ICON x EDGEWARE AMA on Telegram Transcript (April 14, 2021)
Thom Ivy, CEO of Edgeware Agency, and Scott Smiley, ICON Strategy, participated in an AMA (Ask Me Anything) event on Telegram, on April 14, 2021, moderated by P-Rep team, ICON Pinas.
The transcript is as follows:
Introduction
Jenny (Moderator): Hey good day ICONists! 👋 We’re so happy to have you here today for an AMA session to discuss the exciting work being done by The BTP Working Group on interoperability.
For some background information, the BTP Working Group is made up of passionate third party developers, which currently includes: Edgeware, ICON DAO, and Web3 Labs.
I’m very pleased that Thom Ivy @thom_ivy (CEO of Edgeware Agency), is able to join us here today, along with Scott Smiley @benny_options (ICON Strategy).
Please give a warm welcome to Thom and Scott!
Jay (Moderator): Welcome @thom_ivy @benny_options thanks for joining us here today 💪
Thom Ivy (Edgeware): Howdy- thanks for having me! Excited to talk about the collab.
Jay (Moderator): Glad to have you here today, Thom. Can you please give us a brief introduction about yourself?
Scott Smiley (ICON): Hey all, hope you’re excited for another AMA 💪🏼
Thom Ivy (Edgeware): Sure! In the Edgeware ecosystem, I lead a DAO called the Edgeware Agency, which is kind of our decentralized answer to the traditional foundation. We use the Agency to centralize resources and decisionmaking that the whole chain isn’t able to coordinate on currently, but over time will likely become increasingly permissionless.
My background is in political philosophy, ethics, and a lot of my work in blockchain revolves around eliminating the existing paradigm of national governance and developing prototypes for the ‘Network State,’ a vision of a new kind of collective bargaining entity where citizens are free to move about competing governments, instead of being subject to monopolies of violence.
Thom Ivy (Edgeware): (Which probably sounds familiar to the ICON republic!)
Jenny (Moderator): I think everyone here knows @benny_options 😁 but please feel free to give us a brief intro about yourself as well.
Scott Smiley (ICON): As a brief intro since most of you already know me, I’m focused on ICON Strategy, token econ, governance, and community engagement. I’ve been with the team for over three years now, and these days a large focus of mine is the upcoming launch of balanced.network 💪🏼
Scott Smiley (ICON): [in reply to Thom Ivy]
Love the perspective you bring to the table with a background in political philosophy and ethics. This industry is a great cross-section of so many disciplines
Jenny (Moderator): Thanks Scott for the intro! Let us now proceed with Segment 1 :D
Segment I: Questions From Moderators
Jay (Moderator): Now, we’re sure most ICONists have been following and are super excited about the recent news surrounding BTP and The BTP Working Group, but ICYMI:
A most recent announcement regarding the formation of the BTP Working Group only reaffirms ICON’s commitment to interoperability and ultimate vision of creating a hyperconnected world.
In short, ICON wants to become an aggregator chain, or blockchain of blockchains, linking a vast number of projects and communities together.
Jay (Moderator): Here’s the first question for @thom_ivy
From Edgeware’s own unique perspective, what are the things that stand out the most about ICON which prompted the team to join the BTP Working Group at this time?
Thom Ivy (Edgeware): ICON and Edgeware both share two core values in interoperability and decentralized governance / community ownership, and we look to partner with teams and projects experimenting in these practices- without many ‘labs’ conducting experiments, we won’t find out the best paths forward. Our partnership with ICON is part of our commitment to furthering digital governance.
Additionally, Edgeware is very interested in BTP for it’s trustless bridge design, which is part of a broader scope to enable our developers to use multiple routes to other ecosystems.
Jenny (Moderator): And here’s one for @benny_options :
What unique skill set(s) will the Edgeware team and community bring to the ICON ecosystem that you are most excited about?
Scott Smiley (ICON): This is an easy one for me. One of my primary focuses in the ICON Project is designing and enhancing our decentralized governance system, and the Edgeware team has extensive experience in this domain, especially considering @thom_ivy’s background.
They’ve done an excellent job growing and fostering a strong, passionate and engaged core community. This is no easy task in the blockchain industry. Their Commonwealth platform (commonwealth.im/edgeware) is well designed with high engagement and I look forward to many deep discussions on how we can improve ICON’s Contribution Proposal System (cps.icon.community) (decentralized grants) and ICON’s Network Proposal System (decentralized protocol governance). It’s not easy to find people with expertise in this field, so their experience and fresh perspective here is quite valuable to help ICON’s decentralized governance continue to iterate and improve.
Jay (Moderator): I would definitely encourage ICONists to check out the links provided above ^^ for a wealth of good information
Thom Ivy (Edgeware): And the Commonwealth platform is open source! We’d love to see ICON able to use it as a discussion board and benefit from the network effects.
Scott Smiley (ICON): [in reply to Thom Ivy]
💪
Scott Smiley (ICON): DMing my developers now..
Jay (moderator): The Edgeware team has a wealth of experience and very vibrant community. We’re definitely excited to see this collaboration with ICON and can’t wait to see what comes next :)
Jenny (Moderator): Everyone is really excited for this partnership! Thank you guys for all the information, I’m sure this will get more people interested!
Segment II: Questions From Twitter
Jenny (Moderator): Let us now proceed with Segment 2. The chat will still be muted for our guests to answer the questions picked on Twitter.
Jenny (Moderator): First question is:
How can icon developers use edgeware ecosystem to build on edgeware or how in what ways edgeware ecosystem can help icon developers to build much better than at present?
Please explain edgeware parachain bonding in short and simple words?
Thom Ivy (Edgeware): In our view, pure technology is no longer a competitive moat in the crypto-space, instead, community values and norms inform growth strategies in chains. ICON and EDG will have different partnerships and projects building to different niches, so in the spirit of collaboration, developers will be able to take advantage of both sides of those priorities and ecosystem features, and also better market and open access up of their work to different regions and communities.
Additionally, Edgeware’s dual EVM/Wasm architecture brings developers who can write in Solidity, and any language that compiles to wasm- massive developer accessibility. With BTP, both sides can gain better developer resources, adding to ICON’s Python-based SCORES.
Lastly, parachain bonding is like bridging, but with more strict requirements and also easier forms of communication facilitated through a relaychain. It’s a pretty different architecture than ICON’s, and comes with the loss of sovereign validation, as the relaychain takes on those duties- but also reduces the cost of provisioning security for a chain.
Jay (Moderator): Great answer @thom_ivy and I like how you said it’s all about community and collaboration, not competition 💪
Jay (Moderator): Next question from Twitter is:
I’ve read that edgeware completed all the precompile contracts. Can you elaborate what are these precompile contracts?
Thom Ivy (Edgeware): Oo, I don’t get technical Qs much >=}
Precompile Contracts are pieces of architecture that make developing easier and more efficient on the computation side of a smart contract platform. These usually include cryptographic functions or tools related to light clients. Drew Stone, the chief cryptography wizard over at Commonwealth Labs and his team led the development of the precompiles necessary to ensure the functioning of the ICON-EDG collaboration.
Scott Smiley (ICON): [in reply to Thom Ivy]
And did so quite fast as well to add
Thom Ivy (Edgeware): 100%. Total wizard. Also a great chef, come to find out.
Scott Smiley (ICON): [in reply to Thom Ivy]
😂
Jenny (Moderator): [in reply to Thom Ivy]
That’s well explained, non techies like me will do our best to understand :D
Jenny (Moderator): And here’s the last question from Twitter:
What gives the blockchain transmission protocol (BTP) technology an edge over its competitors technology — such as; cosmos, solono (Solana?) interoperability tech they are implementing? And how will you attract other chains to connect within the Icon ecosystem?
Scott Smiley (ICON): There are a few key differentiating factors around BTP, but I’ll focus on what I’m most excited about here.
Trust — many other solutions require some form of trust. Whether it’s trusting a hand-selected group of validators to manage the bridged assets or hoping that Proof-of-stake game theory is enough to keep them honest (which can cause major issues as the value of bridged assets starts to grow). ICON’s BTP is secured entirely through cryptography and smart contracts. There’s no need to trust anybody except the chains that you interact with. It is as secure and as decentralized with one Relay as it would be with 1,000.
Jay (Moderator): [in reply to Scott Smiley]
That’s very interesting indeed, Scott! And here’s another ICYMI, please make sure to check out this great article on BTP economics, architecture, and Key Differentiators section to learn more:
Thom Ivy (Edgeware): [in reply to Scott Smiley]
Love the differences between cryptoeconomic guarentees vs cryptographic guarentees- trustless bridges are a fascinating piece of architecture in our space.
Scott Smiley (ICON): [in reply to Thom Ivy] And no easy task as well!
Segment III: Live Q&A on Telegram
Jenny (Moderator): Let us now proceed to the live questions from our community members! Are you ready guys??
Unmuting in 5 seconds. After 1–2 minutes, the chat will be muted, and guests will then proceed to pick out questions to answer.
Jay (Moderator): Are you guys ready?
Maya♡: From all the achievements that ICON had this Q1 of 2021, what is your most favorite one? Can you share to us more what are about to develop in ICON project pipelines?
Scott Smiley (ICON): [in reply to Maya♡]
From the ICON-specific perspective, I’m quite excited about how the Contribution Proposal System (cps.icon.community) has turned out. We have great engagement and a number of amazing proposals already being worked on.
Thom Ivy (Edgeware): (＠´ー`)ﾉﾞ hello to all the questions! Will try to respond to most of the EDG ones.
Gina Lyn: How can BTP Working Group’s sole help to fulfill ICON’s ultimate vision of becoming a blockchain of blockchains?
Scott Smiley (ICON): [in reply to Gina Lyn]
As the BTP working group grows and learns, as will the pace in which we integrate more networks into the BTP Ecosystem. By the end of 2021, our goal is to have an extensive web of blockchains all able to directly communicate with one another
Elise: Why did Edgeware collaborated with ICON? What do you think will be the advantage of having Edgeware to ICON ecosystem?
Thom Ivy (Edgeware): [in reply to Elise]
Scroll up to the first Q to see the answer there 😄
Good Bunny |||7777777||||: 🌍 Are there any effects of corona on “EDGEWARE”
Are there any new partnerships in the coming period?🎉🎉
Thom Ivy (Edgeware): [in reply to Good Bunny |||7777777||||]
Thankfully no, we are a remote community and everyone was pretty busy with building and planning the past two years. In fact, someone just had their first child! Has been thankfully a healthy time for our community.
✨ CRYPTONECO 👀: How can ICON create a class with the Edgeware team? How do you think both projects will develop in the future for the whole?
Thom Ivy (Edgeware): [in reply to ✨ CRYPTONECO 👀]
That’s the goal. If you mean educational classes, we’d love to work on cofunding capacity building in underserved regions. Right now, we’re in talks to support dev school programs in Nigeria through our Africa Working Group, and exploring new regions for these too.
Ukniser Linh | $SFP $BNB Hodler: What is the future trend of DeFi, in your opinion? What is the biggest flaw DeFi is facing today? And is Your Project looking to solve the problem?
Scott Smiley (ICON): [in reply to Ukniser Linh | $SFP $BNB Hodler]
I’d say the biggest issue with DeFi right now is user experience. Balanced.network and omm.finance, two projects launching on ICON soon, aim to tackle this problem specifically.
Harold Robinson: Edgeware is a unique token name, where did you get the idea from and how did you start naming Edgeware? and what is the meaning of Edgeware?
Thom Ivy (Edgeware): [in reply to Harold Robinson]
Cutting Edge Soft Ware was the inspiration, but since we’re community owned, we’ve had several discussions about changing this — it will likely stick for now 🙂
Jenny (Moderator): [in reply to Thom Ivy] Woow! Congratulations to them 😍🥳
Vouture NOVA: In regards to Edgeware’sharding, what kind of real-life application or adoption will sharding improve to help bring the masses to Edgeware and crypto in general ?
Thom Ivy (Edgeware): [in reply to Vouture NOVA]
So, Edgeware is not a sharded chain, but as a Polkadot parachain, it would be a heterogenously sharded chain on DOT’s relaynetwork. For now, we’re eyeing rollup technology, or even launching relaychain capacities on EDG in the future.
Sin Tae-Young: Can you put some light on your partnerships ? How are they helping you out in Edgeware ?
Scott Smiley (ICON): [in reply to Sin Tae-Young]
There’s two key areas:
1.) Knowledge sharing on decentralized governance. Edgeware team has extensive experience here and i look forwrad to learning from them
2.) Cross-network economics and finance — Our respective DeFi projects will be able to interact with each other to create even more opportunities for users
Novato Tech: burning tokens is very important to increase the price of tokens and reduce the supply that is already in circulation, what about Edgeware, whether to burn EDG tokens in the future to increase the price of EDG tokens?
Thom Ivy (Edgeware): [in reply to Vouture Novato Tech]
Our community is currently voting on a reduction in inflation rewards to the treasury, and will likely continue to consider token economic questions. In short, anyone can open these proposals, so the conversation is just beginning I think!
Jay (Moderator): [in reply to Thom Ivy] hope it sticks, it’s already a great name 😎
Tony B: What is the uniqueness of EDG not be found in other project that´s been released so far ? What influence do we have in the crypto industry?
Thom Ivy (Edgeware): [in reply to Tony B]
In the Substrate family of blockchains, EDG is unique thanks to it’s community, governance expertise, but also the fact that it is the oldest mainnet in our ecosystem, with an on-chain treasury that the public coordinates to fund new projects and partnerships. Additionally, that developer accessibility I mentioned earlier is huge, along with our unique fair token distribution called the ‘lockdrop’ that helps prevent plutocracy, or control of the network by whales.
David Barta: What makes us trust Edgeware’safety and high security?
Thom Ivy (Edgeware): [in reply to David Barta]
Edgeware uses a new form of PoS called Nominated Proof of Stake, and several complex algorithms from traditional political science to ensure fair representation both in council elections and in validator elections. In EDG, users can also vote directly, or delegate their stake to other users in EDG to vote on their behalf. DOT and KSM use the same setup!
Thom Ivy (Edgeware): Finally, Edgeware’s development is totally community-led. We had no ICO, just that lockdrop. In that sense, we’re hard to describe by our backgrounds but easy to describe by our values in borderless opportunity, fair representation in democratic systems, and merit-based innovation.
Jenny (Moderator): And that concludes our AMA! Thank you so much @thom_ivy and @benny_options for your time in answering all our questions 🥳🥳 It has been very informative :) We definitely learned more about the ICON’s partnership with Edgeware.
Scott Smiley (ICON): [in reply to Jenny]
Thanks for being a great host as always!
Jay (Moderator): Thank you @thom_ivy and @benny_options for all your excellent answers
Jay (Moderator): ICONists, I hope this AMA was informative and interesting for you all!
Thom Ivy (Edgeware): Amazing questions, thank you everyone. Also thanks to Benny for the fun banter, and Jenny for the great organizing and moderation! Looking forward to the future!
