AMA Lovers Club - Nash AMA
May 26th, 2021
Telegram, AMA Lovers Club channel – link
Kellogg Fairbank, KF (Nash CEO)
Chris Fenwick, CF (Communications Director)
Part I: Introduction
Can you please introduce yourself and your background, also introduce the team working on Nash?
KF
My name is Kellogg and I am the CEO of Nash. I am an experienced technology executive and entrepreneur, with more than a decade of senior leadership roles in the fintech and payments industries. Since 2017 I’ve been involved in the blockchain / crypto space as both an investor and advisor.
The Nash founders met in the COZ open-source group, which developed core infrastructure for NEO, like the Neon Wallet, NEOSCAN explorer and neo-python. The team has a strong technical background as well as business experience (prior startups raised an excess of $30m)
We’re a remote company and have team members all around the globe, with about 35 team members right now.
We also have a large number of external legal consultants for the compliance side.
Can you introduce Nash, what critical problems does it solve that existing solutions are not solving and what’s the competitive advantage?
KF
Nash aims to bridge the gap between fiat and crypto by seamlessly integrating digital banking services (bank accounts, card, earnings) with a crypto app (wallet, exchanges). You can read our strategy here: Bridging the gap between fiat and crypto: Our vision for 2021
Nash basically solves two problems that affect everyone in the crypto space, but especially new users. First, being able to go from fiat to crypto (and back) easily, and with good prices. Second, being able to interact with crypto services in a simple, convenient manner – rather than having to use multiple, complicated apps.
Nash is able to beat the competition in three core areas:
Security: Nash’s crypto wallet is fully non-custodial and secured by multi-party computation. The safest software wallet for crypto
Prices: Nash is able to offer highly competitive rates for crypto purchases. Compare our rates against other platforms and third-party fiat ramps. https://nash.io/fiat-ramps
Features and user experience: Nash offers all major crypto services in a single app: wallet, instant fiat on/off ramp, crypto/crypto exchanges and staking/earning.
The last point is where Nash will really start to shine this year.
We’re already planning for this Q2 to have a crypto-powered earnings account that you can deposit to instantly from your normal bank account.
This will be far simpler for new users to access than current DeFi protocols.
It will get even simpler when Nash adds bank accounts to the platform itself, which is coming later in the year, along with a debit card.
Later in 2021, Nash will offer the simplest possible integration of crypto services and digital banking.
Can you briefly describe the top milestones you have achieved and your target milestones with timelines, also share your roadmap?
KF
Before embarking on our new strategy, Nash developed a cross-chain Layer-2 exchange.
We achieved a few things that nobody achieved before, like being the first non-custodial exchange to allow high-performance trading of BTC on order books (not wrapped BTC).
Our Layer-2 has the performance of a centralized exchange, but with all assets on their native chains and under your control.
And what I’m really excited about is another major achievement, mainly our implementation of multi-party-computation (MPC) for our whole platform.
This offers much better security than normal software wallets.
As Nash begins to offer wallets for more and more blockchains, we will be the only MPC-enabled wallet for some of these chains. You can read more here: https://blog.nash.io/the-safest-crypto-wallet
On the legal side, obtaining the license to start operating our fiat gateway (Fiat <> crypto) last year was a major milestone.
We realized that we could outperform the competition here, offering lower rates and a better user experience. Since we saw the gateway gain more traction than the L2 exchange, we shifted our focus.
You can read more about our new strategy, and see our roadmap, here: Bridging the gap between fiat and crypto: Our vision for 2021
Major upcoming goals are:
Integration with all major banks across Europe via Open Banking for instant purchases (including recurring purchases)
Addition of credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.
Expansion of our services to the UK and Netherlands.
Crypto-powered earnings accounts, with high yields, that you can deposit to instantly from your normal bank account
Integration of more blockchains, including DOGE, LTC and other BTC forks, as well as projects we’re collaborating with like Avalanche, Terra and the Polygon network.
The addition of full bank accounts with IBANs into the Nash platform itself
A debit card, to spend money from your bank account or from your crypto holdings
Once we deploy these products and gain more traction in Europe, we’ll raise a Series A and bring Nash to the whole world 
So we have a busy next few months 
Can you briefly describe your Partnerships so far?
KF
We’re collaborating with a number of projects, and have even more in the pipeline!
We’ve seen a lot of demand for our fiat gateway as a white-label solution for other platforms.
We can offer better rates and UX than competitors: https://nash.io/fiat-ramps
Also, projects can take advantage of an MPC wallet when they integrate with Nash.
So far, our gateway has gone live on Aave’s platform.
We’re also using Aave as the basis for our crypto-powered earnings accounts, and have listed the AAVE token.
Other exciting projects we’re collaborating with are Avalanche, Polygon and Terra, all of which will be integrated this year.
In the case of Polygon, we’ll be able to offer a fiat gateway direct to their Layer-2 network 
Can you give an overview of your Tokenomics, and the UTILITY of the $NASH?
KF
Nash’s token is called NEX.
It is not a utility token, but a security token. Holders who stake their tokens are entitled to a proportionate share of Nash’s revenue, which increases if they lock their tokens for longer periods.
The lowest share is 25% (locked for 1 month), the highest 75% (locked for 24 months).
Nash shares revenue from the following sources:
Since NEX is a profit-sharing token, it must legally be regarded as a security.
As such, we took the step of registering NEX officially in Europe. Investors in projects offering similar, unregistered tokens run the risk of losing money should securities laws be enforced. Investors in Nash are protected against this risk.
As NEX is the only fully compliant exchange token, it is currently the only token that lets you invest in a compliant future for the cryptocurrency space. NEX: The only way to invest in a compliant crypto future
Part II: Community Questions
<deleted question>
CF
Everything comes together. Token value is important to us as an index of the success of the business. However, we’re not going to do anything to artificially pump our token. The best thing for us is to work hard on delivering products lots of people will want to use – and the value will come with that. Community, partnerships and security – well, those are all important for making the business successful and you can’t have one without the others.
Nash is truly a gem. but as the trading will be done directly from users wallet, are users going to pay for network fees just like DeFis giving the fact that some network fees are outrageous or is there a way around it.
KF
Thank you! Being decentralized, the user pays network fees when you buy/sell from your personal wallet. We are working on a couple solutions to minimize those fees in both the short term and long term.
NASH has some really cool features i agree. But by research i didn’t found the facilities of MARGIN TRADE and FUTURE TRADE in NASH. This kind of feature is getting popular among the people. So do you guies have any plan to include this kind of feature in near future?
CF
It’s complicated to add features like this to a non-custodial L2 exchange. Since we have shifted our focus to our fiat gateway, we’ll not be adding new features to the L2 in the near future. It will be maintained and polished in its current form.
Is this a dangerous project potentially and what safeguards are going to be put in place to mitigate possible dangers?
KF
We are a regulated company and take compliance very seriously. Not sure what you mean by dangerous, but on the wallet side we are non-custodial and have MPC security protecting your funds. You own your own keys
As youre a cross-chain protocol, the oracles play an essential part within your success. Could you please tell us which Oracle projects have you partnered with?
CF
Nash isn’t a protocol. It’s a company offering a number of services: fiat gateway, wallets, L2 exchange, etc.
In terms of the L2, we don’t work with price oracles to achieve swaps or similar. We have state channels connected to an off-chain matching engine. You can read more about how it works (+ more about Nash in general) here:
In exchangers like Coinbase, Kraken, Binance etc we have to give our private key to them and they control our funds. That’s too much risky. Is NASH also like them? Or we can see difference in NASH EXCHANGE?
KF
Nash is fully non-custodial and you own your own keys. And we agree, you should never give your keys to a third party
What is the goal for the world adoption in terms of revenue for stakers
CF
Long-term, the sky is the limit. But it makes more sense for us to set shorter term business goals right now: gain traction in Europe, raise Series A, expand, etc. The only way we’ll be a long-term success is by being realistic in the short term.
I read your roadmap for 2021. I see you guies are going to introduce us with some really cool and attractive features. But my concern is so many project come with this kind of attractive features. In their roadmap they promise us for so many thing. But at the end we get nothing. Somehow they can’t stick with their roadmap. What ensure us that you guies will stick with your roadmap. Did you guies fulfill the activity according to roadmap so far?
KF
Your concern is valid and I would tend to agree with your sentiment of other projects. If you look at what we’ve delivered since our launch in 2018, we have always delivered on our goals
Some of our accomplishments so far are:
First digital security offering (NEX), raising ca. $30 M
MPC implementation
First native cross-chain with orderbooks for NEO/ETH
First native cross-chain with orderbooks for BTC
Fiat gateway license
Collaborations with major projects: Aave, Avalanche, Polygon, Terra
Will @nashsocial be integrating $ICP token? They really seem to have their game together.
Will @nashsocial have fiat on ramps available for Australia any time soon?
CF
Nash is open to integrating all manner of high-quality projects. We are not in talks with ICP right now, though.
The very earliest Australia might be integrated would be later next year. This is because we need to focus on Europe right now, where we already have licenses. Once we prove we can be profitable and can raise more funding in a Series A, we will have the resources to go after licenses to operate around the world.
While researching about NASH i found that it’s doing Multi-faceted marketing in Europe. So is that mean NASH is only Europe base project? What’s your plan for people of other region? Is it not a global project?
CF
We only have licenses to operate our fiat gateway in Europe right now, and this is our current focus. The L2 and staking works in many other countries / US states, however, but we will focus on Europe for the near future.
Our plan is to raise money and expand elsewhere (see answer above).
As seen on your website, Nash supports over 3000 assets registered on the bitcoin, Ethereum and NEO blockchains. Are there plans to extend to blockchains like the BSC, Solana and other existing blockchains? Also, what’s the difference between the Maker bot and Cloudbot in terms of trading function?
KF
Yes, we recently announce new blockchain partnerships includng Avalanche, and we will be announcing more partnerships throughout the year. We will be the only true MPC-secured multi/cross-chain wallet
What are major milestones Nash( $NEX) want to achieve at the end of 2021?
CF
I think Kellogg answered this above:
Integration with all major banks across Europe via Open Banking for instant purchases (including recurring purchases)
Addition of credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.
Expansion of our services to the UK and Netherlands.
Crypto-powered earnings accounts, with high yields, that you can deposit to instantly from your normal bank account
Integration of more blockchains, including DOGE, LTC and other BTC forks, as well as projects we’re collaborating with like Avalanche, Terra and the Polygon network.
The addition of full bank accounts with IBANs into the Nash platform itself
A debit card, to spend money from your bank account or from your crypto holdings
Once we deploy these products and gain more traction in Europe, we’ll raise a Series A and bring Nash to the whole world
You montion in your website about an ADVANCED WALLET SECURITY…can you briefly explain to us you security system and its unique features?
CF
Read this blog article for a full explanation:
MPC also has advantages for using Nash with WalletConnect:
Will Dutch fiat gateway still be live Q2?
CF
We sincerely hope so, but it’s hard to make precise promises when it comes to compliance deadlines. We believe we are close to overcoming the final major blocker.
Now that the traditional banking system are beginning to accept the fact that crypto is here to stay, do you think fintech companies like Nash will finally take over the traditional banking system? And what do you think of banks that are willing to embrace crypto synergies?
KF
I think what we are witnessing is a paradigm shift in the financial infrastructure (traditional finance) that was built ages ago. Crypto is the future of finance, and we are seeing crypto being adopted at a much faster rate than anyone could have predicted. Banks that still think crypto is a scam will not be around in 5-10 years, but we plan to be.
Can nash be listed in more places?
CF
NEX is a security token, so most centralized exchanges do not meet the licensing requirements to list it (and hence haven’t done so). We are considering ways to make the token as accessible as possible, but we cannot pursue listing on multiple exchanges.
There are already number of project came in recent years which are also working on DeFi, But, whats the role of Nash in DeFi / What you actually want to build on DeFi?
CF
Our goal is to make DeFi as accessible as possible to everyday users. Most people who are new to crypto don’t really understand how to take advantage of DeFi. Even CeFi platforms like BlockFi can be complicated (you have to buy crypto coins and leave them there; funds are locked for days). That’s to say nothing of actually trying to stake a coin on Aave – especially if you just bought your first ETH on PayPal or Revolut and can’t even withdraw it.
Our first DeFi product aims to change this. We are building a crypto-powered earnings account, based on Aave, that will let you make direct cash deposits. I can’t reveal right now exactly how it works, technically, but we are aiming for an experience that is as simple as depositing funds to a normal savings account within a banking app.
At first, you should be able to link your bank account and deposit funds to the account with an instant SEPA transaction (a bit like buying crypto on the normal Nash fiat gateway). When Nash adds bank accounts with IBANs directly in our platform later this year, the experience will be even closer to a traditional banking app: you can deposit directly from one account to another.
We believe this is an area of crypto most retail investors aren’t familiar with, and it has some high technical hurdles for newbies to overcome. So this will be a key part of our offering: DeFi for the masses!
Will we be able to take loans against our staked NEX?
CF
No. Nash would not be able to liquidate the collateral.
In [the mobile app] the user is able to trade on the most popular Ethereum AMMs. Are there plans to expand/ add markets for other chains like AVAX’s AMM (Pangolin, Pancake, Quickswap)
CF
There are no concrete plans for this right now, since we haven’t integrated Polygon yet and aren’t currently in talks with BSC (though we would be open to integrating it in future).
But we should be dropping an update in the next week or so to significantly improve the current DEX experience on Nash!
Community support is one of the biggest aspects of a project’s success. Most projects have programs that interact with their users. Does you have any special plans to attract and expand the community and improve the user experience?
CF
We just hired a full-time Community Manager, who has lots of ideas!
Can you introduce Nash Card ? How can I own Nash Card and what are the benefits that Nash Card brings?
CF
We can’t reveal all the details right now. It will let you spend funds from your Nash bank account, but also from your crypto holdings. We plan to offer rewards as well, of course.
For a project, partners are a key to success. So who are Nash’s current partners? Do you plan to cooperate with other big projects in the future?
CF
We revealed a number of major projects above who we are collaborating with: Aave, Avalanche, Terra, Polygon… There are more that we can’t announce yet though
How will you keep Stakers satisfied when all fees on Nash are so low?
CF
We will gain lots of users, who will be attracted by simplicity and low fees 
As far as I know, Nash Wallet supports over 3,000 assets on the Bitcoin, Ethereum and NEO blockchains. But with the development of other platforms such as BSC, SOLANA, AVALANCHE… Do you plan to support more platforms in the future so that users have more choices?
CF
Absolutely. Avalanche integration is already planned for the near future. Likewise Terra. There will be more blockchains too.
For me, the security of user funds is very important before choosing any exchange for trading! So, tell us how much safe user funds and data are in Nash Exchange? How can new users trust Nash Exchange for transactions?
CF
In terms of funds:
For KYC data: this isn’t held by Nash, but by Jumio, one of the largest KYC providers in the world.
As far as I know the transaction fee on Nash is 0%. This is a huge advantage of Nash compared to competitors. So if there is no fee, where does the project’s income come from so that you can maintain and develop the project?
CF
We charge 0% fees if your purchase goes to our Layer-2 network. We can make a small amount on these purchases though, since they create a taker order on our L2 exchange. Also, if users send to the L2, they are likely going to be using those funds for trading on the exchange, generating more fees.
For most users, however, we recommend sending to L1, to access the wallet + DEXes. That has a 1% fee. Future services like DeFi earnings accounts will also add more revenue streams.
Is there a plan to enable basic international usd withdrawals, ones that will not have all the EU benefits?
CF
I believe that when we integrate bank accounts we will be able to support multiple currencies. However, I can’t really give details on that right now, as it’s not an area I’m closely involved in. Longer term, we are aiming for a seamless experience for all users around the globe.
When lambo?
CF
*wen
Hey Nash-Team ,
with the change of the business and a new marketfit in fiat on/off ramps with different partners, how confident are you that this will be a success and result in good returns for stakers?
And with the planned Series A Funding, what will this mean for Nexholders?
Will it improve their position?
CF
Everything is geared towards growing the business. We have added more revenue streams and have a product that we think has a much better market fit than the L2. So we are very confident.
Series A funding means we have demonstrated our profitability/potential to VC investors. That is already a good sign. Getting the funding means we can expand: more markets, more advertising, etc. So, more users and more revenue.
Yes, we are optimistic.
As much as Dapps has a huge advantage over centralised system, they consume resources and time, how do you intend to reduce that in your project?
I heard your project is restricted to some countries, why is it so? Are there plans to lift such restrictions?
CF
Nash combines some centralized elements with decentralized elements, like in our L2, swhich has an off-chain matching engine. So we’re aware of how to find appropriate compromises. We are not compromising on being non-custodial, however.
Restrictions are about licensing. We can’t “lift restrictions” exactly. We have to get more licenses, which can be costly. Since we can already operate in the EU, the largest economy in the world, we are focussing on that market for now.
Currently, there are many exchanges that allow users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies through fiat such as Binance, Huobi. So why should I choose Nash over them? What are the advantages and benefits that Nash brings to users?
CF
Nash is non-custodial. So you always hold your coins. We won’t charge you a huge withdrawal fee to get your crypto out of our exchange and start using it for whatever you want. You already own it.
Our fiat gateway also offers very competitive rates, and when we add bank accounts and earnings to our app, we’ll be providing a really unique, intuitive experience.
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