Think Network x Value Network ($VNTW) AMA
Uxb: How are you Artem? It’s been a super busy week for Value Network we truly appreciate your time coming here!
Artem: Thank you, guys. Yeah, crazy times but it’s pushing us to go faster and it’s important to talk with our early adopters so thanks for an invite.
Uxb: Our pleasure ahah! As an introduction could you explain what Value Network’s vision is and what products you currently offer or will offer in the future?
Artem: We make decentralized binary options — disrupting the usual binary options industry where it scams to the user are common. So the binary options were banned in many countries not because it’s a bad financial instrument but because scammers used it as their logo if I can say that. We’re going to change that.
But the roots of our project goes back to 2018 when we made an MVP similar to Ethlend, now AAVE. In general, I have 8 years in fintech, you can check my CV here: http://alevin.pro/cv-eng.
Uxb: That’s interesting for sure, do you happen to know an estimate of how big a market binary options are? And how much money is lost due to the ban of binary options in these countries?
Artem: From different sources, we get the info that the binary options market is 50–100 billion dollars yearly. It’s still a very exotic instrument so there’s not much data or info on that but also there are some professional exchanges like Nadex in the US.
BTW you can try their free account it’s really cool
I think that people still tend to use this instrument so if we are making it in the DeFi sphere, the demand will come.
Test our MVP here https://app.valuenetwork.live/
Uxb: Amazing numbers and definitely an untapped market! As a crypto trader and someone that has never traded options before, how would you describe the ease-of-use of your product? And could you give an example of how an average crypto person can benefit from using Value Network?
Artem: The thing is that either you lose it all or win pretty big gains from 5–7% to hundred %s. So if I bet 100$ for BTC to be higher than 100K in three month — you get the estimate on your current returns, depending on the market conditions.
Our smart contracts are now designed that winners get all the funds of losers, so if on the opposite side I had 50$, (a prediction that BTC will be lower) I get my 100$ + 50$ of the opponent.
Tons of strategies may be applied if nobody’s scamming you, my favourite is the martingale strategy, let me share our article on that:
Now the returns on your bet vary in time cause people can put more or less money on the opposite side of the bet. But sooner or later we gonna make fixed binary options like on Nadex, so your returns do not change with time. I hope that is clear. :)
Uxb: I’ll definitely have a read! Sounds interesting for sure! High-risk, high reward always sits well with the average crypto trader!
Artem: Yup. I’ve been through bear markets in crypto so sometimes you need some exotic strategies! This is also true for bull markets like we have now.
Uxb: That being said, are there any other options protocols doing binary options? What projects do you consider to be your biggest competitors and how do you plan to crush the competition?
Artem: Synthetix are making binary options and so is BIOP. But Synths seem to focus on too many things now — to my own opinion. BIOP is more focused and clear for an average user.
Uxb: Synthetix is indeed huge, if Value Network can improve on their weak points it’ll certainly be a success! And we are early. :)
Artem: I think the most interesting part will be when we gonna acquire non-crypto users through the search engine optimization. Our domain (blockchainbinaryoptions.com) is gonna serve that purpose.
Uxb: Awesome, I saw the teaser of the new website today and it looks very impressive!
Amazing progress has been made already in the project, which leads me to the next question, what will your big integration into the QTUM chain mean for your product/token on the Ethereum chain?
Artem: Yeah raw still but the process is going. Our strategy is to apply to multiple chains. So QTUM is next in the pipeline, though the MVP is ready on the test stand https://binary-option-test.netlify.app/. So nobody knows who is going to win this blockchain war, every chain has its own use cases.
Bridging to QTUM will also come with a listing on QiSwap — still in process with that.
Also, But we applied to Binance Hackathon Russia, which’s starting today and invited them to our meetup in Russia May 5th. Guys from plasma.finance, berezka dao, defipie.com, dao.vc and Crypterium will be there.
Uxb: That’s pretty cool! Great news for sure. Ethereum gas fees make it very inconvenient for building certain platforms, so it’s good to see you branching out to different more scalable chains. However, how are you going to mitigate some of the problems that come from being a multi-chain protocol such as arbitrage of the $VNTW token and difficulty in raising liquidity?
Artem: I believe that arbitrage is not so bad, normal practice for a developed financial markets
And the amounts of tokens that we’ll put on QTUM will not be so big
At the end of the day, I believe in fundamentals more than in anything else — product, customer acquisition retention rates and money at the end. If we connect it with a good tokenomics, things are going to explode.
We’ve been sitting on a dead flat for 1,5 months because we are a fair project without huge presales and stuff. But at the end of the day, themarket and some OG’s from here spotted us.
Uxb: And that’s why we love the project! Very hard to come into fair launch project with a great product, team and vision! Glad to be part of the journey!
Artem: Thank you, guys.
Uxb: Now for some more specific questions about the project.
Can you tell us about your plans for fiat on/off-ramp and what this will mean for your protocol?
Artem: this is a very interesting question. I’ve been using Binance without p2p exchange before and now use it with p2p exchange and it’s working smoother 3x when you can put your fiat money to it. We sitting here staring at news and charts, but most people on the planet still don’t know what BTC is.
So in the long-term, the user should deposit fiat — get crypto — trade. In 5 minutes.
Maybe some KYC required but I’ve been working with SumSub closely — there u can pass KYC in 2 minutes really.
Uxb: Amazing! Fiat ramp is huge and I have not seen any other options protocols do it. I will definitely check out SumSub, I’ve heard of Dharma, they let people buy Uniswap tokens directly from their bank account with I believe no KYC, which could make it a lot easier buying VNTW with fiat and integration could be easy.
Artem: I’ve been following Dharma since 2017. They’ve been silent for a long time and then boom.
Uxb: Very nice ahah!
Artem: Plasma.finance seem to work with the fiat gateways but I didn’t test myself.
Uxb: Interesting, hopefully, you’ll get to talk to them at your Binance meeting and update us with great news ahah.
Another technical question, what role will the ValueSwap (Uniswap fork) play in the Value Network ecosystem?
Artem: Ilya will be online but I call him every 2 weeks. Uniswap fork was an exercise to prove to ourselves and the community that we can make it first of all. The second thing is to be a platform for our tradeable bets.
So when you make a bet — receive a token — can trade it before the expiry.
So targets are 1000+ markets in 3–6 months, can’t imagine how many bets will be traded before expiry — I think a lot.
BTW our dev reported today that tradable bets are almost here.
Uxb: Oh very nice, so for example I bet that bitcoin is going to 100k in 3months, 2 months down the line I lose faith and it’s sitting at I don’t know 70k, so I can sell that bet in case someone wants to buy it off me?
Artem: Correct.
Also staking VNTW for the new market creation — user-generated markets is the next thing. We should make it done before AMA with QTUM on May 4th
Uxb: That’s really useful! And kinda leads me to another question, there are plans on the roadmap to use $VNTW to pay commission on the purchase/sale of options. What happens to the $VNTW used to pay for commission? E.g. does it go out of circulation or reward stakers?
Artem: Good question, we’ll connect VNTW in every way possible, including commissions, promotions of the markets, loan products. If your bet is liquid, why not loan it like an LP token.
I don’t know what’s gonna happen to commission cause we also have some business costs.
At the end of the day — good business — huge token.
Maybe one day or another we’ll come to protocol thinking, especially with these white-label ambitions, but at the moment Celsius looks more relevant to us. Met Alex in Singapore in early 2018, he made huge progress.
Artem: Don’t forget about staking. I even showed some OG’s from here our technical files to consult on staking economics.
Uxb: Yeah I love how you found amazing utility for the $VNTW token in every part of the ecosystem, which was something that I saw was lacking in other protocols. Really impressed by that.
Super excited for staking to go live. :)
Artem: May and June will be the months of the tokenomics I suppose. Eager to see this commission trades buying from DEXes.
Uxb: Another tokenomics question, on the roadmap there is a mention of a supply burn, do you know how big that will be yet?
Artem: We just listed on Coinmarketcap guys:
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/value-network/.
We are preparing the burn contract now. Not less than 3–5% of the supply will be burned in the next 3–6 months.
Uxb: We are running a bit over time so let's have a few last questions.
Do you have any projects or companies that you’d like to partner up with in the future?
Artem: We have a huge partnership with an upcoming Neobank — it’s in a stealth mode now. But as planned it will allow individuals and corporates to buy VNTW right from their account.
It will be on top of the DeFi dashboard that I’m cooking now also. As well as usual banking services like payment accounts, SWIFT/SEPA transfers, cards etc. They are closing a round right now and I’ve been working with them for 2 years.
Damn guys I really give you insights here lol
Uxb: Damn! That's huge! We love you for that!
Artem: Also talked to DeFiPie guys yesterday, most probably lending pool will be launched.
Uxb: We’ve noticed you released an article with Hackernoon, do you have any other articles planned with different media companies?
Artem: yup huge article in the top media starting on C is cooking now. Will be similar to Hackernoon one as I see. When I look at the market I understand that we need to spread the word on MAX.
Uxb: Very nice! We appreciate how much work you’re putting in for sure! Devoted founders like you are hard to find!
Artem: Thank you, guys.
Uxb: And for the last question, could you talk about accelerators in Europe you are planning on applying to?
Artem: We’re now establishing a firm in Latvia via a startup program and my managers are working to apply to different accelerators. We have a wall of questions as people think that binary options = scam and we need to talk to every person to tell it’s not.
Also, the call with the regulator from Malta will be tomorrow. We’ve applied to their sandbox.
My opinion is that 2010–2020 in binary options is a big shame for regulators worldwide. They will be willing to solve that and here we are.
Uxb: Amazing! Super exciting stuff to come and it’s moving so quickly it’s insane! From your answers marketing will have a double purpose to re-educate people about Binary Options and the regulatory agenda is in Value Network’s favour! Super early, and super excited to be part of this journey!
Artem: Yes. If I’m correct that’s a huge trend in the early beginning. I still remember how people looked at me in 2018. So I’ve already been there.
Uxb: It’s been a pleasure to have you here Artem! We will be side by side to see the project flourish! Feel free to come in here anytime, we will be over at Value Networks telegram quite a bit too!
Thank you for your time!
Artem: Sure guys my pleasure and thanks for support and invite
Polkahunter: Thank you for taking the time to discuss the project with us. We appreciate all the alpha you’ve given us today. We love your vision and we will continue to support the project
