QtumQTUM#53

Built on Bitcoin’s transaction model, Qtum (QTUM) is a Proof-of-stake blockchain platform and value transfer protocol which raised around $15.6 million dollars in its 2017 initial coin offering. Incorporating smart contracts, Qtum rewards node operators for verifying transactions while benefiting from secure UTXO technology which removes spent coins from its database. The platform's Decentralised Government Protocol allows specific blockchain settings to be modified with smart contracts, and that flexibility ensures evolution without the need for hard forks. Meanwhile, Qtum’s Account Abstraction Layer makes development simple by decoupling applications from their underlying protocol, maintaining the performance of the blockchain and adding more smart contract capabilities in future. With the biggest Proof-of-stake peer-to-peer network, Qtum’s number of nodes are exceeded only by Bitcoin and Ethereum. That’s a plus for the security conscious – the more nodes a network has, the higher its tolerance for malicious activity as the number of validating nodes is proportionally larger.