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Late Night(ly) show #6 - RHEA
Recorded: April 11, 2025 Duration: 0:47:49Space Recording
Short Summary
RIA Finance is launching its new token, aiming to streamline DeFi operations on the NEAR blockchain through a strategic merger with Ref Finance and Burrow. This initiative is set to enhance user engagement and drive growth by offering a unified platform for liquidity solutions and innovative tokenomics.
Full Transcription
Thank you. you
gmgm guys how are you guys doing uh we have had and had some difficulties with twitter as always but I think everything is good right now we'll be having folks
from rare finance I guess I I don't know how to pronounce it we'll be asking it
about it yeah so can you guys hear me yeah yeah testing testing can you hear
me yeah oh good pleasure how are you? Yeah, good, good, good. And you?
All good, all good. By the way, what's your name?
Just call me Kim.
Kim. Okay, gotcha. Not Kim from North Korea, I guess.
Just, you know. You never know, right?
Yeah, so a pleasure to be too kim um by the way do i pronounce it correctly there are finals or uh real finance yeah ria okay so we have like e
and then we do okay we are fine gotcha gotcha uh yeah pleasure uh we'll be talking mostly about RIA finance uh how they are doing and what they
are doing and what they are applying in a future um yeah so if you don't mind uh giving us like
you know a quick intro what RIA is and what you are responsible there that would be lovely yeah yeah sure sure so hi everyone
so my name is Kim I'm actually from Southeast Asia I'm from Malaysia so I'm currently the
content lead of RIA finance and also RIA foundation. So basically, you can see me as the person
behind all those daily postings in RIA and also previously
Burrow, medium articles, and most importantly, memes, graphics.
So basically, I'm the guy who transfer information
to you on social media.
So a little bit about me.
Always love writing. Have a growing bit about me, always love writing,
have a growing interest in design and graphics right now,
actually.
And I've been in the space for almost four years now.
Yeah, back then it was the peak of the bull market
and the state for the culture.
And yeah, here I am.
So Real Finance is actually, I would say,
the leading tax in NIR.
So we are focused on abstracting all the difficulties
of on-chain activities.
And yeah, and currently we have rebanded into real finance.
We can talk about this much more uh later but uh if you if i want
to like explain we are finance in one sentence it will be like it is the chain abstracted liquidity
solution uh especially for real uh near near uh the near uh blockchain yeah
gotcha nice so you are the man behind all of the memes right yeah yeah that's true
gotcha so um how is it for you to to work on crypto project have you previously also worked
on like you know casual startup and decided like hey i want to join web3 or are you just holding the bugs from like back 2020
uh for me i think um i work as as content writer i think i work here and there so i would say i was
actually quite early uh my career started quite early together with Web3 actually.
So yeah, like it aligns with like I graduated then a few years,
then I started working in Web3. So I would say that I spend most of my time in this space.
And yeah, so as a content person, right, it's not as straightforward as other industries
where you say like work in work here and there for for us it's more like in content it's
more like how you deliver a message so the product could be 100 different things and
your goal is to make sure that the message is delivered clearly,
the copy is written clearly, and it may lead to, let's say,
getting leads, getting traction, and all that.
So the principles stay the same.
So yeah, I think that's a little bit of my background.
So I would say that I started my career in Web3.
You can put it that way yeah
gotcha gotcha yeah that that's cool that's cool uh i'm kind of on the same boat that i kind of
only work in web3 uh so so that's great uh but i would love to you know go back to like
finance borrow how does it happen that you know both of those uh protocols are
connecting under a single brand yeah uh so um about the merger right so like why why do we come
up with the idea of merging this yeah yeah exactly like usually people don't like doing this. I think this is like a first time that we see something like this.
Yeah. So the idea of the merger actually happened at the start of this year, which is 2025.
I think we had a discussion internally and what is the future future of both ref and bureau so a little bit of context
uh these two products have been here i would say like quite some time so ref started uh the project
started in mid 2021 and bureau started early 2022 so essentially these two are
pretty mature products
and like we have
we are thinking like
what's the next step of this
since people are already using this
and like the idea is that
okay let's merge these two
together at one
site
so I mean like the liquidity is more concentrated I think
it's easier for people for us to from at least from the marketing side it's
easier for us to direct users to a one-stop like trading center in the
ecosystem on real finance where you can do everything. You can do borrow, lending, staking, farm yield, all in one place.
Previously, it was two separate things.
Now we just join it together as one.
I can elaborate more.
So just let's say if you have any questions
before I move forward.
Yeah, I would love to know like more of your thoughts
about this like um did you guys consider this with that there was some kind of brand uh confusion or
you decided like hey having this under one brand is more aligned with like your future plans
plans yeah so just a quick back story so we realized that like having let's say
two different type of announcements two different type of communities essentially
made our resources quite fragmented especially when you have to divide the
teams into two right so essentially refrow, there are two socials
that you need to handle.
That's one part on my end as a content writer.
Of course, there are other ends as well.
And we realized that this isn't as efficient or as effective
as we wanted.
So the merge also makes it easier for us right now to create a way for users to use just one token
throughout the ecosystem instead of having both tokens, having to compete each other with utility and TVL-wise.
So I mean that's essentially the reason.
One is easier for users to use one token.
The next part is like also it's a more efficient way
of managing our resources.
And from a brand perspective, like I mentioned just now,
the third reason is that having a one-stop place for lending, borrowing, farming, yield, staking, swapping.
At one place, it's much more efficient.
Yeah, so these are three reasons, if I were to break it down.
Gotcha, gotcha.
It really makes sense.
Are there going to be some deeper deeper implementations, like for example,
liquidity pool tokens as a collateral?
So what were you saying? Sorry, I think I got cut off.
Yeah, so I was saying, are there going to be any deeper integration,
like for example, liquid pool tokens.
Like, so you deposit to refine,
I don't know how I should say this,
but you deposit to liquidity pool,
and then you take this token from liquidity pool
and use it as a collateral in borrow running.
No, I think essentially, right.
You can think of the product still works the same way. There's lending, borrowing, there's TVL for lending and borrowing, and there's a TVL for trading.
So these two doesn't mix together with each other. So I would say that, of course, the ultimate implication
is for us having the RIA token.
But as of now, essentially, it still
works the same way as it is before,
just that all of the applications of Ref and Borough
are under one website, under one branding.
Social social, there's only one, which is RIA Finance.
So yeah, I think that's easier to see.
That's we're just merging the brand right now.
All the swappings, all the borrow or trading still works the same way, essentially.
But right now, what's different uh we're going to have a
new uh real token which is uh which uh once merged i think uh it provides more uh there's more utility
and governance essentially yeah oh yeah that's that's interesting park if you don't mind elaborating on this what because uh ref
finance and also bro also had like their their own separate tokens so i'm wondering what's going to
happen with those tokens and how they are going to kind of translate into new real token all right
uh on this like uh i would say the official pr right now is that we're going to have an announcement about this.
But for users, you can think of right now, currently,
we are having this for RIA specifically.
We're having this 10% airdrop for users who found points.
And that's only 10 percent for the remaining 90 percent i think
we are going to go to a conversion a token conversion progress for people to migrate
not migrate like change their tokens from ref and borrow into ria but of course course, it has to be a standardized system that
applies and also that fits all the users.
It has to be a standard metric for those.
But all of this, we're going to have roll out more concrete
and also the next step of how users
can do this.
Right now, currently, these are all
under current planning right now.
Gotcha, gotcha.
So what is going to be a utility of new token?
Oh, yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure.
RIA, right?
Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure. RIA, right? Okay. So like for RIA right now,
so we actually divide RIA into three specific tokens, right?
First up is RIA, just RIA.
So it's the primary ecosystem token.
So you can use RIA to unlock full platform functionality.
And there are two more, actually.
XRIA.
So XRIA is a state version of RIA,
where you can lock your RIA and earn XRIA.
So it's also spendable as a transaction and guest fees and it gives you advantages,
let's say if you stake it, it gives you advantages of like higher APYs and higher
new multipliers of course applies to certain tokens that boost your rewards. Also like there's
also like boosted borrow APYs for example when you stake your when you stake RIA for XRIA.
And the third token is actually ORIA.
So this one is more on the community end.
It's a reward token distributed to platform participants,
which can also be converted into RIA or XRIA based
on the reputation system.
So to put it simply, RIA is the main token.
XRIA is the state version of RIA.
ORIA is as well.
And it's a reward token distributed
to platform participants, which you can either swap to RIA
or XRIA depending on your choice, for example.
So this is the basic overview of ria
oh yeah i i guess that tokenomics are uh getting quite complex right with all of those different
tokens like i think you are uh going to confuse uh some people usually the folks like to, you know, just like click stake or unstake.
Um, so I'm wondering why did you decide like to, uh, maybe not make it like
difficult for people, but you know, adding all of those variations.
Oh, actually like, uh, even currently right now on, let's say on ref finance,
actually we just added one token, which is OREA.
That's more on a reward token distribution.
Even right now, on REF Finance, especially on REF token,
currently, we already have REF and XREF, which
is a state version of ref.
So it basically works the same.
And rea, rea xrea, previously is ref xref.
So it's just a state version.
We added all rea right now.
So means that this token, the main goal
is to stimulate, let's say like more community action so it's more
x more it acts more like a reward token that we distribute to platform participants
for those that let's say complete the task or for example be an ambassador or like complete
a certain like social media tasks that we can reward them so this is the new
one but like real x real is uh it works uh similar to to the current uh ref xref yeah gotcha gotcha
that clarifies uh a lot of things uh yeah that that definitely sounds good i'm wondering um what's like the
parts of the applications that you will be you know focusing on and using token as a you know
kind of flywheel um to get more tractions what what is going to be a focus long term
um long term uh specifically um to be honest right now so uh the team main goal is uh trying to
uh for long term of course like the ideal goal is like uh it's more abstract i would say
like it's more abstract, I would say.
So ideally, we have this new token
could stimulate new blood and also more engagement
in RIA and the near ecosystem as a whole.
But at the short term goal currently,
I think we are aiming to make sure
that the conversion, the process of the token conversion,
is very clear-coded and also simple for people to understand.
And that requires, I think, a lot more back-end resources
to do that.
Yeah, I think that's a short-term goal.
Long-term-wise, honestly, I don't really
have a good answer on that.
But yeah, hopefully we have more traction of RIA.
And also we can have more users who hold RIA and also like with this like a reward system also like simulates them to contribute more to RIA finance.
I think that's more and more general goal. Yeah.
Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. Are you considering uh launching on other blockchains you know we
see like some applications like our uh or uniswap you know going you know to multi-chain are you
guys also interested in something like this uh so like so essentially like uh when we move to other chains, for example,
essentially we are also, in a way,
trying to compete with them in a sense.
So in RIA right now, our focus is bringing the best DeFi
experience for near users i think we don't have
uh a lot of plans for for like other blockchains but one thing to highlight is that we we are
currently like since we are building on the chain abstracted uh vision and liquidity we are doing like working on more things that allows
people to move from other blockchains into our ecosystem for example we have
this aggregated bridge where you can bridge certain tokens USDT USDC even
so if from other chains into NIR to farm yield.
I think that's one of the things that we have in currently.
And yeah, so outside of these features, we also have other features, for example,
like vaults, meme season, margin trading,
lending borrowing, and more.
So it makes so that people in Nier
have a ton more way to interact and enjoy their time
in Nier currently.
So I would say the short answer is uh no right now i think we are quite uh
occupied with like trying to grow within near and especially when after we ban we have
uh i think there's more things to try currently and and yeah i think we are more focused currently in the near ecosystem.
But as I said, we do allow opportunities from other blockchains to connect into RIA via aggregated bridge since we are a chain abstracted solution.
Yeah.
Okay.
Gotcha. Okay, gotcha, gotcha. I'm wondering, have you guys seen some kind of spike
in usage, in user base, in overall tractions
since the new Intents launched?
Honestly, let's say in this market, for example.
I think you again got cut off or your mic is muted
can you hear me oh i cannot hear you i guess or maybe it's me hello
uh uh you see if you like you are trying to unmute yourself but i don't see like a
dot that indicates that we are speaking
so yeah probably twitter again is trying to mess with us
oh so oh i just got noticed that this is a problem with me.
Maybe I will just reconnect.
That will be easier.
So feel free to kind of entertain the audience for now.
All right, right.
Sure, sure, sure.
So like in the audience, if you can hear me, can you just...
Oh, yeah, yeah. Just put an emoji so that I know.
Yeah, I can hear you now, can you hear me?
Gotcha, gotcha.
I don't know why the X is acting up.
Yeah, so I was asking how's your traction since new intents launched?
I would say this way, I think I can share a little bit about this, a lot of the, let's
say like the trading volume as a DEX, right?
It ties entirely on the market itself.
So the short answer is that, let's say from, there are two
worlds I would say.
One is the text scene, and one is the market scene.
So the text scene, we have this intense AI agents.
But on the market scene, I think it's more like things
like volume, APYs, and also
like MIM coins, for example.
So these are two very different things.
So I mean, currently, we do see a larger amount of transactions
and volume, especially not these two weeks I would say like the I think two weeks ago that
that was when we had the highest volume of course right now right like looking
at the market right now I it's I think it's obvious to say that the the the
trading volume in general TVLL and everything, simmer down a
little bit. But what we have observed is that users don't really care about the tech.
And when we had a spike, I think two weeks ago, it was due to when we launch our point system and also like the announcements of RIA is where
like we see more like volume and also like across all products lending borrowing
TVL trading volume I think yeah I would say that intense attack scene maybe is
exciting but let's say we in the market scene
maybe don't really feel much of the effects.
I would say probably it's a different audience.
And probably I would say that it's best
if users don't really understand the tech behind,
but able to do things, for much quicker so so yeah yeah that'll
be my answer yeah gotcha gotcha so are you even like looking for onboarding people from other
like blockchain stuff that make sense since you know thanks to their new intents, they could be like, you know,
kind of be really easily breached towards near, right?
Yeah, so like, I think it's a mission,
let's say for us as well, let's say,
because right now currently RealFinance
is the leading DAX with the highest TVL, right?
So in a way we kind of have the responsibility
for us to also drive more trading volume internally and especially from other
ecosystems right but that's the goal but I would say essentially what people are looking right now
is either whether you have a new token.
I would say like this, like in the previous cycle,
whenever the L1 token is hot or the L2 tokens is hot,
there's a market effect of all all the ecosystems in the in the l2s
the token prices everything pumps up as well that's what creates hype right i would say that
in this cycle it doesn't necessarily work that way i suspect that a lot of a lot of the a lot of liquidity is driven to meme coins, but that's another topic.
But I would say this, looking at this, essentially what we are seeing, the trader's psychology,
is that if there's good yield, good tokens, things are hype, we have we bring in liquidity from other chains
i think that's how it works currently right now at the market so i would say that it's kind of our
our role to make sure that we ourselves are exciting i think one of the part of the reasons
that we decided to do this merge is also like this as well. Like it or not, it's an attraction-based market,
essentially, currently.
And yeah, I would say that there has
to be a reason for users to bridge over,
either you have really good APIs or your token is really good,
or the ecosystem is buzzing, for example.
And things like how easy for it to cross over, that's important as well.
It's a fundamental.
Right now, it's up to us and the community and the devs to pick ourselves up to match
the infra, I would say.
Yeah.
If that answers your question yeah so this was
really elaborate right thank you for that i get to know a lot of things uh yeah so it for sure
makes sense um you've mentioned the meme coins um so i'm wondering how the meme coins are doing on the Nier?
Like it or not, I think, say, like, compared to Solana, right? I would say that it's obvious that Solana even base, i would say like we do have an audience but i would say that it's
clear that it's relatively uh lower that is actually at a lower rate right now i think
uh i would say that um i'll say this i think there's a lot of uh improvement to be made right now i think especially
after we run through uh 10 meme seasons right essentially like uh like we already have like
existing communities supporting uh meme coins already i think that's a given like a black dragon
points already i think that's a given like a black dragon long shih tzu i think we have but
uh we stagnate in a point where like let's say like the top voters of meme season uh is currently
circulating within these five communities i think we have a meme season where like uh we have people
vote about their favorite memes and like i think there's five or there's five
meme tokens that are essentially rotating around so like i would say there is a community base but
it's right it's rather uh small uh right now yeah so if you want to compare like we definitely had
a smaller size that's a fact uh but i think there's there's a lot there's there is much more potential moving forward yeah I think that every man's gotcha gotcha I've seen
you you guys have some like a meme feed or feed the beam I'm wondering how does
it work oh I think essentially like when you stick all of these memes right so like on top of the APYs
we actually boosted the APYs with like we have people vote for example of the top five memes
and then of the top five memes that let's's say, won. On their polls, we added extra rewards.
So previously, right now, even right now,
it's, let's say it's 6% APY, for example.
And then we added another 4%, which
consists of NIR token and REF token.
So that's basically it.
So you feed your meme, you vote it and once your meme uh gets on
the leaderboard we have the we boost the pool uh with uh ref and near so that's basically how it
works yeah oh okay that's interesting that's interesting i need to try it. Does it also give you points for a new token?
Currently right now, yeah.
For points specifically, I think we
have a Gitbook page where you can see how many you have to trade at a certain threshold to be awarded points.
For example, one sec, we are good book.
Because this might be an interesting product
for people that want to trade memes,
but also earn some some points yeah um essentially
like maybe I can send it in the chat right now if it makes sense yeah one sec by the way in the
meanwhile if anyone has any questions relating you know RIA or RIA token or points,
otherwise please feel free to kind of drop your question in a chat, we'll try to answer it.
Yeah, so basically there's certain actions and point calculations and rules in there.
I think it consists of trading points, providing liquidity,
you can earn points with that as well,
and also community points.
So if you say, let's say you swap more than 1,000
in a single transaction, you get 300 points, essentially,
for the meme season pools.
Basically, it means the five boosted pools on RIA.
So everything is on the Gitbook.
I think I sent a message down there as well in this chat.
Yeah, I can see it.
So yeah, I think I shouldn't explain more.
I think that's the general rule yeah
yeah so you guys heard if you guys want to fund some points uh feel free to go to the
real finance and deposit some money uh i think that that's a greater idea
and also i've seen that some pools have like additional rewards, right?
Directly from Nier.
Yeah, yeah, that's true.
Yeah.
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
I found this really interesting pool of, I think it's Zcash.
I'm wondering how it, you know, got there.
Oh, we have an announcement later, actually actually today oh it's a little bit of
alpha but i think it should be fine so uh stay tuned follow our socials and know very very quickly
yeah yeah so with small alpha i i know if i leak it but it was on the website. So please don't judge me. Yeah. Yeah,
gotcha. So I'm wondering, what's kind of next? What do you
know? Are you guys building anything else? Are you guys
acquiring some new protocols was like the intermediate plan
of the intermediate plan right now?
right now?
I think I can speak from personal experience.
Yeah, currently, of course, right now, our main focus
is to make sure that this RIA token system and this RIA token
launch is successful.
I think that's the most important part,
especially in socials, right?
You need eyeballs, you need hype.
So that's how we can compete with other ecosystems, for example.
But I think in general,
we are also working on expanding to other pools as well, other ecosystems.
For example, right now, if you look at RIA Finance, there's also several BTC, Bitcoin
bridges and also Bitcoin tokens that we have supported where you can
swap and stake as well. I think that's one of the things that we are focusing on
entering the BTC ecosystem. We are connecting with multiple BTC projects
right now. This goes linearly with our RIA token planning as well.
This goes linearly.
And yeah, I think basically something new is this.
I think we are trying to connect more with the BTC ecosystem. And I would say that the immediate solution
that we are offering right now is that, let's say,
you have synthetic BTC or you have just BTC lying around.
And you are trying to see ways you can farm yield,
you can borrow, or you can do things
that you can do with your BTC.
For example, I think we are trying to open that bridge,
maybe simplify the bridging system,
maybe through BTC protocols with us,
where you can also at the same time have your BTC
and also farm yield in RIA Finance, for example.
I think this is one part, one tiny part
that we are aiming as well.
I mean, yeah, I think these are two parts.
For me personally, it's the uh the real
token launch and next part is you are also like moving into the btc ecosystem more yeah
great great i i love it and i think also like that the btc ecosystem is is also a great bet
uh you know btc has the biggest assets and it's in my opinion still underutilized in
a lot of like defy protocols right yeah yeah definitely um one more small question i would like some fancy word in latin uh so like um so a little bit of quick back story so rhea is based on
actually a greek goddess of life uh where like all traits uh of of aenea are done through Ria. So we are trying to, I would say,
right now you've seen our mascot, right?
So it's a lion.
And let's say from the branding perspective,
we try to make it,
although we are repeated in two ways,
one is the more professional,
like simplified, nice looking designs.
And the other one is actually
you see like stuff like desert more cartoonish characters
but yeah I would say if you want to like the like a brief story is like
it's based on the Greek god of life we choose lion
because we think that the paw, right?
I think there's something more edgy and also more powerful
in the world.
For example, if you are a beast, you are constantly moving.
And we think that lion is the best fit.
So that's where the mascot and the logo,'s say the logo right essentially a a a lion paw right there
and it's like uh for the backstory it's based on the greek goddess of life
i think you can search it up right now but yeah so like um i think you mentioned like two parts
right one is the more professional like uh uh graphics the other part is and we try
to see if we can uh implement more greek elements i think we did try a few posts but yeah it's
it's moving linearly as well i think we're also discovering while we are pushing but
if you're asking about like the name and the logo i think these are the answers yeah
the logo i think these are the answers yeah
gotcha gotcha yeah that's great that's great um
thank you thank you for for asking all those questions
um this is the last last last one question i promise you
and it's more like you know personal one um i like to
ask at the end of like you know, at the end of the spaces,
what's like your life lesson that you would like to tell,
let's say younger self, like, I don't know,
drink two liters of water a day, something like that.
That kind of changes your life.
I would say like try out, try multiple things in general, be it something across your domain,
I would say like,
for example.
And the key part of this is like be curious as well.
I think these are the two parts that helped me personally.
Because previously, I can give one a little tiny example
is I was a person who just knows how to write.
And I have like zero sense of like doing graphics,
doing videos, anything.
I didn't touch that domain at all.
And once I was presented, one day I was just talking to a friend.
And then I'm interested to learn how to do graphics.
Because as a content writer, sometimes you
get fed up when your message can't pass through the designers,
per se.
And there's a lot of communications that's needed
written.
And you started to have to give more examples to them.
And that's the reason that triggers me to learn how to do a little bit of graphics.
So on this, I think it makes my life a lot more easier and in the creative domain and long story
short like learning this be curious of things opens up a new domain for me so
right now I'm say like someone who can do a writing and also a graphic design. So when you learn multiple things,
I would say that you expand your creativity.
And also the things that you can do are much more larger.
And for me, I think that's a superpower
where if you learn more things, you can essentially do more things and that makes you special.
I think that's one life lesson I would tell myself try new things and also be curious.
I think that has helped me a lot as as in my career essentially.
Yeah.
Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah. as in my career essentially yeah gotcha gotcha yeah thank you for that i think this is also like uh something that i would kind of engage with yeah definitely trying but i think this is good for uh growing yourself as a person
uh so yeah i think you guys also should listen and try new things.
Maybe today, maybe this week.
So yeah, thank you again, Kim, for being here, for telling us about real finance and all this cool stuff.
Would you like to kind of say some closing thoughts or like invite people that kind of stages yours
uh thanks nightly so i'm not sure how do i address you right yeah so i'm norbert by the
way or you can call me just and be like nb is is also yeah so uh thanks and be um yeah uh follow ria finance i think that's a way i think um i think right now currently
ria finance is one of the ways where like if you are in the new ecosystem right we essentially is
i would say the best companion for you uh like when you are looking in the new ecosystem.
And currently, we are doing multiple exciting things
that I mentioned just now, like the token launch,
the BTC narrative, and the amounts of ways you can earn
yield, farm yield, earn points.
Yeah, I think and also like if you like memes, you definitely like Real Finance as well.
So yeah, follow Real Finance and thank you guys for attending this talk today.
Great, great. Thanks.
Yeah, so you guys heard it. Go follow Real Finance. Definitely visit
their website, their lending, their staking, trading and all of the exciting features they
have. They basically have everything you guys need. And obviously, you guys should use nightly wallet we work perfectly with real finance
and also swap inside nightly is actually powered by the area finance so that's like small
easter egg so yeah thanks again kim and let's do it again in the future. See ya, take care, and have a great, great weekend.
Thanks, MB. Thanks, everyone.
Bye.
Host
Nightly
from
Nightly Wallet
Speaker
Rhea Finance
from
Rhea Finance
