What is Skycoin?

An Introduction to Skycoin

Skycoin (SKY) is described as being a 3rd generation cryptocurrency which started in 2012 around the same time as another famous name, Litecoin.

Rather than rushing into the whole altcoin scene the project has been designed as long-term and will bring with it a more decentralized infrastructure and ecosystem.

The company behind it sees itself as the successor to Bitcoin as it aims to return to the original (true) vision of what the founder Satoshi Nakamoto envisioned rather than having a diluted version that so many coins have become.
With this new technology, SKY also aims to improve security over bitcoin as well as transaction speed.

This technology not only brings a new cryptocurrency that could revolutionize everything it can help power a new internet.
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To do this, the internet needs to be spread rather than in the hands of the large ISP’s who control everything. This is where Skywire comes onto the scene and is how these electronic payments will be transferred using a peer-to-peer networking technologies.

The future of digital currencies could be opened up to everyone and not only to investors who only see SKY as an asset. It is simple in its approach, and more secure and easy to use than other altcoins.

As with any other digital currency, they have to have a goal on a problem to fix. SKY is fixing many underlying flaws that plague other cryptocurrencies and is making the next step in the cryptocurrency evolution by bringing with it a revolution and also a top cryptocurrency to invest in.

Skycoin Key Features

Security

Being built from the ground up using Golang and using cryptographic standards that are time-tested it ensures your transactions can’t be tampered with. SKY aims to protect users from 51% attacks, duplication, reversal, and others.

Privacy

A user’s transactions are anonymous and untraceable by using the CoinJoin protocol which can mix transactions from multiple wallets. This leads to enhanced privacy online.

Ecosystem

Still in infancy, yet entering the mainstream as more multifunctional tools and apps usable in the real-world, are being developed and improved to enhance a user’s experience. The start is a distributed exchange, a VPN, messaging system, social media, and meshnet are all under development and deployment.

Utility

With this, it is easy to see this is more than only a cryptocurrency. It is a token that will power Skywire which will be the new alternative to the internet as we know it. All the benefits of a secure digital currency will come with it as well as the future of decentralization of the network.

Sustainability

Unlike other altcoins that use vast amounts of electricity when coins are mined. SKY is eco-friendly as it doesn’t waste precious electricity through this mining. It also avoids the costs of POS (proof-of-stake) and POW (proof-of-work) and is powered by a new consensus algorithm since PeerCoin.

Speed

One of the most significant hurdles that we seek to overcome is the speed of transactions. Now they can take place in as little as 4 seconds that makes it ideal for POS (point of sale) or IOT (Internet of Things) transactions.

This also sits it well to compete against PayPal and credit card transactions which can be performed between users rather than having to tackle the backlog of processing that is now occurring.

Coin Distribution and Supply

The cap on virtual coin-supply is 100 million. No more can be created, and they are unable to be destroyed, and it is this that will help to power the Skywire network and provide users with the connectivity and the services which will be as simple as transferring or receiving into their wallet.

What is Obelisk?

As the original idea was for any cryptocurrency to be decentralized, this in a way has not happened with many other cryptocurrencies. A good example, being Bitcoin as it has become a failure of its own success.

With the amount of profit that could be made from the mining process, three significant mining pools almost take control, and can if wished dictate what happens to Bitcoin.

Obelisk is the algorithm which has been designed to achieve the real vision of the CEO behind Bitcoin and to ensure the blockchain becomes decentralized.

Skywire and Skycoin

These are separate parts of the project where SKY is the payment part, and it is Skywire that brings the mesh network. It was the cryptocurrency that was built first so it can stand on its own and was created to fix the flaws with bitcoin and the other altcoins.

The most significant problem with many and especially Bitcoin is the mining as we have seen, and lesser known issues relate to cryptography or bugs in the software which leads to other problems.

It is the construction of Obelisk that prevents the need for coin mining (or proof of stake) although the algorithm does use a web-of-trust mechanism to make sure the network is secured.

Each node consists of a small number of trusted peers who share blocks between each other (P2P), and if there are bad blocks or transactions that do not match (double spend), these are rejected by you and the trusted peers.
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One other thing that Skywire aims to address is problems that are inherent with the internet. There are weak points of where it can be attacked, and many of which are linked to governments as they have such extensive control over the infrastructure. A lot can be said for large ISP’s who are not overly supportive of their customers.

As the internet was also intended to be decentralized, it is now a far cry from that vision and changes for the worst with each passing year. This, however, does not mean it will be easy for anyone to set up a dark-net and create anything like the Silk Road scenario on Skywire.

As SKY can work without Skywire. Skywire is also able to operate without SKY, and it would not be fair to say it is the first meshnet created as there have been many yet they had all been efforts of volunteers.

It is the integration of SKY and Skywire as one and where individuals can run the internet through the use of these remote nodes. This then takes control from the large ISP’s while bringing with it, higher security.