We had the amazing visit of YAM’s team in our community on 21st July 2021 for an AMA session. Lots of information shared, and great participation from the EPNS community. Thanks!
Date: Wednesday, 21st July, 2021
Time: 4:00PM UTC
Guests:
Ross Galloway, DeFi Legal Architect, YAM Finance
Jim Wilcher, Marketing, YAM Finance
ZetaLeak, Community Lead, YAM Finance
Find the AMA transcript below:
EPNS AMA With Yam Finance — June 21, 2021
Host: Jai
JAI: Hi @rossgalloway @zetaleak @DaddyJimbo. Welcome to the EPNS Community! It is a pleasure to have you with us today.
ZETALEAK: Hey guys! Amazing to be here and looking forward to the questions :)
ROSS: Hey! Happy to be here!
JIM: Hi guys, thanks for the invite!
JAI: Before we start, could you guys please introduce yourself and go over your backgrounds so everyone in here gets to know you better? @rossgalloway @zetaleak @DaddyJimbo
ROSS: Hey Everyone! I have been working full time for YAM for a few months now and was a part-time contributor and community member before that. I’ve been in the crytpo/Ethereum space for a few years now and have recently jumped in full time. I was an architect (building buildings) before that.
ZETALEAK: Hay all! I got into Ethereum in 2016, before that I was focused on education and some work in traditional finance marketing. Since then, I contributed to a few projects, writing content and helping with marketing and growth. At Yam I am the community lead!
JIM: Marketing, branding and design have been my vocation through an agency that specialized in bringing high-tech companies to market and growing their brands
I came to Yam as I saw a lot of opportunity to help and learn
JAI: Just WOW! I am already impressed. 🤯
Please when you’re done answering any question, you can say “DONE.”
ROSS: Good to know.
JIM: Done.
JAI: Let’s move to the next segment of our AMA Session. 💥
I hope you’re ready for the next segment? I will be asking some questions! 👀
ROSS: Ready! Pretty sure everyone else on our side is too.
JAI: :D
Alright then!
Q1. Why did you guys launch YAM Finance? What is the rationale behind it?
ROSS: I was not part of the team that originally launched YAM finance. The original founders, Trent, Brock, Will, Clinton, and Dan put the idea out into the world but have all stepped back to let the community take over. All of the core team, like me, started out as community members and joined because we love the idea of YAM and see exciting things ahead in its future.
YAM was launched about 11 months ago as an experiment in fair launch mechanics, community governance, and mechanism design where the YAM token was given away over a week to anyone who deposited tokens from 8 different DeFi projects in the YAM staking contracts (shoutout to Synthetix for the OG staking contracts!).
The original idea was to create a mashup of YFI’s fair launch distribution method with the rebasing mechanics of Ampleforth, but also throw in a way for the DAO to fund a treasury that would be governed by YAM token holders. What the project was supposed to become was not defined and it was up to the token holders to figure that out.
After a number of trial and tribulations (showstopping bugs, crazy price swings, and the general mayhem of a leaderless organization) things settled down a bit and the community solidified around a few core contributors with the following mission statement:
Yam DAO is a self-governed community building integrated and novel DeFi products designed to grow the value of the Yam Ecosystem. We are empowered by shared economic incentives in pursuit of a decentralized financial system for all.
In the months since launch we have removed the rebasing mechanism from the YAM token, worked to improve our governance and treasury management processes, started a partnership with UMA for our Yam Synths product, designed a proof of concept smart contract protection protocol, built out a treasury management protocol on Tokensets, and recently moved into doing more NFT and art-focused work on Ethereum and in the metaverse.
While we are no longer a rebasing token, we are now focused on growing and managing our DAO treasury and building unique DeFi-centric products within the Ethereum ecosystem.
Done. 😊
JAI: Sounds really interesting! Well done. 🤩
Let’s move to the next Question
Q2. Can you talk about the milestones in your Roadmap for the remaining part of the year? And maybe a sneak peek at what’s coming next year?
ZETALEAK: Sure. “Next year” is a decade in crypto time, but I’ll do my best!
We recently released a big upgrade to our Yam Synths product with our new website at [https://synths.yam.xyz\](https://synths.yam.xyz) and we have a number of new synths in the pipeline that we are building using UMA’s new LSP contracts. These are going to be what we think are pretty interesting and novel DeFi-focused synth products that are pretty unique in the space. We are hoping to release these in the next month or so.
We also want to build upon our uPUNKS product, which is a synth that tracks the price of LarvaLabs Cryptopunk NFTs, with other synths that let NFT owners unlock some of the value in their investments. At the same time we will continuing to iterate on the website functionality. We want to be *the* place to go to use with UMA Protocol.
We are also continuing to iterate on our smart contract protection protocol called Yam Protection (previously Umbrella) and have admittedly run into some bumps in the road. But we hope to keep iterating and release an MVP soon™️. We are hoping we can work out some of the kinks, but it may need additional work before we release so I can’t promise a timeline.
On the NFT and metaverse front we recently had a great virtual gallery exhibit at the Museum of Fine Yams that our super talented team member Chillzone designed in CryptoVoxels. It featuring the incredible art of @dielamaharanie and @gogoporen. The exhibit is still up for anyone who wants to visit it at (https://www.cryptovoxels.com/play?coords=W@453W,86N\](https://www.cryptovoxels.com/play?coords=W@453W,86N).
We are planning on exhibiting more up and coming artists at the gallery in the near future and are looking to take some bigger steps into both how NFT art is exhibited and sold as well as virtual real estate development. It is still early days for this space and we are excited to see how it develops.
JAI: Haha 😅
ZETALEAK: Done :)
JAI: Impressive stuff! @zetaleak
ZETALEAK: Lot’s going on! :D
JAI: Time for the next Question
ROSS: Bring it on!
Q3. Can you describe the YAM Finance ecosystem? What are the main components of it, and perhaps the role of governance in the direction of your protocol?
ROSS: I see YAM as having 2 distinct parts. The workings of the DAO and the different products we are building.
We are a true DAO in that all actions that touch our treasury require an on-chain vote with YAM tokens. We do most of our signaling and individual votes on snapshot and then roll up the passed votes into monthly on-chain votes (this has been a necessity with recent gas costs).
This is great since it means that token holders really do have a say in what gets done, but it also means that if a vote doesn’t meet quorum then things can get delayed.
So building out better tools and processes for the operation of the DAO is really important to things running smoothly and we think EPNS can be very useful for that.
The other big category is the projects that we are building. These are all supported by the DAO, funded by the treasury, and built by contributors. Yam Synths is our most developed product, but we are working on others, as mentioned by @zetaleak above. I like to think that anyone could come to the DAO with a great idea, propose it the the community of YAM holders, and get it funded from the treasury.
Done! :D
JAI: Absolutely. 🤗
ROSS: Now this is really exciting.
Let’s move onto the next Question!
Q4. With this EPNS X YAM collaboration to further develop a communication/notifications layer — what are the initial use cases where you see an important impact for your user base to start receiving notifications?
ZETALEAK: We are going to start off with notifications for governance actions like on-chain and snapshot votes. Because governance makes the whole DAO work we need to make sure that our DAO members can stay up to date on important information and action items without spending all day in Discord.
Beyond Governance, we want to use EPNS notifications to create a better user experience for our Yam Synths product by allowing users to get alerts about liquidation risks, synth expiries, and any other information that may be useful for them to manage or trade their synths. We haven’t had a great way to get this information out to those who need it and hope that EPNS can fill that gap.
ZETALEAK: Done! 🙌
Thank you @zetaleak
Time for the last Question of this segment!
Q5. What is your long-term vision for the EPNS project and what other exciting things are you working on that you see a good fit for our projects to continue growing and accelerating DeFi together?
JIM: Oooo, that’s a tough one… We may need to ask the EPNS Wizard what he sees in the looking glass — haha.
Beyond notifications, we see some really cool ways to create opt-in marketing campaigns and focused content creation that respects the privacy and data of our community. EPNS alerts are a blank canvas for us to create and invent on.
Yam is interested in experimentation and innovation, so as we explore deeper into what the future holds for DeFi as it fuses with the new technologies that are emerging now like NFTs and the Metaverse, etc; EPNS alerts can help stitch the various pieces together and help Yam create a more unified brand known for its superior UX and UI.
ZETALEAK: [TO THE MOON sticker]
JIM: It’s all about user experience — and that’s how how we think EPNS can help Yam achieve its long-term goals.
The design space for the future of DeFi and the emerging technologies are huge, and EPNS is an open design space too.
JAI: EPNS 🤝 YAM Finance! ❤️
JIM: I’m very excited to go to the next phase of blue sky thinking around the possibilities of how to use EPNS in highly creative ways.
Done
JAI: Exciting times ahead for sure!
ZETALEAK: [icon]
JIM: The Wizard knows best.
JAI: For more details on the partnership, read: https://medium.com/ethereum-push-notification-service/bringing-power-of-web3notif-to-the-awesome-yam-community-95d8a39ed86c
Amazing! Thank you for your answers @rossgalloway @zetaleak @DaddyJimbo! We will now move to the last round which is a Live Q/A session.
Dear Community, get ready to shoot all your Questions! 🚀
I will UNMUTE the group soon and @rossgalloway @zetaleak @DaddyJimbo will pick and answer as many questions as possible but only participants with the BEST questions will be selected as winners!
ZETALEAK: gif
ZETALEAK: Let’s do it!!!! 👌
JAI: 3..
2…
And…..
JAI: GO GO GO!!!!!!
[100+ questions are submitted by the community]
JAI: Our chat is on MUTE again. We have got the last set of Questions from community members.
EMILIA: Kindly explain more about your Tokenomics, Release Schedule and UTILITY, is it inflationary or deflationary?
ROSS: The tokenomics are mostly up to the DAO. There was an initial release of the tokens during our farming event where they were given away to the community. We have since voted to extend rewards and mint YAM for contributor compensation. The Token holders vote on whether more YAM are printed. It is all in the hands of the community!
YAM is a governance token but we are working on different utilities for the token, whether farming, or in synths, and more. We encourage anyone interested to come participate and let their ideas be known!
JAI: @rossgalloway @zetaleak @DaddyJimbo you can pick and answer the BEST 10 Questions in total. This AMA is getting interesting!
DUMMA LIFE: Without proper marketing and capital infusion, project dies, how do you convince us you have adequate marketing power and capital to push this project to the top project?
ZETALEAK: We are focused on building products that provide real opportunities and financial freedom for people globally! We’ve also built a strong reputation for treasury management, ensuring decentralized communities protect their funds to ensure a long-term growth roadmap!
TRIKA MINA: Who participate in the public-sale event and holding the token for long term, how will these early investors benefit greatly from the project?
ROSS: Anyone was able to participate in the initial release of tokens last year by locking up any one of 8 different DeFi Tokens. We were one of the first fair launch farming tokens! There was no private or public crowd sale.
KEVIN: Staking programme is very important for any project, Can I stake your token? Do you have any plan of starting staking programme?
ZETALEAK: You can absolutely stake YAM and also earn yield for providing liquidity to our synthetic products like uPUNKS! Check it out here: https://synths.yam.xyz/
LOLI: What major partnerships does YAM Finance intend to use or how does YAM Finance bring its products to the average consumer, especially non-crypto users?
JIM: Good question: The average consumer who is not yet in DeFi will come at some point and this is one area that we are experimenting in and planning for. I do think this is the mother load of opportunity. We are heading this way on two fronts. One, with UMA and Crypto.com a potential partnership currently in consideration around bringing exposure to CryptoPunks via our uPunk synth. Two, by experimenting in the the NFT, metaverse, social tokens space.
BAULA DEA: Your project plans to operate in a public and transparent way, which is good, but how involved will the community be within the project to make the best decisions and thus strengthen the ecosystem……?
ZETALEAK: We already do! We are fully decentralized so all decisions are made by YAM token holders.
STARCRYPTO FI: Until what corner of the world do you plan to arrive? That is, to what extent in the world do you think YAM Finance will be solving people’s problems with their infrastructure?
JIM: YAM Finance is not going after infrastructure plays. Yam is much more interested in composing on top of existing infrastructure which is being developed by others. Think of Yam as a creative studio that designs customer-focused solutions in emerging areas of DeFi.
MASON GREYBACK: Revenue is an important aspect for all projects to survive and maintain the project/company. What is your plan and way to generate profit/revenue from tokens? In this regard, please explain your income model?
ROSS: In terms of earning revenues and becoming successful, we have a 2-pronged approach. Our main goal is to build products and services that generate revenues for the DAO. We are still in the early stages for most of our projects so it may take some time for them to really be able to stand on their own, but we know that they need to be sustainable for us to be successful. We also use our treasury the invest in our own projects and other projects (mainly ETH and other large cap DeFi projects).
TUYET NGAN: Can you share Your opinion about Defi & NFT ? What makes your NFTs rate and special?
ZETALEAK: We absolutely believe DeFi is the future of finance and we are already seeing that playing out today!
NFTs are also a powerful technological revolution and we’re thrilled to be taking a leading role in this ecosystem, both producing our own NFTs, showcasing artists and providing infrastructure!
Our upcoming PunkFiction drop are unique 1/1 hand drawn works, so they are valuable as works of art!
KARL SMITH: How secure is your platform to use? Have you done audits of the smart contracts? What security measures are adopted from bugs of smart contracts and hacking?
ROSS: All the projects that we currently have deployed (Yam Synths, Yam Treasuries) are built on audited contracts (UMA and Set Protocol). Our initial smart contracts for the YAM token had a bug in them that required us to pivot to a new contract and was almost a disaster. We managed to avoid the worst outcome but it showed how important audits are and we have been sure to get all our subsequent contracts audited and are careful not to rush them out just to say that we did.
So yes, all our current projects and the token contract are audited. 😊
HA PHIEU: Current NFT is a hot topic, but are NFT not just for art. Does YAM Finance think that more real world use cases will emerge for NFTs as time goes on? Why should we take NFTs seriously?
JIM: Art is the area of NFT of first awareness and adoption, and the potential in this area, I think, will have a long tail — such as social extensions, etc. But non-fungible tokens have so much more potential for the tokenization of much of the traditional world. That will come. Yam is diving deep into the art side of NFTs to start with, but with a vision for the tokenization potential as mentioned above.
KK — LIANG: Many projects rug pulled and exit scam recently. Why should investors trust your project not to do the same?
ROSS: By design, any malicious action would require YAM token holders to vote for it, so it is pretty much impossible for us to rug pull or exit scam!
LFC BOY: How does YAM Treasury decide the kind of products to invest in, that would give valuable returns? Are there criteria to be met?
What kind of decisions can members of YAM DAO vote for, in the governance of the project? How can anyone be a member?
@zetaleak
@rossgalloway
@DaddyJimbo
ROSS: YAM token holders have the power to decide how they want to spend treasury funds. We also use snapshot to get buy in on what direction the DAO should move in. These are community decisions that need buy in from the developers and core team since they are doing most of the work to make them happen, but it is the community that eventually decides what gets funded.
Anyone can vote in the DAO if they hold YAM tokens. There is no other requirement. We welcome anyone to come join our community on discord. You can find links on our website: https://yam.finance
LUCY: Are you planning to spend big marketing dollars to get the market place going? With financial exchanges, community is very important, so what is your marketing plan and what will you do to gain the trust of users?
JIM: Yam does not plan to spend ‘big marketing dollars’ in the conventional way. Instead, Yam invests building an exceptional team, building community and innovating new products through experimenting around the next wave of DeFi.
I💚HANOI: Hello, What is the next big step for your project — YAM ? Thank you!
We are creating a Strategic Vision to drive Yam into the future. The vision will dovetail with our current projects but also officially define a parallel track of new innovations. The vision describes how these two parallel tracks will compliment and enhance each other, and eventually merge.
CR_7: In your view how has the trajectory of yield farming and yield aggregating platforms changed in the past year?
ROSS: Great question! Yield farming has really evolved as the participants became more savvy and projects saw the limitations of some of the more standard yield farming models. While fair launches like the YAM and YFI launches were very successful and egalitarian, they don’t always incentivize the community and contributors for long-term success and have required additional raises and rethinking of reward distributions.
New projects are starting to experiment with vesting, requiring active work and other innovations in the space. In the end, all these yield farming experiments are trying to make their projects better and more successful in the long term, so I expect to see further experimentation as the space matures and people get a better understanding of what is optimal.
That was a lot of questions!
JAI: Thank you for your insightful answers, @DaddyJimbo @zetaleak @rossgalloway. We highly appreciate it and this ends the last round of our AMA. 💪
ROSS: Thanks everyone!
JAI: Dear Community,
We will announce segment 3 winners within 4 days on our announcement channel. 🥳
Subscribe to @epnsprojectnews
That’s it for our AMA guests. Let me thank @rossgalloway @zetaleak @DaddyJimbo, from the YAM Finance team for joining our chat group today and sharing insights on the project.
ZETALEAK: Thanks everyone!! Was fun, really glad to be working together :)
JIM: That was fun Jai, thank you, and thank you to the community for listening and asking such great questions!
JAI: On behalf of the entire EPNS team and community we wish you and your team great success!
EPNS 🤝 YAM Finance
JIM: And much success to EPNS as well.
Until next time, bye for now.
ZETALEAK: Come join our community if you love DeFi and NFTs :)
https://twitter.com/YamFinance
JAI: Awesome 😎
That ends the EPNS AMA with YAM Finance!
Thank you everyone for participating in this insightful AMA. We love our EPNS Fam ❤️