nOS launches testnet and blockchain codebase
Today marks the release of our alpha blockchain, testnet, and block explorer.
Testnet Features
These features are currently live on the nOS alpha testnet:
- Staking NOS for increased influence on the network.
- Stake-powered voting for delegates.
- Block rewards for nodes based on their rankings, motivating competition among active delegates.
- Unique transaction fee model that automatically removes the majority of all collected transaction fees in a block.
- Block explorer: inspect the network’s transactions, blocks, delegates, and staking & supply data.
The purpose of the alpha testnet is to make our blockchain development public.
While the testnet is in alpha, the network will reset and start from a genesis block at a frequent rate, as it allows us to publish new features and updates at a faster rate, and so community delegates and developers can get a feeling for the ecosystem before the mainnet is released.
The development of new features will take place on branches in the official Github repository and on private repositories (before being publicized), depending on the type of feature.
A testnet NOS faucet will be released in the future, allowing the community to run nodes, vote, and stake and transfer NOS in a more decentralized manner.
NOS coin features
The following features will be available for NOS, the network’s native coin:
- Voting for nodes that secure the network.
- Voting for curators who list apps on the app store.
- Staking to increase a wallet’s vote weight.
- Block rewards for nodes and curators.
- Attention-based Rewards: periodically contribute to apps using crypto in a peer-to-peer fashion, with no middleman or service fees.
- In-app benefits for third-party apps and games, such as nOS Poker.
The curator system, the decentralized nOS app store, and attention-based rewards will go live in the future.
What’s next?
Here’s what’s next for the nOS Blockchain:
- Release testnet faucet for NEP5 NOS holders.
- Release testnet staking & voting app in nOS Browser.
- Support nOS blockchain client sdk in nOS Browser.
- After ARK Core 2.6: upgrade nOS blockchain from alpha to beta.
- Integrate curator system and app store in testnet and browser.
- After ARK Core 3.0: upgrade nOS blockchain from beta to mainnet release candidate.
- Launch nOS mainnet.
Development for nOS Mobile takes place in parallel with the above roadmap.
ARK Core
The nOS blockchain is being developed with the ARK Core blockchain framework, a modular Typescript platform for blockchain development. We’re working directly with the ARK team on nOS features and ARK plug-ins.
nOS is also the first project to join the Powered by ARK program, enhancing the platform’s development, relations, and audience.
