General
What is Fantom?
Fantom is a network of blockchains that provides ledger services to businesses and applications. Fantom is powered by Lachesis, an advanced DAG-based aBFT consensus algorithm. Blockchains built on Fantom are fast, secure, and highly scalable.
These features allow organizations, businesses, and individuals to develop decentralized applications that can be used in the real world, across a wide range of industries.
What problem does Fantom solve? What is the blockchain trilemma?
The blockchain trilemma is the known trade-off in distributed ledger technologies, which have to balance between speed, security, and decentralization.
According to the trilemma, it’s not possible to optimize all three at the same time without any tradeoffs.
For example, a distributed ledger such as Bitcoin has arguably strong security through its consensus protocol and decentralization, but gives up speed as a result.
Fantom addresses the challenge by achieving asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance (“aBFT”). Fantom’s aBFT consensus allows transactions to be processed asynchronously, increasing the speed and the throughput of transactions compared to synchronous BFT ledgers such as Ethereum and Bitcoin.
Fantom achieves decentralization and security through a permissionless and leaderless consensus protocol, in which anyone can join and leave the network at any time and all nodes are equal.
What is a consensus algorithm?
A consensus algorithm is a mechanism to reach agreement among nodes in distributed networks. It removes the need for a central authority and allows the whole network to agree on data and the ordering of events in a trustless way.
Nodes participating in the network maintain an exact copy of the ledger, allowing applications built on top of the consensus protocol to function correctly.
What is aBFT (asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerant) consensus? How is it different from blockchains such as Ethereum and Bitcoin?
aBFT consensus stands for “asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerant” consensus. When a network is said to be “Byzantine Fault Tolerant”, it means that nodes can still reach an agreement on an ordering of events even if part of the network acts maliciously.
Asynchronous BFT allows nodes in the network to confirm event blocks containing transactions without depending on any timing assumptions. This makes the confirmation of transactions by the network faster, without compromising security or decentralization.
When a transaction is confirmed by the network, it achieves complete finality and can’t be changed nor reverted. aBFT consensus reaches agreement on transactions even when some of the messages between nodes are lost, which makes the network more resilient
Blockchains such as Ethereum and Bitcoin are synchronous, meaning that transactions are appended into blocks, one at a time. They follow the longest-chain rule in which the chain with the most number of blocks determines the final ordering of events. Transactions in earlier blocks have a much higher probability of being part of the final ordering of events compared to more recent transactions.
Therefore, these networks require multiple confirmations to ensure that a transaction is permanently part of the blockchain. This behavior leads to a slower confirmation of the transactions than in aBFT consensus.
What is Lachesis?
Lachesis is Fantom’s aBFT consensus algorithm. Lachesis is asynchronous, leaderless, Byzantine Fault Tolerant, and final. Therefore, any distributed ledger built on Fantom is very decentralized, secure, and with high-throughput and low finality.
Read more about Lachesis.
What is finality?
Finality means that a transaction cannot be changed or reversed by any party. aBFT consensus algorithms such as Lachesis have a very low time to finality because they achieve absolute finality. Absolute finality means that a transaction is considered final once it is included in a block.
In the case of Fantom, Opera Chain can accomplish finality in 1 to 2 seconds.
TxFlow can achieve finality in less than a second.
Conversely, Nakamoto consensus protocols rely on probabilistic finality. In this case, the probability that a transaction won’t be reverted increases with time. The more blocks that are created on top of a block, thereby confirming it as correct, the more difficult and costlier it would be to revert a transaction in that block. At some point it becomes theoretically impossible to alter older blocks, increasing the probabilistic finality to near 100%.
Bitcoin has finality of 30 to 60 minutes; when using Bitcoin you have to wait a few block confirmations before considering the transaction final and irreversible. Ethereum has a finality of a few minutes.
What is TxFlow?
TxFlow is an aBFT middleware protocol designed for responsiveness. It runs together with a traditional consensus algorithm such as Lachesis, which guarantees network security.
TxFlow can achieve sub-second latency, which makes it ideal for any application that requires instant confirmation. Check the GitHub and the TxFlow introduction
FTM token
Is FTM an ERC20 token?
Fantom has an ERC20 token, but it can’t be used directly on the Opera mainnet. When you send your ERC-20 to the Fantom Wallet, it will automatically be swapped to Opera FTM.
Here’s a breakdown of the different FTM tokens in circulation at the moment
1. Opera FTM: Used on Fantom’s mainnet Opera Chain
2. ERC20: Exists on the Ethereum network
3. BEP2: Exists on Binance Chain
Note that Fantom Opera addresses share the same structure as Ethereum addresses (0x…), but they are not Ethereum addresses.
Can I send ERC20 tokens to my Fantom Wallet?
Yes. On the “Receive” tab of your Fantom wallet just pick Ethereum and send your tokens to the displayed address. Your tokens will be automatically swapped to Opera FTM which allow you to stake and vote.
What’s the purpose of the FTM token?
The FTM token has a number of use cases within the Fantom ecosystem.
It plays an essential role for a well-functioning, healthy network.
1. Securing the network
Fantom uses a Proof-of-Stake system that requires validators to hold FTM.
Anyone with at least 3,175,000 FTM can run their own validator node to earn epoch rewards and transaction fees.
Every FTM holder has the option to delegate their tokens to a validator (while keeping full custody of their funds) to receive staking rewards.
Validators then take a small fee for their services.
By locking in their FTM, validators help the network to be decentralized and secure.
2. Paying for network fees
To compensate validators for their services and prevent transaction spam, every action performed within the Fantom network costs a small fee.
This fee is paid in FTM.
3. Voting in on-chain governance
Decisions regarding the Fantom ecosystem are made using transparent on-chain voting.
Votes are weighted according to the amount of FTM held by an entity.
Basically, 1 FTM equals 1 vote.
With FTM as the governance token, validators and delegators can vote on network parameters such as block rewards as well technical committees and so forth.
4. Additional use cases
FTM will be used as a collateral on the upcoming Fantom DeFi suite, fantom.finance.
What is the purpose of staking on Fantom?
Staking is used to secure the Fantom Network. Opera network uses Proof-of-Stake: validators and delegators contribute to securing the network by staking their tokens, and will receive rewards in return.
You can read more about staking on Fantom here.
How can I stake FTM?
You can stake Fantom’s FTM token with as little as 1 FTM.
Staking is easy:
1. Install the PWA wallet (desktop/mobile)
2. Transfer your FTM from an exchange or an ERC20 wallet to your Opera address
3. Choose a reputable validator and click on stake. That’s it!
Check out the staking step-by-step guide.
Can I stake FTM on exchanges like Binance?
You can’t stake FTM on exchanges at the moment. To stake FTM follow this guide.
What are the staking rewards for FTM?
Currently, the staking rewards for FTM are 12% APR.
The rewards on Fantom are dynamic and decrease as the staking participation increases.
How to run a validator on Opera?
To run a validator node on Fantom’s Opera Chain, the followings are required:
- A minimum stake of 3,175,000 FTM;
- AWS EC2 m5.large instance (or equivalent) and ~800GB of disk storage (or equivalent) as the minimum recommended hardware specifications.
Here are step-by-step details on how to run a node.
Where can I store FTM?
You can store Opera FTM on our official PWA wallet for mobile and desktop.
For a guide on how to use this Progressive web app, please visit https://fantom.foundation/how-to-use-fantom-wallet/#installing-wallet/
Please note that the above wallets only support Opera Network FTM. They do not support ERC20 or BEP2.
We are working with other wallet providers to add compatibility for the FTM token.
Opera network
Is Fantom compatible with Ethereum smart contracts?
Yes. Fantom’s Opera Network is fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). It also has Web3JS API and RPC support.
All smart contracts written in Solidity or Vyper, compiled and deployed on Ethereum, are fully compatible with the Opera Network.
Fantom is currently working with both the University of Sydney Programming Languages group, and the Yonsei University Embedded System Languages and Compilers Group, to build a new “Fantom Virtual Machine” (FVM), interpreter, and database to achieve much better performance and security than the EVM. The FVM will be compatible with the Solidity programming language.
Is Fantom compatible with Cosmos SDK?
Yes. Developers can use Fantom’s uber-fast and secure aBFT consensus mechanism as a base layer and use the Cosmos SDK on top of it.
What programming languages does Fantom support?
Fantom’s Opera network supports all smart contract languages that Ethereum supports for the EVM, which include both Solidity and Vyper.
What is Opera?
Opera is a fully decentralized blockchain network with smart contracts integration for applications. It is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine and powered by Fantom’s aBFT consensus. Thus, smart contracts developed on Ethereum can run on Opera, with an increase of scalability and security.
When did Fantom mainnet go live?
The Fantom Opera Chain went live on 27 December 2019.
How is Fantom governed? What does on-chain governance look like?
The Fantom Foundation is currently in charge of the governance of the network, advised by the community and validator nodes. We plan to launch a governance smart contract that will allow validators and token holders to determine the direction of Fantom, as well as to approve changes to the underlying consensus via hard and soft forks.
Find out more details on Fantom’s governance proposal.
Further questions?
Join our Discord and get answers!