Fundamental to temtum is Temporal Technology, but what is it and how does it work within temtum?

Perhaps the key invention in the original Bitcoin white paper (2008) was the integration of the proof-of-work consensus mechanism. This allows all nodes that comprise the Bitcoin network to ensure they share the same copy of the distributed ledger so that it is impossible to double-spend. The proof-of-work mechanism is essentially a method of randomly selecting the next node that will confirm previous transactions in a way that prevents the reasonable economic prediction of the next confirming node.

Proof-of-work is effective at a certain scale, but it is also extremely resource and energy-intensive, and has failed to adapt to growth, as convincingly argued in a 2019 working paper by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).[1] This paper states that proof-of-work can only achieve payment security if mining income is high, but if that is the case, the transaction market cannot generate an adequate level of income. As a result, liquidity is set to deteriorate substantially in years to come. This is just one of the reasons why for blockchain cryptocurrencies to be truly effective, there needs to be a step-change in their evolution. And that is precisely what we believe temtum delivers.

The temtum Consensus Algorithm, by contrast with Bitcoin, is highly secure and does not require intensive computational resources. It also eliminates block size limitations and implements improved network routing, which means that the temtum network can handle increasing loads as required, which solves the scalability problem. The only limitations governing the number of transactions per second that temtum delivers are hardware and network bandwidth.

The temtum network incorporates – and is enhanced by – the Temporal Blockchain, a new mechanism that allows local nodes to define themselves as 'Temporal nodes' to archive data in order to minimise storage space usage. This follows the same logic as Bitcoin in terms of establishing a timestamp network, but crucially it does not require proof-of-work mining. Instead, although data is archived locally, the Temporal system has been designed to ensure the integrity of the blockchain – making it possible for nodes to validate previous transactions without downloading and storing the entire blockchain.

This data storage method allows low-power devices to fully participate in the temtum network and confirm transactions without requiring the resources demanded by traditional proof-of-work blockchain networks such as Bitcoin. The combination of the temtum Consensus Algorithm and Temporal technology allows the temtum network to deliver extremely high transaction throughput and short transaction confirmation times with low resource requirements.

We have used laboratory tests followed by a live deployment over globally distributed servers to confirm a throughput of up to 120,000 transactions per second (a multiple of the peak capacity of 56,000 TPS on the VISA network).[2]

The technology behind temtum is already fully developed, including mobile and web applications, which are described throughout this document. The temtum live mainnet will be deployed at the same time as coin distribution is carried out. temtum coin (TEM) will be delivered as a fully operational form of payment on day one of genesis block (the first block of any blockchain).

The impact of Temporal

Temporal Blockchain technology transforms the way the blockchain works by reconstructing how peer-to-peer networks scale. It operates with less power, energy and storage, and processes transactions on very low-resourced devices at extremely high speeds, with an unparalleled degree of security.

The temtum network can be scaled rapidly and at minimal cost. temtum eliminates the need for centralised pools of specialised hardware, delivering a blockchain network that’s environmentally conscious and can be run on any device connected to the web – even a smartphone.

This means that our vision of a truly decentralised, fully scalable network that can be placed in the hands of the many rather than the few is fully achievable. Yet with previous blockchain technology – which theoretically supported a similar vision – that simply wasn’t the case. Our technology innovations have supported the necessary evolution of blockchain, which in turn means that the temtum cryptocurrency represents a compelling mass-market proposition at a global level.

The problems with current blockchain technology

Blockchain is still an emerging technology. It has already started to transform a wide range of industries around the world by providing a digitised, immutable and secure network for transacting, sharing and distributing data without a central authority.

This provides a number of significant theoretical benefits when compared with existing technologies and methods, such as improved transparency, traceability and security, as well as increased efficiency and speed of transactions. Most importantly, financial transactions are no longer reliant on trust – they are cryptographically proven.

And yet blockchain networks that have already been deployed have suffered from a number of downsides and concerns that have meant that they have failed to deliver on their promise and are yet to see significant adoption. Chief among these downsides are:

Scalability: Current blockchain technologies are not truly scalable. They are not able to be fully decentralised and in many cases require high entry points to participate in them e.g. massive computational power.

Speed: Many blockchain technologies, including Bitcoin, are enormously slow. Bitcoin can take 10–15 minutes per transaction which makes it thoroughly unsuitable as a mainstream form of payment. The majority of alternative high transaction technologies are not blockchains.

Resource intensity: Many leading cryptocurrencies use highly wasteful and restrictive consensus mechanisms such as proof-of- work, which require enormous energy use and have a significant environmental impact.

Security: Blockchain based cryptocurrencies’ pseudo- random generation of keys is open to exploitation by sophisticated hackers, with quantum computing increasing the likelihood of predicting software- generated values.

How Temporal can solve inherit problems in bitcoin

The fact that current blockchain networks have limitations at their core, means that they cannot satisfy the key transaction demands for many of the industries and applications which should have the highest need for blockchain networks, such as large global payment networks and credit card companies. This is how temtum addresses each of these flaws in current blockchain networks:

Scalability: The Temporal Blockchain eliminates the need to store the entire chain history on all nodes by locally archiving data, while preventing competition in node selection. This significantly reduces resource requirements and allows anyone with a basic form of technology – such as a smartphone user – to fully participate in the network, delivering true decentralisation and infinite scalability.

Speed: The speed of the temtum network is limited only by the hardware and bandwidth of network participants. We have created a highly efficient Consensus Algorithm and removed block size limitations in order to confirm transactions into a block extremely quickly, with a maximum confirmation time of 12 seconds. Once included in a block, a transaction is confirmed – there is no need to wait for additional blocks to be added subsequent to the initial block, as is the case with Bitcoin, due to the impossibility of a malicious fork.

Resources & sustainability: temtum’s Consensus Algorithm, constructed around leader nodes and our innovative Node Participation Document, removes the need for mining and wasteful, inefficient and restrictive Consensus mechanisms such as proof-of-work. temtum uses substantially less energy and has less environmental impact compared to POW networks. We estimate that the Bitcoin network is 16,573,693 times more expensive than the temtum network based on energy costs alone, assuming both networks are operating at the same size. The Bitcoin network is currently limited to a maximum transaction throughput of seven transactions per second. The average fee for a Bitcoin transaction from 2017-2018 was $57.35 – and the total cost of a Bitcoin transaction in the same time period, including miner and energy fees, was $104.701.[3]

Security: Temporal is a quantum-secure blockchain network that uses a photon source for genuine random number generation alongside next-generation hashing algorithms. These prevent the network from being vulnerable to theoretical attacks – even in the case that quantum attacks become commonplace in the near future.

We’re just starting to see the benefits of Temporal Technology and excited to understand the impact it can have on the cryptocurrency space. We invite you to join us on our exciting journey to the future of finance. We have outlined all this and more in our white paper, which you can view here. We’d be delighted to hear from you to ask questions and learn more about temtum.