Dialogue Zebec Protocol: Advancing into the Multi-Chain Ecosystem and Developing More Partnerships

Author: Liao Liao, ODAILY Planet Daily

As one of the representatives in the streaming payment sector, Zebec Protocol is developing rapidly. Zebec has now released a solution for the streaming payment public chain Zebec Chain based on Zk-Rollup, has basically completed the migration to BNB Chain, and has issued the BEP 20 standard $ZBC token, while the streaming payment feature will be launched soon.

At the same time, in addition to many Web3 partners, Zebec has acquired 5 Web2 payment companies with over ten thousand users, planning to expand more partnerships in 2023.

On December 12, Odaily Planet Daily engaged in a dialogue with Zebec Protocol CEO Sam Thapaliya to explore topics of interest, summarized as follows:

Q1 Can you briefly introduce Zebec Protocol?

Zebec Protocol was founded in 2021 and is the world's first on-chain salary streaming payment product with tax functionality. It is also currently the fastest-growing and most commercialized ecosystem in the streaming payment sector.

Previously, we launched the first application built on Zebec Protocol, Zebec Pay, which allows employers to pay employees in cryptocurrency (stablecoins like USDC) at a low cost through streaming payments. This application has been widely adopted and features compliance characteristics, allowing users to allocate part of their salary to compliant crypto IRA and 401k accounts for retirement purposes.

Currently, Zebec has released a solution for the streaming payment public chain Zebec Chain based on Zk-Rollup, revealing the main advantages of privacy protection, high throughput, and compliance, facilitating the integration of streaming payment features into more Web3 ecosystem applications, and is set to officially launch in Q3 2023.

We have raised over $40 million in historical funding, with investors including Coinbase, Solana Ventures, Distributed Global, OKX Blockdream Ventures, Circle Venture, and more than 20 top global investment institutions.

Q2 What achievements has Zebec made previously? What partnerships exist in the Web2 and Web3 fields?

Previously, about 1/3 of Solana projects used the Zebec system to distribute salaries, and over 250 projects have been built on Zebec, creating the largest ecosystem on the Solana chain. Zebec Protocol's early user base has already exceeded 30,000, and the TVL once surpassed $300 million without any staking mining.

In 2022 alone, Zebec achieved $20 million in revenue, bringing a net profit of $2 million to $6 million to the ecosystem, and it is expected to achieve $40 million to $50 million in revenue within a year (by August 2023), resulting in even more considerable net profits. Additionally, Zebec Protocol plans to launch its own stablecoin when revenue reaches $1 trillion.

Currently, Zebec Protocol's Web3 partners include ARB, Synchrony, Francium, Mirror World, HalkSight, Drippies, Rewards Bunny, Aver Exchange, Moonlana, and others.

Through collaboration with Rewards Bunny, Zebec Protocol has indirectly established partnerships with over 1,000 Web2 companies, including eBay, Alibaba, travel, and booking.com, creating cash flow income and profitability.

Moreover, Zebec has been continuously expanding its streaming payment business since Q1 2022, and we have acquired 5 Web2 payment companies with over ten thousand users. With its strong response to traffic payments in Web3, Zebec's acquisition capabilities will continue to increase. In the next 1-2 years, we plan to add 10-20 larger Web2 payment companies to the team, taking Zebec global.

Q3 Currently, the Zebec ecosystem is developing towards a multi-chain system. What is the overall progress at this stage?

Currently, we are expanding our migration beyond the Solana ecosystem, with a focus on EVM chains, and BNB Chain is the first stop for our ecosystem expansion.

Zebec Protocol has basically completed the migration to BNB Chain and has issued the BEP 20 standard $ZBC token, while the streaming payment feature will be launched soon. Additionally, Zebec has reached specific collaborations with some projects on BNB Chain and will soon initiate related business.

We have received support from the BNB Chain community in various aspects, including users and technology. The official BNB Chain Twitter has mentioned us multiple times, and we have also received support from leading projects in the ecosystem, such as PancakeSwap, which has partnered with us and will soon list the $ZBC token on their "Syrup Pool." We are also collaborating with many quality partners on BNB Chain to promote the rapid development of our ecosystem on BNB Chain.

In addition to BNB Chain, we are also building a Zk-Rollup technical solution based on the blockchain tool Eclipse, which features privacy protection, high throughput, and compliance characteristics, serving as the foundation for the future streaming payment ecosystem. This chain is expected to launch in Q3 2023.

Q4 We see that under Zebec's multi-chain layout, a new batch of partners has emerged. Can you briefly share some details?

Currently, over 80 projects are participating in the development of Zebec Chain, including DeFi, infrastructure, NFT, and GameFi. For example, SpaceID, Duet Protocol, Ten Finance, Biswap, Izumi, Alpaca Finance, Apeswap, CLV, Cyberconnect, Pancake Swap on BNB Chain, and Satay, Mira Finance, Seam Labs, Osiris Protocol on Aptos chain.

Q5 What technical features does Zebec Chain possess, and how can these features assist in the development of the ecosystem?

Zebec has launched a new Rollup chain, Zebec Chain, based on Eclipse to further build its streaming payment ecosystem. Based on Zk-Rollup, the Zebec system is expected to achieve higher transaction efficiency, user capacity, system throughput, and lower, even negligible, transaction friction. At the same time, Zk-Rollup further endows Zebec with native cryptographic privacy features to match the demands of various future commercial scenarios.

Eclipse itself is a blockchain development tool that allows developers to easily deploy code as customizable Rollups (especially supporting modular Rollups using Solana VM). The execution layer of Eclipse inherits the characteristics of Solana's execution layer, including features such as Solana's EVM (data packet filter or eBPF), parallel processing of transactions (Sealevel), and streaming payments, enabling Solana dApps to enter multi-chain and access inter-blockchain communication, allowing data from the original Solana to be directly utilized through communication.

This means that Zebec, by building the Rollup layer through Eclipse, is expected to establish a more programmable ecosystem centered around streaming payments, which will bring native streaming payment features to developers. Meanwhile, the Rollup layer, as Layer 2, is expected to further facilitate interaction with Solana, thereby lowering the barriers to migration. As Zebec expands into more Layer 1 ecosystems, it is expected to help the ecosystem achieve better expansion.

Additionally, the Zebec ecosystem inherently possesses compliance experience, and high compliance will undoubtedly be one of the advantages of Zebec Chain.

Q6 Zepoch nodes are important validators of Zebec Chain. Can you introduce the potential benefits and rights of holding Zepoch nodes?

Zepoch nodes are among the most important validators on Zebec Chain, helping to validate transactions and produce blocks. The more nodes there are, the more decentralized the network becomes. The sale of Zepoch nodes has already surpassed 1,000, and we are confident that the number of nodes will see exponential growth in the coming months.

In terms of rights, becoming a Zepoch node not only grants governance rights but also provides numerous benefits, including profit sharing from Zebec Protocol, invitation rewards, airdrop rewards, etc. Furthermore, becoming a validator on the chain is expected to yield an additional return of approximately 4% to 7%. Currently, the global payment market size is $40 trillion, and Zebec is expected to capture about 2% of that, with the payment market experiencing exponential growth due to increasing market demand (especially with the rise of the African market).

Previously, we launched an ecological fund worth $10 million to incentivize Zepoch nodes, with node holders' APY expected to reach 50% to 250%. In the future, we will continue to introduce various incentive programs to maintain user enthusiasm for holding Zepoch nodes.

Q7 Can you share with us Zebec's recent market plans?

Currently, after launching a series of incentive programs, we are planning to promote a tightening mechanism for $ZBC, which involves locking more tokens to boost market confidence. Recently, we launched a dual mining pool for $ZBC/$USDT on Izumi Finance, with an APY exceeding 189%, attracting a large number of users to participate in staking. We are about to launch staking pools on platforms such as Gate, Kucoin, OKX, and Huobi, which is a very positive signal for the market development of $ZBC.

Q8 We see that the $ZBC token has performed well in the market recently. What has stimulated this strong market performance?

Recently, our market activities have been quite frequent, such as conducting AMAs in multiple communities. Many community users have reported that Zebec is one of the projects frequently discussed across various communities, and our ecosystem's visibility is increasing. Additionally, our collaboration with well-known platforms based on liquidity mining and staking is reducing the circulating supply of $ZBC and increasing demand, which is an important factor.

Of course, some macro factors, such as our collaboration with Visa, founder Sam Thapaliya's deep cooperation with the Nepalese government, and the development progress and value of Zebec Chain, are all favorable elements that will drive the long-term value capture of $ZBC.

Q9 Can you explain how the operations or circulation within these ecosystems work, as well as the consumption and release mechanisms?

The fees for Zebec can be controlled to remain between 2% and 3%. This pricing can generate over a hundred million dollars in revenue for Zebec annually, even reaching over ten billion dollars. With our own Visa debit card, the fee for the Visa debit card should be 5/1000, but normally it is in USD. We can roughly predict that by 2026 or 2025, the overall destruction of ZBC within the ecosystem could reach 30% or even 50%.

ZBC, as a token on the Zebec Protocol chain, primarily serves as gas fees at the protocol level, helping users address e-commerce governance. Each transaction annually typically incurs a fee of about 1% to 3%.

We can anticipate that approximately 1% to 2% of the tokens will be completely burned. When registering for a Visa card, ZBC can also be burned to facilitate token destruction.

I estimate that in the next three to four years, about 20% to 30% of the entire ZBC ecosystem's tokens will be deflated and destroyed in this manner.

Q10 Can you reveal the follow-up plans for ecosystem development?

This will mainly be reflected in several key timelines. The plans for 2022 have basically been realized, such as supporting the BNB chain in Q4 of this year, with node purchases also conducted through the BNB chain. In the first quarter of 2023, we will expand to more EVM chains, and in the second to third quarters, we aim to launch Zebec Chain, continuing to implement more features through Eclipse after Q3.

Of course, we also plan to expand more partnerships in 2023, especially with some Web2 clients, and acquire 10 to 20 Web2 payment companies to broaden the scope of our business.