Witnet X Conflux AMA
As part of our ongoing AMA series, Jerome joined the Witnet Telegram for an in-depth Ask Me Anything!
I want to thank Jerome, a Conflux ambassador for joining our AMA in Telegram. We were able to present our questions and answers infront of over 1,500 people in the Witnet Telegram channel, and I think we all learned something about both Conflux and Witnet that we didn’t know before!
This is a transcript of the text AMA that was in Telegram, and parts of it will be paraphrased. If you want the full text AMA, join our Telegram.
Let’s dive in
Let’s begin with what Witnet is. Launched in October 2020, Witnet is a layer one decentralized oracle network that was built for a single purpose, and that was to fulfill data requests.
With that being said, it’s not an EVM chain, or a parachain or Cosmos chain. The network was built from scratch using the programming language Rust. Because it’s a layer one, the native currency is the $WIT coin.
This coin is the cryptoeconomic incentive of the network. In addition to nodes fulfilling data requests across our integrated chains, they are also mining blocks. However, in order to be eligible for fulfilling data requests, nodes need to post collateral, which will be slashed if said node provides false information or acts malicious against the network. The $WIT coin is currently listed on exchanges MEXC and Gate.io with more coming soon. Essentially, because of this network construction, we don’t need to believe that nodes are acting trustworthy; it is just in their best interest to do so.
Witnet is also the only oracle that is integrated on 18 chains. As far as I know, the next closest is around 10 or so. Being a layer one blockchain, integrating on new chains is really easy and only takes roughly 4–8 weeks compared to other solutions that can take closer to 6 months in some cases. For more information about this, here is our linktree.
Without further ado, before we ask our first question, Jerome why don’t you introduce yourself!
Jerome (Conflux):
Hey Benny, thank you for welcoming me to this AMA, some informations to introduce me.
I discovered Conflux Network at the beginning of 2021, shortly after the launch of the mainnet and I was immediately seduced by this project because of its technology.
I’m an active member since that date and I became one of the two French ambassadors for the Global Team for almost a year now and it’s really interesting.
Ben (Witnet):
Since there are so many blockchains out there now, what do you believe is the difference between Conflux, and the hundreds to thousands of others out there?
Jerome:
Nice question! Conflux Network is a high performance Layer 1 blockchain designed for dApps that require speed at scale without sacrificing decentralization.
The Conflux protocol builds on all the goodness of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), but also introduces a series of innovative mechanisms that make a difference in scalability and usability for the good of the developers.
Our blockchain stands out with its cutting-edge technology, using the Tree-Graph consensus mechanism.
Notice that Conflux has a unique PoW-PoS hybrid consensus now and a sponsorship mechanism that unlocks use cases like compliant NFT marketplaces.
Ben:
What do you see as the most valuable part of the Conflux network? In other words, why would developers choose to build there, or why are they currently building there?
Jerome:
Haha, it’s really difficult to choose, but, on a personal basis, I’ll say : high throughput and security.
Because, Conflux breakthrough Tree-Graph consensus algorithm uses parallel processing of blocks and transactions to lower confirmation times and increase TPS (around 3000 and 6000 TPS, just amazing for a PoW mechanism).
About security, Conflux utilizes a highly tested PoW consensus to provide increased security and anti-reentrance attack protection at the protocol level.
In addition, since the integration of PoW+PoS consensus following the last Hydra fork in February, Conflux greatly limits the possibility of 51% attacks with CIP-43 protocol.
Ben:
So what would you say is the overall goal of the Conflux Network?
Jerome:
So, through blockchain and other emerging technologies, the path to globalization and connectivity is accelerating — yet barriers still exist.
For every barrier, there is a catalyst for a new kind of connectivity, Conflux Network is that catalyst.
As the only regulatory compliant, public, and permissionless blockchain in China, our blockchain is building a borderless transactional and technological ecosystem for globally-minded crypto projects, extending beyond China to North America, Russia, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the rest of the world.
Ben:
Wow, that’s actually insane! Not to mention, you have a vibrant community and I see a lot of users from around the world; so that doesn’t surprise me
Talking more about the POW/POS mechanism: Can you walk us through the Conflux consensus mechanism? Why is having a hybrid POW and POS important?
Jerome:
PoW is good for decentralization and fair reward distribution in the initial phase of the network.
PoS can offer deterministic finality which is important for many applications. In addition, it increases the consensus security by eliminating the possibility of 51% attacks that PoW has.
Ben:
Yes it’s definitely well thought out. And in that sense it is sort of similar to Witnet, as we have what’s called a “Proof of Random Eligibility”. Miners, who are solving data requests have to put up staked collateral, but they are also competing for blocks. It’s interesting to see how POW/POS can work together!
Now, since Witnet has a heavy presence on the Conflux Network, can you talk a bit about how Witnet is currently playing a role in strengthening the Conflux network and strengthening the original values of the network?
Jerome:
Many projects already use Witnet price oracles and VRFs on Conflux. We are excited with the Witnet partnership because it is a decentralized oracle protocol that focus on providing reliable data to “autonomous” smart contracts.
And we know that the Witnet decentralized network of oracle nodes will immediately start to trustlessly provide data to smart contracts on Conflux Network in an accurate, transparent, and censorship-resistant way.
Ben:
As part of the Conflux Grant program, can you walk us more through the grants that have been given out and how they have benefited the ecosystem?
Jerome:
Allocated grants appear transparently and globally on our quarterly reports. You will also find details and benefits on the Conflux ecosystem directly from the Conflux forum.
Ben:
Can you discuss more in depth the importance of “renting” (for lack of a better term) data on the Conflux chain and why there is an incentive to do so? Or rather why there should be parameters in place such as the ones you have put in to create a unique network?
Jerome:
If you mean the storage collateral mechanism, it’s in place to put a limit on storage growth that might become an issue in a high performance blockchain like Conflux. You have to pay for storage per allocation and it is more expensive than execution.
But you can get the money back if you free up storage, so that’s a strong incentive for users and developers to reduce their storage use.
Ben:
Going back to the tokenomics, is there a capped amount of CFX? Can you talk more about the tokenomics and how they looked at the beginning of the project, and the importance of having transparent tokenomics?
Jerome:
Of course. As with Ethereum, Conflux hasn’t got a max supply. Indeed, people who mine or stake get rewards. The inflation rate for PoS is <=4% + 2CFX per block each 0.5 second (average) for PoW.
You’re right, it is very important to have transparent tokenomics. As I explained previously, all this information is available on the whitepaper. Since its launch, Conflux has been transparent with its community thanks to its various quarterly reports.
Ben: (this is my favorite question I had prepared for this AMA)
How is the Directed Acyclic Graph working? The idea of withholding blocks will not allow subsequent blocks to reference it. How does this build finality and security when compared with Bitcoin or Ethereum which are commonly understood as very secure?
Jerome:
The Tree-Graph ledger and the GHAST consensus algorithm make Conflux nodes be able to quickly generate new blocks without worrying about that the existence of forks in the ledger may harm the security of the network, and hence enable the system to achieve both the high throughput and the low transaction confirmation latency.
In addition, Conflux employs a novel transaction relay protocol to improve the effective utilization of the network bandwidth for transaction propagation since, in Conflux, the network bandwidth could become the real bottleneck.
In order to reduce the redundant transaction propagation, a Conflux node first sends out to its peers an announcement containing the transaction ids that the peers may not have seen before, and then let the peers request the transactions that they really need.
Conflux introduces an efficient encoding for the transaction id to achieve a good trade-off between the size and the security.
Ben:
Witnet is currently supplying around 16 data feeds to the conflux ecosystem. Do you know much about the feeds and how they are strengthening the network?
Jerome:
Decentralized price feed oracles are a basic building block for many DeFi applications, like decentralized borrowing, synthetic assets,, and on-chain gambling.
It truly was a pleasure to host Jerome from Conflux in an AMA. I know the community was super excited, and we had time to answer 8 questions! However, I won’t include those here because you’ll have to find them for yourself. You can start reading the full AMA here.
