Question 1

What is ELA?

Accepted Answer

ELA is the native digital asset of the Elastos main chain. It is used for main-chain transfers and transaction fees, and it also connects to network security, BPoS participation, governance, and related uses within the ecosystem. Here, ELA specifically refers to the native asset of the Elastos main chain; representations or wrapped forms on other chains must be understood according to the rules of their respective networks.

Question 2

What are ELA's main uses?

Accepted Answer

On the Elastos main chain, ELA is used to pay transaction fees and can be used for BPoS staking votes, validator registration, and governance participation; the documentation also states that related smart-chain and identity-chain operations can use ELA to pay gas fees. Fees, staking, and governance are not the same action: paying a fee completes an on-chain operation, staking and voting are required to enter the BPoS participation path, and validator registration applies to nodes taking on that role.

Question 3

How is the ELA network secured?

Accepted Answer

The Elastos main chain receives proof-of-work security through merged mining with Bitcoin: participating Bitcoin miners can also participate in ELA mining during their mining process, so ELA does not need to independently rebuild an equivalent-scale base of miner participation. Merged mining provides this network-security path, while BPoS is another layer of network roles in which ELA participants engage through staking votes and validator mechanisms.

Question 4

How do ELA supply and the halving mechanism work?

Accepted Answer

ELA has a maximum supply of 28,219,999 coins. New ELA comes from block rewards, which halve approximately every four years, so a halving changes the rate at which new ELA is produced per block thereafter and does not reduce ELA that already exists; the official page expects issuance to be completed around 2105. Thus, the cap, ongoing issuance, and successive halvings together determine that new supply declines over time.

Question 5

How can users participate in BPoS, and how are block rewards allocated?

Accepted Answer

To participate in BPoS-related rewards, users need to stake ELA and vote for nodes; merely holding ELA, or merely locking ELA without completing a vote, is not equivalent to receiving rewards for voting stake participants. Of newly produced block rewards, 35% goes to merged-mining miners, 35% goes to BPoS validators and voting stake participants, and 30% enters the Elastos DAO treasury; these three percentages describe block-reward allocation, rather than a guaranteed fixed rate of return for any participant.

Question 6

Why can't ELA received by miners be used immediately?

Accepted Answer

ELA block-reward outputs received by miners must wait 100 blocks before they can be spent. This maturity period applies to mining rewards, allowing the prescribed block-confirmation stage to pass before rewards become spendable; it does not mean that every ordinary user's ELA transfer must follow the same 100-block waiting rule.

Question 7

Why must the network and address format be confirmed when transferring ELA?

Accepted Answer

Before transferring ELA, the network holding the asset and the recipient address format must be confirmed. The ELA main chain uses UTXO addresses, which normally begin with E; the smart chain and identity chain use Ethereum-like 0x addresses. Main-chain ELA, ELA on these chains, and wrapped forms on Ethereum have related names, but they are not the same transfer path in which any address can be used interchangeably; a network or format mismatch may cause assets to be unrecoverable.

Question 8

What unit is sela?

Accepted Answer

sela is one of the smallest units of denomination for ELA: 100,000,000 sela equals 1 ELA. On-chain fees and amounts returned by interfaces are sometimes displayed in sela, so conversions should use 1 ELA = 100,000,000 sela to avoid misreading an amount in the smallest unit as an integer amount of ELA.

Question 9

What should users note when using or participating in the ELA network?

Accepted Answer

ELA's issuance rules and participation mechanisms do not guarantee price or participation returns. Participants also bear risks including market volatility, technical operations, liquidity, network selection, and asset loss; particularly when staking and voting, bridging across chains, or transferring, they should first verify the network in use, address format, platform support, and applicable rules at that time.

Elastos (ELA) Price