User data is a fundamental asset of the modern economy. Control, ownership, use, and monetization of this data remain both a business challenge and privacy struggle. Oasis, a privacy-first, proof of stake, decentralized computing network is built to address these issues and enable a “responsible data economy.” The protocol aims to put users in the driver's seat, allowing them to own and control their data, while supporting the development of privacy-preserving applications and services.
Oasis has a unique design which makes the platform highly adaptable while allowing for high-performance computation. Consensus is separated from computation on a Consensus Layer and a ParaTime Layer.
For most Layer-1 protocols, the blockchain is one-size-fits-all. Every decision—on operational code, pricing, protocol design, and more—impacts all applications and services identically. By separating out the ParaTime layer from the Consensus layer, Oasis is able to optimize computation for a variety of use cases without sacrificing strong security.
Each ParaTime defines its own security model: its own manner for determining truth and process for agreement. Once that agreement is reached, the output is hashed and put on the main chain, providing an unalterable record of all past states.
The four key reasons for the dual-layer design are:
Anyone can build a runtime and add it to the Consensus layer.
Oasis Labs’ Data Sovereignty Runtime will provide a confidential compute and storage layer for developers who plan to run confidential smart contracts on Oasis. This runtime allows developers to “take advantage of confidential computation and secure computing techniques while the blockchain technology is abstracted away.” The potential applications for ParaTimes are extensive: ParaTimes are already being used by teams in the genomics, hospital management, credit scoring, and financial services industries.
Other ParaTimes in development include the SecondState Virtual Machine (SSVM), a fully-featured Ethereum WebAssembly (Ewasm) Virtual Machine.
“We support Oasis’ vision for a responsible data economy. Oasis’ innovative approach to optimize computation for a variety of use cases, without sacrificing strong security, is very exciting and we’re looking forward to mainnet launch."
–Joe Lallouz, CEO of Bison Trails
Runtimes determine for themselves how they work, come to agreement, and operate; these design choices are independent of one another and the Consensus Layer. Given this system, the consensus mechanism on Oasis is of less importance than on many other blockchains.
The Consensus Layer is essentially the auditor of a ParaTime’s decision, accepting the hashes of the most recent state (values) and writing them into the next block on the Oasis blockchain. It provides other universal services as well to secure the parallel runtimes:
Oasis is based on the Tendermint consensus layer (similar to Cosmos). At launch, the active set (called the “consensus committee”) will be 80 validators. Validators are placed in the active set dependent upon stake, and propose blocks proportionally to their stake. 67% of the voting stake must agree on a block for it to be considered valid.
To participate in the Oasis Network, you can run an Oasis validator node (consensus node). ParaTimes have their own compute nodes and requirements separate from the nodes in the Consensus Layer.*
Consensus nodes interface directly with all ParaTimes to verify the incoming values. This process is known as discrepancy detection. Consensus nodes check all compute nodes for a ParaTime and if there are any differences in the output values, they signal there is a discrepancy and require the work to be double-checked. This makes verifiable computation on Oasis ParaTimes more efficient, reducing the replication factor needed to achieve any given level of security.
* We will support customers who wish to run Oasis Consensus nodes with the Bison Trails platform.
"By providing an extensible platform for arbitrary computation running on top of a solid consensus foundation, Oasis ParaTimes enable near limitless opportunities to decentralize, democratize, and monetize verifiable compute use-cases.”
—David Shoots, Software Engineer at Bison Trails
Tokens Used | ROSE |
Total Initial Supply | 1.5 billion |
Total Planned Inflation | 2 billion |
Maximum Token Supply | 10 billion |
Expected rate of Inflation | Year 1, first half: up to 15% Year 1, second half: up to 12% Year 2, first half: up to 10% Year 2, second half: up to 6% Year 3, first half: up to 4% Year 3, second half: up to 3% Year 4: up to 2% Inflation is based on block time and smoothed over time (e.g. there are not step-function changes). Inflation rates are approximate. |
Target staking rate | N/A |
Expected rate of reward (based on an expected staking rate of 70%) | Year 1, first half: 21.42% Year 1, second half: 17.14% Year 2, first half: 14.29% Year 2, second half: 8.57% Year 3, first half: 5.71% Year 3, second half: 4.29% Year 4: 2.86% |
Consensus Committee Size | 80 |
Maximum Stake | Unlimited |
Minimum Stake | 100 ROSE |
Unbonding Period | 14 days |
Reward compounding | Automatic |
Reward payout frequency | Per epoch (hour) |
Reward payouts mechanics | Accrue and restake directly on delegator’s account |
A validator must have a minimum self-bond of 100 ROSE, plus another 100 for the entity housing the validator. The entity is like an on chain identifier that has a single validator at a time associated with it. In order to receive staking rewards, the validator must sign at least 75% of the blocks in a single epoch, meaning it can’t be down for more than about 15 minutes per hour.
For delegation, an individual must delegate a minimum of 200 tokens to a validator. Rewards are shared with delegators based on the validator fee. Transaction fees are not shared with delegators and only accrue to the validator itself. Rewards are automatically distributed and restaked: they must be unbonded to be spendable.
Inflation starts at 15% and then decreases roughly linearly for the first 3 years. This decrease is not a step function; the rate declines slowly, and these values are the expected benchmarks. The rate of inflation is not impacted by the staking rate, only by time since launch.
Read Oasis Token Metrics for additional information.
At launch, slashing will only occur for double signing. The network will slash the minimum stake amount (100 tokens) and freeze the node. Freezing the node is a precaution in order to prevent the node from being over-penalized. A frozen validating node will not be able to participate in consensus ever again.
However, the entity running the validator can continue to participate by replacing the frozen validator with a new validator, which moves the token delegation to the new validator and enters that one into the active set. Token holders do not need to take any action when this happens as they are technically delegating to the entity itself and the entity can swap validators at will.
“Bison Trails brings their expertise in infrastructure and staking services to the Oasis Network. They’re fantastic to work with, and we’re excited to have their top-tier team as members of the Oasis Community.” -Jernej Kos, Director of the Oasis Foundation
Bison Trails is a blockchain infrastructure platform-as-a-service (PaaS) company based in New York City. We built a platform for anyone who wants to participate in 20 new chains effortlessly.
We also make it easy for anyone building Web 3.0 applications to connect to blockchain data from 30 protocols with QT. Our goal is for the entire blockchain ecosystem to flourish by providing robust infrastructure for the pioneers of tomorrow.
In January, 2021, we announced Bison Trails will be joining Coinbase to accelerate our mission to provide easy-to-use blockchain infrastructure, now as a standalone product line as part of Coinbase. The Bison Trails platform will continue to support our customers. With Coinbase’s backing, we will enhance our infrastructure platform and make it even easier to participate in decentralized networks and build applications that connect to blockchain data. Read more.
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