Recap of Interview with Leo Yu, Founding Council Member of SimpleChain Foundation
Link to interview video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9g796tNQiU&feature=youtu.be
Q1: Can you tell us about yourself? How and when did you first get into the blockchain world?
Leo: Actually I got to know about blockchain since 2013, when I was still in university in the UK.At that time, this to me is a new technology that’s combined with a lot of crypto mechanisms and distributed networks.So I was quite curious about the technology itself,but I didn’t pay much attention on the cryptocurrencies.
When I came back to China, was starting to do business and do some job in the traditional financial world,and I started to realize that, in the traditional banking system and even in the online peer to peer lending platform,which was quite developed at that time,but it has been proved to be a risky market later on.At that time I realized that the traditional banking didn’t change the model of the centralized financing,so all the trust and all the credits were held by the centralized banks.
They are holding that trust, but most of them are doing the trust with their own purposes. They are profiting from the trust from their clients.I think that is not the future or the trend of the human society,so I decided to catch back my previous experience and my knowledge about blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
I started to know that blockchain is not only about cryptocurrency,but they also have a lot of different applications.And when it came to 2014,Vitalik (Buterin) has firstly come to China to do the roadshow for Ethereum,and I heard about the new idea about smart contract,which has been a programmable way to do the distributed ledger.I think that has one step more beyond the original Bitcoin blockchain,so I started to look into it, and to know about Ethereum and think that can be applied to solve the problem about the centralized trust issues for the traditional finance,for the peer to peer lending platforms.
I started to learn about it, and I realized that for the very first case to do the online notary services or electronic notary services on the blockchain is the most convenient way to make that into practical.I have met with some technical persons and we have launched the first platform for doing online notary on top of blockchain.Baoquan.com, which is the main platform we have worked on,was to make the blockchain technology can be authenticated by the court,by the forensics, by the notary offices,so that it can be really used in their real lives.
So we got the first sentence based on our blockchain system, based on Baoquan.com in 2018.It has become the very milestone for the whole blockchain application industry,because people start to know that it is really a real case that can be acknowledged and recognized by the most reserved, conservative part, which is the juridical part.
From that, we realized that even beyond that, the commercial world and other governmental sides can be applied with that.We started to research more on that side and the main problem that started to raise is that the existing blockchain, the infrastructure for the Bitcoin system or Ethereum or even Hyperledger Fabric cannot fit with all these requirements from those clients.
So we started to do some development, thinking that we should develop a blockchain underlying infrastructure by ourselves,so that we can really make the blockchain more applicable for different business cases.That’s the main reason we started to do the SimpleChain development and to make it an open source development project in 2019.
Q2: So you first started working on Baoquan.com, which is specifically for judicial system,but then you moved on to develop SimpleChain to cater to the needs of more applications in various fields.Can you tell us more about SimpleChain and SIPC? What is the mission of SimpleChain?
Leo: As I have mentioned,SimpleChain has been developed for different types of applications,
so it has to be a more compatible system.The main goal for SimpleChain is to make up a new type of underlying infrastructure,which can be compatible with the efficiency requirements, also with the requirements for the unification of the ledgers.
We use a different type of approach, unlike most of the public blockchains that only use either Proof of Work consensus mechanism or Proof of Stake or Proof of Authority, those types of specific ones.
We are combining different types of consensus.We designed specifically a double-layer structure,which on the bottom layer is the Proof of Work mechanism to make sure the network is as distributed as possible,so it can be trusted by all the global users,and on top we are using various types of consensus mechanisms,including Proof of Stake, Proof of Authority, and PBFT as well as Raft, so that can be used in different types of requirements,including financial, agriculture and supply chains.Different types of users can define or customize their own requirements with a specific type of mechanism.
So the second layer we call it the sub-chain.Sub-chain and main chain.Main chain is to keep the ledger safe,and the sub-chain is to make it more effective,more efficient, and can be more compatible with different cases.
I think the mission for SimpleChain is to make sure every business,every industrial client can use the blockchain in a very simple way.So make sure every data, every application can simply use blockchain,instead of paying too much attention on the technology itself.
We have also developed a lot of different tools and platforms ,including the developer platforms and developer forums for developers to use in a very simple way.They can just be a normal backend developer, programmer with no idea about blockchain,but they can simply plug in and use SimpleChain in a very simple way, as we just mentioned.
Q3: So the mainnet of SimpleChain network adopts a PoW consensus mechanism,however, PoW blockchain networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum have long been criticized for insufficient performance.Why does SimpleChain opt for PoW instead of PoS or DPoS?
The main reason is because you can trace back to all the blockchains we have seen before, including those ones you have mentioned.Actually only Proof of Work has been proved to be a most stable one that can be operated for a long time.
It is a very new technology that has only been developed for around 11 years,but the only one which has no mistake about the ledger was the (Bitcoin) blockchain and Ethereum.
The reason why we use blockchain is because we think instead of trusting a person, we trust the code, we trust the mechanism,we trust the IC chips.The reason why we choose
We think the chips, the machine, the hardware is more trustworthy than human minds.Proof of Work was based on that last same idea.And in that case, it’s also more open and more transparent for every people to join in.
Instead of Proof of Stake or Delegated Proof of Stake,they need to run elections to show who have the stakes,who have the cryptocurrencies, who have the tokens.It is just like a copy of the normal society.Who have the power, who have the cash can have a louder voice.We don’t think that can be similarly applied or copied to the digital world.That is the main reason we use the main chain, and use Proof of Work as the consensus mechanism on the bottom layer.
Q4: The security of a PoW blockchain network counts on its hash power.How much hash power does SimpleChain have at the moment?And what are your plans to expand your miner community and increase your network’s hash power?
Leo: Actually, since it has been launched,the hash power has been raised from a very low level to around 400GH/s now.And the difficulty has been around 4.5 TH.We have developed a lot of different nodes for different places, for them to experience that.We have set up nodes according to the different requirements around the globe,including Poland, Singapore, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong China, mainland China and Canada.We use those nodes to attract more miners to come into our network to produce the hash power for keeping the whole network safe.
Actually, in order to let them join and to attract more people to come into the mining industry of the SimpleChain,we have actually innovated this specific new product. We call it SimpleNode X1.It is specifically designed as a mini miner actually.It is specifically designed for the normal people to use it and just can plug in with this normal cable to link it into our PCs and laptops.
So in that way, you can use it as a computing unit for your computers to raise more hash power for the SimpleChain public blockchain.The chip was fully designed by one of our committee attendants,and they have invested a lot of money into designing this specific small cube.Actually it is very small, smaller than a normal Rubik’s Cube.
And you can just use it as a very small external device linked to your computers.The efficiency of this specific small miner is around 200 times more effective than normal GPU.It is a very good way for you to get to know about blockchain,also make you have more SIPC tokens in your hands.
Actually that’s why we have attracted a lot of newcomers.They are very top-level guys in the society.They have a successful business background, and they also have a lot of social networks.They were already successful in their own industry, but they started to become interested in the innovative side as well.This has become the link between those traditional business guys and us,and also between them and blockchain.
We have attracted 100 this type of persons and have raised a new committee called B.VIP for them.This new network can have more energy in the future,because those group of guys definitely can have more energy for the whole blockchain industry.
Q5: SimpleChain launched its mainnet back in January last year,what progress have you made since then in terms of technology development?And what is your technology roadmap for 2020？
From last year, we have already (made our codes) open source from last March.After that, we have developed the SimpleNode terminal on PC, and launched various versions of the SimpleChain Explorer.Also we launched SimPool, which is the official mining pool.After we launched our official mining pool, a lot of third-party mining pools have joined our community,like DXPool and MATPool.
On the mobile side, we have launched the ChainBox, which is a distributed wallet.And we have also other third-party wallets like SIPC.VIP, and B.VIP that I have mentioned before.So those are the tools that have been launched last year.
In this year, we are going to launch the upgrade of the SimpleChain infrastructure.We’re going to make cross-chain possible between different types of public blockchains and federated blockchains.This is going to be launched in the first half of this year,and that will be one milestone for the whole SimpleChain that can make the infrastructure as the underlying system for different types of data exchange and value exchange.So that will be our main goal this year.
And also we’re going to launch a developer platform for the commercial business entities.All the development teams from different types of industries can use SimpleChain as a tool with different modules that can be set up as blocks.We construct that platform for more convenient uses for those developers.And we will collaborate with different technical teams to make this part of the development platform embedded into the Blockchain-as-a-Service platforms.DataQin is our main partnership.For them, we are going to develop certain modules for the developer platform,and they are going to use the development platform for their clients and customers.This is our main technical roadmap for this year.
But for 2020, our main focus will still be on how we can serve different types of businesses,how the business clients are requiring the blockchain to be.
Q6: So you mentioned that one of the focus for SimpleChain this year is to upgrade and customize your services for existing applications.So in what fields has SimpleChain already put its technology into use?And what areas are you going to explore next for integration with SimpleChain’s blockchain technology?
Leo: Actually the first one we have launched on top of SimpleChain is the sub-chain called VeraxChain. Verax means veracity.This is the chain looking for veracity in the digital world.That is the main underlying system for Baoquan.com.This case is for a digitalized online notary service,and also, this is the first platform that has been acknowledged, recognized and used by the Internet court in China.So that’s the one that has been supporting the first court case, the judicial case on public blockchains.
So that is one hand.On the other hand, we have also launched other online gaming platforms like the Game World Coins.and the retailing system where you can use SIPC to purchase some specific goods,and also online social commerce like GlobalTime，which is supporting you to spread your products around the world using the platform.In that platform, SimpleChain is playing a specific type of token to incentivize a person to share their good products among their communities.
We have certain types of those applications in the past time.In this year we are focusing more on the financial areas.In that way, we can serve the real value of the real world onto the digital world.The blockchain can perform like a bridge between the traditional finance and digital finance.I think that is the main trend and the main goal for us to be applied in the 2020s.
We already have confronted different type of clients,and they have certain requirements for the blockchain already.But it was hard to find a suitable one for them to develop their applications on.We think we can be this type of person.
And globally, we see a lot of new opportunities specifically on the One Belt One Road area and countries like the Middle East.They have specific requirements on the Islamic finance.They have more complicated rules and regulations than the traditional finance.On the traditional system, it is very hard for them to support this type of mechanisms.
But with our smart contracts, blockchains and the very open and transparent mechanisms,I think those products like takaful and sukuk can be used on top of SimpleChain in those areas as well.
There are a lot of different opportunities and demands on the market.We are trying to use the digital data as a type of resources in the digital world,to use the data to support the financial modeling,for helping the banks and insurance companies to have better evaluations based on those data.But those data transferring and transmitting need the blockchain to keep them safe, keep them traceable,keep them transparent to others, and can be verified by others.So that’s the main goal for us in this year.Also, we think it’s the main side, or the main industry that blockchain can really thrive with their own functions.
Q7: DataQin, the initiator of SimpleChain’s technology community,has recently announced that it has secured tens of millions RMB in Series Pre-A funding.What does that mean for SimpleChain?
Actually, as the initiator of this technology (community),they have already put a lot of different types of applications on top of SimpleChain.As they have got the financial conditions,which means they can invest more on the R&D department for applications.We can also acquire more users and more user cases from DataQin.This is a very significant help,and also a very significant milestone for them,because on one hand, we were kind of invented by them,so they have been permitted by those financial investors in mainland China,so that means our SimpleChain technology is one of their advantages for their technology.
It somehow means that even in the traditional investment area,our technology can be really acknowledged and recognized as a very cutting-edge technology in China.Our plan is to use that advantage to attract more applications and recruit more developers outside of China as well.Their good financing status is a good sign for the whole industry, also a good sign for our SimpleChain technology as well.We can attract more investors to our SimpleChain community as well,attract them to be our community partners,attract them to join our SimpleChain Foundation even.
In this year, we have already raised our (Foundation) committee members from only 5 of them into 14 of them.We are continuing to expanding these scales and we will welcome all this kind of new achievements from all our community members.
Q8: There is a lot of competition among public chains.Can you summarize the differences and advantages of SimpleChain services compared to your competitors?
Actually, I think the openness is one of the main advantages of us, because we are welcoming all the competitions around the world,because we are using SimpleChain as a hub to transmit data between different blockchains.We are doing this as one of our main functions for the cross-chain network.That is one of the advantages.
On the other hand, as we have mentioned before,we are focusing on solving the real case problems.We have developed a lot of platforms as long as those are convenient for the users.We have developed all those tools for users that they can use blockchain in a very easy way.They don’t need to know the mechanisms of blockchain at any time,but they can just use it in a very convenient way, that we can attract more developers on our ecosystem.That is one of our main advantages, because we currently have a lot of different cases running on top of us,and in the future it’s gonna be more.
Because we have developed a lot of training courses for colleges and universities.We will train them to use the blockchain as a tool for them to develop their own distributed applications.That will attract more developers on top of our network,also we can have more user cases on top of that.
As I mentioned before, we have different community members from the business industries.They have already invested their time and money inside this area.They are going to link the blockchain to their own conventional industry as well.That is the main advantage.Attracting them into our community and they going to invest more user cases on our communities.We will be serving them with more open networks and more convenient platforms.
As I have mentioned, our slogan that SimpleChain is a public blockchain made for business.Only when they are really using the blockchain then the blockchain is a good technology.Our goal is that. Our focus is that.We’re not using the concept of blockchain as a rocket science, or to make it a mysterious masterpiece.But we are going to make it a more stable and more robust infrastructure for all the Internet of values.
About SimpleChain
The mission of SimpleChain is to simplify the blockchain for business.
SimpleChain is a PoW main chain with flexible sub-chains. Different sub-chains can adopt different kinds of consensus and block data structure as needed, to enable a variety of applications and use cases on blockchain. Sharding is also implemented to improve performance. This double-layered structure of one main chain and multiple sub-chains can fuel various applications while ensuring the consistency of the network.
Built on VeraxChain, SimpleChain’s first sub-chain, Baoquan.com provides record keeping services which serves to keep records of online data and authenticate electronic evidence. In June 2018, Hangzhou Internet Court of China judged a case of copyright dispute based on data stored on Baoquan.com. For the first time in China, the legal effect of the electronic data stored on blockchain is recognized in the judicial system. (News link: https://www.coindesk.com/blockchain-can-legally-authenticate-evidence-chinese-judge-rules)
Find SimpleChain at:
— -Overview — -
Website: www.simplechain.com
Whitepaper: www.simplechain.com/ims/chain/download?spm=1922.1381.010729.122&language=english
Github: www.github.com/simplechain-org
Blockchain Explorer: www.explorer.simplechain.com/
— Community — -
Twitter: www.twitter.com/SimpleChain
Telegram: www.t.me/SimpleChainEN
Medium: www.medium.com/SimpleChain
Reddit: www.reddit.com/r/SimpleChain
Facebook: www.facebook.com/SimpleChainOfficial
— -SIPC Mining & Trading — -
Mobile Wallet-Chainbox (English & Chinese): download available at www.simplechain.com
Browser Plug-In Wallet-SimPlug (English & Chinese): guide available at https://medium.com/simplechain/simplug-guide-sipc-wallet-in-your-browser-c2440843decb
Mining Client on PC-SimpleNode (English & Chinese, can also act as a wallet): download available at www.simplechain.com
Mining Pools
1. SimPool (Chinese only): www.simpool.vip
2. MATPool (Chinese only): www.matpool.io/
3. DXPool (English & Chinese): www.dxpool.com/
Mining Guide with DXPool: https://www.dxpool.com/help/en/sipc-mining-tutorial
Mining Machine: SimpleNode X1 USB mining machine: 2M hashrate, 5W power use. Please contact @Laurenxy on Telegram if interested.
Trading
SIPC/CNT & SIPC/USDT: www.zt.com
