Ontology Network is a new generation public chain infrastructure as well as a distributed trust collaboration project. It is building the infrastructure for a peer-to-peer (P2P) trust network that is cross-chain, cross-system, cross-industry, cross-application and cross-device. The idea behind the public platform is to remove barriers between the blockchain and business sector. Ontology works hand-in-hand with NEO.

Update: Ontology has launched its mainnet, which coincides with its mapping and migration methods for its token swap.

Article Summary

The Idea and the Team Behind ONT

ONT Partnerships

The ONT Price History

The ONT Technology

The ONT Network

The Ontology Mainnet Launch

How to Purchase ONT

How to Store ONT

Roadmap and Future Updates

The Idea and the Team Behind ONT

To understand the idea behind Ontology we must first understand a bit about the cryptocurrency called NEO. Ontology was launched by the developers of NEO, a Chinese company called Onchain that focuses on innovation in digital asset transfer, smart contracts, and digital verification.

Onchain developed Ontology in 2017 with the goal of allowing companies to implement trust mechanisms and customize them to their individual business needs. In a nutshell, Ontology was developed to bridge the gap between the private and public blockchains. The technology is built to eliminate any learning curve that was previously necessary for businesses to integrate blockchain into their infrastructure.

Ontology is part of the Open BlockChain Foundation fund established by NEO. The foundation cooperates with universities and research teams to develop blockchain technology all over the world.

Da Hongfei is Ontology’s CEO as well as the co-founder of NEO. He quickly set a goal to partner with the Guiyang government in China to help bring blockchain as well as digital identification to public services.

Jun Li is the founder of Ontology as well as the chief architect of Onchain. His previous experience includes working at the China Futures Financial Exchange. “We have built a rock-solid infrastructure for trust cooperation in the different scenarios that make up the Ontology trust ecosystem, and we look forward to seeing the global impact starting in the US,” he said to Business Insider.

ONT Partnerships

In addition to support from large Chinese venture capital firms including Sequoia China, Danhua Capital, Matrix Partners China and ZhenFund, Ontology has received support throughout Asia. The company announced a Co-Builder Plan with Singapore-based private equity firm Tembusu Partners, early-stage venture capital firm Accomplice, South Korean-based crypto fund Hashed as well as Onchain.

It has also entered into strategic partnerships with Microsoft China, Alibaba, Hyperledger (hosted by The Linux Foundation, it’s an open-source collaborative effort to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies), and has received investment from Fosun Group, one of China’s biggest corporate investors.

The ONT Price History

Ontology did not have a public sale or ICO but has favored a multiphase token reward plan. It also has chosen to implement a dual-token economy, with ONG (Ontology Gas), the equivalent of NEO’s GAS and ONT. In March 2018 the company airdropped 20 million ONT to holders of NEO.

The coin exceeded the billion-dollar market cap in April 2018 after only 5 weeks on the market and placed 23 among the top-25 coins according to Coinmarketcap. The team wants to reach a market cap of $10 billion by 2019.

The token price when the currency first launched was $0.2 USD, reaching $4.69 as of mid-April. Whether or not this growth continues remains to be seen.

The ONT Technology

“Trust is a key component in human organization and social collaboration. Trust has become the core requirement of social and economic partnership that has been built up through technology, law, and community throughout history.” — Ontology’s Introductory White Paper

Along with its role in cryptocurrency, blockchain is also stepping up to a new role – a leader in the “trust economy.” The trust economy relies on the transacting party’s reputation and digital identity, all of which are stored on the blockchain.

Ontology is built to be the foundational infrastructure of a trust ecosystem. It supports decentralized technology and data systems while simultaneously connecting different networks so that each can focus on their business operations.

The idea is that there are three essential pillars of trust; trust through technology, trust through legal systems, and trust through community. Many current issues of trust exist in the current system, including identifying false information and accurately verifying identity. In its aims to provide a solution to these types of challenges of trust, the Ontology Network combines distributed identity verification, data exchange, data collaboration, procedure protocols, communities, attestation, and various industry-specific modules.

Ontology’s technology is meant to be fully customizable to meet the needs of different industries. It is a public blockchain that can be designed to meet specific industry needs.

It does this by supporting different modules for enterprises. These models can be used for different types of business scenarios, including digital identity framework and data exchange. It is similar to a “plug and play” module of a website or software.

A few of the different modules and protocols are:

ONT ID (The Ontology Distributed Identity Framework) – a decentralized identity protocol that supports distributed and multi-factor confirmation, identification and certification for people and organizations. It offers a cryptography-based digital identity, making identity and data assets that can be fully controlled.

– a decentralized identity protocol that supports distributed and multi-factor confirmation, identification and certification for people and organizations. It offers a cryptography-based digital identity, making identity and data assets that can be fully controlled. ONT Data – a module that supports data cooperation and exchange of data resource management, smart contract transactions, and will allow for customizable data trading marketplaces with ensured data and financial security

– a module that supports data cooperation and exchange of data resource management, smart contract transactions, and will allow for customizable data trading marketplaces with ensured data and financial security ONT Scores – these scores provide support for various businesses, whether by establishing different credit evaluation logic according to distributed credible data

Ontology will continue to provide modules for different kinds of distributed scenarios according to their specific requirements.

The ONT Network

The Ontology network is composed of three different layers:

Distributed ledgers –including these key properties:

Consensus – a consensus engine similar to NEO’s

Architecture – algorithms and ledgers are “plug and play,” they can be used individually when needed

Attestation – the ledger records data and the interactions with the data

A P2P network protocol (i.e. the “Distributed Trust Framework”) – this layer has protocols for identity, multi-source authentication, user authorization, and distributed data exchange

Application Framework – this layer consists of modules (APIs and SDKs) that can build decentralized applications without having experience in the distributed ledger. A few application examples would be: digital copyright, user authorization controller, and claim management.

The Ontology Mainnet Launch

Ontology has officially launched its mainnet as of June 30th. The infrastructure provides new high-performance public blockchains that have complete distributed ledgers and support smart contract systems while at the same time include public chain customization and chain network collaboration. Ontology 1.0 includes a decentralized identity authentication protocol, a distributed data management protocol, and a credit score protocol.

Its new features also include:

Smart contract tool SmartX – A one-stop integrated development environment (IDE) that can compile, deploy and invoke smart contracts with many smart contract templates. Smart contract users can use it as a reference or to customize their own contract templates.

Triones Consensus Group – A public chain governance model that promotes an open-source collaborative distributed trust ecosystem.

VBFT algorithm – A new consensus algorithm integrating Proof of Stake (PoS), verifiable random function (VRF) and Byzntine Fault Tolerance (BFT). Together with the Ontology governance model it can improve the performance and usability of public chain networks.

The Ontology mainnet will coincide with its token launch. The token launch will take place using a number of different methods, including:

One-stop mapping – This is done through downloading Ontology’s ONTO wallet and registration. For more information, follow the directions on the Mainnet ONTO Token Swap Guide.

Other wallet mapping – As of now O3 and SEA wallet also support ONTO mapping. Learn more details through their official announcements.

Exchange automatic mapping – Binance, Huobi Pro, Upbit, KuCoin, OKEx, CoinEgg, and Gate.io support exchange mapping. Follow their official directions on their site to learn how to undergo mapping on each exchange.

Ledger mapping – Ledger users can complete mapping via an exchange since Ledger does not support private key extraction.

How to Purchase ONT

Early purchase of Ontology was available via airdropping from those who were holding NEO. The rate was 0.2 ONT for each NEO.

As of March Ontology can be purchased on Binance. The exchange celebrated the listing by giving Ontology to the top 5050 ranked users. Binance currently has the largest volume of ONT trading and allows you to exchange ONT with Bitcoin.

After registering to Binance you can purchase ONT either with a “limit” order, where you manually set the price at which you want to buy ONT, or a “market” buy, where you purchase ONT at the best price available. Another option is a stop-limit, which is an order to buy or sell a coin once the price reaches a specified price.

Read our Guide How to use Binance Exchange

ONT can also be purchased on the following exchanges:

How to Store ONT

Ontology can be stored in any wallet that supports NEO coins, such as the Neon wallet. Make sure the wallet supports the display ONT – not all of them did after the airdrop.

In addition, you can store your ONT on hardware wallets such as Ledger Nano S and Trezor.

Ontology has an aggressive roadmap for the next three years, which includes better functionality and performance of the basic chain, a trust ecosystem, and ensuring that the different blockchain architectures are compatible with the ecosystem to enable cross-chain business interoperability.

Future plans that might affect pricing include Chinese government partnerships. Ontology may be the key for getting NEO and Ethereum acceptance in the governmental sector. If so, its importance in the cryptocurrency sphere will become increasingly significant.