On April 18, the main developer of Hatchet held an AMA with the MEXC Global exchange in the telegram channel, so you can read the main questions that were voiced for Hatchet and her answers.
In addition, a $500 raffle was drawn between those who retweeted the post and those who asked questions on the same day.
The first part of the AMA went to telegram, and the second part went to the AMA on Discord.
AMA (Telegram)
Answers from Hatchet
Q1:Q1: What is a Symbol?
Would you like to tell us what is Symbol?
A1. Symbol is a non-turing complete blockchain platform – that means it does not have a virtual machine, like the EVM. This was a philosophical design choice of the projectβs founders: they believed that a virtual machine imposed additional risk and complexity that wasnβt needed for 80% of use cases. Because of this, we have a very low barrier to entry which has found a cult following in Japan.
Symbol still has all of the features youβd expect of a modern L1 blockchain protocol: you can create your own coin and your own non-fungible tokens (NFTs); you have multisignature contracts and aggregate transactions for bundles; you can atomically swap tokens and create a decentralized exchange; and my favorite feature is network-wide rules for cryptocurrencies. This means that you can create NFTs with royalties that are enforced outside of a platform, meaning artists have no platform risk like what we see on Ethereum with OpenSea.
Symbol also has the ability for engineers to extend logic and add new functionality to the protocol by making their own plugins. This is the equivalent of βopCodesβ in the EVM on Ethereum. Rather than forcing a single centralized team to extend and improve Symbol, we built a system so that the community could collaboratively grow it. Speaking as someone who has worked professionally with both BTC and ETH, this is one of Symbolβs most unique selling points. π
Q2. I heard that Symbol recently experienced a hard fork called Cyprus. What was its importance?
A2. Symbol recently went through a hardfork, called Cyprus. What was the importance of this?
Cyprus was a very important milestone for our community. This was a hardfork to change both the project direction and leadership, executed on Symbol at block hieght 689,761. Symbol started its life as an ‘enterprise blockchain’ project, and this new vision would see Symbol as an omnichain and universal routing layer for other cryptocurrencies.
It was also the moment when I felt confident enough in Symbol’s community to join the team and work on this full time.
A hard fork is a true measure of a cryptocurrencies’ strength and the power of decentralization.
What are some of the notable projects built on Symbol today?
A3. There are so many! I am learning about new ones every day. There is my current favorite, “The Tower”, which is an endless dungeon crawler built on top of Symbol. It’s most innovative feature is that each character in the game is an Account on Symbol, and skills and items are saved as NFTs.
There is NFT-Drive, which is a storage platform – a competitor to IPFS or Arweave – which allows users on Symbol to store any kind of data full on-chain.
There is COMSA, a NFT platform similar to OpenSea, Foundation or Rarible that allows artists to list their art as NFTs on Symbol. It’s been really interesting for me to see how the Japanese approach NFTs – they favor unique, 1/1 artworks instead of the Western approach of a series of 1000, each with slight modifications.
And then there was a recent hackathon by NEMTUS, which showcased 15+ video games, all built on top of Symbol. You can check that out here: http://hackathon-2022.nemtus.com/works/
My favorite was the RPG that ‘Suburuman’ built, which uses the blockchain’s block height to advance time in the game – and it even has multiplayer!
I think it’s important to showcase that you don’t need smart-contracts or the EVM to build something innovative with blockchain.
Who is the main target user of Symbol?
A4. Right now, our focus is on Japan and growing our Japanese user base. We want to empower people who are new to cryptocurrency and make it easy for them to develop their ideas – whatever it might be.
Normally, cryptocurrencies are focused on getting adoption in the US. That’s not a smart idea. There is a lot of saturation in the American market, and actually what American VC’s and large corporations want is more overseas cryptocurrencies to diversify into.
We’ve gotten a lot of interest from mainstream venture capital companies wanting to build up portfolios of $XYM because it has such a strong base and following in APAC regions.
What are your future plans for Symbol? What is your current roadmap?
A5. Our focus right now is on research and design of “Symbol 2.0”. I know we need a better name! This is our next major protocol update that will enable subChains – our own unique version of sharding. subChainβs allow a cryptocurrency to keep its own independence, allow validators to get paid out in that coinβs native token, but allow any developer to access the features of the subChain when theyβre building an application. For instance, I could have a Bitcoin or Ethereum subChain and access Bitcoin or Ethereum features when I was building my application on Symbol.
We’ve had seven other cryptocurrency protocols reach out wanting to collaborate on the design and development of this. My recent experience is in hardware acceleration and zero-knowledge proofs – both of which are the key to unlocking this innovation – so we’re quite confident that as a team we’re able to pull this off!
We have some other unique plans for Symbol, but nothing we have shared publicly yet.
It’s very important to our team that we have a proof of concept of something before we announce it!
I am so looking forward to Symbol 2.0. But are you going to change the name of it ?
Yes, the update will have a better name! But Symbol will remain “Symbol”. π
How do you see Symbol able to compete with other L1 protocols, like AVAX, SOL or NEAR?
A6. We don’t need to compete – that’s the beautiful thing about Symbol. SOL, AVAX, and NEAR are all competing with each other for the same user base and same applications. We are bringing in new users, and focusing on bringing in new applications.
However, in the future, with Symbol 2.0 I can see us implementing these projects as subChains and taking advantage of their unique features.
That’s what I meant by an oversaturation of focus on US – SOL, AVAX and NEAR are all focused on US adoption, and not APAC. We can become a giant in the APAC region, and then everyone will have to pay attention!
Q7: You recently announced plans for a Symbol conference next year in Tokyo. Congratulations! Can you tell us a little bit more about what we can expect from this event?
A7. It’s very early! So, we don’t have a lot to announce yet…
We have plans to bring some sort of AR (alternate-reality) event to Japan to complete tasks and quests to ‘unlock’ your ticket for the 2023 conference.
We really want to create a big event that showcases the creativity of Symbol and the identity of our community, and brings in the next generation of cryptocurrency users.
The team is internally working on their own projects for announcement at the conference, too. And I intend to invite guests from other protocol teams to come see the innovation that is happening in Japan.
And for our Korean community, I haven’t forgotten about you, either!
We intend to do something in Korea next year, too. Stay tuned.
Why are you focused on working on Symbol, instead of another L1 or L2 project? What keeps you motivated?
A8. The community, and my two partners, Jaguar and Gimre.
The community is strong – as strong as the early days of Ethereum – and the energy that I’ve seen and felt is unlike anything else in this space. And the community is working right alongside us to grow Symbol. It feels like we are all building this together.
Community is everything. If you have a strong community, your project will be successful even if you don’t have product market fit or your technology isn’t the best. Everything will catch up – but community is something you can’t buy. It is a moat.
Finally, who are the most notable members of the Symbol community?
A9. There are so many people. There is RadioRadio (https://twitter.com/RadioRa26841511) who works together with NoNoNon (https://twitter.com/_nononon__) to translate all of our tweets and messages into Japanese.
There is Tresto (https://twitter.com/TrendStream) who is on Twitter almost as much as I am, creating educational material and content and lifting up the spirit of the community.
There is Nembear (https://twitter.com/nembear)
who onboards local stores to accept Symbol as payment options and organizes educational meetups and events. There is h-gocchi (https://twitter.com/h_gocchi) and Daoka (https://twitter.com/DaokaTrade) from NEMTUS who have been pivotal ambassadors in Japan and have helped grow Japanese adoption. There is of course the legendary Takao Asayama (the genius behind COMSA (https://twitter.com/TakaoAsayama) who has been an ally to us from the start.
And a shout out to Umesetu (https://twitter.com/umesetu2011) who races cars on GRAN TURISMO with Valkyrie and Symbol-themed cars! π
We have so many people in our community who are making an impact – I can barely remember all their handles, but they are wonderful. I hope to pay tribute to them all one day. π
We are working on something secret to honor all the people who are helping to grow Symbol each day. We are paying attention!
Also, Mikun (https://twitter.com/mikunNEM) teaches me all the bad swear words in Japanese. I can’t forget him. π
Continuation….
Discord Symbol – community AMA
Hatchet: We are going to start here soon. Guys, John and I will chat for the first 40 minutes, and then we’ll open it up for community questions! Five questions will be selected and the winners will receive $MX, the unique MEXC cryptocurrency.
Hatchet: Hi ! π
John Chen : Hello Hatchet
Hatchet:
Thank you so much for joining us here. @everyone, please welcome John Chen, CEO of MEXC! Go ahead and smash that ~~like~~ reaction button and show a round of applause. π
John Chen :
Thank you for inviting me over today. Very happy to be here.
Hatchet:
We’re going to get started here shortly. Folks, for the first 40 minutes John and I will be chatting and then we’ll open it up to the community for questions! Five questions will be selected – and the winners will receive $MX, MEXC’s unique cryptocurrency. <:Fire:John Chen
Tell me about your background, and about the team working on MEXC!
John Chen :
Yes, of course!
Hello again, I am John Chen, one of the CEOs of MEXC Global. I have been working in the blockchain industry for 5 years and I joined MEXC back in 2020.
MEXC Global was found in 2018 and our founding members included not only crypto native, but also leaders of tech and finance sectors.
In case you haven’t heard about MEXC before, we are a cryptocurrency exchange platform with over 7 million users, offering a wide variety of services including spot, margin, derivatives trading, as well as leveraged ETF, Index ETF, staking services and more.
Hatchet:
I’m a big fan of the MEXC team, I got to visit your booth at BTC2022 and they were very welcoming! And I love that you’re bringing ETF products to the market. π¦Ύ
I’m glad our team member treated you well π
Hatchet:
What sets MEXC apart from its competitors? What problems have you solved that existing exchanges haven’t?
John Chen :
Thank you for asking.
Our edge can be described in two words: quick and abundant.
We are very keen on discovering new projects at an early stage, and provide our users with asymmetric returns. As a result, we recently changed our slogan to “crypto gem hunter”… As you can see here π
With over 1200 coins listed on the platform and counting, MEXC provides users with access to abundant choices to trade the latest popular cryptocurrencies.
We constantly partner with new and promising projects to make MEXC different and helps us earn a reputation in the ever-changing industry.
During the process, we hope our effects could bridge the gap between the project developer teams and the markets. From funding to marketing supports, we help outstanding startups in crypto and blockchain to reach their business goals and succeed.
Hatchet:
And that’s why I’m bullish on MEXC. π¦Ύ You’re putting quality first and providing support for newer cryptocurrencies and their teams.
Hatchet:
Could you tell us about your team’s marketing strategy?
John Chen :
Yes, there is some story to be told here.
As some of you may know, MEXC originated in China, but is now more focused than ever on global operations.
Given our deep connection with global investors, we quickly establish a comprehensive compliance strategy and improved our services all the way.
According to Coinmarketcap, MEXC boasts more than $500 million trading volume every day with a growing user base in more than 200 countries.
According to Coingecko, we are now ranked at No.6 in all exchanges in the world.
Stats speak for themselves π€
We are now trying to reinforce our businesses in multiple markets including NA, EU, APAC, SEA, etc.
Among them, we are very focused on the US, Korea and Japan!
Hatchet:
Wow. That’s an amazing achievement, John. Congratulations!
Now, I’m curious: what are MEXC’s top milestones so far, and what’s next on your roadmap?
John Chen :
In October 2021, MEXC Global was awarded “Best Crypto Exchange in Asia” at the Crypto Expo Dubai.
From the bear market in 2018 to todayβs rapid expansion of global markets, MEXC has now gained 5% of the global digital asset trading volume.
Our roadmap is to continue offering world-class digital asset and cryptocurrency trading experience as we have up to now, and grow the business in more markets and offer quality localized services to more users over the world.
To grow our business globally, we will work closely with regulators and compliance partners to push for changes that will benefit our industry as a whole.
Moreover, we will partner with more high-quality projects and help more innovators and entrepreneurs across the globe.
I’m sure many of you know about the strategic partnership that we announced a while ago π
Hatchet:
We’re honored that MEXC is supporting our humble little cryptocurrency. π¦Ύ It’s been a long road for us to launch Symbol, and we’ve got an even longer journey ahead of us to build out our vision – but the team and the community are excited.
Speaking of long roads – what obstacles has MEXC encountered so far? What was your toughest challenge, and how did your team resolve it?
John Chen :
It is our honor to be able to partner with symbol!
As stated earlier, we exited the Chinese market completely as of last year, and entered global competition. We are very lucky to have made through the hard times.
But these are mere short term obstacles.
How to effectively engage with our community and keep them active, has be a major challenge for many project teams, and so is ours.
That’s why in last December, we approved the MX 2.0 proposal.
More than 100 million MX tokens were burned immediately after the approval, and starting in January 2022, 40% of the MEXC platform’s total earnings have been used to buy back MX tokens from the secondary market and burn on a quarterly basis.
Given the essential status of $MX in our strategy, we can expect to have a robust community growth this year, and the same for $MX
Hatchet:
Wow. I love the idea of a native cryptocurrency for an exchange. Could you give us an overview of $MX, MEXC’s native token, and its utility?
John Chen :
Of course. $MX is a native token of MEXC Global based on Ethereum, and it works as proof of the interests of the MEXC community.
As the only token in MEXC Exchange ecological system, the MX token plays an important role in connecting MX users, communities, project teams and partners.
To give back to users, we hold consistent events such as Kickstarter, Launchpad and MX-DeFi, most of which require $MX to participate.
By participating in early rounds of funding, our users often enjoy asymmetric returns
The initial total supply of MX is 1 billion tokens. As we moved on to MX 2.0, 550 million tokens were destroyed on the spot.
We reserved quite a bit MX for our ecosystem:
MEXC Global Foundation Reserve β 100 million tokens
MEXC Labs β 150 million tokens
MEXC strategic partners β 100 million tokens
We reserved quite a bit MX for our ecosystem:
MEXC Global Foundation Reserve β 100 million tokens
MEXC Labs β 150 million tokens
MEXC strategic partners β 100 million tokens
So, some of these funds may be used to develop Symbol ecosystem projects π
We will be waiting patiently for your participation π
Hatchet:
I think our community is excited about this! π Let’s team up and take over Japan together!
I wanted to pivot for a moment and ask about security, as it seems like every day there’s a new hack on Twitter. How is MEXC thinking about security? What measures does MEXC take to protect user funds?
John Chen :
As an exchange we have many focuses. But our utmost priority is security without any doubt.
We won’t be able to operate a business without our users feeling safe with their funds on our platform.
So far, we have not encountered any significant security vulnerability, which is in itself a very impressive achievement in this industry.
We have very strict risk control and security protocols to ensure that your funds are secure with us.
We implement severe punishment for our employees who have questionable security practices.
We already have some of the best security engineers in the entire industry, and we are continuously hiring new talents to maintain our lead.
Hatchet:
Talent is the key to success! π¦Ύ
Speaking of talent: what notable companies, projects or independent contributors have you been able to partner with?
John Chen :
Too many to count!
Overall we have supported more than 100 new projects, many of them top-tier project partnerships with teams such as Solana, Polygon, Avalanche and Algorand in their early days.
We are also working closely with prestigious organizations and communities like Chainlink, NEAR protocol, Copper, Alchemy Pay, etc.
We are very glad to have partnered with Symbol!
MEXC Pioneer, our business incubator label designed to give new projects, has launched a $100 million growth fund to support blockchain technology and infrastructure projects.
Feel free to contact us if you have any projects you would like to recommend!
We will try our best to support! π€
Hatchet:
Alright, @everyone – let’s go to the main event! Questions! Ask John anything – he’ll select five questions, and the winners will receive 50 USD worth of $MX!
Ask away! And remember: be earnestly polite. ^^
Nontan: I think there are more newly listed tokens than other CEX.
How do MEXC avoid mixing inferior tokens?
What is your advantage over other projects? Is it from a security point of view or the technology you are using? Or are there other advantages? What makes you believe that $MX (MEXC) is worth choosing?
John Chen :
I am glad to answer this question.
As some you may know, some exchanges do not separate business roles from audit roles.
MEXC on the other hand, has a separate audit department from those who are in charge of contacting, thus greatly reducing the chance of corruption due to misaligned incentives.
We also employ a 60 review period. If the project turns out to be dishonest, we have robust measures to limit the damage it can cause.
$MX has been one of the best performing platform tokens in the past 365 days.
As stated earlier, MEX is famous for is speed and abundance. For popular tokens that are not listed anywhere else other than on DEXes, it is quite likely that you will find it first hand on our platform.
On top of that, we are also one of the earliest to provide derivative services to these newly listed tokens, so that you can hedge your positions in a volatile market.
γγ‘γ€γ¨γ«#7718
Do you have any specific plans you can present at this time on how and what to proceed with Symbol
John Chen :
I’m afraid I cannot speak of any specifics, but I can say that we are preparing a special event, which is going to put this community on the spotlight π
Aside from that, we have already announced the strategic partnerships, and we would like to continue our collaboration with the Symbol Team and Symbol Community to mutually increase our influences around the world.
h_gocchi#3182
I would like you to apply to the FSA of Japan to obtain the registration of the exchange. Do you have any plans to complete the procedure in the future?
John Chen :
Yes, it is certainly on our radar.
As said earlier, since we began expanding globally, understanding the regulation and compliance has been very important to us.
Our legal team has done abundant research with regards to Japanese laws towards blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
We really hope to contribute to the reformation of the existing orders.
hushimie#6266
Can you indicate a feature or feature that you like best about the platform so that it can compete with other competitors? What are you most confident about for your MEXC platform? Do you have plans to get users to choose your platform?
John Chen :
Our strength is in our speed of listing and abundance of trading pairs.
This is the fundamental of our competitive edge, and we are not letting go of that soon.
Aside from that, we are very proactively preparing for the current big things: NFT, GameFi, DAO, etc, and always on the lookout for the next big thing.
With our speed and dedication, I’m sure we will be able to attract more and more users to use our platform!
Hatchet:
And THAT is our five questions! Congratulations to the winners!
John Chen, Thank you so much for coming to our humble Discord server, and taking the time to walk us through MEXC and answer our questions. We’re looking forward to working with you, and I’ll be rooting for MEXC every step of the way. π€ Let’s go take over the world together! π π
John Chen :
Thank you again Hatchet for inviting me!
We are more than glad to have had this opportunity to present ourselves to your community.
And of course, let’s work together π€
You can delegate harvesting to our Symbol nodes:
β NIS2.host (Klim)
β XYM007.host (Angel)
Symbol wallet address:
KLIM:
SYMBOL (XYM)
NA4VOOQBORIWLTVHQOX43EZY2N3TUNLJ4SORKPA
_______
ANGEL:
SYMBOL (XYM)
NCRVIE26GXZG7JCKPRGGSA2WBHBBDRDC4V2GDHA
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