BlockTalks x BTC Proxy AMA Transcript!
Hello! BlockTalkers & Blockchain Enthusiastic!
We recently hosted an AMA with BTC Proxy, on May 28th at 1.00 PM UTC. Many of you might have participated or many of not. But we make sure no one missed out from the knowledge shared by Donnie Kim, Founder of BTC Proxy. So here we are up with the AMA transcript, for those who missed the live session, this blog post will be a saver & feeder of knowledge for them.
Introduction Questions Asked By Team BlockTalks!
Q1. Could you please introduce BTC Proxy to our community in layman’s term?
Ans — BTC Proxy is a Layer 2 institutional grade bitcoin bridge to erc20 and to mrc20 that is polygon.
Our project is focused on one thing and that is to bring Bitcoin Holders - particularly large bitcoin holders into DeFi.
Even though there may be over 10B of Bitcoin in Defi. that is only 1% of the BTC’s value. We foresee much more involvement in DeFi by institutions in the future.
The mission of the BTC Proxy Protocol is to offer an institutionally qualified solution to bridge Institutional Bitcoin to DeFi.
Other solutions exist but we consider ourselves the next generation Bitcoin Bridge
BTC Proxy’s key feature is the way Bitcoin is held. It is held by an insured and regulated custodian with insurance. You see large holders cannot simply convert their bitcoin or send it over a bridge and start using Uniswap. There’s too much risk. So our solution makes it safer to use.
Q2. What are the advantages of BTC Proxy to other alternatives in the Blockchain field?
Ans —
Here is a quick infographic prepared by the guys at Fomocraft that compares the existing solutions.
Our main competitors would be Ren and WBTC.
You see, institutions could not use a protocol like ren because of the way they hold their BTC. It needs to be custodied by 3rd party and insured. While WBTC does do this what they lack is a UI. And not to mention that ours is built on Matic and allows for the GASLESS minting of BTCpx.
Q3. What are the major milestones BTC Proxy achieved so far & what are in the future pipeline?
Ans —
Aside from the development which we have completed on testnet you can see at btcpx.io.
We have found many strategic investors and partners to this point. Lead by Alphabit.
We have direct investment from Matic Network and are part of the TDeFi accelerator.
We just completed our launch on Launch Pool where 14M was staked for. our governance token $PRXY.
Questions Asked on Twitter For BTC Proxy Team!
Q1. I would like to know if you've completed any security audits? Perhaps by third-parties? We've seen dozens of hacks, exploits and stuff like that this year, what measures have been taken to protect investors and community from it?
Ans —
We have had security audits done on both the BTCpx protocol both layer 1 and 2 as well as penetration testing on the UI. We have also completed audits of the governance token $PRXY.
Securing private keys and vulnerabilities is one of the most important aspects. What our protocol offers is insurance on the BTC deposits provided by the Custodian and this provides another layer of assurance.
Q2. What is the ultimate vision that Your project is trying to achieve within the cryptocurrencies market? Obviously the whole space will experience huge growth in the upcoming years, but what role would you like Your project play in this?
Ans — Our project is focused on one thing and that is to bring Bitcoin Holders - particularly large bitcoin holders into DeFi.
Even though there may be over 10B of Bitcoin in Defi. that is only 1% of the BTC’s value. We foresee much more involvement in DeFi by institutions in the future.
The mission of the BTC Proxy Protocol is to offer an institutionally qualified solution to bridge Institutional Bitcoin to DeFi.
Once they are over onto the DeFi side we have a marketplace of staking vaults that will offer them attractive yields surrounding Bitcoin Strategies. Such as the ability to Farm Bitcoin with the $PRXY token.
Q3. Partners are very important for every project today, may I know which partners you have now? and which partners in the future you will be heading to?
Ans —
This is a quick infographic of what integrations we have done with partners.
We have integrated with Hex Trust the custodian as well as ERC20 and MRC20 protocols.
Next is to integrate with Gemini and BSC.
We have relationships with the institional side which we will focus on servicing.
Q4. BTC Proxy has some very closer alternatives that performs almost similar functions such as RenBTC? Was BTC proxy developed as a cheaper and more efficient alternative to this ? Perhaps you can explain the points that highlights the benefits of BTC Proxy over RenBTC?
Ans — RenBTC did a great job of using what was available to bring their bridge to market and services a certain sector but I cannot be used by institutions.
Ours is built on Layer2 and so we do have some competitive advantages as it is much cheaper to mint a BTCpx than renBTC and also that the BTC deposited is insured.
Q5. Many projects fail because they do not understand their target audience and their customer. And so I want to ask: Who is the most ideal customer for your product?
Ans — Our target market is to be the first to offer institutions this solution or bridge into DeFi.
Most of our clients exist in the regulated asset management industry where they are slowly moving assets from traditional markets into crypto. So we plan to facilitate this with them by providing our solution which is catered to their needs.
Questions Asked by our BlockTalks Community Members during live Session to BTC Proxy Team!!
Q1. I read that Polygon, Alphabit, A195 Capitol, TDeFi Accelerator, and O1EX join Proxy’s super sponsors list. Could you tell us a bit about how important this accomplished goal is to you and how could this really pave the way for a potential improvement for the Bitcoin gene?
Ans — These partners are incredibly valuable to us as each one serves to strengthen a different part of our project. Polygon is the technology partner. Alphabit was the incubator for our governance $PRXY. A195 is the liquidity partner for BTCpx. TDeFi is the accelerator that plugs us into their ecosystem that will get us usage quickly and give us growth.
Q2. I found in your website that you have an Insurance coverage via Hex Trust. So why does BTC Proxy choose Hex Trust as your insurance partner? What is this insurance for? Can you tell us what are the instances or situations being covered by this insurance? Is this insurance applicable to all trader or users of your platform?
Ans — The reason why we chose Hex as our custody partner is because they have good policies and they had one of the most advanced interfaces that allowed us to connect our protocol with the insurance is for your bitcoin. You need to deposit your bitcoin in order to mint yourself a BTCpx for usage with DeFi.
Q3. I read that your model is not affected by volume or liquidity. This is really interesting to me. What are the reasons why the volumes of crypto markets where BTC is included does not affect your model in any way? How have you managed to make this possible?
Ans — A minting protocol is different than an exchange in an exchange or dex you need to have a willing buyer and seller matched. So if there is a lack of liquidity on one side of the trade - the price will be affected but with a minting and redemption protocol, as you deposit your bitcoin you are essentially getting a holding token in the erc20 or mrc20 protocol that is worth the same value and it is not affected by one side of the trade.
Q4. Binance smart Chain blockchain is having high transaction speed and cheap gas fees, Are you planning to launch your mainet or switch to other blockchains in the future?
Ans — BSC is an important part of our development plan. We will launch with the ability to be on erc20 and mrc20 and with bep20 coming next so users can use it to defi on pancakeswap which is having a ton of volume these days.
Q5. Can Liquidity Providers earn $PRXY tokens when they add liquidity to the BTCpx protocol and AMM Liquidity pools? How many liquidity pools will there be?
How can we earn PRXY with Bitcoin Farming? How much of the transaction fees for printing and cashing BTCpx will be distributed as PRXY $ rewards?
Ans — I wanted to touch on this topic as it is a strategy that is not offered anywhere else which is the ability to Farm Bitcoin - which is the king of incentives.
Our protocol BTCpx has a 0.1% minting fee and an 0.3% redemption fee.
This fee is paid in BTC. And periodically we will make that available for the stakers of $PRXY to earn.
Liquidity providors can also stake their LP tokens into our proposed marketplace to further earn $PRXY as well.
We will have vaults set up on both ERC20 and Matic.
Q6. What is the cost of MINING and REDEEMING $BTCpx, will the fee be same, and how is these fees favourable to those of your compititors?
How can I mint or redeem BTCpx, can you list the process?
Ans — The cost to Mint is 0.1% as opposed to ren which is 0.3% - but for erc20 they have a high gas fee since they are a layer 1 which is about $50. Our process is gasless and requires no gas in your metamask to mint a BTCpx as well - your BTC you have deposited is insured.
Q7. In the table you mentioned, I saw that BTC Proxy is superior to WBTC and Ren when it comes to fast transactions. How could this happen? What technology is behind BTC Proxy to support faster transactions?
Ans — Layer 2 Matic - is what we have built the backend on.
Q8. There are two tokens on the BTC Proxy platform (BTCpx and PRXY) with PRXY being the platform’s governance token. Can you please explain the procedures to mint BTCpx? And how possible is it to mine BTC using a PoS mechanism by staking $PRXY when we all know Bitcoin mining is usually done through a PoW mechanism?
Ans — Technically BTC cannot be mined by staking $PRXY, it is Farmed. Since the fees are paid in BTC we will convert that the BTCpx and make that available to the stakers which in turn can be redeemed for real BTC as the protocols for the tokens have to be the same as the staking contract.
Q9. When will BTCproxy hold IDO? Is there a Whitelisting form?
Ans — The IDO is happening at the end of JUNE and the official announcement will be made soon.
Here are some important links of BTC Proxy👇
🌎 Website: btcpx.io
📱 Twitter: twitter.com/BTC_proxy
📢 Telegram: t.me/BTC_Proxy
