How Krown Technologies is addressing quantum threats to Bitcoin

0:00I'm Ashen Addison from the Cryptocoin Show and today on blockchain interviews we have James Stevens, CEO of Crown Technologies here to talk about a variety of topics including quantum threats to Bitcoin blockchain forensics and so much more. James, welcome to the show and thanks for taking the time. >> Ashton, thank you so much for having me. Excited to be here.

0:22>> Yeah, excited to dive into quantum. I think a lot of people they keep hearing about it and we're we're wondering is it a threat to Bitcoin to blockchains? When is it a threat? Uh and I know you have a lot of those insights uh and what you and your team have been building with Crown Network as well. We can dive into that. I'd love to start out with a

0:42little bit on on your background and your experience in in blockchain and forensics and then how that led into Crown Technologies and then we can dive into all the details. >> Sure. Absolutely. Well, again, thank you for having me. Um, so I've spent about the last uh 10 years now in crypto, DeFi, and blockchain. Uh, what led to me really wanting to uh get into get into

1:06it further was, you know, I've worked on projects before. I've worked in the background. Uh, looked at the security side of things as well. And uh, for me, it was really about uh, number one, I was the the victim of an attack as well and and a theft um, of my digital assets. So that was really one part of it was I wanted to uh build something. I had enough experience in the field. I

1:28wanted to build something of my own. Um and I I could see the quantum thread on the horizon at that point. Now this was about four years ago. So uh and it was something I spoke about something I really got passionate about. And you know, people used to laugh at me, you know, three or four years ago, they'd be like, "Oh, that's nothing." But and now here we are, right? And so, uh, I've

1:46seen the I've seen the good that we can do with technology and in crypto and I've seen unfortunately the bad and it's gotten a bad stigma. Uh, so for me, uh, it was really, uh, focusing on what can we do good, how can we increase transparency and the honesty, right, integrity of of of the teams, and then also, uh, the security. Um, so that was really that was really what led me into

2:07it. Um, I've always been wanting to do something of my own, but uh, that's how that's how Crown was founded and and why. >> Yeah, security is so important, especially with so many new entrance, uh, not just retail investors and, you know, older generations also now getting involved in Bitcoin and other digital assets, but enterprises and ones that have billions of dollars. Of course,

2:29they're have want to have a huge focus also on security. Um can how is did that personal experience and just the experience of understanding security and then where quantum fits in grow into crown network and maybe can just talk a little bit about what crown network does. >> Yeah, sure. So ju just kind of give you an overview of the crown network. So the

2:51crown network um is the it's built from scratch uh for postquantum cryp uh cryptography. It's for for quantum protection, right? And it's not something that's uh patched in. And it's not something that oh we've already built our chain. It's not like a legacy chain where you know you're going to have to go back and completely revamp things security-wise. But uh again it

3:10was it was really formed out of the need for security and seeing over the horizon of what's to come. Um so that's what really led into the crown network. Now it is the largest it will be the largest um ecosystem and blockchain in the world. It will be basically like you can imagine a faster cheaper uh larger Ethereum. with regard to the ecosystem. It's going to have uh 32 products uh in

3:34the ecosystem itself. This does no, we're not talking about DAP creation and things like that where you can build on our chain because you can definitely do that as well. Uh but what we're talking about is uh crown products and services that are are and work within the chain itself. So a lot of people ask me what how how can you explain it to me like

3:50you know in 10 or 15 seconds and I tell them I said okay imagine I mean this is the best I could do with it but imagine uh the human body and that is the that's the crown chain itself right and inside all of our bodies we have organs and our organs feed our body and that's what keeps us alive well that's what sustains the crown chain is the ecosystem what

4:09we've done is we've built uh all of these products we're building them inside the chain and every one of them give back to the native coin so it helps increase its value. It's holds its floor and and it creates that it creates really a type of wealth for investors. Um and you know obviously I can't give any financial advice on that but uh it there's an opportunity there for

4:29investors um that invest in Crowncoin itself. So again, it's just really like an ecosystem that gives back and it sel it sustains itself because a lot of the um a lot of the revenue streams or revenue channels from each product, a certain percentage of that goes back into buying back into the crown coin itself. >> So that's how it works. Um if you like I

4:50say that's how I say it is you can imagine the human body and the the organs. So def definitely and there's so many moving parts and I feel like making uh a little bit of a comparison to Ethereum helps paint a good picture because uh when you say you know there's 32 systems it's like oh my god it's going to be so overwhelming I'm going to have to take a whole four-year course to

5:11understand it all. But people understand Ethereum has the potential to be the world computer and there's not a lot of of these systems that you're talking about that are built in. It's all just like go for it whoever you want build a decentralized application that does this. It's a little bit chaotic and especially when they moved from the proof of work to proof of stake. They

5:32were saying it's like an airplane flying midair taking out the engine and putting in a new engine and hoping it's still flying. Uh and I know that Crown Network is also in proof of stake. Could you paint a little bit of a better picture in >> how Ethereum works right now and how Crown will work similarly and what's different? >> Yeah. So, so with Ethereum as a layer

5:53one. So, as with Ethereum, you're able to build what's called uh create a DAP or build DAPs or coins, things like that, smart contracts uh onto their chain and you're instantly you can instantly launch onto the chain after you built your smart contract or your DAP. Um we work in the same way. The difference is is that with crown you have a you have a foundational uh

6:17security standard and which is um we use the native we have native quantum random number generators or QRNGs. Um so and that's a proprietary product that that's built into it. We also have six other layers of postquantum cryptography or PQC. All of these pieces fit in a way that make it the most secure network in the world and they all sit at their strengths whether it's Delithium or a

6:40Kyber or whatever it may be. Um all of the signature validations every one of these are built uh to thwart a quantum attack. Um so for us uh and including also the validators um you know they're secured at multiple cryptographic layers um and the entire infrastructure itself uh it's it's designed with a quantum secure foundation. So it's not like, you

7:00know, like you were you referenced to the the plane mid-flight and then having to replace an engine. Yeah, it is like that. It's it's a nightmare. It is an absolute nightmare. Uh but for us, we built it from the ground up that way. I think the timing was perfect for us part of that. But uh really the understanding in the industry of what's needed, where

7:18are the liabilities, where are the vulnerabilities at, right? Um so we got lucky in that part of it. But yes, it is it is that it is complicated. Anybody can really throw in an algo, throw in a PQC algo, but to to make sure that it works in the way it does. It sits where it string set its flow process, you know, the the communication or the birectional communication uh lines,

7:40they're protected as well. Every juncture is protected. That is a completely different ballgame. And that's how Crown is built from the ground up. >> I'd love to talk more about quantum attacks and quantum resistance. So what is there a way to quantify, you know, how big of a threat is quantum attacks to to Bitcoin or to Ethereum or to to blockchain as a whole?

8:06>> I get asked this all the time and I love the question. The problem is is that it's almost unquantifi to quantify. I don't even know how to and I can't and I always have trouble with this question, but I love the question. you know, they ask me one of the one of the questions I get is um are are quantum attacks going to be a threat to like Bitcoin or the other chains?

8:27>> And the answer is absolutely. Um it's >> Bitcoin Bitcoin and a lot of most of the legacy uh blockchains, they use what's called an elliptic curve cryptography. >> Uh and it's vulnerable to uh to a quantum attack or an algorithm like Shores. It's called Shores algorithm. uh one but that that can only happen once the the quantum computers are scalable

8:48and we we can figure out the fall tolerance but um the threat you know now is not they asked me is this in theory and I'm like no I'm like it's it's definitely not theoretical you know it's actually inevitable so the question is when um not if on that right >> yeah no I think it's it's an important distinction that obviously there there's such thing as quantum attacks they can

9:10attack Bitcoin but to know exactly when that might happen and when the quantum technology is capable of doing that is anybody's guess. >> It is and but but you know here's the thing though that we're seeing. So I it wasn't maybe I don't think maybe 6 months ago 6 or 12 months ago they're saying it's 6 to 8 10 years on the horizon right but because of the

9:31exponential right because of the exponential um processing power and because we don't truly know the quantum power um now they've moved it up to okay well we're we're at three years now. Okay, when we're now we're possibly 18 months, right? This timeline is going to absolutely shrink to a point where we're like, okay, it's already here. Qday is already here.

9:52>> And now what are you going to do at that point, right? Because you have harvest now, decrypt later where we're gathering all all of this data or or bad state actors or whoever um are gathering all of this data and they're harvesting it right now and then when the time comes to be able to that we can scale uh quantum computers, they're going to decrypt that later on, right? And if

10:10you're not ready for that, it's going to be an absolute nightmare. I mean, think about like people I get asked all the time, why is quantum resistance important um like for DeFi or for the future of DeFi. >> And for me, it's really like think about like this. So, so DeFi, it relies on what's called a public key or public key cryptography. Um without quantum

10:30resistance, those those private keys can be reverse engineered. Um and then they can figure out what those public keys are and that and and it can do it things like okay so just the other day not too long ago we had um we had a problem that was solved that was going to take super the fastest supercomput in the world I think it was I don't forget how many

10:49septillion years and it did it in >> what 5 hours or something and it I don't remember what it was but it was something crazy like that and so this is the threat that looms over us um you know it's it threatens smart contracts those are built those are like projects that are built on Ethereum uh liquidity pools, NFTTS, um everything. I mean, quantum

11:09resistance and the quantum resist resistance ensures longevity at least here. And you know, also trust and then you can have true digital ownership where you don't have to look up every night. I got I have people that that worry so much about their security that we're helping them now, but worry so much about their security that they're up at night, you know, they'll check

11:25their phone or check their wallets, you know, once a night or and three or four times during the day. So yes, it's absolutely a threat and and uh that's what crown was built for though. >> Yeah. No, I did see those articles about, you know, thousands of years of the computations are being done in like a day. Uh and the only explanation was that we're tapping into multiple

11:47universes, parallel universes, being able to compute at the same time. So I I don't think people understand how fast I don't even think we know how how fast it's going to grow. And as you said, they keep moving the timeline up. Uh, and you're sort of racing against the clock. And I I'm curious to know more about the timeline with Crown Network in understanding racing against the clock.

12:10Where exactly is the the core infrastructure with being in production and being able to start running those 32 organs of of the network? >> Yeah. So, great question. Uh, you have a lot of good questions, Ashton. Uh so the the the chain itself is part of a we wanted to build what's called an MVP package a minimally viable product package and in that package is the crown

12:33chain the native coin which it will be called crown uh you know like Ethereum has ETH crown has crown >> u and then also the crown wallet as well as the crown explorer which many of you may know is BSC scan or ETH scan whatever um so >> what we're doing is we're on we are on track for a September launch or test net launch of the chain and then for all of

12:54those four products there uh October is our timeline and we are on track for all of those. Um obviously we have to do a lot of uh thread analysis. We have to do our own audits. We have to do external audits and testing. Then we'll open that up to devs for testing uh as well. But it is on track and we're moving as fast as we can. But we have to do it in a way

13:13that is right. I always tell people they're like well we need we need to move fast. Yes, we need to move fast, but could you imagine the consequences if we moved fast and we put that over correct? We put that over, you know, so I always say measure measure twice, cut once, right? And that's that's what we're doing uh here. With regard to the products themselves, uh they are going

13:32to be trickled out as we begin the development, right? We have a couple of products that are already in development right now. One of those is a completely revol revolutionary wallet. It's called Castle. Starts with a Q. As you can imagine, it's a quantum resistant wallet. Um, and it's built for for quantum attacks. So, if you know, it's much safer than MetaMask and, uh, the

13:53others that are out there. Uh, also, we're working on our uh, quantum cold wallet, which we made that announcement with our partners at Quantum Emotion uh, a few months ago that the development is in progress now. So, those are on track. The Castle wallet is actually due 60 days about 60 days now. Um, yeah, about October, mid-occtober to be released.

14:13So, what we're going to do is we're going to get these products out, get them tested, make sure they're all working correctly, and then once we start once we feel like we have a good grasp of those, then we'll move on to the next when in future announcements uh will be made regarding the development. We do have what's called um if if anyone wants to keep up with that. Uh we have

14:31what's called crown meets. They're public meetings that people can attend where I bring I bring our team in of guests, things like that that are working on our products. Um and then we go over the progress and we answer questions, everything like that. So, it's like a big AMA plus a product reveal and demos as well. So, >> very cool. Looking forward to checking

14:49out that castle wallet. And I think that's super important. It's one thing to be messing around minting NFT or getting into liquidity pools in DeFi and you're actually interacting with smart contracts and there's potential threat actors there. But to just have your coins in your wallet in in cold storage or just on a mobile wallet, the potential for a quantum attack when

15:11you're not doing anything is of course your coins are always going to be in your wallet whether you're interacting with DeFi or you're just doing nothing. So that's super important. Uh we'd love to see uh how that works. And does that work with like the just Ethereum tokens or different coins? >> Yeah, thank you. Okay. So the so castle is like it will have the breadth of

15:37MetaMask trust wallet wallets like that phantom whatever. Um so you'll get Bitcoin you'll get Ethereum the entire network there you know Salana's uh BSC. So you're going to get the vast majority of coins that will be able to uh be held uh in our wallet. So yeah it's not going to be limited. A lot of people thought it was going to be limited. They were

15:55like oh you're only going to be able to hold Crown or you're only be able to hold Bitcoin and Crown. But no, we really wanted to make it accessible to everyone, right? As broad as possible because people need that security and we don't want to sit there and try to be like, "Okay, we're going to keep 80% of you out there in the wind." Um, but yeah, it's going to have a ton of them.

16:11>> Yeah. Well, the wallet's obviously important, but there's still a threat on the chain itself potentially if you know, Ethereum is not quantum resistant, attack proof, then uh they'll need to catch up to Crown in the future probably. >> Yeah, they'll need to catch up. But here's the problem is that and I get this a lot as well is that you know these are legacy chains and yet while

16:34you can go back and you can patch and you can you know you can put things in here or there in certain areas of communication when you have a chain that's completely built from the ground up and by the way it's built there is no template for this uh the way we're building this we're patenting it uh it's never been done before the the layers of of PQC the QRNG uh all of that has never

16:56been done before Right. But when you have a chain that is built from scratch, ground up for quantum era, uh it's just it's just a different it works in a little different way. It's uh >> we like to feel like it's a little bit more secure than what it would be to patch something in. And you can't really patch something in uh because in another year or two uh you're going to have

17:14quantum attacks that can recognize um certain things like that. So >> yeah. And with the complexity of of quantum computers, do you need quantum computers to build a quantum resistant uh chain or like how how do you understand how to fight against quantum attacks? >> Yeah, I think no you do not number one. Uh but certainly you need a team um that is senior level multiple people um that

17:43work together on this because that's what we have and we have a we have a a big a large team that works on not just that hasn't worked on just the cryptography part but has worked on you know building the chain and all that but uh you do not have to have a quantum computer you just need to understand security you need to understand how blockchains work and I think most

18:04importantly you need to understand how thieves work, how bad actors work, right? And once you understand that, you can look at you can do a threat analysis. You can look at where those where the the attacks may originate and why they would do that. The question is why and where. Um, so for us, we have a great team on board and they know exactly what they're doing. In fact,

18:24they've got about 40 years now combined between uh the four of them uh on this very subject. >> That's good to know. And earlier you mentioned uh out of different categories, you know, DeFi is of utmost importance for protecting from quantum attacks because if people aren't storing their funds in their wallet, they're often staking it or putting it in a

18:45liquidity pool to help trade uh and you know there's billions of dollars in uh value locked in DeFi on Ethereum and other chains right now. How is it possible to take the value locked in DeFi on Ethereum, Salana, etc. And you know is there compatibility between the chains or is there a way that we can make those quantum resistant or do they actually have to you know create a whole

19:10new DeFi ecosystem on crown network? >> They will have to do a ton of complex uh infrastructure rebuild. um they will have to now there is a niche um area that people are getting into or developers are trying to get into which is uh offering PQC AL algorithms things like that which are patches for this or that but they're not a they're not a whole fix um and with regard to how do

19:36we move u those sec those uh those tokens or those assets um you know we're going to be bridged so um and before anything anything can happen with regard to any chain that we bridge to the it will basically be like okay well you're coming from this bridge into into crown well welcome to the quantum era right so now everything that comes through there

19:58is going to be protected so as it comes through uh let's say as the transfer comes through uh it's checked and then it's validated and then then it goes through multiple BQC layers um and then after that's accepted into the chain then they can be on there and with uh no issues but um it's it's extremely resistant to we welcome All I like to say this, we welcome all coins and

20:19tokens uh but uh with the caveat of uh now you're going to operate on a different level. Now you're going to have a different type of security, right? So >> that's how that works. >> Definitely. And I wanted to touch a little bit more on the the crown token. You were saying how you know each of the organs of the system feeds back into the token and makes it sustainable. I know

20:41there's a proof ofstake ecosystem as well. So, I'm assuming you can stake it and there's probably a gas fee transaction similar to Ethereum. How else does the Crown token interact with the ecosystem and provide value? >> Yes. Yeah. So, we've integrated. So, yes, the Crown coin, the native coin of Crown Chain is in is the um basically the backbone for all of the the wealth

21:03that's built into it. Um so what you do is crown coin can be used in most if not all of our uh ecosystem products. Uh you can use obviously you on rail you can you can bring in uh others and and then convert those if you want to. Uh but whether it's from our gaming system you know our gaming platform that we're building which is massive. Um you can use things like in the game to purchase

21:27skins or whatever it may be you know barter things like that. Um, and then with regard to the others, you can pay for services, you can pay for new products, um, you can you can stake, whatever you want to do with the Crown coin, you can do it within the ecosystem itself. And like I said, it's such a an expansive and massive ecosystem. You really don't. The idea is that you don't

21:48have to leave Crown to enjoy the DeFi world. >> It's uh, it's everything from due diligence. There's a due diligence project called Crown Ranker. you can go and look at other projects before you even go there and try to do your due diligence because as we know it takes forever sometimes to try to figure out if these people are legit. Uh so you can do Crown Ranker, you can go to you can

22:09look at the latest news, you can do a swap, you can do, you know, there's there's so many different things that you can use. You can download some of our apps whether it's the castle or it's our four FSA. That's another one. It's a that's that's one that I invented. It's called four-factor synchronous authentication. Um it's built for new layer of security. So, um, everything

22:27that comes into those products, like the native coin or Bitcoin or Ethereum, whatever they're using to pay for the products or services, um, a certain percentage of all the profits go back into buybacks, uh, every month into into the coin itself. So, that's what helps hold the floor. That's what helps create the value. If you can imagine, I mean, what one of the quarterly financials

22:47just came out uh, for one of the chains and it was 700 million in profit. >> Uh, it's it's ridiculous, right? And so, and we're we're talking about we're talking about taking 10 to 15% of our profits and buying those back into uh Crown Coin. So, you can imagine that type of $100 million injection every month or every quarter, every quarter. >> Um, that's that's the plan and that's

23:12how we're going to build that wealth. So, >> it's very cool. Um, and you mentioned the test net's coming up. Can you give uh a recap on the short-term road map and then you know the medium term as you sort of fight against quantum attacks? Where do you hope to be when Qday comes? >> Well me looking at I'm constantly looking at Qday's ETA. I call it QTA but

23:38uh and it's it's always moving up because we really don't know. I mean we anyway until it unfortunately until it happens. Uh but in the next year what we want to do it and we'll be ready. We're going to be like I say October is our that's our that's really our deadline to have the chain and everything ready to go and we're on track for that. But test

23:56net uh mainet u we'll have flagship uh products as well like crown trade we'll have the 4SA we'll have castle uh crown pay we're working on crown pay. We'll also have a bank as well uh and then crown social. So, we're looking to have several of these products uh all set to go. But, as each one to answer your question, uh how are we getting ready for that? Again, by October, we'll be

24:18all set and launched. And then uh before each product is connected into the if you can imagine a puzzle, right? So, imagine a a circle puzzle. Each piece has to go in and fit, right? What we're doing is we're making sure we test it for quantum attack. We test it to make sure that all of the the lines of communication, the junctures are correct, um, and that they're secured.

24:39And then we go ahead and place it in. Then we test it again and make sure that that's correct and everything works the way it's supposed to. And then after that, we'll actually we'll beta and and go from there. Um, but in I would say in 3 to 5 years, um, we'll expand. I mean, it'll be a global adoption just because and in three to five years, you're you're in

24:58trouble. If you're just trying to build or if you're trying to hold on to your legacy chain, you're in trouble in three to five years. I'll tell you that right now. So uh but we're looking to on board millions of people to and they can remember it's all about for us it's about security >> and then it's also about efficiency and and rewards for for the users. So um but

25:17that's where I think we'll be right now. We're really focused on that launch of of the chain and the coin. Uh and then we're going to go from there. But it's very methodical in how we do it step by step. We know how each one's going to talk to each other and where they'll where they will sit on the chain. >> Very interesting, James. And for people that want to follow along with these

25:35updates and also getting involved, is it possible to get involved right now or how can people support and interact with the project as it grows? >> Yeah, great great question. So, the answer is yes, they can get involved. Um, you can go to crown.network. That's our website for Crown for the Crown Network. And, uh, you can actually go in and create an account. You can,

25:57uh, connect your wallet if you want. We have the pre-sale going on right now. It's actually uh it's going to be done in about uh four to five week four to 6 weeks. Uh the pre-sale will be over with uh but it is filling up fast. You can join our Telegram group as well. That's uh Crown Network. Pretty much everything whether it's our X.com account, LinkedIn, all of that is at Crown

26:17Network. So, u if you go to like just type in Crown Network on Google or anywhere else and you'll be able to see everywhere. But you can create an account, you can connect your wallet, and there's a dashboard that you can go to and you can see all kinds of information. You have certain layers of of certain levels, right? Certain tiers uh that you hold everything from and and

26:36this goes back to like the Camelot days into the, you know, the medieval times, but uh you can start out as a squire and you can work your way all the way up to a prince. All right? And each one of those each one of those tiers that you work up to, whether it's viscount or whatever it may duke, u each one of those have certain types of benefits, whether it's receiving free crowncoin,

26:54whether it's receiving free tickets to events, um to the Camelot gayla, to the to the crown conference that's starting next year. Uh all of these things, you get all these types of rewards. Um and then you have the reward structure itself. So, which is things like merch and coin and you know, all of this. You get referral bonuses as well. So, there's a bunch inside the Crown Hub

27:14that you can just enjoy and really navigate and and just peruse around. >> Very cool. Very expansive ecosystem, James, and I'll leave those social links and the Crown Network platform links and everything in the social notes, social links below in the description. And uh I really appreciate your insights into Quantum and where we're at and Qday. Uh I'm I'm I I don't know if I can say I'm

27:38looking forward to it, but I'm like I'm I'm looking forward to learning more about uh what blockchain what needs to happen in blockchain to make sure that we're protected and that uh we can fight against uh any attacks and make sure that these decentralized ecosystems remain intact and prosper through the quantum days ahead. >> Yeah. real quick. I just I I think it's

28:02important that people understand that Crown was built out of a need. It was built out of a need of honesty and transparency and integrity. I think once you have those core pillars, you can build whatever you want and you'll we know you're doing it right. We know that it's honest. We know that it's built for people uh in a good way, right? And the final thing is is that Crown is also a

28:23goodwill u company. Crown Technologies, we're going to take a part of our Crown charities is we're going to take a percentage of all of our profits and we're going to give back. And what that looks like is determined by the community. The community gets to vote on projects, things like that that they want to do. And uh so we're going to do everything we can to do good with

28:41technology and to do good with the blessings that we've been given us. So, thank you so much. >> Nice to hear. Thank you so much, James. Yep.