Technicals

Here's an overview of key network details of the TOPIA Chain. Many of these can be changed after genesis through the TOPIA Chain's governance mechanisms.

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Restricted Smart Contract Deployment

While anyone can interact with the TOPIA Chain and existing smart contracts on the TOPIA Chain, only specific developers can create or deploy new smart contracts. TOPIA Chain is a partially open blockchain; it's not open to all developers but only those working on game or World development within the TOPIA ecosystem.

Creating new features, content, or systems on the blockchain involves deploying new smart contracts. However, on the TOPIA Chain, the ability to deploy smart contracts is only given to those who own or rent a TOPIA World.

This restriction is a security measure designed to deter issues like spam, fraud, attacks, or other harmful behavior created with smart contracts, thereby helping preserve the network's safety and integrity.

Furthermore, this policy helps maintain the network's efficiency. It stops the TOPIA Chain from being overwhelmed with unrelated smart contracts and systems that could slow down the network and affect its performance. It helps ensure that all activities on the TOPIA Chain are aligned with the TOPIA ecosystem.

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Cross-Chain Messaging

Our team believes in a future of dApp and game-specific blockchains, all able to interoperate through implementations and ideas surrounding cross-chain messaging.

Cross-chain messaging in Ethereum-based blockchains typically involves a mechanism called "bridges." These bridges are protocols or systems that allow two different blockchains to communicate. This communication allows for the transfer of information, including tokens, between chains.

TOPIA's approach to cross-chain messaging and "bridging" utilizes our own mechanism for proof generation, relaying, and verification.

• Proof Generation: Once an action is taken on the TOPIA chain or a communicable contract on another chain linked to TOPIA (Such as Ethereum), a transaction receipt that serves as a proof of operation is generated. This proof contains all the necessary details about the transaction, including the transaction's sender, the amount of assets locked, the intended recipient on the destination blockchain, and any other relevant information.
• Proof Relaying: The proof of the action taken is then relayed to the destination blockchain. This is done by TOPIA's relayer system — nodes responsible for monitoring source chain transactions and reporting them to the destination chains.
• Proof Verification: Once the proof arrives on the destination blockchain, it is verified. This involves checking that the proof is legitimate and that the proof's action did occur on the source chain.

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TOPIA Chain to Ethereum Asset Bridge

TOPIA Chain's high-performing bridge enables efficient transfers of $TOPIA ERC20 tokens from Ethereum L1 to TOPIA L3 and also supports the movement of digital collectibles between these chains when needed.

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Consensus

The TOPIA Chain uses the Istanbul Byzantine Fault Tolerant (IBFT) 2.0 consensus engine to agree on the addition of new blocks to the blockchain. In this system, a group of validators is responsible for verifying the validity of proposed blocks, which are put forward by a randomly chosen block proposer from the validator pool. The block proposer's job is to create a new block at specific time intervals.

The selection of the block proposer is based on a deterministic algorithm, similar to Tendermint. Validators are chosen as proposers with a frequency that depends on their voting power, which is directly proportional to the amount of stake they have locked up in the network.

To reach consensus on a block, the validators must participate in at least one round of voting. A supermajority of validators must agree that the block is valid before it can be added to the blockchain. Additional voting rounds are needed if consensus is not reached in the first round. Ideally, the validator pool reaches consensus during the first voting round, which is the most efficient and optimal outcome. This allows the network to keep processing transactions and adding new blocks without delay.

As a validator's voting power is tied to their stake, those with more stake influence the network's decision-making process more. This design provides an economic incentive for validators to act honestly and in the network's best interest.

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Validators

The TOPIA Chain only allows approved validators, which have been whitelisted by TOPIA, to participate in the consensus process. These whitelisted validators may be major projects building on TOPIA, trusted third-party validators selected by TOPIA, or, more commonly, validators approved by a majority vote using $TOPIA governance.

Through $TOPIA community governance using TOPIA Ecosystem Proposals (TEPs), existing validators may be removed, and new validators may be approved.

Since the TOPIA Chain is designed specifically for the TOPIA ecosystem, it's essential to ensure the security and stability of the network relative to its purpose. To achieve this, validators are carefully selected and vetted entities. Validators can be appointed by TOPIA or approved by the $TOPIA community through a governance proposal called a TOPIA Ecosystem Proposal (TEP). This approach helps maintain a secure and reliable network tailored to the unique needs of the TOPIA ecosystem.