A Blockchain Amateur's Guide Through Some Crypto Blockchains

I've written about what I like to call the blockchain gulf before. Basically, those of us on the 'laymen' side have a really long, rough trek to make before we have any chance of appearing of the other side, where advanced mathematics and a deep understanding of coding and the underlying mechanisms that govern the internet and human behavior are required.

I've begun to make that leap, tearing through whitepapers, staying tuned with everything out of the @steemitdev and @steemitblog blogs and making a concerted effort to follow people who demonstrate a deep understanding of the mechanisms behind Steemit and the blockchain.

Insights So Far

I've read whitepapers for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Steem (of course. I read the blue paper too, which includes the paper for SMT's), IOTA and EOS. I looked at some of the top cryptocurrencies outside of these. I've read interviews, commentaries, and articles straight from the horses' mouths. At the end of it I've come to have some pretty interesting insights based on what I understand so far.

Each of these cryptocurrencies is super different. Most of us have a sense of that, but what we lack are definitive reasons we know that they're different.

Bitcoin is the granddaddy, and the oldest cryptocurrencies. It's inherently deflationary and exclusive. It's beginning to show it's age because of the inability to build even basic dapps (distributed apps) on the blockchain without having a heart attack and because its transaction times have gotten pretty crappy.

Enter Ethereum, a blockchain built to support dapps. Considered a programmer's heaven when it first came out, Ethereum's Turing completeness meant that blockchain enthusiasts, companies, and programmers could build dapps (also called smart contracts) much more efficiently. But still the problem of transaction times haunted Ethereum.

Steem came onto the playing field just a little over a year ago. Steem is a blockchain designed specifically to eliminate transaction fees and scale without issue. It's an inherently social and and inclusive cryptocurrency, and at the moment (and for the foreseeable future) is more diverse and boasts the most transactions out of any cryptocurrency. Steem is exciting because of its social aspect. There's likely going to be Steem in millions upon millions of people's 'hands' before the end of next year.

EOS is special because it has almost all of the positive aspects of Steem only has Turing completeness and does much of what Ethereum can do, too (many would say all of what it can do, or else argue that Ethereum does some things that EOS doesn't need to do because of its inherently different design). Make no mistake: EOS is more or less in direct competition with Ethereum. They're both aiming for the same target audience: dapp devs. EOS is newer, and boasts the ability to perform instructions in parallel using a software technology called 'shards'. It's pretty sexy.

Last but not least is IOTA. IOTA is pretty interesting because it eschews blockchain technology altogether in favor of something called Tangle. I haven't gotten a chance to truly take a dive into the differences between blockchain and Tangle, so an in-depth analysis of this will have to wait for another time.

Follow: @jenkinrocket

Tuesday, December 5th, 2017

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