What Value does the ThunderCore Scalable Blockchain Have?
ThunderCore is asking what value could a scalable blockchain have? Scalable means that you can expand a blockchain fast.
Ideally, a scalable blockchain will handle hundreds or thousands of transactions per second (TPS). Unfortunately, today’s blockchains are not scalable because of all the encryption and security measures they have.
Most analysts, for instance, estimate Ethereum can handle 15 transactions per second, Coindesk notes. However, Visa processes around 1,700 TPS, Hackernoon’s Kenny Li estimates.
Can ThunderCore Solve the Blockchain Scalability problem?
Under these circumstances, the world’s largest payment processor Visa (NYSE: V) can handle 150 million transactions a day.
However, an Ethereum based gaming platform like Abyss (ABYSS) could crash if it tries to accept over 15 payments. Thus, Abyss could not accept enough payments to make money from its’ games with current blockchain technology.
This is the great blockchain scalability problem that you may have heard of. ThunderCore is one of several platforms trying to solve the problem by building a scalable blockchain.
Interestingly, ThunderCore claims its MainNet offers high TPS, and it is now live and ready to build on. In particular, claims its blockchain can process over 1,200 transactions per second.
However, ThunderCore’s Timeline states it will not start processing 1,000 TPS until 4th Quarter 2019. Moreover, the full ThunderCore may not launch a Full Node until 1st Quarter 2020. Plus multiple ThunderCore blockchains will not be available until 2nd Quarter 2021.
Is ThunderCore Ethereum Compatible?
If these claims are true, ThunderCore’s capability to process transactions and scalability could rival Visa’s. Importantly, ThunderCore boasts its blockchain is Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible.
The Ethereum Virtual Machine is Ethereum’s decentralized ecosystem for building digital applications such as smart contracts. Therefore, if ThunderCore’s claims are true, you could build Ethereum smart contracts or payment solutions into a ThunderCore blockchain.
As a result it might be possible for Ethereum systems like the Abyss to use ThunderCore’s payments system. Thus, ThunderCore could theoretically work with the 94 of the top 100 cryptocurrencies that developers base on the Ethereum Request for Contact (ERC20) protocol. To clarify, Long Hash estimates 94% of CoinMarketCap’s top 100 cryptocurrencies are Ethereum based.
The Thunder Token could be Ethereum Compatible
This means ThunderCore and its Thunder Token (TT) cryptocurrency could be compatible with 94% of the most popular cryptocurrencies. However, CoinMarketCap does not list the Thunder Token as an Ethereum compatible altcoin.
In addition, EVM compatibility could allow existing Ethereum tools to work on ThunderCore, ThunderCore CEO Chris Wang claims. Moreover, Wang claims you can import Ethereum tokens like the DAI (DAI) stablecoin into ThunderCore.
Thus, you could theoretically pay for a ThunderCore game with DAI, Ethereum (ETH), or the Basic Attention Token (BAT).
How Secure is the ThunderCore Blockchain?
I know of only one way for blockchain developers to achieve the level of scalability the ThunderCore team boasts.
That method is to reduce encryption and security to make the system move faster. To explain all the encryption and security in a blockchain slows its movements and limits the capacity. Reduce the encryption and security in a blockchain and you speed it up.
Thus, blockchain is like the armor on a tank or a warship. You can make a tank or a warship resistant to many weapons with thick armor. However, thick armor is heavy which slows the vehicle and reduces its usefulness.
Conversely, you can make a tank or a warship faster by reducing the armor. Yet, reducing the armor makes the vehicle more vulnerable to attack.
Similarly, reducing encryption and security will make a blockchain more vulnerable to crime and cyberattack. ThunderCore’s blockchain could be faster, but the bad guys could have an easier time getting into it.
Interestingly, some critics argue platforms like ThunderCore and EOS (EOS) are not blockchains because of the low-levels of encryption. Instead, ThunderCore could be a sidechain, a less encrypted bypass around the blockchain.
ThunderCore founded by Playdom Founder
Fascinatingly, ThunderCore has a potential connection to the Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) and an impressive founder.
ThunderCore CEO Chengwen Chris Wang was the founder of Disney’s Playdom gaming social media platform, Forbes’ Joresa Blount notes. Wang tells Blount Playdom built many of the early games on Facebook (NASDAQ: FB).
Impressively, Wang has a experience founding and leading a successful company at Playdom. Playdom games include Facebook’s Gardens of Time and the Mobsters game on MySpace. Under Wang, Playdom had 200 million active monthly users and generated $100 million in annual revenues. Additionally, Disney bought Playdom for $563 million in 2010 when it was just 20 months old, Forbes’ Rebecca Fang reports.
Thus, Wang has experience building a digital product and marketing and delivering that product to real people in the real world. In addition, he has experience with gaming, social media, and entertainment. Moreover, Wang claims to have been an early investor in Alibabba (NYSE: BABA), Glassdoor, and FlipKart.
However, there is no evidence of a Disney connection at ThunderCore. Specificlaly, ThunderCore does not list Disney among its partners or investors.
ThunderCore’s Impressive Brain Power
Notably, ThunderCore employs Elaine Shi, an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University as Chief Scientist.
Shi wrote the first academic research papers on Bitcoin (BTC) and smart contracts. In addition, Shi won the National Security Agency’s (NSA) Best Cybersecurity Award and a number of fellowships.
Plus, ThunderCore employees Rafael Pass a scientist. Pass is a professor of Computer of Scientist at Cornell University and Cornell Tech. Pass has worked for JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) and Price Waterhouse Coopers. Shi and Pass cofounded the IC3 or Initiative for Cybersecurity and Contracts. Pass has received faculty awards from Microsoft and Google.
Thus it appears there is some genuine science and real business expertise at ThunderCore. Unfortunately, I cannot tell if functioning decentralized applications (DApps) or platforms are taking advantage of that expertise.
What Value does the Thunder Token Have?
Cynics, however, will wonder if this science adds value to the Thunder Token (TT).
Mr. Market gives the Thunder Token because it was CoinMarketCap’s 152nd most valuable cryptocurrency on 25 July 2019. However, CoinMarketCap gave TT a Coin Price of roughly 1₵ on 25 July 2019.
Conversely, CoinMarketCap gave the Thunder Token a Market Capitalization of $28.077 million and a 24-Hour Market Volume of $2.16 million on the same day. CoinMarketCap based numbers on a Circulating supply of 2.902 million TT and a Total Supply of 10 million TT.
Thus, Thunder Token has some theoretical value. However, I advise speculators to avoid TT until ThunderCore demonstrates some working DApps and proves it can process over 1,000 TPS. Until it shows such capabilities, ThunderCore is all theory and no value.