KuCoin AMA With The Divi Project — Making Crypto Easy and Accelerating Its Mainstream Adoption

Dear KuCoin Users,

Time: June 16, 2021, 13:00-14:00 (UTC)

KuCoin hosted an AMA (Ask-Me-Anything) session with Divi CIO Nick Saponaro and CINO Joshua Caleb in the KuCoin Exchange Group.

The Divi Project has a simple mission. To make crypto easy. The team is focused on solving the biggest issues preventing mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies - usability and accessibility, while still remaining both decentralized and non-custodial.

It’s proof of stake consensus allows coin holders to earn rewards for securing the network through staking and masternodes. It’s patent pending one-click masternode software enables users of any skill level to begin earning rewards in an instant and the soon to be released mobile staking vaults will eliminate the need to run a machine 24/7.

Having launched its revolutionary mobile wallet in the US in April this year, there are plans in the works for a global roll-out and a roadmap packed full of features including a fiat on/off-ramp, the ability to swap crypto to crypto and crypto to fiat, ACH and wire transfers, a Divi debit card to spend, and much more.

Divi’s partners and communities are building a variety of use cases such as gaming, media/entertainment, merchant solutions, and DeFi applications as it leads the way into the next age of cryptocurrency.

Divi is delivering a new paradigm for financial services. One that is truly decentralized, accessible to all, and works for everyone. The result is a completely integration financial ecosystem that makes buying, selling, and using cryptocurrencies faster, more secure, and accessible to people at all levels of technical expertise.

Official Website: https://diviproject.org

White Paper:

Follow Divi on Twitter and Telegram.

Guests:

Nick Saponaro — Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Co-Founder of The Divi Project

Nick is an entrepreneur, crypto enthusiast, and keynote speaker who is regularly featured in the media talking about crypto-related issues.

Nick started investing in cryptocurrencies in 2013, however his crypto career really began straight out of high school when he started a custom PC business that built rigs for gaming and Bitcoin mining.

Nick joined Divi in 2017 as a full stack developer and was quickly invited to become a co-founder and Chief Information Officer of the fledgling business.

He is responsible for Divi Core - all of the company’s web services, client-facing apps, and protocol development that will actualize Divi’s mission; to make crypto easy and drive its mainstream adoption.

Joshua Caleb — Chief Innovation Officer (CINO) of The Divi Project

Joshua joined the Divi leadership team in May as Divi’s Chief Innovation Officer. His experience from previous management roles in the blockchain consulting sector makes him especially well-suited to lead Divi’s emerging solutions division. His career began in the financial services industry, and he has served on a variety of advisory roles within different blockchain organizations. This intimate understanding of the crypto-space will help Divi navigate the technical hurdles all projects face.

Joshua is passionate about alternate financial technology and believes in blockchain as a means of driving social mobility. His commitment to supporting the development of innovative technology and empowering the most economically disadvantaged is just another reason Divi is proud to have him on their leadership team.

Nick: Thank you for having us as guests in your wonderful community. Happy to be here. Hi everyone!

Joshua: Hi! It’s a pleasure to connect with the KuCoin community.

Q: What is the Divi Project?

Nick: The Divi Project’s mission is to improve people’s lives by making crypto easy and accelerating its mainstream adoption. We will achieve this through world-class user experience and industry-leading solutions.

Sharing the same vision that prompted Satoshi Nakamoto to create Bitcoin, the team’s goal is to establish a self-sustained, fully decentralized private payment solution that makes buying, selling, and using cryptocurrencies faster, more secure, and accessible to people at all levels of technical expertise.

Divi is a vast blockchain payments ecosystem with an innovative set of services tucked into a smart mobile and desktop wallet. From one-click masternodes to human-readable addresses, the entire project is focused on user experience and accessibility so anyone can be a part of the blockchain revolution. Not just the tech-savvy.

Launched as an ERC-20 token (DIVX) and released through Ethereum's blockchain at an ICO event in 2017, Divi founded its layer-one blockchain in 2018 and swapped from the original DIVX ERC-20 token to the current DIVI coin.

Since then, we’ve developed and released several important software milestones and have been the recipients of numerous industry accolades, including second place in the "Token Tank" contest at World Crypto Con in Las Vegas, and ranking #3 under Omni's Trust OAG rating, behind only Dash and PIVX.

Q: What are the milestones achieved so far?

Joshua: There are so many to choose from, but here are a few!

Divi Labs: Divi’s fintech innovation center, Divi Labs, is responsible for developing world-class decentralized solutions powered by the Divi blockchain. Built with humans in mind, Divi Labs is developing technologies that solve the issues of usability and accessibility that have inhibited mainstream adoption of crypto. The result is software and services that make cryptocurrency faster, more secure, and accessible to people at all levels of technical expertise.

The easiest Masternodes in Crypto: Setting up and operating a masternode is just a click away with Divi’s patent-pending masternode One-Click Cloud Installer (MOCCI). This ensures that anyone, regardless of technical ability, can set up and run a Divi Node in moments. No code or experience required.

The most powerful crypto-wallet: Our recently launched non-custodial smart wallet comes loaded with innovative features and delivers on the company’s promise of individual custodianship and financial sovereignty. If you are in the US, you can download it from diviwallet.com, and we will soon be rolling it out to the rest of the world, so make sure you sign up to be notified when it’s in your region!

To find out more about the wallet, check out this video: https://t.me/Kucoin_Exchange/3916105

Nick: I would also add

KuCoin listing: Our listing on KuCoin was a really important step for us, and represents our first tier-one exchange. 2021 really feels like the year we get Divi out to the people, and KuCoin provides a great buying experience for new users! We’ve been building for years, and we’re thrilled to be here.

Our network: Finally, we’ve seen incredible success regarding the decentralization of our network. It is proof that we really have created an incredibly decentralized and healthy ecosystem. Moving forward, we see this as the future of crypto - A completely integrated financial ecosystem that anyone can be a part of.

Q: What opportunities are there for traders and those seeking to earn?

Nick: Divi’s Proof of Stake consensus allows users to earn rewards from validating transactions through staking. Staking nodes receive a payment of 418 DIVI every block, the winner being chosen stochastically based on their ‘stake’. The rewards provide an incentivized environment for staking wallets, who receive an income for securing Divi through transaction validation.

Divi users can also run full masternodes through Divi’s desktop and mobile wallet. Divi offers a tiered system with five levels of masternodes available. Each tier requires a different amount of DIVI as collateral - our lowest tier is 100k DIVI, while the highest is the Diamond at a cost of 10,000,000 DIVI. The different tiers offer increasing bonuses ranging from 21.5% to 25.8% APR. There is a tier for everyone, and users often upgrade their nodes as they earn, providing an incredibly secure ecosystem of node holders.

Divi’s lottery sees 11 winners chosen each week, with one lucky person receiving 252,000 DIVI and 10 others each receiving 25,000 DIVI. The winners are determined by blocks - different criteria from the regular lottery generating numbers. It’s a unique aspect of the Divi ecosystem and gives smaller users the chance to win big, thus further incentivizing smaller stakers in the network.

Thanks to our partnership with Hummingbot, you can now earn additional USDT rewards when you deploy a trading bot with KuCoin. By using the Hummingbot Miner platform, you can earn rewards when you contribute liquidity to the DIVI/USDT trading pair on KuCoin. We have a campaign with them at present with $30k worth of rewards and an AMA this Friday the 18th at 5 pm PST on their YouTube. To find out more, tune in to the AMA or visit: https://medium.com/hummingbot/launching-divi-liquidity-mining-campaign-decf1039df4b

Q: What does staking economics look like for DIVI?

Joshua: DIVI is a novel blockchain that embraces the healthy and balanced inflation of its ecosystem. First of all, we utilize a Proof of Stake (Pos) consensus algorithm. Stakeholders validate new blocks by utilizing their share of coins on the network, and this is done just by leaving their encrypted wallet connected to the Divi network, either on a home computer or on a cloud server. The schedule of newly minted coins (block reward) is a decreasing rate of inflation.

When we started this journey, we realized that to create an ecosystem that was attractive and easy for people to enter and still be able to use DIVI as a currency, we would require an inflationary model to begin with, but we believe it will find a stable balance over time as adoption and usage increases. Most people often think that inflation is automatically bad. A healthily controlled inflation has massive advantages, which is that it helps with price stabilization, making it better for worldwide adoption, and use as a global currency.

Q: What kind of growth have you seen in wallet sign-ups and masternodes?

Nick: Over the past year, we have seen a consistent expansion of our node ecosystem. We now have over 2,000 masternodes, contributing to one of the most decentralized coins on the planet.

With regards to wallet sign-ups, we have acquired 4,500 users in the last month on our new mobile app despite only being in soft launch in the US and doing no advertising activity! In the coming weeks, we will be moving to a full launch for the US with extensive paid and partnership activity. We also intend to roll out our referral program to encourage friend get friend activity.

We are expecting significant growth in the next few months as we roll out to the rest of the world and are anticipating our on/off-ramp and ability to swap will see us grow exponentially. It’s a really exciting time for us, and we’re finally seeing our years of honest hard work pay off.

Q: What is your roadmap for 2021 and beyond?

Joshua: 2021 is about two things. Getting the Divi mobile wallet out to the world and embarking on our goal of Divi everywhere.

Our mobile wallet, which soft-launched in the US this May, pushes the blockchain to the background, creating a familiar and naturally intuitive experience for users without compromising on security and custodianship. This creates a great platform for us to launch from. From here, this year, we hope to offer:

- In wallet crypto-to-crypto swaps

- Fiat-to-crypto features

- International banking numbers

- Debit cards, allowing users to spend their crypto anywhere

Delivering these will complete the completely integrated financial ecosystem we have always envisaged, and we cannot wait!

Q: What kind of innovation is Divi striving for in the near future?

Nick: One of our main focuses over these past two quarters has been to drive Divi into the DeFi ecosystem. We believe that it’s crucial for us to expand the ways that DIVI is utilized by bringing the DIVI coin into a cross-chain environment where users can trade, stake, and borrow using their DIVI.

On a different front, we are also working toward a major merchant adoption campaign that will bring new buying power to DIVI users. This campaign will focus on integrating DIVI into existing crypto payment platforms that will make DIVI an accepted form of payment at businesses all over the country as well as online. Divi is, first and foremost, a currency, and we’re excited to see it used! Here’s a graphic to better understand our pillars that govern innovation:

Q: Who is on the Divi team?

Joshua: The Divi leadership team is perfectly placed to drive innovation, combining visionaries, technologists, and proven business leaders who passionately believe in the Divi vision. We have spent the past 12 months consistently adding to our team in strategic areas. The team is now 40 strong, with a diversity of knowledge and expertise that will push us to bigger and better things. Our diverse team brings a host of strengths and differentiates us from the industry.

We have brought together thought leaders, innovative blockchain developers, crypto-enthusiasts, and community members. And we have the best community support in the industry. We don’t just say we’re here to make crypto easy. Every step of the way, we make sure we’re following that vision. We have people from inside the industry and plenty of external experience. This balanced approach means we have a team that inherently understands the crypto industry yet can navigate seamlessly in more traditional sectors. We’re really proud of the team we have assembled.

Q: How can I join Divi’s lottery system?

Nick: Stake with at least 10,000 DIVI. For each staking reward you receive, you get another "ticket." 11 "tickets" (or transaction hashes) are selected every week. You can win up to 252,000 DIVI, which is worth nearly 13k USD now.

Q: How many nodes can one user start, and after how much will the first percent be credited?

Nick: There is no limit to the number of nodes you can deploy, as long as you have the DIVI collateral! Masternode payout times can be seen here:

Q: As you told us, we can download this wallet from the US. If I want to download this wallet from other countries, how will I download it?

Nick: We will be rolling out to the global community very soon. I would recommend joining our Telegram @diviproject for the latest updates there. For now, you can download the desktop wallet and begin staking or running a masternode there.

Q: How was the MOCCI infrastructure designed, and what is its difference and advantage compared to other masternode infrastructures?

Nick: MOCCI is a patent-pending design (https://patents.justia.com/patent/20210099311) that allows users to deploy a node with a single click from desktop or mobile. We designed it with decentralization in mind, so the user always retains both their keys and their coins. The nodes are currently hosted across a variety of regional data centers, but the patent above actually enables other nodes to host one another, furthering the decentralization goal.

Q: How strong is your mobile wallet token security? What will you do to spread awareness of it?

Nick: We have really robust and exciting plans for marketing in 2021 and beyond. While initially we will be targeting current coin holders, when we launch features such as the on-ramp, we’ll be looking to target increasingly mainstream audiences and adding new channels to the mix. Our strategy involves us removing the barriers to entry that exist in cryptocurrency first, then going after those users.

The beauty of our product and offering is that anyone who uses payment and banking apps could consolidate their finances and use Divi Wallet for all their needs. There are plenty of crypto wallets out there, but none of them do everything we can in a completely non-custodial way. This means our potential audience is enormous, perhaps beyond any project in the space.

We’ll be imminently kicking off paid media, we’re working with some exciting influencers like Vosk Coin (check out a recent video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9vOjWOLsnc) and we are gaining some real momentum in the press across a range of media - in fact in May we had coverage 15 times - that’s one piece of coverage every second day! We have some brilliant media partnerships with top-tier publications, are focused on our content marketing and social, and will be launching a referral program later in the year.

The team has put together an amazing plan which we feel will really set us apart from the competition, and we couldn’t be more excited for the future!

Q: Does the Divi Project support any community cause and is funded by its nodes?

Nick: 1% of our block rewards go to charity causes. We have donated computers and resources to the Marsh Children's Home in Mexico, supported low-income student housing here in the States, provided meals to those in need in the Philippines, supported the distribution of bikes to kids who need them in South Africa, and once a week our Venezuelan community uses $DIVI to attend to children and the elderly.

https://twitter.com/RamosXtremeVe/status/1403834181625561091

Q: So many rug pulls are happening nowadays, and almost 75% of projects with an anonymous team do rug pulls. How can we be sure that you are not like them and that we can invest in your project safely?

Joshua: We strive to actively engage in the community as much as possible. Our team is not anonymous, and you can learn more about us here:

Q: You said that perhaps the biggest long-term challenge to mass adoption faced by crypto is the problem of security! Security is very important, so how does Divi guarantee maximum security to users?

Why did you decide to use Masternode One-Click Cloud Installer? What were the main features that convinced you?

Nick: Well, firstly, we are and always will be non-custodial. We will never have access to our user’s coins. We are focused on developing solutions that improve our user experience and our user autonomy. This is a core vision of ours and something we are proud of.

We also ensure that we are audited by third-party services for any product that we offer to our community. For example, our wallet was audited by LIFARS, and we received incredible feedback. We perform third-party audits once per quarter, at the very least.

Q: To have a community that believes in the project and supports it also is one of the biggest aspects of the success of a project. Most projects do have programs that interact with their users. Do you have any special plans to attract and expand the community and improve the community experience even more?

Nick: Right now, our users can earn additional $DIVI by participating in the Divi Crew! You can sign up at divicrew.app

Q: For Divi, why did you choose ERC-20? What could be the reason and what makes the project team conclude this will be the best suit for Divi?

Joshua: The new realm of financial services known as DeFi (decentralized finance) is predominantly built on platforms that operate on the Ethereum network. These services allow users to access tools such as loans and trading without the traditional barriers of permission or needing to share one’s identity.

By placing DIVI on the Ethereum network, DIVI holders would be able to trade their DIVI on decentralized platforms like UniSwap and eventually use DIVI as collateral for decentralized lending platforms like Compound and Aave.

Q: Not every crypto user understands technical issues well enough. Has your project prepared any informative material that could facilitate the use of inexperienced users?

Nick: That is precisely why we created $DIVI. We push the blockchain to the background, so the user only experiences a familiar and focused application. Things like usernames, avatars, etc., give the user confidence that they are sending funds to the right person, while things like our one-click nodes allow users to begin earning crypto without any technical knowledge whatsoever. And the best part? Many of these features work for your other favorite coins like BTC, LTC, ETH, and many more to come.

Q: Billions are there without banking, and your vision is to change that. Your vision is excellent, and it will change the frame of the world. My question is, what all precautions and measures did your team take to change it? Is it possible to achieve this vision in the near future?

Nick: We work closely with both global and local law firms to ensure compliance with jurisdictional regulations. Building this hybrid ecosystem has not been easy but thanks to the partnerships and leverage of our partners in the traditional finance space, we are very close to achieving this vision.

Q: When I deposit my crypto assets in my Divi wallet account, can my money be detained as in central wallets? Can my money be confiscated? Do we need to do KYC to use a DIVI wallet? What are your KYC terms?

Nick: When you use any crypto in our wallet, the crypto is YOURS. We do not retain the keys or seed phrases of our users.

Once the fiat features roll out, there will be KYC requirements. This includes things like setting up a bank account, purchasing with fiat, etc. However, those features will remain optional. If you want to use the wallet as an anonymous participant, you will always have that choice.

Q: From where you get the project name? What does it mean to you? And why did you choose this name for your project? What is your mission and vision to build this project? What do you want to achieve in the future?

Joshua: To 'divvy' something up, in English, means to share equitably, which is how our earnings protocol functions. Everyone should have the chance to earn and access this revolutionary technology we call cryptocurrency.

Q: Token burn is beneficial for any project in being able to control the number of token circulation and to provide greater incentives to investors. Does your great project have a plan about token burn?

Joshua: We currently burn transaction fees on the network.

Q: According to the roadmap, what are your most important next priorities? Does your team have enough funds and a strong community to achieve those milestones?

Nick: We are one of the few projects that are actually self-funded. We did not raise as much as some of our competitors in our ICO yet we have outperformed nearly all of them thanks to our focus on execution, remarkable team, and community. We are self-sustaining and have enough funding to take us forward for many years.

Q: Why should users choose Divi? What advantages does Divi have to attract them?

Nick: The majority of our users come to us because they see a sustainable way to earn a crypto income via our nodes and they believe in our philosophy of building an easy-to-access and use multi-coin ecosystem that integrates seamlessly with the traditional finance world. Most can understand that crypto will not achieve mainstream appeal unless it's easy to use, decentralized without compromise, and adapts to everyone's lifestyle. That is what Divi is building.

As the project has grown, we have seen the community take flight with their own initiatives and, while our focus remains on the acceleration of crypto adoption via our payments ecosystem, many new use-cases have developed as a result.

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

Nick: Please join our Telegram community t.me/diviproject if you have further questions. Be sure to check out diviproject.org and diviwallet.com for more information about the project and wallet. I hope to see you all in our community soon!

KuCoin and Divi have prepared a total of 33,000 DIVI to give away to AMA participants.

1. Free-ask section: 1,500 DIVI

2. AMA activity: 31,500 DIVI

Activity 1 — Quiz: 22,500 DIVI

Activity 2 — Price Guess: 4,500 DIVI

Participation Rewards: 4,500 DIVI

. . .

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