What Is Espers?
The blockchain technology is the answer to most issues affecting society today. Though Satoshi Nakamoto’s target was the financial sector, the idea of decentralized systems was expanded to help other industries address their challenges. But the industry has grown in a fragmented manner making it difficult for crypto networks to communicate with each other.
Espers was developed by cryptographic experts only known by their pseudonym, CryptoCoderz , to help address the issue of cross-chain operation. It is a decentralized and peer2peer cryptocurrency that employs a combination of hybrid of proof of work (PoW) and proof of stake (PoS) consensus protocols.
The platform and its native token were released in the second quarter of 2016 though some of the features described in the roadmap such as the Chain Apps and SiteOnChain are still under development.
- A closer look at the Espers coin
When Espers coin was released into the market in early May 2016, the price was $0.000001. The token traded in the market between $0.000001 and $0.000004 until April 2017 when the trend started changing. By June 25th, the price of Espers has risen to reach $0.0008 before taking a dip to $0.00006 in mid-November 2018.
In 8th January 2018, the value of Espers shot up to $0.002. This was the highest mark in Espers history. Immediately after hitting the peak, the price took a bearish trend reaching a low of $0.00021 in early April 2018. It continued with the decline to reach a low of $0.0001 in early November 2018.
Though many cryptocurrencies have been on a bearish trend after the peaks of December 2017 and early 2018, the Espers crypto is seen to be very ambitious. But the development team has exuded confidence that the trend will change when all the features are launched.
What is the problem that Espers Solves?
As the blockchain niche unfolds, the crypto community appears in agreement that there are serious issues that need to be addressed or the gains achieved from decentralization over could be reversed. The following are some of the main issues that Espers addresses.
- Poor adoption of cryptocurrencies
A closer look at the blockchain niche from 2009 when Satoshi Nakamoto released the first blockchain network reveals that the adoption of cryptocurrencies has not been as rosy as crypto enthusiasts would want it to be. When a new ICO (initial coin offering) is announced, the people who rush to mop the tokens from the market are investors targeting to sell at a profit in the subsequent months.
The poor adoption of the cryptocurrencies is the main reason why only a few stores in the market today support it. The community holds negative perception about cryptocurrencies that make it difficult for it to fully adopt the coins. For example, governments have been telling their residents that cryptocurrencies are risky ventures. In Russia, the pending Financial Digital Assets draft bill proposes to make it an offense for traders to accept payment in cryptocurrencies.
Another issue that is compromising the adoption of cryptocurrencies is the complex process of buying the coins from the market. To buy some tokens, people are required to follow the lengthy and risky route of joining the exchanges and pairing their funds with preferred coins.
- Difficulty in sending secured messages on crypto platforms
If you want to send funds on a cryptocurrency platform, it is very difficult to attach a message to it. However, other financial services such as PayPal and Skrill allow users to give a message related to the transactions when dispatching payments.
In the blockchain industry, attaching a message implies that it will be public and can be read by people accessing the public ledger. Many cryptocurrency developers have opted to steer off the focus on messaging because it could compromise users’ anonymity.
- Poor scalability
The number of transactions that crypto networks can support is usually very small. For example, Bitcoin can handle only seven transactions per second while Bitcoin Cash can only manage 60 transactions every second. However, the main competitors such as Visa can handle in excess of 20,000 transactions. Second.
The problem is caused by the design of blockchain design that requires majority nodes to come to a consensus before confirmation can be made. If the nodes do not come to a consensus, transactions can take even longer.
- Centralized financial services
When you initiate a transaction such as sending value using wire transfer, it has to go through a complex system of bureaucracy before the funds can be relayed to the recipient. Because banks are run under local laws, their management has to strictly adhere to anti-money laundering and know your customer rules.
The centralized banking services also imply that users’ resources are an easy target for attackers. But this is not the only risk. The financial services company could suffer from scams and even mismanagement resulting in bankruptcy. Espers target to address the problem through complete decentralization.
How Does Espers Solve The Problem?
After comprehensive and lengthy evaluation of the crypto niche, the Espers founders wanted to craft a reliable solution that would not just help the network shine, but also advance the industry to the next level. Here are some of the methods used to address the above issues:
- Hybrid or proof of stake and proof of work
To help address the above issues, the Espers opted to combine PoW and PoS consensus algorithms. The goal is to make the Espers take advantage of the benefits of both protocols.
Proof of work protocol has cut a name for its security while the proof of stake helps to reduce the problem of centralization. By combining the two protocols, it becomes easier to prevent 51% attack from happening on the Espers network.
- Use of side chains to facilitate cross-chain communication
If a person has some Bitcoins and wants to send Ethereum to another person, he is forced to join both networks. Indeed, the process is even more complex because a third party exchange service has to be brought in to convert the digital assets from one coin to another.
Espers addresses the problem by supporting side-chains. The side-chains allow users to plug new blockchains and facilitate direct transactions without joining two networks. However, the main chain and side-chains have to follow the same protocol for cross-chain communication.
- N-nodes
To address the problem of centralized financial services and poor scalability, the Espers development team opted for N-nodes. This implies that instead of having all the nodes confirming transactions, only a few of them are involved. Note that the N-nodes are selected by the users spread in the Espers system. If they are suspected to be involved in mischief, the nodes on the network can also downvote them.
What makes Espers better than it’s competitors?
The design of the Espers platform was aimed at helping to make it the better option in the market. Here are some of the things that make it better than competitors.
- The Espers platform operates as a completely decentralized platform of nodes spread in its network. Sending value or running transactions on the platform is done on a peer2peer basis. This implies that profit-seeking organizations such as credit card companies are bypassed. You can, therefore, send value faster and cheaply.
- The Espers system uses advanced encryption and system of n-nodes that help to make the transactions anonymous. Whether you are sending value on the network or using it as an investment, there is no danger of getting discovered by third parties.
- The platform has very impressive features. Unlike other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Litecoin that are simply used for sending value, Espers is different. The platform targets to operate as an ecosystem that can accommodate other networks to facilitate cross-chain operations. This implies that once all the features are implemented, it will be possible to send Bitcoin from its native network and the user receives it as Ethereum using the Espers system. Other impressive features include website on blockchain and file storage within chains.
- The Espers development is led by a highly enthusiastic team that has been working extra hard to keep the platform secure and valuable. The team has been very active in ensuring that all the features described in the Espers’ roadmap are implemented in a timely way.
It is important to note the concerns that have been raised in various crypto forums about the Espers system. While the features are indeed impressive, some people think that it is too ambitious. These concerns are believed to be the primary causes of the poor performance of the coin’s price in the market.
How can Espers better categorized?
Espers is an ambitious project that tries to handle most of the issues that had been reported in the blockchain niche. The cryptocurrency platform has proposed a very reliable method of cross-chain links that will ultimately make it easy to send coins directly from one network to another.
Note that most of these features are still in their development stages. Therefore, it will be interesting to see how the development team will implement them and the impact on the entire crypto niche.
What’s Espers’ vision on Security
The Espers’ vision on security is to become the most secure network for both in-chain and cross-chain operations. The development team targets to achieve the vision through the following ways:
- Operating as a hybrid system of proof of work and proof of stake protocols to promote even distribution of coins. This helps to reduce the danger of 51% attack.
- The Espers network uses advanced encryption to ensure that user’s details cannot be easily accessed by third parties. Even the miners on the network can only follow back to check the balance on the public address but cannot read the personal info.
- As hackers become more tech-savvy, the Espers team works progressively to identify and seal vulnerabilities. This reduces the danger of hackers taking advantage of gaps that might exist in the system.
Examples of Espers’ use cases / applications
For more than nine years since the introduction of Bitcoin, new coins have been fighting for recognition by seeking to promote more use cases. Here are some of the main use cases of Espers coin.
- Use Espers to pay for transaction charges on its native network. If you want to send value on the Espers platform, a small fee for supporting the network development will be levied. This cost of paid using the native Espers coin.
Note that the cost is very small compared to what banks and credit cards charge. The cost is even smaller than what other networks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum because its value is still low.
- Use Espers to pay for goods and services in the market. Like other cryptocurrencies, Espers can be used for payment in stores that accept it. Note that even if only a different coin is supported for direct payment, it is still possible to pay using Espers by first converting to the supported coin.
- Trade Espers in the markets. If you want to optimize returns from cryptocurrencies such as Espers, it is advisable to trade them in the markets. This will require you to join one of the exchanges that support the coin such as Binance and Bittrex. You will also be required to open a trading account, verify it, and pick the right trading pair.
- Use Espers to pay for taxes in countries that accept it. Unlike ten years ago when most countries held very negative perceptions about digital coins, things have started changing. More countries are now starting to support cryptocurrencies.
In jurisdictions such as Singapore, Switzerland, and Arizona, it is possible to pay for government services with digital coins.
In Arizona, the passing of HB 1091 marked a new dawn for cryptocurrencies. The bill requires the tax authorities in Arizona to accept payment in crypto coins. Immediately a payment is effected, the Espers coins are converted to USD and credited in the resident’s account.
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https://espers.io/download/Espers-White-Paper-v1-Final.pdf