Bitcoin Diamond (BCD) is a fork of Bitcoin that occurs at the predetermined height of block 495,866 and therewith a new chain will be generated as the BCD. Bitcoin Diamond miners will begin creating blocks with a new proof-of-work algorithm, and will consecutively develop and enhance the protection for account transfer and privacy based on original features of BTC. This will cause a bifurcation of the Bitcoin blockchain. The original Bitcoin blockchain will continue unaltered, but a new branch of the blockchain will split off from the original chain. It shares the same transaction history with Bitcoin until it starts branching and coming into a unique block from which it diverges. As a result of this process, a new cryptocurrency was created which we call “Bitcoin Diamond”. Bitcoin Diamond coin could win over a lot of Bitcoin users with its faster transaction times, lower fees and easier access to new users. Bitcoin is a hugely popular coin but it can be quite difficult to use! Many critics of Bitcoin argue that the coin won’t be a valid replacement for normal money until users can make small purchases; quickly and easily. A network offering these features will also appeal to small businesses dealing in low priced, high-volume goods like coffee or fast food. However, in my opinion the price of Bitcoin Diamond will have to be more stable before it attracts any big-brand clients like Starbucks or McDonalds. One of the main safety features of blockchain technology is encryption. Private personal information is hidden using computer code. Some critics of Bitcoin think that not enough user information is encrypted. For example, all transactions and their amounts can be seen by anyone using the Bitcoin network. This can make tracing the real identities of users fairly easy for governments and other organizations. The team behind Bitcoin Diamond wanted to encrypt more user information. However, they have recently decided not to add more privacy features to BCD. They feel that governments will soon start passing laws that stop cryptocurrencies from hiding user data. In a statement published on Medium, the team noted Japan and Russia as examples of this trend. Bitcoin Diamond is processing much larger blocks than Bitcoin in the same amount of time. Larger blocks mean more transactions and a quicker average transaction time. Bitcoin Diamond makes it easy to mine BCD with less powerful computers. GPU mining allows more users to get involved in supporting the network and this can only be a good thing. Bitcoin is the world’s top cryptocurrency but it’s still quite difficult to use. Diamond coin’s high transaction speeds and low price could make it perfect for buying and selling small and inexpensive products like coffee or bus tickets.
Counterparty is a platform for user-created assets on Bitcoin. It’s a protocol, set of specifications, and an API. Taken together, it allows users to create and trade assets on top of Bitcoin’s blockchain. In this way, Counterparty is similar to platforms like Waves or Ethereum. Of course, the difference is Counterparty integrates directly with Bitcoin. Therefore, it comes will all the security and reliability (and issues) that are part of the Bitcoin blockchain. This is a fairly old project. In fact, it pre-dates Ethereum with its launch in 2014. It was the original asset creation mechanism. As you’re probably aware, Counterparty has faded from prominence over the years. This is largely due to the rise of the ERC-20 token standard on Ethereum. While we’ve become used to calling blockchain assets, tokens, it doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. An asset can represent anything that has value or is rare. As a result, Counterparty steers clear of the word “token” in their marketing and documentation. They’re much more interested in digital assets of all kinds, not just currencies, securities, and utility tokens. Digital assets can be a digital marker of a physical object, an easy way to manage shares in your company, or reputation karma for a website. These are all types of assets you could create on Counterparty (or Ethereum or Waves, for that matter). Counterparty creates the set of rules, requirements, integrations, etc that are necessary for assets on the Bitcoin blockchain. It’s the infrastructure behind user-created assets in much the same way that the ERC-20 protocol sets up guidelines and standards for asset creation on Ethereum. One useful function of digital assets is as a marker of ownership or voting rights. Imagine a scenario where you issued a digital asset to each of your company’s board members in proportion to the amount of voting power held. Or if you gave your stockholders a digital asset as a marker of the amount of stock they owned. If you issued your stock asset, you could then use Counterparty’s distribution function to pay out dividends in BTC based on the amount of digital stock asset each person owned. Counterparty addresses many of the same issues as Ethereum or Waves, but on the Bitcoin blockchain. While that does come with some advantages, ultimately it is not as strong a platform for development as its competitors. It’s best suited for applications that need to interface with Bitcoin or assets that have a specific connection to the Bitcoin ecosystem.