Nebulas is a modern blockchain ecosystem that stands out in the current conventions of Blockchain. The blockchain company has showcased its research in their yellow paper which went online recently. Nebulas has a set of features which justifies its high standards in the blockchain dominated era. The components that build Nebulas consists of Nebulas Rank, Nebulas Force and Proof of Dedication.
‘Nebulas Rank’ is a ranking system that functions as a native measure of value. ‘Nebulas Force’ is a system that allows the blockchain to improve itself at a low-level scale and ‘Proof of Dedication’ is a new revolutionary consensus algorithm. These three are the strong attributes of Nebulas.
Nebulas Rank
Nebulas Rank is the measure of value on the network, using which developers can measure the importance of each user, smart contract and decentralized application on the platform. It acts as an algorithm, such as the Consensus algorithm and the Developer Incentive Protocol. It is also used for the blockchain’s native search engine to rank the importance of applications on the platform. It offers a deeper insight into the blockchain’s ecosystem.
The Theory of Nebulas Rank divides Nebulas Rank into Core Nebulas Rank and Extended Nebulas Rank. Core Nebulas Rank defines the algorithm to calculate an account’s contribution to the whole blockchain system in a particular timeline. Extended Nebulas Rank is for different applications and scenarios, it is based on Core Nebulas Rank.
Core Nebulas Rank
Core Nebulas Rank is used to measure the contributions of a user to the whole economy in a certain period of time. The calculation of contribution is quite complicated, and in order to eradicate this Nebulas provides an approximation algorithm.
In this approximation algorithm, two critical factors are considered: the coinage and the account position information in the transaction network.
Consequently, Nebulas also designed Extended Nebulas Rank. Extended Nebulas Rank is based on the Core Nebulas Rank, to guarantee continuous incentive to the whole Nebulas economy even under different use cases.
The Yellow paper of Nebulas is an insight of the Nebulas Researches. It is explanatory of what Nebulas Rank offers, implements and possesses. It consists of algorithms and functions as follows:
Node Ranking Algorithm
To overcome the drawbacks of a complex ecosystem of blockchain projects and to resonate an evaluation of entity on chain, Nebulas introduced an idea; PageRank Algorithm.
PageRank Algorithm is a typical reputation measurement on the Internet if looked at first. In a deeper understanding, one can observe that PageRank is proposed to solve the ranking problem in Web link analysis. PageRank’s development and research skills have been used in a vast field. Right from ranking, the importance of academic papers, web crawlers, keyword extraction to user reputation ranking on social networks, PageRank covers it all.
A step ahead of PageRank comes, LeaderRank. It is an emerged and improved version of PageRank. LeaderRank improves the transition probability by introducing ground node and weighted bi-directional links. LeaderRank counts the reputation ranking with the consideration of the relationship between only nodes.
Nebulas believes, for the commencement of an effective value measurement of blockchain it needs to possess three qualities: Truthfulness, Fairness, and Diversity.
Manipulation Resistance
Nebulas Rank is the quantification of an account’s contribution to the blockchain system after considering the various metrics. Nebulas can measure the contribution of accounts at the micro-level, while it can measure the value of blockchain systems at the macro-level. Nebulas has involved a special function to resist manipulation, and its analysis demonstrates its performance to be manipulation-resistant.
Wilbur Function
To resist manipulation and to guarantee the fairness of standards on which the blockchain incentive mechanism is based, Nebulas Rank designed Wilbur Function. The calculation of Core Nebulas Rank would be difficult when different use cases and its properties are considered. However, a general function for Nebulas Rank is initiated which is termed as Wilbur Function.
Nebulas in their Yellow Paper have presented a detailed working of their algorithms along with the explanation of its various calculations and methodologies on graphs. You can view the Yellow Paper HERE!
Upcoming plans of Nebulas
The goal of Nebulas Rank is to provide a necessary value measurement for blockchain. Its aim is to bring in an evaluation of the contribution from user account’s addresses to aggregate economy. Not just this, Nebulas has a lot more to offer, to which, the team is currently building on. Cross-chain Nebulas Rank and more contribution indicators based on the aggregate economy will be introduced by Nebulas.
For more information about Nebulas, click HERE.
