On June 27, the COTI community came together for a candid and highly engaging session titled “Your Questions Answered” hosted by Whoistracer and joined by Shahaf Bar-Geffen. What followed was over an hour of transparency, straight talk, and important signals for what lies ahead.

The session opened with a familiar concern “price”. Whoistracer didn’t shy away from the mood in the community, noting that people seemed unusually impatient. “I get everybody wants number go up,” he said. Shahaf didn’t dodge it. He acknowledged the frustration but answered with clarity:

"Yeah look nothing is perfect, right? But I think we're doing right things at the right order at a very high pace and we'll be just fine."

It set the tone measured, honest, and grounded.

From there, the conversation moved into what it’s been like behind the scenes in recent weeks, especially considering the broader geopolitical situation. When asked how things have been on the operational side, Shahaf responded with a mix of humor and resilience:

"My home set-up is from a bomb shelter... Jokes aside, I have, you know, I can continue operation even like regardless of what happens I can continue operation... Obviously not all COTI employees are in Israel, we understand remote working."

He went on to share more about the current setup in the Tel Aviv headquarters and how the team continues building, even under less-than-ideal conditions.

Product Drection

The topic soon shifted toward product direction. Whoistracer asked whether now, with V2 in motion, there were any plans to revisit previous initiatives like COTI Pay and PPNs. Shahaf connected the dots between privacy and payments:

"Look, we didn't get to privacy out of thin air. We got to privacy bacouse of payments and the number one usecase for Crypto is stable coins. And stable coins, you know they are used for two big things. One is payments and everything from card, remittance, bank, salary...And DeFi requires privacy.. The client base that we have and had a lot of companies processing payments with us.. Once we mature more, we can definitely go back to these clients... So to answer your question, I believe some of it will be revisited, some of it will be discarded."

Djed

Of course, no major session is complete without addressing the long-standing Djed-related FUD. When asked what he’d say to someone calling Djed a failure, Shahaf’s response was firm and future-focused:

"The reality is that DJed exists in the Cardano ecosystem which we love and work very closely with both of the Foundation and with IOG...We have plans for Djed.. My plan for Djed is two fold.. Not sure we can do both but we're definitely trying. The first important thing is to open source Djed... The second is around privacy on demand.. We wanted to do this around September and that's not a promise, that's just the plan right now."

He dismissed the FUD with clarity and shared what’s next, offering both technical and strategic direction for Djed.

Recent Developments

As the session continued, the conversation turned to global partnerships specifically the European Central Bank’s digital euro project and growing activity in the MENA region. Many in the community had been hoping for clarity on this front, and Shahaf delivered:

"ECB, European central bank digital Euro, can't say enough about how big this project is, we are a pioneer partner in the Digital euro project. Um, where we stand, we needed recently I think a month ago to send them proof of concept which we did. We submitted... And the next step that's an ECB step and ECB is to provide a progress report. I think and I know this is planned for the end of this month.

MENA region is something that we've started with to do something very specific around the Africa tokenization Council... Whole thing grew very fast so a lot of things are happening there and meetings with major companies, royal family members."

He assured the community that while some of the work is early-stage, the pace and scale of discussions are significant and growing fast.

Then came a question about the roadmap, or rather, the lack of a public one. Some community members have felt that development milestones are unclear. Shahaf acknowledged this perception and explained his thinking:

"Sure and remember that I've become very self conscious of the road map... First people need to know that there is maybe product roadmap, the thing that we plan to launch for our network and then there is a other things which is products launched on top of COTI right now."

He made it clear that a product roadmap is coming and soon.

Metamask Privacy Snap

Another technical update followed, this time about Metamask’s privacy Snap and other wallet integrations. Shahaf shared that COTI is already working with Metamask’s Snap feature to offer private balances and transactions.

"Sure, firstly we are integrated with metamask snap privacy feature.. It will allow you to kind of like view balance and send transactions with private features. So what we do right now is through metamask which is something that you can't do today... We are in the process of developing the send private transaction part and then it will be released."

It was another sign that privacy is a central pillar of the COTI stack.

The session also addressed concerns about the community rewards wallet. Some had noticed it appeared empty despite expectations. Shahaf clarified what’s happening behind the scenes:

"Sure, so first off these rewards are being distributed but like all distributions at this point are done through the genesis address... We will do as we wrote, we will have multiple addresses and everything will flow through these addresses. Doesn’t mean that we're not, you know, already giving rewards, grants etc. But just again give it a few more weeks and we'll start using this system."

It was a detailed, direct explanation and it reassured listeners that nothing was being overlooked.

Use cases

Toward the end, Shahaf was asked about COTI’s core use case and how it truly benefits holders. His answer brought everything back to fundamentals:

"Sure, there's first of all, there is a direct link between usage and value... This is like ETH, SOL, Cardano etc. If the usage grows and if people believe that the usage will grow even more then the demand for the token grows because you need it for fuel."

He spoke to the utility-driven model behind the token, grounding it in the same logic that underpins Ethereum and other major networks.

Note: This article highlights key moments and condensed responses from the full session. For a deeper look into the full discussion, we recommend watching the complete recording Here 

Closing Thoughts

The session was more than just a Q&A, it was a moment of alignment between the community and the core team. Shahaf didn’t shy away from tough questions. From price and roadmap clarity to privacy, partnerships, and long-term vision, every topic was addressed with transparency. And for the COTI community, that’s exactly what matters.

Until the next one, stay curious, stay informed.