Recap of Adam’s Alpha Testing AMA About the Digitex Testnet

The first traders are having a blast on the testnet!

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JuiceStorm.com supported Adam Todd and the Digitex Futures since before the ICO on January 15th 2018. Support for the Digitex Futures was withdrawn 4th August 2020.

Alpha Testing Telegram AMA Highlights

The AMA started out with many of the testers congratulating Adam on the platform so far. “Superb effort with the platform, mate,” said John. “It’s in incredible shape for an alpha release,” said another, and one more, “u have a made a dangerously fun platform. Hard to stop myself from putting orders on the ladder interface.”

As we mentioned from the initial feedback yesterday, we’re getting a lot of comments about how fun and addictive trading on the platform is!

Then Adam took a deep breath and prepared himself for a barrage of questions. Here are the main ones below:

Q: It seems almost too easy to win right now, will it be this way in the mainnet?

A: Currently, the market makers are programmed to trade fast and loose. They will be a bit tighter in the mainnet, for now, we just wanted to have them creating a lot of activity for testing purposes.

Q: Any chance of getting rid of the false spikes, please? asked the founder of JuiceStorm – the chart is below. John also commented “It makes the chart as much use as a chocolate teapot.”

A: Adam confirms that the spikes are “messing things up” and the problem is being worked on.

Q: Any estimate on mainnet? Is December or January possible?

A: The official estimate for mainnet is Q1, but it is still too early to tell exactly when.

Q: Any plans to add one-cancels-other “bracket” orders?

A: Yes, we will be adding all kinds of tools, for now, we just wanted to put out the bare-bones version and get it tested when it’s as simple as it can be. After that, we’ll start adding complexity when the main bugs have been squashed.

Q: Is it possible we can have a toggle to be able to show all balances, preselected contracts sizes, UPnL/PnL shown in USD vs DGTX?

A: Adam confirms that this is a good idea. It was not on the list but now he is going to add it.

Q: How are the market maker bots configured? Are they set to lose significantly? It’s very easy to get filled–will it be like this on the mainnet? Would that be sustainable for the exchange?

A: Adam explains again that the market maker bots are set to be very active right now and will be a little calmer in mainnet. However, they will still be very active. And depending on how much DGTX we make in system gains by the liquidation engine, they could still be set to give lots of fills like they currently are doing.

We might have a lot of system gains to give back to traders through the market makers, so it is possible that the market makers could be very active like they are now.

Q: What have been the main findings from testing so far – technically any challenges that you were not expecting?

A: Things are holding up well at the moment, no crashes and it’s going remarkably well. The bugs that are being reported were known about but it’s good that they’re being reported by others and not just me. So overall very happy with how stable everything is and now it’s just a case of making it totally solid for mainnet.

Q: Will spot markets be available from mainnet so we can cash out in ETH or BTC? This will be important for liquidity.

A: Yes, it’s a top priority that we have a liquid spot market in DGTX/ETH in time for the mainnet launch, if we’re making use of DGTX compulsory then users should be able to buy it easily without leaving the exchange. And if we put DGTX/ETH on a ladder with zero commissions, you know it’s going to be crazy liquid. 🙂

Q: Is the insurance fund/market maker being simulated? If so, how is it performing?

A: The market makers right now are programmed to follow the spot price and place bids and offers around it with occasional high buys and low sells to keep things active. It’s going really well because they are pumping huge volume through the matching engine and it’s holding up well. In mainnet, they will be calmed down a bit but they will still be very active and that liquidity will attract a lot of other liquidity.

Q: What is the source for the spot price (it seems a bit higher than Coinbase/BitMEX) and is there a consideration to protect from index price diverging if one of the spot exchanges used by the index goes down for maintenance?

A: Currently, we’re using Coinbase, Kraken and Bitstamp, Adam says, but he will have to check that as “we’ve been playing around with it a lot.” Yes, we’re building in safeguards to prevent problems when we get wrong data.

Q: Congrats on hiring a top dev team. Can you address the liquidity spikes for a minute? (or whatever is causing those big momentary dips/spikes).

A: Adam thinks that those spikes are being created by people playing around with it and dumping a million contracts so they may not actually be bugs. “People get a bit crazy with play money,” he says. But yes, we’re looking into everything that is going on during this test phase so it’s all very useful data.

Q: Is there an option to have a PIQ column in the ladder?

A: To this, Adam replies, yes, we can do that, and he confirms that he is redesigning the UI again and will post a few screenshots.

Q: From one of the testers who created a video, will his ideas for tools and customization be implemented?

A: Adam thanks him for the video and says he appreciates all the suggestions. He confirms that he will post a few screenshots after going through the latest questions.

Q: Are you planning to put a Closed PnL tab (next to open position tab) like Bybit for mainnet? There’s none in the testnet.

A: Yes, we’ve got a bunch of improvements coming, this is the bare-bones version at the moment.

Q: How soon after DGTX/ETH will DGTX/BTC be available?

A: Not sure about DGTX/BTC just because its a different blockchain and we’re still researching being non-custodial which would be impossible with BTC.

Q: Can we get an FAQ or how-to guide for trading on the Digitex platform?

A: Adam confirms that yes, we’ll put something together.

Q: Is any other exchange planning to list DGTX?

A: Yes, we’re going to list on another exchange soon and maybe another one or two but, to be honest, when we launch, the busiest market will be on our own exchange.

Q: Will liquidations be based on a global spot price index like what Bybit and other exchanges do and not on the exchanges Futures price?

A: Yes liquidations will be based on the spot price and not on the futures price to prevent manipulation and stop hunting.

Q: Will there be a mobile app?

A: Yes, we’re going to make it so it works well on mobile and, yes, we want to make a sick mobile app too for Android and iPhone, hopefully in time for mainnet launch.

New Ideas for the UI

Adam then uploads four screenshots of the UI with feedback and suggestions implemented. He says that we are still working on a few improvements to the UI that will include tools, my recent trades, depth of market, navigation between markets, trade history, etc.

The screenshots are received extremely well, with comments like, “that looks insane,” “this is awesome,” “it’s finally getting real,” and plenty of applauding emoticons and thumbs up. Adam then gets back to answering more questions.

Q: Do you think there will be a way to implement a size filter on the time and sales? Also, when you eventually add new crypto and traditional markets, will we be able to have multiple tabs and instances of the exchange open at the same time without causing issues?

A: Yes, they are good suggestions thanks for those.

Q: I wanted to get your thoughts on exchange KYC. Do you think it would be a good idea to create a tier in the KYC similar to that of Binance?

A: Regarding KYC, Adam says that he will “do the absolute minimum that we can do without going to jail, I hate KYC and it has no place in crypto, so yes if we can onboard people without it that would be great.”

Q: Is the helpdesk fully operational now? I just received a reply from Vasiliy through email.

A: Yes, we have the helpdesk operational but we’re still figuring it all out and creating the systems so it might be a bit rusty now but by official testnet on Nov 30, it should be running smoothly.

Q: Will we be restricting the number of traders on the mainnet; or if things are fine will we have no cap on the onboarding?

A: On mainnet, there will be no restrictions and we will be launching content-driven viral marketing campaigns aimed at getting the maximum number of traders signing up.

Adam says he believes that there are millions of people out there who currently aren’t even interested in trading and who know nothing about crypto, but who would love this style of fast-paced trading where there is no edge working against you.

Q: Regarding a the Peg system: would it be possible to create a DGTX/BTC futures market in which a user can open position exclusively if they already have an open position in BTC/USD future? Could that help prevent DGTX manipulation?

A: Any futures market is open to manipulation so not sure how it would work in practice, Adam admits to being “still stuck on this one.”

Q: Would a model similar to DAI be taken up when DGTX gets higher volume, so it is a stablecoin backed by DGTX?

A: Yes, I’m thinking about doing a stablecoin similar to how DAI works. That is backed by ETH which fell by 90% in a year and yet still DAI held its value at $1 so we know it works even with a volatile asset like DGTX backing it up.

That’s a Wrap

The chat starts to wind down and is very encouraging. The testers thank Adam and the team for all the hard work and perseverance and say that the interface is “game-changing” and that they’re convinced that this project is going to be huge. Adam thanks them all for their questions and for taking the time to submit bug reports. “I really appreciate it,” he says.