Multichain’s China situation could take more than a year to play out, says Fantom’s Andre Cronje
Andre Cronje is the Director of the Fantom Foundation and Michael Kong is the CEO of the Fantom Foundation — the lead development team behind the Fantom Layer 1 blockchain.
In this episode, Cronje and Kong break down the sequence of events that led Chinese authorities to detain the Multichain CEO and seemingly take control of its network, and how Fantom developers are exploring optimistic rollups to connect to Ethereum.
Outline:
00:35 - China's Multichain Crackdown
03:10 - Multichain Rumors & Speculation
08:21 - Fantom x Multichain
14:08 - $65M Frozen USDC + USDT
17:56 - Chinese Government or Hacker?
20:12 - Crypto's Trust Problem
27:47 - Multichain's Impact on Fantom's Ecosystem
33:45 - Active Investigation
35:38 - Fantom as an Ethereum Layer-2?
38:29 - Layer-2s vs. Bridges
46:45 - Andre Cronje's Role at the Fantom Foundation
47:35 - Closing Thoughts
DeFi, Fantom, Regulations, and the Challenges Of Being a Crypto Celebrity with Andre Cronje
This week on The Defiant Podcast, Camila Russo chats with Andre Cronje, the co-founder of Fantom, a Layer 1 blockchain, and also the founder of Yearn Finance, one of the first yield aggregators in DeFi.
Andre is certainly a key figure in the DeFi space who, at times, has been seen as a rockstar, and also been criticized for his controversial takes.
We start by talking about Andre’s backstory: How did he get into crypto in the first place, and why did he decide to build in DeFi?
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The Chopping Block: Did Andre Cronje Pull an Epic Crypto Rug Pull? - Ep.348
Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Robert Leshner, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry. On this episode, Andre Cronje, the recently retired (sort of) DeFi developer, also joined the conversation. Show topics:
why being doxxed led to Andre retiring (sort of) from crypto
Andre’s response to Robert who calledl his departure from DeFi “an epic rug pull”
why Andre is back – and why he is working on “regulated” crypto products
how the Otherside KYC’d NFT drop was an “absolute fail”
where identity fits into the crypto space and why traditional and DeFi institutions alike are interested in the identity of their users
Dalle 2
why the Bored Ape community likely sees the Yuga Labs Otherdeed NFT sale as a turning point
why Robert would compare buying a BAYC NFT last year to purchasing BTC in 2010
main takeaways from Solana’s seven-hour outage and why designing a mempool (or multiple) is critical for the chain
Hosts
Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital
https://twitter.com/hosseeb
Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly Capital
https://twitter.com/tomhschmidt
Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures
https://twitter.com/tarunchitra
Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
https://twitter.com/rleshner
Guest
Andre Cronje, DeFi OG
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andre-cronje
Show Topics
Andre Cronje’s Retirement
https://unchainedpodcast.com/this-defi-og-is-leaving-crypto/
Andre Cronje’s return to regulated crypto
https://andrecronje.medium.com/crypto-regulation-vs-regulated-crypto-aae56b36dcd8
Solana outage
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/144639/solana-restarted-after-seven-hour-outage-caused-by-surge-of-transactions
https://twitter.com/0xEdgar/status/1521188981538537472
https://github.com/metaplex-foundation/metaplex-program-library/pull/417
Yuga Labs rakes in $317MM from the sale of Otherside land NFTs and causes huge congestion on Ethereum.
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/144549/otherside-land-nfts-sell-out-in-hours-as-yuga-labs-rakes-in-317-million
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'It doesn't need me:' yearn.finance's Andre Cronje on the protocol's path to decentralization
In the fast-paced world of decentralized finance, the people behind the protocols are sometimes just as captivating as the protocols themselves.
That's certainly the case for yearn.finance's Andre Cronje, the former banking developer who seemingly built out both a cult following and billion dollar protocol over night. Indeed, the governance token tied to the protocol, YFI, has surged beyond $30,000 since its inception at the beginning of the summer.
If it was up to Andre, however, he wouldn't be affiliated with the protocol as much as he is. Cronje is currently trying to expand the number of folks responsible for shepherding the protocol.
In the most recent episode of The Scoop, he explained why a proper decentralized protocol doesn't need a decision-maker or figurehead, and discussed yearn's planned transition to a more decentralized model in which multi-sig holders would approve strategies.
"We haven't fully transitioned yet," he said. Still, he said: "I disagree with this idea that people have that I am yearn because it doesn't need me. If I were to have a heart attack on this call now, it's going to continue without me."
We also discuss:
Challenges of decentralized governance and how the yEarn community has fared
Why it's difficult for other projects to replicate YFI's success with their token launches
How the experimentation happening in the DeFi world matters to the traditional world of finance
What lowering the barrier of cost in DeFi means for innovation
What's behind the kind of toxicity in the space that almost drove him out
Some of the new project ideas yearn is working on, such as Stablecredit
Andre Cronje of Yearn Finance on YFI and the Fair Launch: 'I'm Lazy' - Ep.190
Andre Cronje, the developer of yearn.finance, talks about all things DeFi and the past, present, and future of yEarn. In this episode, he discusses:
what Yearn Finance is, and what led him to develop it and eventually open it to the public
his history and background, leading up to the development of Yearn
the processes and mechanisms involved in yEarn v1 and yEarn v2
why he decided to do a "fair launch" of the YFI token, despite being in debt as a result of building Yearn
why he felt that a Decrypt article about him in August was a "horrible hatchet job"
why he disagrees with what he sees as the current anti-VC narrative
his thoughts on the phenomenal rise in YFI's price and why the price of a YFI token still doesn't matter
how and why he decided governance participation would be a requirement for earning tokens in the Balancer/yCurve/YFI pool
the governance processes in Yearn and his thoughts on whether or not a Compound-style form of governance would be better
how he might mitigate whales dominating the vote
what he means by "I test in prod" and how people have misinterpreted his meaning
why he briefly walked away from DeFi
whether he agrees that YFI could be a new structure to replace existing traditional business structures
his response to the allegations by XAR Network
whether he would consider moving Yearn to another blockchain
his vision for what Yearn can become
and how much YFI he currently owns personally
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com: http://crypto.com
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Episode links:
Andre Cronje: https://twitter.com/AndreCronjeTech
Yearn Finance: https://yearn.finance
https://docs.yearn.finance
CoinDesk on Yearn: https://www.coindesk.com/what-is-yearn-finance-yfi-defi-ethereum
The Block report on yEarn Finance: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/75189/defis-yield-aggregator-dao-yearn-finance
Post introducing $YFI: https://medium.com/iearn/earning-yfi-y-curve-fi-53b5fd347f0f
Delegated vaults: https://medium.com/iearn/delegated-vaults-explained-fa81f1c3fce2
V2: https://medium.com/iearn/yearn-finance-v2-af2c6a6a3613
Delphi Digital report on yETH yVault: https://www.delphidigital.io/reports/yeth-now-do-you-understand/
yETH collateralization ratio: https://defiexplore.com/cdp/13972
Tony Sheng newsletter: https://tonysheng.substack.com/p/yfi-ponzinomics
Yearn Governance: https://medium.com/iearn/yearn-governance-forum-7b7c9d0300ac
yInsure Finance: https://medium.com/iearn/yinsure-finance-a-new-insurance-primitive-77d5d4217896
Delegated funding DAO vaults: https://medium.com/iearn/delegated-funding-dao-vaults-7ab05a63d7ba
Siege Rhino question about governance: https://twitter.com/SiegeRhino2/status/1303415750238101504?s=20
Andre’s “Building in DeFi Sucks” post: https://medium.com/@andre_54855/building-in-defi-sucks-b8fdfda0ef58?source=---------17------------------
Andre quits in February: https://decrypt.co/21068/founder-of-promising-defi-project-abandons-the-toxic-cryptosphere
Andre close to quitting in August: https://decrypt.co/37995/exclusive-yfi-andre-cronje-broke-quitting-defi
What Andre wishes he had known before building Ethereum dapps: https://medium.com/iearn/things-i-wish-i-knew-before-building-ethereum-defi-dapps-cd6bf0f07a16
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25 - YFI: Farming the Farmers | Andre Cronje
Episode: #25 August 10, 2020
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Andre Cronje calls himself just another DeFi dev, but you can't help but wonder, is he's underselling himself with that title?
In a few short months he single-handedly created a fleet of DeFi yield farming money robots that locked up over $400m in assets in his yearn protocol. He launched a YFI token that grew in value by over 1,000% in its first week, one of the most explosive price charts crypto has ever seen.
No pre-mine, no VC, no founders reward.
Maybe a better title is King of the Yield Farmers.
DeFi's Satoshi.
Who is this guy?
What did he build and why is it brilliant?
Why did YFI go from $3 on July 17th to $5000 on August 8th?
This is everything you need to know about yearn, YFI, and Andre.
We cover:
How Andre's really feeling
What's up with "I test in prod"
Why high YFI price can be bad
How Yearn automates yield farming
Andre's money robots
Incenting strategy writers
Risks of yearn
Launching YFI to scale
Why people buy YFI
Organic governance
Is Andre The Joker?
What's coming next
Join us next Monday for a fresh episode!
----- Resources discussed:
yearn protocol
yearn governance
yfi price chart
Acronym helper: LP = liquidity provider
yearn (or "Y-earn") = Andre's protocol
cUSD, cDAI = stablecoins in Compound
TLV = total locked valued in a DeFi protocol
Look up other assets on DeFiMarketCap
----- Episode Actions:
Try yearn protocol - "tested in prod" you could lose it all
Get involved in yearn governance
Listen to SOTN#7 - YFI Token Magic w/ Daryl Lau
Also...subscribe to Bankless YouTube to watch State of the Nation every Tuesday.
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----- Not financial or tax advice. This podcast is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Do your own research.
"In DeFi My Money is Actually Mine. It's a Beautiful Concept But it Comes With Responsibilities:" Andre Cronje
Andre Cronje is the developer of the yearn platform and YFI token. There’s this sort of mysticism around Andre: The solo genius builder who relentlessly releases code even if it hasn’t always been properly audited or tested. The DeFi wizard capable of turning a token which he himself claimed to be valueless to be worth thousands of dollars in a few days. He talks about the actual paralyzing fear that comes with building money protocol, the huge responsibility he feels, and how finger-pointing has caused him to quit the space before. But he says the drive to continue innovating has helped him overcome that fear and keep building.