Alvin Lee on DeGate’s decentralized exchange launch

0:01i'm ashton addison from event chain for investmentpitch media and the cryptocoin show and today on blockchain interviews with alvin lee the cmo of d gate alvin welcome to the show and thanks for being here thanks very much for having me ashton appreciate it i'm really excited to dive into d-gate because i know you have some really interesting innovative solutions that i think is the

0:22perfect time to bring these into the blockchain industry right now and i would love for you to kick it off for the viewers with just a high-level overview and the focus of d-gate and some of those solutions you're looking to provide in the crypto space great so d-gate is a decentralized exchange trading protocol or dex protocol and we are focusing on some of the gaps

0:42that we see in the market we're trying to provide a particular niche or particular solutions that the market is not currently providing as you know decentralized trading is actually really expensive right now with high gas fees so we're trying to provide a cheaper and faster as well as secure solution for the decentralized exchange trading space and specifically we're focusing on

1:04audible trading because we think that that is something that um the market needs more of uh for the decentralized exchange trading space so that is it um it's good to know that we are a decentralized autonomous organization or dao so we're governed by dow principles and we eventually we aim to be one of the to be the best uh decentralized exchange trading protocol

1:27with um a full suite of functionalities including audible trading autonomous market making or amm like uh that you see in the market right now margin trading uh and uh we are currently testing a layer one two layer two bridge between theorem blade one and layer two so we need to have a full suite of functionalities yeah that's great other than that that's

1:48it yeah yeah yeah that that's uh that's a great intro i think for the viewers and a lot of people are familiar with unit swap and and sushi swap as you know the main sort of decentralized exchanges with the most volume and it is uh quite the barrier to entry for people that are trading low amounts of volume because of the transaction fees on ethereum right now

2:08but and i did recently speak with a couple other dexes that are sort of working on layer two solutions you know a lot of them seem to be based on polygon um for the most part just ones that are based on ethereum right now using their layer two solution can you talk about leveraging the layer 2 what makes d gate specifically unique and different from

2:30something like a decentralized exchange that's utilizing layer 2 solutions on top of ethereum yeah great question so it's a very new field the whole idea of layer 2 is very new and we are focusing on what we believe to be the most promising technologies within layer 2. specifically roll-up technology and essentially what role layer 2 means is that we do

2:54maybe 99 of the computation or a large chunk of the computation and put a large chunk of the data on layer 2 of in our case ethereum and only record the state or a small chunk of that data and do a bit of the computation on there one and now there are many ways to do this with many different trade-offs and we've studied all the trade-offs and we believe that roll-up technology

3:13is the one that will be the most sustainable in the long run um so we've studied all the all the layer 2 technologies and that's why we're focusing on roll-up technologies specifically we're starting with um optimistic roll-ups arbitrary and optimism and we're also looking very closely at zk roll-ups so this is we we are very strong technical team that's very focused on

3:34the fundamentals to ensure security in the long run and so we don't we think that that's um one of the differentiating factors uh in terms of the strong tech secondly i should note that uh we are focusing on our own innovative technologies on top of layer two we like to call it layer three which is uh it's uh essentially we call it a national technology and the whole point of this

3:56matchdon technology is to reduce the cost and the time for for users of audible training for instance if you do a match between a market maker and a market taker in the onboard trading only when there's a match do we record the the trade on chain so uh the match is done so called on layer 3 or not even on the layer 2 chain so this will even reduce the cost even further than

4:17existing uh layer 2 roll-up technologies so we see that as something that we are focusing on because we think that it's very important for the user experience we want to make it as smooth for the users possible uh of the audible trades and this this leads to several different uh better user experiences that we will uh focus on in the future definitely and that's really interesting

4:41that you have layer 3 there and for most decentralized exchange users you know there's a little bit of extra technical expertise as a as opposed to trading on a centralized exchange when you start incorporating layer 2 you mentioned user experience is super important and a lot of people aren't really familiar and hopefully don't need to be familiar with

5:01the intricacies of layer 2 and in the backend how the transactions are bashed and essentially just trying to make it faster and cheaper for decentralized trading and peer-to-peer trading and you talk about you know the specialized roll-up technologies for somebody who has only ever used uniswap once or twice can can you explain that a little bit more and what does that

5:21mean to have the roll-up technologies and why does it make d-gate better sure sure happy too so there are two there are two things here one is the user experience and one is the technology behind it so um just like when we use an app like facebook we don't look at all the technologies and all the servers that go behind it eventually when we use decentralized trading on layer 2 uh in

5:42the future we don't have to go through many of the steps that we go through now uh we i envisioned that we envisioned that the process would be a lot smoother as the technology matures so in the ideal end state uh we want to make the process as as smooth as possible right now uh right now for for users of decentralized exchanges it is it is a little

6:05bit more complex than using say centralized exchange and that is because the technology is so new so for something like a selfie user's unit swap that some of the additional steps might be you have to move um your funds from lay one to layer two and also uh and and sign that you can use the funds on layer one to layer two and beyond that we're trying to make the

6:23process as smooth as possible beyond that uh we do have a bridge that we we i tested that we aim to make it cheap as well for people to move from lay one to a2 technology uh layer one to layer to an interior uh specifically for roll-ups essentially roll-ups is the technology at the back that makes the that makes the layer too secure while because um

6:46it transfers a portion of the state of the of the data to lay one for everyone to see i'm simplifying things a bit but what this means is that you don't have to worry about whether it's roll-up technology or whether it's um uh uh the other technology so much because um it for the user itself because he's focusing on the final experience we are focusing on rolex technology

7:06because we believe it's the most secure and viable technology in the long run definitely thanks for that alvin and you mentioned that the bridge test net uh you were working on that and it looks like the bridge test net is open right now can you talk about what that bridge means for the users can they go on there and you know what are the steps that

7:24they need to take to to start trading on dgate yep so the gate is not uh not currently launched yet the bridge is the bridge dashboard is launched and we are working hard on the on the product for launch so conceptually uh i can only describe what what what the what the envision product is conceptually a blockchain bridge is a way to transmit tokens or arbitrary data

7:47from one blockchain network to another in this case from ethereum layer 1 to layer 2. and our goal in the in the bridge technology is to minimize the barriers of migrating ethereum acids between the two layers so the user can think of it this way it is much faster and cheaper to transact on ethereum layer 2 than they want so as ethereum layer 2 solutions get

8:06more and more popular there's need to transfer acids for example e from layer 1 to layer 2 and back again so the goal of the d-gate bridge is to provide an easy fast and cheap way to do this you you go in um you log on and you and you and you click you sign in and transfer the funds there's minimal gas consumption optimal user experience are the two things we're

8:26looking out for uh we take a small fee for the transaction and we make it faster than some of the other bridges without a comparison of the many different bridges and we and we aim to be um the best combination of fast and cheap i should add that we this currently the bridge is is a bit more centralized uh because the technology for rollups is not uh super mature at the moment but in the

8:48future we will we will aim to decentralize the the cannot the bridge itself but this being said for about five minutes or so like a short period of time um during the bridge um there's some centralization elements but this means that it's a much lower cost and a much faster time uh for the bridge transfer and we think that having a bridge is very important for using layer 2

9:07technologies that's why we're focusing on it definitely and i'm curious alvin with this bridge to layer 2 is the layer 2 solution for d gate something that is actually comparable or in in competition with a layer two solution like like polygon that's being used on other decentralized exchanges um is it something that is built in-house and can that be used as well

9:31for other exchanges or is this going to be exclusive to d-gate yeah so um the later technology is not exclusive to the gate we're working with arbitrary and optimism and and some of the other technologies and we look at all the technologies actually for the rollout technology now polygon is the topic of the moment right now and and they're focusing more on um

9:53on two different technologies side chains as well as plasma but these are the two different technologies that they're focusing on um every every single layer technology has its pros and cons and and so i don't think i i don't think that i should um i i'm what i would say is that we are focusing on the technology that we believe is the most viable in the long run so

10:13um and and this this could potentially change in time but right now we are very focused on roll up technologies and this is the technology that italic um is most optimistic on actually in a recent uh interview with lex treatment so to answer your first question we are focusing on we're focusing roll ups and not the plasma technology that that method is focused on

10:34even though we study all layer 2 technologies very closely uh for the for the proprietary it's not proprietary the layer 2 technology is not proprietary to us but our so-called layer three national technologies is proprietary to us which we are doing r d on and we hope to release it soon when the product launches that's great to know it's great that

10:55your team has a longer-term vision uh which i think is necessary for for success in the long run and i did see that interview with vitalik talking about those technologies and i think it's great that your team is looking at all of the technologies and that's the way that it should be to ensure that you have the best solution um and now talking about the long term

11:12and you know you're so early it hasn't even launched yet when it does start to launch i'm curious you know one of the reasons that everyone is trading on uniswap and it is the number one exchange is because it has the most volume and it has the most liquidity um how is your team planning on building liquidity uh in the exchange early on on the launch

11:33yeah so like any other economic system is based on incentives so we definitely have incentives for liquidity mining for both the autobot trading and um the the the amm uh if if when it launches uh the mm modules so we are looking towards um incentives for for liquidity mining as a as a as a part of our strategy for get extracting liquidity in addition i should add that for

11:58there's a protocol but there's also um in our vision we we will let third-party providers provide the ui for the front end for this protocol and we also provide training fee rebates for for those that are doing the the third party funding ui and and using a protocol for their own um for their own uh exchange um exchanges so definitely it's all about incentives and

12:25we're designing incentives accordingly and this this might change slightly in the future but definitely uh the base principle is about incentives and we will have to make sure that all the incentives are aligned definitely thanks alvin and now the bridge test net is open that's the the latest milestone can you give a glimpse into uh the rest of 2021

12:47and and into the roadmap for what are the next major milestones on the way to the launch yeah so the bridge uh tesla is open we're looking to we're working hard on the to launching the bridge and most of our efforts are focused on i i what i can i can share is that most of my efforts are focused on the the technical aspects on the product so making sure that the product is

13:10secure and has a good user experience are very important two of the key factors behind um two of the two of the key things that we're working on are principles are trustless and permissionless so we're trying to make the the protocol as trustless informationless as secure and yet easy to use uh for the for the user so it's not a small feat and most of our

13:34efforts most of our attention is focused on this um like any other endeavor we want to make something that people want but not at the expense of of their of the security of the funds in the long run we are focused on the ethos of the ethereum community we're governing based on set parameters which are transparent and we want to to focus on building a

13:58long-term uh rule-based organization in the dow it's easy to make it it's better to make it longer lasting and more vibrant through inclusiveness definitely i think those are great principles and i wanted to ask one more question surrounding the dao do you see a lot of advantages in being a a dex that has a dow and potentially disadvantages as well in the earlier stages yeah so like

14:27like many other dolls we are still um there is a there's a very strong reason to have a doubt for decentralized exchanges um it's part of the whole ideas of that you know we want our organization should be um should be very closely resembling the the ideals of decentralized exchanges in general so i see mostly advantages in it we have uh uh the way we

14:51get the disadvantages is that we have a home dial and a council dollar so the home now is the ultimate legit where the ultimate legitimacy of the project lies and it lies with the community but the council now is is delegated with the day-to-day execution and the decision making which means that it's much faster to to make decisions so so in this way we envisioned that

15:10this is how we view the trade-off and that the council that will help to to make uh decisions faster but ultimately the the the the legitimacy and and authorities invested in the home now so this this is our view of dials and it's constantly evolving the whole dial space is something that i'm very closely following and um we hope we like to think that

15:32we're pioneers in in the creation of dials uh that that will help to govern decentralized um exchange our our motto is make decentralized extreme exchange mainstream and part of that is helping to make the the idea of dallas mainstream as well yeah there's so much potential in daos that isn't fully utilized right now and i'm excited to see that that flourish

15:54and grow out to fruition so i will be watching uh d gate on on that front as well now we're running short on time alvin but on the way to the launch your team is working hard i know um is your team looking for anything specifically on the way uh to launch like strategic partners investors or just future customers uh to follow along as the uh as the launch

16:16is coming up yeah so um for us we're looking we're always on the lookout for talent uh so if you're a crypto native if you especially if you have um uh expertise in in uh roll ups please do reach out uh we're always looking for marketing talent and talent in general so that's one thing there's one that's what um it's a very new space and and we are at the cutting edge of the technology so

16:41please do reach out if you have a special specialty a skill that that you think might be a fit so teacher partnerships were always open and for investors what we can do is uh we want to provide the best knowledge for them to make their own decisions uh so this is and we want to be very focused on the technology and and the product and and let investors

17:01slowly come to understand this so uh if i may i would like to share a couple couple more points very quickly the first is that uh for a very serious team we're building for the future so um a bit of backstory about the team so the founding team is actually uh one of the founders is uh gulu big gulu he was the original translator of the ethereum white paper from english

17:25to mandarin and uh he was one of the early pioneers of the ethereum community uh he when vitalik was in china he organized several road shows and and and formed a close relationship with italic uh so so we are definitely very focused on the ethereum community and and giving back to the ethereum community um the t the founding team is also uh behind bihu.com which is a one million

17:49strong crypto community uh globally as well as a mikey a a secure wallet so essentially this is a very serious team building for the long term and very focused on the product uh we the second point is that we are very focused on on giving back to the community a spawn and we would love to get involved in uh ethereum community and the crypto community at large in

18:11whatever whatever manner what is speaking engaging conferences speaking to people and we're also looking to have our own youtube channel which is launching uh soon with our own content uh focusing on later technologies focusing on our philosophical views behind dolls and behind behind right uh behind the the whole ecosystem and this is constantly evolving it's a

18:33super exciting space and we're looking forward to be uh good members of the community as well as a great one of the best uh decentralized exchange training adults very cool alvin you've gained a new subscriber uh on the youtube channel as well it's great to have those philosophical discussions there it actually generates quite a bit of attention for the community that's looking to

18:55learn more about that and just follow along for the launch and all of the other updates for dgate what's the best way for them to get involved in the community yeah so um i think one of the best ways is to join our twitter follow our twitter at degate dex d-e-g-a-t-e that that's d-e-x we have a discord channel which is getting my ip our website is where you find the white

19:18paper uh www.dgate.com and also we have a medium where we post very regular and quite technical updates on what we're up to so that's also available on our medium page and of course we're launching our youtube channel soon so please do stay in touch with us and we'll keep you posted on new developments sounds great alvin i will leave all of those links in the description box below

19:41as well for the viewers uh all the best with d gate overall and and the dow and the upcoming launches i will be following along and let's follow up in the near future thank you ashton appreciate it