From cointelegraph by Victoria Li

Denis Vasin, lead developer and co-founder of Storm Trade, has joined a Cointelegraph AMA session. He discussed the importance of simplicity and a user-friendly experience when onboarding newcomers to decentralized finance (DeFi).

Storm Trade, one of the first decentralized exchanges (DEXs) on the TON blockchain to offer perpetual trading, hosts a wide range of features designed to simplify the DeFi experience for everyone.

Any user with a crypto wallet can readily dive into the protocol. Emphasizing user-friendliness, Vasin explained, “You can use wallets that are already integrated into Telegram, which every user has. And you can start trading directly with the Storm Trade platform through our Telegram Mini App, with a pretty simple user interface. So it’s really trading at its simplest.“

The ease of use and TON-specific properties, combined with support for popular tokens like Toncoin TON$5.32 and Notcoin (NOT), helped the platform’s total value locked (TVL) to skyrocket. “A key reason for this is our dedicated work with the community,“ the co-founder noted. “Another factor that has worked in combination is attracting more traders and adding more opportunities for providers to earn not only on USDT.“

Storm Trade recently added several features to enhance the trading experience, including a sequencer. “With our sequencer, each order is actually executed in less than a second. This is achieved through what I call L1.5 with onchain verification. Another thing is our guaranteed execution pricing. Regardless of the market conditions, you get executed at the exact price with no slippage,“ Vasin detailed.

Token voucher model

The debut of the STORM token marks the start of a new era for the platform. With the airdrop for early adopters behind, the token is now tradable in the form of vouchers. Commenting on the advantages brought by the voucher model, Vasin said, “I think vouchers were first introduced by Notcoin as a form of pre-market, which is actually a great way for initial distribution. Our upcoming listing will take place on ChainGPT and eesee launchpads.“

The token performance is intertwined with product performance. “What we are doing with our token is a buy-back and distribute model for each share. This means that a portion of the protocol would be used to buy back STORM from the open market, creating buying pressure on the token, and then distributing it to the token stakers. This model ensures the fastest feedback cycle between the product of performance and token price and performance,” the co-founder explained.

STORM also offers reduced trading fees. The focus on solid utility contrasts with governance tokens, which have performed relatively poorly in this market, according to Vasin.

Web3 ‘edutainment’

Storm Trade’s initial system focused on rewarding conventional DeFi mechanics, like liquidity provision. Apart from limiting the opportunities, the narrow scope of rewards could discourage newcomers who may find Web3 a bit complicated.

Recognizing the need for a more comprehensive approach, the DEX integrated social tasks into its reward system. “For a lot of people who have just come on board with Web3, it’s just always seemingly difficult for them. So, we put an emphasis on the social mechanics of users earning referral rewards and completing other social tasks. We’ve even developed an educational application that’s embedded in Storm Trade called Storm Academy,” Vasin explained.

Storm Academy itself represents a departure from traditional education models. “Typically, education is associated with something relatively boring,“ says Vasin. Instead, Storm Academy presents complex concepts about blockchain, DeFi and trading in a concise, engaging format using interactive stories, memes and a faster feedback cycle.

“It’s like ‘edutainment’ packaged just for Web3,“ the speaker noted. Storm Academy covers a comprehensive curriculum, ranging from basic Web3 concepts to advanced trading strategies and risk management. Each course concludes with a test, offering reward points as an additional incentive for sustained education.

The future of DeFi

Looking ahead, Vasin expressed confidence in DeFi’s future on the TON blockchain. “We’re on to something big. Telegram’s social graph is one of the unique things available exclusively to TON that will help bring the next 10 million people to DeFi,“ he said.

Storm Trade is also expanding its offerings. The platform’s roadmap includes new features such as margin trading, an embedded wallet and a new social trading layer. “All of this will be powered by the Storm profile, which is already out. It allows users to share their performance, engage in copy trading, and earn rewards for various activities. We are actually moving to the next phase to become the decentralized trading solution for total intelligence,“ Vasin concluded.