Project Update: V3 Work, JavaScript Smart Contracts, Stablecoins and more!

Published in

Koinos Network

4 min readJan 22, 2022

I’m Andrew Levine, the CEO of Koinos Group and this is our regular project update.

Since our last update we have completed three more “stories,” which is an agile term meant to describe significant chunks of work which provide specific value to the blockchain engineer. These stories were; Stack management, Handle failed transactions, and Extend genesis data capabilities.

Stack Management

With exciting main net features like the mana fee-less system and proof-of-burn consensus, it can be easy to forget that the heart of Koinos is the Koinos Blockchain Framework which we built from the ground up to make it easier than ever for blockchain developers to build high performance, fee-less, and infinitely upgradeable blockchains.

In Koinos-based blockchains, basically everything is happening in smart contracts either in “user smart contracts” (or “dApps”) or “system contracts.” System smart contracts contain the behaviors we want from the blockchain (”L1”) like consensus, governance and resource management. These smart contracts work by “overriding” basic native implementations or “system calls.”

In other words, you have different kinds of smart contracts, with different privileges, interacting with one another and with the blockchain. The stack management story was all about designing a suite of tests that blockchain developers could use to ensure that all of this is properly set up. Of course, these tests will help us ensure that all of the smart contracts for main net are properly implemented.

Extend Genesis Data Capabilities

Koinos main net will launch using a snapshot of the KOIN ERC-20 to set the initial balances on the new blockchain. This means that the moment the blockchain is “born” (or “at genesis”) the blockchain needs a way of knowing about the snapshot.

As I said above, Koinos is a blockchain framework with some pretty amazing capabilities, so we are always thinking about not just how we intend to use the framework, but how other developers will use it as well. We do this because our mission is not to simply build the ultimate fee-less layer 1 blockchain (though we intend to do just that), it is to accelerate decentralization.

Building the best possible blockchain framework so that engineers can launch their own public, private, or hybrid blockchains maximizes the odds of accomplishing our mission. If we were to intentionally build a bad framework just to prevent competition, not only would this demonstrate a total lack of confidence, it would prove that we are not genuinely committed to our mission. What we discovered on this journey, however, is that delivering the best possible main net requires having the best possible framework. The framework is the foundation of the blockchain. Build a flawed foundation, and those flaws will only hurt the blockchain you’re building on top of it.

These other blockchains might not need a snapshot included at genesis, but they might need some other piece of information. That’s why instead of simply trying to figure out how to add the snapshot to genesis (which would only help us), we developed a more general solution that would allow a blockchain engineer to launch a Koinos-based chain with ANY kind of data added to its database at genesis. If you’re a developer interested in learning more about how this was done, you can view the story here.

Handle Failed Transactions

Finally, we addressed a number of issues that were causing a node to “brick.” We wanted to make sure that no matter what transaction was sent to a node that it would remain functional, or in the worst case scenario at least be recoverable.

Koinos Community

We are a small team which some might view as a negative, just as some might view the fact that we didn’t ICO or raise venture capital as a negative. But we believe these are incredible strengths, not weaknesses.

Our small size — due in part to the fact that we aren’t over-funded as a result of an ICO or VC funding — makes Koinos more accessible to community members who are able to get involved before VCs and aren’t competing with a massive founding team to figure out how to add value. There are so many opportunities to add value to Koinos and people are already taking advantage of those opportunities!

JavaScript Smart Contracts?!

One of the developments we’re most excited about is the creation of an AssemblyScript contract development toolkit by the community developer Roamin. AssemblyScript is a subset of TypeScript that basically implements the features available in WASM. Point is, an AssemblyScript CDT makes Koinos smart contracts accessible to all JavaScript developers! This is a BIG deal! Thanks again Roamin!

Stablecoins

An economist going by the name of “Joe Walker,” has contributed some interesting ideas about stablecoins on Koinos.

The Koin Press

Luke Willis, creator of The Koin Press podcast published an interview with Koinos Group co-founder and Head of Design, Ron Hamenahem as well as some great short articles on NFTs, DeFi, and Impermanent Loss. To receive his awesomely simple updates straight to your inbox, subscribe to his newsletter.

Developers, Developers, Developers

Developers are key to helping Koinos accelerate decentralization because it’s their insanely great applications that will actually make Koinos accessible to everyone. So if you’re thinking about building a dApp on Koinos, or are already building one, connect with us ASAP and let us know how we can help!

You can connect with us on the Koinos discord server, telegram channel, or by e-mailing contact@koinos.group.

As always, thank you for being a part of the Koinos community and helping to accelerate decentralization through accessibility!

Andrew Levine, CEO of Koinos Group