Even though cryptocurrencies are just now gaining media attention, the concepts have been around for decades. These concepts have evolved during this time period and have given rise to many cryptocurrencies, each hoping to achieve the most scalable and decentralized system. 1. DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) DLT’s have existed for a long time and are already in use by most of the world’s largest companies. Any cloud- based system is a distributed ledger. Over time, technology has evolved from being able to store data on the cloud, to being able to have logic on the cloud. This provided countless benefits to applications such as more uptime and faster communications. 2. Consensus Algorithms While the blockchain scene was just starting out, consensus algorithms focused on PoW. But as users grew, this became more and more unscalable. The algorithms that are being used today are much more complex and incorporate other factors to find consensus. 3. BFT (Byzantine Fault Tolerance) BFT has been practice for decades and applies to any distributed system. Even space crafts such as SpaceX Dragon needed to have BFT in the design. 4. Smart Contracts Smart contracts are the future of the blockchain/cryptocurrency space. Since they were first […]