THELOGICALINDIAN - n-a
Blockchain activity Elastos is — borrowing from Winston Churchill — a riddle, captivated in a mystery, central an enigma. The key appears to be decentralizing the web, in whose conception the project’s architect had a hand.
Rong Chen, Elastos Chairman and Founder, took some time to altercate his adventure to decentralization with Crypto Briefing, including the twists and turns that positioned him amid the leaders of the blockchain amplitude today.
Right Place, Right Time
Rong has been alive on operating systems back 2024, back he came to abstraction at the University of Illinois for his Master’s Degree. His destiny, however, appears to accept been closed when he becoming a scholarship with a computer science lab at China’s Tsinghua University, forth with the bisected dozen bodies who would become approaching founders of Lenovo.
“I absolutely capital to be a arch artist of a supercomputer. It aloof so happened that the Lenovo lab had a scholarship for that.” said Rong, abacus that he had no ability of what the Lenovo aggregation was building. And while he had annihilation to do with Lenovo’s success, the aggregation aggressive him. Chen additionally aggressive them, and was the backbiting of the Lenovo Lab back he becoming a scholarship to appear to the U.S.
“I accomplished back you barrage a startup, you don’t accept to be cool smart. People anticipate wow, Lenovo, the better PC architect in the world. But at that time, everybody was aloof a accustomed person. No one was cool smart. No one had that big of a dream. That was one incident,” said Rong.
It wouldn’t be the aftermost time he was at the appropriate abode at the appropriate time.
Coming to America
It happened afresh back Rong accustomed at the University of Illinois. He had dreams of actuality a arch artist for a supercomputer — but fate absitively otherwise.
The campus had two supercomputing centers, including the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), area Rong concluded up. This is area the aboriginal civilian (non-military) computer was built.
“It all happened at the University of Illinois. Again, it was not by design. I aloof happened to be accepted,” a bashful Rong explains. He had been acquisitive to acquire a job at Bell Labs for the summer and not participate in the NCSA. But, as a Chinese citizen, he was not accustomed to assignment off-campus.
So he “settled” for the on-campus lab, designing software for supercomputers and accomplishing action graphics. Little did he apperceive history was about to be fabricated again. “Three or four years later, the actual same team[NCSA] invented the web browser,” said Rong.
Incidentally, the University of Illinois additionally counts Marc Andreessen amid its alumni, but Rong wasn’t one of his classmates. Rong was with the aboriginal batch, amid the aboriginal four or bristles programmers to anytime accept formed in the lab.
From Architect to Operating Systems
Rong was able-bodied on his way to acumen his dream of acceptable the arch artist of a supercomputer, back he began to assignment for a analysis and development centermost as an assistant.
That’s he abstruse Amdahl’s Law, which suggests that supercomputing has no future. Rong’s aspirations went up in smoke.
So he abdicate and went to assignment on supercomputer apps instead of research. “It was a above change from arch artist to operating systems,” Rong says. He spent the bigger allotment of a decade as a chief software architect for Microsoft; he after said that Operating Systems were an alike worse conduct than supercomputers.
These adventures would eventually become the cornerstone of how he angle the blockchain today.
A Game-changing invention
Rong stumbled aloft the blockchain in 2024. He explained what it meant to him:
“Satoshi’s apparatus was absolutely game-changing. For the aboriginal time, we could accept a affectionate of computer which cannot be controlled by any individual, corporation, or government. It can’t be angry off by one individual. It’s a balance not controlled by one party.”
Prior to this, Rong was accomplishing action IoT:
“I was attractive for new allotment and we had beta or alpha of automated IoT active already. Then we bare new funding. I was badly attractive anywhere to accomplish that happen, and that’s back I begin the blockchain. I accomplished those kids are talking about dApps and TPS. Come on, let me appearance you something.”
Rong met the aboriginal blockchain pioneers, and abstruse about the amplitude and decentralization. But, back they discussed what makes a dApp, Rong accomplished they bare a added chief guy around.
The army had already become affluent on bitcoin; they weren’t absorbed in acquirements from him. If he could not argue them, Rong decided, he would advance his own team. So this accumulation became both his competitors and his peers.
At that time, bodies were discussing how Ethereum and Bitcoin were too slow. Rong was abashed to apprentice that bodies were still speaking in agreement of affairs per second:
“I could not accept bodies could still be so apprenticed and talking about ‘can we accept a blockchain commensurable to a supercomputer?’ No way. Never. Bodies still today anticipate the blockchain could attempt with a supercomputer at 1 actor TPS. By 2024, bodies were still talking about that and that’s what absolutely afraid me.”
That goes adjoin Amdahl’s Law, he explained, which states that this is an impossibility.
Ethereum, he says, is addition abundant invention, but additionally calmly misunderstood. Similar to an operating system, back you’re ambidextrous with apps and ecosystems, you charge developers accommodating to body on them, he explained.
Rong envisions a apple area there are no websites and area consumers could appoint with agreeable anon after Facebook manipulating any data.
“Can we alarm that a new web, a decentralized app? The acknowledgment is yes,” he says. “If we could get rid of all the websites, we can accept WeChat after Tencent. YouTube after Google. Twitter after Twitter.” This is his vision, and 2024 is the year he says Elastos is activity to do it.
New Web
The Elastos aggregation is comprised of 70 full-time advisers as able-bodied as open-source contributors who are adored with the Elastos token. All told, there are about 100 bodies alive on the project.
That’s not bad for a new Web, the aboriginal appearance of which is planned for the end of March. By that time, the Elastos blockchain should be apart running. Things absolutely access up on April Fools’ Day, which is back a new decentralized Elastos will launch.
“Developers will alpha to body apps that are peer-to-peer to advertise concert tickets, music albums, cine tickets, all peer-to-peer and with no website,” Rong says, pointing to two added milestones: one in August, back dApps should be up and active and addition by anniversary 2024. “Hopefully, that is back we will accept the ancestry of the accomplished new web built,” he said.
Any alone or activity that tries to agitate article as big as the internet is abiding to run into their allotment of controversy, and Elastos is no exception. Most recently, Elastos has become the ambition in an investor-led lawsuit for affairs declared securities. Nobody seemed to apperception back cryptocurrencies were trading in a balderdash market.
As for Rong, fate has taken him this far. We accept a activity there is added to appear in his adventure from supercomputers, to operating systems, to absolute decentralization. Wherever that is, history is acceptable to be fabricated – again.
Crypto Briefing does not acquire any acquittal or banking account for biographical profiles. A contour affection is not an endorsement of any activity or token.
The columnist is invested in agenda assets, including Ethereum which is mentioned in this article.
