Apr 23, 2020
Sesameseed sets the next stage for Sprout — AMA Recap Part 2
This is a continuation of our recap from the latest AMA hosted by Sesameseed where they discussed the origins of Sprout, its many novel features and what’s ahead for the multichain staking wallet.
To read Part 1 in this series, click here.
Let’s talk about some of the long awaited Sprout features. How will SEED redeem work?
Juliun — 100% of Sesameseed rewards go into escrow accounts, and those accounts peg the value of SEED. The peg math is how much is held in escrow divided by how much SEED is in circulation. That is how it is calculated on every blockchain. We have calculated how much SEED needs to remain liquid at all times so we can continue to vote and compound your SEED held. Some part of that is also reserved for supporting the redemption system we have today.
When a user sends SEED to the redeem contract on Sprout it triggers a series of events that allow them to redeem the whole pegged value. This solves the biggest concern we had, which was how to send the redeem value to someone who may have a ONE address but did not have a TRON or ONT address, for example. With Sprout we can create a claimable balance and the person redeeming SEED can claim it using the wallets created for them with their mnemonic account, or they can simply link their own accounts to claim those coins. This way anyone on TRON, Ontology, Harmony or any future blockchain can redeem their pegged value in TRX, ONT, ONG, etc.
Another feature available on Sprout is crosschain swap with SEED. Why is this needed?
Danny — SEED is SEED no matter what blockchain it is on. However, there are occasions where SEED could be more useful on one blockchain over the other. For example, if there were a project on SEEDGerminator to which you would want to contribute, or want to make a p2p payment or trade, or want to use a DEX of a particular blockchain, you could swap SEED to do that. Sprout makes it very simple.
Humpty — Sesameseed has always been very active in helping people interact with blockchains. Sprout is no different. Each blockchain offers different utilities to its users, and Sprout behaves as a bridge between these blockchains to enable access to each ecosystem. For example, Harmony is working on some interesting utilities. With SEED, the community on TRON can easily migrate into the Harmony ecosystem to take part in it. This helps further reduce the barrier to entry to Harmony.
Sesameseed exists to bridge blockchains and their communities with the technology it creates.
Juliun — The swap is interesting. It achieves things other utilities like redeem cannot. It opens Sprout to a lot of creativity. If you want to play a game on Harmony and use the DEX on TRON and use a swap feature on Ontology you can do so all on-chain with Sprout and SEED.
Let’s talk about the roadmap of Sprout. It has gone from alpha and now into public beta. Can you talk about what has been accomplished in that testing?
Danny — Alpha started in February. We took the bones of Sprout and had the Sesameseed team try it and share their feedback. With their feedback we fixed some bugs and made improvements to the overall user experience. Once we were satisfied with the results we opened private beta. During private beta we invited trusted developers and community members to try Sprout. In parallel, we launched a bug bounty campaign which resulted in several bug submissions which we used to continue making improvements. It has been great to connect with the community. They have dug deep to make sure this is the best product we can put out.
Humpty — The release of products into beta is not uncommon in most industries, and is something that Sesameseed sees value in. It has released most of its recent technologies into beta and has received a lot of valuable input from the community making it possible to iterate and improve on its products.
What is the biggest takeaway from the private beta?
Danny — Ease of use. A lot of the feedback has been on how we can make Sprout accessible to everyone. We have deployed many ways to encourage this type of feedback. Using forms, surveys, rating system we have learned how to improve staking, swapping and redeeming SEED.
Humpty — During private beta testing there were many milestones reached. From integrating TRON and Ontology to supporting each blockchain’s tokens such as TRX, ONT and ONG. Most recently integrating Harmony and ONE.
Anything else we want to share about private beta testing?
Juliun — I think the beta test was successful. I am glad we took as much time as we did on it. It allowed us to find as many gaps as possible. We received a lot of feedback from the community too.
Danny — I liked the way features were rolled out. We were able to dedicate enough time to each feature as it was released. For example, one day we added swap and people were able to test that thoroughly and then we launched the transaction page and people were able to focus on that. Rolling things out slowly allowed us to test security measures and solve any issues brought up by the community.
Moving forward, what is next for Sprout?
Danny — Sprout is now in public beta. Everyone is invited to create a mnemonic wallet, or import your private key wallet and start staking with Sprout.
Humpty — That’s great to hear. Opening beta to everyone on TRON, Ontology and Harmony can help us continue to improve Sprout and deliver the great experience we planned.
Danny — A few days ago we integrated Harmony mainnet into Sprout. You can now send and receive ONE to your Sprout wallet.
Juliun — For anyone not familiar with Harmony, it supports sharding. That basically means it breaks down the blockchain into smaller bloclchains. If you have tokens on one shard it doesn’t mean you have them in another. Sprout enables you to send your tokens to users and across shards in a simple way. Using Sprout right now is probably the easiest way to create a wallet. No need to download anything. Simply browse to it and create a mnemonic or private key wallet.
Using Sprout right now is probably the easiest way to create a wallet. No need to download anything. Simply browse to it and create a mnemonic or private key wallet.
What are some of the things that Sprout can deliver day one on Harmony that perhaps other wallets cannot?
Juliun — Sprout will enable the ability to interact with smart contracts on Harmony. While SEED is not yet available on Harmony it is something that we are working on delivering along with mainnet staking.
Danny — Another thing that Sprout does today that no other wallet can today is displaying shards.
Juliun — Displaying shards is an important point. We spent a lot of time figuring this out to ensure that it is displayed in a way that it is understandable. It is also built to be scalable, so as Harmony grows from 4 shards to 8 and then 16 it is prepared to support that.
Danny — The way that sharding support is built into Sprout also future proofs it to any new blockchains added.
Juliun — There are major chains that are moving into this system and having this already built allows us to seamlessly integrate to them.
What should the community expect during the public beta journey?
Danny — Starting with feedback. We really want to hear from everyone how we can keep improving. When you create your wallet there is a feedback button where you can submit your comments. There is also a bug report button where everyone can share any bugs they find. There are a lot more features coming to Sprout including the ability to extract your private key from your mnemonic phrase, mobile support, and Harmony staking as soon as it is live.
Humpty — We should highlight that Sprout is a web wallet. This means you can access it anywhere without having to download anything. All you need to do is go to the website, create a mnemonic wallet or import a private key wallet and start staking.
There will be a lot of content shared in the coming weeks that will help you understand how to use the many features of Sprout. During this time we encourage you to send us your feedback every time you log in to the wallet. And to incentivize your participation in that program we are raffling out 500 SEED to one contributor every week. This seeks to make Sprout the best staking wallet.
Juliun — Today is Day 1 for Sprout. It is no small accomplishment. We have been working towards this for 2 years, and developing the app for almost 9 months. This is the foundation for Sesameseed and SEED. It is what we will build all future blockchains on. All staking, token interactions will be built from here. Swap is a novel utility that works, but I would not anticipate it as the end. It is just the beginning and from here it will continue to expand. It is a living thing and our primary focus as we expand.
Try Sprout today and let us know what you think: https://sprout.sesameseed.org
