Andre Cronje - infinite AMA

Blockchain = Slow (by centralized standards), transparent, secure
AI = High throughput, opaque, blackbox

I need to very clearly stress, these two things do not mix. That’s like asking “What role do you see for Coca Cola in the construction industry?”

Blockchain and AI are not complementary, and (for now) anyone that jumps on the “AI” bandwagon is simply doing so for pump & dump reasons, if you see a project all of a sudden “pivot to AI”, it just means they had nothing and are dead in the water.

If (and that’s a very unlikely if) we get to a point where blockchains could handle the kind of throughput required that an neural net needs, we might be able to see them on-chain, but even then, the question would be; “but why?”. Blockchains don’t improve AI, and AI doesn’t improve blockchain.

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Just wanted to drop in and say hello Andre. Such an honor to be launching our ecosystem on such a calibre network. We love fantom and look forward to its amazing growth!!

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“but why”:

One reason would be to create truly decentralized federated learning models, the usage of which can be tokenized and paid for.

Parity in speed also doesn’t seem to be a completely necessary factor to consider with the above given that arbitrarily large calculations and inputs can be hidden and verified using Zero Knowledge Proofs.

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Happy to have you! Good luck with the launch!

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This I agree with, Blockchain technology does allow hooks for AI, payments / federation / privacy / immutability. But these are not “native” to the intersection of Blockchain and AI, these are simply application layer implementations. The same benefits are available to gaming, nft’s, defi, social platforms, etc. My point is / was, that AI x Blockchain is not some unique vertical, I agree you could build intersections of AI ontop of Blockchain, but this does not require interaction from the Blockchain to AI. Everyone currently using the narrative of AI, are essentially saying “you can use blockchain for payments for AI services”, which is laughable, because, yes, its true, but the motivation behind posting “AI” is so transparently obvious as a method to either try to pump or stay relevant. Blockchains are agnostic to AI.

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Many governance proposals get expired - very few cross the finish line that too with lot of followup effort from the team , What’s your view on improving voting?

Few options :

  1. Having validators ( not their delegators) to vote as a requirement before claiming staking rewards , impacts very few individuals with maximum effect. - forceful, but sometimes it’s needed.

  2. Incentivize voters with a generative NFT - spam prone.

  3. Make governance voting gas free - again spam prone.

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Hello Andre,

Recent news from the SEC (https://twitter.com/garygensler/status/1623777842000539648?s=46&t=-8Ok1BG6ylH0DiYaTWSUzA) I put the link if you can watch the video.

Gary Gensler has some fair point towards staking platform also mean that they could VOTE for you in gov program, or not really use your token for staking for lending (if better Apr)

From what I’ve read, the sec doesn’t make the staking illegal but some disclosures need to be made.

What’s your POV ?

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Agreed, I have proposed a new system, veto voting or abstain voting. Simply put you need a very low threshold to pass, but instead of voting “for” a proposal, validators simply need to “veto” a proposal if they disagree with it. This will hopefully assist with the voting apathy, not sure on the ETA of when the team is rolling it out, but should be within the next weeks.

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I have no comments on anything related to US policy.

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Looks promising, could you please further elaborate how veto voting works?

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Can foundation commit to not using their fUSD for liquidations until everyone is out first or what is foundation plan? If is time based, or if is price or how is plan.

Why no option for claim rewards when ftm $ value > fusd loan value? Repay is not mean full repay when loaning, it is good when collateral = loan, if more it is usury and usury not nice.

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What’s gonna happen to fUSD V1 when the V2 launches? Will there be possibility to migrate 1:1? Or is it going to be same token with just enhanced peg protection mechanic? Thank you.

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The foundation will need to use their fUSD, as they are the biggest holder, and will be the first loss leader. Without it, we won’t be able to clear out the bad debt. No other rational party will clear out bad debt since there is no profit to be made.

You can claim rewards when ftm $ value > fusd loan value, however you can not claim rewards while you have outstanding sFTM, as we are decommissioning sFTM.

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No migration option planned. v2 plans are being reviewed, but that process is separate to decommissioning v1

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What are your general thoughts about L2s and the hype surrounding them? Some people say FTM should try to position as a L2. Do you think that would be a good idea?

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Coindesk article on fUSD, dated 30 Jan 2023, stated ‘Stablecoins are tokens pegged to fiat currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, and are often backed by a token or a basket of other tokens.’ but did not go into any specifics about if/how fUSD will be collateralized.

Can you clarify

  1. if fUSD will be fiat collateralized?
    1a. if so, using what collateral.
    1.b. if not, what are the mechanics that enable a fUSD;USD 1:1 peg

thank you

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L2’s are sidechains. It’s just the new “label” / “narrative”. We will stick with pushing the limits of L1 throughput, we are already the most technologically advanced chain, and with the releases this year, we will further increase that gap from our nearest competitors.

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fUSD was/is collateralized by FTM, sFTM, and we had plans for other assets. It was never fiat backed, it was collateral backed. Any collateralized stable coin uses the same peg mechanisms, liquidations.

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Hey Andre, I’m an actuary interested in getting more involved in insurance protocols on chain. Where would you recommend I start on fantom? Both for actually purchasing coverage but also getting involved with a team on the operations side. Only used and participated in governance at Nexus Mutual so far, but have started spending more time on FTM. Thanks!

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Hi Andre .Welcome back to Fantom Fondation :heart:
I have a question about Layer2 for Fantom Network. What do you think about that ? and Does Fantom need any Layer 2 with any usage in this moment or in future ?

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