From OpenST Protocol to Mosaic: One year in the development of OST blockchain infrastructure and developer tools to empower new economies
OST, “Open Simple Token” was born out of Pepo where we began exploring token economies and tokenizing user experiences in 2016.
In early 2017 we went deep on blockchain technology research and from that work we decided to shift focus from tokenizing one app, Pepo, to developing blockchain infrastructure and developer tools to blockchain-enable any business: from mainstream apps with tens of millions of users to the next generation of emerging DApps.
We envisioned OST as the “Stripe” or “AWS” of blockchain, providing essential infrastructure and turnkey developer tools to empower new economies.
One year ago this week we released the OpenST Protocol technical white paper. The OpenST Protocol provides a framework for tokenizing businesses.
One year later, yesterday, we released OpenST Mosaic — a companion protocol to OpenST — for running meta-blockchains to scale Ethereum applications to billions of users.
OST KIT — built on OpenST and Mosaic — provides turnkey developer tools, APIs & SDKs for developing blockchain economies.
This Medium post presents a summary of our progressive development work this past year on OpenST, Mosaic, and OST KIT.
It’s been a fantastic year of substance-driven deeply technical development for OST, informed by direct input from our partners.
I’d like to thank everyone involved in making the first 12 months of the OST Project a great run.
- To each and every member of Team OST: Thank you for your hard work and for your enduring dedication.
- To all the Advisors to OpenST and the OST Project: Thank you for your guidance and for helping us navigate and stay on course.
- To our institutional equity investors and early backers: Thank you for recognizing our vision and for believing in our mission.
- To the blockchain and Ethereum developer communities: Thank you for embracing the OST Project and for constantly challenging us.
- Last but never least, to the OST Community: Thank you for being our biggest supporters and for making us want to do better every day.
Thanks for a great year of development. Year two is going to be even stronger: We’re still just getting started!
OCTOBER 2017
After first introducing the Simple Token project in September 2017, we announced our upcoming token sale “ICO” to mint the OST “Simple Token” token in this detailed blog post. The OST token is required to have a market-determined value in order for it to serve as a value token staked on Ethereum to support Branded Tokens minted on utility blockchains according to the OpenST protocol. The OST token will also be used to pay for gas on the OpenST utility chains and as rewards for Mosaic validators.
The technical white paper for OpenST Protocol, the foundation of the OST Project, was published on 4 October 2017.
NOVEMBER 2017
We presented a live end-to-end demonstration of OST tokens staked against minting and using Branded Tokens on open side-chains, following the OpenST Protocol. This demo accompanied the public release of OpenST platform v0.9.0 , the first development milestone in the Simple Token project. OpenST 0.9.0 presented a proof for staking crypto assets on Ethereum towards minting Branded Tokens on public sidechains.
OST Co-Founder and Chief Blockchain Strategist Benjamin Bollen announced that the Simple Token sale smart contracts were successfully deployed and audited by three independent auditors.
DECEMBER 2017
The Simple Token ICO came to a successful end, with 6871 unique purchasers from 130 countries purchasing 261,070,175.3 Simple Tokens, achieving 189% of the target for the token sale.
OpenST Protocol v0.9.1 was released, which marking the move of OpenST from Ethereum testnet to mainnet, as well as enabling software developers to build applications on OpenST to further the Protocol.
JANUARY 2018
We introduced OST KYC, the first plug-and-play Know Your Customer / Anti-Money Laundering management solution for blockchain projects. OST KYC lets you process thousands of applicants smoothly and securely. OST KYC will be fully integrated into OST KIT, our developer toolkit for managing branded token economies, later this year.
MARCH 2018
We released OST KIT Alpha I based on OpenST 0.9.1 for public testing.encouraging developers to launch their own Branded Token economy and simulate transactions directly in OST KIT⍺. The program resulted in 1627 unique Branded Tokens and 18M+ transactions simulated.
APRIL 2018
We released OpenST Protocol & Platform 0.9.2. OpenST Protocol 0.9.2 enabled token transfers between BT holders and provided REST APIs for OpenST.
MAY 2018
We presented three internal POCs in support of OpenST 0.9.3, called Game (incentives game theory), Proof (validating Ethereum’s Patricia Tree Proofs), and Gateway (decentralizing OpenST’s staking and minting capabilities).
We published a first overview of work underway on OpenST Mosaic, a consensus protocol to run meta-blockchains on top of Ethereum, allowing for thousands of transactions per second on Ethereum, critical for mainstream adoption.
We released OST API v1.0 based on feedback from hundreds of Alpha program developers. We revised most of our code structure to be more intuitive and useful for developers.
JUNE 2018
We announced 72 successful POC integrations with OST KIT Alpha II, including 7 Proofs of Concept by OST Partner Companies. The Grand Reward of 250,000 additional OST went to kwanda for their innovative Q&A platform where the best answers get rewarded with the Branded Tokens staked by the inquirer.
JULY 2018
In July we shared a detailed updated 4-year Roadmap for the OST Project.
OST releaseed OpenST Protocol 0.9.3. OpenST Protocol 0.9.3 decentralized the Gateway between Ethereum and OpenST auxiliary chains, enabling any actor to move ownership across the gateway, transforming value tokens on Ethereum into utility tokens on the utility chains and back.
We released the OST Ledger & Balance APIs to allow developers to integrate the first OST Wallet-Lite features into their platforms, enabling end-users to review their token balances and recent transaction histories.
We launched the third OST KIT Alpha Challenge: Embedded Wallet-Lite. A continuation of the 2nd OST KIT Alpha program, developers were rewarded with up to 350,000 OST for integrating the first OST Branded Token Wallet features into their platforms.
AUGUST 2018
92 Projects successfully completed the OST KT Alpha III challenge, integrating the OST Ledger & Balance APIs into their platforms.
SEPTEMBER 2018
Ben and I presented OpenST Mosaic Protocol: Scaling Blockchain Economies to Billions of Users: at the Upbit Developer Conference in South Korea.
12 OST Partner Companies successfully minted their own Branded Tokens by staking real OST on Mainnet.
OCTOBER 2018
We released OpenST Protocol v0.9.4, a major milestone release in our Blockchain Infrastructure workstream. OpenST Protocol v0.9.4 introduces work on token holder contracts to enable user-friendly, decentralized key management solutions for mainstream (D)Apps.
On 11 October 2018 — one year after we published the technical white paper for the OpenST Protocol — we published a draft of the OpenST Mosaic paper, “Running Meta-Blockchains to Scale Decentralized Applications,” for community review.
If you want to learn more about tokenization and how our Partner Companies are planning to launch their own token economies with OST, I recommend reading our latest case studies:
About OST
OST blockchain infrastructure empowers new economies for mainstream businesses and emerging DApps. OST leads development of the OpenST Protocol, a framework for tokenizing businesses. In September 2018 OST introduced the OpenST Mosaic Protocol for running meta-blockchains to scale Ethereum applications to billions of users. OST KIT is a full-stack suite of developer tools, APIs and SDKs for managing blockchain economies. OST Partners reach more than 200 million end-users. OST has offices in Berlin, New York, Hong Kong, and Pune. OST is backed by leading institutional equity investors including Tencent, Greycroft, Vectr Ventures, 500 Startups.
