Interview with Danny, co-founder of Tranchess.
- What sets Tranchess apart as a platform?
Tranchess is a protocol on both BNB Chain and Ethereum. It is an asset tracking management protocol providing varied risk returns for users. Users who have BNB, BTC, ETH or even stablecoins such as BUSD/USDC on hand would be able to find a suitable product that best fits their needs in terms of risk profiles versus returns. We have liquid staking capabilities on both chains and aspire to be the best in class in providing liquid staking services and structured product offerings.
Our vision and motivation generally centers around bringing the best of TradFi products and to intertwine with the flexibility and efficiency that Decentralized Finance has to offer. We believe in innovating products that provide sustainable long term returns and provide the correct risk tiering and diversification for users. We do not discern users of any types and instead look to welcome and provide appropriate products and solutions to all users.
DAO: We are also building a TCC (Tranchess Community Counsel) team which originated from our Tranchess Trooper of the Month group, actively exploring the most efficient ways to achieve DAO governance.
2. What is the unique advantage of building on BNB Chain? Why did you choose to build on BNB Chain?
BNB Chain is well known for its high performance and reliability, which are our first and foremost concerns. Knowing that BNB Chain has the strong support of an ecosystem, being the world’s largest smart contract blockchain by daily active users, Tranchess is ensured of the exposure and network which is growing in the millions. The successes of many major as well as small crypto projects on BNB Chain also gives us great confidence in moving towards this direction.
Additionally, as a validator on BNB Chain, Tranchess values BNB Chain’s continuous effort as a top leading POS (Proof-Of-Stake) chain that provides one of the most active and robust blockchain networks. The fast and continuous growth of the ecosystem translates directly to the strong need and support of validator nodes, which in turn reflects a consistent and significant yield return to the validator node.
3. How can BNB Chain benefit Tranchess?
I think the first thing would definitely be the low gas fee and transaction time onchain — both are fundamental elements every projects would consider, especially DeFi projects like ours. On top of the low gas fee, the BNB Chain also has an amazing gas grant program which I think can mean a lot for new projects at its early stage.
BNB Chain also has a friendly and helpful environment for bootstrapping projects, both from the technical side and the community side. Its Kickstart program consolidated most developing tools and external service providers that every project could need before and after its launch. It covers DeFi, NFT, GameFi and so on, which allows the core team to focus on developing and perfecting the features of their projects without worrying about the miscellaneous. And I believe I don’t have to mention the community of the BNB Chain — they have always been enthusiastic, active and supportive along the way.
4. Are there any BNB Chain technical features or products that Tranchess is excited about?
Besides everything mentioned above, I think there are two which I really look forward to: the BNB Greenfield and opBNB.
BNB Greenfield is essentially a decentralized data storage system where users can store, exchange, and own data to create a new data economy within the existing powerful BNB Chain ecosystem. What’s more important is the time of this release. A strong data storage system has never been as important as it is now, with AI and big data computation getting more and more attention every day, so I truly believe that a stable and highly functional decentralized data storage system will help blockchain projects to add features they couldn’t add before with more efficient processing.
And opBNB is BNB Chain’s layer-2 solution that everyone has been talking about for a while now. With average gas fees of just $0.005 and 4K TPS, my team and I look forward to seeing how this technical development can help the protocols’ optimization of the technical performance.
5. Where can developers and projects go to find out about building on BNB Chain?
For anyone interested in learning more about the BNB Chain, here are some links that might come handy:
https://www.bnbchain.org/en/hackvolution
6. What are the team members’ backgrounds?
Tranchess team hails from diverse experiences and backgrounds — From roles in Tech giants such as Microsoft, Facebook, Google to investment banks such as Morgan Stanley, UBS, BNP Paribas, etc. Quite a handful of our C-Suite members were from investment banks, asset management firms and hedge funds, whilst our CTO is particularly experienced with cyber security in centralized crypto exchanges and DeFi protocols. In terms of locations, team members “Decentralize” across US, Europe, Asia.
Many of us have been in crypto since early 2017. We want to be the gateway between TradFi and Defi and serves as the first stop for those first entering in the the DeFi world, and we believe that the synergy from this team of diversity is what helps us achieve this goal.
7. How does Chainlink fit into the picture for Tranchess?
We chose Chainlink, for our daily settlement process, as a smooth and steady price feed was a prerequisite to this particular design. Chainlink Price Feeds are well known for having wide market coverage and robust oracle infrastructure that’s proven highly resilient during extreme market volatility and network congestion and it should come as no surprise as a natural selection for Tranchess.
We have also integrated Chainlink Automation last year for its ability to free up the protocol from the mundane yet essential daily tasks via smart contract automation. Being a DeFi protocol with complex structure and smart contract designs, Tranchess has definitely enjoyed the convenience brought by the full-suite of Chainlink price feed and Chainlink keeper.
8. Why did you choose to build with Chainlink? What does Chainlink uniquely unlock for the BNB Chain ecosystem?
When it comes to price oracles we are looking for something that’s decentralized, stable, and reliable with a proven track record from the market, and Chainlink price feed meets these requirements, providing us with solid data for our daily settlement.
The daily settlement in the Tranchess protocol is a routine yet fundamental action that involves a series of transactions. The combination of Chainlink Automation and the ecosystem of BNB Chain allows us to run this daily routine in a steady and secure manner at a low cost of gas fees.
9. What specific key results have already been achieved (user growth, new markets, liquidity, total value locked, engineering time saved, etc.)?
Tranchess has been the annual MVB protocol on BNB Chain since launch, and has recently expanded onto Ethereum with its ETH liquid staking product.
Being a DeFi protocol that has been featured multiple times in various mainstream news releases, we will continue our endeavor as the one-stop solution suite for anyone newly into the crypto world.
10. What are your long-term objectives for Tranchess? How does it fit into the future of Web3?
Our long-term objective might seem ambitious when first heard, but is truly the inspiration that led many of the team members into the crypto world: we want to be the gateway between TradFi and Defi, and build Tranchess to become the one-stop solution for any new DeFi users, that is, anyone new to DeFi will be able to experience one or many of the key DeFi features, whether it’s liquid staking, stablecoin yield, or leverage.
As we head into the future of web3, the boundaries between TradFi and DeFi will blur out, and what stands out eventually will be the solutions that meets the individual asset management needs of users, and Tranchess would definitely want to be one of those solutions.
