While writing this post, a notification appeared on my phone screen from my IMTOKEN wallet stating, "Notice: Ethereum network clogging". I started to wonder if someone unleashed another set of crypto Kitties on the network. The fact is Ethereum has serious scaling issues and is currently only clocking 7-15 transaction per second and yet it is at the heart of the crypto space with ICOs launching daily on the Ethereum blockchain.
Many talks have been going on around the issue of scaling the Etherium Blockchain with former ICOs even pitching ideas and helping the cause. A company by the name of GoChain has come up with a solution
GoChain - Faster than a MAGLEV Cruiser! (or How GoChain Leaves Ethereum at a Standstill)
GoChain is a NextGen smart contract platform.
It was created with an improved Ethereum codebase that addresses Ethereum's shortcomings in the areas of decentralization, scalability (speed/volume), security, and energy consumption.
Easy DApp Migration From Ethereum to Gochain
Current Ethereum DApps and developers will have an easy migration to GoChain.
This is because:
"...anyone currently using Ethereum will be able to seamlessly transfer to our [GoChain's] network without making any code changes..."
GoChain - 10x More Decentralization
Background: Decentralization Unfulfilled
The promise of decentralization that was heralded by Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the rest of the PoW altcoins in the cryptocurrency space has been squelched by the mining monopolies.
In fact, because of the cheap electricity in China, 75-85% of all crypto mining is done by Four Chinese Mega-Mining Entities.
Moving Forward By Taking A Step Back
Although pure decentralization is not feasible with PoW cryptos, GoChain has made a big leap forward in terms of decentralization by actually taking a step back.
Sound weird?
Ok. Let me explain.
Instead of PoW, GoChain uses a consensus mechanism that is a level above PoA (Proof of Authority - essentially a set of approved individuals that validate the network) called PoR (Proof of Reputation).
Stated differently, GoChain paradoxically achieves more decentralization using 50 validators vs. four Big Mining Players by taking a step towards a "pseudo-permissioned" environment (AKA: a degree of more centralization compared to "non-permissioned" networks that, because of their PoW consensus mechanisms, enable mining monopolies).
If you're still a little confused, imagine this:
Instead of being at the mercy of Mega-Mining corporations or risking malicious behavior from an unlimited number of non-permissioned, speed-sucking, and potentially bad actors, GoChain uses 50 publicly identified, approved companies to function as validators of the GoChain network.
Needless to say, this effectively changes the Byzantine Environmental Dynamics quite a bit; decidedly favoring more honest, rational players while simultaneously disincentivising rogue, malicious behavior.
Think of it this way:
It's All About Reputation
"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently."
- Warren Buffet
Whole companies want to reap the benefits of validator rewards.
And fortunately for GoChain, whole company validators have much more at stake (translated: much more to lose) than an individual should they attempt to misbehave.
For example, firms must deal with protecting their hard fought reputations, upholding high standards of private stakeholder/public stockholder stewardship, sustaining company profitability, building a solid community/philanthropic profile, fostering strong global business relationships, navigating a myriad of compliance regulations, etc.
Consequently, compared to an individual validator, the chance of malicious behavior by a whole company - much less collusion towards a 51% attack - is drastically reduced.
Some game theorists may even argue that it's almost statistically insignificant.
GoChain - 100x Increase in TPS Speed
Because of PoR, instead of the Ethereum standard of 13 tps, GoChain can achieve 1300+ tps.
Their TestNet has already verified this claim and recorded tps speeds in excess of 1300 transactions per second with bursts up to 2400 transactions per second - all the while remaining robust and stable!
As a bonus, GoChain's compatibility with Layer 2, offchain solutions like Raiden and Plasma promises to yield even faster tps capability.
GoChain - 1000x Improvement in Energy Consumption/Conservation
As of today, 3.5 million US households could be powered with the energy used to run the Bitcoin network, while Ethereum uses the equivalent power of 1 million households.
This is unacceptable and unsustainable.
Using PoR on a trusted network with approved nodes makes energy wasting mining unnecessary.
No mining means no expenditure of electricity for computational problem solving (the Bitcoin "Everyone Mine, But Winner-Take-All" PoW consensus mechanism).
Validation via authorized nodes needs only a fraction of the energy of traditional mining.
Ethereum’s energy consumption is ~14 TWh and rising annually; while GoChain's 50-node cluster (using a 450W power source/each) will use only ~197.1 MWh.
In other words, GoChain's energy consumption equals 0.001% of Ethereum's!
Token Sale Info
More GoChain technical details, description of the Strong GoChain Team, and GoChain Community projects and resources can be found on their website: https://gochain.io/
Get their White Paper here: https://gochain.io/gochain-whitepaper-v2.1.2.pdf
Parting Shot
The main features of GoChian include:
- 100 X increased performance with a launch target average 1300 transactions per second. Compared to 7-15 transactions per second for the Ethereum network. The goal is to scale to 13,000 transactions by Q2 2019. GoChian recently did a 10 hour test to showcase the speed of their soon to be released protocol and it does look impressive, with transaction speeds that clocked up to 1500 transactions per second. See more on the results here.
Transaction fees will be inexpensive because there will be no clogging of the system that forces fees on transactors. Every time the Ethereum or Bitcoin networks get clogged, the fees go up. The fast transaction speed will make GOC ( Gochains token) a coin of choice for transactions as time is of the essence in crypt-space.
- 1000 X less energy will be used to run GoChian compared to other networks which is of major concern to environmentalist. GoChian is a green blockchain that will attract a lot of attention form the media and is a good point of marketing. The electricity consumed to mine Ethereum and Bitcoin is shocking to say the least.
"The energy used to run the Bitcoin network could power more than 3.5 million US households, 1 million to run Ethereum. We think that's completely unnacceptable and unsustainable. GoChain will use a small fraction of the energy used to run other cryptocurrencies. "
- 10 X more decentralized than other networks with identified nodes in 50 different countries ran by various public listed companies. Monopolized mining and manipulation will be impossible. The name of this new form of consensus is called proof of reputation (POR). This is what GoChian will use to confirm it's transactions instead of using the consensus, proof of work ( POW) which led to 70-80% of Bitcoin and Ethereum mining being controlled by Chinese miners. This monopolization was due to extreme decentralization. The POR consensus may seem like a step back to centralization but GoChian sees it as a necessary middle grown.
"This is why we’ve come up with POR which uses companies as validators not individuals. A company with a reputation has a lot more to lose than an individual and is a much stronger deterrent to be a bad actor because the risk is much larger. A company caught cheating would not only be risking its reputation. It would be risking its entire market cap and the reputation of the officers and shareholders of the company. It would have significantly more to lose than any one individual."
The main reason I think Proof of Reputation is a good idea is that public listed companies will have a chance to dip their feet into crypto by confirming transactions ( mining) before taking the plunge. It also makes sure that GoChain's network is spread out, in case of any nodes being shut down due to government regulations in one country.
The Team with the know how
The team seems to have the perfect balance of experience. The CEO Jason Dekker has been in a number of executive positions in various fields from hedge fund manager managing in excess of $250 million, to experience in finance, biotech, tech, and the food & beverage industries. He has built companies from the ground up. The Chief Software Architect, Travis Reeder compliments the CEO's experience with infrastructure know how as he has 20 years of experience developing high scale applications and cloud services. His entire carrier entailed solving scaling problems and delivering scaling services. Now on the GoChain team, the task at hand is solving the Etheruem scaling problem which he seems well versed to do. All the software engineers have years of experience with Ben Johnson specializing in in writing database and distribution systems. Guilherme Rezende has extensive software development experience in both cloud technology and open source. Jordan Krage, a software engineer experienced in massive data and distribution.Roman Kononov, has 12 years experience developing and leading engineer teams. He is also versed in cyber security. The marketing director Brooke Hansen is a social media guru that has explored numerous creative expression. At this point in time, it seems the marketing efforts are just kicking in. I can see why they have done this as surprise catches competitors off guard. The well rounded team has the skills and experience necessary to make GoChain successful. Though this is their first time entering the blockchain space, they have top advisors like Chad Arimura from Oracle, Etiënne VantKruys
EU Biz Dev at WanChain and also Benn Godenzi the marketing advisor also at WanChain.
Review site ratings
The ratings on the top ICO review sites are looking good. If only one review site had an acceptable ranking of the GoChian project then that would be of major concern. All reviews are above average.
4.4 out of 5
4.4 out of 5
8.2 out of 10
4.2 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Competitive advantage
While GoChian is not the only project trying to solve the scaling issues with the Ethereum blockchain, they do have a competitive edge. Their major competitors include Eos and Neo and these projects are no joke either.
Proof of Reputation consenss
What separates GoChian from the pack is that they are moving away from ( POW) Proof of stake ( unidentified miners with nothing to lose if they manipulate the system) to (POR) Proof of reputation ( identified public figures/companies who have a reputation to uphold and a lot to lose, they also self evaluate each other) . This is the key feature that will make the GoChian blockchian faster, more secure and smartly decentralized by using public companies distributed globally, evenly.
Full compatibility
Another key competitive advantage is that moving ERC20 tokens from Etheruem to the GoChian blockchain is fully compatible. With Neo and Eos, you have to start all over. That alone would cause projects on the Ethereum blockchain to stay put even though the system is lagging. Just imagine after 2 years of hard work, starting all over again? Furthermore, if something were to abruptly happen to the Ethereum network, most if not all tokens on that blockchain would be affected. With GoChian, they can easily switch over so the show goes on in a eco friendly, fully decentralized hyper speed environment.
Partnerships
The established public companies will want to use a blockchain provider who understands their business and that is what the founders of GoChian have to offer. They have worked with and built public companies that use cutting edge technology and will therefore know what solutions appeal to and are needed by big business outside the crypto space. Most in the crypto space may not have the eye for this. The Proof of Reputation will also attract power house partnerships. ( Note: Travis Reeder has helped build systems for Amazon web services and other huge companies, so the contacts that GoChain has through experience is priceless.)
Quick launch advantage
The GoChian mainnet will be launched in May, during the token sale. This is very rare in the crypto space with most projects launching months even years after post ICO. This is a very competitive advantage because if they pull this off, it will show the space that they mean business.
GoChian Road Map
Tokenomics
The ICO for GoChian
- Token name: GOC
Token type: ERC20 - Use case: used for platform services and transactions.
- Total supply: 1,000,000,000 GOC
(50,000,000 new tokens, will be generated per year for authorized nodes. This will decrease as the years go by.) - Token sale soft cap: 2,500 ETH
- Token sale hard cap: 26,500 ETH.
Final thoughts.
GoChian is an out of the box solution to the scaling problems the Ethereum network faces. The team is experienced and capable. Blockchain wise, they have good advisers that will add to their executive and technology development experience. GoChian also has clear competitive advantages. I advise you to do some research on your own and see if this project is something you are interested in.
For more information, see the links below.
GoChain Website
GoChain WhitePaper
GoChain Telegram
GoChain Telegram Announcement
GoChain GitHub
GoChain Reddit
GoChain BitcoinTalk
GoChain Twitter
GoChain Facebook
GoChain Medium
GoChain Crunchbase
gochain2018
@originalworks
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