The following whitepaper is intended to be a technical overview. It is not intended to be comprehensive nor to be the final design. Noncritical aspects are not covered. This paper consists of information given for discussion purposes only and does not represent investment advice of any kind. Further, it does not constitute an offer to sell shares or securities, nor does it constitute a solicitation to buy such shares or securities. None of the information found within is intended to influence any investment decision nor should it be the basis of an investment decision of any kind. Investment advice for investment in any security, or any tax or legal advice should only be given by an investment advisor, and Imversed is not an investment advisor. Imversed encourages readers to seek appropriate and independent professional advice to inform themselves of the legal requirements and tax consequences of any investments they make, both within Imversed and within the blockchain industry as a whole. Investments should only be done with the help of an independent financial advisor within context of the countries of their citizenship or residence, and their place of business with respect to the acquisition, holding or trade in Imversed (IMV) or any other coins or tokens. Please note that this Whitepaper does not constitute an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, for any person for whom it may be unlawful to participate in a token sale. Those for whom it is unlawful to participate should not participate. Consult with your own lawyer or accountant to determine whether it is lawful for you to participate in this coin sale. This Whitepaper should in no way be construed as being intended to create a contract for investment. This Whitepaper (version 1.0) may be revised, with the newest edition always appearing on our website. For each revision cycle, we will provide notes on what has changed and the justification for the change. Updated versions of the Whitepaper (as indicated by consecutive edition numbers) may contain information which may override, clarify, or contradict previous editions, in which case the latest version should be considered the most accurate and up to date. Because of this, versions which are found outside of the Imversed website may contain out-of-date or inaccurate information. The most up-to-date version of the white paper can be located online at imversed.com
The attached white paper is meant to describe Imversed’s current anticipated plans for developing its business and (IMV) coins. Nothing in this document should be treated or read as a guarantee or promise of how Imversed’s business will develop or of the utility or value of IMV; the document outlines our current plans, which could change at our discretion, and the success of which will depend on many factors outside our control, including market-based factors and factors within the cryptocurrency industries, among others. Any statements about future events are based solely on our analysis of the issues described in this document, and our analysis may prove to be incorrect. Purchasing IMV is subject to many potential risks, some of which are described in this paper, and some of which are provided in the FAQ on imerversed.com. These documents, along with additional information about our business and IMV, are available on our website at imversed.com. Purchasers of IMV could lose all or some of the value of the funds used to purchase IMV
Web 2.0 gathered some of the most brilliant minds in the tech industry as they joined forces to develop the internet. Businesses and individuals quickly jumped on to the internet bandwagon and were able to tap into a new level of Business opportunities and options never seen before. While limited to tech professionals in the early days of the internet, building a website or online ecommerce store quickly became a simple click and build process.
As the world migrates to Web 3.0 technology, systems need to be established to help businesses and individuals migrate along with it. In Blockchain, the complexity of software development and intricacy of running a community-based infrastructure can become a serious roadblock to success.
There are many parallels that can be drawn between the internet and blockchain. The internet has allowed the democratization of communication, social networks, financial services, writing, video publishing, and more. Blockchain technology will have similar effects. It will allow for the democratization and decentralization of money, platforms, verification on the blockchain, and much more.
The current market cap of the global crypto market sits at 1.83 trillion USD. With the blockchain market still in infancy, and the majority of businesses not using or even understanding Web3.0, there is a huge potential for growth in a system that can help onboard new businesses to blockchain.
According to the technology adoption curve above, where blockchain rests today, is somewhere around where the internet was at in 1998, when users of Aol were abundant and yahoo rang supreme. Things change quickly in technology in a short period of time. It was not so long ago that Internet servers were housed in physical bare-metal cases overseen by teams of specialists. Next came data centers with unimodal equipment that could be rented. Later virtualization became a new form, and the architecture of today’s information systems is no longer tied to physical servers.
Blockchain is going through the same phases, from enthusiasts mining Bitcoin on their physical computers to ASIC mining farms near power sources. Blockchain is evolving rapidly and is now moving from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake which makes developing a thriving community and ecosystem easier than it was before. Those who witnessed the progression of the Internet, understand that mass onboarding of businesses is coming next. Still, no blockchain has managed to develop a system that seamlessly integrates traditional businesses into blockchain and crypto. If a company wants to launch on Web 3.0 they would likely need a team of blockchain experts to assist them at a significant cost. Blockchain needs a faster and smoother onboarding system so everyday businesses can get on Web 3.0 with limited effort, and continue on building their brand.
The Imversed network plans to eliminate the barriers to blockchain technology for entrepreneurs, communities, and influencers. As the demand for blockchain and crypto based products and services grows, more businesses need simplified access to incorporate blockchain technology into their plan. Imversed is the bridge between businesses, influencers, and the community allowing users to onboard their existing business into blockchain seamlessly. Users can bring their brand and idea into crypto without having engineers, servers, or blockchain professionals on their staff. With Imversed, users can place blockchain under their brand, to highlight the power of it, rather than create a separate and distinct department.
Imversed provides each brand with what they call a Verse. A Verse provides a stage for brands to create a crypto integration like an NFT, a branded token, or governance. Brands don’t need to take any action to make it decentralized or distributed, because Imversed codes the Verse. Imversed can create Verses tokens for any brand built on it and will track the record of coins and tokens within the system.
Imversed can be thought of as the ground level or home base of the many Verses that will be built on top of it. Smart Contracts are not used on the Imversed chain, but rather the technology is based on modules. The user doesn’t need a custom smart contract but still has rich functionality that can connect with Web 3.0 products. Because Imversed is a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain, it has the ability to give voting power to those that own the Imversed Coin (IMV). The more IMV, the more power and influence the user has in the community. The core team cannot update the blockchain without the approval of IMV coin holders. The power is thus distributed and decentralized.
To create this simplified brand onboarding process, Imversed leverages a PoS blockchain engine with Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus, allowing blockchain to perform operations quickly and securely, even when some of the nodes fail to respond. Imversed is a community-driven Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution that makes blockchain technology accessible to the masses.
- Verses, or, crypto sub-spaces created by users
- Stable and secured implementation of Proof-of-Stake (POS [2]) consensus
- All verse tokens are interchangeable
- Possibility to use Oracles to establish ownership and copyright for NFT tokens
- Integrations with major e-commerce platforms enable NFT sales similar to those of traditional products
- Multiple levels of verses, and the top-level verses can benefit from the lower-level ones
- Infrastructure is propelled forward by a dependable engine (Imversed chain)
Imversed is a blockchain application built on top of the COSMOS library that, once combined with Tendermint Core [3], provides a high-performance, consistent-in-use, and secure PBFT-like consensus engine with strict fork-accountability guarantees over malicious actors' behavior.
More information on PBFT-like consensus engines can be found in [6]. The BFT consensus algorithm from Tendermint Core is well-suited for scaling public Proof-of-Stake blockchains.
Imversed was designed with ease of use in mind. More non-technical people should be able to enter the blockchain world and begin to thrive and grow. These individuals will contribute their enthusiasm and ideas to increase the value of the blockchain ecosystem. Unlike other blockchain projects, Imversed allows users to create their own verses through a simple, consistent, and clear API. No-code, strong validation and accessible UX significantly reduces human errors at critical steps.
Verse is a blockchain that has its own branding, currency, exchange, NFT minting process, and integrations. At the same time, it does not require a tech team or servers that a typical blockchain project needs. The business concept is placed on blockchain with ease.
Imversed is surrounded by its own web3 ecosystem of projects and APIs for developers. In addition, Imversed is compatible with other COSMOS-based projects.
Each business or individual that establishes a Verse, can access the most useful elements from the blockchain world. Each Verse is like a blockchain network within the larger Imversed network with its own branded token. The branded tokens can be exchanged for tokens from other established Verses as well as tokens from other networks within Imversed. These tokens can be exchanged for IMV, the Imversed coin, in order to exchange it with other cryptocurrencies. The token can be used for financial transactions as well as community governance. Along with the token, Verses can issue a collection of NFTs. An oracle, or access to outside information, is added to the NFT collection which allows buyers to verify authenticity and rights. Each verse is compatible with Imversed Web 3.0 ecosystem including:
- NFT e-commerce
- Multi-token Wallet
- Transaction explorer
- NFT certificates center
- HTTP/Unity/iOS/Android API
- And more
Imversed uniquely allows brands to test its business strategies without capital expenditures and diving into the world of blockchain by providing each user with a Verse. The possible use cases for a Verse vary but some examples may be:
- Metaverse economy with token exchange between verses
- Sale of uniquely branded NFT tokens
- Traditional e-commerce shop with NFT tokens as goods
- Management of landlord communities and any other communities through democratic public voting
- Personal token of a celebrity or an influencer
Some projects may grow beyond the limits of Imversed and make the decision to move to its own platform. For such cases, Imversed will have mechanisms for Verses migration to a self-sufficient, separate blockchain network.
Verses can also form a hierarchical structure. When Verses are established underneath an existing Verse, the higher-level Verse profits from the growth of their underlying Verses.
To illustrate this point, imagine that a holding company creates a Verse representing the entire corporation plus a few additional layers, e.g., two verses for each line of business to diversify risks or for branding purposes. For example: Imagine a shoe manufacturing company started a Verse. That company may have several different brands underneath the larger manufacturing center. In this case the manufacturing plant could be the highest order Verse, and the individual brands underneath would be lower-level Verses all benefiting the highest level.
Layering Verses in Imversed allows users to assign a hierarchical structure to the Verses created on the chain. The top-level structure is designed to benefit from sub-verses' activity. These benefits can be obtained through a variety of means, including the following:
- A portion of each transaction made with the level 2 Verses will be distributed to all holders of the main Verse tokens
- A portion of each lower level Verse token transaction will be remitted to a service account established in a level 2 verse denomination
- A percentage of each transaction performed using lower-level Verse tokens will eventually be distributed to all holders of the top-level Verse tokens who have staked their tokens in validators
Community governance is a complex process. To increase transparency and trust, Imversed offers an open democratic voting tool that aids in decision making. The initial number of tokens issued is divided among voters according to their weight. This can depend on the size of one’s territory or be, for example, 1 token per voter. After that, voters have full control over the tokens they have received and may hand them into trust management or sell them at their discretion. Each token holder can pay a fee in IMV and ask a question in a poll. Voting is documented on the blockchain and cannot be altered or changed.
Everyone who holds IMV coin, can vote on any change to the Imversed chain. The core team cannot alter the chain without approval from the governing body.
As an additional option, some Verses may require governance. This is not anticipated to be the norm but the option is available should a project need it. Imversed provides governance tokens for each Verse that needs it. The governance for the Verses are completely separate and independent from Imversed. Every member of the organization receives governance tokens which gives access to voting amongst members on any changes to their Verse.
In Imversed, NFT tokens are integrated as part of the blockchain. This makes all tokens uniform, trustworthy, recognizable by all external services, and perfectly traceable. Different types of NFT ownership and royalty programs are available and more features will be added with new versions of Imversed.
NFTs typically come in a series or collection, like the Punks or Kitties. Imversed introduces a simple way to associate NFT. The term denomination means a name or designation, especially one serving to classify a set of things. In Imversed, the Denomination is the metadata attached to a group of NFTs. It is sort of like a blueprint, containing the details of the NFT collection like author, website, name, and more. As a field, each NFT contains the identity of the denomination. The Denomination is owned and can be changed by the owner. New changes do not affect NFTs that have already been issued. Since the denomination is not restricted, anyone can mint with a specific denomination. Denomination contains both strictly typed fields and data fields that can be filled with whatever information the owner desires. NFT tokens issued by an artist are a good example of a denomination. This artist may want to specify their site in the denomination to make themself more recognizable even after the NFT has changed hands several times.
ETH [4] is probably the most popular network for NFTs, but in terms of copyright and security it resembles the Wild West. This network seems to be a lawless wasteland when it comes to trademarks and ownership. Anyone may reissue and sell anything. Users can create an ERC-721-compliant contract and mint any NFT. Imversed defines denomination as a type of NFT user or company that is able to produce and mint NFTs.
The Imversed denomination has a holder. Although the creator of the denomination maintains ownership, it can be transferred to another location. A Denomination may contain an URL to the Oracle database. This URL should implement a special HTTP contract that allows an Imversed network address to determine whether or not they have authorization for the URL of the NFT they wish to mint.
Project Name: Imversed Symbol: IMV Coin Allocation Presale: TBD Private Sale: TBD Public Sale/Liquidity: TBD Development/Marketing: TBD Team: TBD Advisors and Legal: TBD
While Imversed is a distributed ledger that supports multiple assets, it is distinguished by its coin, the IMV, which is Imversed's single staking token. IMVs are a sort of license that allows the holder to vote, validate, and delegate authority to additional validators. IMVs, like Ethereum's ether, can be used to defray transaction costs, thus minimizing spam. Additional inflationary IMVs and block transaction fees are paid to validators and delegators who delegate to validators.
A liquidity pool is a self-balancing weighted portfolio and price sensor that acts as an automatic market maker [9]. The liquidity pool system calculates the exchange rate prior to the exchange taking into account several important factors such as the number of tokens requested for exchange, the number of tokens locked in the liquidity pool, the total amount of individual tokens participating in current exchanges, and other. The algorithm may change, but it will always be part of the blockchain code, and any change must be democratically approved by vote. Tokens without monetary value are also allowed in the Imversed ecosystem. Initially, the creator of a token can provide liquidity for the pool, or other users may stack their tokens to the pool to benefit from the exchange fees.
Without value attached, tokens are just bytes in blockchain transactions. Imversed allows on-chain tokens to be traded with one another. Tokens could be exchanged directly or indirectly through the IMV coin (double conversion). The value of each token is determined by the amount of demand and supply within a given token pair. The amount of liquidity locked up in the token pair's liquidity pool defines the exchange rate within the token pair. Non-financial tokens can act as NFTs or allow users to participate in non-financial distribution and public voting.
The blockchain economy is based on an enthusiastic/engaged community, and this economy does not work without transaction fees. On the other hand, high transaction fee costs become a restraint for developmental potential. In Imversed, transaction fees can be lowered or raised depending on the interests of the community and are not tied in a constant proportion to the value of the IMV token. The price of the gas unit is determined by a public vote through the governance tool. All transaction fees are paid in IMV by default. However, the community can vote to add other user-created verse coins to the list of coins eligible for transaction fee payment. In addition, for some types of transactions, the fee can be paid by the recipient, or it may be paid from a service account.
The decentralized blockchain is the foundation for decentralized apps (dApps). Each app solves a specific problem for community members. Imversed implements dApps as modules. Modules are a much more secure way to extend network functionality compared to smart contracts, as they must be approved by the community and go through a governance process. Imversed also provides a lightweight client for querying blockchain nodes. The light client allows third-party developers to easily query data from the blockchain and develop services for the Imversed ecosystem. The Imversed blockchain is a multi-tiered, community-driven decentralized network. The zero tier is a layer of physical servers managed by the IMV coin community. Each server runs the exact version of an open-source application, ensuring transparency and trust among community members. Full nodes can be promoted to validators so they can add new blocks to the blockchain. Since zero layer logic guarantees rules and principles, all layers based on it are decentralized and community-driven. Decisions to change zero layer logic can only be made by IMV token holders and must go through a democratic voting process .
This section briefly discusses the Tendermint consensus method and the application development interface. Tendermint is the underlying technology of the Imversed blockchain that is responsible for implementing general distributed blockchain activities such as network communication, data exchange, transaction confirmation, and in-app communication.
In classical Byzantine fault-tolerant (BFT) algorithms, each node has the same weight. In Tendermint, nodes have a non-negative voting weight, and nodes with positive voting weights are called validators. Validators participate in the consensus protocol by broadcasting cryptographic signatures or votes to agree upon the next block. The voting power of validators is determined at creation or is deterministically changed by the blockchain depending on the application. For example, in a Proof-of-Stake application such as Cosmos Hub, voting power can be determined by the amount of staking tokens deposited as collateral. NOTE: Fractions such as ⅔ and ⅓ refer to fractions of the total voting power, never to the total number of validators, unless all validators have equal weight. >⅔ means "more than ⅔", ≥⅓ means "at least ⅓".
Tendermint is a partially synchronous BFT consensus protocol derived from DLS consensus algorithm [8]. Tendermint stands out for its simplicity, performance, and fork-accountability. The protocol requires a fixed number of validators, with each validator identified by its public key. The validators try to come to consensus on one block at a time, where a block is a list of transactions. Voting on a block proceeds in rounds. Each round has a round leader or proposer who proposes a block. The validators then vote incrementally on whether to accept the proposed block or move on to the next round. The proposer for a round is deterministically selected from the list of validators ranked in proportion to their voting power. Tendermint's security is based on the use of optimal Byzantine fault-tolerance through super-majority voting (>⅔) and a locking mechanism. In combination, they ensure that:
- ≥⅓ voting power must be Byzantine to cause a violation of safety, where more than two values are committed.
- If any group of validators ever succeeds in violating safety, or even attempts to do so, they can be identified by protocol. This includes both voting on conflicting blocks and transmission of unjustified votes. Despite the strong guarantees it ensures, Tendermint provides exceptional performance. In benchmarks of 64 nodes spread across 7 data centers on 5 continents on commodity cloud instances, Tendermint consensus can process thousands of transactions per second, with commit latencies on the order of one to two seconds. Remarkably, the performance of well over a thousand transactions per second is maintained even under challenging conditions when validators crash or broadcast maliciously crafted votes. See the figure below for details.
A major advantage of Tendermint's consensus algorithm is the simplified security of the light client, making it an ideal candidate for mobile and Internet-of-Things use cases. While a Bitcoin light client must synchronize chains of block headers and find the one with the most Proof-of-Work, Tendermint light clients only need to keep up with changes to the validator set and then verify the >⅔ PreCommits in the latest block to determine the latest state. Succinct light client proofs also enable inter-blockchain communication.
Tendermint guarantees protective measures that prevent certain notable attacks, such as long-range-nothing-at-stake double spends and censorship.
The Tendermint consensus algorithm is implemented in a program called Tendermint Core. Tendermint Core is an application-agnostic "consensus engine" that can turn any deterministic blackbox application into distributed, replicated blockchain data. Tendermint Core connects to blockchain applications via the Application Blockchain Interface (ABCI) [7]. Thus, ABCI allows for blockchain applications to be programmed in any language, not just the programming language in which the consensus engine is written. Additionally, ABCI allows easy replacement of the consensus layer of any existing blockchain stack. We draw an analogy to the well-known Bitcoin cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency blockchain where each node maintains a fully audited Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) database. If one wanted to create a Bitcoin-like system based on ABCI, Tendermint Core would be responsible for
- Sharing blocks and transactions between nodes
- Establishing a canonical/immutable order of transactions (the blockchain)
Meanwhile, the ABCI application would be responsible for
- Maintaining the UTXO database
- Validating cryptographic signatures of transactions
- Preventing spending non-existent funds in transactions
- Allowing clients to query the UTXO database
Tendermint is able to decompose the blockchain design by providing a very simple API between the application process and the consensus process.
Unlike Bitcoin or other Proof-of-Work blockchains, a Tendermint blockchain gets slower with more validators due to increased communication complexity. Fortunately, we can support enough validators to make for a robust, globally distributed blockchain with very fast transaction confirmation times. With increasing bandwidth, storage capacity, and parallel computing capabilities, we will be able to support more validators in the future.
For any intentional or unintentional deviation from the sanctioned protocol, a penalty must be imposed on the validators. Some evidence is immediately admissible, such as a double sign at the same height and round, or a "prevote-the-lock" violation (a rule of the Tendermint consensus protocol). Such evidence will cause the validator to lose its good standing. Moreover, its bonded IMVs as well as its proportionate share of tokens in the reserve pool, collectively referred to as its "stake", will get slashed.
Sometimes, validators may be unavailable, whether due to regional network disruptions, power outages or other reasons. If at any time in the past "ValidatorTimeoutWindow" blocks a validator's commit vote, and it is not recorded in the blockchain more than "ValidatorTimeoutMaxAbsent" times, that validator becomes inactive and loses "ValidatorTimeoutPenalty" (DEFAULT 1%) of its stake. Some "malicious" behaviors do not result in obviously discernible evidence in the blockchain. In these cases, validators can coordinate out-of-band to enforce the timeout of these malicious validators if there is supermajority consensus. In situations where the Cosmos Hub goes offline due to a ≥⅓ coalition of voting power going offline, or in situations where a ≥⅓ coalition of voting power censor evidence of malicious behavior to prevent it from entering the blockchain, the hub must recover with a hard-fork reorg-proposal.
Constitution and governance framework should regulate distributed public ledgers. The Bitcoin Foundation and mining work together to improve Bitcoin. However, this is a lengthy process. Due to the lack of a prior social contract or framework for such decisions, Ethereum hard-forked into ETH and ETC following the DAO hack.
Validators and Imversed delegated members can vote on proposals to adjust system specifications (such as the block gas limit), coordinate updates, and rewrite Imversed's human-readable constitution. The constitution encourages collaboration on theft and bugs (such as the DAO incident) among stakeholders, leading to a faster and cleaner resolution.
Imversed is a decentralized organization that requires a well-defined governance structure in order to organize multiple blockchain adjustments such as system variables, software upgrades, and constitutional changes. Each proposal must be voted on by all validators. Failure to vote expeditiously on a proposal will disable the validator for a period of time referred to as the "AbsenteeismPenaltyPeriod" (DEFAULT 1 week). Delegates automatically inherit the validator's vote. Manual override of this vote is allowed and unbound IMVs do not vote. Each proposal requires the deposit of "MinimumProposalDeposit" tokens, which can be any combination of tokens, including IMVs. It is up to voters to accept or reject the deposit for each plan. If more than half of the voters accept the deposit (e.g., because it is a spam proposal), it is added to the reserve pool minus the burned IMVs. Voters can choose one of the following options for each proposal:
- Yea
- Yea with force
- Nay
- Nay with force
- Abstain
A simple majority of "Yea" or "Yea with force" votes is required to approve (or reject) a proposal, but 1/3 or more of the votes may veto the majority decision by voting “with force.” If a strict majority decision is vetoed, all parties pay “VetoPenaltyFeeBlocks” (DEFAULT 1 day’s worth of blocks) in fees (except taxes, which are unaffected), and the party that vetoed the majority's decision pays “VetoPenaltyIMVs” (DEFAULT 0.1 percent) of their IMVs.
- 1 NFT: https://ethereum.org/en/nft
- 2 POS: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/proof-stake-pos.asp
- 3 Tendermint: https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/wiki
- 4 Ethereum: https://eth.wiki
- 5 Slasher: https://blog.ethereum.org/2014/01/15/slasher-a-punitive-proof-of-stake-algorithm
- 6 PBFT: http://pmg.csail.mit.edu/papers/osdi99.pdf
- 7 ABCI: https://github.com/tendermint/abci
- 8 DLS: http://groups.csail.mit.edu/tds/papers/Lynch/jacm88.pdf
- 9 Balancer: https://balancer.fi/whitepaper.pdf