KuCoin AMA With Qredo — Decentralized Digital Asset Management Infrastructure

Dear KuCoin Users,

Time: August 31, 2021, 10:00-11:11 (UTC)

KuCoin hosted an AMA (Ask-Me-Anything) session with Qredo COO Josh Goodbody in the KuCoin Exchange Group in time for the world premiere listing of its innovative token, QRDO, on KuCoin.

Qredo is a decentralized digital asset management infrastructure and product suite designed to unlock new opportunities for institutional investors in cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance.

Qredo's Layer 2 blockchain protocol enables users to seamlessly transfer and settle Bitcoin, Ethereum, and ERC-20 tokens. Assets are secured by Qredo’s advanced Gen 2.0 Multi-Party Computation (MPC), which provides tier-1 bank security and institutional-grade governance.

Earlier this month, Qredo launched the open beta of its Liquidity Hub, a new peer-to-peer trading venue that enables crypto investors to trade and swap over-the-counter — without needing to trust third parties, custodians, or complex mechanisms such as wraps and pegs.

In July, Qredo successfully raised $35 million in the heavily oversubscribed sale of its innovative new token, QRDO. QRDO represents a radical new approach to utility and governance tokens, offering a unique user-centric model that incentivizes all network participants, not only validators.

Official Website: https://www.qredo.com

White Paper:

Follow Qredo on Twitter and Telegram.

Guest:

Josh Goodbody — Chief Operating Officer at Qredo

Working closely with Qredo CEO Anthony Foy, Josh is responsible for implementing its go-to-market strategy and the evolution of Qredo Network in line with its decentralized principles and the all-important needs of its users.

Josh began his career in traditional finance — working on the legal side of the commodities and derivatives markets. While at a commodities fintech company in 2017, he encountered blockchain for the first time and was blown away by its potential to fix the fragmentation and antiquated processes found in legacy finance.

His first role in crypto was at the cryptocurrency exchange Huobi where he joined as Global General Counsel, later moving on to lead their Institutional Business. His most recent role before joining Qredo was at Binance, where he led and scaled the EMEA organization, helping it to become one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges by trading volume.

Josh: Folks - it's a real pleasure to be here today. We are SO excited to be taking QRDO to KuCoin.

You guys rock.

Q: What is Qredo and what problem does it solve?

Josh: The magic question...

While Satoshi took the trust out of transactions with Bitcoin, centralized methods of managing private keys reintroduced trust to the crypto market.

We knew there had to be a better way..

Storing vulnerable keys in databases, and shunting them offline in hardware and paper wallets, has led to not only poor billion-dollar security breaches but siloed liquidity and market fragmentation; assets are locked away and can't be readily deployed in the DeFi ecosystem, with accessibility and granular control sacrificed for the sake of limited security.

Qredo changes all of that.

This radical new blockchain infrastructure eliminates the need for private keys to manage the ownership of digital assets. Instead, a trustless implementation of multi-party computation (MPC) provides a more flexible and secure way of signing transactions.

We call this new way of managing digital assets decentralized custody, and it opens up new possibilities.

Custom governance: Teams managing assets on Qredo can appoint an unlimited number of signers and delegating permissions to fit custom custodial policies.

Instant settlement: Transactions between platforms on the Qredo Network and across different supported blockchains settle instantly with low fees.

Interoperability: Qredo will enable trading of 95% of blockchain-based assets without adding multiple layers of counterparty risk through wrapping or pegs. At present, Qredo supports BTC, ETH, and over 20 ERC-20 tokens.

Security: Holding assets on a decentralized network removes counterparty risk completely and eliminates the risk of private keys being compromised.

Q: How does decentralized custody work?

Josh: Grab a coffee - we are going in deep....!

OK - to decentralize the holding of private keys, Qredo uses the cryptographic breakthrough of multi-party computation (MPC), implemented using a Threshold Signature Scheme (TSS).

Shares of the cryptographic key are contained in MPC nodes, which are distributed on the network. Together, the nodes generate a digital signature to sign transactions without ever producing a private key.

For maximum security, the MPC nodes are distributed between security-hardened tier 4 data centers distributed across global financial hubs and controlled by the Qredochain.

The Qredochain is a Layer 2 network that provides an immutable registry of assets and activity.

Each custodial operation — each transaction, each signature, and each change to wallet custodial policies — is mined into the blockchain. In this way, custody is decentralized.

We like to refer to this with the hashtag: #TheNetworkIsTheVault

Q: Who are Qredo's partners and investors?

Josh: We are building a coalition of the brave!

Our seed investment round raised over $11M and was led by a diverse group of investors, including GSR, G1, Gumi Cryptos, Kronos Research, Maven 11, Spartan Group, 1kx, Wintermute, and Kenetic.

We also have a great group of strategic investors that are building on the Network — including Celsius and Deribit.

Other big crypto names, including Coinbase Ventures and Nexo, invested in our private token sale, which raised over $16M.

On top of that, there is our loyal community: over 35,000 QRDO token holders that participated in our public token sale on Coinlist, which raised over $18M in under two hours.

We have some huge partnerships and, of course, listings to announce very, very soon - can't wait to share this with you!

Q: What experience do the Qredo executives have?

Josh: The Qredo team has decades of combined experience spanning cryptography, enterprise software, traditional finance, and digital assets.

At the helm, we have CEO Anthony Foy. He is a digital veteran and serial entrepreneur with over 20+ years of experience in VC-backed growth companies and four successful exits. After his first venture was acquired by IBM six months after its IPO, he went on to lead a number of other IPOs.

Brian Spector is the technical brain behind the operation. He led global teams (McAfee, RSA Security) in enterprise cryptography for several years before pursuing his true passion in digital assets.

I am Josh Goodbody, Qredo's COO.

Prior to joining Qredo, I played a key role scaling some of the industry's largest exchanges, driving growth for Huobi as Intl General Counsel, then leading its Global Institutional Business, and joining Binance as EMEA Regional Director to help the exchange scale to become the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume.

Q: What dApps are being built on the network?

Josh: There are multiple dApps being built on Qredo Network today!

As a small example: We are working with a number of exchanges, including Deribit to integrate Qredo’s self-custodial wallets.

Our partner HedgeGuard has built a Portfolio Management System on Qredo Network that makes internal reconciliation more efficient by enabling instant low fee transfers between accounts.

We have recently launched a dApp that we incubated, called Liquidity Hub, which is the neatest Cross-chain swaps platform out there.

Check it out: https://twitter.com/QredoNetwork/status/1430461589593804811

Q: What is on Qredo's roadmap?

Josh:

The amazing support we've had from investors so far gives us real firepower to keep building and achieving our roadmap, and we have several big developments in the pipeline.

At present, Qredo has deployed Version 1 Mainnet, where Qredo Ltd is the sole operator of a decentralized architecture. This includes Layer 2 trading and settlement, decentralized custody enterprise-grade crypto wallets, and atomic cross-chain swaps.

Version 2.0 of the protocol will be released next year, it will bring a fully decentralization with independent validators.

As part of Qredo V2.0, Qredo has developed an encrypted Layer 3 network. This will be a game-changer, enabling secure communication between traders and the easy sharing of transaction data to meet compliance needs - we hope this will see Qredo start to evolve into the Bloomberg terminal for crypto.

Ultimately, Qredo is uniquely positioned to accommodate the multi-trillion-dollar flow of assets expected to be — one day — securitized on the blockchain.

The Network will also help open up new markets by bringing together this world of tokenized securities with DeFi and digital assets.

Q: What is Qredo's listing strategy?

Josh: Qredo is listing QRDO today on KuCoin and Gate.io to give the token exposure to 15 million new investors, many of whom are Asia-based.

Viva KuCoin!✌️

To help create a healthy order book, we have enlisted professional market-making firms (who are investors in Qredo) that have been loaned QRDO to build the book in a process similar to a traditional IPO.

Across these two exchanges, 1,100,000 QRDO is being awarded to users. This is only 0.11% of the QRDO token supply.

We are, of course speaking, with all the large exchanges and have big plans.

Over the next few months, we will be announcing new listings every few weeks, and some of these collaborations are huge.

Q: Why is QRDO worth holding?

Josh: So this definitely isn't investment advice, but I'll give you a general overview of what we've done to make QRDO unique.

QRDO holders will have the opportunity to earn via custody mining, transaction mining, staking, and more.

This is made possible through a unique tailor-made Layer 2 token model designed to reward ALL Network participants, underpinned by two incentive structures: fee-based compensation and inflation-based compensation.

The first staking opportunity will open on September 1, 2021: Qredo is launching Auto-Staking for all QRDO held in the Qredo Network.

So, if you hold your QRDO in the Qredo Network, you will automatically generate a monthly staking yield of 10.1% APY. Staking rewards will be distributed on a monthly basis.

Q: How will the demand for your token increase in the future? Or what steps would you take to increase the demand?

Josh: So, we have directly connected Qredo Network usage with the demand of QRDO on the secondary markets: stay tuned for this.

Further to this, our innovative Auto-Staking Programme gives yield on any QRDO held in the Qredo Network.

Q: Your project has great features. There must be an experienced team behind. Can you tell me about your team and their experiences in the market?

Josh:

We are supported by 70+ world-class members of the team.

Q: Tell us a little bit about security? Have you done an audit of the platform? Are the smart contracts error-free? What are the test results?

Josh: Blockchain security firm Quantstamp has audited the token repository. NCC Group has conducted a security assessment of the Apache Milagro MPC library, and Zokyo has pen-tested the web app and iOS app.

The protocol has also been peer-reviewed by world-renowned cryptographer Dr. Michael Scott. Dr. Scott is the former Head of Computing at Dublin University and the originator of the MIRACL library, fork of the milago library. The MPC code is part of this library.

Q: Do you have an ambassador program available? If yes, how can I join it? And may I know what’s the benefit available for the ambassador?

Josh: We want you.

Qredo ambassadors—also known as Qredonians—are invited to take part in a range of promotional activities.

In return, Qredonians can earn Qredo swag and some exciting Network rewards, Network with crypto influencers and expand their personal footprint in the industry, and be an important part of the team building Qredo and get extra insights as we grow the Network.

Learn how to become a Qredonian: https://www.qredo.com/new-blog/are-you-a-qredonian?hsLang=en

Q: Did you consider community feedback/requests during the creation of your product in order to expand on fresh ideas for your project? Many projects fail because the target audience and clients are not understood. So I'd like to know who your ideal consumer is for your product?

Josh: Qredo aims to be the go-to hub for institutions with crypto holdings.

Our goal is to decentralize digital asset custody and enable cross-chain swaps and settlements for institutions with crypto holdings. We've worked with some of the largest firms in crypto to get here, and in the process, some of them have become our investors.

However, we follow open-source principles, and the Qredo Network is open and available to everyone.

Q: Can you list your project’s 1-3 killer features that make it ahead of competitors? What are the competitive advantages your platform has that you feel most confident about?

Josh: For me, there are 3 standout features:

1. Qredo is cross-chain, enabling native cross-chain atomic swaps.

2. Qredo Network makes MPC-based security accessible to everyone.

3. A Layer 2 that is compatible with almost all Layer 1 blockchains.

Q: Can you share with us your tokenomics? How much is the total and circulation supply of your tokens? Will there be a buyback system or token burning in the future?

Josh: Sure, please check out:

1. Our Token Paper: https://www.qredo.com/qredo-token-paper

2. Our Listing Strategy: https://www.qredo.com/blog/our-listing-strategy

Q: How secure is your platform to use? Have you done audits of smart contracts? What security measures are adopted from bugs of smart contracts and hacking?

Josh: So, when it comes to cyber security, counterparty risk or the risk of hacking….

We operate a network of MPC nodes with onboard HSMs (Hardware Security Modules) used to secure their own key material.

The nodes are in several tier 4 data centers spread across the world. The machines are not connected to the internet and instead share a secured network with our blockchain validators. The machines are built to destroy their secret material if an attempt to open their enclosures is made.

Using MPC allows us to generate layer 1 blockchain addresses and layer 1 signed transactions WITHOUT there ever being a single private key (single point of compromise). Permission to use the MPC to sign withdrawal requests is controlled by the Qredo blockchain, which is driven by our flexible m of n governance controls using either human users or bots that must sign their transaction requests using a BLS signing key, which is only known to each individual.

Q: Are you afraid that someday there will be another project with more innovative technology that can replace your project?

Josh: We stay humble and are always trying to innovate.

What I can say is we have the best team to do this, so we always want to stay ahead!

Q: What is the most ambitious goal of your project? What is the ultimate vision that your project is trying to achieve within the cryptocurrency market? I would appreciate it if you could share with us any upcoming updates?

Josh: Becoming the meta-layer for the cross-chain crypto ecosystem, bridging participants of all types, from exchanges, retail platforms to institutions.

Q: Could you please provide some progress on your roadmap and what results Qredo has achieved so far? And any sneak-peek into 2021 plans for your project?

Josh:

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 any special plans to attract and expand the community and improve the user experience?

Josh: Absolutely.

Alongside promotional activity and the Qredonian Program, we are going to be launching a Community and Grant program, which will be building a diverse and active community of Qredonian Builders.

Q: Do you have tutorial videos so we can get to know your project more clearly, or do you have a YouTube channel or something? Can you share it with us?

Josh: We have a range of explainer videos on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/QredoNetwork/videos

Some of these are designed for people starting out on the Network, but they’re short and will give you a good idea of how it works and the functionality available!

We’ll be adding more video content soon, so if you subscribe to the channel, you’ll catch all the new stuff.


Q: Are you planning to promote your project in countries or regions where English is not good? Do you have a local community for them to better understand your project?

Josh: Delighted to say we have lots of international fans. Currently, we have Turkish, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Hindi, and Korean groups. We are working on growing the number of international community groups to serve them as we speak - watch this space and join the Qredo Official Telegram group for more details.

Q: Why are 3 different layers used, Layer 3, Layer 2 and Layer 1? What is the advantage of layers?

Josh: Layer 1: we support all existing layer 1 blockchains, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum - these assets are held in layer 1 wallets, controlled by our Layer 2 network - which tracks and maintains ownership rights for all layer 1 assets in the network.

Our "layer 3" is a secure and encrypted decentralized messaging layer (avoiding overburdening the layer 2 with complex metadata!)

Q: Is there any staking system in Qredo? And what kind of advantages can I get if I hold QRDO?

Josh: The first staking opportunity will open tomorrow.

From September 1, 2021, Qredo is launching Auto-Staking for all QRDO held in the Qredo Network.

So, if you hold your QRDO in the Qredo Network, you will automatically generate a monthly staking yield of 10.1% APY. Staking rewards will be distributed on a monthly basis.

In V2, Qredo will be implementing a unique user-centric token model that rewards ALL network participants.

This includes custody mining, transaction mining, and staking — allowing all network users (not just validators and liquidity providers) to benefit from using the network.

KuCoin and Qredo have prepared a total of 4,000 QRDO to give away to AMA participants.

1. Free-ask section: 150 QRDO

2. AMA quiz: 3,000 QRDO

3. Participation rewards: 850 QRDO

. . .

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