ÆLF Interview
ÆLF INTERVIEW Inter vi ewe d b y: A cqee l Zi yad W ebsi te : www.a elf.io
Fintech Review (FR): What made you come up with the idea of ÆLF? Describe what lead to the venture become a reality.
Ælf is best descr ibed as a hi ghl y effic ien t a nd custom i s ab l e O S t hat aims to be the ‘L i nux s ys te m ’ in t he blo ckchain c o m m uni ty. Ælf w il l inter act w i th B i tc o i n, Et h ere um, and o ther B l o c k c hai n sy st em s , fea tur ing c ro s s - c hai n in t e rac tio n with m ai ns tre am c h ains. We sa t do wn w i th the i r CEO t o talk a bo ut Æ l f ’s ri s e to fam e and discuss th e te c hni c al aspec t behind the i r o f f e ri ng.
Haobo Ma (HM): I’ve been working with Bitcoin and blockchain since 2012. In Shanghai, I was involved with blockchain private cloud service BaaS from 2014 till 2017. I always felt that blockchain’s influence was limited to the financial sector and niche industries’ such as Blockchain and cryptocurrencies., but I was determined to change this. There are few commercial applications and models in this new field, mostly aiming to tackle the problem that the current blockchain system can not meet the needs of commercial applications both in terms of scalability and performance. To design a decentralized cloud computing blockchain system to promote the commercial application is the original intention and goal of the ÆLF project. The technical basis of ÆLF is to combine blockchain technologies like parallel processing and microservices, with sidechains and smart contracts. FR: Why does having a blockchain that mimics an OS an advantage, such as in the case of ÆLF? HM: The operating system is the fundamental platform which exists for the development of commercial IT products and their running life span. At the same time, the power of Internet allows for one to achieve interactions of applications between different operating systems. Blockchain is the new evolution of Internet, considered to be the ‘Internet 2.0’, as it compiles file storage, network communication and other functionalities. As mentioned in the ÆLF whitepaper, we intend to use the Operating System as its
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core to provide highly efficient and trustable applications. On the other hand, Linux foundation and the family of Linux operating systems have given valuable reference and experience to the ÆLF project. FR: How does ÆLF make use of side chains to help scalability? ÆLF is how to use side chains to help expandability. HM: The delay and blockage have long plagued both Bitcoin and Ethereum networks and have contributed to their high transaction costs. A recent example is the temporary shutdown of a Ethereum-based transaction by the CryptoKitties project. Though block expansion or lightning network itself can not solve the root causes of this problem, the ÆLF project uses a main chain + multi-level side chain business strategy as can be seen in the application of a divide and conquer algorithm which we like to call a “one chain to one” scenario. The side chain model makes the chain more streamlined into a single function, where the presence of a single business bottleneck will not affect the entire network business. Our business model also includes incentives for mining to also promote the self-improvement of ÆLF and its side chains. FR: Do you see the use of side chains having any downsides? HM: It’s too early to comment on the advantages and disadvantages of the actual operation of the side chains, but based on the strategy of dividing the chain index mechanism and integrating business on the cloud, this indeed improves the efficiency of ÆLF. By focussing on enterprise and business applications, we ensure that our product deployment is correct and feasible. With
