[Messari AMA] James Burden, Founder of Veil

Messari hosted a public AMA with Veil’s founder James Burden in the Messari community group. This is a transcript of the conversation.

Messari: James, thanks so much for joining this afternoon to answer some questions about Veil—we have a queue of great topics, I’m excited to chat.

James: Great to be here, thanks for the invite.

Messari: Before we jump into some lower level questions about the Veil team and protocol, can you share your background before starting Veil and the motivation behind launching the Veil project?

James: I have worked in IT over the past 25 years from building the backbone infrastructure, splicing data fiber, to IT security. Veil started when the voting majority of PIVX decided that they no longer wanted it to have full-time privacy which was one of the driving forces behind PIVX at the time. A group of us decided to start a new project to carry on the goal and dedication to full-time privacy.

Messari: Is the goal you're referencing the Veil motto of "privacy without compromise"? Can you explain what that means a little bit?

James: It means we aim to have both mandatory privacy as well as high levels of anonymity, something that is missing in most if not all privacy focused projects. Either they have high potential anonymity (Zcash) but no one uses it, or they have mandatory privacy with low anonymity (Monero). This isn't to say that these projects are bad mind you, but we want to be better.

Messari: That's what I wanted to ask about next, actually. Veil isn't the only privacy-focused project, of course. Without getting too technical, can you give a little more color to Veil's edge in the privacy space and what makes it unique? And as a corollary to that, can you share the Veil team’s thesis on why Layer 1 privacy matters?

James: Until the recent Zerocoin issue, I would say that Zerocoin has a very large anonymity set, RingCT/CT, as well as anonymous staking, x16rt mining algo and Dandelion. But we have since temp disabled the Zerocoin protocol, so we still have RingCT/CT providing privacy until we can get that fixed. in the future, things will be much better for sure.

As to the layer one privacy, analysis has shown time and time again that non-mandatory privacy is traceable, even with strong potential anonymity like in Zcash, mostly due to the end user not understanding the consequences of his actions. Having privacy on a second layer exacerbates this even more, as there would always be movement in and out of a second layer, allowing for analysis if the base layer is public.

Messari: I see, that makes sense regarding layer 1 privacy. We have a couple questions regarding the Zerocoin exploit and Veil's response.

One question: Do Veil's changes after the Zerocoin issue affect your team's go-to market strategy in an material way?

James: Of course any issue as severe as this exploit can set back a project, and this is to be expected as the correct path forward is not always an easy one. We will continue to push on and grow the community. Our priorities will remain the same. This is an awesome opportunity for users to get involved or invest while the project is still smaller and the value is much lower.

The entire team is dedicated to the goals and long-term success of the project, which is always a good sign.

Messari: The next question addresses the future of privacy coins: Does Veil think one privacy coin will eventually become the "winner" or will multiple privacy coins continue to exist simultaneously?

James: It's inevitable there will be a top dog, but a monopoly in crypto is a bad idea, as it leaves everyone one exploit or hack away from being 'naked to the world'. The demand for privacy is something we believe will only increase over time, and it's likely several projects will draw great demand as that happens—particularly if crypto continues to be used similarly to stocks on top of being a store of value/currency. Having competition as well as multiple solid privacy protocol options is good for the ecosystem

Messari: One more high-level question before a couple granular, specific ones. Does Veil anticipate stronger short-term pressure from regulators to limit the usability of privacy coins? What if any effect would that scenario have on your team?

James: We are feeling the squeeze from increased regulations specifically when getting Veil added to new exchanges. Exchanges are requiring many hoops to even be considered. This will only expedite real DEX development further. There is a natural shift toward DEXs for exchanges and privacy features for all crypto. For anyone who values the properties of crypto and benefits they provide, privacy is the line in the sand that cannot be crossed, the hill to die on.

If people think exchange regulation of coins is harsh, wait until they see how bad and granular regulation of non-private crypto can be. US regulators have already begun sanctioning specific addresses and the industry has a self-regulation blacklist.

Messari: A community question about block rewards: “Will you keep the same structure for superblock rewards or will you implement higher superblock rewards and treasury to have more resources to fix the protocol?" By "fix the protocol," I'm assuming they mean future upgrades and / or dealing with the Zerocoin issue.

James: No, the superblock structure will remain the same. This recent Zerocoin issue highlights exactly why we have a budget for Veil as we do: it allows us to react to unforeseen events quickly and with confidence rather than worrying about where funds will come from.

Messari: One community member asked: "How are founder’s rewards used by the Veil team?"

James: Some people call it a tax, when in reality it is a budget for the project. The superblock provides funding for the following;

- Veil Main Budget (Development, Marketing, user outreach etc.)

- Veil Labs (Yet to officially start)

- Founders Reward (reimbursement of the initial development costs)

But we can really break it down a bit further now as things have progressed, as we have decided to form a Foundation to support the ecosystem by accepting Veil Improvement Proposals’s and Veil Grant Proposal’s to improve the Privacy protocol as well as to develop products and services for the ecosystem that needs to exist around Veil.

Messari: I see, that makes sense.

James: If you take a look at the website that shows what the details are of the superblock, specifically pertaining to the Founders reward, years 2 - 5 will fund the Foundation moving forward and allow the foundation to issue grants to developers who want to improve the protocol (VIP’s) or if a developer wanted to create or integrate Veil into an existing service they could apply for (VGP’s).

More specific information will be release shortly about the Veil Foundation as things are finalized such as who will be the director of the Veil Foundation, as well as the Board members who will decide on the submitted proposals as well as carry out the daily duties of the foundation. Veil Labs will also move under the Foundations management and guidance, as well as to assist in generating partnerships with Academic facilities and such to better Veil’s Privacy protocol.

Messari: Going forward, can you share a bit of what Q3 and Q4 2019 look like for the Veil team?

James: Q3/Q4 looks like active development on the new privacy protocol as well as a new UX/UI design to compliment the much simpler user experience, which is an area users have reached out to us on. We hear you guys. Examples would be moving to one coin type and removing the need to mint to Zerocoin, and moving away from the reliance on console commands for the regular user.

Messari: Thanks, and thanks for chatting. This is a lot of helpful and interesting information—I know we have lots of privacy enthusiasts in here (and of course in crypto, more broadly). Before we open up messaging abilities for everyone else, do you have any thoughts to share on Veil that weren't asked about? And can you share the best ways to continue these conversations and follow Veil development?

James: There are many ways users can keep up with Veil development progress, such as joining our newsletter, joining one of our social platforms like Discord, following us on social media, or by following GitHub development updates. The project is always looking for talented users from the community who want to get involved, we have an active public Development Bounty Program if anyone is interested.

Messari: Thanks! Again, everyone can read more and find links and other information here.

James: Thanks for having me here. We really like what Messari is doing, and fully support the movement.