Hey there!
There is so much confusion and hype in the blockchain space. So many different protocols/ideas/test-networks/implementations/tokens/coins BUT it's the most interesting and technically challenging space I have ever been exposed to and I love it!
I would like to help you jump into the space, explore the tech or just spread some knowledge I acquired in the last year.
PS: I focus mainly on Ethereum blockchain but feel free to ask me anything, I have opinions and understanding of several other blockchains.
Let's do this!
Latest comments (43)
Pardon my ignorance. You might have to explain a lot...
where can i find the details of tools that will be useful for building Block chain? Currently i have been working on my Real Estate project and planning to integrate it with Block Chain, i like to know the tools that will be useful for property Digitize, Investor e-KYC, digital signature and other security purpose. And what are the other things that i have to take care before jumping in.
Kindly suggest me the best way to do R&D . . .
A few months later I am still getting traction here. Let me know if you have any additional questions even though the AMA is over! :)
Hello Lukas,
I'm an economist from Colombia with minimum to none programming skills. I've been in the crypto space since 2015, now i see a need blockchain is solving in some countries about tokenized Real Estate. If you where in my position, ¿How would you do to create and launch a digital decentralized platform without a programmer partner?
Thanks for your advice,
Hey Juan, interesting question, sadly I don't think you can solve it without a technical partner. This space is extremely technical at the moment due to lack of friendly abstraction like exist for creating websites these days. Maybe u will find a way, definitely don't give up, it will just take more effort.
I am working on Electricity energy monitoring using blockchain technology as a Msc research work. I wish to know many views of blockchain experts if this is really an applicable technology in solving this problem?
Hey Michael, good to virtually see you again :)
1) Yes, I use Truffle + Ganache + Rinkey, Remix, some contracts from OpenZeppelin + I also teach my full development setup in the course
2) Nope, my company has a several private independent auditing companies doing audits
3) All DApps are connected locally to our SDK handled, blockchain node and if not we have a gateway exposing blockchain calls via an Go API over HTTPS
4) Nice question, I do to lock value in smart contract between 2 parties meet all the smart requirements of an exchange
5) It's an improvement to PoW but not gonna work imo. because PoA is superior, IMO
Let me know if you have any more questions! :)
Can a blockchain exist without a currency to back it ?
Yes absolutely but not having it introduces some limitations. Blockchain without currency is kind of like a big complicated MySQL immutable replication. Still very useful though for some use-cases.
Yes
Hi Lukas, I've got a ton of questions. :-)
Hey Thorsten!
I will answer all your questions but can you explain bit more what do you mean with your base question, "Have you developed an application for a consortium of equal member" ?
Thx!
Sure. I think of the different approaches how non-public blockchain projects are being started and managed. R3 and IBM (for example) start a lot of projects with their customers, but keep the leadership, so they have a traditional project structure with central councils that make the decisions.
This is in contrast to the distributed technological nature of blockchains, where every participant has equal rights. Of course we see developers forming groups as well as miners forming pools, so not every aspect of public blockchains shows a pure form of equality. But we also see (the return of) DAOs with democratic structures implemented in their own code, so that the governance of a blockchain project can resemble the structure of the blockchain.
Back to my question: Have you seen companies forming a consortium in order to develop a blockchain based system with democratic governance / without having a leading company?
Oh I see, well asked, brilliant question.
I think 2 things will happen, and several other sub versions.
Companies, especially the big, already established one are/will be forming alliances and use blockchain not for its decentralization but for the "shared immutable state", so they don't have to trust themselves and have a perfect audit system. I think of blockchain as a complicated MySQL replication where you can't delete or update rows. That's it. And this can be very useful in many scenarios with a leading centralized company in front.
New companies, projects will/and do use blockchain and the form of a "decentralized governance" as a pitch, looking for an edge, an opportunity on a market. I call them experimental bunnies. Like DAO organizations. What I like about this style, is mainly the concept of "delegated vote" or the approach of "weighted vote". In BI departments, business intelligence working with data, the concept of assigning a "weight", "importance" to something is really interesting. I would love to see whole countries actually having democracy based on staking or weighted votes because 1 vote of a doctor shouldn't equal to 1 vote of an engineer or any other profession in different contexts. People shouldn't vote for things they don't understand IMO. That's why I don't argue about politics, neither with my doctor. I argue with my dev colleagues haha. And if this would be successfully implemented, Americans wouldn't have this shitty president.
I think both approaches are valid and there won't be 1 good silver bullet.
Also, back to your question, I don't know a company who did it successfully yet, BUT my company will have it's own PoA production blockchain next year (for now is a test-network), and at the beginning we will make it more "centralized on decisions" to speed up the development and updates but also enough decentralized to keep users and data safe by having alliances with other companies and public communities so they still are the custodians of their data.
Funny enough, final goal would be to find a way how to "check mate?" ourselves out of the equation and that's the complicated part. It basically means, if you do your job properly, in a decentralized manner, you end up being obsolete but that's how it should be. So I think companies will follow such a path only if they find another area producing enough revenue to keep innovating and producing value for users. If that makes sense.
Let's stay in touch we can discuss this more as time progresses! Add me on LI.
Hi Lukas, thanks for doing this!
You say you focus on Ethereum, so basically you create smart contracts? And that's a fulltime position?
You welcome Bart! I am happy to help and is a chance to promote my course as well so I shoot 2 birds with one stone haha.
I focus on Ethereum ecosystem. Smart contracts represent only the "database/business logic" side of things. I also write a lot of Go code to connect all the pieces as we are developing an SDK for developers to use and simplify the integration of what we offer to their businesses/projects. And working in a startup, I also spend time on marketing, frontend, devops, cleaning, everything haha. But mainly Go + Contracts yes :)
Do you get paid in crypto or fiat? And if you are getting paid in fiat, what would convince you to leave fiat behind altogether and accept only crypto currency?
I am employed by a real company therefore fiat.
I am personally a bit of a weird blockchain developer. I don't incline to the anarchist point of view where fiat is evil. Regulations are suppose to protect people, it just happened to be corrupted by politicians but going pure crypto won't change that. People will corrupt crypto as well. They did already. That's why all the hype. You must focus on education, health and prosperity.
Once regulations are well established and I can seamlessly spend crypto, then I would be more than happy being paid in that time, best technically designed crypto :)