"What attracted me was a small, scalable blockchain that's still independently verifiable on small nodes," Ravikant told CoinDesk.
That's no small feat given the growing costs of storing major blockchains, which are designed largely to keep a record of every transaction ever made over the network.
If you've been around crypto, you've likely heard the term zk-snarks, most widely known as a privacy technology advanced by zcash, but which has recently gained momentum with other blockchain projects including ethereum and even JPMorgan's private blockchain Quorom.
O(1) isn't so much concerned about the privacy aspects of the technology but believes it can be adapted to build a blockchain that doesn't have the scalability hurdles of blockchain's today.
Simply, a snarks cryptographic proof - one that can demonstrate that every wallet on the blockchain has the crypto that it should - stands in for the full ledger.
The ledger then does not need to be stored forever; the proof stands in for the transaction history and explains the blockchain's state.
Knowing that the bitcoin blockchain has a line item for every transaction ever made is something many can grasp intuitively.
"By compressing the blockchain down to the size of a couple tweets, Coda makes entirely new things possible."
The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies.
CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.
This Blockchain Tosses Blocks: Naval, MetaStable Back Twist on Crypto 'Cash'
Published on May 9, 2018
by Coindesk | Published on Coinage
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