Chris is a British journalist with a strong interest in cryptocurrency. Here he explains why British crypto enthusiasts should look into TrustNote, an innovative distributed DAG ledger based network with enormous potential and a bold vision for empowering the development of the tokenised economy.

TrustNote

TrustNote operates on a distributed Direct Acyclic Graph (DAG) ledger, which offers some huge advantages over classic blockchain models. In the classic blockchain model pioneered by Bitcoin, transactions are verified every time a new block is created. These transactions are broadcast to the entire network and permanently stored on the blockchain’s distributed ledger.



The main disadvantage of this approach is that it can easily lead to slow transaction times and high transaction fees when the network becomes congested.



DAG solves the scaling problem faced by classic blockchains by verifying transactions peer-to-peer. Each new transaction automatically selects another parallel transaction to be verified by, without having to wait for a new block to be created. This means that transactions are completed almost instantly, at much lower cost than is typically attached to classic blockchain transactions. And the unique structure of transactions within a DAG ledger means that high network usage actually makes transactions faster, as there are more concurrent transactions available for new transactions to be verified by.



The three biggest DAG-based cryptocurrencies are currently IOTA, NANO, and Byteball. Each utilises DAG technology to target slightly different use cases. IOTA’s primary focus is industrial data exchange through machine-to-machine (M2M) transactions. NANO is solely focused on being a method of peer-to-peer (P2P) value transfer. Byteball utilises DAG technology for the type of declarative smart contracts and conditional payments pioneered by Ethereum.



TrustNote builds on the innovation of these DAG platforms and adds new features and functionality with incredible disruptive potential. Most excitingly, TrustNote allows anyone to create their own tokens and digital assets without requiring the prohibitive expert coding knowledge required for creating dApps and smart contracts on Ethereum. This opens up a new world of tokenised innovation, where anyone and everyone is able to create innovative new uses for tokens.



TrustNote Makes Tokenised Innovation Accessible to Everyone



Ethereum took blockchain innovation to a level beyond Satoshi Nakamoto’s original Bitcoin vision by making decentralised apps (dApps), declarative smart contracts, and conditional payments possible. We’re only just beginning to scratch the surface of these innovation’s enormous disruptive potential. However, coding dApps and smart contracts for Ethereum requires a high level of specialised coding knowledge, putting this innovation beyond the reach of the average user. And while transactions on the Ethereum network are typically faster and cheaper than Bitcoin, they are still slow enough and expensive enough to make it impractical to fully realise the power of microtransactions on the Ethereum network.



Byteball combines the conditional payments and declarative smart contracts of Ethereum with a DAG-based ledger structure, making it a far more effective solution for high-speed and low-cost microtransactions. However, Byteball doesn’t really solve the difficulty barrier which makes coding for Ethereum inaccessible to the average user. As discussed in this thread on the official Byteball subreddit and this github guide to building chatbots for Byteball, Byteball requires operation of a full node for users to write their own smart contracts, inhibiting the extent to which it can be a platform for tokenised innovation that is accessible to everyone.



TrustNote has been designed with accessibility and ease-of-use foremost in mind. Through the TrustNote network’s iToken platform, anyone can quickly create their own tokens. TrustNote supports multiple coding languages, making tokenised innovation as developer-friendly as possible. Creating a new token is as simple as pressing a button.



TrustNote has the potential to be the primary DAG platform for tokenised innovation which is accessible to everyone. IOTA is primarily aimed at large-scale industrial use cases, and has yet to release concrete details on how, or even if, the average end user may be able to implement and issue dApps, declarative smart contracts, and tokens on the IOTA network.



NANO is solely focused on being a form of value transfer, with no intention of incorporating the kind of tokenised innovation pursued by TrustNote.



Aside from opening up the power of innovation to every user on every device, TrustNote’s emphasis on ease of use has additional security benefits. Given the inherent difficulty of coding for Ethereum, it’s difficult to trust in the integrity and functionality of smart contracts and tokens issued. Unless a user has the high-level coding knowledge necessary to write for Ethereum, how can they be sure that any given token or smart contract issued through Ethereum has been coded effectively and securely?



On the TrustNote network, tokens can be simple modifications of pre-existing or default tokens, ensuring their reliability. For more complex new tokens, TrustNote is working on making the platform compatible with multiple widely-understood coding languages, making it far easier for users to verify the reliability of tokens issued on the TrustNote network.



TrustNote Doesn’t Compromise on Decentralisation



The early development of the Internet shows the power of decentralisation. When Tim Berners-Lee released the World Wide Web protocol, it opened up the power of innovating in this exciting new interconnected world to everyone. Over time, that power has been eroded through increasing centralisation and the creation of ‘walled gardens’ operated by huge companies such as Google and Facebook - companies which never could’ve flourished if the open and decentralised environment of the early Internet hadn’t been available to them.



True decentralisation was a core principle of Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision for Bitcoin. Decentralisation is assured through Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work consensus model, with miners incentivised to verify transactions and maintain the network’s integrity.



As well as supporting innovation, decentralisation ensures security. In a truly decentralised network, there is no single node which can be attacked or hijacked. Distribution of nodes within a decentralised network ensures the integrity and security of everything within that network.



While DAG distributed ledgers offer many advantages over classic blockchain distributed ledgers, the largest DAG-based networks have so far been unable to provide true decentralisation. A big reason for this is that DAG technology is inherently well-suited to situations where a lot of transactions are being made, but in situations with a low transaction volume, new transactions will struggle to find enough parallel transactions to be quickly verified.



IOTA solves the problem of transaction verification through a centralised Coordinator capable of verifying all transactions made on the network. As well as giving up on the security and innovation-enabling benefits of decentralisation, IOTA’s Coordinator limits some of the benefits made possible by operating on a DAG distributed ledger, as in its current form, the IOTA network is only capable of processing about five transactions per second.



Byteball and NANO both solve this problem of transaction verification by allowing users to designate their own ‘Witness’ or ‘Representative’ nodes to verify their transactions. Byteball incentivises operation of Witness nodes by offering them a part of the fee for each transaction they verify. As shown here on the official Byteballs Wiki, there are currently just a handful of Witness nodes other than those operated by Byteballs’ creator, meaning the network is extremely centralised. NANO actually offers no direct incentive for operating a Representative node. This article explains some of the indirect incentives for operating a NANO Representative node, but they are mostly based on wide-spread mainstream adoption of NANO as a real-world currency. That currently seems unlikely, and even if it were to happen, it wouldn’t happen anytime soon.

TrustNote solves this problem by operating an innovative two-tier consensus system based on the same principles of decentralisation as Bitcoin. TrustNote is the world’s first minable distributed DAG ledger, with different levels of nodes operating across the network, from trusted Super Nodes and Full Nodes operating on servers, cloud-based computer systems, and mining operations, through to Light Nodes ideally suited for phones and tablets and Micro Nodes designed for resource-restricted Internet-of-Things devices. By rewarding Super Nodes through mining of new TrustNote tokens, the TrustNote network combines the benefits of world-leading DAG technology with a true Satoshi Nakamoto approach to decentralisation.







Purchasing TrustNote’s TTT Token







During the wild cryptocurrency market bull run throughout the second half of 2017, DAG-based cryptocurrencies experienced some of the most explosive growth. IOTA and NANO in particular exploded in value in an incredibly short space of time, with marketcaps of billions of dollars at the bull run’s peak.







IOTA still has a marketcap of several billion dollars, and it remains within the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation. NANO is ranked within the top 40 cryptocurrencies, with Byteball ranked just outside the top 100.







In contrast, TrustNote has yet to experience the kind of explosive growth seen in other DAG coins. Seeking to avoid the hype-without-substance seen with so many other crypto projects, the TrustNote team held off on all marketing efforts until its main net launch on 18th January, 2018.







TrustNote is currently only available through a handful of exchanges, with Bit-Z and CoinBene being the biggest. Both are open to cryptocurrency investors from the UK, with a quick sign-up process that involves simply entering an email address and username and following instructions in the verification email that follows. Bit-Z offers Bitcoin and Ethereum trading pairs, while CoinBene allows users to trade between TrustNote and US Dollar Tether. This means that users can send BTC or ETH from other exchanges or wallets to Bit-Z, or USDT from other exchanges or wallets to CoinBene, and then exchange this for TrustNote’s TTT token.







Despite TrustNote’s current limited availability, it is consistently attracting multi-million dollar daily trading volumes. This places TrustNote firmly within the top 100 cryptocurrencies by daily trading volume, while it’s marketcap is currently a lot lower than any of the big three DAG coins.







TrustNote’s TTT token currently trades at around $0.05. With a circulating supply of 500,000,000 TTT, this would give TrustNote a marketcap of roughly $25 million - meaning it’s current valuation is less than a third of Byteball, more than 10 times lower than NANO, and more than 100 times lower than IOTA.







With its mainnet already operational and many exciting developments on the horizon, TrustNote has huge potential for growth. It is the only minable DAG-based ledger, with incentivised decentralisation built into the network’s design. TrustNote is much easier to code for than any other platform, allowing anyone to issue tokens through its iToken platform. And TrustNote’s marketcap is much lower than any of the big three DAG coins, giving it much more space to increase in value.