Steemit CryptoAcademy Season 3 Week 6 | Homewor Post For Prof.@pelon53 | BLOCKCHAIN ​​EOS

Hi Prof.@pelon53, I really enjoyed your lecture and I learned a lot from it. Here is my homework post.

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Introduction
We know that blockchain technology is a decentralized digital ledger of transactions that brings together multiple computer systems to provide a secured, private, transparent, and immutable network.

Each transaction on the blockchain is known to be verified and secured even though there is no overseer or central authority that verifies or validates the transactions. The consensus algorithm is what makes it possible to happen, it is one of the core components of any blockchain network.

A consensus algorithm is a process by which the majority of peers on a blockchain network come to a mutual agreement about the current state of the distributed ledger. This is made to stop unethical miners from bringing in false blocks and transactions and also to maintain reliability and trust between peers in the distributed computing space.
There are different types of consensus algorithms some of which are; Proof of work (POW), proof of stake (POS), delegated proof of stake (DPoS), etc.

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Delegated Proof of Stake

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In this type of consensus algorithm, a consensus is reached through assets holders who use their asset balance as a stake to elect new delegates, nodes, or witnesses who will reach a consensus in the process of creating and validating new blocks. This does not mean the tokens are physically transferred to another account or wallet, but instead, delegates are voted upon by pooling the tokens to a staking pool and connecting them to a particular node or delegate.
The power of voting depends on the number of coins each holder has. The token remains the property of the holder and are just representing the position of the holder.

The DPoS is a correction to the high-power consumption and low scalability of the proof of work and proof of stake consensus algorithms at the cost of limiting the number of validators a network can have.

It was developed by Daniel Larimer who was an American software developer. He aimed to create a very secure, scalable, and tolerant to byzantine faults consensus algorithm also with affordable equipment and low energy consumption.

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How DPoS Works

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Delegates are voted by coin holders to oversee the system and offer changes. They do not control the production of blocks or validation of the transaction; however, they only preside over transaction fees, witness pay, the network block interval, block sizes.

The delegates are voted into power by the members of the network who will receive the number of votes depending on the amount of token (stake) they own on the network. Alternatively, voters can decide to delegate their stakes to other voters who will represent them in the block producer election in their stead on the network.

The limited number of block producers means that blocks can be processed through the network much more quickly and efficiently, making the system more scalable. Blocks can also be produced in a very small time period, Steemit block production is currently at 1 block per every 3 seconds. A consensus can be reached if at least two-thirds of the block producers have validated a transaction.

However, no rule limits users from partaking in the voting process due to their stake being small, this way, every user has the opportunity to vote and this makes DPoS the most democratic type of consensus algorithm. Users are not only allowed to vote but they are also allowed to create blocks as well.

At the end of the day, the overall supervisors of the network inspect the work and conduct of the delegates, if the delegates fail to conduct themselves well or fails to perform their duties well, they are punished by expelling or taking away a part of their stake.

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Features of DPoS

• A very notable feature of a DPoS-powered protocol is that the number of block producers is strictly limited.
• The system is very scalable due to its fast and efficient block production rate.
• In DpoS miners do not run hashes to produce blocks. Instead, they are elected to perform the work of validating the blocks on-chain. They are referred to as block producers, delegates, validators, or witnesses.

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Advantages of DPoS

• DPoS tokens can delegate their voting power either to a block producer or to a proxy voter and still maintain their utility. This means the only cost in partaking in the voting system is the time spent on choosing how to allocate the voting power
• No expensive hardware is needed and this makes it less expensive.
• DPoS is much more scalable compared to other consensus algorithms. DPoS in EOS produces 126 blocks in 500 milliseconds (half a second)
• DPoS are very much secured from double-spending attacks.
• It is very energy efficient and also environmentally friendly.
• This consensus algorithm is more democratic and very user-inclusive than PoS and PoW.

Disadvantages of DPoS

• The system is prone to be centralized as the number of witnesses or delegates is restricted.
• If the coin holders are not effective or interested in the voting process, the system cannot function successfully as a good democracy.

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Difference between Proof of Stake (PoS) and Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS)

PoS is a consensus algorithm where an individual is chosen algorithmically to validate transactions based on their staked or locked up tokens (as collateral) using computer hardware. However, PoS turned to be less scalable and more power-consuming so the DPoS was developed to take care of those issues.

DPos	PoS
High scalability	low scalability
Energy efficient	High power consumption
Very affordable	relatively expensive
Very democratic	less democratic

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What are Ricardian contracts on the EOS Blockchain?

The Ricardian contracts are digital documents that represent an agreement between two parties on the conditions and terms for any future operation between them. These documents are legal documents and can be read by both machines and humans.

It was introduced in 1955 by Ian Grigg who was a programmer. The concept could not be executed at that time because there was not the appropriate technology to implement it.
The document is very unique and cannot be duplicated because it is signed cryptographically and verified.

How Ricardian Contract Works

This contract agreement is recognized and enforceable by law as both parties are bound in the agreement. A lawyer may be needed to make such a document before it can be digitalized and hashed to make it readable by the software.
Ricardian contracts are a form of smart contracts and employ the codes sued in smart contracts. They can be changed after the accomplishment of even making them live contracts.

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Information Contained in Ricardian Contracts

• Details of the parties involved in the contract. Their numbers, who represents them, etc.
• Details about the time of the contract.
• Information on any exceptions applicable to the contract.
• Any other condition, exception, and ideas can be included in the contract at any convenient time.

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Features of Ricardian Contracts

• Hidden signature

The two parties involved in the Ricardian contract agree to it by signing it using their private keys. the contract provider also adds their signature to the document. The hash generated from the agreement is then used to bind the hidden signature to the contract.

• Reference to a hash

After the signing of the contract by the parties, it is agreed to refer to the hash of the contract. In case of any payment taking place under the agreement, the guaranteed payment will refer to the hash of the contract along with the paying parties.

• Separation of the issue of the contract and executions of the transactions.

The Ricardian contract finds a way to connect the legislation and the digital space. All requirements and characteristics of a contract are embedded in the contract. This way, the subject of transactions and their executions are separated which enhances security. The contract confirms the agreement so that the agreement can be fulfilled by programs controlled by both parties involved.

The EOS blockchain in a way of making things easier and more understandable seeks to combine Ricardian contracts and smart contracts in the stead of complex codes and algorithms. This way Ricardian contracts can be used in features like the rate of inflation applicable in coin production to make it more understandable and easier for users.

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Comparing Smart Contracts and Ricardian Contracts

Feature	Smart Contracts	Ricardian Contracts
Purpose	smart contract executes the terms of an already concluded agreement	they record the terms of the agreement and the activities of the parties that will happen in the future.
Availability	they are machine readable	they are both human and machine-readable
Legality	they are not legally binding	they are legally binding
Flexibility	they cannot be or function as Ricardian contracts	they can be and function as smart contracts.
Application	they are restricted to only financial transactions	they can be used in any form of a legally binding agreement.

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EOSREX interface (eosauthority.com)

In exploring the interface of the EOSREX, I will first visit the website eosauthority.com
On the homepage, the price of EOS currently stands at $4.320 with a market rank of 34. It also shows yesterday’s high/low at $4.330/$4.11. Yesterday’s trading volume was $1,269,203,983 and Yesterday’s change was 0.217USD which is a 5.28% change.

Scrolling down a bit on the page will show a chart that gives the ID of the current block mined and who produced it. The ID of the current block is 198215776 and it was produced by Newdex. Also, the number of the total EOS wallets stands at 2,780,984 with a 2.62 increase in 30days which is 70,879.

The total number of staked coins is 447,097,412EOS and those that are being unstaked now are 422,826 EOS.
The network has 90,109 voters and 382,160,759EOS as supply which is 37% of the total supply. The RAM usage of the network is currently 77.2GB of a total of 248.0GB. The RAM price per KB is 0.0319EOS/kb
100% of the CPU is being used now. The price of the CPU is 0.0001 EOS/ms/day.

At the top of the page, there is a top menu that includes;
• Dashboard: it gives an overview of your account, showing your balance in various cryptocurrencies.

• Wallets: it opens the wallet of the user and users can search for an account on any network.

• REX: this option has an option to lend to REX, Borrow CPU/NET, it also gives access to the REX calculator and users can also view some REX statistics.

• Power Up: users can power up their accounts here

• Manage CPU/RAM: this section gives a lot of options to unstake or stake tokens, delegate or undelegated and users can also access the RAM market where selling and buying can be done

• Manage Keys: this option allows users who which to their keys change although not recommended to do so

• Vote: here, users can vote on producers, proxies, and referendums.

• Create Account: users can create new member accounts here. It is highly recommended saving your new private keys somewhere safe.

• Bid Name: you can bid for a name here, the new name will be given to you if you win.

• Alerts: users can change the settings on how they prefer to receive notifications on their accounts activities.

• Trade Your Tokens: users can trade their tokens for other tokens here.

At the top menu of the page, there is an option (Events) to view any upcoming and current events on the platform.

The Tools option also gives access to other sections of the platform such as; Account: Telegram and Email alerts, Account Info, Large Account Votes and Top 200 Account Holders, BP Information, Voting, Voting Analysis, Development Tools, Participate, and other Initiatives.

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Download the Sqrl wallet, explore and explain how to obtain CPU, RAM, and Network

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First, go to sqrlwallet.io. Choose your preferred operating system. In my case, I will choose Windows.

Then wait patiently to download the setup. After it has been downloaded, open it to initiate the installation process. Click on the Next button to continue.

Choose the location you want to want to install the files to and click on Install.

Wait patiently for the installation process to complete

After the installation process click on finish to finalize the installation process

Select Telos Mainnet from the list of Networks and click on connect to network.

Enter the required information and click on the circular arrow near the box to generate private and public keys, click on Next.

keep the keys safely somewhere and click on keys are in safe place.

Click on Create My Account.

There was an error so I could not continue. I had to find an alternative way.

To proceed, you have to create a Telos account and open it on the SQRL wallet.
Here is how the account is created.

First, go to telos.net and click on Start Now.

Then select Create new account.

Enter a new account name. It should be of 12 characters consisting of alphabets and numbers from 1 to 5 only. Tick the I have copied my keys to somewhere safe and click on Continue.

Click on Take me to my Profile

Open the SQRL wallet app and click on import existing account.

And input the account name and click on Look Up Account to search for your account.

Enter your private keys and click on compare keys to proceed.

Enter a new wallet password to encrypt the account and click on save account to continue.

Confirm the password by re-entering the local wallet password to proceed.

Read the terms carefully and click on I accept these terms

After opening the account, click on send. receive.stake then select Manage Staked from the cascade menu.

Here you can input the amount of CPU to stake and the amount of NET to stake. The CPU amount box is on the left and the NET amount box is on the right.

To obtain RAM, click on send. receive.stake menu and select Buy RAM from the sub-menu.

Enter the amount of RAM you want to buy in the amount box and click on Buy RAM.

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Show the price of the REX token. And explain what it is used for

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The REX token was created by Daniel Lamier in August 2018. It is the token of the EOSREX platform. It is used to reward users when they provide their RAM, EOS, or CPU to the network.

Unlike the EOS token on the blockchain, the REX token cannot be transferred from one user to another. The REX token can be staked on the network to obtain EOS tokens as rewards. To obtain the REX token, at least 21 block generating witnesses should be voted and the token cannot be sold in four days after acquiring it.

To obtain the price of the REX token, go to the EOSREX website and click on the drop-down menu on the left side of the page. Then select REX

In the REX section find and click on REX statistics then scroll down a bit to find the REX value

The price of REX/EOS as of 7 August 2021 stands at 0.00010108129627000509 EOS

And the price of EOS on coinmarket cap is $4.39.

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Conclusion

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In the first part of this post, I explained what a consensus algorithm is. Then I continued to explain the meaning of Delegated Proof of Stake and showed how it works, it is very similar to Proof of Stake (POS) so I showed how different they are.

I continued and explained the Ricardian contract and explained the difference between the Ricardian contract and the smart contract.

Then I explored the EOSREX interface (eosauthority.com) and explained its features.
I showed how to download and install the Sqrl wallet. Then I demonstrated how to create a Telos account and obtain RAM, CPU, and Network.

Lastly, I showed the price of the REX token to end the lecture.

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Thank You

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