Nebulas NOVA was officially launched on December 31, 2018. Compared to Eagle Nebula, Nebulas Nova has implemented three important features: Nebulas Blockchain Runtime Environment (NBRE), Nebulas Rank (NR), Developer Incentive Protocol (DIP). In the Nebulas Rank Yellow Paper and Developer Incentive Protocol Mauve Paper released in 2018, we have described the design and meaning of NR and DIP core principle in detail. Let’s go over again about the core features of Nebuals NOVA: Nebulas Rank and Developer Incentive Protocol.

As the core functions of Nebulas NOVA, Nebulas Rank (NR) and Developer Incentive Protocol (DIP) aim to promote on-chain data sorting and discover value in the blockchain world. Meanwhile, the implementation of Nebulas Rank and Developer Incentive Protocol symbolize that Nebulas enter into Autonomous Metanet, accelerating the development of fair cooperating.

For DApp developers, the most notable feature is that this platform will reward developers directly, without users paying for it or advertising, so developers can focus on improving the quality of their DApp . Both NR and DIP algorithm and code are stored on blockchain, they are open-source in a completely transparent manner, and can be upgraded on demand according to the functionality of Nebulas Blockchain Runtime Environment (NBRE).

Nebulas Rank (NR)

Nebulas Rank (NR) was first proposed in our Nebulas Rank Yellow Paper. NR is designed to provide a native, quantifiable value standard for blockchain accounts. NR is mainly determined by these two factors:

The Median Account Stake of the account within a certain period of time, that is, the account needs to hold its asset at least half of the period. The higher the Median Account Stake of an account, the higher its Nebulas Rank. The account’s weighted indegree and outdegree, which reflects the account’s liquidity. Simply put, the higher the transactions amount of an account, the higher its Nebulas Rank. At the same time, all two loop attack are eliminated to prevent users from manipulating their Nebulas Rank.

Nebulas Rank combines the basic value of an account with its contribution to the economy, helping to discover valuable accounts and provide a foundation for the subsequent development of applications. It is worth mentioning that Nebulas Rank’s unique Wilbur Function can effectively resist Sybil attack, which means that when a malicious user tries to create two or multiple accounts, it will not increase his overall Nebulas Rank.

Developer Incentive Protocol (DIP)

First proposed in Nebulas Developer Incentive Protocol Mauve Paper, Developer Incentive Protocol (DIP) is the first application of Nebulas Rank to provide on-chain incentives for DApp developers. DIP proposes a set of voting mechanisms to determine the final reward for each DApp developer, while ensuring fairness:

The total number of user votes is linked to an account’s Nebula Rank. Because the Nebulas Rank of a new account is low, a developer cannot create side accounts to increase his reward. Users who vote for different DApps can increase their overall voting power. We encourage each user to try multiple DApps. The final reward distribution mechanism effectively prevents developers from splitting a DApp into multiple ones to increase their total rewards.

These anti-fraud properties of Developer Incentive Protocol helps to build a stable environment for Nebulas, DApp developers and users to maintain a positive relationship, and achieve sustainable and prosperous development of the Nebulas ecosystem.

With the launch of Nebulas Rank and Developer Incentive Protocol, Nebulas has become the public chain to create on-chain incentives and to discover the value of blockchains. By the first quarter of 2019, developers can deploy their smart contracts on Nebulas NOVA and receive DIP rewards from their smart contracts. And through Nebulas Rank, developers can learn whether their smart contracts are popular in the market, therefore to upgrade accordingly and develop a more popular and valuable DApp.