Since Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin, the world of cryptocurrency has experienced rapid development. Its decentralized and trustless nature has disrupted traditional financial models and spawned countless innovative applications. However, with the popularization of blockchain technology and the expansion of its application scenarios, its inherent limitations have gradually emerged, especially in how to strike an ideal balance among security, real-world application, efficiency and energy consumption, and functional completeness. This article re-examines the core elements of cryptocurrency, delves into the bottlenecks of existing mainstream consensus mechanisms, and focuses on exploring an innovative expansion idea based on Bitcoin’s UTXO model and parallel asymmetric verification, in hopes of providing a new perspective for the development of next-generation cryptocurrencies. In particular, for blockchains adopting centralized account systems, their security is not entirely under the control of users’ private keys but is constrained by on-chain code logic, which introduces potential risks.

Core Elements of Cryptocurrency: The Cornerstones of Rebuilding Trust

A robust cryptocurrency system with broad application prospects must achieve a harmonious unification of the following four core elements:

1. Security: User Sovereignty and the Solid Defense of UTXO

Security is the lifeline of cryptocurrency. Its core lies in the user’s absolute control over their accounts and assets, which stems from exclusive ownership of private keys. Bitcoin’s pioneering UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) model is the epitome of this security, where users’ assets are entirely controlled by their private keys.

In contrast, blockchains using centralized account systems have users’ account states recorded on-chain and controlled by on-chain code logic. This means users’ assets are not fully controlled by their private keys. Once smart contracts or the underlying code have vulnerabilities, users’ assets face risks and lack the security of full control that the UTXO model provides.

2. Real-world Grounding: Bridging Consensus Mechanisms and the External World

The value of cryptocurrency ultimately comes from its applications in the real world. To achieve broad adoption, consensus mechanisms must anchor to real-world resources or trust in some way. Future cryptocurrencies need to explore more efficient and eco-friendly ways to connect with the real world, such as through oracle technologies extended from their own consensus mechanisms, to securely and reliably introduce external data.

3. Convenience/Minimum Energy Consumption: Efficiency and the Account System

As the volume of cryptocurrency transactions increases, the network’s processing capacity and energy consumption become key constraints to further development. Cryptocurrencies using centralized account systems require all transactions to undergo centralized computation and replication across arbitrary on-chain verification nodes, resulting in high energy consumption and efficiency bottlenecks.

In contrast, distributed account systems (such as UTXO) do not require every verification node to repeatedly replicate and compute each transaction. On-chain arbitrary verification nodes only need to perform simple verification operations, theoretically achieving lower energy consumption and higher efficiency. Distributed asymmetric interactive proofs based on the P/NP problem are designed to leverage the advantages of such distributed account systems, decentralize complex computation, and further reduce energy consumption and improve performance through efficient verification mechanisms.

4. Functional Completeness: Smart Contracts and a Rich Application Ecosystem

The introduction of smart contracts has greatly expanded the application boundaries of blockchain, enabling the construction of complex applications on decentralized networks. A functionally complete smart contract platform can support various innovative applications, such as decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), etc.

However, the richness of functionality should not come at the cost of security and efficiency. An ideal cryptocurrency system should gradually enhance its functionality while ensuring underlying security and high-performance operation.

Bottlenecks of Existing Consensus Mechanisms: Centralized Computation Replication and Account System Constraints

Current mainstream consensus mechanisms, especially cryptocurrencies using centralized account systems, are constrained to varying degrees by the unified control of accounts via on-chain code and the requirement for transactions to undergo centralized computation and replication among arbitrary on-chain verification nodes. This severely limits blockchain’s scalability and efficiency and brings security risks. Verifiers must repeatedly execute and validate every transaction to ensure network state consistency. In high-concurrency scenarios, this centralized computation replication becomes a bottleneck that limits throughput and efficiency. More importantly, the centralized account system places users’ asset security on the security of on-chain code. Once vulnerabilities appear, the consequences are unimaginable—far less secure than the UTXO model where security is entirely in the hands of users.

A New Paradigm Based on UTXO and Parallel Asymmetric Verification: Breaking the Barrier of Redundant Computation

To overcome the limitations of existing technologies, a brand-new paradigm is emerging—combining the security advantages of Bitcoin’s UTXO model with a parallel, P/NP-based asymmetric verification mechanism. This approach aims to fundamentally resolve the efficiency and scalability issues caused by centralized computation replication, while maintaining a high level of security.

The core ideas of this paradigm include:

1. Rock-solid UTXO Account System: Inheriting the security advantages of Bitcoin’s UTXO model ensures users’ absolute control over their assets and lays the foundation for more efficient verification.
2. Parallel Processing and Infinite Scalability: Abandoning the single, serial blockchain structure in favor of multiple parallel verification modules, each capable of independently processing specific functions or transaction types, to achieve high parallelism and theoretically infinite scalability.‍
3. P/NP Asymmetric Verification: A Revolution in Efficiency
   

• ‍Outsourced Computation: Complex computational tasks are distributed to specific participants or computing nodes in the network.‍
• Succinct Proofs: After computation, a succinct proof is generated that can be quickly verified via asymmetric encryption to prove the correctness of the result.‍
• Efficient Verification: Verifiers only need to verify these proofs without re-executing the entire computation process, significantly reducing verification cost and time.

Application Prospects in Large-scale Games: Unlocking Blockchain’s Interactive Potential

Building large-scale games on blockchain highlights the potential of this new paradigm. Traditional blockchain’s centralized computation replication model makes it extremely difficult to handle the massive concurrent operations in games. In contrast, a UTXO and parallel asymmetric verification-based architecture may pave the way for building high-performance, highly interactive blockchain games:

• Asset Security: In-game virtual assets can exist in UTXO form, ensuring true ownership by players.
• Parallel Computation: Different aspects of the game (e.g., different game worlds, player interactions) can be handled in different parallel verification modules.
• Efficient Verification: Player actions are computed locally and generate proofs. Verifiers only need to check these proofs, supporting a high-concurrency gaming experience.

Conclusion and Outlook: Toward a More Efficient and Secure Crypto Future

Existing cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies often face severe challenges in security and efficiency while pursuing functionality. The inherent flaws in the centralized account system and the resulting centralized computation replication are key bottlenecks restricting their development. A new paradigm that combines the security of Bitcoin’s UTXO model with the efficiency of parallel asymmetric verification offers a potential path to break through these limitations.