DigiByte (Code: DGB) is an open source cryptocurrency running on the DigiByte Blockchain, a decentralised international blockchain created in 2013. The DigiByte coin was developed in 2013 and released in January 2014. Although based on Bitcoin, adjustments in the code allow for improved functionality, including 15-second block time and improved security. As of January 2018 DigiByte has a total market cap of over US$1 billion. It is the longest public blockchain in existence.
Video DigiByte
Overview and history
DigiByte was created by programmer and entrepreneur Jared Tate with the goal of creating a fast and secure cryptocurrency that could reach a wider and more decentralised community than Bitcoin. The first Digibyte block was mined on January 10, 2014, and included the headline from USA Today: "Target: Data stolen from up to 110M customers," hashed into the Genesis block to mark the importance of security in digital transactions. Also included was a premine to pay developers and early adopters.
DigiByte pioneered asymmetrical difficulty adjustment mining with DigiShield, which is a widely used technology and the basis of many other blockchains. It is also the first blockchain to fork from a single proof-of-work algorithm to multi-algorithm mining, however not the first cryptocurrency to use multi-algorithm (Huntercoin).
Soft fork
In April 2017 DigiByte became the second major cryptocurrency blockchain (following Groestlcoin) to implement Segregated Witness (SegWit) via the DigiSync soft fork. The technical milestone laid the foundation for implementation of the Lightning Network and cross chain transactions and atomic swaps.
Hard forks
- DigiShield
Activated in February 2014 this hard fork allowed for the DigiByte blockchain to protect against multi-pools that mine large numbers of DigiByte at a low difficulty. It achieves this by recalculating block difficulty between each block, allowing for a faster correction when a multi-pool begins or ceases contributing to DigiByte, rather than recalculating once every fortnight as is the case with Bitcoin. Since then DigiShield has been added into over 25 other cryptocurrency blockchains such as Dogecoin, Startcoin, Zcash, AuroraCoin, BitcoinGold, BitTokens, CasinoCoin, CreativeCoin, Granite, Huncoin, Monacoin, Mooncoin, Nautiluscoin, Quatloo, SakuraCoin, Scorecoin, SmartCoin, StartCoin, SuperiorCoin, And Ubiq, with the help of the DigiByte team.
- MultiAlgo
Activated in September 2014 from Myriadcoin source code, this hard fork allowed for multi-algorithm mining. Its purpose was to create a number of different proof of work (PoW) mining methods to accommodate the different types of mining capabilities that exist, such as dedicated ASIC mining, GPU and CPU mining. This allows for a larger number of people to access DigiByte mining pools and therefore it creates a more decentralised blockchain with the coins reaching groups who were unable to mine the coin on its original single-algorithm (Scrypt) fork.
- MultiShield
Activated in December 2014, this hard fork worked to activate DigiShield across the new MultiAlgo platform and accomplish the same goals on all five mining pools.
- DigiSpeed
Activated in December 2015 this was a hard fork that focused on making the DigiByte coin transaction speeds faster. Block time was reduced by 50% to 15 seconds and new block propagation code was added with the help of Microsoft.
Maps DigiByte
Specifications and technology
DigiByte opened with a block time of 15 seconds and handling up to 560 transactions per second Every 2 years the DigiByte blockchain's dynamic system doubles the number of transactions per second by doubling the block size. In 2019, capability reaches 1100+ transactions per second, with a maximum capability of 280,000 transactions per second to be reached in 2035.
As of June 2017 there are over 8 billion DigiByte coins and the maximum number of coins is 21 billion, set to be reached 21 years after creation in 2035. The number of coins is a deliberate ratio of 1:1000 to Bitcoin.
DigiByte can be mined over 5 different algorithms. These are Sha256 (ASIC friendly), Scrypt (ASIC friendly), Groestl (GPU friendly), Skein (GPU friendly), Qubit (ASIC friendly).
Use, exchanges and mining pools
Platforms
There are 6 platforms for the DigiByte blockchain and currency. These include DigiByteGaming, DigibyteTip, DigiByte Market, DiguSign, Digi-ID and DigiHash.
- DigiHash is the developer mining pool. As of June 2017 it supports Sha256, Scrypt, Skein and Qubit. The fees from this pool go to the developers specifically to help support the currency.
- DiguSign is a smart contract platform running on the DigiByte blockchain. The technology embeds a secure cryptographic SHA256 hash of a document and embeds it in the Digibyte blockchain, allowing anyone to store, notarize, and validate any document in public in a secure, decentralized manner. Its focus on security has use case studies in sectors such as healthcare, government, legal, trade, finance, insurance and real estate.
Wallets
These cryptocurrency wallets support DigiByte:
- DigiByte Core Windows
- DigiByte Core Mac
- DigiByte Core Linux (32 and 64 bit)
- DigiByte Android
- Chrome Go wallet
- Coinomi Wallet
- Jaxx Wallet
- Ledger Nano S and Blue
Exchanges that trade DigiByte
- Poloniex
- Bittrex
- Shapeshift
- Litebit
- Yobit
- Cryptopia
- Livecoin
- HitBTC
- OKEX
- Kucoin
- CoinExchange
- Bit-Z
- CryptoBridge
Mining Pools
SHA-256:
- Thecoin.pw
- Multipool
- Digihash.co
- TheBlocksFactory.com
- ispace.co.uk
Scrypt:
- P2Pool (scrypt)
- Multipool (scrypt)
Qubit Mining Pools:
- Digihash.co
- TheBlocksFactory.com
- Suprnova.cc
Skein Mining Pools:
- Digihash.co
- TheBlocksFactory.com
- Miners-pool.eu
Groestl Mining Pools:
- Digihash.co
- TheBlocksFactory.com
- Suprnova.cc
Community projects
The open source nature of DigiByte has attracted the global community of developers to build projects on the DigiByte blockchain.
- Mine That Digi is a gaming platform that rewards players of Minecraft with DigiBytes.
- DigiPSN is a Playstation store that exclusively accepts DigiByte for payment.
Corporate partnerships
- In 2016, Microsoft nominated DigiByte Holdings to the Microsoft BizSpark Plus program and added DigiByte to Azure.
- In 2017, DigiByte was selected from over 1,000 applicants to participate in Citi Tech for Integrity, a global startup accelerator. As a finalist, DigiByte presented DiguSign to Facebook, IBM, PWC, Microsoft, and Mastercard, among others.
Media
USA
- In 2014, DigiByte received its first major news coverage on Fast Money (CNBC) and was praised for DigiShield by CNBC commentator and investor Brian Kelly.
- The book DigiByte: History of the First Year was published in 2015, chronicling the early history and technical innovations of DigiByte.
Netherlands
In 2015, NRC Handelsblad featured an article about an entire street of retail shops in Zoetermeer using DigiByte to transact with manufacturers in Hong Kong.
External links
- Official website
- DiguSign
- Digibyte on GitHub
- DigiByte on YouTube
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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