Published Feb 22, 2023
By Qredo Team
There was a fantastic turnout for the Qredo Community AMA on 10 February. Over 800 tuned in, and we went through all the major questions that the community has had.
As you all know, Qredo is a blockchain custody network that provides a secure and reliable self-custody platform for managing digital assets. We are constantly striving to improve our software, and we have some exciting unannounced upgrades and improvements coming up in the weeks ahead.
We know that many of you have had questions about these improvements, as well as other aspects of our platform. During our AMA, we addressed as many of these questions as possible, and provide you with insights into our technology and our vision for the future.
For those who were unable to attend the AMA, don't worry - we will be providing a comprehensive summary of the questions and answers that were discussed. You can also jump in our podcast to listen back in full.
Keeping you informed
We want to ensure that everyone in our community has access to this important information, and we encourage you to engage with us on social media to stay up to date with the latest developments.
At Qredo, we are committed to building a platform that allows our users to securely navigate the world of DeFi whilst maintaining secure self-custody of their own assets.
Thanks to our recent exciting partnerships with MetaMask Institutional and WalletConnect, you can now interact with thousands of dApps across numerous chains whilst securing your digital assets using Qredo technology.
With things moving extremely fast now on the ground at Qredo, as the results of our upgrades under the hood come to fruition, you can expect major updates in the weeks ahead.
We have plenty happening on our socials, too, and we hope you'll join us in the next Spaces or Community event! Be sure to follow us on Twitter if you don't already.
Thank you for being a part of the Qredo community. We could not do this without you.
Qredo Q&A in Twitter Spaces: Quick summary
Qredo COO Josh Goodbody led the Qredo Community AMA, with CPO Gabriele Farei also in attendance and fielding questions. Together they spoke on the many detailed questions which the community brought to us, a summary of which is supplied below. Thank you all for coming and for showing an interest in what we are doing.
We are incredibly excited about the year ahead for Qredo and all the developments we have to share with you in the weeks ahead.
What is going on with Powerswaps?
Qredo has launched Powerswaps on a limited basis so far amongst some of our institutional user base, providing a unique and secure asset exchange experience. While currently limited to stables to QRDO pairs, we plan to expand Powerswaps to more users and pairs in the future.
We are excited to see positive usage and are eager to continue learning and innovating to meet the evolving needs of our users. Qredo remains committed to providing cutting-edge solutions for secure and flexible trading experiences. Stay tuned for more updates and developments!
What is happening with burn from fees?
Although some users may have wanted us to move more quickly on this, we believe that it's important to take the time to refresh our tokenomics and make sure that we're making the right decisions for the long-term success of our protocol.
We're working hard to learn from the constantly shifting world of crypto and are committed to building high-quality products that will last the test of time. While burning fees is just one of the options on the table, we're assessing its effectiveness as a deflationary measure and will be communicating our decisions clearly to the community within the first quarter.
What is the status on exchange integrations?
The team is excited about exchange integrations, which will allow users to control their exchange accounts from within Qredo. This expands the scope of what Qredo can govern access to, including assets that belong to the user, whether in Qredo's self-custody or somewhere else. The team put this feature on hold while working on a new platform version, but it's almost finished and currently undergoing testing. The team is committed to providing high-quality features and will release exchange integrations on the new platform as soon as possible.
What happened to the Block Explorer?
The Block Explorer is still available and will soon be getting a new release with sought-after features and user experience improvements. The new Qredo platform will allow for deep linking between transactions seen on the platform and the Block Explorer. We're always open to suggestions for further refinement and improvement, so keep them coming. Stay tuned for more updates!
What about billions in the AUM?
Last year in November, despite market collapses, we saw over $5 billion of transactional activity happening on Qredo Network, which is what we monetize. Moreover, a client will typically recycle their assets and transact potentially up to 20 times the initial amount, incentivizing us to focus on usage and transactional activity on the network. We aim to make such activity more accessible and easier to do through our upcoming products and features.
At Qredo Network, we believe that the total value secured is more important than assets under management (AUM) or assets under custody (AUC), as the latter tend to sit idly on the platform. Our custody protocol monetizes through transaction activity, not on a static asset, and we do not charge AUM or AUC fees.
While AUM fluctuates a lot, Qredo Network focuses on transactional activity as the way to derive value through charging a fee on the platform. We do not act like a custodian or charge people on assets held in wallets because we believe there are better ways to provide value for the protocol.
What happened with Polkadot?
At Qredo, we understand how essential it is to provide our users with an absolutely robust, reliable and secure system.
As we work to integrate Polkadot, we are faced with unique challenges that require us to ensure that we can perform synchronization between the blockchain and our system with 100% accuracy.
Our team is dedicated to solving this challenge, and we are currently working on a solution that will require a change in our protocol. We appreciate your patience as we work to deliver a seamless and secure provision of Polkadot.
What is going on with Stablecoin Mint?
We have been working with a European fintech company to enable the minting of stablecoins through a licensed entity and have been helping them prepare for their launch for over six months. They are currently in the process of obtaining regulatory approval, which has been delayed due to caution from European regulators following the FTX incident in November. When they do receive approval, we will make a partnership announcement to showcase the ability to use a partner, send fiat to that partner, and have it minted and available in a self-custodial wallet on the Qredo Network.
In the bigger picture, we are committed to supporting different stablecoins on an ongoing basis and are looking to modularize the minting functionality to make it more widely available to our users. Though not yet prioritized, it is something we are excited about as we continue to add new networks and functionality.
Can we get an update on the validator program?
We have been actively working on our agenda of progressive decentralization and making significant strides with our validator program. Our recent software upgrade has been a major step forward, even though it may not be flashy or have its own user interface. This upgrade has improved the program's resilience and has been a significant development for those involved under the hood. Our team is committed to continuing this progress and providing updates to keep our users informed.
You can also get an update on our blog about the validator migration to trusted execution environments which recently took place, an important step on our pathway to further decentralization.
I'm wondering if you can give us a roadmap for 2023?
We understand the importance of transparency and keeping our users informed about our plans and progress. We acknowledge the importance of having a roadmap for 2023, and we are pleased to confirm that we will be publishing it during February.
Our roadmap is not just a list of targets we aim to achieve, but a strategic plan that outlines our vision and objectives for the year ahead. We believe that publishing this roadmap is crucial as it will provide our community with valuable insights into our plans, helping them make informed decisions and aligning our priorities with theirs.
Our team has been working hard to ensure that our roadmap is ambitious, achievable, and forward-thinking. It will highlight our plans for expansion, product development, and our focus on delivering exceptional user experiences. We are confident that our roadmap will be an important signal for everyone involved, including our investors, partners, and users, and will provide them with a clear understanding of our direction.
We are excited about the year ahead and the opportunities it will bring. With the publication of our roadmap, we hope to build upon the trust and confidence our community has placed in us, and to continue to innovate and evolve the crypto industry. We invite our users to join us on this journey and look forward to sharing our roadmap with you very soon.
A range of questions surround third-party validators and token performance
In our previous roadmap, we had planned to release third-party validators by the end of 2022. However, we have since delayed this release to ensure we can use the latest in cloud technology and trusted execution environments to host our validators.
This delay will ultimately benefit our users, as these trusted execution environments protect data and operations, ensuring a certain level of privacy even from the validator operator. We plan to deploy a considerable number of validators in Q2. The staked amount will depend on our ongoing tokenomics workstream.
While we understand the disappointment of delay, we are confident that our decisions will pay off in the long run. Additionally, we disagree with comparisons to scam tokens like FTT and Celsius token, as the volatility of the market affects all altcoins. We are excited to see the benefits of our validator rollout and the positive impact this will have on our users.
What percentage of the network volume is wallet transfers? Any plans to add a fee for such transactions to get more utility for Qredo while avoiding bad actors spamming the network with useless transfers?
In response to the question about the percentage of network volume that is just wallet transfers and whether there are plans to add a fee for such transactions, there are currently two fees: the Qredo fee for institutional users and the protocol fee, which discourages spamming on the network.
Although the majority of network activity is currently moving assets into and out of Qredo Wallets, the company plans to launch products and features that will increase smart contract deployment and batch payments.
Qredo is also working on rolling out the protocol fee alongside an updated pricing model to make QRDO the central utility for all network activity. This aligns with the company's strategy to embed the Qredo token deeply into all Qredo Network and platform offerings.
Since you launched the WalletConnect integration, is there a noticeable increase in the network volume? If not, what are the plans to increase it?
In terms of the network volume since launching WalletConnect integration, we don't have specific data to share at the moment. However, we can say that the majority of Web3 activities are still happening on MetaMask, and since we are still in the beta phase with WalletConnect, there is much work to be done to increase user adoption and activity on the Qredo network.
We have a number of exciting products and features in the works that we believe will help drive greater usage and engagement with our technology and on our platform, from developers, institutions and individuals.
The centralized exchange integration announcement is overdue. Is the integration itself done?
We believe that enabling self-custody for our users is a cause worth championing, and we've been working tirelessly to integrate with centralized exchanges. While this has been a challenging process, we're determined to eliminate the risks associated with using centralized exchanges.
We've been engaging in conversations with exchanges to understand what they need to enable users to trade on their exchange out of self-custody. This feedback will be used to launch the next set of APIs that will form the foundation of our exchange integration product. We do have a goal to make centralized exchanges compatible with self-custody, so that users can enjoy the benefits of both without having to compromise on security or control.
We're also excited about the launch of Ankex, an exchange which will make use of Qredo wallets as the only way to fund trading activity. This is just the beginning, and we're determined to push full speed ahead with our exchange integration efforts throughout the year.
At Qredo, we're passionate about providing our users with the best possible experience, and we believe that our exchange integration efforts are a key step. By making centralized exchanges compatible with self-custody, we're creating a safer and more secure environment for our users to trade and invest. We're up for the challenge, and we're committed to delivering on our promise. Stay tuned for updates on our progress.
Any estimate when the first buyback and burn from the collected fees will take place?
We value the feedback and opinions of our community members. We understand that transparency and collaboration are essential in making decisions that affect our users. That's why we haven't launched community governance yet. We want to ensure that our users have access to the Qredo WalletConnect product before we enable them to comment, feedback, and vote on certain protocol updates.
We believe that the Qredo WalletConnect product is crucial in allowing users to keep their Qredo locked and staked in their wallets while contributing to the community. This ensures that users don't lose their accrued staking or rewards when they vote, contribute, or comment on a community proposal. We're waiting for the product to be available to users so that we can proceed with community governance.
We want to remind our community members that their feedback and comments are important to us. We've been talking about topics like the first buyback and burn from the collected fees since last quarter, and we're excited to bring these topics to the community for consideration once the Qredo WalletConnect product is available to all users. We appreciate your patience and look forward to collaborating with our community to make Qredo the best it can be.
Is there a public testnet for Qredo Network? Ever thought of getting the community involved by testing out new stuff?
As we bring new products to market at a fast pace this year, we need as much feedback as possible from the community, and we are exploring different ways to involve more people in our testing process. We value the feedback we receive through our Qreed program and are interested in expanding it to more users.
Additionally, we recognize the importance of making testnets more available to developers so they can test integrations and other features down the line. While institutional partners currently have access to developer environments, we are also exploring ways to allow end users to test out new features voluntarily, depending on their functionality.
We believe that the more eyes on our products, the more feedback we receive, leading to a better overall experience for our users.
There are some visible atomic swaps on the explorer. Can you give more insights about that?
We're thrilled to see that certain users who are enabled are taking advantage of the powerful Atomic Swaps feature. Atomic Swaps are visible on the Blockchain Explorer, and they provide a secure and efficient way to trade assets without incurring unnecessary risks. When users initiate an Atomic Swap, they're assured that their assets are ready to be exchanged.
This feature is incredibly useful for trading Bitcoin and USDC, and it's just one of the many ways our platform is revolutionizing the crypto industry. Additionally, our Powerswaps feature enables users to buy or sell assets using Qredo tokens to pay for fees. We're excited to continue developing new features around Atomic Swaps, and we're always looking for ways to make our platform even more user-friendly and efficient.
What was the driver for rebuilding the entire stack first versus shipping product features?
In rebuilding the entire Qredo stack before shipping new product features, we had to make a tough decision: prioritize time to market or future-proof the product for years to come. Most projects tend to prioritize speed, but we knew that to keep up with demand in the long run, we had to build a more resilient and scalable microservices architecture. This allows us to introduce new features without being bottlenecked by a single service, making development faster and more efficient.
On the frontend side, we took inventory of the user journey and designed a modular system of components that will allow us to build for the next generation of products. Though it took longer to develop, we believe that this approach will pay dividends for both our developers and users in the long run. As the bull market picks up, we want to be able to keep up with demand and provide you with what you want much faster.
We hope that when you experience the new Qredo, you will agree that it was worth the wait.
What was wrong with the existing stack? Have we got it right this time around?
We're always looking for ways to improve and build for the long term. We recognized that although there wasn't anything inherently wrong with our existing stack, we needed to make some changes to ensure that we were able to scale and handle increased activity as we grow.
We knew that in order to do this, we needed to move away from our monolithic code base and into a modular environment. This was no small feat, but we were determined to do it right. After nine months of hard work and dedication, we were able to create a new stack that not only allows our development team to build and ship independently but also makes the development experience much more efficient and scalable.
Our commitment to building for the long term means that we want to avoid falling flat when we experience success. We want to be successful and performant, and we believe that the changes we've made to our stack will enable us to do just that. We're excited to see where this takes us, and we're confident that we've got it right with this.
What was the opportunity cost for focusing on this? Did we lose ground on our competition? Did we lose assets under custody?
While it's true that rebuilding our platform may have had some opportunity cost, we believe it was the right decision for Qredo. Building through a bear market is always a smart move. So, we decided to be ambitious with that. Despite the bear market, we've made significant optimizations and improvements, and we haven't lost ground to our competition.
In fact, we believe that paying this debt early on in our journey is a huge competitive advantage as we head into the next chapter. We can now focus on building and scaling our user experience to capture new opportunities. Though the hard work behind the scenes may not always be visible, it all adds up to unlocking the opportunities we've been focused on. We're excited to see how these efforts will pay off and expect and hope that the opportunity cost will be minimal.
Does the new stack support facilitation of the original road map features, namely Power swap, WalletConnect, Liquidity Hub, etc?
Yes, the new stack fully supports the original roadmap features such as Power Swap, WalletConnect, and Liquidity Hub, and even goes beyond that.
Qredo has taken inventory of every user journey, redefined it, and redesigned it to support different transaction and swap types while displaying market data in an insightful and actionable way.
The new stack was built to raise the ceiling on what is possible within this part of the stack, allowing for the implementation of future features that are not even listed yet.
What is the upshot for validators?
Qredo has deployed validators to trusted execution environments in the cloud, making it easier for validators to onboard in future. This development is aimed at unlocking the ability to offer multi-cloud compatibility to validators, giving them the freedom to choose the environment in which they are most comfortable. Validators will be able deploy in their preferred environment, as long as it is a trusted execution environment. This makes the entire process of rolling out validators infinitely scalable.
Have the tokenomics revisions been designed around the new stack and will we see a more organic demand-driven / utility approach?
The Qredo team has been revising the tokenomics model alongside the technical roadmap to accurately capture the desired end state for the Qredo Network. The revisions cover the entirety of the tokenomics model from demand through to supply. The team has been focused on adding utility to every aspect of the Qredo protocol, and they have learned that making QRDO a part of the core utility of the platform can create organic demand. The team plans to replicate this approach for every feature and service they launch in the future.
Regarding transition of validator nodes from data centers to TEEs, will this allow for an increase of nodes in the future?
The transition of validator nodes from data centers to trusted execution environments (TEEs) is a crucial step towards creating a more secure and trustworthy network. By using TEEs, we can ensure that the execution of the nodes is protected from interference, making the network even more resilient.
While the number of nodes is important, it's more about the richness of the protocol consensus and the reliability of the service. Ultimately, increasing the number of trusted individuals who can run a node will help us to scale the network and improve its security. So, the answer is yes, we can increase the number of nodes in the future.
You said about validators having to stake a minimum amount, please confirm this is separate to the two million required to buy the NFT.
As we progress with the validator onboarding process, we want to make sure that validators meet a certain level of qualification and hold a minimum stake to ensure they have the right amount of staked power on the Qredo network.
The original entry bar was set at two million Qredo, but as the market has shifted, we are having discussions with validators to determine the appropriate level of stake and economic security model to implement. It's all part of the ongoing workstream to ensure the network is secure, incentivized, and sustainable in the long term. We will continue to update the community as we roll out these changes.
Ankex was stated to be launching in early 2023. The community is hoping to get an update on that.
We're thrilled to provide an update on Ankex, a revolutionary idea that was born out of a need for a non-custodial way to trade in the market. We didn't come up with this idea alone, but collaborated with industry experts and clients to create a decentralized exchange that meets the sophisticated trading needs of institutional and retail day traders alike.
The interest in Ankex has been overwhelming, and we're proud to have a working proof of concept. Developing Ankex is no small feat and requires a team of experts, but we're committed to making it a reality as soon as possible in 2023.
We believe that Ankex will be an outstanding example of how the Qredo Network can be used to eliminate trust and create transparent asset management and security. Our dedicated team is working hard to bring Ankex to life, and we can't wait to share it with the world.
Why didn't Qredo start with microservices architecture from the beginning?
We understand the importance of building a platform that can adapt and evolve to meet the needs of our users. While we initially intended to use the protocol as a custody platform, as we added more features and capabilities, we realized the need to rearchitect the platform to build it faster and better.
With the expansion of use cases for Qredo Network, we want to ensure that our tokenomics can cater to the wider crypto space, from exchanges to Web3 and building platforms on top of Qredo. We have learned a lot from our early investors and third parties, and we aim to communicate our updated tokenomics model in Q2 to ensure that validators and our community can understand the implications of our new products and features.
While we don't want to rush the process, we also recognize the importance of starting the year off strong, which is why we aim to have our new tokenomics model signed and sealed by the end of Q1. As we continue to add new products and features, we will ensure that there is a utility element to it and a demand driver built into it. We are excited about the future of Qredo Network and look forward to evolving with our users.
How much priority are you putting behind this?
We understand the importance of delivering on our promises and commitments, and we are currently finalizing and documenting our updated tokenomics model. This is a separate project that doesn't require the core engineering team's involvement, and we have dedicated resources to ensure that this is a top priority.
We recognize that this is a crucial component of our economic model for Qredo going forward and for third parties to participate as validators or clients. Once the updated tokenomics model is finalized, we will communicate this to our community, stakeholders, and validators throughout the course of Q2. Rest assured that we will do our utmost to meet our internal deadline and continue to prioritize our users' needs and satisfaction.
Thank you for reading our community AMA summary post! Together we're securing the future of blockchain. Thank you for being part of it.