Across the blockchain space, interoperability has become an essential focus in recent months. Indeed, at the tail end of 2017, ICON, AION, and WANchain joined together to form the “Blockchain Interoperability Alliance”. Other notable projects like Cosmos and Polkadot have too been hard at work developing novel interoperability projects.

However, there remains a crucial limitation in these projects: the underlying architecture. This is precisely where Quant Network’s Overledger is remarkably different. Rather than striving to be another blockchain project to ‘interconnect’ other blockchains, Overledger is a blockchain Operating System which quite literally ‘sits over’ other ledgers.

Overledger has extraordinary advantages, most notably the concept of Multi-Chain Applications (MApps). This innovative approach gives developers the chance to utilize the benefits of multiple blockchains at the same time by deploying applications that can successfully communicate and operate across different protocols and networks.

The Promise

To analyze how Quant’s Overledger aims to tackle the topic of interoperability, it is essential to first take a look at the current state of blockchain adoption.

It is becoming accepted that Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) will, in some shape or form, come to define the trajectory of technological innovation in the coming decade. Despite all the loud and prophetic statements about blockchain’s ability to revolutionize innumerable sectors, we are still struggling to witness serious enterprise adoption. Why is this?

The Problem

Currently, one of the most significant barriers to widespread enterprise adoption is inherent in the design of the vast majority of blockchains. By their very nature, they are self-contained ‘silos’ acting autonomously from one another. It is crucially important to understand this limitation if we are to see the real emancipatory potential of Overledger.

The question then is: How are we to envisage a future in which blockchain has a central role when communication between different protocols is non-existent? Will each blockchain exist in an isolated environment?

Ultimately, this inherent lack of inter-blockchain compatibility means that decentralized applications (DApps) are single-ledger dependent: the current situation requires companies to choose between blockchains. This choice implies blockchain is not flexible enough for widespread industry adoption. To rely on one blockchain exposes businesses to all its risks and limitations, and to develop a proprietary solution is time and resource intensive.

The only way we will witness the full potential of blockchain technology is through applications that are not single-ledger dependent, but instead are readily adaptable to the changing needs of businesses and the ever-evolving landscape of blockchain technology. Anything short of this will merely stifle adoption.

The Solution

Quant’s Overledger, as an operating system positioned “over” different blockchains, effectively eliminates the issue of single-ledger dependency by enabling the creation of applications that run on multiple blockchains at one time. Core to this system is Quant’s system of Multi-Chain Applications (MApps), which are decentralized applications that can simultaneously interact with various DLTs.

Quant plans to write support for all significant blockchains, but they also do not expect businesses to rely solely upon them for this interoperability. Overledger will be open-source so that anyone with sufficient coding resources will be able to adapt it to work with any blockchain and share that solution with the world at large. Ultimately, this will foster faster, more flexible, and more open collaborative enterprise adoption of distributed ledger technologies (DLTs).

The current blockchain market consists mainly of self-enclosed, separate blockchains. Overledger strives to become the tool through which multiple self-enclosed and separate blockchains may communicate with one another. Even proprietary systems will be able to be integrated using the power of Overledger, with legacy software and various independent blockchains transformed into active and flexible blockchain systems.

By securely bridging the barriers that inhibit communication across multiple blockchains, Overledger provides a vast array of possibilities when designing or integrating data and applications. Existing DApps will be replaced by more flexible MApps, which not only eliminate single-ledger dependency but also allow companies to utilize the strengths of multiple blockchains without being restricted to their various limitations.

It is essential to understand the distinction between Overledger and classical blockchain or DLT. Overledger is, in Quant’s words, a “meta-gateway for existing networks to connect to blockchains”. This means that the Overledger is not a blockchain itself; it is instead an operating system that links blockchains together and facilitates communication between them.

Overledger’s Multi-Chain Apps, with their flexibility and elimination of the single ledger dependency, are opening the door for unprecedented levels of business adoption. Appropriately, we have already seen promising partnerships in place. One such partnership is a five-year exclusive Memorandum of Understanding with the Jiangsu Huaxin Blockchain Research Institute, the research hub of the China Ministry of Commerce. Quant also maintains close ties with credit-giant Mastercard specifically in part through Quant’s CEO and Co-founder, Gilbert Verdian. Verdian recently expressed his excitement to the press regarding his collaboration with MasterCard on their blockchain strategy.

Multi-Chain Applications (MApps)

Taking inspiration from TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol and the Internet Protocol), which revolutionized how computer networks communicate, Quant has devised Overledger to be a revolutionary blockchain Operating System (OS) that solves the single-ledger dependency problem. Overledger is increasingly appearing in the vision of many savvy business people as the catalyst for future accelerated growth and widespread adoption of decentralized technologies.

TCP/IP, also known as the Internet Protocol Suite, was a significant breakthrough in the development of the internet we know and love today. It enabled end-to-end communication and standardized how data ‘should be packetized, addressed, transmitted, routed, and received.’ Quant Overledger is essentially aiming to be the TCP/IP of blockchain by standardizing communication and interaction between blockchains. To specify — Overledger is capable of handling and processing data from/to any blockchain, allowing DApps to exchange and utilize information stored in different DLTs. This enables Overledger’s Multi-Chain Applications (MApps): DApps that frictionlessly operate across different DLT networks and protocols.

Representation of the current blockchain architecture and the role of Overledger in enabling MApps. Taken from Overledger Business Paper.

What makes Overledger Unique?

Overledger differs from other interoperability platforms in its approach to the different layers of the DLT: it decouples the message layer from the transactional layer of the DLT. This unique approach allows for:

Flexibility. Enterprises will be able to move to different ledgers if their chosen DLT encounters issues, becomes obsolete, or the transaction fees become too expensive. This flexibility gives businesses a guarantee that they would be able to migrate operations as the DLT ecosystem evolves, ensuring availability and saving on conversion expenditures.

Backward Compatibility. This gives Overledger users the ability to connect to legacy systems or external APIs to take full advantage of the benefits of the technology.

Simplicity. Overledger has easy to use development interfaces for producing multi-chain and single-chain applications, which will reduce the time to market and democratize development.

Risk Reduction. By giving enterprises the ability to migrate from one blockchain to another, and giving them the chance to utilize the features of multiple blockchains, there is a considerable reduction in the risk of investing resources in developing within or alongside various DLTs.

Experience. the Quant team has extensive experience working intimately with governments and businesses, which has given them the particular know-how to build a technology that expedites blockchain adoption.

A crucial element to all this is that the implementation of Overledger would require little change to the existing systems. This paves the way for rapid integration and use. Indeed, this aspect is supported by the fact that Quant has ensured that Overledger complies with all internal and external regulatory requirements.

Additionally, Quant is designing a Blockchain Program Interface (BPI) which will make it easier for developers to program applications that can run on any blockchain. In combination with the Overledger Software Development Kit (SDK), Quant Network gives businesses the ability to dramatically scale down the risk of their blockchain investments, efficiently use a number of blockchains, and streamline their energies to create productive and successful MApps.

Business Model:

Quant App Store

As part of the Quant Ecosystem, Quant Network proposes to foster innovation by creating an App Store model. This can is one way of incentivizing developers while maintaining control of the technology.

Developers will have the choice of releasing free or paid applications. For free applications, the transaction fees can be set to zero. However, to use such applications, enterprises will be required to hold a certain number of QNT tokens in order to access the solution.

The Quant Network App Store is due to be released in Q1 2019 to provide developers the ability to create and publish their MApps and begin accepting revenue for their applications. Each developer will control the cost of their MApp, and the QNT token will be required to access the network through the Quant App Store.

Quant Network SaaS, Enterprise and Middleware Applications

Quant Network also plans to launch their proprietary Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Enterprise, and Middleware applications.

Quant aims to tailor these solutions to specific sectors, helping organizations and governments navigate the uncertainties of the continually evolving, ever increasing, hyper-connection of society.

Furthermore, Quant Network intends to create client specific solutions that help businesses and governments surmount the unique obstacles that are present in their particular sector.

One live example of the SaaS product is TrustTag: an AI-driven, fraud detection and pattern recognition solution. TrustTag allows developers to assign digital fingerprints to real-world intellectual property, documents, physical goods, and more; securely and uniquely.

It is probable that this solution will revolutionize the use of blockchain across a large number of sectors including pharmaceutical products, designer goods, and data assets.

Quant’s “quick description” of their Overledger project.

Conclusion

When Quant successfully implements the vision of Overledger, with its promise of MApps and a grand level of flexibility, it stands to be one of the most exciting projects in the entire DLT space. Time will tell how this all unfolds. For now, we should all be aware of the potential of this project and its team, who possess the bright, bold and comprehensive vision to pull it off. Ultimately, Quant is already positioning itself for enterprise-level success. So long as they deliver on their roadmap, all the variables are in place for a revolutionary shift in blockchain adoption.