Greetings from the PARAMETA Team,

In the last post, we talked about how the Parameta Framework came to be and how it is organized as a whole. In this post, we’ll connect the dots and go into a little more detail about each of the components of the Parameta Framework.

* See the previous post

Introduction to the Parameta Framework 1 – What is the Parameta Framework?

Parameta Framework Components

Blockchain Core – loopchain

The first component of the ‘Parameta Framework’ is the blockchain core – loopchain. Developed in-house without using any other open source since the beginning of the blockchain business, loopchain is a blockchain core engine that greatly improves performance while maintaining the basics of distributed storage, security, and decentralization.

​The PBFT-based consensus algorithm provides fast finality and high TPS, and we have built a hybrid form of p2p network that utilizes the advantages of gossip and structured networks. Smart contracts support Python and Java, which have the most developers, and Solidity and WASM will be available in the future. It is also characterized by separating governance from the core so that it can be developed separately.

In addition to using PBFT consensus algorithm for performance, it is designed to improve processing power through Parallel Execution of Transactions (TXs), and to distribute load by assigning different channels for each service through multi-channel technology.

In addition, it is developed to support the interchain protocol ‘BTP‘ by default. Interchain must be supported from the blockchain core to maintain its security as much as the blockchain. If it is not applied to the core, a separate validator set is applied for security, which is an overhead or low security. If the interchain is applied to the core, the high security of the blockchain can be maintained, which is better than the interchain using the existing validator-based bridge.

Governance & Token economy

Governance can be a key reason to build your own mainnet. It is important that the mainnet includes the business logic of each project and applies governance and token economy optimized for it. The more complex the business logic, the more difficult it is to implement on existing mainnets for various reasons, such as gas costs or smart contract limitations, so it is often necessary to build your own mainnet.

As governance and token economies become more complex, it is necessary to ensure stability through sufficient verification. In the case of PARAMETA, our strength is that we have accumulated not only technical development but also actual operational experience to design and build more optimized and stable systems for various requirements such as governance voting systems on ICON, token economics, block rewards, incentive structures for participants, and reward financing on the HAVAH mainnet.

Although we are trying to generalize and provide basic forms such as modules and libraries for the convenience of development, it is somewhat difficult to proceed without consulting depending on the business direction, variables, and various environments for each project, so it will be possible to easily implement even somewhat complex business logic by utilizing these various existing experiences, know-how, and results.

In addition, this business logic is related to the consensus algorithm of the blockchain core, so it is necessary to modify the core, but the method of modifying the existing blockchain by forking it may cause a sharp increase in development difficulty and decrease in stability, so it is important to develop the mainnet by yourself or receive support from a company with core technology.

Inter-Blockchain Connectivity – BTP

The biggest differentiator of the Parameta Framework is its interchain technology. Since the beginning of the blockchain business, PARAMETA has been developing interchain technology in anticipation of various mainnets becoming active. As a result, we have developed and commercialized our proprietary interchain protocol ‘BTP’, which is currently in version 1.1 on the ICON mainnet.

BTP is an interchain protocol designed to exchange data and messages between different types of blockchains.

When you think of interchain, you probably think of bridges that move asset tokens, but asset movement on a blockchain is done by locking tokens on one blockchain and minting new tokens on the other.

Currently, bridges rely on a TTP (Trusted Third Party) in the middle to verify that the token is locked on one blockchain. This TTP is often decentralized and configured as a separate blockchain. However, the TTP is a security weakness in the blockchain, and security incidents are constantly occurring. The recent cases of Axie Infinity’s Ronin Bridge and Harmony’s Horizon Bridge are examples of security incidents that occurred in bridges with intermediate validators.

BTP is an interchain technology that allows assets to be moved without such an intermediate TTP, while maintaining the security of the source blockchain. It is characterized by the presence of BMV, a lite client-type validator that consists only of smart contracts and can validate the other chain. Security is greatly enhanced by a structure that maintains the security of each blockchain without a TTP in the middle (Trustless).

The key is that the BTP Message Center (BMC) generates messages to be delivered to the other blockchain and verified by the other BMV (BTP Message Verifier), and this process is trusted because it is done with a smart contract.

BTP allows you to call smart contracts on other blockchains, and since it is composed of smart contracts, there are differences between blockchains, but basically any blockchain that supports smart contracts can be connected.

The bridge provided by the Parameta Framework is based on BTP, and its advantage is that it greatly improves security when moving assets. It consists of a smart contract and a ‘Relay’ that delivers BTP messages. The smart contracts are BMC and BMV related to BTP, and ‘Lock’, ‘Mint’, and ‘Burn’ smart contracts related to the bridge service.

When a token to be transferred to the target blockchain is sent to ‘Locker’ to be locked, a message that it is locked is generated with a proof, and the ‘Relay’ forwards it to the target blockchain. The target blockchain verifies the BTP message that came through the BMV, and if everything is okay, it creates a new wrapped token in ‘Minter’ as long as it’s locked. In this process, there is no separate verifier in the middle, and the source blockchain’s proof is used for verification, so there is no security issue.

In the previous section, we described two types of bridge service implementations, and we would like to briefly summarize the differences.

In the Notary Method, which has a validator in the middle, the validator verifies the tx of the source blockchain (Blockchain A) and delivers the result, and the target blockchain (Blockchain B) trusts the signature of the intermediate notary validators and executes it. No matter how secure the source blockchain is, if the intermediate validators are not decentralized or have a low security level, the entire bridge service will be less secure. If some of these intermediate validators are hacked, the bridge will be able to mint tokens on the target blockchain as desired by the hacker. This is what happened with the Ronin Bridge, Harmony Horizon Bridge, and the Axie Infinity incident mentioned earlier.

In the BTP Method, also known as the Relay Method, there is no intermediate validator like TTP. This component, called ‘Relay’, is responsible for delivering the BTP message from the source blockchain and the proof to the target as it is. If the message is modified by the ‘Relay’, it is immediately verified by the target. Therefore, the BTP Method can be said to take the security of the source blockchain, and it is unlikely to be hacked unless the source blockchain is hacked.

In the case of the Relay Method, the technical difficulty is high, and there is a disadvantage (high cost) that a lot of gas is required to verify with a smart contract, so it has not been commercialized in practice, but in the case of BTP, it is a solution that solves the cost of gas, so we expect that it will be applied to many bridge services in the future.

So far, we have summarized the main components of the Parameta Framework, the core engine, governance and token economy, and interchain, which are the most important features and important points when building a blockchain platform (MainNet).

In the next post, we will take a closer look at the basic services, development and management tools, etc. that allow you to develop various businesses on the platform.