Thread by @MeterTalkshows

First Episode of @MeterSpaces was aired some days ago. Host @AraEllison interviewed @Meter_IO founder and CEO @xiaohanzhu. Let's dig into some of the topics they talked about.

#MTRG #MTR #MeterCommunity #MTS $MTRG

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 1/ Hi Xiaohan, could you introduce yourself a little? What's your background? Any fun fact about you or Meter?

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 1a/ Hi, I have an engineering background and worked in the field for 20 years. Then got an MBA in Economy and started VC for investing in crypto, until I decided to start my own crypto enterprise , Meter.

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 1b/ a fun fact about Meter is the name origin. Initially we chose the name Z-Dollar, we had a logo ready with 2 capacitators holding electricity. In 2-3 months we changed to Meter which seemed more interesting and suitable.

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 2/ A peculiar aspect of Meter is its stablecoin $MTR. Can you tell us more about it and how you come up with the idea of an electricity pegged stablecoin?

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 2a/ In 2018 there were some stablecoins, but they weren't that great, some of them were even uncollateralized. As an investor I was looking into them and was shocked that other investors supported this.

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 2b/ I believed, and still believe, that Finance is one of the best applicaction for the blockchain tech and that a stablecoin is a powerful instrument for Finance, so we started designing one.

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 2c/ We are moving forward a "virtual world" (also called Metaverse), so pegging to 1$ didn't look that important, while pegging it to electricity was more appealing. This concept is probably ahead of our times , and will take still some years for people to understand it properly

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 2d/ Our aim is to overcome the so called "Impossible trinity" that other stablecoins haven't solved: 1) fixed exchange rates 2) independent monetary policy 3)free flow of capital.
Those 3 aspects cannot coexist at the same time, you have to give up one of them to keep the peg.

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 23/ For example :
- HongKong model:they keep the peg by backing it with real $$$ and provide the possibility to exchange one currency for the other, but it's very centralized
- China model: they keep the peg by putting flow of capital restrictions, which we don't like to have

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 2f/ So right now we have 3 categories of stable coins:
1) hong kong way : 100% reserve in USD and you provide exchange, like a bank. It's hard to qualify as an issuer for this, needs to go through many regulations and probably only the Fed Reserve can qualify as a safe issuer.

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 2g/ 2) algorythm stablecoins : no backing ; all projects failed, see Terra/Luna recently.
3) overcollateralized stablecoins: the limit in this case is that your stablecoin circulating supply has to be smaller of your collaterals, to be safe in case of bankruns.

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 2h/ another shortcoming is that they rely a lot on Oracles.
Oracles feed prices onto the blockchain, including the price of the collateral currency.

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 2h2/ Issue with oracles is that the data they use is often centralized and if the data is wrong (or hacked) it can determine severe consequences like in the recent Harmony Bridge hack. People were able to drain AAVE cause ChainLink was still providing it with outside data.

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 2i/ So everyone of those stablecoins has shortcomings that we want to resolve with $MTR.

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 3/ Can you talk about the value of Meter as a scaling solution for Ethereum? What does it add compared to other solutions?

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 3a/ Blockchains like Cosmos and Solana use the PBFT (Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance) consensus, which was invented in the 70s and had to be modified to make it work for the blockchain. It needs high synchronization of the network to work, it has to work like "a clock".

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 3b/ The HotStuff consensus that Meter uses was invented in 2018. It is made so that if a node fails, it can be switched automatically and easily for a different one.

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 3c/ That makes the blocks production pace variable (as you can see on the Meter statistics) , but that also mean that we don't need high synchronization, don't need a blockchain "clock"; the system is more resilient to failures; and it's way more decentralized.

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 3d/ The cost for running a node on Meter is pretty low both in terms of $MTRG to stake and of hardware to use. So we can have many nodes, that provide high speed, decentralization and security. This is fundamental for a peculiar aspect, the Frontrunning Protection in Meter

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 3e/In fact Meter blockchain is really fast and every block is instantly finalized, making the transactions resistant to frontrun attacks,so called "sandwich attacks". Those are an issue in traditional Finance too, so providing a system which is resistant to them is pretty awesome

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 4/ Let’s move onto the next topic, Meter Passport. Tell us something about it

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 4a/ Like in the Internet there are different networks that communicate with each other (via the TCP/IP protocol), we believe that the future of crypto will be different blockchains communicating with each other as if the system is scaling horizontally.

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 4b/ Meter Passport will then work like a router to connect you to the different networks/blockchains. It will allow transfer of assets, but also of information and communication across networks. We are working on making it secure and reliable.

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 4c/ We started developing it in summer 2020 because there were not reliable routers for our needs, but we believe more routers like this will be available in the future; it's not like just one system will be "the one". Integration is key, like in the Internet.

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 5/ How do you see the future of Crypto in the next 3-5 years?

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 5a/ So, first we had the BTC wave, the first form of e-cash.

Then we had ETH , the crypto for computing .

Then we had ICOs.

Then we had the DeFi and NFTs , which didn't even exist back in 2018.

I think the system will keep advancing in waves, following the innovations.

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 6/ What do you think about GameFi?

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 6a/ I think that until now we saw GameFi getting hyped toward the end of the bull cycle, most of the time being some sort of Ponzi schemes.

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 6b/ The user base is very different from the traditional gaming users: people in GameFi are more willing to spend money in the game, but are looking for returns most of the times, they are trying to make money.

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 6c/ Games that can find an equilibrium between greed and a longer time frame horizon are those that can last, like for example Decentraland and Sandbox metaverses that are around since 2018.

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 6d/ There is also an issue with convincing succesfull games developer companies to move into the blockchain. Why would they? Maybe things will change when crypto in general gets more adopted, then GameFi will follow.

@MeterSpaces @AraEllison @Meter_IO @xiaohanzhu 7/ That’s it for the first interview. We hope the Meter Community enjoys Meter Talk Shows effort in transcribing the highlights for this . Don’t forget to like, comment and retweet. See you next time!