Spotlight: nOS
Spotlight explores the very core of projects in the NEO ecosystem — never any fluff, always straight to the point. With the recent whitepaper release, the second NEO London spotlight takes a look at nOS and what it’s all about. Let’s go!
What is nOS?
To put simply, nOS is a virtual operating system. This operating system is powered by the NEO smart economy. The overall vision being that any user or application can be connected to an open internet — web 3.0.
What does ‘open’ mean though?
Open refers to the idea that applications are now able to run in a decentralised manner meaning they can operate with full transparency through blockchain infrastructure.
But why do we need an open internet?
The way the internet operates today is the opposite of open. Although most of us use the internet to some capacity on a regular basis, if we look deeper we start to realise the pitfalls and problems of how it is built - it is generally insecure, not very transparent, privacy is not guaranteed.
So how do we improve on it?
One of the important facets of blockchains is smart contracts. As we explored these in our first NEO London Blog, smart contracts allow for the trading of digital assets in the smart economy using programming code. Importantly, smart contracts have the ability to be transparent, meaning they can be openly reviewed.
Where does nOS come in to all of this?
This is all great but when front end users utilise the smart economy for trading digital assets, digital identity etc. then they need an interface. To put simply, in order to access the internet, you can use a mobile or desktop nOS client.
This client has the ability to run a browser for the decentralised internet but also the capability of having an ‘app’ store for decentralised applications.
Fun fact #1 — the dApps on the ‘store’ will be ranked by the people using it, not by any central company. This is known as decentralised authority.
What makes nOS an all-round solution is that developers will be able build decentralised applications with nOS java script and web language API’s and libraries. All built into the nOS client.
What is the Universal Smart Contract and how does it differ to any other smart contract?
This is another feature of nOS. The Universal Smart Contract is a single smart contract that is hosted on the NEO smart economy. This smart contract contains popular functions that you would normally expect, such as logic, storage methods etc.
Furthermore, any application can call these functions meaning any application on nOS and on the NEO blockchain can interact with this Universal Smart Contract which is already hosted on the NEO mainnet.
What is the purpose of this Universal Smart Contract?
To explain, take this scenario: an application can set up its own database and logic on this Universal Smart Contract and then can use all of the functions of the Universal Smart Contract. This application would then be running in a decentralised manner.
This is where is get interesting. If an application doesn’t have the funds, ability, or are just small scale to run and deploy their own smart contract, they can simply use the nOS Universal Smart Contract.
What is the nOS token?
In order for nOS to run, it has to have a utility token. The nOS token has two main functions:
· On the application end of things: developers and projects can stake tokens to register their domain, host, get listed, and rated by decentralised authorities.
· On the user end of things: users are able to stake tokens too, albeit for other reasons. For example, users can gain authority using the staking method. Remember the fun fact above? The higher the staking the more voting power you have and this can be channelled to voting on applications and truthful voting etc.
Why is decentralised authority meaningful for the nOS ecosystem?
Applications may not be starting up as a profit seeking project. They may not even have a token generation raising event either. But the decentralised authority mechanism using the nOS token means that application can now earn through their reputation. A high quality application is already enough to earn revenue on the nOS platform.
In turn, having higher reputation for an application also means that you are more likely to be discoverable on the platform ‘app store’. Quality is rewarded and reinforced. It is interesting to note that the impact this may have on applications could be fewer ads while also creating a novel revenue model in a decentralised environment.
How will users interact with all of these applications on the nOS platform?
This is one of the most critical features of the nOS platform. The one token that everyone has to utilise when they interact with nOS in any way is GAS.
Fun fact #2 — GAS will be commonly utilised on the nOS platform. GAS will be used when a user wants to interact with all these dApps that have their own tokens.
For example, if you want to stake a dApp’s tokens in order to complete some function within the application but you do not currently have the dApps token, the nOS client will be able to detect you do not have the tokens to complete the action.
The nOS client will be able to automatically convert your GAS to the dApps tokens and then you are able to stake the dApps tokens to complete the intended action. This saves users both time and effort and reduces the ‘barriers’ to interact with application on the nOS platform.
Let me hear about the Token Generation Event!
Fun fact #3 — users can only participate in the Token Generation Event via the nOS client.
What are the important things to know about the event?
· The TGE has no soft cap. The public sale hard cap is $15,750,000 USD.
· NEO and ETH are accepted during all stages of the TGE.
· During the TGE, individual participants of the public sale presale can mint up to approximately 90,000 nOS tokens in total.
· The presale allocation tiers are as follows:
Tier 1: 90,000 nOS
Tier 2: 45,000 nOS
Tier 3: 25,000 nOS
· No bonuses or discounts are applied to any stages of the nOS Token Generation Event with the exception of the angel allocation (NEO Global Capital). The angel allocation entails a 20% discount on tokens purchased and a 20% vested bonus on the amount paid pre-discount. The angel allocation is vested following the Private Sale Distribution Model, and the bonus for the angel allocation is vested following the Locked Token Incentive & Reserve Distribution Model.
How are the nOS tokens distributed?
Public Sale (Includes Pre-sale) -157,500,00 (35%)
Locked Token Incentive & Reserve — 101,250,000 (22.5)
Private Sale — 67,500,000 (15%)
Ecosystem Adoption Reserve — 67,500,000 (15%)
Company Token Reserve — 33,750,000 (7.5%)
NEO Global Capital — 22,500,000 (5%)
