About the episode
Kevin is joined by Stani Kulechov, the founder and CEO of Aave, an open-source and non-custodial liquidity protocol for earning interest on deposits and borrowing assets. Here, they talk about Aave’s origin story, how Stani built and fostered a community in the early days, the role of DAOs and tokens in project governance, smart contract security, how Aave is scaling with layer two solutions, his upcoming NFT project, and the effort currently underway to build a decentralized Twitter.
About our guest

Stani Kulechov
Stani Kulechov is the founder and CEO of Aave. He is a seasoned entrepreneur with extensive experience developing technology in the crypto, blockchain, and fintech space.
Topics covered
Links from the episode
Open Source DeFi Protocol | Aave
ETHLend Announces Launch of New Parent Company ‘Aave’ | PR Newswire
The 10 Most Used Collateral Tokens on ETHLend Platform | Aave Blog, Medium
New ETHLend Channel and Groups on Telegram | r/ETHLend
THORChain Hacked for a Second Time: $8 Million Compromised | CryptoPotato
Smart Contracts | Investopedia
DeFi ‘Yield Farming’: How to Get DeFi Yield, and Why Invest in It | Forbes
What Is an Automated Market Maker (AMM)? | Gemini
UK’s Best and Worst Banks for Customer Service, Rated by Customers | Retail Banker International
NFTs: Blockchain-Powered Art, Trading Cards, Music, and More with Aftab Hossain | Modern Finance 1
Blockchain Technology: Layer-1 and Layer-2 Networks | Gemini
Layer 2 Won’t Save Ethereum | Coinmonks, Medium
Ethereum’s Internet of Blockchains | Polygon (Formerly Matic Network)
Optimism ‘Soft Launches’ Ethereum Throughput Solution With DeFi’s Synthetix | CoinDesk
Build Crypto Apps That Scale | Solana
Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) | Ethereum
CryptoPunks – The NFTs That Started It All. Their Origin Story and Future Plans | Modern Finance 5
NFT as Collateral Coming to Aave | CryptoNews
Decentralized Trading Protocol | Uniswap
Show notes
Welcome to the new website![00:19]
Aave’s ETHLend origins.[02:53]
How did Stani know there would be a market for lending in the crypto space?[04:27]
Thoughts on being the founder for a startup that might just be a little ahead of its time.[06:02]
When and why did ETHLend make the conversion to Aave?[07:47]
How does Stani cope with the stress of shouldering so much financial responsibility? [21:12]
Thoughts on “ethical” hacking and bug bounties.[22:58]
Beyond pure DeFi, what does Stani see Aave being used to build?[37:03]
Is building a decentralized Twitter in Aave’s future?[38:47]
Thoughts on Solana and EVM. [45:15]
What role do NFTs play in lending from Aave’s perspective?[46:48]
Will Aave be accepting NFTs as collateral? If so, how will this work?[50:45]
How is the value of an NFT offered as collateral determined?[51:54]
What other projects in the crypto realm does Stani find interesting?[55:22]
What we can expect from Aave in the coming months.[57:44]
How can someone interested in what Aave’s doing get more involved?[58:33]
People mentioned
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