Shiftmovementdigital AMA with Tellor

Hey Ryan. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us over here at Shift Movement Digital. We are excited to have you in for this AMA. I have seen much growth from Tellor and thought this was a company others should learn about.

Shift Movement Digital: How and when did you get into cryptocurrency?

Ryan: 2017 I Came across a YouTuber explaining blockchain and then rode that wave at the end of the year. It started with Dash, then Bitcoin, and then Ethereum.

Shift Movement Digital: I was in a similar boat. Dash and Zcash were two of the first for me. Bitcoin is always one I hold at least a small amount of.

Shift Movement Digital: What is Tellor, and how was it created?

Ryan: Tellor is a decentralized, censorship-resistant oracle network that determines off-chain data values through the community’s consensus as opposed to a centralized body.

It was created through necessity as the core team was initially trying to build a derivatives protocol called Daxia, realizing there wasn’t a sufficiently decentralized oracle in the space yet, so they made their own, Tellor.

Shift Movement Digital: I like the concept and idea behind Tellor. I think a decentralized oracle network is essential.

Shift Movement Digital: Who are the founders of Tellor, and how can people learn more about the brains behind this company?

Ryan: The founders are CEO Brenda Loya, CTO Nick Fett, and CSO Mike Zemrose. A little background is that Nick and Brenda worked together previously in the U.S. Department of Labor, & Nick went on to work at the CFTC in the cryptocurrency division.

Mike’s background is in strategy consulting for small startups and came into the picture later through a meetup in Frederick, MD, where the office is now based.

The best way to get deeper into their brains would be the weekly community calls we have. Super unique for the space to have such an open forum consistently, highly recommend anyone interested in Tellor take full advantage of the opportunity to ask them anything, they’re pretty good at fielding any curveballs at this point.

Shift Movement Digital: Thank you, Ryan. I will also make sure to tune in. Frederick, MD, is not too far from me either.

Shift Movement Digital: What is a decentralized oracle system for those who do not know, and how can companies and people benefit from it?

Ryan: I think it might be best to break this down word by word:

‘Oracles’ came about as a need for blockchains to interact with data outside the network, aka ‘off-chain data.’ For example, Ethereum knows the addresses transacting and their balances, but if you ask what the ETH/USD price is, it will need an oracle. The same goes for anything not native to the blockchain: weather, game scores, etc.

The ‘decentralized’ part comes into play as the core philosophy of blockchain technology is its decentralized nature. If you interact with a centralized oracle, you compromise your network’s integrity with an attack vector. For example, Coinbase is a centralized exchange. If you are using Coinbase as your sole source of information for prices, you are now at the mercy of Coinbase’s well-being. If they get shut down, your protocol is now in a tough spot.

The ‘system’ aspect is what makes Tellor unique. To achieve complete decentralization, there needs to be crypto-economic incentives to make all the participants in the oracle self-sufficient, meaning the core team isn’t required to function independently. Staying true to the one protocol that has stood the test of time, Bitcoin, the Tellor team built a system using PoW competition and added staking/disputing elements for increased accountability and security.

So the benefit is mainly for blockchain applications to interact with the outside world and usher the traditional markets of (you name it) into one trustfully verified on a blockchain.

Shift Movement Digital: This is what I was looking for. Thank you for breaking this down. Many times companies will not break down the true meaning.

Shift Movement Digital: What is the native token for Tellor, and what is the use case for the native token?

Ryan: The native token is the Tribute (TRB), and it’s used for staking by the miners, tipping by users to request data faster, and disputing/voting by the rest of the community. These are the core elements that give Tellor its decentralized and crypto-economically secure structure.

Shift Movement Digital: Thank you for the explanation. Great idea behind the use.

Shift Movement Digital: Why did the Tellor team choose to build on the Ethereum blockchain?

Ryan: While Bitcoin was the first successful implementation of blockchain, Ethereum was the first successful implementation of smart contracts, where oracles were born. Since then, Ethereum has held the torch in terms of volume and projects compared to others, simply put, it is still where most of the demand is. However, this may be changing, and Tellor is working on interoperability with other chains, but the core development remains on Ethereum for this reason.

Shift Movement Digital: Wow. I will be looking out for any updates.

Shift Movement Digital: What is Chorus? What are the benefits of Tellor being used as the oracle?

Ryan: Chorus is a community currency protocol wherein users can launch their token using customizable parameters, such as inflation rate, type of collateral, etc. This is a vertical product for Tellor that allows it to expand its presence from a different angle, and also giving it an instantly added user is a plus.

Shift Movement Digital: I agree that is a plus. Thank you for explaining Chorus. Looking through the Tellor information and website, we came across Chorus.

Shift Movement Digital: What are some of your recent partnerships, and how does the future with these partnerships look?

Ryan: Our most recent official user is Liquidity.

An excellent protocol we are proud to be involved with. They are a lending/borrowing protocol that is fully decentralized and even decentralized front-end websites. They are using us as a fallback to Chainlink, which makes us proud since this is in line with our ‘oracle best practices’ article, which talks about the benefits of using more than one oracle. This is a massive endorsement for us since they launched, there is no going back for Liquidity. Meaning an enormous vote of confidence was put into our protocol.

Shift Movement Digital: This is a significant endorsement. Congratulations. It helps to gain more attention too.

Shift Movement Digital: Where can people buy TRB at?

Ryan: We’re available on Binance, Huobi, OKEX, and most recently, Coinbase. Also, Uniswap is a pretty popular exchange for traders/investors with more experience in the Defi world.

Shift Movement Digital: Big congrats on the Coinbase listing! You did it before many others.

Shift Movement Digital: So, we must ask, are there any plans for future exchange listings? Great job with the current exchange listings, I have to say.

Ryan: Thanks! Yes, the Coinbase listing was a remarkable monkey to get off our back finally. However, in terms of more exchanges, this isn’t and never was our focus as it’s not as important to us as getting more users, especially now that we’re on the major exchanges and have plenty of Liquidity.

Shift Movement Digital: We appreciate your company because the exchange listings were not your primary focus.

Shift Movement Digital: Where should people follow Tellor to stay up to date on Tellor information?

Ryan: Telegram, Discord, and Twitter. Highly recommend joining the community calls every Wednesday at noon EST if you can as well. That’s the best way to stay on top of the news and even interact with the team! You can catch the records on our YouTube — please like and subscribe!

Shift Movement Digital: Make sure to check it out!

Shift Movement Digital: As we finish up 2021, what can people look forward to from Tellor?

Ryan: We’ve just released the Whitepaper to Tellor’s next evolution, Tellor X. If you’re excited about Tellor already, you must check out what we are building now.

Shift Movement Digital: This is big time. Fantastic job, team!

Shift Movement Digital: Did you attend the Bitcoin conference? What are your thoughts on the Bitcoin conference (if applicable) and thoughts on cryptocurrency in Miami?

Ryan: I did. It was fascinating to see so many Ethereum based events surrounding the conference itself, and honestly, that’s where most of the exciting things were happening. Everyone I talked to was underwhelmed by the conference and thoroughly enjoyed their time outside of it. It was a great depiction of the two different cultures surrounding the two heavy hitters of the blockchain space.

Shift Movement Digital: Wow, that is big. I was hoping to get down there for the conference. They always say a lot of the real talks do not happen at the conference itself. I love to see you were able to network there. Ethereum has created an opportunity for so many.

Shift Movement Digital: Switching gears to talk a little sports. What is your favorite sport and sports team?

Ryan: I’m from San Diego, so for me, it’s Clippers and Chargers. Yes, I know they both left San Diego, but so did I! I like playing basketball, but football is more exciting to watch because each game holds more weight. Too many games in a basketball season.

Shift Movement Digital: As of this writing, shoutout to the Clippers for being in the conference finals. Chargers have a great team. Justin Herbert and Keenan Allen I really like.

Shift Movement Digital: Thoughts on professional athletes and professional teams supporting or accepting cryptocurrency(FC Barcelona, UFC, Miami Heat, Russell Okung, Mark Cuban, etc.)?

Ryan: I loved seeing Russell Okung getting paid in BTC. That was definitely a massive step for the space, and he used to be a Charger :). Mark Cuban is also getting deep in the Defi world, which I think is good in terms of ushering the traditional world into crypto. However, not a fan of his knee-jerk call for regulation just because he lost some money in a risky protocol. (RE: the Titanstable coin mishap) Also, Miami Heat’s arena being re-named to FTX, I think, is a huge statement and makes me confident that Miami is about to have a massive shift.

Shift Movement Digital: Man, the Titanstable coin situation was something else. Congrats to FTX was the deal they agreed to with the MLB too. Cuban is showing many people the do’s and don’t in crypto.

Thanks, Ryan, for taking the time to speak with us. You are always welcome on our platforms to talk about Tellor!