We had the pleasure of joining the Wolf Crypto Community for an AMA. It’s Recap time!
On the 10th of October 2020, we had joined Wolf Crypto in a special AMA session. It was definitely an insightful one and we hope you guys enjoy the recap.
Here’s what ZeroSwaps’s CEO & Co-founder Chandrashekar Ramu and COO & Co-founder Aayushi Jain had to say during the AMA.
Introduction
Wolf Crypto
Welcome to another edition of Wolf Crypto AMA. This is the third AMA for the week here at Wolf Crypto, and they say we’re back in a bear market!
Let me tell you this, in the bear markets, we weren’t doing three AMA’s a week, that’s for sure!
But anyway, today we have Chandrashekar Ramu and Aayushi Jain from ZeroSwap joining us! Welcome! It’s our pleasure to have you here today.
Before we get into the crux of what ZeroSwap is, how about you give me some background as to your experience in the industry prior to founding ZeroSwap?
Chandrashekar Ramu
My background has been in web development and I have been an active trader in the stock markets. Crypto happened to me through my trading experience, and when I wanted to trade new types of commodities.
Since I was a programmer, I always traded through bots which I wrote myself.
Aayushi Jain
Hi Everyone!
First of all thanks for giving us the opportunity to speak on your platform, we have been following Wolf Crypto for a long time, so it’s an honour for us to be invited here!
I have been in the crypto industry since 4 years ago. My interests are product management and building customer relationships. I have helped shape a couple of products, including Frontier in the initial days. I came to know of Bitcoin back in 2016 when I was working on a freelancing project.
Wolf Crypto
Thank you for the intros guys.
Could you also give us some background on some of the team members who aren’t joining us today?
Aayushi Jain
Sure, our CTO Puneet Bagewadi won’t be joining us today.
He has 10+ years of experience in software development and has developed blockchain software for Visa INC. Ex-Mobstack and Wipro.
Chandrashekar Ramu
Our entire development team works out of Bangalore, the IT Hub of India.
We have a bunch of experienced developers and a couple of fresh engineers from college.
In Bangalore, it’s really easy to find developers with high-quality skills.
The ZeroSwap Protocol
Wolf Crypto
With that out of the way, let’s start with what ZeroSwap is..
What’s your elevator pitch on ZeroSwap, and the value proposition of yet another DEX based protocol/platform in a DeFi landscape that seems to have a new DEX platform or protocol popping up every other day?
Aayushi Jain
Indeed, there are lots of protocols coming out these days, trying to solve the existing problem of DEX’s, but we are primarily trying to solve the two most important problems with on-chain transactions, which are gas costs and trade fees.
Our value proposition is Zero-fee Trades and Gasless Transactions.
Wolf Crypto
Haha, I’m VERY glad to hear you’re not just another SushiSwap or BSCSwap.. But I have to ask since you’re going to be compared to those type of platforms anyways, just for the sheer fact you too have “swap” in your name, what’s your thoughts on them, and the whole food style swap platforms that have come up in recent times?
Aayushi Jain
The beauty of crypto is the fun part. Which comes along with the thrill of an ever-changing industry and the markets being operational 24/7.
The Sushi, and Pancakes certainly brought lots of fun and colour to the crypto world. With regards to “swap”, it basically means interchanging A to B, so we have also kept it in our name. However the prefix of Swap is Zero, which signifies zero trade fees, and zero gas costs for trading.
Chandrashekar Ramu
In fact, Sushiswap or any other food-coin can be integrated into theZeroSwap suite for gasless transactions.
It was really good to get a good amount of volume until the first rug-pull started. Now there are just so-many rug-pulls happening.
At ZeroSwap we have a finite supply and we are not an anonymous team. We raised all our funds through legal processes.
Wolf Crypto
Haha, we won’t be calling you Chef Ramu anytime soon then!
I note that something that a lot of those other swap platforms have in common is that the underlying architecture is based on AMM technology.
Is this also the case for ZeroSwap?
Chandrashekar Ramu
No, We aren’t an AMM, PMM, MM etc.
Instead, all those platforms can leverage our protocol for gasless transactions.
As a DEX aggregator, we will also be relying on existing AMMs and by using ZeroSwap, users can provide liquidity to existing AMM’s and earn rewards in ZEE tokens.
Wolf Crypto
Can you explain to me what a “Market-Making Suite” actually involves in practice?
I assume this is only possible due to the gasless and zero-fee transactions on ZeroSwap? (which we’ll get into more detail on in a sec).
Aayushi Jain
There are currently no Decentralized Market Making Suites, ours would be an API which would facilitate existing market makers to provide services to their users.
The key point to be noted is that all the transactions would go through our relayer.
Anyone can build a market-making suite. Having said that, we will have all transactions in a gas-less manner. So that’s a win-win!
Wolf Crypto
Fully, that is one of the things I’m VERY interested to see play out.
I’ve known a couple of teams/projects/guys attempting to do marketing making on DEX’s before and all have been a huge failure due to the ETH network either being too slow or too costly.
Aayushi Jain
Yes, because of gasless transactions, market-making via ZeroSwap would cost-savvy, and so we’re looking forward to being able to execute this.
Chandrashekar Ramu
With all due respect to gasless transactions, we need to be very careful about off-chain order books.
If we try to modify the books off-chain, the SEC will come after us for a forced rug-pull!
Wolf Crypto
Haha, I love the “forced rug-pull” terminology, I’m going to use that one myself in the future!
So one of the reasons market makers exist is to provide liquidity and just to tie in with what we were just talking about..
One of the most common features about these types of platforms is the aspect of “vampire liquidity” in which the platform incentivises users to suck or migrate their liquidity from one platform to another, using a token they’re created in order to do so.
In general terms, what are your thoughts on that type of strategy and the “stickiness” of such liquidity?
Aayushi Jain
Liquidity mining in its current form is similar to that of Uber, giving free coupons to take rides initially and then dropping off the customers later.
For the users to have a stickiness to one platform, they need to be provided with long term incentives to stay on that platform.
This is one of the major things we are working on right now, thought we do not want to unveil everything at the moment.
Wolf Crypto
You’ve made some rather bold claims as part of your documentation for the project. Let’s go through those. Firstly, the one that really caught my eye, and as I mentioned before are gas-less transactions.
How is that even possible?!
Chandrashekar Ramu
Transactions would be gasless, using meta transactions and transaction fee mining. We have raised a good sum of ETH, and we’ll initially bootstrap the gas to the relayer on the protocol — in parallel, we will generate ZEE tokens every time there is trade.
We will fund the relayer with these ZEE tokens when the ETH value starts to tend to zero.
Meta transactions are already being used by a lot of existing projects. However, no-one has tried to tokenize these with an incentivization model.
Wolf Crypto
You mention a relayer there in your response.
Would you mind providing a bit more detail as to the role of relayers as part of the protocol? What they do and who they are?
Is this something an ordinary user can run or is it something you do in partnership with technology providers?
Chandrashekar Ramu
We will not be using other technology partners as a relayer, instead, we will build our own relayer for the protocol, with the relayers role being to make all transaction gasless.
Most relayers are the same. There isn’t much difference between them. On ZeroSwap, we have a protocol layer which provides gas to these relayers which means our motive is our recursive protocol, this makes our entire system self sustainable.
Wolf Crypto
Impressive. Sounds like actual utility for the token by baking it into the protocol in such a manner.
So in a similar vein to the “bold claims” line of questioning, Zero Fee transactions. Firstly, the project name now makes a lot more sense to me. Haha. But this sounds like another ‘too good to be a true claim’?
Is it a simple case of gasless = feeless, or is it slightly more complicated than that?
Aayushi Jain
This is quite an interesting question and something that all our community members have been asking.
It’s actually not complicated at all. It’s a plain simple functionality of using meta transactions, using a relayer, and transaction fee mining to make the entire protocol operate in a gasless and zero-fee trade. No rocket science, all cool.
Wolf Crypto
So from my understanding, users using the protocol will be rewarded for interacting with it.
Is this like a Uniswap one-off stimulus payment or is it something more continuous?
Aayushi Jain
We would be rewarding users every time they make a trade with ZEE tokens, it is however very different than how Uniswap operates.
We will unveil this once the protocol is launched, at the moment we’re releasing the bits, one be one.
Wolf Crypto
That sounds like a great way to get and keep people trading on the platform!
So DEX aggregation, while an amazing concept, is not exactly a new one, as we have DEX aggregators like Paraswap and 1inch already live.
What makes ZeroSwap’s DEX aggregation any different to these?
Chandrashekar Ramu
DEX Aggregation is primarily used to solve the liquidity problem. We are no different than other exchanges. We will aggregate the existing protocols and then provide trading in a gasless manner with zero charges on trade fees.
We are definitely no different from 1inch or Paraswap, in fact, we love them and we’re basically a gasless proxy layer on top of them that works in combination to enhance the end-user experience.
Wolf Crypto
As far as I’m aware, ZeroSwap will support two main chains when launched. Of course, Ethereum, I think we all know the reasons for that one. But also Binance Smart Chain.
What was the logic for picking Binance Smart Chain as your second chain integration?
Chandrashekar Ramu
We have seen very good traction on the platform, and many interesting projects are building on Binance Smart Chain, therefore we chose them. Not to forget they are also EVM compatible!
Being a developer, the same code works out of the box on both the chains without any code changes. Being trader’s, how can we ignore that B-word.
The B-word definitely has some good users and volume!
Wolf Crypto
So tell me, what is the logic behind multi-chain support — instead of developing your own chain and hosting the DEX and associated liquidity on that instead?
Aayushi Jain
So building on top of the DEX’s that already has a product-market fit is a better idea than building our own DEX at the moment.
We are multi-chain because for example, Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain already have a product-market fit and users are already interacting with them and developers want to build products on them.
So it was an easy decision to integrate on them by basically building a UX by which users can interact with already matured chains and have the added benefit of Zero Fee Trade and Gasless Transactions.
Wolf Crypto
Product market fit = means existing liquidity in this context as well, which means a MUCH more usable product offering from day one…a very important point to note IMO!
It’s funny you say that about BSC as I recently saw these tweets that echo your sentiments here. It seems the liquidity pool on BSC is only growing, as are the yields.
So how seamless will it be for users to interact with each chain on ZeroSwap?
I assume it’s simply a case of switching networks on Metamask?
Aayushi Jain
In terms of UX, it would be simply switching networks on Metamask, but later on, we will also have other wallets on which users can interact on both Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain.
One-click and go, go, go!
Wolf Crypto
I can’t talk about chains without talking about Polkadot, as it seems like every man and his dog are looking to integrate with it?
Do you have any plans to support Polka? And what other chains do you have your eyes on integration?
Aayushi Jain
We are surely exploring the ecosystem of Polkadot — however, for now, we have only finalised with integrating Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain.
More to come on that soon though!
The ZeroSwap Platform
Wolf Crypto
So we’ve spoken a lot on the protocol, but let’s move onto the platform itself.
In lieu of a roadmap in your documentation, can you give us a preview of the look and feel of the platform, a timeline as to when there’ll be an MVP, and when we can expect a full launch of the platform?
Aayushi Jain
The full launch of the protocol can be expected within 60 days from now. Right now we are at the audit stage with reputed auditors, parallel testing it in alpha internally.
The look and feel would be the simplest of all the DEXes, easy for a non-tech user to trade without an understanding of what is going on under the hood.
Wolf Crypto
You mentioned earlier that instead of an AMM, ZeroSwap is powered by a Market-Making Suite.
Does this mean the DEX interface will be more traditional, with an order book and the likes, rather than a Uniswap style interface where a user can only market buy?
Aayushi Jain
Yes, we will have a market-making suite.
It will help us build order-books, we will have limit orders and other features. Our interface won’t be like Uniswap.
Wolf Crypto
Who would be the ideal candidates to support marketing making on the platform? Traditional market makers, like the GSR’s, Altonomy’s etc of the world?
Aayushi Jain
We are exploring traditional market makers and hedge funds to support market making, this would be for the initial push.
Later on, we will also consider the participation of whales in the market-making suite.
Wolf Crypto
Transaction mining is something that I haven’t heard of in some time. FCoin and Bitmax are the two that come to mind when I think of transaction mining. I hope that transaction mining on ZeroSwap will have a happier story than it did for those two!
Can you explain to me how transaction mining works on ZeroSwap and how both the platform itself, and the users who participate in the process benefit from it?
Chandrashekar Ramu
It is important to note, on ZeroSwap, it is not transaction mining, it is Transaction Fee Mining.
Aayushi Jain
Yes, as Chandrashekar said, we will have transaction fee mining, which is different than transaction mining on Bitmax.
With transaction fee mining, ZEE tokens are generated every time there is a trade to reward the users and to make the protocol self-sustainable.
Wolf Crypto
So there’s a big difference between transaction mining and transaction fee mining, hey?
Chandrashekar Ramu
Definitely, transaction fee mining is used on ZeroSwap to mine ZEE tokens which then provide gasless transactions.
Wolf Crypto
How about liquidity mining? What’s the difference between the two sets of mining. Transaction and liquidity?
Chandrashekar Ramu
Liquidity mining is incentivising users every time they provide liquidity to existing AMMs which is different, like liquidity mining on Uniswap for example.
Wolf Crypto
You’ve mentioned “self-sustaining” a couple of times…
Can you go into a bit more detail as to how these kinds of incentives, liquidity, and transaction mining actually make the protocol and platform “self-sustainable”?
Aayushi Jain
There is always a demand side and the supply side of a token, and we will have liquidity mining to incentivize users for providing liquidity, however, transaction fee mining will also make the transactions gasless.
There is also a demand side of the ZEE token which is our utilities like the DTO and the market-making suite.
Ultimately the entire supply and demand of ZEE will make the protocol self-sustainable.
Wolf Crypto
When researching in preparation for this AMA, I noticed some chat about staking in your Telegram group and the launch of a staking program soon after the TGE.
Is this related to transaction or liquidity mining or is it something entirely separate?
Aayushi Jain
It is simply related to the staking of ZEE tokens.
We have a partnership with Frontier which is the largest DeFi suite. Users will be able to stake their ZEE tokens using the Frontier application.
Wolf Crypto
So with ZeroSwap doing DEX aggregation already, what is the benefit for both the platform itself and the users doing so, to adding direct liquidity to the platform?
In practice, will this be similar to adding liquidity to Uniswap, and carry the same IL risk that Uniswap does?
Aayushi Jain
The users get to earn ZEE tokens via liquidity mining, which is the backbone of the ZEE protocol, as we’ve seen Uniswap was and can be operated without their UNI token as well.
But for ZeroSwap the entire protocol is dependent on ZEE, and this is the largest motive for holding ZEE.
Wolf Crypto
Tell me a little more about the DEX Token Offering aspect of the platform. How does this differ to what seems like the now-standard method of just straight launching a token on Uniswap?
Or the more old school (old as in a month or two old, haha) method of using a curve based platform like Mesa?
Aayushi Jain
The DEX token offering platform is a platform for participating in initial tokens offered on ZeroSwap.
Users will be able to buy tokens, and it will provide a fair opportunity for them to participate in the initial offering. We will have an algorithm operating underline to manage this.
By using the DTO, projects can list their tokens at zero cost.
Wolf Crypto
Say I’m a project and I want to launch my token on ZeroSwap. What’s the actual process for doing so?
I know the docs say it’s zero cost, but can I do it independently or is this something I have to contact ZeroSwap about and get approval for?
Aayushi Jain
We will reveal the entire process of listing tokens on ZeroSwap DTO as soon as the platform is live, For now, it’s coming soon!
ZEE Token Utility
Wolf Crypto
We briefly touched upon some of the ZEE tokens utility in the previous questions, but hows about you give me a bullet point summary of the various use cases within the ZeroSwap ecosystem?
Aayushi Jain
ZEE tokens will have 4 primary utilities -
- Liquidity Mining — Liquidity providers are stakeholders in a protocol, users who pool in liquidity to the DEXes which are aggregated on ZeroSwap will be Rewarded.
- DeX Token Offering — ZEE token will be used to enable projects to launch tokens through Dex Token Offering on ZeroSwap, it also allows ZEE holders to participate in an initial offering. Where centralised platforms today require projects to pay hefty fees and go through a centralised screening process, our vision is that we can offer a simple platform where anyone can distribute their tokens and have a ready exchange for it. This has its market risks in terms of violating securities laws and scams emerging. We will be issuing a reputation model into the project to avert that. One way the token could come into use is for staking against the reputation for token listings.
- Governance — ZEE holders will be empowered to govern the ZeroSwap protocol changes over time.
- Transaction Fee mining — Lastly, the underlying token could be used for transactions on the exchange itself.
Wolf Crypto
The liquidity mining aspect is REALLY interesting to me. I know you mentioned it earlier but maybe it didn’t sink in, does this mean if I supply liquidity to Uniswap for example (if you’re aggregating that) I’ll be rewarded with ZEE tokens?
Aayushi Jain
Yes, you will be rewarded to supply liquidity to existing AMM’s.
Wolf Crypto
Wow, that is an alpha leak and a half!
ZeroSwap Revenue Model
Wolf Crypto
That’s probably a really good segue into how all these token mechanics work to serve ZeroSwap itself, past the users of the network.
So what’s the revenue model past selling ZEE tokens and how do the aforementioned token mechanics work into the model?
Aayushi Jain
We will have more revenue models though tools as we build around the Zero Protocol.
DTO and the market-making suite will have a dependency on ZEE tokens.
In the future, we want to provide gasless transactions for lending as well via ZeroLend. So when we expand our horizon to more DeFi protocols, we will start creating value accrual for ZEE tokens.
Partnerships & Backers
Wolf Crypto
Who are the major supporters of the project?
Do you have any fund names or notable individuals standing behind and supporting ZeroSwap?
Aayushi Jain
We have raised funds from many strategic investors and angels, Alphabit, TRG Capital, AU21, GenBlock Capital, M6 etc.
We will soon announce the final results of our fundraising campaign.
Wolf Crypto
Now we touched on it a couple of times before, but I see you’ve recently partnered with Frontier, what’s the context of that partnership?
Aayushi Jain
Frontier is the largest DeFi protocol aggregator, and with this partnership, we will be able to offer ZeroSwap features to a much wider userbase.
Frontier users will be able to trade using ZeroSwap, stake ZEE tokens, and to participate in DTO offerings, all via the Frontier application.
Competitors
Wolf Crypto
I mentioned a couple of DEX aggregators earlier, like Paraswap and 1inch, that could be considered competitors to ZeroSwap. However, the competitive landscape is actually much bigger than that if you take other DEXex and Swap platforms into account.
Where do you see ZeroSwap’s market fit among all these DEX’s and who do you consider your true competitors in the space?
Aayushi Jain
To be honest, our entire focus is on users and the user experience.
We believe that if we are able to solve the pain points of on-chain trade, the ever-soaring gas costs, and protocol-fees while offering a better UX, we will be way ahead of the curve.
Zee Token Sale & Supply
Wolf Crypto
Before we get into the full details of your TGE, can you data dump on me the ZEE token metrics, please?
Aayushi Jain
We have raised 6000 ETH.
- 1000 ETH at a SEED price of 0.0001 ETH per ZEE
- 3700 ETH at Private 1 price of 0.000185 per ZEE
- 1300 ETH at Private 2 price of 0.00026 per ZEE
Wolf Crypto
Wow, that’s a LOT of ETH raised. Did you successfully raise the full amount in all tranches?
Aayushi Jain
Yes, we have raised the entire amount in all tranches.
Now the question is why raise in ETH?
Because we are bootstrapping some of the ETH initially for gasless transactions on ZeroSwap.
Wolf Crypto
So I heard through the crypto grapevine you might be having a small public sale to finish off your raise, is this true?
Aayushi Jain
We will have a public distribution.
Wolf Crypto
When will this be happening, and on what platform? How will users be able to participate in this process?
Aayushi Jain
We will soon announce all the details announced on our social channels.
Wolf Crypto
To save me from having to do the math myself, based on the above figures, what is your day one starting market cap?
Aayushi Jain
It is around $1.1m USD initial market cap.
Wolf Crypto
When can we expect a listing, and on what platform?
Aayushi Jain
We will be going to market within this month. We are definitely in favour of CEXes as we need more and more on-chain volume for our ZEE token.
Due Diligence Checks
Wolf Crypto
Does ZeroSwap have a Github?
Aayushi Jain
Yes —
Most of our code is now closed source. We will soon open-source it to the public before the protocol launch.
Wolf Crypto
Where are you guys based?
Aayushi Jain
As we already mentioned, we are mostly in India. We have a few developers from Europe joining us soon too.
Wolf Crypto
Where was ZeroSwap incorporated?
Aayushi Jain
ZeroSwap’s token entity is registered in BVI and we have a Singapore entity for equity. We also have an Indian Entity where all the development work happens.
Wolf Crypto
Do you have a legal opinion that your ZEE token isn’t a security?
Aayushi Jain
Definitely, yes. We have received the legal opinion from a reputable firm from Singapore.
Wolf Crypto
Has the ZEE token already been minted? If so, what’s the address?
Aayushi Jain
Not yet. We will unveil the contract address 2–3 days before the TGE.
Our token contract audits are already done and we are ready to deploy.
We just have to set up the multi-sig and deploy the token and vesting contracts.
Wolf Crypto
Has the ZEE smart contract been audited and can we see the results?
Aayushi Jain
It’s audited by PeckShield for now. We tried really hard to get other audits, but most audit firms are booked for the next month!
Closing Thoughts
Wolf Crypto
Well, that’s everything I have to ask for now, thank you so much for your time today and the comprehensive answers to all my questions. And of course for the leaked Alpha along the way!
It sounds like there’s a LOT more of that to come and of course, we’ll keep our community updated with it as it’s leaked along the way!
Aayushi Jain
Yes, there is indeed a lot to come, for now, let’s get back to #buidling!
ZeroSwap Resources
Website: https://zeroswap.io
Telegram: https://t.me/zeroswap
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZeroSwapLabs
Medium: https://medium.com/zeroswaplabs
Litepaper: https://docsend.com/view/m4brpx32t73x5mkd
Thanks again to Wolf Crypto and his community for the insightful and entertaining AMA session.
Each AMA we drop breadcrumbs on more juicy information about our platform, so make sure you don’t miss out!
Or catch our recaps here on Medium.
