Our Harbingers highlight Ontology’s growth since the launch of our MainNet, three years ago.

The Ontology TeamFollowJul 14 · 7 min readOntology has become a truly global community, covering 30 languages across multiple countries and continents. Ontology’s global reach is, in part, thanks to our Harbingers, the exceptional leaders that help Ontology continue to grow its community and ecosystem, making it a leading blockchain for management of decentralized identities and data. Currently, we have 10+ Harbingers helping manage our communities across several platforms including Telegram, Discord, Reddit, Line, and Kakao.

Let’s take a tour of Ontology’s ecosystem with our Harbingers.

On June 30, 2018, Ontology MainNet version 1.0 officially launched. It represented a new generation of high-performance public blockchain, including complete distributed ledgers and smart contract systems support, supporting public chain customization and chain network collaboration, and continues to provide common modules in various distributed applications. Thirty-three candidate Ontology Triones Nodes from six continents facilitated the launch, promoting the establishment of an open-source collaborative distributed trust ecosystem.

On June 30, 2019, Ontology’s sharding design was completed and we were the first to launch a cross-chainTestNet. We launched a grand “Klein Bottle” technology challenge for the global community, attracting the attention of many developers at home and abroad. At that time, we had begun to take a global view and participated in the formulation of a number of international standards including IEEE, ISO and ITU-T. Adhering to the principle of trust first, we established a trust collaboration platform supporting a wide range of business scenarios, and continued to expand our global community.

On June 30, 2020, Ontology MainNet 2.0launched, designed to support robust cross-chain collaboration and Layer 2 scalability whilst enabling developers to provide solutions for enterprises. ONTO Wallet version 3.0.0 also launched, integrating Ontology’s decentralized identity framework, ONT ID, with its mobile data client, enabling users to verify credentials and manage their identities, independently. Meanwhile, details regarding Add-on Store, SAGA and OpenKG were announced, one million NFTs were distributed to global communities, and new governance and staking economic models were introduced, all of which have brought more choice and greater benefits for node parties and staking users.

Ontology has matured a lot since I became a Harbinger. The development of Ontology’s tech has coincided with growth and enthusiasm within the global community that has blossomed in recent years.

——Dilip, Ontology Harbinger

Ontology recently celebrated the third anniversary of its MainNet (current version 2.2.0) launch. When the team discussed the theme for the third anniversary, two keywords stood out: DID and Data. Some people are still confused by these terms. In the following sections, our Harbingers outline Ontology’s mission from three facets: user, business and developer.

Part 1: User-oriented

Focusing on users’ needs and real data

Ontology centers around identity. As early as 2018, “identity” was still a relatively unpopular niche in the blockchain industry. Many people were confused by Ontology’s focus on identity: “Why do we need to pay attention to identity?”, “Don’t we have our own identities, already?” With the concept of decentralized identity becoming more and more popular, technology giants such as Microsoft have begun developing their own decentralized identity protocols. Decentralized identity solutions address the pain points in various industries by using on-chain identity solutions, whilst fostering trust and cooperation. Credit cards and credit scores have become an important part of social life. Good credit can bring many conveniences and even immeasurable value, and can effectively reduce the high cost of dealing with people. At this time, the public’s attention to identity is not limited to ID card, passport, driver’s license and other information, but more concerned about whether they have a universal, glittering and properly protected “pass” in the virtual world.

Personal data has become immensely valuable in the digital age. Centralized media platforms compete to gather as much user data as they can. The problem is that users are not always aware of how their data are being used (or the kinds of data that are being collected). Centralized storage of private data also invites security risks from bad actors. Ontology’s decentralized identity system, ONT ID, enables users to create a self-sovereign identity on the blockchain. ONT ID, based on the W3C decentralized identification specification, blockchain and cryptography, can quickly identify and connect people, financial assets, and objects. Most importantly, ONT ID is not subject to any centralized authority and gives users complete control over their identity and data.

A decentralized identity encompasses myriad forms of data. Every day, our activities on the Internet produce a digital footprint. Some data remain secure whereas others may be leaked. It is getting harder and harder to protect data from online attacks. Even the largest multinational corporations and social media platforms are not immune to data theft. At Ontology, we believe that everyone’s data is their most precious resource. Your data constitutes your identity and your portrait. In this context, our goal is to empower users by providing them tools to obtain self-sovereign control of their data. Ontology does not save users’ data like centralized technology companies. Instead, it offers users full control over if and when to share their data with third-parties.

Part 2: Business-oriented

Ontology’s roadmap and solutions for enterprises

In April 2018, we released our first roadmap, which described the principles of our “chain network system” and “trust ecosystem”.

At that time, we wrote: Ontology has two strategic lines: one is a new generation of high-performance public chain and chain network system, and the other is the distributed trust cooperation platform and ecosystem. Blockchain solves the problem of trust, but its underlying layer cannot satisfy the needs of all participating entities. In order to support business scenarios in the real world, it also needs a large number of common modules to provide various types of distributed trust services that can support real business scenarios, such as a decentralized identity framework (ONT ID), distributed data exchange protocol (DDXF), and distributed credit evaluation system (OScore). Only when these two components are integrated together can we have a distributed collaboration platform that can support real businesses.

We remain committed to this core vision to provide effective solutions in combination with various real business scenarios. At present, we offer solutions in several sectors including mobile travel, inventory and logistics, job market, enterprise data certification, digital content, music copyright, and KYC & identity.

Commenting on Ontology’s breadth of service offerings, our Ontology Harbinger Dumont said:

Ontology has become a global leader in decentralized identity and data management solutions. It has remained committed to its overarching vision and continues to advance its roadmap. I expect the Ontologyecosystem to continue expanding, incorporating more use-cases and partners, whilst remaining attentive to its online communities.

Part 3: Developer-oriented

Ontology infrastructure and technology

We are committed to building an underlying infrastructure platform to provide developers with efficient and easy-to-use practical technology.

Ontology 2.0, released last year, has the leading advantage of enabling developers to provide complete solutions for enterprises. Wasm-JIT, Multi-VM and Layer 2 technologies are deeply integrated in this version as well as ONT ID 2.0. Based on these cutting-edge technologies, the problems of capacity expansion, performance, compatibility and personal data privacy can be solved easily. The Add-on Store for developers is provided in this version, which enables developers without previous experience in blockchain to start building easily.

In this year’s MainNet version, after several months of EVM (Ethereum virtual machine) research, design and development, our technology team has introduced an Ontology virtual machine compatible with the Ethereum ecosystem. It features an account system, virtual machine and Web 3 API. Users can use applications and wallets all-in-one place, based on Ethereum, and developers can use contract development tools such as Truffle and Remix to realize seamless connection and ecosystem expansion of the chain. So far, our Multi-VM supports four kinds of smart contracts (NeoVM, Native, Wasm, EVM), an industry-first. Developers can enjoy Ethereum ecosystem on Ontology chain, with lower gas fees and faster block production.

In the past three years, we have published technical articles through our social media channels, and continue to educate, helping more community partners understand blockchain technology.

It has been a pleasure to help Ontology grow over the years. We have cultivated an open and encouraging community that is welcoming of new members and happy to provide support to those with questions about recent developments. I’m excited to see where Ontology goes in the second half of 2021 and beyond.

——Emilio, Ontology Harbinger

Facing users, enterprises and developers, we believe that technology and ideas can enhance all aspects of life. We remain committed to this belief and continue to move forward on the road toward mass adoptions of blockchain and decentralized identity and data management solutions.

We are very grateful to the Ontology Harbingers for their dedication and enthusiasm towards fostering an open and welcoming global community. We are always looking for passionate people to join us in spreading Ontology’s vision. Recently, we detailed our Harbinger Program v2 to further expand and grow Ontology’s community and ecosystem around the world.

Learn what it takes to become the next Ontology Harbinger with our updated guide and become part of our global community, today!