Overview
The AMA took take place on July 22th, 2019 from 14:00 to 15:00 UTC in the Vietnamese Blockchain Community channel
From the Dusk Network team were present:
- Emanuele Francioni
- Jelle Pol
- Mels Dees
- Toghrul Maharramov
Today, Binance announced they would list DUSK on their CEX. Gratz on it! Is there any reason behind this list or its cause of the streng of DUSK project and its community?
Thanks a lot. We've been working hard to expand our ecosystem. Our journey with Binance started with integrating with the Binance Chain, and submitting our Binance DEX listing proposal. We also created two Binance Chain Evolution Proposals to not show up to the party empty-handed :) You can read more HERE.
Can you tell me something about the project? I never heard of Dusk before.
Dusk Network is the first privacy-oriented blockchain protocol that includes Smart Contracts. DUSK is fully decentralized and anyone can use DUSK to create their own dApps.
To explore the Dusk Network technology in more detail, see the Binance Research Report, Dusk Website and Telegram Announcement Channel.
What are the special advantages of Dusk Network compared to another competitor, when a lot of previous projects have been trying to achieve the same?
Dusk is the result of long-lasting research efforts in consensus technology, zero-knowledge cryptography and security framework. We developed the fastest trustless zero-knowledge VM and framework (based on bulletproofs transaction), developed close relationships with regulators in order to satisfy their privacy and compliance requirements. Nobody thought about using zero-knowledge to automatically prove compliance and that is what attracted companies with multi-million dollar valuations to explore asset tokenization on top of Dusk.
Can you clarify more about the strength and uniqueness of Dusk to gain trust from the community?
Of course! There's quite some innovations, for one we have created a new consensus mechanism called SBA. This is the first Private-Proof-of-Stake (POS) implementation. Additionally, we have advanced zero-knowledge cryptography which helps us pave the way to create a "smart contract layer" on top of our privacy blockchain protocol.
Speed of execution, transaction is also a matter of concern, how did Dusk Network solve this problem?
Our newly developed consensus mechanism features instant settlement transaction, meaning that after 1 block the transaction is final. This creates a lot of certainty, and also speed. Block times are nearly instant at the moment.
What strategy do you have to overcome strong rivals like ZEN, XMR, ZEC?
We're not directly competing with ZEC, XMR, etc. as we are not just an anonymity-preserving protocol, but also a smart-contract platform which enables users to launch their own contracts.
Which platform does Dusk Network build on?
We are building our own blockchain protocol. The advantage is that we've been able to innovate (create new things previously not possible, efficiency etc), the disadvantage of such an approach are usually that things take a bit longer and there's a lot of documentation (and testing) we need to produce to prove that our game theoretical assumptions hold. We've done a lot in that regard, you can view it under the 'resources' page on our website.
Dusk Network will allow the construction of decentralized versions of data storage applications such as Dropbox or Google Drive. What are these advantages over Dropbox and Google Drive to attract users?
Our current focus is the regulated financial market. The nice thing is that to accomplish that goal we have been creating a set of polymorphic tools with the potential to serve other purposes such as the use cases you list but in a decentralized way and without the need for a middleman to preserve privacy.
What is the new token standard that Dusk Network is developing on its network and how is this different from the ERC-20 standard?
Our token standard is called XSC, which stands for Confidential Security Contract. It's different because users keep data protection and data privacy. There's some very exciting features in there as well, such as the ability to do on-chain voting, messaging and place limits/restrictions.
Dusk Network is pursuing grants from the European Commission. Dusk Network has received considerable attention from major financial journals such as Forbes or Venture Beat. What are the benefits to Dusk Network?
Thanks for the question! We are indeed actively working with policy and regulation makers on various levels, but most prominently in the European Union. This ranges from governmental to traditional financial infrastructure. Within the regulatory space we see several benefits that Dusk brings to the table. Most notably; SBA* instead of Proof of Work —> Policy makers care about sustainability and ecofriendliness, and are very averse to mining consensi. Also, our direct settlement finality is a hard requirement for financial industry adoption. These are just a few examples of course, many more can be found in the research report.
What has been the biggest technical challenge that you overcame this year? XLM, NEO, etc already have the Lightning fast blockchain solution — what is it that makes your solution better?
We have completed the implementation of an extensive cryptographic library, consensus protocol alongside many other achievements on both the development and research fronts.
Currently, there are many privacy-focused blockchain protocols that have been developed. At this point, it is difficult to foresee which protocols will be accepted by the industry and represent the best fit for future integration into key public blockchain platforms. So, what is really outstanding about the Dusk network, to be able to compete with other protocols?
The consensus mechanism (SBA), our use of zero-knowledge cryptography (bulletproofs) the inner algorithms (such as ZeroCaf) and the ability to create smart contracts on a privacy-oriented blockchain protocol.
Who are your strategic investors and partners?
Good question, thanks. There's many! Some of our most notable investors are listed HERE and some of our partners HERE.
Does Dusk Network want to develop to developed countries like Vietnam and China? Those are lucrative markets.
EMEA and APAC are strong strategic regions with relevant financial hubs and jurisdictions.
Dusk Network has not disclosed information about any private investors during the last Private Sale. Why are you not publishing this information?
Many of our investors are publicly known and we have an end of private sale announcement that can be found HERE. Some of our investors include; Maven11, and additional VCs and private persons.
How do you see the threat of crypto regulation and how do you plan to protect Dusk Network from this?
We're working very closely with large regulators and policy makers to ensure that our blockchain is actually a compliant infrastructure layer rather than something potentially threatening. We are building Dusk for real world adoption and maturity for the financial industry.
Someone said: "The success of a single-layer protocol often depends on the capital that the project can guarantee." Can you give us more information about Dusk Network funding?
I personally think the success factor mostly depends on the ability of the project to attract the right talent / developers. In our case we've managed to do that very well. In regards to funding: we have a funding runway of multiple years and in parallel we expect the self-funding mechanism to be ready within a year.
We're well capitalized for a multi year runway already, and hold all our current funding in fiat. In the future the protocol will have self funding mechanisms alongside foundation token reserves. We are financially healthy for a very long time and by then Dusk will be able to stand on its own feet.
Many other crypto projects have great technology and R&D (including DUSK), but it's all useless without any good/big clients. What are your plans for global adoption?
Very good point! It is easy to give frequent updates on the technology side because we are fully in the driving seat. On the business and adoption side we often run into situations where we have to manage the interests of multiple parties for a single proposition. As such, large business updates need to be carefully planned. That said, we have a number of big partners confirmed that will bring concrete recurring issuance and deployment of smart contracts and security propositions on top of Dusk. You will start to see these announcements in the coming weeks and months!
Disclaimer: I've been a huge follower of Dusk for a while, and I know you guys never disappoint when it comes to announcements. Very very excited about this!
I can shed some light on it perhaps.
In short; there are two announcements that need some time before we can take them public that will:
1. showcase our adoption strategy loud and clear
2. showcase which partners we will be doing this with. The type of party we're discussing is by nature a traditional player and their interest should clearly showcase what’s possible with Dusk Network, and how serious parties are adopting it behind the scenes because of our compliance and privacy features.
It is a combination of external validation and bridging crypto and traditional finance. Other than that we typically refrain from hyping anything barring a heads up if something is extremely closeby. However in AMAs it can be a nice place to discuss a little bit more in depth and further down the roadmap.
Thank you sir for that reply. I understand it's extremely difficult to reveal more given the circumstances. I'm personally thinking it will be a large European bank, maybe Deutsche Bank or ING or Credit Suisse level. Will definitely keep watching
I really appreciate the support. Honestly one of the most difficult things is not being able to always share work in progress but that’s the nature of things I’m afraid:)
Can you explain how the value of the token is tied to the value of the Dusk Network. Basically what is the incentive for a tokenholder to hold the tokens?
The DUSK token is an integral part of Dusk Network, without it you cannot operate the unique functionalities offered by the protocol.
What type of decentralized applications (dapps) does $dusk cater to (the gaming sector or another area like financial applications)?
Dusk Network is designed for the financial industry use, and as such, Dusk’s adoption strategy focuses on the security token market, which is in need of a purpose-built blockchain.
At the same time, Dusk Network could be used for plenty of other dApps that require privacy, someone could build a password-less password manager for example!
Can we join the team?
Yes, we would love for anyone to run a node, participate on development, help with evangelizing, build a product or launch an STO on Dusk
What is the main goal of the team?
Our ultimate goal is to create a scalable, privacy-oriented, compliant and self-sustaining network capable of removing any need for middlemen in the landscape of regulated financial markets as well as decentralized-apps.
When you look back to the day you guys started developing Dusk Network are you satisfied with the progress you have made?
We are doing our best to achieve the goals set, which sometimes makes us deviate from timelines in order to provide the end-user with the most technically efficient product possible, but in general, I am personally satisfied with the progress that was achieved until now. It is hard to discern a direct competitor, as we are combining multiple research domains into a single protocol.
The financial services industry exists to serve the constant desire to innovate and develop the world around us. Technological progress is always at the forefront. Providing affordable, easy, access to this growth, for companies and investors, will prove important for continuous global success. What will you do to accomplish this?
In short, a tokenization solution leads to vastly simplified transferability of assets, which in turn can lead to liquidity, increased access for investors as well as capital seekers, and finally it brings automation, reducing the overhead burden of a publicly available asset.
Can DUSK be mined?
No. You can stake privately (blind bid) to run a block generator or publicly to run a Provisioner
If Dusk Network is attacked by a bad person and steals the user's information, how will you overcome it, because legal information is important ?
It is very difficult to imagine a "bad person" able to attack and break the cryptographic primitives that are utilized by Dusk Network, as that would mean that the security assumption of the modern cryptographic primitives no longer stand.
Staking possible on a raspberry?
Very constrained hardware is definitely one of our targets. We already managed to have browsers running our ZKP library for verification. Private staking (bling bid) is definitely possible although probably we need to roll out SPVs before being able to do block generation from constrained HW devices.
What's the advantage of Dusk Network compared than other altcoin?
Our own trustless zero-knowledge crypto library, a significant influx of institutions comforted by our regulatory framework, the confidential token Contract (XSC) which preserves privacy and compliance without a middleman and partners the like of Bitfinex and others using our tech to enter the regulated asset market.
What are the special advantages of DUSK network to be able to defeat another competitor, when the project's goal has too many previous projects trying to achieve the same?
Dusk is the result of a long-lasting research efforts in consensus technology, zero-knowledge cryptography and security framework. We developed the fastest trustless zero-knowledge VM and framework (based on bulletproofs transaction), developed close relationships with regulators in order to satisfy their privacy and compliance requirements. Nobody thought about using zero-knowledge to automatically prove compliance and that is what attracted companies with multi-million dollar valuations to explore asset tokenization on top of Dusk.
The idea and research on Dusk Network project started around the end of 2017. So far, Dusk network has had many successes such as: listing on Binance DEX, IEO on Bitfinex with price x4, then list to Bitfinex ..... So before being successful now, does Dusk network have any difficulties?
We faced a lot of challenges from a technical perspective. Our novel vision of using ZK crypto to prove compliance without leaking information meant that we could not find any ready-made technology to build on top of. We had to solve a lot of performance issues for example; traditional Bulletproofs technology (our initial attempt took almost 30 seconds for generating a proof. While right now we can do it in 0.09s and we are improving on that part as well). Also our consensus had to be constantly improved and refined in order to avoid excessive network stress. From the business perspective I have to say that all parties we talked to were pretty enthusiastic and immediately supportive of the idea of disintermediating darkpools, eliminating middlemen, bring liquidity to private equity markets, digitizing shares and streamline governance operations. Privacy is the most powerful tool when it comes with mathematically proven compliance.
What’s the ROI for staking?
There is no static ROI for staking and should not be, considering that the number of consensus participants is never static.
What are the great achievements of the team in 2019? Who are your major strategic partners? Can you name one of the biggest partners?
iFinex, Blockchain Reserve, Watson Law, Infloat, Switcheo, Blockchain Venture Coalition, Cipherblade, Maven11, and many many many more.
Why are you creating your own blockchain instead of leveraging an existing and proven base layer protocol?
None of the existing protocols possess the features required for our project to fulfill the defined goals.
I hear that Dusk Network will release testnet Shin, so what does Shin stand for? Which feature will be available in this testnet?
There are multiple reasons behind the “Shin” name. Apart from meaning new or novel in Japanese, Shin also represents a tribute to the Hokuto No Ken anime, since it is the name of the first prominent character encountered by the protagonist. All characters from the anime are associated with stars from either the Sagittarius (South Dipper Six Stars) and the Big Dipper, which are constellations visible at Dusk.
What will be included is best described in Testnet Pre-Release series II HERE. Personally what I am most excited about is the consensus mechanism (SBA).
Whereas part III outlines the user facing items such as Dusk Faucet (to get tDusk tokens), CLI wallet, monitoring tool and telegram bot.
What is your future plan to make DUSK one of the top projects in Coinmarketcap?
Continuously innovate on the technical front, roll out world's first zero-knowledge smart contract platform, work with regulators locally and globally on automating compliance, help major companies issue shares/debt/commodities on top of Dusk, continue to submit novelties to academic institutions, convince them to run nodes in the network, scale performances.
Are you able to keep up with the daily announcements for DUSK? Haha
Some are bigger than others, but we should be able to keep the pace up for a few months with all the stuff we've got backlogged from our stealth mode first half of 2019. By then perhaps at some point 3-4/week and stabilize there.
What technology stands behind Dusk Network and why is it better than the existing one?
We do a lot of research into zero-knowledge cryptography, also known as bulletproofs. We use this to grant both privacy and auditability. And also programmability - for example smart contracts.
Is there a fee to launch a STO on Dusk platform?
Our contract standards are open-source, anyone can use them. There's no license fees or anything. Of course to use the blockchain you'll need to pay some gas fees. The DUSK token is used to stake and participate in the consensus. In addition, the DUSK token is used to pay for transactions, deploying dApps, and as gas. The token also serves as rewards for the consensus participants.
DUSK can be traded for XSC-based tokens, both one-way and through atomic swaps.
The DUSK token will be used for on-chain governance within XSC once it is released.
In Dusk Network, block rewards are paid through an emission of DUSK defined in the protocol. The majority of all newly issued DUSK will be rewarded to consensus participants, while a minor portion will go to a technical development fund, creating an autonomous funding mechanism for the long term research and development."
If DUSK adopts state management, should other countries use DUSK through state management, when you have not yet expanded to other countries, or are legal licenses?
Anyone can decide to use DUSK's contracts, such as the XSC contract to automate administrative tasks and unlock new benefits (aside from cost reduction). If anyone who uses the standards requires a license, then they should definitely get them!
How secure is Dusk? Is it enough for users to trust? Because there are now a lot of hackers taking advantage of the internet's vulnerability to profit
As I've previously answered, the notion of "hacking" a cryptographic primitive or a consensus protocol is very misleading. The security of the cryptographic primitives utilized by the Dusk Network protocol is on par with security standards of most other platforms that you utilize on a daily basis (if not better), so it’s hard to imagine the modern cryptography being compromised in the foreseeable future. When it comes to the consensus algorithm, the formal proof of the protocol has almost been completed and the probability of the consensus being compromised is negligible according to our results.
BONUS!
Who is the richest in your team?
Emanuele: "Mels is definitely the richest in spirit, Jelle the richest in humour, Tog the richest in brain power. I am the richest in flavor :)"
How do you feel about ING?
I like their logo!
Thank you Vietnamese Blockchain Community & Dusk Community for all of your excellent questions!
These are the links to some of our socials: