Hello, Satoshi clubbers Another AMA took place in Satoshi Club and we would like to introduce to you the AMA session with our friends from SupraOracles and our guest was . The AMA took place on the 21th of December.
The AMA session was divided into 3 parts with a total crypto reward pool of $500
In this AMA Recap, we will try to summarise the most interesting points for you.
Part 1 — introduction and questions from the Telegram&WebSite
Pavel P
Hello again, dear Satoshi Club community! We are pleased to announce AMA with SupraOracles.
Pavel P
@jtobkin Hello and welcome to Satoshi Club! How are you doing today?
Joshua D. Tobkin
Things are going really well! Progress on our end has been moving forward at a really good pace.
Pavel P
Great to hear that! Let us start!
Could you introduce yourself and tell us how you got involved in crypto and particularly in SupraOracles?
Andrés M. | Satoshi Club
Nice to meet you Joshua
Andrés M. | Satoshi Club
/ansitpam
Joshua D. Tobkin
Hi, great to be here! I’m Josh, co-founder and CEO of SupraOracles.com. I’ve been in the blockchain industry for about 5 years researching how to scale blockchains. Before that I was involved in SaaS. I transitioned to full time Blockchain in 2017 while in San Fransico.
Our leadership team has been together since early 2018. I met Larron our CTO in Los Angeles and I met Jon our other co-founder in early January 2018 at San Francisco Blockchain week.
Joshua D. Tobkin
I have been in SaaS for over 10 years and was working on a couple of startups in San Francisco related to content digital rights management and food supply chain. Larron was a Senior Engineer at Sony before working with us. Jon was a blockchain consultant in Taipei since early 2017.
In 2018 we decided to create a crypto R&D lab called Unity Chain. There we studied a lot of different blockchain related topics from Layer 1 consensus algorithms, VRFs (verifiable random functions), and even to how IoT and blockchains can be useful. We also built some solutions for projects that had raised a lot of money in 2017 through ICOs but were unable to build their own technologies. That’s how we survived the crypto winter
Joshua D. Tobkin
In 2019 we were invited to Shenzhen by Walmart China to participate in a food safety challenge. Walmart invited 10 teams from around the world to participate. What we presented was a farm-to-table unbroken “Cold Chain” logistics solution that utilized Smart QR codes, IoT sensors, and blockchain to track the IoT data and enable digital payments. This solution allowed the end consumer to guarantee that their food has been handled correctly throughout the entire logistics process.
All of our experience with understanding how to connect data from the outside world into blockchains, our study of other Layer 1 consensus algorithms allowed us to conceptualize a new approach to bringing blockchain level guarantees to any data that we let enter a blockchain. In short, we actually apply Layer 1 security principles to the Oracle Layer.
Our Mission statement is to secure the Oracle layer with Layer 1 consensus security principles to ensure that any data we bring into blockchains have the strongest data correctness guarantees in the industry.
Pavel P
Wow! Huge background and great names involved.
Andrés M. | Satoshi Club
Amazing experience Joshua, we are glad to have a great crypto personality like you with us.
Joshua D. Tobkin
Thank you! it’s been a long ride…
More recently we “graduated” from the Berkeley Blockchain Xcellorator program and are currently in the Mastercard Start Path program with large projects like Avalanche (Avax) etc.
Andrés M. | Satoshi Club
Which features make Supra Oracles different to similar projects?
Joshua D. Tobkin
Mostly our approach. We’re like 100X more secure than most other solutions since we get rid of central points of failure.
While we’re also very fast on the order of 3-5 second refresh rates for finality.
Joshua D. Tobkin
I’ll share a short video before the end of the AMA that on a high-level shares how our secure service works
Andrés M. | Satoshi Club
What about fees? are you cheaper than others as well?
Pavel P
Sure! Our community would love to watch it!
Joshua D. Tobkin
Since we’re “high-throughput,” fees should be cheaper by far. Also, we hope to deploy a stablecoin mechanism so that fees are predictable – we’re exploring a flat-rate fee.
It’s a major pain point for projects to have to manage multiple currencies that are highly volatile.
Pavel P
I think, it is extremely important today – to avoid price fluctuations
Joshua D. Tobkin
Agreed. We’re definitely really focused on the Developer Experience, to make it simple to plug-n-play while having access to data that has best in industry data-correctness guarantees.
Andrés M. | Satoshi Club
Perfect. Thanks a lot for the introduction, Joshua, ready to proceed with the community questions? we have collected six of them for you.
Pavel P
So, you clearly see the goal and we hope that the path will be quick and and flat!
Joshua D. Tobkin
yes, ready for them
Pavel P
Q1 from Telegram user @Anne_Tim
It is mentioned on your website that Supra Oracles is building a suite of tools for creators, developers, and entrepreneurs. All this would finaly change such industries as Finance (DeFi, price feeds and payments), Gaming (Metaverse, dynamic NFT), marketing, trade and analytics. Could you talk more about each of the use cases mentioned above? Please also explain what are the revolutionary features of Supra Oracles and how would it impact regular users? Thanks!
Joshua D. Tobkin
Happy to share. Give me a moment to type this out pls.
Pavel P
Sure. Take your time!
Joshua D. Tobkin
re: DeFi:
DeFi is going to be transformative in that we can get rid of a bunch of middle-men in the banking industry that don’t really need to be there, thereby, making borrow/lending and Peer 2 Peer models more efficient, streamlined, and efficient.
re: Gaming:
Suppose you want to move an in-game asset around, by utilizing Supra who is focusing a cross-chain middleware Oracle, we can help move assets across networks and across games.
Additionally, in-game performance analytics can be associated to NFT meta-data. Suppose the performance of an in-game item in one Ecosystem can affect how the item is rendered in another. In order to get this performance data, utilizing a credibly neutral Oracle could play an important role.
re: Marketing/Advertising:
Well most of us don’t really love online ads, yet the truth is they are not all that bad. Even Brave Browser is kind of reliant on ads. We think ultimately there will be new ways to monetize with your attention in novel ways… to carefully track engagement metrics a decentralized Oracle service could be beneficial here.
In general, when you can rely on a secure, fast, performant Oracle to provide performance or Analytic data on things, new smart contract capabilities are enabled. Even bringing in data from like who won the Football game is a simple example of this.
Andrés M. | Satoshi Club
Thanks for the complete explanation, congratulations for the innovative project you have created.
Joshua D. Tobkin
Thank you, we hope we can help and secure the multi-chain future.
Pavel P
So, the solution might be used in multiple LIVE data streamers? To make sure the information is provided in real time
Andrés M. | Satoshi Club
Which chains are you based on at the moment? several of them?
Joshua D. Tobkin
That right. We aim to run consensus at the data source directly (at their websockets) and then another round of consensus collecting many data sources into a final result.
Joshua D. Tobkin
We’re going to start with Ethereum and EVM chains initially but since we are blockchain agnostic, we’ll also be providing our services to Solana and other ecosystems. We intend to help bridge the most popular chains all together.
Pavel P
Thank you for your answers! Let’s proceed to the question nr2. Are you ready?
Joshua D. Tobkin
yes
Pavel P
Q2 from Telegram user @iceVermithraxx
Current oracles particularly decentralized oracle are vulnerable to hacking and outside manipulation and this have led to over $120M stolen last year due to DeFi Exploits. Sadly, Most of these issue occur due to lack of transparency, accountability and also Price delay and deviation. I clearly understand how SupraOracle oracle solves the issues of Price Delay and Deviation but Can you explain on How Supraoracle plans to solve my aforementioned issues on security and transparency? Are the prices precision of Supraoracle going to be Open to any entity to ensure full transparency? What are the base protocol layers in Supraoracle to ensure Full Safety of Investors Funds? How would users and investors be able to hold Supraoracle accountable for their actions?
Joshua D. Tobkin
Yes, so Supra is a Proof of Stake network and nodes must stake our token in order to participate. This generates a NodeID for each node.
Then the nodes themselves get randomized into “Tribes” and “Clans”
Clans are size 13 and Tribes can be on the order of 300-500~ nodes each
Each CLAN itself has to perform a DKG (Distributed Key Generation) process, which creates a Clan Level Public Address (or Identity)
We randomly dispatch a Clan to each of our data sources, who run a round of consensus at the data source before that data is sent to our block producer who will await 15 out of 21 data reports. The final value that’ll be used will be the medium value, so that extremeities are not included.
These data reports are fully transparent. We know exactly which Clan signed which data and can fully trace it. Additionally, by having each of the nodes in the Clan itself sign their parital signature with their private key, we can even know what every SINGLE node has signed/submitted.
This video was from our Blockchain at Berkeley Demo Data and shares our technical approach, feel free to take a look and open it up in another browser:
Andrés M. | Satoshi Club
How many tokens people have to stake and where can they buy it?
Pavel P
Satoshiclubbers’ please watch this great explanation video.
Joshua D. Tobkin
Oh I should also mention, currently we have grown to have over 351 partnerships as of today. Some of them include decentralized Insurance projects like InsurAce – so in additon to being secure at the protocol level, just in case, end-consumer can furthermore take our insurance in case of worse case scenerios
Andrés M. | Satoshi Club
Wow, a big amount of partnerships, congratulations
Joshua D. Tobkin
We’re actually in private testnet mode still… still technically in stealth and just coming out of stealth recently.
The token is NOT available for sale at the moment. HOWEVER, for SatoshiClubber’s they can get on our early White List to get the advanced notification when it is released!
Here it is, be sure to join if you’re interested!
Andrés M. | Satoshi Club
Oh amazing opportunity, thanks for share it. Satoshiclubbers, take care of this information, great opportunity for you
Andrés M. | Satoshi Club
Well, is time to proceed with the next question.
Joshua D. Tobkin
Prior to the actual public sale, we also intend to do other programs and perks… so be sure to join the list if you’re interested in staying in touch with our project and would like to be one of the first to be notified when we do open up our sale!
Joshua D. Tobkin
ok
Pavel P
Q3 from Telegram user @Cheriemike
I read from your website that you have a unique novel vested architecture of “Tribes” and “Clans” that allows for parallel processing via powerful cryptographic primitives,such as Threshold Cryptography.So can you for a moment break this down for a better understanding of how the “Tribes” and “Clans” model works give that they are not referring to any individuals?Can you tell us how this design have brought about security,speed and also cross-chain communication?Can you also share with us how the use of (VRF) Verifiable Radom Function works in your architectural design of “Tribes” and “Clans”?Please provide further details concerning this unique design for the benefits of our community. Thanks
Joshua D. Tobkin
Sure thing.
As mentioned earlier, we randomly organize nodes into “Tribes” and then nodes are randomized further into “Clans”
Tribes are on the order of 300-500 nodes, Clans are all sized 13 each.
For each Clan, we require 2f+1 of the nodes to collect their partial signatures to create a valid Clan Level Threshold signature. In short, we need 9 out of 13 nodes, any combination, to come together to sign together.
In order to enable Threshold signatures, the nodes need to perform a Distribured Key Generation key exchange ritual to create a Clan level Public Key. Also, this DKG threshold signature process is necessary in order for us to utilize the Clan and Tribe’s aggregated threshold signature on proposed blocks as inputs for our VRF (Verifiable Random Functions).
The VRF is what drive our protocol forward non-interactively, which means, nodes don’t all need to communicate and gossip with each other in order to have a “common coin” for randomness. This randomness is fast to generate, does not require an additional round of consensus, and is unbiased and unpreditable.
This ultimately means less communication costs to achieve consensus, to re-shuffle the nodes in our network to new Tribes/Clans, which means more security – and importantly – SPEED.
Joshua D. Tobkin
This “Nested Architecture” of organizing nodes into Clans and then Clans to form Tribes give us the ability to community across Tribes without having all nodes having to speak to all nodes. Instead, Clans can reach their Clan Level thresholds and then Clans in Tribes can aggregate their Clan Threshold signatures and then we can communicate with each other by sending only our aggregated signature proofs across tribes… which saves a lot of communication overhead.
Less communication overhead to achieve consensus = faster!
Pavel P
Less costs, more security and faster speeds – that’s a dream!
Joshua D. Tobkin
Exactly! Security is always #1 but #2 is Speed and #3 is less costs
Pavel P
Fully agree!
Pavel P
Would you like to add smth or we can move to the question nr 4?
Joshua D. Tobkin
Good here.
Pavel P
Q4 from Telegram User @Modrumz120
From your website, you mentioned that supra oracles promises improved robustness to network spamming,
MEV attacks, and node capturing from a powerful, state-level adaptive adversary, while maintaining low transaction latency and high throughput. I am curious to know, How does supra oracle work to improve robustness to network spamming and prevent MEV attacks in your eco-system? Can you also elaborate, how those Adaptive adversary works to improve the better functionality of Supra oracles? What are other advantages of supra oracles and what are it benefit in your eco-system and to users? Thank you.
Joshua D. Tobkin
We apply L1 principles to our Oracle model. In some sense, you can actually consider us a L1 with Native Oracles.
We have a deterministic ordering process in which we organize incoming transactions/requests into “Priority Buckets” And then batches/blocks get formed out of these priority buckets.
Since batch/block ordering is actually deterministic, and these are built-into our Consensus Rules, block proposers are not allowed to arbitrarily adjust transactions order to their advantage. It becomes more difficult to manipulate transaction ordering to your advantage, thereby making MEV (Miner Extractable Value) much more difficult.
We have improved robustness to network spamming because we may have several Clans across multiple Tribes (even as many as 20 concurrently in parallel) that can accept inbound requests. There isn’t a single node ever that handle all the load. Transactions get routed to one of the 20 Clan as it begins consensus process.
The core advantages of our Oracle model are:
1. More security
2. Less MEV
3. Fast Finality
4. Easy to plug-n-play
5. Predictable fees
Andrés M. | Satoshi Club
Have you been audited? I mean to assure security to users you should know everythin is ok with your contracts and platform.
Joshua D. Tobkin
Before we go live, yes, we will be audited by several firms. We are already in talks with a couple of European firms, audits shall begin in earnest in early 2022 indeed.
Pavel P
Great! Pretty sure audits will pass well!
Pavel P
Ready to proceed to the question nr 5?
Andrés M. | Satoshi Club
Thanks for the clarification, Jhosua.
We all must do audits in case of the unknown unknowns
Pavel P
Ready to proceed to the question nr 5?
Joshua D. Tobkin
yesser
Pavel P
Q5 from Telegram User @Ecmq10
Hello SupraOracle team. You highlight that your main competitor, Chainlink, averages 120 seconds to reach finality. And it’s really wonderful that SupraOracles is much faster, offering 3-5 second on-chain refresh rates, with full finality. Without a doubt SupraOracle is amazing! What technology does SupraOracle use that makes it possible to achieve this speed? Chainlink is one of the most popular projects, however SupraOracle surpasses it in speed. In what other ways does SupraOracle stand out from the competition? Thank you.
Joshua D. Tobkin
I actually think my response to this elucidates how we achieve our speed:
https://t.me/Satoshi_club/1346211
Less message complexity to achieve consensus = faster response.
Parallel processing by Clans concurrently allow more nodes to be involved in inspecting end results, while not adding more latency (since it’s being processed across many data sources at the same time)
Chainlink has been one of the original Oracles in the space. We’re coming to the table with a new model that is way more secure and decentralized, while also being fast. Competition in the Oracle space is healthy.
While we might not become the biggest Oracle this year, we hope to compete strongly over these next few years. Regardless, we know that helping to mature the Oracle layer is healthy for smart contract platforms, blockchain ecosystems, and the industry as as whole.
Pavel P
You see, the answers are so complete that you cover multiple questions in one shot!
Pavel P
Propose to jump to the last question of Part 1 of our AMA
Joshua D. Tobkin
I try to be thorough!
Joshua D. Tobkin
Let’s go for it!
Pavel P
Q6 from Telegram User @victorogb
Can we talk a little bit more on your client base and partners. Going through the websites and different blog publications, I noticed that these partners and clients are all within cryptocurrency and Blockchain tech, and you really do not have business partners outside this market. Can you let us know why this is so, since SupraOracles intends to change the model and manner at which Oracle services are offered, why don’t you explore markets outside crypto? How do you think you can better adapt Blockchain tech, to suit all models and markets especially those largely concentrated within traditional finance. Do you believe SupraOracles can create efficient, fast and secured oracles that connect both technologies?
Joshua D. Tobkin
So the clear low hanging fruit is the blockchain industry and specifically DeFi.
Nonetheless, we’re part of the Mastercard Start Path Program… and they actually engage, of course, with some of the largest organizations in the world across multiple industries.
They even engage organizations like central banks that are looking to build CBDC (central bank digital currencies). My personal reaction to CBDC is with a bit of caution…
Nonetheless, there are organizations that are looking to understand how CBDCs and Public blockchain ecosystems can interact with each other.
If that happens, Oracles will be useful to provide Foreign Exchange (FX) data for Fiat digital currency, as well as exchange rate data for cryptocurrencies.
Additionally, GameFi and Metaverse opportunites are starting to emerge.
Finally, I have a background in IoT and supply chain management. It is natural for IoT and blockchain smart contract automation to coincide together (we actually shared our early solution to Walmart China before).
I think many industries are going to be re-created from the ground up with blockchain technologies. And smart contracts can just do a lot more when they have access to external real-world data… which require Oracles.
Joshua D. Tobkin
before jumping into the 10 question AMA:
Be sure to also join our SupraOracles Telegram group! We’re not as big as this one, but we’re also growing!
We’ll be announcing new initiatives there too, like referral programs and giveaways!
Be sure to join our special SatoshiClubber’s White List too!
—> https://supraoracles.com/whitelist-invite-satoshi-club/ <—
Joshua D. Tobkin
Ok we’re ready for the flood gates to open! Our team will select up to 10 questions from the audience!
Pavel P
So, you know how it works here! Great!
Joshua D. Tobkin
Am ready!
Andrés M. | Satoshi Club
Let’s join, Satoshiclubbers, amazing events are coming for Supra Oracles. Btw, could you share us your roadmap before open the chat for live questions?
Andrés M. | Satoshi Club
Prepare your fingers
Pavel P
Yes, we are going to open a chat for 120 seconds. Please start answering the selected ones once the chat is closed back
Pavel P
Fire, Andres!
Andrés M. | Satoshi Club
Sure, waiting for the roadmap
Joshua D. Tobkin
Alpha Testnet done in Jan
Testnet from Feb-March (early round of audits)
Public sale perhaps around that period…!
Mainnet after passing audits.
Andrés M. | Satoshi Club
Excellent, our best wishes for your coming events.
Joshua D. Tobkin
*Subject to change but at a high level that’s the plan!
Joshua D. Tobkin
Thank you!
Andrés M. | Satoshi Club
Opening the chat in 3
Part 2 — live questions from the Telegram community
Q1 from Telegram user @Gen_Block
Is the project by SupraOracle designated for Professional and experienced person in crypto? As beginner, I feel it is difficult to understand about the project and it’s advantages? Or is there any video available where I can watch on SupraOracle is all about?
Joshua D. Tobkin
Hi Gen,
This video I posted earlier will help break down the technology a bit more.
We are in the middle of creating more videos as we speak! We aim to make sure our technology is easy to understand.
In the mean time, this video is a good place to start! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfDnTCwVYJ4
Q2 from Telegram user @alicandogan9
How does SupraOracles go and enable to automate payments and provide smart contracts with performance data on NFTs? Can SupraOracles make oracles blocks much more useful?
Joshua D. Tobkin
This one is pretty interesting…
Suppose there is a Music NFT… and that there are 3 singers in the Band.With Oracles and smart contracts, we can track how many times its been played and then Oracles can push that data to blockchain smart contracts to automate payouts. This of course is a simplified response but it’s definitely a good usecase
Q3 from Telegram user @satishgmr
Many Oracle Projects find it very hard to keep its Security tight,
When do You plan organise Bug Bounties & Have Auditing of the smart Contract?
Joshua D. Tobkin
During our Incentivized Testnet period, we will have bug bounties and penetration tests. We’ll make sure our rewards for bugs are large too so we can attract a lot of attackers and that we can patch any possible issues. That’ll be a 2 month period likely. Not entirely sure when that’ll begin but its something we want to do!
Q4 from Telegram user @Dino916
How important are Community Validators for SupRaOracles?
Don’t you think that it is expensive to run a validator nodes for most of the oracles?
Joshua D. Tobkin
Decentralization matters a lot. We’re hoping to attract over 1,000 nodes. And in our alpha testnet, we’re actually testing on 2,500 node.
Our nested model allows us to scale. Many Chainlink clusters are only 10-20 nodes
We engage many more nodes in general for our process.
Q5 from Telegram user @Clint_25
Is your project offering any bounties, giveaways, or prizes? Could you possibly send me the details?
Joshua D. Tobkin
es actually…. but not all of them are announced yet….
We’ll have some NFT programs too…
Be sure to also join our SupraOracles Telegram group! We’re not as big as this one, but we’re also growing!
https://t.me/SupraOracles
We’ll be announcing new initiatives there too, like referral programs and giveaways!
https://t.me/SupraOracles
Be sure to join our special SatoshiClubber’s White List too!
—> https://supraoracles.com/whitelist-invite-satoshi-club/
Q6 from Telegram user @RuthOdion
You mentioned that Supra Oracle is Blockchain Agnostic, what are some of the chains you’re currently compatible with? How can I become a Node in Supra Oracle and How are Nodes in Supra Oracle Incentivize?
Joshua D. Tobkin
You’ll have to join our waitlist – we’ll be letting community run nodes during our incentivized Testnet period. We’re going to be focused on connecting to most EVM chains. We’re already internally reviewing Eth 2.0’s cryptographic compatiability. We’re compatable so that’s great! Our network is a Proof of Stake network… when we’re live, you’ll have to acquire our token to stake and register your node.
Q7 from Telegram user @slla1112
What are the exciting milestones in the development of SupraOracles? Can you share your plans for the near future?
Joshua D. Tobkin
We’re more than just an Oracle… we’ll help blockchains communicate with each other to faciliate cross-chain DeFi
Also, we’re aiming to provide a decentralized Automation service — which is a decentralized If This then That service.
Q8 from Telegram user @burshanggal
What kind of business plan
do you use to make money? To exist and operate the project firm, all projects must create cash. What is the most effective strategy to profit from tokens?
Joshua D. Tobkin
Since these are decentralized blockchains, there isn’t a traditional business plan in the normal sense…
However, services in our network will cost fees. There will be fees for our Oracle data, cross-chain communication, our decentalized automation service, and even transactions on our network.
Most of the fees will go to the nodes while some % of the fee may actually be fully burned!
So the good news is… there are some ‘normal’ business models for Supra
Q9 from Telegram user @Nairabox
You talked about graduating from the Berkeley Blockchain Xcellorator program and currently undergoing the Mastercard Start Path program, are these programs targeted at solving specific problems since your approach involves getting rid of central points of failure?
Joshua D. Tobkin
There are some very interesting projects in early discussions… Let’s say, for example… that perhaps Mastercard has acquired a Credit Scoring agency… and perhaps they are interested to see if it is possible to do under-collatoralized Lending. Decentralized Identity solutions are of interest in this manner as well. Furthermore, KYC DeFi is a sector that traditional finance is pretty interested in. I can’t mention anything too much deeper though.
Q10 from Telegram user @Silica432
I Read that Your team has received sizeable grants, credits, and awards of over $1,000,000 USD in total , It IS REALLY GREAT , Will You plese highlight More Points about your Respected TEAM MEMBERS ?
Joshua D. Tobkin
Yes, we’ve applied to many programs… It turns out there is a lot of demand for a more competition in the Oracle space! Some ecosystems are not really comfortable with only one larger player dominating — while knowing their solution isn’t necesssarily the most decentralized or all that secure.
Our CTO left Sony as a senior engineer to join us (we’ve been working together in a variety of capacities for the last 4 years).
CBO Jon was a blockchain consultant prior to teamming up with me in early 2018
And our CSO comes from traditional finance background – but has been in the blockchain space for like 5-6 years himself too.
Others on our team have come from major ecosystems like Dfinity and Consensys, as well as organizations like the London Stock Exchange and more
Part 3 – Quiz Results
As usual, for the third part, Satoshi Club Team asked the chat 4 questions about the crypto project. A link to a Quiz form was sent into the chat.
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Our partners:
Telegram –https://t.me/joinchat/nmsF5R2sXCc0MmQ1
Medium –https://medium.com/@SupraOracles
WebSite – https://supraoracles.com/
Twitter-https://twitter.com/SupraOracles