We design OneGram Coin for the widest possible use.
The development of OGC and its blockchain is business-oriented. Designed for fast payments and predictable confirmation time, OneGramCoin is eco-friendly crypto-currency with built-in adaptation features which make it possible to enter new markets today and in the future, even if we can’t see all the nuances now. And the best part is that this can all happen without a hard fork — something not possible in the classic Bitcoin world.
Speed
Initially, OneGramCoin will launch with 1 minute block time, which means all valid transactions will be confirmed in one minute under normal conditions. This is already 10 times faster compared to average confirmation time of 10 minutes in Bitcoin. There’s more to the confirmation time than just the average value though. In order to leverage a crypto-currency as a business-grade payment method, we need guarantees. Due to the inherent nature of Bitcoin’s proof of work algorithm it is impossible to reliably predict the exact time of first confirmation. A small (but not insignificant) portion of payments may see a double or tripple time of first confirmation. Bitcoin will never be able to give you this guarantee.
On the other hand, OneGramCoin uses a deterministic algorithm that ensures constant block time with almost zero variance under normal conditions. As the number of active users grows and market penetration reaches the point when OneGramCoin gets accepted in retail, the block time will be further lowered via a built-in process that involves democratic voting of all OneGramCoin owners. Every such change, if beneficial for OneGramCoin, is in the best interest of a strong majority of owners and thus will be easily approved. This give OneGramCoin a very effective tool to adapt and survive the big evolution of crypto-currencies that we already observe.
Security
Transaction speed and security often go in opposite direction and one needs to find the best balance. Accepting unconfirmed transactions may be risky if the payer tries to perform a double spend attack, tricking the merchant into believing the bill is paid and running away with the goods. The world is not black-and-white only and in real life it makes sense to distinguish multiple levels of confidence for the payment status:
The higher the level of confidence, the harder (and more expensive) it is for a potential attacker to perform a successful double spend attack.
As a merchant, you will set the time to wait for transaction confirmation based on the following criteria:
1.) the business need for fast payment clearing
2.) value of transaction
3.) reversibility options
For high value transactions you can allow up to 15 minutes until you get sufficient confidence of transaction irreversibility, all the while enjoying a cup of coffee with your business partner. For daily retail sales that are of a lower value you can accept the payment instantly or after the first confirmation and rest assured it would not be worth risking the money to carry out an attack while also risking a jail time for shoplifting. A potential attack would not go undetected — in fact the software will trigger an alarm instantly as it sees a double spend transaction, allowing for a fast response. If an alarm does not go off in a few minutes after the transaction, everything is fine and the retailer does not carry the risk anymore. When compared to a standard chargeback time windows for common VISA or Mastercard payments which may take days, weeks or even months, this is a huge speedup (https://chargeback.com/visa-chargeback-time-limits/).
Now you may ask: How does one securely accept payments in an e-shop? Is the possibility of fraud higher when the attacker can hide behind his computer and does not have to reveal his physical identity, thus only risking money to carry out the attack but probably no jail time? How can we contain this threat?
The answer is easy: if you really need to process online orders instantly, think about the type of goods or services you are selling and time it takes to deliver it to the customer. Is it physical goods? It’ll probably take hours to ship and deliver it to the customer and you can always call it off. Is it a virtual service or a monthly subscription? You can probably cancel it anytime. All you need is a few minutes and your software will automatically alert you in case of an attack. The chances of this really happening are quite low though — if the system is designed to handle this threat, there’s no reason to take the risk and perform the attack in the first place.
Final words
The digital world is getting faster every year with more powerful computers, faster optical cables connecting the continents and new broadband technologies bringing once laboratory Internet speeds to our homes. 640K is no longer enough even though it was hard to predict it back in the years. This fast paced evolution does not play well for rigid systems with hardcoded limits that were once considered sufficient. People want more, and more they should be given if we want to keep them happy customers. OneGramCoin comes with modest presets only to show how flexible it can get when the time and need comes. And it will be ready.
Jozef Knaperek, head of development
