Fantom is a fast, high-throughput open-source smart contract platform for digital assets and dApps, providing decentralized finance (DeFi) services to developers using its own bespoke consensus algorithm.
The Fantom Foundation, which oversees the Fantom product offering, was originally created in 2018, with the launch of OPERA, Fantom’s mainnet, coming in December 2019.
Fantom attempts to use a new scratch-built consensus mechanism to facilitate DeFi and related services on the basis of smart contracts.
It is designed to overcome the limitations of previous-generation blockchain platforms.
Fantom is permissionless, decentralized, and open-source.
Why Fantom
Speed, security, scalability
Fantom is a BFT consensus protocol that delivers speed, security, and reliability.
The transactions are almost instant and have extremely low fees.
Almost instant transfers
Transactions on Fantom are finalized in a second and cost a fraction of a cent.
Simply secure
Fantom’s validator nodes form a global, trustless, and leaderless Proof-of-Stake network.
Highly scalable
Fantom can process thousands of transactions per seconds and scale to thousands of nodes.
Ethereum compatible
Fantom is EVM compatible. Deploy and run your Ethereum dApps on Fantom.
Fantom tackles the problem at the core: its high-speed consensus mechanism, Lachesis, allows digital assets to operate at unprecedented speed and delivers dramatic improvements over the current systems.
Unlike other solutions, Fantom does not sacrifice security and decentralization in favor of scalability.
Indeed, the advantages brought by Fantom are not merely pure performance; its modular architecture allows for full customization of blockchains for digital assets, with different characteristics tailored to their use-case.
How does it work?
Fantom is modular
Fantom is extremely modular. Developers can easily and rapidly port their Ethereum-based dApps on the Fantom mainnet with great performance improvements and lower costs.
Fantom is scalable
Each network built on Fantom is independent. That means that their performance and stability are totally unaffected by traffic or congestion.
Fantom solved the scalability issue by giving each application its own blockchain, similarly to running each application on different computers that are part of the same network.
Each blockchain is independent of one another and can have custom tokens, tokenomics, and governance rules. However, being all plugged into Lachesis, Fantom’s uber-fast aBFT consensus, all the blockchains can interact with each other and benefit from the speed and security of the underlying technology.
Each network is completely customizable according to the specific usage.
If we think of Ethereum as a decentralized computer, Fantom is a network made of a potentially infinite number of decentralized computers. They all share the same logic, but they’re completely independent of one another. Yet, they can easily communicate with one another.
In other words, Fantom is a network of networks.
Fantom is secure and ECO friendly
Fantom is based and secured by the Proof-of-Stake mechanism. Unlike Proof-of-Work (eg: BTC or ETH), Proof-of-Stake prevents centralization and saves electricity.
Lachesis can provide institutional-grade security to distributed networks. Fantom offers absolute finality, which means that transactions can never be reverted like in networks with probabilistic finality.
The consensus mechanism can also scale to hundreds of nodes, increasing decentralization and therefore security.
In addition, Lachesis is leaderless. so security doesn’t rely on a small set of actors.
Fantom is open source
Fantom’s team is committed to creating building blocks for anyone’s needs. They want high transparency regarding their work. Fantom’s code is open-source and available on Github.
Stake on Fantom
Earn rewards by staking your FTM to help secure the network. Choose your staking preference, start earning with a few clicks, and use your staked funds as collateral on DeFi.
Earn up to 13% APY
Stake-as-you-go earns around 4% APY on your capital, up to 13% for a one-year commitment to staking.
You can regularly claim rewards and compound them for a better returns on your delegation.
How to stake FTM
Access the wallet
Open the wallet from your computer or your mobile device. Create a new wallet, or access an existing one using mnemonic or a keystore file.
Deposit your FTM
Transfer your FTM from an exchange to your Opera address.
Choose a validator
Select a validator, stake-as-you-go for a 4% APY or lock up your FTM from a minimum of two weeks up to a year to earn higher staking rewards.
The $FTM coin
As explained previously, the platform is compatible with Ethereum which means that users can purchase an ERC-20 standard FTM and it will be automatically converted to native FTM once received into their wallet. Another version of FTM is available on Binance Chain using its BEP2 standard. Only the native FTM can be used on the Fantom OPERA mainnet itself.
The total supply of FTM is 3.175 billion tokens, of which 2,134,638,448 FTM is currently in circulation. The rest will be released subject to a schedule running through 2023.
Staking forms an important part of tokenomics, with a proportion of the supply reserved specifically for staking rewards to users who hold FTM.
