WTC: The sleepy Walton you know, and the blockchain-blockbuster you don’t .
This article was first released to the CryptoBirb Exclusive Moon Club. For more information, visit https://discord.gg/kUpraEH
There’s no pretty way to put it. The markets are battered and bloodied. Long gone are the lambo boys of the when-moon tribe. They were drowned in a deluge of REKT memes, and liquidation notices. The irony of it all is that this is exactly what most had wished for. Surely, no one wanted to see their blockfolio 93% down from ATH’s, but most of the 2017 entrants to the market said to themselves in earnest, “if only I had found out about crypto in 2014, 15, etc. Surely I would have had the gal to stick through the extended bear markets and ride through with my quality projects in the unshakable confidence that the underlying tech would eventually reward me with gains that would outperform every other major asset class in the same time period”. Welp, be careful what you wish for.. Amidst the market cap carnage however, we can find solace in the notion that Rome was not built in a day. If it had been, it would have irrevocably shaken our value systems, have felt cheap, and have been mistrusted. If it had been, Rome would not have been Rome. Crypto-maximalists are beginning to realize that regardless of how sexy a decentralized, distributed, immutable blockchain sounds rolling off the tongue, the powers that be aren’t keen on disruption. When a new entrant arrives to the party, he is put through the measures to see whether he is fit for inclusion. He is stress-tested, (over time), prodded, and perhaps even brought to within an inch of his life. As much is necessary, especially when, to borrow from blockchain nomenclature, we are only as strong as our weakest link. If crypto is ever to see it’s place at the big boys table, it will be after it has shaped up, and proven itself worthy. Although the growing pains of current market conditions aren’t ideal for the short term outlook, they are necessary for long term growth, and to put it bluntly, there are far too many half-baked projects that need to be washed out, and the sooner they fold up, the better.
Enter Waltonchain! The thrifty Chinese-Korean “decentralized platform combining blockchain with the Internet of Things (IoT) via RFID technology.” - I know what you’re thinking. What a name.. Honestly, it would be difficult to come up with a less exciting moniker if you pulled a hundred entries from of a random word generator, but given the project’s stalwart focus on progress and real-world adoption, the name fits like a glove. It’s not a flashy nod to an 80’s arcade game turned Hollywood blockbuster, (TRON), a mythologized Matrix hero, (NEO), or a Norse god of thunder, (VET), but rather, a reverential nod to the now deceased Charlie Walton, the patent holding scientist and RFID inventor upon whose studies a large portion of their project is built. They did not, like so many other firms, bleed their ICO coffers on bloated, (and short sighted), marketing budgets. Rather, they stored up for the winter-road ahead, and put the funds to use on capitol-intensive hardware R&D, building out their robust ecosystem, and establishing the friggin Walton Blockchain Institute, (among other milestones). From Waltonchain’s COO, Monitor Chan,“Waltonchain always adheres to technological innovation and independent research and development of chips and refuses all the malicious hype. Down-to-earth and practical work is the motto of our team, we believe that pure gold will always shine.” In case you haven’t picked up on it yet, WTC means business, and that business is a long-sighted one.
To fully appreciate the project’s scope, perhaps it is better to start off with what WTC is not. The cryptoverse has a tendency to over simplify the market at large into bite-size pieces. This is necessary as the web of moving parts grows ever more complicated and congested by the day. As with any processes reliant on abstraction, though, mistakes will be made. Waltonchain is not just an RFID on the blockchain one-trick-pony as many have been misguided to believe. While RFID is indeed a major actor in the accomplishment of their greater vision, it is by no means the end in and unto itself. WTC is actively cultivating a scalable, fungible, enterprise-level IoT platform which deftly marries the necessary realms of public and private chains. They are using their proprietary RFID tech in specific industry sectors as proof of concept while concurrently expanding in a plethora of IoT enabled categories. While they draw their namesake from RFID, this is to be thought of as a launchpad, not a landing strip. They explicitly say as much in their whitepaper, “Through radio frequency identification (RFID), infrared sensors, global positioning systems, laser scanners and other information sensing equipment, it connects any item to the Internet to carry out information exchange and communication according to the agreement, to achieve intelligent identification, positioning , tracking, monitoring and management. As an extension of the Internet, the Internet of Things further promotes the connections between machine and machine, human and machine and achieves the full life cycle circulation management of data in the information world”. Does Waltonchain have your attention yet..?
Lofty Goals, Methodical Execution
If you haven’t already, I invite you to reread the italicized portion from WTC’s whitepaper above. What they are aiming for is nothing short of “brave new world” territory. I hope now it makes better sense that in setting out to realize an end goal of such scale, their initial implementation would be focused and deliberate. While many projects in the space focus solely on developing software, Waltonchain understands that data represented on the blockchain is only as viable as the trustworthiness of its origin, and thus has endeavored to combine proprietary hardware that captures that data in real time, and then writes it directly on their blockchain creating a staggering data network they call the Value Internet of Things (“VIoT”). For the traditional business investor, this is where WTC differentiates itself from the vast majority of the crypto fold. An investment in WTC isn’t akin to the speculative vaporware bets that would turn the stomach of the average retail investor, through the dynamic stewardship of the Waltonchain team, (see more on the stellar team here), a staggering number of knockout business and governmental partnerships, (here), and increasingly important IP and vertically integrated infrastructure, Waltonchain demonstrates the kind of investment opportunity that would make capitalists cut in the mold of Warren Buffet fall out of their seats, (to date, Mr. Buffet has yet to return my calls).
Let’s take a look at some of their hardware that is core to achieving their brazen agenda . As referenced before, RFID takes center stage in the 1st act of WTC’s game plan. Here are some of the advantages to their proprietary RFID IC chips specifically designed for VIoT: first and foremost, they have the ability to write on the WTC blockchain directly without relying an API intermediary, effectively serving as a physical cryptographic-conduit to realize truly decentralized data representation on the blockchain. In addition, they are highly secure, tamper-resistant with dedicated memory, optimized for anti-collision and tag recognition, are highly sensitive to increase recognition success, have enhanced compatibility for simultaneous high-frequency and ultra-high frequency, and are long lasting, (the chip can last more than 20 years). As if this weren’t enough, we get to the really interesting wrinkle in the value proposition, the cost. To this point, Waltonchain’s CTO, Wei Songjie, stated in the 1st hardware AMA that “The memory cell design of our RFID chip has been optimized to reduce chip size and therefore reduce the cost. At present, our tag chip can be produced for below 5 cents.”. This number will only benefit over time from the economics of scale. It is also worth noting that currently, their competitors in RFID cost out at an on average of 15–20 cents. That’s 3–4x for hardware with a comparatively dismal value proposition without even factoring the value of Waltonchain itself. Let us now take a moment of silence for other RFID chip maufacturers…
As a close friend and long time WTC whale pointed out, the importance of Waltonchain’s expansion into ASIC miner and hardware wallet production cannot be overstated, especially in the midst of Bitmain’s cash-flow woes. The spoke on the ASIC miner question earlier this year in an AMA, “Promotion of ASIC is to bring into play the hardware advantages of the Waltonchain team in terms of chips and integrated circuits, and to create dedicated hardware with distributed ledger capabilities for application scenarios.”… “In order to utilize our technical advantages and accumulated resources in terms of hardware, we will launch dedicated hardware. Future ASICs are not just for mining, and the Waltonchain approaches profit not just through mining.” Some of the other hardware productions in their lineup are the UHF RFID Ceramic Antennae, and the UHF Android RFID Reader/Writer, which are equally focused to realize the RFID network. The reader/writer serves as a light node on the WTC chain, wherein it can mine, as well as authenticate and upload data to the network. “These attributes create circular incentives for customers: by utilizing the scanner to authenticate and upload data about their products onto the Waltonchain network, they can also use the scanner to secure their own child chain, be rewarded in WTC for doing so, and use the awarded WTC for paying future transaction fees on the Waltonchain. This is a win-win for both customers and Waltonchain — this has the effect of adding security to the overall network by incentivizing more scanners to be used (thereby increasing the amount of nodes online), while also significantly decreasing costs to customers who buy into all the features of the ecosystem.” (source). In short, Waltonchain is structuring a network bolstered by intelligently designed incentives enabled by proprietary hardware vertically integrated to control costs as they scale.
The Child Chain Scaling Solution
Waltonchain employs an industry first breakthrough with its parent / child chain protocol which achieves theoretically limitless scaling by allowing child chains to be sprouted from the trunk of the parent chain for any myriad of use cases without burdening the main, (parent) chain. This provides for consensus flexibility tailored to the applications’ needs, true decentralization, data authenticity, control, and privacy. The privacy portion is especially important for enterprise applications. Say for instance a retail client does not wish to disclose proprietary fulfillment information on the main chain which competitors could leverage against him. The child chain solution offers the client an elegant opportunity to maintain an immutable data record while ensuring that sensitive information remains privileged, and doesn’t needlessly clog the main chain. I could go on, but child chains have been covered elsewhere with great success, and clarity, (source).-
Limitless scalability of the parent chain has been achieved through this protocol where congestion is isolated to each child-chain, thus keeping unnecessary transactions off of the parent chain
Each child-chain is capable of using independent infrastructure from the parent-chain (think DPoS, PoA, PoW, PosT etc)
Parent Chain infrastructure can be implemented within Child Chains, allowing for hierarchical chains within business and govt organizations for example. This positions Waltonchain as the most durable, moldable, and adaptable blockchain’s out there on the market currently
Companies are able to purchase their own pre-designed child-chains using WTC that have been proven to work for other companies. It’s basically like walking into a store and trying on what works for you, as well as knowing what the hot deals are and who’s wearing what
ICO’s can be hosted off these child-chains, as well as support different programming languages such as Solidity, GO, etc
WTC Token Utility
Issuing child chains- Much of what is to follow comes from the whitepaper first referenced above. One of the primary uses for WTC on an enterprise level is issuing child chains, (i.e. storage sub chain, logistics sub chain and sales sub chain). WTCs spent producing child chains are used to pay a byte fee for network bandwidth. This must be paid in WTC. (Similar to the NEO/GAS ETH/GAS fee systems).
Early adopters will benefit from lower byte fees based on principles of supply and demand, and as network demand grows and node resources become scarce, the price that companies pay to issue a child chain will increase. Walton has built in mechanisms to adjust the economics as demand increases, (including adjusting the node reward structure, and limiting transaction fees), to ensure economical network utility.
Dividend Interest- rewarded to stakers for work in the PoST consensus mechanism. (PoST is an upgrade over the PoS as it rewards nodes with better reputations that have been online for longer. This improves network security and stability.
Credit and mortgage system
Considering WTC will function like the main currency on the Walton network, it can also function as collateral in a native credit/mortgage system executed by smart contracts. Again from the whitepaper- “a customer needs to pay for his consumption at A store, A store supports A coin, but the customer does not have any A coin, then the customer can pay by mortgaging parent chain WTCs (in a frozen state), A store and the customer sign an smart contract on the chain automatically to set an agreed time to return A coins, when such WTC coins will be unfrozen”. The more payments you complete on-time, the better your credit. With better credit, fewer WTC’s are needed to mortgage your transaction. Guess what happens when you miss you payments..
Distributed asset exchange
If we exchange assets on the parent chain, the parent chain will be able to exchange the assets of any sub chain tokens on any sub chain. This allows the sub chains to interact with each other and opens up many collaboration opportunities to allow cross-chain asset transactions, which is also a required function in the Walton ecosystem in the long term.
Distributed voting and governance system
Safe and anonymous voting for all child chains and the parent chain.
Decentralized exchange
All the coins on the sub chains can be traded in the decentralized exchange on the parent chain, (using WTC as the base trading pair, of course).
Token Metric and Use Case Summary
From the ICO raise and dispersal, to the use case for the tokens themselves, everything seems to be in order. I especially find the 100,000,000 max supply VERY attractive for the long term token-omics. The uses for the token are individually pedestrian. Voting privileges other dividend interest are expected, but once the notion of child chains is introduced, functionality like the credit/mortgage system, decentralized exchange, and distributed asset exchange take on uniquely leveraged value. Especially given the mission of Waltonchain itself, the layered incentives and token currency should leave investors and clients equally inspired.
The Beast from the East
There is an excellent and extensive write up done on Waltonchain’s connections to the megalodon One Belt One Road initiative, so I won’t harp too much on it’s potential to turbo charge Walton’s growth , (not to mention that of a kindred IoT project in MAN which I wrote about here,), but suffice to say, there is no overstating the proportions of the infrastructure needed to realize a project of this size. And with the incalculable number of trade partners across multiple routes and shipping methods, seamless supply chain and logistical data flows are paramount, (as the Chinese government alluded to in this 2015 release;
The Initiative is an ambitious economic vision of the opening-up of and cooperation among the countries along the Belt and Road. Countries should work in concert and move towards the objectives of mutual benefit and common security. To be specific, they need to improve the region’s infrastructure, and put in place a secure and efficient network of land, sea and air passages, lifting their connectivity to a higher level; further enhance trade and investment facilitation, establish a network of free trade areas that meet high standards, maintain closer economic ties, and deepen political trust; enhance cultural exchanges; encourage different civilizations to learn from each other and flourish together; and promote mutual understanding, peace and friendship among people of all countries.
Good thing there’s a chippy young blockchain outfit not so auspiciously parked in the Fuijan city of Xiamen, right in the middle of the OBOR nesting ground. In addition to their prime seat at the table, and their aforementioned enterprise ready child chain construction, and vertically integrated infrastructure, Walton is primed for a supply chain induced feeding frenzy, wetting the pallet with a Smart Ocean R&D partnership with the Fuijan government.
“Based on a complete marine information collection and transmission system, and based on the construction of autonomous and controllable marine cloud environment, the system integrates equipment and activities in the three areas of maritime rights, management and development, and uses industrial big data and the Internet. Big data technology, realize the sharing of marine resources, coordinate marine activities, tap new needs, create new values, and achieve the goal of wisdom and ocean. Based on the previous good foundation, Fujian Province will build a smart ocean detection laboratory in Fujian Province, which will make our province take the lead in the wisdom of the ocean, which is of great significance to the province’s promotion of the marine capabilities and the promotion of the marine economy.”
If you are beginning to see a trend here, it’s no coincidence. Walton is emerging as the go-to IoT and enterprise partner for the governmental gatekeepers in China, including another governmental partnership, this time in the Jiangsu province, for smart air purification solutions and pollution monitoring. As the scope of Walton’s capacity broadens to become eer more impressive, we would do well to remember that their bounding expansion is churning along in lock step with the tenets of OBOR that is key to China’s 10 year outlook, and beyond. “We should strengthen bilateral cooperation, and promote comprehensive development of bilateral relations through multi-level and multi-channel communication and consultation. We should encourage the signing of cooperation MOUs or plans, and develop a number of bilateral cooperation pilot projects. We should establish and improve bilateral joint working mechanisms, and draw up implementation plans and roadmaps for advancing the Belt and Road Initiative. (WTC couldn’t have said it better themselves..)
Alibaba and Beyond
I’ll be quick on this last portion as we all have lives to lead outside patting Walton on the back, but it would be irresponsible not to mention the disruption they have in the works for the retail sector. If RFID has ever worked harder, than what you are about to see, I’ll owe you a 5 spot.
Attesting to the title of this section, this is exactly the kind of consumer data that the likes of Alibaba, (Amazon’s giant twin brother of China), or yes, even Amazon, would sell the farm to get their hands on. Alibaba Chief Executive Daniel Zhang said he would consider striking more deals where partners “can bring additional customers…We are trying to build an integrated online-offline platform for both customers and merchants.”, (source). In an ever competitive marketplace, online retailers and brick n mortars alike are desperate to harvest consumer data and create more engaging, creative and unique value-driven experiences to retain and grow their customer bases. Waltonchain has shown time and time again that they have the experience, understanding, and technology to provide their business partners with a plethora of usable data whose momentum impresses to the point of inevitability. Once the industry catches on to this kind of data collection and models it into inventory management, trend analysis, procurement, etc, it’s not a question of who will use it, it becomes a question of can you survive if you don’t..
Big Finish!!
So you’ve made it to the end of the article. Congrats! No, the market hasn’t turned around just yet, (double checks the BTC ticker on coinmarketcap, NOPE, still down), but I hope that by this point you realize that a local market depression in no way diminishes what projects like WTC are trying to accomplish. Theirs is not a game of swing trades and scalping, (nor are they concerned with Telegram chat cries of insufficient marketing). They are playing the long game, betting the house on the undeniable value of the fundamentals, and something about “pure gold rising to the top..”? To hammer home a final point- do not underestimate the implications of putting RFID, (or any intelligent sensor tech), data on the blockchain. On a fundamental level, the entire physical plane that we smell, touch, and feel, can be represented in terms of supply chain. Not only will it take some time for the Waltonchain team to develop the tech and requisite data to support this paradigm shift, and earn the trust of the naysayers, but it will take even more time for the old guard to recognize that they have no choice but to embrace progress, or watch the world pass them by from the bitter shores of Irrelevance. This is not the time to concede that crypto is the bubble your vindictive uncle always told you it was. This is the time that projects like WTC are out there in the fray, fighting tooth and nail to prove themselves worthy of that big boys table I mentioned earlier. And they are actually doing it! It is also the time that those who likened themselves to the BTC-whale early adopters if only they had gotten their chance, finally get their chance. Waltonchain doesn’t have marketing on their agenda until 2020, but only because they will be busy serving double duty on the front lines of one of the great technological revolutions of our age. I’m happy to wait a few years and find myself a good seat. After all, Rome was not built in a day.
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