Waves platform registration and getting started. Waves platform overview
With this post, I would like to open a cycle of reviews of blockchain platforms, the main purpose of which is to talk about the possibilities of practical application of blockchain technology to build not only individual services, but entire digital ecosystems. In our reviews, we will talk about systems that are undeservedly deprived of attention on Habré, but are widely known and discussed in the cryptocurrency community.
The first article in the series will focus on the Waves open source blockchain platform, which by June of this year, as part of a crowdfunding campaign, managed to raise funding in the amount of 29,445 BTC, which, at the then current exchange rate, amounted to more than $15 million.
I decided to take a closer look at the functionality of this decentralized platform specializing in the blockchain token model, its main activities, as well as the strategic steps of the project management.
Unlike the Canadian-based core of the Ethereum team and the German Lisk team, the backbone of the Waves team is based in Moscow.
Platform Founder Sasha Ivanov Graduated from the Faculty of Theoretical Physics of Moscow State University. Prior to immersing himself in the cryptocurrency environment, for several years he specialized in the development of bots for trading on the stock exchange, based on the model of artificial neural networks.
Prior to the implementation of the Waves project, Ivanov managed to launch the Coinomat instant cryptocurrency exchange service, develop the first crypto-fiat token CoinUSD, and, together with several notable blockchain enthusiasts, founded the Crypto Asset Fund, a venture fund specializing in blockchain technology.
During the development of cryptocurrencies, the founder of Waves attracted the potential of blockchain technology for issuing securities and crowdinvesting. One of the projects that influenced the formation of Waves was the NXT blockchain platform - one of the first platforms that allows users to create their own crypto-analogues of shares - blockchain tokens - and trade them on the exchange, thus attracting investments. In the Whitepaper Waves, references to the experience of NXT are also noticeable, which were taken into account when developing their own platform.
Blockchain-based crowdinvesting has a number of advantages over the classic venture capital investment and crowdfunding models.
So, instead of working under the patronage and compliance with the conditions of one large venture investor, project founders may be much more interested in a model in which funds for a project are raised through a large number of micro-investments. In addition, in addition to receiving funding, startups automatically have the opportunity to form a primary user base capable of testing a particular project within the framework of the crowdinvesting community formed as a result of the campaign. It is likely that Direct Investment will gradually bite off its piece of the market from venture funds.
As for the classic crowdfunding model, unlike, for example, the popular international crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, Waves will allow you to withdraw from the project investors by selling your token on the exchange to another user, without waiting for the final results of the project.
Waves is a platform whose functionality allows users to issue custom tokens that will be the equivalent of some assets, carry out various operations with them, as well as implement such areas as trading, fiat and cryptocurrency exchange, voting on the blockchain and decentralized crowdfunding.
As part of the crowdfunding campaign on Waves, startups can issue crypto-tokens, the purchasers of which, in turn, get the opportunity to operate with them at their discretion: buy, sell, transfer or exchange without intermediaries. And all this is based on the principles and technologies of blockchain.
For all of the above operations with tokens, a special p2p exchange is being created within the Waves platform. We can say that tokens play the role of a kind of universal instrument, tied depending on the purpose to a particular asset.
This mechanism is implemented as follows: with the help of network gateways that support the token, its binding to a particular currency, for example, the US dollar, is confirmed. Unlike the tokens of the BitShares decentralized exchange platform (which is based on a dynamic mechanism that functions through scripts, where, in order to make sure that the value of the token remains tied to the asset, bots automatically carry out a purchase and sale transaction on the exchange), the functionality The Waves platform involves the use of blockchain payment systems as a transactional layer.
In order for the participants of the crowdfunding project to decide how to distribute the profits or how to spend the funds raised, Waves plans to implement a voting system based on blockchain technology.
To enable the transition from NXT to Waves, the development team plans to launch a protocol that allows the transformation of project assets hosted on the NXT platform into Waves assets.
In addition to the benefits, the Waves blockchain model also involves a number of certain risks that can be divided into three categories:
- Technical risks, such as bugs that cause a token to lose value, as is the case with Ethereum. This type of risk lies with the Waves platform itself.
- Fraud risks that can be mitigated through a KYC system for evaluating projects hosted on the site. In fairness, it should be said that during the ICO and crowdsales of cryptocurrency projects, there were practically no cases of successful fraud, as investors trust their money only to well-known people from the industry who have a positive reputation.
- Legal risks, in order to avoid which a competent assessment of the model's compliance with existing state legislation is necessary. For example, the United States has a very strict crowdinvesting policy, but at the same time, in Asia and Europe, you can choose a more favorable jurisdiction for a project of this type.
To get started with Waves, users are encouraged to install the Lite Client. Lite Client does not require the installation of the full Waves blockchain and only stores information about the user's own assets within the platform.
In addition, full blockchain node server software is offered.
The Waves platform began with the code for the Scorex framework, an open-source blockchain project that its creators claim is capable of accelerating research and development in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space. This is largely due to the compactness of the Scala code at the heart of Scorex. By comparison, Bitcoin Core contains over 100,000 lines of code, NXT has over 45,000 Java code, and both projects have very confusing code structures, which somewhat reduces the space for developers to experiment. At the same time, Scorex's Scala code is less than 4,000 lines of code.
Mining of the Waves platform is based on the Leased Proof of Stake (LPoS) consensus. This type of consensus allows you to create blocks in 10 seconds due to the limited number of nodes (about 100). LPoS provides users with the ability to lease their balances to other nodes in exchange for a share of the profits, unlike the Bitshares DPoS (Delegated Proof of Stake) platform consensus, where miners are determined by a simple vote.
According to the founder of Waves, the LPOS consensus implies a system in which users who generate blocks are selected according to the balance of the Waves token. At the same time, users can withdraw their funds at any time and send them at their discretion. But ordinary users cannot use money for mining, they can only lend it to generating nodes in exchange for a reward. This approach is called "account leasing".
Not so long ago, a bounty program was announced, in which enthusiastic testers created a test network of 100 full nodes. The purpose of this step is to test the operation of the LPoS consensus protocol and monitor transactions carried out through the Waves network. In case of positive test results, the participants of the next stage of the program will try to find platform vulnerabilities and break the system. Motivation for participants - a bonus for the result, determined by the Waves development team, depending on the stage of this testing.
After some time, they plan to add smart contracts to the platform, which will only run on full nodes to achieve greater scalability. Given the unsuccessful experience of The DAO, Waves plans to implement a less flexible solution compared to Ethereum, but a more secure solution - transactions will not be carried out through smart contracts, but will take place inside the sandbox. This program runs in a protected environment and, in fact, has no access to anything - neither to resources within the system, nor to external resources. Unlike the Ethereum code, which functions independently of developers, the sandbox receives data through certain communication channels, processes it, and returns it. This is the usual approach of virtual machines.
The results of the code in the sandbox will be available to all developers. Unlike Ethereum, in Waves, the code will not be integrated with the blockchain. The Waves code will be in the Sandbox, where the calculations will be made. The code will run on several nodes, the performance of which can be compared. Third-party developers will be offered an API for implementing contracts in any programming language.
The platform will allow the development of an additional password system (2FA) on the blockchain. Unlike other systems where the risk of password database theft remains, the security of each password in the Waves authentication system is ensured by distributed technologies and cryptography. Users of sites integrated with the Waves 2FA solution will be able to authenticate using a password stored in a decentralized system that eliminates the risk of a password being changed by an attacker.
Unlike the Ethereum platform, whose founder Vitalik Buterin initially recognized the experimental challenges of his development, the Waves platform aims to solve specific business problems with a large load and the ability to scale.
In this review, we looked at the Waves blockchain platform as an example of the successful application of the concept of using crypto-tokens. In the next article of the review series, we will look at the Lisk crypto platform, which offered its users the opportunity to develop applications based on JavaScript without having to learn the language of the platform itself, as is implemented on Ethereum.
Waves Platform- a decentralized platform for crowdfunding and issuing digital assets. This is a blockchain project with Russian roots. The Waves crypto platform is primarily aimed at issuing, trading and exchanging assets/native tokens on the blockchain. One of the main features of the project is a focus on ease of use and mass adoption. The four core components of Waves, an open source platform: cryptocurrency, blockchain, decentralized consensus-based confirmation mechanism, and a community of miners that maintain the network. Proof-Of-Stake is used as the consensus algorithm.
Story
2019: Availability of smart accounts and smart assets
“We are very excited to add another gateway to the Waves client,” comments Alexander Ivanov, CEO and founder of the Waves blockchain platform. “Ethereum is the most popular blockchain platform after Bitcoin itself, and it is important to offer users the ability to trade ETH on a decentralized exchange. Over time, we will add more coin gateways, increasing our appeal, and allowing not only trading, but also crowdsales on Waves, which will allow you to collect a range of cryptocurrencies directly.”
Partnership with Deloitte CIS
RUIG Drinks and Bites is the first Dutch company to host Waves
On June 22, 2017, it was announced that the RUIG Drinks and Bites bar in Ede became the first Dutch company to accept Russian Waves cryptocurrency for payment.
`We chose WAVES because of the great prospects that this cryptocurrency opens up. We also wanted to please our visitors, many of whom are Waves holders. We try to be original not only in terms of the choice of beer, wine, gin and tonic in our establishment, but also in terms of payment methods. In addition, traditional banking transactions are associated with high costs, and we would like to reduce them, ”says Marley Grevland-Kenders, co-owner of the institution.
2016: Holding your own ICO for 30,000 BTC or $16 million
In June 2016, Waves completed an ICO (Initial Coin Offering - public sale of coins), during which they raised over $16M (30,000 BTC). In terms of crowdfunding investments, it entered the top 10 most successful blockchain projects.
The platform was founded by entrepreneur Alexander Ivanov in 2016. As a guide, the businessman took the well-known NXT crypto platform. Previously, Ivanov was a member of the team of this project. NXT is popular mainly in Asia.
Waves made history even before the official launch. At the creation stage, the crowdfunding company helped the organizers raise 30,000 Bitcoins. For the summer of 2016, this amount was equivalent to 15-16 thousand dollars. Waves became the seventh product in history in terms of the number of funds voluntarily raised for its creation. In the test version, the platform was launched on June 7, 2016. The official release was given in November 2016. It was then that third-party users had the opportunity to issue their own tokens using Waves.
In June 2017, the coin entered the Top 10 digital assets by market capitalization.
Algorithm Waves
The Waves system uses the Proof-of-Stake algorithm. The creators on the official website express the hope that in the near future a more optimal solution to the problem will be found, which will save resources.
In October 2017, it was announced the start of testing a new algorithm, called Waves New Generation. The developers do not hide that it is written on the basis of a similar Bitcoin NG protocol.
- Main advantages of Waves NG:
- Increased block throughput;
- The speed of generating new blocks;
- Microtransactions without delay;
Increased transaction speed on the DEX exchange built into the platform.
According to Alexander Ivanov, already in 2018 the platform will be able to increase the speed of transactions on an ongoing basis.
The Waves platform does not focus on the growth of its own cryptocoin. The main task is to transfer all payment systems and crowdfunding to the blockchain. Waves positions itself as a financial platform focused on creating your own coins, transfers and trading, which includes deep integration into fiat currencies.
Waves platform features:
- Ability to use the built-in DEX exchanger;
- No restrictions on trading volumes;
- Keeping all assets in a wallet as an alternative to an exchange;
- Possibility of issuing own coins;
- Possibility to conduct ICO within the platform;
- Leasing your own coins.
One of the most unusual features of the Waves wallet is renting out your own tokens for a fee. The platform operates using the LPoS (Leased Proof of Stake) consensus. This is a kind of modification of Proof-of-Stake. It takes 10,000 Waves to run your own node in the system. The vast majority of users do not have that many coins. The developers offer system participants to unite and rent out their tokens to someone who can run a node. Major nodes make weekly payments to their landlords.
The procedure for renting coins will not take even five minutes.
Do the following:
- Open your WavesLite wallet;
- Click the Leasing button;
- In the Recipient field, specify the pool to which you want to rent coins (more than 10 addresses are available);
- In the Amount field, enter the number of coins;
- In the Fee field, enter the transaction fee. The higher the commission, the sooner trading with your coins will begin.
- Click the Release button.
Transaction Waves
At the end of 2017, the time to build one block is one minute. In the future, developers assure that transactions will go much faster. The block size is limited. So far, there is a limit of a hundred transactions per block.
The system takes a commission for each transaction or issue of a token. The transfer of coins within the system will cost 0.001 Waves. You will have to pay one Waves for issuing a token.
On December 23, the developers announced that the Waves-NG protocol was finally activated in their network. It is assumed that the speed of transactions on an ongoing basis will be 6,000 thousand per minute. The goal of the largest blockchain platform is to achieve a network throughput of up to 1000 transactions per second.
What Waves is used for
Waves focuses not on its own cryptocurrency, but on the development of full-fledged financial trading, which will eventually become a full-fledged alternative to exchanges. Skeptics express doubts about the uniqueness of Waves, comparing the idea with Ethereum, but, according to the assurances of the founder Alexander Ivanov, its product is focused on the transfer of fiat currencies through the blockchain and crowdfunding on the blockchain. Developers plan to develop mainly in these two directions.
As of the end of 2017, the platform offers the most convenient solution on the market for creating your own cryptocurrency. For this, there is no need to use smart contracts or other similar transactions. It is enough just to launch a client, pay a commission and create your own coin. The most convenient offer, designed for a wide range of users.
Another advantage of Waves is that the storage of currency within a decentralized exchange is not a unique innovation, however, Waves strives to become a leader due to increased functionality. The Waves exchange is not inferior in speed to centralized counterparts, while it is distinguished by increased security.
The official Waves client offers a very convenient way to buy coins with a plastic card. The operation will take several minutes. To do this, you only need to open your wallet and select the deposit amount. So far, one operation is limited in the range from 30 to 200 dollars or euros. Payment is made within two hours.
Another option is to transfer Bitcoin directly to your account. The minimum amount to replenish the wallet is 0.01 BTC.
What exchanges is it traded on
Waves aims to focus coin trading on its internal platform, however, third-party exchanges are also showing interest in the token. The clear leader is Tidex. Almost half of the transactions take place on this exchange. Two other popular high volume trading options are Bittrex and Yobit.
Mining Waves
Waves is considered a very promising coin, but it is not available to ordinary miners.
Only owners of nodes can mine coins in the system, but in order to obtain such a status, you must have 10,000 Waves on your account. As of January 2018, 1 coin is trading at $13. Accordingly, to launch the node, you will need to invest 130 thousand dollars, or more than seven million rubles.
It is impossible to mine coins on a video card or using special ASIC equipment without the necessary amount on the account. The only way to accumulate coins, apart from buying, is to lease the accumulated tokens.
Waves Storage Wallet
The platform offers an official Waves wallet. All that is required is to enter a name and a unique password. After that, the user receives a wallet address and a unique SEED key, which consists of 15 random words. They need to be written down. SEED-key is the only way to access the wallet on all devices.
On a computer, you can use the special WavesLiteApp plugin for Google Chrome. For Android, there is the official Waves Walles app available on Google Play.
Waves positions itself as a platform, not a cryptocurrency, so analysts are wary of large investments in this coin. The well-known portal WalletInvestor assumes a very restrained growth. It is assumed that only by 2022 the coin will break through the $40 mark.
An obvious plus of the coin is its readiness for completely legal activities, however, in a year, the creators will not be able to translate all their ideas into reality. Waves is gradually developing, but there is not a single factor that would indicate a rapid rise. For example, the growth of Zcash or Monero cryptocurrencies can be predicted, given the huge turnover on the black market.
However, a sharp decline is also not expected. Moderate growth is projected due to the following factors:
- Great interest in the new crowdfunding system;
- Active development of cryptocurrency within the legal sphere;
- Development of the internal exchange.
Optimistic American investors predict the currency will rise to $30-35 next year. But a breakthrough that will help increase the initial capital by ten times is unlikely to happen with Waves.
It was developed two years ago. As a result of the crowdsale, the hybrid of Nxt, Ethereum, Ripple and Kickstarter raised $17,000,000 and entered the list of the best ICOs of the 2016 rating. The project was able to achieve such success thanks to a combination of the most demanded technologies in the cryptocurrency market and business. Let's consider in detail the advantages and disadvantages of this platform.
Waves Decentralized Exchange (DEX)
The company has received all the licenses necessary to legalize the trading of tokens for fiat money. This is one of the similarities with Ripple. At the moment, most competitors cannot boast of such an advantage. The ability to buy cryptocurrency directly with dollars and euros increases the interest in DEX from people who are just entering this market. Consider other advantages of the exchange:
Decentralization is a guarantor of reliability, so you don’t have to worry about hacks. Each user can become a matcher and receive income in the form of a commission for the trades of other users. To do this, you need to use the Matcher function.
Transaction speed is very high.
Simple, fast, clear, easy user interface. To gain access to the exchange and wallet, just download the Waves Lite Client extension or install the application on Android.
There are no restrictions on withdrawals.
Fixed commission.
Funds are stored on the wallet, not on the exchange.
Exchange Disadvantages:
Small selection of currencies. According to CoinMarketCup, the exchange currently provides the opportunity to trade 72 cryptocurrencies. Among them, only 3 are in the TOP-20 in terms of capitalization. Therefore, this service cannot become a full-fledged trading tool.
To replenish your account with dollars, you must register on IdNow.eu
Low liquidity (liquidity is a parameter that indicates how quickly a currency can be sold at a market price).
Only transactions with Waves and tokens issued on the basis of the platform are fully decentralized.
The DEX currently has a daily turnover of $5.6 million.
Platform for creating tokens and conducting ICO
Waves is positioning itself as a decentralized Kickstarter and is about to move crowdfunding to the blockchain.
The project allows not only to create tokens, but also to conduct ICO. Moreover, the creation of your own token takes no more than one minute, after which the asset can be immediately traded on the exchange.
Integration with the consulting company Deloitte allows individuals to work in a legal financial field. Consider the features of issuing tokens:
The cost of developing a token is $1.
The developers are going to add a system of reputation, voting and the ability to exchange encrypted messages for network members.
Tokens Flexibility - a system that allows issuing projects to choose which currency will be used as a commission for transactions of their tokens.
At the moment, more than 8000 tokens have been issued.
Compared to Kickstarter, Waves has the following advantages:
The speed of the company.
Lack of moderators.
Smaller commission.
Own platform for issuing and exchanging tokens.
High-quality ICOs on the Waves platform attract the attention of investors. Among the most successful projects are MobileGo (gaming industry) and Primalbase (office rental ecosystem).
The main advantage of conducting an ICO on this platform is the full legalization of all operations and the ability to buy tokens for fiat money.
Cryptocurrency
Capitalization: 1,193,870,000 USD.
Coin value: 11.94 USD.
Issue: 100,000,000 WAVES.
Proof Model: LPoS is a hybrid variant of PoS. Leased proof of stake allows you to lease your own Waves currencies, while receiving a share from the mining of full network nodes (computing resources that own the entire version of the blockchain and keep the port open to receive incoming requests). The number of full network nodes is limited - there are only 100 of them.
The blockchain is replenished with a new block every 10 seconds. The system uses standard 15-word public key encryption.
Waves mining is only available to full nodes using server software. For the rest, Account Leasing is provided. To start leasing, you need to open the Waves Lite Client application, go to the Leasing section and select the amount of cryptocurrency to lease. Not all users can generate network blocks. The selection is carried out by the number of coins on the balance sheet and the reputation of the user.
It is best to buy waves directly through the application wallet. This cryptocurrency is supported by 87 exchanges.
An important advantage of the platform is its high throughput, which allows you to forget about problems with transaction delays and expensive commissions. The speed of transactions is ensured by the full nodes of the network.
Waves roadmap and outlook
A review of Waves cannot be complete without a review of the development plan for the project. The roadmap allows you to monitor the implementation of the promises made by the developers.
In winter-spring 2018, Waves programmers promise to implement the following innovations and updates:
Implementation of a platform for decentralized voting.
Mobile app update.
Possibility of correspondence by simple messages.
The implementation of Atomic Swap - a technology for exchanging different cryptocurrencies without the participation of third parties (usually an exchange acts as a third party) - is the second similarity with Ripple.
Implementation of smart contracts.
Plan for the period spring-summer 2018:
Issuing a hardware wallet.
Implementation of user interaction interface for decentralized voting.
In the summer-autumn of 2018, it is planned to implement an interface for off-chain user correspondence, that is, without the participation of the blockchain.
In autumn-winter 2018, the roadmap promises to complete the Lite-Client and implement smart contracts based on a Turing-complete computer.
Waves is a promising platform that makes it as easy as possible for an ordinary person to work with blockchain, crowdfunding and helps him earn on cryptocurrencies. The project really solves global problems. Cryptocurrency is fundamental, as it relies on currently in demand business services.
To prevent it, Waves implements new types of transactions through plugins used as an extension on top of the main software. Thus, clients that lack the plug-in can still transact on the network.
Only a few types of transactions are included in the core software
- Custom application tokens (CATs).
- Decentralized exchange (DEX).
- Anonymity features.
Custom Application Tokens (CATs)
Selected tokens can be bought, sold, exchanged without intermediaries. Since you are setting up the coin yourself, it is possible to do whatever you want.
Creating a token costs 1 WAVE - about $13.40 at the time of this writing.
To date, over 7,000 user tokens have been issued on the platform. Their combined market capitalization was over $1 billion.
Decentralized Exchange (DEX)
Decentralized exchanges reduce many of the risks associated with using a typical centralized service.
Since your funds are stored directly in your wallet, DEX is almost impossible to hack. In addition, decentralization means that the administrator cannot freeze your funds or restrict transactions and withdrawals. You are in full control of your account.
Waves seems to have found a niche by focusing on the simplicity and mass character of the project. The tokens you can create with the platform lack some of the features found on other platforms, but are very easy to add.
Trading
Waves completed their ICO in June 2016, raising over $16 million. Almost immediately after the campaign, the price of WAVES dropped by 80% and stabilized at around $0.20 (0.0003 BTC).
In July of this year, the price remained relatively low. The subsequent surge was most likely due to the release of their roadmap, as well as the announcement of a partnership with the ICO Hub to address the necessary challenges.
Since then, the price has slowly fallen and then bounced back, reaching a new all-time high (in US dollars) in December of this year. The jump in value was prompted by the team's announcement that Waves will soon become the world's fastest blockchain platform.
With Bitcoin's scaling issues, speed is becoming more and more of a factor when evaluating the value of cryptocurrencies.
Where to buy WAVES
You have several options where you can purchase WAVES.
Namely
- Exchangers.
- Cranes.
Exchangers
Numerous exchanges such as Binance and Bittrex offer WAVES available for trading. In order to receive currency on these platforms, you first need to purchase Bitcoin or Ethereum. After purchase, transfer your funds to one of these exchangers and convert them to WAVES.
You can also use services like Changelly or Shapeshift to get tokens.
DEX
To receive cryptocurrency, the DEX exchange is suitable. The token is available in pairs with BTC, USD and EUR, though there are much more transactions with bitcoin than with other coins. Generally, the higher the volume, the easier it is to trade.
Cranes
If you're interested in getting some WAVES but are on a tight budget, use the faucets. With sites like Wavesdrop, you can earn up to 0.0001 WAVES every hour. It's not much, but it's free!
All you have to do is enter your WAVES wallet address and verify that you are not a robot.
Where to store WAVES
The best place to store your WAVES is the Lite Wallet client provided by the company. Keeping funds on an exchange puts them at risk, especially since your money is under the control of a third party.
The Lite wallet is available on the web and as a Chrome extension. You can also get it on your mobile device through the Apple App and Google Play stores.
Be sure to lease your tokens during storage to maintain the network and earn rewards.
conclusions
Waves provides an easy way to create your own token and take advantage of a simple blockchain feature. The platform is good for people who want to start crowdfunding or create a simple loyalty coin for their business.
The main advantage of the project is simplicity. Any user can create a custom token in a few clicks and with little knowledge of the underlying technology.
In addition to simple token development, Waves also offers decentralized exchange services.
The team has formed significant partnerships with the Russian government and with audit firm Deloitte. While the smart contract space is massive, the team faces serious competition from several other blockchain projects.
If the company delivers on its promises by making Waves the fastest blockchain platform in the world, it can be guaranteed that the platform will achieve great popularity in the world.