VIII. Multichain capacities

1. Every smart contract as a discreet chain of blocks

The Tectum blockchain is an aggregator of application blockchains and utilises separate chains of blocks for all its internal workings such as TET, TEC, and SoftNote transactions. The Elect Node takes turns promoting a transaction for validation from each chain. The SoftNote application has its own chain of blocks. SoftNote is a blockchain supported application but does not require a blockchain to function, however the blockchain architecture supplies SoftNotes with a decentralised and trustless underpinning. The SoftNote system is supported by three chains of blocks. The first chain of blocks is known as the ‘genesis chain’. The genesis chain is a slow blockchain, with relatively large block size which is designed to trace the life of every individual SoftNote, from a minting point to a burning point and all steps in between. Its purpose is to maintain the entire lifecycle of every SoftNote bill. Dynamic blocks are used, and they are altered as updates to the SoftNote are recorded. The genesis chain is the first implementation of the dynamic block principle. The second SoftNote chain is known as the ‘Payment Chain’. It records the previous pin code associated with a given SoftNote only and is agnostic to all other details. The third SoftNote chain is called the ‘Dynamic Chain’ and records the status of a SoftNote. Statuses include ‘minted’, ‘filled’ and ‘burned’. This third chain may be amalgamated into the first two and be discarded in future based on further testing, however this change will not affect SoftNote operation.

2. NoSQL Search engine

No-SQL database is a lateral database, which can be described as a ledger. The difference between a relational database and a NoSQL database is that a database is regulated by index files which give the data a structure. The Tectum No-SQL database does not have index files, instead they only store the hash of the previous block in addition to the data stored within the current block. Each associated entry has the hash of the last associated data point block number.

This makes searches within the Tectum NoSQL database extremely efficient as compared to a relational database, as a block number is used to pinpoint underlying data location. Tectum makes use of both non-SQL and relational databases synergistically on its lowest bulk data storage layer, this is its differentiating feature, and allows the chain to store large volumes of data or large files, with the hashes recorded in the blockchain on upper two blockchain tiers, but the bulk data being stored on the lowest level.

3. Distributed Storage

Tectum uses a novel storage system that makes use of both its NoSQL and relational database elements. Upon storage, files are split apart, with each part being encrypted, hashed, and stored in parts in random locations across all core nodes incorporating bulk file storage. The hashes are stored in the blockchain ledger and are appended with markers comprised of sequenced block addresses that instruct the system as to how to reconstruct the file if it is required. In summary, the markers allow the system to know how many parts there are to a file, what order to reconstruct them in and where they are stored.

4. Proprietary Hash function

Tectum T12 proprietary hashing algorithm is a hybrid hashing protocol designed to generate a 32-byte number. The actual hash function generates a 20-byte number, and then the proprietary random number generates an additional 12 bytes which is added to the 20-byte hash resulting in 32 bytes. This means that there is a statistically minimised probability of clashing with another hashed value. Random number generating modes are involved in this technology. The proprietary hash function is considered reasonably redundant 32-bit method of one-way encryption. The SHA256 algorithm employed by Bitcoin is massively redundant but is therefore too inefficient to be employed at terminal velocities reaching millions of transactions per second.

5. Tectum Nodes and blockchain architecture

The Tectum blockchain is comprised of three tiers:

• Upper Tier: Forms stack of transactions: a) End-to-end numbering of the bundle of transactions received from Pool of Master Nodes (the process of end-to-end numbering of the bundle of transactions, producing a sequence of hashes); b) Creation of Stack of Blocks using: 1 Txn = 1 block principle (In RAM only); c) Producing the Hash of the last Block; d) Sending the entire Stack of Transactions followed the Hash of the last Block back to the pool of master nodes in order to rid the Network of the burden of sending the entire Stack of Blocks;

• Second Tier: Distributing the Stack of Transactions throughout the Network. Pool of Master Nodes repeats the procedure of the Elect Node sending the Stack of Transactions followed the Hash of the last Block to the Network below – every Node creates a Stack of Blocks from Stack of Transactions and produces Hash of the last Block. The Stack of Blocks is added to the Ledger only after the Hash of the last Block produced by each individual Node matches one produced by Elect Node.

• Third Tier: Decentralized Database: a) At least 7 server locations; b) Keeps client files; system files, public files, intellectual property related files.

A Tectum network cycle lasts for 200 milliseconds. Each network cycle an Elect Node is selected and can propose transactions. The Elect Node calculates the difference between previous block and current block and creates an integer 64 formula that allows the new block to be created from the previous block. The formula is around 8 times smaller than a raw block which makes the process for the Master Nodes to receive and reconstruct the new block very efficient. The Elect Node sends this formula subordinate Master Node Quorum who create the new block from the previous block and validate the transaction. The Master Nodes distribute the formula to Nominal Nodes who also create the new block.

Tectum network Cycle is a 3-phase event governed by the Topology; the Topology (Network Map) is created at the end of every cycle by the current Elect Node. There are 3 Base phases in every Network Cycle:

• READ: A newly elected pool of Master Nodes reads and collects all the transactions and passes them to the new randomly elected Elect Node according to the Network Map formed by the former Elect Node.

• STOP: All the events on the Tectum network except service events are suspended while the Elect Node is: Processing the transactions just received from Master Nodes, Forming Stack of Blocks, Creating a new Network Map for the next network Cycle.

• WRITE: The Elect Node submits the new Network Map and all the Blocks to the Master Nodes and resigns; Master Nodes update the rest of the Network.

The Tectum blockchain employs a radically different architecture than previous generations and is built from the ground up for speed. Tectum exceeds 1 million transactions per second (TPS) and provides near instant finality and ownership updates across the blockchain network along with distributed levels of access to functional system modules. The Tectum blockchain is comprised of three tiers and instead of storing the data directly on chain, Tectum stores hashes that are mapped back to the original data stored at a lower level with a proprietary distributed database protocol that forms part of the Tectum protocol. This isolates the heavy transaction-related data from the main pipeline by hashing, encrypting, and signing the bundles at the end of every transaction before archival and storage on the lowest level of the blockchain. This makes the event-related data instantly verifiable and publicly accessible both within the network protocol and via the blockchain explorer, with different levels of accessibility provided to different transaction-related modules.

Tectum's Proof-of-Utility consensus mechanism utilises verifiable randomness in innovative ways to elect a new master node over five times per second and a dynamic node rating system to ensure compliance with chain governance rules, meaning that misbehaving nodes are quickly penalised and dropped. Each node creates its own stack of blocks which are hashed and verified by the master node in a way that maximises speed and allows the network to continuously scale as more computing resources are contributed to the chain. Proof-of-Utility does not waste resources with unproductive and energy intensive computation. Work in a POU context means useful actions such as ensuring provable network connectivity, creating new peer to peer node connections, and ensuring high network latency in addition to validating hashes generated by the randomly chosen master node. Essentially work in this context entails each node provably contributing more useful network resources than it consumes making the chain extremely energy and computationally efficient.

The blockchain trilemma asserts that for a blockchain to achieve the scalability necessary to challenge traditional IT stacks at their own game, a trade off in decentralisation must occur. Tectum takes a radically different approach to solving this trilemma than other blockchains, and has achieved an architecture capable of phenomenal speed, with minimal losses to decentralisation or security. Tectum is comprised of three separate blockchain tiers. The top tier forms a stack of transactions ending with a hash of the last block, the middle tier distributes the transaction stack throughout the network, forming blocks, and forming consensus, and the lower tier replicates and stores bulk volumes of data as a decentralised database using a proprietary new distributed database protocol. Tectum’s block size is a tiny 120 bytes with each block containing only one transaction. Tectum is therefore the fastest blockchain both on a transaction per second, and a block per second basis. Tectum utilises innovative hashing techniques at all three levels of its blockchain architecture to maintain integrity and consensus whilst minimising the size and volume of packets required to be transmitted across the network. Tectum's speed makes it perfect to act as an Overlay Network to Bitcoin, allowing Bitcoin to scale, and for applications in an Internet of Things context, where a high volume of light weight transactions is required.

6. Hardware insensitive low level processing infrastructure

The Tectum node software is agnostic to node hardware spec, providing that it exceeds or matches the specified minimum hardware spec. In general, the Tectum system is more sensitive to network latency and throughput than to CPU performance and therefore network latency and throughput is weighted more heavily in the POU rating algorithm than raw CPU power.

The recommended minimum hardware specification to run a Tectum node is as follows:

• CPU: 2 cores, 1.2Ghz

• RAM: 8GB suggested, 4GB minimum

• Hard Disk: SSD required, 200GB or more.

7. Native TEC Сoin and TET Token

TEC

The native token of the Tectum blockchain is known as TEC. TEC is automatically minted by the blockchain when Tectum nodes perform a BTC transaction. If for example, a user opts to move BTC liquidity between Tectum wallets or into a SoftNote, the Tectum BTC overlay node will scan the native BTC mempool to determine the value of the normal fee to perform this transaction would be on the BTC main chain. Tectum then charges the user 20% of this native on chain fee to perform their transaction, then transfers this BTC to a treasury wallet. Since the BTC transaction is happening between wallets associated with Tectum, it can be processed for a hugely reduced cost by the Tectum BTC full node, as it is self-confirmed by the Tectum overlay node and inserted into the mempool ready to be mined into a block. TEC is then minted and provided to the node that processed this transaction. The minted TEC is redeemable for real BTC from the Treasury wallet and represents a share of ownership of the entire treasury wallet. TEC is only minted when BTC is contributed into the treasury wallet, and thus the supply of TEC increases in proportion to the supply of BTC in the treasury. In this way, TEC is a store of value and functions to reward node operators with BTC created by BTC overlay node activity.

At this time TEC is not used as ‘gas’ for transactions in the same way as other layer one blockchains, however this may change once Tectum transitions to a fully public mode of operation.

TET

TET is a token on the Tectum blockchain that can be used to mint new SoftNotes. Additionally, TET may be used to transfer value between Tectum wallets and does not incur any ‘gas’ fees to utilize. Once the Tectum blockchain progresses from private mode to public mode consensus, TET will be used in a staking model where the number staked correlates to the Rating Stake Modifer that may be applied to an individual node, affecting its probability of being nominated as Elect Node in a given network cycle.

TET Tokenomics:

• Tectum Emission Token: Utility value and primary purpose is to mint SoftNote bills.

• 10 million hard cap. There will never be more.

• TET is a T12 protocol token but can be migrated to ERC20, TRC20 etc.

• When TET is migrated to another protocol like ERC20 the overall number of tokens remain the same. The migrated tokens are frozen on the Tectum side by a smart contract, and then the same number of tokens are minted on the ERC 20 side by a smart contract called the Tri Bridge.

• TET is designed to circulate perpetually.

• When TET is purchased, they go to the user wallet. When the user mints SoftNote bills, the TET is returned to both a minting account and the bounty account on the Tectum blockchain in a proportion 90/10.

• At the point of minting the TET is withdrawn from the user wallet and are returned to the Tectum network. The Tectum token circulation is designed to work in a 90/10 ratio. 90% of used are recycled back to the minting account and 10% go back to a bounty account however this ratio and process is subject to change to reward node operators more heavily.

• The bounty account is used by the Tectum team to pay for expenses related to development and marketing of the blockchain protocol.

• TET tokes are divisible down to six decimals.

8. Hybrid protocol Proof of Utility Consensus

It is envisaged that the Tectum blockchain will decentralise in three phases, starting at a private blockchain model (current configuration) and ending at a fully decentralised public and open source ledger.

Distributed Tectum nodes which will have subnet clusters. POU rating is based on trustworthiness, uptime, hardware capacity, latency (POU Factorial Score). These factors are combined and then the ‘Rating Stake Modifier’ (RSM) is applied to produce a final probability of becoming the Elect Node. Final probability is known as ‘Elect Node Likelihood Quotient’ (ENLQ).

Terminology Summary:

• TVRF: Randomness in node choice by protocol: ‘Tectum Verifiable Randomness Function’ (TVRF). Randomness is currently produced radio frequency received from space (Relictum) using a specialised sensor and converted to a hash value. The radio signal is impossible to predict. The zero node has a sensor built in to receive this signal and then create randomness for the blockchain. This will transition to purely algorithmic randomness at the point of decentralisation to eliminate the requirement for specialised hardware.

• PFS: POU Rating (trustworthiness, uptime, hardware capacity latency) – ‘POU Factorial Score’ (PFS)

• RSM: Probability Modifier overlayed to POU Factorial Score based on TET stake: ‘Rating Stake Modifier’ (RSM)

• ENLQ: Final Probability of becoming Elect Node: 'Elect Node Likelihood Quotient' (ENLQ)

• MNQ: 12 Master Nodes validating Elect Node transactions: ‘Master Node Quorum’ (MNQ)

Phase 1: Private 12 node cluster where all node TEC rewards are divided equally.

Phase 2 (public version): Tectum sells an additional 10 nodes using a staking mechanism where 100000 TET gives a node the capacity to go up to 100% rating (providing that other rating factors are sufficiently high). This Phase 2 staking model is known as ‘RSM’ where nodes stake their TET to the Tectum protocol and a stake of 100,000 TET tokens gives a node the possibility of getting a 100% rating. A 100% rating maximises the likelihood of a given node becoming the Elect Node in each network cycle and thus eligible for maximal protocol rewards. An individual staking number defines a node’s rating ceiling. For example, a stake of 1000 TET means that the node rating will never exceed 1%. Note that stake pools are allowed, and community members may stake into an existing node (providing that it does not exceed 100000 TET per node) to share in node rewards. This helps to reduce circulating supply of TET tokens and support a robust TET token economy.

All the nodes created as part of the phase 2 node creation cycle are collectively known as ‘Zero Nodes’. Every node has a Tectum account and therefore has a TET address and wallet. Node software is available on GitHub however the protocol will not recognise a node as valid without an approved TET stake. Staking occurs via a smart contract that accepts TET stake and lockup then grants a specific Tectum T12 address permission to function as a full node. Every 0.2 seconds the POU factors are recalculated. Each network cycle, the network map is updated by the master node. The network map connects each node together in a random map and reassess the POU criteria of each node.