Frontier AMA with Wolf Crypto
We held an AMA with Frontier in our public Telegram channel on September 10th.
Frontier is a chain-agnostic DeFi aggregation layer. Frontier supports DeFi on Ethereum, Binance Chain, BandChain, Kava, and Harmony. Via StaFi Protocol, Frontier will also connect to the Polkadot ecosystem, and is also in the process of integrated support for Serum.
By using Frontier users can participate in protocol tracking and management, staking, best-rate asset swapping, liquidity provision, CDP creation & monitoring, and more.
Currently, Frontier supports DeFi Applications built on Ethereum, Cosmos, and Binance chain.
Supported functionality is listed below.
- MakerDAO (CDP platform on Ethereum)
- KAVA (Cross- chain CDP)
- Yearn Finance (Yield Aggregator)
- Paraswap (Liquidity Aggregator)
- Dex.ag ( Liquidity Aggregator)
- ZapperFi (Zaps)
Native Staking Support
- Kava
- Matic
- BAND Protocol
- Harmony
You can visit the Frontier Telegram channel or the Frontier website for further details.
Here’s what Frontier’s CEO Ravindra Kumar, COO Philip Arthur Moore and CMO Palash Jain had to say in the AMA.*
*This AMA has been edited for clarity.
WC (Wolf Crypto Telegram Member)
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to another edition of Wolf Crypto AMA…it seems like we do one of these every day these days..bull market things I guess!
This one however, has special significance as we have Ravindra Kumar, Philip Arthur Moore and Palash Jain from the Frontier team joining us today.
TEAM & TEAM GOALS
WC
For those who may not already know, you guys are old friends of Wolf Crypto, in fact we’ve known each other throughout a few different market cycles now and all wandered similar paths in crypto, so I’m personally thrilled to be speaking to you guys as you take the next step on your crypto journey, the launch of the FRONT token and network!
I guess in that sense it would be fair to call you “industry veterans” right?
But with that elongated intro out of the way, how about we start with some introductions and some expansion on your long and surely stressful crypto history!
RK
Great to be here Wolfe!
My background is primarily a programmer all my life. I started as a full-stack web developer and did lots of mobile application development on Android and iOS. My primary work was on Mobile App Development, I still used to spend lots of time on a full-stack development.
I started in crypto as an investor in ICO’s in 2017 and then went on to explore the tech side of crypto. I did Smart Contract development for one of the prominent supply chain systems and then started working on DeFi, even before the word DeFi came to limelight.
I was a very early user of MakerDao protocol and that’s where my DeFi journey started. At that time, to create a CDP on Maker, you had to send at least 10 transactions. DeFi has come a long way since then in terms of UI/UX.
I have been doing lots of open-source work over a decade and created tools for developers.
I have also been top ranked open-source developers in India for the last few years!
PAM
Thanks for having us, Wolf.
I’m not great when it comes to talking about myself, so I’d like to add a little color to the Frontier backstory. I’ve known Palash and Ravindra for years, both as friends and workers in the industry, and last year (well before this hype cycle) decided to toss my previous work away and focus entirely on DeFi.
My family is spread out globally, and open finance is something I’ve always been a part of in some capacity, so it only made sense to work with people I know and trust.
I don’t think that my crypto history is different than most people’s. You hop into BTC, learn some things, hop into ETH, learn some other things, and then dive into a deep hole of degeneracy that eventually ends with you destroyed and out of the market or in a better place with a massive number of connections and on the road to making things that matter in the space. I’m fortunate to have fallen into the second bucket.
I used to work as a software developer at WordPress.com and Automattic.com, then transitioned into doing work on the WordPress.org side of things, so the things I’m working on now aren’t so different than what I was doing before. It’s just a different flavor of software and a different market, which I like.
WC
Haha, Phillp you are WAY too humble…I’ve learned a lot from you along the way from just following your Twitter account, past anything else…
https://twitter.com/cryptophilip
Here’s the link…give it a follow!
PJ
Hi Wolfie! Thank you so much for having us. Excited to be here.
I have been in this awesome community through all the bear and bull cycles haha and I started in this space just like any other crypto guy. investing, reading up about projects. digging down the rabbit hole.
So, 2017 got in crypto, worked for a Singaporean based marketing company called Talenta on Community front. There I learned a lot of stuff about Crypto communities and made so many friends in the process. When I left Talenta, I then started working and investing in projects such as IOST, Lambda, BitMax.io (India) on Community, PR, and marketing fronts.
WC
We’ve enjoyed having you here the entire time!
Beats MoNoICO…that was the one right?
PJ
Ehhhh, well sirs yeah lol!
WC
Well they did get one thing right…there are no NO MORE ICO’s haha!
MoNoIEO next?
PJ
Haha, I need to call Toan and ask what the plan is!
WC
Now Ravindra, before I was a Frontier user…I was an Instadapp user!
I seem to follow you from project to project…
Tell me a bit more about your work at Instadapp and how it influenced what you’ve now created with Frontier?
RK
I started working with the InstaDApp team even before the InstaDApp project was created.
My role at InstaDApp was to create the initial architecture on the backend. InstaDApp’s focus has been Web and DeFi. As I had more experience with Mobile and DeFi, I wanted to create something on Mobile and not to restrict it only to the Web. DeFi exposure I got from InstaDApp has been tremendously helpful.
At Frontier, we support InstaDApp natively right now. We have been chain-agnostic from the start we have been exploring most of the DeFi integrations not restrict ourselves to only ETH
WC
Nice, I gotta say, InstaDApp was a real eye opener for me when it came to DeFi and it’s possibilities…
Now Palash, we’ve crossed paths on quite a few projects before, though none quite as good as this one, it’s good to see you’re starting to peak in that regard just as we start to hit the golden bull!
How about you give me a little more detail on your involvement in some of the projects mentioned above and how you’re using these experiences to be the best (and only haha) CMO Frontier’s ever had?!
PJ
Sure, so my work was mostly related to the marketing/influencer, brand awareness/aggressive PR, community building and engagement/content around the tech and product side of things.
While working for these projects, it helped me a lot in understanding crypto communities and changed my whole perspective.
Building community in crypto is just as important as building tech and with the experience I have gained over the past three years that is my core focus at Frontier…I am working on building a strong community and product focused content and brand position in the market for FRONT.
WC
Those influencers man…ruining the space I tell you! Dealing with influencers is Like herding cats, you’re doing gods work there!
PJ
Haha, this topic can have separate AMA…I’ve dealt with some of the worst in past few years!
WC
Nice bro…sounds like you now “know”.
Having walked a similar path to you in crypto I can firmly say that this is one of the things you only come to discover if you’ve spent time in the industry and actually worked on projects, rather than being a Telegram fence sitter, saying when marketing, when Binance…
I usually save this one for the end of our AMA’s, but this Tweet thread exemplifies everything you just said in your response there…
THE FRONTIER APPLICATION
WC
Let’s start at the best place to start…the start!
Frontier wasn’t always Frontier now was it…First, it was Frontier wallet…in fact, I even have the post archived from when you first announced it…
November 2019…feels like a lifetime ago…and way before DeFi was as cool as it is now…
So step back in time a second for me and tell me how and why did this idea first come about and what was the market need for a “Simple, Safe and Mobile” DeFi wallet at the time?
RAVINDRA
When I started Frontier way back in 2019, DeFi had very little dollar value locked and there were only a handful of protocols.
My primary idea was to track, manage, and notify DeFi users. You could just add demo.eth and track all the DeFi protocol positions associated with demo.eth. This was kind of my own requirement in DeFi as I used to have DeFi positions in at least 4–5 protocols and just to track them I had to open up 5 different chrome tabs. The initial idea was read-only. With read-only, the amount of retention is much less.
Once we added Smart DeFi Notifications to notify users and the current DeFi state, this gave us a huge user retention. The ability to manage DeFi positions from App without giving the private key was the code idea. The biggest friction I used to face was when using a new Wallet App on mobile, wallets that ask you to create the wallet or import a private key. I didn’t want to put my private key on any new wallets.
WC
So what was the exact functionality of the wallet when you first launched?
What could you do with it and what chains or projects did you support?
PJ
When we launched Beta, the App supported DeFi Protocols based on the Ethereum chain. The protocols we supported were MakerDAO, Compound, Aave, Set, almost everything which was on the DeFi Pulse list.
As Ravindra mentioned, the beta was a Read Layer product (track, view and notify) where the user puts the address and sees all DeFi protocols in one place. The beta launch was overwhelming as when we launched the App, the community gave us an amazing response and we had like 2k beta testers within the first week of launch.
The read layer was a really good utility app, as querying data straight from ETH chain, such as showing the PnL, protocol positions. Early on we had already solved the data side of the problem and came out with the read layer!
WC
I’ll get more into the difference between the read and write? …haha…layers in a sec, cause it’s actually a massive change to both the product and user experience from your initial release, but first… integrating Matic as your first integration is kind of a big deal!
How did that come about?
RK
At the time we had already got enough traction to read and notify layers of our app and we wanted to give users a native staking experience for ERC-20 tokens.
We had come up with Unified APIs and UI/UX for this functionality and we started with Matic as they have native staking. We’ve gotten very good tech/marketing support from Matic Team from the start and that continues on to this day.
In terms of staking experience for ERC-20, we are already working on adding more staking assets such as Flexa, KNC, ZRX, etc.
WC
So the concept of “not your keys not your coins” is definitely one of the golden tenets of crypto, and it certainly sounds like a solid foundation to build an application upon, but doesn’t this introduce some limitations when it comes to functionality within the app?
PJ
“Not your keys, not your coins” has always been the foundation to build Frontier. When we finished building the Read layer side of Frontier, we had this question.
Do we take the route where the user creates a new wallet on Frontier or imports his seed/private phrases?
We felt that creating a new wallet on Frontier was a really bad UX option and we wouldn’t really be innovating by doing so. You already have like 50+ crypto wallets out there, so why do you need another one??!!
So, we came up with this idea, how about we connect multiple existing wallet solutions to Frontier so that a user has the ability to:
1. Never transfers funds to other places
2. Use their existing wallets
3. Has no need to import private or seed keys
4. Allows us to build the native DeFi application without us focusing on key management stuff (which is complex, time consuming and a security/attack vector)
But doing this on MOBILE was a difficult job!! You have a lot of interfaces/aggregators on the web, but zero on mobile.
Once we started working on our PoC and gave birth to a Middleware solution called “TxLink” which made connecting your mobile wallets + Frontier possible, well that is where the magic started to happen, as it opened up a lot of potential where we could do everything we wanted to, natively on Mobile.
I can go on and on this one lol…but we have a great Medium article on TxLink and wallet composability already.
Please check this out!
RK
Our idea was to solve the dApp + DeFi problem for Mobile. Not key management and storing assets. So we didn’t implement the key management solution initially.
Instead we spent our time working on creating a native interface for existing DeFi dApps.
WC
Difficult job hey, lucky you have an award winning mobile developer on the team huh?
RK
Definitleye YES. Here is our VP of Mobile, he is the biggest KOL in Mobile Dev industry.
WC
On the subject, what’s your thoughts on this and the current state of the DeFi market?
Haha…
PAM
A look at my Twitter feed during the last month would give you a pretty good idea about how I feel about these games. I hate them and frankly find them distracting. They make the term DeFi seem childish, and words like open finance seem meaningless. I often joke with the guys that we should not have to spend so much time building an application and more time building out food coins for fun during the last year.
It’s a little more nuanced to that to some degree, I suppose. My Joker/degen side says okay, let this run. TVL goes up in DeFi, people get excited, they learn what’s a good project and what’s not a good project, and they understand what getting destroyed by FOMO feels like very quickly. The quicker it happens, the better. Everyone needs his coming to light moment.
My more professional side thinks that very little of what’s currently going on around yield farming is helpful to the space and takes away the legitimacy of what we’re trying to do. Ravindra commented two months ago that we would not be chasing hype trends and overnight sensations, and it was the right call. We stay the course, keep building out infrastructure for what we believe will be around in a few years, and ignore the nonsense.
So I don’t know. I’m half and half. Half of me enjoys seeing the mess. Half of me thinks that it’s not suitable for everyone in the long run.
WC
Love the feedback there…and honestly, I have had some fun with some of these food coins, and I do feel you in a lot of regards…however I have been using some of the gains I’ve made on those to invest back into legitimate projects so perhaps it’s not all bad…I think one thing we can certainly agree on is that it’s 100% not sustainable!
Back to Frontier though and just to make sure I’ve got this clear, since you have txlink, I can use your app to not just view, but also manage my DeFi positions, by using txlink as a proxy to the underlying apps themselves?
This seems like kind of a big deal no?
PJ
Yes, You can do both Read and Write. The Write/Manage function is powered by TxLink as it connects wallets. Native dApps on Frontier side, Sign transaction on Wallet with the help of TxLink.
So works like a middleware or say a Proxy which shoots broadcast / shoots to selected wallet :D
WC
I just want to make sure this is crystal clear, as this, at least for me is a HUGE point of difference for Frontier over any other DeFi application out there…
Once you sign the required transaction between the underlying wallet and the Frontier application, this allows you to seamlessly interact with any service you’d usually use the underlying wallet with right?
Can you give me an actual example of this working, with one of the DeFi services Frontier is connected to?
PJ
Of course!
Here’s an example for native Compound integration, and I am using my Trust Wallet + Frontier set up, depositing DAI into Compound Protocol.
https://t.me/WolfCryptoPub/291984
This one is on Android ^ the flow is same for iOS as well.
We also have other integrations such as Aave, Matic staking, Yearn Finance, Zapper, Parswap, and more in beta coming out soon :D
WC
Before we move past TxLink, can you give me a list of underlying wallets that Frontier supports?
And anything not already on that list…when?!!
PJ
Sure!
Frontier currently supports Trust Wallet, Metamask, ImToken, Coinbase Wallet and FortMatic.
All of these are web 3 mobile wallets. We are adding few more mobile wallets such as Argent,Gnosis safe, Token Pocket etc and also exploring hardware wallet + Frontier support on Mobile ( R&D)
The one that I am more excited about is the hardware wallet support. Just connect your hardware wallet + Frontier and you can track and access DeFi everything from Mobile.
The security of a hardware wallet + the best UX for DeFi.
WC
So I did allude to it before, but as an application that started off as a humble wallet, and sold yourself as such, your new branding is now as a “Chain-Agnostic DeFi Aggregation Layer”…
Tell me, at what point did Frontier become more than just a wallet in your eyes?
PJ
We launched as Frontier Wallet which supported read (tracking) for all DeFi positions.
When we built TxLink, we still continued with “Frontier Wallet” and to be honest, we were confused back then as to what category it would fit well. wallet or mobile interface. The “wallet” term caused misunderstanding as in, people thought it is just another wallet where you have to import/create a new wallet to use the App.
The first DeFi Protocol we supported outside Ethereum was Kava, A cross chain CDP platform built on a Cosmos/ Tendermint implementation. Once we integrated Kava, we then started to explore other chains such as Band, Polka, Harmony etc
So, the chain-agnostic ability comes from the support we offer across multiple chains and the aggregation layer comes from the TxLink we built. Hence, “Frontier — A Chain-Agnostic DeFi Aggregation Layer”.
This sends a clear message about what our product is and what it does. So users now understand this even before exploring the app.
Better branding = Better communication :D
WC
Spoken like a true CMO!
Before we get into the integration stuff, how about you drop some links and visuals here on me, so those following along can touch/feel/see what we’re talking about as we’re talking about it?
What are the download links for the app, the link to the desktop version and do you have a demo account someone could use to quickly trial it?
PJ
Sure! Here’s Native compound ( Vid) , Matic staking ( Vid), Zapper ( Vid).
Frontier is avl both on iOS and Android. Head to Frontier.xyz download the Apps, and if you are new and want to see what all we support. Just enter “demo.eth” and the magic will appear.
WC
Where can I download this from by the way?
And is it easy to trial?
Remember I don’t actually have any crypto…so it makes it harder for me, I am no coiner now…I only own $ROPE and $RAMEN!
PJ
The Frontier App is live on both App and Play stores. Head to —
and download the App. For No-coiner, or lets say you are new to DeFi. just enter “demo.eth” in the App and you will see, all the DeFi protocols we support!
THE FRONTIER ECOSYSTEM
WC
So let’s get more into the chain integration and DeFi aggregation stuff, as in the “DeFi” bubble as I’m now calling it, a multi-use companion app seems like a very valuable user proposition to me…
As far as I’m aware, your application was the first to integrate yearn.finance, and with YFI’s success post-fact, I guess you guys can claim a slice of crypto history there…
What’s your logic behind such integrations and what’s your logic to future integrations…in a world in which new DeFi projects and protocols are popping up every day, at some point your bandwidth is going to get limited and you’ll have to pick and choose a bit?
RK
YES! Yearn. Andre, $YFI!
Integrating Yearn(Previously iEarn) was a natural choice for us as we have strong opinions on aggregation theory. We are aggregators ourselves. Most importantly the support and docs from Andre helped us to integrate them first. Most teams don’t support well for integrators but Andre was ready to help all the time. We have a complete YFI suite coming to Frontier which includes New Vaults and Insurance products.
The logic behind the integrations is we have two categories of integrations, Must-Have Protocols, Integration Partners.
Firstly must-have essential protocols like Maker (we are the only mobile app to support MCD to date.), Compound and Uniswap…most DeFi users want us to support these protocols.
Secondly, we have protocols reaching us for integration as partners. We get more support in terms of co-marketing from the teams who reach us out for integrations. This is definitely recurring work to add support for more and more protocols but we have built a scalable approach in terms of adding support for new protocol on the client-side though common unified UI/UX components.
Going forward we will limit the number of integrations to be very strategic. In the future we will have this governed by the community.
WC
I think Andre is now my new Bank Manger…
Palash, how about we take a step back for one second, and like the supported wallet list above, you give me a list of supported chains and DeFi protocols you’re currently connected up to?
PJ
We currently support Ethereum, Kava, Binance chain, Band chain, Harmony, and Cosmos.
On the DeFi protocol side: I’ll divide in two parts. Read and Native integrations
Read: Maker, Compound, Aave, BZX, Uniswap, Balancer, Curve, yearn, dydx, Synthetix and tracking staking positions of Matic, Band, Kava, Harmony etc
Native Integrations: Makerdao, Compound, Aave, yearn, Zapper, Dex.ag, ParaSwap, Kava, Matic staking, Band staking, Kava staking and Harmony staking
WC
So that’s QUITE the list of what you currently support, what about what’s to come?
Something tells me you’re not stopping at your current list…
PJ
We are working on Polka, Stafi and Solana at the moment and I’m speaking with these teams and folks building on top of them. We want to play an important role in bootstrapping DeFi on these chains as an interface.
WC
Damn, there’s a couple of VERY sexy ones on that list…I’m just going to let Frontier Chain slide through to the keeper for now, as that’s a whole thing in itself that I’ll get to in a sec, but two you mentioned particularly caught my eye…
Solana and Stafi…
Stafi is a particular one of interest to me, as I’m not only an investor but when it comes to staking assets, it’s one of the platforms I see getting a lot of traction in the future…since Stafi supports multi asset staking, I’d assume that by integrating it, you’re greatly expanding out the potential value that can be access via your own application.
Is that a fair statement and how valuable do you see “Staking as a Service” type platforms to both DeFi in general and your own application?
PJ
Stafi is an interesting one. When we rolled out Native staking on Frontier, it just gave users a good UX basically like 3 steps — easy click staking. But I felt this is just not enough. I have been staking few assets, and the pain point for me is liquidity.
I was speaking with Ravindra and Philip about how we need to work more on staking and introduce staking derivatives so that the user gets both a better user experience and also remains liquid. We were actually planning to build the staking contracts by ourselves! LOL and then we came across Stafi Protocol and it just clicked. They are building the base staking contracts and Frontier focuses on native user experience. The perfect match!
“Staking as service” is a big emerging industry, more and more blockchains are using PoS, dPos, NPos consensus. Offering staking services makes it easy for retail to access and earn passive income on their assets. From a product point of view, this is something we are taking very seriously.
WC
So let’s get to the big bad wolf in the room, and in this case it’s not me…
Philip, from last I remember CZ was best friend…now Sam and Solana/Serum is best friend?
Is it like this?
What’s the story behind this burgeoning relationship with FTX and can we expect more Serum like services to Frontier?
I know from my brief use of their new exchange, having to use a new wallet other than Metamask was a bit annoying for me as a user…
PAM
Lol. I generally try to avoid words like “relationship” and “friendship” in crypto because, frankly speaking, this is a very volatile market with tripwires around every corner. I respect the work that both Binance and Serum have done in the DEX space, and there’s more to be done.
If I see something interesting happening, I’m probably going to dabble in it for some time. Close associates will tell you that I’m super pragmatic in my approach to doing business, so my thought process around Serum in 2020 is quite like my thought process around Binance Chain in 2019:
1. New tech.
2. It seems sexy.
3. I want to get involved with it early.
4. Let’s see how things go.
On the product side, we’ve already teased out SOL and SPL integration. Since early this year, we’ve already supported Binance Chain and something like 5 Binance IEOs, so it’s all just code and who’s more willing right now to push DeFi forward. Right now Serum is crushing it.
Whichever is best right now and whichever is doing more to push the space forward, we will likely pay close attention to it. Nobody serious can ignore Serum. Does it mean that we will only list FRONT on Serum or stay off of the ETH chain or Binance Chain or another chain? Nope. It just means that right now, we’re finding Solana to be interesting. It’s super-fast.
TL;DR is that I’m agnostic, but I think anyone ignoring Solana and Serum right now is making a huge mistake and I’m personally looking forward to working with them. They’ve been rock stars from Day 1 of our conversations. Tons of excitement and energy that I haven’t seen from many other teams in a while now.
WC
So just before we move onto Frontier chain and your $FRONT token…exciting exciting, let’s go into a little more depth on the staking aspects of Frontier…
Band, Kava and Matic are all supported, but to be honest, I don’t stake any of those assets so I haven’t gone through the user process of doing so on your app.
Can you take me through this, perhaps using one of them as an example and highlight to me the benefits of doing so via your app as opposed to natively on the various chains and wallets?
PJ
Sure thing!
I would like to use Matic staking as example here, as what makes Frontier’s native staking unique compared to other Wallets/Exchanges out there is:
1. The Entire staking process is self custodial
2. With Frontier, when you are staking assets, you don’t have to move those assets from one place to another place. Connect your wallet and stake tokens directly from that wallet, via Frontier
3. Staking notifications
4. Staking tracking — Let’s say you staked your assets using Ledger/ other wallets for example, you just enter your Public address and track staking positions and reward. Like staking blockfolio :D
5. Important one: Sirs — your keys, your crypto we want to give the best UX, and be 100% non custodial
WC
Binance has been making some waves lately with their entry into the DeFi space…lol…with their Binance chain and staking program that sits on top…
While I believe it’s only on testnet right now, will you be supporting this on day one, once it hits their main chain?
PAM
We won’t support this on day one. I don’t think it’s necessary. If proper TVL goes into the chain or we integrate Binance Chain based teams who require BSC functionality, then we’ll likely support it. Or if Binance Chain rolls out grants or a developer program, we’ll probably look into it.
We’ve found that sometimes it’s not super-important to be a first-mover on a new chain but to do something well once we have established that a chain has good TVL and a user base.
I’m personally excited about BSC (I follow their GitHub like a hawk) and I’d like to see something cool built on top of it…and we think Frontier is pretty cool! Haha!
WC
How about lowbrow staking programs? Soft staking and the like…
Is that something that will be supported by the application?
If so, what platforms will you support for this…it would be mostly exchanges right?
RK
If something is trustless we can definitely add support, but really it all depends on the demand from the users.
WC
I think I’ve exhausted most of my staking based questions, but before we move onto the next section, is there anything I’ve missed?
Or anything unannounced re staking that you’d like to either drop on us or tease us with?
PJ
Haha, yep! We have some staking integrations coming soon but I will save it for PR and won’t leak anything now lmao
THE FRONTIER NETWORK
WC
Ok now it’s time for the big boys chat…Firstly a wallet, then an aggregator and now…your own chain…
It’s one thing having your own token…shit look at all the scam DAO’s popping up, every man and his dog has their own token these days, but your own chain as well? Pimp…
Tell me why you’ve gone down the path of creating your own chain, what’s the tech backing it and of course when launch?
RK
The idea to build our own chain came from the vision we have to build a frictionless way to onboard non-crypto users from FIAT to DeFi.
We solved the DeFi problem by building the native interface. We also solved the problem of on-ramping users.
But the biggest problem our users faced was creating the wallet itself. Backing up those seed phrases and private keys and what not. Non-crypto users must get exposed to DeFi opportunities. We want to come up with the keyless-recoverable wallet. This has already been implemented on ETH using SmartContracts, but we wanted to build a wallet for multiple blockchain. That’s when we started thinking in terms of coming up with our own bespoke blockchain for decentralized key management.
WC
You state “Frontier Chain is a decentralized key management chain”…
I have to admit, that one is a new one to me…and I’ve seen a lot of different chains in my time…
Can you explain what this actually means to me…and perhaps give me some comparisons or common features with other chain types we might know more about?
RK
It’s pretty simple. We are using a well known crypto algorithm called Shamir Secret Algorithm. We split the private key into multiple pieces and store it on blockchain as a state. Only clients who have authorization can retrieve these private keys and also can recover these private keys.
In terms of comparing with existing blockchain, we are creating a new category in blockchain. There is no such thing as the DKM category in Blockchain space right now. But we will have Cosmos-Flavoured Blockchain with DKM capabilities.
WC
Explain to me in a bit more detail the tech stack you’re using to create your chain and what features that allows you to have, both now and in the future?
RK
Frontier Chain primary use-case decentralized key management and we are planning to build this using Cosmos-SDK.
Why no one has tried to solve this problem if it’s so easy to solve it. If you go back to 2018–2019 creating a new blockchain needed a bigger team and huge funds to develop and bootstrapping the security was the biggest problem. But now if we use Cosmos-SDK spinning up a new blockchain in a few days, You get so many things for free in Cosmos-SDK like POS, Accounts, Staking etc. We have to work on one extra module to support DKM. Most importantly we have validator providers in Cosmos Ecosystem who help to bootstrap the security.
We have to build lots of client side SDKs to get adoption on Frontier Chain. We are ready to build this as Total Addressable Market for DKM is the entire crypto ecosystem.
WC
So past “decentralized key management“ what other features does your chain enable?
I see a bunch of chat around NFT’s…
RK
We are starting with DKM initially based on requirements we can extend it to other features like NFT, trussless oracle etc. But we want to focus completely on DKM initially and bootstrap the security with validators.
TOKEN UTILITY
WC
I know this isn’t the core token utility for the $FRONT token, but after a week of getting ganked on gas, and actually not using the network on some days because of the crazy gas fees…
Gasless Transactions…what what what?
PJ
Yeah, so one of the use cases of $FRONT would be that by locking up $FRONT, this would give you gasless transaction on Frontier Application suite. This is in works, we are working together with relayer infrastructure providers, Biconomy to make this happen.
So for all the ETH DeFi applications we have integrated, if you lock up FRONT you’ll get “X” free gasless txns. This will go live together with the Frontier incentive protocol.
WC
Impressive, we were joking in the group the other day that soon it will cost an ETH to send an ETH. If Vitalik can’t save us…maybe you guys can!
Let’s talk about the hot topic within the hot topic of DeFi…Governance…
You plan to have governance, but not at the start, and using a different token to your utility token?
What’s a gFRONT and what does it do?
PAM
It’s a governance token to govern the main chain once launched and honestly has not a ton of bearing on the next 6–12 months of development. We need to run enough forecasts or study fallout from all of these current “governance” tokens to see if the model even works. Community input also matters a ton with regard to governance so it’s nothing we’re rushing.
We might even use native $FRONT for it so it’s all up in the air. Roadmap for $gFRONT will become clearer with time so I suspect things will change around how we manage it. Governance today will be different than what people expect from it in 2021. I’m sure of this. The job for us will be to find the best model that works for everyone when the time comes for it.
WC
How will I be able to acquire gFRONT once released?
PAM
This will largely depend on how the next several months play out in DeFi. We’re observing other project’s successes and failures and attempting to craft a plan around governance that is sustainable.
This is a way off though; certainly something that’s in Alpha Alpha state.
WC
I note that your new website has a section on “Deflation via Integration”.
Past loving the way that phrase sounds, what does it actually mean and what benefits does it pass on to token holders?
PAM
The protocol integrations that we do are paid. If a team’s core competency is not in DeFi but they need native DeFi integration, then they subsidize us to pay for those integrations.
Hundreds of man hours go into some of the integrations that we build so we’re essentially offering our brain power to another team in exchange for revenue for our equity-side company.
Moving forward we’ll have a model, no different than a centralized exchange, that passes off some of the achievements of Frontier to $FRONT in a way that’s compliant and sustainable.
In short this phrase essentially means that if our products are doing well then $FRONT itself should do well. Not financial advice. Please do not take this as financial advice! Just sharing the game plan. We’ll have more on this in the future.
WC
I’m super keen, as I’m sure most following this AMA are, to talk about your token, but firstly I have to ask, you speak about “Liquidity Provision” as liquidity is what is really driving the DeFi ecosystem now. No liquidity and liquidity solutions like Uniswap, Balancer etc and no DeFi really, at least not in the way we know it today.
So for Frontier what does liquidity mean? How does it enter your ecosystem and where does it go once it does? And what’s the incentives along the way for users to participate in liquidity provisioning?
PAM
Liquidity provision is a fancy way of saying that users will be able to use $FRONT in DeFi platforms. Want to add liquidity into a Uniswap pool? Go for it. Want to create your own pair with $FRONT on Balancer? Do it!
We’re also partnering with some upcoming projects like UniLend that capture the upside of providing liquidity but also introduce cool lending/borrowing options for assets that are not traditionally granted entry into the big boys’ party yet (i.e. you’d like to use any ERC-20 as collateral for a loan then you can do it with $FRONT via UniLend). People focus a lot on CEX volume and liquidity so I’d like for us to put efforts into DEX liquidity — that’s where we see things heading for a while.
REVENUE MODEL
WC
So we’ve just spoken on the benefits for token holders on the Frontier chain, but what about the company itself.
What’s your revenue model past simply selling tokens and how does this align with the interests of token holders?
RK
The revenue model for our flagship product Frontier App, We get revenue from integrators. Most of the integration we have done are paid integrations. Protocols are ready to pay for integrations. As they are good in terms of building the protocol itself. We have leverage in terms of mobile. Also we will expose the new integration to all of our existing users.
We will have some of the premium features as part of the App with the $FRONT pay/stake wall such as DeFi Tax Module, DeFi Analytics Module.
PARTNERSHIPS
WC
Alright, we’ve spoken on a bunch of your integrations so far, but in case we’ve missed any, how bout you take a deep breath Palash and list them all off for me?
PJ
It is a long list, but i will give you a quick Tl;dr
Kava — BNB CDP module integration (Cross chain) + Kava staking
Band protocol — Band staking
Matic Network — Staking
Elrond — Staking
Harmony — Staking
Celo — Access to native Celo DeFi + staking
Stafi — Liquid staking contracts integrations
Unilend — Complete protocol integrations + Tracking positions
WC
Of course I have to ask, and I’m used to being rejected, so don’t be scared to do so…but who next?
What other partnerships do you have lined up and if you don’t want to get into specifics, perhaps you could outline for me in more broader terms, who you see, or what type of networks you see as ideal partners and integrations for Frontier?
PJ
We are speaking with a lot of projects, staking derivatives, cross chain DEX’s, liquidity aggregators products to just give you a few of some of the product niches in which we are talking to.
Also, we are actively engaging projects from the Polka/Cosmos DeFi ecosystem. In particular, the Polka DeFi ecosystem is growing at great speed. Talented people are building the base layer protocols, DEX’s, swap’s, basically all the ingredients which are required to build money legos or lets say a DeFi composable ecosystem.
Tl;dr Ethereum based are by default, we have three integration’s in beta waiting to roll out, Polka DeFi apps we love to talk to and work with, and same for Cosmos.
I’ll share a sneak peak from our beta build. Hot hot feature! It’s the full pack Uniswap + connect your wallets. Trade with a better user experience!
https://t.me/WolfCryptoPub/292220
COMPETITORS
WC
I was going to say…Frontier Uniswap! Wild!
This one actually seems like a bit of a redundant question to me…but I have to ask, who are your competitors in the DeFi aggregator space?
I can think of many projects that do some of what you do, but nothing that does everything…Would that be a fair assumption to make?
PJ
Nice question!
There are multiple DeFi Aggregators out there such as DEX aggregators, liquidity aggregators and DeFi aggregators.
Frontier comes under “DeFi Aggregators”. Some of the other products that also fall under this category are: Zerion, Debank etc
First let’s discuss the things that both Frontier and the others have in common.
The thing that all DeFi aggregators are good at is the Read layer (tracking). Applications like ours have more retention on the DeFi tracking side of things.
Now, to the best part, what makes us different from all the other DeFi Aggregators out there.
1. Wallet composability
2. Chain Agnostic Approach
-> Wallet Composability: Every other DeFi Aggregator out there is ONLY web focused. If you want to do both tracking and manage DeFi. You need to get on a desktop, connect your wallet and do the needful .
Frontier has a huge difference when it comes to wallet composability. We are able to do the same exact thing on mobile.
We are the ONLY DeFi Product out there to explore this uncharted territory of enabling native DeFi + connecting Wallets with in-house developed TxLink.
We solved the hard problems first, and are now moving to the easy thing i.e a web platform. So Frontier as a product with wallet composability will be a platform agnostic product!
2. Chain Agnostic Approach
We want to be the go-to interface for DeFi across chains. We focus on other blockchains as much as we do on Ethereum. Infact, we are the first DeFi interface to integrate the Kava chain, which enables users to put BNB as collateral and mint USDX.
WC
So in the sake of fairness, how about you list off to me some of those who do part of what you do, just so we can keep an eye on any potential threats to Frontier…should they decide to up their game?
RK
As of now, most aggregators are stuck on the ETH Network and are web only. I understand ETH has the maximum number of DeFi users and we do love protocols built on ETH. But other ecosystems are thriving on DeFi too.
Kava has $40m worth of BNB locked. Binance has been trying to get into DeFi though Binance Smart Chain. So by being chain agnostic we can move faster the existing aggregators when it comes to adding support to new chains or new protocols.
Our biggest moat is core competency on both mobile and DeFi. We have come up with a unified interface for similar protocols across different chains.
Let’s say there is a new chain that launches a lending protocol, we can add support to the new lending protocol in less than a day and that’s something none of our competitors can even come close to.
TOKEN SALE & SUPPLY
WC
You recently put out a very sexy ANN with some details around your raise…I’m just going to drop that here…
$600k starting market cap…Not sure exactly how you did that, but well played!
For the sake of the chat, can you link us to the full token metrics for the raise?
PAM
For context you’ll notice that this is version 1.0.6 of the metrics but it really should be something like 2.9.9. A month went into making metrics, changing them, observing how other listings occurred, and listening closely to the market. In retrospect I’m pretty happy we did a fairly small raise; it keeps us in check with how we use funds and also doesn’t put so much pressure on the token over time.
The goal here was good distribution without shocking the system. We’ll have to wait over time to see how well it plays out!
WC
Looking at this, a majority of the sale was sold during your seed and private rounds.
Who’s locked and for how long? And past sale participants, what about the team yourselves?
PAM
TL;DR version of that link above -
- Seed: 6-month cliff with vesting over 18 months.
- Private: 25% at TGE then 25%/25%/25% over the course of 9 months, quarterly releases post-TGE.
- Early Supporters: No vesting.
- Public: No vesting.
- Team: Our tokens unlock only after Seed is fully vested. We really don’t want to be dipping into tokens when our investors haven’t even enjoyed full liquidity. This is something that we hardly ever see in crypto and we wanted to be intentional about this. Teams should not enjoy a token’s upside before investors ever.
WC
You recently pushed some press out regarding these investors, can you drop that PR on us and perhaps detail some of the key investors and how they’ll be supporting Frontier, not just for the token sale, but moving forward as you launch your own chain?
PAM
Going back to my “super pragmatic” approach, we looked for investors with qualities that are essential to Frontier’s success: 1) excellence in DeFi (CoinGecko, Mechanism, Alameda), 2) respect for the work we’ve done during the last year and supporters who were always behind us (Woodstock, Matic, Black Edge Capital), and 3) partners who would bring us massive network expansion (Exchange Investors, NGC, Spark, AU21 and TRG).
We weren’t necessarily looking for investors with money. Everyone these days has money from farming! What we were looking for were investors who would help us reach that next level, via market expansion into non-English speaking territories, marketing and PR chops, and technical smarts with a deep understanding of what’s needed in DeFi.
Literally every investor who we picked (and who picked us) hopped on a call to talk deeply about what we’re trying to solve.
WC
In that recent post I linked above, you referenced a public sale…
Is this still the case?
If so how much will be raised in it and what platform are you using to do so?
PAM
So the reason I keep calling it emission and distribution is because when people hear “sale” they think that it’s going to be a sale in the traditional way that CEX’s do it. It’s not. Our focus is 100% on DEX’s right now and we’ve made it clear that we’re heading to Serum / Mooni / Uni / Balancer. The only thing I’m finalizing right now is the distribution split between platforms. I’d like to avoid too much front-running (almost impossible) or at least give people a chance to participate on their platform of choosing without too much chaos. We’ll see how it goes though. We’re trying something new and going to enjoy doing it.
WC
I note as part of your token distribution you have tokens allocated for “Staking Rewards”.
We touched on it in the token utility section chat before, but when do you expect to start using these tokens to start paying staking rewards on the network?
PJ
Our roadmap has a loose estimate for next year, well into the year. We don’t want to over-promise here and also need to run economic forecasts on the staking emissions to make sure that they are proper.
So my best guess is that this will happen during 2021 after there has been enough distribution of $FRONT so that no single malicious actor can do silly things on the network that we’re building.
One of the lessons I learned from our good friends at THORChain is that good distribution is key to a robust network.
WC
You also allude to “bootstrapping liquidity” and it sounds like you’ll use $FRONT tokens as the method of doing so.
Are these tokens also going to come from the Staking pool or are these Ecosystem tokens?
PAM
These are all Ecosystem side tokens. It’s just a fancy way of saying “enough buy/sell side liquidity to do things on DEX’s”, including those that are hot today and those that haven’t launched yet, like UniLend.
We need Eco tokens for this because if we’re relying on 3rd-parties to volunteer their liquidity to bootstrap a new DEX effort it causes some friction there for us that we’d like to avoid. In traditional listing paths (CEX’s, etc.) companies use this Ecosystem and Reserve side for listings; it’s basically the same for us but on DEX’s.
WC
So getting back to the token sale/launch plan…You’ve given some detail as to what the plan is there leading up, but what about after?
What exchange will you be listing on? Are you going down the Uniswap route and if so will you be supporting and incentivising liquidity on Uniswap?
PAM
We’ll definitely be on Serum, Uniswap, Balancer, and Mooniswap and we’re still looking into a few options on the DEX side. Right now that’s our focus.
The good news is that final audits of our token contract are rolling in and we should be able to share plans on the 11th and go to market on the 14th or 15th. That’s the plan right now assuming nothing insane happens before then.
WC
So as I alluded to before, Philip’s new best friend is Sam…this looks like a best friend statement if I ever saw one…
List doesn’t mean launch though does it?
And just as a general interest thing, what’s your feeling on Project Serum as a DEX and FTX as a centralised exchange (I’m making an assumption there…)
PAM
So something that I think may be helpful to understand is that FTX is an exchange, Alameda Research is not, and their investment into us was to support our focus on DeFi and Serum.
Our launch/listing plan involves multiple DEX’s, not only Serum, but on the Serum side we have something fun coming that I hope people will like. Also, there will be a way to soon wrap into SPL without needing to go to FTX for it which helps alleviate any concerns that people have around self-custody of their assets.
The Serum team has been working really fast lately so the way it even looks and feels today is way different than the way it was last week.
DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP
WC
So we’ve spoken a bunch on all the stuff you’ve built over the past year or so, but with a lot of those building blocks now in play, I’m assuming things will ramp up quite quickly for you.
One of the things that excites me as an investor is all the integrations that are possible for Frontier…
You did list off a few for me earlier, but let’s take a more long term look at what’s to come.
Past the usual integrations give me an idea of where you want to take this thing and how that will fit in the progression of the overall DeFi ecosystem?
RK
DUE DILIGENCE CHECKS
WC
Does Frontier have a Github?
PAM
Yep.
I’m surprised nobody took a look at https://github.com/frontierwallet/frontier/blob/master/README.md!
It was literally in plain sight that anyone who emailed to help out with app testing would get a goodie bag. Sad!
WC
Where are you guys based?
PAM
The majority of the team is in India, my Telegram name should be a giveaway (Vietnam), and another member of the team is in Dubai and on his way to Canada.
Some of us were much more mobile before COVID came around but for now, this is where we are. Thank goodness for the video chat.
WC
Where is Frontier incorporated?
PAM
The equity side of the company is based in Singapore. The token side is based in BVI. So pretty standard in terms of a product side company that also develops crypto assets.
WC
Do you have a legal opinion that your token isn’t security?
PAM
Absolutely. This is one of those back-end things that I think would be cool for token hunters to understand. Good teams get legal opinions. ;-)
WC
Have your token smart contract been audited and can we see the results?
We’re being audited by two firms right now. One has finished. The other is pending.
We could have simply YOLOed and deployed our token contract a week or so ago but it’s really not the way you want to do it when you’re thinking about the upcoming 6–12 months as a project. Better safe than sorry!
Those PDFs and such will be added to frontier.xyz as they are finalized and highlighted at the top of the website for a week or two post-TGE, then moved into a separate page on the site. TL;DR: yep audits being done, wrapping them up now.
WC
Now since we’re in a bull market and doing these AMA’s, and it’s not like the somber days of the bear, I’ve started ending them with some memes…so without further ado and to finish this one off…Frontier meme me!
PAM
Okay but don’t share anywhere because this is degen/pleb images. I fear for my professional image.
And, I have one more. Just one and only for my Vietnamese friends.
WC
Boner pills?
PAM
Close.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
WC
Well on that note, probably a great note to end it on…
Thanks again guys, so much detail in this one!
PAM
We’ll invite you into 3chads soon. Thanks so much for having us.
PJ
Thank you Wolfie for the AMA and lot of cool updates coming!
RK
Thanks Wolfe!
Frontier Resources
Website: https://frontier.xyz
Telegram: https://t.me/FrontierDotXYZ_Chat
Medium: https://blog.frontierwallet.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/frontierdotxyz
iOS Application: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/frontier-defi-wallet/id1482380988
Android Application: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.frontierwallet
Wolf Crypto Resources
Public Group: https://t.me/WolfCryptoPub
News Channel: https://t.me/WolfCryptoAnnounce
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WolfCryptoGroup
