Hottest ICO of the Year : Quarkchain ICO Review

Hottest ICO of the Year : QuarkChain

Quarkchain Project : A Decentralized Transaction Architecture Capable of Handling Millions of Transactions

A decentralized transactions platform being built to rival the TPS rates of centralized transaction systems; in terms of throughput rate and cost.

Overview
The main issue with the current blockchain technology is scalability . As we know , 2 of the biggest blockchains, Bitcoin and ethereum can only handle limited transactions per second. Maximum for btc is only 6/7 per second while ETH can do at most 30 tx per second. So, this is a big issue in the cryptocurrency world because to obtain mainstream adoption, these blockchains need to scale . So, this is where a new blockchain project called Quarkchain comes in to solve this issue. Project like EOS promises to scale however the team at EOS says they are compromising decentralization and security in order to scale. However, Quarkchain aims to solve scalability without letting off on security and decentralization, the two main importance why blockchains are needed in the world itself.

What makes Quarkchain standout?

Since the past two years, major financial institutions all across the world have been researching on blockchain technology and with the passing of time it keeps on becoming more evident that the future of finance is going to be shaped by blockchain technology. We already have a number of blockchain based projects that are working on developing decentralized platforms for handling transactions, however, most of these platforms are limited.

Existing decentralized transaction systems either have to go for scalability or security, more scalable platforms become less secure and vice versa. This problem makes it difficult to develop platforms that are able to operate on a global level in a fast, secure and cost-efficient manner. Some of the leading decentralized transaction systems such as Ethereum and Bitcoin are only capable of handling around 30 transactions per second (TPS), an insignificant amount when compared to what centralized transaction systems can manage (100,000+ TPS).

QuarkChain is planning on providing the world with a decentralized transaction system that will manage to provide a perfect balance of scalability and security, the project is going to make use of a number of innovative techniques in order to make this possible and provide the world with a much faster and more transparent transaction platform.

The Quarkchain Blockchain

The QuarkChain transaction network aims to be one that will be able to offer a thousand times greater TPS with zero compromises in security and scalability, it shall be a network which shall be free of congestion and provide a comprehensive solution that will make decentralized transaction systems practical for global use.

QuarkChain shall ensure scalability and security by splitting its network into two layers; one layer shall consist of an elastic sharding blockchain layer and the other will consist of a root blockchain.

The Elastic Sharding Blockchain Layer will be made up of several smaller blockchain shards; a blockchain “shard” is basically a horizontally partitioned segment of data, sharding is commonly done in centralized systems in order to keep a check on scalability issues. By implementing sharding in one layer of its network, QuarkChain will be able to increase its system capacity simply by adding in more shards, every shard will process sub-sets of transactions on their own, dividing load on the network and making its processing significantly more efficient.

The Root Chain Layer of QuarkChain’s network will be responsible for the confirmation process; a process that confirms transaction results from the ledger. The root chain layer will not have any transactions carried out on it, it shall only confirm blocks from the elastic sharding layer.

Splitting its network into two layers will allow QuarkChain to provide enhanced security thanks to its root chain that will have a very high level of mining difficulty (to make mining it economically inefficient) and it shall also be able to provide scalability through its sharding layer. The network’s growth will be as simple as adding more shards to the elastic layer; a fast and easy process that will ensure that QuarkChain does not have to deal with congestion and its TPS continues to rise.

QuarkChain is being designed with reliability, usability and public participation kept in mind, QuarkChain will have a number of features in it that will ensure that the network is able to achieve its goals. Blockchain technology makes use of full-nodes to filter all of its blocks and keep the network safe from malicious attacks, the QuarkChain network makes use of Super Full-Nodes for validation purposes as well. The problem with full-nodes is that they can be very expensive to operate, especially in a network that plans to offer such a high TPS. QuarkChain’s solution to this problem involves replacing traditional full-nodes with several smaller honest nodes that will work together as a full-node, this shall allow QuarkChain to filter its blocks in a cost-efficient manner.

Since QuarkChain will have several shards as a part of its network, the platform will need to be able to handle in-shard and cross-shard transactions. In-shard transactions are simple to execute, cross-shard transactions, however, become trickier, QuarkChain’s solution to this problem will be to provide users with a single primary account that they will use across all shards. A single account per user will mean a more seamless user experience and more efficient processing on the network as well.

QuarkChain’s use of a root chain will also make it possible for the network to carry out cross-chain transactions, meaning that the QuarkChain network might grow in the future by connecting with other blockchain networks, creating an internet of blockchain networks.

Account Management
To make account management as simple and effective as possible, the network will have users create one primary account that shall have the address of the user’s default shard, there will be a secondary user account that will store addresses of all the other shards in the network. The primary account will be the one that users will interact with during transactions, it will also be able to temporarily move to addresses stored in the secondary account if the need arises.

The QuarkChain network will also have its own smart wallet that users will need in order to carry out transactions on the network. Transactions such as transferring tokens from one address to another or executing smart contracts will require this wallet.

The Token Generation Event
General Information: there shall be a total 10B QKC tokens, each token will cost 0.0218 USD and only 20% of the tokens will be made available for the token sale. The public sale will have a hard cap of 4M USD with no lockup period.

Purpose: the QKC tokens will serve as the primary value carriers of the platform, they shall also be needed by anyone wanting to transact on the platform since the transaction fees will be charged in QKC, just like the service charges for any other service that the platform will offer. The QKC tokens will also be used to reward participants who contribute to the platform’s growth or provide computing sources (such as participants running honest nodes).

Value: the QKC tokens will enjoy a lot of importance in the entire QuarkChain network, anyone wanting to use the network to make transactions will need QKC, this usage will ensure that their demand increases as the platform grows.

The Competition
The only blockchain based project that is able to compete with QuarkChain directly at the moment is Zilliqa.

Zilliqa is a blockchain platform that is similarly implementing sharding in order to provide a scalable and secure decentralized network for transactions, but unlike QuarkChain, Zilliqa does not have two layers in its network, making it less efficient than QuarkChain in terms of performance and cost.

QuarkChain manages to divide processing and various other tasks between its networks layers, this allows the network to be able to handle the load better, stay safe from congestion and overall, provide participants with more performance at a cheaper price.

The Development Team
3 out of 10 team members have prior experience with blockchain technology.

The development team behind QuarkChain has an impressive career record, its non-executive members have worked for companies such as Facebook, Google, and various Silicon Valley organizations as well. The executive team consists of four personnel.

Founder Qi Zhou who has worked for Google and has more than 15 years of experience in developing, Qi Zhou is well-versed with high-performance systems and is a Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

COO Kyle Wang has founded several international companies and acted as a CEO for them as well, he has been in international trading and supply chain finance for 12 years and is a DLT enthusiast.

Chinese Market CMO Ting Du is interested in blockchain productization and its application in business, he is also the founder of Incubator Demo++.

International Market CMO Anthurine Xian has 6 years of experience in Wall Street and Silicon Valley, has remained the marketing lead of Linkedin and Beepi and also has a background in tech, consultation, and finance.

The Advisory Team for this venture consists of 6 personnel who have plenty of combined business development experience along with knowledge of blockchain technology and software development as well.

The Verdict
The QuarkChain project is quite ambitious and is being led by a capable team that consists of personnel with relevant skillsets and a good grasp on software thanks to their career backgrounds. Overall, I am very positive on the project as I find their technology in implementing a blockchain offers something differenet .

Quarkchain exhibits several unique features that differentiates itself from its competitors such as :
• A high throughput blockchain that seeks to position itself between decentralization and security, without
compromising the network’s scalability and speed
• Market opportunity for such projects are required to further lever the development of blockchain technology
• I am confident in the team’s ability as it portrays relevant technical experience from established companies with solid academic backgrounds
• Attractive low hard cap of $20m

The QuarkChain project is quite active on social media as well, it has more than 90K+ members on its Telegram (where admins are active) and it also has a satisfactory presence on Facebook and Twitter, meaning that information about the project is shared regularly and is easily accessible.

The project itself is quite promising as well, QuarkChain aims to meet its goal of providing high TPS without compromising security and scalability by dividing its network into two layers, an innovative approach that will make expanding the network incredibly easy and also keep it incredibly secure thanks to its extremely difficult to mine root chain. Having a root chain will also allow QuarkChain to allow for cross-chain transactions as well.

QuarkChain’s team is also going to address issues such as high usage costs and resource barriers to ensure that the platform is accessible by everyone, its introduction of Super Full-Nodes is quite impressive since the network will be able to offer safety against malicious attacks without making the network expensive to use.

Its native currency’s implementation is well thought out as well; the QKC tokens will be in demand as long as the network is being used. The token sale details (hard cap and price per token) are quite satisfactory, however, the token splits are weighted in favor of the development team and advisors of the project.

Overall, QuarkChain has potential and the project is seeing progress, its TestNet and verification code has already had its first release in March 2018, given time, QuarkChain definitely has the potential to outperform centralized transactions systems and provide the world with faster and cheaper transactions.

The Pros
· A development team with an impressive background in software development, the advisory team offers a satisfactory mix of relevant talents as well.

· The project has an active presence on social media and its Telegram has a very large following, the development team communicates frequently with the community through all channels.

· Dividing itself into two layers (elastic shard layer and root chain layer) allows the network to distribute its tasks more efficiently, elastic layer keeps the network highly scalable and the root chain makes sure that the network is secure.

· Instead of using traditional full-nodes (which would be very costly in such an expansive network), QuarkChain’s introduction of super full-nodes enables the network to have the same level of security against attacks as normal blockchains, with significantly lower costs.

· The project’s take on account management allows it to implement blockchain sharding very simply, users will not need to have a separate account for each and every shard on the blockchain.

· Native tokens have a decent ICO price (0.0218 USD per QKC) and their implementation on the platform makes them quite relevant as well.

· The project has already released the initial version of its TestNet and its verification code, and more updates are lined up.

The Cons
· The development team does not have a lot of blockchain development experience.

· Its token splits are unfavorable for the community, only 20% of the total QKC will be sold to the public.

ICO review : 9/10
hype : high
ROI possibility : >5x easily

Token Sale Details
https://www.quarkchain.io/QuarkChain-Token-Sale-Terms[EN-ZH].pdf