I. Development of the in Southeast Asia
Tangent：How is the industry developing in Southeast Asia? What is the leading project in Southeast Asia? Is there any difference in development in Southeast Asia and development in or the USA?
Ben：The industry is developing rapidly here in Southeast Asia and it is a topic on most agendas when technical parties meet and even appears in frequent government addresses. A huge commitment toward understanding the technology and how it works seems to be a common theme across the region.
As for who is the leading project in the Southeast Asia, it is very hard to answer and to remain fair to all the projects here, many of which are still in progress or being built out. I obviously have a bias toward the technology of Komodo as it is an end to end platform and is extremely close to achieving all of its promised goals. There really are too many to mention and yet they still have a long way to go to catch some of the more prominent ones from and neighbouring regions.
definitely move at different paces in , America and the Southeast Asia. As we are still in the ‘coin/’ phase, it has made things a bit trickier for both and the USA, but both seeing the huge potential have some large scale projects under their belts already. I think the theme for SEA as a whole is that the technology is extremely powerful and can be useful in disrupting legacy business models, enhancing existing models and solving problems in SEA businesses in general. Nobody wants to miss out on the movement and I believe SEA now takes an extremely progressive approach to development.
Tangent: How much do people in Southeast Asia know about the ? What is the city where is most accepted and promoted in Southeast Asia?
Ben: As is the thirst for new information and content within SEAs younger population, so too is the desire to learn about all things . With an audience of 104 million people aged between 25 and 34, there is huge interest in and what it does. Obviously the interest is still largely gravitational toward the investment side of things, but the technical knowledge is definitely improving.
Again, this question can be answered on a number of different levels. Singapore has to still be considered the front runner and continually appears in the top 3 locations on earth for fundraising for new projects. Each country in the region is at different stages of development, and legislation, but we firmly believe with the huge base of technical talent in Vietnam, that it will become a significant player in the coming years.
Tangent：How do governments in Southeast Asia think about ? Do their policies support or oppose the technology?
Ben：I am very surprised by the strong attention and support of the governments of Southeast Asia giving to the . This is definitely one of the most supported areas in the world for the development of technology.
However, the attitude towards digital currency is more complicated, and the tolerance of different governments toward digital currency varies. Some countries are worried that digital currencies will subvert their legal currency systems. For example, in Vietnam, you can’t use and to pay for drinking at the bar and eating in the restaurant, because it is illegal; but in Bangkok, Thailand, some Bars and restaurants have begun to support payments.
In general, the Southeast Asian government is more cautious about digital currencies than . But we all know that is born with digital currency, and it’s hard to separate them completely. Governments always want things that are good for their own development, and reject those that are bad for their development. However, the advantages are often accompanied by disadvantages. In dealing with unfavorable things, government policies vary from country to country.
Tangent：In your mind， what is the benefit that can bring to Southeast Asia?
Ben：There are so many obvious benefits, from logistics and supply chains in populous cities, right through to micro-payments and access to the internet economy for the unbanked and underserved. As far as I know, some ports have begun to use technology to handle customs operations.
What I need to explain in particular is that, unlike countries like the United States and , the basic financial system in Southeast Asia is still relatively weak. Not everyone has bank cards or credit cards, so these people cannot enjoy full coverage of financial services. Therefore, I believe that the is promising in improving basic financial services in Southeast Asia. Things like digital currencies and wallets will bring innovation to the financial industry in the region.
Realistically this technology is only limited by our imaginations and legislation. We believe the emerging markets of SEA stand to gain a tremendous amount of benefit from the implementation of technology.
II. Komodo
Tangent: As the information I get from the official website, Komodo serves a custom for the enterprise. Do you have your own public chain? What is the role of KMD in the ecosystem?
Ben: Komodo allows people to create their own independent , which are clones of the Komodo . By creating a chain through Komodo you inherit all the associated features and benefits such as Komodos 4 pillars, which include, security — against 51% attacks, scalability — the ability to scale without the inherent problems other chains face in scaling, Interoperability — being largely language agnostic means most chains are compatible with Komodo and Adaptability — Allowing anyone to use the technology Komodo provides through its continued focus on development.
Tangent: What are the applications that Komodo already has? Which entities have partnered with Komodo in SEA? Who adopted your underlying Technology?
Ben: Komodo is most famous for its ability to protect against 51% attacks by using dPoW (delayed Proof of Work). This allows chains to have a snapshot taken each minute and every 10 minutes the Komodo notary nodes write this information back to the . These smaller chains then get the hash rate benefit and protection of both Komodo and , meaning an attacker must simultaneously take down the chain in question, Komodo and .
Komodo is also well known for Crypto Conditions Smart contracts which are only limited by the coders imagination. These are next generation smart contracts that can be multi-layered without the dependency on gas or congestion issues. These have already been used to solve a number of issues and will feature in Komodos next generation of products.
It has also been announced that Komodo will soon release the first mobile DEX and also offer almost instantaneous chain creation through is partnership with AWS. Komodo is the first project in the space to obtain an advanced technology agreement with AWS.
Many projects have now used the underlying Komodo technology with Verus, Pirate and a number of others leading the charge.
Tangent: How large is Komodo’s current team size? How many developers are there in the team?
Ben:Komodo boasts more than 40 staff members and is truly a global affair. There are more than 20 developers and the about the Komodo opensource and consensus driven environment, means that almost anyone can contribute to the development of the ecosystem. So although we have a core team and staff anyone contributing to the development of the ecosystem is effectively a Komodo developer.
III. RedFOX Labs
Tangent: I saw a brief introduction about RedFOX Labs. This organisation is based in Southeast Asia and aims to accelerate the of through incubation and consulting services. Will RedFOX Labs invest by itself? If so how much money does RedFOX Labs have now?
Ben: RedFOX Labs is a venture capitalist focused on inspiring startups in Southeast Asia. However, RedFOX Labs won’t actually invest in other companies at this stage.
RedFOX will do consulting business and education business at this stage. In addition, RedFOX is a technology platform that provides customized services for businesses that want to use technology immediately. RedFOX is based on Komodo, and they share the same CTO. But unlike Komodo, RedFOX’s code is not all open-source, and the services provided to the enterprise will be more mature, which fit their needs. For example, if some companies want to build an internal alliance chain, it’s suitable for them cooperates with RedFOX. RedFOX also has its own . The more people use the RedFOX platform, the higher the value of their will be.
When it comes to foreign investment, the investment we are making is on the ideas we have. We then find qualified local teams to run these companies and then we retain a share of the equity. Our role is to identify opportunities in the Internet Economy for the emerging markets of SEA and then determine how can not only bring those services to more people, but to do so in a seamless way. That is what we invest in.
Tangent: What would RedFOX Labs do to educate people in Southeast Asia to let them have a deeper understanding of technology? Who is your main audience target?
Ben: Education is a big part of what we need to do to reach mass . However we are making it easier to learn as instead of us making it so that people must learn technology, we are providing this tech in the package of products and services that people are already well familiar with.
We of course will speak at events, host meet-ups and work with government bodies not only on education but helping to form legislation. Our main audience from a company and product perspective are the 104 million people aged 25 to 34 in the region and the next generation coming through, but from an education perspective we aim to help everyone understand the technology and more importantly, show them what it can do.
You know, there are a lot of scams on the in Southeast Asia. Some people claim that they can solve a problem which in fact cannot be solved in fact. And they issue coins to stole millions of dollars from the ordinary investors. At last, a lot of people believe their story, and finally get fooled! They really need to be educated.
Currently, Southeast Asia lacks excellent developers. But as more and more technicians turn to this field, I believe that you will soon see the names of Southeast Asian developers in some excellent projects. In addition, we will also cooperate with some universities and research institutions in Southeast Asia. (A research institute has more than 200 researchers who do academic research, but I miss its name..)
Tangent: Why does RedFOX Labs choose games and finance as the primary incubation target? What do you think about the future of games and finance?
Ben: We actually focus on the 4 fastest growing sectors in the Internet economy which include e-commerce, e-media, e-travel and ride-hailing (supply and logistics). We believe gaming is a huge vertical as it has an almost fanatical base here in SEA and e-sports has been acknowledged as a sport in the 2022 Asian games. We believe that there is massive growth, opportunity and potential in gaming and it is a perfect showcase of the technology and what it can do.
Finance plays a big role in inclusion for many young SEAs and we believe this will be one of the industries that can disrupt the most. We have a few businesses selected that we can offer greater inclusion and also disrupt legacy models that exist. We also believe we can solve some of the inherent problems through the use of .
Published at Tue, 30 Apr 2019 03:39:28 +0000
