Last Friday, the JoyID wallet officially released the first Spore DOB Marketplace based on the UTXO order book trading model, and has opened the first DOB asset — Unicorn Box for trading.
DOB (Digital Object) is an encrypted asset issued by the Spore protocol on the CKB blockchain. The Spore protocol is not just another NFT protocol that many people are familiar with. The DOBs generated by the Spore protocol are not only immutable and completely stored on the chain, but also establish an intrinsic connection between content and value. Specifically, creating a DOB requires obtaining CKB tokens as "raw materials," and the amount of CKB used to mint the DOB determines the size of its storage space on the chain. Destroying a DOB allows the user to reclaim the occupied CKB. This mechanism ensures that holding Spore DOBs is equivalent to occupying CKB, thereby reducing the circulation of CKB within the ecosystem. This is expected to have a positive impact on the secondary market of CKB — as more CKB is occupied, its value is expected to increase. This establishes a healthy symbiotic relationship for the creators, holders of Spore DOBs, and the overall CKB ecosystem.
In this article, we will provide a detailed introduction to the Spore protocol for creating digital objects on the CKB blockchain and its many innovations.
Origin of the Spore Protocol
According to the team, the Spore protocol was conceived about a year ago, largely inspired by Ordinals. Since Bitcoin does not support smart contracts, Ordinals was limited in what it could do. From a technical perspective, Ordinals is a very simple protocol, but many people are interested in it and are using it. Therefore, the Spore team approached the expansion of the Ordinals protocol from the perspective of CKB, which led to the development of the Spore protocol.
The Spore team believes that if Bitcoin were to support smart contracts, Ordinals would likely resemble Spore. In other words, if CKB is seen as an upgraded version of Bitcoin, then Spore is an upgraded version of Ordinals.
Characteristics of the Spore Protocol
1. Supports multiple content types, providing more creative space
Unlike many small image NFTs in the Ethereum ecosystem, the Spore protocol supports not only static images or offline links, but also videos, audio, text, and other content types, providing creators with more creative space.
2. On-chain content, giving users true ownership
In contrast to Ethereum's ERC-721 protocol for NFTs, such as CryptoPunks, where the smart contract only stores an imageHash and the images are stored on larvalabs.com's centralized servers, the Spore protocol stores the content data of the DOBs entirely on the CKB blockchain (in Cells).
From a technical perspective, the actual owner of an Ethereum ERC-721 NFT is the smart contract, which specifies which addresses own which NFTs and grants these addresses permission to operate them. In contrast, a DOB minted through the Spore protocol is essentially a Cell (an improved version of UTXO) that is portable and entirely controlled by the user, as the Cell can only be unlocked by the user's private key, and the smart contract cannot manipulate these Cells. This is why when there are issues with Ethereum NFT smart contracts, all NFTs may be affected, whereas on the CKB blockchain or UTXO model blockchains, asset loss is only possible if the user's private key is compromised. This difference is due to the distinction between account model and UTXO model blockchains.
3. Each DOB is backed by CKB as value support
Storing anything on the CKB blockchain requires the use of CKB, where one CKB token equals the space of one byte on the chain. Therefore, to create a 200-byte Spore DOB, one needs to purchase 200 CKB to occupy the on-chain space.
This is interesting because the blockchain was originally an infinite virtual space, but now a limited resource has been created, which the Spore protocol further magnifies. Each CKB token consumes a significant amount of electrical resources and computing power from miners. Using CKB to mint Spore DOBs is akin to using refined gold from ore to create jewelry. Since the raw material, gold, has value, the resulting jewelry is inherently valuable regardless of its craftsmanship. The underlying value of Spore DOBs comes from the CKB they occupy, and the value of CKB comes from the entire blockchain network.
The value of jewelry made from gold is naturally higher than the value of the raw gold material, so the value of Spore DOBs will also naturally be higher than the value of the CKB they occupy. If one no longer desires the jewelry, they can destroy it and retrieve the raw gold material. Similarly, if one no longer wants a DOB, they can destroy it and reclaim the occupied CKB.
This mechanism ensures that holding Spore DOBs is equivalent to occupying CKB, thereby reducing the circulation of CKB within the ecosystem. This is expected to have a positive impact on the secondary market of CKB — as more Spore DOBs are created and held, more CKB will be occupied, further reducing the circulation of CKB. The decrease in circulation will drive its price up, thereby increasing the value of Spore DOBs that use CKB as "raw materials." The increase in value of DOBs will attract more people to mint and hold them, ultimately driving CKB into a positive feedback loop.
4. Zero transaction fees for a better user experience and privacy protection
When minting a DOB through the Spore protocol, an additional 1 CKB is automatically deposited. This eliminates the need to pay additional gas fees for each DOB transaction in the future. In uncongested network conditions, 1 CKB can cover the mining fees for over 7000 on-chain transfers.
Zero transaction fees can provide a better user experience and also make it easier to reach a wider audience. Imagine if you wanted to gift a CryptoPunks to a friend outside the crypto community. They would need to learn how to register an Ethereum wallet, save their mnemonic phrase and private key, and then provide you with their wallet address. After receiving the CryptoPunks, if they wanted to transfer it to someone else, they would need to buy ETH from the market and transfer it to their wallet to cover the gas fee for the transfer. During the transfer process, they would also need to understand what gas fees are and how to set them. In contrast, with Spore DOBs, you can simply have your friend open JoyID in their mobile browser, follow the instructions to create a JoyID wallet by scanning their fingerprint twice, and receive the Spore DOB within seconds. If they want to transfer it to someone else, they don't need to purchase CKB for the mining fee, and they don't even need to understand what a mining fee is. They can simply enter the recipient's address, scan their fingerprint twice, and complete the transfer, making it very convenient.
Zero transaction fees can also provide better privacy protection. UTXO model wallets on the CKB automatically change addresses each time they are used, emphasizing privacy by default. In contrast, wallets on account model blockchains like Ethereum (e.g., MetaMask) do not change addresses automatically.
Blockchain data is public, and if you consistently use the same address, all your activities can be analyzed by anyone. Vitalik once wrote an article about implementing stealth addresses on Ethereum. When user A transfers assets to user B, a temporary stealth address is generated on the blockchain, and user A transfers the assets to this address. User B can then operate the assets on this address, and only the two parties involved in the transaction know who owns the address. However, UTXO blockchains like CKB have had similar functionality for a long time, so stealth addresses are not an innovation unique to Ethereum.
Furthermore, the solution for stealth addresses on Ethereum is not perfect. For example, if user A sends an NFT to user B's stealth address 1, and user C sends an NFT to user B's stealth address 2, and user B wants to transfer both NFTs to a friend, they would need to transfer ETH to both stealth addresses to cover the gas fee, which would expose their identity. Alternatively, they could use complex protocols to have someone else pay the gas fee, but this would make the process very complicated. Therefore, the solution for stealth addresses on Ethereum is not perfect.
This can be done perfectly on CKB. Some CKB wallets (e.g., Neuron) automatically create multiple addresses and change addresses each time they are used. If user A owns 100 Spore DOBs, each DOB can be stored in a different address, and because Spore DOBs come with their own transaction fees, user A can easily transfer all 100 DOBs to someone else.
5. Immutable contracts to ensure DOBs remain unchanged
NFTs based on the Ethereum ERC-721 protocol often have upgradable contracts, allowing for bug fixes or the addition of new features through multi-signature or other methods.
In contrast, the Spore protocol deployed on the CKB mainnet has immutable contracts. If there is a bug in the contract, the developers have no way to fix it. If there is a bug, it remains a flaw in that version of the contract. If we consider the deployed Spore protocol as version 1.0, and if we want to add more features, we can only deploy a new contract instead of upgrading Spore v1.0. This means there will be many different versions of Spore DOBs in the future, some minted through Spore v1.0, some through v2.0, and so on. DOBs minted through v1.0 will never suddenly upgrade to v2.0 or have new features added or removed.
With this design, Spore DOBs become permanent entities in the digital world of CKB, with their content data entirely on the chain. As long as the CKB blockchain is running, the DOBs will continue to exist. Additionally, because the Spore contract is immutable, you don't have to worry about your DOBs changing. If a DOB was minted through the Spore v1.0 contract, it will always remain as a v1.0 version and will not change. Just like how jewelry crafted using a certain technique in the real world does not change when a new crafting technique emerges, this is why we have antiques in the real world. Therefore, we can consider Spore DOBs as a simulation of the real world.
6. Code reuse and easy deletion greatly benefit developers
Issuing NFTs on Ethereum requires redeploying the NFT contract because Ethereum's smart contracts contain both logic and state, which cannot be separated. The logic defines the rules for how NFTs can be traded and what functionalities they can have, while the state records which addresses own which NFTs.
Spore DOBs on CKB have separate logic and state, meaning there is no need to redeploy the Spore protocol when issuing NFTs. The protocol standard can be referenced directly. Specifically, Cells are reusable storage units, and CKB is like a code and data sharing library for smart contracts running on it, making code reuse easy on CKB. This saves time as developers don't need to redeploy the same code repeatedly, and it also saves on-chain space, reducing deployment costs.
Code reuse does not require worrying about someone modifying the code stored in dependent Cells because Cells are immutable. Even if the owner of a Cell deletes it from CKB, no one will suffer any loss. Anyone who saves a copy of the code (e.g., those running full nodes or complex light clients) can redeploy the same code on the chain, and the code hash reference will still be valid. We just need to use the new dependent Cell to construct transactions.
7. Supports Clusters for easy indexing and categorization
The Spore protocol also introduces the concept of Clusters, which group multiple DOBs into a directory, improving efficiency.
8. Supports contract plugins for better scalability
The Spore protocol has excellent scalability and can support plugins written by other developers for the contract. When calling the Spore contract, the script parameter can specify which Spore contract plugins to use, empowering DOBs to achieve more functionalities.
Of course, if the Spore protocol and its plugins cannot achieve the functionality a developer wants, they will need to write a new DOB minting protocol and deploy it. CKB is a very flexible blockchain that can implement various protocols and standards.
9. Freely flows between different UTXO chains
According to current plans, the RGB++ asset issuance protocol for Bitcoin Layer 1 will be launched at the end of March. At that time, DOBs issued on the CKB blockchain can be transferred to the Bitcoin mainnet through RGB++ Leap, becoming digital assets on the Bitcoin chain.
In addition to Bitcoin, through homogenous binding technology and Leap operations, DOBs issued on CKB can also become digital assets on other UTXO chains in the future.
More possibilities with the Spore protocol
The concept of Cluster mentioned above can help the Spore protocol achieve more possibilities. For example, a mascot DOB can be designed with jewelry DOBs such as glasses, earrings, necklaces, etc. These jewelry DOBs and the mascot DOB form a Cluster for trading and participating in competitions. In other words, Spore DOBs are like LEGO bricks, where we can use different LEGO bricks to create different puzzles, fully stimulating the creativity and imagination of the holders.
Furthermore, we can innovate on the storage content of Spore DOBs. For example, if we want to issue a profile picture DOB, in addition to the conventional operation of directly storing images on the chain, we can innovatively store only keywords describing the features of the profile picture on the chain, such as short hair, black eyes, high nose, big mouth, fair skin, male, and then use a decoder on or off the chain to decode it. This decoder acts as an artist, creating the profile picture based on these keywords.
The interesting part is that the keywords written on the chain are immutable, but the decoder can change or evolve. Because the same keywords will result in different images when using different AI models, and even using different versions of the same AI model will produce different images. This means that this DOB has the ability to change and evolve, which is very interesting.
Spore is a very flexible and highly scalable digital asset creation protocol, and I believe that through everyone's brainstorming, we can achieve even more innovative gameplay.
Conclusion
Jan Xie, the Chief Architect of CKB, once said, "When designing CKB, the original intention was to build a digital world or universe. The world or universe is composed of two dimensions, time and space, and PoW is essentially a decentralized clock (for specific discussions, refer to Gregory Trubetskoy's article), a technology that can create time in the digital world. UTXO or CKB's Cell is the space on the chain where data is stored. By combining PoW and Cell, we can create a decentralized universe. In this universe, everything we do is actually a mapping of our real world."
In this "real virtual world" built on the CKB blockchain, Spore DOB is a digital asset on the chain, very much like real-world items: it is made using the raw material CKB, can be destroyed and reclaimed when no longer needed, has versions that can remain unchanged like antiques, and can innovatively have the ability to change or evolve. The underlying Spore protocol's flexibility and scalability provide more possibilities for DOBs.
References:
- CKB, version control, and blockchain evolution
- X Space: How to do NFT projects on CKB, how to use the Spore NFT protocol?
https://x.com/seeu_brc20/status/1758461341336265141?s=20
- PoW is essentially a decentralized clock
https://www.btcstudy.org/2021/10/16/explaining-proof-of-work-as-a-decentralized-clock-echo-version/
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