Last week, our partners at Avalanche hosted an ask-me-anything (AMA) session on the main Avalanche Telegram Channel.

Leading the event was our Head of Product, Alex Ryvkin, to answer the top 10 questions submitted on Twitter, which ranged from Copper’s recent partnership Avalanche, to Alex’s thoughts on current industry trends. 

Thank you to everyone who submitted their questions and joined the AMA. In case you missed it, you can find the transcript below.

Q #1. What are the institutional crypto trends for 2021 and beyond? Are institutions looking beyond BTC and ETH at platforms like AVAX?

Alex: Great one. They (institutions) definitely do. Institutions are typically very pragmatic - they go where risk/return equation is optimal. As BTC domination grows, they start looking for pockets of value in other assets and transactions. Among other things, since DeFi Summer of 2020 we see a lot of interest in DeFi tokens from some of the most reputable institutions in space. We see this continuing into 2021 and beyond.

Q #2.  According to announcement AVAX traders can use Copper’s ClearLoop with instant, frictionless off-exchange settlement. But only few exchange support ClearLoop and one of them listed AVAX. Do you have plan to extend this list?

Alex: Thanks. So for those who don't know, ClearLoop is our clearing solution enabling off-exchange trading and settlement of digital assets. That is, the assets remain in Copper's custody, so the investors don't take credit risk on the exchange, and don't have to wait to see their assets moved from one exchange to the next, that happens pretty much instantly.

We already have some pretty solid destination exchanges on ClearLoop, and planning to add three more tier1s in the upcoming months.

As to AVAX support, we do see a lot of interest from our exchange partners. Blockchain is still a relatively small space, and couple of major names supporting a given project creates some substantial ripple effects.

Q #3. Can you talk about the term "Ethereum Killers?" And what is the Avalanche team doing to position themselves at the top of this highly competitive space against other surging tech like Polkadot?

Alex: Sure. We saw a lot of questions of this kind in our Twitter last night, would love to address them all. Essentially, my view is that we are approaching the problem with a wrong angle. Blockchain is still a relatively small space when compared to traditional finance or broader economy. As we grow, there is definitely enough space for more than 1 blockchain to rule them all kind of situation. If you compare ETH, AVAX and DOT, you could envisage completely different use cases going forward, and interoperability is likely to benefit all three, rather than make of them a 'killer' of the others.

Q#4. Given that you have over 25 exchanges in your loop and majority of them currently don't have AVAX trading pairs, will your integration leverage their adoption of AVAX trading pairs?

Alex: Certainly. As above, crypto is a relatively small space, and among other things everyone is looking at what everyone else is doing. We do hope that our partnership with AVAX, along with a number of other backers and partners, will send the right signal to the exchanges and other necessary pieces of infrastructure to provide necessary support.

Q #5. Most of investors just focus on the price of token in short term instead of real value of project. Can you tell us the motivation and benefits for investors to the AVAX token long term?

Alex: That's one of my favourite discussion topics. True story, today a solid majority of investors is focused on short-term speculative gains. Perhaps that's one of the reasons why BTC, with a much lower utility than the likes of AVAX, is so vastly more popular. If I had to bet my money, I'd say in the long run utility will win, and BTC would be taken over by the networks that allow higher utility. Although, please don't hold me to any timelines. 🙂

Q #6. How did you manage to act as a custodian/partner for both NEMofficial and FlareNetworks airdrop of XYM and FLR tokens to securely store and transfer given assets? Also, will you support similar network expansions in the future, and if yes, can you share some insights?

Alex: Well, we've been around, and foundations know and trust us :). We are talking to a lot of new and well established networks, who know us as one of the providers that can provide secure custody and other services to themselves and their partners. We are always happy to entertain a discussion!

Q #7. Does Copper's Clearloop service allow customers to operate with DeFi protocols as well as centralised exchanges? And in case it does, will every DeFi protocol in the Avalanche ecosystem be available as more projects are released in the future?

Alex: Great question! By definition, DeFi smart contracts expect assets to be sent to them, so we have different mechanisms that allow our institutional clients to safely interact with DeFi protocols. We are talking to a number of top DeFi protocols re the ways to change that in future, and in the meantime we have Copper Connect, a product designed specifially for that purpose. Talk to us if you are interested.

Q#8. Where do you see AVAX in 10 years? Is there a possibility it will dethrone BTC as the next de facto cryptocurrency?

Alex: Nice! I touched on that briefly above. We do believe that ultimately networks for builders such as AVAX will take over pure trading or storage networks. Hope that happens before 10 years!

Q #9. Storing Crypto Assets securely is nice but with opportunities like Staking and Yield Farming available, is there any interest from the Copper Team to enable such services to their Clients as well? If yes, what will be done to secure those activities? Thoughts on Nexus, Cover etc?

Alex: This looks like a 3 in 1 question! Ok, so first of all, yes, as any industry evolves you typically see that competitive advantages move from just doing one thing well to offering more utility and features. So yes, we are very much looking to allow staking and yield farming for our custodial clients. Stay tuned for announcements!

Regarding insurance on blockchain, that's a whole separate subject. I believe that what we currently need is non-blockchain insurers to provide enough capacity for blockchain firms and investors. Mutual insurance of a type available on blockchain is an interesting, but perhaps a less critical piece of infrastructure today.

Q #10. How to make community and traders feel safe after this partnership that headline institutional-grade storage and trading security, and also feel safe about price of AVAX?

Alex: Great. So Copper offers MPC-based custody to holders of AVAX, which is currently believed to be the leading technology solution in crypto custody space. Copper's clients may be certain their AVAX is safe as it can be. Now regarding the volatility - this is unfortunately not up to us or even the AVA Labs team... We all invest in crypto at our own risk! 🙂