What is Bytom (BTM)?

The world today has been massively influenced by the information revolution of the last few years. More and more elements of the physical world are getting transmitted into the digital world. With the rising relevance of big data, computing power plays a more central role in technological advancement.

First came the tools that allowed us to work via digital platforms, such as email and software. Then came currencies that allowed peer-to-peer transfer of value over the digital world, such as Bitcoin. The next phase in consideration is a system where every valuable thing (that can be exchanged) is migrated to the digital world. Examples of things like that include equities, securitized assets, dividends, bonds, and so on.

Bytom is a protocol and a blockchain for the exchange and interaction of real-world assets. Bytom is different from Ethereum, as it focuses on putting real-world assets on its blockchain.

Specifically, Bytom focuses on avoiding the replication of real-world assets on the blockchain, resolving compliance issues as digital assets are linked to physical assets, and bridging the gap between the physical world and the digital world.

What Does Bytom Do?

Bytom is basically a digital asset layer protocol. It enables individuals and institutions to build financial and digital asset applications. Stocks, bonds, and any kind of secure data can also be exchanged on the blockchain.

Bytom aims to map assets in the physical world to the digital world and create an ecosystem where there is interoperability between these 2 forms.

There are 3 types of assets on the Bytom blockchain that can be exchanged:

• Income assets, which include non-performing assets, fixed local government investments, home-stay properties, etc.
• Equity assets, which include equity of non-listed companies, equity of private funds, etc. Transferring equity assets requires qualified investor verification.
• Securitized assets, which includes debts, automobile loans, etc. Generally, these are assets that can generate predictable cash flows.

These assets are tradable on-chain with the Bytom protocol. Bytom cuts out the middlemen in asset transfers and recordkeeping, which leads to faster transactions and lower costs. Also, the assets are more secure on a blockchain than with a third-party organization.

Users can create their asset-backed security on the Bytom blockchain by registering and tokenizing their assets via smart contract. Bytom can also function as a platform for fundraising or ICOs.

Bytom’s Consensus Model

Bytom uses a Proof-of-Work consensus model, the mechanism currently used by Bitcoin and Ethereum. It is important that the blockchain is not vulnerable to the Sybil attack and the 51% attack. This is because Bytom deals with assets. To be realistic with the demands of the blockchain system, it prioritizes decentralization and security over performance.

Bytom’s consensus mechanism is designed to be “friendly to AI ASIC chips,” as described in the whitepaper. This means that the miners can be used for AI hardware acceleration services. Bytom implements cross-chain asset transactions and dividend distribution via side-chain. It also has a quasi SegWit design.

History of Bytom

Started in January 2017, Bytom was founded by Chang Jia (former sci-fi writer and creator of 8btc) and Duan Xinxing (former Vice President of OKCoin).

The Bytom token sale took place from June 20 to July 20, 2017, and raised 8,400 Bitcoins. 30% of the total supply was distributed during ICO. 20% was reserved for the Bytom Foundation, 7% for private equity investors, 10% for business development, and 33% for mining.

The Bytom Team

The Bytom team is headed by its founders, Chang Jia, and Duan Xinxing. Duan functions as the CEO of Bytom. The CTO is Lang Yu (former senior systems engineer for Alipay). The COO is Qu Zhaoxiang and the CFO, Li Zongcheng.

The team further consists of developers and managers committed to the mission of Bytom.

The Bytom Foundation is based in Singapore, where the government favors blockchain developments and the environment enables growth in the ecosystem.

Bytom Roadmap and Achievements

The Bytom mainnet was officially launched on April 24, 2018. The token swap of the ERC-20 Bytom tokens for the native Bytom coins took place in June 2018 across several exchanges.

As indicated on their roadmap, Bytom then released smart contract functionality on their platform on July 26, 2018. Their roadmap can be seen below.

Bytom is taking steps to bring its vision to life through partnerships.

A notable partnership so far is with East Lake Big Data Asset Exchange, an organization committed to providing big data solutions for Chinese government agencies. The organization collaborates with Bytom in the area of blockchain innovation and data assets trading.

Competitors

Interoperability is a common word in blockchain today. While it is popularly known to mean the interaction between 2 or more blockchains, with Bytom it is the interaction of the physical world with the digital world. One blockchain project focusing on something similar is Ravencoin.

The major difference between Ravencoin and Bytom is that Ravencoin is ASIC-resistant, while ASIC is encouraged in Bytom. Other crypto projects that deal in tokenization and smart contracts could also be seen as competitors. Examples are Waves and Ethereum.

The Bytom Token (BTM)

The Bytom blockchain has a native token known as BTM. The main uses of BTM are as a transaction fee for asset trading, dividends for income assets, and deposits for asset issuance.

The maximum number of Bytom tokens is 2.1 billion. Currently, over 1 billion BTM coins are already in circulation. The current price of Bytom is close to US$0.20.

Bytom coins can be bought with other cryptocurrencies on several exchanges, such as RightBTC, Huobi, OKEx, KuCoin, and Bibox.

BTM coins can be stored in Bytom’s official wallet. This wallet is available for download on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Conclusion

Bytom creates the opportunity to move real-world assets into the digital world. This interoperability will open both blockchain and the tech world as a whole to more innovative ideas that will move civilization forward.

One standout feature of Bytom is that the team has hit the milestones set out on their roadmap.

The problem Bytom seeks to solve will be a necessity in a few years, if the world continues with this heavy trend of decentralization. However, it is still too early to determine how successful Bytom is going to be.

Related: The Race for Cross-Chain Communication: 11 Projects Working on Blockchain Interoperability