After almost two months of work, we can finally share with you something that excites us:
- From a technical point of view, for the new possibilities it introduces for Bitmonds project and for the activities of Vanilla Rocket in general.
- From a professional point of view, because it is a further demonstration that our team knows how to intervene in a timely manner and with the most innovative solutions in the face of changes in the worldwide scenario.
As the most informed of you will know, Ethereum blockchain network has no longer been a reliable partner for building business models dedicated to the mass market for some months.
The continuous delays in the launch of Ethereum 2.0 and the transition to the PoS model, due to technical problems or political choices, have brought the costs of using the network to a level that is not compatible with most projects dedicated to a mass audience .
Why did it happen? What are the possible solutions? How is the security of Bitmonds guaranteed in this passage to EOS.IO?
These and other questions will be answered in the following article!
Discovering ETHEREUM problems
The model on which Ethereum blockchain is still based today is called PoW (Proof of Work).
The miners are remunerated with new Ether or with fees (gas), for the management of transactions on the network. How?
- By solving complex mathematical problems, which benefits those who have the most powerful hardware
- Through an auction mechanism, which benefits those who are willing to pay the highest fee to register their transactions
This logic has led over time to centralize the majority of this activity in a few geographical areas, where the cost of energy and hardware is lower.
Today 3 subjects control more than 51% of the network Bitcoin or Ethereum.
When the network becomes congested, as has happened in recent months with the invasion of decentralized finance apps (DeFi), the demand for transactions grows much more than the supply.
So all of us paid $ 50 to track a single piece of information or transact a token, and had to wait hours.
It is easy to understand how these figures have decimated many projects, cutting out those dedicated to the mass market, on which the Ethereum network had so far laid the ideological foundations (high number of low value transactions) and favoring those of very high amounts (such as decentralized loans).
In recent weeks, the fees collected by miners have reached a total of $ 500,000 for every single hour. Some also suspect that some of them are going to block the network with spam transactions, with the aim of further raising the gas fee.
What is the official solution? Ethereum 2.0 and the transition to PoS logic. But at the moment, the technical attempts have not been positive and the expected time to stabilize everything is months, or years.
Imagine for a moment traveling every day on a bus, without a driver, paying daily a ticket whose price is not stable, rather it increases every day by decision of the gas station attendant, who decides to sell gasoline to those who pay the most. All this without knowing for sure when the situation could return to normal.
This is the feeling you get to work on the Ethereum network today.
We had to get off the bus, to protect your interest and our interest.
What solutions for the future?
Faced with a similar scenario, the possible answers were different:
1. Do nothing.
Immobility is also an option. This is the path chosen by many projects, especially those based on Non Fungible Tokens (NFT). The one they have actually always traveled.
The costs of network operations and their volatility have been and will continue to be a problem for the end user. These days we have seen up to $ 7 pay just to declare that they are interested in selling a digital cat. Up to $ 17 to make the transaction. These are not mass market numbers, but apparently this does not interest the companies promoting these projects.
There is no cost to insert a Bitmonds in Showcase. To move the ownership of a Bitmonds you only pay 2 Euros.
We have always felt we had to offer stability to our collectors, shielding them from fluctuations in gas fees.
2. Working on a Blockchain Layer 2 network
This means recording data on a secondary framework, where transactions and processes would be recorded independently of the main chain (Ethereum in our case).
These solutions are also often called “off-chain”, a name that says a lot about the real link between these solutions and the initial spirit of decentralization on which the blockchain is based.
As long as the operations take place within this secondary chain, the costs and speed are very good, but if a user chooses to access a portal on the main network with his NFT, he finds today the same problems as road 1. That is, high costs and slow transaction times.
One example is the collectible Sorare, which records its operations on the Loom Network. In case a user wants to sell their token on OpenSea, they should pay full commissions. Whatever the cost at that time.
It is a solution that we have not taken into consideration, because we are convinced that the greatest security for our collectors would have been guaranteed by the real decentralization of a Layer 1 main chain.
3. Close the business
You read that right, some projects preferred to close rather than look for new solutions.
As if to say: “Sorry, the network left us no choice.”
Without judging the choices of other companies, that’s not what we ever thought about doing.
An example of this scenario was that of the interesting Uni Login project, which allowed to have a single username for all Ethereum applications. Unfortunately in recent weeks the CEO has declared the closure of the project, due to the excessive costs of the network.
4. Switch to another main chain
Since none of the above was a valid option, we went in search of a Blockchain Layer 1 network that could satisfy the Bitmonds project, providing adequate guarantees in terms of project stability, security and performance.
After careful evaluation, the choice landed on EOS.IO. Let’s find out why.
Why the EOS.IO blockchain?
When Dan Larimer in 2014 in Las Vegas declared that Proof of Work model and mining were at the end of life, there was a lot of buzz in the room. In large part triggered by those who had invested too many resources on that model to accept what later became the truth.
Proof of Stake model proposed by Larimer at the time is the one on which the Ethereum network is trying to move today, on which the EOS.IO blockchain was launched in 2018.
A network that today is able to manage more transactions every day than the sum of all the other blockchain networks.
What does it mean to stake resources, in this case the EOS cryptocurrency? In summary it means being able to decide to use network resources, according to the needs of your project.
Without going into excessive details, it is possible to “rent” CPU, Band and RAM of the network, for example to record Bitmonds. But also to do many other interesting things in the digital world.
EOS.IO network works in DPoS mode, or Delegated Proof of Stake, a variant in which individual wallets cannot be drawn to manage transactions, but their vote fore delegates. This allows you to avoid over time the creation of advantageous positions such as those we talked about previously in relation to Bitcoin and Ethereum network.
From a strictly ecological point of view there are no comparisons. In this model, no electricity is wasted for the sole task of solving complex mathematical problems and determining who was the fastest to do it.
For years, EOS.IO network has dominated the ranking of the CCID (China Electronics Information Industry Development Research Institute), which evaluates the different blockchain technologies in terms of underlying technology, applicability and innovation.
It is recent news that Google Cloud has entered into an agreement with block.one (Larimer’s company), to become one of the largest block producers.
It now seems clear not only to us how EOS.IO network is becoming one of the next breeding grounds for future projects.
We hope for this, that you have understood the reasons that pushed us to go in this direction and that you appreciate the speed with which we did it.
The situation of Ethereum, if not managed with speed and immediate technical choices, will probably rewrite the future scenario of digital collecting projects, many may not survive, even among the best known.
We have currently staked adequate resources not only for Bitmonds, but for all future Vanilla Rocket projects that will have EOS.IO at the base.
The experience built with Bitmonds allows us to represent a centre of skills useful for providing simple and high-performance Blockchain solutions to client companies interested in this type of solution.
Are my Bitmonds safe?
Sure. There is no Bitmonds that is not registered on the EOS.IO or Ethereum blockchain today.
Those that have already been migrated during our tests are even registered on both chains.
How will the migration work? Actually very simply and safely.
All the creations of new Bitmonds or changes of ownership will be managed directly on EOS.IO, which becomes the master blockchain.
What is currently registered on Ethereum, if in the meantime it is not subject to a change of ownership (which would immediately bring it to EOS.IO), it will be migrated over time.
The Ethereum network will therefore remain data security until the operation is completed on all Bitmonds.
The activities may last a few months overall. But everything will be transparent for the end user. Each Bitmonds card will point directly to the correct verification link based on the Blockchain on which the Bitmonds is currently registered (for which etherescan.io or blocks.io).
As you can see in the photo, Bitmonds number 1 has already been migrated!
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