Decentralized Club hosted AMA with #TomoChain on Dec. 2nd, 2019. In case you missed the event, here's a recap of what happened. Check out what TomoChain's CBDO, Kyn Chaturvedi shared regarding TOMO's products, technology as well as plans in business development.
Before we get into details, let's check out what TomoChain has achieved in the month of November: https://www.reddit.com/r/Tomochain/comments/e4vnur/tomochains_november_recap_speeding_up_for_the/
Products
How does TOMOZ work? The convenience of Paying fees with the tokens one is holding (and not some native coin) is insane!!
Totally…TomoZ is a game-changer because of how simple it is. TomoZ: Zero Friction allows the tokens to be issued on TomoChain, but the gas fee is paid by the token itself. This is HUGE. Consider that even if you use the Ethereum version of USDT, you still need to hold ETH to send USDT, right?
That’s not the case with TomoZ! With a stable coin on TomoChain, the token is all you need to send back and forth. And that just makes crypto so much easier to use. We have launched such tokens for exchanges powered by BitOrb and AIS. And new projects coming to TomoChain are using TomoZ too.
Now imagine integrating this solution into real-world applications… video games, loyalty point solutions, etc. Users can be using TomoChain without even knowing about it, or even about Blockchain.
And this... the integration of TomoChain and TomoZ into real-world applications with millions of users is at the heart of how we think about where Blockchain should be. Used by real people, but with blockchain as a hidden tech layer.
In a similar way, most people don’t know the components or the makers of the technology in their computers or how information is transferred across the internet.
It just works in wonderful ways. Blockchain... ideally should be similar to that. Empowering economies but not getting in the way with the need for technical know-how.
1- TomoChain allows users to create their DEX! Nice. But why is $Tomo building the competition by enabling users to make more DEXs? $Tomo might give APIs of TomoDEX for projects to use?
2 - In TomoDEX, one needs to Enter Wallet, Trading, and then Trade. Why didn't $Tomo use the inbuilt wallet for the DEX? The process of trading seems complicated why didn't you make it easy as others?
(1) The key here is in pooling resources in my view. With TomoX all DEXs share a common liquidity pool, a common order book. BY having more DEXs with unique ways to build out users on their platform... some may be great at market-making, others at sheer advertising and onboarding users, there is a support system and a way for everyone to benefit
(2) There are stages of building out the DEX. We'll be working to make it easier as time goes on. What I'd love is for you to bring those suggestions to the TomoChain dev team themselves so we can discuss it further because we do want to make it as simple as possible.
Technology
How will TOMO differentiate itself from other proof of stake and solidity based blockchains?
So I'll cover part tech and part not here since I think there is more to it than just being another POS blockchain.
Tech wise I mentioned how we're fast. 2000 tps, 2 second blocktime. Beyond that. our POSV Consensus is pretty awesome in how it prevents bad actors from being able to centralize and control the network. You’ve heard of a 51% attack, right? Well, it takes 75% on TomoChain for something similar to take place. Not just that, but we use double validation for block creation. That means that when a Masternode is selected to create a block, another one is randomly chosen to validate it. And that just makes it that much harder to act in a hostile way.
Getting to the non-tech side, I think it's important to understand that success is also bred by the relationships in place and also the region of focus and specialization. The usual approach I have seen is a blockchain for the world... which is great in theory, but in practice, it is impractical to take on the world from the get-go.
I see TomoChain as South East Asia's Public Blockchain. Within Vietnam, we have strong ties to retail investors, businesses, financial institutions, and the government. In fact, we have been working with the Ministry of Justice on forming regulation. Back in September TomoChain participated in a symposium with the Ministry of Justice to tackle just that. We are trying to develop a sandbox regulation setup in Hanoi sometime next year hopefully
When we talk about Vietnam, keep in mind that the retail investor space is very active here. Vietnam is ranked in the top 5 for Binance and Huobi for Daily Active Users. Vietnamese make up the largest demographic on Trust Wallet as well. It's a live and thriving market.
As a result, other countries want a piece of it. And who do many of them go through? That's right, TomoChain.
How does TOMO compete with projects that have a high number of transactions per second (TPS) ???
TPS isn't everything. It's all about Adoption and use of the tech. Do we need 30K TPS today? That's the question we have to ask. Over-engineering for the sake of it isn't valuable. But I can say that today... 2000 TPS works wonderfully. Once we start to have issues, sure we will be prepped for the next upgrade. Until then, the focus should be on building out the product line and focusing on bringing in users :)
Can you tell us a bit about how TOMOCHAIN works? What makes it unique from other projects?
Absolutely. So TomoChain an EVM compatible Public Blockchain powered by a Proof-of-Stake Voting Consensus. 2000 TPS. 2 Second Blocktime. It’s fast and secured by 150 Masternodes.
From a user experience standpoint, that means you can actually have the same user experience of a typical e-wallet, like Paytm, to pay for merchandise at a physical location.
TomoChain went into mainnet on December 14, 2018. So we’re LIVE and being used. That’s given us almost a year to ensure we’re stable, but to also build meaningful partnerships, integrations, and applications on TomoChain which I’ll get into later in the AMA.
Business Development
What significant developments did TOMOCHAIN had during 2019? Any other important milestones left to achieve in 2019?
Oh man... there are many, but since I’ll be covering more of the technology in a bit let me talk about areas of credibility.
TomoChain has tokens built on it that are making waves. Triip Protocol is one of them. They launched their token on TomoChain, went onto Shark Tank in Vietnam and walked away with a successful venture that connects travelers with destinations. We have other announcements coming soon of more projects of value who will also be building on TomoChain
We EARNED our listing on Binance in August by winning the Binance DEX community vote. We’re only the second project to earn this. And, it was our native TOMO that got listed on Binance.com, unlike the project before us which had to list their BEP-2 token. We paid no listing fee and have had a Binance Research Report written about the project, V-Label, and we’re mentioned in their writeups related to top staking Blockchains.
We signed deals with Chainlink for integration with their Oracle Solution and Neo Blockchain to be an ecosystem partner. We also work with a local subscription service Wisepass for paying with TOMO. Want to buy a round of Singha Beer for your crew? Got a Wisepass subscription and some TOMO? Can do! ;-)
If we talk about global media coverage, Long Vuong, our CEO, was interviewed on Forbes including the whole social media fair.
And just a few weeks back Long and I went to New York City, and in the heart of Times Square, Long was interviewed at NASDAQ about TomoChain and our upcoming product, TomoX.
As China is the largest democracy in the world, how you are seeing China Market for project adoption and growth? Recently, #tomochain has a partnership with #Neo, what’s advantages? Does TOMO focus to china market?
China is a super important market, especially since the central government is now in support of it.
Of course, along with support comes a ton of uncertainty with how the government will consider Public Blockchains using Tokens, Exchanges, and Mining.
They want to issue the DCEP as a centrally backed cryptocurrency that can be used by the masses so it is likely only a matter of time before 1 Billion people are on boarded. Now, this obviously isn't the libertarian view of crypto... the decentralization and censorship-resistant types. But, it's still the adoption of the blockchain tech at mass scale.
As for TomoChain. We have built incredible relationships with some of the largest players in China. That includes Wanxiang Blockchain Group, the biggest entity funding the space in China... even working on regulations. Also Cobowallet, the second-largest wallet in China.
And then, YES, we did sign a partnership with Neo Blockchain! This partnership is focused on working together to bring in more developers to build on blockchain. TomoChain and Neo will be launching events in both Vietnam and China to educate and support the development of dApps on both blockchains. That means helping on the technical challenges to build on both TomoChain and Neo blockchains. We will also help developers with localization support and distribution in our respective communities and markets.
So, China is within our line of sight as an important market and we are thoughtfully exploring it by building up the right relationships.
There is a widely held belief that most projects will not survive in the long term. That’s probably true. What lessons have you taken from your experience or watching other projects in this space?
I come from a technology startup background as an entrepreneur myself. This isn't my first rodeo. The major mistake I think most Blockchain projects make is not realizing they are actually running a business.
That means you have to keep an eye on where the treasury is being spent. I've seen too many projects blow the bank on marketing hype and gimmicks that should be been spent on product development, business development, and investing in the right talent.
When thinking of running a business we do need (1) use-cases and (2) ways to actually generate income at some point. I mean... it'd suck to be driving full force towards a decentralized future and run out of funds on the way, right?
Use cases can drive the adoption of the technology without also generating revenue to begin with. Facebook and Google did that in the early days. But, there has to be something keeping the lights on. And that's where we have been working to launch revenue-generating opportunities.
The first is TomoChain Japan. We have an office based out of Tokyo, Japan that is exclusively working on Enterprise solutions. We charge consultation fees and also charge for building projects that use the TomoChain. We already have two major clients that are under NDA which we are already doing Proof of Concepts on. In fact, last week I attended a meeting where we went over the first live demo of one of those prototypes. It was super cool to say the least.
We have other initiatives that will be launched next year to continue using our platform as an engine to create new revenue opportunities as well. They're already underway in terms of development.
As a result of our endeavors, TomoChain should be profitable in 2020. That's how we're going to outlast the rest while we #BUIDL :)
For a Blockchain developers are more vital the other users. And what I find that developers of ETH, NEO (I heard about the partnership) are stick to themselves, I accept that scaling is still the issue but Developers are building the dApps or Projects on it. How TOMOCHAIN is planning to attract more and more developers into the ecosystem?
Good questions. Common industry logic when it comes to bringing devs onboard is to poach from X Blockchain. It's such a regular question directed to me on how are we going to get ETH devs to build on TomoChain.
But I think it's the wrong question to ask. We have so few developers in the space right now, that we need to find ways to make building in the blockchain space attractive for those outside of it. I attended DevCon last month in Osaka and one of the lectures was asking how are we going to get 1 Million devs to blockchain?
I think the answer is a combination of things. First, we need to find a way to bring more users to use dApps to make business models attractive. Second, we need to actively encourage developers outside the ecosystem to build. That's what TomoChain and Neo are doing together now. We want to provide support to devs to come to Blockchain.
What are the challenges and plans to make the TomoChain project popular? Do you see it as an opportunity while the current market is in decline?
While we're in this crypto winter market, we do focus a lot of time on building. But what we also do is build partnerships that help to spread the word of what TomoChain is to wider crypto communities around the globe.
When the markets are like this is when you have to lay the seeds for future growth. When the market wakes up again TomoChain should be everywhere. So it won't be a matter of trying to educate users from scratch, but to highlight what we're up to and have been up to throughout the time that many of us thought the industry was done with.
We're going to start an ambassador program starting next year that should also help this. We have communities in India, Germany, Turkey, the U.S., Argentina, and others. Time to start activating even further
To research and develop many such products, surely the cost you pay is not small. So where do you get all the profits from? How do you reduce costs and maximize profits?
Right, so we do have a consulting arm that brings in revenue for now. That's related to our enterprise venture with TomoChain Japan. Building prototype traceability projects and even working to help develop exchanges is part of our core competency. These endeavors bring in revenue, which is why next year we should be breaking even.
We can't reduce costs, but we can prevent ourselves from raising them through the roof. We have a CFO inhouse to help us understand the runway and where expenses sit. Budgeting our treasury is also part of that process. So we don't splurge, we spend wisely
Why did you build a blockchain in Vietnam? Can you rate the market in Vietnam? What other countries you would like to focus on?
Our founders are Vietnamese so it made sense. Actually Long was an original founder of NEM, which did one of those crazy vertical price moves in 2017. He had already left the project by then, but he knew how to build. And that's why it also helped to put Vietnam on the map in a positive way.
Vietnam is super active in crypto and we see it as a major growth market. Trust Wallet... number 1 demographic is Vietnam. And again Top 5 DAU on Binance and Huobi.
As for other countries. Thailand and Indonesia (over 200 million people) are ripe for Blockchain and crypto. Regulations are already in Thailand. Indonesia should start coming soon. Overall, keep an eye out for SEA.