Decentralized finance (DeFi) is without a doubt one of the crypto market’s most prominent offerings. DeFi has provided users with alternatives to traditional investments that they would not have been able to access otherwise, and this has been one of the major factors driving the space’s growth. The CEO of Yieldly says Interoperability is more important in DeFi than a market leading blockchain.
There are currently a number of blockchains on which DeFi protocols are programmed, including Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, and Algorand, on which Yieldly is built. These blockchains appear to be in a race to gain the most market share and dominate the space. Yieldly CEO Sebastian Quinn, on the other hand, does not believe this is the way to win. Instead, Quinn believes that the emphasis should be on blockchain interoperability.
Quinn spoke with NewsBTC about the space, programmable blockchains, and some exclusive information about future listings of Yieldly’s native token YLDY.
NewsBTC: Can you tell us about your background and what led to Yieldly?
Quinn, Sebastian: My legal education is in corporate law. For about five years, I worked in corporate law, primarily in corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions. We saw a lot of interesting tech deals as a result of that; and I went full-time into tech, doing a variety of things, including advising and assisting startups. I advised on some of the very first initial coin offerings (ICOs).
Then, over the course of 2017; we assisted a number of hugely successful ICOs as well as a number of companies that; are still performing exceptionally well to this day. During that time; I also co-founded one of the first AI and blockchain accelerators with the JD.com group, a large Nasdaq-listed company. We began to see big corporations’ early interest in understanding and wanting to work with distributed ledger technology.
We’ve been continuing our work in the space for the last three or four years, keeping a close eye on trends and investing in projects. We began to notice a shift in the projects in our portfolio and those we advised about two years ago, which were moving much more towards DeFi products in the space.
We decided it was time to put all of our knowledge to use and create a DeFi product that combined our understandings of crypto, corporate finance, and a very real and lived experience of what large corporations like JD.com were looking for when considering how crypto or DeFi can be used for traditional finance use cases. Yieldly was born as a result of that experience.
NewsBTC: Why did you choose to build on Algorand instead of other blockchains?
Sebastian Quinn: In terms of the commercial opportunity, we knew that if we were one of the first in the market to deliver DeFi on a large Layer 1, we would have a competitive advantage. As a protocol, Algorand has some technical advantages over Ethereum. Algorand is much faster, and you have 40,000 TPS. It is extremely and consistently low in price. The price of gas and transaction fees do not change. It is also carbon negative, which is critical for us.
It also has technical advantages. It’s been running for over two years and has never gone down. Cryptocurrency must be built to attract the next 100 million users, and it must be built in an extremely user-friendly manner. All of those boxes are checked by Algorand. At the moment, the technology is fundamentally more user-friendly than competitors.
NewsBTC: Yieldly’s native token (YLDY) just listed on the MEXC exchange, are there any other exchange listings we should expect?
Sebastian Quinn: We fought hard for Yiedly to be the first DeFi product on Algorand, as well as for exchanges to accept our token for listing. Because our token is based on Algorand and the Algorand Standard Asset (ASA), most exchanges have not yet integrated their technology to support the ASA.
We were extremely fortunate to be the first ASA to be listed on MEXC. In addition, we have been actively engaging with the Korean exchange Probit. We’ll be listed there soon, making YLDY the first ASA token to be listed in Korea.
A number of discussions are currently taking place with brand-name exchanges regarding future exchange listings. Without giving too much away, you can basically identify which exchanges have made it clear that they want to list Algorand assets. We’re collaborating with our partners to manage and launch our token on these exchanges.
NewsBTC: Presently, when people think of NFTs, they think Ethereum. How does Yieldly plan to push more NFT adoption on the Algorand blockchain?
Quinn, Sebastian: One of the most exciting developments in crypto this year has been the surge in interest in NFTs as an asset. It’s a product that appeals to a wide range of people. It affects a wide range of interest groups. Presently, when people think of NFTs, they think ethereum. How does yieldly plan to push more NFT adoption on the Algorand blockchain.
You’re correct that the majority of that occurs in Ethereum, but there’s no reason why that should be the sole domain. On Algorand, NFTs make a lot of sense. It’s simple to create NFTs on Algorand because it’s user-friendly, cheap to transact, and cheap to mint.
We’re working to develop tools that will enable a thriving and healthy ecosystem on Algorand. We’ve had approximately 400 creators pitch and send NFTs to be distributed to the community. We’ve had NFT creators on Ethereum reach out to us, asking for assistance in minting on Algorand so they can bring their NFT collections over.
We believe it is simply a matter of time. There will be an NFT ecosystem that will be able to compete with some of the major NFT ecosystems in crypto at the moment.
NewsBTC: How does Yieldly differ from other DeFi protocols on the Algorand blockchain, and of course, on other programmable blockchains like Solana?
Quinn, Sebastian: We’ve always wanted to be the first to demonstrate that DeFi applications can exist on Algorand. In terms of validation, the numbers speak for themselves. We had approximately $160M staked in our staking pools at one point. We are consistently in the $100 million range.
As things stand, Algorand has no competitors. We will continue to build products that matter in order to demonstrate our expanded DeFi use cases. Not only do we have staking pools for Yieldly, but we also have staking pools for other projects on Algorand. We have the widest range of assets available for anyone with ALGO or ASA tokens to invest in our products.
How we compete with protocols on other blockchains is through great use cases that we are proactively trying to tackle on Algorand. We compete by having tech that is built on a technically better protocol.
NewsBTC: What innovations are you most excited about in the DeFi space?
Quinn, Sebastian: One area that is currently capturing our attention is the convergence of what is happening with NFTs and what is happening with DeFi. We’re seeing some really interesting things happen with smart NFTs that allow people to do more than just hold them. Those NFTs are paying you dividends.
From a technological standpoint, this opens up a slew of new use cases for developing more exciting financial or pseudo-financial products. I believe there is still a lot of room for innovation.
Then there’s anything to do with how the regulatory environment is thinking about how to deal with DeFi and the acceptance of DeFi as a product in tech that can be used and accessed by a larger number of people.
NewsBTC: What would you say has been your biggest achievement in the one year Yieldly has been in operation?
Quinn, Sebastian: It’s been a crazy year. Everyone in this industry understands that the pace is unrivalled in almost any other industry. Things move at breakneck speed. I would say launching the product and receiving user validation that the things we’ve built are important to them.
We’re very excited to be on the cutting edge of creating long-lasting products in an industry that is just getting started and causing some very interesting disruptions along the way.
NewsBTC: Do you see a blockchain like Algorand overtaking Ethereum in the future?
Quinn, Sebastian: We’re a little tech-agnostic. Our worldview is shaped by where we can create the most user-friendly products. Algorand currently has a very compelling argument, which is why it was chosen to build our product.
We all know that there is still a long way to go in terms of crypto adoption around the world. We also recognise that we cannot always be pigeonholed into a single protocol. The concept of interoperability is critical, as evidenced by the technology we’ve developed. We created the first Ethereum-to-Algorand bridge so that DeFi tokens could be exchanged across it. You see a blockchain like algorand overtaking Ethereum in the future.
We must be realistic in the fact that none of us has a crystal ball to predict which protocol will be in place. But; as we all know, the industry will continue to grow and evolve; so we want to ensure that our product and technology are built on the best protocols for our users and use cases. There is no comparison to Algorand at the moment.
NewsBTC: To wrap up, what price range would you put Bitcoin and Ethereum by year-end?
Quinn, Sebastian: We’re cryptocurrency maximalists, and Bitcoin is the canary in the cryptocurrency coal mine. We don’t see crypto going anywhere other than further adoption and; becoming ubiquitous as a piece of technology critical to core use cases around the world. It would not surprise us if Bitcoin surpassed $100,000 in the near future.
Source: NEWSBTC