AMA with Shantanu Sharma (EasyFi Network): Summary

Namaste Tribe! We had an amazing AMA session with EasyFi, in WazirX Telegram group as a part of the Grand EZ Giveaway on Wednesday, 5th January 2022. Here’s a quick summary. 

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Hi Shantanu, please tell us about yourself and EasyFi. 

I head Growth & Marketing at EasyFi Network. Been in this industry for more than 6 years now and have an overall work experience primarily Sales & marketing experience of over 25 years. Enjoyed my previous corporate avatar, having a ball of a time now.

EasyFi Network is a universal layer 2 DeFi lending protocol currently LIVE on Polygon Ethereum & BSC networks. As the first Layer 2 lending protocol built on Polygon (Matic) Network, EasyFi has been designed as an open and inclusive financial network infrastructure to run on public networks to facilitate end-to-end lending & borrowing of digital assets and related financial products.

Q1. Since EasyFi is currently on ETH, BSC and Polygon, can we expect more chains coming in future?

EasyFi has been designed as a multichain lending protocol for digital assets. What started with Polygon, expanded to ETH and BSC for multiple different assets on these chains.

These expansions will continue in a strategic manner as we intend to build an infrastructure where users can transcend the cross-chain boundaries that exist today and enable seamless lending, borrowing and transfer of assets from any chain.

Q2. How is the borrowing capacity calculated based on the collateral?

Each market has a collateral factor 0 to 1, representing a portion of the underlying asset that can be borrowed. Lower collateral factors interpret illiquid market and higher collateral factors represent high liquidity in the respective market.

The user’s borrowing capacity is calculated by multiplying collateral factors by the sum value of accounts with underlying assets. More detailed out in the whitepaper here.

In simple terms, Borrowing capacity = (Value of token balance) * (Collateral Factor)

Q3. Your whitepaper also mentions a unique model that encompasses Staking/Lending/Governance as well as offering cross-chain interoperability. So how are you guys doing it all at its best?

Each component is decided as per strategy and roadmap laid out. With well defined focus areas, we make sure these modules – Governance yet to launch – run like clockwork. 

Apart from that we have to ensure having some amazing partners on the way who support and ensure that the underlying infrastructure and security requirements are well taken care of. We also continually peer into the future and read the needs of the community. 

Q4. Can you explain more about the “governance model” of $EZ?

EasyFi is not yet a DAO and hence the governance system is not operative as of now. However, like all on-chain governance systems, there will be proposals that will be presented on the DAO – when it becomes operational – and the users on the DAO will be able to decide on these proposals. using a built-in onchain voting structure. 

In the whitepaper, we had declared right upfront that we will carve a path towards becoming a DAO where the community gets involved in on-chain governance and voting that will enable the protocol to arrive at a consensus for some key decisions.

Q5. With many lending and borrowing dApps, what is your future vision in this industry?

Existing money market protocols have been successful in creating & aggregating much-needed liquidity to the existing market. The supply side is overwhelmed with excessive capital which remains unutilized due to the weaker borrowing side. This demand gap has led to a tipping point where it is now necessary to focus on demand generation by offering more appealing financial products in insurance, microlending among others to borrowers.
Here are some of our immediate focus areas: 

We are building a protocol that will be borrower-centric. To ensure this, we are working towards achieving under-collateralization and collateralization so that we can offer microloans, allow users to take loans against their salaries, and take short-term working capital loans. The infra and technology have already been put in place and integrated with the protocol.

We also intend to utilize our capabilities to bring new and unique digital assets under the purview of lending. For example, we have tied up with StaFi and RAMP to list their Staked Derivative tokens as collaterals on our lending protocol. We are also working to bring Non-ETH tokens to our collateral markets.

Q6. Going back to basics, why did the team decide to build on Matic Network?

The primary problem & motivation for our decision was due to the high cost & slow speed of transactions.

Layer 2 scaling techniques move transactions off-chains and bundle them into proofs that are submitted back to the main chain. Thus, providing better speed and low cost of transactions. These are optimized networks that are also Ethereum compatible and are customizable to a great extent.

Q7. Can you explain more about the ‘Dual Farming with Native Staking’ feature of the EasyFi Network and how can the community participate?

Dual Farming is a variant of yield farming or liquidity mining whereby EasyFi Network will partner with different projects, and allocate a portion of the partner project’s native token (say XYZ) towards incentivizing yield farmers. It will allow users to earn a partner token by staking $EZ tokens.

Q8. One of the security risks in DeFi is the ‘incorrect calculation’ of the value of tokens in the lending pools. How is EasyFi protecting itself against wrong liquidity pool estimates?

Not clear as to what is meant by “incorrect calculations.” I would like to invite the user to post this question on our main group and we will get it answered with some clarity. 

Just as a matter of information, our lending protocol has integrated  Chainlink price feed oracles that draw real-time market values of the tokens listed for lending and borrowing. So all token values that add on to the total lending pool values are based on real-time price calculations. 

Q9. How can someone new to platform take benefit of uncollateralized lending? Can someone take a loan against their NFTs too?

EasyFi is currently not offering loans without or with less collateral. But this is our eventual goal – to be able to provide such loans to everyone who needs it.

Under-collateralized and Un-collateralized loans are like unsecured loans that will require high credibility on behalf of the loan seeker to be able to or be eligible to take that loan. So, instead of relying on a borrower’s assets as security, lenders approve unsecured loans based on a borrower’s creditworthiness.

Hence, if you are seeking an unsecured loan on the EasyFi protocol, you will have to prove your creditworthiness via our Proof of reputation or POR smart contracts. This is the TrustScore that will be used to measure whether you have taken any loans earlier. And if yes, the POR will measure whether you have been paying your loans back on time or not– similar to any loans that you take with the bank and CIBIL tracking your payments and giving you a score.

As far as NFTs go, we are a DeFi Lending protocol and are definitely exploring ways in which we can leverage this upcoming market into our business model.

Questions from WazirX Telegram group members

Q1. As we know EasyFi’s goal is to become a DAO in near future and you guys have partnered up with “BoringDAO”, can you please let us know how this transition will be done and what will the holders and community will get from EasyFi Blend? 

Our partnership with BoringDAO is to introduce their Non-ETH Assets as Collateral on our lending protocol, basically list Bitcoin (oBTC) & Litecoin (oLTC) as collateral. You can read more here. 

While our goal for DAO remains undoubtedly firm, we are working towards it step by step by first integrating certain smart contracts that will enable us to take the first steps towards that direction. 

EasyFi Blend is a series of advanced smart contracts blending the security, speed & functionality of major lending protocols offering the ability to provide: 

Robust governance, 
Smart asset routing & 
Reconciliation

Q2. Collaborations and partnerships are some of the most important cornerstones to help improve adoption. Can you tell us about EasyFi’s current partners, plans for partnerships, and what everybody stands to gain from these partnerships?

As a project, we have been fortunate to have had many friends, advisors, and guides over the past year of operations.

Some of these partnerships are technology-related: Polygon, Chainlink, Blockpass.  
Some are strategic tie-ups: StaFi, RAMP DeFi, Mirror Protocol, Clover Finance
Some use EZ as a utility – Playcent – using it as a medium of exchange.
Some are for providing joint incentivization opportunities to the community: QuickSwap, Pancakswap, Router, Dfyn, Cryption, etc.

Q3. Can you explain more about the collaboration of EasyFi with Chainlink? What are the win-win benefits for both parties?

We are working with Chainlink on two fronts now: 

1. Integrating Price Feed oracles

2. Chainlink Keeper’s Network – Users of Easyfi can experience various automated staking and vesting features powered by Chainlink Keepers Network. 

Q4. Who are the main people behind EasyFi? Can you please tell us a bit more about them?

We are currently a 20+ strong team. 
CEO & Founder – Ankitt Gaur is serial techpreneur has more than 17 years of experience under his belt – has founded multiple blockchain and enterprise tech companies, consulted global companies across 30 countries in the enterprise applications space, and has also written a book on blockchain tech from a non-techie perspective. He is also an advisor for multiple projects in this space. 
COO & CoFounder – Anshul Dhir – A serial entrepreneur has experience that spans over 16 years, dedicated to building companies across Financial markets, Real estate, alternative Investments, Internet & Media. A Gold Medalist in entrepreneurship & finance from India’s prestigious B-school XLRI Jamshedpur, Anshul is also certified in Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency technologies from Princeton University. He was also selected as Entrepreneur “35 under 35” this year. 

The Marketing team is led by me – I have over 25 yrs in the BD space and 5+ years in Blockchain & Crypto. The team is well equipped and experienced to take the vision forward. And we are growing every day!

Q5. Credit Default Swap (CDS) is a DeFi insurance service. Is this insurance offered only within the EasyFi ecosystem or does it cover other networks as well?

For retail users, lending markets need to offer products that can be utilized beyond trading. We have also recently witnessed a huge influx of institutional capital into various protocols and platforms. This calls for institutional-grade products and offerings required to meet the dynamics of smart capital.

Easyfi has plans to introduce insurance in DeFi through CDS as the first in a series of financial derivative instruments. 

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