On the 24th of June, 2021 at 16:00 UTC, Decentralized Club had the honor of hosting Hugh Campanella, Co-Founder of Cryptolocally for an Ask-Me-Anything session on their Telegram page with a community of over 30,000 people. It was hosted by DC Admin, May.
 
The session was divided into four segments. Introductions were made in Segment 1, questions from the Twitter and website community were answered in Segment 2 and 3 respectively, and live questions from the community members in attendance were answered in Segment 4.
 
If you missed this event and would like to know what Cryptolocally is all about, you can find a recap of the interview here. Note that slight edits have been made for clarity.

Segment 1 - Introduction

[May] 
Hello, Buonasera, नमस्ते, 大家好, Selamat!

My name is May and I'll be hosting the AMA with Cryptolocally.

[Hugo] 
Hi May, nice to e-meet you

[May] 
Nice to e-meet you too Hugo.

I'm excited because Cryptolocally is no stranger to the Decentralized Club family.

[Hugo] 
Happy to hear that

You guys traded on the platform already? 😄

[May] 
A couple of old community members have 😁

[May] 
In September last year, Co-Founder Jae Chung was here to shed so much light on the project.

[Hugo] 
Nice

[May] 
Hopefully today, we'll be able to measure the exponential growth we've watched Cryptolocally attain in the past couple of months.

[Hugo] 
Sure, I’ll try to answer all your questions

[May] 
It's your first time so we say a special welcome to the Decentralized Club 😁

[Hugo] 
Thanks

[May] 
Let's begin.

Could you please tell us more about yourself and your job description at Cryptolocally?

[Hugo] 
I’ve been working in tech teams for 8 years now, started my professional life at UBS and AXA, then left the corporate world for an online gaming company in Berlin, helped startups as a UI/UX consultant in Paris, and finally moved to Hong Kong where I leaded product teams for a couple of years. This is where I met Jae and we decided to start a business together. We first started a block producer team (hkeos.com) on the EOS blockchain, built bloks.io; now the most used block explorer for EOS.IO chains, and finally launched CryptoLocally together.

[May] 
Awesome.

You're Co-Founder at Cryptolocally 🎉🎉🎉

[Hugo] 
Correct 🙂

[May] 
A standing ovation for you, Hugo.

For the sake of our new members, let's quickly go over some introductory questions.

Sounds good?

[Hugo] 
Perfect

[May] 
Q1. In addition to your brief description of the birth of Cryptolocally, can you also tell us more about how the Cryptolocally project actually started and why you think it is a superior innovation?

[Hugo] 
We kind of got the idea of building CryptoLocally out of necessity, we wanted a quick way to get in and out of crypto while minimizing the risk of losing value along the way and also keeping ownership of our assets.
Initially, it was an EOS marketplace (launched in November 2019), but later on, we decided to add more cryptocurrencies, including WAX, TRX, Binance Coin (BNB), Ethereum (ETH), and so forth.

Put simply, with Cryptolocally you can finally buy and sell BTC and other altcoins (+20) to/from another user in your area without the risk of getting scammed or the platform getting hacked! Thanks to our unique smart contract escrow!

The smart contract is a unique and superior innovation in the industry because it makes it completely non-custodial.

[May] 
This is smart! Great job!

Q2. Can you tell us what incentives are available for users looking to exchange fiat for crypto who pick Cryptolocally over similar market projects?

[Hugo] 
First, you can earn $GIV, our native token while trading on Cryptolocally, after each trade, both users are awarded GIV based on the traded amount.
You can also earn interest on your $GIV holdings directly on the Earn wallet.
There are a couple more cool features like boosting your offers or buy fees rebates with your $GIV.

Finally, owning $GIV gives you the right to participate in our governance system, you can make proposals and vote for existing ones. Voting rights offer GIV holders the ability to control the level of inflation, interest, and free float (by way of token burns), vote on CLV strategies, and finally vote for new listings on Cryptolocally.
Proposals for new listings like Bitcoin, Solana, and Dogecoin got past through this mechanism.

[May] 
Haha! Cool stuff!

Love the veto power that comes with hodling $GIV.

Q3. Why is your escrow service revolutionary?

[Hugo] 
As I briefly mentioned earlier, Cryptolocally is fully non-custodial, we upgraded traditional escrow systems (used on other P2P platforms) by using smart contracts. This feature completely removes the third party from a trade while keeping a tight security layer throughout the trading process. You don’t need to deposit crypto to trade on our platform, you receive and send crypto directly from your personal/exchange wallet.
This also gives more flexibility to traders that try to arbitrage prices in different locations.

[May] 
Price arbitraging drives me crazy sometimes 😅

Great to see the flexible options Cryptolocally brings to the table.

Q4. From an investment perspective, why is it important to acquire and hold $GIV?

[Hugo] 
I don’t think you should look at $GIV as a pure investment asset. We’ve built a decentralized ecosystem around Cryptolocally and GIV, the token is a voice that you can use to influence the platform's direction and growth. 
You can make proposals, vote, and decide what tokens will be listed, what new features will be developed, and more.
If you believe in the $GIV community and are planning to take part in the decision process, you will be happy to buy and hold it because it won’t just be an investment for you. As a $GIV holder you are joining a community and a journey.

[Leydi]
My $30 worth of GIV before is now $100 lol

[May] 
Community members, Mr. Hugo has spilled facts above.

However, if you're only willing to hodl Cryptolocally as an investment, you can see the message I tagged from a fellow community member in February. 👆🏽

Summary: just buy $GIV 😁

Q5. What significant achievements or milestones have you? Also, what are your other plans for this year?

[Hugo] 
Two weeks ago we released a complete redesign of the platform. We've put a lot of time and effort into this to improve the user experience.
We are now focusing our effort on:
- New partnerships with interesting projects like POLYGON for example. This will reduce transaction costs for ERC20 assets btw 🙂
- Listing new tokens on Cryptolocally
- New blockchain protocol integration for our Earn wallet
- Mobile app for Cryptolocally
- And we are also looking to add NFT’s on Cryptolocally

[May] 
Yes to low gas fees! Yes yes yes!

[Hugo] 
exactly

[May] 
NFTs? Now that's what I'm talking about 😎

[Hugo] 
We all love NFTs 😄

[May] 
Yes we do 😅

Segment 2 - Twitter Questions

[May] 
Q1. Cryptolocally and Polygon announce the P2P listing of MATIC and the integration of Polygon into the DeFi Earn Wallet. I notice you changed the name (previously called Finance Wallet). Can you tell us why you changed the Finance wallet to Earn Wallet?

Twitter Username: @imwiiw27

[Hugo] 
I’m happy people actually noticed this detail. 😅
After some user research, we noticed that a lot of them didn’t know what DeFi meant so we decided to simplify it and make it more accessible to everyone. 
This way it is easier to grasp what the purpose of the feature is, simply by reading the name. Our Earn Wallet is a great tool to earn interest.

[May] 
Smart move there! 😁

Q2. How much can I earn through referrals and how do I gain a VIP status?

Twitter Username: @static_current

[Hugo] 
Our referral system is quite straightforward, we believe in community effect and are trying to reward our most active users through a referral program. By inviting someone on the platform you can earn 10% of Cryptolocally’s fee for every successful trade your referrals make and earn 20% of Cryptolocally’s fee if the seller and buyer of a successful trade have signed up with your referral code.

You gain VIP status by simply holding $GIV on our platform. Staking enough GIV will unlock a VIP status, you will then earn more GIV per completed trade + get up to 50% transaction fee when you trade on Cryptolocally.

[May] 
https://t.me/decentralized_club/535417

The rewards have got me dancing!

[Hugo]

https://t.me/decentralized_club/535419

[May] 
They're so good 😂 Makes me wanna refer my entire family

Awesome!

[Hugo] 
Maybe we should add a special status for this

[May] 
Referrer of The Month 😁

[Hugo] 
I like the idea 😄

[May] 
Haha! Yeah 😁

Q3. Does Cryptolocally provide me an opportunity to take part in token listing and other important decisions? Also any promotional offer I can make use of to reduce trading fees?

Twitter Username: @cradled_in

[Hugo] 
Yes, with GIVernance, our governance system I mentioned earlier. $GIV holders have the power to participate in creating and voting proposals that determine the direction and development of Cryptolocally’s ecosystem. Those who choose to participate are only required to stake their GIV tokens. In fairness, greater weight is given to voters with higher voting rights. Token holders have the right to approve token listings, modify the utility of the token, and suggest governance model improvements. This system has worked perfectly so far, the community already voted for Bitcoin, Solana, Dogecoin, and Trilium (Alien Worlds token). 
We are really excited to see more and more community requests.

You can reduce trading fees (0.99% for the buyer) by simply becoming a silver or gold user on the platform. You need to hold specific amounts to unlock those levels.

[May] 
Sounds great!

Segment 3 - Website Questions

[May] 
Q1. Can you list 1-3 killer features of this project that make it ahead of its competitors? What is the competitive advantage your project has that you feel most confident about?

Telegram Username: @Jemtran

[Hugo] 
I think we briefly touched my favorites features already but here are more details:
- First, the large range of coins and tokens tradable on Cryptolocally, we have integrated multiple protocols and chains like Ethereum, Tron, Binance Chain, EOS.IO... and we’re about to add MATIC and BTT really soon.
- Second point, Cryptolocally is fully non-custodial, like I said earlier, we upgraded traditional escrow systems (used on other P2P platforms) by using smart contracts.
- Finally, the ‘Earn Wallet’, which allows you to earn interest on cryptocurrencies like DAI, USDC, USDT, etc… in the most efficient way possible.

[May] 
The veto power in GIVernance
The Earn Wallet
The referral rewards

My favorite features 😁

[Hugo] 
yay!

[May] 
Q2. The get paid to trade feature is great. But is that sustainable for you guys in the long run? When everyone takes payment for trading you guys payback!!

Telegram Username: @danWickerjil

[Hugo] 
Without going too much into details I can tell you that trading rewards are not a problem yet. And to be completely honest, if we run into that issue I’d be very happy to have it because it means we are overloaded with users and the trading volume becomes humongous. When this problem occurs, we’ll be thrilled to come up with new solutions to acquire users. 😅

[May] 
😂😂😂

It's a welcome problem 😁

[Hugo] 
Looking forward to having it

[May] 
😂😂😂 Hilarious!

Q3. How does the Earn Wallet work and can I use it on my cell phone?

Telegram Username: @danWickerjil

[Hugo] 
With our ‘Earn Wallet’, users can earn risk-adjusted and optimal yield through “yield farming smart contracts” on Ethereum. 
Those are a lot of keywords to process, but in short, our smart contracts are looking for the best rates to maximize your returns.
Thanks to our partnership with Idle Finance, Cryptolocally has now integrated some of the most popular lending protocols including Compound, Fulcrum, dy/dx, Aave, and Maker, to maximize yield.
The last point, there is no lockup period on the Earn Wallet, you can start and stop with a simple click.
And yes it fully works on your phone.

[May] 
I'm going to minimize this interview chatbox and buy some $GIV right now 😅

What platforms apart from Cryptolocally is it trading on?

[Hugo] 
You can trade on uniswap

Or Bithumb global

Depending on if you prefer centralized or decentralized exchanges 😄

[May] 
I'm more of a CEX person but either one is fine 😁

While I multitask, can we take some live community questions?

[Hugo] 
Sure thing

[May] 
Okay. I'll open up the live chat for a short while.

You get to handpick four really good questions about the project to answer.

Really good ones.

[Hugo] 
Alrighty

[May] 
Skip all the copy-paste questions from AMA hunters 😅

[Hugo] 
haha I’ll try

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

Segment 4 - Live Questions

[May] 
Group muted for Mr. Campanella to answer questions.

[Topind]
Hello Hugo,

What benefits do you think your recent partnership with Polygon will bring to your project and your users?

[Hugo] 
Hi,
Polygon has developed great tech to reduce trading fees on ERC20 assets, we think this will greatly help our users.
On top of this, we’re regularly chatting with the Polygon team to find new ways to ease ERC20 tokens use. This partnership will be beneficial in the long term too.

[May] 
3️⃣ more questions to go 🎉

[Om Edy]
Do ambassadors play an important role in the growth of each project? Does Crypto_Locally already have an ambassador program? What are your plans for global expansion, getting customers, users, and partnerships to build and grow it?

[Hugo] 
Yes we do, you can find more information here: https://cryptolocally.com/en/ambassador
Please apply if you think you can help us develop our offering in your location. 😄

[May] 
2️⃣ more questions to go 🎉

[Michael Ford]
I'm curious if you've conducted any security audits? What steps have been made to protect the investors from hacks, exploits, and other similar threats?

[Hugo] 
Yes we had a full audit of our smart contracts, you can find it here: https://github.com/CryptoLocally/Resources/blob/master/Cryptolocally%20-%20Smart%20contract%20audit%20report.pdf

On top of this, as I mentioned earlier, our infrastructure makes it way more complicated for hackers, as users never deposit funds into a cold wallet as CEXs do, the incentive for bad actors to attack us is drastically reduced.

[May] 
1️⃣ more question left!

[Michael Ford]
Many new projects made a good impression at first but were suddenly abandoned. How will you manage the project and token to gain a place in the market and become the best token in the blockchain world? Please share with us!!

[Hugo] 
We’ve been working on this for more than two years now and we have a sustainable business already, we are charging a small fee per successful trade processed on the platform (0.99%). This part of the product has been growing exponentially since the start. So, no rug pull planned 😄

[May] 
Think you can squeeze in one more question? 😁

[Hugo] 
Let me see if there’s a last (interesting) one

[May] 
Alrighty

[JJ]
What strategies have you deployed to flourish in countries where cryptocurrency and related trading activities have been suspended? What is Cryptolocally doing to build bridges to these affected regions?

[Hugo] 
Our platform has been designed to be accessible to everyone. The barrier that has been in place for the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies is the fact that they are out of reach for many people. We are aiming to be a global P2P marketplace by adapting to local needs, users can meet in person, send a bank transfer, or use KakaoPay, AliPay, WeChat Pay, Venmo, and many more.

Here we go 🙂

Here are a couple of useful links to stay up to date with Cryptolocally:

Main Telegram Chat - https://t.me/cryptolocally
Telegram Announcements - https://t.me/givannouncements
Twitter - https://twitter.com/cryptolocally

Thanks for all the great questions, had fun answering them 🙂

[May] 
A standing ovation for Mr. Campanella and the entire Cryptolocally team.

https://t.me/decentralized_club/535592

[Hugo] 
Thank you @MsMayMay! Great host 🙂

[May] 
You've all been amazing and we see the result of your hard work!

Thank you too 😊

Thank you for the information on ambassador positions. Will be exploring it later!

I had such a great time.

[BILLY]
Thanks, Hugo!

[May] 
Thank you for joining us today. You and the team are always welcome for a million more AMAs 😁

[Hugo] 
Sure thing, I’ll have to run now.
Good day everyone!

[May] 
Have a great day! Send our warm regards to the rest of the team 😊

Congratulations and thank you to the winners and the other community members for the amazing questions.

The group will be open now.