About

Pastel is a blockchain purpose-built for NFTs. It is built with Creators, Collectors and Developers in mind. It currently has two complementary protocols, Sense & Cascade, which provide specific functionality to add value to the platform. As Pastel is a Layer-1 blockchain it has a native token (PSL) and a wrapped Ethereum version (wPSL) which is backed 1:1 and can be convereted here.

The current problems with NFTs such as high gas fees and data storage & security issues are what Pastel aim to capitalise on.

Pastel is yet to go "live" but expect to launch in early 2022.

History

Pastel began in 2018 when its Founder, Jeff Emanuel, saw the potential of rare digital assets (NFTs) on the blockchain. Existing platforms were faced with high gas fees, network congesion, and scalablity constraints - while they were also incapable of providing storage for the NFT data themselves. This is what Pastel being purpose-built for NFTs intends to solve.

Pastel currently has two main protocols; Sense & Cascade as explained below.

Sense protocol is a lightweight protocol on the Pastel Network, built to assess the relative rareness of a given NFT. Just like with wine, NFT's have a provenance and also are susceptible to forgery. An easy way to forge an NFT is to make one immaterial change which generates a new hash so it appears as "new". This can be partly solved through verifing the ID of the issuer, are they a known quantity or not. This would be classified as Unkown Rarity in Pastel. This is the lowest of the three gradings as shown below. Using image recoginition technology Pastel can determine if it's "Rare to Pastel" and more broadly if it's "Highly Rare" relative to the internet which would mean a highly original and creative NFT. This proprietary rating system allow for more accurate NFT valuations helping to assure and inform the market. Rarity Ratings:

1. Unkown Rarity
2. Rare to Pastel
3. Highly Rare The Cascade protocol for distributed storage is purpose-built for NFT metadata as it is redundant, decentralized, and made permanent. The current approach of relying upon a TokenID and external hyperlinks to centralized storage servers or external dependencies like IPFS Pinning leaves users potentially vulnerable to the loss of assets due to counter-party risk. Pastel is the first NFT platform to have its own integrated, decentralized storage layer based on the technologies of RaptorQ and Kademlia. This ensures that the underlying digital asset itself is uploaded, verified, and registered on Pastel’s Cascade Protocol - rather than just the token when minted. As the NFT ecosystem continues to grow Pastel aims to put itself and its Blockchain into the heart of this transformative cultural shift.