Chromia AMA with Wolf Crypto
We held an AMA with Chromia in our public Telegram channel on May 27th.
Chromia formerly Chromapolis, is both a blockchain and a relational database. This means that decentralized applications (dApps) can be written in a way that is familiar to developers all over the world, whether they work on large enterprise applications, games, or smaller projects.
All applications need a way to store and handle application data — a database. Relational databases are considered to be best in class for flexibility, versatility and consistency.
Blockchains perform the role of a database: They store application data and make sure that any additions, updates and transformations are consistent with the rules of the application. By delegating blockchain logic and storage to a relational database management system, Chromia achieves a seamless fusion of the two.
Chromia are the next IEO on KuCoin Spotlight, starting on May 28th.
You can also visit the Chromia Telegram channel or Chromia website for further details.
Here’s what Chromia’s CEO Henrik Hjelte and COO Or Perelman had to say in the AMA.*
*This AMA has been edited for clarity.
WC (Wolf Crypto Telegram Member)
Hey all, welcome to another edition of Wolf Crypto AMA, this time with Chromia!
Joining us today from the Chromia team are Henrik Hjelte, CEO and Or Perelman, COO It’s our honour to have you here today!
Would you mind telling us a bit about your backgrounds pre Chromaway and what led you to founding Chromaway and subsequently Chromia?
TEAM & TEAM GOALS
HH
Hi. So ChromaWay was started as the outcome of the Colored-coins open-source project that our CTO Alex Mizrahi started in 2012. Colored-coins was the first user-generated token protocol (on Bitcoin, the only blockchain almost at the time).
Originally ChromaWay started to commercialize Colored-coins. Crazy at the time, but in 2014 we got a BANK as a customer, wanted to do stable coin on euro plus peer to peer payments. No problems, we started to hack away on colored-coins, had plans to do something similar to lightning network. Quickly found out that we need a proper database for indexing data, can’t loop through a blockchain to find out balances. And the idea slowly grew, maybe we can use a database and combine it with a blockchain?
Anyway, after LHV Bank and the euro-project, we found only one more serious customer for colored-coins (Funderbeam). So we started to look at what enterprises (our focus at the time) needed.
We worked with enterprises, such as Swedish land registry, and developed Postchain: a relational blockchain, combining a proper database with a blockchain.
And finally we came up with the idea to do it as a public blockchain too, this is Chromia.
WC
Henrik, is it true that you were Vitalik’s boss?
OP
Nope, Vitalik used to work with us on the Colored -coins project back in the old days.
HH
It was a semi joke. Alex Mizrahi, our CTO, was leading (and main funder) of the Colored-coins open-source project, and Vitalik joined at the later stages helping with writing, before he came up with his own idea.
I was just a humble developer at the time.
WC
Can you give me a idea of what Charlie Lee, Vinny Lingham etc have been doing on Chromaway since joining the advisory board?
HH
Vinny was an advisor first for ChromaWay, but as you know he also did token project for Civic so he also advising Chromia.
Vinny’s first “project” in crypto was on Colored-coins, with his old company I think.
Charlie is an advisor to ChromaWay, and has been writing stuff with our CTO “Proof of Activity” paper for example, sometimes we discuss tech matters.
THE CHROMIA NETWORK
WC
Can we talk about the specific use cases and how does your average or generic user use Chromia?
The main value prop is that its a decentralised database using REL right? So any application can build on top of it and have the ease of using something that’s similar to and as scaleable as SQL?
HH
Yes. 99% of the worlds non-trivial applications for enterprises and internet etc are based on a SQL database (or “Relational database”). We are bringing the same power and model of programming to blockchain, but we needed a more secure and better language for a public blockchain, thus made Rell.
WC
For developers to learn a new programming language doesn’t this increase the barrier to entry for developers to build applications on Chromia?
HH
It depends on where you come from. If you are among the millions that know SQL in the world, it is an Easier step to learn Rell than say Solidity.
And if you know Solidity it means you are a pretty good developer, than you can pick up Rell in less than a week, because it is quite simple and small. rell.chromia.com.
Rell adds static typing to SQL to make it more secure. Also is a “normal” programming language. And it is 1/7 of the code lines compared to SQL. So it is easy, yet really powerful.
WC
Speaking of dApps on Rell, you guys are focusing on games first right? Why did you choose this niche for development?
HH
Games can prove our great performance, and also we are a bit tired of the slowness of enterprises… think game companies are faster…
Note that games on Chromia is more than NFT. It is about complete logic on chain, fair games, where players/users have a say: Power to the Public.
OP
We think games are low ganging fruit to showcase Rell to indy developers & the game economy tools. We want to prove that Chromia is a feasible alternative for computing resources, as well as draw a distinction between Chromia & other protocols.
We’ve designed Chromia so that there on chain storage & computing means that users really do own their own assets, not just representations of them.
WC
What is NFT?
HH
NFT is a non-fungible token. It can be a unique cat in a computer game, stored on a blockchain. Now the problem is that when a developer removes the app you play from app-stores, or closes the server, your NFT is no longer a cat but a hexademical hash on a blockchain. With Chromia we want to make games that can NOT be shut down, ever. And rule changes maybe needs to be approved by players in a mini-democracy. Public goods, public applications.
WC
How does NFT work on Chromia? You have the CHR token and other NFT tokens?
HH
Every application developer decides which tokens he wants to create. You can make NFT:s, in-game currencies etc freely. The CHR token is used not by users, at least it is not required. But the application itself (normally the developer) pays for hosting the dapp on X nr of providers. Providers gets payed in CHR. Also the providers put up CHR as a collateral/insurance/stake, in case they don’t behave good like have lower SLA than promised, the CHR is token, so as an incentive here.
Finally CHR can be used by users to move money between applications, and even to ETH, we have a built-in conversion contract.
WC
Can you define what a provider is?
HH
A provider is someone that runs nodes on behalf of applications. Can be compared to a cloud operator, a server operator. Each application decides which different providers should be allowed to run this particular application.
So you (the application) can choose: I want many expensive providers, spread out over the world. Or go for cheap. Or not use providers from a particular country. Or only use my friends. You know more about who runs your blockchain than with other public blockchains.
WC
Does this mean dApps can or can’t talk to each other using this structure?
HH
You can use CHR to talk between decentralied applications running on Chromia. Also you can make your application be aware of other applications, I don’t know the technical details though.
WC
So myself as a base token holder can’t stake or run nodes?
HH
No. As a power-user you can run observer nodes though. We can’t run complex database applications on unknown hardware from people across the world.
WC
Isn’t a database for games quiet a stretch?
HH
Well, we focus on massively multiplayer things with interactions, strategy games etc. Not single player games, not super low latency. But a game which can not be turned off when market shares drop, a game that can be proved fair, and in where users have some degree of power.
WC
What makes Chromia different to other similar projects?
HH
What makes Chromia different: We are the only blockchain that you can program in a similar way as 99% of the worlds enterprise applications, social networks and internet applications: using a proven stable mathematically based foundation and decades of development in underlying tech.
That translates to more power to devs, less code-lines, less bugs and a real possibility to create the applications we dream of (at least I do): fair applications controlled by users.
WC
Almost every dApp or blockchain built for dApps has failed to get substantial users, what do you view as the roadblocks for current dApps to gather users and why do you believe Chromia will be able to change this?
HH
First: difficult to do good dapps -> relational blockchain is here to make it easy.
Second: bad UX. My mother won’t go to an exchange to but a token in order to play a casual game. On Chromia we support free to use apps cause application developer pays for running the dapp.
Third: wait a bit. It is still early…
WC
How does governance work on Chromia?
HH
Good question. For every individual dapp, they choose their own governance model. For the Chromia network, the Providers are ultimately controlling the network using votes: They have economic incentives to run an attractive blockchain. Also we strive to make it easy to fork it, to further pressure good behaviour.
ROADMAP & FUTURE GROWTH
WC
What is the marketing plan of Chromia?
HH
We just did rebranding, and now when approach working software and testnet we will increase marketing activities. Over time, the Chromia platform will attract developers because when a dev sees he can do the same app in 1/5th of the time, he becomes interested.
We see similar evolution in other parts of development, people want more productive tools. Instead of sticking with Cobol, they want to try C. After C, they want C++. After C++ annoys you with memory leaks, you want to try Java. Instead of sticking with Java, they want to try more productive new things such as Kotlin, Clojure, Scala.
Same with blockchain. When you become frustrated with EVM, Web-assembly or whatever, you will pick a more productive tool. For marketing, we need to show that. And showcase great dapps!
WC
Why did you guys re-brand? Can’t say I was a fan of the name, logo etc…
HH
We have a story about it here —
WC
Have you had any interest from existing dApps to move over from other chains to Chromia?
HH
A few frustrated 😊 But we want to broaden this market too and attract new kind of entrepreneurs and developers.
If you have any recommendations of struggling developers, frustrated business owners etc then send them to me and I’ll ride in on my unicorn and save them.
WC
When will devs be able to build on CHR?
HH
You can do applications now as a developer, see rell.chromia.com. When we release mainnet later this year you can run them publicly.
WC
Will mainnet be in Q3 or Q4?
HH
We are still in Q2. Already NOW you can go to docs site, get up and running with a docker container, code backend in Rell in the IDE, and do a frontend in Javascript using the client library. But it is is now on a single node, on your computer. Decentralization comes over time in Q3.
IEO, TOKEN SUPPLY & EXCHANGES
WC
What will the circulating supply of CHR be on launch of trading?
OP
4.7% plus or minus, all the details can be found in the KuCoin doc!
WC
Do you have any plans to list on any other exchanges post Kucoin in the short term and if so are you already in discussions with other exchanges?
OP
Yep we do. Can’t of course say who ;)
WC
25% of tokens are allocated for promotional use, how will these be used?
HH
Promotional use can be to stimulate application developers, entrepreneurs etc, also users.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
HH
I sadly have to leave now. It was really great, good questions. If I didn’t answer all, feel free to ask on Chromia telegram etc.
OP
Thank you guys 👍
WC
Thanks so much for stopping by today guys, we’ll follow the other AMA’s you have planned for today.
Of course, all the best for tomorrow, it’s going to be a BIG day!
Chromia Resources
Website: https://chromapolis.com
Telegram: https://t.me/chromapolisbychromaway
Blog: https://blog.chromia.com
Bitbucket: https://bitbucket.org/chromawallet
Whitepaper: https://chromapolis.com/papers/chromapolis%20-%20platform%20white%20paper.pdf
Wolf Crypto Resources
Public Group: https://t.me/WolfCryptoPub
News Channel: https://t.me/WolfCryptoAnnounce
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WolfCryptoGroup
