TomoChain
Heading towards the ultimate ecosystem with practical
DApps, open finance, and enterprise-oriented products
Ethereum has for lack of a better phrase a scaling problem. This problem presented itself to the world during the crypto bull market of 2018 where a single dApp about cats was able to bring the blockchain to a grinding halt. Since that time there has been a lot of talk about how to go about saving Ethereum from these scalability issues with scalability becoming quite the buzzword in crypto. Today we’re going to be looking at the project known as TomoChain whose goal is to solve the Ethereum scalability issues and produce novel blockchain technology.
TOMO Overview
TomoChain is primarily looking to solve the issues of Ethereum scalability as well as centralization and interoperability. Scalability is a blanket term that comprises a variety of issues that primarily includes long transaction wait times due to network congestion and their accompanying high transaction fees. Interoperability for TomoChain is the pursuit to link the Ethereum blockchain and itself with other blockchains for smooth functionality and cross chain interaction.
The blockchain is a fantastic technology that stands to disrupt the current financial systems that have been in place for decades. One of the most important functionalities of that system is the movement of funds between accounts. The major cryptocurrency projects like Bitcoin and Ethereum suffer from low transaction per second (7 and 15 TPS respectively) with various solutions. Visa and Mastercard can process between 5000 and 6000 TPS so crypto had some catching up to do.
Tomo is one of Ethereum’s answers to that problem working on proof of stake voting solutions and sharding. Those solutions have culminated in the Tomo blockchain that supports low fees, 2 second transaction times and a current TPS between 2000 and 5000. The Tomo team estimates that with sharding it will reach 20,000 to 30,000 TPS.
Tomo Mainnet
The Tomo Mainnet was released on December 14th, 2018 and brought with it a slew of changes. These changes included the all-important move onto an independent chain, Proof of Stake Voting (POSV), and masternodes to TOMO.
What exactly are the properties of the TomoChain though? First off, TOMO is not a mineable currency it is a mintable currency and that minting is made possible by the use of masternodes (explained below). These masternodes create and verify the blocks created in a specific period of time for the blockchain. Each of these periods is known as an epoch.
Moving along to more rudimentary stats, TOMO has a total supply of 100 million for the first 8 years of its life making it non-inflationary during that time frame. Additionally, the blockchain has near zero fees and incredibly fast transaction times. After that first 8 years are up there is another 17 million TOMO that is reserved for use as block rewards. Lastly, the Masternode council is able to increase the total supply of the coin by 0.5 to 1 million TOMO per year which equates to a 0.5% to 1% inflationary increase per year.
To reiterate some more information about the blockchain the fees are approximately at a rate of 1/100th that of Ethereum and the chain as a 2 second transaction time. With the POSV masternode mainnet, TomoChain is able to achieve 2000 TPS. When sharding is implemented in Q2 2019, as mentioned previously, the team expects between 20000 and 30000 TPS.
Next, we have masternodes. On TomoChain a masternode is simply a server that contributes its computing power to the network in order to create and sign the blockchain’s blocks. For this service, the masternode is rewarded with TOMO.
In TomoChain there are a maximum of 150 masternodes which use POSV for consensus and for a user to get a masternode there is a lot that goes on. Here is information regarding that directly from TOMO:
- Masternode Candidates: Any account can deposit 50,000 TOMO using TomoMaster to become a masternode candidate. A candidate can resign, but the tokens will be locked for the next 30 days (1,296,000 blocks) after the resignation.
- Becoming a Masternode: A candidate becomes a masternode when he/she belongs to the top 150 most voted candidates in each epoch. A Masternode can resign, but the tokens will be locked for the next 30 days after the resignation. ( To remain in top 150, masternode’s capacity must be at least 174k Tomo -according to TomoMaster)
- Rewards: The rewards a masternode receives in each epoch is proportional to the number of signatures it signs. Masternodes will also receive fees from the TomoChain DEX, which is planned for development in Q1 2019.
Owning a masternode is a mechanism for receiving guaranteed rewards from the TomoChain as well as support the network and the project.
Lastly, I want to cover POSV in this section. This consensus model is the core of Tomo and is one of the features that really make the project shine. With POSV TomoChain is able to perform its duty of an EVM-compatible blockchain. Without POSV the chain would not have near instant confirmation times (2 seconds) and have the epoch and masternode structure that rewards Tomo holders.
Okay so at this point you’re probably wondering what POSV has to do EXACTLY with masternodes. Simply, it allows for TOMO holders to vote for masternodes they want to participate in block creation. Users who hold TOMO are able to use TomoMaster to stake tokens and vote for a masternode to be part of verification for the next epoch. If a masternode you voted for wins you receive tokens as a staker for that node. Hence the name proof of stake voting. You’re using your tokens as a stake to vote for the masternodes that will be verifying the blockchain.
Governance
There have been many approaches to how to govern an existing decentral network, from what I have a seen a strong and wide masternode network, with the ability to vote for block producers, is simply the best.
In TomoChain, token holders can vote for certain Candidates and make them Masternodes who create and validate new blocks.
The most famous standard that’s also running bitcoin (proof of work) simply rewards those with the rawest mining power and enhances mining monopolies and cartels. Decentral governance means also decentralized power, not everyone can generate blocks with fancy hardware, and some can’t even host their node 24/7.
With this system, EVERYONE can benefit from and be a part of the network.
But this does not mean, the regular tomo users are at the mercy of the big block producers. Quite the opposite, there is currently a huge race for the prime 150 masternode spots.
If anyone does not show activity, stability or doesn’t share his success with the network, he would get replaced very soon by other potential node hosters.
This system is fluid, fast and evolving, exactly like blockchain is itself.
While a big miner invests into his own hardware(which can mine any coin he wants) and is therefore separated from the network itself, masternodes invest in the tokens and are forced to hold them locked as well.
As soon as mainstream investors and many bitcoin maximalists start to fully grasps this concept I expect a major run on decentral ecosystems like TomoChain.
Use cases and Partners
Long Vuong the Founder & CEO of TomoChain and TomoChain Project Lead, was also co-founder and the former project lead of the very successful NEM blockchain (NEM was longtime in the top 10 ).
When I have learned one thing in my years of crypto is a success is no accident, and close after the mainnet launch of TOMO was already a vast amount of big business partners and dapp solutions.
What many fail to see is, the biggest question is not only who will be the new world currency. replacing fiat is nice but in my opinion not the most interesting part about blockchain.
What’s really going to be exciting is the dapps and the whole web3.0 build on multiple blockchains that will communicate with each other.
The same way every site and user in the web has IP/DNS addresses and is hosted on HTTP protocol, we will see many use blockchain as a standard. And it probably won’t be visible to “normies” it will power the web3.0 from the back.
Future Development
Games
According to data from late 2018, the gaming industry numbers 2.2 billion active gamers worldwide and generates more than $134 billion annually! It’s also one of the areas that blockchain is most rapidly transforming and creating new opportunities.
The gaming industry is one of the most successful and technological evolving industries, it’s a smart plan to tackle the gaming area!
“We recently started to focus on the blockchain gaming ecosystem, and the effort will continue in 2019. Trading, building digital stuff, and digital ownership are particularly attractive aspects of blockchain gaming. We expand TomoChain gaming ecosystem by targeting multiple segments in a gaming developer’s journey from Introductory Gaming on Blockchain workshops, to Gaming contests, and Gaming Hackathons. There will be at least ten of these events happening in 2019 for TomoChain. TomoChain’s current infrastructure is sufficiently developed and mature enough to satisfy almost all if not all blockchain game designs. We are also very hands-on in assisting any technical concerns from game developer communities in our Gitter chat or Discord game dev channel. There are also collaborations with other industry partners to promote a healthy blockchain gaming ecosystem, particularly in Asia. This is our dedicated TomoChain’s game hub page https://tomochain.com/tomochain-game-hub/” -Long Vuong
TomoX protocol
The next major milestone for TomoChain will be TomoX protocol.
This will enhance TomoChain to version 2.0 making it the infrastructure of choice for the next-generation of global Open Finance. Tomo will further improve infrastructure security and stability with features such as efficient data pruning, and on the other hand, making the network more conducive for financial products and financial entrepreneurship.
Other products in the Open Finance category include:
TomoX’s relayer manager, decentralized marketplaces and exchanges, TomoSwap, “Pay by any Token” protocol, algorithmic stable coin, P2P lending market, prediction market, ICO template, securities token platform, liquid token lending market, and other financial derivative products.
That’s the mandate for TomoChain in 2019.
Conclusion
TomoChain already delivered one of the most impressive mainnet launches, the team and especially their founder shows a clear sign of direction and commitment.
I feel we are very close to an end to this bear market and having solid high-quality projects in your portfolio can be a life-changing decision.
With a fast working efficient node ecosystem, business partners and a lot of improvements to come, I am very excited for the future of TomoChain and I wish them a place in the top 10 which they truly deserve!
Some links for dyor:
https://tomochain.com
https://t.me/tomochain
https://twitter.com/TomoChainANN
This was a collaberative work between tehMoonwalkeR
TG announcement channel: https://t.me/tehmoonwalkin
TG discussion channel: https://t.me/joinchat/FgncLw8SKo3w_nrlvmpeUA
