site/_src/features.html

---
layout: page

title: How It Works
description: 'Rather than trying to scale up blockchain technology, BigchainDB starts with a big data distributed database and then adds blockchain characteristics - decentralized control, immutability and the transfer of digital assets.'
---

<section class="section section-features">
    <div class="row">
        <header class="section-header">
            <h1 class="section-title">Features</h1>
            <p class="section-description">Rather than trying to scale up blockchain technology, BigchainDB starts with a big data distributed database and then adds blockchain characteristics - decentralized control, immutability and the transfer of digital assets.</p>
        </header>
    </div>

    <div class="row row--wide">
        <div class="grid grid--full grid-small--half grid--gutters grid--top">
            <div class="grid__col">
                <div class="feature">
                    <svg class="feature__icon icon">
                        <use xlink:href="/assets/img/sprite.svg#icon-graph"></use>
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                    <div class="feature__detail">
                        <h1 class="feature__title">One Million Writes per Second</h1>
                        <p class="feature__text">Each write is recorded on the blockchain without the need for Merkle Trees or sidechains.</p>
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                <div class="feature">
                    <svg class="feature__icon icon">
                        <use xlink:href="/assets/img/sprite.svg#icon-servers"></use>
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                        <h1 class="feature__title">Petabytes Capacity</h1>
                        <p class="feature__text">Load up hashes, metadata and files onto the BigchainDB so every asset can reside on the blockchain.</p>
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            <div class="grid__col">
                <div class="feature">
                    <svg class="feature__icon icon">
                        <use xlink:href="/assets/img/sprite.svg#icon-scaling"></use>
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                        <h1 class="feature__title">Linear Scaling</h1>
                        <p class="feature__text">The more nodes added, the faster BigchainDB works and the more storage capacity is made available.</p>
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            <div class="grid__col">
                <div class="feature">
                    <svg class="feature__icon icon">
                        <use xlink:href="/assets/img/sprite.svg#icon-diamond"></use>
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                    <div class="feature__detail">
                        <h1 class="feature__title">Native Support of Multiassets</h1>
                        <p class="feature__text">With no native currency on BigchainDB, any asset, token or currency can be issued.</p>
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                        <use xlink:href="/assets/img/sprite.svg#icon-search"></use>
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                        <h1 class="feature__title">Query</h1>
                        <p class="feature__text">Leverage efficient big data query capabilities out of the box.</p>
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                    <svg class="feature__icon icon">
                        <use xlink:href="/assets/img/sprite.svg#icon-settings"></use>
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                        <h1 class="feature__title">Customizable</h1>
                        <p class="feature__text">Design your own private network with custom assets, transactions, permissions and transparency.</p>
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                <div class="feature">
                    <svg class="feature__icon icon">
                        <use xlink:href="/assets/img/sprite.svg#icon-group"></use>
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                    <div class="feature__detail">
                        <h1 class="feature__title">Rich Permissioning</h1>
                        <p class="feature__text">Set permissions to ensure a clear separation of duties and enforce Chinese walls.</p>
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            <div class="grid__col">
                <div class="feature">
                    <svg class="feature__icon icon">
                        <use xlink:href="/assets/img/sprite.svg#icon-nodes"></use>
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                    <div class="feature__detail">
                        <h1 class="feature__title">Federation Consensus Model</h1>
                        <p class="feature__text">Decentralized control via a federation of voting nodes makes for a super-peer P2P network.</p>
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                    <svg class="feature__icon icon">
                        <use xlink:href="/assets/img/sprite.svg#icon-tree"></use>
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                        <h1 class="feature__title">Open Source</h1>
                        <p class="feature__text">Open sourced to the community so that everyone can use it and build their own applications on top of it.</p>
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            <div class="grid__col">
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                    <svg class="feature__icon icon">
                        <use xlink:href="/assets/img/sprite.svg#icon-lock"></use>
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                        <h1 class="feature__title">Public or Private</h1>
                        <p class="feature__text">A public version for the world and a private one for specific industry use cases.</p>
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                </div>
            </div>

        </div>

        <p class="text-center">
            For more insight, read our <a href="/whitepaper/">whitepaper</a>.
        </p>
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</section>

<section class="section section-stacks background--darker">
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        <header class="section-header">
            <h1 class="section-title">Made for the Decentralization Ecosystem</h1>
            <p class="section-description">BigchainDB is complementary to decentralized storage, processing and communication building blocks. It can be used side by side with higher-level decentralized computing platforms and applications, and protocols for identity, financial assets, intellectual property and sidechains. BigchainDB fills a gap in the decentralized stack.</p>
        </header>
    </div>
    <div class="row row--wide stacks">
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                <h2 class="stacks__title">Blockchain Stack</h2>
                <figure class="stacks__image">
                    <figcaption>BigchainDB fills a missing gap in the emerging decentralized stack as a blockchain database that complements existing platforms, processing and file systems.</figcaption>
                    <img class="img--responsive" src="/assets/img/stack1.svg" />
                </figure>
            </div>
            <div class="grid__col">
                <h2 class="stacks__title">Traditional Stack</h2>
                <figure class="stacks__image">
                    <figcaption>BigchainDB can be seamlessly integrated into the traditional stack as a blockchain database for decentralized timestamping, certificates, smart contracts and transactions.</figcaption>
                    <img class="img--responsive" src="/assets/img/stack2.svg" />
                </figure>
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        </div>
    </div>
</section>

<section class="section section-comparison">
    <div class="row">
        <header class="section-header">
            <h1 class="section-title">Blockchains Meet Big Data</h1>
            <p class="section-description">BigchainDB combines the key benefits of distributed DBs and traditional blockchains, with an emphasis on scale.</p>
        </header>

        <p class="lead">We built BigchainDB on top of an enterprise-grade distributed DB, from which BigchainDB inherits high throughput, high capacity, a full-featured NoSQL query language, efficient querying, and permissioning.</p>

        <figure>
            {% include table-comparison.html %}
        </figure>
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</section>

<section class="section section-usecases background--darker">
    <div class="row">
        <header class="section-header">
            <h1 class="section-title">Use Cases</h1>
            <p class="section-description">Many BigchainDB use cases are like traditional blockchain use cases, except focused on situations where higher throughput, more capacity, lower latency, better querying, or richer permissioning is necessary.</p>
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                <strong>Store contracts and transactions</strong> side-by-side on BigchainDB in a format that is readable by humans and computers.
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            <div class="grid__col">
                <strong>Create and move assets</strong> in real-time. The owner fully controls their asset and transfers, unlike traditional systems.
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            <div class="grid__col">
                <strong>Track supply chains</strong> to detect and prevent fraud. Every RFID tag in existence could be entered on a BigchainDB.
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            <div class="grid__col">
                <strong>Track intellectual property</strong> from the registration claim, to licensing and seeing how it's used. BigchainDB gives perfect provenance to digital artifacts.
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            <div class="grid__col">
                <strong>Timestamp transactions</strong> to provide receipts and records to facilitate proof-of-purchase, warranty and insurance claims.
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            <div class="grid__col">
                <strong>Generate certificates of authenticity (COAs)</strong> for any asset to maintain and raise its value.
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            <div class="grid__col">
                <strong>Radically improve database reliability</strong> by leveraging the inherent consensus algorithm to mitigate single points of failure, making it harder for hackers to get in.
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>

</section>

<section class="section section-contribute background--photo">
    <div class="row">
        <header class="section-header">
            <h1 class="section-title">Contribute</h1>
            <p class="section-description">There are many ways you can contribute to the BigchainDB project.</p>
        </header>

        <p class="text-center">
            <a href="/community/" class="btn btn-primary btn-sm">Learn More</a>
        </p>
    </div>
</section>