Coval Circuits of Value (Emblem Vault) Ama with Crypto Society (with a surprise visit…) 14th January 2021

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JANUARY 2021

Circuits of Value -EMBLEM VAULT

Bilo 2000

It’s our pleasure to have you with us today. I would like to welcome you here on behalf of the community

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV)

Thank you, I’m pleased to be here, and appreciate the opportunity to discuss some of the exciting things we have built.

Bilo 2000

Could we begin with a brief history of yourself and your team and your roles at Coval and what you were doing before Coval?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV)

I’ll give the high level here, COVAL has many years of history. It started as a project called RibbitRewards, I worked for Ribbit.me to help them with their airdrop, the company eventually rebranded to Loyyal and was going to abandon their token, I talked them into letting me take over and I rebranded to Circuits of Value and have been building decentralized stuff ever since. The early team consisted of Michael Sullivan whom I met on crypto Skype. Anyone remember crypto skype?

My current team is quite small, and consists of my wife, and our business development lead Eric Porper whom also owns Cryptolina, a crypto related conference here in North Carolina

Bilo 2000

Sorry no I don’t remember crypto skype.

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

🙂 there used to be huge groups where people discussed crypto, long before telegram took over and discord

Bilo 2000

How and where did you first encounter crypto?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

I had just spent a year working with a security company (Hacking) as a researcher, doing things like audits of door locks and government software. After the company I worked for was sold in late 2013, I decided I wanted to continue working in security, but I was curious about this crypto stuff. I found a security position for a company called Mastercoin and I never looked back. Here is a link to my writings when I was with Mastercoin. https://blog.omni.foundation/author/genecyber/

Bilo 2000

Very cool thanks. Will definitely read some of the blog. I really find it intriguing to see where and how project leads started out in crypto.

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

While I was with Mastercoin, I built our their crowd sourced security program which paid bounties for reporting insecurities. It was a huge success

Bilo 2000

That’s a very interesting path to where you are today. Thanks

Can you tell us about why you thought COVAL needed to be built and what problem it solves?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

At its inception I wanted to design software that would allow people to easily interact with decentralized systems that included cryptography and typically required extensive blockchain knowledge.

Bilo 2000

How would you describe COVAL if you were talking to someone unfamiliar with digital assets?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

COVAL is short for Circuits of Value, COVAL is analogous to credits used to pay for things like AWS hosting, or online payment for API calls. COVAL is used to purchase participation in projects we build, such as Emblem Vault, which I will describe later.

Thanks but can you please try to simplify it further for someone who has no clue what all this means?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

COVAL is a digital credit, used instead of money to purchase online services. These online services include the ability to participate in the growing technology that will eventually power the entire internet. Specifically with COVAL you can purchase digital containers that allow the owner to transfer digital “things” to other people as if they were tangible, or physical items.

Bilo 2000

That’s great! Thanks. Much clearer for me now. Appreciate the explanation.

What is the COVAL token used for? Can you describe the Tokenomics?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

COVAL is currently most often used to purchase Emblem Vaults. An Emblem Vault is a special type of NFT that includes a universal token wallet, allowing the NFT to hold many different types of assets.

The NFT can then be transferred and sold or traded. The COVAL used to purchase vaults is burnt, lowering the supply. COVAL is currently traded on Uniswap as well as a few CEX’s.

Moving forward, COVAL will be able to be staked for a variety of purposes, including the earning of NFT Fuel tokens, as well as Emblem Vaults full of rewards.

Bilo 2000

So I can have an NFT with different coins inside the NFT? Like a fund for lack of a better word.

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

correct

and it can contain encrypted data, and soon entire collections of digital files.

Bilo 2000

This is really something!

Are you the only ones doing this?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

yes, although at a recent NFT hackathon I did notice a few other projects trying to wrap tokens inside an NFT, no one else is treating an NFT as a digital container for many types of assets

Bilo 2000

I have questions lined up for you about competition. I just jumped the gun as I find this very exciting.

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

wrapping tokens is the current trend, so I anticipate with proper awareness an Emblem Vault can now be better understood, whereas a few years ago there wasn’t anything even similar in concept

Bilo 2000

This really is amazing. I’m thinking of all the different applications to this where people who want to follow someone’s trading portfolio would just need to buy the NFT instead of all the different types of token. Would really like to explore this further with you later. ;-)

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

Imagine a money manager or coach delivering an entire portfolio for you to hold. No more them managing the funds for you.

Bilo 2000

My next question seems to have been answered but I’ll let you elaborate. Is Coval disruptive and if so how so?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

COVAL itself is simply the token used to power projects. COVAL enables the participation in other disruptive technologies like Emblem Vault.

We also plan to continue our partnerships with projects like Deflect and Secret who are moving Decentralized Finance forward in innovative ways.

Bilo 2000

(eyes emoji) Will Secret Network let you tell us when that happens? They like keeping everything a secret ;-)

@thisistor -Trying to get a reaction out of Tor, (the CEO of Secret Network)

Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT],

[ 🐵 Sticker ]

Bilo 2000

There he is!!!

Tor Bair 𝕊 [Secret / SCRT],

Looking forward @shannoncode

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

We have some interesting plans lined up for the Coval token, one of which I can describe here. Imagine if you will an ERC20 token that allows you to deposit a token, and earn yield. When you spend your earned token, the equivalent of your deposited token will be burnt. You can later withdraw the remaining deposited token, keep your yield, but your balance of the earned token will be reduced by your withdraw amount.

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

Hiya @thisistor

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

This system will allow staking, and yield without withdrawing your earnings, so gassless on mainnet

Bilo 2000

Live partnerships happening on Crypto Society AMA folks!!!

LB,

That was pretty cool ☺️🙃

Bilo 2000

What are you currently working on and can you describe your future roadmap?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

First: We are currently working on the ability to Stake an Emblem Vault in a way that Smart contracts can determine the value contained within. This will open up a variety of new crypto usecases, especially DeFi uses.

Next: We are currently testing a system that will allow atomic swaps of not only Emblem Vaults, but Any NFT, for any other NFT. Bringing “trading” of collectables to the entire crypto sphere.

We are also actively working on both Ethereum Mainnet as well as Matic layer 2 and soon hope to have presence on Secret network.

🙂 We’ve been building quietly for a while now, and are really putting finishing touches on the system. Next comes awareness and helping projects utilize the new superpowers we enable

Bilo 2000

This is all mind-blowing. I understand @borgbrain ‘s fascination with your project.

Bilo 2000,

Currently, you have a few projects on your plate, I’d like to briefly ask about one from the spring, SmartCLINIC. How is this project going, and is there any news?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

SmartCLINIC was a short partnership to develop a Proof of concept for supply chain tracking of medical devices. The PoC was a success, but unfortunately did not develop into its own product.

We have the potential moving forwards to utilize some of the technology developed with SmartCLINIC to “tokenize” real world items. But this has to be explored more

Bilo 2000,

Thanks for that; The application of being able to track anything is of great value.

The next question is about CircuitBuilder. Is this a project you are still supporting? Building dApps with no-to-low code, visually, to me, seems like the future! What are the plans for the future with CircuitBuilder?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

Circuit builder is my baby. Circuit builder is a drag and drop environment hosted online, or running on your computer. The power it holds is entirely unrealized yet. In a nutshell Circuit builder is a visual way to stitch together many crypto components together into a cohesive app, script, etc. Maybe you want to monitor an address, maybe you want to monitor new listings on uniswap, or you simply want to crawl blockchains and be notified of large transactions. We have connectors for sending SMS, or email, as well as interacting with databases as well as all the crypto related pieces.

We are currently supporting this project and plan to introduce the ability to interact with Smart contracts, as well as build out complex transactions and automations similar to flash loans.

Designing crypto related projects can be complicated and brittle, we believe that by using small tested components, one can string together lots of crypto functions with little effort, and almost no code, resulting in complex automations without comprehensive blockchain experience

Bilo 2000,

Thanks. Sorry Shannon but we seem to be having some technical difficulty as my messages just got deleted.

Regarding EmblemVault! How did this project start?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

Emblem Vault started with a question. “Can we make a crypto address in a way that we don’t know the Private Keys” We wanted to be able to gift cryptocurrency in a way that couldn’t be stolen back. While exploring this question we realized that we could do exactly this. And by tokenizing the resulting “thing” we had invented a portable crypto container, similar to an envelope or a box.

Bilo 2000,

Ok so you can create the wallet and give it to someone without you having any rights or control on the wallet right?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

correct

Bilo 2000,

Nice! How about the person that receives that wallet. How can they preserve or control it or can’t they?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

the contents of a Vault remain locked until someone claims it, the process of claiming, destroys the container (NFT) preventing it from being transferred ever again

a vault can be transferred over and over and the contents are sealed the whole time.

Bilo 2000,

So how does someone claim and make it theirs?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

by proving to the blockchain that you currently own the vault (it’s in your wallet) and want to claim it. The keys are decrypted and the NFT is burnt.

Bilo 2000,

Understood. Thanks. Very interesting. Really!

We know you worked on a Matic bridge for EV’s, has that bridge been finished? How does it work?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

We started work to bridge Vaults between Mainnet and Matic, but the ability wasn’t turned on. We decided instead to focus on the ability to create vaults on both networks. Eth gas prices became pretty crazy this last year. We will turn on the bridge at some point, but it’s low priority until a project really needs this capability.

Bilo 2000,

In your roadmap, Secret Contracts are mentioned, from Secret . Where are you with this implementation?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

We have a contract that we are testing at the moment. Working with Secret has been a journey for me as it requires working in languages I’m not familiar with. We expect to have this integration blessed within the next few months. We have to get this part right, as it’s going to be the decentralized storage for everyone’s Vault keys.

Bilo 2000, [14.01.21 20:49]

Really exciting to see this collaboration with Secret network. Good choice!

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

Been keeping an eye on them since early days of Enigma from MIT team

Bilo 2000,

Are there any other cooperative workings with Secret , or the Cosmos ecosystem as a whole?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

We are planning on utilizing the ERC20 secret bridge for Coval.

As we finish rounding Emblem Vault features, we plan to aggressively pursue integrations with other crypto projects that can find utility in Emblem Vaults.

Bilo 2000,

A little birdy told me you talked with Jamie Burke recently about the Outlier Ventures Base Camp. Are you planning on participating in the incubator program?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

This is undecided at the moment. We are trying to finish our roadmap as quickly as possible so that we can be entirely focused on moving the project forward through an incubator program. The mentoring that Outlier Ventures provides is top notch, and we would be honoured to be accepted.

Bilo 2000,

To everyone — We apologise for this technical difficulty where all my comments in this group have been accidently erased. We will be making a recap of this AMA that will be posted on medium for everyone to read

Bilo 2000,

Time for a small commercial break 😂

Recently you were able to show the nesting of games and 3d worlds/music inside an NFT… I do not think anyone has done this before. Where do you think this will lead?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

For years my main goal with Crypto has been to easily make digital “things” with tangible properties. By enabling Vaults to be both interactive and dynamic along with the ability to contain other “things” I’m excited to see what artists and DeFi projects will build using this new crypto primitive.

Bilo 2000,

That makes 2 of us 😁

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

many artists are working hard to be creative with their NFT pieces, by offering interactivity it greatly enhances an artist’s capability

Bilo 2000,

I know one artist who has amazing art. Things that normally fit into the gaming world. How would he take advantage of this to monetize his work?

Here is an example of his art

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

One interesting idea. Let’s say an artist does a piece to raise awareness for some global cause. They could actually accept donations to their Vault. and then the vault, NFT artwork and all donations can be sent to the cause.

Bilo 2000,

That’s very cool.

I’m sure this will bring about a lot of interest and excitement as to the possibilities

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

We will continue to explore interactivity. Eventually I want the cover of a vault to have the ability to change based on the contents of a vault, so someone can create collections, like a character with stackable abilities, and weapons, etc.

Bilo 2000,

I understand that another unique capability on Emblem Vaults is blind transactions, where the sender can send in a way where they will not know where the funds went once accepted. How does this work?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

Since a vault itself contains crypto addresses, someone can send assets into a vault, and choose to hide the contents with a password. The vault can then be transferred many times itself, since the assets inside the vault never move, there is no record of the assets moving on their native chain(s) But anyone with the password can witness what’s in the vault.

Bilo 2000,

At the risk of repeating myself. ALL THIS IS SO COOOL

So finally: What’s next for Emblem Vaults?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

Finishing the NFT to NFT swap, and building a bunch of example vaults that illustrate the use-cases. So think about a vault that contains a gift card code, or a vault that once unlocked contains a token that can be used to ship a physical product. Or how about a DeFi starter kit, a vault that contains a project’s tokens, some LP tokens for that project and maybe stackable NFT boosts.

Bilo 2000,

Thanks Shannon; Do you wish to let us know anything else that was not covered in the questions above?

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

This was a pretty rounded set of questions. I think we have covered it all.

Bilo 2000,

Thank you for your time in answering our questions here today. We are all very appreciative of your time and of the answers you have provided

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

here is our most recent Medium post describing a list of newest features: https://emblem-vault.medium.com/emblem-vault-update-jan-2021-9c9b138374a9

Shannon Code (Coval / Emblem DEV),

[ 🍸 Sticker ]

Cheers everyone! Thanks so much for your time.

Useful Links

Circuits of Value Website : https://circuitsofvalue.com/

Circuits of Value Telegram: https://t.me/Coval_Chat

Circuits of Value Twitter: https://twitter.com/CircuitsOfValue

Crypto Society Chat @cryptosocietyy

Crypto Society Announcements @CryptoSocietyy

Crypto Society Twitter : @cryptosocietytg

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