Recap from OST LIVE with Ben Bollen, Rachin Kapoor, Kedar Chandrayan, and Pro Gevorgyan on OpenST 0.9.4

On Friday 5 October, 2018 OST announced the release of OpenST Protocol v0.9.4, a developer framework for user-friendly wallets, mass-market key management, and simple token rules. I was joined by OST team members Ben Bollen, Pro Gevorgyan, Kedar Chandrayan, and Rachin Kapoor to discuss the details of the project update.

• Ben Bollen is OST’s Co-Founder and Chief Blockchain Strategist, leading blockchain design and contract architecture for the OpenST Protocol and OpenST Mosaic.
• Pro Gevorgyan is OST’s Senior Blockchain Engineer, working with contract development and most recently the OpenST Contract released in OpenST 0.9.4.
• Rachin Kapoor is OST’s Senior Director of Engineering in Pune, India. Rachin worked on OpenST.js and OpenST.js examples as part of the OpenST Protocol v0.9.4.
• Kedar Chandrayan is a Lead Software Engineer in Pune, India. Kedar is a contributor to all of the OpenST projects and worked with Rachin to develop the interaction layer, OpenST.js and OpenST.js examples for OpenST Protocol v0.9.4.

OpenST Protocol 0.9.4

OpenST Protocol 0.9.4 is the 5th update to OpenST (previous updates being 0.9.0, 0.9.1, 0.9.2, and 0.9.3).

• One year ago OpenST Protocol 0.9.0 was released and allowed for transactions to be moved off of Ethereum to allow for scalability.
• In Q4 2017, OpenST Protocol 0.9.1 was released, enabling software developers to build applications on OpenST and to further the Protocol.
• In Q1 2018, OpenST Protocol 0.9.2, was released, enabling token transfers between BT holders and provided REST APIs for OpenST.
• OpenST Protocol 0.9.3 was released in Q3 2018, decentralizing 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.
• Most recently, OpenST Protocol 0.9.4 has just been released, allowing for a secure key management solution and custom rules to facilitate the innovations of developers and their token economies.

OST’s partner companies reach more than 300 million end consumers. As there are only about 25 million people in the world today currently owning crypto wallets, OST has taken on the challenge of creating user-friendly key management solutions for our partners. With the release of OpenST 0.9.4, OST is now developing wallet solutions and SDKs to facilitate mass market tokenization for our partners.

The OST solution is designed to ensure that all end-users technically own their private keys, but are not required to directly manage them. OpenST 0.9.4 also introduces TokenHolder Smart Contracts to ensure a user’s account cannot be accessed or overruled by a token economy manager, meaning decentralization is not compromised. Ephemeral Keys are introduced to enable end-users to benefit from session keys, such that they don’t have to manually sign every transaction (e.g. for each upvote). In the event of a lost or compromised device users are able to recover access to their wallets.

As Ben Bollen puts it, “businesses building on OST and OpenST technology can develop their own logic for their specific application, aside from what we provide, so that there can be an open area for innovation to happen.” These protocols are integrated into OST KIT, which is OST’s complete solution for launching and managing a token economy. OST KIT has enabled developers to build their own applications integrating the OpenST Protocol. It has been used by over 150 developer teams from more than 50 countries. Some early projects have already staked real OST and minted Branded Tokens on mainnet.

Smart Contracts, OpenST-contracts, TokenHolder Contracts and TokenRules Contracts

Pro Gevorgyan describes a smart contract as “a program that sits on a blockchain, it runs trustlessly, there is no centralized authority that can stop the smart contract, there are conditions the smart contract will have, and when these conditions are met, it will execute the code without dependence on or control by any authority.” Because smart contacts are transacted on a blockchain, they are trackable and irreversible.

OpenST-contracts are a collection of smart contracts that allow application developers to program Token Economies. There are three key contracts in the OpenST-contract collection: TokenHolder Contracts, TokenRule Contracts, and Custom Rules.

The TokenHolder Contract is a multi-sig contract with the ability to have multiple ownership keys (hence multi-signature) to be kept in different wallets, all being owned by the same user. TokenHolder Contracts address the user experience of mainstream users to interact with blockchain.

Application users are not expected to manage or carry their crypto keys with them. TokenHolder Contracts introduce the use of ephemeral keys, which are session based keys that enable end users to authorize multiple keys (on different devices) and sign transactions which can execute custom token rules that have been provided by the app developer. If this key is lost or compromised, users are able to revoke access. Ben describes this as “a session management system built on a multi-sig smart contract” adding that “people lose their phones, people lose their passwords, and in a blockchain economy that would be catastrophic. That’s why the TokenHolder Contract exists, it cannot be lost, it’s always there, and it’s always available on the chain”

Essentially, this allows a user to have a key stored on different devices such as a phone, a tablet, or written down on paper. If any of them were to be lost, the user is able to recover access to their tokens. An ephemeral key is used when a user is logged into an application and performs a transaction such as liking a post or purchasing an item. When a user spends their tokens within the application, the ephemeral key provides temporary access for the developer to sign an executable transaction, but it is required to be processed through the TokenHolder Contract. A TokenHolder Contract is seen as a representation of a user and holds the users tokens on the chain at all times. This enhances user experience as a user is able to stay within the application when transactions are being signed and executed.

The TokenRules Contract is responsible for token transfers and allows application developers to design application specific rules with the incentives they want to integrate in their token economy. Unlike the TokenHolder Contract, the TokenRules Contract represents the developer and business logic of an application. Developers are able to focus on their user and token economy, design specific incentives without compromising security, and don’t have to worry about key management.

A Rule Contract or custom rule is a single action in a token economy such as air dropping or an escrow contract. Custom rules are the business logic to an application, built into the TokenRules Contract. A developer can use custom rules to define the use of tokens in the token economy. For example, if a company wants to airdrop tokens to new users, when a user signs up, the TokenHolder Contract will be deployed and the ephemeral key for that device will authorize the execute root and will transfer tokens from the company to the TokenHolder Contract. A developer can then add a custom rule that requires airdropped tokens to be spent in the economy before being cashed.

Introducing OpenST.js and OpenST.js Examples

OpenST.js is a library that helps developers integrate the functionality of the OpenST contracts in their (D)Apps. OpenST.js simplifies deployment of the TokenHolder Contracts, TokenRules Contract, and token Rule Contracts, registration of Rule Contracts with the TokenRules contract and execution of the provided simple TransferRule to perform transfers between economy participants. OpenST.js Examples is an end-to-end guide that helps developers understand the possible integrations that OpenST.js provides. This includes registering rules, adding users, adding wallets to users, authorizing and revoking ephemeral keys and other functionality in the context of a token economy. Ultimately, it is up to the developer to pick and choose which functionalities to integrate into their token economy.

OST is always striving to enhance blockchain for business and is open to any feedback from the community. If you’re a developer and you want to get involved, please check out OST’s GitHub repository — you’ll find developer tools and open source code for OpenST. You can also join the developer chat, view the API’s, or participate in future Alpha developer challenges. OST is on target with the 2017–2021 project roadmap and is working hard towards solving some of the hardest problems in the blockchain ecosystem. Congratulations to OST’s 60+ employees located around the world, working together, and accomplishing these key milestones.

Coming Up Next on OST LIVE: Jehan Chu

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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.