Recap of the yAxis AMA with Blockchain Space
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On Friday, April 23rd, we had the pleasure to welcome to our Telegram chat:
Bobby, who had been leading the yAxis DAO since December,
Waali, The head of the operations,
and
Ae , One of the yAxis Champions.
We asked them questions about the development of yAxis.
INTRODUCTION
Q~ Thanks for joining us today. Please start off by introducing yourselves to our community, your roles in the team, and tell us what yAxis is all about in detail?
A~
Bobby : So I’ve been leading the yAxis DAO since December. We’ve built a yield farming portfolio that makes DeFi easy and accessible.
Users simply deposit USD stables into the vault, and we put the capital to work across multiple yield strategies such as yearn, dydx, curve, in order earn you interest on your assets.
The core innovation is the ability to split funds across multiple strategies at the same time, and seamlessly move them around to act like a traditional fund manager would do on behalf of users.
Waali : I am Waali, I am part of the yaxis champions programme and head up the operations side.
Ae : I’m AE and I’m one of the yAxis Champions, a community member who assists and supports the team. My main tasks are currently hosting events for the community to participate in and writing our docs, which detail our product. They can be found here:
Q~ Share with us the tokenomics model/usecases of $YAXIS and how do we take advantage of some seriously impressive $YAXIS rewards?
A~ The TVL deposited by our vault users is earning yield through strategies. We take 20% of the farming profits and use that to buy back YAXIS on the open market. We redistribute these to holders staking YAXIS, thus providing a fundamental price support to the token.
The better the strategy deployed and more TVL we can attract, the more the buy backs accelerate and drive the token upwards.
At the same time, you can take advantage of impressive yield through staking $YAXIS or providing liquidity at https://yaxis.io. Currently at 13,000% apy.
The users of the vaults are investors. The main value proposition of the token is to act as a decentralised fund manager to safely steward that capital. For that role, they receive a slice of the profits.
8,000% for pure staking, and 13,000% for the LP.
But these rewards will stay high for many months.
Q~ Could you share with us, the recent progress and your future plans for yAxis?
A~ As for recent progress, we upgraded our token to the ERC-677 standard last weekend as (one of) the first in DeFi. This upgrade allows users to approve and stake their tokens into our contracts in a single transaction, making the process cheaper and easier for everyone.
On Sunday, we started a new phase of the DAO and a journey through the first of four Eras. Each Era is 3 months long and comes with new features, tokenomics and initiatives. We also tell a story from medieval times through to futuristic machina as we progress development.
Rewards to the LP and Staking pool were recently started as we drive growth into the DAO. We’ve risen from $20m market cap to $45m in the last 5 days and that’s expected to continue throughout the year.
The next Era is just 12 weeks away, and will be a major evolution itself. We extend the USD vaults to ETH, BTC and LINK where we expect significant interest.
We also introduce a locking mechanism similar to curve finance, where stakers will be able to tilt the weight of emissions going to their preferred asset vaults.
As we continue to build out security and enterprise level features, we slowly shift demographics towards attracting institutional capital.
Yeah, the main development the team and community are looking forward to are the Canonical Vaults that are coming in 12 weeks. We currently support only stablecoin deposits; Canonical Vaults will allow users to start earning highly competitive interest on digital assets like BTC, ETH and LINK, without exposing themselves to ‘impermanent loss’. They can also deposit and withdraw at any time.
QUESTIONS FROM BITCOINTALK
Q~ Why was the token upgraded from an ERC-20 ($YAX) to an ERC-677 standard ($YAXIS), what advantages does this upgrade bring?
A~ Ae spoke about it above. To expand, last Saturday, we migrated from the ERC-20 $YAX token to the ERC-677 $YAXIS token. This gives us a competitive advantage in DeFi: the ‘transferAndCall’ function which means users don’t need to ‘approve’ and pay for a prior transaction to staking.
It cuts the cost in halve to enter DeFi and is great for smaller account users in the ETH ecosystem.
Q~ Can you please tell me what will determine the voting power in your governance system?…i mean who will have the most powerful vote?
A~ We use quadratic voting for governance related matters. This takes the square root of your holdings across wallets, staking, LP — so each additional token you hold has less additional voting power. This prevents Whales from having undue power with sometimes lower quorums that are common in the space.
We think this has a better spread of voting power for smaller holders and makes sure they have a relevant voice.
QUESTIONS FROM TWITTER
Q~ What real product or service has been created to underpin yAxis valuation and ensure the sustainability of the project, when emissions stop?
A~ Most projects dont have a real underlying product. By building on the layer above yield aggregators, we can play the role of a decentralised portfolio manager, similar to the TradFi world. That is a much needed and valuable service.
The key benefits of using our portfolio is:
No knowledge required of DeFi. No time spent managing funds.
No gas fees cutting into profits. Less risk, with diversified allocations, and 24/7 oversight.
Sleep easy with yAxis whilst we secure attractive long-term returns.
For this we take a cut of the profits and give back to our token holders and that creates value in the token.
Still today, 95% of crypto assets are not in DeFi, but we are looking beyond to retail and institutional entities using the vaults. We talk to many funds who simply don’t have the time to manage a separate DeFi portfolio, and so we believe there is a lot of demand from the professional sectors.
Q~ What are the functions of stakers in the yAxis ecosystem and how are they incentivized to participate?
A~ Well, it’s a DAO-directed vault. Stakers are able to approve strategies deployed, apply caps and help allocate funds between them.
Their incentives are aligned with us, as the better job they do, the more TVL they can attract and revenue share they receive through the buyback distribution mechanic explained above.
Currently, stakers are getting very high returns through YAXIS rewards, but that will switch to revenue share over time.
In our Era 2, we are distributing this revenue in an event called The Great Harvest — which will see 1 million tokens, with up to $100m in value given back to stakers.
Xiaolin : When is the time line for this Great Harvest?
Bobby : It will be in Era 2, which starts on 17th July.
Q~ Something that is coming on yAxis Era 1, is this thing called “Champions Programme”, can you tell us more about it? What is this Programme for? How can users be part of it? And what are the benefits of being on it?
A~ yAxis is a project built from the ground up by the community — the whole team has been sourced from the community, actually! The Champions Programme is another way for community members to start contributing.
We have a bounty board with jobs and tasks that they can apply to (https://trello.com/b/nkcEh9pc/yaxis-bounty-board-community) to help out the project. For example, they can help out by creating art, or spreading the word on Twitter, etc. We also have a number of job offers open, such as for a Graphic Designer and a Content Writer.
They receive rewards in our YAXIS token for this and support the project at the same time, so everyone wins.
It’s a way for everyone to contribute and earn YAXIS at the same time.
We have up to 500k tokens funding it. Valued today at $30m.
Everything from development, to marketing, to exchanges and social amplification. It’s a broad programme.
QUESTIONS FROM TELEGRAM
Q~ I see you decide to change from $YAX token to $YAXIS, How do I swap my old tokens for $YAXIS, any guidelines on how to go about it?
A~ Hey yeah! On app.yaxis.io/swap is an interactive guide to take you through the steps involved.
Q~ I understand that the YAX token is familiar with DeFi, which allows to grant voice and a% of the profits to its holders. But what exactly are the different use cases that users tend to be available to get good returns and percentages (%) from Coke YAX token? Can you bet with this chip? What about the% APY?
A~ The main purpose of the token is to govern the yield portfolio. For this, holders get a share of the profits. APY is 8,000% today
Q~ Having a roadmap helps projects to establish important dates and announcements so that the community can support them, entering your website I did not see any roadmap, could you tell us what you have planned for the third quarter of this year?
A~ Hi Gabriel, our roadmap is on the Gitbook
https://resources.yaxis.io/roadmap
Q~ Why did you name your project yAxis, what does the yAxis name depicts and how does it relates to what your project is all about?
A~ The y-axis on a graph is usually depicting growth, and we felt that was a good name.
Q~ Is there any education article that will describe and explain more about. yAxis projects? And how we can have quick update information from yAxis? Subscription/newsletter?
A~
Waali : Information can be found here https://resources.yaxis.io/
Bobby : Yes — https://resources.yaxis.io — is a good place to start.
Q~ Very recently, yAxis team added APR to the yAxis APP UI along with a calculator showing regular compounding, what are the benefits that these features will bring into the app? Are they fully user-friendly and easy to use?
A~
Ae : Adding the APR to our app was an important move in making it easier for users to understand the returns on their investments. APY assumes daily compounding, and not every user has the time or money to be able to do it on a daily basis. The new calculator allows you to adjust the settings to your own preferences to correctly estimate your returns.
Bobby : We chose to show both APR and APY with different compounding ates to be more transparent with our advertised returns.
Q~ One of the key elements of yAxis project is that it also makes perfect use of a community Bounty and Jobs Board, can you thoroughly explain how these two can facilitate the user experience? Are users able to join the community board freely?
A~ Yes it’s totally open to submit proposals and apply for bounties. We’re also happy to receive proposals that arent on the board yet. Show us your skills and ideas!
Q~ 1. Security
2. Products
3. Partnerships
4. Token price
From the 4 aspects which one is your main priority and why?
A~
Ae : Security is the top priority at yAxis, as we want people to feel confident in depositing their funds into our vaults. To that end, we have gone through two audits from distinguished firms (Quantstamp as well as Haechi). We also host a bug bounty through ImmuneFi.
Bobby : Security is always top priority for us. We want to build our reputation towards institutional deposits, and that requires a lot of trust.
Q~ 5 days ago $YAX became $YAXIS marking the beginning of the first of four upcoming yAxis Eras, being this one Era 1, can you tell me what further developments you’ll be making as this Era goes? What major tech upgrades has the ERC-677 token undergone thanks to this journey? If Era 2 begins on July 17th, when are the remaining two Eras going to be released?
A~ The Eras are every 3 months. In future Eras, we will evolve both the tech and UI. For example a BTC bridge and built-in insurance — as well as a night mode UI.
Q~ Could you explain in a simple way the mechanism of your canonical vaults?
A~ Canonical Vaults work much the same as the current MetaVault for users. They can deposit a digital asset (such as ETH, BTC, or LINK) and start earning interest without their time or worry.
The main innovation introduced by our Canonical Vaults are ‘delegated strategies’. Because ETH, BTC and LINK are such popular assets to hold, APY tends to be very low on other platforms.
We enable users to earn higher APY by using their asset as collateral on lending platforms such as Aave to borrow stablecoins against. These stablecoins are then deposited into the MetaVault to earn superior yield.
Q~ For a project development first of all main priority is having enough fund. Does your team financially capable to run this project? and Do you have enough fund for it is developement Can you tell us that how your project generate the profit?
A~ Yes we have several treasuries. The team, development and Champions Programme that allow us to keep working on the project for many years.
Q~ In the yAxis website, I discovered that you were hiring for specific job roles. As an interested candidate, I would like to know if I can apply for more than one role and also, the deadline for applications.
A~ Hey, you’re welcome to apply to any role you see! We invite everyone to look at our bounty board and assist the project where they believe they can be useful.
If you don’t see anything that suits you, you can always join our Discord and offer to help. Or you can e-mail waali: waali@yaxis.io to tell us how you’d like to support yAxis.
Q~ What is the strategy used by Your Project to attract new users and investors and keep them in the long term?
A~ There are 3 types of users we target over time as we develop our product further. First DeFi audience with high rewards, then the BTC, LINK and ETH vaults for crypto holders not yet in DeFi (70% of all crypto assets) — then finally TradFi that requres advanced enterprise-grade security and management processes.
Q~ In technical terms, can you explain a bit how yAxis works and give us an example?
A~ yAxis has developed an abstract base layer on top of yield aggregators like yearn and pickle, that we can plug multiple strategies into at the same time.
Much more info in the ‘How it Works’ section of resources.yaxis.io
Q~ How does this project plan to remove existing barriers to user interaction with the decentralized economy? How to close the gap between cryptocurrency and real users?
A~ We plan to have fiat on-ramps through wallet providers. This will make it easy to get involved in yAxis.
Q~ First off, great product, i’ve been staking since the switch to the ERC-677 token and i’m looking forward using the metavault myself shortly.
my question: i note that the fee taken out of the metavault profits is 25%, with 20% going to YAXIS buybacks which is all well and good. but if this product is to simplify defi, won’t the majority of users not care about the yaxis token, holding it and learning how to stake it. therefore, metavault users with with no interest in the yaxis token will in fact be paying a fairly hefty 25% fee to use the metavault?
i suppose the 25% fee could be something the DAO can review once TVL has reached a sustanible level and there is less of a need to attract users to the metavault. i.e. buy backs can be reduced along with fees for users. comparing to trad-fi fees for actively managed funds a 25% fee is extremely high.
would be interested to hear your thoughts. keep up the good work :)
A~ Hey Richard, thanks for your great question. The 25% fee does not apply to the entirety of the profits: all YAXIS emissions are returned to you for the whole 100%, as are base layer profits such as trading fees and interest. The performance fee applies only to farmed governance tokens. Everything else is compounded back into the vault to increase your earnings.
Q~ How does project increase the token’s value, liquidity and utility? So that it can lead to an increase in token prices? What is your plan to make your project stable and provide the highest return for investors in the long term?
A~ The vaults put users funds to work farming. A % of that yield is taken as a fee, and used to buy back $YAXIS on uniswap. This creates continuous buy pressure on the token regardless of price.
Yes through the Champions Programme — we want to work with many other communities to build together, create content and expand the reach of DeFi. We’ll look towards tier 1 exchanges in the future and continue to have very high rewards which attract attention.
Q~ Partnerships seem to be very important. How’s the status of this project partnerships? Can you share some of the partnerships you have formed with existing blockchain foundations recently?
A~ The BTC bridge is an example. We are in talks with many organistions who want to deposit assets into our vaults, such as large mining companies or TradFi funds.
Q~ Beyond the Ethereum network, what plans does yAXIS have? How far can you expand? Also, will the upgrade from ETH to ETH 2.0 affect yAxiS?
A~ The team is currently working on the Ethereum network because it has several well-established DeFi protocols for us to farm. We are open to expanding our range to Layer 2 DeFi projects as well as other chains, if the opportunity arrives. But we’re mainly looking to farm mature and battle-tested projects, because our priority is to keep our users’ funds safe at all times.
Q~ Which network will you use for this project and how strong will it support the NFT market?
A~ We built on ETH as it has the highest liqudity to farm. In the future we plan cross-chain deployments, and are watching the space closely.
Q~ I saw that you are currently doing a “Commemorative NFT Competition”, can you tell us more about this contest? What is the purpose of it? And what can users get from it?
A~ One of our supporters, the famous 0x_b1 account on Twitter, ran this NFT contest. We got some fantastic submissions, and have engaged some of these artists through our Champions Programme already to keep producing artwork for us.
CONCLUSION
People are often worried about risks of DeFi, and our APY rewards look unbelievable. But the yAxis MetaVault is audited by both Quantstamp and Haechi. We use $YFI strategies that have also been extensively audited and are based on the battle-tested Curve.
The MetaVault does not allow smart contract interaction, and therefore it is impossible to conduct flash loan attacks and other innovative exploits on the funds.
We also run a public bug bounty programme through immunefi and conduct all our development openly on Github for maximum transparency.
We’ve done everything possible to secure users funds.
I linked our Gitbook earlier, which documents our products in detail (https://resources.yaxis.io/). We also have a blog on Medium where users can follow the latest news through our announcements (http://yaxis.medium.com/).
Finally, I recommend anyone interested in becoming part of our community to join our Discord, as that’s where we’re most active. We have a lot of fun contests, and it’s the best place to ask questions if you’re looking to learn more.
https://discord.com/invite/yaxis-project
It’s really nice having the yAxis project in here!!!
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