Promise: How a Startup Based on an Anonymous Paper Plans to Replace ACH

That Yoshiro's proposed protocol is called Promise seems like an incredible coincidence, since Lewis had told CoinDesk on August 6 - the day before the paper's listed publication date - that a startup he'd been building in stealth mode for months, Lyra Protocols, was now called Promise.

Still, Lewis, founder and CEO of Promise, contends he and his colleagues - Alan Szepieniec, a researcher at the Catholic University of Leuven and Promise's chief scientist and cryptographer, and Giuseppe Ateniese, a professor of cryptography at the Stevens Institute of Technology and an adviser to Promise - were not the ones that wrote the white paper.

In a follow-up paper published today, titled "Stronger Promises," the three authors expand on Yoshiro's proposal for a blockchain employing "Proxy re-signing." This cryptographic technique, first developed in the 1990s at AT&T Labs, is what the Promise team argues will bring the payment capabilities offered by ACH to the blockchain.

The Promise startup's white paper, on the other hand, uses techniques Lewis likens to a McLaren, a British luxury sports car.

According to Lewis, that means the Promise block size will be perhaps 50 megabytes - and that's "Just to get started on testnet."

The rationale for Promise creating a public blockchain, Lewis said, is to allow users to build an online credit reputation and control access to their payment history.

As for mining, Lewis acknowledged the environmental effects and said Promise would encourage "Green mining." But he called proof of work "a critical and important aspect to blockchain technology," since it provides "Economic incentives to those with electricity to secure the network."

Case in point, prior to emerging from stealth as Promise, the startup - then called Lyra Protocols - partnered with Obelisk, a manufacturer of specialized mining hardware, to develop mining equipment specifically for its blockchain.

Still, Lewis said Promise continues to work with Obelisk.

In a final contrast to other recent blockchain projects, the Promise blockchain will launch with zero promise tokens in existence.