What you need to know: Qtum, a Singapore-based company, will try to merge the consensus system of ethereum and the transaction model of bitcoin. The new public blockchain appeals to distributed application developers who may have problems with either one or both of the systems. The Qtum team examined the mistakes of ethereum and the improvements needed in Bitcoin’s smart contract platforms.

Why it is important: The improvement from the flaws of both systems will appeal to current blockchain developers who are dissatisfied with the existing systems. Yet, the issue is how to attract more investors to fund the project.

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