Shahaf:
Hello everyone, and welcome to COTI’s AMA.
I know some of you have recently joined COTI’s community (the group has grown by thousands of members in the last few days) so for those of you who don’t know me or the team yet, I’m Shahaf Bar-Geffen, COTI’s CEO.
Prior to COTI, I had an army career and then was the founder of WEB3 group and Positive Mobile (both were acquired).
COTI’s CTO is Dr. Nir Haloani, a math Phd and the author of 14 patents. He sold his previous company to IBM and was their Head Of Research. @nirhalo
Efrat Bar Lev is COTI’s VP Marketing and has worked with me in WEB3. @EfratBL
You all know @Oriane1877 of course!
I know you have a lot of questions. Allow me to lead from the front and address the hard questions head on.
In this AMA we’ll cover:
- Bridge and Native listing — what’s happening with the bridge, when do we list the Native COTI and how that solves it
- Roadmap for 2020 and the first quarter of 2021 — what is done, what’s not, what's planned
- COTI’s Seven Priorities — what are we working on and how it will benefit COTI
- Other questions that were submitted ahead of time
Bridge and native listing:
Q: Why is it taking so long to list the native?
I’ll begin by saying that we understand how important this is and want to assure you that a new Native listing is our TOP priority now.
As background information, listing an ERC20 token is a no-brainer and any exchange can do that in a matter of minutes. That was the case for 15 of our listings, Binance included.
It is however far more complicated to list a Native DAG on an exchange. The exchange needs to be able to run a COTI node as well as to integrate an API or SDK into our chain. As we take this seriously, we have essentially been building all possible ways for these to integrate into our network (API, SDK and an exchange app). It remains a challenge for exchange’s developers, as good as they may be, to understand DAG technology and how to integrate it. In fact, we needed to delay some of our MainNet planned developments to do a “code freeze” and allow them to integrate with what we currently have.
Additionally, exchanges (especially the big ones), have a particularly long average waiting time for new integrations, so we needed to push in order to get to the head of the line.
We’re very happy to say that we’re now on the top of the planned exchanges’s waiting list and have a dedicated team working with us.
The most updated status is that we have successfully completed all testnet integrations and have now moved on to the MainNet integration phase, which is the last phase. Once this phase is completed and tested, we’re pretty much good to go.
This process could take anywhere between a few days to a few weeks, depending on the success of the tests. These type of integration needs to be 100% error-free as we’re dealing with people’s funds. I’m optimistic that the tests will be successful.
And regardless of how long this takes, once it is here, it will definitely have been worth the wait. and… we have already started pursuing the next Native listing
When will you open the bridge?
The COTI Bridge opens and closes automatically according to flow and liquidity. At the current state of things, before we list the native COTI on a new exchange, the bridge is closed for Native to ERC20 conversion and works the other way around. It’s important to note that there are no technical malfunctions in the bridge anymore and that if it wasn’t due to liquidity, the bridge would have remained open. We did have a few issues, leading to transactions getting stuck a few weeks back, but those are fixed now.
Your wait is not due to tech issues, but to our work on solving liquidity issues with the Native COTI.
Opening the bridge periodically led to more stress and problems than solving the problem directly at its core. We’re 100% focused on adding Native liquidity, which is now right around the corner with a new native listing.
We believe that this new Native listing will solve all Native liquidity issues once and for all. In the meantime, if you wish to know whether the bridge is open or not, check this Telegram group: https://t.me/CotiTipsBridgeStatus
Q: Is it better to have Native or ERC20?
Right now, there are some advantages to ERC20, like high liquidity and cold storage, and some advantages to Native, like Staking and the use of the VIPER wallet.
Cold storage for Native is also on the horizon through Ledger and there is something really cool we’re working on right now (it’s a surprise) that will add more value to Native.
Either way, the question is only relevant right now because of the bridge limitations leading to price differences. Once we list COTI on a new native exchange and open the bridge, there will be full interoperability and no price difference. This means you’ll have all the advantages and won’t need to decide whether you prefer ERC20, Native or BEP20, as you can have them all!
I’ll finish up by explaining again why these limitations were set in place to begin with:
The increased demand by merchants and stakers for the Native $COTI on one hand and the growing trading volume on $COTI ERC20 on the other hand are both good yet conflicting. This situation creates technical challenges that lead to inconsistency of price between exchanges and overload on the Cross-Chain Bridge. Our plan for new native listings will lead to opening the bridge and for complete interoperability. This will mean that all of us will have all the upside from the fact that we have a great demand for our product AND great liquidity.
it leads to this:
Do you see the trajectory?
this is what we’ll all gain from it
Roadmap for 2020 and the first quarter of 2021 — what is done, what’s not, what’s the plan
Here’s a summary of what we have done:
In 2020:
- MultiDAG launch
- COTI Pay v1.0 VIPER wallet
- COTI-X launch
- Global Trust System (GTS) release for Bitcoin
- Expand our whitelabel merchant solutions: Blockchain Dollars (Market Junction), Ultra eWallet (Dafabet), Simply Wallet
- Partnership with Cardano, Simplex, Chainlink, Recruit, Celsius Network, MoonPay
- Foundation of Paywize — COTI’s credit card processing solution
- Staking 2.0 with 80M $COTI staked by the end of 2020 and 16 nodes
- Crypto Volatility Index (CVI) introduction — COTI’s Defi product
In Q1 2021:
- Begun building ADA Pay for Shelley Mainnet — watch this video to learn more about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJbMUHXmeOg&t=1s
- Bank accounts and Debit cards — became a design partner for Simplex to be the first to issue VISA cards.vWatch this interview to learn more about COTI credit card and bank account features: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKgcXLE_1Iw&t=700s
- Ultra eWallet 2.0 — https://cotinetwork.medium.com/ultra-ewallet-2-0-is-live-dd14f79eaf8c
- Working on the integration of the COTI’s MainNet into a major exchange
- Staking 3.0 debut — Staking 3.0 currently has 135M COTI locked in staking. Our Network’s growth allows us to expand our staking capacity while keeping the rewards high for all participants.
- Orion partnership
- Crypto Volatility Index (CVI) MainNet release
- Integration with Chainlink (CVI)
- Advanced view dashboard on CVI
- SushiSwap for ETH-COTI or ETH-GOVI pairs
- Trustwallet integration to CVI
- Payment Institution license in Singapore
- Support of $COTI ERC20 and $GOVI on the MyEtherWallet and MyCrypto popular token lists
- COTI BEP20 token Binance Smart Chain
- Buying COTI with Apple Pay
- COTI’s business has continued to grow, its processing volume increasing on a monthly basis, as top merchants like Dafabet, Soft Gamings, 10bet, Kindergroup, Unibet, and more now use COTI’s payment solutions. The processing volume growth exceeds even our best expectations.
- and, of course, Cardano invests in COTI — https://cotinetwork.medium.com/cfund-the-cardano-ecosystem-venture-fund-announces-its-first-vc-investment-in-coti-c3756be90165
I think we did quite a lot!
Q: Why were there delays in the roadmap?
We haven’t completed everything we wanted to achieve. We’re an ambitious company, but software development can introduce unforeseen challenges and huge partners, like VISA, can introduce delays of their own.
We present our Roadmap as a reference guide so you’ll know what we’re working on because we believe it’s more transparent than you not knowing what we’re working on.
Some CEOs prefer to just keep everyone in the dark and only update their community when they finally release. I understand their approach but have chosen to be more transparent and let you know what’s going on. Please don’t hold it against us as deadlines! Good development takes time and we always prefer a high quality product then a rushed release.
And I assure you, nothing will be missed. Hold tight.
Q: What’s the Priorities now? what are we working on now and what’s the added value for COTI
Meet COTI’s Seven — these are the top 7 things we’re working on with the highest priority:
1. Finishing the integration of COTI’s Mainnet on a new major exchange — this will solve all the mentioned issues and will allow us to open COTI’s bridge, once and for al
2. Launching ADA Pay for Shelley network — this is the first project we’re doing with Cardano, but definitely not the last. a world of possibilities has just opened up with Cardano, now that they have invested in us. Their ecosystem is vast and rapidly growing and there are many things we can do together that will add a lot of value to the COTI network.
3. Issuing the first Debit Cards and Bank accounts — We have all been waiting for it and it will complete COTI’s offering
4. COTI Pay for iOS — with that, we’re everywhere.
5. Ledger integration for Native $COTI — Cold storage for Native COTI!
6. Margin trading for CVI — leveraged trading will increase adoption of CVI and $GOVI
7. Layer2 solution for CVI — we’ll solve the ETH gas prices using the most advanced approach
We’ll complete all seven and add a lot of great value to COTI
I’m opening the chat now for questions and we’ll answer the ones that were submitted ahead of time too
Community:
Hi Shahaf and the team, you said that the bridge had no technical problem, how to explain that hundreds of transactions were blocked and had to be released manually and not decentralized and by monopolizing the community manager and the dev team. Will the problem be resolved?
Shahaf:
I have written that it had technical issues, but those are now fixed. It’s about liquidity now and Native listing solves that.
Community:
Can’t you solve the native coin problem by simply adding to the kucoin exchange that already has native coin, erc20. If it takes 15 minutes, it shouldn’t be a problem. The gap problem should then be solved very quickly because erc 20 will level up the native coin immediately. Then you would have one coin on two different chains on one exchange like now on binance erc20 and bep20.
Shahaf:
You are right that it may solve the price gap, but then it will suck away liquidity from Native, which means that we couldn’t operate the network, can’t support merchants, staking etc.
We have thought about that, of course, but it’s only a half solution. We want to solve the problem at its root.
Community:
Any news about Cardano and Nfts. How can coti help?
Shahaf:
yes, it’s in the video we have posted earlier
Community:
Will Cardano post any news about partnership between COTI and ADA?
Shahaf:
They already did and we’re in good touch with their team for further updates. Remember that it is in their best interest to do so, as they are now shareholders in COTI.
Community:
At what stage is applying the EMI license, and what is the probability of getting it in q2?
Shahaf:
We have already applied. Licenses takes time so I can’t predict. We have done what we can at this stage and now it’s the waiting game
Community:
Which countries will the bank account and cards be available in?
Shahaf:
Europe and Asia right away and ultimately it will have a global coverage. It would be one of the cards with the biggest coverage as Simplex is a principle member in VISA
Community:
Will $GOVI hit an exchange the same day COTI does?
Shahaf:
Not necessarily
Community:
Good afternoon, Shahaf, I remember that in an article you said that you would open the bridge to a limited number, did your plans change?
Shahaf:
It hasn’t changed. We’ll do that and you’ll be notified. No set date, yet.
Community:
Would love more details about cardano and coti a little vague??
Shahaf:
We can all anticipate that the full range and impact the Cardano’s investment in COTI will have on the COTI ecosystem will be revealed in the weeks, months and years to come. This is more than just a partnership. Cardano buying COTI’s shares is a full alignment of interests.
Community:
Please remove restrictions of minimum staking coti amount.
Shahaf:
Maybe in the future, not right now, I’m afraid. But this is why we offer exchange-based staking campaigns every now and then and we make sure the limitations there are pretty low.
Community:
Are the COTI’s Seven listed by priority?
Shahaf:
Pretty much so, yes.
Community:
If native listing takes longer than expected, would you consider still going this route and closing price gap until the listing?
Shahaf:
No, as we are already at the final stages. Laser-focused now.
Community:
@shahafbg Were there any conditions you can divulge that were applied to the cFund agreement — you mention they are shareholders — are COTI now exclusive to Cardano or can COTI maintain and explore other partnerships?
Shahaf:
We are free to work with whoever we please, that was always the case. For instance, we made BEP2Pay with binance https://medium.com/cotinetwork/coti-launches-a-coti-bep20-token-over-binance-smart-chain-and-lists-on-pancakeswap-5a779b1f707d?source=your_stories_page-------------------------------------
Community:
Do the 7 priorities have a deadline lets say by the end of Q2?
Shahaf:
No deadlines. This is just what we’re working on and will keep you all updated on progress.
Community:
That’s the news from COTI, but Cardano just ignore.
Efrat:
Cardano has posted and tweeted about our partnership in the past, and I believe they will do it in the future as well, so I don’t think we can say that they ignore.
Community:
Are you looking to onboard new mainnet nodes at the same rate as previous month’s? I think the guys on the testnet would appreciate this one as they are brilliant supporters using their own funds 👌
Shahaf:
yes. We have been very busy with Staking 3.0 and integrating MainNet to the exchange, but will get back to new nodes from the testnet community. We do acknowledge how awesome they are.
BTW, for those of you that don’t know it, @GeordieR was a Testnet operator with us before growing to Mainet
Community:
You skipped my paypal question, why is coti better then paypal that enter in crypto world? Many people belive paypal will be first option, what dontou say to them? Why they should invest better in coti? Thanks
Oriane:
A merchant would prefer COTI to his traditional solution because COTI gives him everything that he gets with his previous solution (like credit card processing) but adds some very important benefits like INSTANT payment, low transaction fees (sometimes 90% cheaper), DeFi based Savings account and global access to the underbanked.
When compared to a crypto processing solution, like BitPay, we offer a complete solution by allowing credit card processing, which is most of the merchant’s business and access to loans and savings. We are the only true universal solution out there.
Check out this image:
Community:
Hi Shahaf, I hope you are well. Can you please talk more about this post and how Coti holders will benefit from ADA Pay ?
https://twitter.com/shahafbg/status/1380484775312551936?s=21
Shahaf:
wow, Rufys, we have missed you here! I actually plan to post a personal medium article about it.
I think that people are not getting how big this is. Defiantly worth a dedicated article.
Community:
I think you’ve found a real niche and innovative use case with your work with major Gambling clients, (Dafabet Ultrawallet is massive) excited to see how your work with them develops and your work with future clients here there’s so much expansion opportunity.
Efrat:
You can read more here:
Community:
Is COTI considered centralised?
Oriane:
Semi-centralized
Community:
Do we have any idea on the Celcius integration and bank accounts in COTI, independent of credit cards?
Shahaf:
Hello Maurice, we have missed you too!
Celsius integration is underway. They have some big move of their own (follow them to see…) and we were focused on a few other tasks. Anyway, we are back to the table now and working on it. It’s not too complicated.
Regarding bank accounts, you are right in assuming that they can be separated to cards. I actually think that we can go live with that earlier. We’ll keep you posted.
Community:
Staking 3.0 is supposed to help the long waiting list, has it reduced?
Oriane:
It did, the queue keeps growing though.
Community:
@shahafbg To Keep the functionality of the Bridge a Minimum percentage of coti needs to be native. Therefore is the limitation in swapping COTIs from native to erc20. But why did you need this percentage of native COTIs? Don’t you so 0 Coti Transaction to Keep the functionality of the mainnet?
Shahaf:
Yes, you are referring to zero-spend transactions that are also critical. However, it won’t solve the actual COTI merchants will need as payload for the transactions, staking etc.
Community:
All the pics you have been sharing today must be constantly posted on socials media.
Shahaf:
so why don’t you do this?
Community:
Do you have a dedicated support to those who want to run a node? Last few days I read few guides from medium and been on discord, but each time data change, and seems we have to be over a year in testnet??? Also each time i send an email i have no reply, lucky with @VOvadenko that helped me with some of those issues. Doesn't help to have more nodes and expand?
Oriane:
The queue to become a MainNet node operator is pretty long and as you see we add nodes in the network gradually, so naturally, it takes time.
Community:
Ok, but there is no official guide and direct support for this, ia not like we are so many, i think you sjould have a person from team to manage the ones who want to run a node. So please let me know if i can have a live support for this. Thank you.
Oriane:
There is a guide, and we have a cool dev community on Discord who are helping each other. The dev team leader of COTI is also there if needed… not sure what you mean by there is no support
Community:
A suggestion for the next AMA — to have hosted on video-conferencing with questions submitted before and voted on — like ADA’s conferences ;)
Shahaf:
I tend to agree. we will do that, too.
Community:
hi @shahafbg. Do you have any development to make native coti integrations easier for future native coti listings? Simplicity should be another priority to reach mass people.
As we all know exchange listing is very important to increase visibility in the market. How will you clear the way for more native listings?
Shahaf:
because of this last integration, we have actually built all the possible ways and documentations for future listing. Should be easier next time, I hope
Shahaf:
I see that some of you ask about marketing. In fact, we are very active and all charts show that. We won’t spam and rather be more subtle in our approach. That has grown our numbers, from this group, to twitter followers etc (@EfratBL share some charts).
While we can always do better, I’d like you to consider another question “what have I, personally, done to make COTI successful?”. It seems like we all have the same interest, right? we are in the same boat, rowing towards the same direction.
We’ll continue to do the hard work, building products, securing partnerships and signing clients.
What can you do to help COTI grow and be recognized? A lot of it is up to you and the actions you take. Be involved and engaged, share our story, help us secure partnerships, suggest ideas and products etc. This is what community is all about and you will benefit from it
Community:
Taking what shahaf and that youtuber said the other day, we as a community should really be looking at the potential of coti and then approaching other real world companies to consider it or market to investors where possible
Shahaf:
by the way, the only reason I knew that was because an alert community member told me so, and now we have a planned interview, which is very good marketing. This is a great example of what the community can do
Community:
Good day sir.
If I may ask, if not already covered..
How can we begin to onboard our American brothers, also are there any regulatory compliances that need to be checked before COTI begins to venture deeper into the US?
Shahaf:
Hello brother!
Some of our services (like CVI) have no issues with the US brothers. Some, still do.
Our technology is easily utilized in the US, too.
We will need some more legal work done before we can venture to other areas like allowing US citizens to open a VIPER wallet and stake.
Community:
Awesome, super excited for the future of COTI and with the financial instruments being built for mass adoption of the tech I can only see this going beyond any of our wildest imaginations.
God bless you Shahaf and team, stay safe!
Community:
Thank you for this AMA guys it is really appreciated. I just want to say also that the admins in this group work extremely hard too, I am always impressed by how helpful and patient they are particularly when they get a lot of non-relevant queries here. Keep up the great work COTI community!
Community:
@shahafbg Thank you for a very well informed and professionally delivered AMA. Very impressive indeed.
Community:
Thanks For that AMA, trancparancy and honesty is really Importamt for a Strong Community👍👍👍
Oriane:
Thank you everyone for being with us for this AMA.
We will now slowly end this AMA and as always, we remain available here in the group for all your questions.
Stay tuned, as usual. And most importantly, STAY COTI
Stay COTI!
For all of our updates and to join the conversation, be sure to check out our channels:
Website: https://coti.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/COTInetwork
Telegram: https://t.me/COTInetwork
Github: https://github.com/coti-io
Discord: https://discord.me/coti
Technical whitepaper: https://coti.io/files/COTI-technical-whitepaper.pdf
