{"id":"xinshu-dong","version":1,"language":"en","title":"Xinshu Dong","hidden":false,"content":"**Xinshu Dong** is a software developer and co-founder of [Zilliqa](https://iq.wiki/wiki/zilliqa), a high-transaction throughput [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain). He is also the co-founder of RockX, a [Staking](https://iq.wiki/wiki/staking)-as-a-Service platform. [\\[1\\]](#cite-id-e1t2iug6bz9)$$widget0 [YOUTUBE@VID](Pn-QL8qW0T4)$$  \n  \n# Education  \n  \nXinshu received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the National University of Singapore. [\\[1\\]](#cite-id-e1t2iug6bz9)  \n  \n# Career  \n  \nDong started his [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) career as a researcher at the National University of Singapore. During this time, Xinshu contributed to a [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) project with the Singapore Stock Exchange as the technical lead. While developing use cases for the private [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) network, Xinshu realized the significance of transitioning to the public [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) sphere in mid-2017. [\\[1\\]](#cite-id-e1t2iug6bz9)[\\[2\\]](#cite-id-z1x79wm58ca)  \n  \n> “I was working on building use cases for the private [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) network and in the middle of 2017, I recognised the importance of scaling up into the public [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) space. That’s when I made the switch.”  \n  \nDong joined [Prateek Saxena](https://iq.wiki/wiki/prateek-saxena) and [Max Kantelia](https://iq.wiki/wiki/max-kantelia) at Anquan Capital, where he assumed the role of head of engineering. However, the team at Anquan realized they needed a scalable [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) platform. In June 2017, Dong, [Saxena](https://iq.wiki/wiki/prateek-saxena), [Kantelia](https://iq.wiki/wiki/max-kantelia), [Amrit Kumar](https://iq.wiki/wiki/amrit-kumar), and Juzar Motiwalla founded [Zilliqa](https://iq.wiki/wiki/zilliqa). [\\[2\\]](#cite-id-z1x79wm58ca)$$widget0 [YOUTUBE@VID](fJ6yRR07noc)$$  \n  \n# Interviews  \n  \n## Building Zilliqa  \n  \nIn June 2018, Tech In Asia interviewed Dong about how the team at [Zilliqa](https://iq.wiki/wiki/zilliqa) got started. The interview was right after [Zilliqa](https://iq.wiki/wiki/zilliqa) reached the $1 billion market cap. Dong commented: [\\[3\\]](#cite-id-en7vnw2vy2h)  \n  \n> “Hitting the billion-dollar mark is nice, but it has never been our priority. I see it as a natural consequence of what we have been working on at [Zilliqa](https://iq.wiki/wiki/zilliqa), and that number is just a way to represent the confidence people have in us.”  \n  \nHe then discussed what it was like to turn [Saxena’s](https://iq.wiki/wiki/prateek-saxena) research paper on sharding into a real project: [\\[3\\]](#cite-id-en7vnw2vy2h)  \n  \n> “A research paper in computer science is about 10 to 15 pages, written about the researcher’s immediate scope of work. It can be a starting point, but it’s not meant to be a solution that can be readily applied in the real world…In a public [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain), we have very adversarial circumstances where any [node](https://iq.wiki/wiki/node) can be malicious, with up to one-third of the [nodes](https://iq.wiki/wiki/node) being arbitrarily malicious. Existing building blocks are not necessarily designed for these hostile environments. As such, there are many things you need to strengthen and change when you want to borrow and apply those ideas.”  \n  \nWhen asked about what contributed to Zilliqa’s success, Dong shared three main factors, starting with the team: [\\[3\\]](#cite-id-en7vnw2vy2h)  \n  \n> “The areas of expertise at its foundation are networking, distributed systems, cybersecurity, and cryptography. In our team, we have almost 100 percent coverage on all these areas to build a good [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) protocol. We’re really fortunate to have been able to assemble such a team…I believe it’s more about having analytical skills. We can sit down and look at the protocols, propose different ideas and critique each other until we reach a point where we can show very rigorously that we have a solution that is fast, scalable, and secure.”  \n  \nThe second factor was the strong support from the community: [\\[3\\]](#cite-id-en7vnw2vy2h)  \n  \n> “We had a website, wrote some articles, and that was it. We also had some early backers who might have spread the word to their friends and communities.”  \n  \nThe third factor was not bandwagoning or using [airdrops](https://iq.wiki/wiki/airdrop): [\\[3\\]](#cite-id-en7vnw2vy2h)  \n  \n> “We don’t jump on bandwagons. Since our early days, we have been open to ideas on how to do things, but we always had our independent assessment before making decisions. We think about solutions very carefully and go with the one that we believe is most feasible. This applies not just for technical development, but in all other aspects, like community building, business development, and marketing…We’re willing to make that sacrifice, because we don’t want to jump or rush into things before we know how to do it well.”  \n  \nAt the end of the interview, Dong shared advice for future [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) startups: [\\[3\\]](#cite-id-en7vnw2vy2h)  \n  \n> “All blockchain startups should start with a clear mission. It doesn’t have to be a completely new idea, but it has to be of value to the ecosystem. Otherwise, others will think you are just trying to ride out the hype, and this can quickly be destructive to your credibility and reputation.”  \n  \nLater, in March 2019, Praying Mantis, a decentralized AI platform, interviewed Dong about [Zilliqa’s](https://iq.wiki/wiki/zilliqa) vision and focus on scalability. Dong started with what he wanted [Zilliqa](https://iq.wiki/wiki/zilliqa) to be: [\\[2\\]](#cite-id-z1x79wm58ca)  \n  \n> “My vision is to make [Zilliqa](https://iq.wiki/wiki/zilliqa) a de-facto platform of choice, for people wanting to build high-throughput, high-scalability applications. The vision is also to develop [Zilliqa](https://iq.wiki/wiki/zilliqa) into a general platform serving cross-industry purposes and needs. To begin with, we are focused on specific sectors, to demonstrate that concrete use cases can be built on [Zilliqa](https://iq.wiki/wiki/zilliqa).”  \n  \nHe then discussed how [Zilliqa](https://iq.wiki/wiki/zilliqa) uses [sharding](https://iq.wiki/wiki/sharding) as its scalability solution and also explained the latency issues: [\\[2\\]](#cite-id-z1x79wm58ca)  \n  \n> “[Sharding](https://iq.wiki/wiki/sharding) does not make latency a bigger problem, nor [sharding](https://iq.wiki/wiki/sharding) is a solution to latency. It maintains the status quo. To understand latency, we need to look at the fundamentals. [Blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) networks are slower than centralised solutions. This is a feature of the [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) networks. [Blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) uses redundancy to achieve better resilience, security and decentralisation. The cost of having redundancy is higher latency. However, keeping the experience of the application users, there are options to improve on the latency. For example, user confirmations can be given much faster compared to the actual latency of the blocks.”  \n  \nHe also shared advice to people looking to join the [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) community: [\\[2\\]](#cite-id-z1x79wm58ca)  \n  \n> “Now is the best time for everyone to be humbled to learn. This applies not only to people on-the-fence, but also [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) advocates. The hype is high, and this is a future technology. The people on-the-fence are also going to be very useful, because they provide the criticism and going to ask critical questions for people like us to address, before they are going to be convinced. My advice for them is to engage with us and have dialogue with us. Let us know your exact concerns and issues in adopting [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) technology. This will help us improve the technology to help with their use cases.”","summary":"Xinshu Dong is a software developer, co-founder of blockchain Zilliqa and RockX, and a blockchain researcher at the National University of Singapore.","categories":[{"id":"people","title":"People in crypto"}],"promoted":0,"tags":[{"id":"Founders"},{"id":"Developers"},{"id":"PeopleInDeFi"}],"metadata":[{"id":"references","value":"[{\"id\":\"e1t2iug6bz9\",\"url\":\"https://www.techerati.com/expert/xinshu-dong/\",\"description\":\"Xinshu Dong | Techerati\",\"timestamp\":1712944613054},{\"id\":\"z1x79wm58ca\",\"url\":\"https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/conversation-xinshu-dong-ceo-zilliqa-blockchain-vijay-raghunathan/\",\"description\":\"Interview with Praying Mantis | LinkedIn\",\"timestamp\":1712944732771},{\"id\":\"en7vnw2vy2h\",\"url\":\"https://www.techinasia.com/team-academics-built-billiondollar-blockchain-startup-singapore\",\"description\":\"Interview with Tech In Asia\",\"timestamp\":1712944822566}]"},{"id":"twitter_profile","value":"https://twitter.com/xinshudong?lang=en"},{"id":"previous_cid","value":"QmajFy2MdvPyEzZ3zcsA7XtasxRcV1G2xshNstVamf1w6L"}],"user":{"id":"0x6753061a4cffbc0A617e57E956A298D88702a94B"},"author":{"id":"0xacb6c5AD52b8f605299B0d774CE97F26e3DB80c2","profile":{"username":"JSD","avatar":""}},"media":[{"name":"MNa7hxl2h1A","id":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNa7hxl2h1A","size":"0","type":null,"source":"YOUTUBE"},{"name":"Pn-QL8qW0T4","id":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn-QL8qW0T4","size":"0","type":null,"source":"YOUTUBE"},{"name":"2lT397CdYIA","id":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lT397CdYIA","size":"0","type":null,"source":"YOUTUBE"},{"name":"Dppk6n9LHBk","id":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dppk6n9LHBk","size":"0","type":null,"source":"YOUTUBE"},{"name":"fJ6yRR07noc","id":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ6yRR07noc","size":"0","type":null,"source":"YOUTUBE"}],"views":29,"events":[],"linkedWikis":{"founders":[],"blockchains":[]},"ipfs":"QmajFy2MdvPyEzZ3zcsA7XtasxRcV1G2xshNstVamf1w6L","transactionHash":"0x83c9bc882d122e6d49905fab9564f6cebc724880ba4c7966d5953437697fe39f","created":"2024-04-12T18:13:30.361Z","updated":"2024-04-12T18:13:30.361Z","images":[{"id":"QmWAtWNgTbe5i5ojVQ4fzGm37eVHTxRPf3nKkLjkpRtaSZ","type":"image/jpeg, image/png"}]}