Bithumb Global AMA Live with Chromia(CHR)
14th April 2020, Tuesday
Recap of Live AMA with the Co-Founder & CEO of Chromia, Henrik Hjelte
AMA Link >> https://t.me/bithumbglobal_EN/101997
Q1: What is Chromia? Can you tell us the technology behind it and the features that makes it unique?
A1: Chromia is a new public blockchain based on the idea of integrating traditional databases, “Relational databases” with blockchain security. In the normal world outside blockchain, there is one technology that is in 100% of all enterprises and powers almost all webpages. It build Facebook, SAP, banks, blogging platforms. It is the relational database, or SQL database. Has been used for 30+ years and is still dominant with 85% market share. Why are people using it (NoSQL has been around for 15+ years)? Because it is the best way of managing data known to mankind. Now what is blockchani? It is a way to manage data that is shared. So if you agree that blockchain is about managing data, a relational database should be an obvious technology. Chromia is a general purpose blockchain with full smart contract capabilities, just that it is a lot easier to code, even complex applications. You code with an easy to learn new programming language that combines the power of SQL and “normal languages” but makes it secure in a blockchain context. Up to 1/10 the code-lines vs other blockchains.
Q2: I often see Chromia and ChromaWay being used interchangeably, what is the relationship between the two?
A2: The idea for Chromia and parts of the codebase originated from the company ChromaWay. It is actually one of the first blockchain companies, we had a project for tokens before ethereum called the “colored coins” project that led to us starting a company with a name take from the greek word for color. In 2015 we did what is now called stable-coin, EURO payments based on tokens on a public blockchain (tokens on bitcoin). It was for a bank LHV in Estonia. When we need to quickly find information, we could not search the blockchain and instead started to dump everything to a relational database, and then the idea started to grow to build a blockchain around this. So we did a private blockchain, intended for usecases in land-registration, banking and more. And then came up with the idea of doing a public blockchain for it.
ChromaWay is the company that ideated Chromia and provided the first open source code for it. The Chromia pre-sale of tokens is now funding the development of Chromia, which is done by ChromaWay. When Chromia is released as a decentralized network, it will not be governed or run by ChromaWay. Of course we know it has to be decentralized, we understand the virtues of decentralization since 2012 when our CTO did the worlds first code for tokens, then started an open-source project which even inspired Vitalik (who soon quit and did his own thing). ChromaWay as a company will take a role as providing optional support and maintenance of Chromia projects (open for competition by other players).
Q3: What’s the usefulness of $CHR token in Chromia ecosystem?
A3: CHR can be used to pay for running dapps (normally by the developer of the dapp, not users). It can also be used as a mean of exchange between dapps, and to provide collateral/stake for providers (the ones running the blockchain), incentivizing good behaviour.
Q4: What are the major milestones Chromia has achieved so far & what are your plans for 2020?
A4: We have released Rell, the new programming language that is needed, and supported tooling (online Development Environment, downloadable IDE, documentation). We have release the first testnet in december, and at the same time another company 4irelabs has done the first dapp running on testnet. They could take our old code (done as a private blockchain), learn our new language Rell and port it to Chromia. That project is the Green Assets Wallet, green bond environmental impact reporting, run by a non-profit and with banks and institutions as users.
Plans for 2020 is to both release a series of dApps to showcase how fantastic Chromia is, as well as continue to develop the platform. And when it is secure and good enough, we will release mainnet.
Dapps are now being made by us as well as others. We do a decentralized social network framework call chromunity, now release to testnet. If is really cool, users can vote over moderators, and in the future users might even govern the complete application, how it can be updated. This is a great showcase for Chromia and why we use the slogan Power to the Public.
Games coming are….
- Mines of Dalarnia (by Workinman Interactive). An action game in a mine with blockchain rental of plots and stuff.
- Krystopia 2, novas journey. A puzzle game done by Antler Interactive.
- An indie game (not done by us so I don’t know how much I shoiul;d menton), but: it is a strategy game with FULL-LOGIC ON BLOCKHCHAIN yes ubercool that is why it is in caps
- A secret demo-project that we do together with Antler to showcase the technical potential of Chromia platform.
More comin in 2020: Other dapps from other companies, one in impact-tech.
Q5: Revenue and adoption are the main points of all projects, can you tell us your Business model and how you generate revenue?
A5: Chromia itself is a public network with no intrinsic business model, but participants in the network has. For example Providers make money from supplying quality hardware running dapps and the core software, dapp developers have individual business models.
I already told about about ChromaWay/Chromia, but ChromaWay the company can provide support/maintenance and various services and add-ons for Chromia. It is very similar to how normal open-source vendors make money.
Still up to competition from others, and without control over the Chromia network. We need it to be independent, otherwise it has no value.
So it is sound business to have it decentralized as well, who would care otherwise?
Q6: Regarding Chromia’s blockchain game (Minesofdalarnia), I’m quite sure that vast majority of game lovers would be anticipating for it release, could you please share with us the likely date it will be released?
A6: We have made very good progress recently, and I can happily share that MoD is planned to be released now in Q2.
Meanwhile you can check the Mines of Dalarnia Social Media page for recent updates on the game https://twitter.com/Chromia_Studios . We publish development updates there often.
Q7: Recently Chromia welcome Malcolm Lerider who was formally a Senior R&D Manager for Neo Blockchain as its new team and family member. When he was with Neo, he worked together with the community and was able to build the project from a top 50-something market cap project to a top 5 market cap project. Should we be expecting a replica of this at Chromia in the nearest future?
A7: Yes. we are very excited to have Malcolm on-board, he is very knowledgeable in the area, and his expertise will definitely help with achieving that. Malcolm recently published an article where he introduced himself as a new member of Chromia. You can read it over here, if you haven’t already: https://medium.com/@MalcolmLerider/i-am-joining-team-chromia-b25d527b5b6f
Q8: Green Asset Wallet is absolutely an amazing starter in the Chromia blockchain! I would like to hear how you guys see the future business development possibilities in the next /6/12 months? Is there specific business areas, geographical locations, which you want to focus on most?
A8: Thank you, yes it is nice to have a project that is enterprise, and green too as the first one. We are working both to reach out but also support inbound requests for projects, I shared some above.
Sometimes with business development, ChromaWAy might find a customer/prospect but we don’t know where it will end. We think however, and Gartner too, that enterprise blockchain is gradually looking more at public blockchain projects.
I think DeFI, tokenization of assets and things like that is interesting. Also hopefully someone will be inspired by our solution to a free, open, user-governed decentralized social web, what we are now showing with Chromunity. Jack Dorsey, are you listening? We don’t have a particular geographical focus though, and really it is a generic platform use-case agnostic. We use games to show potential and scalability, but who knows maybe other applications will be more. It is not only up to us.
Q9: Who are Chromia’s strategic investors and partners? What criteria/ process do you follow in evaluating your partnership deal with them?
A9: We have some strategic investors and partners that have helped us during the way, I think maybe I should not mention them here with the risk of forgetting some of them, and I have no time to check if we should mention them, We (and the partner) look at how we can help each other on a case by case basis. There is no simple scorecard that we can follow. We try to avoid vanity partnership deals with no real meaning.
Q10: Why did Chromia develop a new language called Rell (Relational language) for dapp programming? Is the development of this new language really necessary? If yes, what are some of its unique features that cannot be found in other existing languages/environments?
A10: Yes it was necessary. We need the features of relational alegbra. It is is a mathematical basis, very similar to logic, that has only had basically one implementation (SQL). But SQL was not secure enough and lacked features that can be used in a shared context like a blockchain. Everything needs to be secure. Also we wanted to add blockchain features, and make it look more like “normal programming”. Now some of the readers might ask? Can’t you do this on the EVM? No. Ethereum does simply not have anything similar to a relational database, and it would be technically infeasible. Some others may ask? How can you compete with the EVM /pet-project that have soo many developers etc…? My answer is : we are building on top of a virtual machine called Postgresql. Check how much time, optimization and money has been spent on that virtual machine…
Question from the Community
Q: What have been the major obstacle Chromia has faced in the past years while developing its idea? Whats the benefits for developers at Chromia? Why should we use Chromia instead of your competitors?
A: Obstacle: Technology/software developement is hard sometimes, difficult to predict when things are ready. Major benefits for developers: A LOT EASIER to code COMPLEX applications. I’m serious. If you are frustrated with blockchain development, take a look at the ease of use of Rell/Chromia.
Q: DeFi is projected to buzz up in 2020 and is on everybody lips, what ROLES does Chromia play in the innovativeness and future of DeFi and how does it spearhead adoption of DeFi using blockchain solution?
A: Finance would be almost unthinkable without relational databases, they power core banking and more. An exchange is a table of bid and ask, and you match them. This is very easy to do with our tech.
Q: If any Dapp is created on Chromia Blockchain! Then is there any Gas fees charged by Chromia ? Whats the concept of fees for Dapps on Chromia Blockchain?
A: No gas per user fee. The application pays for hosting, like a cloud. Normally the developer, unless the developer hands over the governenace of the application to someone else (maybe the users).
Q: What are the benefits #Chromia can give to common people? What will #Chromia team (developer, management, investor, supporters, etc) do in order to reach common people with these benefits?
A: I think maybe social media and application where users have formal control over applications, checkout chromunity decentralized network. “Power to the Public” is what it is above, public = public goods, normal users.
Q: Why has Chrome decided to build projects on the Postchain platform but not others? What are the advantages of the Postchain platform? What is the maximum amount of Tps that Postchain can achieve?
A: I don’t know how other think, but we have long experience in this business as well as in software. Advantages = scalability, maturity (20+ years implementation), also we inherit all reasons why relational databases OWN the world.
Q: I’m a DApps developer but most blockchains are too complex, difficult and expensive to build on. How easy and convenient is it to build DApps on Chromia?
A: Zuckerberg hacked Thefacebook with PHP + MySQL. Chromia is as easy as MySQL.
Q: Could you tell us more about a relational blockchain? How will you explain this to any guy who is from non-tech?
A: Relational blockchain = relational database + blockchain. A blockchain is a a simple list of transactions. Finding anything there requires you to search everything from start to end. A relational database is the tech that powers your social network, your bank, all your non-trivial applications. Great stuff.
Q: Most blockchain projects have donated to COVID-19, but no news from Chromia. How will you contribute to fight COVID-19?
A: I spent my free weekend time on a covid-19 hackathon the other week to do a solution to share medical equipment across countries. It is on our facebook I think @anastasiazudina maybe you can share.
Q: Chromia creates a new lightweight programming language called RELL. How is this different and better for programmers than other popular language like Solidity, C++ and Java?
A: When you think about a large Java project done for say a bank. Ask the developers what OTHER thing they use? DO they ONLY use Java and store files on a server? Or do they also use a database. You will find that in 99.9% of cases they ALSO use a relational database. No one would EVER think about doing a solution to manage data with ONLY Java, C++ or whatever.
Q: In Ethereum DApps do not have the flexibility to manage resources themselves. For instance, a “freemium” business model is outright impossible.
Thereby creating a barrier for decentralized application adoption because most users are not ready to pay for every single click. How does Chromia solves this issue?
A: We do not require users to pay, it is the application (normally the developer) that pays for the applicaiton hosting = support free to try/use.
Q: Is the Chromia the Ethereum Killer? What is the Chromia’s biggest advantage compared to Ethereum 1.0 and the coming 2.0?
A: Yes. Blockchain is about managing data in a shared context. We use the market-leading and decades of research and implementation based approach of managing data, ethereum does not. Ethereum is nice, but we are nicer.
Q: For the development of the Dapps, do you only support Rell? Is it possible to program in another language that works with Chromia?
A: Because we require both relational database properties and more security than SQL, currently Rell is the only choice. It is really easy to learn, and in all cases if we allowed a “normal” language it would miss the feautures of relational databases.
Q: As I know providers will be chosen by Chromaway, so how is it decentralized due to choice is totally in Chromaway?
A: Initial providers. We will migrate to a model where ChromaWAy has no more say than anyone else. But we need to bootstrap and start. Better to choose good initial providers.
Q: What is your long-term vision about the industry which Chromia is working at? Are you afraid someday there will be another Project with more innovative technology can replace Chromia?
A: Well. Blockchain is about managing data (in a shared context). I’m repeating myself but the market leading (85%) for 30+ years slution to manage data is a relational database. We are now the only relational database + blockchain. Who knows, maybe some better way to manage data will be invented? But even NoSQL who has been around and bark like a little dog has after a decade or more time only 15% market share. I think our tech will stand the mark of time.
Q: What are the advantages and differences between the ART token and the Painting token?
A: Guessing wildly: The art is in the eye of the viewer, the painting is done by the creator?
Q: In your whitepaper says in the future versions of Chromawalet will be able to function as general-purpose Dapp browser. So what is the current status of this? Will be similar like Trust Wallet or Tomowallet Dapps browser? Can we considered Chromia an hybrid ? For its mixing of Blockchain and a Database?
A: “Can we considered Chromia an hybrid ? For its mixing of Blockchain and a Database?” Yes and no. I want to stress that Chromia is a feature complete blockchain. It has a ll properties of blockchain. But also adds relational database way of development and accessing/storing information. SO in that way it is a hybrid.
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