HOW IT WORKS
OPEN CHAIN
ACCESS PROTOCOL
An open source protocol that provides an abstract layer for accessing underlying blockchains, enabling your application to work on different blockchains.
OVERVIEW
ArcBlock is a platform and an ecosystem for building and deploying decentralized blockchain applications. The platform goes beyond providing the necessary foundational components for using blockchain to power complex business rules. It connects your existing system to blockchain networks, enabling you to automate business processes using the data and identities associated with existing systems. ArcBlock’s primary goal is to remove the barriers that have slowed blockchain adoption among the general public. We’re also passionate about developing unique approaches that will significantly advance blockchain development.
ROADMAP
Q1 2017
Concept development.
Proof of concept and prototype development of the decentralized pub/sub gateway.
Q2 2017
Design and implement the EZCommJS, the Node.js implementation of the decentralized pub/sub gateway.
Proof of concept and prototype development of Blocklet with Ethereum.
Q3 2017
Design and implement the mobile and web clients with decentralized pub/sub gateway.
Design Blocklet architecture and Open Chain Access Protocol.
Q4 2017
Develop the architecture for token design functionality and the Token Economy Service.
Implement the Ethereum Adapter with Open Chain Access Protocol.
Complete the prototype for the first end-to-end application built on top of ArcBlock.
Q1 2018
TOKEN SALE EVENT
Select the first group of founding clients that will be powered by ArcBlock.
Token Sale event. Private sale begins Jan 12, 2018. Public sale held from Feb 3, 7pm CST to Feb 10, 2018. All tokens sold will be distributed within 4 weeks of the end of the public sale event.
Q2 2018
Launch the first decentralized consumer application built on ArcBlock with development partners.
Implement Hyperledger Adaptor with Open Chain Access Protocol. Tokens launch in exchanges.
Q3 2018
First public release candidate for Open Chain Access Protocol (RC1).
Open source Open Chain Access Protocol and its reference implemented on Ethereum and Hyperledger.
Q4 2018
Official release of the Open Chain Access Protocol and adaptors for Ethereum and Hyperledger.
Full ArcBlock platform ready for clients and partners. Platform open to the general public.
Q1 2019
First DevCon for ArcBlock developers.
PROBLEMS WITH TODAY’S BLOCKCHAINS
Blockchain technology is still in its infancy. There are many issues preventing developers and businesses from creating widespread, decentralized blockchain applications.
POOR PERFORMANCE
Performance is one of the main challenges facing current blockchain technology. The blockchain that Bitcoin uses is designed to handle seven transactions per second, and Ethereum can only handle a few more. As of December 2017, a simple CryptoKitties1 application can slow Ethereum and increase transaction fees dramatically. Today’s consumer applications must be able to handle tens of millions of active users on a daily basis. In addition, some applications will only become meaningful when critical mass is reached. The platform
itself must be able to handle a large number of concurrent users. A good user experience demands reliable feedback with only sub second delays. Longer delays frustrate users and make applications built on a blockchain less competitive with existing nonblockchain alternatives.
OPTIMIZED FOR THE BEST EXPERIENCE
We built the ArcBlock platform using a “top-down” strategy that centers on the user experience. In contrast, many existing solutions focus on the blockchain technology itself at the expense of user friendliness. Applications built with ArcBlock offer reactive, real-time experiences. Users can simply access them from a web browser (no additional plugins required), or download a mobile app directly from an app store. Either way, the process is familiar. ArcBlock also dramatically improves the developer experience. There’s no need to deal with lowlevel blockchain protocols. With our mock blockchain adapters, engineers don’t even have to run local blockchain test nodes to start developing and testing their applications.
NOT CONSUMER FRIENDLY
Today’s blockchain applications are built for the few tech whizzes who know how to use them, rather than mainstream consumers. Nearly all blockchain applications require users to either run a blockchain node or install a “light node.” The learning curve and effort involved has delayed adoption among the general public.
For example, while the Ethereum-based game CryptoKitties is probably the most user-friendly decentralized app ever built, it still requires the user to install the Metamask light wallet2 browser extension. Users also need to know how to buy ethers securely and use them with Metamask. To attract large numbers of people, blockchain applications need to be as simple as today’s web and mobile apps. Blockchain technology should be completely transparent to the consumer.
THE ARCBLOCK PLATFORM
ArcBlock solves these problems through its revolutionary new design. Unlike its predecessors, ArcBlock is a platform service, rather than a standalone software package or set of APIs. ArcBlock is a comprehensive solution that combines blockchain technology with Cloud Computing. ArcBlock is an incentive-driven marketplace for reusable services, components, and even applications. “Miners” in ArcBlock platform not only bring computing resources, more over they help to build the platform together by providing reusable components, new services, and even ready to deploy applications. People who contributed resources or services will be rewarded with tokens to form a positive, self-growing platform that continues to evolve on its own. The ArcBlock platform service isn’t our creation alone. It’s developed by the entire ArcBlock community—we’re just kick-starting a new blockchain revolution. ArcBlock’s introduction of the Open Chain Access Protocol enabled open connectivity over multiple blockchain protocols. Developers now have the freedom to evaluate blockchain protocols, and even switch back and forth between them. The Open Chain Access Protocol makes it easy to implement new blockchains as the technology evolves. It eliminates the platform lock-in issue and enables applications to run on multiple blockchain fabrics, vastly improving the developer and user experiences. Blocklet is another revolutionary component that takes advantage of the latest microservice architecture and serverless computing technology. Blocklet is a high-level application protocol that can be implemented with any platform or language. It leverages the full capacity of the native platform and offers the same level of performance, rather than running on a low-performing virtual machine.
Blocklet does more than access blockchains. It connects to any existing data source, and performs both on-chain and off-chain computing. Our unique design aims to provide a high-performance, user-friendly, cost efficient, and protocolagnostic platform. We believe that ArcBlock represents a major technological advance that will usher in the 3.0 generation of blockchain applications.
BLOCKLET
Blocklet is a serverless computing architecture component for running various types of applications. Use Blocklet for smart contracts, oracle, resource and asset handling, and off-chain business logic. Blocklet communicates with blockchains through ArcBlock’s Open Chain Access Protocol, and can be orchestrated with our Algorand-based consensus algorithm. Anyone can use Blocklet to build services and components and contribute them under the incentive system. Community members will receive tokens when others use their contributions.
CHAIN ADAPTERS
ArcBlock’s Open Chain Access Layer enables the platform to support multiple blockchain protocols. Application developers can choose from several different blockchains, node types, and deployment types. ArcBlock’s Chain Adaptors are the implementations that make the Open Chain Access Layer possible.
Chain Adapters work like device drivers to translate blockchain under layer protocols into the unified APIs defined in the Open Chain Access Layer. Some of the Chain Adapter implementations require you to combine on-chain and off-chain implementation works together. The Chain Adapter is also assigned one of three categories, based on the Open Chain Access Layer API set it has implemented. We plan to implement Chain Adapters for Bitcoin Blockchain, Ethereum, and Hyperledger first. After we open source the code, anyone will be able to contribute, improve the protocol, or implement their own code. We also plan to support additional blockchain protocols.
CHAIN ADAPTERS MARKETPLACE
Chain Adapters that have been developed or improved by the community will be made available in the ArcBlock marketplace so that everyone can use them. The people who contributed to the adapter will receive rewards when others use it. The incentive model will encourage the community to develop more and better Chain Adapters. In time, ArcBlock will be able to offer a line of high-performance, high-quality Chain Adapters for various blockchains.
DECENTRALIZED PUB/SUB API GATEWAY
A distributed messaging system supports pub/sub and acts as an API gateway for Blocklets. ArcBlock’s gateway uses a decentralized design and secure communication channels. Your applications will run in both web browsers and mobile apps, giving users reactive, real-time experiences.
API GATEWAY
An API gateway is essential in microservice architecture. An API gateway is a façade that provides a simple API interface to a complex subsystem. It essentially decouples the interface that clients see (in our case API consumers, which could be mobile apps, web clients, or thin clients) from the underlying implementations. In ArcBlock, all features are implemented with Blocklets. Rather than communicating directly with clients, Blocklets communicate through the API Gateway. The gateway supports various network protocols by default, including WebSocket, DDP, HTTPS, and MQTT. Advanced developers can extend the gateway with new network protocols to fit their needs.
ALGORAND
ArcBlock is among the first blockchain startups to adopt Algorand12 in production. Algorand was founded by Silvio Micali, winner of the 2012 ACM Turing Award. Micali is a pioneer in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. He was instrumental in the development of many of the building blocks of cryptography, published works on game theory and Byzantine Agreements, and even launched a micropayments startup. When Micali saw Bitcoin, he thought it could be improved; Algorand is the result of that quest.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work is the cumulative effort of multiple individuals with the ArcBlock team, and would not have been possible without the help, comments and review from our partners, advisors, community collaborators and valuable customers. This technical whitepaper was written by Robert Mao, the Chief-Architect of ArcBlock and reviewed by Flavien Charlon, the Chief-Scientist of ArcBlock. During the authoring process we received valuable helps and comments from the rest of ArcBlock engineering and marketing team, our partners, we also received lots of valuable feedback from the emails, WeChat groups, Telegram groups, conferences and
forums. We would like to thank all our advisors and collaborators for valuable conversations, in particular
Ximen LiuShang, Justin Tomboulian, Violin Wang, Michael Yuan, Frank Lee, Richard Liu and Jonathan Lu.
We woulds also like to thanks to Kate Dougherty and Jean Chen for the help on the proof reading and
document structure.
More information, please go to link below ....!
Website : https://arcblock.io/
Whitepaper : https://www.arcblock.io/file/whitepaper/WhitePaperEnV2_en-US.pdf?v=4
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/arcblock.io/
Twetter : https://twitter.com/ArcBlock_io
Author : AshanAAM
Bitcointalk profile : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1495512