Secret Network AMA Recap with Crypto Society -10th December 2020
Bilo 2000
@thisistor we are ready
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
👋
Bilo 2000,
It’s our pleasure to have you with us today. I would like to welcome you here on behalf of our entire community.
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
It’s a pleasure to be here!
Bilo 2000,
Could we begin with a brief history of yourself and your team, and your roles at Secret Network and what you were doing before Secret Network?
Tor Bair 𝕊
So — I’m Tor, I’m the Founder of Secret Foundation. We’re one of the many many orgs that work on Secret Network :) I used to work at Enigma as Head of Growth from 2017–2020. Enigma is still a core contributor to Secret Network and a huge piece of the privacy puzzle we’re trying to solve!
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
Our project began in 2015 with the Enigma white papers at MIT. At the time those were published, I was a graduate student at MIT. The author of those papers (Guy Zyskind) is now CEO and cofounder of Enigma, and the other Enigma cofounder is one of my MIT classmates, Can Kisagun.
Bilo 2000,
Thanks for that!
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
Before I was working on Enigma / Secret Network I was actually an options trader and data scientist :)
Bilo 2000,
Very useful background for Crypto😁
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
Yes, crypto became an industry that I accidentally prepared for 😂
Bilo 2000,
Can you tell us about why you thought Secret Network needed to be built and what problem it solves?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
All blockchains suffer from the same problem — privacy. The data blockchains use is public by default. In the real world, we expect that the applications we use should protect our data. You wouldn’t use an Uber that leaked your location data to everyone in the world. But somehow in the blockchain space — and especially DeFi — we accept that everyone knows everything all the time.
Secret Network is the first blockchain with programmable privacy — meaning smart contracts that can use encrypted inputs, outputs, and state.
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT],
This is a foundational problem to be solved at the protocol level, and we’re proud to have launched the first mainnet chain with private smart contracts :)
Bilo 2000,
[In reply to Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]]
That’s very interesting. Very innovative as well
Bilo 2000,
How did Secret Network start?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
Secret Network launched on mainnet in February of this year, but it’s been a very long road to get here. It is the result of a collaboration between many many different entities and individuals, all passionate about privacy. While Enigma laid the foundation with their whitepapers and development work, it’s really our community that has pushed us to this point of adoption.
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
When we launched secret network, we launched with about 20 active mainnet validators. Now we’ve hit the network maximum (50!) and are already thinking about how to expand the network safely and securely.
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
The idea behind Secret Network (programmable privacy) really is rooted in those original whitepapers from 2015, which now have over 1500 academic citations between them.
Bilo 2000
We have a few ideas for you 😉 — we are currently helping a few projects scale
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
We’re thankful that Enigma continues to work on Secret Network and help bring their original vision to life alongside the rest of the community and ecosystem :)
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
[In reply to Bilo 2000]
Good to know 🤔
Bilo 2000
So you’ve got the coolest name for a token in the whole game. Secret Tokens. How can people not get excited about that? Will there be Ethereum-like capabilities to mint tokens and run other projects on Secret Network? Or will it be more of a dapps platform?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
You can already launch your own Secret Tokens on Secret Network :) they are programmable like ERC-20s but private by default like Monero. They’re on mainnet, so you could play with them right now if you wanted! https://scrt.network/blog/secret-scrt-keplr/
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
In fact we’ve had a couple community members make their own secret tokens already. We’re looking to make it simple for anyone to create their own token — and then to make those tokens available for use in Secret DeFi. (I suppose we’ll come to that ;) )
Bilo 2000
Very cool 😎
Can you tell us a secret that most people don’t know about you?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
Ooh.
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
Well, I’ve been a musician my whole life — I started playing piano when I was 4 and had a band in Chicago for 5 years. I’m still a songwriter. I did a lot of research in grad school about the use of blockchain for digital rights management in the music industry!
2020 is not a great year to have a band, though, so I’ve been fully focused on Secret :P
Bilo 2000
[In reply to Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]]
That is very nice to know — we have a few musicians in our group some of whom you know very well😉
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
Very nice! 🎹
Bilo 2000
Can you tell us a secret about Secret network itself?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
Hmm. Well, it’s not a secret to our community, but we have an extremely tight-knit and dedicated core community of Secret Agents that contribute to committees, governance, and more :) I’d love to see more people join us and work to bring our ethos around privacy to the blockchain space. It’s a problem that *must* be solved for us to scale.
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
Oh, and I guess there’s some apps coming that I haven’t revealed…
Bilo 2000
[In reply to Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]]
I am sure your wish will come true right after this AMA
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
The nice thing about having a decentralized ecosystem is anyone can build anything, from DeFi apps and games, to real-world applications like credit and identity.
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
So hopefully we’ll have more to share on all that soon.
Bilo 2000
[In reply to Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]]
Looking forward to it
Bilo 2000
By the way, why Tendermint? Why Cosmos? Can you describe what led to the decision to go in that direction when building Secret Network?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
That is a great question.
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
Tendermint SDK is a great foundation for building a blockchain. It’s used by many many projects, including ATOM, KAVA, Terra, etc.
For us, it’s important to bring privacy to *every* blockchain, because every blockchain suffers from the same problem of privacy. The best way to do this is to not be tethered to any one blockchain (i.e. being an ERC-20 or being only an ETH L2)
By building on Tendermint, we have our own independent consensus for Secret Network.
Also, we’re excited about the work on IBC — http://cosmos.network/ibc
This will allow Tendermint chains to more easily interact, which is a big benefit for us (and of course, for them!)
At the same time, as you can see, it hasn’t stopped us from supporting Ethereum and ERC-20s with programmable privacy solutions :)
And now we could support other ecosystems as well…
Bilo 2000
Thanks for the explanation. loving the thought process behind this! Congratulations to you and your team for thinking outside of the box😊
Bilo 2000
On that same line of thought, an interesting project making its way to the Cosmos ecosystem is Sentinal (SENT). Being that they are a decentralised VPN service, it would seem like a natural fit for decentralised encryption. Has there been any discussions on collaboration between the two projects?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
I have heard good things :) There’s some overlap between our communities as well. There’s no technical collaboration to speak of yet, but we definitely are looking into doing some sort of joint event so our communities can connect and learn.
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
Behind every project is the people, so we always start by getting to know the teams and communities!
Bilo 2000
Bringing the technicality down a notch, for those that may be like ummmm huh? How would you describe Secret Network if you were talking to someone unfamiliar with digital assets?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
Another great question, and a tough one, since we’re so concentrated at the protocol / foundational level.
I describe Secret Network as being at the intersection of two unstoppable trends: decentralization and privacy.
Decentralization means: we want our technologies to empower people and allow them to have direct control and ownership of the systems and products they use, instead of becoming the products themselves.
Privacy means: we want to be able to choose how we use those technologies and products, knowing they will protect our data and identities and keep us secure. It means we can choose what data to share with whom and under what circumstances.
Today all the apps we use (Facebook, Google, etc.) have made us the product, not the owners. And they certainly take liberties with our privacy while ruthlessly protecting their own.
With Secret Network we can finally build decentralized, private applications — the internet as it should be. It’s a long term vision, but if you’re not familiar with digital assets, you need a big vision to get excited about one :)
Bilo 2000
This analogy is great and very easy to relate to by all
[In reply to Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]]
+
Bilo 2000
What is the Secret coin used for? Can you describe the Tokenomics?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
😊
Secret (SCRT) is the native coin of the network and it has multiple uses
1) transactional and computational fees — paying to use “Secret contracts” on our network and interact with secret tokens / dapps
2) staking — you can stake SCRT, since we’re a delegated proof of stake network. when you do, you’ll get a share of validator rewards and fees!
3) governance — staking your SCRT allows you to take part in network governance directly, voting on proposals for network parameters, community spending, and more!
Bilo 2000
Thanks for this very concise answer
There has been news of Secret NFT’s. Are they live yet? And what would they entail?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
Ah, you’re referring to — https://scrt.network/blog/secret-nfts/
Secret Tokens are live, but we’re working on some NFT standards for secret tokens at the moment. I see this as an extremely interesting design space!
Bilo 2000
👀
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
Private NFTs are really interesting for unlocking experiences for users while still protecting their privacy. Almost like Web3 cookies.
NFTs don’t just have to represent pieces of digital art — they’re actually very powerful in terms of representing unique goods and experiences. This is where Secret Network is most interesting
Bilo 2000
What if any are the limitations of the content of these NFT’s?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
I’m also very interested in non-transferable tokens (NTTs) that can serve as badges
I’d recommend looking through the blog post if you’re curious. As the standards are in development, it’s too soon to say what the limitations might be. But there are some interesting projects looking at NFT use cases and building on Secret Network, including Emblem Vault
Bilo 2000
[In reply to Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]]
Thanks — will definitely delve deeper on this
Cross-chain compatibility and interoperability has been a hot topic lately. Does SN have the ability to interoperate with other blockchains? Are there plans for the future?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT], [10.12.20 17:37]
Interoperate you say… https://scrt.network/blog/secret-ethereum-bridge-december-2020
Yes, we have the ability (and the desire!) to interoperate with all other chains. I spoke a bit about it earlier in the conversation.
Bilo 2000
Ok — lots of homework tonight 😂
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
The plan for the future is to expand our support for Ethereum and ERC-20 assets while also adding other chains to our Secret DeFi ecosystem :)
Bilo 2000
ok here’s a big one. ready?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
always
Bilo 2000
Recently it was announced that Secret Network has partnered with Ocean Protocol. It is no secret that we at CS are huge fans of what they are doing at Ocean. How did this partnership come about?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
Ah! Yes, that’s right. https://blog.oceanprotocol.com/ocean-and-secret-collaborating-on-access-control-and-private-compute-for-datatokens-1427acd1fcbe
I’ve been talking to Bruce at Ocean since 2015 actually when I was still looking into digital rights use cases for blockchain. He was working on Ascribe at the time. Our teams have known each other a very long time and we have a lot of respect for their work and vision. of course, there’s a lot of overlap as well :)
We’ve talked for years about an integration. But now that both projects are on mainnet and our Ethereum bridge is launching, it was the right place, right time to pursue something more substantial :)
Bilo 2000
[In reply to Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]]
You and Bruce = 🔥SUCCESS
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
We also did a great podcast :P https://soundcloud.com/sharing-secrets/ep-12-bruce-pon-ocean-protocol
Bilo 2000
Since you and Bruce go way back, and now that we know there are long time connections, what is the nature of the partnership?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
We’re looking at how Secret can support Ocean’s work with datatokens, first and foremost
Bilo 2000
[In reply to Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]]
👀
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
There are two challenges in the Ocean ecosystem that an integration with Secret Network can help address:
1) Publishers of data to Ocean Market can either have convenience or fully trustless operation, but not both at once.
2) Publishers of Compute-to-Data services can either have convenience or fully trustless operation, but not both at once.
So Ocean can make use of secret contracts, secret tokens, and our ethereum bridge to provide private computation and trustless access control.
The blog goes into more detail :)
Bilo 2000
That is really fascinating. We have been following Ocean for quite some time now and are steady supporters of the project. Now that we know more about Secret’s involvement and the solutions SN looks to bring about, we will surely dig for a deeper understanding of Secret Network!
Bilo 2000
I realize it’s a lot to cover and that most of this is covered in the article but can you please briefly explain how can Secret Contracts be used for trustless access control for data tokens and can you please explain decentralised private computation?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
I’m mostly pasting from the article here, but:
1) Publishers of data to Ocean Market can either have convenience or fully trustless operation, but not both at once.
Currently the url of an Ocean data service is stored on-chain. Ocean “Provider” middleware encrypts and decrypts that url.
(a) For a given data service, the publisher can run their own Provider, which is trustless but not convenient.
(b) Or, they can use the Provider run by the operator of Ocean Market, which is convenient but allows the operator to see the decrypted url. The operator is Ocean Protocol Foundation.
Ocean Market actually only exposes (b) right now, but the tech for (a) is a small amount of work away, with no research needed. The goal is to get both (a) and (b) at once and Secret Network can help achieve this.
2) Publishers of Compute-to-Data services can either have convenience or fully trustless operation, but not both at once.
Compute-to-data can run any script and return results to the data consumer. However, there’s a risk that the script supplied leaks sensitive data, like Personally Identifiable Information (PII). The script can be malicious or simply overfit.
To summarize the problem. Publishers can either have:
(a) convenience and rely on third parties to vet the scripts, or
(b) they can inspect for themselves which requires time and expertise.
The goal is to get both (a) and (b) at once. Secret Contracts which enable privacy preserving computations can help to address these challenges.
Bilo 2000
That’s fine — its serves to provide the tidbits for others to look further. Thanks!
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
we’re also partnering with Ocean on their ongoing Data Economy Challenge hackathon — and offering a prize :)
Bilo 2000
Nice!
How does decentralised private computation provide value for Ocean Protocol?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
I think that’s #1 and #2 above :) the idea is more adoption and more security for users.
Bilo 2000
By the way Tor, how are you on time? I know how busy you are. Please let me know how much time you have left for us.🙂
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
Ocean and Secret both are dedicated to utilizing decentralized tech and scaling out Web3 whenever possible vs using centralized Web2 tech
Bilo 2000
Got it.. Thanks!
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
I can hang around another 30 or so :)
Bilo 2000
Ok great. .. Aside from what you already described, what else are you currently working on and can you describe your future roadmap?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
Well, as I mentioned, we have a pretty decentralized ecosystem so it’s hard to describe a concrete roadmap for Secret Network’s app ecosystem.
Anyone can build any Secret App :)
Bilo 2000
hahaha — ok gotcha
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
But we do know we have specific verticals of focus, including DeFi, NFTs, machine learning, marketplaces, games, etc.
Bilo 2000
I’ve heard about the possibility of a Secret DEX. Who is working on this, and what does the roadmap look like for the launch of this?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
That is where I was headed!
Bilo 2000
I cut you off at the pass😳
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
So that’s the big upcoming piece of our roadmap that is more well-known. We want there to be liquidity for Secret Tokens, which can either be issued from scratch or represent assets from other ecosystems.
A Secret DEX / AMM is essential for this. And because it will be built on Secret, it is front-running resistant by design, taking advantage of our secret contracts.
It’s actively in development and it’s likely coming sooner than you would assume :)
No official launch date. But it’s the next logical step for a product after the Ethereum bridge is live
Bilo 2000
Will we be able to exchange with a specific set of tokens only? if so, which ones do you currently have in mind?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
We want all Secret Tokens to be supported. So if you issue your own secret token, you could create a pool for it.
Bilo 2000
Ok I see
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
But the Ethereum bridge is launching with a specific set of ERC-20s it’s supporting. We’ve been announcing 1–2 each day for the past few days…
Right now we’ve confirmed you can use the bridge to create Secret Token versions of ETH, OCEAN, YFI, UNI, BAND, TUSD, and SNX.
But we have another 6 tokens to go…
(or so)
Bilo 2000
Thanks for that
One of the questions we always ask during AMA’s is if the project at hand is disruptive. It is clear to me that the answer here is quite obvious! so we will move on to the next question!😉
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
Haha :P
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
[ 😶 Sticker ]
Bilo 2000
Are there other future use cases you envision concerning the Ethereum-Secret Network bridge?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
Definitely.
I think the Ocean collaboration lays a lot of the groundwork
There are so many potential collaborations around Secret Tokens.
We may already be having conversations with a few people about how those could work…
Bilo 2000
Please don’t tell me it’s a Secret 🥺
The Secret Foundation was created to help guide Secret Network forward…what is the long term plan with all of this? Has there been discussion on going the way of a DAO and governance structures? And if so, where are you at with all of it?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
Great question again.
Yes, the Foundation is here to steward and accelerate — that’s our primary function. We want to achieve global adoption and growth.
But we’re not trying to become a central point of failure for the project. In fact, I’d really like to put myself out of business by being incredibly effective 😂
We have a Governance Committee that is looking into potential DAO and governance structures for the long term that would be sustainable.
Self-sustainability is critical to the success of our ecosystem.
That committee is completely made up of community contributors, so if anyone here wants to be part of the process, PLEASE do join us :D
Bilo 2000
👀
Do you wish to let us know anything else that was not covered in the questions above?
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
oh gosh
Well, here’s where I ask you guys to join us :)
Please follow us — twitter.com/secretnetwork
Please join our community! chat.scrt.network and @scrtcommunity
And please consider becoming a secret agent :) scrt.network/community
There is SO much to do right now, and we really do have a lot of fun as a community. Many of us have been working on this together since 2017.
Bilo 2000
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
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
We believe we will be here for the years to come because we’ve had years together already. I have a lot more faith in our longevity because of what we’ve already accomplished!
Let me know if there’s any other questions about the project — I’m more than happy to continue the conversation.
Oh, and check out my podcast :D https://scrt.network/podcast
https://soundcloud.com/sharing-secrets
Bilo 2000
With this, we will open up the chat for those who wish to personally thank you for your time with us here today and ask you some questions themselves.
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
I’ll stick around for a bit more!
Bilo 2000
Thanks @thisistor
Chat is open for all
LB
Thanks a lot @thisistor 🙌🙏
Danrun
Thank you Tor!!! 🙂
John Sears
Thanks @thisistor, great insight into a great project!
MemeGod
Interesting! :)
Crypto Society Announcements, [10.12.
[Forwarded from Crypto Society Announcements (Danrun)]
The Chat is now Open!
Samuel | SecretStake🥩
[ 😄 Sticker ]
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
my pleasure, thanks for the attention! please let us know if you’re interested in becoming a secret agent and joining the core community :) you can learn more about committees at: https://scrt.network/committees
Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT]
woo I’m up to EIGHT
😍
We actually have our education committee meeting going on right now on the discord! Check out the #education channel at chat.scrt.network
Samuel | SecretStake🥩
Who makes these great video’s and stickers? Pls join our committee!
