AMA, June 23: new partnerships, development news, crypto conference, diversification, hardware node, team building, and habr.com

Hi all, I’m Dmitriy Gerasimov, CEO of Cellframe, and this is our regular stream about project news and events. Today we’ll talk about our strategy, plans, development progress, and what’s happened since our last live stream. And of course, we’ll answer your questions. Everything is, as usual, so let’s go!

Cellframe SDK development news

And the first topic is development news related to the Cellframe SDK, refactoring, and new features. And as usual, let’s start with our news.

Firstly the team is hard at work refactoring the node to improve performance and stability. Then to improve security and build speed, we moved auto builds from the cloud to physical hardware in our company, they stated in our office. Then we debug smart contracts, backend, and frontend of the stacking. Stacking is almost over. It’s on a finished route related to a single token stacking and LP pairs. So soon, we will get over this. One issue we still haven’t resolved is staying behind between us and releases — synchronization troubles.

When we’re done fixing, everything will be ready. And we are building a new smart contract for some new features. These features will still be secret, but it will be a good surprise for you. It’s related to a BEP-20 tax reduction.

What we have developed: it’s a new concept of GlobalDB synchronization. GlobalDB is a dedicated NoSQL database. All our node lists, white lists, and orders are stored in this GlobalDB, and we prepared a new concept of GDB synchronization and are working on this in the developing branch.

Then command to get the list of exchange transactions. We need to debug quicker and support any issues related to our bridge. Then we did the API to create custom transactions. We need it for Web3 tasks. Then we created some unit tests

for SDK. If you are not a developer, we need this unit test to keep stability acceptable during the development process. And then, we reworked a little signature verification of token declarations and updated the list of node commands in the Wiki so you can open wiki.cellframe.net and see it.

Of course, we haven’t forgotten about fixing bugs. For example, we have fixed bugs related to the signature verification wallet balance display and features of the MDBX driver when creating a token and issuing the correct list of synchronization records.

Cellframe Dashboard development news

The next topic is Cellframe dashboard updates. The first update was related to exchange.

Stock

The dashboard team is actively developing the Stock page logic and primary screen forms. The stock page is our DEX (decentralized exchange) with limited orders. Users can use the following functionality: create, buy and sell token orders, track order statuses, fill orders, and use the handy candlestick chart as soon as possible.

Web3 API

Then we also updated Web3 API: the basic web API mechanics has been completed. New functions such as a conditional transaction with unlimited parameters have been added and debugged. Conditional transaction is something that we are replacing most smart-contract logic. For example, we need it for single tokens staking. When we get over conditional transactions, everything on the dashboard side will be ready for a single token staking, and you see, we are on the finish route with this.

VPN

The next is a VPN client. On a previous stream, I mentioned that we are building a VPN client in Dashboard. And now work with its UI is finished. At the moment, the integration of the functions of the VPN Node into the Dashboard is in progress.

Bug fixes have also been made. We fixed a bug caused when you click on the check update button, and the ability of updates displayed an incorrect message about the possibility of updating. Also, we have fixed the display of available fields for the commands in the autocomplete window. As a result, not all options for a particular command for autocomplete are displayed. That’s all about the console page; it’s our built-in terminal to execute node commands.

XI Symposium, “Modern Trends in Cryptography”

At the beginning of the month, our cryptographer Evgeny flew in from Saint Petersburg for this purpose. Dmitriy Gerasimov attended the annual crypto conference in Novosibirsk XI Symposium, “Modern Trends in Cryptography.” We have listened to academic reports as well as a speech for partitioners. We could evaluate the level of cryptography development in the community. And it’s high! We were immersed in the problems of programmers, integrators, and cryptographers working together. It was amazing. At this Symposium, I met a lot of our partners and friends.

Diversification

This topic is more related not with a Cellframe but with our company “Demlabs”. “Demlabs” is a company that runs a Cellframe project. This crypto winter has pushed many companies to new solutions. We are not an exception. What are we doing right now? Looking for new streams of revenue. By the way, we had different revenue streams before, so we are not only looking for new ones. We are also extending existing ones. We’re exploring enterprise use of our expertise and products. We communicate a lot with companies that come to us willing to partner or do something with our technologies or with our products. And we’re expanding our outsourcing division. We are actively studying the legislation on licenses and permissions to integrate our product into an extensive infrastructure system.

By the way, we actively encourage you to get involved in seeking orders for the integration of blockchain and VPN solutions and maybe some outsourcing related to our products or not. After all, the better we diversify, the stronger we’ll be able to promote our project in crypto winter. We don’t want to fund it from our token reserves. We don’t want to dump our token. So better to have the diversification and find it from outsourcing as we did in the previous crypto winter. We started at the beginning of the previous crypto winter, so we have some experience with this.

Of course, the one who will bring a real contract we’ll not let go without remuneration either. So you’ll have your profit as well. Or, if you are an entrepreneur or businessman and have some of your projects, feel free to contact us.

Hardware Node

As you know from the last stream, we are developing our hardware node. It is a turnkey product based on a Raspberry Pi microcomputer and similar devices like Orange Pi or something like this. It’s equipped with a touch screen and will come with a wallet containing 1000 CELL. It is enough to be a masternode. We already have an order from our partners and are busy with production. There will be a DIY section on our website where we will put the specs and models for the 3D printers so that you can assemble the device yourself. It will be possible to do this if you want. You can plug it in immediately and start streaming or giving away services like VPNs. There are more options for using this node in the corporate sector for enterprise solutions. So far, we are at the development stage right now. Anyway, if you have any of your enterprise requirement, we appreciate it if you would contact us and share it.

New partnerships

Since the blockchain live conference in April, we have been discussing new partnerships and collaborations. Of course, we can’t talk about all of them yet, but some you know about, we announced them last week and what it was.

Partnership With The QApp

The first was a partnership with qApp. They have post-quantum licensing, which we agreed to implement in our blockchain. Details will be kept secret for now. As soon as we can tell you more details, you’ll know about it immediately.

Partnership with the Empera Blockchain Protocol

Next is a partnership with Empera blockchain protocol. We are building a parachain on the new Proof-of-Memory consensus (a variant of Proof-of-work) with commission-free transactions and smart contracts on JavaScript. Parachain will be used to bridge with the Empera ecosystem. Each independent blockchain running on this consensus will automatically, natively, have built-in bridges to the other blockchains on the network. Our post-quantum encryption technologies will make it a trusted link to the entire blockchain family. It’s now possible, by the way, to create Web3 applications that function no differently from the cloud applications we are used to. That’s why we need fee-free transactions. Because when you operate with any Web3 application, any action requires payment. So that’s why we contacted Empera. They have an exciting technology set, and we implemented it. Also, our partnership opens up new possibilities for NFT (action NFT), which fits perfectly with the Cellframe concept, where code and token are separated and can be combined. Also, quantum security and layered sharding add invulnerability and power to our partnership. We’ll keep you informed about our joint projects.

Partnership with the Symbiosis Cross-Chain Liquidity Aggregation Protocol

The next partnership is a Symbiosis cross-chain liquidity aggregation protocol. What does this partnership mean? Symbiosis will have post-quantum security if we have a bridge with other blockchains: Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, etc. You’ll be able to transfer and exchange any tokens that are tradable on Uniswap and Pancake quickly and easily. Any tokens trading on these stocks could be wrapped and sent into the Cellframe protocols and become quantum-safe. Also, Cellframe will have extra liquidity on a native protocol with this, which significantly reduces the chance of damping and pumping and any manipulations with the market. So, that’s a significant advantage. We’ll keep you updated on the news of our collaboration.

Team building

In recent months we have had team boosts — many new employees have come to the company. We almost stuffed the marketing department and enhanced the design department, QA team, and new backend team members. The office now has a caring person, and the employees are much more comfortable and cozy. So, we felt the need to introduce the team to new people. We decided to do it live and called it “Newbie Day”. We gathered about 30 employees worldwide for a call, and about 10 people were in the office. The newcomers told themselves what they wanted: about their professional experience, life, and hobbies, showed the pets on the camera, joked, and asked questions. It was awesome! We liked the format so much that we have decided to make it a tradition. New good tradition is always good, so we pick a theme for the following such calls, something between all stories, or our hobbies, something like this.

And there is so much news inside the company that we have started producing news built-in with the pictures. The entire team receives it in PDF format. Also, there is a special board in the office next to which we can drink coffee and meditate on how the week went in the company. It’s now tradition, and we’re thinking about converting part of this transition to something more public, but for now, it’s internal.

Habr.com

In the last stream, we told you we were getting ready to perform on the new social platforms. The most important of these is a Habr. It’s the biggest collective blog on the Russian-speaking internet, but it also has an English version. And today, we did it. Almost 15 million people use the Habr project every month. It’s both a media and knowledge base created by users. Here intelligent people share their unique experiences and find like-minded friends and companions. Companies here can meet professionals to talk informally on equal terms. We went through several reviews by the Habr content studio after, all confirmed, and here you can soon go to this portal and read our first material.

Meetup in Europe

Last time we said that our ambassador and author Mika organized a community meeting in Europe in Amsterdam. We now know more precisely where a meeting will occur. It’s October 22, 2022. See the details on Twitter.

Questions

“Are there any plans to bypass the monetary/banking sanctions through the Cellframe blockchain? I think we have all the capability to do so.”

Yes, but there is one moment. Look, there are two problems. One problem is transferring funds from one country to another. The second problem is to make it safe for the sender because we have a public blockchain, and all transactions are recorded. To prevent any secondary sanctions for the sender, we need to implement anonymity transactions like zk-SNARKs. In the following case, we need post-quantum zk-SNARKs, which are still in development. When we’re over, yes, it could be used for bypassing any sanctions.

“Due to our algorithm and key sizes, the blockchain size could easily grow exponentially. Please explain how you manage this issue?”

We have implemented multi-level sharding, so any member of the network except Archive nodes does not need to download all the blockchains. Smaller blockchains break it, and members need to download only one small part. So that solves this issue.

“There are rumors that CELL equals CELLS. Could you please give communities some explanation about it?”

These are different projects. Even though it sounds similar and we are about one kilometer away, our headquarters are near, but it’s different projects. They’re based in the institute. They are focused on enterprise solutions, not on something public. As we know, they have no post-quantum signatures. They have some certified signatures for internal Russian usage, yet we have connected with them. We will have some collaborations, but they’re busy with integration with the swift analog. They have a lot of work right now. So we’re waiting for when they will have some free time to continue our collaboration with us. But it’s different. They have smart contracts on JavaScript, and they will focus on these smart contracts.

“Any possible date when the Proof-of-Stake-based mainnet is going live? Appreciate all the work being done; however, it’s unclear when the distributed network is going live.”

I cannot say any exact date because, you know, I had a bad experience before with this. I know it’s near; it’s about days or weeks, not months, but who knows. We need to pass the second stage audit and prepare for this. We need first to overcome synchronization troubles. Right now, there are some fork issues. We fix forks. Then we run the staking. Then we go to the audition. After the audition, we made it open, and it became public. Please be patient.

“Сan you, please say what your vision for the Cellframe network is and its ecosystem in 2030 and beyond.”

It’s replaced most modern clouds like Azure, Amazon, and Digital Ocean. I believe they could be moved from clouds to fog solutions. And I believe we’ll be at the top of crypto capitalization, maybe top ten or three, who knows. Also, I believe that before this, a quantum apocalypse will happen, and non-post quantum cryptocurrencies will bleed. Sorry, so that’s my vision.

“Cellframe is not an anonymous network, and all transactions are tracked. You can trace the sender and recipient. Am I right?”

Generally yes, but we don’t require your passport to create wallets, so transactions are tracked, but you and your address are not tracked. We are working with zk-SNARKs technologies, adopting it with post-quantum encryption and making non-threat, non-trackable transactions inside the Cellframe ecosystem.

OK, these were all the questions. Thanks to everyone who asked. Those were amazing questions.