Syscoin is an open source protocol and modular blockchain tech stack for smart contracts. The blockchain was originally brought to mainnet in 2014, and has demonstrated a history of iterative tech advancement since then. The project is led by the non-profit Syscoin Foundation with board members including Jagdeep Sidhu (Foundation President and Lead developer) and Michiel Näring, Syscoin Foundation Vice President, and by the Syscoin community through decentralized governance.
SYS Labs an enterprise, leads the development of flagship apps and systems built on Syscoin, including Rollux (an OPStack L2), SuperDapp, Pegasys DAO (DEX), and Luxy (NFT marketplace).
What sets Syscoin apart is its combination of key elements from Bitcoin and Ethereum on a single platform. Syscoin's layer 1 consensus is based on Bitcoin’s SHA-256 PoW model and allows merged mining with Bitcoin. This means that miners can simultaneously mine both BTC and SYS at no extra cost. Comparing Syscoin's hashrate to Bitcoin's it can be seen that generally over 50% of Bitcoin's hashrate also mines Syscoin and that it is supported by several larger Bitcoin pools. Syscoin also provides decentralized finality on top of Nakamoto consensus which effectively eliminates the risks of 51% attacks normally associated with PoW while also retaining proven Nakamoto consensus from beneath. Moreover, Syscoin is modular layer 1 that supports optimistic rollups and ZK rollups, and provides them a low-cost data availability service that is censorship resistant called [PoDA]. The first layer 2 built on Syscoin is a fork of Optimism called Rollux, an EVM-equivalent optimistic rollup that went live on June 28, 2023, built by SYS Labs. The Rollux ecosystem is Syscoin's primary target for ecosystem growth as it provides scalability with a fast and low-cost user experience.
Current ongoing research and development specific to the Syscoin L1 includes various applications of zero knowledge cryptography including custom execution environments, zk-based light clients, and zk-based cross-chain communication.
In sum, Syscoin's technology today effectively provides what Ethereum plans to provide in the future with its modular roadmap, including data availability, while retaining Bitcoin's Proof-of-Work.
The network utilizes incentivized full nodes (masternodes) to serve multi-quorum chainlocks for finality. You can find out more about the incentives and requirements to run a Syscoin masternode at [sysnode.info](https://sysnode.info).
As for Syscoin's overall layer 1 architecure, it is dual-chain with a modular (rollup-centric) design. This architecture consists of an Ethereum-based blockchain called Network Enhanced Virtual Machine (NEVM), released December 6, 2021, which is compatible with any smart contracts or rollups built for Ethereum. The other blockchain is called Syscoin UTXO or "Syscoin Native", a Bitcoin-based blockchain supporting taproot, data availability ("PoDA"), a token platform supporting ordinals and both fungible and non-fungible tokens, a proprietary DAG protocol called Z-DAG, and opt-in signature endpoint functionality called "notary". Overall, the architecture enables users and developers to leverage the strengths of each "gold standard" model (Bitcoin and Ethereum) while creating new synergies between them where appropriate, such as PoDA. Both of the Syscoin blockchains, as well as Rollux, utilize SYS as their native coin. SYS is utility-focused coin based on EIP-1559. SYS owners can transfer SYS between these chains via the Syscoin Bridge and the Rollux Portal.
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Syscoin