The Powerhouse Attending Polkadot’s Second DeFi Panel Series

The second in the recurring series of Innovation in Polkadot DeFi events occurred on September 15th, 2021, with a panel of the most well-known and up-and-coming names in attendance. The conversations covered many bases including innovation in DeFi, upcoming product releases as well as the panel’s experience as they bring the new age of DeFi to the cryptosphere.

DeFi has undoubtedly taken the attention of the crypto markets with approximately $100B in total USD value locked within this specific crypto industry. This is doubly true for Polkadot’s ecosystem as the benefits and flexibility of interoperability become increasingly clear. The allure of this interoperability has clearly attracted top talent from the industry and, with that, comes both collaboration and competition.

The panel was hosted by Parity Technologies’ Peter Mauric who covered a robust line of discussion topics to panel guests:

• KILT Protocol’s CEO, Ingo Rübe
• Parallel Finance’s CEO, Yubo Ruan
• Manta Network’s Co-Founder, Kenny Li
• Interlay’s CTO, Dominik Harz
• Centrifuge’s CEO, Lucas Vogelsang

Watch the replay here: https://youtu.be/4zXNsDkgiIE

The conversations were lively as it was clear all in attendance understood their project’s importance within the growing Polkadot ecosystem. Two types of answers were common among the panel: Their appreciation for the engaged communities supporting their efforts and the intensity of their teams’ efforts as some sprint to secure the coveted parachain slots and others, who have already secured their parachain slot, look to the future of their projects.

In one of the event’s main segments, Peter inquired to each team about their plans for the release of their respective products.

• KILT Protocol, focusing on credentials for Web 3.0, was quick to point out the clear benefits of having a decentralized credential protocol within the ecosystem. They also voiced their desire for collaboration with other ecosystem partners to create value greater than the sum of the individual projects participating. Like all panel participants, they see a parachain lease as not only an opportunity, but also a responsibility to grow and fortify the ecosystem.
• Parallel Finance addressed the need for liquidity within the ecosystem. With a growing amount of DOT and KSM locked in parachain leases, the velocity of funds within is slowly being diminished (velocity of funds being an important variable in a token’s price). Liquidity, investment hedging and money markets being the primary primitives required for the ecosystem to flourish; all of which will be solved with Parallel’s initial product release in 4Q’21. Additionally, two unique items covered with a certain level of secretism were Parallel’s Auction Loan protocol and cross-chain portfolio/ wallet. Details teased to come in the near-future; both being direct and powerful tools to those investors seeking to keep their money “working” efficiently.
• Manta Network, with their recently won parachain slot, will first be focusing on MantaPay, their cornerstone private transaction service for BTC, ETH and, of course, DOT, among others. The anticipated MantaSwap, the soon to be DEX, was also discussed.
• Interlay foresees a future in which Bitcoin can be used on any blockchain so Polkadot was the obvious choice for building such a powerful tool. Furthermore, once the complexities of tapping into Bitcoin’s blockchain are solved, it opens the floodgates for any other POW chain (yes, even DOGE).
• Centrifuge touted its coming AAVE market to further bridge the divide between the wealth of the cryptosphere and real property financing by facilitating crypto as collateral to be lent against as opposed to sold when needed for larger purchases such as home or vehicle purchases traditionally financed through banks.

In the second segment of the event, panelists were asked what innovation in DeFi is being forged or will be created because of the interoperability of the DOT ecosystem:

• Dominik Harz envisions a DeFi future with a high level of specialization for the projects built upon each parachain. With the native interoperability, this should allow project’s to more easily build on top of existing ideas primarily because the chain it is built upon is best for that project’s vision but still able to communicate with all other chains.
• Yubo Ruan believes there is a fundamental misunderstanding that projects within the DOT ecosystem are building for Polkadot proper. On the contrary, DOT acts as a launch pad for radical ideas that best function on blockchain while the interoperability allows these ideas to spread like wildfire; unchained from one blockchain or the other. This in turn brings the cutting edge to market participants, regardless of the project niche.
• Ingo Rübe understands the need to bring off-chain points of data into the ecosystem to integrate them with the immutability and power of the blockchain. This is how the world will use blockchain. Not when they learn about its progress or buy the coin, but instead by using it as a fundamental foundation to everything they do without ever knowing they are using the underlying technology.
• Kenny Li foresees the ability to produce decentralized ways to provide “as a service” solutions. For example, instead of having a privacy token that would need to be forked in order to add or reduce features, a privacy feature service provider would exist, from which other projects could tap into. This frees projects to focus on their objectives instead of maintaining unwieldy code that is intertwined with features they do not necessarily need.
• Lucas Vogelsang focused his answer on building easy to use standards. The ERC20 token standard revolutionized the crypto industry. These interoperable standards can trustlessly automate many of the functions within traditional finance. This automation also brings security, leading to easier regulatory approval.

The third Polkadot DeFi panel is currently in the works. Follow for updates.