Frequently Asked Questions

A blockchain is an electronic data structure made up of blocks (containing groups of transactions or data) which are appended sequentially.

The primary economic value of a blockchain is to provide a dependable data set that is acceptable to all parties who wish to coordinate on some, but not all, dimensions with each other and do not wish to trust a third party.

Interested in learning more? Check out Geeq’s Glossary entry for Blockchain.

Geeq’s technology addresses an old problem: lack of trust due to asymmetric information. How can parties feel comfortable negotiating or transacting if one feels the other has an advantage in manipulating information?

Thus, Geeq is a new information and communications technology.

The primary economic value of services powered by Geeq is that they provide access to dependable, neutral, and correctly validated data sets.

In so doing, these data can be acceptable to all parties who wish to coordinate on some, but not all, dimensions with each other and do not wish to trust a third party.

How do we identify potential pain points?

There are five key criteria that make it likely that Geeq has a better approach to addressing a problem than conventional data systems or centralized cloud-based software as-a-service (SaaS) solutions:

1. The problem requires secure transfer of value, possibly in very small increments; for example, micropayments for content or web services and machine to machine markets, and person to person payments such as small charitable contributions or sharing the cost of a meal among a group of friends.
   
2. The problem involves agents who do not know or do not trust each other; for example, peer to peer markets for goods and services, escrows, and providing proof that all parties are what they say and behaved honestly.
   
3. The problem involves many different actors from different organizations whose interests do not align; for example, logistics or chain of custody applications that transfer responsibilities from party to party.
   
4. The problem requires objective provability of facts or data; for example, audit trails and telemetry collected from connected industrial, medical, and infrastructure devices.
   
5. The problem involves agents who might wish to censor, alter, or hide data; for example, securities, land title, and financial transactions where theft and fraud are real possibilities.

For blockchain to offer a viable solution to these problems it must be secure, inexpensive and scalable. For Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) to become a realistic alternative to private databases, it needs to be flexible, upgradable, environmentally sustainable, and protect users from unreasonable volatility in token value.

Blockchain technology describes a class of technologies that constructs a sequentially linked database (a blockchain) that is stored, after each block is appended, as a distributed database. A distributed database means the database exists redundantly on a network of computers.

Each blockchain technology specifies its own set of protocols. Protocols define the set of rules that agents are supposed to follow when they update and store the database on their own computers. Depending on the protocol, these agents may be called nodes, validators, or miners.

Geeq does not include mining. Why not? We explain below.

Traditionally, blockchain protocols make security assumptions that are, at best, unverifiable, such as assuming less than 1/3 of the network will be malicious. These security assumptions introduce tremendous uncertainty about the future. At worst, the many assumptions required for the security of a blockchain platform are unrealistic. In order to mitigate those risks and improve function, most subsequent work has inadvertently introduced new attack surfaces by adding complexity, rather than addressing the root problems inherent in the way they define consensus.

Geeq’s mission is simple: we put the well-being of end users first. Achieving such an idealistic goal required preparing for the worst case. Here is the breakthrough: Geeq’s technology works even when we have no idea who is in a network and what they may or may not choose to do. We know we can’t control others’ choices in a decentralized world – nor would we want to. The bottom line is this: the only thing that matters about blockchain is whether it is able to provide us a better way to organize economic activity compared to using a centralized database.

By re-examining the data that honest users will need to make decisions, rather than what network participants may want them to believe, we found a way to solve the information game by re-engineering the idea of consensus.

Simply put, Geeq’s protocol requires each node to work independently. Honest nodes are able to deliver Proof of Honesty only if they’ve arrived at the singularly honest conclusion. As a result, all honest nodes arrive at the same, provably honest blockchain on their own, and the information coordination problem is solved when users interact only with honest nodes.

Consensus, at Geeq, is the product of honesty.

Blockchains based on Proof of Work, Proof of Stake, or Proof of Authority work on the assumption that power – in terms of hash rate, financial muscle, or institutional standing – produces truth. At Geeq, we believe that only those who are truthful should be powerful.

Bitcoin and Ethereum (among others) famously use mining in their Proof of Work (PoW) protocols, why doesn’t Geeq?

The short answer is: mining creates problematic incentives from the point of view of the user of a blockchain-based application.

Who Benefits from Mining? Miners.

Mining can be profitable for miners, who are in charge of the construction and maintenance of Proof of Work-based blockchains. That is why they do it.

An interesting feature of the mining market is that profits can be uncertain. The rewards change and sources of income are also fairly dynamic. In fact, the “block rewards” portion of their earnings are explicitly based on a mechanism that is a bit like playing a lottery. In a competitive market for mining, miners are incentivized to adopt strategies that give them an advantage.

We have already seen miners’ strategies adapt over time to maximize their profits. One response to the bitcoin blockchain, in particular, has been to set up mining “farms” comprised of many high powered computers. As the owner of many computers, a mining farm increases the odds it will make profits. This should not be surprising: it is like someone who buys many tickets to a lottery in order to increase their chances of winning.

For the user of PoW-based blockchains, these two features of the mining market introduce risks to the users that are out of their own control: a) miners have incentives that diverge from the users’ and b) mining sets up an uneven playing field. A more concentrated market for mining also concentrates power over the construction and maintenance of the Proof of Work-based blockchain. This means a PoW-based blockchain database is vulnerable to attack.

The most well-known vulnerability is the 51% attack, which has happened several times. There are other threats that are more complicated and also relatively unknown, so we will not include them here. Suffice to say that every potential threat introduces risk of disruptions in service and controversy, especially when attacks within protocol yield unexpected results. Some of the outcomes may result in transactions that are rolled back or censored, which is exactly what blockchain-based DApps are supposed to disallow.

Geeq is focused on providing value to the end user of any Geeq-enabled service.

As you use the Geeq platform, you have the security of knowing Geeq’s blockchain-based payment system is at the leading edge of blockchain technology. All Distributed Applications (DApps) built on the Geeq platform are based on underlying blockchain databases that have the integrity and dependability blockchains are supposed to have. As a result, DApp providers and consumers are able to focus on the quality of services DApps provide, with an emphasis on making them useful and easy to use.

Conclusion

Geeq’s Proof of Honesty^TM (PoH) is a next generation, proprietary blockchain technology that enables a new hybrid platform. The platform itself is truly decentralized.

Geeq was built with the end goals of a blockchain-based, decentralized economy in mind. In order to arrive at that destination, we had to re-think all the layers of the blockchain “stack”, from the market for nodes and validators up through the final markets for new DApp-based goods and services.

Simply put, Geeq doesn’t have miners because their incentives are not aligned with our vision of a decentralized economy. In Geeq’s ecosystem, all incentives are aligned with those of the honest user, including the nodes and validators who construct and maintain the blockchains. At Geeq, market power doesn’t matter. Honesty does.

Dear Geeq Community Members,

Soon we will release a new round of Geeq’s Web-Based Staking. After the success of the last round we have decided to open up 2 new pools. We are happy to announce we will continue to bring you a webstaking option!

We will offer a new Geeq Staking 10 pool and a Geeq Liquidity pool.

The new Geeq Staking 10 pool will have the following changes:

• Pool cap increased to 3 million from 2.5 million tokens.
• APY will be 20%.

The new Geeq liquidity pool will have the following change:

• Pool cap will be 1000 LP tokens.

Please notice the timing is exactly the same time that our previous round of web-staking reaches full maturity.

General Overview

Geeq Staking can be likened to a savings account — it offers constant time-based returns based on the duration of your staking commitment. In other words, the longer you stake, the higher the rewards.

First, it is pool based. Meaning it is a group activity with multiple contributors for each staking contract.

Second, it is flexible. Meaning you have the option to withdraw early, stake until full maturity, or withdraw somewhere in between. But be warned: leaving early comes at a cost.

Third, it is all about liquidity. Meaning you have the option to stake your UNI-LP tokens for the Geeq/ETH pair, thus earning both uniswap fees + a great APY.

There will be 2 staking pools: Geeq Staking 10 and Geeq Liquidity. The terms of each staking pool (rewards, lengths, minimum contribution, etc.) are detailed below.

On Friday 21st October at 4 pm UTC,  the new web-staking pools will open on Geeq’s Staking page. All information regarding the Token, including Token Announcements, Token FAQs, Staking FAQs and step-by-step instructions, are under “Token” in the top navigation of the website.

Simply click on the contract that interests you to see its details. Then connect your ERC-20 Web 3 wallet to the contract, deposit your $GEEQ into the pool, and stake until you wish to withdraw. When you wish to withdraw, have your principal and rewards sent back to your wallet. Easy!

Requirements for Staking

Here are the requirements:

Metamask: GEEQ Staking requires an ERC-20 wallet extension such as Metamask, or a compatible Web 3 wallet which will automatically link to our staking contracts. This is the wallet address you will contribute from and where your earned rewards will be distributed upon withdrawal.

Once the staking pools are opened, they will continue to stay open until they are filled or the 2 week contribution window ends, whichever comes first. If you wish to know the exact percentage of the pool that is filled, please click through to the contract.

Full Maturity

Stake until full maturity to receive maximum rewards. Maturity will have a date and time assigned at which time full rewards will be available for withdrawal, so you will know exactly when you can withdraw to receive the maximum rewards.

Early Withdrawal

GEEQ Staking offers an early withdrawal option for flexibility. Early withdrawal will have a date and time assigned so you will know exactly when you can withdraw early.

Although rewards are lower for early withdrawal, they increase linearly every day — past the early withdrawal date right up until full maturity.

In other words, if you withdraw after the early withdrawal date and closer to full maturity, rewards will be higher, but still less than full maturity.

Here are the details of the next round of Geeq Staking, which opens Friday 21st October @ 4 pm UTC.

The Staking Pools, Terms and Conditions:

There are two staking pools: Geeq Staking 10 and Geeq Liquidity, each with different terms and rewards.

Geeq Staking 10

• Full Rewards: 20% annualized
• Full maturity: 90 days
• Early withdrawal: 60 days early withdrawal
• Early withdrawal: 10% annualized
• No Minimum, MAX stake allowed 200,000 $GEEQ
• Pool size: 3 million GEEQ
• Contribution window opens on Friday 21st October at 4 pm UTC
• Contribution window closes on Friday 4th November at 4 pm UTC if pool is not filled by then.

Geeq Liquidity

• Stake your Uniswap v2 LP tokens here
• Rewards: Uniswap Trading Fees + 100% APY
• Full maturity: 90 days
• Early withdrawal after: 60 days
• Early withdrawal: 10% annualized
• Pool Size: 100k GEEQ/ETH each side lockup
• Contribution window opens on Friday 21st October at 4 pm UTC
• Contribution window closes on Friday 4th November at 4 pm UTC if pool is not filled before then.

For your convenience, we keep track of all the pools’ dates and times here.

If you have any questions about staking and how to stake, including how to provide liquidity, please follow our guides in Geeq’s Staking FAQs.

What’s Next

When we update the GEEQ Staking website, it will have a countdown until the staking pools open on Friday 21st October at 4 pm UTC. Once the countdown is complete, staking will be open!

Alternative Geeq staking Programs

We have been running a Staking pool with great success on AscendEX since the launch of the Geeq token, offering a 18% compounded APY and more recently we have opened staking up on Kucoin offering 18% APY. Should you wish to use this staking option as an alternative.

Thank you!

Like labels on file folders, notes on memos, subject headings in emails, variable names and definitions in databases, metadata are used to describe the data you are certifying.

The Geeq Data app provides space for you to add metadata to describe the hash digest of your document. Together, the hash digest and metadata make up what is called the “data payload” of your transaction. When your transaction is validated and included in a block in the app’s Validation Layer Blockchain (VLB), the data payload is written in the corresponding block in the app’s Application Layer Blockchain (ALB).

In summary, applications powered by Geeq are supported by two parallel, simultaneously constructed Geeq chains.

Anyone with permission to use the Block Explorer will be able to search the blockchain. Metadata can make these searches easier.

For the private instance of Geeq Data, released for public testing, the first metadata field was required and the rest are optional. Metadata are entered as strings of characters in the Geeq Data app. Unlike the hash of the document, which never overtly reveals its contents, the metadata will be displayed in the Block Explorer as they were entered in the Geeq Data app.

If the user writes the metadata in cleartext, it will be displayed clearly in the Block Explorer to anyone who finds it. If the user encrypts the metadata, the encrypted metadata still will be visible – however, the only users who will understand what they mean will be those who know how to decrypt them.

The general point of being able to choose how and when to use encryption, even while blockchain tends to make transactions more transparent and visible, is often misunderstood by those who might be afraid of the word “transparency”. Actually, we have many options at our disposal, in this process of developing Geeq’s blockchain applications.

Another way to add privacy is to add permissioning structures that determine who is allowed to send transactions and who is allowed to access the Block Explorer. Geeq offers permissioning structures for its enterprise clients. Partner with us!

1. It’s the practical platform for everyone, with no smart contracts.

Geeq is blockchain for the everyday user, rather than an experts-only technology. There is no need to get to grips with new ways of working: Geeq’s API connectivity enables you to keep the same kinds of front-end user interfaces and dashboards you already use and enhance them with the most secure blockchain back end.

While smart contracts are nearly synonymous with better-known blockchains, they come with some compromises. Webs of interlinked and interdependent smart contracts lead to complex dependencies, which may cause unpredictable and unexpected results that produce a cascading effect across a network. Furthermore, a smart contract might be written for a specific task but then applied in another domain where it is less suitable, causing reliability and performance issues.

Geeq takes a different approach. We make it easy to send, receive, mint, escrow, swap, track ownership and more by building these directly into streamlined, standardized data structures, executed by protocol. In other words, Geeq has gone back to basics, stripping the complexity away and taking the time to provide logic to support any well-defined application. No smart contracts required.

2. It’s ahead of the curve with multichain architecture.

Other blockchains are struggling to improve their speed and scalability with patched-on solutions to reconcile separate components. The difficult technical problems with that approach are already being exposed. While the future is multichain, the strength of Geeq’s forest-of-chains design is the use of its secure protocol and standard transactions for every chain.          

With Geeq, there is no upper limit on the volume of transactions. Blocks on any chain are written every 10 seconds and, if an app becomes wildly popular, another chain can be launched with the exact same genesis block, to double the capacity at peak load. And on it goes.

Spinning up another chain is easy – the validation code is the same; the application functions are the same. All you need is a new network of nodes to bootstrap the new chain’s network. This is merely one way in which Geeq’s standardization pays off: you get scalability and flexibility while still having that all-important proof that every transaction in a block has been validated, according to the same, logically consistent, and unbiased set of rules.

3. Secure and provably accurate by design.

Geeq’s design makes for inherently trustworthy networks because nodes police each other automatically, as part of protocol. Geeq allows for three different node types: Geeq nodes, certified nodes and, in the case of public blockchains, anonymous nodes. Coordination between bad actors is extremely difficult for three reasons. Firstly, Geeq builds separation of powers into the core protocol. Secondly, each node separately builds its own block and must independently pass a test to prove its veracity and trustworthiness. Thirdly, there are built-in incentives to maintain correctness and audit any discrepancies. Only provably correct and reliable nodes will get paid because users will send transactions to them rather than a node who cannot provide proof that it is a good actor.

Why will users care about proof? It’s simple. Every present or future transaction will have counterparties, so any discrepancy will hurt someone who is counting on clearing a mutually agreeable trade. Viewed this way, the incentives of the nodes have been aligned completely  with their users. As real-time participants with an interest in their transactions, users will demand to see proofs of their transactions’ validity and inclusion, otherwise they may have been cheated.

Of course, Geeq has worked to make the proofs as compact and efficient as possible, with the least amount of clicks for users to find them on a block explorer or via the software in their wallet’s interface, so the check is as easy as putting a copy and paste into a search

Finally, Geeq will use a more up-to-date encryption algorithm at public launch. This is only possible because we started from scratch, whereas older blockchains face the difficulty of searching out, replacing, migrating and matching keys, node clients, and encryption with accounts, protocol versions, and smart contract code. Geeq’s software architects have thought ahead so that an entire chain may be upgraded at one time, without touching another chain, leaving the choice of migration completely up to the user.

4. Enterprise-ready blockchain for the real world.

Corporations face a lot of barriers in adopting blockchain. There is tremendous institutional resistance to change itself, which is compounded when it’s difficult to understand and believe a blockchain’s assurances. Geeqs understand; it is why we have de-risked blockchain and made it simple to use. Geeq offers security, scalability and unlimited volume at radically low costs, without the need to change anything. Geeq adds value to whatever is already working for you, while putting a safety net under your data so if something happens to your central database, you know you have a tool for recovery that has never been compromised.

Our simple deployment options put you in control. Geeq doesn’t store your files; you decide where they are located and continue to use them however you wish. Geeq’s invisible layer of  automatic, cryptographic integrity and independently neutral validation means you can be sure to find your original data as if it was flash-frozen in the state it was in. You still get to choose how much and which kinds of data to send and share.

Because the data structures that govern transactions are standardized, Geeq’s templates can be adapted for thousands of use cases. Similarly, networks can be private, public or hybrid, whatever your organization needs. Geeq provides safer, more adaptable, and more user-friendly blockchain, suitable for solving problems with supply chains, IoT, self-certification services, micropayments, verification of digital asset ownership, transfers, and more.

We understand managing changes in technology can be stressful, which is why Geeq has prioritized providing next generation services with the highest level of security and least amount of disruption. Your experts can advise you whether to keep blockchain invisible and outside your firewalls, access them minimally through an API, or use them to power any webapps you like. All of it is possible.

5. From the beginning, Geeq was designed for public participation.

Geeq was conceived to provide security and scalability in the most challenging setting imaginable: a multi-chain public environment, which we believe is what global and space infrastructure will require. Our focus, though, has always been on the people at home: to provide a safe, level playing field for the end user. It is a core part of our DNA and vision for Web3.

Our protocol de-risks blockchain to tackle the transactions and data handling that are a part of busy users’ everyday lives. We have put crypto speculation to the side in order to focus on utility. Exploits of smart contracts or bridges aren’t even a factor: Geeq has invented the most secure swaps (on-chain trades) in the space.

We’ve also witnessed pent-up demand from enterprises for easier to adopt ways to incorporate NFTs and fungible tokens. Geeq’s standardized transactions and built-in data structures satisfy these needs exactly.  Finally, Geeq’s multi-chain platform support private, public, and hybrid configurations for a reason. Different users desire different levels of privacy, from transparency within an enterprise only, to permissioned sharing with regulators, to complete visibility for the public.

We are excited to work with enterprise partners to address their specific needs. It is an ideal way to perfect Geeq ahead of public release. We can polish features, test them in real time, gather feedback, and iterate. This helps us to build our market, generate demand, and spread awareness for the public role of the $GEEQ token. Everything is working according to plan.

We know many of you have questions about how the $GEEQ token will work when the public chain(s) are live, so let’s answer them.

– What incentive does the public have to run nodes? 

Geeq’s protocol is innovative because it automatically pays nodes – but only if their individual validation is correct. Geeq nodes are paid twice the marginal costs of their services, and have incentives to prove their blockchains are correct and up to date because they will get traffic. Users, in the meantime, benefit from more certainty about fees and from efficient markets for chains and nodes. Everyone wins.

– Cool! When can I run a public node and start earning GEEQ? 

History has shown it makes sense to launch public chains with some central control, in order to make adjustments without having to coordinate across anonymous nodes. However, once that period ends, the fact that Geeq’s protocol requires each node to build its own provably correct blockchain means there is no special value for centralization. The market for network participants will be able to sustain a competitive market by coding free entry and exit in the genesis block, with quality assured because every node is held to the same standard of proof for the end user.

– And what does that mean for the token swap?

Once the network is fully public, holders of the ERC-20 token will be able to swap their tokens for native GEEQ. The ERC-20 token will continue to be used for some time after the token swap as the Geeq platform grows, ensuring it has inherent utility.

– But what about tokenomics?

Geeq’s tokenomics were thought through from the beginning, and the distribution is exactly the same as originally specified.  Moreover, we’ve doubled down on our commitment to build until $GEEQ fulfills its role for the public. The founders and advisers have agreed that their tokens are locked until Geeq launches its public chain(s). Geeq has a mission; we’re building the technological backbone for a better economy. For everyone.

Thanks for reading! And please share this article with anyone who would like a quick overview of Geeq.

– The Geeq Team

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