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Multichain Computer

Dove is a multichain computer. The name - DOVE - represents Decentralized Observation, Verification, and Execution across many blockchains. Dove is modular and strives for architectural simplicity and elegance. Conceptually, there are two main parts of Dove:

  1. a universal data availability framework powered by observers, and
  2. a way to access and compute on those data.

As the number of chains and number of protocols on each chain increase, natively multichain protocols for managing liquidity, transactions, and votes across many chains will be the norm rather than the exception. In the past, developers ran their own relays or maintained complex state across many chains, adding considerable development and security burden. Imagine that were easy and you could instead directly compose your applications on top of reliable, fresh data from multiple chains.

Dove is not a message passing protocol or a token bridge protocol. We believe these are ad-hoc application level approaches that do not have the needed flexibility, scalability, openness, and decentralization desirable for a world with hundreds or even thousands of blockchains.

Design Principles and Motivation​

Dove aims to be a decentralized open source computer that anyone can extend by building new drivers and running new (types of) observers. Dove helps developers build new applications and protocols that are natively aware of the broader world, defined as a multitude of blockchains and even real world events.

Core design principles include:

  • TRUE DECENTRALIZATION, which enables anyone to participate and ensures the system's security through cryptoeconomics.
  • End-to-end transparency and programmability, allowing the state, logic, and operations to be fully open and programmable across the entire stack.
  • A single event ledger that provides a single source of truth and event ordering.
  • A modular design that allows for the independent development of "drivers" and deployment of specialized observers.
  • A modified, fully compatible EVM that enables anyone familiar with Solidity to build logic across many chains.

Key Parts Of Dove​

The three key parts of Dove are:

  1. DoveFlock: An impartial, decentralized network of observers. Each observer independently observes and timestamp events; the system of birds then reaches time consensus and collectively signs events for submission to the chain.
  2. DoveVM: A modified EVM that accepts supermajority tBLS signed event reports, and provides time ordering of events, convenient event lookup, and ability to act on future events.
  3. DoveChain: A PoW chain (essentially, Ethereum 1.0) with mining. The chain stores the events, which have precedence over all other transactions in terms of EVM execution flow. The chain provides a single, convenient event ledger, which anyone can compute on to execute logic on Dove or on other chains.

Empowering Developers​

On Dove, developers can write "multichain" contracts to coordinate, reconcile, and secure transactions without needing to write specialized relayers or finality gadgets. Developers can:

  • Build a full multichain stack and focus on the important things: Deciding which events to listen to, how to respond to those events, and to trigger external events on primary chains.
  • Have a single point of accounting/truth for managing state across chains without needing complex, slow, or error-prone logic to store state on client/primary chains. This is a crucial area for anyone building truly multichain money and liquidity systems.
  • Compose across chains. 3rd party multichain application development has been muted and composability non-existent.
  • Define security parameters depending on protocol and transactions, rather than one-size-fits-all security settings.

Protocols On Dove​

Dove is a fully functioning L1 with native interchain communication abilities, which means that you can build all the regular protocols but extend it with multichain capabilities. For example, an interchain AMM with seamless deposit or withdraw capabilities on any chain, or natively interchain assets (NIA) like the Metadollar example.

Dove is a fully functioning L1 that has native interchain communication abilities. This means that developers can build all regular protocols while also extending them with multichain capabilities. This makes Dove uniquely suitable for building interchain liquidity applications, such as multichain AMMs with seamless deposit and withdrawal capabilities from and to other chains. Additionally, it is suitable for hosting natively interchain assets, such as multichain stablecoins.

Dove also makes it easy to build multichain protocols and applications, including message passing protocols, token bridges, cross-chain AMMs, and interchain escrow. Traditional message passing and bridge protocols tend to be hard-wired into other frameworks, making them cumbersome to adapt to your needs. In contrast, Dove as core infra does not force you to use one approach, but rather, makes it easy for you to develop something that works for you.

To be concrete - imagine that Ethereum provided a native mintToken() function rather than allowing you to deploy your own token contract. This would make Ethereum easier to use for beginners but sharply curtail innovation and growth. Thus, Dove does not provide (or impose) e.g. a standardBridge(), but allows you to access all the information you need and then compute on it, to realize e.g. a multichain bridge that is optimal for your use case and application.

Other general needs that can be built on Dove are:

  • Event attestation layer
  • Interchain AMMs
  • Timestamping and time verification
  • Decentralized oracles
  • Coordination for multichain escrow
  • Storing value across multiple chains

Basic Economic Model​

[What is $DOVE?] $DOVE is the native token for Dovechain, and it plays a vital role in facilitating interchain transactions. It serves as the primary mode of payment for all interchain-related services, including external executions and observations. Moreover, it functions as the main base currency used to facilitate gas payments between chains.

[Who pays?] Developers and Apps that wish to build on Dove first register their events of interest to a watcher contract. They must also deposit $DOVE, which is then paid to the Observers that observed and reported those events.

[Where does $DOVE come from?] $DOVE is mined by the DoveChain miners - Dove is a PoW system.

[Where to get $DOVE?] $DOVE can be swapped for other tokens e.g. Goerli ETH on an AMM, which is currently being developed.

[Who earns $DOVE?] $DOVE is earned by services that provide utility to Dove, such as the miners (who provide security and decentralized consensus) and the Birds/Observers, who observe events and commit them to DoveChain.