Byteball Bytes (GBYTE) is the internal currency of Byteball, a crypto platform for decentralized storage and transfer of value. Byteball is built on a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) instead of a conventional blockchain. Rather than linking transactions into a chain like other blockchain-based crypto platforms, Byteball connects all new transactions to multiple previous transactions which creates a tree-like structure. The transactions build upon each other to form a Directed Acyclic Graph. Since Byteball isn’t built on a blockchain, it isn’t affect by any block size-related scalability issues like Bitcoin and other crypto platforms.
The Byteball team designed a fully-featured crypto ecosystem that includes an easy-to-use smart contracts platform, a secure wallet, a native cryptocurrency, and more. The platform enables users to issue digital assets representing debt, commodities, property rights, shares, etc., and create smart contracts that only execute when specified conditions are met.
Byteball’s defining feature is its ability to immutably store any data type. Once data is stored in the Byteball database, it can’t be removed or revised. Data is measured in bytes, which is why Byteball’s internal currency is called “Bytes.” Users need Bytes to add data into Byteball’s database. Uploading one byte of data costs one Byte token.
Byteball Bytes Pricing, Market Cap and Volume
Bytes were officially launched on December 25, 2016. The total available supply is capped at 1,000,000 GBYTE tokens. To encourage adoption, the Byteball team is giving away 99% of all Bytes and Blackbytes for free. In 2017, they distributed 64.5% of the total available supply to BTC holders and existing GBYTE holders in a series of airdrops. The airdrops were discontinued as of February 18, 2018.
Token Distribution
Verification and Referral Rewards – Users who verify their identities receive $20 worth of Bytes. Users who refer the platform to friends also receive $20 worth of Bytes.
Cashback – You can get Bytes as cashback from merchant stores partnered with Byteball. Cashback rewards can be as high as 10% of the purchase amount.
Promotional Giveaways – Users can acquire Bytes by completing quizzes on Byteball’s Telegram channel, or by participating in Byteball’s signature campaign on Bitcointalk. Bytes are also distributed through contests on sponsored YouTube channels.
Textcoin Airdrops – Byteball occasionally airdrops textcoins to subscribers of businesses that are partnered with the platform.
The value of GBYTE has unexpectedly risen to new highs twice since its launch. The first time was in the summer of 2017, when its market cap reached ~$241 million USD and the value of one GBYTE was ~$945 USD. The second spike was in January 2018. This time its market cap reached ~$680 million USD and one GBYTE was worth ~$1,050 USD. The exact cause of the spikes is unclear, but they highlight Byteball’s potential as an investment.
How Byteball Works
There are no blocks in Byteball, there are only transactions. Storage units known as “balls” are connected to one another such that each ball includes one or more hashes of previous units. The platform connects transactions by signing the hashes of previous transactions to new ones. This connection confirms earlier data units and also establishes a logical order in which the storage balls can be referred to. The balls are stored in parallel and the degree of parallelism adapts dynamically to the current load, making the system highly flexible.
Benefits of Linking Data without a Blockchain
No block-size issues – Byteball doesn’t have any blocks, so it doesn’t have any of the block scaling problems plaguing cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
Instant confirmation – Transactions are confirmed almost instantly in a DAG system because it doesn’t rely on miners to verify transactions.
Less resource consumption – Byteball requires a lot less energy to remain secure compared to proof-of-work cryptocurrencies.
Transaction Witnesses
To reduce transaction spam, Byteball makes use of transaction “witnesses” who charge one Byte for every byte of data that is added to the database. Byteball ensures regulatory compliance through a multi-signature process that requires asset issuers to co-sign all transfers.
As a DAG-based platform, Byteball is essentially a distributed ledger without blocks. This is good thing for three reasons:
1. Its overall design is simpler than that of blockchain-based crypto platforms.
2. There are too many variables in blockchain design, such as block time and block size, and no one can agree on which values are best. Byteball doesn’t have to worry about such variables.
3. In a blockchain system, there is always someone who has to create the blocks. These entities generally have the power to decide what type of information gets into a block. Byteball has no blocks and therefore no miners.
Byteball vs. Other Cryptocurrencies
There are plenty of cryptocurrency networks that offer secure smart contract functionality and the ability to tokenize various real-world assets. What sets Byteball apart from its competitors is the fact that it uses a DAG system in favor of a traditional proof-of-work or proof-of-stake blockchain network. The only other major crypto project that uses a DAG system is IOTA, and it’s not in direct competition with Byteball.
Benefits of Byteball vs. Other Blockchain Projects
Simple declarative language – smart contracts in Byteball are written in a simple declarative language that is easy to translate to human readable form. Users won’t have to depend on developers or learn complex programming languages to write smart contracts.
Conditional payments – using smart contracts, users can make risk-free conditional payments that are only executed when designated contract criteria are met.
P2P insurance – Byteball can be used to create insurance contracts that can only be unlocked by the insured when a negative event occurs.
P2P betting and prediction markets – conditional payments make Byteball an ideal platform for betting and prediction markets. The platform features several “oracles” (trusted third parties that monitor real-world events) that can be used to monitor events in sports, politics, markets, or weather.
Untraceable bytes – there is a separate version of Bytes known as Blackbytes that gives users the ability to securely send untraceable payments. The Byteball wallet also has a built-in TOR switch to add an additional layer of privacy.
Free distribution – the Byteball team decided to give away most of the available supply of GBYTE for free instead of holding an ICO.
Textcoins – users can send Bytes to email addresses or text messaging apps like Telegram and Whatsapp using the textcoins feature. The recipient will receive a link in their email or chat that credits their wallet with Bytes. If they have never used Byteball, they will be prompted to install the wallet and collect their coins.
Buying and Storing Byteball Bytes
GBYTE can be acquired from Bittrex, Bitsquare, Cryptox, Cryptopia, Changelly, Kaiserex, KKEX, and Upbit. Blackbytes are only traded on Freebe and BEEB.
The official Byteball desktop wallet, available on Windows, OS X, and Linux, is the best choice for storing Bytes and Blackbytes. Mobile versions of the wallet are available on Android and iOS. Users can also acquire GBYTE directly from the wallet using the Byte-BTC bot.
Liquidity of Byteball Bytes
Byteball has decent market liquidity for a cryptocurrency that’s relatively new when compared to the likes of Bitcoin. It has a lot of potential even though it uses technology that hasn’t been thoroughly tested. If successful, Directed Acyclic Graph may end up solving many of the problems that have impeded the mass adoption of blockchain technology, and Byteball could become a viable competitor to blockchain-based crypto platforms for transactions.
