Cudos AMA Recap
CryptoDiffer team
Hello, everyone!
We are glad to meet here
Matt Hawkins, CEO & Co-founder of Cudos
CEO & Co-founder of Cudos, Matt Hawkins
Hey everyone, nice to meet you!
CryptoDiffer team
Can you please give us a brief overview of CUDOS & little bit about yourself?
CEO & Co-founder of Cudos, Matt Hawkins
Hi Everyone, I’m Matt Hawkins the CEO of CUDOS, My background is having previously built tech and internet businesses since the late 90s and inception of the internet. My last business I previously built was called C4L which was one of the UK’s largest cloud and data centre providers.
We ended up providing 1% of the UK’s infrastructure and had a global backbone providing connectivity around the world. We ended up being the UK’s data centre largest marketplace and listed as one of the UK’s fastest growing tech companies. I sold that business in 2016 so we could build CUDOS and build the first blockchain solution truly capable of scaling to the worlds growing demand of cloud computing, by using the worlds spare computing capacity.
Our aim has been to build a global compute network which powers blockchain and traditional computing. By using the spare computing that is available in the world of over 500 million suitable and underutilised devices to create a greener cloud computing that exists today.
So CUDOS is a cross chain decentralized compute network designed to power Web 3.0. It enables anyone to sell their computing or consume decentralised computing resources either via blockchain/smart contract or via more traditional cloud computing API’s.
In essence, what this means is CUDOS is one of the few networks which can power other blockchains and scale to the demands of cloud computing required today.
CryptoDiffer team
How could CUDOS change the current landscape of cloud computing?
CEO & Co-founder of Cudos, Matt Hawkins
Our aim is to build a global compute network which powers blockchain and traditional computing. But also to use the spare computing that is available to create a greener cloud computing that exists today.
Because the team come from a data centre and cloud provider backgrounds, so we took a different approach. CUDOS is bridging the gap between traditional cloud (Which is a $200bn per year industry) and blockchain enabling the scalability and flexibility of traditional cloud with the decentralised and trustless nature of blockchain.
At the moment, if you want to scale computing you typically need to use the large hyperscalers like AWS, Google, Alibaba etc… These are very expensive resources and you pay a premium.
CUDOS enables traditional cloud computing to scale on the CUDOS network and use the spare computing capacity. You also expect to consume these resources via known API’s which is what is used to scale. CUDOS provides this capability.
CUDOS was designed to use already existing computing capacity, we have a desktop client and OS which makes use of the devices spare computing. This will run on a PC, games console, or in full data centre environments.
The closest you have to this at the moment in my opinion is Filecoin for storage, we are doing the same for Computing. We are actually working with the Filecoin / Protocol Labs team on the storage integration side.
There currently isn’t a successful cloud computing marketplace that does this at the moment that can also service non blockchain compute.
CryptoDiffer team
What benefits could CUDOS provide over the current market leaders?
CEO & Co-founder of Cudos, Matt Hawkins
There are a number of great market leaders in the space. These include the likes of Near Protocol, Oasis Protocol, Matic Network. The vast majority have focused purely on smart contracts.
You of course have Ethereum and the upcoming Ethereum 2 as well.
CUDOS enables you to scale out compute on EVM/eWASM, Docker Containers and VM’s on a global compute network. We have over 30,000 compute nodes and over 150,000 users which is scaling quickly, which gives us substantial global compute capacity.
We have AMD rebranding our technology which you will see in the coming weeks, and Ultra integrating our compute engine, between them is due to expand the network to over 1 million nodes in 2021. We are currently live in over 145 countries.
As well at this network, we have been busy signing up global data centre providers and bandwidth providers to expand the network further.
The difference is we took a market approach first and applied the technology to that which is what is giving us the quick scale of network and users. I say quick we have been working on this for 3 years now!
CryptoDiffer team
What are the top use cases for the CUDOS token?
CEO & Co-founder of Cudos, Matt Hawkins
1. Providing turing complete solutions to non turing complete networks:
Algorand is a good example, we have a partnership with Algorand. Algorand is a low cost fast transaction network, but because of the design choice it is limited in its functionality and it not turing complete. Working with Algorand we are integrating the CUDOS network so that Algorand smart contracts will be able to do full turing complete work using the CUDOS network. The network can run this in WASM, Docker or VM’s.
2. Providing a global scalable Decentralised compute for blockchains and smart contracts:.
We have other networks we are working with like NKN, Noia Networks etc.. that are lined up to use the CUDOS global network to expand their own network coverage.
3.Providing Scalable Cloud Computing:
Resources can be consumed on the network as required in the same way as traditional compute but in a greener more efficient manner.
4. Lowering the cost of compute/transactions and DeFi on blockchains:
The transaction costs and compute costs on the CUDOS network are substantially lower and scale better. Able to scale on EVM, eWASM , Rust and other languages. Also this provides greater language flexibility.
5. Connecting blockchains to external API’s and data feeds:
Using our Oracles, which will initially be live on Ethereum , Algorand, and then Cosmos, the network provides direct access to external API’s and data feeds. We are able to support this with each blockchain we bridge onto.
CryptoDiffer team
It sounds like CUDOS will have a great competitive edge in the traditional landscape as well as in the blockchain world. However in order to grow and attract a strong user base, it’s important to have good strategic partnerships, who are you currently working with?
CEO & Co-founder of Cudos, Matt Hawkins
Sure, I covered a few earlier, below are some of the following I can talk about at the moment, as many others will be announced in the coming weeks..
Algorand as the first Blockchain and working directly with the team there. Crypto Compare and Coinmarketcap as 2 of the first planned DeFi Dapps to be going live on the network. NKN and Noia Network are a couple of the first network connectivity providers that will be using the network for global nodes.
Many Validators onboarded which we’ll be announcing over the next few weeks. These are a mixture of Staking Validator providers and also global data centre and hosting providers.
Software platforms that are integrating our platform to monetise their users hardware include the likes of Ultra gaming network, which is like a blockchain version of steam and lets gamers sell their games afterwards.
Gather is using the CUDOS network to scale its underlying blockchain network.
Blendergrid is using the network to scale video rendering films and movies, which is one of the largest Blender rendering platforms.
Kings Partnership (Distributed compute labs ) – For providing global research and distributed compute / HPC
There are many more we have been working with we will be announcing over the coming weeks!
CryptoDiffer team
Awesome, a lot of updates to come out!
Thank you for great answers!
I think it is time to start community questions round!
Cryptodiffer Community
Q1. The popularity of cloud gaming continues to increase over the years, as it expands and the demand increases, the need for a much more scalable and cost efficient infrastructure to support this will become pertinent, so how does CUDOS aim to come in to ensure this is possible?
Q2. Also, you often boast of your Revenue model, can you please walk us through it and how much it has impacted your project going forward?
CEO & Co-founder of Cudos, Matt Hawkins
1. A network like CUDOS and for cloud gaming, more of the underlying Cudo network is ideal for cloud gaming and we are starting to be contacted about it. Our network is both DC located and consumer edge and that make it attractive for ‘close to the customer’ type workloads. We have partnered with AMD and Ultra to provide millions of nodes geographically spread
2. Revenue model is predominantly commission based (service fee) similar to Uber or Airbnb. So CUDOS benefits from both the supply and demand sides to the ecosystem
Cryptodiffer Community
Token burn” is beneficial for any project, in being able to control the number of token circulation and to provide greater incentives to investors. Does your great project have a plan about token burn?
CEO & Co-founder of Cudos, Matt Hawkins
We have actually removed burning. We have been working very closely with Delphi Digital (also worked on ETH 2.0) for our economics and we have big plans for our service in the US in the future. As a true utility token, burning prsents potential regulatory complications with the US as the token is not designed to be a profit vehicle.
We have worked hard on the economics to ensure that the circulating supply is always low with holders actively incentivised to stake. We will be able to buyback tokens, but these will go towards grants instead. A much healthier ecosystem! : )
Cryptodiffer Community
Does the name Cudos come from Spanish and how will the Cudos Project achieve its goals one by one by 2021?
CEO & Co-founder of Cudos, Matt Hawkins
Partly yes. Cudo is latin for Coin or money when used as a verb.
CUDOS is to give praise.
As we want to use our tech for good causes and as a more sustainable computing option, we just thought…. CUDOS to that
Cryptodiffer Community
1. Cudos is already live in over 145 countries, this is great, how many countries do you intend to cover before the end of this year?
2. What mechanism have you put in place to help you onboard broader users both within and outside the cryptospace?
CEO & Co-founder of Cudos, Matt Hawkins
Because we have had the supply side live since March 2019 as the orginal beta, we are very grateful to have had people from all over the World download and use our management application. It supports mining as the first use case. I think 145 seems to be a natural level of adoption for a software service. We support multiple languages to retain and grow users in different countries. 150 is realistic.
The software can be downloaded and setup in less than 2 minutes. It has been designed to start earning straight away and has a high level of automation.
Cryptodiffer Community
On moving forward through your roadmap, what are your most important next priorities? Does CUDOS team have enough fundamental ( Funds, Community, ect ) to achieve those milestones?
CEO & Co-founder of Cudos, Matt Hawkins
Next 3 major milestones are:
1. Validator testnet late Q1/early Q2: in development
2. Validator mainet Q2
3. Compute marketplace: MVP currently in R&D
We have successfully raised $3m in the private sale and are a well funded team. Our internal team is 30 people and we have now signed a blockchain development company to scale development further and faster!
Cryptodiffer Community
Can the Cudos Protocol technology make developers more productive and also provide each individual user with access to unlimited computing resources?
CEO & Co-founder of Cudos, Matt Hawkins
Best part about this space, is the 24/7 innovation. Different blockchain ecosystems have developers building different tools for different gaps. So yes, I do believe that CUDOS with its simplicity of deploying compute resource will lead to greater productivity and we will use the best tools available to achieve this onchain, cross-chain and offchain.
Cryptodiffer Community
I read somewhere that Early validators to the CVN will receive staking rewards of up to 30% with initial multi-chain support for Ethereum and Algorand blockchains.
Is this offer still on, I’m I still early if I decide to become a validator?
CEO & Co-founder of Cudos, Matt Hawkins
This will be even higher now. The staking economics have been boosted following the work we did with Delphi. We’ll be publishing a series of blogs starting this week with the new details!
Cryptodiffer Community
Many new projects made a good impression at first but were suddenly abandoned. My question is, how will you manage the project and token to gain a place in the market and become a best token in the blockchain world?
CEO & Co-founder of Cudos, Matt Hawkins
Sure and good question. We have done the exact opposite of many projects and built a platform before a validator network or token sale. Kind of like Bitcoin, in that the first part of our strategy was to secure a global distribution base of supply. That brings revenue in, helped us to achieve market/product fit and now we have those milestones reached we can develop the decentralisation layer (CUDOS).
Also our model is largely channel. We are working with those developers and softwares that already have the existing user bases and spend, that we can solve a problem for. Whether that is purely cost, or scalability…etc.
To become the best token, we have built sound economics, the token has multiple functions within the ecosystem and we will continue to work hard on building communities. The value is in the network growing rather than token itself.
Cryptodiffer Community
One of the Core Benefits of CUDOS is that it will provide businesses the opportunity to get access to all the compute power they need for a fraction of the cost, making it a more cheaper option than other popular Cloud service providers. But then Cheap compute power may not necessarily mean secured, and efficient computing, which most of this big platforms have, so how does CUDOS ensure that the Compute power and cloud services it offers are efficient, reliable and secured while still providing a more cheaper option at the same time, and how do you assure users that CUDOS did not trade-off Efficiency, reliability and security for Reduced Cost because at the end of the day these qualities are what will matter most to these businesses and individual users, especially those who are willing to pay More to get better results
CEO & Co-founder of Cudos, Matt Hawkins
Correct and great point to raise.
So we are building multiple supply audiences to give us the different environments:
Miners – high end GPUs, low end facilities
Service providers – high end computing and enterprise grade facilities
Gamers – mid-high end consumer GPUs and consumer edge network
So whilst an automaker with sensitive IP might need their data to be located in a enterprise DC, a scientist running depersonalised and stateless workloads, such as a simulation of climate change, can have their workload distributed to consumer edge.
We are also working with AMD to add SEV to the validator network providing an extra layer of encryption
Cryptodiffer Community
You mention on your proposal the number of gaming consoles on the market, since you’re a partner with AMD is there any plans to offer opt in plans to integrate these consoles to the CUDOS network in some way, shape or form?
CEO & Co-founder of Cudos, Matt Hawkins
100%! You may have noticed on our website that we are also Playstation development partners. There former president is one of our advisory board members. There is a plan between us and AMD that I cannot yet share, but there is a plan for a console version.
Cryptodiffer Community
Many Project talks only about their Strenghts, Can You talk about the weak point that You project is Currently Dealing With?
CEO & Co-founder of Cudos, Matt Hawkins
Of course, we’re always transparent. We need more developers to build everything we have planned and this is absolutely underway. As I mentioned in a previous answer, we have just signed a blockchain development company as well for additional resource.
We’re extremely focused on the 3 major milestones for this first half of 2021. In the past we have perhaps tried to do too much at the same time. The lesson we have learned is that you have to slow down to speed up!
Cryptodiffer Community
Among the advantages of Cudos in the market are more than 500,000 TFLOPS of computing power, thus representing great performance. Explain why so efficient and economical? In terms of security, what security privileges do you provide to customers? How do you make computing up to 10 times more profitable?
CEO & Co-founder of Cudos, Matt Hawkins
Users will be able to choose their environment or validator. For e.g. I am running a sensitive Defi workload, I will choose this validator based on it’s trust score. Or if you’re non blockchain; I need to run in a Tier 3 data centre with ISO 27001 compliance.
It is economical in comparison to the hyperscalers, as we are using existing hardware. We as a business just like Uber for cars, are not maintaining the assets are having to buy more assets in advance to cope with the market peaks. So our model facilitates a much lower operational cost and we can therefore share those advantages
Cryptodiffer Community
1 How do I partake or become a CUDOS Validator, any guidelines?
2 With the rise of layer 2 blockchain solutions, how do you plan to compete and make CUDOS attractive for blockchain developers?
CEO & Co-founder of Cudos, Matt Hawkins
Our network is suited to both on and off chain and that is where we are unique. Anyone can become a validator who meets the minimum requirements. However, it will be limited to 100 validators in total and details of the voting system will be published very soon
CEO & Co-founder of Cudos, Matt Hawkins
I hope that I answered all or the majority of your questions here today.
It has been a pleasure to answer everyone’s questions. Please feel free to join our CUDOS group and ask questions there too.
Wishing you a fantastic week!
Cryptodiffer TEAM
Thank you for you answers, it was an insighfull session
Thank you everyone who participated, great questions as always!
