Qtum is a decentralized and open-source smart contracts platform and value transfer protocol. Qtum uses proof-of-stake consensus, meaning node operators are rewarded for validating transactions. It is a DGP governed blockchain where community participants can vote to change certain network parameters. Qtum is built on a bitcoin core fork, but the foundation has created its own hybrid blockchain with the help of several key tools. The coin uses bitcoin’s chain because of its simple and stable nature, allowing the foundation to build upon it more easily. As the QTUM project is a hybrid of Bitcoin and Ethereum, its team comprises of members from both Bitcoin and Ethereum community. They also have team members who formerly worked with Tencent, Alibaba, Nasdaq etc. Apart from that, they are backed by some notable VCs and prominent people from the Blockchain community such as Patrick Dai (Project Co-Founder), Neil Mahi (Chief Blockchain Architect/Co-Founder) and Jordan Earls (Lead Developer/Co-Founder). Qtum provides a Turing-complete blockchain stack and is able to execute smart contracts and decentralised applications like the Ethereum blockchain. Qtum builds on Bitcoin's UTXO transaction model and uses the Proof-of-Stake algorithm. It is backed by some highly prominent members of the blockchain community such as Anthony Di Iorio, Xu Star, Bo Shen, David Lee, Jehan Chu and Roger Ver. Qtum sold over 10 million dollars’ worth of its tokens after only 90 minutes, eventually raising a total value of $15.7 million before stopping the campaign early after only 5 days. They raised a total amount of 11,156.766 bitcoins (BTC) and 77,081.031 ether (ETH) in exchange for the 51 million Qtum tokens being distributed to the public. In Qtum’s whitepaper, 51% of the coins were distributed to the public via the crowdfunding campaign. Of the remaining 49%, 29% of the coins would be allocated as community incentives, and the remaining 20% would be distributed to the early backers and development team.
VeriCoin (VRC) is a Proof of Stake-Time cryptocurrency. It was previously a Proof-of-Stake cryptocurrency with Proof of Work used to mine coins in the early stage. VeriCoin began work on PoST after the MintPal VRC hack and the subsequent roll back. More information on Proof of Stake-Time can be obtained by reading the whitepaper here. There is no Pre-mine or IPO for VeriCoin. The minimum stake time is at least 8 hours. The one highlight feature of VeriCoin is VeriFund. VeriFund is the answer to ensure stability and growth of VeriCoin. It is used to counter the inflationary effect of the proof of stake. When the supply increases, VeriFund will purchase liquid supply of VeriCoin to ensure growth and stability of the coin's value. More info about VeriFund can be found at http://vericoin.info/verifund.html Another key feature of VeriCoin is VeriSMS. VeriSMS is an SMS wallet system that gives your phone capability to access the VeriCoin network. Some of the available commands include 'Balance', 'setpassword', and 'SEND'. More information about VeriSMS can be found at http://vericoin.info/text.html