Getting to understand TomoChain / TomoCoin, digging through the whitepaper in detail.

12 min readFeb 10, 2018

Hi everyone, instead of an informative article or an interview, today I’m going to spit through the TomoChain / TomoCoin whitepaper. I will be updating this as I read it, I read the 3–4 first pages, and to be honest, I have difficulties to understand it (the system). Trying a different approach by typing everything on paper, not only helping myself but perhaps also others, let’s get started.
Note: anything between “ ” is quoted from the whitepaper

What is TomoChain / TomoCoin?

“The Internet of Value is understood as a phase when values and digital assets exist as a packet of information on Internet via blockchain technology. These packets of information are transparent, secure, programmable, and globally accessible to anyone with Internet. Our mission is to be a leading force in building this era, designing its infrastructures and working toward a reality that will make knowledge, decentralization, financial independence, and opportunities accessible to everyone, everywhere. Our goal is to make TomoChain infrastructure powering a host of multiple successful decentralized applications and supporting thousands of cryptographic tokens from established small and big companies and to make TomoCoin one of the most valuable and important digital assets for millions of people.”

Alright, so to summarize, TomoChain serves for the Internet of Value with a superior structure, that also supports dApps and cryptographic tokens? TomoCoin’s role is still unknown, except that they aim to make it the most valuable and important digital assets for millions of people. Ambitious to say the least.

“TomoChain is an innovative solution to the scalability problem with the Ethereum blockchain in particular and with all current blockchain network in general.” … “TomoChain is envisioned to be a network of chains
that supports instant confirmation, near zero transaction fee, and smart contracts which will be an ideal solution for decentralized apps, token issuances and token integrations for small and big businesses alike.”

Next to serve as the Internet of Value, TomoChain will also try and solve the scalability problem of Ethereum. All of this with instant confirmation, near zero transaction fees and smart contracts? Even more ambitious, curious to keep on reading and see if they have have a working product already.

“TomoCoin will be the protocol token that govern and regulate this infrastructure. TomoChain will be a critical part of the alternative financial system based on Internet and blockchain technology which is more secure, transparent, efficient, inclusive and equitable than the traditional regime.”

Explanation of TomoCoin’s role above.

“The Tomo application will be the first consumer application utilizing TomoChain blockchain infrastructure. Tomo application aims to build a new decentralized social network with a built-in cryptocurrency. In this social network, each contributor role is highlighted and rewarded; user privacy is respected and micropayments are easy, cheap and fast. Tomo application approaches this goal by focusing on building a Q&A social site in which a network of contributors are answering questions and creating valuable content. All Q&A contents are publicly available to create a public library of
instructional videos and answers. It is planned that TomoCoin will be the native currency within Tomo application.”

So far the whitepaper introduces 3 terms;

TomoChain: the infrastructure of the project
TomoCoin: The protocol token that govern and regulate this infrastructure
Tomo Application: Q&A social site network of contributors (valuable content → Internet of Value ;) )

Let’s continue with the last paragraph of the introduction.

“A big part of TomoCoin will be used in a Reward Engine/ Ecosystem Building program as a reward for developers and early contributors. With the Reward Engine, Tomo application users will have a built-in economic incentive to create valuable content that will help “bootstrap” the social network’s knowledge base until a network effect kicks in. At the same time, TomoCoin will gain a fundamental value by being the native crypto-currency of the social network. Each Tomo application account will integrate a coin wallet and will use this credit for financial transactions within the application. Ecosystem Building program for TomoChain will help to create a diverse set of d-apps and token community utilizing the technology and supporting the development of the infrastructure for the long term.”

A LOT of information so far, not going in depth about the Reward Engine / Ecosystem building right now. It is still unclear for me, and I expect more information and a better explanation later in the whitepaper.

Development, The Wallet & The Tomo App

The current feature plan of TomoChain includes:

Not too much that hasn’t been mentioned yet in the introduction, but very interesting for certain individuals: Masternodes and servicenode system, Mining and cashing in and out features based on smart contracts. Not sure how the latter is realized and what it exactly means.

Tomo wallet shares the same backend infrastructure of Tomo
application such as TomoChain, third party APIs, decentralized identity system, coin exchange smart contract and APIs etc. The planned feature set of Tomo wallet will be as follows:

Alright, freedom is given to store coins and tokens on Ethereum or TomoChain, sounds cool. Unclear yet what the difference or benefit is of storing it on TomoChain instead of Etehereum. There are some pictures of the wallet in the whitepaper, but I instead decided to take a look myself (browser). The demo wallet is available at https://wallet.TomoCoin.io

The sent option, nothing special. Wallet looks functional.

This gets interesting, the Cash in / Cash out option. As you can see I played around with it a little. This swaps your TMC for ETH and back. Still unclear for me what purpose it serves. I’m guessing this is where you can choose where to store your coins / tokens, either on Ethereum or on TomoChain.

The Tomo App

“This Tomo application will be the first social consumer application utilizing TomoChain infrastructure. The beta version is now available at TomoApp.com with thousands of weekly active users and is available for download on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.”

Nice! The App is already available at the above mentioned site, take a look for yourself.

“A big part of the coin emission from the Tomo reward engine will go into the Tomo application and be distributed to users via the Reward Engine’s Proof of Contribution.”

The roadmap for product development is as follows:

This App reminds me of Okwave, I think it is a good initiative if properly developed. A good first App for the TomoChain project, but it would require more Apps to function as a network / infrastructure for The Internet of Value. I know, I know, the project isn’t even launched on the mainnet yet. Just sayin’.

Next up in the whitepaper, the Technical Discussion

I will not be going through the full technical details, will pick the interesting parts that I believe are worth mentioning.

The scaling solution

“TomoChain is a blockchain infrastructure solution to the scalability problems with building TomoApp or other mainstream applications on Ethereum or other blockchain technologies in general. TomoChain is a public permissioned blockchain with integrated smart contract functionalities (currently based on the Ethereum code-base) which allows for nearly zero fee & instant transaction speed with public auditability of financial transaction records. TomoChain opts to use Proof of Authority and build nodes in multiple locations to make sure the database in a highly secure, immutable state. APIs for third parties will also be standardized and published in the next phase of development.”

Highlighted parts is a good summary of how TomoChain proposes to solve Etehereum’s scaling solutions. For me, and probably others, this is not the main reason of interest in TomoChain. Still this is a good extra feature to have and an important problem to solve. I haven’t dug really into for example Raiden, so I don’t know how much need for scaling solutions there still is.

Integrated architecture of TomoApp and TomoWallet utilizing TomoChain infrastructure and connect with Ethereum blockchain.

Cash In & Cash Out

“Users can use TomoCoin for many services within TomoApp and TomoWallet. Users can use TomoCoin in Ethereum and transfer it to Tomo application. The process is done via smart contract as described below:”

Step 1: TomoWallet creates a TomoCoin transfer transaction in TomoChain
Step 2: TomoCoin will be transferred from user’s wallet to Cash-Out Smart Contract
Step 3: TomoWallet Backend receives an event from TomoChain
Step 4: TomoWallet Backend call Cash-out function in Cash-Out Smart Contract in Ethereum
Step 5: Cash-Out Smart Contract transfers TomoCoin to user’s wallet in Ethereum
Step 6: TomoCoin appears in user’s Ethereum wallet

Finally! Now it makes sense, next to be able to send TomoCoin with the wallet, the Cash In & Cash Out feature switches TomoCoin between the TomoChain and Ethereum (it of course being an ERC20 token). Maybe I was slow of understanding this part, but now the “Cash Out” makes sense → transfer your (earned) TomoCoin to Ethereum and sell if you’d like. Vise versa for “Cash In”. More info in the next paragraph “TomoChain”.

TomoChain

“TomoWallet and TomoApp use TomoCoin which is issued following ERC-20 standard in the Ethereum blockchain. TomoApp and TomoWallet aim to reach the highest level of performance for Internet consumer applications which requires very low transaction fee and very fast transaction speeds. At the same time, transparency, security and value of TomoCoin are of paramount importance to us. TomoChain is our solution of using a permissioned public blockchain with integrated smart contract functionalities. TomoChain allows for nearly zero fee transaction and and very high transaction speed, at the same time supports public auditability of all financial transaction records. TomoChain will also interact with Ethereum public blockchain via smart contracts allowing for TomoCoin interoperability between Tomo network and Ethereum public blockchain. It is planned that TomoChain will also use TomoCoin as a protocol token to govern and regulate the infrastructure which will create demand for TomoCoin from other third party utilizing TomoChain. A technical paper on TomoChain, the governance system and its the economics of TomoX will be published when the chain design is completed. The official launch of TomoChain is planned for the third quarter of 2018.”

This part explains a lot in the highlighted parts. Also a little teaser of what to come: TomoX’ governance system and economics. Q3 2018 is the planned release for TomoChain!

Market Analysis

Simply put, how does TomoChain compete with other existing projects? A summary of some comparisons:

Steem
“Steem is the native cryptocurrency of Steemit, like TomoCoin is of the Tomo application. However, there are many other differences. The Tomo application has much better mobile-ready and modern video-sharing features, which makes it highly oriented to mainstream users. The plan is to make the Tomo application one of the best social knowledge-sharing applications. We have a strong local understanding of Asia markets, particularly in Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Korea, and Japan, which will open up the latent demand from mainstream users in the region.
Kin
“Kin will be the cryptocurrency of the popular messenger Kik. The idea of Kin is to kick-off a digital ecosystem around the messenger app Kik. We share a similar goal in grounding TomoCoin in the Tomo network. So the key difference between the two is the respective markets where Kik operates — primarily in North America — and Tomo application’s main target market, Asia. Furthermore, we are focusing on scalable
infrastructure TomoChain solution with TomoCoin as the protocol token which is closely integrate with the Ethereum ecosystem, meanwhile recently Kin plan to move eventually to Stellar coin’s ecosystem.”
OmiseGo
“Is mainly an e-wallet and payment platform that works across currencies and digital assets. It is based on the OmiseGo blockchain and closely integrated with the Ethereum blockchain. A notable strength of OmiseGo is its ability to work with legacy financial institutions and other partners to allow their wallet to be used in physical locations in Southeast Asia. OmiseGo is based in Thailand and will potentially compete with the Tomo wallet in Southeast Asia.”

Very straightforward and honest comparisons, what I would’ve liked to see here how TomoChain has a competitive advantage of these projects. This are fierce competitors not to be underestimated, perhaps/hopefully this will be made clear in the technical paper. Otherwise, only time will tell.

Discussion & Conclusion

TomoChain is a well thought-out project that can certainly be realized with a team this strong ( → see general information below). Some aspects are already on the testnet or have a demo version, in other words, a semi-working product. This is a great long-term investment with judging from the roadmap and it needs time for the ecosystem / network to take shape with more Apps and so on. Personally I want more information on the Masternodes and servicenode system, Mining and the competitive edge it has on other projects (see Market Analysis). This might be more/better explained in the technical paper.
Conclusion: very excited how the TomoChain team will progress in the future and curious if it can deliver everything that has been mentioned.

General information

I won’t be commenting on every section, some are just straight up facts / general info but is still worth mentioning such as the team, coin economics, token sale and distribution and so on.

Coin economics and emission rate

“The planned allocation of coin is as follows: 50% of coins going to the crowdsale participants; 15% of coins going to the company, advisors and bounties, 35% of coins going to the Reward Engine/ Ecosystem Building program and the emission will last 8 years at around 4,5% per year. After 8 years, the initial coin reserve will run out but the Reward Engine/ Ecosystem Building program could continue from the network’s revenues such as advertising or fees from other services and applications. The collective of coin holders could give guidance on the options for the network to move
forward at this point. The following chart illustrates the TomoCoin yearly inflation rate toward a fixed supply after 10 years.”

Token sale and Distribution

TomoCoin supply is fixed at 100 million tokens. The allocation is as follows: 50 million is going to the token sale event; 35 million is going to Reward Engine/ Ecosystem Building program and will be distributed to users and developers based on relative contributions to the network over an 8 year period; 15 million is going to the
software company which allocates the coin to team members, advisors and bounties over a vesting schedule in a 4 years-period.

We have a long-term commitment to complete the product, engineering and
marketing roadmap for the Tomo network including Tomo application, TomoChain and TomoWallet. Consequently, figuring out the resources needed to get the works done effectively, we estimate to spend at least one and half million $ per year over 4 year period before the network can start to have other stream of revenues. To be on the safe side, the company ideally needs eight million $ to plan for 4 years ahead. The maximum hard cap is 8.5 million $. The token sale structure is following:
A maximum of 7.5 million USD worth of token will be sold to qualified private -presale contributors.
A minimum of 1 million USD worth of token will be sold to public contributors in a later date.

“The estimate allocation of the proceeds from the token sale is in the following
diagram:”