Dan Conner is a former member of the U.S. Special Forces (AKA The Green Berets) who is set to launch his company DisLedger® on September 1st, which will act as an alternative to Blockchain. Touting it as a faster, more private, and more secure platform, Conner provided details about the new technology and answered a few questions regarding DisLedger®.

(In the interest of expedience, EconoTimes is denoted as ET in the following transcript and Dan Conner is shortened to DC.)

ET: Is DisLedger a cryptocurrency?

DC: No, the DCL token isn’t a cryptocurrency, it’s a license to allow users to create and use DisLedger® systems and pay only for how much they use the system. DisLedger is using the ERC20 token standard and the global Ethereum network to manage the licensing for our technology and make it easier for our customers. The DisLedger architecture is a distributed ledger technology where users can run thousands of transactions per second over their own system with complete privacy. Then on a monthly basis the users transfer DCL tokens to DisLedger Ltd. via the Ethereum network to pay for the transactions they’ve processed.

ET: What made you think that there would be a use for something like DisLedger?

I have a graduate degree in Management Information Systems, so I’m used to looking at systems and evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. When I first explored blockchain I thought, “this will never scale; it will never be fast; and it’s too transparent – I don’t want my financial information exposed like this.” That was about 2 years ago and blockchain still has those problems… blockchain just doesn’t work for use-cases that need privacy and need to process high volumes of transactions.

I spent a while trying to find ways to make blockchain more efficient, to speed it up. In the end, I realized the only thing to do was to start over with a new architecture and build a system from the ground up designed specifically to meet two goals: be as fast as possible, and be completely private.

ET: Besides the more private format where only the parties involved with transactions can view the ledger, what separates DisLedger from Blockchain and other cryptocurrencies?

Speed and certainty. You can see a demonstration of DisLedger that runs over 5,000 transactions per second, even on your iPhone. With DisLedger, there is no waiting for your transaction to be added to a block, no uncertainty of just when your transaction will be ‘mined’. As anyone who has tried to buy into an ICO knows – you can never tell if or when your offer will be successful and you’ll get your coins. That uncertainty is unacceptable for most businesses and is why there is so much interest in the DisLedger approach in financial markets, retail payments, Internet Of Things, etc.

Imagine driving through a toll plaza on the highway and having to wait for an Ethereum transaction to be processed so you can keep driving. In the best case you have to wait at least 15 seconds for Ethereum’s block time; and you could be waiting for minutes, or hours.

Bitcoin runs about 7 transactions per second with mining delays measured in tens of minutes even on a good day. Ethereum can handle about 15 transactions per second but the network can get so congested during ICO sales that the delays can run into hours.

DisLedger’s technology directly connects the parties in a transaction together. So it can scale to hundreds of thousands of transactions per second and support even the largest company’s processing requirements.

ET: What makes the DisLedger format different compared to how companies currently conduct business transactions (barring those already using Blockchain)?

Today companies each have their own centralized systems within their IT departments that do not connect and share data easily with other companies. There are a lot of places where two companies want to share data between them in a secure way, but so no one else can see the data. One example is when a bank buys stock from a stock exchange. The bank and exchange want make sure they agree about the price of the stock and number of shares in the transaction. Currently the bank will have its own database and the exchange has its own database and surprisingly often the data on the two systems doesn’t match up. When that happens each side has to research where the errors is; perform manual reconciliation using employees that make Wall Street salaries; and then correct the systems. Estimates are that banks spend about $20 Billion annually on reconciliation…. and DisLedger is a way to eliminate a great deal of that cost.

ET: When you say that the DisLedger tokens are available on a per-transaction license basis, instead of being available for an up-front enterprise license, what does this mean to clients?

The main goal of the token sale is to create an ecosystem where clients can use DisLedger’s technology, at an affordable price, and with no barrier to entry. This will allow thousands of new organizations around the world to easily start. The per-transaction license means that clients will be able to use a DisLedger system but only pay for the actual number of transactions they process, with no upfront cost. This allows companies with smaller data processing requirements to have access to the same technology as globally recognized, Fortune 50 companies. Instead of spending millions of dollars to buy an enterprise license for the next year, they just count the number of transactions they use each month and send the appropriate number of DCL tokens to DisLedger’s Ethereum address.

It’s an affordable cost, tied directly to the amount they use, and a really easy way to pay without invoices, foreign exchange conversions, or wire transfers… just click on your wallet and transfer tokens.

ET: What types of businesses would benefit most from making use of Disledger’s service?

The DisLedger architecture is best suited for organizations that need to process transactions or share sensitive data in a permissioned network with total privacy and immediate settlement. Banks can offer Peer-to-Peer payments and allow their customers to send payments to their friends or small businesses yet be comfortable that that their customers’ account information will be never be exposed to the internet. Brokers can move securities between each other for their clients, while being able to keep up with the strict data privacy laws that are coming into effect globally (EU’s GDPR, China’s CSL, etc). Even payments like your Connected Car paying tolls while driving through a toll booth at 80kmh/50mph, or for fuel without swiping a credit card, or for a parking spot can be enabled by DisLedger. There are lots of ideas that people are asking me about which I had never even thought about before and that’s really exciting!

ET: Would you say that DisLedger is for anyone?

DisLedger is designed to be a simple and straightforward distributed ledger technology, but it still is a DLT. There is a certain level of technical capability required to understand and implement a DisLedger system. That being said, the architecture eliminated a lot of the complexities of blockchain: no consensus mechanism (POW, or POS), no block formation, etc. so it is much more approachable to learn than the typical blockchain implementations. Also, there is not a new software language to learn like Solidity which is Ethereum’s de facto standard. DisLedger systems can be implemented in any number of software languages (Javascript, Java, C++, etc) so existing developers can build using the tools they have already mastered and integrate the software into their existing systems.

On the other side to manage the DCL tokens - users need to be comfortable with managing private keys and transferring tokens to/from a wallet that is under their control. Over time better tools from the Ethereum network should become available to aid in this process, but the current state of the art of Ethereum ecosystem does require some knowledge and experience.

ET: How would you explain DisLedger to a complete, yet highly interested novice?

DisLedger is a non-blockchain, distributed ledger technology designed for high-volume transaction processing such as payments, and sensitive financial transactions like capital markets clearing. DisLedger’s technology, which is patent pending in the U.S. and internationally, provides a solution for networks that handle high volumes of transactions, require low-latency, and must maintain data privacy.

ET: After the ICO, what are your plans for the future of DisLedger?

DisLedger will continue to provide technical support to customers and developers that utilize the technology. We’ll do outreach and business development to increase the user community; increase the rate of adoption globally; and encourage more usage of the technology – stimulating more demand for the DCL tokens. It’s exciting how many new users from all over the globe have signed up for DisLedger’s token in just the first few days. If we can get a participant to sign up from Antarctica, we’ll have every continent covered!

On the technology front, DisLedger will drive to become even faster at the software and hardware levels. There is research and development to be done with faster processors, and possibly even FPGA and ASIC chips.

We have initial thoughts on supporting smart contracts on top of the DisLedger architecture. Smart contracts could run on top of the DisLedger Prime Ledger and we’re thinking of the best way to implement that functionality or allow smart contract developers to connect into DisLedger.

DisLedger® is set to launch on September 1, 2017, 8AM EDT. Each Ethereum Network-affiliated Token will cost $30, with one Token representing 1,000 transactions. The total number of Tokens available during launch will be 4.5 million. Register now at: www.DisLedger.com.