The Long Term Horizon for Constellation Network
Constellation has successfully built to what is considered the next augmentation of the Internet. Through creating their network Hypergraph which is built for a more robust, secure and scalable layer of the Internet to better suit our needs with the exponential growth of data we’ve seen over the past decade.
Abstract
While Bitcoin was initially what gave birth to the idea of blockchain distributed ledger technology, and thus true display of ownership which first displayed the immense potential in the underlying technology. Ethereum was what gave the world the idea of smart contracts & building decentralized applications to be accessed anywhere in the world, this further proved the abilities of this technology especially within creating an ecosystem of decentralized finance.
Then along comes Constellation, what is regarded to many as the next level evolution of this technology. Constellation’s network, Hypergraph brings possibilites into this space that couldn’t even be fathomed before. From their augmentation of smart contracts into state channels, to their horizontally scaling feeless network, to their solution of the Oracle problem through validating its own data through the point of origin.
By building a horizontally scaling directed acyclic graph combined with their node mechanisms, they’ve built out a network unlike other blockchain, in which all nodes work together and are able to validate the information of each other.
Let’s dive into some cases as to why Constellation could have such a bright future ahead along with how the long term horizon could look like as their roadmap and network continues to progress.
Layer_0 Standard
Constellation is the first and only official Layer 0 within the aggregate crypto ecosystem. While many crypto projects have given themselves the title of a Layer 0, what really defines and legitimizes the concept of a Layer 0 network in respects to the world of crypto?
So if we think of a Layer 1 such as Avalanche, or Ethereum as the branches to a tree, the Layer 2’s & applications built on top of these Layer 1’s could be viewed as the fruits growing on the branches. Whereas the Layer 0 would be the roots underneath the tree, where the foundational growth of everything regarding the tree lies.
Being built underneath the blockchain layer, everything that happens on these networks are fundamentally different pieces of variable data. Whereas being the layer underneath all this data flow allows Constellation to reference and extract the data from any source to allow for a free-flowing cross chain interoperable data to be communicated by other networks. This solution allows for relay networks into other network nodes such as Bitcoin or Ethereum to cooperate under a common Layer 0 without the need to change or adapt either of the underlying networks.
From software services like Squarespace and Wordpress that offer their services and standards to build out viable websites for business application on HTTP. Constellation is advancing their Hypergraph as a standard to build on their network providing robust security and precision for businesses that may require blockchain as a service solutions to optimally fit the needs for building out the roadmap for each respective idea through their one stop shop for business developers to utilize to build applications at scale with their creation of the HyperCube.
Hypergraph
Building out hypergraph with the intentions to replace the hypertext is something thats not only unheard of, but unfathomable to even begin development. People fear change, going back to the dawn of the Internet for example, people were terrified of this newfound technology that could connect with people across the world. Its something they couldn’t process in their minds at the time. Now that everyones “comfortable” with the current http standard, changing it would require a protocol that’s better in every way for a change of this magnitude.
Hypergraph has whats believed to be the solution to the growing amounts of data that we generate in variety. The current http(s) only stands for hypertext transfer protocol, all it was built for is storing information, nothing more. Obviously our technological world has evolved far from that since its inception in 1995.
Consensus & Economic Incentives
On a fundamental level, Hypergraph utilizes its consensus mechanism that they’ve built from the ground up, Proof of Reputable Observation (PRO). This consensus mechanism is unique to other mechanisms out there, in the sense that it doesn’t require stake security like in Proof of Stake consensus, nor does it require large amounts of computational power like Proof of Work does. Rather PRO utilizes machine learning along with peer to peer communication within devices.
Through their consensus of PRO, they’ve also managed to solve the notorious Oracle Problem in the world of crypto that many projects face, as oracles are utilized to bring in real world data into the world of crypto for applications to reference from in sectors such as decentralized finance. As a Layer 0, Hypergraph is not only able to reference and grab data from any source generating that data, but because of this feature they already know the point of origin from that data source. This allows their consensus mechanism to validate the data in brings in through tracing back to where the data originated from.
As Proof of Reputable Observation will utilize a reputation score distributed in an order that prioritizes the nodes with the highest level of supportive network participation. As these nodes are incentivized to secure the network through an allocated reward pool of about 227 million $DAG tokens while a remaining 1.3 billion tokens will be allocated into the pool gradually over the next decade.
A more thorough & scientific explanation into PRO can be found here written by one of the best in the Constellation community.
While the reward pool is only the beginning for the socio-economic incentives for supporting the Hypergraph network, this doesn’t mean that validators will be working for free once the pool runs out. While their network is feeless, some may be wondering, “well then what the hells the point of their token.”
Think of $DAG like a literal Bit-Coin, no not the Bitcoin that we all know and love for giving birth to this new asset class. But a coin that is represented as an index to the data and bandwidth measured in bits within the Hypergraph network. Some businesses that build on Hypergraph will inevitably require additional bandwidth depending on the urgency of their business application, this is where the $DAG token comes into play as businesses can use their $DAG to prioritize and give more bandwidth to their state channels for more throughput in regards to the digital services they’re offering.
These tokens that are used as payments for extra bandwidth are then returned into the fee pool for validator nodes. In return creating a self sustaining and growing network, where the more network usage & demand there is the more node validators will be required to secure and validate while also being rewarded from a larger pool.
State Channels
Smart contracts on a fundamental scale offer small microservices such as swaps to become automated once a certain requirement has been met by both parties. The team at Constellation understood both the technological advancement in smart contracts, but also understood its flaws and limits in regards to being smart contracts being applied into the world of real business application at scale.
Without getting too in depth into the scientific and mathematical aspects of it, state channels are essentially automated microservice like businesses that is able to have more programmable logic and user specified data validation from any source, rather than the classic “if this/then that” in the world of smart contracts.
With the ability to program state channels with other Layer 0 tokens, this opens up the opportunity for state channels to collect & distribute other Layer 0 tokens in addition to $DAG as rewards to validators.
This doesn’t mean smart contracts are absolutely obsolete and useless with the disruption of state channels. While not quite scalable to the level of state channels, there are still smaller microservices which require very minimal programming logic with only one core utility function which would be viable for smart contract application.
State channels were built with the intentions of allowing complex logic and real world business application with more variable data to be utilized and processed. From interoperable data reference points to the customization of distribution and utility, state channels are made to scale in a smoother manner into real world adoption.
We’ll be getting deeper into the “adoption” soon.
$DAG Token
So as we mentioned before, $DAG is a utility token designed to give users more throughput on their Hypergraph network. Due to this reason, the value proposition for $DAG is also tied to the network value of all the data on Hypergraph, as the larger the network grows the more value (data) and users join the platform there’ll be a higher demand to prioritize certain utilities that will be built into the Hypergraph. As a result a higher demand of $DAG to enable prioritized data transactions and validation.
Additionally $DAG is required for not only businesses wishing to build out projects and digital services through state channels onto Constellation, but also for the network participants who wish to become a closer part of the Constellation community through participating in securing the network with validator nodes. As the pricing is about 250K $DAG (~$50K @0.2/DAG) being put up as collateral for each individual validator node.
While the requirement in $DAG can be seen as quite a hefty price tag, especially to those in more developing countries. Constellation has thought of a solution to those who may not have the freedom of spending $50,000 on an investment or for those without the hardware or computing knowledge. Through soft node staking on their Lattice Exchange where users just have to provide the collateral to earn node rewards. Their creation of Lite Nodes which will come to life along with their Mainnet 2.0 will additionally provide even further economic inclusion within Hypergraph.
These nodes require far less computing power and knowledge to set up. Able to be set up from even a simple smartphone, all while requiring far less $DAG as collateral, if any.
This mechanism of lite nodes separates Hypergraph in decentralization in the sense that, simply anyone with a smartphone or spare devices that are collecting dust can now put these devices to work by running lite nodes to secure the Hypergraph network. With so many nodes around the world relaying between each other in an endless loop, Hypergraph could essentially be a network secured and utilized by everybody in the world.
Future Speculation
Now with a network, tokenomics, a self sustaining ecosystem and a business plan all laid out, lets dive into some speculation on what the future of Constellation and the Hypergraph could potentially look like in the coming years and decades.
With the trajectory and roadmap Constellation has laid out for their idealization of Hypergraph, as the network continues to grow with a horizontal scaling mechanism and their progressively increasing decentralization with anybody able to support the network by acting as a node.
Now combine some of the organizations and businesses that have transitioned to Hypergraph as a solution for their needs, the growth and demand of Hypergraph network will become inevitably higher over time as preexisting partners of Constellation further continue to build out their businesses with more state channels, along with new retail developers and everyday users utilizing large amounts of data continue to gradually begin rolling transitioning over.
On the Constellation side of things, excluding the decentralized Hypergraph, we’re referring to as the company themselves made up of Ben Jorg, Diggles, Wyatt, etc. They’re continuing to make big moves in various sectors. From advancing their contract with the Department of Defence to an SBIR Phase II contract from their initial Phase I back in 2019, to their collaborations with Space ISAC, and the projects they’ve been incubating through Hypercube by giving the proper mentorship and tools to build and launched onto Hypergraph. And of course the Dor Traffic Miner they’ve just recently announced.
DoD
The Department of Defence partnership consists of some of the largest aircraft and military agencies such as USTRANSCOM, Air Mobility Command, Air Operations Center and the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, all while the DoD being the clear leader in data generation.
With the amount of security and data they generate, they’ll require not only the fastest and secured network, but also a network that allows for the highest level of customization to alter that data flow, this is where state channels really come into play with their robust programmable logic in addition to abilities of $DAG being additional bandwidth, something that an agency at the caliber of the Department of Defence will be heavily utilizing as many of the decisions made in these high level organizations have such a thin margin for error where one second too late could lead to billions of dollars in losses as a consequence.
Hypercube & Incubation
Constellation has begun their incubation process to offer developers the proper tools & experienced leaders to build applications into the Hypergraph ecosystem, and their seeing demand from their client base with a variety of proposals from various potential projects (myself included 🤫).
While still quite early, Constellation has already brought in and multiple crypto projects with viable usecases catered towards tokenizing and integrating distributed ledger technology into these industries.
Here are a couple example:
$ADS- Alkimi Exchange, revolutionizing the advertisement industry. Through rebuilding the process of advertisers, publishers and users. In a technological with such inefficient and junk and irrelevant advertisements that often times are just a waste of time and eyesore to look at.
Alkimi is creating a more distributed advertisement system where every participant is rewarded for their engagement and recreating advertising to actually be effective, rather than shoving advertisements in users faces in the current system, where a simple AdBlock renders the entire digital advertising industry useless.
$JAM- GeoJam is one of the more recently incubated projects within the Hypergraph ecosystem. They’ve decided to build their business on Hypergraph with the mission to recreate the current content creation industry specifically in music, through connecting artists with their fans on a more personal level while also incentivizing fans to further support some of their favorite artists.
Through rewarding fans for their active participation, while allowing them to stake or trade their $JAM into their favorite creators pools for exclusive access into community events and awards such as tickets, and merchandise. Fans also have the option to stake their $JAM into proposal pools to turn their wildest imaginations with their creator a reality (No, not those “wild imaginations”).
$LTX- The Lattice Exchange is the first official project built on top of the Hypergraph, a decentralized yet compliant exchange for digital assets and data. But what separates Lattice Exchange from all the other exchange tokens and DEX’s out there?
Well first off they’re compliant, not something most DEX’s out there could relate to. Being built on Hypergraph also means that Lattice can be cross chain interoperable, along with the options to join launchpads for future Layer 0 projects on Hypergraph being launched and an option to take fiat loans against your digital assets. Of course being the first DEX on Hypergraph and with Ben, Diggles and Mathias on the team. The Lattice Exchange supports soft node staking for the Hypergraph where all users need to do is stake the required amount of $DAG without the need for any hardware equipment or technical knowledge.
Dor Traffic Miner
Constellations most recent big move where they bought out Dor, a SaaS startup. After this acquisitions Constellation shortly announced that they’ll be utilizing the technology from Dor to create a utility product for users to benefit from providing data analytics into Hypergraph.
Introducing the Dor Traffic Miner (DTM), a product of Constellation’s where the users of this device can stick it on top of a doorway that sees a lot of foot traffic going through it. This device scans people through thermal sensing hardware and machine learning to provide an additional data analytics source into the Hypergraph. While this concept sounds rather strange, this kind of data is very valuable in aggregate amounts.
The entrance to a gym entrance would be useful to collect data from when times are most busy to find the optimal times to for janitors to clean, or to keep their clients updated on availability. Theres unlimited amounts of creative yet wild ideas you could come up with, from putting one in every door way in your house, or underneath any populated trails with an underpass.
While the idea might sound a little confusing at first glance, these kinds of quantitative data is could be utilized in a variety of sectors. The DTM is the first step of Constellation creating a real world product to provide data for the digital world. Not only is this a very unique guerrilla marketing tactic, but also one that adds onto their already incentives to participate in the network and participate in its ecosystem.
Untapped Potential
With the growing amounts data that we’ve begun to exponentially generate its clear that not only is the current standard of http outdated but it also is no longer scalable for our needs anymore.
With an estimated 28 billion smart devices coming online this year and 2.5 million terabytes being generated a day, in addition to the growing amounts of sensitive information we’ve begun to store online & in the cloud, now add in the fact that some corporate decisions are made requiring only the fastest and most accurate and secure streams of data. Its clear that we need something more secure, robust and scales to our needs in a world with rapid development revolved around technology and data.
From IOT, to AI and machine learning, to genetic sciences, to autonomous vehicles, to space discovery, all the way to even the Metaverse. Essentially every large development sub sector is revolved around this advancement in technology.
Our physical world has been heavily industrialized over the past 3 centuries since the Industrial Revolution. Since then we’ve seen our world advance further and further in terms of physical development, but during some time in within the 20th century, we began really shifting towards the technological side of development. With the rise of smart technology, gaming, online commerce & web2 social networks. We witnessed software and digital entrepreneurs go from being what could previously of been classified as an unconventional way of not wanting to produce real productivity in society, to know technical entrepreneurs being seen as one of the highest paying and competitive fields of work.
While the physical world isn’t completely done with evolving and disruptive changes, essentially everything that we do regarding innovative development is going to include large amounts of data streams. We’ve just about done everything we could non digital technology wise in regards to innovative changes in our world. From things like modernizing architecture, to increasing efficiency and safety in public transportation. We’ve advanced to the point where there really isn’t much in our physical world thats left to build with our imaginations, the next step is utilizing this infinitely generating asset of data and integrating it to cross paths with our physical world.
Constellation aims to be one of the frontrunners in further advancing us into a world where both these worlds meet and eventually form into the true digital age of smart machine to machine communication, to create a global ecosystem of honest data for a connected future.
About Me
Hey, thanks for taking the time to read my work. I’m your average 21 year old, currently in school for Economics and Finance. Some of my hobbies consist of sports, working out and staring at price charts & spending too much time drawing connections within the digital asset space.
I initially began interested in the crypto space after frustrations with legacy markets and their lack of automation in regards to settlements. From the second I read about the Ethereum ecosystem, I fell in love. An entire ecosystem built on one platform that anybody can access? Unheard of, until now.
With how fast this space is developing, I work to scope out projects and people in this space who are truly building out disruptive networks and technological solutions to further advance our world.
If there are any projects you’d wish to suggest me take a look into, I’m always available on Twitter and YouTube
