If you’ve been around the internet for a while, you must have heard of the term “blockchain”. A blockchain is a platform that cryptocurrencies run on. Cryptocurrencies are decentralised digital currencies that can be used like fiat currencies. Because they are decentralised, owners have complete control and full responsibility for them. You are your bank with cryptocurrencies. You have access to your funds every time. But if you lose access to your funds, you may not be able to recover them. Unlike fiat currencies in which the government mints new notes from time to time, with cryptocurrencies, anybody can print the currency as long as they follow the rules.
There are different cryptocurrencies available today. There is bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), Elrond's eGold and all the rest. These cryptocurrencies are powered by different blockchain networks. The Elrond blockchain powers its native cryptocurrency: Elrond's eGold (eGLD). It is a highly decentralised, cheap and efficient blockchain platform designed to solve the problems of scalability that is common with older blockchain networks.
Launched in 2020, the network has shown much promise and is gaining popularity every second. The Elrond blockchain is used for decentralised apps and the new internet economy. By simplifying the blockchain, Elrond makes developing and using apps on the network an exciting experience for developers, users, corporations, firms, and more. The Elrond blockchain may be the future of true financial freedom. Keep reading to learn more.
Who Created the Elrond Blockchain?
Although it just recently became popular, the Elrond blockchain has been around for some time. It was created in 2017 by Beniamin Mincu, Lucian Mincu, and Lucian Todea. Their company is based in Malta. At first, the Elrond Blockchain coin was named elrond (ERD). When they launched a private investment round in June of 2019, they raised $1.9 million. After the first investment round, they issued an initial exchange offering where they raised $3.25 million in exchange for 25% of the total coin supply. Their project did not launch, however, or go public until July 2020. Then, the ERD coins were rebranded (to eGLD) and all coin holders were issued the new eGLD coin.
The Elrond's Blockchain Coin: Elrond's eGold (eGLD)
The Elrond blockchain powers the eGLD coin. The eGLD is the unit of value that the Elrond blockchain runs on. On the Elrond blockchain, the eGLD coin is used for staking and validator rewards and as payment for all types of transactions on the network. So, it is used to pay gas fees on the Elrond network. The eGLD coin can be held in a web wallet or on Elrond’s Maiar Wallet. The Maiar wallet is more functional and allows users to transact quickly over the Elrond Network. With Maiar, users can stake, delegate, lend, borrow, send and receive eGLD faster than they can transact cryptocurrencies on other blockchains.
There are more than 50% of the total eGLD coins in use currently with more being released according to the emission schedule over the next 10 years until the final supply of about 31.4 million eGLD coins is reached. Because the eGLD coin has a relatively low supply and users are staking it more thus protecting the blockchain ecosystem, Elrond is projected to do well in the long term.
The Elrond Blockchain: How it works
Blockchains are built on consensus mechanisms to ensure that coins are minted honestly. The Elrond blockchain uses Secure Proof of Stake (SPoS) as its consensus mechanism. The Elrond Network is split into distinct multiple units called shards, all working in parallel to power and secure the Elrond Blockchain. In each shard, computer programs called validator nodes are selected randomly to secure and power the network. This selection is based on the amount of eGLD staked in support of the validator, their rating and a randomness source. At the end of a certain duration of time, called an epoch (approximately 24 hours), the validators selected will be rewarded some eGLD and the selection will be reshuffled.
In the Elrond blockchain, nodes are split into groups which are frequently shuffled to maintain maximum security, and prevent malicious groups from taking over the Elrond blockchain. Because Elrond uses the sharding process to split data, multiple nodes can process different transactions at the same time. This is why the Elrond blockchain is very fast since not all nodes have to work on the same transaction at the same time like in a proof of work consensus mechanism (a typical example is the bitcoin blockchain).
The Elrond Blockchain: Application and Uses
Non-fungible tokens (or NFTs as they’re popularly called) are the hottest thing in the crypto space right now. They are used to represent ownership. In addition to creating a platform for developing decentralised apps, the Elrond blockchain supports NFTs and features an NFT framework called Smart Accounts. Smart Accounts are accounts that allow users to store large amounts of private or personal information — like emails, social security numbers, bitcoin addresses, health data and so on — directly in their Elrond Network account.
Conclusion
The Elrond blockchain is an efficient, scalable, and inexpensive blockchain that can benefit people, organizations and businesses. By providing solutions on data exchange, the internet of things, financial services, and so on, we see that the Elrond Blockchain is versatile, can be easily adopted and can usher in the future we dream of. To learn more about the Elrond blockchain or stake your eGLD with us, visit our website or keep an eye on our blog.
