How Qubic Ditched Blockchain’s Baggage To Achieved 40 Million TPS

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As a seasoned crypto investor with over a decade of experience under my belt, I’ve seen my fair share of blockchain projects that promised the moon and delivered nothing but hot air. But when I stumbled upon Qubic, it was like finding a unicorn in a field of horses – it was different, innovative, and genuinely exciting.

Speaking about the evolution of decentralized Web3 networks, it’s important to highlight some significant technological leaps in recent years. One breakthrough that has drawn worldwide attention is Qubic – a groundbreaking system for AI networks based on quorum-based computing (QBC). This innovative technology made headlines with its remarkable capacity to handle an astounding 40 million transactions every second.

Qubic, a pioneer in quorum-based computer systems for AI networks within the decentralized Web3 network, has significantly outperformed its counterparts such as Solana, Sui, Binance Smart Chain (BSC), and Polygon. These competitors, designed for rapid transaction speeds, have all been left behind by Qubic’s exceptional performance.

You might be curious by now: How can Qubic manage to thrive when other decentralized networks struggled so much? The secret to its success is that it’s not a blockchain.

In this piece, let’s delve into the mystery of Qubic and understand how it managed to outrank other players in the industry without relying on traditional blockchain systems.

How Qubic is Faster than any other web3 network?

In simple terms, Qubic’s performance speed surpasses many top-tier blockchains in the cryptocurrency sector significantly. While networks such as Solana, Sui, Binance Smart Chain (BSC), and Polygon have advertised their speed as “lightning fast,” they operate at a pace slower than a snail in practice. Even Solana, known for its high-speed performance, could only process 1,504 transactions per second in April – a figure that Qubic outpaces effortlessly!

Beyond The Blockchain: Not Blocks but “ticks”

In a preliminary report, Qubic suggests that to grasp its remarkable speed capabilities, we must set aside traditional notions of how decentralized networks function. It appears that blockchain is not quick enough for this task, leading us to explore concepts beyond “blocks”, focusing instead on the idea of “ticks”.

In Qubic, ticks share some similarities with blocks in a blockchain, but they also have distinct differences. Unlike blocks, which are connected sequentially, ticks do not directly link to each other. Just like blocks, however, ticks appear at regular intervals within weekly periods called epochs. The speed of the ticks can be adjusted, but typically, there’s one tick every 0.2 seconds.

Every Wednesday at 12 PM UTC, a new phase begins in Qubic, similar to a “hard fork” in blockchains. This term refers to the creation of a fresh blockchain that carries the history of an older one and then branches out on its own path (like Bitcoin Cash). Notably, unlike traditional hard forks where both chains continue to exist, in Qubic, the previous ‘chain’ effectively ceases to be, giving way to the newly created one. The weekly phases are crucial as Qubic operates uniquely compared to other blockchain-based Web3 networks.

Qubic has no OS 

Qubic uniquely functions without a traditional operating system and operates directly from its RAM, using as little data as possible. The absence of an operating system reduces one major bottleneck in blockchain performance. However, this is just one factor that contributes to the remarkable speed at which Qubic processes transactions.

A significant advantage of Qubic is its immediate finality feature. When an epoch ends, all transactions undergo pruning, leaving behind only the records of account balances changes. These summaries are passed on to the subsequent epoch, but only when there is a non-zero balance remaining.

What are “computors” in Qubic?

As an analyst, I’d rephrase the given text as follows: To keep everything running smoothly, Qubic operates on a network of 676 specialized nodes known as Computors, each responsible for transaction processing and smart contract execution. For any transaction to be validated, at least two-thirds (451 or more) of these Computors must agree. A single arbitrator is in place to monitor the honesty of these Computors, and if this arbitrator shows signs of dishonest or malicious behavior, it can be replaced.

If the required number of participants (quorum) isn’t met for any given reason during a vote or transaction, that specific record (tick) will lack validation, resulting in an empty record. Consequently, any transactions enclosed within this invalid tick will also remain unvalidated and unprocessed.

Qubic follows a minimalist approach

In a nutshell, Qubic’s distinctive, streamlined architectural design sets it apart from other decentralized networks, outpacing them significantly in transaction speed. This is due to its unique ability to handle transactions at rates that seem almost unimaginable for traditional, blockchain-based models. It does this by avoiding common blockchain issues like unconfirmed transactions, fees, mempools, confirmed transactions, and the need for confirmations to prevent double spending. Instead of being bogged down by excessive data, as many blockchains are, Qubic operates more efficiently, allowing it to match the pace of contemporary finance.

Users might observe instances where a transaction within a tick doesn’t go through successfully and thus has no impact. This necessitates the receiver to verify each transaction’s validity, and to facilitate this, Qubic imposes a restriction – only one pending transaction can be associated with a single ID or wallet address at any given time. If an ID attempts to transmit another transaction before the existing pending one is validated, the older transaction will just be swapped out by the newer one. However, Qubic contends that this is a minor trade-off considering its exceptional performance. Additionally, users can create temporary IDs if they wish to send multiple transactions simultaneously.

Each ID uses its entity information – incomingAmount, numberOfIncomingTransfers, latestIncomingTransferTick, outgoingAmount, numberOfOutgoingTransfers, latestOutgoingTransferTick – to calculate its balance after each tick, and there is a RAM data structure called the Spectrum file that hosts the entity info for every ID on the Qubic network. This file is updated at the end of each tick, and to achieve quorum the hash of each ID and the universal file needs to match. This is how the Qubic assures that the consensus has valid balances after each tick. In other words, it directly confirms all of the balances across its 676 Computor nodes after every tick, eliminating the need for a lifetime history, as found in Bitcoin and other blockchain networks. 

Decentralizing AI For Everyone 

It’s interesting to note that Qubic predates many current blockchain networks, having roots traced back to a 2012 thread on BitcoinTalk forum – a platform central to crypto discussions at the time. Those versed in crypto culture might recall that the author of this post was Come-from-Beyond (CfB), whose real name is Sergey Ivancheglo, a renowned cryptography expert and one of the early pioneers in blockchain technology. Besides contributing to Bitcoin’s early development, CfB is acknowledged as the creator of NXT, the first proof-of-stake cryptocurrency, and IOTA blockchain, which was the first successful implementation of a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG).

In simple terms, Qubic relies on the combination of AI and blockchain technology for its operation. The mission of CfB is to make Artificial Intelligence more accessible by utilizing the immense computational power of its network and its Unique Proof of Work (uPoW) system to efficiently and scalably perform crucial tasks like training AI models, ensuring that these resources are available to everyone.

Conclusion

As a researcher diving into the world of quantum technology, I’ve come across Qubic, which might seem revolutionary at first glance. However, its concept was actually introduced back in 2012, where its development roadmap and future potential were already envisioned. Remarkably, in just a short span of time, Qubic has managed to outpace most existing blockchain networks due to the numerous innovative operations it employs.

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2024-08-08 14:29