Welcome to my Protocols & Tools  vertical content page. 

To get the desired adoption we seek for the blockchain technology, we need more contents deciphering the hard terms , making it lame and easy for a 5 year old to understand. Winning in numbers is how we get to create the momentum for change. This applies in the blockchain space, a first time user of products on the blockchain shouldn't find it difficult to interact. Though blockchain is a technology of the future, it wouldn't happen in a flash, we will need to set the ball rolling now. 

We will talk more on protocols on the blockchain ,how it works , tools and the state of the technology.

Fasten your seat-belt, the journey is about to be started.

Greetings!

Do you know how your favorite chain works? Do you know the consensus mechanism implemented?

Only few people know this. It's actually important to know how basic things are done in projects you interact with. Blockchain and web 3 is beyond the financial gains. It's a space to learn how things work. You don't have to be a developer before you look up things. Consensus mechanisms are deployed by each blockchain to reach agreement on how its implemented. This is a concise content on consensus, how it works and examples of projects using it. So let's cut to the chase.

Consensus mechanism is the backbone of all blockchain Protocols. Its a fault-tolerant used to maintain the consistency of Ledger across the machines in the network. To update the ledger, the network needs to come to consensus using an algorithm. Arriving at consensus on a distributed network means that everyone agrees on the current state of the ledger (e.g., how much money does each account have) and confirms that no one is double-spending their money. 

The three main kinds of consensus algorithms in a distributed manner are Proof of Work (POW), Proof of Stake (POS), and Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT). Other consensus mechanisms came along the way, designed to improve on the three main mechanism or built with different set of algorithms.

We will discuss various consensus mechanisms shortly 

Proof of Access (PoA) is the consensus mechanism of the Arweave Protocol. In this consensus, a recall-block is introduced and mine alongside new blocks ie to mine new blocks, previous block is linked with new block and a block from the history. This ensures miners keep records of old blocks which in effect creates a permanent storage for data because they are always remembered in the blockchain. PoA incentivize long-term data storage   in which miners with this storage recieve more rewards. 

is the only project that has implemented.

PoA is a consensus mechanism that leverages the value of identity and reputation instead of cryptographic assets or computational power. Its PoA relies on a limited number of nodes to verify transactions. People have criticised its centralized structures because only nodes that proved their authority can generate new blocks. and for a node to do this , it has to pass preliminary authentication. Though,this trade-off is offset by remarkable scalability and transaction speeds.

In this consensus, miners intentionally destroy or “burn” tokens/coins to obtain a proportional right to mine new blocks and verify transactions. The more crypto a miner burns, the higher the chance that miner will be selected as the next block validator by demonstrating their dedication to the network via intentional token/coin destruction rather than expending computational resources via powerful mining hardware. Its an alternative for proof of work. Occasionally, we have projects burn their tokens to create scarcity. It's called a Deflationary technique. This is usually done by auto generating an address on the network without private keys. Tokens sent to this addresses cannot be recovered.

i have looked it up but haven't found a project using this as main consensus but different projects have implemented the concept. Binance does this quarterly burns for BNB tokens to reduce the supply.

This consensus mechanism uses miners' available hard drive spaces to decide their mining rights and ability to validate transactions. Through the PoC mechanism, a list of possible cryptographic mining solutions is stored in the mining device’s hard drive even before the mining activity begins, with larger hard drives being capable of storing more potential solution values. A key feature of PoC is that it requires very little energy to run, compared to other consensus algorithms such as proof of work (PoW). PoC was designed to mitigate the energy inefficiencies and computation requirements of classic Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanisms as well as the crypto-hoarding that can sometimes arise in various Proof-of-Stake (PoS) configurations.

Proof of Contribution (PoC) is a consensus mechanism that quantifies user behaviors and actions in a blockchain-based application as contribution values calculated through an algorithm. This process works by using specialized algorithms that monitor contributions of all the network’s nodes during each consensus round. The node that has the highest contribution value in each round is given the right to generate the next block. Proof of Contribution is considered to be a quite decentralized consensus model and increases mining efficiency. its an upgrade to PoW and extremely resistant to hard forks which enhances enhance the security and transparency of networks.

Proof of Coverage (PoC) is a consensus mechanism employed by the Helium Network. As a variation of Proof of Work (PoW), PoC relies on mining to achieve network consensus.  The participants of this process are rewarded if the network connectivity and location of the Hotspot are confirmed. However, miners on the Helium Network known as Hotspots double as wireless internet access points for Internet of Things (IoT) devices. As such, PoC incorporates nuanced mechanisms to track the participation of nodes or Hotspots and their continued provision of services.

 is the only project running Proof of Coverage consensus as of the time of writing this.

Proof of Goods and Services Delivered is a status that is cryptographically verified to prove that a payment was sent and received correctly between card processors and mobile wallet products into merchant accounts. This mechanism is used by Crypto.com blockchain network architecture. Merchants and customers are tasked with confirming the legitimacy of the payment process and ensure transparency.

It can also be termed as Proof of Evidence where both buyer and seller much attest to confirm the authenticity of a certain transaction.

Proof of History (PoH) is a consensus methodology on the blockchain that incorporates the measurement of time into a blockchain ledger with the intent of scaling and streamlining transactional throughput. While most blockchains operate without a timestamp, PoH functions like a decentralized clock that enables nodes on the network to process transactions without devoting processing power to solving for discrepancies in minuscule differentiations in time and order.

Solana blockchain uses this consensus mechanism.

Proof of Importance (PoI), an innovative consensus algorithm was developed by the NEM blockchain protocol and is a variation of Proof of Stake. The system allows a wide pool of users to participate in the addition of new blocks in exchange for receiving tokenized rewards. Productive network activity, not just the number of coins accumulated, should be rewarded. Participants who frequently send and receive transactions are more likely to find blocks. Additionally, PoI encourages healthy activity of the ecosystem by preventing users from hoarding the XEM asset. 

Proof of Replication (PoRep) is an interactive proof system in which a prover defends a publicly verifiable claim that it is dedicating unique resources to storing one or more retrievable replicas of a data file. Specifically, it is a process through which a storage miner proves to the blockchain protocol that it has created a distinct copy of a specific piece of data on the network’s behalf.  This process is verified by the network through zk-SNARK cryptographic proof technology. In this sense a PoRep is both a proof of space (PoS) and a proof of retrievability (PoR).

It is one of the consensus mechanisms used by the Filecoin network.

Proof of Service is a relatively rare consensus mechanism that is used on certain blockchain protocols such as Holochain. In the case of Holochain, Proof of Service does not function like a traditional blockchain consensus mechanism, because the distributed hash table (DHT) plays the primary role in achieving network consensus. In this scenario, the Proof-of-Service protocol is merely designed to ensure that once a peer-to-peer transaction is completed, then the agent providing the service automatically issues an invoice and receives payment.

The DASH blockchain features a masternode system referred to as Proof of Service (PoSe) on account of the critical services that masternodes provide to the DASH network. Proof of Service is the mechanism on the DASH blockchain network used to determine if a stake-bearing masternode is providing the correct services in good faith to users who have contributed coins to it.

Proof-of-Spacetime (PoST) is a means of proving that a network participant has allocated available storage space to a network over a given time period to show financial interest in the network. It is a consensus mechanism utilized by the Filecoin network. It allows the blockchain to prove its capacity, and in doing so, it can cryptographically verify that the entire file is being stored in an unaltered fashion for an agreed-upon time frame. Proof of Spacetime is made up of two distinct subsets: 1.) Window Proof of Spacetime      (WindowPoSpacetime) and 2.) Winning Proof of Spacetime (WinningPoSpacetime). 

Proof-of-Spacetime (PoST) is a means of proving that a network participant has allocated available storage space to a network over a given time period to show financial interest in the network.

Projects working on this consensus other than Filecoin are Chia Network and 

This is one of the most widely used blockchain consensus mechanisms in existence. The proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism works using an algorithm that selects participants with the highest stakes as validators, assuming that the highest stakeholders are incentivized to ensure a transaction is processed. Upon the close of a transaction block, validator nodes are eligible to be randomly chosen to validate block data, thus generating the subsequent block, and earning native coins as a reward. Proof-of-Stake systems also generally enable validator nodes to contribute democratically in decentralized platform governance through voting on key updates and decisions. While still a recent innovation, PoS networks are already proving they can be faster and more scalable than Proof-of-Work (PoW) blockchains, in addition to being more energy efficient.

examples of chains running PoS consensus are Algorand, Cardano, Tezos, Mina

Proof of Storage (PoStorage) is a consensus algorithm used by the Filecoin network to prove that network participants are indeed providing the specified amount of storage that they claim to be. This storage space is verified by the network through zk-SNARK cryptographic proof technology.

 is  also working on extending an existing the Proof of Storage scheme called 

Proof of Work (PoW) is a blockchain consensus mechanism championed by the Bitcoin blockchain. This consensus rely on a mining process to maintain the network. Miners utilize electricity and computer hardware and compete to solve the complex cryptographic puzzles required to confirm transacted network data, and are rewarded with the network's underlying cryptographic coin for doing so. Proof-of-Work blockchain systems are more decentralized and secure than most networks, but typically struggle to achieve the network scalability needed for global adoption. Proof of Work is also criticized for its high energy intensivity.

Most L1 Blockchain networks uses PoW. Projects like , Ethereum, Litecoin, Monero, ethereum classic etc.

Consensus mechanisms shapes a protocol in the way it works because they are hardcoded into a smart contract and other infrastructures. This consensus list is not exhaustive, there are numerous mechanism out there. Each with its unique set of algorithms, advantages and drawbacks. The Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake are the most popular in the blockchain ecosystem with the latter leading in the number of projects using it.

If you want to explore more, click on this 

Consensus Mechanisms in The blockchain Space

Arweave is a protocol that allows you to store data permanently and sustainably with a one-time fee. Arweave is a data storage protocol built on blockweave technology. It is developing a network where data can be stored forever and accessed on its brainchild technology,

, where data is accessible in a human-readable manner

The core concept of Arweave is to make information permanence cost-effective and scalable with its decentralized architecture. The protocol provides the basis for a new version of the web in which websites and applications are permanently stored and the provenance of information can be traced. Data storage providers are incentivized with its Arweave token (AR) to keep the protocol up at all times. 

permaweb: A global, permanent web of pages and applications that live forever.

To store data on the network in perpetuity, the Arweave protocol built new technologies and infrastructure to accomplish and also created an economy around it with the launch of AR Tokens to incentivize the users. It enables individuals with spare hard drive space to store data in exchange for AR tokens.

Arweave’s blockweave (consensus) underpins the Arweave permaweb, an array of data, websites, and applications that are hosted on the blockweave. The Arweave protocol is built on top of the HTTP protocol which makes the permaweb accessible on modern web browsers like Brave or Google Chrome. 

A whole new suites of tools and technologies live on the Arweave Protocol. We will be talking on these technologies below.

Arweave is made up of blockweaves which are collections of blocks similarly as the other traditional blockchain networks. The consensus mechanism used in Arweave is called Proof of Access (PoA). Websites and applications are accessible on the permaweb through these blocks. In Arweave’s blockweave architecture, each block is linked to the following block and two previous blocks i.e a block is linked to one preceding block and a second block from the network’s history called 

This recall block mechanism is used in the Arweave's Proof of Access consensus (PoA).  PoA is used to incentivize long-term data storage because miners must access older, random blocks from the blockweave’s history in order to mine new blocks and receive mining rewards. 

 Miners also incentivized to store blocks that are not widely replicated because, when a rare recall block is selected, miners with access to it compete with fewer miners for the reward. Miners who store rarer blocks are likely to receive a larger reward over the long-term. one caveat is miners aren't obligated to store a block. They can choose which blocks and transactions to store and create policies on type of blocks they want. When data are distributed to the network, they are scanned against the content policies of each miners and will not be pushed into a miner’s transaction pool if it go against the set policies.

Permaweb is the secondary layer and the base protocol of Arweave. It is a permanent and decentralized web built on top of the Arweave. The Permaweb is dubbed the next evolution of the web , allowing developers and users to share a replicated knowledge base across the world forever. This system is powered by two fundamental components, a scalable blockchain-like structure that uses a new mining system and a sustainable endowment to ensure the availability and permanence of arbitrarily-tagged data. There are also gateway servers that makes the data easily accessible to web browsers without creating new software stacks.

The permaweb comprises of a set of modular and interchangeable protocols needed to build decentralized applications. The apps are built with their own governance code and independently, with no centralized authorities. Once an app is launched on permaweb , it can't be modified by anyone and can be used by everyone. They continue to run in perpetuity without maintenance and costs to the developer.

The modular stack for building on the permaweb are 

Lots of applications have been built on the permaweb, including  ArAcademic, an open publishing platform for academic papers licensed under Open Access, that allows authors to receive allowing donations to the publisher of paper.

Arweave has created a standard in decentralized storage industry and a new internet where information is accessible infinitely. Arweave's architecture, miner content moderation policies, and competition-based approach differentiate it from the wealth of decentralized blockchain data storage options available today. These factors elevate Arweave from a data storage protocol to an entire, impermanent layer of the internet. Notable sectors Arweave's disruption wave encompass are: 

Profit sharing tokens (PSTs) are a simple mechanism built using 

 that shares the proceeds of any revenue stream on the permaweb. A revenue stream can be anything from a permaweb app or website to attention rewards from a meme. By minting a profit sharing token for a revenue stream, users and developers are able to trade proportions of future profit from the assets by trading the profit sharing token itself.

 A perfect example is PSTs by music platforms 

. They allow users to buy portions of the revenue generated by a specific album. When an artist uploads a new album to these platforms, a new profit sharing token is generated, which is initially wholly owned by the artist. Then, when users purchase the album, the revenue generated from these sales is split between the owners of the profit sharing token relative to how much of the overall PST supply for that album they own. Artists can also raise funds for marketing by selling portions of the PSTs for their album upfront or for the production of new albums, or they may choose to retain full ownership of the tokens.

Profit sharing communities (PSCs) are mechanism for developers to express the ownership and governance rights of their permaweb app in code. These organizations are represented by smart contracts in SmartWeave, the smart contracting framework for Arweave.

These decentralized organizations are a fairer model for startups, enabling the following key benefits:

CommunityXYZ is a profit sharing community software to create communities. You can check it out and read more about it

Arweave protocol has an extensive wiki on the protocol, how to get started, the technology and use cases. 

 was created to shed light on all arweave's architecture. You can keep tabs on latest developments on arweaves on Arwiki also on Arweave.news. 

The Arweave community has created a variety of helpful applications and resources to aid users building on the network.

 as well such ArLocal, TestWeave Docker, TestWeave SDK, ArkB and lots more.

 is a browser extension which serves as Arweave's wallet management and login pass for apps. It allows you to interact with many Arweave applications and dapps. Its currently on your favorite browsers extension store like chrome, brave, firefox. On mobile devices, download a kiwi browser. you can install arconnect's wallet extension on it

.app is a web based wallet used to  manage tokens from the browser, upload permanent data, and interact with the weave.

ArDrive is a decentralized, community owned data storage platform offering storage that lasts forever. It offers storage of NFTs , personal photos , videos and many more document types. It offers a pay- per-life payment plan rather than a subscription based  ones.

Arweave Web Extension works as a wallet, as well as a web archiver. With Arweave Web Extension you can archive web pages and online pdfs, videos and anything that could become a victim of the dreaded 404 error. 

It also allows you to manage your AR token wallet directly in your browser, export the wallet history and download it as a CSV file. It has multi-wallet support that you can easily switch between. You can send and receive AR tokens and generate new AR wallet keys.

everPay is a real-time payment protocol for both Arweave and Ethereum. Its aim is to provide a trusted, decentralized payment application for everyone, as well as an SDK for developers to make it simple to build DEXs.

Every blockchain needs an analytic tool for exploring the network. To monitor transactions, addresses, blocks and network statistics, ViewBlock serves this purpose for Arweave, as the permaweb’s major block explorer. To monitor whether a currency transaction has been mined into a block yet, or whether a SmartWeave contract interaction has failed, ViewBlock is very handy. You can also get stats on the total size of the blockweave, number of daily transactions, locations of nodes, and more.

The future is bright for the blockchain and web 3 ecosystem. Nearly all services in web 2 can be replicated or have been replicated in web 3 with more scalability and performance without sabotaging security and confidentiality. Decentralized storage networks aim to disrupt the cloud storage industry by increasing the use of otherwise unused computer storage. Arweave brought another dimension into the mix of decentralized storages. Immutability, perpetuity and information provenance created the edge over other storage solutions. 

Solana is one the blockchains network to have partnered with Arweave to provide a decentralised permanent data storage solution of ledger data, ensuring the data can be always retrieved as required.

In NFTs , arweave can solve the problem of missing metadata, protect metadata manipulations from malicious actors and provide consistency in projects. Deploying Arweave for NFTs will reduce costs of storage and decentralized it, making censor resistant.

More and more projects will leverage on  Arweave's technology in the future, create suite of Dapps at a fraction of the cost to keep it running on Amazon AWS and other storage platforms.

To keep track of the Arweave Ecosystem, follow them  on 

Exploring the Arweave Protocol

Cosmos was created in 2014 by JAE KWON. Later ZARKO MILOSEVIC and Ethan Buchman joined KWON in building a complete cosmos interoperable  ecosystem. Cosmos is a complete technology stack that goes beyond simply allowing different blockchains to connect and share data with each other. They have also created a streamlined development process that allows developers to create their own custom blockchain in months or even weeks, instead of years. It aims to create an "Internet of Blockchains" by improving interoperability.

Its Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol launched in February 2021. It dubbed itself the internet of blockchains. A blockchain tends to act as its own universe, a self sufficient system working in isolation from its environment with almost no way to communicate with the other chains in the ecosystem.

Cosmos' aim is simple: to enable any blockchain to communicate, share data, and transact with any other. By allowing many different blockchains to interoperate, there is less of a need for these networks to ruthlessly compete to be the one blockchain to rule them all. Instead, many different blockchains can co-exist with their own specialized use cases and advantages. It prioritizes the sovereignty of independent blockchains, meaning they must secure themselves, have their own governance, and run their own validators.

The Cosmos Network is built on three fundamentals: Tendermint Core consensus mechanism, Cosmos Software Developer Kit (SDK), and the Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC).

Blockchains communicate with each other in the Cosmos ecosystem through a hub and zone model. For example, if you wanted to connect 

 through Cosmos, both blockchains would need to connect to their own zone. The Ethereum zone and Bitcoin zone would then each connect to a hub and
through this shared hub, Ether and Bitcoin could be transferred between them.

Consensus is a fault-tolerant mechanism series of algorithm used to achieve the necessary agreement on a single data value or a single state of the network among distributed processes or multi-agent systems. Consensus in Cosmos is reached by a  protocol called

. Tendermint is software for securely and consistently replicating an application on many machines. Tendermint works even if up to 1/3 of machines fail in arbitrary ways. every non-faulty machine sees the same transaction log and computes the same state. Secure
and consistent replication is a fundamental problem in distributed systems; it plays a critical role in the fault tolerance of a broad range of applications, from currencies, to elections, to infrastructure orchestration, and beyond. Tendermint allows developers to create a proof of stake Blockchain that is fast, scalable, secure.

Cosmos is a relatively fast chain with a throughput of 10,000 Transactions per second and average transaction time of 2 seconds. Its one of the fastest chain out there.Most fast chains traded the level of decentralization and security for transaction speed. Cosmos is one of few chains with a great transaction speed without compromising security and decentralization. it’s even harder if a project wants to keep security and decentralization. You don’t need to search long for projects that traded in the decentralization part for speed. 

Blockchain networks are designed to be isolated in their networks. They are self sufficient systems which has enormous resources in their networks. Each blockchain with its different  consensus makes it inter -communication difficult. For example , you can’t use a ethereum dapp on a solana dapp. Interoperability between blockchain networks is a necessity if we want a massive adoption from people. Cosmos is one of the chains out there with a solution for interoperability in blockchain. This was built as a core tenets of its operations. They championed the IBC,  the inter-blockchain communication protocol. IBC is an interoperability protocol for communicating arbitrary data between arbitrary state machines (blockchains).

The protocol consists of two distinct layers: the 

 (TAO) which provides the necessary infrastructure to establish secure connections and authenticate data packets between chains, and the 

, which defines exactly how these data packets should be packaged and interpreted by the sending and receiving chains. 

The IBC application layer can be used to build a wide range of cross-chain applications, including but not limited to token transfers, interchain accounts (delegate calls between two chains), non-fungible token transfers and oracle data feeds. Its not the perfect solution yet but its a step to greater times where we will be able to port between different chains. Interoperability will create a massive upside for the blockchain community. We have seen projects like EVMOS, OSMOSIS , GRAVITY DEX take advantage of the IBC.

Many chains have built using the cosmos SDK. Examples are Terra, Binance chain, Cronos Chain. Cosmos is true to its idea of being the internet of blockchains. We will explore the different sectors of the cryptocurrency space and talk about projects built on cosmos on each.

There are about 49 apps and services running on the cosmos ecosystem with a total market cap of 61.44 Billion USD according to the data on their 

Decentralized finance is one of the sectors with an outstanding growth since 2021.

 is making great strides while adding new layers to its already robust DeFi infrastructure that includes many exciting projects such as 

. One key area of growth is the addition of some of the most advanced cross-chain decentralized exchanges (DEXs) that leverage the 

 to enable permissionless and harmonious trading across various Cosmos
blockchains and beyond. DEFI in cosmos is growing exponentially creating a market opportunities for users.

NFTs are more than just crypto art, which is very helpful for accruing value to the Cosmos ecosystem.

Stargaze a Cosmos SDK application-specific blockchain built for NFT’s. Stargaze aims to provide the Cosmos ecosystem with the tooling to mint, as well as the marketplace to buy/sell NFT’s on Cosmos. 

Compared to NFT marketplaces on other blockchains, Stargaze is unique in that (like other zones in the Cosmos ecosystem) it is its own blockchain. To ensure a fair distribution, Stargaze conducted a liquidity bootstrapping pool on Osmosis for its token, STARS (there was also an airdrop to Cosmos ecosystem participants). STARS can be used to participate in governance, stake, interact on Stargaze, and mint NFTs. Currently, STARS token holders can stake their tokens, or provide liquidity on Osmosis.

The Cosmos Hub is tasked with facilitating interoperability between all the zones within the network by keeping track of their states. 

ATOM is the native token of Cosmos, a decentralized network that provides open-source tools for developers to create their own interoperable blockchains. 

With ATOM, you have the ability to contribute to the security and governance of the Cosmos Hub. Delegate (stake) your ATOM to one or more of the 125 validators on the Cosmos Hub blockchain to earn more ATOM through Proof-of-Stake. You can also vote with your ATOM to influence the future of the Cosmos Hub through on-chain governance proposals.

This includes authenticating accounts and transactions, creating and distributing new tokens and executing
changes to its own blockchain.How to get started in cosmos.

Blockchain explorers are software used for visualizing blocks, transactions, and blockchain network metrics (e.g., average transaction fees, hashrates, block size, block difficulty). Each Chains have uniques explorer to check the on-chain activities. Explorers in Cosmos gives all information not excluding data like TVL in defi dapps. 

These block explorers allow you to search, view and analyze Cosmos Hub data—like blocks, transactions, validators, etc.

Wallets store your private keys, keeping your crypto safe and accessible. They also allow you to send, receive, and spend cryptocurrencies. Wallets are non-custodial , meaning they are decentralized, you own your keys and the sole responsibility of keeping it safe lies on you. All ways keep your wallets safe by storing your keys offline. It could written down , inscribed on a metal plate. any way that suits you.

NEVER SHARE YOUR KEYS WITH ANYONE BE IT OFFLINE OR ONLINE

To participate on governance , staking/delegation, you will need to a wallet which supports the cosmos ecosystem.There are lots of options to choose from on this

ATOMs can be traded on major exchanges such as Binance, Kraken, Kucoin, FTX etc. You can also receive ATOMs through staking directly as a validator or indirectly as a delegator. But if you're looking to buy ATOM outright, here's how to do it on Binance. 

 Navigate to your spot wallet and deposit the cryptocurrency you want to trade for ATOM. As of writing, Binance supports trades against Binance USD (BUSD), 

 (USDT), Binance Coin (BNB), Bitcoin (BTC), and USD Coin (USDC).

You can also buy on other centralized exchanges. To participate in governance, delegation and staking on cosmos, you need a decentralized wallet. We talked about them on the sub-heading 

wallets. Please re-check them to read more on them.

To get more updates on the Cosmos Ecosystem, Follow them in their social handles below