Welcome to the weekly CoinMetro AMA with CEO Kevin Murcko! This week Kevin goes into further details regarding the feedback collected so far from the exchange beta demo, some updates from the crypto world including the Bithumb hack, why he doesn’t drink coffee, and more!

VIDEO ARCHIVE OF THE AMA (YOUTUBE, FACEBOOK)

#1. Centralized Exchanges Are Becoming The Worst Enemy Of Crypto

• The author thinks the $3B is inflated, Kevin agrees.
• 30-90% are wash trades. Fake volume, for price/volume manipulation.
• CM doesn’t condone and will not allow wash trading on the platform.

#2. Crypto Exchange Body In Japan To Prohibit Insider Trading And Privacy-Centric Cryptocurrencies

• DASH & ZCash are popular and have some market cap behind them.
• Regulators that have released any type of guidance expressed the wish to not allow any of the privacy coins.
• They don’t want to deal with the issues related to AML with privacy coins.
• Insider trading is rampant in the industry.

#3. Bank For International Settlements not keen on crypto: BTC would break the internet.

• “BTC would break the internet” This is a moronic sentiment.
• The issues with crypto right now regarding scale is a tech issue, not a blockchain issue.
• Crypto is changing very quickly, with technology adapting to address some of the tech issues.
• There are a lot of misconceptions and mis-told truths in the article.

#4. CTFC looking into exchanges manipulating BTC futures.

• Futures and synthetic products are what Kevin believes are going to start creating a stabilization in price and reducing volatility.
• It’s all very manipulable.

#5. Bithumb’s Cold Storage Hacked

• They have an issue with their “air-gapped offline storage”.
• Social engineering could’ve been the problem here. Too many access points to the cold storage.
• Don’t pick up USB sticks on the floor outside your office and connect them to your computer. 
• Adequate training and proper security procedures.

New slogan on the website: “Innovation Powered by Crypto” is now “Moving Crypto Forward”

• There’s a bit of stagnation in Crypto, specially around doing things in a compliant manner and on the regulatory forefront.
• CoinMetro wants to drive crypto into the next step: regulated and fully complaint.
• CoinMetro will push the tech forward as well.

BETA

• 300+ users have gained access to the beta.
• Lots of constructive feedback – both positive and negative.
• The Beta was delayed because the team wanted to work on a waterfall-style development process.
• The team did a limited release to people outside of the TG/CoinMetro/Crypto community.
• A lot of people produced feedback that the team hadn’t considered.
• On Sunday, the team will be releasing the A-side of an A/B test to gather feedback on the interface.
• New Go Platform will be released on or before the Sunday

Regulation

• Australia and Canada are being worked on right now
• Looking into establishing an SRO (Self Running Organization) in Europe.
• Wants to bring potential regulatory bodies together to create a platform for sound regulation that allows for innovation and has some degree of a safety net for consumers.
• Balance is key to provide sound regulation.

How many of the developers and designers at CM are traders? 

• On the back-end side, all have trading experience. Lots of trading experience on the FX side, with a lot of experience on crypto as well.
• The architect that’s mapping out the GUI has crypto experience, some of the designers have some experience with trading.
• The team won’t have 100s of tokens at live trading launch.
• The GUI will iterate to accommodate many tokens as they’re added onto the platform

What features have been removed from the initial internal beta?

• Lots of features were removed to bring it down for more accurate feedback.
• Once existing features are sound, we’ll add more features.

Of the feedback already gathered, what are the main conclusions?

• The feedback gathered has been basic, since the interface was basic.
• The intuitiveness of the exchange has been valuable. (E.g., would we need to run a tutorial for the exchange at its current state? (Yes.))

Will there be some form of insurance for funds for users?

• The team is looking for underwriting for cold storage funds.
• Multiple air-gapped devices are going to be insured.
• The team will maintain its integrity in regards to user’s funds in the case of hacking or compromise.
• The team is working on a Terms of Service agreement that will detail all of this before the platform goes live.

Delays?

• The team has been transparent and forthcoming about any delays on the platform.
• Some more work was needed on the beta and the team felt the need to be honest about this with the community.
• The AMAs are the best way to communicate with the community in regards to the state of development.
• Pieces of the exchange are at times held to regulatory scrutiny and need to be changed constantly.
• Development is more forgiving to mistakes, whereas regulation and legal matters are less so.

Why doesn’t the platform look like a conventional exchange?

• That’s the point! We don’t want it to look like a conventional exchange.
• There’s a difference between an exchange and a trading facility.
• What CoinMetro wants to do is expand the market, not fight what currently exists.
• Simplification is key in order to get a large level of adoption.
• Trading facilities need to have as few clicks as possible when it comes to getting from fiat to crypto and from crypto-to-crypto for simple exchanges.
• On the trading side, CM never wants to be conventional, but the complexity should be a natural iteration from the simple version to a more advanced trading tool.
• CM wants have a very exploratory process with the community in order to build the exchange that they deserve.

Developers

• 5 people on the exchange core (C++)
• NodeJS – 5 people working on this.
• On the NodeJS side we have some junior, mostly seniors.
• On the C++ core, are all senior developers.
• Initial
• Development on the core began approximately December, and around Jan/Feb began the Node.JS encapsulation.
• Sometime in March, the GUI process began.

Development Methodologies?

• Somewhere between Agile and DevOps

Will there be more details shared on the development process? (Sprints, etc…)

• Yes, for sure.
• Transparency will increase over time.

Can the market be satisfied all at once with the features that are promised by the CoinMetro platform?

• The core of all the features is the exchange engine, and the team will focus on this development first.
• Building smart GUIs that are inviting and innovative will be layered on top of that to make the product successful.
• The TAM is one of CoinMetro’s exclusive products that is currently not offered by anyone else.
• It’ll take time for the team to mold all these products to the core.
• CoinMetro aims to be inviting to the 99% of the population that doesn’t have intimate familiarity with crypto.

How will my heirs have access to my funds on CoinMetro when I die?

• What normally happens is that there is an investigation done by the executor of the will, and finds access and contacts the company.
• The account would sit there until someone comes forward.
• In the future, there is a feature planned to add a beneficiary to the account.

Have you used the beta yourself, what do you think of it?

• Of course! Kevin’s feedback list is extensive.
• There may be some areas that the team simply doesn’t think about, which is why the community’s feedback is important.
• If Flash Sales go forward, will you accept fiat?
• Fiat is possible, but there’s no way to know at this time, since some of the regulatory clauses are based on an exchange business, not an ICO business.

Why don’t you drink coffee?!

• It’s a choice. Kevin got rid of caffeine from his diet almost 5 years ago.

iOS app status

• Has been submitted to Apple 5 times.
• There have been some glitches reported that should be corrected shortly.
• Apple’s nitpicky process has kept it from launching.

How many UI designers are there?

• 5 people between UX/UI and Animation

A lot of companies go through the token sales, hype it up as much as possible, and they release the tokens because their goals are short term. CoinMetro is looking at the long-term. XCM needs to be tradable on the CoinMetro exchange. 

Developers are spread all around the world. Core developers work in offices, some designers/developers are remote.

US updates- KYC process. 

• Nothing has changed from the US announcements that were made.
• The legal team is still working on producing the signed legal documents that will allow the release of information in regards to non-accredited contributors keeping their tokens.

Crackdown from Facebook/Twitter/Google regarding ads and marketing

• Google has a whitelist that accepts regulated exchanges which CM is currently talking to.
• Through Facebook, blogging is one of the ways to “advertise” a product.
• The team is looking for local advertising with different jurisdictions.

A/B Testing

• Iteration A on Sunday, and over the week Iteration B will launch.
• More users will be invited, feedback collected, and improvements released again.

Who is backing the debit pre-paid card?

• Can’t release the name of the company they’re using due to NDA agreements. It’s global and known.

The team is in compliance with the company that is going to provide USD compliance. They won’t accept USD from US residents.

Kevin’s opinions on the current market.

• It’s still not bearish, 2018 will be a losing year for crypto.
• The bull run in 2017 was not sustainable.
• Right now you’re bringing in synthetic liquidity.
• More liquidity in the actual crypto space is necessary, more mass adoption.
• We may see price stabilization in low price points.
• No recovery until well into 2019.

Did Robin Timmerman gain access to the beta?

• Yes!

Beta will open to more contributors every week!

No definitive answer regarding Flash Sales. More news will be available in July. 

Vesting will begin sometime between the originally scheduled and minting date.

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Well, that’s it for this week’s AMA with CoinMetro Founder Kevin Murcko! Please join us next week on CoinMetro’s Facebook and YouTube Channels at 2PM GMT for another round and make sure you submit your questions to the CoinMetro Subreddit!

As always, we’re available to answer any questions you may have on our Telegram Group 24/7.