The Komodo Platform ecosystem is thriving. Over the last year, a number of teams have leveraged Komodo’s tech to launch incredible new projects.
The Komodo team would like to showcase some of the amazing projects springing up within the ecosystem. In a new series of blog posts, Komodo will recognize the innovations and accomplishments of these ecosystem projects.
Verus Coin is one of the most fascinating projects to have leveraged Komodo’s technology. It’s important to note that Verus is not an assetchain on Komodo Platform. Rather, it’s a friendly fork of the KMD chain itself. Let’s learn more about this innovative project.
A Team With Experience
Michael J. Toutonghi, the Founder and Lead Developer of Verus Coin, has over thirty years of experience in the tech world. As a former Vice President and Technical Fellow at Microsoft, and as the recognized founder and architect of Microsoft's .Net platform, Mr. Toutonghi has an established record of major accomplishments. This continues with the Verus Coin project today.
“Verus is a project that shows what really can be done when a strong project with a vision takes advantage of Komodo’s technology and ecosystem,” said Mike Toutonghi.
Verus Coin is a community project with four more initial developers, including David Dawes, a software developer with decades of experience, and Michael F Toutonghi, Mr. Toutinghi’s son, as well as many other developers and contributors in the Verus community.
In addition, Komodo’s Lead Developer, James “jl777” Lee, is an adviser to the Verus Coin project. James has expressed great respect for the Verus team’s innovations.
Innovative Technologies
By deciding to fork and build upon the KMD platform as an independent project in the Komodo ecosystem, Verus can leverage advances on Komodo Platform, such as dPoW and the Custom Consensus framework. At the same time, Verus also contributes its open-source technologies back to Komodo and other projects in the Komodo ecosystem more easily than to those without a common heritage.
Here are some of the cutting-edge new features the Verus team created.
A Brand-New Hashing Algorithm
Verus Coin developed its very own cryptographic hash function, which is an extraordinary achievement. VerusHash, as this new hashing algorithm is called, was designed such that CPU units and GPU units can coexist, both mining at speeds much more comparable to each other than any GPU-optimized hash algorithms before now.
This important feature means that GPU mining no longer has a massive advantage, as CPU mining can be equally lucrative with the right setup or when simply using extra CPU from a computer that is already in use. This incentivizes more ordinary individuals to mine Verus Coin with their home computers, thus making the network stronger and more decentralized— leveling the playing field, so to speak.
A Combination Consensus Mechanism
Verus Coin also developed a unique consensus mechanism. It is 50% Proof of Work and 50% Proof of Stake. This combination mechanism provides enormous protection from 51% attacks, as hackers would need both a majority of the network’s hashrate and a major part of the coin supply to stage a successful attack.
On top of all that, Verus Coin is being secured to the BTC network through Komodo’s Blockchain Security Service. For all of these reasons, Mr. Toutonghi describes Verus Coin as “possibly the most secure chain there is.”
Inter-Chain Meta Contracts
The Verus Coin is also taking advantage of Komodo’s recently-implemented Custom Consensus framework, which allows things like UTXO-based smart contracts. Verus will use this groundbreaking technology to launch Inter-Chain Meta Contracts.
This development will allow Verus Coin to execute on its vision to enable public blockchains as a service (PBaaS), providing completely decentralized blockchain provisioning with Verus stakers and miners to support dApps such as confidential, verifiable, and transparent polls and voting, all on a global scale.
Contributions To The Komodo Ecosystem
While Verus Coin is a fork of KMD and leveraged Komodo’s tech to start the project, they are making several important contributions to the Komodo ecosystem.
First, VerusHash, the innovative hash function the Verus team developed, will soon be available to all future projects building within the Komodo ecosystem.
The same is true of Verus Coin’s unique consensus mechanism, which combines both PoW and PoS into one, ultra-secure mechanism. In time, this will also become available to all independent blockchains launched on Komodo Platform.
Both of these incredible technologies were developed exclusively by the Verus Coin team. As an open-source project, like Komodo, Verus is sharing these features with any other projects that choose to adopt them.
In addition, the Verus team forked the Agama wallet and added several new features, such as a zero-knowledge messaging function which can be used to send messages anonymously while performing z-transactions. These new features can be easily added by other projects that use and build upon Agama wallet.
Finally, the Verus team is working hard to prepare for implementation of the Sapling upgrade of ZCash. Since Verus is a fork of Komodo, which is itself a fork of ZCash, Verus is, by extension, also a fork of ZCash.
The upgrade is scheduled for October 28, 2018, and Verus plans to implement the upgrade on the very same day as ZCash itself. Once Verus has completed the Sapling upgrade, it will become much easier for Komodo to implement the upgrade, too.
A Mutually Beneficial Relationship
Verus Coin isn’t simply leveraging Komodo’s for its own benefit; it is actively developing remarkable new features and contributing them to the Komodo ecosystem at large. In this sense, the relationship is mutually beneficial and both projects are stronger as a result.
On this note, Komodo is proud to announce that Mike Toutonghi is joining the Komodo team as an advisor. The wealth of experience Mike brings to the table is sure to be greatly beneficial to the Komodo Platform.
The symbiotic relationship between Komodo and Verus exemplifies Komodo’s vision for a thriving, interoperable, open-source blockchain ecosystem. Both Komodo and Verus believe in taking a collaborative, rather than a competitive, approach to the blockchain industry. It is this attitude that will truly bring about the mass adoption of blockchain tech.
If you’d like to learn more about Verus Coin, you can sign up for their email list and join their growing community on Discord.
AMA With Mike On Monday, Sept 24
Be sure to join Komodo’s community on Reddit, as Mike will be participating in an AMA on Monday, September 24. Do some research about Verus Coin and have your questions ready!
Be a part of the Komodo ecosystem as we continue to grow, collaborate, and lead the world in blockchain integration.