AMA — SCO Lab Interviews Aleph.im
The following is a transcript from SCO Lab’s interview with Aleph.im — A Decentralized Web Application Network:
Host, Reaper Ran: Hello everyone, Welcome to tonight’s online AMA. Today we invite Mr. Moshe who is the founder of this project, and also is a developer from the NULS technology community. As Project Leader, Moshe is also a very good engineer with 15 years of development experience. He has initiated several open-source projects and has served as a senior consultant for a number of companies (from corporate equipment for banks to the Internet of Things).
Now let’s please warmly welcome Mr. Moshe, and get down to business as we start the AMA.
Reaper Ran: Question 1 — Aleph started mining on the NULS main network before POCM, so why should Aleph re-do it’s SCO through the POCM of NULS2.0? What was the way to mine in the NULS main network before?
Mr. Moshe: When we started the POCM system on aleph.im, we used the nodes reward system of the NULS network, so anybody could stake on aleph.im nodes and get ALEPH tokens using our automated scripts. The new platform issued by NULS allows us to do a similar thing using smart contracts, and more importantly without the 2000 staked NULS limit of the regular staking mechanism.
You will be able to either stake via the regular nodes from your wallet or use the POCM platform. Both will work.
Reaper Ran: Question 2 — Aleph has been releasing tokens for a period of time, what is the progress of the technology and what has been developed? Moshe, can you share the development roadmap for Aleph?
Moshe: We have an MVP (minimum viable product) network live, with a few real life users already. Our hardware device SDK and software SDK are being developed and are well advanced. We are also working with clients to do proof of concept integration on the aleph.im network.
The next big milestones are:
Step 1 of token utility: use of balance on chain (nrc20 tokens) as storage allowance for use of the aleph network
Introduction of virtual machines on the network
Currency on the aleph.im network
Step 2 of token utility: continuous spending of ALEPH tokens to pay for activity on the network
Shard (separate channel subscription and incentive activation)
Reaper Ran: Question 3: What is the circulation of Aleph’s original token? What is the quota for issuing SCO through the NULS2.0 main network? After transferring to the NULS product POCM platform, will all the previous nodes be revoked?
Moshe: The total token count is 1 billion tokens, 100M are to be issued via POCM (both nodes and platform), approximately 10M have already been issued. The issuance rate through the platform will be 90 ALEPH tokens for 2000 NULS staked per day. We will continue via a hybrid model, leaving both the POCM platform, and regular staking active.
Reaper Ran: Question 4 — Is there any planning for Aleph in the future market? Especially the exchange, what is the plan? Will you consider some exchanges involved with SCO Labs?
Moshe: For regulatory reasons we can’t comment on exchanges. We want our utility token to be as compliant as possible with all regulations. This being said, we will definitely talk with all SCO Lab partners.
Reaper Ran: Question 5 — Can you introduce Aleph’s team briefly? Does NULS help in the development of Aleph.im?
Moshe: aleph.im is a decentralized network aiming at replacing the regular centralized cloud systems. When you build applications with aleph.im or make a device using it, the whole network is your server, and anyone can start providing service for your applications.
Using the market laws, you will always get the best price/value ratio.
NULS team doesn’t directly help with the development of aleph.im, even though they are helpful when we need them.
The following is an overview of some of our team members, who have been in the computer, consulting, project management, marketing and other industries for many years..
Reaper Ran: Question 6 — Can you illustrate how Aleph’s cross-applications work with chains like Ethereum and NULS? Can you provide some information about Aleph’s IoT applications?
Moshe: For example, an application made on the aleph.im network can accept users of the Ethereum blockchain and users of the NULS blockchain. Even though the incentive of that application is from a NULS address, for example, and its data gets written in priority on NULS. Also, all actions are free, so if another chain has an hardware wallet support (Ethereum for example), you can use it as an authentication provider on a dApp of another chain.
Another thing to note is that on the native network, tokens and currencies can be sent from one address to the other, without limit, so a NULS address can send a token to an Ethereum address.
On IoT, we are providing a hardware SDK, based on a cheap and readily available microcontroller, the ESP32 (others are planned later). Any device can start using the network instantly, and has its own address on the blockchain of its choice, and doesn’t need to hold any funds to start interacting with the network.
No need to setup cloud servers for your devices, just start sending data, and the network is your server.
Reaper Ran: Question 7 — Aleph is an overseas project. Is there any plan for Aleph for the Chinese market? Especially in the case of some recent policy support, will Aleph increase its investment in the Chinese market in the future?
Moshe: Thanks to NULS and our Chinese team members, we are planning to increase our investment in the Chinese market. This AMA is a good example of this. We also plan to build strong partnerships with Chinese hardware development kit providers.
Reaper Ran: Question 8 — Do you have current projects going on, what are they? Are they already in production?
Moshe: We have a few proofs of concept in development, with clients or in-house:
- Medicine tracking for an NGO, sending them to Africa. We track the medicine transit and distribution to avoid misappropriation, which is still in planning and development phase.
- Building management system to track and save building analytics, and send encrypted/signed orders to the building. This is Phase 1 of Proof of Concept online, and data can be seen on the explorer here. Phase 2 is in development.
- Luxury brand in-store engagement with products. For example, you take a lipstick in a store, it uses AR to show how it would look on you, and sends engagement data on the aleph.im network. The aleph.im network is also used to remotely send new content to appliances.
- NULS oracle on aleph.im for NRC-20 balances and nodes to produce analytics. An app will be provided for NULS node owners to send their analytics to give insights to their stakers. It could also be used to provide monitoring to node owners. This is in development, and an early version can be seen here and is live.
- A few others that can’t be revealed yet…
Reaper Ran: Thanks to Moshe for sharing so much about Aleph, our AMA has come to an end. I believe everyone has a better understanding of Aleph.im now.
The following is the question and answer session from the community. If you have any questions about the Aleph project, you can submit them directly in the group. Moshe will also choose some of the quality questions to answer.
Question: Does Aleph have any plans for marketing promotions? It seems that apart from some people in the NULS community, many don’t know about the Aleph project. What is the size of the Aleph community and market now?
Moshe: Our goal isn’t only the cryptocurrency world. We want the project to grow with real use. We are mainly targeting projects, companies and developers. We will be present at many developer conferences in the coming months. The telegram community is 200 persons, as many in WeChat too. I understand it is small, but we have very talented people in it who will use the network to build applications.
Question: What are the potential customers of the Aleph team in the sales of products? Or other partners?
Moshe: On potential users, we have multiple NGOs interested in using the network, a building automation system integrator, and multiple luxury brands in France too. We are talking with many others regularly.
The following picture is an example of a luxury brand IoT project currently under development:
Question: People thought that Aleph was a technical project. Can you introduce Aleph simply from the application scene?
Moshe : We aim to replace centralized clouds for new applications and devices. No need to take servers, just make your application to talk with the aleph.im network. We aim to make new decentralized application development as easy as centralized ones. Same for devices.
Question: Financing through SCO is a relatively slow process. Can this support the development of Aleph? Is there any other financial support for Aleph in the development process?
Moshe: Yes, it is slow and we don’t have other financial support currently, but we are open to all offers.
Question: Does building on the blockchain have an impact on performance and user experience?
Moshe: Aleph.im isn’t a blockchain, it’s a network built from the ground up, so it doesn’t have any impact on performance and user experience. Even better, downtime is greatly reduced.
