DeFiRev.com Exclusive Interview

This week DeFiRev.com caught up with Bobby Ong of CoinGecko. We are a huge fan of CoinGecko, which is consistently delivering excellent features and is an incredible resource for the entire DeFi Community.

This interview is special because Bobby Ong is also DeFiRev.com‘s Person of the Week! Bobby, you truly deserve it, you and the entire team at CoinGecko has been working tirelessly to provide the latest and greatest to all of us DeFi fans. We really appreciate all your hard work.

Thanks CoinGecko and Congrats Bobby!

Hi Bobby! Please tell us about your origin story and the CoinGecko journey.

BO: I did my studies in University College London, majoring in Economics. After graduating in 2012, I came back to my home in Malaysia. I found out about Bitcoin in 2013 as I was learning how to code and got really interested in the potential that blockchain technology has to offer.

I knew that I had to play a role in this industry that will be fast-growing in the coming decades. A chance encounter with my co-founder, TM Lee led us to start CoinGecko. We were both interested in cryptocurrencies and wanted a way to get additional data related to cryptocurrencies such as community and developer stats to help us quickly compare cryptocurrencies and help us with some fundamental analysis. There was no such service and we started CoinGecko to solve our own needs.

How has CoinGecko become so dominant? What differentiates CoinGecko with some of the other aggregators?

BO: CoinGecko is the most comprehensive crypto data aggregator. We track close to 6,000 tokens from nearly 400 exchanges. Any actively traded token that is of interest, you would be certain to find it on CoinGecko. We track multiple decentralized exchanges and was the first crypto data aggregator to track DeFi DEXs such as Uniswap, Curve, Balancer, Mooniswap and more.

We are also the first crypto data aggregator to track the crypto derivatives market. We also track the leveraged ETF / leveraged token market too. The crypto market moves fast and constantly introduces new products which we work hard to accurately track for the benefit of the crypto community.

We also offer a free-to-use crypto API, which is very popular and easy to use. We see it as our duty to the crypto community to expand this industry and, by having a user-friendly API, we aim to inspire more people to join this ecosystem and provide a better user experience by making such crypto data available to users. Many crypto analysts also use our crypto API to look at market performance on their Google Spreadsheets and we are very pleased to support it.

CoinGecko was also the first crypto data aggregator to introduce a solution to exchanges’ rampant wash trading and fake volume issue. Our Trust Score algorithm incorporates other variables beyond trading volume such as the bid/ask spread, ±2% orderbook depth, exchange website traffic estimate, and cybersecurity features to assess the actual liquidity and quality of exchanges. Our Trust Score algorithm has improved the experience of users on CoinGecko and now we have higher quality exchanges sorted at the top of CoinGecko instead of exchanges conducting massive wash-trading.

Bitcoin to date has solved some of its biggest challenges. Now resolving much of the survival issues, do you think the right question to be asked is whether Bitcoin will reach $100k or when will it reach $100k?

BO: It is always very hard to make price predictions but I believe that Bitcoin will eventually hit $100k. It’s not a matter of if but when. Maybe it will happen in the coming bull cycle or in the next few bull cycles. I don’t know when but I believe it will reach it at some point in the future.

Why do you think DeFi is getting so much attention from crypto investors at this very moment?

BO: DeFi started getting a lot of attention this year due to the liquidity mining / yield farming craze. In this zero or negative interest-rate environment, people are looking for asset classes that can protect their wealth and provide higher yield than bank deposits.

The incentives being offered by the various DeFi protocols are very lucrative despite the high risks involved. All of this was started by Compound which distributes their COMP token to borrowers and lenders to grow their liquidity pool. The success of Compound got other stakeholders in the crypto industry to take notice and to implement a similar incentive structure. The new incentives are typically offered with higher yield to get the attention of the crypto community thus fuelling the DeFi growth further.

What are the best blockchain adoption strategies in your opinion?

BO: I think games will be a key driver for blockchain to reach mainstream adoption in the future. I foresee a future where users will be using applications on their mobile devices that interact with the blockchain on the backend without the user even realizing it.

Any thoughts on the lack of political will to address the lack of any streamlined regulations regarding digital assets and their elemental technologies?

BO: Innovation is constantly happening at breakneck speed in the blockchain ecosystem. However, regulations are always lagging behind innovation. At some point, regulators will catch-up with the progress and put in place regulations. All we can do is lobby and hope that the regulations will be progressive for the development of this industry.

When you’re not working what do you like to do for fun?

BO: I enjoy road biking and like to cycle with my friends when I have time.

No crypto interview is incomplete without a prediction question; Which cryptocurrency is likely to explode in 2021?

BO: It’s really hard to give predictions as the crypto market as we know can be crazy! I would say 2021 may be the year to watch Ethereum’s development closely as it goes ahead with its ETH 2.0 plan.

Thank you Bobby and congratulations again on being the Person of the Week! We can’t wait to see what CoinGecko has in store for all of us next!

-The DeFiRev Team

This week DeFiRev.com caught up with one of crypto and DeFi’s unsung heroes and everyone’s favorite crypto friend, Michael Gu of Boxmining. For that reason, he’s also DeFiRev.com’s person of the week!

Michael how did you first get into Bitcoin?

MG: Started Mining in 2012 on my gaming PC when Bitcoin was $10 and minable by an AMD GPU. I discovered Bitcoin by looking at online forums for methods to make passive income. At it’s peak, I was mining 0.3 BTC every other day, so a crazy $3 dollar passive income. 

Unfortunately, in 2012, I didn’t learn enough about the value of Bitcoin. I ended up listening to ‘experts’ like Peter Schiff calling Bitcoin a scam. That’s why at $15, I sold most of my stash. 

You’re widely regarded as one of the most respected and influential Crypto YouTubers, share with us your origin story and your road to success.

MG: Thanks so much! Boxmining started out as a way to share my thoughts and force myself to learn more about crypto. I don’t want people to repeat the mistakes I made in 2012, and wanted to create a community based on learning and respect. To be honest I didn’t expect it to take of the way it did, I’m super thankful for the entire community. The channel has evolved a lot but at its core values are the same. 

After witnessing many crypto market cycles, what have you learned?

MG: Don’t listen to “Experts”. Make your own decision and learn how to properly manage funds (control greed / aggression)

We see you’re really getting into DeFi! That’s super cool! Tell us about your experience with farming YFI!

MG: I was lucky I was already in Y pool prior to the launch for YFI. I was astonished at yield rates. I mean if you think about it, at today’s prices $213 Million (YFI market cap) was distributed for free to yield farmers over 7 days. As a farmer, I usually sell yield early to lock in some profits. 

We’re really excited about MTA and CRV what are your thoughts?

MG: Really cool projects. Governance tokens have super high risk, so I try not to speculate too much. Been mining CRV and it’s great. 

What most excites you about the DeFi space?

MG: The possibility that I don’t have to deal with big banks every again. Ever tried getting a loan or apply to trade stocks. Banks are horrible. 

For fun, do you have any predictions about the total crypto market capitalization by January 1, 2021?

MG: No. But I’m pretty sure John McAffee is still on track to eat his own dick. 

Is it hard to stay unbiased as a reporter and reviewer in the space with certain coins and tokens that you really like?

MG: Nobody is unbiased. Declare what you have and stay transparent.

What do you like to do for fun when you’re not working?

MG: What are you talking about? I’m always working. 

What are some hidden talents you possess that your fans don’t know about?

MG: I love to eat food. I cook a mean steak. 

What advice can you give our viewers about success and life in general?

MG: Work 10x harder than everyone else. There is no such thing as free lunch. Try to carve out measurable / deliverable goals and achieve them in the fastest time possible. 

Does anything surprise you in the DeFi sector?

MG: With all these weird meme coins – nothing surprises me now

What’s your take on the current “war” between Bitcoin and Ethereum maximalists?

MG: ZZZZzzzzzzzZZZZZ. That discussion ended years ago. Ethereum has proven itself to be a very successful smart contract platform. People who still “debate’ this issue are in denial / have a giant ego. It’s like Peter Shiff STILL talking about Bitcoin going to 0. 

What date do you envision the mass general public truly getting into cryptocurrency and DeFi?

MG: Who knows. Longer than most people want, but shorter than most people think. 

What are some your favorite books (can be fiction or nonfiction) and some of your favorite films?

MG: I’m still recovering from the trauma of watching Game of Thrones Season 8. It was one my most favorite TV shows / series. Maybe with the launch of A Dream of Spring the series will redeem itself. 

Thanks Michael for the awesome answers and entertainment as always! Congrats on being our person of the week-you deserve it!
Looking forward to next time!

DeFiRev.com is #1 in DeFi News. Check back in soon to find out the latest in DeFi News.

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This Week DeFiRev.com caught up with one of the most talented young individuals in the space: Sam Bankman-Fried!

Sam congrats on all your success thus far!  Tell us about your origin story.

Sam Bankman-Fried: I went to MIT, and worked as a trader at Jane Street after that.  In 2017 I started up Alameda Research, a crypto quant trading firm; in 2019 I started FTX; and now there’s also Serum.  My goal, in the end, is to be able to help the world however I can, and for now that means finding ways to donate as much as I can to the world’s most effective charities (earning to give).

You graduated with a degree in Physics from MIT, what was school like for you there? 

Sam Bankman-Fried: I had a lot of fun getting to know myself and making a lot of really important friends and connects (including Gary, my eventual co-founder).  I guess I realized that I probably wasn’t really meant for academic research, though, which made the classes less exciting.

One thing that always fascinated me is that out of the four fundamental forces, we can link together the electromagnetic force,  the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force, but not gravity. Why? For as much as we say we understand gravity, it seems there is so much about it we still don’t understand. What’s your take?

Sam Bankman-Fried: Honestly I’m not the best person to answer that 🙂 .  But coming up with a real TOE has been one of the main goals of physics over the last few decades.

How did you first get into quant trading? I read that you interned as a quantitative trader at Jane Street Capital. What was that like and what did you learn?

Sam Bankman-Fried: I had some friends who had interned at JS and liked it, so I decided to; it also seemed like a good place to earn to give.  I ended up really liking it–it was a great place to push myself, learn a lot about acting and thinking under time pressure, building longer-term projects, and communicating with people on a team.

Tell us about Alameda Research and how it started.

Sam Bankman-Fried: Alameda Research started up in late 2017 in light of the huge arbitrage opportunities on exchanges then–many sometimes many percent even just between different US exchanges.  We scaled up over the end of 2017 and start of 2018 to be able to do arbs, provide liquidity, and generally trade across the majority of the world’s crypto exchanges.  Over the years it’s grown to trade ~$1b/day globally.

What made you decide to move to Hong Kong?

Sam Bankman-Fried: I came out to Macao for a conference in late 2018 and quickly found that there were more business meetings and opportunities here than I had anticipated.  So I canceled my flight back and rented out a WeWork in Causeway Bay.  It’s ended up being a really good place to be able to connect to the majority of the world’s crypto trading population!

When did you first decide that you wanted to build FTX?

Sam Bankman-Fried:  Around the same time as I moved to Hong Kong it was becoming clear that there was a lot of work to do on the major crypto derivatives exchanges.  And eventually there was sort of this “fuck it, we can do this better” attitude, so we start building.

Binance purchased shares in FTX in December 2019, tell us the backstory on how that came to fruition.

Sam Bankman-Fried:  It was a long time coming; we’d worked with them on a number of initiatives over the last few years including liquidity, OTC, etc.  But we eventually really started talking about ways we could work together; CZ and I both wanted to get a deal done here, so we made it work.

You guys are growing fast and have about 35 employees, what do you expect the growth to be like in the next year?

Sam Bankman-Fried:  It’s hard to tell!  And in fact since that last 35 employee figure came out we’ve grown a bit more.  I’d guess our doubling time is around 1 year now in most respects, which is a lot.

What are some of your favorite books that you have read?  Favorite films?

Sam Bankman-Fried:  I really like Marvel TV shows and some Christopher Nolan films (Dark Night, Inception, etc).  I also watch way too much TV — Bojack, Elementary, The Magicians, etc.

You have written some really good tweet threads lately about DeFi, tell us what potential you see in the rapidly emerging DeFi space. ( Obviously, we’re biased too, we love DeFi!)

Sam Bankman-Fried: I think that DeFi has the potential to rebuild a lot of the world’s financial infrastructure on totally open systems, which would be super exciting!  It has to keep focused on building good products, though, instead of getting lost in the weeds of hyperinflating yield.

Do you have hobbies that you love that would surprise people?

Sam Bankman-Fried: I watch a decent amount of sports–baseball, football, and basketball mostly (yeah, pretty boring).  I also play some Magic: The Gathering online when I’m bored (or during phone calls sometimes–they’re often sloooooooooow).

As someone who is extremely well versed in pattern recognition what trends and microtrends do you anticipate next in the DeFi space?

Sam Bankman-Fried: At some point Yield Farming will die down and I think people will start to focus more on the products there’s long term demand for–and I think that product design and usability and power will start to become really important.

Some say being in the right place at the right time is a key to success.  Undoubtedly, you are immensely talented.  How much do you attribute the Bitmex Leaderboard to the eventual success of FTX?  Tell our viewers about that experience.

Sam Bankman-Fried: That definitely helped!  But more generally we did a pretty concerted campaign around early 2019 to build up our brand, including a lot of OTC trading.  It’s really helped get us some recognition.

What future plans or new developments and features are you looking forward to rolling out for FTX?  Any projects you are particularly excited about?

Sam Bankman-Fried: I’m really excited to see additions to the Quant Zone, improvements to our options UI, and much more over the rest of the year.

As someone who is very successful under the age of 30, what advice do you have for the younger generations in terms of becoming successful, building things, and doing what they love?

Sam Bankman-Fried: I guess–find a way of working and living that works for you.  And when you find that, really push it as much as you can–a lot of the EV is in the tails.

Where do you see the DeFi and Blockchain landscape in 5 years? What do you think will surprise us?

Sam Bankman-Fried: Really hard to know!  But I think that if everything goes well DeFi in particular could really explode.

Thanks Sam! DeFiRev.com is really looking forward to seeing what you and FTX come up with next! You guys are always trailblazing. Until next time!

-The DeFiRev Team

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