Slope x JPool AMA Recap
On Dec 28th, Slope Finance was excited to invite JPool CEO and Co-founder Alexander Ray and Igor Volfson to have an AMA in Slope Discord.
Section 1- Introduction
Q: Can you introduce you and JPool to Slope Community?
As you’ve probably heard, the Solana network is using the Proof-of-Stake model. Duh. This means that each Validator needs to hold a bunch of SOL delegated by other people — by you — in order to be able to vote on each new block.
There was however a problem with this mechanic: most SOL holders chose the same well-known, high-stake validators. So the network became centralized, and just 20 out of about 800 validators at that time held over 33% of the total stake: which means, the 20 validators could potentially collude and halt the network.
This is why the concept of Stake Pools was introduced, and we got to work on ours.
JPool was created with the idea in mind that the delegators should not lose the APY of their stake if they want to help decentralize the Solana network. We created a smart strategy that prioritizes both APY to help our delegators earn rewards, and deconcentration of SOL to improve the network’s decentralization and censorship resistance.
The smart algorithm also constantly tracks validator performance and their fees, removing stake in case a validator has a failure or drop in APR, or if it increases the fee (which also leads to an APR drop).
Another advantage of stake pool over old-fashioned “normal” staking is that you stay liquid: even though your SOL is locked in the validators, you have your JSOL token (JPool Staked SOL token) which you can currently use to provide liquidity to Liquidity Pools on Raydium and Saber (“mine liquidity”). We are also working on integrations with Atrix, Orca, and other partners to offer more DeFi options to our stakers, and to improve the yield you get from providing liquidity.
We plan two big updates in the next month — Jan 2022.
First, we will issue the JPLT token that will represent a share in the pool’s governance and will be used as the only means of payment across all the other projects we will be releasing throughout 2022.
Second, we will add NFT gamification to the pool. With every stake, you will be able to receive a free (it will cost about 20 cents) NFT which you can then grow, level up, and “stake” to earn JPLT.
The Team behind JPool has been in IT for over 30 years. We were early adopters of Crypto and recognized the value of Solana blockchain early. We started by developing several projects for the community, helping new validators launch and run their nodes, before getting to work on the JPool project.
Section 2 - AMA Content
Q: How does the smart strategy choose validators for JPool and distribute stake?
A: We look at the highest APY and also and stake concentration by several parameters:
- within a single validator,
- within a data center
- within an ASN,
- within the same country.
Q: What do you think the integration with Slope will achieve?
A: We believe it is very important to promote staking to a wider audience: you don’t have to be an MIT graduate to figure out how to stake your SOL safely and efficiently. We hope to create a user-friendly, easy-to-use solution to greatly increase the pool’s reach and contribute to the network’s decentralization and strength.
Q: What other projects are you planning for 2022?
A: We have a lot of ideas, and we plan to use the JPLT sale in January to fund the development. Some of the projects are:
- Off-chain, the cross-chain multi-signature solution to help secure the keys for any project, not only on the Solana blockchain. The key is split into parts that are distributed between a number of people, and the master key is not recreated when a signature is produced out of all parts.
- NFT marketplace (to be built upon the mini-marketplace we are currently developing for our own NFTs)
- Crypto accounting reporting system
- Blockchain Cockpit that will enable traders, developers etc. to access and cross-examine data from multiple blockchains using built-in tools as well as a powerful API
- Validator Dashboard to help users choose the best validator for their stake if they are not ready to take the next step and start using a pool. It will also help validators evaluate and improve their performance
- Reference Solana Stake Pool, a codebase that helps anyone quickly bootstrap a new stake pool of their own, further decentralizing the network
Q: Do you have any plans for hiring?
A: We will be looking for developers and marketing specialists starting in February. All openings will be announced on our Discord and web.
Q: How do you perform free delayed unstake in just 1 epoch?
A: When you undelegated your stake, it only takes until the end of the current epoch for it to become available for unstake. If any pool makes you wait longer, they are simply keeping the rewards of 1 epoch before releasing your stake to you.
Section 3 -Twitter questions
1. Do you have any ideas for global recruitment? How do join JPool？Why don't you create a Discord group?
Great idea, we will create a channel in our Discord. We will be raising funds in January and we plan to get reinforcements for our team after that.
2. Compared with other products of the same type, what are your advantages? What is the most outstanding point of JPool?
Highest APY
Governance token that will have a value really backed by something other than the ability to get rewards in the same token
Free NFTs with your stake (we also have cookies)!
3. Security is the first priority in the crypto world. Many projects were hacked and lost tons of money, how will you solve security problems? Has your smart contract has already been audited?
We decided to use Solana Foundation’s stake pool program. The meaning of this is that we have zero actual access to the stake: it is handled by the Foundation’s program. Even if all our keys are compromised, the hackers could only steal our fees but not the delegators’ funds. Same if we decide to do a rug pull — we don’t have ANY access to your SOL.
Our own code has been reviewed by Neodyme and found safe.
4. What are the main country markets for JPool? In what areas will it expand in the future? What is your marketing strategy?
We aim for the international audience — well, all of the countries where using the pool is legal.
As for the marketing, we continue developing the free community projects that give us some exposure, while working on multiple integrations with DeFi platforms and exchanges, such as FTX, LBank.
The NFT collection will also provide good exposure and we hope it attracts many new delegators to our pool.
Cooperation with well-known partners that is in the works now will bring in delegations after it is announced in Q1 2022.
5. What is the most ambitious goal of your project? Could share with us any Upcoming Updates or current progress?
We aim at bringing in an additional 2M SOL of stake in 2022.
As already mentioned, there will be a public sale of the governance token in Q1 2022
The NFT collection should be launched in January and at least one of the ecosystem projects we mentioned before in Q1 2022.
Section 4 -Live Question
- JSOL has recently announced a partnership with Math Wallet. Which wallets are soon to be announced for partnership & integration?
We will continue integrating wallets, but there are no concrete plans at the moment beyond Slope.
2. Apart from having a strong project team, Security, Marketing, and VC play a key role in accelerating the success of a project. What security measures are implemented on the JPOOL platform? Can you tell us some of your important backers or VCs? What is your Marketing strategy to grow the project and onboard users and gain widespread adoption?
As for the security, we mentioned it above: 100% safe because we have zero access to the funds from our side neither in frontend nor backend. We have developed everything using our own funds and resources; we will be backed by investment funds during the token sale in January, but we can’t yet reveal the names. As for Marketing: integrating with multiple DeFi platforms (LPs, lending, etc.); also we plan more YouTube and Medium content for mass adoption.
3. This statement took my interest “As we studied various play2earn games in the crypto space — not just on Solana — we had a bad feeling that many of these projects are nothing else but a Ponzi scheme in disguise.”
Do you think Pay to Win could be a solution?
Pay to Win is a good (or sometimes not so good) idea for casual games; in our case, the game is to earn, not to pay — it’s a way to reward loyal users.
4. Would there be A Private sale, public sale, and presale? How would you generate revenue to sustain the project? Do you solely depend on your team or Investors and community?
Private presale, public sale. Revenue through JPool and other projects to be launched in 2022. Our team and the community at the moment, but backed by investors in the future.
5. How do you see your project being a metaverse project, do you plan for this
If there is an interesting Metaverse project on Solana in the future, we’ll be happy to integrate our NFTs into it.
6. JPool team of top professionals with a total of 100+ years of IT and Business experience, covering all relevant areas of expertise right? Is that the only thing that makes me invest in JPool ? What is your biggest advantage over other stake pools?
We have so far achieved the highest APY, for one
To answer many questions at once, let me reiterate: We are developing multiple projects, which will be released in the next months, that will all contribute to the value of our JPLT token. You will see me soon.
About JPool
JPool was created with the idea in mind that the delegators should not lose the APY of their stake if they want to help decentralize the Solana network. We created a smart strategy that prioritizes both APY to help our delegators earn rewards, and deconcentration of SOL to improve the network’s decentralization and censorship resistance.
