Hello dear NEXT.exchange community!
To start, I would like to thank you for your support throughout our development and growth path! On the 11th of April 2019, we successfully held our first official AMA (Ask Me Anything) in which our CEO, Christiaan Van Steenbergen, and COO, Gleb Jout took place. Ranging from short-term to long-term aimed questions: we answered them all and now present them to you in this AMA transcript.
EXCHANGE ARCHITECTURE AND DEVELOPMENT
One of the upvoted questions pertained to trading fees. The concerned commenter was interested if whether or not the trading fees on NEXT exchange can be lowered to be more in line with market-wide trading fees. We at NEXT.exchange assure readers that we carefully monitor market conditions and we will make sure that the rates at NEXT.exchange are fair and competitively viable compared to other crypto asset exchanges.
Q: Could you consider lowering the trading fees? Currently your website has a 0.50% fee for normal users and 0.25% for users holding 100+ Next.
Binance for example has 0.1% fee and it can even go lower if you meet certain requirements. Okex has fees starting from 0.15%-0.10% and also can go lower like Binance. Huobi has 0.2% fee, HitBTC has 0.2%-0.1% Maker/Taker.
And this list goes on. Your fees are clearly higher, even when you hold 100+ Next. How are you going to compete with other exchanges fee wise?
A: It’s very simple to adjust our trading fees. Over the course of time, there have been many adjustments at other exchanges regarding the fee policy. We have not yet implemented this at NEXT because we mainly focus on developments and delivering 1.1 and Mainnet. However, to maintain a competitively viable position, we will adjust our fees to be in line with the market and implement more competitive fees in the short term.
Some AMA participants asked if whether or not we are running any marketing activities at the moment and if whether or not we are spending marketing reserves. The answer is yes to both. We currently have an active Ambassador program, onboarded a marketing agency, and are planning to spend funds from our marketing reserves to promote our reach, grow our community, and improve positive price action. We are quite busy in the marketing department, which requires funding.
Q: Over the period of a year, over 1 million Next were transferred from the marketing wallet. I remember the times when the circulating supply was 2.8M and now it’s over 3.8M. Could you explain how these tokens were used? I don’t really see any marketing related stuff. Next is still very unknown. I know you had twitter giveaway contests, but those are certainly not worth 1M tokens.
If you didn’t use the funds for marketing related business, why did you use it? If I remember correctly you raised something between one and three million Euros from the ICO. Is that money gone?
A: The total supply has indeed grown. Keep in mind that we did issue a one-off bonus of 40% to ICO participants, that have kept their tokens for over half a year post the end of our ICO. These tokens were distributed in batches through the marketing fund during the course of the last half year, with the majority of tokens having already been distributed prior to the recent price increase that the NEXT token saw in the market. Apart from this, we also have to deal with a number of marketing activities and preparations, including as you mentioned giveaways, news articles, marketing agency, blogs, and further related marketing support. Marketing and promotional agencies are not cheap by the way. Our marketing efforts will pick up significantly with the release of our Mainnet and V1.1 of our exchange platform. We do expect to lay more claim to the marketing fund over the course of the next quarters because the brand awareness of NEXT will need to be increased significantly. Additionally, if we do transfer Marketing reserves, it is not a sure thing that we will use them immediately upon transfer. Hope I am clear about this.
Q: How will you be planning to get the word out about NEXT once mainnet launches? What is the plan for marketing?
A: Thanks for your question. We have already started marketing and will be ramping up our efforts once we have released the V1.1 update of our platform and the Mainnet of our Blockchain. In terms of marketing we have:
- Newsletter (we plan on producing a regular newsletter for our user base going over what we are up to and what to expect in future after we launch 1.1 and Mainnet)
- Ambassador program (currently active, info on that can be found here).
- Consistent press releases through a journalist network.
- Referral program on our exchange platform (looking to provide a sophisticated referral which ups the rewards for users based on how many people they referred, be it decreased fees or other bonuses in the form of tokens/coins).
- Trading competitions on our exchange platform (we have already discussed this with various teams which we have listed).
- Airdrop & giveaways on our trading platform (what everyone is accustomed to).
- Banner advertisements on crypto related media sites and forums.
- Influencer outreach. While we are working on this already, even community members can be part of it. There are a few influencers out there who share a similar vision with us, which is a clean crypto asset environment with minimal BS and that is appealing to the masses.
- Additionally, we recently contracted a marketing agency (NDA) to aid us with our positioning in the market, social marketing, content creation, etc.
I think it’s very worthwhile to place an image here, which was tweeted by one of our long-time community members.
We were very happy that the following question was asked. It pertains to the technical architecture of NEXT.exchange. We can scale our server capacity up to 10 or 100 Gbps when the need arises. We can also defend ourselves from bad actors quite well.
Q: Can you provide some insights as to the technical architecture of NEXT.exchange?
A: We cannot make the entire technical infrastructure public because we have to endure many DDOS attacks and hack attempts on a routine basis (thankfully, we are well protected against both).
A: What we can say is that NEXT.exchange runs on own clustered servers (around 20) that employ various security techniques. The server park of NEXT.exchange is located in Eindhoven via a redundant fiber optic connection on the NL-ix backbone, which is a worldwide backbone for the internet. The capacity of our network is currently 1 Gbps, if needed we can scale up to 10 or 100 Gbps.
A question regarding asset deployments on the NEXT.chain also arose. NEXT.chain allows its users to launch assets (create their own token/crypto asset, akin to that of Ethereum with its ERC20 tokens). There is a high possibility of us utilizing our Blockchain to tokenize fiat currencies and other assets, perhaps even gold, art, and more. There are many use cases for the NEXT.chain.
Q: Could you explain more about asset deployments?
A: Regarding asset deployments, the NEXT.chain is capable of maintaining and deploying assets in a similar fashion to Ethereum and its ERC20 tokens. In the near future, anyone can create an digital asset via NEXT.exchange and be launched in a very simple way. Upon approval by the NEXT.exchange listing committee, the created asset will be deployed on the exchange by means of an Initial Exchange Offering. Additionally, it is very possible that we will be tokenizing fiat currencies on our platform and creating NEXT based stable coins (convert basic fiat to a NEXT based fiat stable coin, which temporarily locks basic fiat until a withdrawal process is initiated, which then burns the NEXT fiat stable coin, leaving basic fiat for withdrawal purposes) of which the true supply is known and depends on the amount of pure fiat on our platform.
There also was a question regarding user classes, what they are, and how many of them are there. There are 6 user classes (currently planned) with different options regarding fiat operations and requirements that each user must meet to reach a certain class. Higher classes, for example, have lower fees as they provide great liquidity to the exchange and help the entire ecosystem grow. The classes are subject to change, we strive to stay flexible and adjust our exchange according to current market standards and conditions. Which we all know can be dynamic.
Q: How many user classes will the exchange have? As far as I understand for certain fiat operations like using PayPal you need to meet certain user class requirement. Could you elaborate these classes?
A: Basically, we are looking to have six user classes, it will be something as attached here.
Keep in mind that these are not final figures. PayPal withdrawals will likely be available for everyone. While PayPal deposits will be most likely only be available to users of higher tiers. Either way, we have not yet decided on final numbers as a team, and we do not wish to create unreasonable entry barriers for new market participants that wish to use our exchange. However, the requirements to access fiat functionality (which everyone is hot about, for good reason too, we have that covered and will be available in 1.1) requires holding a relatively small amount of NEXT (subject to change based on market conditions in favor of users and platform growth) and passing KYC, this also opens up staking functionality for users.
We also received questions as to whether or not we have enough funding to support the development of NEXT.exchange and the surrounding ecosystem. We can say that we have enough funds to fully deliver our final product. We can also say that we have enough assets to be as focused as possible on our goals and not slack off with ICO funds, which is, unfortunately, a common thing in the crypto asset market.
Q: If I remember correctly you raised something between one and three million Euros from the ICO. Is that money gone?
A: The ICO money has not run out. Compared to other ICOs, we have collected bizarrely few crypto assets during our ICO period. After the ICO closed, the counter was at +/- 800 ETH. At the start of the ICO, ETH had a value of $420, at the end $ 1081. We have converted part of this Ether into euros in batches after the end of our ICO. In the end, around 450k euros were collected. We are not really hampered by this because it allows us to be lazer focused on our goals.
LEGAL FRAMEWORK
One of our key strengths is regulatory compliance with EU laws, so we made sure to answer all questions regarding the legal side of things in order to demonstrate to our readers and prospective users that we have these aspects under control.
The first question was about the Bunq legal case dispute. The answer to that question was that the dispute concerned another company which NEXT.exchange has no relations to anymore. There are no legal cases or even precedents of legal cases involving NEXT.exchange.
Q: Can you go over what happened with Bunq? I have heard there was some sort of legal case?
A: The dispute concerns another company, Opentrader NV i.o., of which NEXT.exchange is no longer a part of. Opentrader intended to develop multiple activities (including mining pools and Initial Coin Offerings). It is precisely these ‘new’ activities (and not the activity to act as a crypto-exchange) that made the bank decide to close the bank account due to potentially increased risk. This decision has been reviewed by the Court, where consideration of interests has been made. The statement is also entirely separate from the activities that NEXT.exchange B.V. undertakes. NEXT.exchange B.V. has been passed an internal investigation by banks, whereby banking facilities have been awarded.
Another commenter was interested in the process of how NEXT.exchange will work with regulators in the future. We stated that we are working closely with the Dutch Ministry and we are involved in helping them draft crypto legislation in the Netherlands. So, as you may see, we are working alongside the government and we will know about any upcoming regulatory changes in advance.
Q: How do you see yourself working with regulators in the future?
A: We are currently in contact with the Dutch Ministry and are involved in the drafting of legislation that relates to cryptocurrencies and Blockchain in a general sense. We will continue to monitor this process closely and, where necessary, continue to provide information. Check out this blog if you wish to read more about our work in the regulatory field.
FUD
Some of the questions in AMA were about the FUD surrounding NEXT.exchange. We made sure to answer all of these so prospective investors and users of the NEXT can be sure that NEXT.exchange is clear and transparent in its communications.
Q: I’ve heard rumors and accusations regarding fraudulent business practices: what is going on?
A: It has been brought to our attention that our hybrid cryptocurrency exchange platform, NEXT.exchange, has been subject to false accusations regarding unlawful business practices.
Since the inception of our project in 2017, our team has been dedicating countless hours towards the development of NEXT.exchange and NEXT.chain. Our aim is to provide you with a product that is user-friendly, easy and safe to use. Moreover, we operate in a legal-regulatory field: fraudulent business practices of any sort naturally do not fit within our company’s vision.
Due to collective efforts, team chemistry, and creative budgeting, we have developed a strong and revolutionary product. We were very thrilled to announce that we are approaching the launch, as we are currently finalizing the latest tests and edits. Soon we will deliver an excellent platform and a great blockchain for you to use!
Another common FUD question was in regards to Andrew Massman, as some people questioned whether he is a real person and a real developer. To tackle this piece of FUD, our COO, Gleb Jout, provided proof of Andrew’s existence with timestamps and GitHub commits.
Q: Can’t help but notice the ongoing FUD about Andrew Massman. People are saying he is fake because he doesn’t exist online. Care to explain this?
A: Thanks for asking this question, I have been getting it a lot in PM. Andrew is not a fake, to say that he is fake based on a google search is quite strange.
Every developer that works with us must sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) and send in a copy of his passport.
While I obviously cannot share this NDA or his passport here, what I can do is provide brief snippets of my personal chat history with him on slack, within reasonable limits so as to not divulge sensitive information related to developments.
As I am aware, the biggest FUD relates to his bio being very similar to that of a developer elsewhere. It’s important to note that we do not have a copywriter who handles our very short biographies, we take care of them ourselves, in the case of Andrew, it was I who wrote it. Sorry if I made anyone panic.
Time to debunk. Here is an image of my initial request for his picture and short bio.
Continuation of the above bio and picture request.
Continuation of the above request.
Discussions with Andrew related to NEXT.Exchange:
Explanation of the hybrid aspect of NEXT, in a very basic manner.
Inquiry regarding testing of transactions.
Response to user inquiry from the official NEXT. exchange Telegram chat.
Orderbook completion and approximate testing.
People were also interested whether we will update the LinkedIn information of team members on our site. We will be updating the profiles of most of the team members.
Q: Regarding the team.. is there any chance you will updated the information of the team including their LinkedIn ID?
A: Yes! We will be uploading several Linkedin profiles to our website shortly. However, only for team members that are willing to do so. Maybe 6–8 profiles.
We would like to thank you for all of your questions and commitment to the project. This AMA was a success, and we would love to organize more of them down the road in different formats: on Reddit, Telegram, or Twitter.
We look forward to your feedback! Have any more questions? Join us on Telegram https://t.me/next_exchange and we will help!
Stay tuned!
Always yours,
NEXT.exchange team.
NEXT.exchange is a hybrid exchange platform based out of the Netherlands that aims to enhance the mass adoption and appeal of cryptocurrencies globally for both individuals and businesses.
The team behind NEXT.exchange has also created a unique Blockchain, NEXT.chain, and decentralized marketplace for Ethereum based tokens.
So, what’s next?
- Visit our Exchange website
- Check out NEXT.chain
- Follow our Twitter & Reddit
- Follow our Telegram announcements
- Join our Telegram chat
