Learn & Earn: Fuse Network
By: Watson, Krystal Defi
Tags: Featured, Features, Events

Hi Robert, thank you for taking the time to join our AMA! Can you tell us what you did before crypto and how you got into crypto?

I started my professional journey by working in enterprise tech initially with a multinational called Kronos.

Then I moved to web 2 with Trustpilot where I was introduced to Bitcoin by my colleagues in 2014. I bought a little bit at the time but was still focused on other stuff.

I fell down the crypto rabbit hole in 2016 after attending an Ethereum meetup in Berlin. This was during the time of the hard fork and the level of conversation was mind-blowing, understanding the political implications for the ethereum community and the game theory behind it.

I knew then I had to work in the industry. Prior to getting involved with Fuse, I had worked on a project with Komodo Platform which was a top 30 project in 2017/18.

I also served as global biz dev at Cointelegraph which allowed me to travel all over the world networking!

Could you briefly describe what Fuse is? What current problems does the Fuse Ecosystem solve as a whole and how does it help the DeFi Space?

Fuse is focussed on one of the biggest challenges in crypto (the one bitcoin initially set out to solve) — payments! More importantly, we’re focused on real-world adoption and allowing for the creation of new economic models through payment-centric communities.

The key problem with the DeFi space, despite the enormous technical innovations it brought, is that it’s still essentially accessible only for a few people. There’s still a lot of friction — network congestion, high fees, poor UI and UX …. we believe we have one of the best teams in the industry to solve this problem with mobile technology as a key part of our strategy

In a nutshell Fuse is :

- An EVM compatible blockchain — over 10M transactions to date.

- B2B tools that allow anyone to create payment-centric communities and mint tokens.

- DeFi products including lending and swapping.

- A suite of stable coins

- a consumer-facing wallet — Fuse Cash which aims to onboard 100M users over the next few years.

We’re doing a lot with a medium-size team!!

Moving on, what is the reason behind building a separate blockchain like Fuse Network? What are the benefits that Fuse Network offers for its users and developers, compared to Ethereum and other EVM-compatible chains, like Binance Smart Chain?

Fuse Network was launched in Sept 2019 before chains like BSC even took off and the growth has been impressive. In order to fulfill our mission we need to ensure that transaction costs are kept low and other network parameters are well-tuned for the primary use cases we are targeting. Which are payment-centric communities often involving people who are new to the crypto space.

A mixture of providing the right environment and bridging to other chains like BSC and Ethereum and others to come is what allows us to scale to our ambitions.

On to a different question: What’s Fuse’s approach to platform governance?

Network governance at this stage is done through delegated proof of stake. Validators and the people that delegate tokens to them. This is for important changes such as changing the inflation rate or block size.

As we scale — we plan to integrate more granular voting options such as snapshot voting to guide to the direction of the project as a whole for bridging to new chains, adding new tools, etc.

What role does the FUSE token play inside the Fuse Ecosystem and its governance? What are the benefits of holding and utilizing FUSE?

Anyone that has 100K FUSE can run a validator and take part in governance.

Because validators get 15% fees from delegators, they are also influenced by the people that delegate their tokens to them in terms of voting decisions.

Your latest product in the ecosystem, Fuse Cash, seems like a very ambitious project that aims to accelerate mainstream adoption! Can you describe in detail what it is, and how do users benefit from it?

Fuse Cash is indeed a product we’re very much focused on. It is a consumer-facing mobile crypto wallet that offers users an unprecedented combination of three functionalities. You can think of it as Fuse’s answer to Venmo.

1) It enables a quick (and currently, fee-free) fiat on-ramp straight to a fast and low-cost layer-2 blockchain thanks to the Ramp Network integration.

2) It offers users in-app access to Fuse’s native DEX FuseSwap.

3) It allows sending crypto to mobile phone contacts.

Fuse Cash also abstracts away much of the crypto aspect, by doing away with user-managed private keys and seed phrases. Users also do not have to bother with network transaction fees.

We hope that this array of features will make Fuse Cash an irresistible gateway to DeFi and make crypto payments as easy as using a neobank. It may sound immodest but we are not aware of any mobile payment and DeFi app that is more user-friendly than Fuse Cash.

sharing links to fuse cash here for anyone that wants to download!!!!

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fuse-cash/id1559937899

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.fuse.cash&hl=en&gl=US

Interestingly, aside from the FUSE token, you also have a native stablecoin named FuseDollar (fUSD). What is the story behind fUSD? Are there any differences when we compare it to other stablecoins?

A Fuse-native stablecoin has long been one of the features most requested by our community. FuseDollar (fUSD) is the first in our FuseX suite of stablecoins. It is backed 100% by USDC and we are also planning to add other major dollar-backed stablecoins like BUSD as its collateral types.

FuseDollar is especially important for fiat on-ramps into the Fuse ecosystem, including Fuse Cash. Alongside USDC on Fuse, it is the crypto asset that people can directly purchase with their credit cards, by bank transfer or Apple Pay.

FuseDollar will also soon become an interest-bearing stablecoin. Users holding it for a certain period of time will receive rewards proportional to their holdings.

After what seems like a very productive development phase from the Fuse team in Q1 and Q2 2021 (FuseDollar, Fuse Cash, BSC bridge, etc.), what is your long-term goal moving forward?

Our long-term goal is to make Fuse the gateway for ordinary people who would like to use crypto for payments in DeFi. Especially for people who are underserved by the existing financial system. Fuse Cash is a big part of this plan!

We would like to see Fuse-powered products compete with the likes of Visa, Paypal and Citibank. We have the mobile expertise to achieve user growth and the infrastructure to serve people with awesome products and services.

This is why we do not necessarily see other blockchains and crypto projects as our competitors and strongly believe in a future with multiple chains and interoperability as the best way forward for the crypto space.

That’s definitely a very big ambition, tackling the bigger financial problems, not just in crypto! I am personally looking forward to the day that Fuse can achieve this goal!

Are there any upcoming and exciting news from Fuse that we, as users, traders and developers, should pay attention to?

One exciting upcoming development that we would like to share is the upcoming activation of the rewards functionality for holding FuseDollar.

Holders of fUSD who deposit it will receive rewards whose amount will depend on the period the tokens are held there.

This is a huge incentive for everyday people to download and use fuse.cash

Thank you very much for your time Rob!

Thanks to the Krystal team and the entire Krystal community for taking part!

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