With more than 120,000 nodes up and running, the Minima blockchain is proudly claiming that it is one of the most decentralized networks ever created.
Minima achieved the landmark milestone last week, saying its blockchain is now distributed across various smartphones and “internet of things” devices in more than 183 countries, surpassing the distribution of Bitcoin.
To achieve this, Minima has completely revamped the blockchain to run on much smaller devices than the servers necessary to host a node on other networks. Generally, with other blockchains, running a server is an incredibly resource-intensive business that requires tons of processing power. Not so with Minima, whose blockchain is an extremely lightweight protocol that practically any device can run.
To run a Minima node, all that’s required is to download a mobile application. This unique design has enabled Minima to set about building what it says will become the most scalable and inclusive blockchain of all, with the highest level of resilience.
Minima is the pioneer of a novel, user-centric proof-of-work consensus mechanism that removes the need for centralized miners. Instead, Minima relies on the collective power of thousands of mobile devices to secure its chain and process transactions.
Each device on its network runs a complete node and shares the job of mining new blocks. It can be likened to an army of ants all working together – in direct contrast to Bitcoin and other proof-of-work blockchains that are more akin to a few lumbering elephants. Whereas Bitcoin is dominated by a relatively small clique of miners, Minima’s protocol is so small that it can operate on almost any smartphone, with its energy usage equivalent to a messaging app.
This unique design is intended to make Minima more decentralized by spreading equal power over the network to all users rather than a few that possess massive amounts of processing power.
Minima pulls a few tricks to achieve this. Its novel consensus mechanism is backed by some clever compression techniques and regular “pruning” of its blockchain to ensure it can run on such small devices. Because it can run almost anywhere, Minima has grown massively, and its rising node count makes it far more resistant to attacks than most other blockchains. Already, it would be almost impossible for a malicious attacker to seize control of its network.
According to Minima founder and CEO Hugo Feiler, the ability for everyone to run the same blockchain without hierarchy will bring about “complete decentralization-empowered freedom and prosperity.”
Minima believes it has a big future in store, with its blockchain capable of supporting payments and decentralized applications such as NFTs, DeFi, and GameFi, similar to Ethereum and other smart contract blockchains like Avalanche Fantom, Binance, and Solana. While matching those rivals in its capabilities, Minima’s distributed architecture makes it more democratic and secure.
Source: https://www.cryptonewsz.com/the-minima-blockchain-is-now-running-on-120000-nodes-worldwide/