Today, we’ve kicked off our second AMA session. This time, we took a closer look at DigiByte, an innovative blockchain used for digital assets, smart contracts, dApps and secure authentication that has become one of the fastest and safest blockchains in the crypto space.
Our guest for today was Josiah Spackman, Chief Fun Officer and the voice of the DigiByte community.
Continuous improvement, while staying true to our roots, staying honest, and acting with integrity is what makes DigiByte unique.
Q1: Did the DigiByte team already know that DGB was going to be as successful as it is today seven years ago?
Ah, no, not really. It's funny talking with Jared [Tate] about it… He wasn't actually sure when he first launched it, he'd been tinkering with the Bitcoin codebase but frankly wasn't sure how it would go. Thankfully, we've had some speedbumps along the way which have resulted in awesome stuff like DigiShield being created, then MultiAlgo, and I'm so excited for the future upgrades coming with DigiByte v8.
Q2: What are the pillars of DigiByte as a crypto project and what makes $DGB unique?
I think that the fact these pillars are semi-flexible. So, we've always been about improving on Bitcoin, right? Being faster, better, stronger, but it's not enough to just stop there, rest on our laurels and go "Hey, we did this, we're good now, let's all pack up and go home". That continuous improvement, while staying true to our roots, staying honest, and acting with integrity is what makes DigiByte unique.
Q3: A couple of days ago, you’ve presented DGB Data — a website for hashing files and storing hashes onto the DGB blockchain. What was and is the goal behind the project? If you were to elaborate on the use of it for noobs to understand, how would you explain it? What are your plans in terms of developing it?
Ha-ha, I saw a need and basically wanted to fill it, I suppose. The goal with this is to allow for verification and validation of documents — their authenticity but at a basic level. I wanted something simple that even my mother (sorry, mum, for picking on you like this), who's non-techie, could go along, use it and basically save the hash of her Will on the blockchain so that we know in the future that it's unaltered and untampered with. The same goes for Insurance Policies and other things. I also wanted to add improvements to it so that you can verify ownership of digital artwork, for example, but somebody else is looking like they're going to take over the website and continue doing even more improvements.
Q4: DigiByte is now live through renDGB on the Ethereum blockchain. What opportunities does this collaboration open up for DigiByte in a decentralized setting and, most importantly, for its users? Are there any plans to foster ties with other projects to bolster DGB’s utility?
Yes, there are. Oh, so many, and they're all the ones that people would probably want to be utilizing. It's not set in stone but I know that discussions are definitely taking place. Stay tuned ‘cause if you're into DeFi, then DGB is coming thick and fast to all your favorite places from what I've seen in discussions. Disclaimer: nothing is set in stone until it's released, of course, but just wanted to leave some encouragement there for people who are interested!
Q5: NFTs have undoubtedly managed to establish themselves as the hottest topic of this year, with entrepreneurs, artists, sportspeople and celebrities jumping on the bandwagon. Even the DigiByte documentary was minted as an NFT. What do you personally think of the NFT market?
Yeah, like, we're only 3 months into 2021, and NFTs are basically all the rage. Like the ICO days of 2017, right? And yeah, I think that was cool as well about the Doco [documentary] being an NFT. I think it's cool and has a long way to go.
Fun fact: I was actually in talks with a major USA-based sports team back in 2018 about utilizing DigiByte / Digi-ID in their stadium but, unfortunately, they wanted $$$$$ [lots of money] that we simply didn't have. However, one of the things we were looking at was going to be doing, like, Digi-ID for authentication and then using NFTs down the line for trading-cards and the likes.
Can you imagine doing trading-cards of like your favorite sports player? Having it flash up on the jumbotron going "Quickly grab your DigiByte app and scan this QR code for a free in-person only limited-edition trading-card"? ‘Cause that's what trading-cards on the blockchain are, right? NFTs. This is just like those old X-men trading cards or MBL cards I used to have as a kid. The difference for kids of tomorrow is that they'll trade NFTs on their phones instead.
I would love to have a few NFTs of both actors and sports players in the past, like Jonah Lomu. He was a Kiwi Rugby player who was a legend — it would take 3-5 guys to tackle him and get him down. I'd love some Marvel NFTs, too, like Iron Man, he's my favorite. And Anna Kendrick, she's my favorite, would love an NFT of her, too.
Q6: Do you see the DigiAssetX project becoming a widely used tool for NFT creation since DigiAssets can be used to represent anything from cars and wills to paintings and songs? Can you tell us a bit more about the platform and the DigiAssets v3.x release? Is DigiByte going to partner up with other teams or projects to make it more accessible?
Well yeah, we've already had the Paccoin guys saying they were gonna be doing an IPFS integration for us. To be honest, I'm not actually sure where that was at but I should chase them. I know that Matthew [Cornelisse] has been working hard on the DigiAssetX site, enabling a bunch of cool additional stuff, too, and further redundancy / decentralization through IPFS. Big shout out to Matthew and thank you for all that you do in the Support channel, too. He's amazing.
One of the really cool things about DigiAssets is that we've got an "MVP" [Minimum Viable Product] release already and the wallet can basically be taken, white-labelled, stripped back, and rebranded by any company. Like, can you imagine a NFL-themed DigiByte wallet with their NFTs as a focus? It's not something that's coming (well, to my knowledge), but just letting you know possibilities and the likes.
Q7: HUMBL Financial launched the BLOCK ETXs and included DigiByte, providing the project with exposure in 40 countries. Do you happen to know what the team wants to accomplish and what's DigiByte's role in this collaboration?
Ah, yeah, so, the team there with BLOCK has been around for a while and it's super cool to see this all coming to fruition. One of the things that we really want to do is get DigiByte on all the exchanges that the BLOCK ETXs are on, for even greater exposure, and the HUMBL team has been great with that.
Q8: The community’s eager to know what to expect from the next core update, specifically the 8.20 release, which promises to be one of the biggest releases the project has ever done. When will we be able to see it live?
Ah, that's a great question. One of the things the devs wanted to do was go through a very refined development and review process, given the expansive adjustments that are being made in DigiByte version 8. We're actually also looking to do it based off 0.21, as well now given that's released from Bitcoin.
There are SO many things we're packing into it though, and I can't wait to share more. We've even got a website underway already that we have all these improvements and enhancements detailed / listed on. No ETA, unfortunately, but a good chunk of it is already done and you can compile it at github.com under the develop and other trees.
Q9: We certainly cannot avoid the sacred topic of mass adoption. In your opinion, what are the catalysts that could accelerate global $DGB adoption and lead to an influx of new users?
- NFTs, giving people a reason to want to hold DigiByte (like, to use it as gas to power sending those DigiAssets).
- Cleaning up the scams / shams / shady parts of the industry.
- Translations. We're really good at that, thank you to the community.
- Making things even more noob-friendly.
- Giving people an easy and accessible way to get their hands on DigiByte (thanks, Swapzone).
- Media talking about it, and people sitting around the dinner table discussing it, why it’s important, and frankly things like the USA stimulus checks help too.
- Blood, sweat and tears from an army of dedicated volunteers.
Q10: Is DigiByte interested in the institutional adoption of DGB? Would the team want to see government bodies use the DGB blockchain or the currency? And since more and more companies and big players invest in crypto, do you see DGB as an investment vehicle?
Yeah, absolutely! One of the beautiful things about DigiByte is that it's a permissionless blockchain and anyone can use it to do anything, including governments. We even did a bit of a Medium post back in the day about the use of DigiByte in Venezuela and things, which was really awesome, so it makes a ton of sense.
I think there are so many reasons why a company (say, Tesla) would want to have DigiByte, not just to sit on or keep it on the books, you know, like BTC, but to actually USE and help their business with.
You can check out the proposal document in English here and in Spanish here.
Q11: The DigiByte community, mentioned by you many times already even during our session, is definitely the driving force of the entire project. How would you describe those people that use, support and contribute to the network? Is there any formula DigiByte found to be able to create such a flourishing, altruistic and dedicated community?
Passion – I think that's probably the common denominator there with the community. Passion and a desire to help, not just help each other, but to help push the project forwards. I think actually not having any kind of ICO and the likes separates DigiByte and the followers quite a lot. ‘Cause they can't be here for ICO dollars. They're here for the project (even if it's price appreciation for the project), and not for that quick buck. So the motives there actually end up being purer as a result.
Q12: Does Digi-ID actually have a chance to be used by the EU for personal accounts to keep track of citizens?
Yeah, for sure, the AntumID team are from that part of the world. Plus, they were doing some cool stuff with the COVID-tracer app over there, too. It was integrated into, like, their IRS equivalent website or something, I think. It was really cool to see.
Q13: Let's talk about the role of “identity” in the booming world of DeFi. Since some projects strive for anonymity, do you think it’s possible for a platform to build a reputation and gain trust while remaining completely anonymous?
Yeah, actually, I do. Not just specifically on, like, DeFi or DAOs, but in general, there are ways you can do it, even just for a Twitter profile, etc. I was looking at buying a domain name recently and there are services you can use that you don't have to sign up for. I reckon anonymity is going to be a key role for the kids of the future, the "right to be forgotten". And I think that having a virtual identity is really gonna help with that.
So you'll be "you" but a persona, not "you". Which is funny, given I'm me and just... well, me! [laughing] You want to google for me and you find me or my Chilling_Silence [accounts]. It's tough, though, ‘cause how do you build trust in a pseudonym?..
Q14: Now, zooming out into the crypto space in general. What do you think the space will witness in 2021?
More memes from Elon and Blazzord [laughing]. I think we're going to see a lot of people trying to take advantage of people’s good natures, too, which sucks, but I think from that we can build a better community / space. This is actually what my next DigiBYte and Friends is going to be about: improving the space, looking forward into 2021 and beyond.
How can we grow this space if there are so many scams going on and people getting ripped off? It does nothing for any form of longevity in terms of the platform, price appreciation, and also encourages government oversight which we don't really want. So yeah, self-policing, I think, will play a huge role.
Q15: What does the future hold for DigiByte? Are there any plans or announcements you’d like to share with the community?
DigiByte 8 is the future! There's so much going on already there, we're basically just waiting on the codebase review process, and I can't wait to get it onto a Testnet. Let me give you some examples of what's coming. (Here's a sneak peak from the blurbs I've been writing for a DigiByte 8-specific website that'll be used to teach people about DigiByte v8 and what's new.)
Please note that none of these things are finalized yet, however, this is some of the stuff that the devs have been working on. This all naturally needs to go through the development review process, some of the things may be rejected, for example, but still, this will give you a bit of an idea of all the stuff they've been doing.
Additionally, there’s a significant number of DigiByte-specific improvements that we’ve baked into DigiByte 8:
DigiByte 8 has a much faster initial synchronizationSync now finds and pulls from multiple peers
Sync now prefers faster performing peers (unrelated to latency)
Batch less headers for faster sync
Implemented -quickindex (enabled by default) to provide significantly faster startups
Caching of nChainWork
Replaced hashmap with btree
Removed RBF (Replace-by-Fee)
Dandelion optimizations to work with new mempool / retransmissions
Reworked QT-themes
Tidied build process
Built-in test scripts now all succeed
Code refactoring to streamline future upgrades
Schnorr Signatures
Improved emissions curve for miners
Added getalgostats rpc call
Improvements for generatetoaddress rpc call
Again, those aren't specifically guaranteed, they need to go through all the code-review process but it's some of the stuff that the devs have been working on! So, things like improving the emissions curve. Check it out, go let us know your thoughts and contribute to the next great release of DigiByte, which is shaping up to be the biggest release so far!
