One month after the release of the bridge on mainnet, Cheng, Hongchao & Maud were interviewed by Vladimir in a Twitter space AMA. You can listen to the Twitter space itself here, or read on at your own pace! This article is a lightly edited version of the AMA, to improve the clarity and readability. This is part 3 of 3 and you can find part 1 here and part 2 here.
Hackathon
Vladimir: Alephium participated with Ergo in Ergo Hack V last year. Cheng and Hongchao, I’d like to hear about your experiences. Do you personally participate in hackathons often? Do you enjoy them? And from a developer’s perspective, what would you say is the greatest value of participating in hackathons?
Cheng: Hongchao, I think you are more qualified to answer this one, as I was not that much involved.
Hongchao: I don’t feel I’m the most experienced in crypto hackathons, having participated in only a few, but I can share some insights. One of the greatest benefits of hackathons is the intense focus they foster. Participants dedicate a day or two to concentrate all their energy on solving a problem, often leading to surprising results. It’s a space where you can meet new people and potentially achieve outcomes you hadn’t thought possible. This, to me, is the real value of participating in a hackathon.
Recently, I’ve been reading about Elon Musk and how he sets ambitious deadlines for his employees, almost like perpetual hackathons. This approach might be effective in driving people to accomplish ambitious and innovative tasks. It’s an interesting method, though I’m not entirely certain of its overall efficacy.
Vladimir: My next question is directed to Maud, regarding the hackathon we’ve been discussing. Maud, could you provide us with an update on the hackathon? Where does the team currently stand in its planning? While I have a general notion, I’m interested to know if you’ve begun solidifying a format and possibly have a preliminary timeframe in mind.
Maud: Building on what Hongchao mentioned, hackathons are an excellent catalyst for initiating projects. Even if a project isn’t completed within the hackathon’s time frame, it’s a great starting point for collaboration and team formation. It offers a unique chance for developers to synergize, both within the community and with newcomers, unlocking substantial potential.
Regarding the timeframe for our hackathon, we aim to announce it this month, with the event likely occurring early next year in Q1. The duration is still under discussion and will depend on the scope of the projects we expect from participants. The hackathon might span two weeks if we lean towards more comprehensive projects. For smaller-scale projects, the duration might be shorter. On average, we’re considering a two-week duration.
We’re also exploring partnerships with DAOs or other entities to participate in the hackathon. We aim to promote the event broadly, attracting new developers and increasing awareness. We’re excited about the upcoming hackathon and will share more details later in the month.
Vladimir: Exciting! Thank you, and this is very much connected to the question of the hackathon and the grant program. We’ve given quite some grants so far. How do you view that effort so far? What kind of grants do we want to give out now?
Maud: We have awarded a few grants, though not extensively. Our current priority is two-fold. One aspect is like ‘killing two birds with one stone’ — primarily, it’s about attracting the right people and focusing on key components necessary for the ecosystem’s growth.
Currently, our focus is more on foundational elements for the ecosystem, such as lending protocols or a Dappland version for Alephium (edit:it’s here), along with contributions to the chain’s source code. While we’ve seen more projects proposals, there hasn’t been as much interest in individuals looking to develop on-chain features for the blockchain. This might be due to the ecosystem’s early stage, but we are definitely open to supporting such contributions should there be interest.
As the ecosystem matures, we anticipate being more flexible in what we support. For now, our focus remains on these foundational aspects.
Vladimir: And what is the process of applying for a grant?
Maud: The current process for applying for grants is quite straightforward. We have a GitHub repository that outlines the process. Similar to most grant programs, applicants fill out a form providing basic information about their project, its benefits to the ecosystem, details about their team, their competency and experience, and any additional documents that delve deeper into the project’s design. This is because the same project can be approached in various ways.
Typically, if an application is within the scope of our grant program, we arrange a first call to discuss the application in more depth, clarify any ambiguities, and ensure alignment. An important aspect we ask for during the application is a proposal for milestones and the associated grant amount, as our grants are milestone-based rather than upfront payments.
After the initial call, there’s usually a series of discussions until we reach a fair agreement on both sides regarding the milestones. Once agreed upon, the project starts. Depending on the grant amount, some level of KYC (Know Your Customer) might be involved, along with a grant agreement to ensure both parties adhere to their commitments.
Additionally, we plan to revamp our website in the first half of next year. A key consideration in this overhaul is making the grant application process more visible and accessible by integrating the current GitHub information into a user-friendly webpage directly accessible from our main website. This should enhance visibility and ease of access for potential applicants.
Vladimir: Thank you for bringing that up. While we haven’t delved into the front-end aspect of our roadmap in today’s discussion, we certainly intend to cover it in future conversations. One notable grant recipient has been the Blockflow Alliance DAO. They have been an incredible, independent partner, playing a significant role in generating a recent surge of attention on Twitter. Their efforts have been truly commendable.
They also got funded through the grant program. Can you tell if we favor the emergence of other DAOs? Did other DAOs apply? Is it the same process?
Maud: The application process for other DAOs would follow the same procedure. In fact, we just received a written application from another DAO today. We are definitely open to collaborating with more DAOs, as it aligns with the core vision Cheng and the team have for Alephium — fostering an ecosystem that is driven by the community. The goal is for Alephium to gradually transition from relying primarily on its core contributors to a more diverse group of contributors from the community.
Repeating the successful collaboration we’ve experienced with the current DAO is something we’re enthusiastic about. However, we approach this with caution. The existing DAO was established by community members who have been with us from nearly the start and have consistently contributed to the ecosystem in various ways, making our decision to trust them relatively straightforward. So while we are open to expanding our collaborations with other DAOs, we will do so thoughtfully and selectively.
Vladimir: Moving to the last question, which might be tricky to answer: Currently, we are listed on several exchanges, both large and small, catering to specific geographic and topical needs. Additionally, the Mexc fundraiser, which was managed by the community, concluded a little while ago. Can you provide any updates regarding more listings? Is this something you’re actively pursuing?
Maud: We have consistently worked on securing more exchange listings, but our focus has been on quality rather than just quantity. We aim to expand geographically and ensure the exchanges we partner with add real value, especially considering that listing costs can be significant, particularly in a bear market where the impact might not be as pronounced as in bull markets.
The community-managed fundraising for Mexc was successful, which is amazing, especially since similar efforts in other ecosystems haven’t always been successful. This success is due to the dedication of our community. We’ve fulfilled our part of the agreement and have initiated the listing process with Mexc. While I cannot confirm or deny any details before Mexc does, the process is progressing as expected.
We’ve also noticed interest from smaller exchanges wanting to integrate us on their own initiative, indicating positive developments in the Alephium market. These exchanges have reached out for integration details, but I’ll leave it to them to make any official announcements.
Besides that, we continue to engage in discussions with larger exchanges. Meeting certain requirements, like volume thresholds, is crucial for these discussions to be productive. We are moving closer to meeting these requirements, which should enable more fruitful conversations with major exchanges in the future.
Community Questions
Vladimir: Cheng, what made you want to create Alephium and BlockFlow? And the side question is: what were your thoughts going with the DAG structure instead of traditional blockchain?
Cheng: It’s been about six years since I conceptualized BlockFlow. The exact moment of inspiration is a bit hazy, but my motivation stemmed from following Ethereum’s sharding developments for one to two years. Eventually, I grew impatient with their progress and decided to try a simpler approach. This led me to extensive research and the discovery of the BlockFlow algorithm, which became the foundation for starting the Alephium project.
The use of a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) structure seemed intuitive for scaling a blockchain horizontally. DAG is a widely used data structure in computer science, not just in blockchain technology. It’s prevalent in various algorithms, and you can even find DAG structures in Bitcoin’s memory pool.
While DAG is a familiar concept, the uniqueness of BlockFlow lies in how it employs this data structure, enabling single-step cross-shard transactions, a feature quite distinct in the landscape of current sharding proposals. Therefore, the innovation in BlockFlow isn’t the DAG structure itself, but rather the novel way we utilize this data structure within our system.
Vladimir: What can we do to decentralize the network and increase security going forward? How would we get even more decentralized over the long term?
Cheng: Addressing the question of achieving decentralization is a complex challenge that we intend to tackle with our community. Personally, I believe a crucial step is reducing dependence on the core team. Introducing the DAO and other programs is a significant move towards decentralizing and lessening reliance on the core team.
Another key aspect is attracting more people to join and contribute to the ecosystem. Decentralization is more meaningful in a large-scale ecosystem. If there are only a hundred people in the ecosystem, decentralization has a limited impact. But with a larger, more diverse community, the concept of decentralization becomes more relevant and effective.
We need to focus on increasing awareness and adoption and encouraging the development of more projects on our platform. The more projects that are built on Alephium, the more decentralized the blockchain becomes, as each project contributes significantly to the ecosystem. Currently, the core team drives much of the development, but if we have, for example, 100 projects built on Alephium, the reliance on the core team decreases. The core team’s work may not lessen in quantity, but its relative impact and dependency within the ecosystem would diminish significantly. So, fostering growth and adoption within the ecosystem is the second critical step towards achieving our goal of decentralization.
Vladimir: I think Maud wants to add something.
Maud: A more immediate, concrete step towards decentralization, especially in the short term, is what the community has actively been working on — encouraging miners to distribute their hash rate across various mining pools. This effort aids in promoting mining decentralization, even if it’s just a small contribution in the short term.
Adding to Cheng’s points, a crucial aspect of Alephium is the current reliance on the core team, largely due to a knowledge barrier. However, it’s important to remember that everything in Alephium is open source and permissionless. Our limited time constrains us to tackle one thing at a time, but anyone can fork any of our open-source code and adapt it to their needs or vision. If someone disagrees with our approach, they aren’t bound to it. They can fork the code and develop a version that aligns better with their usage or vision.
We’re still in the early stages, and not everyone might feel comfortable taking such steps right now. However, it’s vital to remember that our code is open for modification and personalization. Our project’s openness and permissionless nature are key to gradual decentralization and community empowerment. You can come in and make it your own.
Vladimir: Thank you for that excellent conclusion. The key takeaway is clear: the bridge is operational and experiencing substantial traffic. We have numerous updates on the way, and our roadmap is filled with exciting developments. An upcoming network upgrade promises to significantly enhance the user experience, particularly on the front end. Although we haven’t delved into front-end details today, there are many thrilling updates forthcoming in that area, as well as various optimizations aimed at ecosystem growth and user onboarding.
That is the end of part 3 of the AMA transcript!
If you have questions, please come to Alephium’s Discord, Telegram, or reach out on Twitter!