Hardcap: $20 M
Crowdsale Cap: $4 M
Private sale Cap $16M
Initial Market Cap (at crowdsale price) $33M
(*compare to current $1200M Zilliqa)
Token: ERC20
Token Symbol: QKC
Total Supply: 10 Billion
Website: https://quarkchain.io/
Whitepaper: https://quarkchain.io/QUARK%20CHAIN%20Public%20Version%200.3.4.pdf
Telegram: https://t.me/quarkchainio

What is QuarkChain?

A multichain scaleable permissionless blockchain that aims to deliver 100k TPS on chain

Features

Anti Centralized Horizontal Scaleability expansion that permits a cluster of honest nodes to run as a super full node where each cluster only validates a subset of chains (that covers root chain and minor blocks).
Secure cross shard transaction which allows transaction in different shards at any time and provides confirmation in minutes
Simple Account Management where users only need one account to interact with all the shards. This features:
- Primary Account - default account that is picked by the user. This is where all balances are directed to
- Secondary Account- manages the rest of the addresses in different shards and directs any remaining balances to the primary account
Cross chain transaction which allows quick and easy transaction between blockchains as the structure only has to maintain the root chain
Smart contract supports contracts via EVM allowing existing DApps to migrate to Quarkchain platform

Architecture

Designed as a two layer blockchain

First layer: elastic sharding where each minor shard processes subset of all transactions independently. As the number of shards increase in time, the transaction process also speeds up as it can process more transactions
Second layer: root blockchain that confirms the blocks in all shards by including block headers which makes it extremely difficult to revert transaction

Network

framework is designed as collaborative mining, an incentivised mechanism to evenly distribute hash power and thus, mining throughout the shards
Each shard offers different incentives, miners can choose which shard they would like to mine at an optimal price of their hash power
Root chain keeps 50% of the overall hash power of the network to prevent malicious attacks

Consensus

Root chain runs under the proof of work (POW) algorithm where the longest chain survives if there was a fork
Each minor shards run under root-chain-first proof of work. If there was an attack, a node can compare their corresponding root chains- the longest root chain will survive. This technique makes it difficult for a double spend attack to happen

Problems They Solve

Security

Root chain protects all transactions as it has 50% of the overall hash power in the network
it will take at least 25% hash power to do a double spend attack, which will be even more difficult to attain in a more decentralized multichain blockchain compared to a single chain blockchain

Scaleability

Advance sharding technology that enables the system capacity to increase to process more transactions

Decentralization

Root chain hash power is adjustable for even distribution of mining and preventing weak miners to join mining pools which may lead to centralisation of blockchain

Advantages

Great team with good experience in sharding and clustering
very hyped ICO - always ranked high by ICO reviewers
provides innovative solution in scaleability without compromising security and decentralisation
has more than 80k followers on telegram
testnet available showing impressive inital progress
EVM compatible makes it easier for DApps to switch to quarkchain
Aims to support mobile DApps
Allows developers to run minimum viable product on chain
quick and easy cross sharding transactions
user friendly as account management is simplified

Comparison and Competition

Zilliqa

Both successfully implemented sharding in testnet
Sharding in Zilliqa refers to group of nodes whereas in Quarkchain it refers to a blockchain
Zilliqa implements transaction network sharding where smaller sub-networks can validate transactions in parallel but this will increase processing power which could be a huge barrier to many users
Quarkchain claims to support both network and state sharding where if a shard (blockchain) crashes, others are ready to take over and validate the transactions
Zilliqa does not support smart contracts on EVM

P Chain

Both are multichains that support smart contracts under EVM
P chain does transactional sharding only
Consensus of sharding for P chain is PDBFT based while Quarkchain is POW

Token Allocation

20% token sale (private with lock up/public with no lockup)
15% team (2 year lock up)
15% foundation (2 year lock up)
5% Advisors (2 year lock up)
45% Mining, Community, and Marketing

Road Map

Team

Conclusion

QuarkChain proposes a novel solution in the current scaleability issues that blockchains has been facing. The architecture considers to solve problems in scaleability, security issues and decentralization. Although they have serious contenders and have no established partnerships yet, They have proved to be one of blockchains to watch out for when initial test net showed over 2k tps. The low hard cap (20M) not only creates hype and fomo but also reflects how undervalued this ICO is comparing it to its closest competitor, Zilliqa, which now trades almost 50x compared to its ICO price. The team behind the project has extensive experience in sharding and clustering employed by large companies and it will be interesting how the project will develop in the coming months and if it will live up to their promise of 1 million transactions per second!

Quarkchain: Undervalued High capacity 2 layered sharded system