Introduction
With the invention of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, many long standing problems/issues have been solved. The notable issues are transaction through centralized server, where security of the fund is always an issue which depends upon the trust of a third party or centralized server and the centralized server is always prone to hostile attack and hacking. The other issues include double spending. So with the blockchain technology these problems have been solved and the transaction can happen in a trustless, secured, distributed nodes of peer to peer network.
The applications of blockchain technology are many and it can be the solution to the wide range of problems. But despite of having the potential to solve many issues/problems, its application is very limited and it is still a gray area now. In order to fill this void and to make the application/implementation of blockchain in common man's life, businesses, enterprises, NULS has come with a solution known as modular blockchain solution.
A brief overview of NULS
NULS aims to provide a blockchain solution which can be affordable for all class of enterprises including individuals without the requirement of knowing the technical aspect of a blockchain. Based on the principle of hot plugging mechanism, modularization and parallel expansion, it provides:-
- Smart contract multi-chain mechanism
- Cross-chain consensus
- Adaptable blockchain solution for enterprises
NULS is economical and saves a lot of time by providing modular components of blockchain which can be customized to create a new chain as per the suitability of the enterprises.
So for an enterprise to get started with NULS is as simple as the following illustration:-
Chain factory is the core product of NULS.
Module Library
It has the general module in relation to blockchain technology and it provides standard modular components of blockchain, multi-chain and cross-chain. The modular components can be selected from the Library and can be assembled in to a new chain.
Chain Factory
It breaks the barrier of blockchain and enables customizable blockchain through simple configuration so that the enterprises can always have a ready to adopt blockchain technology through NULS. It employs multi-chain mechanism and has a wide range of applications for the different enterprises and business models.
Cross-chain
It transmits the data, value and trust through the configuration of cross-chain ledger.
Smart Contract
Modular design, Java language, minute based deployment creates an abundant smart contract library.
NULS is capable of providing functional modules to conduct smart contract, to integrate main chain and sub-chain, to yield cross-chain consensus and to reduce cost of development and operation in business applications.
Multi-chain system of NULS and its advantages
In recent times, the multi-chain system of blockchain projects is gaining popularity and many projects are coming up with multi-chain architecture. NULS is also multi-chain based. It has a main chain and various sub chains. Enterprises can build their dApps on sub chains and customize their sub-chain which will act like an independent blockchain of their own and they can run it independently also.
In NULS structure, these sub-chains can be customized as per the requirement of enterprises and all the sub-chain will behave independently as individual blockchain. The parameters of sub-chain may be different from the main chain, yet they will be able to interact with the main chain in NULS ecology.
The advantages of multi-chain based blockchain are:-
(1) It reduces the load on the main chain. If the dApps will be built directly on the main chain, then it will consume significant computing power of main chain and the main chain will get overloaded, so with a multi-chain system, the sub-chain will be responsible for the consumption of computation power of dApps and this will significantly reduce the burden on main chain.
(2) It improves scalability. NULS with sub chain mechanism can scale 1 million transactions per second.
(3) It gives flexibility for customization. As the sub-chains of NULS act as an independent blockchain, it can customized as per the requirement of business.
There exist many blockchain projects which are multi-chain based but it is not necessary that they are same in principle. The way the sub chains interact with the main chain may be different for different blockchain projects and that depends upon the underlying principle of the particular blockchain.
The benefits/advantageous aspects of the main chain may or may not be accessible by the sub chains and that all depends upon the connectivity between the main chain and sub-chains.
In NULS modular architecture, the sub-chains interact with the main chain in the following ways:-
- Modularlization
- Logic Layer
- Cross-chain Consensus
What Exactly is Modular Blockchain
Any blockchain is an integration of various aspects/components such as:-
- Ledger
- Storage
- Smart Contract
- Network
- Account
- Consensus Algorithm
So an integral blockchain is composed of the above components. When a blockchain is disintegrated, each of the above components will split out and act as an individual module. That is what NULS does in its modular architecture.
NULS modular structure is broadly divided in to two parts:-
(1) NULS Kernel
(2) Modular Components.
NULS Kernel consists of module manager, service bus and event us.
Modular Components include ledger, account, storage, smart contract, network, consensus etc.
There are many blockchain projects and not all the components of all the blockchains are advantageous to a specific requirement. Some components of a particular blockchain may be advantageous for particular business need and some may not be advantageous. So a business should not be in stale mate position to choose a particular blockchain for the business need.
Therefore NULS will provide that space where a business can choose the individual modules from different blockchains and can assemble it to form a new blockchain to fulfill the business solution.
Modularization effect on main chain
In the modular structure of blockchain in NULS, each modules can be changed, updated and modified. So the user has the flexibility to make adjustment of the modules of its sub-chain as per the suitability and in NULS structure, it does not have any implication on Main chain. That is the benefit of Multi-chain system also.
How the modularization will make it easy for Enterprises
If an enterprise wants to create a chain then it has to do it from scratch and it will be a costly affair and will take a lot of time too. In NULS infrastructure, an enterprise will be offered with ready made modules from NULS Module Library, so an Enterprise can choose the different modules as per the suitability and then can assemble to make their sub-chain which will act as an independent blockchain and it will also be able to update and modify in future.
So an enterprise does not have to learn any difficult language or any cryptographic technology to build its dApps on NULS network. That is why NULS structure is understood as "hot plug mechanism".
Logic Layer
In NULS structure, the user/enterprise/business does not necessarily have to understand the technical aspect of smart contract. They can simply put their logic through the application and NULS will convert it in to a smart contract for the users/enterprises. So NULS is making it that easy for the enterprises to interface with blockchain technology.
NULS offers customization, so its VM(Virtual Machine) should be compatible and hence it should support all programming languages and it should not be restricted to some particular languages/difficult languages and in that way it will make it easy again for the enterprises. With NULSVM, one can test run the smart contract. NULSVM supports all programming languages.
Cross-chain Consensus
The multi-chain system of NULS consists of main-chain and a number of sub-chains. It offers interoperability, that means the sub-chains will be able to communicate with the main-chain through cross-consensus mechanism.
There is cross-chain domain(C3D) & cross-chain nodes(C3N) which forms the cross-chain ledger.
C3D is the overlapped portion of main-chain and sub-chain domain where as C3N is the common nodes of main-chain and sub-chain in the cross-chain domain.
So whenever the cross-chain communication takes place, the cross-chain nodes collect the data, authenticate it and broadcast it to the cross-chain ledger.
Data sensitive enterprises always remain skeptical about blockchain implementation and they do not find the open source nature of blockchain as a viable option for their business. NULS is an open source modular blockchain which offers customization of sub-chains. In order to provide a blockchain solution to data sensitive enterprises, NULS has another feature called "data isolation & trans-chain audit" which ensures data confidentiality and security of sub-chains.
Proof-of-Credit(PoC)
The main-chain consensus protocol of NULS is Proof-of-Credit. It is same as Proof-of-Stake with only addition of a credit rating system in to the PoS mechanism. Credit rating is a tool to keep the malicious nodes out of the network of NULS. Based on credit rating, the reputation of a user running the node in the network is determined. So it undertakes the checking of integrity and trustworthiness.
Credit rating varies from -1 to +1 and it has Yellow Card and Red Card Alert system to punish a malicious node.
Anyone can run a node and for that one has to stack a certain number of NULS tokens which will be locked and when the user opt out of running a node, the funds can be unlocked.
Yellow card Alert is issued to those who make the violation in terms of network failure in cases like internet disconnection, computer crash etc. The punishment is freezing up of token for 72 hrs and credit rating is downgraded, but they can participate to run the node again after the punishment.
Red card Alert is those who run the node with an ill intent to attack the network. The punishment is freezing up of token for 30 days and credit rating is heavily downgraded and the user running the node can not participate again in future.
So this credit rating is ideally designed to safeguard the network.
NULS Token Economy
The main chain token of NULS is NULS token and it is the native token of the NULS ecosystem. The sub-chain tokens will be customized tokens of respective enterprises who build their sub-chains in NULS.
Now let's understand how the NULS token and the customized tokens of sub-chains will be circulating within the NULS ecosystem.
Any customized sub-chain token is considered as the NULS smart asset, because they are contract tokens. So when the smart asset is issued certain amount of NULS has to be paid and also the initial ratio of smart asset and NULS is set. The ratio is fixed for conversion but influenced by market values. So if the market value of smart asset rises, it will be required to have more NULS token to support the appreciation of smart asset. In other words this framework will create demand for NULS token.
Conclusion
The basis of NULS is definitely very very sound as not only it has a very great tech-heavy core team but also it is trying a deliver a solution which can fill the void on the application/implementation domain of blockchain technology. NULS is all set for a common or generalist platform which stand to deliver the solution to many application scenarios and use-cases.
The systematic approach of NULS along with the strong Asian partnership will definitely help this platform to firmly ground its presence within crypto market as well as outside crypto market and it will definitely act to bridge the gap between the outside world and blockchain and with its modular blockchain structure, one can easily adopt & integrate to blockchain technology for various business need to realize the trustless decentralized environment.
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