(long post on going from pre-product to post-product as a founder) We're swiftly approaching launch, so I thought I'd take some time to reflect. The accompanying video is of the first graphical implementation of Onflow (on Android) for a demo we did at Devcon. Barebones (a bit rough around the edges compared to today's visuals) from exactly a year ago. Onflow might prove to be the most complex protocol engineered thus far within the ZK/MPC/privacy space. ~2 years of work, 13 employees, expertise, refining, rebuilding, consulting, re-writing, auditing, novel research in MPC and ZK constructions. What goes into what we're building? First I'll outline what the scope for the initial release of @onflowxyz is (skip to next section if this isn't interesting to you): - Be an SDK, not a standalone monolith. While we do have Onflow ID (our Onflow implementation), we never want Onflow to be centralized around 1 app. This also makes our user-by-default system so much more stronger in garnering network effects. If you've used Onflow even once, as soon as you open another app a few months later that requires compliance, you'll be pleasantly surprised to find that the magic of the protocol has auto-submitted exactly what the service provider is looking for and there is no-to-little user interaction required on your end. - Privacy, privacy, privacy. My background, and a 90% of the development team at Sundial has a solid background in complex privacy schemes, zero-knowledge, academia and practical implementations. We believe compliance/KYC breaches are some of the most dangerous (both physically and virtually) data leaks that can occur, and so Onflow was built to be virtually impossible to leak any meaningful data from, even if you're delegating work to overseas staff, due to how data is stealth-schematized so support agents only see *exactly* what they need to solve your case, and nothing else. - Privacy, again. So what does privacy entail? Well. For Onflow we're utilizing so many new primitives in one, that all come from different departments. From the zero-trust infrastructure for our compliance dashboard, our never-before-seen quantum-resistant QuantMQ data dispatch protocol that is pervasive throughout the entire Onflow ecosystem, to complex routers for oracling and verifying proofs onchain (EVM and SVM initially, as recently announced). We also have our TDE, or "Trusted Data Enclave", which allows you to easily port your credentials to a new device, whether it be your laptop, or another phone, it'll all get transferred over seamlessly through a bespoke mesh-based distribution system (think Signal-type), again through QuantMQ tunnels. Now the true beauty of all of this? Some of the most senior software engineers, protocol engineers, system administrators, applied (& research) cryptographers alongside amazing visual artists, and our incredible CPO (ex-Disney, Apple, AOL and many more) all worked on their individual bits of the protocol. All with a shared love, and deep respect for privacy and great UX, came together to build the behemoth that is the inner workings of Onflow and distill it down to an SDK that takes just a dozen lines to implement, whether in an app, on a website, or in a cryptocurrency setting. One simple SDK that encapsulates hundreds of bespoke, novel and battle-tested MPC, ZK, QP protocols, and productized it into something that will make onboarding and compliance in general a one-click action going forward (for the most part), and will only be more and more normalized as more and more apps adopt this. Who is interested in using Onflow? We're very fortunate to have an exceptional product, which traditional finance, fintech and digital assets immediately recognize the importance of. Therefore, we're proud to announce that alongside our joint announcement with our day-1 deployment to @circle's @arc network, we're also entering traditional finance. Soon, users will be able to create bank accounts for short-stay overseas work solely using Onflow. We're actually surprised at the extremely positive reception from traditional finance, as you can quickly convince yourself words like "zero-knowledge" will scare what's often seen as arcane institutions, but our experience has been the polar opposite. Banks understand the importance of privacy. Banks understands utilizing privacy-enhancing tools to make the onboarding UX more convenient, and save them money and risk assessment staff when it comes to compliance. What's coming up? More privacy, more convenience. Soon you'll be introduced to the full product offerings of our initial release of Onflow. We plan to open-source every part of the stack that we're able to and provides a benefit to proliferating privacy online (such as our QuantumMQ library with bindings for C++, Rust, C#, Swift and Typescript). We plan to prove that all of the hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars spent on solid cryptographic, privacy-oriented research has not gone in vain, and we've employed and improved upon under-explored breakthroughs to make Onflow happen. What took you so long? Perfect is the enemy of (progress/good/etc.), however, being a product that de-risks businesses and transmits PII (even over quantum-proof tunnels) still require extreme rigor and a lot of systems and novel infrastructure to make sure that there is no central breach point. Version one of Onflow will support 147 jurisdictions, and we soon plan to add support for Aadhar 2.0 as well, to include India (even though they just got biometric passports, they're not as ubiquitous). We support thousands of passports and IDs and have the most comprehensive coverage out of any compliance provider with over 15,000 documents covered. Novel things take time. Onflow is truly a novel, never-before-seen approach to the full compliance stack, with inherent digital ID features as an essential part of the protocol, giving it endless possibilities. We wanted to make extremely sure that what we're releasing here in a couple of months is as solid as can be, and will offer hefty bounties to people who can successfully find a way to disrupt the protocol (one can never do too much manual review, fuzzing, external audits, etc., and we firmly believe in rewarding solo auditors for findings). Lastly. Thank you to everyone building in, researching, contributing to or otherwise promoting, privacy. Privacy is not reliant on financial turmoil, it is the first question a start-up should ask itself when making a new product class. And we're super fortunate to say that in the difficulties of navigating novel privacy, we've found extremely satisfying solutions to extremely complex problems we otherwise never would've discovered. Do not fade privacy. Privacy is a moat, and there are so many markets that are begging to be disrupted if someone with a privacy-oriented view decided to take a pragmatic look at them. Thank you.