APEX Network has released a “Behind the Scenes” article with its CTO, Richard Wang. The APEX blockchain infrastructure aims to provide consumer internet and business-to-customer (B2C) interactions with privacy and ownership of data, interactive consumer experiences, and a connectivity of value. The “Behind the Scenes” series is an attempt to introduce the APEX and NEO communities to the core team, to highlight who they are and what they do.

As CTO of the APEX Network, Richard is responsible for three primary areas:

  1. Designing and implementing the short and long-term strategy for the project.
  2. Developing a talent recruitment strategy, developmental training, incentivizing talent, and employee retention.
  3. Ensuring quality and robust products are developed in a timely manner.

With regards to daily habits, barring special events or previously planned meetings, the APEX development team typically meets in the morning. The development team generally is separated into two groups: the blockchain platform group and the applications group. Currently, the applications group is primarily focused on the development of the APEX wallet. In the afternoon, project-specific or partner-based (i.e. Microsoft, enterprise customers, blockchain projects, etc.) meetings will be held among APEX and its external partners.

To stay current on the latest blockchain developments, Richard often converses with other blockchain teams and their leadership, and attends conferences and meetups in the Greater China region. Additionally, he meets with the APEX engineering team on a regular basis; together they “communicate with respective teams of large organizations using blockchain technology or [are] involved in blockchain infrastructure” (i.e. Azure, Oracle, Alicloud, and B2C enterprises experimenting with blockchain).

In the minimal amount of spare time he has, Richard digs into the codebase and technical design of both new blockchain infrastructure projects and old, such as Lisk, Ontology, and Vechain. 

The APEX Development Team

Of the 70 engineers in the APEX Technologies company, Richard closely coordinates with 15 who are working in the blockchain division. The majority of the lead engineers on the blockchain team previously worked on the infrastructure teams of Alibaba and Tencent, enterprise companies, and private blockchain teams of fintech companies.

About half of the engineers on the development team were internal transfers from APEX Technologies to the blockchain division, and the other half are new recruits. APEX’s hiring strategy focusses on:

  • Raw foundation (understanding of engineering, systems, architecture),
  • Intelligence (learning ability, problem solving ability), and;
  • Scaling track record (building scalable systems at reputable technology companies).

APEX Network typically focuses on recruiting talent with a “raw foundation” as they will be able to quickly develop an understanding of blockchain infrastructure development.

The APEX Wallet and Blockchain

The APEX Wallet will focus on three key areas:

  1. Multi-account and cross-blockchain account management features,
  2. Features related to the enterprise ecosystem and user consumption, and;
  3. General features and levers that will grow the user base, awareness, and community.

Further, Richard states APEX has opted to develop on their own blockchain (as opposed to NEO or Ethereum) due to a “needs-driven decision [arrived at] after receiving feedback from the enterprise users.” Enterprise users were not comfortable with building on a public blockchain and preferred a blockchain that would be catered to their specific needs and use cases.

Progress on TestNet

The APEX development team has been internally testing core modules on its TestNet, which includes transactions, block production, and consensus. Additionally, the team is working on a blockchain explorer application.

Pertaining to its GitHub, the APEX dev team doesn’t utilize the website to internally manage their repositories. The GitHub was established so the community could gain some insight into the code the APEX development team is creating. When the time is available, an individual from each of the teams is responsible for updating the GitHub with certain portions of the code. At any given time, around 80% of the blockchain codebase is uploaded to the GitHub repository.

Future updates from APEX will include information pertaining to their nodes, as well as progress made in facets previously discussed.

To read the full article visit the following link:

https://medium.com/apex-network/apex-behind-the-scenes-2-guest-post-by-cto-richard-wang-part-1-10f19cb195a7

For more information about APEX Network visit one of the links below.

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