AMA Recap: Symbiosis Finance

Date: Aug 16th, 2022
Host: DeFiNaut
Guest: Nick Avramov, Co-Founder at Symbiosis Finance

Hello, Raccoon family and crypto enthusiasts!

We recently hosted an AMA with Symbiosis Finance. Here’s the AMA transcript for those who missed the live session. We sincerely hope you have as much fun reading it as we did while running the AMA!

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Hope you are all ready #raccoonfam! Today we’re having another educational AMA with Nick Avramov, co-founder at Symbiosis Finance!

As you know there will be 2 parts, the muted part where me and @nickavramov will be talking about Symbiosis in general and then also the latest news and updates! Then we’ll unmute an have the community ask questions and some winners will be chosen. We’ll also choose some twitter questions while we’re at it. A total prizepool of $200 (4 live chat and 4 twitter qs will be winning $25 each).

And last but not least we’ll also run a $200 competition where 8 random people that run a cheap transaction (swap) via their live app will get a cashback of $20!

Summarizing, the AMA has a total prizepool of $400 and 16 winners of $25 each! LETS GO!

[Nick Avramov]: I am openning up the beer

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: So Nick, without further ado, can you please briefly tell us who you are and what your rol is at Symbiosis Finance?

[Nick Avramov]: that’s pretty much telling you know haha. so yes ser, my pleasure being here today. My name is Nick, I am a co-founder of Symbiosis, a violent creature to eat them all — centralized swap exchanges, basically exchanges, high commissions and etc

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: About the violent creature part, I’ve always wondered, who is the brilliant mind that campe up with the octopus and also the style. Check them out -> https://twitter.com/symbiosis_fi

[Nick Avramov]: it was our desinger he’s probably a dope idk but looks captivating isn’t it

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Yes it’s different, and that’s what I like about it

[Nick Avramov]: well the idea was like to play around different networks tokens etc with it’s tentacles so it’s manupulating different assets across different chains. But ended up as a logo for dope darknet shop probably lol. But I love it, honestly

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Yep! The branding is very good. ok so let’s move on to the pitch. Can you give the raccoons the infamous elevator pitch on what Symbiosis stands for and what its purpose is in this crypto space?

[Nick Avramov]: absolutely ser, imagine you might have a Uniswap-like platform to swap various tokens, but not on a single chain, but across all chains. One click, you good to go with a swap from say CAKE BEP20 to UNI ERC20. So that’s it, thanks to Symbiosis 🙂

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: That’s a pretty solid and “easy” description. So basically instead of focussing on one chain you are focussing on connecting multiple chains right?

[Nick Avramov]: correct sir, that’s the idea

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: a bit like what a centralized exchange does, but then decentralized

[Nick Avramov]: two problems we solve: liquidity fragmentation and bad UX while working with web3. Exactly

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: so for this do you make your own uniswap and pancakeswap or do you connect both?

[Nick Avramov]: we connect them, because for a reason we believe it’s better value-add to those already good working services then to try competing. So Symbiosis is a one-stop shop for working with Uniswap, PancakeSwap, Pangolin, whatever-it-might-be-called DEX but once again, we’re not just an aggregator like 1inch, we do a cross-chain magic instead

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: ok thank you, that makes sense! Ok so that’s for my next question 🙂. DeFi is complex and there’s a plethora of decentralize applications and automated market makers out there. Could you explain what type of well known dApps / protocols / apps you could compare Symbiosis to (if any) and give us (a few) reasons why we should opt for Symbiosis Finance?

So in this example — if 1inch is not an example because they’re just an aggregator, can you explain what the cross-chain magic is?

[Nick Avramov]: For sure ser, so cross-chain means you can easily swap between chain with very just a few clicks, without the need to swap between different interfaces, bridges, DEXes etc. In a way, I’d say that Symbiosis resembles somehow Multichain (ex-Anyswap), but we can really do any to any token swaps — it’s easy to come along Multichain website to see that they cannot

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: I know some people that used multichain but that was just to bridge some assets

[Nick Avramov]: yeah, so there’s no AMM logic there, like in Uniswap and instead, we do that

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: ok yes that’s really cool! What networks are available currently?

[Nick Avramov]: so currently we deployed on Ethereum, BNB, Polygon, Avalanche, Boba and Milkomeda (yet just for bridging, but will add swaps soon), also we’re adding Near as first non-EVM — that will be end of this/beginning of the next month

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: nice, I’ve put it on my to do’s some time ago to learn more about NEAR but then there was this AMA with some project called Symbiosis and didn’t have the time

[Nick Avramov]: haha

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: How many people is the team at Symbiosis right now?

[Nick Avramov]: oh well I was in Seoul last week so might be my partner kicked off most of the people Idk but before that it was about 35, most devs and about 10 just random useless peers like bizdev marketing etc. me also

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Any openings for me? It’s bearmarket and I’m starting to become poor

[Nick Avramov]: we desperately need CTO to finally undetstand how all this works, nobody understands, so if you help appreciate that ser

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: but for real 35 people is big! Not sure if I would be a great addition there haha!!

[Nick Avramov]: you might try at least haha

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: so about the technical stuff, while I was browsing on the app I noticed several things (https://app.symbiosis.finance/) I see we can do Swaps, Zaps, there’s pools and farming. Can you please explain briefly what raccoons can do here? What’s the difference between “pools” and “farming”?

[Nick Avramov]: yeah, for sure

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: thank you ser

[Nick Avramov]: so both are concepts for liquidity providers; we incentivize lps to provide liquidity in stablecoins (so there’s no impermanent loss for that) currently we do incentivization in SIS tokens, but we also plan at some time (given we have more volume) to provide some stablecoin incentivization later on though

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: like how safe is it to provide liquidity in stablecoins, we hear of so many hacks and stuff, people get scared. I also never dare to do it, while I have some on the side.

[Nick Avramov]: also we’ve launched one more page called “zap”. It can be used to integrate with AAVE, Cream, Benqi and virtually any DeFi protocol. A use-case: instant liquidity provision with any token the user has at her hands. Safe enough with audits we made https://github.com/symbiosis-finance/audits 🙂. As per zaps, it can be used to integrate with AAVE, Cream, Benqi and virtually any DeFi protocol. A use-case: instant liquidity provision with any token the user has at her hands. For example, you can provide liquidity in AAVE V3 Polygon with any token on AVAX just in one click in your wallet.

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: ok that’s really cool

[Nick Avramov]: also that’s available in our API/SDK

Symbiosis for Developers | SDK & API

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: I see you guys are doing a lot of partnerships, how do most blockchains react when you tell them what your tech does?

[Nick Avramov]: mostly don’t believe and think we just left madhouse you know

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: haha

[Nick Avramov]: what? cross-chain? might be we haven’t taken pills you know

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: I was trying to get to my next question, don’t ruin it

[Nick Avramov]: haha, I mean, mostly they are fascinated of what we do, apart from Near we are adding much more networks soon — the one coming with T is planned for this week for instance 🙂

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Tron?

[Nick Avramov]: i won’t tell you

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: 😄 😄, ok let me write my question now. You recently announced a big partnership with Benqi Finance, can you tell us more about it and why it’s YUUUGE? https://twitter.com/symbiosis_fi/status/1557699874946269184?s=20&t=NefqMqBNNESBkXmLzbFHvA

While explaining, please cirlce back to which functionalities of the aforementioned question are relevant here.

[Nick Avramov]: yeah yeah, cool peers real dopes, no brainers, as you know, Benqi is the largest lending protocol on Avalanche. We’ve integrated Benqi in our cross-chain zaps, so now users can provide lqiuidity in Benqi vaults using any token on any network within one click. Lemme show you.

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: show it to me baby

[Nick Avramov]: like any, ANY, in one click, all swaps are made under the hood, one click and you’re there. Same thing we will do with Autofarm, Beefy and others.

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: ok so when you have USDT on ETH, you can add liquidity to USDT on avalanche?

[Nick Avramov]: yes, any token to any token, swap and liquidity provision, NFT purchase, GameFi project, like any. It should be us who first claimed name anyswap lol

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: sounds too good to be true ser 😄

[Nick Avramov]: well honestly I do all swaps manually

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: and you know what they say, when it sounds too good to be true, it probably is symbiosis finance

[Nick Avramov]: you know, it is me who called PancakeSwap and Pangolin and whatever by phone and ask them — proceed with this swap please ser

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: What did they tell you? All jokes aside, I really like the user experience 😂😂

[Nick Avramov]: thank you sir, we try to make it as smooth as it should be, people need conveniece when working with web3, doesn’t make any sense to make it complex

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Definitely

[Nick Avramov]: should be simple, fast, cheap, secure, that’s the way it should be

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: I noticed you guys spent some time in Korea recently (Korea Blockchain Week 2022). Can you tell us more about the experience? Any partnerships made? Any presentations done? How was it like? Overall bearish / bullish?

[Nick Avramov]: awerall lots of pepper in the food I am still recovering after that lol

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Nice. What’s your thoughts on Klaytn? if Any? Isn’t that big over there?

[Nick Avramov]: lots of fun was there, well they are interesting creature

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Were you guys hiding something over here? bro love? 😂 😂

[Nick Avramov]: LOL i didn’t thoght about our pose until you said that, oh damn

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: hahahahahaha

[Nick Avramov]: I better delete that from Twitter, damn damn

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: I’m just a retard, don’t mind me

[Nick Avramov]: Klaytn is an interesting creature, they are pretty big and moving fast. We’re in discussion with them, maybe will integrate

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: yeah it’s support by Kakao or owned by them or something

[Nick Avramov]: but honestly just recently started talking, yeah exactly

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: so overall bullish or bearish over there?

[Nick Avramov]: i’d say symbiosish

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: that makes sense 😔 I like how he’s wearing a golden watch, details

For the devs in our community, you also offer Developer tools. (https://symbiosis.finance/developer-tools). Can you give us an overview of what developers can expect and what tools are made available?

[Nick Avramov]: for sure, like literally you can add cross-chain functionality to any dapp, swap exchange, NFT marketplace, GameFi project, lending protocol, whatever, seamlessly without even referring to Symbiosis. So it should be handy for both early stage and already mature projects, wallets also

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Yes I saw you’ve integrated a bunch of wallets and blockchain.com is an investor!

[Nick Avramov]: yeah and some of them will be integrating us like directly into their mobile apps extensions etc. That’s the idea, be EVERYWHERE

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: even here, right now 😄

[Nick Avramov]: exactly ser

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Can you talk a bit about what’s next on the short and mid term roadmap? Any exciting other partnerships coming up?

[Nick Avramov]: several things planned I’d say, so first non EVM — Near, then Symbiosis v2 — late September/early October, also several integrations with wallets and browsers, yes, browsers, not browser extention wallets, you know 😉. So pretty much plans we have, the idea is to support several non EVMs and myriads of EVMs until the end of this year

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: oh, going next level with the browser

[Nick Avramov]: we bet

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: extensions are for plebs

[Nick Avramov]: absolutely, dream big

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: My man. To finish this first part off I would like to pick your brain on a more general topic. Can you share your thoughts on the DeFi space as a whole? Looking back at 2020–2021, everything with the name DeFi in it was enormously hyped and a lot of innovation was taking place. Ofcourse now, markets have been quite bearish but the building continues. Would you say most of the innovation in DeFi in crypto is behind us or are we still seeing a lot of new stuff?

[Nick Avramov]: I’d say we’re still early in the curve of adoption, so I anticipate that the next myriad of projects will evolve. I also believe it will go beyond just financial services and we’ll see some hybrid gaming / content stories, not just M2E etc, but a more deepen integration of crypto into our lifes, and that’s where I see the next bullrun can come. DeFi it’s great, but we will go beyond lending

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Yeah, I also wonder about that, right now it’s pretty simple, still complex, but the usecases are simple. Because in an essense DeFi is lending in 99% now, in some way or another

[Nick Avramov]: lending, farming, then lending once again

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: well we gotta start somewhere right

[Nick Avramov]: I believe we will see much more innovation, especially with fractional reserve in NFTs and interoperability. Indeed ser

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: thanks for sharing your thoughts here. ok cool, so we finished the first part of the AMA, the muted (most fun part) 😄 OK BUT NOW IT’S TIME FOR THE COMMUNITY QUESTIONS 4 Winners to receive $25 each. Are you ready Nick. ok so please select 4 questions and respond to them, those will be the 4 winners!

Community Qs

Q1: ?

[Nick Avramov]: so the security mechanism behind all Symbiosis is MPC combined with TSS. what does that mean — in every single point of time there’s no single party in the relayers network who has the whole private key (it’s splitted, for simplicity). + we have a consensus required among all nodes to actually process the swaps. Details can be found here docs.symbiosis.finance, also here’re our audits: https://github.com/symbiosis-finance/audits

Q2: What is your strongest advantage that you think will lead your team to the market please answer me?

[Nick Avramov]:

1. any to any token swaps (literally, like any Ethereum to any BNB token) in 1 click
2. best rates (due to 1inch integration + we’re adding more routers like Rango etc)
3. EVM and non-EVM chains
4. easy for integration via SDK/API

Q3: I’m curious now which is not bad, I’ll wat to know seeing that Revenue is an essential and unavoidable part for all projects to survive and also to maintain the project. what are the way to generate or get revenue for the token?

[Nick Avramov]: so huge part of the proceeds (we’re taking some commission to do cross-chain swaps) we plan to put for buyback program for SIS token, besides that we’ll have veSIS (which is additional incentivization for SIS token)

https://blog.symbiosis.finance/supercharging-sis-let-there-be-vesis-80475e6f0671, details are here

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: nice! and now the fourth

Q4: Thank you Symbiosis for the service you provide. This makes it easier for me later.

My question is, What is the minimum (USD) that can be done for cross-swap? I tried with $9 USD in my wallet (Matic to Avalanche) and it could not be done. And what is the reason Symbiosis implements this minimum swap?

[Nick Avramov]: $10 is min, so you are pretty accurate 🙂 min is done to avoid spam transactions, that’s the only reason. but maybe we can lower it to $2 or $3, I will think on that. I think we’re done 🙂

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: excellent question! you can see some raccoons really do their due dilligence 😉 due diligence gets rewarded people! awesome, let’s move to the twitter questions

[Nick Avramov]: yeah I really love it, seems like you have a brilliant community ser, it’s honor to have a word here today 🙂

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: so I’ll paste 6 twitter questions, please choose 4, respond to them and they are the winners

Twitter Qs

Q1. https://twitter.com/AdeliaBilha/status/1559161475880861696?s=20&t=hJooqj20lVRWG34rijNfBQ

Trading Fee is the fee charged for each swap. How are trading fees for swaps made on the Symbiosis liquidity pool distributed between liquidity providers and liquidity pool owners?

[Nick Avramov]: 80/20, 80 comes to liquidity providers and 20 to Symbiosis protocol (not me lol), then redestributed to re-purchase SIS etc

Q2. https://twitter.com/langitberwarna/status/1559417394229317632?s=20&t=wbuo1IJu5zJMDd2AYCVPOQ

I read that Symbiosis has the ultimate goal is to bridge all networks together. Howver How does Symbiosis will solve the problem of the uneven exchange direction between networks and, accordingly, a balance increase of one asset on one network and a decrease on the other?

[Nick Avramov]: brilliant question actually.

we have fully fledged AMM logic, so in case the pools are rebalanced anyone can swap between stables with a premium

here’s an example, such situations occur quite often, so you might be lucky 🙂

Q3. https://twitter.com/1nch_cs/status/1559134781832675328?s=20&t=vrpXZJrfr7GH2CD6mgPfug
From medium
From the very beginning, we were aiming to create a toolset for developers, we’ve made sure that pretty much the same workflow we described is available through our SDKs.”

What toolset developers can get from using Symbiosis, and how to apply to get access to it?

[Nick Avramov]: SDKs and APIs ser,

1. sdk.symbiosis.finance
2. docs.symbiosis.finance/apps/symbiosis-api-or-symbiosis-finance

Q4. https://twitter.com/langitberwarna/status/1559411266183376897?s=20&t=wbuo1IJu5zJMDd2AYCVPOQ

After learning about the Symbiosis project, Honestly in my opinion Symbiosis is Similar to ThorChain. Can you tell us What features do you have that make you a difference between your competitors, especially with ThorChain?

[Nick Avramov]: ThorChain sucks, here’s why https://docs.symbiosis.finance/faq#competitors

[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: thanks again @nickavramov for joining us. I hope you enjoyed it!

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