区块链poa共识算法,区块链poc共识机制

近几年，随着区块链技术的发展，共识机制也在不断进化，比如PoA（Proof of Authority）和PoC（Proof of Capacity）共识算法，都是区块链技术的重要组成部分，下面就来聊聊它们的相关关键词：

节点验证人（Validators）

节点验证人（Validators）是指在PoA共识算法中，由网络参与者担任的角色，他们需要验证网络中的交易，并将其记录到区块链上。节点验证人负责确保网络中的交易是准确无误的，并且能够防止恶意的网络参与者破坏网络的稳定性。节点验证人有责任确保网络的安全性，他们需要拥有足够的技术能力和相关经验，才能够担任节点验证人的角色。

挖矿（Mining）

挖矿（Mining）是指在PoC共识机制中，网络参与者使用计算资源挖掘区块链中的数据，以获取网络中的报酬。挖矿是一种耗费计算资源的活动，网络参与者需要拥有足够的计算资源，才能够参与挖矿活动，并可以获得相应的报酬。挖矿的奖励可以是网络中的数字货币，也可以是网络中的代币，网络参与者可以通过挖矿获取不同的报酬。

收益分配（Reward Distribution）

收益分配（Reward Distribution）是指在PoA和PoC共识机制中，网络参与者可以按照贡献度获得相应的报酬。收益分配是一种公平的机制，它可以确保网络参与者的报酬是公平的，并且可以保证网络的稳定性。收益分配可以根据网络参与者的贡献度，给予不同的报酬，以确保网络参与者的利益得到保护。

请查看相关英文文档

『一』Blockchain and smart contracts, Ethereum development, compiled by 183 developers, summary of knowledge system

Available tools for developing applications on Ethereum, A guide to components, patterns, and platforms.

The creation of this list was driven by product managers at ConsenSys who saw a need for better sharing of tools, development patterns, and components between new and experienced blockchain developers.

Develop smart contracts

Smart contract language

Architecture

IDE

Other tools

< p> Test the blockchain network

Test the Ethereum faucet

Front-end Ethereum API

Back-end Ethereum API

Bootstrap/Out-of-the-Box Tools

Ethereum ABI (Application Binary Interface) Tools

Ethereum Client

Storage

Mahuta - IPFS storage service with additional search capabilities, formerly known as IPFS-Store

OrbitDB - decentralized database on top of IPFS

JS IPFS API - Client library for the IPFS HTTP API, implemented in JavaScript

TEMPORAL - Easy-to-use API to IPFS and other distributed/decentralized storage protocols

PINATA - Using The Easiest Way to IPFS

Messaging

Testing Tools

Security Tools

Monitoring

Other Miscellaneous Tools

Cheshire - A native sandbox implementation of the CryptoKitties API and smart contracts, available as a Truffle Box

ERCs - Ethereum comment request repository

ERC-20 - Original token contract for fungible assets

ERC-721 - Token standard for non-fungible assets

ERC-777 - Improved token standard for fungible assets

ERC-918 - Minable Token Standard

Popular smart contract library

Scalability

Payment/State Channels

Plasma

Side Chain

POA Bridge

POA Bridge User Interface

POA Bridge Contract

ZK-SNARK

ZK- STARK

Pre-built UI components

The above content is from the git library:

github.com/ConsenSys/ethereum-developer-tools-list

I am Yu Ge, a full-stack programmer starting a business in Shenzhen, focusing on blockchain, metaverse and smart contracts, as well as additional small programs and app development.

[Prayer]

『二』poa consensus mechanism

When I use the puppete tool to create the PoA consensus mechanism, here is a reminder: Provide at least one account. What is the role of the account here? Does it mean the mining account?

Answer: POA is an authorized mining mechanism. This setting determines which accounts are allowed to mine. Accounts that are not set cannot mine. The authorized mining account can be modified later through the voting mechanism.

Lianke Blockchain Technology Q&A Community

『三』 XO public chain has aroused global heated discussion and may lead the third generation of blockchain

Blockchain technology has experienced more than ten years of development since 2008. V1.0 and V2.0 are the representative public chains in the industry. So what kind of blockchain can be called the third generation blockchain, and what technical characteristics and advantages does it have?

In the development process of the second-generation blockchain, there has been an explosion of public chains and alliance chains. Each blockchain is like an island of information, each working independently. , and the XO public chain perfectly solves this problem through cross-chain technology. The XO public chain independently designed a set of CCP (Cross-Chain Protocol) cross-chain protocols to achieve communication and transactions with other blockchains through multi-chain two-way anchoring technology. It has now achieved cross-chain sharing with the Bitcoin main network. , and other public chains will be opened in the future. At present, BTC can already enjoy a second-level payment experience in the XO public chain, and the mining fee is less than one thousandth of the original.

The technical characteristics and high-quality performance of the XO public chain determine that it can become an infrastructure in the blockchain field. Developers can quickly create digital assets and develop DApps, which will enable the XO public chain to evolve independently. In order to apply ecology and exert value in the fields of culture, finance, logistics, chain business, charity and other fields, especiallyIt is in terms of cross-border payments and cross-chain transactions. Based on the XO public chain, blockchain construction can be completed in three steps, providing a variety of optional consensus mechanisms and more than 50 blockchain customization parameters, and providing more than 200 API interfaces for DApps developers. This series of measures and signs indicate that the XO public chain is a typical representative of the third-generation blockchain. It not only integrates the technical advantages of the first-generation blockchain and the second-generation blockchain, but also realizes the implementation of blockchain technology. Major breakthroughs and cross-chain integration are expected to lead the next decade of the blockchain era.

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.

『四』Blockchain wool tutorial for beginners, a must-read tutorial for beginners in the currency circle

Term explanation:

Blockchain token

A new business model created based on blockchain technology, and token is the token of each project. We collectively call it "token" token as the project progresses

and implemented applications Circulation generates value (this value depends on the consensus of everyone)

The blockchain is a bit like a huge, global and decentralized accounting book.

It is used to record how much currency one person sends to another person, and to track the balances of all accounts.

It is operated by thousands of people around the world who have special computers (we also call them miners) To record and maintain.

The blocks in the blockchain are composed of many transaction records. These transactions are similar from wallets such as Imtoken, MetaMask, Exos, Mist, Geth, Parity, etc. The operation interface is sent out

2. Airdrop

Each project will airdrop a certain proportion of tokens as a benefit for the start of community construction. In order to allow more future users to participate, Therefore, airdrop is the most important part of the commercial application of blockchain (you can understand it as the previous Internet projects allowed everyone to take taxis, eat, etc. for free)

3. Wallet

Wallet points For 'light wallet', 'hardware wallet', 'Bitcoin wallet', 'Ethereum wallet', cold wallet, etc.

Blockchain technology solves different industry pain points in different fields, so the value generated is also very different. Same

For example: Bitcoin has solved the problem of trust, so now its value is 50,000 yuan each

Ethereum has solved the problem of smart contracts, so it is now One is 4000 each

Ripple solves the problem of cross-border payment, so it currently ranks third in market value
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4. Pain points solved by wallets

Traditional banks

When you register an account at a bank or exchange, these institutions will The system creates a new account for you. The bank will closely track your personal information, record your account password, balance, transaction records and fully control your funds. The bank will charge account management and service fees while providing services to you, such as Help you recover stolen credit card purchases. The bank allows you to use prepayment methods such as checks or debit cards, as well as check your balance online, reset your password, and replace your lost debit card. When you use When trading with a bank or exchange account, the transaction amount and transfer address may be restricted by these institutions, and there are also review processes. These restrictions will also charge you additional handling fees.

Virtual Currency Wallet

When you create an account in any wallet, it actually only generates a pair of cryptographically significant digital strings: the private key and public key of your account ( address). The entire process of generating these keys occurs within the browser of your local computer or mobile phone. The wallet file will never forward, receive or save your private key, password or any account information. The wallet file will never forward, receive or save your private key, password or any account information. The wallet file will never Charge any handling fees. Simply put, you just use this operation interface to interact directly with the blockchain network. If you provide your public key (address) to others, then the other party can send you tokens. If you will If you provide your private key to others, the other party will have complete control of your account and funds.

5. Wallet security

Please actively pay attention to the security of your account's private key and password. , your private key sometimes also exists in the form of mnemonic phrase, keystore file, UTC file, JSON file, wallet file, etc. Please remember that if you accidentally lose your private key or password, there is no People can recover them. If you enter your private key on a phishing website, they can steal all your funds. Do not trust or click on links you see in email, Slack, Reddit, Twitter, etc. Make it a good habit to manually enter the address to open the website. Do not open the website through links in emails or other channels. Make a backup of your private key or password. It is best not to save them on the computer. Write them by hand or print them on paper. .Save private key or password backups separately in a secure offline environment. If they are placed with your computer, a fire or flood can easily destroy them. Never store private keys online netdisc,In online environments such as photo albums with cloud synchronization. If you really value your digital currency, then you should buy a hardware wallet. Your assets deserve to be protected with more professional equipment.

Please pay attention For subsequent updates, pay attention to the blockchain currency circle (www.qkl808.com) which will lead you on the road to freedom of wealth

『五』Blockchain Consensus Algorithm - (4) PoA Consensus (Proof of Activity)

PoA consensus (Proof of Activity) is also called proof of activity. It combines the characteristics of PoW workload proof and PoS equity proof and expands accordingly. PoA consensus has more complex records. Account node selection, and a fairer reward mechanism.

PoA activities prove that the main advantage is to use fair incentives to ensure that nodes remain online and mobilize node enthusiasm. Online miners have a certain probability of earning profits even if they are not mining. Greatly improved the quality of network-wide maintenance.

step1: Each miner first uses its own computing power to pass the workload proof mechanism to obtain the nonce and generate an empty block header. This block header has no transaction information data and other data is consistent with the normal block. .

step2: The node that first generates the empty block broadcasts to the entire network nodes. After receiving the message, the entire network nodes splice the hash value of this block with the hash value of the previous block, and then Add n fixed suffix values ​​for hashing, and finally get n values ​​as input, enter the follow-the-satoshi program, and then output n random equity holders.

step3: The first n-1 random equity holders sign the empty block. The nth random equity holder is the node that has obtained the accounting right. He will be in the empty area. Add transaction data and signatures on a block basis.

step4: The nth random equity holder will broadcast the packaged block to the entire network. After receiving the block, all network nodes will verify it and upload it to the chain after successful verification.

step5: The miner who generated the empty block shares the transaction fee reward with the nth random equity holder and the first n-1 signed random equity holders.

『Lu』 [Blockchain] What is a blockchain wallet?

When it comes to blockchain wallets, we have to talk about Bitcoin wallets (Bitcoin core), other blocks Most chain wallets are modeled after Bitcoin wallets, which are our tools for managing Bitcoins.

The Bitcoin wallet stores our Bitcoin information, including the Bitcoin address (similar to your bank card account number) and private key (similar to your bank card password). The Bitcoin wallet can Store multiple Bitcoin addresses and eachAn independent private key corresponding to a Bitcoin address.

The core function of a Bitcoin wallet is to protect your private key. If the wallet is lost, you may lose your Bitcoins forever.

Blockchain wallets come in many forms.

According to whether the user has the private key, wallets can be divided into: on-chain wallet (onchain wallet) and escrow wallet (offchain wallet). There are two differences between them:

Regarding on-chain wallets (onchain wallets), we can divide them into cold wallets and hot wallets according to whether the private key storage is connected to the Internet; we also call cold wallets and hot wallets They are offline wallet and online wallet.

Generally speaking, hardware wallets are cold wallets (it is generally recommended to use cold wallets to store large amounts of digital currency that are intended to be held for a long time). In addition to this kind of professional equipment, we can also use offline computers, Mobile phones, paper wallets, brain wallets, etc. are used as cold wallets to store our digital assets.

The biggest advantage of a cold wallet is its security, because it does not touch the Internet, which can greatly reduce the possibility of hacker attacks; the only thing you need to worry about is not to lose your cold wallet.

Corresponding to the cold wallet is the hot wallet. Hot wallets need to be connected to the Internet; hot wallets can be divided into desktop wallets, mobile wallets and web wallets.

Hot wallets are often in the form of online wallets, so when using hot wallets it is best to set different passwords on different platforms and enable secondary authentication to ensure the security of your assets.

According to the maintenance method of blockchain data and the degree of decentralization of the wallet, wallets can be divided into full node wallets, light node wallets, and centralized wallets.

Most of the full node wallets are desktop wallets, among which Bitco is the representativein-Core core wallet, Geth, Parity, etc. This type of wallet needs to synchronize all blockchain data and takes up a lot of memory, but can achieve complete decentralization.

Most mobile wallets and web wallets are light node wallets. Light wallets rely on other full nodes in the blockchain network and only synchronize transaction data related to themselves, which can basically achieve decentralization.

The centralized wallet does not rely on the blockchain network. All data is obtained from its own centralized server; however, the transaction efficiency is very high and can be credited in real time. The account you registered in the trading platform It is a centralized wallet.

Remember that in the world of blockchain, whoever holds the private key is the real owner of digital assets.

『撒』 Consensus mechanism of blockchain

The so-called "consensus mechanism" is to complete the verification and confirmation of transactions in a very short time through the voting of special nodes; For a transaction, if several nodes with unrelated interests can reach a consensus, we can think that the entire network can also reach a consensus on it. Beijing Muqi Mobile Technology Co., Ltd., a professional blockchain outsourcing development company, welcomes discussions for cooperation. Below we will look at several consensus mechanisms of blockchain, hoping to help everyone understand the basic technology of blockchain.

Due to the development of blockchain technology, everyone is no longer unfamiliar with the term consensus mechanism. With the development of technology, various innovative consensus mechanisms are also developing.

POW proof of work

Bitcoin uses the PoW proof of work mechanism, and later Ethereum used the PoW consensus mechanism. Pow is equivalent to calculating a difficult mathematical problem, which is to calculate the hash value of a new block, and the difficulty of the calculation will be adjusted every period of time. Although PoW is a consensus mechanism that is relatively recognized by everyone, calculations will consume a lot of energy and may pollute the environment.

POS Equity Proof

The probability of obtaining accounting rights is determined by the number and duration of holding Tokens. Compared with POW, POS avoids a large amount of resource waste caused by mining and shortens the time for each node to reach consensus. If the network environment is good, it can be achieved in milliseconds and has low requirements on node performance.

However, the shortcomings of POS are also obvious. Nodes holding more Tokens have a greater chance of obtaining accounting rights. This will lead to the "Matthew Effect", where the rich will get richer, destroying the decentralization of the blockchain. Centralization.

DPOS Proof of Equity

The principle of DPOS Delegated Proof of Equity is the same as that of POS. The main difference is that DPOS Token holders can vote to elect agents as super nodes, responsible for Produce blocks and maintain consensus rules on the network. If these nodes fail to fulfillResponsibilities, will vote for new nodes. The same disadvantage also tends to be centralized.

POA Proof of Authority

POA nodes can reach consensus without communication, so it is extremely efficient. And it can also resist computing power attacks very well and has high security. But POA requires a centralized authoritative node to verify identity, which means it will harm the decentralization of the blockchain, which is also a compromise between decentralization and improved efficiency.

『八』POA (Proof of Activity) blockchain consensus algorithm

POA (Proof of Activity) algorithm is a blockchain consensus algorithm. The basic principle is to combine POW ( Proof of work) and POS (Proof of stake) algorithms are used to work. For the specific content of POW algorithm and POS algorithm, please refer to:

POW algorithm: https://www.jianshu.com/p /b23cbafbbad2
POS algorithm: https://blog.csdn.net/wgwgnihao/article/details/80635162

Compared with other algorithms, the POA algorithm can improve the network topology and maintain the proportion of online nodes. , requiring less transaction fees and reducing energy consumption in the consensus algorithm process.
The network required by the POA algorithm also contains two types of nodes, miners and ordinary participants, among which ordinary participants may not always stay online. The POA algorithm first constructs a block header by miners, and selects N coins from the block header. The owners of these N coins participate in the subsequent verification and block generation process.
From here we can see that the POA algorithm is not only related to computing power, but the subsequent election of N participants is completely determined by the total number of coins owned by the participants in the network. Participants with more coins have a greater chance of being selected as N subsequent participants. The necessary condition for the subsequent participation of N participants is that these N participants must be online, which is also the origin of the POA name. The maintenance of the POA algorithm depends on the active nodes (Active) in the network.

An ideal basic process of the POA algorithm is that, similar to the POW protocol, the miner constructs a block header that meets the difficulty requirements, and calculates the number of N coins from the block header obtained by the miner. Traceability in the chain can reveal the current participants of these coins. The miner sends the block header to the N participants, among which the first N-1 participants verify and sign the block, and the last N-th participant verifies and adds the transaction to the block, and the block is Publishing it out means completing the production of a block.
An ideal process is shown below:

In actual operation, there is no guarantee that all participants on the network are online, and offline participants cannot perform verification and signature. The block header that cannot be verified and signed will be discarded.
That is, in actual operation, a miner should construct a block header and broadcast it to each participant for signature, while continuing to reconstruct a new block header to prevent any of the N participants derived from the previous block header from being online. As a result, the block header was abandoned.
Therefore, in this case, whether a block is confirmed is not only related to the computing power of the miner but also to the online ratio on the network.
Compared with pure POW, when a block is produced in the same 10 minutes as Bitcoin (POW), POA will have losses caused by participants not being online. Therefore, the number of blocks that miners can construct within 10 minutes The number will be greater, that is, the difficulty limit of the block will be reduced, and the energy loss caused by miners during the mining process will also be reduced.
Compared with pure POS, it can be seen that the block generation process of POA does not upload the relevant information in the process of constructing the block, which can significantly reduce the redundant information generated by the maintenance protocol on the blockchain. quantity.

This section analyzes some parameter settings in the appeal protocol

After the miner constructs the block header, it verifies the block header and selects the number of N participants in the block construction. The determination is similar to the selection of the block time of each block in Bitcoin. Bitcoin has chosen 10 minutes as the expected block time for each block and adapted it by dynamically adjusting the difficulty.
The value of N here can also be selected or dynamically adjusted. Dynamic adjustment requires more complex protocol content, which may lead to data expansion in the blockchain, and complex protocols also increase the possibility of attackers attacking. In addition, there is currently no way to prove what benefits dynamic adjustment can bring. Static adjustment can obtain a value of N=3 in the subsequent analysis (4 Safety Analysis), which is more appropriate.

As can be seen from the above description, in addition to miners, there are also N currency owners derived from the block header who construct new blocks. After constructing a new block, these participants should also receive certain incentives to keep participants online.
The non-matching ratio between miners and participants is related to the online status of the participants. The incentives given to participants are closely related to their enthusiasm to stay online. The more participants stay online, the better the stability of the network can be maintained. Therefore, when there are not enough online participants on the network, the incentive share ratio that participants receive can be increased, thereby motivating more participants to come online.
How to determine the online status of the current participant? Can be constructed by the last Nth participantWhen creating a block, the constructed but discarded block headers will be added to the block. If the number of discarded block headers is too large, it means that the number of people online is too low, and the sharing ratio should be adjusted.
At the same time, the final N-th participant’s share with other participants also needs to be considered. The N-th participant needs to add the transaction to the block, that is, the UTXO pool needs to be maintained. At the same time, the N-th participant also needs to add the transaction to the block. The discarded block header is added to the newly constructed block.
In order to encourage them to add abandoned block headers to newly constructed blocks, a small amount of incentives can be appropriately added according to the added block headers. Although adding more block headers can increase the share in the next round, it should be enough to motivate participants to add unused block headers to the block (it is impossible for participants to add more block headers in order to increase their share) , each block header means the workload of a miner).
If a participant does not maintain the UTXO pool, he cannot construct the block, but he can participate in the first N-1 signatures. Therefore, in order to motivate participants to maintain the UTXO pool, as the last participant to construct the block, he must be given More incentives, like twice as much as other participants.

From the description in 3.2, we can know that a user must be online and maintain the UTXO pool to gain as much benefit as possible. This mechanism will inevitably lead some users to entrust their accounts to a centralized organization. This institution remains online at all times and maintains their accounts for users, participating in the construction of blocks and obtaining benefits when they are selected as participants in constructing blocks. Finally, the organization divides the proceeds in some form.
As mentioned above, participants must use their own keys to sign, and after being entrusted to an organization, the organization can use this key to sign and construct blocks, and it is also possible to use this key to consume users' property. A limited-spend key can be used here. This key has two functions. One is to consume part of the property in the account, and the other is to transfer all the property to a designated account. This key can be used during escrow. After being notified that part of the property has been spent, all properties can be immediately transferred to another account of one's own to ensure the security of the property.

From the above analysis, we can see that the security of POA is related to the computing power owned by the attacker and the equity owned by the attacker. Assuming that the proportion of online equity owned by the attacker is , the attacker's computing power needs to be times that of all other computing powers to achieve a fork. Assuming that the total proportion of the attacker's equity is , and the online proportion of honest users in the network is , then the attacker's computing power needs to be times that of all other computing powers to achieve the attack.
The analysis table of the attack is as follows:

As can be seen from the above analysis, the POA algorithm can improve the network topology, maintain the proportion of online nodes, and require less transaction fees than other algorithms. At the same time reduce the energy in the consensus algorithm processloss. At the same time, the attack cost of the PoA protocol is higher than that of Bitcoin's pure PoW protocol.

References: Proof of Activity: Extending Bitcoin's Proof of Work via Proof of Stake

『九』What experiences are worth learning from in the development process of blockchain projects

p>

Strategic awareness and strategic planning. Carry out industrial layout and promote application implementation
If you are or plan to create a project on Polkadot, please contact PolkaWorld to tell your story and let more people understand the development of Polkadot ecology.

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to use the most cutting-edge blockchain technology to create a start-up? If you're an entrepreneur who wants to make the world a better place, the endeavor can be daunting and lonely.

The first time I met Antoine Najjarin, the founder of Speckle OS, was at the Polkadot offline meetup held in Melbourne in November 2018. Antoine demonstrated their firm vision: Speckle OS should be a direct entrance to the interconnected blockchain world.

They will use Polkadot as the underlying technology stack and contribute to the vision of Web3:

“… In this network, our identities and data belong to us Yours - Stay protected by avoiding any central authoritative system”

In this post, I’ll explore my journey with Speckle OS and 5 key lessons I’ve learned from doing it.

Journey
The founding team of Speckle OS consists of 2 members and is completely run with a beautiful vision. In March 2019, they received funding from the Web3 Foundation.

This grant helps Speckle OS financially, but more importantly, it launches Speckle OS and becomes a highly anticipated project in the Polkadot community. As a project actively promoting the Web3 vision, Speckle OS can guarantee an initial user base at launch.

Their initial users will be cryptography-savvy, but the real challenge is acquiring users who are not cryptography-savvy. Antoine believes that trust and reputation are crucial to succeed in the Web3 ecosystem:

“If people believe you are building a secure wallet and all the code is available on GithubBe analyzed – Once you build this reputation, you can move on to regular users. ”

Speckle OS will release an MVP (minimum available product) before the Web3 Summit in August 2019. The MVP includes support for the Polkadot test network, Kusama network and substrate chain, and Edgeware.

Account creation, multi-account storage and trading features will also be available. Staking tokens and governance features also need to be implemented in further iterations.

Team
Speckle OS Team It has now expanded to 5 people, 4 of whom are developers. In short, Antoine's role is to abstract everything away so that developers can focus on developing a quality product.

"Things The development is so fast that you will soon be buried. Even if you focus solely on the cryptocurrency space, due to information overload, it can sometimes be difficult to maintain your sanity and filter through the information. ”

Lessons learned
When I interviewed Speckle OS, I got 5 key points:

1. Easy to code, easy to understand
Substrate is predictable, easy to learn, and easy to understand. Although there is no documentation yet, the code is very readable and comes with clear descriptions.

“The common feedback is that Polkadot JS Simpler and easier to use than any other technology stack. This is proven by the Parity development team. ”

2. Little interaction with Parity

Due to the cleanliness of the code, Speckle OS rarely needs to contact Parity to decode how Substrate works.
< br />3. Everyone has access to the same information
Everything about what happened during the development of Polkadot is public, there is no private channel to get inside information.

“I like Polkadot makes everything public. If you go to watercooler's website, you'll see Gav and other Parity developers discussing things they're considering implementing.

All the latest developments happen on the Riot Watercooler Channel, it all depends on you reading them in time.

4. There are many talented developers
Assembling the current team was much slower than Antoine thought. Of course, if you want to get working on Speckle OSWorking in the interviewer's favor requires patience. They're busy releasing a really good product.

“The blockchain space here is smaller than San Francisco, New Zealand and Berlin. Sydney is big, but not the biggest. We have some really good developers here.”

『Shi』 Whether the digital renminbi can bypass SWIFT in the future

In this regard, the mobile payment network immediately interpreted it (for details, see: The United States, Europe, Britain, and Canada are imposing sanctions on Russia, and Not SWIFT), and popularized science in follow-up reports (for details, see: SWIFT’s past, present and operating mechanisms). So, for what is SWIFT? Readers should already have a general understanding of how it works and why it is so important.

However, some people have also raised interesting questions, such as: Can digital renminbi and CBDC bypass SWIFT in the future?

Let me tell you my answer first, yes.

Multilateral Central Bank Digital Currency Bridge Project

In November 2021, on the occasion of Hong Kong FinTech Week, with the support of the Bank for International Settlements Hong Kong Innovation Center, the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China , the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Bank of Thailand and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates jointly released the Multilateral Central Bank Digital Currency Bridge Project Use Case Manual, which briefly introduced the project application scenarios and testing progress.

This project was a cross-border payment project explored by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Bank of Thailand when they were studying CBDC in 2019, called Inthanon-LionRock. When it reached the third stage of development, the People's Bank of China and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates joined, becoming four participants. At the same time, the Hong Kong Innovation Center of the Bank for International Settlements also supported the project, so the project was officially renamed "Multiple Central Bank Digital Currencies Cross-Border" "Network" (m-CBDC Bridge), which is what we often call the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge.

The core goal of the Multilateral Central Bank Digital Currency Bridge research project is to establish a "corridor network" that connects the digital currency systems of multiple central banks, so that the same distributed ledger can support multiple central bank digital currencies and build point-to-point messages. Transmission system to help provide efficient, convenient and low-cost cross-border payment services.

In the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge research project, central banks of various countries can achieve: 1) cross-border synchronous settlement through smart contracts; 2) compatibility with different central bank digital currency systems and designs; 3) mitigation The impact of the overseas circulation of domestic digital currency on the currency sovereignty of other countries.

From the perspective of mobile payment networks, the construction of mBridge looks like the digital currency version of SWIFT, and under the structure of a distributed ledger, it also has more advantages.

On the one hand, mBridge is not only an information transmission channel, but also can directly realize point-to-point transactions. Although SWIFT monopolizes the financial industrySWIFT has been communicating with each other for more than 40 years, which is much more efficient than the early telex trading system. However, SWIFT itself is only a transmission system for cross-border settlement and clearing information. It can improve the efficiency of financial information interaction, but cannot directly speed up the efficiency of "clearance and settlement". There are still transaction frictions such as banks absorbing deposits and time differences in the operation of payment systems in various countries. But mBridge is different. It itself has a certain nature of exchange. Central banks of various countries rely on the corridor network to exchange depositary receipts and digital currencies back and forth. Through smart contracts, countries formulate corresponding trading rules and regulatory policies. Therefore, its transaction speed can reach the second level and significantly reduce the cost of cross-border transfers.

Traditional SWIFT agent bank cross-border payment transaction model (left) and mBridge transaction model (right)

On the other hand, mBridge relies on distributed ledgers and is a decentralized system . The importance of SWIFT is self-evident, but it is still a centralized organization, which is why the United States, the European Union, etc. can sanction you in this way if they say they no longer want to play with you. With the rise of blockchain technology in recent years, decentralization coincides with clearing security. The design prototype of mBridge is based on the blockchain construction network layer and adopts the PoA consensus mechanism, which is verified by central banks participating in cross-border payment networks. Node (validating node). During transaction verification, more than 2/3 of the verification nodes need to sign the block before the transaction can be confirmed. This makes it impossible for a single node to control the entire network and have the power of "life and death", and achieve a more decentralized cross-border payment governance structure. Only on this basis can the stability and mutual trust of the system be maximized. freed.

In other words, under the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge model, CBDC transactions can indeed bypass SWIFT and greatly improve transaction efficiency. I believe this is also the meaning and original intention of the mBridge project.

Although it is possible, there is "a long way to go"

Although my answer is yes, this answer is based on the corresponding premise.

On the one hand, both parties to the transaction need to be under the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge model. mBridge is like a "consortium chain" of blockchain. It must be a node on the chain to achieve the corresponding functions. In other words, both countries in cross-border payments need to have their own "central bank digital currency" and join mBridge. . Currently, there are only four participants in the mBridge project. To achieve more and wider applications, central banks from more countries need to participate. Not to mention, the attitudes of central banks around the world towards CBDC are different, and research progress is also uneven. Whether others recognize mBridge and join it is the most critical issue. This is also closely related to the country's economic strength and the degree of recognition of the currencies of various countries such as the RMB.

On the other hand, mature and standardizedTrading rules and regulatory policies. The mBridge project adheres to the three principles of non-harm, compliance and interoperability, with the overall goal of "designing and iterating a new generation of efficient cross-border payment infrastructure to address pain point issues such as high cost, low speed and complex operability". Fully consider technical, policy, legal and commercial issues, continue to attract new central banks, commercial banks and non-bank institutions, and further experiment with design choices and technology trade-offs in a safe environment. A previous report released by the Hong Kong Innovation Center of the Bank for International Settlements showed that a total of 22 domestic and foreign financial institutions and organizations participated in the test of the mBridge project. The transactions covered four jurisdictions and 11 industry scenarios, with a total transaction volume of more than 2 billion yuan. Although mBridge has developed to a certain extent, the entire transaction is a pilot test environment, and the top-level transaction rules and regulatory policies still need to be further improved. Whether it is the implementation of CBDC in the country or international cooperation, it will take time and scenarios to test .

A KPMG report shows that it will take at least 10 years for mBridge to be truly widely used. This also just shows that the project has “a long way to go”.

Mu Changchun, director of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, once said that the future Currency Bridge project will combine new business use cases to expand a wider range of application scenarios, improve the usability, compatibility and diversity of Currency Bridge, and at the same time Explore flexible connection with more systems to achieve a win-win situation for all parties.

Of course, CBDC’s cross-border payment is not limited to mBridge. There are also other solutions, such as the Jasper-Ubin project of the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Bank of Canada, which is a blockchain project of the two central banks. Project integration. The networks of these two projects are built on two different distributed ledger platforms.

In addition, it is worth noting that cross-border payment solutions based on private stablecoins have a strong interest incentive mechanism. Once they are licensed by regulatory authorities, they are likely to quickly occupy the market through their global business ecosystem. , and then obtain enough international user data. Therefore, the development of stablecoins has also brought uncertainty to central bank digital currencies, especially given the cautious attitude of some countries towards CBDC.

This article comes from the mobile payment network