Understanding the Nervos DAO and Cell Model
Thanks to Stitch, one of our community members based in China, for this content!
The Cell Model
Before understanding the reward system of the Nervos DAO, it is necessary to briefly introduce the Cell model of CKB. Here is a simple explanation:
We can think of a cell on the Nervos CKB blockchain as a box, which stores CKByte tokens, smart contracts, custom tokens or any other data. All data on the blockchain is stored in these boxes.
To keep it simple, whenever you read cell, think box.
So what is a cell made of? CKBytes!
1 CKByte token allows an owner to store 1 byte of data on the blockchain.
Let’s look at an example: Suppose you have 1,000 CKBytes in one address—61 of which are required to create the cell, which can then hold the remaining 939 CKBytes. (The minimum required to create a cell is 61 CKBytes).
There are a few more things to understand :
- There is not currently a case where a cell would be more than 0 and less than 61 CKBytes — this would not meet the minimum requirement
- At present, whether you store 100 CKBytes or 10,000 CKBytes, you are using a cell comprised of 61 CKBytes
- The process of transferring CKBytes involves opening (destroying) a cell and creating a new cell. Transfers can open several cells, as well as create several new cells
- The 61 CKB that is used to create the cell can also be transferred — just open (destroy) the cell and transfer the CKB
This cell model is similar to Bitcoin’s UTXO model, however, on CKB, the native token is used to store data on-chain. Though this may be a bit tricky to understand at first, give it some time to sink in. Once you understand the whole process, you will also understand why CKBytes will be scarce in the future.
Locks and Types
To understand the operation of the Nervos DAO, we need to add two things to this cell, one is called a “lock” and the other is called a “type”.
Locks
The “lock” is very easy to understand. Since CKBytes are a digital asset, it makes sense that a lock would be needed to prevent others from stealing its contents. With this “lock”, only the owner can open/destroy the cell, unless of course their private key is leaked.
Types
Moving on to the “type” — this marks what the cell is used to store, and this designation allows the CKB virtual machine to find logic that controls the cell’s operation. Remember the cell we used to store the CKBytes above? The “type” of this cell is CKBytes, and it takes 61 CKBytes to create such a cell.
So what about the “type” on a cell used to store CKBytes in the Nervos DAO? To make a cell with a “type” of Nervos DAO, 61 CKBytes is not quite enough— 102 CKBytes will be required (for now it’s not important to understand why 102 CKBytes is required, just that this is the minimum value for Nervos DAO cells).
Nervos DAO Deposits
Let’s look at the process for depositing CKBytes into the Nervos DAO: first, open (destroy) a cell with the type “CKB” and then create a cell with the type “Nervos DAO.”
Though the amount of CKB required to create the cell has changed (from 61 to 102) and the “type” value of the cell has changed as well, the logic of the cell model is still the same. The “lock” is still there, and the key to the cell remains only in your control.
102 CKBytes was used to create a cell with “type” of “Nervos DAO.” Suppose you put 1000 CKBytes in a cell with “type” of “Nervos DAO.” You will receive rewards for CKBytes locked in the DAO, but 102 CKBytes is being used to store the cell. Rewards will be calculated based on 1000–102 = 898 CKBytes, not 1000 CKBytes.
Similarly, if you deposit 10,000 CKBytes, rewards will be calculated on 10,000–102 = 9,898 CKBytes.
Nervos DAO in Practice
We have observed one address that has been making consistent deposits of 100,000 CKBytes into the Nervos DAO: https://explorer.nervos.org/address/ckb1qyqpglresc88v97pqsmurcahz5gyflyqfn9sufygk9
The way this user has structured the deposits, each deposit creates a separate cell. For each deposit, the user is creating a cell with a “lock” that only their key can open and a “type” of Nervos DAO.
This approach will allow the user to withdraw each of these deposits independently (more information about Nervos DAO deposit and withdrawal can be found here).
Network Stats
- The CKB block explorer has been updated with a series of new charts.
- The current upper and lower limits of the CKB block time adjustment target are 8 seconds and 48 seconds respectively, and the target orphan block rate is 2.5%.
- At the time of writing, there are more than 1.6 billion CKBytes locked in the Nervos DAO, accounting for more than10% of the current circulating supply.
- The Nervos DAO leaderboard is live, the top three addresses have all locked more than 100 million CKBytes.
- At present, the total network computing power is running well and has risen to 240 TH/s.
Resources
There’s great value in understanding the logic that informed the architecture and operation of the Nervos Network. Substantial amounts of thought and research have gone into the design, and there is a steep learning curve to understanding the details of the project.
The Nervos positioning paper is undoubtedly the most comprehensive resource describing the project, however it is a lengthy document. For faster reading, some articles are included by topic below.
Nervos design philosophy:
Building a trust engine for the crypto economy
Blockchain and state explosion
Cell model:
Understanding CKB’s Cell Model
CKB and first class assets:
First-class Asset
CKB-VM:
CKB-VM architect Xuejie’s Xiao’s blog
Consensus mechanism:
Breaking the throughput limit of Nakamoto Consensus
Nervos CKB Consensus mechanism
Toward More Secure Proof-of-Work Consensus Protocols
Economic model:
Crypto-economics Design for a Preservation Focused Layer 1 Blockchain
For more info your next stop should be the Nervos RFC repository:
For discussions or questions check out one of our community Telegram channels: English, Korean, Russian, Japanese, Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese and join the conversation Nervos Talk
