KuCoin AMA with Yield Optimization Platform (YOP) — Your Gateway Into DeFi, the Best Protocols, From the Best Blockchains, All in One Place

Dear KuCoin Users,

Time: March 21, 2022, 11:00-12:05 (UTC)

KuCoin hosted an AMA (Ask-Me-Anything) session with the Yield Optimization Platform Leadership Team members in the KuCoin Exchange Group.

Yield Optimization Platform (YOP) is an application that allows users to interact with the best DeFi protocols across the top blockchains in a simple and easy-to-use way. YOP believes that DeFi should be accessible, transparent, and diversified. This project features an intuitive interface that breaks down exactly how your yield is being generated while allowing you to gain exposure to multiple blockchains - all from a single application. YOP’s mission is to be a gateway for those seeking to participate in and learn about DeFi, whether you’re a beginner or an expert. YOP tokens are distributed across seven pools, including Community, Reserve, Marketing, Treasury, Team, Advisors, and Liquidity. The primary objective of YOP’s tokenomics is to promote the long-term sustainability of the protocol and can be bought on UniSwap, KuCoin, and Gate.io. YOP is powered by Pluto Digital PLC, a crypto operations and technology company. This seasoned management team has extensive experience and resources to help bring YOP to the next level.

Official Website: https://yop.finance

Whitepaper:

Follow YOP on Twitter and Telegram.

Guests:

John Frizelle — Chief Technology Officer of YOP

John is a distinguished software engineer, technical leader and enterprise architect. His 20 years of expertise lies in the design and development of large-scale, highly available, distributed cloud-based software platforms. John is an Agile certified Scrum Master and Product Owner and holds a BSc in Applied Computing and a Master’s Degree in Communication Software from Waterford Institute of Technology.

Dave Burrells — Chief Operating Officer of YOP

Dave is dexterous in software development, operations, business management and innovation. Bringing in excess of 20 years proficiency in the finance and technology industries, Dave’s experience spans both established enterprises such as JPMorgan and SaaS start-ups. Dave has experience in managing the delivery of innovative applications using both the latest and emerging technologies such as natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI).

Q: How does YOP expect to compete with bigger projects long term when the USP seems to be better UI than the competition? And will the potential growth of YOP not inspire already established DeFi protocols to simply adapt their model?

Dave: We are integrating and aggregating the top DeFi protocols, not competing against them. The YOP value proposition is to provide a single pane of glass for accessing the top DeFi Protocols across the top blockchains via an intuitive, easy-to-use, and transparent DApp. The YOP architecture allows us to quickly add new protocols and chains as well as support true multi-chain access, i.e., deposit into any vault on any supported chain, and YOP will route the required funds across chains to target the specific strategies.

Q: Who is the target audience of YOP?

John: The initial target audience for the private release is DeFi Native users, i.e., those who are already in the DeFi space. The longer-term plan is to make YOP as accessible as possible to everyone, whatever their level of crypto or DeFi experience is. This includes both retail and institutional investors.

We aim to be the most open, accessible, and transparent protocol on the market, helping our community learn about DeFi, understand how and where Yields are generated from and which protocols are the most trustworthy.

Q: Please tell us what are the expected APYs for Vaults and Lock Box staking?

Dave: As with pretty much every protocol, the APYs will be influenced by the TVL and the value of the governance token, i.e., YOP. During the private launch, we will have caps in place on Vaults to ensure we can protect the APYs. Vault APYs will initially be in the region of 50% to 60%. Staking APYs will depend very much on how much is staked and for how long. The more you stake and the longer you stake, the higher the APY. The staking UI provides real-time estimates on expected APYs based on the number of YOP and stake duration, but this APY will change over time, decreasing; as the staking pool gets bigger and increasing, as more fees or a larger percentage of the community emissions get routed to staking.

For the Vaults open so far, we are showing APYs of 10x higher than Yearn!

Vaults and Staking can be found here:

https://app.yop.finance/vaults

https://app.yop.finance/staking

Q: What strategies do you have to stay long-term and always give your users good profits? Tokenomics is an appropriate system of token burning, buyback, or deflationary mechanics.

John: The YOP token has a maximum supply of 88,888,888 in total. Tokens will be emitted across seven pools, including Community, Reserve, Marketing, Treasury, Team, Advisors, and Liquidity. The YOP Protocol tokenomics and emissions are designed with sustainability as the primary priority.

Community emissions commenced in January 2022, and the emissions schedule has been carefully calibrated to complement the tokens purchased from the open market to provide long-term sustainability.

A lot of work has gone into the tokenomics of the revised YOP Protocol. There is a token buyback and burn mechanism that we have discussed more in the whitepaper. You can see our tokenomics on our website.

Tokens for community rewards will be commenced in January 2022 and will continue for 10 years on a reducing balance emission schedule, with a 1% drop in emissions each month. Initial emissions will be in the region of 390,000 per month and will decline over the 120-month emission period to approximately 130,000 per month.

With a 10-year emission schedule and a sustainable model for token buyback and burn, YOP is positioned to be here for the long term!

Q: Can you explain the use for the different types of YOP NFT? Some YOP NFT (tickets and NFT won) have a price higher than others due to their rarity.

Dave: YOP NFTs are a critical part of the YOP ecosystem. YOP NFTs will give you early access to the Private Launch. To get access to the Private Launch, you will need to hold your YOP NFT in the wallet you connect to the YOP web app. The web app will check the wallet you connect and grant you access if it holds a YOP NFT. There is no difference between the YOP NFTs for the Private Launch, and there is no cut-off as to when you acquired your YOP NFT.

Q: Are all of your security audits complete?

John: We have engaged with 2 audit firms, Hacken and BTblock, to do a complete audit on our smart contracts. They both have completed their Code review and security assessment, and both returned with a few findings, all of which the fantastic YOP team jumped straight to fixing. The audit reports can be found here: https://github.com/yopfi/yop-docs/tree/main/audit-reports.

The team received positive feedback from the auditors, “In general, the team was very supportive and open to discussing the design choices made”.

Several strengths were noted during the review, including the well-structured and organized code and project files and “well-designed and clearly defined smart contract access rights.”

We will continue the ongoing audits of new smart contracts as required and have our next audit scheduled for early April 2022.

Here are some of our other thoughts on security.

Q: With all of the current issues with Ethereum in terms of speed and scalability, how soon do you think we will be multichain?

Dave: Multichain support is on the roadmap for around September 2022 timeframe at the moment.

We recognize the current challenges with Ethereum, and we will be doing everything we can to move up that date so we can get to a multichain deployment sooner if possible.

We are closely assessing a number of chains for our next deployment, with Polygon and Binance Smart Chain being the two front runners at the moment.

Q: What features are available at the private launch vs. the public launch?

John: Private launch currently includes multiple vaults, strategies, and YOP staking. We have already filled our first 2 vaults, USDC and wETH Genesis. The most recent one filled up in less than 30 minutes!

We will continue to add vaults and strategies between private and public launches with our DAI Vault launching this coming Thursday, March 24, 2022. You heard it here first! We will also be adding more detailed and historical analytics on the DeFi protocols we integrate with, so you can see exactly how and where your returns are generated, true transparency in DeFi!

But this is just the start! We have so many other great ideas in the works that we will be rolling out over the coming months, so stay tuned and come join us on Telegram and Discord!

Q: How well is YOP positioned to weather a downturn in the markets?

Dave: YOP is building for the long term. We fully believe in the future of crypto and DeFi and are building an ecosystem that will thrive for many years to come. The core YOP development is funded by Pluto Digital, which has a significant treasury.

Bear markets are also a great time to develop new tech in preparation for the next inevitable bull run.

Q: Where do you see YOP in a year? In 3 years? In 5 years?

John: As both YOP and DeFi mature, we see YOP as a cornerstone of future financial investing.

With regulation coming to DeFi and YOP being compliant with it, we will be able to explore many opportunities that are currently only available to TradFi, therefore giving YOP the decentralized benefits with the mainstream exposure.

We are very bullish on where we can take YOP and look forward to the journey ahead!

Q: When will your tokens be listed on the exchange, and which exchanges do you plan to list in the future?

John: All listings are on our website.

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

Dave: We welcome competition!

Q: Do you have any plan for burning tokens in the future to reduce the supply of the token and increase its investment attractiveness?

John: Yes. We have a section on this in our whitepaper.

Q: Many projects have problems with UI/UX, and this one turns off new users. How do you plan to improve the interaction with new users and users outside the crypto space?

Dave: UI/UX is a significant focus of the product. We want to make the platform easy to use and understand, so new people to crypto will feel confident using it.

Q: 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?

John:

1. Ease of use: We make sure people understand what is happening and why;

2. Transparency: See exactly where your yields are coming from;

3. Diversity: Multiple chains, multiple protocols, all actively managed.

Q: Where can I currently buy your token?

Dave: KuCoin, Gate.io, and UniSwap

Q: Does your project support staking programs? If yes, how does your stake system work, and what is the requirement for users if they want to stake in your platform?

John: Staking is available in the app via https://app.yop.finance/staking. You need to hold YOP tokens in your wallet. The more you stake and the longer you stake for, the more you earn

Q: Is the core YOP funded by Pluto Digital only, or does it have other subordinates funding it as well?

Dave: Pluto Digital is the sole funder for the YOP project.

Q: Can you explain what your tokenomics distribution is? How many tokens will be minted, and how many tokens will be locked by the team?

John: This is answered in detail in our whitepaper.

Q: How many team members do you have? Do they have enough experience in the blockchain field? Do they have any experience working in crypto and non-crypto projects?

Dave: You can see the details of the team on our website.

Q: Do you allow suggestions and feedback from the community? Are we allowed in decision-making? Do you put the community into consideration?

John: Yes, absolutely! We are an open and transparent team and regularly engage with the community in both Telegram and Discord. We welcome all feedback and engagement. It is our intention to start a transition towards a DAO later this year.

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

Dave: Here is a link to our roadmap. To date, we have hit every milestone on time!

Q: Can you briefly describe your partnership so far and upcoming partnerships?

Dave: We have partnerships with Hacken and BTBlock, who are our audit partners. We are also in talks with Smarttech247, Fireblocks, and Elliptic.

And, of course, KuCoin is one of the great partners of YOP!

Q: It is easy to make a token, but it's really hard to make this token valuable. So what's your strategy to make your token more valuable, and what's your plan to maintain token price and supply?

John: This is all answered in the tokenomics section of our whitepaper.

Q: Have your team members personally invested in YOP to show their confidence in the project?

Dave: A lot (if not all) of the team members have invested in YOP. We believe very much in drinking our own champagne!

Q: What is the best way to follow all your upcoming news and updates? What are your plans for the future?

Dave: By just joining our socials, we keep them all updated:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/YOPfi

Telegram: https://t.me/yopfi

Discord:

Medium: https://medium.com/@yopfi

KuCoin and YOP have prepared a total of 8,800 YOP to give away to AMA participants.

1. Free-ask section: 330 YOP

2. AMA activity: 8,470 YOP

Activity 1 — Quiz: 6,600 YOP

Activity 2 — Price Guess: 1,320 YOP

Participation Rewards: 550 YOP

. . .

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