---
id: a_different_approach_to_blockchain
title: Not your average blockchain project
image_caption: a different approach to blockchain
description: Sometimes we're compared to blockchain projects. We love the blockchain but that's just not who we are.
date: 2021-04-20
taxonomies:
    people: [sacha_obeegadoo]
    tags: [digital_twin,data,why]
    categories: []
extra:
    imgPath: a_different_approach_to_blockchain.png
---

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Sometimes we're compared to blockchain projects. We love blockchains and have many partners there – CasperLabs, DigiByte, Polygon, and Dash, to name a few – but that's just not what we are. Here's a few ways we are different than the "typical" blockchain project.

## ThreeFold is actually much more than a blockchain 

ThreeFold is not actually even a blockchain project, rather it uses blockchain technology by combining it with other cutting-edge solutions. It's way more that just a blockchain alternative to a public cloud. <!--  -->ThreeFold started everything from scratch – built a super-lightweight and shell-less operating system, and a fully autonomous (self-driving and self-healing) architecture to enable a true peer-to-peer infrastructure.  With zero intermediaries on the ThreeFold Grid,  that leads to high efficiency and minimum complexity.<!--  -->
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The blockchain database (BCDB) acts as a registry for the workloads on the Threefold Grid. Workloads can only be accessed and managed with the private key of the data owner. The BCDB can prove to any party that their workloads are executed exactly as intended and that their data is untouched.
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In most distributed systems, data is stored multiple times to guarantee redundancy. This leads to a lot of unnecessary overhead and is also not the most secure mechanism. ThreeFold uses a dispersed storage algorithm to store the workloads on the ThreeFold Grid. <!--  -->The dispersed storage algorithm breaks data into shards and stores them on different nodes.<!--  --> This enables two things – first, performance efficiency (no need for consensus to run compute and storage) and second, energy efficiency (as there’s no more need for data duplication).
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*As mentioned up top, we have many partners in the space and we are working with them to bring true decentralization to their blockchains.*

## ThreeFold had no ICO nor IEO. It pre-farmed its tokens

ThreeFold didn’t have an ICO or IEO. ICOs and IEOs are fundraising schemes for blockchains to sell tokens to investors either directly (ICO) or through regulated exchanges (IEO). Instead, ThreeFold pre-farmed (ThreeFold’s sustainable alternative to mining) its tokens prior to going to the market and listed them on several exchanges, public and decentralized.
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This allowed ThreeFold to incentivize its early contributors, while also securing the ongoing development of the project until the launch of the Threefold Grid 2.0 in April 2020. Pre-mining is also an organic approach to the market, in line with ThreeFold’s values and vision of delivering products over using hype.

## Product over Hype

In some cases, ICOs and IEOs were surrounded with hype. It is always very hard to judge the ability of a project to deliver its promises through a white paper.
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Instead of fundraising with a white paper, the technological development remained the primary focus. For 4 years, ThreeFold developed the whole technology stack, starting with an operating-system built from scratch to the autonomous smart contract and virtual system administrator technology that enables a fully-autonomous peer-to-peer Cloud. 
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In 2020, ThreeFold held the public launch of the ThreeFold Token on Liquid Exchange. At that time, the ThreeFold Grid was already live in its 2nd version.
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Today, you can go through the whole Threefold Universe and find ready-to-use products. You can participate in growing the world’s most advanced peer-to-peer Internet infrastructure, or use the peer-to-peer compute and storage capacity available on the P2P Cloud.