Project Rundown Interview with OctoFi on The Capital
Hey guys! Happy to connect today and learn more about OctoFi! Can you tell us more about the founding of the project and what the problem is that you were addressing?
We’ve been involved in the crypto space as builders since as early as 2014 and had witnessed many of the same issues over and over again. Most related to how the projects themselves were run and how often community was being undervalued. So after working among other teams and doings loads of contracting we always wanted to go out and create something ourselves. OctoFi began its life based on some work we’d been doing with aggregating data oracles.
T๏ปฟhat’s actually how the octopus branding came about since we were working on oracles tentacles. But we soon came to realise that many of the problems in DeFi related to a lack of transparency, far too much trust, and not enough verifying. Basically we saw a lot of rug pulls happening and many users were just blindly trusting protocols. So we set out to create a platform that gathers products and protocols we’d verified, into a single convenient location, that was completely owned by the community. After our public sale we started building in October, releasing an open-source alternative to the popular dashboard applications, and later the “all-in-one” platform we are now known for.
Could you please give us a rundown of the most important things about OctoFi?
OctoFi provides an all-in-one DeFi and NFT experience with cashbacks. By taking advantage of affiliate/referral/partner programs, we are able to generate revenue by earning a commission whenever we refer a user through one of the many products and protocols we aggregated. Essentially OctoFi gives you cash back when you transact with trusted DeFi and NFT marketplaces, across multiple blockchains, through our all-in-one dApp, or our browser extension Wallet. The OCTO token is how we distribute the revenues earned from our referral partners through our dApp. We pass through 100% of the revenue to token holders proportional to their holdings. Although when it comes to our wallet, when users transact with our referral partners, we direct 40% of the commission straight back to the user, whether they hold OCTO or not, and the remaining 60% goes to holders.
So going forth into 2021 and beyond, how will OctoFi make an impact in the crypto space, or on the world?
We’ve committed to a focus on community and transparency, and going forward we will continue doing so. Everything done by OctoFi is in accordance with our “Tentacult Manifesto” which provides eight guiding principles for our project: “Open source everything, cherish the community, educate the inquisitive, always be transparent, say no to surveillance, keep the meme alive, empower the people, and make trust obsolete.” With those in mind, we look forward to making the worlds of DeFi and NFT easier, safer, and more rewarding. I think our wallet may end up being a core focus for us in future since it captures everything we do in such a simple way.
Now, could you tell us about OctoFi accomplishments so far, and in the history of the project, please tell us what you are most proud of.
We are really proud of our community and how far we’ve come, raising just $87k or so in our public sale, to where we are now is just awesome. But it’s all thanks to the wonderful supporters of the project, we call them “Frentacles of the Tentacult.” Recently we’ve been Messari verified and locked the project treasury in a Gnosis Safe multisig with keys held by council of eight members known as “The Octagon” who are in place to help steward our project in accordance with our manifesto. We’ve also been recognised along our journey by the likes of Nik Patel who gave us 8 out of 10 in his coin report, and we were chosen by SIMETRI, a research arm of Crypto Briefing, as their “Pick of the Month” back in December. Now we are set with a sizeable treasury for further development and marketing. Bright future ahead.
Could you tell us more about your INKubator (launchpad)?
Sure, you can read our INKubator announcement for more details.
Now, give us a quick rundown of the future of OctoFi. For example, what new things are you seeking to bring to life and what will it mean for the overall project?
A big thing for us is that we are supporting a multi-chain future and are focused on providing a great user experience while allowing our users to earn cash back whenever they transact with the most trusted names in DeFi and NFTs. Moving forward we are working hard to establish more partnerships and more benefits to our users and overall community. Our roadmap also covers plenty of what’s to come
Tell us about your team. Who’re the people behind the screens?
OctoFi was founded by me, Dr Octavius, and Mr OG. Obviously, they’re not our real names, as we chose to establish the project anonymously, for various reasons pertaining to decentralisation. But we also wanted to avoid the project leaning on founder reputations, we wanted to make sure the project could stand on its own two feet. Now that we are more established, we have expanded the team as mentioned earlier with the forming of “The Octagon” council.
The eight multisig holders bring a broad range of experience to the project, and they include Cameron from Crypto Daily (YouTuber), RN03xx (well known CT personality), Steven Toast (part of SPECTRE GRP), Marco (a top crypto writer on Quora), Nathan and Darnboo (two really talented developers), AK88 (a well connected crypto news expert), and of course MA (our infamous Meme Artist known for many of our popular memes). The team is also supported by a long-time community member named CFow who takes care of questions and announcements, and we’ve also got Kevin Feng as an advisor (ex COO of VeChain).
Which partnerships have OctoFi engaged in so far, and which ones are the most impactful?
We keep an up-to-date list of OctoFi referral partners, you can check it here.
We’ve been very fortunate to participate as referral partners for the likes of CoinSwitch, Aave, ParaSwap, Transak, 1inch, OpenSea, Bitrefill, dYdX, SimpleSwap, and StealthEX, with many more on the way. We have also recently partnered with Blank Wallet, where their wallet will be included as a connection method on our dApp, and we’ve been able to inspect and provide feedback on their code.
The idea is that they can eventually tap into our cash back mechanism, while we tap into their privacy technology, and our communities can mutually benefit in complementary ways. What’s really special about OctoFi is that we’re not competing with other projects. We are in fact working with them, in a much similar way to the likes of lolli.com, but for traders transacting with DeFi and NFT marketplaces — not shoppers purchasing from retailers. The opportunity is huge and we get to help foster cooperation between projects. After all, the real opportunity is bringing the non-crypto world into this crypto-native world we are all used to already.
Now on a more technical side of things, what are the coin metrics, and how do these lead to a stable and balanced system?
You can check the coin metrics and Do Your Octo Research here.
If people would like to follow you on your social media pages, visit your website or read your important documents like your white paper, what are the links they need to visit? Please list them below.
Thank you so much for your time! Do you have anything to add before we finish?
If I could ask one thing of your readers, it would simply be to Do Your Octo Research #DYOR, since we’ve put a lot of effort into dyor.octo.fi as our “Investor Prospectopus” of sorts. It’s just a four to five minute read and covers all of the usual questions we get from newcomers. Then come join our community, you’ll soon realise that the “Frentacles of the Tentacult” are truly something else, super welcoming and helpful, and they really do make OctoFi what it is today.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to be a source of investment, financial, technical, tax, or legal advice. All of this content is for informational purposes only. Readers should do their own research. The Capital is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by reliance on any information mentioned in this article.
