FAQ. Q&A about WAVES:
By: Waves Tech
Tags: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Crowdfunding

Q: What is so special about this coin? Can you explain in simple terms please.

A: Basically we want to move payment systems and crowdfunding to blockchain. There will be USD/EUR/CNY in your wallet and a crowdfunding platform so it’s like a decentralized kickstarter the end-user client is very lite weight, no need to download blockchains, you just install it from Chrome store.

Q: What is the difference between Waves and Ethereum?

A: We are just the opposite to ETH probably. What they do is develop Bitcoin scripting, do everything using contracts, it’s very fundamental but makes certain things very complicated. We took another road, where things are simpler, very easy to add all functionality you need using plug-ins, don’t have to code complicated contracts. Also our focus is on mass adoption, we’re specifically target two markets : fiat transfers on blockchain and crowdfunding on blockchain. They are very ripe for disruption, and we’ll be offering a product for a very general audience, basically the main end-user client is just a plugin you can install from Chrome or FF store

Q: Will CAD be supported on the platform also ?

A: Yes I think we could do it. Canada is no problem regarding compliance, not so for US of course but we’ll be able to do USD, no problem with that.

Q: How is Waves affected by IVTS regulations ?

A: As for regulations, if all is fine we’ll be registering a UK company with financial license and a WAVES foundation company in some offshore jurisdiction or quasi offshore, like Holland. if ICO is successful maybe Swiss company.

Q: How long will transactions take?

A: In main net 1.0 ~ 30 sec. after that there’ll be a fork, the transactions time will lie in 1 sec range. don’t want to have it at launch, first the focus is on custom tokens, decentralized trading etc. for 1 sec tx’s some new POS is going to be implemented, LPOS, where lite node choose a full node to lease their balance to, they still receive the rewards, but the transactions become much faster due to the fact that only full nodes process them effectively

Q: What is the diference betwen Waves and Bitshares/OpenLedger?

A: OpenLedger is based on the BitShares’s “market peg” idea. BitShares differs from WAVES in two fundamental ways. First, its consensus algorithm is DPoS, meaning that only a given number of “delegates” have the power to validate blockchain transactions, as opposed to the PoS consensus where each full node is accredited for validation. This means that the WAVES platform supports full decentralization whereas BitShares team is not taking a step out of their “delegated” version. The second difference is the feasibility of the “market peg” approach. This is of course open to discussion, but one may objectively evaluate the success of that approach by looking at the history of their most praised market pegged crypto-asset, namely, BitUSD. I doubt if any big corporation in the future will ever decide to rely on the idea “if everyone thinks something is worth 1 USD, then that thing is forced to be worth 1 USD.”

All current colored coins implementations have severe limitations. Obviously Bitcoin blockchain based tokens won’t work due to 10 min confirmation times. In Ethereum it’s quite difficult to create a decentralized exchange. Openledger is a web-interface to Bitshares blockchain actually, it’s not a colored coins protocol.

We are focused specifically on custom blockchain tokens. Our vision is very different from Bitshares vision, for example. Personally I don’t think that pegged assets is a viable idea. We want to do for blockchain tokens what Ethereum is doing for Bitcoin scripting — make it perfect.

Q: Will investors need to have KYC done?

A: KYC/AML is needed to deposit and withdraw fiat. For crypto no, it’s going to be like MGW SuperBTC.

Q: What are the total number of coins?

A: 100 mil.

Q: I just want to know the price of Waves tokens.

A: it will depend on the total funds collected, 85 mil tokens will be distributed among all the ICO participants based on their contribution.

Q: Will you put any type of smart contract in place that the large developer fund-allocation, can not be released until specific conditions are met (time, marketcap, votes etc)?

A: It’s in the works, we’re considering several escrow options now. We will be moving forward quite fast, our goal is to have mainnet up and running in late Summer.

Q: Similar to Augur, will traders be able to buy/sell prior to the mainnet being launched? Augur handled that with a developer on /reptrader acting as escrow.

A: Yes, right after the ICO ends you’ll be able to trade the tokens.

Q: Will the client be available at the end of the ICO so that we can begin to stake immediately?

A: Light client will be available, but in testnet only for the first few months. So you can trade ICO tokens in exchanges once ICO finishes, but not stake with them yet. The crowdfunding tokens can be traded at decentralized NXT Asset Exchange and centralized exchange partners before the Mainnet launches. After its launch they will be converted to corresponding WAVES balances.

Q: “We will offer a light weight chrome plugin for end-users, full node carrying the full blockchain will be run on a separate software module.” Does that mean that the chrome plugin users will not download the full blockchain?

A: The Chrome plugin will not require a full chain download.

Q: How are the plans to secure the Account on Waves ? Passphrase ? 2FA ?

A: Liteclient will be secured by a password at launch, with 2FA added later.

Q: How will the ICO be?

A: Via the website with BTC. We’re gonna have all ICO sells written into ETH contract.

Q: Sasha what would more BTC mean for the time line? Inefficiencies comes from too much money most of the time.

A: Well if the crowdfunding is successful I’ll go full compliance route, will do a financial license in UK etc. part of the vision here is fiat assets, fiat should be backed by a centralized service.

Q: Do you (at least) have an estimated launch time? How long (more or less) will it take for your awesome coin to be distributed?

A: I make an emphasis on fast development. So the full launch will be in late summer 2016. I want to make the crowdsell in stages, it’ll take about two months.

Q: Will there be a whitepaper?

A: Yes, there’ll be several the first one will be published this month, more general. Then there’ll be three technical published later this year, concerning TX level, POS implementation and reputation system.

Q: One sentence or two what Waves is?

A: Cryptocurrency platform with emphasis on custom token creation, transfer and decentralized trading, with deep fiat integration and focus on community-backed projects.

Q: So Waves is similar to Ripple? what will be the difference?

A: Waves is similar to Ripple in only one thing — approach to handling fiat. As in Ripple fiat assets will be backed by third-parties, payment systems, and banks. We will have fiat tokens on our blockchain right at launch, talking to several payment systems now about it.

Q: Waves is a platform? when you mention ‘’broker’’ do you mean Waves is a broker if not what will be a broker? ok btc is a coin, waves a platform so give me the name of a broker?

A: Waves is a decentralized platform, in the same sense as Bitcoin, blockchain where different kinds of transactions can occur. When mentioning “brokers” I meant different blockchains where you can issue asset. Imagine you have a token on ETH platform and would like to move this token to BTC colored coins. It would be great to have a protocol for this. So we will try also to create a protocol for token/asset transfer between blockchains. Assets issued on NXT or ETH can be transferred to ETH.

Q: Why not proof of work?

A: Proof of work might be more secure in theory, but I still consider it to be not the most elegant solution to consensus problem, due to wasted computational resource. Something better will come, I’m sure about that. Meanwhile POS is the way to go.

Q: POS consensus system is that the same as the NXT system?

A: Yes, at launch we’ll have “plain vanilla” POS. There will be some improvements later, I’m considering a new POS scheme which seems quite elegant to me.

Q: Is PoS really suitable for a primarily asset based chain? Normally in PoS you’re intending on trusting the majority of the wealth, but with an emphasis on assets, the majority of wealth may be the assets themselves, so instead you’re trusting the majority of uninvested wealth. Is that still sufficient?

A: There’s a very interesting development in this direction now, which James (jl777) is pursuing with BTCD — Sidechains secured by assets. So an asset can secure its own chain. If you secure the whole network with assets you may face some problems, the most obvious is asset issue is not limited, there can be quasi-infinite amount of issued assets.

What I plan to do with POS is to start with a plain NXT-like one, and then upgrade it to some kind of more robust. A bit similar to delegated POS but the tech will be very different.

To be frank I consider classical POS good enough for all intents and purposes. Nothing at stake arguments are more of purely theoretical nature.

Q: Can you tell whats the current situation on Cryptoassets?

A: Our NXT assets will be transferred to WAVES blockchain! Also there’ll be a swap procedure announced at nxtforum.org

Q: Will assets from NXT be directly transferred as Assets on Waves or will they just be redeemed for equivalent value?

A: Yes, a burn mechanism is in the dev roadmap so assets can be effectively moved towards Waves platform.

Q: Will Multigateway be configured for Waves so there can be influx of other cryptos into the system?

A: Yes! We will support Bitcoin at launch, and ETH soon after it. New coins will be added too.

Q: Why should be Waves better then NXT?

A: Waves will be platform with emphasis on custom token creation, transfer and decentralized trading, with deep fiat integration, focus on crowdfunding, community-backed projects and mass adoption.

Fiat assets will be backed by third-parties, payment systems, and banks. Fiat tokens on Waves blockchain will be right at launch.

One of the goals will be also to create a protocol for token/asset transfer between blockchains. Imagine you have a token on NXT, ETH platform and would like to move this token to BTC colored coins or Waves blockchain. Assets issued on existing blockhains will be able to be transferred if protocol is implemented on both sides and you can enjoy then features of many blockchains at the same time.

Q: Will Supernet move its assets from NXT to Waves platform?

A: All assets will be able to migrate to the other blockchains, not only to Waves but also to Btcd blockchain, even to Btc after asset protocol is implemented in the code on the both sides. For example you will be able to migrate specific amounts of your assets to different blockchains at the same time and use features of SuperNET also.Waves blockchain will be “cooperating”(two-way transfer) all the time with all blockchains which implement new asset protocol.For the blockchains that don`t implement it, it will be one-way and one-time transfer only.

Q: I am still trying to understand how the token holders get a ROI, revenue streams etc

A: Waves will be the fuel for everything in the platform, there will be options to ‘pay these fees’ with another currencies also, but in the background, everything is done with Waves. Revenue streams — by trading tokens which are backed by unique tech, fiat tokens and usage of the platform potential, full fledged crypto crowdfunding platform potential, mass adoption potential, financial license potential, project who would like to be on the waves platform will have to have some tokens most probably, full nodes incentives.

Q: If I understand correctly, waves is some kind of Uphold or Openledger with the main difference being the ability to crowdfund? What’s your plan in order to compete with Kickstarter ? Lower fees ?

A: WAVES is colored tokens blockchain platform, like NXT, having its own blockchain and integrated decentralized exchange. Our unique selling point compared to Kickstarter is the ability to exit your pledge. If you pledge some funds at kickstarter you have to wait for your product, you can’t transfer it to another user for example. Also you can start a campaign much faster on Waves then on Kickstarter, there are no moderators who approve your campaign. Of course the fees are much lower too, basically the fees are zero, compared to Kickstarter fees.

Q: Why create a new token/blockchain? OpenLedger for example already has fiat integration and the possibility to create assets. There are other coins that also offer colored coins functionality. Why not add your dev team to an existing team and make something already working even better?

A: All current colored coins implementations have severe limitations. Obviously Bitcoin blockchain based tokens won’t work due to 10 min confirmation times. In Ethereum it’s quite difficult to create a decentralized exchange. Openledger is a web-interface to Bitshares blockchain actually, it’s not a colored coins protocol.

We are focused specifically on custom blockchain tokens. Our vision is very different from Bitshares vision, for example. Personally I don’t think that pegged assets is a viable idea. We want to do for blockchain tokens what Ethereum is doing for Bitcoin scripting — make it perfect.

Q: Why not just continue to use NXT? What is wrong with NXT that prevents you to add fiat tokens and reputation systems to it.

A: NXT is cool, we’ve been involved with NXT for a long time. But right from the start its development has been hindered by such problems as a really unfortunate initial distribution, changing developer teams, strange development decision. A moment came when I realized that it’s time to make things right, from scratch. It will be much more effective, and even faster. And of course I’d never fork NXT.

Q: The Dev team gets all the money from the ICO, plus 9M tokens? You’re essentially being paid twice. There is no coin burning… You have to agree that from a certain point-of-view this looks like a money grab and a get-rich-quick plan. If the devs want to profit further from their work, why don’t they buy the tokens they want themselves, with what they’re being paid from the ICO? I’m sure we’re not talking about modest salaries here. I wouldn’t be making this point — a cut being reserved for devs — if there was no ICO.

A: The devs will buy their own tokens. Also please understand a crucial point here — we need a good distribution for a POS coin. I’ve seen what poor distribution can lead to, as in NXT case. The more stakers you have the better for the network.

Q: There are plenty of bots around to make money on exchanges, market-making etc. Why don’t you put some of those to work with a part of the ICO fund to support the ‘post-ICO bounties’, instead of reserving 1M?

A: Of course ICO funds will be used to maintain buy walls, if there’s a need for this.

Q: How about the wallet? How to store waves? Website?

A: We have http://ico.wavesplatform.com/ live, then wallet and exchange.

Q: What’s the use of Waves token on the Waves platform?

A: Waves token is the fuel for the whole platform and all operations happening there. When you are doing any of the things mentioned above Waves token is used, when you will be trading with other crypto currencies or fiat which will be represented there as tokens, Waves token will be used, when you are transferring assets, Waves token is used, when you are withdrawing asset in form of currency to your wallet, Waves token is used. When someone is issuing the asset Waves token is used. When all other projects will be using Waves platform, the same Waves token will be used for all their operations. Other currencies will be just supported on the platform.

Q: Am I correct that colored coins are tokens that represent an underlying value like an asset? Waves also includes fiat currencies as colored coins, how are they planning on doing this exactly? doesn’t this require cooperation from the established banks? How do you know banks will go cooperate with you guys? Also, in this regard how can you offer anonymity while banking requires AML/KYC?

A: Yes we will be collaborating with entities that deal with bank directly and ultimately with banks themselves. Obviously there will be two ‘tiers’ of users, those that limit themselves to crypto transfers and the ones that will want to withdraw FIAT. For the former group there will be no need to disclose any kind of personal information, but for the latter, obviously there will be a KYC step. This is very clear from day 1, this is not a super-anon-project but one that will in fact collaborate with entities like banks and facilitate them the access to blockchain tech.

Q: What is the process through which colored coins get to represent a value? Who can create colored coins? Only established institutions or also individuals? In the case of both, how do you prevent scamming from individuals? I can create a token and claim it represents 1000kg of gold and I just made 1000kg gold appear out of thin air? In the case of institutions how do you get them on board?

A: Everyone can create colored coins or assets, but due to our (sometimes negative) experience in NXT environment where anyone can just pay a fee and create an asset we will be incorporating a reputation (karma) system where people with positive background will clearly have more reliability at the time of issuing assets. Anyone that purchase an asset/coin from a zero-reputation emitter, is under their own responsibility. There are many things that we have in mind to offer ‘guarantees’ on cases like tokens or coins that are theoretically backed by physical (or other) assets, for example notarized documents (Proof of Existence) — This is still in early stages of development and represents a BIG gap to fill since we would have to go through legal systems and work together with licensed professionals, not an easy task, so in the very beginning the reputation system will be the most reliable way to know if an asset is just wind or something solid.

Q: Can I use the tokens that represent fiat money outside of the platform? Can I exchange those tokens for real fiat money easily? Like can I send fiat tokens on the Waves platform to send real money to my bank?

A: We will facilitate the FIAT <> Crypto exchange, in fact is the core of Waves’ vision.

Q: There is absolutely no functionality yet for Waves tokens on the Waves platform is that right? So Waves tokens will not fulfill a functionality on the platform? Then why should I want to buy Waves tokens in the ICO?

A: Right, we are building it on top of Scorex which offers several advantages over BTC (or any other chain really) but we hope to have both testnet and the lite client working BEFORE ICO ends.

Q: I don’t understand how/when the waves token is used, and what ICO investors can expect to get out.

A: Waves token will be securing the network and all assets on the platform, but at the same time it will be the fuel of whole platform and all transactions happening there together with all transactions of new projects which are to be listed there, plus there will be incentives from the network itself, there will be new POS implementation when you will be getting rewards for having full node with balance or leasing balance to full node