Moh (Binance Angel)🇳🇬,
Please join me to welcome, “CHROMIA CEO & Co-founder, Henrik Hjelte” and “ CMO, Serge lubkin”
Oh, before we proceed, kindly introduce yourselves and tell us a bit about your roles at Chromia u/sergelubkin & u/henrik_hjelte.
Henrik Hjelte,
Ok, I’m Henrik, I’m CEO of ChromaWay that crated the Chromia project. My background is a bit mixed: developer for 30+ years (since 80: s), but I studied other things at university (economics, politics, social sciences philosophy). Life is more than computer you know… I worked with FInance/IT then started a web startup and got to know Alex Mizrahi who worked as a developer….
Web startup didn’t fly, but Alex showed me bitcoin. When I finally read the whitepaper I was blown away, and joined Alex colored-coins project, the first open source protocol to issue tokens. in 2013.
So, we started with open-source tokens (that kickstarted the blockchain industry. Then started company together 2014.
That is a long intro, I’ll shut up now… Thanks….
Serge,
I’m Serge, I’m assisting Henrik today and I work with Chromia marketing team as well as on some business development projects
Moh (Binance Angel)🇳🇬, , Question No 1 :
Kindly describe the CHROMIA project and what it aims to achieve?
Henrik Hjelte,
Chromia is a new public blockchain based on the idea of integrating traditional databases, Relational databases with blockchain security. Chromia is a general purpose blockchain with full smart contract capabilities, just that it is a lot easier to code, even complex applications. You code with an easy to learn new programming language that combines the power of SQL and normal languages but makes it secure in a blockchain context. Up to 1/10 the code-lines vs other blockchains. There is a blog post about it, I’ll share later. On lines of code.
The aim of Chromia is to combine relational databases, which exist in every kind of organization, together using blockchains. We want to provide a platform for our users to develop totally decentralized apps securely. Our goal is for Chromia to be seen as the number one infrastructure for decentralized applications.
https://blog.chromia.com/reasons-for-rell-compactness/
Moh (Binance Angel)🇳🇬,Question No 2:
What inspired the CHROMIA Core team to pick interest in CHROMIA project? what breakthrough have you achieved so far? what are the present challenges you’re facing and how are you planning to overcome them?
Henrik Hjelte,
We started with public blockchains, tokens in 2012, the world’s first stable coin with a bank 2015 (LHV). When coding that solution, peer to peer payments of Euro-tokens, we discovered we need performance reasons to store all data in a database. We needed to quickly know the “balance” of a user, and can’t loop through a blockchain. And slowly the idea grew that we can make the database INTO a blockchain, integrate completely with the transaction mechanism of a database. So, we did it as a private blockchain first (Postchain), used it for some projects, then came up with the idea to make a Public Blockchain based on it.
The motivation is that we felt we needed a better programming model for blockchains. Our CTO Alex has always been thinking of optimal solutions for blockchain technology and has lots of experiences thinking about it. Also: make real-world useful things. For example, we support free-to-play models since users do not need to own “our” token to USE apps, the application itself (often the developer) pays for hosting. And of course, great performance. Also: more knowledge of who runs nodes and risk level. So, it is more suitable for enterprises.
In Chromia the application (at the start the developer) decides Who should be allowed to run its own blockchain (every dapp has its own blockchain). You can also say on a higher level that we want to provide technology to create “Public applications”, a tool
that enables us to create a fairer world.
https://blog.chromia.com/towards-publicly-hosted-applications/
Moh (Binance Angel)🇳🇬, Question No 3 :
Why did you create your own blockchain instead of leveraging on existing and proven base layer protocol?
Henrik Hjelte,
None of the existing protocols are suitable to support large-scale, mainstream applications. We designed Chromia to give our users exactly what they want; fast support, useful features, with an affordable service cost. Other platforms do not have the ability to host data applications in a decentralized and secure way, as Chromia can. Chromia also has its own bespoke programming language that sets it apart from SQL-based platforms. It’s so easy to use, even non-developers can understand it!
The other big difference with Chromia concerns payments. Chromia gives its users freedom from having to pay for each transaction. With Chromia, you have the flexibility to decide how to set fees for your dapp
And when it comes to “proven base layer protocols”: they are just a few years at max. Chromia is built on top of Postgresql, that has been used in enterprises for decades, a really proven technology. And the Java virtual machine on top of that. This is proven tech, at core.
Moh (Binance Angel)🇳🇬, Question No 4 :
What is Postchain?
Henrik Hjelte,
Postchain is an open-source product of ChromaWay for enterprise clients and it’s the core technology on which Chromia is built.
Postchain is a replicated blockchain and database that offers highly resilient distributed database management with distributed control.
Postchain is the only product on the market that combines the immutable consensus of a blockchain and the properties of a real database management system (You know, the tech that built SAP, Facebook, Banks…) …
Postchain allows you to share information between companies and/or individuals in a secure and transparent way.
That is the low-level base of Chromia you can say
Moh (Binance Angel)🇳🇬,
Can you please name some of your clients that are using this service already?
Serge,
You mean products built on Postchain? Also, Stockholm Green Digital Finance, Green Assets Wallet that’s now functioning on Chromia Bootstrap Mainnet.
Big financial institutions
It’s only a beginning of course, but very promising one. https://greenassetswallet.org/news/2019/12/12/launch-of-the-green-assets-wallet
Henrik Hjelte,
We got a lot of attention with the Swedish Land registry; we did a joint project between them and banks and a telco etc on postchain as base.
Then, right now we do a large project with the Inter-American Development bank also about land-registration (processes) in South America.
We had a client, Stockholm Green Digital Finance, that did a system for green bonds (tracking environmental impact. Yes, as Sege says, it was later moved to Chromia…
Which is cool. Also, another external development company did that phase of the project, proving that other can build on our tech,4irelabs from Ukraine is their name. Some companies using the GAW: Blackrock. SEB Bank etc…
Also, we have done more projects, in Australia, asia etc. Oh Daimler too (the Mercedes company) …
Moh (Binance Angel)🇳🇬,
Lots of enterprise clients you’ve got. No wonder I do see the meme “CHR=ETH KILLER”
Serge,
It’s a meme from our supporters. But we believe we can coexist:)
For some niche things eth is good :)
So, no killing :D
Henrik Hjelte,
We want to work with partners too for this, we can’t do all projects ourselves. Also, for Chromia projects, ChromaWay company can help do support maintenance etc. So, it is not competing, it adds value to the ecosystem.
Yeah ETH is good too, for some applications. We are friends with them from colored-coin times.
And colored-coins inspired ETH, and ETH inspires us.
Moh (Binance Angel)🇳🇬, Question No 5 :
Lastly, CHROMIA is already doing very well in terms of business. You just got listed on BINANCE JEX, you are on-boarding new clients and dishing out new features. But what’s next? Is there anything to be excited about?
Henrik Hjelte,
Plans for 2020 are to both release a series of dapps to showcase how fantastic Chromia is, as well as continue to develop the platform. And when it is secure and good enough, we will release the mainnet.
Dapps are now being made by us as well as others. We do a decentralized social network framework called Chromunity, now released to TestNet. It is really cool, users can vote over moderators, and in the future users might even govern the complete application, how it can be updated. This is a great showcase for Chromia and why we use the slogan Power to the Public.
https://testnet.chromunity.com/
Games coming are:
Mines of Dalarnia (by Workinman Interactive). An action game in a mine with blockchain rental of plots and stuff. Already on TestNet and you can take a peek on it at https://www.minesofdalarnia.com
more coming…
Krystopia 2, novas journey. A puzzle game done by Antler Interactive. Could only find trailer though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G95-Dw3kI4
However, we have even larger ambitions with blockchain gaming…
We are doing A secret demo-project that we do together with Antler to showcase the technical potential of Chromia platform.
Another exciting relase is an indie game Chain of Alliance, done by two external developers. It is a strategy game with full-logic on blockchain. Public release on TestNet on May 22!
More coming in 2020: Other dapps from other companies, one in impact-tech.
That is a serious app, Chromia also works outside gaming and social media for enterprises and startups
And I hope some of you will do something, we want to support dapps on the platform so reach out to us…
Moh (Binance Angel)🇳🇬,
When can we be expecting the mainnet? Any approximate time? I’m sure the community will really excited to have that info
Serge,
It’s now in Bootstap phase, so it’s technically already functioning. MVP will be very soon
Stay tuned;)
Twitter questions Vs answers
Ellkayy,
What’s the unique thing in Chromia that no other blockchain has, that makes you the better option?
Henrik Hjelte,
Unique: Chromia is the only blockchain that also has a real, proper database built-in. And blockchain is about managing data in a shared context. How to best managed data was solved in computer science already. So far, it is the relational algebra model that is used in 100% of all enterprises, and has an 85% market share. Chromia is the only blockchain that use that model and that power.
Ellkayy,
Why Chromia use RELL and not SQL or JavaScript? Can developers with other language knowledge use Chromia?
Serge,
Rell is the only language on the blockchain side. You can combine with anything on client-side, although now client only exists for JS/TS, C# and Java/Kotlin. Rell is a language for relational blockchain programming. It combines the following features:
1 Relational data modeling and queries similar to SQL. People familiar with SQL should feel at home once they learn the new syntax.
2 Normal programming constructs: variables, loops, functions, collections, etc.
3 Constructs which specifically target application backends and, in particular, blockchain-style programming including request routing, authorization, etc.
Rell aims to make programming as convenient and simple as possible. It minimizes boilerplate and repetition. At the same time, as a static type system it can detect and prevent many kinds of defects prior to run-time.
Roshan DV,
I have been monitoring your project for a while but some concerns about it: Your project will build your own core network, so you have more visibility than Ethereum and NEO. These are projects that were born before and which also have a very large community. And what can assure you that your project will guarantee the functionalities that you have defined?
Henrik Hjelte,
What came first? I want to remind that Vitalik was in the colored-coins project, led by our CTO and we had blockchain in production before ETH and NEO etc existed. We are the old dogs…
Large community: We are part of the same community. When developers are fustrated and want to try new tech, they go to us from other blockchains.
Also, we have a large potential: SQL (close to Rell and our tech) is the world top 3 language. Bigger than Java. Bigger than PHP. Only beaten bny HTML and javascript. Soliditiy is not on top 20 list. THere are millions of developers that know SQL. That is potential for community… (source is Stackoverflow annual programming survey).
Paul (Via Manage),
What are the utilities of Chromia and what purpose does the Chromia coin serve?
Serge,
Chromia meta-token called Chroma (CHR). It is used in Chromia to compensate block-producing nodes by fees. In Chromia, fees are paid by dapps, which can in their turn collect fees from users. Chromia provides mechanisms which balance the interests of developers and users. Dapp tokens can be automatically backed with Chroma, providing liquidity and value which is independent of investment into the dapp. Dapp investors can be compensated in Chroma through a profit-sharing contract. For developers, Chromia offers the opportunity to derive income from dapps. This incentivises the creation and maintenance of high quality dapps because better dapps generate more income and create more demand for tokens owned by the developer. The Chromia model is designed to support sustainable circular economies and foster a mutually beneficial relationship between developers, users, and investors.
Idemudia Isaac,
Thank you very much u/henrik_hjelte u/sergelubkin
You stated your plans for 2020 is to release series of dApps. What kind of large scale, mainstream decentralized application and $Chromia products do you think is suitable for the Nigerian environment?
Henrik Hjelte,
Actually, this is why we want to work with partners. We cannot know everything, For African market we have seen of course payments/remittances (but it has fallen out of trend). We would love to do real-estate /land-registration but we understand we need a strong local partner (more than a single person, a real company or organization driving).
●CC● | Elrond 🇵🇭,
What plans do you have to building a vibrant global community around Rell? And how would you go about encouraging/incentivising such ‘Rellists’ around the world to build dApps on Chromia? u/henrik_hjelte u/sergelubkin
Henrik Hjelte,
For developers (I am one too, or used to be) you normally need to prove a few things:
\ That the tech is productive (can I do apps faster?)*
\ That it is better (less bugs, more maintainable?)*
Then the community will come. We see that all the time. Look at web development. React.js came, and developers flooded to it. Not because of marketing on Superbowl, but because it was BETTER. Fewer bugs and easier to do complex webapps.
So, at core: people will come when we showcase the productivity gains, and that is what we need to focus on.
●CC● | Elrond 🇵🇭,
Why do you choose to build Chromia token on ERC20 instead of other blockchain such as BEP2, TRC20…or your own chain while ERC20 platform is very slow and have a case of fee? u/henrik_hjelte u/sergelubkin
Serge,
So far Ethereum has the best infrastructure, it’s the oldest and most reliable network for tokens. It also became the industry standard which exchanges utilize. We will transfer 80% of all erc20 tokens to our Chromia blockchain when it’s ready for that.
Koh,
In your whitepaper it says in the upcoming version of ChromiaWallet that it will be able to function as a Dapp browser for public use. Q) Will it be similar to the Dapp browser on Trust Wallet?
Serge,
It’s live already try it http://vault-testnet.chromia.com/
It’s the wallet and a dapp browser
CHROMIA is SOLID,
Your metamorphosis is a laudable one,surviving different FUD, how have you been able to survive this longest bear market and continue building and developing cos many projects have died out in this time period!
Henrik Hjelte,
You need to know we started a company before ETH existed. There was 0 money in blockchain when we started. I did it becuase it was fun, exciting tech and MAYBE someone would be interested in the thing we made “Tokens”…
We were never in the crazy bull-market, manly observed the crazies from the side. We fundraised for CHR in a dip (they called it bear market). ChromaWay the company also make money from enterprises.
Алекс,
What is SSO?
What makes it important for chromias ecosystem?
Why should we users be attracted to it?’
Serge,
Chromia SSO is perhaps the most important UX improvement that Chromia offers the decentralized world. It revolutionizes the way users interact with dapps. Any dapp requires users to sign transactions, that means they need a private key. Control of the private key is control of any and all dapps or assets associated with it. This means that private keys have an especially stringent set of security requirements in a blockchain context — they control real value, and there is no recourse if they are compromised or lost. https://blog.chromia.com/chromia-sso-the-whys-and-the-whats/
Olufemi Joel,
How do you see the Chromia project developing in 3 to 5 years, both on the commercial level and on the evolution of the company? What are the plans for expansion in different regions? Are you going to outsource the team/skills or keep it centralized and set up offices?
Henrik Hjelte,
I take part of the question. On outsource: we were a distributed team from day one, with co-founders from 3 countries (still living there). We are distributed now, Ukraine, Sweden, Vietnam, Croatia, China are “hubs” then we have individuals too. No big plan, just where we found great developers…
Park Lee, u/henrik_hjelte
You claim CHOROMIA have fast support, useful features with an affordable service cost. That fast and the fees are cheap but can you guarantee stability?
What’s the Algorithms which are used by CHROMIA for that fast? And Can you explain it?
Serge,
We use PBFT protocol with some features of DPOS, this plus sidechains parallelism offers almost unlimited speed and scalability. We also use the feature called anchoring to secure all transactions in batches on Bitcoin blockchain.
Mario Boy,
What are you guys trying to achieve as an end goal? The next Ethereum? Or the next enterprise version of Ethereum? Or something different?
Henrik Hjelte,
The end goal… good question. When we started in 2014 there were no other blockchain companies, so we wanted to do the best blockchain technology in order to enable a decentralized world with more fair applications. And that is what we still do. Technology/software that can enable people to make a fairer world
Erven James Sato,
“STAKING” is one of the STRATEGIES to ATTRACT USERS and ACHIEVE MASS ADOPTION
Does your GREAT PROJECT have plan about Staking?
Serge,
Yes, we announced our staking plans couple of months ago https://blog.chromia.com/on-providers-and-stakes/
We are working with our current partners to make it accessible for general public.
Chizoba,
I often see Chromia and ChromaWay being used interchangeably, what is the relationship between the two?
Henrik Hjelte,
ChromaWay the company started Chromia from code done as postchain. This is normal in open-source development, a company that leads development. But Chromia will be a decentalized network, so ChromaWay will not make direct money out of it more than if we have a role as a Provider (and get payed for hosting). ChromaWay can indirectly make money from optional support and maintenance etc. Also, this, perfectly normal in open-source world.
And it also benefits Chromia that there is a market for support.
A market open for competition.
No special treatment for “ChromaWay”
Enajite,
How to start coding on Chromia?
Henrik Hjelte,
Go to https://rell.chromia.com and follow the tutorial. Enjoy the free time you get compared to other blockchain languages…
●CC● | Elrond 🇵🇭,
Chromia process 500 TPS, these is slow compare to other Blockchains, where we can see now 60K TPS if more capacity require, how can that be? u/henrik_hjelte u/sergelubkin
Serge,
Yes, if you need faster speed you can use parallelism by having multiple blockchains for your dapp. Also, by optimization and better architecture sky is the limit.
Delphino.eth ⟠,
Can we consider Chromia an hybrid? For its mixing of Blockchain and a Database?
Henrik Hjelte,
Yes and no. I want to stress that Chromia is a FULL blockchain. It is not only “inspired”. It is a blockchain AND a database.
I tend to think about Hybrid more in the usecases that you might have as a customer. For example, a bank might want to have some data/transactions private (as a private blockchain) and have another half of the application with public data (on Chromia). So that is a hybrid solution, and Chromia ROCKS in that segment since it is the only blockchain that is complete relational database (what the normal world uses anyway for 85% of all applications)
Example area: “open banking”
Steve bush,
How will Chromia I have any empower Investors, Companies, Developers, Platform Users to
deliver impactful solutions and bring value to people all over the world?
Henrik Hjelte,
In order to make blockchain go big, we need to have users. Users need to be able to use apps with ease. Chromia have features like single-sign on (ease of use), but importantly do not require owning tokens to USE apps.
Also, it needs to be easy to make applications. For example, if you are a student in US and came up with an idea, you want to make an application for your school. Let’s call it “thefacebook”. You code something in PHP and MySQL. DID YOU SEE THAT. SQL. SQL.SQL. It is the same tech that Chromia has but no one else in the blockchain business. SQL rules the world if you look outside the crypto bubble. Google the Oracle head-office… 100% of all enterprises use it… Because it is easy and powerful.
And we even improve on SQL with Rell….
So, compare that with a hacky virtual machine that have a few years…. 😊
August,
“Mines of Dalarnia” is a game that has caught my attention a lot, due to its simplicity and quality. But in the time that I have used it I have not been able to differentiate between the Chromia blockchain of this game and that of the competition? What other games do you have next to develop? I would like to give ideas in those games like a Gamers!
Henrik Hjelte,
We thought about in corona time sports club might want to engage more with their fans digitally. And of course, E-Sports is getting a real momentum as the young generation grows up. Now a bit sad that all games are centralized. My daughter will be sad when (at some day?) they will close down roblox… it happens to all centralized apps eventually… that is what we fix. Power to the Public to control apps and their future. I’ll repost again Alex post. Sorry I like it a lot… https://blog.chromia.com/towards-publicly-hosted-applications/
Bisolar,
Good day Chromia team from a Chromia fan
Can you tell us Chromia’s geographical focus at the moment and the proces it follows for it BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT?
What factors do you consider before identifying NEW MARKETS to enter?
Serge,
Chromia will initially focus on community building in China, Korea, US and Europe. The focus of community growth will gradually expand to other markets as the project gains popularity.
Current community growth strategies of Chromia include:
Chromia blockchain incubator creation to welcome more projects to the Chromia blockchain
Host blockchain gaming conferences, workshops, and meetups to engage with potential users.
Provide online and face-to-face tutorials to engage with dapps developers.
Attract blockchain developers through direct and indirect approach via specialized platforms and communities.
Develop our relations with existing and previous corporate clients, and their partnership networks to participate in their blockchain ventures
Launch Node program to encourage system providers to run nodes on the Chromia blockchain.
Staking program for Chroma (CHR) tokens
Active community engagement via social channels.
Future community growth strategies of Chromia after Mainnet launch include:
Partner with more gaming studios, startups and enterprises
Build local communities with Ambassador Programs.
Partner with external incubator and accelerators to provide blockchain expertise and introduce projects to Chromia ecosystem
Continue organizing hackathons around the world to attract more developers.
Emmanuel,
I want to know the current structure of your roadmap? What is the future roadmap of CHROMIA? Is there any key milestone coming???
Henrik Hjelte,
It is easy to do a roadmap; anyone can make a pape plan. But I think they are used in the wrong way. Software is hard, blockchain is even harder because it NEEDS TO BE SECURE. No MVP releases. We cannot even have roadmap deadlines and skimp on quality. Where we are now though is: Rell language finished so much that developers can write apps and see its magic. We have external devs doing dapps. We have the first phase of mainnet. We have a series of releases coming up. We will release mainnet when it is secure enough, and gradual roll out. I think quite soon, development is going great at the moment, a bit quicker than we though.
Ellkayy,
Why doesn’t Chromia transactions use gas? How do you power transactions then?
Serge,
Main feature of gas in Ethereum is to pay for transactions for miners get rewards. In our scenario Providers get rewards from dapp owners. So dapp owner pays for storing their dapp. It’s like Amazon Web Service model. Then dapp owner can monetize it in its own way.
Ellkayy,
Many developers don’t know RELL, just Solidity and SQL. Is this a barrier or threat to Chromia? Why RELL is better?
Henrik Hjelte,
Very few developers know Solidity. Do a search on github. I referred previously to stackoverflow programming language survey results. https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#technology
If you know SQL, you learn Rell in a day.
SQL is the top 3 language here. I’d say there are millions that can easily jump to Rell.
Soldity or other blockchains, not on top 20 list even.
Rell is a hipper, nicer version of SQL that is also a “normal” programming language.
Developers like to learn new things, new languages. Otherwise we would be stuck with PHP, the DOMINANT language. Well, is it still? Seems javascript and react.js and node etc is taking over…
Moh (Binance Angel)🇳🇬,
This brings us to the end of the AMA. It’s been a pleasure being with all of you, THANK YOU. Special shout out to u/sergelubkin and u/henrik_hjelte for honouring us with their presence today❤️
Kindly follow CHROMIA on twitter and join the conversation with their community on Telegram
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Chromia
Telegram: https://t.me/hellochromia
Official Chromia Nigeria Community Channel 🇳🇬 : https://t.me/ChromiaNigeria
Website: www.chromia.com

Kava "In The News" Media Tracker:
This is a thread to track noteworthy Kava mentions within the news!
This thread will not include "copy & paste" news - meaning, and article that was taken from somewhere else and republished.
(Kava does like when that happens, but this thread is meant to track original stories only!)

Featured Articles:

• https://cryptobriefing.com/kava-is-offering-users-millions-to-mint-its-stablecoin-with-bnb/
  • Published: 06/10/20
  • Content: CDP Mainnet Launch

​

• https://thedailychain.com/first-ever-centrally-cleared-bitcoin-exchange-product-to-be-listed-on-deutsche-borse/
  • Published: 06/10/20
  • Content: CDP Mainnet Launch
• https://cointelegraph.com/news/cosmos-based-interoperable-defi-project-launches-on-mainnet-with-bnb-collateral
  • Published: 06/10/20
  • Content: CDP Mainnet Launch
• https://www.cryptovibes.com/blog/2020/06/10/bnb-to-feature-on-kavas-defi-platform-becoming-the-first-supported-asset/
  • Published: 06/10/20
  • Content: CDP Mainnet Launch
• https://www.crypto-news-flash.com/how-interoperability-brings-blockchain-back-to-its-roots/
  • Published: 05/02/20
  • Content: The Future of Interoperability w/ Mini Kava Featurette
• https://cointelegraph.com/news/the-defi-hack-what-decentralized-finance-should-and-shouldnt-be
  • Published: 05/02/20
  • Content: Kava Featurette + dForce Shenannigans
• https://www.cryptovibes.com/blog/2020/04/28/dforce-refunds-investors-after-recovering-25-million-from-hack/
  • Published: 4/28/20
  • Content: dForce Shenannigans
• https://cointelegraph.com/news/dforce-refunds-users-after-recovering-assets-from-25-million-hack
  • Published: 4/28/20
  • Content: dForce Shenannigans
• https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2020/04/26/defi-dforce-hack-interview-scott-stuart-kava
  • Published: 4/26/20
  • Content: dForce Shenannigans
• https://e-cryptonews.com/dforce-hackers-something-deepe
  • Published: 4/23/20
  • Content: dForce Shenannigans
• https://cointelegraph.com/news/dforce-hacker-returns-stolen-money-as-criticism-of-the-project-continues
  • Published: 4/22/20
  • Content: dForce Shenannigans
• https://decrypt.co/26406/framework-investment-kava-defi
  • Published: 4/22/20
  • Content: Framework Ventures Partnership
• https://thedailychain.com/chinese-defi-protocol-dforce-loses-25m-of-its-total-locked-value/
  • Published: 4/21/20
  • Content: dForce Shenannigans
• https://www.coindesk.com/multi-chain-defi-protocol-raises-750k-in-token-sale-with-framework-ventures
  • Published: 4/21/20
  • Content: Framework Ventures Partnership
• https://defirate.com/kava-liquidity-incentives/
  • Published: 3/20/20
  • Content: Kava Liquidity Incentives
• https://cryptobriefing.com/kava-wants-challenge-makerdao-will-it-work/
  • Published: 3/20/20
  • Content: Kava vs MakerDao
• https://cryptogems.com/kava-review-the-cross-chain-defi-dapp-backed-by-crypto-elites/
  • Published: 3/09/20
  • Content: Kava Investors

[News Mentions by month/quarter!]

July (2020)

• https://www.coinedict.com/news/these-5-defi-projects-are-potential-investment-multipliers/
  
• https://read.cash/@johnwege/top-coins-im-focused-on-during-this-bull-market-e953f897
  
• https://cryptoadventure.org/five-incredible-altcoins-to-watch-out-for-in-2020-and-2021/
  
• https://www.mbs.news/en/2020/07/four-altcoins-with-the-finest-development-potential.html
  
• https://cryptonewsyes.com/4-crypto-newcomers-may-outrun-bitcoin-btc-and-ethereum-eth-to-become-best-investments-of-2020/
  
• https://www.publish0x.com/johnwege/kava-is-on-fire-defi-xwnrpdy
  
• https://www.somagnews.com/4-altcoins-with-the-best-growth-potential/
  
• https://newsaffinity.com/defi-crosses-the-rubicon-of-2-billion-in-collective-value-with-compound-taking-the-leadership-stance/
  
• https://coinpedia.org/news/kava-ampl-qnt-enjoy-bull-ride/
  
• https://dailyhodl.com/2020/07/18/four-crypto-newcomers-may-outrun-bitcoin-and-ethereum-to-become-best-investments-of-2020-according-to-lark-davis/
  
• https://www.altcoinbuzz.io/cryptocurrency-news/product-release/binance-launchpad-project-of-the-year-award-bagged-by-kava/
  
• https://kryptomoney.com/altseason-rave-cosmos-atom-sets-fresh-highs-gaining-68-within-10-days-a-reason-to-be-on-the-lookout/
  
• https://coingape.com/will-kava-give-fresh-impetus-to-the-defi-bubble/
  
• https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/kraken-adds-3-defi-tokens-comp-kava-knc-2020-07-14
  
• https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2020/07/18/kava-cryptocurrency-bnb-collateral/
  
• https://treasuryxl.com/blog/blockchain-and-interoperability-key-to-mass-adoption/
  
• https://sludgefeed.com/kraken-lists-compound-kava-and-knc/
  
• https://blog.kraken.com/post/5632/comp-kava-knc-and-storj-4-new-crypto-assets-start-trading-july-15/
  
• https://fintechzoom.com/fintech-news-bitcoin-news/7-crypto-assets-making-huge-moves-as-bitcoin-btc-and-ethereum-eth-prepare-for-breakout-says-analyst-nicholas-merten/
  
• https://www.altcoinbuzz.io/cryptocurrency-news/finance-and-funding/best-cryptocurrencies-that-are-ready-to-move/
  
• https://www.coindesk.com/kraken-adds-3-defi-tokens-comp-kava-knc
  
• https://hackernoon.com/crypto-is-very-much-an-attention-economy-brien-kerr-5r243yax
  
• https://www.coinspeaker.com/defi-potential-compound-make
  
• https://dailyhodl.com/2020/07/14/7-crypto-assets-making-huge-moves-as-bitcoin-btc-and-ethereum-eth-prepare-for-breakout-says-analyst-nicholas-merten/
  
• https://cryptodaily.co.uk/2020/07/this-summers-crypto-contests
  
• https://www.finextra.com/blogposting/18972/blockchain-and-interoperability-key-to-mass-adoption
  
• https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/352009
  
• https://dailyhodl.com/2020/07/04/top-bitcoin-btc-analyst-says-altcoin-breakout-imminent-predicts-ethereum-xrp-litecoin-and-six-crypto-assets-set-for-major-rallies/
  
• https://www.altcoinbuzz.io/cryptocurrency-news/product-release/usdx-minting-rewards-for-bnb-holders/
  

Mentions

• https://www.bitdeal.net/defi-tokens-2020-2021
  
• https://regardnews.com/4-altcoins-that-can-surpass-ethereum-and-bitcoin/
  
• https://cryptothenews.com/lark-davis-four-crypto-newcomers-may-outperform-bitcoin-and-ethereum-in-2020/
  
• https://coingape.com/will-kava-give-fresh-impetus-to-the-defi-bubble/
  
• https://www.bitcoininsider.org/article/90570/bitcoin-dominance-records-5-month-low-btc-begins-another-week-place
  
• https://newslogical.com/four-binance-crypto-projects-see-massive-price-growth/
  
• https://cryptopotato.com/market-watch-binance-coin-surging-following-bnb-burn-and-ieo-rumors-bitcoin-celebrates-in-place/
  
• https://cryptopotato.com/bitcoin-dominance-records-5-month-low-btc-begins-another-week-in-place/
  
• https://cryptopotato.com/binance-ieos-skyrocket-20-as-bitcoin-escaped-9200-price-watch/
  
• https://www.digitalmarketnews.com/the-encrypted-messaging-dilemma-balancing-censorship-and-freedom/
  
• https://beincrypto.com/dubious-bzx-token-sale-sparks-defi-fairness-debate/
  
• https://www.trustnodes.com/2020/07/14/kraken-launches-compound-trading-as-it-nears-2-billion-in-assets-under-management-plus-kava-knc-and-storj
  
• https://coincodex.com/article/8910/kraken-announces-comp-knc-kava-and-storj-listing/
  
• https://crypto-economy.com/kraken-exchange-added-support-for-4-new-cryptocurrencies-comp-kava-knc-and-storj/
  

June (2020)

• https://www.publish0x.com/cryptopress/kava-crypto-1-dollar-analysis-of-the-cosmos-makerdao-atom-xmdjkeg
  
• https://www.tradersmagazine.com/departments/commentary/its-a-small-cap-life/
  
• https://cointelegraph.com/news/proposing-an-uber-like-growth-model-for-blockchain-incentives
  
• https://www.fxstreet.com/cryptocurrencies/news/kava-technical-analysis-kava-usd-touches-193-reaching-for-new-highs-202006251325
  
• https://www.publish0x.com/cryptonators-airdrop-hunt/kava-is-about-to-break-open-the-world-of-multi-chain-decentr-xgdvljk
  
• https://cryptobuyingtips.com/guides/how-to-buy-kava-kava
  
• https://azcoinnews.com/what-is-kava.html
  
• https://cointelegraph.com/news/bubbling-over-the-top-defi-sector-heats-up-in-june-raising-concerns
  
• https://3commas.io/blog/non-ethereum-defi-projects
  
• https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2020/06/162669-kava-labs-defi-lending-platform-goes-live-with-binance-coin-bnb-collateral-support-usdx-stablecoin-loans/
  
• https://thedailychain.com/first-ever-centrally-cleared-bitcoin-exchange-product-to-be-listed-on-deutsche-borse/
  
• https://cointelegraph.com/news/former-steem-witness-i-received-direct-threats-from-a-hive-user
  
• https://cryptonews.com/news/brave-apologizes-crypto-scammers-get-smarter-more-news-6784.htm
  
• https://cryptobriefing.com/kava-is-offering-users-millions-to-mint-its-stablecoin-with-bnb/
  
• https://cointelegraph.com/news/cosmos-based-interoperable-defi-project-launches-on-mainnet-with-bnb-collateral
  
• https://btcpeers.com/kava-is-set-to-introduce-defi-lending-to-binance-bnb-holders/
  
• https://www.cryptovibes.com/blog/2020/06/10/bnb-to-feature-on-kavas-defi-platform-becoming-the-first-supported-asset/
  
• https://cryptonomist.ch/2020/06/09/kava-piattaforma-defi-bnb-collaterale/
  
• https://www.cryptopolitan.com/binance-and-cosmos-launch-kava-defi-protocol/
  
• https://mooncatchermeme.com/cosmos-based-interoperable-defi-project-launches-on-mainnet-with-bnb-collateral/
  
• https://www.namecoinnews.com/binance-exchange-to-support-the-kava-kava-mainnet-upgrade/
  
• https://www.dcforecasts.com/binance-coin-news/kava-defi-lending-platform-offers-minting-with-bnb-report/
  
• https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2020/06/162195-kava-labs-ceo-brian-kerr-explains-why-they-chose-cosmos-sdk-while-claiming-its-very-difficult-to-build-on-ethereum/
  
• https://hackernoon.com/binance-and-kava-bring-defi-lending-to-bnb-holders-7t4730d7
  
• https://www.binance.com/en/blog/421499824684900650/Five-Recent-BNB-Use-Cases-Stake-Spend-Trade-and-More
  
• https://thebitcoinstreetjournal.com/the-future-is-defi
  
• https://www.binance.com/en/support/articles/360044028312
  
• https://www.binance.com/en/support/articles/360044544151
  
• https://ethereumworldnews.com/why-staking-crypto-such-as-trx-kava-and-more-is-gathering-steam/
  
• https://www.namecoinnews.com/irisnet-partners-with-kava-labs-to-enable-better-defi-services/
  
• https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2020/06/162398-blockchain-interoperability-kava-labs-and-irisnet-to-further-promote-decentralized-finance-app-development-using-cosmos-sdk/
  
• https://coincodex.com/article/8435/top-3-coins-to-watch-jun-8-jun-14-2020/
  
• https://www.binance.com/en/support/articles/c2f23ba57f9e4ff38ab25a8c6aba25bf
  
• https://www.binance.com/en/blog/421499824684900650/Five-Recent-BNB-Use-Cases-Stake-Spend-Trade-and-More
  
• https://www.binance.com/en/support/articles/c2f23ba57f9e4ff38ab25a8c6aba25bf
  
• https://decrypt.co/31585/binance-to-give-away-tesla-cybertruck-again-and-28000
  
• https://coincodex.com/article/8474/binance-is-giving-away-a-tesla-cybertruck-and-27800-worth-of-kava-tokens/
  
• https://bitboycrypto.com/binance-to-give-away-tesla-cybertruck-and-cash-prize-up-to-28000-usd/
  
• https://coincodex.com/article/8457/top-5-coins-to-watch-in-june/
  
• https://www.publish0x.com/my-crypto-knowledge-2020/top-8-defi-altcoin-ready-to-explode-xvrydvw
  
• https://heraldsheets.com/binance-giveaway-tesla-cybertruck-27800-kava-token-listing/
  

Mentions

• https://cryptomode.com/weekly-coingecko-trend-searches-its-all-about-defi/
  
• https://eng.ambcrypto.com/ethereum-iota-cosmos-price-analysis-27-june/
  
• https://eng.ambcrypto.com/cardano-tron-cosmos-price-analysis-20-june/
  
• https://eng.ambcrypto.com/xrp-cosmos-dogecoin-price-analysis-june-15/
  
• https://www.fxstreet.com/cryptocurrencies/news/cryptocurrency-news-update-bitcoin-stalled-after-recovery-attempt-altcoins-move-ahead-202007220724
  
• https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/exchange/ftx-lists-compound-governance-token-futures/
  
• https://cryptobriefing.com/stacking-sats-here-are-nine-ways-earn-bitcoin-2020/
  
• https://cointelegraph.com/news/3-big-blockchain-companies-teamed-up-on-a-defi-product-that-pays-passive-income
  
• https://thedailychain.com/binance-gearing-up-to-set-foot-in-the-uk-this-yea
  
• https://academy.ivanontech.com/blog/why-the-defi-space-could-see-huge-growth-over-the-coming-years
  
• https://bitcoinexchangeguide.com/investors-now-chasing-other-defi-tokens-after-compounds-explosive-success/
  
• https://cointelegraph.com/news/bubbling-over-the-top-defi-sector-heats-up-in-june-raising-concerns
  
• https://dappradar.com/blog/ethereum-vs-binance-the-looming-battle-in-defi
  
• https://cointelegraph.com/news/nearly-6-of-kybers-token-supply-staked-in-one-day
  

May (2020)

• https://eng.ambcrypto.com/ethereum-defi-how-dforce-allegedly-copied-other-projects-codes/
• http://magent.org/performance-of-binances-last-5-launchpad-projects-future-news-blockchain/
• https://www.tuoluocaijing.cn/article/detail-10005435.html
• https://www.chainnews.com/articles/645406735192.htm
• https://www.crypto-news-flash.com/how-interoperability-brings-blockchain-back-to-its-roots/
• https://www.crypto-rating.com/forecasts/kava-kava-a-young-coin-with-good-trading-potential/
• https://crypto-economy.com/pos-alliance-engages-the-sec-on-advancing-proof-of-stake-network-standards/
• https://0xzx.com/202005132127634349.html
• https://bravenewcoin.com/insights/deal-flow-april-2020
• https://www.thebulletintime.com/news/what-decentralized-finance-should-and-shouldnt-be/

April (2020)

• https://dailyhodl.com/2020/04/07/new-jerseys-computer-system-chokes-struggles-to-handle-skyrocketing-unemployment-claims/
• https://finance.yahoo.com/news/blockchain-bites-ripple-sues-youtube-182554277.html
• https://www.altcoinbuzz.io/cryptocurrency-news/product-release/band-protocol-march-2020-overview/
• https://www.coindesk.com/blockchain-bites-ripple-sues-youtube-monero-hits-the-box-office-and-draper-wants-crypto-everywhere
• https://theweeklycoin.substack.com/p/kava-a-makerdao-killer
• https://www.altcoinbuzz.io/cryptocurrency-news/partnerships/celsius-network-partners-with-chainlink/
• https://cryptobriefing.com/dont-bail-out-makerdao/

March (2020)

• https://blog.napbots.com/2020/03/20/kava-desires-to-problem-makerdao-but-will-it-function/
• https://cryptoadventure.org/the-kava-platform-review-a-comprehensive-defi-for-crypto-cross-chain-platform/
• https://www.altcoinbuzz.io/cryptocurrency-news/partnerships/cosmostation-band-protocol-tie-up/
• https://cryptogems.com/kava-review-the-cross-chain-defi-dapp-backed-by-crypto-elites/

February (2020)

• https://techbullion.com/biki-com-signs-strategic-partnership-with-cosmos-ecosystem-app-kava-and-lists-its-cross-chain-platform-token/
• https://community.hackernoon.com/t/kava-labs-launches-decentralized-and-self-governed-community-on-commun/31614

January (2020)

• https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2020/01/31/cross-chain-defi-platform-kavas-first-cdp-test-network-to-be-launched-on-february-5th/
• https://newslogical.com/one-of-worlds-oldest-humanitarian-aid-org-adopts-xrp/
• https://www.cryptoninjas.net/2020/01/17/cross-chain-cdp-platform-kava-allocates-1-1m-for-q1-grants-program/
• https://dailyhodl.com/2020/01/08/ripple-effect-the-biggest-companies-that-began-supporting-xrp-in-2019/
• https://coil.com/p/Ferdi/DeFi-according-to-Kava-Labs/qeADE4w_6
• https://blockmanity.com/news/feature/its-2020-and-the-staking-wars-are-here/
• https://smartereum.com/186482/ripple-news-today-top-headline-for-ripple-xrp-january-10th-2020/
• https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2020/01/31/cross-chain-defi-platform-kavas-first-cdp-test-network-to-be-launched-on-february-5th/

December (2019)

• https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2020/01/08/9-highlights-of-the-defi-system-which-you-should-know/
• https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/defi-saw-massive-growth-in-2019-will-it-continue-through-2020/
• https://news.bitcoin.com/venture-capitalists-have-invested-over-200m-in-stablecoins/
• https://eng.ambcrypto.com/binance-reveals-estimated-annual-yields-for-staking-assets/
• https://decrypt.co/14954/why-bitcoin-is-having-an-un-merry-christmas
• https://newslogical.com/binance-to-add-support-for-kava-staking-with-30000-kava-initial-staking-reward-airdrop/
• https://mastersofnodes.com/kava-staking-support-introduction-on-binance-with-a-30000-kava-initial-staking-reward-airdrop/
• https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/interview/kava-labs-ceo-on-the-evolution-future-of-defi/
• https://www.coinbureau.com/review/kava-defi/
• https://eng.ambcrypto.com/ripples-yearly-report-from-dumping-xrp-fud-to-being-valued-at-10-billion/

November (2019)

• https://cryptobriefing.com/are-cdps-the-new-cdos/
• https://bitcoinexchangeguide.com/kava-labs-to-complete-1-5-million-buyback-of-kava-tokens-done-via-binance-launchpad/
• https://eng.ambcrypto.com/binance-launchpads-kava-tokens-worth-1-5m-to-be-bought-back-by-kava-labs/
• https://btcmanager.com/kava-labs-kava-token-buyback/?q=/kava-labs-kava-token-buyback/&
• https://webitcoin.com.bo-que-e-kava-saiba-mais-sobre-essa-criptomoeda-16-nov/
• https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2019/11/153945-brian-kerr-kava-labs-ceo-explains-how-the-rise-of-fintech-has-enabled-decentralized-finance/
• https://eng.ambcrypto.com/kava-mainnet-postponed-again-to-tackle-potential-security-vulnerability/
• https://www.cryptonewsz.com/kava-faces-mainnet-launch-failure-on-november-5-plans-to-retry-on-november-12/
• https://sludgefeed.com/kava-delays-its-mainnet-launch/
• https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-incubators-an-ultimate-solution-or-just-a-tool-for-startups
• https://decrypt.co/11102/defi-platform-kava-labs-launches-on-the-cosmos-network
• https://captainaltcoin.com/new-binance-hype-train-is-in-town-kava-coin/
• https://www.cryptoninjas.net/2019/11/05/kava-mainnet-showcases-first-defi-app-on-cosmos-network/
• https://cryptopotato.com/ieos-are-not-dead-kava-reached-180-roi-on-binance-early-trading/
• https://coincodex.com/article/5800/top-3-coins-to-watch-november-4-november-10-2019/
• https://www.dcforecasts.com/cosmos-news/defi-platform-kava-labs-launched-on-the-cosmos-network/
• http://www.fintech-insight.com/brian-kerr-kava-labs-ceo-explains-how-the-rise-of-fintech-has-enabled-decentralized-finance/
• https://cryptobriefing.com/are-cdps-the-new-cdos/
• https://cryptoworld.club/binance-launchpads-kava-tokens-worth-1-5m-to-be-bought-back-by-kava-labs/

October (2019)

• https://www.altcoinbuzz.io/cryptocurrency-news/product-release/china-is-even-closer-to-launching-its-own-cryptocurrency/
• https://www.altcoinbuzz.io/cryptocurrency-news/product-release/kava-labs-defi-dreams-big-on-binance-launchpad/
• [https://www.coinspeaker.com/defi-kava-binance-launchpad/)
• https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2019/10/all-you-need-to-know-about-kava-kava-token-sale-on-binance-launchpad/
• https://eng.ambcrypto.com/binance-launchpad-welcomes-kava-token-to-its-list-of-high-roi-tokens/
• https://coincodex.com/article/5549/how-to-invest-in-the-kava-ieo-on-binance/
• https://www.altcoinbuzz.io/cryptocurrency-news/product-release/binance-us-now-insures-usd-deposits/
• https://coincodex.com/article/5548/the-next-binance-launchpad-ieo-is-kava-labs/
• https://usethebitcoin.com/startup-kava-ready-to-raise-3-million-through-ieo-on-binance/
• https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/43452/defi-project-kava-looking-to-raise-3m-via-ieo-on-binance-launchpad
• https://sludgefeed.com/kava-revealed-as-ninth-binance-launchpad-sale/
• https://cryptonation.in/ama-recap-kava-labs-x-cryptonation/
• https://crypto-economy.com/kava-labs-to-sell-tokens-on-popular-ieo-platform-binance-launchpad-next-week/
• https://thebitcoin.pub/t/defi-project-kava-looking-to-raise-3m-via-ieo-on-binance-launchpad/59207
• https://cryptoast.fbinance-launchpad-revele-prochaine-ieo-kava-labs/
• https://blog.chorus.one/kava-token-design/
• https://newslogical.com/kava-labs-is-developing-ripples-xrp-collaterised-stablecoin/
• https://cryptokiemtien.com/kava-token-sale-details-on-binance-launchpad-how-to-join-and-buy-kava-token/
• https://finance.yahoo.com/news/defi-project-kava-looking-raise-111135519.html
• https://coincodex.com/article/5682/how-to-buy-kava-kava-on-binance/
• https://www.theblockcrypto.com/tag/kava-labs
• https://cryptoindia.io/kava-ama-recap/
• https://coin360.com/news/defi-project-kava-labs-launches-3m-ieo-on-binance-launchpad
• https://elevenews.com/2019/10/16/binance-launchpad-welcomes-kava-token-to-its-list-of-high-roi-tokens/
• https://cryptobriefing.com/cosmos-crypto-research/

ATTN: These AMA questions are from Autumn 2019 - before the official launch of the Kava Mainnet, and it's fungible Kava Token.
These questions may no longer be relevant to the current Kava landscape, however, they do provide important historical background on the early origins of Kava Labs.
Please note, that there are several repeat questions/answers.

Q1:

Kava is a decentralized DEFI project, why did you implement the countries restrictions to run the node? Will there be such restrictions by the time of the mainnet?

• Answer: There are not country restrictions for nodes. But there are country restrictions for who Kava the company can sell tokens to and remain compliant based on laws and regulations. Anyone can hold Kava, anyone can run a Node. We just can't sell directly to some people which is unfortunate. While we have issues selling directly to Russia, partners like Binance do not. In addition, we have partners like P2P.org that run validators for the Russian communities. (I highly recommend them btw!)

Q2:

According to the project description it has been indicated that staking reward (in KAVA tokens) varies from 3 to 20% per annum. But how will you fight with inflation?

We all know how altcoins prices are falling, and their bottom is not visible. And in fact, we can get an increase in the number of tokens for staking, but not an increase in the price of the token itself and become a long-term investor.

• Answer: Kava is both inflationary with block rewards, but deflationary when we burn CDP fees. Only stakers who bond their Kava receive inflationary rewards - users and traders on exchanges do not get this. In this way, rewards are inflated, but given to stakers and removed value from the traders who are speculating like a tax. The Deflationary structure of fees should help counterbalance the price drops from inflation if any. In the long-term as more CDPs are used, Kava should be a deflationary asset by design if all things go well

Q3:

In your allocation it is indicated that 28.48% of the tokens are in the "Token treasury" - where will these tokens be directed?

• Answer: Investors in financing rounds prior to the IEO have entered into long-term lock-up agreements in-line with their belief in Kava’s exciting long-term growth potential and to allow the projects token price to find stability. Following the IEO, the only tokens in circulation will be those sold through the IEO on Binance and the initial Treasury tokens released.
  
• No private sale investor tokens are in circulation until the initial release at the end of Q1 2020 and then gradually over the [36] months The initial Treasury tokens in circulation will be used for a mixture of ecosystem grants, the expenses associated with the IEO as well as initial market making requirements as is typical with a listing of this size. Kava remains well financed to execute our roadmap following the IEO and do not envisage any need for any material financings or token sales for the foreseeable future.
  

Q4:

Such a platform (with loans and stable coins) is just the beginning since these aspects are a small part of many Defi components. Will your team have a plan to implement other functions, such as derivatives, the dex platform once the platform is successfully launched?

• Answer: We believe Kava is the foundation for many future defi products. We need stable coins, oracles, and other infrastructure first that Kava provides. Once we have that, we can apply these to derivatives and other synthetics more easily. For example, we can use the price feeds and USDX to enable users to place 100x leverage bets with each other. If they both lock funds into payment channels, then they can use a smart contract based on the price feed to do the 100x trade/bet automatically without counter party risk. In this way, Kava can expand its financial product offerings far beyond loans and stable coins in the future.

Q5:

There are several options for using USDX on the KAVA platform, one of which is Margin Trading / Leverage. Is this a selection function or a compulsory function? Wondering since there are some investors who don`t like margin. What is the level of leverage and how does a CDP auction work?

• Answer: This is a good #Q . Kava simply provides loans to users in USDX stable coins. What the users do is completely up to them. They can use the loans for everyday payments if they like. Leverage and hedging are just the main use cases we foresee - there are many ways people can use the CDP platform and USDX.

Q6:

Most credit platforms do not work well in the current market. What will you do to attract more people to use your platform and the services you provide? Thank you

• Answer: Most credit platforms do not work well in the current market? I think that isn't correct at least for DeFi. Even in the bear market, MakerDao and Compound saw good user growth. Regardless, our efforts at Kava to build the market are fairly product and BD focused. 1) we build more integrations of assets and expand financial services to attract new communities and users. 2) we focus on building partnerships with high quality teams to promote and build Kava's core user base. Kava is just the developer. Our great partners like Ripple, Stakewith.Us, P2P, Binance - they have the real users that demand Kava. They are like our system integrators that package Kava up nicely and present it to their users. In order to grow, we need to deepen our partnerships and bring in new ones around the world.

Q7:

KAVA functions as a reserve currency in situations where the system is undercollateralized. In such cases new KAVA is minted and used to buy USDX off the market until USDX becomes safely overcollateralized.

Meaning, there will be no max supply of KAVA?

• Answer: Yes, there is no max supply of Kava.

Q8:

Why Kava?

• Answer: ...because people are long BTC and the best way to go long BTC without giving up custody is Kava's platform. Because it is MakerDao for bitcoin. Bitcoin has a 10x market cap of ETH and Maker is 10x the size of Kava. I think we're pretty undervalued right now.

Q9:

How do you plan to make liquidity in Kava?

• Answer: Working with Binance for the IEO and as the first exchange for KAVA to trade on will be a huge boost in increasing the liquidity of trading KAVA.

Q10:

Most crypto investors or crypto users prefer easy transaction and low fees, what can we expect from KAVA about this?

• Answer: Transaction fees are very low and confirm if seconds. The user experience is quite good on Tendermint-based blockchains.

Q11:

How do I become a note validator on KavA?

• Answer: The basic requirement for a node is nothing really. But in order to earn block rewards you must be a node with the top 100 KAVA by weighted stake at a given time. If you are looking for technical specs, I suggest you check out the Cosmos FAQ for a guide. https://cosmos.network/docs/cosmos-hub/validators/validator-faq.html

Q12:

It is great to know that KAVA is the first DEFI-supported project sponsored by Binance Launchpad, do you think this is the meaning that CZ brings: Opening the DEFI era, as a leader, you feel like how ?

• Answer: We are the first DeFi platform that Launchpad has supported. We are a very strategic blockchain for major crypto like BNB. Kava's platform will bring more utility to the users of BNB and the Binance DEX. It feels good of course to have validation from the biggest players in the space like Cosmos, Ripple, CZ/Binance, etc.

Q13:

Since decentralized finance applications is already dominating, how do you intend to surpass those leading in the market?

• Answer: The leaders are only addressing ethereum. BTC, XRP, BNB, ATOM is a much larger set to go after that current players cannot.

Q14:

What does Ripple play in the Kava's ecosystem, since Ripple is like a top tier company and it’s impressive that you are partnered with them?

• Answer: Ripple is an equity investor in Kava and a big supporter of our work in cross-chain settlement research and implementations. Ripple's XRP is a great asset in terms of users and liquidity that the Kava platform can use. In addition, Ripple's money service business customers are asking for a stable coin for remittances to avoid the currency heading risk that XRP presents. Ripple will not use USDC or other stable coins, but they are open to using USDX as it can be XRP-backed.

Q15:

Considering the connectivity, Libra could be the biggest competitor if KAVA leverages interchain for efficiency.

• Answer: With regard to USDX, it is important to understand the users interacting with the Kava blockchain have no counterparty that people could go after for legal actions. A user getting a USDX loan has no counterparty. The software holds the collateral and creates the loan. The only laws that would apply are to the very users that are using the system.

Q16:

Wonder how KAVA will compete with the tech giants

• Answer: Libra is running into extreme issues with the US Senate and regulators. Even the G7-G20 groups are worried. Its important to understand that Libra is effectively a permissioned system. Only big companies that law makers can go after are able to run nodes. In Kava, nodes can be run by anyway and our nodes are based all over the world. It's incredibly hard for a law maker to take down Kava because they would need to find and legally enforce hundreds of business in different jurisdictions to comply. We have an advantage in this way over the larger projects like Libra or Clayton.

Q17:

In long-term, what's the strategy that KAVA has for covering the traditional finance users as well? Especially regarding the "stability"

• Answer: Technical risk is unavoidable for DeFi. Only time will tell if a system is trustworthy and its never 100% that it will not fail or be hacked. This is true with banks and other financial systems as well. I think for DeFi, the technical risk needs to be priced in to the expected returns to compensate the market. DeFi does have a better user experience - requiring no credit score, identity, or KYC over centralized solutions.
  
• With our multi-collateral CDP system, even with it overcollateralized, people can get up to 3x leverage on assets. Take 100 USD in BTC, get a USDX loan for 66 USDX, then buy $66 BTC and do another loan - you can do this with a program to get 3x leverage with the same risk profile. This is enough for most people.
  
• However, it will be possible once we have Kava's CDP platform to extend it into products that offer undercollateralized financial products. For example, if USER 1 + USER 2 use payment channels to lock up their USDX, they can use Kava's price feeds to place bets between each other using their locked assets. They can bet that for every $1 BTC/USD moves, the other party owes 3x. In this way we can even do 100x leverage or 1000x leverage and create very fun products for people to trade with. Importantly, even in places where margin trading is regulated and forbidden, Kava's platform will remain open access and available.
  

Q18:

In long-term, what's the strategy that KAVA has for covering the traditional finance users as well? Especially regarding the "stability"

• Answer: Kava believes that stable coins should be backed not just by crypto or fiat, but any widely used, highly liquid asset. We think in the future the best stablecoin would be backed by a basket of very stable currencies that include crypto and fiat or whatever the market demands.

Q19:

Compound, maker they're trying to increase their size via the competitive interests rates. THough it shows good return in terms of growth rate, still it's for short-term. Wonder other than financial advantage, KAVA has more for the users' needs?

• Answer: Robert, the CEO of Compound is an investor and advisor to Kava. We think what Compound does with money markets is amazing and hope to integrate when they support more than just Ethereum assets. Kava's advantage vs others is to provide basic DeFi services like returns on crypto and stable coins today when no other platform offers that. Many platforms support ETH, but no platform can support BTC, XRP, BNB, and ATOM in a decentralized way without requiring centralized custody of these assets.

Q20:

The vast majority of the cryptocurrency community's priorities is symbolic pricing. When prices rise, the community rejoices and grows. When they fall, many people begin to cast in a negative way. How will KAVA solve the negative problem when the price goes down? What is your plan to strengthen and develop the community to persuade more people to look at the product than the price?

• Answer: We believe price is an important factor for faith in the market. One of Kava's key initiatives was selecting only long-term partners that are willing to work with kava for 2 years. That is why even after 6 months, 0 private investor or kava team tokens will be liquid on the market.
  
• We believe not in fast pumps and then dumps that destroy faith, but rather we try and operate the best we can for long-term sustainable growth over time. It's always hard to control factors in the market, and some factors are out of our control such as BTC price correlations, etc - however, we treat this like a public company stock - we want long-term growth of Kava and try to make sure our whole community of Kava holders is aligned with that the best we can.
  

Q21:

Do you have any plans to attract non-crypto investors to Kava and how? What are the measures to increase awareness of kava in non-crypto space?

• Answer: We are 100% focused on crypto, not the general market. We solve the problems of crypto traders and investors - not the average grandma who needs a payment solution. Kava is geared for decentralized leverage and hedging.

Q22:

Adoption is crucial for all projects and crypto companies, what strategy are you gonna use/follow or u are now following to get Kava adopted and used by many people all over the world?

Revenue is an important aspect for all projects in order to survive and keep the project/company up and running for long term, what are the ways that Kava generates profits/revenue and what is its revenue model?

• Answer: We have already partnered with several large exchanges, long-term VCs, and large projects like Ripple and Cosmos. These are key ways for us to grow our community. As we build support for more assets, we plan to promote Kava's services to those new communities of traders.
  
• Kava generates revenue as more people use the platform. As the platform is used, KAVA tokens are burned when users pay stability fees. This deflates the total supply of Kava and should in most cases give rise to the value of KAVA like a stock-buyback in the public markets.
  

Q23:

In order to be success in Loan project of Cryptocurrency, I think marketing is very important to make people using this service without any registration. What is main strategy for marketing?

• Answer: Our main strategy is to build a great experience and offer products that are not available to communities with demand. Currently no DeFi products can serve BTC users for example. Centralized exchanges can, but nothing truly trustless. Kava's platform can finally give the vast audiences of BTC, BNB, and ATOM holders access to core DeFi services they cannot get on their own due to the smart contract limitations of those platforms.

Q24:

Currently, some project have policies for their ambassadors to create a contribution and attract recognition for the project! So the KAVA team plans to implement policies and incentives for KAVA ambassadors?

• Answer: Yes, we will be creating a KAVA ambassador program and releasing that soon. Please follow our social media channels to learn about it in the coming weeks.

Q25:

Currently there are so many KAVA tokens sold on exchanges, why is this happening while KAVA is going to IEO on Binance? Are those KAVA codes fake or not?

• Answer: For everyone's safety, please understand Kava tokens do not exist yet and they will only exist starting with the Binance IEO. Any other token listings or offerings of Kava are not supported by Kava Labs and I highly discourage you all from trying to get them there. It is most likely a big scam. Please only trust Binance for this.

Q26:

KAVA have two tokens, the first is called Kava - a governance and staking token; the second is called USDX - an algorithmically managed crypto-backed stable coin. What are the advantages of USDX compared to other stablecoins such as: USDT, USDC, TUSD, GUSD, ...?

• Answer: USDX is one of the few stablecoins to be fully backed by crypto-assets. This means that we do not deal with fiat to back the value, and thus we don't have some of the issues when it comes to storing fiat funds with banks and custodians. This also makes our product fully digital and built for the future of crypto growth.

Q27:

As a CEO, does your background in Esports and Gaming industry help anything to your management and development of KAVA Labs?

• Answer: Esports no. But having been a multi-time venture-backed foundeCEO and have gone through the start-up phase before has made creating and running a 2nd company easier. Right now Kava is still small, Fnatic had over 80 employees. It was at a larger scale. I would say developing software is much more than doing the hardware at fnaticgear.com

Q28:

Why did Kava choose to launch IEO on Binance and not other exchanges like: Kucoin, Houbi, Gate, ....?

• Answer: Kava had a lot of interest from exchanges to partner with for IEO. We decided based on a lot of factors such as userbase, diverse exposure across multiple regions and countries, and an amazing team that provides so much insight into so many communities such as this one. Binance has been a tremendous partner and we also look forward to continuing our partnership far into the future.

Q29:

Currently if Search on coinmarketcap has 3 types of stablecoins bearing the USDX symbol (but these 3 stablecoins are no information). So, what will KAVA do to let users know that Kava's USDX is another stablecoin?

• Answer: All these USDX have no volume or listings. We will be on Binance. I am not worried.

Q30:

In addition to the Token Allocation for Binance Launchpad, what is the Token Treasury in the Initial Circulating Supply?

• Answer: This is controlled by Kava Labs, but with the big cash we have saved from fundraising, we see no reason why these tokens would be sold on the market. The treasury tokens are for use in grants, ecosystem growth initiatives, development, and other incentive programs to drive adoption of the platform.

Q31:

How you will compete with your competitors? Currently i don't see much but for future how you will maintain this consistency ? No doubt it is Great and Unique project, what is the main problem that #KAVA is currently facing?

• Answer: Because our industry is just starting out, I don't like to think of them as our direct competitors. We are all working to grow the size of the pie rather than get a larger slice from a small pie. The one thing that we believe will allow us to stand apart is the community we are building. Being able to utilize our own community along with Cosmos and our other partners like Binance for the IEO, we have a strong footing to get a lot of early users onto our platform. Also, we are also focusing on growing Kava internationally particularly Asia. We hope to build our platform for an even larger userbase than just the west.

Q32:

How do you explain your project to a random person who has never heard of your project?

• Answer: non-crypto = Kava is a lending platform for users of cryptocurrencies.
  
• crypto = Kava is a cross-chain DeFi platform for loans and stablecoins backed by BTC, BNB, XRP, ATOM and other major cryptocurrencies.
  

Q33:

Will KAVA team have a plan on implementing DAO module on your platform since its efficiency on autonomy, decentralization and transparency?

• Answer: All voting is already transparent on the Kava blockchain. We approved a number of proposals on our test net.

Q34:

how to use usdx token :only for your platform or you have plan to use usdx for payment ?

• Answer: Payments is a nice use case, but demand for crypto payments is still small. We may choose to focus here later if demand for crypto payments increases. Currently it is quite small with the bulk of use remaining in trading and speculative use cases.

Q35:

Do you have plans to spread KAVA ecosystem across other continents. if yes, what are the strategies and how can I as a community member contribute to making it possible?

• Answer: We are already across many continents - I don't think we are in antarctica yet. Africa might be light on nodes as well. I think as we grow on major exchanges like Binance, new node operators will get interested and help decentralize Kava further.

Q36:

Maker's CDP lending system is on top in this market and its Dominance is currently sitting on 64.90 % , how kava will compete will maker and compound?

• Answer: adding assets like bitcoin which have more value and more users than ETH. It's a bigger market that Maker cannot compete with Kava in.

Q37:

Currently, the community is too concerned about the price. As prices rise, the community rejoice and grow, when falling, many people start throwing negatively. So what is KAVA's solution to getting people to focus on the project rather than the price of the token?

What is your plan to strengthen and grow the community to persuade more individuals to look at the product than the price?

• Answer: We also share similar concerns as price and price direction is always a huge factor in the crypto industry. A lot of people of course are very short-term focused on flipping for bigger profits. One of the solutions, and what Kava has done, is to make sure that everything structured is for the long-term. So that makes sure that our investors and employees are all focused on long-term gains and growth. Locking vesting periods are part of that alignment. Another thing is that we at Kava are very transparent in our progress and development. We will be regularly posting updates within our own communities to allow our users and followers to keep up with everything we're up to. Please follow us or look at our github if you're interested!

Q38:

How did Kava get on Piexgo?

• Answer: We did not work with Piexgo. We have not distributed tokens to any exchange other than Binance. I cannot speak to what is going on there, but I would be very wary of what is happening there.

Q39:

Why was the 1st round price so much lower than the current price

• Answer: It is natural to worry that early investors got better pricing and could dump on the market. I can assure you that our investors are in this for the long-term. All private sale rounds signed 2 year contracts to run validators - and if they don't they forfeit their tokens. You can compare our release schedule to any other project. We have one of the most restricted circulating supply schedules of any project EVER and its because all our investors are commiting to the long-term success of the project and believe in Kava.
  
• About the pricing itself - it is always a function of traction like for any start-up. When we made our public announcement about the project in June, we were only a 4 man team with just some github code. We could basically run a network with a single node, our own. Which is relatively worthless. I think our pricing of Kava at this time was justified. We were effectively a seed-stage company without a product or working network.
  
• By July we made severe progress on the development side and the business side. We successful launched our first test net with the help of over 70 validator business partners around the world. We had a world-wide network of hundreds of people supporting us with people and resources at this point and the risk we would fail in launching a working product was much lower. At this point, the Kava project was valued at $25M. At this point, we had many VCs and investors asking for Kava tokens that we turned away. We only accepted validators that would help us launch the network. It was our one and only goal.
  
• Fast forward to today, the IEO price simply reflects the traction and market demand for Kava. Our ecosystem is much larger than it was even a month ago. We have support from Ripple, Cosmos, and Binance amongst other large crypto projects. We have 100+ validators securing our network with very sophisticated high-availability set-ups. In addition, our ecosystem partners have built products for Kava - such as block explorers and others are working on native integrations to wallets and exchanges. Launchpad will be very big for us. Kava is a system designed to cater to crypto traders and investors and in a matter of days we distributed via Binance Launchpad and put in the hands of 130+ countries and tens of thousands of users overnight. It doesn't get more DeFi than that.
  

Q40:

What is the treasury used for?

• Answer: Kava's treasury is for ecosystem growth activities.
  
• Investors in financing rounds prior to the IEO have entered into long-term lock-up agreements in-line with their belief in Kava’s exciting long-term growth potential and to allow the projects token price to find stability. Following the IEO, the only tokens in circulation will be those sold through the IEO on Binance and the initial Treasury tokens released. No private sale investor tokens are in circulation until the initial release at the end of Q1 2020 and then gradually over the [36] months The initial Treasury tokens in circulation will be used for a mixture of ecosystem grants, the expenses associated with the IEO as well as initial market making requirements as is typical with a listing of this size. Kava remains well financed to execute our roadmap following the IEO and do not envisage any need for any material financings or token sales for the foreseeable future.
  

Q41:

Everyone have heard about the KAVA token, and read about it. But it would be great to hear your explanation about it. What is the Kava token, what is it's utility? :)

• Answer: The Kava token plays many roles. KAVA is the native staking token of the Kava blockchain and is used for securing the network. KAVA is delegated to validators, basically professional node operators that run highly-available servers to secure the Kava blockchain. The top 100 validators by weight of staked KAVA earn block rewards that range from 3-20% APR based on the total amount staked in the network. These rewards are split between the validators and the KAVA holders.
  
• When users of the platform repay their loans, they must a stability fee (a percentage of the loan) in KAVA tokens. These tokens are burned by the system, effectively deflating the total supply overtime as more users use the CDP system.
  
• KAVA is also the primary token used in governance of the platform. KAVA token holders can vote on key system parameter changes and upgrades such as what assets to support, how much USDX in total can be loaned by the system, what the debt-to-collateral ratio needs to be, the stability fees, etc. KAVA holders have a very important responsibility to govern the system well.
  
• Lastly, Kava functions as a "Lender of Last Resort" meaning if USDX ever gets undercollateralized because the underlying asset prices drop suddenly and the system manages it poorly, KAVA is inflated in these emergency situations and used to purchase USDX off the market until USDX reaches a state of being over collateralized again. KAVA holders have incentive to only support the good high quality assets so risk of the system is managed responsibly.
  

Q42:

No matter how perfect and technically thought-out a DeFi protocol is, it cannot be completely protected from any unplanned situations (such as extreme market fluctuations, some legal issues, etc.)

Ecosystem members, in particular the validators on whom KAVA relies on fundamental decision-making rights, should be prepared in advance for any "critical" scenario. Considering that, unlike the same single-collateral MakerDAO, KAVA will be a multi-collateral CDP system, this point is probably even more relevant here.

In this regard, please answer the following question: Does KAVA have a clear risk management model or strategy and how decentralized is / will it be?

• Answer: Simialar to other CDP systems and MakerDAO we do have a system freeze function where in cases of extreme issues, we can stop the auction mechanisms and return all collateral.

Q43:

Did you know that "Kava" is translated into Ukrainian like "Coffee"? I personally do love drinking coffee. I plunge into the fantasy world. Why did you name your project "Kava" What is the story behind it? What idea / fantasy did your project originate from, which inspired you to create it?

• Answer: Kava is coffee to you.
  
• Kava is Hippopotamus to Japanese.
  
• Cava is a region in Spain
  
• Kava is also a root that is used in tea which makes your mouth numb.
  
• Kava is also crow in Hindi.
  
• Kava last but not least is a DeFi platform launching on Binance :)
  
• We liked the sound of Kava it was as simple as that. It doesn't have much meaning in the USA where I am from. But it's short sweet and when we were just starting, Kava.io was available for a reasonable price
  

Q44:

What incentives does a lender get if a person chooses to pay with KAVA? Is there a discount on interest rates on the loan amount if you pay with KAVA? Do I have to pass the KYC procedure to apply for a small loan?

• Answer: There is no KYC for Kava. Its an open blockchain software platform where anyone with a computer can connect to it and use it.

Q45:

Let's say, I decided to bond my cryptocurrency and got USDX stable coins. For now, it`s an unknown stable coin (let's be honest). Do you plan to add USDX to other famous exchanges? Also, you have spoken about the USDX staking and that the percentage would be higher than for other stable coins. Please be so kind to tell us what is the average annual interest rate and what are the conditions of staking?

• Answer: Yes we have several large exchanges willing to support USDX from the start. Binance/Binance-DEX is one you should all know ;)
  
• The average annual rates for USDX will depend on market conditions. The rate is actually provided by the CDP fees users pay. The system reallocates a portion of those fees to USDX users. In times when USDX use needs to grow, the rates will be higher to incentivize use. When demand is strong, we can reduce the rates.
  

Q46:

Why should i use and choose Kava's loan if i can use the similar margin trade on Binance?

• Answer: If margin is available to you and you trust the exchange then you should do whatever is cheaper. For a US citizen and others, margin is often not available and if it is, only for a few asset types as collateral. Kava aims to address this and offer this to everyone.

Q47:

The IEO price is $ 0.46 while the price of the first private sale is $ 0.075. Don't you think that such price gap can negatively affect the liquidity of the token and take away the desire to buy a token on the exchange?

• Answer: It is natural to worry that early investors got better pricing and could dump on the market. I can assure you that our investors are in this for the long-term. All private sale rounds signed 2 year contracts to run validators - and if they don't they forfeit their tokens. You can compare our release schedule to any other project. We have one of the most restricted circulating supply schedules of any project EVER and its because all our investors are commiting to the long-term success of the project and believe in Kava.
  
• About the pricing itself - it is always a function of traction like for any start-up. When we made our public announcement about the project in June, we were only a 4 man team with just some github code. We could basically run a network with a single node, our own. Which is relatively worthless. I think our pricing of Kava at this time was justified. We were effectively a seed-stage company without a product or working network.
  
• By July we made severe progress on the development side and the business side. We successful launched our first test net with the help of over 70 validator business partners around the world. We had a world-wide network of hundreds of people supporting us with people and resources at this point and the risk we would fail in launching a working product was much lower. At this point, the Kava project was valued at $25M. At this point, we had many VCs and investors asking for Kava tokens that we turned away. We only accepted validators that would help us launch the network. It was our one and only goal.
  
• Fast forward to today, the IEO price simply reflects the traction and market demand for Kava. Our ecosystem is much larger than it was even a month ago. We have support from Ripple, Cosmos, and Binance amongst other large crypto projects. We have 100+ validators securing our network with very sophisticated high-availability set-ups. In addition, our ecosystem partners have built products for Kava - such as block explorers and others are working on native integrations to wallets and exchanges. Launchpad will be very big for us. Kava is a system designed to cater to crypto traders and investors and in a matter of days we distributed via Binance Launchpad and put in the hands of 130+ countries and tens of thousands of users overnight. It doesn't get more DeFi than that.
  
• TLDR - I think KAVA is undervalued and the liquid supply of tokens is primarily from the IEO so its a safer bet than other IEOs. If the price drops, it will be from the overall market conditions or fellow IEO users not due private sale investors or team sell-offs.
  

Q48:

Can you introduce some information abouts KAVA Deflationary Fee Structure? With the burning mechanism, does it mean KAVA will never reach its max supply?

• Answer: When loans are repaid, users pay a fee in Kava. This is burned. However, Kava does not have a max supply. It has a starting supply of 100M. It inflates for block rewards 3-20% APR AND it inflates when the system is at risk of under collateralization. At this time, more Kava is minted and used to purchase USDX off the market until it reaches full collateralization again.
  
• TLDR: If things go well, and governance is good, Kava deflates and hopefully appreciates in value. If things go wrong, Kava holders get inflated.
  

Q49:

In your opinion what are advantage of decentralized finance over centralized?

• Answer: One of the main advantages is not needing to pay the costs of regulation and compliance. Open financial software that is usable by anyone removes middle men fees and reduces the barrier for new entrants to enter and make new products. Also DeFI has an edge in terms of onboarding - to get a bank account or an exchange account you need to do lots of KYC and give private info. That takes time and is troublesome. With DeFi you just load up your funds and transact. Very fast user flows.

Q50:

Plan, KAVA how to raise capital? Kava is being supported by more than 100 business entities around the world, including major cryptocurrency investment funds like Ripple and Cosmos, so what did kava do to convince investors to join the project?

• Answer: We have been doing crypto research and development for years. Ripple and Cosmos were partners before we even started this blockchain with Kava Labs. When we announced Kava the DeFi platform they knew us already to do good work and they liked the idea so they support us.

Who cares about political tweets from some random country's president when payment channels are a much more interesting and are actually capable of carrying value?
So let's have a short history of various payment channel techs!

Generation 0: Satoshi's Broken nSequence Channels

Because Satoshi's Vision included payment channels, except his implementation sucked so hard we had to go fix it and added RBF as a by-product.
Originally, the plan for nSequence was that mempools would replace any transaction spending certain inputs with another transaction spending the same inputs, but only if the nSequence field of the replacement was larger.
Since 0xFFFFFFFF was the highest value that nSequence could get, this would mark a transaction as "final" and not replaceable on the mempool anymore.
In fact, this "nSequence channel" I will describe is the reason why we have this weird rule about nLockTime and nSequence. nLockTime actually only works if nSequence is not 0xFFFFFFFF i.e. final. If nSequence is 0xFFFFFFFF then nLockTime is ignored, because this if the "final" version of the transaction.
So what you'd do would be something like this:

1. You go to a bar and promise the bartender to pay by the time the bar closes. Because this is the Bitcoin universe, time is measured in blockheight, so the closing time of the bar is indicated as some future blockheight.
2. For your first drink, you'd make a transaction paying to the bartender for that drink, paying from some coins you have. The transaction has an nLockTime equal to the closing time of the bar, and a starting nSequence of 0. You hand over the transaction and the bartender hands you your drink.
3. For your succeeding drink, you'd remake the same transaction, adding the payment for that drink to the transaction output that goes to the bartender (so that output keeps getting larger, by the amount of payment), and having an nSequence that is one higher than the previous one.
4. Eventually you have to stop drinking. It comes down to one of two possibilities:
   • You drink until the bar closes. Since it is now the nLockTime indicated in the transaction, the bartender is able to broadcast the latest transaction and tells the bouncers to kick you out of the bar.
   • You wisely consider the state of your liver. So you re-sign the last transaction with a "final" nSequence of 0xFFFFFFFF i.e. the maximum possible value it can have. This allows the bartender to get his or her funds immediately (nLockTime is ignored if nSequence is 0xFFFFFFFF), so he or she tells the bouncers to let you out of the bar.

Now that of course is a payment channel. Individual payments (purchases of alcohol, so I guess buying coffee is not in scope for payment channels). Closing is done by creating a "final" transaction that is the sum of the individual payments. Sure there's no routing and channels are unidirectional and channels have a maximum lifetime but give Satoshi a break, he was also busy inventing Bitcoin at the time.
Now if you noticed I called this kind of payment channel "broken". This is because the mempool rules are not consensus rules, and cannot be validated (nothing about the mempool can be validated onchain: I sigh every time somebody proposes "let's make block size dependent on mempool size", mempool state cannot be validated by onchain data). Fullnodes can't see all of the transactions you signed, and then validate that the final one with the maximum nSequence is the one that actually is used onchain. So you can do the below:

1. Become friends with Jihan Wu, because he owns >51% of the mining hashrate (he totally reorged Bitcoin to reverse the Binance hack right?).
2. Slip Jihan Wu some of the more interesting drinks you're ordering as an incentive to cooperate with you. So say you end up ordering 100 drinks, you split it with Jihan Wu and give him 50 of the drinks.
3. When the bar closes, Jihan Wu quickly calls his mining rig and tells them to mine the version of your transaction with nSequence 0. You know, that first one where you pay for only one drink.
4. Because fullnodes cannot validate nSequence, they'll accept even the nSequence=0 version and confirm it, immutably adding you paying for a single alcoholic drink to the blockchain.
5. The bartender, pissed at being cheated, takes out a shotgun from under the bar and shoots at you and Jihan Wu.
6. Jihan Wu uses his mystical chi powers (actually the combined exhaust from all of his mining rigs) to slow down the shotgun pellets, making them hit you as softly as petals drifting in the wind.
7. The bartender mutters some words, clothes ripping apart as he or she (hard to believe it could be a she but hey) turns into a bear, ready to maul you for cheating him or her of the payment for all the 100 drinks you ordered from him or her.
8. Steely-eyed, you stand in front of the bartender-turned-bear, daring him to touch you. You've watched Revenant, you know Leonardo di Caprio could survive a bear mauling, and if some posh actor can survive that, you know you can too. You make a pose. "Drunken troll logic attack!"
9. I think I got sidetracked here.

Lessons learned?

• Bears are bad news.
• You can't reasonably invoke "Satoshi's Vision" and simultaneously reject the Lightning Network because it's not onchain. Satoshi's Vision included a half-assed implementation of payment channels with nSequence, where the onchain transaction represented multiple logical payments, exactly what modern offchain techniques do (except modern offchain techniques actually work). nSequence (the field, but not its modern meaning) has been in Bitcoin since BitCoin For Windows Alpha 0.1.0. And its original intent was payment channels. You can't get nearer to Satoshi's Vision than being a field that Satoshi personally added to transactions on the very first public release of the BitCoin software, like srsly.
• Miners can totally bypass mempool rules. In fact, the reason why nSequence has been repurposed to indicate "optional" replace-by-fee is because miners are already incentivized by the nSequence system to always follow replace-by-fee anyway. I mean, what do you think those drinks you passed to Jihan Wu are, other than the fee you pay him to mine a specific version of your transaction?
• Satoshi made mistakes. The original design for nSequence is one of them. Today, we no longer use nSequence in this way. So diverging from Satoshi's original design is part and parcel of Bitcoin development, because over time, we learn new lessons that Satoshi never knew about. Satoshi was an important landmark in this technology. He will not be the last, or most important, that we will remember in the future: he will only be the first.

Spilman Channels

Incentive-compatible time-limited unidirectional channel; or, Satoshi's Vision, Fixed (if transaction malleability hadn't been a problem, that is).
Now, we know the bartender will turn into a bear and maul you if you try to cheat the payment channel, and now that we've revealed you're good friends with Jihan Wu, the bartender will no longer accept a payment channel scheme that lets one you cooperate with a miner to cheat the bartender.
Fortunately, Jeremy Spilman proposed a better way that would not let you cheat the bartender.
First, you and the bartender perform this ritual:

1. You get some funds and create a transaction that pays to a 2-of-2 multisig between you and the bartender. You don't broadcast this yet: you just sign it and get its txid.
2. You create another transaction that spends the above transaction. This transaction (the "backoff") has an nLockTime equal to the closing time of the bar, plus one block. You sign it and give this backoff transaction (but not the above transaction) to the bartender.
3. The bartender signs the backoff and gives it back to you. It is now valid since it's spending a 2-of-2 of you and the bartender, and both of you have signed the backoff transaction.
4. Now you broadcast the first transaction onchain. You and the bartender wait for it to be deeply confirmed, then you can start ordering.

The above is probably vaguely familiar to LN users. It's the funding process of payment channels! The first transaction, the one that pays to a 2-of-2 multisig, is the funding transaction that backs the payment channel funds.
So now you start ordering in this way:

1. For your first drink, you create a transaction spending the funding transaction output and sending the price of the drink to the bartender, with the rest returning to you.
2. You sign the transaction and pass it to the bartender, who serves your first drink.
3. For your succeeding drinks, you recreate the same transaction, adding the price of the new drink to the sum that goes to the bartender and reducing the money returned to you. You sign the transaction and give it to the bartender, who serves you your next drink.
4. At the end:
   • If the bar closing time is reached, the bartender signs the latest transaction, completing the needed 2-of-2 signatures and broadcasting this to the Bitcoin network. Since the backoff transaction is the closing time + 1, it can't get used at closing time.
   • If you decide you want to leave early because your liver is crying, you just tell the bartender to go ahead and close the channel (which the bartender can do at any time by just signing and broadcasting the latest transaction: the bartender won't do that because he or she is hoping you'll stay and drink more).
   • If you ended up just hanging around the bar and never ordering, then at closing time + 1 you broadcast the backoff transaction and get your funds back in full.

Now, even if you pass 50 drinks to Jihan Wu, you can't give him the first transaction (the one which pays for only one drink) and ask him to mine it: it's spending a 2-of-2 and the copy you have only contains your own signature. You need the bartender's signature to make it valid, but he or she sure as hell isn't going to cooperate in something that would lose him or her money, so a signature from the bartender validating old state where he or she gets paid less isn't going to happen.
So, problem solved, right? Right? Okay, let's try it. So you get your funds, put them in a funding tx, get the backoff tx, confirm the funding tx...
Once the funding transaction confirms deeply, the bartender laughs uproariously. He or she summons the bouncers, who surround you menacingly.
"I'm refusing service to you," the bartender says.
"Fine," you say. "I was leaving anyway;" You smirk. "I'll get back my money with the backoff transaction, and posting about your poor service on reddit so you get negative karma, so there!"
"Not so fast," the bartender says. His or her voice chills your bones. It looks like your exploitation of the Satoshi nSequence payment channel is still fresh in his or her mind. "Look at the txid of the funding transaction that got confirmed."
"What about it?" you ask nonchalantly, as you flip open your desktop computer and open a reputable blockchain explorer.
What you see shocks you.
"What the --- the txid is different! You--- you changed my signature?? But how? I put the only copy of my private key in a sealed envelope in a cast-iron box inside a safe buried in the Gobi desert protected by a clan of nomads who have dedicated their lives and their childrens' lives to keeping my private key safe in perpetuity!"
"Didn't you know?" the bartender asks. "The components of the signature are just very large numbers. The sign of one of the signature components can be changed, from positive to negative, or negative to positive, and the signature will remain valid. Anyone can do that, even if they don't know the private key. But because Bitcoin includes the signatures in the transaction when it's generating the txid, this little change also changes the txid." He or she chuckles. "They say they'll fix it by separating the signatures from the transaction body. They're saying that these kinds of signature malleability won't affect transaction ids anymore after they do this, but I bet I can get my good friend Jihan Wu to delay this 'SepSig' plan for a good while yet. Friendly guy, this Jihan Wu, it turns out all I had to do was slip him 51 drinks and he was willing to mine a tx with the signature signs flipped." His or her grin widens. "I'm afraid your backoff transaction won't work anymore, since it spends a txid that is not existent and will never be confirmed. So here's the deal. You pay me 99% of the funds in the funding transaction, in exchange for me signing the transaction that spends with the txid that you see onchain. Refuse, and you lose 100% of the funds and every other HODLer, including me, benefits from the reduction in coin supply. Accept, and you get to keep 1%. I lose nothing if you refuse, so I won't care if you do, but consider the difference of getting zilch vs. getting 1% of your funds." His or her eyes glow. "GENUFLECT RIGHT NOW."
Lesson learned?

• Payback's a bitch.
• Transaction malleability is a bitchier bitch. It's why we needed to fix the bug in SegWit. Sure, MtGox claimed they were attacked this way because someone kept messing with their transaction signatures and thus they lost track of where their funds went, but really, the bigger impetus for fixing transaction malleability was to support payment channels.
• Yes, including the signatures in the hash that ultimately defines the txid was a mistake. Satoshi made a lot of those. So we're just reiterating the lesson "Satoshi was not an infinite being of infinite wisdom" here. Satoshi just gets a pass because of how awesome Bitcoin is.

CLTV-protected Spilman Channels

Using CLTV for the backoff branch.
This variation is simply Spilman channels, but with the backoff transaction replaced with a backoff branch in the SCRIPT you pay to. It only became possible after OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY (CLTV) was enabled in 2015.
Now as we saw in the Spilman Channels discussion, transaction malleability means that any pre-signed offchain transaction can easily be invalidated by flipping the sign of the signature of the funding transaction while the funding transaction is not yet confirmed.
This can be avoided by simply putting any special requirements into an explicit branch of the Bitcoin SCRIPT. Now, the backoff branch is supposed to create a maximum lifetime for the payment channel, and prior to the introduction of OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY this could only be done by having a pre-signed nLockTime transaction.
With CLTV, however, we can now make the branches explicit in the SCRIPT that the funding transaction pays to.
Instead of paying to a 2-of-2 in order to set up the funding transaction, you pay to a SCRIPT which is basically "2-of-2, OR this singlesig after a specified lock time".
With this, there is no backoff transaction that is pre-signed and which refers to a specific txid. Instead, you can create the backoff transaction later, using whatever txid the funding transaction ends up being confirmed under. Since the funding transaction is immutable once confirmed, it is no longer possible to change the txid afterwards.

Todd Micropayment Networks

The old hub-spoke model (that isn't how LN today actually works).
One of the more direct predecessors of the Lightning Network was the hub-spoke model discussed by Peter Todd. In this model, instead of payers directly having channels to payees, payers and payees connect to a central hub server. This allows any payer to pay any payee, using the same channel for every payee on the hub. Similarly, this allows any payee to receive from any payer, using the same channel.
Remember from the above Spilman example? When you open a channel to the bartender, you have to wait around for the funding tx to confirm. This will take an hour at best. Now consider that you have to make channels for everyone you want to pay to. That's not very scalable.
So the Todd hub-spoke model has a central "clearing house" that transport money from payers to payees. The "Moonbeam" project takes this model. Of course, this reveals to the hub who the payer and payee are, and thus the hub can potentially censor transactions. Generally, though, it was considered that a hub would more efficiently censor by just not maintaining a channel with the payer or payee that it wants to censor (since the money it owned in the channel would just be locked uselessly if the hub won't process payments to/from the censored user).
In any case, the ability of the central hub to monitor payments means that it can surveill the payer and payee, and then sell this private transactional data to third parties. This loss of privacy would be intolerable today.
Peter Todd also proposed that there might be multiple hubs that could transport funds to each other on behalf of their users, providing somewhat better privacy.
Another point of note is that at the time such networks were proposed, only unidirectional (Spilman) channels were available. Thus, while one could be a payer, or payee, you would have to use separate channels for your income versus for your spending. Worse, if you wanted to transfer money from your income channel to your spending channel, you had to close both and reshuffle the money between them, both onchain activities.

Poon-Dryja Lightning Network

Bidirectional two-participant channels.
The Poon-Dryja channel mechanism has two important properties:

• Bidirectional.
• No time limit.

Both the original Satoshi and the two Spilman variants are unidirectional: there is a payer and a payee, and if the payee wants to do a refund, or wants to pay for a different service or product the payer is providing, then they can't use the same unidirectional channel.
The Poon-Dryjam mechanism allows channels, however, to be bidirectional instead: you are not a payer or a payee on the channel, you can receive or send at any time as long as both you and the channel counterparty are online.
Further, unlike either of the Spilman variants, there is no time limit for the lifetime of a channel. Instead, you can keep the channel open for as long as you want.
Both properties, together, form a very powerful scaling property that I believe most people have not appreciated. With unidirectional channels, as mentioned before, if you both earn and spend over the same network of payment channels, you would have separate channels for earning and spending. You would then need to perform onchain operations to "reverse" the directions of your channels periodically. Secondly, since Spilman channels have a fixed lifetime, even if you never used either channel, you would have to periodically "refresh" it by closing it and reopening.
With bidirectional, indefinite-lifetime channels, you may instead open some channels when you first begin managing your own money, then close them only after your lawyers have executed your last will and testament on how the money in your channels get divided up to your heirs: that's just two onchain transactions in your entire lifetime. That is the potentially very powerful scaling property that bidirectional, indefinite-lifetime channels allow.
I won't discuss the transaction structure needed for Poon-Dryja bidirectional channels --- it's complicated and you can easily get explanations with cute graphics elsewhere.
There is a weakness of Poon-Dryja that people tend to gloss over (because it was fixed very well by RustyReddit):

• You have to store all the revocation keys of a channel. This implies you are storing 1 revocation key for every channel update, so if you perform millions of updates over your entire lifetime, you'd be storing several megabytes of keys, for only a single channel. RustyReddit fixed this by requiring that the revocation keys be generated from a "Seed" revocation key, and every key is just the application of SHA256 on that key, repeatedly. For example, suppose I tell you that my first revocation key is SHA256(SHA256(seed)). You can store that in O(1) space. Then for the next revocation, I tell you SHA256(seed). From SHA256(key), you yourself can compute SHA256(SHA256(seed)) (i.e. the previous revocation key). So you can remember just the most recent revocation key, and from there you'd be able to compute every previous revocation key. When you start a channel, you perform SHA256 on your seed for several million times, then use the result as the first revocation key, removing one layer of SHA256 for every revocation key you need to generate. RustyReddit not only came up with this, but also suggested an efficient O(log n) storage structure, the shachain, so that you can quickly look up any revocation key in the past in case of a breach. People no longer really talk about this O(n) revocation storage problem anymore because it was solved very very well by this mechanism.

Another thing I want to emphasize is that while the Lightning Network paper and many of the earlier presentations developed from the old Peter Todd hub-and-spoke model, the modern Lightning Network takes the logical conclusion of removing a strict separation between "hubs" and "spokes". Any node on the Lightning Network can very well work as a hub for any other node. Thus, while you might operate as "mostly a payer", "mostly a forwarding node", "mostly a payee", you still end up being at least partially a forwarding node ("hub") on the network, at least part of the time. This greatly reduces the problems of privacy inherent in having only a few hub nodes: forwarding nodes cannot get significantly useful data from the payments passing through them, because the distance between the payer and the payee can be so large that it would be likely that the ultimate payer and the ultimate payee could be anyone on the Lightning Network.
Lessons learned?

• We can decentralize if we try hard enough!
• "Hubs bad" can be made "hubs good" if everybody is a hub.
• Smart people can solve problems. It's kinda why they're smart.

Future

After LN, there's also the Decker-Wattenhofer Duplex Micropayment Channels (DMC). This post is long enough as-is, LOL. But for now, it uses a novel "decrementing nSequence channel", using the new relative-timelock semantics of nSequence (not the broken one originally by Satoshi). It actually uses multiple such "decrementing nSequence" constructs, terminating in a pair of Spilman channels, one in both directions (thus "duplex"). Maybe I'll discuss it some other time.
The realization that channel constructions could actually hold more channel constructions inside them (the way the Decker-Wattenhofer puts a pair of Spilman channels inside a series of "decrementing nSequence channels") lead to the further thought behind Burchert-Decker-Wattenhofer channel factories. Basically, you could host multiple two-participant channel constructs inside a larger multiparticipant "channel" construct (i.e. host multiple channels inside a factory).
Further, we have the Decker-Russell-Osuntokun or "eltoo" construction. I'd argue that this is "nSequence done right". I'll write more about this later, because this post is long enough.
Lessons learned?

• Bitcoin offchain scaling is more powerful than you ever thought.