Cryptocurrency Launch Dynamics and Governance

This chapter examines the factors influencing the launch of a cryptocurrency, particularly the impact of limited token availability on market behavior and governance structures. It highlights the innovative design of a liquidity pool involving YFI and DAI, which incentivizes participant engagement through governance voting. The speakers reflect on their experiences with Yearn Finance’s governance evolution and discuss the complexities of balancing investor influence within decentralized finance protocols.

Transcript

chevron_right

Play full episode

chevron_right

Transcript

Episode notes

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