Waves is, according to its website, “a community-based stack of decentralized open-source technologies to build scalable, user-friendly apps.” It was founded by entrepreneur Sasha Ivanov as Waves Platform AG, a for-profit company in Moscow that aims to drive and fund the creation of a new blockchain network.  

Founder Sasha Ivanov | Source: Coindesk

It initially launched in 2016 as a global open-source platform that lets its users create and launch custom crypto tokens without the need for extensive smart contract programming. Instead, tokens and the apps that govern them can be created and managed using scripts that run in user accounts, much like launching a traditional website or web application.  

Homepage | Source: AS

In 2018, the Waves team added the smart contract function, letting developers build decentralized applications (dApps). And a year later, the team developed and marketed Waves Enterprise, a version designed for institutions.  

How does their platform work?  

The Waves blockchain runs on two different types of nodes: full nodes and lightweight nodes. The full nodes keep a complete record of transactions while the lightweight nodes use the full nodes to confirm transactions and interactions within the platform. 

To keep its distributed network in sync, it uses a leased proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. Each user’s chance to generate blocks is proportional to their economic stake in the network. Users can also lease their WAVES to a node to get a part of the node payout as a reward. It then uses its Waves-NG protocol to add new blocks to the chain.  

Ride Smart Contract Language | Source: Medium

Users can develop decentralized apps by writing new smart contracts. These smart contracts are written in Ride, the Waves’ native language. Ride has a straightforward and developer-friendly syntax that makes blockchain development easy and also intuitive. The execution of these smart contracts and scripts costs 0.004 WAVES. The unique technologies used in the protocol minimize its carbon footprint.  

What is WAVES?  

The WAVES cryptocurrency is the native token of the Waves platform. It is used to create custom tokens and pay for transaction fees. Additionally, the ownership of cryptocurrency determines who gets to add new blocks to the blockchain and who earns a share of fees paid for transactions.   

Token Price Chart | Source: Crypto.com

To own a full node, a user must have a minimum balance of 1,000 WAVES. 70% of them need to be staked as of writing. Also the supply of tokens is limited to 100,000,000 tokens.  

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