AMA Summary — Roadmap for Q4 and Beyond

A summary of the main points discussed during last week’s AMA session with Mettalex’s CEO and Founder Humayun Sheikh. Includes an important update about Mettalex Amplify.

On October 8, 2021, we organized an Ask-Me-Anything session with Mettalex’s Founder and CEO Humanyun Sheikh to share plans and goals for the forthcoming months. Here are the highlights!

Review of what Mettalex’s team achieved in Q2/Q3 of 2021

• We launched the Mettacast series of conversations with industry experts and opinion leaders;
• We launched the MettaInsights blog series focusing on trending commodities that may potentially be listed on Mettalex DEX in the future;
• We organized a Community bounty for traders and trader referrers, and a Meme/Video/Gif competition;
• We launched industry-first commodity markets such as Copper, Steel Scrap, and Steel Scrap shredded;
• We launched MTLX rewards in the DEX.

What do we plan to focus on next?

The Mettalex team has set two major goals for the upcoming months, namely to attract liquidity and to increase the trading volume on the DEX. These two objectives are to a large extent interconnected but each target group of users — liquidity providers and traders — requires a specific strategic approach.

Attracting liquidity providers

Mettalex aims to accumulate at least $10M of liquidity on the DEX by the end of Q1 2022. To reach that goal, we’ve planned to execute a number of specific steps:

• UPDATED: Amplify extended to October 31, 2021 — During the AMA session, we announced that Mettalex’s yield-farming program Amplify will stop generating rewards on October 15th. However, since we are currently exploring the most efficient ways to migrate LP token liquidity to the DEX, we are extending the program by two weeks. All Amplify pools will stop generating MTLX rewards as of October 31st, although already accumulated rewards can be claimed even after that date.

This decision was motivated by the need for more liquidity to reside on the DEX in order to boost trading activity. Current Amplify liquidity providers are encouraged to redirect their funds to the DEX where they can serve the needs of traders.

• UPDATED: 5% Withdrawal Fee Removal — We have decided to remove the 5% withdrawal fee once Amplify ends on October 31. This will help LP token holders move their liquidity to the DEX without incurring the 5% fee.
• What will the APY on the DEX be? — The APY is a function of the amount of liquidity deposited. No final APY number has been agreed on yet. We will share this information before the end of the month.
• Uniswap LP Tokens to be Used as Collateral on the DEX — The developer team is currently considering the best way for Uniswap LP tokens (MTLX/ETH, MTLX/FET, and MTLX/USDT for now) to be incorporated as collateral on the Ethereum version of the Mettalex DEX. Since the work is ongoing, we have decided to extend Amplify until the end of October to avoid having to temporarily deprive Uniswap LP token liquidity providers of MTLX rewards.
• PancakeSwap LP Tokens to be Used as Collateral on the DEX — It is possible that the PancakeSwap (PCS) LP tokens are incorporated into the Binance Smart Chain version of the DEX before October 31. If we are confident that the new collateral type is functioning properly, we could launch it before the end of the month. The 5% removal fee will be removed and an APY will be determined. We will keep you informed.
• Develop a Single-Liquidity Pool — Having different markets each associated with a certain collateral type is not ideal and could be confusing for users. In addition, the current collateral management approach on the DEX leads to liquidity fragmentation, which makes it harder to generate enough liquidity for all available combinations of collateral types and markets. The team’s vision is to develop a single-liquidity pool that will be used by all available markets on the DEX.

This is at least a medium-term goal. We are currently discussing a number of options, including launching the DEX on the more scalable, efficient, and interconnected Fetch.ai mainnet.

• Enable Multi-Token Collateral — This system upgrade is related but distinct from the single-liquidity pool one. Once a single liquidity pool is available, it should also be able to support a number of collateral types including LP tokens, stablecoins, and other tokens and cryptocurrencies. This could require the development of an internal stablecoin, used to manage system debt.

Enabling multi-token collateral will require an overhaul of fundamental Mettalex backend systems so it is also a medium-term goal.

• Increasing the MTLX token utility — Expanding the utility of the MTLX token is in itself a major goal for the team since it is closely connected to Mettalex’s value proposition and product viability. We have already taken significant steps in that regard in Q2 and Q3 — namely with integrating MTLX into the OpenDAO and OCP ecosystem and thus enabling its use as collateral for lending / borrowing and stablecoin minting. What we plan to do next is: 1) Striking additional partnerships with popular DeFi protocols; 2) Enabling governance.
• Integrating MTLX and FET as collateral types on Mettalex DEX — MTLX and FET will be among the new collateral types integrated on the DEX and first markets there will most probably be a FET and a MTLX market, respectively.

Attracting traders

The amount of liquidity residing on the Mettalex DEX is an essential requirement for its attractiveness to traders. However, to make it even more appealing the team aims at improving the user experience and at offering markets that are unique in DeFi. Our plans consist in:

• UI/UX improvements and smart contracts update — Over the last several months, the Mettalex team has been working hard on improving the DEX’s interface and user experience but there are a number of improvements yet to be made.

The P&L table and trading history are an example here. Developing decentralized services that are traditionally available on centralized exchanges is a daunting task. The main issue is getting authentic and timely data from the blockchain. Nonetheless, improvements are incorporated weekly.

Another example of a UI/UX fix we are planning to incorporate relates to the APY metric. Right now, it only displays trading fees and not MTLX rewards. That’s one of the reasons why we see negative APY rates on the DEX.

• Improving the Price Feeds on the DEX — The quality of the price feeds Mettalex uses are of utmost importance for the calculation of profits and losses. The Mettalex team is currently finalizing an important strategic agreement that will give the Mettalex DEX an edge in the DeFi space when it comes to oracle feeds. An announcement is in the works. Stay tuned.
• Introducing Popular Traditional and Crypto commodities — The team is constantly working on introducing popular commodities and other assets to the DEX. We are now looking into featuring other types of commodities such as energy or agricultural ones. Our efforts are always concentrated on proposing markets that are not available anywhere else in the DeFi space. Equipped with the support of new strategic partners, we will be able to deliver on these promises very soon.
• Fiat On-Ramping — Striving to attract a variety of users including institutions, we want to enable fiat on-ramping. The team has been working on that since the summer but the right partnership has not materialized yet. We remain confident that a solution will be identified by the end of the year.
• Interoperability — Integrating Mettalex DEX into different blockchain networks and protocols has been an objective for the team from the start. Polygon has been identified as a solution to Ethereum’s high transaction fees and congestion problems. However, the Fetch.ai mainnet is also being considered. The challenge there is the “translation” of all Mettalex EVM smart contracts and access to Web 3 services. The development teams of both Mettalex and Fetch.ai are currently evaluating with the latest release of CosmWasm showing a lot of promise. Though launching on several chains has the disadvantage of fragmenting liquidity, so it must be a strategic decision.

Q&A session highlights

• Why have you been so quiet lately? There is continuous work behind the scenes on complying with all sorts of regulations. One of the prerequisites of getting high-level partners and users is to make sure that all audits and documentation are in order.
• Are you planning to list MTLX on big CEXs? CEXes are usually interested in token volume, traction, and the dApp’s TVL. It will be much easier to achieve this goal if we improve the product — the Mettalex DEX.
• Why have there been so many technical problems with Amplify? If you have experienced any disruptions in how Amplify or the DEX work, they are most probably due to an impromptu halting of smart contracts or other work being done on the back end. As we are constantly working on technical improvements and upgrades, it is sometimes possible for users to experience problems. However, they will be only temporary and users’ funds have never been in danger in any way.
• Will you be integrating Mettalex DEX to Fetch.ai? We are currently evaluating how much effort this could entail. A risk/benefit analysis is being conducted.
• What are the risks of providing LP token liquidity to the DEX? The risks are the same as when any other type of liquidity is added. Please consult the special section on the Mettalex website dedicated to potential risks for liquidity providers.