The Skycoin Platform

Skycoin is a high-performance blockchain project for a new decentralized networking protocol. Skycoin’s revolutionary ecosystem will overhaul the current internet with a faster, more secure replacement. Bitcoin was the first generation prototype for decentralized economics, created to give citizens across the globe unrestricted access to a financial transaction. In addition, Ethereum is blockchain 2.0, the platform designed for the ability to easily launch hundreds of blockchain projects.

Skycoin is blockchain 3.0, the next level of decentralized engineering with an incentivized ecosystem and infinite scalability. It combines and improves upon the benefits of Bitcoin and Ethereum while solving the problems of speed, centralization, and scalability that arose in their development and use.

Skycoin consists of an ecosystem of technologies that work together in unison to provide a complete package:

Skycoin – The digital currency that produces Coin Hours for network bandwidth.

Skywire – Decentralized wireless mesh network for a secure, fast, Web 3.0

Obelisk – Consensus algorithm that distributes a “web of trust”

Fiber – Infinitely scalable parallel network of blockchains

Ethereum: Second Generation Blockchain

Currently, Bitcoin and Ethereum have first mover’s advantage. Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency which enables payments to be sent peer-to-peer without the involvement of a central authority. Ethereum expands Bitcoin’s use-case by offering a platform for deploying decentralized applications. Historically, platforms that have the first mover advantage may not come with the most practical use of available technology. We experienced this with some of the first websites, email services, and search engines.

Ethereum’s position grants it the status of the most used platform for creating decentralized applications. Bitcoin exists as the original blockchain, generation one, and Ethereum represents version 2.0. New technology typically requires multiple iterations to accomplish a useable scalable version that works effectively and efficiently. Ethereum is currently plagued with these issues of scalability.

Crypto kitties are the perfect example of how quickly a good idea on a platform that lacks scalability can hinder a network. Crypto kitties caused a record high of 30,000 transactions on the Ethereum blockchain to become stuck awaiting processing. In addition, security issues have also arisen in Ethereum. With an estimated 3,000 major security flaws said to exist in current smart contracts, the inability to amend contracts after they are deployed has led to large-scale attacks on the network where millions of dollars are lost, and the DAO hack is the perfect example of smart contract security gone wrong.

Skycoin: Third Generation Blockchain

How does Skycoin stack up against its predecessors? Skycoin comes in as the third generation project, solving the problems of scalability with Fiber. Therefore, Fiber is Skycoin’s infinitely scalable solution, rather than blockchain projects launching on one blockchain resulting in congestion of the network. Furthermore, Fiber implements parallel blockchains, allowing applications to have fully customizable implementations. The more projects that exist on Fiber, the stronger the system becomes.

Skycoin fixes the security issues present in Ethereum with CX, Skycoin’s general purpose programming language. In addition, CX allows users to program contractual agreements on the blockchain while enabling users to amend the digital contracts to address any bugs. The CX programming language is built on the premise of security for the average programmer. Skycoin solves many real-world problems and employs financial incentives for its users in Skywire. Furthermore, it aims to update the internet with a faster, more secure version that pays its users for providing bandwidth.

Skycoin in S. Korea

Korea has set itself up as a country that consistently stays ahead of the technological curve. With a tremendous appetite for technological advancement, Koreans boast the position of being consistently first in the Bloomberg innovation index while also remaining a top contender for technical density. Therefore, Korea unsurprisingly has embraced blockchain technology, implementing classification standards & regulatory frameworks. Currently, some of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges are backed by the countries largest conglomerates.

The rollout of decentralized technology will be aided by Korea’s current technology status. In addition, Koreans are technically inclined, they want smooth running products that are easy and fun to use. Smartphones created a substantial advancement in the way we communicate, texting (often with a small charge) evolved toward applications that provided free text services. Furthermore, applications like Kakao talk that provided a better user experience eventually overtook the first movers and became the most used platforms in the country. The propagation of usable customer-focused technology is similar to blockchain projects and their iterations through time.

Ethereum provided for a significant testing ground as a platform for decentralized technology, Skycoin perfects the ideas and processes of Ethereum while creating a usable, incentivized platform that will increase the proliferation of blockchain in the region.

