The Sapphire Blockchain is for everyone
In our last article, we touched on what sapphire was with a high-level overview of its basic function and features. In our next articles we will be diving deeper into what makes sapphire tick and what problems it solves.
Proof-of-Work:
There has been much debate over the years of the best method of processing transactions on a blockchain and it was decided that like it’s parent EGEM, Sapphire will be a Proof-of-Work Blockchain. This decision was made for the following reasons:
Tried and tested: Proof-of-Work remains the fairest and most sustainable long-term way to secure a native blockchain. It is a tried and tested method of ensuring stability of a blockchain ecosystem and has been rigorously stress-tested for over a decade.
Low Barrier to entry: We believe that everyone should be able to contribute to the EGEM and Sapphire ecosystem and the barrier to entry should be (and remain) low to participate and use these chains. Anyone with a GPU can mine Sapphire and help secure the chain and process transactions. With GPUs being more affordable now than previous years the barrier to entry remains low for users to mine Sapphire.
Dual Mining: Sapphire was built from its inception to be dual-mined efficiently with EGEM on the same hardware, without a large detrimental effect to hash rate performance over single-mining. Miners to not need to choose which chain to mine as they can process transactions on both chains.
Renewable Energy: The proliferation and availability of green energy, especially among mining enthusiasts means that Proof-of-Work has the potential to be an ecologically sound choice. Additionally, many retail energy companies offer green energy tariffs so non-enthusiasts can also benefit from mining with green energy. We predict that availability of green energy will only increase over time and that EGEM and Sapphire will have minimal detrimental impact on the global environment over it’s lifetime.
Mining and rewards:
Like most blockchains, a fee is required to make transactions on the blockchain. Miners who process these transactions receive this fee so that they can sustain and profit from maintaining the network. This economic is important for the long-term longevity of the blockchain.
To incentivize participation and aid in the distribution of Sapphire, a mining reward of Sapphire will be distributed to miners who process transactions. In addition to the transaction fees, successfully finding a block will yield and additional reward to processing transactions.
As opposed to Bitcoin which is a deflationary currency with a set total supply, Sapphire is a disinflationary currency. This means that rate of inflation only ever decreases over the lifetime of the currency but total supply of Sapphire will always increase. We believe that this is a key component to stimulate spending on the sapphire blockchain without eroding the value of users holding the currency as a store of value. Further detail of the economics of Sapphire will be covered in subsequent articles.
Hashing Algorithm:
We have opted for a modified version of the blake2s algorithm. Blake2s is a high-speed, simple and secure algorithm optimized for smaller-bit architectures and is ASIC-Resistant. It is a CPU and GPU-minable algorithm and is highly compatible to dual-mining in conjunction with Ethash.
These light-weight and compatibility features make Blake2s the ideal algorithm for lowering barriers of entry and encouraging participation of mining from all levels of miners and revives older GPUs adding to the ecological and economical sustainability of the chain.
Block time:
Sapphire has a 6 second block time to enable lightning fast transactions. We will be covering this in greater detail in subsequent articles.
In this article we have covered the basics of some the underlying technology behind the Sapphire blockchain. In future articles we will be elaborating on the economics of Sapphire, how Sapphire enables 6-second Bitcoin transactions and the secondary decentralized infrastructure of the new blockchain.
