Aion Founder Matt Spoke completed an AMA on Thurs. December 6th, 2018 on WeChat to a Chinese investor community of over 2,000 members managed by Unitimes, a FinTech media platform. Below is the transcript of the interview.
Unitimes is a global media platform in Fintech and Blockchain industry, covering News, Knowledge and Events with objectivity. https://unitimes.media
Questions were posed by host Unitimes' Xiaqing Liu.
1. AION is called the third blockchain generation. How third generation evolved from first and second generation such as Bitcoin and Ethererum?
The first generation of blockchain networks was ushered in by Bitcoin. Blockchains focused on a single use-case and optimizing their network design for that functionality. In the case of Bitcoin, the use case was a censorship-resistant form of digital cash. The network was designed elegantly for with function with UTXO and high availability.
The second generation of blockchain networks was ushered in with Ethereum. Enabling applications to be built in the form of smart contractions and execute on a turing-complete state machine.
The third generation is focused on two core principles, 1) the scaling of these networks to provide the required performance by mainstream applications 2) enabling the communication of value and arbitrary data across these public networks.
Aion称作为第三代区块链，他是如何从第一代（比特币）和第二代（以太坊）区块链进化来的呢？
第一代区块链网络是由比特币开创的。区块链侧重于单一使用实例并且针对他的这个功能进行优化。以比特币为例，它是一个抵抗审核制度的电子货币。精妙的设计使网络拥有UTXO功能和高实用性。
第二代区块链网络则是由以太坊开创的，它实现了在图灵完整装机上运行由智能合约组成的应用。
第三代区块链侧重于两个主旨：1）可括性来提供主流应用所需的性能。2）实现让价值和任意数据可以在这些公共网络上跨越沟通。
2. Can you discuss Aion's implementations or approach to interoperability?
At the beginning of September, we launched the first implementation of our bridging protocol, named the "Token Transfer Bridge". This is a one directional bridge facilitated by a cluster of nodes and signatories running both Ethereum and Aion nodes. It was designed for the purpose of migrating our supply of ERC-20 tokens from Ethereum to native Coins on the Aion blockchain in an atomic method, in the hands of the user.
The second implementation of the bridge is being built by one of our ecosystem partners - Mavennet. They are building a bi-directional bridge between Ethereum and Aion, providing the ability to move tokens across chains. This implementation will be going into production early next year with a group of operators and projects.
可以请你讨论一下Aion是如何接近实现互操作性的吗？
在九月初，我们发布了第一个桥接协议——代币传输桥接器。这是一个由一群既支持以太又支持Aion的节点和签署来运行的单向桥接器。他的设计初衷是通过用户自己来将在Ethereum上的Aion ERC-20 代币自动的转移到Aion区块链的Aion代币。
第二个桥接器正由我们的合作伙伴Mavennet构建中。他们在搭建一个Ethereum和Aion双向的桥截器从而使得代币可以跨链移动。在明年初，这个桥接器会在一些运营商和项目中投入使用。
3. How does AION differentiate itself from other cross-chain protocols/projects? Or what kind of obstacles do you deal with apart from cross-chain interoperability?
Aion和别的跨链协议/项目有什么不同呢？或者说除了跨链互操作性之外，还遇到过什么障碍呢？
搭建可扩性跨链的一大瓶颈是如何让已经采纳的觉大多数已在POW底链提供概率性的“度额定性”。这个问题也在我们的代币传输桥接器使用中被发现。桥接器必须要等待大约15分钟来确认EThereum交易。如果在将来，我们预想会有成千的跨链交易，“确定性”必须被证实从而来建立一个可扩并且安全的跨链沟通机制。这也是我们现在正在着重研究如何可以有一个几近瞬时”确定性“的共识机制。
One of the biggest bottlenecks to building scalable cross-chain solutions is the probabilistic finality model that exists for the majority of adopted proof-of-work based chains. This bottleneck was evident with those who used our token transfer bridge. The bridge has to wait for ~15 minutes before confirming the Ethereum transactions. If in the future we are envisioning thousands of transactions occurring cross-chain, finality must be addressed in order to build a scalable and secure cross-chain communication mechanism. This is why we are focusing heavily on research toward consensus models that have near instant finality properties.
4. How are you addressing the major obstacles to mainstream dApp adoption?
你觉得什么会阻碍主流dApp的采用？
在Aion，我们建立了一个广泛的架构来定义主流应用要在区中心化网络的要求，而这些主要可以被分为三类：安全性，可扩性和可用性。我们通过持续的研究和现有的web 3 和web 2.0开发者的不断反馈来改善了以上三个他们成功与否的关键需求。然后利用Aion的不断扩大，拓宽我们合作的生态圈，拔款和投资帮助我们解决这些需求的开发者，项目和贡献者。归根结底我们的最终工作目标就是减少主流应用开发者的阻碍。
At the Foundation we've built a comprehensive framework for identifying the requirements for mainstream applications to build on top of a decentralized network. At a high-level, these break down into three categories: Security, Scalability, and Usability. Through continuous research and feedback loops with current web 3 developers and web 2.0 developers, we refine these requirements and their success criteria. Then leveraging the growing Aion and broader Web 3 ecosystem we partner, grant and invest in people, projects and contributors that solve these requirements.
Ultimately our job is to reduce the barrier to entry for mainstream application developers.
5. What use cases does AION enable? Can you name a few?
有哪些Aion实现的使用实例呢？可以列举一些吗？
目前为止，在各种行业领域（比如游戏）都有现有应用对于利用去中性化的的一些特质，比如激励进制或者数据所有权表达了兴趣并且进行了开发。他们在Aion上开发的理由有：Aion提供了一个可扩的基础架构来满足他们对与用户群的需求；Aion也提供大量的文件资料和教程来帮助开发者们在Aion平台上创造应用。
Right now we've seen significant interest and development from existing applications in various industries like gaming or mobility that are looking to leverage certain properties of decentralization - whether that be incentives or data ownership. They are building on Aion as it provides a scalable infrastructure that can meet their user base requirements and it approachable to their developers to start building through comprehensive docs and tutorials. We have a proven track record of executing against our initiatives and when organizations are choosing where to build their future application they want to have that confidence.
6. What is AION's consensus mechanism?
Aion的共识机制是什么？
目前发表的Aion Kilimanjaro 使用的是工作量证明共识机制。我们在Equihash的基础上更改了一些参数设置，从而完成了我们的Equihash_210_9来增加ASIC阻力并且使有效的参数组多元化。至于我们的共识机制的将来计划，我们的研究小组现在正在评估各种公式算法和实现，并且在拟写一个侧重于“确认性”，反垄断和可达性的共识提案。
The current Kilimanjaro release of the Aion blockchain utilizes PoW consensus. We've implemented a set of novel Equihash parameters - Equihash2109 for increased ASIC-resistance and to diversify the active parameter set. In terms of our consensus roadmap, our research team is currently evaluating the various consensus algorithms and implementations and developing a proposal focused on finality, collusion-resistance, and accessibility.
7. I learned that you were planning on basing your new Aion Virtual Machine on the JVM. Why did you go into that direction?
我听说Aion新的虚拟机是基于Java虚拟机的，为什么选择了这个方向呢？
我们总结分析了一下开发者想要在区块链上，或者说是在EVM上搭建应用会遇到的挑战和阻碍主要有以下三点：1）新的且不成熟的合约开发语言。2）开发流程各阶段上缺少产品开发层面的开发工具。3）低计算复杂性和运行性能。
当我们纵观现有的虚拟机生态圈，与其建立一个新的运行环境来解决这些阻碍，我们认为Java虚拟机是最被采用，健康，有外置工具的生态系统。基于Java虚拟机建立的Aion虚拟机能够立即和围绕Java开发的100多个很好的工具互相整合，同时Java是一个很好的合约开发语并且Java虚拟机的性能也已经被证明了。再过去的六个月里我们都在努力的完成Aion虚拟机，在昨天，我们也发布了源代码（Github: https://github.com/aionnetwork/AVM）。 大家也可以阅读一下关于为什么选择基于Java虚拟机来完成Aion虚拟机的博文，（Why JVM: https://blog.aion.network/aion-virtual-machine-avm-why-java-and-the-jvm-240b78ad8a77）
When we looked at the challenges facing developers building on applications on blockchain networks or the EVM specifically, it came down to 3 major obstacles: 1) New and immature contract development language 2) Lack of production-grade developing tooling across the delivery workflow and 3) Low and execution performance.
Instead of building a new execution environment to overcome these obstacles we looked at the existing VM ecosystem and the JVM is clearly the most well adopted, robust and built-out tooling ecosystem. By building the AVM on the JVM we are able to integrate immediately into the 100's of amazing tools building around the Java development ecosystem, leverage Java - the top programming language for contract development, and utilize the proven performance of the JVM. We've been working hard over the past 6 months on the AVM and as of yesterday, the source code was released.
Why JVM: https://blog.aion.network/aion-virtual-machine-avm-why-java-and-the-jvm-240b78ad8a77
Github: https://github.com/aionnetwork/AVM;
8. People tend to compare blockchain today with firstborn Internet era. What's the main difference between the two in your opinion?
我们常常会将现在的区块链和最初的互联网时代进行比较，你觉得这两者间的主要区别是什么呢?
我认为从市场角度来说，最大的区别是在早起互联网发展阶段，科技公司的发展都相对来说比较采用秘密行动，大众也不知道他们的价值是多少。投资人或员工都要等到多年后公司正式对外开放了之后才知道公司价值。而区块链公司来说，组织建立的公共网络立马会有一个完全可互换的资产，却这个价值一周几天每天24小时都在实时变换。虽然在发展阶段有很多平行的地方，但是我们是在一个实时的信息，见解，评估的环境，外加社区这些方面是很不同的。
I think the biggest difference from a market perspective is that when the internet was in its early development, the small tech companies that were building were relatively in stealth, their activates weren't public that no one knows what their value was. Investors or employees wouldn't know the value of their companies until years later when they went public. With blockchain companies, the organizations building these public networks immediately have fully-fungible assets, whose value changes in real-time 24/7. While there are many parallels to the stage of development we are in - the real-time information, insights, valuations, and communities surrounding these early pioneers is very different.
9. How do you envision web 3 or the decentralized world?
你怎么看待web 3 和去中心化世界？
当我们观察评估一下我们现今是如何和互联网互相影响的话，很明显这是一个破碎的模型。用户常常为了使用便捷的应用，在没有完全理解自己参与的商业模式时就无心的交出了对自己的数据的控制权。通过近期Facebook和其他科技大企业的隐私揭露，我们就能看出这样的商业模块有多么的危险。比如针对错误信息的不道德宣传；增加使用的操纵策略和有最高命令者独裁的审查制度。通过重新制定规章制度是没办法修复这个破碎的模型的，除非重新搭建根本架构。而这个基础架构必须同时牢固数据隐私，不可逆和抵抗审核制度。简单来说就是讲互联网的“货品”，比如说数据，从特定小范围的为盈利的公司转移到用户他们自己身上，在数码世界提供自我主权。我们对于这个未来思考了许多并且发表了“The Rebuild” 来发表实现这个将来的展望。（https://blog.aion.network/rebuild/home;）
When we look out and evaluate how we interact with the internet today, its clear to us that this is a broken model. Users have continuously traded of the control of their data for the convenience of the applications they are using without understanding the business model they have inadvertently consented to. We've seen the dangers of this business model with the recent privacy revelations with Facebook and other big tech players.
This model leads to practices like unethical advertising through misinformation, manipulation tactics for increased usage and censorship of information dictated by the largest bidder.
This broken model cant be fixed by increased regulation or lobbying, it must be solved by a re-architecture of the underlying infrastructure that these applications are built on. And entrenching data privacy, immutability and censorship-resistance into this infrastructure. This effectively moves the "inventory" of the internet, i.e data - from a small set of profit-driven companies to the user itself. Providing self-sovereignty in the digital world. We've been thinking a lot about this future and have kicked off a publication called The Rebuild, where we will be posting prospectives towards achieving this vision. https://blog.aion.network/rebuild/home;
10. I read that the AION tokens are really interesting. They can not only be used to transfer but also can be used to build 'bridges', which acts as the communication protocol between chains. How is it possible?
The different designs for interoperability allow for token bridges to be built using staking mechanisms, to ensure that bridge operators are honest and rewarded
We are still actively researching future designs for more scalable interoperability, because current architectures of bridging are subject to delays from POW consensus delays (non-finality)
11. Hi Matthew. So happy to see you here! I learned from your previous speech that there are three core features of Aion: federate, scale and spoke. I didn't quite understand the "spoke" feature. Can you explain more?
"Spoke" networks refers to independent blockchain networks that leverage the Aion codebase. These spoke networks can then communicate with the Aion mainchain using the bi-directional bridge.
12. What are the responsibilities of "token transfer bridge" that you mentioned?
The token transfer bridges are built with a group called "Operators" and a group called "Signatories". The operators need to transmit transactions across the chain, but only after they've been approved and validated by the signatories
13. What's your rewarding system for people who participate in your network?
The current reward system in place for participants in the network is the mining reward. Our monetary policy has a 1% annual inflation schedule which is used to reward miners.
14. If the transfer bridge is bi-directional, is the process fully decentralized? Is it possible that once I transfer my assets to AION, I won't be able to transfer them back to Ethereum?
The bridge design is decentralized in that it requires a group to act as signatories for transactions confirmations. The contracts on either side of the bridge (Aion and Ethereum) that you're interacting with would dictate how the token supplies interact with each other
15. what is the difference between AION and WBTC?
WBTC is a wrapping mechanism to represent BTC in a smart contract token. That design could be facilitated on top of Aion, and could even be migrated through Aion bridges. WBTC is a smart contract that could function on any smart contract network (in theory)
16. If there are roles like notary, how to make sure that they do not make malicious moves? For example, will they work together to transfer the tokens on Ethereum to elsewhere?
In the current design, the "notaries" (or "signatories") are an independent group that needs to sign valid transactions. Although collusion is theoretically possible, research is being done around staking and "punishment" to keep these actors honest. In the current design, the bridge is only between Ethereum and Aion, but could also run on any other EVM-based chain
- Is it so that they can act maliciously, but there's no way to stop them?
When we look to implement economic incentives/penalties into bridge designs, the goal is to incentivize honest behavior and punish malicious acts. Ultimately the goal is for Signatory participants to recognize malicious behavior and hold each other accountable.
Current implementations are more "reputation-based", similar to a POA type model
17. In case people did not see yesterday, we are the first public blockchain project to publish a financial report: https://blog.aion.network/the-aion-foundation-report-e369169f098
18. I assume the "bridge" is locked in Ethereum first then generated in AION? So how do you make sure that the tokens on Ethereum won't be transferred maliciously?
The bridge can be initiated on either side, and can control the token supply based on the contract logic. Nothing restricts a contract author from writing a bad contract, but the bridge interacts with its logic as intended.
Before transfers are accepted, the bridge operators need to wait a predefined number of blocks to be confident on finality. This is one of the current performance bottlenecks that we are working to solve through our consensus research team.
A simple example is that our Aion ERC20 bridge was designed to wait for 64 blocks on Ethereum before accepting the transfer
19. Current implementations are more "reputation-based", similar to a POA type model"
Does it mean that your cross-chain solution needs to trust notaries and signatories? Your solution is not a decentralized solution because you used POA, although you claim that you are a decentralized solution.
The big tradeoffs with any design of decentralization is an impact on performance. Users can choose which type of bridge they trust, and until we solve consensus finality issues, full decentralization without significant inefficiency is near impossible.
In our token swap, we compared to most other projects who did a 100% centralized swap, and opted to move down the spectrum to a more "trustless design"
We're still not satisfied with the current architecture, but are restricted based on performance bottlenecks. Our research is targetted at this problem.
Thanks!
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