The Qtum Project Creates a Mixture of Bitcoin and Ethereum

A new project called Qtum has been created by the Singapore-based Quantum Foundation that plans to meld the Bitcoin protocol with Ethereum technology. The open source project integrates the Ethereum Virtual Machine with Bitcoin’s Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) model and aims to provide smart contracts to businesses worldwide.

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A Project That Mixes Bitcoin Code With Ethereum’s Virtual Machine

The project Qtum is an interesting decentralized app (Dapp) venture that combines the Bitcoin client 0.13, Proof of Stake (PoS), and the Ethereum Virtual Machine to enable smart contract services. The project has also received $1 million in funding from investors such as Fenbushi partner Bo Shen, Ethereum co-founder Anthony Di Iorio, BitFund founder Xiaolai Li, and more. Qtum’s goal is to provide a value transfer protocol Dapp platform with the best properties of both projects.

“Qtum integrated the EVM onto a UTXO-based blockchain, and writing contracts for this should be just as easy as for Ethereum, but you get the benefits of the UTXO model,” explains Qtum developer Jordan Earlz. “These benefits include mobile/light wallet support by SPV, a more stable model (whereas Ethereum has forked many times to fix problems with this), and compatibility with existing Bitcoin tools and protocols.”

The Qtum Project Will Deploy Master Contracts and Incentivized Proof of Stake

The Qtum development team details how the platform will allow both smart contracts and master contracts that include off-chain data. The Qtum project explains to the publication 8btc that master contracts accomplish much more than typical smart contracts.

“A contract signed by two banks could be terminated with the consensus of the two banks alone,” states the Quantum Foundation. “A master contract gives total control to the contract-signers over the execution or termination of the contracts. That’s a mimic of real-life scenario. The Master Contract is a great step forward, bringing new potential to the blockchain application and extending the concept of smart contract.”

The project also claims to be the first to implement a smart contract system utilizing Bitcoin’s UTXO while also integrating a Proof of Stake mechanism. The network consensus is referred to as IPOS (Incentivized Proof of Stake) which the developers say rewards the network participants.

Extensive Testing, Sparknet and Utilizing the Most Stable Blockchain

The Qtum team has built two Dapp projects so far including SpringEmail and Qloha. Both services utilize cryptocurrency solutions that enhance messaging applications and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (STMP). According to the team, the Qtum project is in the midst of creating desktop and mobile wallets for its user base. After extensive testing, the developers plan to unveil its testnet application dubbed “Sparknet” which will be the prelude to the official platform launch. Qtum also has disclosed that the team will be seeking out code reviews from independent individuals and organizations willing to experiment with the project.

The project is pleased to utilize the Bitcoin protocol within the Qtum project, stating that the Bitcoin blockchain is the most dependable public distributed ledger available.

“Bitcoin is the most mature, stable and secure blockchain available, in comparison to Ethereum or Bitshares or others which are still considered unstable with the numerous problems and security issues they had since they launched,” says the Qtum team. “In addition to Bitcoin having the biggest support from the community which offers a large collection of tools and software related to Bitcoin which can be used by quantum as well, in contrast to the other blockchains which sometimes lack even the simplest software.”

What do you think of the Qtum project mixing Bitcoin with Ethereum and Proof of Stake consensus? Let us know how you feel about this project in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, and Qtum’s blog.

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