Exploring Yield Farming and Its Broader Implications in DeFi

Olaf Carlson-Wee, the founder and CEO of Polychain Capital, goes deep into yield farming, fair launches and how decentralization will upend the traditional notion of the corporation. In this episode, he talks about:

• when it makes sense for a team to introduce a liquidity mining scheme, and when it doesn't
• the difference between yield farming and ICOs when it comes to investing
• his thoughts on YFI, as well as YAM, and the pace at which unaudited DeFi projects are
• moving forward
• the three advantages he sees in automated market makers as opposed to centralizedexchanges
• his thoughts on Uniswap and SushiSwap and why he's not sure Uniswap will make a token
• his thoughts on fair launches and whether he thinks they will threaten traditional crypto VCs
• whether the CRV token launch really was instigated by someone unrelated to the team
• his thoughts on the yEarn yETH vault and what it says about where the DeFi space is going
• what he sees as the pros and cons of rebasing
• why he sees projects like YFI as a new kind of corporation
• whether he thinks Ethereum will scale fast enough to meet the demand already being put on it
• why he thinks systems like Polkadot are going to expand what is possible in the same way that Ethereum expanded beyond what was possible with Bitcoin
• whether he thinks the yields from yield farming will pull investors away from staking on Ethereum 2.0
• what he thinks DeFi teams should do to improve security
• Bitcoin on Ethereum and what he believes it could mean for DeFi in the future
• the chatter around a potential public offering from Coinbase, and what's in store for Polychain in the future

Thank you to our sponsor! 

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/

Episode links: 

Olaf Carlson-Wee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olafcw/

Polychain Capital: https://polychain.capital

Previous interviews with Olaf on Unchained and Unconfirmed: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-the-first-employee-of-coinbase-launched-a-hedge-fund/

https://unchainedpodcast.com/to-the-moon-and-back-with-polychains-olaf-carlson-wee/

https://unchainedpodcast.com/special-episode-with-cnbcs-crypto-trader-olaf-carlson-wee-on-why-this-crypto-winter-is-different-from-previous-ones-ep-028/

https://unchainedpodcast.com/all-things-cryptoeconomics-pt-1-with-olaf-carlson-wee-and-ryan-zurrer-of-polychain-capital/

Why trading on automated market makers has risen so quickly: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-decentralized-trading-has-10xed-in-a-few-months/ 

Launch of yEarn/YFI: https://medium.com/iearn/yfi-df84573db81

Dex volume over time: https://defiprime.com/dex-volume

YAM recap: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/74810/yam-token-market-cap-collapses-by-more-than-90-flaw

YAM team’s plans going forward: YAM Post-Rescue Attempt Update. At approximately 6PM UTC, on Wed August… | by Yam Finance | Aug, 2020 | Medium

SushiSwap vs. Uniswap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/sushiswap-takes-on-uniswap-which-should-win-and-why/

Ian Lee of IDEO CoLab Ventures on fair launches vs. VC coins: https://synthesis.substack.com/p/fair-launches-will-disrupt-crypto

And on fast-follower forks: https://synthesis.substack.com/p/fast-follower-forks-in-defi

CRV token launch: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/74921/the-story-of-the-botched-crv-launch

yEarn's yETH vault: https://www.coindesk.com/yearn-finance-yeth-vault-defi-triforce

Ethereum's transition to 2.0: https://unchainedpodcast.com/vitalik-buterin-on-ethereums-five-year-anniversary/

Security in DeFi: https://unchainedpodcast.com/defi-security-with-so-many-hacks-will-it-ever-be-safe/

Whether Coinbase will do a token offering when it goes public: https://unchainedpodcast.com/will-coinbase-do-a-token-offering-when-it-goes-public/

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