KuCoin AMA With Polylastic — The Index of Elastic Finance

 

Dear KuCoin Users,

 

Time: May 13, 2021, 10:00-11:17 (UTC)

 

KuCoin hosted an AMA (Ask-Me-Anything) session with the Strategy Director and Co-Founder of Polylastic, Sunil Bhat, in the KuCoin Exchange Group.

 

 

Project Introduction

 

The Polylastic (POLX) Aggregator is a purposefully staked, curated basket of assets that tracks and represents the synthetic asset space and the future of money—ranging from EFi (Elastic Finance) to perpetual swaps. The direct-staking of the POLX token is used to signal community support that is designed to identify and exploit opportunities in these burgeoning markets.

 

Official Website: https://polylastic.io

White Paper: https://docs.polylastic.io

 

Follow Polylastic on Twitter and Telegram.

 

 

Guest:

 

 

Sunil Bhat — Strategy Director and Co-Founder of Polylastic

 

Sunil is an ex-Google and ex-Bitfinex Marketing Leader who leads strategy for Polylastic. He also advises several top top-tier projects and has been fortunate to work with and advise several projects in Elastic Finance and DeFi sectors.

 

 

 

Sunil: Hello everyone!

 

Thank you for supporting Polylastic and without your support, we would never have gotten so far.

 

I'm sure the community is waiting. Let's start.

 

 

Q: What is Polylastic?

 

Sunil: I think just starting here is a good place. We were fortunate enough to get a lot of eyeballs on us thanks to the marketing efforts of KuCoin, Kick and ourselves. It was more than we anticipated and this is crypto so people tended to jump in first and ask questions later.

 

Polylastic is also an ambitious project and targets a sector of crypto that is absolutely enormous but hiding in plain view. These are the synthetic assets – from wETH to the algorithmic stablecoins. So, despite our best efforts people are still catching up.

 

To keep it very simple—Polylastic is an aggregator that curates the best projects in the synthetics space (although not entirely limited to it) and places them in a basket that comprises a real index. Indexes in traditional markets have outperformed stocks and since crypto is so volatile, finding a way to aggregate assets where a few winners can drive a portfolio is a very good idea. It is also a fundamental financial product that is largely absent in crypto. We’re bringing this to crypto, focusing on a rising sector with virtually unlimited upside potential and updating it by using the POLX token—which I’ll elaborate more on later.

 

 

Q: What problem does Polylastic solve?

 

Sunil: It solves a number of problems actually.

 

One - there are no real subject matter experts and worthy index products. The few that exist mirror traditional finance, but don’t innovate on it.

 

Two, the reason we chose synthetics, elastic finance and these types of projects is because they are giants that are often hiding in plain view. Getting exposure to the very projects that are going to fund DeFi is often difficult. The material can be esoteric. For example, derivatives are coming to crypto and who wouldn’t want a chance to be early on that? It’s like being early to the projects that are going to make DeFi bigger than traditional markets. Right now, even crypto savvy people are unaware. Ask them about perpetual swaps or derivatives play and they can’t tell you. Ask them the difference between an elastic supply and a rebase and they don’t know. We can’t expect everyone to catch up that quickly and we don’t want it to pass people by.

 

Three, index products can be innovated upon to take advantage of the information arbitrage that really defines crypto. There is normally a groundswell of support that presages a big move but most people don’t see it. Having an index where the chosen assets are determined by a community staking the POLX token will create some first to market type advantages.

 

 

Q: What is the token utility for POLX?

 

Sunil: The complete Polylastic ecosystem is centered around POLX.

 

The primary feature of the POLX token is that direct staking of it is required for projects to be listed. Spamming and similar methods of support cannot influence the index. And, Polylastic is a DeFi project, so your token better be able to earn something! Just like a traditional hedge fund, token holders will earn a portion of management fees and profits plus there is a network taxation structure that is redistributed to LPs. Staking should be an active not a passive process from the network itself. If you’re going to stake, I believe you should be earning something other than more of the same token. In fact, this is part of the reason we are burning tokens. The activity on the network will reduce the supply while staking traditionally flood the market with more tokens.

 

Again, Polylastic is going to be a robust project so looking forward, we may be able to provide stakers tokens of projects we may incubate and other benefits but I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself.

 

 

Q: What do you mean by double deflationary?

 

Sunil: Polylastic is aggressive like crypto itself. Things move at the speed of thought. When we wanted to bring an element of scarcity, we weren’t thinking like Leo or trying to gamify it too much. We wanted it to be inherent to the network and to reward holders. So LPs and those staking for example, should they unlock, there will be less tokens than when they started.

 

We have two key drivers of revenue – one is the network taxation and second is earned through management fees and profits. So taking a portion of those to buyback and burn tokens means that there are two fundamental ways to decrease supply. Hence the double deflation. You can learn more here: https://polylastic.medium.com/polx-a-double-deflationary-efi-token-ff5be94f14a1

 

 

Q: What is the difference between Polylastic and traditional index trackers like S&P 500?

 

Sunil: Well for one, we're a boutique style index that’s aimed at a particular sector. Certainly there are sector-oriented indices in traditional financial markets but people tend to think mostly of the big ones.

 

Two, Indexes like S&P are determined by market caps. The larger the cap, the more of the index it takes up. For us, we are here to identify trends early and capitalize them. Polylastic as an aggregator achieves this by direct staking. Fanboys can’t spam an asset on to our index, they must show their support and belief by staking the token. A real rallying around a project will be shown by this support and we call it the wisdom of the crowd. This is better than any external measure one can dream of because it puts their money where their mouth is and this is where the ambitions of Polylastic comes into play.

 

Large traditional indexes don’t move the needle when they purchase. For us, projects that enter the index will have built-in buyers. We are functioning now as a boutique exchange and providing exposure to like-minded communities. They are being bundled with assets that they have commonalities with. I wouldn’t try to sell an NFT devotee on a lending coin but every user of the POLX index has an interest in this space and some recognition of potential. So in this case we sort of morph into a boutique exchange.

 

 

Q: What all these ambitions are…what can you tell us? Is there a way to sum it up?

 

Sunil: It's indeed tough to summarise our ambitions.

 

Every day we are seeing more and more opportunities, but I can consolidate what we’re doing easily enough so it is digestible.

 

One, we are an updating Index—the community drives weight and selection but it will update as assets are added while maintaining history. So, if a user liked the selection and the way the assets were weighted 3 months ago, they can choose the previous iteration or go with current offerings. Every configuration will be catalogued and accessible to contributors.

 

Two, we’re a boutique exchange of sorts – I say of sorts because listing with us as I mentioned is a marketing coup as you can gain exposure to a truly target demographic and two, it creates guaranteed buy pressure. As we lock value under management, a new token being bought up will do a lot for it. A traditional listing means you are being dropped in with hundreds of different assets and competing against them. In Polylastic, you’ve got guaranteed purchases, are bringing projects together and exposing them to new communities. And this would make us, three and four, an accelerator and aggregator as well, would it not?

 

Five, we reduce circulating supply because index tokens are not traded. They are purchased and locked. In this regard, we are traditional investors.

 

Six, we are ecosystem builders because of this will certainly drive adoption and have network effects and if you look you can see why,

 

Seven….We are an Incubator:

Our successful launch has inspired several projects who are in touch with us to tap into our expertise and vibrant community. We are already more than capable of incubating what we call “smart money” projects i.e. the things that will fund DeFi and fuel its adoption and have been contacted by numerous projects to refine their offering and walk them through our process which would add another utility I didn’t mention-POLX token holders will get exclusive access to pre-sales for these projects.

 

 

Q: So SNX is big obviously – would this be something in your Index?

 

Sunil: Well maybe a year or two ago, yes. Synthetix is a good example. People were confused by it for a long time and it just kept growing before DeFi exploded. Then of course it’s gotten even bigger but they are not alone. Most of tomorrow's successes are not even here. The industry sectors that we are focusing on are still in their infancy. We want to support, accelerate, incubate and list the next generation of projects that can power the future of DeFi, all driven by the early adopters. Remember, someone understood YFI and CRV and all the rest before most people even heard of it. You don’t need to be many of those to be a great success but where we really differentiate is that we can contribute directly to projects' success. Fostering ecosystems requires stakeholders to work together. Polylastic is on track to announce strategic partners who will play a vital role in helping craft one success story after another.

 

 

Q: Why did you launch on BSC vs. Ethereum or Polkadot?

 

Sunil: Because of the speed, low fees and user base that BSC offers. There are tons of tokens you’ve never heard of that end in dot finance that have done very well on BSC. There are virtual economies, like islands sprouting up everywhere on BSC. Yes, it’s got the usual bad actors but say what you want, their community is big and savvy. Before seigniorage even was on the radar, there were cash systems there. We want to create our own little XRP army only better and even though it gets criticized for being centralized, ignoring the potency, efficiency and community of BSC is a mistake for any project hoping to find the next thing.

 

To learn more, check out https://polylastic.medium.com/polylastic-upgrade-new-name-and-a-launch-on-binance-smart-chain-d5c654145b23

 

 

Q: Polylastic was one of the most successful IDOs of all time. How did you manage to achieve this success?

 

Sunil: Well, despite what some people claim in our TG, we are an experienced group with very relevant experience. Yes, the success was bigger than we expected and we believe that there are any number of reasons for this. The token is designed to be “sticky” and to be candid, the double deflationary burn may have attracted some of the meme coin community. However, our work with Kickpad and KuCoin certainly garnered a lot of attention. We have real relationships in a top down kind of way so it was important to us to raise some awareness as we enter into the final stages of project development. Polylastic, to some degree, is only as good as its community. We need the wisdom of the masses. From an altruistic standpoint, we really want everyone to have access to financial services and the opportunity to contribute to a growing sector. As we’ve said, if you were given the opportunity to invest into a DeFi index a year ago, would you? Yet, a year ago DeFi didn’t look too attractive to many people and people have taken notice at how exciting it is to be early on something. Crypto is full of new people, fertile bright minds applying themselves. To not leverage this collective intelligence for everyone’s benefit is irresponsible. We’ve all smartened up and want that next thing but too many believe it has passed them by. It has not. The future of derivatives, of AI applications, of a better smarter money, an unbreakable digital asset, a trading pair that can guard against impermanent loss is upon and as the derivatives marketplace comes to the fore, we’re going to see the future of money evolve before our eyes and truly want our users to not only benefit from it but to experience and contribute to it.

 

 

Q: You mentioned that you have several partnerships in the pipeline. Can you give us a sneak peek or the purpose of some of those partnerships?

 

Sunil: Well this gets back to our ambitions. We describe our staking as purposeful because it actually does something and earns something. It is not a case of putting your tokens here and soon enough you’ll have more of the same thing you may be uncertain about. Everything we do is very measured. So, if you look at our initiatives, the partnerships may become clear. If we can incubate and offer exclusivity to POLX holders, we would need a place to launch. If we are interested in projects of a given sector, those projects themselves can contribute complementarity to what we’re already doing. Sharing communities bolster network effects. We are the first movers or leaders of a growing market and just like every chain now has its own launchpad or lending/borrowing product, we hope each chain would look into having a derivatives marketplace or perp swap or an elastic finance project that they would endorse. We’d happily partner with any of them to provide this solution or our expertise and on it goes. Our eventual product offering wears many hats but is not scattered. There is a singularity of purpose and that is to grow, incubate, accelerate and aggregate the future of money. I’ll say it again - DeFi is big and something has to fund it. Should we expect to see anything like the 1.3 quadrillion USD traded in the synthetic asset and traditional derivatives marketplaces, many many more large projects are coming to crypto and we will be here to greet them with open hands.

 

 

 

Q: How does Polylastic ensure that the Indexes data transfer from traditional markets is actual and accurate? Did Polylastic build its own oracle system, or did you cooperate with other oracle services?

 

Sunil: We do not need to depend on any oracles as our indices are designed to hold the underlying assets similar to indices traditional finance. Eg: If a user invests $1,000 into the index, then the underlying assets will be market bought based on the precalculated weightage.

 

 

Q: Is the platform safe to invest in? How strong is your security? Have you already done an audit of the platform?

 

Sunil: This is a very important question. We take security very seriously. One of our key advisors is from Certik, and we lean on them for auditing and ensuring that our solutions are most secure.

 

 

Q: After developing a good product, it is also very important to introduce that product to the widest audience. Are you going to do a global marketing effort with an experienced marketing team?

 

Sunil: Yes, we have already run a global marketing campaign that helped catapult us into one of the most successful IDOs ever. Our whitelist campaign secured 3.35 million entry points from nearly 165,000 users. We are also planning several marketing campaigns to strategically grow our user base.

 

Our marketing and B.D. teams have been working very hard and have lined up an enviable lineup of partnerships. We will be announcing strategic partnerships frequently. I won't be surprised, if over time, we grab even more partnerships thanks to Chainlink, which is the gold standard for partnerships in the industry.

 

We will be announcing a major partnership in a few hours. Please watch the space and subscribe to https://t.me/polylasticchannel and https://t.me/polylastic.

 

 

Q: Yesterday Elon Musk tweeted that he will not accept Bitcoin as payment for Tesla. What is your thought on that? And also Vitalik just donated 1 billion dollars! Do you think it will affect the crypto market and POLX?

 

Sunil: You asked for my personal opinion, which may be different to that of my organisation or my employees.

 

I think Elon Musk is hypocritical to say the least. His spaceships burn gazillions of fuel and add to the global warming too. The potential for Bitcoin and crypto to financially liberate the global population currently outweighs the benefits any space program could offer.

 

Vitalik's donation can help fight COVID-19 situation and I am really happy to hear that he is giving back to the community and ensuring that the world will soon be a safer place to live.

 

 

Q: Community support is one of the biggest aspects of a project's success. Most projects have programs that interact with their users. Do you have a special plan to engage and expand the community and improve the user experience? Where are you currently focusing on, building product development that attracts customers and users or partnerships?

 

Sunil: Good question. We have already built a strong and engaged community.

 

Our aggregator will list projects and we will aim to do co-marketing activities with each project that lists on our aggregator. This will ensure that we will be able to gather incremental user bases and hopefully, turn Polylastic into the world's largest community of engaged crypto supporters.

 

 

Q: Is there anything else you would like to share or you want us to know?

 

Sunil: In the early going, Polylastic hopes that trading will be unimpeded and supporters will be able to build a position. Given that our tiered taxation structures act as both a deterrent to sellers and an incentive to reward buyers/holders, this feature was not implemented in the initial few days in order to spur organic demand and ultimately, incentivize newer entrants.

 

We believe that several early supporters have built up a position. The tiered taxation will go live around mid next week, and then on, even buys will incur network fees/tax. So, enjoy the tax-free trading.

 

In terms of our utility, we will be adding high yield staking very soon. Watch out for further announcements.

 

Thank you to the entire KuCoin team for the support, love and opportunity you have given to Polylastic.

 

We will be looking forward to building on our collaboration and working together in the near and long term future.

 

 

 

KuCoin and Polylastic have prepared a total of 2,000 USDT to give away to AMA participants.

1. Red envelope giveaways: 655 USDT

2. Free-ask section: 45 USDT

3. Post-AMA activity: 1,300 USDT

Activity 1 — Quiz: 1,000 USDT

Activity 2 — Price Guess: 300 USDT

 

. . .

 

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