Here is a re-post from http://qubic.boards.net/What Qubic is
Qubic is a medium of exchange in the Information Age. It is money that can be created, controlled and used by anyone.Why Qubic was invented
Inspired by Bitcoin and its forks, the author of Qubic began to think of a currency that would have advantages of Bitcoin but would not have its disadvantages. After a while he came to a concept that was named "Qubic".Where name "Qubic" came from
An idea of quorum-based coins is the core of the concept. These coins are created and controlled by arbitrary nodes on the Internet without any central authority. Name "Qubic" came from acronym "QBC" which stands for "Quorum-Based Coin". The coins are called "qubics" to distinguish them among other types of coins.What qubics are
Qubics are binary data stored in computers. These data contain information about value of qubics, their public and private keys. A private key is known only to a qubic's owner and is used to prove ownership.How qubics are created
Qubics are created ("minted") by nodes ("providers") that run special software. Every provider does work necessary for normal existence of the Qubic network. Periodically every provider receives new qubics as a reward for its support of the network and this reward is proportional to quality of provided service.What service is provided
Providers mint new qubics. They let qubics to be split, combined and refreshed, providers also prevent double-spending of qubics. Splitting is used to split a qubic to ones with lesser values to get specific amount. Combining is used to combine qubics to make them easier to store. Refreshing is used to change private keys, it is also used to stress-test the network to keep it healthy.How qubics are transferred
To transfer qubics during a trade between parties it is necessary to transfer private keys. After the keys are accepted by the seller the qubics are destroyed and new ones with the same values are created. Private keys of the new qubics are known only to the new owner. Transfer of keys occurs outside the Qubic network (via e-mail or special software), so it is impossible to track transactions made with qubics. Destroying of qubics and creation of new ones is a common occurrence and noone can prove that this happened due to a trade.What features Qubic has
- Value of a qubic varies from 0.000000001 (10-9
) to 999999999.999999999 (almost 109
), it is 9 decimal places before and after the point.
- Supply of qubics is theoretically unlimited. Every provider decides how many qubics it lets to be rewarded to the other providers. In the future the system can come to a state when total value of minted qubics becomes less than total value of qubics lost during the same period of time. (Some loss of qubics is expected due to lost keys and other causes.)
- No fees are supposed to be charged for transactions as they occur outside the Qubic network. Providers obtain qubics by providing the service.
- Transactions can not be tracked.
- Noone needs to reveal theirs real identities to be able to use Qubic.
- There are no "accounts" in Qubic, only "coins" which can be lost but can not be nullified.Implementation of the concept
The author is working on an implementation of the concept. Constructive suggestions and help in testing are very welcome.
Quick comparison with Bitcoin:
- No fees
- Transactions can't be scrutinized
- Network-bound proof-of-work instead of CPU-bound one is used
- New coins are produced at the rate determined by quorum of miners, not by developers (good ole Greek democracy)
- Coins "look" like real coins (not a ground-breaking feature but a neat one)
- No need to download gigs of data from "a blockchain", every miner is allowed to handle only fraction of the Qubic network
- Transfer of money in Qubic is supposed to be much faster than in Bitcoin
- Qubic is more eco-friendly as it doesn't require a lot of electricity to be spent
- (I'll add more if anything comes to mind)