97 episodes

“The DeFi Download” with Piers Ridyard, CEO of Radix DLT. Join the leaders of the Decentralised Finance industry as they discuss all things DeFi: Its workings, user acquisition and go-to-market strategies while simultaneously re-inventing one of the world’s most important industries.

The DeFi Download Radix DLT

    • Technology
    • 4.4 • 13 Ratings

“The DeFi Download” with Piers Ridyard, CEO of Radix DLT. Join the leaders of the Decentralised Finance industry as they discuss all things DeFi: Its workings, user acquisition and go-to-market strategies while simultaneously re-inventing one of the world’s most important industries.

    Liquity: A new king in the decentralized stable coin arena?

    Liquity: A new king in the decentralized stable coin arena?

    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 principal protection, which ensures users can confidently redeem their assets at or above their principal value, and a tighter peg to minimize deviations from the dollar value. A hybrid stability pool, a ground-breaking feature that not only supports the loans but also acts as a backup for the reserve, highlights Liquity's commitment to stability even further.
    Robert Lauko takes us on a deep dive into Liquity's mechanics, shedding light on its inner workings, from its liquidation mechanism to its impressive growth, including the endorsement of Justin Sun, who injected over a billion dollars into the nascent protocol.
    Robert and Piers delve into Liquity's unwavering commitment to decentralization and transparency, alongside its reliance on ETH as collateral in its V1 version. Additionally, they explore the formidable challenges faced within the stablecoin landscape and the ingenious strategies Liquity has employed to overcome them.
    Looking forward, Liquity V2 takes center stage. Robert introduces the concept of a decentralized reserve mechanism and emphasizes the vital role of a decentralized Peg-Stability Module (PSM) in maintaining a stablecoin's peg. Liquity V2 sets out to redefine the stablecoin trilemma by demonstrating that resilience, scalability, and decentralization can harmoniously coexist.
    Tune into this episode to find out how Liquity offers stability and leveraged upside, potentially revolutionizing lending. You'll also gain an understanding of principal protection and learn about Liquity's stability pool, which uses staked ETH to deliver attractive yields and security.
    Key takeaways
    Liquity balances the stablecoin trilemma by addressing stability, scalability, and decentralization by introducing a strong arbitrage mechanism and a hedging product with principal protection and a tighter peg.Liquity V2 targets a tighter peg and more attractive borrowing through potential collateralization ratio reductions.Principal protection fosters trust, enabling users to redeem assets at or above the principal value, while Liquity V1 and V2 offer choices for varied risk profiles alongside the liquidity-boosting stability pool.Chapters
    [01:15] Introduction to Liquity and its unique approach to loan-to-value ratios
    [04:32] Liquity's efficient liquidation mechanism and incentives
    [08:29] Liquity's meteoric rise: A billion dollars in 10 days to 2.5 billion in two weeks
    [10:28] Lessons from Liquity: How its launch attracted whales and big players
    [12:01] ETH-exclusive V1: Exploring the early design decision and future considerations
    [12:41] How Liquity ensures a liquid and useful stablecoin
    [15:19] Liquity's strategies for establishing partnerships and integration
    [17:48] The stablecoin trilemma and Liquity's approach to resilience, scalability, and decentralization
    [20:17] Innovation in action: The vision behind Liquity V2
    [22:35] Rebalancing stablecoin supply and demand: The role of a decentralized Peg Stability Module (PSM)
    [26:27] Liquity V2's strategy for tightening stablecoin bands and reducing volatility risk
    [33:13] Navigating ETH volatility: Liquity V2's strategy with principal pr

    • 47 min
    MLABS - Building dApps on Cardano, Polkadot, Solana, and Radix

    MLABS - Building dApps on Cardano, Polkadot, Solana, and Radix

    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 came across Radix at Consensus 2023 and was impressed with the thoughtfulness and organization of the Radix team and builders. He found it easy to jump into Scrypto because of his previous experience with Rust. Amir found Scrypto to be easier to learn and use than Plutus because it abstracts away some of the lower-level details and has well-named concepts and design patterns. Amir was able to quickly understand and experiment with Scrypto by reading the documentation and the community examples that are available.Radix’s guardrails and intent-based transactions make programming and building applications easier and safer, unlike Ethereum’s state-based transactions. It is difficult to explain Radix’s advantages to someone who has not faced Ethereum’s challenges.

    Chapters
    [01:01] The story of MLabs' founding
    [03:33] What are Haskell and Plutus, and how did MLabs get their team up to speed with these languages?
    [08:04] Advantages and challenges of using Plutus for building applications
    [10:18] Haskell's reputation as a secure language and the difficulty in finding and training new Haskell developers—has MLabs encountered this?
    [11:32] The philosophical and principles-based approach of Haskell and Rust advocates who are willing to change careers to write production code in these languages
    [12:40] How and why did MLabs expand to Rust, a language that is ideologically similar to Haskell?
    [13:42] How did the MLabs team learn about Radix and Scrypto, and how has their experience been so far?
    [16:03] When and how did MLabs begin developing on Radix with clients from other communities, such as Cardano, and bringing that functionality to the Radix network?
    [18:38] From Haskell and Plutus to Scrypto: Amir’s journey and insights
    [20:03] Amir's favourite aspect of Scrypto and what he has built up to this point
    [22:06] The need for critical tooling in an ecosystem: how DAO tooling enables governance features for DeFi applications
    [23:20] Amir’s insights on building governance functionality in Scrypto and the benefits of the platform
    [26:30] What are Amir’s timelines for testing and deploying the governance tooling, and when can people start using it?
    [27:42] How does Ben, as CTO, use Scrypto to plan and implement MLabs' application architecture?
    [31:35] The inverse relationship between speed of development and security
    [33:09] What new Scrypto developers or those considering a move to the Radix ecosystem need to know
    [35:42] How open-source repositories can aid in learning Scrypto, despite being outdated
    [37:35] Radix’s goal to have the best crypto documentation and match Web2 standards
    Further resources
    Website: mlabs.city Twitter: @MLabs10

    • 38 min
    Swaap: Making Liquidity Provision Profitable in DeFi.

    Swaap: Making Liquidity Provision Profitable in DeFi.

    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 safeguards to limit damage in the event of a hack. It is designed to safeguard liquidity providers against impermanent loss and ensure that returns are greater than hodling.
    During their discussion, Piers and Cyrille clarify the difference between exchanges and market makers. They analyse the problem Swaap seeks to address and the role of market makers in mature versus immature markets in determining price. They also touch on issues with Uniswap v2, in which liquidity providers are perpetually behind the information curve and unable to rebalance themselves, whereas arbitrageurs can make risk-free profits by manipulating the market price.

    Key takeaways

    Swaap v2 is a new iteration in terms of infrastructure that aims to be more flexible and have better performance than Swaap v1.
    Swaap v2 has a hybrid infrastructure consisting of both on-chain and off-chain components. The off-chain module operates the quotation system to provide faster price information, and the on-chain verification module prevents extreme events and ensures a trust-minimized environment.Swaap is available on both Ethereum and Polygon, with Polygon being a preferable option for smaller portfolios due to its lower gas fees.The Swaap protocol enables DAOs to create liquidity against volatile assets, and the team is working on establishing partnerships with a number of DAOs.
    Chapters
    [01:05] What is the problem that Swaap is looking to solve as an automated market maker in the DeFi space, and why is it important to separate exchanges and market makers when considering liquidity providers and users?
    [03:59] The Uniswap conundrum: How inexperienced traders create risk-free profits for arbitrageurs
    [05:49] The role of market makers in mature vs. immature markets for determining price
    [08:38] Uniswap v2 liquidity providers are behind the information curve, while arbitrageurs make risk-free profits
    [12:02] The roles of exchange venues and market makers in financial market liquidity and market-making success factors
    [14:54] How Swaap differs from other market makers
    [18:54] Swaap's solution to sophisticated market actors exploiting liquidity providers 
    [28:25] How Swaap's algorithm guards liquidity providers against hacks and impermanent loss
    [31:29] What's next on Swaap's roadmap and what to get excited about after V2
    [33:43] Where can people find out more about Swaap, and should they start on Ethereum or Polygon?

    Further resources
    Website: swaap.finance Twitter: @SwaapFinance Discord: discord.com/invite/vMNHgz7bMU 

    • 34 min
    PsyFi: Best-in-class financial products & tools – built for everyone

    PsyFi: Best-in-class financial products & tools – built for everyone

    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 explain what a structured product is and use covered calls as an example to discuss how the PsyFi platform works. They discuss the risks and rewards of PsyFi's covered call options compared to over-collateralized borrow-lending products like Aave. They also discuss the market need for a riskier product like PsyFi and the usefulness of buying covered calls or secured puts for market actors who have a directional view or want to hedge their positions.

    Key takeaways
    PsyFi is a decentralised finance platform that allows users to trade options on Solana.A covered call is a selling strategy in which the user sells calls week-to-week, taking the position that the price of the underlying asset will not cross the strike price by the expiration date of the call.PsyFi's covered call options provide a 0.35% weekly return and 12% APY but can result in users making lots of money or suddenly losing money depending on the volatility of the asset. They are riskier than over-collateralized borrow-lending products like Aave.PsyFi's structured products provide an opportunity for people to earn impressive yields on their assets, but they require a directional view and are not a leave-it-and-see-what-happens kind of product.Buyers of PsyFi's structured products include speculators with market opinions and more institutional market makers who may be hedging across their book.
    Chapters
    [01:07] The definition of structured products
    [02:15] How a covered call works on the PsyFi platform
    [04:42] Does the trader's profit from a PsyFi covered call come from the user's Solana?
    [05:22] Selling volatility and making money through covered calls on PsyFi
    [06:21] What is the expected return on a two-week covered call on Solana?
    [06:50] The risks and rewards of PsyFi's covered call options compared to Aave's over-collateralized borrow-lending products
    [08:02] Why does the market need a riskier product like PsyFi?
    [09:20] What functionalities do buyers of covered calls or secured puts need, and why are these products necessary?
    [10:50] Using covered call options for asset exposure and risk hedging in DeFi
    [14:03] Are people primarily using the PsyFi protocol for hedging or speculation? 
    [15:41] How does collateralization work in PsyFi's covered call scenario, even if a portion of assets have been sold?
    [17:20] Capital efficiency in options markets and borrow-lend protocols
    [20:12] How a high-interest rate environment has affected the market for structured products in decentralised finance
    [21:34] How has PsyFi responded to the higher yield environment created by the Fed?
    [24:23] Democratising market maker returns in DeFi with a delta-neutral vault
    [26:11] How does PsyFi evaluate market makers before granting access to capital?
    [27:43] PsyFi’s launch date
    [28:03] Where to find out more about PsyFi

    Further resources
    Website: psyfi.io Twitter: @PsyOptionsDocumentation: docs.psyfi.io

    • 29 min
    Raft: an LSD inspired stable coin

    Raft: an LSD inspired stable coin

    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 associated with using fewer liquid tokens as collateral through its liquidation mechanism and position and protocol level caps. Raft also employs a redistribution mechanism to socialise losses and ensure that the protocol remains overcollateralized.
    Raft charges a variety of fees, including liquidation fees and flash minting fees, and is integrating with other DeFi protocols to create use cases for R stablecoins. The potential use cases for Raft stablecoins include spending and short-term trading, and the possibility of onboarding other stablecoins as collateral in the future.

    Key takeaways
    Raft is an LSDFi protocol. LSDs (liquid staking derivatives) are ERC20 tokens issued by liquid staking platforms to represent the staking share in that particular platform. They are also referred to as liquid staking tokens.Raft’s lower collateralization ratio and one-time fee differentiate it from MakerDAO.Raft aims to create an even playing field for users to select their preferred staking provider and encourages competition in the market.Chapters
    [00:00] Introduction
    [03:02] Raft's motives to enter the market for decentralised stablecoins backed by liquid staking tokens
    [05:08] Does the use of LSTs in DeFi applications accelerate Ethereum centralization and increase risks?
    [08:23] What differentiates Raft from MakerDAO
    [11:35] Managing risk while using less liquid underlying assets and reducing the collateral requirements
    [18:46] Raft's second tier of defence
    [26:35] Raft's strategies for integrating its stablecoin with other DeFi protocols
    [30:39] Raft's focus on spending as a growth market for its stablecoin
    [36:41] Where to learn more about Raft

    Further resources
    Website: raft.fi Twitter: @raft_fi Discord: discord.com/invite/raft-fi Documentation: docs.raft.fi 

    • 37 min
    Rarimo: an interoperability protocol for the decentralized social identity

    Rarimo: an interoperability protocol for the decentralized social identity

    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 applications. To accomplish this, they developed Rarimo, an interoperability protocol that provides identity primitives supported by the ecosystem, enabling users to transfer their reputation across different chains and dApps.
    Rarimo enables the movement of reputation and identity components across different ecosystems. It integrates with various identity providers, making it easier for developers to incorporate identity and reputation standards into their dApps. The protocol emphasizes the need for end-to-end flow and demonstrates how it tangibly improves the user experience. Developers are expected to start building on top of Rarimo by the end of the summer.

    Key takeaways
    The concept of portable identity is difficult to solve because identity evolves and is not just a token, but a token with history associated with it.Rarimo aggregates various identity components that exist across different forms and allows for full control and management of this entire interaction on-chain via smart contracts.Rarimo is expected to launch with partnerships with the ten largest identity providers, and a beta mainnet will be available by the end of the summer.The best place to get started with Rarimo is to read through the documentation available on their website, docs.rarimo.com.The development of identity space and standardization will require time and upbuilding, but Rarify Labs is committed to delivering tangible and user-centric demos to address these challenges.
    Chapters
    [01:08] Why is identity becoming an increasingly important topic in the Web3 and DeFi space?
    [03:14] Is identity interoperability the missing Holy Grail in the crypto space?
    [04:00] Managing multiple identities across different platforms in the digital space using blockchain and Web3
    [06:28] What is Lasha Antadze's background in identity and what makes him interested in identity today?
    [10:47] COVID-19's impact on digital identity in the crypto and Web3 space, changes making identity more portable and creatable on ledger, and how this applies to businesses in the crypto ecosystem
    [14:41] What is Rarimo doing in the identity space?
    [18:46] The challenge of portable identity in the crypto space
    [21:38] What benefits does Rarimo integration provide for application developers, and when should they consider using Rarimo's tools?
    [24:43] What identity providers is Rarimo integrated with?
    [26:58] What is the expected launch date for Rarimo and how can people get involved?

    Further resources
    Website: http://rarimo.com/ Discord: https://discord.gg/Bzjm5MDXrU 

    • 28 min

Customer Reviews

4.4 out of 5
13 Ratings

13 Ratings

Jamento ,

We need more episodes!

Only listened to two episodes thus far and it’s easily the best DeFi podcast available. Which makes it all the more baffling to see that as this sector explodes they haven’t released a new episode in months. Shame.

Brett.SSS ,

Love this podcast

The host can talk on a range of topics, it’s great to see a load of projects that are not the normal “podcast” syndicate sort of guests.

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