What is BitShares?
One of the first platform-based, token-generating cryptocurrencies to ever be developed, BitShares (BTS) is a coin attached to its namesake organisation and website, BitShares.org, which is a fully decentralised exchange for popular cryptocurrencies. It now uses the name “BitShares 2.0.” Unlike the popular exchanges like Kraken, CoinBase, Bittrex or Poloniex where the complete trading of cryptocurrencies is centralized, BitShares allows users to trade cryptocurrencies directly in a peer-to-peer manner, without any central repository or authority.
History of BitShares
Daniel Larimer, Stan Larimer and Charles Hoskinson first introduced the concept of BitShares in a white paper titled “A Peer-to-Peer Polymorphic Digital Asset Exchange”. The project was covered by CoinDesk in 2013 and in August 2013, it was announced on bitcointalk as a project. Less than a year later, it was traded on major cryptocurrency exchanges, frequently listed in the top 10 coins by market capitalization. In June 2017, it surpassed a $900 million market cap and briefly surpassed the $2 billion mark in January 2018. BitShares remains one of the most popular cryptocurrency platforms for its unique coin shifting abilities and its versatile array of asset classes.
How BitShares Works
BitShares is a decentralized exchange which means users don’t need a third party exchange to trade their cryptocurrencies. Exchanges take place peer to peer, or, directly between the buyer and the seller. Buyers and sellers can exchange other cryptocurrencies at a rate which is determined by BitShares (BTS). A user can buy and sell bitcoin, Ethereum and many other cryptocurrency directly from other platform users. The unit of economy in BitShares network is called BTS. The user will receive a certain amount of BTS against the cryptocurrency they are exchanging, and will need to pay the seller of the cryptocurrency they wish to receive in a number of BitShares at the going rate of exchange.
BitShares can also be used as collateral against Bitassets of every type including BitGold, BitUSD and many more.
Why BitShares?
- Fully Decentralized Exchange: There is no central authority to regulate the transactions. The transactions are always peer to peer. In other words, the Bitassets are traded between two BitShares users, directly, against BitShares (BTS).
- No Exchange Charges: As there are no centralized exchanges, the levy on the transactions are simply absent. This means the user pays no transaction charges to the exchange.
- Faster Confirmation: Graphene is capable of doing 100,000 transactions per second (TPS). Thus, the users can conduct exchanges at a rate far faster than bitcoin.
- Versatile BitAsset: The BitShares platform allows for trading of virtually any cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash, Monero etc.), fiat currency, (euro, USD, etc.), real world stock (Microsoft, Apple etc.), or commodity (gold, silver, oil etc.).