A short introduction to Supernet
v2.3.1
What is Supernet?Supernet is a decentralized platform that acts as a middleman between different cryptocurrencies. It offers seamless and smooth interoperability and a common framework of development between several blockchain technologies. As a user you have access to all their innovations from one place.
"In Crypto, the competition is not each other, it is fiat. If any Crypto does well, we all benefit." --jl777
Who is James?James, known as
jl777, is the anonymous developer behind the Supernet project, an extremely gifted C developer with financial experience and a clear vision for the future of crypto. He created the
MGW service that works on Nxt blockchain and his advices are often sought after from other crypto projects and he has collaborated, among others, with
Nxt,
Iota and
Waves.
Is Supernet a coin?No, it isn’t a coin but it also includes a coin,
Komodo, among its many components. Komodo is a Z-Cash fork and many Supernet features will be relying on it.
Does Supernet want to replace Bitcoin?No! Supernet is to a crypto like the internet is to a website, it doesn’t want to replace Bitcoin or any other coin. Quite the contrary, Bitcoin plays an essential part both as the main crypto unit of account and for securing the whole system with its hashrate. Supernet helps Bitcoin and the whole crypto ecosystem by uniting them in a common framework that leverages each other strength and specialization. Any supported coin can easily make use of each other features or use additional services built on top of the platform.
What are the goals of Supernet?The first goal is to unite the fragmented crypto ecosystem against its true enemy: fiat money. The second one is to solve the main bottlenecks of crypto: scalability, speed, privacy and price stability. Supernet is not designed to replace Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency, but to enable cryptocurrencies to compete more effectively with the fiat economy.
...to fully solve mainstream crypto use, you need to be able scale, price things in fiat, have it still be decentralized, privacy enhanced, etc... --jl777
How does Supernet plan to achieve such goals?Thanks to a combination of powerful features:
Multiwallet- Supernet offers a fully featured multicoin wallet (Iguana) that supports both Bitcoin, Komodo and most other bitcoind compatibles (like Ltc, Doge, etc...)
...Iguana is the core of SuperNET platform. It implements many layers of functionality, starting with the bitcoin protocol, but all the way up to smartchains.--jl777
Untraceability- Iguana will offer 100% untraceability for Bitcoin and all other supported coins/assets, thanks to Z-Cash Zero Knowledge proofs used by Komodo. This specific feature is called Jumblr and it will allow Btc->Kmd->Btc mixing. Other advanced features will hide correlations and since the exchange is atomic there's no counterparty risk. This is the best possible technology available to protect one's privacy.
..because Komodo also interacts with our other services it is possible to use it to give privacy features for any other coin we support. In other words, you could send Bitcoins in and out of KMD to destroy its transaction track record. We will automate this process with a mixer called Jumblr. --Audo
dPoW- Supernet uses Bitcoin hashrate to protect less secure coins by regularly notarizing an hash of their blockchain on Bitcoin, with the delayed-PoW consensus mechanism of Komodo. An attacker won't be able to change the history of a coin without first attacking Bitcoin as well. Both natively supported coins/chains or any external blockchain project can avail themselves of the notarization service. Bitcoin is by far the strongest and most secure coin, but it’s slow to evolve: dPoW allows Bitcoin to continue its slow pace, while allowing an entire ecosystem of innovative crypto solutions to benefit from its PoW expenditures.
...for other cryptocurrencies to become as secure as bitcoin they would have to secure their network with as large hashing power. However, this is not economically possible and would make the overall system, even more, energy inefficient. The solution would be to allow other cryptocurrencies to take advantage of bitcoin’s hashing power. --jl777
Pax- Supernet includes Pax, a decentralized pegged assets system without counterparty risk. Assets can be pegged to the main fiat currencies (Usd, Eur and other 30 fiats already supported). Pax enables locking funds to avoid price volatility or betting on short term market movements or longer term investing. First version is capped at 40k Usd but later versions (Pax2) will remove the limitations and add commodities (gold, oil, etc...) and indexes (Nyse, Nikkei, etc...) that will turn it into a full decentralized forex system with no kyc/aml. All pegged assets enjoy 100% z-cash untraceability and dPoW security.
...the aim of pax is not for speculation, but to provide something that has stable value that the mass market can understand and relate to. --jl777
InstantDEX- Supernet, thanks to dPoW and Iguana, creates a large network of Bitcoin-secured chains that can do atomic swaps with each other. Atomic means that you're trading the real coins (not a proxy token) and the trade is either fully executed or it isn't. This allows Instantdex: anonymous, instant, escrowless, decentralized exchange between all supported coins/assets against any other supported coins/assets (Bitcoin, Altcoins, Assets and all Fiat-money-pegged equivalents). The friction of these cross chain swaps is further reduced by “Liquidity Provider” nodes that can interface with centralized exchanges (anyone can be a LP and charge a small premium for this).
...DEX (short for InstantDEX) is the atomic cross chain swap that is built into Iguana, well, on top of the Iguana core. DEX will directly exchange crypto coins in your local wallet, so there is no need for any intermediary. You always control the coin. --jl777
Lchains- Supernet solves the problem of blockchain bloat thanks to the Ledgerchains: a very effective pruning technology that uses regular snapshots of current balances and a complex nest of hashes and dPow to make the pruned chains as secure and verifiable as the full ones. Blockchains will just grow linearly in size instead of exponentially.
...instead of just one hash for the latest block, Lchains have a dozen hashes for each subset of the ledger data, this means you can get the ledger components from a dozen different other nodes after making sure they are all in agreement and then reconstruct a specific Lchain ledger. --jl777
Blockchains, Assetchains, Smartchains- Supernet allows the creations of any custom coin or asset or programmable blockchain (Geckochains). All of them have 100% untraceability with z-cash technology and are fully secured by dPoW and atomically tradable on Instantdex. Assetchains are a special form of blockchain with fixed supply and built-in dPoW to KMD chain. They also have on-demand block generation, i.e. there is a block only if there are transactions. So they're designed for low volume usage. Geckochains are special blockchains that can be customized and programmed (at first in C++ and later in other languages) for any purpose. Since Geckochains are independent chains, if something goes wrong only that single chain is affected. An Assetchain, for example, is a type of specialized smartchain for assets: it has its own blockchain independent from the underlying platform, it create a block only if there's an actual transaction and dividends can be paid in Bitcoin or any other supported coin/asset. Then it's possible to create a Virtualchain that has no physical nodes and runs a Geckochain, i.e. Iguana full nodes will process the transactions and mine the blocks. Also Privatechain that is just a virtual chain with its own dedicated nodes using a real internet port.
...I have things setup so you can add new script opcodes, create a data overlay to encode an arbitrary command set, even add new network protocol messages. All directly into the smartchain. This is a compiled approach versus the interpreted approach that is used by the scripting smart contract systems. With a compiled approach, the developer just codes what the dapp needs and only what the dapp needs. Any language that creates linkable object files can be used, but of course I code mine in C. --jl777
Games- Supernet will use specialized smartchains and other features to support P2P sports betting and casino games, this includes a decentralized Poker game (Pangea) that uses provable random numbers and also a decentralized betting systems that allows individuals to make escrowed bets directly between each other. All of them take full advantage of the built in privacy features of Supernet.
I dont think there are any decentralized poker solutions that are released yet. Building on the SuperNET API, a lot of the privacy and payments are already taken care of. --jl777
...and more!- The list is not yet comprehensive and the things that can be built over the Supernet framework are going to shake the cryptocurrency world. It will allow developers to build any sort of services and countless different solutions and specialized applications on top of the platform.
What is Iguana?Iguana is a new Bitcoin and multicoin wallet that serves as unified codebase for the Supernet platform. It has been written from scratch in C and it’s the first multicoin parallel syncing bitcoin protocol daemon, including RPC, that compiles to 2MB. It can synchronize at the max speed allowed by your internet connection and run 10+ coins all at the same time. Full Bitcoin synching (75GB) takes about
one hour on top end machines. Coins can also be run in lite mode (basilisk mode) without blockchain download. Iguana will be available natively for all OS systems and in lite version for mobile or Chrome app.
Iguana preview:
Standard GUI:
https://projects.invisionapp.com/share/WF8ST5V5JEasydex GUI:
http://imgur.com/a/yOEBr How many coins does Iguana support?The first release will support Bitcoin, Komodo and many bitcoin rpc compatible coins. At this time Anoncoin, Bitmark, Carboncoin, Digibyte, Dogecoin, Earthcoin, Franko, Gamecredits, Komodo, Litecoin, Mazacoin, Namecoin, Syscoin, Unobtanium, Viacoin, VPNcoin, Zcash and Zetacoin are either working or in testing. More will probably be added before release.
What is Bitcoindark?Bitcoindark is a privacy centered coin that was expected to be used by Supernet for some of its features but it’s going to be gradually phased out and fully replaced by Komodo. Thus references to Btcd in old Supernet related articles must be considered as pertaining to Komodo for the same purpose.
What is Komodo?Komodo is a privacy centered coin with Zcash technology and a new delayed-proof-of-stake (dPoW) consensus mechanism that uses Bitcoin hashrate to secure itself and other coins. Like its predecessor, Komodo will also serve as underlying basis for the pegged asset system, for notarization and for many other Supernet features.
What advantages other coins have to use the notarization service rather than making their own dPoW system? It costs a lot to make constant transactions to the Bitcoin blockchain and tx fees are expected to become more expensive in the future. It is a lot cheaper to do those transactions to the Komodo blockchain, as Komodo is a PoS coin with a lot lower tx fees. So it makes sense for all the other coins to use Komodo as intermediary between them and Bitcoin instead of directly using the latter. Since Komodo is the first one to implement this it will become the standard gateway for
dPoW. Other coins will start using Komodo to secure their own blockchain, then it will create a lot of small transactions fees for Komodo. Part of those transaction fees will be used to pay for the bitcoin transaction fees and the system becomes self-sustaining.
What is a Liquidity Provider?All new exchanges, both centralized or decentralized, suffer from the chicken and egg problem of not having enough liquidity to attract users and users don't like trading on exchanges that have very little liquidity. Supernet bypasses this problem by allowing any user to become a liquidity provider (LP), such users can interface with centralized exchanges with their personal APIs and offer liquidity. (and charging a small premium for doing so).
Is a decentralized marketplace in the works? This feature is not currently planned by the Supernet team but other developers are free to create one. Supernet will offer all the tools necessary to built this type of service, thanks to Smartchains, API and fiat money pegs.
How does Supernet helps Bitcoin scalability?Beside Lchains and other features, Supernet could help scalability through loosely coupled bitcoin compatible blockchains. If Supernet can connect many blockchains together in a hierarchy, it can scale up the max transactions capacity. If one blockchain can do ~100 transactions per second, then it can increase on-chain capacity by a hundredfold by connecting 100 blockchains together.
...there is so much talk about the scaling problem, but the answer is right in front of us. Just make 1000 chains, now you have 1000x the tx capacity. Make the tokens between these 1000 chains interchangeable, using something similar to the Pax gateway, which has smart sidchain type of behaviour. Really Pax is a full fledged Dapp in its own right as it is combining a realtime pricefeed with automated conversion/validation cross chain.--jl777
There is a coin that I’d like to see supported by Supernet, what can I do?It must be made a distinction between support in the multicoin wallet and support for the atomic exchange and other features.
For the wallet, only coins that are Bitcoin forks or other simple bitcoind compatibles will work natively in Iguana. Other coins with substantial changes and/or special features can probably use Iguana as a GUI, with minor tweaks, but they must be run with their own native demon. Anyway a coin could require specific changes to Iguana GUI and coin developers are encouraged to get in touch with the Supernet community and study the appropriate solution to make their coin fully compatible. Coins based on completely different codebase (like Ethereum, Nxt, Waves, Byteball, etc...) can't work natively in Iguana and they would require a lot more work to just use it as a GUI. Again it's not impossible and coin developers are encouraged to study their own solution for Supernet integration.
For the DEX feature, interoperability requires to make a 2of2 multisig using secp256k1 keypairs. Any non-bitcoin compatible coin that supports it can be integrated and traded with the decentralized atomic exchange (once the blackbox plugin setup feature will get implemented!).
Given the great upsides of integration into the Supernet platform, all forward-thinking coin communities should put effort into achieving this purpose and it's up to them to offer bounties and coding contests for such work. The Supernet team is always available for support and questions in the
official Slack but they can't integrate themselves all existing and new cryptos because main development has the highest priority.
...theoretically any coin that can do 2of2 sekp256k1 multisig can be a DEX compatible coin. --jl777
When is Supernet going to be released?After two years of tireless work a minimal version of Iguana is expected to be released 31 january 31, 2017.
What is the timeline for the release of a fully featured Supernet?Supernet is a huge project with many long term goals and it’s impossible to offer exact dates. James (jl777) has written over 100k lines of code in the course two years and he had also to overcome many
external obstacles while doing so. By far the greatest work has been the creation of a new optimized bitcoind implementation in C that is now Iguana. The other features have been coded at least at alpha stage. After Iguana release the development timeline will probably be: InstantDex, Pangea Poker, Pax2. Some features need that others be implemented first. While other features are less a priority. Thanks to the funds collected by Komodo Ico the development is expected to greatly accelerate in the course of 2017 and James will be able to focus on deep issues and important features.
...in 5 years, it should be fully integrated seamlessly wherever it makes sense to have crypto or privacy. The easier it is to use, the harder it is to create. --jl777
Useful links?The best way to stay updated with latest developments is by joining the
Supernet Slack, channels #iguana #komodo
http://slackinvite.supernet.org/http://coremedia.info/index.php/supernethttps://github.com/jl777/SuperNEThttp://docs.supernet.org/Komodo
https://komodoplatform.com/https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1605144.0https://github.com/jl777/komodo
