How are Core (CORE) developers addressing blockchain's decentralization, security, and scalability?
As their popularity and number of active users have grown, blockchain solutions have faced increasing challenges of insufficient bandwidth, resulting in long waits for transaction confirmations and rising network fees.
One of the key obstacles for most current decentralized networks has been the so-called "blockchain trilemma" whereby developers are forced to sacrifice any of these properties in pursuit of decentralization, security, or high throughput. This is why many secure and decentralized blockchains are not fast enough.
What is Core?
Core is a Tier 1 blockchain that utilizes the operational features of the best-known Bitcoin and Ethereum networks. Core developers created their unique consensus mechanism to ensure the network's decentralization, speed, and bandwidth are sufficiently high.
The Core blockchain was developed by the CoreDAO team, which has garnered the support of a large number of Web3 supporters. The Core network was launched in January 2023; just a month after the launch, the team attracted more than 30 million users, and about 4 million wallets were registered.
What is the specialty of the Core blockchain, and how does it work?
This decentralized network is developed based on a hybrid consensus mechanism called Satoshi Plus, which combines Proof-of-Work (PoW) and Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) algorithms. The Proof-of-Work algorithm used in the Bitcoin protocol is considered one of the most decentralized and secure. At the same time, Delegated Proof-of-Stake, based on an EVM-compatible model, provides the necessary level of scalability.
In addition, the DPoS consensus algorithm enables decentralized application management through smart contracts, a significant component of the Decentralized Finance Marketplace (DeFi).
The Satoshi Plus hybrid blockchain model not only addresses Bitcoin developers' limitations in creating blockchain applications due to the lack of scalability of PoW networks but also protects against the over-centralization inherent in many Proof-of-Stake-based blockchain networks.
Core's decentralized network includes three main components:
- Validators — network nodes responsible for validating transactions and adding blocks to the Core network. Validators, as in other PoS-based networks, block some amount in the native cryptocurrency of the network and are authorized to validate transactions. Anyone can become a validator in the Core network if they meet the minimum requirements to start a node (node) and stack CORE cryptocurrency;
- Miners are the same nodes that keep the Bitcoin network up and running and secure. However, in the Core network, miners delegate hashing authority to validators. Miners can either run their validator nodes or delegate hashing authority to third parties, i.e., third-party validators;
- Retransmitters are a special type of node that transmits block headers to a Bitcoin client (BTC light client). Like validators, retransmitters need to block a certain amount of CORE cryptocurrency to participate in the network's consensus.
The Core protocol operates on the principle of decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), allowing the entire blockchain community to participate in its management and influence decisions regarding the project's development.
CORE cryptocurrency
CORE is the native cryptocurrency of the CORE blockchain network. It is used to pay commissions and rewards to miners, validators, and relayers and to manage the DAO.
CORE is a peculiar cryptocurrency: even though the digital asset has the same format as ETH in the Ethereum network, it cannot be found on well-known decentralized exchanges such as Sushiswap. In the DeFi environment, CORE cryptocurrency can only be exchanged on particular markets such as OKX Ordinals and UniSat.
The maximum possible CORE cryptocurrency (issuance limit) is 2.1 billion. As of May 2024, about 890 million COREs have been issued — about 42.3% of the cryptocurrency's maximum issuance. The CORE cryptocurrency ranks 57th in CoinMarketCap's overall cryptocurrency ranking, with a capitalization exceeding $1.8 billion.
Prospects for the Core project
So far, the Core ecosystem does not boast the kind of development as Ethereum, Solana, and other well-known blockchains that have hundreds of large DeFi protocols. However, the Core ecosystem is evolving, and as of May 2024, it includes the OmniBTC cross-chain protocol, as well as LayerZero and Symbiosis. According to the official CoreDAO website, the number of registered wallets in the Core ecosystem has surpassed the 5 million mark.
According to DeFi Llama data as of May 2024, Core's blockchain is far behind its competitors and ranks only 71st, behind the networks, in terms of the number of assets blocked in DeFi protocols (TVL), which is only $24 million:
In comparison, Polygon's TVL is $985 million, THORChain is $424 million, and Mantle, a second-tier solution, is $360 million.
One of the most sensational news in 2024 for Project Core was its listing on the leading US crypto exchange, Coinbase. Almost immediately after the announcement, the price of CORE jumped by 20%.
It is difficult to say unequivocally about Core's prospects, as over the past year, other, no less advanced solutions based on innovative modular architecture, such as Celestia, Dymension, and Manta, have appeared on the market.