Dipo Olowookere
As blockchain-based applications and platforms continue to make waves as means to advance previously stagnant and problem-inundated systems and processes, there must be a clear understanding of the difference between popular digital currencies and blockchain technology.
Bitcoin, being the first functioning implementation of blockchain technology and the pioneer digital currency, has been a top choice for both digital currency trading and blockchain development. ETH, Hyperledger and EOS are also some of the more popular blockchains used by both individuals and enterprises.
While Bitcoin, ETH and EOS all have digital currencies traded in the market, Hyperledger does not have one and is focused mainly on providing blockchain-based solutions to developers. Digital currencies are built on blockchain technology, a decentralized distributed ledger that allows for data to be immutable, transparent and secure.
All digital currency transactions are recorded on that cryptocurrency’s blockchain, so there are currently many different blockchain providers all over the world. And while blockchain is essentially a decentralized database, not all blockchains have the same capabilities. And this is the main reason why developers transfer from one blockchain to another—because they are looking for certain efficiencies that their applications need.
The BSV Blockchain
BSV is an implementation of Bitcoin that has restored the original Bitcoin protocol, which creates a rock-solid foundation for developers to build on, and unlocked unbounded scaling. Unlike other popular yet unscalable implementations of Bitcoin, such as BTC and BCH, BSV is able to offer 2GB data blocks, extremely high throughput and the lowest possible fee per transaction.
And because BSV has the ability to scale limitlessly, these numbers are not fixed. For instance, the Teranode update scheduled to be released early next year will effectively increase throughput to 50,000 to 100,000 transactions per second (tps). Once released, data blocks will also become bigger at fees of very small fractions of a penny.
And as the network continues to scale, these numbers will continue to go up and fees will become lower until it reaches billions of tps at terabyte-sized blocks. These are the key capabilities of the BSV blockchain that make it ripe for blockchain development and also the reason why developers from other blockchains switch to BSV.
Other Blockchains vs. BSV
Many have tried building on other blockchains and have found them to be inadequate. One of the main reasons is that other blockchains have to rely on second-and third-tier solutions to make up for the flaw that the base layer, which is actually the blockchain, cannot scale.
If a blockchain is incapable of scaling, then there will always be a limit to what they can do. And when this limit is reached, either the system crashes or fees skyrocket. For instance, the ETH blockchain, which is endorsed and used by many celebrities, have been known to crash at crucial moments. This is because its blockchain cannot handle the surge of transactions.
The current average fee per transaction is at a whopping $37.45, even reaching over $60 last November, which is not practical at all. Coupled with network latency and crashes, many have transferred from ETH to BSV.
“If I am going to build something that I want to be durable and long-lasting, I don’t want the protocol to be changed all the time. The low transaction fees are also essential so we can do micropayments and that sort of thing,” independent app developer and investor Kevin Healy said when asked why he transferred from ETH to BSV.
The BSV blockchain is currently the largest public blockchain there is. A public blockchain means data is verifiable and available to anyone who is permitted to access the blockchain. This makes for utter transparency of data—something that many global systems lack.
“With a public chain you have to incentivize the public, otherwise it is not a public chain. If you don’t incentivize, no one is going to pay the electricity bill for free just to keep your chain happy. And so, if you want to be doing lots and lots of transactions, which ours should be able to do because it’s based on API calls, then you need that scalability. And I think that’s where the crucial aspect actually lies,” Peter Bainbridge-Clayton, founder and CTO of RegTech platform Kompany, explained as to why it is now working with BSV rather than Hyperledger alone.
And although Bitcoin has come under fire this year for its extremely high electricity consumption deemed by many as a waste of precious energy and detrimental to the environment, it has been proven that BSV is the most energy efficient Bitcoin implementation due to its ability to scale and utmost utility as energy efficiency of a blockchain can be measured through its throughput.
“I realized that proof-of-stake is inferior to proof-of-work, and it’s simply a marketplace to produce and consume negative space. And then I realized that we can have the whole vision of the Internet on BSV as it’s proven it can scale. I’m very passionate about building the whole Internet that is not advertising-based,” Rohan Sharan, product manager of cryptocurrency and exchange review platform BlockReview, revealed after trying out EOS and BCH and ultimately choosing BSV.
Because developers themselves know what capabilities are important in a blockchain, many have been transferring to BSV, which in itself is irrefutable proof that the BSV is the blockchain for enterprise adoption.
