Fantom is a high-throughput, secure, open-source smart contract platform for digital assets and dApps. The Fantom project was initially built by the Fantom Foundation, which Michael Kong leads. The project went live on mainnet in 2019.
Fantom Development
Fantom tackles the scalability, speed, and security trilemma experienced by legacy blockchain systems (like Bitcoin). In doing so, Fantom aims to serve governments, banks, hospitals, and other institutions that have been reluctant to step into the blockchain space.
The blockchain’s performance is achieved through Fantom’s consensus algorithm (Lachesis) and its application environment (Opera). Fantom allows thousands of independently customizable networks to be deployed and communicate with one another in a decentralized way. The entire system is secured by staking its native token, FTM.
Fantom guarantees:
- Almost instant transactions that cost a fraction of a cent
- Proof-of-stake validator nodes are global, trustless, and leaderless
- Thousands of transactions can be processed per second
- The system can scale to thousands of nodes
- The system is Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible
Fantom’s features are ideal for various practical applications such as payments, launching CBDCs, storing sensitive data, and more. There are over 200 dApps on the blockchain, including DEXs, cross-chain bridges, lending and borrowing platforms, yield optimization applications, NFT platforms, gameFi, tools, and wallets.
Lachesis, Fantom’s Blockchain Engine
The consensus algorithm underpinning the Fantom blockchain is Lachesis. Developers can use the algorithm to build peer-to-peer applications without creating their network layer.
Some defining features of Lachesis:
- Asynchronous – participants can process commands at different times (an example would be many people sending emails when they want), increasing throughput
- Leaderless – no participant plays a special role in consensus
- Byzantine Fault-tolerant – even if 1/3 of the network nodes are faulty or malicious, the network will not go down
- Fast Finality – there is no need to wait for long block confirmation times, as transactions on Fantom are validated in 1-2 seconds
The Fantom Opera Mainnet
Fantom Opera is Fantom’s environment for building decentralized applications. Opera leverages Lachesis to ensure there are no network congestion risks or lengthy confirmations. Additionally, Opera has complete smart contract support through Solidity (a smart contract programming language) and is compatible with the EVM. This allows developers to deploy their Ethereum contracts directly on the Opera mainnet.
Tokenomics
The FTM token is the native token of the Fantom ecosystem. FTM is used for securing the network through staking, voting in on-chain governance, making payments, and paying network fees. The total supply is 3.175 billion tokens, with a circulating supply of 2.55 billion, and the remainder is reserved for staking rewards.
There is no lower limit to the amount of FTM you need to stake. However, anyone wishing to run a validator node must stake at least 1,000,000 FTM. You don’t require specialized hardware to stake tokens, as it can be done directly from your phone or PC.
To make trading easy, the FTM token is available as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum, a BEP2 token on the Binance Chain, and Opera FTM on Fantom’s mainnet Opera. However, ERC20 and BEP2 tokens must be swapped back to FTM on the Opera mainnet before they can be used for staking or interacting with FTM wallets.
Community
In March 2022, there was controversy in the Fantom ecosystem following the abrupt departure of Andre Cronje and Anton Nell (contributors to Fantom). Investors were assured by the foundation that the departure would have no material impact on the project’s development.
Governance
In recent news, a significant governance vote was passed. This vote was an agreement to drop staking reward issuance from 13% to 6% APR.
“The vote confirms that validators and stakers see the value of adopting a longer perspective and recognize the future growth potential.” – Fantom Foundation
The Fantom ecosystem has used on-chain governance since January 2021. FTM token holders vote to make changes to the Fantom blockchain. One token equals one vote.
Social Media Coverage
Fantom has a massive community with over 460k followers on Twitter, 38k Fantomanians on Reddit, 21k members on Discord, and 38k subscribers across its Telegram channels. Many influencers are creating organic content on YouTube to engage with the Fantom community.
Summary
In conclusion, Fantom is a scalable, secure, and fast smart contract platform looking to bridge the gap between institutions and web3. Fantom’s ecosystem is bustling with activity, and the trend doesn’t appear to be stopping soon.
