Lisk Guide | Learn Everything About LSK

What Is Lisk?

Lisk aims to remove the obstacles preventing widespread blockchain adoption by wrapping complex cryptography in something millions understand. JavaScript. With a powerful app development kit, the extremely competitive market of JavaScript developers, will be able to create applications on the Lisk platform and store them on side chains. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=rTgAC-XTInI Anyone can develop a blockchain based application, social platform or payment processor, without making a blockchain from scratch. Using smart contracts that allow anyone to issue their own token and start their own cryptocurrency. 

Lisk is often pitted against Ethereum. Competing with Ethereum isn’t going to be easy, but Lisk does have some advantages. Scalability is a big one. Lisk uses a delegated proof of stake consensus algorithm that has a throughput of thousands of transactions a second. Ethereum are trying to transition of POS using Casper, but this development could be months maybe years away. In a whiteboard presentation, Charles Hoskinson, explained why it is easier to make changes cryptocurrencies that are in development. He likens, developing Ethereum to removing the wheels of a moving car without slowing down. The miners are invested, the technology is secure, and there is an entire ecosystem of tokens built around the platform.

 Lisk released their core 1.0 in February of 2018, and Ethereum has Casper running and working on a test net.  The Origins of Lisk Lisk was a hard fork of Crypti; another cryptocurrency started by Max Kordek and Oliver Beddows (co-founders of Lisk) They didn’t leave Crypti on good terms. The project failed, a misfortune that Max Kordek and Oliver Beddows attributed to an ICO that didn’t raise enough money. They made an exit, surrendered a lot of tokens  and did a whole thing to save face.  There is a whole series of articles on medium that explain what happened. Spend enough time in the right forums of Reddit, and you will find many a bitter Crypti investor, who think Lisk’s cofounders should have gone down with the ship.  

The Lisk ICO lasted four weeks and raised a total of 14,000 BTC. At the time this was the second largest ICO ever. 80,742,575 XCR (Crypti tokens) were also traded for Lisk’s LSK tokens. Lisk raised significantly more money than Crypti. The founders also decided to build their team in Europe, so they can get everyone around the same table and on the same page.

So far it is working, on May 24, 2016, the Lisk main net went live, and the token is fluctuating between $20 – $40. 

What Are LSK Coins Used For?

Similar to Gas, on the Ethereum network, the primary function of LSK will be to pay for computations on the network. The Lisk cryptocurrency can still be sent from one person to another and converted to USD. With the planned introduction of a new dynamic fee structure, it will once again be affordable to send small amounts of LSK on the Lisk network. The dynamic Lisk fees will take into consideration the market value of Lisk. Currently, the more valuable the network becomes, the more expensive it is to use.

LSK coins are also used to vote for delegates, who are the nodes responsible for securing the network. Cheaper delegate fees will encourage more people to participate in building the network, which is essential for a truly democratic voting system. You will be able to send LSK coins across the Lisk network to different smart contracts and applications on the platform. Since LSK has a delegated proof of stake consensus algorithm,

Lisk Hub and Other Products 

The Lisk Hub is like a wallet / blockchain explorer. It is purpose built software designed to make it easier for everyday people to interact with the blockchain.  

You can test is right not if you want. The beta version is available here. It is a polished piece of software. You generate a Lisk ID from random mouse inputs, can elect delegates by clicking checkboxes, and can search the blockchain explorer for transaction and account info. Another cool feature is the ability to manager multiple Lisk IDs from a single account. These IDs might belong to friends or family, or in a corporate setting an employee might need access to different company accounts. The new names and logos created for Lisk products at the relaunch.

Lisk Core 1.0 Release Date  

Lisk Core 1.0 is actually complete. We were promised a beta version in the next couple of months, and then the extensive testing begins. Core is being released now because the team believes that they have refined the network to a point where they can secure all the basic transaction types and release a framework that makes Lisk fit for purpose as a truly scalable proof of stake cryptocurrency. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_2OdMStAiw

Should I Invest In Lisk?

I think that Lisk is undervalued. JavaScript smart contracts might sound like a gimmick, and they don’t have the technical know how of the Ethereum foundation, but I think there is more than enough money to go round for both Lisk and Ethereum and probably 20 other smart contract altcoins, to compete healthily in this emerging space. Lisk’s biggest advantage over Ethereum is that Lisk is already POS and scalable. Ethereum needs to implement Casper and then side chains, or sharding, to increase its throughput before Lisk, or another altcoin, will overtakes it. JavaScript is also the most popular frontend language on earth. 

There isn’t really a reason for this, as Chris Pearce explains in his article, but it is true. Entire agencies exist solely to write code and applications in Java. Go to a coworking space anywhere in the world, and half the people in there will be freelance JavaScript coders. Not that getting an ERC20 token made or making one yourself is difficult or expensive, but if even a small part of this large community favours Lisk instead of Ethereum because it is what they know then Lisk is a successful network. The dynamic fee structure will also make microtransactions affordable.

Lisk Team 

In late February 2018 there were 41 people working at Lisk. 22 in development. 9 in Marketing. 6 in Creative. 4 in Operations.  

Max Kordex, president and CEO of Lisk is from Berlin and attended Aachen University. He left Crypti with other co-founder Oliver Beddows who is now the Vice President on Lisk. Almost every single member of their team has some kind of online presence, and they all seem to be the right kind of nerd to pull something like this off. Interested in learning how to buy LSK tokens? CoinText.com has a complete guide. Read here to learn more.