Topic: Relay - A Private Stablecoin System (Read 1899 times)

Is this project live yet or is it still in development? I've been searching everywhere for something exactly like this for months and just came across this thread, but see it looks dead in the water. Please say that isn't the case. A cryptonote based stablecoin is exactly what we need. As much as I love Monero, its instability will hamper it's actual adoption as a currency in global markets. Businesses want a currency with a low spread, not something that may drop 50% in value within minutes of receiving a payment.

We have not been successful in our publicity efforts for the Relay Stablecoin System, but that does not mean the end of the project. The vision of a decentralized, private stablecoin for everyday use remains as clear as ever, and the team is discussing alternative options such as going forward with a free faucet distribution or a fresh campaign with a rebrand.

Hey, bud, do you still teach English in China?

Famous VC firm a16z's purchase of 6% of the total MKR token supply is yet more evidence of growing recognition of stablecoins. This particular event is exciting because, like Relay, Maker utilizes a decentralized collateral mechanism.

The recent buzz around Ripple (XRP) and xRapid underscores the promise of cryptocurrencies to disrupt common financial uses. What XRP may do for bank transfers, a stablecoin can do for consumer cash usage. Only the Relay Dollar is constructed specifically with this use case in mind.

This is a fair concern, and one that has been raised previously. To restate our previous response:

Stable crypto-coins are very necessary for the market, but very high requirements are imposed on the team of such projects. Trust is the most important thing. And in Relay only 2 team members, one of them anonymous without a photo))

Great stuff, I hope your project is recognized! We definitely need more decentralized stable assets!

It would've been nicer if it was a dual blockchain built from scratch, but I agree that Tether definitely needs to be replaced with something better.

The Relay Stablecoin System token sale public round has begun! Be a part of the private stablecoin for everyday use.

ETH address: 0xC951f024B8abf73904660b74C24Af2c70079B4F9
Max raise: 2000 ETH
Full details: https://medium.com/@RelayFoundation/token-sale-public-round-participant-guide-87d18966beb5

Six hours until the public round starts! Contribution specifics such as address and a walkthrough will be announced at 0:00 UTC to kick things off.

With less than 30 hours to go before the public round begins, it's a good time to reshare these primers on Relay's key features and advantages over other stablecoins:

https://medium.com/@RelayFoundation/introducing-the-relay-stablecoin-system-8e8b7e460bcd

https://medium.com/@RelayFoundation/why-relay-is-the-tether-killer-ffb2fc13c27

There will not be additional Relay Tokens introduced into circulation via mining rewards.

I was going to ask the same thing, also it would be good to know is there going to be any PoW mining period for the Relay Token (XRT)?

Though not organized in one section to address all these questions together, the relevant information is all contained in the white paper. For discussion and ease of reading, summarized responses are as follows:

New blockchain vs smart contracts on Ethereum:
The Relay stablecoin system operates on an separate blockchain based on Ethereum. Ethereum was selected as the progenitor technology for Relay due to its long history of successful functioning with smart contracts, which are required for the collateralization system.

Worst case value / liquidity scenarios:
Although talking about token price and appreciation potential is generally bad form, it is relevant to this particular question. At Ethereum's current price of ~$200 (actually less as of this writing), the total capitalization of all XRL tokens to ever be circulated is roughly $500,000. We believe that this valuation provides significant price support to the downside and significant upside potential with any amount of adoption or usage. From a funding perspective, this sum is sufficient to provide project runway in liquidated ETH until team allocations or Ecosystem Development Fund capital should be of sufficient value to maintain the team.

Undercollateralization:
The initial collateralization ratio of 200% is set to minimize the risk of an undercollateralization event in case of a market crash. When the value of XRD drops below the dollar peg due to undercollateralization or market perception of a risk thereof, XRD holders are incentivized to decrease the XRL supply by redeeming their XRD for XRL, with the redeemed XRD burned and removed from circulation. This creates a group insurance feature
through proportional redemptions that eliminates the risk of a self-reinforcing 'run on the bank' panic scenario.

Price feeds:
When available, Chainlink oracles (or the first fully functional decentralized Ethereum oracles) will be utilized to report accurate XRL and XRD prices. Until that time, a native Relay DAO oracle acquiring prices from exchange APIs as is the sole source of XRD and XRL price information into the Relay stablecoin system. Other price reporting mechanisms do exist, such as staked bids submitted by collateral holders, but they have a substantial barrier to entry due to their complexity and are unsuitable at this time for a currency focused on simplicity of use and mass adoption.

Is this going to be a completely new blockchain or is it based on Ethereum smart contracts? Sounds great either way, I'm just worried about the value and liquidity of XRL in the very beginning. What are your worst case scenarios? What happens if the whole system becomes undercollateralized from a rapid fall in price? Where do you get your price feeds?

MakerDAO's DAI, Gemini's Gemini Dollar, Bitfinex's USDT, TrustToken's TUSD - there are many public stablecoins, but only Relay offers privacy and decentralization on top of stable value.

The Relay public round begins at 0:00 UTC, September 15 - read more at https://medium.com/@RelayFoundation/relay-public-round-details-announcement-ef9e6dea9102.

The Relay public round begins on September 15th! Specifics of the sale terms will be released within 24 hours.

The Gemini exchange's announcement of its Gemini Dollar stablecoin is a welcome development that recognizes the rampant problems in the current stablecoin landscape, but it does not go far enough. Privacy and decentralization are still needed for a truly useful stablecoin.

Even in markets like these, the Relay Dollar stays solvent and fully backed thanks to our collateral model allowing the supply to 'breathe' with market forces. Tether has no such mechanism, and MakerDAO's is much more punitive.

i am waiting public sale! i hope i will use relay dollar every day in the future

A DAO holding structure fully decentralizes Relay's collateral mechanism, allowing anyone to move money in or out of the system at any time. This is the promise of blockchain and smart contracts, fulfilled.

MakerDAO is the most successful example of a decentralized stablecoin that uses on-chain collateral in a DAO to create trustable value. Relay surpasses it with privacy and a collateral token unexposed to shocks to Ethereum.

The vote of confidence is appreciated.

Great project. Great team. Good luck and make this a success

The need for reliable stablecoins is never more evident than in markets such as these. Imagine if Tether were found to be insolvent at this time - the crypto world needs a stablecoin like Relay with publicly auditable collateral.

We have received inbound interest from a number of exchanges regarding listings, but want to share with the community that we will be selective when choosing exchange partners. Very new or poorly-run exchanges have a history of suffering thefts or user issues that can be greatly damaging to listed coins, such as Bitgrail's impact on Nano. Therefore, a general rule of thumb is that the Relay Dollar and Token will only list on exchanges that an active cryptocurrency trader will have heard of.

Our discussion of why privacy is required in any cryptocurrency is now published at https://medium.com/@RelayFoundation/the-necessity-of-privacy-in-currency-cbd338a5acd0.

The circulating supply of Relay Dollars (which is always equal to the market cap) is variable based on demand for the XRD (additional XRD is issued if the price increases beyond the dollar peg) and the amount of Relay Tokens collateralized in the Relay DAO (this sets the amount of XRT that can be claimed with Relay Dollars).

While Relay Dollars are the stablecoin intended for use as a true currency, the underlying Relay Token is how network participants can directly benefit from the growth and adoption of the network. Relay Token holders receive any new Relay Dollars that are issued into circulation, and they also gain from increases in the value of the Relay Token itself driven by demand for the 'dividends' in the form of new Relay Dollar issuance.

The Relay Token does have a set total supply of 1bn XRT, of which 75% is available for purchase in the public round for up to 2000 ETH in total. At an assumed price of $275 per ETH, the initial market cap of the Relay Token is approximately $730,000.

hello, you have not answered my question. i want to be sure, how much is relay market cap if relay dollar supply is changing?

Nobody would opt in to a currency that publicly exposes balances and transaction histories, but that's exactly what most cryptocurrencies do. Our upcoming think piece discusses why privacy features are critical to avoid this problem.

When it comes to cryptocurrencies, the tech is important but adoption is what defines success. The purpose of the Relay Foundation and its Ecosystem Fund are the long-term support of Relay adoption and development.

This is a great articulation of the problems that led to the creation of the Relay stablecoin system. In fact, using the word 'paranoid' is unnecessary - it's simply a reasonable expectation that well over $2bn in circulating stablecoins should be proven to be solvent beyond any measure of doubt. Instead, cryptocurrency market liquidity is built on the shaky trust of the corporation running a single exchange, which goes against the entire principle of decentralization that drives blockchain technologies.

I have been looking for an alternative to tether for months. It inconveniences me greatly that Im ought to trust bitfinex to keep up with the promise to provide the liquidity and maintain the attitude of nice guys with $2 billion collateral in bank accounts for backing issued tether. If u paranoidly reject the possibility of holding fiat on exchanges how can u trust tether and bitfinex paper house?

Nearly everyone involved with crypto has, at some point, held a stablecoin such as Tether or DAI. Such a common use case needs a properly fungible, currency-like decentralized token. Relay fulfills that need.

The start of the Relay stablecoin system public round will be delayed by two (2) weeks to allow additional time for publicity efforts. The new start date is September 15th.

True fungibility through mandatory privacy is one of the defining features of the Relay Dollar. Look for an article later this week discussing exactly why privacy is a fundamental requirement of a successful cryptocurrency.

80 million USDT were printed today with no transparency as to the drivers of this increase in supply - https://omniexplorer.info/address/1NTMakcgVwQpMdGxRQnFKyb3G1FAJysSfz. A truly trustworthy stablecoin should use decentralized and transparent collateral, as Relay does.

The bounty thread is now up at https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bounty-relay-a-private-stablecoin-system-4966679.

While we believe that Ethereum is a strong protocol that is well positioned to solve many of its current difficulties in ways that can be incorporated back into Relay, it's certainly too early in the blockchain space to know this with certainty, and differing perspectives such as yours are welcomed.

Thank you for the suggestion to make a separate bounty thread - we were not aware of this option and will do so shortly.

Thank you very much for clarification....
separate blockchain is much better thing,
and I just don't trust to much any of the etherium code base projects...
simply because of so many potential bugs.
And yes, Etherium is proven ...to Not work so good at all.
We need some better alternative that can survive a single game, or exchange gas overuse.

But I respect your idea to create better stable coin, this is a 'must have' thing,
and I will follow your project.

Suggestion: maybe create separate Relay Bounty Thread

Relay is designed to render Tether and other rudimentary stablecoin implementations obsolete - read more with our recently published think piece at https://medium.com/@RelayFoundation/why-relay-is-the-tether-killer-ffb2fc13c27

With Tether, users have to trust that a centralized entity holds enough USD to back circulating Tethers. With Relay, a fully on-chain collateral mechanism means that users have full visibility into the decentralized backing of Relay Dollars, and they are able to redeem their XRD for collateral at any time.

Make no mistake - Relay's objective is no less than to replace Tether as the de-facto stablecoin and gain even greater adoption than USDT. Look for our analysis of Relay's advantages over other stablecoins to be published by end of week.

A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency that is designed to maintained a specific price relative to fiat currency, in this case $1 USD. To make sure that it is always possible to get $1 of value out of 1 Relay Dollar (XRD) stablecoin, the circulating supply of XRD is fully backed by an amount of Relay Tokens (XRT) with a market capitalization exceeding that of XRD.

Only the CEO and CTO are listed on the website. There are additional developers who are working or have worked on Relay, but they are largely contract-based and thus any website listing could become outdated quickly whereas the project leads will be present long-term to develop Relay and operate the Relay Foundation, which is dedicated to supporting the growth of the Relay ecosystem.

It is really interested to see the description of Relay coin. It is stated that Relay uses a stablecoin system? What does it mean? By the way, talking about your team member, I just find 2 members on your official site. Does the project team only consists of two members?   

ok so token holder make passive income and can see value go up. is this like masternode system? how much is relay market cap?

As a reminder, a portion of the total token supply is allocated toward the public bounty program! The program seeks to build an early adopter base to kick-start the initial growth of the Relay ecosystem - details can be found at https://medium.com/@RelayFoundation/the-relay-bounty-program-a87dc0c52ed6.

We understand that this dual-token system can be unclear on first read, so please feel free to ask any additional questions. We will also seek to provide improved explanatory materials for public circulation.

Our team leads are listed on our website. The technical lead and other developers may not be well known, but it is important to note that the newness of the blockchain space means that there are many skilled developers with very limited histories.

It should also be stated that very little in Relay is entirely new, and thus the technical base has largely already been proven out. The core blockchain is forked from Ethereum and the privacy implementation is also based on existing work. The codebase is furthermore currently undergoing third party private review and will be subject to a public bug bounty prior to mainnet launch, fundraising for which is one of the major motivating factors for the public round. The most important innovation Relay brings is in its collateralization mechanism and two-token structure, which is less a coding than economics invention.


We appreciate that the token economics are a key point for potential public round participants, so we will do our best to be clear as possible. The following has been added to the starting post as well.

The Relay Token (XRT) is what contributors receive in return for their public round funds. This token is the foundation for the value of the Relay Dollar through a system where XRT holders can 'lock up' their tokens in return for Relay Dollars (XRD) at any time and for any duration. XRT holders benefit from the success of the Relay stablecoin system in two ways:

1) If the value of XRD rises above $1.01, additional XRD is printed and sent to XRT collateral holders to provide selling pressure and decrease the price back down to the $1.00 peg. Thus, increased demand for the Relay Dollar provides a direct revenue stream to XRT holders.
2) As adoption of the Relay stablecoin system grows, the value of XRT increases due to demand driven primarily by the income stream described above. Thus, XRD adoption both leads to XRD being directly given to XRT holders as well as increasing value for the tokens themselves.

if buy ICO, what will make my token value go up? how can relay investor profit?

I like your ad.I want to study your offer in more detail.
Who from the known developers participates in this project?

That is an excellent question. Relay has 2 major advantages over competitors such as USDT and TrueUSD.

1) USDT, TrueUSD, and other fiat-backed coins have value because $1 is stored in a bank account somewhere that is supposedly redeemable for $1 in USDT or TrueUSD. This is not ideal because users have to trust that this fiat backing is available, which has historically caused great controversy for USDT in particular. Furthermore, the inability to print new stablecoins without depositing USD collateral greatly limits the ability of USDT or TrueUSD to rapidly adjust supply in response to demand, which means it is very difficult to imagine them being used on a large scale.

A decentralized collateral model through the Relay Token (XRL) backing the Relay Dollar (XRD) eliminates the need to trust an institution that holds fiat currency to back the stablecoin. The public Relay DAO holds XRL that provides fully on-chain collateral, so anyone can see at any time exactly how much value backs up the XRD in circulation. Furthermore, increasing demand for the Relay Dollar drives up the value of the collateral Relay Tokens and results in additional Relay Dollars being printed into circulation, all without the intervention of a centralized authority, so the system can sustainably scale to meet demand.

2) The Relay Dollar is private, which as far as we are aware is not a feature offered by any other stablecoin. Right now, digital currencies are not ideal for cash-like applications because all transactions are entirely public, so any stranger can see your precise spending habits and funds. This transparency is simply not needed for a cryptocurrency that is to be used as a real currency, so XRD has fully private transactions to reclaim this fundamental characteristic of a successful currency.

It is very important that we make these two points as clear as possible, so there will be a separate follow-up focusing on how Relay differentiates itself. Thank you again for asking this crucial question.

What does Relay have that is better than other stable coins now,
like USDT,  True USD and other similar colutions ?

I would like to see clear comparison.

A private stablecoin with a decentralized collateralization mechanism can be a difficult topic to understand versus a simple volatile currency such as Bitcoin, so much of the public communication will focus on explaining the Relay stablecoin system for even a casual investor.

Our first article is a brief introduction to Relay and a summary of how it works - read it at https://medium.com/@RelayFoundation/introducing-the-relay-stablecoin-system-8e8b7e460bcd.

It was interesting that the Relay Fund provided listing agreements for XRL and XRD with 2 exchanges currently under the NDA. I will follow the project.

I resereve the hindi translation

maybe this is currency to surpass tether! i will watch, very interested

Privacy and anonymization features are often regarded as the domain of criminals seeking to hide their tracks, but they are actually necessary for any currency that truly seeks to have cash-like applications due to the requirement of fungibility.

A good product is only part of the battle - it is also critical to have strong community support for a project to succeed. Therefore, the Relay stablecoin system is launching a bounty program designed for users to be able to participate in growing the ecosystem and be rewarded for their efforts.

Full details of the bounty program are available at https://medium.com/@RelayFoundation/the-relay-bounty-program-a87dc0c52ed6.

We are very excited to announce the Relay stablecoin system! Stablecoins are already very important to the cryptocurrency ecosystem and will only grow in usage and impact as time goes on. However, there is a great opportunity for a new stablecoin with a scalable supply and privacy features to become a powerful contender in the marketplace. This is the goal of Relay - its decentralized Relay Token (XRL) collateral mechanism maintains the Relay Dollar's (XRD) value while allowing supply to scale in response to demand, and fully private transactions make it appropriate for real money-like uses that public stablecoins are not yet good for.

The Relay Stablecoin System is a private cryptocurrency with stable value pegged to the US dollar, secured by a public collateral token.

Website: https://www.relaystablecoin.com/
Whitepaper: https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5adcb0defcceb96296d0b563/5b7e0d5d6c067dff73b5f383_Relay%20stablecoin%20system%20whitepaper.pdf
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RelayStablecoin
Medium: https://medium.com/@RelayFoundation/
Bounty program: https://medium.com/@RelayFoundation/the-relay-bounty-program-a87dc0c52ed6


Why the world needs Relay:
Existing stablecoins are hampered by centralized collateralization requirements which make them unable to scale and/or by the lack of privacy features necessary for practical usage in a cash-like context. The vast majority of scenarios involving a digital transaction can be improved by the introduction of a truly fungible currency that cannot be counterfeited or publicly traced. In addition to having these traits, the decentralized collateralization mechanism allows the Relay stablecoin system to scale to any value necessary to meet adoption demand, as demand for XRD will raise the value of XRL as additional XRD is printed to XRL depositors, increasing the value of the collateral held by the Relay DAO.

Key features:
· Two-token system: the Relay Dollar (XRD) is pegged to the US dollar, and the Relay Token (XRL) is the volatile collateral token.

· XRD is a currency with anonymized transactions, while XRL is public. The Relay blockchain is based on Ethereum with the addition of CryptoNote privacy features in XRD transactions.

· XRL value is tied to speculation and real usage of XRD due to its purpose as the only valid collateral of XRD.

· XRD supply is controlled by the Relay decentralized autonomous organization (Relay DAO), which issues XRD to XRL owners who collateralize their XRL.

· Initial collateralization of 200%, so you receive 50% of the value of your XRL in XRD.

· If the value of XRD exceeds $1.01, 1% of the current supply of XRD is newly printed and issued to collateral owners. Thus, XRL holders are the source through which new XRD enters the market.

· If the value of XRD drops below $1.00, XRD owners can return XRD to the Relay DAO to reclaim the XRL collateral. The returned XRD is burned, decreasing the XRD supply and increasing its value.

Release date:
Late October / early November.

The Relay team has signed agreements under NDA with two (2) exchanges to premiere listings for both XRL and XRD on the date of network launch. The Relay stablecoin system testnet and codebase will be opened to a public bug bounty program following third party review, which is currently in progress and expected to conclude in September or October. The public bug bounty program will begin immediately following the conclusion of the third party audit and run for a duration of three (3) weeks or until all no critical / major issues are open, whichever is later. The mainnet launch, XRL token distribution, and exchange listings will be held one (1) week after the successful close of the public bug bounty program.

Token distribution:
The total supply of XRL is 1,000,000,000 (one billion). XRD has a variable supply dependent on the amount of XRL held in the Relay DAO as well as the value of XRL.

The Relay stablecoin system’s public round will begin on September 1, 2018 and continue through October 1, 2018. Up to 2000 ETH will be raised in the public round for 75% of the total supply, which is 750,000,000 (seven hundred and fifty million) XRL. Of the remaining 25% supply, 12.5% is allocated to the team, 2.5% to the bounty program, and 10% to the Relay Foundation Ecosystem Development Fund. Team tokens are subject to a 1 year lock.

At a per-ETH value of $275 USD / XRD, the implied initial valuation of the Relay stablecoin system is ~$733,000.

There is no private round. Institutions and other large investors will participate in the public round with no preferential distribution ratios or other advantages over other participants.

Value mechanism of the Relay Token (XRT):
The Relay Token (XRT) is what contributors receive in return for their public round funds. This token is the foundation for the value of the Relay Dollar through a decentralized collateral system where XRT holders can 'lock up' their tokens in return for Relay Dollars (XRD) at any time and for any duration. XRT holders benefit from the success of the Relay stablecoin system in two ways:

1) If the value of XRD rises above $1.01, additional XRD is printed and sent to XRT collateral holders to provide selling pressure and decrease the price back down to the $1.00 peg. Thus, increased demand for the Relay Dollar provides a direct revenue stream to XRT holders.
2) As adoption of the Relay stablecoin system grows, the value of XRT increases due to demand driven primarily by the income stream described above. Thus, XRD adoption both leads to XRD being directly given to XRT holders as well as increasing value for the tokens themselves.