Vision of the Orbs By 2020, major consumer applications will have switched to the blockchain, making decentralised services available to billions of people around the world. As more and more well-known consumer brands—including Kodak, Kik, and Telegram—launch fresh, decentralised ventures and recreate themselves in this market, we may already witness the beginnings of this trend.
The vast majority of mainstream consumers face a particular set of difficulties that general-purpose blockchain solutions struggle to appropriately address. We believe there is a need to offer these decentralised consumer apps a hybrid infrastructure solution that takes care of all the necessary conditions for this transition to be successful and smoothly incorporates them into the standard blockchain infrastructure that is currently being developed.
A real-world business cannot accept the kind of liability associated with off-the-shelf solutions that don’t scale, charge structures that disrupt business models, or off-the-shelf solutions that don’t scale, which are the only options left to established consumer brands.
By enhancing current blockchain solutions like Ethereum, Orbs reduces these issues. In order to add scalability to decentralised apps without completely reinventing the wheel, especially in areas where things have already been done successfully, Orbs complements existing protocols rather than competing with them.
The Orbs project aims to serve as a second layer hybrid that complements Ethereum, the de facto, emerging blockchain standard. Ethereum has an unequalled combination of decentralisation, liquidity, and ecosystem, but in order to do high-volume, low-cost operations, an ethereum token needs an overlay network that is optimised for micro-transactions. By integrating Orbs with Ethereum, DApps may take advantage of the best features of both chains, including unrivalled security, liquidity, and ecosystem integration, as well as low costs, production-ready scalability, and an appropriate fee structure. For applications with millions of users wishing to adopt blockchain, this Ethereum and Orbs combo is the best choice today. Blockchain virtualization, also known as virtual chains, and randomised proof-of-stake (RPoS), two developments, will enable Orbs to combine the usual demands for security and speed without compromising on either.
We picture a completely decentralised public platform that prioritises app developers’ requirements out of necessity. where consumer brands feel secure running nodes and participating in a healthy, decentralised environment, one that facilitates this transformation for the sector as a whole. The platform will be fully functional and speak using terms like Service Level Agreements (SLA), dedicated resources, and key product experiences that are modelled after well-known infrastructure solutions like Amazon Web Services (AWS).
What is Orbs
Orbs is a brand-new public blockchain infrastructure created for usage by sizable companies who sell actual goods in the real world. Despite the enormous potential of today’s blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, many coins and goods are still mostly used for financial speculating. Due to this technology’s intricacy, many companies who may benefit from it are avoiding it. Orbs want to change that and provide businesses the chance to use this technology in the real world. Orbs aims to revolutionise blockchain usage and bring it to the mainstream through the use of its own ORBS token and connections with the largest blockchains, including Ethereum and Bitcoin.
“I believe blockchain technology can provide new, ground-breaking economic models, new methods of monetization, and new business models, and I believe this is going to radically revolutionise this planet,” said the author.
What Is the Orbs Blockchain?
Orbs is a public blockchain infrastructure that was established in Israel in March 2019 with the goal of facilitating business adoption of blockchain technology. On this platform, developers can create the backend services (applications) they require while still maintaining governance. Orbs distinguishes itself by supporting DApps in addition to permissioned applications created by current for-profit companies. Decentralized finance (DeFi) applications are currently the main area of focus for Orbs because they are thought to be the most important to businesses and the market for them is expanding rapidly.
How Is Orbs Structured?
A hybrid blockchain called Orbs enables companies to create the apps they require. In order to achieve this, it is designed with a full blockchain stack and a codebase that offers an end-to-end developer experience, addressing all requirements for developing and running blockchain apps. It has the following characteristics, which are detailed in its white paper on technological overview:
Hybrid Two-Tier Consensus: Orbs, which has a permissionless infrastructure but permits permissioned apps, aims to close the gap between public and private blockchains. Orbs can enable both blockchain-level security and producer-led app governance in this fashion. Additionally, if they so desire, the producers may eventually switch to a permissionless structure.
Virtual Chains: Each programme on Orbs is independent and runs on its own virtual chain. This improves performance and stops it from being impacted by other apps owned by other firms. The permissionless pool of validators used by Orbs validators to run these virtual chains in parallel is totally shared and staked throughout the whole network, assuring security and decentralisation.
Overcoming Proof-of-Work (PoW) with Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Orbs uses a PoS consensus mechanism, however it depends on the Ethereum mainnet, a PoW network, to prevent fraud during validator elections. Due to the fact that in a PoS consensus, the validators are the stakeholder, which means that validators would be certifying their own elections, PoW gives external verification.
RPoS Helix Consensus Algorithm: This consensus protocol makes it possible to validate transactions more quickly. This is accomplished by choosing a certain number of nodes at random and validating them by consensus after each block. Through Randomized Proof-of-Stake (RPoS), which guarantees scalability, fairness, and security, common and verifiable randomization is achieved.
Polyglot Smart Contracts: Orbs will provide smart contracts in a variety of languages, including JavaScript and Go, in order to be competitive and available to as many organisations as possible. This facilitates the creation of apps and promotes the reuse of the smart contracts library. Orbs also provides non-determinism, enabling full compatibility with smart contracts on the Ethereum mainnet as well as with real-world applications running on pre-existing systems or off-chain databases.
Fees: With this product, Orbs hopes to draw customers away from private blockchains, but in order to be even remotely competitive, it must charge comparable fees. Public blockchain fees are expensive and unpredictable as a result of the shared bidding market for scarce resources. Because each app on Orbs has its own independent virtual chain and is given its own set of computer resources, costs are predictable and can be paid on a monthly basis. In addition, execution resources do not change as much due to the dynamic allocation of resources per virtual chain, which means there is no shortage and costs may be maintained low.
How Is the Orbs Blockchain Run?
Orbs manages its network and scalability via a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus architecture. Members manage the network through an incentives programme in accordance with this system:
Delegators of Orbs: By staking their ORBS tokens, delegators contribute to the network’s success. They earn an annual reward of up to 8% of their staked ORBS tokens in exchange for ceding their voting rights to a Guardian.
Orbs Guardians: Guardians serve as auditors and stake representatives. They oversee the Validators and exercise the Delegators’ voting privileges that have been transferred to them in elections to choose new Validators. Guardians must have a minimum self-stake of 8% of their total delegated power in order to provide staking benefits to their Delegators.
Orbs Validators: The system is managed by qualified node operators known as validators. They use fees to carry out the virtual chains, and they are compensated for it. Validators must lock in a stake in order to participate, as this increases their incentive to behave well.
The blockchain becomes more environmentally friendly and long-term sustainable by using a PoS method. Orbs, though, partially undermines Ethereum’s PoW algorithm by running over it.
Orbs and Ethereum
The Orbs blockchain is a hybrid blockchain because it uses Ethereum for many of its operations. Staking, delegation, and voting features, for instance, all work using Ethereum contracts and use Ethereum’s value as an impartial auditor. The ORBS token is an ERC-20 token. This increases security because it makes it impossible for Guardians and Validators to influence the network or the voting process. By using Ethereum’s PoW consensus, Orbs can retain strong scalability while avoiding the long-range cyberattacks that pose a greater danger with PoS. However, since Ethereum V2.0 will also switch Ethereum to a PoS architecture, this partly reduces its independence and raises concerns about how safe it would be.
What Is the ORBS Crypto?
The Orbs protocol is run using the ORBS token (ORBS), which was introduced in April 2019 as an ERC-20 token. It is utilised as an incentive system to ensure the decentralised and secure election of the system Validators as well as to settle any fees associated with programme execution. On the platform, it is the sole payment method that is accepted.
ORBS Price Analysis
ORBS has a market capitalization of $216.5 million and is valued at less than $0.10. This is much more than what it originally cost, which was about $0.03, but less than its high, which was about $0.30 in April 2021.
The price chart above shows that ORBS appears to have followed the same trajectory as BTC. The price of both cryptocurrencies was largely flat in 2019 before seeing a significant bull run in April 2021 and a swift bearish swing in July. Around June or July 2021, both started to improve, and they both concluded significantly higher than their respective 2019 values.
Due to the halving of Bitcoin in 2020 and the crash of cryptocurrencies in 2021, these tendencies may generally be seen everywhere. However, in contrast to BTC, where the total supply is substantially smaller at 21 million coins, ORBS has a very high total supply of 10 billion tokens. Due to the usual laws of supply and demand, one of the things that keeps the value of BTC high is its tiny overall supply; thus, the considerably higher amount of ORBS will keep its own price low.
What is the future for Orbs?
Looking at the price graph, it can be observed that the value of ORBS finally started to rise in April 2021. This was made possible in part by the initial 2021 bull market in cryptocurrencies, which was sparked by a sharp increase in cryptocurrency investment in 2020: MicroStrategy invested more than $1 billion in Bitcoin in 2020, while Grayscale invested $10 billion in cryptocurrencies by November of the same year.
The decision by companies and banks to use cryptocurrency and blockchain technology was another development that was particularly pertinent to ORBS. The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) openly endorsed banks’ adoption of blockchain technology, while internet titans like PayPal and Square were among the first to start developing with this technology. The Orbs blockchain, which supports permissioned applications created by current for-profit organisations, was suddenly pertinent and in a good position as a result of these business decisions.
Orbs is appealing because it provides permissioned for-profit apps where the company may maintain control and have blockchain security assured. Its reach is also increased by the inclusion of polyglot smart contracts, which greatly improves accessibility for smaller firms. One wonders whether enterprises won’t just be driven there given its dependency on Ethereum and the fact that Ethereum is so much more established and provides a comparable product. Orbs offers an appealing proposition, and it is aiming to lower fees to give it a competitive advantage against centralised platforms. If it succeeds in doing that, it has good chances because convenience, accessibility, security, and cost are all on its side. But it’s still unclear if firms will be attracted, or
Conclusion
Orbs is positioned halfway between private blockchains like Hyperledger and public ones like Ethereum. The security of a decentralised blockchain and the governance and ease of centralization are both combined into one demand. Nevertheless, even though it has an entire end-to-end blockchain stack, it still largely depends on Ethereum for security and PoW auditing features. Orbs may be impacted when Ethereum 2.0 is fully operational and switches to a PoS consensus, although it is unclear how. Its capacity to provide app development with a permissioned framework and then the chance to transition to a permissionless structure so easily is undoubtedly a bonus.
This is the ideal opportunity for organisations to adopt blockchain technology, coupled with its polyglot smart contracts. When this occurs, Orbs’ lower and more dependable fee structure can even prevent them from switching to Ethereum. Orbs offers a strong offering at this precise time as blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies gain popularity. But whether it will be good enough to lure companies away from more established blockchains is still up in the air.
