Today we held another Fetch.ai AMA. Both CEO Humayun Sheikh and CTO Toby Simpson participated in the discussion on our Telegram community channel to provide a project update amidst the uncertainties of the current economic climate. We have included some of the best questions below:
What are you excited about for 2020?
A huge amount. Despite the strange and somewhat surreal times we are living in right now, there is some incredible progress being made in the crypto space: we’re seeing more and more interoperability, and an increasing improvement to the way in which we all interact with the space. I find the challenge of unlocking potential by combining technologies to be the most exciting part. Together, AI, ML, agents, cryptographic technologies and blockchain present so many opportunities. At Fetch.ai, we’re uniquely placed to help manage what is an increasingly complex world, where more and more value goes unused because it cannot be found at the appropriate time.
I would like to know how prepared the Fetch.ai team is for a possible global recession in 2020? How deeply do you think it may affect the project?
We have our heads down and are working during this possible recession. It is the best thing we can do. We feel we will come out stronger, armed with the tools necessary to build the new economy.
Can you explain the sources of revenue Fetch.ai plans to have by the end of the year? Who will that revenue belong to and how will it help raise the value of FET?
There are a few things we are working on, the most imminent of which is the Tokenized Commodities Exchange. This was due to be launched this month but due to the current situation we are delaying it until the end of the year. The revenue will be generated by transaction fees and the token demand will be generated by the use of FET as a percentage of the collateral required for the creation of the commodity token. We are also working on a Lending Platform which would lend against physical assets.
Can you tell us something about the FET token price?
Obviously, we do not control the market. Globally, in equities, bonds, property, crypto, toilet rolls, tins of baked beans, etc., the prices have been changing rapidly.
For us, we are aware that we have a utility token: it is needed to interact with and use our technology such as agents, collective learning and more. It is vital that we remain focussed on creating demand for that utility — no matter what’s going on. We will continue to develop and deliver every day.
For example, in the next 24 hours we have an exciting update to our agent framework coming out which includes smart contract integration and more!
The second quarter of this year looks set to be an exciting time for the team. Do you have any hidden news?
Hidden news is hidden! But with the global situation being so strange and challenging right now, it’s quite hard to get traction on new ideas. This doesn’t mean that we are not, and it doesn’t mean that we do not have things up our sleeves — as you will find out in the coming weeks and months.
Will the promised metal exchange go live in Q3 of 2020?
Yes, but it depends on the market. Progress is excellent, and we can’t wait to share some visuals and details!
When can we see a complete roadmap?
It’s hard to plan when the world is moving the goalposts, but we are focussed on the key deliveries relating to DeFi, agents, collective learning and governance. We talked about this in our recent blog post. What we wish to avoid, is laying out a set of plans when we really don’t know how things are going to unfold, only to have to change them. So we’re delivering the key things, working hard to make them visible, and working on many exciting use cases with partners to highlight how Fetch.ai can change people’s lives.
How do you differentiate yourself from Hedera and IOTA? Do you use the same DAG technology?
We differentiate ourselves by highlighting the ways we differ: agents, collective learning, the technology to connect all these things together autonomously, without human intervention, in a way that learns as it goes along how to make itself better.
This happens in a truly decentralized space that scales and enables tight integration of other cryptographic technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs (see ANVIL), multi-party computation and more.
What progress has been made on targeting the US market?
The US market is important, and at the same time, represents a great challenge. We are 100% committed to being compliant from a regulatory perspective. If there is any doubt at all as to whether there will be regulatory issues in a territory, we will always err on the safe side.
In the meanwhile, we continue to work with the community to directly engage with regulators to work on how to build a safe, open space for us all to innovate and create in. So we’re working to create clarity, and when that clarity emerges, that will provide us with opportunity to expand into these markets.
Are there any plans to implement longer staking periods of, for example, three to 12 months in return for slightly higher annual rewards?
The rewards of three-month staking will be the same as three one-month stakes. I guess the question is whether we are going to make it easier for people to set up and leave their tokens staked. And yes, we are: we’re developing technology that allows stakes to rollover automatically, so you can leave it for long periods of time, safe in the knowledge that staking will continue. This is important for automated validator slot use, and many other aspects of fulfilling requirements that emerge in relation to participating in staking.
