xx Network and Polkadot ecosystem
- Intro
- What matters and what doesn't
- Why care about the Polkadot ecosystem?
- What opportunities are there?
- Past and present examples and opportunities
- Take-aways
Ah, look at all the blinded people!
Ah, look at all the blinded people!
Eleanor Rigby wants cMixx used by the banks that have been
Lives in a dream
Dreams about use case which we all know won't get out of the door
Who is it for?
All the blinded people
Where do they all come from?
All the blinded people
Where do they all belong?
Hope you don't mind the sarcasm.
Intro
I'm going to turn a few thoughts into a blog post because it should be on the Internet and stay there for a while. (Ironically, this won't be published soon as I'm still waiting for Github to tell me what I did to have my account suspended - but more on that once I find out!)
Claim: very few xx Network community members realize or highlight opportunities related to the fact that xx Network uses a Substrate-based chain.
According to this article, there's over 300 projects in the Polkadot SDK-based ecosystem.
What matters and what doesn't
Dr. Chaum and the Team behind xx Network are well aware of the benefits of having a Substrate-based chain, but years after the launch 90% of community members are still mesmerized and distracted by the peripheral stuff.
What's periferal stuff?
It's both old and new things - the BIS/CBDC trials, the Charles Hutchison-Trump administration thing, digital voting in government-organized elections...
Why care about the Polkadot ecosystem?
The Team of course knows the value of Polkadot ecosystem which is why they picked a Substrate-based chain.
But if one looks at what most people in the community are paying attention to, most don't appear to see it. They're blinded by the seeming ease of scroing bigly, or simply lazy to learn and so they tirelessly look in the wrong places.
Such as? Various quantum computing news, the Charles/Trump thing, rumored crypto payments on X, etc.
The obsession about quantum computing news is very strange to me.
On the one hand, that's one of two main things in cMixx (the other is that it's a mixnet). The threat is real, it is now ("Harvest now, decrypt later"). But it's one thing to mention it, and another to obsess about quantum computing-related news and ignore almost everything else.
Or worse, to think that some government will use cMixx because it uses PQC. This week I skimmed through some EU-originated PQC work and they're happily researching their own and plan to get it done in the late 20s. Why would they use cMixx when it could make them redundant? It's no different in any other country or union.
It is true that Dr. Chaum himself has participated himself in BIS/CBDC-related research and evaluations, but that's because he should. I wouldn't expect, or want him to build embedded wallets. He is focused on the tech behind cMixx and the best evagelist and promoter we have.
But the opportunities that Polkadot SDK offers to xx Network are many and significant.
- approachable: they're suitable for community and developer engagement. You and that dApp developer you know don't need a PhD in cryptography or deep understanding of the workings of central banks in order to use cMixx and xx Chain to create useful and practical solutions today
- immediate: some of my ideas for dDpps require mere days to develop and launch. I know because I've done some simple ones myself. They don't take quarters to discuss and years to develop, trial and put in production. You don't need to look for "investors" to fund their development. Imagine & implement!
- low-cost: in some cases, 7 engineer days to users and maybe even revenue
- permissionless: these opportunities are real and don't depend on anyone reaching out to Elon or some political figure doing us a favor (or even realizing that it'd be us doing them a favor)
I could go on, but hodlers are doing themselves disservice looking for opportunities in the wrong places.
How hard is it to realize that fiat currencies aren't meant to be transparent, decentralized or private? It seems very. It won't happen.
Yes, cMixx should be trialed with the BIS and central banks. Why?
- to show that it won't happen despite the tech being there. In other words, to expose central banks and governments so that everyone can see that it's not about technical challenges, "the tech not being there" or whatever other excuse they come up with
- to scientifically and practically prove that xx Network can do this for private/permissionless use cases
I'm convinced 95% of people in the xx Network community don't realize or disagree with the above two points. But these are the key points when it comes to choosing where to engage and contribute (especially since most of us neither connected nor qualified to contribute - and no, asking "wen" doesn't count).
If anything, post-quantum mixnets may be implemented by central banks and governments, but in order to hide their own inner workings from taxpayers and public debt investors.
In other words, they may implement them to hide and obfuscate transactions between central banks or between central banks and private banks with whom they do business. It won't be on xx Network or any other public mixnet or chain. Got it?
What opportunities are there?
I hope I shouldn't need to explain, but given the visual impairedness of many in the community, I'll mention several examples:
- My recent posts on dApps and Hacktoberfest 2024 wins give some concrete examples
- Other opportunities (high-level only, as I may try to realize some of them):
- Most Substrate-based (aka Polkadot SDK-based) wallets can access xx Chain
- All xx Chain addressses are valid on almost every Substrate-based chain
- Almost all Polkadot-related projects could use xx Chain and make use of cMixx (xx Network mixnet service)
I'll explore each of these claims, but feel free to skim through them if you understood what I meant to say.
xx coin in Substrate walelts
If one has "a" Substrate based wallet, they can likely use it to hold xx coin.
Not a big deal, there are many wallets that work with multiple chains, right?
Yes, but you have to pick a wallet that supports two or more coins that you have which in many cases means some L2 and therefore L1 - often Ethereum, which has been stagnant. Sometimes, if you use two L2s, you may need two Ethereum wallets. Or maybe three if you also use another chain. Oops!
In the interest of disclosure: I am not a fan of Ethereum and Bitcoin and I belive they're outdated. Because of that, two months ago I put a small amount of fiat into some other, newer L1 networks and they've done very well (relative to both ETH and BTC).
Also importantly, I do think coins and L1/L2 are ion fungible in the mid-term, so what's modern and superior today may not be two or five years down the road.
And finally, much of my crypto is in XX token and do not encourage anyone to buy any crypto token - all this is just FYI.
For bitcoiners, it's even worse because there's barely anything going on there in terms of useful decentralized applications. Anyone who uses crypto (rather than keep BTC parked and watch the number go up and down) needs one for Bitcoin and several for useful apps.
In the Polkadot ecosystem, there are many good L1 and L2 chains and apps. You usually need just one wallet to access all your tokens and NFTs.
That makes it easy to own XX token and enables cross-polination across Substrate-based networks.
Universal Polkadot addresses
That first statement about xx Chain adddresses being the same across all Substrate chains isn't entirely correct as stated above - that was purposedly simplified.
What's valid across most Substrate chains is your regular wallet pass phrase and private key(s). SS58 addresses are different for every chain, but can be derived from the same pass phrase or private key(s).
Why should we care? Because you can have a Substrate wallet that uses a single pass phrase for (probably) any dApp in the Polkadot ecosystem.
An xx Network address looks differently from its Polkadot "representation", but these are - and must be, to prevent confusion and loss - because these are different SS58 networks. That is amazing.
xx chain can work with many Polkadot projects
Because of the two earlier points, Substrate L1 and L2 chains and apps can be easily interconnected.
What if I use Kusama and need to pay for cMixx "postage" (i.e. "premium" service tier, once xxPostage becomes available)?
I'll need only one wallet, just one pass phrase, KSM (tokens) and the ability to buy and sell XX tokens on a DEX to pay for "postage" on xx Network. cMixx postage hasn't been implemented yet, but the only thing that's missing is the ability to buy/sell XX coin with KSM which is technically possible today (e.g. see Hydration) and only a matter of making a small-to-moderate implementation effort.
What if I use XX token and want to use for some non-zero cost service on one of the many Substrate-based chains?
The same thing - one wallet, one pass phrase, and the ability to buy/sell other Substrate tokens - directly or indirectly (e.g. sell XX token to buy DOT or KSM, then sell DOT or KSM to buy the Substrate L1 token you need).
Until direct or indirect on-Substrate-chain DEXes that support XX token become available, one can still do this by using a DEX outside of the Substrate chain ecosystem, but for that we need a wallet that supports said DEX. At this time the easiest way to buy/sell in either direction would be to use a DEX and Ethereum-based wrapped XX coin. That's not perfectly convenient, but at least it doesn't require much overhead - it takes minutes at most.
For free services on Substrate-based entworks (where there's no need for buying and selling) - you can access them as soon as they're implemented. For example, the token- and asset-gated acces demo app only requires ocassional, potentially one-time transfer or transaction and you're good to go for months if not years. Some don't require any, for example in the case a site lets you access it with any Substrate-based token, as long as the USD equivalent of your balance is more than 10 dollars.
Past and present examples and opportunities
In addition to the dApps I wrote about recently, I want to highlight one opportunity which I thought was real, and that was to evangelize and popularize the integration with Crust Network, a Substate-based network storage project.
xx Network added a Curst Network files app to the official xx Network wallet, but most people didn't pay attention or didn't want to think about it, so the feature wasn't maintained or improved and now it doesn't work (it appears Crust Network no longer maintains that pallet/API).
Crust Network isn't equally private and post-quantum resistant, but it's convenient and not less private that 99% of other chat apps let you upload "attachments" or inline images.
What if the idea didn't make any sense? Was it practical and usable at all? I've no doubt it was.
- Text - and Crust Network download links - go to cMixx
- Blobs (memes, audio clips, etc) go to Crust Network storage nodes and can be downloaded or shown inline in cMixx chat app
You lose some privacy for such binary data, but that's a low-cost tradeoff. In return we could have had "unlimited" size attachments in cMixx chat apps for 2 years now. But no one showed much interest and we still don't have that feature in Haven today.
While Crust Network is now out of the focus due to low interest, similar opportunities abound so I know what I'll do - I'll be looking at other opportunities in the Polkadot ecosystem because they're approachable, immediate, low-cost and permissionless.
Proxxy is another low-hanging fruit. As a reminder, it proxies chain RPC calls through cMixx, which means once a Substrate-based chain becomes supported by Proxxy, many Substrate chains could be supported within days. xx Network's cMixx mixnet is free to use and there's 300 projects that could add this "enhanced privacy" feature easily. And maybe just four-five wallets would have to be enabled to add this feature to hundreds of Polkadot SDK-based projects, to put it another way and tie with those earlire points mentioned above.
Proxxy originally focused on Ethereum wallets and just like with Crust Network integration, the community thought it's better to focus on those "high-profile" use cases I find unlikely to happen. I think Proxy should focus on Substrate-based chains instead.
Take-aways
Many dApps from the Polkadot ecosystem could be used directly from xx Chain wallet and many Substrate chains could have a privacy setting that flips their wallet RPC transactions to use cMixx even if they don't pay for it with xx coin. That works today.
The lack of a mobile Haven client - once XX Messenger was discontinued - has been hindering such dApps and integrations, but thanks to one of the winners of Hacktoberfest 2024 now we have a responsive Haven application that works from Android clients. It doesn't work great (it's not power-efficient on mobile - those improvements need to be added), but it works. If your mobile device connects to cMixx periodically - for example to download notifications or batch-upload data - there's no problem to do that on Android today.
If we look in the right places, and those places are not in central banks or governments, opportunities are plenty.
I look forward to seeing - and maybe even creating some related PoCs - some cool Polkadot ecosystem integrations happen in 2025.