AMA 11/21/2019

Kicks off the AMA after a rough start battling browser and livestream connection issues in Dubai.

The legacy HD wallet bug from 2017 that caused incorrect balances during the balance check, and the temporary fix applied to restore funds correctly.

Lingering inter process communication issues between Jormungandr, the wallet backend, and Daedalus, mostly on Windows, that are being resolved.

Gives a tentative snapshot date for the following week, likely Friday or Monday, once incentive code and last minute format changes are finished.

Announces new hires on the Jormungandr team and the activation of the Hydra scaling team under Rob Cohen.

Promises a series of Ouroboros blog posts explaining how it resolves nothing at stake and long range attacks in proof of stake.

Previews a December 2 to 4 workshop in Colorado to consolidate the 2020 roadmap and weigh shipping Goguen alongside Shelley.

Heads to Switzerland to discuss forming a CIP committee with the Cardano Foundation as the first step of Voltaire governance.

Outlines the CIP process of drafting, hashing, voting, and ratifying proposals, targeting Q2 2020 announcements and using it first for an IOHK funding contract.

Reflects on strong 2019 momentum across the wallet backend, Daedalus, and code quality heading into a release heavy 2020.

Flags interest in recursive SNARKs and Halo as a possible path to an ultimate light client solution outside the current roadmap.

Frames Cardano as a financial operating system built around five transaction properties: assets, actors, metadata, regulation, and contracts.

Maps the technology for each property: DIDs for identity, smart contracts for transacting, and a multi currency ledger for expressing arbitrary assets.

Prioritizes 2020 work on compliance tooling like contingent settlement and KYC and AML templates, alongside a privacy preserving Bitcoin like mode.

The multi year struggle to become a disciplined software company, forcing agile practices onto a research heavy, waterfall prone process.

Plans Ethereum interoperability through a cross ledger style standard and letting extended UTXO contracts call EVM accounts, likely shipping in the Basho era.

Considers compiling Solidity to Plutus Core while preserving the extended UTXO model, noting launch partners already lined up for Plutus and Marlowe.

Shares personal notes on the Dubai trip, including keeping up an intermittent fast despite back to back business meals.

Pushes back on an unsourced claim of a fixed 2.5 percent staking reward, since no official number has been published yet.

Urges the community to be skeptical of unofficial numbers and only trust announcements from IOHK, Emurgo, and Cardano Foundation channels.

Recaps the Ethiopia Haskell course: all 23 graduates got IOHK job offers, but most took higher paying jobs elsewhere.

The next training cohort will focus on Plutus instead of Haskell and will likely be held in Mongolia.

Calls the Ethiopia program logistically brutal but transformative, crediting Lars and Polina for living there to run it.

A possible parallel BFT settlement system giving instant finality at the cost of lower Byzantine resistance, feeding into 2020 parallel chains research.

Ties ADA's value capture to real system usage driven by IOHK, Emurgo, and the Cardano Foundation rather than to speculation.

Admits sharing the community's frustration over Goguen delays but calls it the normal cost of research driven innovation.

Catching up with Tone Vays in person and a possible upcoming appearance on his show.

Confirms the EU Horizons 2020 funded research on decentralized software updating will feed back into Cardano.

Weighs whether to hold a 2020 Cardano Summit, admitting the US venue in 2019 created visa headaches for European and Asian attendees, with Kyoto and Batumi considered as alternates.

Testnet node participation is exactly what was expected, with fuller statistics to be shared later.

Responds to concern about loading wallets before the snapshot to farm rewards, saying the goal is participation and a matching bonus is possible.

Confirms interest in IOHK joining the W3C, especially its Web Payments and Interledger committees.

Signals a likely hardware wallet research lab partnership with the University of Wyoming, pending matching funds negotiations.

Reports feeling better than ever, having lost weight from daily workouts and early 5am starts.

Adding private key export alongside recovery phrases to a future Daedalus wallet export format, useful for paper wallets.

CIP updates will surface via the Daedalus newsfeed, eventually with CIPs submitted as on chain transactions.

A philosophy of adopting existing ANSI and ISO led interoperability standards rather than reinventing them, comparing it to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Compares surviving today's crypto winter to the wild swings of 2011 Bitcoin and the culture shift brought by 2017's ICO mania and get rich quick expectations.

Argues Byzantine resistant, self evolving decentralized software is inherently harder than 1980s and 90s protocols, citing Bitcoin's still unfixed multisig bug.

Insists the industry is fundamentally stronger than in 2017 despite lower prices, pointing to tax and legal recognition of crypto in more countries.

IOHK holds zero patents and calls any patented cryptocurrency a betrayal of the whole point of decentralization.

Crypto inheritance planning through custodians or managed accounts, since self custody shifts responsibility onto the individual.

Contrasts crypto self custody with banks freezing an accused person's funds, framing full control as an ethical feature people voluntarily trade away.

Shrugs off a troll telling him to enjoy the kool aid, reiterating the mission is changing the world, not chasing price.

Shoots down the ADA burn or lockup idea, noting there is no unallocated supply to burn and calling Stellar's burn pure market manipulation.

Frustrated holders that a 90 percent drawdown after a bubble is normal, and today's ADA price is closer to fair value than the 2017 mania peak.

Uses Amazon's 11 year climb back from the dot com crash to argue real value takes time to compound.

The trading sardines story to illustrate that most 2017 token valuations were pure speculation, not usable value.

Says the only real path to long term success is building community and utility, not chasing price, and predicts most rivals won't survive.

Lists crypto's broader promise: property rights, remittances, microfinance, new voting models, and mini IPOs, calling it worth more than any Lamborghini.

Little keeps him up anymore, recalling how the old Byron codebase's software herpes of recurring legacy bugs used to be the real source of stress.

Links the recent balance check bug directly to that legacy code, contrasting it with the clean rewritten codebase going forward.

Denies the rumor that he sold his coins at the top, pointing to publicly verifiable blockchain explorer data.

Laughs off a troll comparing Cardano to OneCoin.

Owns up to early strategic mistakes as CEO with the old Byron codebase, saying a better organization simply recovers from mistakes faster.

Jokes about the five Lambos rumor, clarifying he actually owns five cars, mostly Cadillacs and a GMC truck.

Gives a quick ranch update: cold weather and a new fence going up.

Shares a dog update on Gilligan and corrects that Duncan's breed mix is Scottish, English, and American, not Irish.

Closes with a joke that he'd never dance onstage with Vitalik Buterin, even for money.