First conceived and pitched at the London chapter of the EOS Global Hackathon in September 2018, ‘Chestnut’ won both 1st runner up and Best UX at the event, and went on to compete as a finalist at the Cape Town Grand Finale.

In this edition of #BuiltOnEOSIO, co-founder Daniel Liebeskind tells us all about why their blockchain-harvested version of a ‘Chestnut’ is so hard to crack, how it improves user security in digital payment, and why it marks an important step towards driving the mass adoption of blockchain technology.

How would you describe your project?

Daniel Liebeskind: Chestnut is a permission-based smart account, which allows users to set their own rules around transactions, with an aim to prevent careless mistakes and to protect accounts from malicious attacks.

Users set security parameters on their Chestnut account, such as spending limits and transaction thresholds. Should a transaction fall outside of the parameters set, the transaction would automatically be rejected by the smart contract.

Down the line, we plan to offer protection against hackers, the ability to automatically split inbound payments, recurring payments, and enhanced security parameters.

Where did your initial idea come from?

Daniel Liebeskind: Initially, we were inspired to make use of the EOS account architecture to create an ‘if this, then that’ system. My team and I run web development shops and are freelancers in the blockchain space, so we often pay each other in cryptocurrency. We wanted to program a smart contract to handle payment splitting and disbursements automatically.

When we found out that the theme of the London Hackathon was around privacy and security, we realized that the ‘if this, then that’ model could also be used to transform EOS accounts into Smart Accounts with user-set security parameters.

Can you introduce your team and tell us what makes it special?

Daniel Liebeskind: We are a polymathic team with expertise in web and blockchain development, design, project management, finance and law. Believe it or not, we met in the jungles of Bali, Indonesia and bonded over our shared interest in blockchain technology.

What stage is the project at and what are your plans for scaling up?

Daniel Liebeskind: Chestnut is ramping up the development of our platform. We have a technology roadmap, and smart contracts have already been deployed on the Jungle testnet. We expect to launch our alpha product in May 2019 and are currently expanding our team.

Given that we are a security product, it is imperative for us that we get this right, so we’ll be conducting comprehensive rounds of testing and a smart contract audit before the launch.

Why did you decide to use blockchain technology, and specifically on EOSIO?

Daniel Liebeskind: We believe that wide-scale blockchain adoption is only going to become a reality when we make it easy, familiar, and safe for normal people to interact with dapps and sign transactions. EOSIO has a unique account architecture that is ideal for Chestnut Smart Accounts, and we believe that EOSIO is going to be the first blockchain to gain widespread adoption once we see the release of a next wave of dapps in late 2019. Chestnut is a key infrastructure project providing a pathway to join this ever-growing ecosystem.

How has the EOS Community responded to your project?

Daniel Liebeskind: We have been blown away by the positive response from the community, especially from developers who have said that they think “Chestnut is an absolute need”. All of the EOSIO chains have been rallying around us and supporting us with advice, resources and technical guidance. We’ve also received a lot of good questions and engagement from the wider community.

More information on Chestnut available on https://www.chestnutaccounts.com/