Tech AMA [Robonomics frontier network, XRT staking, Kusama crowdloan rewards]

Yakub:

Hi Sergei!

There’re a lot of things to cover in this technical AMA :) Are you ready to start?

Sergei:

✌️

Yakub:

Would you mind sharing with the community what’re the closest milestones of the dev team?

Sergei:

We’ve got 2 main goals until the end of 2021:

• Finalize the IoT developers learning flow;
• Launch the Robonomics parachain on Kusama with the common functions required to deploy IoT applications compatible with the whole Polkadot ecosystem.

Accomplishing the above-mentioned tasks will allow us to increase the most important metrics of further growth: the number of application builders / active users.

Yakub:

What’s the role of the frontier network in the further development of the Robonomics parachain?

Sergei:

In my opinion, the launch of the frontier network is important for the community of token holders as it’ll allow you to witness and participate in all processes of the parachain’s development!

Frontier network will mirror the actual 2-3 months roadmap of Robonomics parachain on Kusama. We’re going to activate the XRT token transfer, activate the staking pallet, create a treasury, tech committee, and turn off the SUDO function.

Yakub:

Seems like we won’t lag behind the events on Kusama and keep building the parachain 🤟

Sergei:

Core Robonomics developers will control the frontier network. We’re not going to build anything autonomous in the frontier network.

After Robonomics parachain will connect to Kusama, the frontier network will become something like Rococo/Westland - a test network required for experiments before releasing anything in the mainnet.

In the upcoming 2 months we will focus on building the newcomers’ onboarding process clear and understandable. This is always the task of the pioneers.

Yakub:

What’re your thoughts on the past PLO Kusama auction?

Sergei:

I’m positive about the outcome of the summer PLO auctions. Together, we proved that projects without the eminent VCs support and a huge ton of money have a place in the crypto-world.

A small team of hard-working developers doing their thing can build one of the TOP-10 projects in the Polkadot ecosystem! We didn’t get involved in multi-million pledges with big KSM bags offering them better terms rather than to the community, and we’re ready to compete in the next round of PLO!

Yakub:

When can we expect the launch of Robonomics parachain in the frontier network?

Sergei:

We finalized the genesis block of the Robonomics parachain at the end of the previous week. Rewards of the participants of the exodus, summer crowdloan of the Parachain ID = 2077 and collators of the public test network were included in the Genesis block!

• In total there’re: 996 accounts
• Kusama’s block number used for the snapshot: 8,421,663
• Ethereum’s block number used for the exodus participants snapshot: 12,936,339
• Public test net’s block number used for the collators rewards snapshot: 253,092

Robonomics DevOps team lead by Akru is working on launching Robonomics frontier network. If there’re no issues, we’d see the launch of the network by the end of this week. I’m waiting for updates from the team, follow Robonomics Twitter account to stay updated!

You can track the progress at http://parachain.robonomics.network/ (In the parachain dropdown menu you’ll have to choose parachain ID = 2077)

Yakub:

When will you distribute the rewards of the summer crowdloan campaign?

Sergei:

They’re included in the genesis block of the Robonomics frontier network. It means they’ll be available right after the launch of the network. I’d like to highlight that you had to participate in the crowdloan campaign before the end of the auction for the 5th slot in the 8,421,663 block in Kusama.

Yakub:

When we’ll be able to stake XRT?

Sergei:

Technically staking is ready to be deployed. In the upcoming 2 weeks we’re going to test the staking mechanism on Mercury parachain. If everything works, community will be able to stake XRT in 3-4 weeks after the 1st block in Robonomics frontier network.

Yakub:

Which functions will be available after the launch of the frontier network?

Sergei:

In the first month users will be able to launch IoT devices and gather telemetry data using XRT for paying the network commission. It’ll allow us to start the migration process of the previous R&D projects to parachain 2077. Besides, all XRT token holders will be able to spend tokens for test.

• Fee for launching IoT devices will be: ~0.0001 $
• Fee for sending telemetry data will be: ~0.0005 $

It should be a suitable price for IoT market services versa IoT clouds.

Yakub:

So could I pay MerkleBot's Spot in XRT for using it?

Sergei:

In the time of frontier network yes, after launching in Kusama - Spot rent scheme will be more complex.

Yakub:

Is Robonomics going to participate in the next PLO auction in Kusama?

Sergei:

Of course yes, Plan B doesn’t mean we’ll refuse to join Kusama. Plan B opens a path for us to keep building the project. We’re waiting for the next wave of auctions and think that sooner they commence is better than later.

Yakub:

Will Robonomics participate in the PLO auction in Polkadot if they commence earlier than the next wave on Kusama?

Sergei:

No, our strategy in the Polkadot ecosystem is the same - Kusama first, while Robonomics Relay chain on Polkadot is the vision.

Yakub:

Thank you, Sergei!

We covered most of the questions from the community.

Yakub:

Re: NFT Pioneer card -

Devs are still deciding whether we'll issue the Robonomics parachain's pioneer NFT on Ethereum or Kusama Relay chain.

Pioneers, we'll keep you posted ♥️

Also, don't miss the live interview with Vitaly Bulatov, CEO of MerkleBot.