Video Q&A Session 2
We have received lots of excellent questions to answer in this Q&A, and this time, we have decided to not only write up the answers, but also to include a short video from our office.
We are really excited to answer all your questions and we encourage you to keep them coming on our form, Discord, Telegram, or via e-mail at info@opus-foundation.org.
Here are this session’s questions:
1. Why are you focusing primarily on USA and China based artists if your company is based in Europe?
Our team has a vast network and potential partners in the USA and China, which is why this will be our primary target. Lots of people have reached out to us from these regions and expressed enthusiasm and a willingness to work with us in these markets.
Of course, we will not be rejecting artists from other regions, including Europe, and will certainly be paying close attention to them.
2. When will you update the website with the new team and an updated roadmap? Will you also include a list of the artists who have joined Opus?
We are planning these changes for February 2018 and will make sure to update you more about this in time.
3. Could you describe how users will be able to get a private key to decrypt music from IPFS?
The application programming interface (API) will refer to the blockchain to verify if the user has the right to play a certain track. If the answer is yes, a private key will be sent to the Opus player along with the desired track, where the track will subsequently be decoded. The specifics of the encryption of this private key is something we are still working on.
4. Will we be able to buy Opus tokens with fiat on the website in the future?
We would very much like to have an option like this and we are researching all the possibilities to make this happen.
5. Have you considered doing a ‘soft launch’ for Opus token holders only, and then a full release when the fiat gateway is available?
Our beta services will be aimed primarily at Opus token holders. For now, we do not have an exact estimate as to when the fiat gateway will be ready, but we recognize that this is necessary for the platform to work seamlessly.
6. Will there be a subscription service on the platform, where users will be able to pay a monthly fee to use your services? Will there be free streaming?
There will be a subscription model where users can pay a regular fee for our services, but we will not be offering a free streaming option.
7. What is your approach to solve scalability issues?
This is a great question; however, it is still a bit too early to answer in full. This will become clearer as the development progresses to a more advanced stage.
We are considering AWS Lambda and Google Cloud for scaling the backend, namely the API and PostgreSQL. Our developers are also looking into alternative blockchains in case any problems with Ethereum arise, and adding more IPFS nodes.
8. Are you still planning to use Ethereum or are you considering building another blockchain/ building your own?
This is also a bit too soon to answer and will become easier to address further down the line. For now, we are using Ethereum and will closely observe how it works. In case we run into any issues, we are also researching the use of Hyperledger or other platforms.
9. How will Opus affect the Ethereum blockchain?
We will be talking more about this when we are further along with the development. Data will be read from Ethereum in real time and we are not quite sure how it will behave with, for example, several hundred thousand queries at once. The write to Ethereum will occur a few times a day and will not affect it.
Look out for our next Q&A…
We will be posting another Q&A in two weeks, and a development update next week. Don’t forget to send us your questions on our form, Discord, Telegram, or via e-mail at info@opus-foundation.org. You can also follow our progress on Facebook and Twitter.