Welcome to Ontology documentation!¶
Announcement¶
Note
Ontology is currently in Mainnet. Latest Version : v1.6.0
Download binaries from: Ontology Downloads Page
Source code: Ontology Github
TLDR;
I want to run a node
I want to learn how to use Owallet Desktop Wallet
What is Ontology?¶
Ontology Ontology is a new generation of high-performance public blockchains and distributed Trust Collaboration Platform. The infrastructure is scalable, stable, and allows low-level customization for different business requirements. <https://ont.io/wp/Ontology-technology-white-paper-EN.pdf>`.
Things that make Ontology special include:
- Chain network - Interoperable with Multiple Public Blockchain and Consortium Blockchain.
- High performance - 10,000+ TPS Single chain & layer 2 for scalability.
- Trust collaboration modules - To support distributed business scenarios include digital identity ,data exchange and rating .
- Mature Dev tools - Use the IDE kits what you are used to.
- Widely supported Dev languages - Python, C#, JavaScript ,JAVA and Golang .
- Token economy - Dual token model with fixed supply Fair governance.
- No premine. No ICO. Backed by a co-builder network.
Getting Started¶
The simplest way to get started with Ontology is by visiting the Ontology website, reading and understanding the materials posted there and joining ONT Global Community on Telegram (https://t.me/OntologyNetwork) and Discord (https://discord.gg/4TQujHj) for updates and discussions.
Danger
Ontology is extremely new and experimental technology. No guarantees can be provided by anyone whatsoever. Use it at your own risk. Make sure you know what you are doing, especially if there is money involved.
Just like any other cryptocurrency, using Ontology requires learning and understanding what this all is about. If real money is involved, it also requires concern with security of the process.
Hint
That said, you can always safely play with Ontology by connecting to the permanent Testnet.
To lean more about how cryptocurrencies work in general and Ontology in particular please visit our Resources page
Once you familiarized yourself with key ideas and concepts, it is recommended to start from connecting to our Testnet. The simplest way to do that is by downloading and installing our Owallet Desktop Wallet and following instructions in Owallet_desktop_wallet_guide.
Important differences from other cryptocurrencies¶
Ontology has several important differences from most other existing cryptocurrencies which are very important to understand. Please review the following information carefully.
The concept of **digital identity is completely different with traditional wallet address**
In most cryptocurrencies Address is a hashed public key for which the owner of that Address knows the corresponding private key. In order to transfer funds, the Sender should only know the Address of the Receiver in order to create a unilateral transaction. The Sender is not aware of whether the Receiver is online or not or whether it even exists. Once transaction to an Address is complete and added to the blockchain, Receiver that can prove knowledge of the private key corresponding the Address can control this UTXO (short for Unspent Transaction Output).
In Ontology there are no addresses at all and transaction are created interactively by both Sender and Receiver wallets. This means that in order to create a transaction, both wallets have to participate in the creation process and eventually co-sign the transaction before it is sent to the blockchain.
Attention
In Ontology it is not possible to create a transaction unilaterally. Both Sender and Receiver have participate in transaction creation.
To allow Sender and Receiver wallets to create transactions without having to be online at the same time and directly connected to each other, Ontology added a module called SBBS that allows wallets to securely communicate using encrypted messages to create a transaction. SBBS Addresses are merely merely private / public key pairs used to encrypt and decrypt these messages.
Important
SBBS Addresses are not recorded in the blockchain and are not used to control funds
You are encouraged to create a new SBBS Address for each transaction.
Wallet and Node concepts are slightly different
Ontology documentation mentions terms Wallet and Node quite a lot and it sometimes causes confusion with users of other cryptocurrencies.
Ontology Wallet is a light client which stores information about UTXO that belong to it and has an ability to create new transactions by connecting to other wallets via SBBS. It does not store or verify the entire blockchain and can thus only work if connected to a Node.
Beam Node, is a full node that downloads, validates and updates the entire blockchain state.
Note
Ontology Desktop Wallet, provides options to run both as just the Wallet (connected to a remote node) and as a full node.
Attention
It is always recommended to run a full node
Information that can be restored from the blockchain is completely different
In most blockchains, information about current UTXOs and the transaction history can be recovered from the blockchain using only the Seed Phrase.
In Ontology, only UTXOs can be recovered from the blockchain. All other information, including transaction history and any other meta data are only stored locally in the Beam Wallet database and encrypted by Wallet Password.
This means that if you run Ontology Wallet on two different machines, transaction history WILL NOT be synchronized.
This also means, that to preserve transaction history, or any additional meta data, it is necessary to regularly backup Beam Wallet database file.
For more information about backup and restore procedure see Backup and Restore
Reporting Issues and Getting Support¶
To report issues and get support please perform the following steps:
Gather all relevant information including:
- Detailed description of the problem you have encountered and steps to reproduce it
- Version of the binaries you are running
- Logs (see :ref: log locations for information where to find the logs files)
- Relevant configuration files (please check for private information before sending)
- Your system configuration
- Screen shots or any additional information you think is relevant
Send an email to contact@ont.io (or tech@ont.io for testnet related issues).
You can also open an issue in github and follow the provided template.
Attention
Providing all the information described above will allow us to quickly and efficiently analyze and resolve the issue for you and everyone else.