That is a really good question.

We will most likely stake to secure the network. These addresses will be transparent.

Patrick will announce the specifications soon.  The Inflation will be low, right now the developers are testing Proof-of-Stake, and we believe it will be 1% (but this could change)

Do you have any questions about the Qtum project?  Check out our new FAQ section of the website:  






"What is Qtum?

Qtum is an open source Blockchain project that is developed by the Singapore-based Qtum Foundation. Qtum is a hybrid blockchain application platform. Qtum’s core technology combines a fork of bitcoin core, an Account Abstraction Layer allowing for multiple Virtual Machines including the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and Proof-of-Stake consensus aimed at tackling industry use cases. We believe this will allow Smart Contracts and Decentralized Applications to run on a familiar foundation, while offering a robust environment for developers. The underlying technology uses an “Account Abstract Layer”, which acts as a bridge between the EVM and the Unspent Transaction Output model of Bitcoin Core.  There will be Oracles and Datafeed functionality, allowing developers to create Smart Contracts built around trusted sources of information.

The Qtum Foundation plans to be the public blockchain for business. Development efforts will allow us to market this platform to various industries, such as: Mobile Telecommunications, Counterfeit Protection, Finance, Industrial Logistics (shipping, warranty, etc), and Manufacturing."

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What makes this different than other blockchain projects?

The Qtum project offers many advantages to the Smart Contract development community. This project is designed to implement the best parts of the Bitcoin and Ethereum projects, into a business-friendly blockchain. By implementing the Bitcoin Improvement Protocols, and making use of the Ethereum Virtual Machine, digital currency enthusiasts can finally agree on one platform that will offer stability and direction.

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What is the benefit of the UTXO Model over the Account Model?

The account model is similar to a bank account. Each party has a balance and can subtract a portion of their balance to increase the balance of another party in order to send money. This model is conceptually very simple to understand. However, to make this work in a blockchain environment many pieces of logic must be added to avoid “double spending”, spending the same funds twice. This logic makes the account model less simple internally, and adds a number of restrictions.

The UTXO model on the other hand is similar to having an ecosystem built on bank checks (without an actual bank account, the check itself is the money). There is a “pay to” field which in our example provides instructions to how the money must be spent, and each check has an amount. You can not go to cash the check and say “cash half the check and give me half back”. Your “balance” per-se is the sum of the checks which you are capable of spending. This model is more difficult to explain, but because every is either “spent” or “unspent” and there is no in-between, it is much easier to secure in a blockchain environment with less logic required to maintain that security.

Each model has it’s own pros and cons. Accounts are conceptually simpler and thus smart contracts written on an account system tend to be much clearer and easy to understand. With UTXOs however it is simpler to validate a transaction, which can be done simply by verifying that the transaction has been confirmed by the blockchain, in the case of the SPV protocol. The UTXO model also has been tested and proven to be secure by Bitcoin, which has operated for over 7 years with no significant changes to its core model. It has also been proven to be more scalable, and transactions can easily be processed in parallel (which can be more difficult in the account model).

With all of this in mind, we at Qtum felt that building on the UTXO model best aligned with our goals and that adding the Account Abstraction Layer brought us the best of both worlds. Now we gain all of the security and interoperability benefits of the UTXO model, while smart contracts are written as if they were based on the conceptually simpler account model.

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When Will The Crowdsale Start?

The sale will start 12pm GMT, March 16th, 2017. Please view our crowdsale page for more details: https://qtum.org/en/crowdsale

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How Long Will The Token Sale Last?

The Crowd Sale will last for 30 days. It starts March 16th 2017 at 12PM GMT, and ends April 15th 2017 12PM GMT. https://qtum.org/en/blog/qtum-crowdsale-update-timeline

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What is the Token distribution?

There will be 100 million total coins, 51% of the tokens available for sale to the public.  The other 49% is broken down as per the Economy Whitepaper, found at https://qtum.org/whitepaper

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https://qtum.org/en/learn-more-about-qtum/general-faq

(from: https://qtum.org/en/lm/account-abstraction-layer-overview)



Building on bitcoins reliable and proven-to-deliver blockchain, Qtum stacks its Account Abstraction Layer, allowing the Bitcoin Core 0.13 blockchain to seamlessly interact with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). With this innovation it is now possible to execute smart contracts and run decentralized applications, simply and securely, in environments that were previously out of reach for Ethereum, combining the endless possibilities provided by smart contracts with the stability and maturity of the bitcoin ecosystem.

Until now, attempts to implement smart contract solutions on top of the bitcoin blockchain have had issues, been lackluster, or failed to break into the mainstream business market. This is primarily due to the fact that the bitcoin blockchain employs an Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) scheme to associate coins with addresses, rather than the easier to understand, but otherwise problematic, account-based model used by Ethereum.

An account based model works pretty much the way one would imagine:  if Alice has 10 tokens, and sends 5 of them to Bob, who has zero tokens; 5 tokens are simply subtracted from Alice’s balance and added to Bob’s, who now owns 5 coins.  On a UTXO blockchain, however, Alice does not directly hold 10 tokens, but a series of outputs, which are collections of coins resulting from previous transactions.

In such a model, instead of owning 10 tokens, Alice would, for example, hold 3 outputs: (a) consisting of 6 coins, (b) consisting of 2 coins, and (c) consisting of another 2 coins. In this scenario Alice couldn’t simply send 5 coins to Bob, but instead she (or her wallet, for that matter) would have to pick the best-suited output and receive “change” in return (a process called coin picking). In our example this means that Alice would transfer output (a), consisting of 6 coins, and receive 1 coin back as “change”. This “change” is what is called the Unspent Transaction Output, or UTXO. After the transaction Alice would still hold 3 outputs, this time (a) consisting of 1, while (b) and (c) remain 2.

Employing such a seemingly complex bookkeeping scheme allows the Bitcoin blockchain to support Simple Payment Verifications or SPVs. The SPV protocol enables the support of light wallets, which are wallets that can interact with the Bitcoin network in a decentralized and trustless manner, without having to download the entire Bitcoin blockchain. This property is immensely useful for mobile applications or in any low bandwidth/storage environment.

Until now, Ethereum smart contracts couldn't execute in such environments exactly because Ethereum’s account based blockchain does not provide a SPV analog. To solve this, Qtum builds its decentralized application platform on the proven-to-deliver Bitcoin blockchain and introduces the Qtum Account Abstract Layer, which serves as a communication layer between the Bitcoin Core 0.13 protocol and the EVM.

To achieve this, Qtum has extended the Bitcoin 'Script' language, adding 3 ‘opcodes’ so that it functions as a vehicle to transport code to the EVM, while adding special processing conditions, executing these EVM-using transactions immediately when added to the blockchain - allowing the EVM to operate within a UTXO environment.

In order to relieve Qtum smart contracts from the need to perform coin picking for every transaction, Qtum comes coded with an automated, generic coin picking algorithm which allows contracts to ignore the UTXO mode of operation, while functioning normally, as if deployed in an account-based environment. This method is what enables Qtum to be compatible with pre-existing Ethereum smart contracts, allowing them to be executed on Qtum with little to no change to their code.

For more information about Qtum’s architecture in general, please read this post or review our  Technical Whitepaper.   

https://qtum.org/ethereum-contracts-on-utxo/

 

https://qtum.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Qtum-technical-white-paper-draft-version.pdf

Press Update:

International Business Times publishes a Qtum Press Release, discussing the new whitepaper, and our involvement with a top 4 auditing firm.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/qtum-blockchain-releases-new-white-paper-mobile-apps-ties-pwc-asia-1610127






 By Ian Allison
March 7, 2017 09:04 GMT


Qtum, the UTXO smart contracts blockchain, has released a new white paper and also announced that it is working with PwC in Asia. Qtum (pronounced Quantum) uses the Unspent transaction Output (UTXO) design of Bitcoin and connects that with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) which stores and executes business rules as code on the blockchain.

Qtum's co-founder Patrick Dei says he has addressed the complexity involved in combining an unspent transactions model with a virtual machine by creating the Qtum Account Abstraction Layer (AAL). Qtum's proof of stake consensus system includes a kind of "adapter" which can build the state of each UTXO and through the new layer, and adapt it so the EVM can process the UTXO-based contract.
More from IBTimes UK


The paper titled, Smart-Contract Value-Transfer Protocols on a Distributed Mobile Application Platform, was authored by the co-founders of the Qtum project, Patrick Dai, Neil Mahi, Jordan Earls and the project's scientific adviser Dr Alex Norta.

Qtum's UTXO-based blockchain supports the SPV (Simple Payment Verification) protocol from launch, which will allow "lite" wallets, running on mobile devices, to engage natively with decentralised applications and smart contracts for the first time. This feature also allows IoT devices to be secured and operated with smart contracts, said a statement.

Lite wallets allow users to interact with the network without having to download and sync with the entire blockchain, enabling low bandwidth/storage access to smart contracts. With SPV support, transactions can be signed by the device itself rather than having to rely on third-party services to relay messages.

Dai said: "Getting smart contracts to work on smartphones and tablets heralds a new age in the field of decentralised computation. With about half of all internet traffic being generated by mobile devices, every real-world use case for decentralised applications would massively benefit from mobile support – especially if we're taking the tendencies of developing markets into account."

Norta said: "This white paper fills the gap in the state of the art by presenting the Qtum smart-contract framework that aims for socio technical application suitability, the adoption of formal-semantics language expressiveness, and the provision of smart-contract template libraries for rapid best-practice industry deployment."

The white paper also addresses concerns raised by the Ethereum DAO attack, noted Dai, by allowing contract collaboration, negotiation, review, and tracking. A Smart contract life cycle management system enables contracts to be more like living documents and when situations changes, (i.e. terms are broken in the contract, such as a delay) parties can determine if they want to amend or close the contract.

Earls added: "Qtum aims to revolutionise business processes and the way that businesses interact with their customers by making smart contract technology mobile and practical. The SPV protocol allows smart contracts to move from servers and laptops, into IoT and mobile devices."

CY Cheung, fintech and cybersecurity partner of PwC China, posted a blog about the agreement with Qtum, and added: "PwC sees enormous potential for blockchain to revolutionise business practices as we know them, and the firm has made great efforts in developing strategic and technical capabilities to adapt existing products and services for the new technology. We are excited to get involved in the era of innovation and help companies capture the opportunities and benefits brought by the new technology. Working with the Qtum Foundation aligns with our goal."

Press Update:

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Marketwatch.com discusses China's interest in Blockchain technology to deploy a 'digital renminbi'.  Patrick Dai makes an appearance to give his thoughts on the matter:

“The reason they’re doing this is because they want to have more transparency to regulate how money flows between banks,” said Patrick Dai, founder of the Qtum foundation, creators of the Qtum blockchain project."




By Joseph Adinolfi


"Chinese banks in two cities are testing a custom-built digital currency developed by the People’s Bank of China, according to information gleaned from local media reports and interviews with two individuals who are familiar with the central bank’s thinking.

The digital currency, known to the broader world as “ChinaCoin,” but officially referred to inside China as digital renminbi, or RMB, was developed by the PBOC in partnership with other private and public entities.

Eventually, Chinese authorities hope digital RMB will help the government strengthen oversight of the country’s banks, while helping to prevent financial crime.

“The reason they’re doing this is because they want to have more transparency to regulate how money flows between banks,” said Patrick Dai, founder of the Qtum foundation, creators of the Qtum blockchain project.

In recent months, certain local banks based in Shenzhen, a financial hub in southern China, and Guiyang, the capital of a province in the country’s southwest, have begun experimenting with first using the digital RMB network for settlement and clearing of transactions in the country’s interbank bond market.

China’s national media frequently cites transparency and efficiency as among the potential benefits of the digital renminbi project. However, in an interview with Caixin, a Chinese business publication, People’s Bank of China Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan said it would take China approximately 10 years to fully embrace the digital renminbi. China’s currency USDCNY, -0.0319%  is interchangeably referred to as yuan and renminbi.

But once it is widely launched, digital RMB will be more convenient, protect citizens’ privacy and maintain social order, Zhou said. Eventually, the digital adoption will allow the central bank to make better-informed decisions about monetary policy by allowing it to more closely monitor the movement of capital through the Chinese economy, he said, adding the system could also make it easier to prevent financial crimes such as money laundering.

Zhou also emphasized key differences between digital RMB and bitcoin, arguably the best known cryptocurrency. While the digital renminbi will incorporate some elements of blockchain technology, like the cryptographic algorithms that help secure the bitcoin network, it will more closely resemble a “permissioned” blockchain — a type of closed system that limits who can access and change information.

Read: This bitcoin rival nearly doubled in value in one week

The Chinese system will also be centrally controlled by the government, a concept that contravenes what bitcoin enthusiasts consider to be the cryptocurrency’s most revolutionary innovation: the ability to maintain a monetary system that is resistant to centralized control.

”The elephant in the room is how much it could potentially increase [the PBOC’s] control,” said Chris Burniske, Blockchain analyst and products lead at ARK Invest.

The price of a single bitcoin US:BTCUSD  was at $1,280 in recent trade, just shy of an all-time high reached late last week. Part of the rise has been attributed to anticipation of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision on approval of the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, which is expected by the end of the week.

The PBOC isn’t the only central bank that’s exploring the feasibility of its own digital currency. The Bank of England joined with researchers at University College in London to create RSCoin, a digital currency for central banks. The Bank of Canada has also said it is developing a blockchain-based digital version of the Canadian dollar. "

The 51% is the funds required to fund the Qtum Foundation over the next 4 years, this means the cost of development, salaries, rent, and so forth.  We will release a snapshot of the source code 2 days before the March 16th crowd sale, which shows our progress toward a working test network.

Of the other 49%, most will be held in transparent addresses, and will be used to fund the initiatives laid out in the Economy Whitepaper.

Hi Gleb, Time and Toni are twin brothers from Macedonia. 

We will release our updated technical whitepaper within the next 1-2 days, and the crowd sale details will be made available on March 9th. 

The source code will be released 2 days before the March 16th crowd sale, which will show our progress toward a working test network.

Hi, the answer to this is in the Qtum Economy Whitepaper (https://qtum.org/en/white-papers)

We will release the Crowd Sale details on the 9th of March, and then discuss them in more detail. 

We will also be hosting a technical Q&A session at our Slack on Tuesday, 8pm Beijing Time (7am EST)

We will announce the price shortly, but for the token distribution we go over this in the Economy Whitepaper:

https://qtum.org/en/white-papers

We're working to release a few updates soon, but the Token Sale won't be March 1st.  We haven't announced a formal date, we were saying March 1st a while back, but we changed it to 'March' even before the attacks started.

We've been quiet over the last few days as we assess some of the attacks, but we've also received a lot of private support.

Some of you have pointed out that we haven't 'moderated' anything on this thread, I think even the trolls would agree that we've been pretty tolerant, but please remember there comes a point where it turns into outright abuse.

Yes Gleb, thanks for your support in the past, we'll earn it again I hope.