Recently ForTube held an AMA with the Binance Chinese community. This is a translation of that AMA.
About Jeffery
Jeffrey is the co-CEO of ForTube. Previously, he worked in China UnionPay as a senior manager, focusing on the R&D of inter-bank transfer clearing system and investment. After that, Jeffrey was focusing on investment consulting blockchain and the digital economy. Jeffrey has great experience in investment and operation in the Blockchain and fintech industry.
About ForTube
A leading DeFi lending platform based on The Force Protocol, ForTube is committed to providing decentralized lending services for crypto asset enthusiasts around the world. ForTube supports a majority of popular assets in the world. ForTube is built on Smart Contracts and automated algorithm technology. Users can deposit to earn interest, mortgage and borrow digital assets. The interest rates on ForTube are determined by market supply and demand, and assets are all controlled by users. ForTube supports deposits and withdrawal, borrow and repayment at any time.
Q1. What do you think of the current global DeFi market and lending market? How does ForTube position itself in DeFi?
Jeffrey: I think any user who participates in the DeFi field will care about this topic. At the beginning of 2020, we predicted that the global TVL of DeFi will reach $20 billion. Today, the TVL scale of the DeFi market has exceeded $35 billion, and the lending market exceeds $6 billion. In my opinion, these data are really just the beginning and continue to set new highs. The development of the DeFi market has benefited from more and more institutions and individuals who have begun to recognize crypto assets and have higher requirements for the transparency of financial data transactions.
ForTube is committed to becoming the world’s leading DeFi lending platform, which was the goal from the beginning. In the second stage, ForTube aims to become a DeFi integrated financial service provider, including support for bonds, NFT and other assets. ForTube hopes to serve at least 20% of the global market share, providing strong liquidity support for digital assets holders. Our cumulative borrowing volume has exceeded hundreds of millions of dollars.
Q2. 2020 is the first year of DeFi, what achievements has ForTube achieved? Can you share some experience with us?
Jeffrey: As one of the earliest projects of DeFi applications in Asia, ForTube launched the on-chain lending protocols ForTube Bond and ForTube Bank respectively. ForTube is also the first DeFi project in Asia to use liquidity mining for cold start. The TVL is up to $130 million, and the maximum borrowing amount is over $50 million. As a leading project in the DeFi lending field in Asia, ForTube has introduced, educated and developed many new users in the DeFi field.
The short-term TVL increasing after ForTube V2 launch is mainly based on the following aspects:
First, the ForTube team has been deeply involved in the DeFi industry for many years and has connected with many excellent industry partners, such as Binance,digital asset funds, they all provided resources for ForTube. The thing needs to be pointed out is that ForTube has many miners. In mainland China, there are a lot of mainstream digital asset miners for Bitcoin and Ethereum. While the market is in a healthy bull market, ForTube products meet miners lending needs. So, ForTube was the first DeFi product used by miners in Asia.
Second, ForTube is the first lending product that supports both Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain, matching the lending needs of users on these two public chains.
Third, we keep going to launch competitive mining liquidity incentive activities. In the early stage, we provided liquidity incentives to users who deposited assets in the platform. In the later stage, we made some adjustments. We provide FOR as an incentive token to users who lend assets according to the loan amount. Providing incentives to borrowers, which is the first innovation in the field of DeFi lending.
Q3. ForTube has been constantly exploring DeFi, which can be said to be the first project in the DeFi field in Asia. In the new year, ForTube has released the latest roadmap. In the upcoming 3.0 version, what highlights will be the most exciting for users?
Jeffrey: ForTube, as a pioneer of the DeFi lending projects in Asia, will focus on innovation and breakthroughs in 2021 and provide a better and safer DeFi lending product to digital currency users.
In 2021, business volume and users in the DeFi field will continue to maintain large-scale growth. It should be noted that with the overall increase in the market value of digital assets, the DeFi protocol needs to consider the liquidation risk caused by the overall decline in the price of digital assets, and put forward higher requirements for safety and risk control.
In terms of time, the development plan for 2021 is as follows:
Q1: Brand and UI Upgrade, Asset Pool Management, Oracle Optimization, Add Newbie Area, and Launch ForTube Membership System.
Q2: Financial Model Optimization and Risk Control System Upgrade, Contract Structure Upgrade and Gas Optimization, Support for Fixed-Rate Loans, Flash Loans, and Layer 2.
Q3: Multi-chain and Cross-chain Support, Guarantor Mechanism, Governance Structure Upgrade
Q4: Explore Supporting Physical Assets and Apply for SFC License in Hong Kong
In 2021, the global digital asset market ushered in a year of historic change. With global mainstream investment institutions’ investment in crypto assets, combined with the joint efforts of the global community, ForTube aims to reach a new historical height.
Q4. What do you think about the competition with AAVE and Compound? How will ForTube enter the global market?
Jeffrey: Benchmarked AAVE and Compound, ForTube has improved the interest rate model and technical architecture. The key parameters can be adjusted to better adapt to the changing DeFi market.
ForTube’s goal is to occupy at least 20% of the global lending market, and to achieve a win-win situation, like AAVE and Compound did. We are very confident to do this, because there are a large number of users in Asia. Of course, we are also constantly learning the strategies from the western countries, and launching ForTube’s own innovative ways at the same time.
To be specific, ForTube’s global plans has three aspects:
One is the global DAO community governance and service. ForTube continues to expand the governance of DeFi DAO, and updates safe and convenient services for users in different regions, so that global community members can enjoy ForTube’s rapid growth.
The second is to benefit from global financial resources. ForTube’s core team members have been involved in the financial industry for many years and all of them have a professional financial background. Based on decentralized governance, they can realize the onchain and offchain interconnection of funds by combining real-world assets with lower fund costs.
The third is to unite global ecosystem partners. ForTube will cooperate with global professional influencers, AMM communities, DeFi communities, as well as overseas market operation teams, to promote governance concepts and strategic visions all over the world; Well manage the official Twitter and Telegram groups, and establish cooperative relationships with the world’s top institutions to build a good ecosystem.
We are looking forward to working with the Binance global users in the DeFi field, and sharing ForTube’s future market value!
Q5. As one of the top 5 projects selected by Binance Smart Chain in 2020, will ForTube and Binance Smart Chain have further cooperation in the new year?
Jeffrey: Binance Smart Chain BSC is a new public chain based on the PoSA consensus algorithm launched by Binance. BSC focuses on an open financial ecosystem, achieves programmable scalability, supports smart contracts and is fully compatible with Ethereum. At the same time, it also supports cross-chain interoperability of assets, integrates a variety of cross-chain infrastructure, and is committed to breaking the barriers between public chains and promoting the value and information circulation between public chains.
On September 11, 202, Binance announced that it would set up a seed fund of $100 million to support the industry’s ecological construction and create an ecological synergy between CeFi and DeFi. With its outstanding security concept, technical level and community foundation, ForTube successfully ranked among the first five major projects announced by Binance Smart Chain.
At the same time, ForTube officially deployed a decentralized lending protocol on Binance Smart Chain. Users can use decentralized lending services on Binance Smart Chain without high gas fee issues.
In addition, ForTube also launched ForTube BSC exclusive liquidity incentivized activities in mid-September, rewarding $100 million FOR tokens to users who provide liquidity to the ForTube deployed on the Binance Smart Chain.
On Christmas Day in 2020 and New Year’s Eve in 2021, ForTube and BSC held holiday activities, which attracted the participation of a lot of users.
In the future, ForTube will always keep a good cooperative relationship with BSC and carry out more interesting activities together. Please pay more attention to BSC and welcome everyone to use the ForTube platform.
Q6. How do you view the market trend of crypto assets in 2021? As a user, how can I use ForTube to get the most benefit?
Jeffrey: 2020 can be said to be a tough year, but in this situation, the blockchain and cryptocurrency industries continue to progress, develop and grow. Whether it is the increase in regulatory attention, the wider adoption of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a medium of exchange, or the wider use of blockchain in different organizations, this trend is obvious.
2021 will be the year that blockchain will fully enter the mainstream and broader economic fields. Based on the trends that have been formed during 2020, it seems that 2021 will indeed continue the explosive trend of crypto assets and DeFi.
ForTube is committed to providing decentralized lending services for crypto asset enthusiasts around the world. It supports a majority of popular assets in the world. ForTube is built on Smart Contracts and automated algorithm technology. Users can deposit to earn interests, mortgage and borrow the digital assets. The interest rates on ForTube are determined by market supply and demand, and the assets are all controlled by users. ForTube supports deposits and withdrawal, borrow and repayment at any time.
As an ordinary user, how to use ForTube to get the most benefit? For example, when you have 1 Bitcoin and you are unwilling to sell it, you may think that it will rise to $50,000 or even $100,000 in the future. You can deposit your Bitcoin in ForTube and borrow BUSD, USDT, USDC. At the same time, you can buy bitcoin on Binance, so that you can enjoy the interest on the ForTube, why not?
Q7. What is the current planning of ForTube’s ecosystem governance?
Jeffrey: FOR is the ForTube’s ecosystem governance token, and it’s core function is governance. To participate in governance voting, you need to lock the FOR, and at the same time you will get GFOR. The ForTube team believes that the governors who lock FOR to participate in the community are the real supporters of ForTube. We respect and thank all the governors. Therefore, the team will give additional incentives to users who hold GFOR. The current average APY of locked positions exceeds 100%.
The future important R&D development and core parameter adjustments of ForTube platform will be decided by FOR holders.
In order to empower FOR community in the long term, we use the ForTube’s transaction fee income to redeem and burn FOR. We have already redeemed once in October. Now, we are also planning to distribute dividends to GFOR holders. Therefore, if you hold FOR, you will truly enjoy the growth value of ForTube.
Question from user 4763: Do you think the system is safe enough? How to protect funds and user data in the system?
Jeffrey: It can be said responsibly that the ForTube system is sufficiently safe.
ForTube products are independently developed by their own R&D team. The original DeFi technology components can avoid external attacks or reduce losses. For example, our BEAMS component (Blockchain Enquiring, Auditing & Messaging System, Blockchain Query Auditing and Messaging System) can continuously monitor the operation of the contract, audit data and assets. Once issues have been detected, the system can be locked immediately to avoid losses. Our MAK component (Multisig Admin Keys, multi-signature administrator key) can prevent a single administrator from committing illegal activities or revealing the secret key. For example, in the Ethereum Infura accident, ForTube activated the security protection.
In addition, the ForTube team hired more than three well-known security audit companies around the world, and launched a long-term bug bounty reward program to make sure the platform is safe.
Also, we have prepared 100 million FOR as a risk reserve to deal with the possible loss of user assets under extreme conditions.
Users around the world please rest assured to use!
Question from user 4765: Where we can submit problems, suggestions, ideas or bug reports to get rewards on ForTube website?
Jeffrey: On the ForTube website, you can find the interface of “Bounty Program”.
ForTube is committed to providing rock-solid security. To achieve this, we believe that we must work closely with security researchers and user communities. We invite qualified researchers to identify security vulnerabilities in targeted ForTube services and products and share these vulnerabilities with our team.
The rewards range from 100 to 6,000 USDT. The ForTube platform will provide higher rewards based on the quality and complexity of the submission.
Participants need to submit a vulnerability description to [email protected] by email. The subject of the email is a brief description of the vulnerability, and the content of the email is a detailed description of the vulnerability, requiring detailed explanation of the reproduction steps. The ForTube Bug Bounty Committee will assess its specific level and give the corresponding rewards.
Question from user 4755: I heard that ForTube is building “ForTube V3”, so compare to V2, what’s the new implementations or improvements?
First of all, the V3 version will start with product and business innovation, and implement asset pool management: ForTube will be divided into a stable zone and an innovation zone according to the risk level and type of assets to more accurately meet the needs of different customer groups and achieve risk isolation.
Financial model optimization and risk control system upgrade: ForTube will conduct more refined design of mortgage assets, Loan-to-Value ratio (LTV), liquidation, interest rate formulas, and more. ForTube will design a set of DeFi lending risk control rule sets, and automatically deal with risk items at different levels.
Guarantor Mechanism: Introduce a guarantor mechanism into the system to increase the flexibility and scalability of DeFi lending business.
Fixed Interest Rate / Term Loan: Support Fixed Interest Rate / Term Loan to solve the risk of borrowers’ interest rate fluctuations.
Secondly, innovation will also be implemented from technology research and development.
Layer 2 Migration: ForTube has conducted in-depth research and prototype verification of Layer 2 solutions such as ZK Rollup, Optimistic and Aribitrum, and has carried out relevant deployments on the testnets of each solution, keeping the technical implementation and user experience in sync with the mainnet at all times. ForTube will select the appropriate Layer2 solution for ForTube deployment based on the ecological development of Layer2.
Oracle Optimization: ForTube plans to create a leading comprehensive oracle program in the industry. We will adopt a combination of mainstream decentralized oracles (Chainlink) and self-quoted oracles to not only ensure the security of quotations of mainstream assets, but also allow for the normal quotation and use of other assets. The self-quote oracle machine will use a newly designed and optimized price deviation filtering algorithm and a time-weighted verification algorithm, and use a completely isolated distributed quotation node cluster to achieve almost the same decentralization characteristics as the mainstream decentralized oracle and security.
In addition, ForTube will also promote operation growth innovation, such as establishing a membership system, designing DeFi’s newest introduction tutorial to help new users learn to use DeFi products more quickly.
And further promote the decentralization of ForTube governance, mainly including ForTube platform support asset decision-making, platform income distribution decision-making, contract management private key multi-signature, and more.
Question from user 4714: Do you have mechanisms such as repurchase and burning to regulate the demand and supply of $FOR, thereby increasing its token value?
In the ForTube 2021 Roadmap: Token planning was also carried out to promote the listing of the ecosystem governance token FOR on more top exchanges around the world, and promote the opening of FOR/KRW trading pair on Upbit and FOR/USDT trading pair on Binance.
As ForTube’s ecosystem governance token, FOR can participate in ForTube’s voting for token listing and platform decision-making. Starting from November, ForTube will use 20% of the monthly trading fee for the purchase and burning of FOR. Currently, it has been successfully burnt four times. At the beginning of each month, ForTube will publish the FOR burning announcement and the transaction hash on social media platforms.
In the next product upgrades and iterations, we will also further optimize the token economic model and increase the value to better guarantee and enhance the profitability and governance rights of token holders.
Question from user 4677: The cryptocurrency industry is a fast-paced industry. How flexible is it to change quickly to keep up with technological trends? What is your long-term vision for the blockchain industry?
Jeffrey: The cryptocurrency industry is a fast-paced industry. We will quickly launch our new products and new services with the development of the market and technology. ForTube pays attention to any information related to our main business in the future. For example, more NFT assets and synthetic assets will enter the lending market in the future. ForTube has invested resources and started researching multiple areas.
ForTube will be based on DeFi lending business and integrated financial services. ForTube’s strategic vision is to meet at least 20% of the global lending market share. DeFi is improving the production efficiency of the existing financial system with its strong vitality. As the price of Bitcoin continues to rise and reach a new height, the growth space of high-quality DeFi projects may be much greater than the growth space of Bitcoin. Choose a potential token, invest and hold them, you can enjoy a really great benefit.
Be sure to follow us on social media for more updates and mining campaigns:
▲Announcement channel: https://t.me/the_force_announcement
▲Medium: https://fortube.medium.com/
▲ForTube website: https://www.for.tube/home
▲Twitter: https://twitter.com/ForTubeFi
▲Github: https://github.com/thefortube
▲knowledge library of ForTube platform: https://docs.for.tube/