AMA with Lucas from Lightning Protocol!
We were honored to have Lightning Protocol team in our telegram group on Monday April 5th. Lucas and his team explained to us what $LIGHTning Protocol does and he spoke a little about himself and the team behind this masterpiece.
Here you will have a recap of the AMA
Intro
~ Can you please introduce yourself and the team behind Lightning Protocol?
Lucas: “Sure. I’m a Software Engineer and the Founder of Lightning. I have been involved in crypto for some years and basically handle everything that needs to be done for the project. Although I brought some more hands to help with a few things now and they are doing an outstanding job so far. I’ve been quite impressed with their efforts and the overall drive they exhibit.”
~ When did the new members join the team? How long you have been working together?
Lucas: “Well, it’s really just me at this point. I had two people who helped with a few things in the beginning, mainly the website and the tokenomics model. One of these two people helped in creating the initial website which is now being replaced by an entirely new and rebranded website.
The other one helped a bit with the initial Litepaper and we also talked about the tokenomics a lot until I finalized the concept and developed the contracts. Both of them are not really active anymore since then.
However, I’ve onboarded a professional designer who worked with Google in the past to create our rebranding, the website design and also the new Whitepaper design. I’ve known him for a while and he’s someone I personally trust and appreciate. He basically joined Lightning when we started working on the rebranding (new logo, new website, new and more sophisticated Whitepaper, etc.)
Oh and obviously I have brought a few Moderators on board who are also helping with things that I didn’t expect them to do, which made me even more impressed about their work ethic. I’m mainly talking about Harry and SAW here.”
~ Can you explain to us in few words what Deflationary Elasticity is?
Lucas: “Deflationary Elasticity works through only-positive rebases and yet remains fully deflationary. This works through a model defined by cycles, of which there are a total of 156. By applying dynamic fees from 5–12% based on trading volume, the supply gets reduced on each transaction and after 1,275,000 $LIGHT have been burnt during a cycle, the cycle is completed and 50% of the burnt tokens during that cycle are distributed among holders as a positive rebase, hence the supply elasticity.
For investors this means that their holdings increase over time, while the value of their holdings also increase over time. Essentially, their % share of the network (marketcap) increases through the cycles.”
~ Recently you released Lightning Incubador. Do we have any IDOs anytime soon?
Lucas: “We will open submissions very soon but we are already getting flooded with applications to join the incubation program. The demand for DeVC is quite high and we expected that to happen, so stay tuned for some very high quality and innovative projects once the IDOs are going live. The first IDOs will be very soon and I expect things to accerelate over the coming weeks. Be sure to accumulate enough Light before we launch because you will absolutely need it to have access to these IDOs. It will be based on a Tier Structure and without holding Light, there will be no possibility to access the IDOs.”
~ Since you’re getting so many applications for IDOs, how are you going to pick/choose new projects?
Lucas:”We have very strict requirements. Firstly, KYC and audits are mandatory and there is no way around it. We want to make sure that our investors are secure and that there is no chance of them getting rug pulled. If that ever does happen regardless of KYC and audits, we will release the personal information of the team and hand the case over to authorities.
Furthermore, I noticed that Binance Smart Chain lacks real innovation. Many projects are just iterations of what has already been done on Ethereum and we aim to foster great and disruptive ideas with good founders. BSC is still in its early days and I will personally go through all applications together with my advisors to pick projects that have a great vision and a good shot at disrupting the space by bringing real innovation.
So it’s all about ideas that sound crazy but are actually genius. That’s what we’re looking for.”
~ We see you’re partnered with “Defi Degen” & “Planet of the Ape”. Any other partnership coming up soon? What is your short-term marketing strategy?
Lucas: “Many and most I’m not able to talk about yet. We are looking to partner with a big exchange to list Light and also work out a deal that every incubated project gets listed on their CEX asap. It’s currently in discussion and looking very promising so far.
As far as marketing goes, we have a broad network and are using it. We will also use that same network of promoters for all incubated projects, which is one of the many benefits that Lightning Incubated IDOs receive. For more detail, we will leverage CT, YouTube, TikTok, and more channels. Really gearing up on the marketing for the coming weeks.”
~ Most of Downsin’s(Defi Degens) and Penn’s(Planet of the Ape) partnership teams are doxxed. Are you doxxed as well to them or still annon?
Lucas: “I’ve never really been anonymous. I doxxed to Downsin from the start and we are still in very close contact. He and Penn are both great friends and have been superb advisors so far. Furthermore, I’m frequently doing KYC with promoters. This includes my personal ID.
My doxxing with Downsin involved my personal ID + a video of myself.”
~ @Downsin Can you confirm?
Downsin from DeFi Degens: “Confirmed”
~ I have seen that $Light is getting into Decentralised Venture Capital #DeVC. Please explain in few words what #DeVC is and how the investors will profit from it?
Lucas:”Decentralized Venture Capital is essentially like angel funds for DeFi. This hasn’t really been done this way so far and it’s mainly comprised of Lightning offering consulting services and our vast network of promoters, listing partners, large project partnerships (of which we will announce a few more over the coming weeks), highly skilled developers, designers, etc.
On top of that, we are decentralising the funding aspect by holding the IDOs for Lightning holders. This means that Lightning Incubated projects get everything they need to be successful in this space. The closest comparison of the traditional world is YCombinator, which is a StartUp Incubator.
The main difference here is really the incubation that we offer. We all know Launchpads obviously but the overwhelming majority of them don’t offer incubation programs.
And Investors exactly how it’s described on that spreadsheet. Lightning holders get a % of every IDO airdropped and they also get access to participate in these IDOs by holding Light. It’s exclusive in that sense, similar to POLS.”
~ Where do you see Lightning Protocol in a near future (3–4months from now)?
Lucas:”My advisors and I are seeing Lightning as the POLS of BSC.
The main Incubator and the place to go if you want to disrupt the space and bring real innovation to the space. In the same way as YCombinator is the place you want to go for startups, Lightning will be the place you’ll want to go for disruptive IDOs. For investors, this means that holding Light will give them access to the highest quality projects on BSC. And if you know how POLS performed, you’ll get an idea of where we are heading. But that’s really just a comparison, we are aiming to become something unique.
There are more things than what meets the eye. The Incubator is just the start and there are more things planned for Lightning, most I can’t talk about at this point but all I will say is that we’re aiming much higher than becoming the largest BSC Incubator. I wish I could talk about it though but I’m looking forward to announcing these things publicly once they are finalized.”
- Question from the community:
Rockalistic “Lucas, looks like you got a lot of projects with Light. Have you planned on recruiting?”
Lucas: Well, I will hire and recruit according to the current demand. For now, we have everything we need but that might change very quickly. - Pietro “LUCAS do you have a forecast for the new site to be online?”
Lucas: Yeah. We will release a lot of new content this week and will continue to bring new releases after that. The pipeline for content and features is pretty stacked so the Website will get updated frequently. - Jax “Is the Lightning Incubator only going to launch projects that plan to be on BSC or are they able to launch projects for other blockchains as well?”
Lucas: We will start on Binance Smart Chain but don’t make me talk about the bridging plans just yet. - Che Tut “Many IDO launchpads now have a very high entry threshold. What is the situation with Lightning? Are you targeting whales or can newcomers with small allocations also?”
- Lucas: There will be a Tier Structure. So the more you hold, the more you will be able to contribute in these IDOs.
- Ggmesh “A bit more about your background/experience please?”
Lucas: I’ve started getting into coding and software when I was a kid, mainly through hacking a few things and fucking up my parents network among other things. Later I worked as a Software Engineer and developed software for clients like Allianz among other large clients. And I studied Economics and Computer Science.. but college is a scam. I’ve been heavily interested in blockchain and cryptocurrency since 2017 though and I’ve worked on a few blockchain projects and later went on to create Lightning. I’m kinda unironically in it for the tech haha - Mick “When will the tiers be released?”
Lucas: They will be released together with the Whitepaper, which will also explain the minimum Light you need to hold to participate. Simplified, if you make it into Platinum Tier, you’re very well off both for the Airdrops and for the IDOs. - Flo Rin “Let’s say after the cycle 500k tokens will remain. Will you modifie the tiers?”
Lucas: Yes. The Tiers will have to be dynamic in that sense due to the nature of the token protocol.
Links for Lightning Protocol:
Web. https://lightningprotocol.finance/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LightningDefi
Tg: https://t.me/lightningprotocol
Medium: https://lightningprotocol.medium.com/
Video Stream: https://youtu.be/6tlqhgq6TGk (Provided by CryptoEmperador) youtube.com/c/CryptoEmperador
