July 22-th held an Ask Me Anything session at ICO Speaks telegram chat. From the Sukhavati side, there was: Mindaugas Savickas CEO and Co-Founder of Sukhavati @mindaugas87
Self- Introduction of CEO and Co-Founder Mindaugas： Hello everyone,
I am Mindaugas, CEO, and Co-founder of Sukhavati. I was very fascinated by the core characteristics of Blockchain and decentralized web3 solutions, so I jumped into Crypto completely many years ago.
I have recently graduated from Harvard Business School, have 11+ years of management & marketing leadership experience: A number of strategic and hands-on marketing solutions executed for global brands, tech start-ups. Built and scaled product and marketing teams up to 40+ worldwide.
Before joining Sukhavati, I was CMO & Co-founder of Rokkex (crypto exchange by cybersecurity professionals) since 2018. I was also Head of Marketing of FAST INVEST (a P2P alternative investment platform) and Head of Marketing of OXYGEN (a next-gen digital healthcare solution).
I believe in Sukhavati because I agree with its mission for the implementation of the Web3.0 as a decentralized cloud service network focused on storage. And I believe that through our continuous efforts, its version will finally come true.
About Sukhavati:
Sukhavati is a decentralized cloud service network focused on storage with 3 basic layers of consensus layer, storage layer, and application layer. The consensus layer is based on the POS ( Proof of Space) /PoC(Proof-of-Capacity ) mechanism, which can directly reuse the consensus power of some existing POS/POC protocols. At the storage layer, it makes full use of the advantages of the hardware-based Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) technology and designs a new decentralized storage verification mechanism: Efficient Proof-of-Spacetime (EPoSt), which enables a significant number of small network storage devices to participate in the network and provide trusted computing resources.
On the basis of this architecture, Sukhavati will establish a decentralized data access gateway covering both Web3.0 and Web2.0 storage ecosystems to provide unified data storage, retrieval, and management services for Web3.0 applications. The mission of Sukhavati Network is to inspire and incentivize improvements to the distributed storage ecosystem, promote it as the true infrastructure of the next-generation Internet, and expand a wide range of application scenarios for the implementation of the Web3.0 vision. Let’s get started!
Q: Would you please give us a brief introduction of your unique structure of 3 layers respectively? And what do they set out to resolve?
A: At the consensus layer, Sukhavati uses Proof of Space (PoS)/Proof of Capacity (PoC) as the consensus mechanism. After the initialization operation, the PoS/PoC consensus mechanism requires only a small amount of computing and IO resource consumption to maintain high-security consensus, allowing most resources to be used for other meaningful work. Also, to be able to quickly establish a strong consensus, Sukhavati can make use of the consensus power of some existing PoS/PoC consensus protocols and use them as a basis for launching.
At the storage layer, Sukhavati designs a new decentralized storage verification mechanism: Efficient Proof-of-Spacetime (EPoSt) based on the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) technology. EPoSt consists of two challenges: LivingPoSt and WinningPoSt. A storage miner must complete the challenges and publish the result to the blockchain to obtain the incentives. EPoSt makes full use of the advantages of the hardware-based TEE technology. Compared to purely cryptographic ZKP-based methods, it is 100+ times faster in terms of verification speed. As a consequence, a significant number of small devices (such as NAS servers) at the network edge can participate in Sukhavati’s storage mining and provide trusted computing resources as long as its CPU supports TEE, giving full play to their advantages of low cost, P2P network transmission and being close to the source of data.
At the application layer, Sukhavati will build a decentralized data access gateway covering both Web3.0 and Web2.0 storage services based on the local trusted computing capability of network nodes and using the storage layer as a medium. The gateway will ultimately provide unified data storage, retrieval, and management services that can meet various local compliance requirements for Web3.0 applications.
These three basic layers correspond to different functions, and each layer builds on the foundation of the previous layer. The development of the Sukhavati network is divided into three stages, starting from the most basic consensus layer and gradually realizing the vision of the ultimate decentralized cloud service network.
Q: What is the token economics of Sukhavati, and how do you stimulate the users to hold Sukhavati token (SKT) in the long run? What are the application scenarios of your token?
A: The total supply of Sukhavati token (SKT) is 618 million.
SKT for mining rewards is 61.8% (381M) . It will be released through block rewards and used to maintain the operation of the Sukhavati network. Mining rewards will last 40 years. SKT for the founding team is 10% (61M) .
You can check all the token allocation details in the following link of our white paper:
The core of Sukhavati’s token economy model is designed to ensure the evolution and long-term stability of the entire network. The block rewards will incentivize participants differently at different stages.
In the first stage, the network consensus establishing phase, most token rewards will be given to miners who contribute to the network’s consensus. At the same time, for the long-term safety and stability, a large portion of the reward will be allocated to network miners who provide a long-term staking for increasing their consensus power on the consensus layer.
In the second stage, while establishing the storage layer, in order to promote the evolution of the network, part of block rewards will be converted into storage mining rewards. In addition, there will be an bonus pool set aside for developers who contribute to the ecosystem, and any user can participate in the funding of this bonus pool to earn a long-term token reward.
The third stage is the launch of the application layer. In order to realize the extensive application of Sukhavati network, some Senate Nodes with important strategic resources will be set up after its initial investment to the ecosystem.
Q: Why did Sukhavati choose to participate in the storage track？Compared with other storage projects, what are Sukhavati’s unique features and advantages?
A: Decentralized storage is the main premise of Web3.0 application landing, currently in each specific area there are some representative projects coming out. For example, on Contract-based Storage track, there is Filecoin which is based on zero-knowledge proof and Crust which is based on TEE; On the permanent storage track, there is Arweave; On the distributed object storage track, there is Storj and so on. At present, most of these storage projects are still in the early stage, and there are still many areas to be improved. No matter in ecological completeness, real application cost, or the real realization of Web3.0 concept, there is still a lot of work to do in the actual application and real business.
Realizing the current status of the storage track, as well as its problems and role gaps, we decided to build Sukhavati Network with the goal of improving the storage infrastructure of Web3.0, and join the construction of this ecosystem.
Different from projects mentioned above, Sukhavati aims to build a decentralized data access gateway covering both Web3.0 storage ecosystem and Web2.0 storage services, connect the existing storage protocol islands, and provide unified data storage, retrieval and management services for Web3.0 dApps.
In order to achieve this goal, Sukhavati needs a broad and solid consensus layer. After research, we decided to start from the PoS/PoC protocols which mine with hard disks, and quickly establish a solid consensus layer by reusing the existing PoS/PoC consensus power, while simultaneously covering the largest hard disk storage space market in the world.
Based on this, Sukhavati will take full advantage of the high efficiency of PoS/PoC consensus and hardware-based TEE technology to build a storage layer that can provide hot storage. Thanks to the overall design of Sukhavati, any device that supports TEE technology can be added to the storage network, creating a truly decentralized network. Since Filecoin is more suited for cold storage scenarios and Arweave is designed to store high-value density permanent data, Sukhavati’s hot storage layer can act as a storage middleware in the Web3.0 ecosystem, routing contents to different storage networks based on different needs of dApps.
Q: It caught my attention that Sukhavati describes itself as an “Environmentally Friendly” project, can you tell us more? What makes Sukhavati eco-friendly? Couldn’t this environmentally friendly title be counterproductive as it could affect the efficiency of the project?
A: Actually, on the contrary, environmentally friendliness is one of the secrets of high efficiency for Sukhavati, instead of being counterproductive.
Firstly, Proof of Space/Proof of Capacity consensus power is almost naturally allowed to be reused because of its space-for-time design. The consensus layer of Sukhavati Network chose to reuse the consensus power of Chia. And thanks to its high efficiency design, after plotting, Sukhavati’s mining process consumes very little energy and requires only a small amount of local disk I/O and CPU, so it can be mined on personal computers, home NAS servers, and even devices like Raspberry Pi. The whole process is very green and energy efficient.
Unlike other commercial hardware, the capacity of hard disks is relatively flexible. For Sukhavati, it is more about accommodating more miners and hardware in the market to participate in the network, rather than an excessive waste of resources.
Unlike other commercial hardware, the capacity of hard disks is relatively flexible. For Sukhavati, it is more about accommodating more miners and hardware in the market to participate in the network, rather than an excessive waste of resources.
We start from the PoS/PoC protocols which mine with hard disks, and quickly establish a solid consensus layer by reusing the existing PoS/PoC computing capability, while simultaneously covering the largest hard disk storage space market in the world.
Based on this, Sukhavati will take full advantage of the high efficiency of PoS/PoC consensus and hardware-based TEE technology to build a storage layer that can provide hot storage. Thanks to the overall design of Sukhavati, any device that supports TEE technology can be added to the storage network, creating a truly decentralized network. Since Filecoin is more suited for cold storage scenarios and Arweave is designed to store high-value density permanent data, Sukhavati’s hot storage layer can act as a storage middleware in the Web3.0 ecosystem, routing contents to different storage networks based on different needs of dApps.
Q: For users, how can we use the product & what are the ways to get involved in Sukhavati? What can users get from Sukhavati Network?
A: Users can participate in Sukhavati Network in two different ways and get benefits. In the early stage, users could use their spare disk space to join the mining of the Sukhavati Network consensus layer, contributing to the consensus stability of the network and receiving rewards accordingly. In early time, the consensus strength of Sukhavati is very important, so there will be a huge incentive to the miners in the consensus layer.
With the consensus layer getting stable and the development of the storage layer and application layer, users will be able to spend SKT tokens for on-chain storage, enjoy the storage and application services brought by the Sukhavati network. This is the application value that later users can get from the Sukhavati network.
The Sukhavati team is currently developing and testing the Consensus layer, which will open the mining function as soon as the mainnet goes live. And because Sukhavati is compatible with existing PoS/PoC consensus power from projects such as Chia, users who want to participate in the consensual layer mining can also benefit from multiple networks using the same consensus power. We expect a good rate of return for early adopters. Those who are interested in mining SKT please keep an eye on our Telegram Channel:https://t.me/SukhavatiN, and we will publish the first edition of our economic white paper soon. Q: Will reusing Chia’s consensus power bring any security risks to Sukhavati or Chia? A: We have done a lot of designs to ensure that the private key of Chia miners is not compromised and the farming of Chia is not affected. So there will be no security risk to the Chia miners or Chia system.
However, as the consensus power of Chia can be reused and the total scale of Chia’s consensus power is huge, it will indeed bring some challenges to the consensus security of Sukhavati Network. Especially [Long Range Attacks]. For this, we have learned from Chia’s design and will add VDF to prevent it. Besides that, we also considered about the [Nothing at Stake Attack] and [Grinding Attack]. For [Nothing at Stake Attack], we will do a double mining check when a miner produces a block. For [Grinding Attack], we will restrict the source of the challenge parameter, so that we can reduce the space for grinding.
The development of Proof of Space consensus has brought some new options to the industry, and it’s possible that there will be more public chains reusing the Chia PoS power in the future.
Sukhavati Network is happy to explore and experiment, and hope to provide some of our solutions for future reference.
How do users participate in Sukhavati’s mining? Are there mandatory requirements for hardware, miners, and equipment?
A: Before the launch of the testnet, there will be liquidity mining using our erc-20 SKT token. Detailed rules and rewards will be announced in the near future. Storage mining will start as soon as the testnet is released, and detailed rules will be announced when it’s ready. The requirements of hardware for Sukhavati mining are much lower than Filecoin, especially in the cluster threshold. Sukhavati’s original intention is to allow more hardware devices such as PoS/PoC miners and home servers to participate in the network’s construction.
The consensus layer of Sukhavati Network will come out firstly, where people can participate in the mining of the network.
Sukhavati supports the use of both personal computers and professional servers for mining. The mining process is divided into two processes:
1.Plotting
2.Mining
For each capacity file, plotting is a one-time process. It can be done on ordinary computers. And computers with high memory and nvme ssd can finish it faster, but it also costs more.
After plotting, you can start mining with your capacity files. Sukhavati’s mining process consumes very little energy and requires only a small amount of local disk I/O and CPU, so it can be mined on personal computers, home NAS servers, and even devices like Raspberry Pi. The whole process is very green and energy efficient.
We need to understand Sukhavati’s economic model as well as the physical equipment of mining. In the token economy of Sukhavati, mining with staking is sometimes much more profitable than non-staking mining. Before the early staking function launches, all miners had to mine directly using the machines. After the staking function is enabled, with a certain amount of staking satisfied, the mining income will be up to 100 times improved. Therefore, how to choose the mining strategy is a continuous consideration for all of the miners.
Q: How’s Sukhavati going so far? What stage in the road map has Sukhavati entered? How soon will we see the launch of mining? What are your upcoming plans or events?
A:The development of Sukhavati mainnet phase 1 has been completed and currently in alpha testing. If everything goes well, we expect that the testnet can be launched before September. In addition, the current ERC-20 SKT token’s liquidity incentive program will be launched in near future, you can pay attention to updates of this part on official channels.
We actually have 3 priorities for Sukhavati to achieve in 2021!
SKT token launch and maintaining good liquidity
Sukhavati mainnet launch, the consensus layer goes live and start mining
Functions of token-economic model come online gradually
The Sukhavati team is currently developing and testing the Consensus layer, which will open the mining function as soon as the mainnet goes live. And because Sukhavati is compatible with existing PoS/PoC consensus power from projects such as Chia, users who want to participate in the consensual layer mining can also benefit from multiple networks using the same consensus power. We expect a good rate of return for early adopters. Those who are interested in mining SKT please keep an eye on our Telegram Channel:https://t.me/SukhavatiN , and we will publish the first edition of our economic white paper soon.
Q: If I already have Chia plots, what operations should I do to co-mining SKT? Do we need to replot? Are both K32 and K33 supported? What are the advantages of Sukhavati compared to other similar projects on the market that can co-mining with Chia? Is it friendlier to the miners? A: If you have already finished plotting and have some [*.plot] files, you can use them directly for SKT mining without replotting. Any K32, K33 or higher K-size plot can also be used.
Sukhavati’s consensus layer mining will not set any threshold, and any miner is welcomed to participate in mining. We have made a lot of miner-friendly designs in terms of security and ease of use, so that miners can easily participate in SKT mining while ensuring the security of their Chia private key. The consensus layer of Sukhavati is still under development and optimization, and we hope to bring the best security and mining experience to miners. If you are a Chia miner and interested in SKT mining, welcome to join our Telegram Group: https://t.me/SukhavatiNetwork and follow our Channel: https://t.me/SukhavatiN Q: How can I keep my Chia account safe if I want to mine SKT? Will this result in loss of XCH or loss of computing power? Will it affect my current XCH benefits? A: Good question!
We really care about the security of miners’ private keys and the consensus security of the chain. We made some trade-offs in this process, and finally by taking advantage of the features of BLS we designed a safe process for the import and use of the Chia consensus power.
This allows us to secure the Chia private keys of miners, while at the same time achieving consensus security.
The Chia miners could export the related keys for Sukhavati mining through this process in a secure offline environment.
All codes that would touch the miners’ Chia private keys will be open sourced and pass strict code audit. Once the SKT related key has been exported, the miner will never need to use the Chia private key again in the mining process. All of these are designed to protect the security of miners’ Chia private keys and eliminates the possibility of leakage of private key.
During the actual mining phase, SKT mining will use the existing Chia consensus files directly, but will not make any changes to them. There will be no “write” operations to the [*.plot] files. So you can rest assured that SKT mining will not result in a loss of consensus power or cause any slight change.
At the same time, we are working on lots of improvements in mining performance to minimize the local disk IO required during mining. The less disk IO required, the less impact it will have on the existing Chia farmer machines.
But this will still place certain demands on the miner’s machine. However, our research shows that the vast majority of Chia farmers’ machines have sufficient configurations to mine SKT simultaneously without any impact on Chia farming.
Q: Talking about the storage mining boom recently, featured by popular projects from Filecoin to Chia, caused the price of miners and hardware equipment shoot up . How do you think about this market phenomenon? A: For now, the barrier to entry for Filecoin mining is so high that complex cluster mining solutions and customized hardwares are no longer available to the average miners directly. The more likely way to participate in Filecoin mining is to purchase storage mining capabilities hosted by professional miners.
Relatively, the bar for Chia’s participation is much lower. The price spike of hard disks brought by Chia’s mainnet launch was actually a extreme rare market situation, and it was an irrational behavior to overhype the price of hard disks. Unlike other commercial hardware, the capacity of hard disks is relatively flexible. For Sukhavati, it is more about accommodating more miners and hardware in the market to participate in the network, rather than an excessive waste of resources.
Looking back at history, we can see the trend of decentralization sweeping from computing to storage, from BTC to ETH to now Filecoin and Chia, that will eventually change every part of the computing system, as well as the production relations and organization on it. From the perspective of historical evolution, we are more convinced that hard disk based mining will play a greater role in the future. Sukhavati hopes to take up its historical mission and make efforts for the realization and maturity of decentralized storage ecosystem.
Q: Does your project support staking, to program? If yes. How is your stake, to system work what is the requirement, for user if they want to stake, in your platform? A: Before the launch of the testnet, there will be a liquidity mining using our erc-20 SKT token . Detailed rules and rewards will be announced in the near future. Storage mining will start as soon as the testnet is released, and detailed rules will be announced when it’s ready. The requirements of hardware for Sukhavati mining are much lower than Filecoin, especially in the cluster threshold. Sukhavati’s original intention is to allow more hardware devices such as PoS/PoC miners and home servers to participate in the network’s construction. Q: Partnership is always an important factor for every project. So who is your partner? What are the benefits you get from those relationships? A: Firstly, all our early investors are our partnerships, like AU21, Okex, LD capital, YBB, NSG and so on. They will help us with marketing and branding, building the ecosystem together. Besides that, we are in the Polkadot ecosystem as well as the storage track of block-chain. And most PoC storage projects like Filecoin and Chia, we can do multi-mining with them via the same equipments and miners. Q: Can you list 1-2 killer features, of this project, that makes it ahead of its competitors? A: Co-mining! And cheaper hardware Q: Everyone needs security, security is the top priority. How is the security system in your project to protect your project from hackers and other people? A: For security, it has always been the top priority of Sukhavati Network from technical design to code implementation.
In terms of technical design:
At the consensus layer, we have corresponding designs to prevent attacks on the consensus of blockchain such as Double Mining Attacks, Grinding Attacks, Long Range Attacks, etc.
In the case of co-mining with Chia network, we also designed a solution for the miners to protect their existing private keys from any risk of leakage.
On the storage layer, we leverage the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), an advanced hardware-based trusted computing technology, to secure the data that users store on the blockchain. (By the way, recently Microsoft just released its latest operating system Windows 11 which is also based on TEE, and the user CPU has a forced TEE function requirements. See the maturity and reliability of TEE technology)
So since the very beginning of design for technical solutions, we have already strived to take every conceivable safety requirement into account and implement them.
In terms of the security of the code implementation, our ERC-20 token contract has been audited by some Information Security Agency for code security. When the mainnet of Sukhavati goes online, we will also fully open the code for dealing with users’ private keys, and require trusted institutions to conduct code review and audit. Thus to ensure that all of our users can safely hold their tokens and data assets on Sukhavati network.
ICOSpeaks hosted an AMA Session with the Sukhavati Team. That’s all for today.
