What is VANTA Network?
VANTA is a blockchain based ecosystem aiming to develop an intelligent network for real-time networking. By using distributed ledger technology (DLT) and crypto-economics, the VANTA system sees participating nodes in the network contribute to real-time data transmission and processing thus doing away with any reliance on traditional centralized systems. This results in a low cost, functional blockchain based network that can be used by anyone via an API, SDK, or customizable modules that integrate with applications or platforms currently in use. VANTA can expand its ecosystem through these modules in order to integrate current systems that require real-time networking functionality.
VANTA’s Intelligent Network works as a decentralized network that performs real-time data transmission, processing, and storage functions by selecting peers that collaborate and evaluate each other. The VANTA ecosystem also includes the Networking Framework which is a non blockchain framework built on the PGP encryption standard which helps the network achieve high levels of performance when dealing with secure, real time communications and data transfers. Furthermore, the ARKAS Protocol, a decentralized P2P networking protocol, establishes seamless routing channels across nodes, while the KANUS Chain adopts the Proof of Networking consensus algorithm that incorporates intelligent, self-involving nodes with Verifiable Random Function (VRF) and Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) to maintain efficiency alongside cost reduction.
The team behind the project state that VANTA is a decentralized and permissionless network that ensures real-time, secure and private connectivity, and they envisage that their networking technology will cover a wide range of use cases. These include messaging, file transfer, voice and video call development, large-scale real-time video streaming, and the transmission and processing of real-time data collected from IoT sensors. In addition, VANTA will also provide and expand enterprise-level telecommunications network solutions to businesses and enterprise customers.
Product
Product Readiness
The team still has to release their public repositories and the project is still in its developmental stages. The project only came into being in Q2 of 2018, and the VANTA architecture and consensus mechanism design were developed in Q3 2018. As a result, potential crowdsale participants will have to wait until Q2 of 2019 for the testnet release, while the mainnet is not scheduled to go live until Q4 of 2019.
This means that anyone interested in the project may have to wait until the end of 2019 or early 2020 for significant developments on the platform. This may prove too long to wait given the current market conditions, however the te
The team describe Ethereum or EOS as general platform blockchains while Storj and Golem are seen as specific-purpose blockchains. VANTA is presented as an intelligent network platform that can be classified as either a platform blockchain or a specific-purpose blockchain. In addition, despite operating as a high speed, low cost blockchain project, the team highlighted messaging, file transfer, voice and video call development, real-time video streaming, and data transmission and processing as potential use cases. As a result, there are a number of blockchain projects aimed at disrupting the world of messaging and data transfer such as Status, Mainframe, Skrumble Network, Dusk, and Horizen.
In addition, VANTA will also provide and expand enterprise-level telecommunications network solutions to businesses and enterprise customers which will bring it into competition with more traditional non blockchain projects such as Google, Skype, Slack, and Keybase.
Competitors’ Valuations:
EOS, valued $2.4B.
Horizen, valued 28.5M.
Mainframe, raised $20.6M.
Skrumble Network, raised $16.5M.
Dusk, raised $14.4M.
At this time, there are a variety of competing projects in operation, and VANTA will need to differentiate itself from both blockchain and non-DLT competition. The team will need to outdo enterprise offerings such as Hyperledger and R3’s Corda, as well as take on projects such as Icon and Aergo which are aiming to become mainstays of the Korean blockchain space. However, by developing APIs, SDKs, and customizable modules that integrate with leading applications and platforms the team aims to spread the use of their platform through collaboration. Their partnership with Microsoft is an example of this strategy, and upon the launch of the ARKAS Protocol, VANTA will promote and sell their services to a global body of customers by joining the Oracle Partner
Network.
Size of Potential Market
The team aim to become leaders in the world of communications and the global transfer of data and have produced information on the Global Datasphere which accounts for all new data that is captured, created, and replicated. They show that the Global Datasphere will grow from 33 Zettabytes (ZB) in 2018 to 175 ZB by 2025, and that 90ZB of data will be created on IoT devices by 2025. In addition, more than 150B devices are forecasted to be connected across the globe by 2025, with the majority set to be creating data in real time. The Datasphere was made up of 15% real-time data in 2017, and this is predicted to grow to 30% by 2025. In addition, they highlight that Gartner forecasts that the total market value of blockchain-related businesses will grow to more than $ 176 billion by 2025, and will reach $ 30 trillion by 2030.
As a result, VANTA is targeting a significant market and is aiming to become a widely used decentralized messaging and data transfer platform that provides viably alternatives for both everyday users and commercial entities. The team faces competition from high profile companies already in operation such as Google, Slack, and Twilio, however they plan to develop APIs that allow VANTA to integrate with these platforms in addition to products such as Stripe, IBM Watson, Cloudinary, and Amazon Web Services.
The use of APIs may allow VANTA to get a foothold in the market as it does not need to compete directly against more established industry heavyweights and can instead work to leverage their already existing user bases. The team also looks set to make the most of strategic partnerships with leading companies such as Voiceloco, Sejong Telecom, Oracle, and Microsoft to help develop their standing in the world of commerce and the blockchain economy.
Innovation & Intellectual Property
VANTA is set to operate as a permissionless network; however, the team have yet to confirm if the project will become fully open source. Their repositories are also not currently publicly available to view.
Use of Blockchain
Blockchain Advantage
Blockchain technology is a central part of VANTA’s ecosystem, as the team aims to build a decentralized and permissionless network that facilitates real-time, secure connectivity.
Need for Custom Token
The VNT token will be used to process transactions, incentives, and rewards across the network. Nodes may earn block rewards based on their contribution to the network and computing resources such as CPU, memory, and bandwidth.
Decentralization
The VANTA network makes use of an intelligent peer system and the KANUS Chain adopts Proof of Networking (PoN), which consists of a self-evolving intelligent node system working alongside the Verifiable Random Function (VRF) and the Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) algorithm to help ensure scalability, and reliability of the decentralized infrastructure.
Proof of Networking sees nodes earn block rewards based on their contribution to the network and computing resources such as CPU, memory, and bandwidth. As opposed to other BFT-based algorithms which require all nodes to receive and verify proposed blocks to reach a consensus. The KANUS Chain selects a few nodes based on the VRF trusted random function and they participate in block proposal, verification, and confirmation. The combination of Proof of Networking (PoN), Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT), and Verifiable Random Functions (VRF) create the unique consensus algorithm called PoN-VPBFT. Furthermore, verifier nodes act as work verifiers for real-time network processing, and can participate by staking a number of VNTs, therefore a smartphone or a low-end PC with low performance or battery-related issues can easily contribute as a verifier node. When new services are launched on the network, or when an existing service migrates to using the VANTA API, the number of users participating in the network will increase, and these users’ devices can contribute to the network by acting as verifier nodes.
Precautionary Measures
VANTA incorporates a variety of features aimed at ensuring a high level of platform security and these include the VANTA Networking Framework which is a low-level, non-blockchain, networking system that allows real-time communication while securing live data transferred against malicious attackers. The framework facilitates secure end-to-end encryption, personal identification, and network architecture modularity on a sharded decentralized network. The system is built on the PGP encryption standard and was inspired by Namecoin’s decentralized namespaces model. In addition, secure data syncing and integration across multiple devices is enabled via authentication and communication channel algorithms based on zero-knowledge proofs.
Furthermore, as VANTA makes use of a peer-to-peer intelligent network, with all peers being directly or indirectly connected to the network, this results in data transmitted over the network being vulnerable. To overcome this, a handshake data for P2P connection is encrypted with the public key of the recipient, and the security enhanced Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) is used as a Transport Layer Protocol for P2P data transmission. Simultaneously, as a protocol for data / media transmission, Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) and Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP) for a media stream are used as default. Finally, the protocol uses the Privacy Enhanced RTP Conferencing (PERC) method, which is a double SRTP encryption that enables E2E media data encryption when providing the video conferencing function.
Also worker nodes on the VANTA network must stake a certain number of VNTs to participate as worker nodes. If they do not execute their workload properly, they will lose their tokens. For example, a node may lose a certain amount of tokens for not performing data transfers or processing roles properly, or for not acting properly as a consensus participant. This is designed to ensure worker nodes to behave in a way that helps the network.
Storage and/or Mining
VANTA allows a variety of devices to join as nodes, and they are involved in working on various real-time communication processes, verifying each other, generating blocks, and receiving rewards. They can be divided into worker nodes, secondary nodes, and verifier nodes depending on their role within the network.
Nodes on the network have a higher probability of generating blocks based on the amount of real-time networking jobs they have performed. Despite this, nodes that have performed the most jobs are not always selected as the block producer. In order to prevent specific nodes from continuously being selected, all block proposers, block verifiers, and block confirmers are selected on a random basis through a random function, with the previously mentioned VRFs being used for the random function.
Contribution for the Blockchain Economy
VANTA is set to impact the space through its innovative development and use of the Intelligent Network which acts as a decentralized network that performs real-time data transmission, processing, and storage functions. In addition, VANTA also includes the ARKAS Protocol, a decentralized P2P networking protocol, and the KANUS Chain which adopts a Proof of Networking consensus algorithm that merges intelligent, self-involving nodes with Verifiable Random Functions (VRF) and Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) to create the unique PoN-VPBFT algorithm. As a result, VANTA has a real possibility of disrupting the current consumer and enterprise communications, messaging, and data transfer industries.
In addition, VANTA is well positioned to make a splash in the corporate world and leverage partnerships with South Korean firms Voiceloco and Sejong Telecom. The team are expected to develop their project in South Korea before spreading throughout Asia and then into other regions. By doing this, VANTA may be able to provide viable decentralized data transfer and communication options for consumers and enterprises and push the blockchain economy forward as a result.
Documentation
Comprehensiveness
Despite being in its early stages, the team have already produced a significant amount of information and the whitepaper is presented as a 43 page document that outlines the current issues concerning both blockchain and non DLT communication and storage projects. The whitepaper goes some way to explain the methodology behind the project and detail the solutions that VANTA is bringing forward. The whitepaper is also supported by a 12 page Executive Summary which summarizes the key information into an easy to read document. The two publications allows readers to gain a good grasp of the project, and key aspects such as positioning and competition, use cases, cryptoeconomics, ecosystem and business development, team, and development roadmap are all covered.
In addition, the team also walks through their Intelligent Network and gives a detailed explanation of their network architecture. The whitepaper and supplementary publications are quite detailed and strike a good balance between covering both the main technical and commercial aspects of the project.
Readability
The team have selected to use a language and structure that is suitable for the topics covered, and should be easy to understand for the majority of readers. Despite the complexity and depth of the project, it’s quite easy to follow the main ideas and concepts without many issues. While there are some mathematical formulae and advanced algebra contained in the whitepaper, there are also a number of illustrations and diagrams that help readers to understand key points. The whitepaper also contains a number of references to more detailed studies for people interested in further research.
Transparency
The whitepaper goes some way to develop a significant level of transparency and covers the project’s token metrics and includes a development roadmap. The whitepaper also provides short bios for core team members and advisors. In addition, the whitepaper also outlines a number of strategic partnerships and includes legal disclaimers relating to the nature of the project and any possible purchases of VNT tokens.
Technology
The whitepaper outlines the VANTA Intelligent Network and explains how it works, and covers Real-time Networking, Verifiable Random Function, and the workload of Intelligent Nodes. The ARKAS protocol and KANUS Chain peer system are also covered in detail, as is the PoN-VPBFT consensus algorithm which represents a combination of Proof of Networking (PoN), Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT), and Verifiable Random Functions (VRF).
Development Roadmap
70%
Concreteness
The roadmap gives a general overview with regards to project development and outlines various stages of development starting from Q2 2018. After establishing VANTA and developing the VANTA Architecture and consensus mechanism design, the team has been involved in preparing the website and whitepaper ahead of their scheduled IEO (Initial Exchange Offering).
The testnet release is scheduled for Q2 2019, and the mainnet is outlined to go live in Q4 of 2019. While work on the platform is outlined to go on until 2020, the team show that they plan to unveil their ARKAS protocol in Q1 2019. It’s worth stating that the major developments are possibly six months away and the team also don’t elaborate too much on their business development plans.
Feasibility
The team produced a quite simplified and minimalistic roadmap, and it provides a feasible outline with regards to project development. Much depends on the team’s ability to demonstrate their ability to get results with the ARKAS release in Q1 2019 and the testnet launch later in the year.
Vision
The roadmap is a quite simplified document and does not provide a particularly detailed vision. The main idea conveyed is that the team will launch their platform by the second half of 2019 and look to incorporate their native token by the end of the year before going on to grow their developer and dApp builder community.
Maturity
The roadmap runs from 2018 to 2020, and the team expect to complete the mainnet launch in 2019. Despite this, the development of their user base is set to take place over 2020 while VANTA Infinity Connect will launch in the second half of that year. Crowdsale participants may have to wait for at least a year for things to really get moving with the project.
Business Model
The team elaborate on a number of potential use cases and state that VANTA makes it possible to develop and operate scalable, stable, and secure real-time networking services at a low cost. As a result, developers can develop real-time networking capabilities based on VANTA quickly and cheaply without building up a separate server or developing an entire real-time networking platform.
They outline the areas of communications, streaming, collaboration, and IoT as being key and VANTA will enable individuals and companies to efficiently develop services that can transmit and process real-time data, and the team envisage providing blockchain based alternatives to companies such as Slack, Facebook, and Twitch. They also aim to get ahead of current blockchain projects by providing functions such as text messaging, voice / video calls, video streaming, and data processing which current distributed ledger technologies cannot communicate in real-time.
The team identify messaging, file transfers, voice and video call development, large-scale real-time video streaming, and transmitting and processing various real-time data collected from IoT sensors as being key applications for the VANTA network. They also expect to provide and expand enterprise-level telecommunications network solutions to businesses and enterprise customers.
In addition, the team also aims to target real-time multiplayer-based games as the P2P-based real-time data transfer function provided by VANTA allows developers to create low cost multiplayer games by only developing a game client, and any player game data can be generated by using the VANTA SDK to the client of the player of the game server.
Concreteness & Feasibility
The VANTA team have secured a number of strategic partnerships in order to realize their various objectives and these include an agreement with Hanyang University’s Mobile and Network Intelligence (MNI) Lab which sees MNI Lab acts as VANTA’s main research lab. The lab is currently developing and validating Proof of Concept (PoC) models of consensus algorithms and data routing algorithms.
The team have also partnered with Voiceloco, Inc. a Korean-based Telecommunications Company that specializes in software-based IMS and client m-VoIP engines, namely iOS, Android, and web. In addition, Sejong Telecom Co., Ltd is a leading telecommunications carrier in South Korea with a nationwide optical communication network, and they plan to offer a new blockchain business with VANTA. Furthermore, partnerships with Oracle and Microsoft will allow their cloud marketplaces to provide the VANTA API and SDK to attract existing enterprise customers.
Crucially, VANTA plans to build its own ecosystem as a platform blockchain, while also providing a core module in the form of an SDK and/or API to provide platform-independent access to the VANTA network. This will allow all platforms and applications to access real-time networking capabilities and leverage the platform’s services, thus leading to the rapid expansion of the VANTA ecosystem. The team will also provide support and incubate dApp projects that use the VANTA Network and aim to continue to form alliances with academic institutions and research labs, and establish a solid relationship with non-blockchain industry sectors.
Clarity
The team explains in good detail the need for a network that facilitates real-time data exchanges between people and devices, and the number of devices connected to the Internet, plus the amount of data individuals produce and consume are shown to be growing rapidly. In addition, the team plans to address these five key problems:
Increasing network throughput and cost
Real-time networking development costs and problems with centralized services
Privacy concerns resulting from transferring and storing personal data
Access to data generated by devices and the data usage fees
Trust in the communication between parties and trust in the data transferred from various devices
The VANTA system allows real-time data transmission and processing without relying on traditional centralized systems and networks, this results in a low cost, functional blockchain based network that anyone can participate in, and use. Via an API, SDK, or customizable modules, existing applications or platforms can integrate with VANTA, and this is set to help the ecosystem expand as the project works in conjunction with leading operators.
The team also identifies organizations such as governments, businesses, and schools that want to build their own telecommunication network as key business partners. They plan to provide direct consulting and customized development for cases in which the government body, enterprise, or school has technical difficulties using VANTA, while also helping each organization to build an optimized blockchain based network.
Cost Effectiveness
The team have set a hard cap of $15 million for 35% of all tokens which on a fully diluted basis brings the project valuation closer to $43 million. This appears to be reasonable when compared to the current valuations of projects such as Ethereum, EOS, and Zilliqa, however, other competing projects sought to raise significantly less. For example, Mainframe raised $20.6 million, while Skrumble Network and Dusk raised $16.5 million and $14.4 million respectively. Despite this, the team have already stated that approximately 45% of all funds raised have been earmarked for ongoing project development.
Legitimacy
VANTA is based in South Korea which makes the project more difficult to verify. However, the country is known to regulate the blockchain industry quite stringently, and VANTA has entered into partnerships with Hanyang University, Voiceloco, Oracle, Microsoft, and Sejong Telecom. Team members also come from reputable companies such as Samsung, Hyundai, and SK Telecom.
Compliance
This section is not included in the rating. Regulations and compliance matters are two very sensitive topics which we have realized cannot be quantified as of now. This should of course always be taken into consideration when analyzing a project.
Intrinsic Value of Token
The VANTA Network incorporates staking as a central aspect of its economy and also allows any device to participate and earn rewards as a node by contributing their computing resources to the areas of block production, data relaying, and data processing.
Worker nodes and secondary nodes must stake a certain number of VNTs in order to participate, and worker nodes also receive more rewards than other nodes when they properly execute their given workload. The verifier node acts as a work verifier for real-time network processing and can participate by staking fewer VNTs than worker nodes.
In addition, the VANTA blockchain has no direct block generation rewards for the node that generated the block, and rewards are based on the amount of workloads that have been performed and validated. Furthermore, staking ensures free usage of the network, and VNT token staking is required to use the real-time communication APIs such as data transmission proportional to the amount of VNT tokens staked. Also, companies that want to develop and operate services based on the network must stake VNTs in order to transfer, process, and store data using the VANTA API. There will be a predefined amount of workload per hour required for each service, and service providers should stake VNTs proportional to it.
The ecosystem will also contain an annual 2% VNT inflation, and newly issued tokens will be used to compensate the nodes performing block production and verification. Also upon any unstaking, 2% of the total VNT tokens previously staked are burned or incinerated.
Financial Security Consideration
The team states that VNT are functional utility tokens that provide access to incentives, rewards system, and exchange data within the VANTA platform. VNT do not imply or promise any equity, ownership in, or profit sharing with any part of the VANTA Company.
Adherence to Regulations
The team don’t go into great detail regarding their stance on running a regulatory compliant organization. However, the whitepaper includes a number of legal disclaimers relating to the possible sale and purchases of VNT tokens, and the team have also entered into an agreement with one of the region’s leading blockchain legal firms.
Legal Review
The team urge any interested parties to consult their professional financial, investment, and tax advisers before making any investments in VANTA initial coin offerings. They also declare that VNT are not an official or legally binding investment of any kind, and that unforeseen circumstances may lead to the objectives outlined in the whitepaper being altered. As a result, all persons and parties involved in the purchase of tokens do so at their own risk.
Company & Team
The VANTA team is one of the most accomplished and diverse teams to come together in the blockchain space. It is made up of 4 core executives, 13 members of the technical development team, and 8 members of the business development team. They are also joined by 5 researchers from the MNI Lab at Hanyang University. The project merges engineers and executives from global corporations such as Oracle, HP, AWS, Samsung, and Microsoft, and PhDs and developers from top universities in South Korea, with educational backgrounds from UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and Georgia Tech. In addition, the business development team has experience of working with IBM Korea, Hyundai, and Samsung and is capable pushing the VANTA Network forward via partnerships with leading global enterprises.
Company & Stage Foundation
VANTA is stated to have been founded in 2018, and is based in Seoul, South Korea. The team have also publicised the following address: Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Seoul 06236, KR. However, it has not been possible to locate the company registration details so far, although various team members have verifiable LinkedIn profiles and also have academic and professional backgrounds that can be checked quite easily.
Founder
Ryan Seo (Founder) – Ryan has a Stephen has a B.S. in Computer Science from Yonsei University and acts as the CEO of VANTA. He is also the Founder and CEO of Korean communications company, Voiceloco and has over 5 years experience of heading up the project. Prior to this, he spent over 5 years working in sales for both Oracle and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Ryan has over a decade of industry specific experience and has significant experience of dealing with the top players in telecommunications and IT.
Blockchain & Development Talent
The team is well stocked with development talent, and Adrian Park acts as the Technical Lead. He holds an M.S. in Computer Science, from Seoul National University and has almost five years of experience working with the Development Team Lead at Voiceloco, and has previously worked as a Data Scientist for SK planet.
However, child prodigy Daniel Hong may be the standout performer. He acts as the Core Algorithm Developer and contributed to the VANTA network and blockchain architecture design, including the logical blockchain structure and the PoN-VPBFT consensus algorithm.
Despite being an undergraduate university student at the University of Technology Sydney, he has already amassed an impressive body of work. He has worked as an open source developer for Linux and a project contributor for LineageOS. He has also worked as a Software Developer for both Apple and Xiaomi whilst still very young, and has more recently been a contributor to both the Raspberry PI Foundation, and Ethereum’s Virtual Machine.
Daniel has filed and holds a number of blockchain technology patents, acts as a Lecturer at Kyung Hee University and has also been a guest speaker on Asia Business Daily.
Business Talent
The VANTA team is packed with talented individuals and DJ Sohn stands out with an impressive work history that includes spells with companies such as Doosan, LG Electronics, and IBM Korea. He brings over 15 years experience of managing IT companies to the table and has also spent a year working as an Operation Team Lead at Voiceloco. DJ is another example of the industry specific top class performers that VANTA is already able to call upon.
Advisory Board
VANTA has elected to employ a number of extremely influential advisors/collaborators such as Yoonseok Choi who is the Vice President at Microsoft Korea, and has previously held the role of Vice President at both Oracle Korea and Oracle Japan. In addition, Changnam Choi is a Director at Oracle, and has recently become the APAC Regional Head after spending close to 20 years as the JAPAC Regional Head. Henry Chung is a Managing Director at Draper Athena Fund whilst also working with Coinplug, Inc as an investor and advisor, and acting as Chairman to Venture Leaders Club. He brings over 22 years of experience working with venture capitals to the team. Finally, Allie Zhang is a Co-Founder of Blocktag, a next-generation physical authentication technology company, and Blepcoin, a project analysis platform. She also acts as an advisor to RocketFuel VC and advises numerous projects on both technology and strategy. VANTA has clearly assembled an advisory board of significant experience and standing that will aid them greatly in their commercial mission.
Legal Counsel
The team have partnered with the Oh Kims agency. They are experienced legal experts on IT and life-science industries, and the Korean company provide legal advisory services to blockchain projects.
Superstar
Jinyoung Martin JungData Scientist
Seasoned Product Management Leader with a demonstrated history of working in the Enterprise Technology industry. Skilled in Cloud Services, Enterprise Software, Database, and Data Analytics. Worked for over 6 years at Oracle as a Technical Analyst. Strong product management and leadership with an M.S. Data Science, Big Data at UC Barkeley, and an M.B.A. at Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business.
Size of Potential Market
The team aim to become leaders in the world of communications and the global transfer of data and have produced information on the Global Datasphere which accounts for all new data that is captured, created, and replicated. They show that the Global Datasphere will grow from 33 Zettabytes (ZB) in 2018 to 175 ZB by 2025, and that 90ZB of data will be created on IoT devices by 2025. In addition, more than 150B devices are forecasted to be connected across the globe by 2025, with the majority set to be creating data in real time. The Datasphere was made up of 15% real-time data in 2017, and this is predicted to grow to 30% by 2025. In addition, they highlight that Gartner forecasts that the total market value of blockchain-related businesses will grow to more than $ 176 billion by 2025, and will reach $ 30 trillion by 2030.
As a result, VANTA is targeting a significant market and is aiming to become a widely used decentralized messaging and data transfer platform that provides viably alternatives for both everyday users and commercial entities. The team faces competition from high profile companies already in operation such as Google, Slack, and Twilio, however they plan to develop APIs that allow VANTA to integrate with these platforms in addition to products such as Stripe, IBM Watson, Cloudinary, and Amazon Web Services.
The use of APIs may allow VANTA to get a foothold in the market as it does not need to compete directly against more established industry heavyweights and can instead work to leverage their already existing user bases. The team also looks set to make the most of strategic partnerships with leading companies such as Voiceloco, Sejong Telecom, Oracle, and Microsoft to help develop their standing in the world of commerce and the blockchain economy.
Innovation & Intellectual Property
VANTA is set to operate as a permissionless network; however, the team have yet to confirm if the project will become fully open source. Their repositories are also not currently publicly available to view.
Use of Blockchain
Blockchain Advantage
Blockchain technology is a central part of VANTA’s ecosystem, as the team aims to build a decentralized and permissionless network that facilitates real-time, secure connectivity.
Need for Custom Token
The VNT token will be used to process transactions, incentives, and rewards across the network. Nodes may earn block rewards based on their contribution to the network and computing resources such as CPU, memory, and bandwidth.
Decentralization
The VANTA network makes use of an intelligent peer system and the KANUS Chain adopts Proof of Networking (PoN), which consists of a self-evolving intelligent node system working alongside the Verifiable Random Function (VRF) and the Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) algorithm to help ensure scalability, and reliability of the decentralized infrastructure.
Proof of Networking sees nodes earn block rewards based on their contribution to the network and computing resources such as CPU, memory, and bandwidth. As opposed to other BFT-based algorithms which require all nodes to receive and verify proposed blocks to reach a consensus. The KANUS Chain selects a few nodes based on the VRF trusted random function and they participate in block proposal, verification, and confirmation. The combination of Proof of Networking (PoN), Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT), and Verifiable Random Functions (VRF) create the unique consensus algorithm called PoN-VPBFT. Furthermore, verifier nodes act as work verifiers for real-time network processing, and can participate by staking a number of VNTs, therefore a smartphone or a low-end PC with low performance or battery-related issues can easily contribute as a verifier node. When new services are launched on the network, or when an existing service migrates to using the VANTA API, the number of users participating in the network will increase, and these users’ devices can contribute to the network by acting as verifier nodes.
Precautionary Measures
VANTA incorporates a variety of features aimed at ensuring a high level of platform security and these include the VANTA Networking Framework which is a low-level, non-blockchain, networking system that allows real-time communication while securing live data transferred against malicious attackers. The framework facilitates secure end-to-end encryption, personal identification, and network architecture modularity on a sharded decentralized network. The system is built on the PGP encryption standard and was inspired by Namecoin’s decentralized namespaces model. In addition, secure data syncing and integration across multiple devices is enabled via authentication and communication channel algorithms based on zero-knowledge proofs.
Furthermore, as VANTA makes use of a peer-to-peer intelligent network, with all peers being directly or indirectly connected to the network, this results in data transmitted over the network being vulnerable. To overcome this, a handshake data for P2P connection is encrypted with the public key of the recipient, and the security enhanced Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) is used as a Transport Layer Protocol for P2P data transmission. Simultaneously, as a protocol for data / media transmission, Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) and Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP) for a media stream are used as default. Finally, the protocol uses the Privacy Enhanced RTP Conferencing (PERC) method, which is a double SRTP encryption that enables E2E media data encryption when providing the video conferencing function.
Also worker nodes on the VANTA network must stake a certain number of VNTs to participate as worker nodes. If they do not execute their workload properly, they will lose their tokens. For example, a node may lose a certain amount of tokens for not performing data transfers or processing roles properly, or for not acting properly as a consensus participant. This is designed to ensure worker nodes to behave in a way that helps the network.
Storage and/or Mining
VANTA allows a variety of devices to join as nodes, and they are involved in working on various real-time communication processes, verifying each other, generating blocks, and receiving rewards. They can be divided into worker nodes, secondary nodes, and verifier nodes depending on their role within the network.
Nodes on the network have a higher probability of generating blocks based on the amount of real-time networking jobs they have performed. Despite this, nodes that have performed the most jobs are not always selected as the block producer. In order to prevent specific nodes from continuously being selected, all block proposers, block verifiers, and block confirmers are selected on a random basis through a random function, with the previously mentioned VRFs being used for the random function.
Contribution for the Blockchain Economy
VANTA is set to impact the space through its innovative development and use of the Intelligent Network which acts as a decentralized network that performs real-time data transmission, processing, and storage functions. In addition, VANTA also includes the ARKAS Protocol, a decentralized P2P networking protocol, and the KANUS Chain which adopts a Proof of Networking consensus algorithm that merges intelligent, self-involving nodes with Verifiable Random Functions (VRF) and Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) to create the unique PoN-VPBFT algorithm. As a result, VANTA has a real possibility of disrupting the current consumer and enterprise communications, messaging, and data transfer industries.
In addition, VANTA is well positioned to make a splash in the corporate world and leverage partnerships with South Korean firms Voiceloco and Sejong Telecom. The team are expected to develop their project in South Korea before spreading throughout Asia and then into other regions. By doing this, VANTA may be able to provide viable decentralized data transfer and communication options for consumers and enterprises and push the blockchain economy forward as a result.
Documentation
Comprehensiveness
Despite being in its early stages, the team have already produced a significant amount of information and the whitepaper is presented as a 43 page document that outlines the current issues concerning both blockchain and non DLT communication and storage projects. The whitepaper goes some way to explain the methodology behind the project and detail the solutions that VANTA is bringing forward. The whitepaper is also supported by a 12 page Executive Summary which summarizes the key information into an easy to read document. The two publications allows readers to gain a good grasp of the project, and key aspects such as positioning and competition, use cases, cryptoeconomics, ecosystem and business development, team, and development roadmap are all covered.
In addition, the team also walks through their Intelligent Network and gives a detailed explanation of their network architecture. The whitepaper and supplementary publications are quite detailed and strike a good balance between covering both the main technical and commercial aspects of the project.
Readability
The team have selected to use a language and structure that is suitable for the topics covered, and should be easy to understand for the majority of readers. Despite the complexity and depth of the project, it’s quite easy to follow the main ideas and concepts without many issues. While there are some mathematical formulae and advanced algebra contained in the whitepaper, there are also a number of illustrations and diagrams that help readers to understand key points. The whitepaper also contains a number of references to more detailed studies for people interested in further research.
Transparency
The whitepaper goes some way to develop a significant level of transparency and covers the project’s token metrics and includes a development roadmap. The whitepaper also provides short bios for core team members and advisors. In addition, the whitepaper also outlines a number of strategic partnerships and includes legal disclaimers relating to the nature of the project and any possible purchases of VNT tokens.
Technology
The whitepaper outlines the VANTA Intelligent Network and explains how it works, and covers Real-time Networking, Verifiable Random Function, and the workload of Intelligent Nodes. The ARKAS protocol and KANUS Chain peer system are also covered in detail, as is the PoN-VPBFT consensus algorithm which represents a combination of Proof of Networking (PoN), Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT), and Verifiable Random Functions (VRF).
Development Roadmap
70%
Concreteness
The roadmap gives a general overview with regards to project development and outlines various stages of development starting from Q2 2018. After establishing VANTA and developing the VANTA Architecture and consensus mechanism design, the team has been involved in preparing the website and whitepaper ahead of their scheduled IEO (Initial Exchange Offering).
The testnet release is scheduled for Q2 2019, and the mainnet is outlined to go live in Q4 of 2019. While work on the platform is outlined to go on until 2020, the team show that they plan to unveil their ARKAS protocol in Q1 2019. It’s worth stating that the major developments are possibly six months away and the team also don’t elaborate too much on their business development plans.
Feasibility
The team produced a quite simplified and minimalistic roadmap, and it provides a feasible outline with regards to project development. Much depends on the team’s ability to demonstrate their ability to get results with the ARKAS release in Q1 2019 and the testnet launch later in the year.
Vision
The roadmap is a quite simplified document and does not provide a particularly detailed vision. The main idea conveyed is that the team will launch their platform by the second half of 2019 and look to incorporate their native token by the end of the year before going on to grow their developer and dApp builder community.
Maturity
The roadmap runs from 2018 to 2020, and the team expect to complete the mainnet launch in 2019. Despite this, the development of their user base is set to take place over 2020 while VANTA Infinity Connect will launch in the second half of that year. Crowdsale participants may have to wait for at least a year for things to really get moving with the project.
Business Model
The team elaborate on a number of potential use cases and state that VANTA makes it possible to develop and operate scalable, stable, and secure real-time networking services at a low cost. As a result, developers can develop real-time networking capabilities based on VANTA quickly and cheaply without building up a separate server or developing an entire real-time networking platform.
They outline the areas of communications, streaming, collaboration, and IoT as being key and VANTA will enable individuals and companies to efficiently develop services that can transmit and process real-time data, and the team envisage providing blockchain based alternatives to companies such as Slack, Facebook, and Twitch. They also aim to get ahead of current blockchain projects by providing functions such as text messaging, voice / video calls, video streaming, and data processing which current distributed ledger technologies cannot communicate in real-time.
The team identify messaging, file transfers, voice and video call development, large-scale real-time video streaming, and transmitting and processing various real-time data collected from IoT sensors as being key applications for the VANTA network. They also expect to provide and expand enterprise-level telecommunications network solutions to businesses and enterprise customers.
In addition, the team also aims to target real-time multiplayer-based games as the P2P-based real-time data transfer function provided by VANTA allows developers to create low cost multiplayer games by only developing a game client, and any player game data can be generated by using the VANTA SDK to the client of the player of the game server.
Concreteness & Feasibility
The VANTA team have secured a number of strategic partnerships in order to realize their various objectives and these include an agreement with Hanyang University’s Mobile and Network Intelligence (MNI) Lab which sees MNI Lab acts as VANTA’s main research lab. The lab is currently developing and validating Proof of Concept (PoC) models of consensus algorithms and data routing algorithms.
The team have also partnered with Voiceloco, Inc. a Korean-based Telecommunications Company that specializes in software-based IMS and client m-VoIP engines, namely iOS, Android, and web. In addition, Sejong Telecom Co., Ltd is a leading telecommunications carrier in South Korea with a nationwide optical communication network, and they plan to offer a new blockchain business with VANTA. Furthermore, partnerships with Oracle and Microsoft will allow their cloud marketplaces to provide the VANTA API and SDK to attract existing enterprise customers.
Crucially, VANTA plans to build its own ecosystem as a platform blockchain, while also providing a core module in the form of an SDK and/or API to provide platform-independent access to the VANTA network. This will allow all platforms and applications to access real-time networking capabilities and leverage the platform’s services, thus leading to the rapid expansion of the VANTA ecosystem. The team will also provide support and incubate dApp projects that use the VANTA Network and aim to continue to form alliances with academic institutions and research labs, and establish a solid relationship with non-blockchain industry sectors.
Clarity
The team explains in good detail the need for a network that facilitates real-time data exchanges between people and devices, and the number of devices connected to the Internet, plus the amount of data individuals produce and consume are shown to be growing rapidly. In addition, the team plans to address these five key problems:
Increasing network throughput and cost
Real-time networking development costs and problems with centralized services
Privacy concerns resulting from transferring and storing personal data
Access to data generated by devices and the data usage fees
Trust in the communication between parties and trust in the data transferred from various devices
The VANTA system allows real-time data transmission and processing without relying on traditional centralized systems and networks, this results in a low cost, functional blockchain based network that anyone can participate in, and use. Via an API, SDK, or customizable modules, existing applications or platforms can integrate with VANTA, and this is set to help the ecosystem expand as the project works in conjunction with leading operators.
The team also identifies organizations such as governments, businesses, and schools that want to build their own telecommunication network as key business partners. They plan to provide direct consulting and customized development for cases in which the government body, enterprise, or school has technical difficulties using VANTA, while also helping each organization to build an optimized blockchain based network.
Cost Effectiveness
The team have set a hard cap of $15 million for 35% of all tokens which on a fully diluted basis brings the project valuation closer to $43 million. This appears to be reasonable when compared to the current valuations of projects such as Ethereum, EOS, and Zilliqa, however, other competing projects sought to raise significantly less. For example, Mainframe raised $20.6 million, while Skrumble Network and Dusk raised $16.5 million and $14.4 million respectively. Despite this, the team have already stated that approximately 45% of all funds raised have been earmarked for ongoing project development.
Legitimacy
VANTA is based in South Korea which makes the project more difficult to verify. However, the country is known to regulate the blockchain industry quite stringently, and VANTA has entered into partnerships with Hanyang University, Voiceloco, Oracle, Microsoft, and Sejong Telecom. Team members also come from reputable companies such as Samsung, Hyundai, and SK Telecom.
Compliance
This section is not included in the rating. Regulations and compliance matters are two very sensitive topics which we have realized cannot be quantified as of now. This should of course always be taken into consideration when analyzing a project.
Intrinsic Value of Token
The VANTA Network incorporates staking as a central aspect of its economy and also allows any device to participate and earn rewards as a node by contributing their computing resources to the areas of block production, data relaying, and data processing.
Worker nodes and secondary nodes must stake a certain number of VNTs in order to participate, and worker nodes also receive more rewards than other nodes when they properly execute their given workload. The verifier node acts as a work verifier for real-time network processing and can participate by staking fewer VNTs than worker nodes.
In addition, the VANTA blockchain has no direct block generation rewards for the node that generated the block, and rewards are based on the amount of workloads that have been performed and validated. Furthermore, staking ensures free usage of the network, and VNT token staking is required to use the real-time communication APIs such as data transmission proportional to the amount of VNT tokens staked. Also, companies that want to develop and operate services based on the network must stake VNTs in order to transfer, process, and store data using the VANTA API. There will be a predefined amount of workload per hour required for each service, and service providers should stake VNTs proportional to it.
The ecosystem will also contain an annual 2% VNT inflation, and newly issued tokens will be used to compensate the nodes performing block production and verification. Also upon any unstaking, 2% of the total VNT tokens previously staked are burned or incinerated.
Financial Security Consideration
The team states that VNT are functional utility tokens that provide access to incentives, rewards system, and exchange data within the VANTA platform. VNT do not imply or promise any equity, ownership in, or profit sharing with any part of the VANTA Company.
Adherence to Regulations
The team don’t go into great detail regarding their stance on running a regulatory compliant organization. However, the whitepaper includes a number of legal disclaimers relating to the possible sale and purchases of VNT tokens, and the team have also entered into an agreement with one of the region’s leading blockchain legal firms.
Legal Review
The team urge any interested parties to consult their professional financial, investment, and tax advisers before making any investments in VANTA initial coin offerings. They also declare that VNT are not an official or legally binding investment of any kind, and that unforeseen circumstances may lead to the objectives outlined in the whitepaper being altered. As a result, all persons and parties involved in the purchase of tokens do so at their own risk.
Company & Team
The VANTA team is one of the most accomplished and diverse teams to come together in the blockchain space. It is made up of 4 core executives, 13 members of the technical development team, and 8 members of the business development team. They are also joined by 5 researchers from the MNI Lab at Hanyang University. The project merges engineers and executives from global corporations such as Oracle, HP, AWS, Samsung, and Microsoft, and PhDs and developers from top universities in South Korea, with educational backgrounds from UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and Georgia Tech. In addition, the business development team has experience of working with IBM Korea, Hyundai, and Samsung and is capable pushing the VANTA Network forward via partnerships with leading global enterprises.
Company & Stage Foundation
VANTA is stated to have been founded in 2018, and is based in Seoul, South Korea. The team have also publicised the following address: Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Seoul 06236, KR. However, it has not been possible to locate the company registration details so far, although various team members have verifiable LinkedIn profiles and also have academic and professional backgrounds that can be checked quite easily.
Founder
Ryan Seo (Founder) – Ryan has a Stephen has a B.S. in Computer Science from Yonsei University and acts as the CEO of VANTA. He is also the Founder and CEO of Korean communications company, Voiceloco and has over 5 years experience of heading up the project. Prior to this, he spent over 5 years working in sales for both Oracle and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Ryan has over a decade of industry specific experience and has significant experience of dealing with the top players in telecommunications and IT.
Blockchain & Development Talent
The team is well stocked with development talent, and Adrian Park acts as the Technical Lead. He holds an M.S. in Computer Science, from Seoul National University and has almost five years of experience working with the Development Team Lead at Voiceloco, and has previously worked as a Data Scientist for SK planet.
However, child prodigy Daniel Hong may be the standout performer. He acts as the Core Algorithm Developer and contributed to the VANTA network and blockchain architecture design, including the logical blockchain structure and the PoN-VPBFT consensus algorithm.
Despite being an undergraduate university student at the University of Technology Sydney, he has already amassed an impressive body of work. He has worked as an open source developer for Linux and a project contributor for LineageOS. He has also worked as a Software Developer for both Apple and Xiaomi whilst still very young, and has more recently been a contributor to both the Raspberry PI Foundation, and Ethereum’s Virtual Machine.
Daniel has filed and holds a number of blockchain technology patents, acts as a Lecturer at Kyung Hee University and has also been a guest speaker on Asia Business Daily.
Business Talent
The VANTA team is packed with talented individuals and DJ Sohn stands out with an impressive work history that includes spells with companies such as Doosan, LG Electronics, and IBM Korea. He brings over 15 years experience of managing IT companies to the table and has also spent a year working as an Operation Team Lead at Voiceloco. DJ is another example of the industry specific top class performers that VANTA is already able to call upon.
Advisory Board
VANTA has elected to employ a number of extremely influential advisors/collaborators such as Yoonseok Choi who is the Vice President at Microsoft Korea, and has previously held the role of Vice President at both Oracle Korea and Oracle Japan. In addition, Changnam Choi is a Director at Oracle, and has recently become the APAC Regional Head after spending close to 20 years as the JAPAC Regional Head. Henry Chung is a Managing Director at Draper Athena Fund whilst also working with Coinplug, Inc as an investor and advisor, and acting as Chairman to Venture Leaders Club. He brings over 22 years of experience working with venture capitals to the team. Finally, Allie Zhang is a Co-Founder of Blocktag, a next-generation physical authentication technology company, and Blepcoin, a project analysis platform. She also acts as an advisor to RocketFuel VC and advises numerous projects on both technology and strategy. VANTA has clearly assembled an advisory board of significant experience and standing that will aid them greatly in their commercial mission.
Legal Counsel
The team have partnered with the Oh Kims agency. They are experienced legal experts on IT and life-science industries, and the Korean company provide legal advisory services to blockchain projects.
Superstar
Jinyoung Martin JungData Scientist
Seasoned Product Management Leader with a demonstrated history of working in the Enterprise Technology industry. Skilled in Cloud Services, Enterprise Software, Database, and Data Analytics. Worked for over 6 years at Oracle as a Technical Analyst. Strong product management and leadership with an M.S. Data Science, Big Data at UC Barkeley, and an M.B.A. at Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business.
You can join or participate in the Vanta sales crowd through the following links:
WEBSITE: https://vanta.network/
WHITEPAPER: https://vanta.network/doc/VANTA_White_Paper.pdf
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/vantanetwork/
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/vantanetwork
TELEGRAM: https://t.me/vantanetwork
WHITEPAPER: https://vanta.network/doc/VANTA_White_Paper.pdf
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/vantanetwork/
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/vantanetwork
TELEGRAM: https://t.me/vantanetwork
author:
rivaldo2020
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