The world is going digital, and money follows suit. Digital assets are the future, and for now, the crown belongs to cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin in particular. Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency that made the idea work, but it has always been far from perfect.
DigiByte (DGB) attempts to improve its model so that people can have a secure and quick payment system. In this guide, ChangeHero is going to tell you how DigiByte achieves its goal and how it is used today.
What is DigiByte?
DigiByte (DGB) is both a blockchain and cryptocurrency used within it. Like Bitcoin, it uses Proof-of-Work consensus protocol (ergo, it can be mined) and unspent transaction outputs (UTXO) to record transactions. Unlike Bitcoin, DigiByte is a multi-layered, multi-purpose blockchain that is focused on cybersecurity and utility as well as secure payments and communications.
DigiByte’s History and Team
DigiByte traces back to 2013 and officially was launched in January 2014. Its founder and creator Jared Tate joined the Bitcoin community a year earlier, but in late 2013 started a project of a cryptocurrency that was his vision of improved Bitcoin — that being, of course, DigiByte. Tate is still an active and prominent member of the community, but he is not responsible for running it anymore — from the very start, it has been in the hands of its community, in the spirit of decentralization.
There is no enterprise or business behind DigiByte. It is supported by developer and marketer volunteers for no pay at all. The teams that contribute to the project are:
- Core developer team;
- Core outreach and DGBAT (DigiByte Awareness Team);
- DigiByte Foundation (a non-profit organization that provides support to the DGB community and promotes decentralization).
On January 10, 2023, DigiByte marked its ninth anniversary. All this time, which is longer than the majority of other crypto projects, DigiByte has been working non-stop. Its community is as dedicated as ever to continue with the outreach and support of the project.
DigiByte in Numbers
Blocks in the DigiByte blockchain are capped at 1 MB, like in Bitcoin. However, in addition to significantly faster block time — only 15 seconds — it is able to scale thanks to SegWit. For reference, SegWit is a protocol that separates a cryptographic signature from the transaction, reducing the size of the latter. Another effect the fast block time had on the DigiByte blockchain is that by now it has the most blocks out of all other UTXO/PoW blockchains.
The DigiByte transaction processing speed can handle 1,066 TPS, which is almost on par with the average amount Visa processes.
Another major change from the Bitcoin code is in the miner reward system. Instead of slashing rewards in half every four years, DigiByte gradually decreases the miner reward by roughly 1% each month. This means that the total supply of DigiByte (21 billion coins) will be completely mined by 2035. At the time of writing, the block reward equals 406.24161084 DGB or $4.73 USD.
Layers of DigiByte
DigiByte was designed as a secure multi-purpose decentralized network. Jared Tate described it as a three-layered “Oreo”:
Blockchain: On the first level, we have protocol and communications. This is the DigiByte blockchain in its purest form, with nodes communicating with each other.
Cryptocurrency: On the second level transactions occur, and DGB comes into play.
Applications: Finally, the third level represents a secondary chain. If we compare the whole structure to the Internet, the first layer would be individual machines, the second — TCP/IP, and the third — HTTP. The main structure of this level is DigiAssets.
DigiAssets is a platform for issuing assets, tokens, and smart contracts to represent real-world assets from units of value to documents and pieces of media. It is a continuation of the Open Assets protocol, which lets units of data not connected with DGB transactions be transferred through the blockchain.
Mining DigiByte
DigiByte is unique since it uses five different mining algorithms at once, weighted equally. It boosts the network’s security, as well as keeps mining as decentralized as possible.
The problem with other major PoW networks is excessive competitiveness. The more demanding the process is, the fewer participants are able to support the network, which leads to hash power concentrating in the hands of a few professionals.
DigiByte tackles this issue by making mining relatively accessible. This is achieved by MultiShield (an improved version of DigiShield), a technology that recalculates mining difficulty after every block and calibrates all five mining algorithms against each other. While it uses SHA-256, scrypt, and Qubit, which are all hashing algorithms that are best solved by ASICs, the other two, Odocrypt and Skein, are ASIC-resistant. Each of them contributes equally, so DGB can be successfully mined using any algorithm out of these five.
Another issue this approach resolves is fluctuation in hash power caused by miners joining or leaving the network en masse. In other networks, like Dogecoin and Zcash, this has been a cause of network congestion and spikes in mining difficulty, but for DigiByte, this is not an issue.
Roadmap and Pipeline
In the future, DigiByte is supposed to be mineable with any type of hardware. For that purpose, the community is planning to change some of the algorithms in use. Ideally, the MultiAlgo should look like this:
- ASIC algorithm;
- FPGA (Odocrypt);
- CPU (RandomX was proposed April 2020);
- GPU (ProgPoW implementation to replace SHA-256 is in development);
- An additional algorithm, potentially, Proof-of-Stake.
As of 2023, however, the legal status of Proof-of-Stake cryptocurrencies in the US is subject to many rumors. It is speculated that these coins can be ruled as securities, and offering them would be a violation of the Securities Act. Against this backdrop, the possibility of implementing PoS anytime soon is slim.
Another way in which accessibility is planned to be achieved is by optimizing memory utilization, so the core client would run even on 32-bit processors or systems with less than 4 RAM.
What else is in the pipeline? Right now, Schnorr signatures for increased security are being actively worked on, as well as Lightning integration, among other things. A lot of improvements are planned for DigiAssets. Among them are mobile app management and burn, and dividends are in active development.
Use Cases and Adoption
With DigiAssets, it is possible to transact not only with DGB but using any tokenized assets, tokens, and smart contracts, which can be applied in “real estate, finance, remittance, identity, point of sale, racing, trade, healthcare, supply chain, government and more”. Creating an infrastructure to build applications on top of it is already proving successful for other networks, so DigiByte sees it as a key to adoption as well. And yes, you can use them as you would use NFTs!
Digi-ID is an authentication system built on top of the DigiByte blockchain. It can easily replace standard usernames and passwords, as well as 2FA. All that is needed is a device with Digi-ID support to scan the QR code and send the cryptographic signature through the blockchain. Since the data that is transferred is encrypted, no personal information is recorded on the blockchain, so this method is superbly secure.
The main chain as well can boast low fees and fast transaction times thanks to MultiAlgo and adjusting mining difficulty. It makes DGB a viable option for transacting and remittances.
Thanks to CoinGate, Coinify, and Coinpayments integrations, businesses can accept DGB as a means of payment. With Kamoney and Bitbill, users can pay their utility bills with it. DGB is supported in Crypto.com, Bitpanda, Spend, and Swipe debit cards.
The community keeps track of merchants and businesses that accept DGB, and it also can be found on resources like Cryptwerk.
DigiByte In Socials
Here is Part 1 of my 3 part #DigiByte v8.22 update video series. An overview of all major changes in v8.22, next steps & more. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel & follow me here for more $DGB & crypto market updates. https://t.co/PD2JTIRi6X
— Jared Tate (@RealJaredTate) January 16, 2023
DigiByte creator Jared Tate is still big in the community and provides updates on the development. This time around, he had progress on DigiByte v8.22 to show. This version is not on the testnet yet but Tate is willing to be transparent about a few necessary steps to bring it closer to it.
Any ways to make Digibyte transactions private like Monero ?
by u/Pale-Statistician493 in Digibyte
On DigiByte’s official subreddit, users come together to discuss all things related to DGB and crypto. Where to buy, how to build a tip bot, or, like above, is there a way to make it more anonymous (and should there be one).
Digital Asset News host Rob talked with Randy of Miss Teen Crypto to gain some perspective into Gen Z’s attitude to crypto. In addition to insightful points, she gives DigiByte a shout-out as an asset worth checking out.
Best Wallets for DGB
DigiByte has a few open-source wallet applications, developed by the community members: Core (desktop), Mobile (iOS and Android), and Go (Chrome extension). Mobile and Go support DigiAssets as well.
Third-party wallets with DGB integration include Exodus, Coinomi, Atomic, JAXX Liberty, Guarda, and Trust Wallet. For cold storage, you might look into Trezor, Ledger, KeepKey, or Opolo.
In Exodus and Trezor wallets, you can swap crypto to DigiByte and back with the help of ChangeHero integration. It’s fast, cheap and you won’t even need to close the app.
How To Get DGB With ChangeHero?
The ChangeHero team also shares DigiByte’s values of utility, decentralization, and accessibility. This is why we support it, meaning you can easily swap cryptocurrencies and DGB on our website. As always, it will be a piece of cake, quick and at the best rate at the market:
- Choose the currencies on the home page, amounts, and the type of exchange. Provide your wallet address in the next step and check the amounts;
- Double-check the provided information, read and accept the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy;
- Send in a single transaction the cryptocurrency you will be exchanging. Mind that the Fixed Rate transactions have a 15-minute limit;
- And now, relax! We are doing all the work: checking the incoming transaction and doing the exchange as soon as it arrives;
- As soon as the exchange has been processed, your DGB is on its way to your wallet. We’ll be happy to hear your feedback if you enjoyed using ChangeHero!
Our support team is always available in the chat widget on the website, in the official Telegram group, or through the email: [email protected].
Conclusion
Impressive technological advancement of an already functional blockchain has convinced many of the intrinsic value of DigiByte. The volunteers are what keeps the project moving forward. Together, they create a positive feedback loop that has been moving DigiByte forward for 9 years already.
We hope you enjoyed this week’s guide! Stay tuned to our Twitter, Telegram, Facebook, and Reddit for more to come.
