Fantom: A Revolutionary Blockchain Platform for Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Enterprise Solutions

Fantom: Everything You Need to Know

Fantom is a blockchain platform that aims to provide fast, secure, and scalable ledger services to businesses and applications. It is based on a directed acyclic graph (DAG) data structure, which allows transactions to be processed asynchronously and in parallel, without the need for blocks or miners. Fantom claims to achieve high throughput, low latency, and low fees, while maintaining a high level of security and decentralization.

Fantom has its own native token, FTM, which is used to pay for network fees, secure the network through staking, and access various services and applications on the platform. FTM is also compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and can be used on other blockchains that support EVM, such as Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon.

How does it work?

Fantom uses a novel consensus mechanism called Lachesis, which is an asynchronous Byzantine fault tolerant (aBFT) protocol that can handle thousands of transactions per second (TPS) with a confirmation time of 1-2 seconds. Lachesis works by organizing transactions into event blocks, which are linked together in a DAG structure. Each event block contains information about its parent blocks, its timestamp, its transactions, and its validator signature. Validators are nodes that stake FTM tokens to participate in the network and validate transactions.

Lachesis uses a gossip protocol to propagate event blocks across the network. Each validator creates and broadcasts new event blocks periodically, while also receiving and validating event blocks from other validators. The protocol ensures that all honest validators eventually reach consensus on the order and validity of event blocks, even if some validators are malicious or offline. Lachesis also employs a finality gadget, which is a sub-protocol that determines when an event block becomes final and irreversible.

Fantom supports smart contracts through its Opera chain, which is a layer-1 chain that runs on top of Lachesis. Opera is compatible with EVM and Web3JS, which means that developers can use the same tools and languages as they do on Ethereum to create decentralized applications (DApps) on Fantom. Opera also supports cross-chain communication with other EVM-compatible chains through bridges and interoperability protocols.

Who is the team behind it?

Fantom was founded in 2018 by Dr. Ahn Byung Ik, a computer scientist and entrepreneur who also founded food-tech platform SikSin. The Fantom Foundation is the organization that oversees the development and governance of the Fantom network. The foundation consists of a team of experts in various fields, such as cryptography, distributed systems, software engineering, economics, and marketing. Some of the notable members of the team are:

Michael Kong, CEO: He is an experienced blockchain developer and entrepreneur who previously co-founded Block8 Technologies, a blockchain venture studio.

Andre Cronje, Technical Advisor: He is a prominent figure in the DeFi space who created Yearn Finance, one of the most popular yield aggregators on Ethereum.

Michael Chen, CMO: He is a marketing strategist and content creator who has been involved in several blockchain projects, such as Zilliqa, TomoChain, and Harmony.

Quan Nguyen, CTO: He is a software engineer and architect who has over 10 years of experience in developing enterprise applications and blockchain solutions.

What are its use cases?

Fantom aims to provide a platform for various use cases that require fast, secure, and scalable ledger services. Some of the main use cases are:

Decentralized Finance (DeFi): Fantom hosts a growing ecosystem of DeFi applications that offer various financial services, such as lending, borrowing, swapping, staking, farming, synthetic assets, stablecoins, and insurance. 

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs): Fantom has partnered with several governments and central banks to explore the potential of CBDCs on its platform. For example, Fantom is working with the Central Bank of Afghanistan to develop a digital Afghani currency that can improve financial inclusion and transparency in the country. Fantom is also collaborating with the Central Bank of Tajikistan to create a CBDC pilot project that can facilitate cross-border payments and remittances.

Enterprise Solutions: Fantom offers customized solutions for enterprises that want to leverage blockchain technology for their business processes. For instance, Fantom has developed a supply chain management system for Danfoss, a Danish engineering company that operates in the energy sector. The system uses Fantom’s smart contracts to track and verify the origin, quality, and delivery of products across the supply chain.