Earlier, we held a DJED on BNB AMA with Chainport’s and Thena’s teams, along with Alex Panasenko, COTI’s Director of Product Management.
The AMA took place on the COTI official Telegram group. If you weren’t able to join, here is the full recap:
Natalie:
Hey everyone, thank you for joining us today for our special Djed on BNB Chain AMA! My name is Natalie, COTI’s Marketing Manager, and I will be your host today.
Joining me today are Bill, Chainport’s Director of Engineering & Product and Julian, Chainport’s Marketing manager, Theonysus, Thena’s Co-founder & BD Manager and Alex Panasenko, COTI’s Director of Product Management. Welcome guys!
Natalie:
The AMA will consist of two parts: in the first part we’ll ask pre-submitted questions and in the second part, we will open the conversation up to everyone.
The chat will be muted for the first part. So without further adieu, let’s begin.
Let’s start with a quick introduction, we will start with Julian and Bill from Chainport. Please tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into crypto.
Julian:
Hi I’m Julian, ChainPort’s marketing manager. I got into crypto around 4 years ago and started working for Dcentralab (ChainPort’s parent company) about a year and a half ago.
I have been recently assigned to manage ChainPort’s marketing, and we are on a mission to help projects go cross-chain and to support the most relevant stablecoins & networks, to become the go-to bridge for most crypto users
Bill:
I’m Bill, Chainport’s director of engineering. I got into crypto three years ago after participating in an EthGlobal hackathon. After participating, I decided I wanted to pivot my career from web2 development to web3.
At Chainport, I am responsible for architecting/building new bridge features and security mechanisms. Our engineering team is focused on building the most secure and most user friendly bridge in the industry.
Natalie:
Thanks for the intro! Let’s move on to @Theonysus, from Thena. How did you get into crypto?
Theonysus:
I got into crypto in 2020. At that time I was working for an investment bank after having finished my master’s degree in Economics and Finance. It was the perfect set-up to fall into the DeFi rabbit hole. I wanted to be part of this technology revolution that was adapting traditional banking tools to a numeric industry characterized by innovative governance models, a greater transparency and a permissionless accessibility to the yield opportunities.
At THENA, I’m one Co-Founders and I’m handling the Business Development and Relationship management of the platform.
Natalie:
Thanks for that! So Bill and Julian, tell us a bit about Chainport, what problems it was meant to solve?
Julian:
Unfortunately, bridges are often exploited in the world of blockchain. So, at ChainPort, we’ve placed security first.
ChainPort is the only bridge that uses fund segregation, with ~95% of all funds in MPC and multi-sig wallets leaving only 5% in the hot contract. By doing so, risks are reduced to an absolute minimum.
Since our launch 2 years ago, we have made some progress!. ChainPort supports 15 blockchains (major EVMs + Cardano), we’ve had more than 76K ports, representing a volume over $600M, and we currently have a TVL over $125M.
ChainPort is one of the projects of the DcentraLab ecosystem. Other projects include Hord, an LSDfi platform for Ethereum staking, TokensFarm, a farm as a service provider, DcentraLab Diligence a smart contract auditor and web3 security consultant and Web3index, which is currently under development, which is an index of the entire Web3 space including protocols, consultants and investors.
Natalie:
That’s a great answer. How about @Theonysus, can you tell us why Thena was created?
Theonysus:
THENA has been designed to address the issues of liquidity and yield generation in the BNB chain. We do so by providing :
1- Modular infrastructure that optimizes token swaps. THENA offers a wide range of pools that corner any needs, including : stable pool, Univ2 pool and Concentrated liquidity pools.
2- Yield generation opportunities : THENA can be leveraged by liquidity providers to farm some yield out of their holding positions, or by any other investors through veTHE, our governance token that gives access to the revenue generated by THENA
3- Flexible and capital efficient way for any protocol to scale their liquidity : Our “ve(3,3)” tokenomics structure allows our partners to tap into our emissions at a profit, on a weekly basis and in a fully decentralized manner.
Natalie:
Thanks! Now that we’ve met our guests, for those who don’t know Alex, our Director of Product Management, please introduce yourself.
Alex:
Hi Everyone, My name is Alex and I have been working in the IT industry for more than 10 years now. I come from an extensive corporate background related to Fintech solutions.
I joined COTI about 2 years ago and since then I had the opportunity to work on a variety of existing products related with COTI’s L1 solution, and of course on releasing DJED on the Cardano chain and I’m super excited that it is now also available on the BNB chain.
Natalie:
Thank you Alex. Could you tell us a bit about Djed and its mechanism?
Alex:
For those who don’t know, DJED is an overcollateralized stablecoin that uses exogenous collateral (ADA) to ensure stability. The protocol’s overcollateralization is guaranteed by its reserve coin, SHEN.
In recent market events DJED was battle-tested against extreme volatility. Throughout several events where some stablecoins lost their peg, DJED’s protocol worked exactly as designed and DJED kept its peg.
The recent events have created new opportunities for current and future SHEN holders, such as low cost minting, increased share of fees and delegation rewards and also, as the price of ADA and SHEN are correlated, SHEN represents an opportunity for those long on ADA to be rewarded when the market recovers.
Natalie:
Thank you Alex. Now we are going to move to the community pre-submitted questions. Let’s start with Alex. Could you tell us what are the benefits of DJED being multichain?
Alex:
Great question!
Expanding to other chains will greatly increase the potential user base of DJED. As a result, the growth of the stablecoin will attract higher rewards for SHEN holders while $COTI Treasury participants will benefit from higher operational fees.
So, these are the main benefits:
Expanded Market Reach: By bridging to multiple chains, DJED can tap into different ecosystems and reach a wider audience of users. This increases its potential user base and adoption, as it becomes accessible to individuals who prefer operating on BNB.
User Choice and Flexibility: By being available on multiple chains, DJED provides users with the flexibility to choose the blockchain that aligns with their preferences, convenience, or specific requirements.
Incentives: There are numerous dApps, such as Thena, that operate across multiple chains. This allows users to receive incentives from applications that are not exclusive to Cardano. Consequently, users can be incentivized and rewarded on other chains as well.
Natalie:
Thank you Alex. This next question is for Thena’s team. How can users benefit from DJED being on your platform?
Theonysus:
$DJED holders can generate a passive source of income by providing some liquidity in the DJED/USDC pool (currently ~30% APR).
In addition, users can utilize THENA to buy or sell $DJED against any other tokens listed in our platform.
Natalie:
That sounds great. Let’s move on to the next question, this one is for Chainport’s team: How can Djed be used on Chainport?
Bill:
DJED holders can use ChainPort to safely bridge their tokens from Cardano to BNB and vice-versa.
The process is quick and easy. Token holders just connect their Cardano wallet and paste their BNB address, select the Cardano & BNB as the chains, choose DJED as the token and confirm the Tx. The bridging process usually takes a few minutes.
The process is secure, fast, and cheap. Bridging costs a 0.3% fee or a 0.2% fee if you pay in PORTX tokens.
In order to pay fees in PORTX you need to stake your PORTX tokens. Fees will automatically be discounted from your staked amount and, while staking, you’ll receive staking rewards
Natalie:
Thanks. The next question is for Alex. Please tell us, how did DJED’s protocol prove its resilience through different market events we’ve seen recently?
Alex:
During the past few months, the crypto world saw significant events that have posed considerable challenges to the pegging of stablecoins. During this time, DJED’s protocol performed as intended, ensuring that its value remained stable throughout the market volatility.
While the market price of stablecoins can fluctuate on DEXs and CEXs due to demand, supply, liquidity, and market conditions, at all times, DJED holders could burn their DJED and redeem it for $1 worth of ADA on djed.xyz. This success can be attributed to the effectiveness of DJED’s protocol, which played a crucial role in preserving its peg and keeping it overcollateralized.
Natalie:
Thank you Alex. The next question is for Chainport’s team. Are you able to tell us how much DJED has been ported over to the Binance chain since the feature was activated?
Julian:
Of course! A total of 111,509 DJED tokens were ported to BNB. This can be viewed anytime on our website, and you can check it for any token, including DJED. You just need to go to the “Explore” section on our website and type “DJED” or any other token.
Also, transparency is important to us at ChainPort, and we’ve even added a proof-of-reserves page showing our vaults and minters work a 1:1 ratio at all times. You can check it out at our transparency page, which you’ll find on the ChainPort website: https://app.chainport.io/explore & https://www.chainport.io/transparency
Natalie:
Thanks for sharing that info. Let’s move on to the next question for Thena’s team: Are there any exciting new features in your development roadmap that could include Djed?
Theonysus:
Soon, users will be able to take part in decentralized trading competitions around any type of tokens including $DJED, to boost the community engagement.
This Social Hub will be called CORE. Users will be able to mint “.THENA” unique domain names and start interacting with other users in a unique way. CORE will include many other features that are seeking to gamify the user experience in THENA. It will be available in the coming 1 or 2 months, so stay tuned ! 👀
Natalie:
Great answer. The next one is for Alex:
Please detail the various fees and ways locked COTI holders can expect to benefit from this relationship this year.
Alex:
As DJED expands its venue portfolio we anticipate a natural rise in the demand for DJED and SHEN. As a result of the rise in demand there will be more mint\burn actions taking place that generate operational fees, and this will greatly benefit SHEN holders and COTI Treasury participants.
Natalie:
Let’s move on to another question for Chainport’s team. Can you explain how porting coins across chains actually works?
Bill:
Chainport supports several different bridging mechanisms. With DJED, we’re using a “lock and mint” method. Users coming from Cardano will deposit their native DJED cardano tokens on our bridge. After 20 block confirmations the equivalent amount of tokens are minted on BNB and transferred to the user.
Users wanting to return to Cardano from BNB will simply execute a bridge transaction on BNB. The transaction will burn the BNB version of the DJED token. Once enough block confirmations have passed the Chainport bridge will then release the equivalent amount of native cardano DJED tokens to the user.
Separately, we also have a mechanism called the “bridge monitor” that constantly ensures that the amount of DJED tokens minted on BNB is always 1:1 with the DJED tokens deposited on Cardano. If any discrepancy were to occur, there is an automated mechanism to halt the bridge.
We also store 95% of native Cardano DJED liquidity in cold storage multi sigs, further increasing bridge security.
Natalie:
Great explanation, thank you.
The next question is for Alex: Will the ability to swap between various stablecoins be made available at djed.xyz so as to eliminate friction and avoid confusion on the part of those wishing to do so while on djed.xyz? If not, why not? If so, how soon?
Alex:
Probably not, djed.xyz is the platform to mint and burn DJED, and not a DEX. In order to allow swaps of tokens from all sorts of chains, we will need to hold liquidity for all kinds of tokens, and that is not our focus. DJED is listed on top DEXs on Cardano and as DJED becomes more widely adopted there will be a lot of venues where you can acquire or swap DJED.
Natalie:
We have 1 more pre submitted question, and then we will open the chat for community questions. This one is for Chainport’s team: How do you ensure that the bridge is secured?
Julian:
ChainPort ensures the security of its bridge through fund segregation, keeping ~95% in rebalancing and treasury vaults.
Multi-sig cold wallets provided by Gnosis Safe add an extra security, requiring approval from the ChainPort Congress for transactions. The platform also employs Fireblocks’ MPC encryption, protecting assets from cyber-attacks, internal collusion, and human error.
ChainPort also conducts regular audits of its smart contracts by reputable firms like CertiK, CyberUnit and Trail of Bits.
These audits thoroughly assess potential vulnerabilities. The combination ensures the highest level of security for ChainPort’s bridge: https://www.chainport.io/security
Natalie:
Thanks guys! Now let’s open the chat for some live questions. Once there are many questions we will mute the chat again to give the team time to answer. Let’s go! 🔥
2023:
Question to the ChainPort team: Are you planning to list on new exchanges? Now you are only on the Gate 😔
Julian:
We will definitely be listed on more exchanges in the near future, although this is not a top priority right now. Our biggest priority at the moment is to build new features, expand the product and to bring as much utility as possible to our users. This will have a big impact on the PORTX token, but we do plan on listing on more exchanges too!
Annabelle Emard:
Can you share some Details about Recent Major Achievements done by your project? Also, what are the Future Roadmap & Targets of your project?
Theonysus:
Hey, since the launch of THENA last January, here are our achieved milestones (And I invite you to follow this interactive roadmap in our landing page :) )
If I had to keep 1 main milestone since inception, it would be the implementation of user friendly Concentrated liquidity pools. The tech allows us to generate 4x more fees than the previous UniswapV2 type of pools.
Main upcoming milestones within the next 2 months :
- ALPHA : Our perpetual DEX on opBNB
- CORE : Our social hub to gamify the DEX
Yeu Sheng:
How do u ensure that bnb djed will be adopted in the bnb community? Do u collaborate directly with binance?
Alex:
We are making significant business development efforts to ensure the adoption of DJED by venues by having business level conversations with those venues.
BNB chain published an anouncment stating they are welcoming DJED to it’s eco-systeam and we see a lot of opportunieties going forward.
Yeu Sheng:
Does fluctuation in the bnb price affect the lock value of the bnb djed? Or is guaranteed 1:1 usdt
Alex:
If i undestood the question currectly you are asking about price flactuations that are not dependent on the protocol itself. there are price flactuations on different DEX’s. If you bridge your DJED to Cardano chain the smart contract assures a 1:1 ration.
Sm20LottieNode:
Do we have any timeline for djed 1.2 release?
Alex:
We prefer not to commit on specific dates at this time, but we are currently working on the Architecture Framework alignments which is still a work in progress. Some of the topics we are reviewing are: Ease development process, Reduce resource consumption, Have better response time, Reduce execution time for unit testing, property-based testing, integration and stress testing. We will provide more information when new deployments occur.
Yeu Sheng:
Now reserve ratio is pretty low and djed unable to be minted.. will that affect the events that are planned? We need more shen holders and at the same time convince djed holders willing to bridge to bnb-djed.. incentivise maybe the right term to describe it.
Alex:
On extended Djed there will be dynamic fees which will significantly increase incentives for SHEN holders. Additionally, we are constantly working on adding new partnerships and use cases that will incentivize SHEN holders.
In this banner that we published, you can see the APR’s as they were last week.
Yeu Sheng:
Any timeline if can be shared? Soon (next 3 mths), in progress (6–12 mths), planned (> 12 mths)
Alex:
Based on previous experience, I prefer not to commit to specific dates. Given the fluid nature of the market, it’s crucial that we remain flexible. However, we do have a roadmap in place, and you can expect to see incremental updates roll out in due time.
Natalie:
That is all the time we have for today. Thank you everyone for these excellent questions, and thank you Bill, Julian, Theonysus and Alex for answering them. We will share the AMA recap soon. Have a great day!
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.gg/9tq6CP6XrT
Binance Feed: https://www.binance.com/en/feed/profile/485349084
CoinMarketCap Feed: https://coinmarketcap.com/community/profile/COTI
Technical whitepaper: https://coti.io/files/COTI-technical-whitepaper.pdf
