In Dec 2019, IOST announced its partnership with Constant Co-the fastest-growing peer to peer lending platform in Southeast Asia. IOST is now officially listed as collateral on Constant and IOST holders can begin leveraging their assets for competitive P2P loans. Today, IOST invite Ms Claire Dang- Constant’s Business Development Director to a telegram AMA to provide more insights on Constant Co. and how you can benefit from this platform.
Claire: Hi guys! Thank you for having me for the AMA. I am Claire Dang from Constant – a P2P leading lending platform using cryptocurrency as collateral in South East Asia. I used to work in the finance field for 3 years before knowing crypto and joining as a trader a while later. Being in this industry, I saw one of the biggest struggles from users is they bought tokens at peaks and being unable to cash out when they need to. That is why I think of the concept like Constant to help them HODL to die and still have liquidity to help out our fellas. Since then, we have matched 8 mil USD and continue to grow that number to 40 mil USD in 2020.
Constant is working as a bridge to connect lenders with borrowers using cryptocurrency as collateral. You can simply signup using your email, choose among 70 of our tokens as collateral, deposit it to receive a loan in minutes if your terms and rate match the market rate.
Alexa: Impressive matched number & growth by the way and yeah #womenincrypto Can you explain to us how is our collateral safeguard? Is there any risk for it to be lost?
Claire: Thanks for asking this! Here’s how Constant keeps your collateral:
1. With erc20 coins, Constant keeps your assets on Smart contracts.
2. For non-erc20 coins, Constant is working with BitGo and OnChain Custodian to ensure the safety of your coins.
As we are non-custodial, there is no way you will lose your collateral as an accident.
Alexa: Looking at a bigger picture, who are your current competitors & what competitive edges & differences do you have over other lending platforms?
Claire: In terms of competitors, as we have 2 features which are investing and borrowing, we will have a wider range of other platforms to compete. First, we can talk about banks or other financial platforms as we provide a secured channel to invest with a fixed rate. Second, we are also the rival of other lending platforms. What we are proud of the most are:
– Some of the best interest rates on the market (8%) for both investors & borrowers
– great 24/7 customer service
– support for over 70 altcoins and counting
– no withdrawal fee
– wide-range of features: auto top-up, collateral excess withdrawals in the case of coin price increase, the option to pay off your debt before maturity, and more.
– A pro version that lets you know exactly where your order is, how long it will take to wait for matches, interest rates, and suitable term limits…..
– A wide and consistent variety of promotional offers directly to interest rate.
Alexa: let’s zoom down to IOST as collateral on Constant, shall we? Why did Constant choose to list IOST on your platform in the first place?
Claire: Here are the criteria that we consider when it comes to a new token listing:
1. A technologically sound platform: Constant has a team that checks project codes on GitHub
2. Active community: the community is one that believes in the project from the beginning, there are true holders, not just people looking to pump and dump.
3. Reputable partners: listed on reputable exchanges (binance, kucoin, huobi, okex …)
4. High volume: the 24-hour volume over the last 6 months is over USD 1 million.
IOST has met our criteria 🙂 moreover we have been receiving great support from you guys 🙂
Alexa: Yes IOST does meet these requirements well and thanks again for listing us. For ourselves as users, what are the minimum and maximum limit to borrow/ loan IOST on Constant? Is there any deposit required?
Claire: The minimum would be 50 USD and we have matched a loan with up to 1 mil USD. As long as you have enough collateral you are free to use the service. The loan to value right now is 66%.
Alexa: On average, how long does it take to get matched? Is it dependent on loan size?
Claire: If borrowers set their borrowing rate at the market rate (8% / year or more), you can be matched within 24 hours. If lower than 8%, you might wait a few days or even more. However, we will have a promo on interest rate for IOST users as a welcome gift. Of course, bigger loans mean a bit longer as we have to put together a lot of small investments together to fund that.
Alexa: What is the special promo for IOST users again?
Claire: I thought you never ask lol. Instead of 8% APR, any loan against IOST from now till next Wed will have an exclusive interest rate, which is 6% APR! it means only 0.5%/month 🙂
In order to do it, we are the one who is in charge of the 2%, we wanna make it as easy as possible to new users to come to understand us and trial the platform.
Instead of 8% APR, any loan against IOST from now till next Wed will have an exclusive interest rate, which is 6% APR! it means only 0.5%/month 🙂
so in short Instead of 8% APR, any loan against IOST from now till next Wed will have an exclusive interest rate, which is 6% APR! it means only 0.5%/month 🙂
as we have the budget for the promo, we cannot lengthen the program for long, only 7 days.
Alexa: Those above questions and answers should cover the basic understanding of Constant and how it works for IOST users. Now, let’s talk just a little bit more in the area of Decentralized Finance before we open the chat to everyone.
You know, even though peer-to-peer crypto lending applications are in the nascent stage, their popularity has been growing at a rapid pace. As someone working in this area, could you share with us what are the common regulatory problems for DeFi platforms and how do you guys cope with them? Also, which regions are strong in DeFi growth nowadays and which are your target markets?
Claire: To me, I would say that regulatory for crypto and for P2P lending are still in the gray zone as there is no specific law for this industry, especially in South East Asia, which is a benefit and also a challenge for any player. Constant is non-custodial and only acts as a platform to connect people so we do not fall into the regulation at the moment. however, it doesn’t mean that we will do anything harmful to the users. We still use Prime Trust to verify KYC and hold all the funds of the investors while the borrowers’ collateral is stored in Bitgo and other custodial services. We are mimicking the safest platform and security is our motto for users.
I would say DeFi is one of the basic human rights and demands. Of course, we are able to see the rise of Defi projects in the US and Europe. we wanna go with our niche market, which is South East Asia. Here people are very fond of cryptocurrency but are not very interested when it comes to technology, privacy and especially DeFi. To Constant, it is an advantage as we will be the first one to educate and stick with them that is actually a very good question. We believe that we are able to bring the good thing to people, even though they do not realize that they need it yet 🙂
Alexa: I see. a bold move to enter a new market that isn’t being explored much yet! Again, it has advantages and challenges at the same time. All the best for expanding and growing your market in South East Asia and beyond!
Just one more from me, we talk about borrowing, but for investing, what is the general market rate?
Claire: ah, we do not set the interest rate. The rate is set by investors and borrowers. For example, lots of users are setting 8% as the balance rate, so it becomes the market rate.
Other Questions
Wong: What is exactly investing? When I lend I invest too?
Claire: we connect lenders and borrowers. Investing means lending, you can deposit stablecoins into Constant and earn 8% APR.
Wong: Can I start to lend with any amount? I am not a big holder
Claire: yes, starting from 10 USD, only stablecoin and fiat. We do not accept crypto at the moment.
Wong: USDT, USDC and others, right?
Claire: DAI, PAXOS, BUSD… you can check them all here myconstant.com/invest
Alexa: So in short, we users can borrow IOST & other cryptos, and can lend (which means invest) stablecoins and fiat.
Claire: sure
Raad NLTK: will you have another planned exclusive interest rate for IOST in the future? or its just one-time thing?
Claire: I’m sorry to inform you that it is a welcoming gift and will not come back again. YOu can always have a loan against IOST at 8% APR with Constant.
Raad NLTK: very nice, it’s very competitive that even Binance CEO acknowledged the power of your competition side against Binance lending. what is the maximum lending amount that I can get from myconstant?
Claire: I can see that you already have some research about us. Right now it is still unlimited, as the investment will be matched partially until it is done. We have received millions of dollars in investment so no worry. and hey, with big users, we have membership program to reward you more.
Zhen: What is the one function in DeFi that you think is missing right now? What’s the next big feature for your platform?
Claire: I would say it is trust. because it is decentralized and ppl are not familiar with it. I think as any platform provider, you gotta be balanced between security and freedom for users.
Alexa: Thanks Claire & everyone for joining the AMA with Constant today. Hope this discussion helps you to understand better how this platform works and benefits you. Don’t forget, AS OF TODAY: All IOST-backed loans on Constant platform taken out before Jan. 22 will match instantly at 6% interest. This is a great low-cost opportunity to experiment with crypto loans if you’ve been wanting to try. Learn how to borrow against IOST on Constant: https://medium.com/iost/how-to-borrow-against-iost-on-constant-p2p-lending-platform-2aecac24ba51
Useful Links
Constant Website: https://www.myconstant.com/
Constant Twitter: https://twitter.com/constantp2p
IOST x Constant Partnership: https://medium.com/iost/iost-listed-as-collateral-on-constant-fastest-growing-p2p-lending-platform-in-sea-201a4ec98515
Guide: How to borrow IOST on Constant: https://medium.com/iost/how-to-borrow-against-iost-on-constant-p2p-lending-platform-2aecac24ba51