Cudos AMA Recap
To help celebrate the listing of CUDOS on AscendEX, AscendEX’s Mary Zheng sat down for an AMA with Cudos’ CEO Matt Hawkins to gain more insight into the project’s success and strategy for the future.
Mary Zheng | AscendEX
Hi Matt, for those that are not familiar with the project, can you briefly describe CUDOS, and what problems you are aiming to solve?
BlockMatt | Cudos
Sure. Firstly, thank you for inviting me here today. Your team has supported us from day one and I’m honored to have the opportunity to speak with your community. Cudos is a layer 1 blockchain and layer 2 scaling solution. It’s a decentralized computer network designed to power Web 3.0. It will enable anyone to sell their computing resources or consume decentralized computing resources via the blockchain. In essence, what this means is Cudos will be one of the few networks that can power other blockchains and scale to the demands of cloud computing required today. This may sound cliche but we are building the Airbnb of computing power for a new internet!
Mary Zheng | AscendEX
Let us transition a bit toward native token — CUDOS. How does the CUDOS token function within the platform, and why is it needed?
BlockMatt | Cudos
Sure, let me break it down. Cudos is a proof-of-stake network built on the Cosmos/Tendermint blockchain architecture. The CUDOS token which is a utility token has multiple functions within the network:
- Staking the token for proportionate rewards and network revenues
- Staking to secure the network
- Medium of exchange; we will have both traditional cloud and blockchain consumers entering the ecosystem with a plethora of different fiat and token currencies, these will be exchanged for CUDOS to pay those contributing their hardware to the network
- As a payout option for large partners/payment gateways
- As a payment token. for example, suppliers are able to earn CUDOS from their spare computing power in low activity hours and then use it as payment for scaling out computing power during peak activity hours; thus helping them to offset their own IT spend
Mary Zheng | AscendEX
Could you share the development status and progress of the project thus far? Please include any major partners and perhaps some operational data.
BlockMatt | Cudos
Certainly:
2018–2020: We focused on the underlying Cudos supply network. Now we have over 300k accounts and 60k daily active devices.
Jan 21: Launched CUDOS token on AscendEX after highly oversubscribed private sale
Mar-May 21: 30 validators for the Cudos network committed, including AscendEX
May 21: Launched Cudos network private testnet
May 21: Invited the first few developers into the private testnet to start building their dApps
Major partnerships include: AMD, Ultra, Algorand, THG, Blendergrid, Kings Distributed and Animoca Brands, a huge partnership that we have just announced! Major backers include: Outlier Ventures, Borderless Capital, Animoca Brands, DoublePeak, Moonrock Capital and GBV. We have now grown to a team of 40+ internally with a further 6 full-time blockchain development specialists from Limechain.
Mary Zheng | AscendEX
Got it! Who will the users/clients be on Cudos and what are some examples of use cases for them?
BlockMatt | Cudos
The Cudos network will initially be suitable for NFT issuance, data oracles, synthetics, and wrapped coins. We now can support this within the private testnet.Our goal is to attract projects to build on Cudos and benefit from the scalability, low transaction costs, and interoperability that we offer. We are integrating bridges to other chains with ETH and Cosmos first, followed by Algorand and Polkadot. We’ll also be releasing an upcoming version with the IBC protocol for interoperability between Tendermint chains. Use cases in the mid-term will also include DEX’s, stablecoins, blockchain gaming, digital authentication/ID & infrastructure tooling. In the longer term, we will be integrating the underlying Cudos network to provide scalable cloud computing, attracting new use cases to blockchain such as AI and video rendering. These use cases would be prohibitively expensive to run on blockchain today, as the scale is not there yet.
Mary Zheng | AscendEX
What is your strategy for attracting more users to your protocol?
BlockMatt | Cudos
In Q3, we will be launching an incentivized public testnet. This will be heavily marketed along with hackathons and potentially promotions into uni groups. We’re aiming to attract 1000’s of developers from around the World to test the Cudos network and be creative in what they build either as a dApp or tool. We are also at the early stages of planning a grants/launchpad type program to create a fund for attracting developers. These could be new projects or existing ones with multi-chain strategies. Everyone within the network will also earn a share of the network fees. This includes developers who have launched their dApps on Cudos, as well as our stakers securing the network. We will also heavily use our strategic backers and partner network to bring new projects, users and use cases to the network.
Mary Zheng | AscendEX
Let’s talk about the current landscape of other projects doing something similar. What separates you from some of the competitors?
BlockMatt | Cudos
I always address the ‘who are your competitors?’ question, by acknowledging that there are many great projects out there. Ones like Dfinity positioning themselves as creating a new internet protocol, Polygon, who arguably created the biggest momentum in recent months, Akash, who have progressed well with their testnet to mainet, etc. We are building a circular economy for computing power. As far as I know, we are the only network that will be able to offer fully distributed high-performance computing power through a decentralized network. We’re full-stack: layer 1 blockchain, layer 2 scaling solution, layer 3 high-performance computing network. We’re also the only project within this sector that first focused on building the supply side of the ecosystem first. That will provide a huge advantage in being able to attract larger demand customers.
Mary Zheng | AscendEX
What does success look like for CUDOS? What are the most significant risks and challenges CUDOS will need to overcome to consider the project successful?
BlockMatt | Cudos
A more sustainable cloud computing platform that generates wealth for any person or business that contributes to the network and a highly adopted network that attracts developers, consumers, and new industries not currently using blockchain technology. Our biggest immediate challenge is to amplify everything I’m saying here and grow the initial demand to start and gain momentum for the network effect.
Mary Zheng | AscendEX
Last question from my end before we switch over to the community q&a session — can you please elaborate on the goals you are aiming to achieve in 2021?
BlockMatt | Cudos
We have several significant launches being rolled out this year, with the first of them (the private testnet) launched two weeks ago. We are very close to launching our onchain staking and I know our community is very excited about this. We decided to integrate some improved security and UI features, so we’re a little delayed here, but it will be worth the wait! In the meantime, I believe there is still the better part of a week to prestake on AscendEX at 100% APR. We have now invited the first developers into the private testnet, the outcome of this initial testing will lead to the public testnet in Q3. That will be followed by the mainet directly on our own chain. And if all goes well, we are aiming to introduce scalable blockchain computing before the year is out!
- Onchain staking
- Public testnet
- Mainet
- Scalable blockchain computing
Here is our partnership announcement from this morning: https://cointelegraph.com/press-releases/animoca-brands-invests-in-cudos
Community Questions:
Jane
We are witnessing many projects entering the blockchain industry with very good plans, promises to do good work but disappear in time and lose their community. How can Cudos survive in this challenging environment?
BlockMatt | Cudos
Great question, Jane. We are very well funded, backed and the parent company Cudo is already in profit, meaning we are not burning cash like other projects. We are also ultra-careful with compliance, as that area is still a risk to the industry
ÇRYPTÖ DÜDË
Cudos is a Decentralized Oracle Platform that offers a good layer 2 solution, but what makes you unique considering other good Oracles exist like Chainlink?
BlockMatt | Cudos
Chainlink is a data oracle, Cudos is a network that can support oracles as a use case. That means companies like Chainlink can launch their dApp on Cudos
Nathalie Romano
It seems that building partnerships is very important for Cudos, so now, does Cudos have any strategic partners, and who do you plan to build relationships with in the future?
BlockMatt | Cudos
The most successful projects are those that gain the most adoption and network growth. Therefore, our mission is to work with partners who have these large user bases that we can add to our network. Animoca Brands for example, has a fast scaling portfolio of blockchain gaming and NFT projects, all of which will bring new users to the Cudos network. AMD has 100 million plus worldwide gamers. By teaming with them, we have an opportunity to reach potentially millions of users with our technology.
Iraida Warden
What are the risks associated with decentralized financial products (DeFi)? What does Cudos do to limit those risks?
BlockMatt | Cudos
There are regulatory risks to DeFi, and being such a nascent technology still, we are seeing some DeFi projects being hit by security hacks. But, the pace DeFi is growing is phenomenal and mainstream users are moving over to DeFi. For Cudos, we want to be the network that these DeFi projects build on. A fast, scalable, secure, and interoperable network
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Marketing is a central element for every project. What is your strategy for attracting new users and investors to your project and keeping them long-term?
BlockMatt | Cudos
We have a marketing strategy designed to build up around all of these major launches mentioned earlier. This will include influencer campaigns, events, thought leadership, sponsorship, hakathons etc. We’ve arguably been a little too quiet at times, but this has been acknowledged. Our community will share that we have been making near-daily announcements recently. This is going to continue ramping up across all platforms, including Reddit, YouTube, Twitter, paid press etc.
Deleted Account
How can you reach more investors, and how will the roadmap work?
BlockMatt | Cudos
We have an incredible community of strategic backers already, and these funds are an extension of our team. They have been phenomenal and introducing us to new funds and partners. In terms of the roadmap, yes we’re confident that it is going to work. We have an incredible internal and external team. We have started providing developer updates through our Cudos announcement channel.
