Saturday, September 9, 2023

Nervos FAQs

​

https://preview.redd.it/rnz9c6crtanb1.png?width=2800&format=png&auto=webp&s=056b7a2404740e6fbc30f6157ac5f66a82c0ed5d

General

  • What is Nervos?

    • Nervos is an open-source, public, and permissionless modular blockchain network built to solve the shortcomings of existing blockchain technology. The Common Knowledge Base (CKB) is Nervos' Layer 1. It's a preservational smart contract platform built from the ground up to ensure outstanding security, decentralization, flexibility, and interoperability. To achieve scalability, Nervos is designed to offload transaction execution on various Layer 2 networks, including Godwoken, an EVM-equivalent optimistic rollup, and Axon, a Layer 2 framework for building extremely high-performance sidechains with native cross-chain or interoperability features.
    • Nervos: An In-Depth Overview of a Blockchain Network Built for Modularity

  • How long has Nervos been around?

    • Nervos was conceived in 2017, with the first whitepaper being released in January 2018. CKB launched on mainnet in November 2019.

  • Is Nervos on Mainnet?

    • Yes. Nervos CKB mainnet was launched in November 2019.

  • Does Nervos have a native token?

    • Yes. The native token of Nervos’s Layer 1 blockchain, Common Knowledge Base, is called CKByte (CKB).

  • How does Nervos differentiate itself from other blockchain networks?

    • First, the freedom of choice in cryptographic primitives. On Nervos CKB, there are no hard-coded cryptographic primitives at the consensus layer, only transaction sequencing, so almost any cryptographic primitive can be used flexibly by developers.Second, Account Abstraction. Nervos CKB leverages a novel accounting model called the Cell model, a generalized version of the UTXO model first introduced in Bitcoin. The Cell model is abstract, with no internal structure enforced on the data stored in cells, and its layout is wholly left to developers.Third, decentralization and verifiability. Contrary to most smart contract platforms, CKB has been designed with the goal of empowering users to run blockchain nodes themselves, and employs unique tokenomics and an innovative virtual machine to ensure that CKB remains maximally decentralized.

  • What problems does Nervos aim to solve in the blockchain industry?

    • As a modular blockchain network, Nervos is positioned to service the needs of the future of Web3. It leverages a uniquely designed Layer 1, called Common Knowledge Base (CKB), that is exceptionally secure, decentralized, flexible, and interoperable, providing the ideal base layer for anchoring various types of Layer 2 solutions. Moreover, the CKB employs an innovative tokenomic model optimized for a store-of-value or a state preservation-focused platform that provides adequate value capture for all network stakeholders.

  • Can you explain Nervos' layered architecture? What are its advantages?

    • Like other modular blockchains, Nervos offloads transaction execution on Layer 2 networks to scale without sacrificing decentralization and security. However, unlike most other projects in this category, Nervos was designed from the get-go and the ground up with modularity in mind.This is where its moat lies.Instead of being a typical transactional platform like most other Layer 1 blockchains, the Nervos Layer 1, Common Knowledge Base (CKB), was designed as a preservational smart contract platform that optimizes for (i) security and decentralization through Proof-of-Work; (ii) flexibility through the RISC-V-based virtual machine and the Cell model; and (iii) long-term sustainability through its unique tokenomics model.

  • What's the role of Nervos' native token CKByte (CKB) in the network?

    • Nervos’ native token is called CKByte, or CKB for short. One CKB token entitles the holder to one byte of data storage on the blockchain. The CKByte token is also used to pay transaction fees.

  • How does Nervos ensure security and scalability within its network?

    • Nervos is secured by the most robust and battle-tested consensus model currently available: Proof-of-Work. Specifically, CKB uses an optimized version of Bitcoin’s Nakamoto Consensus model, NC-MAX, which improves the already robust mechanism by patching its vulnerability to selfish mining attacks and improving its transaction throughput capabilities.It also leverages a novel hash function, Eaglesong, which ensured CKB had the same path dependence-derived security as Bitcoin upon bootstrapping. This means that CKB can achieve higher security than Bitcoin—assuming the same security budget—while trumping Proof-of-Stake-based blockchains in decentralization, permissionlessness, and neutrality.As for scalability, a multi-layered approach is taken. This involves a network architecture consisting of a preservation-focused Layer 1 optimized for verification, with many transactional Layer 2 networks optimized for computation or transaction execution built on top.

Token and Governance

  • Can you explain the tokenomics of the CKByte?

    • The CKB token launched with an initial supply of 33.6 billion coins, 8.4 billion of which were burned on launch. The base issuance is 33.6 billion coins per year and halves every four years until it hits zero, whereas the fixed secondary issuance is 1.344 billion per year.

  • How are CKBytes distributed, and how can they be obtained?

    • Miners receive CKB rewards from two sources: the base and secondary issuance. The secondary issuance depends on state occupation. For example, if half of the circulating CKB coins are used to store state, miners would receive half of the secondary issuance reward.When the base issuance eventually ends, miners will keep earning this "state rent" income from the secondary issuance, regardless of transaction demand, which ensures they're incentivized to secure the blockchain long-term.Long-term CKB holders can seek inflation shelter from the secondary issuance (receiving some secondary issuance) by locking their coins in the NervosDAO smart contract.CKB tokens can be obtained by mining, staking in the NervosDAO inflation shelter, or purchased on the secondary market.

  • What's the role of CKBytes in the NervosDAO?

    • CKBytes holders can lock their tokens in NervosDAO to earn a portion of the secondary issuance. The goal of the NervosDAO smart contract is to offset the inflationary effects of the secondary issuance on long-term CKB holders. This means that, for NervosDAO depositors, CKB effectively acts as a deflationary, hard-capped asset.On the other hand, state occupiers on the Layer 1 have their CKBytes locked, meaning they can't seek from the inflation produced by the secondary issuance by depositing to the NervosDAO. This means that the secondary issuance is dilutive exclusively to state occupiers, effectively acting as a state rent extraction mechanism for the protocol. Once the cells occupying the space are consumed, the CKBytes are released, and they can then be placed in NervosDAO. This provides an incentive to remove unnecessary data from CKB to keep the blockchain manageable and prevent long-term state bloat.CKB in the Nervos DAO is also used for governance, the first function being for voting for grant issuance in the CKB Community Fund DAO.

  • How does Nervos governance work?

    • The RFC (Request for Comments) process provides a permissionless, community-driven way for improvement proposals and standards to guide the Nervos network in the desired direction.For more information about governance, consult this section of the Nervos positioning paper.

  • How does Nervos governance work?

    • The RFC (Request for Comments) process provides a permissionless, community-driven way for improvement proposals and standards to guide the Nervos network in the desired direction.For more information about governance, consult this section of the Nervos positioning paper.

  • How can CKByte holders influence the direction of the network?

    • The most direct way to influence the direction of the network is to participate in the RFC process on Github.Depositors in the Nervos DAO can also vote for grant issuance in the CKB Community Fund DAO.For more information, join the community on Discord and Telegram to enquire about how you can actively take part in the Nervos movement. We grow as the community grows.

Interoperability

  • How does Nervos enable cross-chain interoperability?

    • Common Knowledge Base is the most flexible and interoperable Layer 1 in the space. Because it supports all current and future cryptographic primitives, CKB can serve as a robust foundation that lends security to a diverse set of Layer 2 networks that leverage different consensus mechanisms, programming languages, execution environments, and data availability storage methods. It can also serve as a central hub or a cross-chain bridge, allowing various heterogeneous blockchains to communicate. This unprecedented level of flexibility and interoperability is made possible by Nervos’ unique accounting model, the Cell model, and the RISC-V instruction set-based virtual machine.

  • Can you share some examples of how Nervos interacts with other blockchains?

    • One of the most innovative applications built on CKB is the .bit protocol, which showcases the true potential of CKB's flexibility and compatibility across chains. It is a cross-chain Web3 digital identity protocol that enables users to map human-readable names, like "Nervos.bit," to machine-readable identifiers like blockchain addresses.What sets .bit apart from other digital identity protocols like Ethereum's ENS (Ethereum Name Service) is its broad compatibility. While ENS only supports Ethereum addresses, .bit allows users to register and manage their accounts using (theoretically) any public chain address or even email. This means that users can create and manage .bit accounts with their Dogecoin, Bitcoin, or any other public chain addresses and seamlessly use them across multiple chains. Beyond managing digital identities, .bit users can also store a wide range of information in their .bit accounts, including PGP public keys, Magnet URL schemes, smart contract addresses, software MD5 hashes, and personal introductions.Essentially, .bit is a self-sovereign data container that users can use as their all-encompassing Web3 account. Because CKB supports all cryptographic primitives, .bit accounts can be accessed using the keypairs of all public chains or other sign-in methods typical of Web2 applications like FaceID, fingerprints, Apple Passkeys, and others.Check out .bit’s website here!

  • What is the Force Bridge, and how does it contribute to cross-chain transactions?

    • Force Bridge is a cross-chain bridge that allows for seamless transactions between Nervos CKB, Ethereum, and BNB Chain.

  • How does Nervos plan to expand its interoperability features in the future?

    • Forcerelay, a relayer whose message schema follows the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol (the gateway to the Cosmos ecosystem), is already in the late stages of development. Axon chains will use Forcerelay to interoperate with CKB, other Axon sidechains, and other IBC-powered blockchains.

PoW / Mining

  • Why has Nervos chosen PoW?

    • The role of a Layer 1 blockchain in a modular blockchain stack is to minimize complexity, focus on verification and settlement instead of computation or transaction execution, and lend security to the upper, execution-focused layers.Proof-of-Work is the most battle-tested consensus mechanism, which provides superior security, decentralization, censorship, and capture-resistance to blockchains. For those reasons, it was the consensus mechanism of choice for Nervos’ Layer 1, CKB.

  • CKB Mining: https://www.nervos.org/mining

  • Mining Rigs: https://minerstat.com/coin/CKB/profitability

  • Mining Pools: https://miningpoolstats.stream/nervos

  • Why did Nervos choose a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism over Proof-of-Stake (PoS) or others

    • While alternative consensus mechanisms, such as Proof-of-Stake (PoS), have emerged in recent years, they come with their own set of trade-offs. Proof-of-Stake systems, for instance, tend to centralize control by granting more influence to those with larger token holdings. Additionally, Proof-of-Stake-based blockchains may lack the robust security features that Proof-of-Work offers, as the latter demands substantial energy expenditure to maintain network integrity. Most importantly, Proof-of-Stake-based blockchains are susceptible to “invisible capture,” which means that when an entity gains control over 51% of the staked assets, it secures a permanent monopoly over the validator set. On the other hand, due to the mining difficulty adjustment mechanism in Proof-of-Work blockchains, nobody is ever guaranteed a monopoly position.

  • How does mining work in the Nervos Network?

    • Mining in the Nervos Network is an essential process which helps secure the network, validate transactions, and create new blocks in the blockchain. Miners utilize specialized ASIC-based hardware, known as mining rigs, to solve complex mathematical puzzles to generate proofs (of work) which are necessary to validate transactions and create new blocks.

  • What are the hardware requirements for mining CKBytes?

    • Visit F2Pool’s miner page to discover the most profitable ASIC machines for CKB mining.

  • Is it profitable to mine CKBytes, and if so, what factors influence its profitability?

    • You can visit F2Pool’s miner page to discover the most profitable ASIC machines for CKB mining. The profitability of CKB mining is influenced by the total hashrate of the network, energy costs, and the current market value of the block rewards (CKB’s price).

  • How are mining rewards distributed in the Nervos Network?

    • CKB miners are compensated with both block rewards and transaction fees. They receive all of the base issuance and a portion of secondary CKB issuance.

  • How does Nervos Network ensure fair mining practices and prevent centralization of mining power?

    • Nervos utilizes a novel hash function called Eaglesong, which was implemented to ensure that large industrial miners couldn’t use their existing mining equipment (used for mining other Proof-of-Work-based coins like Bitcoin that utilize the SHA-256 hash function) to mine CKB and capture the majority of the network upon its launch. Beyond that, the game-theoretic mechanics inherent to the Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism ensure that no single entity can capture and secure a long-term monopoly over the network.

  • Can I participate in Nervos mining as a solo miner, or must I join a mining pool?

    • Yes, you can participate in Nervos mining as a solo miner; the choice is entirely yours. However, joining a mining pool ensures a greater predictability of the mining rewards.

  • What's the block time in the Nervos Network, and how does it affect mining?

  • Is there a halving event in Nervos like in Bitcoin, and if so, when is the next one?

    • Yes. The first halving is estimated to occur on Sunday, November 19, 2023. The projected halvings are set to occur every four years following the network’s mainnet launch.

  • How does the difficulty adjustment algorithm work in Nervos for mining?

    • CKB's Proof-of-Work blockchain consensus mechanism (NC-MAX) adjusts mining difficulty in response to network conditions. Thus, throughput can be increased when nodes are well connected and reduced when the block orphan rate rises.The difficulty adjustment algorithm aims to stabilize the orphan block rate at 2.5% and the epoch duration at four hours. The number of epochs per halving is: 4 * 365 * (24 / 4) = 8760; and the Nth halving of CKBytes firstly occurs on epoch: the_Nth_halving_epoch = 8760 * N
    • For more information on the halving, visit this page.

  • How does Nervos deal with the environmental concerns associated with PoW mining?

    • First, the energy-intensive Proof-of-Work mechanism is what makes CKB secure and decentralized. Alternatives like Proof-of-Stake may consume less energy but offer different trade-offs, including a tendency towards capture, censorship, and centralization, which are unacceptable for the basis of a permissionless, digital economy.Second, it must be mentioned that upon examination, many of the studies raising alarm about PoW's energy use and carbon emissions have shown to utilize dubious methodologies which lead to misleading statistics. For instance, some of the most popular studies extrapolate Bitcoin's future energy use based on current trends without considering the industry's rapid pace of innovation and efficiency improvements. It's also important to maintain objectivity by comparing PoW's energy consumption with that of traditional financial systems. By considering the energy used by banks, ATMs, card networks, and other parts of global financial infrastructure, criticism of proof of work energy use can be reasonably assessed.As for the environmental concerns, specifically, it's essential to differentiate between energy consumption and carbon emissions. Not all energy consumption is environmentally detrimental. The type of energy and how it's produced are what matter. Many PoW miners are strategically located near sources of renewable energy or use otherwise wasted energy, such as hydroelectric dams or flared gas from oil extraction sites.Miners are motivated to seek out cheap, efficient energy sources, which often leads them to renewable options. For instance, in Texas, mining has been integrated into the energy grid, helping to absorb excess electricity generation and stabilize the grid. More recently, PoW mining’s impact on the economics of vented methane capture has shown how nuanced the issues can get. Methane is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. It is also a byproduct of oil extraction. Previously the most economic option was to burn the gas, which is a very inefficient means of converting the methane into carbon dioxide.Methane, is however, a source of energy. Creating an economy around specialized, precision conversion of methane into carbon dioxide is one example of how mining has actually produced a net positive result in this equation.While raising alarm about PoW environmental concerns is an easy headline, creating an anthropogenic world more in line with the natural world is a complex task. The game theoretic mechanics inherent to PoW lead miners to the cheapest energy sources. In the past, this has been stranded energy, in the future it will be excess energy generated by renewable energy sources. As time progresses, and the utility of PoW is better understood and implemented by the energy sector, the concerns will subdue.

  • Are there any tools or resources available to monitor and optimize Nervos mining operations?

    • Beyond the mining pool sites, there are no official resources available. Consulting with more experienced members of the CKB mining community lurking in our Discord and Telegram communities is the way to go.

  • Are there future plans to change the Nervos’ consensus mechanism from PoW to something else?

    • No.

  • How does Nervos' PoW mechanism contribute to the security of the network?

    • Nervos opted for the most robust and battle-tested consensus model currently available: Proof-of-Work. Specifically, CKB uses an optimized version of Bitcoin’s Nakamoto Consensus model, called NC-MAX, that improves the already robust mechanism by patching its vulnerability to selfish mining attacks and improves its transaction throughput capabilities. It also leverages a novel hash function, Eaglesong, that ensured CKB had the same path dependence-derived security as Bitcoin upon bootstrapping. All of this means that CKB can achieve higher security than Bitcoin—assuming the same security budget—while absolutely trumping Proof-of-Stake-based blockchains in terms of decentralization, permissionlessness, and neutrality.

Nodes

  • What are the requirements to run a Nervos node?

    • CKB has been engineered to be able to run on any consumer hardware. Some run nodes on their laptops, some use Raspberry Pi’s. Some users utilize the Command Prompt/Terminal, while others use the Neuron desktop application.The initial sync of the node involves validating years of transaction history, so it can take a day or two (and involves downloading and storing ~35gb of data), however after the initial sync the node will run seamlessly on your computer.Read here for a more in-depth explanation.

  • How many nodes are currently on the Nervos network?

    • You can monitor the number of online CKB nodes in real time here.

  • How are nodes incentivized on the Nervos network?

    • There aren’t any financial incentives to run a Nervos node beyond the simple fact that running a full node is the only way to personally ensure that all of the blockchain’s transactions are valid–as you’d be validating them yourself.

  • Can anyone run a node on the Nervos network, or are there specific requirements?

    • Nervos CKB is a permissionless public blockchain, meaning anyone can run a node.

  • What security measures are in place to protect nodes and the network?

    • The network is secured by the proof of work of the network (mining). A node is simply validating the history of the chain and sharing it with others. Bitcoin has run for more than a decade without incident, proof of work has shown to be an incomprehensibly robust source of security.

Incubation and Development

  • Does Nervos Network have a grants or incubation program for developers or startups?

    • You can apply for the CKB Community Fund DAO, an ecosystem fund initiated by the Nervos community and jointly contributed by leading ecosystem projects and the Nervos Foundation to fund projects within the Layer 1 CKB ecosystem, including code development, event organization, and content production.

  • What support does Nervos provide to developers building on its platform?

    • Beyond the potential to secure funding through the grants process, application developers on CKB can count on complete technical support from CKB’s core development team, including knowledge transfer, guidance, and tooling.

  • How does Nervos Network support the growth of the blockchain ecosystem?

    • Nervos plans to cherry-pick projects that might choose to integrate their protocols into our network, given that they are useful, sustainable, or right for the Foundation to onboard.

Account Abstraction

  • Can you explain what account abstraction is and how it is implemented in Nervos?

    • The idea of account abstraction is to generalize and change the logic of blockchain accounts to improve the user experience and make managing blockchain accounts and custodying crypto assets easier and safer. Abstracting an account means decoupling the signer (keypair) or the object authorized to initiate transactions or spend cryptocurrencies from the account, the object holding the cryptocurrencies, to make the latter more flexible and the former easier to manage.As things currently stand, the most abstract blockchain in the industry is Nervos' Layer 1, Common Knowledge Base. Namely, CKB achieves proper protocol-level account abstraction by primarily leveraging two things: (i) an abstract accounting model called the Cell model, which is a generalized version of the UTXO model with powerful programming capabilities, and (ii) a completely abstract virtual machine, called CKB-VM.The CKB-VM is utterly abstract because it has zero precompiles built into it, meaning it can support all cryptographic primitives by default. This allows application developers to build, for example, passwordless wallets like JoyID that can manage accounts using Apple Passkeys, among other signing schemes.The Cell model is also abstract because it's a generalized version of the UTXO model with no internal structure enforced on the data stored in cells and a layout entirely left to developers. UTXO-based blockchains are asset-oriented instead of identity-oriented, representing and tracking cryptocurrency transfers as unspent outputs from past transactions rather than changes in account balances. In other words, UTXO-based blockchains have no explicit concept of an account. Instead, "accounts" are merely abstractions created by crypto wallets (off-chain keypair management software) that track unspent transaction outputs or UTXOs.To learn about account abstraction on Nervos, read this article.

  • How does account abstraction in Nervos differ from the traditional account model used in Ethereum and other blockchains?

    • CKB uses the Cell accounting model, which is a generalized version of the UTXO model with better programmability. The key point to understand here is that UTXO-based blockchains are inherently abstract, as they have no explicit concept of "accounts." Instead, "accounts" are merely abstractions created by crypto wallets (off-chain keypair management software) that track unspent transaction outputs or UTXOs that belong or can be spent by a single signer. Beyond this, CKB offers account abstraction at the protocol level, unlike Ethereum and other smart contract platforms that abstract accounts at the application level. This is because CKB doesn't precompile any cryptographic primitives at the consensus layer but rather allows anyone to import them as if they were mere plug-ins at the smart contract layer. This means that users don't have to use the default blake2b-secp256k1 signature verification algorithm but can instead pick any other algorithm, including blake2b-sha3-schnorr, blake2b-secp256r1, or keccak256-ed25519 for transaction authentication.Learn more here.

  • How does the account abstraction improve user experience on the Nervos network?

    • This could be a long winded answer, but the best practical example of the UX benefits of CKB’s protocol-level account abstraction is JoyID. It’s a passwordless, mnemonics-free, non-custodial wallet which takes literally two seconds to create. Just go ahead and try it, and then let us know if you’ve experienced anything like it ever before. If it doesn’t blow your mind, we’ll give you your two seconds back.

Wallets

  • What are some recommended wallets for storing and managing CKBytes?

  • How secure are the wallets that support CKBytes?

    • Only one official node wallet has been produced from in and around the foundation: the Neuron wallet. However, many wallets have established themselves in the space over the years, including IMTOKEN and Safepal. These wallets are not in our control, so we'd strongly advise you to abide by the age-old rule in crypto: do your own research.

  • Is there an official Nervos Network wallet? If so, what features does it offer?

    • The official Nervos wallet is the Neuron wallet, seen in the link above and on the website. It's a node wallet, meaning it has to sync before it can be used. Using it ensures that you can confirm your transactions and that you are adding a decentralization enhancement to the network. It also means that you can 'hardcap' your tokens in the NervosDAO periodically and receive a portion of the secondary issuance.

  • Can I store other assets or tokens besides CKBytes in these wallets?

    • You can't hold any other assets using the official Neuron Node wallet, as it's a CKB-specific wallet. However, you can hold CKB and other assets using other wallets, including MetaMask and Safepal.

Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)