Waltonchain, the innovative startup providing blockchain, big data, and IoT solutions for supply chain processes, recently held an Ask Me Anything concerning the business issues of the project.
This AMA comes after a period in which the Waltonchain project has been steadily progressing, with highlights being the mass production of one of the IR chips and several new partnerships.
In this article, we take a look at the AMA, the community response to the AMA, and the recently launched Super MasterNodes program.
Highlights of AMA on Business Issues
After the July AMA, Waltonchain published their business-oriented AMA questions and answers, which were interesting but also quite limited. Here are a few of the highlights.
First, the team indicated that it will provide customized solutions to companies wanting to implement their technology, indicating that the project is increasing its focus on attracting third-party network members.
From the AMA, it can be concluded that the team has developed a global vision for their project, about which were serious doubts within the community. They are open to child-chain initiatives by third parties from all over the world and have an in-house professional team ready to guide these third parties in the process of launching a child chain on the Waltonchain network.
The vast majority of Waltonchain nodes originate from Western countries, signalling the importance of this shift to a fully global orientation. To support their Western focus, Waltonchain hired an English-speaking representative. Better late than never.
When questioned whether Waltonchain was expanding into Africa, the team indicated that they don’t have plans to open an African subsidiary at the moment, but they are open to opportunities down the line.
In terms of new exchange listings, the team said they are continuously working on getting listed on more exchanges. In regards to decentralized exchanges, Waltonchain is willing to work with the high-quality ones. Whether the team will build a decentralized exchange themselves depends on the quality of future decentralized exchanges.
To provide clarity to the community on the upcoming WTC token swap, the team will publish a list of the exchanges supporting the token swap before it will occur. More information wasn’t provided.
One very interesting comment made in the AMA is that community members should patiently wait for the official new of a cooperation between Waltonchain and Alicloud, which is Alibaba’s cloud services organization. The team also hinted at a potential cooperation with Wal-Mart down the road, but no cooperation is happening at the moment.
Regarding the Ishijah pilot store, which is a child chain for Waltonchain’s coffee partner Ishijah, the team indicated that it will open in July — which is unlikely, given that it’s August, even though the team asserted there were no delays.
The AMA ended with an interesting question: namely, how the company sees itself positioned against their core competitor, IOTA. The Waltonchain team explained that IOTA is an excellent blockchain project (IOTA runs on a DAG structure, not on a blockchain) and that there is room in the industry for both projects. That being said, the team has still set their sights on becoming the best IoT solution in the industry.
Community Response to AMA
The Waltonchain community didn’t have an overly positive response to the business AMA. Several Reddit members spoke out against the AMA, suggesting that the questions and answers should be reviewed by the community before they go public. Moreover, some community members complained that both answers and questions lacked real substance and left many concerns unaddressed.
Since the community is critical about the AMA but clearly willing to help out, it might be worthwhile for the Waltconchain team to get the community involved in future sessions.
Super Master Node Program
To expand globally and become more decentralized, Waltonchain has launched its global Super Master Node program, through which the project wants to attract 99 super master nodes to secure and verify the network.
During the AMA, the team mentioned that the SMN program has been launched with the idea to attract investors’ attention, potentially even onboard institutional capital. Thus far, the team has received a number of applications, but the program is still open for all interested parties.
Concluding Remarks
The Waltonchain project is slowly but surely progressing. New pilot stores are opening, chips are actually getting produced, and the blockchain platform’s network is growing. This AMA was meant to clarify the progress of the project with the community; however, many people agree that both questions and answers lacked real substance.
The Waltonchain community flagged this lack of valuable information but also suggested and offered more community engagement in the preparation events such as AMAs. The community is a valuable resource largely left out of the process thus far, and it could be wise for the team to take advantage of this by increasing the quality of communication about the project.
