VIAT
WHITE PAPER
| NETWORK REPO |
If you want to contribute to a translation (proofread, typo's or new translations) - please feel free to Pull Request and do your thing.
Mind styling - always start from the original English version.
COPYRIGHT © 2021 UNIVERSAL WEB, Inc
VIAT is the native crypto currency for the Universal Web and specifically the Viat Network. VIAT is not a fork of any existing network or crypto; its design was inspired by many others but it introduces some novel and unique concepts. Distribution is designed to be extremely slow and small, with many mechanisms and modifiers capable of altering it.
A Viat wallet is in essence a cryptographic key pair encased in a cryptographic certificate, but functionally they are far more than that - they store funds, prove ownership and form part of your identity on the Viat Network & the Universal Web. Identity Certificates (IC) and Domain Certificates (DC) both function as wallets or grant access to wallets. Creating a new identity simultaneously creates a new Viat Wallet. That identity could be representing anything: an IoT device, person, business, government, website, car, boat, plane, blog, store, pet (for example a dog or a cat), animal, building, location, computer, cell phone, tablet, server, router, and any other “thing” in existence. Even Bitcoin could be assigned an identity and have a Viat wallet.
Using cryptography, all identities (Identity Certificate or chain of identity certificates) are anonymous by default and only what the owner puts out into the public sphere (be it on the UW, TV, radio or any other public medium) deanonymizes it. You decide what info is given to services and the systems you interact with, so be mindful. A Viat wallet can be verified and clearly listed as an official address for a specific person, place, and or thing.
Any network-verified specific location could alert you with details when you visit. For example, any business could display their DC as a QR code or hash - it could take you to a wallet for easy shopping, it could be scanned at a gym for verification, or scanned at a store to show you a sale, promotional event, or personalized promotion.
Viat wallets could be used for digital secure transparent democratic voting for political elections, public events, and online communities, backed up with strong cryptography and verifiable without compromising your identity. For example, a government system could verify and authenticate a citizen is voting and transparently show a fair election was held, all while keeping the voter anonymous - no one, not even election officials or assistants, would know their identity. Even the contents of the vote can be encrypted and protected from prying eyes. No one will be able to single a voter out or selectively discard their vote for any reason.
VIAT is a hybrid cryptocurrency at many levels. This hybrid nature comes from having both centralized and decentralized systems responsible for various features, many of which are opt-in. The Viat Network's centralized systems provide instant transactions for free or at a rate lower than the decentralized transaction cost. This part of the system is a centralized Viat block validator; each block seen as any number of transactions on the network. Validating multiple transactions increases the complexity and security of said branch of transactions. Multiple transaction validation for a branch of direct relatives can also be used to compress the transactions, which helps keep the blockchain size small and efficient.
One major issue regarding blockchains is they can grow indefinitely and then create an extreme class system where only those with significant storage capabilities can run a full node. Therefore one of the primary functions of the centralized systems is to optimize the blockchain by reducing redundant, needless, and or compressible data. Through use of technologies such as fragmenting, chunking, compression, deletion, and snapshots, the centralized systems help ensure that the blockchain size remains small indefinitely.
Centralized wallet security is an opt-in feature, deterrent, and active security measure for Viat wallets. When a wallet is compromised, depending on your config the backup key and/or the wallet's master key can be used to freeze funds, halt transfers, or even reverse them. Wallets with these features enabled will be clearly marked as such, when interacting with them. This makes Viat particularly suited for businesses, banks, and security conscious folk.
Mining VIAT is primarily done with a mixture of staking mechanisms and cryptographic work to validate transactions. The network's mining systems are also hybrid: it incorporates traditional Proof of Work, staking, and a new form called Dynamic Proof of Work (DPW). VIAT is gamified in many ways but designed with security, equal opportunity, and economic mobility in mind. Much like any cryptocurrency, mining results in a specific amount of reward (VIAT) but there are modifiers such as districts and artifacts which can alter the mining process, work complexity, and VIAT reward amount. No work on VIAT is wasted or done without purpose. Mining per-transaction is fast, efficient, and does require guess work. VIAT mining is designed so that transactions are as fast or near real-time as possible and as inexpensive as possible if not free. Dynamic Proof of Work is simply any work that can be distributed in parts, computed, and validated either by the network or a centralized source. This can be something as simple as mathematical work or more complex work such as protein folding or cancer research.The work could be humanitarian, medical, and or great benefit to humanity across the globe. DPW takes advantage of a feature of decentralized distributed blockchain networks which is their computational ability and distributed super computing potential. DPW gives VIAT purpose beyond the realm of cryptocurrency into any and all fields that may require vast computation. This could be sold as a computation service for government and private sector use which will further fund the network. DPW is primarily optional, not present during typical mining operations. It can be turned on at any moment but yields to other work if there's any available.The cryptography used is less relevant compared to other networks because it’s subject to change based on network necessity. All current cryptography used can be found in the Libsodium software library. Only after great use, validation, and need will a new cryptographic algorithm be used. There is less backwards compatibility in this sense because it’s forced that you switch for your security as well as the networks to a better algorithm. Refer to the Universal Web’s White Paper cryptography section for specific details.
Viat wallets are multi-keypair & multi-certificate by default, using cryptographic certificates which in some cases encases a keypair in more cryptography. Using multi-certificates/keypairs instead of a singular keypair makes collision attacks and brute forcing like those seen on Bitcoin (e.g. Large Bitcoin Collider) exceedingly more difficult. Blockchains with singular keypairs are used by the network in a feature called Wallet Farming (refer to that section for details). Brute forcing of the network is still possible given enough qbits in a quantum computer running shor’s algorithm. However, the network is ready to adopt quantum resistant cryptography and or new cryptography algorithms the moment they're available and proven viable.
A district is a virtual factory for your wallet that produces some form of work and enables a wallet to participate in specific work on the network. There are various types of districts which differ based on the work they do such as CPU Mining, GPU Mining, and ASIC mining. Mining Districts require spending VIAT to build it and staking VIAT to enable it. If VIAT is removed from staking, the district is disabled and the wallet can't mine until VIAT is restaked.
Mining Districts ensure that mining isn’t easily abused, separates rewards based on hardware, raises costs required to attack the network, and keeps VIAT staked in use on the network. Another benefit from separating districts based on hardware is that it makes mining relevant even if they don’t have expensive or specialized hardware. Hardware based Mining Districts help to keep rewards more consistent with the type of hardware used to mine. A CPU has to put in considerably more effort relative to its size and takes greater time to mine than optimized hardware like GPUs or ASICs. Mining Districts allow for specific algorithm selection based on hardware, and adjusts the work and rewards accordingly. Specific hardware districts can also open a miner up to specialized and/or different types of work which may not be available to other hardware based districts.
Artifacts are wallet or district modifiers represented as unique important historical figures, historical events, historical art, historical items, gems, elements, metals, and art. Artifacts can modify the way rewards are computed and or distributed during the mining process. Artifacts can also perform a unique action during the mining process such as opting into a public lottery. They can also modify or enhance a district’s capabilities. Artifacts can be applied to districts or wallets but districts are built and setup in wallets.
There are many ways to mine VIAT. Proxy mining is a passive way for a party to request work, and the mining rewards could be given to the one who requested the work or the root party. However, the reward split is determined by the root party, who could take all the rewards from any of the work. This makes it an effective tool and deterrent for DDoS attacks. It provides sites with a way to throttle and mitigate attacks and gain Viat in the process. This is done in the form of packet puzzles; refer to the UW White paper for additional details regarding packet puzzles. Wallets have various forms of passive staking which can modify the rewards gained during the mining process. Staking occurs during district use and can be done within wallets by selecting a certain amount of Viat to stake for a set time period. Staked amounts are calculated during the mining process when rewards are free to be distributed. Both time and amount staked will alter mining rewards. It’s considerably more favorable to have Viat locked during staking for a set period of time rather than having it unlocked and free to move in and out as needed. VIAT max supply is 42MM with up to 24 decimals but community vote could alter that in the future if necessary. The distribution rate for Viat is expected to adjust as the network grows and can increase or decrease between updates. Overall distribution is extremely slow and when rewards are released they will be small, typically in the decimal ranges. Viat gives greater community control over the economics within the network. Much like in the real world unforeseen events could greatly affect the Viat network and it’s perceived value, so there must be appropriate mechanisms and protocols available. It’s important to acknowledge that these networks are designed for people not machines. When addressing inflation & deflation the community can vote on altering the Viat supply, lottery, decimal count, release timing, release amounts, and mining algorithm parameters between updates. These mechanisms must only be enacted between version updates. Part of the distribution process is a lottery which is only made available to those who contribute to the network. The lottery could be taken out automatically from rewards and thus all miners would be entered or it could be opt-in. Lottery rules are not pre-defined for the network, they can be determined by community vote and could include one or many winners. The rules can also stipulate what tasks are involved to enter a lottery and can be as complex as a game or guessing a series of numbers. Using a multi-chain mining district a miner could also attempt to aid other blockchain networks by contributing hash power to those networks. This is an opt-in feature and the portion of the network which has conducted the work reaps the majority of rewards. The left over portion of the rewards are divided up and sent to: a fund dedicated to the growth and development of the network, those with Viat staked, and a Viat lottery. Portions are transparently democratically decided and voted on by the Universal Web Republic (all Viat holders and elected Viat officials). Rewards must be sent quickly, to help mitigate events like if a wallet is compromised. Thus where multi-keypair wallets may be used they should - in the event singular keypair wallets are used, a new one must be generated. This ensures rewards are constantly flowing to the contributing parties. In order to streamline VIAT adoption and use across existing networks (that support token creation), these VIAT tokens can be used to bridge Viat to new networks or store its value inside of a token on another network. This would allow games that use cryptocurrency tokens to easily incorporate Viat without having to integrate the Viat network or its technologies into their existing ecosystem. VIAT tokens also provide a way to trade Viat on other networks without having to go through complex integrations into the Viat Network. Smart contracts are part of Viat Extended and not Viat Core. Viat Core is focused purely on providing primary cryptocurrency functions built for high speed and transaction rate. This focus and separation of concerns keeps Viat striving for as near real-time speed as possible. Viat Extended incorporates more complex state machine functions such as smart contracts. Viat is part of a unified ecosystem under the Universal Web. Viat Wallet and toolkit must be integrated into the browser experience. Every time a profile is created for the Universal Web a new Viat wallet is created and thus a new identity on the network. When visiting a site the domain certificate is also a Viat Wallet address; this enables quick shopping or donations.A Wallet Farming District is a type of district which allows miners on the Viat network to mine other blockchain wallets directly via collisions or brute forcing, in particular blockchains that use singular keypairs for wallets. The rewards from this follows the same overall protocol as multi-chain farming. When a wallet farming district is built and begins work the network dictates portions of work to be done via Dynamic Proof of Work. This could be opt-in or a user may encounter the work passively while browsing the Universal Web. From components such as the DIS to websites & apps on the Universal Web, all can be ways in which average users encounter this type of work, which comes in the form of packet puzzles. This gives the Universal Web Republic the ability to mine other network’s wallets directly, which although significantly more difficult than traditional forms of mining could yield far more rewards. This process also includes the ability to wallet farm multiple blockchains at the same time maximizing the chances of success as much as possible.
It should be noted that Viat has a multi-certificate thus multi-keypair design by default making Wallet farming of Viat Wallets significantly more difficult, if not merely impossible given current hardware. This gives individual Viat wallets significant protections against collective brute forcing efforts such as the Large Bitcoin Collider or even Viat’s own wallet farming capabilities. The same protections apply to all Identity Certificates as they have a master certificate. Master and children keypairs along with other aspects of certificates are independently generated and are not related in any way. This ensures that even if the master key is brute forced any keypair in the child certificates can’t be sourced from it. Hence the importance of cryptographic certificate chains.