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.
What Is EOS? EOS has always been one of the most hype over ICO and now a smart contract platform. When it was announced by founder Dan Larimer in New York City in May 2017, a giant jumbotron advertisement could be seen glowing over Times Square. In the first 5 days of their ICO token sale, EOS raised an unprecedented $185 million in ETH — all without having any kind of product or service yet. EOS claims to be “the most powerful infrastructure for decentralized applications.” Basically, EOS is (or, rather, will be) a blockchain technology much like Ethereum. They plan to create their own blockchain with a long list of impressive features. Some are even calling EOS the “Ethereum killer.” But along with all the hype and excitement about EOS, there’s also a large amount of skepticism coming from the crypto community. The EOS Vision EOS has big plans. It will be a software that will act as a decentralized operating system. Developers can then build applications on the EOS software. It will be highly scalable, flexible, and usable. The most notable feature that everyone is getting excited about is horizontal scalability — what this means is the EOS blockchain will be able to allow parallel execution of smart contracts and simultaneous processing of transactions. This could be a real game changer. EOS will incorporate the delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) consensus protocol, created by founder Dan Larimer himself. This system is less centralized, uses far less energy, and is incredibly fast — as in, up to millions-of-transactions-per-second fast. Furthermore, there will be no user fees on the EOS blockchain. This would also set them apart from the competition and could help them gain more widespread adoption of their platform. EOS also wants to put a blockchain constitution in place to secure user rights and enable dispute resolution. As explained in their technical whitepaper: 'The EOS.IO software is designed from experience with proven concepts and best practices, and represents fundamental advancements in blockchain technology. The software is part of a holistic blueprint for a globally scalable blockchain society in which decentralized applications can be easily deployed and governed.' Tokens that are issued on top of the EOS platform includes Everipedia, HorusPay, Meet One, and more.