AMA with Dmitry Gerasimov: November 23, 2023

‌Hello! I am Dmitry Gerasimov, CEO of Demlabs, which is the parent company of the Cellframe project.

Welcome to our live AMA stream! Here we talk about the development progress of all our projects, share news from the life of the company, discuss plans for the future, and also answer questions from the community.

Today we will talk about the results of our work in the second half of October and the first half of November. This period was busy and productive, both in development and marketing. We have many interesting topics for you!

‌Here is what we will cover today:

• Web development: Updates to the Cellframe staking site; refactoring the Explorer site (we will talk about Blockchain Explorer)

• Cellframe Dashboard and Cellframe Wallet news : Transition to modular architecture, improving functionality

• Cellframe DEX updates: Resuming development, fixing bugs

• News from the KelVPN team: Preparing for the launch of collaboration mode

• The Cellframe two-way bridge: Improving node stability; changes to the main network architecture; GDB refactoring; testing and implementation of post-quantum signatures

• Marketing news: AMA sessions, partnerships, the Crypto Olympiad, “The Trends” forum, and a new episode of our animated series about the Space Chipmunk

‌Web development news

‌Let's start with Web development. Here we have several news items for today. Our first topic is updates on the Cellframe staking site: https://stake.cellframe.net/ We are constantly working to improve its functionality. Here’s what we did recently:

• We fixed several unstaking bugs, solved the problem with duplicate transactions and “missing” stakes - now everything is displayed correctly.

• We have also removed the option of staking CELL/BUSD LP tokens and the ability to send BUSD tokens through the Cellframe bridge. This is due to Binance’s plan of ending support for its own stablecoin in early 2024.

‌Next up from the web development team is refactoring the Cellframe Explorer website: https://explorer.cellframe.net/ Let me remind you that this is a special website that displays all the events that occur in our blockchain network (transactions, new blocks, and any other data that is added to the blockchain).

• We decided to completely redesign the backend to prepare for future changes in the platform architecture.

• We already started implementing a special plugin for populating the database with information from the blockchain. It will perform a caching function that will allow you to quickly load all the data you want to see.

Dashboard and Wallet updates

• ‌We changed the architecture of these applications from monolithic to modular. Now each tab is a separate independent module. This configuration will help us optimize application development and update processes.

• We also integrated mechanisms for translating interfaces into different languages for both applications.

There were also a few more important improvements:

Cellframe Wallet now has a multi-threaded operating mode. Requests are now processed not sequentially, but in parallel. This means that the application will work faster, and be more stable.

‌ In the Cellframe Dashboard:

• We optimized the JSON-RPC-based protocol for data exchange between the dashboard service and the node.

• We also reworked the logging system and got rid of redundant logs.

• The Dashboard now has a transaction queue. This makes it possible to send several transactions at once.

• We also added an indicator for the completion of synchronization and when switching online/offline.

• And of course, several bugs were fixed.

Download the latest versions of Cellframe applications here: https://cellframe.net/download/

Cellframe DEX updates

Next up is news from the Cellframe DEX project. Our exchange is an example of t-dApp implementation in the Cellframe ecosystem. This DEX will be radically different from most other decentralized exchanges. It will not use any AMM protocols or smart contracts.

The token exchange will run on the same limit-order engine that forms the core of the service-delivery engine in our ecosystem. The role of smart contracts, as in other t-dApps, will be performed by conditional transactions, which contain the terms of each trade. This is a simple, reliable and safe mechanism.

The DEX is designed primarily for exchanging tokens within the Cellframe network, so it will feature all native CF-20 tokens, as well as such popular tokens as DAI, USDC, ETH, and BNB. All users of our wallets - Cellframe Wallet and Cellframe Dashboard - will be able to use the DEX. These applications already have a tab for the DEX. We have recently resumed active development of this service. Here’s what we accomplished:

• We configured the order_history command, which shows the history for the current order and the balance of funds.

• We also adjusted the process of sending transactions to the ledger when an order is executed.

We have more plans to further develop this service.

KelVPN News

‌The KelVPN team continues to debug collaboration mode, which links KelVPN with Cellframe Dashboard. Here’s what they have done recently:

In cellframe-sdk, they implemented the ability to transmit an order hash as a parameter for connecting to a VPN. Now the connection to the server is tied to the order that the client selects. This way, users will be able to select the conditions that best fit their needs, choosing from all the providers’ offers. This includes: location of the provider, duration of the connection package, and price.

KelVPN also added a banning mechanism that blocks the operation of paid services if a service node is offline. In the consensus, the team implemented a mechanism to stop synchronization when offline. Together with the previous functions, this will allow you to avoid errors when paying for KelVPN service.

The team also fine-tuned the IP address handler, as well as the mechanism for auto-update of balances. Several bugs have been fixed.

‌ The team also reminds you that you can already launch a masternode on the KelVPN network. The technical requirements and sequence of actions are the same as in the Cellframe network. The main difference is that to launch a KelVPN masternode, you must have at least 100 mKEL on your balance or 100,000 KEL staked.

The KelVPN team continues to debug the collaboration mode, so for now only the role of network validator is available for masternodes. In any case, it is important to understand that running a masternode is a prerequisite for becoming a VPN service provider.

You can use these instructions for launching a Cellframe masternode: https://wiki.cellframe.net/02.+Learn/Become+a+Master+Node/Master+Node+Manual+Setup. All the steps are exactly the same except that you must choose the KelVPN network instead of Backbone. If you have any questions, you can always contact the KelVPN technical support team: https://t.me/kelvpn_tech_support

Bidirectional Bridge

‌Now we move on to the next topic: progress on the preparations for the launch of the Cellframe bidirectional bridge.

A bit later we will show more details of the roadmap for the bridge, but first we will look at the overall statistics on commits in the Gitlab. You can see that most of the commits are related to the Cellframe SDK. So, most of these changes could are beneficial for every Cellframe SDK user.

In preparation for the launch of the bridge, it is important for us to carefully debug the network synchronization and ensure the maximum level of security. This will help minimize the number of errors when interacting with other blockchain networks and eliminate the possibility of hacking and withdrawal of funds.

Therefore, we are now focused on improving the stability of Cellframe Node: eliminating crashes and freezes, and also fine-tuning various commands.

In addition, we are continuing a major refactoring of the mainnet. Global DB (distributed data storage of the Cellframe network) is becoming a more independent and secure module, and in the future it may become a separate product.

We are also transitioning the main network to a cluster architecture. The network is now becoming a collection of interconnected clusters. And each network node can be part of several clusters at the same time and play different roles in them. There will be three types of clusters in the beginning.

• ‌A group cluster is, for example, a cluster of KelVPN nodes, which includes a few specific table groups - ‌the KelVPN.nodes and KelVPN.nodes.aliases.

• A role cluster is a group of nodes with special rights. For example, they can be validators of the subchain.

• A stream cluster is a set of node addresses that can be grouped according to a certain criterion, for example, by belonging to the same network.

Thus, one stream cluster can include many GDB group clusters, and each of them, in turn, can have its own role clusters. Why do we need such a complex mechanism? Because of sharding.

Sharding, one of the next steps in our development of the main network, logically fits well into the concept of clusters. So it is likely that we will implement sharding precisely on the basis of this concept. But it is important to understand that the cluster architecture itself is not yet sharding - it is only a prerequisite for its creation. Also this architecture of clusters is a requirement for “shared service providers,” but we will talk about this later, maybe in the next AMA, when something will be ready.

Now let's look at our roadmap for the launch of the two-way bridge. Here you can see how many things are in progress, and how many things we already did by November 2022.

Post-quantum cryptography: Signature testing

‌‌As part of our work on the two-way bridge, we measured the speed of the post-quantum signatures recommended by NIST on the average PC. We tested the Falcon, CRYSTALS-Dilithium and SPHINCS+ algorithms. Two parameters were studied: transaction signing speed and signature verification speed. For testing, a cycle of 1000 iterations was launched to create and sign a random message and verify the signature.

The test results will help us select the optimal node configuration for maximum performance. For example, during testing, the SPHINCS+ algorithm performed worst of all. It is too slow, so we will not be adding support for it in our wallets.

But FALCON and CRYSTALS-Dilithium turned out to be quite fast. However, FALCON is faster at verification. This means that if it is at least equal to CRYSTALS-Dilithium in security, then it will be preferable to use it, and maybe there will be some difference in the transaction fee.

Also just a few days before this stream information appeared about a new encryption algorithm called “Shipovnik.” We are going to implement it as well. It's been developed by our partners at Q-App. It's a little slower than Falcon or CRYSTALS-Dilithium, but also fast enough. So, in the near future we will see “Shipovnik” in the list of supported algorithms.

Marketing news

‌‌Now let’s move to the next topic: our marketing activities. There has been a lot of activity since our previous stream on October 12.

We conducted two partner AMA sessions: one on October 19 with blogger tuNNCay Crypto on the BinanceLive platform, and another on November 19 - with the CryptoTitans channel on X (Twitter) Spaces.

The international cryptography Olympiad NSUCRYPTO https://nsucrypto.nsu.ru/ took place! We were co-organizers of this event and participated in designing the tasks. The Olympiad was held online from October 15 to 23. More than 1,100 students and professionals from 44 countries took part in it. The competition entries are currently being judged, and the final results will be announced in December. We are really looking forward to the results, because some of them will help us create new high-performance signatures. Of course, performance is a key issue when designing blockchain architecture.

‌We also entered into two partnership agreements this month. One is with the HYVE project - a platform for crypto freelancers. Cellframe will be a payment solution for HYVE and will provide fast and secure transactions. And the other is with the Tezoro project. This is a service that will allow you to restore assets even if access to the wallet was lost or the owner died.

Our animation studio, Cellxar, has released the second episode of the series about the adventures of the Space Chipmunk - the Cellframe mascot:

https://youtu.be/nvioQF0Gb-Q?si=OconOkHq67Vxidrk

In October we relaunched the Demlabs company website https://demlabs.net/ with updated design and content.

And finally, on November 15-16, the Demlabs team participated in a forum on global trends and new technologies - “The Trends 2023“ in Moscow.

‌The trip turned out to be very eventful and interesting. We not only made useful contacts, but also received interesting insights regarding trends in the Russian segment of AI and blockchain technologies. For example:

Traditional businesses understand the promise of blockchain technologies and are beginning to take a more active look at them. There is a growing demand for data tokenization. The demand for new content-creation tools, neural networks, and AI in general is also increasing.

There was also some news from our partner Node.sys. They are coming up with new partnerships. We are working hard to enlarge our ecosystem.

Questions

Will there be a DAO vote to approve the size of the staking award issue this year? How will it be organized?

We will release an update for the Cellframe Node that will include a new special network decree and a new special transaction item for voting. Then we will run a special site for voting - it will connect CF-20 with BEP-20 and ERC-20 networks. So, every CELL holder will be able to vote on this. Depending on the amount you hold, your vote will be weighted accordingly. The more CELL you hold, the bigger weight you will have when you vote. That's how it will be organized.

Is Cellframe looking to implement fog computing? If so, can you explain what determines the strengths of the fog network?

We already implemented fog computing for VPN service and continue to implement it for AI and some other calculations. Fog computing is faster, cheaper and more secure than cloud computing. Unfortunately it's sometimes difficult to organize proper functionality for it, but we are working on this.

Recently, the TON blockchain set a new TPS speed record (peak value is 104715). Will Cellframe be able to surpass this result by implementing sharding?

Yes, for sure. Even without sharding I'm planning to run a few tests with a classic ECDSA signature just to show that we can run this with ECDSA with the same amount of transactions for one shard. Because we have much more transactions per shard, the transaction number will be smaller, I expect. But because we have a lot of two-level shards, we should beat this record for sure.

There is a mention of the TON consensus on the Cellframe Wiki. How does it apply to the Cellframe blockchain?

We have our own implementation of the TON consensus with a few modifications. For example, we don't require all the shared validators to sign the new block, because we have post-quantum signatures. And there are a few more differences that make our consensus differ from TON. We need to name it! We’ve thought about it for more than six months and still have not chosen a name. If you have any ideas, please write to us.

Recently information appeared in the media that RSA-2048 has been hacked. Do you think this is possible with the current level of technology development?

Yes. Because for RSA we already have a Schnorr algorithm that could be cracked using the proper quantum computer. So, all that is required is to find suitable hardware and break it into parts. RSA isn't really safe.

In one of the previous AMA sessions, you mentioned that it is planned to introduce a hardfork mechanism. How will it be used?

The first goal for our hardfork mechanism is to make it possible for shards to break into two shards when they become overfilled. When a shard becomes too big, it should split into two shards, while the old one goes to the archive. So, for splitting you need a hardfork mechanism, because it's the same as a hardfork. However, we`ll use the same mechanism first for a hardfork because our zero-shard is a little overfilled right now, with some garbage that appears at the beginning. It doesn't produce any problems, but just to test hardfork mechanism for sharding we'll use it for the first test of the hardfork mechanism on the Backbone network.

What are the differences between the protection of Cellframe web wallets and other popular wallets such as Metamask or TrustWallet?

Mostly no difference, because protection is focused on using a private key. Private keys could be stored on dedicated hardware. We are also working on manufacturing these hardware wallets. Or they could be placed on your computer, protected with a password. We also implement such features. Nothing more can be invented for greater security, unfortunately.

The first service - VPN providing - will soon be available in the KelVPN network. Are there any plans to release any service on the Backbone Network?

Yes, we are planning to release the DEX service - it’s already present in the Alpha version. For the VPN, we are planning to keep it in its own parchhain because it produces a lot of transactions. And the idea of having different networks is that you don't need to download a blockchain for VPN transactions if you just want to exchange CELL tokens for something else. So, Backbone is being developed mostly for token exchange and for interconnection of different networks together - it's a hub network. So we don't expect a lot of services to run on the Backbone itself. If you want to use some t-dApps, select the network where this t-dApp is present.

Question about testing post-quantum signatures: will sharding help reduce these values?

Sharding helps not to depend a lot on these values. To reduce these values we need just to work more, especially in our Cryptography Department. And it's hard to predict if we can reduce these values significantly because some of these values are already the results of signature optimization. Can we engage in sharding to do more? I don’t know.

Can we hope Cellframe will become a Top-10 Crypto?

Yes, we can always hope.

Why is Cellframe not gaining its real value?

We still haven't completed all the promised features, and only all these features together will give us the real advantage. We need to complete the Bidirectional Bridge, we need to complete two-level sharding, we need to run a few more t-dApps. And only after this Cellframe will gain its position more widely. We will gain our real value when this time comes.

How does Cellframe Network plan to attract and support developers who are interested in building on your platform? Are there any specific incentives or tools in place?

We are expanding our wiki, we are preparing examples, and we are working closely with different teams. MoreCellframe SDK-based projects are coming. Today we had a conversation about a new upcoming project. I can say it will be a flatcoin. It’s like a stablecoin but connected not to some fiat currency, but with real goods like metals, oil, grain or something like this. This flatcoin would be the most interesting feature on our platform because right now only the beginning of the flatcoin era. That's just an example, because there are other interesting projects that are coming based on our SDK.We are working a lot on this. We have more video tutorials coming. A little more patience and we will have them prepared.

Can you provide an update on the timeline for the launch of the Cellframe Network bridge? What are the key milestones we should look out for leading up to this launch?

We have just provided updates on this. About key milestones: when we see that we are done working on synchronization, that there are no synchronization troubles, that your transactions pass no more than a few minutes, then we will be ready. By the way, this is already done. Just a few days ago, when we did big tests, it was just a few minutes, not more. But our goal is to do it in less time, about 10 seconds or something like this. So when we see a really fast passing transaction, that means we are near to the finish. It will also require some more things like sharding mechanisms, to improve CPU load. For solving this we are preparing a new version of SDK that implements the new protocols. When these protocols will be ready for release, this means that we are near to the bidirectional bridge release, and the last step before the release will be an external audit. So, if you see we go to an audit, it means that the bridge is near to the release date.

How much money do you have in your marketing wallet?

Right now marketing wallet is being used for development to reach the Bidirectional bridge faster. For marketing we have a specific source of funding right now. All our marketing is funded right now from the Demlabs budget, and we are morally for this. Next year we are planning to consolidate our plans with our partners. If we are talking about listing or something like this, we should have enough funds for these endeavors beginning in March or April, but this will come from separate funds directly from Demlabs and Demlabs partners.

Will Cellframe holders have advantages in the launch of node.sys? Whitelist maybe?

Right now we do not have any limits so the biggest advantage is that you know about this project and can become one of the first investors!

When will big marketing start because Bull run is near?

This spring, I believe. Right now we are collecting money for this. We have collected part of the required sum, and another part is coming in February or March I believe. I also believe this spring will be a crypto spring, and we will engage it with marketing. However we already do some marketing activities before that as well.

Please create a roadmap with deadlines, as before.

Maybe you remember, when we had deadlines, we always failed them and only when we canceled deadlines and just reported about progress, we released the mainnet. We’ll continue to use this approach for development.

Okay, thank you for all your questions, all your time and all your support! Nice to see you!

We are CELL, we are here!