AMA with Abe
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AMA with Cap co-founder Abe Osten. Questions and answers collected from Telegram conversations.
What’s Cap? 
CAP is a protocol that lets you trade the markets with stablecoins. You can trade stocks, cryptos, ETFs, foreign exchange, and more. You can also provide liquidity to traders to receive high yields.
Cap uses an automated market maker to quote liquidity around an asset’s last price. A liquidity pool that anyone can participate in receives losses and pays out profits.
Cap has a native token, CAP. What is it?
CAP tracks your ownership stake in Cap’s liquidity pool. For example, if there’s 100 CAP in total and you own 10 CAP, you own 10% of the liquidity pool and will get 10% of the yield the pool generates.
How do I get CAP?
- You can contribute directly to the liquidity pool. 80% of CAP are distributed this way.
- You can margin trade and receive CAP as cash back in proportion to your trading volume. 20% of CAP are distributed this way.
- You can buy CAP directly on a DEX like Uniswap.
Is CAP an ICO?
No! Cap is not an ICO. Cap is entirely self funded by Tony and I. An initial supply of 100K CAP (community release) was minted into a Uniswap pool for people to get their hands on some CAP early on.
We have no plans to sell CAP. In fact, whenever possible, we are buyers of CAP.
Who’s on your team? What’s your background?
Tony and I are the team. We’re both software engineers. Our professional experience includes working at big tech companies and tech startups over the past 15 years.
Where are your public social media profile?
Neither Tony or I are active on social media. Even if we were, I don’t think we’d share our profiles. Cap isn’t an ICO and we’re not taking anyone’s money.
The goal for Cap is to become fully decentralized and permissionless. We can be transparent without needing to compromise our online privacy.
Are you going to hire more people?
If needed, yes. However, we prefer code and automation over employees. It’s more efficient and less costly.
What’s the CAP supply?
Currently, 100K. Every week post-launch, a small amount of CAP is minted until the public supply reaches 1 million after 2 years. The remaining 9 million are unlocked after that time, gradually over several years as the protocol decentralizes. You can read more about CAP’s token dynamics in our general whitepaper.
How is Cap different from other protocols?
- Cap lets you provide liquidity directly in DAI, USDT, or USDC (no need for separate token).
- There are 0 fees to trade or provide liquidity.
- 1000s of assets are available to trade on day one (one contract for all assets).
- Trades are settled instantly – no need to wait for a block to mine or pay gas.
- Leverage up to 200:1 on some markets.
- Liquidity pool is supply restricted, preventing yield from being diluted over time.
When can we see the product?
Cap is currently (July 2020) under development. We expect to have a beta with core features some time in August 2020. The launch to the public is planned for Q4 2020.
How are you going to grow Cap?
Most growth for Cap will come from:
- Virality built into the product: features such as sharing trades on social media help drive word of mouth.
- Incentives and cashback: a portion of CAP is distributed as cashback to traders and those who refer others to Cap.
People also mention PR as a possible channel to explore. Perhaps, but we prefer to build a product that is inherently viral.
Can I lose money as a Cap LP?
Yes you can! But generally over the long term, you make money. You make money when traders lose money and vice versa.
It’s similar to Uniswap LP tokens. The difference is that Uniswap requires full collateralization when a trade is made. Cap locks margin when a trader places a trade, so the liquidity you provide as an LP isn’t used to back full positions, but only profits or losses. So you get much more bang for your liquidity.
Cap’s LP portfolio is transparent, so if LPs want to hedge their exposure on external venues, they can. In our simulations, the amount made by LPs is around 0.1% of trade volume over the long run.
Are you listing CAP on exchanges other than Uniswap?
CAP is open source and permissionless. If an exchange wants to list it, they can. We will not pay a listing fee to get listed on a centralized exchange.
We like Uniswap: open, simple, auditable by all!
Why are you working on Cap if you’re not getting paid?
For us, it’s all about the long term. If we can get Cap to work, then CAP’s price will rise significantly, and 2 years after launch:
- We can mint and set aside tokens for the team.
- We can distribute all of CAP’s supply to the community while configuring the protocol to pay a portion of LP profits to the team.
Regarding funding, we have enough to cover development, marketing, and hiring for several years if need be.
What’s the vision?
A global decentralized stock market.