Our latest AMA was a packed affair: with over 60 questions submitted we only had time to get through half of them in the two hour session. Those not covered this time will be included in the next session.
Written By
Bolaji Oyewole
• 1 min read
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Question 1
Will DADI offer something like spot-instances? (cheaper prices for unused resources.) Spot instances on AWS basically get similar pricing advantages DADI brings, but then inside their massive private network. I’m looking at services like Spotinst, Elastigroup that integrates with AWS, Gcloud and Azure to arbitrage lowest prices... They have showed results up to 80-90% savings too...
Arthur Mingard: Spot instances can be interrupted within 2 minutes of Amazon notifying you. They claim to be as little as 10% of the price of the original EC2 tier but it’s not always that cheap, so for the price of using our scalable, always available network, you get an interrupted experience with 2 minutes notice. Doesn’t sound great to me!
Question 2
How will a trusted execution environment work with online software that's based on JavaScript?
Arthur Mingard: The network isn't written in JS - it's in Go. And it provides an architecture that abstracts storage and processing from the online environment.
Question 3
When can we expect to see source code for networking?
Joseph Denne: When we release it. There are numerous repositories for the network, and there have been thousands of commits to date. We will go full Open Source, but have yet to set a date for this. The decision is informed by a number of commercial discussions, and there are also a few things that need to be true ahead of any release. Specifically, we need to close out patenting efforts; for the network to be significantly larger than it is currently; and for third party security audits to have completed.
We're not a million miles away from this, and as soon as we have a date, I'll share it with you.
Question 4
Will DADI API come with graphQL support/wrapper tool in the future?
James Lambie: API was designed on the REST paradigm, and we've tried to respect this much as possible. Still, we’re open to exploring different ways to interact with the data, so even though there’s currently nothing in the roadmap for GraphQL specifically, we’d be happy to look into it if there was enough interest.
Question 5
Could the team explain the reason for the delay in self-onboarding nodes? Any unpredictable challenges or are there additional features added?
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Knowledge
Last Updated:
September 2019
Joseph Denne: We're working to ensure security in self-onboarding nodes, which is not a trivial task. The distribution has been usable in a self-installed Linux environment for many months now and has been tested widely, but will only be released once we are happy that it doesn't pose a security risk to the network. We expect this to happen in the next handful of weeks, but given the complexity of the software and the mixed device set supported, this is subject to change.
We've also been working hard to ensure extremely focused and easy to use network-level services, which has born a lot of fruit (some of which has been shared this week), but which has also required changes to some of the core of the platform. Ultimately the extensions to the network services are about building a really clear go to market.
Question 6
When can we expect a page where we can see if we are actually earning? If we are not earning, what is status on this development?
James Lambie: The dashboard under my.dadi.cloud will be updated shortly to include node-level traffic and earnings.
Over time this will be developed further to visualize available capacity, capacity utilised and to break out usage by type of service.
Earnings for Founding Nodes started collating today, and will be made available in your dashboards alongside the next update to my.dadi.cloud.
Question 7
When can we expect to be paid for staking?
James Lambie: The first payout is dependent on the completion of a few bits on our side, but we're working to deliver this at the end of March. The tracking of node traffic for this purpose is live - we just need to close the loop on the payout mechanism.
Question 8
As the network grows pos requirement reduces. If the network shrinks in bear market will the pos increases or remain the same?
Joseph Denne: Network demand shouldn't be significantly impacted by a bear market as we are largely providing services to industry outside of the cyptosphere. However, in the event of the number of nodes reducing because of a bear market (individuals wanting to withdraw tokens for example), the POS would be reduced to help to counteract this effect. And of course, earnings would also increase, because fewer nodes would be carrying greater load.
Question 9
When can we expect listing on proper exchanges? Given that it was recently made clear that you have to satisfy volumes to remain on KuCoin, I want to know why you are paying them and/or your market maker and not just get listed on a proper altcoin exchange.
Joseph Denne: I consider the exchanges that we are on proper exchanges. Market making is about ensuring liquidity for those who are participating. Whether or not you think it is a worthwhile strategy is open to debate (and it's one we've had a lot internally and have yet to come to full resolution on). We obviously have open and ongoing discussions with exchanges, but we can't talk about these publicly.
Question 10
Is it the same team working on the marketplace apps also working on the DADI infrastructure? Can you elaborate on the different workgroups DADI is organised in?
Joseph Denne: No, they are different teams, although they report in to the same technology director (@jameslambie) and there is a lot of crossover. And yes, of course: we have a few loosely defined engineering groups: network engineering, app development, customer support and OEM development.
Question 11
When will I be able to use Dadi Store to share files with myself on my different devices (Window, Android, iOS)? Like Google Drive or OneDrive?
Arthur Mingard: Edge storage can be thought of as a cloud-drive. If you use it for the storage of personal files, you will be able to retrieve those files from any location. We do not currently have any plans to release a consumer-grade client for the desktop to auto sync files for example, as our focus is on the underlying network services. However, anyone could build one and plug it in the network for this purpose.
Question 12
When will you disclose the companies using the current iteration of the DADI CDN and how many companies applied to the DADI CDN waitlist?
Joseph Denne: We're not going to disclose full figures and will only talk about customers where we have explicit permission to do so. This is commercially sensitive information, so we have to tread carefully. I can tell you that we have hundreds of individuals in the waitlist for CDN. And that we're starting to work through the list.
Question 13
Why is the DADI website still not being served from the DADI CDN?
When are you planning to release a refreshed version of the website?
Joseph Denne: Soon! We're putting the finishing touches on the structure and content at the moment. I expect it to be live in early April, if not before.
Question 15
Where will the profit (when you testing FN) go from the clients, for example versus.com? To the DADI Foundation?
Joseph Denne: Correct. Proceeds from edge.networkusage to date have been distributed to the Foundation.
Question 16
Can you provide multiple hosts on one device?
Arthur Mingard: A more powerful device has the potential to earn more. As such there is no benefit in running multiple hosts on a single machine.
Question 17
What’s the incentive for the embedded edge? I know the potential is cool, but if it’s not paying or earning, sounds like less traffic direct to staked hosts etc.
James Lambie: Edge Embedded is designed for businesses who have an existing embedded hardware estate. Running it will offset the cost of their network services. In addition, by enabling delivery within their own network you can reduce north-south transport, effectively converting it to east-west transport between devices and end users within their own estate.
Question 18
So theoretically, if the DADI token price increase by 10x the payouts for Gateways will also increase by 10x? In other words, will the number of DADI tokens paid out be relatively stable with the only variable being how much those tokens are worth in USD?
Joseph Denne: Pricing is in USD, Euros and GBP, with payment options in $DADI, $BTC and$ETH, tied back to dollar value. If the DADI token price increases by 10x, payouts will remain tied to USD at that point in time. But of course, any payouts made before the price increase would also be worth 10x more. Price appreciation over time is an incentive for early adoption.
Question 19
Can you address file security a bit more? Would I be safe storing credit card information in a file and upload it to the DADI network? Could the owner of the host where my file is stored access the file to get my credit card info?
James Lambie: Give us your credit card information and we'll ensure that it's safe.
Joseph Denne: More seriously, you should never store this sort of information on third-party services!
Arthur Mingard: All files are chunked, encrypted and randomly distributed so that entire documents are never stored or available on a single machine.
Question 20
Is the base hardware specification for a Gateway going to be good for the foreseeable future?
Arthur Mingard: In terms of hardware for a Gateway, the most important thing is RAM and bandwidth. We see the specifications provided as being sufficient for the mid-term.
Question 21
Will proportionally decrease the load on all hosts at once, or which hosts will be loaded more and others less? I am worried about earnings, will different hosts earn in different ways? I mean Host in London or Host in Tokyo.
Joseph Denne: Hosts connect in to their nearest Gateway (in networking terms). Gateways act as entry points to the network, servicing local traffic requirements. So, we can see that load is distributed based on demand, for both nodes and on the basis of end user requests. A node in a remote part of the country will likely carry less traffic than a node in an urban environment. However, because of this, there will also be fewer nodes in the remote part of the country. The economics of the Edge network are designed to service supply and demand in this manner.
Follow up: Is it called centralization? Anyone who is closer to London and that gets 99% of the profits?
Joseph Denne: Not at all. The network is a market that services supply and demand.
Follow up: Why should people all over the world connect to DADI if they get less profit? It looks silly. People from all over the world have invested in DADI.
Arthur Mingard: One of the beautiful things about a decentralized network is that it actually encourages a more distributed deployment. We’re working to further incentivise contribution in less populated areas by designing the payout mechanism to cover a level of redundancy.
Joseph Denne: And to be fair, if there's no demand for a service in location X, then it wouldn't make any sense to have large capacity in that location. This is the central balance act that the market place for resources enables.
Follow up: **So why are we here? Why do you need a community? Decentralization? We are all here, living far away from England. Set 100 FN in London? Or give us a tool so that we can run HOST remotely in Europe/USA?
Joseph Denne: What gives you the impression that all network traffic is centered on London? It's not today and it won't be tomorrow.
Question 22
Of the 29 million dollars you raised, how much did you burn, how many (million?) dollars do you still have. What is your maximum runway given your current burn rate? What is the average salary at DADI in USD?
The average salary in DADI is a little over $69k USD per annum (£52k GBP).
Question 23
The price of $DADI is reaching ever lower lows. Do you care about this and your investors, or are you just going to use the money raised until you are fully out?
Joseph Denne: That's a funny question. We're all vested in the token, of course we care about its performance, but we're not here for a pump a dump: we are building a credible business and technology with long term value. A significant portion of the crypto space is a mirage, driven by speculation and valueless partnerships. We're focused on building real value, and are confident that this is the right strategy for attaining value growth for all involved.
Question 24
Could you make a separate announcement channel with more regular updates on founding node testing? With separate roadmap?
Joseph Denne: This is possible, although I don't want to distract the team too much from their already overloaded day to day. We'll chat about it after this session and will take a view.
Question 25
Could you explain the reason for the extended testing period? I assume there were unexpected challenges. And could you give an example?
James Lambie: The testing period was extended to allow us to monitor the Founding Nodes as they were plugged in around the world. The initial testing phase on the testnet gave us some excellent results but a lot of these devices were on different hardware and under our control. With Founding Nodes being set loose all over the globe where we had no control over them, we felt it necessary to extend the testing until we were happy with the results. "Unexpected challenges" didn't really come into the decision at all.
Follow up: But these nodes "around the world" are still very far away and will not receive 0-20% of the profits. Anyway, they will soon be turned off by people. It is not profitable?
Joseph Denne: Nodes earn on the basis of proof of work. If there's little work for them to do, there will be less nodes brought online, meaning that earning for those remaining will go up. This is the basic principle for balancing supply and demand at the heart of the network.
Question 26
Is there a marketing team busy with dev community development? Business partners are nice to have but the community is what gets you accepted as a mainstream development platform.
Joseph Denne: We've not switched on our developer engagement plan yet as we are focused on early adopters in the enterprise space. This is a deliberate strategy designed to provide us with case studies as well as to help to drive adoption in support of early node providers. We also see it as vital that services are available for self-serve ahead of broader marketing efforts in this space.
Question 27
In my country most television customers need a decoder for watching television. Any chance DADI can reach those telecom operators to integrate DADI within their devices? Is DADI working on some information framework to list required specification to integrate with the network, like some integration manual for hardware manufacturers/distributors?
James Lambie: Yes. We are working on integration with embedded devices and will be releasing more information in the coming months.
Question 28
Did DADI do research around interference with other network devices? For example, if I integrate DADI inside my Zigbee lightbulb, how do I integrate it without interfering with the Zigbee network?
Joseph Denne: We have research on this sort of thing happening internally, yes. But not currently for lightbulbs.
Question 29
Will DADI web front eventually become as fast as a Gatsbyjs static website?
James Lambie: Well, it depends on your use case. Web is not a static site generator but can cache the full HTML output for any page in a build, so effectively it can serve static content in the same way as a site built with a static site generator. However, the beauty of Web in conjunction with API is that the resulting site is somewhat more dynamic than a series of HTML pages.
Question 30
What, in your opinion, brings value to DADI? Why should developers not go with somebody like SONM and their CDN + JAMstack?
Arthur Mingard: There's no direct comparison really. The Edge network provides a managed service layer that responds to audience need and scales to meet demand. As a customer you have a relationship with the network – not with individual nodes. It's networking as a service (NaaS) – much more than a marketplace for computing resource.