The New Era of Stablecoin-VirgoX & OUSD AMA Recap
Welcome to VirgoX AMA! Today VirgoX has invited the Co-Founder of Origin Protocol — Matthew, and VirgoX CEO Adam to join the AMA today.
VirgoX, as the World Stablecoin Trading Center, is always looking for a great stablecoin project to join us. Today we find a great match, which is OUSD!
Adam — CEO of VirgoX:
It is our pleasure to host Matt from Origin Protocol to join us. As most of you already know, VirgoX defines itself as the World Stablecoin Trading center, we focused on incubating stablecoin at its early stable and provides a comprehensive ecosystem ranging from spot/ contract trading, financial products/ saving account to borrow/lend services.
Stablecoin has grown tremendously in the past few years. The concept has developed from fiat-backed stablecoins ( pre-dominated by USD coin, Tether) to crypto-backed stablecoin ( Pre-dominated by Dai) to newly emerged asset-backed stablecoin such as Paxgold and algorithm backed coin such as Ampleforth.
The market cap of stablecoin has also recently exceeded 20 billion USD in total. One thing I am sure of is that in the very near future, stablecoin driven trading will account for a large portion of the current crypto landscape. The industry has also never stopped innovating. Today, just to give you guys a bit heads-up, it will be very interesting to hear what Matt has to say regarding his newly invented stablecoin OUSD. It certainly, in my opinion, creates a new category of stablecoin that is set to grow.
Matthew Liu | Origin Protocol：
It’s a pleasure to be here and engage with your community. We’re pleased VirgoX is the first centralized exchange to list OUSD.
I’m excited to share the latest about OUSD and the broader Origin Platform.
Q1: Can you introduce the OUSD project and yourself to our community here？
Matthew Liu | Origin Protocol：
Absolutely. OUSD is the first stablecoin that enables users to earn yield while it's still sitting in their wallets. We very recently launched OUSD, but our longer-term ambitions are to replace Tether as the stablecoin of choice.
Before OUSD, users that wanted to earn a yield had to stake or lock up their stablecoins. Then, when they wanted to spend or transfer some, they had to unstake/unlock. This is a very cumbersome process, not to mention expensive when you factor in gas fees.
With OUSD you don’t have to switch between earning and spending mode. While OUSD is in your wallet (which means you maintain custody), it will continuously compound over time. The amount of OUSD you have will automatically increase without you having to do anything.
We’re able to do this because each OUSD is backed by an existing stablecoin (USDT, DAI, USDC).
Our smart contract then takes those other stablecoins and deploys them to existing DeFi platforms like Compound to earn yield and rewards tokens like COMP.
This is all converted to additional units of OUSD for our users.
We think OUSD is an exciting new innovation that will make DeFi more accessible to the masses.
More broadly, at Origin, we are aspiring to enable true peer-to-peer commerce and enable buyers and sellers to meet on the blockchain and transact without intermediaries. We came up with OUSD because we knew that these buyers/sellers needed a great medium of exchange. We expect to drive OUSD usage through our commerce network. Similarly, we expect to drive our commerce network with OUSD.
As for myself, I am a multiple-time founder. I started out my career as one of the earliest product managers on YouTube. I’ve been apart of four acquisitions now and have built several businesses before Origin.
Alright, that’s it for my long-winded intro. 🙂
Q2: As we all know, there are many USD pegged stablecoin around the world, what’s the difference between OUSD between other USD pegged stablecoins?
Matthew Liu | Origin Protocol:
Yeah, the biggest difference is how OUSD works for you passively. Another way to think about it is how it is compared to your accounts at a traditional bank. Typically, you can earn small yields in your savings account. But then you need to move money to a checking account to pay for bills. This is pretty dumb. It should just be one high-yield savings account. Now in the crypto world, if you’re holding Tether you have to switch between that Savings and Checking account. With OUSD, just hold and earn at the same time.
It’s also worth emphasizing again that OUSD is backed 1:1 by other USD pegged stablecoins. You can redeem OUSD for USDT, USDC, or DAI via our DApp at ousd.com just like you can mint it.
There are some important similarities. OUSD is ERC-20. It is compatible with existing Ethereum wallets and cheap to transfer and use.
Q3: OUSD is the first stablecoin with an Automated Yield Farming mechanism, can you explain how that works?
Matthew Liu | Origin Protocol:
Sure, when users go to www.ousd.com they are able to convert their other stablecoins to OUSD. Those stablecoins enter our OUSD smart contract vault.
The vault has custody of USDT, USDC, and DAI. Then it intelligently deploys these stablecoins to popular and tested DeFi protocols. For example, we’re using Compound right now to earn lending fees. By the end of next week, we will have several other strategies live. Over the long-term, we plan to support all the major lending platforms and automated market makers.
These include Aave, Compound, dydx, Curve, Uniswap, Balancer, etc.
The smart contract may also deploy capital to more exotic strategies over time (at lower percentage weights).
The end goal is to earn compelling yields while maintaining a diversified set of strategies to lower risk.
As the OUSD smart contract earns yield, it then determines how much of the other stablecoins it has (or has claims to).
It then frequently rebases the circulating supply of OUSD.
So DeFi farmers will see their OUSD amounts go up automatically. Again, they don’t need to do the farming themselves, and they don’t need to stake/lock or pay gas fees.
Q4: as we all know, OUSD is a product of Origin Protocol. How could OUSD fit into the bigger picture for Origin?
Matthew Liu | Origin Protocol:
Definitely. We think this is especially important for newer users of DeFi.
As stated earlier, Origin’s mission is to enable true peer-to-peer commerce.
We started Origin in 2017 to disintermediate existing marketplaces and eCommerce platforms. Eliminating the middlemen has many benefits. First we lower transaction fees. We also promote open and free commerce. By using Origin Tokens (OGN), we are able to give everyone a stake in the Origin Platform. We also have aspirations to help the unbanked engage in digital marketplaces in the future.
Since then we’ve built a number of products. Currently, our flagship commerce product is Dshop. Dshop is a decentralized eCommerce platform that has many of the same features as Shopify. However, it comes ready for crypto payments, is open-source, and is free to use.
As we have been building out Dshop, we’ve seen that many merchants are still resistant to using crypto and prefer credit cards, Paypal, or other payment methods.
They don’t necessarily have the incentive to use crypto yet. We wanted to change that. With OUSD, we’re giving sellers a compelling reason to accept crypto. If you’re able to start earning yield on the payments you receive, that is way superior to paying 2.9% for credit card processing.
Giving merchants the incentive to use crypto will create a larger market for us. All Dshops now come ready to accept OUSD.
Soon, we will also announce deeper tie-ins between OUSD and the Origin Token (OGN). The two will work together in a virtuous cycle to push our platform forward.
Q5: VirgoX is the first centralized exchange that lists OUSD, what’s the future listing plan and roadmap for OUSD?
Matthew Liu | Origin Protocol:
Our goal is to make OUSD as ubiquitous as Tether. This means we want to be on all the centralized and decentralized exchanges over time.
We also want to create fiat onramps for OUSD, ideally through partnerships.
If we are successful with OUSD, one day in the future many normal users may start using OUSD before they even realize it’s cryptocurrency. We imagine a future where OUSD is powering savings accounts for many traditional financial services all around the world.
Of course, it’s a ton of work to achieve that vision.
In the short-term, we are focused on ensuring the security of OUSD and improving yields. We are getting OUSD externally audited at the end of the month. After that, we will be focused on growth to expand OUSD’s user base.
We’ll also be working on the connection between OUSD and OGN.
As mentioned above, we also want to add many more strategies to make sure that OUSD has a diversified set of safe, high-yield earning methods.
SECOND PART：Questions from Twitter
Q1: Does Dshop have affiliated marketing features that allow people to earn OGN to contact customers to stores?
Matthew Liu | Origin Protocol:
Dshop has Origin Commissions. Origin Commissions allows sellers to offer OGN as rewards to affiliates. For example, as a seller, I can offer 10 OGN each time someone helps me get a new product sold.
This gives incentives for others to market my products for me. This could be via social media, blogs, email, ads, etc. We think of it like affiliate marketing but with much better attribution. The affiliate only gets paid when they help generate a sale.
Q2: Can you tell us what the main benefits of a $OriginDollar holder are? For investment purposes, why do we have to invest in $OriginDollar & what benefits does $OriginDollar give to holders?
Matthew Liu | Origin Protocol:
As mentioned, OUSD lets you earn…more OUSD!
It’s a high yield savings instrument that allows you to take advantage of DeFi while you sleep.
Just go to www.ousd.com to mint some OUSD. Then let your earnings roll in overtime.
We’re going to be increasing the APYs soon, so it will be highly competitive.
This will be especially beneficial for those that are new to DeFi or to crypto.
We expect OUSD to offer up great yields to many people in the mainstream in the future.
Q3: What Origin Protocol plans to continue growing its community in a positive way, and in what aspects do they plan to improve by 2021 In terms of Products and Search for New Partners and investors?
Matthew Liu | Origin Protocol:
We believe building generationally-impactful projects and companies take time. But we are committed to continuously upgrading our products and breaking into new products.
For OUSD, I touched upon our short-term and long-term roadmap above.
For our commerce products, we plan to continue to expand the number of active Dshops. We have many partners already using Dshop and we plan to expand our install base dramatically next year. We also have plans to break into new verticals.
We also are forming new partnerships that are more strategic in nature. For example, we formed partnerships with Google and Samsung this year and have our eyes on additional corporate/enterprise partners that can help us with distribution and new user acquisition.
We want to list OGN and OUSD on as many exchanges as possible. We’ll also be launching new incentive programs for the community.
We’re already active in dozens of countries but can always get more community members and further localize our products.
What we’re trying to do is a global movement. We’re highly dependent on our vibrant community of supporters to achieve our vision.
Q4: What are your plans to place for global adoption and expansion? Is the Origin Protocol focusing only on the market or focusing on developing the concept of the project?
Matthew Liu | Origin Protocol:
We’re working hand in hand on product and technology improvements and going to market more aggressively.
Expect to see a lot of product innovations coming out of our team and open-source developers next year. We feel like we’re really hitting our stride and doing well to make a lot of progress.
We’ve always been strong at marketing and community building so also plan to expand on that.
Q5: I saw that you’ve been building lots of Dshops for major projects. What is the main goal of this process? Do they have any long term effects on $OGN?
Matthew Liu | Origin Protocol:
Yes, we’re interested in expanding our footprint with Dshop. The more partnerships we form, the stronger our commerce network becomes.
We want to greatly increase the sales across our network and expand into new verticals.
Once we have a broader base of buyers and sellers, this opens up a ton of new possibilities.
We are interested in building “network effects” that make it more valuable for new buyers and sellers to join our Platform over time.
In the mid to long-term, we have plans to have Dshop directly accrue value to $OGN. We will have additional announcements regarding this in the future.
THIRD PART： Question From Telegram
Q1: Why does OUSD still use Ethereum blockchain while it has a slow speed and high gas fee? Do you have any plans to launch your mainnet or convert to other blockchains in the future?
Matthew Liu | Origin Protocol:
We agree that Ethereum is slow and has high gas fees. This is a big user experience hurdle. However, all the best DeFi platforms are currently built on Ethereum. In order to earn great yields, we rely on DeFi composability (the ability to interact with many different DeFi systems). This is where all the liquidity is, and we need liquidity to earn yields. In addition, we are optimistic Ethereum upgrades will lower gas fees and increase transaction throughputs.
Q2: In terms of becoming a successful project or company, what is the biggest challenge you currently face?
Matthew Liu | Origin Protocol:
I think one of our biggest challenges is the same as what many blockchain projects face. There is still a large divide between crypto users and the 99+% of users that don’t know how to use crypto. There are a lot of user experience and education hurdles that must be overcome to make our products truly transformative. That being said, this is what also makes it super exciting. Because crypto and blockchain are so disruptive as technologies, there is an enormous upside. We think about the impact we can have even when there are so many adoption challenges. As we continue to innovate and head towards the mainstream, we are so excited about what lies ahead of us. When are able to “cross the chasm” the Origin Platform will be massive. OUSD will be used by millions and so will our commerce applications. OGN will be held by many many individuals and thrive.
Q3: How can $OUSD generate liquidity for it’s users? And if so, is $OUSD governed by a deflationary economic system?
Matthew Liu | Origin Protocol:
There are several steps to liquidity. The first is to build a compelling product. As we increase yields on OUSD and complete our audit, we will be pushing OUSD much harder and encourage the minting of new OUSD. The next is incentives to bootstrap OUSD growth. Then we also want to get OUSD listed on all major centralized and decentralized exchanges. That increases both liquidity on individual exchanges but also overall circulating supply. OUSD is not meant to be deflationary. In fact, we want it to be inflationary. That means as you hold OUSD you get more and more OUSD. Because OUSD is pegged to the US dollar, you’re making more money over time.
Q4: The Origin platform is used for building e-commerce applications, so what advantages do those Dapps have over the traditional e-commerce platforms?
Matthew Liu | Origin Protocol:
Our commerce applications are free to use, open-source (which encourages third-party developers to build and extent them), crypto-ready (accepting all ERC-20s), and very fast and seamless to use. Of course, they also have many of the same features as traditional eCommerce platforms. We allow for products, collections, different payment methods (including traditional payment methods), and a host of other features (e.g. dropshipping integration). Soon, we will have a few crypto-specific features to unveil. We’re very excited about how we can tackle new verticals. You can check out our existing product at www.originprotocol.com/dshop.
Q5: From a long-term perspective, Because of Its great technology, I have no doubt about the future of blockchain technology and Origin. However, In the short term How will the Origin team balance the conflict between investor profits and The health of the project ecosystem, and how to prevent pumping mechanisms?
Matthew Liu | Origin Protocol:
First, I want to say that it’s always better to focus on long-term payouts over short-term ones. If you look at the most successful companies in Web 2.0, you’ll see most of the value creation and capture has happened in the later years. That’s where you see the rocketship charts where there is exponential growth going to the up and right. Facebook, Google, Apple, etc. all followed similar long-term trajectories. That being said, it is important to maintain good token economics and utility in the short-term. We’ve always been focused on keeping our circulating supply lower than initially projected. You can see our status at www.originprotocol.com/dashboard. We also have new token utilities to release in the near future. Stay tuned for that.
Thanks, Matthew for joining us today! All the information you provided is really valuable.
Now OUSD has been listed on VirgoX and We also have flexible saving for OUSD. www.virgox.com/financial
Join us now!
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