Skale .. Crash course!

We aspire in this Crash course to know the Skeel network, its most important features, and how it will have a major role in solving problems existing in blockchain networks.

Currently, developers face many problems with the Ethereum network, including the problem of expansion and the problem of high cost, as the current Ethereum network is not prepared to receive large numbers of developers and users, the problem appeared before in 2017 and there was very large congestion in transactions, which led to slow implementation Transactions, and the matter was repeated in 2020 with the emergence of decentralized financing, it became very slow in the implementation of transactions and the cost is very high.

Today we'll learn about the Skale platform and the solutions it provides for developers to build in a seamless and inexpensive way.

SKALE Network has been designed with the goal of solving the technical scalability, user experience, and cost issues associated with a decentralized network such as Ethereum also, will eventually grow on to support other Security Layer blockchains over time and serve as an execution and interoperability layer between disparate decentralized technologies.

Definition of the project

The Skale Network is designed to bring Web3 to hundreds of millions of users.
Whereas, Skale is an 'Elastic' open-source and decentralized blockchain network that supports high bandwidth, low latency transactions
The primary purpose of the project is to create a new high-throughput layer that could work alongside Etheruem and allow new dApps to overcome scaling bottlenecks.
The network provides expanded storage capabilities along with embedded connectivity and cross-chain messaging with the Ethereum mainnet

Each Ethereum dApp can have its own fully Ethereum-integrated blockchain in the SKALE network.
SKALE chains can execute sub-second block times, run up to 2,000 tps per chain, and run full-state smart contracts in addition to decentralized storage, execute Rollups, and machine learning in EVM.

SKALE, which provides 2000 transactions per second as we mention, seems to have brought a great solution to the scalability problem, which is a big problem in blockchain technology. Secure and decentralized elastic blockchains are high performance, decentralized, configurable.

Elastic Sidechains :

SKALE is not a side chain in the traditional sense but is a decentralized network of nodes that uses random node assignments, node rotation, and node sharing to create an aggregate security model that is similar to hashing in many ways.
Elastic Sidechains are truly decentralizing while preserving the UX advantages of traditional side chains - such as easy setup and low maintenance for developers, plus a zero friction experience for end users interacting with the chain.
Elastic side chain within the SKALE network is highly configurable, with developers able to choose chain size, consensus protocol, virtual machine, main blockchain and additional security measures.
As the Skale Network provides many Elastic side chains in order to adopt a variety of decentralized applications, as the Elastic side chains provide a great deal of additional storage capacity on the chain for decentralizing applications
In the future, people using the decentralized applications supported by the SKALE network will have largely no transaction fees and near-instant transaction times, thanks to "Elastic side chains"
One of the most important features of Elastic side chains is that they are configurable so that developers can define specific parameters for their needs. These standards include chain size, required storage, speed, extra safety guarantees, etc. These needs can be modified to suit their business requirements and optimize cost.

Elastic SKALE network side chains remove storage and account restrictions for the main Ethereum network and are customized to fit the needs of that specific application: each decentralized application has its own Ethereum as a side service. This enhances the user experience because instead of users paying for the transaction every time they use an app, decentralized app creators pay side node operators a straight flat fee for the resources they need.

Integration with Ethereum
Elastic side chain is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
And provide configurable resource settings that include network size, transaction throughput, and storage capacity
Enhanced security features.
Developers can use the same tools they would when working on the Ethereum mainnet. This includes writing contracts in Solidity, connecting to the network via web3.js and web3.py, and using tools like Truffle and Remix.

In the ethereum network there are smart contracts that manage all sidechains. Containers also need to talk to these contracts, and this occurs through messenger queues: a secure communication channel is created using the TCP protocol, where a sidechain can communicate with another through this secure channel, and only the sidechains that are allowed they listen in this communication channel in a unidirectional way, where only one sidechain sends the message and the others just listen.

How it works
Elastic side chains in a SKALE network are triggered by a set of virtual subnodes specified from a larger set of nodes in the network. The side chain uses node compute and storage resources - ranging from a portion of a node resource to all resources depending on the size of the specified chain.

Skale manager:

SKALE Manager controls Nodes, Validators, and SKALE chains. It also contains contracts for managing SkaleToken, Distributed Key Generation (DKG), and Verification of BLS signatures.
To have the right to work in the network, nodes must run the SKALE daemon and stake a predetermined amount of SKALE tokens on the Ethereum mainnet via a series of smart contracts known as the SKALE Manager serves as the controller and entry-point to all other smart contracts in the SKALE ecosystem.
What this manager is doing is as the name states, managing all the nodes that run on the network. As stated before the network consists out of several nodes, either fractional or full nodes. Where the fractional nodes will participate in multiple elastic sidechains, the full nodes will use their full capabilities to support a single Elastic Sidechain. These elastic sidechains eventually create the possibility to run thousands, if not millions, of transactions per second. To completely understand the technology behind this project, it’s recommended to read through the whitepaper thoroughly as it can be hard to grasp at times. One thing that’s safe to say is that the team behind the project has surely done their research and know what they are talking about.

Skale Storage

There are many solution companies that offer data storage. From past to present, data storage has been made with disc, CD, flash and hard disks. However, cloud storages have started to be preferred today. Solutions such as Google drive or Dropbox allow you to access your data from anywhere on the internet. However, the fact that this data is stored only for one company can expose you to some risks.
As the decentralized data storage process is as secure as the security of the network, it allows the parties to participate in a completely reliable system.

But we have a problem with the current costs of storing data on-chain.
See the current expenses:

“Storing just 1GB of storing just 1GB of data on Ethereum would run you about 1250 ETH (assuming a gas price of 2GWei) and take ~8000 full blocks!”
Also alternative options such as IPFS add additional complexity and can be cumbersome to manage on an ongoing basis.

This is far from efficient and worth the costs to say the least. The act of storing data itself is simple, but the whole system behind it can get quite complicated. Skale Labs has found a solution, it's SKALE Storage, a cost-effective and native decentralized storage solution for Ethereum-based applications, powered by its Elastic Sidechains.
SKALE Storage leverages its Elastic Sidechain architecture for Ethereum apps to provide a native storage experience without relying on AWS or any other third party decentralized app service.
One of the main differentiators for Elastic Sidechains is the fact that they come with a built-in data availability protocol to ensure that data is stored on at least ⅔ of virtualized subnodes in each Elastic Sidechain
And because of this protocol, skale have been able to create and ship a FileStorage system which runs on SKALE and a modified EVM to provide this feature to existing Ethereum developers.

:: Validators ::

The SKALE Network has a set of validators securing the network. Validators provide computation power to the SKALE Network via deploying nodes. The collection of validators and the node(s) they spin up represent the entire validator network that performs work for SKALE Chains (Elastic Sidechain aka SKALE Chain).
‍
SKALE Chains in the network are operated by a group of virtualized sub-nodes selected from a subset of nodes (validators) in the network and are run on all or a subset (multi-tenancy) of each node’s computation and storage resources.

As each node in the network continues to participate in their assigned SKALE Chains, they are awarded bounties based upon their performance at the end of each network epoch. Each node will be monitored by their peer nodes.
‍
When an Elastic Sidechain has reached the end of its lifetime, the resources (computation, storage) of its virtualized sub-nodes will be freed so that validator nodes may participate in newly created Elastic Sidechains.

To add a node to the SKALE Network, a prospective node must run the SKALE Admin, which manages all operations in the node and is installed with the skale-node-cli. SKALE Admin evaluates the prospective node to ensure that it is upholding network hardware requirements. If the prospective node passes this verification step, the SKALE Admin permits the node to submit a request to SKALE Manager in order to join the network. This request contains both the required network deposit as well as node metadata collected by the SKALE Daemon (e.g., IP address, port, public key, etc.)

Once the request has been submitted to SKALE Manager on Ethereum, SKALE Manager randomly defines the prospective node as a 'full node' or a 'fractional node' by assigning different sizes of SKALE Chains to the prospective node. Full nodes have all of their resources utilized for a single Elastic Sidechain, while fractional nodes participate in multiple Elastic Sidechains (multi-tenancy).

:: Mining Reward ::

A new solution in mining rewards
It is estimated that people engaged in crypto money mining use about 10% of the energy produced in the world. As such, these beings that consume enormous electricity cause a great deal of damage to the world. These activities carried out with large factories together with huge machines can also endanger the security of the network. There may be pools in the world trying to get the majority of mining. When it reaches a sufficient size in the network, it can threaten the security of the network.

In Skale Network, it has chosen another way in mining. It has created an equal opportunity to receive rewards with the system of "rewarding according to the behavior of the node" rather than the size of the node. You can read the explanation for detailed information here.

You can easily deposit your skale network tokens to the mining network, which currently has 14 validators. This system, which allows you to get skale token rewards by locking crypto money in the network, is very practical. You can reach the mining rewards, which provide approximately 1% return every month with the staking mechanism, here.

:: Reducing the chances of collusion ::

ِAs we mentioned above that the Elastic Sidechains are each comprised of ‘virtualized subnodes’ which run on ‘nodes’ in the network. Virtualized subnodes are partitions of these nodes (run by validators) in the network and participate in the network on an Elastic Sidechain basis. In this way, each validator is able to run multiple Elastic Sidechains with their node, simultaneously. With this partitioning of node resources into virtualized subnodes and random appointment of these virtualized subnodes to Elastic Sidechains, chances of collusion amongst nodes are greatly mitigated throughout the network.

:: Innovator Program ::

The Innovator Program is a white-glove onboarding experience for the dApp Partners where SKALE’s core engineering and product teams help them design, implement, test, and launch their first S-Chains. SKALE is a network built for the developer partners, and there doesn’t seem to be any better way to embrace that fact than a program which is designed to ensure their success.

Skale have now about 70 Dapp in the innovator program
SKALE is opening the Fifth Cohort of the SKALE Innovator Program you can sign up here: https://skale.network/innovators-signup

:: Skale Token ::

SKL is the native token of the SKALE Network ecosystem.
SKL is a token used in association that represents the right to work in the network as a validator, contributing as a delegator. Or access a portion of resources by deploying and hiring a Sidechain Elastic or Blockchain Elastic for a period of time as a developer.

Total Supply: 7,000,000,000 SKL
Initial Supply: 4,140,000,000 SKL
Supply Within First 61 Days: SKL 564,166,667

The distribution of the total SKL tokens is as follows:
33% of the total supply is allocated to validators.
The value allocated to the delegates is 28.1%.
16% is allocated to the team and 10% is reserved for skale funds.
7.7% to protocol development fund
4% to core team
1.3% is allocated to the ecosystem fund.

SKL Token Usage
Staking: token holders can stake their SKL tokens to participate in consensus. As a result, they receive rewards for improving network security.
Payments: developers will need SKL tokens to pay for subscription access to using the elastic blockchain for their applications.
Governance: SKALE intends to be community-driven for future development, holders will receive voting power through their tokens. Meaning token holders will be able to vote to adjust economic parameters such as the pricing for subscription fees.

SKALE (SKL) token Sale
SKALE Network has raised nearly $ 22.04 million from 3 private sales and one public sale.

Early Supporters:
Round 1 (Purchase Price: $ 0.0034 / SKL, Total Lock Period: 36 months).
Round 2 (Purchase Price: 0.0099 - 0.0125 $ / SKL, Total Lock Period: 15 months). Round 3 (Purchase Price: $ 0.0152 / SKL, Total Lock Period: 15 months)
The tokens given to SKALE supporters during the initial (pre-public) installments have no liquidity at launch. Ensuring network security and stability, these tokens can be staked. All tokens staked earn a standard validator bonus.

Public sale: Public launch price: 0.03 $. Public launch allocation (4.23%): 175,000,000 SKL

How to earn SKL token?
Holder SKL tokens can easily delegate their tokens to the SKALE node validator and earn rewards.
Staking: Adds security to the network as it leads to SKALE Chain mortgage security that the Developer pays with SKL tokens. Fees are returned to the validator and delegator to provide security and compute strength to the network.
Exchange: The simplest way is to buy SKL tokens on a listed exchange like Binance,Huobi,Uniswap, other markets are available you chan check the list here: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/skale-network/markets/

:: Contributors and Supports ::

SKALE Network is an open source project with many contributors, including SKALE Labs, Inc, which is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Supporters of the SKALE network include Blockchange, ConsenSys Labs, Hashed, HashKey, Floodgate, Multicoin Capital, Recruit Holdings, Signia VP, and Winklevoss Capital. SKALE network is also supported by some world-class validators, including 01NODE, Ankr, Anonstake, Audit One, Blockdaemon, Blockware, Chainflow, Chainode, Chorus One, Cypher Core, Dokia Capital, Figment Networks, FreshSkale, Hashed x DELIGHT, Hashquark, NGC Ventures, Staked, Stakin, Stake With Us, WolfEdge Capital, and Staking Facilities.

Offical website: http://skale.network/