Soteria is developing a holistic solution to solve some of the pressing problems of the current generation of blockchains, such as performance bottlenecks, while providing an adequate feature set for the decentralized economy it envisions, such as BlockDAG-based Scalable throughput and chain data storage, equal mining through memory, private computing and highly expressive non-Turing-complete, non-GAS light chain heavy application smart contracts.

Author: Ming Guo

Translated by: Claire Wu

The author of this article, Ming Guo, is the co-founder of the block chain star project Soteria.

Soteria is developing a holistic solution to solve some of the pressing problems of the current generation of blockchains, such as performance bottlenecks, while providing an adequate feature set for the decentralized economy it envisions, such as BlockDAG-based Scalable throughput and chain data storage, equal mining through memory, private computing and highly expressive non-Turing-complete, non-GAS light chain heavy application smart contracts.

Now, Bitcoin is here, and it points us in the right direction. When we are confronted with alien technology (not necessarily from outer space), there will always be two main camps of people who react in opposite ways: one group welcomes it (the welcomers) because they have nothing to lose , betting all bets is the only way they can win; the other kind of people have ignored it for so long, and now they are forced to face it with suspicion and mistrust (disbelievers).

Among those "disbelievers", some see bitcoin as a nuisance, others see it as a threat that should be contained (control camp). The latter group knows that Bitcoin is not as menacing as all the previous ones because it cannot be banned, it cannot be killed (unless it is made to commit suicide due to some higher order rules of the universe), but it can be controlled.

In other words, distrustful people actually respect Bitcoin and agree that it is some kind of exotic technology. Many from the control camp believe they might benefit from studying the technology and using what they learn from the Bitcoin network to improve their own (backward) technology. These men see their momentous discovery: the blockchain, as a tool that can control bitcoin. They even realized that they couldn't afford to see Bitcoin's creation spiral out of control. Blockchain mentally soothes the perceived threat posed by Bitcoin, and acts as a psychological vaccine against the Bitcoin plague (or cryptocurrency plague). Similar to vaccine development, we have seen several ways to counter Bitcoin with the blockchain.

This is a method similar to inactivated vaccines (killed vaccines). For example, extracting what they consider to be the most lethal key ingredient of the Bitcoin network: DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology), while discarding everything else. The problem with this approach is also similar to that of inactivated vaccines in immunology, which is not very effective at killing viruses (or bitcoin and cryptocurrencies). I have to admit, in fact this metaphor is not very appropriate. Inactivated vaccines are a proven and effective immunization technique, but DLT is not. Even the kind of DLT that has been overhyped has done little to allay fears of creating a new financial order.

If the context of "cryptocurrency" is removed, the distributed ledger is just an "additional database", which will not bring any new functions beyond the existing technology; it will bring more problems than the benefits we imagined . In fact, the financial industry has deployed various distributed ledger technologies and various clumsy and centralized equipment to ensure their normal operation. Claiming that being “inspired” by Bitcoin, DLT brings many Bitcoin-like good properties without the side effects of “anarchism” is completely false and misleading. It's a scam and customers (financial institutions) don't really buy into it.

Another approach is similar to the attenuated vaccine (live vaccine) approach. These are cryptocurrencies created and launched under the centralized control of a single entity: private companies (like Ripple or Tether) or even governments (like Venezuela’s petro). These "cryptocurrencies" are not real cryptocurrencies like bitcoin or ethereum. "Toxic" features such as decentralization, censorship resistance, and trustless consensus are completely eliminated; they are just a shell, and hidden under the shell is a centralized, access-controlled black box. To some extent, these is a private currency.

The irony is that many traditional financial institutions rely on people's distrust of the above-mentioned (doubtful) scams that call themselves "cryptocurrency" and are actually "private money" to promote their own version of "cryptocurrency". Bank or state-issued (supposedly regulated) digital currencies powered by blockchain technology. Many governments have become enamored of this workaround, setting up so-called “sandbox” programs for participating companies to oversee their implementation of blockchain technology.

It has been argued that these centralized “cryptocurrencies” can serve as a bridge between decentralized cryptocurrencies and digital currencies (traditional fiat currencies in digital form). Of course, the latter bridge statement does not think from the perspective of a decentralized economy at all, and the real purpose of the bridge is still to put the cryptocurrency under centralized centralized control.

Are alternative "cryptocurrency" or blockchain projects successful? Well, as far as "containment" goes, no! So far, none of them have succeeded in displacing Bitcoin as a true cryptocurrency, but some of these centralized "cryptocurrencies" (such as Ripple and Tether) are very popular among some coins, so they are somewhat The Internet has successfully sowed false ideas and created confusion in cryptocurrency circles.

True believers in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies don’t think these “containment” tactics work in the first place. Yes, they did gain some support, but not enough to win over and crush Bitcoin or truly decentralized cryptocurrencies. However, people who think this way completely miss the point. As we have described in previous discussions, thinking in terms of "fighting" and "winning" is wrong, it falls into the trap of centralization, and the result will be huge chaos, such as the hyped STO, Bit Coin ETFs, the chaos they create will be catastrophic!

This series focuses on the argument that Bitcoin and truly decentralized cryptocurrencies are not compatible with our current centralized world. In fact, they have no practical use in our centralized world. In this sense, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies cannot win in our centralized world, however, winning is not the point, building a decentralized world and future is what matters.

However, I have one more piece of advice...

This article is translated from Ming Guo's:

This article is translated from Ming Guo's:『Bitcoin is Alien Technology (part 3)』