What Is BitShares (BTS)?
BTS is the native token of BitShares, which is a Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) blockchain network that allows users to exchange their crypto assets without relying on centralized exchanges. In addition to that, it offers a variety of financial tools for businesses. If you want to see the live BTS price, look at the BitShares price chart above.
The main product of BitShares is its native decentralized exchange. It allows users to trade a variety of crypto assets, in addition to trading BitAssets (or smart coins), which are tokens pegged to real-world assets backed by BTS (e.g., bitUSD, bitEUR, and others). Besides, BitShares DEX traders are in full control of their funds and the platform itself has no access to these funds.
Talking about tools for businesses, any business can start a decentralized autonomous corporation (DAC) through the BitShare DEX. A DAC is an organization that runs without human intervention and is managed by the protocols built into the network. Thanks to this feature, companies can freely sell their shares on the BitShares DEX.
Also, BitShares is unique because it uses memos instead of addresses. The recipient's public key and the sender's private key are used to form a shared secret, which is then used to encrypt a memo.
BitShares went through a hard fork in 2020, which resulted in the development of New BitShares (NBS). NBS is an independent initiative that isn't connected to the main BitShares network. However, BTS token holders received NBS tokens at a 1:1 ratio after the hard fork happened.
Who Founded BitShares?
The BitShares crypto project was launched in 2014 by Dan Larimer and Charles Hoskinson. Originally, the project went by the name ProtoShares. Though not even a year passed when it was renamed to BitShares.
Dan Larimer is a well-known software engineer. In the past, he worked at such companies as Raytheon, TORC Robotics, Park Intuit, Pheonix Integration, and others. Besides, he also founded Steemit, Block.one, EOS, and Cryptonomex.
Charles Hoskinson is a mathematician and an entrepreneur. He is a member of Ethereum’s founding team. Apart from founding BitShares and Ethereum, he also founded Cardano. As of writing this, he is the CEO of IOHK.
How Does BitShares Work?
In terms of the consensus mechanism employed by BitShares, as mentioned before, it uses DPoS. This means that new blocks are approved and created by delegates (also known as witnesses) that are chosen by BTS stakers. Several protections make sure that delegates behave in a way that benefits the network.
Besides, BitShares is powered by Graphene – a C++ blockchain implementation. It manages to process around 100,000 transactions per second. Graphene was originally developed for BitShares. However, it can be altered and implemented in other projects.
Use Cases of BTS Tokens
BTS is the utility token of BitShares. Don’t forget to take a look at the BitShares price chart above to see the current BTS price.
The following are the main BTS token use cases:
- BitAsset creation. BitShares coins are used as a base for creating BitAsstes.
- Staking. BTS stakers have the option of selecting delegates on the DPoS consensus mechanism and earning staking incentives.
- Governance. BTS token holders have the right to take part in governance processes that determine how the BitShares crypto project will be developed in the future.
- Rewards. BTS token stakers get rewarded in BitShares tokens. However, there’s also a referral program, which rewards users in BTS for inviting their friends to join the platform.
Just keep in mind that the BitShares pricing is highly erratic if you intend to purchase BTS tokens. Why? Because crypto assets tend to be impacted by the changes that happen in the entire crypto market. As a result, it causes the values of these assets to fluctuate, including the BTS price.
