Qtum unveils world’s first proof-of-stake smart contracts platform

The Qtum Foundation is announcing today the launch of Sparknet, the first public test of its innovative blockchain platform, which combines crucial advantages of Bitcoin, Ethereum’s Virtual Machine and proof-of-stake consensus.
The Qtum (pronounced Quantum) blockchain model was inspired by the rivalry between proponent developers of the world’s most active blockchain communities, said Qtum co-founder Patrick Dai.
“We want to illustrate efficient scalability and compatibility between blockchain technologies,” said Dai. Qtum raised $15.6 million in a crowdsale in March.
The Qtum blockchain operates according to the Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) model, which ensures consistency in transactions and the traceability of tokens. At the same time, a virtual machine for smart contracts is layered on top of Qtum’s blockchain, which presents to developers a best-of-both-worlds architecture for the construction of decentralized mobile applications and other blockchain-based ventures.
Co-founder Jordan Earls, who leads Qtum’s team of almost two dozen developers, said the testnet would feature an Ethereum Virtual Machine smart contract implementation along with Qtum’s PoS protocol.
“I’m ready to get this in the hands of the community and see what everyone’s response to it will be, in particular, what features other developers can come up with,” said Earls.
Six decentralized applications are already being built for the blockchain, Dai said. Among the applications are a peer-to-peer mobile streaming platform and a prediction market.
While these applications are geared to the Chinese market, the Qtum blockchain will appeal to a global audience, accessible to all developers.
“Like many others around the world, I’m eagerly awaiting the launch,” said Roger Ver, Qtum Angel investor who has been investing in bitcoin startups since the beginning.
Visit Qtum’s Github page to view the project’s code repository, which will be accessible to the public on the day of the testnet launch.