Bullish AMA with Rick Schmitz LTO Network CEO (18th November 2020).
The following is a recap of the AMA session in LTO Network main telegram channel, which took place on the 18th of November 2020, 20.00 CET.
1) Which subjects on the new roadmap are you most looking forward to? And as the new roadmap has not been published yet, could you give us a little glimpse of what’s on there?
We are working super hard on it behind the screens. New features that have been edited on the mainnet, new upcoming partnerships and other strategic initiatives are all in line with this. We are releasing it in the form of a technical lite paper, and it will make its debut in December.
The main subject of our upcoming technical focus will be DID (decentralized identity) and SSI (self-sovereign identity) as we see a huge opportunity for that part of the market, as we also believe that this will be heavily involved and make the leading step towards real world adoption!
2) You have mentioned life changing news months ago. How is the progress on this news and when can we expect the announcement?
We know that waiting and crypto are not best friends ;) But the progress is great, pushing forward just as scheduled and it’s just around the corner! It will be released before the end of the month. So, it’s really close to the final release, keep your heads up on this one LTONauts!
3) A lot is happening between v-id and LTO lately. Are you both planning to work more together in the future?
Over the years our partnership has intensified to the point where we are quite familiar with each other. Our technologies and products seem to compliment and synergize well with each other. So there will definitely be more actions together in the future.
4) In January the first part of the M&A Fund will be released. Are there any plans for making use of this fund?
We are already in talks with strategic potential targets for acquisition, can’t say anymore then this as everything is super confidential and you guys have to be a bit more patient. This will also make a huge noise within the crypto space!
5) What are you most proud of in 2020? What are you looking forward to in 2021? How do you see the role of the community going forward?
We’re super proud of every step and progress we make of course. Especially seeing our stats on the mainnet and how far we’ve come in the game of adoption (But there is still a long way ahead)!
As for our community, we are super grateful for the support and how everyone is helping out the project in their own way. Everybody simply just has to keep doing what they’re already doing and stay safe & healthy (with LTO) :)
Community questions:
Q: Will the LCN push us over 100k TX easily?
A: Yes.
Q: Are there any plans to increase the minimum LTO staked for LTO nodes? To increase the amount of nodes & security for the whole network?
A: No, in practice however you need 100K+ to win a block)
Q: Is the client that has to buy 3m LTO an example of a client we will see more, that clients need to stake a X amount of tokens to use the LTO network?
A: The client that’s purchasing is relating to the LCN
Q: Are there already clients that request the products ‘DID (decentralized identity) and SSI (self-sovereign identity)’ ?
A: Very much so, we develop based on client needs and real-world problems.
Q: When will the Life Changing News (LCN) client start anchoring?
A: This year.
Q: I’m curious about the Defi Oracle you talked about in an interview can you elaborate in this regard?
A: DeFi needs identities in order to make it to real world use-cases. This is where we jump in (illiquid assets, private company stocks, loans, real estate, etc.) all suitable to DeFi if there would be an ID attached to the real-world asset owner
Q: Is everybody in crypto going to know lto because of the news?
A: Gonna catch a looooot of eyeballs for sure.
Q: Do you hire developers?
A: Yes off course, applications can be sent if you live in NL.
Q: As a company, is LTO financially dependent on the market price of LTO token?
A: No, really happy we are not.
Q: Rick, please elaborate how LTO could operate as an Oracle within the DEFI space and how actively does Chainlink (LINK) fits into this? Any clients line up?
A: This is a very good question. LINK is needed as they already have all the integrations made with chains. Yes, we have first clients lined up for on chain business IDs. Can’t say who.
Q: Hope we will get an explanation about this in a blogpost. Will it be part of the marketing combined with the influencers to attract more eyes?
A: It will be very clear once we release the lite paper of Arnold Daniels. It’s under review right now
Q: How do you look back on the progress of current integrators? Is that still the preferred way? It seems some are lagging behind in adoption (as in anchoring). Will these still grow or will the focus shift more to reaching out to specific clients?
A: Pretty good and proud of the progress that is made. We are expecting some bigger ones bringing in more tx. Smaller ones will keep on using it and grow.
Q: Will there be a coordinated marketing campaign surrounding the news release?
A: Count on that 😊
Q: Can you share the sector in which the upcoming international client is operating in? Energy sector maybe?
A: Can’t say 😊 Then you guess it in 2 seconds
Q: Has it completed the large joint 3m pool to be announced? Also, when will it be announced in Q4?
A: Purchase is not completed yet. So, more buying power incoming 😊
Q: Is Sphereon involved with Life Changing News?
A: Nope.
Q: We’ve seen a big increase in txs lately, can you share where they are coming from? I know a lot of use cases have grown but is there one or 2 that stands out?
A: We see more use on all fronts as pandemic decrease which we faced in March is really over.
Q: Can you give more detailed information about DID and SSI? For example, what is the benefit of this work to LTO?
A: Will release the lite paper soon with all the details on how this works. Pretty cool :)
Q: So, do you notice it is easier lately to land new clients that are from ‘old companies’. Has blockchain proven itself?
A: Yes, it’s much easier now to explain that it is more than bitcoin and silkroad. The 2017 times are over (education wise I mean). How about you Maarten? Are you experiencing this also?
At this point Maarten Boender from Sphereon (LTO Network Integrator that is integrating its entire software suite onto the LTO Network Blockchain) jumps in. The remaining questions are for Maarten and answered by him:
A: Yes, we’re cooperation with LTO to bring Self Sovereign Identities (SSI) to LTO, which we believe is going to be the major mover for adoption of DLT for enterprises. Bigger that tokenization, bigger that anchoring.
Q: Sounds like a big promise. Can you elaborate on this?
A: Yes. Everything has an identity. You, me, LTO, company government, but also everything else: a device (think IOT), a document, a file, etc. DIDs will uniquely identify them. VCs will enable to provide authorized, immutable, verifiable, normalized information and data about them. Due to its architecture LTO is very well suited to both be a place to create and maintain DIDs, but also, for one because of the low price and high throughput, for all those VCs (which are basically JSON data objects) to sign and anchor.
Q: IoT to the block, IOTA is trying it for years…
A: IOTA tried to do it by themselves. That is not impossible, but very, very hard. The key to adoption is standard specifications and based on that INTEROPERABILITY. IOTA has seen that and is now also implementing DIDs and VCs.
Q: Interoperability seems key in tech indeed, right?
A: Absolutely. You see a whole big ecosystem forming around it. With companies like Microsoft and IBM and many smaller companies, including Sphereon and LTO. We have been involved in DID/VC projects around the world. From Japan, to Korea, EU (eSSIF-Lab), USA (DHS SVIP) and in the Netherlands.
Blockchain is increasingly a non-issue. Enterprises are very pragmatic: if it saves them money or provides new opportunities, they’ll buy it. Whatever is under the hood. Could be a spaghetti monster. As long as it works and saves cost or makes money. In other words, they look at the application and the benefits.
Q: Can we expect more usage from Sphereon on the LTO blockchain?
A: Yes, sure. We’re eagerly waiting for the release of DIDs on LTO, as they are key to our (partners) applications.
Q: And the SSI? it sounds like that is a long-term project, with a lot of work still to do before it can go live.
A: No, not that much. They key is support for DIDs. The tech and apps for VCs are already there.
Q: Is your focus on B2B DID’s or B2C?
A: We focus on partners that build domain specific applications, like f.i. for education, healthcare, government. Those partners sell their applications to B2C, B2B, but also Government2Citizen.
Q: How does the world look like when SSI’s are incorporated all over the place. Can you give an easy example everyone can understand?
A: It’s always hard to see that future. Just like when the internet started. Who knew the biggest use cases was going to be sharing pictures of yourself 😉
