🎙️Leo AMA Recap: Introducing The Cysic Testnet

Jul 26, 2024

🌴 The Advantages of Adopting Cysic

🎙️What Makes Cysic Great, and the Advantages of Adopting Cysic as a ZKP Project?

👨🏻‍💻Leo: The reason for starting Cysic is that, as a cryptographer, I have noticed many excellent primitives in cryptography that are not widely used in the real world. For example, zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) are one of them. We also have homomorphic encryption, which, like other cryptographic primitives, is very powerful but not very efficient. To make these primitives efficient, we need to use hardware acceleration, such as FPGAs or even designing specialized chips. From day one, our goal at Cysic has been to deliver these cryptographic primitives in the shortest possible time and faster than all other community members. We stick to this goal by consistently delivering the best performance in the space.

🌴 The Major Problems of Decentralization, Latency, and High Costs in ZK Proof Settlement Solved by Cysic

🎙️Can you talk about how Cysic Networks solves major problems of decentralization, latency, and high costs in ZK proof settlement?

👨🏻‍💻Leo: All major projects already have their “time to genesis” (TG) moments. For instance, they might start with centralized proving, either by building in-house data centers or running GPU instances from AWS. We don’t think this is a cost-effective or high-performance way to do this. Our approach delivers 5 to 10 times speed improvements over CPU performance. Additionally, by leveraging our community resources, we can reduce costs significantly. This makes ZK projects more accessible by lowering the barrier to entry and providing the best performance at the best price.

🌴 Three Phases of Cysic Testnet

🎙️The testnet will be launched in 3 different phases, with Phase 1 starting at the end of July. What is the timeline for the 3 phases, and when can we expect the mainnet?

👨🏻‍💻Leo: Our plan for the Cysic Network is divided into three phases:

1. Phase 1 (Alpha Test): Starting at the end of July, we will conduct an Alpha test by inviting active community members to join as verifiers. This phase involves verifying proofs generated by our servers, which are currently centralized. The goal is to gather feedback on the internal components of the Cysic Network.
2. Phase 2: In this phase, we will decentralize the proving process, relying on GPU resources from the community. This will validate our technology and shift the majority of the workload to community resources. We will also introduce a proof-of-work puzzle to ensure consensus on the state of our blockchain. Projects will be able to dispatch prover tasks within the network.
3. Phase 3 (Preparation for Mainnet): Once all components are tested and ready, we will prepare for the mainnet launch. While we cannot provide an exact timeline for the mainnet, we aim to launch by the end of the year and proceed with the Token Generation Event (TGE) or mainnet release as soon as possible.

We are committed to bringing these advancements to our community swiftly and effectively.

🌴 Detailed Insight into Phase 1 of Cysic Testnet

🎙️What can we really expect out of Phase 1 as a verifier or validator? What’s the main goal that you’re trying to achieve here?

👨🏻‍💻 Leo: The main goal of Phase 1 is to test the backbone of the Cysic Network by involving the community. We want the community to participate, test it out, and provide feedback on how we can improve and become more efficient. Engaging the community is crucial, and this phase is about integrating community members as verifiers and validators to gather valuable insights and feedback.

🎙️Can anyone participate as a verifier or validator in Phase 1 of the testnet, and what are the requirements to participate?

👨🏻‍💻Leo: Technically, we have minimal requirements for being a verifier. The succinctness of zero-knowledge proofs allows verification in blazing fast time with minimal hardware requirements. You can verify a proof in just 1 second, and we have even tested it on a Raspberry Pi 5 with great results. So, you can use your old laptop for verification. We plan to develop an application for cell phones to make it even easier for you to connect and contribute to the community.

🌴 Benefits and Incentives for Participating in Cysic Testnet

🎙️What benefits and incentives do users get for participating in each phase of the Cysic Testnet?

👨🏻‍💻Leo: For Phase 1 of the testnet, participants will earn credits for proof verification. Another benefit is that we are setting up a mining pool, so if you are part of Phase 1, you will be part of the mining pool for the Cysic Network.

🌴 Participation Requirements for Projects

🎙️ What are the requirements, and how can I join the testnet as a project?

👨🏻‍💻Leo: We want to ensure that community members don’t waste their computing resources on prover tasks. Projects need to stake some tokens for Cysic to take over the proving tasks. If your project has tokens, you can stake them. If not, you can use stablecoins to ensure our community members get rewarded for their efforts.

🌴 Achieving Top Spot on Aleo Testnet Beta Leaderboard

🎙️ Cysic reached the top spot on the leaderboard within 24 hours of development. How did we achieve that?

👨🏻‍💻Leo: We always deliver the best performance in the community.

🌴 Future Opportunities in Aleo Mining Pool

🎙️So in the future, as a Cysic Network prover, will we have the opportunity to participate in the Aleo mining pool as well?

👨🏻‍💻Leo: We are still designing the incentives for provers to contribute to the Cysic Network. We have the most GPUs in the space, and we don’t want those GPUs to be wasted. You don’t want your GPU to be idle for long periods. You can expect a good return for participating in the network.