On Thursday, January 23rd, Neo Global Development (NGD) and Switcheo participated in NGD’s English Neo Live event. Neo Live is an Ask Me Anything (AMA) style community event that takes place on the official Neo Telegram channel.

Switcheo co-founders, Jack Yeu and Ivan Poon, and NGD head of Eco Growth, John Wang, participated in the AMA. During the event, the trio discussed the recent Neo and Switcheo partnership, development of the Switcheo sidechain, the role of decentralized finance (DeFi) in the Neo ecosystem, and Switcheo’s roadmap, plus much more.

The full transcript can be found below:

Songping Que (NGD marketing manager): Hi, everyone, welcome to the Neo Live! This week we have Jack Yeu from Switcheo Network and John Wang from NGD as the guests.

Jack Yeu (co-founder and CCO of Switcheo): Hey, everyone!

John Wang (head NGD EcoGrowth): Hello everyone!

Songping: As you may have noticed, Neo recently announced an equity investment in Switcheo. You can find the details from Neo News Today’s coverage.

Jack and John are here today to share more info and details about the future plan.

So Jack, do you want to start the sharing session first?

Jack: As Songping mentioned, Neo recently announced an equity investment in Switcheo through the EcoBoost program – we’re really excited to be both a partner and an investment through the program.

Q1: Can we do trading without registration on Switcheo?

Jack: Yes, you can trade through connecting your own wallet, through many of our supported wallets without creating a Switcheo account.

Q2: In regards to your upcoming DeFi products, will you be using Alchemint’s SDUSD stablecoin or something else?

Jack: That is possible; we’re also looking at other upcoming stablecoin projects on Neo.

Q3: When will those new Stablecoin projects come out?

Jack: That is still uncertain.

John: We have not decided yet, but we are talking with different entities and partners right now.

Q4: Will you offer other DeFi products such as borrowing and lending?

Jack: It’s likely we will work with existing borrowing/lending projects, as we’d like to stick to our ethos of being non-custodial.

Q5: What about the floor price announced for buying GAS/SWTH – how will that be defined, and will that be dynamic somehow?

Jack: The floor price is unconfirmed yet for the GAS/SWTH pair.

Q6: Can you expand on your recently signed agreement with Messari? Does this help expand the number of tokens listed?

Jack: Yes, the agreement with Messari would prioritize projects that are already working with Messari to get a priority listing with us.

Q7 Any hints as to how close the Switcheo chain is / how much of development has been completed?

Jack: Our TestNet is already live here:
http://switcheo.org/.

We’ll be releasing more details on the launch soon.

Q8: Also, any hints as to how much it will take to be a validator on the chain?

Jack: No hints yet.

Q9: What is Switcheo’s future plans for the SWTH token?

Jack: SWTH would move to a staking token, where SWTH holders would be able to validate transactions on Switcheo Chain for trading fees.

Q10: Where do you see Switcheo three to five years from now based on current status, development, and ideas/plans for the future?

Jack: Our team is very development focused, and we’re currently looking to expand to more DeFi products.

Q11: It’s been mentioned multiple times that integrating other chains on Switcheo will be way easier after SwitcheoChain has launched. Comparatively, how much development effort do you expect to save on integrating “Interesting new chain x”?

Jack: It would make integrating new blockchains comparatively easier if they have a smart contract system.

John: We plan to use a cross-chain solution to integrate more chain in Switcheo. The cross-chain solution will be easier than the current token swap model.

Q12: I know Switcheo is promoting the Chest Event, can you explain what it is and how it works?

Jack: Yup, we’re currently running a Switcheo Chest campaign to celebrate our recent partnership with Neo, where 5,000,000 SWTH will be shared amongst participants; you can read more about it at here.

Q13: Will it also make integrating BTC (not wrapped version, etc.) easier or is that still the same big challenge that it is for everyone trying to do it?

Jack: It would be the same challenge since BTC does not have a smart contract layer; we’re currently working on an atomic swap solution to add BTC onto Switcheo.

Ivan Poon (co-founder and CEO of Switcheo): There is an upcoming alternative (non-WBTC) cross-chain solution in the works that will allow us to do BTC deposits and withdrawals in a different manner.

Q14: Will SWTH token remain NEP-5 after Switcheo Chain?

Jack: Yes, SWTH will remain usable as a NEP-5 token.

Q15: Can you explain how the “decentralized order matching” technology works and how it would work with Neo for even more scalable transactions?

Ivan: We have ported our order matching logic from our centralized order matching servers into a golang application. Multiple decentralized nodes can receive orders from traders, and validator nodes (all running the same code) will ensure that order matching is done fairly. The staking of SWTH will ensure there are sufficient penalties if there is foul play.

On top of this, we have already implemented multiple new order types such as stop loss and take profit in the new order matching engine.

Custody of assets is still secured by main chain smart contracts on Neo, etc. State changes are broadcasted by nodes in batches, so that many order transactions can be mapped into a single main chain transaction, making the system more scalable as a whole.

Q16: When the DCEP digital Yuan comes out, can it be integrated and traded on Switcheo?

Ivan: We cannot confirm or reject the possibility at this time, as it is still way too early to say for sure.

John: We hope so.

Q17: Any plans to also add a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator for atomic swaps like 1inch and DEX.ag?

Ivan: Our focus is on the decentralized order matching sidechain at the moment. We will look at trying to ensure we are compatible with DEX aggregators.

Q18: Is adding more fiat gateway partners something you are looking at?

Ivan: We have been looking at alternatives such as XanPool. However, we are in the process of reviewing our legal compliance with regard to fiat currencies and Singapore’s Payment Services Act and will only integrate new gateways once we have completed our audits.

Q19: Given the fact that the O3 app started to disappear from stores, do you still not intend to build your own mobile app?

Ivan: O3 is supported by Neo at the moment. I believe they are looking at resolving that issue. Building a mobile wallet is somewhat outside our scope as a DEX at the moment. We won’t rule out a native mobile app for the exchange, however.

John: We recently realized the O3 has been removed by Apple. We are talking with O3 team now and will contact with AppStore ASAP. No matter NGD or the O3 team, we are still supporting the O3 wallet and make sure it is can provide good service for the Neo community.

Q20: As a partner, Switcheo will play a bigger role in Neo’s DeFi applications, would you mind sharing more details on that?

Ivan: We are still in the initial stages now, so, unfortunately we don’t have too much details to reveal yet. Do stay tuned to our announcement channels, however!

Q21: What are your target markets in 2020? By market, I mean countries.

Ivan: We already have a strong presence in regions like the EU, India, and parts of SE Asia. We hope to expand to other untapped regions in 2020.

Q22: How many months/years of funding do you have left? Has the bear market affected you guys at all?

Ivan: Can’t reveal exact numbers, but our treasury remains strong, and we are confident of lasting even through more bear markets.

Q23: Is an official Switcheo API/trading bot still in the works?

Ivan: Yes.

Q24: Will Neo promote Switcheo in China? That is one difficult market to penetrate for foreigners.

John: China is currently banning exchanges, so we have no plans to promote Switcheo in China at this stage.

Q25: Will Switcheo list all NEP-5 projects for free and any projects in the pipeline?

Ivan: We do not charge a listing fee. But we expect new projects to provide a reasonable amount of liquidity, or have a market-neutral market maker to ensure fair and orderly markets for their tokens.

Q26: Would you mind reiterating, what is the start date from for when GAS can be used to pay for the DEX trading commissions?

Ivan: We currently plan to start allowing GAS payments beginning February 11th, 2020! Do hold on to your SWTH tokens as there are other uses for it.

Full details here:
https://blog.switcheo.network/ngd-invests-in-switcheo-supporting-improvements-to-switcheo-exchange-the-switcheo-token-swth/

Q27: What’s the most significant trend in blockchain for 2020?

John: Mass adoption, enterprise use, and compliance.

Q28: Will Ledger still be supported on Switcheo Chain? Any other hardware wallets you are looking at for integration? Like KeepKey, Safepal?

Ivan: The plan is that all current non-custodial wallets will still be supported. We aren’t looking at new hardware wallets yet, until we see enough uptake. We are, however, looking at new software (e.g., browser extension) wallet integrations for both Neo and Ethereum.

Q29: What will be the technological development focus for Switcheo in the coming six months?

Ivan: Our first goal is that the solution is secure, usable, and optimized enough that it will handle the current load and any possible DOS attacks well enough on launch. There are some new basic features previously mentioned, such as BTC support and advanced order types that are close to completion as well. We want to launch all these as soon as possible.

Next, we will be looking at pushing out new products and features with the same underlying technology, such as leverage and derivatives such as futures & CFDs.

Q30: With Switcheo Chain fully launched and all intended features available, what are the main features/events/advantages that will draw new traders and volume to Switcheo in your opinion?

Ivan: I think our positioning remains unique in terms of how we are able to give decentralization features such as privacy and being non-custodial to a centralized experience. However, we recognize just that is not enough.

That is why we have actually prepared a series of features and off-chain campaigns that we will discuss in-depth when we officially announce Switcheo Chain.

By the way, Switcheo Chain is actually just a working “draft” name of the technology that has not gone through marketing’s magic wand, haha. It may be launched under a different product name.

Q31: Can you share the blockchains to be added on Switcheo Chain?

Ivan: The next one probably starts with “Z.”

Q32: Is Obolus still a partner and will EOS continue on Switcheo despite no volumes? Will you mass delist NEP-5 tokens, which consistently have very low to no volume?

Ivan: We want to support EOS as long as possible, and don’t wish to remove blockchain integrations.

Our commitment to Neo and Neo projects means that we are less strict about Neo token markets. However, we will still delist tokens that do not meet our reasonable standards in order to protect users!

Songping: Hey, guys, it seems that 60 min isn’t that long at all. We are approaching the end of the session now.

Thanks, Jack, John, and Ivan for jumping into the conversation! And, thank you, everyone ,for participating today!

Oh yeah, Happy Chinese New Year!

Ivan: I think that’s about it? Thanks, everyone, for joining us today!

John: Thank you, guys, and Happy Chinese New Year!

Jack: Thanks, everyone! 新年快乐!

Songping: Also, heads up, everyone! There won’t be Neo Live next Thursday, January 30th, because of the holiday. We will release the guest’s name for February soon!

Note: Some edits have been made for formatting and readability. The full conversation can be found at https://t.me/NEO_EN/38273.

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