The OMG Network is a public, decentralized network that enables high-throughput, low-cost peer-to-peer transactions. Anyone can exchange value across regions, asset types, and applications via the OMG Network. Notably, OMG was previously known as OmiseGO. The OMG Network is built on Plasma, a framework developed by Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin and blockchain specialist Joseph Poon.
The OMG Network employs the use of Layer-2 Plasma architecture to provide high throughput and safety guarantees for third parties who want to build a scalable, decentralized payment app on the Ethereum (ETH) network. The network employs users to access, manage, and deal with digital assets stored safely on the blockchain. Layer 2 is a secondary protocol built on an existing blockchain system. The goal of Layer 2 protocols is to solve the transaction speed and scaling difficulties that trouble cryptocurrency networks.
The OMG Platform builds a value transfer layer on top of Ethereum that combines Ethereum transactions and verifies them through a speed-optimized child chain (blockchain) before returning them to the Ethereum blockchain for confirmation. Child chains (also called plasma chains) are separate blockchains that are connected to the main Ethereum chain.
Problem: Ethereum has scaling limitations. A blockchain protocol's scalability refers to its ability to support high transactional throughput and future growth. Ethereum can only handle about 14 transactions per second. This happens because blockchain networks employ intensive procedures for verifying the data. Thus, scaling has always been a subject of intense scrutiny in the blockchain industry.
Solution: OMG Network solves this scalability issue by implementing a scaling system called More Viable Plasma (MoreVP) to considerably increase transaction throughput. The OMG Foundation, in particular, bundles transactions, compresses them into a single transaction, and verifies them on the OMG Foundation child chain. The child chain then returns confirmed transactions to Ethereum for blockchain confirmation. The OMG Foundation can process thousands of transactions per second thanks to this bundling technique. Because gas fees (transaction fees on Ethereum) are paid on the bundled, compressed transaction rather than each individual transaction, transaction costs are one-third of what they would be on Ethereum.
Notably, the three main components of the OMG Network are:
OMG is the utility token of the platform and the primary mode of interaction with the platform. OMG is based on the ERC-20 token standard.