Friday’s AMA was focused on the rebrand of DADI to Edge, but that didn’t stop us covering a plethora of other topics. Those questions not answered this time will be picked up in the next AMA.
Question 1
What has been the most challenging thing to create while setting up this new brand?
Ravi Chandwani: There have been a number of challenges in replacing DADI with the new Edge brand. A key area of focus has been bringing the different App/Services under a single brand style. The existing offering felt somewhat disparate as there were a number of different styles and approaches being used. We have been and continue to work with the team to create more uniformity across the brand. Ensuring there is a stylistic and aesthetic connection in all aspects of the brand. Finalizing the logo itself has also been challenging. Ensuring the logo resonates with the target audience and sits comfortably alongside competitors whilst also having standout and impact. It is important that it is both distinctive and aesthetically pleasing. Something I feel we have achieved.
Joseph Denne: I'd say that you've definitely achieved! Super happy with the work
Follow up: Hi Ravi. What did you do to backup this feeling to make sure it's not just your feeling and effectively something affecting the brand image? How much third-party input was taken for the rebrand? Focus groups, interviews, other designers' input?
Ravi Chandwani: We've spent a few months on the design itself and moved - sometimes frustratingly! - through a wide number of variations and iterations. This included a significant amount of third-party input, including from customers and others within the crypto industry.
Question 2
How long has you been working on the rebrand to Edge?
Joseph Denne: Since October last year! So, we've been moving towards it for quite a while - starting with the naming of the network, and then through the reduction in use of DADI in comms, finally getting to the point of being able to announce it, and then of course formally launching it next week.
Question 3
In your opinion, what makes the brand identity that your team has created unique?
Ravi Chandwani: It is difficult to pinpoint any brand out there that is completely unique. Generally, there will be a connection between brands in a similar space which is what ensures they can communicate effectively in the wider industry. However, the intention with the new brand was to create something which differentiates us from our competitors and demonstrates a fresh approach to this space.
Key points of the brand are a focus on clarity and simplicity. We are communicating some complex ideas in a clear and concise manner. This is done through copy, but also through the overall aesthetic. Reduced colour palette, white space and a focus on minimalism. Combined, these qualities should give us stand out from the crowd.
Question 4
Is there any specific message or emotion you wanted expressed when designing this new brand?
Ravi Chandwani: The message we want to convey is clarity and simplicity, ease of use and accessibility to a complex and cutting-edge technology. This is achieved through refining and minimizing the visual and textual content. Lots of white space, giving content room to breathe as well as lighter font weights and a reductive palette should help to communicate these ideas. The brand will continue to develop as more elements are added to the visual language. We are taking an iterative approach so we can be flexible enough to accommodate new developments whilst ensuring that everything retains brand recognition.
Question 5
Will this new style also be used for the products you make together with Blond and how will this collaboration be in the future?
Ravi Chandwani: The new brand will definitely feed into the new products developed with Blond. This will be through the product design as well as packaging. This has been part of the thought process in developing the new brand look and feel. We are excited to see how this develops into 3 dimensional objects in the future.
Question 6
Can you tell us about the reason for the rebrand?
Joseph Denne: DADI was right for us at the beginning of our journey: It communicated the ambition of the technology, and it was a memorable name. However, when addressing a market as part of the proposition as now stands it lacked clarity. It's also worth acknowledging that it wasn't universally liked too.
Question 7
How do you comment the modified picture showing $EDGE being #7 on CoinMarketCap with your investors down 90%?
Joseph Denne: Well, #8! Contributors purchased in Eth. $DADI is down ~62% in Eth since the token sale. Eth remains down 76.46% over the same period. I'm not trying to paint a rosy picture, but it's worth calling out the facts. In a very difficult market, our token price has fared reasonably well. The illustration is just that. It's playful and reflective of our ambition, nothing more.
Question 8
What does a clean start with the new brand mean for the team and the future?
Joseph Denne: Well, we see Edge as central to our go to market strategy. It's all about marking the platform out as the leader in the field of edge computing and edge networking. It's a more grown up brand, and one which clearly communicates the proposition. We believe that this clarity of purpose will help to carry us forward, both internally and with the broader market.
Question 9
Do you think it will ever be super intuitive to create a website on DADI for those who are not code savvy? Like a Wordpress website, for example.
Arthur Mingard: There's a big difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org. And between either of those and Wix. Edge is all about network level services. This will eventually include a 1-click deploy marketplace for different technologies, which will lower the barrier to entry significantly.
What we're doing with the web services under a new brand is much more closely aligned to a Wordpress, in that it is a SaaS proposition designed to lower the barrier to entry. In time we expect this to evolve further, with versions of the offering more closely aligned to the likes of wordpress.com.
Joseph Denne: That's a yes. But it's not our core focus in Edge right now.
Question 10
How does the DADI rebrand impact the relationship with the foundation?
Joseph Denne: It doesn't. The DADI Foundation is also rebranding, and will be known as the Edge Initiative. The go live date for this isn't confirmed yet, but we expect it to follow on quickly from the launch of Edge.
Question 11
Will DADI support the QUALCOMM Snapdragon Secure Processing Unit feature?
Arthur Mingard: This solution is similar to Intel SGX - we really support the introduction of this sort of feature to all chips on the market. We'll be watching each version into maturity and adoption, and if they stand up to scrutiny, they'll almost certainly find their way onto the roadmap.
Question 12
Do DADI customers know that they are migrating services to decentralised services/network? Is this something they like, does DADI advertise it proudly or is it only the cost-saving aspect that customers like? Could you tell a bit what makes customers move and how you gain new customers?
Joseph Denne: Yes, this isn't something that we're doing by stealth, although we are doing it slowly as we continue to test and improve the mainnet. And yes, we're very proud of the technology. The strongest selling points are performance (speed of deployment, speed of delivery), security, transparency and price.
Question 13
Why is it that the response headers of thedecentralisedweb.com seem to return a DADI-host only the first time I load the page then after a refresh those response headers or no longer there?
Arthur Mingard: In CDN, once an object has been generated and moved in to the cache of a Gateway, the original node isn't participating in the request, which is why the header changes. We are working on updates that will include a breakdown of all of the nodes that participated in a request, regardless of cache state.
Question 14
Have you considered onboarding users from other Crypto projects who need to run nodes, like Tierion?
Joseph Denne: We have been working with a handful of partners on this. So yes! I'm not familiar with Tierion, but will take a look.
Question 15
When can we use Edge like we use AWS. Obviously not all the features, but as a developer, if your offering is CDN, when can I just sign up and get going without any hand holding?
Joseph Denne: You're correct in identifying this as a key milestone in the go to market. We are working the interfaces for the first services now, and expect to be moving them to live in Q4.
Question 16
It has now been over a year and a half since $DADI has been listed on a reputable exchange. Clearly, not enough has been done on this front since projects which have only launched in Q3/Q4 2018 have already been listed on the likes of Binance or Binance DEX (REN, Loki, Grin to name a few). When can we expect some positive developments on this front? It would be great for brand exposure and legitimacy.
Joseph Denne: We agree that broader reach and liquidity would be beneficial. And in fact, we see it as being essential as we build out the network. This isn't something that has been ignored, but it's also unfortunately not something that we can talk about at the moment.
Question 17
If I want to use DADI as my CDN provider, have you implemented some kind of DRM so that only authorized users can see the content and restrict authorized users from uploading content to Facebook or some other platform?
Arthur Mingard: User account management is something that typically exists within the application that makes use of a CDN. There are however plans for single use cryptographic keys within the solution.
Joseph Denne: So, for example, you could choose to lock down certain content and make it available only to authenticated users within your app. Those users would be given links (or the content would be embedded with) URLs which would expire after a set amount of time has passed.
Question 18
It is understandable not wanting to name certain clients using/interested in the network. However, I find this to not be an excuse for more clarity on network stats. It was mentioned that more of these will be available with the new website. Can you specify which stats will be supported?
Joseph Denne: We've started to provide more detail on this front and will continue to do so. We are working on client success stories and will be publishing ever deeper levels of data as we move forward and also as we continue to evolve the network explorer.
Question 19
When can we expect the updated roadmap and updated website (please specify what coming weeks mean)?
Joseph Denne: As I think I mentioned in my last weekly update, next week! (And if I didn't, I meant to!)
Question 20
Self onboarding is one step into decentralization so I guess there will be no restriction and the free market will regulate the node count over time. Is this assumption correct?
Arthur Mingard: In the fullness of time, yes, that is correct. In the first instance self on-boarding will be gated on a first come first serve basis. The reason for this is that we need to monitor and assess performance as the network grows.
Question 21
Can we (as founding node holders) also join the self-onboarding? And how many raspberry PIXs will I be able to run following the launch? (I have a 5-device cluster set up already waiting idle)
Arthur Mingard: Yes, you can. How many devices you can run is limited only by your connectivity and the subsequent performance of the devices in resolving tasks in Gateways job queue.
Question 22
When will the first staking for Gateways and Stargates take place?
Joseph Denne: September for backbone rentals. With some potential for onboarding to start sooner.
Question 23
Will Stargates have the ability to censor specific sites, or will it be up to DADI only?
Arthur Mingard: The right to censorship isn't something that we believe in as a team, however we have to respect the rule of law within those regions in which we operate. How this is handled within the network when fully decentralized is an open question, but we expect to be handled at Stargate level and on a region by region basis.
Question 24:
How is the Technology Partner programme going? Is this still a thing?
Joseph Denne: It is, yes, although it has taken a backseat to core development in the past few months. We expect to be picking it up again in earnest towards the back end of this year.
Question 25
Is the software on the FNs stable now? Those with original software have the same as the ones with new SD cards?
Arthur Mingard: The stability in the Founding Nodes relates to the update process rather than the node software itself. Because we need support for scale in the network, we need support for unattended updates. This is to support a broad array of devices and to remove the need for a high level of technical understanding to contribute. The auto update process has been one of the most complicated portions of development, other than securing the node software, and this has led to a number of issues with the update process. We see this as par for the course and given the cutting-edge nature of the platform it's really not that surprising. This is also why we have a backbone of devices in the network: it allows for testing within the Founding Node programme without impacting live services.
Question 26
How could the network withstand an organized attack? (scrape the web for sites running in DADI network, DDOS all those sites simultaneous)
Arthur Mingard: Network scale is a big part of the answer here. But we're also working with partners to build scrubbing centers into the backbone of the network, which will go a long way to protecting us from DDOS attacks.
Question 27
Does DADI have any international expansion plans?
Joseph Denne: Yes, these are being worked on. As soon as there's something to share on this front, we will do so.
Question 28
I heard DADI was working on OEM hardware too. Does this involve design and production of PCB schemes and boards?
Joseph Denne: It does. We're very, very early in this process and are not ready to announce anything on this front yet. Consider it an R&D line, which may or may not come to fruition.
Question 29
How did the network upgrade go? Can we expect a thorough report of the process?
Arthur Mingard: Well! But it's ongoing and we have changes to telemetry still to make. This may necessitate a further update to Founding Nodes. And yes, I'll be writing and providing a full update on the process soon!
Question 30
With the branding done, what will the next main challenge be for Ravi and his team?
Ravi Chandwani: The branding process is iterative, so we will continue to work on other aspects of the brand which as yet have not been seen. There are a number of strands which are being worked on, including iconography, illustrative elements as well as the product design. We will continue to develop these with a strong adherence to the overall brand aesthetic and tone. Some of this you will see with the launch of the new site, and some will be added over time.
Joseph Denne: It's worth noting that we've made some additions to https://brand.edge.network as well, and that this will be kept up to date as we go.
Question 31
Can we have a whitelist for Telegram to allow admins to let trusted members of the community post links and images?
Joseph Denne: Yes! We've figured out a way to enable this in our bot, and will be rolling it out to our own channel - and to the other crypto projects that our bot power - next week.