Counterparty Recreates Ethereum's Smart Contract Platform on Bitcoin

Counterparty Recreates Ethereum's Smart Contract Platform on Bitcoin(counterparty.io)

105 points by PhantomPhreak 11 years ago | 16 comments

drcode 11 years ago |

It's great that counterparty is adding contract support sometime soon. Counterparty technology has promise, but it has fundamental differences compared to ethereum.

Running contracts on a layer on top of bitcoin vs an idependent blockchain like ethereum is a very different experience.

It will take time to figure out what sort of model wins out- Let's all hope the best technology wins.

neolefty 11 years ago | |

> Let's all hope the best technology wins.

I'd settle for a coherent community using adequate technology. There's always a better solution.

PhantomPhreak 11 years ago | |

Counterparty doesn't use a delegate system. All contract code is run on all Counterparty nodes.

drcode 11 years ago | | |

You're right, I corrected my top post.

Kinnard 11 years ago | |

Please elaborate

drcode 11 years ago | | |

(Disclosure: I own ether, but not XCP)

Well, both platforms require you to use a new currency (ether and XCP currency.) Counterparty will make it easier to write contracts that involve bitcoins (I think, not totally sure how that works) ethereum will have a 12 second block time vs a 10 minute block time (very different) and ethereum transaction costs should be lower (for several reasons.)

Additionally, counterparty will probably launch their product first.

Also, ethereum is only one piece of a much larger technology stack being worked on, linking contracts to things like private messages between users, a file distribution system, a webkit-based webrowser/wallet system, etc. Additionally, ethereum can support SPV, a technology very relevant for mobile apps, which apparently isn't possible with a XCP-type system.

(Counterparty also has add-on technologies, but I'm not that familiar with their stack.)

Ursium 11 years ago | | |

Here's a reply from our very own Joseph, which details a bit more the differences: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2m30j6/counterpart...

brighton36 11 years ago |

IMO Counterparty is (still) the most underated technology in the crypto space. Since it utilizes the same addresses and Blockchain as Bitcoin, it has just as many users as does Bitcoin. The protocol is clearly tackling all the features that Ethereum has promised, and it works today. It's a fair comparison to suggest that Counterparty is to Bitcoin, what css is to html. They work together

alphonse23 11 years ago | |

> Since it utilizes the same addresses and Blockchain as Bitcoin, it has just as many users as does Bitcoin.

I don't think that's fair to say...

drcode 11 years ago | |

> it works today

No, it works on a testnet, just as ethereum currently does.

brighton36 11 years ago | | |

Counterparty has a production release which is entirely functional, and in active use (I think they just hit 100k transactions). In fact, it's usually responsible for 1-2% of Bitcoin's daily transaction volume. The contract feature was just announced today, but Counterparty's development is very quick, and the feature will be in production soon, judging by their pace thus far. The project went from starting out in January, to securing the Overstock deal in November. Compared to Ethereum's glacial pace, I'd not be surprised if these contracts are in production before Ethereum even enters beta.

Taek 11 years ago |

One thing that concerns me is that every node needs to run every contract. Computers that are connecting to the network for the first time and doing full verification will have many, many contracts to compute. Catching up could take significantly longer than it already does.

DSingularity 11 years ago | |

Shouldn't be a problem. The checking part is computationally fast. The real problem is downloading all the data. For that they can just DL the blockchain to avoid the slow transfer speed of the bitcoin network.

PhantomPhreak 11 years ago | | |

Yes. And 'catching up' with the blockchain is much faster before, with this set of changes (only a couple of hours on my machine): https://github.com/CounterpartyXCP/counterpartyd/pull/409