Ergo Q&A, 21.09.2017
Hi Guys, thanks for hosting this Q&A. Will we be able to mine ERGO with the testnet full node?
In testnet0 we'll have scala implementation of the miner, that is already implemented but very inefficient. A bit later we're going implement support for high-performance GPU miners to test everything in more realistic conditions.
What uses will have ergo in the crypto world ? others then smart contracts.
The idea is to have more decentralized ecosystem by having a wider range of options to run a client. For example, there are no SPV mobile clients for Ethereum, ERGO will have efficient trustless mobile clients.
Have you considered making ergo dedicated miners in the future?
Ergo PoW is based on Equihash, so we will be able to take miners from ZCash. For sure they will require some modification to work with Ergo, so finally, we'll have dedicated miners for Ergo
So still no ICO planned?
Yes, still no ICO planned
Will mining have some kind of dev fee which would be used to fund further development of the project?
Yeah, we still consider such a model, that 10% of new coins will go to the foundation and will be used for further development of the project. In future, we're going to implement treasury system to allow our community to decide, how to use this coins in decentralized way.
After implementation of sigma state language for smart contracts, what would be the main direction as for anon functionality, towards Monero, Zcash or towards some own approach? In what extent do you collaborate with Waves on smart contracts? Ergo smart contracts will be Turing complete or non Turing complete ?
There's already very efficient mixing example in ERGO, discussing it with experts. More things in regards with anonymity will come I guess. Sigma-State will be not "turing complete", its idea is to be just more powerful than Bitcoin Script, and at the same time more friendly to analysis / ddos prevention, and also more friendly for offchain protocols. The bet here is to have the heaviest logic in off chain protocols.
You will do more airdrops to WCT? or the airdrop u did was the first and last one to waves community?
An airdrop should be not predictable, maybe another one will take place, who knows
Will the Aspen protocol be running in the Testnet1?
No, Aspen may be implemented in Testnet3 only (it's described in the announcement above)
Only working on the tech now, or do you guys have any plans yet for marketing and promotion to get mass adoption eventually? I am based in mainland China so interested whether or not you might have any plans yet to promote it in China and Asia?
We're working on tech only until testnet0 implementation, after that we'll start working on the legal structure for Ergo, promotion, etc. Our marketing strategy is still an open question, so I can't answer your question about China and Asia right now
Considering two blockchains being mentioned, one for money, another to be public bulletin board for protocols (voting, auctions etc) and data records (DNS etc), with atomic cross-chain swapping, is it possible that there will be one system where everything is combined through sidechains for example or there will be rather two separate systems cooperating in cross-chain style? I understood that you will have 2 blockchains (currency/smartcontract), do you progress on both simultaneously? will they be released at the same time?
Yes, it will be two mainnet blockchains, separation will be done in testnet2/3. Sidechaining is possible, but a lot of tricky questions to be resolved here. I'm aware of some bleeding-edge research in this area, not public atm.
Is there any plan for Hybrid POS?
No, Ergo will be PoW only
What about PoS chains there will be possible sidechains with waves for example?
Pure sidechaining is tricky for PoS blockchains, but atomic swaps should be possible as soon as both chains will have an ability to pay for hash preimage.
About connection with Waves, Sasha is going to invest some money, no more legal ties.
Will IOHK be the legal entity behind ERGO... or perhaps a new foundation? I guess that's what you're sorting out with your lawyers now.
No any connection with IOHK really, maybe Charles or the company will invest, no more. Maybe we'll be happy to buy some research from IOHK, but the company seems to be fully booked by Cardano atm.
Atomic swaps are preferable in a combination of POW-POS systems or they can be also realized between POW-POW systems?
For atomic swaps, only pay-to-hash-preimage and timelock conditions are enough. ZCash guys recently did show CATS demo, ZCash <-> Bitcoin swap. So swaps will be possible for any of Bitcoin and its descendants, ZCash, Ethereum, Nxt, Ergo, and Waves if Sigma.
Are you looking for other “early investors” or Charles and Sasha will bring enough money?
We're looking for more, especially from people with similar vision.
The goal of light full nodes is that they will be able to do verification on any device?
Yes, and also very fast verification, without losing basically anything in security
Is mining additionally ever possible with light full nodes?
No, we assume that miners should have enough resources to keep full state. However will be able to prune old blocks to prevent blockchain boat.