Velas Ecosystem Report #009
This is the first Velas Ecosystem Report of 2021 exploring everything Velas has achieved the past three months, and everything coming up…
Greetings Fellow Velonians,
The months since our last Ecosystem Report have been absolutely packed with everything Velas, filled to the brim with community building and rapid global expansion, as well as intensive development and launches. Last time we touched base, we hinted at ‘upgrading’ everything under-the-hood at Velas — and boy have we done that! We can’t wait to share all the exciting news and plans we have launching soon, as Velas continues to go from strength-to-strength around the world.
Due to the scale of the work now being undertaken by Velas, and the massive expansion of the Velas Ecosystem, we’re now moving to a quarterly report — every three months — updating you on everything we’ve been up to, and everything still to come.
So with that, let’s dive into the past few month’s ecosystem report:
Feature in Entrepreneur Magazine
To kickstart this ecosystem report, Velas founder Alex Alexandrov was recently featured in Entrepreneur Magazine Middle East as the cover story, outlining his life story and what sets Velas apart. You can catch the entire feature HERE.
Development
Since our last ecosystem report, we’ve achieved a significant amount as a direct result of intensive and around-the-clock development by the team at Velas. We’ve launched a hardware wallet, our iOS mobile app is now live, our web wallet has been significantly upgraded and revamped to suit a growing audience of supporters, and so, so much more. Over the coming months even more will be launching within the Velas Ecosystem, including our solution to decentralized social media — BitOrbit — and additional products and services under the Velas umbrella.
A significant leap was made with Velas by leveraging the Solana Codebase as part of our Velas 3.0 relaunch and rebranding. By leveraging this Codebase, and developing upon it extensively, the Velas Blockchain is now one of the fastest, most powerful and technologically advanced blockchains in crypto. We’ve also added Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) support to the Velas Blockchain, allowing Ethereum-based dApps to run on the Velas Blockchain, a massive development as the crypto world merges more into the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) sector.
The entire Velas Network is now protected by Path Network DDoS mitigation, a U.S. company that specializes in DDoS mitigation and enterprise security for services such as exchanges, financial centers, server hosts and other such enterprises that require reliability, 100% uptime, and protection from malicious attackers. With Path Network on-hand protecting the Velas Blockchain and network, our supporters can feel more at ease in the ecosystem we are building and the security of the network as a whole.
HR Department
The beginning of 2021 has been wholly productive for the entire HR team at Velas, having expanded their expertise and recruited several talented developers, testers, mathematicians, and designers onto the team. The HR department has also celebrated the first anniversaries at Velas for some of the key developers behind the technology.
Now, within the technical and analytical team, more than 30 talented members are working for even greater productivity and maintaining the trademark high quality of Velas products rolling out.
Also in March, an international hackathon from the Blockchain.ua conference took place in which Velas played it’s part as a sponsor. We hope that we will meet incredible new developers and will be glad to see them joining our Velas family.
AI Department
The work undertaken by the AI department over the past quarter includes:
Data collection script
- Script for Solana
- Logs parser
Simulation model
- Launch blockchain by parameter set
- Apply load and collect performance metrics
- Some benign and malicious behavior simulations
- Added security metrics to simulation model
- Infrastructure improvements to achieve maximum blockchain throughput
Trained model for optimization objective functions
- Initial recommender model training for Solana blockchain
- General target function:
- Performance (with a focus on throughput and latency)
- Synchronization
- Drop rate
- built several models with different regularisations and architectures for AIDPOS
- Linear Model
- Random Forest
- Gradient Boosting
- Neural Network
The entire AI team is working diligently to push the boundaries of what is technologically possible, and the future of Velas AI is looking brighter by the day.
Scientific Department and Velas Vault
Starting in February 2021 Velas broadened its mathematical research activity by creating a full scientific Department. Its main focus is finding, making and applying leading cryptography research results to our new products to make them as secure and performant as possible. For example, it is this expansion that brings our new technology Velas Vault much closer to reality and makes sure that it will be built on the best cryptography solutions possible.
To be more precise, we’ve done extensive research in the field of threshold signatures, which are essential for a decentralised custody solution. And our conclusion is that the work of Gennaro et al. is best suited for our case. You can find a much more detailed description of our technology and all the mathematics behind it in the Velas Vault chapter of our White Paper. For now we are focused on bringing you the best available cryptographic result to be the core of the ultimate decentralised custodian.
Implementation of the Threshold Signature scheme based on the rzl-mpc algorithm where participants could generate the private key, public key and sign the real bitcoin transaction by using multi-party computation. Our goal was to implement it as proof of concept and then improve gradually. We did it and It works as proof of concept but we encountered a trade off that this solution has a drawback that prevents us from using it for our purposes. Namely, the ability to reveal the private key by k + 1 participants from one side and the requirement of 2k + 1 participants to create a digital signature in a decentralized way on another side. When our blockchain network consensus required 2k + 1 of participants for revealing a private key. We tried to change the algorithm to solve the problem, but the change did not lead to improvement, but led to the conclusion that it was necessary to change the approach dramatically. We entered the research phase and found articles by Canetti et al., Gennaro et al. , Gągol et al. , Doerner et al. That inspires optimism that the problem can be solved. The details of the study will be laid out in a separate article, where the tradeoffs of different approaches will be indicated, and which one we stopped at.
In parallel, we developed all the necessary UX functionality in the wallet and smart contracts in the Solidity language, which are necessary in any case.
Technical Department
The work undertaken by the technical department over the past quarter includes:
Blockchain:
⁃ Integrated EVM and its state management into Solana codebase
⁃ Implemented EVM bridge that implements Ethereum API and packages Ethereum transactions into Solana transactions
⁃ Launched Blockscout explorer in the mode to navigate in the EVM Space of Velas 3.0
⁃ Developed migration program that seamlessly terminates Velas 2.0 chain, transitions it’s state into genesis state of EVM Space of Velas 3.0
⁃ Integrated support of VLX swap between the EVM Space and Native (aka Solana) Space in Velas Wallet
⁃ Prepared the 3 weeks Velas Mainnet upgrade plan with start and announcement on March 29th 2021.
⁃ Implemented BitOrbit authentication method based on Velas Account
⁃ Added support for Velas Account to be connected to and secured by Telegram account
⁃ User can now optionally enable Telegram protocol in BitOrbit
⁃ Implemented support of Contact List from Telegram and BitOrbit
⁃ Implemented Telegram Chat List, Chats, Group Chats with basic message types (text, pictures)
Wallet:
- fixing the listing of Bitcoin transactions
- added validation of BTC, USDT omni addresses
- fixed formatting of total balances
- fixed wallet crash when an unhandled error (called in the web3t api) appears in the Task entity
- Fixed stake calculation, when pressing use-max
- Fixed loading of pools for some users
- adding 2 providers: Velas ERC20, Velas Native (aka; Solana)
- Implemented cross chain swap between:
Velas EVM to Ethereum
Velas Ethereum to Velas EVM
Velas EVM to Velas Native
Velas Native to Velas EVM
Velas website
- Preloader speed optimization
- WhitePaper added
- Privacy policy updated
BitOrbit website:
We approved the structure of the site, content, decided on the design concept, started active development, and very soon we will welcome a fascinating and engaging new site for a revolutionary new product!
On top of the developments of the past few weeks and months, most recently Velas completed its mainnet migration to Velas 3.0 — a building-on of the Solana codebase, massive expansion of the TPS capabilities of the Velas blockchain, and built native support for EVM development.
With around 18 exchanges holding VLX, the migration process took a short amount of time but progressed smoothly and successfully, and the entire Velas technical team are excited to welcome new partners to build on the new and improved Velas 3.0 blockchain — now on mainnet!
Velas Community
We continue to grow our global community expanding it to new horizons. As the entire community within cryptocurrency grows as a whole, this gives us more opportunities to bring new members to what will soon be the Velas vision — a decentralized ecosystem.
Roman, CTO of Velas, appeared on the Girl Gone Crypto Podcast and talked over everything Velas and Blockchain. They went over the differences of artificial intelligence and artificial intuition — a key factor for Velas and our technical integration. To catch the full chat, click the link below:
With new updates happening (not just to cryptocurrency apps, but also across communication apps that we use constantly because of crypto), Telegram has now given us the ability to host a large group voice chat with all our community channels. So, if you would like to join us for our community voice chats, please join any of our Telegram channels and stay tuned so we can hang-out!
Velas started building ontop of the Solona Codebase and added Ethereum EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) compatibility. Now that Velas is a hybrid chain, we experience faster transaction speeds up to and beyond 75,000 transactions per second, and developers can easily and safely build smart contracts on our chain as well. To read more about this check out the link below.
The first batch of Velas x BC Vault hardware wallets are made with VLX support (of course!) Now, BC Vault holders can securely store VLX in their BC Vault wallets today!
Shirly Valge goes on the “Crypto Advice” YouTube channel and talks about all things crypto and Velas. As you guys might know already, Shirly is our COO here at Velas, and she’s been going around to new sectors of this ever growing crypto space to educate everyone on what and who Velas is. To catch her interview, click the link below.
Back in late January we started our new segment — the ‘Velas Weekly Digest’, the most detailed crypto market recap across the entire industry. If you would like to join this live event, we host our digest on the new iOS app “Clubhouse” every Wednesday at 6pm CET. But don’t worry if you miss it or don’t have access to iOS, we record and post it on all of our other socials. You can catch it on our website www.velas.com, our YouTube channel “Velas Official”, or you can now listen to our digest on Spotify and other streaming platforms.
Velas Weekly Digest:
YouTube:
Listen here:
Velas Founder, Alex Alexandrov, speaks at the Abrahamic Business Circle event in Dubai. He spoke with an intimate group of people and shared lots of exciting details about the future of Velas. Here is a short clip showcasing the event:
Educating our Velonians
As you guys know, we always look for ways to educate our community in a fun and entertaining way. Linked below are the latest educational and fun videos we’ve uploaded to our YouTube channel. Volume Up’s, Things you might know, and more. So, if you missed out and need to catch up, feel free to check them out:
Volume Up Series -
Things you might not know about crypto? Series -
KYC (Know Your Crypto) with KOL Series -
Velas Weekly Digest -
Velas: Breaking Borders
Our Philippines-based community held an exclusive, invite-only cryptocurrency meet-up event in General Santos City, Philippines. Featuring an influencer guest and a member from Polkadot community to provide speeches to the crowds, the event proved incredibly popular and is paving the way for future global meet-ups soon.
This fun and entertaining event gathered enthusiasts from different communities and backgrounds to talk about cryptocurrency and discuss the potential of Velas moving through 2021.
We also gave away shirts, mugs, and VLX tokens!
Community Initiatives and Ingenuity
Our global community have undertaken numerous initiatives and genius approaches to expanding the Velas ecosystem to reach new and diverse audiences, and to educate our current base on the past goings-on of our global community as a whole.
We began a bi-weekly Velas ‘FlashLight’ roundup summarising the community approaches made around the world, take a peek at some of the previous FlashLight recaps so far:
Velas FlashLight #006 — $VLX new all-time high at brink of BitOrbit launch and Velas Blockchain…
Velas FlashLight #005 — COOK joins Velas family & new Whitepaper leads the way
Velas FlashLight #004 — Security increase to new highs & Bitcoin booming
As our global community of supporters continues to grow, the content filling out our bi-weekly FlashLight will only go from strength to strength. Velas is truly an international family, and spreading at a rapid pace.
Global Community stats (January-March 2021):
Velas Africa:
- 2783 Telegram members
- 7926 total messages in this quarter
- AMAs and partnerships perform particularly well within this group
Velas Arabic:
- 882 Telegram members
- 4588 total messages in this quarter
- Community growing at a natural rate, excited by price action and developments made by Velas team
Velas China:
- 931 Telegram members
- 8910 total messages in this quarter
- Chinese community is excelling with livestreams and tailored, engaging visual content
Velas Indonesia:
- 3002 Telegram members
- 13,783 total messages in this quarter
- Community particularly intrigued by Velas staking, benefits for engagement with Velas products, and Velas’ potential for the future
Velas Russian:
- 4165 Telegram members
- 5779 total messages in this quarter
- Community is actively participating in VLX staking, excited by price action and developments made by Velas team.
Velas Korea:
- 1215 Telegram members
- 13,408 total messages in this quarter
- The Korean community enjoy engaging with the Velas Korea Telegram group, and are eager to see Velas listed on more Korean-facing exchanges, promotions, and more engagement
Velas Spanish:
- 780 Telegram members
- 4211 total messages in this quarter
- The Velas Spanish community enjoy frequent AMAs, especially with Spanish content creators, and are particularly interested in staking details.
Velas Philippines:
- 765 Telegram members
- 3349 total messages in this quarter
- The Philippines community for Velas thrives well with constant, direct communication and engagement, and are excited by regular voice meet-ups, chats, and in-person events.
Velas India:
- 2963 Telegram members
- 6328 total messages in this quarter
- The Velas India group enjoys a lot of bounty events and meme contests, keeping the community cohesive and engaged.
Velas Vietnam:
- 1124 Telegram members
- 12982 total messages in this quarter
- Across the Velas Vietnam group members particularly enjoy voice chats, lots of AMA content, and the group is currently full of education content to guide new users in the crypto sector.
Velas Global:
- 9479 Telegram members
- 12665 total messages in this quarter
- The Velas Global community is our central and main hub of activity across the planet, being the focal point of weekly Clubhouse digests, voice chats, breaking news and more.
We have a bunch of exciting and innovative products, services and expansions to the Velas Ecosystem to release within the next quarter and beyond, so stay tuned for all of these!
