Interview with Yuriy Gerasimov, CEO of Membrana Blockchain Network
A look into Trust management of digital assets
How would you describe Membrana?
Membrana is an ecosystem for asset management. We’ve created it because we believe in a convenient and safe cryptomarket. The blockchain technology has given all of us the way to operate transparently and have peace of mind, even when working in a trustless environment. We brought this to life with MBN platform — a worldwide network for asset and trust management.
What stage are you in?
The product is live! We are in public Beta stage with Final Release in Q4 of this year. We’ve successfully developed it throughout the “crypto-winter”, changed a lot in the way of how we work and in the team, and now we crossed the point of 3000 registrations on the platform with over $3,5 million volume through it.
Okay, impressive. And what can I do on MBN platform right now?
You can already perform portfolio management through our trading system and conclude p2p smart-contracts for assets under management. It may sound simple, but what we do is bringing safe, easy-to-use and reliable tool for casual people to interact with each other. And we believe it is key for the adoption — to help people learn and establish themselves on a new market by solving their most painful problems.
So your focus is on casual users, right? What’s your value for them?
In the current situation, people do lose money on crypto. Loose cause of bad trades, fraud data or unsafe investment tools. Let’s just change it, using the technology we have: The data is stored in the blockchain and you got all the stats and trader’s ROI verified by our Proof-of-Trade system. All the trust management conditions are deployed in the Ethereum Smart-Contract and you have an automatic and reliable risk-management system that doesn’t allow the trader to lose your money. You have a multi-exchange trading terminal that works from any device and allows you to use advanced features to gain advantages and improve your results. With MBN platform you got the tools you need to perform better and earn instead of losing.
How will you solve the controversial topic of scaling?
Because our target market is an average consumer we have a very wide audience to work with. There are massive new user waves with TON network and hopefully Libra. We are already exploring the connectivity with TON, so they can access our platform as easy as people do it now with their Ethereum wallets. You can take a look at the graph and the number of new users joining the crypto market in the upcoming years and have your own opinion on the scaling. And yeah, we are already preparing the technology for being able to sustain the high loads.
One of the biggest setbacks after the 2017 Bull Run were regulations. How do you see the topic of regulation?
Yeah, this topic is very important — it happened to be a real pain for the market lately. We see our mission to create a bridge for the people to work with each other across the globe and we are a technology provider with a utility token as a core of the ecosystem.
Tell us about the MBN tokens what are they used for?
The token has two directions of usage: user-to-platform and user-to-user. This September we are releasing a big update for the platform, in which customers would need to purchase MBN tokens to unlock platform features, thus creating an organic demand for the token. Afterward, we are releasing the user-to-user functionality, so customers could use their tokens to receive additional assets from Community Operated Fund, enter the OTC marketplace or even create their own funds or investing pools. And needed to mention, that our customers already use the staking feature and receive rewards in MBN and ETH! The ETH reward comes from the performance fee of our community traders and with the growth of the platform, that number will increase.
How is the revenue so far and how is the funding situation?
All of the revenue generated we are putting in the community acquisition events because we see it as the main value. We did have a year-long trading competition with cash payments and solid prize pool for the participants. It was all done without any big crowd sales and during near dead 18–19 years, so it says a lot about our resilience and passion for the idea.
Tell us about the Team.
The team is international. The development core is from Russian, with a strong background in IT engineering. The marketing team and ambassadors are promoting the platform across the globe, as we are presented in the US, England, Germany, Hong-Kong, South Korea and India. The team and advisor list also have big names in the industry — Michael from CME, and advisors Paresh and Anthony from Goldman Sachs.
About your competitors. The idea seems close to the Genesis Vision and it has a very high Market Cap. What’s the difference between you and them?
Well, to say it short — we utilize a different technical approach to solve the asset management problem. Our contract system works peer-to-peer and has several massive advantages versus the Copy-Trading which is used in GV and other similar services:
- First of all, the safety is significantly increased because you can set additional restrictions for the trader and limit his losses with a risk management system integrated into the smart-contract. Secondary, you, as an investor can split your assets on a single API between multiple traders and trade at the same time without interrupting other contracts. You can even trust the assets to a manager who will do all the work for searching and picking the trader for his own commission. And thirdly and most importantly — the technology allows you to work on the crypto market without a need of an exchange account. You are able to access the network with MBN tokens and receive funds for trading or investing throught the platform interface.
- Genesis Vision also has fund management based on the idea of tokenized fund. On the other side, we allow creating the fund for anyone, without the need of sending your money anywhere. We are using the same smart-contract system which scales perfectly while maintaining its safety and efficiency. Not long ago we even launched a Community Operated Fund — where our community investors can enjoy working with a balanced portfolio of community traders.
I would like to add that their product is really good and the more tools are available on the market — the better it is for everyone.
Which important functions are still not implemented for Membrana, and will we ever see a final form, or is it per definition a work in progress with constant improvements?
We are releasing the Final Release of the platform later this year — it will have everything we planned before and scheduled for the development (Fund management, OTC marketplace, Margin Contracts, Collateral Contracts, Anonimous Communications, Volume Analyzer, External Bot API) And you can believe me — we got lots of new ideas to develop after that, so there will constant updates with more and more tools to work with. And our community is giving us lots of crucial feedback and valuable suggestions for what is needed!
What is your stance on governance, how should decisions be made and how much should token holders be able to decide.
We really love how involved our community members are in the process. We do regular cust dev interviews and it feels like we have additional minds outside of the team working with us. I see that as a necessary part of delivering the needed product, so we will enlarge the community engagement in the governance of our project. We believe that PoS voting will be a fair way of doing it.
Anything to add from yourself?
Just wanted to say big thanks to our supporters and all of the community members! You helped us to make it possible and we are honored to deliver the best possible product for you. And if you are new to MBN — feel free to join the platform and explore the features we are bringing to the market. You can contact us with ideas you have in mind and we would love to work on them. Care, and see you on the MBN platform.
Some links to #dyor
Brought to you by tehMoonwalkeR
