CommPRO.biz Editorial StaffWith five second blocks, Stealth Quantum Proof-of-Stake (qPoS) is one of only a handful of blockchains that offer nearly instant transaction confirmations.On top of this speed, Stealth qPoS supports cryptographically anonymous transactions, making it a unique solution to private transactions. To offer this combination of speed and anonymity, qPoS utilizes block scheduling, requiring that block validators qualify with the network.Block scheduling is used by other blockchains to achieve high speeds. Unlike Stealth, all the other blockchains use a political system called delegated proof-of-stake, whereby block signers are selected according to their popularity. The biggest concern is that political popularity may or may not reflect their performance as validators. If an individual can make friends with the founders of these blockchains, that person has a real opportunity to earn an income as a block signer. The resulting nepotism means that validators in delegated proof-of-stake systems lose their autonomy, reward systems can be exploited, and blockchain performance can suffer.Recognizing these problems with politics, the Stealth lead developer, Dr. James Stroud, has devised a purely economic mechanism for selecting validators; they simply buy their block validation rights directly from the block chain. In other words, Stealth validators don’t need to seek the approval or favor of insiders and founders.“In Stealth qPoS, block validators only need to acquire enough XST to buy rights to validate blocks on the Stealth blockchain. By exercising these rights and signing blocks, Stealth qPoS validators may collect rewards, " said Dr. Stroud.Importantly, the good performance of qPoS block validators is rewarded by earnings that increase as validators sign more and more blocks. This highly incentivized system means that the legitimacy of block validation cannot be undermined by political considerations. The result is that Stealth qPoS block rewards are distributed fairly while the reward system exclusively incentivizes optimal performance of the blockchain.Stealth qPoS is an economic-driven consensus mechanism that provides privacy using cryptography in combination with streamlined blockchain execution. The Stealth blockchain was launched in 2014.Source: Blockchain Wire