Can dYdX Become a Decentralized BitMEX? How It Is Scaling With StarkWare - Ep.218
Unchained
Intro
The host presents the podcast's mission to provide trustworthy cryptocurrency information and invites listeners to subscribe for future episodes. They also promote their YouTube channel and discuss the advantages of Square's payment solutions and the Crypto.com app.
Antonio Juliano, founder of the decentralized exchange dYdX, and Eli Ben-Sasson, cofounder of StarkWare, discuss the recent launch of dYdX on Ethereum layer 2 using StarkWare’s scaling technology. In this episode, they cover:
- what cross-margin perpetual trading is and why dYdX chose StarkWare to be its scaling partner (1:13)
- ZK rollups and how they contrast with optimistic rollups (8:49)
- how many transactions per second StarkWare can handle through its layer 2 solution (16:57)
- lessons learned and critical takeaways from their six months spent working together (20:15)
- the similarities between Ethereum and StarkNet (26:07)
- why Antonio believes that scalability is more important than composability (27:30)
- the benefits of decentralized exchanges and how dYdX fits into the dex marketplace (31:54)
- why dYdX chose Chainlink as its oracle provider, and how it got oracle prices onto layer 2, which previously had none (38:11)
- why Cairo, StarkWare’s Turing-complete programming language and platform, can be the “one verifier to rule them all” (42:10)
- what it was like for StarkWare to compete in the Great Reddit Scaling Bake-Off (45:41)
- whether or not DeFi could handle a GameStop/Robinhood situation (48:56)
- fair launch tokens versus VC tokens (54:12)
- the likelihood of dYdX and StarkWare each creating a token (58:19)
- upcoming developments and projects for both companies (1:02:14)
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Episode Links:
Antonio Juliano
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/AntonioMJuliano
Eli Ben-Sasson
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/EliBenSasson
dYdX
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/dydxprotocol
- Website: https://dydx.exchange/
- Exchange: https://alpha.dydx.exchange/trade/BTC-USD
- Reading Material
- Recent funding: https://www.coindesk.com/big-guns-back-10m-investment-in-defis-dydx
- 2020 in review: https://dydx.exchange/2020.pdf
- Decrypt profile: https://decrypt.co/resources/dydx-ethereum-margin-trading-platform-explained-learn
- Medium post: https://medium.com/dydxderivatives/introducing-dydx-2d0f0f326fd
StarkWare
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/StarkWareLtd
- Website: https://starkware.co/
- Reading Material:
- ZK roll-up explainer: https://medium.com/starkware/on-the-road-to-starknet-a-permissionless-stark-powered-l2-zk-rollup-83be53640880
- Understanding Cairo: https://medium.com/starkware/hello-cairo-3cb43b13b209
- Funding: https://www.coindesk.com/paradigm-leads-30-million-funding-for-crypto-privacy-startup-starkware
dYdX and StarkWare Relationship
- Original Twitter announcement (2020):
- https://twitter.com/dydxprotocol/status/1295791012552597507?s=20
- The Block’s original coverage:
- https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/75209/dex-dydx-starkware-layer-2
- Layer 2 is live announcement:
- https://twitter.com/dydxprotocol/status/1364591430447091719
- Blog post on why dYdX is moving to Layer 2 (2021):
- https://dydx.exchange/blog/alpha
- CoinDesk’s coverage:
- https://www.coindesk.com/defi-tech-cefi-speed-dydx-touts-new-starkware-integration
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