Introduction

Since the explosion of DeFi, legacy blockchain systems have faced limitations in their ability to expand, bringing about the increasing demand for highly scalable protocols. Scalability pertains to a blockchain’s capacity to manage a significant volume of transactions at a fast rate without jeopardizing security or decentralization. Many blockchain networks have found this to be a serious challenge. It is much like attempting to construct an expressway that can carry thousands of vehicles while avoiding traffic jams and accidents.

The Everscale blockchain has gained attention in the cryptocurrency space for its innovative design that tackles the scalability challenge. The name “Everscale” itself speaks to the limitless nature and distinctive scalability of the network. In this article, the key features and operations of Everscale that make it a new choice for both developers and users will be explored.

What is Everscale? Solving L-1 Scalability Challenge

Source: Everscale

Everscale is a fifth-generation Layer-1 blockchain that is fully open-source and has a unique architecture. It is a highly scalable proof-of-stake blockchain network built on the Telegram Open Network (TON) architecture, which uses sharding for computation and storage. It is a decentralized global blockchain network launched on top of Ever OS, which is a distributed operating system, and it is said to have the potential to process millions of transactions per second (TPS). It offers a suite of development tools for building, deploying, decentralizing, and scaling projects on the Everscale network.

Everscale’s ability to handle millions of transactions per second makes it ideal for applications such as decentralized social networks, messengers, credit cards, gamification, and non-fungible tokens at an industrial scale. Everscale has powerful developer tools that make it easy for developers to build small applications and startups, as well as to implement the most ambitious ideas on an industrial scale.

A Brief History of Everscale

Everscale, originally conceived as the TON (Telegram Open Network) project by Pavel Durov, has a fascinating history. In 2017, Durov developed the concept of TON intending to integrate the Gram cryptocurrency into the popular Telegram Messenger. The project progressed, and by 2018, the TON blockchain was launched, with 70% of the network completed. However, regulatory obstacles and legal challenges arose, leading to the discontinuation of the TON blockchain.

In 2019, EverX (previously TON Labs) stepped in and launched the EVER blockchain, incorporating a proof-of-authority consensus algorithm. They also introduced the alpha version of TON OS, an operating system for decentralized applications. Despite facing opposition from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), EverX continued to advance, launching its TON testnet.

In 2021, Everscale achieved a world record throughput of 64,000 transactions per second and rebranded from FreeTON to Everscale. They also announced plans to migrate their programming language from C++ to Rust, allowing for improved scalability and throughput. In 2022, Everscale released the Reliable External Messaging Protocol (REMP) and implemented economic measures to boost its market position. They expanded their reach by partnering with DA5 for a blockchain remittance service in the Philippines and shifted their focus to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and enterprise solutions.

How Does Everscale Work?

Everscale operates on a sharded architecture known as workchains, which efficiently processes data and transactions. Validators are assigned to specific workchains in each election cycle, solely handling data storage and transaction processing for their assigned shard. Moreover, validators also download blocks from other workchains to ensure the seamless operation of all workchains together.

Source: Everscale

The Everscale network comprises two primary shards: the masterchain and the main workchain. The Masterchain acts as a synchronization hub for messages and transaction execution across the network. Validators contribute block proofs from all Workchains to the masterchain, which holds the latest block hashes of each chain. On the other hand, the main workchain is dedicated to smart contracts and serves as the transaction platform.

To facilitate parallel processing and scalability, workchains are further divided into execution shards called threads. Threads contain subsets of smart contracts, and validators rotate through these threads to process transactions within their designated area. The number of threads adjusts dynamically based on network activity, allowing validators sharing the same data to execute smart contracts in parallel.

Everscale’s architecture effectively tackles the challenges of handling high message volumes and limited processing power. Data sharding distributes the workload across multiple workchains, preventing strain on the internet connection. Multithreading enables the concurrent execution of smart contracts, ensuring network scalability. Everscale plans to expand its capabilities by deploying multi-threaded shards in the future, further enhancing scalability and accommodating the increasing demands of the network.

Everscale Ecosystem

Source: Everscale

The Everscale ecosystem is a cutting-edge blockchain network that supports a diverse range of applications and services, focusing on decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming (GameFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and decentralized applications (dApps). The ecosystem is built on the principles of low-cost, fast, and accessible solutions, attracting numerous projects and developers.

Octus Bridge

Source: Everscale — Octus Bridge

One of the main features of the Everscale ecosystem is the Octus Bridge, which facilitates the transfer of liquidity between Everscale and other blockchains, such as Ethereum, Polygon, and Fantom. The EVER Wallet also provides a user-friendly solution for storing and transferring funds to and from Everscale on various devices.

Source: Everscale

Everscan

The ecosystem also includes EverScan, a public blockchain explorer for Everscale that allows users to verify and check any account, transaction, or smart contract, as well as Scale Punks — an NFT marketplace featuring the first-ever NFT Punks collection on Everscale.

Source: Everscan

Everscale Smart Contracts

Everscale smart contracts are code that’s stored on the blockchain and automatically executed when predetermined conditions are met. Smart contracts on Everscale are executed by a part of the software on the node called Everscale Virtual Machine (ESVM). Everscale supports the simultaneous execution of multiple smart contracts, enabling the fast processing of a high volume of transactions concurrently.

The smart contracts are written in Solidity and C++ programming languages and interact with each other using messages, which are divided into two; internal and external transfer of data. The internal messages are data that is transferred within the blockchain from one account to another. The internal exchange of messages isn’t limited in size but is affected by the number of gas fees in its execution and by the size of the block.

The external exchange of messages is limited in size to about 16kb to protect against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and it involves the exchange of messages either to the blockchain from outside or from the blockchain outward.

To execute smart contracts users are required to pay a gas fee of 1 EVER. However, Everscale hopes to cut gas fees and make the blockchain network cheaper compared to other smart contract networks by improving the node software and the SMFT consensus.

Roadmap

Source: Everscale

Everscale’s 2023 roadmap presents a series of exciting developments aimed at enhancing its decentralized ecosystem. Q1 focuses on the launch of a fast and secure decentralized exchange (DEX) called FLEX, with plans to launch a web version for broader accessibility. In Q2, Everscale aims to introduce Drivechains, optimized decentralized storage devices, and improve the NFT standard for on-chain storage. While in Q3, they will offer a Constructor for DAOs, empowering users to influence project directions and prepare a Metaverse SDK for building metaverses on Everscale. Additionally, they plan to implement slashing mechanisms to ensure network integrity.

Wrapping up in Q4 of 2023, Everscale plans to introduce an EVM-compatible workchain for seamless smart contract execution, launch an Open Derivatives Protocol for trading futures and options, and enable Everscale-based DAOs on external protocols. These developments showcase Everscale’s commitment to innovation and expanding its ecosystem’s capabilities while providing users with enhanced experiences and versatile functionalities.

Everscale (EVER) Main Features: REMP, SMFT, FlatQube

Source: Everscale

Reliable External Messaging Protocol (REMP)

It is a protocol that adds some additional guarantees/features for external message processing, such as replay protection. It enables external information and instructions from user devices to be delivered to the Everscale blockchain network faster and more securely and guarantees a strict order of message execution. REMP makes it possible to get a sub-second response within the blockchain, providing the same performance and user experience as regular SQL databases or apps, but on the blockchain.

Soft Majority Fault Tolerance (SMFT)

It is a consensus protocol that increases blockchain security to a level where any attempted malicious attacks become meaningless while achieving high speed and retaining a sufficiently decentralized consensus. The protocol allows for processing many chains in one data shard, and all validators in each Workchain participate in network security, exponentially increasing the security level.

Distributed Programming

Everscale’s distributed programming is a feature allowing every entity and account to have its program, which can be executed in parallel. This solves the long-standing data storage issue by distributing data processing across multiple machines.

FlatQube

FlatQube is an online marketplace that allows users to trade digital currencies. Its uniqueness stems from its decentralized nature and its operation on the Everscale network, which makes sure that transactions are private and secure. It also uses the Ever Wallet which helps users securely store and manage their digital currencies

FlatQube is powered by Broxus, and it is regarded as the main hub for activities related to decentralized finance (DeFi) on Everscale. FlatQube allows users to trade different types of digital assets and join farming groups, and participate in staking options, and vesting methods. The way FlatQube is managed is quite unique in the sense that, a single organization or person does not control it. Instead, it is governed by a community of people who make decisions based on a voting system, promoting transparency and fairness.

Advantages of Everscale

• Everscale is almost infinitely scalable, which makes it easier in terms of gas payments and allows for more validators to join.
• It prioritizes security with its SMFT-based consensus mechanism and REMP to protect against attacks and ensure reliable transaction execution.
• Everscale’s bridge facilitates seamless token and data transfers between Everscale and other blockchain networks.
• Everscale has powerful developer tools. It has compilers for Solidity and C++, API, and SDK that includes client libraries for 13 programming languages and all popular platforms.
• To address the scalability concerns with Ethereum’s architecture, Everscale leverages data and execution sharding, allowing for faster and more efficient processing.
• Further, Everscale uses the energy-efficient Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm, making it distinct from Bitcoin which uses the Proof of Work (PoW) algorithm.
• Everscale boasts of performing more than a million transactions per second (TPS), different from other Layer-1 technologies like Ethereum in terms of throughput.

Disadvantages of Everscale

• Development Progress: Everscale is still in the process of implementing key features outlined in its whitepaper, and it may likely take time to realize its intended capabilities fully.
• Competition: Everscale operates in a competitive industry with other popular Layer-1 projects such as Ethereum, Polkadot, EOS, Tron, etc.
• Adoption Challenges: Everscale needs to overcome challenges in attracting users and establishing a vibrant ecosystem, including building partnerships and adoption on exchanges like other popular Layer-1 projects.
• Limited Track Record: As a relatively new platform, Everscale is still establishing its track record and reputation, which may impact user and developer preferences.
• While Everscale has powerful developer tools such as Solidity and C++, it has not been stress-tested like the leading L-1 protocol, Ethereum.

What is EVER Token?

The EVER token is the native utility token of the Everscale network. EVER serves multiple purposes within the network, including paying transaction fees, bridging ecosystems, performing swaps, staking, and participating in governance and voting. As a crucial component of the Everscale ecosystem, the EVER token enables users to interact with the platform and its decentralized applications, contributing to the network’s growth and development.

Wrapped EVER (wEVER)

Wrapped EVER (wEVER) is a token solution designed to bridge the gap between different blockchain networks by enabling the interoperability of the EVER cryptocurrency. As a digital token, wEVER holds the same value as one EVER but is based on the TIP-3 standard, allowing it to be used on non-native blockchains. This functionality is essential for developing a DeFi ecosystem, where a seamless exchange of information between various cryptocurrencies is crucial. By wrapping EVER, users can access and participate in DeFi platforms on networks such as Ethereum (ETH) and BNB Chain, while still retaining the option to redeem their wEVER for the original EVER cryptocurrency when desired.

Source: Everscale

Tokenomics

There is a limit to the total number of EVER tokens that can ever exist, which is set at five billion tokens. To encourage participants in validating transactions and securing the network, two million new EVER tokens are created and given as rewards every month until the cap of five billion tokens is reached. As of May 2023, there are about 1.79 billion EVER tokens in circulation.

The EVER tokens were distributed at the launch to different treasuries, which are like special funds. The referral treasury received most of the initial token supply, specifically 85%. This treasury uses the tokens to form partnerships and support initiatives that help more people adopt EVER.

The developer treasury got 10% of the initial tokens. This treasury rewards community developers who contribute to building projects and improving the Everscale ecosystem. They receive tokens as a way to recognize and encourage their efforts.

The validator treasury received 5% of the initial token supply. This is responsible for promoting and encouraging validators to join the network and help make it secure. Validators play an important role in verifying transactions and maintaining the network’s integrity.

Source: Everscale

Is Everscale (EVER) a Good Investment?

Investors may be attracted to Everscale for its potential for growth in the DeFi, NFT, and gaming sectors. The platform offers scalability solutions, cross-chain integration, partnerships, market differentiation, and planned technological advancements. These factors create opportunities for investors seeking high-growth projects, innovative blockchain solutions, and exposure to emerging sectors.

As Everscale grows and attracts more users and developers, the demand for EVER may increase, potentially leading to value appreciation for token holders. However, it is important to note that cryptocurrencies are high-risk assets, and investing in Everscale should depend on an individual’s circumstances and risk appetite.

How to Own EVER?

You can buy EVER from centralized and decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges. For example, Gate.io offers traders different trading pairs: EVER/USDT. To own the token, create a Gate.io account, and complete the registration process. Also, you must fund your spot trading account and go through the steps to buy EVER.

News on Everscale

• Venom Ventures Fund’s $5 Million Strategic Investment (January 31, 2023)

Venom Ventures Fund invested about $5 million in Everscale. This is aimed at expanding Everscale’s reach and visibility within Asia as well as employing more expert blockchain engineers.

• Ongroo Partners with Everscale to Develop NFT Marketplace (March 7, 2023)

South Korean art content agency Ongroo Inc. is partnering with Everscale to launch an NFT marketplace. This will be achieved by merging the artistry of Ongroo and Everscale’s blockchain technology, including the collaboration of the developers from both companies. This new NFT marketplace is scheduled to be released within the first half of 2023 and further establish the Everscale project in South Korea.

• Everscale Smart Contract Rent Mechanism (May 17, 2023)

Everscale implemented a smart contract rent mechanism to tackle limited computational resources on the blockchain. Everscale keeps only active smart contracts that execute business logic and pay fees on-chain, ensuring efficiency. Smart contracts pay rent using EVER tokens, controlling behavior and eliminating competition for data recording rights, resulting in high transaction throughput. This approach offers developers flexibility in funding operations and reduces chain storage costs.

Take Action on EVER

Check out EVER price today and start trading your favorite currency pairs.

• EVER/USDT

Source: Gate.io