iTrust.finance x Nexus Mutual AMA: Your questions answered!
With over 50,000 $NXM staked at https://app.itrust.finance/ and having welcomed thousands of new community members across Telegram, Discord and Twitter — it’s high time we answered the questions of the Nexus Mutual community.
This week, we did just that — with an AMA hosted by Nexus Mutual! You can read the full transcript below, including the iTrust team’s plans for future development, the ‘missing pieces’ within DeFi insurance that we will be filling, and some exciting hints at upcoming announcements!
You’ll also be able to read the views of Nexus Mutual creator Hugh Karp, on how iTrust will benefit Nexus Mutual and the DeFi insurance landscape as a whole. Here’s a sneak preview:
“Delegated staking is certainly one of the features we’ve been asked for the most since we’ve launched. It helps to connect different market participants (more passive NXM holders, with staking experts) and helps the Nexus protocol allocate stake and capacity more efficiently.” He said.
We couldn’t have put it better ourselves!
iTrust.finance AMA in the Nexus Mutual Discord, 28/7/21 — Full Transcript:
Kayleigh I Nexus Mutual: Hi @here and welcome to iTrust’s AMA session Ask any questions to @Rlcooke @paulmorgan @Gekko @Sir Velo from the iTrust Team, and @Hugh | Nexus Mutual from the Nexus Core Team
Rlcooke
Hi all! Great to be here! Thank you for intro @Kayleigh I Nexus Mutual
Hugh | Nexus Mutual
Welcome iTrust team. Perhaps you can start with a brief into on yourselves and what iTrust is doing
Sir Velo
Hi Hugh (and everyone) Thanks for the intro. Absolutely — you have the core team online now — Paul, Rob, Steve and Myself. We have many years experience in both traditional finance and the crypto/defi space and we’ve been long term supporters of Nexus from late 2017, early ‘18.
iTrust was set up to help build interest and staking in Nexus, the platform currently allows both native and wrapped token holders to access Nexus returns simply. We socialise gas gas costs, making it cheaper to stake, and offer two strategies (vaults) to stakers; one of the strategies is an index — giving exposure to every available contract at Nexus, and the second is a low risk strategy where we monitor the protocols staked against and stake against a ‘safer’ set of 20 protocols that are in demand.
Sir Velo
Rewards are in distributed weekly in wNXM and if there are any shield rewards then these are also distributed to stakers, along with a share of our iTrust token
I hope that gives a good overview of the initial functionality of the platform … we launched a few weeks ago and have around 50,000 NXM staked in the vaults so far
Hugh | Nexus Mutual
Thanks! So where do you plan to take iTrust, what’s on your roadmap for the coming year? (everyone else, I have a few more questions, but feel free to jump in as you wish)
Sir Velo
Good question we have several items on the roadmap for this year, one of which will be announced in the next few days, and this is another platform that we will be building on, and will benefit the Nexus ecosystem — sorry I can’t say more than that but the press release will be going out shortly. In addition we are going to be introducing prediction markets (think REKT market — wisdom of the crowd for statistics on who may be hacked next and other items), launching user defined vaults — so individuals can set up strategies, further reducing barriers so allowing the deposit of ETH or stablecoins to be staked in Nexus and expanding across the DeFi insurance sector …
… Lots to do
Hugh | Nexus Mutual
Sounds great! Rekt market will be interesting
Sir Velo
With the Rekt market we plan to use Nexus as the oracle of whether a protocol is compromised or not
Hugh | Nexus Mutual
In your opinion what are the key pieces missing in DeFi insurance that we need to increase adoption?
Sir Velo
For me the biggest opportunity is insurance wrapped into the defi product — for example deposit into a yearn vault — you get a 27.6% return with no cover or a 25% return with cover — I think this makes the decision simple and removes barriers of having to deposit on one platform and then come to another to get cover …
Hugh | Nexus Mutual
Totally agree on that one. will be great to get that live.
Sir Velo
@Gekko is a bit of a visionary in this area — what do you think
Gekko
Well I personally see “embedded” insurance cover in most aspects of Defi in the future. Especially if we want to grow to encompass more retail type investors to come into the space
Currently in the currently financial markets landscape a “safe” double digit return from DeFi is a huge attraction to your average investor where rates are negative or zero
Hugh | Nexus Mutual
Makes a lot of sense. On that front, what’s your perspective on institutional adoption. What role can insurance play in that?
Gekko
Again, your average Asset manager does not want to take smart contract risk for example, as they have no way of understanding it. However they do like the look of juicy defi returns. These guys have Boards, Shareholders, Investment working groups etc they have to answer to so they have to show they have mitigated these kind of risks before they participate
Insurance basically makes it easier for these guys to dip toes in the water
Hugh | Nexus Mutual
We consistently hear the same thing. protected yields in the order of even 5–7% are big enough for significant interest.
Sir Velo
In a world with no or negative rates those rates are worth allocating capital to!
For Nexus you are ideally placed, being the biggest player and also covering the risks that traditional insurers cannot cover
Ricky | Nexus Mutual
What’s your team’s take on protocols purchasing cover in bulk to secure their users? It’s been a philosophical discussion we’ve been having internally and with other people in the crypto risk space whether this should fall within the remit of a protocol or not.
Sir Velo
I can see both sides of an argument — a protocol is code and it is to be used at the users discretion/risk … however to gain adoption and acceptance outside of the more ‘degen’ user then having cover will absolutely help that protocol gain traction and adoption
However the rise of DAOs and governance this can become more possible, the community can vote to protect itself, its users its treasury etc
Hugh | Nexus Mutual
Not specifically related to insurance, but there has been a lot of noise on the regulatory side recently, how do you see this impacting DeFi in the short term?
Gekko
From my perspective the regulators will probably always be a step behind in the evolution of defi. At the moment they are still trying to regulate the CEX’s and force KYC Compliance and travel rules on them. This is when shedload of trading has gone to DEX’s for example. Similarly USDT is getting a big regulatory attack on it but DAI and other non-custodial stable coins are increasingly being looked at by investors. Regulators always fight yesterday’s war.
Rlcooke
In the short term I think regs will slow down the uptake of defi products in the short term. But overall the defi sector will definitely grow and there will be more institutional uptake as there is more education and understanding from the institutions. Coupled with this, the more products available, like insurance/cover options, will make the space more inviting
Sir Velo
That’s a tricky one, I ultimately hope that regulation is applied to help the sector grow, with sensible measures to be put in place. I fear that regulation could be a knee jerk reaction though. It really depends on what stance the regulators take, however this sector is super innovative and responsive and I am confident that it will thrive. Short term it may impact protocols where they have to implement changes or reduce existing products which may fall outside the regulations — long term (if there are a sensible set of rules to play by) then it will allow institutions to come in.
That was a popular question
Hugh | Nexus Mutual
All great perspectives! We’re coming up to the end of the AMA, so please jump in with questions if you have them. iTrust team, is there anything else you wanted to cover?
Sir Velo
If no one else wants to jump in then @Rlcooke do you want to go into the product very quickly?
Rlcooke
Yes sure!
@Sir Velo has explained the Staking Vaults and differing strategies. I just wanted to share some images to show how easy the iTrust Finance product makes staking within Nexus, in turn helping to build Cover Capacity for the Mutual.
From the iTrust website users can easily enter the staking dApp and connect with either Metamask or Wallet connect
From the dApp users can simply choose to stake/unstake/check rewards
Later we will introduce the REKT Prediction market
Within Staking users can choose the Vault strategy they want to stake into, and the token (NXM or wNXM) and the amount they would like to stake
Hugh | Nexus Mutual
Great! Delegated staking is certainly one of the features we’ve been asked for the most since we’ve launched. It helps connects different market participants (more passive NXM holders, with staking experts) and helps the Nexus protocol allocate stake and capacity more efficiently. eg more staking capacity on Anchor is needed right now!
Really appreciate you all taking the time to answer questions. I’m sure our members can reach out directly and/or join your channels to dive in deeper. Please feel to drop links here, and thanks again!
Rlcooke
Yes absolutely! Enabling wNXM holders to stake within the Mutual, and allowing NXM holders to efficiently stake, in turn building a more efficient Mutual were the early driving forces around the product/concept of iTrust
Thanks Hugh and team — if anyone wants to talk further please feel free to message any of us.
Rlcooke
Thanks Hugh!
paulmorgan
Thanks to all
Rlcooke
Please feel free to jump into our Telegram/Discord and reach out to us directly
Rlcooke
All the details and links to our communities and groups can be found under the information octopus in our website on the bottom right
About iTrust.finance
iTrust.finance seeks to improve efficiency and usability in the DeFi Market. Maximising cover capacity and accruing token rewards for stakers in the DAO; increasing the overall market value of the underlying insurance protocol.
On launch, iTrust’s unique application will offer a host of yield-maximising staking options for Nexus Mutual ($NXM) holders and crucially, wrapped Nexus Mutual ($wNXM) token holders alike. With other insurance protocols to follow.
Website: https://www.itrust.finance
Telegram: https://t.me/iTrustCommunity
Telegram Announcements: https://t.me/iTrustOfficialAnnouncements
Twitter: https://twitter.com/iTrustFinance
