We just finished our AMA with Crypto Players India, one of the largest India-centric crypto communities. While the full transcript can be found below, we put together a brief summary that may be helpful if you couldn’t make the live AMA.
Opening
- Calvin and Shain introduce the founding of The APIS, an idea that compounded over the myriad hackathons Shain and Calvin co-attended. They also first worked with Andrew through hackathons. Hackathons for the win!
- We then introduce the mission of The APIS, to empower every website and application to offer blockchain-based products at extremely low costs, both in terms of hours and dollars spent. We believe that every Web 2.0 digital service will eventually transition to becoming a Web 3.0 service, just as every retail company now has a Web 2.0 presence. Our mission is to make sure that transition happens as fast and efficiently as possible.
- We then highlight how to get started building with The APIS on https://docs.theapis.io. You can also find us on Twitter, Telegram, or Discord, but our documentation is our best starting point!
Middle
- We just launched the first version of our Standard Development Kit (SDK). Shain details the launch, “We’ve just launched the first version of our SDK, and have more API/SDK releases coming up in July. Most developers should be able to install the SDK via the README documentation and NPM registry, and make requests to the API with the documentation. We have a couple tutorials and want to have more detailed tutorials as well.”
- As well as no-code plugins that we’ll also be introducing in July: “We are also building no-code plugins, and we’ll call them that too.”
- Shain also highlighted the three current interfaces of The APIS protocol: Native, Extended, and Unified. All three are described our How The APIS Works documentation. Shain described each one to Jonty as well, “1. Native (refers to) Blockchain-specific, native RPCs (ex: gettransaction). 2. Extended refers to Blockchain/application-specific with more functionality (GET BSC BEP20 by number of holders, descending). 3. Unified refers to Common endpoints that overlap between many blockchains (Send a native currency from address1 to address2).”
- We outlined our current outreach approach to low and no code developers. We leverage hackathons, industry connections, social media channels, and our crypto-specific connections. Calvin explained, “We are participating in some traditional fintech hackathons to showcase the power of integrating the APIS to Web 2.0 developers. We are also active in some developer communities and do meetups to reach out to more non-crypto developers and onboard them to the blockchain ecosystems through the APIS project.”
- We plan to launch a whole lot of tutorials this summer. We’ve found that tutorials and well-written documentation are the best way to leverage the internet to help as many users as possibl;e. Calvin said, “We really love how Bubble — a no-code platform — (they) use great tutorials. They have tutorials like ‘How to build WhatsApp without writing code’ and ‘How to build Uber without writing code’.” We will also integrate with Bubble and other no-code solutions such that their users can frictionlessly use our products.
End
- Security is one of the most important features of any system, especially blockchains where the traditional laws of nation-states are replaced by encoded smart contracts. Shain talked extensively about The APIS’s approach to security, both with regards to our internal contracts and the external contracts we leverage. Shain explained, “From a security perspective: We had a [passing] audit performed on our ERC20 token contract. Other contracts we use are typically well-known contracts such as Uniswap, Compound Finance, Yearn, etc…In terms of platform security, the platform itself has relatively few significant vulnerabilities because we don’t operate as a custodian, like Binance or Coinbase does. Our primary vulnerabilities occur at our edge implementations (ex: a spoof website which mimics ours could trick users into sharing their private key, etc). We have less security vulnerabilities due to the nature of the product than any of the custodians, however — we’ll need to focus on security of our endpoints and smart contracts going forward.”
- A community member asked a very well thought question about how the APIS plans to allow for its smart contracts to interact with offchain data, to which Shain shilled one of our favorite projects, Chainlink: “Basically, data availability on-chain can be problematic sometimes… sometimes the data you want to use is hard to get onchain. This is a problem that oracle creators and networks like Chainlink have done great work to alleviate. It’s actually tangential to the APIS project roadmap. One way this could happen is via Chainlink integrations and oracles that bring data from the project onchain where it can enable smart contracts to do new and interesting things. We aren’t actively working on that integration, but I think it’s going to be more important as future smart contracts have more granular behaviors.”
- We briefly discussed Ethereum and the multi-chain world. It is beyond clear that Ethereum is the most prominent blockchain. Whether a multi-chain rollup is fueled by rollups, EVM-based side chains with strong community, or non EVM-based chains like Solana, Shain reiterated our commitment to supporting every desired layer-one and layer-two scaling solution, “The Ethereum ecosystem is one of the largest developer communities in the space and ERC20 is the de-facto standard. That being said, we’re absolutely involved with other ecosystems, with support for Bitcoin, and Binance Smart Chain, working on Matic/Polygon, Solana, etc. So by no means are we locked in exclusively to Ethereum — we’re actively multi-chain.”
That’s it! It was a fun one. You can find our documents above, or our social channels via Telegram — https://t.me/theapis; Twitter — https://twitter.com/TheApis_io. You can find some of our other favorite quotes and the entire transcript below!
Some of Our Other Favorite Quotes
- “The APIS project aims to make blockchain app development easy. Imagine Bootstrap for responsive web, Twilio for telephony, or Stripe for banking. (The APIS) serves two groups of users: developers building apps using low-code, and non-developers building apps using no-code.” — Calvin
- “Like Bootstrap provides auto-formatting standardized components, the APIS project provides a standardized way to read data and manage states from multiple blockchains.Like how Twilio allows developers to connect to phone lines in a few lines of codes, the APIS project allow users to build entire app with a few lines of API or SDK codes. Like how Stripe connects to banks that don’t even have APIs for banking, the APIS project takes care of the connection to different blockchains behind the scene. Our ultimate goal is to attract more builders to the blockchain ecosystems and more builders to translate their creativity into robust applications.” — Calvin
- “It’s actually quite difficult to make a single tool that’s “easy” for everyone and every purpose. Maybe it’s impossible. I think it depends on what your goals are, what your project is doing, what your familiarity with the tools are, how much blockchain knowledge you have, etc.” — Shain
- Our approach is to improve a few key areas. And target user types: 1. Low Code, 2. No code. More specifically for Developers/Startups and Entrepreneurs/Small Businesses. And we’re using API endpoints, built-in infrastructure as a service, SDK packages, and low/no-code plugins to achieve those ease of use goals.” — Shain
- “A couple example use cases: I run a blockchain wordpress blog and want to offer a new feature — I can install the APIS plugin and embed blockchain data directly in my site with only entrepreneurial familiarity with blockchain or javascript. I am a cryptocurrency startup and can’t get the granularity of data I need without a lot of work — and I don’t want to run blockchain indexers (or quite frankly have time to learn how!). I install the APIS SDK and can access detailed DeFi data with low barrier to entry. This list of user
Transcript
1 — Can you please introduce yourself and your background, also introduce the team working on APIS?
Calvin Pak, [15.06.21 21:06]
Sure! Quick introduction — I’m Calvin Pak, the CEO of The APIS. I’m a computer science grad (sounds so long ago, lol). I started my career as the 1st engineer in Zappos.com, and also had the chance to work for JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo on financial applications, before I started my first startup in facial recognition technology, and later pivoted into gaming. Long story short, since 2017 I was introduced to Ethereum, I realized that’s what I wanna be involved in — blockchain technology is gonna change the entire financial infrastructure, and that’s super exciting to me.
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:08]
Sure! I’ve been working in Silicon Valley with different startups over the years, from cyber-security to medical tech.
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:08]
The APIS team is global and consists of myself, Calvin, Andrew, Vanessa, and has grown to include several talented engineers and team members
Calvin Pak, [15.06.21 21:09]
I’ve met Shain, the CTO of The APIS project, back in 2018, when we worked together in a blockchain company called BitGuild. We built a gaming focused NFT marketplace together. Afterwards, we teamed up in many hackathons, almost every EthGlobal hackathons, and started building different blockchain applications.
Jonty D, [15.06.21 21:09]
[In reply to Calvin Pak]
Wow sounds interesting!!
Calvin Pak, [15.06.21 21:11]
Yep, as Shain just said, then we have the chance to meet some great minds in the industry through mutual friends and the developers we met in meetups and hackathons.
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:11]
That’s right! Through in 2018–2020 we built several projects, iterations of technology, and teams, and found the right combination of ideas and talents and formed the APIS project.
Calvin Pak, [15.06.21 21:13]
I learned a lot from Andrew, who wrote many articles on the DeFi space, from AMM, to crypto-economics and the real-world economics, and we started to bounce ideas off from each other. He gave us great guidance and we always wanted to work on something together.
Calvin Pak, [15.06.21 21:13]
We’ve built out the rest of the engineering team with other talented members.
Jonty D, [15.06.21 21:14]
Very interesting story behind how you all started together!!
Jonty D, [15.06.21 21:14]
Thanks for the amazing introduction!!
Calvin Pak, [15.06.21 21:14]
Thanks, Jonty!
Jonty D, [15.06.21 21:14]
2 — What is the misson of your project? and how you got the name APIs?
Calvin Pak, [15.06.21 21:15]
Actually I just wrote an overview about the APIS project last night in my daily journal:
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/theapis-project-overview-day-424-05809e2a60
Let me do a quick recap here
Calvin Pak, [15.06.21 21:16]
The APIS project’s name come from something very trivial… APIs — application programming interfaces 😉
Calvin Pak, [15.06.21 21:16]
“The APIS project aims to make blockchain app development easy. Imagine Bootstrap for responsive web, Twilio for telephony, or Stripe for banking.
The project serves two groups of users: developers building apps using low-code, and non-developers building apps using no-code.”
Calvin Pak, [15.06.21 21:16]
“Like Bootstrap provides auto-formatting standardized components, the APIS project provides a standardized way to read data and manage states from multiple blockchains.
Like how Twilio allows developers to connect to phone lines in a few lines of codes, the APIS project allow users to build entire app with a few lines of API or SDK codes.
Like how Stripe connects to banks that don’t even have APIs for banking, the APIS project takes care of the connection to different blockchains behind the scene.
Our ultimate goal is to attract more builders to the blockchain ecosystems and more builders to translate their creativity into robust applications.”
Calvin Pak, [15.06.21 21:17]
DONE
Jonty D, [15.06.21 21:18]
3 — There’s a lot of toolkit claiming easy programs, What sets you apart and point out some unique features?
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:19]
Sure, I’ll jump in here.
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:19]
I think it depends on what your goals are, what your project is doing, what your familiarity with the tools are, how much blockchain knowledge you have, etc.
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:20]
It’s actually quite difficult to make a single tool that’s “easy” for everyone and every purpose. Maybe it’s impossible.
Jonty D, [15.06.21 21:20]
[In reply to Shain Lafazan]
Totally agreed!
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:20]
Our approach is to improve a few key areas.
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:21]
And target user types:
1. Low Code, 2. No Code
Developer/Startup, Entrepreneur/Small Business
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:22]
And we’re using API endpoints, built-in infrastructure as a service, SDK packages, and low/no-code plugins to achieve those ease of use goals
Jonty D, [15.06.21 21:23]
[In reply to Shain Lafazan]
Making it very easy for new users!
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:25]
A couple example use cases:
I run a blockchain wordpress blog and want to offer a new feature — I can install the APIS plugin and embed blockchain data directly in my site with only entrepreneurial famliarity with blockchain or javascript.
I am a cryptocurrency startup and can’t get the granularity of data I need without a lot of work — and I don’t want to run blockchain indexers (or quite frankly have time to learn how!). I install the APIS SDK and can access detailed DeFi data with low barrier to entry.
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:26]
This list of user stories goes on, and we want to keep making those user stories make more sense by delivering useful features either on the API, low/no-code plugins, and SDK products.
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:26]
DONE
Jonty D, [15.06.21 21:27]
4 — Has Your project prepared any informative material that could facilitate the use of inexperienced users?
And how you plan to reach users who aren’t into crypto yet and convince them to use APIs?
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:28]
Definitely, this is always a work-in-progress. Here is a good place to start! https://docs.theapis.io/
Jonty D, [15.06.21 21:29]
[In reply to Shain Lafazan]
Amazing!
Calvin Pak, [15.06.21 21:29]
We really love how Bubble — a no-code platform — uses great tutorials. They have tutorials like “How to build WhatsApp without writing code” “How to build Uber without writing code”.
We plan to build similar tutorials for our users.
Jonty D, [15.06.21 21:31]
That’s really unique and will surely attract more people towards the project.
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:32]
We’ve just launched the first version of our SDK, and have more API/SDK releases coming up in July. Most developers should be able to install the SDK via the README documentation and NPM registry, and make requests to the API with the documentation. We have a couple tutorials and want to have more detailed tutorials as well.
Calvin Pak, [15.06.21 21:32]
According to our chief product Andrew, every app in the future will have financial components in them. We are participating in some traditional fintech hackathons to showcase the power of integrating the APIS to web 2.0 developers. We are also active in some developer communities and do meetups to reach out to more non-crypto developers and onboard them to the blockchain ecosystems through the APIS project.
Calvin Pak, [15.06.21 21:32]
DONE
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:34]
Reaching users who aren’t into cryptocurrency or blockchain yet — I think the NFT boom is a great example of how this is already happening naturally. There’s such an interest in the space, and still a barrier to entry. Being availble with clear interfaces for low/no code will help knock down that barrier.
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:34]
DONE
Jonty D, [15.06.21 21:34]
[In reply to Shain Lafazan]
Exactly!!
Jonty D, [15.06.21 21:35]
5 — Could you briefly explain about APIS Tokenomics ?
And how secure is the contract?
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:37]
From a security perspective: We had a [passing] audit performed on our ERC20 token contract. Other contracts we use are typically well-known contracts such as Uniswap, Compound Finance, Yearn, etc.
Calvin Pak, [15.06.21 21:39]
To make a long story short, our token economics is very similar to Chainlink, where each node operator needs to stake and can earn tokens and users will require to also stake API tokens for using the service.
Shain has answered the smart contract part of the question :)
Calvin Pak, [15.06.21 21:39]
DONE
Jonty D, [15.06.21 21:39]
Great!!
Thanks for all the wonderful answers!!
Jonty D, [15.06.21 21:39]
We have picked few questions from Twitter round.
Jonty D, [15.06.21 21:40]
Here is the first question from Twitter round.
Jonty D, [15.06.21 21:40]
We good to go?
Calvin Pak, [15.06.21 21:40]
definitely!
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:40]
Great!
Jonty D, [15.06.21 21:40]
1 — When developers implement their chosen smart contract, they encounter a connectivity problem. Their smart contract is unable to connect with key external resources like off-chain data and APIs smart contracts can’t access data on their own. How does TheApis deal with this issue?
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:41]
I’ll take a stab at this one
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:42]
I think I understand the premise — basically, data availability on-chain can be problematic sometimes… sometimes the data you want to use is hard to get onchain
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:43]
This is a problem that oracle creators and networks like Chainlink have done great work to alleviate
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:46]
It’s actually tangential to the APIS project roadmap. One way this could happen is via Chainlink integrations and oracles that bring data from the project onchain where it can enable smart contracts to do new and interesting things. We aren’t actively working on that integration, but I think it’s going to be more important as future smart contracts have more granular behaviors.
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:46]
DONE
Jonty D, [15.06.21 21:47]
2 — What is the significance of $APIS token And what if you said something about the security of the #APIS platform?
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:48]
I’ll take this one too 🤣
Jonty D, [15.06.21 21:48]
Haha sure 😁
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:50]
The APIS token has a few uses, primarily driving decentralized node operation incentives. You can read more about this on our token economics page: https://www.dapis.tech/token-economics
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:51]
In terms of platform security, I’m sure there’s overlap with the previous answers. The platform itself has relatively few significant vulnerabilities because we don’t operate as a custodian, like Binance or Coinbase does.
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:53]
Our primary vulnerabilities occur at our edge implementations (ex: a spoof website which mimics ours could trick users into sharing their private key, etc)
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:54]
We have less security vulnerabilities due to the nature of the product than any of the custodians, however — we’ll need to focus on security of our endpoints and smart contracts going forward.
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:54]
DONE
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:56]
Good question — in theory — we use the standard ERC20 and ERC721 smart contracts, along with Uniswap, Compound Finance, Yearn, etc
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:56]
Most of those have been audited or hold so much value, you would expect their vulnerabilities to have been exploited already
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:57]
We’re not currently buliding and dynamically launching composed smart contracts, although we’re considering the power of that
natz® Does NOT PM first (Beware of SCAMS!), [15.06.21 21:58]
[In reply to Shain Lafazan]
agreed, but the nature of hacks like what happened with wnxm or say easyfi.. and the recent one of burger .. they were just different in nature.. have u considered those and how much we can rely on the auditors then?? this is why whats the insurance there from your end?
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 21:58]
Think (as a user, I want to launch an NFT marketplace contract which takes my own ERC20 as a secondary currency and allows swapping and auctions, …) — it would be really cool to compose contracts like this dynamically in low/no code, however we’ll need to focus on contract security for solutions like that
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 22:01]
Definitely, security has to be a concern with public blockchains and cryptocurrencies. We’ll keep it in the forefront. I think we have two major advantages when it comes to security
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 22:03]
1. Tried and tested, audited examples (all the contracts we currently support fall into this category)
2. We don’t act as a custodian of any funds right now
For now, that gives us a lot more peace of mind. And if we end up deviating from these two points, we’ll need to be very careful about it and perform a lot of due diligence.
natz® Does NOT PM first (Beware of SCAMS!), [15.06.21 22:04]
true due diligence is needed, considering the hacks happening and we would not like users being held with no accountability when a hack happens. anyways thanks for the answer ☺️☺️ cheers
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 22:04]
Thank you! Great questions
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 22:04]
DONE
Jonty D, [15.06.21 22:05]
3 — There are three types of interfaces in the APIS protocol: Native, Extended, and Unified. Can you briefly explain to us what each one consists of?
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 22:08]
1. Native: Blockchain-specific, native RPC (ex: gettransaction)
2. Extended: Blockchain/application-specific with more functionality (GET BSC BEP20 by number of holders, descending)
3. Unified: Common between many blockchains (Send a native currency from address1 to address2)
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 22:09]
The examples may be helpful here
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 22:10]
DONE
Jonty D, [15.06.21 22:10]
4 — In the APIS ecosystem there are some very interesting features, such as agricultural yields and high level of defi, can you explain these features, how investors benefit from agriculture.
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 22:11]
Maybe I will focus on the DeFi part of this question
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 22:14]
We’re adding interface support for the API’s and SDK based on what applications people are using. So DeFi is a clear winner: onchain money markets, DEX, ERC721 and marketplaces … these are big winners with users and we think it’s important to support them.
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 22:14]
In terms of investor benefit, it’s been a consistent truth in blockchain early adoption that growth has been high in hot ecosystems and tool chains.
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 22:15]
I think DeFi fits squarely in that category right now.
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 22:15]
DONE
natz® Does NOT PM first (Beware of SCAMS!), [15.06.21 22:15]
[In reply to Shain Lafazan]
is it like a plug-in?
natz® Does NOT PM first (Beware of SCAMS!), [15.06.21 22:15]
or an extension?
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 22:17]
Yes so we have just released the first version of our SDK and will be continuing to build it out. SDK is a software engineering term for a pluggable tool — so it is like a plug-in for code. We are also building no-code plugins, and we’ll call them that too.
natz® Does NOT PM first (Beware of SCAMS!), [15.06.21 22:18]
great, thanks
Jonty D, [15.06.21 22:19]
5 — Why you choose ERC-20 chain to built $API token? Having networks with a lower fee in transactions such as BEP-20, TRC-20, What benefits does ERC-20 have that the others don’t?
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 22:19]
That’s also a great question
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 22:20]
We’re fundamentally a developer and bootstrapping tool for entrepreneurs
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 22:22]
The Ethereum ecosystem is one of the largest developer communities in the space and ERC20 is the de-facto standard. That being said, we’re absolutely involved with other ecosystems, with support for Bitcoin, and Binance Smart Chain, working on Matic/Polygon, Solana, etc. So by no means are we locked in exclusively to Ethereum — we’re actively multi-chain.
Shain Lafazan, [15.06.21 22:24]
DONE
Jonty D, [15.06.21 22:24]
Great!
Thanks for all the amazing answers!
Now we are heading towards community round.
The group will be unmuted in a minute.
Jonty D, [15.06.21 22:25]
Till then follow APIS Telegram and Twitter to be eligible for rewards.
Telegram — https://t.me/theapis
Twitter — https://twitter.com/TheApis_io
For more information — https://www.dapis.tech/
👋 About THE APIS:
Indexing protocol for reading and writing for open networks. Making APIs open and accessible to power a decentralized world.
