SKALE

What is SKALE (SKL)?

SKALE is an interoperable blockchain network fully optimized for Web3 user experience and security. It can run an unlimited number of fast, on-demand, pooled-security blockchains without charging users gas fees.

The adoption of Ethereum-based applications depends on scaling transaction throughput, TPS, latency, API-based wallet connectivity, and cost-effectiveness. SKALE fits in this niche, serving as an execution layer to help build and scale blockchain-based applications.

SKALE also claims to be the first live blockchain with Linear Scaling, adding advantages like zero gas fees, instant finality, and high throughput to make it a compelling offering.

Who are the Founders of SKALE?

SKALE was co-founded by Dr. Stan Kladko, the CTO of Skale Labs, and Jack O’Holleran, its CEO.

Kladko holds a PhD in Physics from the Max Planck Institute, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Stanford University. He has over 18 years of cryptography experience and co-founded Cloudessa and Galactic Exchange prior to SKALE.

O’Holleran is a tech entrepreneur and advocate of decentralized systems, and before SKALE also co-founded Aktana and IncentAlign. He also held executive positions at Good Technology and Motorola.

How Does SKALE Work?

SKALE utilizes a pooled security model alongside advanced cryptography to enable speed and decentralization without sacrificing security. This allows developers to deliver end users a best-in-class experience without gas fees or latency.

This is achieved through a containerized subnode structure that gives developers increased elasticity, configurability, and modularity. Containerization allows for leveraging the resources of the entire network for each independent chain and supports the virtualization of subnodes.

Virtualized subnodes for each chain can validate a transaction signed and committed by the subnodes in another chain. This is done using the subnode’s group signature once it’s published to the Ethereum mainnet.

Meanwhile, a Node Monitoring Service (NMS) runs on each SKALE node and facilitates the performance tracking of a certain number of other nodes in the network. Performance tracking measures uptime and latency by regularly pinging peer nodes and logging measurements.

What makes SKALE Unique?

One major element that sets SKALE apart from its competitors is that it is an open-source network governed by a DAO and managed in a fully open and decentralized manner.

Over 50 companies, business entities, organizations, and other DAOs work to support, run, and govern SKALE. All core smart contract changes require a decentralized multisig approval held by numerous contributors, and on-chain voting is due to go live imminently.

How is the SKALE Network Secured?

SKALE uses a Leaderless Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus mechanism. It is used in each chain for block creation and commitment and is a variant of the Asynchronous Binary Byzantine Agreement (ABBA) protocol that limits subnode downtime by identifying slow links.

Validator nodes are assigned and randomly rotated to SKALE chains by a mainnet contract. Nodes are removed from and added to one or more chains on a non-deterministic schedule. This revolving process of random node rotation allows each configurable SKALE chain to take advantage of the entire network’s security.

What is the Use of SKL?

SKL tokens can be delegated to SKALE node validators to earn rewards for participating in network security. Additional staking results in the security collateralization of SKALE Chains which developers pay for in SKL.

The SKL token will also be used for on-chain voting, which will control all economic parameters of the SKALE network.

How Much SKL is In Circulation?

The maximum supply of SKL tokens is fixed at 7 billion, with a supply of 4.1 billion at the genesis and 4.9 billion in circulation, according to Etherscan. A third of the SKL supply was set aside for validator rewards and 28.1% for delegators. This delegator allocation includes early supporters and the public allocation. These tokens were not liquid upon launch but could be staked.

In the first round of investment, SKL tokens were sold for $0.0034 with a 36-month post-launch lockup. The second round, with a 15-month lockup, saw SKL sold for prices between $0.0099 and $0.0123. The third and final early supporter round, again with a 15-month lockup, had SKL at $0.0152.

16% of the supply went to the founding team, 10% to the SKALE Foundation, and 4% to the core team pool. A further 7.7% of the SKL supply was earmarked for the protocol development fund, and 1.3% went to the ecosystem fund.

How Do You Buy SKL?

You can buy SKL on several top cryptocurrency exchanges, including decentralized platforms like Uniswap. It’s possible to use fiat currencies like EUR and GBP to buy SKL on centralized exchanges, but stablecoin pairs are also very common.

How Do You Store SKL?

SKL is a modified ERC-777 token with backward compatibility with the ERC-20 token standard. This means that you can use any ERC-20 compatible wallet to hold and stake your SKL tokens into the SKALE network.

While that may sound complicated, it’s actually good news. ERC-20 is the most common token standard across Ethereum and perhaps the entire Blockchain industry, so just about any Ethereum-compatible wallet can be used to store and stake SKL.

Is SKL a Good Investment?

SKALE is an exciting proposition for both developers and end users, given the performance it can provide to both of these key stakeholder groups.

Having zero gas fees is a very important quality when it comes to the mass adoption of blockchain technology, especially given that a handful of other platforms can offer the same. Developers, meanwhile, can take full advantage of the modularity and scalability that SKALE offers, all while staying within the Ethereum ecosystem.

The SKALE team isn’t content to rest on its laurels, either. Instead, the project continues to innovate, with on-chain voting and, excitingly, zero-knowledge technology to be integrated into SKALE early in 2023.