Dan kicked off the weekly AMA discussion with updates from his side of things. As he has mentioned several times in previous AMA’s, there is a lot of work being done to pursue exchange listings and partnerships. Because this type of work takes time, details for future exchanges and/or partnerships can not be publicly discussed until all the parties have come to an agreement and paperwork has been signed. Dan encouraged the community to remain patient as the team hashes out the details for these exchanges and partnerships. That being said, Dan was able to share that there are currently four exchanges (Tier 1 and 2) that the team is talking with to get Ergo integrated and listed on their platforms. He also spoke of the ongoing development of trustless bridges that are needed to list Ergo on major DEXs but reminded the audience that this work is methodical and takes time to properly execute. There will be more to reveal in the coming months as these bridges near completion and agreements are finalized.
With regards to partnerships, Dan informed the community that there are several major partnerships currently being negotiated and some are close to being finalized. He is particularly excited about how these announcements will prove to be fruitful for the ecosystem and utilize the full power of Ergo.
Dan hinted that at least one of the partnerships addresses education initiatives. As the team continues to build education products, Dan was pleased to announce that they are working on a curriculum in cooperation with a well-known accredited education institution. The goal of this collaboration is to build a program for people to advance their skills while also attracting new people to the Ergo ecosystem. As this partnership evolves, Dan believes that these education initiatives will be incredibly important for promoting and marketing Ergo to a wider audience.
As Dan continued to discuss marketing, he updated the community that the team is actively working on the rebranding of Ergo. This was mentioned in previous AMA’s but Dan repeated how important this work is for the future or Ergo. The website is undergoing some tweaking and they are putting together materials with the goal of making the website more accessible and efficient. This work will take a few months but announcements will be made when the new website is ready to be launched.
Concluding his opening address, Dan said he will personally be working on helping to design several commercial products for the ecosystem that will be geared towards attracting new business and users. In tandem with these products, Dan will be working to help establish an Ergo ecosystem fund for the purposes of encouraging more development on Ergo. Dan revealed he has several contacts at funding institutions and that this type of fund is a priority for the team in order to encourage more commercial activities and ecosystem development.
Armeanio and Alex also offered some opening comments to the community during this AMA. Aremeanio reminded everyone about the upcoming ErgoHack and expressed his Christmas wish list includes possible stealth pools and “mixicles” on Ergo. Alex updated the audience about the ongoing discussions for the emission soft fork proposal and expects to speak with mining pools in the next round of talks. He also discussed new wallets and a new efficient scheme that will be applied in the development of ErgoTeam. With regards to Ledger support, he reassured listeners that he is pushing developers to provide Ledger support for more than just the Yoroi Ergo wallet. Talking more about Yoroi, he expects the dApp connector soon but most of the work right now is about improving the Yoroi user experience. In his closing comments, Alex also informed the community that there is a new node release coming with updates that include aspects for improving use with mobile devices.
AMA Questions and Summary
The following is a summary of questions posed by the audience during this AMA. Last week Dan, Armeanio and Alex answered questions on Ergo’s soft fork proposal, Sigma Protocols, tokens on ErgoDEX, YouTube influencers, and the comparisons between Ergo and Bitcoin. The community expresses their appreciation for Armeanio and Dan questions who might actually be the Muffin Man. To view the full AMA, please head over to Ergo’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlEZOm61oMY
When will be the final vote for the softfork proposal?
Answered by Joe Armeanio
- Just had discussion with the community recently
- As this information now sits with the community for a little while, expect more feedback: pros, cons, oppositions, etc
- He thought discussion was a little lighter than expected
- Expects some concerns to come up
- Everything will need to run on testnet before any possible changes
- Wants to get a lot of clarity from the community and miners
- This is a big choice - for or against, please offer your feedback
Answered by Alex Chepurnoy
- Developers need to know there is support
- There are different opinions and it is important - those voices matter
- EIP-27 is published and have had community chat
- Next step is to talk with pools
- Spoke of other soft fork proposal
Can you explain Sigma Protocols in less than 30 seconds?
Answered by Alex Chepurnoy
- They are efficient zero knowledge proofs
- You have a small language and you can express something in this language without revealing your secrets
Answered by Joe Armeanio
- They are light zero knowledge proofs
- Allows one to build “and/or” conjectures
- Build a series of logic that allows you to have certain conditions met in order to advance through a multi-stage contract in ErgoScript
- Allows one to have information shared without disclosing the secret involved
- and/or conjectures, when built on top of each other - you have the ability to build conditions that need to be met
- In ErgoScript, smart contracts are pathways of conditionality
When can we list tokens on ErgoDEX?
Answered by Alex Chepurnoy
- Some are already listed
- SigRSV, SigUSD, Kushti, Erdoge, etc
- Not able to custom pool yet - it is coming
- Contact ErgoDEX developers
- They are looking to add tokens going forward
Answered by Joe Armeanio
- It is possible to get scammed with community tokens
- Need to be careful
- Some way to protect users would be a good thing
Some people say Ergo is like Bitcoin 2.0. Do you agree? Can you elaborate?
Answered by Joe Armeanio
- Hard to say
- “Bitcoin is kind of a religion these days”
- Wondered if the question may be referring to the early open community of Bitcoin
- It was open and inviting
- People were excited
- How can we change the world?
- Likes that about the Ergo community
Answered by Alex Chepurnoy
- Ergo shares first principles with Bitcoin
- A bit tricky to talk about first principles but that is how he interprets it
- Technically, one could think of Ergo as a kind of Bitcoin 2.0 - true P2P network, UTXO model, etc
- A lot of differences though - Ergo is more scalable, has NiPoPoWs, possibilities for light clients
Maybe you guys could reach out to some of the bigger YouTube channels to get the word out on Ergo?
Answered by Dan Friedman
- One of our main objectives is to spread the word about Ergo
- Put together extensive marketing plan
- More PR in mainstream crypto media is coming
- About other YouTube channels - yes, we should reach out to YouTube influencers.
- Need to be careful who we reach out to
- Some influencers are great
- Other influencers often pump profits rather than talk about the technical capabilities of a token
- Not interested in being told to buy something because it will make him a millionaire
- Quality matters more than quantity
- Wants quality people joining the ecosystem
- If a price pumps inorganically without products and services to back up the valuation, it can tank just as fast as it rises
- Need a sustained movement to building continued value in the ecosystem
- Working with several quality influencers to try and promote Ergo
- Good influencers want to be convinced on why a project is good
- Wants to attract those who are asking the questions about why Ergo
Have been discussing emission calculation changes with Chris Ray of ErgoLend. Can you break down the difference?
Answered by Alex Chepurnoy
- There is a chart on Ergo Watch website that shows current emission
- Contains an EIP chart as well
- Impressed by how quickly this was done
- You can find this in the Reddit discussion from the the 23rd
- Next step to discuss with pools
Answered by Joe Armeanio
- It is an interesting proposal on the table
- He tries to stay neutral
- On one side have non-outsourceable puzzles that have a workaround via smart contract
- That changes the type of miner that participates in the Ergo ecosystem
- non-outsourceable puzzles cater more to people who support infrastructure
- With mining pools - different mindset
- Not as incentivized to support ways of creating different income
- Good to have debate on this topic
How is the marketing agency doing?
Answered by Dan Friedman
- Doing well
- Have outlined a plan of action with them
- Executing that plan in the next year after it is formalized in the next few days
- Community will see a lot of buzz and media about Ergo once it is executed
