Whitepaper
Since 2009 with the birth of Bitcoin cryptocurrency has gone from strength to strength. We have seen an ever-increasing uptake in cryptocurrency investment. Those that saw the signs early made an incredible return on their investment, it was these financial incentives that drove nearly all of us to start investing. The advances in technology and networking saw the adaptation of new blockchains and alt coins. Utility being at the forefront of a lot of projects. With so many networks to choose from, how do we as investors know which ticket to ride? We believe any project that’s worth its salt is looking at the problems we face and how we overcome them. This is what separates those with vision from those here just for the glory.
The Energy
As we have become a planet more aware of its impact on the world and seeking to reduce our carbon footprint, BTC has been in the firing line for its drain on energy resources. It has caught the attention of governments worldwide. Recently due to the decline in transactions, people have been selling their mining resources. Which leads us to a new problem.
Scalability
BTC was not built with such world demands in mind. It was never intended for such a demand. Therefore, transactions are slow, as each block gets mined dependent on the fee paid and more energy is consumed to keep up with this demand.
Utility
If decentralization is to truly become humanity’s escape from the IMF and banks. Then there has to be a way for fast payments to be made and then verified. This is where PulseNet aims to fit into the market.
PulseNet is PoSA
Birth of product
The bear market has been apparent since the beginning of 2022, whilst taking a dip at the beginning of the Ukraine war and then further taking a tumble when BTC pumped and dumped taking everything else with it. The market is slow to recover, however.
We believe we have spotted an opportunity; we are firm believers that Altcoins will inevitably outlast Bitcoin. The network is unsustainable and unable to make the changes it needs to, to become as effective as modern POA networks. We believe we are starting at the crypto floor and therefore a new opportunity has arisen. We feel it can only go one way from here. Our vision is simple, to take what we use every day, such as point of sale and break free from the chains of the international monetary fund. It’s a brave step, a revolutionary step, one that Ecuador has taken. PulseNet aims to be at the forefront with them.
Why now?
The market has taken hit after hit recently, we feel that launching now is the same as timing your buy in. You wish to do it when it’s on the floor. You want the best price.
We see the likelihood of the market rebound being within this year. We believe that our vision is based on many factors, research and our own interaction with crypto currencies. Whilst competition amongst altcoins is high, we see no reason for our scalable, low energy consuming network not to have high take up. We see a new method of using crypto currency in discussion more and more. Whilst we see a very uncertain future for Bitcoin, no future for hype coins like Doge and Shiba, we see a glowing future for altcoins/networks with specific utility.
Not only will our network be quick, but developers will also be able to launch their own tokens on our network and it will feature dApp compatibility.
It may be ambitious to dream of high-street utility, however, we feel that is the goal. This is crypto currency, emphasis on the currency, it may be a long road there, not everyone will be happy. We have seen it trialled in some stores in some places with BTC and BTC ATMs. We know it is what the world wants. There will be pushback in certain areas, especially those at the top. We want this to work for the people, for the little guy and it is our ambition to not feed the capitalist greed and corruption we see every day.
But we also see that there are going to have to be some realistic compromises too. Adoption by big business is likely a crossroad that will make or break decentralised utility and worldwide adoption. We will see when we get there. We can see some government ministers here in the UK and the USA that see the value in cryptocurrency. Therefore we think the time is now. This is still so early.
Traction
As of right now PulseNet is still well within its infancy, having only launched a few weeks ago at the time of writing there is still a long way to go however the ecosystem is coming along with the test net, main net, explorer, docs and faucet well under development.
Following the completion of these components thorough tests will begin on the network with a select number of participants to ensure everything is operating correctly. While this is happening the development of the decentralized exchange/locker will be taking place which will be one of the crown jewels of the PulseNet ecosystem ensuring as much protection as can be provided in the DEFI space to our users.
Upon completion on the Dex we expect a major uptick of users on the network who will no doubt see the many benefits of using PulseNet over our competitors.
Target Market
As with any thriving blockchain we at PulseNet are looking to entice talented developers to build on our network, the more useable Dapps a network can offer the more users it will inevitably attract.
PulseNet is a dual network project, what does this mean?
It means that we will have two blockchains under our umbrella, a secure, energy-efficient POSA network with our unique PulseDex, and an equally efficient POA network geared toward business logistics and the myriad of other uses for blockchain technology in a business setting, this means we can reach two different markets both looking for different things, to use the private network, one must first hold the public PulseNet tokens which ensures we provide an ecosystem that benefits everyone.
PulseNet will set up a monetary reward fund which will be used to make one off payments to any project that launches something new, exciting and useable on the network. To qualify the project must be running for a minimum of 3 months and have a user base/holder count of at least 1000 investors.
Competition
We see that within this space there are a lot of new networks being developed. The technology being used by some is of course state of the art. We feel ours although in its infancy, is more than capable of playing in the big leagues. A main factor with any network is however the knowledge of its existence. So, let’s start there, with the big players.
Ethereum – A Proof of Stake Network, more powerful than proof of work
Solana – Proof of Stake
Bitcoin – Proof of Work, slower, more secure
Our immediate competition is the emerging Proof of Authority and Proof of stake networks. Whilst high transaction rates are desirable, they sometimes come with a reduction in security. PulseNet aims to operate up to 100k TPS. Binance have claimed to operate at 1.4 Million TPS, other sources suggest it is likely around 300k TPS. Bitcoin operates using proof of work, the oldest system of validation, it cannot be upgraded, it operates at around 5-7 TPS. Ethereum’s move from POW to POA has enabled them to leap from 15TPS to up to 100K TPS.
Technical Information
Consensus
PulseNet chains rely on a system of POSA/POA consensus that
can support short block times and lower fees.
The PulseNet Chain also supports EVM-compatible smart contracts and protocols. The PulseNet Chain will be:
- EVM-compatible: Supporting all of the Ethereum tooling that is already in place, as well as providing cheaper transaction costs and quicker finality.
Distributed with on-chain governance: Proof of Staked Authority brings in decentralization and community participants. As the native token, PULSE will serve as both the gas of smart contract execution and tokens for staking
Consensus Engine of PulseNet Chain
Abstract
We have designed the consensus engine of PULSE to achieve the following goals:
- Confirmation within a few blocks
- Blocking time should be 5 seconds or less
- No inflation, the block reward is transaction gas fees.
- As compatible as Ethereum.
- With staking and governance as powerful as cosmos.
Geth has two kinds of consensus implementations: ethash and clique. Ethash being POW is not suitable for PULSE. Clique has a short block time and is immune to a 51% attack while doing as little to the core data structure as possible to preserve existing Ethereum client compatibility. Here we try to propose a consensus that:
- Does the staking and governance parts for PULSE.
- Is as simple as clique.
Having searched for some other decent implementations of the POA consensus we found that Bor follows a similar design as above. We will use a few pieces from Bor and suggest a new consensus to achieve all these goals.
Consensus Protocol
The implementation of the consensus engine is named clique. This doc will focus more on the difference and ignore the common details.
Before introducing, we would like to clarify some terms:
Epoch block. The engine will update the Validator Set from the NC Validator Set contract periodically. The period is currently 200 blocks, a block is called an epoch block if the height of it is times of 200.
Snapshot. Which is an object that helps to store the validators and recent signers of blocks.
Key features
Light client security
Validator Set switches take effect at (epoch+N/2) blocks. (N is the
size of the validator set before the epoch block). Due to the client security, we delay the N/2 block to let the Validator Set switch take place.
The validator will check the Validator Set in the contract for each
epoch block and populate the extra data field in the block header. It will be checked against the Validator Set in the contract by the full node. A light client will use it as the Validator Set for the upcoming epoch blocks, but it is unable to check it against the contract; instead, it must have faith in the epoch block’s signer. The light client could travel to the wrong chain if the signer of the epoch block sends an incorrect extra data. If we postpone the N/2 blocks to allow the Validator Set change to take place, the incorrect epoch block won’t obtain another N/2 following block that is signed by the other validators, defending the light client from such an attack.
System transaction
System transactions are those that use system contracts and are
triggered by the consensus engine. Transactions on the system are signed by the
validator creating the block. According to its internal logic, the witness node
will construct system transactions (without signatures) and, before applying them,
will compare them to the system transactions in the block.
Enforce backoff
Out-of-turn validators must wait a randomised period of time in the
Clique consensus algorithm before sealing the block. The canonical version is
assumed to be used by validators when it is implemented in the client-side node
programme. However, it is feasible that validators will run a customised
version of the node software to disregard such a delay given that they would
have an economic incentive to seal blocks as quickly as possible. Each out-turn
validator will be given a set window of time to seal the block, preventing
validators from rushing to do so. Any block produced by an out-turn validator
with an earlier blocking time will be disregarded by the other nodes.
How to Produce a new block
Step 1: Prepare
The block header of the following block is prepared by a validator
node.
- Loads the snapshot from cache or database
- The validators set message for each epoch block will be kept in the extraData field of the block header.
- The coinbase is the address of the validator
Step2: Finalize And Assemble
If the validator is not the in turn validator, the expected validator will be slashed, resulting in the creation of a slashing transaction.
If there is a gas fee in the block, the system reward contract will receive 1/16 of it, and the validator contract will receive the remainder.
Step3: Seal
The final step before a validator publishes a new block.
All block header elements should be signed and appended to extraData
If it is out of turn for a validator to sign the block, it will wait for an honest validator for a random reasonable amount of time.
How to Validate/Replay a block
Step1: VerifyHeader
Verify the block header when receiving a new block.
Verify the signature of the coinbase is in extraData of
the blockheaderA blockHeader will be rejected if its block time is less than that expected when compared to the block time.
The signer should be the coinbase, and the expected value should be
determined by the difficulty
Step2: Finalize
The validator node will extract Validator Set from NC Validator Set and compare it with extra data if the block is an epoch block.
The slash contract will be called if the block is not produced by inturn validatorvalidaror. In the event that there is a gas fee in the block, 1/16 will be given to the system reward contract and the remaining will go to
the validator contract.The consensus engine’s generated transaction must match the block’s transaction exactly.
Signature
The blockheader’s extraData, whose structure is the epoch block,
contains the coinbase’s signature. 65 bytes of signature plus N*20 bytes of the validator address and 32 bytes of extraVanity. none epoch block. 65 bytes of the signature data plus 32 bytes of extraVanity. The block header’s Keccak256 RLP encoded content is the signed content.
Security and Finality
Due to there being more than 1/2*N+1 validators that are sincere, Proof Of Authority nets typically operate securely. There are still some circumstances, nevertheless, in which a tiny group of Byzantine validators can try to assault the network, for example through the “Clone Attack.”. To add security, PULSE users are encouraged to wait until they’ve received blocks sealed by more than 2/3*N+1 different validators. In that way, PULSE can be
trusted at a similar security level to BC and can tolerate less than 1/3*N Byzantine validators.
If we were to assume 21 validators and a 5 second block time, the time required for the 2/3*N+1 validator seals would be 75 seconds. Any critical applications for PULSE may have to wait for 2/3*N+1 to ensure a relatively secure finality. However, besides such an arrangement, PULSE does introduce Slashing logic to penalize Byzantine validators for double signing or instability. This logic exposes malicious validators in a very short time and
ensures that any attack would be very hard or extremely non-economic to execute. With this enhancement, 1/2*N+1 or even fewer blocks are enough as confirmation for most transactions.
Potential Issue
Extending the ruling of the current validator set via temporary censorship
If the transaction that updates the validator is sent to the PULSE
right on the epoch period, then the in-turn validator may choose to censor the transaction and keep the same set of validators in place for that epoch. Despite the fact that a transaction cannot be permanently censored without the assistance of other n/2 validators, it can do so to extend the life of the existing validator set to reap some rewards. By conspiring with other validators, this scheme’s likelihood can generally be increased. Since an epoch
is made up of 240 blocks, or about 20 minutes, it is a relatively minor issue that the validators could only be extended for another 20 minutes.