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AMA Transcription and Translation 

Question 1 (stable coins) (Entered into CC)

 

2.31 The situation with stable coins is like this. We don’t have a need to issue some kind of separate stablecoins like USDT does. 

 

2.47 Because generally speaking all tokens inside the EON network are like stablecoins anyway.

 

2.53 For example, when the user deposits assets to a bank account, in our system, whether it is an exchange account or a chanels account, factually an issuance of tokens in an equal amount to the amount that was deposited takes place.

 

3.36 So, you deposited 100 EUR via a wire transfer, or SEPA or using acquiring from your banking card, and in your wallet you will have (minus a commision from our partners) a certain amount of EUR. So, this EUR are in essence tokens. There's just no reason to confuse the users by giving them a different name like EONEUR or JavaT for example.

 

3.40 Generally from the beginning our blockchain was being developed for utilitarian and applied tasks.

 

3.54 Thus there is no reason to add an additional abbreviation

Question 2 (How TS works and status)

 

4.23 regarding the product TEAMSHOP, it belongs to a family of Exscudo products and let's put it this way, we slightly distance it from the overall organization structure.

 

4.33 Because at one point we have already learned our lesson in terms of regulatory requirements to the companies that in one way  or the other declare in their business processes an economic model that uses blockchain or cryptocurrencies. This emploses several restrictions in terms of banking services.

 

4.53 Accordingly the company and the project TEAMSHOP will be using the EON blockchain.

 

5.00 Not obviously during the first stage, meaning that, bonus points and all payment solutions that are use, they will utilize the technologies of the Exscudo company. During the second stage, this integration will be happening... 

 

5.17 Let’s say, more apparently and we really hope that  the regulatory landscape in the world in general will in one way or another more clear.

 

5.24 More friendly towards companies  that are in essence solve problems of financial restrictions that exist today. 

 

5.40 Regarding the status, the first integration of this project from the technical standpoint is completed. We are at the final stage. This means registration of the corporate entity.

 

5.51 But with the restrictions imposed with the coronavirus situation worldwide the process had to be paused. So during the first 2, maximum 3 weeks after the quarantine or the self isolation, depending on how it’s named is over ....

 

6.05 The project is going to launch. However, even now it is possible to participate in various activities in social media and  keep in track of the project.

 

6.15. A lot of work is being done on the project. There is a dedicated team working on TEAMSHOP.

 

6.26 And that’s about it :).

 

Question 3 (how competitive is the exchange)

 

6.50 This is actually a great question!

 

6.53 From one side it’s topical, from the other it advances, not even advances, rather anticipates the actions that we are carrying through at the moment.

 

7.07 I will divide my answer into two parts. The first part is about how competitive we are. In terms of the technical side of things, the architecture of the exchange... 

 

7.22 I think, meets not just some unacknowledged, informal standards of the crypto space, we meet, generally speaking, international standards. How the deposit system is designed, How the our technical support team works, the speed of our core, speed of closing the deals and so on.

 

7.44 But in this process there is also a business approach that reflects the presence or the lack of presence of two things. The user base and liquidity. 

 

7.58 We should be realistic, at the current moment we cannot compete with the monster platforms or the leading exchange platform.

 

8.09 Now we slowly approach the second part… Of the answer.

 

8.16 There is a little folk wisdom, if you can not conquer, then lead.

 

8.21 Thus, we doing a little pivot in this direction, and from now on not going to try to present and position the Exscudo exchange simply as a standalone project or a standalone platform.

 

8.42 this is preliminary schedule but before June or mid July we are presenting a brokerage system.

 

8.48 Considering that from the start we had planned that we would have the exchange functionality for advanced users and we will automatically (can’t make out)

 

8.56 Together with the actual exchange we were developing a brokerage system 

 

9.00 That’s why, to the fore, opening the veil of our plans, we will present and prioritize a Multibrocker platform that will allow to trade on multiple exchanges from a single account. Today we have already connected 3 exchanges and we are currently conducting testing.

 

9.20 I hope that during first months of summer we will complete testing. 

 

9.22 And will allow users to, having completed the KYC just once and having just a single deposit, to trade on many different platforms.

 

9.31 And if this format finds a response among the users, it will be valuable and interesting...  It will have complete functionally of margin trading as well as normal swap trading, with a diverse functionality of order types extended toolset for trading analytics...

 

9.49 Then the number of connected platforms will be growing and we will give the users the ability to trade not just on 3 platforms, but on 50 or however many need be.

 

9.59. However, the actual Exscudo trading platform is not going anywhere

 

10.03 It will be one of the exchanges connected to the brokerage system. To summarize, this summer, our users and new users will gain the ability to trade on different platforms having to do just 1 KYC procedure. 

 

10.26 And in case if they will have large deposits,  according the legislation of the European union, they will have to do the AML procedure just once as well.

 

Question 4 (basket of cryptocurrencies)

 

10.57 very interesting question actually.

 

11.04 from the technical standpoint is is not a problem to launch this kind of functionality within our ecosystem, again, how the experience showed, the technical aspects of project development have been closing quit fast since since the second part of 2018. Today we push out 3 or 4 releases per week.

 

11.28 This is as far as the mobile app and the exchange are concerned.

 

11.36 But there is a need to conduct research from the point of view of the validity of such a solution on the market. And we have this planned.

 

12.06 Really… The project and tasks concerning debit cards is one of our pain points.

 

12.16 we had an emphasis on the applied use of this technology, so that, let’s say it wouldn’t be a “spherical horse in vacuum”.

 

12.24 So there would be a real way to use the solutions and use cryptocurrencies in everyday life. Unfortunately the reality is so that issuing a more or less acceptable сardl for spending in cryptocurrency… 

 

12.43 With normal, acceptable costs for the user is not possible yet. Despite the fact that we have conducted tens of negotiations, even completed PCI DSS and mastercard certification.

 

12.57 Let’s put it this way, currently we have ideas. Different ways how we are going to solve this issue.

 

13.05 Regarding the card functionality. We already have the tech. We have tested it with some potential partners.

 

13.13 Unfortunately they stopped working, some lost license, some just got scared of the word cryptocurrency in our field. 

 

13.26 So, this is how cards work technically We issue, imitate  a named cared for the user of our system, it connects to channels... By the way, in a new release we will already release the functions to support NFC payments.. 

 

13.42 As part of the actual Channels app and acquiring some fiat account connects to the card. Why I say “some”, because in some cases, depending on our partner who will be our provider and the issuer of the cards, it may be EUR or RUB, or Pesso and so on. So Depending on the location of our work, some fiat account is connected.

 

14.10 The cards gets connected to the Channels app and the moment when the user wants to either top up the card, or spend the money, buy Coffee at a Starbucks for example… make a spending transaction... For a short period of time we credit the user from our own assets. 

 

14.34 Simonentiasly, we write off the amount equal to the spending transaction from the user's cryptocurrency account and convert it on the exchange.

 

14.43 This is how we sort of close that mini-credit that we issued the user for his spending transaction. 

 

14.52 Thus, from any of his or her cryptocurrency accounts, the amount equal to the amount spent is being withdrawn. 

 

15.01 And to make it so that merchant does not have to wait for the funds to be accredited, we use our own pool to credit the user 

 

15.12 And this, our internal kitchen, as we say, takes no more than one day. Thus, the user won’t see any difference between using a normal card and the card that we are going to offer.

 

15.27 How much it's going to cost. In reality, all services that we offer today as part of fiat accounting, be it SEPA or acquiring...

 

15.40 ...From our side they are provided commission-free. This means that we give these services at cost price, at a price that our partners provide to us.

 

15.49 That’s why I don’t think that it has to cost substantial amounts of money and hope that we will be able to negotiate within 2.5% of one spending transaction.

 

Question 5 (easy master node setup)

 

15.26 yes, this is a good question, also.

 

16.32 The situation is the following. We are currently in the process of finishing testing of the EON 2.0 protocol. The documentation for it will come out in May or June I think.

 

16.46 This is a new protocol of block confirmation based on  (can’t make out)

 

16.54 So, why the node installation process is as it is now. From one side this is a natural reason that does not allow us to spend additional resources on a so called user-friendly interface. 

 

17.14 So that users that connect to us will have a sufficient skill of working with software.

 

17.18 Thus, they understand the protocols and understand the risk factors, so that we don’t get a situation where the user just downloads the 

 

17.26 executable, install, forget basic security measures of the server or the node, then a hacker attack or a glitch happens and the user loses the deposit .

 

17.40 So it’s a natural filtration system based on the skill level. 

 

17.46 But in the future, I think this year, I think we will be uploading precombiled solutions on Github that will allow users

 

17.58 to install the node quite simply. We are going to prepare quite comprehensive instructions on how to conduct the installation process of the node.

 

18.13 which benefits and profit the user of your own node gives. Because today our networks is aimed more at hardcore users.

 

question 6 (multiple in one, exchange UI, staking)

 

18.52 partly I have already answered this question while talking about competing with other exchanges.

 

19.02 The web cabinet of Exscudo interface is already being reworked, it is redesigned and it’s in the process of being built. 

 

19.14 It will be changed in terms of UX/UI, from the point of view of regular users, those who don’t have a lot of expertise in trading

 

19.28 Both in the field of cryptocurrency and in general 

 

19.32 As far as the listing, if I understood the question correctly, then it is simple addition of new currencies to the exchange.

 

19.45 we have a voting mechanism, everything is quite simple the way I see it. If you have any suggestions, everybody is always welcome 

 

19.54 About staking, in the nearest future we are not planning to launch this tool, it is economically pointless, there is no point in taking human resource and distracting from the development of product solutions that are currently in the works to develop staking. 

 

20.12 I communicate quite a lot with companies that are on this market trying to promote their solutions and not a single project told me that they covered even operational costs

 

20.22 to sustain this service. That’s why at this point, at least the current year I don’t see any perspective in the staking field. 

 

20.33 However, so called lending,  loan instruments for margin trading is already tested and launched. So called Lightning micro-marking is already there, among other within the Channels app.

 

20.46 Users with low experience will be able to use Channels to place a loan, short or long term for traders that trade on the exchange using switch.

 

question 7 (are we lagging behind crypto space)

 

23.35 Let’s look at the situation objectively. Saying that we are lagging behind the crypto space is not entirely correct. 

 

23.48 We have not taken a leading position, yes, but in any race the winner is often not the fastest but one with most endurance. 

 

23.58 The fact that after quite a long time haven’t stopped working on the project, furthermore, 

 

24.04 We are continuing active work on the products and in our markets...

 

24.12 This is not an easy task, we should acknowledge. Especially during the current conditions.

 

24.18 Again, I try to view the situation objectively, and this shows that the project is not going anywhere

 

24.29 The hype wave, we have gone through the hype that was in 2017, uncovered a lot of issues, got a lot of priceless experience.

 

24.40 But we are here, we are working, we have solutions and understanding of where to take the project and what the users need.

 

24.47 So, this last two and a half years of active development and communication with regulators, with lawyers and our community…

 

24.57 They gave us an overview of the market and the understanding of which direction the project should take. Thus, we now know what can be interesting in the short term, what is more interesting in the near future.

 

25.07 If we were to rewind the time, look at our Whitepaper, look at what we declared, promised and how we saw the future of the financial and economical processes...

 

25.22 Look at the situation today.

 

25.26 I am not a professor of economics but…

 

25.29 Let’s put it this way, my economical education that come from the experience allows to understand and give an assessment of the current global situation.

 

25.38 Today there are two large factors. Unfortunately I have to reference the political landscape in the world.

 

25.48 So two big factors. The first is a critical lack of trust towards the banking sector. Unfortunately this year the whole world will see that banks are in fact not those providers of stability that they have named themselves. 

 

26.02 The second factor is the decline of trust towards national currencies.

 

26.07. This is a separate topic for a large book. I am periodically publishing a series of articles for our blog about the nature of money and financial relations in general.

 

26.18 It’s about how the financial system today is designed and what transformation is needed and what we already offer today. 

 

26.26 This is the answer to our critics.

 

26.30 There is a thing like private money. Private money is not something that.. The three or four of us took and agreed 

 

26.43 that, say, a tulip (reference to Holland) is a means of payment. And a means of  evaluation of value.

 

26.55 No, today everything is much simpler. There is math, there is internet, there is centralization that allows to conduct calculation and deals without intermediaries. 

 

27.05 We know that this exactly the reason why everybody believed in blockchain 

 

27.21Thus, today our developed solution in my opinion our future steps that we do every month will be more simple and convenient.

 

27.27 Despite the harsh constraints that were imposed on us by the regulators of the EU, we will allow users to have their private, their own money.

 

27.42 Money that neither the government, nor governments can touch. There won’t be a risk of mistake by clerk or a banking employe.. 

 

27.50 So that the money accidently gets written off or the account gets blocked for no reason.

 

27.57 So everything that you have stored in Channels is your deposit and yours only. This is your money and even we don’t have access to these assets.

 

Question 8 (about the relationship with Claurs)

 

28.26 As of today, Clarus is the main contractor of the Exscudo company.

 

28.33 Most of the development is done by the Clarus company. The model is actually quite simple. Exscudo is client, Clarus is the contractor. 

 

28.44 Why we went down this route. There are multiple reasons for this.

 

28.51 The first reason is that the working experience of Clarus was already there, the staff was there.

 

28.56 We didn’t need to build a completely new team to work on the Exscudo tasks.

 

29.09 The second reason is, of course, that of economics. If we were to take an average salary of the developer in Europe vs in Russia…

 

29.16 Well, let’s put it this way. It’s night and day in terms of budget.

 

29.25 So, funds that we collected during the ICO, if we were to look at some other projects it was a relatively modest amount, considering the scope of development that we have today.

 

29.33 Even if we were to very roughly look at the number of code lines that were already written as of today, I think the sheer amount of work is on the level of projects that collected 80-100 million USD in fiat equivalent.

 

29.49 That’s why, the choice to go down this route as of today is completely justified. 

 

30.00 Let’s say this is one of those decisions that I have never regretted.

 

question 9 (future of the project and what you see for the year)

 

30.32 I will try to answer quite comprehensively.

 

30.35 So that there won’t be any additional questions about it. Let’s take a look at what Exscudo is.

 

30.43 Exscudo is an ecosystem.

 

30.47 It’s quite a closed architecture,

 

30.51 But with open protocols for interaction with it.

 

30.59 So that we can have access to financial markets, process payments and satisfy the particular needs of market participants in repayment of obligations among themselves.

 

31.07 As of today we have a standard financial story.

 

31.17 This is when there is a so called processing center, VISA/Mastercard.

 

31.21 There are partner banks who have their own intermediaries in the form of payment systems that work with them.

 

31.29 All this creates a chain of fees. In the end, between the seller and the buyer there is an extra comission.

 

31.39 LIke before, two and a half years ago we stated that almost 20% of the global GDP is trapped in bank commissions 

 

31.47 So without making any useful goods or services they take almost 20% of the worldwide GDP.

 

31.56 We tried, and I think that tried successfully within our Ecosystem, to remote these costs and give users the ability to work without extra commissions. 

 

32.08 Basically work directly. We provide a platform that guarantees the delivery of goods or services or the completion of payment for these goods or services within our ecosystem.

 

32.23 Of course, it is important to understand that we cannot guarantee, say, the delivery of milk from the farmer John, to the buyer or the shop...

 

32.30 Because we don’t have that physical milk in our system. But in terms of digital goods and services our platform allows to cover this need.

 

32.43 The build up over this system is actually TEAMSHOP. TEAMSHOP is, let me make kind of a big statement, it’s a new interpretation of Amazon or (can’t make out)

 

33.03 This app allows selling goods and services with an agent promotion model. 

 

33.10 Thus there is no need to invest huge amounts of money, that retailers today invest into marketing, spending tens of millions of dollars a month.

 

33.20 For example on context marketing. But at the same time users and clients of the app will get the best price for those goods and services.

 

33.29 And the other side, while acting as Agents can make money with this app without leaving their home. 

 

33.38 You find a supplier for the goods or a service, he passed accreditation, we add him as an accredited seller in the app.

 

33.47 You get a percentage of their revenue. 

 

33.52 Agents accommodate a so called group purchase for retailers and receive their commission for it.

 

33.59 They get a commission for connecting sellers and in essence this is a platform that connects one side with the other one and plays a role of some kind of buffer that controls…

 

34.14 The mutual relations. Rather, it does not control but accommodates the adherence to the rules between multiple parties. 

 

34.22 Additional, keeping in mind the current restrictions, we have a little internal roadmap that covers how we are going to carry out the Exscudo and particularly EON integration with TEAMSHOP.

 

34.32 During the first stage, the EON blockchain will be responsible for the accounting of the Bonus points.

 

34.42 Because we have already implemented bonus programs that, put it this way, work in a couple of clicks. For a while we just didn't have partners to whom we could offer this solution and who could utilize it in their projects.

 

35.01 So we will use our own platform to show how effective it can be and how profitable it can be for all sides.

 

question 10 (speaking with the community directly)

 

35.35 This is not a problem from any point of view actually. We can keep up the same format.

 

35.40 For example, once in a chosen period, it can be a month or couple of months, we collect a group of questions that I from my side prepare and give answers to.

 

35.57 This is from one side. From the other side we release information about our achievements, sometimes in the form of press releases or newsletters that inform users about the latest updates and implementations.

 

36.15 As well as our direction as part of Exscudo. 

 

36.22 Moreover, I would like to address the community to be more open and uninhibited. If you have any suggestions or ideas, or maybe partnership possibilities.

 

36.34 We are currently at a stage when the project has passed the technical expertise, we know exactly how all mechanisms work within our project.

 

36.44 We know how to answer most technical, regulatory, business and marketing challenges and we are moving ahead quite quickly. 

 

36.53 Thus we can quickly evaluate any idea. Our company is not huge, but we also can’t call it small.

 

37.03 We have around 80 employes working  in our office. And over 100 people are working on the Exscudo project. From 110 to 115 professionals who work just on the Exscudo project full time. 

 

37.17 But this is a drop in the ocean, meaning that we can not can't cover the entire information field, we can’t possible know everything about projects that are just emerging on the market, that may require integration or help.

 

37.34 Particularly, right now we are working on 3 projects that will be integrated into Exscudo and will be working in different countries using our algorithms. 

 

37.44 Using our mechanisms and services.

 

37.50 At launch, naturally we will give more information and issue a press release that will cover the details, like which services these are. At this point it's a bit of a trade secret.

 

37.59 And let’s not forget that as part of the EON blockchain we have implemented the five handshake rule. This means that in theory everybody knows any person the world through 5 handshakes. 

 

38.13 Considering our community I think it won’t be a problem to cover the whole world, so please, be more open and I always welcome objective criticism towards the project, towards some of our decisions.

 

38.29 And I am always happy to review any suggestions about the improvement of the service. Up to the point where there could be some new progress possibilities where maybe we could benefit each other.

 

After the questions, addition from Andrew

 

38.53 I would really like to know if the community shares my ideas and my forecast in terms of the progress and development direction..

 

39.09 Concerning the questions of trust towards the banking sector, how the governments of different countries solves the critical question that arise from the current situation.

 

39.28 Because from my personal beliefs the Coronavirus and the whole story with the pandemic is just an attempt.

 

39.35 An attempt to take some kind of timeout, a breather of sorts to solve the really big problems in the world economy.

 

39.43 Because the economic crisis that is unfolding today as the second layer in mass media that is being meticulously hidden…

 

39.54 It (statters)

 

40.00 Financial crisis in Greece, Cyprus and we remember how it affected both the rates of cryptocurrency and on education of people in the field of so called new money.

 

40.12  Because, today on every corner analytics and skeptics who in one way or the other have thought about crypto, Bitcoin in particular, quite skepticaly.

 

40.20 Today even conservative specialists see Bitcoin and cryptocurrency as a cure-all and a new format of monetary relations in the world. 

 

40.30 As far as our plans go, and what awaits us. I really hope and despite the current situation I am quite optimistic about our project and about the place that it is going to take in the new format of economic processes.

 

41.00 I know our weak points and, and I will state right away that from the standpoint of education of how certain mechanisms work. 

 

41.12 Let’s just remember the situation 20 years ago and look at the distribution of debit and credit cards in the world. We remember how people used to go shopping with cash and payed for their purchases with physical banknotes.

 

41.28 And when they were offered an alternative in the form of cards and some banks even gave out incentives, gave information on how cards worked.. This whole procedure multiple decades.

 

41.38 So when VISA and Mastercard companies were registered and what they’ve achieved today? How much time had to pass between now and then. In essence we are going through the same process right now.

 

41.48 But our timeframe is shorter. And of course I think that we need to work more with users, telling the audience, about the new processes and educating them about the new processes.

 

42.03 What blockchain actually is, not in geek language but in everyday terminology. So that users will start understanding. Because today everyone uses cell phones, internet, debit cards.

 

42.13 Most people just don’t even think about how it all works under the hood. They don’t think that when they pay 100 USD for something in the shop won’t get 100 USD but just a percentage.

 

42.26 The shop’s bank will charge a share for acquiring, banks who service their merchant service will charge a share.

 

42.35 The more people will know, the stronger our project will become. The stronger we will become. No wonder they say that knowledge is power.

 

42.45 That’s why we will try (and our resources currently allow for this) to spend, not quite less time on development but focus more on education.

 

43.03 The education of our audience, so that we can create materials that will explain certain cases. You can already look at our blog, our social media and how we share information about TEAMSHOP for example.

 

43.19 And I made some small changes in the marketing team because until this year, our marketing was so to speak at an embryo state. 

 

43.33 Because the policy before 2020 was the following. We made a mistake with the timeframe that we announced, not always were we able to meet the deadlines, and sometimes we were not at fault.

 

43.42 We preferred to do something first and only then release information about it. But now we can predict the result, we divided our activities into sprints.

 

43.57 And we know when releases are going to come out and we have minimized the risks from third parties. 

 

44.05 Risks that we met during the years 2017-2018, due to the regulatory changes.