AMA with Metalswap

On the 24th of January, 2022 at 16:00 UTC, Decentralized Club had the honor of hosting Marco Braglia (Project Manager) from Metal Swap for an Ask-Me-Anything session on their Telegram page with a community of over 70,000 people. It was hosted by DC Admin, Alviss.

The session was divided into three segments. Introductions were made in Segment 1, questions from the Twitter community were answered in Segment 2, and live questions from the community members in attendance were answered in Segment 3.

If you missed this event and would like to know what Metal Swap is all about, you can find a recap of the interview here. Information here should be researched and should not be taken as investment or financial advice. Also note that slight edits have been made for clarity, and links in this recap lead to images, documents, or other media.

Segment 1 - Introduction

[Alviss]

Hello Decentralized Family

I am Alviss, your host for the Metal Swap AMA.

I'll be interviewing a guest from the Metal Swap Team today.

[Marco Braglia]

Hey there! Thank you so much for having me here!

[Alviss]

You're welcome to the Decentralized Club and it's great to have you with us

How's your day going?

[Marco Braglia]

I'm doing great, what about you and your terrific community?

[Alviss]

I'm alright and the community is alive and kicking.

Could you quickly tell us more about yourself and your job at Metal Swap?

[Marco Braglia]

Sure! My name is Marco Braglia, I’m the Project Manager of MetalSwap and I have been collaborating with one of the founders for several years in crypto and finance-related projects

[Alviss]

It's great to have you, Rob! You have an awesome job at Metal Swap.

First of all, Can you tell us about Metal Swap and the inspiration that got it started?

[Marco Braglia]

MetalSwap Founders met themselves in Tenerife (Spain), where they currently live, and started to associate with each other sharing their different experiences and common crypto passion they all have.

One of them, Umberto, an expert on international law and businesses, had already some customers asking him to find a solution to financial hedging centralization on metal commodities.

The name of the project comes exactly from this need!

Nowadays, financial swaps are the most widely used “insurance” tool for large exchanges of raw materials such as metals.

Everything is happening on centralized markets that require financial coverage, and bank credit facilities that aren’t always accessible to everybody, with poisoning bureaucratic laziness.

With the concept of an economic incentive, given by the distribution of the governance token ($XMT), the system will have publicly accessible pooled liquidity.

Through a set of "smart contracts", initially written on Ethereum, the contracts will make it possible to execute swaps without the need for intermediaries, at reduced costs, and without time restrictions.

[Alviss]

That's impressive 😍

What innovative solution is Metal Swap bringing to topple its competitors with similar offerings in the DeFi sector?

[Marco Braglia]

Well, we have no competitors from the point of view of "similar offerings" in the DeFi sector!

Instead, we are already contacting all those involved in managing the price update metrics for both crypto and non-crypto assets.

Our competitors are in the CeFi world and they are mainly three:

LME | London Metal Exchange

CME | Chicago Mercantile Exchange

SHFE | Shanghai Futures Exchange

The benefits of choosing MetalSwap over a traditional CeFi solution are:

1. Costs minimized

In MetalSwap there is no need for an intermediary, it is entirely based on blockchain technology through the use of smart contracts.

2. Trustless

Since there are no intermediaries, there is no need to trust anyone.

The funds are not entrusted to a third party, they remain available in your wallet and you decide how to manage them.

3. Decentralization of the system

The issue of monopoly is overcome by MetalSwap's intrinsic automatism and by decentralized finance.

4. No need for bank coverage

Bank coverage is no longer necessary:

MetalSwap solves this issue with a shared liquidity pool system, where each participant (Liquidity Provider - LP) is rewarded for their contribution through the provision of project governance tokens ($XMT).

MetalSwap allows you to open hedge positions only if they can be counter-guaranteed by liquidity pools.

That's why in MetalSwap trust is not necessary, it is an entirely and mathematically trustless system.

5. Market open 24/7

Unlike traditional offices with their constraining hours, MetalSwap is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

[Alviss]

🙌🏻

Could you please share details about your staking pools and the rewards for users?

[Marco Braglia]

The staking program is live on our dApp on Ethereum and BSC blockchains.

There are two kinds of pools as of today:

STAKING POOLS are “classic” pools: defined duration (30/90/180/360 days) and fixed total rewards amount. Holders of $XMT tokens on the ETH chain are free to join open pools as long as they are not expired and take a share of the rewards. The sooner they join the pool, the bigger the share of rewards they will get, because the rewards are calculated with a system of weighted averages taking into account the time spent in the pool and the number of tokens provided. The reward in tokens is distributed at the end of the period along with the principal originally locked in the pool.

IRON POOLS (only on Ethereum blockchain as of today) are special staking pools with a MINIMUM GRANTED APY. Staking is available for a fixed quantity of XMT, multiple of the slot cost. Minimum APY is granted by the limited number of available slots in the pool. The rewards in tokens are distributed at the end of the period along with the principal originally locked in the pool.

As of today all the pools but the first 30 days are available to join, with the following APY:

https://t.me/decentralized_club/707060

https://t.me/decentralized_club/707061

https://t.me/decentralized_club/707062

[Alviss]

A brief moment for the community to digest

Can you tell us about your native token and its utilities?

[Marco Braglia]

$XMT is the governance token of MetalSwap.

The purpose of $XMT Tokens is to participate in DAO deliberations.

They are allocated as shown in the chart below:

https://t.me/decentralized_club/707067

XMT Tokens will be initially distributed to early users of the protocol via swap incentives, liquidity incentives, AMM, test-related incentives, and Bug Hunting campaigns.

All incentives fall under the " Rewards and Community" heading, which will be fueled through the token buy-back system.

People who believe in MetalSwap and want to increase the power of their vote can stake their tokens to receive an incentive and increase the number of tokens.

https://t.me/decentralized_club/707070

Incentives details

https://t.me/decentralized_club/707071

$XMT token is central to ecosystem fees

[Alviss]

Could you tell us the full meaning of XMT?

[Marco Braglia]

We chose XMT because the X recalls financial ticker about metals (e.g. XAU, XCU,...) traded on CeFi markets, and MT stands just for METAL

[Alviss]

Wow. Never would have thought of that

Moving on to the last question for this segment

Could you please give us a summary of your 2021 highlights and what major news should we look forward to from Metal Swap in 2022?

[Marco Braglia]

To summarize our 2021 we can use just an icon: 🚀

$XMT was born with an Uniswap IDO, now we have 3 pairs there (https://app.uniswap.org/#/swap?inputCurrency=0x3e5d9d8a63cc8a88748f229999cf59487e90721e) !!

Our Pools and Iron Pools (with Fixed Minimum Income!) are already developed and working on Ethereum!

Our first DAO proposal passed less than one month ago, and now we’re proud to say that everybody can swap for $XMT even on PancakeSwap, and stake them in our Pools directly on https://app.metalswap.finance/without leaving BSC!

Now we’re taking this Q1 2022 to let you see and try how swaps can work in Ethereum’s testnet!

[Alviss]

Very impressive answers! Metal Swap is a solid project as it is!

Let's now take some questions from our Twitter community.

[Marco Braglia]

Let's do it!

[Alviss]

Are you ready sir?

[Marco Braglia]

Shoot me 😃

Segment 2 - Twitter Questions

[Alviss]

Can you tell us about the motivation and benefits for investors to keep the token in the long run? What plans do you have to help drive the demand and scarcity of the token?

Twitter Username: @premdurai27

[Marco Braglia]

Our tokenomics is well structured and has broad shoulders: in the long term, knowledge of our platform will be widespread and $XMT will be increasingly in demand, both to use it and to participate in its governance.

You can find our detailed tokenomics in the white paper (https://www.metalswap.finance/assets/documents/whitepaper_metalswap_eng.pdf ), or summarized on our Medium ( https://medium.com/metalswap/token-overview-225434ac5ca ).

[Alviss]

👌

The MetalSwap protocol, aims to decentralize exchange operations by using smart contracts running on the Ethereum virtual machine, why did they decide that ecosystem was ideal for this and why not consider other BSC or Solana ecosystems?

Twitter Username: @Romadel33

[Marco Braglia]

Solana has been restarted twice this month alone. We seek the safest solution possible, and at the moment Ethereum is unmatched in terms of reliability by any other chain. That's where we want to develop our main commodity swap infrastructure! Any other kind of development will however be discussed among the $XMT holders such as the deployment of the governance token on BSC, which was voted at the end of 2021… and is already active (!) with a BNB XMT pair on PancakeSwap ( https://pancakeswap.finance/swap?inputCurrency=0x582c12b30f85162fa393e5dbe2573f9f601f9d91), and staking pools on our app via BSC (https://app.metalswap.finance/ )!

[Alviss]

What are the milestones on your route? What have you achieved and what can we expect? Any short/long term technical milestones that you would like to mention or draw attention to the idea?

Twitter Username: @KrishnarjunKj

[Marco Braglia]

Your answers can be found here below! Check out our roadmap with already achieved milestones and what we’re looking forward to getting asap!

✅ 19/11/2021 - IDO ETH ON UNISWAP V3

✅ 27/11/2021 - STAKING POOLS 30/90/180/360 dd

✅ 11/12/2021 - DAO POWERED ON

✅ 21/12/2021 - IRON STAKING POOLS

✅ 29-31/12/2021 - 1st PROPOSAL DAO (SUCCEEDED)

✅ 07/01/2022 - BSC BRIDGE

✅ 07/01/2022 - IDO BSC ON PANCAKESWAP

✅ 18/01/2022 - STAKING ON BSC

⚪️ Jan 2022 - SWAP CRYPTO ASSET TESTNET

⚪️ Feb 2022 - LIQUIDITY PROVIDERs

⚪️ Feb 2022 - SWAP CRYPTO ASSET MAINNET

⚪️ Q1 2022 - STAKING NFT V3

⚪️ Q2 2022 - L2 (POLYGON?)

🎯 Q2 2022 - SWAP ON METAL COMMODITIES

[Alviss]

Developing a new platform always requires a lot of research and effort. We see, most of the project is just a clone of an existing project. So, is MetalSwap a clone of an existing project, or is it built from scratch? If yes can you please introduce the team behind this development?

Twitter Username: @Shophi9C

[Marco Braglia]

MetalSwap is something unique in the world of DeFi. And at the same time, it is something commonly centralized in the world of traditional finance. There are no other projects like ours, we are building a new mechanism and we are sure that there will be plenty of clones.

We will certainly be the main point of reference in terms of ideas, speed of development, and market ;)

We will be the main leaders of the charge, you know, we’re head-down developing 24/7 and we have such a good knowledge of the subject!

[Alviss]

That brings us to the last Twitter question.

Talking about security, As we know Nobody can guarantee the security of a Smart Contract. But Audit plays an important role in finding out the known bugs of a smart contract. Can you tell us how strong your MetalSwap"security system is? Have you done an audit by any third party before?

Twitter Username: @Shophi9C

[Marco Braglia]

That’s a key point of our project.

The official platform is ready and will soon be published on Ethereum’s testnet with a bounty program that will reward all those who try to use it and report bugs.

After that test, our code is going to be published on GitHub, and reviewed by an Audit company - we’re already in touch with Certik, OpenZeppelin, and others. If you have any suggestions, please ping us on Discord or Twitter.

Thus, all of our smart contracts will be tested and audited before going on the mainnet.

[Alviss]

Great work on the questions!

[Marco Braglia]

Thanks Alviss, questions were great!

[Alviss]

All right

Now it's time for the live segment.

In this 3rd segment, I will open the group for some seconds for the live community to shoot you some pressing questions.

[Marco Braglia]

See you on the other side

[Alvíss]

As a measure to deter bots and reward hunters, could you please pick one emoji that will be included in the questions so you can tell original questions apart?

[Marco Braglia]

🚀

---Chat was then opened for the live community to send in their questions---

Segment 3 - Live Questions

[Alvíss]

You can pick 5 best questions now

Please prioritize questions with 🚀

[Taiwo Bisayo]

Does MetalSwap have an official YouTube channel? And have you uploaded a video where you give an overview of your project? If yes can you share the video with us as some people like me love learning by watching than reading? 🚀

[Marco Braglia]

Sure we have, and we've uploaded exactly the video you're asking some days ago 😉

Here's the direct link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwx60VuxDl0

Below are all the official links to the project:

OFFICIAL WEBSITE 👉🏻 https://www.metalswap.finance/

MEDIUM 👉🏻 https://medium.com/metalswap

TWITTER 👉🏻 https://twitter.com/MetalSwapNet

TELEGRAM 👉🏻 https://t.me/metalswap

DISCORD 👉🏻 https://discord.com/invite/eYay7NV6vF

YOUTUBE 👉🏻 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuFVZOpAOzuzlmJbPA4wdkw?sub_confirmation=1

FACEBOOK 👉🏻 https://www.facebook.com/MetalSwapOfficial/

REDDIT 👉🏻 https://www.reddit.com/r/metalswapnet/

TELEGRAM DISCUSSION GROUPS 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

🇬🇧 https://t.me/joinchat/YaSNSVggeOFhODQ0

🇮🇹 https://t.me/joinchat/w4xGj8TcB8ExZmY8

🇪🇸 https://t.me/joinchat/22zaxw3o0URlODJk

[Sir DeFi]

Metals are still very important assets in the traditional market, how do you plan to "entice '' many of these investors to invest in MetalSwap's synthetic assets?

[Marco Braglia]

Hey there, MetalSwap is not a way to "invest" in metal commodities but it's a defi protocol that allows businesses that buy and sell metal commodities to find financial hedging instruments on DeFi, to insulate performance from price movements

[Memo]

You are looking to incorporate synthetic metal assets into cryptocurrency exchanges, but do you think this type of asset will achieve great adoption in the crypto space? If not, how will they guarantee good liquidity?->

[Marco Braglia]

We are not "incorporating" synthetic assets on a crypto exchange.

We will use synthetic assets on metal commodities to fetch data about market prices and then use this data as input for our swap smart contracts.

MetalSwap solves the liquidity issue with a shared liquidity pool system, where each participant (Liquidity Provider - LP) is rewarded for their contribution through the provision of project governance tokens (XMT).

MetalSwap allows you to open hedge positions only if they can be counter-guaranteed by liquidity pools.

That's why in MetalSwap trust is not necessary, it is an entirely and mathematically trustless system.

[Crypto Flower]

According to Coinmarketcap MetalSwap token is not yet available on any CEX. Do you have plans to enlist in the coming days to facilitate their trading?🚀

[Marco Braglia]

We have no plans to move to CEX for the time being, but we are not ruling it out. If any interesting exchanges would like to enter into a partnership with us, please write to marketing@metalswap.net

[Gay]

is there no plan for airdrop for the community?🚀

[Marco Braglia]

As of today, no airdrop has taken place.

When the swap feature will be released in testnet (in a few days) we will start a bug bounty program with XMT airdropped as rewards.

Our marketing department is also working on some "learn to earn" airdrop programs, so stay tuned 😉

[Alvíss]

Thank you so much for taking time out to talk with us today.

Any closing remarks for our community?

[Marco Braglia]

Thanks again for hosting us!

[Alvíss]

Our warm regards to the rest of the team at the HQ working to make Metal Swap a success!

[Marco Braglia]

Thank you! Have a wonderful day!

[Alvíss]

Until next time, do enjoy the rest of your day.

[Marco Braglia]

Cheers 🍻

[Alvíss]

Thank you 😊

The AMA with Metal Swap is now over.