Qortal Project

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====== Fundamental Principles ======

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===== Mission Statement =====

Qortal's mission is to create a new digital infrastructure that puts the power back into the hands of the individual. Removing centralized intermediaries from unnecessary portions of life, and providing means for viable digital freedom. 

Qortal provides a method to directly trade cryptocurrencies without having to deposit coins, means to publish and host websites and applications without servers, domains, DNS, or continual fees, and an easy-to-use interface so that 'any normal person' may make use of the system. 

Much of the rest of the platform, is up to the user to create. Qortal is a community built, community run project that relies upon contributions of the users in order to continue. Donations of time and effort into the platform from members of the Qortal Community, is the only way to create a system that removes the reliance upon large corporations and those that believe they can own individuals.

Qortal is NOT a platform built to 'compete' with anything. It is built to be a parallel network that provides freedom for users to express themselves, without concern of censorship. On Qortal, only the individual can prevent themselves from seeing any public data. As it should be, responsibility is on the individual user to provide an environment in Qortal that they wish to be part of, and that they can be proud of.

Qortal has already accomplished nearly every one of its original 'goals', including the ability to host and provide access to websites, applications, public and private data, and multiple types of communications. The only 'primary goal' that the project has not completed yet, is the 'Mesh Network', however, the protocol for allowing this mesh communication to begin, is currently in development and expected to be in initial testing phases within the next few months (As of May 2024).

Qortal provides a digital world that allows for every user to fully control their own lives. Without being unknowingly taken advantage of by background data harvesting and many other harmful practices currently in  play on 'the internet'. 


===== Fundamental Principles of Qortal =====

Qortal is established to provide freedom for every individual within the digital world. This default foundational freedom is integrated into the core of the platform, and controlled by rules enforced by consensus. Qortal provides a new type of consensus model that has never been utilized in any blockchain before. With this model 'anyone' with 'any computer' can potentially become a foundational user of the system, and assist with the 'signing' (or creating) of new blocks (transactions on the network within a given period of time) into the blockchain (distributed database and ledger).

In order to accomplish such a goal never before accomplished, Qortal comprises a set of completely new concepts built into a blockchain-secured network that provides unparalleled decentralized/distributed functionality. A core concept of the platform is that everyone should be able to make a home on the network, whether that home for them is running a bunch of powerful nodes and storing and providing as much data to users as possible, or simply making use of Qortal's communications systems to securely chat with friends/family, Qortal aims to make it easy and fun to become part of the new digital world.

Qortal contains means to establish many different types of additional concepts that have not been planned for development directly by the Qortal Development Group, thus opening the door for the users to help directly in determination of the future of the platform. Users have 100% autonomy in decision-making, development, and release of their own websites, applications, and means to leverage existing functionality provided by the Qortal API. With this freedom, any new and exciting concept may come to fruition WITHOUT any 'approval' needed by any 'leadership'. The only 'approval' that is required in order to build a website or application with any functionality possible, is a 'Registered Name' on the Qortal Network. Once that name is obtained, any application or website may be created that leverages any existing functionality exposed to it by the Qortal API. 

At Genesis, a core group of 18 worldwide individuals came together and presented a concept of 'the ultimate blockchain-secured decentralized distributed network'. Those 18 individuals were gifted a 'founder account' on the network. These accounts were not meant to provide a 'class' of users or for anyone to feel as though they are 'above' anyone else in any way, but instead were included as a means to ensure early security of the new consensus model, and to provide means for those whom without their contributions the platform would have lacked a crucial component, a method to obtain something for their efforts. (Unfortunately, this concept did not play out exactly as it was intended to, and development is currently planning a proposal for a modification of the founder rewards, which will be made available for community opinion and voting as soon as it is ready.)

Qortal, like Bitcoin, provides also the following: 

  * A Peer-to-Peer (P2P) blockchain-based coin (QORT) that is created from block 0 with 0 coins, and minted from there by users of the network. 
  * Distributed ledger with both transparency and privacy. (more detail below)
  * Removal of all centralized components from the creation, distribution, and execution of transactions therein.

However, Qortal, Unlike Bitcoin, also provides an entire infrastructure with which to leverage and provide value to QORT. This, in the opinion of Qortal, is where Bitcoin failed. Without a decentralized infrastructure, and network that provides other functionality and use cases for the coin, the inevitable centralizing and controlling done by large corporations around the world, will seep into the decentralized technology space, and seek to do the exact same thing there. (This is exactly what has taken place since Bitcoin's launch in 2009. Centralized exchanges, and service providers now run the majority of the services actually utilized by those that claim to be 'bitcoin users'. When in reality they are not using bitcoin at all, but a centralized database with numbers pretending to be bitcoins, and services that are no different than centralized services of any other kind. Most users of bitcoin these days do not even run a node, hardly anyone mines, and the vast majority of the network is actually run by large companies. Exactly the opposite of what the founder(s) of bitcoin claimed to build it for.) 

One of the problems that Bitcoin ultimately ran into was in regard to its mining process, which was intended to create a fair rewards system. Due to the fact that more bitcoin can be mined with larger amounts of compute power, and that alone, only users with large amounts of resources with which to acquire said compute power, can actually take part in the mining process. The concept behind Bitcoin’s original white paper also included alloweing people to mine BTC on their home computers. Over time, however, that was destroyed by the invention of mining software that was much faster running on Graphics processors, then eventually running on ASIC machines, specifically built to mine Bitcoin’s mining algorithm. This led to the centralization of power on Bitcoin’s network and into the hands of people who have enough money to buy massive amounts of the ASIC machines and afford to operate them. 

Qortal's 'minting' system resolves this flaw experienced with Bitcoin. Minting is the process of ‘finding blocks’ on the chain. Qortal does not use Proof of Work (PoW) or Proof of Stake (PoS) like most traditional chains, but instead uses ‘minting’. Qortal does not reward the block signer but rather rewards every minter who is online, synced, and minting! Say goodbye to the battle of MINING and welcome in a fair new system where everyone is rewarded for EVERY block minted. Minting does not use high amounts of electricity, and it also does not require the users wishing to mint, to have a huge amount of QORT or any other asset with which to do so. Instead, minters must prove themselves as a 'contributing member' of the network, to be a minter. In other words, every account is rewarded for running a full node and supporting the network.
 
No user can obtain any influence in the Qortal Network by any other method other than obtaining sponsorship from another minter of Level 5+ or a Founder. Therefore the minters on Qortal are created by other minters and remain legitimate by continuing to run a minting node to support the network where their account gains level and influence. This influence is then portrayed in the Voting System, so the only way influence can be gained on the network is by proving yourself as a legit network node and helping to process transactions. See the Sponsorship section for more info on this.
 
As the platform develops further, other methods of ‘leveling’ will be implemented. Other verified methods of supporting the system will be given the power to level and increase their vote weight on the voting system. For example, a system in the future that rewards content creators for creating good content, that the other users will view and upvote, could be used to create a second method of leveling wherein good content is rewarded. This creates a reputation system for content creators and leads to the next type of reputation system: Q-Apps with 5 star reviews, just like we see in every app store. At the moment the only method to leveling is the initial one of minting. 	

===== Intended To Outlive Us All =====

The beauty of blockchain technology and Qortal is that the chain cannot be stopped and the project will carry on without hardware dependency of any single person! Qortal is intended to outlive the Founders and become an unstoppable infrastructure for the world to adopt. Qortal will provide an opportunity for anyone in the world to get involved and be rewarded for their contribution to the network regardless of technical expertise, geographical location, or financial status. In theory, virtually any type of ethical online service and operating system could utilize the backbone infrastructure of Qortal. 

With a vision of a platform designed to outlive us all, the current DevTeam Admins are merely that - the current DevTeam Admins. More qualified developers will be elected to join the DevTeam over time, and the Voting System will delegate a fair direction for the future team to move towards. Ultimately, Qortal aims to achieve a true-direct democratic system that is guided by the community members, implemented by the DevTeam, and not regulated by any outside government or third-party. Finally, a system that can be utilized worldwide that is built by the people, for the people!

This is infrastructure we control as a collective worldwide. Peer-to-peer solutions with decentralized blockchain technology to rebuild the Internet, provide the crypto space with a platform to build on, and even internet service solutions - with mesh networking and satellite bridging. 

The overall goal is to be censorship-free, peer-to-peer, no reliance on third parties, and not able to be directly regulated by outside forces! 

Think big!
Qortal Project

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