What Is dragonchain?

Dragonchain is a platform that aims to give businesses an easy way to deploy blockchain applications.

It does this through a set of cloud based services for businesses that streamlines the process, even for those without any blockchain experience.

The key selling points of Dragonchain's service are:

1. They allow users to code in already established languages, such as Java, C#, Python and Node.
2. Interchain with other platforms so you can leverage all features of other chains, such as Ethereum and NEO.
3. The option to keep some/all client information private and secure, unlike some other platforms.
4. Allows businesses to sell (or buy) completed smart contract code through the marketplace.
5. Allows businesses to buy services and support through the marketplace.
6. Give businesses development support through the Dragonscale incubator 
7. Serverless - you can deploy applications to both Google and AWS.

How this works in practice is you might have a development team who wants to launch an application for your business on Ethereum. However they only code in Java and don't know Solidity (the Ethereum coding language) nor do they want to learn it.

To solve this, they could simply write the application in Java and then deploy the application using Dragonchain.

Dragonchain will then launch a chain specifically for your app, hosted on Amazon AWS so it is serverless, further streamlining the process. This particular chain can also integrate with Ethereum so it can do everything Ethereum can do and more, using Dragonchain's other suite of tools.

This framework offers a much easier entry point into blockchain adoption for many businesses, as it allows teams to continue working within the frameworks and languages they know, while also leveraging the technology of the larger chains such as Ethereum and NEO.

Dragonchain is sometimes called the "Disney blockchain", but this isn't accurate. Dragonchain was originally being developed as Disney's private blockchain, however Disney abandoned this and released the code as open source in 2016. The Dragonchain Foundation was later launched to oversee and develop the code, but is completely independent of Disney.

The dragonchain Team

Limited information is available on Dragonchain's team. Here are some of its key members.

Joel Roets - Founder and CEO, been in software architecture for 20 years. Principal blockchain architect at Disney for 3 years, and Bloq prior to that. Before that, Senior VP of Engineering at Symbiont, and Senior Technical Advisor at Overstock (Linkedin).

Paul Sonier - CTO at Dragonchain. Graduate from Carnegie Melon. Previously software engineer for both Disney and Amazon (Linkedin). 

Corby Casler - Branding and PR. Previous positions in PR and media at AMP Agency, Coca Cola, T-Mobile, Nike (Linkedin).

Maria Smith - Advisor to Dragonchain. VP of payments at Starbucks. Formerly VP of Finance at Disney (Linkedin).

Matthew Roszak - Advisor to Dragonchain. Chairman of Bloq, founder of Tally Capital, Chairman of Chamber of Digital Commerce, creator of Metronome (Linkedin).

Tom Bush - Advisor to Dragonchain. 33 years with FBI, consultant on business development regarding issues relating to FBI, DOJ, DOD, DHS. 

See the full team listing on their website.

The dragonchain Product

The Dragonchain ecosystem consists of three things:

• The Dragonchain platform
• The Dragonchain marketplace
• The Dragonscale incubator

The Dragonchain Platform

Dragonchain's platform is designed to make it easy for businesses to launch blockchain solutions. The goal is to be able to rapidly deploy a blockchain solution, without spending large amounts of resources and time in development.

To do this, Dragonchain offers "Blockchain as a Service". As a cloud based service, there is no need for server maintenance or set up, installing software etc - development teams can simply log in to Dragonchain and build.

Launching on Dragonchain and smart contract creation can be done in existing coding languages, such as Python, C#, Node and Java. This is aimed at further increasing the speed at which a blockchain project can be launched to market. For example, coding in Haskell or Solidity can be costly, as fewer engineers are familiar with it, and taking time to learn it only delays launch time further.

5 Levels of Consensus

Blockchains deployed with Dragonchain are not completely private or public, but a hybrid of the two. Through this architecture they use 5 separate consensus levels to create trust.

This consensus protocol is known as Dragon Net. Dragon Net is a scaled approach to consensus using independent nodes provided by Dragonchain users.

The item of scarcity in Dragon Net is DDSS, which is calculated based on how long tokens have been held in a wallet (explained more below in the token section). The foundation for consensus is Proof of Time. This is because with DDSS, you require time to build your scarcity value. It is easy to add resources (money, electricity) to proof, but it is not easy to add time, therefore Dragonchain believes this is a better measure of scarcity.

The five levels of consensus are: 

L1 Nodes: Sensitive data and business logic

This is the placement for integration of “real world” value in the form of transactions and business logic. This information is configured by the business or blockchain user and executed by a blockchain node.

L2 Nodes: Validation of block, header, and signatures

Level 2 nodes are a trusted check of validity for blocks and individual transactions, which can be done without exposing the actual data. Rules for L2 Nodes are defined at the enterprise level.

L3 Nodes: Network diversity of L2 validations

Level 3 nodes check the diversity of a transaction’s Level 2 verifications. This level of consensus will ensure that transactions are validated by a sufficiently varied set of distributed sources.

L4 Nodes: Notary function

A Level 4 node provides a notary functionality to the consensus process. Hosted by an external partner, a level 4 node cryptographically signs any verification record it receives from Level 3. This function allows the Level 4 node to act as an independent witness to Level 3 verifications.

L5 Nodes: Public checkpoint

Level 5 nodes serve as the gateway between the Dragonchain platform and public blockchains. When a transaction passes through the fifth level,, it can then be hosted on a public chain like ETH, ETC, NEO, or BTC.

Privacy

Public blockchains such as Ethereum store data publicly. You can simply type in any Ethereum address and look at the smart contracts related to that address, the token transfers, how much the wallet is worth.

When it comes to sensitive business data, this is not ideal. Real businesses require some sort of control over the publicity/privacy of the data they feed into applications.

By deploying on Dragonchain, businesses have the option to still interface with Ethereum but keep selected data private, particularly when it comes to smart contracts. 

Interchain

Interchain gives Dragonchain users the ability to leverage their Dragonchain with public chains such as Ethereum or NEO, but using more familiar tools and coding languages.

The Interchain is a Smart Contract which allows Dragonchain blockchains to connect with external blockchains. The interchain is able to watch the transactions on a different chain and/or address of the user’s choice, firing smart contracts on Dragonchain or other public chains, moving tokens or currency on Dragonchain or other chains, and using a public chain for a transparent process.

How this might work is if a business has partners using various chains, such as Ethereum and NEO. Rather than having to launch on one chain or the other to allow interoperability, the business can simply launch on Dragonchain and "watch" both chains for the data it needs.

By using Dragonchain, businesses have much more control over their data, but their blockchains will still be able to Interchain with, say, NEO, and do everything that NEO can do.

The Dragonchain Marketplace

The Marketplace is a one-stop shop to help support developers launching on Dragonchain. If developers or teams don't have the expertise to develop their own blockchain, the Marketplace is where they can find the expertise they need.

Developers can buy or sell pre-built smart contracts, which can greatly reduce development time and improve speed to market. Contracts could be anything from currency contracts to interchain smart contracts. Each smart contract must be vetted by Dragonchain Certified Professionals in order to be in the Marketplace.

It's also a place where teams can solicit advice, consults and other related blockchain products.

Read more here.

Dragonscale

Dragonscale is the re-launch of Dragonchain's incubator, and serves as a hub that connects blockchain businesses with the investors, resources, and service providers they need to be successful.

They are able to pitch to incubators partnered with Dragonchain and request support from industry experts. If they wish to launch and ICO or seek traditional funding, they can also do that via Dragonscale partners.

Read more here.

dragonchain token (metrics and utility)

Metrics:

The Dragonchain ICO ended on November 2 2017, raising 13.7 million.

433,494,437 tokens were issued. This is also the hard cap.

The distribution was as follows:

Public - 55% (238,421,940 tokens)
Team - 20% (86,698,887 tokens)
Foundation - 10% (43,349,444 tokens)
Dragonchain Inc to be kept in reserves - 10% (43,349,444 tokens)
Dragonscale - 5% (21,674,722 tokens)

Team tokens are vested monthly over two years.

Utility:

Dragon tokens are intended to be a tokenised micro-license. This gives holders the right to access the ecosystem.

Developers and businesses will use Dragons to use the commercial platform and services, such as launch nodes, provision smart contracts, access the incubator and so on.

Dragons also accumulate DDSS (Dragon Days of Slumber Score). The longer you hold your Dragons, the higher your DDSS rises. DDSS can be used to:

• Run L1-L5 nodes for rewards from securing the Dragonchain network
• Access controls for apps built on Dragonchain
• Access to the commercial platform
• Discounts in the marketplace
• Rent to others so they can use your DDSS
• Get early access to ICOs in the incubator

The dragonchain Community

Dragonchain is not represented heavily in traditional crypto channels. It's reddit has 5.5k followers and it has 11k members in its Telegram channel.

It's Twitter is slightly more engaged with with 76k followers.

The company updates the community regular on its blog.

The Dragonchain Foundation is a non-profit founded to oversee development of Dragonchain. They launched Dragonchain Academy in 2018 in order to educate people on Dragonchain and blockchain, and certify developers in the community.

Dragonchain is aiming to solve an obvious problem in the blockchain community which is ease-of-use.

Currently developers need to learn new coding languages and architectures to deploy solutions. 

Dragonchain is creating a platform where developers can continue to code in the languages they know and deploy a blockchain reasonably easily.

It's a good idea, and they have made impressive progress on their roadmap.

One risk factor is lack of a strong community. Platforms need a good backing of vocal users and investors to drive adoption. Dragonchain does not have this, possibly because their target is very niche, compared to say, a regular currency coin.

The other thing I'm not convinced about is the utility of the coin. It can be used for several things, but they're all only loosely related, and I'm not sure how price volatility reflects that. Dragonchain also lacks a mainnet, which is by intention, however that means their token remains an ERC20. That means the utility of the coin, or at least some of it, is manufactured. Dragonchain could simply charge for all services in USD and most of the platform will still operate, albeit with slightly less features. Even deployed blockchains are currency agnostic, meaning they can operate without Dragons. That means the utility of the coin is not embedded in the platform itself. Compare this to a token like ETH, where if ETH disappears, the entire platform is useless. 

Dragonchain definitely serves a niche, but lack of a community means adoption may be slow. If the product is superior it can catch on, but I think there are better investments to be made elsewhere. 

The Good Stuff

• Serves a niche and solves a common problem.
• Great marketing and branding.
• Team is good.

The Bad Stuff

• Token utility is not straightforward.
• Lacks a strong community.
• Maybe too niche for strong returns.

How To Buy dragonchain In New Zealand

The only place you can currently buy Dragonchain is on Kucoin.

WHITEPAPER: https://dragonchain.com/dd6d7a464346349a6659b8c1075e6772.pdf
WEBSITE: https://dragonchain.com/
BLOG: https://medium.com/@dragonchain
REDDIT: https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonchain
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/dragonchaingang
BUY WITH NZD: Buy BTC with EasyCrypto or Independent Reserve, send to Kucoin to buy DRGN.

1. Dragonscale update: https://medium.com/@dragonchain/dragonscale-blockchain-resources-incubators-and-startup-funds-79fe461b47d3
2. Introducing the Dragonchain marketplace: https://medium.com/@dragonchain/introducing-the-dragonchain-marketplace-bringing-together-products-and-services-on-the-blockchain-4b1c04abbcb3
3. Dragonscale homepage: https://www.dragonscale.io/
4. Cryptstorm Dragonchain Guide: https://cryptstorm.com/beginners-guide-understanding-dragonchain/
5. Dragonchain ICO: https://www.coindesk.com/dragonchain-ico-13-7-million-disney-roots
6. Dragonchain price update: https://www.bitcoinmarketjournal.com/dragonchain-price/
7. Dragonchain fundamental analysis: https://www.reddit.com/r/drgn/comments/7zrk11/dragonchain_fundamental_analysis/