BlockTalks x xDai AMA Transcript!
Hello! BlockTalkers & Blockchain Enthusiastic!
We recently hosted an AMA with xDai, on 27th May 1.30PM UTC. Many of you might have participated or many of not. But we make sure no one missed out from the knowledge shared by Igor Barinov,Tech & Operation lead at xDai & Andrew, Technical writer at xDai. So here we are up with AMA transcript, for those who missed the live session, this blog post will be saver & feeder of knowledge for them.
Introduction Question Asked By BlockTalks
Q1. Could you please introduce xDai to our community in layman’s term?
Ans — xDai is a stable payments Ethereum-based chain. It is connected to the Ethereum Mainnet through the TokenBridge. Using this bridge, Dai stable tokens are converted into xDai tokens on the xDai chain. This means xDai tokens have a 1:1 value with Dai stable tokens….
On the xDai chain, users can take send and receive xDai very quickly and with very low fees, and any fees that are paid are stable. They don’t change based on network congestion or other issues. The chain is also scalable to handle increased volume as needed.
The STAKE token is separate from xDai and is used to protect chain consensus. Validators commit a large amount of STAKE into a contract and agree that their nodes will produce blocks correctly and follow the rules. If they are successful and follow the rules, they receive additional STAKE as rewards. If they do not follow the rules, they are banned from the protocol for 90 days and their STAKE is locked and unavailable to withdraw…
Other community members can also delegate, or place STAKE on validators they would like to see running nodes in the network. Validators are selected each week based on how much STAKE is in their pools (STAKE they have provided as well as STAKE delegators have provided) as well as a random number, which makes sure the selection process is fair.
Q2. What are the advantages of xDai to other alternatives in the market?
Ans — Besides speed and costs, the fact that xDai is a stable chain is a big advantage. Projects can plan for transaction costs, and users only need to use 1 token when making transactions….
It is also completely compatible with Ethereum. Devs can easily port over contracts and develop as they would on Ethereum. They can also bridge resources back and forth. This is an advantage over other delegated staking protocols that are not Ethereum compatible….
Now that xDai is becoming permissionless with POSDAO, it will provide a decentralized & permissionless chain for stable transactions, the first of its kind.
Q3. What are the major milestones xDai achieved so far & what are in future pipeline?
Ans — We are really focused on the transition to public POSDAO (our new consensus) staking in August 2020. This will be a shift to a completely permissionless network. We are heads down on creating a great UI so that anyone can stake into the protocol (with STAKE!).
Once public staking is in place, we will be working to support devs creating great DApps on xDai, with a focus on privacy, interactivity, adoption and stable applications.
We invite you to check out our roadmaps for more info:
xDai roadmap: https://www.xdaichain.com/about-xdai/roadmap
- Staking roadmap: https://www.xdaichain.com/for-stakers/stake-and-staking
Question Asked on Twitter For xDai!
Q1. How does xDai Chain & xDai Bridge work? What is the role of validators for these two?
Ans — The TokenBridge is used to create the xDai stable coin on the xDai chain. The bridge has a few different modes, and the ERC20 to Native mode is used for xDai functionality. Dai is an ERC20 token, it is locked in the bridge contract and the same amount of xDai, the native stablecoin, is minted on the xDai chain. It is used here for fast, inexpensive stable transactions, then a user can bridge it back to the mainnet. xDai is burned and Dai is unlocked. The Dai to xDai transfer cycle is always in motion — the amount of xDai changes regularly as users move Dai into and off of the xDai chain.
There is a UI for users to transfer Dai <-> xDai, and DApps can bypass the UI and access the bridge directly. There is also an alternative receiver functionality, where a different receiver can be specified when transforming Dai to xDai or xDai to Dai….
Validators on the xDai chain are responsible for sealing blocks and making sure there is consensus on all txs added to the chain. With public POSDAO, up to 19 validators will be chosen based on the amount of STAKE in their pools (which they provide, as well as provided by delegators) + a random number. A new set of validators will be chosen each week when public staking starts. It is scheduled for Q3 2020, likely August.
There are also bridge validators, which are separate from the xDai chain validators and run the xDai bridge nodes. This selected group (some may overlap with xDai chain validators) makes sure relay transactions on the bridge are successful and may be responsible for other tasks. For more on what bridge validators do, see https://docs.tokenbridge.net/about-tokenbridge/features/tokenbridge-roles/validator-roles
Q2. From what we’ve seen, xDai Chain was launched in 2018 jointly with MakerDAO foundation, are you able to describe the project in more detail? What is the relationship between Dai and xDai? Why xDai is needed and why does it serve as a better payment intermediary?
Ans — That’s right, the idea for the project started at EthBerlin in 2018 and developed quickly from there. POA Network and MakerDAO came up with the original design implementation, but more validators were needed to help with decentralization. Gnosis, Giveth, Portis, Protofire, BurnerWallet and others were added to help with consensus. The current validators list is here: https://www.xdaichain.com/about-xdai/news-and-information/current-xdai-validators
This made up the structure for xDai 1.0. It was a permissioned stablechain with selected validators. Now we are moving to v2.0, with a public, permissionless delegated Proof-of-Stake model called POSDAO. Read more about that here: https://www.xdaichain.com/for-validators/posdao-whitepaper
xDai is a Dai derivative. It’s main purpose is for transactions on a stablechain (the xDai chain). So you create xDai from Dai, then use it to send and buy things or send stable value very quickly, with very very small fees, and these fees also use xDai. You can use the chain for stable micro-transactions, for vendor payments, and you can take advantage of some awesome tools like the Burner Wallet. It’s easier for payments, it’s very scalable, and it can save heavy users a lot of money in transaction fees over time.
Q3. CICs are not meant to replace government currencies but used to pay for goods and services! If the token holds a stable value isn’t it a threat to government circulated currency?
Ans — CICs serve a different purpose, and are mostly used in areas where government circulated currency can be difficult to get on a daily basis — unbanked populations, or villages far from any central banks for example.
They can also be used to distribute aid monies fairly — if the funds are on-chain they can be tracked and donors can be sure that their donations are being used as intended. It can really reduce corruption and help with aid distribution.
In many places CICs are providing a lifeline for the communities using them. The xDai chain has been used to help create and distribute CICs, while a separate project, GrassRoots Economics, is behind the use-case in Kenya. To learn more, check out their blog at https://www.grassrootseconomics.org/blog
Q4. Is it possible to deploy dApps using xDAI? What are the basic technical knowledge one need to know to deploy the dApp?
Ans — Yes! If you know how to deploy a DApp on Ethereum, you can deploy to xDai in a matter of minutes. This is one of the great features of xDai — it is a sidechain that is totally compatible with Ethereum. Projects are starting to deploy complimentary DApps on both chains. In some cases, xDai is used for stable micro-transactions (like DAO voting or CICs) and the Ethereum mainnet is for liquidity. DApps are deployed in both places.
There are many resources available to new developers. We have basic deployment steps / tutorials on our website, and learning the latest Eth 1.0 dev strategies will help you. https://www.xdaichain.com/for-developers/smart-contract-deployment
Besides following our dev team, one independent dev we recommend who regularly deploys to xDai is Austin Griffith (@austingriffith on twitter). He’s got some great resources that help make things simple and fun and has a lot of videos on his xDai DApps like Burner Wallet.
Q5. Presently, to get xDai, majority of users need to get Dai then relay it to xDai through xDai Bridge. Relayers of the xDai bridge often wait for 8 blocks on Ethereum before they relay Dai to xDai.
This is a frustrating, complicated & time-consuming process which is as a result of congestions on the Ethereum networks and the probabilistic nature of Proof of Work(PoW) consensus.
What effort and strategy is xDai team putting in place to address this issue?
Ans — It’s the nature of POW chains, you need to make sure the last block won’t be rolled back and the relay request will not disappear. So we wait for 8 blocks on Ethereum to confirm a successful relay. Our bridge functionality will adapt once Eth2.0 is fully operational, but that is a way off at this point.
If it is very frustrating for you (typically the wait is less than 2 min, a lot shorter than a line at any store!) we recommend bridging a good amount of Dai over and keeping it as xDai so that you don’t need to make constant transfers.
We are also working to provide Direct fiat -> xDai on ramps. Portis is in the process of fine-tuning their widgets for purchasing xDai directly with Wyre and/or Carbon which you can use depending on your location. We expect these to be fully operational in the near future.
QUIZ SECTION
Q1: What does POSDAO stand for?
Ans — Proof of Stake Decentralized Autonomous Organization
Q2: What Ethereum client is xDai POSDAO using?
Ans - OpenEthereum
Note — the Nethermind client also plans to support POSDAO in the future.
Q3: What is the maximum number of validators in a validator set?
Ans - 19
Q4: Name 3 ways Validators earn rewards for staking.
Ans - 3 of these 4: Transaction Fees, Block Rewards, Bridge Fees, or interest from Chai
Q5: A validator pool contains 100,000 STAKE. 20,000 belongs to the Validator, and 80,000 belongs to different delegators. After a 1 week staking epoch, the pool earns 312.50 STAKE token in block rewards. How many STAKE tokens does the validator receive (just for block rewards, not from other sources)?
Ans - 93.75 (30%).
A validator receives a minimum of 30% of block rewards. They can earn more than that if delegators have put in less than 70% of STAKE in a pool, but never less.
Question Asked by our BlockTalks Community Members during live Session for xDai team.
Q1. Can you tell me Main Benefits that xDai Provide to Developers?
Ans — There are a few. The fact that it is completely Eth1 compatible, so you can use all the tools you are familiar with (Solidity, Remix, Truffle etc). We have tools and resources with deployment info. We’ve got cool DApps already running on xDai that you can check out, and the fact that it is a stable chain means you can run some interesting use cases. To get started, we always recommend checking out the For Developers section of our website.
Q2. What are your plans to increase the demand of STAKE token? STAKE is added to The Token List
Do you think it will increase to STAKE demand?
Ans — We plan to work on adoption of our staking protocol.
STAKE is a multi-chain staking token.
We have plans for enabling staking on xDai in POSDAO consensus and EasyStaking on Ethereum
Check out EasyStaking repo to learn more about it https://github.com/xdaichain/easy-staking-contracts
> Do you think it will increase to STAKE demand?
more staking applications should increase demand for staking tokens. Time will tell.
Q3. Many People are used to sending cash with Venmo, paypal etc,
How will New Users Choose Crypto with tools created on xDai?
Ans — Yes, the Burner Wallet for xDai is in many ways like Venmo for crypto. It has a simple interface, and you can send messages or emojis when you send crypto. Having this type of interface is key to adoption, and we are working on simple UIs that will help bridge the gap
With crypto you don’t need to have a bank account connected to your paypal or venmo, that is 1 big difference. There are many people out there who don’t have bank accts and still need to transfer $ electronically. Having a stable payment chain makes it a possibility.
Q4. What updates have been developed on xDai bridge contract implementations in 2020? What work have you developed on TokenBridge oracles and what tools or changes will be made soon?
Ans —
We recently released TokenBridge 5.0.0 https://forum.poa.network/t/tokenbridge-contracts-5-0-0-release/3467
Check out
Enhancements
- Add native to erc20 mediator on top of AMB
- Multi AMB requests in one transaction
- Move STAKE fee distribution implementation into Fee Manager
This is essential release to enable cross chain transfers for POSDAO on xDai
we also prepared TokenBridge UI for cross chain transfers
we plan to audit contracts and launch the bridge when it’s ready
Q5. What are the Rewards Schemes for XDAi’s Validators and the Delegators respectively?
also,
How to be a Validator and Delegator so that I can apply?
Ans — The schemes are in the white paper, that is probably the best place to check. Basically, all validator pools split rewards evenly, then within each pool the rewards are distributed between validators and delegators. Validators never receive less than 30% of the reward.
https://www.xdaichain.com/for-validators/posdao-whitepaper
To become a delegator, you will need 1000 STAKE and will be able to place it into the protocol with our UI. To become a validator candidate, you will need 20,000 STAKE as well as a functional node.
Learn more here: https://www.xdaichain.com/for-stakers/staking-protocol
Q6. Why there are two types of tokens in xDai Chain ecosystem consist of STAKE & xDai what are the characteristics and functionality of these two types of tokens?
Ans — xDai is a stable coin for stable transactions, STAKE is a volatile coin for protecting consensus. Check out our dual token model for more on the differences. https://www.xdaichain.com/about-xdai/news-and-information/dual-token-model
Q7. How many users do you have and how many use xDai for daily payments?
Ans — The best source of info is to checkout BlockScout, our open souce block explorer. Here you can look at all transactions, wallets, usage etc on xDai.
Q8. What does XDai offer to people living under hyperinflation countries? Ethereum transaction costs are unpredictable and XDai is built on Ethereum. So how did you solve gas problem ?
Ans —
xDai is 1:1 to Dai it means it’s stable. xDai peer to peer transfers can provide inexpensive transfers with very low transaction costs.
xDai is horizontally and vertically scalable
Q9. With Tether as the incumbent and new stablecoins emerging regularly, how does xDai plan to win & what’s the plan to grow xDai adoption and compete with Tether?
Ans — It’s possible to launch a networks like xDai with POSDAO consensus and STAKE as a staking token but with USDT as a native token. STAKE staking supports multichain staking. Our protocol is not a competitor but an extension to other stable coins. The concept is known as hard spoon:
“Hard spoon: a new chain that takes into account state from an existing chain; not to compete, but to provide broad access.” — Jae Kwon, creator of Cosmos. You can read more about it here https://cryptovest.com/education/the-hard-spoon-concept-explained/
Q10. Xdai developed an On-chain, decentralized Random Number Generator? What’s the purpose? Xdai uses a Permissionless delegated Proof-Of-Stake based consensus with public POSDAO. What is the purpose of this consensus?
Ans — The main purpose is for validator selection. At the end of each staking epoch a new set of validators is selected (Assuming there are more than 19 candidates). The amount of STAKE in the pool increases a validators odds of selection, but it doesn’t guarantee it. This keeps the protocol fair.
This is the main purpose, but a nice side effect is that this number can also be used by DApps. We expose it to applications looking for a source of randomness and they don’t need to get it off chain, from centralized services or other 3rd parties.
Learn more about it here…https://www.xdaichain.com/for-developers/on-chain-random-numbers
Q11. Since you what to switch to POSDAO, why so? How is it better than PoS that you’re currently using?
Ans — We started with a permissioned chain of selected validators. We’ve since upgraded to a modified PoS with the current validator set, but they do not yet have delegators and are selected for every staking epoch. Once we move to public POSDAO, anyone can become a validator candidate or delegator. This will be a permissionless, decenetralized solution, which is even more secure.
Q12. How xDai platform generates Liquidity in it’s Platform? What if anyone want to Purchase Millions of True Stablecoin, then, How you generates liquidity for that?
Ans — xDai is minted by locking Dai on the platform.
Users can bridge Dai on their own schedule and increase liquidity of xDai when they need it.
Liquidity of Dai is few orders of magnitude more than bridged liquidity and it’s always possible to mint new Dai by providing collateral like WBTC recently!
Q13. Which properties of XDAI Project do you think that will have the greatest impact on social adaptation of $STAKE?
And What does your roadmap for 2020 look like? Name some important milestones you are hoping to achieve.
Ans — It’s a stablechain, and we’ve made a point to design easy-to-use UIs. With multi-chain staking, more projects will have the opportunity to use STAKE to secure their consensus, and this will also lead to greateer adoption.
The roadmap is all about public staking until August (with some cool innovations, DApps and partnerships along the way). Once thats in place, we will really exanding the xDai ecosystem and working towards xDai adoption as a stable payment platform. Roadmap: https://www.xdaichain.com/about-xdai/roadmap
Q14. No project can survive on its own. Can you tell us some of your partners in xDai and who you plan to collaborate with in the nearest future?
Ans — We have some great partnerships with our original chain validators. They are helping bring in the new public staking program, and continue to help support the ecosystem with tools (AnyBlock Analytics, Gnosis), Wallets (Portis, Burner Wallet) and other support. We are also working to develop new partnerships regularly. For a list of our current validators, please see here. https://www.xdaichain.com/about-xdai/news-and-information/current-xdai-validators
Q15. There are many stablecoins currently in the market. What makes the xDai coin UNIQUE?
Ans — The stablechain ecosystem. xDai is the native coin for a whole platform, with stable transactions and stable transaction fees. This is much different that stablecoins traded on the mainnet. It is tailor made for payments and stable purchases with easy access to liquidity on the Ethereum Mainnet.
Q16. How to keep motivation to use xDai in the long term?
Ans — Innovation, excellent UI, supporting developers to create great DApps, bringing xDai to more events and conferences as things open up from the pandemic, STAKE token adoption and usage, vendor onboarding, p2p payment ecosystem, more assets bridged to xDai etc !
Q17. How has the New Anyblock Analytics validator worked after being implemented for your chain?
Ans — They followed all updates and didn’t break consensus. Nice to hear that you care about them.
Q18. What relationship does Infura have with xDai and what benefits has your platform obtained by making this association?
Ans — Infura provided their infrastructure for an ad-hoc event with Splunk https://www.xdaichain.com/about-xdai/use-cases/cryptocurrency-for-events-and-conferences/splunk-conference-non-crypto-conference
Their API really helped to mitigate load pressure from 15k users of BurnerWallet app during the conference.
Q19. What are your strategies in building a big and strong community? Do you agree that the power of the community will lead your project to grow globally? What are the services you offer to the community?
Ans — So far we’ve really grown organically, through user adoption at conferences, through developers telling other developers about the chain, and through real-world use cases that impact people. We believe this is the way to sustainable growth. It is not a quick fix, but a longer term growth horizon. We do believe in the community, and we believe when we have a product worth using it speaks for itself. We offer a stablechain to the community. It is being used by more and more projects to bring crypto adoption to a much larger audience. The future looks bright!
Q20. What will you do to the unlocked tokens?
Ans — Foundation and ecosystem tokens are not unlocked yet. They will be used for the best of STAKE and xDai to provide long term technical and marketing support to the project.
Here are some important links of xDai👇
