AMA RECAP : DeFi Raccoons x Thorstarter.
Date : 14 JUNE 2021
Host : SB
Guest :Thorstarter Team ( AM — Co Founder.)
INTRODUCTION.
SB | Admin @DeFi_Raccoons:
Please be so kind as to introduce yourselves to the Raccoons!
AM:
Hey! I’m compound22 but go by my initials AM. I’m one of three co-founders of the Thorstarter network.
SB | Admin @DeFi_Raccoons:
Please tell us about your experience and work in the Crypto field.
AM:
Absolutely.
I’ve been personally active in the crypto space since 2016, investing and advising various projects, several of which are now DeFi blue chip projects. I was an early investor in Thorchain, participating in their IDO on Binance Chain.
One of the earliest projects I worked with was Bancor, which is one of the first if not the first protocols to use and implement the AMM (automated market maker model), which is now a core feature of many great projects like Uniswap, Sushiswap, and Thorchain.
SB | Admin @DeFi_Raccoons:
Can you give us a brief introduction about AMM?
AM:
AMM means automated market maker.
Uniswap, Sushiswap, Pancakeswap (and Thorchain too!) are all AMMs.
It just means that, when you make a trade (swap one token for another) you’re trading against a pool of capital.
This is different from an exchange (DEX or CEX) where you trade against other people. ie, there is a “counterparty to each trade.”
SB | Admin @DeFi_Raccoons:
Ok, once again welcome, glad to have you with us today! We like to start off with an elevator-pitch for the people that haven’t yet heard of Thorstarter– Tell us what #Thorstarter is and what are you guys trying to showcase?
AM:
Definitely!
We are heavily invested in the narrative that the future is multichain. Vitalik himself has been quite vocal that, if there were a network/protocol to effectively *nail* multichain, it could be orders of magnitude bigger than many of the largest blockchains now. We firmly believe that Thorchain is that project.
However, the Thorchain protocol and network design is not super intuitive upon first glance. It takes some time to fully understand.
As the Thorchain mainnet launch grows near, a project is needed to onboards and introduces the core tenants of the Thorchain ecosystem to a wider audience. Thorstarter is that project.
Thorstarter is a decentralized launchpad created to bring cross-chain liquidity to long tail crypto assets.
This means that projects can 1) IDO (ie, launch) on our platform and 2) swap their token with major crypto assets like BTC, ETH, LTC, etc.
That sums it up. 🙂
SB | Admin @DeFi_Raccoons:
So it can both act as a AMM as well as a exchange
AM:
“DEX” and “AMM” are often used interchangeably today. Some people call Uniswap a DEX tho it’s actually an AMM.
Thorstarter itself is not building a new/unique AMM, but calling it a DEX (decentralized exchange) would be suitable, for sure.
A better way to think about us is:
IDO platform+DEX
🙂
SB | Admin @DeFi_Raccoons:
Please tell me something about your core team? How many of you are working on Thorstarter, how big is your dev team at the moment?
AM:
Is good, very naiiiice.
So I talked about myself a bit already… Now, regarding the team.
The marketing and operations team working on Thorstarter has likewise been involved in crypto for some 6+ years, and worked with several of the more well known projects in the DeFi space.
Our developer team includes 4 devs, two of which are full time. Our lead developer is working on smart contracts and core features of the Thorstarter protocol, and the others are taking a supporting role working on front- and back-end.
We have a large team of full- and part-timer contracts taking on various supporting tasks as needed.
SB | Admin @DeFi_Raccoons:
You mentioned about 3 founders
Who are the other 2
AM:
Our lead developer is a co-founder. The other co-founder is situated in an opertions and management role, with some support on marketing, business development and network security design.
SB | Admin @DeFi_Raccoons:
Please tell the community about Thorstarter DAO and its mechanics.
AM:
Definitely! I hope everyone is familiar with the basic concepts of a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization).
It basically just means a group of inidividuals governed by laws that are written in code (smart contracts).
Thorstarter will launch as a community-governed DAO, and will evolve through two distinct epochs:
1. The Age of Asgard
The initial period of stewardship will be conducted by 9 members elected by the DAO.
Confirmed members consist of Thorchain core team members, developers, Thornode operators and early supporters, institutional liquidity providers, and thought leaders in the Thorchain ecosystem. Project Selection and Incubation The initial onboarding of any new project will be managed by the DAO and DAO fund. Each new project, after being selected, will pass through four stages:
- Project vetting and negotiation
- Liquidity provision of ASSET
- Liquidity provision of XRUNE/ASSET. This will be provided by the Treasury
- IDO announcement and marketing
2. Valhalla DAO
The final goal of the Thorstarter DAO is to evolve into on-chain governance structure called the. In this later phase, Valhalla DAO members will identify and recommend projects, provide opportunities for liquidity pools, and adjust incentives for liquidity providers. Members of the DAO will be able to pool capital and decide which projects to support.
On-chain governance will allow XRUNE holders to propose and vote on a number of strategies via the DAO. Execution of these strategies will then be provided by Council members.
Valhalla DAO will allow democratic voting for protocol upgrades and new features, as well as treasury allocation. Decisions will be made via Discord discussions, community calls, forum discussions, and ultimately Snapshot votes.
One thing that might be interesting to Raccoons here, is that users will have the option to lock their XRUNE into a voting escrow version called vXRUNE. This will grant them voting rights in the DAO, ie they can have a say in which projects launch!
SB | Admin @DeFi_Raccoons:
Let’s talk about the project itself now,
Strategic partnerships help projects in many ways.
Do you guys have any partners? How do you benefit from them?
AM:
We are partnered with Thorchain itself, and they are helping us structure the sale, assist with marketing, and advise us pretty much every step of the way.
Beyond the TC team, we are partnering with other key members of the Thorchain ecosystem.
XDEFI and other native Thorchain wallets → helping our users integrate multichain wallets and learn how to use native RUNE.
Several of our backers and advisors are building their own dapps and projects in the Thorchain ecosystem as well, and providing feedback on the protocol design, contracts, and security.
SB | Admin @DeFi_Raccoons:
Are the feedbacks for improvisation
AM:
Improvements* yes, suggestions, referring us projects to launch, among many other suggestions.
SB | Admin @DeFi_Raccoons:
As stated in your website,
Thorstarter aims at “Enabling cross-chain swaps between long tail crypto assets”
Please explain this.
AM:
Sure!
So following on the discussion about how we’re a DEX…
Currently if you want to swap between “short tail” assets (ie, the biggest coins like BTC, ETH, etc), you can actually do that on Thorchain ALREADY.
Even though BTC and ETH are different blockchains, you can swap native BTC and native ETH no problem, using Throchain.
However… Thorchain only has so many assets that are listed.
Thorstarter aims to allow for smaller cap projects to also be able to swap with say BTC.
SB | Admin @DeFi_Raccoons:
How will you differenentiate yourself from Polkastarter
AM:
Let’s change “Polkastarter” for “Polkastarter and any other launchpaids like Polkastarter”, so that the question is more broadly applicable.
The launchpad model has become quite popular these days, and is a great way for new projects to get some initial traction + marketing.
However, given the popularity of the model, many launchpads have sprung up — and many claiming to be “multichain” or “crosschain”. These monikers are great, but sort of miss the point…
Namely, Polkastarter began as a project to steward growth and innovation in the Polkadot ecosystem. However, the platform — and many others — now launches projects from just about any EVM-compatible chain, eg BSC / Eth / etc.
We set out to create a launchpad that had crosschain baked into the actual primitive, ie that would enable crosschain swapping using Thorchain itself.
That aside, we’ve seen that the concept of a launchpad token required to gain access to IDOs quickly becomes unfair to later entrants/participants. It’s great for the projects themselves in that the token goes up (eg BSCPAD token) as more and more projects launch, thus enriching the pad founders, but it becomes more difficult to buy and gain access to projects’ allocations as time goes on.
To that end, we are using what’s called an ‘xIDO’ model. Our contracts are designed such that any project coming to Thorstarter can use *whatever* features they want — and we will offer a very long list of features and customizations.
In order for the projects to receive a TS liquidity grant, their structure must be considered fair by our DAO/governance council, though. So we are unique in that our cross chain model is indeed cross chain, and that we prioritize projects which structure their launches fairly.
SB | Admin @DeFi_Raccoons:
That is a great explanation
How do you plan to get “Traditional investors” or No coiners with zero knowledge about blockchain and DeFi all over the world to use Thorstarter?
AM:
Lots of work to be done on that front!
Probably the best part about Thorchain itself is that it is a great place to part native assets and get yield on them in a non-KYC, non-custodial way.
For example, most no-coiners start with BTC or ETH and might be interested in some of the great yields offered by DeFi, but aren’t sure where to start.
They can take *native* BTC and pool it on Thorchain, and get some really amazing yields that can’t be found elsewhere (eg, Blockfi and other centralized services which offer small yielsd of 2–6%).
So it’s important to onboard a lot of users into the Thorchain ecosystem, so they can keep their native coins without wrapping, trading etc (which has fees, is taxable, and other complications).
We do not incentivize pooling of BTC per se, but the yields on the RUNE-XRUNE pool will be quite high initially. Around 400–500%. This would be *in addition to* the standard yield and earned LP fees associated with all Thorchain pools.
SB | Admin @DeFi_Raccoons:
In terms of value capture, what is the tokenomics of $XRUNE token, and how do you stimulate the users to hold your token in the long run?
What is the use case of your token?
AM:
From a high level, we wanted everyone who missed the massive RUNE runup to have a chance at a token that has a very similar — almost identical — token economy.
The tokenomics of Thorstarter follow the footsteps of the original RUNE launch, placing community participation above all else.
That means a larger initial community bootstrapping phase and stronger incentives for governance participants (higher yield) in the Thorstarter ecosystem, longer lockups for investors and team, and a mechanism for reducing the circulating supply of market XRUNE.
That last part — the lockups — is what I’d mentioned before. Users will be able to lock their XRUNE and get vXRUNE, which will entitle them to a % of protocol fees. (Similar to other protocols with a voting escrow lock, eg veCRV).
This enables people who just want a more passive income to be able to generate fees that accrue to vXRUNE over time (as opposed to trade and speculate).
SB | Admin @DeFi_Raccoons:
Looking down your Roadmap, I see that you have some interesting stuff for the year.
Can you give some more info about these?
Are you still on schedule for these updates to go live, as COVID -19 has hampered many projects?
AM:
COVID-19 hasn’t slowed us down one bit. If anything it’s allowed us to stay inside and build. 🙂
Yes for sure!
Thorstarter is approaching development using a lean model of building what we need. Development can be broken down into three distinct phases:
Phase 1: dApp Build and Launch DAO
(we are currently here)
The first phase of Thorstarter development is currently underway. The project will entail a forked version of ASGARDEX with specific features kept in tact, and others omitted. The end user will arrive at the Thorstarter website and be able to choose from the app (UI to swap between assets), available IDO projects, token farms, governance, FAQs, and other pertinent information. Thorstarter’s Aragon Company DAO contracts will be launched, and the Council of Asgard will be elected by the DAO.
Phase 2: IDOs and DEX Improvements
The second phase of Thorstarter development will include upgrades to the Thorstarter swapping functionality and UI, integrating with XDEFI and other chains, and launching IDOs. The IDO launch contracts will be able to be upgraded and modified over time, as the feature suite is rolled out. Thorstarter will launch with a plan to IDO 1–2 projects per month for the first several months.
Phase 3: Ongoing IDOs and Protocol Work
The third phase of Thorstarter development will refine the cross-chain IDO model. Further, protocol work will focus on partnering with existing projects to tap into XRUNE-RUNE liquidity regardless of whether or not they IDO on Thorstarter. This has the added benefit of bringing additional buying power to XRUNE as a means to tap into RUNE cross-chain liquidity. Projects which may wish to access Throchain liquidity but not IDO will be able to do so based on integrations during this phase.
Phase 3 will be an ongoing development phase.
SB | Admin @DeFi_Raccoons:
And lastly, can you tell us a bit more about late 2021?
Tell the community about your plans for 2021, what are we currently working on, and are we going to expand the list of big exchanges?
Can you tell us a bit more about those plans and how you aim to achieve them?
AM:
So we just went through the full three phases of the roadmap above
2021 will essentially be all of Phase 1, and almost all of Phase 2.
We are talking to several exchanges now (the biggest) but as usual can’t comment on those listings.
If you look at the transaction volume for RUNE (Thorchain’s token), the majority is on exchanges, despite the protocol being fully decentralized and non custodial.
So, there is value for a token to be listed on exchanges, even if the ultimate goal is 100% decentralization.
It helps CEX users get familiar with trading the token, adds liquidity, and can ultimately onboard those users into our network.
LIVE AMA QUESTIONS.
CHA | 404:
🤟🤩Hi Mr @compound22
I read your Medium and it goes into great detail why #THORSTARTER with its RUNE is different. It’s very interesting to see you are so focused and detailed on the new projects IDO.
Can you name the successful projects that have been and will be launching on #THORSTARTER?
AM:
Great question CHA, thanks for reading our public documents!
We cannot share specifics at this time, just waiting for approval from those teams. But rest assured when you see “partnership announcements” those are a good indication of which projects we will be helping launch!
chintya lensley:
I was wondering for the strategic sale, if we pool rune-xrune assymetrically, will we also be able to withdraw xrune as well or are we only getting the appreciation of xrune then?
#Thorstarter
@compound22
AM:
Fantastic question Chintya.
This will be covered in a guide being published not long after this AMA.
In a nutshell, it’s actually a SYMMETRIC add, not assymetric. However, it “behaves” assym.. here’s why:
When a user comes to the app page on our website (thorstarter.org) they will be given the option to deposit RUNE.
In the background, we have an XRUNE faucet that adds 1 XRUNE to the wallet. So it’s actually a symm add of XRUNE-RUNE.
This way, users can withdraw our ERC20 XRUNE token to their Eth address (0x…).
Ayesha Selby:
Almost 80% investors have just focused on price of token in short term instead of understanding the real value of the project. Can you tell us on motivations and benefits for investors to hold your token in long term?
AM:
Hey Ayesh, this was covered a few times in the AMA. But in a nutshell:
With each IDO launch on Thorstarter, more buying power will accrue to XRUNE (and the RUNE-XRUNE pool on Thorchain will get deeper and more liquid).
Additional to that, many tokens will be taken out of circulation using a voting escrow lock (vXRUNE), so this reduces a lot of sell pressure and should be good for long term holders.
Candy@LBank.info:
Revenue is an important aspect for all projects to survive and keep the project/company running. What is your way of generating profit/revenue? What is the income model?
AM:
Fantastic question Candy. We will be LPs in the pools, so as the transaction volume of swaps increases, we will earn quite a lot of fees as LPs.
This is actually different from other projects that raise a lot of $ and just coast on treasury. The only way we — Thorstarter — make money is if the transaction volume in our pools goes up. This makes us aligned with all other participants in the XRUNE public sale (who become LPs in the pool, too).
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