General Explanation and Illustration of Tectum Softnote

Tectum Softnote is a layer 2 scaling solution on the Tectum Blockchain. I understand Tectum Softnote after reading their website in detail, carefully, and slowly. Before when I skimmed through their website quickly, I could not understand. Maybe this is the same for you as well. Therefore, I wrote this article for the general public to describe of what Tectum Softnote is.

Between Countries' Banknote and Tectum Softnote

The United States have the US Dollar, Russia have Ruble, Tionkok / China have Yuan, Japan have Yen, The United Kingdom have Pound Sterling, European Union have Euro, Indonesia have Rupiah, and etc. While the central banks, government, or authorities have banknotes, cash, bills, currencies, or whatever you call it, Tectum have Softnotes which is equivalent to those banknotes. The most notable difference is that only central banks or their equivalents can print bank notes while anyone can mint Tectum Softnotes.

Minting Banknotes vs Cryptocurrency

The most noteable difference between minting banknotes and cryptocurrencies is in their transparency. The central banks are like the god of money where they can print currencies as they like. They are absolutely independent without the obligation to listen to authorities, government, and especially us ordinary people. Not only that, they do not even have the obligation to give us information. They print currencies, we just accept, and our voice asking to them for clarity falls to deaf ears. However, since they are centrally all powerful, we regular citizens still have no choice but to use them. On the other hand, almost all cryptocurrencies are transparent at very least their total supplies. Many others are provide more transparencies and the most transparency that they can offer is the deployed source code. In the source code, not only we can see their total supply, but whether there are other functions such as whether there is a function that is able to mint / generate more supply and whether there is a function to freeze the cryptocurrency, and many other functions. If too much disadvantage is found within a cryptocurrency or they refuse transparency then the citizens can choose to ignore this cryptocurrencies since there are other competitors or they can simply create their own.

Minting Original Dollar vs Softnotes

All currencies printed by the central banks today are either not backed by anything or backed by something unknown and highly dynamic such a countrie's military strength and economy. However, the original dollar was not like that. The original dollar is backed by gold which means that the dollar can be exchanged to a fixed amount of gold. In other words, to mint the original dollar, a fixed amount of gold must be stored to the federal reserve. That minted dollar is the same as a certificate of gold ownership. On the other hand, for Tectum Softnotes can be minted by depositing a fixed amount of cryptocurrencies currently and can be anything else in the future. Therefore the minted Tectum Softnote is the same as a certificate of cryptocurrency or other asset ownership.

Minting Function in Current Tectum Softnote Wallet

Currently the minting function is available in Tectum Softnote Web Wallet. Currently, find the mint menu section and choose the softnote to mint. Before minting, we must deposit enough amount of assets into the web wallet also its native blockchain asset TET (Tectum) because it costs some TET to mint. Then we can deposit the asset into the mint menu and mint the Softnote certifying the ownership to the asset. Currently, the smallest amount of softnote is 0.01 Bitcoin (BTC) values at $400 which is absurd to be used for daily lives transactions or maybe the smaller amounts have all already been minted.

Portability Issue of Physical Objects vs Some Cryptocurrencies

One of the main reason of why banknotes are created is because of the portability issue. For massive transactions, gold is too big and too heavy while paper is small and light. As for some cryptocurrencies today, they cost too much gas fee to transfer. Softnote is like the paper cash which cost very little to transfer.

Cash Payment vs Softnote Payment

Cash payment is straight forward handing over the banknotes. The citizens are educated to distinguish counterfeits. There are also some scanning tools that can assist the checking process. For the current softnote payment that I read from the whitepaper is scanning the Quick Response (QR) code which I think links to the function where the merchant request payment to the customer. The QR code I think does not change because the Softnote is identified by the serial number. When going into the serial number from the Tectum Softnote Wallet, only the current owner can transfer while others can only request for transfer.

Redeemability of Original Dollar vs Softnotes

The original dollar can be redeemed for a fixed amount of gold at the federal reserve while Tectum Softnotes can be redeemed for a fixed amount of asset. The country's spending is limited this way which is why the federal reserve lifts the convertibility between the dollar and gold. By lifting the convertibility, the government can spend freely and unlimited but most are not aware that that spending is at the cost of the dollars' holders.

Burning and Redeeming Function in Current Tectum Softnote Wallet

Tectum Softnote is fully redeemable. Currently, find the burn function in the web wallet. The softnote is burned from circulation releasing the locked assets to its burner.

Reminder About Current Banking Fractional Reserve Practice

Just to remind that the current banking system implements fractional reserve. This means that they do not have to hold your banknotes and use them anyway they like. If all the people try to withdraw at once may result in the backrupt of the banks unlike Tectum Softnote which implements full reserve where all the assets are 100% redeemable.