What is Tectum? TET tokenomics simply explained

Bitcoin is among the slowest cryptocurrencies in terms of transaction speed. But what if there was a blockchain that allowed users to transact Bitcoin 100.000 times faster?

This is where Tectum comes into play!

Tectum is a layer-1 distributed ledger technology platform, that allows previously unimaginable processing speeds for networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

At potentially over 1 million transactions per second, it absolutely annihilates all other blockchains in terms of speed.

And as if not impressive enough, it’s also essentially free to use.

But, how is this possible? And what is a distributed ledger technology platform?

What is Tectum?

Tectum was founded by Alexander, with the technology going live in 2023, having been in development since at least 2020.

At its core, Tectum is a layer-1 distributed ledger technology, or DLT, platform often referred to as a blockchain.

However, it is technically not a blockchain and does not behave like Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Tectum can be more accurately described as part of the larger distributed ledger technologies, commonly known as DLTs.

A DLT refers to a digital system for recording transactions of assets in multiple places at the same time.

Unlike traditional databases, a distributed ledger does not have a central data store or administration functionality.

This means all blockchains are a form of DLT, but not all DLTs are blockchains.

From a technical standpoint, this would make Tectum functionally more similar to a project like Ripple’s XRP, rather than Bitcoin or Ethereum.

This means there is no mining, like on Bitcoin, and there are no apps, like on Ethereum.

Tectum is specifically focused on payments, and doing them unbelievably quickly.

To achieve this almost unbelievable number of transactions per second, Tectum employs various techniques such as hashing transactions to rapidly increase its scalability.

But, to really get into it I should first begin with how it all works.

How does Tectum work?

Technically speaking, Tectum is a Proof-of-Utility based platform, which will require some explanation.

I’m sure you have heard of Bitcoin’s mining consensus mechanism, which is known as Proof-of-Work, and it is likely at this point you’ve also heard of Proof-of-Stake, as used by Ethereum, where users stake their tokens to the network which confirms the consensus.

Proof-of-Utility, on the other hand, is a consensus mechanism with a direct relationship between users who run nodes and their rewards, where the network’s nodes voting influence and rewards are directly related to their historical contributions to the network, such as providing key network infrastructure like computing, storage, or bandwidth.

Meaning, providing such key infrastructure is rewarded, both financially and in terms of weighted voting.

The more the node provides, the more weight that node receives in decision making, although this is limited to a maximum of 33% control for any single node to maintain decentralisation.

One of Tectum’s potentially revolutionary features is SoftNote, a scaling solution that’s compatible with Bitcoin and can possibly help scale the Bitcoin network to a million transactions per second.

If correct, that would be something like 50.000 to 100.000x faster than using Bitcoin’s native network.

To enable this level of speed on a network like Bitcoin that is notoriously slow, SoftNotes allow for transactions to skip the need to be settled on the main Bitcoin network before confirming.

This is because SoftNotes are essentially digital banknotes that represent ownership of Bitcoin wallets and carries access to an amount of Bitcoin inside.

These SoftNotes are fully visible on any Bitcoin explorer and possess the decentralisation, security and transparency of Bitcoin while also offering high scalability provided by the Tectum blockchain.

Consequently, Bitcoin can now be transferred instantly, anywhere, with minimal fees or delays, making both Tectum and SoftNotes an appealing proposition for many Bitcoin users looking to avoid long confirmation times.

To give an analogy, Proof-of-Work networks like Bitcoin can be thought of as event security checking tickets at the entrance.

However, to confirm if your ticket is valid the security guard must close the queue to other attendees and disappear from their position to confirm if your ticket is valid, and they need to do this each and every time you come in.

Under Proof-of-Utility, the security guards can give you a festival wristband instead so you can enter beyond security without interruption and without delaying the queue.

While not a technical breakdown, this analogy works well for imagining the differences between Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Utility.

Yet, it is also worth noting that Tectum is not Bitcoin exclusive, and currently works with Ethereum and Tether.

So, what makes Tectum different from the Lightning Network?

Bitcoin’s Lightning Network is essentially a layer-2 payment protocol built on top of Bitcoin, which helps with scaling the Bitcoin network.

The fundamental difference between the two is that Tectum is its own layer-1 platform, which issues its own cryptocurrency and is compatible with more networks than just Bitcoin.

TET Tokenomics

In total, there will only ever be 10 million TET tokens.

These TET tokens can be used to mint SoftNotes, pay merchant fees, pay layer-1 gas fees, and provide access to special products and incubated projects.

The initial token distribution of the project was as follows:

60% went to providing Liquidity on centralised exchanges and towards their marketing ecosystem. All of which was immediately available at launch with no vesting period.

15% was sold during the Private Sale, of which 90% is currently vested and not yet available for those early investors to access.

15% was given to the team and advisors, of which 100% is currently vested and not available for the team or advisors to access.

5% was sold during the Seed Sale, of which 100% was unlocked at launch.

Finally, the last 5% was sold during the Public Sale and was also 100% available at launch.

So, how does Tectum achieve its high speed?

In short, by hashing down your data and giving it a digital wristband. This makes it smaller, so more can be processed at once.

This hash is then encrypted and applied a marker, allowing it to go through security quicker, meaning all the nodes in the network don’t need to spend as long to confirm every previous transaction on the blockchain as it only needs to confirm the hashes rather than the entire data log itself.

However, as promising as Tectum appears, management at the top will need to ensure they always deliver on their promises of 1 million plus transactions per second and to keep doing so for virtually no cost.

Although if it can do so, and safely scale the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks to over 1 million transactions per second it does seem likely that Tectum’s best days still lay ahead.

Though, as always, nothing is ever guaranteed in crypto.

How to create a Tectum wallet

Step 1: Visit https://trustwallet.com If you already have a Trust Wallet, skip to Step 5.

Step 2: Download and install Trust Wallet from your mobile app store or your browser.

Step 3: Open Trust Wallet and create a new wallet or import an existing one.

Step 4: Once your wallet is set up, tap on the “Add Token” button.

Step 5: In the search bar, type “TET” to find the token.

Step 6: Tap on the TET token and select “Add to Wallet” to add it to your Trust Wallet.

After adding TET to your Trust Wallet, you will be able to view your TET balance and perform transactions with the token.

If you want to support the blog, please donate $TET to this address: 0x926f05Cafd858CA824152dAe62d359cC60e804c5

Tectum FAQ