What does Skycoin actually do?
Explaining Skycoin’s complex ecosystem in a single sentence
“But what does it actually do?”
This question often arises when people discover a cryptocurrency project for the first time. With most projects the answer is straightforward. It might be a DAPP platform. Or a decentralized Internet service. Or a store of value.
But with Skycoin the answer is more complicated, because Skycoin does so many things. It’s hard for a newcomer to comprehend the breadth and depth of the Skycoin platform. So this article first introduces each component of the ecosystem, and then finishes by fully describing Skycoin in a single sentence.
1. It’s a store of value
With a maximum supply of only 100 million coins, there aren’t even enough for each adult in the USA to hold half a Skycoin. No new coins can ever be created. This scarcity makes Skycoin an excellent store of value, like Bitcoin.
2. It’s a transactional currency
Skycoin transactions are fast (3 seconds) and completely free. Skycoin can be sent and received via a range of desktop and mobile wallets (PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android), as well as through Skycoin’s custom hardware wallet. This means Skycoin is a convenient currency for transactions, like LTC or BCH.
3. It’s a privacy coin
Skycoin transactions are private and anonymous via the CoinJoin protocol. IP addresses are also masked while transacting over the Skywire network. This makes Skycoin an effective privacy coin like Monero or Dash.
4. It’s a yielding asset
Holding SKY generates a parallel currency, Coin Hours, at a rate of one $CH per $SKY per hour. Coin Hours can be spent on Skywire services and CX games/apps. They can also be sold or traded for other cryptocurrencies and real-world items. This makes Skycoin a yielding asset like NEO/GAS.
5. It’s a global technology company
Skycoin designs and manufactures a range of hardware including Skyminers, hardware wallets, antennas, chips and printed circuit boards. Skycoin also produces the software for these devices, in addition to its various other Software-as-a Service offerings. And Skycoin employs more than 100 programmers, engineers and support personnel around the world. This means Skycoin is a technology and IT services company like Apple or IBM.
6. It’s an ISP and cloud storage/computing provider
Skywire is a global peer-to-peer meshnet consisting of thousands of Skyminer nodes that connect to each other directly over Wi-Fi, radio, laser, cable or satellite, thus bypassing traditional ISPs. This means Skycoin is itself an ISP like Comcast (but cheaper, faster, private, anonymous, encrypted, fully decentralized and uncensorable).
Each Skyminer is also a storage node, enabling files to be distributed privately and securely across the Skywire network, meaning Skycoin is a cloud storage provider like DropBox or Google Drive. Skywire nodes also deliver distributed computing services similar to Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure.
Other crypto platforms like SUB and HOT claim to deliver decentralized internet/storage/computing, but they all rely on the legacy Internet for their physical transport layer, whereas Skywire has its own independent physical network infrastructure.
7. It’s a platform for launching ICOs
Skycoin Fiber is a blockchain platform that allows projects to launch their own coins or tokens. Unlike other platforms that offer similar functionality (ETH, EOS, XLM, NEO etc.), any projects that launch on Skycoin Fiber get their own dedicated blockchain, meaning no congestion or contention for resources.
Each Fiber project has full control over its individual chain, including block times, transactions per second, hardware, and coin/token economics.
8. It’s a DAPP and gaming platform
Skycoin is the only platform, other than Ethereum, to have developed its own dedicated programming language. But unlike Ethereum’s Solidity, Skycoin CX is a fully functional, Turing-complete, deterministic language capable of creating powerful games and applications, not just smart contracts.
The first apps being developed on Skycoin CX are social media and encrypted messaging services to compete with Twitter, Facebook, Skype, Telegram, WeChat and Reddit etc.
Other blockchain platforms such as EOS and ADA instead use traditional programming languages like C++ and Haskell. Unlike CX, these languages were not designed specifically for blockchain applications.
Summary
Skycoin is the most advanced and comprehensive blockchain project in existence. It makes most other crypto platforms obsolete. So how can we describe such a complex ecosystem in a single sentence? How about this:
Skycoin is a global ISP and technology company, plus all the other top-100 cryptocurrency projects, rolled into one platform.
Most other projects are entirely focused on a single function. And they each compete with one other to provide that one function — for example BTC vs BCH vs BSV, XRP vs XLM, ETH vs NEO, EOS vs ADA, Comcast vs Verizon, Apple vs Samsung etc.
But Skycoin simply incorporates all of this functionality into one cohesive ecosystem. This means Skycoin has no real competitors, because no other project covers such a broad range of services (both crypto-based and traditional technology-based).
So if you’re trying to decide which blockchain platform to invest in, don’t choose one that’s based around a narrow use case with numerous competitors. Instead, choose the one that incorporates all conceivable functionality into one platform, and has no serious competitors.
That’s Skycoin.
Find out more by joining the Skycoin telegram groups listed below.
Skycoin: https://t.me/Skycoin
Skywire: https://t.me/Skywire
Sky Fiber: https://t.me/Skyledger
CX General: https://t.me/Skycoin_CX
CX Labs: https://t.me/CXLabs
CX Game Dev: https://t.me/Skycoin_Game_Dev
Skycoin Rewards: https://t.me/SkycoinRewards
Price Discussion: https://t.me/SkycoinTrading
