Ferrum Telegram AMA Recap
Nick Odio joined the Ferrum Telegram community for a jam packed AMA! Check out the recap here.
In this exciting AMA recap, Nick Odio, Chief Growth Officer at Ferrum Network, joined the Ferrum Telegram community to discuss the company’s mission and future plans. Topics covered include Ferrum’s focus on interoperability, the concept of “Interoperability 2.0”, the challenges and solutions to achieving genuine interoperability, and the role of Ferrum Network in the DeFi space.
Nick also addressed the role of the FRM token within the ecosystem, the inspiration behind the new tagline “Pioneering Interoperability 2.0: A New Era of Interconnected Blockchains,” and ways the community can participate in and contribute to Ferrum Network’s vision. Let’s go!
Tom, [4/7/23 10:02 AM]
Hi Nick, how are you today? 😄
Nick Odio | Chief Growth Officer @ Ferrum Network, [4/7/23 10:04 AM]
Hey Ferrum Fam!! Hope everyone is doing great. I for one am feeling fantastic and am very excited to share some things about Ferrum today 🥳
Tom, [4/7/23 10:05 AM]
Fantastic! 🔥 We’re happy to have you here, Let’s start with some initial questions! We have recently announced our new whitepaper, and Ferrum’s mission seems to be revolving around interoperability.
How does Ferrum Network set itself apart from other projects focusing on interoperability within the blockchain industry?
Nick Odio | Chief Growth Officer @ Ferrum Network, [4/7/23 10:08 AM]
For sure! So full disclosure I’ll be copy and pasting these answers 😉. I wrote the responses to the questions you shared with me, Tom, prior to the AMA so that we can more quickly get to the community’s questions 💥
Nick Odio | Chief Growth Officer @ Ferrum Network, [4/7/23 10:08 AM]
I think that one of the major differentiating factors is the scope of what we’re focusing on. Interoperability is a broad category within Web3. From bridging, to messaging, to developability, Ferrum is taking a very holistic approach to solving the issues plaguing this piece of infrastructure. The developability aspect is something that not many folks are focusing on either. Throughout our own experiences integrating products with various networks, we’ve been able to identify many of the pain points that developers face. Ultimately, networks face these challenges as well since a lack of ‘developability’ makes it difficult to attract developers. Through proper error messaging, documentation, and the development of something we’re calling BIS (Blockchain Interoperability Standards), we’re able to provide an environment and the tooling to enable developers to build multichain smart contracts and applications.
Tom, [4/7/23 10:09 AM]
smart move Nick!
Tom, [4/7/23 10:10 AM]
Ok, and what is your interpretation of “Interoperability 2.0,” and why is it crucial for the evolution of interconnected blockchains?
Nick Odio | Chief Growth Officer @ Ferrum Network, [4/7/23 10:10 AM]
In order to understand Interoperability 2.0 its necessary to understand Interoperability 1.0. Up until recently, the term interoperability mainly referred to bridging infrastructure. While bridging infra allows for the movement of assets across networks, it doesn’t allow for TRUE interoperability which is the movement of arbitrary information, data and messaging between networks. As a result, applications built on one network are typically isolated from other networks unless the projects manually deploys the application on each network individually. This then becomes an issue of capital inefficiency where projects and companies are needing to hire different developers for each ecosystem they want to be a part of, thus drastically reducing their runway and/or delaying their roadmaps. Ferrum’s “build once, deploy everywhere” approach will make the deployment of applications across networks and the communication and interconnectedness of networks much more seamless and efficient. When the pace in which Web3 evolves becomes evident as a result of this, that is when we’ve arrived at Interoperability 2.0. Ferrum plans to pioneer this notion and be the first to usher in A New Era of Interconnected Blockchains.
Tom, [4/7/23 10:14 AM]
😎 I’m sure this will clear a lot of thigns out for our community, interoperability 2.0 is really complex and it’d be great for everyone here to understand it.
What do you think are the primary obstacles to achieving genuine interoperability, and how does Ferrum Network tackle these issues? 🤔
Nick Odio | Chief Growth Officer @ Ferrum Network, [4/7/23 10:14 AM]
I would say that the primary obstacle when it comes to interoperability is making sure that things are secure. Moving onchain information between networks opens you up to many more attack vectors. This is one of the reasons that we chose to leverage Substrate. Being secured by Polkadot’s consensus allows us to focus more on the application part of our L1 as opposed to base level security while Polkadot’s XCM provides us with a secure framework for certain interoperability components. As for what Ferrum is building to ensure security, BIS (Blockchain Interoperability Standards), MCVS (Multichain Validator Staking), and VCPR (Value-Constrained PoS Rollup) are all protocols or standards developed by our brilliant dev team led by Naiem and Taha that help to secure the Ferrum Network and Quantum Portal transactions. As with everything we build at Ferrum, the Ferrum mainnet will be built using the principle of “security by design” as opposed to “security as an afterthought.”
Tom, [4/7/23 10:16 AM]
🔐 I think security is an incredibly important factor in web3 nowadays, so thanks for elaborating on that.
What role do you see Ferrum Network playing in the DeFi space in the next couple of years? How do we plan to stay ahead of the competition? 🚀
Nick Odio | Chief Growth Officer @ Ferrum Network, [4/7/23 10:16 AM]
It’s interesting because up until now, Ferrum has always been a product driven company that builds applications on networks. Now Ferrum is evolving and the Ferrum mainnet will now host applications itself. So the tables have turned, and for the better if you ask me. Being the framework for multichain applications to exist allows us to have a much bigger footprint in Web3 and DeFi. As for how we plan to stay ahead of the competition, that has always been one of Ferrum’s superpowers — the ability to adapt and recognize trends. As long as we maintain this same team, I don’t see that side of Ferrum changing.
Tom, [4/7/23 10:19 AM]
❤️🔥 That’s what I love the most — a clear vision for the future. That’s what made Ferrum Network truly stand out since 2018. And it’s proven to be highly successful for the team in the long run.
Could you expand on the role of the FRM token within the Ferrum Network ecosystem and the incentives it offers for user participation? 🔹
Nick Odio | Chief Growth Officer @ Ferrum Network, [4/7/23 10:19 AM]
The FRM token has always had a ton of utility, however the token utility was split between FRM and FRMx for a long time. After the Merge between FRM and FRMx, FRM has now absorbed all of the utility of FRMx. So as of now FRM is still used for presales, bridge fees, governance, participation in Crucible, we buy back FRM, FRM is burned by way of multiple products, initiatives like the Fortnight of Burns, and soon it will be burned en masse by way of mainnet. FRM will also have utility in MultiSwap very soon. Mainnet will add an entirely new set of utilities from burns to transaction fees to more robust governance and of course the big one, operating QPMs (Quantum Portal Miners) and QPVs (Quantum Portal Validators).
Tom, [4/7/23 10:21 AM]
🔥 I’m sure people are excited hearing about the plans for the FRM token, it seems that everything is on point on that end.
What is the inspiration behind the new tagline, “Pioneering Interoperability 2.0: A New Era of Interconnected Blockchains,” and how does it represent Ferrum Network’s objectives? 🤔
Nick Odio | Chief Growth Officer @ Ferrum Network, [4/7/23 10:22 AM]
One thing about Ferrum is that we’ve always been tech centric. This doesn’t always resonate well with everyone in Web3 however. We wanted to be sure that we were able to explain what it is we’re building in a succinct manner. All of us on the team at one point or another are asked by family or friends to explain Ferrum in the most basic terms. The most common thread between all of our explanations seems to be the idea of connecting blockchains. We hope to catch the attention of folks who may not fully understand interoperability with this slogan and ultimately enlighten them with a deeper understanding of what we’re building.
Tom, [4/7/23 10:24 AM]
👍 This makes total sense, I’m glad we’re also simplifying things for our community and we’re making sure people can easily onboard to our mission and values.
And my final question for you would be: how can the community participate in and contribute to Ferrum Network’s vision of “Pioneering Interoperability 2.0”❓
Nick Odio | Chief Growth Officer @ Ferrum Network, [4/7/23 10:24 AM]
Eventually we will have incentivized testnets and ways for the community to participate in applications on the network. In the meantime, we will be opening up Beta testing for MultiSwap in the next week or so. Everyone’s feedback on this is going to be very welcome! Also, always feel free to drop feedback in Telegram on ways we can improve anything we’re doing at Ferrum. We are a community oriented project that truly listens to your guys’ feedback so keep it comin!
Tom, [4/7/23 10:26 AM]
It’s great we have plans for even further community participation, I *drum rolls* ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! 🔥 😂
Nick, thank you for answering all of my questions, I’m sure our community will have some additional ones for you.
🤑Giveaway Alert!🤑
This is the time to ask Nick your questions and get a chance to win $50 in cFRM! 🚀
Community Question: Q2. Concerning the upcoming Testnet and beta test coming up will this be public or private and do we need to get FRM Testnet token to interact or No need and will there be any welcome and reward for those that find bugs
Nick Odio | Chief Growth Officer @ Ferrum Network
Good question. We’ve done enough internal testing on MultiSwap that we don’t see the need in using tFRM (test tokens). It’ll be the real deal so you can actually use the product for your own purposes while providing feedback at the same time.
As for testnet, at some point as products start building on the network, you won’t necessarily be using FRM as the token to test applications but rather the application itself’s native token. How projects determine how they want to go about that will be up to them. We are discussing things with airdrop campaign companies though to help drive engagement when that time comes.
Community Question: 🥇 Many projects offering multi-chain solutions only cover EVM Chains, Ferrun Network on the other hand promises to offer its interoperability services in both EVM and non-EVM chains. How will this be achieved? Will it really be possible to use my Ferrum NFTs in Polygon and Solana at the same time?
Nick Odio | Chief Growth Officer @ Ferrum Network
One of the use cases that we intend to develop using Quantum Portal is a Multichain NFT Token Standard. But yes, one of the strengths of Ferrum is our ability to deploy apps on EVM and non EVM compatible networks alike. In fact we just submitted the bridging shell app for Casper, a RUST based network, this morning. The knowledge derived from these sort of integrations is being applied to our mainnet.
Community Question: One of the problems with interoperability is liquidity, how have you thought to optimize this and that cross chain transactions are not so expensive with Ferrum Network?
Nick Odio | Chief Growth Officer @ Ferrum Network
Ferrum’s Multichain Token Standard is going to be crucial here. Its going to give multichain projects the ability to automatically balance supply of their token across networks.
Community Question: Collaboration and partnerships are one of the cornerstones to making DeFi more widespread, Can you share some of the partnerships you have formed with existing blockchain foundations recently?
Nick Odio | Chief Growth Officer @ Ferrum Network
We’ve received grants and support from some big networks such as Polygon, Casper, Algorand, Harmony, Velas, Cudos, Astar, Moonbeam and more will be announced next week. We also just had our interview with the Substrate Builders Program this week and Taha and Naiem absolutely crushed the presentation. We should be joining that program in the next month which will open us up to many more partners within the DotSama ecosystem. Other than that, check out the Iron Alliance page on the website. We have a huge ecosystem of partners and will be focusing on onboarding many of them and others outside of the Alliance to start deploying products on the Ferrum mainnet when the time comes.
Community Question: When it comes to interoperability we are used to hearing about cross chain bridges. Ferrum Network offers an interoperability that does not depend on bridges but instead proposes a multichain messaging engine. Could you explain the difference between one model and another? Why is your proposal better?
Nick Odio | Chief Growth Officer @ Ferrum Network
Bridging is the jankiest piece of infrastructure in Web3. Specifically the mint and burn function that exists in most interoperability protocols. Ferrum believes in a bridgeless future where the native state of an asset is maintained across all networks that a project is deployed on. This will be enabled with our Multichain Token Standard.
Community Question: I’ve invested in so many projects made alot of promises without accomplishing them, they tend to base the survival of project solely on price movement of which if investors dump they team give up and stop developing ( which hurts the long term holders) then jump into creating a different new project, instead of developing a functional revenue generating utilities. How can you ensure us that holding this token is more beneficial for long-term and that you won’t give up when things gets tough?
Nick Odio | Chief Growth Officer @ Ferrum Network
Well one this is for sure, since 2018, Ferrum has never stopped working on Ferrum to work on another project. Thats not changing. I’m very lucky to be a part of one of the most dedicated teams in Web3. We’re all completely sold out to Ferrum and are going to see this through until our vision is realized and beyond.
Community Question: Considering that you have a large number of opponents, can you share with us a few killing features that make you superior to them? What are strengths that enable you to look to the future with hope?
Nick Odio | Chief Growth Officer @ Ferrum Network
There are a few competitors out there. We’re not focused on them. We’re focused on building a killer product. With the support of Substrate, XCM, and our own inventions like MCVS, VCPR, and BIS, I think Ferrum will be properly positioned by the time mainnet comes out. Not to mention we are very well connected and through the incubator will likely start to see many projects building on Ferrum. That is a major bonus.
Community Question: The majority of initiatives like to talk about their long-term vision and mission,but what are your short-term goals? So,on what are you currently concentrating?Almost many investors hold tokens for a short period of time. What are the advantages of owning a $cFRM token?
Nick Odio | Chief Growth Officer @ Ferrum Network
For as many verticals as there are at Ferrum, we’ve got a super narrow focus right now from a development standpoint. MultiSwap and mainnet. Thats it.
Alright folks! I think I’ve answered all the questions that weren’t already answered through @tomferrum’s initial questions. This was super fun!
