TOP Network ✕ Ontology AMA Recap (Part 2)
14. For Jun: What is the plan of Ontology network to boost mass adoption of blockchain applications globally?
June: Ontology has two platforms. One is the multi-chain infrastructure, meaning we can not only provide Dapp services but also empower real business in different industries. We just released our sharding design, which can support transactions and smart contracts on the network. It can also empower real business, especially high-frequency and large-scale business easily built on the Ontology infrastructure. Now the Ontology platform already has a large volume of transactions and provide services like ONT ID, the decentralized ID, data exchange, reputation system, signature service and contract service. You can build your own business process on the Ontology blockchain platform very quickly, and the process can not only be accepted on the blockchain but also by legal systems in different scenarios. We’re in the process of collaborating with companies in the traditional market to convert their decentralized service to the Ontology ecosystem. I believe more people will join once the infrastructure can easily be used.
15. For Steve: How can ISP (Internet Service Provider) utilize TOP Network to be decentralized?
Steve: ISP can make contributions to the decentralized network. For example, a service provider can add nodes to the TOP ecosystem, and the ecosystem will send traffic to his nodes so that he can make money. With more nodes coming in, TOP will become a decentralized global communication network that anyone can make money from.
16. As the market is going down and many new projects are dumping their ETH to cash out due to revenue generation problem, what’s your future plan for revenue generation for seamless operation?
Jun: The token mechanism design is important. Ethereum is only for utility usage, but we have our own token economy system. We will enlarge our ecosystem to enable more applications and transactions. All the transaction fees will benefit our Dapp developers and ONT token holders.
Steve: Revenue has been a hot topic recently because of the bear market. TOP Network owns some Dapps, which are centralized right now, that will keep generating after migrating to the blockchain to become Dapps. So we have a continuous cash flow to support the project for a long time.
17. For Steve: What’s the biggest challenge for TOP and is there anything you consider a challenge or threat to reaching your goals?
Steve: I think the biggest challenge is the token economy because it’s a pretty new stuff and so far there is not a mature model you can borrow from. However, the token economy is the most critical part of the blockchain ecosystem. I don’t have the confidence that this token economy design works or we need to take some time to test, improve, and even radically change it. To address this issue, we will take another approach. We have some apps and will tokenize them to build the token economy into the apps and see how it works. That will give us some useful experience and then we can leverage this experience to improve the token economy in the whole TOP ecosystem. That’s our current approach. But, again, I think the token economy is more of an art than a science. It takes time to figure it out.
18. For Jun: Is Ontology a utility token and how do you provide the value in the bear market?
Jun: As I mentioned before, Ontology has two tokens. ONG is a utility token. ONT is a governance token but it can benefit from the usage of ONG. In the future, the usage is much more important than how many people believe in your token. The investors will be smarter to evaluate the project more carefully, checking what kind of ecosystem you’re using or what kind of values you can bring that token economy could benefit from. That is a challenge for all the projects, but a good opportunity for good projects because you can show the real value to your investors, community and all the supporters. So the bear market is a good chance for good projects.
19. For Steve: Will BitVPN be kind of pure form of decentralized VPN?
Steve: Yes. First of all, user information will be decentralized. If you register for an account on BitVPN, the account information is not stored in our data user base but encrypted on the blockchain. Even the government can’t know who you are, why you’re using the VPN. That’s super important because VPN is supposed to protect privacy. Secondly, the VPN server is also decentralized. Basically, you’re connected to the VPN server, and the server relays the traffic to the Internet. In the centralized world, the VPN server knows the website you visited. For decentralized VPN, there are so many VPN proxy servers, and each one will relay the traffic. In this sense, your traffic is handled by multiple servers instead of one. Thus, no one can get a whole picture of your information. As user information and VPN service are all decentralized, it truly respects and protects user privacy. We’re going to launch the decentralized VPN soon. You can expect it will offer a radically new level of privacy protection. We highly suggest you abandoning the traditional VPN and moving to the decentralized one.
20. Can BitVPN be good enough to challenge the strong firewall of some countries?
Steve: BitVPN, as a decentralized service, has a very strong anti-block capability. Organizations or countries may block the VPN service, but for example, our centralized VPN, SkyVPN, has 1 million DAU (Daily Active Users) in Iran. The government cannot block it, so you can see how advanced our technology is. The decentralized VPN is more advanced to bypass blocks. However, I can’t comment which country is good at blocking the VPN service because they have different situations.
21. Is there any plan to reduce or increase the supply of tokens?
Jun: The number of Ontology token is fixed, so we will never increase the supply, which is good for current token holders.
Steve: We haven’t released TOP token yet, but our token economy design does not enable us to increase the number of tokens. It’s a fixed number.
22. For TOP Network, when will there be Github commits release and will there be SDKs, like for Ontology?
Steve: We will release the SDK with open source before we launch the Mainnet. It will be around the end of June. Stay tuned.
23. We heard a lot of blockchain companies don’t have tokens. So why is token required for the service on the blockchain? Can a blockchain company function without tokens?
Jun: For those blockchain companies providing private technical service, they can operate without tokens. But if you want to provide public services for the economic candidates, you have to have the token economy mechanism. There is no free service. All the things have a cost. For public services, tokens are a must-have thing, while those private networks can do without tokens.
Steve: I have completely same opinion with Jun. If a blockchain offers public service without tokens, there is no transaction, because the transaction needs to carry either money or token. It doesn’t make sense to say a blockchain project can operate without tokens. People may say that a private blockchain can do without tokens, but I doubt why we need a private blockchain. We can just use the centralized system. The public blockchain is the value of the blockchain, and it has to have tokens to generate transactions.
24. Do you have any predictions about the token price, especially in the bear market?
Jun: The bear market is a great opportunity. When the bear market comes, the number of projects will reduce quickly. When the liquidity comes back, a few top-tier projects left will get the attention from investors and supporters. I believe the market will recover to a point even higher than the hype in history, but the key is to make sure you can survive in the long term.
Steve: Let me talk about my past experience with dot.com bubble in 2001 when the tech industry was in a horrible situation. Every company was at the brink of bankruptcy. People event thought Amazon was a junk, saying the stock price should drop to zero. But today Amazon is a trillion-dollar company. Even if you bought Amazon stock at the peak time in 1999 and held, it’s still hundreds of times of return. The bear market is a good time to get good assets. As Jun mentioned, the remaining projects, the best ones, will stay in the market. Obviously, Ontology is one of them. For TOP Network, we haven’t released the token yet so I can’t predict the price of TOP tokens. But from my past experience especially in the Internet bubble, I believe it’s the best time to acquire good assets at a desperate price.
25. 2018 is a tough year. Do you have any New Year wishes for our community members in 2019?
Jun: I think community members can do more deep investigation and study for projects. If you have a technical background, you can build your own applications and services on public blockchains this year. Of course, I also hope the market will recover soon and hope investors will gain a good return.
Steve: While the darkness of the market may last for a few months, I think it’s not too far from the morning, as we say spring is not far before the winter. If you look back at the darkest time in 2001 and 2002 in the Internet industry, you will find the market recovered in 2003 and started to boom in 2004. If you entered the market at that time, you would definitely have a wonderful return in your whole life. That’s my personal experience. The blockchain industry is likely going through the same process — bubble burst, dark time, and recover. It takes a little time, but the technology, the ideas have a bright future. As Jun said, let’s spend more time on technology and build something useful. The market will naturally recover. Don’t just look at the token price!
Thanks for the amazing questions from both TOP and Ontology community members. This is our first joint AMA and TOP will collaborate with Ontology to roll out more activities every month. Please stay tuned!
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