Recap of Guarda Wallet& QTUM AMA
- One of the common staking problems is that not all people have computers with enough capacity to dedicate them to it. How does QTUM improve the user experience through staking? Why did QTUM decide to include privacy options?
Qtum is actually one of the easiest proof-of-stake blockchains to be a validator in. I’m running the testnet on my raspberry pi right now and it doesn’t have any issues. We’ve even run Qtum on the Pi 0. This was part of our design choice. We wanted Qtum to be one of the most decentralized blockchains, so we needed it to run on the lightest/cheapest devices. Additionally, users only need 1 Qtum to start staking, the chances of mining a block are small, but it’s proportional to your stake in the network and thus “fair”.
Even though it’s easy to run, we wanted to have more people involved in staking, which is why we are making the switch to Offline Staking. After August 28th, you won’t even need to have a computer to start staking, you can delegate your tokens, without giving up ownership of them, to online nodes.
2. DeFi is a concept that has been mentioned a lot recently when blockchain projects started to build protocols and applications to support DeFi. Are there differences in your team visions and missions about DeFi compared to other projects in this field?
DeFi is a great use case for Blockchain, I believe we have been using DeFi partly for years now, however, the Dex platforms that have allowed DeFi to grow such as Uniswap are allowing for more people to join blockchain and has helped the entire ecosystem grow in the past year. Qtum will bring improvements to DeFi with better scaling and a new infrastructure designed for it.
3. QTUM is compatible with BTC & ETH Blockchain while both are QTUM competitors, why do you choose to make both compatible with QTUM?
Compatibility with other blockchains is something we believe to be necessary to continue growing the industry. There’s lots of great concepts and solutions out there, and one of the main challenges is to allow developers to choose and build something that will be backwards compatible and easy to deploy and execute without needing to reinvent the wheel.
4. I see in your new updates and programs QTUM are using Rust programming language. Why did you choose to use Rust programming ?
With Rust, we’re not only building the backbone of Qtum’s new features but developers will also be able to build Blockchain applications using this powerful and memory safe language.
5. Several questions about the Stake a Thon campaign.
- How does the work?
There is a blog on the Stake-A-Thon that gives you detailed instructions: https://blog.qtum.org/stake-a-thon-qtum-testnet-offline-staking-604a5b65a0ca
- How much is the minimum to do staking?
There’s no minimum! That’s one of the great things about Qtum, although the less qtum you have staking, the longer it will take to get a reward. There’s a staking calculator that gives you an estimate: https://qtum.info/misc/toolbox/stake-calculator
- What is offline staking? How is it possible to support the net if we are not online? Are the Qtums delegated to a node?
Offline Staking is a way for Qtum that is stored “offline” on hardware and mobile wallets to participate in Qtum’s consensus. It works by allowing users to delegate their UTXOs to an online node. The node then stakes the Qtum on behalf of the delegator and the fee is split through the protocol. So users don’t have to trust if the validator will pay the percentage because it’s done by the protocol. We believe that this will make the chain stronger since more Qtum will take part in securing transactions.
This blog explains Offline Staking pretty well: https://blog.qtum.org/qtum-improvement-proposal-25-the-road-to-offline-staking-part-2-a79cd62300aa
6. Is it possible for new developers to use the Qtum platform to build their own products? What are the benefits for developers and Qtum itself?
Yes, of course, the Qtum platform has always been about developers, there are many benefits in building for Qtum. Currently you can use solidity to build/port your apps to Qtum.
The Qtum blockchain has several advantages such as:
- Better scalability than competitors
- Easy to use/end-user-oriented apps
Qtum will also support more advanced and powerful blockchain applications with its upcoming Qtum Neutron platform, we believe this will take blockchain apps to the next level
Qtum as a platform, benefits from its continued community growth
7. How can I convince my friends to become Qtum Core Super Stakers? What makes them different from other staking projects?
Being a Qtum Core Super Staker is like BEing YOUR OWN BANK!
Not only are you staking your coins, you get to stake other people’s coins without ever touching them and you get part of their rewards!!! There’s no slashing, and no long lockups. So the risks are quite small compared to other protocols.
8. It has been a tumultuous year and a half for crypto. How do you see overall blockchain developing going forward and what are the opportunities for Qtum?
They say that struggles make one stronger, you need a lot of pressure to make a diamond. I think that’s what’s happening now. We are going through very trying times all over the world and despite all the news headlines, crypto stays crypto. It hasn’t bent the knee to cater to anyone. More and more people everyday are using it and what’s happening in the world, (a broader distrust of government, inflation), makes crypto more appealing than ever. Crypto isn’t partisan, it doesn’t play politics.
The opportunities for Qtum is that this period will encourage people facing issues to build solutions, and more specifically build solutions that utilize privacy. Privacy is needed so people dont face discrimination after getting sick (with covid or something else) while still getting quality treatment, it’s needed to transact with people who might be considered politically fringe, its needed for businesses to transact without giving up trade secrets.
9. Has QTUM thought-out on having its own stablecoin sometime?
Qtum already has a stablecoin: quickcash (qcash) its an rmb stablecoin. We hope the community will make more use of it, we are already thinking of a few ways to encourage that, and we might have some more stablecoins join in on the fun.
10. What advantages does Proof of Stake under uniform consensus rules brings to the Qtum blockchain as compared to Proof of Work that BTC uses? In this COVID19 pandemic crisis, how much progress has Qtum project had?
Proof of stake brings security, stable block production while keeping a low environmental footprint. Qtum’s proof of stake actually works on low-resource devices such as Raspberry Pi Zero W, this proved that Blockchain can be “green”
We’ve made great progress during this pandemic crisis, we were able to grow and advance quickly during this time, we’re getting closer to Qtum Neutron and Qtum Phantom releases.
11. What are the main functions of the virtual machine VM x86? What benefits to the project?
Qtum x86VM is a revolutionary VM that’ll allow for more powerful blockchain applications to be built. Developers will be able to build these new apps using a variety of languages, including Rust and Python.
All this will benefit the project as it will bring more devs and more apps to the platform
12. Defi is currently the most prominent topic in the crypto industry, is $Qtum afraid to face many competitors when there are many projects related to DeFi? How does $Qtum attract users?
We aren’t afraid to face competitors, competitors make everyone stronger. In the DeFi space, we think Qtum is uniquely positioned to do well in China/Asia. We can expand what’s offered with QCash (Stablecoin RMB on Qtum) and attract more stablecoins to Qtum. There’s a real & unmet need for DeFi in Asia, that’s why we’ve been seeing defi clones of products targeted at Asian consumers. But we feel with a more Asia-first approach we can win a larger market share in DeFi.
