Scaling the decentralized project: interview with the WanSwap team

While there are numerous practical ways of how to use blockchain technology in the business setting, setting up an own blockchain-based business may be a bit more daunting. Above all, this requires a solid business proposition – the one that will be able to catch the market value in a transparent, reliable and accountable way. According to market statistics, even though the year-to-year fraud rate sunk by more than $2 billion in 2020, the risk of being hacked in a blockchain space still pertains to the maximum due to a large amount of shadow activity in the field.

The course of affairs is likely to change only once a rigid regulatory framework comes into force (perhaps, even the year 2021 will give the first seeds of change?); until that time, however, investors will still remain literally stripped faced with the threat they cannot ward off on their own. And, while among private investors decentralized business models bear particular attractiveness, large institutional investors and hedge funds still hesitate to get their hands tarnished.

Despite this, some assertively claim that blockchain and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) are the biggest tech trends of the century. They bear even more attractiveness as the burst in DeFi lending stores a promise of superior returns in comparison to traditional asset classes.

However, for entrepreneurs, the task of taking a decentralized protocol project off the ground would necessarily be associated with the risks of market volatility, network scalability and high transaction fees, as well as the necessity of being legally compliant in the foreseeable future. At a sooner or later stage of the process, the question that every entrepreneur will be confronted with is where to list the token with minimal expenses, maximum reach and with confidence in long-term success. For that, WanSwap may provide an ultimate solution.

Being a decentralized exchange (DEX) at its core, the platform offers a list of generous benefits that make it stand out in the line of other token exchange platforms. First, offering the listing service completely free of charge, the platform at the same time boasts of its high speed, cross-chain functionality and accessibility from the multitude of devices.

Moreover, with the possibility of adding a token to the farming network, each listed project may attract higher enthusiasm from investors by incentivizing returns on holding. Finally, WanSwap solves the biggest challenge of any startup confronted with the new market environment - the reach for a broader audience. The combination of all these qualities makes WanSwap a platform that may support thousands of successful projects on their ways into the real world.

Having been given a chance to talk to the team of WanSwap, I decided to learn more about the potential of DEXs, future tendencies in the field of DeFi, look into the capabilities of the blockchain protocols as well as to dig deeper into the true essence of the WanSwap platform.

Hi, thank you for making time to join me for a talk. First, let us begin by clarifying your views on the future of DEXs. In the longer run, which one will be given more preference to – is it a centralized exchange or a decentralized one? Would you explain your views?

WanSwap wants to give projects a way to provide their potential investors to buy their tokens without paying for the high gas fees that are currently on Ethereum. We believe that true decentralization will get more important in the coming years due to the upcoming regulations. We think that centralized solutions could be at risk when regulators start looking at the crypto space more critically. One of the main reasons for us to start WanSwap is that we believe cryptocurrencies should be available to everyone worldwide, without any central entity controling assets. It's the purpose of the creation of blockchain and bitcoin after all.

Next, could you tell me a bit more about tendencies that you see now in DeFi and you think will take the higher ground in the years ahead? And, in total, how would you characterize your stance on DeFi in 2021 – is it bullish or bearish?

Well, we like to refer to a Tweet from Dan Reecer (former employee of Wanchain) that we saw pop up on Twitter recently:

'Would you buy this token?

-Supply: Infinite - new supply can be introduced by the founding team at any time if they think it’s good for the community

-Governance model: Centralized

-Decentralized online wallet options: None

-Transfer speed: 2-5+ days

-Roadmap: Undisclosed

$USD'

We think this makes clear what the current situation in the financial world is. When you surf to the website of Wanchain, the first thing you see is 'open finance is currently broken'. Open finance is enabling financial freedom, empowerment, and connectedness that we've never experienced in history. Wanchain is seeking to accelerate this change through global connectivity. Wanchain was already striving for DeFi before the term was invented. With Wanswap, they now have the ideal accellerator in house.

What danger may DeFi potentially face, especially from the increasing regulatory scrutiny? In your view, would we one day be able to fully accommodate DeFi in our traditional, authority-ruled economic system? If so, how would central governments react to this idea?

We think that DeFi will profit from the regulatory scrutiny. Governments and the traditional economic system are still seeing crypto as a treath, as long as they don't embrace it they will keep trying to stop it, this is easy to implement on the centralized part of the ecosystem so this is what they will target first. We think DeFi will keep evolving and will always be a few steps ahead of these authorities.

As is known, security is very important for decentralized exchange (DEX). How do you ensure the security of your project? What do you have in your security layers?

Since WanSwap is built on Wanchain we take advantage of their security layers. The decentralized wanBridges form the core of Wanchain, which ensures the safe and stable operation of the entire cross-chain system via the economic mechanism of staking WAN coins. Storeman operators stake a security deposit in order to ensure honest behavior. Wanchain applies different threshold signature schemes (TSS) according to the technical structures of blockchain systems.

For blockchain systems that do not support smart contracts (such as Bitcoin), they apply the ECDSA TSS scheme. For blockchain systems that support smart contracts (such as Ethereum and EOS), they apply the Schnorr TSS scheme. WanSwap was audited by Wanchain’s devs and we will also proceed with an external audit.

Many renowned organizations had a blockchain agenda they first mentioned a couple of years ago. However, in the view of covid-19, the situation seems to be changing, not always for the better. This is why, in view of economic damage, many organizations were forced to cut their budget on the development of innovative solutions, even though they may have a long-term positive effect. How could this problem be tackled?

Obviously the greatest handicap of any company is managing its resources, and it is a matter of priorities. The Blockchain aroused a lot of curiosity in large organizations, but from an innovative approach, and perhaps that has influenced its detriment. The Covid-19 crisis has focused investment resources on more consolidated aspects of the business ecosystem, it has simply been a question of survival, not a failed business.

Blockchain is technology and the future inevitably follows this path. Hundreds of Blockchain projects have invested an extreme amount of resources over the years, their technology is already a reality. Businesses will inevitably seek to benefit from this development. This is just a bump in the road, but we keep looking at the horizon head-on.

In general, what benefits from blockchain do you expect to see in the future years? How does its innovativeness compare to, let’s say, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and quantum computing, which also store an ability to overwrite the process of data management?

Blockchain is not only a technological revolution, it is a social revolution. The decentralization of technology, finance, goods and services ... everything is possible on Blockchain. And all this in a digital support available to any user. We don't think we should compare ourselves to other data management technologies.

Here the important thing is the people and how they manage the ownership of their resources (their data as well) on a technology that guarantees their security and an optimal decentralization of the entire ecosystem. Conceptually, from a social point of view, the Blockchain is unique, and that will always make it different. Each project explores different technological strengths. Blockchain is an abstract element, its reality is a conglomerate of different and extraordinary technologies

One question I’m really curious about is the economic efficiency of running a business on blockchain technology. Being aware of the extreme environmental impact of Bitcoin mining, could we say that blockchain technology as such is coherent with the environmental principles?

Bitcoin's energy consumption is estimated by Cambridge University at 121,36 terawatt hours per year, about the same as the energy consumption of the Netherlands. Mining is nothing more than a cost-benefit analysis. Miners go to places where the energy is cheapest, otherwise it is not profitable.

In practice, this means that most mining activity takes place in China; according to CoinShares' research, it is more than 60 percent of all miners. The low cost of electricity is because renewable energy has a 30 percent excess production in these regions. So you could argue that bitcoin mining is actually creating more renewable energy. Is there somewhere in the world where renewable energy is generated? Then miners will go there, and the demand for this renewable energy will only increase...

Next up – let’s now try to focus on WanSwap. As a platform that came to light only recently, how would you describe your journey so far, and what have been your major milestones?

Our journey is still very early and the future looks promising. Our project is actually completely "community based" and that is wonderful. Because people can make their own proposals and also vote on those proposals, it ensures that we have a very engaged community. Our Telegram group currently consists of about 3000 members, who one by one have a heart for our project.

This leads to intense, but above all very interesting discussions. The growth of the project is primary, unlike other projects, where it is often about 'lining the pockets' of the select core team. Decisions are therefore not made in haste. This is important for long term growth and to keep the project healthy. However, this does not mean that we are not ambitious. Our ambition is actually quite simple: we want to become the leading cross-chain AMM DEX!

Could you briefly break down the liquidity principles behind the WanSwap platform? Why would it be alluring for investors - and what are the advantages for project owners?

Liquidity principles:

When you supply liquidity to a WanSwap liquidity pool, you receive WSLP tokens in proportion to how much liquidity you supply to the pool. When a trade is facilitated by the pool a percentage of the fee is proportionally distributed amongst all the liquidity pools token holders. If you withdraw your assets from the pool, you will receive the earned fees but your tokens will be burned.

The liquidity pool token for WanSwap is WSLP, in WanSwap you can use your WSLP to withdraw your assets from the pool and it can be used for mining governance tokens: WASP.

Project owners advantages:

• listing is free
• crosschain
• no KYC
• it's multiplatform
• it's fast
• It can add incentive for holding your tokens
• It’s fully decentralized
• It’s easy
• Integration with Wanchain DApp ecosystem

At this point, what is the geographical reach of your project? What other territories are you planning to take under your umbrella within the years ahead? And, finally, do you have any target for the planned captured number of audiences?

A crosschain AMM DEX is a global product. Because we are a Wanchain Dapp, we automatically have a broad empire-wide. Our core Wanswap team includes people from different countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Algeria, Thailand, China, United Kingdom, Switzerland, United States... This mishmash of nationalities is a real enrichment.

Our community is also a collection of different nationalities. We have an English speaking TG group, a Spanish speaking TG group and a Chinese WeChat group: all purely focused on Wanswap. So we do not feel limited by 'borders' at all. Building bridges in, and alongside crypto, is one of our most important values.