Introducing Evernode
Today we published our White Paper for Evernode, a project to bring “layer 2” smart contracts to the XRP Ledger. It combines our HotPocket protocol with the proposed Hooks amendment – small pieces of code that allow XRP Ledger Accounts to function as “lite smart contracts” – to create a global, permissionless, decentralised network of nodes designed and incentivised to run any dApp cheaply and speedily in any language at any scale in concert with the XRP Ledger.
The Promise of dApps
DApps – decentralised applications – are a new form of software that runs on blockchains without centralised ownership or control. DApps are more secure and reliable than traditional applications. This permissionless, censorship-resistant future is a key building block for a future that promises mainstream access to self-sovereign identity, improved privacy, decentralised finance, and tokenised art, rights, and assets.
Early DApp Platforms
Early dApp platforms have struggled to scale due to high fees, slow transaction times, and inflexibility as to language and functionality, all legacies of the blockchains on which they run. These kinds of drawbacks have hampered the mainstream adoption of dApps and the realisation of the benefits they offer.
These limitations are particularly acute if the dApp automates legal obligations or relationships. Lack of scaling inevitably means centralised “off-chain” computation or storage for what is otherwise a decentralised system.
Evernode
Evernode overcomes these drawbacks so everyone can benefit from the full variety of dApps. It has four main components:
- Consensus Protocol: HotPocket is a Unique Node List (UNL) based consensus protocol that allows multiple machines to become a mini-blockchain by enforcing consensus rules on inputs and outputs and maintaining a shared, canonical state.
- Native Currency: Evers, the native digital currency of Evernode, is an XRP Ledger token distributed by a Hook on the XRP Ledger to reward Nodes for participating in the network and used by dApps to pay hosting fees to Nodes.
- Evernode Hook: A Hook on the XRP Ledger that controls the emission of Evers and confirms each Node’s membership in Evernode, their willingness to host dApps, and their agreement to be paid in Evers.
- DEX: The XRP Ledger’s native decentralised exchange which Evernode uses to automate the buying and selling hosting services with Evers.
- Governance Game: An inherent feature of Evernode would be the ability for holders of Evers to compete via a Governance Game over the key parameters of the Evernode Hook, including the distribution of Evers, the identification of Nodes, and the rules of the Governance Game itself.
- Ecosystem Curator: Evernode would have a formal Not-For-Profit Foundation to help curate its nascent ecosystem and act as a trusted repository of the open-source code.
In concert, these components create Evernode: a reliable, secure, and decentralised “network-of-networks” of HotPocket Nodes piggybacking off the XRP Ledger that anyone can join, capable of running a wide variety of cheap, speedy dApps that anyone can use, anytime.
Next Steps
We’ll shortly be launching a little website for Evernode so you can track its progress.
Before Evernode can exist:
- HotPocket must be finalised and work – and this work is well advanced.
- Sashimono must be finalised and work – and we are almost done.
- Hooks must be finalised and implemented – and it is already on the xrpl testnet;
- All three must work in concert – and we will soon begin experimenting with all three working in concert.
The best way to help make Evernode real is to participate in testing and implementing Hooks on the XRP Ledger.