R-Squared (blockchain platform)

R-Squared is a decentralized public blockchain platform which utilizes random delegate proof-of-stake (rdPOS) consensus to provide smart contract functionality. Its native cryptocurrency is RQRX.

R-Squared main net was launched on December 8th, 2023, by R-Squared Labs, which was founded by Robert Rosenthal, an investment banker from Goldman Sachs, Gary Chan, a JPMorgan clearinghouse advisor, and Dr. Paulo Coppola, a medical doctor and engineer. The blockchain is currently live with approximately a few thousand active users driven by a public community of nodes.

Blockchain Consensus

Based on the R-Squared whitepaper, the blockchain currently operates under the random delegate proof-of-stake (rdPOS) consensus, which was developed and modified from the delegate proof-of-stake (dPOS) consensus used in blockchains such as EOS and Bitshares.

The delegate proof-of-stake consensus functions on a witness committee (or delegate) system, akin to validators, rather than relying on miners like the Bitcoin network. These witnesses are elected by the blockchain's user community, with those receiving the most votes being designated as block producers responsible for running the blockchain. These "elected" witnesses serve as block producers for a specified period, such as a few hours, until a new round of voting occurs. Unlike traditional voting systems, users can vote for witnesses in dPOS without being present during the voting session, allowing them to adjust their preferences for witnesses at any time. The weight of these votes is determined by the token balances in the voters' wallets, meaning users with larger token holdings can allocate more votes to witnesses. Once new vote updates are received, the blockchain platform automatically registers the votes and either elects new witnesses or retains existing ones based on their vote counts.

The dPOS consensus algorithm offers significant security and scalability for the network, ensuring smooth and secure transactions for a large number of users. For instance, the EOS platform employs the graphene software, which utilizes dPOS to enable scalability of up to 100,000 transactions per second. However, dPOS does not achieve full decentralization, as the elected witnesses can potentially be influenced by votes from users holding substantial amounts of tokens or coins in their blockchain wallets.

Random Delegate Proof of Stake

The rdPOS consensus algorithm was designed by Rob Rosenthal with his developer team with the purpose of utilizing the dPOS system while adding more weight to decentralization, which is a key aspect to balance blockchain trilemmas.

The rdPOS algorithm features selecting 21 out of the top 63 elected witnesses to run the blockchain. These 21 witnesses will be chosen at random for every block production, whereby the top 17 witnesses will be chosen at random from the top 21 witnesses and the remaining 4 will be chosen at random from the remaining 46 out of the top 63 witnesses. This process continues until the next voting round at time, t, where t is the voting time set by the blockchain protocol. The diagram below shows how the rdPOS algorithm works in the R-Squared blockchain.

History

The R-Squared Blockchain has origins in the development of Project Revolution Populi (RVP) in 2019. Proposed by Rob Rosenthal, Paulo Coppola, Todd Aydelotte, and David Gelernter, the initial project aimed to create an open-source, decentralized social network development kit with user-controlled data.

RVP envisioned integrating various features into a single blockchain platform, alongside decentralized clearinghouse services provided by the user community. These services were intended to offer liquidity, transaction security, and monetization opportunities for users within the platform.

During the 2021 cryptocurrency boom, the project team reportedly held discussions with institutions such as Fidelity, JP Morgan, and GSR Brokerage regarding potential participation. Additionally, there were talks with the founders of Polygon and Chainlink regarding the possibility of integrating with the RVP blockchain using their Cross Chain Interoperability Protocol.

However, after a two-year hiatus, the project transitioned to its current iteration, R-Squared, on December 8th, 2023. As of now, the blockchain operates actively and is primarily driven by its community.

References

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