MultiversX is a blockchain protocol designed to provide genuine horizontal scalability by employing comprehensive sharding across the network, transactions, and state. The project defines itself as a technological ecosystem aimed at the new internet, encompassing decentralized finance, real-world assets, and the Metaverse. Its smart contract execution platform reportedly supports up to 100,000 transactions per second, with a latency of just 6 seconds and transaction costs as low as $0.002.
Governance and security of MultiversX rely on the EGLD token. Known as Electronic Gold, EGLD is the native token that facilitates value storage and payments for network use. It also functions as a medium of exchange among platform users and validators, with transaction fees paid in EGLD, while validators engage in the consensus mechanism.
EGLD enables developers to launch smart contracts, protocols, and decentralized applications on the platform, allowing participants to execute any network activity. Through staking, validation rewards, and transaction fees, EGLD manages the network's operations and serves as a governance token, granting holders voting power over network decisions.
Who Are the Founders of MultiversX?
Brothers Beniamin and Lucian Mincu, together with Lucian Todea, co-founded MultiversX in late 2017. They aimed to address the blockchain scalability challenge, which they saw as a critical hurdle for the industry.
Before establishing MultiversX, the Mincu brothers founded MetaChain Capital, a digital asset investment fund, where Beniamin was the CEO and Lucian served as the chief technology officer. Additionally, they launched ICO Market Data, which aggregates information about initial coin offerings.
Beniamin Mincu also managed product, marketing, and community roles for the blockchain platform NEM between 2014 and 2015. He is an early investor in projects like Zilliqa (ZIL), Tezos (XTZ), Brave, and Binance. Lucian Mincu has further expertise as an IT engineer and security specialist, having worked with companies such as Uhrenwerk 24, Cetto, and Liebl Systems.
Lucian Todea, a serial tech entrepreneur, previously founded and led Soft32, a software review and download platform. He also partnered with mobilPay, a mobile payment solution, and is an angel investor in companies like TypingDNA, which focuses on biometrics technology, and SmartBill, an accounting platform.
What Makes MultiversX Unique?
MultiversX positions itself as a blockchain platform tailored for the emerging internet economy, supporting decentralized applications and enterprise-level use. Its standout feature is high scalability, being the first network to fully integrate state, network, and transaction sharding. According to its economic framework, it aims to expand its ecosystem while positioning EGLD as a store-of-value asset.
To achieve this, the network operates with 3,200 validator nodes divided into four shards: three execution shards capable of handling up to 100,000 transactions per second collectively, and one coordination shard, the "Metachain." Its adaptive state sharding architecture fully shards state, transactions, and network segments, making it scalable by adding more shards as needed. It was tested to handle 263,000 transactions per second in a public setting with 1,500 nodes from 29 countries organized into 50 shards.
To boost adoption, the blockchain also incentivizes developers by allowing them to earn 30% of the smart contract fees as royalties.
How Does MultiversX Work?
As explained by the MultiversX team, the project implements three parallelization techniques: state, transactions, and network, utilizing parallel processing to enhance transaction speed and volume.
MultiversX employs Adaptive State Sharding to scale while sharing infrastructure to accommodate a growing number of applications and transactions on its ledger. A variant of the traditional Proof-of-Stake operational protocol ensures connectivity across all network sections that are split during sharding. This integrated environment facilitates the development of decentralized applications, which mimic products and services.
By combining three sharding techniques, MultiversX has developed its unique adaptive sharding method. The network is divided into four shards: three execution shards process transactions, achieving validation of 30,000 transactions per second, while the Metachain, the fourth shard, coordinates and completes transactions.
The types of sharding include: State sharding, where the network's history, or state, is distributed across different network sections or shards. Each segment has its own ledger, and nodes store the segment's state; Transaction sharding, where transactions are allocated to specific segments and processed in parallel, while nodes capture the network's overall state; Network sharding, where nodes are organized into segments for processing, optimizing communication through network slicing.
How Many MultiversX (EGLD) Coins Are There in Circulation?
The MultiversX economic model features a capped supply starting at 20,000,000 EGLD, with new tokens being minted as rewards for network validators. However, the total supply is capped at 31,415,926 EGLD, and this number will decrease as more transactions occur.
Initially, MultiversX's native token was introduced through a private sale, selling 19% of the initial supply, with 7.5% available immediately upon token generation and an additional 15.41% released quarterly. An initial exchange offering was also conducted on Binance, selling 25% of the tokens, which were available immediately.
From the remaining 56%, 7% was allocated for ecosystem rewards (50% released immediately, 50% after six months); 8.5% for marketing, grants, and an accelerator pool for DApp developers (81.17% released immediately, with 9.41% every six months); 2% for a community fund (33.3% released immediately, and similar portions at six and 12 months); 2.5% for advisors, released after one year; 19% for the founders and core team, with incremental releases from six months to 42 months; and 17% for company use in ecosystem support, with staking conditions for the first year and equal installments over three years starting after the first year.
Originally issued on Binance Chain as ERD with a total supply of 20 billion, 500 million were burned in November 2019 and subsequently minted as ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum. In September 2020, a token swap event allowed holders to exchange ERD and BEP-2 tokens for mainnet EGLD, reducing the total supply from 20 billion to 20 million with a swap ratio of 1,000 ERD to 1 EGLD.
How Is MultiversX Secured?
MultiversX employs a secure proof-of-stake consensus algorithm, where nodes must stake EGLD tokens to join the validation process. Each validator receives a rating based on prior activities, influencing their selection. Validators with low ratings risk non-selection and incur penalties. Malicious behavior can result in node removal and stake reduction.
Validators are chosen randomly, making predictions or alterations impossible, based on the previous validation rounds. They are also shuffled between shards regularly to prevent collusion. Nodes use modified Boneh-Lynn-Shacham (BLS) multi-signatures to ensure robust cryptographic security during communication.
Where Can You Buy MultiversX (EGLD)?
EGLD is available for purchase on various cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, OKEx, Bitfinex, and BitMax. It can be traded against fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar and Indonesian rupiah, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Binance Coin (BNB), and stablecoins like Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD). Both spot and derivatives markets offer EGLD trading.
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