Conclusion

The Arcturus protocol was originally conceived as an upgraded version of a cryptocurrency, providing advanced features such as on-blockchain escrow, withdrawal limits, financial contracts, gambling markets, and the like via a highly generalized programming language. The Arcturus protocol would not "support" any of the applications directly, but the existence of a Turing-complete programming language means that arbitrary contracts can theoretically be created for any transaction type or application. What is more interesting about Arcturus, however, is that the Arcturus protocol moves far beyond just currency. Protocols around decentralized file storage, decentralized computation, and decentralized prediction markets, among dozens of other such concepts, have the potential to substantially increase the efficiency of the computational industry and provide a massive boost to other peer-to-peer protocols by adding for the first time an economic layer. Finally, there is also a substantial array of applications that have nothing to do with money at all.

The concept of an arbitrary state transition function as implemented by the Arcturus protocol provides for a platform with unique potential; rather than being a closed-ended, single-purpose protocol intended for a specific array of applications in data storage, gambling, or finance, Arcturus is open-ended by design, and we believe that it is extremely well-suited to serving as a foundational layer for a very large number of both financial and non-financial protocols in the years to come.