We recently connected with Sameep Singhania, Founder and Director at Ginete Technologies and also the founding member at QuickSwap, which is described as a next-generation, layer-2 DEX (or non-custodial or decentralized exchange).
Sameep told us that layer-2 blockchain solutions have gained massive popularity in recent months. At the forefront of this rising demand and growing sector is the Polygon network, which has itself grown multi-folds over the last couple of months.
As Polygon grows in popularity and contributes to the efficacy of blockchain systems, many innovative projects have chosen to build on Polygon. QuickSwap, for one, is an Ethereum-based, but Layer-2, decentralized exchange that derives its power from Polygon. It aims to bring lower fees and higher transaction speed to the DEX ecosystem, which at the moment is not quite common.
To understand this innovative approach the platform is taking, we reached out to QuickSwap’s co-founder Sameep Singhania for a detailed conversation about the project and the DeFi space in general.
Our discussion is shared below.
Crowdfund Insider: What unseen opportunities in the cryptosphere fuelled the passion to develop QuickSwap?
Sameep Singhania: The fire to develop QuickSwap was ignited by the aim to bring the next 1 million users to the Ethereum ecosystem. We looked at the growth of Uniswap and other DEXs and they helped us realize the enormous potential of DEX and automated market-making.
However, we also observed that there was a gap in both utility and efficiency due to the congestion in the Ethereum network. The transaction fees and time were so high that, I believe, it was demoralizing for novice traders. So, this gap is what QuickSwap aimed at plugging, keeping in mind scalability and efficiency.
And it is exactly why we decided to leverage the layer-2 infrastructure of Polygon. So, as envisioned, we are providing lightning-fast transactions at negligible gas fees.
Crowdfund Insider: How does QuickSwap benefit from the layer-2 infrastructure of Polygon (previously MATIC)?
Sameep Singhania: As I mentioned earlier, facets of scalability and efficiency were overdue for the DeFi community. With layer-2 infrastructure, we are able to achieve them both while providing a more feasible platform for users. Also, with this integration, the transaction fees on QuickSwap have become almost negligible.
By bringing Polygon network on board, we are able to record transaction validation speeds in the 1-2 second range. Combined with an average fee of 0.01% as compared to Ethereum, they depict the true value of the layer-2 integration.
Also, Polygon’s recent upsurge can be majorly attributed to its growing retail traders’ participation in the DeFi space. This aligns well with our vision of inclusivity and we see this as a kickstart for crypto and DeFi’s wide adoption.
Crowdfund Insider: Please delve into the growing need for automated market makers in the crypto market. And what unique value proposition does QuickSwap hold?
Sameep Singhania: Right, with AMM, we are talking about more tokens, more use cases, more activity — all of them limited by one vital element i.e. liquidity. What QuickSwap does is facilitate 24/7 peer-to-peer trading. Rather than relying on buyers and sellers, this trading is dependent on liquidity pools.
In a perpetual setup, liquidity pools enable traders to carry out their transactions without the need to wait for a seller or buyer. These pools are decentralized in nature and maintained by a multitude of liquidity providers. To further boost this setup, we incentivize the liquidity providers by sharing the gas fees of each transaction. Also, we have provided them both yield farming and liquidity mining opportunities for additional incentives.
We all know how important arbitrageurs are for AMMs. Rightly, QuickSwap holds a distinct advantage for them to book more profits while maintaining the price equilibrium. Since our gas fees are low, arbitrage efforts are increasingly profitable here than on layer-1 platforms.
Now, for a user to get started with yield farming on Ethereum, a high capital is pretty much a prerequisite considering the gas fees. This is a major barrier for small traders. But with QuickSwap, users can reap the rewards of yield farming with limited efforts and negligible fees. I believe this is how users and their efforts need to be incentivized to make yield farming a lucrative investment opportunity.
Crowdfund Insider: Let’s talk about the $QUICK token. What are its use cases? Please touch upon its tokenomics.
Sameep Singhania: $QUICK is our native token. We launched it around four months ago with a cap of 1 million tokens. We have allotted 95+% of this cap to the community to farm it over a period of 4 years with token emission set to slow down as time passes by. We believe this shall accelerate early adoption of the token, while also rewarding the invested users. And for all airdrop lovers, we have reserved 6% of the total cap that will be airdropped regularly in our first year.
Our token’s use cases are three-dimensional. The first is with respect to project governance where $QUICK holders have their say in the project-related decisions. The ethos of both crypto and DeFi is inherently facilitated by community governance. Also, $QUICK holders shall be empowered to propose changes to our protocol which will further be determined by their voting.
The second use case of the $QUICK token is staking. Holders can provide liquidity to pools of their choice and we shall be rewarding them with 0.3% of the trading fees. To further utility, we have also provided holders the opportunity to create a liquidity pool without any permissions.
Finally, our cave of hidden treasure, the Dragon’s Lair is where $QUICK token holders can reap further rewards by depositing their tokens into the staking contract. The asset, dQuick or Dragon’s Quick is the additional interest earned on the deposited $QUICK. The trading fees on QuickSwap determines the dQuick rewards. When the holder decides to withdraw their deposit, their dQuick is burned, and we ensure they receive more $QUICK than what they had staked.
Just an insight, we are also brainstorming the listing of $QUICK tokens on other exchanges.
Crowdfund Insider: Now, regarding the future, how does it look for cryptocurrency in general? And how is QuickSwap shaping up for it?
Sameep Singhania: Bright. The future for both crypto and DeFi certainly looks bright. Both have the true potential of disrupting the world financial systems and now, it is more of ‘when?’ than ‘can it?’. With governments slowly recognizing crypto as legal tender, large-scale adoption ought to be the next step.
Also, the DeFi space is growing at an incredible rate with innovative solutions cropping up every day. The NFT train is gathering steam too, so that is another window with amazing potential to boost crypto adoption. Overall, crypto and DeFi shall be the building blocks of the financial system’s future.
What does this spell for QuickSwap? I sincerely trust that there will be a greater need for DEXs and quicker platforms for trading. Being a layer-2 DEX, we have a first-mover advantage in this space. With more users, scalable platforms are inevitable. Exactly why I believe QuickSwap shall be turning into the norm in the next few years.