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BeInCrypto recently held an AMA session with StrongNode in our public Telegram channel.
StrongNode is an Infrastructure-as-a-Service technology company and innovation lab specializing in “next generation of edge networking leveraging blockchain.”
(This AMA has been edited for clarity.)
BeInCrypto (BIC): Hi Everyone! Welcome to another BeInCrypto AMA Session! Unfortunately, Daniel (StrongNode’s CEO) couldn’t attend today but we have Brandon (@StrategyBro) with us today who’s also from the StrongNode team. He works as a VP of Operations there.
Community: Here is how things will work. I’ll have 10 questions for him. After these questions, he will pick up 5 out of all the questions you asked before the session. Good luck to you all.
BIC): I would like to ask you something general to kick things off, so please provide some personal background as well as some references you guys looked at before creating StrongNode.
Brandon: Sure thing. My name is Brandon Sivret and I am the VP of Operations for StrongNode. I am a 13 years veteran of the US Air Force having medically retired at the rank of Major where I deployed twice and covered a variety of career fields from Security Forces to Space Operations to Nuclear ICBMs to Intelligence. I served as a deployed Director of Operations for an Air Force Combat Unit and an advisor to NATO, GCC, and the Office of VP Biden during combat operations.
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I have my Master’s degree in Military Science and Bachelor’s degree in Political Science, Geography, and Software Development. I’m an avid gamer having built and led several communities, notably MilitaryGamers.com and the Silver Sun Republic, which is where a lot of my cryptocurrency involvement comes from from the Defi Gaming side. I own and operate a retail game store doing Warhammer 40K, Magic: The Gathering, and Dungeons and Dragons.
A lot of the references and technology come from the brain of Daniel Saito who started 2 ISPs in both the USA (dedicated to gaming) and Japan (consumer ISP). Launched two and deployed 2 satellites into space for a News Corp venture in Japan, all before the age of 27. He rode each technology revolution from the personal computer debut, the start of the internet, Web 1.0, Web 2.0, mobile, social, and now cryptocurrency/blockchain. He wrote and designed the 4G specification around how to interface with the Security Enclave (TPM) in all current-day mobile phones. And of course, his billion-dollar exit with MySQL to Sun Microsystems, only to sell again for $7.5B to Oracle Corp.
BIC: You call yourselves an Infrastructure-as-a-Service technology company and innovation lab. You also aim to create the future of digital connectivity. What does that mean in practice? Please shortly describe how StrongNode works.
Brandon: That is StrongNode in a nutshell. We are an Infrastructure-as-a-Service technology company and innovation lab where we harness the power of idle compute resources, leverage blockchain technology, power global companies through edge networking, and deliver on-demand, secure, and scalable node technology. We are pioneering a new paradigm in digital connectivity through our products and our incubated projects under our innovation lab.
We wanted to address the last mile, which is the EDGE, and build a global edge network through access and monetization of idle resources. We are harvesting a trifecta of idle compute resources — #1 CPU/GPU cycles, #2 bandwidth, and #3 data storage — and we use it for a batch processing cluster using the map/reduce method of sorting jobs and processing it with the $SNE token economic incentive to participate both as a broadcaster and a receiver.
We wanted to create solutions for real-world problems through the StrongNode technology and our innovation lab incubated projects. With edge computing, it allows us to bridge the last 1 centimeter to the user because the processing of data happens closer to the EDGE, with the compute resources and data from the devices closer to the end-users
BIC: I see. Combining Edge technology with blockchain to create edge networking is an amazing idea. How will you combine Edge with blockchain together? How will StrongNode and its users benefit from this joining?
Brandon: As we have stated before, StrongNode goes beyond the field of cryptocurrency and blockchain. Our CTO Colin Charles said, “Blockchain is key to paying for the edge (and being paid for it); however, we will operate independently of a blockchain.” We wanted to create solutions for real-world problems. The advantage of StrongNode is that we know the open source as we are TENETs of Open Source. We will plan on bringing onboard new open source tech adapted with tokenomics. So we made an application that caters to life as we know it, like how we harness untapped compute resources — decentralized, edge-based, and open source.
With StrongNode, it’s all about computing with a purpose. From our StrongNode Edge technology, $SNE token, innovation lab projects, and partnerships, we wanted to create social impact and foster symbiotic relationships as we grow our network, We noticed that the cost of computing has gone up, these cloud providers have a foothold on us and they know it. When COVID broke out, genetic sequencing labs were backed up in sequencing and processing lab results for various strains and in computing workflows.
We will tap into the idle compute resources and use it for a batch processing cluster using the map/reduce method of sorting jobs and processing it with the $SNE token economic incentive for both broadcaster and receiver. This compute is then harnessed to process some of the world’s challenging computing problems such as offering cost-effective compute resources for genome sequencing analysis for COVID.
BIC: StrongNode is working to be ‘blockchain agnostic’. Upon launch, you will be available on Polygon and will work to eventually be on Solana, BSC, Cardano, and Ethereum networks. Having said that, you aim to grow the ecosystem by creating a “Network Effect” among node seeders, innovators, and enterprises. Can you please explain what is in it for each one of these?
Brandon: Yes. We are working to be blockchain agnostic. Speed, versatility, scalability, and most of all gas fees are critical considerations of choosing the right chain. We chose to partner with Polygon due to the security of BSC but with the efficiencies in gas fees in comparison to ETH. We will expand out that footprint and probably head over to ETH / SOL and, eventually, into BSC.
Let’s define the node categories for the StrongNode Ecosystem: Node Enterprise, Node Innovators, and Node Seeders. Enterprise nodes have greater or maybe smaller compute needs and can take advantage of the power our seeders provide. Node Seeders are users who get $SNE for providing their idle resources (CPU/GPU, bandwidth, storage) but an Enterprise Node that has an abundance of excess capacity at certain times can then turn around and provide access.
The Node Innovators, including OGLife, connect partners they have to reward seeders and facilitate the economy between users. They also onboard new nodes through their own presence. The awesome thing about our ecosystem is that each B2B and B2C user can be a customer and a provider. This is how we create new economies and achieve significant growth.
BIC: I’m sure you already achieved many milestones so far. Could you please share some of them? Maybe the ones you’re most proud of?
Brandon: We’re only getting started. But attracting the talent behind such endeavor, be unified, and form the StrongNode core team with a vision of creating a vast network that reaches and helps millions is a major milestone for the company. I am also proud that our community has grown over the past 3 months. We recently launched our official channels Africa, Vietnam, South Korea, and Indonesia. We will definitely have more channels that will cater to communities in other countries.
We are getting everything done and settled for our upcoming IDO launch and $SNE token sale. We also got listed on CoinMarketCap, so you can find us by searching SNE. We are cross-marketing with other Innovation Lab platforms that are launching on the StrongNode EDGE and we’re having a big global community-building push, driven by 4 new marketing firms working with us and onboarding influencers. Stay tuned for more announcements from our team in the coming days.
BIC: I think it’s time for us to present your native token (SNE) to our community. Could you please mention some roles this token will play within your ecosystem? Also, do you have any strategy to maximize its number of holders?
Brandon: Our $SNE token has value and various use cases within our ecosystem. It forms the backbone of our ecosystem where it can be used on our platform for enterprise and end-user services and projects under the innovation lab.
Just to recap, here are our Nodes again:
Node Seeders or individuals are paid in $SNE tokens when they provide their spare computational resources such as their idle CPU/GPU cycles, bandwidth, and storage of their home and office digital devices.
Node Innovators champion social impact initiatives and provide a platform to support their compute-intensive needs. In turn, these innovators accelerate our Node reach and adoption. Original Gamer Life, which is part of our ecosystem is an example of a Node Innovator.
Node Enterprises who want to use the latent compute resources for their big data processing jobs can pay in $SNE tokens and/or a combination with FIAT. If traditional FIAT methods are chosen via credit card or accounts receivable, whatever $SNE token is needed to pay the Node Seeders will be bought back.
(Companies will be able to stake the token which will offset their costs of using resources and guaranteeing uptime, etc. The longer they hold, the more benefits they get with multiplier discounts, etc.)
We incentivize $SNE token holders with more aligned longer-term incentives. All employees and advisors of StrongNode are locked up with 4-year vesting options. Presale token holders get 10% on TGE with the rest vested within a 6-month period while the public sale token holders can now get 20% at TGE with the rest vested within a 4-month period.
The 4-month public vesting ensures a more sustainable launch that is equitable for everyone and ensures that the project will have a lower market cap, making the project more attractive to investors post-TGE. Benefits of this upgrade ultimately impact the whole StrongNode ecosystem that we are building. For that long-term benefit, we wanted to grow the digital footprint of our decentralized distributed network and be able to distribute $SNE token to as many wallets as possible.
BIC: Nice. The good thing is your IDO is just around the corner! Please share some more info with us like where it will happen, what people need to do to participate, etc. The stage is yours!
Brandon: It’s almost here! Our IDO is happening on October 21, 2021, Thursday and we are launching on our three partner launchpads: BullPerks.com, Starter.xyz, and TrustPad.io.
Here’s the guide on how to participate on our IDO on Starter.
Don’t forget the KYC process before our IDO, click here.
Mark your calendars. See you on October 21.
I’ve heard you will have a farm on QuickSwap.exchange shortly after the TGE! Will be possible to earn yield then?
Brandon: Yes, this is correct. Quickswap launches its farms on Wednesdays, so we look forward to coming online shortly after the IDO. For now, stay tuned for more updates. Be sure to follow us on the two Twitter accounts we have Twitter/Twitter.
BeInCrypto: What else can investors/enthusiasts expect from StrongNode in the next few weeks/months in terms of both marketing and development? Can you please either share or comment on your roadmap? Also, will be there any other community-focused activities?
Brandon: We will have more announcements in the coming days. Right now, our main focus is having a successful IDO launch. We will be releasing more features closer to launch. We are also working on getting on a centralized exchange — so stay tuned for that. As for our community activities, our channels are very active and there will be more AMAs as we like to reach out and interact with our audience through these amazing discussions.
We’re going on an ad blitz including video interviews with the team that you can find on our Twitter feed introducing everyone. We have such a strong (no pun intended) team, so I encourage everyone to look over the website: and check everyone out in detail. I also encourage potential Nodes to join our Telegram where we are the most active in engaging the community.
We will be introducing our incubated projects under the innovation lab in the coming months; OGLife, as our gaming community, for which I am the lead on is of course my favorite.
Awesome, that’s it. I’m quite sure we’ve covered all the main topics today. Could you please share all the links to your Social Media channels so that our community can get to know StrongNode a little better?
Brandon: Thank you for hosting this AMA. I would love to welcome you all to our community. Join us in this journey. Stay up-to-date and be in the loop for all the latest news about StrongNode.io through the social media channels:
Website | Twitter | Reddit | Telegram Chat | Announcements Chanel | Facebook | Discord | Medium.
Community questions
Community (COM): What is the security measures of Your project? How will you deal with hacking and Bugs problem in the smart contract? What is the audit status?
Brandon: We have already passed audits on the project and will continue to have audits conducted on StrongNode and all of our projects to ensure the integrity of our code. Unfortunately, a lot of us have had to deal with rugs and other issues in the cryptocurrency space and our professional approach demands that we do everything we can to communicate to our users and token holders our level of commitment to them.
Daniel Saito, Colin Charles, and Zivago Lee have spent a lot of time in the technology space together, so as the leads on our project, they bring with them over 20+ years of working together, specifically together, on some amazing projects; MySQL and MariaDB, ISPs, large scale tech infrastructure, etc.
Much of the rest of the team has experience in this space as well. I did OPSEC and INFOSEC for the US Air Force and am Network+ and Security+ certified, so a lot of security-related policy and procedure is also something I bring to the team.
COM: With StrongNode platform, is it possible to us watching Netflix and getting paid to defray the costs of your Netflix subscription?
Brandon: I really like this questions because it gets to the heart of the use cases with StrongNode. If you are running the StrongNode app on your Smart TV or Mobile Device that is streaming a service, then yes, it is possible to defray those costs and offset them. How much, I wish I had an exact number for you, but that is something that has so many variables involved.
Now, the better answer I can offer is that you can use StrongNode specific services that have the features integrated into them through our various projects like Original Gamer Life and earn $SNE to offset any costs and interact with our platforms to earn rewards on them thus extending your benefits. We’ll have much more on that in the near future with our other projects.
COM: Is your project a global project or not? can any user/people be part of your project?
We are a global project. Being global is something that is very important to the team. One of the biggest things Daniel stresses to the team is to be global and think globally. We’ve rolled out several regional and language specific channels in order to posture ourselves globally and we look forward to expanding further.
StrongNode will work where we have users, so having that presence is important to the technology, but also the social impact missions of the project. I very much look forward to gaming with people from all over the world as I have been doing my whole life. It really helps keep a level head and a perspective about life.
COM: You mentioned that you are looking for a client to become a part of your node. What are the necessary things to become a node client?
Brandon: Another one of my favorite questions to answer because this is what makes us different. Other Node projects charge you to run a node while we actually reward you to do it. Sometimes people get stuck on that concept, but since you are running Nodes for us, we reward you with $SNE.
Yes, that’s right, we reward you, instead of making you pay us. We’re not node validators. We get right to the compute jobs that Enterprise and Retail entities require. We like to think of it as a sort of “green mining” since we cut out some of the overhead and get right to the task at hand to leverage your excess resources on a wide range of devices.
COM: Can people without blockchain and technical knowledge take advantage of products with strong nodes? Or is the platform only for professionals?
Brandon: Absolutely, 100%, YES! We are working to onboard non-cryptocurrency and non-technical users into the cryptocurrency space. Part of our user acquisition strategy is to make the user experience and process as frictionless as possible. For Original Gamer Life and for StrongNode, we want Grandma and Grandpa to start earning cryptocurrency.
Our Dashboard, StrongNodeID, is designed to help you get access to your analytics and walk you through the whole process. OGLife is designed to onboard gamers and helps them understand how cryptocurrency works as if it were one big video game. Imagine a factory you could walk into in a game and see all the conveyor belts and machine pumping out cryptocurrency to help explain all the blockchain and DeFi systems in play.
For running a Node, it’s as simple as running an app. That’s where we want to take everything so you can spend more time thinking about what you’re going to do with your rewards rather than diving through a tech manual on how to get started.
