Ontology
ontWhat is Ontology?
Ontology is a public Layer 1 blockchain and trust platform whose current product suite centers on ONT ID, verifiable identity and reputation tooling, an EVM-compatible development environment, ONTO Wallet, staking, bridge and explorer tools. The Ontology MainNet launched on June 30, 2018. ONT is the network's value token; ONG is a separate gas and reward token.
What problem does Ontology solve?
Ontology targets the problem of building applications that can use identity, reputation and verifiable credentials without putting all user data under a single intermediary. Its current site also presents low-cost transactions, multi-VM development and self-custodial wallet access as practical infrastructure goals. These are protocol and product objectives, not a guarantee that every planned or advertised application is live or that ONT confers legal identity, ownership or revenue rights.
How does Ontology work?
ONT is the native asset used for staking and network governance, while ONG pays transaction and smart-contract execution costs and is distributed through the network's staking/reward model. The official implementation fixes ONT's supply at 1 billion whole-token units; its legacy interface reports zero decimals and the post-upgrade interface supports nine decimals at the protocol level. The published native ABI exposes initialization, transfers, allowances and read methods. It does not expose ERC-20-style mint, pause or blacklist methods; this ABI review alone does not establish every validator, consensus or upgrade authority outside the token contract. The 2025 tokenomics vote was conducted by Triones nodes, so it should not be described as unrestricted one-token-one-vote governance for every holder.
Key facts
- Ontology MainNet launched on June 30, 2018, according to the official protocol implementation.
- ONT has a fixed 1,000,000,000-token supply in the published protocol constants.
- ONT's legacy native interface uses zero decimals; the implementation also defines a nine-decimal V2 interface after the MainNet decimal upgrade.
- ONT is presented by Ontology as the value token for governance and staking; ONG is the gas token for transactions and smart-contract execution.
- Current Ontology products include ONT ID, ONTO Wallet, ONT staking, an EVM-compatible development environment, a bridge and an explorer.
- The public ONT native ABI lists transfers, approvals, balances and supply reads, but no mint, pause, blacklist or upgrade entry point.
- The October 28–31, 2025 ONG tokenomics vote was conducted by Triones nodes; the later announcement described an 800 million ONG cap, a 19-year release schedule and 80% of released ONG directed to staking incentives.
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Frequently asked questions
Is ONT the same token as ONG?
No. Ontology documents ONT as the value token used for governance and staking, while ONG is the separate gas token used for transactions and smart-contract execution and distributed as network rewards.
What is ONT's supply and decimal format?
The protocol constants set ONT total supply at 1,000,000,000 tokens. The legacy interface uses zero decimals; the implementation defines a post-upgrade nine-decimal V2 representation, so applications should follow the current network interface rather than assume an exchange display is authoritative.
Do all ONT holders have unrestricted governance voting rights?
Not established. Ontology's 2025 tokenomics announcement says Triones nodes voted through OWallet. The site describes ONT as powering governance and staking, but the cited materials do not establish a universal legal or one-token-one-vote right for every holder.
What can the ONT token contract administrator mint or freeze?
The published native ABI exposes initialization, transfers, approvals, balances, allowances, metadata and supply reads, and does not list mint, pause or blacklist methods. This does not by itself prove that consensus or node software has no other administrative or upgrade powers; those require separate current on-chain and governance verification.
What can someone use Ontology for today?
The current Ontology site presents ONT ID, ONTO Wallet, ONT staking, EVM-compatible dApp development, a bridge, an explorer and developer tooling. Roadmap or marketing claims should not be treated as proof that every ecosystem application is operational.
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