The Aventus SolutionThe Aventus solution to the digital asset
problem
A number of industries and participants have adopted platforms like
IBM’s Hyperledger over Ethereum because they cannot sacrifice scale
or privacy.
However, at least in the proof-of-concept stage, they are prepared
to sacrifice independence and accept lower levels of security than
that afforded by Ethereum.
With the Aventus Protocol, there is no trade-off. Organisations are
free to benefit from the combination of private and public
Blockchains without the drawbacks.
The following chapter will introduce Aventus’ solution to the
current problems of Blockchain technology. It will give you a
high-level overview of the Aventus Protocol’s system architecture,
how it is used, and how it will benefit digital asset issuers,
managers, and owners.
The Aventus Protocol The Aventus Protocol is a Blockchain solution
that combines the scale and privacy of private Blockchains with the
security and independence of public chains.
It solves issues with scalability by taking transaction processing
off-chain and uses cutting-edge ‘zero-knowledge proofs’ for
privacy. The ultimate goal of the Aventus Protocol is to improve
standardisation, trust, and security across value chains. It does
this while lowering costs, reducing friction, and generating
entirely new asset services. The following section will explain the
protocol’s key functions and how they work.
A Layer 2 solution
The Aventus Protocol is what is known as a ‘Layer 2
Solution’.
This means that it is built on top of an existing public Blockchain
network, in this case Ethereum. This layer 2 Solution processes
transactions ‘off-chain’.
The purpose for this is to solve the scalability problems of
Ethereum, while maintaining the benefits of security and
independence.
This in itself is not new. To address the shortcomings of public
Blockchains, various developer communities have moved to creating
‘Layer 2’ or, more accurately, ‘Execution Layer’ solutions.
In the case of Bitcoin, for example, Lightning has become the
de-facto scaling solution. Initial implementations of these
solutions tend to either be suboptimal rehashes of the base
Blockchain, or are too specific to be commercially viable.
Furthermore, a trade-off is evident between preserving the full
security of the base Blockchain and transaction finality with high
throughput.
The Aventus Protocol, however, is a cutting-edge Layer 2 solution
with privacy considerations.
Description Example
A Layer 2 Solution is built on top of an existing Blockchain to
improve scalability.
The Aventus Protocol is a secondary Blockchain solution which lets
Aventus process transactions more efficiently, independent of the
Ethereum Blockchain. This is known as ‘off-chain’ processing.
Transactions are processed and verified more efficiently by Aventus
Nodes (see section 3.2.2.1 Aventus Nodes).
They are then batched together into Aventus Blocks and sent to the
Ethereum Blockchain where they are made public.
In this sense, Aventus is a Blockchain within a Blockchain.
Imagine Sally buys her Ed Sheeran tickets immediately upon
launch.
The tickets she buys are transacted across the hypothetical Aventus
Protocol in which the Layer 2 Solution does not exist.
Tickets usually sell out in minutes.
But this time, Ed Sheeran’s team are panicking, how can it be that
they have only sold 10% of tickets?
Well, without the Layer 2 Solution to process transactions through
nodes ‘off-chain’, the entire network could only process 100
tickets per second.
That means fans would have to wait hours for their tickets to be
processed.
However, with the Layer 2 Solution, transactions are batched by
Aventus Nodes and then sent to the Ethereum Blockchain.
This way, fans can buy tickets at true scale.
This means the Aventus Protocol can process transactions faster
than a public Blockchain, while still preserving the properties of
Ethereum where transactional information is made public.
This is where zero-knowledge proofs come in.
Zero-knowledge proofs and Sigma protocol for privacy
All transactions on the Aventus network can contain a private piece
of information that can be verified, without disclosure, using a
Sigma Protocol.
This can be anything the user wants to remain confidential. It can
be as simple as their identity information, or a secret piece of
information given from the vendor to the owner for the purpose of
proving ownership. What’s more, the Sigma Protocol can let
customers redeem their assets with a different vendor, e.g. in the
case of loyalty cards.
The implementation of zero knowledge also minimises attack vectors
concerning Aventus nodes, and asset distributors attempting to
manipulate digital asset transactions.
In the case of tickets, we use zero knowledge proofs so that a
ticket owner can prove they have the “barcode for entrance the
door” data without having to show the barcode. This means you can
prove you are the legitimate ticket owner without having to show
the ticket. This helps ticket owners prove ownership without having
to reveal private information. To achieve this, we use
cryptographic primitives to link an owner to an asset in one
direction.
Summary
Off-chain processing allows the Aventus Protocol to more quickly
verify transactions while still benefiting from the security of the
public Ethereum Blockchain. The processing is handled by Aventus
Nodes, which batch transactions together before making them
public.
More information:
https://www.ibm.com/blogs/systems/storage-for-blockchain-and-modern-
distributed-database-processing/
https://media.consensys.net/the-state-of-ethereum-layer-2-protocol-development-2-
f22b2603abd6
The Aventus Protocol leverages zero- knowledge proofs (ZKPs) to
address the problem of privacy on the Ethereum Blockchain.
The goal is to prove a statement without leaking extra
information.
ZKP lets you prove you know something to someone without actually
revealing the information. The term ‘zero knowledge’ originates
from the fact that zero information about the secret is revealed,
but the second verifier is rightfully convinced that the first
party holds the information.
Why would you need to prove you know a secret without revealing
it?
When you do not trust the other party but still need to persuade
them that you know it.
On the Aventus Protocol, a user can choose to make certain parts of
their transactions private by using a ZKP.
This could include, but is not limited to:
• Identity information • Transaction value • Asset details,
etc.
Imagine the Ed Sheeran concert is 18+ due to explicit content.
Sally needs to add her identity to the ticket she just bought as
well as prove her age.
Naturally, he does not wish to share her name, address, and date of
birth information publicly.
So she uses zero-knowledge proof over the Aventus Protocol.
Using zero-knowledge proof cryptography, she can prove to the
verifier who she is and authenticate the transaction using a
cryptographic fingerprint without having to reveal her age or
identity information.
If Sally decides to sell the ticket, she can do so on a ticket
reseller website.
Here, the ticket reseller and new ticket owner will require proof
of Sally’s identity.
Using a zkp, Sally can prove her identity without having to reveal
her driving licence, passport, or sensitive information
directly.
Zero-knowledge proofs are an advanced form of cryptography that
allows a ‘prover’ to prove a piece of information is true to a
‘verifier’ without revealing anything about the information.
On the Aventus Protocol, ZKPs are used to protect the privacy of
transactions, and add another layer of security. By employing this
system, the protocol allows users to transact assets secretly,
while still ensuring that all transactions can be validated on the
Blockchain. More information on Sigma protocols:
http://www.cs.au.dk/~ivan/Sigma.pdf
The implementation of zero-knowledge also minimises possible ways
that the network could be attacked, and prevents asset distributors
from manipulating digital asset transactions by obscuring key
information.
The decision to opt for the Sigma Protocol is because the Aventus
use case is narrow enough such that generality is not required. It
also allows for faster proof generation, which has allowed us to
create a proof on a smartphone in less than one second.
If Sally decides to sell the ticket, she can do so on a ticket
reseller website.
Here, the ticket reseller and new ticket owner will require proof
of Sally’s identity.
Using a zkp, Sally can prove her identity without having to reveal
her driving licence, passport, or sensitive information
directly.
Our previous implementation of zk-SNARKs resulted in proof
generation that was too slow on mobile devices, and produced
expensive verification.
We will continue to explore other zero knowledge proofs as
development of the Aventus Protocol advances.
Aventus combines the scale and privacy of permissioned Blockchains
without trading off the security and independence benefits of
public chains. We achieve this by employing a Layer 2 Solution that
solves for scale, and uses cutting-edge zero knowledge proofs to
solve for privacy.
Today, the Aventus Protocol can scale to thousands of transactions
per second, and is completely GDPR compliant. In its current state,
it preserves key components of decentralisation, with certain
elements made open source. A future, full-release will be entirely
decentralised and wholly open source.
With Aventus, myriad unknown participants can interact with each
other without significant compromise on transaction finality and
speed. We have done this by restricting our problem domain solely
to digital asset exchange (issuance, transfer, and communication),
which allows us to take shortcuts in computing and finalising
state.
Recap
• The Aventus Protocol is a Layer 2 Solution. • This means it
processes transactions via its own nodes, and then adds them to
the
Ethereum Blockchain. • The reason it does this is to overcome the
problem of scalability on Ethereum, while still
benefiting from its security and independence. • The problem of
privacy is addressed by employing a type of cryptography known as
zero-
knowledge proofs. • These proofs allow users to add confidential
information to transactions without revealing
this information to the public, and while still allowing for the
transaction to be publicly validated.
• The Sigma Protocol means users get their proof via their mobile
in less than a second. • The ZKPs add another layer of security to
the protocol.
The following section will introduce the Aventus Protocol’s network
architecture, and explain how each element works to improve digital
asset exchange.
Network architecture
The Aventus Protocol is split into three tiers, each of which is
responsible for different functions of the network: • Tier 1: where
the Aventus Protocol interacts with the Ethereum Blockchain. • Tier
2: where initial verification and transaction processing takes
place. • Tier 3: where third parties create mobile and web
applications that use the Aventus Protocol.
These three tiers, when combined, deliver fully on scalability,
security, privacy and independence.
The following sections explore each tier in more depth.
Tier 1 — Ethereum Blockchain
Within Aventus’ architecture, the base-Blockchain is the ultimate
adjudication and audit layer, and is where a participant in the
ecosystem can objectively resolve any Tier 2 disputes.
A fully decentralised public Blockchain is a key attribute of Tier
1 as it delivers the highest degree of security and independence.
This is crucial in industries such as ticketing, which are plagued
by low trust. Tier 1 uses a combination of Merkle roots,
adjudication, and governance processes to finalise asset
transfers.
Description Example
A fully decentralised public Blockchain is a key attribute of Tier
1 as it delivers the highest degree of security and
independence.
For this purpose, the Aventus Protocol uses the Ethereum
Blockchain.
The consensus mechanism makes sure that the digital assets
transacted aren't susceptible to fraud in the value chain.
This is why, when Ticketmaster and See Tickets are both selling Ed
Sheeran tickets for The O2 — even though Ticketmaster has a long
standing relationship with The O2 — See Tickets knows that they are
getting an equal allocation of tickets with equal priority.
The Aventus Protocol uses Ethereum public Blockchain as its Tier 1
layer. This is because Ethereum offers high levels of security and
independence. It creates a ‘trustless’ environment in which
participants do not need to know each other nor have agreements in
place.
More information: https://ethereum.org/
Merkle roots
Description Example
Asset transfers on the Aventus Protocol are handled in Tier 2,
where they are processed into Aventus Blocks.
Merkle trees are a way of structuring data for efficient and secure
verification (see section 3.2.2 Tier 2).
Inside these trees are the details of every asset transfer.
In Tier 1, the root of this tree (known as a Merkle root or the
Aventus Block hash) is posted to the Ethereum Blockchain where it
is made public.
The Merkle root is a hash value for all transactions that take
place in its respective Tier 2 tree. This lets anyone verify the
validity of a transaction by checking the hash value of the root
rather than check each transaction individually.
Imagine Sally buys four Ed Sheeran tickets.
She gives one to Dan, and has two spare that she would like to give
to another couple with whom they often spend time.
Unfortunately, the other couple is away on holiday, so Sally
decides to sell the remaining two tickets.
The Aventus Protocol handles the transfer of the two tickets, where
the transactions are processed into Merkle trees.
Inside these trees, you’ll find the details of every asset
transfer.
This allows the new ticket holders, as well as the concert
management staff, to verify ownership.
Adjudication
Summary Merkle trees are a way of structuring data that lets
someone efficiently verify the information in the data set. In Tier
1, the root of this tree (the Merkle root), is posted publicly on
the Ethereum Blockchain. In terms of digital assets, this means
anyone can check the existence, ownership, and transfer of an asset
at any given moment. Within the Aventus Protocol, a Merkle tree is
an Aventus Block, and a Merkle root is an Aventus Block hash. More
information: https://brilliant.org/wiki/merkle-tree/
Description Example
By posting these roots onto Ethereum, anyone can look up any
transaction on the Aventus Protocol. This allows them to prove
ownership and transfer an asset at any time.
What’s more, the concert management staff can do this at scale,
with all 100,000 tickets, by checking the hash value rather than
thousands of transactions one by one.
Description Example
Since asset transfers are processed privately on Tier 2 by Aventus
Nodes (see section 3.2.2.1 Aventus Nodes), Tier 1 allows these
transactions to be challenged publicly by posting them to the
Ethereum Blockchain. If, for instance, a node on the Aventus
Protocol tries to commit fraud, anyone can challenge their activity
and prevent it being added to the ledger (see section 3.4.4.2
Challenging fraud on the Aventus Protocol).
In this sense, the Tier 1 Ethereum layer acts as the adjudicator
before transactions are set in stone on the ledger.
Sally and Dan have been dating for a while when Sally discovers
something terrifying about her new boyfriend.
He has been lying about the fact he likes Ed Sheeran. Sally is
horrified, but the betrayal does not end there.
Dan has tried to sell the same concert tickets multiple times to
make a little extra cash this month.
Dan runs an Aventus Node to manipulate transactions to try and sell
the same concert tickets.
Discovering this, Sally challenges Dan’s data by posting them
publicly to the Ethereum Blockchain. This proves that Dan was
committing fraud, and his data is not added to the ledger.
Summary By posting the details of asset transfers publicly on the
Ethereum Blockchain in Tier 1, it is easy to challenge and prevent
fraudulent activity regarding asset transfer.
Governance
Description Example
Aventus employs a democratic voting system whereby every token
holder has a vote in the rules that govern the system.
It is in Tier 1 where these governance parameters are set and
maintained.
This includes defining rules around:
• How much AVT an Aventus node processing Aventus blocks needs to
stake, or deposit, in AVT
• How long that deposit is held until it is released back, if no
challenges occur
• How long people have to challenge transactions before they are
deemed safe
These rules can be voted on and altered (via consensus) by AVT
holders on a quarterly basis.
As such, the Aventus Protocol is adaptable and can change dependent
user requirements.
Let us say Lucy, our Blockchain lover, wants to reduce the root
deposit for a node to process a transaction from 300AVT to 200AVT
so she can process more transactions from her node without tying up
all her tokens.
Lucy then initiates a vote. The community votes in her favour, and
the proposal passes.
Every token holder receives one vote per token they hold.
Those with a greater holding of AVT have a greater voting voice in
the governance of the network.
Summary AVT token holders in Tier 2 vote on the governance of the
protocol and require consensus to pass new rules that are
maintained in the Tier 1 public Blockchain architecture. This
ensures that the network is self regulating, fair for all
participants, and can evolve as industries change.
Recap
• Tier 1 is what is known as the ‘open Blockchain adjudication
layer’. • It is here that the data regarding asset transfers on the
Aventus Protocol is posted publicly
to the Ethereum Blockchain. • This allows the existence, ownership,
and transfer of an asset to be checked and proven at
any time. • It also allows fraudulent activity to be easily
challenged and prevented. • Finally, it is in Tier 1 that network
governance is determined. • This determines the ‘business logic’ of
the protocol, i.e. how the network operates and
evolves over time.
Changes to the network are only passed if agreed upon by consensus
by Aventus Nodes.
Tier 2 — The Aventus Network Layer
The Tier 2 layer deals with the initial verification and processing
of transactions. It is where asset management platforms send
transactions for processing by Aventus Nodes..
Aventus network nodes will function much like existing Blockchain
networks today (e.g. Ethereum, Ripple etc.).
Aventus Nodes
Description Example
As with other Blockchains, the Aventus Protocol relies upon nodes
to process transactions.
When a transaction takes place on an asset transfer platform (in
Tier 3), it is sent to an Aventus Node for processing. This
transaction is then forwarded on to the other nodes in the network,
which creates a shared memory pool of unprocessed transactions.
These transactions are combined into a Merkle tree for more
efficient processing. The Merkle root of this tree is then posted
to Tier 1, where the transactions are processed and made public on
the Ethereum Blockchain. For creating these Merkle trees, the
Aventus Nodes are rewarded financially (see section 3.4 Token
economics).
Imagine Sally sells one of her spare Ed Sheeran tickets on a ticket
resale website.
The website builds on the Aventus Protocol and is running a Tier 2
Aventus Node so it can forward its ticket resale transactions to
the Aventus network.
The ticket sales are sent to other network nodes for verification
which create a pool of unprocessed transactions.
They combine into an Aventus Block for quick and efficient
processing, which is then posted to the Tier 1 Ethereum Blockchain
where they are made public.
Although she might not understand how it happens, the sale of
Sally’s ticket on the resale website is safe and secure — and
possible at scale — because it passes through all three
tiers.
Summary
Tier 2 is the Aventus layer. It is here that the nodes process and
verify private transactions before being posted publicly to the
Ethereum Blockchain. Tier 2 also connects Tier 1 and Tier 3
allowing for third party integrations.
Proof-of-authority consensus
Currently, the Aventus PoA network boasts tk X transactions per
second at its theoretical limit, with a minimum confirmation time
of tk X seconds. Confirmation times vary by digital asset type,
since some (e.g. Ticketing) have a less stringent requirement on
fast confirmation times than others (e.g. Loyalty).
Summary In Tier 2, the Aventus Nodes receive, process and validate
transactions from asset transfer platforms. These transactions are
batched up into Merkle trees for more efficient processing. Nodes
are then selected ‘randomly’ in alignment with the Aventus Node
Reputation System to achieve a consensus for validation. Finally,
they send the Merkle root of these trees to Tier 1 where they are
processed and made public.
Description Example
The Aventus Protocol currently uses a proof-of-authority consensus
mechanism to maintain the ledger.
This means that the nodes responsible for updating the ledger are
chosen based on their proven identity. In our case, these nodes are
owned and operated by the Aventus Protocol Foundation and its
partners. The protocol allows for full, public transparency of both
incoming and processed transactions.
Nodes follow a deterministic schedule to propose blocks to the
network by batching transactions into Merkle roots.
However, it is not truly decentralised and, therefore, independent.
This decision was made to promote the protocol commercially, and
create a testbed for the configuration of Aventus’ upcoming
proof-of-stake network (see section 3.6 Future development). The
full release of the Aventus Protocol will be completely
decentralised.
Imagine that Lucy, our favourite Blockchain enthusiast, runs an
Aventus Node.
To do so, she sold some Bitcoin to afford the stake in AVT
tokens.
Lucy’s node has a high reputation score because she keeps the node
up and has an excellent challenge history.
When Sally sells her Ed Sheeran ticket, Lucy’s node is one of those
chosen to verify the transaction and add the transaction to the
ledger.
From there, the nodes post the Merkle tree — containing Sally’s
ticket transaction — to Ethereum.
In return, Lucy’s node earns a fraction of the processing
fee.
Tier 3 — The SaaS and custom implementation layer
Building on top of the Tier 2 protocol layer is the Tier 3 client
application domain, i.e software-as-a- service, web and mobile
applications, etc.
Here, third parties can extend upon and monetise the key attributes
of Aventus’ Tier 2 solution by developing bespoke solutions for
clients operating in digital asset supply chains.
Software development kits (SDKs)
Description Example
A key part of Tier 3 is the Aventus SDKs. These tools allow
third-party developers to easily create applications that utilise
the Aventus Protocol.
If you’re familiar with coding, you can liken it to web
applications. In the same way that HTML and HTTP can be used to
build and deliver a variety of web applications, the powerful
abstractions offered by Tier 2 can be used to serve a variety of
clients’ needs.
To this end, we have started creating a family of SDKs that can
support some interesting use cases, such as ticket delivery, a
specific implementation of messaging (e.g. ticket communication),
and rules-based inventory distribution.
The flexibility of the Aventus network gives clients the
opportunity to experiment and discover yet more applications that
leverage our Layer 2 Solution.
Lucy’s passion for Blockchain unleashes her entrepreneurial
potential.
As well as being a node, she sees potential in the various SDKs she
could build. She spends her evenings deciding which of the
possibilities she should focus on first. She is not yet sure
whether to build: • Dashboards and software tools for
issuing, transferring and redeeming assets.
• Global distribution networks in which allocations and digital
asset rules are backed by the Blockchain.
• Powerful communication systems between asset issuers, vendors and
current owners, where messages are encrypted and delivered via the
Blockchain to the asset itself.
• Data analytics and visualisation tools to view and use the rich
digital asset data sets found on the Blockchain.
• New marketing tools where micro- distribution, referrals, and
affiliate sales are tracked independently and rewarded with
micropayments based on preprogrammed rules.
Summary
Tier 3 is where anyone wishing to build something can interact with
the Aventus Protocol. This could include, for example, asset issuer
platforms, tech companies, marketing companies, or anyone who sees
value. Software developers can use the Aventus development kits to
produce all sorts of applications that can benefit from the
integration of Blockchain.
Recap
• The Aventus Protocol is structured in 3 tiers. • Tier 1 creates a
public record of asset transfers by adding transaction information
to the
Ethereum Blockchain. • This allows assets to easily be tracked and
traced at any given moment, and for fraud to
be identified and prevented via the auditability and security of
Blockchain. • In Tier 2, the Aventus network nodes process
transactions sent to them from third-party
platforms. • This increases the speed at which transfers can be
normally processed on the public
Ethereum Blockchain. • In Tier 3, asset transfer platforms connect
with the protocol via software development kits. • Developers can
use these kits to create applications for better asset management
by
integrating Blockchain.
Meet the four Aventus heroes
Meet Sally
Meet Dan
Meet Nigel
Meet Lucy
The time for the revolution of digital assets is now
3. Introduction to Blockchain
The value of digital assets
Oversight
Control
Communication
Event ticketing
Private Blockchains
Public Blockchains
The Aventus Protocol
Network architecture
Aventus Nodes
Proof-of-authority consensus
Software development kits (SDKs)
Features and benefits of the Aventus Protocol
Standardisation of digital asset ownership and redemption
Communication with the asset owner throughout the life of the
digital asset
Better distribution networks
7. How it works
“ The Aventus Protocol opens digital assets up to more insightful
analytics. ”
How the Aventus Protocol works
Asset creation
Asset issuance
Asset transfer
Asset redemption
Voting
Aventus network MVP: a proof-of-authority network
The Aventus proof-of-stake network
Aventus network history
Aventus development update
Aventus adoption update