Volume 2 — September 28, 2018

0chain is the world’s fastest enterprise-grade Blockchain. 0chain provides enterprises with the ability to customize and create their own fully-featured blockchain. 0chain dCloud unlocks new ways to transact, compute and store data via blockchain. Built from the ground up, our blockchain delivers the high availability, speed, and security that enterprises require. Our asset-based model for storage can lower existing public and private cloud OpEx and CapEx.

We asked our community to raise business-related questions for this AMA session on Reddit. Our CEO, Saswata Basu (https://twitter.com/saswata_0chain) and our Chief Revenue Officer, Phil Castillo (https://www.linkedin.com/in/phcastillo/) are delighted to recognize the community’s interest in the project and they took the time to answer the questions.

Hope you enjoy it, and feel free to join us on Twitter (@0costcloud) or Telegram (https://t.me/Ochain)!

To begin with, Phil would like to answer a question that has been raised in the past on social media, but we could not locate the source. The question was related to his reasons to join 0chain after 30 years of experience in large companies.

Phil: I have been fascinated and passionate about blockchain for years and want to be part of this technological shift and innovation. I also had an immediate vision match with Saswata Basu founder and CEO and think Siva Dirisala has the exact experience and passion to help us build dCloud and delight our customers. This was more about following my passion and the impact I could make more than following a predictable career path.

Q1. There have been hints of 0chain working with one or more than one Forbes500 company as testnet has advanced. Can you speak to what these relationships entail? What use case are they looking into? [pionkows]

Phil: We are engaging with system integrators, cloud platform providers and other IT service providers to broaden our ability to attract and serve customers. Many of these organizations are building blockchain practices and understand how immature the market is. Their interest in us is varied, but most see our blockchain-as-a-service offer as solid and want to better understand what storage via blockchain can do for their customers. The use cases we are exploring with them include IoT and storing critical data as devices check in to the network, digital right management and the ability to store data via blockchain and manage permissions and access. Monetization of data is another use case we are discussing with some.

Q2. 10% of 0chain tokens have been sold and 50% is set as the reward for miners which will be released starting around 1% (for up to approx. 100years?). The team share 25% (30% inc seed). But team share is set to be released over the next few years at a much faster rate than miner reward and team tokens will then be a majority in circulation within a few years. How can you expect to attract miners with this model? Why not reduce/extend team reward with miner so that miners will always receive majority? [sculptex]

Saswata: The initial setup is 25% for the team (vested over 4 years) and 25% for the public (vested immediately except for seed), which is the standard innovation model to facilitate startups to develop product along with initial risk takers.

We intend to change the model to reward the miners from 50% to indefinite amount at the rate of 2m tokens per year, changeable through governance protocol.

So in future, miners will have a higher portion. The miner reward is still a 10% return with upside token value, similar to a CD or a stock with dividend income.

Having more inflation to miners will actually decrease the token value. Since the upfront cost required for mining is low, we don’t expect a problem to attract miners. In fact, we expect token buyers to stake their tokens to be part-time miners as it will be easy to set up on any of the cloud providers.

With regards to slowing down the vesting part of the team to reduce dilution, its only 2x dilution over 4 years, where we’d like to see 100–1000x growth based on data and asset-transfer value, so the speed of dilution is mathematically negligible compared to the value we expect to generate if we execute our business plan.

Q3. While Phil Castillo is responsible for “communicating the value 0chain can deliver to the Enterprise market” who is responsible for communicating the value 0chain can deliver to the “classic” crypto investors? These “hype-investors” are also responsible for the hype and high market caps of currencies at exchanges so this “market” shouldn’t be forgotten! [Cryptolover165]

Saswata: I’ll be communicating the value 0chain can deliver to the “classic” crypto investors.

Q4. What are the biggest + and — critics about 0chain/dcloud vs traditional clouds that you hear from interested parties? (from a commercial pov) [Zvonky]

Phil: Current cloud systems and traditional economics are what they understand. Our approach is revolutionary, and thus requires some new understanding of how to safely adapt to decentralized blockchains and token economies. Enterprise customers are used to one specific, liable entity for services (that experience turbulence or failure), whereas blockchain is decentralized which is a new feature and requires them to think in a different way about security.

Q5. Will 0chain provide end-to-end applications for enterprises? Will it be not only 0cost cloud but also BaaS? What is the most important traditional niche at the moment? Where do you see your potential customers and in what spheres? Thank you! [vvk154]

Phil: We will provide customized forks, wallets and in the right situations dApps.

BaaS will be a subscription service customer will pay for.

We see IoT and Digital Rights management on the enterprise side. On the crypto side, our blockchain’s speed and future wallet enhancements will be popular.

Q6. I have a question if this suggestion is feasible and reasonable?:

Suggestion: We know that the 0chain company will gain revenue by selling private applications of the 0chain tech to enterprises. I suggest that all this money from these sales has to be kept in the 0chain company so it has to be spent on the development of the blockchain, for marketing and so on. If the money leaves the 0chain company as dividend then these dividends will go to ZCN token holders and not just to the team! If I invest in a public offering of a stock then also all revenue will go to me in form of dividends depending on how many stocks I hold so why should it be different here? My suggestion is fair for everyone! [Cryptolover165 ]

Phil: Good suggestion. Our intention and goal are to provide the world’s fastest and most resilient blockchain based cloud solution and delight enterprise and crypto-based customers. In doing so, we will create a demand for our token ZCN. As the value of the token goes, so does the value of 0chain. As with most start-ups, we don’t see a point in the near term where we are profitable, and I don’t see us in a traditional place to provide a “dividend” ever. Our intent is to direct revenues to continue to fund R&D, operations and marketing. I and the other founders hold tokens and vest over time and are motivated to drive its value for the long-term — plain and simple.

Q7. Has the 0chain team thought about working together with influencers within the blockchain community? No, I am not talking about these hype boys like Ian something or Suppo something. Have a look at this list; https://cryptoinfluencers.io/; there are plenty of down-to-earth, realistic influencers within the crypto space which could help bring the word out regarding 0chain on a nonhype way. One thing is for sure, the “current approach”, if any, isn’t working. And when the time comes 0chain needs a gateway to get the word out! [relaxedsense]

Saswata: Yes. I’m open to communicating with any crypto influencers to help our project if you arrange an introduction.

Q8. 1) per $1million of enterprise spend on dCloud and dCompute, what is an appropriate % compensation for enterprise-grade hosting facilities to earn?

2) at today’s price of $0.10 per 0chain token, how do you expect to combat hyperinflation with the token. At today’s price, there is only $20million USD value that can be compensated to blobbers/miners. How do you solve this problem to ensure longevity? [Anomalous_1]

Phil (1): The good news is they don’t necessarily have to spend much at all. Enterprises buy and lock tokens but retain them, so not really spent. On the service provider side, I don’t think I can accurately determine the % of revenue or compensation they will derive. It will depend on many factors including how much storage is required or the number of transactions. There will be hosted private forks with different attributes as well. The tougher question to answer.

Saswata (2): If value stays low, we will not offer the dStorage part initially. The asset-transfer value of the token (zero cost fees, sub-second finality) should be enough to drive adoption. The cost of mining and sharding is fairly low and will contain inflation.

Q9. Let’s hear your pitch to enterprise prospects and also the enterprise-grade data centers that are needed to support the network. [[Anomalous_1]]

Phil: It depends on the specific type of enterprise, financial versus manufacturing versus healthcare…. But in general: Enterprises for the first time can leverage blockchain to disrupt current norms in how data is managed and stored by leveraging blockchain based storage. This disruption can lead to new revenue opportunities in the monetization of data, increased security, and enhanced performance all with incredibly disruptive economics. Disrupt or be disrupted. Let’s hear your pitch Anomalous?

Thank you so much for participating in our second AMA! We really enjoyed the questions and we are looking forward to seeing more activity on our social media channels!

Telegram: https://t.me/Ochain

Telegram Announcements Channel: https://t.me/ZCN_announcements

Twitter: https://twitter.com/0costcloud

Facebook: https://bit.ly/2P6hbh9

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/0chain/

Miner profitability: https://bit.ly/2R5F7TL