Ontology was founded as a public blockchain designed to foster a community of distributed trust that transcends geopolitical boundaries and specific industries. Focusing on cross-industry, cross-chain, cross-device, cross-system, and cross-application functionality, Ontology strives to provide a standardized framework for translating data and value across networks.
Ontology takes a module-oriented approach to its development, harnessing the ability to combine several protocols into a cohesive architecture.
Ontology uses a new consensus mechanism known as vBFT, an optimized version of practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance that uses Verifiable Random Functions. The vBFT consensus relies on validators that stake the native ONT token, similar to a proof-of-stake system.
The Ontology consensus mechanism underscores the platform’s modular architecture, where modules and protocols are layered over by applications, which organizations and users extract value from. Ontology explicitly emphasizes the collaboration of other blockchains and incorporating applications into a broader ecosystem of data exchange. Modules and networks can be customized to meet industry-specific situations and performance requirements.
Ontology uses a dual token system, similar to Ethereum, where ONT is used for staking during consensus and the ONG token functions as a service-oriented payment utility token. There is a capped supply of 1 billion ONT tokens and ONG tokens are released by the Ontology team occasionally via airdrops and other incentive mechanisms.
According to Ontology, the network has more than 500k addresses, close to 270k ONT IDs, 56 nodes, and 50 dapps running on the network.