Crypto Society Ama Recap with Point Network — 23rd December 2021
Point Network is a step towards curbing the efforts to spy on every single computer user, including you and your loved ones, secretly archiving all your emails, photos, messages, search history, browser history, phone calls, private videoconferences, storing them forever in massive private data centre facilities, and frequently abusing this superpower for personal, career and political interests.
Bilo | Crypto Society
It’s our pleasure to have you with us today. I would like to welcome you here on behalf of our entire community.
Serge | Point Network
Hi everyone. Thanks for organizing this. A bit unusual format for me
I hope my typing speed will be sufficient to keep everyone engaged.
Bilo | Crypto Society
Could we begin with a brief history of yourself and your team, and your roles at Point Network and what you were doing before Point Network ?
Serge | Point Network
I’ve been a developer for many years, but in 2014 I was tasked with creating a bitcoin payment script. Ultimately it turned into a whole crypto exchange that we sold to another company where I met Saleh And that’s where we started selling whitelabel crypto exchanges, payment gateways etc.
Bilo | Crypto Society
May I ask which exchange?
Serge | Point Network
It was a Russian exchange s-btc. They spent all money on development and none on marketing, so had to sell it 😄
Bilo | Crypto Society
Wow.Nice!
Serge | Point Network
But that’s where I met Saleh. Anyway, it was a well-paying job but a bit boring.
That’s where the idea came about complete decentralized internet.
I got infected by the principles of Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cypherpunk projects — Tor, Bittorrent, all this, but realized that the Holy Grail is complete decentralization of the full tech stack. Then we planned it and started working in 2021 hiring the rest of the team.
Bilo | Crypto Society
Can you tell us about why you thought Point Network needed to be built and what problem it solves?
Serge | Point Network
Snowden revelations happened in 2013, that was 8 years ago and nothing has substantially changed since then. All our emails, photos, docs, zoom calls still end up in this growing digital archive in NSA datacentre in Utah.
On top of that, the censorship by big tech became really rampant and obvious in 2020 and 2021.
Web3 holds the promise of curbing mass surveillance and censorship, but it’s not quite there yet — I call it “Web 2.5”
We still use centralized domains, centralized storage (AWS killed Parler), browser extensions like Metamask. That can be pulled from stores any moment.
That’s not the web3 we’ve been fighting for. Point Network is a web3 framework aiming at radical decentralization. When you open Point Browser, you can’t go to facebook.com or ping any centralized IP server for analytics.
The local proxy behind it catches all requests and disconnects the legacy internet.Instead, it forces you to use only decentralized domains, only decentralized storage (on Arweave), and only decentralized identities. The result is complete decentralization with all the benefits — censorship-resistance, end-to-end message privacy etc
We went to great lengths to design it in such a way that UX and DX (developer experience) feel almost exactly like the legacy web — decentralized twitter feels exactly the same. Bringing web2 interfaces to web3.
Bilo | Crypto Society
The vision you are setting out here is incredible.
Web3 is still a little fuzzy in most people minds as to what it really means and what it will bring.
Serge | Point Network
Or where its boundaries are because of all the centralized parts we still use.
Bilo | Crypto Society
How did Point Network start and how did you choose the name?
Serge | Point Network
Well I described the start of it, and as for the name — this was a result of a long brainstorm with all different options, that were crossed out when we checked whether the domains are available, twitter names etc. Point was the best option.
And we joked that we could save on a logo design by just having a one-pixel dot as our logo.
(Which we did end up using for many months)
Bilo | Crypto Society
Hahahahaha
Serge | Point Network
Only now we’re figuring out how good of a name it is — POINT is very pronounceable, points are used in many sci fi movies as a currency, we can use metaphors such as “get access to the whole crypto space from one point etc.”
Plus all the point-related puns as in the “Get the Point?” hackathon mini-movie.
Bilo | Crypto Society
Hahaha nice.
How would you describe Point Network if you were talking to someone unfamiliar with digital assets? And unfamiliar with the concept of Web2 vs Web3
Serge | Point Network
We could tell them the above, about big tech censorship going on (many are already very familiar in 2021, if they weren’t before), or about mass-surveillance, and tell that Point Network solves this. Or we could describe web3 as a new kind of digital economy and hint that it’s as big as an industrial revolution or switching from horses to cars.
If they still sell horses… I feel bad for them. Time to learn what is gearing up to become the next standard or be left behind.
Bilo | Crypto Society
Yes but many still struggle with this concept of decentralization and what it means. People are used to having someone in charge.
Serge | Point Network
There are still people in charge of the software. Point Labs will still be one of the companies proposing the updates and standards. But it’s up to the community whether to run the updates. If we have a new feature that benefits everyone, they will.
If we start to collude with the government and censor things — the community will just take it away from us which I hope they will.
Bilo | Crypto Society
Your explanation was very on “Point”
Serge | Point Network
Haha. There it is 😄
Bilo | Crypto Society
What chain is Point Network built on and why did you make that choice?
Serge | Point Network
Basically we’re blockchain-agnostic, most of the web3 magic is in the browser and the proxy behind it. We want to use Ethereum-compatible chains because there are many more Solidity devs than Rust for example. So we’re using Solana chain with Neon EVM at the moment. But we’re hoping that for the mainnet beta launch we could start our own chain.
Given the timelines (early next year), it’s tricky, but let’s see….
Bilo | Crypto Society
That is very exciting sir.
Serge | Point Network
We need devs to help us do it faster, so if there are any devs watching — please ping us! 🙂
My main headache right now — how to scale the team as fast as possible to have it out faster. But we have already launched the working alpha, so most of it is done.
Bilo | Crypto Society
Maybe we can be of help.
Serge | Point Network
Let’s see, maybe some good people ping us afterwards.
Bilo | Crypto Society
What is the Point Network token used for? Can you describe the Tokenomics?
Serge | Point Network
The main idea is that the new internet has to have a default currency, a default payment token, so all the invoices, decentralized Patrion subscriptions etc. would be denominated in POINT by default.
But mainly POINT is a utility token, and it’s just like any other chain, it will be used mostly for payments to the nodes that help the computation to the validators.
However, Point is multi-chain by default, which means that although the main content will be on our chain, you would still be able to use apps like Uniswap to do transactions on Solana chains, Ethereum chains etc. But, you would open uniswap.point instead of uniswap.org, and the UI etc. would be on the Point chain.
Bilo | Crypto Society
Does this mean Uniswap and PN would have to make some sort of agreement to work together?
Serge | Point Network
Not necessarily, because it’s all open source, and anyone can deploy their own Uniswap website on Point. But for legitimacy, of course, we hope that other projects will start collaborating with us officially and deploy their websites. If not, their community will tell them to do so.
Like what just happened with BadgerDAO — $120M hack not because of the contracts, but because of the centralized UI that got hacked.
Bilo | Crypto Society
I see. Thank you
We haven’t elaborated yet about your decentralized storage solutions but here is my question: When are you aiming to launch the Point Browser as well as decentralized storage?
Serge | Point Network
We have already launched the alpha in November, and now we plan for the beta to be out somewhere close to the middle of next year, so Q2-ish.
So it’s already done, just needs to be polished + less bugs + more features.
Bilo | Crypto Society
You guys are full steam ahead. Point me in the right direction please.
Serge | Point Network
The storage part is Arweave, so it’s also already done. They’re also our backers and so we will work with them closely on storage-related stuff.
Bilo | Crypto Society
Excellent — nice partnership!
Do you offer any support or incentives for content creators on Point Network?
Serge | Point Network
There will be all kinds of incentive programs that we’re working on — for users, for projects that migrate onto Point, and for content creators.
But the main two for content creators will really be:
1) they will pay much less fees than the big tech is taking away from them.
2) they will not be screwed with by big tech anymore — for example, they will own their audience list instead of renting it and running the risk of losing them all at any moment.
Or unclear demonetization decisions and all that.
As big tech companies continue to deplatform thousands of channels and accounts almost randomly, web3 will become more and more appealing. Just needs better tech and interfaces, and that’s where we come in.
Bilo | Crypto Society
You mentioned earlier that Web2 will not be accessible via the Point browser. Why did you make the choice?
Serge | Point Network
Because we want to rip that band-aid off quickly and force developers to, if they say that their “d”App is decentralized, to really decentralize everything, and not just say it.
No storage on AWS, no NFTs on Digital Ocean, no pinging analytics servers.
Otherwise what happened with BadgerDAO will continue happening.
Bilo | Crypto Society
So short term pain for long term gain. Good “Point”
Serge | Point Network
So, by making this risky decision, by isolating web3 from the legacy internet, there is, for the first time, a network that can be called web3.
Right now when we talk about web3 it’s unclear where the boundaries are because of how enmeshed all the “d”Apps with centralized infrastructure.
It’s similar to how blockchains are isolated from the real world, so isolated, in fact, that you have to use oracles to bring some information in.
Similarly here, the web3 decentralized internet must be its own separated virtual space, but you will still be redirected to your normal browser if there is any link to twitter or something like that.
Bilo | Crypto Society
I don’t want to get too philosophical on you with what ifs, but what if others try to mimic your concept but add an option for that warm familiar place called Web2. I’m sure you have thought about this, it strikes me as you are totally in it for the tech and betterment of our experience and are confident Web2 will become irrelevant. Have I understood you properly?
Serge | Point Network
Well then it’s up to the users to figure out that on this new Point clone with web2 enabled we’re going back to square one, we’re devolving. And I have enough optimism they will figure it out, and if not, after a few centralized infrastructure hacks and censorship attempts they will.
Developers are very stressed out about deadlines and they will cut corners in order to have their app out to market unless you cut that ability off completely.
Bilo | Crypto Society
I really like your ideas around KYC and wallets. You propose to be able to send someone money or transact with them using only their handle. This is really useful. One question that comes to mind is how does the sender ensure the funds sent are sent in the correct chain?
Serge | Point Network
Well, we hate KYC, but yes, one of the ideas for a better user interfaces is that instead of sending money to 1sdkfjiurfhsomethingsomething you send it to @Bilo_2000.
The question is “how does the sender ensure the funds sent are sent in the correct chain?”
Actually, it’s vice versa, it helps because right now when you have an Ethereum-like address like 0x123abcdef……Which chain is it? Ethereum? Matic? Neon on Solana?
But if you have an identity @Bilo_2000, it contains a key value store, a lookup table And it has your addresses for ethereum, bitcoin, etc.
Bilo | Crypto Society
Brilliant!
Serge | Point Network
And when you send money to @Bilo_2000, the wallet+network you’re sending it from will determine which one to use so you don’t have to worry about sending it somewhere where the recipient will not have access to it.
Bilo | Crypto Society
I love this!!!
Some may be concerned with too much decentralization and zero censorship as this may lead to posts/sites/movements that are at least unacceptable in this day and age. Do you have any measures to deal with such matters and how do you choose what is acceptable and what is not or is it left up to the majority to decide?
Serge | Point Network
Point Network is designed to be censorship-resistant. We are against censorship in any form, and this was not an easy decision to make.
This is what we found out as soon as we start talking about what is legal and acceptable and what isn’t:
First, we run into an issue of what’s illegal and unacceptable in one country and culture is totally fine in others.
And second, who is the arbiter? Who will we entrust the power to manipulate public discourse and decide what to put out there and whose voices to boost and whose to suppress?
We gave this power to big tech, and it’s evident they’re behaving very irresponsibly with it, and using it for their own political, career and other reasons. Today you allow them to censor your political opponent or medical disinformation, tomorrow they can wield this weapon against you. So we decided that because humans are corrupt, no one should have this much power.
And legally, Point Labs is just producing software, it’s the responsibility of people of what they post. Just like Bittorrent can be used to download pirated movies or to download Ubuntu distribution or a knife can be used to hurt and to cook.
So we believe that the other alternative, where humans+governments have this power to censor, would have been much more scarier than what we would have with web3 and more good and innovation would come out of it than the occasional use by bad actors.
Bilo | Crypto Society
Thank you for your detailed explanation and your thoughts on this quite delicate subject.
Serge | Point Network
Thanks for good and important questions.
Bilo | Crypto Society
If there was one thing you could hope to see Point Network achieve next year, what would it be?
Serge | Point Network
To inspire people about web3 and show that there’s more to it than DeFi and NFTs and metaverse. We’re planning some really interesting stuff — subscriptions on the blockchain (using your wallet like a credit card so the payments can be pulled automatically without you needing to send manually — can be useful from decentralized Patreon to rent, eventually), DAO infrastructure, decentralized Github etc.
Bilo | Crypto Society
Do you wish to let us know anything else that was not covered in the questions above?
Serge | Point Network
I think that’s it — awesome questions, and the only thing is, if I may, share how to find us if the audience found it interesting — for example, you can join our Telegram group.
We need devs to make it possible, so please ping us if you want to be part of our journey next year.
Bilo | Crypto Society
With this, we will open up the chat for those who wish to personally thank you for your time with us here today.
DJTown
Really interesting. Can you tell me the types of “sites” you will have at first when launched to keep people in web3 and not just bounce to web2.
Serge | Point Network
We decided to follow the path of Apple — we hope there will be thousands of different apps from different teams, but some of them we will have as part of the Point Suite officially — Point Mail (end-to-end encrypted email), Point Social etc. (like Apple has Pages, Notes etc.)
Akina
In the #PointNetwork! project How will you manage your platform if any unforeseen problems occur in future, especially hacking issues which cause your platform to have some personal data of some users offending your background? Is your platform ready for this situation?
Serge | Point Network
We will work with the community to see what makes sense. If we implement a bug fix, I think the community will run our patch, but if we try to censor or break it (voluntarily or by a government) I hope they will take the project away from us and run on their own. In any case it will continue to survive.
Omlrs
I do have one question regarding censorship, what’s the main difference between web 3.0 and dark web?
Serge | Point Network
Web3 is crypto-centric and decentralized. Dark web still uses centralized servers, which are accessible through tor but still reside somewhere and if they shut down, the website goes down. And web3 can work via Tor protocol too btw.
ᵣₚ𝒹||ₚₐₙ𝒸ₐₐ.ₘₒₒₙ,
From a non-crypto perspective, how will you explain your ecosystem and how reliable is your system data?
Serge | Point Network
We’re working on marketing to non-crypto users, but to be honest, our first adopters will probably be crypto users and crypto projects. But we’re working on this as well.
Dewi Cintya
How can Point Network truly guarantee the trustworthiness of data providers and will there be governance mechanisms to ensure that they don’t join the target to collude the system?
Serge | Point Network
The data providers are Arweave nodes, they are incentivized by Arweave rewards to store your data, and they cannot give you wrong information because Point makes sure to check the data integrity. It asks the nodes for the file that is hashed to a specific value, and then checks it before sending off to the browser. If the validation is off, it drops the connection and asks another node for the same file instead.
puzzle123,
In your litepaper you give an example of an unique user (@samsung e.g.). will you check the copyright before you offer the possibility to use such handle or will it be open to everyone and how do you plan to avoid litigation?
You gave an example from Bill Gates and apple with a 24h twitter post — but do you think that is safe enough?
Serge | Point Network
We cannot police account names in a decentralized network, that would mean we can censor. If Apple or Microsoft comes in, we can say — sorry, but the network is decentralized, there is nothing we can do. You have to convince the nodes. Or post a tweet.
Omlrs
Are you planning to add some kind of Google analytics for advertising and such! Is it even possible to have such things with decentralization?
Serge | Point Network
Yes, we have a plan for how to decentralize the trillion dollar industry of targeted advertising (by keeping the data on your computer and your browser deciding which ad to pull based on your history) rather than to store all billions of people’s preferences on centralized Facebook servers. This is the biggest threat to Facebook because it’s their main business model and the cash cow.
AllinKryto
Will there be a fully decentralized version of Twitch on point.network? So the streamers can play any songs and any games they want.
Serge | Point Network
Yes, planned. All the biggest apps will be decentralized, either by us or by other teams building on top of us.
Julius
As a consequence of your vision of web 3.0 there could also be a CEXes like binance.point or kraken.point. Do you plan collaborations with CEXes on the point.network or just CEXes like Uniswap?
Serge | Point Network
I believe DEXes are the future, but we can work with CEXes and see if we can do something useful with that as well.
Angeliachristy💕
📊What are your #PointNetwork plans for next year in terms of marketing and business development? How do you plan to expand your network, community, partnership, etc.?
Serge | Point Network
That’s a very big question, and right now we’re working on the strategy for all the departments, so it’s changing by the minute. But we have a great team and they have very interesting ideas, so follow us to see how we do.
Aminul Khan
How can I buy your tokens? Can it be available on any exchange? Do you have semi-private and semi-public events?
Serge | Point Network
No tokens yet, but we’re launching public beta next year, so you can follow our news in the chat
Julius
In the beginning you took Metamask as an example.
Will there be a fully decentralized version of Metamask on point.network? Or will you bring out you own wallet?
Serge | Point Network
We’re mimicking Metamask and Phantom API, so when an application tries to use Metamask API, it will feel exactly like that to the app, but instead of Metamask, Point Browser confirmation window will open. This is done so that apps can be migrated very quickly with minimum modifications. But yes, we also have our own multicurrency wallet as part of the browser
PaulWalker
Can you tell us if Point Network has been audited? as we know, smart contacts are very vulnerable to attack and to do check cost a lot of money. So can you tell us a little bit about that, because investors need to know?
Serge | Point Network
Will need to audit next year, but it’s quite hard and expensive to audit the project of this size. But it is important for security.
DJTown
Will there be a way to help protect people in point network ? I am thinking of children and others that should not be allowed to view certain things. It is not about censorship but about acting responsibly to our younger and more vulnerable people.
Serge | Point Network
Good question to which I don’t know the answer at this time. What can we do? Ask them for the birth date and reject everyone less than 18? They will just plug in the wrong date. I don’t know the answer just yet.
I just know that if we don’t do decentralized internet, the totalitarian outcome could be far worse, and it’s already starting to show in many countries.
Cynically, the “think of the children” argument is very often used by psychopathic governments to get more power. Just like they said “the terrorists will kill you” to introduce the Patriot Act and enslave everyone’s digital life, putting everyone under total surveillance.
I’m against terrorism, but I’m even more against breaking everyone’s privacy and security, and then abusing this entrusted power for personal, political and career reasons.
(Just google LOVEINT)
Joe Max
Is Point Network platform suitable for Crypto beginners? Or does it only appeal to professional users? do you have education or manual books to use the Point Network platform?
Serge | Point Network
Will be suitable for crypto beginners. Will have many tutorials. You’re very early still, we’re just in the beginning.
DJTown
If point network is initially linked to Solana or another centralised chain. How will point network continue to operate if they go down (which they have ).
Serge | Point Network
Same as any other network, same risks that are still manageable. Still better than one server in Silicon Valley.
But it will not be a centralized chain, will be open to everyone’s participation.
DJTown
Will you give the community the power to vote to shut down scam / inappropriate sites?
Serge | Point Network
Yes! We want to bring back the idea of Web of Trust.
Not much space to describe it here, but I think we’ve found a way to suppress scams.
L B| Crypto Society
Bilo | Crypto Society
Thank you for your time in answering our questions here today. We are all very appreciative of your time and of the answers you have provided
Serge | Point Network
Thank you Bilo and Crypto Society for hosting this and allowing us to present to this community.
Thanks everyone for your great questions!
Relevant Links
PointNetwork Website : https://pointnetwork.io/
PointNetwork Telegram: https://pointnetwork.io/link/telegram-chat
PointNetwork Twitter: https://pointnetwork.io/link/twitter
Crypto Society Chat: https://t.me/cryptosocietyy
Crypto Society Announcements: https://t.me/CryptoSocietyyy
Crypto Society Twitter : https://twitter.com/cryptosocietytg
