The BitShares Blockchain, as it exists today, was launched on 13th October 2015 with its community having found together already in 2013. It implements an industrial-grade decentralized platform built for high-performance smart contracts with focus on the financial technologies sector.
Furthermore, BitShares represents the first decentralized autonomous cooperation that lets holders of its core native token BTS decide on its future direction and governance aspects. For sake of clarity and to avoid confusion with other smart contracting platforms, the BitShares Blockchain implements its contracts in form of operations. Even though the BitShares Blockchain comes with over 50 already implemented operations which deserve to be presented, this document focuses on the description of the BitShares Blockchain as a platform, its architecture as well as its governance system using the core native token BTS.
- Blockchain
- Consensus
- DPoS
- Extensibility
- Networking - P2P Network
- Protocol
- Performance and Scalability
- Transactions
- Authorities
- Encrypted Memos
- Fees
- Identiry
- Permissions
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The BitShares platform itself is run and maintained by the BitShares community–an open consortium of individuals and organizations committed to providing universal access to the power of smart contracts.
Working together, this community has designed and developed the BitShares platform to include numerous innovative features which are not found elsewhere within the smart contract industry:
- SmartCoins provide the freedom of cryptocurrency with the stability of the dollar
A SmartCoin is a cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to that of another asset, such as the US Dollar or gold. SmartCoins always have 100% or more of their value backed by the BitShares core currency, BTS, to which they can be converted at any time at an exchange rate set by a trustworthy price feed. In all but the most extreme market conditions, SmartCoins are guaranteed to be worth at least their face value (and perhaps more, in some circumstances). Like any other cryptocurrency, SmartCoins are fungible, divisible, and free from any restrictions.
- A fast and fluid trading platform
BitShares provides a high-performance decentralized exchange, with all the features you would expect in a trading platform. It can handle the trading volume of the NASDAQ, while settling orders the second you submit them. With this kind of performance on a decentralized exchange, who needs risky centralized exchanges?
- Graphene is capable of 100,000 TPS when we pay for the network to go with it
High performance blockchain technology is necessary for cryptocurrencies and smart contract platforms to provide a viable alternative to existing financial platforms. BitShares is designed from the ground up to process more transactions every second than VISA and MasterCard combined. With Delegated Proof of Stake, the BitShares network can confirm transactions in an average of just 1 second, limited only by the speed of light.
- Management for the corporate environment
BitShares designs permissions around people, rather than around cryptography, making it easy to use. Every account can be controlled by any weighted combination of other accounts and private keys. This creates a hierarchical structure that reflects how permissions are organized in real life, and makes multi-user control over funds easier than ever. Multi-user control is the single biggest contributor to security, and, when used properly, it can virtually eliminate the risk of theft due to hacking.
- Flexible withdrawal permissions
BitShares is the first smart contract platform with built-in support for recurring payments and subscription payments. This feature allows users to authorize third parties to make withdrawals from their accounts within certain limits. This is a convenient way to “set it and forget it” for monthly bills and subscriptions.
- Network growth through adoption rewards
BitShares has an advanced referral program built directly into its software. Financial networks derive their value primarily from their network effect: more people on the same network increases the value of that network for everyone. BitShares capitalizes on this by rewarding those who sign up new users, and does so in a fully transparent and automated way.
- Regulation-compatible cryptoasset issuance
The BitShares platform provides a feature known as "user-issued assets" to help facilitate profitable business models for certain types of services. The term refers to a type of custom token registered on the platform, which users can hold and trade within certain restrictions. The creator of such an asset publically names, describes, and distributes its tokens, and can specify customized requirements, such as an approved whitelist of accounts permitted to hold the tokens, or the associated trading and transfer fees.
- A self-sustaining funding model
BitShares is designed to be self funding and self-sustaining by giving the stakeholders the power to direct where blockchain reserves are spent. BitShares has a reserve pool of 1.2 billion BTS (about $8 million dollars) that automatically grows as transaction fees are collected and the share price rises. Each day, the blockchain is authorized to spend up to 432,000 BTS (about $77,000 per month), which is enough to hire a small team to maintain the network for years, even with no price appreciation.
- Easy and secure transactions
Named accounts enable users to easily remember and communicate their account information. We don't use IP addresses to browse the internet or numbers to identify our email, so why shouldn't we have human-friendly account names for our financial transactions?
- A robust and flexible consensus protocol
Delegated Proof of Stake (DPOS) is the fastest, most efficient, most decentralized, and most flexible consensus model available. DPOS leverages the power of stakeholder approval voting to resolve consensus issues in a fair and democratic way. All network parameters, from fee schedules to block intervals and transaction sizes, can be tuned via elected delegates. Deterministic selection of block producers allows transactions to be confirmed in an average of just 1 second. Perhaps most importantly, the consensus protocol is designed to protect all participants against unwanted regulatory interference.