Ref Finance X Coineasy AMA Recap
On Oct 7th, Ref Finance joined an AMA with the Coineasy Community, a group of engaged crypto enthusiasts looking to learn more about decentralised solutions based on blockchain technology.
Ref Finance’s Rim(@rimberjack) and Didier (@pironidi) caught up with the Coineasy Community, with an overwhelming number of questions and interest in Ref Finance, from its technology to upcoming updates.
Read more about what Ref Finance is about and the answers to all the great questions from the Coineasy Community.
Q1. What is the meaning of the name of Ref Finance and what is the most important consideration in the project?
A. From what I know, the name was inspired by the concept of ‘Referee’. In sports, a Referee sets the rules. I guess it’s the same thing for any markets in general, like Ref Finance. Each market has its own set of rules that define how supply and demand meet (auction-style, direct exchange-style, etc.), along with its methodology and technology (Central Limit Order Book, Request For Quotation, Constant Product Formula, etc.).
In addition to having competitive swap rates, there are many important considerations in the project, such as Innovation, Governance, User Protection, and Security. You can read the following article if you want to dig into our general ambition in the space: https://ref-finance.medium.com/amms-flash-analysis-5762febb3b27.
Q2. Many have asked, why have you launched your DEFI project on NEAR.
A. The project was initially created by Illia Polosukhin, Co-Founder of NEAR Protocol. Many developers who contributed to the initial version of the contract are well-known NEAR engineers. You can check the early and current contributors by directly checking the Github repo: https://github.com/ref-finance/ref-contracts
Q3. It’s kind of difficult to use Ref Finance if we only stake the NEAR to mint wNEAR. Are there any reasons to do such processes? Is there a special reason why it feels this way to use the dex only when you deposit the NEAR?
A. Today, there is a clear segregation among different actions such as Deposit, Swap, or Withdraw. The fact that those actions are in different containers gives better ‘control’ and ‘security’. Very soon, the team is going to release the Instant Swap feature, which will allow users to swap instantly from a Near wallet to Near wallet without having to deposit and withdraw, then reproducing a similar experience to Uniswap, for example.
Q4. Recently, there have been so many DeFi projects. What sets Ref Finance apart from other DeFi protocols?
A. The sharding experience creates a unique environment for Ref users, who can take advantage of NEAR’s low fees ($0.005 per swap) and one to two second finality. At the protocol level, Ref Finance is working on many improvements and new features such as Parallel Swap, the Smart Routing feature, Dual Rewards Farming, and the Stable Swap implementation. Finally, thanks to the community’s feedback, we are also working on the User Interface and Experience. Many modifications will be pushed on the frontend!
Q5. Speaking of impermanent loss, is Ref finance looking for ways to reduce the permanent loss of liquidity providers?
A. Impermanent loss is a very important thing to manage for any LPs. There is no direct plan yet to help LPs to manage the risks relating to their positions. However, the team is looking actively at other protocols and what they provide on the topic. For example, Balancer has an impermanent loss insurance solution. Sodaki.com, a data and analytics tool built on top of Ref Finance, could provide a tool to see your impermanent loss in real time, helping users to potentially mitigate the risks, by removing liquidity at a certain point.
Q6. I think the core of DEX is liquidity. Is there any plan or roadmap for gathering larger amounts of liquidity in the future?
A. Yes, liquidity is key. The more liquid the pools, the better the prices, and the more is the market depth or the less is the price impact. The plan is to keep delivering value with new core features (cf above) along with significant improvements of the User Interface and Experience. On top of that, we are working on other verticals such as Governance, User Protection, and Security. You can dig into our approach by reading the following : https://ref-finance.medium.com/amms-flash-analysis-5762febb3b27
Moreover, I think liquidity also depends on how mature the NEAR ecosystem is. New use cases on chain, like lending and borrowing, will bring more liquidity within the ecosystem. Composability across applications (like Metapool and Ref Finance with stNear) will ‘enable’ liquidity to move easily and without friction in the ecosystem.
Q7. Where is the Ref Finance REF token used?
A. REF can be used as a bridge to buy other tokens, as token/REF will sometimes provide a very competitive rate compared to token/Stable, for example. As a utility and governance token, REF will also allow users to be involved in the governance and trajectory of the protocol, giving a voting weight / power depending on the amount staked.
Today, REF token can also be used in the corresponding farms.
Q8. Do you have a plan to introduce a lending service or to support other multichains’ tokens?
A. There is no plan at the moment to support a lending service. Multichain tokens like native Solana or Polkadot tokens would be possible on NEAR if the bridge has this ability. I am sure the bridge will integrate more blockchains in the future.
Q9. What is the difference between Metapool and REF and how will the link be made?
A. Metapool is a NEAR staking service, very different from what Ref Finance is doing. Metapool stakers get stNear for staking NEAR, which then can be farmed on Ref.
Q10. Does Ref Finance have any plans to start NFT-related services?
A. Not yet, although the team is looking at it and what’s happening in the space. We support PARAS, a NEAR native NFT platform. REF/PARAS LPs can farm their stake!
Instant Q&A
Q11. Unlike active market traders on order book exchanges, liquidity providers passively sell tokens with rising exchange rates and buy with Falling rates creating impermanent loss after the value drops. How will you prevent such from happening?
A. You can’t prevent it (impermanent loss) from happening. It is in the nature of any Automated Market Making solution. However, you can mitigate the risks by monitoring your LP positions and decide to remove liquidity when you think this is appropriate. Or, like Balancer, you can take mitigate the risk of loss by getting insurance : )
Q12. As you know, ref made a pool related to stNEAR, the stake of the metapool. What kind of synergy did you expect with Metapool and make the lp, and when is it possible to stake stNEAR?
A. First of all, Ref has a strong mindset that it leads the senior ecosystem together, a project like Near’s spine. So, we are creating a flow by talking about the direction of cooperation from the start with Metapool and other NEAR projects, and being listed directly on the level after Skyword IDO.
Ref started stNEAR farming to enhance the value provided by the Metapool to the NEAR ecosystem. As a result, I think the biggest point is that Metapool can realize the promised “liberation of staked tokens” while providing stNEAR.
Now that token holders can get rewards by staking and farming at Ref, I think the synergy is that they have overcome the previous situation where they can no longer tie up and use them! Then more nears can travel around the NEAR ecosystem. It’s a big benefit for Ref, Metapool, and Near as a whole.
Q13. Do you guys have plans to launch a mobile app?
A. There is no mobile app at the moment. But Ref Finance was one of the first AMMs to be fully responsive on mobile. You can access and use the website via your mobile! The UI is also designed specifically for it. Having a dedicated app on the Apple store is more challenging for example, because of regulation.
Q14. Is the total supply of Ref tokens fixed at 100 million? Do you have any incineration plans?
A. Yes, you are right for the total supply. There is no incineration plan atm.
Q15. Everyone knows the speed and fees of the exchange that’s gaining popularity recently. I think UI is really good, so users can easily adapt, so people flock, but does Ref have any countermeasures for user experience?
A. Ref is also preparing an update on the overall ux/ui in response to community feedback. This quarter, an instant swap feature will be released that can provide swap or liquidity right away without having to deposit tokens!
On the other hand, a new designer has recently been hired, and the overall skin will be reorganized. In addition, efforts for accessibility will be accompanied by providing educational materials and guides on the website so that users can use Ref much more comfortably. :)
Q16. What is the ultimate goal of Ref finance?
A. The ultimate goal is to be among the top AMMs in the space. We know that there is a lot of work to get there, but this is what we are striving for. We are humble in our approach, and we will take inspiration from the best players in the ecosystem. You can read the following article to dig into our approach : https://ref-finance.medium.com/amms-flash-analysis-5762febb3b27
Thank you all again for your continued support. We have a lot of awesome updates and user experience improvements coming soon so keep an eye out for them!
About Ref Finance
Built on top of a leading-edge protocol in NEAR, Ref Finance acts as the gateway into the entire ecosystem through its AMM, which provides liquidity and swapping features for all decentralized applications launching on NEAR. To do this, REF implements the renowned Rainbow Bridge which seamlessly bridges Ethereum based assets over to NEAR, thus bringing access for an array of DeFi users to lower fees and faster transaction speeds.
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