KuCoin AMA With Persistence — Protocol Enabling Exposure To Multiple Asset Classes

Dear KuCoin Users,

Time: September 20, 2021, 10:00-11:34 (UTC)

KuCoin hosted an AMA (Ask-Me-Anything) session with the Persistence team in the KuCoin Exchange Group.

Persistence is enabling exposure to multiple asset classes such as Liquid Staking (pSTAKE), NFTs (Asset Mantle), and Synthetics (Comdex). Persistence’s mission is to create an ecosystem of multi-chain Web3 products designed to stimulate global liquidity and enable seamless value exchange.

Official Website: https://persistence.one

White Paper: https://persistence.one/static/media/whitepaper.aa159390.pdf

Follow Persistence on Twitter and Telegram.

Guests:

Abhitej Singh — Strategy and Marketing at Persistence

Madhur Satija — Marketing Operations Lead at Persistence

Abhitej: Hello everyone, great to be here and looking forward to an exciting conversation with you all.

Before we start, please if you can connect with us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PersistenceOne

Madhur: Hello KuCoin Community, glad to be here.

Q: Please introduce yourselves to the KuCoin Community!

Abhitej: Sure thing.

I am Abhitej Singh and I take care of Strategy and Marketing at Persistence. My introduction to crypto was in 2016-2017 while I was travelling across different parts of India and the US. I was very fascinated by the core characteristics of crypto and blockchain in general - ownership and transparency. So, after the initial introduction, I jumped into crypto completely in late 2018.

Before joining Persistence, I was helping a couple of early-stage startups (now backed by Ola and Livspace - unicorns in India). I was also actively involved in building communities for Google, Facebook and co-founded a national hackathon in India called Code2Create.

I met Tushar and Deepanshu (co-founders) in 2019 at a Blockchain Conference and really liked the vision they had and joined them back in November 2019. Here we are building Persistence.

Madhur: Hello KuCoin Community, I’m Madhur Satija, Marketing Operations Lead at Persistence One.

My crypto/blockchain journey started in mid-2017. Since then, I have been involved in the blockchain ecosystem. I joined Persistence in early 2021.

Before joining Persistence, I founded BeepWeep Media, which is one of India's leading marketing companies with clients such as Reliance, DAMAC, and Emaar!

Q: Please provide an overview of Persistence and its objectives.

Abhitej: Persistence is enabling exposure to multiple asset classes such as Liquid Staking (pSTAKE), NFTs (Asset Mantle), and Synthetics (Comdex). Persistence’s mission is to create an ecosystem of multi-chain Web3 products designed to stimulate global liquidity and enable seamless value exchange.

Our objective:

Persistence’s core mainnet is a Proof-of-Stake chain powered by Tendermint BFT consensus engine. Persistence’s multi-chain tech stack (currently supporting Cosmos, Ethereum, and other Tendermint-based chains) abstracts away the complexities for developers and enables them to create DEXs, marketplaces, lending/borrowing platforms, etc.

Persistence is one of the largest projects in the Cosmos ecosystem along with projects such as Terra, Osmosis, Injective, Band, etc.: https://cosmos.network/ecosystem/tokens

Persistence is also working on developing inter-chain NFT and Metadata standards along with leading Proof-of-Stake networks/foundations. Being one of the pioneers in the Proof-of-Stake industry, Persistence also supports upcoming PoS networks through its validator arm AUDIT.one.

Q: We noticed that the Persistence team and community are implementing several products, including pSTAKE, Comdex, Asset Mantle, etc. We would love to know about these products and their roadmap.

Abhitej: Persistence is growing rapidly and it's difficult to share it all in one message but I will try to summarize it here.

pSTAKE (Liquid Staking): pSTAKE is a liquid staking solution that unlocks the true potential of PoS tokens by unlocking liquidity for staked assets. With pSTAKE, Persistence is targeting to capture the $600B PoS assets market. Supporting assets such as $ATOM $XPRT $LUNA $SOL $ETH. Learn More: https://pstake.finance

Asset Mantle (NFT): Asset Mantle is an NFT marketplace framework that allows developers to launch their own customized NFT marketplaces with platform-specific token economics and utility. In short, Asset Mantle can be considered Shopify for NFTs. Asset Mantle will also power an inter-chain marketplace which will have support for NFTs on the Cosmos ecosystem and Ethereum. Learn more: https://interNFT.org

Comdex (Synthetics): Comdex has evolved to a Synthetics trading platform where users will be able to get exposure to commodities, derivatives, and wrapped assets. With AMM and interoperability capabilities, Comdex is designed to bridge CeFi and DeFi. Learn more: https://comdex.one

AUDIT.one (Staking-as-an-asset-class): AUDIT.one is the validator arm of Persistence. AUDIT.one is currently the largest validator from South Asia, supporting 15+ networks including but not limited to Cosmos, Terra, Polygon, Elrond, Celo, SKALE, Near. For institutional asset managers looking to generate fixed income returns from Staking-as-an-Asset Class, AUDIT.one provides staking-as-a-service. Learn more: https://audit.one

High-level Roadmap:

September 20: Mainnet launch for pSTAKE with support for $ATOM

September 30: Support for $XPRT liquid staking on pSTAKE

October: Expansion of DeFi staking assets on pSTAKE

November: Launch of Asset Mantle Marketplace

December: Support for Customized Marketplaces for Creators/Artists on Asset Mantle Framework

Q1 2022: Launch of Comdex

Learn more: https://persistence.one/roadmap

Q: What is the role of the $XPRT token, and how can $XPRT holders benefit from staking?

Abhitej: This is an interesting one and I think everyone wants to know about this the most.

The token plays 3 key roles:

1. Staking token (similar to other Tendermint-based chains like Band, Kava, Terra, Iris)

2. Governance of the chain (not app)

3. Work token (stakers and delegators receive cash flows from the pSTAKE and Comdex dApp as well as other dApps in the future)

The biggest advantage is as the Persistence ecosystem grows (we are already working on shipping multiple projects), the value of $XPRT will grow. Hence providing immense ROI for the XPRT holders.

If the community members are aware of Terra ($LUNA), Persistence's token utility and ecosystem are very similar to Terra, where the $XPRT holders will gain incentives from the financial activity in the ecosystem.

$LUNA gains value from the use of stablecoins in the Terra ecosystem.

$XPRT gains value from the growth of asset classes in the Persistence ecosystem.

For XPRT Staking:

Currently, the XPRT holders can stake their assets to earn 35% APY.

For reference: If you stake 1,000 XPRT [On current average price: $9,000], you will earn at least 350 XPRT over a year, with current token price that will be $3,000.

You can use the following to stake your XPRT:

1. Persistence Native Wallet: wallet.persistence.one

2. Cosmostation Mobile and Web App: https://www.cosmostation.io

3. Keplr Wallet: https://keplr.app

4. Ledger

Liquid staking support for $XPRT is coming later this month. Then the $XPRT holders will be able to generate very high yields - Staking rewards + $PSTAKE rewards.

Q: In the DeFi space, there are already several market leaders out there. How do you see your competition with them, and where do you see Persistence One in, let’s say, 2 years?

Abhitej: Good question and I would love to provide the members more perspective.

The greatest advantage for Persistence over the competition is the unique position of operating at the confluence of DeFi + PoS + NFT.

We have already built 4 products, namely:

- pSTAKE - Liquid Staking solution targeting $600B PoS market with best returns and user experience for the PoS stakers, already released https://app.pstake.finance

- Comdex - Decentralized Commodities Trading Protocol with more than $100 million in transaction volume and synthetics platform launching soon

- AUDIT.one - Validator arm of Persistence.one with more than $300 million worth of assets under delegation (biggest validator in South Asia)

- Asset Mantle: NFT Marketplace framework which will allow any user to spin up their own NFT marketplace: Shopify of NFTs

Some of the other advantages are:

- One of the best validator set and highest staking ratio (84%) in the entire industry

- Strong partnerships with leading crypto foundations, protocols, networks as well as large traditional institutions.

- Persistence is building all layers - network, SDK, and application layer which cuts down any external dependencies

- The token utility rewards all the $XPRT holders from the cash flow from all the applications in the ecosystem

- Operating seamlessly in the Ethereum + Cosmos ecosystem. More networks are coming soon, such as Terra, Solana.

Q: Can you give a deep dive into pSTAKE and which all networks you plan to support with pSTAKE?

Abhitej: pSTAKE is definitely the most interesting product at the moment, and with liquid staking now being the hottest topic, Persistence is already pioneering the domain.

pSTAKE is a liquid staking solution that unlocks the true potential of PoS tokens by unlocking the liquidity of staked assets. Token holders of pSTAKE supported PoS networks can mint 1:1 pegged ERC-20 staked representative tokens for their native PoS assets, which can then be utilized within the existing Ethereum DeFi ecosystem to generate additional yield. Support for a range of PoS networks will be launched over the coming months, including Cosmos (already live), Terra, Solana, Polkadot, and Ethereum 2.0.

How pSTAKE works?

Some of the features of pSTAKE:

- Wrap PoS assets

- Stake PoS assets

- Insurance for the staked assets

- Liquidity provisioning and instant redemption

- Generate staking rewards + DeFi yields for PoS assets

We are launching the mainnet today for $ATOM and soon followed by $XPRT. Try the application today: https://app.pstake.finance

Also, we have exciting news for all (AIRDROP): https://twitter.com/pStakeFinance/status/1438901564379389958

Q: Who all have Persistence partnered with, and how does the Persistence ecosystem look like as of today?

Abhitej:

- Products: pSTAKE, Comdex, Asset Mantle Framework + Asset Mantle Marketplace

- Services: AUDIT.one, StakeDrop

Madhur:

Abhitej: The above is a graphic from last month. Since then, Persistence has grown a lot with partners such as Alpha, KuCoin, Huobi, Osmosis, SifChain coming in.

Backers:

Some of the biggest backers that have recently joined the Persistence ecosystem will be announced next week.

Q: Can you share the background of Persistence One’s founding team? Why did the team decide to do Persistence One?

Madhur: Some of the key members behind Persistence are:

♦️ Tushar Aggarwal - CEO and Co-founder

Tushar helped set up LuneX Ventures, the first regulated crypto VC fund in Southeast Asia (the crypto arm of a ’traditional’ Singapore VC called Golden Gate Ventures). Written extensively on blockchain/crypto on tech in Asia and previously the host of Decrypt Asia Podcast.

♦️ Deepanshu Tripathi - CTO and Co-founder

Deepanshu being part of a three-person team to create a unified payment acceptance platform. White-labeled Reliance (invested by Facebook, etc.) eventually sold to African Fintech for $9M. He performed the world's first-ever Inter Blockchain NFT transfer. Prior to Persistence, Deepanshu was a contributor to Ethereum and has also led the development of Inter-chain NFT and Metadata standards - internet.org.

♦️ Puneet Mahajan - Core Blockchain Developer

Previously associated with Comdex development for 1.5 years and for the past one year handling the position of Core BlockChain Developer in Persistence Group.

♦️ Abhinav Kumar - Core Blockchain Developer

Blockchain developer with 3 years of experience. One of the most active contributors to Cosmos Hub and has been a huge force behind Persistence's wins in Game of Stakes and Game of Zones (Cosmos adversarial testnets)

♦️ Abhitej Singh - Strategy and Community

5 years of experience in community development and marketing growth. In the past has worked with Google Developers, Facebook Developers, and multiple startups. The leading force for Cosmos India.

♦️ Mikhil Pandey - Strategy and BD

Working with product research and business development in the crypto space for the past 2 years. A known face in the validators' space and has taken AUDIT.one from $1 to $300 million in Assets Under Delegation in the past 10 months.

Abhitej: Just want to add on this:

How Persistence came into existence?

The crypto ecosystem is growing significantly but the mass adoption and high value will only flow in if their tangible use to crypto.

Initially, our approach was to bring high-value real-world assets such as business invoices, ownership documents and allow the traditional businesses to put these as collateral to borrow stablecoins.

On our journey to facilitate the easy flow of assets, we realized the massive opportunity in the Proof-of-Stake ecosystem and expanded the scope of work at Persistence.

How has Persistence evolved?

While bridging the traditional finance and DeFi, we realized there are a lot of issues in the crypto itself, such as illiquidity for staked assets ($ETH, $DOT, $ATOM, $SOL $LUNA, etc.), and we started working on pSTAKE.

Currently, all our products are focused on making different asset classes (example: PoS assets, Commodities Synthetics, Debt Financing, NFTs) more accessible for the broader crypto community and bring them to DeFi. Another goal is to increase the liquidity for staked assets.

Q: What are some of the opportunities for $XPRT at present?

Madhur: Currently, users can earn rewards on these DEXes for yields. Some of the stats are:

Osmosis: Pool APY up to 227% ($XPRT/$OSMO)

Link: https://app.osmosis.zone

Osmosis: Pool APY up to 150% ($ATOM/$XPRT)

Link: https://app.osmosis.zone

Emeris: Pool Rewards

Link: https://app.emeris.com

Sifchain: Pool APY up to 300%

Link: https://dex.sifchain.finance

Persistence Native Wallet: APY Staking Rewards up to 35%

Link: https://wallet.persistence.one

pSTAKE uncapped version will be launched soon. Stay tuned for rewards update.

Currently, we also have Persistence Listing Campaign.

Abhitej: https://www.kucoin.com/news/en-persistence-listing-campaing-share-a-30000-in-xprt-prize-pool?utm_source=XPRT

Q: Why should we invest in $XRPT?

Abhitej: The token plays 3 key roles:

1. Staking token (similar to other Tendermint-based chains like Band, Kava, Terra, Iris)

2. Governance of the chain (not app)

3. Work token (stakers and delegators receive cash flows from the pSTAKE and Comdex dApp as well as other dApps in the future)

The biggest advantage is as the Persistence ecosystem grows (we are already working on shipping multiple projects), the value of $XPRT will grow. Hence providing immense ROI for the XPRT holders.

Currently, users can earn rewards on these DEXes for yields. Some of the stats are:

Osmosis: Pool APY up to 227% ($XPRT/$OSMO)

Link: https://app.osmosis.zone

Osmosis: Pool APY up to 150% ($ATOM/$XPRT)

Link: https://app.osmosis.zone

Emeris: Pool Rewards

Link: https://app.emeris.com

Sifchain: Pool APY up to 300%

Link: https://dex.sifchain.finance

Persistence Native Wallet: APY Staking Rewards up to 35%

Link: https://wallet.persistence.one

pSTAKE uncapped version will be launched soon. Stay tuned for rewards update.

Q: While you build your project, do you take into account community feedback and demands?

Madhur: Yes, definitely. Users can submit their feedback on our community chat, and we implement them if it makes sense. We also have forum.persistence.one where users can start topics and the community can put down their views.

Q: Is your project available for the global people or is it limited to some areas? If it’s not globally available, are you guys planning to introduce it globally?

Madhur: Yes, currently, XPRT is listed on

CEX: KuCoin, Huobi, Ascendex, and Gate.io

DEX: Osmosis, Emeris, and Sifchain

Please check CEX regional-wise guidelines for your area.

Our global communities:

Russia: https://t.me/PersistenceRussia

Vietnam: https://t.me/PersistenceOneVietnam

Korea: https://t.me/PersistenceKorea

Turkey: https://t.me/PersistenceOneTurkey

France: https://t.me/PersistenceOneFrance

Thailand: https://t.me/PersistenceOneThai

Q: Too many projects promise magic but never release any working product or prove any revenue within a short/long time of release. Is your project $XPRT also like this? If not, can you tell us what interesting topic makes your project different from other projects? What are the benefits, main features, and roadmap of $XPRT?

Abhitej: This is a very important question.

We have already built 4 products and shipped (beta or mainnet), namely:

- pSTAKE - Liquid Staking solution targeting $600B PoS market with best returns and user experience for the PoS stakers, already released https://app.pstake.finance

- Comdex - Decentralized Commodities Trading Protocol with more than $100 million in transaction volume and synthetics platform launching soon

- AUDIT.one - Validator arm of Persistence.one with more than $300 million worth of assets under delegation (biggest validator in South Asia)

- Asset Mantle: NFT Marketplace framework which will allow any user to spin up their own NFT marketplace: Shopify of NFTs

In less than 5 months, we have been able to achieve the following:

Transactions: 200,000+

$XPRT Holders: 15,000+

Validators: 90+

Asset Classes supported: 4 [Liquid Staking, NFTs, Debt Financing, Synthetics]

We are working on creating more products and tooling around the core products working with some teams in the community.

Q: What is the Persistence Software Development Kit (SDK) actually? Please share with us.

Madhur: The Persistence Software Development Kit (SDK) is a set of standardized modules that can be used to model marketplaces for the easy exchange of value. Modules of the SDK can be integrated into existing applications. Alternatively, the modules can be used in different permutations and combinations to spin up entirely new marketplaces.

Github: https://github.com/persistenceOne/persistenceSDK

Abhitej:

Q: Why did you choose the ERC20 network to build a project like this? Are you ready to face the current problems of the ERC20 network, token price drop, and bugs?

Madhur: XPRT is a Cosmos ecosystem-based chain.

Token Metrics [As of September 18, 2021]

Total Supply: 115,261,371

Circulating Supply: 40,833,597

Market Cap: $446,405,643

Trading Volume (24h): $15,313,286

Issue Date: March 31, 2021

Issue Price: $0.40

Consensus Mechanism: Tendermint BFT

For more details: https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/persistence

Q: Nearly 80% of investors only focus on short-term token price instead of understanding the real value of the project. Can you tell us the motivations and benefits for investors to hold your tokens in the long term?

Abhitej: Very interesting question. A simple graphic that explains the value of holding $XPRT:

As the ecosystem grows, the value/cash flows for $XPRT stakers keep on growing.

And it is something that is already in action:

pSTAKE - Live

Asset Mantle - Launching in October

Comdex - Launching Q3 2021

Staking Rewards - 35% [Live]

Future:

AUDIT.one fee-sharing - Yet to be designed

Q: How much $XPRT holding to participate in staking? And how much are the rewards for participating? Is there any minimum amount to hold for rewards?

Madhur: No. There is no minimum amount for staking.

Abhitej: Absolutely, you can stake 1 XPRT also.

And gas fees are as low as 3 cents.

Q: Why use the name Persistence?

Madhur: We are persistent to provide maximum value to the community, hence the name Persistence.

Q: In order to build a successful project, it is not enough to only have good tokenomics and coin burn events. Do $XPRT plans to add new features into the project like weekly rewards, meme contests for spreading the word?

Madhur: We have a lot of campaigns coming up in the near time. Please stay tuned to our announcement channel for the latest information: https://t.me/PersistenceOne

Q: Is there anything else you would like to share or you want us to know?

Madhur: We got some really interesting questions. If anyone wants to know more about us, please feel free to join our community chat: https://t.me/PersistenceOneChat

That's it for now. Thank you for having us.

Thank you, everyone!

Abhitej: You can always hit us up in our community chat or our Twitter: https://twitter.com/PersistenceOne

Make sure to make the most of this: https://www.kucoin.com/news/en-persistence-listing-campaing-share-a-30000-in-xprt-prize-pool?utm_source=XPRT

KuCoin and Persistence have prepared a total of 180 XPRT to give away to AMA participants.

1. Free-ask section: 7.5 XPRT

2. AMA activity: 172.5 XPRT

Activity 1 — Quiz: 130 XPRT

Activity 2 — Price Guess: 30 XPRT

Participation Rewards: 12.5 XPRT

. . .

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