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Researchers from the most prestigious universities in America are coming together to create a new cryptocurrency that will overcome the greatest technical challenge of bitcoin: scalability. Although academics have a bad experience in solving real-world problems, researchers have collaborated with Pantera Capital to develop a cryptocurrency that could act as a valid payment network in the future.
Academics Designing & # 39; Better Bitcoin & # 39;
According to Bloomberg, professors of seven US universities have joined together to create a new cryptocurrency that can achieve higher processing speeds without sacrificing decentralization, a major tenant of the blockchain revolution. The so-called Unit-e cryptocurrency is the first project to be carried out by Distributed Technology Research, the non-profit group that unites academics.
Among the schools represented are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and the University of California. To them is added the hedge fund Pantera Capital, which boasts considerable experience in the generation of investments in stellar encryption. Read: How Pantera Capital designed a 10,000% return by investing in cryptocurrency.
Although several initiatives are underway to increase the speed and scalability of bitcoin transactions, the researchers claim that the cryptocurrency design has inherent limitations that prevent its usefulness as a daily payment system. Unit-e's goal is simple but very ambitious, using blockchain technology to develop a cryptocurrency that can process transactions faster than Visa.
The unit-e is scheduled to go live in the second half of 2019. Once released, it will process up to 10,000 transactions per second, according to DTR. In comparison, Visa handles approximately 1,700 transactions per second.
The debate on Bitcoin scalability
The problem of scalability is one of the biggest obstacles to bitcoin, so that dozens of alternative cryptocurrencies have been designed specifically to solve this problem. Some advocates of the original cryptocurrency believe that the scalability debate can be put to rest once Lightning Network reaches its full potential. The highly touted bitcoin scaling solution has seen significant improvements in recent months, including a double-digit percentage gain in processing capacity.
As of Thursday, Lightning Network's capacity has increased to 529.21 BTC, which equates to just over $ 1.9 million at current prices, according to 1ML. This represents a gain of over 3% from the last time we covered the processing power of Lightning Network on December 26th. At the time, the network saw a 13% increase in processing capacity.
Lightning Network has reached 20,586 channels, an increase of 31.8%. The number of knots has increased by about 20% to 5,472.
The focus of Lightning Network is the desire to increase the speed of bitcoin transactions while reducing the cost of payments. This is done by creating a second-level scaling solution that works as a bidirectional payment channel. Basically, this creates a card & # 39; running & # 39; between two accounts, which eliminates the need to record every transaction on the blockchain.
Lightning Network has its fair share of detractors who claim that the protocol promotes centralization and suffers from inefficiencies that could allow hackers to target channels with a high volume of bitcoins. Bitcoin defender Andreas Antonopoulos addressed some of these concerns in a question and answer session on YouTube last February. Click here to find out more.
Disclaimer: The author owns bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. It holds investment positions in the currencies, but does not carry out trading activities in the short term or daily.
Featured image courtesy of Shutterstock.
