AMA Transcript

Aug 29 - Amply AMA Transcript

Dear Amply Finance Family,

We held an AMA session on Discord on Aug 29th, 2024, with Kronaz from Amply Finance where she took the time to answer user questions. Below is a summary of the AMA. Please enjoy!

AmplyIntern (Host): We were super excited for our Launch on Tuesday, August 27th. Amply Finance has already gotten quite a bit of love from the community. As of the time of this AMA, we have just over $4.0M dollars of crypto supplied and just over $2.0M crypto borrowed, which are amazing numbers to say the least. Please make sure to follow us on X and Discord at @amplyfinance and make some noise! Today, we want to take the opportunity to answer some questions regarding Amply Finance. We have an expert, Kronaz, here from the Amply Finance team to help us with this task.

AmplyIntern (Host): So, Kronaz, What can users do on Amply?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): Thanks, AmplyIntern. Amply Finance is a lending platform, serving two main functions: you can lend assets and you can also borrow assets. If you like a certain token and you want to hold it long term, you could supply it onto Amply and earn passive income. On the flip side, you can borrow other tokens on Amply. If you have already supplied tokens, you can use the supplied tokens as collateral to borrow other tokens, up to a certain LTV (loan to value) ratio. Please note as a borrower, you will have to pay a variable borrowing fee. In addition, you’ll need to ensure that you carefully monitor your debt position so you don't get liquidated and lose your funds. Right now as of launch, we have six markets for users to lend and borrow from: zkCRO, vUSD, vETH, ETH, CRO and USDC.

AmplyIntern (Host): What makes Amply Finance different?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): First off, we are the first lending protocol on Cronos ZK. One of the value propositions of this chain is that users get to earn triple yield. First, from the yield bearing tokens like zkCRO, vUSD and vETH. Second, from DeFi yield, which is yield that you can earn from Amply itself. And lastly, from loyalty points, which are points that you can accumulate as part of the pioneer program. This is how users can be rewarded on multiple fronts. In addition, what also differentiates us is that Amply has integrated Paymaster, meaning users of Amply can choose from a variety of tokens to pay for gas. I think that's one innovation within the ZK ecosystem that is quite unique.

AmplyIntern (Host): How do users use Amply?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): Going back to the initial question, there's two ways to use Amply: you can either be a supplier or you can be a borrower and leverage up. Supplying is a way for you to passively earn yield. Meanwhile, borrowing and leveraging up can grant you exposure to other tokens. Amply Finance is a great platform for users if you want a short a token or add more exposure to a token that you're long on.

AmplyIntern (Host): What is a $PreAMP and $AMPLY token?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): $preAMP is our incentive token to reward early users. It's also a way for us to bootstrap the initial liquidity on the platform. Given it is non-transferable and has no monetary value, it is similar to collecting points which will eventually be used to redeem for the $AMPLY tokens. The $AMPLY token will have monetary value. We haven't announced the full details for the $AMPLY token yet but there will be a vesting period, meaning you can only convert a portion of your $preAMP to $AMPLY at any one time.

AmplyIntern (Host): What is next for Amply Finance?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): Ultimately, we want Amply to be something that users want to use, not just for farming tokens. The features we currently offer are basic, so the next step for us is really focusing on building up the foundational layer. This will include efficiency mode, so that certain correlated token pairs will have higher borrowing power. Also, we want to look into isolation mode, which a lot of users have requested for. These are the building blocks that will ultimately enable us to do more in Amply and will hopefully allow us to add more features, like listing smaller cap tokens with low liquidity and introducing leverage yield strategies like looping or shorting as well.

AmplyIntern (Host): What sets Amply apart from other lending protocols like Tectonic?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): Looking at Tectonic, it obviously has very deep liquidity. However, the liquidity is very much focused on the Cronos side. For us, we are leveraging the ZK infrastructure. Potentially, in the future, we can see us enabling seamless bridging to other ZK rollups. Right now, we're using Paymaster and we can hopefully have more account abstraction features to enable better user experience of the platform. I also think we have more use cases for the markets that we list because of the larger ecosystem, so there would be more compelling reasons for users to borrow on Amply.

AmplyIntern (Host): How is Amply securing itself against exploits? For example, Flash Loan attacks?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): Risk management is a huge priority for us and we approach it on multiple fronts. The first line of defense is our own internal monitoring system. We have methods to detect any unusual on-chain activity. If we detect unusual activity, we have a kill switch allowing us to pause activity on Amply until the issue has been resolved. We also have robust oracles that pull data from multiple sources like centralized exchanges, decentralized exchanges and other oracle providers. This means the prices you get on Amply are an aggregation of these multiple sources which helps to mitigate a lot of potential exploits of oracles. Lastly, as a last line of defense, we are currently in talks with some external security partners. These are companies that will monitor for potential exploits and seek to intercept any kind of malicious smart contract transactions. This is still in the early stages, but it’s something that we're exploring to help make our risk management more robust.

AmplyIntern (Host): Will Amply token be decentralized? Will Amply token be the governance token and if yes, when will be the DAO?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): I think this is a really great idea. We want to get the community engaged with building Amply with us and to collect real ideas from users. I think we are still exploring ways in which we can use the Amply token and we will share more concrete details in the future.

AmplyIntern (Host): Will you have isolated lending markets for more high risk assets in the future?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): Short answer: Yes. This is something that we'll be working on in the very near future.

AmplyIntern (Host): Will you incorporate leverage farming?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): Yes, as well. It's a very interesting idea. We are seeing a lot of other protocols doing this. Once we release, for example, isolation mode and efficiency mode, this is something that we're looking to build as well.

AmplyIntern (Host): Can we stake $AMPLY in the future and what are the utilities?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): For $AMPLY token, yes, there will be staking. This will be announced once we have confirmed our TGE (Token Generation Event). For other utilities, we are looking to integrate with other Dapps in the ecosystem and will be releasing more details on Tokenomics as well as TGE date soon. Please hang tight and stay tuned!

AmplyIntern (Host): Will Amply support other chains in the future or only focusing on Cronos zkEVM?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): This is the likely plan. One of the reasons why we launched on a ZK rollup is to take advantage of the infrastructure like seamless for more efficient asset transfers. With that said, the ecosystem of the ZK Stack is quite new so we're still monitoring and looking for opportunities to see where we can go next.

AmplyIntern (Host): Have you considered how to attract or retain users without issuing platform tokens?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): Tokens are a great way to attract users and bring liquidity in. But, retaining users is still very top of mind for us. It's a really high priority. So we're exploring a variety of strategies to improve user experience and also engagement. The specific details about this will definitely evolve over time but right now, our focus still remains on building a very strong community and delivering value to our platform.

AmplyIntern (Host): Would the platform consider implementing an automated yield strategy feature where users can choose to have their idle collateral automatically deployed into yield-generating strategies (like staking or farming) until it's needed to back loans?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): This is a great question. It could be part of our road map in terms of what kind of yield strategies we can provide for users. So yes, we are definitely looking at this.

AmplyIntern (Host): Why did Amply choose Cronos zkEVM to launch and how do you plan to use ZK technology in the near future?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): We wanted to build on a Layer 2 and leverage the network effect from building on Ethereum. However, a lot of the Layer 2s are quite saturated as there are already quite a few large lending players. On the other hand, Cronos zkEVM was new and it gave us an edge in being first. Also, we really liked what the ZK stack had to offer, such as the Elastic Chain.

AmplyIntern (Host): What is the role of oracle services in your protocol, and how do you ensure the accuracy and reliability of price feeds?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): Oracles are very important as their main role is to determine the prices of assets on Amply. They are especially important for ensuring liquidations are conducted successfully and efficiently. This is the most important reason because we need to ultimately maintain the overall health of the protocol. To ensure accuracy and reliability, we take prices from multiple sources and then we aggregate the prices from these sources. So the oracle is continuously monitoring for any anomalies. If it detects one of the price sources may have been compromised or could have been corrupted, then this source will be excluded until the issue is fixed.

AmplyIntern (Host): Will any of the ecosystem tokens in the zkEVM network projects like H2 or MOON or FUL look to be incorporated into the platform at all?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): Yeah, I think it's a high possibility. Once we set up isolation mode, which will help to isolate the risks related to these small cap tokens, then yes, we'll definitely consider these kinds of tokens.

AmplyIntern (Host): Will the $Preamp be vested out or convertible to $AMP after the Token Generation Event is offered, meaning is vesting/waiting period just a strict 1:1 conversion?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): Yes, the $preAMP will be vested. At this point, we haven't disclosed the percentage of vesting and as well as the waiting period. With that said, to give you an example, let’s say at TGE, if you have 100 $PreAMP, then you will be entitled to receiving 100 $AMPLY tokens. However, you can unlock only a portion of it at the TGE itself. As for the rest, you can either decide to wait for it to unlock over a period of time or you can stake it in our vaults as the staking vaults will be available at TGE. Therefore, you could stake it and continue to earn yields on top of your tokens instead of waiting for it to vest.

AmplyIntern (Host): As per your documentation, under Liquidations Calls: “Anyone can initiate a liquidation by making a liquidation call() to the Pool contract and repaying a portion or the entire loan in exchange for the borrower's collateral". How does one do this?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): So anybody technically can be a liquidator and you can earn that liquidation bonus. But the caveat is that you do need to be technically proficient. You need to have the infrastructure in place to be able to monitor the loans on Amply and to detect any unhealthy loans. You may also need to build a liquidation bot which will be used to trigger any liquidations. And most importantly, because there will be other third party liquidators out there, you need to have the bot that's fast enough to be first in line to liquidate successfully. So while it is possible to be a liquidator on Amply, it's not quite as simple as it seems.

AmplyIntern (Host): When will you add BTC to Amply?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): Bitcoin was initially on our list of tokens to add. However, they had some recent developments on BitGo’s side, which is the team behind the wBTC business. They introduced some potentially unknown counterparty risks when they set up a joint venture with Justin Sun and the Tron ecosystem. At this time, we are unsure about what risks could be involved. In addition, there are other larger protocols like MakerDAO and AAVE who are also moving towards reducing exposure to wBTC. So at this point, we're still monitoring the situation and also looking for some other potentially viable wrapped Bitcoin alternatives.

AmplyIntern (Host): Will there be a NFT collection integration?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): Yes, I think there's a possibility to add this feature. However, from what I see, I don't think there is much NFT activity on Cronos zkEVM right now. But once it's ready, we're definitely open to implementing this.

AmplyIntern (Host): When will you be listed on DeBank?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): As of today (Aug 29, 2024), we are listed!

AmplyIntern (Host): What happens to the rewards from the APR of vUSD and vETH ? How does the protocol use these?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): Great question. If you supply vUSD and vETH, any extra yield that users earn will be given back to you. We are still working on the mechanics on how to do this but it will likely come in the form of a yield refund that users can claim on the dashboard.

AmplyIntern (Host): Any plans to add Isolated Margin, Collateral Liquidation Price, and LTV%?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): For Isolated Margin (I'm guessing, that's isolated lending pools), yes, we have plans to add this. For Collateral liquidation Price, we will look into this feature. And lastly, LTV% (I'm guessing this is a user LTV%). We measure LTV on AMPLY using the Health Factor, which is available on the dashboard. The Health Factor is an absolute number. If your Health Factor is below 1, it means that you will be liquidated and if you are above 1, it means that you are safe.

AmplyIntern (Host): Any plans to add analytics and how soon if so? (For example: fees, liquidations, repays, protocol revenue)

Kronaz (Amply Finance): It's definitely part of the roadmap. We are currently working on features that we want to prioritize right now and we'll share a road map with the community soon.

AmplyIntern (Host): Any plans to add lending options for all tokens supported In Fulcrum Finance?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): The only token that we don't support right now is BTC, which we have previously mentioned why we are still considering the options. With that said, we support vUSD and vETH.

AmplyIntern (Host): Would you consider community votes for added isolated tokens?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): Yeah, that’s definitely a great idea. Ultimately, we want to list tokens that users want. There are a lot of risks to listing smaller cap or illiquid tokens. We definitely want the community to be involved but we still need to be able to make sure that any token that's voted undergoes and passes our risk assessment.

AmplyIntern (Host): Which oracle are you guys using? I don't think chain link is live yet on zkCronos.

Kronaz (Amply Finance): There definitely aren’t many oracle providers available yet. We approached Jay from the CronosZK team about this and they offered us the use of their own in-house oracle, which is what we have integrated at launch. I believe Fulcrum also uses this oracle as well and we think it's relatively robust. It takes prices from various sources and has a pretty good risk monitoring infrastructure. There's likely an interim solution for us while we wait for more providers to come onboard.

AmplyIntern (Host): Will you have an option to repay debt with collateral deposited on the platform?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): I think this is a really great idea. It's a really useful function when I use other platforms. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing this.

AmplyIntern (Host): Thank you to our amazing community for submitting these questions. As we still have some time left, we will answer any questions the Discord audience may have. First question, When is the AMP TGE planned? Weeks away? Months away?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): It’s likely more months away. What we want to do is have the $preAMP program run for a while longer and let early users accumulate the $preAMP. Then, we will launch the TGE.

AmplyIntern (Host): The Speaker knows her stuff!!! Thank you for this. Maybe next time, we should conduct this AMA on X so it’s recorded.

Kronaz (Amply Finance): We can potentially explore other platforms to do this voice chat. I know it would be very useful to have it recorded, that's for sure.

AmplyIntern (Host): Will swap features be added?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): This would be really good to have. Ultimately, I think our goal is to keep users on Amply. Having a swap feature and a bridging feature could be really good features to add.

AmplyIntern (Host): Will other pools be formed?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): There won't be pools. Amply doesn't have isolated pools but we have isolated assets. These assets will have restrictions around how it can be used for borrowing other tokens. For example, if we list a small cap token, a restriction could be that you can only borrow stablecoins against this token, thus making it different from Tectonic in a sense.

AmplyIntern (Host): Is USC from Cronos coming to markets? Or PayPal USD?

Kronaz (Amply Finance): For USC or Paypal USD, I'm not sure. We might have to check with the Cronos zkEVM team on that one. Ultimately for lending protocols, we typically wait for tokens to be listed on a DEX on Cronos zkEVM before we look into adding it to our platform. The reason is because we need to monitor the liquidity and there's really no use case for us just to list it on Amply if there's no trading or no volume on the chain itself. Therefore, we usually see what's available on a platform like H2 Finance before we decide what to add.

Kronaz (Amply Finance): Thank you everyone for your questions. We definitely want to hear more from you about your ideas, and about what you think would be good features to add to our lending platform. If you want to share more of your feedback, please post in our Discord feedback channel and I'll try my best to reply to them.

AmplyIntern (Host): Thank you to Kronaz from the Amply Finance team. Once again, I want to thank those of you who have submitted questions to our Discord channel. I also want to thank all of you who are attending this call. Lastly, thank you all for the incredible support you’ve shown for Amply. Remember to subscribe to our X and Discord page @amplyfinance!

See you guys next time!