Polkadot Brief Overview

<p>P2P Validator’s team successfully carried out the development of BLS-based Random Beacon to provide Cosmos application-specific blockchains with an unbiased source of entropy. The code is<a href="https://github.com/corestario/tendermint?ref=p2p.org"> open-sourced</a> and available for further exploration by the community. This implementation of Random Beacon opens new possibilities for projects that require truly unpredictable randomness in their decentralized products.</p><p><strong><strong>Our team will continue to develop features that can bring more users and add more value to the Cosmos ecosystem</strong></strong>. If you want to support our initiatives the best way is to<a href="https://p2p.org/cosmos?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=economy&utm_campaign=cosmos_random_beacon"> stake ATOM with us</a>.</p><h3 id="high-level-overview"><strong>High level overview</strong></h3><p>Random Beacon is a cryptographic primitive that periodically outputs random numbers which are publicly available and verifiable by any party. Random Beacon requires several important properties:</p><ul><li>Availability (or liveness) — an adversary cannot prevent a random number generation process.</li><li>Unpredictability — an adversary cannot predict the protocol outcome (a random value).</li><li>Bias-resistance — an adversary cannot influence future values to their advantage.</li><li>Public-Verifiability — anyone can verify the protocol’s outcome.</li></ul><p>In a decentralized environment the ability to generate provably random outputs is critical to protect applications from manipulations and get rid of centralized random number sources. It can also be helpful for data protection as random numbers are used in the generation of cryptographic keys, establishing connections, internal sequences and so on.</p><p><em><em>Randomness can be useful for numerous blockchain applications:</em></em></p><ul><li>gaming, gambling and lotteries (e.g. PoolTogether)</li><li>cryptographic sortition in consensus for leader or quorum selection (e.g. DFINITY, Elrond, ThunderCore, Cardano)</li><li>cryptographic sortition for financial applications (e.g. tBTC-like collateralized bridges)</li><li>elections, sociology and statistics</li><li>advanced cryptography, mixnets and other protocols that require randomness to provide privacy or security</li></ul><p>Implementation of Tendermint with BLS-based random beacon - Arcade, provides each block with a random number that can be safely used during block processing without changing original Tendermint security assumptions.</p><h3 id="bls-based-random-beacon-in-tendermint"><strong>BLS-based Random Beacon in Tendermint</strong></h3><p>We wanted our in-built pseudo random number generator (PRNG) to be suitable for applications like games and gambling: that means fast and unbiasable (many random beacons used for consensus are slightly biasable, what's fine for cryptographic sortition but is not suitable for a game like blackjack). Preferably it should be available at every block.</p><ol><li>Unbiasable</li><li>Small rounds (a few seconds at most)</li><li>Publicly verifiable</li><li>Small receipt (under 10kb)</li><li>Decentralizible</li><li>Safety and liveness similar to original Tendermint</li><li>Sybil resistant</li><li>Censorship resistant</li></ol><p>The most suitable random beacon to satisfy constraints is a BLS Threshold Signature-Based Beacon, proposed by the DFinity team. To build it we expanded a pre-commit step in the Tendermint consensus.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://p2p.org/economy/content/images/2020/09/kkYo5H6.png" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="782" height="502" srcset="https://p2p.org/economy/content/images/size/w600/2020/09/kkYo5H6.png 600w, https://p2p.org/economy/content/images/2020/09/kkYo5H6.png 782w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px"></figure><p>The idea works by expanding a pre-commit step of Tendermint consensus: <strong><strong>validators send not only pre-commit but also add partial BLS threshold signatures</strong></strong>. This allows every new block to come out with a freshly generated random number.</p><p>The outlined PRNG is available at every block and suitable for building randomness-dependent applications within the Cosmos ecosystem. We also built a Cosmos SDK adaptation that can interact with the random number in the block, and a reseeding module that is capable of bringing external randomness to deterministic BLS-based PRNG.</p><p>BLS threshold signatures need a key generation step. We implemented an off-chain distributed key generation based on Pederson distributed key generation (DKG), and an on-chain fallback that provides the ability to both attest and slash in cases when off-chain DKG fails.</p><h3 id="about-p2p-validator"><strong>About P2P Validator</strong></h3><p><a href="https://p2p.org/?ref=p2p.org">P2P Validator</a> is a world-leading non-custodial staking provider with the best industry practices and proven expertise. We provide comprehensive due-diligence of digital assets and offer only high-class staking opportunities securing more than 3 billion of USD value. At the time of the latest update, P2P Validator is trusted by over 10,000 delegators across 25+ networks.</p><hr><p><em><em>Want to stake with us? Alexey will be happy to help. Contact [email protected] to get personal assistance.</em></em></p><hr><p><strong><strong>P2P Validator</strong></strong> provides secure non-custodial staking. Subscribe to our channels and stay tuned for updates and new blog posts.</p><p><strong><strong>Stake ATOM with us:</strong></strong> <a href="https://p2p.org/cosmos?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=economy&utm_campaign=cosmos_random_beacon">https://p2p.org/cosmos</a></p><p><strong><strong>Web:</strong></strong> <a href="https://p2p.org/?ref=p2p.org">https://p2p.org</a></p><p><strong><strong>Twitter:</strong></strong><a href="https://twitter.com/p2pvalidator?ref=p2p.org"> @p2pvalidator</a></p><p><strong><strong>Telegram chat:</strong></strong> <a href="https://t.me/P2Pstaking?ref=p2p.org">https://t.me/P2Pstaking</a></p><p><strong><strong>Telegram announcement:</strong></strong> <a href="https://t.me/p2porg?ref=p2p.org">https://t.me/p2porg</a></p>

<p>We are thrilled to announce that <a href="https://corestar.io/?ref=p2p.org">Corestar</a> team joined P2P Validator to create synergy in the development of decentralized ecosystems.</p><p>Our team have always been looking for ways to add more value to the projects we believe in. Comprehensive contribution is an important part of our long term vision. <strong><strong>All our thoughts are concentrated on actions facilitating the continuous progress of decentralized networks.</strong></strong> <a href="https://p2p.org/cosmos?ref=p2p.org">By staking ATOM with us</a> you support our efforts to deliver meaningful results in the long run.</p><p>P2P Validator provides non-custodial staking including valuable tools for delegators, community building, educational enlightenment and <em><em>with acquisition of Corestar team we will add solid development activities to the scope of our capabilities</em></em>.</p><h3 id="about-corestar"><strong>About Corestar</strong></h3><p><a href="https://corestar.io/?ref=p2p.org">Corestar</a> is a team of dedicated professionals focused on research and development within the Cosmos ecosystem. A lot of effort was concentrated on NFT marketplace over IBC and Corestar got onto the list of <a href="https://blog.cosmos.network/cosmos-hackatom-berlin-recap-4722882e7623?ref=p2p.org">HackAtom Berlin</a> finalists with MVP that grew into the <a href="https://openmarket.one/?ref=p2p.org">Open Market</a> project.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://p2p.org/economy/content/images/2020/09/W3nw23I.png" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="1839" height="869" srcset="https://p2p.org/economy/content/images/size/w600/2020/09/W3nw23I.png 600w, https://p2p.org/economy/content/images/size/w1000/2020/09/W3nw23I.png 1000w, https://p2p.org/economy/content/images/size/w1600/2020/09/W3nw23I.png 1600w, https://p2p.org/economy/content/images/2020/09/W3nw23I.png 1839w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px"></figure><p>In addition, Corestar received an ICF grant to develop <a href="https://github.com/corestario/tendermint?ref=p2p.org">Arcade</a> - Tendermint implementation with built-in random beacon. Arcade will provide application-specific blockchains in the Cosmos ecosystem with a decentralized source of entropy to power various applications like cryptography, games and gambling platforms without changing the security assumptions of Tendermint.</p><p><em><em>We believe that the Corestar team will significantly strengthen our development department and benefit the Cosmos ecosystem.</em></em></p><h3 id="immediate-perspectives"><strong>Immediate perspectives</strong></h3><p>IBC is currently the most important milestone in the success of Cosmos and the launch of incentivized testnet "<a href="https://goz.cosmosnetwork.dev/?ref=p2p.org">Game Of Zones</a>" is near at hand. As an active contributor, P2P Validator will take part in the competition with additional development resources, ready to deliver.</p><p>We have prepared a <a href="https://goz.p2p.org/?ref=p2p.org">visualization</a> of handshakes between nodes to help participants monitor the current status of connections during the contest.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://p2p.org/economy/content/images/2020/09/HG5ZbBv.png" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="1893" height="851" srcset="https://p2p.org/economy/content/images/size/w600/2020/09/HG5ZbBv.png 600w, https://p2p.org/economy/content/images/size/w1000/2020/09/HG5ZbBv.png 1000w, https://p2p.org/economy/content/images/size/w1600/2020/09/HG5ZbBv.png 1600w, https://p2p.org/economy/content/images/2020/09/HG5ZbBv.png 1893w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px"></figure><p>Proof-of-stake ecosystem is evolving really fast and we are fully prepared to facilitate that growth diving deep into the heart of decentralized technologies.</p><h3 id="about-p2p-validator"><strong>About P2P Validator</strong></h3><p><a href="https://p2p.org/?ref=p2p.org">P2P Validator</a> is a world-leading non-custodial staking provider with the best industry practices and proven expertise. We provide comprehensive due-diligence of digital assets and offer only high-class staking opportunities securing more than 3 billion of USD value. At the time of the latest update, P2P Validator is trusted by over 10,000 delegators across 25+ networks.</p><hr><p><em><em>Want to stake with us? Alexey will be happy to help. Contact [email protected] to get personal assistance.</em></em></p><hr><p><strong><strong>P2P Validator</strong></strong> provides secure non-custodial staking. Subscribe to our channels and stay tuned for updates and new blog posts.</p><p><strong><strong>Web:</strong></strong><a href="https://p2p.org/?ref=p2p.org"> https://p2p.org</a></p><p><strong><strong>Twitter:</strong></strong><a href="https://twitter.com/p2pvalidator?ref=p2p.org"> @p2pvalidator</a></p><p><strong><strong>Telegram chat:</strong></strong> <a href="https://t.me/P2Pstaking?ref=p2p.org">https://t.me/P2Pstaking</a></p><p><strong><strong>Telegram announcement:</strong></strong> <a href="https://t.me/p2porg?ref=p2p.org">https://t.me/p2porg</a></p>