Topic: AELF BLOCKCHAIN ($ELF) | Aelf Will Launch Mainnet on 10th - page 2. (Read 963 times)
A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding the aelf WhitePaper (Part 2)
If you have read the whitepaper of some blockchain projects, you might find them difficult to understand or even make no sense. As a result, readers (not speculators) are often at a loss as to what these projects are trying to do. Unfortunately, many projects often assume their readers are all experts and can understand the whitepapers with no difficulty. In reality, most blockchain projects are much more complex than Bitcoin. Therefore, if readers only know how Bitcoin works, they still cannot understand these projects’ whitepapers. If you want to draw potential developers to your platform, it is necessary to provide a beginner’s guide to understanding your whitepaper.
Yesterday we talked about what is the blockchain, today we would like to introduce the smart contract.
What is a smart contract?
The definition of smart contract in many books, articles and videos is very misleading from a developer’s point of view. They often explain that smart contract is a new generation of legal contract, deed, or proof of ownership, etc., and since they is code-based, smart contracts are highly intelligent. But this definition is only for those working in finance or other sectors who do not know computer science and coding. They need only to know that smart contract is very powerful, and that’s enough (in some sense, this is all very well). But what is smart contract exactly?
In fact, smart contract is neither smart nor is it a contract, it is just a string of code. So why do people call it smart contract rather than a more intuitive name? That’s because it has been called smart contract all along, and programmers are too lazy to change the name. Smart contracts, like Python or Java codes, are written in a high-level language, and compiled into bytecode to be run as opcode on a virtual machine. You might already know things like JVM and Python-VM, or EVM on the Ethereum blockchain. For the aelf project, smart contracts are written in C#, and they are run on the .NET framework after being compiled.
Calling the execution of a smart contract is in some sense similar to making an http request: In a traditional requesting process, you type in a URL to tell the remote server to send you back some data (html, css, javascripts, etc.), or tell the server to execute some server-side programs which could be written in Java to change some states of the server. The same is true for smart contracts. Just like a request, we send a transaction to the target contract address, whether it costs cryptocurrency or not. When the contract receives the calling request from the transaction, it will execute some specific functions in the smart contract code, depending on the parameters in your transaction. If there is enough gas, the executing result will change this smart contract’s state, send you the data of the result, or send you cryptocurrency.
However, in comparison to the instant response from a remote server after an http request, the execution of a smart contract will take some time after you send a transaction. As I have mentioned in the Bingo game article, when you send a transaction, the transaction will be broadcast to as many nodes as possible, and every mining node will include it into its candidate block. After a while, when one mining node produces a new block, it will broadcast this block to other nodes, of course, this block is confirmed. This process will take some time, and for most real applications only producing one new block cannot guarantee the safety and validity of the transaction, so more blocks should be concatenated consecutively after this block. On the aelf blockchain, at least 8 new blocks should be generated after the production of the block containing the transaction. Of course, if one block containing this transaction is finally packaged by a mining node, when satisfying a certain consensus condition, the target smart contract is then executed on a full node (full node can be a mining node, or vice versa). But with more and more blocks being generated after this block, it will be virtually impossible to tamper with the execution result of this smart contract by forking to another chain.
In the Bingo game example, the “bet” button is such a method in our smart contract. When we place a bet, a transaction is sent to the contract. After one block is packaged, the method is executed and thus the contract will know how much you want to bet. In order to let the contract know your bet amount and to avoid anyone tampering with your bet amount, you have to wait until 8 subsequent new blocks are produced. So how long does it take? As is shown in the last article or in the demo video, it takes about 30 seconds. In fact, no one knows exactly how long does it take to generate 8 blocks, but we know that after 30s more than 8 blocks must have been already produced.
Having explained these two basic concepts, it is much easier to understand any blockchain projects, including aelf. No matter how sophisticated the technologies a blockchain project applies, they will all be based on these two concepts.
In the next article, we will dive into the aelf blockchain whitepaper to demystify all the important features of this enterprise-level project! To be continued.
If you have read the whitepaper of some blockchain projects, you might find them difficult to understand or even make no sense. As a result, readers (not speculators) are often at a loss as to what these projects are trying to do. Unfortunately, many projects often assume their readers are all experts and can understand the whitepapers with no difficulty. In reality, most blockchain projects are much more complex than Bitcoin. Therefore, if readers only know how Bitcoin works, they still cannot understand these projects’ whitepapers. If you want to draw potential developers to your platform, it is necessary to provide a beginner’s guide to understanding your whitepaper.
Yesterday we talked about what is the blockchain, today we would like to introduce the smart contract.
What is a smart contract?
The definition of smart contract in many books, articles and videos is very misleading from a developer’s point of view. They often explain that smart contract is a new generation of legal contract, deed, or proof of ownership, etc., and since they is code-based, smart contracts are highly intelligent. But this definition is only for those working in finance or other sectors who do not know computer science and coding. They need only to know that smart contract is very powerful, and that’s enough (in some sense, this is all very well). But what is smart contract exactly?
In fact, smart contract is neither smart nor is it a contract, it is just a string of code. So why do people call it smart contract rather than a more intuitive name? That’s because it has been called smart contract all along, and programmers are too lazy to change the name. Smart contracts, like Python or Java codes, are written in a high-level language, and compiled into bytecode to be run as opcode on a virtual machine. You might already know things like JVM and Python-VM, or EVM on the Ethereum blockchain. For the aelf project, smart contracts are written in C#, and they are run on the .NET framework after being compiled.
Calling the execution of a smart contract is in some sense similar to making an http request: In a traditional requesting process, you type in a URL to tell the remote server to send you back some data (html, css, javascripts, etc.), or tell the server to execute some server-side programs which could be written in Java to change some states of the server. The same is true for smart contracts. Just like a request, we send a transaction to the target contract address, whether it costs cryptocurrency or not. When the contract receives the calling request from the transaction, it will execute some specific functions in the smart contract code, depending on the parameters in your transaction. If there is enough gas, the executing result will change this smart contract’s state, send you the data of the result, or send you cryptocurrency.
However, in comparison to the instant response from a remote server after an http request, the execution of a smart contract will take some time after you send a transaction. As I have mentioned in the Bingo game article, when you send a transaction, the transaction will be broadcast to as many nodes as possible, and every mining node will include it into its candidate block. After a while, when one mining node produces a new block, it will broadcast this block to other nodes, of course, this block is confirmed. This process will take some time, and for most real applications only producing one new block cannot guarantee the safety and validity of the transaction, so more blocks should be concatenated consecutively after this block. On the aelf blockchain, at least 8 new blocks should be generated after the production of the block containing the transaction. Of course, if one block containing this transaction is finally packaged by a mining node, when satisfying a certain consensus condition, the target smart contract is then executed on a full node (full node can be a mining node, or vice versa). But with more and more blocks being generated after this block, it will be virtually impossible to tamper with the execution result of this smart contract by forking to another chain.
In the Bingo game example, the “bet” button is such a method in our smart contract. When we place a bet, a transaction is sent to the contract. After one block is packaged, the method is executed and thus the contract will know how much you want to bet. In order to let the contract know your bet amount and to avoid anyone tampering with your bet amount, you have to wait until 8 subsequent new blocks are produced. So how long does it take? As is shown in the last article or in the demo video, it takes about 30 seconds. In fact, no one knows exactly how long does it take to generate 8 blocks, but we know that after 30s more than 8 blocks must have been already produced.
Having explained these two basic concepts, it is much easier to understand any blockchain projects, including aelf. No matter how sophisticated the technologies a blockchain project applies, they will all be based on these two concepts.
In the next article, we will dive into the aelf blockchain whitepaper to demystify all the important features of this enterprise-level project! To be continued.
A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding the aelf WhitePaper (Part 1)
What is a blockchain?
In the Bingo game DApp demo, we’ve already talked about the aelf real random number generator, which can generate unpredictable random numbers between 0 and 255, making it a useful tool. The interaction logic of this DApp’s backend is very much the same as that of blockchain smart contract. But this DApp is so simple that it doesn’t really show what aelf is capable of. In fact, aelf’s got an awful lot more in its arsenal. When it comes to supporting enterprise-level applications, this is where aelf comes in. For someone who is new to aelf, the best way to aquaint yourself with aelf’s technology is to read the aelf technical whitepaper.
If you have read the whitepaper of some blockchain projects, you might find them difficult to understand or even make no sense. As a result, readers (not speculators) are often at a loss as to what these projects are trying to do. Unfortunately, many projects often assume their readers are all experts and can understand the whitepapers with no difficulty. In reality, most blockchain projects are much more complex than Bitcoin. Therefore, if readers only know how Bitcoin works, they still cannot understand these projects’ whitepapers. If you want to draw potential developers to your platform, it is necessary to provide a beginner’s guide to understanding your whitepaper.
That’s why we have prepared this guide. But before reading this guide, you can quickly go through our website, read our slogan, watch the promo video on the homepage, download the whitepaper and before long, you may find something you cannot understand. Don’t worry, let’s start with aelf’s slogan:
Aelf, a Decentralized Cloud Computing Blockchain Network
Cloud computing is the most fundamental feature driving the entire aelf blockchain ecosystem. Running data intensive computation on multiple computers is obviously more cost-effective than on one mainframe computer. Suppose these computers are assembled in a huge building called data center, say thousands of computers, with professional maintenance by a company, say, Amazon, then these data centers are called a cloud, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Having said that, it is still hard for a beginner to understand why cloud computing gives aelf an indispensable edge. This is because most people, including some in the blockchain sector, don’t have a sound knowledge of some of blockchain’s key concepts. As a result, it is difficult for them to move on to the more complex technology, let alone analyze the pros and cons of a blockchain project and its potentials. As far as I know, I think it is necessary to set the record straight on two important blockchain concepts.
What is a blockchain?
This is nonsense! We all know blockchain is a tamper-proof distributed ledger or database technology, as any professional would explain to you. You most probably have memorized this definition by heart and would rattle it off whenever someone asks you what blockchain is. The truth is, this definition is very misleading. Blockchain is not a new invention, nor does it have any magical features (for example: the magical tamper-proof feature). In this sense, it is different from the magical stuff in an alchemist’s furnace. Instead of viewing blockchain as a ledger or database, it is better to see it as a distributed system. So what is a distributed system?
A distributed system is a large number of interconnected computers, which makes it a peer-to-peer system. It was invented around 1960, long before the advent of Internet. There are already a lot of well-known distributed-system-based softwares, such as Bit-torrent and Netflix. In these softwares, people can upload the files on their computers to the P2P network and anyone can download them. But a distributed system can do much more. In the distributed system discipline, people have to solve a big problem, that is, everyone (every node) in the P2P network need to make an unanimous decision no matter what information they receive, and this unanimous decision is what we call a consensus, and this problem is called the Byzantine General Problem.
Say there are three Byzantine generals wanting to attack the same fortress, and they are at three different locations, they could only rely on couriers to send messages. In this situation, any general can only make a decision based on the other two generals’ messages. If one general wants to attack, he let couriers send the “attack” message to the other two generals, so do the other two generals. If the generals are all loyal, each of them should receive “attack, attack” coming from other two generals, and all three generals would attack the fortress. But if one of them is a traitor, he could send one general “attack” and send the other “retreat”, this other general will receive “attack, retreat”, if he follows majority rule, he will not make a decision because the votes on attack and retreat are the same. At the same time, the other general will attack, and the result is that these three generals will not reach a consensus on attack.
The generals are just like the nodes of a distributed system (i.e. blockchain). There are at least two points worth noting: first, all massages (transactions), have to be sent to the other generals (nodes) to keep them informed; second, all the nodes have to reach a consensus.
The first point means that it takes time for sending a message to all the nodes in a huge network, the second means that after a new block has been broadcast to the entire network, there should be a mechanism for all the nodes to agree on this block (a package of messages or logs), and it also takes time.
What is a blockchain?
In the Bingo game DApp demo, we’ve already talked about the aelf real random number generator, which can generate unpredictable random numbers between 0 and 255, making it a useful tool. The interaction logic of this DApp’s backend is very much the same as that of blockchain smart contract. But this DApp is so simple that it doesn’t really show what aelf is capable of. In fact, aelf’s got an awful lot more in its arsenal. When it comes to supporting enterprise-level applications, this is where aelf comes in. For someone who is new to aelf, the best way to aquaint yourself with aelf’s technology is to read the aelf technical whitepaper.
If you have read the whitepaper of some blockchain projects, you might find them difficult to understand or even make no sense. As a result, readers (not speculators) are often at a loss as to what these projects are trying to do. Unfortunately, many projects often assume their readers are all experts and can understand the whitepapers with no difficulty. In reality, most blockchain projects are much more complex than Bitcoin. Therefore, if readers only know how Bitcoin works, they still cannot understand these projects’ whitepapers. If you want to draw potential developers to your platform, it is necessary to provide a beginner’s guide to understanding your whitepaper.
That’s why we have prepared this guide. But before reading this guide, you can quickly go through our website, read our slogan, watch the promo video on the homepage, download the whitepaper and before long, you may find something you cannot understand. Don’t worry, let’s start with aelf’s slogan:
Aelf, a Decentralized Cloud Computing Blockchain Network
Cloud computing is the most fundamental feature driving the entire aelf blockchain ecosystem. Running data intensive computation on multiple computers is obviously more cost-effective than on one mainframe computer. Suppose these computers are assembled in a huge building called data center, say thousands of computers, with professional maintenance by a company, say, Amazon, then these data centers are called a cloud, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Having said that, it is still hard for a beginner to understand why cloud computing gives aelf an indispensable edge. This is because most people, including some in the blockchain sector, don’t have a sound knowledge of some of blockchain’s key concepts. As a result, it is difficult for them to move on to the more complex technology, let alone analyze the pros and cons of a blockchain project and its potentials. As far as I know, I think it is necessary to set the record straight on two important blockchain concepts.
What is a blockchain?
This is nonsense! We all know blockchain is a tamper-proof distributed ledger or database technology, as any professional would explain to you. You most probably have memorized this definition by heart and would rattle it off whenever someone asks you what blockchain is. The truth is, this definition is very misleading. Blockchain is not a new invention, nor does it have any magical features (for example: the magical tamper-proof feature). In this sense, it is different from the magical stuff in an alchemist’s furnace. Instead of viewing blockchain as a ledger or database, it is better to see it as a distributed system. So what is a distributed system?
A distributed system is a large number of interconnected computers, which makes it a peer-to-peer system. It was invented around 1960, long before the advent of Internet. There are already a lot of well-known distributed-system-based softwares, such as Bit-torrent and Netflix. In these softwares, people can upload the files on their computers to the P2P network and anyone can download them. But a distributed system can do much more. In the distributed system discipline, people have to solve a big problem, that is, everyone (every node) in the P2P network need to make an unanimous decision no matter what information they receive, and this unanimous decision is what we call a consensus, and this problem is called the Byzantine General Problem.
Say there are three Byzantine generals wanting to attack the same fortress, and they are at three different locations, they could only rely on couriers to send messages. In this situation, any general can only make a decision based on the other two generals’ messages. If one general wants to attack, he let couriers send the “attack” message to the other two generals, so do the other two generals. If the generals are all loyal, each of them should receive “attack, attack” coming from other two generals, and all three generals would attack the fortress. But if one of them is a traitor, he could send one general “attack” and send the other “retreat”, this other general will receive “attack, retreat”, if he follows majority rule, he will not make a decision because the votes on attack and retreat are the same. At the same time, the other general will attack, and the result is that these three generals will not reach a consensus on attack.
The generals are just like the nodes of a distributed system (i.e. blockchain). There are at least two points worth noting: first, all massages (transactions), have to be sent to the other generals (nodes) to keep them informed; second, all the nodes have to reach a consensus.
The first point means that it takes time for sending a message to all the nodes in a huge network, the second means that after a new block has been broadcast to the entire network, there should be a mechanism for all the nodes to agree on this block (a package of messages or logs), and it also takes time.
✏️Sign up for the aelf Hacker Bounty Writing Contest. Let's see how good you are at #blogging. Ledger
💰Win a prize of up to 888 ELF = 88 USD
⏰7th August - 16th August
You have 9 days to sign up & submit your articles.
✅ Topic: The Future of aelf Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol
1️⃣ You can submit more than one article, but the content must be original.
2️⃣ Explain your understanding of the CCTP or its role in blockchain security & future application in aelf-eco.
💥How to Submit:
1️⃣ Publish your article(s) on at least 2 platforms, for example, tech blogs, forums, Medium, Twitter, etc.
2️⃣ Submit this form with the article link: : https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeHs34I9iQr41F9oKnIQfKMmmp28M0EWZ0HwBvRkFPceZqShA/viewform?usp=sf_link
⚠️ We will review all submissions & announce the winners at the end of the event.
💰Win a prize of up to 888 ELF = 88 USD
⏰7th August - 16th August
You have 9 days to sign up & submit your articles.
✅ Topic: The Future of aelf Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol
1️⃣ You can submit more than one article, but the content must be original.
2️⃣ Explain your understanding of the CCTP or its role in blockchain security & future application in aelf-eco.
💥How to Submit:
1️⃣ Publish your article(s) on at least 2 platforms, for example, tech blogs, forums, Medium, Twitter, etc.
2️⃣ Submit this form with the article link: : https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeHs34I9iQr41F9oKnIQfKMmmp28M0EWZ0HwBvRkFPceZqShA/viewform?usp=sf_link
⚠️ We will review all submissions & announce the winners at the end of the event.
What is the CCTP?
CCTP is Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol.
☑️Solve cross-chain issues, such as usability, scalability & security.
☑️Realize cross-chain transfer between incompatible & independent blockchain systems.
☑️Support asset transfer between different blockchain systems.
CCTP is Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol.
☑️Solve cross-chain issues, such as usability, scalability & security.
☑️Realize cross-chain transfer between incompatible & independent blockchain systems.
☑️Support asset transfer between different blockchain systems.
aelf Hacker Bounty phase 2 has concluded and no one was able to hack CCTP! The security of the CCTP (Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol) has been proven impenetrable. 💪💪
aelf is proud to play a leading role in the review of IEEEorg 's Digital Asset Identification standards for blockchain, with our CEO Haobo Ma being Chair of the DAIWG (Digital Asset Identification Working Group).
One Year after the Public Chain Takeoff, the New Era of Blockchain 3.0 has Arrived
Everyone said that 2019 is the year public blockchains took off, and 2020 will be the first year blockchain began to achieve business adoption. Although the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on all walks of life worldwide, the blockchain industry is making great strides forward.
In just a few years, the blockchain sector has developed from 1.0 to 3.0, and each upgrade has brought about some changes in the world. As we all know, blockchain 1.0 generally refers to cryptocurrency centered around Bitcoin. Blockchain 2.0 is public chains represented by Ethereum, which can develop smart contracts. In the era of blockchain 3.0, people think that thousands of blockchains can coexist and interoperate.
In the past two years, people have had high expectations of many public chains. However, some of the so-called “blockchain 3.0” projects have either shown slow progress or failed to live up to the expectations after their mainnet went live. People then began to expect to see a killer DApp achieving wide adoption of blockchain. At the same time, as the underlying technology for blockchain connectivity, multi-chain structure and cross-chain technology have become an important part of ‘blockchain 3.0’.
aelf and other Web 3.0 projects can be seen as the underlying technology providers for the Internet of Value. On the aelf blockchain, whether it is valuable information or digital currency, everything can be connected and shared, which is where the magic of cross-chain technology lies.
If the consensus mechanism is the core competitiveness of blockchain, then the cross-chain technology is the key to realizing the Internet of Value for blockchain, particularly for alliance chains and private chains. It is the key to preventing different blockchains from being isolated islands and serves as a bridge connecting blockchain and the outside world.
Cross-chain technology is designed to prevent blockchain from being isolated islands of data
At present, although these public chain projects have seen their performance improved, none of them is able to build the much-anticipated “underlying blockchain highway’ singlehandedly. In particular, driven by the prevailing view that each public chain should be an independent ecosystem, public chains today have become isolated islands of data with different architectures incompatible systems, which poses real difficulty to DApp developers.
The cross-chain technology, as the name suggests, is aimed to realize asset circulation, information exchange and application collaboration between different blockchain platforms. It can be likened to a bridge linking different public chains, which can help realize data transmission between different blockchain networks and greatly reduce transmission costs.
It is obvious that the demand for cross-chain technology is very urgent in today’s blockchain world.
Cross-chain communication can be divided into homogeneous and heterogeneous cross-chain according to different underlying blockchain technology platforms. Cross-chain interaction between homogeneous chains is simple, since their security mechanisms, consensus algorithms, network topology, block generation verification logic are consistent. Cross-chain interaction between heterogeneous chains is quite different. For example, Bitcoin uses PoW algorithm while the alliance chain Fabric uses traditional deterministic consensus algorithm, and its block form and deterministic guarantee mechanism are very different. Since designing a direct cross-chain communication mechanism is not easy, cross-chain interaction between heterogeneous chains generally requires third-party services.
aelf is doubling down on heterogeneous cross-chain research
At present, cross-chain technology mainly includes notary schemes, hash-locking, side chains or relays, and distributed private key control. aelf uses the side chain or relay scheme.
aelf’s cross-chain logic is ‘main chain + side chain’, with an emphasis on ‘one chain, one scenario’, where each side chain can be a scenario, such as a DApp, or a DeFi app. aelf’s cross-chain architecture is centered around the main chain.
In the cross-chain process, aelf achieves intercommunication between different chains via indexing. An index is the transfer of data from one chain to another in a defined structure. The cross-chain index has two steps: parent chain indexing child chain and child chain indexing parent chain.
* The parent chain requests data from the child-chain and the data are then sent from the child chain to the parent chain.
* The parent chain processes all the child chain’s index data, generating a Merkle tree, and stores it on the chain. The child chain block has been indexed by the parent chain, and must wait for the data to be confirmed by the network.
The above steps include the whole process of the parent chain indexing the child chain’s block and the child chain re-indexing the parent chain’s block. It’s worth noting that only irreversible blocks can be indexed by other chains.
As a result, aelf does not need a Hub or a relay chain and is more of a decentralized cross-chain model. This is because communication between different chains does not necessarily require the permission of the aelf’s only main chain each time. The multi-layer child chains under the side chain can also communicate with each other with the index of the upper-layer parent chain and without the main chain getting involved.
On the premise of decentralization, aelf established that only confirmed blocks can be indexed, because only irreversible data can be trusted to ensure the network’s security. aelf also has its own solution for communicating with the Ethereum ecosystem, which can be interfaced with the Ethereum and other blockchain systems via adapters, making it compatible with existing mainstream ecosystems.
It can be seen that aelf has done a great job in homogeneous cross-chain technology, whereas some public chain projects have yet to pull it off. aelf has also begun to develop heterogeneous cross-chain technology, which will allow external chains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum to lock tokens into smart contracts and generate ccorresponding tokens on the aelf chain through contracts to achieve cross-chain communication. It is clear that aelf has taken the lead in cross-chain development.
While it’s still too early to talk about blockchain 3.0 and most projects are still trying to figure out where the underlying technologies are heading, solving the scalability issue public chains are facing today through the cross-chain technology has become the general trend. Cross-chain technology can realize communication between different chains, greatly improve blockchain’s ability to transfer value, and promote the development of IoT and cloud computing. On the other hand, without cross-chain technology, all kinds of blockchain platforms information will just be isolated islands of data, putting a significant limit on the applications of blockchain platforms.
We believe that the cross-chain mechanisms will greatly increase the value of blockchain and usher in a new era of blockchain development. With strong technical prowess and the ability to achieve commercial application, aelf will continue to explore the cross chain technology and provide strong technical support for the rapid and steady development of the industry!
Everyone said that 2019 is the year public blockchains took off, and 2020 will be the first year blockchain began to achieve business adoption. Although the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on all walks of life worldwide, the blockchain industry is making great strides forward.
In just a few years, the blockchain sector has developed from 1.0 to 3.0, and each upgrade has brought about some changes in the world. As we all know, blockchain 1.0 generally refers to cryptocurrency centered around Bitcoin. Blockchain 2.0 is public chains represented by Ethereum, which can develop smart contracts. In the era of blockchain 3.0, people think that thousands of blockchains can coexist and interoperate.
In the past two years, people have had high expectations of many public chains. However, some of the so-called “blockchain 3.0” projects have either shown slow progress or failed to live up to the expectations after their mainnet went live. People then began to expect to see a killer DApp achieving wide adoption of blockchain. At the same time, as the underlying technology for blockchain connectivity, multi-chain structure and cross-chain technology have become an important part of ‘blockchain 3.0’.
aelf and other Web 3.0 projects can be seen as the underlying technology providers for the Internet of Value. On the aelf blockchain, whether it is valuable information or digital currency, everything can be connected and shared, which is where the magic of cross-chain technology lies.
If the consensus mechanism is the core competitiveness of blockchain, then the cross-chain technology is the key to realizing the Internet of Value for blockchain, particularly for alliance chains and private chains. It is the key to preventing different blockchains from being isolated islands and serves as a bridge connecting blockchain and the outside world.
Cross-chain technology is designed to prevent blockchain from being isolated islands of data
At present, although these public chain projects have seen their performance improved, none of them is able to build the much-anticipated “underlying blockchain highway’ singlehandedly. In particular, driven by the prevailing view that each public chain should be an independent ecosystem, public chains today have become isolated islands of data with different architectures incompatible systems, which poses real difficulty to DApp developers.
The cross-chain technology, as the name suggests, is aimed to realize asset circulation, information exchange and application collaboration between different blockchain platforms. It can be likened to a bridge linking different public chains, which can help realize data transmission between different blockchain networks and greatly reduce transmission costs.
It is obvious that the demand for cross-chain technology is very urgent in today’s blockchain world.
Cross-chain communication can be divided into homogeneous and heterogeneous cross-chain according to different underlying blockchain technology platforms. Cross-chain interaction between homogeneous chains is simple, since their security mechanisms, consensus algorithms, network topology, block generation verification logic are consistent. Cross-chain interaction between heterogeneous chains is quite different. For example, Bitcoin uses PoW algorithm while the alliance chain Fabric uses traditional deterministic consensus algorithm, and its block form and deterministic guarantee mechanism are very different. Since designing a direct cross-chain communication mechanism is not easy, cross-chain interaction between heterogeneous chains generally requires third-party services.
aelf is doubling down on heterogeneous cross-chain research
At present, cross-chain technology mainly includes notary schemes, hash-locking, side chains or relays, and distributed private key control. aelf uses the side chain or relay scheme.
aelf’s cross-chain logic is ‘main chain + side chain’, with an emphasis on ‘one chain, one scenario’, where each side chain can be a scenario, such as a DApp, or a DeFi app. aelf’s cross-chain architecture is centered around the main chain.
In the cross-chain process, aelf achieves intercommunication between different chains via indexing. An index is the transfer of data from one chain to another in a defined structure. The cross-chain index has two steps: parent chain indexing child chain and child chain indexing parent chain.
* The parent chain requests data from the child-chain and the data are then sent from the child chain to the parent chain.
* The parent chain processes all the child chain’s index data, generating a Merkle tree, and stores it on the chain. The child chain block has been indexed by the parent chain, and must wait for the data to be confirmed by the network.
The above steps include the whole process of the parent chain indexing the child chain’s block and the child chain re-indexing the parent chain’s block. It’s worth noting that only irreversible blocks can be indexed by other chains.
As a result, aelf does not need a Hub or a relay chain and is more of a decentralized cross-chain model. This is because communication between different chains does not necessarily require the permission of the aelf’s only main chain each time. The multi-layer child chains under the side chain can also communicate with each other with the index of the upper-layer parent chain and without the main chain getting involved.
On the premise of decentralization, aelf established that only confirmed blocks can be indexed, because only irreversible data can be trusted to ensure the network’s security. aelf also has its own solution for communicating with the Ethereum ecosystem, which can be interfaced with the Ethereum and other blockchain systems via adapters, making it compatible with existing mainstream ecosystems.
It can be seen that aelf has done a great job in homogeneous cross-chain technology, whereas some public chain projects have yet to pull it off. aelf has also begun to develop heterogeneous cross-chain technology, which will allow external chains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum to lock tokens into smart contracts and generate ccorresponding tokens on the aelf chain through contracts to achieve cross-chain communication. It is clear that aelf has taken the lead in cross-chain development.
While it’s still too early to talk about blockchain 3.0 and most projects are still trying to figure out where the underlying technologies are heading, solving the scalability issue public chains are facing today through the cross-chain technology has become the general trend. Cross-chain technology can realize communication between different chains, greatly improve blockchain’s ability to transfer value, and promote the development of IoT and cloud computing. On the other hand, without cross-chain technology, all kinds of blockchain platforms information will just be isolated islands of data, putting a significant limit on the applications of blockchain platforms.
We believe that the cross-chain mechanisms will greatly increase the value of blockchain and usher in a new era of blockchain development. With strong technical prowess and the ability to achieve commercial application, aelf will continue to explore the cross chain technology and provide strong technical support for the rapid and steady development of the industry!
Hacker Bounty AMA Recap
Last Friday ( July 31, 2020), aelf hosted an AMA about hacker bounty and CCTP on Twitter, featuring aelf’s dev advocate, Ace. Below is a transcript of the questions and answers.
Q1: Why aelf Committed to Establishing a Unified Cross-Chain Protocol? And what does it take for increased use-cases and value of your Cross-Chain protocol?
Ace: The protocol is a standard for various user cases, business and scenarios, and with it, aelf can build the whole ecosystem based on the standard, mitigating the cost of designing different cross-chain methods in face of different type of scenarios. We will try to develop more and more popular and real-problem solving dapps on aelf blockchain, better develop many dapps of different type of scenarios.
Q2: What is the uniqueness and what is the purpose of the CCTP protocol, what problems does it solve and what is it applicable to?
Ace: It can support any kind of cross-chain asset transferring services whether the chains are mutually compatible or not. It can be used to transfer money value between different chains, transfer asset between these chains, and prove if an asset’s ownership exists. We can use it to any scenarios described above, for example some financial business
Q3: How does protocol achieves cross-chain transfers between independent blockchain systems?
Ace:: aelf use merkle proof to ensure the elf erc20 token is really locked and transfer equal value of elf token to the same user on aelf blockchain.
Q4: Whether the standard protocol of cross chain transfer of aelf has been attacked and destroyed in this hacker reward offering activity, and will it also be used in the main network mapping? I’m still looking forward to it.
Ace: Till now no one could ever do that, and the CCTP is absolute used for mainnet, otherwise all we have done would make no sense.
Q5: What is the main difference between aelf’s CCTP and other projects multi-chain protocol?
Ace: We use purely smart contracts to achieve this, all of these are on smart contract level. and in these contracts, we use index and merkle proof to relate contracts on two chains
Q6: What blockchains will CCTP first support?
Ace: As you see, we have supported the ETH, and any developer can use any other blockchain projects’s code to create more cross-chain functions with aelf.
Q7: Does team any partnerships or collaborations with other blockchains to use CCTP?
Ace: We don’t need such cooperation. CCTP, as a open-source protocol,is implemented by smart contracts, if another blockchain projects support smart contracts, they are all in CCTP’s territory.
Q8: BTC Relay belongs to the early side chain technology. Link the ETH network to the BTC network to enable users to verify BTC transactions on the ETH. When will ELF be able to conduct ETH and BTC network cross-chain transactions?
Ace: We will do this in nearly future.
Q9: Polkadot USES relay-chain technology, but at present it is mainly ETH. How is THE CCTP of aelf different from it?
Ace: We don’t need any relay-chain, we use smart contract to do cross-chain transferring.
Q10: What are the advantages?
Ace: We have own parallel execution mechanism, so we don’t need some parachain. Then we don’t need additional middle-layer chain. And we can do cross-chain with any other blockchain not only ETH.
Q11: When will a true AELF network cross chain be achieved without the ETH network?
Ace: We will always communicate with ETH to make data in both chains flowing between each other, we are not dependent on Ether. So at the very beginning aelf can operate normally without other chain’s aid.
Q12: Other public chain projects also have cross chain technology. What are the advantages of aelf wide face transfer standard protocol?
Ace: There are lots of projects using a middle man, which is centralized or partially centralized, but aelf cross-chain designation don’t rely on any middle-man of this type, we just need to build smart contracts on both chains and can easily achieve that, phew!
Q13: What applications will aelf cross chain technology have in the future?
Ace: Any application concerning about trust and decentralized need, because aelf is a fundamental platform and infrastructure.
Q14: Can you only transfer assets across chains?
Ace: We can transfer assets both cross-chain and in our own chain.
Q15: When will the Demo of aelf cross-chain asset trading be landed and announced to the community?
Ace: We are still planning and will broadcast the release date in the future.
Q16: Have you currently formed alliances with other projects to start implementing the CCTP protocol? If yes, in which projects is this protocol currently being used?
A16: We don’t need such cooperation. CCTP, as a open-source protocol, is implemented by smart contracts, if another blockchain projects support smart contracts, they are all in CCTP’s territory.
Q17: How will you handle the waiting times for confirmation of each transfer, is it possible that with the cross chain it will be faster or on the contrary it will be slower but safer?
Ace: That is partially related to the confirmation duration on other blockchain interoperate with aelf, say, Ether, if Ether do not accelerate its confirmation time, we could not be much faster although we optimize the speed of this on aelf blockchain, but of course, it is much safer.
Q18: Will the cross-chain you want to work with allow for effective cross-platform transactions or is there a risk that user assets will be lost?
Ace: As long as the counterpart chain support smart contract, especially token contract, the CCTP is really effective and extremely secure once the ownership is relayed on aelf chain.
Q19: Is any more powerful security system better then CCTP in the present blockchain system?
Ace: Our focus and understanding are different. We are exploring for this industry, and our technology is already the top of the industry.
Q20: What is the difference between CCTP and PoW or PoS? Why is the CCTP protocol so much more secure?
Ace: They have no correlation with each other, the CCTP are in essence smart contracts working together, and PoS and PoW are economically incentivising consensus to keep the whole distribution system behave the same.
Last Friday ( July 31, 2020), aelf hosted an AMA about hacker bounty and CCTP on Twitter, featuring aelf’s dev advocate, Ace. Below is a transcript of the questions and answers.
Q1: Why aelf Committed to Establishing a Unified Cross-Chain Protocol? And what does it take for increased use-cases and value of your Cross-Chain protocol?
Ace: The protocol is a standard for various user cases, business and scenarios, and with it, aelf can build the whole ecosystem based on the standard, mitigating the cost of designing different cross-chain methods in face of different type of scenarios. We will try to develop more and more popular and real-problem solving dapps on aelf blockchain, better develop many dapps of different type of scenarios.
Q2: What is the uniqueness and what is the purpose of the CCTP protocol, what problems does it solve and what is it applicable to?
Ace: It can support any kind of cross-chain asset transferring services whether the chains are mutually compatible or not. It can be used to transfer money value between different chains, transfer asset between these chains, and prove if an asset’s ownership exists. We can use it to any scenarios described above, for example some financial business
Q3: How does protocol achieves cross-chain transfers between independent blockchain systems?
Ace:: aelf use merkle proof to ensure the elf erc20 token is really locked and transfer equal value of elf token to the same user on aelf blockchain.
Q4: Whether the standard protocol of cross chain transfer of aelf has been attacked and destroyed in this hacker reward offering activity, and will it also be used in the main network mapping? I’m still looking forward to it.
Ace: Till now no one could ever do that, and the CCTP is absolute used for mainnet, otherwise all we have done would make no sense.
Q5: What is the main difference between aelf’s CCTP and other projects multi-chain protocol?
Ace: We use purely smart contracts to achieve this, all of these are on smart contract level. and in these contracts, we use index and merkle proof to relate contracts on two chains
Q6: What blockchains will CCTP first support?
Ace: As you see, we have supported the ETH, and any developer can use any other blockchain projects’s code to create more cross-chain functions with aelf.
Q7: Does team any partnerships or collaborations with other blockchains to use CCTP?
Ace: We don’t need such cooperation. CCTP, as a open-source protocol,is implemented by smart contracts, if another blockchain projects support smart contracts, they are all in CCTP’s territory.
Q8: BTC Relay belongs to the early side chain technology. Link the ETH network to the BTC network to enable users to verify BTC transactions on the ETH. When will ELF be able to conduct ETH and BTC network cross-chain transactions?
Ace: We will do this in nearly future.
Q9: Polkadot USES relay-chain technology, but at present it is mainly ETH. How is THE CCTP of aelf different from it?
Ace: We don’t need any relay-chain, we use smart contract to do cross-chain transferring.
Q10: What are the advantages?
Ace: We have own parallel execution mechanism, so we don’t need some parachain. Then we don’t need additional middle-layer chain. And we can do cross-chain with any other blockchain not only ETH.
Q11: When will a true AELF network cross chain be achieved without the ETH network?
Ace: We will always communicate with ETH to make data in both chains flowing between each other, we are not dependent on Ether. So at the very beginning aelf can operate normally without other chain’s aid.
Q12: Other public chain projects also have cross chain technology. What are the advantages of aelf wide face transfer standard protocol?
Ace: There are lots of projects using a middle man, which is centralized or partially centralized, but aelf cross-chain designation don’t rely on any middle-man of this type, we just need to build smart contracts on both chains and can easily achieve that, phew!
Q13: What applications will aelf cross chain technology have in the future?
Ace: Any application concerning about trust and decentralized need, because aelf is a fundamental platform and infrastructure.
Q14: Can you only transfer assets across chains?
Ace: We can transfer assets both cross-chain and in our own chain.
Q15: When will the Demo of aelf cross-chain asset trading be landed and announced to the community?
Ace: We are still planning and will broadcast the release date in the future.
Q16: Have you currently formed alliances with other projects to start implementing the CCTP protocol? If yes, in which projects is this protocol currently being used?
A16: We don’t need such cooperation. CCTP, as a open-source protocol, is implemented by smart contracts, if another blockchain projects support smart contracts, they are all in CCTP’s territory.
Q17: How will you handle the waiting times for confirmation of each transfer, is it possible that with the cross chain it will be faster or on the contrary it will be slower but safer?
Ace: That is partially related to the confirmation duration on other blockchain interoperate with aelf, say, Ether, if Ether do not accelerate its confirmation time, we could not be much faster although we optimize the speed of this on aelf blockchain, but of course, it is much safer.
Q18: Will the cross-chain you want to work with allow for effective cross-platform transactions or is there a risk that user assets will be lost?
Ace: As long as the counterpart chain support smart contract, especially token contract, the CCTP is really effective and extremely secure once the ownership is relayed on aelf chain.
Q19: Is any more powerful security system better then CCTP in the present blockchain system?
Ace: Our focus and understanding are different. We are exploring for this industry, and our technology is already the top of the industry.
Q20: What is the difference between CCTP and PoW or PoS? Why is the CCTP protocol so much more secure?
Ace: They have no correlation with each other, the CCTP are in essence smart contracts working together, and PoS and PoW are economically incentivising consensus to keep the whole distribution system behave the same.
aelf Officially Partners up with DVP
The hacker bounty phase 2 was officially launched on July 16 with a bounty of up to 1,000,000 ELF. Now halfway through the competition, the bounty is still unclaimed.
The hacker bounty program is co-hosted by aelf and CertiK, a blockchain security company. The co-organizers are DVP, a decentralized vulnerability platform, and SlowMist Technology, a blockchain security company. PeckShield, another blockchain security company, is the vulnerability assessment partner. The event is covered by dozens of leading media outlets around the world.
Currently, security is the lifeblood of blockchain companies, whether it is Smart Contract Code Auditing, Node Hardening, or Penetration Testing. In particular, given the “tamper-proof” feature of smart contracts, the bugs that are inevitable in the codes are easily exploited by hackers. Since the blockchain network is decentralized, a single security vulnerability on a blockchain node may cause thousands of nodes to be attacked.
In recent years, there have been quite a few security incidents in the news, causing huge asset losses and extremely negative impact. These incidents concern all aspects of the blockchain industry, including exchanges, mining pools, wallets, smart contracts, etc. Among them, exchanges, investment wallets and other platforms which are close to users have become a focal point with frequent security incidents. It is obvious that the vulnerabilities are undermining the safety of hundreds of millions of digital assets, posing a daunting threat and challenge to the entire blockchain security ecosystem.
The decentralized vulnerability platform (DVP) was developed to solve this issue. Connecting blockchain companies, security companies and white hat hackers from all over the world, the platform aims to use blockchain technology to create anonymized security community scenarios and the consensus that decentralization and vulnerability are mining. Decentralization means that white hats and security engineers around the world can get involved in finding vulnerabilities, and this service is accessible to every blockchain company on the planet. Vulnerability mining represents an automated reward payment system for blockchain companies and white hats. Companies are required to specify the assets converge to be audited and the reward criteria, and stake the deposits into the contract. White hats can submit information about blockchain-related vulnerabilities and threats, and check the vulnerability review and claim progress at any time. They will be rewarded accordingly once their information are adopted.
aelf has officially entered into partnership with DVP. As the co-organizer of the aelf hacker bounty phase 2, DVP will continue to ensure aelf’s security and help it build a better blockchain ecosystem. This hacker bounty has also drawn the attention of many hackers, white hats, and security enthusiasts.
aelf invited hackers and white hats worldwide to participate in the bounty program is to verify the security of the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) and lock-in contracts, thus ensuring the security of users’ information and assets, and enhancing vulnerability early warning and emergency response mechanisms. At the same time, the program helps users fully understand the mechanism of cross-chain transfer and helps us receive feedback from the community, so that we can continue to optimize the underlying technology, and build a more secure blockchain network ecosystem.
On July 27, aelf has generated the Merkle Tree according to the Merkle Proof process. Now users can obtain the required data on Merkle Proof and enable the swapping function after recording the Merkle tree root data (the root hash value of the Merkle tree) on the aelf network, the swapping feature can be start. At present, there is nearly a week before the end of hacker bounty program. Do not miss it, hackers!
The hacker bounty phase 2 was officially launched on July 16 with a bounty of up to 1,000,000 ELF. Now halfway through the competition, the bounty is still unclaimed.
The hacker bounty program is co-hosted by aelf and CertiK, a blockchain security company. The co-organizers are DVP, a decentralized vulnerability platform, and SlowMist Technology, a blockchain security company. PeckShield, another blockchain security company, is the vulnerability assessment partner. The event is covered by dozens of leading media outlets around the world.
Currently, security is the lifeblood of blockchain companies, whether it is Smart Contract Code Auditing, Node Hardening, or Penetration Testing. In particular, given the “tamper-proof” feature of smart contracts, the bugs that are inevitable in the codes are easily exploited by hackers. Since the blockchain network is decentralized, a single security vulnerability on a blockchain node may cause thousands of nodes to be attacked.
In recent years, there have been quite a few security incidents in the news, causing huge asset losses and extremely negative impact. These incidents concern all aspects of the blockchain industry, including exchanges, mining pools, wallets, smart contracts, etc. Among them, exchanges, investment wallets and other platforms which are close to users have become a focal point with frequent security incidents. It is obvious that the vulnerabilities are undermining the safety of hundreds of millions of digital assets, posing a daunting threat and challenge to the entire blockchain security ecosystem.
The decentralized vulnerability platform (DVP) was developed to solve this issue. Connecting blockchain companies, security companies and white hat hackers from all over the world, the platform aims to use blockchain technology to create anonymized security community scenarios and the consensus that decentralization and vulnerability are mining. Decentralization means that white hats and security engineers around the world can get involved in finding vulnerabilities, and this service is accessible to every blockchain company on the planet. Vulnerability mining represents an automated reward payment system for blockchain companies and white hats. Companies are required to specify the assets converge to be audited and the reward criteria, and stake the deposits into the contract. White hats can submit information about blockchain-related vulnerabilities and threats, and check the vulnerability review and claim progress at any time. They will be rewarded accordingly once their information are adopted.
aelf has officially entered into partnership with DVP. As the co-organizer of the aelf hacker bounty phase 2, DVP will continue to ensure aelf’s security and help it build a better blockchain ecosystem. This hacker bounty has also drawn the attention of many hackers, white hats, and security enthusiasts.
aelf invited hackers and white hats worldwide to participate in the bounty program is to verify the security of the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) and lock-in contracts, thus ensuring the security of users’ information and assets, and enhancing vulnerability early warning and emergency response mechanisms. At the same time, the program helps users fully understand the mechanism of cross-chain transfer and helps us receive feedback from the community, so that we can continue to optimize the underlying technology, and build a more secure blockchain network ecosystem.
On July 27, aelf has generated the Merkle Tree according to the Merkle Proof process. Now users can obtain the required data on Merkle Proof and enable the swapping function after recording the Merkle tree root data (the root hash value of the Merkle tree) on the aelf network, the swapping feature can be start. At present, there is nearly a week before the end of hacker bounty program. Do not miss it, hackers!
HUAWEI CLOUD ☁️ X #AELF
Premir on Cloud-Powered Blockchain Solutions available now! 🎬
Learn how blockchain fits into your business digitalization Journey.👣
More stories from here onwards! Let's go! 👫
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQSWeXbiOqs&feature=youtu.be
Premir on Cloud-Powered Blockchain Solutions available now! 🎬
Learn how blockchain fits into your business digitalization Journey.👣
More stories from here onwards! Let's go! 👫
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQSWeXbiOqs&feature=youtu.be
Mark your calendar 📅 👉July 29!
📖Learn how BLOCKCHAIN fit into your business
Digitalization Journey with Huawei Cloud
Also find us at the https://rebrand.ly/partnerpage
📖Learn how BLOCKCHAIN fit into your business
Digitalization Journey with Huawei Cloud
Also find us at the https://rebrand.ly/partnerpage
aelf will hold an AMA with Itsu Ace on Twitter
5 winners will be selected to share out the rewards!
⏰ 31 July, 5pm-6pm(GMT +8)
Tasks:
1️⃣ Watch the video https://youtu.be/2alA6mIAVHA
2️⃣ Like&Retweet https://twitter.com/aelfblockchain/status/1287935951730126855
3️⃣ Comment with your questions, tag @3 friends, include the hashtag #aelfHackerAMA
5 winners will be selected to share out the rewards!
⏰ 31 July, 5pm-6pm(GMT +8)
Tasks:
1️⃣ Watch the video https://youtu.be/2alA6mIAVHA
2️⃣ Like&Retweet https://twitter.com/aelfblockchain/status/1287935951730126855
3️⃣ Comment with your questions, tag @3 friends, include the hashtag #aelfHackerAMA
😄A Surprise for all #aelfers
▶️This is not even 1% of the it!
🔜Please Stay Tuned! #aelf & #Huawei
https://twitter.com/aelfblockchain/status/1286273571107479552
▶️This is not even 1% of the it!
🔜Please Stay Tuned! #aelf & #Huawei
https://twitter.com/aelfblockchain/status/1286273571107479552
🔊Our COO Chen Zhuling gave a talk on "Emerging Applications of Blockchain and Crypto" at #Binance 'Off the Charts' Live Panel!
If you didn't watch it live, watch it here! https://youtube.com/watch?v=AdlVPcKRGIQ
If you didn't watch it live, watch it here! https://youtube.com/watch?v=AdlVPcKRGIQ
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