AMA with 0Chain CEO, Saswata Basu | July 5, 2019
On Friday July 5, 0Chain hosted a live AMA with CEO, Saswata Basu. If you were unable to watch live, you can read the transcript below or check out the videos here:
https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1lPKqodlbPNJb
Saswata: Hi guys, Saswata here from 0Chain for our July 5 AMA. Happy Fourth of July and I hope you are enjoying your holiday weekend. We are working here on Friday and I am going to be going through all the questions submitted on Twitter and the others you ask as we go.
Question: If I understood correctly, each token is allocated a certain amount of storage space, how much space will each token have ? For example, does 1 ZCN token = 1GB?
Answer: Relationship between token and storage is based on the blobber. It is based on what they ask for. It will primarily be based on the fiat value of storage in the market. For example if AWS is charging 0.01/gb it will likely follow. We will have an API that makes it easy for service providers.
Question: Why you don’t consider the opportunity to be listed on binance dex for more exposure and two chances for a free listing on binance main exchange?
Answer: We are considering it. It is not like we have ruled it out. We want to develop the community so that we can market to build our community before arriving at the point to list on Binance.
Question: Will it be possible to upload more than 10 files at a time on 0Box?Answer: Yes you shouldn’t have any issues with this. There should not be a limitation at this point.
Question: Will you be able to upload files from one device and download on another? For example, upload on computer and download on mobile.
Answer: Yes, we are going to have desktop sync so you should be able to upload on laptop or mobile and be able to sync on other device. This will be available on other devices like iPad or other mobile devices.
Question: When do you expect to release the documentation for service providers? Hardware is ready :)
Answer: We are close to having the package ready for miners. Once ready, we will have documentation on the website so you can download it and conduct a bugathon. Hold on tight for that. We are still working on our BetaNet. It is not up yet and we are working on issues with View Change. It will happen in the next couple weeks.
Question: Many MSBs are ready. When can we expect software and information to join the network?
Answer: Wait a couple weeks and we will have a better update. We are hoping to enable miners in a few weeks.
Question: Why don’t you apply for listing on Nash Social?
Answer: I don’t know about Nash Social. First time I am hearing about it, so I will look into it.
Question: What is your timeline for adding a marketing specialist to the team?
Answer: I have engaged a couple marketing teams. I think it is late to add a team member because it takes time to understand our value proposition. Basically, I am engaging two or more marketing firms to talk to influencers, target chinese community, and developers. This uses grassroots marketing to basically have them learn more about 0Chain, storage platforms, and all the protocols we have developed. We are getting the word out there and we need to engage more than one person. Obviously, I will be driving it but we are using firms that have connections to developers, influencers, and media outlets. We are working on getting users from Chinese and Asian communities which is something we have not done in the past. So we are searching for users and developers from those communities to help develop additional applications on our platform.
Question: Any updates on marketing or VCs?
Answer: VC perspective, we are looking at Asian VCs and investors. We are looking at those exchanges such as Binance and KuCoin as they list many alt coins. Now that we have all the products, my time will be focused on marketing and messaging our value proposition and our products and protocols.
Question: Can you explain how fiat purchases for storage will work? Can you clarify the correlation of the token holders and 0box users who will directly pay via fiat/credit card. How do ZCN holders pay for storage if there is not 0Wallet connected to the 0Box app?
Answer: 0Box is a decentralized application that is geared for non-crypto users as well as crypto-users that want to pay via fiat/credit card. If you are a large user or application that wants to use 0Chain storage, you can use SDK to pay directly to blobbers. 0Box app makes it easy for users and developers to use the services without worrying about the crypto aspect. We are targeting users who value privacy and transparency; those who do not want to login, use emails to upload files and for their files to not be visible to other entities. This applies to and appeals to a bigger market. That doesn’t mean you can’t build an application on our platform and only charge crypto. We encourage people to write such applications during the hackathon. How we manage the tokens on the backend is that we will purchase tokens as users come on. Then, we will pay the blobbers directly with these purchased tokens. Team tokens will ensure network security as we do not want to risk that at this point. If a user purchases 1Tb of data, we will purchase the ZCN and use that.
Question: Will there be more than one app? I don’t see the wallet in the latest 0Box version
Answer: Yes, there will be a 0Wallet version that will be released in the upcoming week or the following week. It has a lot of functionality that is not relevant for someone who just wants to store data. For 0Wallet, it is geared toward users who want to lock/stake, and protect tokens so that’s why we have the split-key protocol. If one device gets hacked, you will still be protected
Question: When can we expect 0Wallet?
Answer: Next week or the following
Question: Updates on beta? When can we expect external miners?
Answer: Hopefully a few weeks, keep tuned
Question: How many external miners/rigs do you have ready to join? When will delegation pools be available?
Answer: I believe we have 15+ world wide are ready right now. When BetaNet is up and running, you will be able to see how many are present. I believe will see more as MainNet approaches since a lot of people have confirmed they will join with external rigs. We have will have a program with our partnership that will provide cabinets in data centers with 1Gb connectivity in 8–10 markets in the USA. We currently do not have anything internationally but we are looking to add more partners so that if a miner wants to join in, they can have a low price data center. This will be transparent.
Once you see the 0Wallet app you will be able to see the delegation pool info. This should be in the next couple of weeks
Question: When will 0box be released on App store?
Answer: This should happen in the next couple of weeks. We want to add the Stripe integration, fiat integration and then release into the store. It will take a couple of cycles and the store approval takes a week. We will try to do it this month.
Question: Can you lock tokens without using storage service? To generate interest
Answer: Yes, you will see that on 0Wallet as it will be one of the features to lock tokens for interest. You can also stake tokens to receive more by adding to a miner/sharder
Question: General timeline updates?
Answer: 0Box, 0Wallet, BetaNet should be in good shape/form and close to production ready by the end of this month so that we can do hackathon/bugathon in august. This way, we can be ready for exchanges to list our native token. We are doing marketing in step with the latest updates to release info about our product, protocols, and 0Chain. We have released the SDK so we will see engagement in hackathons to develop our community worldwide. We hope for new apps to be developed or to integrate existing applications to use our storage. We want to create relations with apps and exchanges. Hackathon hopefully in August to ensure the security of our network. Exchanges take time and is layered-marketing as we need to partner with smaller ones to get more attention. Money and fees is the main goal of exchanges, so once volume picks up, we show our product, we will see lowered fees to be listed.
Question: How do you integrate 0Wallet with 0Box as you lock ZCN on 0Wallet, not 0Box for free storage?
Answer: 0Box and 0Wallet are separate. 0Box is a fiat only dApp, where the payer is 0Chain. This way it appeals to the masses, non-crypto users, and they do not need to worry about crypto. 0Wallet is to store, send, lock , and stake ZCN in a secure manner using split-key technology
Question: How does this impact the value of ZCN?
Answer: The price of ZCN would reflect a) data, b) dApps & businesses using it to pay for storage, c) users using it to earn 10% or more interest based on lock or stake, d) paying service providers and e) users using it for cross-border payment for services, like other crypto. ZCN is a new class of crypto asset based on data. 0Box is just one dApp using 0Chain Storage. I expect hundreds more, followed by thousands of businesses and enterprises.
When purchasing storage on 0Box, fiat will be used by 0Chain LLC to purchase ZCN on the open market. Team tokens will not be used for this.
Question: And all the users that bought ZCN do what? The admin’s always said that we could change ZCN for storage at 0box. Now it is only fiat?
Answer: No, we will buy ZCN. You can always use SDK to directly interact with the network, and can also come up with a different storage app and business model. Thats why we have Hackathons. Again 0Box is one type of storage app to showcase an example. I’m sure there will be others built on 0Chain network.
Question: are there CDN like features implemented in 0chain? From my understanding data is stored on multiple blobbers for redundancy reasons. I am thinking of something like static content delivery as an alternative to e.g. S3 from the latency closest src
Answer: Yes, for S3 and enterprises, CDN and Egress are big values for the comparative cost they pay today.
Question: Any numbers for SDK download/uploads?
Answer: We don’t track the cloning of the SDK on GitHub. Not sure how to track this but I will look to see if there is a way to do so. Once we do the hackathon, we expect to see more applications using our SDK
Saswata: Thanks for joining us for this AMA on this July 4th extended weekend. We are excited for you to see this all come together. We released an updated version of 0Box Native app available on TestFlight for iOS. Expect to see some more changes, like Stripe integration, before release. Some business and VCs are excited to see a consumer app on blockchain. We hope to have more news next AMA about marketing, the tech and exchanges. Thanks for joining and we will see you later!
Saswata offered further explanation in the 0Chain Telegram group.
1. 0Box is designed to compete with DropBox, pCloud, Sync, where users pay only $10/mo and use fiat. We want mass appeal. This will help introduce people to ZCN, gain visibility, and we expect a small percentage will buy ZCN.
2. If you want to use ZCN for your storage, and have a lot of data, use the SDK or CLI tool yourself. If the market is big, and there is interest, I’m sure someone will develop a UI for this. But there are legal aspects of liability which the provider needs to sort out and can be a complex issue.
3. If you are a MSP or reseller of storage, we will have a separate program. Stay tuned.
4. We will not use team tokens to buy storage. They are to preserve the security of the network. We want to be the best secure blockchain network and with our client-side split-key technology will be the only network with an end-to-end high security platform to store value.
5. We will buy ZCN on an exchange and pay the blobbers. $10/mo is not that much ZCN. Of course, if we have 1 million paid users, then it is substantial, but thats a good thing, and will attract liquid exchanges and MMs, as they make money on the spread.
6. Guys, let’s think big and keep things in perspective. There is 35 Zettabytes of data today. It is expected to grow to 175 Zettabytes in 5–6 years, according to IDC. If we capture 1 Zettabyte of data, the ZCN price will be in triple digits. And this is not considering the usage of ZCN as an asset, locking for interest, or speculation, which it will be at that point.
7. 0Chain is the first to mechanize the decentralization process. It is an inside-out process of today’s cloud storage. The winners are dataceters, carriers, and system/disk vendors, and IT guys who are MSPs. The first consumers of storage will be 0Box and MSPs. But later dApps and enterprise applications will use the SDK to store data on our platform.
8. MSPs today resell storage and profit on the mark up. With 0Chain, they not only make money on reselling storage, but they make even more on their rigs.
9. 0Chain is attractive to PoS miners of blockchain. Because they need to be in the active set or committee for them to make money, and they need to stake enough, otherwise they are left out and their rig becomes useless. 0Chain offers miners a new revenue source which is unlimited and they are not limited by mining income.
Thanks for taking the time to read and watch our AMA. Please tune in for next week’s episode of AskFeebs. Feel free to submit questions on our Twitter thread which will be posted early next week.
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