South Korean firm touts faster blockchain

SEOUL, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- A South Korean startup announced it has solved a decade-long speed problem that has hampered the commercial viability of blockchain.

Bloom Technology CEO Lee Sang-yoon said the firm's Locus Chain technology creates a unique ledger structure that brings faster transactions.

A typical blockchain linearly connects "blocks" that have been formed by gathering dozens of transactions. As a result, it takes time to create the blocks, and they inevitably slow down because there is only one place to connect the blocks.

Instead, Locus Chain instantly processes transactions by account unit.

The result is transactions that process in a fraction of a second.

Think of it as the difference between processing tasks with one bank teller and simultaneously processing tasks with multiple tellers.

"It would be strange if we need to wait 3 minutes to pay with a credit card. But it takes more than 10 minutes for cryptocurrencies and even longer than an hour for bitcoin," said Lee, who is known for developing the popular Kingdom Under Fire video games.

Lee says the decentralized network doesn't slow down, even if the number of users increases -- a problem that has plagued users of first-generation cryptocurrency bitcoin and second-generation Ethereum, limiting their practical use.

Bloom Technology recently carried out a public test to show off its speed. The firm said that up to 635 nodes participated in the test for three days, and the single transaction processing time was 0.13-0.23 seconds.

Korea Blockchain Association Vice Chairman Moon Young-bae praised the technical prowess of the development.

"Locus Chain is still under development to become a complete version. But I believe that the technology is already commercially viable," Moon said. "I think it is a real deal."

Bloom Technology, based in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, is seeking a patent for its ledger structure and verification know-how.