we hosted an amazing AMA with Cudos on the 8th of July
And here we will put some of the best questions:
Q1) Can you please introduce yourself as well as Cudos ?
Sure, my name is Matt Hawkins, founder and CEO of Cudo and our blockchain network Cudos. I’m a long time tech entrepreneur, previously building cloud and network businesses,
Cudos is a cross-chain decentralized compute network being designed to power Web 3.0. It will enable anyone to sell their computing or consume decentralised computing resources either via blockchain/smart contract or via more traditional cloud computing API’s.
In essence, what this means is Cudos will be one of the few networks which can power other blockchains and scale to the demands of cloud computing required today.
The Airbnb of computing power for a new internet!
Our token carries the same name – CUDOS is a utility token with functionality including staking, payment and medium of exchange.
Q2) What are the advantages of Your project ?
The part that those here in the token community may not know, is that we have already scaled a significant distribution of hardware contributing to the ecosystem through our first application Cudo miner.
Now with the decentralised Cudos Network in the 1st testnet phase, our goal is to make this distributed hardware available to blockchain developers and consumers.
This is significant, as blockchain computing today is very expensive due to scalability issues and so limited to a small number of use cases only such as Defi. If we truly want mainstream adoption from many industries, then we need a solution to bring blockchain and cloud computing together, so those large cloud consumers running machine learning or video rendering workloads for example, can realise the benefits of blockchain, without having to compromise on the cost and scale benefits of cloud computing.
Cudos will become that solution.
Q3) please tell us about the goal you want to achieve in this year?
Our main goal is to launch the mainet this year. There are a number of earlier launches that will progress us towards this goal. These are:
Onchain staking
Public testnet.
Both of those stages are currently on track for this quarter with the staking launch date being announced within the next few weeks.
The first stage of the testnet, what we are calling ‘Cognitum’, is already live and we have invited the first 10 developers into our testing group to build and feedback. We’re starting to receive feedback from the first few developers within this group already and our team are working closely with them to ensure that as many creases are ironed out prior to the ‘Somniorum’ public testnet.
I’m very happy with the progress being made!
In terms of what we have achieved so far, we have built a supply network of hardware, these will form the compute nodes for the overall ecosystem. The Cudos network will link to this hardware. We have also built the Cudos block explorer and agreed the first 30 validators for the network.
Q4) Every project has a story behind their name, Can you tell us more about the story?
This question gets asked a lot and I’m always happy to answer it,
We put a lot of thought into the name, to make sure it had both meaning and is also easy to read and say for our global community.
The vision is to build a computing platform that utilises spare computing power to reduce the carbon footprint of new servers. To partner with companies that supply computing power to the network from renewable energy facilities. To ensure that every person and business that contributes computing power to the network, gets paid. And that any token holder that stakes or developer that launches their dApp on the network, gets a share of the network revenue. Lastly, we want our tech to be used for good, where those with spare compute can opt to donate it to charities/good causes.
We therefore decided on:
Cudo – latin for coin when used as a verb
Cudos – a play on ‘Kudos’ which means to give or receive praise. I.e. Cudos for your hard work and contribution.
And here we will put best questions from our members and Cudos fans:
Q1) What makes Cudos with its cloud computing service decentralized in itself? After all the Cudos network is built and controlled by one company – that being Cudos. We see Amazon, Miscrosoft etc and we say they are not decentralized but Cudos is. How can that be?
It is best to first explain the layers.
Cudos is a layer 1 blockchain with a layer 2 proof-of-stake network – Decentralised
Cudo is a layer 3 distributed computing network. A supply base made up of service providers with highly secure environments. Miners with highly specialised GPUs and gamers providing a consumer edge network.
Cudos will connect to Cudo for scalable cloud computing through the decentralised network.
Therefore end to end, Cudo or Cudos do not own any infrastructure. Similar to Airbnb for spare rooms. That means anybody can contribute to the network and therefore share the revenue.
Onto Cudos specifically:
Cudos is built using the Cosmos SDK and Tendermint architecture. This not only provides speed to market due to the well established building blocks available, but it also provides us with a protocol providing governance over the network.
In future releases we absolutely want our community to be able to vote on key decisions and also network healthiness… i.e. validators can be voted in and out based on performance, to ensure the network is always at it’s strongest.
At launch of the mainet I would say we will be 70-80% decentralised, over further releases this will increase to as close to 100% as possible as the community voting mechanisms mature.
Q2) For a project development first of all main priority is having enough fund. Does your team financially capable to run this project? Do you have enough fund for it is developement? Can you tell us that how your project generate the profit?
We took a different approach to this market and built a revenue generating application (Cudo miner) before launching a token and blockchain.
The revenue from Cudo miner has resulted in not only a scalable supply base, but we have also successfully made profit for the past 5 months in a row. A huge achievement, that I must thank our community and team for,
We are also well funded from both equity and token rounds, raising over $14m to date.
For highly strategic partners, our model is to make sure that they have ‘skin in the game’ i.e. they are invested into our business. A recent example is Animoca Brands who will accelerate our NFT and blockchain gaming use cases for the Cudos network.
Q3) Some NFTs are very rich in artistic value, however, how can you ensure that the NFTs showcased on your platform can meet customer demands and “needs”? Thus, can you explain in detail how you can evaluate NFT and connect artists with subscribers?
This is a great question. Cudos itself is a network for developers to build on and it will become a blockchain for new projects to launch on (token). Using the Tendermint architecture, there are a number of modules including NFT, oracles, governance, etc that we will support.
So for NFT’s specifically, whilst our network supports NFT issuance and we are bridging to Ethereum to support the ERC 771 token format, the creation of NFTs or the developers of NFT marketplaces will be users of the network rather than ourselves. Our focus is on building the foundation and providing the tools for these developers/consumers.
Liquidity is of course important for a network to succeed with use case like NFTs. We are therefore working with a number of exciting projects and platforms that already have an NFT user base. Whilst I cannot share details yet, the use cases stretch across entertainment and sports.
Q4) What kind of information will the Oracle of CUDOS provide to the blockchain in general? Will it be only be used in order to know the price of other cryptos or some further implementations?
This is another module within the Tendermint protocol that will be available to developers building on our network.
The purpose of Cudos is to provide the network to build on and therefore the data oracles will be other projects. We have already announced Kylin Network for example.
https://medium.com/cudos/the-kylin-network-is-next-to-join-cudos-2acd6f5e2d9b
We are also experimenting with compute oracles.
Q5) Among the advantages of Cudos in the market are more than 500,000 TFLOPS of computing power, thus representing great performance. Explain why so efficient and economical? In terms of security, what security privileges do you provide to customers?
I hope everybody here has there reading glasses on, as this is a long answer. However, it will provide valuable insight to your question,
Cudos Network is a special-purpose blockchain designed to provide high-performance, trustless, and permissionless cloud computing for all. Consensus on the network is achieved through the use of the Tendermint Core and its Byzantine Fault Tolerant Proof of Stake (DPoS) algorithm.
In addition to leveraging Tendermint Core, the Cudos Network is supported by the Cosmos SDK within the Cosmos Hub zone, in order to achieve high throughput, availability, and security.
The Cosmos Hub is a shared security zone within the Cosmos ecosystem that guarantees each special purpose blockchain derived from Cosmos, including the Cudos Network, benefits from the highest levels of security and development support from its robust open-source community of users. The promise of compute, which is core to the Cudos Network’s mission, is also expanded beyond Cosmos-based blockchains, through the use of bespoke bridges and cryptographic approaches to cross-chain interoperability.
While Ethereum is the first Layer-1 blockchain we plan to interoperate during our Mainnet launch, we plan to expand our compute offering to an ever wider array of DLT networks. On the Cudos Network, developers, individuals and businesses will be able to deploy next generation smart contracts that leverage Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and Ethereum Web Assembly(eWasm)-based smart contracts with equal security assurances to traditional blockchain networks, but with the added benefits of faster transaction speed, fundamentally lower transaction costs, and the ability to design special purpose workflows that extend beyond the current limitations of Solidity as a smart contract design language.
This includes the pioneering ability to embed high performance compute workflows into the very fabric of the next generation of blockchain smart contracts, unlocking an extensive array of additional use cases.
This higher level of performance and security is made possible thanks to the Cudos blockchain’s ability to leverage a strong community of validators with robust node infrastructure, who in turn assure users of the Cudos Network a high level of confidence in the various enterprise and developer use cases that are subsequently deployed on the network.
What makes the Cudos Network stand out from other blockchains is the deep level of integration for high performance compute capacity at the very core of the network.Validators, meaning individuals who have financially committed funds through a process known as staking, notarize, and in fact validate, every transaction proposed onto the network with high availability and trust levels that are assessed in a real-time and predictive manner.
The Cudos Network rewards the most performant validators with predictable income streams and rapidly removes bad actors from its Proof of Stake network in order to assure a greater level of security for all participants.
The combination of these factors, incentivise any individual today, from financial investors to data-center or compute infrastructure providers, to interact reliably on the Cudos network to either buy or sell compute capacity at scale.
Validators and Rewards Validators play a special role in the Cudos Network’s day to day workings. They validate blocks, perform complex security checks on proposed transactions, interact with other stakeholders in various Governance votes that ensure the network’s security, integrity and viability on an ongoing basis. In addition to this, the Cudos Network’s bespoke architecture provides metering and high performance compute in a programmatic manner which heavily depends on the network’s validators being highly available, highly performant, and retain their bona fides as good actors over time.
I appreciate that was quite a technical answer, so thank you for bearing with me whilst I shared it with you all!
Q6) Has any audit been done by your project? how secure is to use your platform tell us about adopted security measures?what steps will you take so that your security can last in the long term?
All smart contracts have been and will continue to be audited by a recognised 3rd party.
Platform is highly secure through the use of Tendermint (Byzantine Fault Tolerant), each validator sits behind a firewall and has anti-DDoS. We are also working with AMD on their SEV tech and Intel with SGX (both are memory encryption). The layer 3 network (Cudo) offers supply from highly secure and compliant data centre environments. We use containerisation for workloads. Long answer further up.
Q7) Could you explain some of the Recent. Major achievements of your project. partnerships and long-term plans?
Recently launched the first Cognitum testnet, inviting the first 10 developers in to test the build process. We have also completed the block explorer, wallet integration and in the process of integrating IBC and the Gravity bridge to Ethereum.
Q8) As your mission is to empower people and organisations to earn by contributing to the world’s computing and making it cheaper and more sustainable. So,can you tell us how will you achieve this mission? In what way people can contribute to the world ‘s computing technology?
Anybody or any business are able to contribute computing power to the network and be paid for their computing power. This is currently under the skin of Cudo miner, but we are also working with large partners such as AMD that will push our tech out to new audiences either under their brand or integrated into their applications.
Holders of tokens will be able to stake and earn yield for helping us to secure the network. They will also earn a share of the network transaction fees once we launch mainet. This also applies to validators.
Q9) -What are your community, growing plans?
-Do you have other community, apart from english?
Community is key!
Absolutely, we have just signed a contract with a very well known PR agency regarded as number 1 in the blockchain space. We are also onboarding an influencer group to help spread the word further via social media and YouTube. We are also boosting platforms such as Reddit and using Cointelegraph for major announcements.
We currently have multiple language communities including Chinese (WeChat), Korean, Spanish, French…. All in all there are 12 languages supported.
Q10) Adoption is a challenge for any blockchain project, especially in this sensitive period of the entire market when many blockchain projects die because only a few are using their platform. What is your team’s strategy and vision on this issue?
A successful network is one that creates a network effect. The more users, the more value locked into the network, the more successful the network. So everything we do looks to how we can secure more users. We therefore incentivise everyone from suppliers of hardware, token holders, developers, stakers and validators. Everyone gets a share.
From a business development perspective, we focus on strategic partners. Those with existing users. AMD, Ultra, Animoca Brands and so on.
Q11) I’m a developer, and I’m interested in contributing to your project alongsides earning, Do you have any Bug Bounty to check for vulnerabilities ?
Our new dev relations manager is currently setting up a bug bounty program. We will announce this via our community once launched.
As a developer, the public testnet is also nearing launch this quarter and you will have the chance to build for yourself and test Cudos.
And this was the end of our AMA with Cudos.
If you have any other questions you can ask here:
ℹ️ℹ️ Useful links ℹ️ℹ️
Website :- http://cudos.org/
Medium :- https://medium.com/cudos
Twitter :- https://twitter.com/CUDOS_
Linked :- https://www.linkedin.com/company/cudos1/
YouTube :- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbS48Q09D5xMDCVX0T_OeCw