Bytom Blockchain Protocol (hereinafter referred as Bytom) is an interactive protocol of multiple byteassets. Heterogeneous byte-assets (indigenous digital currency, digital assets) that operate in different forms on the Bytom Blockchain and atomic assets (warrants, securities, dividends, bonds, intelligence information, forecasting information and other information that exist in the physical world) can be registered, exchanged, gambled and engaged in other more complicated and contract-based inter-operations via Bytom.- Bytom Whitepaper

Bytom Application

As a distributed protocol for asset exchange, Bytom allow users to manage/invest their portfolios with smart contract. Below are some examples:

Tool for trust-less coin-to-coin exchange: Right now if investors want to conduct a C2C trade, he must go through a third party custody. With atomic swap feature of Bytom, the third party custodian is no longer needed.

Fair execution of prediction protocol. Smart contract on Bytom will be executed at prescribed time without interference from third party, thus eliminating contract manipulation.

Company option manger: he could entrust the management of options to blockchain network, which will then execute the contract automatically.

Assets on Bytom are very valuable, which requires a safe and stable system.

On-chain verification ensure authenticity of assets

Bytom is dedicated to be a public blockchain for asset management, so it allows anyone to issue their own assets. This brings another question: how is the authenticity of so many assets protected? To solve this problem, Bytom introduces “ODIN” technology (Open Data Index Name) for trusted companies / individuals to provide “blockchain CA certification”. Companies certified at root-level have the authority to self-identify one or multiple layers of assets issued the company. In this way the uniqueness of assets could be guaranteed throughout the entire network, even in the cross-chain scenario.

Quarantine of faulted contract

On November 7, a developer called “devops199” triggered a bug in the Ethereum Parity wallet, freezing 511,300 ETH till present. The fault is not directly related to Parity wallet but a library that the wallet called (Ethereum’s underlying library functions, can be understood as public contracts). Because Ethereum’s contract call is to use the address as a pointer, every execution of the user-written smart contract needs to call library. “Devops199” destroyed the underlying library functions and destroyed the pointers of all contracts as a collateral damage. Funds in the wallet are permanently frozen. Hopefully a hard fork in the future will solve the problem.

Acutually Bytom’s design is more like that of Bitcoin, which is based on UTXO (Unspend Transaction Out). UTXO of all Bytom assets are guarded by turning complete smart contracts. Bytom’s contract calling is to add contract as a subcontract when the smart contract is created. After that, all created smart contracts are not affected by the change of bug of contract templates.

Privacy design of Bytom

Bytom protects user privacy through Pyramid-like authority. Each user have unlimited number of private keys, different combinations of which can generate different accounts.

Privacy Design of Bytom

As shown in the figure above, each account may be controlled by one private key of a user, or it may be controlled by multiple private key of a user, or may be controlled by N private keys of different users. Under each account, there is unlimited number of different smart contracts. The relationship between contracts and accounts is somewhat similar to the relationship between private key and public key.

In Bytom’s design, account are stored lolcally. Smart contract is the only thing broadcast on-chain. Each transaction will generate a new smart contract. Such a design guarantees that all asset transaction are distributed like a tree instead of a ring. This means that no one can derive the relationship network in bytom through analyzing transactional behaviors.

Invisible contract design

Invisible Smart Contract

No one can ensure that the smart contract is bug-free. Problems like being hacked, privacy issues, premature leaking of gambling contract will arise. Therefore Bytom propose the concept of “invisible contract”, which could be executed without exposing detail contents. That is, user will hash contract after it’s being completed, then lock an asset with the contract’s hash. The contract will be visible when the asset is unlocked.

Summary

Bytom does not deliver complicated functions like Ethereum. We only focus on building the best asset management blockchain. The design of smart contracts also focus on simplicity and ease of use. The more complicated the system is, the easier there will be BUG. Although Bytom’s trading is based on UTXO like Bitcoin, the system supports not only an unlimited number of assets but also Turing complete smart contracts. Through accumulating selected features, Bytom provides a business-class blockchain platform.