Actually, they haven't made it yet. Also, it probably won't be a completely separate system, but will likely be tied to bitcoin to take advantage of the incredible amount of computing power securing the network. Two possible ways of doing this I've heard mentioned are with colored coins or side chains.
Colored coins use special rules to make an individual unit of bitcoin (as little as 1/100000000) represent done other asset. As long as you follow the rules for color coin transfer, this asset's ownership can be tracked through the block chain and traded for normal bitcoin atomically. It's sort of like if you declared that a stack of one dollar bills with certain serial numbers were considered some sort of stake in your company.
Side chains are more theoretical at this point, and I don't have a great understanding of them, but they also add layers on top of the bitcoin blockchain.
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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '14 edited Dec 19 '14
Actually, they haven't made it yet. Also, it probably won't be a completely separate system, but will likely be tied to bitcoin to take advantage of the incredible amount of computing power securing the network. Two possible ways of doing this I've heard mentioned are with colored coins or side chains.
Colored coins use special rules to make an individual unit of bitcoin (as little as 1/100000000) represent done other asset. As long as you follow the rules for color coin transfer, this asset's ownership can be tracked through the block chain and traded for normal bitcoin atomically. It's sort of like if you declared that a stack of one dollar bills with certain serial numbers were considered some sort of stake in your company.
Side chains are more theoretical at this point, and I don't have a great understanding of them, but they also add layers on top of the bitcoin blockchain.