What is ThunderToken?
ThunderToken is the underlying token for the ThunderCore Blockchain. ThunderCore is a fast, high-performance
Ethereum-compatible public blockchain, meaning it uses the same language and toolset, with fully decentralized
trust that brings scale to decentralized applications. It promises higher throughput, faster confirmation
times, and lower costs. It is essentially a cheaper and faster Ethereum. The technology unlocks many potential
applications. ThunderToken is to the ThunderCore network what ETH is to the Ethereum network. ThunderToken
will be used for paying gas fees on the ThunderCore network.
How does it work?
The Thunder Protocol (based on the “Thunderella” protocol) was developed by Cornell Professors Rafael Pass and
Elaine Shi based on years of research. Every step of the protocol is fully specified and backed by
mathematical proofs. ThunderCore utilizes a hybrid consensus mechanism, with a standard Ethereum blockchain
(“slow path”) and an optimized “fast path”. On the fast path, a committee formed by consensus nodes complete a
single round of voting to confirm transactions in under a second. Accelerators — robust, DDoS-resilient
distributed systems — coordinate the network of consensus nodes. Users do not need to trust the accelerators
nor the consensus nodes; they only need to trust the honest majority.
As long as the accelerators act honestly, network condition is good and 3/4 of the committee members are
honest, transactions should always be quick. However, in a worst case scenario where any of the aforementioned
conditions are not met, the system will fall back to the slow path and will slow down to the speed of a
traditional blockchain, like that of Ethereum. Therefore, in this unlikely scenario that voting fails, the
protocol automatically continues to operate using a standard blockchain until the problem is fixed.
What ThunderToken aims to solve?
ThunderCore aims to solve the scalability problems of existing blockchains, especially Ethereum. It hopes to
solve the problem while letting users and developers stick to the to the existing wallets (PoolWallet),
dev-ops tools (Truffle) and programming languages (Solidity) they are used to.
What are the features of ThunderToken?
Scalable:
High throughput: 1000+ TPS on testnet for Ethereum smart contracts. Fast, near-instant confirmation: block
confirmation time in seconds
Cheap
Low gas cost: sub-cent transaction cost. Low redeployment cost: full Ethereum compatibility
EVM Compatibility
Full compatibility with Ethereum smart contracts and its tool chain. Easy migration: no change to source code
required, only change RPC to Thunder
Consensus
PoS with a variable committee size. Hundreds of voting nodes running on their public Testnet. An optimal
committee size has been chosen based on research.
