Designed as a digital currency that real people could use.
Merit was engineered from the ground-up to be usable day-to-day by technical and non-technical users alike.
Merit was engineered from the ground-up to be usable day-to-day by technical and non-technical users alike.
Merit strove to be three things above all others: simple, safe, and a community. Each of these pillars was core to the goal of becoming the world’s most adopted digital currency.
It was all about community
Merit was focused, first and foremost, on being a real community. While other currencies aim to be more faceless and anonymous, Merit worked to create great incentives and to make the lives of users easier. This guiding principle drove the design and architecture choices of the Merit Core Team.
Mining that does not only benefit the wealthy
Mining traditional digital currencies is a game that largely allows the rich to get richer. With application-specific hardware and large data centers, the elite are able to mine thousands to millions of times more than the average individual can. Merit implemented the innovative Cuckoo cycle mining algorithm, which was much friendlier to normal consumer hardware (such as a PC or Laptop.)
Further, Merit’s innovative Growth Mining empowered people without any computers or phones to mine! Classic mining provides incentives for keeping the network more secure, and Merit did this too. But Merit went one step further to provide incentives for another very important behavior: spreading the word and growing the Merit network. That’s because a digital currency is only as good as its reach.
Everyone was a steward of the network
Merit was the world’s first invite-only blockchain. The power of this approach lay in how it drove stewardship in the network. Invites were provided to users on a limited basis. They were mined, just like regular Merit was, and distributed a bit more randomly than Merit was.
Since each user in the network had to be thoughtful about how and when to “spend” their early invitations, they were likely to consider the most important factors in building a great foundation. This means that every early member of the Merit community was screened personally by an existing member of the network. This made it dramatically harder for bad actors to enter the community. And, best of all, the top stewards were able to get extra mining rewards as part of every block.
Safety first
Merit, aiming to be the world’s most adopted cryptocurrency, believed that safety is paramount. All members of the community, irrespective of technical and financial background, needed the peace-of-mind of knowing that their money is safe. This is decidedly not the case with traditional cryptocurrencies that leave users looking over their shoulders for hackers and not fully grasping the unforgiving terrain that they are in.
In the same way what we have savings accounts with traditional Banks, Merit empowered users to protect their money on the blockchain through vaults. In many ways, vaults were even safer. All without ever having to rely on a third-party to keep your money safe. Vaults had a number of powerful features that keep your money safe:
Merit’s robust MeritMoney protocol allowed users to send with peace-of-mind and ease. Users did not even need to know if their recipient had ever used Merit before or if they had a Merit wallet. If they didn’t have a wallet, Merit will stored the money on the blockchain on escrow for them to access once they were a member of the community.
Further, MeritMoney transactions had the ability for users to set an expiration date for them to be accepted and an optional password to make it even more secure. This gave users the peace-of-mind of knowing that they sent their Merit to the right person and that only that person was able to unlock the money.
Merit’s robust MeritMoney protocol also solved one of the most widespread problems in the history of commerce: human error. Accidentally send the wrong amount of Merit to someone? Or accidentally key in the wrong address? Those were everyday occurrences for most of us and, until now, the blockchain has ignored this reality of human nature. Not so with Merit. Merit’s MeritMoney transactions could be cancelled up until they had been accepted by the recipient. Further, Merit transactions could even have an expiration window.
Loss or theft of phones and computers is an unfortunate reality that users are faced with. Merit gave you the peace-of-mind associated with backing up wallets using a powerful mnemonic-based recovery. All you needed to recover your wallet is to record your 10-word recovery phrase. You could even export your wallet recovery phrase to a QR code that could be scanned using the Merit Wallet import tool.
Merit, unlike other digital currencies, was indestructable. With other currencies, users can send to any address that conforms to a certain size and shape. If you accidentally enter a typo in the “to address,” you could permanently destroy your money. With Merit, all addresses on the network had to belong to a real user. Because addresses are beaconed onto the network during the invite process, the network enforced that all Merit is sent to a real person; not into the void.
EASIER
To be the world’s most adopted cryptocurrency, Merit had to be dead simple. That principle pervaded all elements of the design and implementation of the Merit protocol.
One of the most challenging things about blockchain and digital currencies is the notion of complex keys as addresses. These keys are a long series of letters and numbers that look like this: 1ECGUKEosEhaZnywCVxw6e1VUcPRqGkhvd. Imagine saying that to someone over the phone.
Merit had a powerful identity engine that let users create an optional identity that made it easy for others to send to, such as “max” or “adil.” It didn’t get much easier.
Unlike other digital currencies, which require both parties to set up a wallet on the blockchain in advance of transacting with each other, Merit let you transact with anyone you want to at any time. The powerful Merit sending protocol allowed you to send money via a simple link via SMS, email, or chat. You did not need to know the recipients address or their Merit identity. Better still, they did not even need to be part of the Merit community yet. They could claim their Merit once they joined. All without relying on a central party to hold their Merit for them.
SMS
Chat
You could take Merit with you wherever you go by using the easy Merit Wallet mobile app. It integrated with your contact list, so you could easily look up the recipient and send an MeritMoney link to them via email or SMS. Further, you would get push notifications when you received Merit, earned a mining reward, or received invite requests from new users.
When you were nearby others, you could easily request money by showing them the QR Code on your receive screen. They could simply scan it, confirm the amount, and click send. That’s it! You could even request an amount of Merit in your generated QR code. It made any kind of face-to-face transaction a snap.
A STRONGER TECHNICAL FOUNDATION
The easiest products to use are often the hardest products to build. Digital currency is no exception. Merit worked to harness the power and security of a decentralized blockchain, all while delivering the same simplicity that users have come to expect with the the apps that they use in their daily lives.
Merit innovated at the protocol level in a variety of ways to bring this vision to life.
Taken to the next level.
Of all the major digital currencies, Bitcoin was the first, and decidedly the largest by market capitalization and trading volume. It has had an open-source code base for 10 years, with thousands of eyes on it and hundreds of contributors actively improving it. For this reason, Merit chose to use Bitcoin as it’s foundation. We were proud to build on the shoulders of giants.
Improving the throughput by 50 times.
The first order of business in improving the protocol was throughput and transaction speed. Whereas Bitcoin issues blocks every 10 minutes, Merit issued blocks every minute. This empowered users to make and confirm transactions more quickly. Merit’s block size was also considerably larger, at 16mb versus Bitcoins 2mb.
Making it better for the planet.
Merit’s innovative approach to mining was better for the planet because it required less CPU power and, as a result, requires less energy to function at a high speed. That’s not to mention that it made the mining ecosystem more accessible to people without huge data centers or millions of dollars to invest in computing infrastructure.
Being inclusive from beginning.
Merit’s vision was to be inclusive of all types of users from the get-go. That’s why the Merit team focused on building both a mobile as well as a desktop wallet application. Further, one did not have to be a technical expert or a software engineer by training to succeed in the Merit ecosystem.
Merit is invite-only. You can apply for an invite below and get an answer from the Merit Community in less than 15 minutes.
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