In an attempt to take the market share away from one of the most important tools of power — money — Central banks and governments all over the world tried to kill Bitcoin, unsuccessfully. Having failed to kill bitcoin, they have decided to become its champions and proponents. Not only has this established Bitcoin as a unique financial and social phenomenon, but it also shows the resilience and power of the underlying technology at its core: blockchain. Spurring countless transformative innovations ranging far beyond the financial sector, with applications in a diverse array of fields involving identity management, data ownership, decentralised autonomous organisations and the digital commons — blockchain provides a resilient technology where trust is established by all of the participants jointly maintaining a common ledger, and where no single entity can solely take control of the network. On the 10-year anniversary of Bitcoin, we are reminded of this proud and lasting legacy.

Since the initial launch of AMB-NET back in July, our team has been hard at work — day in and day out — in order to prepare the Ambrosus Network for its next major evolution: public onboarding of masternodes. In what has been coined ‘the Wave of Chaos’ —reminiscent of the birth of a brand new system— Ambrosus is excited to announce that as of today, the onboarding of the first wave of masternode operators will officially commence. This milestone of development ultimately mirrors the practical realisation of Ambrosus’s unique crypto-economic model as well as the public deployment of Ambrosus’ fully functional blockchain and IoT network!

In order to support masternode operators, we have put together a short explanation on what to expect over the next few weeks (spoiler: a lot of exciting news!) Additionally, we have also decided to highlight more about a number of tools and services that will be released in the course of the coming weeks that will make the experience of using AMB-NET a lot better for developers, businesses and node operators alike. These tools include things like the Node Onboarding Package (NOP), AMB-View (AMB-NET Explorer), AMB-Swap (ERC20 <->Native AMB Tokens), as well as AMB-Dash (our brand-new dashboard for businesses and developers)! Based upon community interest we have even included sections on wallet developments and the auction procedure for Apollo Masternodes!

On AMB-NET(s)

As it currently stands, when we talk about AMB-NET we are actually talking about three parallel networks:

DEV-NET: The internal developer network. This is a small scale AMB-NET fully operated by Ambrosus, where the latest improvements and tools are released first. This net is mostly used by our internal dev teams and close partners to test new functionality and services (alpha versions) before they reach the maturity to graduate on Test-Net. TEST-NET: The public test network. Generally larger in size than the Main-Net, this is a public sandbox environment where any external entrepreneurs and developers can build and test their applications without any risks or costs. Just like Ropsten or Kovan networks for Ethereum, Test-Net tokens can be minted and shared with developers freely, essentially reducing to zero the cost of generating bundles on Test-Net (just contact us). MAIN-NET: The real production network (or AMB-NET). This is where all real-world production applications for business and entrepreneurs should live. “Real” Amber tokens are required to create and assets and events on Main-Net which will be used to incentivise a global network of masternodes. We will have community funds available for teams working on new projects, protocols and add-ons for the Ambrosus ecosystem.

The three networks operate in parallel but are obviously independent from each other. Prospective developers and entrepreneurs have the opportunity to leverage the Test-Net to test out their dApps and how they operate at scale for no cost whatsoever. After testing, tweaking, and security auditing, you can then migrate to the Main Network where running applications and services will require a payment in AMB, and where such services can actually be offered to enterprises, governments and startups interested in using your blockchain based solution!

Operating a Masternode on the Ambrosus Network

As announced previously, the common procedure for operating a Masternode on the Ambrosus Network comprises three main steps:

First, you must apply through our online form and become whitelisted for a spot on the network. We have received many very well written applications on this front, nevertheless as explained previously, this is your chance to convince us about why you should get a node in the first waves.

Second, as masternode operators are selected we will preliminarily onboard them to the Test-Net. This is to ensure that community members can become familiar with what is required to maintain a masternode at optimal capacity as well as to make sure that those allowed onto the Main-Net will be able to efficiently and correctly perform their function. For the first waves of masternode operators, we will be evaluating performances on a case-by-case basis to decide when an operator may be ready for Main-Net usage. This is to prevent failures on the network and potential losses of AMB for operators at the early stages.

Third, the masternode operators will be on-boarded to the official Ambrosus Main-Net. This is the real deal. As one of the first operators accepted onto AMB-NET you will be responsible for storing or validating bundles of data from clients using the Ambrosus Ecosystem!

Node Onboarding Package (NOP)

To operate a masternode, you first need to setup a virtual machine that will be online and operate 24/7, from any provider of your choice. We had excellent experience and recommend DigitalOcean and AWS, but most other VPS providers should work equally well. To make it easier to run your Masternodes, we have put together a simple command-line tool called NOP (Node Onboarding Package) which will download and configure all the software components. NOP has just been made publicly available on our GitHub.

Running a masternode is a three-step process:

Setup and configure the virtual machine so it can smoothly run the Masternode application, Configure the Masternode application (using NOP) Run the Masternode executables (using Docker).

Step 1 can be easily done by anyone, and the process to setup your environment is documented on the NOP documentation on GitHub. We have also posted a video that shows how to setup a fresh environment from scratch which you should be able to replicate in any fresh virtual machine (we recommend to use Ubuntu 16.04.5).

Steps 2 and 3, will require you to be officially invited to an onboarding wave and get whitelisted, so if you haven’t applied for a node yet, make sure you do so rapidly to ensure a spot in the next waves.

Community Hermes Masternodes

As a means of stimulating the open-source nature of the Ambrosus ecosystem, Ambrosus will deploy several Hermes Masternodes that can be used by the general public, app developers, entrepreneurs, and businesses alike. These nodes are ideal for developers who want to get started rapidly with Ambrosus and deploy AMB-NET DApps without the need to setup and operate a dedicated Hermes node, or gain a practical understanding of how Hermes masternodes operate at scale. In other words — we’ll offer access to AMB-NET in a SAAS mode through our own Hermes nodes.

Remember — a Hermes node is essentially an open-source cloud-based DApp that can be deployed and operated by anyone (devs & businesses alike). Hermes nodes’ purpose is to bridge the traditional Web world (by offering a REST API allowing the creation of Assets and Events and storing them in a local/private database) and the Blockchain world (by packaging Assets/Events into Bundles that are then written on the Ambrosus Blockchain).

Importantly, three Hermes nodes have been deployed on Test-Net in three key regions around the globe: in Europe (Ireland), Latin America (Sao Paulo) and in the Asia Pacific Region (Mumbai). They will be open to any developer who wants to build AMB-NET powered DApps via our own nodes and will use a (non-crypto) credits system to guarantee fair usage of our shared Hermes nodes. Of course, we’ll provide free Test-Net credits to any developer wanting to use the community Hermes nodes.

Meanwhile, one Hermes Masternode has been opened to the general public on the Main-Net (running in Europe). This masternode can be used to run and scale real-world applications for supply chains, smart cities, and other forms of data management. The public Hermes node will thus create real Bundles on AMB-NET periodically. Initially at a rate of one Heartbeat Bundle every 5 minutes, we will adapt this rate as required.

AMB-VIEW: The Ambrosus Explorer

Visualising the current state of a blockchain requires running a client for the network, which isn’t the most convenient or usable method to quickly see what’s happening on the network. Tools such as Etherscan have made it straightforward for anyone to see the state of the Ethereum network simply from any browser, and for this reason we have been building our very own interface to easily track what’s happening on AMB-NET. In order to support the specifics of our blockchain (Bundles, Challenges, etc.) we had to build such a tool from scratch.

The AMB-NET Explorer combines various data sources to show you what is happening in real-time across the Ambrosus Network. Like other explorers, it shows each block that has been created along with the transactions contained in each block. Besides these facets, the explorer also allows you to see the various smart contract calls related to bundle uploads, challenges, and so on. — so anyone will be able to see and track the lifetime of bundles and their public data.

To date, the explorer is in the final testing phase and will be released shortly. Importantly, the Dev teams still have significant additions in store for the block explorer. Over the next few months the explorer will evolve to include an interface for users to validate content of bundle and prove the data about assets and events, see the real time status of all globally distributed Masternodes across AMB-NET, and much more.

AMB-DASH: A Native Ambrosus Dashboard

Creating and managing millions (or billions) of assets can of course be done exclusively through the REST APIs on Hermes nodes, however this is not very practical for the majority of business users (supply chain, logistics, or production managers/operators, etc.).

To make it a lot easier for users to create and visualise the various assets and events on any Hermes node, our team in Tallinn has built a brand-new dashboard that is currently being tested and getting ready to be released. This dashboard will vastly improve user experience making it easy and intuitive to manage Masternodes. As the User Interface (UI) for Hermes Masternodes, it will provide the tooling required by businesses, entrepreneurs, and developers to create and manage the assets, events, and bundles they upload to AMB-NET.

Altogether, the dashboard is crucial for supply chain or project managers wishing to manage and follow the assets and events throughout their life-cycle. Even more importantly the dashboard can be customized or permissioned to allow only specific actors to create assets and events, or to simply visualise the operations of a data system at hand.

AMB-SWAP

As has been amply discussed, the Ambrosus Main-Net uses native Amber tokens, which are separate from the ERC20 tokens on Ethereum. All AMB-NET operations (creating bundles, rewards for challenges, staking for masternodes) are done on our native blockchain therefore requiring native AMB tokens.

As we start onboarding masternodes on our Main-Net, we will launch a Token Bridge Service that enables seamless transfer of tokens between ERC20 AMB tokens and native tokens. The exchange rate has been set 1:1, meaning that native AMB on the Main-Net will be exchanged for the same amount of ERC20 AMB on the Ethereum Network. The only difference to keep in mind, is the fact that the native Ambrosus network will be subject to a 2% annual increase in total supply through block rewards distributed to Apollo nodes (approximately ~7.2 million AMBs) in order to ensure network scalability, global adoption and reward active participation on AMB-NET.

Furthermore, to make sure that no community member misses the opportunity to exchange their ERC20 tokens for native AMB, we have decided to keep both networks running in parallel for a limited time: once all ERC20 tokens have been migrated to the native network and until our native network will be integrated in the major marketplaces. The bridge has been completed and successfully used on Test-Net, and will be deployed on Main-Net as soon as we complete the latest security testing to enable the onboarding of community-owned masternodes.

The animation and screenshots below provide more detailed illustrations of what the bridge entails

The Wallets

As AMB-NET is a separate blockchain, existing wallet applications will need to integrate with it before you can manage your native Amber tokens directly. For this reason, we have decided to build three Wallet applications (Web, native iOS, and native Android) that will allow you to not only store your native AMB tokens, but also to do various operations on top of AMB-NET. This will be a very ambitious and exciting project for us, so expect quite a few developments there in the next few months.

Until then, we’re currently finishing the last touches on our wallet applications and final security testing, and we hope to be able to release a Beta versions of the wallets by the end of November — or as soon as the security audit and testing has been successfully completed.

In the meanwhile, being fully compliant with Ethereum, you can already interact with native Amber tokens on our different networks using Metamask (tutorial here) and Myetherwallet (tutorial here), which will allow you to transfer and manage native Amber Tokens, create wallets, manage your private keys.

Auction for Apollo Masternodes

As previously discussed, once the first waves of masternodes have been onboarded, future onboarded Apollo Masternodes onto the Ambrosus Network will be dependent upon an ‘Auction’ Procedure. The goal of this procedure is to make sure that the most committed Apollo node operators are allowed onto the network to validate transactions.

By Q1 of next year, an online auction service will be setup for Apollo nodes where anyone will be able to participate and bid. The highest bidders will determine the order of onboarding for Apollos, so each time a new seat is opened on main-net, the highest bidder will be offered the ability to host it (by depositing the amount bidded for). The amount will determine the percentage of block rewards that node will be rewarded, and of course can be increased/decreased over time.

Conclusion:

As we continue to perform security audits and testing on the various tools we will be releasing in the near future, it is worthwhile to emphasise the underlying philosophy that we have taken towards the development of AMB-NET from the very beginning: we prize ourselves on only releasing the best, highest-quality, and most secure products for both the community and our clients to make use of. This philosophy will continue to ground our development progression as we continue to launch the various high-level tools for enhanced masternode operability.

As the Wave of Chaos launches, and AMB-NET begins to onboard distributed operators from around the world, Ambrosus stands atop this massive milestone at a unique juncture in its development: the long awaited distributed IoT platform for industrial grade supply chains and future data management is officially operational. A new ecosystem fit for the digital economy has been born. Over the next months, AMB-NET will steadily become an industrial grade network, as future waves of masternode operators are selected to contribute to the future of secure and decentralized data management!