Ontology: Between Public and Private

At first glance, it might seem that Ontology (ONT, ONG) has a kind of a contradiction. This project is based on the public blockchain, but is aimed at corporate clients — who are known to prefer privacy regarding their own data. Let's try to figure it all out.

Decentralize it

The Ontology project was born in 2017. Its development was carried out by Onchain, whose employees have been working on blockchain technology since 2014 and have already attracted attention with the NEO project. Instead of an ICO, the distribution of the currency was done via an airdrop — not the most typical solution. The first release of ONT was distributed among NEO owners, investors, developers, and bounty program participants.

Perhaps the most important function of the project is the transfer of proprietary solutions based on more traditional technologies to the blockchain. Ontology's structure consists of a central public blockchain responsible for transaction processing and security, and sidechains, which are private third-party modules that transmit information to the main network. ONT ID technology ensures that users are verified by the system, while also providing the selected level of anonymity for an external observer. Cross-chain between third-party modules is also supported.

“We know that every business and every organization is unique in its own way,” said Andy Ji, co-founder of Onchain, in an interview. Indeed, Ontology allows customers to take advantage of blockchain technology, not only retaining control over the data, but also independently determining the rights of different participants in the process: a counterparty performing a specific task does not necessarily (and sometimes simply illegally) have all the information the main company has.

What’s under the bonnet

Ontology's consensus algorithm, VBFT, combines the functions of Proof-of-Stake, Byzantine fault tolerance and VNF. Multilevel transaction validation enables the high level of security required by a business. The maximum transaction processing speed is 5000 per second. In late June 2020, Ontology's mainnet saw an update 2.0 aimed at improving performance and increasing interoperability with other technologies.

Like Ethereum and NEO, Ontology supports two types of tokens: the main one (ONT) is used for staking and network management, the operational one (ONG) performs the functions of "gas", supporting the operation of smart contracts and other functions of the system. The staking reward is paid with ONT. The ONTO electronic wallet gives the opportunity to manage both tokens. There is also support for decentralized applications — currently there are about 40 of them. The final amount of each of the tokens is 1 billion units.

Ontology perspective

At the time of this writing, ONT costs $0.72, ONG — $0.17. Ontology quickly recovered from the fall in March and is showing an upward trend: as early as May 10, these tokens were valued at $0.45 and $0.09, respectively. However, there has been a correction in the past few days.

Ontology positions itself as a tool that is useful primarily for corporations — and this determines the specifics of development. On the one hand, this approach ensures development stability, the real threats of which can only be critical vulnerabilities or obsolescence compared to major competitors like the Cosmos Network. Neither one nor the other is currently observed. On the other hand, variants with a "to the Moon" also seem unlikely, at least in the foreseeable future.

Obviously, the long-term success of the project depends on the demand for this technology by major players and strategic agreements. The developers also understand this. On July 14, 2020, it was announced that Ontology would operate in the Google Cloud ecosystem — which, as expected, led to a price rise. Other Ontology partners include the CryptoLoan service, the Moonstake crypto company, the OGQ content creator platform, and so on. An important step was cooperation with the largest crypto-exchange Binance, which launched its own token ONT-33D, the price of which is rigidly tied to the ONT price. Thanks to this, ONT holders will be able to use Binance's DEX service.

Is this enough to stay afloat in the turbulent waters of the crypto market? There's no guarantee, but Ontology looks pretty solid by industry standards.

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