Building dApps

at Any Scale
Your starting point to get familiar with the
protocol that makes dApp development
accessible.

June 2024
Want to build a
dApp?
The Verus Protocol offers
everything you need to get started
now.

ORIGINS 3

SCALABILITY 4

SECURITY 5

LOW-COST 6

PRIVACY 8

VERUSID 8

LAUNCH BLOCKCHAINS 10

LAUNCH CURRENCIES (E.G. TOKENS, LIQUIDITY POOLS) 12

DEFI 14

DATA EXCHANGE 15

ON-CHAIN STORAGE 15

COMMUNITY & LINKS 16

The origins of
Verus.
The first block of the Verus blockchain was mined
on May 21, 2018. The chain launch was announced
on BitcoinTalk 15 minutes before anyone could
start mining, and later staking.

A fair launch with no ICO, no premine and no

developer tax. Following into Bitcoin’s footsteps
as a true, rent-free community project. A necessity
to be seen as a credibly neutral protocol for the
world. The starting point for
The vision paper published in June 2018 was the
any serious
guiding document for the community, its worldwide protocol
developers and all other contributors.
is that it has to be
Thanks to the tens of thousands of miners and credibly neutral.
stakers around the world securing the protocol, a
solid foundation has been built provisioning a truly
decentralized blockchain service economy.

After years of development on testnet and various

mainnet upgrades, the vision is fully accomplished
in October 2023. Verus Public Blockchains as a
Service (PBaaS) is now ready to take on the
crypto-industry as the protocol for builders.

Everything in this document is live on mainnet, to

be used by anyone, completely permissionless.
Use these powerful building blocks to create
dApps, businesses, economies, systems or
organizations at any scale.

Click to read:
Verus Vision Paper

PDF

The Protocol for Building dApps 3

 A protocol of
unlimited scale.
Verus built a protocol of unlimited scale without The Verus blockchain can handle 75 tps. Each
sacrificing on decentralization and thus security. PBaaS-chain, depending on its chosen block time,
While other protocols focus on the ‘transactions can handle between 75 and 800 tps.
per second’-metric, Verus offers a different
perspective and a new approach. When a chain gets congested, a new chain is
easily started to relieve the pressure. This can only
be done when the Verus chain and all PBaaS-
chains are fully interoperable, which they are.
Verus embraces a
All PBaaS-chains (and the Verus blockchain) are
multi-chain world— protected by the Proof of Power consensus
just like the Internet mechanism, a 50/50% hybrid of proof-of-work

today runs on many and proof-of-stake, and provable 51% hash attack
resistance. All miners in the ecosystem can merge-
many servers. mine up to 22 of these PBaaS-chains (including
Verus).

Verus scales to any demand by scaling out. Verus

The key-takeaway here is that the Internet does
is unlimited in scale and ready for any user load.
not run on one single server that is constantly
being upgraded to a faster one. This is the
equivalent of single-chain protocols boasting
about their high transactions per second (tps)
throughput. This is what we call scaling up, and 75
sooner or later the single-chain will reach its limits.
tps
Scaling up

Fully
interoperable
The Internet today is a multi-server world, all
Provable
seamlessly connected. Verus acknowledges this
fact, and recognizes that is how the Internet of
Value has to scale as well. We call this scaling out.
SEE FIGURE 1. Verus blockchain PBaaS-chains

An unlimited number of PBaaS-chains can be

launched, each with their own organizations or
Scaling out
economies needs, completely interoperable,
creating a network of unlimited scale. Figure 1: Verus scales out by deploying fully interoperable PBaaS-chains.

4
Security for all
network
participants.
Builders and end-users can rely on Verus as a wallets will execute, unlike other protocols where
secure protocol. Incredibly important in any users often don’t know what they give approval
decentralized system. for, and can get their wallets drained by malicious
actors.
First of all, Verus Proof of Power, the consensus
mechanism for Verus and all PBaaS-chains is
provable 51% hash attack resistant. Because its a
hybrid of proof-of-work and proof-of-stake, it
takes a combined effort of a majority of hashing
power and staking supply to successfully attack
the network.
Builders and users
Secondly, Verus uses ‘smart transactions’ and not
smart contracts. All protocol features are validated
can interact with
and accounted for by the miners and stakers. This Verus and PBaaS-
means that everything happens transparently and chains with
that Verus is not vulnerable to smart contract
hacks or bugs. confidence.
Because Verus uses smart transactions it doesn’t
suffer from the insecure and phishing-prone wallet
approval mechanisms that are found in VM-
protocols. Users know exactly what it is their

Click to read: Click to read:

Verus Internet Protocol (VIP) A Provable Hybrid
— Provable, Decentralized Solution to 51% Hash
Cross-chain Communication Attacks

PDF

The Protocol for Building dApps 5

 Build low-cost &
rent-free.
Verus is a rent-free protocol, not a business. All protocol fees go directly
to the miners and stakers. There is no entity that takes a profit or “rent” of
any kind.

To build with Verus you don’t need to learn a new programming

language. You don’t need expensive Solidity or other blockchain
developers. Just build in your favorite framework for clients and access
the Verus network either through QR-codes and deep-links to a client-
side wallet under user control.

Protocol feature Details Protocol fee

PBaaS-chain launch A PBaaS-chain is a fully independent, 10,000 VRSC (5,000 to

interoperable and customizable blockchain. the miners and stakers
It inherits the exact same features as the of Verus, 5,000 to the
Verus blockchain and can set their own miners and stakers of
prices for VerusIDs & currency launches. the PBaaS-chain)

VerusID registration Namespace for currency & PBaaS-chain 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 VRSC
launches. Or to use as self-sovereign (depending on referrals)
identity or as a controlled public storage
system: publish and store data with
multiple levels of nesting. E.g. MyBrand@

subID registration Self-sovereign identity for users. Or to use 0.02 VRSC & defined
as a controlled public storage system: amount in the
publish and store data with multiple levels currency’s namespace
of nesting. E.g. Name.MyBrand@

Currency launch (e.g. tokens, Launch currencies that are backed with or 200 VRSC
basket currencies, liquidity pools) without reserves. Decentralized or with
centralized control. Including decentralized
crowdfund mechanisms. Or mapped to
ERC-20s one-to-one. It is also a namespace
to create subIDs.

6
Protocol feature Details Protocol fee

DeFi conversions Basket currencies and liquidity pools 0.05% (for reserve-to-
function as AMMs (automated market reserve conversions)
makers). Verus DeFi is MEV-resistant, low-
0.025% (for reserve-to-
cost and without smart contract risk.
liquidity pool, or vice
versa conversions)

50% of the fee goes to

the miners and stakers,
50% stays in the
reserves

Verus Storage A fee-based storage capability for indexed 0.01 VRSC for 1KB (each
data on the blockchain. All stored data is PBaaS-chain can specify
encrypted by default. All data stored is its own price)
either sent as part of a private transaction
or added to a VerusID (& subID) user’s
control.

Figure 2: All protocol features and the costs that flow directly to the miners and stakers.

The protocol fees in FIGURE 2 are for the Verus blockchain. Some of these
fees can be changed when launching your own PBaaS-chain.

Additionally to these protocol features that cost fees, each action costs a
transaction fee. A transaction typically costs 0.0001 VRSC. Transaction fees
are paid in the native currency of the (PBaaS-)chain. Protocol features on
different PBaaS-chains are paid in those chain’s native currency.

Verus is not a
business. All fees go
directly to the miners
and stakers of the
network.

Click to read:
Verus Smart Transactions vs
Smart Contracts

The Protocol for Building dApps 7

Layer-1 privacy.
Verus utilizes privacy technology called zk-SNARKs. It is the industry-
leading standard for privacy enabling technology.

The technology is embedded in the protocol layer of the network and can
not be seen as an afterthought. Anyone can receive and send untraceable
value (the chain’s native currency) and data and be private.

It’s also possible to exchange data confidentially. Give yourself and your
users the confidence to make conscious decisions on what to share, and
keep private. After all, privacy is a human right.

Send and receive native assets Attach private addresses to

with zero knowledge privacy VerusID and subID

Store data on-chain, encrypted Share data confidentially

and private

VerusID: self-sovereign
identities, namespaces,
building blocks.
VerusID is the first decentralized and self-sovereign identity of its kind, the
permanent namespace for the Verus Protocol, and the building blocks to
create Web3 dApps. VerusIDs (and subIDs) can be created, used and VerusID: MyBrand@
updated with just API commands. Here’s a list of its features: subID: Jane Smith.MyBrand@

8
Friendly name address. Self-sovereign identity.
Almost all characters from all character sets are VerusID can function as a self-sovereign identity
available to create a VerusID. Human-readable for anyone in the world, empowering individuals
addresses are the new standard. with complete autonomy both online and offline.

Revoke and recover. Publish & store data.

Each VerusID has revocation and recovery Use VerusID and VDXF as a controlled public
authorities. Autonomously revoke access to a storage system. Publish and store data with
VerusID, and recover all assets and data on a multiple levels of nesting.
VerusID.

Verus Vault. Peer-to-peer marketplace.

Enable the theft-proof Verus Vault. Set time locks Exchange peer-to-peer with the decentralized
or delayed time locks to secure assets on a marketplace for VerusIDs, currencies and tokens.
VerusID.

Privacy. Signatures.
Attach a private address to VerusID. Send and Create unforgeable, verifiable signatures with
receive native assets with zero knowledge VerusID. Sign files, hashes and messages.
privacy.

Multisig. Messages.
With multi-signature support multiple Send and receive completely private messages
organizations or people can jointly and securely through VerusID private addresses.
manage a VerusID.

Password-free login. SubID support.

Login to supported VerusID services without ever Under each launched currency and token subIDs
needing a password. can be registered. SubIDs have the exact same
features as VerusIDs (except blockchain and
currency launches).

Permanent namespace.
A VerusID/subID is yours forever. No renewal
necessary.

The Protocol for Building dApps 9

Launch PBaaS-
blockchains.
Interoperable, independent,
customizable, secure.
Launch blockchains for any type of business or organization, inheriting all
the same (consensus layer) features of the Verus blockchain. To launch a
chain you have to set up witnesses for cross-chain transactions, and just
two API commands, one to define the chain and one to launch.

Fully interoperable. Independent.

Seamless connectivity between Verus and all PBaaS-chains do not depend on or pay rent to
PBaaS-blockchains and other connected systems any parent chain or system for their ongoing
(e.g. Ethereum) through the Verus Internet operation.
Protocol (VIP).

Customizable. Scalable.
Define the blockchain specifications and PBaaS-chains have up to 800 tps and can scale
parameters to the specific economy’s or out by deploying more interoperable chains.
organizational needs.

Shared security. Privacy.

The worldwide community of miners can mine up Industry-leading zero-knowledge privacy for
to 22 different PBaaS-chains at the same time. confidential exchange of funds and data.

10
./verus definecurrency '{
"name":"MyBusinessBlockchain", VerusID.
"options":264,
"currencies":["VRSC"], Each PBaaS-chain supports an
"conversions":[1], unlimited number of self-
"eras":[
{ sovereign identities (VerusID).
"reward":1200000000, These are also the building blocks
"decay":0,
for dApps.
"halving":0,
"eraend":0
}
],
"notaries":[ DeFi.
"Notary1@",
"Notary2@", L1 MEV-resistant, low-fee and no
"Notary3@" smart contract risk DeFi is
],
"minnotariesconfirm":2,
supported on each PBaaS-chain.
"nodes":[ With conversion fees of 0.025%
{ and 0.05%.
"networkaddress":"111.111.111.111:10000",
"nodeidentity":"Node1@"
},
{ Multi-currency.
"networkaddress":"111.111.111.112:10000", Each PBaaS-chain supports an
"nodeidentity":"Node2@" unlimited number of currencies,
}
tokens and liquidity pools.
],
"gatewayconvertername":"Bridge",
"gatewayconverterissuance":1000000
}'
'{
"currencies":
["VRSC","PBaaSChain","vETH"],
"initialcontributions":
[371747.20398827,0,1000000],
"initialsupply":3000000
}'

}'

An example of an API command that defines a PBaaS (Public Blockchains as a Service)

blockchain. With a specified block emission and a bridge currency that functions as an AMM.

51% hash attack resistant. On-chain economy.

50% proof-of-work, 50% proof-of-stake makes On-chain fees paid to the protocol (chain &
each PBaaS-chain provably 51% hash attack currency launches, VerusID registrations,
resistant. conversion fees and transaction fees) go to the
miners and stakers.

The Protocol for Building dApps 11

Launch any type of
currencies.
Tokens, liquidity pools,
fractionally backed currencies &
more.
Launch currencies with just API commands without any special
programming needed. You can use the Verus Protocol for all types of
accounting, and communities, businesses or organizations that need a
currency.

Currencies & tokens. Liquidity pools.

From tickets and coupons, to voting cards, Launch liquidity pools with a maximum of 10
meme-tokens, community currencies and for any currencies in its reserves. With conversion fees as
form of accounting. low as 0.025%.

Customizable. Crowdfunding.
Choose from a large collection of options and All currencies can optionally be launched through
parameters to launch currencies and tokens with. powerful decentralized crowdfund mechanisms.

Bridge to Ethereum. Secure.

Bridge currencies, tokens and liquidity pools over All accounting of all currencies and tokens are
to Ethereum as ERC-20, or map ERC-20s one-to- verified by block producers. There is no smart
one with Verus currencies. contract risk.

12
Fractionally backed. SubID issuance.
Currencies can be fully or fractionally backed—a SubIDs are issued in the currency’s namespace.
reserve ratio between 5% and 100%. The reserve Registration fees are defined by the currency
ratio defines price volatility. launcher and are either burned, or go to the
VerusID namespace when it’s centralized.

./verus definecurrency '{

"name":"Pure",
"options":41,
"currencies":["vrsc","tbtc.veth"],
"initialsupply":20000,
"idregistrationfees":0.00021,
"startblock":2975703,
"idreferrallevels":1,
"idimportfees":0.00000001
}'

The launch definition of the real-life currency ‘Pure’. 100% backed by VRSC & tBTC.

Click to read: Click to read:

Introducing Pure — The Currency All currency options & parameters.
100% Backed by Verus & Bitcoin And how to launch currencies.
DOCS

Want to learn more on how currencies and tokens can be used to create real-life value
for communities and businesses? Then dive deep with these community written articles:

Click to read: Click to read:

The Coming of Age of Social Community Currencies: A Case Study
Tokens to Explore New Technical Possibilities

The Protocol for Building dApps 13

Verus DeFi.
Verus DeFi is truly decentralized and implemented consensus, following the fundamental systems
on the protocol level. This has many advantages design principle which says that the most
over protocols that use layer two solutions or important security layers should be located in the
even smart contracts. system/protocol itself.

Low-cost conversions. MEV-resistant.

A conversion costs a regular transaction fee
Because of protocol design there is no front or
(0.0001 VRSC or other PBaaS-chain’s native
back running or sandwich attacks. Every
currency) + a conversion fee of 0.025% or 0.05%.
participant gets the same, fair conversion rate in
Half of the conversion fee goes directly to the
one or more blocks.
miners and stakers, the other half is burned into
the reserves. The Verus protocol solves all transactions
simultaneously within a block (as opposed to
serially, in order, as is done on Ethereum and all
Protocol level security. other systems which use the VM-model). This has
important implications for security, fairness, and
All DeFi operations take place on the consensus
efficiency:
layer of the protocol, and are verified by miners
and stakers. There is no smart contract risk and - Elimination of front-running, back-running and
other advantages: sandwich attacks.

Increased security at the application level—Verus - Enhancing system-wide liquidity, thus reducing
DeFi is not implemented by having many smart slippage, as conversions going to and from any
contract authors creating smart contracts on top given currency within the same block are offset
of the protocol, so there can be no exploits by against each other.
searching for unintended "cracks" in the seams
- Providing all users converting to and from a
between contracts.
currency within the same block the same fair price
Increased security at the protocol level—Verus with no spread.
DeFi is implemented in the protocol as part of the

VDXF: Verus Data Exchange

Format.
The Verus Data Exchange Format enables which may refer to structured or unstructured data
application developers to define globally unique that can be located unambiguously via an URL,
data types and publish references to the same, which implicitly provides both location and

14
decoding information, enabling applications to named system that becomes recognized via a
use such data, in whole or in part, if they know consensus-based bridge on the Verus network.
how, or even ignore parts of the data, while Currently, to be recognized as a unique
remaining compatible with those parts they namespace, the easiest way is to base it on a
understand. VerusID, registered on the Verus blockchain
network.
VDXF type keys are globally unique identifiers,
which are defined as human readable names Generally, one may think of two types of VerusIDs,
along with a specification of how to define and those defined on the Verus network or on
convert unlimited length, human readable type independent PBaaS-chains spawned originally
names into collision-free 20 byte IDs, which can be from and registered on the Verus blockchain
used as type keys associated with content or network, or VerusIDs, which may also exist on fully
location values in various forms of data records. external systems that may have been created
These data records, which may have application without any registration on the Verus network
specific structures or no structure at all, besides initially. In order for an externally created VerusID
length form the basis of an interoperable data to be recognizable on the Verus blockchain
exchange format across decentralized network or by applications using the VDXF that are
applications. compatible with the Verus blockchain network
that external system must provide a recognized
Namespaces for type definitions are equivalent to
bridge to the Verus blockchain.
VerusIDs, a protocol first implemented on the
Verus Blockchain, and also one that can support
IDs registered on any blockchain or uniquely

On-chain storage.
With Verus Storage, every PBaaS chain as you have an internet connection and your 24-
immediately offers a fee-based storage capability word seed phrase. All data stored is either sent as
for indexed data on the blockchain. Every PBaaS part of a private transaction or added to an ID you
blockchain will have its specific price for storage, control, using the “data'' option.
ultimately controlled by miners and stakers and
defaulting to about 0.01 of the native coin for Data can be easily stored and accessed across all
permanent storage of 1KB of data. All stored data PBaaS blockchains, even in parallel (ie. data
is encrypted by default. sharding) by those with the keys to do so,
introducing a market for permanent storage at
This first version of Verus Storage is great for small scale that every PBaaS chain can compete in or
to medium size data that you believe is worth price themselves out of, depending on network,
storing permanently, as it’s limited to a maximum project and community goals. Verus Storage
on-chain size of 999,999 bytes. Verus Storage is capabilities lay a foundation for PBaaS chain
incredibly versatile, and can be used for VerusID projects with economics designed around
PFPs, HTML content, license agreements, advanced storage capabilities, applications and
documents. Any information you put on-chain is markets.
always available to you anywhere you go, as long

The Protocol for Building dApps 15

There’s only one sustainable way
to start building dApps…

./verus help

Join the community — get familiar, get

started.

verus.io/discord

DOCS docs.verus.io

WIKI wiki.verus.io

medium.com/veruscoin