If I buy FUTX on an exchange, eg Cryptopia, what is really happening? Does Cryptopia send ETH to Futerex exchange and get FUTX back? What happens at rollover? Does my FUTX balance on Cryptopia just turn into ETH?
I'm not affiliated with the Factory Banking Project : Futereum, but I'm going to share what
I think I know. I've read every shred of information I can find, but have some questions as well.
Buying FUTX or FUTR on an exchange is simply transferring the token ownership to you. At a point in the future, when all mining levels have completed, or the time limit has lapsed, you may send the FUTX or FUTR token to the ETH address to receive x amount of ETH per FUTX / FUTR. I'm assuming there is a certain window of time where this can be done before a new mining cycle starts.
At rollover, any FUTX or FUTR not returned for ETH, will be included in the next mining cycle. There is no automatic swap. Each FUTX or FUTR holder makes the decision to hold, or swap.
I hope futereum or someone will make some clarifications and correct me if I am wrong. I am excited about this, and hope it succeeds. It should add extra liquidity and value to ETH
You have got it exactly right!
The best way to think about these tokens is as markers for loans. When you send Ether to the Futereum X smart contract, in effect you loan the smart contract Ether. At the point of the swap, you get the opportunity to roll your loan to the smart contract over or to take a portion or the whole of the loan principle and whatever interest may be available to you (in the form of additional Ether earned via the extra swaps in the bag).
Now, when you purchase FUTX (or FUTR) on an exchange, then you essentially purchase the loan, and that means, the right to get paid back as well. Thus, as you correctly state, as the owner of a FUTR/X token, you can send the token as with any other you may have purchased directly from the smart contract, in the same exact way, back to the smart contract and you will be rewarded a disproportionate amount of Ether. The period you have to swap is a 5 day period which takes place one month after the mining period ends for the last cycle.
Your comment about the project's ability to help improve the Ethereum network is one we haven't made nearly a big enough deal about, yes. The project ultimately shores up Ether so the network is more efficient, creates new value alternatives to exploit the Ether price increases that will surely occur throughout 2018 and it actually is the first ever cryptocurrency to have a definite value. There is no guess-work involved with FUTR and FUTX; you can determine down to the eighteenth digit of an ERC20 token, just by doing the calculations in Ether and / or whatever FUTR/X is being traded against, when FUTR / X is over priced or underpriced relative to Ether. With the prices as they are for FUTX right now at Cryptopia, you are getting ETH at a 50% discount, which is simply crazy, but there you go!