Web3 Founder alpha leaks and What’s next for DeFi?

In August 2022, Web3 Founders gathered around on Twitter Spaces to share thoughts on web3, NFTs, and wallets. They also shared experiences with the crypto industry.

Participants:

• PAM is the co-lead of Hot Cross, a multi-chain infrastructure.
• Thanh Le is the founder of Coin98 Finance.
• Ravindra Kumar is the founder of Frontier, a DeFi aggregator.
• Emile is the co-founder of XDEFI Wallet, a multichain wallet.

This article will deliver a recap of the space. If you want to hear a full version, check out the link HERE.

Let’s dive into the pool full of insights with web3 founders.

MetaMask Challengers with Web3 Founders

PAM and Thanh Le

Coin98 Super App, formerly Coin98 Wallet, is not done overnight. The development took years of engineering and endeavoring to build a product. Web3 will be available on all mobile platforms such as Android and iOS.

PAM had good words for Coin98 Analytics as the team creates crypto-related infographics that serve followers. Coin98 Analytics focuses on delivering crypto insights in the form of vivid infographics.

Thanh Le is a web3 founder with strong analytical skills, who can make a strong conviction. He came from Zero to One with the idea of Coin98, which was basically from scratch. To realize the vision, he’s working tirelessly to deliver it to the market.

Read more: From an engineer to Coin98 Founder - Unicorn of Vietnam

PAM and Ravindra

Ravindra started his career as a programmer and participated in many projects. His first exposure to BTC was in 2015 - 2016. In a hackathon, he met the founder of Instadapp. Then he became the CTO of the Instadapp startup.

PAM and Ravindra met each other in 2018 and formed a strong-bond connection. PAM once received a Medium article about 100 must-know DeFi protocols.

Ravindra can have a strong focus on building products since he understands this nascent industry from a technical perspective. PAM was one of the first beta testers of Ravindra’s wallet product, Frontier. And he loved it. After the launch, Frontier is now supporting numerous protocols.

PAM and Emile

Emile is the co-founder of xDeFi Wallet. He used to build products for top-tier companies such as Bloomberg. Bitcoin came to his circle in 2013 while he was working as an equity analyst.

PAM and Emile talked a lot about blockchain technology years ago while people were following the crypto-mania. Good products take time to make right but people tend to rush.

MetaMask Challengers

In the crypto market, PAM had one meeting, 10 meetings then hundreds of meetings. It’s never-ending conversations. PAM and invited Web3 founders to the Twitter Spaces were introduced by their respected ones.

MetaMask is already a giant as the most-used crypto wallet on Ethereum. This makes other entrepreneurs hesitant to do a startup that can compete with MetaMask.

The Ethereum Network is having a congestion problem, causing the transaction price to hike. Especially, it peaks when the demand for transactions grows in a bull market.

Startups are focusing on building things that work on multiple EVM-compatible blockchains. Crypto wallets are working with bridges and on-ramps such as Synapse and Moonpay to have newcomers on board. Most DeFi natives love the idea of freedom once they taste it.

Human resources 

• Hot Cross with 15+ people.
• Frontier, with 60+ people, comes to market w/ VC's money instead of their own money.
• Coin98, with 100+ people, is scaling more. 

Web3 founders have one thing in common: A strong focus on products.

Emerging Market

Vietnam and India are emerging markets. Everything in these countries is considered cheap, except for real estate and talents. On the other hand, products built in the emerging markets don’t mean mediocre.

PAM’s Questions

What do Web3 founders think of the idea of decentralizing their products?

Thanh Le: Coin98 Finance is a crypto company with a fast-moving team. As the developers of the products, they can hotfix and update the products. It’s a trade-off at this stage of Coin98. It’s too early to make the products to be decentralized. We will wait until the market is mature.

Ravindra: Their products used to be open-source. Due to scams, the team decided to close the code to the public. Furthermore, coming to open-source the products requires lots of documentation.

Web3 Founders on NFTs

NFTs are on the journey to mass adoption. Celebrities, brands, and artists are coming to Web3. Their fans can join NFT-based membership, which is evolving fast to scale.

Crypto natives start collecting NFTs since they love something unique. NFT might be the means to connect the Web3 world. New utilities for NFT are increasing since it’s popular on the internet.

How to balance builders’ and VCs’ benefit

Thanh Le: We started fundraising after delivering the products. With venture capitalists, we find the best way to monetize the products. At this stage, we can leverage the fund from VCs to scale the team, acquire more users and expand the products.

It always costs money to build good products that fit the market. Furthermore, founders should understand when to raise and have a detailed plan for the fund usage, which makes sense.

Learn more: Coin98 raises $11.25M in Strategic Funding Round led by Hashed and Spartan Group

Ravindra: To build products, the team should have the money velocity to accelerate. At this stage, Ravindra and the team are cutting down the 3rd-party dependency. 

In the beginning, it was hard to get Venture Capitalists’ attention. Let’s the product speak for itself. In August 2020, Frontier raised $1.85M in a seed round by Alameda Research, FTX, NGC Ventures, etc.

What is you perspective on multichain, crosschain, and omnichain?

Thanh Le: Coin98 with the in-house team is catching up and finding reliable solutions in this nascent industry. Building things that are scalable and onboard new users to the crypto space.

Some blockchains are chasing TVL, which is old-fashioned. L1s and L2s are getting to mass adoption.  

Ravindra: Trading volume is fragmented across chains. It takes days to bridge assets to some L2s. $25B crypto assets are being bridged every day. Managing multi-chain cross-chain is hard since many exploits happened. Staking plays an important role in a multi-chain world.

2024 predictions from Web3 founders

PAM: Top-cap cryptos will be highly institutionalized with the participation of many traditional giants. Web3 needs to be on mobile since everyone has a phone.

Thanh Le: Every protocol is gonna have its own chain.

Ravindra: The composability and Lending will be noticed since they can store long-term value.