Michael AMA @ TRON Community: Exchanges Are Naturally for Staking Services

At 10:00 on July 12, 2019 (UTC+8), Michael Gan, CEO at KuCoin, attended an AMA (Ask-Me-Anything) in the TRON English Telegram Group. The AMA session was composed of 2 sections: The first was a Q&A from TRON and, the second was a Q&A from the audience. The members of the audience whose questions were chosen for the AMA will be given 1,000 TRX for their participation.

About KuCoin

The KuCoin Exchange opened for cryptocurrency trading in September 2017 and has enjoyed steady growth into 2019. It provides an exchange service for users to conduct digital asset transactions securely and efficiently. Over time, KuCoin aims to provide long-lasting, increased value to its more than five million registered users in over 100 countries. In November 2018, KuCoin - The People’s Exchange - officially partnered with IDG Capital and Matrix Partners.

About Michael Gan

Michael is an internet veteran, Fintech expert, early crypto believer, and the CEO of KuCoin. He got to know Bitcoin in 2010 and started to mine it soon after that. In 2013, Michael developed the infrastructure for an exchange, which later led to KuCoin. Before setting up the trading platform in 2017, Michael had been working in the internet and Fintech industries for 10+ years and used to be a technical expert of Ant Financial, the Fintech arm of Alibaba Group.

Section I - Q&A from TRON

1. KuCoin is a very well-known exchange globally, to begin with, do you have anything specific to introduce about the platform?

Michael: We know that there are currently lots of crypto exchanges out there. Here are a couple of things that differentiate KuCoin from others: Firstly, KuCoin is often known for a wide range of tradable digital assets. We have listed over 180 tokens including about 400 pairs. Many famous projects have chosen KuCoin to be their first exchange.

Also, we offer very competitive trading fees. Compared to most major exchanges, the trading fees at KuCoin are about 30% lower on average. We care a lot about customer support and user experience. On our website, you can always reach out to our 24/7 online customer support. We also have established local communities in many countries like Vietnam, Russia, Turkey, India, Spain and Italy to provide support in their native languages.

2. Do you have any news about KuCoin that is related to TRON to share with the community?

Michael: KuCoin is one of the few major exchanges to support the mainnet swap of TRON. Also, we are one of the first exchanges to list BTT. Recently, as you may already know, we partnered with TRON to introduce the world’s first Soft Staking services, enabling all KuCoin users to enjoy trading on KuCoin while getting rewards from staking.

3. What do you think of the staking economy and why it is popular?

Michael: The staking economy is one of the hottest topics in 2019 and, due to the recent bear run starting from early last year, many investors see staking as a very reliable way to get sustainable returns.

4. KuCoin recently introduced the Soft Staking Program, can you tell us the background of the service?

Michael: As an exchange, we see many traders who have had to make a trade-off between storing their tokens in an exchange for easier trading and storing tokens in a decentralized wallet for staking rewards. I think of exchanges as the bridge between blockchain projects and traders and, they are naturally suitable for staking services. So the basic idea for Soft Staking is, how can we help our users to achieve both?

5. So how does soft staking work?

Michael: With Soft Staking, users just need to deposit their tokens into KuCoin and we will do the rest. Take TRON as an example, we will help all the TRX holders on KuCoin to participate in TRON mainnet staking. The current TRX staking interest rate is about 2.7% and we already have thousands of TRX holders holding with us. While you are getting rewards every day, you can still trade and withdraw TRX on KuCoin freely.

Comparing to other major exchanges, KuCoin is almost the only one that enables you to trade freely and get staking rewards. Compared to digital wallets where most people stake their tokens, KuCoin can better serve your needs for trading. By doing so, we are hoping to meet users’ demand for trading and staking at the same time.

Section I - Q&A from the Audience

1. Any plan for a decentralization exchange from KuCoin? Just like Binance Dex! You can make KCS as the main currency in KuCoin DEX!

Michael: Thanks for the question, we think DEX might be the future trend, but at this moment, the technology is not advanced enough to support a very good experience. We have tried some decentralized solutions. This April, we worked with Arwen to introduce a decentralized trading solution and you can already find it on KuCoin. With Arwen, you don't need to deposit your tokens into your exchange and you can still get access to KuCoin's order book, which means we combined the advantages of KuCoin's liquidity with DEX's security. Please give it a try!

2: TRON is promoting the USDT-TRON, a lot of exchanges will support USDT-TRON, so will KuCoin support it too? And when would that be?

Michael: For sure, we will support the upcoming USDT-TRON airdrop and the BTT/TRX trading pair is coming soon as well.

3. Will we ever get 3% or 4% ROI from TRON through KuCoin soft staking?

Michael: This is possible. We will adjust the number of tokens we stake on a daily basis and we are expecting the interest will continue to grow as more users stake with us. The interest rate for TRX has increased from 2.7% to 4.071% today. Check this page to see the return rate every day: https://www.kucoin.com/news/en-soft-staking-cash-back-investment-program

4. Is there any new project planned for your Spotlight Program and what are the details and schedule?

Michael: Many projects are approaching us for Spotlight but we only want to work with those that have real potential and value. We will keep you updated once we have confirmed the next Spotlight project.

5. What would be the main use cases for the KCS token outside of KuCoin?

Michael: As the native token of KuCoin and KuMEX, users can get a daily bonus and trading fee discount on KuCoin. Later this quarter, we will introduce a new KCS Bonus plan which is more attractive to our users. Also, we are working with many third parties to bring more use cases for KCS. We've partnered with CoinPayments, PundiX, Aave Pay, PlayGame and more to enable you to use KCS in multiple ways. Check here to learn more: https://kcs.kucoin.com/

6. Will KuCoin add a fiat trading area?

Michael: We have partnered with Simplex to enable buying crypto with your Visa or Mastercard, supporting USD and EUR. Also, we recently launched our OTC trading desk. In the first version, we only support Chinese Yuan, but we will gradually add more fiat currencies.

7. Will there be more Soft Staking projects?

Michael: Yes, we already support 8 tokens and we intend to gradually support most PoS projects.