🔹️ Most of you might already a bit familiar with the concept of DeFi and how much of a great change it brings to our daily lives. Today, we'll be briefly talking about another aspect of DeFi that saw the light, and that is bound to interest more than one - GameFi.

🎮 Put bluntly, GameFi is the financialization of video gaming. It's a perfect mix between DeFi and gaming that allows gamers to earn financial incentives and make a true profit by playing said games.

🕹 This new genre gives a new meaning to video games collectibles and in-game marketplaces and things of such. It gives users autonomy, decision-making rights, and freedom in terms of what should be invested in, what should be sold/traded, etc.

🔹️ The great thing about BTCU is how, thanks to our smart contracts, you can implement any scenario you want with guaranteed high scalability and security.

You can enjoy a world that offers the perfect mix of fun and creativity all the while being able to earn a lot from it.

Why not give it a go❓
It's only one click away, come have some fun❗

🌐 Decentralization is becoming an important aspect of our lives and is taking over finance more and more.

The benefits that come with it are many and no one can truly deny its worth.

🔹️ One of the main structures that BTCU is built on is said decentralization. We want all our participants to feel like they have the power to make their own decisions and be in control.

For us to reach perfect decentralization we have implemented different tools in the platform. One of them is the addition of economic opportunities such as leasing or even consensus reaching algorithms such as PoA.

🤗 Plus, as we've mentioned in our previous posts, there are also validators and general network participants. The more in the network, the more BTCU staked, and the greater decentralization is.

💙 Your days of worrying about a third-party messing with your transactions are over. With us, you can discover decentralization at its finest and also enjoy it at its fullest.

🔁 When it comes to scalability concerning blockchains, it usually refers to its limitations when processing transactions.

One of Bitcoin's biggest challenges is how it still has trouble evolving scalability-wise due to its previously implemented protocol. It's still at 7 TPS.

Even Ethereum, albeit having introduced smart contracts, still remains limited when it boils down to it.

🌐 BTCU, however, is different. As it took the best of both of worlds, BTCU turned out to be extremely advanced, and one of its main focuses is offering better scalability for its community.

So far, BTCU is expected to achieve a blockchain constant throughput of 200 TPS, with the ability to scale up to 10,000 TPS.

😎 Scalability remains one of the most important features of a blockchain, which is why it'll always be a BTCU priority as we try to better it.

🔹️ Interoperability by definition is the ability of different computer systems to exchange information and value.

Unfortunately, both Bitcoin and Ethereum still have plenty of interoperability issues which is nothing short of an impediment to their development - and they're not the only ones.

💪 A lot of blockchains do not work together and are rather independent, and thus far there is no proper way to allow different networks to communicate with each other. But that's where BTCU comes in.

The BTCU network is being built in a way that allows for complete interoperability. This is carried out by the implementation of atomic swaps at the level of smart contracts.

🔁 This creates a service for value exchange between networks and thus enables the transfer of tokenized assets from one network to another in a single click without any real restrictions.

BTCU wants to revolutionize the way the market works and the way we're used to be with blockchains in general.

🚀 This interoperability factor is sure to change the tide of things and bring transactions to a whole new level.

🥳 Happy and prosperous new year to everyone!

🤗 Every year that passes by is bound to have its own share of challenges and hurdles, but having such a great community that's always working with us hand-in-hand to better BTCU is a blessing we'll always be thankful for.

🚀 Whether you be a validator, bug-bounty hunter, ambassador, or even a simple by-stander who just wishes for our blockchain to reach new heights, know that you all play a great role in supporting us and making us strive for better results.

💙 Thank you everyone, for all your support during this year. Looking forward to the next one hoping that it'll be just as fruitful and full of opportunities!

🎄 Christmas is here and so is the time for everyone to relax and be proud of what they've accomplished so far this year.

🤗 We're extremely happy to have such an active and helpful community that works hand-in-hand with us to make BTCU the best it can be.

💙 Bug-bounty hunters, ambassadors, validators, everyone doing their best to assist us - Thank you for all of your efforts and for being so helpful.
Wishing you all a season of joy and prosperity, may our success extend to the years to come❗

⚡️ Bitcoin's massive energy consumption is no secret to the world. However, as time has yet proven to us again, the problem only keeps getting worse.

So far this year, Bitcoin seems to have already consumed more energy than it did in all of 2020. The numbers are roughly approximate but it has been deemed that by the end of the year Bitcoin would have overall consumed 91 terawatt-hours according to a Bloomberg post.

😔 This e-waste is not only energy-degrading but also resource-wasting and is an issue that most are hoping to fix before the consequences become irreversible.

What makes BTCU so different and special is that it was developed with the purpose of tackling the energy consumption problem that both Bitcoin and Ethereum face. A problem that is mainly associated with mining, scalability, and transaction anonymity.

⭐️ BTCU's development of smart contracts and efforts in making the system interoperable make it the perfect ecosystem to trade, invest and interact with cryptocurrency in the most eco-friendly, time-saving way there is.

😉 BTCU is here to give you a never-before experience in crypto, all you have to do is sit back and enjoy.

🌐 In Blockchain, mining refers to the most traditional way of earning cryptocurrency by solving different cryptographic equations using high-end computers.

The problem however with this technique is that it turns out to be extremely energy consuming and thus harmful towards nature.

🌱 To counter such measures and to find a better, eco-friendlier way to mine and profit from cryptocurrency in general, BTCU has decided to implement leasing and staking in its platform in an algorithm that ensures everything works smoothly.

Typically, when you purchase crypto and stake it, you claim a certain number of coins through a crypto exchange platforms and your coins go into a Proof of Stake (Pos) wallet.  The simplicity of this interaction ends up making the whole process less time and energy-consuming.

⭐ While leasing in BTCU is used as a way to increase the supply of circulating coins. We then have UPoS, which not only gives you standard staking capabilities but also enables Leasing.  Thus allowing you to have the best out of both worlds.

💙 BTCU's mining algorithm was specifically made to offer its users better speed, complete decentralization, and lesser energy consumption. Because our user's comfort is our top priority here at BTCU.

🔹️ Typically, a mining pool is a group constituted of cryptocurrency miners who "pool" their efforts and resources together to either find a block or to simply mine their desired cryptocurrency.

Nowadays, the number of centralized mining pools involving big investments has skyrocketed compared to a couple of years ago.

🌐 A pool may contain hundreds of thousands of miners, each using specialized protocols, and shares are the principal concept of each mining pool. This allows the fair rewarding of every miner taking part.

In other words, these pools are crucial when it comes to the blockchain field in general, and knowing how to make the best out of it and to simplify the mining process can make it more rewarding.

📉 One of the main problems with blockchain presently is that not only are their mining protocols extremely time and energy-consuming, but they also end up being ineffective.

In order to fix that issue and make the process more efficient, BTCU not only implemented LPoS but we also came up with our very own UPoS algorithm.

👍 While LPoS takes care of the mining process as a whole and makes it more eco-friendly and adaptable, UPoS offers better transaction speed, low and invariable commissions, and full decentralization with anonymity.

BTCU works on not only making processes simpler but also more enjoyable for everyone.

😎 You can make your own future even without a technical background. That is how easy it is with BTCU.

💪 We've already covered how both DeFi and NFTs are becoming massive game-changers in today's world. Little did you know that when put together, they become an unstoppable force.

To cut to the chase, DeFi needs NFTs and vice versa. How❓
It's simple. Throughout this year DeFi has reached heights that not many believe in and exceeded everyone's expectations. This progress and maturity, however, are making it so that DeFi's "fungibility" is no longer enough.

Think about it, if it's just about owning an asset or another, then might as well just go for NFTs as it would make more sense.

As for NFTs, the basis of their representation as tokens is directly correlated to the DEX-based liquidity pools.

In other words, it just seems as if both these factors can't help but gravitate towards each other. It even seems as if the most proficient DEX traders are also NFT collectors.

😎 BTCU allows its users to have the best of both worlds, all in one place. The NFT implementation is imminent and DeFi has always been the base of BTCU.

BTCU gives its users opportunities that might've never crossed their minds previously with amazing perks. Be it better transaction speed, anonymity, staking, leasing, and much more❗️

💙 With us, you can make your dreams a reality and shape them the way you want.

💰 Decentralized Finance (or DeFi for short), has proven itself to be quite the asset in our modern world's finance.

This "new" genre allows people to create smart contracts that automatically execute actions on the blockchain without banks, brokers, or corporations which would usually be present in your typical traditional market.

At first, a lot of people were skeptical about the use of DeFi. Most chose to call it a simple wave of hype that'll eventually die, but as time has proven to us it didn't, nor is it ready to go anytime soon.

📊 For instance, up until this summer, Dune Analytics has made a short research which proved that the new number of users that have begun interacting with DeFi has risen to 3,300,559 users (as of today).

This number applies only to users with unique addresses and said interaction remained the same whether it be in a bullish or a bearish market.

All of this just keeps proving to us how important DeFi is and how its implementation is no longer a "maybe" but a must.

🔁 BTCU's integration of DeFi allows its users to have better transaction speed, anonymity, lower fees, and even the ability to transfer your previous projects.

🌍 DeFi is taking the world by storm and BTCU is here to give you the key to enjoy it the best you can.

☝️ In our previous post, we went through how important decentralization was. And why it was an aspect we favor here at BTCU.

🔹️ Today we're going to briefly talk about consensus algorithms, and how they play a role in said decentralization.

😤 Generally, since only small percentages of coins are mined and the profit for full nodes holders in PoS is small the network becomes vulnerable. The main thing to deal with this issue is by assigning mining authority to another person, which in turn ends up just making the system centralized, instead of decentralized the way we need it.

👍 This is where new consensus algorithms come into the picture. These processes have the power to solve the issue at hand and bring it back the oh-so-needed decentralization and just make things generally quicker.

🚀 BTCU is aiming for a roof of 10000tps by its implementation of PoA- algorithm of transaction as well making its consensus.

🔹️ The Ultimatum PoS (UPoS) is a combination of Leased Proof of Stake (LPoS) and Proof of Authority (PoA). This concept allows it to have to best out of each world there is and create a perfect algorithm. Higher transaction speeds, low and invariable commissions, full decentralization, and more. You name it, UPoS most definitely got it.

💙 All of this was specifically made to give BTCU's users the best there is, and enjoy blockchain to its fullest extent without worries.

💰 Traditional financial systems will always be somewhat lacking whether it be in terms of security, reliability, or even speed of transactions.

This is one of the many reasons why the public's interest is beginning to shift towards more "fruitful" and modern ones. Blockchain, and its decentralized nature, is arguably the most promising field thus far.

🔹️ One of the best features of blockchain is that, since it's decentralized, user data is pretty much as safe as it could be. Plus, when it comes to actual transactions, cryptocurrencies have no need for a central authority or third-party action the way you would traditionally.

Such measures ensure not only data protection but also anonymity and quick transactions without interruptions. What's best is that every party in the transaction has full transparent access to every information stored within its block of chain and that said transaction won't take place unless all conditions are met.

😎 BTCU kept all of this in mind while building itself, and also added more innovative features to the lot!

Not only is BTCU fully decentralized but it also worked on implementing things such as smart contracts or even leasing and staking to add to its user's comfort.

💙 These options were made for you, and with BTCU you can get the best out of blockchain and decentralization without any worries.

🔹️ Legitimacy, security, and privacy of stored information have always been subject to the concerns of many.

🌐 Traditionally, it's undeniable that all those factors can be compromised. However, as modern technology keeps advancing by the day, it has come to the point of giving us a way to avoid such problems - blockchain.

❗ By nature, blockchain operates in a way where safety and trust are its main pillars.

🤗 The cryptographic and decentralized aspects, make it so that tampering with anything in the blockchain is pretty much impossible. Plus, for transactions, the consensus mechanism guarantees the validity or correctness of each to occur.

🔵 These same aspects are also some of the pillars of BTCU combined with more innovative ideas (such as our ZeroCoin protocol, or the leasing and staking process).

👍 Thanks to this security and the fact that the database is pretty much limitless, it is even being argued that blockchain archives could store data across worldwide nodes, making it permanent in the blockchain and forever engraved. And this is just one of the many advantages that blockchain has!

😎 BTCU's next-gen bitcoin fork is all that and much more! You have anonymity, smart contracts, simplicity, leasing, and other features for you to discover!

➡️ Find out more at btcu.io

As most of you might already remember, our previous post had a small mention by its end that we didn't dwell much upon, and that's because we will right away❗

👋 Welcome back dear BTCU community! Today we'll be going through Atomic swaps.

We've previously talked about smart contracts and about how they work, didn't we❓
Well, an Atomic Swap is actually a smart contract technology by itself!

🔁 This technology enables you to exchange one cryptocurrency for another without going through any third-party centralized intermediaries.

💰 This will enable you to not only speed up the transaction process but also for you to trade coins directly from your wallet.

🔹️ What makes atomic swaps so special is how decentralized they are, how free of risk they make you, and how the only fees you'll have to pay are the standard blockchain transaction fees.

On top of that, since Atomic Swaps revolve around the use of Hash Timelock Contracts (HTLC) this requires both parties of the transaction to confirm it and to acknowledge it. If either of the parties fails to do so then the transaction will be canceled, in other words, your funds will always be secure❗

😎 What we are aiming for at BTCU, is for these Atomic Swaps to revolutionize the way we transfer money and make the experience much more easier and enjoyable. 

🚀 Implementing them means taking another step towards the future, and giving BTCU users that opportunity too.

😎 In our last post, we talked a bit about how we were implementing the EVM (Ethereum virtual machine) technology into our system. Today, we'll be quickly going through one of the things that EVM gives us a key to - smart contracts.

➡️ Smart contracts by definition are self-executing contracts with already set predetermined conditions. Once said conditions are met, the agreement can be executed automatically without having to go through a third party.

👤 Each network user can create a customizable smart contract as long as it goes with EVM standards. All a user needs are the conditions and methods of interaction with the network. These smart contracts allow in other terms users to create decentralized applications

🔹️ These dApps are blockchain-enabled apps, and smart contracts allow them to actually access the blockchain.

🔹️ The integration of this system avoids denial-of-service attacks, saves time, protects your privacy, and ensures complete data integrity.

👍 BTCU decided to implement it for those reasons and because our user's comfort is what matters most. Thanks to these smart contracts and dApps integration, the decentralization factor will become much more prominent are more opportunities will be open for everyone (such as atomic swaps).

💰 It's summer 2021 already, and what had appeared to be just an uproar last year ended up settling in and becoming part of our reality - we're talking about Decentralized Finance (DeFi for short).

💪 DeFi proved to us during this year that it was massive, important, and here to stay. The fact that this system is so novel and creative in its ways of detaching itself from tradition is what gives it its strength.

No one ever really likes being watched or scammed, do they❓
Well, thanks to DeFi, your more traditional financial systems that had middlemen who would probably ask for outrageous sums in terms of commissions are no more.  

😎 It's built on a blockchain that includes smart contracts, protocols and dApps all of which open up to you the opportunity to take part in a financial ecosystem where you can build whatever you want in a decentralized way.  And guess who is the platform leader of the DeFi application? - Ethereum.

🔹️ At BTCU, we working on the integration of EVM (Ethereum virtual machine) technology into our network for the better implementation of said DeFi.

👍 We don't want you to just work on your projects on BTCU, but we also want to give you the opportunity of transferring the already implemented ones.

🌍 DeFi is changing the world, and we want to give you front-row seats for it.

🔹️ In our Last post, we've talked about how much anonymity was a key point for us here at BTCU, and we've also mentioned how we have implemented a protocol that works to secure that - The Zerocoin Protocol.

👤 As mentioned previously, the protocol does not rely whatsoever on a central coin issuer or a bank. The protocol ensures that your identity remains safe and incognito. 

👍 Each user can convert non-anonymous BTCU into zBTCU.  The latter is the anonymous currency that we have created. This process allows you to carry the transactions without the risk of being traced.

ℹ️ Furthermore, with this protocol, users can not only make direct payments to each other with the source being kept hidden, but it also hides the amount of the payment.

💰 BTCU has worked on making this privacy-protecting, digital currency for the comfort of our community and their privacy. It's easy to use, efficient and works perfectly.  Because our community is our pillar, and we're constantly working to give them the best.

🌍 With the adoption of cryptocurrencies becoming more prominent in our modern world, we have been able to notice and understand the key points and factors that make it better than our more traditional means of payment.

👤 One of the main issues that have forever bugged people's minds is the lack of proper anonymity. A problem that Bitcoin was first to address and tried to fix, but as time has shown us, it wasn't able to fully tackle it.

😎 Here at BTCU, we value our user's anonymity because not having such an important factor, or having it while being underhanded, could hurt you as well as your business.   

💰 Not only is your identity protected and not revealed, but you are also protected from potential scams or invasions of privacy. Thanks to the solution we offer, you'll be able to use the coins you own as freely as you'd like without fearing any leaks or potential cyber-attacks.

🔹️ This principle is possible thanks to our implementation of the ZeroCoin protocol. It works without relying on a central coin issuer, and even if on the flimsy chance of nodes being compromised since the system is built on top of Bitcoin it'll be distributed among its peers regardless of the situation.

🤗 Allow yourself the freedom of using your coins without being wary of whether it'll end up having some negative repercussions. Because BTCU always aims to give you the support you need to feel safe and free.

🙄 As cryptocurrencies' importance keeps getting bigger by the day, there's always been a single variant that has been on people's minds over and over and to which counter-measures have finally started being properly taken.

⚡️ The most concerning issue when it comes to cryptocurrencies is their mining mechanism and more specifically how much energy it ends up consuming. According to Cambridge University, the rough estimate for Bitcoin alone would be the use of even more electricity annually than Argentina as a whole.

🔹 To counter such a high energy consumption, from the very beginning, BTCU has worked on creating a new energy-efficient mining algorithm - UPoS (Ultimatum PoS).To prove how much the integration of this algorithm is worth, one only has to follow the news. As even world-leading figures such as Elon Musk have begun tackling this topic with more seriousness and started taking counter-measures towards nature's degradation due to mining.

😎 We strive to be always one step ahead. What's on our mind is the best not only community-wise but also development-wise, and truly how can we even live in this world if it ends up rotten due to our practices?

🌱 BTCU is aiming for sustainability, energy-renewability and safety. Because if the traditional ways won't work, then we must upgrade and find the best solutions to secure our future.