How Qubic Ditched Blockchain’s Baggage To Achieved 40 Million TPS

When we talk of decentralized Web3 networks, there have been technological advancements witnessed in the past half a decade. However, the most noticeable among them, is the arrival of Qubic- the creator of a quorum-based computer (QBC) system for AI networks, which made global headlines with its stunning 40 million transactions per second, performance. 

The performance of Qubic, the creator of a quorum-based computer (QBC) system for AI networks, has far surpassed its competitors in the decentralized Web3 network. We’re talking about the likes of Solana, Sui, BSC and Polygon, which were all developed with lightning-fast transaction speeds in mind.

By now, you’re probably wondering how that’s even possible – what on Earth enables Qubic to succeed where all other decentralized networks have failed so miserably? The answer lies in the fact that Qubic, unlike the others, is no blockchain.

In this article, we will dissect the phenomenon of Qubic and how it has bypassed the blockchain mechanism to emerge as an industry leader. 

How Qubic is Faster than any other web3 network?

Qubic’s speed is an incredible achievement that puts it miles ahead of some of the best-performing blockchains in the crypto industry. On paper, blockchain networks like Solana, Sui, BSC and Polygon have all been developed claiming to have “lightning speed”, but in reality, those supposedly “fast” blockchain architectures move at little more than a snail’s pace. Solana, often hailed as the fastest blockchain in existence, recently managed to process a record high of 1,504 transactions per second back in April. Compared to that, Qubic moves at the speed of light !!

Beyond The Blockchain: Not Blocks but “ticks”

In its unofficial, interim whitepaper, Qubic explains that in order for people to understand how it can achieve such incredible speeds, it’s necessary to forget all of our prior conceptions of how decentralized networks run. Blockchain, it seems, just isn’t that fast, and so it’s necessary to move beyond the realm of “blocks” and instead think about “ticks”. 

Ticks in Qubic are probably the closest analogue to blocks in the blockchain, but they’re different in a number of ways. Unlike with blocks, the ticks in Qubic are not directly linked to one another. Like blocks, they occur at regular intervals within weekly epochs, and while the “tick speed” is adjustable, they typically occur once every 0.2 seconds 

Once a week, at noon UTC each Wednesday, a new epoch starts, and the process is akin to a “hard fork” in blockchains, which is the term used to describe the creation of a new blockchain that inherits the history of an older blockchain and goes off on its own journey (think Bitcoin Cash). The difference with Qubic being that the old ‘chain’ essentially dies, to be replaced by the newly minted one. The weekly epochs are necessary because Qubic is very different from any blockchain-based Web3 network. 

Qubic has no OS 

Qubic notably doesn’t have an operating system and it runs entirely out of RAM, operating on the most minimal data it can get away with. This lack of an operating system eliminates one of the key overheads of blockchains that restricts their performance, but that’s only one way Qubic is able to deliver such blazing fast transaction speeds. 

Another important trick is that Qubic boasts instant finality, and once the epoch is closed, all transactions are pruned, with only the balance change summaries being transferred over to the next epoch, and only then if there is a non-zero balance. 

What are “computors” in Qubic?

To make all this “tick”, Qubic is powered by a network of 676 “Computors” (a specialized node) that are responsible for processing transactions and executing smart contracts. Each transaction requires a quorum of 451 or more Computors (two-thirds) to be in agreement in order to be finalized. A single arbitrator works to ensure that the Computors are behaving honestly, and the arbitrator itself can be replaced if it’s found to be acting in a malicious way. 

Should a quorum fail to be reached for any reason, the tick will not be valid and instead there will be an empty tick, and any transactions within it will not be valid or processed. 

Qubic follows a minimalist approach

A unique, minimalist architecture is the secret sauce that enables Qubic to leave every other decentralized network in a cloud of dust, racking up transactions at speeds that are quite simply inconceivable for any standard, blockchain-based design. It eliminates all of the baggage found in blockchain – such as unconfirmed transactions, transaction fees, mempools, confirmed transactions and the necessity of confirmations that are required to eliminate double spending. Fact is, blockchains are littered with an overwhelming mess of data, and it’s that enormous overhead that cripples their ability to keep up with the speeds of modern day finance. 

Readers may note the possibility of a transaction being included in a tick but failing and therefore having no effect. This means it’s incumbent on the receiver to ensure that each transaction is valid, and to enable this, there is a constraint placed on Qubic – a single ID or wallet address can only support one pending transaction at a time. If the ID tries to broadcast another transaction before the current pending one is validated, the old one will simply be replaced by the newer transaction. But Qubic argues this is a small price to pay for its insane performance, especially as it’s possible to create temporary IDs if the user wants to send multiple transactions at once. 

Each ID uses its entity information – incomingAmount, numberOfIncomingTransfers, latestIncomingTransferTick, outgoingAmount, numberOfOutgoingTransfers, latestOutgoingTransferTick – to calculate its balance after each tick, and there is a RAM data structure called the Spectrum file that hosts the entity info for every ID on the Qubic network. This file is updated at the end of each tick, and to achieve quorum the hash of each ID and the universal file needs to match. This is how the Qubic assures that the consensus has valid balances after each tick. In other words, it directly confirms all of the balances across its 676 Computor nodes after every tick, eliminating the need for a lifetime history, as found in Bitcoin and other blockchain networks. 

Decentralizing AI For Everyone 

Surprisingly, Qubic is actually older than most blockchain networks, with its beginnings dating back to this 2012 thread on the BitcoinTalk forum that was once the main hub for all things crypto. Those with knowledge of the crypto world might recognize that the author of that post is none other than Come-from-Beyond (CfB), real name Sergey Ivancheglo, a cryptography expert who is one of the original blockchain OGs. In addition to participating in the early discussions that helped shape Bitcoin itself, CfB is noted as the founder of NXT, the first-ever proof-of-stake cryptocurrency, and the IOTA blockchain, which is actually the first successful DAG implementation.  

The integration of AI with blockchain is the driving force behind Qubic. CfB’s mission is to democratize AI, leveraging the vast computational power of its network and its Useful Proof of Work (uPoW) mechanism to process essential tasks such as training AI models in a way that’s highly efficient, scalable and accessible to all. 

Conclusion

While Qubic’s technology sounds advanced, it was actually discussed as a concept back in 2012, where its roadmap and future potential was already foreseen. In very less time, Qubic has emerged to be quicker than majority blockchain networks in the market thanks to a multitude of innovative operations it ensues.