Dentacoin is an Ethereum-based blockchain platform regulated by smart contracts. The platform supports the dental community by building and creating solutions devoted to improving the quality of dental care worldwide. The blockchain gives Dentacoin the power to change the world for the better. Dentacoin develops the dental industry as well as creates market intelligence through a cryptocurrency reward system that inspires participation throughout the community. Dentacoin is the first cryptocurrency that uses a decentralized review platform and transparently rewards patients and dentists who make contributions that benefit the community. The Dentacoin Foundation team strongly believes in building a future healthcare industry that will fall into the hands of the people, resulting in the disruption of the existing industries and the creation of new industries in the short and long term. Dentacoin strives to create a dental industry community by rewarding people -who provide valuable contributions- with crypto currency. Through this reward system, the foundation will see a rise in a currency that will be able to reach a broad market, including a vast number of people who have yet to participate in any cryptocurrency economy. According to Harvard Business Review: “To protect the blockchain vision from political pressure and regulatory interference, blockchain networks rely on a decentralized infrastructure that can't be controlled by any one person or group.' The integration of blockchain and dentistry is an extraordinary concept; one that requires the creation of a community in which transparency and shared responsibility can take place. Looking forward, Dentacoin expects the platform to drastically improve dental health and hygiene habits, thus improving the quality of life for individuals resulting in improved overall health and increased longevity.
The bitcoin network is a peer-to-peer payment network that operates on a cryptographic protocol. Users send and receive bitcoins, the units of currency, by broadcasting digitally signed messages to the network using bitcoin cryptocurrency wallet software. Transactions are recorded into a distributed, replicated public database known as the blockchain, with consensus achieved by a proof-of-work system called mining. Satoshi Nakamoto, the designer of bitcoin claimed that design and coding of bitcoin began in 2007. The project was released in 2009 as open source software. The network requires the minimal structure to share transactions. An ad hoc decentralized network of volunteers is sufficient. Messages are broadcast on a best effort basis, and nodes can leave and rejoin the network at will. Upon reconnection, a node downloads and verifies new blocks from other nodes to complete its local copy of the blockchain. A bitcoin is defined by a sequence of digitally signed transactions that began with the bitcoin's creation, as a block reward. The owner of a bitcoin transfers it by digitally signing it over to the next owner using a bitcoin transaction, much like endorsing a traditional bank check. A payee can examine each previous transaction to verify the chain of ownership. Unlike traditional check endorsements, bitcoin transactions are irreversible, which eliminates the risk of chargeback fraud. Although it is possible to handle bitcoins individually, it would be unwieldy to require a separate transaction for every bitcoin in a transaction. Transactions are therefore allowed to contain multiple inputs and outputs, allowing bitcoins to be split and combined. Common transactions will have either a single input from a larger previous transaction or multiple inputs combining smaller amounts, and one or two outputs: one for the payment, and one returning the change, if any, to the sender. Any difference between the total input and output amounts of a transaction goes to miners as a transaction fee. In 2013, Mark Gimein estimated electricity consumption to be about 40.9 megawatts (982 megawatt-hours a day). In 2014, Hass McCook estimated 80.7 megawatts (80,666 kW). As of 2015, The Economist estimated that even if all miners used modern facilities, the combined electricity consumption would be 166.7 megawatts (1.46 terawatt-hours per year). To lower the costs, bitcoin miners have set up in places like Iceland where geothermal energy is cheap and cooling Arctic air is free. Chinese bitcoin miners are known to use hydroelectric power in Tibet to reduce electricity costs. Various potential attacks on the bitcoin network and its use as a payment system, real or theoretical, have been considered. The bitcoin protocol includes several features that protect it against some of those attacks, such as unauthorized spending, double spending, forging bitcoins, and tampering with the blockchain. Other attacks, such as theft of private keys, require due care by users.