration of the EVM with the bitcoin blockchain) but the team at Qtum has found a way to make it possible has called this method its Account Abstraction Layer (AAL).

Essentially, then, it allows for the security and stability of the bitcoin blockchain but with the adaptability of the Ethereum small contract system. It’s a sort of dream team of interoperability.

But the benefits don’t stop there.

Because of the above mentioned AAL, QTUM isn’t limited to the EVM. A different VM can be developed and laid on top of the bitcoin blockchain and – right now – this company is doing exactly that. The team is building an x86 VM that will allow smart contracts programming in 32-bit languages like C, C++, C#, and Java.

This is incredibly important because, for the first time, developers unfamiliar with the standard programming languages associated with blockchain development will be able to harness the power of blockchain (and bitcoin’s blockchain no less) and smart contract technology without having to learn a new language.

In other words, what this company is doing will mean that this space is opened up to millions of programmers practically overnight.

So that’s why markets are getting excited about this company right now. The x86 VM is expected to launch during early 2018 and, when it does, we are going to see a huge amount of development take place on the platform. QTUM is the token that fuels system operational activity (in a similar way to the way in which Ether interacts with Ethereum) and, as such, as this wave of development flows towards the platform, we are going to see a huge increase in demand for QTUM as a token.

As far as a justifiable bull thesis on a token is concerned, there aren’t many out there as satisfying and as logical as that which exists for QTUM right now.

Of course, these are new technologies and we may see some degree of fallout if things don’t go smoothly on deployment but, even with this taken into consideration, and from a reward perspective, this is very much one to watch.

We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest on QTUM, sign up below!

Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice. Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency.

Image courtesy of Qtum.