When I say Lightning Network, what do you think of first? Probably it’s Bitcoin, micropayments or it can be difficult to use at times. And all 3 of these are true. But micropayments in general are important for crypto. And Bitcoin micropayments are particularly important if we think Bitcoin is the future of money.
We can’t have $3 payments for Starbucks coffee waiting for a new 10-minute Bitcoin block to confirm if Bitcoin will ever become global money. So today, we have a solution for this with a very important crypto gem. The easiest, fastest, and cheapest Bitcoin micropayment network. Tectum and its Soft Note service.
What is Tectum?
Tectum started back in 2013 with one goal in mind. To make blockchain payments as easy, fast, and secure as possible. And not just that. They don’t want to limit those payments to only one payment utility coin.
They have their own blockchain and their $TET token is available at the public sale stage now. But forcing everyone to adopt your token is long, tough work. Tectum wants you to be able to use any crypto you want to mint a Soft Note wallet (more on this coming up). The idea is to move any crypto into a wallet that you can use easily to pay someone else.
Source: Twitter
It turns the payment adoption strategy most projects use on its head. Instead, Tectum says BYOC (Bring your own crypto). Mint your own and then pay whoever you want that agrees to accept that payment. Like how you can mint your own DAI if you want. This is especially effective with Bitcoin, where operating a Layer 2 solution, Tectum can process many more transactions faster than Bitcoin’s 10-minute blocks.
The other cool factor is that you have 2 options to do your transactions. On wallet or off the wallet. All transactions take place off the Bitcoin blockchain. This is not unlike Polygon which has its own chain for transactions AND also is providing Layer 2 solutions to Ethereum as well.
Tectum has the fastest blockchain around and it’s able to process up to 1.3 million transactions per second. It does this by encrypting and hashing the transaction data and leaving it in a public archive instead of forcing each node to view and store each transaction on the chain. Its 3-tier node system for data management and its Proof of Utility Consensus enables the speed and low-cost confirmation of transactions.
Source: Twitter
When we show you how Soft Note works, you will see that you just send your key off-chain or do an on-chain transaction. It’s pretty cool. Having both offers nice flexibility and assurance that you can complete a trustless transaction in a way that’s comfortable for you. As you will see when we explain the Soft Note, it’s like handling an old-school paper wallet. Have you ever used a paper wallet before? Let us know in the comments below.
What is Soft Note?
Tectum’s signature product is the Soft Note. And there’s a subtle but important change in how they do transactions versus what we are used to. The Soft Note itself is a smart contract system but it’s a wallet management system too.
We are used to pseudonymous transactions, right? People can’t see our names but they can see our wallet address as sender or receiver. And not just that, if they want to see, they can see your wallet balance and your entire transaction history. So they can learn quite a bit about you.
We are used to using our private keys to sign a transaction to move coins from me to you. But Soft Note does transactions differently. And for all its assets including Bitcoin. And get this. It makes it more private. Private Bitcoin sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it?
Source: Twitter
Here’s what they do. It’s almost like the old-fashioned paper wallets, but better. Your Soft Note has a PIN code attached to it. When you send that code to someone, they are able to open up the Soft Note and collect their money. This does a couple of things differently than normal.
First, it’s a Layer 2 solution so you are not needing the Bitcoin blockchain to broadcast your transaction. Second, no one knows you’ve transacted except the two of you. Tectum’s blockchain only knows you transacted because it has to generate a new passcode for your new wallet balance. But they don’t know with who or how much.
So your transaction is completely private. Imagine it like this. The “old” way of transacting is you use your private key from your wallet to sign the transaction. In this new way with Tectum’s Soft Note, you are giving away the entire wallet. Keys and all.
That’s how Tectum does it with off-chain transactions. There are 3 options that mix on-chain, off-chain, and on or off-wallet. More on those coming soon. You can also transact normally on-chain too. And Tectum can process 1.3 million transactions per second. So Tectum is currently the world’s fastest blockchain.
Source: Twitter
Soft Note v Lightning Network
As a Bitcoin-based Layer 2 for payments, the natural comparison would be with the Lightning Network. So how does Tectum’s Soft Note compare? Very favorably, it turns out. The Lightning Network has a system of 1 pay route open for one customer to pay 1 entity. For this, it works great. That pay route is called a channel.
Here’s an example. I open a payment channel so I can send a Bitcoin micropayment to McDonald’s. But what if my local McDonald’s doesn’t accept Bitcoin but the Burger King next door does? Then, we need to either open a 2nd payment channel with someone else OR use Lightning’s WatchTower system. The WatchTowers provided added security and flexibility, but now the transaction is no longer trustless.
Source: Twitter
And for many of us, this is a problem. SoftNote is what we’d like Lightning to be. We can send any payment anywhere that will accept it. Totally permissionless. Including micropayments. With Soft Note, you sign over the amount of your payment, pass the PIN code along and the payment is sent. It couldn’t be easier.
Tectum wants you to try their Soft Note service today.
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Disclaimer
The information discussed by Altcoin Buzz is not financial advice. This is for educational, entertainment, and informational purposes only. Any information or strategies are thoughts and opinions relevant to the accepted levels of risk tolerance of the writer/reviewers and their risk tolerance may be different than yours. We are not responsible for any losses that you may incur as a result of any investments directly or indirectly related to the information provided. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are high-risk investments so please do your due diligence. This article has been sponsored by Tectum. Copyright Altcoin Buzz Pte Ltd.
