[Q&A] WAVES Platform Completes ICO

Last week WAVES, the decentralized platform which uses blockchain tokens represent any value, ended its ICO with a reported 29,634 bitcoins raised – then worth close to $16 million. Tokens can be customized to represent values and can then be issued by any platform user. Following issuance, tokens can be transferred, swapped and traded on an integrated decentralized exchange. Different options for tokens include representing shares in a crowdfunding project, financial instrument, or any item with an inherent value.

Chain-Finance asked WAVES’ Chief Business Development Officer Alexander Rugaev about the ICO and the WAVES platform.

C-F: Did you expect the ICO to be so successful?
Rugaev: We expected it to be successful, however, amount raised in the last week exceeded our expectations.

C-F: What was the reason behind allowing fiat currencies to be represented on WAVES?
Rugaev: Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin failed as a currency for the general public because they are even more volatile than stocks.
People will never hold all their saving in Bitcoin because of risk to accidentally lose up to 80% of value as I was in 2014.
WAVES will provide a universal solution with all advantages of Bitcoin and zero volatility

C-F: Why do you think people are so keen to invest in WAVES? What sets WAVES apart from other token-issuing platforms?
Rugaev: I think WAVES Platform was valued so high by investors, because it combines most useful features, that was never used before on a large scale:
1) Stable coins. Tokens linked to fiat currencies like USD, EUR, GBP, CNY, that are convertible 1:1 to real currency and fully collateralised by financial assets (Tether + Ripple functionality)
2) Decentralised crypto-exchange where you can trade BTC, ETH or any of WAVES coins without risk of Mt.Gox scenario (nxt + Ethereum)
3) Decentralised Kickstarter for blockchain projects
Also WAVES doesn’t have vulnerabilities of smart contracts, it’s much more secure.

C-F: What is WAVES’ most important feature?
Rugaev: I think the most important feature is fiat linked tokens, that can be used by 2 billions of unbanked people around the world. This will be a real revolution in finance.

C-F: What is the next step for WAVE this year?
Rugaev: The next step will be creating financial gateways in different countries for fiat linked tokens and finishing development of decentralised exchange.
Gateways will be fully AML\KYC compliant similar to Ripple but B2C instead of bank-only B2B

C-F: What are the biggest challenges WAVES faces?
Rugaev: Regulatory compliance in some jurisdictions for our financial gateways is not an easy task. However, for now we don’t have challenges that will be too difficult to solve.