In June 2018, while the whole blockchain industry was focused on the EOS MainNet launch, a team comprised of top-tier information technology professionals quietly started its own research and development.
The goal of this mysterious team was to create a public chain that is focused on real-world use cases, a project that would stand out in the crowded public chain space.
At the present moment, it is very difficult to determine whether or not the Vite public chain will join the top-tier ranks in three or five years time. However, in observing Vite’s current accomplishments and impressive growth trajectory, the team is indeed moving rapidly towards their goals and ambitious objectives.
Vite does not choose to pursue a technological breakthrough, but rather chooses to showcase a real-world application scenario with an emphasis on performance, security, economy, scalability, and ease of use. The ultimate goal is to create an easy-to-use public blockchain platform.
In the span of only four months, the engineering team has already released a variety of products such as TestNet 1.0, iOS wallet, web wallet, desktop wallet, block browser, and an online merchandise marketplace. These product releases are ahead of the projected roadmap by a six month timeline.
At the end of October, Vite made the strategic move to burn and lock up 56% of the tokens controlled by the team. This ultimately cut off the possibility for token dumping, giving investors reassurance while simultaneously allowing the community to gain trust in the Vite mission. In this critical time period, the company also put more value into the TestNet; this allowed the team to expose and fix problems in advance, thus tackling on foreseeable risks before the launch of the MainNet.
With this context in mind, the blockchain media platform, CoinVoice interviewed Charles (Chunming) Liu, the founder of Vite Labs. In the in-depth interview, Vite focused on two key conversation points: cognition of the public chain concept and how to win the race. The following is an excerpt from the interview.
The Interview
CoinVoice: You have have been in blockchain industry since 2013. You could have gone many directions. Why did you decide to develop a public chain?
Charles: When I entered the blockchain industry at the end of 2013, the choices were actually limiting so we started with a product with a lower expectation threshold. During that time, we thought deeper…comprehensively analyzing the trends seen in the entire industry. Combined with the experience and expertise of my team, together we chose the path of public chain with which our team had more comparative advantages.
CoinVoice: Since you already had the experience with a crypto exchange, wouldn’t it have been easier to build an exchange rather than a public chain?
Charles: The exchange business is not very technology-driven, it’s rather operationally-driven. This track is not what we are best at. The choice of an entrepreneurial direction must not rely on the blind pursuit of what’s popular, but rather it needs to have a very clear understanding of the entire industry as a whole. Through the process of rational analyses, we are doing what we do best, and therefore we will have more control of our success.
CoinVoice: Starting late means it’s difficult to beat the forerunners. Is it easy to lose some advantages when starting late?
Charles: We did a few months of research before kickstarting the project. The conclusion was that from development to application, the public chain industry is still in its very early stages and has not reached commercial implementation yet. Many people are saying that the public chain has evolved from 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 or even 4.0. But in our opinion, the current public chain is still at the 0.1 stage. All public chain projects are at the same starting line, doing early exploration.
CoinVoice: Some people think that the public chain has already lost its way.
Charles: Due to the profitable nature of capital, I frequently see projects come about from various short-term trends at times. However, from the perspective of industry development, any path needs to have a long-term accumulation of resources and adequate preparation for competition. In my opinion, the competition to forge the dominant path in the public chain sphere is just starting to pick up.
CoinVoice: What kind of public chain does Vite want to be?
Charles: Since the beginning, we considered how to make a public chain that can be “used” rather than just “traded”. We hope that Vite will eventually become a public chain that truly has use cases.
CoinVoice: What are the standards for a usable public chain?
Charles: At the minimum, it needs to meet the following five requirements: high performance, security, economy, scalability, and ease of use.
CoinVoice: There are media reports that you have burned and locked up more than half of the team’s tokens (56%) to your TestNet. Is this true?
Charles: These actions are to activate the Vite TestNet, making future MainNet developments more realistic and possible. With many public blockchain projects, the TestNet is only there for demonstration, not for real testing. In order for our TestNet to be fully ‘tested’, the value needed to be transmitted. We first sent the tokens we controlled over to our TestNet and are now hosting super-node and mining campaigns to encourage users to migrate their tokens.
Only by putting real money into it can people take the TestNet seriously. If a security risk or bug is discovered, our whole team will be inherently affected which in turn makes our the team more motivated. To improve system performance, we will resolve potential problems early on, in turn reducing risk appearance in the future MainNet.
CoinVoice: Does the investor and the team have no divergence?
Charles: This measure reduces the liquidity of the secondary market and investors wind up becoming the beneficiaries. 20% of the tokens held by the team become locked up for 2 years. The risk is mainly in regards to the security of the network, and whether the MainNet can finally be launched. Vite is doing this to motivate the team and have the MainNet delivered earlier than expected on our roadmap.
CoinVoice: What are the beliefs or goals of the Vite team?
Charles: Do more and talk less. Most of our team come from the highly specialized information technology industries and pursue execution. This is in our DNA. I believe that good products speak for themselves. Ultimately, winning the competition depends on strength, not hype.
The Strategy
CoinVoice: What do you think are the barriers for competition amongst public chains?
Charles: A public chain project needs to go through three stages — think it out, make it, and use it. There are obvious barriers within these three stages.
“Thinking it out” refers to the technical solution which tests the technical depth and breadth of the team. Without adequate research and analysis of current technology, it is difficult to make innovations.
“Make it” refers to execution. To be a public chain requires building a strong team, iterating fast, and turning the technical solutions into an actual product. Blockchain technical talent is very rare to find currently so it is not easy to form a team like ours.
“Use it” means application. Like the logic of the Internet, it requires a scenario, users, and a business model. This part might be the most challenging.
CoinVoice: When will the competition of the public chain be finished? Or when will the first two or three tiers basically settle down?
Charles: I personally think this may take around 5 years.
CoinVoice: Does this mean that the early-stage of the public chain will last a very long time?
Charles: Yes, because the public chain project is both an infrastructure and an ecosystem, the life cycle of this track is relatively long and the development behind it will be relatively slow.
CoinVoice: What is Vite’s target objective in terms of public chain competition?
Charles: Our goal is definitely to become the #1 project.
CoinVoice: What do you think will support Vite’s mission to be at the top?
Charles: The core competitiveness of our team, followed by our reputation and experience in this industry. Our ecosystem and community itself alsos speaks for itself and provides critical support.
CoinVoice: What is your application plan?
Charles: There are two phases. The first is to build the value-chain of the ecosystem. This includes the wallet, payment solution, asset issuance, cross-chain, and decentralized exchange. The second stage is to extend to broader applications based on smart contract; this includes but is not limited to use cases in entertainment, social media, education, medical, crowdfunding, e-commerce, life service.
CoinVoice: What is the strategy for the next three months?
Charles: One is to activate the TestNet and to promote each product line. Another is to gradually establish a value-based ecosystem.
CoinVoice: Will you burn money to do this?
Charles: We will definitely burn some money. Similar to the logic of the Internet, we burn through some money to get customers. But the incentive model of blockchain will be more efficient. We planned this part back when we were raising capital.
CoinVoice: But the business model of the public chain project seems to be different from the Internet. How would you address the profit model in relation to cryptocurrency?
Charles: An increase in the price of the token is not a business model. Just as the rise in the stock price of Internet companies is the result of the company’s earnings or profit expectations, not the profit itself. As the number of applications and the number of users on a public chain grows, more and more people will be willing to pay for the usage of the public chain, thereby making the owners of the public chain profitable.
The Dream
CoinVoice: Was there a time when you felt anxious in business within the last few months?
Charles: Entrepreneurs definitely face a lot of pressure.
CoinVoice: Are these pressures ever transferred onto employees?
Charles: My team and I have been working happily. We feel very satisfied when see our goals become reality, step by step. I am a very optimistic person and never like to bring negative emotions back to the team.
CoinVoice: What do you want to do other than Vite?
Charles: My dream is to create something valuable for the world, neither for the purpose of fame or fortune. Maybe one day, I will enter a world in which competition will not be at the main stage. I will do something I equally enjoy, such as writing a book or doing research.
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Official: https://www.vite.org/
Telegram:
- English: https://t.me/vite_en
- Chinese（中文）: https://t.me/vite_zh
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