The Valency Network is a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Decentralised Network that functions as a replacement for Bitcoin and Ethereum, offering enhanced capabilities by rectifying the critical shortcomings, whilst retaining their fundamental principles. The network is Open-Source and programmed in C++, without the use of external libraries, ensuring a self-contained system. The Valency Network leverages existing technologies to improve on existing decentralised networks.
In the hybrid Proof-of-Stake/Proof-of-Bandwidth consensus mechanism, validators are selected based on both their staked tokens and their contributions of bandwidth to the network. This would incentivise validators to not only hold a significant stake in the network, but also provide reliable and fast network connectivity to ensure the network’s stability and performance. A hybrid mechanism like this provides a more balanced and robust approach to consensus that takes into account both token ownership and network connectivity.
The Valency Network utilises a Post-Quantum Asymmetric Encryption Algorithm called NTRUencrypt (N-th Degree Truncated Polynomial Ring Units). NTRU is lattice-based instead of prime-based, completely eliminating the possibility of solving using Shor’s Algorithm on a quantum computer.
On the Valency Network, Traceable Ring Signatures allow the sender of a transaction on the Valency Network to remain completely anonymous whilst still retaining the ability for nodes to verify the transaction.
Stealth Addresses are a privacy-enhancing technique used in the Valency Network. They enable the receiver of a transaction to use a one-time, disposable public address derived from their private key, making it extremely difficult to link transactions to the actual recipient. This increases privacy and anonymity of the users.
Sharding is a scaling solution for blockchains that aims to improve the efficiency and throughput of the network by dividing it into smaller, manageable pieces called shards. Each shard processes a subset of the transactions, allowing for parallel processing and increasing the overall capacity of the network. Sharding helps to alleviate the limitations of traditional blockchain systems, where every node is required to validate and store all transactions, leading to slow transaction times high resource usage.
One of the main bandwidth limitations the network will have to cope with it when a new node is downloading the required shards to be able to partake in the network. Since a blockchain consists of every transaction ever made within that particular network, the overall size can be substantial and continues to grow as new blocks are added. Containerization is a process that compresses shards on the blockchain and large blocks on up to date nodes before sending to other nodes. This compressed data can then be decompressed and processed normally. This decreases the time it takes for a node to get set up on the network.
Onion Routing is used in the Valency Network to remove governmental/malicious control of the users, as people will not have to worry about their identities being revealed through a leaked IP address. Multiple layers of encryption and message routing makes it exponentially harder for malicious entities to trace the IP address of the message sender and message contents through eavesdropping and traffic analysis attacks.
The Valency Network provides support for the Solidity smart contract programming language. The primary objective is to enable easy portability of these contracts from networks such as Ethereum and Solana to the Valency Network. In addition to Solidity, the Valency Network supports a diverse range of other Turing-complete programming languages.
The Valency Network acts as a backbone for the Valency Exchange - the other half of this project which utilizes smart contracts on the network to fulfill transactions. This gives the network the unique advantage of being backed by an exchange.
In order to successfully execute an open-source project of such magnitude as The Valency Network, adequate funding is crucial. This undertaking requires a considerable amount of resources, such as a suitable work environment, server hosting, software development tools, and infrastructure to establish an efficient and effective development team.