It is exactly one week since Leo Finance launched into the Defi space with Cub finance.
The Cub finance team headed by @khaleelkazi has been busy these last 7 days and so far everything is going on pretty well according to plan.
The latest announcement from cub finance team detailed how $197k CUB has been burned, $38k bLEO Bought & Burned and also the first AMA which I will reproduce below.
The AMA with the BSC Gemz community happened on March 15 at 11 PM UTC according to US time, for it happened on March 16 at 2:00 AM!!!
If you missed the AMA this is an opportunity to read through what happened and see how Khal aced it.
The AMA happened in the BSC Gemz Telegram Group that has over 6K members with over 1.5 online as seen from the screenshot above.
It was moderated by one of the group admins named DaveIT and it lasted almost 2 hours where Dave kept asking questions about Cub Defi and Khal answering.
Dave: Ok, let's start with something very easy. Cub Finance. Briefly describe it. Your global vision. Your aims. Your targets.
Khal: Cub Finance is one of the first DeFi apps we’ve decided to launch under the broader LeoFinance project.
We view it as a great base layer that we can continually add upon with new contracts, apps, etc. Our #1 goal is to expand the scope and scale of our community
Dave: So yours is not a short-term project. Well. I have often read about Leo Finance but have never approached the project very closely. How is Leo Finance related to Cub Finance?
Khal: Definitely not a short term project :) LeoFinance is about 2 years old and we’ve been building various apps on other blockchains and recently started working on BSC as well.
LeoFinance serves as a sort of holding company for all of these apps and Cub Finance is the latest to enter under that umbrella. Everything we do is tied back to the LEO token economy in various ways
Dave Interesting. It's something really new at least for me. But... why did you suddenly decide to pivot into DeFi? Interesting and unusual move. Could you explain, please?
Khal Yeah the pivot has been interesting for a number of reasons but it all goes back to that core idea: to build our community both in width and depth.
DeFi is going to be one of the most important sectors of the broader crypto industry. Our goal with creating various DeFi apps is to build depth for our community in the form of opportunities: lending, leasing, yield farming, etc. and also build width through attracting new users via great apps that service existing communities like BSC.
Dave I see that you have very clear ideas and this pleases me... and intrigues me too.
What made you choose BSC over any of the other Eth competitor chains (HECO, TERRA and/or the emerging NEAR etc)? Are you guys here to stay (in BSC) or will you just disappear if insane ETH fees go down?
Khal Thanks :) BSC is something that hit our radar earlier this year - as I think it did for most of the crypto space.
When you take a look at our applications - whether it’s our blogging app, our exchange app, etc. - our focus is always on usability and UX. After spending some time getting familiar with BSC, we realized that it had superior usability, lower fees and faster TXs.
These features combined with the existing community on BSC made it the perfect place for us to dive deeper into building DeFi apps. At our core, we’re about interoperability and collaboration.
Outside of some malicious action or other black swan, we’ll never leave a blockchain but rather look for ways to serve as a bridge to multiple chains and their communities
Dave: And this is exactly what I wanted to ask you: Is Cub Finance entirely focused on BSC or do you plan to expand to other chains in the future? As for Leo Finance, is it migrating to BSC from ETH as well?
Khal: Cub Finance is built entirely for BSC. We plan on building more apps for BSC specifically under the CUB banner. LeoFinance more broadly will continue to look for more ways to build those bridges and key infrastructure applications.
One great example is the LeoBridge app that we’re adding to the Cub Finance platform - this will allow users on ETH to instantly convert ERC20s into BEP20s and vice versa. Usability is always the focus for us and this was the #1 complaint we saw from our userbase when cub launched: it can be difficult to move assets into BSC.
We’ll start the LeoBridge app (launching in the next 5-7 days) as an ERC20->BEP20 bridge and look for ways to bridge other major blockchain assets to BEP20 as well
Dave 5-7 days. Imminent, so
Khal Yes very soon™️! We want to make it as easy as possible for our users to bring their assets onto BSC and into the Cub platform
Dave "Easy as possible" is something i really like, especially in the crypto-space where new people dive day by day. Good move! But... Consider me for a second a user totally unrelated to the DeFi world. Could you please describe me in an easy way the tokenomics of $CUB and what the benefits are for holders?
Khal That’s a great question! In its current form, CUB is undergoing early distribution under this very basic application in Decentralized Finance called yield farming.
Right now, CUB is being produced at a certain rate per day and that rate decreases over time. The current benefits are to stake, earn and speculate on the future of CUB and on the LeoFinance team’s ability to deliver more features, use cases, etc. that ultimately drive value, awareness and utility to both CUB and the LEO economy as a whole.
Dave I see that the emission for CUB is 2/block. Right?
Khal Yes, it’s currently 2 CUB / block. Down from 3 per block for the first 7 days. 1 week from today, the emission will drop to 1 / block
Dave OK thanks. It couldn't be clearer than that!
I see that you don’t have a defined roadmap. What currently makes Cub Finance different from all the other Goose clones/forks out there?
It seems that Goose clones are born every day. Why should you be different?
Khal We have a very loosely defined public roadmap available in the Cub docs. Today, we updated our community with a blog post about the upcoming LeoBridge app.
For us, maneuverability is the key so we like to keep our roadmaps somewhat broad to allow us the room necessary to make pivots.
A great example of this is our pivot to BSC - we were researching and considering various ETH-based contracts and then discovered BSC and did a total 180 to bring that development focus to this blockchain.
As for other differentiators, I would personally look to the track record of LeoFinance, our team and what our project has accomplished over the last two years. Imo there aren’t many (if any) Goose clones/yield apps that have a track record like ours
Dave Thank you so much for the clarification. Let's talk about layered farming, a concept that you are about to introduce.
Goose’s layered farming mechanism is innovative but bots have all but destroyed it. In layer 2 for example the incubator was full a few seconds after launching.
Since you plan on launching a similar concept, do you have a plan for stopping the bots so that actual humans can participate? I saw that for Goose it really is a plague…
Khal Absolutely! Yes, we’ve been monitoring the Goose Layered Farming app and it is one of those items on our roadmap right now.
We’d like to introduce a similar application with layered farming, but it’s clear that a major change will need to be introduced to combat the bot activity.
This is another great point about our loosely defined roadmap - allowing us to push around updates and change them as needed.
When and if we introduce the layered farming app, we will introduce the changes we feel are needed to make it function as intended.
One idea we’re exploring is adding various randomizer functions to the layered farming contract to introduce entropy to the system and make it difficult (if not impossible) to utilize bots in each round
Dave This is really interesting and, as we usually say in my country, "learning from mistakes to build something better". Good. Very Good
But I personally have some doubts about $CUB.
Do you plan on giving any future utility to the $CUB token or is it only going to be an incentive token to drive more TVL?
At the moment it’s looking like a mechanism to burn $LEO and not a standalone project. Could you clarify that point, please?
Khal Yes, we absolutely do. The goal of CUB was to launch a base layer app that our community could get familiar with and attract a broader set of users simultaneously.
As we build on top of that base layer, we will introduce more forms of utility for CUB.
These forms of utility may come via the adoption of other platforms’ smart contracts (migrating their contracts/use cases from ETH to BSC) and they may also come from proprietary technology that we develop in-house.
The most exciting use case in the near-term is the LeoBridge app which will include a small swap fee that buys and burns CUB alongside LEO. If you look at the track record of LEO over the past 2 years, you’ll find a relentless pursuit of utility for our native token.
Our goal with CUB is to continue to relentless pursuit on a new blockchain with a new token (and yes, drive a % of that value back to the “mother token” if you will)
Dave Thank you. Crystalline I would say.
You took away my doubts :)
Come on, we're almost done. A few more questions and I free you to the ... crowd :D
Khal Throw me to the lions, I’m used to it ;)
Dave I see that in early days the $CUB emission were high. What measures are the team taking to prevent investor disillusionment from price manipulation by whales who took advantage of the early days' higher emission rates?
Khal Our community has over 1,000 MAUs prior to launching CUB. We actually have a community-created bot in discord where users can track their BSC pooling stats in real-time.
Based on these loose observations, I think CUB distribution is actually quite widely held - much more than 90% or more of the other BSC yield apps in existence today.
The most valuable thing we bring to the table with Cub and LeoFinance is our existing community of diverse diamond paw HODLers and real users of real applications
Dave Well, thank you for clarification again. Now, given recent events as well, I see that you are also focused on security. Reading your twitter account I see that Certik's audit will be published this week.
How did you come to the conclusion that an audit is still necessary?
Khal: Security is definitely our top priority. As an existing community - our users, their assets and peace of mind will always be at the top of our list.
The contracts we’re using are virtually as safe as Goose Finance itself (which has already undergone several audits). That said, we believe the certification is that final stamp of approval to give us, our users and outsiders looking in the peace of mind needed to get involved.
Dave Good. Or, better: well done. Personally I think that safety must be the top priority of any project. I mean farms handle money. Much money. People money. People that deserve "Respect" first of all.
Khal: 100%. I think the reputation we bring to the table is one of the main reasons we’ve seen this much traction in this first week and the audits will be the cherry on top
Dave I see, thanks :)
Competition in the DeFi space is starting to get fierce. What do you guys have in the pipeline, especially in terms of partnerships/marketing lined up?
How do you plan to compete in such a crowded space?
Khal Competition in this space is interesting. On one hand, yes there are a lot of apps doing similar things.
On the other hand, the industry is so nascent that there is an abundance of opportunity for anyone who buidls for the right reasons with a long-term mindset.
We’ll always move toward user growth and user experience so I believe we’ll “outcompete” simply by being easier to use. I.e. natively integrating the LeoBridge feature to tap into the billions of dollars in capital on ETH and bring it to BSC through the Cub Finance UI and Leo ecosystem. In terms of partnerships and collaboration, we’re always looking to link up with other projects and find ways to deliver them value while making for a better UX within our community. We’ve got a few interesting things lined up over the coming weeks ;)
Dave I believe your answer is exactly what users expect. Well done! :)
Now... I have a really poisoned question. :)
Khal Thanks! 🦁
Dave I will enjoy your answer with a cup of coffee, I'm really curious :)
Did Binance’s complicit participation in the STEEM hostile takeover ever make you think twice about using a product built by a team that willingly harmed the community?
Khal Admittedly, yes. We watched from the sidelines as BSC started gaining traction in late 2020 and early into this year. Personally, I had refused to buy or hodl BNB since the takeover.
After spending a lot of time with BSC, I slowly started to come around to the idea that this blockchain brought a lot of value both to its existing community and potentially to our community if we could give them a good reason to utilize it and an easy on-ramp in the form of CUB, LeoBridge, etc.
I believe BSC brings a lot of value to the crypto space - perhaps in different ways than something like Ethereum or Bitcoin, but value nonetheless.
After spending a few weeks with various BSC apps, I realized that this was a great place to build for the long-term vision we have for the LeoFinance project as a whole. The past is the past and the present and future look bright for BSC
Dave: Great! I really appreciate your answer!
Ok. I think I've grilled you enough. Two quick questions and we're done. :)
Can you give us one piece of alpha here in Gemz that almost nobody else knows yet?
Just something
Khal Haha done already!? Sounds good 🦁
Dave Yeah. Come on, let's hear some alpha.
Khal I would say that the best edge you could get when it comes to CUB / LEO is taking the backdrop of the past 2 years and extrapolating it out for the next 2 years. We will relentlessly build value for our community whether it’s in the form of new applications or updates to old ones. Utility and usability
Dave Perfect 👌
One last question that our buddy Biggie Smalls used to ask in every AMA, so I'll ask for him — What’s one question nobody ever asks you that you wish they would, and what’s the answer? :P
🙃🙃
Khal That’s a great one to end on! I’d say the one thing that people always ask is wen. The one thing I always wish they’d ask is where Leo, cub and all of our projects will be in 10 years. Most people think very short-term in this space and things move fast - so I get it
Dave Oh, great. Your answer is somehow linked to a strictly personal question (the last one) that I would like to ask you. Can I, please?
Khal My answer is that the crypto industry will evolve to an unrecognizable place - in the best ways you could imagine. Leo will rise alongside it and continue to adapt to the changing tides with those core values in mind: expanding the width and depth of the Leo community and simultaneously providing value to the whole industry through the apps we create and manage
Dave Eheh I rushed :D
I have a personal question for you. Something I care a lot. Can I, please? Last question. Promised
Khal Haha of course
Dave Personally, I believe that most of the users badly approach the concept of "yield farming" by considering it as "daytrading".
Clearly, farming cannot and should not be approached like daytrading as if it were daytrading (Our johndoe44447 would call these users "moonbois”).
Do you somehow educate your users on the correct use of your DeFi tools?
Khal I agree, there is definitely a crowd in this space that was all over ICOs in 2017 and have since latched on to various methods of risky yield farming. A part of our drive to deliver usability is delivering education. If you check the docs portion of Cub Finance, you’ll find very fundamental guides and how tos for BSC and DeFi more broadly
Dave Thank you very much. I will do it.
Ok. We finished. Thank you for your responses on behalf of all users. I free you to the crowd. You are free to stay if you want to reply directly to users
AMA SESSION ENDED
So folks that was the AMA session that happened today in case you had missed it.
Love
Jarau Moses