By: Geeq  on Aug 10, 2020

It was quite a week for AMAs last week! BitMax hosted two AMAs for Geeq’s Head of Crypto, Hans Sundby, and Founder and Chief Development Officer, Stephanie So to introduce Geeq to their investment groups, so please be sure to check out the other recap if you can’t get enough of Geeq!

The first AMA for BitMax China was organized and moderated by Bonna Zhu (@BonnaRock), who divided the session into two parts: 5 pre-arranged questions and then questions from the chat.

? Here’s the recap! ?
The transcript has been edited for length and to add links to resources.

Moderator: Bonna Zhu
Guests: Stephanie So and Hans Sundby

Q1：Can you give a brief introduction of the Geeq project, how long has it been around, and what it intends to solve in the industry?

Stephanie: Yes, thank you very much! The research for blockchain protocols began in 2017 when Founder John P. Conley was on sabbatical from the University of Vanderbilt at Microsoft. It bothered him a lot that the protocols Proof of Work (PoW), Proof of Stake (PoS/dPos) were not well specified and the Layer 1/Layer 2 solutions seemed very vulnerable to attack. John is an expert in axiomatic game theory, among other areas. He took all the protocols apart and decided that, if a protocol needed to have more secure properties, he had to start over and the ultimate choice had to be in the hands of the user.

Geeq’s Proof of Honesty^TM protocol (PoH) is designed so the user may demand a node show them proof that the node has followed procedures correctly. If the proof is delivered, all is well. If the node cannot produce the proof, the user should ignore it because there is no guarantee someone or something has tampered with the ledger.

Solving the security issue, to the extent Geeq has, radically changes the way we think about setting up networks for efficiency and scaling, without giving up security.

Due to efficiency, Geeq is able to target micropayments and IoT services on blockchain, because other blockchains’ transaction costs were too high to make those services worth it. We say Geeq enables new fields of microCommerce – for more responsive contracts, for example. The Geeq ecosystem also supports any traditional blockchain application on its multichain platform as well.

I’d like to add that many people familiar with blockchain already argue that a user can tell if a block record has been tampered with. The difference is that an ordinary user cannot do anything about it. They can read it, but they have no recourse.

At Geeq, using Geeq’s Edge Security, a user can walk away without having to wait for a hard fork or governance decision, with their $GEEQ tokens unaffected (or safely locked up where they should be).

Q2：Geeq introduced a brand new consensus protocol called Proof of Honesty(PoH), can you elaborate a bit more on this and what is the uniqueness & advantage compared to others?

Stephanie: Basically, PoH does not make any assumptions about others’ good behavior. When we drop all those assumptions, PoH can prepare for the worst and hope for the best. It is a cynical approach compared to regular distributed ledger security assumptions. PoW assumes 51%+ of the hash power will not be controlled to take over a chain and PoS assumes the stakers work toward individual users benefit, when we know staking is a form of voting and voting can be manipulated.

PoH security has several layers, none of which depend on those assumptions.

Two ways of thinking about PoH that might make is that it is a leaderless protocol, which does not allow manipulation by the leader or any allies about which transactions are included. All valid transactions that epoch are sent to all active nodes, who either follow code or do not.

Another difference is that there is no consensus required. Each node makes their decision independently, but on the same inputs and with the same validation code. It is a no-consensus consensus that does not permit manipulation because each node is judged on its own work. The final step is that the user is empowered to demand proof.

These are proprietary technologies and workflows. We don’t think anyone has approached protocols by thinking about the meta-game of strategies for manipulative behavior like this. PoH essentially paves the way for interoperability throughout the ecosystem because there is this uniformity in the validation protocol that runs throughout the Geeq platform, which opens the door for anything one wants to do in the application layer, with the security of a decentralized blockchain validation system running underneath.

We describe these details in relatively non-technical White Paper, in the Technical Paper, and the patent application.

Q3：Who are the direct competitors of Geeq? Given we’ve also seen many public blockchain platform projects, how is Geeq planning to differentiate and excel?

Stephanie: Many direct competitors concentrate on having developed scalability and throughput in some manner. Typically their targeted applications are very specialized, such as dominating fintech. Many provide sharding at some level to get back to the main chain, which introduces attack vectors and bottlenecks, in Geeq’s view. However, there may be relying on building relationships with trusted financial institutions or using consortia to re-introduce some aspect of centralized trust. The bottom line is that they concentrate more on a specific area of applications and I think they make tradeoffs in security and tend to incorporate features that make them less decentralized.

Geeq really set out to make a decentralized blockchain ecosystem. As one of our Founders says, “if you don’t have true decentralization, you might as well use a database.” We think that’s basically true and as a company we focus on identifying problems that help to move economics, markets, and society forward as a result of using decentralized technologies, which Geeq does better than the rest.

Technically, Geeq’s main strength is its validation PoH which starts from a fundamental of security because we do not think mass adoption will occur unless we create the industry standard for security. Most mass adopters such as enterprise and regular people are risk averse. They do not want more cybersecurity headaches. That is what we provide by building PoH into our platform.

This shows in Geeq’s platform architecture as well. Geeq is a multi-chain platform, we have no main chain. We are not a copy or a fork. We are building Geeq code from the ground up. Unlike other platforms, we keep the validation layer completely stripped down and efficient, so no one can add smart contracts to it and introduce problems. However, we want applications of any kind built and that will be on top of the platform in the application ecosystem. Geeq is a public platform that is DApp agnostic.

We provide the validation services that an enterprise or developer can outsource, while they concentrate on building the applications. We believe in comparative advantage.

Q4：What is the major utilities & token economics and vesting for GEEQ, how does it capture value and appreciate over the long run?

Hans: One strength of our team is the depth of knowledge in economics, including all the theories and many of the lessons we observe when these theories are faced with the constraints and human behavior in the real world. One particular problem is that monetary policy can go through centralized decision making that produces unexpected monetary regime changes. Right now, we see in the US that the monetary policy is creating outcomes that are becoming divorced from the fundamentals of the economy.

Geeq’s view is that there is an unprecedented opportunity to create a digital economy and monetary policy for the token that will be able to be implemented without the political uncertainty surrounding tokenomics.

We’ve seen a lot of projects approach tokenomics as if it is a field that has to be developed from scratch, when there are many lessons to be learned from real world economics. So, Geeq’s contribution is that we do not try to invent tokenomics as if it is a completely new field without economics knowledge of monetary policy. In short, $GEEQ is a utility token that automatically pays validators for all of their honest work (cost x 2 => 100% profit). That is built into PoH and Geeq also is paid a third, so the total cost of work by a node is 3 x cost, with a very low base.

How we turn that into value is by being able to service high volume (billions of commits) at low cost, which is why we target micropayments and IoT blockchain services. A smart city will easily require billions of commits or more.

The incentives for the token holders align with the business model and tokenomics. When incentives align, everyone benefits from the fundamentals of a growing economy at Geeq – and as the Geeq Team, it is our job to attract, provide, and improve the services to our customers and users.

This AMA is the first to ask this question, which I think is a very exciting part of Geeq. I’d love to hear how your members react to these ideas.

Q5：One last question before we open up for the community, why do you choose BitMax as primary exchange listing partner, what collaboration do you forsee in the future?

Hans: So to start off this question with a few things. I’ve been involved in many exchange listings before. BitMax is absolutely a highly ambitious company with a competent and hard working team with real long term goals.

One of the things we look at when joining forces like this, is the proactivity, professionalism and honesty. As a Proof of Honesty project, we find it important to join forces with honest and innovative companies.

Hans Sundby, Head of Crypto at Geeq

BitMax have extremely interesting products, userbase and outreach, which is why we have chosen and come to an agreement with Bitmax for the longer term.

We are really happy to join forces with this amazing, growing exchange along with their and our communities.

Bonna:
Thanks for all the great answers, Hans, Stephanie! Our first section is finished. Now let’s continue to the second section, everyone can ask questions freely and Stephanie, Hans will answer. 

Questions from the Chat!

How to interpret a multi-chain blockchain without a main chain?

Stephanie: We decided a main chain based on PoW or PoS (dPoS) or PoA not only had their security issues built in but their scalability problems boiled down to bottlenecks. They also were expensive because of the way their networks tend to be arranged so communications were propagated by gossip networks. Lower security and high costs did not seem to be the way to us for adoption.

In Geeq’s multi-chain model without a main chain, all blockchain applications have both an application blockchain and a validation network that validates both the application blockchain and pays the permissionless validation which keeps a pure $GEEQ token ledger. The advantages are that there is no interference between applications because each has its own network of validators, no shared overhead, and no concerns about changes in the smart contract of one affecting the other.

Curious to learn if Geeq has sustainable cash flow to support long term development of the project and ecosystem? Especially for a public blockchain platform that most of the time serves public good. @Stephanie So

Stephanie: Yes, we have to think about that which is why we partner with the fintech system in Waterloo and the IoT partners we have – both generate mass quantities of transactions which help to jumpstart our system as we reach out to broaden our community networks. You’re right, this is something we’re always actively working on!

Are the code opensourced (for example the unique PoH mechanism), how to avoid copycats?

Stephanie: The code ultimately will be opensourced, otherwise it would not be possible to trust the validation system for blockchain. However, the code development, PoH, and the Geeq platform is Intellectual Property of Geeq, so it will be protected by patent. We also continue to do research that we intend to patent.

It will be an unusual blend of patenting technology to run a public permissionless blockchain. However, it is important to get the technology exactly right, and that is something Geeq has the expertise to do and scale up.

Geeq cannot be forked, and we are planning to make it extremely easy to migrate to our platform so there will be room enough for all.

It says no one can add smart contracts freely, does it mean a company that would like to work with Geeq, need to ask you guys for permission? @Stephanie So

Stephanie: Let me clarify : we are not incorporating any freedom for people to add smart contracts in the validation layer. We are designing and coding the validation layer to be very efficient and to do only one function : validate according to PoH.

However, people can build smart contracts into the applications they launch on the Geeq platform.

Will there be staking in the future? if any, what are the mechanisms? @Hans Sundby

Hans: We will have staking in the future on the validation level. I know Bitmax have some staking initiatives, which is very interesting…

When it comes to airdrops, we do not have any airdrops going now, but keep your eyes out /::D

When are you guys planning to list on uniswap? Also curious the reason for going live on uniswap. @Stephanie So

Stephanie: This is not my area, that is part of the master plan designed by Geeq’s Head of Crypto and his Token Team!
Hans: So, Uniswap is not an option, it is something that will happen anyway. You can already see 5-7 fake listings there.

We have figured out that we want to help our community to provide a trustful swap contract and provide some small liquidity which the community will have to take care of later on.

Hans Sundby, Head of Crypto at Geeq

Will you consider use cases other than micropayment and IoT in the future? @Stephanie So

Stephanie: Oh yes, absolutely. Our team is extremely strong in IoT background and telecommunications which means they are excited about designing efficient systems for IoT: they have background in smart cities and autonomous cars and industrial IoT and we are talking to people in medical devices and others.

Ultimately, those are machines which don’t personally interest me as much (I don’t speak for the team). I am more excited about how the blockchain information from Geeq’s protocol solves information problems in markets, so my interests lie in improving insurance markets and breaking down microfinance for supply chains and then more applications that help people more directly.

The beauty is that there are many applications one can imagine when you are building a DApp agnostic platform. :)))))))

Can you please briefly walk us through Geeq’s workflow? Thanks!

Stephanie: I’d like to give you a top view and then point you to our White Paper which gives an even more detailed top view. (We also have a yellow paper that is not public, which goes into the nitty gritty.)

The top view is that PoH is a leaderless protocol, which is the first way to prevent manipulation by a leader (for example, ignoring transactions that might be forced through with higher fee offerings).

We also have an active node list for every validating network. Each application is equipped with a way to bootstrap its own permissionless validating network. Every node in the Active Node List (ANL) then receives the same exact bundle of transactions for every epoch. Each node individually follows code or not. It does not depend on consensus (which can be manipulated, for example voting can always be manipulated). We call it a no-consensus consensus sometimes because each node decides on its own whether to follow code and be honest or not.

At the end, (or at any time), an end user who wishes to refer to a ledger on a node or submit a transaction asks, through a user client, for the node to provide proof of honesty. If the node provides proof, the user can count on the ledger. If the node refuses or is unable or sends an incorrect proof, the user client has the same code and can tell the ledger is not correct and ignores it to find a new honest ledger/node to use.

Bonna:
Great, I think it’s time to wrap up and we shall let Stephanie and Hans take some rest now, that’s a great 1 hour time that we spent together! Everyone please again give the greatest thanks to Stephanie @Stephanie So and Hans @Hans Sundby for sharing all the insights.

Hans:
Thank you all for this great AMA, really nice to meet everyone in BitMax China! Hope you all come and visit us on BitMax exchange tomorrow. Have a wonderful day everyone.

Stephanie:
Thank you very much, Bonna, for inviting us! We hope to be able to interact again soon, you made this very easy for us.

Bonna:
You’re always welcome here!