TotemFi AMA Summary
Stake and predict without risking your initial stake
On Monday the 1st of March, the DuckDAO community had an AMA with Jolyon and Harry Horsfall, the CEO and CMO of TotemFi.
TotemFi is an innovative DeFi prediction protocol that empowers individuals and groups to earn native $TOTM and BTC rewards.
Their vision is to create an accessible, minimal-risk platform that tokenises the ability to predict future asset prices and events. The protocol will harmonize incentives for individuals and the collective, as both sets are rewarded for their ability to forecast the future price of a given cryptocurrency (initially bitcoin). In addition, users are not penalised for inaccurate predictions. The aim is broaden participation with our protocol as incumbent markets are typically complex with high financial risk for accuracy therefore acting as a barrier to entry.
Key Features
- BTC & TOTM rewards — Lucrative BTC payouts through our prediction protocol. Guaranteed returns through high-yield TOTM staking.
- Non-punitive predictions — Stake and predict without risking your initial stake. No penalties for inaccurate predictions.
- Collaborative rewards — Increased opportunities for returns; additional rewards for everyone if the average pool prediction is accurate.
- Accessible & easy to use — User-friendly design, simple prediction model, and minimal risk; DeFi prediction markets for everyone.
- Dynamic rewards calculator — Calculate potential returns before staking with our dApp calculator.
- Choose from multiple pools — Select a timeframe that works for you by choosing from our Owl, Wolf and Fox staking pools.
There will be a fixed supply of TOTM — 10 million. The 10 million will be minted at the initial token generation event with no further tokens to be created afterwards.
Tokenomics
- Website: https://totemfi.com/
- Telegram: https://t.me/totemfi
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TotemFi
- Whitepaper: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WMBBiZkuAbBmU-uE3LZRD8utJT5dYRq9/view
- Medium: https://totemfi.medium.com/
Participants:
TotemFi — Harry — CMO
TotemFi — Jolyon — CEO
DuckDAO — Pep — DuckDAO community representative
Please note that the following summary has been edited for clarity.
Pep
Welcome everyone to another DuckDAO AMA.
We are joined today by Jolyon and Harry Horsfall, the CEO and CMO of TotemFi.
On behalf of the DuckDAO community, I’d like to welcome you to our channel :)
👋
Harry
👋
Jolyon
💪💪
How’s it going!
Pep
Ooh…been working out? 😉
Jolyon
In the two minutes I get a day off totem haha
Pep
lol nice!!! How are you guys doing?
Harry
Very good thanks! Excited to be here today to speak a little bit more about Totem.
Always great to see green across the board
Pep
Right?! The weekend was slightly scary but all back to normal now.
Awesome! We’re psyched about having you guys here and spending some time with us.
So we have a bunch of questions about your project, but as always, our first question will focus on you.
Can we start with an introduction for yourselves; what are your backgrounds/experiences both in the traditional and crypto spaces.
Harry
Hey Ducks,
Firstly, a huge shoutout to Andre Nabias for bringing us into the community, and to ducks who have worked 24/7 behind the scenes to help bring our project to life. Your help and guidance have been greatly appreciated and we have learned so much from you.
Lastly and most importantly a massive thank you to the duck community, especially for your early support. We have been blown away and super proud to have your backing! I am excited to share with you all the hard work we have done over the next few months.
A quick intro about me. I was playing around with BTC while at uni in 2011, but it was not until my first year out of uni, 2013 when I was running a music festival that I had my Penny Drop moment. To support LDN life I was helping run a big tech conference and ran a stage about BTC. It was an incredible moment, and from then I have been hooked. The speaker that day was Paul Gordon, who is actually an advisor for this project and 8 years later still a mentor.
Pep
Wow, 2011!!! dude talk about early! I wish I had known about BTC back then!
Since then I have worked in marketing roles across startups and FTSE 100 companies and for the last 3 years, I have helped take a leading crypto exchange from 1–7 million customers. I am extremely passionate about crypto, I truly believe that prediction markets are going to be massive in the DeFi space.
Over to you JJ
Jolyon
Thanks, Haz, Pep
Boom, it’s a wild past 72 hours since being announced as a tier 1 incubation! We are pumped to be working closely with the amazing Duck team and now touching base with the wider community.
I’ve worked in the international tax space helping tech companies scale efficiently ranging from Seed & Series A to listed companies. I also am an ambassador of a global leaders forum, One Young World which is pushing for change on the world stage.
Haz pushed me into the crypto scene which was a huge blessing. Together we’ve been glued to the highs and lows and finally decided to utilise our networks to contribute to the ever-growing ecosystem.
Excited to share more info about totem with the community — some huge things in the pipeline.
Pep
Ok, so I’m dying to jump right into that last statement! But will start off with some community questions first.
Harry
Please — fire away!
Pep
Ok, let’s dive right in then.
What separates your staking-based prediction market from already established prediction market platforms like Augur and Polymarkets?
Jolyon
Ok, I’ll grab this one Haz
Pep
I want to call him Haz too!!
Jolyon
Takes 30 years to get to that point 🙂
Combining staking functionality with prediction markets has created our prediction pools. They are unique because they deliver fixed staking rewards alongside the ability for high-yielding BTC & $TOTM rewards for accurate predictions.
Additionally, built with the community at heart our prediction pools are not a zero-sum game. If the weighted average prediction of a pool is within a certain range, each participant gets an additional ‘Collaborative reward’. This is unlike other projects where if you win, someone (or the platform) must lose.
“…with the community at heart, our prediction pools are not a zero-sum game. If the weighted average prediction of a pool is within a certain range, each participant gets an additional ‘Collaborative reward’.”
Finally, we have a non-punitive system that understands the volatility of crypto markets and aims not to penalise people for inaccurate predictions.
Pep
Oh, this is great especially for newer folks joining crypto. Some of them get whiplash trying to follow so this is a nice feature.
Jolyon
Exactly — Accessibility is paramount
Pep
Ok so speaking of the penalties…our next question focuses on that.
One of the features of TotemFi that you describe is “non-punitive predictions”. If users can’t lose their initial stake or at least a part of it, where do the rewards for correct predictions come from and how do you as TotemFi generate profits?
Harry
Yea great question
There will be a 3% burn 🔥 on entry to the pool which is returned to the admin wallet to purchase BTC prizes. This is the maximum amount of your initial stake that is taken regardless of how accurate/inaccurate your prediction is.
There is also a 3% burn/recall function on selling the coin on DEX’s which will help generate funds for the development of the project and purchase of further BTC prizes.
This effectively means the prizes are generated through the whole community interacting with the coin. Therefore if you use your $TOTM to predict you gain the positive externality from the background volume funding the prizes.
Jolyon
The more interaction the more free btc to give away to community members
Harry
We are really proud to give away actual BTC as well as a native token
Pep
I definitely want to talk about your native token later…that’s the best part!
I see….the collective fees help spread out the costs/volatility
With TotemFi we can earn crypto by predicting its price, whilst your initial stake is protected. Can you explain how your initial stake is protected?
Jolyon
Yep, ofc. As mentioned there is a 3% burn/recall function when the token is sold which means that we generate funds to purchase crypto rewards for participation in the protocol.
As you basically eluded to above — this spreads the loss over the whole community.
If people are just buying and selling the coin, but not interacting with the protocol the fees are recouped to reward people who do, therefore they have their stake protected, [thus] driving engagement with our product and safeguarding the active community
Pep
ok, that makes sense. I’m actually learning a lot about staking myself so this is great information for me personally! I never realized how much potential there really was
Jolyon
💯💯
We’ll get you up to speed ready for launch Pep
Pep
And as a noob in this area…..not having high penalties stab me it’s going to be a great way for me to learn/understand. 😊
Harry
Nooo — we won't stab you!
Jolyon
Totem = stab-proof vest
Pep
😵 yay!!!!
Ok, I can totally picture your household when you guys were kids!
😂
One regretful feature of the crypto world is that it is becoming more and more regulated. Taking into account a prediction market is in essence a betting market, how do you expect to be influenced by the regulation when operating at the intersection of betting and crypto?
Jolyon
Really great Q, and one that we have spent a lot of time thinking about.
Prediction markets will be big if crypto becomes mainstream and for crypto to become mainstream, realistically, it needs to exist as a type of asset class. If it is regulated correctly, it’s a good thing and provides a better and safer path for adoption from users.
Well made regulation protects the general public, it’s there to ensure fairness, certainty and protection of consumers. We embrace and support proportionate regulation and believe in the best position.
We’ve also got key compliance advisors onboard to ensure the project is run in a correct and transparent way
Harry
We want to protect our community!
Pep
This is a great answer. It shows that you’re preparing for the long haul.
Jolyon
Long trip ahead!
Harry
Another key aspect is making sure there is great UX/UI
Pep
ooh that’s pretty
Jolyon
Some sneak peeks for the Ducks
Pep
It looks very simple and easy to understand. to the point that I can even understand it!
Harry
It still is a work in progress but can’t wait to share the finished article soon
Pep
Well, everything always is but this is a nice intro.
Harry
Thanks, Pep
Pep
So How will your DAO governance/community voting work? Can you tell us more about it? I am especially interested in how it will provide protection from users that will hold a lot of tokens and will try to influence the decisions unilaterally.
Harry
Great question!
We are keen to ensure the community ultimately decides what features are released and how they are implemented. Initially, this will include what on-chain assets we add (Eth, ADA, DOT, DOGE etc..). off-chain assets ($TSLA etc.), alongside new mechanics of the protocol (burn rate, pool time length)
Our ultimate goal is to ensure the Totem ecosystem is sustainable and user-centric. We want a product that people enjoy using and are sufficiently rewarded for doing so. This will be achieved by cultivating a creative and informed community, which is incubated by the Ducks will certainly help.
There is so much more to follow and the best thing it’s not being driven by me and Jolly but the whole community 😄
Jolyon
🔥🔥
Harry
😂
Pep
This is great info….not sure how I feel about DOGE but everything else is very cool. So will you be adding assets based on popularity/volume?
Harry
haha fair play
Jolyon
Doge was just following a convo we had with Elon
It was a deal-breaker…
Pep
Omg, tell him I said HI!!
Jolyon
Haha will do
Harry
Elon has nothing on the duck army
Pep
But I actually like that you will have other assets (off-chain) like GME, TSLA
Harry
Yea I think its super key that we get our MVP out
Working, and adding value.
Pep
I come from a non-crypto background so those assets bring nostalgia back to me.
Harry
free BTC to the community! Then so much more room for expansion
Pep
Amazing! only in crypto!!!
I assume that this is a given for all projects, but can you speak about the security of your platform? Can you tell us who is doing the audit, and what security measures you are taking outside of said audit to protect user funds? (E.g. Insurance)
Jolyon
For sure. The Trust and security of our community is a number one focus. For a start, we are keen to ensure a correct control environment internally, which will be mirrored in the community.
Smart contract integrity is vital, we’ve partnered with Certik to deliver a rigorous review. All of these details will be announced to our community and we will have full transparency.
“Smart contract integrity is vital, we’ve partnered with Certik to deliver a rigorous review”
Further conversations are ongoing for agreement on smart contract insurance, again details will be announced shortly.
We are grouping with strong and vastly experienced strategic investors who will help provide support on such issues have seen many times previously.
Pep
I might know some of those guys
Jolyon
haha 😉
Tier 1 incubation being a massive starting block there
Pep always in the know
Harry
Pep
I love, love, love the whole wilderness/wild animals concept that you guys incorporated. I can easily tell you apart
Are you exploring/considering any L2 solutions?
Jolyon
Haha ETH FEES!
Pep
Oh don’t get me started
Jolyon
Certainly a tricky obstacle for any DeFi project at the moment and one we are taking very seriously. We have plans in place to introduce an L2 solution as soon as we possibly can, which can be seen in the roadmap.
Pep
I actually feel physical pain when I look at the gas fees.
Jolyon
Additionally, there have been applications submitted for migration to adjacent blockchains such as DOT or ADA.
We want to have full transparency with our community and will aim to make the decision with as much input from them as possible. Hopefully we’ll also be seeing Eth 2.0 soon
Pep
This is good to know…Most users know that everyone hasn’t found a solution, but the fact that you’re working on it gives hope!
Harry
Exactly
Pep
Hopefully sooner rather than later.
Jolyon
…but then again, can’t wait forever… haha
Harry
it’s a great problem to have
Pep
Do you also plan to use the prediction system on a token other than BTC in the future?
Jolyon
Imagine eth fees when TOTM protocol goes live??
Harry
haha
Yea again great question
Thanks, Pep
Pep
Would love to take credit but this is all the community
Jolyon
Switched on a bunch!
Harry
Yes, we are initially focusing on BTC as the mainstay of the crypto realm. Throughout the roadmap, there is functionality being released which adds both on-chain asset classes and off-chain asset classes. This is such a wide field that we will be focusing on adding what the community wants to see and more importantly will use!
($DIMM next on the list 🙂)
Also thinking about NFT’s…
Pep
So you just said the magic word! Huge potential!
Jolyon
Haha stay tuned on the NFT front
…..!
Pep
speaking of potential….your token!!
Can we talk about the tokenomics for your project and the amazing low supply? Also if you can speak to us about your token roadmap.
Jolyon
Ofc — key component of the project
Too often nowadays you see crypto projects with huge capital raises — on the promise of unachievable delivery and come listing date, there isn’t necessarily enough to back up the valuations which generally results in retail getting burnt.
Pep
True
Jolyon
We want to under-promise and overdeliver whilst also giving the community the ability to grow with us and let the market decide the valuation of the project. Therefore starting with a low market cap and low total supply it gives the early adopters a chance to enjoy the expansive growth we believe our project can achieve.
The roadmap plans to provide additional features which will be fun, rewarding and great to use. We also have a keen focus on the accessibility of protocol which is where our items such as migration of chains and L2 scaling play a vital part.
Every decision will be made with the community input
Ducks at our heart
Harry
Just in case you have not checked in on the roadmap
Pep
Amazing! gonna have my eye on that market buy button when you guys launch!
Harry
We are enjoying the mountain phase and looking forward to the next
Jolyon
Got it down to the T PeP
Pep
Honestly, I’m really excited….you have a great product, looks like an easy to understand/use UX/UI and amazing tokenomics for early investors
Harry
Yea we have a great team behind us, over 10 people are working on various things
Pep
I might be a little addicted to crypto, but this project is gonna be fun!
Harry
Huge shout out to Henry who leads all of the design and is pinging me as I have shared low res images of the Dapp
Jolyon
Glad to have you onboard Pep
Pep
I’m thinking about what animal I want (lol j/k)
I might be bugging you guys in your telegram chat on getting started….speaking of which, do you want to drop any links?
Harry
Pep
You guys are always welcome
Jolyon
This is our official channel — https://t.me/totemfi
Deffo jump in to ensure you keep up to date on the project
Pep
Perfect! If it’s ok with you guys, I’m going to unmute the chat to see if anyone has any questions in the community that I didn’t capture.
Harry
Huge shout out to Sylvester who is helping run the community and is a total pro
Pep
ok unmuting for any community questions now
Duck (User @luckydraw66)
Can you give an overview of $TOTM Token tokenomics? Will the design of the token rise and fall with the success of the platform, does it include any scarce paths, such as equity, storage or burning?
Jolyon
Given the low total supply anyway, this will help drive scarcity — we will drive the value of the token by providing access to high yield BTC rewards over a consistent period.
Duck (User @Idee01)
Experts believe current prediction markets like Augur v2, HXRO, Synthetix are still underrated. How will TotemFi disrupt the Prediction Market and become the leader in this space?
Harry
Hey, thanks for the question. Augur V2 certainly looks interesting, looking forward to seeing their new frontend.
We strongly believe that prediction markets have not hit a sweet spot of adoption and are undervalued. We believe by offering non-punitive predictions and nice UX/UI we can kick off the entry-level prediction markets.
Duck (User @ineed688btc)
The existence of Gas fees has always had a negative impact on user experience, which not only involves many processes but also occupies most of the revenue of users with small funds. How does $TOTM achieve zero cost in terms of Gas? Excluding this part of revenue, how does the platform or system maintain its own operating costs?
Jolyon
We will of course try our absolute best to ensure we minimise gas fees where possible — this means using a combination of solutions such as scaling, migration, the way smart contracts and backend is coded
There is no one size fits all at the moment but believe me we are working to try and get there for the community
Duck (User @cryptomegger)
Regulations are important, Many projects have been shut down in many countries because they are not using the right regulations and licenses. In order to reach the whole world, how does the Totemfi($TOTM) team handle this problem?
Jolyon
Hi — thanks for joining the AMA and your question. We take regulation very seriously at $TOTM and want to protect our community first and foremost. We are planning to get all necessary operational requirements set up to allow our protocol to be used as widely as possible
Duck (User @bluefacebaby07)
On moving forward through your roadmap, what are your most important next priorities? Does the Totem Fi team have enough fundamentals ( Funds, Community, etc ) to achieve those milestones?
Jolyon
The community will always be at the centre of our project — finding the best solution for on-chain governance is vital
This is followed by a suitable scaling or migration solution.
Duck (User @albela_pagal)
LPs are very important to the ecosystem. How will you encourage liquidity providers to be more inclined to provide liquidity to $TOTM?
Jolyon
For sure LP’s are vital — especially for smaller projects so thanks for your question. We are currently developing the liquidity staking functionality for release in the next phase of development. In addition, there is discussion ongoing with leading market makers to ensure our token can be well traded
Duck (User @IntelligentDetective)
Users often care less about technology, but rather the value of the token. How does Totem Fi manage to strike a balance between developing the technology and also improving the value of the token?
Harry
Hey! Really great question, honestly we care about both. We demonstrated this by locking up the team tokens. We have plans to really grow this project and are confident that there will not be too much sell pressure with our token economics. As investors in many projects on a personal level, we want to protect our community!
Duck (User @QuyenCao93)
Security and reliability are the factors that are most concerned by users in the blockchain system. Where is TOTEMFI’s transparency reflected?
Jolyon
We will be in regular contact with the community to keep them informed about updates on the project — this will be through all our media channels which can be found on the website/telegram
Duck (User @TrHieu87)
Cooperation and partnership are one of the most important issues to help develop a project. Can you tell us about your existing partnerships, the partnership plans, and what people can gain from these partnerships?
Jolyon
This is why having such a strong group of strategic investors is vital — we’ll be utilising our network to facilitate many partnerships that will add value to the project in a meaningful way
Such partnerships include; NFTs, Scaling, Insurance, Oracles etc.
Pep
Wow, you guys did awesome in answering so many questions and we really appreciate you doing so.
Harry
Please feel free to continue them in our telegram
Pep
This was a very informative AMA for me especially and I’m sure for the community as well
Jolyon
Absolutely not a problem — we’re always keen to speak with the community
Harry
If you have any further questions we can do an after-party.
Pep
Thank you and we will have a summary of the AMA for those that were not able to attend.
Thank you to the community for such great questions
Best of Luck Guys! See you in your chat room!
Jolyon
Thanks so much, Pep for having us
Harry
Awesome, thanks to everyone that joined!
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