2017.10.30 / BOS Platform Foundation
After reviewing various related issues — we, the BOScoin Foundation, have decided to release BOScoin TokenNet allowing BOScoin transactions. We refer to the product including mFBA, Trust Contract, and Congress as “BOSnet (code name)” and the product enabling transactions, such as BOScoin remittance, as “TokenNet.” This document mainly contains: 1) the background and objective of the release of TokenNet; 2) the introduction (composition) of TokenNet and related activities; 3) the policy changes from the White Paper; and 4) future plans (for any fundraiser participants who are interested in economic incentives, please refer to “TokenNet Policy.”).
Background of the Release
● Background and Expectations
Following the fundraiser, we had various discussions on the development schedule. Since BOScoin is a cryptocurrency platform developed to overcome Quality of Service (QoS) issues of existing cryptocurrencies, we need to ensure sufficient QoS by having a long enough development period to ensure we release a quality product, while maintaining strong community support.
In our SCP (Stellar Consensus Protocol) agreement algorithm seminar as mentioned in our previous newsletters, we reviewed mFBA (Modified Federated Byzantine Agreement), the agreement algorithm of BOScoin, together with some expert participants and came to the conclusion — the development of mFBA to allow open membership based on the FBA protocol requires wide experience in network operation and additional R&D.
We decided to release and operate BOScoin TokenNet enabling BOScoin transactions as a means to gain the required network operation experience to ensure QoS, and launch a real service for the community. TokenNet not only allows BOScoin transactions, it is capable of running applications with some constraints, and we plan to use TokenNet to develop several projects.
Three of the expected effects of TokenNet are as follows
● Contribute to securing BOSnet’s QoS through experience in service operation
We plan to acquire rich experience in network operation through TokenNet and such accumulated experience will be fully reflected in our additional research and BOSnet development. This is expected to greatly contribute to ensuring BOSnet’s QoS.
● Secure trust from our business partners through the release
Currently, we are in discussion with diverse business partners who wish to go into partnership with BOScoin, but delays in our release will increase the risk of losing business opportunities. Although TokenNet is more limited compared to BOSnet, we expect it to contribute to increasing trust with our business partners by meeting their requirements to a certain degree.
● A more active community through service-based communication
We have been communicating with the global community members through the Slack channel, but we feel any communication not supported by a real service is too abstract. In our recent BOScoin Global Meetup, we truly realized we are very limited in moving forward without the release of a real service. We expect TokenNet will encourage lively communication on various proposals and support activities.
Our Goal of Releasing TokenNet
To guarantee BOSnet’s QoS and promote a more active community, we will engage in various activities in order to achieve these goals. Some of our goals will be met with the release of TokenNet, but we will continue to advance the network during its operation.
● Activities to secure QoS
We will conduct the following activities to ensure QoS.
- Implement a test environment for the development of BOSnet
- Establish a DevOps system and organization: e.g. monitoring tool
- Establish a security system and organization: e.g. fault response system
- Obtain in advance data for setting a detailed policy on BOSnet: e.g. a review of the appropriateness of the node operation environment and transaction fee
(See “Introduction (Composition) of TokenNet and Related Activities” for some of the completed items.)
● Goal and activities to make the community more active
We will carry out some of the project activities using TokenNet, and share the results with the community. This is expected to encourage the community’s support and participation.
The Introduction (Composition) of TokenNet and Related Activities
TokenNet is developed based on the SCP and is in line with the BOScoin policy. To ensure QoS, we have additionally conducted several development activities other than TokenNet itself and are in the process of organizing an operation team separate from the BOSnet development team. The tools, system, organization, and operational experience involved in securing TokenNet’s QoS will also be applied to BOSnet and will contribute to achieving the completeness of BOSnet.
● Composition of TokenNet
TokenNet is comprised of TokenNet core, horizon, and wallet. The role and description of each component are presented in the table below.
● Additional efforts worthy of mention
- Development
- Organization
After booting TokenNet, the following two teams in addition to the current organization will be established. Any updates on team building will be notified through newsletter, etc.
TokenNet Policy
In the case of TokenNet, unlike BOSnet, all the nodes are operated by the BOS Foundation. Therefore, the number of BOScoins issued upon launch of TokenNet will be fixed at 500 million and will remain so until BOSnet is released. However, the amount of coins may vary if necessary depending on the TokenNet-based projects. TokenNet policy is as follows with some changes made to the transaction fee. Should there be any problems identified during the operation, the policy may change accordingly after a series of discussions.
● TokenNet Policy
Minimum Balance is provisionally set to prevent network attacks that can arise by easily creating an account, and will be finalized after the release of BOSnet.
A transaction fee of 0.001 BOS was determined to be a fair alternative to keeping the transaction fee at 0.01 BOS as stated in the white paper, which could make BOScoin unfavorable to micro payments, while keeping the fee high enough to mitigate network attacks. This transaction fee will allow for an additional economic incentive for BOScoin holders to hold their coins through BOSnet release.
We will continue to research the use of transaction fees as a means of off setting transaction costs as an incentive model, and its impact on relative QoS. We will use the TokenNet data to help in our research, and we will update the community with our findings.
● A detailed policy on transaction fee
Future Plans
To ensure the smooth operation of TokenNet, we will carry out the above mentioned activities to secure BOSnet QoS. We will organize a DevOps and a CISO team, establish BOSnet Node Policy and collect data as required, and continue our transaction fee research, etc.
In this note, we have confirmed additional research is required in mFBA, etc. So, we will set up a dedicated team to tackle these issues and we will update the community as soon as we have it finalized.
We are also going to undertake various service-based projects. In other words, we will carry out a number of projects and partnerships we have been reviewing to date as TokenNet projects. In this effort, we expect to conduct various tests on Trust Contracts.
We will continue to share with the community our progress and results of the our activities via the newsletter and other channels of communications.
