TDN Origins and 2021 roadmap
After three years of building, and a major shift from Asia to America in 2020, TDN now has a 2021 path to market
(5 min read)
In early 2016, Toufi Saliba and Dann Toliver, as the primary co-authors of the TODA Protocol, put together the proto-version of the TODA Protocol design, and shortly thereafter brought together the first technical and business community to foster its further development and use in the world. It took a full year of further research and design before, in the spring of 2017, the first working software implementation of the TODA Protocol was created and the first file generation, transaction and settlement occurred in Toronto. An account of the motivation and development behind TODA can be found here. TODAQ, followed by TODA.Network, emerged during this period as the first early stage ventures to build the technology, initial products and services and global community. During this year the TDN had been an embedded part of the TODA Protocol’s design as an integral settlement token or ‘gas’, but the TODA Protocol’s efficiency led to its removal in that capacity.
During the following year, many businesses and communities from Asia to the Americas joined the TODA ecosystem and multiple product-market fit efforts occurred concurrently with the core protocol research and development. These simultaneous streams of effort provided cross-benefits as there was an early and continuous feedback loop from the market about what did, and did not, provide value within the Protocol. The development of a true disruptive technology opened new possibilities not previously considered possible at scale in the global market. The TDN asset also found a new role, given market demand, as a payment and loyalty asset. It evolved into an optional value added benefit for TODA enabled accounts, with owners being given the choice of how to use it. In the spring of 2018, the redesigned TDN was used on a mobile app prototype by multiple participants to provide payments for manicure services at local Toronto merchant, with one of the transactions transmitted and settled in under a minute to the merchant by the TDN payer, while enroute in a plane 40,000 feet over Asia. TODA’s ‘pizza’ moment had arrived.
Many of the advances of the TODA protocol during this period expanded the number of value added uses cases for TODA and with it, the channels and use for TDN as well. The ability TODA files to self-track as an example, meant that one could usefully verify chain of ownership of commercial goods along their entire value chain from source to manufacture to distribution and final sale and consumption. As well the fact that each TODA file container was a unique digital ‘thing’ that could be denominated and fractionated, meant that TDN could perfectly replicate the qualities of physical cash, but with the speed and convenience of digital. Since its first transaction in Toronto a year before, the capabilities of the underlying TODA platform, as well as the size and diversity of the TDN market, has grown by several orders of magnitude. TDN should be useful, whether for purchasing coffee, commodities or a company.
In 2019 TODAQ further developed the TODA protocol, but now in collaboration with Cambridge University researchers as well, along the path towards full decentralization. In TODA the unit of consensus is called a “ring” which can either be very large (millions of users) or very small (a single user). TODA Rings cryptographically enable self-validation and ownership transfer & settlement of TODA file containers through growing a replicated distributed Merkle Trie data structure, without relying on any external database. TODA Rings are independent to, but compatible with Cloud. Rings enable greater scalability between nodes for real-time transactions without creating a single point of failure. During this year TODAQ developed the first TODA ring which is a Cloud hosted software API platform called TODA-as-a-Service (‘TaaS’). TaaS is designed to provide instant transaction confirmation and perform final deterministic settlement of transactions in 30-45 seconds. Other rings can be designed with different performance specifications depending on the market need.
TODAQ also started R&D work to allow for creation of more TODA “rings” allowing users to choose between hosted or decentralized systems as the Protocol is open-sourced. On-device rings could allow access to bandwidth-constrained applications including air and spacecraft, cargo, disaster relief, and developing states. The number of participants in a ring can either be limited to a set of participants or open to qualified applicants. TODA File Containers would be able to easily move between rings while preserving verifiable integrity and providing businesses with the flexibility to manage transactional risks.
The first design and R&D work was also started on the ADOT Protocol, an application protocol intended for specifying a standard for secure and efficient transfers of TODA files, removing much of the requirement for expensive and risky technical integrations and enabling the creation of a new P2P Web.
Other notable milestones in 2019 included running a number of successful proof of concepts for industrial, commercial and educational applications on TODA (e.g., containerized oil and gas supply chain goods shipped between Europe and Middle East, containerized student credentials for mobile digital education). TDN was used during 2019 in proof-of-concept applications for e-commerce loyalty and for payments for software, business and merchant services and was listed on the first digital assets exchange in Asia.
2020 was a challenging and productive year. While the onset of the virus created a chain of health, economic and market disruption, significant progress was achieved nonetheless. The R&D project to enable Rings in the TODA Protocol was completed to enough extent by end year to allow for the first specifications to be released for conversion into software code, enabling implementation to a multi-ring ecosystem in 2021 and the first open sourcing of the TODA Protocol design specifications and code. The initial version of the ADOT Protocol was also introduced with the first ADOT Servers and the ADOT Browser Agent prototype.
Commercial progress was also made with the first national level projects implemented (e.g., waste management and recycling supply chain in Saudi Arabia; e-commerce, loyalty and other P2P markets in Europe, the Middle East; commodities supply chain for battery grade graphite destined for the TDN backstop reserve).
TODA container tech powered apps for drivers and facility operators, as part of the overall waste management system in Saudi Arabia
The Red Hat game changer: Integrating into the $300 billion cloud services market
These first commercial results led to the start of collaboration in the fall of 2020 with major hybrid cloud providers, specialized tech services companies, and the Linux open source community, including Red Hat the world’s leading open source provider. This work during 2021 will allow for global scale adoption and a massive increase in the total addressable market. TDN is also being embedded into the current project pipeline as a payment asset.
There are five major initiatives that are planned for 2021 to release TDN fully into the global market:
Decentralization. Implement the first multiple Ring ecosystem, allowing anyone to create, directly own and P2P trade first class digital assets (e.g., hosting your own Ring on a device or with the ADOT Agent), with containerized assets able to transfer between Rings and maintain integrity. The rollout the first TODA Rings in addition to TaaS in the first half of 2021 is intended to be with TODAQ’s ADOT Agent product and any wallets built for partners so they can run on a standalone Ring and not have to be connected the TaaS Ring API in order to transfer file container ownership.
Backstop. Establish the start of the TDN asset reserve backstop with the first containerized commodity swap for TDN, and builda larger pipeline of commodities, land and other backstop assets.
Utility. Deploy first cohort of projects using TDN as payments means and build the custody on-ramp/off-ramp products and payment integration modules establish TDN as the native currency of the ADOT Web.
Trading. TODAQ focused on delisting TDN from Asia in 2020 and the target is to relist TDN with exchanges and OTC markets in Europe and the Americas to better serve the business and retail users with respect to language, time zone as well as enterprise and institutional requirements for privacy, security and regulatory compliance. The company intends to transition planning and execution of the listing and market making to a joint group of TODAQ and TODA partners.
Open-source. Establish STAR Foundation and transition TDN stewardship fully to STAR from TODAQ. Transition base TODA Protocol technology fully to TRIE Foundation and start the open source process (e.g., ability to inspect / verify the integrity of any TODA container, both within the Agent and integrated into any app or web portal) and open source the ADOT Protocol (e.g., ability for any party to host an ADOT Server with their own ADOT Rooms).