Introducing Qubic: Community-driven, combining GPU and CPU computing power to build AI models

Original source: Frontier Lab

Qubic is a community-driven project that brings together the computing power of GPU and CPU miners to support the development of AI model Aigarth by building artificial neural networks (ANNs). At the same time, these computing powers provide protection for the Qubic blockchain through the Byzantine consensus protocol.

Project basic information

Operation mode

The core of the Qubic network is supported by 676 computers responsible for executing smart contracts (usually nodes in blockchains). It takes 2/3 (451) computers to reach a consensus to determine the final result and ensure reliability. Unlike traditional public chains, Qubic's POW system can use mining power for artificial intelligence training. 1 trillion Qubic tokens (QUBIC) will be generated every epoch (7 days), and these rewards will be distributed to 676 computers.

Unlike other blockchains, the Qubic network arbitrators rank the solutions provided by miners on a weekly basis and determine the 451 best performing computers, who will maintain their status, while the remaining 225 places are filled by candidates and lower-ranked computers in each period. The rewards and node fees of eliminated computers may be confiscated.

The Qubic network is similar to the Bittensor network in terms of operating mode. Token rewards are mainly used to reward miners who provide computing power for AI models. Both are upgrades to the concept of Bitcoin. The Bitcoin network has long been criticized for consuming a large amount of computing power resources for network protection. Qubic and Bittensor integrate the concept of AI into the Pow mining network, making computing power "useful". The comparison of the operating mechanisms of the three is shown in Figure 1-1.

Founder

The Qubic project was initiated by Sergey Ivancheglo, a well-known blockchain developer. Sergey Ivancheglo is one of the founders of IOTA (core developer) and is well-known in the blockchain industry. He is known by his online name CFB (come from beyond) and is also the founder of NXT, the first POS currency in the blockchain industry. IOTA originated from the NXT community. Sergey Ivancheglo has profound attainments in multiple programming languages such as assembly language, BASIC, C, C#, HTML, Java, JavaScript, Pascal, Python, SQL, etc.

Sergey Ivancheglo started working on the Qubic project in 2019, and it has been 5 years now. Judging from Sergey Ivancheglo's long-term focus on this project, the Qubic project has more potential than other blockchain projects.

Decentralized Tendency

Qubic is driven by community governance, and similar to other community-governed projects, its daily proposal decision-making involves the following steps:

1. Ideas: Any member of the Qubic community can propose changes or new features, and then share the idea with the entire community for consideration.

2. Discussion: Community members can discuss ideas, ask questions and provide feedback, and those who make suggestions can make modifications based on the feedback received.

3. Proposal: After a thorough discussion, the idea can evolve into a formal proposal. The proposal contains all the feedback and revisions from the community discussion. It provides a detailed action plan that clearly explains what the changes or new features are and how they will be implemented.

4. Voting: After the proposal is finalized, a vote will be held. A quorum must participate in the vote for the decision to be valid. Usually, 2/3 (451) of the 676 computers agree, and the proposal is considered passed.

5. Implementation: If the proposal receives majority support in the vote, it is accepted and enters the implementation stage. If not, it is either modified for further consideration or discarded.

The most powerful governance role in the Qubic ecosystem is the arbitrator, which is officially declared to be an entity that resolves disputes and protects user interests. According to public information, the arbitrators fulfill the role of the foundation in traditional blockchain projects, and their rights are:

· Arbitrators set the parameters of the mining algorithm, which to some extent violates the concept of decentralized governance of blockchains, and this practice has raised questions about the overall decentralization of the Qubic project;

· Eliminate poorly performing computers in each epoch and have the right to confiscate their QUBIC token rewards. This mechanism has helped arbitrators accumulate 1 trillion QUBIC (currently worth $4 million, accounting for 1% of the total circulation);

· Resolve community disputes, and arbitrators have the final say.

Each node selects its arbitrator individually by setting the corresponding ID in Qubic.cpp. The entity that controls the current arbitration group remains unknown, but there are rumors that it is operated by the development team. The arbitration group does not hold any tokens during the token issuance process, and all tokens are produced through mining, which alleviates users' concerns about the high degree of centralization of the project.

Qubic has no pre-mining or venture capitalists involved.

From the above analysis, it can be seen that the Qubic project adopts an open proposal mechanism. Anyone can propose a proposal, and the miner group decides whether to execute it. But at the same time, the arbitrators have too much power in project governance, which cannot completely eliminate the hidden worries of the Qubic project being highly centralized.

Development Strength

Since the official has not disclosed the specific roadmap and phased goals of the Qubic project, we can only analyze and evaluate from the publicly available data:

· The mainnet has been running since April 2022;

· 630,000 community members;

· More than 100,000 miners;

From the above public data, the mainnet operation of the Qubic project remains stable, and the core development team's technical strength in the blockchain field is at an excellent level. Despite the lack of official complete information, the existing data has initially shown that the Qubic project has made some progress.

Project Model

Business Model

In addition to the traditional miners and arbitrators, the Qubic network also involves the following business participants:

AI model users: use Aigarth, an AI software running on Qubic, to solve problems;

Blockchain users: use the Qubic blockchain network to transfer money and use smart contracts in the network;

Smart contract publishers: Smart contract publishers in the Qubic network cannot enjoy the contract revenue alone, but share the revenue according to the proportion of shares obtained at the time of IPO, which reflects the decentralized characteristics of smart contracts; (detailed introduction below)

Smart contract shareholders: investors who actually enjoy the benefits of smart contracts;

Oracle Machine: Provide external trusted data (such as stock prices) and connect the blockchain network to the computer;

How many roles participate in network activities, the specific business process is shown in Figure 2–1.

From the perspective of business processes, Qubic and Bittensor projects do have many similarities. However, in terms of specific business development, the two projects also have some differences:

· From the perspective of AI business development: Qubic only has one AI model, Aigarth, while Bittensor has 32 different AI models. From the perspective of AI business development, Bittensor has more advantages and is more likely to succeed.

· From the perspective of blockchain business development: Compared with Bittensor, Qubic has core blockchain functions such as smart contract execution, while Bittensor currently has no smart contract execution capabilities. Qubic tokens also have a destruction mechanism, while Bittensor tokens only have a pledge model. From the perspective of blockchain business development, Qubic has more advantages.

Qubic's smart contracts run on high-performance computers, which is expected to achieve sub-second finalization and excellent running speed. This not only enables developers to create more efficient decentralized applications (dApps), but also expands the potential for real-time, interactive dApps.

Based on the above analysis, Qubic and Bittensor each have their own advantages and disadvantages in terms of business development. Bittensor has more advantages in AI model services, while Qubic is superior in blockchain functions and token design.

IPO Issuance Mechanism of Smart Contracts

Qubic's smart contracts are built in C++ and do not require a special programming language. Compared with the issuance of smart contracts on other blockchains, the issuance of smart contracts on the Qubic network has many special features, as shown in Table 2–1:

In the Qubic network, the issuance and income attribution of smart contracts can be regarded as a major innovation in the blockchain industry. In traditional blockchain projects, the publisher of smart contracts can often enjoy all the benefits generated by the contract. This model has a certain tendency towards centralization, which is inconsistent with the concept of blockchain decentralization. In the Qubic network, the benefits of smart contracts are not enjoyed exclusively by the publisher, but are distributed according to the proportion of shares obtained by each party at the time of IPO. This practice reflects the Qubic network's pursuit of decentralization and fully realizes the fair distribution of smart contract revenue.

The innovative model of the Qubic network's smart contract issuance and revenue distribution can be regarded as a classic embodiment of the decentralized spirit of the blockchain industry. This practice not only reflects the Qubic project's sincere pursuit of the concept of decentralization, but also provides a useful reference for the future development of the entire industry.

The following is a brief description of how IPOs work in the Qubic network:

1. Create shares: Using Qubic's smart contract technology, create digital assets (such as shares of DEX). The asset is unique and can be tracked on the Qubic blockchain.

2. Issue to the public: Open digital shares to the public. Just like traditional IPOs, these shares represent shares of the project and may provide certain rights to holders. Shares associated with smart contracts are conducted using a Dutch auction model.

3. Purchase and trading of shares: Participants on the network can use QU to purchase these shares. Once purchased, these shares can be traded on the Qubic network.

It is worth noting that all QUBIC tokens used to purchase smart contract shares will be destroyed, which is the largest scenario for token destruction in the token model. For example, the first smart contract QX (the first DEX in the Qubic network) destroyed more than 10.18 trillion QUBIC, accounting for about 15% of the total circulation at the time, which shows that QUBIC has the potential for deflation through the smart contract issuance mechanism on Qubic.

"Free" transfer

Qubic is one of the few Layer-1 blockchains that does not charge transfer transaction fees.

During the execution of smart contracts on the Qubic network, the contract initiator needs to pay a certain number of QUBIC tokens as a handling fee. These paid QUBIC tokens will be directly destroyed instead of flowing into the hands of miners or other participants.

Combining the above characteristics, it can be considered that the Qubic network provides users with completely free services. This model breaks through the limitations of traditional blockchains charging on-chain transaction fees and reflects Qubic's innovation in optimizing user experience.

Oracle Machine

The Oracle machine in the Qubic network is not only an information router in the network, but also a bridge between smart contracts and real-world data. It enables smart contracts to interact with external information through the Qubic Protocol Interface (QPI) and query real-world data.

When smart contracts use Oracle machines to obtain external data, they need to pay QUBIC tokens, and the tokens paid will be destroyed.

Aigarth

Aigarth is a groundbreaking project that will be developed on top of the Qubic network. It combines the fields of artificial intelligence and distributed computing to create a collective system for solving complex artificial intelligence tasks. Aigarth is currently under development and no further information is available.

When users use the Aigarth model to solve problems, they need to pay QUBIC tokens, and all the tokens paid will be destroyed.

Token Model

The Qubic project token is QUBIC, with a circulation limit of 100 trillion, and 1 trillion tokens will be issued every 7 days and distributed to computers. If the circulation of QUBIC reaches 999 trillion, a plan to destroy 1 trillion QUBIC per week as execution fees will be initiated to ensure that 1 trillion tokens can be issued to computers every 7 days.

The current total circulation is 94,000, the transaction price is $0.00000537, and the circulation market value is $506,944,519. (Data source: QUBCI blockchain browser)

QUBIC is not listed on any large exchange, the daily trading volume is low, and the current price is generally referenceable.

Potential deflation mechanism

QUBIC's issuance mechanism is only 1 trillion tokens issued every 7 days. The newly added tokens are all generated by computers through mining, so the supply quantity (Supply-Total) remains unchanged.

Tokens have destruction mechanisms in many scenarios:

·Smart contract IPO (Burn-1);

·Smart contract execution fee (Burn-2);

·Smart contract uses Oracle machines (Burn-3);

·Users use the Aigarth model (Burn-4);

When Supply-Total>Burn-1+Burn-2+Burn-3+Burn-4, the circulation of tokens is in an inflationary state; when Supply-Total ·Smart contract IPO scale increases sharply;

·The quality of the Aigarth model is at the top of the AI industry, and the number of destructions caused by the use of the model increases rapidly;

As long as any of the above two factors occurs, it is possible to push the QUBIC token into a deflationary state. Challenges in achieving deflation include:

· Slow review mechanism for smart contract release: Each smart contract needs to be reviewed before release, which may lead to slow release of new contracts and limit the activity and growth of the network.

· Smart contract revenue sharing mechanism affects development motivation: Qubic requires that the revenue of each smart contract must be distributed according to the equity ratio at the time of IPO. Even the founding developer of the contract needs to purchase shares to obtain revenue. This mechanism may reduce the entrepreneurial motivation of developers and is contrary to traditional business concepts.

Qubic introduced some "challenging" mechanism designs in the pursuit of decentralization, which may affect the development speed and attractiveness of the project to a certain extent.

Indivisible characteristics of tokens

QUBIC tokens have the characteristics of indivisibility, with the minimum unit being 1QUBIC. In addition, no transfer fee is required, which makes QUBIC tokens have a wide range of application scenarios in small payment scenarios. The indivisibility of tokens increases their scarcity and is conducive to maintaining the value of tokens.

QUBIC Value Judgment

Whether QUBIC has investment value depends on whether the token experiences deflation. There are uncertainties in the important factors that affect deflation:

1. According to Sergey Ivancheglo's Medium, the Aigarth model may not take shape until at least 2027, so the value expectation of this part is weakened.

2. At present, the deployment of smart contracts is only in the official deployment stage, and external developers have not yet entered. The development prospects of this business segment are unknown. It remains to be seen whether the design that the smart contract owner cannot directly enjoy the contract income can attract excellent developers.

3. The amount of token destruction brought about by the small payment scenario is limited, and it cannot have a significant impact on the circulation of tokens.

In summary, the QUBIC token cannot see great investment value in the short term, and its long-term potential is still unknown and needs further observation.

Innovation compared with projects in the same track

1. Users can enjoy free blockchain transactions, and the transaction speed is better than other blockchains.

2. Smart contracts achieve decentralization through the IPO mechanism, which is a further continuation of the spirit of Satoshi Nakamoto and a first in the industry.

Project risks

1. Delay in development progress: The development of Aigarth, Qubic's core AI model, has placed high demands on the team. Even though the founder Sergey Ivancheglo has outstanding technical strength, there is still uncertainty as to whether the development can be completed on schedule.

2. Insufficient deployment of smart contracts: Qubic's excessive pursuit of decentralized design may affect excellent developers' participation in smart contract deployment, resulting in the development of this business segment being hindered.

3. Death spiral caused by price fluctuations: Once the price of Qubic tokens falls, it may cause miners to switch to other projects and sell tokens, which will further cause prices to fall and fall into a vicious cycle.

Summary

Qubic is committed to pursuing the ultimate decentralized blockchain, and its adherence to the concept of decentralization is reflected in many key links. It has brought many innovations to the entire industry through innovative smart contract release mechanisms, token destruction mechanisms, and free transfer services.

Although Qubic has made many breakthroughs in the pursuit of decentralization, the project still has some potential risks in terms of development progress, smart contract attractiveness, and token price fluctuations.

Whether the innovation of concepts can bring value transcendence, it is still necessary to pay close attention to its subsequent development trends.

Original link

欢迎加入律动 BlockBeats 官方社群：

Telegram 订阅群： https://t.me/theblockbeats

Telegram 交流群： https://t.me/BlockBeats_App

Twitter 官方账号： https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia