Interview with @RyanApeFiro
Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 2:17 PM]
hi! Thank you Ryan for your nomination for the CFC! You’ve been a long term supporter of Firo especially in the Indonesian community. Could you please tell us how you found out about Firo and what has kept you part of the community all these years?
Ryan, [24/5/2022 2:26 PM]
[In reply to Firo-chan Yap]
Hi Reuben good afternoon from Indonesia! A pleasure to have this interview. I first discovered Firo in my search for an interesting topic to study in the blockchain. I found privacy coin project has a lot of value and then started to search for the earliest projects in the sector. I didn’t know much about Firo (zcoin) back then and was my earliest days learning about privacy blockchain technology. After my understanding got better I conclude that Firo is the project that I love the most in this sector especially due to its development approach, I think Firo core team knows well what should be their priority. I love also the transparency, the fact that the project is not controlled by a single large token holder or institutional investors, etc.
Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 2:28 PM]
Thanks! Firo’s recent price performance hasn’t been the best, what do you think could have been done better or is this just a matter of market interest in privacy products?
Ryan, [24/5/2022 2:40 PM]
Market interest in privacy products definitely contributes a significant impact I believe, however it does not make privacy products don’t have their product-market fit. Firo’s position as a crypto project associates us with other coins or tokens that are actually very different. The market thinks that other coins that are not privacy coins are a product substitute for Firo when they actually aren’t. I think Firo token price could have been done better but that most likely would have some side effect that I’m not sure will make a better situation or not in the future. It’s always a trade-off, but I believe Firo is on the right track even though the price is too low, it gives us a real picture of how the market organically values privacy blockchain. What I think could have been done better was in terms of branding. Token price we can say is strongly related to the project brand equity, but branding is not about marketing only or creating a nice logo or website it’s about strategy and understanding the market psychology.
Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 2:41 PM]
Makes sense, you’ve been doing a good job with the Firo Indonesian community promotion. What would you change?
Ryan, [24/5/2022 2:44 PM]
I would like to give the right perception to people that Firo is something that human needs. However, people will not understand if they don’t get their basic rights. Hence I would like to focus on giving the right education but also need to make it not boring, by giving some fun facts or not so serious information but still related to blockchain and decentralizations.
Ryan, [24/5/2022 2:46 PM]
So yes I’d like to change the delivery format to be more fun.
Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 2:50 PM]
That’s fair! If you become a member of the CFC, what would be the first few things you would use the fund for?
Ryan, [24/5/2022 2:59 PM]
I would be more careful to use the fund with the current market condition. I would even consider to use the fund to backs a community funding initiatives so for example if the project by the community that is supported by community failed for some reasons investors will get a portion of the Firo from CFC that is allocated to back that initiatives, if the project successful investors will get return on their investment, so win win.
Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:01 PM]
That gives community members confidence to support initiatives coming from the community and incentivize community creations
Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:01 PM]
I think
Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:07 PM]
Could you clarify by what you mean by investors? The CFC’s funds isn’t owned by investors though.
Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:14 PM]
How to say it, so for example there is a group of community members that would like to create a project and submit it to the proposal for community fund. They will not get the community fund but if we think the project is good, we could allocate some Firo to backs that project. The Firo community could then invest in that project and get shares or digital assets or anything that is valuable for their investment. If the project successful, the Firo that is used to backs the project will be able to be used to back another project, so no spending from us. But if the project failed, then we give the Firo to the project investors so they don’t lose 100% of their money, perhaps only 50% or 70%.
Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:16 PM]
Haha sounds complicated 
Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:16 PM]
Remember the CFC can initiate its own proposals as well!
Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:16 PM]
no it’s very simple, and would encourage community to be involved in creating something in Firo ecosystem
Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:17 PM]
and very capital efficient
Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:17 PM]
Firo community as in not the CFC yeah? Once you start issuing shares etc, it resembles a security.
Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:18 PM]
yes not, so it’s not CFC
Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:19 PM]
CFC committee consists of some experts so the Firo amount used to back the project could give potential investors a kind of initial valuation of the project
Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:21 PM]
Anything you would like to see the CFC fund directly? Like a specific example.
Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:26 PM]
I don’t want to limit it for specific usage because to the potential of community initiatives is huge to add value to Firo. I would also be open with the idea of something that is completely new as long as it makes sense. but to give a specific example on what a good use of the fund, I think several things such as giving incentives to liquidity providers on Firo dex, contribution to the project code audit, etc.
Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:28 PM]
are the example of good use of the fund, sorry by audit I mean something like finding bug or glitch as well
Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:29 PM]
Any thoughts on how Firo’s governance should be run?
Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:32 PM]
I believe governance is a tricky topic to discuss and I’m afraid I’m not the expert on that. However I would prefer governance where there is a balance of power (not concentrated to a single group) and since we are a decentralized network we should not be governed like how the corporation is governed where shareholders or investors can decide everything.
Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:33 PM]
Well I don’t have any further questions, anything you would like to add?
Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:34 PM]
I think that’s it apologize for the confusion on the fund usage part
Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:37 PM]
Thank you! Ryan and good luck!