Welcome,
This is the first in a series of three articles aimed at providing a broad understanding of a hugely ambitious, yet nascent project in the blockchain industry, Kardiachain. The opinions are my own, although my ideas on tech investments are largely attributed to the teachings of PayPal Founder and tech space ‘Thought Leader’, Peter Theil.
Zero to One describes the process of creating something radically new and taking it to the first step (vertical growth). The phrase is used in contrast to the term “1 to n” (horizontal growth), which means creating incremental improvements to what is already familiar. For most people, it is easier to do things from “1 to n” than from “zero to one”, so the vast majority of human effort is done on “1 to n” tasks.
Those familiar with the goals set out by Kardiachain may side with the notion that “interoperability” is not a new concept and so should not be considered ‘0–1’ , I ask those readers to stick with me as I attempt to explain my thoughts. It is my strong belief that when Kardiachain release their mainnet in Q4 2020, projects across the space will see why the tech developed here is THE ‘0–1’ in interoperability.
The Problem-
Since the birth of the Bitcoin blockchain 11 years ago, we have seen hoards of developers and tech entrepreneurs flood into the space hoping to take this fascinating new technology mainstream. It is perhaps just a coincidence that the famous gold rush of 1848 took place not too far from Silicon Valley, where we see its modern day reflection generating just as much excitement.
Whilst it has been exciting to see the space produce so many new and innovative platforms, it has also created obstructions for efforts to see the technology adopted at large. There are now so many different blockchain networks that stand alone and are unable to share information across different protocols, isolated ‘silos’, this reality opposes blockchains core philosophical concept — the idea of decentralisation and interconnection.
Interoperability- “The ability to share information across different blockchain networks, without restrictions.”
Opportunity -
The worlds largest organisations both private and public, have for the past 5 years or more, been carrying out feasibility studies and applicability piloting across all sectors, they attempt to weigh up the true value that a move towards blockchain based solutions will offer.
Thus far, many exciting results from various studies have ensured this technology is here to stay. Despite the positives, there has been one brick-wall in its way. The ability to connect all isolated chains seamlessly and without invasion of security/privacy. Many have offered attempts at solutions, some successful with their end goal of interoperability but none have managed to do it without it coming at a cost to achieve. By this I refer to an invasive and/or centralised solution.
More detail on this subject is described here;
https://medium.com/kardiachain/interoperability-approaches-1f6fbb661866
Invasive: requiring other participating chains to adopt or comply to their standard protocols.
Centralised: In simple terms, blockchains cannot access data outside of their networks and oracles are the data feed. Since oracles are not part of the blockchain consensus mechanism the main challenges with this implementation are that people need to trust these sources of information and that notaries nodes are honest.
Essentially, Kardiachains competitors in their attempt to solve the largest roadblock to mass adoption all require either making changes to a protocol in some way and/or needing to trust a 3rd party. Due to this, it is obvious that the 0–1 has not been achieved.
KardiaChain is a non-invasive interoperability blockchain infrastructure that can connect with other new or existing blockchains regardless of their protocol. The core Dual Node technology is capable of simultaneously accessing both ledgers of KardiaChain and another blockchain of choice. In doing so, it creates an ecosystem in which participating blockchains, both public and private, can bi-directionally interact with each other.
To demonstrate just how non-invasive this groundbreaking technology is, the Kardiachain team proved cross chain communication with one of the markets largest and best known blockchains, Neo. What made this achievement so incredibly exciting was the fact that there was no prior knowledge or communication from the Neo team to facilitate the process.
“We met KardiaChain team at a blockchain event back in 2019, we only found out then that there has been a project out there that has achieved cross-chain communication with Neo. I was thoroughly impressed by the team as well as tech. The partnership with KardiaChain will enable interoperability for all Neo-based blockchains.”
— John Wang, EcoGrowth Director at NGD
The enormity of such an achievement cannot be overstated.
Proprietary technology, can give a company a major advantage. Companies with technology that offers something much better than the nearest competitor are well positioned to become monopolies.” Peter Theil
When mainnet goes live in Q4, all the promise of this tech will become reality. The market will reward this proprietary technology (patent pending) with absolute advantage.
What is Absolute Advantage?
“Absolute advantage is the ability of an individual, company, region, or country to produce a greater quantity of a good or service with the same quantity of inputs per unit of time, or to produce the same quantity of a good or service per unit of time using a lesser quantity of inputs, than another entity that produces the same good or service. An entity with an absolute advantage can produce a product or service at a lower absolute cost per unit using a smaller number of inputs or a more efficient process than another entity producing the same good or service.”
Gradually, then Suddenly.
Vietnam
Many projects in the cryptocurrency space attempt to generate hype by proclaiming their plans will disrupt the space on a global scale. They do this in an effort to garner the support of price speculators who quickly rush to throw money at such grand plans.
Few have made good on such promises, if any. So it is important to understand. . Is this because their claims lacked substance? Was there really no interest in the product they were offering?
In some cases yes to both, but not all.
Please watch this quick video summary of why it is so important for any start-up business to focus first and scale later.
Those behind making key strategic decisions for Kardiachain have made some incredibly smart moves so far. They could have made the same mistake many others before them made in attempting to go from 1–100 and failing badly as a result.
Here are some key reasons why I believe Vietnam to be the ideal place to grow this network and prove to the world both its value and potential.
Hospitable environment
Many nation states across the globe have reacted negatively to the advent of blockchain. Some choosing to slow its development with strict and suffocating regulatory frameworks. One can only assume that this is due to the fear of disruption. For some leaders all they see is new trust issues, privacy concerns and change.
This is why,in this space more than any other, it is vital to choose target markets wisely.
For the last few decades, Vietnam has made great strides in building and maintaining its economy with rapid GDP growth. The standard of living has risen with better education and health leading to a stronger population. With no signs of stopping, the country is now making headway in developing its technology and financial sector. Through the predicted increase of smartphone ownership in the near future, experts believe that app-based, blockchain financial services will provide the under banked the resources they need to grow their wealth or establish financial histories.
Interest in blockchain technologies in the country is evidently on the rise. During last year’s Vietnam Blockchain Week conference, organised by Infinity Blockchain Labs, more than 2,000 people attended. On top of this, blockchain is believed by top researchers to bring a commercial benefit of 1 trillion USD for SMEs and especially those in newly-emerged markets like Vietnam.
Considering the growing popularity of this emerging technology, the Vietnamese government has responded in kind. Nguyen Van Binh, Head of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission, spoke at the ‘Blockchain Forum: Vision and Development’ event and explained that they will continue to monitor, encourage, and take advantage of blockchain technology as well as study and develop policies and regulatory framework to minimise associated risks.(Blockchain review)
Cause for change
In this industry we often hear rumours about potential “partnerships with enterprise” and at times “ties to the government of ____” fill in the blank. I often hear these claims dismissed outright as notions of a fantasist. Most of the time, I fully agree.
When first starting my due diligence on this project the rumours of government approval and huge partnerships were everywhere I looked. I was almost put off by this because 95% of the time claims of such a nature are a red flag. Luckily, I had read the white paper before heading to social platforms. I knew that if the promise of the white paper could be achieved , then Kardiachain was worth my time. On digging deeper and finding plenty of evidence to confirm the claims as truth. I was excited with what I had unearthed but still, I needed to understand why is it needed and why now?
By this I mean, if Vietnam is already in a period of rapid growth and development as confirmed by its GDP statistics, growth of 8%, 4x greater than its neighbour South Korea (2%) and many times more than both the UK and US at 1.4% and 2.3%, why fix what isnt broken?
The answer lies within the governments strong desire to gain absolute advantage in its key industries. To explain this I will place focus on Vietnam's largest export, rice.
As the 3rd largest exporter of rice in the world, Vietnam relies on farming and agriculture to yield positive results in this billion dollar industry.
Now you might ask, what on earth can blockchain technology do for rice farmers on the Mekong Delta, so I would ask you to watch this video to see just how forward thinking the Vietnamese really are. .
Sometimes when new technologies such as blockchain come into our line of sight, we struggle to see what the real world application of such tech will bring. I hope the video above can help piece this all together.
Vietnamese authorities are incentivized to adopt blockchain because it offers them clear advantages over those laggards who fail to see the utility in it.
Kardiachain are placed at the forefront of this transition to a much more efficient and productive landscape in not only Farming & Agriculture but all industries. From Banking and finance to Real estate, there are no closed doors for this project.
In part 2 of this series I will look at Kardiachains partnerships with Vietnam's leading (multi-billion dollar) enterprises. The scope of user-base that can be facilitated through garnering such partnerships is as exciting as it gets. .
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