Thanks a lot for actively participating in the CryptoLocally ($GIV) AMA held on 23rd September 2020 at the Game of Bitcoins Channel. We really appreciate all your support. This post is a recap of the entire session held with CryptoLocally
We have with us JAE CHUNG
Q1. Please introduce yourself and provide a brief overview of the project
Hi, I started coding when I was 13, and started working at a couple tech startups as a teenager. I met Hugo (co-founder) at a company called Jobable in Hong Kong, where we got to work on a blockchain project together. I was impressed by both the technology and community behind it, and I started contributing to the EOS community as a developer. I wrote open source scripts that helped start and peer nodes, and launch a network (Ghostbusters infrastructure standards). I found a vulnerability in EOS.IO that qualified for a bug bounty and wrote an automated testing suite for EOS system smart contracts (now integrated into Block.one’s codebase). I also helped launch the EOS mainnet along with a few other developers. Outside of starting HKEOS, I advised Lumeos and Uncloak, worked as a tech consultant, and started CryptoLocally with Hugo.
CryptoLocally is creating the easiest and most accessible fiat gateway to DeFi and its tools for everyone. Our goal is to empower all people with the tools to take control of their financial future.
By eliminating the middleman, CryptoLocally enables people to bypass the onerous fees, interest rates, and other restrictions traditional financial institutions impose.
CryptoLocally is already a trusted provider of a peer-to-peer (P2P) digital asset marketplace with no middle-man; it offers out-of-band payment methods and a revolutionary smart contract escrow.
People can meet in person, send a bank transfer, or use KakaoPay, AliPay, WeChat Pay, Venmo and more — all in a currency the buyer and the seller decide to use. All the while, their digital assets will be secured in an escrow that is safer than a traditional bank account.
Q2. We can find many partners listed on the website such as BinanceX, Wombat etc. Please tell us the what kind of partnerships are these
We are part of the BINANCE Fellowship program and therefore partnered with Binance X who have given us a lot of advice along the way. We integrated BEP-2 tokens into CryptoLocally for our partnership. We also partnered with Tron in order to support TRX and TRC-20 tokens on CryptoLocally, and collaborate on marketing/PR.
Q3. How does the Reputation System work and what benefit does it provide to the users
CryptoLocally has a reputation system set in place that helps users determine the validity of a trader. They are expected to do their own due diligence and trade with those who have high reputation and volume. You can also freely check feedback from previous trades on a user’s profile page.
To maintain a 100% score on CryptoLocally you need to trade successfully, without negative reports or misbehaviours. This is our way to incentivize honest behaviour and help new traders identify suitable trading partners on the platform.
Q4. What is the role of GIV token to your ecosystem? What are the use cases of GIV token?
Right now you can earn $GIV 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 DeFi wallet.
There's a couple more cool features like boosting your offers or buy fees rebates with your $GIV.
On top of this we are currently building two major DeFi features around $GIV;
First, CryptoLocally Vaults (CLVs) which are non-custodial, smart contract based algorithms deployed across multiple chains. The CLVs will work in the background and apply strategies that optimize yield for users that invest into the vault pools.
This will allow users to earn maximum yield on their crypto assets across all chains, all in one place, with the click of a button.
The second one is GIVernance; GIV will evolve to be a governance token on the platform, offering a truly decentralized solution. Voting rights will 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.
Q5. Local bitcoins nowadays is mainly popular due to cash deals locally, How would cash deals work on CryptoLocally since all is on smart contract?
LocalBitcoins actually stopped supporting cash deals since June 2019 :)
On CryptoLocally cash deals are already supported, here’s the process:
Buyer/seller opens a trade on an offer that has “Local Cash” as a payment method.
They decide where to meet and then click agree on terms.
Seller funds the escrow.
Buyer pays the seller in cash, in-person.
Seller releases the escrow.
A bit more about cash deals; after opening a trade online, both traders should arrange a meetup at a public place, ideally during the day and with Wi-Fi. For extra security we also recommended to meet in an area with lots of people and cameras, you can bring a friend, or make the exchange inside an airport or a bank.
Q6. Protecting users or members data and privacy has become a problem that many companies/projects must face in their development. Can you explain a bit about security of CryptoLocally?
In terms of privacy, there is no KYC verification needed to use CryptoLocally. You only need an email address to sign up on our platform and start trading P2P, so users can maintain their anonymity.
On the security side, CryptoLocally is completely non-custodial, meaning that we are never in control of your funds. Instead, the selected crypto is sent directly to the smart contract on-chain and is secured by the escrow until the end of the trade. This provides an enhanced layer of security to our platform.
Q7. Is there a dispute mechanism in case one of the parties does not comply with the transaction? How would you handle a case where fiat money is sent and the other person does not release the funds?
In case of disputes or issues between users, both parties have the possibility to report bad behaviour or ask for help while opening a dispute. For example, if the buyer doesn’t pay or the seller doesn’t want to release the escrow,each of them can easily open a dispute by clicking on the button “Open dispute”. In this case, the smart contract (Escrow) will be locked automatically and our support team will promptly contact each party to obtain evidence to substantiate the claim. After reviewing each side’s evidence, the support team will release the escrow if the payment has indeed been made. If the payment hasn’t been made, the funds will be returned to the seller.
Q8. Competition concerning P2P platforms for crypto buy and sell are quite big. What do you think would be CryptoLocally's critical advantage that will let you surpass others over time?
We have a couple advantages over other P2P platforms, we mentioned some in the earlier questions but here are main ones I would bring forward:
CryptoLocally is 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.
No KYC needed to trade P2P or use our DeFi wallet, you can create an account with an email plus password and start trading right away.
High privacy as we don’t ask for any personal information.
Large range of altcoins listed, we all know how much hassle it is to go from FIAT to a specific altcoin, we are removing those hurdles and making it a one step process.
We are now supporting ERC20, BEP2, TRC20 and EOS.IO tokens and the list will keep growing.
Same process for our DeFi wallet, you can deposit or buy on USDT on CryptoLocally for example and start earning interest in one click.
Finally, we are building a decentralized, non-custodial P2P trading platform that will soon be managed and governed by the $GIV community through GIVernance.
Q9. Is the CryptoLocally platform designed only for advanced traders? Or can it also be easily used by beginners?
CryptoLocally enables online and offline transactions in locations and currencies ignored by the traditional banking industry. A wide range of payment methods is supported to empower all types of users and give them a chance to play their part in the crypto economic revolution.
Finally, unlike centralized crypto exchanges, CryptoLocally enables users to trade directly between one another. This makes the transaction simple and fast, doesn't require any trading skills and removes the need of centralised corporate intermediaries.
Essentially, it is extremely easy to use your preferred payment method on CryptoLocally. PayPal, gift cards, WeChat Pay, etc are all supported. We support local payment methods around the world.
A lot of new-to-crypto users come to CryptoLocally to buy their first cryptos. They usually get better prices than they would elsewhere. Sellers on CryptoLocally can make profits by trading a lot on CryptoLocally through GIV rewards and trading margins.
Q10. 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 a best token in the blockchain world?
The platform has been online for almost a year now, we started with a marketplace for EOS.IO token exclusively and then added other chains like Binance Chain, Ethereum and Tron.
CryptoLocally was built from the ground up from our team. We have a real platform with 15K+ users and it is still growing month to month.
We recently released our Finance Wallet, which provides a one-step fiat gateway to DeFi for everyone on CryptoLocally.
CryptoLocally wants to make crypto and fiat accessible to everyone. This includes the undocumented and 1.7 billion people in the world who are unbanked. Our goal is to empower all people with the tools to take control of their financial future.
In order to make this possible, CryptoLocally is creating the easiest and most accessible fiat gateway to DeFi and its tools for everyone. By eliminating the middleman, CryptoLocally enables people to bypass the onerous fees, interest rates, and other restrictions traditional financial institutions impose.
CryptoLocally is already a trusted provider of a peer-to-peer (P2P) digital asset marketplace with no middle-man; it offers out-of-band payment methods and a revolutionary smart contract escrow.
Q11. What are your plans to educate and raise awareness and adoption among the community to make more people understand CryproLocally's technology?
The marketing team is working very hard to promote CryptoLocally. We are looking to invest more into branding, PR, social media and influencers to keep traction growing on the platform. We also want to release more educational content via news articles, guides, review videos made by youtubers etc… Lastly, we want to expand our community and focus on new locations like Indonesia, Vietnam, Ghana, Argentina, Venezuela… We will create special campaigns/promotions and partnerships to reach people in these locations.
Q12. What’s your personal opinion on DeFi? How will Cryptolocally support DeFi that’s the hottest trend now?
At CryptoLocally, we absolutely believe that DeFi is a transformational technology. We also believe that it has the potential to disrupt the existing financial system by providing a viable way for the world’s unbanked citizens to gain access to financial services. The problem has been that there isn’t a simple and easy to use solution in decentralized finance, which has been a barrier to mass adoption of DeFi and financial inclusion.
Our new DeFi feature, the Finance Wallet, allows you to earn interest on your cryptocurrency and this feature has been seamlessly integrated with our trading platform. It presents the easiest way to enter the DeFi space and will make mass adoption and financial inclusion possible.
Q13. What is the basic security system that CryptoLocally use to protect user data and asset?
CryptoLocally is 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.
Q14. What is a merchant's reputation judged on at CryptoLocally? Also, what verification systems do you have?
Reputation is simply:
Successful Number of Trades / Total Number of Trades
Most people will have a 100% reputation
If someone tries to scam and loses a dispute, they lose the reputation
The "Beginner" reputation is for those who have not done a trade yet
Q15. Recently CryptoLocally announced to the European public the "SEPA Direct Transfers". Will this only be available for the EU? Do you plan to take it to other countries so that they can enjoy it as well?
This is just one of many payment methods available on CryptoLocally. Most of the local payment methods that you can think of (PayPal, WeChat Pay, Sesacash, Kakao Pay, etc) can be found on CryptoLocally
Q16. How did $GIV manage to survive because many projects disappeared under tough market conditions? What is your survival strategy?
We have a sustainable business already, we are charging a small fee per successful trade processed on the platform. This part of the product has been growing exponentially since the start. Compared to most teams out there, we are doing a token sale while already having a working product and also found product/market fit. We are using this token sale to fuel our engines and shoot for the stars :).
Here is our thought process:
- The funds raised will help us grow our team and operations to bring the product to the next level. We have a detailed plan of what we want the product to become, more talent will help us achieve those goals faster.
- Thanks to the spotlight we're under during this period, our community and user base will grow and the business will become more and more sustainable, this is a virtuous circle.
- P2P and DeFi are here to stay and we have an opportunity to play a major role in the industry.
- Getting $GIV into more hands will ultimately make us become more decentralised while enabling users to participate and vote through the GIVernance aspect we are working on.
We welcome all of you to join the GIV Guild. Please tune in on the channels below to receive important updates! We have a lot of exciting announcements coming and the public sale coming very soon.
Telegram: https://t.me/cryptolocally
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cryptolocally
