Breakout Chain Proposes Decentralized Computing with Concurrency
Proposed Computing Platform
To address the scalability and halting problems faced by Ethereum, Breakout Chain proposes a Turing complete scripting engine that uses a different control mechanism from Ethereum. Instead of Ethereum’s approach of allowing each script to run to completion before deciding whether it can modify the state of the computing platform, Breakout Chain will divide execution of contracts into segments. These segments are restricted from recursing except when users push execution through loops by submitting a transaction. These control points mean that scripts can be filtered for length and complexity without the need to execute them, allowing for greater scalability.
Although this mechanism may appear cumbersome at first sight, I will demonstrate through an example of crop insurance that control points are natural places at which actors in a contract would make transactions. To see this, imagine the recursion involved in a monthly subscription represented as a smart contract. Each loop through the contract would be initiated by a payment. In fact, because the contract mediates a benefit in exchange for payment, it is desirable to halt the execution of the contract until payment is made. This simple principle forms the foundation of the Breakout Chain computing platform, and allows the platform to have properties that make it amenable to scaling through concurrency.
For this reason, the proposed Breakout Chain protocol permits shards through the use of pegged side chains as described by Adam Back, et al. Pegged side chains are shards wherein money from the main shard (also called the main chain) is locked and then apportioned to a separate shard (the side chain). The money can be used in the side chain and until it is destroyed while concomitantly unlocking the money on the main chain. Pegged side chains require both the main chain and side chains to have properties that make them amenable to concurrency because the side chain must run concurrently with the main chain.
Existing Features and Innovations
Although Breakout Chain will not have the Turing complete scripting engine at launch, it already incorporates a number of new features that will be described in detail below. These features include:
• Multicurrencies – multiple currencies carried on a single chain, each currency having a full set of features available to it, like multi-signature transactions, locked transaction times, and sophisticated scripting
• Multicurrency Hybrid PoW/PoS – a unique security mechanism where currency A is rewarded to secure a chain using Proof-of-Work (PoW, described below) and currency B is rewarded to secure a chain using Proof-of-Stake (PoS, also described below)
• Currency Interrelationships – Proof-of-Stake for currency C is rewarded with currency D
• Breakout Gravity Wave – a novel difficulty algorithm derived from Dark Gravity Wave that throttles block creation (a block is a group of transactions bundled as a single unit of data, similar to a ledger sheet)
• Atomic Currencies – currencies that are indivisible beyond whole units, making it possible to represent real world fungible assets that can’t be divided, like frequent flyer miles or loyalty points
• Delegated Fees – the ability to send currency A but pay for the transaction in currency B
• Fee Scavenging – the ability for transaction fee collection to be deferred until a Proof-of-Work claims the fee
• Immalleable Transactions – transactions protected against changes to their transaction IDs, addressing a current vulnerability in bitcoin
• Colored Coins – currencies with only one unit that is indivisible, a proof of concept for which has been incorporated into Breakout Chain in the form of a deck of cards
• Exchange Friendliness – exchanges can add any currency supported by Breakout Chain in several seconds by modifying only one line in the configuration file
Several other features derived from other decentralized currencies have also been incorporated into Breakout Chain, including a full-featured graphical wallet for several platforms, free-form transaction metadata, stealth addresses, and encrypted transactions comments that can only be read by sender and
Breakout Chain