KuCoin AMA With LTO Network (LTO) – The Privacy Aware Blockchain Focused on Digital Assets, Ownership and Identity

Dear KuCoin Users,

Time: January 25, 2022, 10:00-10:54 (UTC)

KuCoin hosted an AMA (Ask-Me-Anything) session with the LTO Network team led by CEO Rick Schmitz in the KuCoin Exchange Group.

LTO Network is a hybrid blockchain for securing and exchanging verification of digital assets. A hybrid blockchain has all the power of a publicly verifiable blockchain but can also be used for privacy-aware Web 3.0 applications. Its mission is to build cutting-edge solutions that promote decentralization across B2B, consumer and crypto to crypto use cases. LTO Network can be used by any company, institution or supply chain with a need for a production-ready blockchain that enables verification of business-critical information and collaboration through the use of decentralized workflows. Its team is also working to make NFTs more exclusive and valuable by providing asset holders with true possession of their digital assets. They call this centerpiece of their NFT2.0 vision ownables.

Official Website: https://www.ltonetwork.com

Technical Paper:
Original Whitepaper (Status Completed): https://ltonetwork.com/documents/LTO%20Network%20-%20Technical%20Paper.pdf

Decentralized Identities Lite Paper (Status Completed): https://ltonetwork.com/documents/LTO%20Network%20-%20Identities%20Paper.pdf

Decentralized Identities Tech Paper (Status Completed): https://ltonetwork.com/documents/LTO%20Network%20-%20Identities%20Tech.pdf

NFT2.0/Ownables Lite Paper: https://blog.ltonetwork.com/litepaper

Follow LTO Network on Twitter and Telegram.

Guests:

Rick Schmitz — CEO of LTO Network

While managing a grueling 80-hour job as an M&A tax lawyer at PWC, Rick Schmitz decided to hone his innate leadership talents by starting his first company.

After his first successful exit, Rick fell in love with tech. In 2014, he embarked on the journey that resulted in the LTO Network - the first private permissionless blockchain in the world.

Shawn Naderi — CMO of LTO Network

Music industry veteran turned LTO Network CMO, Shawn Naderi, who has worked behind the scenes with some of the world’s most renowned artists, carries a deep understanding of content and digital rights management that will be crucial for developing a solution for content creators facing a rapidly changing digital world.

Arnold Daniels — Lead Architect of LTO Network

Arnold Daniels is co-founder and lead architect of LTO Network. He leads the core development team focused on building the platform that is LTO. Arnold has extensive experience in open-source and blockchain development and is deeply embedded into creating the building blocks for Web 3.0 and digital ownership.

Q: What is the LTO Network and what makes it unique to other blockchain projects?

Shawn: LTO Network is a hybrid blockchain with a focus on digital assets, ownership, identities and the verification of business data.

What is a hybrid blockchain, you may ask?

All data being public is the very thing that makes blockchain special, but sometimes information needs to stay private.

A hybrid chain allows some information used in D’Apps on our network to be used privately while still relying on public consensus to ensure integrity.

Rick: LTO Network is private permissionless. This makes it different from other chains. We have an open public layer for everyone to participate in as a node operator and a second (private) layer to exchange private info to be compliant with GDPR.

Shawn: GDPR is sexy!

Rick: Well, not really, but it's a must-have to do business in the EU and US.

Q: What are Ownables or NFT2.0?

Arnold: Ownables are the key concept that NFT2.0 is built around. They are digital assets that live in your wallet. With NFT2.0, LTO is taking the next step by capturing the value of NFTs in a decentralized way.

Traditional NFTs don’t actually hold any assets, like images, video, or audio. They live on someone else's centralized server. Ownables flip this concept around. Everything concerning the NFT is stored in your wallet. Not only images or media but also the smart contract and event chain. We’ve made it possible to embed whole applications, opening up endless possibilities.

Because Ownables live on the private layer, there's no need for gas fees. And because there are no gas fees and no costs for the size of the contracts, smart contracts on the private layer can be larger and more complex than typical blockchain contracts.

Q: How do you think the metaverse will adapt to the significant changes $LTO is bringing with NFT 2.0?

Rick: There will be multiple metaverses. Some centralized, some decentralized, and maybe they will all interoperate together. I believe that $LTO NFT2.0 will be the fabric that ties all of these metaverses together. Imagine interacting with your favorite digital assets and possessions, which were made to be used in Metaverse A, and then taking it to some kind of application in the REAL WORLD, and then bringing it back with you into the Metaverse. Think of bringing your Meta Lambo from Annabel’s in London to the Pacha in Ibiza.

Q: Does LTO Network support cross-chain interoperability? Do you provide cross-chain support to ensure compatibility with other networks?

Arnold: Of course - our coin itself is bridged to BEP2 and ERC20 (you can do that via our online bridge).

But I think a lot of people are looking at whether our NFT2.0 technology is going to be available cross-chain. The answer is… ABSOLUTELY! We have a strong partnership with Chainlink, and their technical team has been working with our devs to allow our NFT2.0 assets and our DID solutions (Decentralized Identifiers) to be made available cross-chain!

There are massive implications for this, especially the DID solutions being available cross-chain. Imagine taking your private digital identity with you wherever you go!

Shawn: This is going to be huge, Arnold!

Q: What is the LTO Network currently working on? Could you share with us the LTO Network roadmap in the coming future?

Shawn: I'd like to answer this in detail, so I hope everyone can bear with me!

We have a reputation in our community for having a dev team that delivers on all of our roadmap goals and we have made some very large goals for this year.

There are 3 main things I'll share with fellow KuCoiners!

1) We are finishing what we have developed as a result of our upcoming partnership with Chainlink. This will be an excellent use case for our DID platform.

2) We are working on something that will disrupt the entire industry - the NFT2.0 Wallet.

Once the alpha version of our NFT2.0 wallet is released, users will be able to start playing with storing and managing their Ownables.

3) This is one of our highest aspiring projects.

We are working with the United Nations to finalize the goLand Registry software. This is an open-source project in partnership with the United Nations. It allows countries around the world to register the ownership of land on a public blockchain.

I also have a small little bonus to throw in here if that's okay with everyone.

Lastly, we are also working on our first NFT2.0 partnership, focusing on the entertainment industry.

Q: Do you have any staking systems or any token burn plans to increase the value of the token and attract investors to invest?

Rick: YES! You can do some simple staking at the moment via your LTO mainnet wallet. It’s really easy to do, and you can start generating extra rewards very quickly.

Our clients and coin holders asked for more options and greater flexibility, so we are now working to implement our updated tokenomics, which is very similar to Solana’s.

This will allow more APY and different locking mechanisms too. As adoption grows, we will see the deflationary aspects of tokenomics begin to increase the scarcity and value of the coin.

Here is our blog article about it here: https://blog.ltonetwork.com/tokenomics-update

Q: Are you building nodes in the LTO Network? If so - can an average person with no programming experience run a validation node?

Arnold: Yes! Anyone can run a node and receive rewards for their role in securing our network and being part of our ecosystem. While running a validation node can get pretty technical, we always welcome anyone interested in getting involved and creating their own node. I’ll share resources for those who are interested!

We have step-by-step guides for setting up a node in our documentation: https://docs.ltonetwork.com

For programming, check out our GitHub: https://github.com/ltonetwork

Discuss tech with our community and team, hop in the LTO Tech Lab group on Telegram: https://t.me/ltotech. Our whole tech team is active in that group.

Q: Is your project only for elite investors? What about others with small funds? Is it open to everyone?

Shawn: We welcome all kinds of investors. If you're interested in a crypto project with real uses, real clients and a solid passionate team, we are open to you!

Rick: You can buy 1 LTO for 20 cents. So not only for the elite.

Arnold: LTO Network has leased proof of stake. You can lease any amount of tokens to a community node and get rewards without running a node yourself or having to do any big investments.

Q: What is the most ambitious goal of your project? Could you share with us any upcoming updates?

Rick: Being a base layer protocol for web3.0 and a dominant player in the Metaverse space through NFT2.0.

Q: Currently, NFT is a hot topic, but is NFT not just for art? Does your project think that more real-world use cases will emerge for NFTs as time goes on? Why should we take NFTs seriously?

Rick: NFTs are great to connect ownership of digital objects to digital identities. All big tech players (Google, MS, Facebook) are betting large on the Metaverse. This is where NFTs will play a crucial role in transferring ownership and digital objects.

Shawn: We made NFT2.0 because we felt that NFTs have a lot of potential that is not yet realized.

We see a huge future for LTO NFT2.0 and Ownables in real-world projects in the following industries:

- Gaming

- Real Estate

- Digital Assets

- Music and Entertainment

- Art

-Collectibles

Q: On your website, you don't mention that you have done any internal or external audit of your smart contract, so can you give us details if you have done any audit before? And in case you haven't, would you plan to perform any review of your smart contract in the near future?

Arnold: LTO Network is a layer 1 platform. It's not built around a smart contract. Our contracts for cross-chain (wrapped) tokens are audited. You find the report in the GitHub repo.

Q: Do the token holders have the right to participate in the governance of the project? What kind of decisions can they vote on about the project?

Rick: Yes, we use POS to run our governance. Only with 80 pct voting a change will pass.

Shawn: Nodes can participate in network decisions. Nodes are allowed to vote for Network upgrades. This includes tokenomics changes and other updates.

Q: For project development, first of all, the main priority is having enough funds. Is your team financially capable to run this project? Do you have enough funds for its development? Can you tell us how your project generates profit?

Shawn: Unlike many crypto projects, we don't rely on token sales to fund our project. We have real clients that pay for our expertise.

Q: Vast majority of crypto projects are built just for the sole purpose of amassing wealth for themselves. So, I want to know the value you aim to add to the crypto industry that will bring greater abundance to the industry?

Shawn: Arnold is a huge supporter of true decentralization. The reason he built this network is to make something that solves real problems in the world.

When I joined the team, I saw that our blockchain was isolated and used only for our own clients. Arnold and I have strategies to allow LTO to be part of the global blockchain community and our technology will benefit blockchain as a whole.

Q: What are the ways for your project to generate revenue in the long run? What is the

progress of business development and what are some of your commercial partnerships?

Rick: We make joint ventures with integrators that receive money for the software and assignments they implement. This generates real-world money.

Q: Too many projects promise magic but never release any working product or prove any revenue within a short/long time of release. Is your project also like this? If not, can you tell us what makes your project different from other projects?

Arnold: We started using blockchain to solve trust issues which we were having with our centralized workflow engine. This solution grew into the LTO Network. The difference is that we didn't start with a fuzzy concept but with a solution for a problem we needed to solve.

Q: The United Nations is a big organization. Do you expect the UN to come up with a totally different use case than land registration for the LTO Network in the near future?

Shawn: Yes, we do expect the UN to take these ideas further. But we are not the kind of team to sit and wait for things to happen. We have on our own started exploring additional use cases for the GoLand software.

Q: Most users are still not aware of blockchain and its related projects! So, how does your project platform create awareness about their project with non-crypto users too?

Arnold: Ultimately, blockchain should be a natural integration in all types of solutions. You're starting to see that with AI and smart products. It's in there, but the important part is what it does for you. With projects like the UN GoLandRegistry, blockchain is used to solve a problem with trust that (normal, non-crypto) people are having.

Q: A common problem is that nowadays, most investors are only interested in initial profits and ignore long-term benefits! So can you give them some reasons why they should buy and hold your tokens in the long term?

Rick: We are focusing on long-term goals to make sure we survive the next crypto winter. We started in 2017 with LTO Network. So we know how to focus on the long-term goals instead of price action.

Q: Staking is one of the strategies to attract users and hold them long-term. Does your great project have a plan about staking?

Arnold: LTO uses Leased Proof of Stake for consensus. We're currently modifying the tokenomics to make it more attractive for token holders. Check out our blog for details. (Mostly, we're copying the tokenomics of Solana)

Q: Could you tell us how confident your team is that you will be able to complete the 2022 roadmap? Can you also share with us the strengths of your team?

Shawn: We have delivered every roadmap we have put out.

Don't plan on slowing down now!

KuCoin and LTO Network have prepared a total of 8,000 LTO to give away to AMA participants.

1. Free-ask section: 300 LTO

2. AMA activity: 7,700 LTO

Activity 1 — Quiz: 6,000 LTO

Activity 2 — Price Guess: 1,200 LTO

Participation Rewards: 500 LTO

. . .

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