RAMP DEFI AMA with Wolf Crypto
We held an AMA with RAMP DEFI in our public Telegram channel on August 26th.
RAMP DEFI is a decentralized finance solution that focuses on unlocking liquid capital from staked digital assets. This is achieved by letting users collateralize their portfolio of staked assets into a common stablecoin standard, rUSD, which can in turn be used to borrow fiat-back capital such as USDT or USDC.
RAMP is the first company to develop a cross-chain liquidity on/off ramp that will allow holders of non-ERC-20 staked digital assets to conveniently utilize their staked assets and achieve substantially high capital efficiency.
Using the RAMP solution, users can continue to receive staking rewards, retain capital appreciation potential on their staked portfolio, and recycle staked capital into new investment opportunities at the same time.
RAMP DEFI is uniquely positioned in the ecosystem as it seeks to unlock liquidity, rather than lock it like many DeFi projects. Instead of Total Value Locked (TVL), RAMP DEFI measures its success Total Value Unlocked (TVU), which is defined by the additional liquidity it contributes to the global crypto ecosystem.
The RAMP DEFI Public Sale date is within the next two weeks. Stay tuned for more details and how to participate!
You can also visit the RAMP DEFI Telegram channel or the RAMP DEFI website for further details.
Here’s what RAMP DEFI’s Project Lead Lawrence Lim, 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, this time with RAMP DEFI!
Joining us from the RAMP DEFI team today is Lawrence Lim!
TEAM & TEAM GOALS
WC
Welcome, thanks for taking the time to chat with us today! I know it’s a super busy week for you guys, so we very much appreciate your time!
Speaking of which…how many AMA’s have you done so far today?
I heard you’re all warmed up!
LL
Hello Winston! Hello everyone!
All warmed up and ready, 2 interviews done with 4 more AMAs to go haha!
WC
Damn, RIP!
LL
All good! I enjoy sharing about RAMP with different communities haha.
The reception has been amazing so far!
WC
Well, I’ll try and make this one as painless as possible for you!
How about we start off with a brief into from yourself, how you became involved in RAMP DEFI and what your history is in the crypto space?
LL
Sure thing I’ll give some quick background.
I am from Singapore, and started working in the traditional finance industry since 2012, focusing on private banking and corporate M&A. I was in traditional finance for close to 5 years, before I made the jump to tech and blockchain
Spent the last two years at a Layer 1 project called IOST, where I was with them from pre-testnet, to testnet, to mainnet, to onboarding over 300 nodes into our ecosystem, and having over $30m USD in staked assets.
Seeing that DeFi is growing rapidly, I eventually started ideaing with my cofounders in late 2019 to develop and launch what is RAMP DEFI today.
WC
Singapore hey, I always test out people from Singapore by asking, what’s your favourite floor at Orchard Towers?
You can no comment that one if you like…haha!
LL
Orchard Towers? Where’s that? Never been before 😂
I have to start pretending now hahaha!
WC
Smart response…He knows 😉
Could you also give us some background on some of the team members who aren’t joining us today?
LL
Oh yes for sure. So RAMP started with six core members, and we are adding more team members as we speak!
Quick introduction:
Zheng Rong — who runs marketing and is amazing with coordinating all our international influencers and community groups to raise awareness about RAMP DEFI.
Caspar — our blockchain lead, smart contracts developer with several years of experience. This is a long time, in crypto hahaha!
David — focusing on cybersecurity, ex-CTO of a Singapore telco. Make sure your funds are safe, and doesn’t get hacked.
Jay — working on product design. We want RAMP to be lightweight and efficient. He’s a serial entrepreneur, AI master and amazing with products!
Jeanette — covers community and operations. Ex-auditor so really detail-oriented, and make sure the rest of the team is well-coordinated and we are getting things done haha.
They are all amazing people and thankful for them to be part of RAMP’s journey!
WC
So before we get into the guts of the project, you have a fairly impressive list of backers…a couple of big funds and a few connected with some decent exchanges…
Can you detail who they are, what their ongoing involvement in the project is at this point in time and what they’ll be doing for the project post launch?
LL
Yeah we are really thankful for that. It was all unintentional, we didn’t expect RAMP to be where it is today. The discovery was extremely organic between us and the funds.
For example, Arrington XRP Capital found us through a Medium article, which we had posted, with no marketing haha.
We focus on onboarding strategic investors who are able to help RAMP DEFI become a success really. Investors who are active, add value by opening doors to blockchain foundations, staking pools, etc.
We have received many introductions so far, and struck a number of partnerships, so its been amazing.
We will be releasing all these news soon for our community :)
WC
I see the newest beast in crypto is on the list…Sam’s fund…
Is that a clue to anything?
LL
Yeah we are super excited that Alameda had invested. They have been leading the DeFi space recently, especially with Serum being a massive launch, and we are definitely looking to Sam for some support as well.
We hope to have more exciting details to share on that later on ;)
THE RAMP DEFI NETWORK
WC
I posted from Frontier news before which said they will be ONE of a FEW coins listing on SRM when it launches…
Hmmm…but anyways…Let’s move onto the project stuff.
What’s your elevator pitch on what RAMP DEFI is?
LL
Haha yeah let me do a quick overview.
Over the last 2 years investors have poured billions into staking. Right now there’s $22b USD of staked assets.
These assets are inefficient. There’s opportunity costs if your capital is locked up in a product with low yields. But sometimes, its not that easy to just exit as there may be potential capital gains as well.
What RAMP propose is that we let users collateralize their staked assets into a stablecoin on the Ethereum network, which they can use to borrow fiat-backed capital like USDT, USDC.
This way, they can continue to receive staking rewards, have capital appreciation potential, and still have extra liquid capital to invest in new opportunities.
WC
I have to admit, this is a very interesting concept.
If we were to compare RAMP DEFI to more traditional financial services, what would your ideal comparison be?
RAMP is the bank in that context?
Taking in user funds and then lending them back out, while paying interest on user held funds in the form of RAMP tokens?
LL
I’ll probably look at it more of a collateralized product, potentially a reverse mortgage might be somewhat similar
A reverse mortgage is basically putting your house as collateral in exchange for capital.
If you look at how it works, you still own the underlying assets, and can still receive say, rental income on it.
At the same time, you can get liquid capital to invest, or use. If you want to get back the underlying, you just need to reverse the process, pay off the loan taken, and you are good :)
WC
So from my understanding a big part of your value proposition is having users add capital to the platform than can then be used to serve the network…
How are you bootstrapping the network in that regard? What incentives are in place for users to add capital into the RAMP ecosystem?
LL
Yeah that’s a really important part of the design!
If we look at it, decentralized ecosystems are driven by participation. So that’s how we have designed RAMP to be.
I call this the “stake-farm-earn-repeat” cycle!
We have different farming pools for different activities that users can participate in.
Let’s use an example —
You stake your tokens through RAMP delegation contract. Start farming tokens. You collateralize your assets. Farm more tokens. You borrow and lend. Farm even more tokens.
Stake your RAMP, and earn regular yield from our shared interest pools which accrue fees and staking rewards.
So, stake-farm-earn-repeat.
WC
Yield in this context is entirely payable in RAMP tokens?
LL
Not at all. We have an ecosystem product call the rPool, which basically accrues revenue from a small % of all the staking rewards generated and the fees generated from lending/borrowing
Then at regular weekly intervals, to release 40% of the accrued revenue to stakers of RAMP tokens
So there’s a real business model behind this yield ;)
I like to think that this differentiates RAMP from many other tokens out there!
WC
Nice, I’ll get to your revenue model/business model a little later, but in the meantime, lets take a slight step back and look at what the components are in the ecosystem that make all this possible
I was reading this before —
But your words, can you break it down for us in crypto dumb dumb talk?
LL
Yeah for sure. We have “productized” the ecosystem into a set of products that deliver very specific outcomes.
For example, rMint is to mint your staked assets into a collateralized stablecoin.
rPool is the universal shared interest pool for value accumulation and distribution.
So RAMP is made up of these different products that essentially create a marketplace for liquidity to firstly be created from staked assets, and for value exchange to take place with fiat-backed capital (USDT/USDC).
WC
I’ll just post this for reference as there is a LOT to unpack there.
LL
Haha yes its a lot of info in one diagram.
When we look at the products, the first question is: does it need to exist for us to deliver the outcome (unlock liquidity)?
We want to be extremely efficient!
WC
So explain to me the function of rFinance in this flow chart…as a user case example if possible?
LL
For sure. So as an example, you hold several different staked assets (IOST, ERD, ALGO). You can collateralize these assets on their native chains into a common stablecoin standard call rUSD. rUSD is therefore, a representation of your staked assets value.
On rFinance, you can borrow USDT and USDC from users using rUSD. This is extremely simple and powerful, because from a portfolio of different assets and different values, it turn into a single fungible value that is 1:1 with the USD, and easy to trade against.
WC
That’s very very cool!
So you mention a few different chains there…
Talk to me about your cross chain support, as this, at least from my end, seems to be one of the big points of differences RAMP has compared to other DeFi projects hitting the scene right now.
What chains do you intend to support and why?
LL
Yup!
The partnership with Elrond was announced last week, and IOST was just announced today, although it probably came as no surprise to many given that I was from IOST 😆
We have quite a number lined up, to be revealed once ready!
We aim to support chains with a few attributes including -
1) A lot of staked assets. This is an indicator of the potential size of value we can unlock from a particular chain.
2) High liquidity. In event of liquidity, chains with high liquidity can easily absorb market pressure.
3) Friendly unstaking periods. RAMP is best for PoS chains with short unstaking periods, as that gives reliability to the collateral value.
That’s mainly it, and we work with blockchain foundations as the official partners to tailor the solution for their chain, and cater to differences in staking programs :)
WC
A lot of staked assets = TVL for something like ramp, or is the fact the L in that stands for “locked” not as appropriate for RAMP as it is for other projects?
LL
Hahaha you caught it right there!
Yeah in the DeFi space, there’s a lot of focus on the Total Value Locked (TVL) metric. But RAMP is really doing something right here, as the staked assets we worked are well, already locked…
So we are in that “blue ocean” space where we are not competing to lock up liquidity, but rather, seeking to unlock more liquidity for the entire ecosystem.
We call it Total Value Unlocked (TVU) haha!
WC
So instead of banking the unbanked, it’s unlocking the locked!
That’s a huge point of difference to other DeFi projects…
So I have to ask, as a DeFi platform, do you have governance as part of the platform?
Seems like that’s one default aspect of all DeFi projects these days…
LL
Yup!
RAMP token holders are also the voice of governance. You can stake to raise proposals, and to vote for proposals.
It’s important given that DeFi should be decentralized at the core, and even if the project team is leading at the beginning, it should eventually be led by community.
WC
Every network has to be bootstrapped and to coin an old phrase, if you love a network, at some point, you must set it free!
LL
Hahaha yes indeed!
WC
I want to ask one more thing before I get onto the more specific aspects of the RAMP token utility
Everything you’ve posted above sounds great, but whats the risk vector of having your funds moving across…not locked…haha…into the RAMP network?
Can you be liquidated?
Can you mitigate risk somehow…either on the platform itself or by using a secondary service?
LL
Yes, so how it works is that the underlying assets are first sent into RAMP’s non-custodial asset delegation contract.
You get a wrapped representation of the asset back, which works as a receipt on the underlying asset.
So its this “receipt” that gets collateralized, and projected to Ethereum. As long as you have the “receipt” you can claim back your assets anytime.
This allows all the liquidation mechanisms to be able to act when needed.
Risk management comes in multiple layers. A couple to develop would be a liquidator system where “OTC” pools can offtake liquidated assets (risk transfer outside of secondary markets).
Another insurance layer that we have is for the rPool, which has a lot of value accrued inside, to provide systematic stability and to act as a friendly asset buyer when the need arises.
WC
I know on ETH a lot of people are using secondary insurance products, would this be something that could be applicable to RAMP as well?
As an external cover…
LL
Yes that is possible, although we feel that it might be better for the insurance to be developed naively on chain for the different assets. It’s actually a way to build and enhance the value and complexity of the PoS ecosystems outside of Ethereum.
We think that if all ecosystems grow together, rather than just Ethereum doing well, the value accretion to RAMP is substantially higher.
RAMP TOKEN UTILITY
WC
That fair, I guess ETH just has some much value atm, that’s where those sorts of products are being developed, but it seems like that’s also quickly changing…
So we briefly touched upon some of the RAMP token utility in the previous questions, but how about you give me a bullet point summary of the various use cases within the RAMP DEFI ecosystem?
LL
For sure. The token has three key utility cases when staked -
1) governance — we covered this earlier.
2) rewards distribution — regular dividends from the rPool.
And 3 is what is is interesting…
We have a “farming power” system. If you stake RAMP Tokens, you can farm more efficiently with the same capital vs someone who didn’t stake.
So this creates a case for users who are invested in and holding RAMP tokens, to earn more RAMP tokens.
If you sell it, you get less of it!
WC
So it’s like a video game multiplier effect!
LL
Exactly haha!
We want users who are truly invested in the ecosystem to be rewarded!
Stake. Farm. Earn. Repeat 😆
WC
I love how DeFi is powering this financial revolution while at the same time it’s like a real life RPG or something!
LL
Exactly.
Finance should be fun haha!
WC
I note you also have a secondary token within the ecosystem, rUSD.
Can you explain its role within the ecosystem and why you chose to roll your own stable coin instead of using one of the many existing stable coin’s already out there?
I think you part answered this before, but lets get it in one hit here.
LL
Yup!
Essentially rUSD is a representation of the staked assets value. There’s no such stablecoin around, and its really assets thats delegated through us
So we have to be the one creating this representation for fungible value transfer.
Specifically on this, the role is to allow fungibility. Which means that 1 rUSD is the same as another rUSD, despite the underlying being different assets.
WC
It evens things out across the system then, to put it in dummy terms?
LL
Yes correct.
You can have different assets, but rUSD gives them the same unit of measurement.
WC
So if rUSD is that, what does eUSD represent?
LL
eUSD represents the fiat-backed capital on Ethereum that rUSD holders can borrow from…Similar to yCRV, if you need a comparable product :)
WC
So how do these tokens all work when it comes to cross chain trading integrations, rUSD, eUSD etc will exist across all chains?
LL
rUSD and eUSD will exist on Ethereum, and basically represent the value being exchanged, with rUSD representing staked assets (non-ERC20), and eUSD representating fiat-backed capital (USDT/USDC). lending, borrowing and trading between these two groups of holders essentially allow liquidity to mix together :)
WC
Ok cool, I think that make sense but I may have to reread it later lol…
LL
Hahah yeah in simpler terms, they are synthetic representations of value.
RAMP REVENUE MODEL
WC
All this token chat is probably a nice segue into how all these token mechanics work to serve RAMP itself, past the users of the network.
What’s the revenue model past selling RAMP tokens and how do the aforementioned token mechanics work into the model?
LL
The team receives 10% of the rPool contributions, to sustain operations. So we want to develop a proper business model right there — we shouldn’t be surviving from selling tokens haha!
It also aligns us to develop the ecosystem in a way that aligns us with token holders.
Essentially we are incentivized to grow the size of the rPool distributions if we want to receive more revenue, and that also means RAMP token stakers are receiving more income as well.
PARTNERSHIPS
WC
So you mentioned Elrond and IOST before…
Past chain integrations, can you go into detail into how both projects ill be supporting RAMP throughout the lifespan of the project?
eGLD…Noah Oracle fund…Some days I feel a bit lost in crypto with all these terms and what they mean!
LL
Haha yes
They have been very supportive partners for us and we are really grateful.
Its across everything — technical, marketing, community, you name it.
Essentially IOST and eGLD holders will likely be one of the firsts to be able to start stake farming with RAMP!
We will have more blockchain partners of course. We want to be best friends with everyone!
COMPETITORS
WC
WOW! That seems like a really big hint…
So we’ve spoken on who you’re working with…Let’s talk about who you’re working “against”.
We touched on it briefly in the intro, but as a project with DeFi in your name, you’re kind of up against EVERY DeFi project haha!
So dial it back for me. Who do you consider your true competitors in the space?
LL
Hahhaha…not at all.
Since we are doing something different, there’s no conflict of interests 😄
It’s like, they lock liquidity, we unlock it so there’s more value in the ecosystem…and they lock it again for us to unlock!
WC
Well this question I know you have some more detail on, since I read the Medium article…
There are now a LOT of cross chain solutions out there. We seem to have accepted the fact that no one chain will win and that each chain has different abilities for different use cases…
So again, what makes RAMP different from the rest and who are your main competitors in this niche?
LL
Yeah there’s a few out there, and what I think is the core difference is that RAMP focuses on moving value, and many others focuses on moving assets.
By collateralizing into a stablecoin (rUSD), users have a defined value of exchange against USDT, USDC. If you just wrap an asset and send it over, its hard to put a valuation on it, which limits the “transferability” of the assets.
Last but not least, RAMP does not charge any stability fees, which is what many other solutions such as Kava or Maker do…
WC
One project I’m very familiar with, as I’m currently running a node for them, is Stafi.
Stafi also looks to serve the “staking economy” if we can call it that already…
They’d be somewhat complementary taking into account the above right?
LL
Yes that’s right…
Stafi was the reference, moving assets (Stafi) vs moving value/liquidity across chains (RAMP).
TOKEN SALE & SUPPLY
WC
Ok this is probably the section that 99% of people following the AMA are interested in!
Firstly, can you drop the RAMP token metrics on me please?
LL
Haha for sure. So we have sold out the private sale, that’s 18% of our token supply to strategic investors and they are vested across a period of 1 year.
For the public sale, its 1% to be circulated for the public, fully unlocked.
WC
The public sale is $80K USD right?
LL
Yes that’s right!
Most importantly, there’s 45% of the token supply that’s ready for you to participate, and farm!
So we truly want community participation!
WC
At what point do they start getting unlocked…or farmed?
Locked is a dirty word for you I know 😉
LL
We are putting them into tranches. Essentially we will carve out a portion for different blockchains, and for different activities.
If you stake, you can farm, if you collateralize, you can farm, if you borrow or lend, you can farm.
Stake, farm, earn, repeat…farm-ception!
WC
When is the public sale and how can people try and force their way through that small $80K USD door?
LL
Yeah the public sale will be happening in the next two weeks. We haven’t finalize the date, as we are also in touch with centralized exchanges to provide easier token accessibility for users.
Once that’s tied down, we will announce a date for the public sale via an official Medium article, along with format and rules.
WC
Hmmm what else happens in around 2/3 weeks time…Project Serum?
Perhaps…😉
LL
Perhaps…. hahaha…Can’t be telling all the good stuff now hehe!
WC
So what’s the actual USD value of the combined sales?
LL
We raised just over a million with the private sale, so it’s not like those mega ICO raises we see back in 2017!
We are small cap and attractively valued.
WC
I gotta say how much I both love and respect those sorts of raises.
I think its also testament to the progression in the space, the tools and tech have matured to such a point where a project like yours doesn’t need to raise to build EVERYTHING themselves.
There’s a lot you can already use, build upon and leverage, it’s pretty cool really!
So taking into account locked tokens, what sort of day one marketcap are we talking about here?
LL
That’s right, we want to be using existing solutions to our advantage!
On the public sale unlocked, as I mentioned it is $80k USD.
If we add in the private sale unlocked tokens, market cap is $376k USD.
But keep in mind, we have some pretty strong hand VC’s!
WC
Lol what? $376k?
This isn’t a typo? 😉
LL
Not a typo haha!
WC
It sounds like you have a CEX plan in play, but since you’re a DeFi project, will you also set up a Uniswap LP?
And if so, will you incentivise it?
LL
Definitely, we will be setting up the initial liquidity on Uniswap.
We will be subsequently be launching a incentive program for LP’s to provide liquidity on Uniswap for RAMP!
WC
Nice, that makes me feel better. I hate seeing Uniswap listings getting jacked
This is the RAMP ERC20 Token Contract Address — 0x33D0568941C0C64ff7e0FB4fbA0B11BD37deEd9f
In case you see fake RAMP tokens, CHECK THIS ADDRESS!
LL
Yes, there are no RAMP tokens are circulating yet.
There are some fake ones around already though, so be careful…
DUE DILIGENCE CHECKS
WC
So does RAMP have a Github where we can check you out?
LL
Not at the moment, currently all is private code as we are working with the foundations in co-development, and they don’t want any code to be release pre-audit
So it will only be released together with the product launch haha
WC
You don’t want to get CRV’ed hey? 😉
LL
Hahahaha that one is really awkward…
No we don’t want that, safe releases only!
WC
Do you have a legal opinion that your token isn’t a security?
LL
Yup! We already have that, we are based in Singapore, and have already received a legal opinion stating that RAMP is a utility token.
WC
I posed the posted the RAMP smart contract address before….has this been audited and can we see the results?
Yes an audit has been done, we will publish it before the public sale
CLOSING THOUGHTS
WC
Really appreciate all your time tonight especially since you’re so flat out, it’s an honour for me to host projects like yours in this channel!
I’m more excited than ever for the sale (especially with that starting marketcap)!
LL
Thank you so much once again guys!
Appreciate that i was able to be here and share about RAMP DEFI with everyone!
RAMP DEFI Resources
Website: https://rampdefi.com
Telegram: https://t.me/rampdefiofficial
Medium: https://medium.com/@rampdefi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RampDefi
Whitepaper: https://rampdefi.com/Documents/RAMP_DEFI_Whitepaper_Web.pdf
Wolf Crypto Resources
Public Group: https://t.me/WolfCryptoPub
News Channel: https://t.me/WolfCryptoAnnounce
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WolfCryptoGroup
