As the world’s first Proof of Stake (PoS) platform, Qtum combines Bitcoin blockchain with the smart contract tech of Ethereum.
Qtum got going after the sale of $10 million in tokens (51% of their coins) in 90 minutes via a crowdfunding campaign in March 2017. The company started on the right foot with angel investors including Anthony Di Iorio (founder of Ethereum and CEO of JaxxWallet), Chen Weixing (founder of Kuaidi), and Jeremy Gardner (co-founder of Augur).
Since then, Qtum continues to gain in momentum.
Picking Up Speed
We touched base with one of Qtum’s co-founders, Jordan Earls, in October and co-founder, Patrick Dai, presented at TechCrunch in Shanghai this week. Dai reiterated Qtum’s mission of developing programs based on PoS consensus since smart contracts are at the core of DAPPs.
Also at TechCrunch, Dai noted that the Qtum X86 Virtual Machine (early 2018 in Roadmap below) will be a gamechanger since it will support more mainstream programming languages, equipping as many developers as possible to launch more applications on the platform.
Richtopia CEO, Derin Cag, cited Qtum as moving up the list of top 100 companies in the distributed ledger space. Although the power score has dropped from all-time high of 70 (now at 40), in just over three months, Qtum moved up nearly 20 places in ranking.
Other Developments
In addition to being available on exchange sites like CoinSwitch, coinbase and CEX.IO, Bit-Z launched Qtum earlier in the month.
Other activity includes the currently live Vevue ICO on the Qtum blockchain with 40 million tokens (1 QTUM=100 Vevue tokens). In a recent blog post about the soft launch, Vevue founder, Thomas Olson, said that Vevue is a community project, and their success is only as strong as the community they build. To make sure none of the interested community members are left out of the ICO, the team has opted for a soft launch so all tokens don’t sell out in seconds.
Activity by new players such as Vevue is exactly why the release of X86 is widely anticipated. Since the plan for the Virtual Machine is to allow as many diverse developers to come onboard, new communities will be able to set up shop using the Qtum platform.
Updated Roadmap
As noted earlier, a milestone we’re all looking forward to early next year is the X86 Virtual Machine. According to the updated timeline, we’ll see the iOS wallet, API and Dapp store to follow later in the year.
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High-level talent and innovation are at Qtum’s core but it would be remiss to assume competition isn’t hot on their tracks. The trail blazed so far is promising and we’re excited to see what Qtum has ahead.
