I still remember the service interruption caused by the failure of the Ethereum infrastructure Infura last year, which caused ecological disaster to the Ethereum ecosystem. Binance, Bithumb and other exchanges almost all suspended the deposit and withdrawal of ETH-based tokens, and various Ethereum ecosystem products All were severely damaged.
Apron Network tries to solve the problems caused by this fully centralized service, launching a decentralized infrastructure service platform, providing various integrated APIs for infrastructure service providers, and providing middle-tier services for DApp DeFi developers.
So how is Apron Networks model different? And based on what kind of advantages, it can stand out in the market? What is the economic model of native token APN? The Polkadot parachain slot auction is in full swing, will Apron Network participate in it, and what is the plan? Where is the future development direction of Apron Network?
At 19:00 on June 8th, Ning, the business manager of the Apron Network project, was a guest at the LBank live broadcast room. Together with the host, he explained the ecology of the Apron Network in an all-round way and explored the future trends of the Apron Network.
The following is the actual content of the live broadcast:
Q1 Can you briefly introduce Apron Network?
Apron Network is a relatively new project. Our story begins in 2020. At that time our technical team was working on another blockchain project. A major event happened in 2020, Binance, Metamask, Coinbase and many other networks were down for 2 hours at the same time. Projects that our team works on have also been affected. The incident was caused by the failure of Infura, the node service provider these companies relied on, to update their Ethereum nodes in a timely manner.
So after this incident, our team began to reflect. What can we do to avoid this? Is there anything we can do to prevent this from happening? Thats where Apron comes in. Apron is a decentralized infrastructure service network that provides services for developers, application users, and infrastructure operators. The services we provide include: node service, on-chain data index service, quotation service. Apron is developed based on Substrate and can operate as a parachain of Polkadot and Kusama. In the future, we do plan to connect to multiple public chains to provide different services to developers at low cost. As of now, we have launched Huobi. And just today, we officially launched on Gate.io, and like many other Polkadot projects, we are currently preparing for a slot auction.
Q2 As you mentioned earlier, Apron Network will provide infrastructure services such as node services, on-chain data indexing and quotations for the Kusama, Polkadot and Heco ecosystems. So what are the conditions for a developer to become a node? and what will they get?
We have started to provide services on the Heco chain, which will adopt the technical architecture of the Apron network. As we all know, Defi projects on Heco have developed rapidly and have indeed attracted the attention of the market, but they are lacking in infrastructure services. Our product on Heco has done a good job of building an initial user base. You can think of it as a demo version of our future product, which is a very important first step. To become an Apron service node, you just need to use the Apron SDK and deploy it on your own server. This way, you can quickly gain access to become our node service provider. As a service provider, you can get two parts of income, one is the payment income of users using your service, and the other is the mining income we reward.
Q3 So far, are there any other competitors? What is Apron Networks advantage over its competitors?
Service providers on Apron Network may face competition from Infura, The Graph, API3 and other subdivided service products. At present, the products on the market only provide centralized services, and most of the services are concentrated in their own subdivisions. There is indeed no general technical solution to link all these subdivisions together. Essentially, it just means there isnt a truly decentralized project yet, which is great news for us. This means we do not have any direct competitors.
Q4 Can you tell us why the blockchain ecosystem needs a truly decentralized infrastructure service platform like Apron?
Just like every project needs a node service, currently most projects rely on a centralized service like infura because it is too costly and time-prohibitive for a single project, especially for smaller projects For example, you must maintain your own node. Like I said, it has happened that the provided service is not updated, causing all these other projects using their service to go down at the same time.
At Apron, what we do is combine the power of all the people who have the ability to run a node. That means they have their own servers and give our customers the option to work with all of the providers at the same time. Even if one of the providers goes down, our users arent really affected because there are still other providers working for them. So basically, Apron will be more secure, cheaper and more convenient for centralized node service providers than other services. We really want adoption in and out of the crypto space. Its just that we really want to create a truly decentralized service provider.
Q5 You said cost-effectiveness is one of the main features of Apron. I would like to know, roughly how much can a developer save using your platform compared to other projects on the market? How have your managers reduced the cost of using your platform?
For example, if you want to develop a Uniswap or an insurance project, you need to retrieve off-chain data and asset information of user accounts. If you want to develop on Ethereum, you will need to build a node, and the node needs to query the corresponding data. Compared with other new projects, it is prone to problems. Basically, combining everyones ability is the ability to build your own node. . And developers will be able to choose who they want to work with. And the most surprising thing is that they can use several nodes at the same time. As the volume increases, the algorithm will eventually be balanced across the service providers, which will keep us or we will be able to maintain a stable and cost-effective ecosystem.
Q6 I would like to know how the Apron network provides additional responsible security compared to other systems. Could you please explain in simple language?There are a lot of people here who are not from a technical background. If you explain it in simple terms, theyll have more regular folks like us cheered into your project.
Yes of course. So in terms of security, just to give you an example, we provide encrypted services for all service providers. That way, when someone tries to attack our customers or users by hacking into their servers, they dont even know where to go because we have so many service providers that there wont be any link as to who is serving whom.
Q7 Can you share some information about the token economics of APN?
The economic model of Aplan Network is indeed similar to that of Lianjia. Apn is our native token, which will be used for actual payment in commercial application scenarios. When users use our services, we will charge you service fees, which will be locked or destroyed, so Apn has a deflationary model. We also have two tracking portals, where most of the tokens will be locked, increasing the chances for users to earn income from tracking. Our goal is to be a multi-chain network capable of providing services in other ways. But apn will be our only token, and as we grow, the users of apn will be more diverse.
Q8 I see that Apron Network helps developers build Dapps using your platform, so can I learn about the business model of Apron Network? Where do you generate income to sustain your project? Do you charge developers when they use your platform?
In the Apron network, many roles will be involved, such as suppliers, that is, infrastructure service providers. They will provide their capabilities such as Ethereum rpc service, Polkadot rpc service, Oracle service, privacy, protection service. We have miners, or node miners, who will be rewarded for provisioning and running nodes. We also have consumers, who develop Dapps and Defi, and developers in general. They will pay infrastructure service providers with the apn tokens required for the service.
We also have inspectors who will be rewarded for monitoring and inspecting the operation of services on our network. We also have one final role, the delegator, who provides apn tokens to miners and suppliers for stacking and receiving apn tokens and part of the service fee. Apn takes efficient settlement of services and incentives for participants in the Apron network. Participants really pay apn to use infrastructure services, and obtain apn by providing resources and construction, thus forming a tight ecosystem.
Q9 So, how will the demand for your token increase in the future? What should you do to increase demand for your token?
The demand for our tokens does exist, because in order to use our services, you need to pay with apn, with the increase of users, in order to facilitate the payment of users. We just recently launched xapn, which is a stablecoin for service payment, created by stacking apn, most of the time the market price is fluctuating, so we launched xapn, can look forward to keep APP developers and users on Apron using xapn to pay for the usage of the service. But because the price is relatively stable, what you pay for the service is not really affected by the market.
Q10 We know that marketing is a core element of other projects, so letting everyone know the potential that the project can bring is critical to achieving the stated goals. What strategies do you have to attract new users and investors to your platform and keep them long-term?
We do have like an amazing community and they really help us through our development. We will continue to focus on expanding our partnerships with other projects and generally strengthening our community activities. We really want to focus on bringing our community closer. We do have a number of sports and events planned to engage our community members. We specialize in operating 3 types of communities. The first is the developer community. The second is the service provider community, and then the third is the token holder and investor community. We are constantly hearing new ideas, developing and testing new products. We just want to improve our service quality in an all-round way and provide the best service for our users.
Q11 As far as I know, Apron will participate in Kusamas slot auction, so what is Aprons plan in this regard? Can you tell us about the process?
Apron will definitely participate in the Kusama slot auction, because as part of Polkadot, we want to provide services to the Polkadot ecosystem as early as possible. As you may know, the first featured parachain on Kusama, Statemine, has been running smoothly on June 4th. Kusamas parachain functionality is now live. We look forward to providing parachain launch tracking services for all projects that want to participate in the future.
Q12 What is the strategy for the IPO?
We will launch a test network called Kpron, deployed on Kusama, and we will issue KPN on the Kpron network as part of the Apron network distribution tokens. Kpron can be exchanged with APN at a ratio of 1:1 (1KPN=1APN). Aprons token economy will not change, and the total amount of APN will remain the same.
Q13 What is the timeline for Aprons slot auction?
As we all know, Kusamas slot rental is divided into 8 stages, each stage is 6 weeks, a total of 48 weeks. We plan to participate in Kusamas parachain slots starting from the third slot. Our aim is to get a slot for testing as soon as possible. Apron will initially bid for 1 rental period of 6 weeks, and subsequent bidding periods will be determined based on actual testing. Participants who support Aprons slot auction on the Kusama network will receive 6 weeks of fixed reward tokens. The reward mechanism will be based on KSM contribution units, basically we will reward 8% of the total amount of APN that enters the Kusama and Polkadot parachain slot auctions.
When Kpron wins the slot and successfully runs the parachain, the contributor will directly receive 35% of the corresponding reward, 35% in the second month and 30% in the third month.
Q14 How should investors participate?
Apron chose to crowdfund our slot rentals using Kusamas built-in crowdfunding mechanism, where people can participate by staking KSM until the rental ends. Campaign Index is a way to participate through local crowdfunding, and Kusama will announce the relevant participation details. In addition, we may cooperate with some top exchanges or wallets, which also increases the channels for everyone to participate.
Q15 Can you share with us what Aprons short-term and long-term goals are?
Of course, after launching Apron on Huobi, we are doing a kusama slot auction, and at the same time, we are preparing to launch the Apron testnet. Now we are recruiting service nodes and other infrastructure providers. As mentioned in our roadmap, all basic utilities will be freely available to the Ethereum and Polkadot ecosystems in Q2. With the continuous improvement of the network, Apron will devote itself to establishing a seamless infrastructure service platform on other public chains in the third quarter, all of which are in preparation for the launch of the Apron mainnet in the fourth quarter.
From the perspective of traditional software and information industry, Apron network is a middleware server. We hope that Apron can be seen as an example of putting middleware theory into practice, and we can provide a communication platform between blockchain and application software like Amazons SaaS/PaaS. Thats our long-term goal.
