Vite (pronounced as Veet) is a layer 1 protocol which that plans to address the scalability issues of Web 3.0. Vite is a French word that means speed. Well, if I were to explain it in one line, Vite would be a A DAG-Based Smart-Contract Platform for Fast Transactions. But let’s face it. That won’t help right? Therefore, we would try to decipher these jargons in today’s post. We would also understand the details of a Giveaway planned by WazirX on the listing of this cryptocurrency. So what are we waiting for? Let’s get started.
Why Do We Need Vite?
Before understanding the core proposition of Vite, let’s dive into the fact, why is there a demand for solution like Vite at all?
If you want me to break it down into digestible bites, we need to rewind a little bit. When internet became a thing, it was mainly into read only mode (Web 1.0). You could find information and put it to some use. That was it. Later, we moved into something called Web 2.0. The era of Google, Facebook, YouTube. As we live through Web 2.0, not only you can read/view the content, you can also create, interact and engage with it. A lot of us thought that this is the best internet could do. However, Web 2.0 also has a set of problems:
- As a user, you don’t have control over your own data. Big tech uses your data to mint billions in profits without giving any share to you. In other words, the time spent by you on the internet, attention given to the platforms isn’t compensated for.
- You don’t get to see the output of the programs that you are running. For example, you are on Facebook and find an interesting video and chose to ‘Like‘ it. What happens in the background? That like is stored somewhere to show you more relevant videos next time. As a user, you should be entitled to view this data rather than it being a total black box for you.
- There is no native currency model in web 2.0. We live in an era where likes, shares and followers are equivalent to social currency. Unfortunately, there is no way to monetize it directly through the platform’s native architecture.
Enter: Web 3.0
By leveraging the blockchain technology and distributed ledger systems, we are evolving into a decentralized world where these issues are being eradicated one at a time. However, it has it’s own set of trade offs.
By creating a decentralized, trustless system (where you don’t need to know the transacting party), you are compromising with the scalability. Let’s take an example of pioneer of Web 3.0: Ethereum.
Ethereum is currently facing problems with two key metrics:
- TPS or transactions per second stands at 20. Compare that with Visa which can process 20,000 transactions at a time.
- Network Fee is roughly around $2 per transaction which hits the roof during network congestion, making it impossible for retail investors to jump in. Imagine paying more in gas free (network fee) than the amount you want to transfer. Doesn’t make sense right?
Ethereum scalability issues have led to the evolution of so many layer two solutions (parallel blockchains etc. that off load transactions from Ethereum). Apart from that, there are multiple other blockchains as well like Cardano, Solana, Polkadot, Algorand etc.
Introducing Vite:
Started in May 2018, Vite uses a couple of quirky solutions (more on it in a while) to address the scalability concerns of Web 3.0.
As per the white paper, Vite operates a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG)– based smart-contract platform that features zero-fee transactions and optimizes for transaction speed, reliability, and security.
DAG or Directed Acyclic Graph:
Let’s decode it bit by bit. First of all, DAG is not blockchain. Both of them are different technologies. A few key differences and similarities between these two are highlighted below:
The basic structure of DAG has an edge over inherent blockchain systems. Here’s how:
- DAGs are more scalable, faster and cheaper.
- Since transactions are not batched together in blocks, they take place instantaneously rather than being throttled by block formation time.
- DAG network doesn’t have any miners. Every user who comes up with a transaction needs to validate two other transactions by using minimal proof of work. Therefore, you need not pay any mining rewards. Users are your validators. This is why most of DAG based projects are fee-less.
- Since it is fast and cheap, micro payments are an excellent use case of DAGs. These can be sending Rs. 100 to your friend, paying for the food you had at a café etc.
However, with that being said, DAGs do have some drawbacks too:
- Since network validation is dependent on the users only, low adoption would mean low network security (because you won’t have any users)
- It is extremely complicated technology. With each project using it’s own consensus models, bringing projects to DAG based platforms can be challenging at times.
How Does VITE Address Security Concerns?
As mentioned above, DAG systems are prone to security risks arising due to low adoption. For that, DAG has come up with a parallel blockchain called Snapshot Chain structure featuring a consensus mechanism named Hierarchical-delegated-Proof-of-Stake (“HDPoS”).
The Snapshot Chain is an independent blockchain structure composed of Snapshot Blocks. A Snapshot Block records the balance of each account and the hash of the latest block in each account–chain. Snapshot Blocks can be issued by a group of delegated nodes following DPoS consensus algorithm. When the delegated nodes see forks in any account–chain, they will select one of them and reach consensus.
Any block in block-lattice can be considered as confirmed as soon as it is snapshotted in Snapshot Chain. Once a transaction is confirmed, it will never be rolled back, even if an user issues a longer fork chain.
VITE Use cases:
The VITE token is the currency for simple token transactions and smart–contract executions on the Vite network, with users staking VITE for transaction quota instead of consuming gas. This means that you would be given a certain bandwidth to execute your transactions for free. However, If you wish to exceed that and want more, you need to stake VITE.
In a delegated proof of stake (dPoS) consensus mechanism, existing nodes vote or delegate the task of next block creation to a super node. Other use case includes, VITE can be used to vote for Snapshot Block Producers (aka supernodes).
Also, a VITE staker with unused transaction quota can lease such quota to dApps in exchange for their tokens. For instance, users can stake VITE in exchange of ViteX’s native decentralized exchange token, VX.
VITE Ecosystem:
Vite’s current products include a decentralized exchange (ViteX), a multi-purpose wallet application (Vite App), payments (VitePay), and government/enterprise blockchain applications (VitePlus).
As per the founder, Richard Yan, Vite ecosystem has evolved in three phases which are as follows:
Phase 1: Public Blockchain
In this phase people are allowed to do transactions via dApps using VITE token.
Phase 2: DEX
In order to prove that the public blockchain made by them works, they decided to build an order book based DEX on top of that. I would not go into the detail of DEXs yet, but order book exchanges put much more load on the blockchain as compared to AMMs (Automated market makers). Therefore, demonstrating such DEX on VITE talks about efficiency of the platform.
Phase 3: Bridge
Bridge enables trustless transfer of assets from one blockchain to the other. For example you have a BEP20 token and want to put it on VITE. This bridge will enable you to do so (and vice versa) by wrapping it.
Supply Ecosystem:
As per coinmarketcap, the supply of VITE is as mentioned below:
Private Sale tokens comprise 40.43% of total supply. It was conducted in May 2018 for 404.33MM VITE at a rate of 7,000 VITE = 1 ETH and raised a total of 57,762 ETH (~$40.43MM) at ~$0.10 per token, selling 40.43% of the total token supply.
- Marketing tokens comprise 10.00% of total supply.
- Ecosystem Development tokens comprise 23.57% of total supply.
- Team tokens comprise 20.00% of total supply.
- Airdrop tokens comprise 5.00% of total supply.
- Advisor tokens comprise 1.00% of total supply.
WazirX Giveaway:
Coming to the question of the day. How can I buy VITE? Well, it is listed on multiple exchanges like Binance, Uniswap etc. And now, it is listed on our very own WazirX too. WazirX has also organized a grand Vite giveaway to celebrate this listing. The details of this $30,000+ giveaway are in the image below.
Conclusion:
Crypto space is evolving everyday, so it is too early to pick a winner from these multiple approaches. In this seemingly never ending race to scalability, speed and security, the test of time will be paramount. Until then, hold on tight and leverage the opportunities at hand.
Are you game for Vite?
Got questions? Want to take it to the next level? Reach out to me using your preferred platform from the links below
Until next time..
Psst.. Struggling to save money?
I just managed to save Rs. 10,000 by investing my ‘Chillar (Change)’ in mutual funds. Investing amounts like Rs. 5, 8, 25, 45.. and 4 months later, Boom! I have 10 grand to spare. Interested in knowing how I did it? Read more here.
On a side note, I use CoinMarketCap for all my crypto related research. You can access it through multiple modes. Sharing the links below:
