2) As far as I understand, you already have a list of companies that will be the first to adopt RenVM and make integration. How do these companies feel about the fact that not all repositories are open and some of the code is still closed (private repo)? Doesn't that scare them off? Do you have plans to go full open source?
TD; LR: Yes, absolutely we plan going full open-source and all projects we are in conversation with are aware of the below plan and understand the logic behind it. Our logic and subsequent plan (and the thresholds needed) to go full open-source can be found in this document, if curious: RenVM Open-Source Roadmap.
Long Answer: The team at Ren are very strong proponents of the open-source ethos and believe all decentralized protocols need to be made open-source when secure. The Ren team also wants to (a) be competitive in this space, given the hard work and capital invested by the team and the community, and (b) give an appropriate amount of time for security issues to be discovered and fixed before making the codebase available to potentially malicious actors.
With that said, all of Ren's codebase barring the RZL sMPC algorithm will be open-sourced at the advent of RenVM Mainnet Subzero which will be launched after our security audit is completed. The RZL sMPC algorithm, however, is what makes RenVM and its sMPC solution so special. This RZL sMPC Algorithm has been pioneered in-house by our development team and can be considered a trade secret. It will, therefore, not be released to the wider public until certain security and capital thresholds within RenVM have been met. We have worked very hard over the last two years; this approach ensures RenVM's security and that the Ren community, team, and investors are rewarded for their patience.
Stage 1 | Q1 2020 RenVM Mainnet Security Audit
The security audit will verify our RZL sMPC algorithm security, correctness, and functionality under a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). This, the security audit of RenVM, and all other components of RenVM's code-base will be available for the public to review when completed.
Stage 2 | Q2 2020 Onward
Our RZL sMPC Algorithm will be fully open-sourced to the public when the milestones outlined in this document are met:
https://github.com/renproject/ren/issues/2This document has purposefully been designed for open comment as we encourage any stakeholder to voice their opinion or suggestions (supported by empirically-based evidence, of course). The team will take the feedback and incorporate them into the RenVM Open-Source Roadmap thresholds.
The open comment period will end at the formal release of RenVM Mainnet Subzero, at which point the specific security and capital thresholds will be solidified, and presented to the public. If you have suggestions or questions, please do voice them on our Github!
https://github.com/renproject/ren/issues/2