In this episode of the DeFi Download, Piers Ridyard speaks with Noah Litvin, a Core Contributor at Synthetix. They talk about Synthetix's vision of revolutionizing derivatives trading in the crypto space by providing innovative solutions. Summary Synthetix tackles the challenge of trading derivatives in a crypto-native way, expanding beyond spot trading. Picture it as the derivative equivalent of Uniswap. Synthetix stands as one of the original crypto projects since 2018, playing a pivotal role in the early days of DeFi. It pioneered functionalities that are now commonplace in crypto and pushe ..read more

In this episode of the DeFi Download, Piers Ridyard speaks with Ramon Recuero, Co-Founder and CEO of Mamori Labs, which is developing Kinto. Tune in to learn how Kinto bridges TradFi to DeFi and paves the way for institutional adoption by introducing the first Layer 2 solution with chain-level KYC and addressing concerns about scams, hacks, and traditional financial institutions' perception of cryptocurrency as the "Wild West.  Summary Join Piers Ridyard and Ramon Recuero as they explore the inner workings of Kinto, a groundbreaking platform that seeks to bridge the gap between traditiona ..read more

Summary Willy Woo is managing partner at Crest and SyzCrest, a fund that builds financial products to give higher yield than T-bills by harvesting the volatility in crypto. Willy Woo and Piers discuss various aspects of trading, covering topics like price predictions, the balance between intuition and data when building predictive models, and the social value inherent in trading activities. Their conversation extends to exploring the dynamics of DeFi and altcoin markets, drawing comparisons with TradFi, examining market manipulation, and emphasizing the crucial role of transparency in the cryp ..read more

Summary The Boson Protocol is a Web3 decentralized commerce layer that allows anyone to tokenize and exchange any physical thing as an NFT. Currently deployed on Ethereum and Polygon, they have recently signed a strategic partnership with WooCommerce, WordPress's eCommerce arm. Justin's journey into the DeFi ecosystem began with him wondering what happens when you transition from paper to digital to blockchain, what digitized physical assets look like on a blockchain, and what properties they have. He discusses his experiences revolutionizing digital transformation at Priority Pass while study ..read more

This episode of the DeFi Download with host Piers Ridyard features Robert Lauko, founder and head of research at Liquity. Tune in to discover how Liquity is addressing the stablecoin trilemma and reshaping the crypto space with game-changing innovations ranging from principal protection to improved peg stability.  Summary Liquity is a pioneering DeFi protocol that is reshaping the DeFi and stablecoin landscape with its innovative approach. At its core, it prioritizes stability and scalability while maintaining decentralization. It achieves this through groundbreaking features such as prin ..read more

In this episode of the DeFi Download, Piers Ridyard is joined by Ben Hart, CTO, and Amir, blossoming Scrypto developer at MLabs. Ben and Amir share their experience with different programming languages and platforms, such as Haskell, Plutus, Rust, and Scrypto.  Summary MLabs is a Haskell, Rust, and Blockchain AI consultancy working with various industries, such as fintech and blockchain. MLabs is also the developer of the Plutonomicon library, a major contributor to it, and one of the main contributors to the Plutarch eDSL version of the Plutus smart contract language. Key takeaways Ben ..read more

In this episode of the DeFi Download, Piers Ridyard interviews Cyrille Pastour, co-founder of Swaap. Cyrille and Piers discuss the inner workings of the automated market maker that is designed to protect liquidity providers by dynamically responding to the market. Summary Swaap provides yield to liquidity providers by utilising cutting-edge market-making models developed in collaboration with mathematicians. They use oracles and dynamic spread to ensure real and long-term yields.  Swaap's algorithm determines what pricing it will provide to the market on a per-swap basis and includes saf ..read more

In this episode of the DeFi Download, Tommy Johnson, Core Contributor of PsyFi, joins Piers Ridyard to discuss their two-sided DeFi marketplace for structured products, which allows users to earn yield on their assets and traders to hedge or leverage their portfolio. Summary PsyFi offers products such as covered calls, secured puts, and spread structured products, which PsyFi wraps up and tokenizes. The PsyFi team is developing a market-making vault product where users can deposit two-sided liquidity and earn fees based on participating in and providing liquidity for trades. Piers and Tommy ex ..read more

In this episode of the DeFi Download, Piers Ridyard talks with Lasha Antadze, co-founder of Rarify Labs. They explore the growing value of identity across digital ecosystems, the challenges of portable identity in the crypto space, and the benefits of Rarimo's interoperability protocol for application builders. Summary Rarify Labs focuses on creating and implementing interoperability protocols for identity and reputation. Their goal is to make identity portable across ecosystems and layer-1 protocols, allowing users to carry their reputation with them when they move between different applicati ..read more

In this DeFi Download podcast episode, Piers Ridyard interviews David Garai, founder of Raft. Raft is a stablecoin protocol similar to MakerDAO, but it is backed by liquid staking tokens. Piers and David talk about the potential of liquid staking and its role in DeFi, as well as concerns about centralization. Summary Raft is a decentralised stablecoin protocol that uses liquid staking tokens (LSTs), such as staked ETH, as collateral. Raft requires a collateralization ratio of 120% compared to MakerDAO’s 175% and charges a one-time fee rather than an ongoing APY. The protocol manages risks asso ..read more