Welcome!
Welcome to Vara Network’s documentation portal. This is the primary source of information for everyone who is looking for detailed information about Vara. Here you will find guides and developer's documentation that will enable you to dive deeper into developing programs and smart contracts on the Gear Protocol and running them on Vara in a decentralized manner.
This Wiki outlines foundational information, provides general technology overviews, and highlights key advantages of Vara’s technology. It includes guidance on implementing and running your programs, setting up a Vara node, and becoming a nominator or validator. Additionally, it offers full API details and examples.
What is the Vara Network?
Vara Network is a stand-alone layer-1 decentralized network built and running on top of Gear Protocol.
Alongside other blockchains that offer fast and inexpensive transactions, Vara possesses several unique features: a simple yet powerful framework for writing programs based on the Actor model, automation through deferred messages, gasless and signless transactions, built-in actors to extend program capabilities, and more. For more detailed information on these features, read the next article - Distinctive Features.
Many developers choose Vara for its ease of implementing arbitrary and advanced logic for their web3 projects. Web3 projects are particularly inspired by the ability to implement web2-like scenarios, automate interactions with users and between programs, and create an enhanced user experience that is unattainable on other blockchain platforms due to the specifics of their technology.
The fast and scalable Vara Network, which is non-fork upgradable, provides an optimal platform for next-gen gaming, financial-based applications, and various experimental features, among others. Vara accommodates a wide range of modern use cases, making it an ideal environment for running diverse applications.
Vara Network employs an inclusive and reliable Nominated Proof-of-Stake (NPoS) mechanism to select validators for its consensus protocol. This mechanism selects validators based on their stakes and the funds nominated by other token holders. Running a node or supporting the network as a nominator is incentivized. This approach fosters a more democratic and decentralized process, reducing the risk of centralization, where only the wealthiest entities could become validators.
The vast majority of tokens are held by the community. Vara empowers its community to steer the network's evolution through its on-chain governance mechanism. To ensure decentralization, longevity, and flexibility, Vara adopts the widely accepted OpenGov framework as its native governance model. This framework enables any VARA token holder to participate in Vara’s decentralized governance, influencing future updates or modifications to the network.
The primary features of the Vara Network include:
- The most advanced platform for developing and running decentralized applications.
- Fast and low transaction cost truly decentralized L1.
- Secure, efficient, and scalable environment for new features and optimizations.
- A robust NPoS mechanism for network security and decentralization.
- Governance by community members - token holders.
- A stable and upgradable network, facilitated by Substrate.
- A well-thought-out token economy that ensures the long-term sustainability of the network and benefits for its community.
Immediately after its introduction, Vara enters the BETA phase, signifying that even while the network is live, there's no assurance of Vara being entirely bug-free. Nevertheless, thanks to the fork-less upgrade, it will endure indefinitely, preserving all user data.
What is the Gear Protocol?
The Gear Protocol is a Substrate-based programming platform that enables anyone to develop and run dApps in Vara Network as well as other custom networks or environments powered by the Gear Protocol’s runtime and technology.
The Gear Protocol is the most developer-friendly and cost-effective way to implement and run programs and smart contracts with arbitrary logic and of any complexity. Gear programs run under WebAssembly VM and they can be compiled from many popular programming languages, such as Rust, C, C++ and many more.
The protocol ensures minimal, intuitive, and sufficient APIs for implementing programs and running them on multiple environments that support Gear runtime without needing to rewrite them. From a technological standpoint, the Gear Protocol is distinguished by fundamentally new features that enable anyone to create asynchronous programs with a completely new and previously unattainable user experience. These features include the Actor model for communication, the persistent memory concept, and the WebAssembly execution environment. The protocol dictates the structure and behavior of actors as communicating entities.
The Gear Protocol assists with the transition to mass use of Web3 technologies by enabling the running of innovative dApps, microservices, middleware and open APIs.
All code, libraries, and tools are available on GitHub. Feel free to use the tools and libraries, log issues as you find them, or create pull requests for your bug-bears or features. As the Gear Protocol is developing and growing, contributions are more than welcome!
How to Start Developing on Vara Network?
- Learn program development using the developer documentation.
- Explore and try a batch of ready-made programs on GitHub.
- Take a free developer course at Gear Academy.
How to engage with the Vara community
X (ex. Twitter)
Follow Vara Network on X for regular updates: @VaraNetwork
Telegram
Join Vara's official Telegram channel: @VaraNetwork_Global
Discord
General information, announcements, technical and non-technical conversation are found on the Discord server.
Medium
Get smart with Vara's regular articles on Medium.
GitHub
dApp examples and developer tools are found on Gear Foundation's GitHub.
Gear Protocol's code, libraries, and tools are available on Gear's GitHub