The history of Nexus

Nexus started as a vision of improving the Bitcoin protocol and at the same time cleaning the cryptosphere from scam coins.



Lead Developer Colin Cantrell (Viz) studied the foundations of the Bitcoin Core code, understanding how Satoshi structured Bitcoin and identifying opportunities for improvement. At this time, the altcoin market was being flooded with scams and pump and dump schemes where coins pushing promises, buzz words, and the allure of quick profits were used to swindle BTC from communities. Fom Vizs vision, Coinshield (CSD) was born.



The first CSD block was mined on September 23, 2014 at 16:20 UTC-7, and the project soon-to-be named Nexus was live. At that point, the project had one channel of mining: a Prime Mining channel (CPU). On October 23, 2014, the Hashing (GPU) channel was launched as the second proof channel. The blocks included a first-ever subsidy, where a portion from each mined block would be sent to one of 13 developer accounts and another portion would be sent to one of 13 exchange accounts. On January 24, 2015, CSD was listed on Bittrex Exchange.



Shortly afterwards, Viz drafted the first whitepaper that outlined how the network would work to recycle and merge the economies and communities of these scam coins. The goal was to help the people in those communities, bring them into the CSD community, and at the same time help clean up the cryptosphere. The exchange accounts would be used to merge these economies by exchanging the coins for a portion of CSD.



On April 11, 2015, Viz announced the intention to rebrand to Nexus. Discussion pursued about the ticker symbol, and NIRO was chosen to represent Nexus. On July 24, 2015, Nexus version 2.0 was released with Nexus Proof of State (nPOS) and the introduction of the Trust Network. This laid the foundation for the broader scope of Nexus.

At the beginning of September 2015, Videlicet revealed his identity as Colin Cantrell. In October 2015, a more formal team was formed to promote development, build the community, and market Nexus. The ticker symbol was revised to NXS. Discussions on Nexuss direction led to the decision to abandon the recycling and merging that was part of the Coinshield project. The technical work required to implement the merging was done, but with the explosion in the number of new cryptos, the process would have had little impact. Therefore, Nexus began to develop into something much more expansive. The project had a whole new direction.



Nexus still seeks to help carry on Satoshis dream of decentralization, and as such continues to work on improving the Blockchain protocol. Some of how it works, its goals, specifications, and features are described further in this post. For a more complete explanation, please read the Nexus whitepaper.

Nexus: Under the hood

Decentralized Decentralization

Consensus

Trust-based Proof-of-Holding

Security

Scalability

Spaced-Based Blockchain

Specifications

Nexus improves upon the Bitcoin protocol:

Current features:





3 consensus channels: Every channel reinforces the others to prevent 51% attacks on one channel, forcing attacker across multiple channels.



Hashing: Nexus uses a combination of different hashes, including Keccak-1600, Skein-1024, SK-576, SK-512, and SK-256.



SK-1024: Using Skein-1024 and Keccak-1600 for GPU PoW to produce a 1024 bit output hash used for the block hash providing the highest security.



Prime: Searching for Dense Prime Clusters as CPU PoW, finding these clusters of numbers that are ~308 digits to verify prime density in large numbers.



Keys: 571 Bit Private Keys compared to 256 bit in other currencies. Using NID_sect571r1 as the algorithm.



Difficulty: Calculated with time overlaps and true % over bounds, using weighted block average over past 5 blocks.



LLP: Lower Level Protocol as a template protocol to allow any protocol to be created with ease without need for repeated network programming.



Core LLP: Protocol responsible for time keeping as an advancement to NTP, keeping clocks on the network synchronized within a few seconds of one another. Maximum clock drift for Nexus is 10 seconds.



Mining LLP: Dedicated Mining Protocol outside of JSON-RPC Server to allow the greatest performance for mining. Protocol can handle 5k + connections allowing solo mining of any magnitude.



No Reward Halving: Rewards are calculated along an exponential decay curve to slowly reduce the value of each block rather than shock both miners and the market with block reward halving which acts as a rudimentary decay model.



Released Reserves: Decayed amounts are deposited into the Reserves for each channel, preventing a miner from being able to mint more than the projected amount while difficulty is compensating to their amount of computing power.



Fractional Rewards: When reserves are below given thresholds, the mining reward is then based off of the time it took to create a block preventing a miner from ever being able to deplete the reserves.



Decentralized Checkpoints: Every 60 minutes, the Nexus protocol automatically creates a checkpoint. This prevents blocks from being created or modified dated prior to this checkpoint, thus protecting the chain from malicious attempts to introduce an alternate blockchain.



Trust Keys: The minting rate increases the longer a node secures the blockchain, incentivizing nodes to actively stake. This increases the difficulty for successfully attacking the network, as nodes with greater Trust are more likely to find new blocks.



Nexus Proof of Holding: Nexuss Proof of Holding system is based upon the Peercoin protocol, completely recoded and redesigned from scratch, utilizing an efficiency threshold, trust keys, and logarithmic weights to create the fairest and most stable staking system to date.



Developer Commission: The Developer Fund fuels ongoing development and is sourced by a 1.5% commission per block mined, which will slowly increase to 2.5% after 10 years. This brings all the benefits of development funding without the associated risks and limits the control which can exerted by the developer account.



The Ambassador (renamed from Exchange) keys are funded by a 20% commission per block reward. These keys are mainly used to pay for marketing, and producing and launching the Nexus satellites.





Planned features:

Reversible Transactions: Transaction can be reversed if below expiration time by sending transaction void to the network.



Two-Way Signatures: Receiver of transaction will be required to sign to prove ownership of txout before it will be processed. This will prevent burning coins by accident.



Trust Network: Using Trust Keys and more sophistication in Checkpoints will create a Trust Network in which nodes will be given the opportunity to vote on checkpoints and blocks to agree on set blockchain. This will prevent a rogue node from trying to manipulate the network.



Sync-less Wallets: Using the Trust Network as a backbone and the LLP for the protocol, will allow wallets to remain sync-less by processing transactions in the Trust Network.



HTML5 Wallet: Probably coming sooner rather then later, essentially building up a clean simple HTML5 wallet using qt web server. Will have all the great visuals that HTML5/CSS3 provides. Most likely coming before transaction features to have a cleaner GUI to integrate more functionality into.



Double Spend Protection: Using input locking and checking on reorganizations, can prevent a transaction from ever being able to be overwritten by a longer blockchain after a checkpoint eliminating any threat of 51% attacks.



LLL Integration: Once the Library including Static and Dynamic Databases is finished, next will be integrating LLP, LLD, and LLS with possible LLE for encrypted communications and high efficiencies in protocol responses and data storage. Every channel reinforces the others to prevent 51% attacks on one channel, forcing attacker across multiple channels.Nexus uses a combination of different hashes, including Keccak-1600, Skein-1024, SK-576, SK-512, and SK-256.Using Skein-1024 and Keccak-1600 for GPU PoW to produce a 1024 bit output hash used for the block hash providing the highest security.Searching for Dense Prime Clusters as CPU PoW, finding these clusters of numbers that are ~308 digits to verify prime density in large numbers.571 Bit Private Keys compared to 256 bit in other currencies. Using NID_sect571r1 as the algorithm.Calculated with time overlaps and true % over bounds, using weighted block average over past 5 blocks.Lower Level Protocol as a template protocol to allow any protocol to be created with ease without need for repeated network programming.Protocol responsible for time keeping as an advancement to NTP, keeping clocks on the network synchronized within a few seconds of one another. Maximum clock drift for Nexus is 10 seconds.Dedicated Mining Protocol outside of JSON-RPC Server to allow the greatest performance for mining. Protocol can handle 5k + connections allowing solo mining of any magnitude.Rewards are calculated along an exponential decay curve to slowly reduce the value of each block rather than shock both miners and the market with block reward halving which acts as a rudimentary decay model.Decayed amounts are deposited into the Reserves for each channel, preventing a miner from being able to mint more than the projected amount while difficulty is compensating to their amount of computing power.When reserves are below given thresholds, the mining reward is then based off of the time it took to create a block preventing a miner from ever being able to deplete the reserves.Every 60 minutes, the Nexus protocol automatically creates a checkpoint. This prevents blocks from being created or modified dated prior to this checkpoint, thus protecting the chain from malicious attempts to introduce an alternate blockchain.The minting rate increases the longer a node secures the blockchain, incentivizing nodes to actively stake. This increases the difficulty for successfully attacking the network, as nodes with greater Trust are more likely to find new blocks.Nexuss Proof of Holding system is based upon the Peercoin protocol, completely recoded and redesigned from scratch, utilizing an efficiency threshold, trust keys, and logarithmic weights to create the fairest and most stable staking system to date.The Developer Fund fuels ongoing development and is sourced by a 1.5% commission per block mined, which will slowly increase to 2.5% after 10 years. This brings all the benefits of development funding without the associated risks and limits the control which can exerted by the developer account.The Ambassador (renamed from Exchange) keys are funded by a 20% commission per block reward. These keys are mainly used to pay for marketing, and producing and launching the Nexus satellites.

UPDATES TO BE INCLUDED IN FUTURE RELEASES

Updates Planned for the Full 0.3.0 Release include:



1. LLD database integration.

2. Trust Key Depreciation Update

3. Many new RPC commands for increased utility and Block Explorer performance.

4. LLP Updates.

5. Reworking of the nPOS system for increased difficulty.







Nexus uses 3 consensus channels to maximize decentralization and provide fast, secure transactions. Each channel has an independent difficulty algorithm, amongst other checks and balances, to prevent a single channel from monopolizing block production and compromising the security of the network. Nexus channels include a Prime channel (CPU Mining), a Hashing channel (GPU Mining), and Nexus Proof of Holding (nPOH).Nexus takes the proof-of-stake system developed by Peercoin, and combines it with a Trust-based weighting system to create the Proof-of-Holding consensus mechanism. Nodes receive a Trust rating that is established by their contributions to the network, which increases over time. Nodes with greater Trust are granted an increased minting rate, which increases from 0.5% to 3% within one year, the longer you build Trust on the network.Nexus aims to be one of the most secure blockchains in the world by increasing decentralization, and implementing quantum resistance. Using multiple consensus channels greatly reduces the risk of a 51% attack, as an attacker would need to control all 3 channels. A set of checks and balances prevents an individual channel from being able to compromise the entire network.Nexus uses a combination of SHA3 hashing algorithms combined with 571 bit private keys and 512/1024 bit proof of work, to make Nexus one of the worlds leading quantum-resistant blockchains.Furthermore, Nexus is developing an evolving key signature scheme to keep an accounts public keys obscured even when making transactions. This is made possible by moving away from addresses based on public key hashes, and implementing a new system called Signature Chains.While other blockchains consider larger block sizes or off-chain payment channels in an effort to increase transaction throughput, the Nexus 3DC proposes another solution, allowing Nexus to scale completely on-chain.Transaction processing is distributed across multiple channels working synergistically to increase transaction throughput as resources increase. Individual channels verify transactions, consolidate verified transactions into Merkle trees, and add finished blocks onto the blockchain. The Unified Time protocol enables transaction processing, trust locks, and block locks to be consistent throughout time. The potential of Nexus 3DC is limited only by node count and represents the most energy-efficient consensus system to date.As decentralized as blockchain technology strives to be, it nevertheless remains dependant on traditional infrastructure. By combining the decentralized blockchain software, satellite and ground based mesh networks, and a large team of passionate people, Nexus is focused on gaining a high degree of autonomy from external influences. By placing our own communication infrastructure in space, the network wont be susceptible to government jurisdiction (similar to international waters).Nexus is actively building relationships within the aerospace industry to allow for the hardware infrastructure to be compatible with its transaction system.