If you’re a dApp developer, you definitely want to know what Komodo is.

In a rush? Check out the numbers and quick facts in 30 seconds.

Blockchain: Komodo Type: Currency Sector: Platform Circulating Supply: 104,233,619 KMD

Website: https://komodoplatform.com/

Market Cap: $272,061,573 USD

Total Supply: 200,000,000 35,992 BTC

Consensus Algorithm: PoW, Equihash algorithm. Additional security layer provided by dPoW.

Token: KMD token. Initial price: $0.10 Trading at $2.61

*As of the article release date

In a nutshell: “End-to-end Blockchain Solutions Provider empowering developers to build freely and participate in creating the largest open blockchain network.” (komodoplatform.com)

Isn’t China against Cryptocurrencies? Actually, as of May 2018, they are just the opposite. The President of China changed his stance on blockchain and encouraged innovation, stating that it is more influential than the Internet. Furthermore, the Chinese government recently released their first cryptocurrency ratings and Komodo made it to the TOP 5!!

This is exactly what we see from Komodo: a blockchain ecosphere that provides tools that businesses use to rapidly build their own independent blockchain.

Here are a few notable aspects of the Komodo platform:

Native Blockchains

Komodo offers businesses independent blockchains and secures them with the Bitcoin hash rate. Since each blockchain is independent, yet interconnected, Komodo has the ability to scale into the highest levels of transaction speeds, without burdening one blockchain. Unless the business opts for the additional layer of security through dPoW, an asset chain can run fully independent of the Komodo chain, even if Komodo would cease to exist.

Any business deploying a chain in the Komodo ecosystem is free to do so on their own terms, even leaving the ecosystem is a hassle-free process.

Even with this independence, companies still get to use all Komodo features. Moreover, a company that builds its blockchain on this platform does not need to pay in order to keep the functionality running.

Security

The pillar of the Komodo blockchain is their bitcoin level security. The network uses delayed Proof-of-Work algorithm to secure your data. This is because Komodo began as a fork of Zcash, the famous security, and anonymity coin. Businesses that are in the ecosystem enjoy this security benefit that is even affordable to small businesses and startups.

Flexible programming language for smart contracts?

Simple answer: YES. Komodo allows developers to use any language of their choice. If this isn’t the ultimate solution you need for your business, I don’t know what is.

Trade cryptocurrency without counterparty risk

Komodo has a decentralized exchange named BarterDEX. This exchange allows users to trade cryptocurrency without any middleman using “atomic swaps”. That means no voucher, no escrow services and no intermediary coin at all- not even bitcoin? No. On Komodo, there is no registration process and there are no withdrawal limits. Moreover, the platform supports 95% of the cryptocurrencies that exist, this includes bitcoin and ethereum protocol based coins. Cross chain atomic swaps are also possible, whereby one can transfer a token from one chain to another.

The World’s First Decentralized ICO

The cryptocurrency world preaches decentralization. However, ICO’s have remained centralized and vulnerable. This makes ICO’s susceptible to hackers, whale manipulation and human errors. One of the largest hacks happened to a startup named CoinDash. CoinDash lost $7million after a hacker altered the address that investors had to send money to. Instead the money was sent to a malicious digital wallet that the hackers had created. According to a report by Ernst & Young, hackers have stolen about $400m from ICO’s between 2015-2017. Tragic. Moreover, ICO’s lack privacy as the transactions are traceable. This makes it difficult to trade in private due to the KYC policies around ICO’s. Everyone prefers to be anonymous or at least be pseudo-anonymous when it comes to cryptocurrencies. However, ICO’s like Datum ask users to verify their identity using either their passports, national ID or utility bill. There goes your privacy. To solve these problems, Komodo offers the world’s first decentralized ICO. It allows users to release a blockchain product with full decentralization and no third-party actors. BarterDEX eliminates all potential hackers, whales and human error. Lastly, Komodo’s privacy technology, Jumblr, allows participants to barter in private.

Should we leave the King of Dapps, Ethereum and all ride the Komodo dragon?

First and foremost, Ethereum is kind of a closed ecosystem. In Ethereum a new project can start their cryptocurrency/blockchain project in two ways:

Use an existing ERC20 or equivalent Smart Contract which allows the developers to issue their own cryptocurrency/asset/tokens, and further code their own custom functionality in this copy/reused codebase of token issuing a smart contract. In simple terms, using easy to use existing token issuing smart contract. Tread ERC20 or similar smart contracts similar to using a WordPress website instead of manually coding the whole website with the choice of your programming language. Examples of these can be a list of this top ERC20 tokens .

Building your own custom Smart Contract which does all things from issuing cryptocurrency/asset/tokens to doing all smart application behavior which could possibly be coded in a software program. Nice examples of these can be Augur, Slock.it, and such.

In both cases, you will notice that the token issuing is done using a smart contract, and this smart contract cannot run independently without needing Ethereum blockchain. Means to say that the mentioned two methods make new Decentralized Applications developers locks them to Ethereum blockchain.

In times of a catastrophic attack like 51% Sybil attack on Ethereum blockchain or because of hitting it’s on chain transactions scalability limits it will affect not just the base blockchain Ethereum but all the smart contracts running on Ethereum blockchain doesn’t matter however they were issued or used.

Also, we can not avoid that concentrating all dAPPs running only on single base blockchain will result in a huge storage challenge for regular users. Of course, there are plans and research happening in terms of sharding, with no exact dates/months/years of delivery.

So, if one-day Ethereum shuts down (not saying it will happen), what will happen to all the tokens and smart contracts on the system? They will all be gone. Moreover, as more tokens increased on the ethereum platform, the secret came out: scalability challenges.

However, with Komodo, you build your own independent blockchain. The platform is able to link thousands of independent blockchain projects together but these are all islands of their own. This means that if one blockchain gets problematic, like Ethereum’s nightmare Cryptokitties, no other blockchain will be affected. All the other blockchains on the network will still function effectively.

In order to take advantage of the scalability challenge, Komodo is currently working on an ERC migration tool. This is meant to help companies that want to move from ERC to Komodo technology do it seamlessly.

Challenges

The only challenge that Komodo has is fast growth, which you could call a blessing and a curse. Currently, the platform carries out 800,000 payments per second. For a team of 30-40 people, it’s stressful. This is due to constant reiteration and feedback so as to provide this groundbreaking technology. However, they seem to be handling it like champs.

Future plans

The future seems bright for Komodo. The team is potentially moving into mobiles. They are planning on getting native dApps on mobiles. It’s still underway, but it’s worth keeping an eye on.

Komodo aims to create a seamless relationship in the blockchain industry. A technology worth considering for anyone planning on building a blockchain. It’s truly your best bet.

Useful links

Website

Whitepaper

Coinmarketcap

This article is based on an exclusive interview between Decentral Magazine and Ca333 of Komodo during Blockshow Europe 2018. This event took place from 28th-29th May in Berlin. There were over 3000 attendees and over 150 blockchain projects.