Welcome back all to the fourth edition of the GenPool Spotlight blog series. For this episode we will continue from where we left off with the second part of our joint AMA with the DeFis Network team. As you may recall for Part One, GenerEOS hosted Opa to get the lowdown on all that has been happening with the DeFis Network. For the second part however, the roles have been reversed and some of the key players of the GenerEOS team were able to hop on into the DFS telegram group to answer some questions from both Opa and the attending community.
Opa I Defis Network:
Hello and Welcome Everyone!
We are now hosting Team GenerEOS members Tim Weston, Ralf Weinand, and Datajunky at our AMA event today. Big thanks to the team for making this AMA happen with us. GenerEOS is Genesis BP and active community members in EOS, and we are lucky to have them call EOS home.
Our program today consists of 4 Segments:
First, DFS will ask some questions about team GenerEOS. The chat will remain closed throughout this section.
Second, we will open the chat and get your questions. GenerEOS will answer as many as possible in the time given.
Third, there will be a sneak preview, any announcements or things to look forward to from GenerEOS.
And fourth, we will finalize and close out the AMA
Tim, how are you doing today?
May I say good morning to you over there?
Tim I GenerEOS:
Hi Everyone, first of all, thank you for the opportunity to come here and chat today 🙂
Yes, it’s 7am here today ☺️
Nice and early
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
G’d morning everyone.
Opa I Defis Network:
Tim, Ralf, and DataJunky, please can you introduce yourself to the DFS community.
Tim l GenerEOS:
Sure, I am head of product and strategy here at GenerEOS and I look after all things business and product. Of course though since we are a small team we tend to all help each other out in all departments.
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
Sure thing. I’m originally from Germany, but have been living in Australia for more than 10 years now. I have a masters in IT and been working in the IT space for more than 20 years now. I got into crypto about 4 years ago and was in EOS from the start. In my free time I love surfing and playing the piano or going on a walk with the family.
Given my IT background I look after our infra and technical product management.
DataJunky l GenerEOS l EOS Watchdogs:
Hello, I’m a simple man who’s become mystified by the crypto movement. I decided to get started working as a community manager because of my love of people and chose to apply with team GenerEOS shortly after mainnet.
I loved how they put people first in their strategy and I’ve been thrilled to be a part of this incredible team ever since. ❤️
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
Very humble man. I’d call him our secret sauce. DJ is a very dedicated and important part of our core team at GenerEOS. ?
DataJunky l GenerEOS l EOS Watchdogs:
Haha secret sauce ?❤️ Thanks Ralf, you guys mean the world to me.
Opa I Defis Network:
[Super cute smiley baby raising eyebrows gif]
Wow, now you guys are unique. Loving this. Looks like I know the backbone of the project 🙂
First you guys got me smiling. Since you guys have this kind of interlocking relationship. Then may I ask Tim, how did your team meet and how long have you been a Block Producing Company for?
Tim l GenerEOS:
Sure, thing! Nathan Rempel and I first met on the EOSGo forum in late 2017 realizing we both lived in Sydney, afterwards, I met Ralf at a Sydney EOS meetup held by another Australian Block Producing candidate EOSphere. After meeting, we quickly formed a company and set up to become Block Producers in March/April of 2018 before the Mainnet launched. Everything was moving really fast in that period to try and test and launch the network. We have since added some more team members from other parts of the world like Datajunky who is based out of Canada, and contributors from China, Vietnam, Japan, and Germany. We are very diverse now 🙂
Opa I Defis Network:
Interesting. Ralf, can you please tell us the primary motivation for Team GenerEOS
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
Sure thing. We have a passion for giving at Team GenerEOS, so we understand what it means to “go without” at certain times. Perhaps this makes us more resilient than others, or perhaps we are just more focused on building to worry about what the future holds. Building tools that are useful to the community is our specialty, and if we can continue to get the support of the voters, we will be building a lot more for the #EOS network for years to come.
Opa I Defis Network:
This is interesting. But Many BP’s in a similar position have not had the same success you have enjoyed. So What sets you apart from the other standby block producers out there?
Tim l GenerEOS:
That is very true. The BP space is very competitive these days with over 500 registered BPs.
What sets us apart is that we’ve always been focused on growing our brand, our community, and our network. Strategic partnerships and great social skills are a necessary component of the DPoS networks, but hard work, determination, and a never give up attitude is more important. We have a very strong team that communicates very well both internally and externally with the rest of the EOS network. Wherever we see friction and walls being built, we move to reduce that friction and tear down or build around the walls.
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
DJ is a great help there so feel free to add to this or you can jump in when the questions open up later.
DataJunky l GenerEOS l EOS Watchdogs:
There are many wonderful people working in the blockchain space, and EOS attracts a lot of talented people.
I want to take a moment to recognize all of those people that have sacrificed a lot of time and resources to make this network what it is today. Not every block producer will achieve the same success as others, but they are critical components to the entire network and their contributions are legendary. ?
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
Well said buddy, and it’s that attitude that makes you so special.
DataJunky l GenerEOS l EOS Watchdogs:
Opa I Defis Network:
Getting more interesting. Can you tell us something that the community doesn’t know about team GenerEOS? Wondering ?
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
I’m currently working from a motorhome as I’m on a road trip through the desert of Australia. Here is a photo I recently took of my current office.
Opa I Defis Network:
Lovely
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
By the way, I’m on one bar reception at the moment so might cut off any time…. ?
Tim l GenerEOS:
Something not many people know about me is that I once got a cease and desist letter from Snoop Dog’s lawyers (haha long story). I love making products and pushing the boundaries but sometimes it gets me in trouble ?
DataJunky l GenerEOS l EOS Watchdogs:
I started selling “virtual items” or digital goods around 2006 with the popular game Diablo 2. I’ve been an entrepreneur since 1999 and I am an anarchist. My ultimate goal is to attain personal freedom and promote others to pursue the same dream if they want it.
Opa I Defis Network:
Guys so, why EOS? And how long have you been active in the EOS space?
Tim l GenerEOS:
I’ll let Ralf take this one (if he has reception).
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
I’m still online, yay. For anyone who has been following blockchain development it probably is quite obvious that smart contract platforms are the next stage in the blockchain global movement. The first iterations of smart contract platforms are not scalable and a lot of them are too complex for developers. After learning about EOS technology and architecture, it really was a no-brainer to go all in and we feel it’s only a matter of time for other entrepreneurs and developers to do the same.
Tim l GenerEOS:
Well said.
DataJunky l GenerEOS l EOS Watchdogs:
I first heard about EOS when Dan Larimer appeared in the episode of anarchast with Jeff Berwick and the dollar vigilante sometime in early 2017.
It was everything that I hoped for and it’s delivered on every point and exceeded my expectations and continues to surprise me. I’m really excited for the future of EOSIO and especially the mothership of the EOS network. ?
Opa I Defis Network:
Just in one simple word, what do you think about Ethereum? ?
Tim l GenerEOS:
Oldnews haha.
Opa I Defis Network:
????
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
I think Ethereum has its place and they keep improving, but EOS is well ahead technology wise. More and more developers are realising this. It’s just a matter of time.
Opa I Defis Network:
I can’t but agree more, tbh.
DataJunky l GenerEOS l EOS Watchdogs:
Cornerstone
Opa I Defis Network:
Tim, what are your key focus areas and have they changed since you first became a BP?
Tim l GenerEOS:
Our key focus areas right now are managed blockchain solutions and building a scalable Blockchain entity that can span across multiple different EOSIO based chains. We feel that the space is rapidly maturing and that a lot of enterprises are seeing the benefits that blockchain can have for their databases but dont have the knowledge to implement it. This is vastly different from our focus in the beginning, i.e creating user-focused tools such as Genpool.io and Eostoolkit.io – we feel this infrastructure is maturing nicely and we no longer need to have the main focus on it.
Opa I Defis Network:
Can you please tell us about your infrastructure setup now and how has it changed over time?
Tim l GenerEOS:
Sure, ill let our tech guru Ralf Weinand take this one.
Opa I Defis Network:
Okay, Ralf Weinand, all for you 🙂
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
We have been using cloud infrastructure from the very beginning. In the early days, it was all just managed by myself, but we now have other people help manage our various nodes for different blockchains. Also, initially all servers were installed and configured manually, but we are slowly migrating to an infrastructure-as-code solution to streamline the various processes required for running EOSIO-based chains.
Opa I Defis Network:
Any specific name for your cloud infrastructure? And to add to the question, what are your future infrastructure plans?
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
We are using AWS, but once we are fully using Infrastructure-as-Code we can switch between providers in a matter of minutes…. well, maybe hours as it would take some time to spin everything back up somewhere else…
Cloud-based deployment is very convenient as there is no need to manage physical hardware and deal with hardware failures etc. Also, there’s no upfront cost which helps startups like us. However, we understand that the EOS community generally prefers more independent hosting options and bare-metal deployments. Cloud-hosting is also more expensive long-term. We are therefore exploring hybrid hosting options which we are hoping to move to in the second half of 2021.
Opa I Defis Network:
I’ll be personally looking forward to this.
DataJunky l GenerEOS l EOS Watchdogs:
I’m excited about this prospect of expansion too because we can further strengthen and decentralize the network with more geographical diversity ???
Opa I Defis Network:
Next here is a general question for anyone willing. What was the most exciting project you have worked on in the EOS space?
Tim l GenerEOS:
I`ll take this one. I would have to say it was our open-source exchange voting tool developed alongside EOSRIO, ShEOS, and EOS Node One. For those of you that dont know, it is an open-sourced product with the aim of democratizing and streamlining the exchange voting process. It consisted of an end-to-end voting framework that any exchange can utilize with minimal integration efforts, and offer their users the ability to participate in the EOS block producer voting process. One of the biggest criticisms of EOS is that exchanges vote with users token and our tool was a way for exchanges to enable their users to vote for themselves. We still think this is a game-changing product for EOS and hope that exchanges adopt it.
You can read more about it here: https://www.genereos.io/open-source-exchange-voting-portal/
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
100% agree. Even now we are only deploying servers in Australia for all our BP nodes.
Tim l GenerEOS:
Actually, I think it would assist in the DFS mentality of “Making EOS great again” 🙂
Opa I Defis Network:
[baby face smile one eyebrow raised gif]
Now I’m getting more eager to know haha. Sounds interesting enough.
So, what projects are you currently working on and what can we look forward to?
Tim l GenerEOS:
? We have had some interesting meetings lately, I can’t tell you who with, but I can tell you that they are in the S&P top 50. We hope these meetings lead to a new managed blockchain product that really opens the doors to enterprise and streamlines blockchain for developers to the point that it makes sense to use it.
Opa I Defis Network:
Now this one goes to all of you. Where do you see EOS in 5 years?
[Homer Simpson with monkey banging symbols in the brain gif]
Tim l GenerEOS:
Hehe. I see EOSIO being adopted in some way by 50% of the S&P 500 and a huge portion of governmental bodies. I see EOS being a scaling layer for Bitcoin and Ethereum and I see the EOS Mainnet having its first Dapps with over a million users.
Opa I Defis Network:
? And you Ralf?
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
Like I said earlier, I think more and more developers will recognise EOS as the most advanced smart contract platform. So I also see EOS growing in importance and adoption. Hard to predict 5 years out, but I agree with Tim’s opinion there.
DataJunky l GenerEOS l EOS Watchdogs:
Inside every business!
Inside every home!
Inside every individual that stands to uphold the principles of defending Life, Liberty and Property!
Opa I Defis Network:
Thanks. And now it is time to move on to the second segment. Community, drop your questions. We will have 10 min for this portion.
Tim l GenerEOS:
Yes, we will try our best to answer as many as we can.
Q: Finally, the SEC said it would sue XRP. What is your project doing to overcome such legal issues?
Tim l GenerEOS:
Block.one are very regulation centric. They have already been working close with the SEC at making sure EOS is not a security. This helps all EOS and EOSIO based projects massively from a legal POV.
Q: How are you spending your block producing rewards at GenerEos? Are you converting your DFS back into fiat to pay normal bills? Also, is 5% inflation too much in your opinion?
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
Yes, a big part of our block producer income is used to pay for our infrastructure. We also pay out voting rewards via GenPool.io as you probably know.
Q: What are your mechanisms to remove people from Public Proxies if there is a request?
Tim l GenerEOS:
I`m not sure what you mean by people? Voters? This we cannot do.
Q: Technology is changing every second, so are you afraid that recent projects with new technologies will become a serious competitor for EOS? What is the thing that you have that other projects don’t have yet?
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
EOS has the most advanced technology and Block.One have several hundred employees improving it every day. On top of that, EOS has a great community. I think EOS has a bright future.
Q: How was GenerEos built? Why is GenerEos contributing to this blockchain and what is its importance for EOS community at large?
Tim l GenerEOS:
We explained this in more depth earlier. We strongly believe that EOS and EOSIO is the future of blockchain and we have built our business model around operating strong infrastructure. In order for these chains to gain value there needs to be foundational products and tools, therefore we are focused on building these.
Q: How genereous are you for the team itself as GenerEOS ?
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
Our mission was and is to make the world a better place. We have set up our charityproxy where all the income is distributed to charities. We also want to bring more charities directly to the blockchain space and in particular to EOS.
Q; Could you tell us about the contributions your partners have made to your project?
Tim l GenerEOS:
This is a long list… I would say over the years in some way shape or form, all BPs are partners. We have been helping each other out nearly every day from building products together (see voting exchange tool above), to helping each other patch the network when there are issues or talking about governance upgrades.
Q: I love your charity proxy concept. I am happy if I can support that. Do you have other plans for charity?
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
Thank you! I hope my previous answer covers that. And yes, we are excited for anything in the charity space and always happy to explore more ways to help.
Q: How long did it take to build GenerEos? How do you see the future of your ecosystem and its contribution to DFS ?
Tim l GenerEOS:
We have been in operation since March 2018. We see GenerEOS producing blocks on dozens of EOSIO based chains and building more products for the ecosystem. We see these tools and learning directly funneling value to the DFS community through awareness of EOS and EOSIO. We all are working towards the same goal here which is better services and future adoption.
Q: Do you think the model of GenerEOS might be implemented into any other cryptocurrency ?
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
GenerEOS is our company name, but if you mean GenPool.io then yes – this is absolutely possible and we have been thinking of doing this, although it is not our main priority as we want to spend our energy and make EOS the number one blockchain.
Comment: Yes, that is what I meant. Thank you.
Q: What can you say about the role of the community in your project?
Tim l GenerEOS:
The community is the heart of any project in the blockchain space. We all need to remember that we are at the very beginning of this evolution, and we need everyone to spread the word about the cool things people are building such as DFS
Q: DataJunky, you call yourself an anarchist but do you know the definition of anarchy? And also, how can you call yourself an anarchist when you are the exact opposite of that representing control, authority, and censorship in the telegram channels you are admin of. Also, what do you do for GenerEOS?
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
I agree “anarchist” is a strong word. We don’t want anarchy in the truest sense of the word, but we want a free world where people can choose how they want to live and not be forced into certain behaviour. At the same time, there must be some basic laws and rules that people abide by.
DataJunky l GenerEOS l EOS Watchdogs:
I’m an anarchist. The groups I am a moderator of have specific sets of rules for each one that need to be adhered to. These groups have community members that want a certain degree of censorship. Many people come to the group and abuse others, either verbally, or by posting really offensive things that any good group would censor. I take pride in my volunteerism throughout the network and my goal is to help support and promote the teams building on EOSIO that bring added value to the networks.
I prefer to support those who build on #EOSIO, even if they are repeat offenders. I’d be happy to discuss your particular situation further if you want to send me a dm. I’ll leave my door open for you. ❤️
And for GenerEOS, work, work,work [scrolling work work work gif]
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
❤️? DJ is our eyes, ears, and voice out there in the EOS community. He is the secret sauce of GenerEOS and it wouldn’t be the same without him. ?❤️
Tim l GenerEOS
❤️
DataJunky l GenerEOS l EOS Watchdogs
HUGE shoutout to my brother from another Mother Jimmy D who we at GenerEOS rely on for LOTS of high quality content. More secret sauce to the success of the team lies on this little miracle of a man that we absolutely love having on our team.
Thank you Jimmy, you make all of the network a little bit stronger every time you flex on the keyboard. Can’t wait to travel overseas and give you that bear hug. ❤️
Tim l GenerEOS:
Absolutely, we wouldn’t be who we are without Jimmy D ❤️
Jimmy D l Uplift.Art l EOSIO Weekly l GenerEOS l EOSIO Literary Nomad
(Delayed response) It is an honor and a pleasure to be part of this amazing crew featured here today, as well as all the others in the background ;). Apologies for missing the live action but working hard to bring all this goodness to the community at large soon 😉
Opa I Defis Network:
Very good feedback so far.
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
Any more questions or anything we missed?
Opa I Defis Network:
To save time, we’ll move to the last section now. Tim, can you please tell us what to expect? And Ralf, you can wrap it up if you don`t mind.
Tim l GenerEOS:
Ok cool, let’s wrap it up then.
There are no exact sneak previews we can share right now, but as we said earlier, we have had some meetings lately with an S&P top 50 company and hope to be sharing some news about some managed blockchain products coming out shortly. Additionally, we also may have a new very strong technical team member joining GenerEOS soon so keep an eye out for that 🙂
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
Well, to wrap it up from my side, I really enjoyed this session and chatting to the DFS community. If you have any further questions, just DM any of our team, or even better, join us at our official telegram @GenerEOS where we always post our latest updates, news, events, and pretty much anything EOS related we find that is of interest.
Tim l GenerEOS:
Thanks Opa, and everyone else for that matter, letting us come here and chat today. It has been a pleasure and we can’t wait to continue working alongside you all 🙂
Ralf Weinand | GenerEOS | GenPool.io| TelosGermany:
Yes. Thanks for organising this AMA Opa!!
Opa I Defis Network:
Thank you guys, I really appreciate the effort and time here. Although it’s super late in my time zone at the moment, I enjoyed every bit of the chat
Tim l GenerEOS:
Thanks again, and I hope you’ll have a good restful night! Good Night everyone! Hope to be in touch with all of you very soon.
And thank you all for reading along after the fact. As was previously mentioned, from the very beginning GenerEOS has worked extremely hard to cultivate a relationship with many involved within the EOS and EOSIO ecosystems and will continue to do so as time goes on. Whether you are BP, a project or dapp, a proxy, or just a run of the mill EOS enthusiast we encourage you to jump on into our official telegram channel and follow the GenerEOS Twitter to ask any questions or get the latest info on our actions as well as what is happening behind the scenes of EOSIO.
We would also encourage everyone out there interested to hop on over to our official websites and see for yourselves what we are up to at any given time.
- GenerEOS: Australia’s leading blockchain infrastructure and decentralized application building agency with the goal of making scalable solutions for the next generation of distributed ledger technology.
- GenPool.io: The first EOS vote rewards exchange. Earn passive income while supporting network growth to maximise your token value. The best choice for EOS investors.
- And check out our the GenerEOS Medium page for previous updates regarding EOSToolkit.io, PoorMan Token, University Workshops, the open-source exchange voting protocol, and much more as well as the GenPool Spotlight Series hosted on our main GenerEOS homepage.
And that then good ladies and gentlemen wraps up this special cross-community AMA episode of GenPool Spotlight with our friends over at Defis Network. Don’t worry though, there is a lot in the pipeline including another special spotlight interview coming your way soon early 2021, so don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled and your ears tuned as to be sure to not miss a single GenerEOS beat.
0 Comments