Elastos Weekly Updates — 06 April 2018
A note to the community:
In the interest of keeping our community up to date with the latest happenings at Elastos, we are beginning a Weekly Report that will highlight the news of the week and offer some perspectives. We believe it is vital to communicate in clear and effective language and look forward to providing an ongoing flow of information.
“April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory with desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.”
It is April, and while T.S. Eliot’s prophetic ode to Spring’s early month assures us of rain and dreariness, clearly Mr. Eliot never had the chance to hear of a decentralized internet. Many are asking how long this winter will last. But is not the better question how cruel can spring be when you have discovered Elastos floating just above the wasteland of countless lesser projects?
Elastos continued its forward momentum this week. Let’s recap.
Circulating Supply and Market Cap
You can stop hitting refresh. The long awaited update of our circulating supply and market cap has been added to CMC and CoinLib — Isn’t that refreshing?
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/elastos/
Technical Updates
1. The wallet code was transferred from SVN to GIT and the related deployment script was modified.
2. Submitted SPV Readme documents, shared technology, and started C++ version migration of SPV (SPV is a development SDK of Simplified Payment Verification implementation of the Elastos digital currency)
3. Completed the development of side chain transfer and side chain joint mining
4. Began the cross-chain recharging of the primary side chain, wrote an automatic deployment script
5. Conducted technical discussions with the wallet team and began assigning projects for improvements and enhanced capabilities
6. Organized the code for the IOS Hello Elastos demo and submitted it to the server to record instructional video for IOS programming.
7. Completed the RPC Service Manager design and Implementation
Community News
● The translation of multilingual white papers are underway and will be announced on the official website. Korean is now available.
● From April 15th to April 23rd, the Elastos Community will work with partners to develop a UK community for development and activities.
● The Elastos Video Contest has extended its submission deadline by 90 days. The new deadline is July 15th. https://medium.com/elastos/elastos-video-contest-final-version-5efb9fbebf19
Events and Meet-Ups
- NYU
Feng Han hosted at event at NYU on April 4th.
- Meetup in Montreal
Feng Han and Jeff Hattern will be hosting a beer Garden Meetup on April 11th.
Address:
Kampai Garden 1616 Saint-Catherine St W
Montreal, QC H3H 1L9 Canada
Time: 5:30PM
- Meetups in London
Elastos will be hosting two events in London. The first will be April 19th@ London South Bank University. Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/leading-blockchain-project-from-china-1st-elastos-ela-official-uk-meet-up-tickets-44843234321
The second will be April 21@ Chapter Spitalfields. Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/top-blockchain-project-from-china-2nd-elastos-uk-meet-up-tickets-44844466005
- Meetup in LA: The Future of Blockchain & The Entertainment Industry
Elastos will be hosting a meetup in Santa Monica (location TBD) on May 17th to discuss how Elastos can revolutionize the entertainment industry. Details can be found here: https://www.meetup.com/LA-blockchain-fintech-cryptocurrency/events/249312404/
- April 1: Han Feng Holds Meetup at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in New York City
Han spoke on Elastos and its role in the future of internet and blockchain
- April 3: Huawei visits Elastos
On April 3rd, Timothy Yuan, deputy director of the Central Research Institute of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. visited the Elastos Shanghai office. This is a welcomed sign for several reasons. First, Huawei is the leading smartphone maker in China and one of the largest in the world. At one point last year Huawei even temporarily surpassed Apple in smart phone sales, trailing only Samsung. In America, the name Huawei is mostly unknown to the general public, but in China and parts of Europe they are synonymous with smart phones.
Rong and Timothy had a productive conversation focusing on security, the internet, blockchain, and digital assets. At this point, this was just a conversation, and a very friendly one at that. But the gesture of coming to the Elastos office to pay respect to Rong, his team, and the vision of Elastos, and mention a continuing conversation in the future, is exciting to say the least. Huawei is forward thinking, obviously, and has made it clear they are looking for innovation.
Just read this excerpt from Huawei’s 2017 Annual Report.
“We’re on a new journey,” said Ken Hu, Huawei’s Rotating Chairman. “Opportunities and challenges are popping up faster than ever before, and nonstop open innovation is the only way we can keep ahead of the game.
Hu added, “As we look to 2018, emerging technologies like the Internet of Things, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and 5G will soon see large-scale application. Throughout this process, Huawei will stay at the forefront of technological innovation and business transformation. More importantly, we will pay special attention to the practical challenges that our customers face as they go digital. Our job is to help them overcome these challenges and achieve business success. Ultimately, we aim to bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world.” http://www.huawei.com/en/press-events/news/2018/3/Huawei-2017-Annual-Report
One thing to take away here is something Rong talks about in his interview with Huoxing Financial. “Young companies are like newborn calves: they are not afraid of tigers. Unfortunately, I have seen many companies die tragically during this Internet era.”
This metaphor of a newborn calf is oddly reminiscent of Steve Jobs childhood anecdote of seeing a baby calf born on a trip to a Wisconsin dairy farm. When the calf began to walk after only a few minutes, Steve was amazed, saying, “It was not something she had learned, but it was instead hardwired into her. A human baby couldn’t do that. It was as if something in the animal’s body and in its brain had been engineered to work together instantly, rather than being learned. I found it remarkable, even though no one else did.” It would seem Rong and Jobs are using the image of the baby calf but as contrasting symbols.
So, how does all this relate to Huawei? This is how: Rong is the tiger, not the calf. So was Jobs. Far too many companies in the blockchain space are simply unable to even walk yet — and they are attacking tigers. There simply will not be hundreds of public chains that will be successful and companies the likes of Huawei are not visiting just any office. While a calf is hardwired to walk, some things do not come so easy straight out of the womb. Rong has experience, failure, wisdom, and most of all, a vision that he will not quit on. He states in the same interview, “…no matter what, don’t give up. Even if others have a favorable family background, society needs people who are from different family backgrounds; it needs people who will work hard.” This Edisonian approach to perfecting technology does not exclude failures, it requires them. A man who has spent 34 years in operating systems and continues with his vision, now auspiciously incorporating blockchain as perhaps the final touch, is a man whose office you want to stop by, and chat, and learn from, and maybe even just work with. Don’t be awed by every baby calf in crypto — be aware of the tigers.
- Rong Chen Q & A with Feng Wang of Huoxing Financial.
Rong’s interview was ten questions, all eloquently answered and is absolutely worth reading in full. Here are some excerpt from Rong that stood out — but are by no means a substitute for the entire thing.
As for the currency price of Elastos, I basically do not look at it. I do not look at other coin prices either. Out of sight out of mind. Our progress in the project has been relatively smooth, so I think we can get through the winter. Winter has come and many ICOs have returned to normal. We all overestimated the role of the blockchain early on.
In the previous phase of the Web — i.e. when the web browser was first created — no one necessarily had any shares of Netscape. However, serious study of future trends led to the creation of big companies like Yahoo and Google. In fact, many companies took advantage of the opportunity when the Internet was just beginning. I think with what we are doing with Elastos, the Internet has now entered its third phase.
I highly encourage everyone to seriously study the following: first, if an Internet has a decentralized ID, what will our Internet look like? Second, if the Internet is traceable, how much will it affect people and integrity? Third, what if the Internet could have scarcity?
This is why I don’t agree with the so-called saying make agreements. Making agreements is actually just creating technology. We can already start realizing the things that have a bigger impact on humanity. However, because of people’s understanding of the Internet — there is still a lack of understanding of the basic operating system — we only see the part to the whole and do not see the overall strategic whole. I think this is where I stand apart from many other startup companies. While unsuccessful in the past 17 years, that is precisely why we have value, because we have been thinking about how to get out of this predicament for so long. I think the value Internet step will be a very important opportunity.
Small companies have no chance in the blockchain and only a few can actually create advances in the technology. For example, Ethereum’s success is actually very rare, and the young founders did well. I can’t say it’s impossible, but the chances are definitely very, very small.
I demonstrated our mobile phone in the United States two days ago. If you are interested in seeing my demonstration, you can see it on YouTube. The end-to-end security of mobile phones and smart routers directly takes over the network, which is the most basic point of network security.
Link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zcsYFP3DaA&feature=youtu.be
People thought that when I showed this cell phone, it was to demonstrate we are doing blockchain mobile phones. In fact, this statement misled everyone.
I simply do not think we should use blockchain to make mobile phones. Because making blockchain mobile phones runs into many unsolvable issues, like cost, manufacturing supply chain, and quality problems. Challenging Samsung, Huawei, and Apple is not a good idea.
The blockchain, as a component of the network operating system, provides the distribution of IDs, traceability, and scarce capabilities, as if it were a notary office, providing copyright administration, etc. These capabilities must be presented to users, but they are not actually displayed through the blockchain itself. So it’s just like asking if you need an OS on your hard drive. You can say that you need it. You can also say that you don’t need it. If you don’t need it, that means that no applications are visible.
The invention of the Internet was actually an incredible accomplishment. At that time, a very wise choice was made. At that time, when the US military invested in the Internet, it could choose to be a center like NASA, to be a network center like an aerospace center, or to open it all up and make it decentralized, such that whoever has a server can connect to the Internet. In the end, the founders of the Internet decided to make it decentralized, which led to the prosperity of the Internet as we know it today.
Of course, it was precisely because of this wise decision that led to all of the Internet’s problems today. For example, anyone can be connected to it. Anyone can send out software packages. Anyone can initiate middle-man attacks. Anyone can initiate DDoS attacks, and anyone can fake an identity. This problem has led to the spread of viruses and disclosure of private information. Of course, there is another reason for the Trojan Horse virus and that is that operating systems use Daemon. Today’s operating system can be done without Daemon, or without background daemon.
These Internet problems led to today’s monopoly, because people have to rely on companies such as Google, Microsoft, Tencent, Alibaba to solve security issues, because they provide security protection.
Today, we spread data on social networks. Without exception, original browsers transmissions were also all data (i.e. sharing a song, video, or document). If we can figure out how to upload a program on a social network, then the entire user experience and revenue model will experience revolutionary change.
Our only way out at that time was to work hard. When I went to the countryside to work, I did not see a future for me, but everyday for a long period of time, I read fifty pages of books. Even when I was too tired, I would read fifty pages, even though I did not know what the books were talking about. I would read with my eyes closed just to keep reading, even if I didn’t remember any of it. As a result, I was able to seize the opportunity when the college entrance examination was reinstated.
…we should not get too tangled up in the blockchain. Instead, we should see the entire Internet. Almost all software and all business models have opportunities.
Speaking of the relationship between Elastos and blockchain… Elastos is an operating environment to run DApp. The blockchain is equivalent to the fingerprint recognition of mobile phones.
In a separate interview with Huobi Talks, Rong equates the blockchain aspect of Elastos again to the fingerprint security feature of mobile phones, “there are definitely more opportunities on the decentralized internet than on blockchain itself.”
Link to interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=64&v=rOSor0ZvHys
Why are we going towards a limited public chain in the future? It is because of the development of smart contracts on the public chain. When smart contracts are developed, would you support dozens of different smart contract development methods? It is the same thing as saying you can invent dozens of computer operating systems. In the end, only three to five will become mainstream. The others will slowly die out.
Thoughts and Conclusions
On the fifty year anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination, it is an appropriate time to think back on the American hero’s steep uphill battle for civil rights. Revolutionaries are almost always met with resistance from the status quo, and when that status quo is afraid to change in the face of a new freedom, in the face of a new equality, the resistance is even steeper. MLK’s movement cannot be trivialized by comparing it to other movements, and decentralization is no exception, but the comparison is still apt. The internet was conceived of as a plane of equality. A universe where all could access the native limitlessness offered by interconnectedness, vast possibilities of information accessibility, and self reliance. Quite simply, a place of civil rights. With no middle man — who cannot come to the table? Who cannot participate in this new economy? Who cannot have their own digital ID and be admitted to a world where they are included, autonomous and free-willed? What few can see, because this original vision has never come to fruition, is that the internet is still so young, and the addition of blockchain and the security it offers can revolutionize a digital world still unknown to us. It is not too soon and we are not too naive to begin to imagine the future of the internet and believe it a reality. That time is now — and its leader is Rong Chen.
It is said that in 1900 Lord Kelvin claimed, “There is nothing new to be discovered in physics.” Five years later Einstein had his “extraordinary year.” This is true of all breakthroughs — most people, even experts in the field they happen in, do not see them coming. We are at a point where a breakthrough is coming. But it will not be seen by the short sighted, by the complacent, or by those content with thinking there is nothing new to be discovered. Imagine explaining the internet to someone in the early 1990’s knowing what we know today. Now imagine someone in the 1890’s. Elastos is hard to conceive of in either era. Quantum mechanics is as equally radical today as it was 100 years ago. It is going to take more than just the scientists and the futurists to lead us forward, for the implications of a new internet, or digital currencies, or a shared economy, or any leveling of the playing field through technology goes against history and yet towards the future.
There is a point where the humanities and science intersect and it is this point that is the most potent union for global change. The arts, literature, philosophy, and science and technology must join together to appeal to the hearts and to the minds of society and propel us forward toward a harmony that has become stuck on the boulders of centralization in an otherwise free-flowing river of human endeavor. But it will not be technology that saves us, that improves society on its own, as we have already seen with many tech companies. It will be people who are just and honest and kind and true and loving. People who stand out in the world of technology. People like Rong Chen.
Below is a quote by MLK worth thinking about. It is not technology that has failed us, but how we have used it.
Onward! Upward! Elastos!
“There is something wrong with our world, something fundamentally and basically wrong. I don’t think we have to look too far to see that… And when we stop to analyze the cause of our world’s ills, many things come to mind. We begin to wonder if it is due to the fact that we don’t know enough. But it can’t be that. Because in terms of accumulated knowledge we know more today than men have known in any period of human history… And then we wonder if it is due to the fact that our scientific genius lags behind… Well then, it can’t be that. For our scientific progress over the past years has been amazing… I think we have to look much deeper than that if we are to find the real cause of man’s problems and the real cause of the world’s ills today. If we are to really find it I think we will have to look in the hearts and souls of men. The trouble isn’t so much that we don’t know enough, but it’s as if we aren’t good enough. The trouble isn’t so much that our scientific genius lags behind, but our moral genius lags behind. The great problem facing modern man is that, that the means by which we live have outdistanced the spiritual ends for which we live… The problem is with man himself and man’s soul. We haven’t learned how to be just and honest and kind and true and loving. And that is the basis of our problem. The real problem is that through our scientific genius we’ve made of the world a neighborhood, but through our moral and spiritual genius we’ve failed to make of it a brotherhood.” — Martin Luther King
