QuarkChain ICO Overview

The QuarkChain ICO and QKC Token are raising funds toward a multi-layer, peer-to-peer transaction blockchain. The first layer of system contains shards, while the second layer is comprised of a root chain. The architecture of QuarkChain is predicated on finding a balance between security, scalability and decentralization.       

QuarkChainICO Value Proposition

Scalability and security do not go always hand-in-hand when it comes to blockchain technology. QuarkChain have set out to find a solution that balances both these needs through by separating the two main functions of the chain into separate layers.

The first layer contains all minor blockchains, or shards, which process a sub-set of all transactions independently. As the number of shards increase, so to does the number of transactions which can be processed concurrently.

The second layer of QuarkChain is the root chain. The primary function of the root chain is to confirm all blocks from the sharded chains, but does not process transactions itself.

QuarkChain allows for two types of transactions- in-shard and cross-shard. In-shard transactions occur between addresses on the same shard. However, setting QuarkChain apart from other high-throughput solutions is the ability to conduct cross-shard transactions. The throughput of the cross-shard transactions system will scale linearly as the number of shards increases.

Illustration of 2 Layer Architecture

To simplify the user experience of the cross-shard system, QuarkChain is developing a Smart Wallet. All addresses owned by the user in any shard are accessible via a single private key.

Theoretically, a user may have many addresses associated with disparate shards. To address this issue, QuarkChain employ both a primary and secondary account within the wallet. The primary account contains the address of the user’s default shard, while the secondary manages the remaining addresses in other shards.

To simplify management of funds, any transaction executed in a secondary account will revert the remaining balance back into the primary account. The user balance will then remain in the primary account, eliminating the confusion caused by multiple balances across multiple shards.

QuarkChain ICO tokens (QKC) are ERC-20 compatible and distributed on the Ethereum blockchain. After the mainnet is launched in Q4 2018, the ERC-20 tokens will be converted to the mainnet token by pre-mining. Future QKC will be produced by miners.

QKC are the sole means of transacting value in the system and supply a reward for miners. QuarkChain will support smart contracts on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to enable future compatibility with existing dApps, which will benefit from increased scalability.  

QuarkChain ICO Team

Qi Zhou is Founder and CEO of QuarkChain. He has software engineering experience with the likes of Google, Facebook, and EMC, where he developed sharding and clustering solutions. Qi holds a PhD from Georgia Tech in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Yaodong Yang is a Research Scientist with the QuarkChain ICO. He is the Cofounder of Demo++, a startup incubator. He is also a Prof. at Xi’an Jiaotong University and holds a PhD in Engineering from Virginia Tech.

Xiaoli Ma is also a Research Scientist with QuarkChain. She currently serves as a professor at Georgia Tech and is an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Fellow.

Anthurine Xiang serves as CMO. For the last 4 years Anthurine has worked in Silicon Valley, with companies such as LinkedIn, Chartboost, Beepi and Wish. She holds an MSE in System Analysis and Economic Management from Johns Hopkins University.

Below is a list of the advisors working with QuarkChain:

• • Leo Wang – Head of PreAngel VC and prolific crypto investor
  • Mike Miller – Liquid2 Ventures, Founder and Chief Scientist at IBM Cloudant
  • Bill More– Founder/CEO of DSSD, later acquired by EMC
  • Arun Phadke– Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering at Virginia Tech

As the project progresses, QuarkChain are adding new members to the team. More details on the team and their background can be found here.

QuarkChain ICO Strengths and Opportunities               

QuarkChain are currently already running the first version of their Testnet ahead of schedule. During our audit, we observed the capacity of the Testnet to run 2k TPS. According to the QuarkChain Development Roadmap, the team aim to achieve 10k TPS as their next milestone and will continue to scale the product from there. QuarkChain have made their Github publicly available.

Quarkchain’s impressive progress on the development front could lead to a viable sharding solution before Ethereum.

When it comes to sharding, Ethereum are taking their time with exploring different options. Should QuarkChain achieve such high-throughput, it could position the project amongst the few first-movers that offer viable solutions to this pressing issue.

QuarkChain is also EVM compatible- dApps that benefit from a high-throughput solution will have the option to switch over to QuarkChain at any point. This leaves a crucial door open for adoption of the network.

QuarkChain ICO Weaknesses and Threats

Competition for a high-throughput solution is fierce. The first name that comes to mind at the mention of high-throughput scaling is of course, Zilliqa. There is also Fusion, aiming for a Testnet release in Q2, and of course Ethereum. As always, adoption of the protocol is the crucial piece of the puzzle here when it comes to which chain(s) end up at the top.

At the moment, QuarkChain have yet to establish official partnerships, though they’ve indicated efforts are underway. In their whitepaper, QuarkChain point to several target industries that could benefit from deployment of the product – one such market is the development of decentralized mobile applications. In an effort to foster adoption for this use case, QuarkChain are creating on-chain developer tools for use on Android devices.

A share of QCK is also reserved to incentivize developers who build dApps on QuarkChain. While such strategies indicate the team are moving in the right direction, we’ll be on the lookout for any partnership agreements with enterprise clients as a sign of which market and use case scenarios QuarkChain go after.

The Verdict on QuarkChain

The QuarkChain ICO is a serious contender as far as scalability solutions go. The team have made it a point to focus on their product before moving on to build their community and establish partnerships, which they lose some points on for now.

As the release of the public Testnet approaches, however, we will monitor their progress on the latter two fronts. Regardless, the team behind QuarkChain are exceptional and have showcased their potential via the Testnet.

As a Top 5% rated project, we are making a medium bet on the QuarkChain ICO (QKC Token).

Today’s Date: 4/16/18

Project Name: QuarkChain

Token Symbol: QKC

Website: www.quarkchain.io

White Paper: https://www.quarkchain.io/quark.pdf

Crowdsale Hard Cap: $20 million

Initial Supply: 2.2 billion

Total Supply: 10 billion

Token Distribution: TBA

Price per Token: TBA

Initial Market Cap (at crowdsale price): $33 million

Fully-diluted Market Cap (at crowdsale price): $150 million

Accepted Payments: ETH

Countries Excluded: China, US

Bonus Structure: N/A

Presale Terms: N/A

Whitelist: TBA

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