A lot has happened with the Arionum Blockchain Project in the last few months. The developer behind the world's first PHP based blockchain platform has been hard at work supporting the platform. He has successfully developed a Bitcoin-like JSON-RPC API that allows Arionum's one of a kind blockchain to be implemented into any exchange that supports Bitcoin. Arionum was also listed on its first exchange, Octaex, and is able to be traded in ARO/BTC and ARO/ETH pairs. The momentum has really picked up for Arionum and its popularity only continues to grow, as evidenced by the huge increase in the network hash rate, as more and more miners jump on board. Every day the Discord group grows bigger and more people want to know what Arionum is all about.

AroDev has always been very upfront with the community, quick to answer questions, help troubleshoot, and even field questions about the future of the project. In this same spirit AroDev wanted to take the time to sit down and answer some of the most asked questions about Arionum and give the community a peek inside the mind of the guy behind this hot new project. If you're reading this and have any additional questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below for the next developer interview.

- Developer Interview with AroDev -

Q: What is ARO?

ARO (Arionum) is a new cryptocurrency developed from scratch in PHP. Its unique mining algorithm is optimized for CPU Mining, it has a dynamic block size, and a fixed transaction fee of 0.25% (max 10 ARO). Arionum aims is to become a blockchain framework for PHP applications

Q: The growth in block size will inevitably lead to the need for more powerful/resource intensive nodes, which cost more. Does Arionum have plans to combat this problem or incentivize nodes?

If the blockchain becomes too big, we plan to create a sharding mechanism to split the load on multiple nodes. For example, we could keep the historic blocks (except last 10.000) spread by a block_height%10 formula, splitting the historic blockchain load between 10 types of nodes without affecting the overall network. We have a few more ideas on this matter and we know we'll have to design it very well. The good news is that we have a lot of time until such a solution might be needed.

Q: Do you see Arionum being used only by PHP developers or do you feel it has capabilities to provide cross language support for other scripting/programming languages?

While the main focus is, naturally, the PHP developers, Arionum's simple API can be integrated into any programming language. Since the very beginning of the project, we have attracted Java, Python, and C++ developers, who have built tools on Arionum's API.

Q: What are the Devs’ main focus today?

Although we are still working on our initial road-map, the JSON-RPC API, which simulates the Bitcoin API, was recently our main focus. This application will allow a faster integration of Arionum into any software that has already integrated Bitcoin or its derivatives.

Q: Where do you see Arionum's focus and greatest strength?

I would say Arionum's API would be one of its greatest strengths, along with the source code, which should be very easy to read by any programmer; from a newbie to an expert, from a C developer to a Java developer.
Once the assets system is released, applications based on the Arionum's blockchain will probably become the main focus, as their development will be very easy.

Q: What made you start this project?

I have always admired Satoshi Nakamoto's vision of a decentralized electronic currency and I wanted to create a solution that would be much easier to understand and could be updated by any developer. I also wanted to prove that PHP 7 is a very powerful language, even if it gets a bad reputation nowadays due to its popularity.

Q: What interests you about Blockchain Technology?

I'm interested in the creation of trust in a trustless environment, especially when it can be used to generate trusted random numbers. For a programmer, this opens a lot of possibilities. For example, Arionum has its own weekly raffle, in which a random winner is picked each week. Since the raffle is built directly on the Arionum blockchain, which is entirely public, it can be proven fair and cheating is impossible.

Q: Why is CPU optimized mining important?

CPU mining is important because almost everyone has an electronic device with a CPU. For a successful cryptocurrency, I believe the distribution should be as equal as possible. CPU mining gives everyone the possibility to earn some coins by using a PC, an older PC, a Raspberry PI or even a phone.

Q: Do you consider blockchain frameworks, such as Arionum, to have similar network effects as do popular CMS and coding frameworks like WordPress, Drupal, Magento (all of which are built using the world’s plethora of open source PHP developers)?

Of course, I expect to see a lot of web applications based on Arionum. Maybe not as many as WordPress or Magento, as we target mostly p2p, trustless systems, and blockchain-related apps but, there will be a lot of applications that will use ARO as their framework.

Q: How similar do you see ARO (for PHP developers) to LISK (for JavaScript developers) and BISMUTH (for python developers)?

Our projects are different, we are all innovating. We are aiming to create blockchain frameworks for our main programming languages and attract developers interested in those languages.

Q: How will the assets system work? Will it be possible to do ICOs and/or launch your own currencies for use inside you own apps and systems?

It will be a virtual reference system which can be used for anything. It can be used for ICOs, it can be used to launch a virtual currency on the ARO blockchain, it can be used as a score board or as part of any app or system that would require trust in a trustless reference system.

Q: Will assets be on chain or will some form of sidechains be implemented?

I'm considering using sidechains for the assets or maybe a system of sharding in order to avoid congestion on the main ARO blockchain. In the case of sidechains, I'm considering the use of special nodes which would earn a commission for transacting and securing the assets’ sidechains.

Q: Can the ARO addresses be shortened with custom names like an alias?

Yes, it's part of our roadmap. There will be the possibility to create a unique name for an address and the possibility of receiving coins on that name.

Q: What are your plans to get this framework into the hands of the millions of PHP developers around the world?

To raise awareness on the social networks, especially once apps start being developed on the ARO blockchain.

Q: Please explain the inflation (coin release cycle) of the coin? What is the max supply? How will this work with the assets system?

The coins are released over an 8-year period. The block reward drops by 1% each month, allowing late starters to still earn a large amount of coins. There will be 545.399.000 coins at the end of the mining period, although, some will be burned in time. The assets will not have any impact on the coin supply or release cycle, the costs of the assets will be given as reward to the miners.

Q: What exchanges do you plan to be released on? Any plans to figure out how to get on some of these new decentralized exchanges once they start adopting atomic swaps? How would this work with ARO?

As part of their listing requirements, we cannot really talk about the exchanges. Decentralized exchanges would work very well for ARO. We have done our part with the Bitcoin-like JSON-RPC API, now it's their turn.

Q: What is your response to not using PHP because "it is too slow" and "it is not asynchronous (like JavaScript)"? I know many people are unaware of the giant leaps forward in the new PHP7 and all its enhancements and drastic speed improvements. Can you elaborate on what you think might be some more benefits of using PHP beyond the known benefits of the network effect (millions of PHP devs) and familiarity of PHP (easy to learn, use, and implement) world wide?

I know there's a lot of hate against PHP, but most of the allegations are false. PHP has gotten a bad reputation mostly due to its popularity. A very popular programming language creates a lot of applications, and a certain percentage of those are flawed. The percentage of flawed applications or libraries is the same as any other programming language, but due to its popularity, it stands out as a big number. I generally do not believe there are bad programming languages, there are mostly inexperienced programmers. Of course, some languages would be a better fit for certain task than others, but that does not mean the language itself is bad. Beside all this, PHP has advanced a lot since the version 7, making it a very fast and robust programming language. Its security features have also been increased considerably, one can easily check the argon2i implementation. Arionum proves PHP is just as fast and as powerful as any other language.