BitShares
BitShares is a decentralized exchange and platform
BitShares is built to be fast, efficient and scalable to handle the transactions that go with being a decentralized exchange. To understand assets that are traded on this decentralized exchange one needs to understand the stable assets, called bitAssets, and the digitized assets, called User-Issued Assets. Finally, BitShares is built to be autonomous in funding and employing its own workers.
Fast, Efficient and Scalable
Blockchains analysed under the Decentralized Autonomous Company (DAC) metaphor reveals the importance of reducing transaction cost, increasing the speed of transactions and making the system scalable to be able to rival existing financial institutions.
BitShares is designed with these constraints in mind, eliminating the Proof of Work (PoW) security in Bitcoin for Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) which is cheaper and more efficient. This enables BitShares to have near instant transactions with extremely low fees, and an infrastructure that scales to the size of Visa/PayPal and beyond.
Read more about DACs here
Decentralized Exchange
Currently cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are traded at large exchanges, which follow the traditional logic of centralization, with a single point of failure for corruption, information-theft, coercion, robbery, fraud and so on, and this is just what we have seen happen in the cryptocurrency space and for Bitcoin exchanges.
The solution is no further away than using the technology behind Bitcoin, the blockchain, to create decentralized exchanges. BitShares was partly designed with this in mind, hence the importance placed on speed, efficiency and scale. The New York Stock Exchange and Wall Street will soon face disruptive competition from projects like BitShares.
Read more about decentralized exchange here
Digitized Assets
With BitShares it is possible to trade many different types of assets in addition to the native token. In particular, they are called bitAssets and User-Issued Assets. I take each in turn.
BitAssets are assets like bitUSD, bitGOLD, and bitCNY that track the value of their counterparts, so that 1 bitUSD today will be worth 1 USD a week, a month or a year from now. With bitAssets, people can enjoy the benefits of the blockchain payment network without being exposed to the volatility associated with its disruptive yet nascent stage of development.
User-Issued Assets are, as the name suggests, assets issued by the user – meaning anyone can issue their own asset. The issuer of the asset can set various levels of control that they have of the asset, including having no control at all. Assets can be used for an amazing variety of things, including doing crowd-fund with equity, using them for property rights, or even using them as VIP tickets or just fan-tokens.
Self-Funded Development
Organic, self-funded, digital growth is now possible. The technology underlying BitShares allows shareholders to vote for three distinct types of employees, 1) witnesses, 2) delegates and 3) workers. The witnesses are paid to process transactions and secure the network. The delegates are not paid but are in an honorary position of trust to propose updates to the BitShares network. Finally the workers can propose any project and if they are voted in they can get paid to work on their project. This system makes BitShares the first blockchain able to hire its own employees in a completely decentralized way, with every person holding BitShares tokens having a say in the process.
Read more about Self-Funded Development here
Conclusion
BitShares combines a fast, efficient, scalable and self-funded platform with a much needed decentralized exchange, stable bitAssets and User-Issued Assets that enable regulatory compliance. BitShares maximizes individual freedom and encourages development on the platform as well as cloning of the platform for specialized DACs.
Further Reading
//www.cryptocoinsnews.com/2015-year-decentralized-bitcoin-exchange/
//www.coindesk.com/succeed-as-decentralized-autonomous-organization/