Holochain vs Blockchain vs Tangle Pros and Cons side by site by side

embomb701 (58)in #blockchain • 6 years ago

A good friend of mine @Ant884 introduced me to Holochain so I decided to dig deeper into it.

So if we chop down and get to the nooks and crannys of Holochain, at its base it is a Distributed Hash Table (DHT), which is the tech that things like Napster and Bittorrent were built upon, however unlike those Holochain will be governed by rules that will keep the data valid. So what does that all really mean in laymen terms, well I will explain. When data like an application is stored on a server how do we know it is still valid before we download it? Well in order to validity the data we can take the entire code and make it into a hash which is a alphanumerical representation of the entire code jumbled into a hash (short alphanumeric number/letter) an example being "01d10dac899a9f31047f53c5b41d0456", inside of these quotes is the MD5 Sum of my entire last post, if you unhash this using MD5 you will get my entire last post, this is the power of hashing (check it here - https://www.fileformat.info/tool/hash.htm). You can take a huge 3 page long code and turn it into a 16 digit hash, now if you change even 1 character in that 3 page code, the hash value will look entirely different. Here is a site that can explain how you can use hashing for data integrity, and this site has nothing to do with Holochain:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/security/ensuring-data-integrity-with-hash-codes
Holochain explains brilliantly by comparing it to our own DNA how they plan to keep the integrity of their chain data:
"Every node has a resilient sample of the whole. Like cutting a hologram, if you were to cut a Holochain network in half (make it so half the nodes were isolated from the other half), you would have two whole, functioning systems, not two partial, broken systems.
This seems to be the strategy used to create resilience in natural systems. For example, where is your DNA stored? Every cell carries its own copy, with different functions expressed based on the role of that cell."
So like blockchain they plan to use all of the other nodes to check the integrity:
"Instead of trying to manage global consensus for every change to a huge blockchain ledger, every participant has their own signed hash chain (countersigned for transactions involving others). After data is signed to local chains, it is shared to a DHT where every node runs the same validation rules (like blockchain nodes all run the same validation rules. If someone breaks those rules, the DHT rejects their data—their chain has forked away from the Holochain".
At first glance this seems like Blockchain, it defiantly has some of the same perks, but is also has some big differences. Below I will do a comparison of the two:

Blockchain Pros:

Distributed Ledger, immutable, proven un-hackable. Everyone gets the same data sent to them so if any "one" is altered the collective will remain thus keeping everyone accountable and accurate.
Can be used for money transfers without reservation or fear.
Several proofs of the Blockchains functionality exists, there are even several that pay node participants for their active involvement in the chain, just like Steemit who is paying me right now for writing this article.
Money can be made mining.

Blockchain Cons:

High cost of energy to complete transactions (and mint new tokens), however this is only for proof of work tokens, Proof of stake tokens still have an energy cost but it is significantly lower.
Long transfer times, again this is not the case in all block chains and as the block chain continues to evolve these times are being reduced.
The data will continue to grow as long as more information is added to the ledger.
Quantum computers can potentially decrypt the data.

Holochain Pros:

Low Energy/EnvironmentalCost, the data that is moving around is only the changes that need to be verified, not the entire ledger greatly reducing the amount of data that must be moved.
DHT is a proven technology in itself, it has withstood the test of time.
Short transfer times, again much less data is moving so it has not problem moving quickly.

Holochain Cons:

DHT Governed by Rules that may or man not be exploitable. While DHT is proven, the rules for Holochain are not yet.
Not trustworthy enough to use as money. If there is a system error or hack on a single node, who is to say whether or not that nodes information is compromised or has legitimately been altered? For example, Node X sends transfer to Node Z sending $5 from X to Z just as node X crashes. Is not X $5 poorer, and is Node z $5 richer? if there is a discrepancy who do we believe without a distributed ledger?
No money to be made by mining.
Quantum computers can potentially decrypt the data.

Tangle Pros:

Quantum Computer Resistant, less likely to be decrypted even with quantum computers.
No transaction Fees.
No scaling issues.
Low energy cost.

Tangle Cons:

Not 100% proven technology.
No distributed ledger to prevent allocation disputes, so if A says he has more and B says he has less there is no distributed ledger to say who has what.

Please note, I am not comparing IOTA to Bitcoin to Holochain, I am comparing Tangle, to Blockchain to Holochain, so many of the known Pros and Con of Bitcoin were left out intentionally, because we are talking about all blockchains. Also some of IOTAs advantages over Bitcoin specifically do not apply for this comparison, so they to were left out intentionally.

With all of this being said I still find it smart to invest in IOTA (Tangle), Holochain (Holochain), and Bitcoin (Blockchain) as well as many other blockchain projects, but not all of them. Like IOTA which I hold a decent sized position in, I believe Holochain is another good hedge against Blockchain financially. However in my humble opinion I do not see Holochain as a competitor for funds transfers or a storage of value, but I see it more as a way for companies to organize and send data around more efficiently then Blockchain or Tangle.

I am not a financial advisor and this is not financial advice, invest at your own risk.

If you found this interesting and if you have any questions I can link you more information on the subject. Please comment with questions and comments below, thanks for reading and big Up to everyone who follows this blog.

#holochain #tangle #bitcoin #investing