July 27 2021

The Origins and Future of Aave, the Decentralized Finance Protocol to Lend and Borrow Crypto

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The Origins and Future of Aave, the Decentralized Finance Protocol to Lend and Borrow Crypto

The Origins and Future of Aave, the Decentralized Finance Protocol to Lend and Borrow Crypto

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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

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
DeFi

Show notes

Welcome to the new website![00:19]

What is Aave?[01:17]

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 did Stani foster the ETHLend/Aave community early on, and what does it take to maintain active engagement?[08:52]

Is decentralization the key to getting the most out of what a community or organization has to offer, or is it essential to have a visionary figurehead to drive innovation?[13:17]

What steps has Aave taken to ensure network security, and what unique challenges are faced when securing DeFi protocols versus traditional financing platforms?[18:13]

How does Stani cope with the stress of shouldering so much financial responsibility? [21:12]

Thoughts on “ethical” hacking and bug bounties.[22:58]

Where does Aave’s yield come from, and why is decentralized finance better poised to generate interest than traditional banking?[24:06]

Does Stani believe traditional finance will eventually adopt the efficiency of DeFi protocols to operate invisibly behind the scenes?[27:01]

Thoughts on the evolution of DAOs and the changing nature of decision-making in the crypto space.[31:35]

When trying to put everything on the chain in a DeFi system is more of a hindrance than a help from a scaling perspective.[34:26]

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]

Does Stani believe layer two adaptations will allow Ethereum to successfully scale, or is it too late to cut back the bloat? What purpose might Ethereum serve in the future?[39:39]

Why the future may require us to embrace multiple layer twos, and why Stani sees this as a good thing.[42:43]

Thoughts on Solana and EVM. [45:15]

What role do NFTs play in lending from Aave’s perspective?[46:48]

The pros and cons of embracing blockchain technology and NFTs for traditional gaming platforms.[50:01]

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]

How soon can we expect to see Aave accepting NFTs as collateral? Will they be governed by a currently existing token, or an entirely new one?[53:56]

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]

Parting thoughts.[59:16]

People mentioned

Justin Mezzell

Matt Mullenweg

0xMaki

Steve Jobs

Vitalik Buterin

Jack Dorsey

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