Ramp Defi — Cryptoverse AMA
Date : 26th August 2020
Guest : Lawrence Lim — Cofounder
Zheng Rong Loh — Marketing Lead
Q: Please briefly introduce yourselves and #RAMP to our community?
Lawrence Lim : A quick introduction about myself — I am from Singapore, and started working in the traditional finance industry since 2012, focusing on private banking and corporate M&A. I then switched into technology, and joined IOST, a layer one blockchain project.I was with IOST since it was pre-testnet, to testnet, to mainnet, to onboarding over 300 nodes into our ecosystem, and having over USD30m in staked assets.
With DeFi growing rapidly, I eventually started ideating with my cofounders in late 2019 to develop and launch what is RAMP DEFI today.
Zheng Rong Loh : A brief intro, I’m zr, Marketing Lead and co-founder of RAMP Defi . Previously Managing Partner of Merkle Ventures, a consulting and investing blockchain firm focused on layer 1, layer 2 and DeFi. Co-founded NOX, which developed on-chain custody utilizing cloud HSM.
Q: How can you take the current Defi Ecosystem to the next level with #RAMP?
A: the current DeFi ecosystem focuses on locking up liquidity as Total Value Locked. In contrast, RAMP is working on assets that are staked (which is also locked) to unlock liquidity. This means we are really adding liquidity into the crypto ecosystem that can grow the size of the economy, and not competing with all these other DeFi solutions.So we believe we are pioneering an effort to increase overall DeFi value
Q: What does it mean RAMP is moving value, while Stafi is moving assets?
A: RAMP is moving value because we collateralize assets into a stablecoin and move it to the Ethereum ecosystem. Stafi moves the assets directly. The difference is that as a stablecoin, liquidity can flow more easily because value is defined. It’s hard to say what is the actual value of 1 EOS or 1 TRX, but you know what is the actual value of 1 rUSD (1:1 with USD)
Q: What measures rampdefi team is taking in case of security of platform to save Community funds and Will there be any #safufund to compensate the Community if it really happens in future?
A:Prevention is the best cure :)
We are focused on ensuring that hacks or exploits don’t happen, rather than compensation. There’s many projects that doesn’t get hacked, and we want to be inside this category. Our team has a cybersecurity lead with over 20 years of cybersecurity experience, I think that can help .
Q: There are two currencies in the RAMP DEFI ecosystem that I still cannot differentiate. How is rUSD different from eUSD and how do both currencies work within the RAMP DEFI betting systems?
A: Take it as value representations, similar to how the mUSD from MetaStable and yCRV from Curve are.
rUSD represents the value extracted from the staked assets, and and eUSD represents the liquidity provided by ERC20 stablecoins such as USDT, USC.
Q: As a community-driven project, how can I contribute my quota to your success? Do you have a Global ambassadorial Program or Referral Reward System? Do I get any benefits from holding $RAMP token in the long term?
A: You can contribute to RAMP DEFI by participating in stake farming! We have 45% of token supply reserved for farming, and are split to different activities. So if you stake through RAMP, you can farm RAMP tokens. If you collateralize your assets, you can farm RAMP tokens. If you borrow/lend, you can farm RAMP tokens.
The more participate, the more yield you can stack :)
RAMP tokens have inherent value, because we collect a % of staking rewards from the various staked assets, plus the interest fees generated from lending/borrowing, and distribute it out to RAMP holders who stake their tokens.
Q: What are your strategies in building a big and strong community? Do you agree that the power of the community will lead your project to grow globally?
A: We have influencers and community leaders in all major geographies supporting us and helping to raise awareness for RAMP DEFI. We believe in transparency and engagement, and will be providing these to our community. We want our community to be rewarded for their engagement, hence the 45% of token supply being left aside for their participation. 100% the value of a project is only as good as its community.
Q: What are the ways is to RAMP Defi generating profits/revenue to maintain your project and what is its revenue model? How can it make benefit win-win to both investors and your project?
A: The interest fees and staking rewards accumulated into the rPool are distributed to different parties: 40% to RAMP stakers, 10% to the team to sustain operations, and 50% to roll even more value. Hence, there is a real business model behind RAMP. I believe this sets us very different from the other projects out there.
The team is substantially aligned with RAMP token stakers. Simply put, if we increase the total value of staked assets, there is more revenue generated, which increases both team income and investor income.
Q: When can yield farmers claim ramp tokens? How do you prevent farmers dumping?
A: They can claim it from the RAMP DEFI website when the module is released. We believe that farmers are incentivised to hold RAMP tokens because it has a revenue stream, which gives it intrinsic value, and also if you stake RAMP tokens, you can farm with better efficiency compared to someone who didn’t This way, we reward users who are invested into the RAMP ecosystem over those who are not.
Q: What are the requirements to do Staking of the RAMP token? What is the minimum quantity required?
A: No requirements or minimum quantity for now! We want this to be easy and simple for users .
Q: For RAMP Staking, how much the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) we can get and what is the minimum of amount required for staking?
A: Interesting question. This is not set yet, and will be a floating value, similar to how APYs are measured right now.We will make it very attractive for users though, to participate in our ecosystem!
Q: RAMP DEFI said it aim to work directly with existing blockchain foundations to deliver the RAMP solution for their users. How do you aim to go about this? Any evaluation/ selection criteria? And What are some of the ways these potential partners could benefits from RAMP DEFI technology?
A: Yup! We work with partners with
1) good liquidity on their tokens.
2) fast unstaking .
3) well developed with Ethereum bridges.
Many of these blockchain ecosystems have investment funds that poured in millions and hold lots of tokens. These funds can easily recycle capital using RAMP without exiting the tokens. This helps to preserve capital stability and value for our blockchain partners.
Q: What’s the difference between Total Value Locked (TVL), and Total Value Unlocked [TVU] And why does RAMP focuses on TVU
A: RAMP is a “blue ocean” that unlocks liquidity while others are locking it up. Hence we measure our success by how much value has been extracted, leading to Total Value Unlocked as the metric.
Q: What do you think about the possibility of creating new use cases in DeFi space for existing real world assets by using crypto technology? What role do you see in this creation for RAMP?
A: It is possible to have real-world assets tokenized and being used as collateral! We have some traditional financial institutions like investment funds and even small private banks reach out to us to explore possibilities.
Q: Each project has interesting stories before it is created. So can you tell people about the story that gave you the motivation to build and develop a great project like Ramp Defi?
A: Yeah we actually came through a pretty tough route. In late 2019, ppl don’t care as much bout DeFi as today. It was hard to fundraise and hard to get investor trust. But we persevere and that’s why when Defi took off in Q2 this year, we were able to react fast and go to market. Our investors also found us in really organic ways such as through medium articles.
Join the RAMP Community
If you are interested to follow RAMP DEFI and get in touch with the project team members, you can participate and receive timely updates from the following official channels:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/RampDefi
- Telegram: https://t.me/rampdefiofficial
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rampdefi
- Discord: https://discord.gg/WY5TU7b
- Medium: https://medium.com/rampdefi
For partnerships, media or other collaboration opportunities, please email: team@rampdefi.com.
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