Komodo (KMD)
Consensus mechanism | Delayed Proof-of-Work |
---|---|
Total supply | 200 Million |
Website | https://komodoplatform.com/ |
Basics
- Protocol layer, atomic DEX, decentralized ICO’s
- Has pivoted a couple times since 2018. Project names have come and go (Iguana wallet, PAX, AtomicDEX, privacy centered to privacy sidechains).
- A (privacy-focused) cryptocurrency protocol (through zero knowledge proofs) with decentralized exchange capabilities that focuses on providing anonymity and security through a novel Delayed Proof of Work (dPoW) protocol.
- From their website:
"Komodo is an open, composable multi-chain platform. With blockchain development roots going back to 2014, Komodo is reportedly one of the pioneers of multi-chain architecture in the blockchain space. As of Aug 2019, Komodo focuses on providing business-friendly blockchain solutions that are secure, scalable, interoperable, and adaptable. Komodo's current technology suite, the Antara framework, offers tools for end-to-end blockchain development, including a customizable, application-specific Smart Chain complete with a library of built-in modules and an open API for building blockchain-based applications."
- Komodo has hacked itself (6-6-2019) in an effort to protect funds disclosed by research to be at risk; Komodo successfully hacked 8 million KMD and 96 Bitcoin, an estimated $13M that would have been easy pickings for a nefarious hacker; the coins have been deposited in two wallets with Komodo asking owners to reclaim their assets
History
- The Komodo Platform was forked from Zcash by the SuperNET open-source project and it is the evolution of the BitcoinDark cryptocurrency.
- From their own website 17-8-2018:
"At the beginning of 2016, Komodo’s Lead Developer, James ‘jl777’ Lee, was developing a project called SuperNET on Nxt, one of the world’s very first blockchain platforms.
The Nxt development team implemented major adjustments to the codebase without consulting any of the projects built on the Nxt platform. The changes broke SuperNET’s backend tech, requiring hundreds of hours of work to repair the damage.
This event turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it made the limitations of the single-blockchain platform model perfectly clear. In response, jl777 issued the following statement:
"Declaration of Independence
We the asset holders hereby declare our independence from any single blockchain.
An open and jointly developed specification on cross-chain atomic asset transfers will be developed. Any current or future blockchain is invited to join. Each blockchain will need to not only promise protections for asset holder interests, they need to live up to them. Otherwise, all the assets will simply move to blockchains that do.
This is an interop standards effort and it needs to be blockchain agnostic and asset centric.
James ‘jl777’ Lee""
- In one of their mailing lists it was also mentioned that "when we first started Komodo, it was an enhanced fork of the privacy project Zcash"
Coin
Public Token Sale
- According to Messari it took from 15-10-2016 to 20-11-2016 and collected 2639 BTC.
- "One-hundred million KMD coins were issued, with 70% of the KMD swapped to BTCD holders, 20% sold to investors, and the remaining 10% held as working capital for Komodo’s development and marketing."
What has Komodo accomplished since the ICO?
"Since the Komodo mainnet went live in January 2017, Komodo has consistently made one enormous development after another. There are really too many achievements to list them all here, but to highlight a few:
- Komodo is the industry’s most advanced composable blockchain platform.
- Komodo is the world leader in atomic swap technology.
- Komodo launched the beta version of AtomicDEX, a mobile-ready, asset-agnostic atomic swap DEX application.
- Komodo was the first blockchain project to offer support for UTXO smart contracts on a BTC-protocol coin.
- Komodo built the Antara Framework, a flexible framework for end-to-end blockchain development.
- Komodo launched the demo version of the Antara Smart Chain Composer, an automated blockchain generating web application.
Learn more about Komodo’s development and achievements here."
- However, Komodo has had many name changes when it comes to their projects and wallets. Read about them bellow.
- From their own website's history post17-8-2019:
"Recall that Komodo brought in less than $2 Million during its initial coin offering. This visualization from CoinDesk may help you to put that figure into perspective. In the world of blockchain startups, it is a comparatively small amount of capital.
Moreover, the funds Komodo raised in its ICO are primarily used to pay the Bitcoin transaction fees required to notarize the KMD blockchain onto the BTC ledger, which happens every ten minutes as part of the delayed Proof of Work security mechanism."
- When asked about the sustainability of this, a community member responded on their Discord (1-10-2019):
"ICO funds allow for close to 20 years of notarizations, if other sources of revenue generation are not up and running by then we failed somehow, this will not be the case, as other revenue generation mechanisms are being built in the Komodo ecosystem. Bitcoin is used as a resource to do the notarizations, makes no sense to cannibalize coin production to get BTC as needed when a substantial amount was raised for the express purpose of and at a much lower fiat value.
And later added:
"Funds are held in a multisig address, dispersed in chunks to delegates which then disperse to notaries. I could argue that any account that has restricted access has some degree of centralization, however full decentralization of the holdings is impractical and dangerous. A happy medium was chosen.”
Token allocation
- Mineable
- Komodo holders receive 5% annual percentage rate (APR) revenue. Every KMD holder will receive it. The 5% APR will remain until the max supply of 200M KMD is reached. Only T-address balances will get the APR.
Utility
"KMD is the native currency in the Komodo ecosystem. It has a number of important uses.
- Those who hold 10 KMD or more can easily earn 5% active user rewards.
- KMD trading pairs get a 10% discount in trading fees on AtomicDEX mobile.
- KMD is also the most widely-traded coin on AtomicDEX, so KMD can act as a go-between for two other tokens that do not yet have a direct market between them.
- KMD is the currency in which the Delayed Proof of Work Security and Platform Synchronizations services are paid.
- KMD holders are allowed to participate in Komodo’s annual Notary Node Election, meaning that they have the ability to help choose who operates the Notary Nodes."
- On the website of Komodo itself they focus on:
"1) Gateway to Trustless Trading
KMD is one of the base coins of Komodo's atomic swap DEX protocol. Swaps that happen through KMD receive a 10% discount in trading fees. The more Smart Chains there are, the more KMD pairs there will be.
2) Easy Mobile Payments
KMD is the most trusted and most frequently used coin in the Komodo ecosystem. It is secured by Bitcoin itself and has fast transactions with low fees. KMD is accepted and adopted by every new business and project in the Komodo ecosystem.
3) Komodo Platform Services
KMD provides security, scaling, and interoperability services to the entire Smart Chain ecosystem. Projects that opt-in to these services always make payments in KMD."
Token Details
Stablecoin
- "Komodo integrated (11-2019) a full stablecoin suite to the AtomicDEX protocol. A total of 5 stablecoins— USD Coin (USDC), True USD (TUSD), Dai Stablecoin (DAI), Paxos (PAX), and Binance USD (BUSD)— were listed for trading on AtomicDEX."
Tech
- Whitepaper can be found [insert here].
- Code can be viewed [insert here].
- Programming language used:
Transaction Details
How it works
- According to Messari block times are 60 seconds. And Stakers can get: "UTXO * 5,1% per year or 0,42% monthly. And Max 5,1% per year."
- Block size -- 4 Mb max
- Algorithm -- Equihash
Mining
- Through 64 pre-selected notary nodes that are voted on by the community, Komodo is able to notarize its blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain, ensuring that almost any attack attempt is mitigated since an attacker would also need to change the Bitcoin blockchain to tamper with Komodo. The nodes are rewarded with the majority of the block reward and transaction fees.
- The block data from Komodo is introduced in Bitcoin via custom transactions made by the notary nodes that are connected to both blockchains. Any discrepancy on either blockchain will be detected by these nodes.
Staking
Liquidity Mining
Layer Two
Different Implementations
Interoperability
Cross Chain Atomic Swaps
- Coda and Komodo successfully (18-10-2019) executed CODA<-->KMD cross-chain operations:
“After talking to the Coda devs, it seems that a dual-daemon approach is feasible. This would mean that the Komodo protocol daemon would run alongside the Coda protocol daemon and, via IPC, the two halves can communicate.
We are implementing this dual-daemon solution to create a new type of chain, where each side is a 1:1 mirror of the other side, with the coin emissions balanced between block production on each side. This allows us to create a Coda-protocol-based chain that also has a built-in 1:1 Komodo-protocol Smart Chain.
One advantage to this is that it would allow all the existing exchanges to immediately integrate it without any additional customizations, as the Komodo protocol side uses standard Bitcoin RPC. Then, people who are using the coin could migrate the coins over to the Coda side as needed.
So the traditional side will also have access to all the Antara modules, and that would allow a dual-daemon chain to have literally thousands of different instantiations. For instance, you could make a stablecoin backed by KMD and able to be 1:1 migrated automatically to the Coda protocol side of this dual-daemon chain cluster. It could be that the most powerful usecase is for massive scaling, as the coin emissions are done on the Komodo side and then the actual high-volume usage on the Coda side, where the blocks are of constant size regardless of transaction volume. I hope you can see the spectrum of possibilities, basically unlimited." -- Komodo Lead Developer James 'jl777' Lee"
Other Details
Smart Chains
- From this 2019 review (2-2020):
"Smart Chains are customizable blockchains launched with Komodo’s technology. They’re Komodo’s flagship offering and are built on two key technologies: Komodo Core and the Antara Framework. Komodo Core offers access to decoupled platform services— security, scaling, and interoperability— while the Antara Framework provides a toolkit for the custom development of blockchain-based software. Each Smart Chain is fully autonomous and exists just like any other independent blockchain project, with its own network, consensus rules, and currency. All future platform upgrades innovated by the Komodo team are made available to all Smart Chains, keeping all Smart Chain projects at the cutting edge of the industry."
The 3 Technology Lines
- It says (2-2020) it has three major 'Technology Lines': Komodo Core, Antara Framework and AtomicDEX:
- "Komodo Core is the engine that extends platform services to all Smart Chain projects. With a multi-chain architecture, Komodo decouples platform services from the KMD blockchain and offers them as optional features. Services include security, on-demand scaling, and interoperability
- Antara is a powerful framework for custom development of blockchain-based products. Each Smart Chain comes equipped with a library of built-in modules, giving developers the ability to leverage existing modules while also having the option to code fully custom modules.
- AtomicDEX is Komodo's third-generation decentralized exchange and the only DEX in the world to fully run on atomic swap technology. The AtomicDEX connects various blockchain protocols and makes this cuttingedge technology available to all with an open API."
Komodo Core
- As of 2-2020 their 2019 review says that Komodo Core is finished for 90%.
- From this 2019 review (2-2020):
"Komodo Core is the engine that extends blockchain platform services beyond the single-chain platform model to a multichain architecture. With Komodo Core, the platform services are decoupled from the Komodo blockchain. Each third-party project deploys a fully independent Smart Chain. Each project can choose whether or not to use Komodo Core’s platform services, further promoting autonomy and economic independence. Optional platform services include Bitcoin-level security, on-demand scaling, and cross-chain interoperability. All future Komodo Core updates are made available to all Smart Chains, and each project may choose whether or not to implement them."
dPoW
"Komodo employs a delayed proof-of-work (dPoW) consensus mechanism that it believes offers a higher level of network security than Bitcoin's PoW model. Every chain, even forks, are more connected under dPoW than regular PoW which Komodo prefers.
Komodo's Iguana Core technology, a multi-purpose code base that underlies the Komodo protocol, spawned the security model behind dPoW. Iguana Core and dPoW rely on Notary Nodes chosen by the Komodo network users to archive "true" copies of the network's transaction history and designate the appropriate chain for miners to direct their resources. Notary nodes occasionally receive easy-mining privileges on a lottery basis where the network's difficulty significantly decreases for one of the notary nodes. Every 2000 blocks, every notary node can mine on easy-level difficulty in a Komodo mining "free-for-all".
Komodo supports two separate but parallel chains: an asset chain and a main chain (a quasi-layer-two feature). Notary nodes maintain the main chain, but the asset chain can process significantly more transactions in a given time frame than the main chain. Asset developers shoulder the responsibility of bootstrapping a network of nodes to maintain the security of assets issued on the Komodo asset chain though."
aPoW
- From this post by Komodo (10-2019):
"Komodo’s Lead Developer James ‘jl777’ Lee implemented a solution to the Diff Strand Attack called Adaptive Proof of Work (APoW). As the name suggests, this variation of Proof of Work allows a blockchain’s network to adapt to sudden and substantial changes in hash rate. In fact, with APoW, a blockchain network can adjust the difficulty target within a single block
There are three main components to this new variation on Proof of Work: timestamp protection, block-to-block stair-stepping, and N*N difficulty adjustments."
All three components are explained in more detail in the article itself.
"The test chain created to test APoW was aptly titled ADAPT and it was spawned on July 31, 2019. Kolo, Decker, MrLynch, and SHossain all participated in testing the new APoW implementation. "
About the testing on APoW, Komodo’s Lead Dev jl777 wrote:
"We just did a mining attack test to validate the Adaptive Proof of Work (APoW). We boosted the difficulty to 1.2 million and now have a single CPU trying to mine it back to normal. Of course, that would be impossible without APoW, but with it, even a 1 million diff stranding can be recovered from. Blocks come in clumps of six after a gap of 13+ minutes. At a difficulty of one million, the first gap was almost 30 minutes, but as the diff drops over the hours, the network will produce a batch of six blocks every 15 minutes or so. I predict within a day (instead of 10 years!) APoW will get a diff stranded chain back to normal."
nSPV
"Since the original implementation of SPV described in the Bitcoin white paper, there have been no further innovations upon SPV technology. Most projects consider current SPV methods acceptable and the limitations of SPV have not been pressing enough to inspire innovation.
This is true for all projects except Komodo. Ever since the Komodo Platform was created in late 2016, the Komodo Development Team has been solving problems in the blockchain industry that most people are not even aware of yet. This tradition continues with the development of nSPV.
nSPV is a form of simple payment verification that requires far less data than the original implementation of SPV. Whereas SPV requires a client to download the header of every block in the blockchain, Komodo’s new nSPV technology only requires clients to download 20 to 30 block headers for every desired transaction.
Even for wallets that wish to store dozens or even hundreds of UTXO— a small amount of data that represents funds on a blockchain— Komodo’s new nSPV technology is hundreds or perhaps even thousands of times more efficient than current SPV implementations."
More on the tech can be found in the post itself.
Crypto Conditions
- From this blog (8-10-2018):
"Crypto Conditions, or CC, are smart contracts for Komodo-based blockchains. Developed by Komodo, CCs extend the capabilities of a bitcoin-type blockchain to allow more functionality and scripting on the blockchain level."
Antara Framework
"A flexible framework for end-to-end blockchain development. The Antara framework is built atop Komodo's innovative multi-chain architecture that enables the generation of independent runtime forks of the KMD blockchain."
"The Antara Framework supports C/C++, meaning that it allows for Turing-complete code."
"With 18 different parameters, Smart Chains can be customized in hundreds of millions of different ways."
"No Gas Fees; There are no gas fees with Antara. Regardless of how many processes an Antara Module requires, it only needs a single transaction fee, paid in your Smart Chain's coin, to run."
Privacy Method being used
- Where as Komodo at first promoted itself as a privacy centred, this changed after ZCash started to get delisted. Then their Zero-Knowledge Proof assisted Zaddrs's were taken away (2-2019) and privacy became something you could find on some of Komodo's sidechains. As one reddit user put it:
"Komodo removed the ZEC privacy features because of this regulatory fear. The privacy feature was rarely used, so no body complained."
- In another thread:
"The shielded address was removed long time ago, because there is only less than 1% user using it. If you would like to use shielded tx for privacy, you can use pirate chain. It is a kmd ecosystem project with 99% shielded coin making it the most private coin in the world, even more so than ZEC."
And another saying:
"Zaddrs haven't been part of KMD since like Feb of this year..."
Some users were happy about this change:
"Look at the past few days/weeks about exchanges delisting privacy coins. JL is forward-thinking in that regard. If you want privacy, use ARRR."
Compliance
Oracle Method being used
- AtomicDEX has integrated Band Protocol (27-10-2020).
Their Other Projects
AtomicDEX
"AtomicDEX is a secure, fully peer-to-peer decentralized exchange that’s powered by Komodo’s industry-leading atomic swap technology. This means that there is no longer a need for a trusted intermediary or middleman, like a traditional cryptocurrency exchange, when converting one digital currency to another. Whereas many exchanges that claim to be decentralized still require sending one’s funds from a private wallet to a new trading address, AtomicDEX users simply trade from within their wallets. There’s never a need to relinquish control of one’s private keys when making atomic swaps. Atomic swap technology also connects heterogeneous blockchain protocols. This makes it possible, for instance, to trade directly between Bitcoin-protocol altcoins, like Dash or Zcash, and Ethereum-based ERC20 tokens, like Maker or Basic Attention Token. In addition, the AtomicDEX API is available to every Smart Chain deployed with Komodo’s technology, as well as all third-party exchanges and wallet providers. As such, AtomicDEX is more than just an application— it’s an open standards as well as a white label solution for Smart Chain projects building within the Komodo ecosystem."
- Named on Komodo's 'Welcome' post first up on their subreddit. "Komodo launched the beta version of AtomicDEX, a mobile-ready, asset-agnostic atomic swap DEX application." (Late 2018)
- As of 13-9-2019 AtomicDEX is still on the Komodo website, on which they claim that AtomicDEX is "the only method for truly decentralized trading available in the blockchain industry today"
Their post goes deeper in on why this is so:
"The 4 core requirements of a DEX are that it must be:
- non-custodial
- both a cross-chain and on-chain protocol
- permissionless
- asset agnostic
All trades on AtomicDEX are made on-chain and the AtomicDEX protocol works across different platforms and blockchain protocols. AtomicDEX is permissionless; anyone can use it without registering or submitting documents to a centralized authority. You can use it from anywhere in the world. Finally, AtomicDEX is asset agnostic and swaps can be made between any two listed assets.
AtomicDEX was recently moved into a public beta phase."
This last sentence is a bit weird since the post is from 13-9-2019 and the Welcome post that also announced that "Komodo launched the beta version" is from 12-2018. Either way, AtomicDEX is now (11-2019) downloadable on Google Play and still in its test phase on iOS.
AtomicDEX Tech
- From their website:
"AtomicDEX is powered by AtomicAPI, an open framework with a shared liquidity pool to build the decentralized exchanges of the future. AtomicAPI is available in beta to wallet providers, exchanges, blockchain projects with a token, and developers interested in building white-label DEX products.
Under the hood, AtomicDEX is compatible with 99 percent of assets including Bitcoin, all UTXO-based coins, Ether and ERC-20 tokens, and any coin that supports time- and hash-locked payments."
- From their mailing list (9-2019)
"Two Komodo engineers who developed the AtomicDEX networking layer, published an extremely informative blog post about AtomicDEX's lower-level architecture. Market Maker 2, as it's called, is the technology that allows individuals around the world to connect and make trustless atomic swaps in a secure and reliable way. Read the full blog post here."
- The following comes from a post (29-10-2019) by Komodo (which is the creator of AtomicDEX), so should be read sceptically:
"An article published on Forbes magazine called Komodo “an atomic swap early adopter.” Binance Academy states that “the first peer to peer atomic swaps started to take place in 2014” and links to a discussion on an old NXT forum in which Komodo’s Lead Dev James ‘jl777’ Lee describes one of the very first atomic swap protocols.
In fact, Komodo’s atomic swap protocol idea is an extension of Tier Nolan’s atomic swap idea proposed in 2013. AtomicDEX is the third-generation of Komodo’s DEX technology. The first generation being the Multi-Gateway proxy token DEX, built on NXT, and the second generation being BarterDEX, an early atomic swap DEX that is now retired in favor of AtomicDEX.
Today, AtomicDEX uses a networking layer known as Market maker 2.0. Market Maker 2.0 allows AtomicDEX to provide non-custodial, secure, and fully peer-to-peer trading of digital assets. It also enables cross-chain and cross-platform atomic swap protocol that executes swaps on-chain, even when facilitating swaps between assets of two different protocols. Traders can swap from ETH or ERC tokens to BTC or other UTXO-based assets.
To learn more about Komodo’s atomic swap technology, read this blog post on the history of atomic swaps or this post on how the Market Maker 2.0 networking layer works.
AtomicDEX also offers an open API, to which any existing exchange, wallet provider, or blockchain project can integrate. It is an open source and permissionless protocol that offers a shared liquidity pool to create a network effect and maximize benefits for each adopter. Read more about AtomicDEX API here and check out the AtomicDEX documentation to learn more."
AtomicDEX Team
- Artem Pikulin and Artem Grinblat, the two Komodo engineers who developed the AtomicDEX networking layer
Governance
DAO
Treasury
Pivots
All the different project names and changes during the years (9-2019)
Antara Framework (2019)
- As of 9-2019 on the website:
"A flexible framework for end-to-end blockchain development. The Antara framework is built atop Komodo's innovative multi-chain architecture that enables the generation of independent runtime forks of the KMD blockchain."
Wallets (as of 10-2019)
From the Komodo website:
- Verus Agama Wallet; "A multi-coin wallet from the Verus Coin project for the whole Komodo ecosystem. You can claim your KMD active user rewards within the wallet. There is also community support provided by both the Komodo & Verus projects.". It also has its own Verus Coin (VRSC).
- The Komodo Agama Wallet; Multi Wallet that evolved out of their previous Iguana wallet, got hacked in 6-2019. The Verus version was not affected. "It now seems clear that the bug was created intentionally to target Komodo’s version of Agama wallet. A hacker spent several months making useful contributions to the Agama repository on GitHub before inserting the bug. Eventually, the hacker added malicious code to an update of a module that Komodo’s Agama was already using. Approximately 8 Million KMD and 96 BTC are now in a secure wallet being safeguarded by the Komodo Dev Team."
- Komodo OceanQT Wallet (as of 10-2019); Native Wallet For KMD
- Guarda Wallet
- ZelCore
AtomicDEX (From late 2018 on)
- Has evolved out of previous projects. The first was EasyDEX, and then also together with BarterDEX.
BarterDEX and HyperDEX (2018)
- From a conversation on Komodo's discord channel (1-10-2019):
"BarterDEX ‘s backend had many optimization issues and was completely refactored from the ground up becoming Atomicdex."
"BarterDEX is the Komodo blockchain's native decentralized exchange (DEX) that functions like any cryptocurrency exchange with order matching, liquidity provision, and transaction clearing. Jumblr is a transaction data anonymizing feature that serves as Komodo's primary tool for targeting on-chain privacy. As a Zcash fork, Komodo retained some of it's parent project's privacy features. But Jumblr relies on BarterDEX, KMD, and Zcash's parameters to attempt the level of security desired by the Komodo team.
As part of its BarterDEX feature, Komodo also supports decentralized initial coin offerings (dICOs) that should leverage Komodo's privacy, security, and exchange features to remove some of the intrinsic and extrinsic complications of centralized initial coin offerings. When launching a dICO, the creator(s) build a new asset chain to support their coin, which is still compatible with the Komodo main chain."
- June 2018 - Beta release of HyperDEX, a new GUI for BarterDEX. "HyperDEX is the grandma-friendly layer on top of BarterDEX, the complex system that lies underneath. The soft launch is scheduled for May 21-2018"
- BarterDEX was still being developed under SuperNET according to this article.
Privacy Pivot
- Where as Komodo at first promoted itself as a privacy centred, this changed after ZCash started to get delisted. Then their Zero-Knowledge Proof assisted Zaddrs's were taken away (2-2019) and privacy became something you could find on some of Komodo's sidechains. As one reddit user put it:
"Komodo removed the ZEC privacy features because of this regulatory fear. The privacy feature was rarely used, so no body complained."
- In another thread:
"The shielded address was removed long time ago, because there is only less than 1% user using it. If you would like to use shielded tx for privacy, you can use pirate chain. It is a kmd ecosystem project with 99% shielded coin making it the most private coin in the world, even more so than ZEC."
And another saying:
"Zaddrs haven't been part of KMD since like Feb of this year..."
Some users were happy about this change:
"Look at the past few days/weeks about exchanges delisting privacy coins. JL is forward-thinking in that regard. If you want privacy, use ARRR."
Jumblr (2017)
- August 2017 - Private, zero-knowledge trades made possible with Jumblr
- August 2019 - Jumblr is still named in a overview post:
"Coin mixer based оn zero-knowledge proofs. On the privacy front, Komodo uѕеѕ іtѕ own privacy-based functionality, called Jumblr. Thе Jumblr technology ensures privacy bу starting with non-private funds frоm а јuѕt аѕ non-private address. Thе funds then gо through а series оf non-descriptive and non-traceable zero-knowledge proof, zk-SNARK addresses bеfоrе having them аvаіlаblе fоr а transaction іn а publicly аvаіlаblе уеt non-traceable address."
Wallets and DEX's (as of 2017)
The following used to be part of the Komodo ecosystem but is now totally gone from their website and seems to have been cancelled or rebranded (9-2019):
- Iguana Multi-wallet a GUI implementation in which users can access Komodo and other cryptocurrencies. Users will be able to access all the basic functions of Komodo, as well as the advanced features like private transactions. Iguana can be used by other blockchains that do not have a GUI implementation. (Has been rebranded into Agama)
- Within the Iguana multi-wallet, there are two decentralized exchanges, EasyDEX and PAX.
- EasyDEX (Easy Decentralized Exchange) is a fully decentralized exchange for cryptocurrencies. Trades are performed directly on the coins held, and not through proxy tokens. “EasyDEX differs from other decentralized exchanges as it provides speed and liquidity, a key component that has been missing from almost every centralized exchange.” (Has been rebranded into AtomicDEX)
- Through EasyDEX, users can also have access to a decentralized coin mixing service for other cryptocurrencies, as they can be exchanged for Komodo with privacy, and then sent to the destination in the form of the original coin. This service is called Jumblr.
- The PAX (Pegged Asset Exchange) allows users to exchange national currencies in the form of assets issued on the Komodo network. These assets are protected by the same zero knowledge proofs as Komodo, meaning that they can be exchanged and transferred anonymously. (Has been rebranded into CC-Peg "which is developing and expanding upon the concept.") (10-2019)
Upgrades
v0.5 Upgrade
- "Komodo activated a major software upgrade throughout the entire ecosystem on December 20, 2019. The update to v0.5.0 included DeFi solutions for crypto-backed stablecoins pegged to any asset and a decentralized, collateralized loan technology, among other things."
Roadmap
- Comprehensive technical roadmap & development priorities can be found here (9-2-2020). Some notable items ,and how far they are done (9-2-2020), on the list:
- Notary Node Elections 2020 (11% done)
- Komodo Name Service (0% done)
- dPoW 2.0 (0%)
- Oracle-as-a-Service (0%)
- Stablecoin Antara Module (0%)
- AtomixDEXtop (17%)
- AtomicWEB Beta (0%)
- OTC-DEX (0%)
- Second Stress Test (0%)
- Shielded Tx on AtomixDEXtop (0%)
- Derivative Tokens on AtomicDEX (0%)
- And also has 'Moonshots' if possible:
- Private Smartchains, Interoperability with Tendermint and Hyperleger, IoT DEX, dApp bridge with AtomicDEX and file sharing.
- Update (4-10-2020):
- "OCO Liquidity Multiplier — Users will soon be able to place multiple swap orders against a single digital asset using the OCO Liquidity Multiplier feature. For example, users will be able to swap against KMD/ETH/BAT/VRSC as a limit order using just 1 KMD. Whichever order gets filled first cancels all the other orders on the book.
- Async Upgrade (Desktop) — Before this upgrade, AtomicDEX Desktop requires synchronization (sync), meaning the app itself is only able to do one thing at a time. For example, you have to wait until the rewards claiming process is complete before you can make a new atomic swap. After the async upgrade, the backend finishes the process while the user can go about making a new swap on the DEX. Similarly, there is a UX/UI enhancement that shows the last balance locally when the app opens. These improvements provide a smoother UX for desktop traders.
- Custom ERC20 Tokens — Even if an ERC20 token isn’t listed on AtomicDEX, it will soon be possible to add it as a custom asset. For HODLers, this means you will now have a non-custodial wallet in which you can securely store any ERC20 token and be able to make atomic swaps directly on AtomicDEX against both listed assets and other custom assets.
- Partnership Integration — In Q4, we will make a special partnership announcement that will be combined with an AtomicDEX integration. Can you guess which project it will be with? Hint: This project is a major player in the DeFi space.
- Additionally, we are exploring the integration of xDAI network and Rinkeby network."
Audits
- Bug bounty program can be found [insert here].
Bugs/Hacks
Usage
- According to a 2019 year end review (2-2020):
50+ Production Smart Chains and +250K atomic swaps. However, "Komodo held the first major stress test of Market Maker 2.0, the networking layer that powers AtomicDEX. Over 100,000 swaps were attempted in a four-hour period," so this is where two fifth of all swaps came from.
Projects that use or built on it
Competition
Coin Distribution
Pros and Cons
Pros
"Komodo is unique because of its multi-chain architecture, which gives every project their very own dedicated blockchain with independent infrastructure. If one chain isn’t providing adequate performance, additional chains can be added to scale out and increase performance linearly.
Second, Komodo is distinct from other multi-chain platforms in that Komodo offers complete autonomy. Some multi-chain interoperability projects impose a rental model, in which projects must continue to pay fees to maintain their application-specific blockchain. Other multi-chain projects force projects to pay high fees in the platform’s native coin for essential services.
While Komodo does offer platform services that are paid in KMD— Delayed Proof of Work (dPoW) Security and Platform Synchronizations— third-party projects can decide whether or not to use them.
For instance, a project that builds with Komodo can choose to make their Smart Chain Proof of Stake (PoS), which would eliminate many of the security vulnerabilities that new PoW networks face. Or, a project that builds with Komodo could use dPoW’s open source code and establish their own network of notary nodes to receive Bitcoin-level security without paying fees in KMD.
Ultimately, Komodo provides a level of independence that no other platform can offer."
Con's
- Has made many project changes during the years which make their promises difficult to believe.
- Has pivoted away from their original promise of privacy through Zero-Knowledge proofs on the mainchain.
- Needs to spend funds to get their chain secured by the Bitcoin chain. This happens every BTC block (10 minutes) and costs transaction fees.
Team, Partners, Investors, etc.
Full team on the website (as of 9-2019):
- Ben Fairbank; General Manager
- Kadan Stadelmann; CTO
- Steve Lee; Chief Strategy Officer
- jl777 (James Lee); Project’s core developer and founder and is the mind behind SuperNET project; “He has been a very active member in bitcointalk.com forums, NXTforum, bitco.in forum, in his own Steemit site and of course in SuperNET slack. The SuperNET ICO began on Saturday 6th of September 2014 and the development has continued ever since.”
- "Prior to this year, 2018, most of our technology was developed exclusively by jl777 and ca333. With the addition of four new experienced blockchain developers in 2018, we have already completed Etomic swaps, expanded our Atomic Swap network, and are on schedule to complete the tasks outlined in our Tech Roadmap, such as Smart Contract integration. "
- Satinder Grewal; developer
- Artem Pikulin and Artem Grinblat, the two Komodo engineers who developed the AtomicDEX networking layer
Partners
- Has worked together with the Coda devs and created atomic swaps between both chains afterwards.
- From their 2019 review (2-2020):
"In January 2019, Komodo partnered with the leading blockchain PR agency, Wachsman, with the goals of driving more media coverage, fostering direct relationships with outlets, and elevating our CTO, Kadan (ca333) as a thought leader in the industry. In 2019, Komodo received more media coverage than all past years combined with 90+ placements across a diverse group of mainstream and blockchain outlets along with interviewing with leading podcasts in the industry."