Sunny King was interviewed by a PHD student from the Crypto Capitalism Center. The interview took place on July 6th, 2016.
Sunny King: hi ying-ying
Ying-Ying: Hello!
Ying-Ying: Should I just call you Sunny? 
Sunny King: sure
Ying-Ying: Thanks for taking the time for the interview!
Sunny King: do you mind if we chat a bit freely
Ying-Ying: sure
Sunny King: probably wonāt be able to answer everything listed in the guide
Sunny King: i am actually quite interested about your group
Ying-Ying: did you have a look at the CCC website?
Sunny King: yes a bit
Ying-Ying: We are studying blockchain from a business/ economics/ social perspectiveā¦
Sunny King: I like the work of your group that tries to look at the new technology from all points of view
Ying-Ying: Thanks. Not many people in business schools are doing this at the moment.
Sunny King: let me introduce myself a bit, I am actually developer of both peercoin and primecoin
Ying-Ying: So, I study trust and legitimacy of CC platforms, and hopefully I can connect it to the FinTech and DAO phenomena.
Ying-Ying: cool!
Ying-Ying: How did you get involved in cryptocurrencies in the first place?
Sunny King: the two cryptocurrencies are actually kinda connected, in the sense that it both attempts to solve the energy consumption issue of bitcoin
Ying-Ying: Could you tell me more?
Sunny King: oh bitcoin was pretty hot already in 2011
Sunny King: i remember the first leg up to $40 in 2011 was reported by wallstreet
Ying-Ying: exactly
Sunny King: i actually heard it earlier than that, but it was those news in 2011 made me look at it more seriously
Ying-Ying: Were you a bitcoin miner back then?
Sunny King: not really
Sunny King: i was then talking to a friend about it
Sunny King: about bitcoinās design
Ying-Ying: sure
Sunny King: eventually in late 2011 we began a research group to study alternative designs to bitcoin
Ying-Ying: Were you involved in bitcoin in anyway?
Ying-Ying: How many people were there in your group?
Sunny King: i was not involved in bitcoin development, no
Sunny King: basically two of us, but another friend also was in the meetings
Ying-Ying: all developers, I guess?
Sunny King: the there came the project peercoin, the ideas that there is no need really to consume all these energy
Sunny King: so peercoin was born with also proof-of-stake consensus system
Ying-Ying: Itās a hybrid as far as I know, correct?
Sunny King: yes itās designed to be hybrid with peercoin, but to be more precise the consensus system is pure proof-of-stake
Sunny King: proof-of-work is only used for initial distribution
Ying-Ying: I seeā¦ so now peercoin is pure PoS
Sunny King: the distribution is meant for many years so it still has PoW mining
Sunny King: but many fork project already disables PoW and use a different issuance (like stocks)
Ying-Ying: it makes senseā¦
Ying-Ying: so why created two coins? Whatās the motivation?
Sunny King: I guess I am a technology kinda person, likes to try different things
Sunny King: we released peercoin in August 2012, then in march of 2013, i thought about another way to do PoW
Sunny King: like mining prime numbers
Ying-Ying: so itās like an experimentā¦ sort ofā¦ how did it turn out?
Sunny King: it was interesting thoughts as nobody could come up with a mining system that generates byproducts
Sunny King: yes still keeping bitcoinās properties
Ying-Ying: exactly!
Sunny King: i did, so there you got primecoin, I releaseded it in July 2013
Sunny King: i am quite proud about these two projects
Ying-Ying: Do they differ a lot in design philosophy, target audienceā¦etc.?
Sunny King: in my opinion they were better work than my career work
Sunny King: from a technology point of view
Ying-Ying: ha ha!!
Ying-Ying: Yes, it is really amazing how you created these platforms!
Sunny King: they were both designed as currency, different audience, maybe
Ying-Ying: Are they being maintained by the same developer group?
Sunny King: as thoese are experimental tech, you never know, more is better
Sunny King: if one fails, the other might not
Ying-Ying: Of course, you I know, but are other people involved in both as well?
Sunny King: we have a community at peercointalk.org
Sunny King: yes there are quite a few members and developers, including me
Ying-Ying: Whatās the composition of it? developers? miners? enthusiasts?
Sunny King: guess all of them
Sunny King: as you can see, i am more focused on the tech side of things
Sunny King: though I am kinda interested to hear from you people on social economic side
Ying-Ying: I can send you a copy of my research draft once itās doneā¦ : )
Ying-Ying: So why did you choose to remain anonymous? : )
Sunny King: in my view the bitcoin technology is kinda like gold
Sunny King: a form of digital gold
Sunny King: though there is some significant difference
Sunny King: it has better monetary property than gold in some aspects
Sunny King: but it also lacks the domination of gold, that is, gold has actually no competition in the physical world (commodity)
Sunny King: so bitcoin will be subject to tech competitions, unlike gold
Ying-Ying: exactly.
Sunny King: but still, i believe the experiment has already shown that it is indeed a new form of money
Ying-Ying: In addition, the fact that it is not physically tangible could mean something cognitively different to people.
Ying-Ying: More like money than gold then?
Sunny King: the reason some of us chose to be semi anonymous, of course ,
Sunny King: of course the idea is controversial in that
Sunny King: governments of the world have been on fiat for over a century now
Sunny King: maybe they wouldnāt be quite open to the idea that gold, in a different reincarnation
Ying-Ying: they are certainly still trying to make sense of it!
Ying-Ying: How does anonymity of developers affect the perceived trustworthiness? (or does it have any other effects at all?)
Sunny King: but so far the development in the past few years, i am also optimistic
Sunny King: i think peeople have been quite open to the new ideas
Ying-Ying: could you elaborate on that? examples?
Sunny King: not always pinning it down to the negative side
Sunny King: of course we all hear about these negative news
Sunny King: like some bad guy demanding ransom in bitcoin, or trading drugs in bitcoin , and so on
Sunny King: but now more people are welcoming the technology it brings
Sunny King: so this blockchain technology could also bring us more than anonymous currencies
Ying-Ying: yeah, association with bitcoin vs association with blockchain makes a difference!
Sunny King: for example DAO you mentioned, but possibly even more
Sunny King: so I think there were many more tech people open to this ideas than a couple years ago
Ying-Ying: But it just got negative publicity ā¦ too badā¦
Sunny King: I think iam also proud in the sense,
Sunny King: that I have contributed in the key tech to enable these new applications of blockchain
Ying-Ying: What do you think was the problem of the DAO? Is it the codeās problem or deeper (e.g., to do with the ethereum platform)
Sunny King: PoS enables DAO
Sunny King: DAO is a concept that blockchain can be used to manage an organization
Sunny King: ethereum is just one platform trying to implementing it
Sunny King: in our community we had a project called peershare also
Sunny King: I heard vitalik also realizeds the importance of PoS and wants to upgrade ethereum to PoS
Sunny King: PoS enables DAO in the sense that it no longer depends on mining
Ying-Ying: yes, I read about it yesterdayā¦
Sunny King: so basically every organization can run their own blockchain without the need to worry about mining power
Ying-Ying: so would you say PoS is more secure and more trustworthy in general?
Sunny King: itās huge savings for the DAO economy
Sunny King: I think they are close right now in terms of security, but PoSās economic advantage is huge
Ying-Ying: more efficient I guess? How about stability?
Sunny King: stability is related to engineering, PoS algorithm is more complex i can agree
Sunny King: I think it would keep improving
Ying-Ying: definitely!
Ying-Ying: whatās your view on decentralization in general then?
Sunny King: itās kinda like a double edge sword
Ying-Ying: how so?
Sunny King: itās more resistant to censorship, to oppressions
Sunny King: but itās also can be a tool for bad people
Ying-Ying: but do you really think complete decentralization is achievable?
Sunny King: so i think , the future of the tech is more dependent on people being more open minded to this new tech
Ying-Ying: For example, developers still have huge power and control over cryptocurrenciesā¦
Sunny King: probably not just developers, you would see corporations owning lots of blockchains in the future I think
Sunny King: probably would be hard to see ācomplete decentralizationā
Ying-Ying: they are already doing this in houseā¦
Sunny King: a healthy competition between blockchains would already provide a lot of the benefits you are looking for
Ying-Ying: perhaps become something like the internet?
Ying-Ying: how do you define a āhealthy competitionā?
Sunny King: internet is hardly decentralized in my opinion
Sunny King: healthy meaning no artifical barrier to new competitions
Ying-Ying: perfect competition in economic terms I guessā¦
Sunny King: at least right now i think itās reasonably healthy
Ying-Ying: So which other coins do you consider comparable or competitors of peercoin?
Sunny King: ethereum looks pretty good, maybe ripple, and so on
Sunny King: some coins are focused on social and business aspects, i look at projects with technological merits
Sunny King: btw vitalik used to be a big fan of primecoin
Ying-Ying: nice!
Sunny King: he was a writer for bitcoin magazine when primecoin was release in July 2013
Ying-Ying: can I find the article online?
Ying-Ying: I mean what he wrote about primecoinā¦
Sunny King: sure, he probably stayed up the whole night right after primecoinās release date, published a wonderful article on the second morning
Sunny King: i have a link somewhere
Ying-Ying: perhaps you can email me later once you find itā¦
Ying-Ying: back to what you said about focusing on technological merits, who do you (or peercoin) try to appeal to?
Sunny King: try search for primecoin-the-cryptocurrency-whose-mining-is-actually-useful
Ying-Ying: In other words, who are your target audience?
Sunny King: maybe not on bitcoin magazine site anymore
Sunny King: we didnāt try to appeal to a certain segment
Sunny King: it was designed as a currency, with properties tuned for currency
Ying-Ying: Found it, thanks!
Ying-Ying: still a bitcoin mag site!
Sunny King: ok
Ying-Ying: same for primecoin? no target audience?
Ying-Ying: What properties did you look at so that it was tuned for currency?
Sunny King: first there were no stock-like issuance
Sunny King: so all the coins created were mined
Sunny King: there is also consideration between supply growth vs network security
Ying-Ying: you mean no token issuance?
Sunny King: right
Ying-Ying: I seeā¦ why currency in the first place?
Sunny King: back then there werenāt people doing stock issuance yet
Sunny King: also it was generally regarded as shady if you āpremineā a bunch of coins
Sunny King: After PoS with peercoin, some more serious token issuance projects came later on
Ying-Ying: i seeā¦ I donāt understand the logic of āpremineā thoughā¦
Ying-Ying: How would you evaluate a cryptocurrency then? from the lens of trust
Sunny King: āpremineā is similar to issuance, just a different name when it was practiced on a PoW blockchain
Sunny King: evaluate?
Ying-Ying: yes, evaluate how successful a coin is
Ying-Ying: as if you were the user
Sunny King: it was just like a stock market, everyone has different views on different aspects of projects
Ying-Ying: how about from the technologyās perspective?
Sunny King: i mainly observe any innovations in the tech
Sunny King: but of course thatās only part of it, whether it would be successful itās anyoneās guess
Ying-Ying: of courseā¦ for example economic research looks at the returns of cryptocurrenciesā¦
Ying-Ying: I want to look at survival and growthā¦
Sunny King: maybe you are looking from a macro economic point-of-view
Sunny King: then i ma all ears
Sunny King: i can only look at monetary side
Sunny King: bitcoin has been stellar in that aspect in the past few years
Sunny King: volatility is lower than many national currencies in the past two years
Ying-Ying: interestingā¦ itās counter-intuitiveā¦
Sunny King: it was staying around $400 for a long time
Sunny King: it just means itās maturing as a currency
Sunny King: i probably should wrap things up now
Sunny King: itās a great pleasure chatting with you today
Ying-Ying: sure, itās great talking to you!
Sunny King: feel free to drop me email now and then
Ying-Ying: Is it ok to email you for future questions?
Sunny King: of course
Ying-Ying: Thanks!
Ying-Ying: Have a great day (or eveningā¦ : ))
Sunny King: do you wish me to keep the interview private?
Ying-Ying: Is it going anywhere?
Ying-Ying: I thought thatās my questionā¦ ha ha : )
Sunny King: maybe sharing with my friends, or on our forum
Sunny King: but if you prefer it private conversation i wouldnāt
Ying-Ying: I donāt see any problem with thatā¦
Sunny King: forum is public though
Sunny King: would that be an issue?
Ying-Ying: Would love to see peopleās reactionsā¦ is it the peercoin forum?
Sunny King: yes
Ying-Ying: as long as there isnāt a phd student there stealing my ideaā¦ : )
Sunny King: lol
Ying-Ying: How about you? How should I quote your words?
Sunny King: feel free to quote me no problem
Ying-Ying: sure!
Sunny King: Nice chat and see ya around
Ying-Ying: Thanks again for the interview-- letās keep in touch!
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