Oh, I got eyes in the back of my head, just in case I have to run.
I do what I can, what I can, what I can for my people.
When the clouds roll back and the songs fill the night.
That's when I'm gonna stand up, take my people with me.
Together we are going to a brand new home.
Far across the river, can you hear me?
Hello, can you hear me? Good morning, everyone.
Yeah, good morning. Here you go.
Wow, nice voice there. How are you doing?
Oh, quite good. Good morning.
Good morning. Good morning.
Yeah, so we'll be starting in a few minutes. I'm just going to wait for a minute or two.
So we get everyone joined and then we get started.
And I don't mind if I lose any blood on the way to salvation.
And I fight with the strength that I got until I die.
I'm gonna stand up, take my people with me.
Together we are going to a brand new home.
Far across the river, can you hear freedom calling?
Pulling me to answer, gonna keep on keeping on.
Harriet, welcome to the Underground Railroad.
And I know far across the river, might be hard to face because I'm old.
And I just can't wait, but I never tried.
She stands with me on my side.
Stand up, take my people with me.
Together we are going to a brand new home.
All right. Yeah, I'm sure most of our listeners are going to join us down the road.
So let's just get started because I know Andrew is quite busy as I am myself.
So let's get this started with.
Hello, everyone. I would like to welcome you to Building Blocks with Linear Ecosystem Projects.
And today we have Rubrik Exchange with us.
Just as our usual same space, Building Blocks with Linear Series is a dedicated series
whereby we invite innovative projects building in the linear ecosystem
to share some light on what they are building, how it's going to revolutionize the DeFi space and blockchain as a whole.
Join us as we bring together industry leaders, project representatives and enthusiasts like Andrew.
I'm sure he's going to introduce himself, so I'll get the name right from there.
Yeah, to discuss the latest trends, developments and insights in the crypto space.
My name is Jeremiah. I'm the Community Manager for Scene Futures and as a regular host,
I welcome our guest and speaker for today to introduce himself and tell us a bit about his background.
So Andrew, welcome today. Can you please give us a brief overview of your background? Thank you.
Hello, everyone. So, as you said, my name is Andrew and I've been working in Rubrik since December 2020,
so it's already three years now. My role here is a Marketing and Partnership Manager,
but it's not only limited to that and I also do some analytics and growth management and other stuff.
So, I have different internships before Rubrik, in marketing, copyright and damages,
but surprisingly for me and for my relatives and others, I started working in Web3 and I don't regret this decision.
It was awesome. And right now, it's like my third year here.
And I think that all of our actions and what we have done during these last years
all resulted in where we are currently and what we should build in the future
and what we're building right now.
Yeah, that's really impressive. Three years in a particular project that's quite huge and unique in this space as well.
Yeah, because the highest you see is one year too. So three years is quite unique.
And I'm sure you know that in and out of Rubrik and we are very grateful to have you here
and very excited to pick your insights into cryptocurrency, defy linear ecosystem and as well Rubrik Exchange.
So moving on, can you briefly give us an overview of Rubrik Exchange and its key features?
Yeah, as I mentioned, it was founded in September 2020.
First, we're starting as an order book protocol. Later, we switched bridges to DEX aggregation.
And finally, in September 2021, we stick to the cross-chain.
And right now, Rubrik aggregates more than 70 blockchains and testnets
and enables more than 15,000 assets with the best rates.
So right now, we also aggregate more than 200 DEXs
and also all of the major bridges that are currently in the sphere.
Our main focus for the last year and for the next year is adding new chains
that's also often not really presented on the big bridges and big DEXs.
So we aggregate the best of them to make them available at Rubrik
and all users could complete this fast and secure transactions in one click directly on our page.
Yeah, that's really impressive.
Wow, 200 DEXs, 70 networks, that's quite huge and really, really impressive.
I think it's clear that Rubrik is on a mission to make significant impact in this space.
So I'm looking forward to hearing more from you and I'm intrigued to learn about the standard features
and also your competitors and how you differentiate yourself from your competitors.
So talking about key features, what's the difference between Rubrik Exchange and its competitors
and how do you maintain this competitive edge?
So as I said, main features are mainly the aggregation of different cross-chain protocols, bridges and DEXs in our platform.
Right now, we aggregate all of the major bridges like LIFI, Symbiosis, XY, more will be added like Reno and others.
So we are not really a competitor to any of these projects.
First of all, we try to collaborate with them and it's always working, at least for now.
We make mutual campaigns so we try to help them to grow and also to improve their technology.
There is really much we can offer not only for the users but also for this project since all of the transactions
which are completed using Rubrik are always completed using the integrated DEXs or cross-chain protocols.
So we are also giving them the traffic, the transactions and the fees if they have them.
So there is not really a competition between us.
We try to unite all different sides of cross-chain DEXs and these technologies inside one place
so it could be accessible for the users but still would be profitable and interesting for projects.
In the future, as you said, our standouts, I think right now we are the leader in a number of networks that are supported.
It is done by integrating different providers like Rango which was the leader for the past year of the number of the cross-chain networks.
So we are aggregating the best of this fear and trying to become the major aggregator for everything
which you would like to see as a DEX trader or as a new chain explorer.
So in the future, we will integrate even more testnets and you will launch the networks
as well as newly launched DEXs and these networks.
Yeah, I think that's a really great approach to how good the competition is in this evolving landscape.
So having your other projects, helping with development and also integrating with other projects
instead of saying you are unique and you know everything in this space that's quite good
and it helps build the project as well.
So you can see huge intakes, huge retention rates.
I had your new year recap for 2023 and you've quoted about 50% retention
and I think these are good numbers and I think your approach to this competitiveness is one of the key measures
in keeping all these users engaged on your platform.
Now, I saw something intriguing on your Twitter platform.
It says breaking boundaries in DeFi.
I just want to know what that is and can you elaborate further on what it entails?
Yeah, that's a good question.
So first of all, this tweet is mainly devoted that we are currently relaunching our YouTube page
with the new content with the new videos that will explain users what we are doing
and how to complete swaps on our platform.
But secondly, just our goal since the start of the project.
We tried to create the most convenient platform for users that like to explore crypto world
and stick to this goal to this day.
So back in 2021, Rubik was the first platform who introduced cross-chain swaps into the modern way they work.
So it was just select one token, select the other token on a different blockchain
and complete swap using breaches and DEXs.
It was quite innovative back then.
Now it's just a standard technology.
But in 2021, we were the first who introduced this.
Later, we decided not to proceed to develop our own technology and rely on aggregation.
But already this approach allowed us to create quite unique platform and tools
that simplify the way people are working in web free.
So right now, all of these technologies which we someday started are integrated into Rubik.
And we like that all of these improvements in the sphere allowed users to not only choose between two different cross-chains
but for example, go to the Rubik and check their fees, their speed, their rates
and choose the best one of the providers or the DEXs for the swap.
Beside that, we also support non-EVM chains that are unavailable on most breaches and cross-chain platforms.
Networks like BTC, Litecoin, Ripple and others are available for swap at Rubik.
And this also makes us quite unique and also breaks the current boundaries of EVM limited chains.
Yeah, I totally agree with you, especially having non-EVM compatible chains on your platform is quite good.
Because when we talk about Ripple, for instance, they have one of the largest army, sorry, largest supporters.
When I talk about army, I mean supporters and followers, right?
So it's quite good that you have all these people who want to do cross-chain swapping, come onto your platform
and then do it seamlessly without all the hustle of the process.
So for a huge platform like this, it's like yours, it's a good target for hackers.
Yesterday, we've seen that Bangi was exploited and these exploitations have been come rampant in this space.
And most listeners, as well as your users, are really focused on security no matter what.
We are concerned about security.
So I just want to ask and put to rest this question about security on your platform
so that all listeners and viewers can also go trade on your platform,
seamlessly build trust on the platform, bear your answer.
So the question is security is of utmost importance in DeFi applications
and what have Rubik Exchange done in regards to securing the platform?
First of all, we feel really sad for Bangi that this happened.
But as we researched this problem appeared not only on Bangi but also on different cross-chain protocols
throughout the last few years.
And yeah, there is always room for improvement in security.
And as one of the seasoned players in the cross-chain markets,
we have worked on the best practices of mundane security for our users,
alongside with SDK and our integrators of our widget SDK.
So security is one of our highest priorities since the last few years.
And we really try to stand out in these terms.
First, we don't rely on our backend or any of our technology.
As an aggregator, we aggregate multiple breaches, the access,
and we're constantly tracking what is going on with them.
So we always have a possibility to switch them off if something is going wrong
or we see that people are reporting that funds are missing
or they report that they're hacked or anything.
It could be disabled quite fast.
Beside that, we also have quite large infrastructure team and development support
which are always tracking the best practices in the sphere
to ensure the safety of swaps of our users.
And the other thing that we never keep funds of our users and our front-end.
So as I said, every transaction is completed with API from our providers
and our indexes which were integrated.
So we send calls directly to their smart contracts.
And we also have quite our own features like staking and our own treasury.
All of these are secured with
done your research into security properly.
You've placed measures in place in case of any incidents
and you've also had adequate developer teams and security teams in place
to help solve security issues.
So yeah, I would say having regular security audits by external and internal security teams
and having a proactive incident response strategy
demonstrates a strong commitment to a secure environment
and creating a secure environment and a trustworthy environment for users.
And it's evident that Rubik Exchange places paramount emphasis on security
and safeguarding users assets and data.
So what this proves is that users can safely integrate, sorry, trade on the platform
and sleep at night because there are people who are always active
monitoring the platform if there are issues with any decks
or any other platform that is integrated with Rubik.
They just switch it off if there's any issues going on
or they'll just rapidly respond to that.
So having this proactive incident response strategy is good.
And thank you for taking the extra mile
to make sure that the platform is safe for users.
I forgot to mention audits.
We also have passed different audits by Zyrtec and Fairyproof and others.
Just forgot to mention it.
For a big project like this,
I'm confident that you've already had audits from,
let's say, Picshield or Solidproof or other auditing firms.
So, yeah, I just mentioned that it's good
that I have external and internal security teams and audits, yeah.
I have confidence in that.
Now, talking about linear ecosystem projects, yeah.
I know you've integrated with EK saying,
AbhiChom, you've mentioned them quite often.
So why did you decide to deploy on linear
and how has your experience been?
So, yeah, linear was on our side since Q2 2023
once they launched their testnet.
Unfortunately, we didn't have our testnet page back in May.
But we were really patiently waiting for a linear mainnet launch.
We were in touch with their team.
And once they went live on mainnet,
we quickly integrated with the help of our partners.
And once everything was ready, it was launched.
And one of the main reasons why we were interested in creating linear,
it was its approach on how they work with their audience
and with their communities.
The growth strategies was quite impressive, at least for me.
So at least the success of the first linear launch was really big.
And other events showed us that linear would be really popular blockchain
and interesting ecosystem to work with.
And it also has quite a big user base.
Our team is quite happy, and I would say really happy that we didn't miss it.
And last year, around 10% of all of our swaps were completed to the linear chain.
And this stats is not decreasing.
Linear is still popular and a lot of people are joining it.
Maybe they will launch another voyage or another campaign
which will also massively increase traffic,
but we will see it later this year right now.
Yeah, linear has one of the huge followers and active user base.
And it's quite interesting to see almost all the five platforms deployed on linear.
The linear default voyage, for instance, was a huge success.
Most of the protocols we've had on building blocks with linear system series
talk about the fact that they had huge engagements coming from linear native users.
And it's quite good to see that linear projects and linear ecosystem projects
are giving these good remarks about the platform.
So building on linear is no brainer.
For any DeFi protocol who wants to increase their user base,
deploying on linear is like the easiest hack you should know.
Sorry for using the hack, but maybe easiest tip you should utilize
to help increase your user base and also increase your TV all as well.
So as DeFi continues to expand,
what measures do you think is essential for enhancing user education,
security awareness, and further adoption and trust in the decentralized finance ecosystem?
Oh yeah, that's a good one.
Since we're quite long on the market,
we think that it's kind of our little bit to dedicate our community
and to be a part of this DeFi ecosystem which explains to people how everything works.
Our main approach right now is to create unique articles and videos
when playing the security, how it's built, how different protocols and features work
and what could be done to prevent any loss of count.
So of course we can make all of our users to read them.
But the recent statistics on our blog says that
more and more people are trying to get a deeper understanding of what's going on in the DeFi world
It is great news and one of the things which I could personally recommend
is to read deep dives before trading or starting working with any of the protocols.
This might help any user to understand what are these depths,
what they're trying to build and what you could do with them.
And one of my favorites are the five deep dives.
They're quite good about the cross-chain, about everything.
Yeah, that's quite good and I actually agree with you, totally agree with you
because in futures it's doing the same.
Yeah, so we have a dedicated platform which we call Cine Academy.
So it's an academy where you learn anything about cryptocurrency.
So not only about DeFi, we cover blockchain, we cover NFTs
because we also have an NFT platform and futures.
So yeah, we cover NFTs, scriptures, blockchains, DeFi, centralized exchanges.
So it's like a one-stop shop for DeFi narratives and DeFi deep dives.
So newbies and people already using DeFi can just visit Cine Futures Academy
and learn more about DeFi protocols, how to swap, how to trade,
how to trade futures on decentralized finance platforms
and other interesting articles and topics as well.
So I think education is one of the best ways to help foster broader adoption
and trust in the decentralized finance
because newbies need to know that in DeFi you are your own custodians.
You have to learn more about security because everything about security falls on you.
So you have to learn more about security, you have to learn more about the choices you made.
If you are trading futures, you have to learn more about AMMs, other books,
about funding rate and all these stuffs.
So I think education is the key that we need to expand DeFi
and also to help create security awareness in this space.
Now for like two weeks or two weeks ago we had BTC ETF approval
which is one of the exciting news we've received this year
which is just 18 days old.
Yeah, so BTC ETF approval is a huge step towards regulation.
As a DeFi protocol, what is your view or take on these historical events?
So would you like to first talk about the fake announcement, the real one?
Yeah, let's talk about the real one.
Yeah, we can just put in the fake one and then laugh about it, yeah.
Yeah, as a DeFi protocol we really expect BTC to help the market rise
and as we're failing we're stepping in into the bull run quite soon
especially closer to the howling.
But I think it already started even before BTC approval
when only rumors started to be placed around December or November last year.
Everything is doing good since then and we think that quite soon
maybe closer to the May and the howling the market will rise even more
and the activity not only on taxes and people will not be active
not only in taxes but also it will show some positive price movements for the DeFi world
and especially the amount of new users which will come.
As you've seen in the last bull run a lot of new users came in
and started making trades and being I would say addictive to the DeFi
and we hope that more and more people will join the DeFi sphere and become active
and once they become active they will also search different chains
and we will be there for them to help.
As my personal reaction I was really sad that I didn't take later with me
but then I decided that it was maybe for good at least for now.
Yeah, he said everything right so BTC ETF approval from my perspective
I'm not going to say from some future's perspective because that's it.
So from my perspective I think it's a good deal.
Currently we have some regulatory body I can say
and also there is this huge influx of interest.
There is this huge curiosity in cryptocurrencies now due to this up and down
SEC getting hacked, SEC posting we are not going to least approve BTC
the up and down with BlackRock and the other Squarebase.
This proved some sort of curiosity in this space.
It's like everybody is listening to this news, reading this news
and they're like what is going on with Bitcoin? What is going on with crypto?
They are curious. So with they haven't come in and with the bull run coming
I'm sure we are going to have an influx of users
and we are going to see exponential growth in all these platforms
and Rubik Exchange who has like over 200 integrations
who have huge influx of users
because if one particular platform is doing something right
and having huge influx of users, more users will trade on Rubik as well.
So we are going to see huge influx of users as a result of BTC ETF approval
and as a result of the bull run that's coming.
And I think it's hilarious to see the up and down
and no we didn't approve, yes we did approve
and yeah, it was an exciting week that we read
and most people got huge sums of money from that up and down
so those string traders were really happy.
I didn't put in any trade because I like stable movements
I bought a little BTC after the fake announcement
and the moment I bought I received the notification that it was fake
and so it was just a quick bump and dump for me.
Yeah, well it was exciting.
Yeah, those who got lucky made money, those who weren't active
got liquidated and that's how the system is.
So yeah, I just wish to see how it will be in bull run.
I have noticed you have a vibrant community on both Twitter and Discord
so can you please share some light on how you keep your community engaged
and do you have any ongoing campaigns or upcoming community events?
I noticed you have a Galaxy New Year Festival 2024 campaign
ongoing on Galaxy and in collaboration with SyncSwap
and the prize pool is $170K and a Tesla which is really pumped up
and I'm sure you're going to get huge influx of participants for this particular event
because winning a Tesla and sharing $170K is quite huge.
So can you share some light on this particular event and other events you have ongoing?
Yeah, we really love our community.
Since the early days, they played quite a big part in proposing technical improvements of Rubik
and give us some ideas that help the platform to grow.
Right now, the core of the team is not that active in the communities
but we have main communicators as our communicators like Ali who is presented here
and also our tech support which is always in the chats
and always try to help our customers if they encounter any problem while swapping on our platform.
So we really appreciate that not only the community itself is active
but also some of the individuals who helps us to build and engage this community
more into our campaigns and what we are building.
So in terms of campaigns, yeah, it was quite a good campaign with Galaxy.
We were invited to join this New Year campaign as well as Syncswap was.
Since we are in quite good relationships with Syncswap, we decided to collaborate and unite our campaigns.
So they had their own campaign with our tasks and we had our own campaign with their tasks
and it showed quite a good result for both our and their team.
Yeah, Galaxy New Year Festival was quite a great event
and we hope that Galaxy will proceed with these events as well as other platforms
which we participated in the New Year campaigns. It was Questan and Tascone.
All of them have been quite good and we think that more of them will come in February
closer to the 14th of February since it is St. Valentine's.
And more people will engage and maybe even Bullrun will start with that.
So we are now starting to plan our next campaigns.
They most likely will be devoted to the new integrated blockchains and testnets.
As I mentioned in the beginning of February, we will start the first one with Tascone
and maybe other, I can't tell you yet, at least right now.
But as a platform which supports these amounts of networks and everything,
we try to always participate and create campaigns which will encourage users to be more active in the blockchain ecosystems
and especially if we were inviting in some sort of campaign,
we always try to be proactive to become the significant part of these ecosystems.
Yeah, I think that's good and having these types of campaigns
not only pump up the community to keep engaging with the platform
but also gives back to the communities for their dedication to the platform
and also help retain these users.
Because as you know, the community is quite an integrated part of every project
and without the community, no one uses your product.
So the product is for the community and having these campaigns
help the community to keep interacting with the platform
and keep being active and also telling their friends and their loved ones
and also anyone they know to trade on your platform to get on board and hang out on your platform.
And from the future's perspective, our approach to community engagement is quite unique.
We have Sinquiz where we give the top five winners of our Sinquiz participation
and also random winners, USDC rewards every Friday.
So we have also community games where we reward winners every Wednesday
and we have other community campaigns ongoing on Galaxy.
We've already updated another campaign on Miseral and other platforms as well.
So when it comes to community engagement, there are so many things we are doing
in absent futures to keep our community engaged
and to keep our community interactive with our platform.
Now we have development roadmap.
Every project has a milestone, a roadmap and timeline
for where they want to go to, how they want to get there.
So I would like to ask what the main focus of Rubik is in the next few months.
You've mentioned that in February, we'll be planning on setting testnets,
but I would like to know what the development roadmap looks like.
So, yeah, first of all, I would like to say that we have a few directions for each quarter of the next year.
And one of them is improvement over our platform.
And second is integrating of new chains.
We always keep a gap for our development team to have a chance to quite rapidly integrate
a newly launched chain, which wasn't announced before.
So we would be right on time when the hype is there.
So for the first of all, yes, as I said, this integration of new chain indexes.
Right now, we're integrating one non-EVM chain, which is quite like the biggest one,
with the most AVL, and the several EVM chains, and at least one testnet,
which have been recently announced, it's very chain.
Once everything will be ready from other project sites, we will integrate them.
So, yeah, it's like our, the first part, second part is improvement of our platforms.
We will integrate more DEXs, which will provide better equity for the swaps and for the users.
We are also planning to improve our swap-to-earn mechanics.
Ruby has a swap-to-earn mechanism where we reward our users for completing swaps at our platform.
Right now, we give away like 50% of our fee for each swap.
And we are currently planning to make a gamification for that,
with different achievements in other systems.
I can say more, because it's still in, I would say, in the final stages of planning.
But, yeah, we're planning to improve our current mechanism
and also provide better experience for the users who didn't swap at Trubic yet.
So, they could really understand what's going on
and also receive some sort of fees and maybe even a competition for them to join.
So, they could receive prizes from Ruby or from our partners.
So, right now, it is all of our plans for Q1.
I want to be able to share your plans for other quarters
because they're really rapidly changing with what is going on in the Cryptosphere.
As an issue, we rely on the technology, on our partners, on what they're building.
If something will be really hyped up, like any kind of chain, any kind of technology,
we will be able to quickly add it and it will be supported at Trubic.
We always try to keep an eye on the market and what is popular.
So, it will be available for all of our customers already on our page
or on the page of our partners if they haven't created our SDK or widget.
So, it is quite important for us to have this kind of flexibility if we are an aggregator.
Yeah, that's quite impressive.
There's one thing I kind of left out.
Yeah, it's like you have a stick2n platform and there's a stick2n campaign.
Do you have any details on that?
Because it seems like most people are having huge gains out of huge APIs.
So, I don't want my listeners to miss out on that.
Yeah, our APR depends on the traffic of our platform and the amount of swaps.
For example, during the September campaign,
we have been celebrating our third birthday.
We had the APR around 150%.
So, it really depends on the volume which is coming through the Rubik.
Once a week, we report the API which is currently
and you always can find it yourself or directly on our platform on the stick2n page.
So, for the last week, it was every GPR of 45%.
So, we are keeping quite a good APRs because of the traffic
and all the users which are swapping on our platform.
There's planned to be some updates, but unfortunately, I can't share anything yet.
Even as huge as 150%, it's not quite huge.
It's huge because coming from the bear market,
most APIs are either 10%, 20%, 5%, 7%.
So, 150 is quite huge and I'm sure that's why the users are quite hyped about that.
So, thank you for sharing that with us.
I just want to mention that our roadmap in the future is quite straightforward.
So, currently, we've launched our B3 testnet and after testnet, it's a mainnet.
So, we are looking to launch our mainnet in quarter one this year.
It's going to be quite huge.
And also, we've launched a form for early users or early participants of this mainnet.
So, if you haven't yet filled this public testing form,
make sure you visit our Twitter page, same features, DeFi,
and search for the form and fill it.
Then you get access to try out this mainnet platform as early as possible.
Yeah. So, thank you, Andrew, for joining us today.
Do you have any more announcements to make or something to say?
Yeah, we would be happy if listeners could check our updates on our Medium blog
or also on our native blog, which will be launched soon.
You also can subscribe to our Twitter where we post all of our updates
and all of our important information about the recent articles,
and campaigns that are launching and we're joining in.
We also would be happy to support and work closer with you.
So, I think the Bull Run will help everyone to improve
and Rubik is here to help you and any other project or any customer
to have the best experience for swaps and for trading.
And we need to offer any project and you too, so...
Yeah, we would be happy to work and thank you for inviting me.
It was actually one of my first TMA's and I hope it went well.
Yeah, it went really well.
Yeah, so thank you for your time.
So, I would like to invite everyone who joined our building blogs
to check out some features and also check out Rubik.
We recently launched our V33net, as I earlier said,
which is still ongoing and available for public testing.
So, feel free to join our socials and also join Rubik as well.
Follow them on Twitter, join their Discord server
and we have lots of events that you can participate in.
Don't forget to join both communities on Discord and Telegram as well.
And follow us on Twitter.
Remember to turn on your notification
so that you don't miss out on any campaigns, any events
and any giveaways that we might have planned coming up.
So, thank you, Andrew, for your time.
Thank you for answering our invitation.
Happy to talk to you. Thank you very much.
It was a pleasure. Thank you.
Yeah, and shout out to Ali.
Andrew mentioned, so shout out to you
for all the work you've been doing in Rubik.
Thank you. And to all our listeners, yeah.
I've seen moderators from Scene Futures as well.
So, we have Aki, we have Daniel, who is also known Talon,
and we have Carlos also here. So, good work to you all.
And thank everyone for joining today.
It's been great having you.
So, have a great day and have a great week.
I have nothing, nothing, nothing in my arms.