SKALE NETWORK: A UNIQUE LAYER-2 NETWORK

SAKALE NETWORK: A UNIQUE LAYEER 2 NETWORK
As you will get to know at the end of this course that skale network is a decentralized network built on ethereum blockchain. It is important that you know what blockchain is all about before proceeding to what skale network is.
WHAT IS A BLOCKCHAIN?
A blockchain is primarily a type of database. To fully know what a blockchain is, let us try to understand what a database is. A database is a collection of different information stored electronically (not physically) on a computer system. Data that are in database are stored using table format so as to allow easier searching. People do mistake spreadsheet for database but they are infact entirely different from each other. Spreadsheet houses very little data but database houses large amount of data which can be easily accessed, manipulate and filtered due to the fact that it is stored using tables (rows and columns).
Back to blockchain. A blockchain is defined as a decentralized ledger or database of stored records of transactions. The records on a blockchain are called blocks. The amazing fact is that; with blockchain, users can confirm numerous transactions without the need for any central authority. Blockchain can be used for vast numbers of activities including; fund transfer, trading, voting, keeping records and many more.
One of the widely known elements of blockchian is cryptocurrency. I know some of you might be wondering what a cryptocurrency is and how does it concern skale network. That is great, I like that curiosity. Of course it does concern skale network very well. Let me first explain what cryptocurrency is.
Cryptocurrency is a method of exchange that is created and stored on blockchain using unique and special encryption techniques to control the creation electronic monetary units and also to verify and confirm transfer of the monetary units (funds) from one end to the other. Among the majore characteristics of blockchain are;
• Cryptocurrency does not have any intrinsic value and it cannot be classified as the same class as physical valued material such as gold, diamond and printed money.
• Its production and supply is never determined by any central body and also, the network is completely decentralize (it cannot be altered).
• It is not a physical form of fund, rather, it exist only in the network.
Embedded in blockchain and cryptocurrency are numerous benefits. Some are known to many people while some are not clearly known to many people but pros only.
Some of the benefits include; adequate and accurate monitoring or tracing of transactions, reduction of cost of transaction, permanently unalterable ledgers or receipts, stress-free
Blockchain and cryptocurrency also have many potential uses in which many people do not know about such;
Voting: blockchain can be programmed to be able to conducted voting in a transparent way and easier way.
Healthcare: health record of patients can be recorded on blockchain and encrypted preventing anyone from having access to the record except the healthcare workers only.
Financial services: services with cheaper service fees will allow saving of more funds which can be diverted to another useful thing.
Now that we have all significantly gotten what blockchain and cryptocurrency is, let dive into what skale network is all about, its overview and importance.
OVERVIEW OF SKALE NETWORK
In this worldof fast adoption of cryptocurrency, many projects are being builed on different networks that allows developers to build their project faster and with better performance. Skale network is a very powerful decentralized network that can be used in building powerful decentralized applications (DAPPS).
Two years ago, skale network was landed on the 1st of January co-founders; Stan Klakdo and Jack O Halleran. They both created skale network having brainstormed on the issues of scaling and user experience being faced by other networks. They were determined to create a better network that solves the two problems (scaling and user experience problem).
Scale network was eventually launched, which is a powerful solution to blockchain scaling by adjusting speed, security, ecosystem interoperability and faster transactions.
After scale network was developed, the network test was done for almost two and half year which is unique and second to none going through this test so as to allow the founders to be sure about what the network is capable of. Later on, the mainnet launch was announced where the public token sale was conducted and hosted by ConsenSys CodeFi’s platform. This makes the skale network reach another major milestone as the first layer-2 network that used the ConsenSys CodeFi’s active and unique framework for its utility token. This allows users of the skale network to purchase and stake the skale network token after the token have being staked. Proof of stake allows transfer of the token to either a cold wallet or a hot wallet.
This is interesting right? I am sure your answers will be yes.
After this overview, I am sure we are all able to get that skale network allows developers of decentralized apps (DAPPS) to enjoy the best experience in building their DAPPS on scale network and also we should have known by now that skale network uses ConsenSys CodeFi’s active framework for their token which is represented as SKL.
Let us now dive into the main chapters!

CHAPTER ONE: WHAT REALLY IS SKALE OF NETWORK?
The skale network is known to be high-throughput configurable/manipulatable fault resistant and low-lantency blockchain network built on ethereum and capable of interoperating with ethereum. Skale network is regard as an elastic sidechain network due to the fact that its primary use case is in form of elastic sidechain for the ethereum blockchain.
You might be wondering what sidechain is. You don’t need to worry about it as I will explain in details what it is. Sidechains are operated and controlled by a group virtualized subnodes that are relatively selected from some nodes’ subset in the network and run on all or a few subset (regarded as multinancy) of each nodes’ computation and node resources. Oh yes, that is what sidechain is all about I am sure you have gotten is so let us proceed.
Skale network uses a token called skale token (SKL). This can be referred to as work and usage token. This means, to work on skale network, nodes must run and operate the deamon and stake a certain number of skale token (SKL) on the ethereum mainnet. This is done by numerous smart contracts known as skale manager.
Also if you are creating an elastic sidechain, you have to specify your desire chain configuration and submit the payment for the duration that they will to rent network resources to run the chain.
Consumers are also allowed to deploy existing ethrerum-based smart contract directly to them due to EVM-compability with elastic sidechain.
BLS signatures in its consensus model is also supportedly each elastic sidechain and thus allow interchain messaging.
Bounties are awarded as each mode in the network continues to participate in their selected and assigned elastic sidechains.
The problem skale is solves:
Skale is a major solution to blockchain scaling which addresses speed, ecosystem inter-operability and transaction per seconds (Fastness of transaction). It is a configuration network that support high-throughput and low-latency transaction also at a very low transaction cost different from public mainnet that charge high fees.
As skale solves low-transaction fees, they also allow, faster comitance which also means lower latency which allws users to have a better and great experience.
Additional on-chain storage capacity for decentralized application is also provided due to its elastic sidechain. Storing data on skale network is known to be more extensive and economical compared to other networks where their own is costly and limited.
You would have realized that all what we have been saying abut skale network shows that it is definitely a network that is unique and positively different from others. So more you know, using an execution layer-2 solution such as skale network is very much effective and adequate for building and scalin ethereum-based applications which therefore open up the real potentials for an ever expanding spectrum and realm of amazing use cases by gaming, decentralized finance, productivity, and also media application. It also allows easier usage for properties such as lending, investing, gaming and many more.

CHAPTER TWO: ELEMENTS OF SKALE NETWORK
The skale network is comprised of two major elements, which are:
1. Skale manager (that is built on ethereum) and
2. Permissionless skale nodes.
Let us take a critical look at the two of the major elements.
1. SKALE MANAGER: As a manager literally means the controller, so it is on skale network also. Ethereum mainnet houses the skale manager and it serves as the entry point to all other smart contracts throughout the ecosystem. Meaning, you have to pass through skale manager before you get to all other smart contracts in the skale ecosystem. It manages the arrangement of all entities in the network. All its activities is divided into the under listed items: (i) node creation (ii) node destruction (iii) elastic sidechain equation (iv) virtualized subnode shuffling (v) elastic sidechain destruction (vi) bounty issuance
So let us get on them one after the other
• Node creation: a prospective must run the skale daemon before being able to be added to the system. Skale daemon is hundred with the work of analyzing and evaluating the prospective so as to vividly ensure that it is possessing network hardware requirement. The node will be permitted to submit a request to join the skale manager network if it passes the verification step by the daemon. The request must contain the IP address, port, public key and required network deposit. After submitting the request, the prospective node is added to the system in two ways; *either it is added to the system as a full node which will have all of the resources utilized for one elastic sidechain or as *a fractional node which can participate in multiple elastic sidechain (called multitenancy).
Nodes are assigned with large group of peer nodes after being created. The functions of the peer node is to audit node downtime and latency at already chosen period and submit the period metrics to the skale manager at once for every network and this is used to determine the node bounty reward.
• Node destruction: just like node creation that requires evaluation before entry, so is node destruction. It also requires approval and finalization before removal. Node is removed when the existing node (full node or fractional node) declare their exit. Before they can be destroyed, they must wait for certain period of time called finalization period. After the finalization period (which is not stable), the node will become inactive and will be able to withdraw their stakes from the network without experiencing any trouble.
There can also be a case of dead node. Surprised right?
This happens when a user refuses to wait for the finalization period. Rather, the user decided to exit the node immediately from the network. This is regarded as a non-informing nodes by SLVA virtualized recourse which is also known as dead nodes.
The disadvantages of this is that if you exist without waiting for finalization period, the bounty for the node will not be paid, rather, it is known to be cycled out of the chain.

• Elastic sidechain creation: in creating an elastic sidechain, two major factors are considered and they are; *selection of the chain configuration and *duration of time of renting network resource.
For you to create an elastic sidechain, you have to select chain’s configuration and submit payment to the skale manager. The payment must be for the duration of the time you wish to rent the network resources that is required to perfectly maintain the elastic sidechain. In the quest of allowing users to meet this requirement, they are given the chance of selecting elastic sidechain which starts from a minimum of 16 virtualized subnodes in which each node is either using 1/28 which is small, 1/6 which is medium or 1/1 which is the largest. The resources in the network are currently of equal value and they cost based on their size and the lifetime of the chain. The cost of the network resources is calculated functionally enabling it to account the immediate network condition and system load. After the number and size of virtualized nodes are chosen, a creation request will be sent to the skale manager.
After being received by the manager, a new elastic sidechain is automatically created. But if there are non-significant resources present in the network to support the creation, the transaction will end up being cancelled.
Thus, the chain is majorly divided into three and they include;
• Small chain: which is decentralized across 16 or more and takes 1/28th of each nodes’ resources.
• Medium chain: which is decentralized across 16 or more nodes and it takes 1/16th of each nodes’ resources.
• Large chain: which is also decentralized across 16 or more nodes and it takes 100% of each nodes’ resources.

4. virtualized subnode shuffling: this is an option that is given to the users when they are creating an elastic sidechain. This is an added security measure which reduces or lessens any collusion attempted by virtualized subnodes within the elastic sidechains. Virtualized subnode shuffling is brought about through manager just in the same way as process is involved in node exiting.
5. elastic sidechain destruction: when a consumer’s rental deposit for network resources is exhausted, elastic sidechain destruction occurs. Elastic sidechain destruction also occur when a consumer flag his/her elastic sidechain for deletion. Creator of node will be notified if they want to add additional time to their chain, pending the deletion time. This is amazing, they are giving the opportunity to increase the time to the chain’s lifetime and this is super amazing! Your creation can persist easily as long as you want, so far you keep adding time to the lifetime. If the rental deposit is exhausted, the elastic sidechain is eligible for destruction and will be done by the skale manager. The person that commited or start the destruction of the chain is rewarded after the crypto asset from the ethereum will be transferred to the owners, removal of all virtualized subnodes and also assets of the storage and memory. It is amazing as the reward to be earned by the submitter for destroying a change is a little bit higher than the cost of transaction. This serves as an incentivized mechanism (trash-collection) for network resources.
6. bounty issuance: at the end of each network epoch, the total number of skale network token (SKL) minted for that specific period is divided equally among all nodes that participated in the network before the epoch begins. The numbers of tokens that can be claimed is based on the average of the metrics submitted by 16 of its 24 pairs. Also, any token that is not issued can be as a result of poor latency, such token would be issued to the N.O.D.E foundation.

CHAPTER THREE: SKALE NETWORK TOKEN (SKL)
Just like any other network, skale network also posses its token, and in fact, it is an amazing token will a lot of usefulness. The skale token is a hybrid token, meaning; it can be used in numerous ways. It represents the right to work in the network as a validator, meaning, you can only validate using skale network token. Also it is used to stake as a validator or access a share of its resources by deploying and renting an elestic sidechain for a period of time as a developer on the network.
Skale network also uses pay scale in a subscription model to rent resources like computation, storage and bandwidth for an already selcted amount of time in the form of an elastic sidechain. Validators stake skale network token into skale network and this gives them the right to run nodes and earn fess and token through inflation. Also, delegators can delegate their tokens to validators in other to earn rewards.
The skale network conducted its first phase of mainnet on the 30th of june, year 2020. Then, staking and transfer of skale network token was not supported. It was after the launch of the firsst phase of the mainnet that the consensus called for token sale. The token sale was conducted on the 11th of september, year 2020 and it was an awesome one with a great and massive adoption. Almost four thousand users purchased the skale network token and over 167,139,884 SKL was sold and also across more than ninety countries. The price during the public sale was 0.03$ per SKL. This was when skale network gained massive adoption. The number of users holding the skale network token are now numerous. Of course they will be glad to hold such an amazing token created by an amazing network. Since the first phase of mainnet was successful, the second phase of the mainnet went live on the 1st of october, year 2020 and the main aim of the second mainnet was to support the delegation and staking iof skale network token. Like the first mainnet with awesome turnups, the second mainnet was also amazing as more than four thousand users from more than ninety countries staked their skale network token (SKL). There were just 135 available nodes on the skale network then. The nodes (135 nodes) were controlled by a number of 56 validators. The second phase of mainnet was also a huge success.
As it has been stated earlier, the skale network token (SKL) is a hybrid token with more than one uses on the network. The underlisted points are some of its uses:
• Delegator staking; which is a proof of stake for delegators
• Right to work; proof of work for validators
• Developer’s access to deploy and rent elastic sidechain on a resource network
The uses of skale netwok token is not limited to delegators, validators and developers alone. It can also be used as:
• Payment method
• SKL holders will be able to vote
• Also used for staking and earning rewards
• Security provision through delegating and staking
Yes! These are quite amazing benefits of skale network token (SKL). Another bombshell is that skale network token (SKL) is not an ERC20 token, rather an ERC777 token (i.e SKL is built on ERC777).

Here is a short over view of SKL token:
• Ticker: SKL
• Contract address: 0x00183aecc790e8a4453e5dd3b0b453680501a7a7
• Token standard: ERC777
• No of tokens during public launch: 175,00,000
• Public launch price: $0.03
• Total supply: 4,140,000,000 SKL
SKALE DISTRIBUTION:
Total Supply at Genesis 4,140,000,000 SKL
Maximum Total Supply 7,000,000,000 SKL
Token Type ERC-777
Segment Allocation
(% of Max Supply)
Lock-Ups and Vesting Schedules
SKALE Foundation 10% 7 year vesting. 150M minted at Network Launch and are unlocked.
550M minted at month 6 based on milestone achievements and are
unlocked at 6 month intervals commencing on month 24.
Validator Rewards 33% Anticipated 9.3% annual network issuance rate, minted monthly.
Inflation rate will step function down each year before halving every 3
years on year 6 to perpetuity
Ecosystem Fund ~1.3% Fund is expected to go live on a predetermined date by the
Foundation.
Protocol
Development Fund
7.7% Fund is expected to go live on a predetermined date by the
Foundation.
Core Team
(Broader Founding
Team)
16% 4 year vest with 12 month lockup commencing upon network launch.
Equates to 6+ year total vest based on project commencement date
and projected Q320 Mainnet launch.
Core Team (Core
Team Pool)
4% Majority 4 year vest with 12 month lockup (monthly vest) commencing
upon network launch. Less than 2% vesting on a 3 year schedule with 1
year lock. Equates to 3-6+ year total vest based on project
commencement date and core team employment start dates and
projected Q320 Mainnet launch.
Early Supporters 25.6% - 28.2% See below
● Round 1 10% 3 Year lock commencing at network launch with ⅙ of total unlocking
every 6 months. Equates to 5+ year total vest based on project
commencement date and projected Q320 Mainnet launch.
● Round 2* 10.5% - 12.8% 1 year lockup and 3 month unlock commencing at end of 12 month
lock out period. Equates to 30+ month total lock based on summer
2018 financing date and projected Q320 Mainnet Launch.
● Round 3 5.4% 9 month lock-up followed by 6 month unlock (50% unlocks at month 9
and 50% unlocks at month 15). Equates to a 24+ month total lock
based on summer 2019 financing date and projected Q320 Mainnet
launch.
Public Launch 4.2% of Total
Supply and
2.5% of Max
Supply
2 month required Proof of Use requirement. Equates to 0 days of lock
while the token is liquid as tokens will be in transferless state during
the Proof of Use period. Exchange listings and token transfers enable
following Proof of Use period. Final quantity to be displayed via
Activate Dashboard.

CHAPTER FOUR: USES OF SCALE NETWORK ANS STEPS IN STAKING SKALE NETWORK TOKEN.
Having known what scale network is all about, you would have known it importance. Anyway, I will definitely still discuss it here.
It allows developers to easily dish out perfect decentralized apps (DAPPS) perfectly without any problem. The skale sidechain are amazingly designed to carry out numerous transactions. Skale sidechain can easily carry out more than two thousand transactions per second while running full state smart contracts. Amazing right. It is amazing as I've told you before that skale network is a unique one.
Also, it acts as a machine learning in EVM and also as a decentralized storage ( a storage where the users are anonymous).
The skale network is designed to bring scale, efficiency and lot of effectiveness to decentralized applications which will allow decentralized system have a lasting global impact on humanity.

GUIDE ON STAKING SKALE NETWORK TOKEN (SKL):
We all have known that SKL is the native tokens of skale network and it can be staked. The holders can decide to stake their tokens and expecting specified rewards in return. The developers of DAPPS may also want to rent and deploy an elastic sidechain.

Below are the steps involves in staking skale network token (SKL);
1. Hold skale token (SKL): you must be a skale token holder before you can be able to stake. You can buy the tokens on the activated platform. Thought you have to register before doing so. Meaning before you will be able to stake, you have to create an account. Signing up is very easy and requires just few steps. You just have to fill in some essential information and also create a strong password so as to prevent easy guesiibu third party. A confirmation mail will then be sent to you and you will verify and also go through 'know your customer' (KYC) for security purpose. Then you download metamask extension on your phone, tab or PC and connect it to your account. You are done with the first stage.
2. After creating your account, it needs to be funded with skale network token (SKL). To do this, you have to copy the adequate address allocated to your account and send the amount of SKL you wish to. After doing so, you navigate to the staking page on the webpage and that's where your staking would be conducted. You will see different validators listed and you are free to choose any of then, depending on your choice. Then you click on 'stake' icon. Note: the Lowe's amount of SKL you can stake is 100SKL.
3. Your staking is completed and you can track and follow the process effectively. All you have to do is navigate to 'token inventory' interface where you will see a menu that serve as overview of the staking operation where delegations are maintained and monitored.

CHAPTER FIVE: SKALE NETWORK VALIDATORS AND FOUNDATION

Talking about skale network is just amazing. We've covered numbers of things from the beginning till this part. Skale network is amazing and numerous people always want to join the validators. Remember that during the second phase of the mainnet launch, on 1st of October, 2020 was the day validators were approved.
The validators on skale are experienced in mining for proof of work and also staking for proof of stake networks such as polkadot, celo, near and so on and so forth.
They know how the network operates and also have the knowledge on how to handle advanced infrastructure setup and arrangements. They also possess the knowledge of how EVM and the ethereum blockchain work. Also the validators are from different countries.

SKALE NETWORK FOUNDATION:
The SKALE Foundation is an open-source elastic network that is there to offer High transaction throughput, faster transaction finalization at a reduced transaction cost. The SKALE network is designed to support businesses, people, and also organization and the Network of Decentralized Economies (N.O.D.E) Foundation is a platform that has been created to carry out the mission of supporting the SKALE network. Surprised right?. But don't be.

The Network of Decentralized Economies (N.O.D.E) Foundation supporting the SKALE network is totally governed by the skale network token which provides wide usage in on-chain voting. Also, incentivization will be given for staking and earning, and also providing maximum security are made available for all staked funds. You might be wondering about the reason why SKALE labs allowed the Network of Decentralized Economies (N.O.D.E) foundation to support its network but you need not to worry, just take it as a scenario that if you do want a grant program to run, you surely need a body that would make the program run smoothly. That is the reason SKALE labs is a vendor supporting the Network of Decentralized Economies (N.O.D.E) foundation.

The SKALE network allocated almost ten percent (10%) of the total pool of the SKALE network token (SKL) to the elected representatives, those are dApp developers that will serve the community through on-chain voting, grants, and budget/treasury decisions. These funds SKALE network allocated above would help ensure the longevity of the Network of Decentralized Economies (N.O.D.E) foundation and also help in fulfilling the SKALE mission.

CONCLUSION
With all discussed above, it shows vividly that skale network is amazing and one of the best that you’ll ever see!.