AMA Overview: The Evolution from Neo Infrastructure to a Smart Wallet
On December 29th, O3 Labs and Neo economy held an AMA on the WeChat Chinese channel at 15:00 (UTC+8). This is the first time O3 Labs participated in the Chinese community. Operation manager Caroline joined to speak on behalf of O3 Labs. Topics of discussion in the AMA focused on Neo development and O3 Wallet's next steps in 2021. The AMA event consisted of two parts. 8 questions collected from the Chinese community for the first part, and 5 open questions for the second part.
Q1: What is the relationship between the Neo community and O3 Labs? What is the development history of O3 Labs?
Caroline: O3 Wallet is one of the earliest and most popular light wallets in the Neo ecosystem. Since 2017, O3 Labs has been involved in the construction of Neo infrastructure, such as O3 explorer, UTXO manager, Neo dapi editor, and some ongoing projects, Neo3 testing network, full node, etc. Therefore, you can say O3 Labs originates from the Neo developer community and grows together with Neo.
There are three milestones in the development history of O3 Labs. The first one is the release of the Neo light wallet — O3 wallet in Tokyo in 2017 and supported Ontology lately. The second one is the support of fiat currencies (USD, Euro) and credit cards to purchase cryptocurrencies (including BTC, NEO, ETH). The last one is to support mainstream assets such as BTC, ETH in 2020, and become a multi-asset wallet.
Q2: Could you introduce O3 Labs in detail?
Caroline: This should be the first time O3 Labs participates in the Chinese community. I believe there will be more events in the future for everyone to understand O3. Let me introduce our team again. The O3 Labs was established in Tokyo in 2017 and is one of the early crypto wallet development teams in the world. At present, our team members are mainly based in Tokyo, New York, London, Singapore, Taipei, Shanghai, and other regions. O3 Labs has been focusing on providing professional crypto asset management tools and services. Currently, we have provided wallet services for 100,000+ users.
Q3: This year, O3 Wallet has a great new look and version upgrade. Could you briefly introduce it?
Caroline: Yes, O3 wallet has undergone rebranding and version upgrades in September of this year. In addition to the redesign of the user interface, the product architecture and experience have been optimized, network speed has been improved, and the wallet multi-languages have been added, including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Secondly, O3 wallet now supports more mainstream assets such as BTC, ETH, USDT, and high-quality DeFi projects such as Flamingo, Uniswap, Compound, Switcheo, etc.
Q4: Neo3 Preview4 was officially released recently. Our mainnet will be launched next year (2021). Could you tell us about O3 Labs’ support and progress for Neo3?
Caroline: In the 2020 Q4, our focus is also on Neo3 infrastructure. In the first stage, we will prepare wallet-related development. Currently, the desktop version support of Neo3 preview4 has been completed. After Neo3 is officially launched, we will proceed at the same time.
Q5: O3, as a veteran wallet in 2017, could you tell us about the features, advantages, and how you conquer difficulty?
Caroline: First of all, O3 Wallet is an open-source decentralized wallet. Users’ assets are always under their control. Secondly, O3 Wallet is based on high-quality basic chains like Neo to create a simple and exquisite wallet service. Third, O3 always focuses on the user’s needs. We provide the service to purchase cryptocurrencies by fiat currency and credit card. We also provide swap functions and high-quality DeFi services, so users can manage their encrypted assets without leaving O3 Wallet. Last but not least, we always protect user privacy, which means users 100% own their data without any login or registration.
Since 2017, O3 Labs has experienced a lot of bumps. The key to persistence is that we believe O3 always provides valuable and meaningful service to our users. Thank you here. Great support and help from Neo.
Q6: In fact, there are many black swan incidents this year. The centralized platform is one of them. Why do you always insist on the decentralized route?
Caroline: Everyone knows since 2017, O3 Labs has adhered to the decentralized route of open source code. We believe users’ encrypted assets should be firmly controlled by users themselves. Not only the storage and transfer, but all operations/management should also be authorized by the signature of users own private key. For example, asset transactions can be done through DEX/SWAP, lending can be done through Compound, and financial management can be done through Yearn. O3 Labs is committed to providing better-decentralized management services so that every need for users’ encrypted assets can be met in O3 Wallet.
Q7: How do you see the current development and application innovation of DeFi? Regarding the recent trend of wallet + DeFi, does O3 Wallet have any plans in this regard?
Caroline: DeFi innovation has brought many practical applications to the industry and has truly promoted the development of open finance. We believe this is one of the most important directions of blockchain technology. O3 Labs also actively supports this aspect. We are the first wallet to support the DeFi projects on Neo Ecosystem, such as Switcheo and Flamingo, by providing unified dapi support. Wallets carry users’ trust in security and are the best entry point for connecting DeFi applications. For the DeFi project side, the wallet is the entrance for users and credit endorsement. For the user side, the wallet can optimize the operating experience and lower the barriers to participation. So I think wallet + DeFi will continue to develop. These features have been developing and will meet with you soon in 2021. I believe O3 users can easily manage/operate encrypted assets in O3 wallets in the future.
Q8: Looking back at the growth history of O3, opportunities and challenges have always coexisted. For the new year 2021, what are the plans and goals for the O3? What constructions can O3 Chinese fans participate in?
Caroline: 2021 will be the year when O3 Labs brings the greatest innovation and change. In brief, we will bring surprises in the following directions.
- Create and integrate more high-quality DeFi services, such as O3 Swap, lending, financial management, insurance, etc.
- Allow users to complete all encrypted asset management without leaving the App. Add more high-quality assets, integrate cross-chain protocols, provide interactive services between different chain assets, and create a smart encrypted wallet.
- Create a closed-loop of encrypted asset management and optimize the experience of buying encrypted assets with fiat currency/credit card.
- Cooperate with regional authority agencies to allow users to exchange fiat currencies more easily and compliantly.
Q&A 1: Can the multifunctional integration like Imtoken and pt (eos) wallets be achieved?
Caroline: This is one of our priorities next year. We will build and integrate more high-quality DeFi services, such as O3 Swap, lending, financial management, insurance, etc. So users can complete all encrypted asset management without leaving the App.
Q&A 2: I remember that O3 supported ETH recently. I would like to ask if O3 is approaching a multi-chain wallet? If so, which chains will it support in the future?
Caroline: Recently, BTC, ETH are supported, and DOT support is preparing. there are other chains in the future.
Q&A 3: Is O3 Wallet open source?
Caroline: Partly open-source, this is our Github link: https://github.com/O3Labs.
Q&A 4: Why are exchanges and wallets engaged in wealth management products now, and does O3 have any plans in the future?
Caroline: As a non-custodial wallet, users fully control and manage their own assets. In the future, we will consider supporting the integration of some excellent lending and financial management agreements, so users can easily and simply participate in these services in O3 Wallet. In addition, many financial products on the market are currently in the stage of innovation and experimentation. I would suggest paying more attention to the risks to avoid stepping on some unnecessary pits.
Q&A 5: Taking China as an example, the government is preparing to launch a wallet for DCEP (Digital Currency Electronic Payment). Will it have a big impact on the encrypted wallets we use now?
Caroline: I think launching fiat currencies by various governments around the world is the driving force for the development of the industry. It may accelerate the public’s acceptance and learning of digital assets. DCEP wallets store digital RMB and the crypto wallets we are using now store encrypted assets. We manage the private keys and public addresses of encrypted assets. The only difference is the stored contents. This is also another level of user education to allow everyone to have a comprehensive understanding of digital wallets.
About Us
The earliest light wallet in Neo ecology. We have 100,000+ users in the European and North American markets, supporting BTC, ETH, ERC-20 tokens, NEO, ONT, and NEP5 assets.
