Fantom (FTM) cryptocurrency review: history of creation, features, technology, development prospects

What is Fantom (FTM)?

Fantom is a scalable Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) smart blockchain platform designed to address the security and decentralization issues that are common on many blockchains. The goal of the project is to come up with a network capable of making transfers without time delays and making transactions with little cash costs. The Fantom Software is provided through open source licenses.

History of the project

The company was founded and registered in 2018 in South Korea. Then she was given the name Fantom Foundation Ltd. The founder was Professor An Buing Ik, a South Korean computer scientist. The CEO of the company is Michael Kong. Well, the architect DeFi became Andre Cronje. The platform was developed using several languages, namely Java, Golang and Rust. At present, project management and platform development are in the hands of the community and validators, and in the future, they plan to transfer network management to the owners of FTM tokens.

Fantom Features (FTM). Distinctive features

The ecosystem has its own variation consensus PoS is "Lachesis Protocol", which is directly connected to the Fantom OPERA Chain database. The main idea is to support the creation of decentralized applications, which are responsible for lightning-fast transactions and reducing user costs closer to zero. On the technical side, Lachesis is a customized type of another consensus, namely ABFT, which allows the platform to increase speed and become cheaper compared to past methods. However, it does not lose its security. Instead of centralizing the overall computing power, technology consumers have the ability to create personal independent networks.

Technology

The architecture based on the acyclic graph (DAG) technology is used not only in this project, but also in many others. At the same time, a distinctive feature of the Fantom platform is the use of Lachesis ABFT consensus. This consensus has certain features, among which:

• asynchronous transactions, regardless of the node used;
• payments are made almost instantly, the waiting time is approximately 1-2 seconds;
• the strength of consensus can be envied by many, because it is able to maintain performance in the presence of several malicious nodes;

Each of the nodes contains a personal acyclic graph with a set of transactions that were made earlier. The Lachesis protocol is also capable of running alongside a virtual machine Ethereum (EVM) and can be connected to the open source Cosmos SDK framework. Thanks to this, web developers have the opportunity to move already created products on Solidity inside the Fantom network without wasting time, because the process takes several minutes.

Principle of operation

Opera Fantom is the main cryptocurrency deployment network. It is an open source development environment, it also contains the developed dApps. It has an equally rich set of tools for smart contracts, which is the Ethereum network. Fantom Foundation Ltd came up with this network to avoid the limitations of old blockchains. Opera is the second layer of the network and is responsible for most of the useful functions, namely providing rewards to users for staking on the network and fixing the history that is required to keep track of all transactions made. The network is divided into three levels:

• the first is the core for processing transactions;
• the second is a repository for ensuring the functioning of all smart contracts, which are of value to the system itself;
• the third is offers that are created for the correct operation of dApps.

Such levels are basic and are based on the work of the acyclic graph DAG. Transactions occur when information flows from storage into the protocol itself responsible for transactions. The collection of data about participants in transactions is carried out thanks to a protocol that accumulates all historical information from the network. There is also a reputation protocol that updates each member's points, and a rewards protocol gives users rewards that correspond to the number of points on their balance.

Cryptocurrency FTM

FTM is the main token of the Fantom network, which is used to pay for services and commissions, management, and, of course, for staking. The token exists in three forms: Opera FTM (used directly on the Fantom network), ERC-20 FTM (invented for the Ethereum network), BEP-2 FTM (used on the Binance Chain). The total amount of FTM cryptocurrency is 3.175 billion coins, of which most, namely 22.77 billion, are in circulation, and the rest are planned to be distributed as rewards to participants in transactions in the Fantom network. Everyone can take part in the game using a minimum bet of 1 FTM. To do this, you need to exchange ERC-20 or BEP-2 tokens for Opera FTM on an accessible platform.

Storage of tokens

The only way to store native tokens Opera FTM is the official wallet of the Fantom Foundation. In addition, other proof-of-stake tokens can be placed on cryptocurrency exchanges, but FTM users do not have such an opportunity. In general, storage is possible in MetaMask, Trust Wallet, Coinbase Wallet and others.

Fantom: weaknesses and threats

The Fantom platform is very competitive and has many advantages, while there are also certain disadvantages, namely:

• serious competition from crypto giants Ethereum and Cardano;
• the need to learn the Scala programming language for development;
• limited number of validators;

There are not so many cons, but they still exist, so you should pay attention to them if you are thinking about buying this token.

Prospects and forecast for the development of the Fantom (FTM) project

No one can give an exact forecast, but it is obvious that the platform is actively developing. Many dApps are being created based on the Fantom network, and compatibility with the Ethereum EVM portends an imminent increase in the value of the digital currency. This network has many significant advantages, which makes it an excellent alternative for other crypto platforms. The only thing that can be said for sure is that the project is still at the initial stage of development, and if all the ideas are fulfilled, it will be a huge success.