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Coin Rivet: DigiByte turned five on January 10th. What were the highlights and the biggest challenges / obstacles so far?
JS: DigiByte pioneered changes and improvements from the beginning. Being "faster, safer, far-sighted" is more than a catchphrase, it is the DNA of the project. By propagating the fastest block of any UTXO blockchain, to be the first major blockchain to implement SegWit, to have so many blocks that we are pushing the limits of the 32-bit address space.
We meet things that Bitcoin probably will not face for another century. However, these are not bad, when we are pushing the barriers we know that we are not just some "me too much" blockchain, but true pioneers who do something great. We have seen the DigiShield created by DigiByte used in dozens of other projects, such as DOGE, BCH / BSC, MONA, Ubiq and others.
Rivet of coins: many cryptocurrencies have crashed and burned in the last five years. But you're still in the game.
JS: There are many aspects to this, but a big one comes from having people who work there because they want, not because they are paid. When DigiByte was launched in 2014, pre-mined blockchains have been robbed and most have never lasted more than a few months. They were the people who were true believers in technology and their project that survived. Finding others who believe in your project, goals and what it represents also helps significantly.
DigiByte is also incredibly lucky to have founder Jared Tate, who has been active in the project all the time. Where we see others start and their founder and leave after a few months to start their third or fourth blockchain, Jared has remained very busy and is still a believer to date, actively contributing to the DigiByte code and building projects on the blockchain.
"We see so many P & D projects, it's crazy, it's also very sad because it was just 12 months ago that we saw that BitConnect was failing, yet they had a" working "token, and people were taking their life savings for put it in because of a fluid marketing "
Coin Rivet: 2018 was a roller coaster ride for cryptocurrencies. What are your key suggestions from the last 12 months?
JS: One thing is for sure, find out who your "real friends" are, those who sincerely believe in blockchain as a way to change the world, the possibilities and those who are here just because they want a quick way to get rich. We see so many P & D projects, it's crazy. It's also very sad because only 12 months ago we saw BitConnect fail, yet they had a "working" token, and people were taking their life savings to put it into practice because of fluid marketing.
To date, we still have other projects that have a smooth marketing, yet these projects have not even managed to write their own white paper. I feel that we will pay more attention to the "tried and tested", we will see many of these projects of "good idea" without substance that will fall along the way, and we will see more and more attention on the use of blockchain outside of a simple payment method.
Rivet of coins: do you believe that the widespread crypto adoption is coming or remains a niche for the near future?
JS: Yeah, every day the DigiByte community passes me messages saying "hey, this would not be a great idea for DigiAssets", and they're right. There are so many amazing uses for blockchain and cryptocurrency, more than "I pay you and you pay me". We can do things with DigiByte like validating legal documents, wills, land ownership or shipping posters.
You could use the next DigiAssets to issue air tickets, and customers could validate the supply to ensure that an airline is not overbooking their aircraft (nobody likes to get to the airport and be bumped by a flight). Perhaps it is used for music concerts, which immediately solves ticket scalping and many other problems that afflict that industry.
With DigiAssets coming out in 2019, along with our fantastic mobile experience, we will see a realm of possibilities open up, and hopefully many people are blissfully unaware that they are a blockchain that fuels everything.
Rivets of coins: there are many high-profile critics who claim that cryptocurrencies are a foiled, a solution to a problem that does not exist, etc. How do you respond to them?
JS: On a personal level, I definitely agree with them in many ways, even if not all of them. Bitcoin was created with the hash of the genesis block: The Times 03 / Jan / 2009 Chancellor on the edge of the second bailout for banks.
This is because banks can not be considered reliable and with their own self-sovereignty over their wealth and assets this responsibility is removed. Just see what happens when others have control over your money, the ability to print more on a whim and how this has had a catastrophic effect on people like Venezuela.
Likewise, DigiByte was created to be forward-looking, around computer security: USA Today: January 10, 2014, Target: data stolen by up to 110 million customers. We look at things like the recent hacks of Facebook, where any site with which you have logged in with your Facebook account has full access to your account / profile / data. That's why DigiByte created Digi-ID, which completely solved this problem that affected Facebook users.
This is a real problem that afflicts people to date, and this is one that DigiByte has the answer for. So, while I fully agree with the critics and believe that the tokenisation of Bittorrent and other things is a ridiculous idea, I am proud to be involved in realizing real solutions through DigiByte.
"As almost everyone knows how to use a web browser and e-mail, we will see the same thing with blockchain and cryptocurrency over time"
Rivet currency: what is your opinion about regulation in this space?
JS: Those in favor of the regulation are probably right, and we have seen the effects that the P & D groups have, or even insider trading on many important exchanges in both the United States, Malta, etc. There will never be a global regulation around cryptocurrency, but many countries will hopefully protect their own citizens.
The difficult part of cryptocurrency is that we are in a technical space, full of many non-technical people who do not understand what a "private key" is, not to mention why they should or should not invest in a project. The SEC has published an incredible fake ICO website that has put it in evidence, and for many uninitiated it seemed completely legitimate.
True community education is the key and teaching children / young adults through the education system will play an important role. We saw this with the tablets we donated to people in Venezuela when we did our third philanthropic event there, how quickly these children took us and how well they are informed about how the underlying technology works.
Just as almost everyone knows how to use a web browser and e-mail, we will see the same thing with blockchain and cryptocurrency over time.
Coin Rivet: what can we expect from DigiByte in 2019?
JS: We will really show the world the security benefits of Digi-ID. I even installed the main door of my home to be safely opened with my DigiByte mobile app via Digi-ID. It solves so many security problems, and it's nice to see other third-party multi-currency wallet sellers who are also implementing this. We will see some popular cryptocurrency exchanges that start supporting it at the start of this year and no doubt over time they will begin to filter on the rest of the Internet.
DigiByte is also focusing on DigiAssets, making them easily accessible / issued / exchanged / used by your mobile phone. It is not enough just to make smart contracts as we have seen with other platforms, but it takes five years of "in the wild" and the hardened security of DigiByte, combined with our downsizing on the chain. In this way, when the next crypto-domestic game is released, it does not drop the net as we saw it happen in December 2017 on other blockchains.
We will also see that DigiByte is moving forward with our security aspect, we are passing the final tests now, after creating a unique hashing algorithm to protect the network. It is not enough that we are already the fastest, safest and most decentralized UTXO blockchain on the planet, we want to keep pushing forward, overcoming barriers and challenging limits, all while guaranteeing the safety and security of the DigiByte blockchain.
