Mining and Distribution

Mining

Recognizing these key obstacles to mainstream adoption, the Omega Network team set out to create a system that allows everyday individuals to mine OMG tokens (earn cryptocurrency rewards for validating transactions on a decentralized ledger). A fundamental challenge in maintaining such a distributed ledger is ensuring that all recorded transactions are legitimate and free from fraud. While Bitcoin's method—expending massive computing power and energy to establish trust—has been effective, it is neither user-friendly nor environmentally sustainable. For Omega Network, we designed a consensus mechanism that prioritizes accessibility, making it possible to mine OMG on both personal computers and mobile devices while ensuring security and decentralization.

When an Omegian needs to verify that a transaction has been completed (e.g., confirming they have received OMG), they open the mobile app. At that moment, the app connects to one or more Nodes to check if the transaction has been recorded on the ledger and to retrieve the latest block number and its hash value. If the Omegian is also running a Node, the app connects to their own Node first. If they are not running a Node, the app connects to multiple available Nodes to cross-check the information.

Omegians can choose which Nodes their app connects to for verification. However, to simplify the process for most users, the app will have a default set of recommended Nodes. This selection could include Nodes closest to the user based on the trust graph, along with a randomly chosen set of high-ranking Nodes. We welcome feedback on the best approach for determining the default set of Nodes for mobile Omegians.

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Distribution

Similar to Bitcoin transactions, fees in the Omega Network are optional. Each block has a limit on how many transactions it can include. When there is no transaction backlog, transactions are generally free. However, when transaction volume increases, Nodes prioritize transactions based on fees, placing higher-fee transactions at the top. Only the highest-priority transactions get included in the next block, creating an open market system.

Implementation: Transaction fees are distributed proportionally among active Nodes once a day. Each transaction’s fee is initially transferred to a temporary wallet. At the end of the day, these collected fees are distributed to the active miners. The private key of this wallet remains unknown, ensuring that transactions in and out of this wallet are controlled strictly by the network protocol. The same consensus mechanism that validates transactions and maintains security also facilitates the minting of new OMG tokens daily.