You asked, we answer pt. 2
Our community raised some questions! Kudos to Josh Lee, our community member, for putting them together👏
Business
- Will Mysterium be usable in China considering all VPN will be banned next year?
When it comes to usage of Mysterium service (VPN at first), our recommendation is to follow the local law. Technically, the service will be available around the globe.
- How is Mysterium Network different from Privatix technically and also business wise? How do you plan to compete?
Our intention to create a P2P VPN marketplace was announced in December of 2016. The successful token sale was followed by Privatix’s announcement of plans to create a P2P marketplace with VPN as their first service. We are happy to see our ideas bloom.
It’s hard to talk about differences at the early stage, since the devil is in the detail. Mysterium is building an open platform enabling the creation of all sorts of P2P driven applications that might need to use encryption, IP shifting, single to multiple hops as a part of their solutions. Mysterium will provide these as “out of the box” features, accessible via easy to use protocols. Privatix claims similar goals.
Time will tell which team delivers what. What we can promise, is dedicated work towards fulfilment of the long term vision vs. a quick solution.
- What’s Mysterium Network marketing plan in general?
Mysterium is not just a VPN app, but also a platform for various apps that need a VPN to build their solutions. Once it is deployed, not only the team, but anyone will be able to develop apps using the network of Nodes and Mysterium protocols.
At this moment the team is focused on Mysterium protocols, the foundational layer that will be followed by the release of alpha application. In this phase we will test the technology (both protocol and application layers). Once the initial tests are over, we will progress towards moving the product to broader audiences as well improving the protocols.
This means, marketing will be divided into two separate tracks: for Mysterium platform and Mysterium app. Once we release a working version of the Mysterium app, it will make sense to start attracting potential clients.
This will be a layered process, with the first steps planned in 2018.
Development
- Will the devs show an updated and/or more detailed road map?
Mysterium team is now releasing updates every two weeks. Updates contain information about the roadmap and the current progress. To answer your question, yes they will — with the next update.
- Are there technological gaps in the development that may potentially be a stumbling block for MYST?
There are many challenges along the road towards the creation of completely decentralised VPN, to name a few:
Payment scalability and micropayment viability
Decentralised data storage
Protection network against node phishing
Ensuring protection of the user (MITM attacks, etc)
Etc.
There is no single answer, as solving issues such as these is an ongoing process. One thing is sure — we will hire the best people we can find, we will cooperate with our community and finally we will relentlessly work in search for the right solutions.
- In preparation for Jan launch will there be beta releases planned before Jan?
We do not have such plans.
- What is the technical progress?
We have been working on node&client communication and identity management.
Recently we’ve opened a 1:1 node & client communication channel. Now when a Client asks for a dialog with a Node, it is accepted/rejected.
A couple of more things we did:
Bootstrapped Payment API (currently centralised) so that we develop a connection to Ethereum Network.
Launched Discovery Service that allows all nodes to advertise their Service Proposals (VPN service type, location, pricing model, payment model etc.).
For more details, please check our activity on Github.
Community
- Do you intend to move away from Slack?
We value the opportunity to be close to the community with such platforms as Slack and Telegram. We also see that these tools not always work for our use case. With many people in channels, Slack tends to become noisy; it is also vulnerable to spam and scam attempts.
Currently we are reviewing other communication channels to choose the most applicable one (might even stay with Slack but use some plugins/bots/other solutions to keep it ‘cleaner’). We do not want to rush with the decision, as the transition from one channel to another would affect every member of the active community. We will need your feedback here — a short survey is coming up.
- Are bi-monthly updates confirmed and committed by the team Mysterium?
Yes.
Other
- Are the new hires paid fully in cash or partially in MYST token?
We are paid in cash. MYST tokens are a part of the motivation system (with long term vesting and locking) ensuring the whole team is aligned and motivated to increase the long term value of the MYST token.
- What are the hiring plans for next few months?
During this quarter, we are aiming to expand our team with the following positions:
1–2 Product Owners
4 Developers
1 QA specialist
1 Network Admin/Expert
Let us know what you think!