Komodo — A Next-Generation Multi-Chain-Platform

An interview with Kadan — Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

"Open-Source Infrastructure For An

Interoperable Blockchain Ecosystem"

Good day Kadan aka ‘ca333’, everyone has his own story on how he/she got into blockchain technology. What’s yours?

My Background has always been tech and after working multiple years in the OpSEC and devSEC division of a governmental project I have started additionally volunteering and later on free-lancing in the crypto community. During this time I got to know a lot of people — both users and developers of various projects. Most of the jobs/tasks I did were IT security-related (penetration-tests, secure code reviews, etc.) and this was also how I got into Komodo - I started initially as the CSO (Head of Security).

What is your role at Komodo Platform?

I am the Chief Technology Officer, so basically heading up the tech division at Komodo. It includes a lot of everyday organizational tasks, external collaborations, supervising various sub-projects, arranging security reviews/penetration-tests, ensuring that all our release builds are secure and stable to distribute to our end users and also coding - just to name a few responsibilities.

Who is behind Komodo Platform? What are the Backgrounds of the team member?

We have a huge team spread across the globe (covering pretty much all different timezones) with all various skillsets and pretty different backgrounds. We have full stack developers that worked in the opSEC and Fintech area, web developers, frontend developers, now even a mobile developer, marketing experts, and authors with deep technical knowledge but also creative minds and pragmatic financial experts and former traders on board. And all together we form Komodo and represent its core values and vision. I believe that our mixed cultural/educational background is one of the reasons for this creativeness and productive energy.

Executive leadership team

Among us: I’ve read that many people say that James Lee aka ‘JL777’ is also Satoshi Nakamoto, because of his incredible tech skills. Is there something true about it?

To be honest I had this suspicion myself (quite often) — especially at the beginning of my collaboration with our founder and lead-dev JL777. I noticed that he is switching between American and British English when chatting with the community/me but also that his code style is inconsistent and sort of obfuscating, both methods that were actively used by Satoshi Nakamoto. According to his knowledge of the BTC protocol but especially based on what he built in the last 3–4 years the odds are not small.

Community believing that JL777 is Satoshi Nakamoto

What is Komodo Platform and how would you explain it to non-crypto speakers?

Its a very mighty & flexible/dynamic blockchain platform that is based on a vision of interoperability and interconnectivity between all blockchains but also between all their communities. In simple words: With KMD you are able to create your own Blockchain with your own custom consensus rules (CC modules) which are immediately supported by our lightweight and mobile-ready next-generation DEX! And on top of this, your new Blockchain gets secured with BTCs hash power: This is the Komodo Platform!

What are the main use cases you are looking to cover?

With our new CC technology (Crypto Conditions) there are basically no limits. Komodo is technically capable of covering every single blockchain tech use case you have ever heard/read about before and Komodo is technically capable of covering all use cases that will come in the future. Unlike other projects and solutions, we have not focused on a single use case but rather low-level problems we have in the global blockchain ecosystem. And gladly we were able to solve the majority of them hence why our technology is so flexible.

2018 was really a very good year for Komodo Platform, a lot of developments were completed, what are the main points?

Scalability: Thanks to our multichain-syncing solution we did a scalability test with 20,000 TX per second. With a special TX format, the network can process 100 payments per transaction which means we would cover 2,000,000 (two million) payments per second. The multichain-sync technology is based on our cryptographic invention called “MoMoM” and the burn protocol.
Interoperability: In 2018 we initiated the next iteration of our decentralized exchange system (3rd generation). We now have a DEX system that is mobile ready (coming to your smartphone) and utilizing SPV cross-chain atomic trades which is one of our key inventions. Our DEX technically supports 99% of all CMC coins! We support even ETH and ERC20 based tokens
Independence: Our unique Assetchain creation technology (Blockchain generator kit) became the heart of our fast-growing 3rd party ecosystem with dozens of new projects being created month by month. We believe that independence is a key factor for a liberal system hence why it’s free to create your own KMD based blockchain. This chain is a fully independent chain that does not rely upon the main Komodo network. This gives all ecosystem projects such as PIRATE [ARRR] or KMDLABS [LABS] full independence. While inheriting all Komodo features and technologies and also being compatible with the entire blockchain universe you keep a truly free and open system without GAS or any other “fuel”.
End-user apps: Mobile wallets have been released in 2018 for iOS and Android (play store) but also Agama Desktop and other end-user dApps. However, we have used last year mainly to build up our backend layer and to strengthen the tech that we have been building over the last years. The recent growth of our Blockchain ecosystem most likely is a result of these aforementioned base-work/optimizations.

In 2018 we’ve faced a lot 51% attacks on different projects, how could they have been prevented with Komodo?

Komodo has a security feature called dPoW (delayed proof of work). It “simply” backs up a blockchain onto the bitcoin blockchain which would mean an attacker would have to hack bitcoin first in order to be able to hack/attack a dPoW secured chain. So with this technology, it is possible to secure ANY blockchain against 51% attacks! Komodo basically solved the 51% attack problem.

Summary of past 51% attacks

Ethereum Classic facing a 51% attack

Can you name some projects who already use Komodos dPoW?

EMC2
GAME
VerusCoin

Those chains above are only 3 of dozens of other blockchains that dPoW is securing against 51% attacks!

How many funds do the core team have in the budget for development and marketing?

We have enough funds to keep operating for another 5–10 years depending on if we hire more and increase the spending. But we have gladly always been very economical in our expenditures. On top of this, we are working on revenue streams which will be presented as part of our rebrand. Exciting times are ahead!

Thinking about the future, what are the next big steps for 2019?

Mobile, Mobile, Mobile! We are working hard on bringing the Komodo Platform and all its features and technologies to your smartphone. This is a top priority for this year. Furthermore, jl777 and our core devs are working on extending the CC protocol to provide a useful and flexible plugin library for your own blockchain. Do you want to have a blockchain with native provable fair DICE so your users can roll the dice onchain? No problem, just plug in the CC_Dice module to your chain and it gets this functionality!

Thank You!

Thanks to Kadan Stadelmann for taking the time to answer my questions.