Cypherium CEO Blames 'Lack of Regulatory Clarity' for Postponing Their ICO

This is an excerpt. To hear the full interview, click the Soundcloud or Youtube links.

Cypherium, a new Blockchain Blockchain Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others. Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others. Read this Term network that has branded itself as “a highly scalable & permission-less hybrid platform based on proof-of-work and Byzantine fault tolerance consensus,” was chosen as an investment by Pantera Capital in mid-February.

Pantera, an investment firm and hedge fund with a focus on blockchain technology, has chosen a series of successful blockchain initiatives in the past.

Recently, Finance Magnates spoke with Cypherium Co-Founder and CEO Sky Guo and Sicong Zhuang, Researcher at Cypherium.

Why did Pantera choose Cypherium? “Pantera has always been looking for potential projects that can disrupt blockchain technology,” Guo said. “They saw the quality of our project, and our team, and our advisors, and that’s why they believed in us.” Cypherium’s team of advisors include Augur co-founder Jeremy Gardner and Emin Gün Sirer, Associate Professor at Cornell University and bloXroute Labs Chief Scientist.

“We hope that Cypherium could be a universal blockchain that supports application adoption, similar to Ethereum and NEO. We also hope that Cypherium can be used by enterprises as a trusted ledger for business transactions, and other data that they want to put on the blockchain.”

Cypherium’s Plans for the Future: Multi-Level Governance for Greater Stability, Scalability for Enterprise Use and Everyday Purchases

“Cypherium is a next-generation public infrastructure that improves transaction speed and introduces a more effective governance model” than the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks, explained Sky Guo. “[Visa’s network] can process over 2000 per second, making blockchain really expensive and ineffective for practical use.”

“Cypherium aims to provide an infrastructure that supports at least 100,000 transactions per second that will be viable for enterprise applications and users’ daily purchases,” he said.

The network also introduces a “multi-level governance mechanism, which means that it separates the governance from the protocol and the governance of the application.”

“So, [as for] protocol governance,” Guo explained, “the miners are able to decide the parameters: the amount of transaction fees they want to charge and block size for the transactions.”

“As for application governance, [the developers and users have] complete control. [For example], they can decide their security policies, and who can access their data.” Sky explained that by keeping these two layers separate, “we create a more stable blockchain infrastructure.”

A quick look at Cypherium’s chain data structure: https://t.co/MEIyAt5L5X We will release our consensus layer implementation soon.

— Cypherium Blockchain (@CypheriumChain) February 28, 2018

While user interfaces and APIs for the Cypherium network are currently under construction, future developers will be able to “build their applications using a standard programming language,” explained Zhuang.

Interoperability on Cypherium

“The first case of interoperability that we’re focusing on is the migration of legacy systems to blockchain-oriented systems. So, we’ve adopted the Java programming language as our smart contract language because Java is the most widely-used enterprise programming language,” Guo said. He explained that this would make it easier for enterprise application developers to switch to Cypherium.

Cypherium also aims “to be interoperable with other blockchains through side chains,” Guo said. “We are currently working with IC3, the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies Cryptocurrencies By using cryptography, virtual currencies, known as cryptocurrencies, are nearly counterfeit-proof digital currencies that are built on blockchain technology. Comprised of decentralized networks, blockchain technology is not overseen by a central authority.Therefore, cryptocurrencies function in a decentralized nature which theoretically makes them immune to government interference. The term, cryptocurrency derives from the origin of the encryption techniques that are employed to secure the networks which are used to authenticate blockchain technology. Cryptocurrencies can be thought of as systems that accept online payments which are denoted as “tokens.” Tokens are represented as internal ledger entries in blockchain technology while the term crypto is used to depict cryptographic methods and encryption algorithms such as public-private key pairs, various hashing functions, and an elliptical curve. Every cryptocurrency transaction that occurs is logged in a web-based ledger with blockchain technology.These then must be approved by a disparate network of individual nodes (computers that maintain a copy of the ledger). For every new block generated, the block must first be authenticated and confirmed ‘approved’ by each node, which makes forging the transactional history of cryptocurrencies nearly impossible. The World’s First CryptoBitcoin became the first blockchain-based cryptocurrency and to this day is still the most demanded cryptocurrency and the most valued. Bitcoin still contributes the majority of the overall cryptocurrency market volume, though several other cryptos have grown in popularity in recent years.Indeed, out of the wake of Bitcoin, iterations of Bitcoin became prevalent which resulted in a multitude of newly created or cloned cryptocurrencies. Contending cryptocurrencies that emerged after Bitcoin’s success is referred to as ‘altcoins’ and they refer to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Peercoin, Namecoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Stellar, and Dash. Cryptocurrencies promise a wide range of technological innovations that have yet to be structured into being. Simplified payments between two parties without the need for a middle man is one aspect while leveraging blockchain technology to minimize transaction and processing fees for banks is another. Of course, cryptocurrencies have their disadvantages too. This includes issues of tax evasion, money laundering, and other illicit online activities where anonymity is a dire ingredient in solicitous and fraudulent activities. By using cryptography, virtual currencies, known as cryptocurrencies, are nearly counterfeit-proof digital currencies that are built on blockchain technology. Comprised of decentralized networks, blockchain technology is not overseen by a central authority.Therefore, cryptocurrencies function in a decentralized nature which theoretically makes them immune to government interference. The term, cryptocurrency derives from the origin of the encryption techniques that are employed to secure the networks which are used to authenticate blockchain technology. Cryptocurrencies can be thought of as systems that accept online payments which are denoted as “tokens.” Tokens are represented as internal ledger entries in blockchain technology while the term crypto is used to depict cryptographic methods and encryption algorithms such as public-private key pairs, various hashing functions, and an elliptical curve. Every cryptocurrency transaction that occurs is logged in a web-based ledger with blockchain technology.These then must be approved by a disparate network of individual nodes (computers that maintain a copy of the ledger). For every new block generated, the block must first be authenticated and confirmed ‘approved’ by each node, which makes forging the transactional history of cryptocurrencies nearly impossible. The World’s First CryptoBitcoin became the first blockchain-based cryptocurrency and to this day is still the most demanded cryptocurrency and the most valued. Bitcoin still contributes the majority of the overall cryptocurrency market volume, though several other cryptos have grown in popularity in recent years.Indeed, out of the wake of Bitcoin, iterations of Bitcoin became prevalent which resulted in a multitude of newly created or cloned cryptocurrencies. Contending cryptocurrencies that emerged after Bitcoin’s success is referred to as ‘altcoins’ and they refer to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Peercoin, Namecoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Stellar, and Dash. Cryptocurrencies promise a wide range of technological innovations that have yet to be structured into being. Simplified payments between two parties without the need for a middle man is one aspect while leveraging blockchain technology to minimize transaction and processing fees for banks is another. Of course, cryptocurrencies have their disadvantages too. This includes issues of tax evasion, money laundering, and other illicit online activities where anonymity is a dire ingredient in solicitous and fraudulent activities. Read this Term & Contracts, led by Cornell Tech. They created the Tchain, an atomic side chain solution.” Cypherium plans to adopt the Tchain and use it to create inter-blockchain transactions.

The Cypherium Token Sale

The Cypherium pre-sale concluded earlier this year. Guo said that a lack of regulatory clarity surrounding ICOs in recent months has caused Cypherium to wait to launch its own ICO in the second quarter of this year. “We will always keep up with the latest regulations” to the best of the firm’s ability," explained Sky.

He also explained that “Cypherium is a utility token,” and does not represent any kind of security. “The tokens are solely intended for executing smart contracts.”

The tokens that can be bought during Cypherium’s public token sale later this year will be available for immediate use on the network, a feature that Guo believes also supports the Cypherium token’s status as a utility. “Since our public sale will happen after we deliver the network, [the token that will be sold] during the ICO is the actual token of the network,” he said.

Guo added that “definitely, there will be some kind of KYC check, and we want to make sure that the sale is in full compliance of [sic] regulations. We might also set up some caps for individuals, so they could only purchase a certain amount, and no more than that.”

At the time of the interview, Guo explained that Cypherium is currently in conversation with cryptocurrency exchanges about token adoption post-ICO.