Altcoin Alerts x Synchrony AMA Recap
Altcoin Alerts Community had an Ask Me Anything session with Maurice Chalfin (Marketing, Communications & Community) and Souly (Partnerships, Research & Business Development) from Synchrony on 27th Dec 2021
Segment 1: Synchrony Introduction & Q/A with Altcoin Alerts Team
Altcoin Alerts: Hey guys
Maurice Chalfin: hey!
Souly: Hi guys!! 🤩
Altcoin Alerts: Welcome to Altcoin Alerts Community
How you guys are doing?
Souly: Rock n’Roll
Maurice Chalfin: feeling rlly blessed 🙏
happy to be here
Altcoin Alerts: that’s good
It’s our pleasure to have you guys
Souly: We’re honored to be here!
Altcoin Alerts: Let us start with introduction.
Can you please introduce yourself & your journey in the cryptocurrency field? Also, please introduce Synchrony.
Maurice Chalfin: yoyoyoo my name is maurice, i am Synchrony’s marketing, community, and communications lead. I was born and raised in nyc where I ran my own design house doing small scale production in the garment center for private clients. I did mostly denim and technical garments, right out of high school and into my mid 20s, and then I made a pretty big shift into project & retail management in the cycling industry (it was always a passion and fashion had lost its lustre). I have been in or around crypto since 2011/12 when I had neighbors mining btc on home computers — I have basically been a “believer” ever since. i began trading seriously in 16/17 before/during the ICO boom
Souly: Namaste Everyone!
I’m Souly! Doing all things RnBD @Synchrony (Partnerships, Research & Business Development).
My pro experience started in investment banking. I started my career in Paris where I was working for a British Investment bank. I’ve been working with Tier-1 financial institutions, from operations to mergers & acquisitions, to corporate strategy, and that has contributed to my understanding of financial systems.
I moved to Asia in 2016 — that’s where I met Frae (Andrew Fraser, our Co-founder) — as he was my boss back at a leading APAC FinTech firm, Privé Technologies.
My first experience in the crypto world was back in early 2017 when I joined a family office where the owner was bullish on cryptocurrencies. We raised USD 200Mn for a Portfolio Management System utility token back in the ICO days, I’ve been in the space ever since.
Maurice Chalfin: Synchrony is a truly decentralized asset management powered by A.I. & Analytics.
The motivation behind Synchrony is to ease the transition into Defi for users of all levels of experience — provide single click solutions to grow wealth.
Traditional finance is complicated, and thus has an entire subset of careers catered towards helping people manage their finances/assets: private bankers, asset managers, financial advisors etc.
Defi is no less complicated, in fact layering blockchain technology and the new instruments borne of Defi adds additional layers of complexity.
Altcoin Alerts: Thanks for the awesome intro
Let’s get some more info about Synchrony
As told Synchrony is Truly Decentralised Asset Management. Can you please share all the feature and products Synchrony is coming up with? Also, share detailed Roadmap.
Maurice Chalfin:
Souly: This is going to be a long answer haha!
We should divide and conquer here @scy_sportyspice 🤣
Allow me to give you some background and color. 🙂
Altcoin Alerts: Sure, go for it
Souly: Synchrony was built off of an idea.
Andy, who had participated in Defi Summer, tried to get Frae, our Co-founder to degen into Defi, to find a way to algorithmically trade or implement Defi strategies.
Frae was immediately overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information and noise he had to filter through to find actionable signals.
So he ended up saying to Andy: “hey, you’re profitable so I’m going to write a bot that copies all your transactions in my own wallet.”
Not only was this an excellent approach for his portfolio, but it also helped Frae to understand what Andy was doing, how he was choosing tokens to trade or strategies to execute.
It eased his transition into Defi. So they told themselves,
if this was helpful to me — someone with over a decade in finance and engineering — it would stand to reason that this would be useful for other retail users.
Maurice Chalfin: In terms of progress, we have been following our roadmap steadily. We had a Demo day in September and a panel discussion with the presence of Anatoly Yakovenko (Founder of Solana).
We had completed a raise of USD 4.2 million.
In early November, we attended the Solana Breakpoint in Lisbon and secured more strategic partners. Development wise, completing the on-chain indexing program, populating the protocol database and completing the alpha for the front-end of Synchrony.
And lately, we’ve had 2 very successful IDO white listing on Solanium and Solrazr.
Right now, our Token Generation Event (TGE) is the most important milestone on our roadmap, set for January 5th.
Upon TGE we will make the first index available for the public.
A simple “Solana Top 10” index. Each of the Synchrony composed indices will be released on a rolling basis. The liquidity pool index two weeks after the “Solana Top 10” index, and the yield farming index two weeks after that.
Copy-trading closed beta is scheduled for the beginning of 2022 and will run for four (4) weeks. Open beta on testnet will take place immediately after the closed-beta and will run for another four (4) weeks. We are targeting a full mainnet launch for March 2022. After we are live on mainnet for Solana, we will be looking to bridge to EVM compatible chains.
Souly: And to explain a bit more about the features:
Typically asset management protocols impose limitations on the asset manager in order to keep client assets safe. We feel that this is sort of misaligned with the intention of having someone manage your assets for you — you do so because you believe in their skill — why would you limit them?
Instead, we transfer that control directly to the users — they can define the limitations so the asset manager is free to implement their strategies.
Maurice Chalfin: (we’re giving you guys the most thorough answers!)
Souly: Synchrony enables on-chain copy-trading, composable indices, & we offer a holistic suite of analytics tools. Our on-chain copy trading is:
- Safe — trustless — wallet behaviour is governed by user-configure parameters or indices eliminating the single point of failure inherent in an unknown entity transacting on a user’s behalf. Synchrony can also optimize which wallets a user follows by assessing a user’s risk profile and matching the user to a top performing leader wallet within that risk level automatically reassigning the leader wallet a user follows should a leader wallet exceed the thresholds of a risk level.
- Simple — a user may simply input a wallet address they wish to follow or select a wallet from the Synchrony leaderboard the platform does the rest.
- Fast — utilizing Solana’s high throughput and transaction speed, copy-trading on Synchrony is executed with very little risk of price divergence of front-running.
Our composable indices are modular, and dynamic; you can evaluate any set of on-chain instruments from tokens, to liquidity pools, to yield farms, and even NFTs. The indices are programmatically managed, rebalance automatically, and are algorithmically optimized. Through these indices we can offer single-click solutions for executing complex strategies with as little friction as possible. Also our indices are transparent, even analogous to smart contracts as an index’s calculation methodology can be scrutinized in the same way a smart contract’s code can.
Last but not least our analytics offering is quite robust; our on-chain analytics are best in class. We offer everything from macro-level insights into ecosystem sentiment to granular detail on any user’s on-chain behavior. Our analytics tooling helps users paint a picture of the ecosystem in a streamlined and intuitive user-interface. We power our analytics engine utilizing a combination of on-chain & off-chain data.
Maurice Chalfin: Our composable indices are modular, and dynamic; you can evaluate any set of on-chain instruments from tokens, to liquidity pools, to yield farms, and even NFTs. The indices are programmatically managed, rebalance automatically, and are algorithmically optimized. Through these indices we can offer single-click solutions for executing complex strategies with as little friction as possible. Also our indices are transparent, even analogous to smart contracts as an index’s calculation methodology can be scrutinized in the same way a smart contract’s code can.
Last but not least our analytics offering is quite robust; our on-chain analytics are best in class. We offer everything from macro-level insights into ecosystem sentiment to granular detail on any user’s on-chain behavior. Our analytics tooling helps users paint a picture of the ecosystem in a streamlined and intuitive user-interface. We power our analytics engine utilizing a combination of on-chain & off-chain data.
Altcoin Alerts: Amazing things in the pipeline, it looks.
That’s great!
Souly: We gave you some reading material for sure 🤣♥️
Altcoin Alerts: Yeah, some really informative material over here
Synchrony IDO recently completed successfully on SolRazer and Solanium. Please share your IDO experience. When can we expect Synchrony SCY token listing on exchanges?
Maurice Chalfin: awesome! yea so…
We indeed had two very successful white listing campaigns on Solanium and Solrazr.
Right now our Synchrony x SolRazr IDO NFTs are listed on three different verified marketplaces which is pretty cool! They represent allocation in $SCY tokens which can be redeemed on the SolRazr platform before TGE date (on Solrazr.com).
After the TGE, the allocation embedded in the metadata will not be redeemable! ALSO — anyone who holds the NFT will be able to redeem it for the allocation amount at our TGE, regardless of whether they participated in the IDO directly on SolRazr.
“Synchrony x SolRazr IDO NFTs”
https://magiceden.io/marketplace/synchrony_x_solrazr_ido_nfts 🪄
https://exchange.art/collections/Synchrony%20x%20Solrazr%20IDO%20NFTs 🖼
https://solsea.io/collection/61b0c70080528bd9879cdf28 🌊
the IDO experience thus far has been phenomenal!
we currently have our TGE date set for January 5th
we will be listing on a few major DEXs and a few major CEXs (stay tuned 😏)
Altcoin Alerts: lastly
For everyone who is now interested in investing in Synchrony, please share details like Token Price, Tokenomics, Partners, Investors etc.
Souly: alright, alright 🤩
Tokenomics:
For more, please read our blog post about SCY Tokenomics: https://blog.synchrony.fi/tokenomics
Token Utility:
(public sale price is $0.04)
For more, please read our blog post about SCY Token Utility: https://blog.synchrony.fi/token-utility
Backers:
For backers, you can head to our website to check out our most recent partnerships, announcements and more! https://synchrony.fi
(This is not an exhaustive list of our backers)
Segment 2: Twitter Questions
Q1. Can you detail what will be the use cases of $SCY Token within the “SynchronyFi’’ Technology ecosystem ? How important will it be? If you would be so kind also explain to us how the supply distribution has been designed.?
https://twitter.com/amit_rnx/status/1475389617096380416
Maurice Chalfin: so token utility is pretty extensive:
In terms of our Synchrony token we have a ton of utility I’ll try to outline here-
- All net platform fees go towards the Synchrony token;
- users staking SCY receive a discount for platform services;
- SCY may be used to pay fees across the platform;
- SCY holders may use SCY to purchase premium features such as “banner space” and profile options;
- SCY will be rewarded for staking and synchronisation
- SCY holders may stake SCY on wallets or indices as a form of “insurance”/“validation”, this grants the staker a share of the fees generated by the wallet/index10;
- SCY holders may participate in limited governance of the Synchrony platform; and
- data for indices is provided by ecosystem participants voted on by the Synchrony DAO. Data providers must meet a minimum capital requirement, decided on by the DAO, of staked SCY tokens. These tokens go towards a platform insurance pool. Providers are granted an equal share of all fees generated by Synchrony composed indices.
- index token creation and redemption may only be performed by authorized participants. Any platform participant may become an authorized participant by staking a certain amount of SCY the exact amount being decided by the Synchrony DAO.
Q2. With copy trading, do traders get rewarded for allowing other users to copy their strategies? if yes, How much? additionally is the history public or verifiable by Synchrony before deciding which trader to follow plus What are the requirements to become a copy trading leader?
https://twitter.com/cryptomanvai/status/1475305940626726915
Maurice Chalfin: we building out some incentive and gamification structures and mechanism for the copy-trading built around our leader board @scy_soul is typing out some more of the answer
I will add as well — the public ledger is, well, public, so anyone can research and find profitable wallets (aka traders) if they deep dive into on-chain data
Souly: and, for the second part:
is the history public or verifiable by Synchrony before deciding which trader to follow plus What are the requirements to become a copy trading leader?
We’ve wrote an amazing article explaining our very own WTF:
The Wallet Trust Factor
Check it out!
https://blog.synchrony.fi/wallet-trust-factor
Q3. In the Solana ecosystem apart from Synchrony, there is no other protocol that uses copy-trading, but from an Asset Management point of view. I think Solris. So What makes Synchrony different?
https://twitter.com/JliaOp/status/1475332331342753793
Maurice Chalfin: so there are no other copy-trading platforms at present which are completely on-chain — every other solution at present has some form of centralization and/or middle man (CEX).
there are also no copy-trading platforms on Solana, let alone Ethereum — on ETH it would be cost prohibitive and value destroying to pay gas fees on copy-trades.
in terms of Solrise — they offer indices which are static, not dynamic. our indices automatically rebalance and reconstitute based on the parameters we (or the user) set forth. most index options right now whether they be on Ethereal or Solana are static in nature…
Segment 3: Synchrony Q/A with Community
Q1. Almost 80% investors have just focused on price of token in short term instead of understanding the real value of the project. Can you tell us on motivations and benefits for investors to hold your token in long term?
Souly: We have strategically chosen our partners for both global reach and deep expertise. Our partners bring deep blockchain & defi experience to help advise and support us on our journey. We have advisors with storied experience in crypto, defi, blockchain, tradfi, digital marketing, A.I., analytics, data science, networking and ecosystem connections.
They have been pivotal in our development thus far, and we would not be where we are today without them (Altcoin Alerts included!). They are also assisting us in targeted marketing efforts to best serve global communities.
We have also set up local community channels.
Q2. Can you List 1–3 Killer features of your PROJECT that makes it ahead of Competitors? What is the Competitive Advantages your platform Has that you Feel most Confident about?
Souly: There are a couple of key ways we differentiate between us and other asset management, indexing and even copy-trading protocols.
Walking off with the pool or abusing their position is a problem common among all asset management platforms. Most seek to impose limitations on the asset manager and thus restrict the number of strategies available to them — this seems quite counterintuitive, you want someone to invest for you, or you want to replicate someone’s strategy, then why would you limit them?
Instead — we place that control in the hands of the user — they configure how their assets follow a leader wallet’s transactions.
Our indices are able to dynamically evaluate any set of on-chain instruments — token sets, liquidity pools and yield farms. Our indices also dynamically rebalance and can automatically execute the necessary orders to get to their target weights.
More specifically,
vs Centralised solutions:
follow any wallet, not just the traders the solution allows analytics available for any ecosystem participant
vs on-Chain solutions:
Faster — we employ a range of strategies to minimize price divergence
More secure — copy-trade behaviour can be configured by the end user afford a great degree of control over what trades are valid for execution
Smart — the protocol can adjust the wallet you are following if that wallet falls outside of your risk tolerance. I.e. it will match you with another wallet that matches your risk profile
Q3. May I know, What does Synchronyfi do to highlight copy trading? I think copy trading is a good starting point for crypto newbies, but what opportunities and benefits does Synchronyfi provide for beginners and early adopters?
Maurice Chalfin: we will be providing the Wallet Trust Factor to help user’s determine the risk profile of those wallets they follow. we will also be providing a holistic suite of analytics tooling to help users DYOR. furthermore we have our community channels where you can come chat with other users and the team about your trading.
we will provide an inclusive space to onboard the next round of users into defi 🙂
Q4. Synchrony Is Build in the SOLANA BLOCKCHAIN , What advantage does Platform get by the SOLANA BLOCKCHAIN , Will you Introduce other Chains also In future?
Souly: There are quite a few reasons why Solana is the best choice — I’ll skip the typical Solana pitch and instead elaborate on my own personal reasons:
In my experience, there are typically two ways to bet on the winner in a tech-race. The first is the community behind a project. The second is the scalability of a project — no other blockchain beats Solana in terms of scalability.
As you know our protocol is built around indices and copy-trading to provide truly decentralised asset management. For indices — they must be frequently rebalanced to maintain a closeness to their peg as the underlying assets are typically volatile. For copy-trading it is a requirement that there be a fast transaction speed and low transaction cost and additionally a low chance of front-running. Solana has the characteristics to enable this.
And of course,
Synchrony is looking to not only put indices on other chains, but to also have cross-chain indices and even copy-trading! We will probably start with EVM compatible chains for rapid expansion.
Q5. aDefi has been has fallen in the cross hairs of hackers of late, have u studied the flaws in defi protocols and beefed your security?
Maurice Chalfin: we have audits planned plus one of our team members is a quality assurance and security expert! we take our security very seriously
Q6. Which one of these aspects is important for you? 1-Increasing Token Price & Value 2-Empowering Platform Development 3-Building Community Trust 4-Expanding Partnership Globally In what order?
Maurice Chalfin: order:
3-Building Community Trust
THESE TWO ARE TIED (2+4)
2-Empowering Platform Development
4-Expanding Partnership Globally
1-Increasing Token Price
Website: https://synchrony.fi
Telegram Group: https://t.me/SynchronyFi
Telegram Channel: https://t.me/synchronyannouncement
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SynchronyFi
Medium: https://medium.com/synchrony-fi
Discord: https://discord.gg/kag7DY2743
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/synchrony-labs
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