Kevin Zhang | FX in Decentralized Finance | The Curious Learners Ep. 32

The Curious Learners

Hi everyone. My guest is Kevin Zhang. He is the co-founder of DFX Finance, a decentralized exchange protocol specifically for stablecoins. Kevin has been in crypto for a long time and his journey into building DFX Finance is not a coincidence. Following his time at Consensys, he went on to build Paytrie, which is a stablecoin exchange based in Canada. In fact, it was this experience that made him see the need for a decentralized exchange designed for stablecoins.
Here are some highlights from our discussion on this episode:
Why is stablecoin a killer product in crypto?
It is agnostic to market cycles. Many use cases such as remittances, trading and store of value on-chain. It will always have utility.
Privately issued stablecoins vs CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currency)?
Interoperability and fungibility of privately issued stablecoins are the biggest differences to CBDCs. If CBDCs do not have this functionality, they might end up being solely domestic exchange of money.
How does DFX Finance work better than any other DEX for Stablecoins?
DFX Finance uses oracles to pull real-world price data into the algorithm, which allows DFX to concentrate liquidity at that price point. This results in higher efficiency and lower slippage.
Right analogy for DFX Finance in traditional finance?
It is FX market, however without leveraged trading, which is in progress. Current spot market operations allows for highly efficient remittance corridors, where people can convert one fiat currency into another using stablecoins in the middle.
Stablecoins market cap and trading volume grew substantially, however still tiny compared to traditional FX. What does it take to close the gap?
Blockchain broadly is super efficient settlement layer for global financial services. A combination of fiat currency in the front-end and stablecoins in the back-end would be very powerful. It would help achieve a much larger market cap and trading volume.

Are we in a Crypto winter?
Probably yes, but the worst is over. This time it must be shorter duration.
Best case macro scenario for DFX Finance? What is the plan?

More and more private stablecoin issuers. DFX wants to be the FX provider to traditional fintech applications in web2 and crypto companies.
What are you most #curious about these days and what are you doing to #learn more about it?
Super curious about the last mile problem in payment, i.e. conversion from crypto to cash.
Please enjoy my discussion with Kevin Zhang.