Waves is a blockchain-based network that enables users to build custom crypto tokens (smart assets) even if they don’t have extensive knowledge of the blockchain industry. Blockchain is one of the fastest-growing tech industries. And a vast majority of businesses and individuals want to take advantage of this new industry.
But they often face problems with creating decentralized applications and crypto tokens due to the lack of knowledge. The developers even need to learn a new programming language to take advantage of this industry. Waves is trying to solve this problem with a set of innovative tools.
What is Waves Protocol?
Waves is a blockchain network that allows anyone to create a custom crypto token on its platform. The users can launch a crypto token by visiting Waves’s official website or by downloading the Waves app on their smartphone. Launching a crypto token on this platform is as easy as creating a Facebook account.
Waves has even introduced its native exchange that supports the trading of custom tokens built using this network. If a small restaurant is willing to engage with its subscribers, it can create a limited amount of crypto tokens and distribute them among its regular customers. The customers can use this token to get a free meal from the restaurant.
The bigger food chains like Mcdonald’s can also create custom tokens for their customers. The restaurant needs to pay 1 WAVES token to create a custom token. The recipients can also swap their rewards for WAVES tokens by visiting the Waves exchange.
Low Transaction Fees – The users need to pay 0.001 Waves tokens as transaction fees when they’re trading Waves or other regular cryptocurrencies. However, if they’re trading a custom token, they’d have to pay 0.005 WAVES tokens as transaction fees.
Fast Transaction Speed – Bitcoin network processes only 3-5 transactions per second and Ethereum processes around 12-15 transactions per second. On the contrary, the Waves protocol can process 100 transactions per second because it incorporates the Leased Proof-of-Stake consensus protocol.
Smart Tokens – As it’s mentioned that anyone can build custom crypto tokens on Waves protocol even if they don’t have prior programming experience. Waves is focused on making the process of building decentralized applications (smart contracts) as simple as building a traditional web application.
Ultra Inclusive – Although a limited number of users can operate mining nodes within the Waves network, other token holders can lease their tokens to the mining nodes to earn rewards.
Waves Brief History
Waves was introduced by Sasha Ivanov in 2016. Ivanov also introduced Waves Platform AG, a for-profit organization, to manage several operations of the Waves blockchain. The company’s headquarters were established in Moscow.
The team raised around 30,000 BTC ($22 million) through an initial coin offering in April 2016. The blockchain was made public in the third quarter of 2016.
How Does Waves Work?
Waves uses a modified version of the Proof-of-Stake consensus protocol (known as Leased Proof-of-Stake LPoS) for validating transactions. The network consists of two types of nodes called full nodes and lightweight nodes.
The full node operators are required to download the software on their computers while the lightweight node operators can lease their Waves tokens to full nodes to earn rewards.
Leased Proof-of-Stake LPoS
The full node operators are required to lock their Waves tokens in a specified wallet to become a validator. The network chooses the validators depending on the number of tokens locked by the node operators. The small investors can also lease their tokens to full node operators to become a part of the validation process.
A portion of the payout is transferred to the lightweight nodes if a block is validated by their selected node.
Waves-NG
Waves-NG is a modified version of the idea that was proposed for BTC but was rejected by the majority. This protocol chooses the nodes for validating different transactions. Waves blockchain consists of two kinds of blocks.
Key Blocks – These blocks contain information of the transactions validated by a randomly selected proof-of-stake miner.
Micro Blocks – Other participants help with creating micro blocks with the help of public keys generated by key blocks.
Smart Assets
Waves uses a native programming language (Ride) for writing scripts that are attached to customized tokens (smart assets). The scripts are used to determine the functionality of smart tokens. The users are required to pay 0.004 Waves tokens for executing scripts.
The users can install different plug-ins as extensions depending on the functionalities they’re willing to add to the smart assets (customized tokens).
Gravity
Gravity is a cross-chain oracle network that regularly collects data from different blockchain networks. Thus, the users can easily access real-world data without having to deal with a centralized authority. They can even build their own oracles using this network.
The purpose of this oracle network is to support a wide range of decentralized finance (Defi) products.
WAVES Tokenomics
WAVES is the native token of Waves network that is used to transfer value within the Waves ecosystem. The users are also required to pay WAVES tokens as a transaction fee. Furthermore, the users pay 1 Waves token for creating a customized token.
With a circulating supply of 109 million tokens, Waves has a market cap of $658 million. WAVES token was introduced in 2016. Since then, it has successfully maintained its position among the 100 best cryptocurrencies.
Conclusion
Waves is a blockchain network designed to support the adoption of Web3 technologies. It provides a user-friendly interface for building smart assets (customized tokens). It has a native exchange that supports the trading of these customized tokens. Moreover, it has low transaction fee compared to other platforms.
If you need more information about how Waves protocol works, feel free to contact us.
