Roy Li: I believe Ruff is something I can carry on till I retire

At 12:00 am on May 3 (Beijing Time), the founder of RUFF — Roy Li joined in the global live streaming of YouTube Huobi Talk at Huobi Office, Singapore. During this live streaming, Roy Li talked about the foundation of Ruff, what indeed Ruff is doing in IoT and what solutions it has provided. Also, he answered questions from netizens about the differences between Ruff Chain and other IoT projects, amongst others.

Some contents of this video are below:
Host: How can it be upgraded from IoT to the field of blockchain and IoT?
Roy: I started Ruff in 2014, and I wanted an IoT OS at that time. In 2017, it occurred to me that, we should combine blockchain with IoT, since they share many things in common. Then, I shifted from classical PE investment to digital assets investment. I didn’t know exactly how it happened, but I really did tons of researches before I decided on it. It took us 6 months to conceptualize Ruff Chain.
Host: How will you explain blockchain to a 12 year old?
Roy: Blockchain is a distributed ledger, and it makes data immutable, since each node requires ledgering. If you change the data at your own node, the data at other nodes still remain tamper-free. The costs of tampering are so high that no one can tell a lie.
Host: Does Ruff hope more guys can enter this field?
Roy: I need an essential chain to enable our efforts on IoT OS to be applied in practice. We want coding to become easier, so that common developers and designers can develop their own apps. We’d like more developers to focus on application scenarios, instead of bottom-layer development. We’ll offer a “template” for smart contracts, so that developers can easily develop their own Dapps without knowing too much about the bottom-layer knowledge.
Host: How is Ruff Chain named?
Roy: The term “Ruff” originated from rules in contract bridge, meaning “playing a trump card”. I am a member of Canadian youth team of contract bridge, and a professional bridge player.
Host: Then, how is bridge related to IoT or blockchain?
Roy: It requires IQ to play contract bridge, so does development.
Host: What products and services does Ruff provide?
Roy: Our Ruff OS enable you guys to have opportunities to get involved in IoT and blockchain, and our smart contract API will make your Dapps development much easier. For example, if you’re doing a Dapp, you may build your own Token and ecosystem of another industry based on the Ruff Chain ecosystem.
Host: Why should IoT be integrated with blockchain?
Roy: Both technologies are difficult; their tolerances are low and barriers are high; they both need a lot of infrastructure. It’s just like cloud computing, which used to be difficult 10 years ago, but it is easy now. There’s a huge market for blockchain, but its entry is challenging. Ruff hopes that IoT can be easier, blockchain be easier, to form a decentralized network. The reason is, when all the things are combined together, it is even more difficult to develop any application. Many guys are now developing basic chain facilities, but up to now, no one has really realized them, or provided any “real” product to us. Users are also unable to evaluate the real value of use.
It is relatively hard to guarantee the performance of blockchain, such as P2P transfer of Ethereum. Nonetheless, we can guarantee the performance of IoT, since IoT deals more with things happening to “machines” — you need real-time computing power, short response time, and edge computing, while Ethereum does not have APIs to get all the data, which all rely on IoT.
Ruff OS is an open system. Ruff really knows IoT. We know how indeed smart contracts and “machines” are connected, instead of individuals. They are totally two different things.
For IoT, tons of machines require connection, but what comes after connection? For the time being, there are not many applications available to run those “things” well. Machines from different manufacturers or in different models have different protocols (you may understand this as “they speak different languages”). If we abstract the bottom layer, you only need to know JavaScript, and a lamp will be lit on by writing a simple code: “Turn On”. What Ruff OS does is to connect various IoT devices and equipment. Xiaomi and Philips, for instance, focus on their own ecosystems; however, cooperation of different devices may be required for individuals’ life scenarios. Then, who will develop an app to “open the door and turn on the light”? The door manufacturer or the light manufacturer? Ruff OS just emerges for this purpose.
Host: Can you explain the smart contract?
Roy: You may imagine your car to be “Airbnb”. When you don’t need it one day, you may rent out your car with the smart contract when it is idle, and any other can use it. IoT divides the real rights, such as the time of use and the right to use, while the blockchain may conduct data transactions.
Host: Compared with other IoT projects, what is unique to Ruff?
Roy: Our clients need “faster” products, and other projects need to reach the “enterprise level”. What I mean is not a demo in a lab, and that takes at least 5 years, but we’ll get it somewhere late next year.
Host: What is the current price of RUFF?
Roy: I don’t look at the price. I look more at the project itself. In terms of legal tender, it is roughly over twice of the issuing price; in terms of ETH, it is several times of the issuing price. When we initiated Ruff Chain, I locked the RUFF of my team. I myself will not sell my own RUFF.
Host: Concerning the consensus algorithm, how do you choose it?
Roy: We’ve chosen Dpos. A voting mechanism is available in Ruff, open to all the community users. You may upload your information. If you make contributions, others may award you with RUFF, and the Ruff Foundation may also award you.
Host: So, will Ruff Chain send the collected data onto the chain?
Roy: We put most data in centralized storages, and only data with value are sent onto the chain. For example, one’s debit and credit record may be data worth sending onto the chain. There’s no need for us to know whether you smoke or not. It is of little significance to send trivial data onto the chain. Only with the blockchain, we can acquire real-time and accurate data, which dramatically promote industries such as supply chain finance. Although the technical costs of “decentralization” are much higher than those of “centralization”, as to data like “debit and credit”, it may take traditional financial institutions several months to evaluate individuals’ credit performance, but the blockchain may significantly shorten the time and improve the transparency.
Host: How many guys are in your team?
Roy: There’re over 50. 70% of them are engineers, with excellent technical backgrounds. We’re very picky in hiring them. They come from big companies, such as Intel, Alipay, Shanda and Cisco … No one tells you what your technical route is, so we need technical experts in segment fields to collaborate.
We are a “member of Huangpu Class 1” of Microsoft Accelerator; we’ve won the champion of TechCrunch Hackathon; we have a colleague on the list of “Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Asia”. I’m too old, though, 36. Maybe I can be one “Under 40”.
Host: How does Ruff attract more community users?
Roy: Ruff has 13000 developers. Giants like Microsoft and Huawei are doing their own things. However, developers are most concerned about whether development tools are “friendly or not”. For example, Node.js is not created by a giant company, but it is highly popular. Big companies do not know well how to communicate with community users. Linux, for example, was not developed by a big company. Many hate Ethereum, but developers like us. I don’t suppose big companies can catch up with us. They are unable to gather huge developers within a short time. I extremely need the ecosystem and the community. Just like Google or Android, their “benefits” are not from machines, but from communities. If you really love your community, you need trust from more.
Host: If you have to choose either the technology or the user, which one is more important?
Roy: If I must choose one, I’ll choose the user, since there is hardly a ceiling for technical boundary. It is highly difficult to develop something that all others follow you, and you need to continuously create new things. Even IBM, Apple must learn about their users and their users’ demands, and next demands. Users do not know what their next demands will be, but enterprise owners need to know. Someone wants to copy Ruff, but they do not plan their next step. As to Ruff developers, I know what they want, and Ruff will satisfy them. Why do people trust you? You may tamper data, but after you get the money, it is hard for you to deceive “machines” and the entire ecosystem.
You may view their contributions at our website. At the exchange, we have the trading pair of UDST and ETH. It is extremely fast during the cornerstone sales, for the community users support Ruff Chain. I’m also a lecturer in Fudan University. I teach them IoT. I’ll enable more students to learn how to develop with Ruff and display their creativity under appropriate scenarios.
Host: What’s your view of Huobi?
Roy: Huobi pro is our best choice. I’m happy that we are on Huobi, and feel more proud of our technology. We also need to train more developers to use Ruff. We’re launched at the Huobi exchange in January, since Ruff proved that a lot of developers supported us. They contribute their ideas, time and efforts to it.In 2019 or so, you’ll be able to see something interesting in our entire Ruff network. We’re not quite aggressive, or relaxed. Everything is under control.
Host: What do you want to say to Ruff holders?
Roy: When I initiated Ruff, I guessed it should focus on video cards. But it didn’t allow mining, which is also not the main objective of Ruff Chain. Nonetheless, I can’t stop others to do other things with Ruff — Ruff may deal with gas in future; they may trade with Ruff Token.
You can’t treat yourself as a “trader”. You should wait long enough, for all the things. Trust the platform. Do not measure it with “have I gained enough benefits?” I know many guys are crazy, but you must have faith. Trust yourself. If you want to invest in digital assets, then, just hold them.
Host: What do you want to say to Chinese audiences?
Roy: I’m delighted to join in Huobi Talk in Singapore. Hope my fans can support me. There’s a long way to go for us, and I believe Ruff is something I can carry on till I retire.