What is QTUM?

Qtum is a cryptocurrency that combines the smart contract capabilities of Ethereum with the security of Bitcoin's unspent transaction output model (UTXO) to produce a platform appropriate for large-scale adoption. Patrick Dai, Jordan Earls, and Neil Mahl launched Qtum in 2016, and the company completed an initial coin offering (ICO) in March 2017. The coin was ranked #91 in terms of overall market capitalization as of October 2021, with a price of roughly $13.45 and a market capitalization of $1.4 billion.

Qtum is an open-source public blockchain technology based on a peer-to-peer Proof of Stake network. It follows the transaction paradigm of Bitcoin, but with the extra flexibility of smart contracts. The project offers a multi-wallet environment as well as a variety of tools for blockchain and decentralized app development. The Qtum team has been cooperating with researchers at prominent institutions in addition to using the talents of an open-source global talent pool. The Qtum project intends to satisfy the demands of businesses by delivering a business-friendly development environment and tailored blockchain solutions for commercial clients.

QTUM is the blockchain's native coin, and it's used to pay for smart contract execution. It may also be staked to aid network security and participate in platform governance. QRC-20 tokens — Qtum's own token standard – may be used by businesses and developers. QRC-20 transactions need gas fees to be paid in QTUM and may be utilized within dApps.

The UTXO transaction model is used by Qtum. This stands for unspent transaction outputs and refers to the amount of bitcoin that is left over after a transaction, like change in a real cash transaction. UTXOs are processed on a regular basis, and records of them are kept on the ledger. To open them, you'll need a secret key.

The Account Abstraction Layer, which decouples applications from the underlying protocol, is used to provide both Bitcoin's transaction model and Ethereum compatibility. Individual UTXO transactions are abstracted by the AAL, which provides a single account balance for the seamless functioning of smart contracts using the Ethereum virtual engine. This opens the possibility of adding smarter contract functionality in the future. Through Qtum's Decentralized Governance Protocol, smart contracts may be utilized to change certain blockchain parameters without disrupting the ecosystem. DGP, for instance, allows the community to change block size and the basic gas charge without requiring a hard fork.

The Qtum blockchain is valuable for developers because it offers security, functionality, and efficiency. The Qtum cryptocurrency coin makes value from its utility. Because it is mandatory to pay the fees, there is a big demand for tokens from developers. Because Qtum is PoS type of crypto means that one can make additional money by staking them. Currently there are around 104.000.000 QTUM coins in circulation.