Introducing SPARK

Hi, I’m a Spark!

Currently, we refer to specific, tangible value on a blockchain as either a digital asset, or a token. These digital assets are tied to a unit of measure; either they’re reflected by a specific quantity (such as “tokens” or “pieces”), or they have a real-life quantitative value, like a kilogram, meter, or square meter. There are hundreds of potential units of measurement.

However, counting on a blockchain is very unique. A blockchain knows nothing about these aforementioned tangible quantities. These digital ledgers simply contain bits and bytes, and — for all practical matters — deal with very large integers. And each digital asset is counted — in essence — with integers. There is no such thing as fractional digital assets; the minimum quantity is always 1.

The obvious solution is to introduce a “virtual” comma, by dividing a whole unit of measure into as many indivisible units as required. Instead of making 1 kilogram the smallest denomination, the kilogram can instead be split into, say, 1 million indivisible units. One indivisible unit then resembles 1 mg. Although the user won’t see any of this, other than being able to trade 0,000001 kg of a commodity such as steel.

This smallest indivisible unit is based on a kilogram (e.g. gram, milligram, nanogram). Similarly, in the case of a liter, the smallest indivisible unit may be a milliliter or something smaller. Using such technical terms is often cumbersome and, in some cases, even impossible. This is especially the case when it comes to “pieces” as a unit of measure. With standard blockchain-based terminology, this can get increasingly confusing. What’s the technical term for a fraction of a piece or token?

The Bitcoin blockchain invented a new name for its unique form of measurement. The smallest indivisible unit is 1 Satoshi = 0.00000001 (1e-8 Bitcoin). The Ethereum blockchain, on the other hand, uses 1 WEi = 1e-18 Ether as its smallest unit.

CoreLedger refers to its smallest unit as “SPARK”. One spark is the smallest indivisible unit of a digital asset, and it is left to the user to decide how many sparks it needs for 1 unit of measure. We call this count the Spark Unit Multiplier (SUM). If a kilogram has a Spark Unit Multiplier of 1 Mio, then it needs 1,000,000 SPARKS for one kilogram. If a token has a SUM of 1e+18, then it needs 1e+18 SPARKS for a single Token.

This article is brought to you by CoreLedger.

As a prominent blockchain infrastructure provider, CoreLedger is making blockchain technology simple for businesses to use. With CoreLedger’s offerings, clients can readily tokenize their offerings with fast-to-implement resources that will allow them to modernize their services. Thanks to our in-house developed software solutions and experienced blockchain specialists, CoreLedger is ready to help you make your next move with blockchain technology.