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.
Penta Network is a next-generation platform for both public and private blockchain projects, designed to be a premier platform for transferring value and operating high-performance decentralized applications. Penta will remove roadblocks and reshape the blockchain landscape with an emphasis on impacting the real economy and improving productivity. With its unique consensus algorithm (DSC) and a distributed network architecture, Penta is building the world’s most inclusive, equitable, and distributed blockchain community. Penta Network will provide a fully integrated network infrastructure enabling people, businesses, and communities to exchange things of value in a secure, seamless, and efficient way. The Penta Network will provide the kind of infrastructure needed to power the Smart Economy of tomorrow. The Penta public blockchain is a “smart decentralized” blockchain with a unique consensus algorithm DSC, which balances quantum resistant security with decentralization and scalability. Only by balancing these elements can public blockchains reach their full promise. Building on its underlying blockchain infrastructure, Penta offers a high-performance DAPP platform that ensures scalability, security and efficiency. The Penta DAPP Layer will empower developers to commercially deploy applications solving real-world issues. The Connection Layer' enables Penta to be compatible with other blockchains, with existing networks like online platforms and cloud computing systems, and with off-chain systems. We call Penta the Universal Blockchain Connector because it solves the interoperability problem so that applications launched on Penta can traverse digital networks to be productive in the real economy.