AMA Recap: CRYPTO MINERS X PORTAL FINANCE

CRYPTO MINERS
10 min readJun 23, 2022

Portal Defi is a decentralized financial platform that blends the best of Bitcoin and Layer 2. It is Your Gateway To Uncensorable Applications. With Portal, Decentralized finance becomes uncensorable, peer to peer, and trust minimized. Just like the underlying properties of Bitcoin. Portal swaps move provable execution of cross chain contracts to layers 2 and 3, which allows the speed and liquidity of centralized alternatives, with the trust minimization guarantees of Bitcoin. Moreover, transactions are much faster and cheaper than Layer 1 transactions. Portal enable peer-to-peer, decentralized, censorship-resistant applications as layers on Bitcoin. Using Fabric, it enable web scale, serverless infrastructure with strong privacy and security guarantees. Portal’s layer 2 and layer 3 atomic swap technology can be used for a general purpose market for data and computation. Our goal is to replace the web server model which is prone to centralization by design and architecture with a free market for data and computation. Fabric, the underlying protocol Portal uses extends Bitcoin’s functionality today without needing any BIPs.

We hosted an AMA session with Portal Finance on 22nd June.

▶️ We previously hosted an AMA with Portal Finance on 16th March,2022.
Have a look here:
https://link.medium.com/fZjztHJstob 🔥

Mr. Ramsy was the host from Crypto Miners and Mr. George Burke was the guest. He shared delightful knowledge and unique features of Portal Finance.
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Segment 1️⃣: Introduction

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
Hello everyone 👋 Welcome to the Crypto Miners AMA session With Portal Finance

To help us learn more about the featured project of this AMA session, we are lucky to be joined By Mr. George

George Burke:
Hi everyone

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
Hello there 👋

Welcome here ❤️

George Burke:
Lets get started 🙂

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
Sure 👍

Let’s go 🚀

1. Introduce briefly ‘Portal Finance’ to us in Lyman words. How Portal Finance becomes our gateway to uncensoreable applications?

George Burke:
Our company, Portal, recently announced an ~$8.5M raise to give birth to DeFi built on Bitcoin.

We believe financial applications should be built on the protocol that is most likely to become the base money layer. Portal makes DeFi unstoppable with anonymous, zero-knowledge swaps via the first true cross-chain DEX that’s genuinely trustless. Unlike Uniswap/others, Portal eliminates minting wrapped coins (ie wBTC, wETH) or risky staking with intermediaries. Trading across incompatible blockchains is now just 1-click, trustless and private.

Fabric protocol, our layer 2 & 3 technology powering Portal, enables building censorship-resistant communications, media and one-click cross-chain swaps, all on Bitcoin (along with all its security advantages).

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
Alright, Thanks for this well start 👍

Let’s see our second question from this segment

2. What features Portal Finance have as compared to its competitors? What are the benefits of using it on Fabric? As there are many swap finance’s in the market!

George Burke:
Centralized contracts often like to market as decentralized; they hold your keys. To have full control through the trade process is a fundamental game changer. Our L2 reduces costs as well. Fundamentally we’re talking about a transistion from centralized entities to that decentralized self sovereign world. This is really the first proper dex that allows the individuals, traders, users of the larger network who may do things more than trading, the ability to fully control your own assets is what you’re here for, and thats what we are bringing to the market.

We bring actual DeCentralization.

and Fabric is the protocol for peer to peer message passing and contracting using bitcoin as the security layer. All of the layered networks built using Fabric can use portal to exchange into Bitcoin and other assets.

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
Impressive 👀

3. Why do you prefer using bitcoin systems as the foundation for developing Portal Finance? What are some of the qualities of Bitcoin that DeFi can use? What effect will this have on the future adaptability and growth of Dapps and Web 3.0?

George Burke:
Bitcoin provides security; no need to implement a new system and attempt to garner superior adoption. Bitcoin is the most decentralized and secure system and we think it is the monetary layer. If you want to build functionality, financial contracts and beyond, it makes sense to build it on top of the monetary layer vs any other layer. More importantly, layers of functionality enable bitcoin to capture the value, but not the risk of a failure of a layer 2 system.

We believe that the tide will turn towards the future of Dapps onto the Bitcoinn protocol and we intend to lead the way.

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
4. Portal Finance makes atomic swaps between Bitcoin and other digital assets fast, secure, and privately. How it’ll bring revolution in atomic swaps and how much secure it is? What are the security measures?

George Burke:
First, why atomic swaps?
Atomic transaction means either the entire cross chain contract (typically updating of both ledgers) happens all in one piece. For example, if you “atomic swap” your Bitcoin with someone’s ETH, either you get their money and they get yours, or nothing happens. It provides guarantees of a secure execution of an exchange without a trusted third party.

To fix the problems that have made layer 1 “tier nolan” atomic swaps impractical until today — such as miner front-running, long transaction times, lockup griefing, and all-or-nothing order execution, first we are utilizing Layer 2 for fast communication and coordination, including the ability to recompose orders into smaller chunks to create execution that is fungible, and therefore scalable. It’s done through the Fabric protocol (the protocol we use to build p2p ZK circuits for FHE), has been used to build peer to peer communication and other apps. We utilize Fabric like a Lightning Network that is purpose-built for trading.

Second, we invented zero-knowledge swaps at a layer 3. How can a decentralized exchange layer be truly censorship-resistant if traders are known and addresses can be traced? So, Fabric technology enables ZK circuit creation which, when implemented, opens the door to a whole host of new methods of obfuscating transactions without losing verifiability.

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
5. What is the reason behind that Portal Finance didn’t issued a native token yet because every new project issues their token firstly?

George Burke:
We cannot discuss anything related to tokens.

We’re issuing equity in our company. Our company is based in the United States and has a higher regulatory burden than many others, and we feel that this up front cost will result in a great benefit later on. So many Crypto organizations have to avoid Americans, even going so far as to IP block them from their websites. We will be able to invite a much greater portion of the world to download our wallet.

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
Let’s move to our last question from this segment

6. When did you started Portal Finance and what do you expect/think about it in next 2 years? What major updates we’ll get in coming months?

George Burke:
Our roadmap is community driven and so we are always open to suggestion on which direction to go. I don’t like to give specific timelines, but I do find it likely for our first round of beta testing may be within that timeline and we will iterate new features towards first open release.

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
Thanks George for this well detailed introduction about Portal Finance:)

And that’s the wrap up of our the first part of the AMA session ✅

Let’s now proceed to our Twitter Questions section

i hope you’re ready for that!!

George Burke:
sure

Segment 2️⃣: Twitter Questions

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
1) Portal’s latest event is the PORTAL Republic Sale. Can you share more about this sale? What benefits will users receive when owning shares of Portal? Can you tell me what are all the requirements I need to participate? What is the minimum and maximum amount to buy?

George Burke:
That’s right! It’ll be on republic.com and its best to already sign up over there and get your KYC taken care of. Our crypto payment processor is Bitpay.

As well, we have our whitelist application form on PortalDeFi.com

Users will own a percentage ownership in our company

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
2)Of course it’s no longer news that we are deep into the bear market with no end in sight. With this fluctuations, lots of projects will collapse. What do you think about your project as it concerns this situation? Do you have sufficient liquidity to sustain and continue growth?

George Burke:
Projects launching at the end of a bull run straight into a bear market do tend to have issues. We are not doing so, and foresee no related issues.

We have plenty of liquidity to get us through any bear market.

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
3)It’s interesting that you’re trying to build DeFi on Bitcoin but since I am a newbie I really do not understand this Isn’t Bitcoin smart contracts in POS Network? How will you build a DeFi platform on that network?

George Burke:
Bitcoin does have smart contracts! On the Bitcoin network they’re called Hashed Timelock Contracts (HTLC)

We are using this feature of bitcoin to produce something similar to smart contracts on our DEX

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
4)I saw in #portal_finance about “censorship reduction and even uncensored internet”. Tell us what exactly these terminology means here? Is the exchange layer made censorship resistant?

George Burke:
Censorship is an arbitrary denial of information. When others control the flow of information and in the case of crypto, assets, funds, etc, you are at their mercy.

We put that flow of information and all else relating to your own crypto, your own bitcoin, in your own hands.

You are uncensored, and free to make your own choices.

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
5)Currently, the DeFi ecosystems are experiencing numerous issues; therefore, could you explain what role Portal Defi plays in providing a solution to Defi weaknesses?

Here is our last question from Twitter

George Burke:
Absolutely. We are putting choice into the hands of our users, and are keeping their funds in their hands. We have learned from the failures of others and so we completely avoid holding or centralizing user funds. What is the most attractive target in the world if not a single giant pot of internet cash?

We have an excellent legal team that has been keeping us on top of US and international law so that we can be open to all.

We aren’t just claiming to be decentralized, we will show you. Hope to see everyone sign up for our first round of beta!

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
That’s the wind up of our twitter segment

Now Moving on to our last segment — Live Q&A

Shall We Go mate?

George Burke:
absolutely,

Segment 3️⃣: Live QnA
(In this segment group was opened for 60 seconds and Miners sent hundreds of questions. Guest choose some best to answer)

1) Alchemy x Hunter:
Speaking of Portal, a layer 2 gadget for peer-to-peer cross-chain contracts. So I need to ask, What is Layer2 called? And additionally What is the distinction among Layer2 & Layer1? Finally, what’s a Cross Chain Contract? Because many human beings are new and curious.

George Burke:
Layer 1 is the base layer. In our case this is Bitcoin, but there are many other layer 1s such as Ethereum and Litecoin. The layer two is what is built on top, and where we exist. Another notable layer 2 is Raiden on Etheruem. And a cross chain contract is just what it says! A contract across two different blockchains

2) Marian Merheb:
🧨 I read that Portal Finance is a community-driven project, so users will be able to determine features post-launch. Can you tell us more about this? How will they be able to do it? What will give users the right to determine this important things? Do they need to hold your token?

George Burke:
Well we dont have a token so we mostly listen in via our social medias, including telegram! Were there any features you in particular have been looking for?

3) CHUKKY:
Portal is a decentralized financial platform that combines the finest of Bitcoin and Layer 2 technologies, as you said. However, in recent weeks, we have witnessed the collapse of Bitcoin. What are your thoughts? Will Layer 2 be dependable even under the worst of circumstances?

George Burke:
Absolutely, becauase layer 2 isn’t leveraged. Bitcoin could drop to below a dollar and still work just fine

4) Itz Abhi ⚡️ :
I see the main goal of Portal DeFi is to has a goal to develop DeFi ( Decentralized Finance ) on the Bitcoin am I correct? In what way are you planning to do this and What are the advantages of bringing BTC to DeFI? Do you think this is necessary and why?

George Burke:
That’s right! We are built on Bitcoin! We are utilizing L2 and the Fabric protocol to make this work. We feel that Bitcoin is the monetary layer of the world and it only makes sense to build on it

5) Currently, the DeFi ecosystems are experiencing numerous issues; therefore, could you explain what role Portal Defi plays in providing a solution to Defi weaknesses?

George Burke:
Competition is good and healthy in any market. We feel that the opportunity for any of our users to get their own nodes up and running will keep the market forces dynamic and prevent any small number of entities from having too large of market share.

*This segment ends here*

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
Thankyou so much George For your valuable answers and information about Portal Finance,
It Was Pleasure Hosting An Ama With You

Time To Conclude Our AMA Section

George Burke:
Thanks for joining everyone

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
best of luck for the portal finance

Community, if you would like to learn more about Portal DeFi, here are some useful links for you:

Website: https://portaldefi.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/portal_finance
Telegram: https://t.me/portalgroupchat
Channel: https://t.me/getportal
Discord: https://discord.gg/tgYKpAeaWS
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/portal-crypto/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwWjOx5MaVjbGlhCj5dP6yg
Medium: Portal

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CRYPTO MINERS

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