# What Is The Dock Network (DOCK)?
Dock is building a gateway to Web3 by providing simple solutions for businesses and developers to build, manage, and present digital Verifiable Credentials and decentralized identities using blockchain.

Dock provides credentialing technology that can be used to create cryptographically secure and instantly verifiable digital credentials, including workforce certificates, academic achievements, identity documents, and KYC checks.

Since 2017, Dock has been building Decentralized Identity and Verifiable Credentials (VC) technology, which will act as a gateway to Web3 in the future. We have been collaborating with organizations to adapt and innovate in the Web3 ecosystem by helping them understand the true ownership of their data and making their documents, certificates, and credentials become digital, tamper-proof, and instantly verifiable. Web3 is about data ownership and by using Dock’s technology, individuals can now truly own and control their most important documents and regain control over their data.

## What is Dock Blockchain?
Dock’s blockchain provides an open-source, decentralized, and low-cost platform for organizations and developers to build Decentralized Identity and data applications for the Web3.
Everyone using Web3 will need their own Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) which are globally unique identifiers made up of a string of letters and numbers that is stored on the blockchain. DIDs enable people to securely sign-into websites and apps without revealing unnecessary information, fully own and control their digital identity, and prevent user tracking. The Dock blockchain serves as the entry point with a protocol layer for all things Web3. Their blockchain-based credentialing system complies with W3C standards.
Dock runs its own validator network and the blockchain is built on Substrate (which is the same framework used throughout the Polkadot ecosystem). It uses the consensus mechanism offered by Substrate, which is a hybrid as it separates block production and finality and achieves them through different methods. The blockchain has the same consensus and governance mechanism as Polkadot.

## Who are in Dock's Team?

The team is led by Nick Lambert and Elina Cadouri who come with a wealth of experience in the blockchain and data tech industry. Nick, CEO at Dock, has been working in the blockchain industry since 2011 and was the COO of one of the earliest companies working in the Blockchain space, MaidSafe. Elina, COO of Dock, has remarkable experience in the data network industry. Lead Developer Lovesh Harchandani is an expert in the Verifiable Credentials and Decentralized Identity industry creating one of the most innovative solutions at Dock.

## What are the utilities of Dock token?
## 
DOCK is the native utility on the Dock mainnet, it is used as:
1. An integrated payment mechanism for performing network operations including: the creation of decentralized identities (DIDs), issuing credentials, creating schemas and more.
2. Emission rewards for validators who provide their resources to the network by producing blocks and confirming transactions.
3. Decentralized governance, DOCK will be utilized to manage changes to the network. How the mainnet is run and by whom will be decided on by voting, and Dock tokens will be the mechanism by which members of the network will vote. 


## How Many Dock Tokens Are There in Circulation?

Dock launched its mainnet on September 30th, 2020. DOCK has a fixed total supply of 1 billion tokens and at the time of writing around 650 million of these are in circulation with the general public. 150 million tokens have been set aside and will be distributed as emission rewards (to the treasury and validators) over the next 15 years, while 25 million tokens have been set aside for community rewards, The remaining tokens (circa 175 million) are held by the Dock treasury and will be used to fund the ongoing development, marketing and adoption of the network. 




### Where Can I Buy Dock Tokens (DOCK)?

DOCK is available for trading on a growing number of exchanges, these include:

[Binance](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/binance/) 
[Gate.io](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/gate-io/)
[HotBit](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/hotbit/)
[Huobi Global](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/huobi-global/) 
[KuCoin](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/kucoin/)
[WazirX](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/wazirx/)





Dock

Vite has built a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) based smart-contract platform, with a Snapshot Chain structure to facilitate zero-fee transactions and optimize transaction speed, reliability, and security. The Snapshot Chain of Vite utilizes Hierarchical Delegated Proof of Stake (“HDPoS”) to achieve network consensus, while supernodes take only staking rewards and no transaction fees. Vite virtual machine maintains compatibility with EVM, and utilizes asynchronous smart contract language, Solidity++.

The VITE token is the currency for simple token transactions and smart-contract executions on the Vite network, with users staking VITE for transaction quota instead of consuming gas. VITE can also be used to vote for Snapshot Block Producers (aka supernodes). In addition, a VITE staker with unused transaction quota can lease such quota to dApps in exchange for their tokens. For instance, users can stake VITE in exchange of ViteX’s native decentralized exchange token, VX.

Vite’s current products include a decentralized exchange (ViteX), a multi-purpose wallet application (Vite App), payments (VitePay), and government/enterprise blockchain applications (VitePlus):

ViteX is a decentralized exchange with on-chain orderbook and matching engine, and supports currently 20+ digital assets.

Vite App is a mobile application that allows trading (ViteX), asset management (wallet), dapps (e.g Vite-based games) in one place.

VitePay is a fast and feeless payment solution, currently available to use in Singapore’s Ce La Vi Sky Bar and taxi services under the Midwest Global network - Users can pay for merchants with Vite wallet, who in turn receive payment with zero fees with near-instant settlement. VitePay is also integrated with the e-commerce platform OpenCart, and one can utilize VitePay at the official Vite store.

VitePlus is a Vite-based enterprise blockchain solution for governments and enterprises. Vite has developed a pilot app, SyraCoin, for the Syracuse government, allowing city housing fund donors to receive blockchain-based coupons that are redeemable for goods and services within city bounds.

VITE

Streamr (DATA) is an open source project and decentralized platform that relies on cryptography instead of trust. It is a P2P, real-time data infrastructure that houses a platform and tools for a new data economy. The technology stack includes a scalable real-time messaging network (pub/sub) hosted on computers worldwide, a marketplace for trading/selling data and a set of tools for working with real-time data.

Streamr (DATA) was crowdfunded in 2017. The main idea is to create decentralized infrastructure and data economy; the mission was formulated by the developers as “Unstoppable Data for Unstoppable Apps.” Streamr tokenizes the value of real-time information and makes it available on their marketplace and data unions. This is built for DApps, IoT devices and more, and they believe this is a crucial protocol for Web 3.0.

The tasks of Streamr DATA coin include creating a comfortable and prosperous information market, which is built on the basis of a data exchange network that is convenient and understandable for users. How it works: the decentralized pub/sub network is supported by nodes around the world, who earn DATA tokens in exchange for the bandwidth and validation they provide.

The competitive advantage lies in the fact that it is an off-chain network (for example, when compared to a similar IOTA service). Therefore, the risk that the project will face scalability and bandwidth issues is modest. The intention of the Streamr team is not to create some special blockchain, but to focus on the development of network optimization technologies. If Streamr lacks the capabilities of Ethereum, developers can always transfer the platform to another blockchain.

Streamr

ForTube, previously known as the Force Protocol, describes itself as a suite of distributed crypto-finance service protocols that runs on an open-source blockchain. Its main aim is to offer crypto-finance solutions to developers through its software development kit (SDK) and application programming interfaces (APIs) for decentralized application (DApp) development.

The platform offers solutions for cross-platform asset transactions, cross-chain communications, crypto-asset-backed stablecoin insurance, token board insurance, and on-chain payments. The Force Protocol project is a decentralized protocol layer that is developed and managed by the Force Protocol Foundation Ltd.

ForTube launched its decentralized finance (DeFi) service on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) in September 2020.

ForTube offers many advantages, including flexible support of globally popular cryptocurrencies that provide higher yield combinations and an upgraded algorithm and ledger structure that significantly reduces gas costs. It also has a robust technical framework with more secure smart contracts.

ForTube

Kava Lend is a decentralized money market built on the Kava Platform that enables the lending and borrowing of cross-chain assets. Kava Lend supports supply-side deposits for BTC, XRP, BNB, BUSD, and USDX. The platform will allow overcollateralized borrowing for supported assets.

Kava Lend

SelfKey

Akropolis is a company that operates an Ethereum-based decentralized finance protocol that seeks to provide an autonomous financial ecosystem for saving and growing wealth, including through borrowing and lending. To do so, it offers a series of products including AkropolisOS, a framework for developing for-profit decentralized autonomous organizations, Sparta, a platform for uncollateralized lending, and Delphi, a yield farming aggregator and tool for dollar-cost averaging.

The project uses an ERC-20 token, AKRO, for protocol governance across its suite of products.

Akropoli was first announced in March 2018, launching on the Ethereum mainnet in June 2020.

Akropolis

StaFi

FIO Protocol

pNetwork

Launched in 2020, Dego Finance is a decentralized ecosystem that offers a diverse combination of non-fungible token (NFT) and decentralized finance (DeFi) tools. It is an independent, open NFT ecosystem.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Dego Finance.

Any user is allowed to launch an NFT and initiate mining, auctions and trading, covering the entire lifecycle of the product. Dego’s NFT protocol is a cross-chain, second-layer infrastructure for Blockchain projects that can be leveraged for user acquisition and token distribution.

Dego uses a modular combination design concept that combines various elements of a product to form subsystems with specific functions.

Dego Finance

AdEx is a cutting-edge web3 marketing platform utilizing blockchain and programmatic advertising to elevate digital advertising. Through AdEx, Web3 advertisers can access an untapped market of potential crypto users.

Originating in 2017 as a decentralized ad exchange, AdEx has evolved into a full advertising protocol, boasting 20,000+ registered users and processing billions of micropayments on the blockchain. Currently, AdEx serves as a Demand-Side Platform, allowing advertisers to buy traffic through SSPs, conduct real-time bidding, and leverage programmatic technology. Moreover, AdEx maintains direct partnerships with premium publishers, encompassing all interactions between publishers, advertisers, and end users.

ADX, the native token of AdEx, serves as the platform's native utility token, playing a pivotal role in rewards, governance, payment, and staking. It incentivizes validator uptime, ensuring seamless advertising campaigns. The more tokens staked, the more robust the validator network becomes. ADX token holders can stake their tokens to receive generous rewards and participate in governance decisions. Moreover, advertisers leverage ADX for campaign payments, enjoying reduced fees compared to other payment options.

AdEx

Komodo

Cartesi is an app-specific rollup protocol with a virtual machine that runs Linux distributions, creating a richer and broader design space for DApp developers.

Cartesi Rollups offer a modular scaling solution, deployable as L2, L3, or sovereign rollups, while maintaining strong base layer security guarantees.

Cartesi

PERL.eco

Founded by Peter Kim, MovieBloc is a reverse ICO project driven by the Korean video streaming platform Pandora.tv. MovieBloc is a decentralized movie and content distribution platform.

MovieBloc

Celer is a blockchain interoperability
protocol enabling a one-click user experience accessing tokens, DeFi, GameFi, NFTs, governance, and more across multiple chains. Developers can build inter-chain-native Dapps using the Celer Inter-chain Messaging Framework to gain access to efficient liquidity utilization, coherent application logic, and shared states. Users of Celer-enabled dApps will enjoy the benefits of a diverse multi-blockchain ecosystem with the simplicity of a single-transaction UX, all from a single chain.

Celer Network

QuarkChain

IRISnet is a service protocol and cryptocurrency, which was officially launched on Mar. 1, 2019. The primary purpose of the IRISnet protocol is to provide a blockchain-based, open network to small and medium businesses that are offering a wide variety of services.

According to the official IRISnet Whitepaper, the protocol aims to employ different public and consortium blockchains to bring the power of decentralized, open networks to thousands of businesses and freelance service providers. Interestingly, IRISnet was named after Iris, the personification of the rainbow and the messenger of the Gods in Greek mythology.

IRISnet

Bluzelle is a decentralized storage network for the creator economy.

Bluzelle delivers high security, un-matched availability, and is censorship resistant. Whether you are an artist, musician, scientist, publisher, or developer, Bluzelle protects the intellectual property of all creators. Bluzelle is data storage, file storage, oracles, and more. Its is specific for NFTs and DeFi.

Bluzelle’s core products are all related to data and powered by its Tendermint Blockchain:

Bluzelle DB - a decentralized database for software developers to store information

Bluzelle Oracles - a truly decentralized pricing oracle that provides high speed and high security for Defi applications

Bluzelle Staking - where BLZ holders can currently stake their tokens and earn rewards for providing storage and pricing data.