AMA with Dmiry Gerasimov: October 12, 2023

‌Good evening! I am Dmitry Gerasimov, the CEO of Demlabs, leading the Cellframe project. Welcome to our live AMA stream!

As always, we will talk about the development of all our projects, share news from the life of the company, and our plans for the future. We will also answer questions from the community.

Today we’ll talk about what we accomplished in September, show you the roadmap for the two-way bridge, and much more. It will be interesting, as usual.

‌Today we have prepared the following topics:

• Updates to the CELL staking website, and voting for the emission of rewards for holders
• Cellframe Dashboard Updates
• News from the KelVPN team
• Progress in preparation for the launch of the two-way bridge
• Discussing the Cellframe DEX and how it works
• Our marketing activities, what we did in September, and plans for October
• And finally, the NSUCRYPTO International Cryptographic Olympiad 

‌Cellframe staking site

Today we have several updates about the CELL staking program. I will start with the technical side:

First, we have automated the inclusion of gas fees (Ethereum/BSC network fees) when dealing with CELL LP tokens on the Cellframe staking website.

Why this is important: ConsenSys has made significant changes to the rules for using MetaMask wallets, and now, when conducting transactions, the gas price must be entered manually. But we decided that we didn't want that in our case, and made it so that the gas price is added automatically when transactions are created, as it was before. This means that, in spite of the new MetaMask rules, the process has not changed in any way for our network users.

Secondly, our own network fee is now added to the calculation when creating the stake.

The Cellframe network fee is taken into account and displayed automatically when you are setting up the stake transaction. We have also implemented a special indicator that shows the progress of your transaction.

Emission of rewards

‌And now some staking news on the organizational side: very soon we will announce the start of voting to approve the size of the emission for staking rewards - stay tuned for our updates!

According to our “Tokenomics 2.0” the emission of tokens for rewards occurs every year and, according to the plan, it will decrease every year. Last year, its volume amounted to 3 million tokens.

Starting this year, the number of tokens emitted will be decided by a vote of CELL holders. For our part, we suggest bringing the number down from 3 million to 2 million tokens. But the community will have the last word and will be able to propose a few options to vote on. For example it could be 2 million, or 1.5 million, or stay the same at 3 million tokens.

Any CELL token holder will be able to vote, but the weight of their vote will be proportional to the size of their holding. As many CELL tokens you have, as much weight you will have when you vote. To facilitate this, we will create a special t-dApp for the Cellframe Dashboard and Wallet.Then we will launch a separate web interface for the vote, which will then be used in subsequent rounds of voting on the ERC-20 and BEP-20 networks.

‌Cellframe Dashboard. Updates

Now we can move from the things we plan to build into the Cellframe Dashboard to talking about what we already have in our Dashboard now. So, recently, we:

• Completed work on implementing a protocol based on JSON-RPC. This protocol is used to send messages between Cellframe Node and Cellframe Dashboard. By doing this, we improved the quality of data transfer and the stability of the node. As you know, the Cellframe Dashboard is only a graphic interface of the Cellframe Node.

• The ability to create wallets with Bliss and Picnic signatures has been removed from the interface, but we still continue to support them of course.  Now such wallets can only be restored. We recommend that users create wallets with another current signature. CRYSTALS-Dilithium is currently available, and we will soon add Falcon, which is already available in Cellframe Node, as well as SPHINCS+. Please transfer your funds to a wallet with one of these signatures.

• We also fixed several bugs and improved the stability of the application by updating the Cellframe Node version. You can always download the latest version of Cellframe Dashboard on our website. 

KelVPN news

‌And now we move on to the next topic. Next we have news from the KelVPN team. KelVPN is a decentralized VPN service in the Cellframe ecosystem.

Here is what has been done recently:

• The team improved the KelVPN website: the design has been updated, a new section “How to become a KelVPN provider” has appeared.
• The team created an account on Instagram. 
• Also, a new option has appeared on the KEL staking site: now KEL tokens can be staked not only in Backbone, the main Cellframe network, but also in the native KelVPN network.

Collaborative mode progress

‌The team is still working on the collaborative mode for KelVPN. As you remember, this mode will have two options for interaction between the user and the provider: through the CDB (server on our site, Central DataBase) and directly.

Option 1: the user buys a serial key and starts using the available servers offered by providers. Here is what happens on the backend at this point: when connecting to each new server (server is just a masternode in the KelVPN mainnet), a conditional payment transaction is created on the CDB side. The user signs this transaction with their key.

A conditional transaction is valid until the full amount of service paid for on this server is used up. Then the next transaction is created, and the whole process starts over again. Payment for the use of services is received by the provider in KEL tokens from the CDB wallets. Briefly: in option 1 you just purchase the serial key and then use KelVPN service as with any other VPN.

Option 2: here you don't need to purchase the serial key, you just download KelVPN. You will also need to download Cellframe Wallet or Cellframe Dashboard, obtain KEL tokens somewhere, and then connect the two apps together and pay for your private encrypted surfing by the KEL tokens. The user interacts with the provider directly, and selects a server that is suitable for them in terms of price and location. In this case, both the creation and signing of conditional transactions happens on the user’s side.

The process sounds quite complicated. However, for the convenience of users everythings is presented clearly and transparently. In option two, you just need to see the serial key and the connection with your wallet app.

Collaborative mode beta testing

‌The team is currently conducting beta testing of the collaborative mode with the participation of the community. And we invite you to join! You will be able to test out the new features in action, and help the team make it better and more convenient for users.

As a reward, you will receive a free license key to activate KelVPN. To participate in testing, join the KelVPN beta testers group on telegram

KelVPN masternodes

Also: You can now launch masternodes on the KelVPN main network! The technical requirements and sequence of actions are the same as in the Cellframe network. The main difference is that to run a KelVPN masternode you must have staked a minimum of 100 mKEL or 100,000 KEL.

For now, only the role of network validator is available for masternodes. Service providing is still in development, in the final stages. In general it is working, but there are a few issues. We are polishing them, and we will release a new version of the product when that is done. . But it is important to understand: launching a masternode is a prerequisite for becoming a provider. You can find instructions for launching a masternode here.

Bidirectional bridge. Updates

Our next topic is preparations for the launch of the bidirectional or two-way Cellframe bridge. We have a big new goal, which means we have a new roadmap.

We will show it later, but first let's look at the overall statistics on our commits in Gitlab.

And now we will discuss the development progress on the two-way bridge specifically.

‌So, as part of our work on the two-way bridge, we are making specific changes to the network architecture to enhance the functionality of synchronization mechanisms, namely:

First, we are refactoring the Global DataBase, which is the distributed data storage of the Cellframe network. We have already changed the format of the records in it. By the way, GDB has become a separate software product. But we will talk about this separately at a later date.

We are also making other improvements. We redesigned the message format and the flooding mechanism. And we implemented node address authentication at the stream level.

These improvements made it possible to support stream clusters, and to organize access rights to Global DB records. They also let us optimize the use of resources and reduce redundant synchronization.

‌In addition to enhancing synchronization, we are increasing the network's security. Specifically, the security of individual components within our SDK. As a result, we are closing potential attack vectors. Furthermore, we have optimized the token minting processes within the network by adding additional checks.

When we finish making these changes, we will essentially be done preparing for the launch of the two-way bridge. After that, the stages of bug fixing and internal audit will begin, and then we will move on to an external audit. Then we`ll finally open the bidirectional bridge and two-way movement through it.

Here you can see more details about preparing for the launch of the two-way bridge. In the left column you can see the list of all our tasks and in the right column you can see tasks completed in the last month. We have made significant progress and we`ll continue to do so.

Cellframe DEX. Principles of operation

‌Now let's discuss another service we are currently working on: Cellframe’s decentralized exchange. Judging by the number of questions we received, you are very interested in this.

Cellframe DEX is a t-dApp within the Cellframe ecosystem, available to users of our wallets - Cellframe Dashboard or Cellframe Wallet.

Traditionally, DEXs use AMM (automatic market-making) technologies. This is how, for example, PancakeSwap and UniSwap exchanges work. Liquidity providers provide liquidity, and you trade using automatic prices. But we do it differently.

In contrast, our exchange will work with limit orders. They are usually used on centralized exchanges (CEXs), but it is also possible to implement them on a DEX. For people who don't know what a limit order is, it's just an order for a peer-to-peer exchange between a seller and a buyer, and it doesn`t require any liquidity provider.

In the future, AMM t-dApps are planned, which will allow us to create a hybrid model and attract liquidity to our DEX from other networks and from our partners.

‌Marketing. September results and plans

We have already spoken more than once about the fact that this year we are participating in the organization of the International Cryptography Olympiad NSUCRYPTO. It started on October 15. Letters have already been sent to universities and companies from all over the world (more than 12 thousand addresses).

Both students and working professionals are invited to solve complex problems at the intersection of mathematics and cryptography. The tasks are already written and ready to be sent to competitors. And we`ve also prepared a task that will be directly related to Cellframe.

Our marketing is actively developing - we are now joined by 2 video production specialists who have already started creating promotional videos for the products of our ecosystem.

We are now producing tutorial videos and lectures about creating decentralized products on our platform. Don't miss the releases!

‌Our coverage across all channels is growing every month and in September it already rose above 45%, and the audience growth is about 23%.

Additionally, I would like to note the explosive growth of interest in our project among Russian users - coverage in the RU segment jumped to 68% in just 4 weeks. We think this is an excellent result!

We continue to regularly conduct our AMA streams, as you may have noticed. We collect questions from you and share development news. We are also planning AMAs at partner sites.

We have started preparing for the New Year festivities, so we recommend following our Instagram account - there will be a lot of live content!

Also, we would like to thank you for asking your questions and supporting all our activities.

Questions

Will we be able to create LP pairs on the Cellframe DEX?

As I said before, we are launching DEX based on a limit-order model. It doesn`t require liquidity providers at all. We are planning to run some arbitrage for moving external liquidity. Maybe later there will be some AMM t-dApps that will have LP pairs. But in the middle-term users will not be able to create LP pairs.

Will the Cellframe DEX utilize smart contracts? If not, what control mechanism will be used instead?

No, we won't use smart contracts. We will have a limit-order model, therefore we do not require any complicated complex calculations for this. It's just a P2P exchange, and we use a very simple and highly secure mechanism, called “conditional transactions.”

What tokens will be available in the Cellframe DEX? How will Cellframe secure liquidity for these tokens?

All Backbone tokens will be available. As far as liquidity, as I said before, it will be done using AMM bots. We are also planning to collaborate with our partners Symbiosis, which is focused on liquidity-providing and liquidity migration.

Recently it has been reported that Binance is leaving the Russian market. Is it now possible to list CELL on this exchange?

Cellframe is an international project. So, no problem with this.

Does the security of the Cellframe blockchain depend on the number of master nodes? If so, how many is needed to protect the network?

Yes, security depends on nodes, as in any decentralized network. In protecting the network, the question always is: protect against what? But if we talk about the usual threats, let's think about it. 10 nodes is too small, 1 million is too big. So, I think the safe number should be somewhere between these two numbers.

Is it possible to get a master role in several networks at once? How will this change the hardware requirements for the node?

Yes, it's possible. Hardware requirements depend on networks. If we are talking about KelVPN, it doesn't change at all. It has additional requirements only if you become a service provider.

Tell us more about the light nodes. How will such a node display the Wallet balance if it doesn't have access to the entire blockchain?

It has access. It’s just that when it processes, it drops all transactions that don't relay with the Wallet balance. It stores only the unspent transactions for this wallet.

Will masternodes on the KelVPN network sign blocks just like masternodes on the Backbone Network, or only provide VPN service?

They will do both.

Does the blockchain work like a database, like MySQL or MongoDB, or does it just store records of the transactions?

It's hard to answer this question. It works like a decentralized database and, at the same time, it just stores records of the transactions. But it stores all data along with its links to the previous data. So you cannot replace or remove some part of data without breaking the whole system. This is the key advantage of the blockchain, it's an unchangeable database.

If I want to create a meme token, will it be possible directly on Backbone or do I have to participate in the slot auction?

It's possible directly on Backbone. Slot auction is required only if you want to run your own parachain or network in our ecosystem.

What about a stablecoin? Do you have such plans?

Yes, we are thinking about it. Also right now we are in negotiation with one start up, that is planning to run a flatcoin. For me flatcoin is a more interesting and modern thing in Cryptoworld. It helps better than a stablecoin to save your funds and savings from inflation. But it could be better to talk about this next time, it's a really long story.

Any new partnerships?

There are talks about new partnerships as well. Maybe in the next AMA we'll announce them.

Okay, that was all your questions. Thank you for all your attention and support. See you next time. We are CELL! We are here!