VRA Token & PoV update

Verasity
Verasity
Published in
10 min readFeb 3, 2021

As stated in the news update and previously, we are not building a new mainnet for Proof of View (PoV)™. We believe that building our own blockchain would have been difficult to obtain adoption for and we instead waited for Ethereum to build out new features they have been forecasting and developing and which we require. We now have an Ethereum solution that is far easier to scale and which saved us time and money in the medium term — ERC777- which opens up many possibilities for new products (to be announced) as well as Proof of View (PoV)™.

After discussions with our ad partners, the clear consensus was that Proof of View (PoV)™ would only be adopted if our ad partners understood the application and the scalability of the underlying network. The Ethereum network really is the only way to go today because:

  1. It is known by everyone and widely used
  2. There are over 200,000 ERC-20 compatible tokens and applications
  3. With over 357,000 token contracts, the top 50 tokens have a market cap of $90B +
  4. Ethereum plus ERC-20 compatible tokens represent approximately half the BTC market cap.
  5. There are just no other liquid tokens that can be found across ALL exchanges (other than BTC).

ERC777 is the newest smart contract spec supported by the Ethereum network enabling additional features while remaining backward compatible with ERC20 standards. Our new smart contract (to be released this month and announced by our exchanges) will harness new features and avoid the necessity of rolling out a proprietary blockchain thus speeding up the Proof of View (PoV)™ features release.

One of the key features to enable Proof of View (PoV)™ on the Ethereum blockchain is the ability to pass arbitrary data along with transactions on the blockchain. Using this feature we are now able to publish and confirm viewing statistics by posting special hashes obtained from verifier nodes. This way we make sure that every video view or ad view is verifiable by anyone and the statistics cannot be altered. Proof of View (PoV)™ does not currently exist and we are confident that our patent-pending will be granted (slowed down by the pandemic but proceeding normally).

As our community knows, we always prioritize security and have a proven record of safe operations of our token and VeraWallet software through the years. However, in 2020 we saw that villains target exchanges but not necessarily specific tokens (fortunately we were not affected). To counter this risk we added additional security features to the smart contract to allow us to delist stolen tokens from circulation if stolen from a hacked exchange platform. This protects the VRA community from theft.

Proof of View (PoV)™ — What’s the Value of a View?

Verasity’s proprietary blockchain technology, Proof of View (PoV)™, ensures that videos (Content and Advertisements) viewed on the platform are real bonafide views that are verified by the community and recorded as immutable public records. Our patent-pending technology ensures that all views and associated audience metrics on Verasity are accurate, secure, real, and transparent. No more fake views!

Proof of View (PoV)™ unlocks the ability to derive the true value of content. Content is now surfaced based on its value to the audience.

All video views are assessed by our Proof of View (PoV)™ technology to ensure that they’re real and the video has been seen by a real person who is actually watching the content. You can read more on how PoV takes down fake views in our whitepaper. Once a view has been confirmed as legitimate it is then added to the Verasity Blockchain for 100% transparency.

By eliminating fake views, the Verasity ecosystem is able to fairly value content regardless of content type, audience demographic or a third party’s monetization strategy. For all our users, this means a better, more fair, and valuable platform. For Verasity it means substantially higher CPMs and monetization.

PoV network based on the ERC777

- ERC777 is required for the Proof of View (PoV)™ to function because it allows the passing of data along with token transfers so we can store the data from verifiers on the blockchain ensuring it’s verifiable by anyone and cannot be altered once published. These token transfers with additional data will be used to confirm view statistics on the blockchain.

- As stated above we chose the ERC777 over alternatives such as building our own mainnet because of the broad acceptance of Ethereum and the time frame required for a proprietary mainnet to gain adoption.

- Advertising statistics generated by the user are sent to verifiers.

- Verifiers are servers with installed Proof of View (PoV)™ Verifier software, some of them will belong to Verasity to maintain a solid verifiers network structure while other verifier nodes will be maintained by third parties and represent a decentralised part of the verifiers network (TBA).

- Stats from decentralised verifiers network will be backed up to verasity controlled verifier nodes to ensure data integrity.

- Anyone can start a verifier node by obtaining enough votes from our users via an open public verifier application (TBA).

- Verifiers store statistics onto the public chain.

- Periodically, Verasity will send ERC777 tokens to a special PoV Fund (to be created to support the transfers of data onto the blockchain). The PoV Fund would support storing of data, verifier token rewards, advertiser rewards and other product rewards. Thus all rewards come from the same pot and are transparent.

- Periodic transfers consist of tokens and a hash that confirms ads/viewing statistics and protects them from any changes.

- Users will get their rewards from the PoV Fund. Each transfer has a hash that is connected with statistics generated by the user.

- The Token is initially mintable to support the PoV Fund as we don’t know at this point the number of tokens necessary to support the storing of data. These tokens are not transactional but would remain in PoV wallets included in total supply but not circulating supply.

- There are multiple variables involved in estimating the usage for Proof of View (PoV)™ including: the current and forecasted ad CPMs for given GEOs, verifier node rewards interpolated across the decentralized verifiers network, computational costs for supporting Proof of View (PoV)™ by the verifiers network, and Ethereum network GAS price fluctuations. Our end goal is to manage all the calculations via an AI network (to be announced) that will maintain it in balance.

- Also for security if we lock stolen tokens we can replace them. This is a huge benefit considering the number of tokens stolen on exchanges on a regular basis. We can protect all our users going forward from stolen tokens without affecting total supply.

- The mint function will be disabled when we know the approximate number of tokens necessary to support Proof of View (PoV)™.

- After the proprietary video player is released in Q1 and the ad stack is launched, verifier nodes will be implemented and tested together with Proof of View (PoV)™ data packet transfers (TBA).

Verasity Swap Process from the current token to the ERC777

  1. Exchanges announce swap and dates of the swap (this month). Swap is on a 1:1 basis
  2. Exchanges will continue to trade but deposits and withdrawals will be stopped for approx 48 hours
  3. Token ticker will remain VRA
  4. VeraWallet holders will be swapped automatically in VeraWallet on a 1:1 basis
  5. VeraWallet holders need not do anything as the swap is seamless, easy and convenient
  6. VeraWallet will continue to accept deposits of the old tokens and then swap them automatically including stakes and rewards
  7. Current Foundation and Founder tokens will be moved to VeraWallet to be swapped
  8. The new token is backwards compatible with the old token so users are not required to change their current receiving wallet addresses when withdrawing tokens from VeraWallet
  9. If your VRA is in a private wallet, simply send them to a VeraWallet account where they will be automatically swapped and then return them to your private wallet
  10. If your VRA is in instant stake or the staking program, principal as well as rewards will be swapped automatically on withdrawal
  11. There will be no deadline on the swap so there is no rush and no fear of losing your tokens. They can be swapped at any time
  12. CMC has been notified to update the Verasity page with the swap
  13. An updated tokenomics article will be posted after the swap

ERC777 Features

ERC777 is a new blockchain token standard of the Ethereum network which is backwards compatible with ERC20 that we currently use as the VRA token.

ERC777 improves upon the widely used ERC20 token standard. The main advantages of this standard are:

  1. Uses the same philosophy as Ether in that tokens are sent with send(dest, value, data).
  2. Both contracts and regular addresses can control and reject which token they send by registering a tokensToSend hook. (Rejection is done by reverting in the hook function.)
  3. Both contracts and regular addresses can control and reject which token they receive by registering a tokensReceived hook. (Rejection is done by reverting in the hook function.)
  4. The tokensReceived hook allows to send tokens to a contract and notify it in a single transaction, unlike ERC20 which requires a double call (approve/transferFrom) to achieve this.
  5. The holder can “authorize” and “revoke” operators which can send tokens on their behalf. These operators are intended to be verified contracts such as an exchange, a cheque processor or an automatic charging system.
  6. Every token transaction contains data and operatorData bytes fields to be used freely to pass data from the holder and the operator, respectively.
  7. It is backward compatible with wallets that do not contain the tokensReceived hook function by deploying a proxy contract implementing the tokensReceived hook for the wallet.

The principal intent for this standard is to solve some of the shortcomings of ERC20 while maintaining backward compatibility with ERC20.

NOTE: Jacques Dafflon (0xjac), one of the authors of the standard, conjointly wrote his master thesis on the standard, which goes into more details. See the ERC777 full specifications here: https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-777

Lifecycle

More than just sending tokens, ERC777 defines the entire lifecycle of a token, starting with the minting process, followed by the sending process and terminating with the burn process. This provides transparency for the burn process which Verasity is committed to.

Having a lifecycle clearly defined is important for consistency and accuracy, especially when value is derived from scarcity. In contrast when looking at some ERC20 tokens, a discrepancy can be observed between the value returned by the totalSupply and the actual circulating supply, as the standard does not clearly define a process to create and destroy (burn) tokens.

Data

The mint, send and burn processes can all make use of a data and operatorData fields which are passed to any movement (mint, send or burn). Those fields may be empty for simple use cases, or they may contain valuable information related to the movement of tokens, similar to information attached to a bank transfer by the sender or the bank itself (providing other product use cases).

Hooks

In most cases, ERC20 requires two calls to safely transfer tokens to a contract without locking them. A call from the sender, using the approve function, and a call from the recipient using transferFrom. Furthermore, this requires extra communication between the parties which is not clearly defined. Finally, holders can get confused between transfer and approve/transferFrom. Using the former to transfer tokens to a contract will most likely result in locked tokens.

Hooks allow streamlining of the sending process and offer a single way to send tokens to any recipient. Thanks to the tokensReceived hook, contracts are able to react and prevent locking tokens upon reception.

Greater Control For Holders

The tokensReceived hook also allows holders to reject the reception of some tokens. This gives greater control to holders who can accept or reject incoming tokens based on some parameters, for example located in the data or operatorData fields.

Following the same intentions and based on suggestions from the community, the tokensToSend hook was added to give control over and prevent the movement of outgoing tokens.

ETH2 Upgrades Impact

ETH2 will be a set of interconnected upgrades that improves all the Ethereum network including the token we will be using — ERC777. It will make Ethereum more scalable, secure and sustainable. These improvements will be added incrementally over time. As we all know Ethereum needs to be able to handle more transactions per second with less nodes. This feature will expand the capacity to process transactions and store data (two hugely important factors for PoV) and be available some time in 2021. And it will have cheaper gas fees! In the meantime we are full speed ahead with the current ERC777 which can support Proof of View (PoV)™ as is.

About Verasity

Protocol and Product Layer Platform for Esports and Video Entertainment

The Verasity Mission

Verasity’s mission is to significantly increase engagement and advertising revenues for video publishers on any video platform.

How? Through its PoV Protocol, Product Layers & Platforms

  • VRA Rewards — Product Layer
  • Proprietary Video Player — Product Layer
  • Proprietary Adstack — Product Layer
  • Proof of View (Patent Allowed 16/023,354) — Protocol Layer
  • PoV is the only Protocol Layer patented technology for the blockchain
  • VeraWallet — Product Layer Payment System

Use Cases

Esportsfightclub.com — Esports Platform and Video Publisher owned by Verasity

This is Verasity’s most important use case because it combines all of the products into one Esports platform that Verasity owns and controls. The Esports platform has scaled to 8.6m viewers for its tournaments.

Verasity.tv — Aggregator of Publishers

Available SDKs which can be used by any publisher for the following video players: YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo, JWPlayer, Brightcove, VideoJS, Kaltura, FlowPlayer, iVideoSmart and others (90% of all video players in the West). This is now available for over 2 million video publishers struggling to survive on low advertising revenues.

Verasity Revenues

Verasity makes B2C revenues from its Esports Fight Club platform through subscriptions, commissions on prize pools, video ad revenues and transaction fees using Verasity products. Verasity will roll out its B2B products later in 2021 with attendant revenues. Verasity Roadmap

📖 Read our latest adoption metrics and one page overview

📈 Find where VRA (ticker) is trading on CoinMarketCap

VRA can be staked for 25.55% annual interest at https://verawallet.tv.

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Verasity
Verasity

Advertising technology based on open-ledger principles. We have the first patented adtech protocol on the blockchain — VeraViews