Monet Network- (Part 2)- An in-depth analysis of the technical aspects of this amazing project

in #cryptocurrency • 6 years ago


Source: Medium, (2018)

Introduction

This is the second part of my research into Monet Network, in this article I wish to examine the technical aspects of the Monet Network whitepaper and provide you with an in-depth understanding of how it operates, I will try my best anyway. I truly find this an amazing project and hope you can pick something up on this, I have structured this article in a way it will be easy to read by relatively inexperienced people. If you have any questions and wish me to clarify anything please feel free to ask in the comments below.

I will not be introducing the project here again, please check out part 1 of this series in order to get a general understanding of the project, which can be found here:

https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@cryptoguru1/monet-network-part-1-a-general-overview-of-this-ambitious-new-platform-in-the-blockchain-space

The network

Monet Network will leave this network open source for developers so they can decide how “peer discovery” occurs on their own platforms, they will aid this in the short term via their Monet hub module although. Monet Network does this to avoid any centralisation which is extremely smart. They have designed their platform as “A dumb network with smart systems connected to the network” (Monet Network, 2018).

All of this will operate on their “Master Blockchain” the “Monet Hub”, according to their whitepaper. This will provide the services such as “ID peer discovery, cross chain communication, and NAT-Traversal” according to Monet network, (2018). They state it is a fully smart contract enabled platform, for anybody to deploy Decentralised Applications (DApps) on. Monet network will provide the distributed computing network in other worlds. This diagram below shows how it works:


Source: Monet Network, (2018)

The blockchain itself works as follows:

  • The babble blockchain has a proof of stake protocol built on top of it.
  • This allows validators to be awarded “Tenom”, the native token, for operating the nodes of the network and securing the hub. They earn these rewards in the form of transaction fees.

If you guys need to learn more about how blockchain consensus works please check out some of my earlier work, I have discussed this a few times. It is one thing people should learn if they are interested in how blockchains operate. But to be frank, The Babble blockchain is one of the best blockchain architectures I have ever seen, I will be following their development closely over the coming months to witness its delivery.

A more technical look at their network


Source: Coin Crunch, (2018)

In this section I will be examining how this network operates in detail, the information is taken from the Monet Network whitepaper and other related sources in order to keep it relative. The image above shows how everything intertwines.

The first thing I want to talk about is how their Nodes operate. Nodes are the backbone to how blockchains operate, they are a critical requirement as they are essentially the validators of transactions. They essentially run the entire chain. In the case of Monet Network, they run the P2P applications that connect people using the network at any given time and place, it then carries out all the consensus functions. Essentially, they are the facilitators for those “20 people” I used in my example in part 1 of this series. These nodes are what allows people to communicate in a decentralised fashion on the Monet Network. What sets this apart is that their Nodes can operate on “off the shelf mobile devices” according to Monet Network, (2018). This will be revolutionary, I don’t know of any other project which has attempted this or at least got it right yet.

What I love about this is that anybody can run nodes on this network, which is a far cry from most other blockchains out there. In order to do so, they just need a device with the Monet compatible consensus module installed, one of these being “Babble”. Babble can operate with iOS, Android and windows according to the whitepaper. I love the way they designed Babble to allow “phone processing power” to essentially operate these ad hoc blockchains. This means we all have the power to operate this blockchain from our pockets essentially.


Source: Coin crunch, (2018)

According to Monet Network, (2018), a set of nodes will create these blockchains with an agreed set of participants who are all copied locally. The above image shows how this works within the network. The network is responsible for updating leave/join requests. All of these join requests are processed on the blockchain and are decided by the consensus algorithm. In this instance, each node votes, essentially meaning it has a “membership protocol” within the consensus. They further state in their whitepaper that these blockchains can operate effectively from 1-100 nodes. In my opinion, this is quite sufficient for the type of networking they are trying to achieve. This is an example of a project who are bringing reality to this space.

How nodes are identified

As we all know (or should know by now), public/private keys are the way in which we transact on any blockchain. I am not going to explain this in detail, but it is the encryption method adopted in the space which pretty much makes it secure and un-hackable in my opinion.

Monet network, (2018) state in their whitepaper that all their Nodes are identified by a hash of their public key. The private key is also controlled by the node. When people join these ad hoc blockchain networks all nodes need to know the address of each participant, in order to know how many nodes are in the “permission consensus system” and to be able to carry out verifications via cryptography. They add this hash identification method to allow for a “NAT friendly” consensus.

Simply put this all allows nodes to interact and communicate with one another, a vital requirement of any blockchain.

How the Babble consensus works

The Monet Network is fully decentralised, compared to the mainly centralised applications we use today. The Babble SDK makes this possible on the Monet Network. The team have developed Babble in a way that makes it very simple for developers, it does all the hard work behind the scenes and is not complicated to use.


Source: Monet Network, (2018)

Monet Network, (2018) state that Babble essentially attaches itself to an application and allows the application to direct transactions through it for consensus. I don’t want to get too technical here, but the image above is showing how this works. Simply put:

  1. The application submits transactions to babble (Via the SubmitTx function).
  2. Babble processes the transaction and returns it to the application in the consensus order and in blocks (via the CommitBlock handler).
  3. Local storage is used to store files and host Babbles “key-value database”- This is where keys etc…are stored. Both the application and babble have access to this. The application populates it and all further updates go through Babble as consensus is required.

In this way, the blockchain operates and accepts participants and new entrants are added to the underlying storage facility.

What I really like about this model is that it gives application developers full control over how the “peer discovery” process works, babble just carries out the consensus. I fully believe that this is a model which developers want to see, they don’t want to leave a core part of their business to the “rules of a specific blockchain”. Monet network offers this loose connectivity, whilst delivering a fully secure and decentralised platform for developers to launch their apps. It just works in the background in a simple sense but carries out complex tasks.

How consensus is carried out


Source: Coin Crunch, (2018)

Again, please check out my earlier work to understand how consensus algorithms work. They are essential to the operation of blockchains and there are many different types out there. What I like about the Monet network consensus is that it is the participants of these small ad hoc networks who carry out the consensus amongst themselves. This means quicker consensus and does not require nodes all over the world to verify transactions as is common with other blockchains.

Monet network, (2018) describe how Babble uses Full Information Protocol (FIP), which is a leaderless, asynchronous, Byzantine fault tolerant system”. Now this may confuse a lot of you, so I am not getting into too much detail on it here, but what this means is that is it extremely fast and efficient (1000s TPS per second). This is required on Monet Network blockchains because groups of people are integrating in real time, and as such, a real-time consensus algorithm is required. People can’t afford to wait minutes/hours for verification on the network, it would render it useless.

Monet Network further state that the consensus process is based on the engaging notion of “gossip about gossip”, this in short yields the data required to carry out the consensus. I find this fascinating personally. All of this “gossip” is recorded in the “Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG)”, according to Monet Network, which is fully tamper-proof as they are cryptographically signed and chained together.

Overall this history of gossip approach allows for a very simple order of events to be agreed on and allows “virtual voting”. As described in the whitepaper, Babble involves 3 operations to carry out the consensus:

  1. Gossiping and construction of the communication graph.
  2. Determining which events will become common knowledge.
  3. Sorting events with their deterministic function.

Monet Network has also designed this consensus method to allow for interoperability, as described in the whitepaper. The requires a 4th step of “projecting output of ordering function onto a blockchain” (Monet Network, (2018). Simply put this maps transaction in order for DAG-based systems to utilise inter-blockchain protocols. This in my view is a much-needed requirement in blockchains today. This function is another reason I am so excited about Monet Network.

Inter-blockchain Communication


Source: Coin Crunch, (2018)

One of the reasons I am writing about this project is the ability to operate across other blockchains. I strongly believe blockchains will only last if they offer this capability. This means people are not restricted in their use of a particular blockchain, something which I feel is essential for mass adoption. This occurs all around us in the “traditional server world”, from transactions between different platforms to simple purchases. In the real world, we have interoperability, this needs to transition into the “blockchain world”.

Monet Network, (2018) describes the need for Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocols to achieve this in the space. The ad hoc nature of Monet Network blockchains would then prove a problem, but the team here have taken this into account. Even though the blockchain may be “closed” once the last node stops operating, the cryptographic data still exists on blocks, this data can be used to achieve interconnectivity.

Monet network adds in their whitepaper, that this process is about “verifying on one chain that a transaction happened on another”. To keep this simple, all I will say is that the amazing work of “hashing signatures” during consensus allows Babble to provide this function. They retrieve the block they require, extract “IBC packets” and use what is termed “Merkle proof” to verify a particular transaction occurs on another, all by verifying the transaction hashes. I am not going into any more detail on this, I think a simple explanation covers this quite well. But please check out the whitepaper (linked in further reading below) to get a better understanding of how this works.

How it all works together


Source: Monet Network, (2018)

The Monet network whitepaper describes this in great detail and it is truly an amazing revolution within the space in my opinion. What amazes me is how the Nodes use the Internet (TCP/IP) to allow mobile devices to communicate with one another. They do state a challenge exists on how to keep these devices connected as they roam around. They also go into detail on how this works within the whitepaper if you want to check it out, but essentially, they state that they remain “agnostic” as to how peer discovery and NAT traversal services can work, due to a lot of limitations. I believe they have purposely left a lot of this open source because they need application developers to make this a reality and define how their Apps will carry our peer discovery and NAT services.

Monet Network, (2018) state that to combat this limitation and to make it a reality off-the-bat, they will provide their master blockchain for applications who need it. They state that “Monet Hub” will always be located on the chain to aid in the development of early applications. To keep this short, it essentially houses validators (nodes) who are working on a proof of stake algorithm.

I also find it fascinating that they will use a combination of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and smart contract technology interwoven with the Babble consensus to allow for peer discovery and other services. The role of validators is also open to anybody, which is great to see because it means it will be a truly fair network. I feel that combining Babble with the Ethereum virtual machine is essential for the success of this project.

Tenom- The platforms cryptocurrency


Source: Monet Network, (2018)

Tenom will be the cryptocurrency used within the network/blockchain. The team state they developed this because they did not want to use Ethereum itself. In my opinion, this is smart because Ethereum has a lot of problems in my view and I feel projects need to put their own stamp on their projects via the implementation of their own utility tokens. Validators will be paid in Tenom, and platform fees (smart contracts etc…) will be paid in Tenom, thus creating a utility for the token.

According to Monet network, (2018), Validators will utilise servers called “STUN” + “TURN” to enable this all to work. Tenon is basically a licence to carry out the consensus within the Hub.

Monet Network, (2018), further state that Tenom cryptocurrency is used for voting power and validators have to “bond” theirs to security deposits. This seems like a staking process based on my understanding of it. This Tenom is destroyed if the validator is found to be malicious, which makes this extremely safe in my view.

Security

What has also instilled some faith in me is the fact Babble can combat malicious attacks easily. Monet Network, (2018) state this limit is 1/3 faulty nodes, which is standard in any Byzantine fault tolerant protocol. What strikes me the most here, is that with the small ad hoc nature of this network this could occur easily.

To combat this, the networks join request algorithms will check the ID and other data about users. It is important to note however that all data fully belongs to the user and in no way can be sought by others. This is however an essential requirement for security purposes.

Furthermore, the proof of stake algorithm is designed by nature to reward nodes for work, which incentivises fair play. This fact and combined with the fact that Venom is lost if Nodes become malicious, this in my view is enough to ensure 1/3 attacks never occur on this network.

Conclusion

Overall, I am extremely impressed with Monet Network. I believe the team has gone the extra mile and covered all their bases in terms of platform design, consensus protocol, inter-chain operability, and security. It is not very often we find such amazing platforms at such an early stage of their life cycle.

Monet network offers, in my mind, the future of blockchain design. The ability to create ad-hoc networks consisting of people using mobile devices is revolutionary, these people can communicate and transact in a real-time fashion whilst having full control over their own data and receiving the benefits of blockchain technology. This network I feel will attract developers in mass from the centralised model we all experience today and will offer them something new to build on, a platform which does not conform to the limitations so many other public blockchains suffer from.

Monet network will utilise the power of the mobile to make this a reality. One thing I talk about all the time is about how we need mass adoption into this space. What a better way to achieve it than to use what most people have at hand today- their mobile device. By utilising radio-tech, Bluetooth tech and Internet/WIFI-tech (all inbuilt to a mobile), Monet will allow these ad-hoc networks to be created. This platform is perhaps the first workable solution to centralisation I have seen to date. I believe Monet Network will put the power back into the user’s hands, in a true peer-peer fashion.

The use cases of this platform are endless in my opinion. I am particularly excited about the inter-chain interoperability of this network because I feel it will render this a very useful blockchain in the “real world”, people need to be able to interact/transact across many platforms. I think the “Babble” consensus module is revolutionary and I also believe that by offering the services of “Monet Hub” will aid developers in offering peer discovery and NAT transversal capability at an early stage. Monet Network will offer us the first conceivable way to achieve a true peer-peer economy in my opinion. I bet you can all think of great uses for platform in the world today.

I hope you have enjoyed this 2-part series about Monet network. I know it is lengthy but I tend to go overboard on projects I really like. If you have not already done I urge you to read my introduction on Monet Network. I hope people can appreciate the work which goes into compiling these articles. All of my information was drawn from the Monet Network whitepaper and other close sources, in order to give you a true and relative picture of what this project is all about. I will provide links to all of this in the further reading section.

Final word

Lastly guys, I just want to stipulate to you that you should not take any of this as investment advice. I am not a financial advisor and urge you all to do your own research when considering any investment, this space can be very unforgiving and is very speculative in nature. Never follow somebody blindly; my job is to showcase projects I see with real potential that is all. I hope you enjoyed this article and I will aim to find the next amazing project in due course. I thank you all for your support and ask for you to share my work. I would be more than happy to discuss any questions you may have in the comments section.

Further reading

References

#blockchain #bitcoin #steemit #ico
6 years ago in #cryptocurrency by
$0.17
  • Past Payouts $0.17
  • - Author $0.15
  • - Curators $0.02
196 votes
Reply 7
Sort:  
  • Trending
    • [-]
     6 years ago  

    Looks great, thanks! Happy Monday.

    Posted using Partiko Android

    $0.00
      Reply
      [-]
       6 years ago  

      Thanks for your support buddy

      $0.00
        Reply
        [-]
         6 years ago  

        Hey there, can do a write up about nulls blockchain? And perhaps share your thoughts on the difference between Monet and Nulls?

        $0.00
          Reply
          [-]
           6 years ago  

          Being a Clueless Clown 😀 on Crypto circle at the moment, but sincerely, your simplicity writing style makes it easy for me to grab many things... not to worry... learning is a process...I will pick up... weldone Buddy!

          $0.00
            Reply
            [-]
             6 years ago  

            @dmoderate thanks for your kind words. I hope the way I write makes its easy for people to understand these projects. We are at such an early stage in the crypto sphere and some of these new and upcoming projects are truely amazing. it would be a shame for people to pass them by, simply because they could not get their heads around the whitepapers, which can be quite confusing. Please keep folloing my work

            $0.00
              Reply
              [-]
               6 years ago  

              My pleasure. Sure...I think most people be able to understand you... especially colleagues in your field. Cheers!

              $0.00
                Reply
                [-]
                 6 years ago (edited) 

                @ajaeontherun Hey there, yes I may get to that, I would love to compare it to some other projects. I really think Monet Network is going to take this space by storm. Give me some time and hopefully Il get to it. I also want to write an article about their token economics when they are announced in detail. Currently working on another article so trying to balance time. Thanks for your support

                $0.00
                  Reply