Q Network

What is Project Q?

Q is a novel blockchain that combines the benefits of a public, open and decentralized ledger with the transparency and predictability of enforceable private contracts, thereby enabling adoption by a great variety of use cases that desire decentralization but require scalability and dependability.

Terminology

Q Constitution

The Q constitution lays down the rights and obligations of all stakeholders of the Q system. It provides certainty and predictability for everyone using Q or building on it.

Q Blockchain

The Q blockchain is an independent blockchain-based on Ethereum technology. Basing the Q blockchain on Ethereum allows Q to benefit from Ethereum’s existing ecosystem (e.g. a large developer community, existing protocols, applications, and tokens).

Validators and Root Nodes

Q blockchain is maintained by validators and root nodes.

Validators maintain the Q blockchain. They validate transactions, form blocks, and record valid transactions on the Q blockchain. Non-valid transactions are rejected by the validators. In maintaining the Q blockchain, they respect and implement the rules as laid down in the Q constitution. This implies that they need to run an up-to-date software implementation of the Q protocol and operate a Q fullnode at all times.

Root nodes monitor validators to ensure that they comply with the Q constitution. They form a second security and governance layer below the validators to make Q more robust. To be able to monitor the Q blockchain and the behavior of validators, root nodes have to run a Q fullnode. Root nodes do not validate transactions, do not amend the Q blockchain and cannot reverse transactions or reorganize the Q blockchain.

Consensus

The Q blockchain runs on a permissionless peer-to-peer network. Network consensus is achieved via a delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) mechanism, whereby a defined subset of network nodes - validators - form a consensus on the state of the network. In this mechanism, users ‘vote’ to select ‘witnesses’ (other users they trust to validate transactions), and the top tier of witnesses (who have collected the most votes) earn the right to validate transactions. Users can even delegate their voting power to other users, whom they trust to vote for witnesses on their behalf. Votes are weighted according to the size of each voter’s stake. A user need not have a large stake to enter the top tier of witnesses. Rather, votes from users with large stakes can result in users with relatively small stakes being elevated to the top tier of witnesses. Using a DPoS model allows for high scalability in terms of transaction throughput and predictable transaction costs.