Contract Coin Ethereum Virtual Machine + Bitcoin Blockchain, the era of Bitcoin smart contracts is coming

Two weeks later, Counterparty plans to embed the Ethereum virtual machine into the Bitcoin testnet, and is expected to be officially released on the mainnet this fall, aiming to embed the functions of Ethereum smart contracts into the Bitcoin network.

It is reported that the virtual machine developed by Counterparty is 99% similar to the Ethereum virtual machine, and its test coverage is as high as 85%, even higher than the test coverage of Ethereum Pyethereum.

Response to the DAO Incident

In response to the recent DAO attack, the Counterparty team mentioned in an interview that the virtual machine port development will still proceed as planned, but with the addition of a new detail.

When a vulnerability occurs in a smart contract, the Contract Coin development team is strictly prohibited from forking or rolling back. (If the vulnerability originates from the virtual machine itself, rather than a specific smart contract, the development team has the right to rewrite the contract and fix the vulnerability)

There is another interesting detail that is still under discussion, which is to give the holders of the contract currency a "switch" that gives them the right to immediately stop running the virtual machine subsystem. This behavior will not affect the normal operation of the contract currency main network.

This regulation is not completely impossible to achieve. After all, the core concept of Contract Coin is to realize the decentralized creation, transfer and transaction of assets. It exists independently and has nothing to do with the functions of any smart contract.

Using the Bitcoin blockchain

In January 2014, Counterparty Coin was officially launched, consuming 2125.63个比特币worth $1.8 million. Counterparty Coin is based on the Bitcoin blockchain and creates assets by embedding data into on-chain Bitcoin transactions.

Now, by embedding the Ethereum Virtual Machine, Counterparty plans to create more complex and Turing complete functionality — bringing smart contracts to the Bitcoin network.

This new type of smart contract functionality faces considerable challenges even within the Bitcoin network. For example, the already released Rootstock platform also has similar functionality. However, unlike Counterparty Coin, Rootstock uses a completely new technology - sidechain.

Using the Bitcoin blockchain means that Contract Coin will be subject to the Bitcoin protocol, such as a 10-minute wait for a block confirmation. Recently, during peak trading hours, the network has also been “congested”, which results in higher fees and longer wait times.

Summarize

Compared with Ethereum, the biggest advantage of Contract Coin is that it prohibits developers from rolling back. In this way, developers will not be able to implement artificial remedies for potential losses caused by contract vulnerabilities (because it cannot violate the concept of decentralization).

However, Counterparty also authorizes holders to shut down the integrated virtual machine system and all smart contracts. This behavior has a wide impact, affecting both Counterparty smart contract users and developers.

The Counterparty Coin virtual machine provides more options for the digital currency ecosystem. Smart contract developers and users can choose whether to use the Ethereum virtual machine (when huge losses occur in the entire network, the Ethereum virtual machine can authorize the ecosystem to take action). The Counterparty Coin virtual machine benefits from the security of the Bitcoin blockchain and grants holders more rights.

Competition in the blockchain industry is becoming increasingly fierce. Take Counterparty and Rootstock for example. They both aim to create a flexible smart contract ecosystem in the hope of gaining mainstream recognition. Blockchain technology has been slowly gaining recognition among more and more people, with fans all over the world, from central banks and tech giants to startups, all competing to bring this new technology into the public eye.