OMG Network is one of the most popular and prominent currently operational Ethereum scaling solutions. Today we are joined by John Keh, Chief Marketing Officer of Genesis Block Ventures to talk about OMG Network. Hear first-hand how the Layer-2 works and helps Ethereum users, and his thoughts on the crypto space and its future.
ChangeHero: What caused the rebranding from OmiseGo to OMG Network?
John Keh: The launch of the OMG Network mainnet in July 2020 prompted the change from OmiseGO to OMG Network.
Beginnings
ChangeHero: How did you get into crypto?
John Keh: In 2011, I was on 4chan and I read about this new digital currency called Bitcoin in a cryptography forum. My interest didn’t really take hold until the 2017 ICO boom when I made my first trade.
ChangeHero: What were you doing before joining crypto?
John Keh: I ran a Boston / Hong Kong digital marketing agency specializing in SEO, SEM, and content production.
ChangeHero: When and who introduced you to crypto? Did you directly enter into Ethereum or were you in the Bitcoin community?
John Keh: I was introduced to Bitcoin by my older brother, who shared the posts on 4chan with me about Bitcoin. So I’d say I gravitated to the Bitcoin cryptography community on 4chan first. However, the first crypto I purchased on an exchange was Ethereum.
ChangeHero: Did you face any issues with the Ethereum transactions?
John Keh: Like everyone, my issues with Ethereum transactions are the gas fees!
ChangeHero: How did you join OMG Network?
John Keh: GBV saw the potential in OMG as the only working layer 2 solution (at the time), which is the main reason why we acquired OMG Network. I joined OMG as part of the transition.
Scaling Ethereum
ChangeHero: What does OMG Network fix in Ethereum?
John Keh: The OMG Network is a Layer-2 solution that scales Ethereum. Currently, Ethereum processes 12-14 transactions per second, the OMG Network in comparison processes thousands of transactions per second at a fraction of the cost. It does this by batching transactions and processing them in groups rather than one-by-one.
ChangeHero: Do you think OMG Network will be able to reach the processing speed like the traditional online payment solutions?
John Keh: With some time and development, we feel like OMG Network’s plasma may one day reach higher processing speeds than it currently does.
ChangeHero: What do you think is hampering the adoption of crypto? How is OMG Network fueling the mass adoption?
John Keh: I think crypto-adoption is being stalled by UX. It’s difficult for a beginner to understand all the terms, techniques, and processes to full leverage this new world of finance.
ChangeHero: It was mentioned on the website that using OMG Network will potentially reduce electricity usage by 99% per transaction compared to Ethereum. This is very interesting and helpful to the environment. Could you explain a bit about this?
John Keh: The Proof of Authority (POA) mechanism allows the OMG Network to process more transactions per second, with fewer nodes, while maintaining the security of the Network. These transactions are then batched and submitted to the Ethereum root-chain for validation using Ethereum’s POW consensus.
Think of it like a compression algorithm where we combine many thousands of Layer-2 transactions inside a single transaction on the root-chain with the associated energy cost savings.
This allows the transactions on OMG Network to be cheaper and greener, while still benefiting from the resilience of the POW consensus security-level of the Ethereum network.
ChangeHero: Apart from faster transactions, where can we see the use cases of OMG Network? Could you give us a few examples?
John Keh: The OMG Network can host a suite of dApps on it! For example, our core partners, Enya.ai, have just built Hashcast, a general messaging and communication app that helps users coordinate atomic swaps.
You can find the demo here: OMG Network x Enya (2021) - Hashcast DEMO
ChangeHero: Whom do you see as competitors? What gives OMG Network an advantage over them?
John Keh: We believe Ethereum scaling solutions help the entire ecosystem with price transparency, fairness, and liquidity in the market. Scaling solutions also free up Ethereum to support services predicated on smart contracts. We don’t look at others in the space as competitors since different Layer-2 solutions come with different trade-offs and are built for specific use-cases. However, the OMG Network prides itself on our security, which is based on Ethereum smart contracts, making our network completely trustless.
ChangeHero: Whom do you follow in crypto? Which project do you think is undervalued?
John Keh: N/A
Rapid round
ChangeHero: Bitcoin or Ethereum?
John Keh: Both.
ChangeHero: On-chain scaling or Layer-2 solutions?
John Keh: Layer-2 solutions.
ChangeHero: What do you want to see in Ethereum?
John Keh: Lower fees, faster speeds, and higher TPS.
ChangeHero: What’s your favourite blockchain other than Ethereum?
John Keh: Solana.
In the future
ChangeHero: What are your plans for DeFi?
John Keh: You already know that DeFi is rapidly growing, yet issues such as front-running remain. Our core partner, Enya’s, privacy-preserving technology, combined with OMG’s atomic swaps, can help solve some of these problems. We are also adding features to OMG that will be useful to other dApps, such as a broadcast/subscribe protocol for exchanging messages, cryptographic payloads, and other data to facilitate communications and transactions.
ChangeHero: What are your expectations for Ethereum 2.0? What do you think it’s going to be like?
John Keh: My expectations for Ethereum 2.0 are lower gas fees and transaction speeds. Layer-2 scales alongside Ethereum, so the OMG Network will only get faster and cheaper with the rootchain upgrade!
ChangeHero: Can we expect OMG Network to offer solutions on other blockchains too?
John Keh: We are constantly exploring the potential for OMG Network in various contexts.
ChangeHero: Lastly, what would you suggest to beginners in crypto?
John Keh: It’s important to understand the volatility in Cryptos and to not risk anything that you’re not comfortable losing. Above all else DYOR.
Thank you to John Keh for his insights into the merger and future of OMG! We do hope more partners and use cases emerge for this eco-friendly and efficient plasma network. Keep an eye on our blog and social media (Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Telegram) for more OMG-related news in the future!
