Decentr AMA with Wolf Crypto

41 min readJul 17, 2020

We held an AMA with Decentr in our public Telegram channel on July 17th.

Decentr is an open decentralized platform that captures the value of secure user data and returns this value as payable, data-backed “currency” to the user. $DEC token is the building block of the entire Decentr Deconomy.

Decentr’s “data-as-value” paradigm means users see a correlated decrease in the cost of products and services bought online, via Decentr and their “dPay” system, while at the same providing superior APR’s on consumer crypto loans made via users dWallet and Decentr’s consumer crypto dLoan features.

This (necessary) extension of DeFi 1.0, delivers user-centric financial services to anyone, when they want it and how they want it, regardless of their net worth.

Decentr recently completed their token sale on a purchase portal powered by Dolomite, raising $974K USD in 10 minutes for a total sale hardcap of 1.25M USD.

The $DEC token is actively trading on multiple exchanges including Uniswap and IDEX.

You can also visit the Decentr Telegram channel or Decentr website for further details.

Here’s what Decentr CCO Rich James, Decentr CTO Nikita Anikeev and Decentr COO Paul Sluszko had to say in the AMA.*

*This AMA has been edited for clarity.

WC (Wolf Crypto Telegram Member)

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to another edition of Wolf Crypto AMA, this time with Decentr!

Joining us from the Decentr team today are Decentr’s CCO, Rich James, Decentr’s CTO Nikita Anikeev and Decentr’s CCO, Paul Sluszko.

TEAM & TEAM GOALS

Welcome guys, it’s our absolute pleasure to have you here today.

As a project that’s been around for awhile but has only recently come to light, I’m sure most aren’t aware of who you are and what you do…so why don’t we start off with the who you guys are part first?

Hi, I am Rich James, Co-founder and CCO of Decentr.

Yeah, we’ve kinda been in stealth mode over the last 18 months developing a lot of cool foundational decentralised tech. In conjunction with myself, Nikita, our CTO and Paul, our CCO , together we originally came up with the concept for a decentralised “user layer” for blockchain that would allow applications built on blockchain to “talk to each other”, and have been busy developing that in conjunction with our other cool tech and features.

As for me, my academic background, combined with my interdisciplinary research experience, helped lead to the conceptualisation and development of the Decentr concept and the forming of the company in 2018.

Hi, I am Nikita Anikeev, Decentr’s CTO, and I co-founded Decentr to change the world, as I like to describe it, Block by Block! My telecommunications engineering background, combined with my Project Delivery Manager experience in the IT industry allows me to develop the kind of radical tech innovations that Decentr demands, in areas including blockchain/DLT, cryptocurrencies, AI/ML, etc. I also employ my skills in Mobile Applications, Enterprise Web development and Project management by agile methodology to make sure our development stays on schedule while maintaining the highest technical standards and development protocols.

I am Paul Sluszko, Co-Founder and COO. My professional experience in various UK.gov positions has given me a unique insight into intranets and communications platforms that I bring to the project. My background in operations and HR means I love evolving plans and processes to ensure the smooth running and efficiency of the team, and so in that regard I see myself as the “oil in the machine” so to speak, of the wider Decentr operation.

Nice, how about some background on the other team members you have who aren’t here today?

We have a lot of great academics on the team who we worked with to develop both the material in our technical and other whitepapers, as well as R&Ding our core tech.

What distinguishes them, especially AIR/BISITE, which is the development arm of Salamanca University, is that they have a foot each in both the commercial and academic worlds, which is great, because we as a company are very focused on commercialising our tech in various mainstream business verticals that we can talk about later, and our key academic contacts really have those connections moving forwards.

Yeah, on that note about commercialising our tech, we also have a really great marketing team, led by Lee Hirschman, whose experience in tradd marketing, combined with his digital prowess, means we are able to bridge what is often a gap between tech projects and the mainstream market.

Even better, Lee’s experience with household brands, including GM, Ford, Levis etc, not only gives us this real-world insight as regards our branding and marketing, but also gives us access to these brands as potential early adopters of our tech in several vertical businesses, including advertising, news media, etc.

Onto the what you do part…What is Decentr?

Can you give us your two minute elevator pitch as to what Decentr is and what it does?

Decentr is foundational open source 100% decentralised tech (a platform and web browser) that is designed to make blockchain/DLT mainstream by allowing applications built on blockchain to “talk to each other”. As a result of making blockchain mainstream, Decentr also makes mainstream any what we call “dFintech”/DeFi applications built on the Decentr platform. This allows DeFi Dapps to access all Decentr’s dFintech features, including dLoan, dPay, etc (which we can get into a bit more later), leveraging these for the benefit of their users.

Decentr’s key innovation is that our DeFi protocols are all based on a user’s ability to leverage the value of their data as exchangeable “currency”. Decentr does this by securing user data in the form of what we call “personal data value” (PDV). PDV is best described as a personalised “exchange rate” between currencies that users apply at point-of-sale to make the cost of goods and services cheaper online. PDV is also exciting as it is applied to the APR users earn on DEC (our native token) that they hold that they loan out as part of our investing pool.

And what’s great about that is that a publicly accessible blockchain protocol means we can pretty much corner…in fact “create” (as this market does not really exist yet) the consumer crypto loans market.

DATA AS VALUE

Ok, we’ll get more into the Decentr vs Brave and Decentr vs Traditional DeFi a bit later…

Let’s do Data vs Value first…It seems understanding what PDV is, is key to understanding Decentr.

Can you give us a breakdown on PDV and how that relates to Decentr’s “deconomy”?

Quite right. PDV, which stands for “personal data value”, is the key to understanding the interrelated features and functions of Decentr; PDV is, essentially, the expression of the value of all data that a user creates and that Decentr returns to users as economic value.

What I do want to get across about PDV is this (as it’s a hard concept to grasp as all of us only understand how centralised currency works, and can’t imagine how a decentralised alternative might work): PDV is not returned to users as a “unit of currency” per se but as a personalised “exchange rate” that is applied to the APR users earn on DEC (our native token) they hold that they loan out as part of our investing pool, as well as also applying PDV at point of purchase to pay less online.

This was a critical innovation of ours: we realised early on that in a 100% decentralised economy, the unit of exchange and the exchange rate itself do not have to be as closely correlated as they are with a centralised economy, creating more flexible, user-centric loan and payment features and other financial products.

Well put. Now, exactly how we “repurpose” data as economic value is pretty radical, but is actually very simple in theory: as Decentr is a 100% secure and decentralised Web 3.0 protocol, all data generated, exchanged and reused by users has the same… well, superior… “valuation” and “value store” properties as “money”. This is simply because secure data is a far more predictive and predictable gauge of the “true” value of goods and services etc than the one-dimensional, market valuation “money” attributes to goods and services (and even the value given to people as employees; the whole “trading time for money” aspect).

Users can apply PDV to increase APR on DEC that users loan out as part of of our DeFi “dLoan” features, as well as it being applied at PoS when paying for stuff online.

Here’s a simple example: if through positive engagement and online activity your PDV reaches

PDV: 1.0001 I DEC: 1.0000

then a real-world-value, $10 purchase (we’ll assume an exchange rate of USD $1.0000 to DEC: 1.0000 for ease of calculation) will “cost” you (underwritten by Dec/Decentr) $9.9990, and so forth.

It’s simple math, but on a global scale it changes the game completely.

Explain to me how a user can earn or lose PDV value on Decentr?

Like what sort of actions do they need to perform to be considering a “good actor” and earn PDV or a “bad actor” and lose PDV?

Yes, that is how it works. The value assigned to data (and hence PDV) is based on cooperative game-theory protocols, and hence is why it is so granular and accurate as a “valuation” tool — far more so than the blunt valuation tool of “money”. As PDV is based on cooperative game-theory the cool thing is what is “good” and “bad” evolves over time in line with community consensus; so actions and activities that give an increase in PDV may not give it the same increase in the future, due to changing societal morals and mores etc. Moreover, sub-decosystems may “value” different activities differently, depending on geo-cultural considerations, etc. In this way, PDV is actually a reflection of real-world society as expressed in data.

What’s even cooler, as dApps are built on Decentr the actions recorded by their users on their DecID become part of the broader decosystem and also figure into what society as expressed in the decosystem does and does not value as beneficial; so in this sense, new applications built on Decentr also form part of the general forward moving moral curve of society as expressed online in data.

This is what a 100% decentralised protocol can do that current blockchains can’t: simultaneously value a multiple of different but interdependent “truths”, rather than a single overall “system truth” that is required by blockchain.

And I think it’s important to run through a bit of the tech we’re using to ensure this game-theory paradigm is ultra secure and 100% decentralised so that data value is consistently valued and sustainable: we achieve this level of decentralisation and security by implementing a system of layered security protocols based on a radically-new software architecture that combines Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC)4 and Sobol sequencing with a n-dimensional chain as part of our AI-enhanced, platform-wide community consensus mechanism — a mechanism that, as Rich and Paul mentioned, assigns mutually agreed value to data and user security protocol upgrades (further encouraging enhanced data integrity) by deploying a Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) protocol.

Consequently, our technology actually increases data security, both closed and proprietary, the more a user reuses and exchanges data, creating an immutable, secure open platform on top of which commercial and non-commercial platforms can build out their data solutions in conjunction with the Decentr community, maintaining the integrity of the system and the utility of DEC.

What sort of user data is collected as part of the users DecID and how does the users DecID relate to their PDV?

DecID is basically the sum total of all data a user generates online, stored securely for that user so only he or she has access to it via a private key. This data can also include identification and other personal documents. It’s important to note that due to a combination of private and public keys, all user data on DecID is given value, without the system or anyone ever having access to this data.

Sure, PDV goes up with the release of some or all of this data (depending on user preferences) from their DecID, as public or semi-public data is, in most cases, more beneficial to the community than private data, but PDV also accrues value based on potential and not only realised data value, as determined by game-theory protocols.

Reading through the whitepaper I get the sense you don’t like money very much…

This isn’t one of those projects that’s looking to go out and replace the dollar is it? You do realise what happened to Saddam and Gadaffi (among others!) when they tried to do that…

No, no. Not at all. The “not-liking-money-much/getting-rid-of-money” is a joint misconception we sometimes get: what we don’t like is what money stands for and is used for… or misused for might be a better description: the subjugation of the individual by placing the primary socioeconomic emphasis on time traded by a person for a set number of “units of exchange” (i.e., money), mostly state-backed and centrally issued.

Considering that money is set up as the only fungible reward for this paradigm… and pretty much only this paradigm… we do have a problem with the power wielded by those who issue it and manipulate its value to their, not our, benefit.

What are we doing about it? In line with Metacurrency principles, Decentr repurposes data as an economic “currency” in order that all other “dimensions” of a person’s output (not only the market-backed time-for-money output)… as expressed in data… can be returned to users as PDV.

The beauty of this is that PDV, as it allows users to purchase more with the fiat they have, actually stimulates the spending of fiat-money as an intrinsic part of our “circular” deconomy.

I think another way of answering that question is: Why would we want to get rid of money when it also benefits the deconomy… and vice versa?

In this way, the deconomy and the mainstream economy are mutually supportive, not mutually exclusive, with the deconomy actually stimulating real-world supply/demand by making products and services cheaper for users via their PDV: the more products and services users purchase, the cheaper they become.

That’s a very good point: we see it this way: the real-world economy can go on rewarding an exchange of time-for-money and the deconomy will reward all other user activity by using data-as-value as a fungible incentive as expressed in PDV.

In this way, the economic rewards offered by each economy redouble the robustness and sustainability of the other.

So Decentr is going to be a “for profit” organisation in that sense? Or will it be run more altruistically?

Yes, we are a for-profit in that sense, as it makes sense for us as regards the commitment we’ve made to our stakeholders and customers to deliver commercial value via rapid mainstream adoption.

THE DECENTR BROWSER & BROWSER EXTENSTION

Looking at the website, the main thing that sticks out to me is the web browser.

Is that what the Decentr platform is? Another Brave Browser?

Not exactly.

Our browser is actually a gateway to our platform which is essentially a set of decentralised internet protocols that “transitions” Web 2.0 a 100% decentralised Web 3.0 via our suite of decentralised dFintech and dCommunications features.

To put this very simply in layman’s terms, we achieve this by adding a 100% decentralised “user layer” to current blockchain protocols so that applications built on blockchain can actually “talk to each other”.

That is a good way to put it. I like to use the following simplified analogy, which is nonetheless accurate: Decentr creates a publicly accessible “user layer” for blockchain/DLT to create Web 3.0 in the same way that Windows and web browsers did the same for HTML to create Web 2.0.

Explain to me the difference between the browser extension and the browser itself?

Isn’t the browser extension redundant if you have the browser?

Good point.

However, the browser extension is a great start: our overall aim is to build a browser and an extension. The idea is that the extension is great to start with and also in the future for users that like to use their current browser and don’t like to change software. Also a user can earn PDV only via our browser, so this will encourage users to download our browser and access full features as the full features deliver on our product promise to give user data economic value.

We are in essence developing and building a radically-new interface that meets the needs of our platform across all devices. Using evidence-based design — a structured process where decisions are grounded in rational methodology and meticulous data review — we will ensure our UI/UX experience on mobile apps (iOS, Android + others) as well as web and native applications (macOS, Windows, embedded, devices) is user-centric, intuitive, convenient and above all fun for users to engage with.

Ok so a user can download the extension and spend DEC based off their PDV, but they can’t earn it.

What else can a user do with the full browser that they can’t with the extension?

The extension is like a super basic implementation of some of the Decentr features; it’s designed more as a user acquisition tool, and is much simpler to install/try for a first time user. So the full user experience is accessed by using the full browser which is fully integrated into the Decentr chain architecture.

This allows the user to carry out transactions on the open net, should they so desire, and this action also accrues PDV; however, PDV on the open net does not rise as greatly as the data a user is generating, exchanging and reusing via our suite of 100% decentralised features, because only 100%% decentralised data has the same “valuation” and “value store” properties as money.

You claim to be more private than using a VPN or Tor.

Explain to me how this is possible?

We use encryption all the time and we use blockchain so that your private keys are safe. VPN can be easily hacked and TOR was hacked recently as well by substituting nodes.

Overall, we use Coinbase API to optimise integrated implementation of the user layer. Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) is also deployed. BaaS is basically an offering that allows its users to leverage cloud-based solutions to build, host and use their own blockchain apps, smart contracts, and functions on the blockchain while the cloud-based service provider manages all the necessary tasks and activities to keep the infrastructure agile, operational, safe and immutable. Tierion’s technological infrastructure, the Chainpoint Proof protocol, will come into play whenever a user adds something in Tierion’s data store.

Chainpoint and Tierion’s API anchors the data to the blockchain in order to generate a timestamp proof. Chainpoint also has the capability to create millions of proofs per second because of its highly scalable architecture. It also adds accuracy to its proofs by collecting data from Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and linking anchors to both the bitcoin and ethereum blockchain.

We also use Blockchain frameworks: Hyperledger Fabric , R3 Corda and Open Zeppelin and on the back-end: GO, Java ,C++ (in depth processing only).

With both Tor and VPN’s, you sacrifice convenience for enhanced privacy, in the sense that your connection is much slower in order to remain private.

How will the browsing experience on Decentr be to a normal browser considering you’re doing something similar?

Just to note here, as a user of Brave browser, one of the reasons I use it is because it’s actually faster than using Chrome or Firefox, so I gain that plus no ads/tracking…

That’s the really cool part: we are developing a much more robust and innovative type of blockchain storage and caching that is much faster than VPN or TOR.

We use Hyperledger Fabric and R3 Corda private blockchains, as an immutable transaction database for data transfers, including the following tech: R3 Corda, Hyperledger Fabric, Ansible, Bitbucket Pipelines, AWS, Node.JS, GoLang, Kotlin and CouchDB.

So is Decentr some kind of “dark net” then?

I would call it LightNet since we have a similar concept as dark net but we bring something truly beneficial to users.

So you won’t be able to access Tor over Decentr then?

Why would you need Tor if you have Decentr, I guess is the first question I’d ask because users can use Decentr as both a traditional browser replacement AND a tor browser replacement.

(In reality, we plan to allow surfing .onion addresses as well as the regular ones).

So from a user perspective, this is actually good for users, as users can now do something that required them, prior to Decentr, to manage different bits of technology, and now they only require the simplicity of using the one piece of tech!

I would also add that the “dark net” angle is a good example of an “adoption” story.

What I mean by this is that I know a lot of people actually got into crypto because of Silk Road, so the value of the type of platform we are building, from a crypto adoption angle, as part of that adoption story, resonates with a lot of our supporters where perhaps they haven’t had a chance to deep dive the other value-added features and functions of Decentr.

When we talk about platforms in which users are allowed to do something anonymously and with no real world recourse, it always seems to end up as a race to the bottom, i.e it brings out the very worst in human nature.

How will you ensure that Decentr doesn’t become the refuge of choice for the racists, hackers, scammers etc of the world?

Ah, but this is our whole point! Anonymity (in society) does not, or should not when a democratic society is working properly, mean, or promote, a lack of accountability. (Try using that as a defence in a court of law!)

For example, I can go to any public place, a park, bar, mall or restaurant, hang out and be “anonymous”, as is my right, but my actions and words must still adhere to societal rules, norms, laws and conventions.If not, I’ll be made accountable in some form, either by my fellow citizens, or if it escalates, by accountability against the rule of law. Well, it is the same on Decentr due to cooperative game-theory giving socioeconomic “value” to words and actions; ever-evolving values against which all other words and actions are made accountable by community consensus.

When seen in this light, it is actually the current Web that has very little real world accountability and is the mess of trolls, hackers and haters that we have today specifically due to issues of centralisation combined with anonymity that produces the behaviour you describe.

Decentr remedies this: where co-operative game-theory underpins data-as-value, then not only is accountability inbuilt into communications, economic and other activities as part of our decosystem, but so are the features to minimise and ultimately alienate haters, trolls, etc from any community you choose to be an active part of.

Can right-wing groups get together on Decentr and communicate securely and anonymously?

Sure they can (it would be undemocratic if they could not), but community consensus means the wider community isn’t engaging with them or economically supporting their ideology and activities, helping them spread hate speech, etc.

Exactly.

That is what we do in a democracy — demand accountability for words and actions and be given the ability to distance and disengage ourselves from those groups we, and broader society, are ideologically opposed to. This is all while making sure the platform for anti-social and undesirable activities is as limited as society deems fit and necessary to protect its constituent citizens.

Decentr offers this level of consensus-based safety, security and accountability for every user.

Everyone has different opinions on what exactly constitutes “Web 3.0” and “Web 4.0”.

In the context of Decentr, explain to me what those terms mean to you and how Decentr fits into the 3 or the 4 part?

The definitions between Web 3.0 and 4.0 tend to blur a bit, with neither being a 100% fixed set of definitions yet. Our take on it, and why we variously refer to our project as being relevant to the development of Web 3.0/4.0, is this:

Web 3.0, also known as the “Semantic web”, includes several technologies in order to arrange and structure data you can find on the Internet to make it available and usable by programs and software, thanks to a metadata system. The purpose is to make the web readable by machines and not only by humans.

The idea behind Decentr is that this refinement and structuring of data to create a Web 3.0 will be massively stimulated and expedited if the refined data itself is actual economic “currency”, and hence it economically incentivises every connected individual to participate, as both data subjects and data buyers/sellers, generating, exchanging and using increasingly refined data.

Combined, all these features and properties will give greater access to the deep web, and not only the surface web as the current Internet does.

As for where we see Decentr being pivotal to Web 4.0, our concept of decentralised dataflow — our core “user layer” technology that we described previously — is key to this.

The idea is that as dataflow on Decentr is 100% decentralised, it is not only more easy for machines to read at the protocol level but also at the social level, due to decentralised dataflow behaving on the macro user level in a similar way to RNNs at the protocol level.

(This is another core innovation of ours we will release more on in future).

In this way, as AI/ML is a big part of deriving value from data anyway as part of our game-theory protocols, we can as we deliver this data value rapidly move towards a more intuitive “Symbiotic web” whereby human and machines can interact in various kinds of web based, then perhaps even mind controlled interfaced, symbiosis.

So the browser will look and feel like a current gen browser, but will be able to tap into what Web 3.0/4.0 components exactly?

Like what can you do with the Decentr browser that you can’t do with other browsers?

What’s important to note here is our browser gives access to our core tech, our “user layer tech”, which decentralises all data generated, exchanged and reused via this feature.

So, at its simplest, if you are browsing Web 2.0, for example, and you come across an article you would like to post and share with one of your communities, the easiest and most secure way to do this is right click and share this via our “user layer”, which will allow you to post across all your communities, Twitter, Facebook etc, but via our “user layer” feature.

What is critical about this is that a) this information is shared across the decosystem in a targeted and 100% decentralised manner, which b) generates maximum PDV for users.

Sure, via our site a user can simply post directly on Twitter, Facebook etc without going via our “user layer”, however this would generate less PDV as these sites are centralised and centralised data has very little economic value due to its ability to be manipulated by third-parties and “bad actors”.

So in this sense our suite of 100% decentralised features is designed to encourage users to start to port unstructured data from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0, all as a fun and engaging part of our “user layer” features.

You can also access all possible addresses including blockchain based sites and .onion sites, as well as changing data passed to the sites extensively, while being able to store your private info on blockchain so you can access it anywhere.

What web standards will Decentr support? It seems Chrome and their web standards are the new Internet Explorer 6…

We are going to be using a lot of parts of Chromium engine and Firefox as well so Decentr will be the best of both worlds in this regard.

What platforms will the Decentr Browser be available on?

The cool thing is we are planning to conquer all possible systems, including even smart fridges, etc, especially since 5g is almost operational in several countries and it’s only a matter of time for global adoption.

But we are starting with Win MacOs Linux iOS and Android. True to our “cross platform” ethos — we have engineers that are very experienced in native development for each platform: we won’t do any hybrids that might work against performance and security/stability.

I would add that we have researched a hardware application, powered by Decentr software, that would greatly enhance current IoT networks.

It’s called a “Smart Chip Node” (SCN) and will adhere to 4G LTE standards (with in-built 5G capability), which means connectivity between devices will match or exceed current speed and connectivity, dramatically improving stability and coverage of standalone devices, such as a laptop or tablet, as well as IoT devices, such as home routers and modems.

I’ll leave a link here for those of you who want to deepdive that concept further:

What is a DecID and how does it relate to PDV?

DecID is your digital ID, and is essentially the 100% secure “repository” for all data you generate online, as well as a safe place to store ID, and other documents that might be useful for identification or other verification purposes, etc.

Whereas PDV is the value given to this data repository by cooperative game-theory and expressed as a fluctuating personalised “exchange rate” you can use to pay less online and leverage better APR on crypto you loan out to the Decentr investing pool.

DECENTR & DEFI — dPay, dLoan, dEx

I can’t start this section without asking, is Decentr just another project trying to cash in on the DeFi hype of late?

Fair question!

The short answer is “no”: there is only a DeFi bandwagon because so many projects are trying to cash in, so happy you asked us that question so we can clear that up for the community.

The difference with us is, we are building foundational protocols that will support “true” 100% DeFi Dapps, and as a result most of our work over the last 12 months has been based on foundational protocols that many would not recognise as the bandwagon projects associated with DeFi, hence why we get the bandwagon question a lot when we put our foundation tech in the context of DeFI.

Exactly.

Or, as I like to see it, if DeFi is a “bandwagon” we are the “open source” cart and horse that supports it in that analogy as we provide both the platform on which next-gen DeFi Dapps will be built and the means of powering this platform for Dapps via the deconomy and dFintech features that underpin it.

Explain to me then your thoughts on what you consider DeFi to be, and if not that, at least what your version or spin on it is?

We view the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) or Open Finance movement as effectively providing the framework and tools to create a global alternative to every financial service we use today — savings, loans, trading, insurance and more — accessible to anyone in the world with a smartphone and internet connection.

BUT… the problem with realising this goal is that to create this comprehensive, all-encompassing alternative will require two things that do not exist (or, at least, did not until Decentr came along). These two critical conditions are:

1) A 100% decentralised token that supports and is supported by;

2) A 100% secure and decentralised, user-centric alt economy.

That’s a very good point. I’d go further and say point out that until every user is in control of every economy they interact with, and are able to personally leverage the power and potential of these economies… including the financial products built to service them… to their personal economic advantage, then the idea of a “100% alternative” to all financial services we use today is simply a rhetorical dream.

Agreed.

Decentr is specifically designed to deliver the above two conditions in order that the next generation of DeFi Dapps will be able to deliver this suite of 100% user-centric features to every user.

So what is the unique DeFi selling point that Decentr has in a space suddenly crowded with DeFi projects?

As mentioned, we are not only building a user-facing DeFi solution but also open tech other DeFi devs can build on to give their consumers access to all the benefits in the decosystem, including our dFintech features, PDV, etc.

So in essence what we do that no other DeFi can do is allow users to benefit economically from the mainstream economy by leveraging their PDV to pay less online while also being able to benefit from our native crypto loaning/borrowing features.

To add to that answer from a slightly different angle, firstly, I’d say the fact that this space is so crowded, tells us the timing is right: there’s been this explosion of growth in all the things you can do on ETH, a couple of which are actually super attractive for Decentr and how it works.

The first is zkSync, as you can imagine with Decentr and the way it writes and stores data, if you were doing that with standard ETH transactions, it would be cost prohibitive. With ZKsync, with a few lines of code, you can get super cheap and super fast transactions across the ETH network.

Good point.

I’d say, secondly, DeFi is almost entirely ETH based, and of course, Decentr has quite a few DeFi components (which I would point out were in place LONG before this whole DeFi thing) that can now exploit or leverage all these ETH DeFi tools.

Of course along with this comes all the new abilities of easily running your own DEX, while plugging into liquidity protocols that means your DEX has the aggregated volumes of others DEX’s. A lot of cool stuff.

So if I understand it correctly, users with less capital, can lend less money and get a better APY based on their direct value adding actions on the platform. In that sense, more effort = more rewards and not more capital = more rewards?

I assume that’s the same if you borrow money as well? A better PDV means a lower interest rate?

That’s correct.

That is a great way to put it: more effort = more rewards and not more capital = more rewards.

And this certainty applies to borrowing money: your PDV is applied against the interest rate you receive, so higher PDV = lower interest rate repayments.

Even better, this also applies to the actual repayments themselves, which are also lower for users with higher PDV, in the same way goods and purchases are lower when made via our platform for users with high PDV.

What is the actual process when one user with X PDV lends money to another user with X PDV say over a year?

How does the money move between users, when is interest paid and how does PDV affect the whole equation?

Essentially, APR for users participating in the investing pool is paid at a fluctuating APR that is based on decosystem-wide aggregate data value (ADV); however, users with PDV that is above ADV leverage this data value to actually get paid a higher rate of interest than that offered by the overall system APR.

This is fantastic for casual users with no specific crypto or market knowledge, but who otherwise contribute a lot to the community in terms of data generation, reuse and exchange: so this is another great example of a specific Decentr feature that delivers on our core product promise: that is, to open up crypto markets to casual users in order that they benefit and in return benefit the broader decosystem, both in social and economic terms.

One of the hot topics in the crypto DeFi space right now is uncollateralized loans.

For reference a couple of examples from “Social Reputation” sounds a lot like PDV, from your description above.

What’s your take on this?

Ah, exactly!

Our take on this is that “social reputation” does actually contain “economic value” already; for example, a good social reputation can improve your chances of getting a better job, and hence a higher income, etc; what Decentr does is give this social reputation an economic value at source that can leveraged to provide users with economic benefits.

So what collateral does a user provide to get a dLoan on Decentr? How are loans secured?

Considering PDV is essentially a highly accurate and granular form of “social reputation” expressed as an economic value, users are able to use their PDV either to reduce the amount of collateral required in deposits, or in cases where PDV is sufficiently high, remove the need for collateralisation altogether, in a similar way as Aave (LEND) has shown is viable.

I’ll leave a couple of links on that here:

How does dPay fit into both the DeFi and overall components of the Decentr ecosystem?

dPay is essentially a blanket term for the Decentr payments feature, which can be used to purchase goods and services online, repay loans, as well as being used to transfer money in a similar way as a regular online bank account.

In this regard, dPay is the feature that allows payments to be made, quickly and efficiently, in data value, and exchanged at the either end, should the payee require it, into a range of supported crypts and fiat currency.

We’ve spoken a lot above about data as value or DEC as money, but let’s be real here. No new solution is going to have any sort of success without having some sort of fiat component to it.

So where does the good old USD come into and out of the Decentr ecosystem?

Exactly right.

100% real: we designed Decentr and deconomics to keep it real, as a fiat component is essential in order that any alt economy that wishes to do a very significant volume of transactions, etc would need to support and be mutually supported by the mainstream economy. In fact, deconomics is predicated on this reality (otherwise these “alt economies” usually devolve into some kind of Mutual Credit type thing — Mutual Credit having no sustainable, mainstream application precisely because it has no bridge to fiat/the mainstream economy).

How do we achieve this bridge to fiat and the mainstream economy?

As PDV is a personalised “exchange rate” between currencies and not a currency per se, payments made through our system require fiat (USD, GBP etc) to be constantly flowing through our system while being converted into DEC at open market prices.

This is what I mentioned earlier about the deconomy being mutually supportive of and supported by the mainstream economy, while promoting majority affordability… and hence increased broader market supply/demand… that bolsters both economies — the deconomy and the mainstream economy — and the markets in general.

How does having your own dEx fit into the overall ecosystem of things?

RJ:

The “decosystem”, yes.

Our dEx has many features of a regular Dex; however, our dEx is the only exchange that can convert data value into “money” (fiat and digital), via DEC, and vice versa, underscoring the utility of DEC, the stability of the system.

On our dEx,users can trade between listed currencies, fiat and digital, modulated by a user’s PDV.The dEx also allows users to on- and off-ramp fiat by using a convenient third-party solution that will be seamlessly integrated into our platform, providing exchange and payment services for selected popular crypts, as well as digital credit cards,bank accounts, etc.When a user buys DEC on the dEx, this currency is bought on the open market, in a similar way to all other tokens listed on the dEx.

Also, deconomics predicts that buying DEC on the open market (where this is required to exchange currency used as part of transactions used to pay for good/services via dPay) via our platform will always be competitive with other exchanges, due to the fact that its value is linked to the value of the system reserve, which will further stabilise the overall system while supporting token value.

This is because the “monetary peg” established between the DEC system reserve and DEC, as supported by data generation (as expressed in PDV), will on the open market address speculative and volatility issues that plague all other cryptocurrencies. This is the result of an active, automated exchange rate regime that buys and sells DEC reserves to force the reserve to maintain a certain level of value. This minimises for DEC the wild fluctuations based on supply and demand and price manipulation by malicious parties that current cryptocurrencies are exposed to.

To achieve this, Decentr will always maintain a fixed reserve of DEC that will only ever be in circulation as part of our internal alt economy. This is vital in order to ensure the system is always able to support the “dFintech” (“decentralised fintech”) features our data economy requires and that deconomics underpins.

This reserve can never be publically bought and sold on the open market, and can only be used to supplement periods of heavy purchasing/spending and larger loan amounts, while also underwriting dInsurance if any instances of theft or hacking were to occur, thus functioning as the underpinning asset that allows data to be exchanged into money and money into data as part of a data economy currently worth USD $1.7TRN.

DECENTR REVENUE MODEL

You said earlier that Decentr is set up to generate revenue.

Run me through your various revenue models? How does Decentr make money and what happens to that money?

Decentr’s core revenue model is actually pretty straightforward: we charge a fee for every transaction using dPay whereby an exchange takes place between money (fiat and digital) and data, and vice versa, either as part of our DeFi features or via a dApp built on Decentr. We have identified 3 industry verticals that we are targeting as early adopters of our decentralised solution, and are in discussions with key companies in each vertical to pilot programme our tech in Q2 2021:

1. The Banking/PSP Industry

The Market/Revenue

A core vertical we are focused on targeting as early adopters is the bank/PSP industry as it is an easily quantifiable “vertical” where we have solid connections. On Product launch, due to Decentr’s powerful PSP connections (including the worlds #2 PSP by volume), a medium-scale pilot program will be launched, which will seed the network with 150,000 PSP customers in primarily the Spanish/LAC markets, generating revenue from day one.

2. The “Bricks and Mortar” Supermarket/Grocery Industry

The Market/Revenue

The global offline supermarket/grocery market is predicted to be worth USD $1.9Tn by 2023, whereas online grocery shopping is currently only worth USD $190Bn, but is growing at a rate of 22% per year, with the overall growth rate of fast-moving online consumer goods at a record 94% (giving a glimpse into the future of the food industry). Decentr aims to ensure the long-term competitiveness of “bricks and mortar” supermarkets against online-only grocery retailers, such as Amazon, by a) building secure tech that allows supermarkets to digitise every aspect of their supply chains and operational functions, while b) allowing supermarkets to leverage this incredibly valuable data as a liquid asset class. This additional liquid capital can be used to make supermarket products increasingly cheaper while improving the supermarket’s overall operational efficiency and hence bottom line. We anticipate 0.3% of the total offline grocery market share by Year 5, or USD $5.7Bn, at 2% transaction fees, which equates to $114Mn revenue per year.

3. The Online Advertising Industry

The Competition: Benchmarking Decentr with Brave

The Brave browser was launched in 2012 and in 8 years has reached over 12 million monthly active users, accented by as many as 4.3 million daily active users.

Brave boasts two things in common with Decentr: a commitment to speed and user privacy. However, Brave cannot (conceptually or technically) move beyond the online advertising business model favoured by all tech giants (despite Brave eliminating ad tracking). This means Brave’s token (BAT), and its pay-to-surf model, operate using a third-party medium of exchange, and can never be 100% decentralised (and hence 100% secure) as a result.

Decentr’s 100% decentralised platform credits users secure data with payable value, in the form of PDV, for engaging with ads. This changes the advertising game completely due to the fact the more engagement a user has with the ads clicked on the more data value the user is credited with as PDV. This will encourage users to share, like, comment, etc on ads — all while allowing advertisers to track, profile and target users at every point in the sales funnel (with a user’s opt-in permission to do so raising their PDV), using our suite of “decentralised ads” (dAd) tools. This means that if a user shares an ad with, for example, five friends and they in turn do the same, this will update this user’s profile, meaning future ads can be better targeted for this user and all those who the user shared the ad with (depending on their engagement and privacy settings).

DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP

There’s quite a couple of things that you’ve already ticked off on your roadmap. These ones were of particular interest to me….

“Completed Decentr backend code”
“Completed basic architecture for Web Connector”
“Completed Decentr blockchain integration and testing”
“Completed architecture of Decentr blockchain storage”

Can you run me through each one of these, what they mean and what you’ve built for each one?

Great question. What is critical to note about the tech we have completed to date — and is something we are really excited about — is that in combination it realises our core innovation: that is, our tech stack decentralises dataflow 100% to give user data the same “valuation” and “value store” properties as money — this piece of tech is effectively “Windows for Web 3.0” as it allows applications built on blockchain to “talk to each other”.

This tech uses Coinbase API to optimise integrated implementation of the user layer. Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) will also be deployed. BaaS is basically an offering which allows its users to leverage cloud-based solutions to build, host and use their own blockchain apps, smart contracts, and functions on the blockchain while the cloud-based service provider manages all the necessary tasks and activities to keep the infrastructure agile, operational, safe and immutable.

Tierion’s technological infrastructure, the Chainpoint Proof protocol, will come into play whenever a user adds something in Tierion’s data store. Chainpoint and Tierion’s API anchors the data to the blockchain in order to generate a timestamp proof. Chainpoint also has the capability to create millions of proofs per second because of its highly scalable architecture. It also adds accuracy to its proofs by collecting data from Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and linking anchors to both the bitcoin and ethereum blockchain.

The Decentr backend code, with internal infrastructure delivers CI/CD pipelines using the following tech: Docker, Docker-Compose, AWS, Gitlab, Jenkins, R3 Corda, Hyperledger Fabric, Ansible and Bitbucket Pipelines.

We have also completed basic architecture for our Web Connector, and engineered basic connectors to the future web interface, using the following tech: Linux, Node.JS, GoLang, Kotlin and CouchDB.

We’ve also completed Decentr blockchain integration and testing, including the internal blockchain contracts integration and testing using the following tech: Docker, Docker-Compose, AWS, Gitlab, Jenkins, R3 Corda, Hyperledger Fabric, Ansible, Bitbucket, Pipelines, Elasticsearch, OpenZeppelin,Truffle, NativeScript, Redis, MongoDB, DroneCI, RabbitMQ. We’ve also completed architecture of Decentr blockchain storage, and have completed network architecture mockups.

PARTNERSHIPS

We spoke on it briefly previously, but your initial partner was Holochain, and as far as I’m aware, the plan was to build Dcentr on top of Holo.

What’s the deal there now? Is it still the same plan or has this now changed?

That is very true, that was our plan; however, circumstances all round have modified this somewhat.

Holochain was one of our earliest supporters and their concept of a truly decentralised Internet protocol is very appealing to us as a foundational solution; in essence, the Holo network, which is completely decentralised in a way that blockchain is not, is a perfect example of the foundational tech we require to integrate our “user layer” solution.

However, delays at Holo’s end meant in order to keep our development schedule we needed to start integrating the various elements of our tech stack and start to build our MVP on other infrastructure, but the plan is to have a release candidate for HOLO once we have deployed an ETH based MVP and “mainnet” release and Holo has had more time to get their network and Holoports up and running.

Ok with that in mind, who are some of your other ideal candidates to build the Decentr MVP on?

With recent developments on ETH, like zkSync and the upcoming ETH 2.0 release, along with the vast array of dex based liquidity protocols and pools, we’re now able to build our MVP and possibly our full candidate release on the Ethererum network. This is actually huge for us, as we can now build on top of the most active crypto ecosystem, and do so without too many concerns on scalibility and cost of transactions.

With so many open source tools of release standard now coming to the forefront, this means we can greatly reduce our development timeline, as some of the core components of our ecosystem are already partially or completely built for us.

Here are some examples. One project we’ve been keeping a particular eye on is 0x. 0x has been building a series of tools, like the 0x Launch Kit, a simple way to deploy your own DEX, 0x Instant, a simple way to take crypto payments on Web 3.0 platforms, and the 0x Liquidity Protocol, which aggregates liquidity from various DEX’s into a single liquidity pool.

All of this tech is directly applicable to the core functionalities of the Decentr ecosystem, and will only take a small amount of time to port across to our codebase and modify for our desired functionality.

Tomo is another platform we plan to build an MVP on, once our initial MVP has been deployed to the ETH network. Again, we’ve chosen Tomo due to its complementary nature to both the ETH ecosystem but also the underlying functionalities and focus on DEX based technology. We’re really excited about that one too…

COMPETITORS

I can’t start this section, without asking the obvious…care to tell us your thoughts on BAT? Haha!

Ah, BAT. Where to begin…?

Well, some of you might have read our articles on the subject of BAT and the revenue model it supports, and for those who haven’t I’ll leave you the links here:

Why BAT’s Advertising Model is Not Sustainable

In a previous article we outlined our views on the Brave browser by way of comparison with what Decentr aims to…

medium.com

Brave Browser: The Good, the Bad and the Fundamentally Misguided

At the outset, it’s fair to say that in our view the Brave browser is a step forward but, when viewed in the context of…

medium.com

Overall, as relates to a previous question on Brave, we have to separate the good intentions behind a secure, decentralised browser, and the choice to underpin this browser with a business model that is based on a centralised revenue model (paying people to watch ads) which is the model BAT supports.

It just doesn’t jive with us on a fundamental conceptual level: the disparity between creating a secure browser that blocks ads, coupled with a centralised business model (based on promoting ads on behalf of advertisers) — a business model that is notorious for trampling all over privacy for profit at every available opportunity to push ads — is, to say the least, one that becomes harder to reconcile the more you think about the potential for exploitation and misuse. I mean how many deals with the Devil do you have to make for this to work?

Our main concern with BAT is that it is a) exclusively used to support a pretty much dead paradigm — advertising in its traditional form — and b) the method it uses to try and flog this dead digital horse is a method that is ripe for manipulation and exploitation by everything from casual users to bots, which doesn’t help advertisers or Brave’s bottom line; i.e.

Exactly.

In effect, BAT inadvertently encourages the gaming of their own system to the detriment of their advertiser partners!

All good points.

But I would add that BAT, as it stands, can only be cashed out via Uphold, which is a third-party solution; any third-party solution by definition and design leaves user’s more open to security issues, which is why Decentr offers users integrated dWallets and ID verification (KYC, AML etc) via our native DecID, so that cashing out/KYC etc all fall under the purview of a single, 100% sure system, leaving no weaknesses or vulnerabilities hackers and other bad actors can exploit to steal data.

TOKEN SALE & SUPPLY

Your token sale followed hot on the heels of DMM, and like DMM, used Dolomite as the venue for the sale (DMM did have two additional venues, for the factual record).

Why did you choose to do a sale on a DEX and why Dolomite?

Over the past year we have studied all different sorts of fundraising methods including traditional ICOs and also IEO’s.

The issues we encountered with both of these methods is it didn’t suit our ethos towards a fair funding raising method, being able to get our DEC token into the hands of many users, and also we didn’t find the demands from exchanges acceptable. The larger exchanges we were in discussions with wanted a startup to commit double (you read that right) the amount in marketmaker fees than the startup actually wanted to raise, prior to the raise. (We certainly couldn’t beat the math on that equation!)

So we kept our heads down, kept our burn rate low in the interceding months, and continued to perfect our materials and core back end code, and waited for an upturn in the market…which turned out to be the IDO we successfully raised on July 13th to get to complete our full version launch and beyond.

Exactly…enter the explosion of DEX volume and DEX powered sales such as DMM, which, as you mentioned Dolomite, was one of two venues the DMG token was available for purchase.

We were incredibly impressed with the ease of use Dolomite provides for users while there also not being a centralized party controlling funds and pushing unreasonable demands.

In your opinion, what are the long term advantages of doing a token sale as an IDO over doing an ICO or an IEO?

The main advantages from our side as the project is a much lower net spend without having to provide an obscene amount of money towards “supporting” the token.

This allows us to only raise what we actually need instead of trying to raise a large amount of capital where only a minimal amount goes towards actually building our product.

Exactly!

The IDO facilitates this less net spend while we’re also able to provide a great amount of liquidity towards our token launch. 7.5% of our entire raise will go towards providing liquidity on Uniswap and following exchanges.

All of this aligns with our investors interests as we can actually fulfill our product build while also having our DEC token trading on the open market in a healthy and fair manner.

Considering the issue’s with the sale on dolomite if you had your time again would you use it again?

Yes, we were incredibly happy with how the sale went even with the issue’s. Big shoutout to Corey and Adam from Dolomite.

We’ve been assured for the next one there will be more bug fixes!

What was the price for DEC tokens in the seed, private and public sales?

The DEC token price for seed was $0.01, private sale $0.0141 — $0.02 and the public sale was $0.022 — $0.03.

Further details can be found in this blog.

Decentr Token Sale Metrics and Distribution

We’re proud to announce the DEC Token Sale will be launching at 9am EST the 13th of July. This article gives a brief…

medium.com

How many DEC tokens were sold as part of your public raise?

We sold a total of 74M tokens across seed, private and public with the public sale being 19M $DEC tokens.

What is the current circulating supply of DEC?

6.15% (61.5M $DEC Tokens)

How long are team and advisor tokens locked for?

We were originally self-funded as we believe in the project, and so don’t want tokens until we have the product, which I think is the best example of the strength of commitment our team and advisors have to the project.

The team tokens are locked for a minimum of 1 year and then vested for 10 months. The advisor and partner tokens are locked for 6 months and then vested for 10 months.

This means no new tokens will enter the circulating supply until next year.

How about Foundation tokens and Ecosystem Reserve tokens?

The foundation tokens are locked for 6 months 1% released monthly (3 years total)

These small batches of tokens when released will only be used in conjunction with marketing efforts to further Decentr’s awareness and increase the overall userabase.

The Ecosystem Reserve Underwrites the Deconomy and they are locked until full product launch and are highly unlikely to ever be used.

A small portion of the ecosystem reserve would only unlock to supplement periods of heavy purchasing/spending and larger loan amounts, while also underwriting dInsurance if any instances of theft or hacking were to occur.

Can you explain exactly what the Foundation and Ecosystem Reserve tokens will be used for?

Decentr’s DEC decosystem reserve is designed to be a stable asset that underpins confidence in DEC payments and transfers, as well as crypto lending/borrowing, as part of Decentr’s dFintech features (including dEx, dPay, dLoan).

ROADMAP & FUTURE PLANS

What releases are planned for the public before the start of you MVP pilot or will that be the start of everything at once?

I’ll get Nikita to give you more, but we will be releasing Github code regularly over the coming weeks and months along with a lot of product shots and other cool material.

We think that we will release as it goes — at least pieces of code to Github so you can see progress.

Are there any plans to migrate to a native chain down the road or is it unnecessary in this type of business model and better to be agnostic?

Yes there are such plans but its really far into the future.

What projects which would benefit from partnering Decentr?

As Decentr is open source foundational tech that repurposes data as “economic value”, any company, individual or organisation that generates data would benefit from building a solution with us as it would give them the competitive edge.

Which is why we are in talks with key players in the 3 business verticals we mentioned but getting interest from many others as well.

We are doing a Q2 2021 pilot programme with them for our tech, with 150,000 of their customers in the Spanish/LAC countries, and they did work with us on refining our tech as part of 2x H2020 EU grant bids we did in early 2021. So we’ll announce more about that in the coming months…

Stay tuned…

Other projects could use PDV from Decentr in their ecosystem’s right?

PDV could be exported right out at a protocol leve and any other project could use your PDV to do whatever they need it for in their ecoystem?

Correct, including DeFi apps that could benefit their customers as PDV can be used on a protocol level to economically benefit them.

As I say, juicy, and coming up soon with more announcements…

I assume since your token launch you’ve had a few people get in contact?

Yes, this is why it is crazy at the moment as we are in negotiation with so many new commercial and other contacts, and we’re super excited about that.

It is opening great doors for us!

Could you explain the background on what we’ve been hearing about BOE and Cypherium?

The BoE is currenty considering a proposal we submitted for a UK CBDC, and this is still under review. Stay tuned for more on that…

As for “big partnerships” we have a lot of negotiations in the pipeline, and will be announcing them on our channel over the coming months.

I forgot to ask about H2020 Horizon.

Are you able to expand on that yet or no?

Ah, H2020, we have submitted x2 ourselves as a company and are looking at doing one with Holochain in 2021 — issue is we can’t confirm anything yet as COVID-19 has completed thrown out the H2020’s schedule.

So stay tuned for more announcements on that…

DUE DILIGENCE CHECKS

Does Decentr have a Github?

Not yet as we are developing some proprietary algorithms and will release it later under GPL 3.

Where is Decentr based?

As with many startups developing decentralised tech we are a decentralised company, with offices in London, UK and Minsk, Belarus.

This makes sense for us as it allows us to take advantage of the some of the best devs and other benefits in each jurisdiction.

Where is Decentr incorporated?

Minsk, Belarus, which is an extremely blockchain and crypto friendly jurisdiction.

Do you have a legal opinion that your DEC token isn’t a security?

We do indeed, and there is no issue with DEC as it is confirmed as a utility token.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Thanks for your time tonight guys!

Only that we’re hugely appreciative of the support we’ve received from our and other communities as regards joining us on a crazy dream to change the way the internet works forever, making it 100% user centric while deliver tools and features that will create a fairer and more egalitarian social and economic future for every user.

And we’’ll make sure that future is here sooner than you think.

Decentr Resources

Website: https://decentr.net
Telegram: https://t.me/DecentrNet
Medium: https://medium.com/@DecentrNet
Rich James Medium: https://medium.com/@Rich.James
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DecentrNet
Whitepaper: https://decentr.net/files/Decentr_Whitepaper_V1.4.pdf
Technical Whitepaper: https://decentr.net/files/Decentr_Technical_Whitepaper_Data_As_Economic_Currency.pdf

Wolf Crypto Resources

Public Group: https://t.me/WolfCryptoPub
News Channel: https://t.me/WolfCryptoAnnounce
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WolfCryptoGroup

Decentr AMA with Wolf Crypto

Why BAT’s Advertising Model is Not Sustainable

In a previous article we outlined our views on the Brave browser by way of comparison with what Decentr aims to…

Brave Browser: The Good, the Bad and the Fundamentally Misguided

At the outset, it’s fair to say that in our view the Brave browser is a step forward but, when viewed in the context of…

Decentr Token Sale Metrics and Distribution

We’re proud to announce the DEC Token Sale will be launching at 9am EST the 13th of July. This article gives a brief…

Decentr Resources

Wolf Crypto Resources

Written by Wolf Crypto

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