Blockchain brought buzzes in the online world in the immediate aftermath of Bitcoins. However, scaling difficulties and system inefficacies triggered developers to seek long-lasting solutions outside Blockchain technology. This resulted in tweaks on the system to focus on the pain points and optimize the technology further for better use.
And to keep Blockchain alive in the new and unforeseen difficulties, ingenious developments like Dagchain and Holochain were invented. Drag chain is a distributed ledger for Dagcoin (cryptocurrency) and Holochain is a peer-to-peer, customizable framework for developing distributed apps.
Holochain seeks to foster human interactions through a mutual-consent to a shared set of rules without depending on authorities dictating or altering the rules. Its apps are resilient, scalable, versatile, and more efficient than Blockchain. Both Dagchain and Blockchain work in unique ways and are effective alternatives to Blockchain for managing and validating cryptocurrency. Let’s dive in.
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Similarities Between Dagchain and Holochain
Below are the similarities between Dagchain and Holochain:
Img source: dlt.com
• Transactions fee are minimal to Zero- Both Dagchain and Holochain offer high scalability and freedom from the cost of miners hence transactions are processed faster and cheaply, passing the cost savings to the community users
• Miners aren’t required for validation- Unlike Blockchain, Dagchain and Holochain don’t rely on a two-tier system of miners and non-miners. Instead, every user is responsible for the security and workability of the system. The task for validating transactions is distributed across the network of cryptocurrency users. And every user belongs to an equal, non-hierarchical network.
• The promise of better scalability than Blockchains- Both Dagchain and Holochain technology isn’t subject to bottlenecking or resource overloads, unlike Blockchains. They distribute validation tasks across their networks, grow stronger, faster, and their systems are resilient to security threats even when new users join their networks. Let’s see how Dagchain and Holochain differ.
Differences in Chain Structures
To support transaction validations, Dagchain and Holochain implement their unique version of immutable chains.
The Dag of Dagchain
The Directed Acyclic Graph or Dag is a diagram representing the relationship of a collection of discrete units. Each unit has a relation arrow pointing back to at least one “parent” unit. Every relational arrow faces one direction, and the Dag is the acyclic meaning if you commence from one unit and follow every link to the earlier generations of the parent units, you’ll never land back to the original unit.
This suggests that every direction linking arrow represents the validation relationship between the first and its parent transaction, known as the hash function. New transactions entering the chain validate at least one transaction existing in the chain. The validation is completed when the hash of the parent transaction is stored within the new transaction.
The bottom line: Dagcoin’s value is dependent on the size of the Dagchain’s network size and not by unpredictable forces of market speculation.
Agent-centric chains of Holochain
Img source: investinblockchain.com
Holochain has several chains, and it’s structured around the topology of an agent-centric, peer-to-peer network. It isn’t a database like a Blockchain but a software framework for developers to craft customized peer-to-peer apps like social networking apps, cryptocurrency apps, personalized AI apps, or a peer-to-peer app, defining the community ecosystem for a crypto coin like Holo.
Though Holochain trades Holo as its standard currency, developers can bank on its framework to develop other crypto-coins. Holochain’s agent-centric approach means the task of validating transactions is pushed out from the network center to its edges where the network nodes reside.
Holochain shifts ledger validation and management to its users, unlike Dag chain maintaining its DAG-based chain in the space of the public network. Every agent maintains its ledger history in the form of a private, tamper-proof hash chain.
And every transaction the agents make is stored in their source chain residing on their system. The source chain is a private key/signature used as the agent’s digital representation for validation, allowing the other agents to recognize them as valid.
Difference in Consensus
Let’s see the mechanism used by Dagchain and Holochain users to arrive at a consensus.
Dagchain Witnesses
Dagchain requires two components to arrive at a consensus in the Dagchain community- the main chain and the witness.
The main chain uses an algorithm to select the best parent path from the transactional units. The algorithm decides the directional link to follow when the child transaction bears more than one parent transaction. Through it, you’ll arrive at the earliest transaction with no parent.
Depending on the child transaction you select, the main chain defined by the algorithm will be different since it’s a unique way of identifying transactions in the Dagchain database. Concerning the concept of witness, Dagchain seeks to encounter enough parent transactions authored by distinct witnesses to validate child transactions.
Witnesses are reputable, real participants of the community with real, known names.
Holochain DNA and Gossip
Img source: cryptoglobalist.com
The mechanism Holochain uses to reach a consensus is unique. In addition to the private agent’s source chains, Holochain issues a distributed hash table (DHT) function as the shared public space for the agents in the community.
Redundant copies of every transaction are stored publicly outside the authorizing private chain through DHT. And the agents with access to the copies participate in testing and validating transactions. Every Holochain app has a custom validation rule known as DNA.
Let’s say a malicious agent attempts to double-spend their cryptocurrency through hacking their private source chain and altering the DNA. When he attempts to create a new transaction, agents with redundant copies detect the malicious DNA linked to it and mark the transaction as invalid.
The other agents’ gossip, spreading the identity of the malicious agents plus the counterfeit transaction through the entire community. Depending on the app’s parameters, the agent will be punished for their behavior, e.g., through revoking their connection to the community network.
Conclusion
Both Dagchain and Holochain have taken great measures to fix the efficiency and scalability issues linked to Blockchain. They have taken a great leap in improving on the Blockchain blueprint though their approach to structure and consensus concur greatly.
The drag chain is impressive for its complete termination of speculation from the currency valuing equations and consensus.
What’s more, on its way of becoming the cryptocurrency of the future, Dagcoin also educates the masses through marketing by providing knowledge about the benefits of digital currencies.