Sasha Ivanov x Pantera ICO Korean AMA: Recap
Waves is becoming more serious about increasing its presence in Korea. After two successful live events where we introduced our ecosystem and its projects to the Korean community, we’ve seen a lot of positive feedback as well as an earnest desire to know more.
Having called upon the assistance of Korea’s biggest crypto community, Pantera ICO, we organized an AMA session with the Waves’ founder, Sasha Ivanov. The session consisted of 10 preliminary questions gathered from the community and we also had time for some live ones coming from the audience. Hopefully, it’s been entertaining and insightful in many regards to the public. Here are the questions Sasha answered during the AMA:
Q1.
The governance system of blockchain platforms plays a very important role in organically connecting users. So, what does Waves’ governance system look like?
A1.
We are launching a new DAO platform that should considerably change blokchain governance. It will reward voters for making the right decisions and punish them for bad decisions. It is called Power DAO, and it will be launched in October. Currently, there’s an interesting governance mechanics on Waves as well, for example, Waves miners can decide how high Waves inflation should be (how many new coins will be minted).
You can read this article to understand what issues we face with the current governance models in crypto:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/daos-will-never-work-without-fixing-governance
Q2.
Recently, you’ve expanded your various businesses while moving towards Waves 2.0. What business do you consider the most important?
A2.
Unpopular opinion, but I don’t think there have been a lot of new ideas in blockchain for years. Blockchain was about removing intermediaries with technology and becoming an uncensorable individual. Fundamentally, it was about changing society from one that benefits the few to one that benefits the many. I think we are yet to realize that fundamental reality and have any meaningful effect on society. With PowerDAO, we hope to create something that can really impact the world. So my major focus is on web3 businesses that can do some social good. Obviously, DeFi is important but still in its very early stages; there are so many issues with regulation and scammers that it might be worth focusing on other areas like NFTs, DAOs, Culture, education and gaming for now if you’re looking to start a project.
Also scalability is very important for the future of crypto. If future blockchains can’t support thousands of transactions per second, we will never reach mass adoption. So we’re focusing on scalability in Waves 2.0.
Q3.
Last month, you had a big event in Korea at the WAVES Conference (August 12). We look forward to the release of the Waves Ducks app you introduced there. Can you tell about your release plans?
A3.
Good question! We are just a few weeks away from launching the app! Join our community channels to stay up to date on it! The App is complete, so i think it’s just a couple more days until it’s launched!
Q4.
Waves’ stablecoin, USDN, is in a depegged state. What is the difference between USDN and UST which crashed due to depegging in the past?
A4.
Good question again! We want to be very clear, there are HUGE differences between USDN and Luna’s UST. It is impossible that the same “death spiral” happens with USDN.
UST minted by LUNA were burned, whereas USDN is locked in a smart contract.
Unlimited amounts of LUNA/UST could be minted with no safety measures in place, whereas with USDN, there are daily swap limits at the user level. Big swaps can only be made with users holding a lot of the Neutrino governance token, NSBT.
USDN exchange is limited to the amount of WAVES locked in the contract, meaning unlimited amounts cannot be minted like with LUNA, which caused their death spiral.
The yield paid to UST stakers in Anchor Protocol was created largely from the treasury of Luna’s foundation, the USDN yield comes via the rewards generated from Wave’s LPoS consensus algorithm.
You can read more about the differences between UST and USDN in our article here: https://medium.com/neutrinoteam/usdn-vs-ust-understanding-the-differences-d58c950dd22
We know we are in a depegged state now, but the situation is stable. We are watching closely and supporting the community with guidance on new proposals. However, it simply takes more arbitrage to get the price back to peg. With the market down like now, people aren’t trading arbitrage opportunities so much. No demand for arbitrage means the peg is under pressure, but our goal is to make the peg unbreakable. The more problems like this we face, the better we can find solutions and build a stronger, more battle-tested stablecoin.
Q5.
We would like to ask about the $WAVES token. What role does this token play in the Waves’ ecosystem, and how will investors benefit from holding this token?
A5.
WAVES tokens are used to pay transaction fees, so the more transactions on the blockchain, the more fees are generated and paid to WAVES stakers. It is used in all products built on Waves, so if they become popular, WAVES token becomes popular as well.
Q6.
Until recently, NFTs and metaverses have received a lot of attention. Can you tell me what plans does Waves have in this regard?
A6.
We are actively building our ecosystem in the NFT and Metaverse space; we already have Waves Ducks, a hugely successful play2earn game with over 200k active users. Waves Ducks is actually a metaverse of games and experiences all connected to your Waves Ducks NFT. You can breed, fight, race ducks, and now with the release of Waves Ducks Hunt, you can use your duck to lay golden eggs and hunt them all around your location in augmented reality. Your NFT duck essentially acts as your entry token into a whole online world of activities. We really believe this is the way many metaverse NFT projects will function, the NFT as a key to the experience.
We also have 2 NFT marketplaces on Waves:
The features of these platforms are really great, SignArt, for instance, has a unique 3D gallery experience built-in for artists to display their collections in a life-like way.
Q7.
Of all the projects in the Waves ecosystem, which ones have been the most successful?
A7.
I would say the most successful projects are Neutrino and Vires Finance. Both have encountered issues recently, but these issues are fuel for growth. Every business has hard times; just look at Tesla — they were about to go bankrupt, then at the last minute, Elon Musk got a billion-dollar contract with NASA to create spaceships for them.
Before running into problems, Total Value Locked in those 2 protocols alone was over $4 billion, making Waves a top 10 project by TVL and a top 20 project overall.
It’s amazing to see how hard those teams have worked throughout a bear market. All the solutions have been communicated and agreed on with the community through decentralized governance. This is the real value of web 3 community, actually, to have a very short feedback loop with the users. Sure, people can get angry, but that just shows they are passionate about making the situation better. With the community where it’s at now and problems resolved, I have no doubt both Vires and Neutrino will continue to be a great Waves success story.
Q8.
Waves Ducks Hunt has a structure similar to P2E: P2E is popular in the early stages, but the value of the coin may decrease due to inflation. So, does the Waves Ducks Hunt team have a burn or buyback plan to solve this?
A8.
We are launching the new game now, as you know, Waves Ducks Hunt. It’s an AR game similar to Pokemon GO. I hope we’ll be able to create demand for Duck tokens (EGG/SPICE). For instance, we can partner up with some businesses who need more visitors, they could buy SPICE token to distribute to their customers when they visit their locations while hunting for eggs.
Q9.
Ambassadors play a very important role in every project. Do you have an ambassador program? If yes, please share it with us.
A9.
Agree 100%, ambassadors play a huge role in web 3 projects. You’re in luck as we’ve just launched our ambassador program on September 1st. We already have 162 ambassadors helping us reach almost every corner of the world.
You can sign up and review the reward system here: https://waveslabs.notion.site/Ambassador-Program-DAO-9a79180b0f314d429254a989195d2348
Or get in contact with our marketing lead:t.me/Bella_H_0
Q10.
What is the difference between Waves 1.0 and 2.0?
A10.
Waves 2.0 is all about facing the challenges of blockchain technology and building a chain that is unaffected. Scalability is the main issue. With such huge demand for blockspace, it is very hard to reach a mass market that is rightfully used to 5G internet speeds and near instant load times. Until we make blockchain actually a better foundation of the internet, it won’t become that. We are revising the Waves 2.0 roadmap as this year has been unexpectedly focused on crisis resolution, so get ready for a revised Waves 2.0 roadmap coming soon in Q4 this year.
With all the preliminary questions answered, Sasha moved on to the questions from the audience.
Q1.
Waves seems to have a huge interest in Korea. Any specific reason or is there a potential partner candidate for cooperation?
A1.
We think big companies are very interested in blockchain in Korea. We’ve had a lot of experience with enterprise blockchains, so it is a very interesting market for us. We will have a dedicated team working with the Korean market, and hope to have some partnerships soon.
Q2.
What do you think is attractive about the Korean market? And which area of the Korean market are you aiming for?
A2.
Huge interest in Blockchain, everybody knows crypto and Waves. It is a pleasure for us to work in Korea.
Q3.
Do you support the staking program? How does the staking system work and what are the requirements if the user wants to stake on your platform?
A3.
We have a lot of staking products, including Waves token itself. Community is very important, that’s why we’re launching Power DAO.
Q4.
Do you have any plans for a token sale? How can we participate?
A4.
No, we do not plan any token sales. You might follow Waves Incubator, though, there’s a lot of projects launching on Waves soon.
In his closing words, Sasha Ivanov affirmed that he values the Korean community and its prospects within the Waves ecosystem and advised the audience to follow Waves’ social media, as lots of different projects are launching soon, including the joint ones with the developers from Korea.
About Pantera ICO
Powered by Lysithea ventures, ICO Pantera group is the largest Korean crypto community in TG, KOL since 2017 and the leading experts in research, analytics, marketing, and trading of cryptocurrencies. The ICO Pantera is considered to be the number 1 Korean crypto community leader.
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