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Key Differences

Ultra is based on Antelope Blockchain technology and is maintained at feature parity with the standard releases, there are many key changes that have been implemented by our blockchain team. These changes alter the way that Ultra allocates resources, assigns permissions, and runs the blockchain and its schedule.

Choosing Block Producers

As an enterprise blockchain network, Ultra carefully selects and elects Block Producers manually. There is no voting process. Block Producers' accounts are created by Ultra, with the keys being generated by the Block Producer themselves.

Block producers are given a specific order based on their geographical location and the distance between each producer. The goal is to reduce the distance between producers and the overall latency.

See Proof of Authority

Block Producer Schedule

During the initial Testnets and Mainnet, it will be Ultra who is defining the Block Producer schedule. There is not an ordered, elected ranking like on other Antelope chains. There is no voting for Block Producers.

All block producers are given an equal opportunity to produce blocks for the chain.

Block Producer Rewards

Ultra’s block production rewards are divided up according to how many blocks they produce. A Block Producer that successfully produces all blocks will be able to claim the full Block Producer reward.

The compensation that a Block Producer receives is paid out in UOS tokens. The reward is always calculated as the equivalent of a set USD sum that is agreed upon when the Block Producer signs the contract with Ultra.

Transactions Ranking

On the Ultra blockchain, the ranking mechanism for the queuing of transactions has been substantially altered to ensure that

  • Transactions critical to the Ultra network get processed with priority

  • Transactions from users who do not have enough resources can still access the network

CPU/NET Resources

Extensive changes have been made by Ultra to the core concept of CPU/NET. On Ultra these have been combined into a simplified, single resource called POWER. User accounts stake UOS to gain POWER. Dapp user can pay for their users' transaction POWER usage.

Read more in the Power Policy section as well as the Rate Limiting

RAM

The most common or important usage of RAM is free, account creation for example. Users don’t need to purchase RAM for simple blockchain usage. Developers have the option to buy more for deployment of smart contracts that require it.

Read more in the RAM Policy section.

Accounts

Blockchain accounts on the Ultra network are free (up to a certain number of accounts per user) since it is Ultra who assumes the cost of the RAM required to create a new account. For users who require additional accounts, they can purchase extra RAM as required. To begin with, ultra will be the only one that can create a new account.

Permissions

The Ultra blockchain has also made alterations at the protocol level to how permissions are applied. In a traditional Antelope blockchain, permission may change itself. On Ultra, only a parent authority may change a child’s permission. This means that, for example, ACTIVE permission must be changed by the OWNER permission, and can not be changed by the ACTIVE permission.

Veto Power

As an enterprise-focused blockchain solution, Ultra retains veto power over proposals that it deems improper or malicious. For example, a proposal to upgrade to an undesired system contract implementation which could potentially undermine the Ultra blockchain.

Premium Names

Premium names are not currently supported.

Chain activation

Only Ultra can activate the chain.