Core is the Student Blockchain. From its inception, Core has been carved out of the learnings of the best projects in crypto. Soaking up the wisdom of blockchain history, Core has burst onto the scene with groundbreaking innovation and idealism. As stated in the first Core Medium post, Core Blockchain Origin, “Core displays a deep appreciation for the history of the crypto ecosystem paired with an even greater excitement for Core’s role in its future.”
Inspired by Satoshi Nakamoto
Core’s “student mindset” is directly inspired by Satoshi Nakamoto, the polymath who crafted Bitcoin out of a wide-ranging knowledge of philosophy, cryptography, economics, political science, game theory, psychology, thermodynamics, and many other disciplines. On the back of Satoshi’s original genius, Core DAO seeks to emulate his student mindset with Satoshi Plus consensus. Beginning with Bitcoin for decentralization, adopting EMV-compatibility for scalability, and continuing to leverage rapidly developing blockchain discoveries, Core will eventually graduate beyond today’s understanding of blockchain technology. With a base layer of true decentralization, security, and scalability, Core can unlock wholly a new societal understanding and implementation of trust. With this vision, Core will extend beyond being a settlement layer to truly serve as the foundation of a digital nation predicated on self-sovereignty, trustlessness, and individual-empowerment. We are in the early days, but Core has the technology, community, and technologists to lead the charge towards a better future.
Core & Bitcoin: Hardening the Networks
Whether you look into Core’s past, present, or future, you will always find Bitcoin. Presently, as illustrated in the last Medium post, one of the foundational guiding principles of Core’s blockchain development is the Road to 100%. The full goal: 100% of Bitcoin mining hash power actively delegated to Core’s Satoshi Plus consensus. This effort is foundational to the early hardening of the Core network as an anchoring in Bitcoin solidifies security and decentralization. And in the long view, Core will also help to secure Bitcoin as miners benefit from CORE token rewards. Throughout Core’s development and roadmap, the Core x Bitcoin symbiosis will be a critical focus and guiding principle.
Developing Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
With the Core network secure, particularly with further hardening underway, much of the Core development efforts are presently focused on the foundation of DeFi development. Most notably, Core’s integrations with Layer Zero and Switchboard have been prime focuses. With these projects, the stage is set for a wholly decentralized, self-sovereign, and wide-ranging platform.
As assets and data continue to flow onto Core via the Core Bridge and Switchboard oracles, DeFi applications on Core can harness increasing levels of complexity. DEXs can remove extractive middlemen, protocols can automate on-chain borrowing and lending, and decentralized derivatives platforms can offer a glimpse into the future of self-directed financial applications. Reliance on the physical world is hardly necessary in the Core economy. Trust will increasingly lie within code rather than today’s human-led third parties.
Enhancing Infrastructure
In addition to external integrations, Core DAO is frequently looking for opportunities for internal upgrades. One notable agenda item is to sharpen Core’s burning mechanism. Currently, 10% of transaction fees and block rewards are burned in each transaction. This burn mechanism provides contractionary pressure on CORE’s circulating supply, enabling optimizations such as mitigants against spam/sybil attacks. Continuing in the spirit of being a Student Blockchain, Core contributors are looking into optimizing the burning mechanism using the best elements of EIP-1559 and other approaches to burn more CORE tokens when the network is congested.
Furthermore, Core developers are considering improvements to node election and distribution. Currently, only 21 validators are being elected to the validator set, so rewards are only shared among them. To further optimize decentralization, the validator quorum may be gradually increased, first to around 42 and ultimately expanding to even more in the long-term future. Additionally, rewards may eventually be partially doled out to unelected validators, largely to cover hardware costs, in order to incentivize more validators to be active.
Onboarding Billions & Improving Accessibility
Making Web3 decentralized, secure, and scalable is the core of our mission. But what’s the point if no one can access it. For that reason, Core DAO is perpetually thinking up the best ways to make Web3 more accessible. This principle was most obviously present in the CORE token airdrop, but will continue to extend into development of the blockchain and ecosystem. Many opportunities, both through partnerships and technological upgrades, exist or will soon exist. Core DAO plans on taking the best of the best to bring billions to the exciting internet frontier.
One example of a focus in the medium term is account abstraction. Account abstraction is a feature that can dramatically improve security, simplicity, and the user-experience on Core. From a security perspective, account abstraction can power two-factor authentication (known as multi-signature security) for crypto wallets, thus providing another layer of security when engaging with DeFi apps. This security buff is paired with parallel simplicity improvements as account abstraction permits greater flexibility for users related to security preferences. While underlying blockchain infrastructure is always designed to maintain user self-sovereignty, account abstraction also allows users to enlist the help of whitelisted accounts to recover otherwise lost wallets when seed phrases are forgotten. Just like that, one of the biggest UX problems plaguing adoption is facing amelioration. In addition to that user-focused upgrade, account abstraction can also be used to cost-effectively bundle transactions, enable protocols to pay transaction fees on behalf of users, and execute many other user-oriented functions. Plus, remember that account abstraction is just one of the many improvements Core has on the horizon.
Core as a Digital Nation
As the Core network hardens and DeFi levels up, “The Student Blockchain” will continue to grow closer and closer to being the most important digital nation on the internet. With Core ambitions growing every day, the long-term roadmap is full of ambitious endeavors like using Satoshi Plus to power far more than presently available. Simultaneously, however, it’s important to note that Core’s long-term roadmap is meant to be flexible. Rigidity and closed-mindedness are antithetical to the Core student mindset. The guiding principle in the long-run is to identify the best principles regardless of origin so that they can be optimally blended with the rest of Core and Satoshi Plus. That being said, a few long-term technical aspirations stand out.
Layer Zero has been a huge upgrade for Core interoperability. So, many Core developers have been enthralled by the potential for more cross-chain solutions, moving beyond Core Bridge’s current limitations to fully utilize this infrastructure. This enterprise would include more transaction automations and deep level message interactions. Native cross-chain solutions are also being explored.
Scaling solutions are another major long-term focus. While network congestion has not significantly affected major ecosystem events thus far, Core will eventually need layer two or even layer three scaling solutions. Presently, zkSync and StarkNet’s ZK-rollups are generating the most excitement among Core developers. More details on scaling solutions and other technical advancements will be provided in future updates.
With many other exciting innovations constantly popping up around the blockchain world, Core is sure to embrace many twists and turns on this journey. The roadmap is designed to be flexible, not taking on the path of least resistance, but rather the path of maximal value.
Technical Content on the Horizon
Thus far in Core’s journey, much emphasis has been placed on the Core philosophy and user-oriented approach. Now, as development expands beyond foundational consensus, some Core contributors are excited to openly discuss some of the more technical elements for builders looking to Core’s technical future. Furthering Core’s historic spirit of radical transparency, we are excited to unleash a specialized Core developer-focused Twitter account, @Coredao_Labs. The purpose of this Twitter account is to deliver lower-volume, yet more technical content geared towards spreading knowledge of Core’s technological developments and vision. Additionally, long-form developer-led content is on the horizon, so stay tuned for future updates.
Philosophy x Community x Technology makes for a powerful equation. Let’s keep building. Core is rising.
DISCLAIMER
CORE tokens are only available to persons outside of the United States, Canada, and non-OFAC sanctioned countries. Each recipient shall determine which laws, rules and regulations are applicable and shall undertake all necessary efforts to comply with all such obligations. Core and its affiliates make no representation of the legal status of the CORE under any jurisdiction. Furthermore, nothing in this post should be construed as advice of any kind, including legal, business or tax advice. This post does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase any investment.
