Can dYdX Become a Decentralized BitMEX? How It Is Scaling With StarkWare - Ep.218

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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