🔗Question 1:
What is this final shipment for the Founding Node we’re waiting on? Are we talking software component or hardware component?
Joseph Denne
It’s simply getting the hardware parts shipped to London that’s taken the time – it’s our first time dealing directly with international customs, too! If only everything was a quick as crypto across borders.
The detail: we’re waiting on the issuing of an EORI number (I had to look that one up) for some of the deliveries to be allowed through customs (they’ve been in the UK for days now) and we are expecting one more shipment into the UK in the coming days (silicone caps). A couple of domestic deliveries will also arrive next week to our facility in London (glassware arrives on Monday for example). So processing should begin soon.
EORI == Economic Operator Registration and Identification number. So now you know!
🔗Question 2:
Are your Decentralized Apps meant to run exclusively on the DADI decentralized network or can I simply use those like open source on my own servers?
Arthur Mingard
The dApps running on the DADI network have been Open Source and available for a few years now. You can run them on your own servers, and there’s plenty of documentation over at https://docs.dadi.cloud/. Starting with CDN, we’ve been adapting the apps for the network.
🔗Question 3:
As a non-techie I find Wordpress fairly easy to use for data entry/modifications to my digital product. Do you think DADI API + DADI Publish would be a good fit for me? Is the current version of DADI API and PUBLISH stable for production? Will those tools be free forever or will there be some kind of paid license to use it in the future?
Eduardo Bouças
API is a very stable product, with 117 releases in around 3 years. it’s powering several large-scale products in production. Publish is in an earlier stage of that journey. It’s a stable product, to the point that we’re using it in production ourselves to manage all the content of dadi.cloud. There’s still a backlog of features and improvements that we want to add to Publish before we’re happy with labelling it as “production ready”. We know exactly where we want to be and we’ll be there soon – until then, being on a beta period allows us to move faster towards that target.
As for ease of use, Publish has been designed to plug into an instance of DADI API without requiring any configuration. There are plenty of dials and buttons to push if you want to tailor the experience to fit your exact needs, but the core idea is that it just works out of the box. We have other tools in the pipeline that make the setup of API itself as smooth and intuitive as possible.
Joseph Denne
With regard to last part of this question, the answer is simply yes.
🔗Question 4:
Any changes to the core team since ICO?
Joseph Denne
A bunch! We’ve grown pretty significantly, especially in our engineering team, where we have new faces in networking and app development team. We’re always looking for new talent. Keep an eye on https://github.com/dadi/joinus if you’re interested.
🔗Question 5:
Could you talk a bit more about the current open positions listed on the Dadi website?
Arthur Mingard
In terms of job vacancies? Sure. We are advertising for engineers for both .cloud and network components because our roadmap for 2019 is a demanding one. We have several DADI applications to migrate to the network, plus new clients and contributors to support. The product role is to help and support the engineers and bring definition to the roadmap tasks, while marketing and new business roles are to help marshal enterprise clients onto DADI.
🔗Question 6:
How many people are currently working with DADI?
Joseph Denne
We’re currently at 36, including our three core advisors. The vast majority are full time, and of those, the majority are in engineering.
🔗Question 7:
Can we get an update on existing partnerships and how soon are we likely to see a big company come out publicly to announce that they are or have been using DADI services?
Joseph Denne
We are in active conversations with large organisations about partnerships and integrations in 2019 when the network is in full swing – but remember DADI technology is already being used by a number of global media companies, not the least of which is Bauer (a company that operates in 20 countries and runs nearly 200 of its sites using DADI).
Follow up: Can we expect to read some case-studies about it in 2019? (maybe testimonials) Are there currently indications/positive measurements that can validate DADI’s values/business already? (cost saving, eco footprint decrease etc.) What KPI’s are being observed and what can still be improved?
Joseph Denne
Yes, 100%. We have some great metrics already and will be sharing some of these as we move in to 2019. This includes testimonials from the likes of Bauer. The ecological footprint angle is a really interesting one. We’re currently having this quantified and certified, as the concept of a carbon credit for platform use we see as being a big point of difference for customers of the platform.
🔗Question 8:
Will the Founding Node shipping issues cause any delay to onboarding other network nodes?
Joseph Denne
Yes, it’s all about the network generating value, and key to this is network growth. It is important to us that we grow in a sustained way however: we want to avoid significant oversupply in the network and in doing so ensure a decent rate of return for contributors. This also allows us to properly monitor and test real world usage in a controlled manner. Founding Nodes pushing back a little has pushed back the onboarding of direct contributions, as FNs will be the first to on board. This is a short period, and it’s in the interest of the network and ultimately everyone that contributes.
🔗Question 9:
Has LBX given DADI a timeframe for when they will be open to those outside the UK?
Joseph Denne
We’re across this, yes (it’s coming). But it’s for them to announce when they’re ready. Remember that LBX is a fully regulated and banked exchanged, so there are a lot of regulatory hoops for them to jump through.
🔗Question 10:
When the load of requests to the DADI network is low, will DADI hosts be idle or will it switch to some other form of work in between serving DADI requests?
Arthur Mingard
When a Host is idle, it will receive a share of a ring-fenced idle fund to encourage persisted redundancy in anticipation for peak load requirements. DADI Store works best when there is as much resource as possible available for storage, so really there’s no such thing as idle.
🔗Question 11:
Can any website be hosted by DADI?
Joseph Denne
The edge services that we have in place already - CDN, Web, API etc. - are capable of running pretty much any digital product. So in short, yes.
The long answer is that there are restrictions around data/ram/cpu/bandwidth in a mixed-device edge services environment that necessitate apps respecting these limits, as well as operating in a decentralised environment (no single machine for data storage for example). Our existing services operating within these boundaries, providing an open framework that can be used to run any digital product with minimum effort from a development perspective.
In time we will be opening up the framework for edge processing much more widely, allowing anyone to run code directly on top of our containerized environment (i.e. network usage without having to use our edge services). This means that in theory WordPress could run in the network.
🔗Question 12:
How is the rest of the product roadmap progressing? Is the delay in Founding Nodes isolated and how does it affect the roadmap?
Joseph Denne
Very well, we continue to hit all targets. The shipping issues for the Founding Nodes delay only the onboarding of those devices – it has no effect on the rollout of the wider network.
🔗Question 13:
Is there any discount to DADI services for contributors to the network?
Arthur Mingard
Yes. The payment model in the network is tied to data usage. So you pay for the CPU, Disk space, Ram and bandwidth that you use. If you contribute to the network, you will receive a 1:1 credit for the capacity contributed. This is designed to incentivise business contributions in the main. A business building on DADI will already be making significantly savings in development and delivery, but if they also contribute, in theory they could move to a cost-neutral position.
🔗Question 14:
Now DADI is live on LBX, when do you anticipate the first customers buying services in fiat from exchange, is that imminent or due with Constellation?
Joseph Denne
That will be with the move to Constellation.
🔗Question 15:
You mentioned the benefits of a fiat on-ramp during the LBX exchange announcement. Will this service be supported exclusively by LBX or will you have other arrangements too?
Joseph Denne
LBX is but one way we will allow purchase of DADI services using fiat currency (GBP, USD and EUR). In the longer term it is likely we will also look to build a service native to DADI that supports the conversion. And yes, this will include credit card purchases.
🔗Question 16:
Is there any support for Socket connections, video streaming in DADI network? What can DADI offer for IoT industry?
Arthur Mingard
Streaming support is absolutely an important feature we’ll support in due course. With the ability to deliver low latency based on topographical connections and ISP matching, we see this a great opportunity for the streaming market. Regarding the IoT industry, aside from leveraging the spare computational capacity of infrequently used, always-on devices, there’s absolutely scope for DADI as a platform in support of the recent rapid IoT growth.
🔗Question 17:
What’s your plan for marketing? Will there be video commercials? Any blockchain event the team will participate in the coming quarter?
Joseph Denne
We’re going to be in Vegas next week for World Crypto Con if you fancy meeting up (or driving us to the Grand Canyon for some sight-seeing!) Marketing is tied directly to a channel management strategy, which looks at specific verticals as our go to market (OEMs, Agencies etc.). It’s a varied picture which will evolve over time, and that is very focused in its execution to make the most out of our spend. We won’t be running ads spots during the super bowl.
🔗Question 18:
What updates or progress have been made with the new advisor re: introducing DADI to the public sector and government?
Joseph Denne
We’ve spent two pretty comprehensive sessions with David, and those have been instructive in terms of our positioning and building out a credible go to market. We are exploring routes in to local and central Government that include things like contributions to central planning for property developments (to ensure that edge network connectivity becomes a requirement for new builds for e.g.), supporting the Government’s initiative for self-driving vehicles (edge devices for processing is a must if they are to ever work outside of major cities), as well looking at methods for onboarding infrastructure in the public sphere (local authorities have a lot of computers and very high speed lines). He’s a lovely and very senior chap and we’re very privileged to have him on board.
🔗Question 19:
You said clients would start to pay for services with $DADI in July. How will this be audited? Can we see this process on exchanges charts?
Joseph Denne
We have live traffic in the network now, and it’s being paid for (albeit indirectly through an invoicing system). As we move to constellation this will start to step up. We won’t be providing auditable access for this. It’s one thing being able to explore traffic and nodes in the network, but quite another being able to look into what a business is individually using and spending. That’s commercially sensitive and respecting this is critical to our success in applying blockchain tech to enterprise.
Follow up: Like in some DADI block explorer? How will this look like?
Joseph Denne
Yes. Coming soon.
🔗Question 20:
Has DADI team heard of Sociocracy 3.0? Some guides or principles DADI follows to allow smooth operation with remote teams? Very interested in how remote teams work. Looking for some good reads.
Joseph Denne
Good reads? Here’s a place to start: https://dadi.cloud/en/culture/ – where we walk through the genesis of our asynchronous working culture. In short, though, we believe that the best developers in the world do not live within a 20-mile radius of just one city and that a modern digital company need not root itself within one pile of bricks with a roof. Allowing our team to work remotely helps bring a balance of work and life that in the long run makes us all more efficient. Everyone. Should. Do. It.
