What is Everscale (EVER)?

ForkLog

4 years ago

Key points

Everscale is an ecosystem whose blockchain was built on the architecture of Telegram Open Network (TON). The project was initially called Free TON, but in November 2021 the community voted to rename it.
From the outset, the Everscale protocol has offered a multilevel blockchain, sharding and multithreaded execution, making it one of the fastest blockchain platforms.
Everscale’s community is developing DeFi and NFT projects; holders of the native coin, EVER, can vote in the DAO.

Who launched Everscale, and when?

Development of Telegram Open Network began in 2018. Fundraising was led by Pavel Durov, and the project’s white paper was written by his brother, Nikolai Durov.

TON was slated to launch in autumn 2019, but this was derailed by an injunction from America’s Securities and Exchange Commission. The legal battle lasted several months.

Meanwhile TON’s developers, together with external contractors, kept working and open-sourced code for completed components. In spring 2020 Telegram chose not to continue the case, and Pavel Durov announced the project’s closure.

More than two dozen companies and teams—including some who had worked on TON—then used its ready-made protocol alongside their own work to launch the Free TON mainnet in May 2020. Founders included Everstake, Simplex, Forklog’s founder Anatoliy Kaplan, the Kuna exchange and others.

Is Everscale a fork of TON?

Everscale is not a TON fork, because TON never launched. The new blockchain used Telegram Open Network’s code, which was open to all.

What is Everscale’s native coin called?

The cryptocurrency bears the same name as the network and trades under the ticker EVER on various exchanges: Gate.io, MEXC, Kuna, Coinone, HitBTC and others. Custom tokens are also issued on the Everscale blockchain.

Where can you store EVER?

Several popular wallets support Everscale coins and other network tokens:

Ever Surf. An open-source wallet from EverX—the company that worked on TON and later became one of Everscale’s founders. The app is available for Android and iOS. It supports “debots”—applications with various functions and a chat-style interface, similar to Telegram bots.
EVER Wallet. A wallet from another key developer and Everscale co-founder, Broxus. Available for Android and iOS, and as a browser wallet, making it convenient for DeFi and Web3 apps.
Everspace. A popular mobile wallet developed by a group of programmers from the Everscale community.

What distinguishes the Everscale blockchain?

Consensus algorithm

The network uses a Proof-of-Stake family algorithm. Validators verify the blockchain’s data and produce blocks. A protocol called Soft Majority Fault Tolerance (SMFT) is responsible for the security and integrity of the blockchain’s data. It governs how a group of validators reaches consensus on the “correct” block to be added to the chain. Validators select one of their number to “find” a new block and broadcast it to the network; a group of validators then confirms the block’s correctness.

Multilevel blockchain

Everscale has inherited parts of TON’s architecture as described in its white paper. The network consists of several layers of blockchains:

Masterchain. The main blockchain, responsible for verifying core network data and existing as a single chain. Its blocks store key information about Everscale’s state—confirmations of the correctness of all workchains’ data.
Workchains. Blockchains designed for specific components of the ecosystem, such as decentralised applications. A workchain can have its own address and transaction formats, separate virtual machines and so on. Workchains must be mutually compatible—this is enforced by the masterchain. Their number can change.
Shardchains. The basic building block—a “mini-blockchain” that can include one or more blocks. A single workchain can have several shardchains.

Sharding and multithreading

Everscale bills itself as the first multithreaded blockchain, operating like a modern multi-core processor. From launch it has supported sharding—validators executing multiple operations in parallel. This is enabled by the multilevel architecture: each workchain has its own ledger and its own validator set, which reaches consensus independently. The number of shardchains storing transaction data is elastic and adjusts to current load.

Read more about Everscale’s architecture in the project’s Litepaper and Whitepaper.

Current network data—validator counts, transactions, workchains and shardchains, plus information on individual addresses and transactions—are available in the block explorers Everscan and EverLive.

Who runs Everscale?

Initially, governance had two tiers: a council of founders and multiple “sub-governances”—groups of active community members who voluntarily organised around specific tasks. They ran contests to deliver defined objectives.

In spring 2022 the community voted to adopt a new governance model. A decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) called Ever DAO was created, which now hosts votes on the project’s development.

Anyone holding EVER can vote (one coin, one vote). To do so, holders must wrap EVER into WEVER on the DAO website and lock the tokens in a smart contract. A decision requires participation from at least 500,000 WEVER holders and a majority in favour. Proposing an initiative requires 100,000 EVER.

Which applications run on Everscale?

Several applications with active communities operate on Everscale. Among them:

FlatQube. The main decentralised exchange on Everscale, developed by Broxus and the Everscale DeFi Alliance. It uses an automated market maker. As of 20 April the total value locked (TVL) on FlatQube exceeds $65m. Twenty tokens trade on the exchange.
Octus Bridge. A cross-chain bridge for transferring assets between blockchains. The app currently supports Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Phantom and Everscale. Avalanche and Milkomeda are slated to be added.
ChessNFT. A platform for minting and trading non-fungible tokens themed around chess. An official project of the International Chess Federation (FIDE).
GrandBazar. The main NFT marketplace on Everscale. More than 3,300 unique tokens from 200 collections trade there.
EverLend. A decentralised lending protocol operating on principles similar to Compound. Users create pools of various assets from which funds can be borrowed at a dynamic interest rate.

How is Everscale developing?

In February 2022 the project’s key developers presented a roadmap for 2022.

The plan envisages improvements to the protocol and the Ever OS operating system, more tools and documentation for developers, growth in NFT, DeFi and GameFi, and integration with other blockchains, notably Tezos and Cardano.

The roadmap also calls for implementing zk-SNARKs and migrating to a new consensus algorithm.