On September 27th Amaury Séchet made himself available for an AMA (Ask Me Anything) organized for the eCash Official Korea Group on Telegram. In the days before the event, group members were invited to submit questions. A series of 13 questions were selected from 20 to 25 questions submitted. These were translated from Korean to English and put to eCash’s lead Developer during the AMA. He then typed his answers into the group directly where they were translated into Korean by one of the organizers.
The 13 questions covered a number of areas but there was clearly a lot of interest to learn more about what would be the focus of the development team upon completion of the work on Avalanche post- en pre-consensus that is currently being prioritized. Different questions focussed on learning more about what the team plans to do and what it will not do. There was also interest in learning about past decisions and some people wanted to learn more about certain technical details.
In this article we present the questions and answers but also provide some more background information or context to allow people to better understand. We are grateful for Michael Nuzio collecting all the questions and answers and allowing us to use his work as the basis of this article. If you want to only read the questions and answers you can go to his Medium blog post directly.
The AMA started with an explanation of the difference between how avalanche technology is being implemented in eCash (XEC) and how it was done by Avalabs in the Avalanche (AVAX) coin. An important question because people often do not understand that avalanche is a technology but that the name is also used for a crypto currency (AVAX) that is using that technology. It is important to understand that although the Bitcoin ABC team is working on implementing (parts of) the technology, the 2 crypto currency projects are completely separate and unrelated other than utilizing that same technology or parts of it.
Question: What are the key differences in XEC and AVAX in terms of Avalanche implementation?
Amaury: AVAX uses avalanche exclusively. XEC is first and foremost a blockchain that is similar to Bitcoin, that we plan to improve with avalanche. One of the main advantages of that design is that any system that works with Bitcoin can be very quickly adapted to work with XEC. Obviously, such a system will not have all the advantages avalanche can provide, but it will still be able to benefit from being able to do transactions in about 10 minutes.
The next question referred to Amaury’s experience with starting Bitcoin Cash (BCH) in 2017 and his thoughts on if and how things could have done differently. In 2019 and also in 2020, Amaury spoke a lot about how culture can benefit or harm a project. He pointed out how certain community cultures will drive good people away while rewarding and attracting people that will not contribute towards the long term success of the project. And it is no secret that when Amaury Séchet and Bitcoin ABC parted ways with BCH and created eCash XEC (first known as BCHA) they were convinced that the culture in Bitcoin Cash was beyond fixing.
Question: With your current knowledge, is there anything you would have done differently when starting BCH to foster a good culture or was the culture doomed already?
Amaury: Yes, many things. I was too welcoming of many people who didn’t contribute a lot of value and generated noise. That being said, it is not a given that even doing it all perfectly, it would have been a success, because people are who they are and they bring their culture with them. XEC is in a much better position on that front.
The third question is very similar to questions number 6 and 10. All three people asking these questions were interested in learning what was being planned after the current work of adding Avalanche is complete. on top of the existing system of Nakamoto consensus is finished. What are the next priorities the Bitcoin ABC development team will be focusing on? Here are the 3 questions and the answers that were given.
Question: What do you think is the next most important item on the XEC roadmap after Avalanche?
Amaury: Avalanche enables a ton of things, and building these things is the next big thing. There is a ton that can be done, from increasing security to providing instant confirmation. It’s not one big big thing, but many little ones.
Question: What is the development plan after Avalanche?
Amaury: First and foremost, using avalanche to provide all the benefits it can: increased security, faster confirmation time and so on. There are many small things that can be done here. After that, subnets so that the network can interconnect with other networks with different features, but using the same coin at the core. I think the 2 most valuable subnets would be a zero knowledge one for people who want privacy and an EVM one, so that people can run more evolved smart contracts, just like on Ethereum.
Question: What do you think is the next most important point in XEC roadmap after Avalanche?
Amaury: Leveraging avalanche to provide value to users in general. Faster confirmation time, increased security, and subnets are what we are looking at.
Next question was very technical in nature. Implementing Merklix trees has been part of the scaling roadmap presented by Amaury as early as 2016. Scaling to accommodate global use of the currency is an important aspect of the eCash roadmap and Merklix plays a part in that.
Question: How can Merklix benefit the eCash chain? Is it useful for sharding? Is there any estimate for its implementation?
Amaury: Merklix trees can be processed in parallel, which is an advantage for very large blocks. XEC is not operating at a scale where this would make a huge difference at this time, but if XEC succeeds, then this will become necessary. Increasing parallelism is the only way to process more things in the same amount of time. Implementation is relatively easy, so I’m not worried about it. Deployment would require a hard fork. We have done several in the past, so when the time comes, we’ll be able to do this.
DeFi (Decentralized Finance) has been a hot topic in the crypto currency space so it was expected to also see a question about it in this AMA. The answer is technical in nature but it does show that DeFi is indeed in eCash’s future.
Question: eCash must be considering DeFi feature as a payment coin. What is the plan to support DeFi or to build its own similar decentralized financial system that you are considering?
Amaury: The plan for DeFi feature is to create an EVM subnet. For a very long time, people have been wondering how to link bitcoin with other system that work differently. Solutions like Sidechains or Drivechains have been proposed, but they all have a problem with the reverse peg (namely, how to bring back coins from the sidechain to the main chain). This problem can be solved more effectively with Avalanche.
As many projects in the crypto space put a lot (some even all) of their focus and emphasis on marketing, it is not surprising that some want to hear what the plans are in this regard. Although it was recently suggested that Bitcoin ABC have hired a CMO (Chief Marketing Officer), the development team has not made any announcements, which could suggest they are keeping their cards close to their chest. Little is known about their current marketing strategy.
Question: I would like to know your marketing plan to outperform other coins in the market?
Amaury: At the end of the day, we do not control the price of the coin. What we can do is work hard to try to make a good coin and that people will like it. We do so by working on core technologies that will allow better scalability, faster confirmations (< 2s), better security, and better extensibility. We are also making sure that the culture stays sound, which is something that is too often neglected, but is probably even more important than the tech.
A question that often is seen in the different groups is about burning coins. Some seem to think this is the only way for projects to create value. This answer by Amaury could finally put this issue to rest.
Question: Do you have any plans to burn eCash in the future? And I know that this eCash is being rebranded to be used in real life. How are you guys managing this?
Amaury: The people who burn their coins think their coins are not valuable. They want to do a marketing stunt to impress naïve investors so they can dump on them. We think XEC is valuable, and therefore we will not burn any. Anyone who thinks burning is valuable can prove us wrong by burning their own coins.
As for the rebranding, Bitcoin ABC just isn’t a good brand. It doesn’t say what it is, what it is for, what the values of the projects are, etc. eCash is much better. eCash can be used everywhere that could replace fiat currency. This is a term that has been used for years, including by famous economist Milton Friedman, and which conveys immediately what we are about.
Part of the rebranding from Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHA) to eCash (XEC) was a 1 : 1,000,000 redenomination. With the smallest unit (satoshi) remaining the same size and the same supply, 1.00000000 BCHA (8 decimals) became 1,000,000.00 XEC (two decimals). The next question inquires what is the goal of this change.
Question: What is the ultimate goal of increasing the number of coins by rebranding eCash at a ratio of 1,000,000 : 1?
Amaury: With BTC or BCH, it is very inconvenient to pay for something. The price will be 0.00143 or something like this. One has to count the zeros and it is easy to get it wrong.
On the other hand, there are many currencies out there with large numbers. This is the case in Korea for instance. People prefer this. So we made the choice to change the denomination in this way. We made sure we left a good margin for the price to increase and the coins to remain convenient to use.
CBCD or Central Bank Digital Currencies are something many countries are believed to be working on. The next question addresses a fear or belief that some people have about how these future currencies will be able to outcompete other coins and even make them redundant.
Question: When CBDC appears in the United States and globally, I wonder if eCash can coexist with it or which features of eCash will be the focus instead of the monetary feature?
Amaury: While CDBC share common technologies with cryptocurrencies, they are not the same thing at all. They will be used to do mass surveillance and to control people’s finances to a degree that never existed before. In my view, it is capital that people have alternatives to CDBC available, or freedom in the world will be greatly reduced. This is why XEC exists.
Many people have been asking about what kind of staking opportunities there will be for eCash in the future so this next question is a welcome addition. Almost at the end of the AMA, it looks like Amaury did not see the second part of the question about holdings of the foundation.
Question: The staking reward might be what holders expect the most. 90% of the issued eCash is circulating now in the market. I would like to know the amount of eCash that the foundation has and the staking reward rate, and how to maintain it?
Amaury: These decisions have not been settled yet, and input from the community would be welcome.
The last question addresses a common misconception about POW (Proof Of Work) and POS (Proof Of Stake) as some believe eCash to stop being a Proof Of Work system. A short answer by Amaury makes it clear that the current POW system will stay but the addition of avalanche will make it more of a hybrid system that uses the advantages of both systems.
Question: What are the reasons and advantages of switching to POS while giving up Bitcoin legitimacy?
Amaury: We are not switching to PoS. PoW is here to stay. We are adding features on top of PoW which leverage PoS.
Although it did not really reveal any new information, reading the reactions of group members and others it became immediately clear that the community greatly appreciated hearing the information from lead developer Amaury Sechet. With many very active eCash language and country groups, maybe we will see similar events happening in other Telegram groups and elsewhere in the future.
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