NULS- A highly customizable modular blockchain infrastructure

There have been evolution of technologies generations after generations, decades after decades and from existing version to futuristic version etc. When we talk about technologies, then Blockchain is one of the most wonderful technology of 21st century which was invented in the year 2009. The fundamental feature of Blockchain technology is its spirit of decentralization. The traditional centralized model of business is a third party oriented business model, where as the business model based upon Blockchain technology eliminates a third party and make the business happen through distributed nodes.

The Blockchain technology tends to make a world-wide disruptive technology. Even after having such a wonderful technology, it is having a very limited application when we talk about it in 2018. The reasons are many, some of the them are confined to the requirement of a developer skill to understand this technology and its subsequent application and some are the issues/problems of existing Blockchain technology. So unless the module of Blockchain technology becomes easy, wide open and being able to fit to the requirement and suitability of an end user, mass adoption and commercial grade application of Blockchain technology will be far from reality.

In this segment, we will discuss about a Blockchain technology called NULS which is decentralized and aims to offer customizing features to the individual/businesses to make it adaptable to variety of applications and helps to bridge the gap between the real world and Blockchain technology.

NULS is an open-source platform that will provide to the network members development tools for their projects. The goal is to create a community-driven development based on the consensus mechanism proof-of-credit and modular architecture.

NULS makes the application interface simple & easy and eliminates the high development costs also and the businesses only need to focus on their skill to set their parameters of business model. It offers a multi-chain system comprising of main-chain & sub-chain where the the interaction between main-chain and sub-chain is possible and also the functional modules are compartmentalized. The users are free to choose their way to designate their sub-chain such as own consensus algorithm or their own choice of available consensus mechanism, they can make their chain private or public, they can have their dAPPS, they can choose their own anonymity policy etc.

The application of Blockchain technology has been very limited when it comes to enterprise/business level adoption of Blockchain technology and there are several issues and problem interface which is hindering the development and mass adoption of Blockchain technology. Those problems/issues are:-

• Complexity of developing a Blockchain & Requirement of "Ease of use"
• Adaptibility
• Performance (Scalability & Inter-operability)
• Transparency & Confidentiality
• Consensus
• Economy
• Modular Architecture
• Security & Safety

In this article we will discuss about each of the above problem which is hindering the commercial grade application of Blockchain technology and the role of "NULS" to each of the above problem interface, how it will mitigate those issues/problems and how it can bridge the gap between businesses and Blockchain technology and make a way for mass adoption.

Even after 10 years of presence of Blockchain technology, the mass adoption has not become a reality and the technology has not been adopted by businesses/enterprises owing to the issues like complexity of developing a blockchain for a particular business and the complicated way of incorporating it into a business module. It is also a time consuming process.

NULS offers a "simple programmable feature" which can facilitate both geek and non-geek individual and/or enterprises. The non-geek individual will find it easy and a geek can further apply and extend his developing skills. So the "ease of use" of NULS architecture is a step forward to accommodate a wide array of individual/businesses/enterprises to adopt Blockchain technology and hence NULS can make the mass adoption a reality.

When it comes to application in real life, then it is really vast and wide and without customization feature, it is not possible to offer a single application interface to a wide variety of businesses. And this customization feature will not only give the flexibility from business point of view but also it will make the job of a developer easy.

NULS is flexible and can be customized and tailored made as per the suitability and requirement of individuals/enterprises and it has the "application layer" which provides infrastructure support to the developer. The developer can easily make use of modular part of NULS such as multi-chain system and smart contracts.

When it comes to high-performance, then the centralized servers used to have upper hand over decentralized nodes. The reason is scalability and inter-operability. Most of the existing blockchain technology are still not being scalable and not being able to interact between different heterogeneous blockchain(inter-operability). So there is a need of environment when the decentralized technology like Blockchain technology should be able to scale higher number transaction per second and also should be able to make the transaction/interaction happen between two different chain(cross-chain transactions), so that the performance of Blockchain can be at par with the centralized technology and this can bridge the gap between businesses/enterprises and Blockchain technology.

NULS is capable to scale millions of transactions per second and it has multi-chain system (main-chain & sub-chain), so it solves the issue of scalability and inter-operability both. It is both expandable and extendable. Transaction happens through main chain, sub-chain and between main-chain and sub-chain also, this is the most important feature of NULS which was awaited for a long time since the invention of Blockchain technology and it will definitely make the way for business level application and mass adoption of Blockchain technology.

It is a well know fact that, Blockchain is open-source public ledger and transparent in nature. There are enterprises/businesses, where data confidentiality is a predominant criteria in their business and such industries can not be in a position to adopt open-source and transparent Blockchain technology.

NULS(although being an open-source) can solve this issue, as it has the data isolation feature and cross-chain auditing mechanism, which protects the confidentiality of data. Therefore the businesses/enterprises for whom the data confidentiality is a predominant criteria can easily adopt NULS. NULS strikes a balance between transparency and confidentiality.

When it comes to industry/enterprise level application of Blockchain technology, it is not fair to impose a particular kind of consensus mechanism to them. A particular consensus mechanism may not be ideal for an industry/enterprise. It may so happen that they may be willing to incorporate a Blockchain technology for their business but they may not be happy/comfortable with the underlying consensus mechanism. So there is a need to make the space of consensus mechanism flexible and let the enterprise/business decide their own consensus mechanism or their own choice of available consensus mechanism.

NULS will make it happen and will let you have your own consensus mechanism, where an individual/enterprise can insert their own consensus module and can replace the core functional module. The rules can be set in sub-chain as per the requirement of the individual/enterprise. The main chain of NULS will use Proof of Credit (PoC) protocol for consensus. PoC is simply PoS+Credit rating. PoS consensus mechanism selects individual based on the proportion of the stake in the network. When this mechanism is added with credit rating system, then it is known as Proof of Credit(PoC).

If a user wants to run a node, the he/she is required a certain number of tokens(20000 NULS at the moment) to be locked to create a node and then needs a Linux server/VPS to run the node and then activate it. The consensus reward is based on stacked coins and credit rating.

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Credit Rating

The credit rating is a way to define the integrity and trustworthiness of a user running the node in the network of NULS. This rating is between -1 to +1. there are two types of alert: Yellow card Alert & Red Card Alert.

Yellow Card Alert is for those who make the violation unknowingly or without any malicious intention.

Examples:- Creating a block during internet disconnection, computer crash etc.
In this type of violation the punishment is: freezing up of the account for 72 hrs and credit rating is downgraded.

Red Card Alert is for those who make violations deliberately.

Examples:- Double spend attacks, malicious nodes, attempts to fork the system etc.
In this type of violation the punishment is: freezing up of the account for a longer period like 1 month and credit rating downgraded to an extent that they will not be able to participate in future.

When an enterprise incorporates a technology then it intents to value it through tokenization and the business model should be able interact/transact with the economy of main chain.

NULS is a multi-chain technology comprising of main-chain and sub-chain. NULS has the token called NULS which is the native token of the entire ecosystem. The sub-chain can issue their own token through smart contract which is known as IOU asset. NULS can be convertible to IOU assets and vice versa. The conversion is done through NULS capital pool and smart asset pool, however the conversion rate is influenced by market value.

NULS always recognizes quality projects in business partnerships. That is why it has allocated 20% of the total supply(100 million) which is 20 million token to support high quality NULS based third party projects(Not more than 4 million tokens will be used per year).

It is obvious that whatever technology we have today is better than the past. The new generation technology and the futuristic version will be even better than the present. So the current technology should be such that the latest updates can be easily incorporated in to it, so that it will not become obsolete in the fast changing technological world. The business/enterprise/commercial level Blockchain technology should be modular in nature, so that not only it can be customized but also it can be updated with latest developments very easily.

NULS offers that modular architecture in which customization is possible and as it uses Linux kernel, the latest updates can be incorporated very easily and it will make the Blockchain very dynamic, that is what the requirement of commercial grade Blockchain technology is.

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• NULS modular structure comprise of NULS kernel and modular components.

• NULS Kernel - Modular manager, Service bus, Event bus.

• Modular Components - Smart Contract, Account, Storage, Consensus, Processor.

From module manager, all the module components are managed, loaded and unloaded.

For any businesses/enterprises, secured environment and safety protocol is always of paramount importance. Even if the heterogeneous chains become able to interact/transact, how safe is that interaction/transaction is again a question mark and unless the existing technology cater those, the mass adoption or commercial grade incorporation of technology will be far from reality.

NULS is the most secured anvironemnt and it not only facilitates multi-chain system and allow the interaction/transaction between main-chain and sub-chain but also it guarantees the safety of the network by:- (i) Preventing the centralization of the domain. (ii) Rotation policy of cross-chain node to broadcast information.

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NULS gives all the infrastructure for all sub-chains and gives building blocks through which one can customize his own token, own consensus mechanism, own sub-chain and can set other parameter. The consensus reward is based on amount of stacked coins and credit rating. The verification of the block happens through cross-chain consensus.

There is main-chain domain which is surrounded by main-chain nodes. similarly there will be several sub-chain domain which will be surrounded by sub-chain nodes. The cross-chain consensus domain is the overlapped area between the main-chain and sub-chains. The transaction/sharing of data happens through the cross-chain consensus domain.

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The nodes of the cross-chain consensus domain are known as cross-chain consensus nodes and these nodes should be able to load modules, that can be operable across both the chains.

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The feature of modular architecture is very very new & unique in Blockchain industry and this feature makes NULS distinct & distinguished in Blockchain space. NULS can make it possible to unlock the door of unlimited potential for commercial grade application of Blockchain technology. The real world problems are really huge and the multi dimensional society really needs the service of Blockchain technology and with the ready-made developing tools of NULS, the individuals/enterprises will find it lot more easier than before and that will be sufficient to convince them to incorporate Blockchain technology.

Going forward NULS can prove to be the true and real Blockchain solution to the real world application and with its amazing features, its future prospect is really very bright and promising.

That summarizes the write up. Thank you.

Official channels of NULS :

Official Website :https://nuls.io/
Official Telegram : https://t.me/Nulsio
Official News Telegram : https://t.me/NulsNews
Official Twitter : https://twitter.com/nulsservice
Official Reddit : https://www.reddit.com/r/nulsservice/
Official Medium : https://medium.com/@nuls
Official Chinese Telegram : https://t.me/Nulscn
Official Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/nulscommunity
Official Steemit : https://steemit.com/@nuls
Official Forum : https://nuls.community/