Waves, the blockchain platform for token generation and trading today announced a new release that sees a number of significant developments, including data transactions, Fair PoS, token burning and sponsored transactions.

Details on the updates can be found below:

Data Transactions

Data Transactions allow anyone post information to the blockchain. The maximum size of a data transaction is around 140kb. Fees for data transactions, calculated in WAVES, are proportional to transaction size: 100,000 per kilobyte, rounded up to the nearest kb. Since the transaction size is limited to 140kb, it will cost just 0.14 WAVES (less than $1).

More on Data Transactions

Fair Proof of Stake

This is an update to our PoS system that removes some of the disadvantages for smaller miners. Whilst PoS should allow anyone to receive mining rewards in proportion to their WAVES balance, in practice, the odds are stacked in favor of larger miners, who create a higher share of blocks. The protocol has been adjusted to reflect this and ensure that smaller miners are not pushed out.

Burn Transactions For All

Any user can now burn tokens, which means destroying them by making cryptographically unspendable. This allows users who received spam tokens to remove them from their portfolios permanently.

Sponsored Transactions

An important update to the protocol is Sponsored Transactions. Sponsored transactions replace asset fees which allowed users to pay nodes directly with custom tokens. After activating the Sponsored transactions the issuer of the token will make the deposit in WAVES, and this deposit will be used for paying for the node’s service.

It is important that all nodes process transactions and do not refuse any due to them being economically unviable. Additionally, this ensures that there is always demand for WAVES since transactions are cheap but not free.

More information on Sponsored Transactions

Waves is a decentralized platform with powerful real-world tools and functionality hosted on the blockchain. The multilevel ecosystem of the Waves Platform lets anyone launch their own cryptographically-secured blockchain tokens, as well as private networks, quickly and easily. Using the Waves blockchain, businesses and individuals can build powerful, versatile applications with all the advantages of peer-to-peer technology.

In June 2016, Waves completed the ICO, raising over $16 million (30,000 bitcoins). The total market capitalization of Waves is about $600,000,000.

Among the most notable token sales on the platform are MobileGo, ZrCoin, EncryptoTel, PrimalBase and Starta Accelerator.