Ferrum Network / CryptoCalibur AMA

We’ve gathered the in-depth questions which were asked by CryptoCalibur’s community into a digestible format alongside the precise answers by Ian Friend (COO of Ferrum Network)

Let’s dive into the AMA:

1. Ian, do you see ferrum tackling European countries?

Yes, we are in the early stage process of getting licensed there to bring a Kudi Exchange like app which would work with euros instead of Nigerian niara. This is not in the roadmap yet but I hope we can get it done after we launch the main net in early 2020. Otherwise UniFyre Wallet is a global product that anyone can use. We are about to start beta testing UniFyre.

I’ve seen the designs and some of its early capabilities, I think its going to be awesome. And more importantly solves some major problems in crypto in terms of custodying your assets because there is a recovery system that allows you to recover your private key and crypto even if you lose your phone or its stolen. But its a non-custodial wallet meaning we still don’t know your private key.

2. Currently there are many networks with very stable transaction speeds… so what difference do you have to attract users… and in the future do you plan to increase your network speed?

Our main selling point was never just “we are faster”. We have seen time and again faster speeds don’t equal adoption. Rather we focused on building products that solve real problems, like Kudi Exchange which is a fiat gateway in Africa that allows you to send money instantly for 0 fees.

To finish answering this question, the network already supports transaction speeds that are basically instant (milliseconds). If anyone is curious and wants to see it in action PM me after this AMA and I can send you some real Nigerian niara.

3. Can you elaborate a bit on how you’re able to keep fees at 0 for these kinds of transactions? Is this a loss leader for other income potential, or something more?

Sure, so in the case of Kudi Exchange and all Ferrum Network products there are network fees but in the case of Kudi those are not paid for by the end user. The network fees are paid for in FRM tokens which are like the gas of the network. Kudi Exchange actually covers those fees. The cool thing is every time a token is spent it is burned, so our African users are helping the whole ecosystem without being confused by another step. We take care of it for them.

Also Kudi is a fiat gateway app similar to Coinbase. We charge fees for withdrawals and for buying/selling BTC, but less than main competitor. So Kudi actually earns revenue.

4. Will users of UniFyre have the ability to have more wallet addresses, or only one?

One cool thing about UniFyre is that a single address will support all of your tokens. No more having to manage a ton of different addresses. But to be fully transparent, this feature will become available in later versions of the app.

Followup: Will we then be able to have different accounts? And are accounts pinned to our emails or phone numbers? Or just theoretically limitless?

That’s a good question…I will have to check with the engineering team and get back to you. With the security and recovery feature having a bunch of different accounts might complicate things, but let me get back to you with an official response.

5. What Exchange will we list on? I’m joking I know you can’t tell public.

Hahaha as Johannes knows we can’t reveal the exchange but if you have been following the project for long enough you probably know we dont settle for anything that is sub-par.

6. Are you already earning revenues? If yes, any numbers in terms of $?

In terms of revenues the numbers are low but growing…Kudi Exchange was launched to the public at the end of May. We have been growing slowly but surely even though the real marketing campaign has not even started there. (https://www.kudi.exchange/)

For people who are curious, you can also join the Kudi Exchange chat: https://t.me/Kudiexchange

Followup: I understand that the start is slow but fiat bridge has potential to grow exponentially.

Thank you! We are thrilled to have your support. In terms of the whitelist and ICO it will be multi-tiered to give the most people the opportunity to get involved. We did not want to restrict and limit it unnecessarily… but ultimately it is very difficult to please every person out there. We can only do our best.

7. I like the fact that fees are used to reduce token supply. In addition to this, are there other parts of your tokenomics that would reduce supply either through more direct burn, or passively through a lock out of supply? Also, are the FER tokenomics fully establish, or will they evolve to expand token use over time?

Yes so in addition to transaction burns where FRM is spent and burned to run transactions on the network, we will have “economic burning”…I can’t reveal too much at this time but the idea is products running on our network will take some profits for token buy backs and burns…kind of like how Binance does it.

8. So even the people who are not whitelisted will get the opportunity to invest?

Yes absolutely! It would not be fair to tell people they cant participate just because they found out about Ferrum a few weeks ago. The reason we opted against IEO was so more people could participate. That has been our underlying goal with every decision we make in terms of the sale.

Followup: Doesn’t it make whitelist useless?

No that would also contradict our ultimate goal and not be fair to the whitelisters. Hence the multi-tiered approach we have developed where whitelisters and non-whitelisters will have opportunity to participate.

Followup: In my opinion, whitelisters should have a priority and larger allocation considering the fact that they have been associated long with the project. Else would end up like an IEO.

The exact allocation and structure is still being worked out. There are some technical limitations to this as well, but I assure you we are doing it as fair as we think is possible within the confines of what is technically possible.

Followup: All these days the way you guys made announcement made whitelisted people fee that they’re are 100% sure to get into token sale! But now I see very less chances! This is not fair after all!

I’m quite sure we have never made any promises to anyone regarding ability to get into the sale…we have consistently said we are trying to make it as fair as possible to as many people as possible.

9. With products running your network you mean integrated blockchains, or something else?

More so actual revenue generating products like Kudi Exchange and other fiat gateway we open in the future. Integrating other blockchains into the Ferrum Network is not something we are presently charging for except for contributing some engineering hours.

Followup: You write you are not presently charging for integration. Will Ferrum do that later? Because tokens will have access to your DEX, etc.?

Yeah so as an early stage project we don’t think it’s reasonable to start charging networks for integration into Ferrum. Other than some assistance with engineering resources, we don’t charge fees. That said, there may come a time in the future when we start charging a bit more and requiring those other projects to buy FRM in order to integrate. We have some tokens allocated for this kind of partnership, and such a thing will bring more utlity to the token.

Yes every network that integrates into the Ferrum Network will automatically be listed on in the UniFyre Wallet and Infinity DEX. After we integrate the major chains, we will start to do community votes to see which networks we should integrate with next.

For people interested in signing up early for UniFyre Wallet, they can do so on our site…note that we will be running rewards for this product…

10. Ian, as you know I like the geographical targeting you’ve initially focused on, in West Africa. Opportunity for competitive advantage seems high there. How has the feedback been from the population living there? In general, how is the education factor on blockchain?

Great question. The opportunity is really tremendous in West Africa, particularly Nigeria where Kudi first launched. It is a very large country (200 million people) with a relatively large middle class. A vast majority of people have smart phones and the existing financial system has limitations. Moreover the crypto exchanges are either low quality or quite expensive. Kudi Exchange has been received very well because it is simple to use, low cost, very fast and has many different useful features from buying/selling crypto, to sending Naira instantly for 0 fees, to a built in point of sale system for small businesses.

I encourage people to join the Kudi Exchange commmunity chat to ask real users what they think of the app. And if anyone wants a private demo after the AMA, please PM me.

I realize I missed your last question about education. This is a critical component of what we are doing there in terms of marketing. During my travels there it was apparent many people had a vague idea of bitcoin, but most assumed it was a scam. On the other hand, there is a strong willingness to accept technology that improves peoples lives. One thing we are doing is going to colleges across the country and doing educational meet ups. This initiative will start soon and I am excited to see the results.

Followup: I would think the peer-to-peer payment system you offer would give an opportunity for viral-like growth at some point?

The peer to peer payment definitely has the potential to go viral and we even have a generous reward system built into the app for referring friends and family. The challenge we ran into is a general lack of trust with anything having to do with money. So I can send you Naira using the Kudi app, but lots of people just assume its a scam. The solution to this is just building the trust over time, and retooling the reward system, which we are doing now.

11. More utility for FRM but also more centralisation about which tokens can list and not. It has a positive side for the FRM holders, but I also take a bit of a worrisome look to the future. For the one of the grand qualities of Ferrum for me is inclusion. So I look with a critical eye to selection.

In a perfect world we would list any token. But the reality is in crypto there are so many scams and projects that really bring 0 value to the crypto space. In light of that reality we need to keep the integrity of Ferrum and its products high. That said, there are hundreds of great projects doing really interesting things. Theres no reason to think your favorite project will not end up in the UniFyre Wallet or Infinity DEX.

But even if there is some vetting that goes on, it does not mean we are looking to charge projects exorbinant prices like you see with the centralized exchanges.

Followup: I understand and what you say still sounds good. Thanks. But AMA’s without critical notes would become boring.

So true! We welcome the criticism and tough questions. I cant tell you how many ideas we adopted originally started as a community suggestion. In fact the idea to do community votes to add tokens to UniFyre and Infinity DEX came from a community member in the Ferrum chat…

12. I’ve read that kudi.exchange is planning to expand to Ghana and Kenya very soon. Are there considerations for other African countries within a 6–12 month time frame?

Hey! Yes so we are quite close to launching Kudi in Ghana. This is a country in West Africa with even less crypto infrastructure than Nigeria but there is still considerable demand there. After Ghana we are looking to launch in Kenya where demand is similarly high but without major incumbent competitiors.

13. Can you please confirm that staking will be available for FRM token holders?

Yes not only will there be staking through the UniFyre Wallet, we are doing something similar using an innovative community driven marketing tool which will allow communtiy members to earn FRM each month based on their contributions. I can’t reveal more than that at this moment, but definitely stay tuned to our announcement channel.

14. What would happen to Ferrum Network when Naim would fall away?

Oh wow, that would be really bad!! Losing the founder of the project who is also a brilliant engineer would be disastrous. Luckily Naiem is extremely committed to the success of Ferrum. He left a really high paying cushy job and works like 18 hours a day on Ferrum. So unless he gets hit by a bus I think we are good.

Links:

Website: https://ferrum.network/

Telegram: http://telegram.ferrum.network

Twitter: http://twitter.ferrum.network

LinkedIn: http://linkedin.ferrum.network

YouTube: http://youtube.ferrum.network

Reddit: http://reddit.ferrum.network

Bitcoin Talk: http://bitcointalk.ferrum.network

Facebook: http://facebook.ferrum.network

Github: https://github.com/ferrumnet/

Instagram: http://instagram.ferrum.network