BNB Chain Project Spotlight: Tranchess#3

Our BNB Chain Project Spotlight this week features a project star in June,  Tranchess, a yield-enhancing asset-tracking protocol, joining us on Project Spotlight for the third time.

Read more about the strong performing platform in our interview with the Tranchess team below!

IMPORTANT: Please note the following content does not constitute an endorsement or approval of any of the products or services of the project, organization, or individual.

1. Welcome to your THIRD Project Spotlight! It’s been quite a while since we last spoke in February, and we are very excited to have you back on Spotlight again. Is there anything you’d like to update and share with us?

Absolutely! Glad to be back. It’s starting to feel like home. As always, a big Hello to the Spotlight readers. We do have a lot to update everyone, and the most important update will be Tranchess’ recent V2 release!

Tranchess launched its V2 a few weeks back on June 16 with a brand new UI as well as some long-awaited and exciting new functions. Our users can now create QUEEN and redeem it back to BTC, ETH, or BNB instantly without waiting 24 hours for their requests to settle. Additionally, the original Tranchess Swap is now in AMM’s form! Tranchess V2 comes with four AMM pools: three BISHOP-BUSD pools for our three funds respectively, and an nQUEEN+-BNB pool. Tranchess has connected multiple routes to allow effective conversion of Tranchess tokens, ie users can swap any tokens instantly through Instant Swap. Tranchess has carefully crafted an inbuilt logic to automatically select the most optimal route to complete any given transaction. LPs for the new AMM pools collect both the transaction fees and Tranchess’ weekly CHESS emission; both rewards are now distributed among the three BISHOP-BUSD AMM pools. Last but not least, our veChess holders can now also collect Tranchess’ fourth weekly rebate asset: BUSD, from the fees collected from AMM pools.

You may click here to read Tranchess' previous spotlight article here:

BNB Project Spotlight: Tranchess

BNB Project Spotlight: Tranchess#2

2. Tranchess V2 looks like a head-to-toe revamp. The UI has also been completely changed. Is there any particular reason or story behind such a big change?

Tranchess V2 is not just a major update but a complete revamp. Most of the smart contracts have been edited or completely re-written. In fact, the auditors that did all the previous audits for our protocol mentioned how different V2’s smart contracts look compared to the previous version and how they needed additional time to scrutinize through.

And changes are not just on the smart contract level. A year into our initial launch, we wanted Tranchess V2 to represent both the internal reflection and growth within the team, as well as the constructive feedback and insights that we’ve received from our community over the year. We had converted the original orderbook matching Tranchess Swap to AMM pools and this significantly shortened the settlement time required for creation and redemption requests. Additionally, we’ve also introduced the synthetic token concept into the Tranchess ecosystem with our nQUEEN+ token, bringing in more future adoption possibilities for all Tranchess native tokens.

With all the changes happening, we thought it’s only fair for the UI to also have a brand new refreshing look. Our brilliant design team colleagues came up with many design iterations before finally narrowing it down to three for the team to vote on. Go to www.Tranchess.com to look at the ultimate winning design by team votes. We’ve also shared with our community the runner-up designs in Townhall IV, in case anyone is keen to check it out.

3. Sounds like the team has put a lot of thought into it. Let’s talk a little bit more about Tranchess’ new functions, the AMM pools. Why did Tranchess decide to launch the BISHOP pools first?

As many of the Spotlight readers might have already known, Tranchess launched initially with an orderbook-matching style swap market. Given our concerns with security, we had added a TWAP mechanism on top to ensure that the prices would not be manipulated by price-feed oracle hacks. The orderbook matching was designed with the intent to encourage ROOK trading, given Tranchess had launched during a time when crypto prices were relatively low and bullish. Our security design with TWAP did however raise the entry bar and discourage greater liquidity. In comparison to AMMs, which DeFi users are fairly familiar with, the orderbook matching combined with 30min TWAP security design did also introduce a deeper learning curve.

We were always urged by the community to add in more independent features for the native tokens in Tranchess, in order to highlight the different token characteristics - This was also something in line with our long-term plans. At the beginning of this year when the team was brainstorming the structure of V2, we decided to start with BISHOP after multiple rounds of debates and discussions. BISHOP by design is a stablecoin-like token, which is usually the most widely used token regardless of the market’s volatility. Just to add, Bishop is not an isolated coin but part of the complete Tranchess ecosystem that backs it with 100% collateralization. It might be too early to view BISHOP as a full-fledged stablecoin, but we definitely want it to start encompassing some of the stablecoin-like qualities.

Two weeks into V2 launch, we have already noted the active swapping between BISHOP-BUSD in all three pools. What’s even more interesting is that we are also starting to see active swapping for ROOK as the market sees the opportunity during volatile price fluctuations as well relative market troughs. As mentioned before, the AMM pools are Tranchess’ first step towards promoting the different characteristics of our Q/B/R tokens, and it is very encouraging indeed to see that our highly intellectual users are already starting to explore this on their own.

4. The last time you joined us for Project Spotlight, you had introduced the “Tranchess Trooper of the Month”, which sounded like an exciting program. It’s been 6 months into execution … any exciting updates thus far?

I’m so glad you asked! Tranchess Trooper of the Month program has been very helpful in spotting talents in our community. We now have a grand total of 18 ToTMs in our discussion group and the group continues to grow by 3 every month. In the last six months, we’ve gathered some great insights and in-depth analysis from our very own ToTMs. In the coming months, they will further participate in upcoming community activities. I think it’s worth mentioning that we’ve also started a regular weekly event called “Fireside Chat”, hosted by my colleague Gambit. I believe you will see some of our ToTMs joining in the Fireside Chat very soon.

5. With everything that happened in the last few months and the market reacted wildly, many people have been asking around and asking themselves: “what now?” I would like to ask Tranchess the same question: With V2 launched, what now? What are Tranchess’ next steps and plans in the coming months, and how is the team coping with the current market situation?

This is indeed a commonly raised question nowadays. Personally, we think the question is both tough and simple. It’s tough because we can never predict the market, especially a market like crypto that is changing so rapidly. However, given that the crypto market has always been volatile, it actually makes “consistent building and dedication” even more important. Regardless of Bull or Bear markets, I think it’s always important to stay dedicated, hard-working, constantly reflecting, and adapting to the fast-changing environment. As we’ve always said, the Tranchess team is here together with everyone to help build and develop the industry for the long run. We’ve launched V2 as planned and we will continue to dedicate time and effort to protocol development and growth regardless of any market turbulence or environment forthcoming.

Our plan for the next six months has already been mapped out on the Milestone chart, and we intend to stick with the plan steadfastly. It’s going to be a busy year for Tranchess, as we continue to explore the possibilities of synthetic tokens and look out for potential collaborations, as well as further plans to earn sustainable yields and revenue. Additionally, we certainly wouldn’t want to miss out on big industry-wide events such as ETH merge 2.0 and the potential validator opportunities it brings along. The team is ready for the upcoming plans, and we will continue our endeavor in bringing about the best version of Tranchess to the community, just like what we just did with Tranchess V2.