What Is TOP Network (TOP)?

TOP Network is a sharding public chain platform for the development and deployment of DApp. Sharding is the process of distributing a single data set across several databases, which can be consequently stored on multiple machines. The TOP network aims to develop a blockchain ecosystem to help the developers with the resources they need to establish scalable decentralized applications (DApps). 

The TOP network's whitepaper states that there is a scarcity of large-scale and massively adopted DApps. This is due to issues of blockchain technologies like lack of scalability, lack of real-time applications, lack of support for complex businesses, and lack of developer tooling. Thus, TOP Network aims to provide tooling for developing scalable DApps and provide a public blockchain infrastructure for all DApps. 

In addition, the TOP Network consists of three integrated layers:

• Infrastructure Layer: The infrastructure layer consists of peer-to-peer networking, multi-chain architectures, and blockchain sharding, making the TOP network scalable. 

• Service Layer: The service layer of TOP Network aims to provide the users with tools and frameworks like different types of smart contracts and industry-specific development frameworks that help in the development of the network and convenience for the users. 

• Application Layer: The application layer of the TOP Network consists of an application ecosystem, which collects data from a large existing user base and can be leveraged by third-party developers. 

These layers, when combined, can facilitate the creation and operation of DApps of any size.  

Furthermore, the services of TOP Network are based on a consensus network. This consensus network again is a three-tiered network, including the edge network, the routing network, and the validated network. The edge network works as an access point for clients. Before being relayed to the routing network, all transactions are forwarded to edge nodes in the edge network. Next, the routing network layer consists of advanced nodes, which handle synchronization and cross-shard communication. Lastly, the core network includes shards made up of validator nodes. In this layer, validation of transactions takes place. Hence, this multiple-layered network helps in splitting duties among various nodes and manages bandwidth-heavy operations like cross-shard communication. Additionally, this safeguards the network from spam attacks.

TOP Network also includes a decentralized and democratic on-chain governance model. The network aims to provide the community members with a secure way to participate and miners and developers to make changes, vote, and submit proposals. The governance model of TOP Network consists of participants and a community board that oversees the governing process of the network. 

The token TOP is an ERC-20 token based on the Ethereum blockchain. TOP is distributed as block rewards to the miner for mining nodes. The TOP Network enables users to issue TEP-10 native tokens. TEP-10 tokens are similar to regional currencies but are issued on-chain. TOP token holders need to deposit a percentage of their TOP tokens to issue TEP-10 tokens. Such deposited TOP tokens are burned to reduce the total supply of TOP. Coin burning refers to the act of transferring a token to an unusable wallet address. This is done to remove the tokens from circulation forever.

The TOP Network supports the swapping of TOP tokens on the TOP chain with the TOP on Etherchain. Etherchain is a decentralized community support fund built on smart contract technology. 

TOPIO is a tool of the TOP Network, used by community users. The TOPIO tool aims to integrate the functions of the network and the users' activities. TOPIO consists of the following features:

• Wallet: creating and managing of accounts or keys of users

• Miner: Register a miner, provide rewards to miners, and update miner information

• Node: Start, stop, or restart the node process and determine if the node joins the network

• Staking: Stake TOP for votes, claim voter dividend, and vote for advance miners

• Transfer: Send TOP to another account

• On-chain governance, solving queries related to the transaction, supporting resources for transaction

History of TOP Network (TOP)

TOP Network was founded in 2017 by Steve Wei, who is also the CEO of the network. Steve Wei is a serial entrepreneur. He is the founder of several vital technological companies. The maximum supply of TOP is capped at 14.4 billion.

How Is New TOP Created & Earned?

The whitepaper states that each block produced by the miners is entitled to an award called the block reward. Such rewards are given as TOP tokens. However, the annual amount of tokens to be distributed as mining rewards is determined by the total supply of TOP tokens. 

The miners can also earn TOP by staking the token. Moreover, users can vote on the network and gain dividends as TOP in return. The official website of the TOP Network claims that staking TOP is safe and profitable, as the entire process is conducted in a decentralized environment, and the stakers earn TOP as well, resulting in profits.