SKALE.Network — super training course

6 min readJan 7, 2021

SKALE Networks’s modular protocol is one of the first of its kind to allow developers to easily provision highly configurable blockchains, which provide the benefits of decentralization without compromising on computation, storage, or security.

SKALE is an elastic blockchain network that gives developers the ability to easily provision highly configurable fully decentralized chains that are instantly compatible with Ethereum.

SKALE uses the $SKL token, a hybrid use token which represents the right to work in the network as a validator, stake as a delegator, or access a share of its resources. SKALE chains can execute sub-second block times, run over 2,000 tps on every chain, and run full-state smart contracts in addition to decentralized storage, and machine learning in EVM.

With offices in San Francisco, CA and Kharkiv, Ukraine, SKALE early supporters include top blockchain VCs such as Arrington XRP Capital, Blockchange, ConsenSys Labs, Hashed, HashKey, Floodgate, Multicoin Capital, Recruit Holdings, and Winklevoss Capital.

The SKALE Network is supported by over 46 validators orgs globally including Blockware, ConsenSys, Certus.One, Chorus One, Dokia, Figment Networks, Hashed, Staked, StakewithUs, and Stake X, as well as key infrastructure player Bison Trails. For more information please visit https://skale.network, @SkaleNetwork on Twitter, @skaleofficial on telegram or hello@skalelabs.com.

Next, you and I will learn 5 key lessons to understand the Skale project:

1/ General information:

Date Founded: 2017

Capital Raised: $17.1 Million (11/2019)

SKL Token Sale: $5 Million (9/14/20)

Early Supporters: Arrington XRP Capital, Aspect Ventures, BLOCKCHANGE, boostVC, buildVC, Blockware Solutions, Cambrian Asset Management, Canaan, ConsenSys Labs, DTC Capital, Floodgate, Galaxy Digital, hackVC, Hashed, Hashkey, Multicoin Capital, MW Partners, Neo Global Capital, Oyster Ventures, Recruit, Signia, Spartan, Visary, Wave and Winkelvoss Capital.

Founders:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/oholleran/

Jack O’Holleran

Jack is a veteran entrepreneur with a deep background in machine learning, AI, security and blockchain. Prior to co-founding SKALE, Jack was a founder at multiple Silicon Valley based enterprise technology companies including IncentAlign, a digital currency platform, and Aktana, the leading Machine Learning Analytics platform for the Life Science Industry. He also held an executive role at Good Technology which was acquired by Motorola for ~$500M, and subsequently held executive positions in Motorola. Jack has been actively involved in cryptocurrencies and decentralization as an investor since early 2013 and began working full-time in the space in early 2017. Jack holds a BS from the University of Nebraska and calls the Bay Area his home.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/konstantin-kladko-017249/

Stan Kladko

Stan brings 19 years of experience in cryptography and enterprise infrastructure technologies. He has founded several Silicon Valley venture-backed startups including Galactic Exchange, a big data infrastructure company, and Cloudessa, a cloud security company which was acquired by the UK based Global Reach.

Stan was a key early member of the Java Virtual Machine team, and was on the founding team of Ingrian Networks with Dan Boneh (co-creator of BLS signatures) in 2000. He founded and ran a US government certified crypto lab for 7 years, working with the NSA and other agencies. He has experience as a researcher at Stanford University and Los Alamos National Lab, where he was named Director’s Fellow. With a Ph.D. in Physics, he graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Max Planck Institute for Physics of Complex Systems, Germany and is a top contributor for Ethereum Foundation & Ethereum Research.

2/ Secure & Decentralized

Elastic blockchains are highly performant, decentralized, configurable, Ethereum compatible, and use the latest breakthroughs in modern cryptography to provide provable security.

Byzantine Fault Tolerant — The standard for security in distributed systems; BFT guarantees that the network can reach consensus even when up to one third of participants are malicious

Asynchronous Protocol — Following the same model as the Internet, this protocol recognizes latencies of nodes and the network, allowing messages to take an indefinite period of time to deliver.

Threshold Signatures — BLS Threshold Signatures enable efficient interchain communication and support randomness in node allocation.

Leaderless Consensus — Leaderlessness mitigates the possibility of collusion amongst network participants by ensuring that each has an equal chance to successfully propose and commit new blocks

Who is building SKALE Network?

SKALE Network is an open source Web3 platform intended to bring speed and configurability to blockchain. SKALE Network is the project by N.O.D.E. Foundation — the Lichtenstein Foundation that aims to advance development of Web3 technologies and make decentralized web more user friendly and accessible for developers, validators, and end users.

N.O.D.E. Foundation partners with SKALE Labs, and other top entities and investors around the world to facilitate development of SKALE Network.

SKALE Labs is the core team involved in creating the technology specs, creating the code, and growing use and awareness of the network. SKALE Labs is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

3/ Smart Contracts:

Many dApps are already running smart contracts on SKALE’s elastic sidechains. These include games, content streaming services, TCR-based platforms, and more.

The SKALE Innovator Program Includes: Strategic Consulting, Engineering Support, Quality Assurance checks, and more.

https://skale.network/blog/technical-highlights/

The network of dApps works with a principle of Ethereum-as-a-Service. With the help of sidechain applications can get access to third party blockchains and their dApps, for example to improve performance and security. SKLAE performs with Ethereum blockchain through smart-contracts of a SKALE Manager.

4/ SKALE Token (SKL)

Now we will talk about the equally important, about the token of the project itself

Exchanges and the token contract

$SKL is listed in Binance, Huobi, Uniswap, and a number of other exchanges.
Uniswap SKL-ETH trading pool: https://info.uniswap.org/pair/0xf232d640a5700724748464ba8bd8bed21db609a6
SKL token contract: https://etherscan.io/token/0x00c83aecc790e8a4453e5dd3b0b4b3680501a7a7
Watch SKALE on Coinmarketcap, Coingecko, and Blockfolio.

ERC-777 to Support Delegation on Token Level

SKALE is built on an innovative ERC-777 token standard which supports delegation on the token level. ERC-777 is fully backwards compatible with ERC-20, which means that it is supported by all participants of the Ethereum ecosystem with ERC-20 support.

What is the SKALE token and how does it work

The SKALE Network token ($SKL), is a hybrid use token which represents the right to work in the network as a validator, stake as a delegator, or access a share of its resources by deploying and renting an Elastic Sidechain or Elastic Blockchain for a period of time as a developer.

It serves as the built-in instrument of transfer for facilitating four main functions:

Security of and staking in the network. SKL token holders (delegators) stake their SKL tokens to validators who run nodes that make the SKALE network function by validating blocks, executing smart contracts, and securing the network. They are rewarded with SKL tokens for their efforts.

Payment method for SKALE Chain subscription fees. Developers purchase their subscription access to elastic blockchains (S-chains) using SKL tokens.

Rewards for validators and delegators staking their tokens. Rewards are accumulated monthly, based on fees paid by developers for chains and a monthly inflation of tokens into the network.

5/ SKALE Network Validators

SKALE is an Ethereum-compatible network with a leaderless consensus designed to run on an uncapped number of independent nodes, each of which will be providing resources to multiple high performance decentralized elastic blockchains.

The SKALE Protocol optimizes allocation of resources of each node across the entire network of elastic blockchains.

Validator Rewards are distributed evenly across the network of nodes; validators maximize rewards based on meeting performance targets.

SKALE is a POS network that utilizes a work token. Node setup and staking is simple and takes only a few steps.