PCTA first official Reddit AMA ended on November 15, 2018 (UTC+8), with Nebulas co-founder Aero Wang and XMAX CEO Hughes Ching. This AMA has received positive feedback from communities, and more than 20 questions have been answered. There are over 130 people online at most during the AMA, many of them have asked follow-up questions. Apart from Aero Wang and Hughes Ching, the other partners of PCTA like Bottos CEO Xin Song, PCHAIN CEO Jeff and Atlas Protocol co-founder Lobatt also joined the discussion and interacted with participants, together with other team members of Nebulas Technical Committee Iris Li and Dr. Xuepeng Fan. For more detailed info please click HERE to visit our AMA webpage on Reddit. The post is now locked so please save your questions for our next AMA.
We will hold more similar events to strengthen our connection with the Nebulas community. Stay tuned for our official announcement.
Since we have received a lot of qualified questions, we’ll give a recap of these questions in two parts. Below are the first part of AMA recap:
I’m glad that PCTA has the right vision and philosophy and takes a step forward towards this direction. Some questions:
Blockchain is a new world, the very first step is to encourage developers to think outside the box and from the perspective of what benefits can blockchain bring to users….such as data ownership, transparency, more efficient business models, better economic model, internet of value, censorship-resistant, etc. This requires huge amount of idea generation, research, collaboration and development. What do you think of promoting this line of thinking ? Such as monetary incentive, engaging with developers, connecting developers, educate both non-blockchain and blockchain developers, setting up discussion panels, developer program, etc.
Blockchain is still in its infancy. There are many problems to be solved, such as scalability, usability, and interoperability. What is the plan of PCTA to collaborate and promote faster and better development, as well as exploring and setting technical standards ?
A: AeroWang (NAS Co-founder)
Thanks for your comments!
For the first question, blockchain is not only designed for geeks, both developers and non-developers are able to enjoy themselves in the blockchain world. Distinguished blockchain projects will bring a totally new collaboration tool, just like Nebulas, I think it will be the future of collaboration. It is designed for on-chain complicated data and interactions, and also complicated relationships. People have data ownership, transparency and also people are able to get incentive from Nebulas blockchain.
The second, I think the most important thing for public chains is open, cooperative, compatible and inclusive. So the PCTA will hold more online AMA (like this) and more offline technical meetup. Moreover, I think the PCTA participants will share their distinguished technology to each other for a better public chain industry.
2. royalasgard
I really like what Isee here, cooperation will always be more fruitful than tribalism.
I noticed that PCTA is an alliance of mostly blockchains whose focus mostly goes to the Asian market/developers is PCTA aiming to also attract blockchains from other continents and how do they aim to accomplish that?
This is the first winter for these public blockchain projects what did you learn from it? Do you think this was necessary for the blockchain ecosystem?
To develop a good ecosystem you need access to ideas talent and most important capital. where you prepared for this winter and did you take precautions to save your capital so that you can survive this winter long enough and still attract those talented ppl?
A: AeroWang (NAS Co-founder)
PCTA is definitely not limited to blockchain projects in China nor Asia, blockchain itself is world wide, and PCTA is open to projects in all continents. We also welcome blockchain projects with real technical vision and capabilities to join us and develop together.
Regarding the market winter, actually this is not the first winter in the blockchain industry we experienced. Starting in 2013, we began to participate in the “Bitsclub”, which is the first angel club focusing on cryptocurrency, digital asset and blockchains in China, and a sponsor of Bitsclub Vision Program. Also, we participated in the launch of China’s first public chain project- NEO, invited Ethereum to visit the Chinese community. We noticed that these far-reaching projects are beginning to sprout in the cold winter. A truly revolutionary technology will show strong periodicity in the early days. Cold winter has always been to eliminate interference factors, focusing on the best period of essential technological breakthroughs, a truly technical vision, and the team that believes in the future can cross the cycle.
As an open source project, the core competitiveness of a public-chain project is fundamentally its technical vision and a consensus that is condensed under this technology vision. Based on past experience and awe of the market, we have prepared for the “cold winter” of the industry. We can guarantee that we will complete the development milestone of the white paper roadmap. However, it is impossible for any project to survive from the prevailing situation of the industry and survive independently, so we need to develop together through PCTA to create greater market increments.
Hughes_Ching (XMax CEO)
（1）For now, we are obviously more Asian-based. However, once PCTA grows stronger in the Asian market, we will be using that advantage to attract more members. And we will be sharing our experience and marketing channels in Asia to welcome and attract new members from other continents. We of course also want to expand globally. Just like one world, the airline alliance started off in North America and ended up becoming one of the largest airline alliances in the world.
（2）What we learned from the first winter is that the economic cycle for the blockchain industry is significantly shorter than other industries, and to have a career in this industry we need to be prepared for this volatility. And we know that this is important because during the winter many of the scam coins will die and the other projects will have a chance to grow abundantly.
（3）We still have a lot of ammo in our arsenal. We keep the size of our team reasonable. And of course we are always seeking more opportunity to attract additional capital, and as one of the most well-funded private sale projects in China we know we have what it takes to attract the talent in this industry.
xxbc1 (Bottos CEO)
The winter is good for the industry to screen out long term projects. Only the good ones stay.
jeff-cao (PChain CEO)
In fact，it‘s common and natural process for new tech development. Especially for these tech which will change the world，In bull market，people always feel too optimistic to its short term impact. In bear market，people often neglect its long term impact.
3. Nae_bulas
Q: I am very happy to see how the Nebulas evolve. The video from inside the company looked great. Nebulas has a lot DApps, all of them are normally developed but do not fit together. What are your plans for this? What is the future of DApps?
A: AeroWang (NAS Co-founder)
Thanks for your compliment for our video! This question is actually pretty similar to questions asked by Vicky. I would post the answer again here, feel free if you have any further questions
The fundamental reason is that the infrastructure of blockchain technology is not mature yet, and the cost of introducing information and assets outside the blockchain system is still very high. Up to now, there hasn’t been an effective mode for truly connecting with traditional Internet users and services.
There are 2 points if spell out here:
For ordinary users, it is impossible to use blockchain technology in daily life at low cost and without friction. And currently DApp has no comparative advantage over APP.
For DAPP developers, apart from betting DApp, other DApp developers cannot find a sustainable profit model in blockchain ecosystem and cannot develop sustainably.
Nebulas has proposed a blockchain native solution. DApp developers can receive native incentive through Nebulas DIP on blockchain, which encourages the interaction between developers and the public chain, and promotes mutual growth. How to get incentives from the public chain development? Recently we have published Nebulas Mauve Paper: Developer Incentive Protocol, when Nebulas NOVA is launched and DIP is achieved, Nebulas is likely to be the first public chain with native incentives on chain, which will help solve this issue and improve the quality of DApps.
4. wolfershd
Q: During times of low volume/participation like now, how do you assure that the code being written won’t require a fork later on when activity picks up and faults are found in hard to test scenarios? What tools do blockchain companies use to test the integrity of new code? What kind of tests are run? What percentage of test coverage is standard for a blockchain? How often does new code fail review, and what’s being done to help developers write consistently good code? Does developer performance swing in tandem with a blockchains worth and popularity?
A: xuepeng (Research Director of Nebulas)
It is very difficult to ensure that the code has no errors, which is not only a problem faced by a blockchain project, but also a problem faced by the entire software industry. In the history of software development, even NASA’s Spacecraft and the British government’s EDS Child Support System, which had high requirements for system bugs, have encountered bugs and caused losses worthy of billions of dollars. The detailed info about the above two examples can be found on HERE. Therefore, how to detect and avoid bugs in a system has always been a matter of great concern to industry and academia. Although at present there is no way to ensure the code is 100% correct, there are some tools and practices that can effectively reduce errors. And blockchain projects also use these tools and practices.
At present, the tools and practices used in the development of Nebulas mainnet are very comprehensive. First, we will use some static analysis tools to detect possible vulnerabilities in the code, then we will use unit testing, penetration testing, regression testing, integration testing and other conventional software development practices to ensure the quality of the code. Finally, we will conduct code auditing through third parties, such as NCC, HackerOne and Knownsec, to further ensure the quality of the code. Furthermore, for smart contracts, we also cooperated with Certik and provided formal verification to ensure that there will be no loopholes in smart contracts. The relevant services will be launched in the near future.
5. qwerty77077
Q: I see that lots of DApps are being built on NAS blockchain. Such applications like NAS tip bot can be actually used for youtube/twitch/douyu streamers if Nebulas foundation can work with popular streamers to promote Nebulas.
Too much rewards/airdrop may result in price dump in this winter so a balance between promotion and maintaining the token value would be great.
A: AeroWang (NAS Co-founder)
If you are here now, you probably know that we are using NAS tip bot at this AMA. We would always take the valued suggestion from community members.
There are a lot of cooperation and competition in an open market. We have realized some issues and we are constantly making corrections. The core development issue of Nebulas now is the launching of Nebulas NOVA. Nebulas Nova has its unique blockchain data structure , function and capacity, which is distinguished from many other “blockchain 2.0” projects. Therefore we need to apply Nebulas NOVA to real use cases, so that it will have solid support to the tokens.
6. chase75
Q: First of all, I hope PCTA to grow up and affect blockchain industry positively. and Nebulas also.
I think there is like too long time. It’s like Ice age in the ancient in Earth. Every price in this market is getting lower and lower everyday.
But now, we have to say that we concentrate on developing whatever we do only in tech paper.
I check github to check how many transactions grow and DApps are developed every weeks or month.
The number of DApps in every mainnet are more than thousands. but there are few people to use them.
That mean developers made their dapps to receive rewards just like token or airdrop.
For example, In Nebulas, NIP are held in 1~2 Q to promote their develop ecosystem.
In the end of this program, many developers sold their tokens received. Then it caused dump in NAS price.
After that, There are almost 0 users to use their dapps. It just like something left alone.
Every tech paper says we are ideal and will change the world.
But the gap between ideal and real is always exists. I think there are without exception in blockchain ecosystem,too.
In present, People are curious knowing them. so They satisfy their curiousity to develop their works.
Yeah. Maybe they are not serious to make them in blockchain system.
We have to consider how to close the gap for users and developers to use or hold.
We are going to prove blockchain ecosystem are better than others in security, convenience, efficiency.
We are still trying people to access blockchain ecosystem seriously as well as developing our tech as white / yellow paper written.
A: AeroWang (NAS Co-founder)
The technology vision of our white paper is Nebulas commitment to the community. We will try our best to develop technology and explore the technical boundary of blockchain. And we will never break our promise.
However, one point must be clear that Nebulas technical vision and our white paper cannot solve all the problems faced by the whole blockchain industry.
Fortunately, we believe that the blockchain world will have further collaboration, one step at a time,
7: vicky5690098
Hi Aero and Hughes. I ve seen such a tremendous number of Dapps break out this years. But it`s recognized that most of those DApps are valueless. So how do you feel current DApp? What do you think to improve?
A: Hughes_Ching (XMax CEO)
Easier access to the applications is the first vital step to bringing new users to DApp ecosystems and building successful DApps. It took me 40 Minutes to setup an EOS account. Because you need to register 2 keys and synchronize them to 1 account and there are many different requirements that need to met when creating your account. You need to also buy about 6 or 7 dollars worth of EOS which needs to be bought from Coinbase or another exchange, and there is basically a guidebook that tells you how to setup an EOS account. Which is not user friendly. So I think that for any DApp ecosystem to be adopted by the mass public, the account system needs to be dramatically more user friendly. And that’s what we are aiming to do with PCTA.
8. hschung
Is the popular STO concept the next big thing in Blockchain? Do you feel this will bring users?
A：AeroWang (NAS Co-founder)
Generally speaking, Security Token Offering (STO) isn’t an applicable opportunity for everyone in the short term. STO is all the craze right not, while the concept itself is very hot, we need to think with a cool mind. At the moment, most STOs are being brought up internally within the crossover of blockchain and traditional financial industry. STO is generally regarded as tokenized securities built on blockchain under a regulated legal framework, which is linked to tangible assets. Compared to ICO, an STO is subject to more regulation, and backed by its company’s tangible assets. Therefore it’s relatively safe for investors to invest. However, right now STO is facing two main challenges- regulation and actualization. It’s mostly a theoretical concept, with very few actual examples, which are still subject to regulatory policy changes. Whether it is a timely opportunity or if it can get mass adoption, the market shall decide for us. Personally i’m cautiously optimisitc about it.
Hughes_Ching (XMax CEO)
One hundred million users within three years should be doable. Of course, it’s not going to be all us. In the industry, the majority of the users entered the industry because Bitcoin gained attention. And I believe that by regulating the STO, Bitcoin will benefit from it. And it’s not hard to imagine that more users will come into the industry through STOs.
9. m5j
Are there any collaborations planned between PCTA organizations?
A： AeroWang (NAS Co-founder)
If you are here with the AMA now, you will find that we already start collaborate on community activities, in the future we will have more collaborations in community, technical cooperation and even more, we believe that keep open and collaborative will be good for the community, for the industry and definitely for each project as well!
10. m5j
For blockchain to become more mainstream there should not be a difference between how things are progressing in the summer from how things are progressing in the winter. Constant innovation and progression is always required in order to bring a new technology into light.
Similar to why the PCTA was formed in order to allow blockchains to start to work together, we need DApp owners to start to work together to do cross promotion and marketing between their DApps. There will never be an ecosystem without this type of collaboration. Everyone is waiting for the next killer DApp to be released on their blockchain but a strong ecosystem of many useful DApps could also bring the same result. What are your thoughts on this?
A： AeroWang (NAS Co-founder)
Definitely true! Collaborative instead of competition will be good for the ecosystem, in the future, some public chain may apply to identical technique they all agreed upon and thus to reduce the cost for developers to move across various chains, and would boost to the massive collaboration among DApp developers as well. We would be happy to see DApp developers cooperation together. Actually several developers from Nebulas NIP season I have already cooperate now.
To be continue.
We’ll publish the AMA recap part 2 very soon, please stay tuned!
Learn more about Nebulas:
Official website: Nebulas.io
Github: github.com/nebulasio/go-nebulas
Slack: nebulasio.herokuapp.com
Telegram(EN): t.me/nebulasio
Twitter: @nebulasio
