Singapore blockchain start-up Qtum caught everyone’s attention this week when it was listed on fast-growing Hong Kong crypto exchange Binance.

On Monday when the move was made, the price shot up 42% and continued to rise over subsequent days as traders and investors responded positively  to the addition, although the price has come off somewhat since then to trade at $18.93 on Thursday 22 March.

As part of the listing, Qtum is giving away 50,000 coins to Qtum holders on Binance, ranked by trading volume. The competition ends on 27 March, with the coins distributed to winners within five days of the competition ending. More details are available here.

Binance recently dropped 82 coins from its trading pairs in an effort to raise the overall quality of the crypto asset markets it offers.

The blockchain platform is the 18th-ranked coin according to Coinmarketcap, with a valuation of $1.67 billion.

In some ways it is surprising that Binance hasn’t listed Qtum up until now given the adoption levels of its blockchain, which is currently running on up to 6,000 nodes, with the majority of those being in China, an impressive figure considering that Ethereum has 20,000.

Qtum’s blockchain is a unique proposition that takes the best from both Bitcoin and Ethereum, and combines those parts in its Qtum Virtual Machine (QVM).

Its blockchain is a fork from Bitcoin Core and, specifically, is based on bitcoin’s UTXO model which gives it stability and security.  On top of that it has built its own decentralised application and smart contract platform which is similar to Ethereum but without the inefficient proof-of-work consensus mechanism. Instead, QVM uses proof-of-stake (PoS), making the blockchain far easier to deploy for businesses.

The advantages of Qtum’s approach is that on the one hand its Account Abstraction Layer allows any number of virtual machines to plug into its blockchain, while on the other it provides interoperability between blockchains and it is relatively straightforward for businesses to hook up their legacy systems.

Qtum’s lightweight proof-of-stake system means the blockchain can be run on smartphones and even Internet-of-Things devices. That’s a big competitive advantage over other chains, given that half of all web traffic is now on mobile, with that figure set to rise inexorably.

With this technology in place, the  Singapore-based outfit led by Patrick Dai, a former Alibaba product manager, is able to pitch itself as the business-friendly blockchain. In that regard it is having some notable successes.

Among its business partners are Baofeng, the Chinese video streaming platform and 360, a pioneer in network and cyber security software in China. 360 has 600 million customers that have installed its software. Qtum is helping 360 to set up a blockchain research lab and will be applying its distributed ledger technology to enhancing existing products and developing new ones.

Baofeng has announced plans to build a 50,000 node content delivery system and has teamed up with Qtum to help turn that vision into a reality.

Another recent win was the inking of a deal with SpaceChain, which is using Qtum’s blockchain to put a network of CubeSat satellites into orbit. The space start-up has the backing of venture capitalist Tim Draper.

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.