ARK (ARK) Beginner’s Guide

Everything What You Need to Know about ARK

We know a lot about the top 20 cryptocurrencies in the market. But we do not have a clear outlook about other currencies that have interesting features. ARK is one of these cryptocurrencies that offers features that other currencies do not.

What is ARK?

ARK is an ecosystem of linked chains and a spider web that aims to provide users, developers and startups with innovative blockchain technologies. ARK is a platform that has been designed for mass adoption and its team is working to develop and deliver services that the industry needs. ARK’s main intention is to connect the blockchains of every single cryptocurrency in the market with ARK’s Smart Bridge Technology.

ARK

ARK is a fast, decentralized, scalable, collaborative bridging and open source network. It is fast because it has 8 second block time, allowing users to transact money fast and securely. It uses a modified Delegated-Proof-Of-Stake consensus mechanism that features 51 delegates. The delegates run the network and are rewarded as miners in other networks.

ARK Smart Bridge Technology

This may be one of the strongest points of the ARK ecosystem. This technology will allow blockchains to be connected using a technology known as smart bridge. Every coin will be connected and applications form different blockchains will reach a greater audience making them more powerful.

In theory, every cryptocurrency, including bitcoin, will gain the functionalities of all the other virtual coins. The Smart Bridges allow for communication among validated bridged blockchains with the ability to perform task and advanced functions. The first three cryptocurrencies that ARK will link will be Bitcoin, Ehtereum and Lisk, among others.

Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS)

The modified DPoS consensus algorithm provides simplified future interaction between ARK and other blockchain systems that use DPoS as their consensus. That would allow for the potential to provide service bridges in the form of Lisk blockchain apps, along with any other additional systems provided by their Blockchain administrators.

The DPoS was designed to eliminate the issues associated with Proof of Work (PoW) like the centralization of computing power and the exponentially increasing waste of real world energy. Even when it is not fully decentralized, because it is based on consensus by a fixed number of elected delegates, it has an important degree of decentralization.

Push Button Deployment

Board Member and Co-Founder of ARK.io, Rok Černec wrote in a blog post:

“One of the key tenants of ARK’s business model is the Push-Button blockchain deployment. Our goal for ARK is to create the core experience and modular ecosystem that does for blockchain what WordPress has done for websites and blogging. While we are not ready to debut our full ‘Point. Click. Blockchain.’ system, today we would like to take the first step towards making our vision a reality.”

ARK is characterized for offer a user-friendly interface for developers and start-ups. ARK Deployer is a lightweight deployment script that allows developers to create their own ARK based blockchains. In this way, a blockchain can be created in a matter of minutes with a nice interface and for developers.

ARK VM

Ark Virtual Machine (VM) will allow developers to create smart contracts on the ARK’s blockchain. The programming language that will be used by developers will be Solidity. Something similar to what Ethereum does. But the main differences are that Ethereum does not have the Smart Bridge technology and it uses a PoS (Proof of Stake) algorithm. ARK features a different algorithm that we have explained before.

ARK VM is not yet developed, but it is in an advanced stage of it’s development. It is not clear whether the ARK token will be used in the ecosystem as GAS works in Ethereum or in the NEO platform.

ARK Internet of Things Devices

ARK’s team is working on a project that would allow IoT devices to be secured using ARK’s blockchain technology. In this way, Man-in-the-middle attacks may be eliminated in communications among IoT devices and control hubs by using the blockchain to authenticate all of the devices on a IoT network and its connection to the rest of the internet.

The potential of the applications that may be supported by ARK include manufacturing, shipping, storage solutions, and others. But what is impressive is that ARK’s team is thinking bigger. It’s network of IoT possibilities would allow vehicles, spacecraft or even nuclear weapons disposal.

ARK’s Team

ARK is conformed by various experts in different fields including programming and blockchain. Mike Doty is the Managing Director and Co-Founder. FX Thoorens is the CTO and Co-Founder. Lars Rensing is the CFO and Co-Founder. Other Co-Founders are Travis Walker, Rok Černec, Scott McPherson Matthew DC, Velislav Valkov, Chin Song, Khanh Vuong and Stefan Neagu.

ARK in the Cryptocurrency Market

At the moment of writing this article, ARK is the 50^th cryptocurrency by market capitalization with $343 million dollars. Each ARK is worth $3.5 and there are 97.981.284 ARK in circulation.

This currency has been a top 20 cryptocurrency by market capitalization back in October. Since then it has lost part of it due to the fact that other cryptocurrencies have been also increasing substantially.

ARK’s team is working hard in order to provide tools to different developers. The ARK ecosystem will be much complete when the different projects being developed will be available for the public. If the team is able to provide a good product that will be widely adopted, then the price of ARK can increase substantially in the future.

ARK is being listed in several exchanges that give liquidity to the ARK’s token. Among these exchanges we find Bittrex, Binance, UPbit, Okex, LiteBit.eu and others.

In order to buy ARK coins it is necessary to download a desktop or a mobile wallet from the official website. Ledger wallet offers the possibility to store the private key in its cold storage device. That would provide an extra layer of security for ARK’s token holders.

Conclusion

ARK is a cryptocurrency that has many interesting features. The ARK smart bridge technology, the futures smart contracts and a team involved in what they do are ARK’s strongest points. The success of this ecosystem will depend on several factors, including the ability that the team will have to promote the environment. The idea that they have is excellent and it’s very promising.

But there must be a real incentive for developers to choose ARK instead of Ethereum or NEO. Well, it is important to analyse how the key features of ARK will evolve to know whether or not this cryptocurrency and ecosystem will reach the top 20 cryptocurrencies in the future and stay there for a long period of time.

If you are interested about other cryptocurrencies, please have a look at the other guides:

NEO Guide

NEM Guide

Join the conversation over at Telegram (https://t.me/coinstaker)