The one-year challenge to read a white paper/week started to pay off, as I am getting better at understanding the terms, vocabulary and general working of blockchain projects. It helped my writing as well. When I discovered a chance to read Tectum's Whitepaper I had to take it. When reading the description, I instantly thought this was something different than what other projects do. The fact that it tries and is so successful so far at tackling the Bitcoin traditional problems is something worth attention. I truly hope the talented people who work on this project will continue doing the great work contributed so far, improving it at the same pace. For today I will look at a few aspects that I found interesting but there are various points of looking at it. I will look at how SoftNote works to avoid counterfeiting and at the same time does so well at ensuring digital payment security.
Some people are always afraid of Bitcoin and tell me they do not trust their money on blockchain, they prefer cash. I believe there is a true chance that SoftNote will make it through all people's hands and become mainstream. Because sending money via an image on messenger chat might be what people need right now and have no idea they need it. No need to know the technology involved, just use it as would use electricity - all beautiful technologies are those that can run in the background without a need to understand how they work. But, until that happens, some people have to know it to be able to make it work well.
when we observe how things work, we can make them work better
Before going into the details of the project one crucial aspect of its enhanced security might have a lot to do with the fact that Tectum was involved in submarine software development since the 1980s coming from a cybersecurity company Crispmind. So, is not the work of just today, but with a long and deep understanding of distributed ledger technology be able to handle data at an enhanced level.
The digital banknotes introduced in 2020 are trying to solve Bitcoin's scalability while keeping the other positive characteristics. it uses the Tectum blockchain to allow fee-free and high-speed Bitcoin transactions. Increased privacy matched with the digital cash-like properties of Softnotes helps Bitcoin transactions to progress towards something better.
According to its whitepaper Tectum CSS integrates both proof of utility for public apps and multi-signatures for private apps. Private consensus allows nodes to veto events and gives speed and efficiency with fewer confirmations. It is fast.
The Tectum blockchain uses a multi-chain structure, with distinct chains for each smart contract. SoftNote, a blockchain-supported application, uses three chains: the 'genesis chain' records and follows the lifecycle of SoftNotes, the 'Payment Chain' is bookkeeping previous pin codes, and the 'Dynamic Chain' catches all SoftNote statuses. Tectum is built to include a decentralized database, while its hybrid Proof-of-Utility consensus aims for decentralization in three phases.
The network cycle involves three phases: READ, STOP, and WRITE. TEC and TET tokens represent ownership and utility, with TEC minted during BTC transactions. TET is a T12 protocol token with a 10 million hard cap. Phase 1 is a private 12-node cluster, and Phase 2 introduces staking mechanisms with 'Zero Nodes.'
Each network cycle recalculates POU factors and updates the network map based on results.
How is Payment Security and Counterfeiting Ensured on the Tectum Blockchain?
The explanations found in Whitepaper and smart contract features made me think a lot about how we use 2FA authentications today, but that is just one aspect of its implemented aspects to enhance secure pays. SoftNote is designed for easy and secure person-to-person transactions. Users can easily send SoftNotes using any messenger application as a picture file or directly from wallet to wallet. What makes SoftNote different is its security feature:
a passcode protects each SoftNote, making it useless to anyone without authorization.
This extra layer of security ensures that only the intended receiver, with the correct code, can access and use the SoftNote, adding a level of trust and privacy to digital transactions.
Work on its blockchain security is an ongoing process, and continuous improvement is crucial to adapting to new threats and challenges in the fast-changing blockchain landscape and Tectum is continuously working to improve itself, involving communities to participate.
I believe its user-friendly interface also mirrors very well all the neat features described above, it is simple and intuitive, and creating the wallet took less than a minute.
Upon completion of my sign-up I was happy to read a warm welcoming message:
Welcome to New SoftNote and Tectum Wallet! Everything is here now, however, some functions are still in development.
Glad you are with us!
So, as I wrote above, the work is in progress, and is good the community engages and more people are coming up with suggestions, ideas and maybe improvements. Using a Google sign-in is convenable but we should all be aware that the privacy and safety of our data online is a shared responsibility between:
- the app provider (in this case SoftNote wallet)
- Google service provider
- and me (user)
It all depends how the security checks are done firstly by me as a user. Some basic check before deciding to use Google sign-in are:
- see if is a secure https connection
- is the App storing access tokens in places that are susceptible to unauthorised access, such as client-side storage?
Sensitive information in the Tectum ecosystem, including passcodes and transaction details, is securely stored on the blockchain.
Tectum employs advanced encryption and hashing techniques to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of user data.
The wallet will prompt you to check your email for the passcode, so again enhanced verification of handling your data.
Regarding the security of Google services which is the same as before, we must use common sense, 2fA and all best practices. Also Google provides a Sign-In API that facilitates secure authentication. It leverages industry-standard OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect protocols and those as far as I am aware, are relevant to Tectum sign-in.
As this was a short piece on how Tectum works to give users much-needed payment privacy and fast transactions at the same time making counterfeiting impossible, I had to touch a little also on user data privacy as it is a topic of interest when using (any) websites nowadays.
So all in all, I believe it to be an intriguing project, well-documented and implemented with the potential to make SoftNotes popular among all Internet users, like we use emoticons or attach images to emails. Contributing is possible by various ways like minting, writing/reading about the developments, following the news, hunting the bounties offered to help make it even better or simply by trading on the pair.
My time spent researching SoftNote is quite short, to be honest, there are more questions that I would like to look at and in the future will try to do so, as I am currently following its progress.
Sources:
Bellow are the relevant social media channels to follow for progress and updates:
- SoftNote Discord
- SoftNote Twitter
- SoftNote/Tectum Instagram
- SfotNote by Tectum Youtube
- Tectum Blockchain Linkedin
- Tectum Telegram
- Tectum Facebook
- SoftNote Wallet
