On October 13th at 15:00 UTC, eCash lead developer Amaury Sechet appeared in the Turkish Telegram group chat to answer a series of questions the organisers had collected in the days before the AMA took place. One of the group admins put the questions forward in both Turkish and English and after the answer was given, also provided the group with a Turkish translation. It was a diverse and interesting set of questions and answers that will give holders and people interested in the eCash project a bit more insight in what eCash is and where it is going.
Admin: First of all, welcome to our esteemed CEO, Amaury Sechet. Thank you for your time to the Turkish community and I'm starting the AMA event. Turks love you very much. They think you are a genius. Have you visited Turkey? Do you have a Turkish friend?
Amaury Séchet:
I visited Turkey several times. I have a few Turkish friends, for instance Ali Çehreli, the author a of book about the D programmign language and Emin Gun Sirer. Turkey is a good exemple of the problems that mismanaged currency can cause. In recent years, the lira was changed because the previous version became almost worthless. I remember paying 1.5M for a bus ticket when I was in Turkey, which, while a fun curiosity when you are a foreigner, is devastating for the people living through it and losing their savings.
Admin: Will XEC make deals with other corporate companies? If so, please specify a few.
Amaury Séchet:
That is the type of matter that should be discussed at the GNC in November.
Admin: How close are we to an avalanche after consensus? Will it be ready by the end of October?
Amaury Séchet:
The avalanche consensus itself is there and working and have been for many month, but the part that still require work is peer discovery. It is unlikely that it'll be production ready b the end of October. Unfortunately, we are solving problems that have never been solved before, so it is very difficult to know the precise timeline. In any case, we are working as fast as we can to deliver this.
Admin: What is your personal view on becoming a universal digital currency that can be used by 7.6 billion people in the world? Can XEC achieve this?
Amaury Séchet:
My view is that it is very difficult to displace existing currencies. You have to be ready to pick up where they left when they fail. And fiat currency always fail at some point, because they rely on the central bank to be trustworthy. There is always a point in time where the central bank becomes untrustworthy and the value of the currency goes down. This is when people want and look for alternative. People want a currency that is usable on a day to day basis, but also where they can keep their saving in without seeing them go away. XEC is designed to have good properties as hard money and be a good medium of exchange, so it can achieve this.
What happened this week in Lebanon is an excellent exemple of this. The bank did close and people found themselves without money at all. This is a terrible position to be in. We want to propose solution for the people so that they don't find themslves in such situation.
Admin: What are the positive aspects of breaking up with Bitcoin, which is the sole ruler of the crypto market and considered the god of the crypto market?
Amaury Séchet:
Bitcoin is vallued because it is the biggest crypto. It is like the Kardashian: they are famous because they are famous. In the same way, Bitcoin is big because it is big. Unfortunately, Bitcoin has taken a road where it isn't a good medium of exchange. This forced the ecosystem to use trusted intermediaries instead of using Bitcoin directly. Most lightning network wallets are custodials, and widespread adoption efforts, such as what we see in El Salvador are custodial too. This turns out to be very similar to what the current banking system is doing. In the end, it also creates the same problems.
Admin: Why did people choose XEC? What is the most important feature that distinguishes it from others?
Amaury Séchet:
Most coins don't really have any unique value proposition and just do marketting. This works for a while, but not long term. These projects are pump and dumps, and constitute most of the crypto market today. XEC is not a pump and dump scheme. Even for coins which try to solve somthing, I think the approach they are taking doesn't make a lot of sense. For instance, BCH say they want to be a good medium of exchange, but rejects technologies that can ensure confirmation in seconds. BTC say they want to be censorship resistant, but the road they are taking put intermediaries as gatekeeper. The 3rd big category of project are smart contract plateforms such as Ethereum. These projects can be very successful, but they don't solve the problem of money. XEC has the properties of a good store of value and a good medium of exchange, which makes it a supperior form of money.
Admin: Do global bosses want to support your projects? What kind of demands, if any, are there?
Amaury Séchet:
I'm not sure what this means. XEC has less institutional support than BCH did for instance, but on the other hand, the support BCH attracted also was its downfall. It attracted the wrong people. With XEC we have a very sane culture we can build upon. It's more difficult short term, but I think there is better prospects (in fact, XEC valuation has grown more than BCH's ever did).
Admin: Where do you see XEC after 5 years?
Amaury Séchet:
Hopefully, in 5 years, it'll be clear that this is a crypto project that is here to stay and not a gimmick. I think XEC is in a good place now, and I hope we can grow it dramatically over the next years without sacrificing the culture.
Admin: When people type eCash on Google, they want to encounter many news. When will the marketing team be established?
Amaury Séchet:
There is already some marketting effort that is being done. I suspect many of you are here thanks to that effort. Producing a lot of news needs to be a long term effort. We will accumulate coverage over time. It is possible to generate a lot of noise all at once, but the problem with that strategy, is that it is not sustainable, you then get replaced with the next shinny thing. Steady wins the race.
Admin: eCash is revolutionary with its online feature." By realizing this revolution, you may become the new Satoshi Nakamoto of history. What do you think about this? Is XEC really a revolution?
Amaury Séchet:
I do not think about it too much. I try to focus on what the project needs to make it big more than what I'll do if that happens. I think this project has the potential to grow much bigger than it is now over the years. The community is strong, the roadmap is solid and I think there is a legitimate need for it.
Once again, what happened last week in Lebanon demonstrate this.
Admin: Your agenda looks quite different as CEOs analyze the market for their own products and products only on Twitter. (Politics, Covid and other daily developments etc.) Why don't you share extensively about XEC?
Amaury Séchet:
Julia galef talk about the scout and the advocate mindset. Many people on twitter or in media in general adopt the advocate mindset. They are here to convince others and known what position they will have before knowing the facts. I try to adopt the scout mindset. I'm here to bang ideas and learn. This is not as good as a sales tactic, but if I wasn't doign this, then I would not have understood distributed system, economics, cryptography, bitcoin and many other topics to the degree I would have needed to get where I am now.
Admin: Why did the eCashin upbit conversion not affect the price? Why is the volume on the Upbit exchange not reflected in other exchanges?
Amaury Séchet,
I do not make price predictions.
Admin: How about these: What are you most excited about regarding eCash? What do you think will happen if other countries start acting against crypto like China? What can eCash supporters do to help the project the most?
Amaury Séchet:
When countries act against crypto, they show they are scared. This is a bad thing but it is a necessary part of the process. When there is a change, you see the incumbant complain about the newcomer, in a more and more forceful way. Country bannign crypto are a sign that crypto has become big enough so that they cannot ignore it anymore.This is very similar to newspaper and TV blaming Facebook. The reality is that Facebook and Google have collected a ton of ad revenue that traditionaly went to newspapers, and they don't like that, so they paint these new companies in a bad light.
What people can do to help the project at this time is to build companies on it, if you have the skills. Let know to wallets, echanges and other service that you use that you wold like to see it supported. And help build and maintain a strong culture.
Admin: This is what XEC plans to be the coin of the future. As investors, we believed in this and invested in the future. Will XEC be affected by US and SEC regulations?
Amaury Séchet:
The team working on XEC are not US citizen, so there are no worried on this front. We are not selling the token - it is mined, just like Bitcoin. The SEC does not have a problem with that at the moment.
Admin: Is there an internet search engine that works with the ecash network and will the ecash network be able to interact with electronic devices (like iota, iotx)?
Amaury Séchet,
I am not sure what a search engine would do with XEC, or crypto in general.There is not reason electronic devices cannot interract with XEC (for instance Tobias Ruck has implemented NFC cards that can do payment in XEC and eTokens). IOTA's focus on internet of things is mostly a marketting gimmick. the reality is that most crypto can do this. On an asside, I would recomand to stay away from IOTA, as the cryptography they use has often been broken in the past.
Admin: We hope XEC will be a revolution thanks to you. And finally On behalf of the Turkish community, thank you very much for your answers.
Amaury Séchet,
Thanks