What Is Amp Crypto and How To Stake AMP?

With traditional payment networks, transactions can be slow and insecure especially as we entrust them to intermediaries. Even with the introduction of blockchain technology, security and speed cannot seem to be maintained simultaneously. There will always be a sacrifice of one to achieve the other. Amp crypto token aims to solve the issue once and for all through an innovative decentralized solution that promises you both speed and security.   

Flexa Network and The Birth of Amp Token

To understand the working of AMP, it is crucial to know about a crypto payments platform —Flexa Network. Co-founded by Tyler Spalding, Trevor Filter, Zachary Kilgore and Daniel C. McCabe in 2018, Flexa is an open network that facilitates the instantaneous payment of crypto both online and in merchant stores. SPEDN is an app developed by the payment protocol through which users can make crypto payments in Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and more at over 40,000 merchants in the US and Canada. FlexaCoin (FXC) was the native token of the Flexa Network. 

On Sep 8, 2020, Flexa Network announced their upgrade from FXC to the Amp token. Why AMP? Crypto security for merchants during a transaction is one predominant issue. Merchants will want to know if the crypto payment they have received is confirmed. Presently, proof of work (PoW) blockchain confirmations required for this can take up to several hours. If we switch to proof of stake (PoS) blockchains, the transaction finality time may be faster, but the networks are more vulnerable to attacks.

The Amp project seeks to address both speed and security issues with its native token AMP which is used to collateralize asset transfers. How exactly does it do so? Let's discuss. 

What Is Amp Token (AMP)?

Amp token (AMP) is a digital collateral token that facilitates instant and secure crypto transfers efficiently for real-world use cases such as merchant payment transfers, payments to individuals and decentralized finance (DeFi) uses. It is an ERC-20 compatible token that is universally interoperable with external transaction protocols.

The Flexa Network created the Amp token to overcome many shortcomings of FXC's smart contracts as its infrastructure couldn't be updated to support many advanced functionalities. In September 2020, FXC holders were offered Amp tokens at a  1:1 exchange rate. 

AMP has a fixed maximum supply of 99,445,806,961 tokens which protects its value from inflation. When a new company adopts the Amp token, existing users of the token benefit as the liquidity increases. 

How Does AMP Work?

The Amp token is open-sourced. Any merchant or company willing to incorporate a crypto payment gateway for their daily operations can use AMP. The fundamental purpose of AMP is to serve as collateral for crypto transactions made with apps like SPEDN that use Flexa's payment protocol. 

Users stake AMP to help balance collateral pools and maintain collateral integrity. By staking AMP, all kinds of value exchange from digital payments to loan distributions and property sales can be assured. 

The amount of AMP spent cannot exceed the total amount of AMP staked in the Amp collateral pool. However, as the amount of AMP spent reaches closer to the amount of AMP staked in the collateral pool, the rewards will increase dramatically. Every app used for staking AMP has its own collateral pool. So as users get attracted to the different collateral pools to earn more rewards, the pools will get balanced naturally, achieving a healthy equilibrium.

Source: medium.com/amptoken

AMP is powered by two main features: collateral manager and token partitions.

Anyone who uses AMP as collateral will be able to create a collateral manager which acts like an escrow account that can be customized with specific rules to fit their purposes. There are token partitions with Amp’s token contract which enables multiple collateral managers to enforce different rules on separate areas linked to the same digital address. With token partitions, one can stake AMP without having to transfer it to another smart contract. 

What Is AMP Used For?

We have already discussed the two primary use cases of Amp tokens in the Flexa Network — collateral for crypto transactions and staking. Users can stake their Amp tokens to get rewarded with re-purchased AMP. AMP staking doesn't have any lock-in periods. 

AMP users can also use the Amp token for governance. Voting is done off-chain via Snapshot, a gas-free voting platform for crypto communities. AMP users can vote on all community proposals to have a say in the future direction of Amp protocol.

How to Stake AMP

The main platform to stake AMP is the Flexa Capacity App, but you can still stake AMP on other supported DeFi platforms such as Uniswap and Balancer, and wallets like MetaMask and Trust Wallet. 

Source: docs.amptoken.org

Here’s how you can easily stake AMP on Flexa Capacity App in just a few steps:

1. Connect your wallet to Flexa Capacity. Here are six wallets to choose from: MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, Rainbow, Trust Wallet, Argent and Wallet Connect. You can connect your hardware wallets to MetaMask before linking it to Flexa Capacity.

2. Select one of the staking choices available.

3. Your total AMP balance will then be reflected. Choose your preferred protocol to stake AMP and the amount you wish to stake, then click Continue.

4. When the transaction is complete, you will see your updated AMP balance and rewards.

To unstake AMP, follow these steps below:

1. Connect your wallet then navigate to your AMP balance and click on the Move button next to your staked asset.

2. Choose the number of Amp tokens you wish to unstake and click Continue. Wait for your collateral to unstake. (Note: While you can unstake your AMP at any time, take note that the processing time may be longer, ranging from minutes to hours, if your AMP is currently being used to collateralize a crypto transfer or if the Ethereum network is congested.) 

3. Select Move to wallet to return the tokens to your wallet, then click Continue.

4. Wait for your transaction to be confirmed, then check your AMP balance. 

AMP Price Prediction

AMP was launched on Sep 9, 2020 at $0.009 and remained stable for several months until the end of January 2021, when it started climbing rapidly, peaking at $0.036 on Feb 14, 2021. It retraced slightly before shooting up from April, reaching local highs of $0.06 on Apr 19 and $0.07 on May 9. AMP’s price soon plummeted, however, dropping to a support level of $0.03 by May 24.

In early June 2021, AMP got listed on Coinbase and its price soared to its all-time high of $0.12 shortly after on Jun 16, 2021. The price high could not be sustained and it rapidly slid to a support level of $0.04 by Jul 21. 

AMP continued experiencing several local peaks over 2021. However, from January 2022 onwards, AMP’s price broke its support level and went on a long downward trend, stabilizing at around $0.003 by the end of 2022. In mid-January 2023, AMP started showing signs of growth once again and currently trades at $0.005 (as of Jan 25, 2022). 

Source: CoinGecko

According to PricePrediction, the AMP token's value could surge to $0.017 in 2025 and cross $0.20 by 2030. While DigitalCoinPrice also has the same pricing forecast for 2025, it anticipates a more moderate growth in the long term, predicting AMP’s price to rise only to $0.0485 by 2030.

Is AMP a Good Investment? 

The Amp token is developed and backed by the Flexa team, which has a decent market presence. They have been operating since 2018 and have the experience of serving millions of customers globally. The token’s smart contracts are all thoroughly tested and audited by security researchers at notable organizations like Trail of Bits and ConsenSys Diligence. 

The Amp token has also been adopted by many blockchains and DeFi industry giants. Projects like Uniswap, SushiSwap, Balancer, Chainlink and Loopring have collaborations with Amp protocol to enhance their functionalities. As Flexa Network scales and AMP gets increasingly adopted by different protocols, this leads to greater liquidity and decentralization, thereby enhancing the collateral quality of AMP.

Amp token’s security and strong partnerships provide us the assurance that AMP and Flexa Network are here to stay for the long term. Hence, we’re confident that AMP will see a sturdy growth in value as it grows increasingly secure. However, our views should not be seen as financial advice as altcoins are especially prone to market volatility. So, it is always advisable to do your own research before investing in any altcoins.

Closing Thoughts

A one-of-a-kind collateral token service for secure transactions, Amp protocol is not only a clever integration to the existing Flexa payment protocol, but it also solves the whole blockchain trilemma of scalability, security and decentralization. As the crypto mainstream adoption accelerates in the coming years, we could see a real need for the Amp collateral process.