An Insight Into The Kinesis Blockchain

With the Kinesis Velocity Token (KVT) currently in the final Pre-Sale phase prior to the Initial Token Offering, and the Kinesis Currency being launched immediately thereafter, Kinesis Money would like to take this opportunity to elaborate on some of the blockchain technologies which the Kinesis Money team is leveraging.

Kinesis Velocity Token (KVT)

The Kinesis Velocity Token (KVT) is an ERC20 token on the Ethereum blockchain network, which traditionally has been a reliable and secure Smart Contracting platform. The KVT is produced by a custom-built Smart Contract on the Ethereum network. The specific steps outlined below, protect KVT and provide advanced levels of security for our token.

Being an Ethereum ERC20 type Token, the KVT can be held in any ERC20 compatible wallet of the holder’s choosing.

All tokens on the Ethereum network exist in the form of Smart Contracts. Not only does the KVT Smart Contract make use of the inherent and robust Ethereum network security, but the Kinesis development team has taken specific additional steps to ensure greater security than the typical Smart Contract. See the KVT security section below for further details.

In the future, once the KVT is listed on secondary exchanges (eg a third-party’s exchange), an open marketplace will facilitate the trade of KVT between market participants.

Kinesis Currencies

Kinesis presents the asset-based, high velocity, yield-bearing, suite of digital currencies, including the KAU (physical gold backed digital currency) and KAG (physical silver backed digital currency). These currencies have been developed to shift the way the world views and uses money.

Kinesis will be leveraging the proprietary physical precious metals exchange platform developed by the Allocated Bullion Exchange (ABX), as well as ABX’s extensive network of world-class vaulting facilities, to store the underlying bullion backing the Kinesis Currencies.

The precious metals backing the Kinesis Currencies will always be sourced from an industry leading and reputable refiner per the Approved Refiner List of the Allocated Bullion Exchange (ABX). The metals are vaulted by world-class, approved vaulting providers, ensuring security and accountability. Holders of the precious metals backing Kinesis Currencies can rest assured that their metals are of quality refinement and remain compliant in accordance with the ABX Quality Assurance Framework. At any time the holders of a Kinesis Currency can opt to exchange their currency for the physical metal backing the currency.

Kinesis Blockchain Network

The Kinesis Money team has developed a proprietary blockchain network forked off the Stellar blockchain network. This fork enables Kinesis to leverage the high transaction speeds and superior security that Stellar offers, and in addition to this, Kinesis has been able to add unique functionality which allows for further value-add features to be incorporated into the Kinesis Monetary System.

The unique Kinesis blockchain network comes with an easy-to-use, Kinesis eWallet in which to securely access the various Kinesis currencies. This Kinesis-specific wallet will be provided to all participants in the Kinesis Currency system, and also has both an Android and iOS (Apple) mobile application for even simpler access to your currency.

There will be no other cryptocurrency stored in this Kinesis eWallet, and it has been designed to be extremely simple to use, with a pleasant user experience in contrast to many existing wallets which have confusing interfaces. Your Kinesis eWallet will then seamlessly interact with the Kinesis systems, Mobile Wallets etc.

It is important to note that because the Kinesis eWallet is built on Kinesis’ unique blockchain, it will not be compatible with existing Stellar currencies. Similarly, an existing Stellar-compatible wallet will not be able to hold Kinesis Currencies. This also results in the Kinesis eWallet being able to include a higher level of security features, which are detailed further in the security section below.

Why aren’t we launching KVTs and Kinesis Currency on the same blockchain?

The Stellar blockchain and the Ethereum blockchain have been designed for two very different purposes. In short, the Ethereum blockchain is best suited for the hosting of Smart Contracts for Tokens where transaction speeds are not critical. This is in contrast to the network built by Kinesis which makes use of the Stellar blockchain concepts. This Kinesis blockchain provides very high transaction speeds, coupled with customisable transaction fees, which is very well suited to a currency. This allows the high velocity we will see in the Kinesis currencies which is core to the Kinesis model.

Blockchain Security in General

A principal rule of any blockchain security is to never expose your Private Key to anyone at all. Consider your Private Key as you would the combination to a safe containing your valuables. You would not reveal this safe combination to anyone, so too should you never reveal your Private Key. No network can protect a user against this. There are a number of security features built into the KVT and Kinesis network which will protect the user against network-based attacks.

Kinesis Velocity Token (KVT) Security

The Kinesis Velocity Token (KVT) is a custom-built ERC20 token on the Ethereum blockchain network, which traditionally has been a reliable and secure Smart Contracting platform. Additional specific steps however have been taken to provide advanced levels of security for this token.

The KVT Smart Contract has been specifically designed to take into consideration some of the exploited vulnerabilities that were exposed in previous attacks on other cryptocurrencies. The contract is deliberately assigned to one authorised owner at creation (1 July 2018) which prohibits ownership of the Smart Contract from being transferred to hostile third parties. The KVT Smart Contract also includes built-in protection from any external party attempting to process a command to attempt to delete the Smart Contract. This means with the KVT Smart Contract, the risk of the previous attacks on other cryptocurrencies is mitigated.

A further layer of security with the Kinesis Money team has implemented is the set up of a multi-signatory approval process for the release of KVTs from the pool of 300,000 into the account from which they can be purchased. This means that there is no way for a hostile entity to transfer KVT out of the holding account at all. It requires 3 authorised personnel to achieve this.

In summary, the most notable security features built into KVT are:

1. The Smart Contract is directly assigned to an owner upon its release to the Ethereum network (1 July). The Smart Contract then is coded specifically to not allow the transfer of Smart Contract ownership to occur at all.
2. The KVT Smart Contract specifically prohibits any unauthorised party from performing a delete or ‘kill’ operation, meaning KVT is immune to the attacks that have occurred on other Smart Contracts where this function existed.
3. Three signatories are needed to perform a release of KVTs into the market

Kinesis Currency Network Security

The Kinesis network is a fork of the Stellar blockchain, but is a unique implementation called the Kinesis Blockchain Network (KBN). This means that the Kinesis network transacts using the Kinesis Currencies itself and not publicly available crypto like Ether or Lumens as used on the Ethereum and native Stellar networks. This means that the Kinesis network benefits from an added layer of security because all operations will require Kinesis Currencies to complete. A base amount of Kinesis Currency is also needed to create a new account, so no automated attacks can take place either. This makes it far more difficult for nefarious operations to take place.

The KBN makes use of the renowned high level of security of the Stellar network. This network uses consensus cryptography, meaning that many nodes need to have consensus for an operation to be committed. These nodes are distributed across 3 global regions with the network being reproducible at each, making it resistant against hardware failure.

To accompany the Kinesis Blockchain Network is a bespoke Kinesis eWallet which will be provided as a secure download to all Kinesis currency users. This unique Kinesis eWallet has been designed with simplicity and security in mind and provides secure and simple access for the user to the suite of Kinesis features available in the ecosystem.

An example of an additional unique security feature of the Kinesis eWallet is its multi-signatory protection offering. Any user of a Kinesis eWallet will be able to set up multi signatories in order to perform any operation such as buy, sell or transfer of Kinesis Currencies. Many layers of signatory are possible. This means that no operation will be possible through a single point of authorisation which significantly increases the user’s ability to secure their assets.

While these security measures are extensive and thorough in their own right, Kinesis Money has added yet a further security function. As you know, the Kinesis Currencies are released for purchase in the Primary Market. These currencies are deposited only in small tranches at a time into a staging account prior to minting. This ensures that it is not possible for a large-scale ‘theft’ of all Kinesis Currencies to ever take place to disrupt the currency.

To summarise, the most notable security features built into the Kinesis blockchain network are:

1. Kinesis network is hosted across multiple regions across the world for redundancy and immediate recovery.
2. All users will be provided with a custom-built Kinesis eWallet with built in added security in an easy-to-use application, with mobile apps included.
3. A multi-signatory approval process is available for use in this wallet.
4. The Kinesis network requires Kinesis Currency itself to process transactions, and a minimum value of Kinesis Currency to open a new eWallet, preventing automated attacks.
5. Kinesis Currencies are released in small tranches at a time, preventing the possibility of any large-scale theft to disrupt the currency.

Hungry for more info? Visit the Kinesis website here.

Click here to see Kinesis Knowledge Base or check Frequently asked questions regarding KVT.

We are here to help! For any sales related enquiries, please contact sales@kinesis.money. For everything else, please contact us via help@kinesis.money.