Tangle vs. Blockchain: What’s the Difference?

In the world of blockchains, one of the most common types of questions that people ask is What’s the difference between Blockchain and Tangle? Since both types of ledgers have become extremely popular lately, it’s no surprise that this question has gained widespread popularity in crypto. 

The significant differences are centralization and validation. The following Table offers insights into Tangle vs. Blockchain.

That was a concise idea of Tangle vs. Blockchain. However, understanding the comparison of Tangle vs. Blockchain requires an in-depth inspection of the two technologies. This article will introduce those concepts and their relation to blockchains and tangles in particular. 

So, What is Blockchain?

A blockchain is typically a digital ledger of all cryptocurrency transactions. Each block contains a cryptographic hash/information of the previous block. It also contains timestamp and transaction data. Bitcoin nodes use the Blockchain to differentiate legitimate Bitcoin transactions from attempts to re-spend coins that have already been spent elsewhere.

Blockchain technology works on a decentralized peer-to-peer network, meaning there’s no central authority that controls the currency or its development. Every participant in this network can access all information about what’s happening in real-time, but they can’t make any changes without agreeing with every other network member.

In this way, no one has more power than anyone else in the system, and nobody can stop or interrupt the flow of information or service availability. One advantage of using a blockchain for cryptocurrency transactions is that because it’s open source and public (meaning anyone can see it), everyone knows who owns what at any given time.

Thus when security is highly important for the project, you shall hire blockchain developers in India over Tangle developers. 

Advantages of Blockchain

A blockchain is a distributed database that allows for secure, transparent, and tamper-proof record-keeping. All participants in the network can view the entire Blockchain, meaning no single entity can control or manipulate the data. The decentralized nature of Blockchain makes it resistant to fraud and hacking. Transactions on a blockchain are verified by consensus, which makes them incredibly secure.

Overall, it offers the following benefits to the users:

• Distributed Storage:  Blockchain can store records in a more efficient way than traditional databases. It does this by storing blocks linearly and linking them together through cryptography. The distributed storage ensures that if one node goes down, there will be multiple copies of the information available. Additionally, because many copies of the data are stored across different nodes, all changes must be approved by a majority before they can be made permanent. Blockchain technology has intrinsic security features, including transparency, immutability, and robustness.
• High Security: Once data entered into the Blockchain is finalized, it cannot be changed. Two ways a transaction could happen on a blockchain are permissionless (public) or permissioned (private). Public blockchains allow anyone with an internet connection to download and see the ledger without requiring identification; private blockchains restrict access to those who have been granted permission from the administrators.
• Lightning Speed Processing:  Blockchains typically use mining algorithms that require the user to perform millions of calculations per second, giving lightning-fast processing time. 

Blockchain Disadvantages

• Zero Scope for Data Modification: Blockchain is a linear data structure. If a node wants to modify an old transaction, it has to create a whole new branch, and the process will be lengthy because it needs approval from the entire network. It makes Blockchain unsuitable for projects involving real-time transactions like exchanges of goods or services that require updates in a matter of seconds.
• High Transaction Fees: Transaction fees are high as miners need to verify each block of transactions, which can become expensive when the number of transactions increases or when one person pays more than 1% of all other users’ transactions.
• Scalability Issues: Blockchain’s scalability problem arises because Bitcoin’s block size limit was not designed to support global transaction volume. With only one megabyte per block, Bitcoin’s throughput capacity is limited to about three transactions per second (TPS). As international adoption continues growing and many people transact at once on the network, this limit leads to congestion. Users suffer from long wait times for their transactions to go through or higher costs due to increased competition for getting into a block.

Blockchain Applications

When it comes to Blockchain, people often think of Bitcoin. However, blockchain technology has a much more comprehensive range of potential applications than cryptocurrency. 

Here are some renowned examples of projects that would be well-suited for blockchain technology: 

• Decentralized apps (dapps) 
• Identity management and authentication 
• Supply chain management 
• Voting systems 
• Data management 
• Asset management

What is Tangle?

Tangle is a new kind of distributed ledger technology developed by the IOTA Foundation. Unlike Blockchain, Tangle doesn’t use blocks or chains. Instead, it uses a directed acyclic graph (DAG) structure. It allows Tangle to be scalable and feeless.

You can understand Tangle by imagining it as a swift database where data flows from one transaction to another. Each transaction confirms two previous transactions while recording the details on the latest one in what’s called a blockless chain. 

With Tangle, there are no fees for validation because each node in the network has its computational power and needs resources to complete transactions. And since every transaction requires verification from another node before approval, it’s almost impossible for any malicious actor to compromise your device by attacking just one point on that network.

Benefits of Tangle

Tangle is a newer technology that has the potential to offer some significant benefits over Blockchain. For one, it’s scalable and can be used by more people without slowing down. Additionally, it’s more secure and efficient, and transactions on the Tangle are free.

Following are some of the significant benefits of Tangle:

• Free of Miners:  Unlike Bitcoin, which relies on miners to process transactions for a fee, IOTA does not require any miners. Transactions happen automatically as soon as they are made because the IOTA network is entirely decentralized. Eliminating miners from the equation means there will never be transaction fees or limits imposed in IOTA!
• No Proof-of-Work: Unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum, which use proof-of-work (POW) algorithms that have led to an arms race among mining companies for ever more powerful hardware (and, as a result, more electricity consumption), IOTA doesn’t rely on POW at all because it uses Directed Acyclic Graphs instead of blockchains.
• High Scalability:  As noted above, scalability is a problem with many other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. With Tangle’s linear scaling of validation parallelism, this problem disappears. As long as you have enough neighbors (peers on the network) to connect with, your capacity grows with your number of neighbors without worrying about how large the entire network becomes.
• Energy Efficiency: Compared to other crypto networks like Bitcoin, IOTA uses far less energy due to its non-blockchain design called Tangle. Due to this design, only two steps are needed for verification in each transaction; hashing and signature verification, where these two processes would typically take place for every transaction under traditional blockchain rules.

Drawbacks of Tangle

• Tangle is not as decentralized as Blockchain, which could pose a problem.
• It is not as well-known as Blockchain, so finding talent familiar with the technology may be harder.
• It is not as well-tested as Blockchain, which means unforeseen issues could arise.

Tangle Applications

Tangle is an excellent choice for projects that require high scalability, feeless transactions, or those that need to be extra secure. However, Tangle does have some drawbacks. For example, it can be slower than other options and may not be the best choice for smaller projects.

Some of the best use cases of Tangle are:

• IoT devices could benefit from having their independent transaction network. 
• Decentralized sharing economies like car-sharing services and electric bike-sharing programs need faster speeds to handle large numbers of simultaneous users. 
• For small amounts of micropayments that add up over time 

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Final Takeaways

If your project requires high scalability and faster payments, then Tangle is the technology to go for. It has benefits like higher scalability than Blockchain, improved latency, and more. 

On the other hand, when you want a safer network that makes it difficult for fraudsters to attack or tamper with the data, then a Custom Blockchain development company in India is your best bet.