Expanse cryptocurrency – A network for decentralized applications
The glory of cryptocurrency start-ups, which headed the top list in terms of capitalization, does not give rest to many developers. They are driven by the desire to repeat the success of the leaders by offering an improved counterpart to the cryptocurrency community. BTC and ETH are some of the first cryptocurrencies that are not without flaws.
The new projects are better platforms in terms of security, transaction speed and scalability, but they have not yet managed to overtake Ether and Bitcoin. Expanse cryptocurrency is just another attempt to offer a competitive platform for creating decentralized applications. Read on to learn more about its features and differences.
Expanse cryptocurrency: overview and prospects
Expanse cryptocurrency is a platform for developing applications and transferring data within the system using smart contracts. In this respect, Expanse is very similar to Ethereum. Initially the start-up was centralized, later a group of developers gave the actual management to the miners.
Decisions are made by majority vote. There is also an option to evaluate innovations, which is a guarantee of justice and objectivity of the decision of the network’s users. The launch of the cryptocurrency Expanse took place in the fall of 2015. The issue is limited to 100 million tokens. The network is based on the outdated Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm, which provides for Expanse mining.
How to buy Expanse cryptocurrency? You can buy the coin only on three exchanges. But in fact, only one of them is leading in terms of turnover: Bittrex. Bittrex has nearly all of the turnover, and the others occasionally conduct a few transactions. Cryptocurrency exchanges don’t consider it necessary to add this coin to their listings yet, that’s why the best way to earn money is to keep it in wallets and sell it in the long term.
Expanse has relatively few advantages:
- The ability to create applications based on JS and Python (Ethereum has a more specific language);
- No influence on the network by third parties. The decision is made solely by the community of miners;
- Fairly good security. There have been no serious hacks of the cryptocurrency yet;
- There is a demand from traders (judging by how volatile the price is).
Despite the fact that the cryptocurrency is not in the top 100 by capitalization level, the coin’s chart is volatile.
Expanse mining
Expanse solo mining is similar in principle to Ether mining. You need to download the Ethminer application based on OpenCL, but you can mine with it only on Nvidia graphics cards. After installing the program, the software automatically synchronizes with the computer and the wallet.
Expanse (EXP) mining gradually becomes more complex. Miners have two options: to create a farm of at least 2-3 graphics cards or to use cloud services. True, the second option reduces profitability. After the transition of ETH to the Proof of Stake consensus, miners switch to less well-known coins with a similar mining principle. To estimate the efficiency of mining, go to any mining calculator that will count the potential profitability of your mining farm.
You will need an EXP wallet to withdraw your earnings. If you don’t have one yet, use this service. Here you can create an online wallet in minutes and then connect it to the mining process.
Prospects for Expanse cryptocurrency
Being essentially a modified copy of the Ether, Expanse inherited not only the strengths of decentralized networks, but also their weaknesses. First of all, it is the problem of the PoW consensus algorithm, which Vitalik Buterin has already moved on from. In addition to the problem of transaction speed, PoW has vulnerability issues. Considering that the price of the coin is very low, it is theoretically possible to have a 51% attack and a Sibyl attack. Hacks on relatively small-cap coins are not uncommon in the cryptocurrency world.
Expanse’s problems that prevent the coin from being in the top 100:
- Dependence on the general market trend. Top-30 coins are used for long-term investments because they are more stable and predictable. Their quotes are held on trust. Expanse is more attractive for speculation.
- Lack of visible advantages. A cryptocurrency is a coin that serves as a settlement within a platform. If ETH is gradually attracting more and more participants, the number of created applications is increasing, there is no information about Expanse. In other words, there are no tangible advantages that would make developers change Ethereum for Expanse.
- Comparative inefficiency of Expanse mining. Mining requires fairly powerful equipment with relatively low efficiency. Since the coin is volatile and has strong drawdowns, and the profitability of mining is gradually falling, investors prefer more stable assets.
Conclusion
Expanse has not yet been able to compete with the leading decentralized networks mainly because of the developers themselves. There is not much information about updates, what is the significant advantage of the start-up, it is not clear. Perhaps, the situation may change in the future, but for now the cryptocurrency is interesting only for short-term speculation. Theoretically, Expanse’s merger with another start-up or cardinal updates could fuel interest, but nothing says that is likely to happen in the near future.