Decentralized
It's a word we all use, we are decentralized when we use cryptocurrency. Regardless of what currency you call your own, that one currency that you use every day, you are not bound to any central authority. None can say to you that you can or can't do the transaction you wish to do. Your wallet is a node in a larger network that connect to each other in a decentralized manner.
The Blockchain is the ledger that everyone agrees on for knowing who owns how much. None can manipulate this ledger, that's the main advantage of the decentralized cryptocurrency blockchain that was once started with Bitcoin. It's the foundation of all.
Exchanges are centralized ledgers!
It doesn't matter if you are a full blown cryptohead or just a minor token trader, you will at some point have to trade Fiat currency to a cryptocurrency that you desire to own. Whenever you send money or cryptocurrency to an exchange they will record this to their ledgers, it's their way of knowing who owns what.
Centralized ledgers
You are now relying on a central point, the exchange, to keep accurate records of this. Their ledger aren't public and there is no way to know if the ledger is manipulated.
Suddenly we are relying on a centralized system for something that everyone wish to be part of, the revolutionary decentralized blockchain of your desire.
It's not yours until you withdraw
Any currency stored on an exchange isn't yours more than the fact that you rely on them to keep their word that they can keep track of it. They are the owners, your currency is just a number in their ledgers saying they are your part of their asset.
Decentralized Exchanges based on BitShares
What if you could somehow trade any asset for another, but not have to rely on the central point of failure - the Exchange Ledger?
This is possible with the BitShares DEX (Decentralized Exchange)!
The BitShares DEX keeps the ledger record for your assets in the blockchain. It's impossible to manipulate, and you can always know who owns what and what's happening on the trading platform. Your assets are stored in your BitShares wallet, the exchange never has them and can never run away with them.
You own your own assets
The system works exactly like any other cryptocurrency wallet. It works like the Steem wallet where you log in to the blockchain system with either the web API or a local program that connects much in the same way as the browser.
As You are the only one that knows the private keys none can run away with your assets, they are completely yours and yours only.
The Blockchain Ledger is based on the Graphene blockchain system, the same system that are now also the foundation of the Steem blockchain.
It has:
- A confirmation time of 1 second
- A transaction speed of up to 100,000 Transactions per second
- A Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPOS) witness system that makes it very secure, accurate and fair as stakeholders can vote for the witnesses that keeps the ledger up-to-date.
The ultimate goal for BitShares is to be a stable income/expenses system and to have leftover cash at the end after paying witnesses and works. There are small fees added to each transaction on the system to keep it running where Lifetime Members pay fees similar to $0.04 per transaction, while users pay fees similar $0.20 per transaction.
- Lifetime Members pay a one-time fee, currently 1456 BTS, to reduce their trading fees to 20% of normal.
- Users is everyone else, they pay normal fees on the platform.
A comprehensive list of what the BitShares system offers
- Separation of Powers: There is no reason why the same entity needs to be responsible for issuing IOUs and for processing the order book. In BitShares, order matching is performed by the protocol, which is unaware of implications concerning the involved assets.
- Global Unified Order Book: Since BitShares is global, anybody with an internet access can use the DEX for trading. This brings the world's liquidity to a single order book for decentralized trading.
- Trade Almost Anything: The BitShares DEX is asset agnostic. Hence you can trade at any pair. While some pairs may end up with low liquidity, such as SILVER:GOLD, other pairs such as USD:EUR for FOREX trading will see huge volume.
- No Limits: The BitShares protocol is unable to limit your trading experience.
- Decentralized: The DEX is decentralized across the globe. This not only means that there is no single point of failure, but it also implies that the BitShares exchange is open for trading 24/7 because it's always daytime somewhere.
- Secure: Your funds and trades are secured with industry-grade elliptic curve cryptography. No one will be able to access your funds unless you let them. To further strengthen the security, we allow our customers to setup escrow and multi-signature schemes.
- Fast: In contrast to other decentralized networks, the BitShares DEX allows for real-time trading and is only limited by the speed of light and the size of the planet.
- Provable Order Matching Algorithm: What makes the BitShares DEX unique is the provable order matching algorithm. Given a set of orders, you will always be able to provably verify that these orders have been matched properly.
- Collateralized Smartcoins: One of the biggest features of BitShares are its smartcoins such as bitUSD, bitEUR, bitCNY, and others. For the sake of convenience, these assets are denotes simply as USD, EUR, CNY, etc. in the wallet. These digital tokens represent the same value as their underlaying physical asset. Hence 1 USD in this wallet is worth $1 and can be redeemed as such. Any of these tokens is backed by BitShares' company shares (BTS) being locked up as collateral and being available for settlement at its current price.
An Easy way to sign up
There isn't a difficult system to sign up with. You create an account on the BitShares platform trough a range of web wallets or their light client.
But first, lets look at the two different ways of creating an account.
Wallet model
The wallet model offers the most secure way. It's restricted to the current browser that you use. To access the wallet on another system you need to export the account to a backup-file or a brainkey and import it on the other system. Maximum security.
- Multiple accounts
- Wallet file backup
- High Security
Account model
The account model offers more easily account access. With only a username and password access it's easy to access from any location whenever you wish, but should be protected with a VERY long and random password to make it less vulnerable to brute-force attacks.
- Single account
- Easy login
- Moderate security
It's highly recommended to the Wallet model, but it's all up to you as a user and what specifications you have.
Web Wallets to sign up with:
The BitShares Light Client to sign-up or access it later on. Any system can access the account later on.
By signing up trough one of the web-wallet solutions you support the Gridcoin Communitys All-star @cm-steem
Never again trust a central authority with your assets
Welcome to a Complete World of Decentralization
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