I had a very interesting evening yesterday.
The evening started with a deep dive session on the principles of Ethereum with Alex Leverington
http://ethdev.com/#team. It wasn't a very technical session. More for people new to the technology.
This was followed by a one-to-one in-depth technical discussion and demonstration of smart contracts by Roman Mandeleil. He's the CEO and founder of ether.camp
https://live.ether.camp/transactions. There's a very powerful online IDE behind that website. It can be used for building smart contracts on the eth blockchain.
Smart contracts are very interesting. They're basically apps that sit on the blockchain and wait to execute when called (and when their conditions for execution are met). The next proper tech killer app might probably be a very intelligent smart contract on the ethereum blockchain. I'm not too sure why they're called 'contracts'. Seems a bit misleading for beginners (imho).
I'll cut to the chase here. I spoke to Roman about how I could get the kobo blockchain to interact with the eth blockchain. He's seen projects trying to achieve this using sidechains but he wasn't very impressed or complimentary about the results. In his opinion, if kobo is to interact with the eth blockchain then the best solution is to migrate over to the eth blockchain and to start utilising s smart contract model, which basically means saying goodbye to the current kobo blockchain.
It's a big operation if it's to go ahead and will require some serious planning.
Pros
- There is a large developer community looking for projects just like this to get their teeth into. It won't be just me struggling to get things done. The eth devs want their project to be a success and want success stories to drive it forward. Kobo could be one of those stories
- It's the second largest developer community after bitcoin
- Roman is happy to do what's necessary to help with the migration
- Smart contracts seem to be the way things are headed. We'll be keeping up with progress at grass roots.
Cons
- The kobo blockchain (as it is now) will no longer exist once the migration is completed.
- Smart contracts are heavier than raw transactions, so for now there will not be a kobo mobile wallet. This is something that will change in the near future but for now I would see it as a sad loss not to be able offer a mobile unit. It's a nightmare to keep synce'd but it's an asset none the less.
- I don't know how this will affect the value of kobo
- I'm not sure if PoS is possible
- Will kobo continue to be a currency, will it be an ethereum asset, or will it be a currency asset? Not sure at the moment.
There's more questions to answer but that's the outcome of yesterday evening. It might be a good development for the long term future of Kobocoin. Or you might think otherwise.
Let me know what you think. Any comments will be helpful. If you think it's best to explore other options that you are aware of, let me know.
One thing for sure is that crypto is moving right now. Kobo has to move one way or the other.