The Komodo Solution
Komodo presents a technology, the delayed Proof of Work consensus mechanism, that solves the problems described above. Komodo’s unique consensus mechanism provides the same level of security as the strongest PoW network, without attempting direct competition. Instead, Komodo’s consensus mechanism uses the chosen PoW network as a storage space for "backups" of Komodo transactions. By this method, in the event of an attempted attack on Komodo’s blockchain history, even a single surviving copy of the Komodo main chain will allow the entire ecosystem to overwrite and overrule any of the attacker’s attempted changes.
In a key difference separating Komodo from regular PoW networks, our dPoW consensus mechanism does not recognize the Longest Chain Rule for any transactions that are older than the most recent "backup" of the Komodo blockchain. For conflicts that may arise which refer to transactions that are older than the most recent "backup," our consensus mechanism looks to the backups in the chosen PoW blockchain to find the accurate record.
Furthermore, entrepreneurs who build independent blockchains (smart chains) in the Komodo ecosystem can likewise elect to have backups of their own records inserted into the Komodo main chain. In this manner, the records of the entrepreneur’s chain are then included in the backup that is pushed into the protective hash rate of the main PoW blockchain (Bitcoin). Thus, entrepreneurs and developers in the Komodo ecosystem can have their independent blockchains protected by the chosen PoW network’s hash rate.
Therefore, to destroy even the smallest smart chain that is employing Komodo’s dPoW security, the attacker would have to destroy: a) all existing copies of the smart chain; b) all copies of the Komodo main chain; c) the accompanying PoW security network into which the dPoW backups are inserted (Bitcoin). This endows the Komodo ecosystem with higher than Bitcoin-level security, while avoiding the excessive financial and eco-unfriendly costs.
In addition, the dPoW security provided by Komodo is not only greater than Bitcoin, but is also more flexible. The Komodo security services are performed by notary nodes, chosen through a stake-weighted vote. Notary nodes have the freedom to switch notarization to another PoW network. Reasons the notary nodes might elect to switch networks could include an event where worldwide miners’ hashing power changes to another PoW network, or the cost of notarization to the current PoW network becomes more than necessary. Through this flexibility, the Komodo ecosystem maintains both a superior level of security and a more flexible and adaptive nature than Bitcoin itself.
All the following processes are supported by a deeper Komodo technology called Iguana Core. Readers of our entire white paper will note that Iguana Core is featured in each section. This is because Iguana Core is the heart of the underlying technology that enables the vast Komodo ecosystem to work together. The Iguana Core code itself is complex and to fully explain would require a separate white paper.
In short, Iguana Core is a collection of code that serves many purposes. One function of Iguana Core is to empower the blockchain technologies Komodo either builds or adopts to act in coordination with each other. Often, Iguana Core can advance their initial capabilities beyond original expectations. In the case of dPoW, the code that underlies notary-node functionality spawned from Iguana Core technology.
Iguana Core is coded in the C programming language—the language of choice of our lead developer, JL777. The C language is designed to enable computers to process high volumes of information in a secure manner at high speed. This aligns with Komodo’s directives to provide security and scalability to our users.
Security is the foundational aspect of the Komodo ecosystem. Therefore, for the reader, we must first discuss the nature of the security the notary nodes provide. More detailed explanations on individual components will follow.
The Komodo ecosystem uses a stake-weighted vote to elect parties who will run sixty-four separate "notary nodes." These notary nodes perform the "backup" process via automation provided by the Iguana Core software that runs at the heart of our system. These backups are called "notarizations." Each notarization performed by the notary nodes acts as a marker of the "true" history for the Komodo ecosystem, and this marker’s accuracy is secured by the hash power of the chosen PoW network.
The notary nodes work together in a decentralized and trustless manner both to create each notarization and to write it to the chosen PoW network (Bitcoin). Frequency varies between two to six notarizations per hour, and the yearly cost to perform this service is ~180 BTC. Funds for this service were raised as a part of our initial Komodo ICO, and our holdings allow us to continue this method for many years before we will be required to implement a business model to replenish our reserves.
With our dPoW mechanism, each confirmation on the chosen PoW network is also a confirmation of the entire Komodo ecosystem’s history. The only sacrifice that is made is the time it takes to push the Komodo ecosystem’s records into the protection of the main hash rate. For this reason, we name our consensus mechanism, "delayed Proof of Work" (dPoW).
Our consensus mechanism is designed to keep the advantages provided by the PoW system, circumvent the excessive financial and eco-unfriendly overhead costs, and avoid the security risks found in a PoS system. We accomplish these measures by several means. The most important measure is that all actions a notary node takes are publicly verifiable, and the Iguana Core software running on the users’ machines verifies notary nodes’ actions. The notary nodes themselves are not arbiters of "truth."
Therefore, the only type of "false" behavior a malicious notary node can perform is to withhold notarization. There are sixty-four notary nodes. The minimum number of notary nodes required to maintain the Komodo ecosystem is thirteen. Thus, a malicious actor would have to compromise fifty-one notary nodes to shut down the Komodo ecosystem. Such an action would be uneconomic, as this would be destroying the access to the financial rewards a notary node receives for performing its duties. By this design, notary nodes have only one economically favorable position: to properly transfer the records of the Komodo ecosystem into a secure location and to increase Komodo’s market share and value.
For the average user, when performing a trade of goods and services where security is desired, the user simply needs to wait until the notarization process is complete. After the notary nodes are finished, the only way to break the security protecting their transaction history requires breaking the security of the chosen PoW network (Bitcoin). The Iguana Core code running in the main Komodo software automates the verification process. Entrepreneurs and developers should be aware of this information as they design business models and services for their users.
Thus, Komodo’s dPoW consensus mechanism maintains the security innovated by Satoshi Nakamoto, and because it enables the Bitcoin hash rate to serve more independent blockchains than just the single Bitcoin blockchain, dPoW even expands on Nakamoto’s original design.
The process of notarization is simple. Roughly every ten to twenty-five minutes, the notary nodes perform a special block hash mined on the Komodo blockchain and take note of the overall Komodo blockchain "height" (i.e. the number of total blocks in the Komodo blockchain since inception). The notary nodes process this specific block in such a manner that their signatures are cryptographically included within the content of the notarized data.
(All examples herein are estimated based off this actual KMD notarization to the BTC network: https://blockstream.info/tx/313031a1ed2dbe12a20706dff48d3dffb0e39d15e3e4ff936d01f091fb3b8556?expand)
The pieces going into the notarization process could look like this:
0a88371cc63969d29492110592189f839557e606db6f2b418ecfe8af24451c07
This is the "block hash" from the KMD blockchain—mined and cryptographically signed by the notary nodes
- This is the blockchain "height" of the Komodo blockchain at the time of notarization (i.e. the total number of KMD blocks ever created)
- The letters "KMD" are added into the notarization mixture to indicate the name of the blockchain to which this notarization belongs
The notary nodes will take these three pieces of information and compress them into a format that is more computer-friendly. The result will look like this:
6a28071c4524afe8cf8e412b6fdb06e65795839f189205119294d26939c61c37880a084409004b4d4400
The above number can be said to be a cryptographic representation of all that has happened on the Komodo blockchain up to this point in time. According to the Cascade Effect, were an attacker to attempt to go back in the history of the Komodo blockchain and change even a single character of data, and then perform the same hashing formulas in the Komodo code, the number above would dramatically change.
This makes the notary nodes’ notarization a useful backup, assuming this number is in a safe location where anyone on the Internet can view and verify it. It enables a single surviving copy of the "true" Komodo main chain to identify itself to the rest of the Komodo network, as only the "true" data can produce the same result. On the other hand, an incorrect history of the Komodo network will not be able to produce the same notarization. Through the automation in the Iguana Core software that underlies the Komodo ecosystem, all users will align with the "true" blockchain history and ignore any malicious actors’ "false" attempts.
Naturally, for security purposes this number cannot simply be saved to one person’s local computer, or be written down on a piece of paper. Were the number to be in such a centralized location, a would-be attacker could simply destroy the backup, or replace it with a "false" version. For the number to be useful, it must be placed in a secure and decentralized location. Here is where Komodo adopts security from another network: Komodo will perform a simple transaction in which it writes the above number into the data history of the strongest PoW blockchain (currently Bitcoin). This location is as secure as the miners’ hash rate makes it, and the location is decentralized, by nature.
To place this information in the accompanying PoW network, the notary nodes will use a feature that exists at the core of the Bitcoin protocol when making a transaction. The feature is called "OP_RETURN," and it allows for a message to be added to the blockchain, permanently, as a part of performing a transaction.
A notable use of the ability to write messages to a PoW blockchain is found in the first actions of Satoshi Nakamoto himself (themselves). In the first Bitcoin block ever mined, Satoshi used a feature like OP_RETURN (Nakamoto used a feature called "coinbase," which is similar to OP_RETURN. A primary difference between coinbase and OP_RETURN is that coinbase is used by miners when mining a block, whereas OP_RETURN can be used when performing transactions.) to include this message:
03-Jan-2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks
Readers who have downloaded the Bitcoin blockchain to their local computer, and who possess the knowledge necessary to inspect the raw Bitcoin data, can discover these very words written to their own hard drive. The important thing to understand for our discussion is that any message written to a secure and decentralized PoW blockchain is viewable and verifiable to all.
The permanence and security of OP_RETURN messages are a core aspect of dPoW’s security. In the event of a powerful attack on the Komodo network, there need be no argument over the correct notarized marker upon which the ecosystem members should rely. The Iguana Core code running at the heart of each user’s Komodo soft- ware can continue securing, decentralizing, and distributing the accurate version of the Komodo history as though the attack never occurred.
One final step remains to complete the loop of security between the KMD main chain and the chosen PoW network. The KMD blockchain must record within its own records the specific location where it placed this backup into the PoW blockchain. This enables the Iguana Core software to identify the location of the most recent notarization.
To create this reminder, the notary nodes will now gather one more piece of information, this time drawn from the accompanying PoW network: the transaction hash (txid) identifying the location of the first notarization. This information could look like this:
313031a1ed2dbe12a20706dff48d3dffb0e39d15e3e4ff936d01f091fb3b8556
The notary nodes will combine it with all the information that has come before. The result will be transformed, again, into a computer-friendly version:
6a28071c4524afe8cf8e412b6fdb06e65795839f189205119294d26939c61c37880a0844090056853bfb91f0016d93ffe4e3159de3b0ff3d8df4df0607a212be2deda13130314b4d4400
This number is a compressed cryptographic representation of everything that has happened in the Komodo ecosystem up to this point in time. The notarization is placed as a transaction message directly into the KMD main chain itself. It enables the Komodo ecosystem to know how to find a reference of its own history.
As each notarization is built upon all the notarizations that came before, Iguana Core does not need to monitor each notarization. Rather, it only needs to observe the most recent iteration. This is favorable for Komodo security, as there is always a possibility that the chosen PoW network (Bitcoin) could fail. In this event, the notary nodes would place their next notarization in a competing PoW network (such as Bitcoin Cash) and the entire Komodo ecosystem would remain secure. The notarizations in the failing PoW network would no longer be required to verify ecosystem accuracy.
The nature of mining in the Komodo ecosystem serves as an incentive to motivate the notary nodes to perform their job well. This setup is also a principle method by which the Komodo ecosystem dramatically reduces the overhead costs necessary for it to function. Portions of the mining rewards are available not just to the notary nodes, but also to all members of the Komodo ecosystem, through various means.
The Komodo network on a surface-level is a minable network, like other PoW networks. Any technically savvy user can activate a device capable of mining the Komodo network, and thereby process users’ transactions, mine blocks, and receive rewards. For these miners, the Komodo protocol functions in almost the exact same manner as the Bitcoin blockchain’s mining rewards function.
Understanding the similarities will explain to the reader the motivations for the notary nodes and other Komodo miners to secure the Komodo network. The differences, on the other hand, are explained in Part V of this paper. (See the section regarding the 5.1% rewards allocated to all users who hold at least 10 KMD in their wallet address. This 5.1% reward is given to users out of the funds that would normally be given to a Bitcoin miner as a method of minting new Bitcoin coins.)
The foundational similarity to understand is that with each block header, clues are provided for miners to find the next valid block hash. The specific clue, "difficulty," changes with each block header.
Under normal circumstances on a PoW blockchain, with each block header the difficulty level can change. The Bitcoin protocol itself decides what the difficulty for the next valid block should be. The difficulty is decided based on the amount of overall hash power mining the network. If many miners are active, then the hash rate is high, and the Bitcoin protocol sets the difficulty to a higher number. On the other hand, if the hash rate is low, then the protocol sets the difficulty to a lower number. Recall that the "difficulty" level determines the number of zeros at the beginning of the next valid block hash. The more zeros at the beginning of a valid block hash, the more unlikely each attempt at finding a valid block hash will be. When the Bitcoin protocol was in its infancy, the difficulty setting was easy. In fact, the block hash we used earlier as an example is, in truth, the very first block hash ever created—by Satoshi Nakamoto himself (themselves).
000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f
He (they) designed the difficulty setting to encourage the network to find new block hashes once every ten minutes, on average.
For a computer, to guess within ten minutes a nonce that will produce a block hash beginning with ten zeros is relatively easy. It is so simple, in fact, no special computer is required. Early Bitcoin miners could use nothing more than the average desktop machine, having the CPU—the small heart of the computer—performing the calculations.
As more miners joined the network, however, the Bitcoin protocol automatically increased the difficulty. This maintained the speed at which the pool of all miners discovered new blocks, despite the increased size of the pool. Stabilizing the speed created several benefits, including an amount of economic predictability upon which users can rely.
Today, at Bitcoin’s current level of overall hash power, a valid block hash requires a much higher level of difficulty. Here is a recent successful block hash:
0000000000000000002d08398d6f21f038019600266b419bad5ab88add5b638d
There are seventeen zeros, and to find a valid block hash at this level requires a prodigious effort.
In the race to win blockchain rewards, miners all over the world have built entire farms of specialized equipment for mining. The small CPU of a desktop is no longer useful, and the time of "easy difficulty" on Bitcoin has passed.
Here is where our dPoW consensus mechanism diverges from the Bitcoin proto- col’s limitations. In addition to performing the notarizations of the Komodo ecosystem, notary nodes are also a special type of blockchain miner. They have a certain feature in their underlying code that both enables them to maintain an effective and cost-efficient blockchain ecosystem and provides the notary nodes with a financial incentive. The combination of benefits prevents the Komodo ecosystem from falling into the trap of directly competing with other PoW networks for hash-rate security status.
Each individual node periodically receives the privilege to mine a block on "easy difficulty." In other words, while the rest of the miners in the Komodo ecosystem are mining at a calculated difficulty level, the notary nodes occasionally receive the chance to mine as though they are alone on the network.
The notary nodes’ "easy difficulty" setting operates in a cyclical manner, with each notary node on its own cycle. At the start of the cycle the notary node holds the "easy difficulty" ability until it mines one "easy" block. Then the Iguana Core code removes the ability for the next sixty-four blocks. After the sixty-four-block period passes, the notary node can once again attempt to capture a block on "easy difficulty."
Therefore, while everyone else on the network mines at an adjustable level of difficulty according to the normal PoW consensus mechanism (which keeps the overall speed of the Komodo network stable) the notary nodes have a chance to step outside the normal rules. For every sixty-five-block period on the Komodo blockchain (See following section of the Free-for-All Period) , the odds that a block will be mined by a notary node, as opposed to a normal miner, are essentially 3:1.
Since the rest of the miners have an adjustable difficulty ratio, it does not matter how many more miners attempt to mine Komodo. Most of the valid blocks will always be found by the sixty-four elected notary nodes, even were the entire hash power of the Bitcoin network to somehow switch all its attention to mining Komodo.
The mining rewards that a notary node receives through this feature are ~50 KMD per day. This reward occurs regardless of KMD’s popularity, market value, or even of the competition from normal KMD miners. The reward notary nodes receive creates an economic incentive for each party controlling a notary node to support and protect the Komodo ecosystem, and to increase the relative value of this daily ~50 KMD reward.
Every 2000 blocks, the Iguana Core code removes the easy-difficulty mining ability from all notary nodes for a sixty-four-block period. This gives the entire ecosystem the chance to freely mine the Komodo blockchain. The primary purpose of the Free-for- All period is to recalibrate the difficulty level of all miners on the Komodo network. It also gives a fair chance to all members of the Komodo ecosystem to capture mining rewards.
The notary nodes continue the notarization process itself throughout the Free-for- All mining period. When the Free-for-All period concludes, the notary nodes regain their abilities and resume mining the current chain.
There are myriad ways that an attacker can assail a blockchain project, and the Komodo ecosystem is well prepared. In this foundational paper, we only discuss two of the most crucial attacks—the 51% Attack and the Genesis Attack.
In a separate technical white paper, written by our lead developer, we provide several more discussions on how Komodo responds to many other forms of attack.
Some of this earlier paper is now deprecated, and therefore it has been removed from most locations on our website. There remain relevant sections regarding Komodo’s protections against various other attacks. Please reach out to our team directly for a copy of this white paper, if interested.
Some mentioned therein include the Sybil Attack, the Eclipse Attack, and more. We encourage any reader searching for information about the deepest levels of Komodo security not only to read the accompanying white paper, but also to reach out to our team directly.
By relying on the notarizations in the chosen PoW network’s hash rate (Bitcoin), users in the Komodo ecosystem are well protected from both the 51% Attack and the Genesis Attack. Recall that in a 51% Attack, the attacker first makes a transaction and then erases it by providing 51% of the total hash rate to a "false" blockchain where the transaction never occurred. In the Genesis Attack, the attacker recreates the genesis block of a blockchain and mines an entirely false history. For either of these attacks to play any part in the Komodo ecosystem, the successful attack would have to destroy every transaction at every level it is recorded.
First, let us consider the implications of the notarization process provided against the Genesis Attack. Once an independent blockchain has even just a single transaction pushed through the notarization process into the chosen PoW network, that notarization protects against the Genesis Attack. To successfully complete a Genesis Attack against a Komodo-built blockchain, the attacker would have to destroy the chosen PoW network’s records from that moment going forward. The attacker would also have to destroy the KMD main chain from that moment forward, and the entire independent smart chain. The likelihood of achieving this task is effectively as probable as performing a Genesis Attack on the chosen PoW network itself.
The Komodo ecosystem is also well protected against the 51% Attack, so long as users wait for a desirable number of notarizations. Consider a transaction that is recently performed on an smart chain in the Komodo ecosystem. While the notary nodes have not yet notarized the transaction into the KMD main chain, then it is plausible that during this approximately ten-minute period an attacker could successfully perform a 51% Attack on this transaction. The attacker would simply make a transaction, and then provide 51% of the total hash rate to a "false" version of the independent smart chain to erase the transaction. Therefore, users should always wait until they receive at least one notarization to the KMD main chain before considering any transaction final.
There are methods and resources available for developers and entrepreneurs who wish to securely alleviate any wait time a user might experience during this ten-minute period. The Trust API (briefly explained in Part III of this white paper), our forthcoming CHIPS technology, and our Crypto Conditions and MoM smart-contract technology (currently in beta and alpha stages) can serve these purposes. The Speed Mode setting on BarterDEX is a demonstration of the Trust API feature. It allows users to have a certain amount of high-speed transaction bandwidth available, without having to wait for any notarizations. Development on these features is currently a top priority, and progress is proceeding quickly. Please reach out to our team for more details, if these features are of interest.
Once the transaction reaches the KMD main chain, at this point, the attacker would have to successfully perform the 51% Attack against both the KMD main chain and the independent smart chain. This is already quite difficult to achieve, as it would require overcoming the notary nodes and other KMD miners, while simultaneously attacking the independent chain. Entrepreneurs, developers, and users should decide for themselves how much trust they wish to place in the system at this point of the notarization process.
When considering large sums of money, the need for protection grows. A large sum of money can be both a single large transaction, or it can be the collective value of many small and normal-sized transactions that build up over hours, days, and years. These transaction histories need protection against the sophisticated blockchain attacker. It is for this reason that the notarization process exists.
Once the notary nodes have pushed the most recent version of the Komodo ecosystem’s history into the chosen PoW network (Bitcoin), the entire ecosystem relies only on that notarization as the arbiter of truth. All transaction records that have been pushed into the chosen PoW network can only be rescinded by altering the chosen PoW network itself (while simultaneously altering the histories of the KMD main chain and the independent smart chain). Accomplishing such a task is highly improbable (though we warn the reader never to consider any attack impossible).
Therefore, any record that has been on the Komodo main chain for at least one notarization has a fortress of hash rate and other security measures at its guard. So long as users and developers are mindful to wait for the desired number of notarizations to secure their payments, both the 51% Attack and the Genesis Attack are highly unlikely either to be successful, or to provide economic value to the would-be malicious actor. Nevertheless, we remind all users of our ecosystem to consider their own vigilance and mindfulness as the most effective protection against the would-be attacker. Users, entrepreneurs, and developers utilize all aspects of the Komodo network at their own risk.
To create a notarization for the KMD main chain, the minimum number of notary nodes required is 13. If the notary nodes themselves come under attack and must work to maintain access to the Internet, just 13 of the full 64 are required for the Komodo ecosystem to continue its operations.
In the possible event of a disconnect from the minimum number of notary nodes, chains in the Komodo ecosystem should simply be on the alert. Users, developers, and entrepreneurs would simply need to wait for the notary nodes to regain access to the Internet and resume the notarization process before considering any transaction final.
For this reason, the position of a notary node is held with high importance, and the parties which gain these positions are measured foremost by their Information Technology experience and capabilities. Komodo stakeholders are responsible to vote for candidates that are the most qualified to perform in the notary-node duties.
These security features extend to any smart chain relying on the notarization process. The primary difference between an smart chain and the main chain is that the main chain notarizes to an exterior PoW network (Bitcoin), whereas the smart chain notarizes to the KMD main chain.
The notarization for the smart chain is performed by the notary nodes as a service to the independent developer and entrepreneur. Notary nodes create a notarization of the smart chain and write it into the KMD main chain. Then they write their actions into the smart chain itself. This allows Iguana Core (running at the heart of the smart chain) to identify where its most recent notarization can be found. The notarization process cycles every ten minutes, assuming the smart chain’s network is consistently active. If the network has periods of inactivity, the notary nodes halt the process (to save against unnecessary notarization costs) and reactivate as soon as new transaction activity appears on the smart chain’s network.
There is also a difference in the number of notary nodes required to notarize an smart chain as compared to the KMD main chain. Whereas with the KMD main chain 13 notary nodes are required, only 11 notary nodes are required to notarize an smart chain. This difference is based on the underlying math that ensures that the number of smart chains in the Komodo ecosystem can scale into the tens of thousands.
(We invite the reader to consider the fact as each smart chain can support thousands of transactions per minute, this makes the combined ecosystem capable of supporting millions of transactions per minute. This includes cross-blockchain interoperability, via our atomic-swap powered technology, as explained in Part III. This makes Komodo among the most scalable of financial-technology solutions in existence, and capable of competing with the transaction volumes of fiat networks.)
Naturally, as each level of notarization takes time to perform, there is an additional delay for smart chains as compared to the KMD main chain. An smart chain’s history is notarized into the KMD main chain approximately every ten minutes, assuming constant activity. This notarization will then be pushed through the notarization process into the chosen PoW network (Bitcoin). We estimate that a transaction performed on an smart chain will receive the KMD main chain’s protection within approximately ten minutes, and the Bitcoin hash rate’s protection in approximately twenty to thirty minutes.
Another difference between the KMD main chain and an smart chain is that the notary nodes only mine the KMD main chain. Smart-chain developers are responsible to create any required network of miners to process the smart chain’s transactions. This does not need to be a full network of mining farms, such as those in Bitcoin. Rather, it only needs to be enough computing power to process transactions, and to provide any desired level of hash-rate security to cover the ten-minute waiting period. For a smallbusiness with intermittent periods of transaction activity, a single, dedicated, full-time server may be enough. Larger businesses can scale as desired and can also work to attract a network of freelance miners.
It is also possible that a network of freelance miners will naturally arise within the Komodo ecosystem, to observe and manage transaction-processing services wherever and whenever they are required, through automation.
This setup dramatically reduces the overhead costs and effort the entrepreneur and developer would otherwise have to allocate to a network of high-hash rate miners. These freed resources of the entrepreneur and developer can therefore be allocated to other uses in their business models.
The total yearly cost for the Komodo notary nodes to notarize the KMD main chain into the currently chosen PoW chain, Bitcoin, is approximately ~180 BTC/year (a value of ~$1.5M USD at the time of the writing of this paper). Funding for the notary nodes to perform this service was raised during the Komodo ICO, and current BTC holdings give us many years to come before we will be required to implement any business models to replenish our BTC funds.
On the other hand, the total cost for the smart chain developer to notarize their independent chain into the KMD main chain is but a fraction of the cost. This security mechanism is not limited to smart chains created within the Komodo ecosystem. In fact, Komodo’s Blockchain Security Services are available to any existing blockchain. With Komodo, any blockchain can be protected with the power of the Bitcoin hashrate for a tiny percentage of the cost. We have not yet finalized the details, so please contact the Komodo Platform team at [email protected] for more information.
Thus, an entrepreneur in our ecosystem can have their own independent blockchain that is backed up by the hash rate of the Bitcoin mining network, at only a fraction of the cost. In the following section, Part II, we begin our discussion of an entrepreneur’s formation and distribution of a Komodo smart chain. In Part III, we discuss in detail our method of distribution and trading, using our atomic-swap technology. Part IV discusses how with each of these components, users have the option of zero-knowledge privacy. In Part V, we mention our smart-contract technology (our current development focus).