Coin of the Week: Reef

Reef is a Reliable, Extensible, Efficient, Fast Layer-1 Blockchain for DeFi, NFT, and Gaming.

Dec 17, 2021

What Is Reef (REEF)?

It is built using Substrate Framework to achieve high scale, enabling low-cost transactions almost instantly, and it supports Solidity and EVM for seamless migration of DApps from Ethereum without requiring any changes to the codebase.

Reef Chain is the most advanced EVM-compatible blockchain. This blockchain provides on-chain governance and is self-upgradable. The infrastructure also supports EVM extensions, such as native token bridges, scheduled calls (e.g. recurring payments), and smart contract in-place code upgrades. Developers will soon be able to write code in a variety of programming languages with the addition of new virtual machines. Nominated Proof-of-Stake (NPoS) is used as the network's consensus mechanism, which offers scalability and low fees.

REEF is the native token used to:

Fees for processing transactions and storing data.
Running validator nodes by staking REEF tokens.
Nominating which validator nodes should be part of the network.

Diverse venture capital firms and funds back Reef, including NGC, QCP, Bitcoin.com, Kenetic Capital, LD Capital, TRG Capital, Krypital Group, Genesis Block, Woodstock Fund, and others.

Tools for developing Reef Chains include:

Upload and deploy smart contracts using the Remix and EVM integrated development environments.
This Reefscan blockchain explorer can help you deploy validators, bond and nominate validators, debug contracts, and understand network performance.
Developers can deploy applications from local environments using the Reef command-line tools.
Access and interact with the blockchain using the Reef wallet

Reef Founders: Who Are They?

Denko Mancheski founded Reef. This was his motivation for building the most advanced blockchain for retail investors who are interested in DeFi, NFTs, and Gaming.

DeFi and NFTs are two concepts Mancheski wanted to help cryptocurrency newcomers understand. Additionally, Reef Chain offers many bridges to other blockchains so that funds and liquidity can be easily transferred, allowing retail investors to benefit from the high scalability and low fees on Reef Chain.

Born in Macedonia, Mancheski was introduced to blockchain technology due to his passion for FinTech. For him, putting together a competent team was the biggest challenge in creating Reef.

Asked about the qualities that will help him become a successful entrepreneur, he replied: "I have an addictive personality--I just can't stop doing something until I reach my goal."

Reef: What Makes It Unique?

Reef is a cryptocurrency wallet designed for cryptocurrency newcomers, as well as existing DeFi users who find it hard to maintain funds and wallets across multiple blockchains. DeFi has tackled the high gas fees on the Ethereum blockchain by building on Substrate, which provides almost instant transactions and low costs, where some claim Ethereum's fees render the protocol useless.

Reef is unique in that it enables the implementation of any DeFi protocol that has been deployed on Ethereum or an EVM-compatible network on Reef with a few changes to the code. Since Reef Chain bridges the intersection between Ethereum and Polkadot, anyone with a Web3 wallet can use the Reef ecosystem.

Because Reef is built on Substrate, it is extensible. It is capable of supporting multiple virtual machines (VMs) as well as extensions for popular virtual machines like Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). In addition to having on-chain upgrades functionality, it also has on-chain governance functionality.

How Is the Reef Network Secured?

Using a Nominated Proof of Stake system, Reef bonds to validators nominates validators and secures its network. The result is a low-cost, almost instant transaction with finality achieved in ten seconds on average.

The Nominator role is suitable for those who do not have the technical skills to operate a Validator node. By choosing good validators and staking REEF, nominees secure the Reef Relay Chain.

As a Validator, you need technical expertise, staked REEF, and a high-availability node running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. As well as their Nominators, Validators unable to maintain the performance or uptime have their stakes slashed.

By appointing a Validator, REEFs are staked, but they are also locked (bonded). Nominators can receive new REEF in their wallets, but cannot stake or transfer REEF away from their wallets. During the next era, nominees can un-nominate whenever they want to stop staking their funds. Un-nominating does not automatically unbond funds. There is an unbonding period of 28 days on Reef before bonded funds can be transferred after issuing an unbond transaction.