HackMDL2 and business
Introduction
Hi I’m syuhei. I’m software engineer with 8 years of experience.
I've also created my startup which developed Backend as a Service for IoT application in my university days. I think this was one of the reason I entered blockchain.
It was hard to maintain the service, so I was studying distributed conmuting such as DHT to build high availability backend. In that time, I knew blockchain.(oh blockchain is amazing but less scalability) After that I worked at some IoT startup.
Currently I'm working at CryptoeconomicsLab as chief researcher.
At CryptoeconomicsLab we are building Plasma chamber which enables developers to build applications on Layer2 from scratch.
Now we are focusing on building an Optimistic Virtual Machine client, and finished PoC of OVM Plasma and made swap feature using that framework.
How are blockchain applications are different from traditional application businesses in terms of monetize/business model? Can layer2 technology create additional value there?
In general, blockchain can greatly reduce trust costs and widen the frontage of entering the business. This makes many business opportunities. For instance, even small shops can implement a payment system easily without having to rely on 3rd party payment providers.
In the past and still now, HR SaaS have been helping small businesses to focus on their business. Also, developer tools such as amazon web service, Herok or firebase help developers to reduce the initial costs of building backend systems.
In a similar way, blockchain can reduce verification costs. An important example is in payments. Payments are not the core of every business, but are necessary for almost all businesses. With smart contracts we can do more such as dex, insurance, DAO…etc. The blockchain must become like air, where people don’t even care or know that they are using block chain.
As a developer, I want to make it easier to make smart contracts and contribute to blockchain mass adoption. So my main focus is implementing a simple building framework which makes it much easier for the end-user to make smart contracts. And L2 is definitely required for that.
CryptoeconomicsLab are trying to adapt L2 technologies to some PoC projects with local enterprises. Currently we are yet to utilise our framework in those projects however we hope that our framework can benefit those projects in the near future as some technological advantages of Layer2, such as Instant finality or gasless payment are usable for real life projects.
In what way businesses with blockchain applications/layer2 technology can create an impact? Any rea-world usecase ideas?
I have no specific usecase, but CEL is working on some PoC projects with other companies. One example is electricity trading. And we need L2 technics for these projects, such as instant finality with operator's collateral, less-gas payment, etc. Because customers can't wait confirmation time for small payment. L2 is definitlly required by real project.
How can blockchain applications businesses (on L2) or its developers last sustainably?
I came up decide question. But it’s difficult to answer by my self.
In general, we can't guarantee to make it sustainable but we can try to make it sustainable.
Dapps developers should build block-chain application which can continue running even without management entity.
And protocol developers should support that.
Why are you focusing on that L2 construction? What’s its distinctiveness? Competitiveness over the other constructions?
I like Plasma because even though there are no limitations on participants it has a low transaction cost.
Specifically, We are implementing OVM client and making hybrid construction available.
The week before last, we wrote swap claim on OVM Plasma and it ran on Plasma with less specific code.
OVM is the area I’m interested in the most as its a combination of claims.
In OVM, all construction and contracts on Plasma are OVM Properties and we can write these with the same predicate-set.
The OVM Property is similar to a smart contract in that we can check if it will be decided true or false.
In a similar manner we can write claims using a similar method to express ownership etc for Plasma, channels, swaps etc…
Why did you want to do protocol research rather than application development?
Just for fun. Both protocol and application can provides value to many users. There are no difference about devloper's satisfaction between them.
What is the business model of your company is on or how are you monetizing as an individual? Why that business model? How can protocol R&D (or consulting) make money effectively?
Current ethereum and blockchain is early days, we need to improve the protocol to build application.
We are currently doing some blockchain projects with Japanese enterprises. So we don't earn money by research directly. And not only PoC project, we are planning to provide kind of SaaS model product to help layer2 development.
Is peaceful coexistence between different L2 constructions possible? Any specific aim (is there direct business advantage for each team?) from the stardardization?
I think we need standard for some interface of L2 for interoperability. But we need not to make everything standarized. I want to do it well. balance of speed of each project and interoperability.
What’s your goal for the next term? And what do you wanna achieve in your company in the long run? (sounds like a college resume, you can asnwer to this question really berifly )
Next, We will make multi-platform OVM client and make a testnet so that developers can build applications using our technology.
What we wanna achive is that everyone can make blockchain application easily and securely. This is much difficult, becaues users should understand what smart-contracts do for secure deal. We should make it more easy to understand.
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What are the differences from like existing business model? or existing blockchain applications?
IMO, I think basically same but design sustainable/autonmous software.
I believe it makes our business more efficient,
これはある角度から見ると稼ぐのが難しいようにも見えるが、別の角度からみると効率的だと言える。
This seems to be difficult to earn from one angle, but we can say it is more efficient from another angle. I mean even us(developers) can focus on core value of business. gitcoin would become good example for developers to focus development.
Softwareに永続性を与える。従来の仕組みには永続性がなかった、なぜならシステムを継続させるインセンティブがないから。blockchainはそれを変えられる。
How can blockchain applications businesses (on L2) or its developers last sustainably?
application自体に持続可能性を作ることはできる、問題はそれを開発する人やビジネスの持続可能性。
What do you think the end-users or enterprises expect from this technology? Will it be possible?
We can wrap L2 technology more.
The critical thing for mass adaption is that people include end-user and enterprises can choose blockchain. So we should make blockchain more usable with layer two technologies. That's why we are building a framework.
What are the distinctiveness of each L2 constructions? potential use cases?
We can think of a bunch of promising usage of public blockchains, especially with Layer2 technology that solves scalability and usability issues, but first and foremost, are they going to be sustainable when it comes to business?
I guess hybrid layer 2 construction solves problems. 基本的な構造はL1と同じ。
開発者ツール、コンサルティング、Audit、ペイメント、Dex。それらも大差ないと思う。大きな違いは、全体的なユーザビリティの向上であると思っている。
人がblockchainに助けられるのか、人がblockchainを助けるのか？どこまで行っても、人がblockchainを通して人を助けるだけ。ただしブロックチェーンは信用コストを大きく下げることができ、助ける側の間口を広げることができる。僕の理想は、僕は開発者として、blockchainを等した活動をよりやりやすくする。つまり開発ツールを提供することに専念したい。
The basic structure is the same as L1.
Developer tools, consulting, Audit, payments, Dex. I don't think there is a big difference between them. I think the big difference is the improvement in overall usability.
People help blockchain, or blockchain helps people? No matter where you go, people just help people through the blockchain by their business activity. However, blockchain can greatly reduce trust costs and widen the frontage of entering business.
My ideal is that I, as a developer, makes it easier to do activities such as blockchain. In other words, I want to concentrate on providing development tools.
LN anonimacity
