Dragonchain Public Proposal TL;DR:

Dragonchain has demonstrated twice Reddit’s entire total daily volume (votes, comments, and posts per Reddit 2019 Year in Review) in a 24-hour demo on an operational network. Every single transaction on Dragonchain is decentralized immediately through 5 levels of Dragon Net, and then secured with combined proof on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, and Binance Chain, via Interchain. At the time, in January 2020, the entire cost of the demo was approximately $25K on a single system (transaction fees locked at $0.0001/txn). With current fees (lowest fee $0.0000025/txn), this would cost as little as $625.
Watch Joe walk through the entire proposal and answer questions on YouTube.
This proposal is also available on the Dragonchain blog.

Hello Reddit and Ethereum community!

I’m Joe Roets, Founder & CEO of Dragonchain. When the team and I first heard about The Great Reddit Scaling Bake-Off we were intrigued. We believe we have the solutions Reddit seeks for its community points system and we have them at scale.
For your consideration, we have submitted our proposal below. The team at Dragonchain and I welcome and look forward to your technical questions, philosophical feedback, and fair criticism, to build a scaling solution for Reddit that will empower its users. Because our architecture is unlike other blockchain platforms out there today, we expect to receive many questions while people try to grasp our project. I will answer all questions here in this thread on Reddit, and I've answered some questions in the stream on YouTube.
We have seen good discussions so far in the competition. We hope that Reddit’s scaling solution will emerge from The Great Reddit Scaling Bake-Off and that Reddit will have great success with the implementation.

Executive summary

Dragonchain is a robust open source hybrid blockchain platform that has proven to withstand the passing of time since our inception in 2014. We have continued to evolve to harness the scalability of private nodes, yet take full advantage of the security of public decentralized networks, like Ethereum. We have a live, operational, and fully functional Interchain network integrating Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, and ~700 independent Dragonchain nodes. Every transaction is secured to Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Ethereum Classic. Transactions are immediately usable on chain, and the first decentralization is seen within 20 seconds on Dragon Net. Security increases further to public networks ETH, BTC, and ETC within 10 minutes to 2 hours. Smart contracts can be written in any executable language, offering full freedom to existing developers. We invite any developer to watch the demo, play with our SDK’s, review open source code, and to help us move forward. Dragonchain specializes in scalable loyalty & rewards solutions and has built a decentralized social network on chain, with very affordable transaction costs. This experience can be combined with the insights Reddit and the Ethereum community have gained in the past couple of months to roll out the solution at a rapid pace.

Response and PoC

In The Great Reddit Scaling Bake-Off post, Reddit has asked for a series of demonstrations, requirements, and other considerations. In this section, we will attempt to answer all of these requests.

Live Demo

A live proof of concept showing hundreds of thousands of transactions

On Jan 7, 2020, Dragonchain hosted a 24-hour live demonstration during which a quarter of a billion (250 million+) transactions executed fully on an operational network. Every single transaction on Dragonchain is decentralized immediately through 5 levels of Dragon Net, and then secured with combined proof on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, and Binance Chain, via Interchain. This means that every single transaction is secured by, and traceable to these networks. An attack on this system would require a simultaneous attack on all of the Interchained networks.
24 hours in 4 minutes (YouTube):
24 hours in 4 minutes
The demonstration was of a single business system, and any user is able to scale this further, by running multiple systems simultaneously. Our goals for the event were to demonstrate a consistent capacity greater than that of Visa over an extended time period.
Tooling to reproduce our demo is available here:
https://github.com/dragonchain/spirit-bomb

Source Code

Source code (for on & off-chain components as well tooling used for the PoC). The source code does not have to be shared publicly, but if Reddit decides to use a particular solution it will need to be shared with Reddit at some point.

• Dragonchain Core
• Tooling for demonstration
• Dragonchain Github

Scaling

How it works & scales

Architectural Scaling

Dragonchain’s architecture attacks the scalability issue from multiple angles. Dragonchain is a hybrid blockchain platform, wherein every transaction is protected on a business node to the requirements of that business or purpose. A business node may be held completely private or may be exposed or replicated to any level of exposure desired.
Every node has its own blockchain and is independently scalable. Dragonchain established Context Based Verification as its consensus model. Every transaction is immediately usable on a trust basis, and in time is provable to an increasing level of decentralized consensus. A transaction will have a level of decentralization to independently owned and deployed Dragonchain nodes (~700 nodes) within seconds, and full decentralization to BTC and ETH within minutes or hours. Level 5 nodes (Interchain nodes) function to secure all transactions to public or otherwise external chains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. These nodes scale the system by aggregating multiple blocks into a single Interchain transaction on a cadence. This timing is configurable based upon average fees for each respective chain. For detailed information about Dragonchain’s architecture, and Context Based Verification, please refer to the Dragonchain Architecture Document.

Economic Scaling

An interesting feature of Dragonchain’s network consensus is its economics and scarcity model. Since Dragon Net nodes (L2-L4) are independent staking nodes, deployment to cloud platforms would allow any of these nodes to scale to take on a large percentage of the verification work. This is great for scalability, but not good for the economy, because there is no scarcity, and pricing would develop a downward spiral and result in fewer verification nodes. For this reason, Dragonchain uses TIME as scarcity.
TIME is calculated as the number of Dragons held, multiplied by the number of days held. TIME influences the user’s access to features within the Dragonchain ecosystem. It takes into account both the Dragon balance and length of time each Dragon is held. TIME is staked by users against every verification node and dictates how much of the transaction fees are awarded to each participating node for every block.
TIME also dictates the transaction fee itself for the business node. TIME is staked against a business node to set a deterministic transaction fee level (see transaction fee table below in Cost section). This is very interesting in a discussion about scaling because it guarantees independence for business implementation. No matter how much traffic appears on the entire network, a business is guaranteed to not see an increased transaction fee rate.

Scaled Deployment

Dragonchain uses Docker and Kubernetes to allow the use of best practices traditional system scaling. Dragonchain offers managed nodes with an easy to use web based console interface. The user may also deploy a Dragonchain node within their own datacenter or favorite cloud platform. Users have deployed Dragonchain nodes on-prem on Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, MS Azure, and other hosting platforms around the world. Any executable code, anything you can write, can be written into a smart contract. This flexibility is what allows us to say that developers with no blockchain experience can use any code language to access the benefits of blockchain. Customers have used NodeJS, Python, Java, and even BASH shell script to write smart contracts on Dragonchain.
With Docker containers, we achieve better separation of concerns, faster deployment, higher reliability, and lower response times.
We chose Kubernetes for its self-healing features, ability to run multiple services on one server, and its large and thriving development community. It is resilient, scalable, and automated. OpenFaaS allows us to package smart contracts as Docker images for easy deployment.
Contract deployment time is now bounded only by the size of the Docker image being deployed but remains fast even for reasonably large images. We also take advantage of Docker’s flexibility and its ability to support any language that can run on x86 architecture. Any image, public or private, can be run as a smart contract using Dragonchain.

Flexibility in Scaling

Dragonchain’s architecture considers interoperability and integration as key features. From inception, we had a goal to increase adoption via integration with real business use cases and traditional systems.
We envision the ability for Reddit, in the future, to be able to integrate alternate content storage platforms or other financial services along with the token.

• LBRY - To allow users to deploy content natively to LBRY
• MakerDAO to allow users to lend small amounts backed by their Reddit community points.
• STORJ/SIA to allow decentralized on chain storage of portions of content. These integrations or any other are relatively easy to integrate on Dragonchain with an Interchain implementation.

Cost

Cost estimates (on-chain and off-chain) For the purpose of this proposal, we assume that all transactions are on chain (posts, replies, and votes).

On the Dragonchain network, transaction costs are deterministic/predictable. By staking TIME on the business node (as described above) Reddit can reduce transaction costs to as low as $0.0000025 per transaction.
Dragonchain Fees Table

Getting Started

How to run it

Building on Dragonchain is simple and requires no blockchain experience. Spin up a business node (L1) in our managed environment (AWS), run it in your own cloud environment, or on-prem in your own datacenter. Clear documentation will walk you through the steps of spinning up your first Dragonchain Level 1 Business node.
Getting started is easy...

1. Download Dragonchain’s dctl
2. Input three commands into a terminal
3. Build an image
4. Run it

More information can be found in our Get started documents.

• Quickstart
• Full Documentation

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Architecture

Dragonchain is an open source hybrid platform. Through Dragon Net, each chain combines the power of a public blockchain (like Ethereum) with the privacy of a private blockchain.
Dragonchain organizes its network into five separate levels. A Level 1, or business node, is a totally private blockchain only accessible through the use of public/private keypairs. All business logic, including smart contracts, can be executed on this node directly and added to the chain.
After creating a block, the Level 1 business node broadcasts a version stripped of sensitive private data to Dragon Net. Three Level 2 Validating nodes validate the transaction based on guidelines determined from the business. A Level 3 Diversity node checks that the level 2 nodes are from a diverse array of locations. A Level 4 Notary node, hosted by a KYC partner, then signs the validation record received from the Level 3 node. The transaction hash is ledgered to the Level 5 public chain to take advantage of the hash power of massive public networks.
Dragon Net can be thought of as a “blockchain of blockchains”, where every level is a complete private blockchain. Because an L1 can send to multiple nodes on a single level, proof of existence is distributed among many places in the network. Eventually, proof of existence reaches level 5 and is published on a public network.

• Dragonchain architecture
• Dragon Net easy to consume 2018 Infographic

API Documentation

APIs (on chain & off)

• Python SDK
• NodeJS/Javascript SDK
• Go SDK
• DCTL Package
• API References
• RESTful API

SDK Source

• https://github.com/dragonchain/dragonchain-sdk-python
• https://github.com/dragonchain/dragonchain-sdk-javascript
• https://github.com/dragonchain/dragonchain-sdk-go
• https://github.com/dragonchain/dragonchain-sdk-dart

Nobody’s Perfect

Known issues or tradeoffs

• Dragonchain is open source and even though the platform is easy enough for developers to code in any language they are comfortable with, we do not have so large a developer community as Ethereum. We would like to see the Ethereum developer community (and any other communities) become familiar with our SDK’s, our solutions, and our platform, to unlock the full potential of our Ethereum Interchain. Long ago we decided to prioritize both Bitcoin and Ethereum Interchains. We envision an ecosystem that encompasses different projects to give developers the ability to take full advantage of all the opportunities blockchain offers to create decentralized solutions not only for Reddit but for all of our current platforms and systems. We believe that together we will take the adoption of blockchain further. We currently have additional Interchain with Ethereum Classic. We look forward to Interchain with other blockchains in the future. We invite all blockchains projects who believe in decentralization and security to Interchain with Dragonchain.
• While we only have 700 nodes compared to 8,000 Ethereum and 10,000 Bitcoin nodes. We harness those 18,000 nodes to scale to extremely high levels of security. See Dragonchain metrics.
• Some may consider the centralization of Dragonchain’s business nodes as an issue at first glance, however, the model is by design to protect business data. We do not consider this a drawback as these nodes can make any, none, or all data public. Depending upon the implementation, every subreddit could have control of its own business node, for potential business and enterprise offerings, bringing new alternative revenue streams to Reddit.

Costs and resources

Summary of cost & resource information for both on-chain & off-chain components used in the PoC, as well as cost & resource estimates for further scaling. If your PoC is not on mainnet, make note of any mainnet caveats (such as congestion issues).

Every transaction on the PoC system had a transaction fee of $0.0001 (one-hundredth of a cent USD). At 256MM transactions, the demo cost $25,600. With current operational fees, the same demonstration would cost $640 USD.
For the demonstration, to achieve throughput to mimic a worldwide payments network, we modeled several clients in AWS and 4-5 business nodes to handle the traffic. The business nodes were tuned to handle higher throughput by adjusting memory and machine footprint on AWS. This flexibility is valuable to implementing a system such as envisioned by Reddit. Given that Reddit’s daily traffic (posts, replies, and votes) is less than half that of our demo, we would expect that the entire Reddit system could be handled on 2-5 business nodes using right-sized containers on AWS or similar environments.
Verification was accomplished on the operational Dragon Net network with over 700 independently owned verification nodes running around the world at no cost to the business other than paid transaction fees.

Requirements

Scaling

This PoC should scale to the numbers below with minimal costs (both on & off-chain). There should also be a clear path to supporting hundreds of millions of users.
Over a 5 day period, your scaling PoC should be able to handle:
*100,000 point claims (minting & distributing points) *25,000 subscriptions *75,000 one-off points burning *100,000 transfers

During Dragonchain’s 24 hour demo, the above required numbers were reached within the first few minutes.
Reddit’s total activity is 9000% more than Ethereum’s total transaction level. Even if you do not include votes, it is still 700% more than Ethereum’s current volume. Dragonchain has demonstrated that it can handle 250 million transactions a day, and it’s architecture allows for multiple systems to work at that level simultaneously. In our PoC, we demonstrate double the full capacity of Reddit, and every transaction was proven all the way to Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Reddit Scaling on Ethereum

Decentralization

Solutions should not depend on any single third-party provider. We prefer solutions that do not depend on specific entities such as Reddit or another provider, and solutions with no single point of control or failure in off-chain components but recognize there are numerous trade-offs to consider

Dragonchain’s architecture calls for a hybrid approach. Private business nodes hold the sensitive data while the validation and verification of transactions for the business are decentralized within seconds and secured to public blockchains within 10 minutes to 2 hours. Nodes could potentially be controlled by owners of individual subreddits for more organic decentralization.

• Billing is currently centralized - there is a path to federation and decentralization of a scaled billing solution.
• Operational multi-cloud
• Operational on-premises capabilities
• Operational deployment to any datacenter
• Over 700 independent Community Verification Nodes with proof of ownership
• Operational Interchain (Interoperable to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ethereum Classic, open to more)

Usability Scaling solutions should have a simple end user experience.

Users shouldn't have to maintain any extra state/proofs, regularly monitor activity, keep track of extra keys, or sign anything other than their normal transactions

Dragonchain and its customers have demonstrated extraordinary usability as a feature in many applications, where users do not need to know that the system is backed by a live blockchain. Lyceum is one of these examples, where the progress of academy courses is being tracked, and successful completion of courses is rewarded with certificates on chain. Our @Save_The_Tweet bot is popular on Twitter. When used with one of the following hashtags - #please, #blockchain, #ThankYou, or #eternalize the tweet is saved through Eternal to multiple blockchains. A proof report is available for future reference. Other examples in use are DEN, our decentralized social media platform, and our console, where users can track their node rewards, view their TIME, and operate a business node.
Examples:

• Den social media
• Eternal & Save The Tweet bot
• Lyceum/Academy

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Transactions complete in a reasonable amount of time (seconds or minutes, not hours or days)

All transactions are immediately usable on chain by the system. A transaction begins the path to decentralization at the conclusion of a 5-second block when it gets distributed across 5 separate community run nodes. Full decentralization occurs within 10 minutes to 2 hours depending on which interchain (Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Ethereum Classic) the transaction hits first. Within approximately 2 hours, the combined hash power of all interchained blockchains secures the transaction.
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Free to use for end users (no gas fees, or fixed/minimal fees that Reddit can pay on their behalf)

With transaction pricing as low as $0.0000025 per transaction, it may be considered reasonable for Reddit to cover transaction fees for users.
All of Reddit's Transactions on Blockchain (month)
Community points can be earned by users and distributed directly to their Reddit account in batch (as per Reddit minting plan), and allow users to withdraw rewards to their Ethereum wallet whenever they wish. Withdrawal fees can be paid by either user or Reddit. This model has been operating inside the Dragonchain system since 2018, and many security and financial compliance features can be optionally added. We feel that this capability greatly enhances user experience because it is seamless to a regular user without cryptocurrency experience, yet flexible to a tech savvy user. With regard to currency or token transactions, these would occur on the Reddit network, verified to BTC and ETH. These transactions would incur the $0.0000025 transaction fee. To estimate this fee we use the monthly active Reddit users statista with a 60% adoption rate and an estimated 10 transactions per month average resulting in an approximate $720 cost across the system. Reddit could feasibly incur all associated internal network charges (mining/minting, transfer, burn) as these are very low and controllable fees.
Reddit Internal Token Transaction Fees
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Reddit Ethereum Token Transaction Fees
When we consider further the Ethereum fees that might be incurred, we have a few choices for a solution.

1. Offload all Ethereum transaction fees (user withdrawals) to interested users as they wish to withdraw tokens for external use or sale.
2. Cover Ethereum transaction fees by aggregating them on a timed schedule. Users would request withdrawal (from Reddit or individual subreddits), and they would be transacted on the Ethereum network every hour (or some other schedule).
3. In a combination of the above, customers could cover aggregated fees.
4. Integrate with alternate Ethereum roll up solutions or other proposals to aggregate minting and distribution transactions onto Ethereum.

Bonus Points

Users should be able to view their balances & transactions via a blockchain explorer-style interface

From interfaces for users who have no knowledge of blockchain technology to users who are well versed in blockchain terms such as those present in a typical block explorer, a system powered by Dragonchain has flexibility on how to provide balances and transaction data to users. Transactions can be made viewable in an Eternal Proof Report, which displays raw data along with TIME staking information and traceability all the way to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and every other Interchained network. The report shows fields such as transaction ID, timestamp, block ID, multiple verifications, and Interchain proof. See example here.
Node payouts within the Dragonchain console are listed in chronological order and can be further seen in either Dragons or USD. See example here.
In our social media platform, Dragon Den, users can see, in real-time, their NRG and MTR balances. See example here.
A new influencer app powered by Dragonchain, Raiinmaker, breaks down data into a user friendly interface that shows coin portfolio, redeemed rewards, and social scores per campaign. See example here.
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Exiting is fast & simple

Withdrawing funds on Dragonchain’s console requires three clicks, however, withdrawal scenarios with more enhanced security features per Reddit’s discretion are obtainable.
​

Interoperability Compatibility with third party apps (wallets/contracts/etc) is necessary.

Proven interoperability at scale that surpasses the required specifications. Our entire platform consists of interoperable blockchains connected to each other and traditional systems. APIs are well documented. Third party permissions are possible with a simple smart contract without the end user being aware. No need to learn any specialized proprietary language. Any code base (not subsets) is usable within a Docker container. Interoperable with any blockchain or traditional APIs. We’ve witnessed relatively complex systems built by engineers with no blockchain or cryptocurrency experience. We’ve also demonstrated the creation of smart contracts within minutes built with BASH shell and Node.js. Please see our source code and API documentation.
​

Scaling solutions should be extensible and allow third parties to build on top of it Open source and extensible
APIs should be well documented and stable

• Python SDK
• NodeJS/Javascript SDK
• Go SDK
• DCTL Package
• API References
• RESTful API

​

Documentation should be clear and complete

For full documentation, explore our docs, SDK’s, Github repo’s, architecture documents, original Disney documentation, and other links or resources provided in this proposal.

• Github
• Architecture
• Disney Use Cases
• Den social media
• Dragon Den Blue Paper
• Core documentation
• Javascript SDK
• Python SDK
• Go SDK
• Dart SDK
• User friendly console
• TIME
• Academy
• Dragonchain Wikipedia

​

Third-party permissionless integrations should be possible & straightforward Smart contracts are Docker based, can be written in any language, use full language (not subsets), and can therefore be integrated with any system including traditional system APIs. Simple is better. Learning an uncommon or proprietary language should not be necessary.

Advanced knowledge of mathematics, cryptography, or L2 scaling should not be required. Compatibility with common utilities & toolchains is expected.
Dragonchain business nodes and smart contracts leverage Docker to allow the use of literally any language or executable code. No proprietary language is necessary. We’ve witnessed relatively complex systems built by engineers with no blockchain or cryptocurrency experience. We’ve also demonstrated the creation of smart contracts within minutes built with BASH shell and Node.js.

Bonus

Bonus Points: Show us how it works. Do you have an idea for a cool new use case for Community Points? Build it!

TIME

Community points could be awarded to Reddit users based upon TIME too, whereas the longer someone is part of a subreddit, the more community points someone naturally gained, even if not actively commenting or sharing new posts. A daily login could be required for these community points to be credited. This grants awards to readers too and incentivizes readers to create an account on Reddit if they browse the website often. This concept could also be leveraged to provide some level of reputation based upon duration and consistency of contribution to a community subreddit.

• TIME
• Learn more about TIME and how to apply this to your nodes

Dragon Den

Dragonchain has already built a social media platform that harnesses community involvement. Dragon Den is a decentralized community built on the Dragonchain blockchain platform. Dragon Den is Dragonchain’s answer to fake news, trolling, and censorship. It incentivizes the creation and evaluation of quality content within communities. It could be described as being a shareholder of a subreddit or Reddit in its entirety. The more your subreddit is thriving, the more rewarding it will be. Den is currently in a public beta and in active development, though the real token economy is not live yet. There are different tokens for various purposes. Two tokens are Lair Ownership Rights (LOR) and Lair Ownership Tokens (LOT). LOT is a non-fungible token for ownership of a specific Lair. LOT will only be created and converted from LOR.
Energy (NRG) and Matter (MTR) work jointly. Your MTR determines how much NRG you receive in a 24-hour period. Providing quality content, or evaluating content will earn MTR.

• Dragon Den Blue Paper
• Den social media

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Security. Users have full ownership & control of their points.

All community points awarded based upon any type of activity or gift, are secured and provable to all Interchain networks (currently BTC, ETH, ETC). Users are free to spend and withdraw their points as they please, depending on the features Reddit wants to bring into production.
​

Balances and transactions cannot be forged, manipulated, or blocked by Reddit or anyone else

Users can withdraw their balance to their ERC20 wallet, directly through Reddit. Reddit can cover the fees on their behalf, or the user covers this with a portion of their balance.
​

Users should own their points and be able to get on-chain ERC20 tokens without permission from anyone else

Through our console users can withdraw their ERC20 rewards. This can be achieved on Reddit too. Here is a walkthrough of our console, though this does not show the quick withdrawal functionality, a user can withdraw at any time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNlTMxnfVHw
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Points should be recoverable to on-chain ERC20 tokens even if all third-parties involved go offline

If necessary, signed transactions from the Reddit system (e.g. Reddit + Subreddit) can be sent to the Ethereum smart contract for minting.
​

A public, third-party review attesting to the soundness of the design should be available

To our knowledge, at least two large corporations, including a top 3 accounting firm, have conducted positive reviews. These reviews have never been made public, as Dragonchain did not pay or contract for these studies to be released.
​

Bonus points
Public, third-party implementation review available or in progress

See above
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Compatibility with HSMs & hardware wallets

For the purpose of this proposal, all tokenization would be on the Ethereum network using standard token contracts and as such, would be able to leverage all hardware wallet and Ethereum ecosystem services.

Other Considerations

Minting/distributing tokens is not performed by Reddit directly

This operation can be automated by smart contract on Ethereum. Subreddits can if desired have a role to play.
​

One off point burning, as well as recurring, non-interactive point burning (for subreddit memberships) should be possible and scalable

This is possible and scalable with interaction between Dragonchain Reddit system and Ethereum token contract(s).
​

Fully open-source solutions are strongly preferred

Dragonchain is fully open source (see section on Disney release after conclusion).

Conclusion

Whether it is today, or in the future, we would like to work together to bring secure flexibility to the highest standards. It is our hope to be considered by Ethereum, Reddit, and other integrative solutions so we may further discuss the possibilities of implementation. In our public demonstration, 256 million transactions were handled in our operational network on chain in 24 hours, for the low cost of $25K, which if run today would cost $625. Dragonchain’s interoperable foundation provides the atmosphere necessary to implement a frictionless community points system. Thank you for your consideration of our proposal. We look forward to working with the community to make something great!

Disney Releases Blockchain Platform as Open Source

The team at Disney created the Disney Private Blockchain Platform. The system was a hybrid interoperable blockchain platform for ledgering and smart contract development geared toward solving problems with blockchain adoption and usability. All objective evaluation would consider the team’s output a success. We released a list of use cases that we explored in some capacity at Disney, and our input on blockchain standardization as part of our participation in the W3C Blockchain Community Group.
https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-blockchain/2016May/0052.html

Open Source

In 2016, Roets proposed to release the platform as open source to spread the technology outside of Disney, as others within the W3C group were interested in the solutions that had been created inside of Disney.
Following a long process, step by step, the team met requirements for release. Among the requirements, the team had to:

• Obtain VP support and approval for the release
• Verify ownership of the software to be released
• Verify that no proprietary content would be released
• Convince the organization that there was a value to the open source community
• Convince the organization that there was a value to Disney
• Offer the plan for ongoing maintenance of the project outside of Disney
• Itemize competing projects
• Verify no conflict of interest
• Preferred license
• Change the project name to not use the name Disney, any Disney character, or any other associated IP - proposed Dragonchain - approved
• Obtain legal approval
• Approval from corporate, parks, and other business units
• Approval from multiple Disney patent groups Copyright holder defined by Disney (Disney Connected and Advanced Technologies)
• Trademark searches conducted for the selected name Dragonchain
• Obtain IT security approval
• Manual review of OSS components conducted
• OWASP Dependency and Vulnerability Check Conducted
• Obtain technical (software) approval
• Offer management, process, and financial plans for the maintenance of the project.
• Meet list of items to be addressed before release
• Remove all Disney project references and scripts
• Create a public distribution list for email communications
• Remove Roets’ direct and internal contact information
• Create public Slack channel and move from Disney slack channels
• Create proper labels for issue tracking
• Rename internal private Github repository
• Add informative description to Github page
• Expand README.md with more specific information
• Add information beyond current “Blockchains are Magic”
• Add getting started sections and info on cloning/forking the project
• Add installation details
• Add uninstall process
• Add unit, functional, and integration test information
• Detail how to contribute and get involved
• Describe the git workflow that the project will use
• Move to public, non-Disney git repository (Github or Bitbucket)
• Obtain Disney Open Source Committee approval for release

On top of meeting the above criteria, as part of the process, the maintainer of the project had to receive the codebase on their own personal email and create accounts for maintenance (e.g. Github) with non-Disney accounts. Given the fact that the project spanned multiple business units, Roets was individually responsible for its ongoing maintenance. Because of this, he proposed in the open source application to create a non-profit organization to hold the IP and maintain the project. This was approved by Disney.
The Disney Open Source Committee approved the application known as OSSRELEASE-10, and the code was released on October 2, 2016. Disney decided to not issue a press release.
Original OSSRELASE-10 document

Dragonchain Foundation

The Dragonchain Foundation was created on January 17, 2017. https://den.social/l/Dragonchain/24130078352e485d96d2125082151cf0/dragonchain-and-disney/

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https://preview.redd.it/0yq7rwnkjdq11.png?width=1500&format=png&auto=webp&s=950dd49d7e1f7f1e421f7074bd030aec064e6ac7
A total prize pool of 7,000 KMD in our infographic contest
Calling all creatives to take part in our infographic contest and compete for a prize of 7,000 KMD. The winning infographic will explain the architecture of Komodo Platform’s technology. Winners will be those who are able to communicate our architecture and tech visually. This contest will run primarily on Reddit, with the exception of resources being posted to Medium and a master twitter thread for submissions on Twitter. You'll find links at the bottom of this post.

Prizes for winning infographics.

Are you a creative designer? Here's what you can win…

1. A grand prize of 5,000 KMD
2. Two runner-up prizes of 500 KMD each
3. Two third-place prizes of 250 KMD each

Prizes for sharing and giving feedback!

Not a designer? That's OK. You can still participate and win! We'll award five lucky winners 100 KMD each for sharing and promoting the contest. Winners will be picked in a raffle. If you'd like to take part click here https://gleam.io/MwMtO/komodos-20-infographic-contest-5000-kmd-grand-prize and share this post with your friends.

Your Goals

• Create a high-quality infographic that illustrates the genesis of our platform, the working tech that has been created and how Komodo has been built differently, and deliberately, from the very beginning to ensure security, scalability and interoperability. This is why we refer to the architecture, because Komodo was designed to overcome common problems like congestion, governance and attacks that other platforms did not foresee or prevent, from the beginning. This is Komodo DNA.
• Share your submission far and wide and encourage your friends and followers to vote for you.
• Encourage feedback, ask questions and make your infographic the best that it can be.

Our Criteria to Judge

Please note that upvotes and shares are not the only criteria we'll use to judge winners. While useful, we will value creativity, good questions and discussion on Reddit highly. When sharing your posts you will score more highly if people comment, provide feedback and are engaged.

• How well the infographic conveys our working tech, it's core concepts and plans to build on top of it.
• How well the infographic illustrates our story, purpose and conveys our tech so that it's easy to understand.
• Constructive discussion, questions and feedback on Reddit that lead to improvement.
• Sentiment and comments generated across all our social media. This will not include vanity metrics like likes or shares.
• Upvotes on Reddit for the author's submission post ONLY. All votes will be counted (i.e. doesn't matter which week they were made).
• Retweets of the submission in our master thread ONLY. Include your handle and a cover image in your submission. This means if you promote yourself on Twitter you ought to promote the tweet with your work in it.

How do you win?

You may submit up to two infographics. By submitting an infographic, you understand Komodo may post and use your submissions on our digital channels during and after the contest. Each infographic must have it's own post.

• Create a post on Komodo's subreddit using the 'infographic contest' flair.
• Add the infographic image into the Reddit post.
• Include your Twitter handle.
• Include a social media friendly cover image for us to use when we tweet your submission out.
• Post a link to your submission post here in the comments for all to see.

Contest Timeline Guide (these dates indicative and are subject to change).

• 7th September. Announcement. If you're reading this on Reddit before the big announcement then well done! You have two extra days before this is announced on Friday.
• 10th - 21st September. Research and Questions. We will promote the contest, invite questions and requests for resources, in the comments of this master Reddit post (because this means all information and good questions will be visible to all participants).
• 22nd September. Draft Submissions. Creatives to submit their draft infographics on Reddit. All submissions need to have their own post and then be linked to in the comments of this master post. This is important to remember!
• 24th - 30th September. Feedback. A period of one week will be devoted to promoting the submissions and asking the community and team to give you feedback.
• 1st October. Final Submissions.
• 2nd - 8th October. Voting. A week of promoting your work and at the end we'll count votes, consider feedback and pick our winners.
• 15th October. Winners Declared. The final decision by judges. Votes and community feedback counts towards judging but do not have final say.

Resources

If you need help please post in this thread, or email [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) with ‘Infographic Contest’ in the subject line.

1. A list of resources for the Komodo infographic contest including tools to create infographics.
2. Komodo Platform: Redefining The Architecture Of Blockchain Platforms
3. A bullet point study aid to help you understand the history of Komodo’s architecture.
4. Logo Pack https://komodoplatform.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Komodo-Logo-Pack.zip
5. Mylo's notes on Software & Platform Architecture for Designers in the Infographic Contest
6. Mylo's Conceptual Model of Architecture
7. Video: A brief history of our working tech and an animated timeline of the Komodo Platform.
8. Video: Komodo Atomic Swaps Explained.

Also please let us know if you are, or you know, a good GUI developer because we'd love to hear from them. Ask them to DM ca333#0118 or SHossain#8093 on Discord.

Entries and submissions for the infographic contest. You can click here to see them all in a scrollable thread on Twitter.

• Infographic #001 Chur The Crypto Entry #1 Title: "Truly from the ground up" by thesudio.
• Infographic #002 Chur The Crypto Entry #2 Title: "5 Reasons to Choose KOMODO" by thesudio.
• Infographic #003 Vols Crypto/Gantz Design: Komodo's 2.0 Infographic Contest - Draft Submissions 1 by VolsenVols.
• Infographic #004 Dexter's Komodo Infographic Contest by dexter_laabo.
• Infographic #005 Komodo's 2.0 Infographic Contest - Draft by savandra by savandra.
• Infographic #006 Vols Crypto/Gantz Design: Komodo's 2.0 Infographic Contest - Draft Submissions 2 by VolsenVols.
• Infographic #007 Komodo Infographic by cryptol1.
• Infographic #008 Komodo Contest 2.0!! by PacoSenda.
• Infographic #009 Komodo In A Nutshell [INFOGRAPHIC CONTEST] by jeanetteLine.
• Infographic #010 Infographic Komodo: Working Technology and Endless Possibilities by Meyse.
• Infographic #011 My 1st submission by Brenny431.
• Infographic #012 Komodo's Infographic Contest – Draft by DrawProof by ProofDraw.
• Infographic #013 Egg-out with Komodo's end-to-end blockchain platform! by sayonara_girl.
• Infographic #014 Imagine Komodo as an Add-On to Bitcoin... by Limiter02.
• Infographic #015 Komodo Infographic Competition – v2 (NEW) by piptothemoon.
• Infographic #016 Welcome to Blockchain 3.0 End to End Blockchain Solutions by thecryptofoundation.
• Infographic #017 The future of Blockchain is Komodo by jsteneros.
• Infographic #018 KOMODO Infographic Contest - 1st Draft by gravigocrypto
• Infographic #019 My second submission by PacoSenda
• Infographic #020 The 4 Main Features of the Komodo Ecosystem by emmanmalaman.
• Infographic #021 Komodo Infographic Entry - One Stop Blockchain Solution by immimidada.
• Infographic #022 INFOGRAPHIC CONTEST 1st submission :) by by mohitgfx3.
• Infographic #023 Built differently. Deliberately. KOMODO. by u/sayonara_girl.
• Infographic #024 Redefining the Architecture of Blockchain Platforms by brunopugens.
• Infographic #025 Infographic contest submission by Platitude_X.
• Infographic #026 KOMODO Infographic Contest by cheegeet.
• Infographic #027 A bird's eye view on Komodo Platform by cryptaiz.
• Infographic #028 Komodo Galaxy Ecosystem by majonicoin.
• Infographic #029 Welcome to the Blockchain 3.0 by CryptoDeskCreative.
• Infographic #030 The layers of Komodo's architecture by Andaer100.
• Infographic #031 Komodo: Platform of Platforms by theoxys
• Infographic #032 Komodo Platform Architecture by theoxys
• Infographic #033 Build and Grow your Business with KOMODO by jon0008
• Infographic #034 Infographics contest submission by savandra(FINAL) by savandra.

25/09/18 - First Round of Feedback

Infographics should use graphical design elements to visually represent the Komodo Architecture Story found here: https://komodoplatform.com/komodo-platform-a-brief-overview/ included in our ‘required reading’. There’s also a bullet point aid: https://medium.com/@benohanlon/bullet-point-aid-to-help-you-the-history-of-komodos-architecture-dced35b29965 you may find useful.

• We want to stress that the infographic ought to focus on the Architecture story. In the first round we've found many have focused on the five pillars which is a part of it but not the focus.
• Copy should be short and concise and not dominate the infographic. The idea is to simplify the story and not to copy and paste directly from the story.
• Colour Palette - avoid heavy usage of the old KMD green and yellow-orange. Would prefer usage of the interim KMD colour palette.
• Recommended fonts: Montseratt, Roboto, Open Sans, Helvetica, or Arial.
• Graphical - Imagery should complement the associated copy. Diagrams are encouraged in place of simple icons to explain more complex technology concepts.
• Interim KMD colour palette

Interim KMD Colour Palette
If you’ve not been included in the first round it’s because the submission hadn’t been made when the team reviewed. Don’t worry though because we’re organising hangouts and further feedback to help.

• #001 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by thesudio. There’s a lot of good points made, however, these would work better if there is a clear narrative and flow to the information being presented. Otherwise, it can be overwhelming and confusing to the reader. The #1 objective is to visually depict the architecture story and how KMD is redefining blockchain platform architecture.
• #002 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by thesudio. We like that there is a clear structure and clear messaging aligned to each of the 5 pillars. However, the infographic should be focused on telling the architecture story vs the pillars.
• #003 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by VolsenVols. Love how you’ve incorporated our existing graphic design elements into the infographic. This is heading in the right direction and the level of copy and content are well balanced. It would be nice to align this closer to the architecture story and to expand on the different layers of our technology using the same style.
• #004 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by dexter_laabo. Needs to tell the architecture story. This looks more like it took information from our current website. “Anonymous” is not a key aspect of our technology that we’re focusing on.
• #005 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by savandra. The visuals are strong but the narrative could be stronger. It would be nice to align this closer to the architecture story and to expand on the different layers of our technology using the same style.
• #006 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by VolsenVols. Team prefers the other submission style in entry #003.
• #007 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by cryptol1. Doesn’t depict the architecture narrative. Inaccurately describes cross-chain tech as “proprietary”. Simplification has the wrong messaging associated, should be white-label focused. This is considered more of a graphics versus an infographic. Needs to be more comprehensive.
• #008 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by pacosenda. We like the unique design style and approach taken. Doesn’t follow the architecture narrative. Should be expanded out as it is a bit short on content with no clear flow or narrative.
• #009 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by jeanetteLine. Great level of detail and thought on the layout and content. Doesn’t, however, cover the architecture story. Would be preferred if the design direction reflects interim colour and style vs. legacy KMD. The roadmap should be avoided. Looks like they borrowed more from the website than the guidelines.
• #010 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by Meyse. Very creative way to explain and layout the content. This could be expanded out more to encompass the entire architecture story. Cross-chain verifications/smart contracts, blockchain bridging need to be incorporated in.
• #011 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by Brenny431. Follows the 5 pillars versus the architecture story. Would prefer stronger visuals and design elements.
• #012 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by ProofDraw. Design elements are good but need to follow architecture story versus 5 pillars.
• #013 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by sayonara_girl. Needs to follow the architecture story.
• #014 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by Limiter02. Good thought has gone into the copy, however, there’s way too much of it. Would prefer stronger visuals and utilizing a more visual storytelling approach. Doesn’t follow the architecture story. Remove the lizard.
• #015 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by piptothemoon. Great thought into visually representing key points. Needs to be expanded out to incorporate the architecture story, but this is heading in the right direction from a visual storytelling POV.
• #016 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by thecryptofoundation. Love the timeline approach, and mostly followed the guidelines and architecture story. Also, like the incorporation of accomplishments at the end. Would like to get the stock imagery used to reflect our interim colour palette. Not all visuals match what is being represented in the copy.
• #017 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by jsteneros. As discussed in the Zoom call, this graphic is really solid but a little heavy on the copy. Would be good to see more visualizations of the info. This graphic hits on some of the important messages (e.g. Komodo is built differently from other blockchain platforms and solves many of the issues that first-gen platforms are struggling with) but it would be great if there was more information about Komodo’s architecture and how Komodo is different from other platforms.
• #018 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by gravigocrypto. This one was also discussed in the Zoom call. Outstanding visuals and overall design. The info follows the architecture story well but could be stronger if the 3 layers of Komodo’s architecture were tied together into one, coherent visual. It’s a challenging task but that’s part of the contest : )
• #019 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by PacoSenda. This is a really creative infographic, which is great! However, we’d really like to see the visuals a bit more in line with fonts and color palette described above in the “First Round of Feedback” section. Also, as with the feedback for many of the infographic submissions, sticking to the Komodo architecture story would be best.
• #020 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by emmanmalaman. The visuals are pretty cool but this one misses most of our core messaging. It would be much stronger if it followed the architecture story and touched on the info provided in this post. There’s definitely potential here but it needs some work.
• #021 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by immimidada. The colors and visuals here are spot-on. It’s also really great that it sets up the problem and then presents the Komodo solution. However, the problem and solution aren’t defined exactly the way we’d like. Check out the architecture narrative to learn more, and try to follow that story a bit more closely.
• #022 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by mohitgfx3. This one is a bit heavy on the KMD logos. We’re really hoping to see a visualization of Komodo’s infrastructure architecture. As with the feedback for many of the infographics, it would be best to re-read Komodo’s architecture story and try to stick to that as much as possible. Using images from the current website is also not a great approach, as we’re preparing to launch a new site in the coming months.
• #023 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by u/sayonara_girl. Some of the visuals are cool! It’s missing the narrative we’re looking for. In general, less copy and more visual storytelling would improve this graphic a lot. We’d like to see a smooth, linear flow of information. Take another look at the architecture story and try to follow that narrative.
• #024 Infographic Link // Reddit Post Link by brunopugens. This one follows the narrative well! But it’s a little heavy on the copy. It would be much stronger if the architecture was displayed visually, rather than explained with text. Also, the design is cool but it’s difficult to read b/c the perspective of the text is skewed. It’s a really cool idea but might be better to put the text flat for the sake of readability and clarity.

We hosted a round of live feedback sessions via Zoom. The recording is here:

https://soundcloud.com/blockchainists/zoom-call-first-round-of-feedback-for-komodos-infographic-contest#t=3:50

Timeline

The first block in the KMD blockchain was mined just under two years ago, on September 13, 2016 to 9:04 PM. Since then, Komodo has demonstrated a commitment to innovation and established a history of execution.

• February 21, 2016 — The vision for Komodo Platform is born with jl777’s Declaration of Independence.
• September 13, 2016 — The first block in the KMD chain is mined.
• October 15, 2016 — Komodo’s initial coin offering (ICO) is launched.
• November 20, 2016 — Komodo’s ICO comes to a close with a total of 2,639 BTC raised.
• January 2017 — The Komodo Mainnet is launched, complete with independent assetchains and delayed Proof of Work security.
• January 31, 2017 — The KMD coins purchased in the ICO are issued.
• March 2017 — Komodo’s development team develops one of the first atomic swap protocols.
• July 2017 — Thousands of atomic swaps are made in a public, observable setting.
• August 2017 — Private, zero-knowledge trades made possible with Jumblr, Komodo’s native shuffler.
• October 2017 — Komodo develops a way to make atomic swaps in SPV Mode (“Lite Mode”), thus eliminating the need for traders to download entire blockchains to do atomic swaps.
• November 2017 — First GUI for Komodo’s atomic-swap-powered decentralized exchange (DEX) is released, making atomic swap trading more accessible than ever before.
• January 2018 — The mobile version of Agama wallet is released.
• February 2018 — A public stress test allows 13,900 atomic swaps in a 48 hour period.
• March 2018 — Komodo bridges the gap between Bitcoin-protocol-based coins and Ethereum-based ERC-20 tokens, providing support for 95% of coins and tokens in existence.
• March 2018 — Komodo holds its second annual Notary Node Elections.
• May 2018 — The world’s first decentralized ICO is held on Komodo Platform.
• June 2018 — The alpha release of HyperDEX, a new GUI for Komodo’s decentralized exchange, is launched.
• July 2018 — Komodo enters a partnership with Netcoins, making KMD coins available for purchase with fiat currencies at over 21,000 locations across three continents.
• July 2018 — Komodo announces the 5 Pillars of Blockchain technology and begins introducing some Komodo 2.0 technology features, like Federated Multi-Chain Syncing and Cross-Chain Smart Contracts.
• August 2018 — Komodo takes two big steps towards mass adoption, announces a collaboration with Ideas By Nature, an industry-leading blockchain agency, and releases a full briefing on the development on UTXO-based smart contracts.

Achievements

• Cryptomiso.com is a website that ranks 866 different blockchain projects according to the Github commit history of that project’s most popular repo. Komodo is ranked #1 overall for Github commits over the last 12 months.
• China's Ministry Research Initiative regularly ranks Komodo in the top 10.
• Binance CEO highlights Komodo (see this Five Bullet Friday edition for more info).

If you would like to update your post, please edit and add to the post so people can see the different iterations. Entries and submissions for the infographic contest. You can click here to see them all in a scrollable thread on Twitter.

This is part one of three articles where i will discuss what i have learnt whilst looking into Cosmos. I will provide links throughout the article to provide reference to sections as well as a list of sources at the bottom of the article for you to look into specific areas in more detail if required. Hopefully it will be useful for those interested in learning more about the project.
Cosmos is still very early in development process with components such as IBC which connects two blockchains together currently in research / specification stage, as a result can change by the time its released.

What is Cosmos?

Cosmos is a network and a framework for interoperability between blockchains. The zones are powered by Tendermint Core, which provides a high-performance, consistent, secure PBFT-like consensus engine, where strict fork-accountabilityguarantees hold over the behaviour of malicious actors. Cosmos is not a product but an ecosystem built on a set of modular, adaptable and interchangeable tools.
In Tendermint, consensus nodes go through a multi-round voting proposal process first before coming to consensus on the contents of a block. When 2/3 of those nodes decide on a block, then they run it through the state transition logic providing instant finality. In current proof of work consensus for Ethereum, the consensus process is inverted, where miners pick the transactions to include in a block, run state updates, then do “work” to try and mine the block.
Tendermint BFT can handle up to thousands of transactions per second (depending on the number of validators). However, this only takes into account the consensus part, the application layer is the limiting factor though. Ethermint (described below) has achieved up to 200 tps to give you an idea of the speed available per blockchain which is significantly more than current versions of Ethereum and Bitcoin etc.
The Tendermint consensus is used in a wide variety of projects, some of the most notable include Binance Chain, Hyperledger Burrow. It’s important to note though that just using Tendermint consensus doesn’t mean they can connect to other chains with the cosmos ecosystem, they would need to fork their code to implement IBC as a native protocol to allow interoperability through IBC.
see https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devcorn/hackatom/mastetminfo.pdf for high res
​

The Tendermint consensus algorithm follows a traditional approach which relies on all validators to communicate with one another to reach consensus. Because of the communication overhead, it does not scale to 1000s of validators like Bitcoin or Ethereum, which can have an unlimited number of validators. Tendermint works when there are 100s of validators. (Cosmos Hub currently has a maximum of 100 validators and the maximum tested so far with Tendermint is 180 validators)

Therefore, one of the downsides of a blockchain built using Tendermint is that, unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, it requires the validators to be known ahead of time and doesn’t allow for miners to come and go as they please.Besides this, it also requires the system to maintain some notion of time, which is known to be a complex problem in theory. Although in practice, Tendermint has proven this can be done reasonably well if you use the timestamp aggregates of each node.
In this regard, one could argue that Tendermint consensus protocol is “less decentralized” than Bitcoin because there are fewer validators, and they must be known ahead of time.

Tendermint’s protocol guarantees safety and liveness, assuming more than 2/3 of the validators’ voting power is not Byzantine (i.e., malicious). In other words, if less than 1/3 of the network voting power is Byzantine, the protocol can guarantee safety and liveness (i.e., validators will never commit conflicting blocks at the same height and the blockchain continues to make progress).https://www.preethikasireddy.com/posts/how-does-cosmos-work-part1

To see the process of how Tendermint works please see this diagram as well as more info here

Sovereignty

Cosmos goal is to provide sovereignty through governance to developers by making it easy to build blockchains via the Cosmos SDK and provide interoperability between them, using Tendermint consensus. This is their main differentiator compared to competition like Polkadot and Ethereum 2.0. Ethereum 2.0 and Polkadot are taking a different approach by only using shared security, where there is a root chain which controls the security / prevents double spending for all connected blockchains.
In Hub governance all stakers vote, the validators vote is superseded if the delegator votes directly
Governance is where all stakers vote on proposals to determine what changes are implemented in the future for their own blockchain, stakers can either choose to delegate their vote to the validator or they can instead vote directly. Without sovereignty all DAPPs share the same underlying environment. If an application requires a new feature in the EVM it has to rely entirely on the governance of the Ethereum Platform to accept it for example. However, there are also tradeoffs to having sovereignty as each zone is going to need a way to incentivise others to validate / create blocks on the Zone by running Full Nodes. Whilst it may be easy to create a blockchain using the cosmos SDK and to mint a token, there are the legal costs / regulation associated with creating your own token. How are you going to distribute the tokens? How are you going to list them on exchanges? How are you going to incentivise others to use the token without being classed as a security? All of which have led to a significant reduction in the number of ICOs being done. With every zone needing their own validator set, there’s going to be a huge number of validators required each trying to persuade them to validate their zone with only a finite number of validators available.
Each Zone / App is essentially a mini DAO and not all are going to be comfortable about having their project progress been taken out of their hands and instead relying on the community to best decide on the future (unless they control 2/3 of the tokens). The Cosmos Hub has proved this can be successful, but others may be risk averse to having their application be a mini DAO. Should someone / competitor acquire 1/3 of the tokens of a zone then they could potentially prevent any further progress being made by rejecting all governance votes (this would be very costly to do on the Cosmos Hub due to its high amount staked, but for all the other less secure zones this potentially may be an issue).
Security for some zones will likely be a lot lower with every developer needing to validate their own blockchain and tokenise them with POS with no easy way to validate the setup of a validator to ensure its secure. Whilst the Cosmos hub is very secure with its current value staked, how secure zone’s will be with significantly less staked remains to be seen. Whilst providing soverignty was Cosmos’s main goal from the start, they are also looking at being able to provide shared security by having validators of a connected Hub also validate /create new blocks on the connected zone’s blockchain for them as well. They are still going to need some way to incentivise the validators to this. Another option is if the developers didn’t want to create a token, nor want sovereignty etc, then they could just build a DAPP on the EVM on a zone such as Ethermint.
As can be seen their are potential advantages and disadvantages to each method, but rather than forcing shared security like Ethereum and Polkadot, Cosmos is giving the developer the choice so will be interesting to see which they prefer to go for.

Layers of a blockchain

From an architecture standpoint, each blockchain can be divided into three conceptual layers:

• Application: Responsible for updating the state given a set of transactions, i.e. processing transactions.
• Networking: Responsible for the propagation of transactions and consensus-related messages.
• Consensus: Enables nodes to agree on the current state of the system.

The state machine is the same as the application layer. It defines the state of the application and the state-transition functions. The other layers are responsible for replicating the state machine on all the nodes that connect to the network.
The Cosmos SDK is a generalized framework that simplifies the process of building secure blockchain applications on top of Tendermint BFT. The goal of the Cosmos SDK is to create an ecosystem of modules that allows developers to easily spin up application-specific blockchains without having to code each bit of functionality of their application from scratch. Anyone can create a module for the Cosmos SDK and using ready built modules in your blockchain is as simple as importing them into your application.
The Tendermint BFT engine is connected to the application by a socket protocol called the Application Blockchain Interface (ABCI). This protocol can be wrapped in any programming language, making it possible for developers to choose a language that fits their needs.
​
https://preview.redd.it/5vpheheqmba31.png?width=770&format=png&auto=webp&s=ec3c58fb7fafe10a512dbb131ecef6e841e6721c

Hub and Spoke Topology

Cosmos follows a hub and spoke topology as its not feasible to connect every zone together. If you were to connect every blockchain together the number of connections in the network would grow quadratically with the number of zones. So, if there are 100 zones in the network then that would equal 4950 connections.
Zones are regular heterogenous blockchains and Hubs are blockchains specifically designed to connect Zones together. When a Zone creates an IBC connection with a Hub, it can automatically access (i.e. send to and receive from) every other Zone that is connected to it. As a result, each Zone only needs to establish a limited number of connections with a restricted set of Hubs. Hubs also prevent double spending among Zones. This means that when a Zone receives a token from a Hub, it only needs to trust the origin Zone of this token and each of the Hubs in its path. Hubs do not verify or execute transactions committed on other zones, so it is the responsibility of users to send tokens to zones that they trust.
There will be many Hubs within Cosmos network the first Hub to launch was the Cosmos Hub whose native staking token is called ATOM. ATOM tokens are specific to just the Cosmos Hub which is one hub of many, each with their own token. Transaction fees for the Cosmos Hub will be payable in multiple tokens so not just ATOMs whereas other Hubs such as IRIS has made it so that all transaction fees are paid in IRIS for transactions on its hub.
As mentioned, the Cosmos Hub is one of many hubs in the network and currently has a staking ratio of around 70% with its token ATOM having a market cap of just over $800 million. IRISnet was the second Hub to launch which currently has around 28% bonded with its token IRIS which has a market cap of just under $17 million. The Third Hub about to be launched later this month has its token SENT which has a market cap of around $3.4 million. As you can see the security of these 3 hubs differ wildly and as more and more hubs and then zones are brought online there is going to need to be a lot of tokens / incentivisation for validators.
Ethermint
Standard Cosmos zones / hubs don’t have smart contract functionality and so to enable this, as the Application layer is abstracted from the consensus layer via ABCI API described earlier, it allows Cosmos to port the code over from other blockchains such as Ethereum and use it with the Tendermint Consensus to provide access to the Ethereum Virtual Machine. This is what is called Ethermint.
This allows developers to connect their zones to specialised zones such as Ethermint to build and run smart contracts based on Solidity, whilst benefiting from the faster performance of the tendermint Conensus over the existing POW implementation currently. Whereas a normal Go Ethereum process runs at ~12.5 transactions per second (TPS), Ethermint caps out at 200 TPS. This is a comparison against existing Ethereum speeds, whilst obviously Ethereum are working on their own scaling solutions with Ethereum 2.0 which will likely be ready around the same time. Existing tools / dapps used on ethereum should easily be able to be ported over to Ethermint by the developer if required.
In addition to vertical scaling (with the increase in tps by using Tendermint consensus), it can also have multiple parallel chains running the same application and operated by a common validator set. So if 1 Ethermint zone caps out at 200 TPS then 4 Ethermint zones running in parallel would theoretically cap out at 800 TPS for example.
​
https://preview.redd.it/e2pghr9smba31.png?width=554&format=png&auto=webp&s=a6e472a6e4a0f3845b03c36caef8b42d77125e46
There is a huge number of developers / apps currently built on Ethereum, should a developer choose to migrate their DAPP over to Ethermint they would lose native compatibility with those on Ethereum (except through Peg Zone), but would gain compatibility with those running on Ethermint and others in the cosmos ecosystem.
You can find out more about Ethermint here and here

IBC

IBC stands for inter-blockchain communication protocol and is an end-to-end, connection-oriented, stateful protocol for reliable, ordered, authenticated communication between modules on separate distributed ledgers. Ledgers hosting IBC must provide a certain set of functions for consensus transcript verification and cryptographic commitment proof generation, and IBC packet relayers (off-chain processes) are expected to have access to network protocols and physical datalinks as required to read the state of one ledger and submit data to another.
In the IBC architecture, modules are not directly sending messages to each other over networking infrastructure, but rather creating messages to be sent which are then physically relayed via “Relayers”. “Relayers” run off-chain and continuously scan the state of each ledger via a light client connected to each of the 2 chains and can also execute transactions on another ledger when outgoing datagrams have been committed. For correct operation and progress in a connection between two ledgers, IBC requires only that at least one correct and live relayer process exists which can relay between the ledgers. Relays will need to be incentivised to perform this task (the method to which hasn’t been established as of this writing)
The relay process must have access to accounts on both chains with sufficient balance to pay for transaction fees. Relayers may employ application-level methods to recoup these fees, such by including a small payment to themselves in the packet data. More information on Relayers can be found here
​
https://preview.redd.it/qr4k6cxtmba31.png?width=1100&format=png&auto=webp&s=d79871767ced4bcb0b2632cc137c118f70c3863a
A high-level overview of the process is that Zone 1 commits an outbound message on its blockchan about sending say 1 x Token A to Hub1 and puts 1 x Token A in escrow. Consensus is reached in Zone 1, and then it’s passed to the IBC module to create a packet which contains the reference to the committed block, source and destination channel/ connection and timeout details and is added to Zone 1’s outbound queue as proof.
All relayers (who run off-chain) are continuously monitoring the state of Zone 1 via the Zone 1 light client. A Relayer such as Relayer 1 is chosen and submits a proof to Hub1 that Zone 1.
Hub 1 then sends a receipt as proof that it has received the message from Zone 1, relayer1 sends it to Zone 1. Zone 1 then removes it from its outbound queue and sends proof via another receipt to Hub1. Hub1 verifies the proof and mints the token.
​
https://preview.redd.it/qn7895rumba31.png?width=770&format=png&auto=webp&s=96d9d808b2284f87d45fa0bd7b8bff297c86c2da
This video below explains the process in more detail as well as covers some of the other points i raise later in this article so worth a watch (time stamped from 22:24 to 32:25) and also here from 38:53 to 42:50
https://youtu.be/5h8DXul4lH0?t=1344
Whilst there is an option for UDP style transfer where a zone will send a message to a Hub and it doesn’t care whether it gets there or in any order etc, Token transfers are going to require the TCP style connections in IBC where there is a send, receipt and then another receipt as explained above. Each Send, receipt followed by another receipt is going to take at least 2 blocks and so using Cosmos Hub block times as an example with 6.88 second block times a transfer between one zone and hub could take a minimum of 41.28 seconds. You also then have to factor in the amount of other transactions going through those at that time and relevant gas price to see whether it is able to use 2 consecutive blocks or whether it may take more. This is also explained in this video “ILP Summit 2019 | Cosmos and Interledger | Sunny Aggarwal” (time stamped) from to 12:50 to 15:45
​
In Part Two we will look at potential issues with multi hop routing, token transfers across multiple routes and Peg Zones, whilst also looking at other interoperability solutions that would resolve some of these issues and compliment the cosmos ecosystem. Part Two can be found here

The Path To Crypto Trading Starts With Knowledge: A Brief Guide To Crypto Trading

Trading cryptocurrencies has come into fad over the last few years and become a relatively good means of earning for both professional traders and enthusiasts. If we look at the price charts that have been compiled over the years by a variety of channels, we can see that the crypto market is exhibiting the market dynamics and fluctuations much like those that can be found on traditional markets. This makes it clear that the presence of volatility on the crypto market makes it a profitable area for trading.
Of course, the main question that arises in the minds of most aspiring crypto traders is how to make money trading cryptocurrencies. For this reason, many seek to learn how to day trade cryptocurrencies. Anyone willing to make the effort can truly find opportunities there. For instance, the exchange rate of BTC has grown from about $800 in 2013 to over $6,000 in 2019, after having spiked in price to over $20,000 in 2017. Ethereum was just as remarkable in its dynamics after having gone to $0.57 in 2014 to $1,180 in 2017 to $171 in 2019. Ripple was just as dynamic, going from $0.02 in 2014 to $0.32 in 2019. If that is not volatility, then we don’t know what is. This makes the crypto market one of the best avenues for risky traders seeking to make their fortunes. But mastering how to make those fortunes is over half the matter.
https://preview.redd.it/bajehrv10m541.png?width=541&format=png&auto=webp&s=8be0fe84df20245d6db0d64f44aedca2047d27fc

How To Start Trading Cryptocurrencies

Anyone who wants to sink their teeth into the juicy cake of crypto trading has to first realize where cryptos are traded. Like every other financial instrument put up for trading, cryptocurrencies are placed on exchanges. The crypto market is host to over 200 exchanges, some more reputable than others. Among some of the best and renowned are Binance,BitMex, Bittrex, Huobi, Coinbase and many others.
Unlike traditional exchanges on Wall Street, crypto exchanges are divided into two types – centralized and decentralized. Both work on blockchain technologies and provide almost the same level of convenience, depending on the offered instruments and the architecture of user interface. However, some exchanges are decentralized, meaning that they do not store any of the user’s information, including the wallets on any of their servers or systems and resort to external services in this regard. Decentralized exchanges do not require any intermediaries to conduct any operations and perform all the order matching themselves.
On the other hand, centralized exchanges resort to a number of intermediary services to conduct their operations. The intermediaries provide anything from order matching to user wallet storage. This makes centralized exchanges much riskier and more expensive compared to their decentralized counterparts.
Despite the obvious differences in platform structure, there is also the issue of convenience. Most decentralized exchanges have horrible user interfaces and are much more difficult to master. But when it comes to speeds, centralized exchanges win over their decentralized counterparts, since their platforms are better suited for transactions. Though there are tendencies of reversing the issue, the situation still remains in favor of centralized exchanges.
Centralized exchanges win over decentralized ones in another important factor that is vital for trading – liquidity. Decentralized exchanges cannot compete with centralized ones in volumes of trading. However, decentralized exchanges win over in an almost complete lack of commissions and security, since they do not rely on any intermediaries.
When dealing with crypto exchanges, traders also need to know how crypto trading bots work. This is because bots are allowed on crypto exchanges facilitate trading considerably. When resorting to bots, it is important to first analyze the exchanges and understand which ones offer the best instruments for convenient trading.
Given the many restrictions placed on cryptocurrency trading in some countries, many traders would ask how to trade cryptocurrencies in the US. The issue is not as complicated as it might seem, since most reputable exchanges, like Binance and others operate legally on the US market. It is therefore necessary for traders to research their platforms of choice before using them to make sure they comply with US laws.

How To Trade Cryptocurrencies

Trading cryptocurrencies is done almost in exactly the same way as with other financial instruments – through the application of a variety of strategies. The main strategies on the crypto market are much like those on other markets, such as Forex, and they include:
Scalping – the launch of a very large number of small orders for the purpose of making small profits in bulk, rather than waiting for one large win.
Intraday – this is the basic form of trading which involves placing orders during trading hours and buying and selling assets. This is the base strategy for fixing profits during the same day without risking off-hour volatility.
Investing – both long and short term investing is also a type of trading strategy, which involves waiting for an asset’s price to move (preferably up) and fixing the resulting profits.
There are dozens of trading strategies on the market and MoonTrader will allow its users to make use of all of them through its convenient interface.
How To Trade Bitcoin
Bitcoin is the most coveted coin out there with its volatility being its main allure and bane. The first and main question posed by any starting trader is how to trade Bitcoin for profit. In fact, this question is often associated with the question of how to become a Bitcoin trader, which in itself is a rather false view on the crypto market, since the latter is much bigger than Bitcoin alone. The issue of how Bitcoin trading works is largely a reflection of any trading process on the market and does not involve any special circumstances apart from the asset’s volatility.
Trading Bitcoin is done exactly the same way as with any other crypto asset. But with trading BTC comes the question of how to automate Bitcoin trading. This is where traders must first realize that their exchange of choice and strategy will be the determining factors in the question of automation and the use of bots.
How to trade Ethereum
Ethereum is the second most popular name on the market after Bitcoin and is traded in exactly the same way. Ethereum is considered to be a less risky asset, since its prices are lower and it is far more commonly encountered than its more expensive counterpart.
How To Trade Ripple
Ripple is the third most frequently encountered name on most crypto asset charts, mostly because of its relatively low volatility and popularity as an instrument for transactions used by some banks. The confidence that traders have in Ripple and its low price makes it a favorite for beginning traders and a low-cost option for scalping orders.
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Learning How To Trade Cryptocurrency

The biggest challenge facing any aspiring trader who wishes to join the crypto market and start trading Bitcoin and other assets is learning how to do it properly. In fact, reading is the only way followed by a gradual and phased transition from test trading to real trading. The process may well be painful at first, but experience counts the most in trading.
MoonTrader knows all too well how difficult it may be to learn the ropes of crypto trading, so the platform is delighted to present an entire block of content devoted exclusively to educational content.
The https://moontrader.com/en/category/beginners-guide-to-trading-crypto/ section offers accessible, clear and valuable insight into the steps necessary to start the journey into crypto trading.

The Risks

Crypto trading is not without its risks. The market is inherently risky for a number of factors. Ironically, the profit making factor of volatility is also the factor that can reduce profits to losses. When embarking on the journey of crypto trading, aspiring traders must realize and ascertain the risks involved and consciously undertake all of their next steps.
The best step to take is to create a trading strategy first and rely on one of the most important instruments available on the market – the margin. By trading with a margin, traders can minimize their losses and ensure a great enough volume of trading. Binance Futures, for example, offers a large variety of margins from x1 to x125 to ensure that traders have the necessary leverage to trade effectively.
It is important to note that margin trading is an advanced instrument and cannot be reliable enough for novice traders. As such, MoonTrader encourages aspiring traders to refrain from margin trading until they are confident enough to risk greater volumes of assets during trading.

Keep It Going

Learning is the process of acquiring experience and the latter counts the most in trading. Before embarking on the path of trading cryptocurrencies, traders must first compile a large enough amount of knowledge that they will be able to rely upon in the variety of situations that can arise on the market. First and foremost, it is vital to refrain from negative sentiment and look ahead into brighter prospects. Secondly, aspiring traders must study the market and find a suitable platform. Thirdly, novice traders must build a strategy that suits their characters and styles and make sure to abide by it. Once that has been mastered, they can start delving into the more advanced aspects of trading.
Whatever path traders take, MoonTrader will be there to help them with both information and instruments to make sure their trading is profitable and enjoyable.
Check us out at https://moontrader.io
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MoonTraderPlatform
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MoonTrader_io
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/19203733
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/Moontrader_official/
Telegram: https://t.me/moontrader_news_en
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Originally posted on our blog.

This is part one of three articles where i will discuss what i have learnt whilst looking into Cosmos. I will provide links throughout the article to provide reference to sections as well as a list of sources at the bottom of the article for you to look into specific areas in more detail if required. Hopefully it will be useful for those interested in learning more about the project.
Cosmos is still very early in development process with components such as IBC which connects two blockchains together currently in research / specification stage, as a result can change by the time its released.

What is Cosmos?

Cosmos is a network and a framework for interoperability between blockchains. The zones are powered by Tendermint Core, which provides a high-performance, consistent, secure PBFT-like consensus engine, where strict fork-accountabilityguarantees hold over the behaviour of malicious actors. Cosmos is not a product but an ecosystem built on a set of modular, adaptable and interchangeable tools.
In Tendermint, consensus nodes go through a multi-round voting proposal process first before coming to consensus on the contents of a block. When 2/3 of those nodes decide on a block, then they run it through the state transition logic providing instant finality. In current proof of work consensus for Ethereum, the consensus process is inverted, where miners pick the transactions to include in a block, run state updates, then do “work” to try and mine the block.
Tendermint BFT can handle up to thousands of transactions per second (depending on the number of validators). However, this only takes into account the consensus part, the application layer is the limiting factor though. Ethermint (described below) has achieved up to 200 tps to give you an idea of the speed available per blockchain which is significantly more than current versions of Ethereum and Bitcoin etc.
The Tendermint consensus is used in a wide variety of projects, some of the most notable include Binance Chain, Hyperledger Burrow. It’s important to note though that just using Tendermint consensus doesn’t mean they can connect to other chains with the cosmos ecosystem, they would need to fork their code to implement IBC as a native protocol to allow interoperability through IBC.
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see https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devcorn/hackatom/mastetminfo.pdf for high res
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The Tendermint consensus algorithm follows a traditional approach which relies on all validators to communicate with one another to reach consensus. Because of the communication overhead, it does not scale to 1000s of validators like Bitcoin or Ethereum, which can have an unlimited number of validators. Tendermint works when there are 100s of validators. (Cosmos Hub currently has a maximum of 100 validators and the maximum tested so far with Tendermint is 180 validators)

Therefore, one of the downsides of a blockchain built using Tendermint is that, unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, it requires the validators to be known ahead of time and doesn’t allow for miners to come and go as they please.Besides this, it also requires the system to maintain some notion of time, which is known to be a complex problem in theory. Although in practice, Tendermint has proven this can be done reasonably well if you use the timestamp aggregates of each node.
In this regard, one could argue that Tendermint consensus protocol is “less decentralized” than Bitcoin because there are fewer validators, and they must be known ahead of time.

Tendermint’s protocol guarantees safety and liveness, assuming more than 2/3 of the validators’ voting power is not Byzantine (i.e., malicious). In other words, if less than 1/3 of the network voting power is Byzantine, the protocol can guarantee safety and liveness (i.e., validators will never commit conflicting blocks at the same height and the blockchain continues to make progress).https://www.preethikasireddy.com/posts/how-does-cosmos-work-part1

To see the process of how Tendermint works please see this diagram as well as more info here

Sovereignty

Cosmos goal is to provide sovereignty through governance to developers by making it easy to build blockchains via the Cosmos SDK and provide interoperability between them, using Tendermint consensus. This is their main differentiator compared to competition like Polkadot and Ethereum 2.0. Ethereum 2.0 and Polkadot are taking a different approach by only using shared security, where there is a root chain which controls the security / prevents double spending for all connected blockchains.
Governance is where all stakers vote on proposals to determine what changes are implemented in the future for their own blockchain, stakers can either choose to delegate their vote to the validator or they can instead vote directly. Without sovereignty all DAPPs share the same underlying environment. If an application requires a new feature in the EVM it has to rely entirely on the governance of the Ethereum Platform to accept it for example. However, there are also tradeoffs to having sovereignty as each zone is going to need a way to incentivise others to validate / create blocks on the Zone by running Full Nodes. Whilst it may be easy to create a blockchain using the cosmos SDK and to mint a token, there are the legal costs / regulation associated with creating your own token. How are you going to distribute the tokens? How are you going to list them on exchanges? How are you going to incentivise others to use the token without being classed as a security? All of which have led to a significant reduction in the number of ICOs being done. With every zone needing their own validator set, there’s going to be a huge number of validators required each trying to persuade them to validate their zone with only a finite number of validators available.
Each Zone / App is essentially a mini DAO and not all are going to be comfortable about having their project progress been taken out of their hands and instead relying on the community to best decide on the future (unless they control 2/3 of the tokens). The Cosmos Hub has proved this can be successful, but others may be risk averse to having their application be a mini DAO. Should someone / competitor acquire 1/3 of the tokens of a zone then they could potentially prevent any further progress being made by rejecting all governance votes (this would be very costly to do on the Cosmos Hub due to its high amount staked, but for all the other less secure zones this potentially may be an issue).
Security for some zones will likely be a lot lower with every developer needing to validate their own blockchain and tokenise them with POS with no easy way to validate the setup of a validator to ensure its secure. Whilst the Cosmos hub is very secure with its current value staked, how secure zone’s will be with significantly less staked remains to be seen. Whilst providing soverignty was Cosmos’s main goal from the start, they are also looking at being able to provide shared security by having validators of a connected Hub also validate /create new blocks on the connected zone’s blockchain for them as well. They are still going to need some way to incentivise the validators to this. Another option is if the developers didn’t want to create a token, nor want sovereignty etc, then they could just build a DAPP on the EVM on a zone such as Ethermint.
As can be seen their are potential advantages and disadvantages to each method, but rather than forcing shared security like Ethereum and Polkadot, Cosmos is giving the developer the choice so will be interesting to see which they prefer to go for.

Layers of a blockchain

From an architecture standpoint, each blockchain can be divided into three conceptual layers:

• Application: Responsible for updating the state given a set of transactions, i.e. processing transactions.
• Networking: Responsible for the propagation of transactions and consensus-related messages.
• Consensus: Enables nodes to agree on the current state of the system.

The state machine is the same as the application layer. It defines the state of the application and the state-transition functions. The other layers are responsible for replicating the state machine on all the nodes that connect to the network.
The Cosmos SDK is a generalized framework that simplifies the process of building secure blockchain applications on top of Tendermint BFT. The goal of the Cosmos SDK is to create an ecosystem of modules that allows developers to easily spin up application-specific blockchains without having to code each bit of functionality of their application from scratch. Anyone can create a module for the Cosmos SDK and using ready built modules in your blockchain is as simple as importing them into your application.
The Tendermint BFT engine is connected to the application by a socket protocol called the Application Blockchain Interface (ABCI). This protocol can be wrapped in any programming language, making it possible for developers to choose a language that fits their needs.
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https://preview.redd.it/go1bgareiba31.png?width=770&format=png&auto=webp&s=c9a2c9faa9c99dd8c7a7b6925c7ea281e203eb47

Hub and Spoke Topology

Cosmos follows a hub and spoke topology as its not feasible to connect every zone together. If you were to connect every blockchain together the number of connections in the network would grow quadratically with the number of zones. So, if there are 100 zones in the network then that would equal 4950 connections.
Zones are regular heterogenous blockchains and Hubs are blockchains specifically designed to connect Zones together. When a Zone creates an IBC connection with a Hub, it can automatically access (i.e. send to and receive from) every other Zone that is connected to it. As a result, each Zone only needs to establish a limited number of connections with a restricted set of Hubs. Hubs also prevent double spending among Zones. This means that when a Zone receives a token from a Hub, it only needs to trust the origin Zone of this token and each of the Hubs in its path. Hubs do not verify or execute transactions committed on other zones, so it is the responsibility of users to send tokens to zones that they trust.
There will be many Hubs within Cosmos network the first Hub to launch was the Cosmos Hub whose native staking token is called ATOM. ATOM tokens are specific to just the Cosmos Hub which is one hub of many, each with their own token. Transaction fees for the Cosmos Hub will be payable in multiple tokens so not just ATOMs whereas other Hubs such as IRIS has made it so that all transaction fees are paid in IRIS for transactions on its hub.
As mentioned, the Cosmos Hub is one of many hubs in the network and currently has a staking ratio of around 70% with its token ATOM having a market cap of just over $800 million. IRISnet was the second Hub to launch which currently has around 28% bonded with its token IRIS which has a market cap of just under $17 million. The Third Hub about to be launched later this month has its token SENT which has a market cap of around $3.4 million. As you can see the security of these 3 hubs differ wildly and as more and more hubs and then zones are brought online there is going to need to be a lot of tokens / incentivisation for validators.

Ethermint

Standard Cosmos zones / hubs don’t have smart contract functionality and so to enable this, as the Application layer is abstracted from the consensus layer via ABCI API described earlier, it allows Cosmos to port the code over from other blockchains such as Ethereum and use it with the Tendermint Consensus to provide access to the Ethereum Virtual Machine. This is what is called Ethermint.
This allows developers to connect their zones to specialised zones such as Ethermint to build and run smart contracts based on Solidity, whilst benefiting from the faster performance of the tendermint Conensus over the existing POW implementation currently. Whereas a normal Go Ethereum process runs at ~12.5 transactions per second (TPS), Ethermint caps out at 200 TPS. This is a comparison against existing Ethereum speeds, whilst obviously Ethereum are working on their own scaling solutions with Ethereum 2.0 which will likely be ready around the same time. Existing tools / dapps used on ethereum should easily be able to be ported over to Ethermint by the developer if required.
In addition to vertical scaling (with the increase in tps by using Tendermint consensus), it can also have multiple parallel chains running the same application and operated by a common validator set. So if 1 Ethermint zone caps out at 200 TPS then 4 Ethermint zones running in parallel would theoretically cap out at 800 TPS for example.
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https://preview.redd.it/oboyonufiba31.png?width=554&format=png&auto=webp&s=18560aa44596fc2357590b54ddb39fd8ee1c8783
There is a huge number of developers / apps currently built on Ethereum, should a developer choose to migrate their DAPP over to Ethermint they would lose native compatibility with those on Ethereum (except through Peg Zone), but would gain compatibility with those running on Ethermint and others in the cosmos ecosystem.
You can find out more about Ethermint here and here
IBC
IBC stands for inter-blockchain communication protocol and is an end-to-end, connection-oriented, stateful protocol for reliable, ordered, authenticated communication between modules on separate distributed ledgers. Ledgers hosting IBC must provide a certain set of functions for consensus transcript verification and cryptographic commitment proof generation, and IBC packet relayers (off-chain processes) are expected to have access to network protocols and physical datalinks as required to read the state of one ledger and submit data to another.
In the IBC architecture, modules are not directly sending messages to each other over networking infrastructure, but rather creating messages to be sent which are then physically relayed via “Relayers”. “Relayers” run off-chain and continuously scan the state of each ledger via a light client connected to each of the 2 chains and can also execute transactions on another ledger when outgoing datagrams have been committed. For correct operation and progress in a connection between two ledgers, IBC requires only that at least one correct and live relayer process exists which can relay between the ledgers. Relays will need to be incentivised to perform this task (the method to which hasn’t been established as of this writing)
The relay process must have access to accounts on both chains with sufficient balance to pay for transaction fees. Relayers may employ application-level methods to recoup these fees, such by including a small payment to themselves in the packet data. More information on Relayers can be found here
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https://preview.redd.it/twjzlc8hiba31.png?width=1100&format=png&auto=webp&s=2e546142573b61af031e27dac83ddca675a4b693
A high-level overview of the process is that Zone 1 commits an outbound message on its blockchan about sending say 1 x Token A to Hub1 and puts 1 x Token A in escrow. Consensus is reached in Zone 1, and then it’s passed to the IBC module to create a packet which contains the reference to the committed block, source and destination channel/ connection and timeout details and is added to Zone 1’s outbound queue as proof.
All relayers (who run off-chain) are continuously monitoring the state of Zone 1 via the Zone 1 light client. A Relayer such as Relayer 1 is chosen and submits a proof to Hub1 that Zone 1.
Hub 1 then sends a receipt as proof that it has received the message from Zone 1, relayer1 sends it to Zone 1. Zone 1 then removes it from its outbound queue and sends proof via another receipt to Hub1. Hub1 verifies the proof and mints the token.
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https://preview.redd.it/d4dclm3iiba31.png?width=770&format=png&auto=webp&s=9ca521efc8580800067e1c4e3f74c0ab8df30555
This video below explains the process in more detail as well as covers some of the other points i raise later in this article so worth a watch (time stamped from 22:24 to 32:25) and also here from 38:53 to 42:50
https://youtu.be/5h8DXul4lH0?t=1344
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Whilst there is an option for UDP style transfer where a zone will send a message to a Hub and it doesn’t care whether it gets there or in any order etc, Token transfers are going to require the TCP style connections in IBC where there is a send, receipt and then another receipt as explained above. Each Send, receipt followed by another receipt is going to take at least 2 blocks and so using Cosmos Hub block times as an example with 6.88 second block times a transfer between one zone and hub could take a minimum of 41.28 seconds. You also then have to factor in the amount of other transactions going through those at that time and relevant gas price to see whether it is able to use 2 consecutive blocks or whether it may take more. This is also explained in this video “ILP Summit 2019 | Cosmos and Interledger | Sunny Aggarwal” (time stamped) from to 12:50 to 15:45
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In Part Two we will look at potential issues with multi hop routing, token transfers across multiple routes and Peg Zones, whilst also looking at other interoperability solutions that would resolve some of these issues and compliment the cosmos ecosystem. Part Two can be found here