Hello Defiers, hope you’re all having a great weekend!

Summing last week up: There’s now $1 billion held in DeFi! MakerDAO raised Dai Savings Rate to 8.75 percent. Lots of platform updates; Social money was added to Sablier so it can now be streamed, DeFiZap launched Zap Out, Idle Finance released its v2, DEX.AG unveiled its Expert Trading interface, Maple Finance launched community-backed loans. Inventions and investigations; the first collateral swap via flash loans was executed, and most DeFi projects can unilaterally change their code on you. PoolTogether raised $1 million. I did an in-depth interview with 1inch co-founder Sergej Kunz, and crypto investor David Iach wrote a column how Ethereum is supercharging finance. And yes, there’s even more :)

Friday Op-Ed

Ethereum May Be One of The Most Important Innovations for Finance: David Iach

Crypto investor David Iach recently spurred up debate around the need for an Ethereum-based fundraising mechanism that aligns investors’ and projects’ incentives. Iach dives deeper into his “liquidity fundraising” idea. He also describes two new innovations: “influencer financing” and “no-loss investing.” 

Monday Interview

"Soon, Nobody Will Use Centralized Exchanges Because They'll Have Lost Trust in Them," 1inch Co-Founder Says

This week’s interview is with Sergej Kunz, co-founder of 1inch, the dex aggregator with the highest volume. He attributes his early success to the algorithm his team developed to provide the best prices, and their aggressive strategy. But this strategy — embodied in their logo’s “manic unicorn”— has also stirred up some controversy in the ecosystem along with a debate on open source versus copyrighted code.

Thursday

First

• Exclusive: DEX.AG Unveils New Interface Today: Decentralized exchanges are increasingly adopting the look and functionality of their centralized counterparts. The latest one to make strides in this direction is DEX.AG.

Dives

• How to Earn 8.75% on Your Savings: The “DeFi central bank” has raised its savings rate to just under 9 percent, which means anyone can start earning that right now on a dollar-pegged digital asset. A step-by=step how-to with Argent.

Sums

• Flash Loans Enable First Collateral Swap: Things in DeFi are getting weirder. Developer David Truong created the first collateral swap in DeFi using Aave’s flash loans and Uniswap.

• Most DeFi Projects Can Single-Handedly Change Code: Most DeFi projects can unilaterally make changes to their code, content creator Chris Blec said in a video.

Bytes

• Things I wish I knew before building Ethereum #DeFi dapps: Andre Cronje

Tuesday

Dives

• Streaming Social Money is the Future of Work: Just in the past couple of months developers created an easy way for anyone to issue their own personal tokens, while a different team created a way for anyone to create payments streams. Today, anyone can streams those personal tokens, also known as social money.

Sums

• Private Transactions on Ethereum are Live: Aztec recently launched a privacy network on Ethereum, enabling applications to integrate zkDai, a private version of Dai, which conceals the amount transacted.

• Maple Finance Launches Community-Backed Loans: Most DeFi platforms have solved the challenge of issuing loans without trusted third parties with collateral. Maple Finance wants to solve this challenge with community.

• Pool Together Raises $1 Million: PoolTogether, the no-loss lottery, has raised $1 million in a funding round led by IDEO CoLab Ventures with participation from ConsenSys Labs and DTC Capital.

• Idle Finance Updates Automated Investment Protocol: Idle Finance, which allocates users’ tokens into the highest-yielding platforms, released its v2. 

• DeFiZap Makes it Easier to Un-Zap: DeFiZap, which lets users implement multi-step decentralized strategies in one click, introduced Zap Out, to make it just as easy to undo those strategies. 

Bytes

• CFTC chairman reiterates belief that ether futures will be launched: The Block

• No-Code Is the Next Big Step for Crypto And It’s Here: Jack Knutson

💜Community Love💜

Thanking all the amazing Defiers for the support and love this week (and always)!

Paul Murphy @prmurphy

I love @CamiRusso. She drinks the cool aid and then actually bothers to figure out how it's made. Wish more crypto-peeps were half as inquisitive.

February 4th 2020

3 Retweets42 Likes

Victor Li @CryptoEcon_Li

@prmurphy @CamiRusso Wish more journalists were half as inquisitive as @CamiRusso. One cannot understand #blockchain and #DeFi if he/she hasn’t tried them #first #hand. Armchair journalism doesn’t work in crypto.

February 4th 2020

1 Like

🪁 Richard Burton 🌊 @ricburton

@prmurphy @CamiRusso Skin in the game > reading tweets She actually uses the software

February 4th 2020

1 Like

Ʉnlock - unlock-protocol.eth @UnlockProtocol

This is what @CamiRusso uses for her newsletter The Defiant: bit.ly/the-defiant which is, by the way, required for anyone who wants to follow #DeFi closely!

February 9th 2020

3 Likes

Kyle Ellicott @kyleellicott

A shoutout as well to some unreal content via their newsletters this week - @spencernoon (Our Network) @RyanSAdams (Bankless) @CamiRusso (The Defiant) and @zkCapital

February 6th 2020

1 Retweet3 Likes

Adam B. Winter @adam_b_winter

@bradmillscan Maybe it forgot your password 😅 On a serious note though: try DeFi and see for yourself. Shout out if you need any help Give @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @CamiRusso a follow if you wanna go deeper down the rabbit hole

February 7th 2020

4 Likes

MobilEd @MobileEdgar

Great article! https://t.co/kXzKA16uEv

Camila Russo @CamiRusso

"Ethereum might turn out to be one of the most important general purpose innovations for the financial sector," @davidiach says. He dives into his "liquidity fundraising" model and proposes two new ones, including the "no-loss investment." More here👉https://t.co/R8QgSwztUY

February 7th 2020

2 Likes

Bradley Miles @Bradley_Miles_

Awesome thoughts from @davidiach in today's issue of The Defiant!

Camila Russo @CamiRusso

"Ethereum might turn out to be one of the most important general purpose innovations for the financial sector," @davidiach says. He dives into his "liquidity fundraising" model and proposes two new ones, including the "no-loss investment." More here👉https://t.co/R8QgSwztUY

February 7th 2020

2 Retweets10 Likes

Ash Egan @AshAEgan

The emerging personal token stack Security: @ethereum Creation: @tryrollhq @OpenLawOfficial Tooling: @OpenZeppelin, remix Liquidity: @UniswapExchange Analytics: @etherscan Education: Defiant Disputes: @AragonProject @Kleros_io Streaming: @SablierHQ Bundling: @UMAprotocol

Ash Egan @AshAEgan

The personal token sandbox is emerging, especially around ISAs, reputation, tokens for time, and tokens for services. Check out: @Bradley_Miles_ @bramanathan @SDinwiddie_25 @jessewldn @CamiRusso @tomhschmidt @defidude @pet3rpan_ @AlexMasmej @2100hq Who else?

February 6th 2020

12 Retweets56 Likes

Chris Blec @ChrisBlec

Thanks Cami for being the only newsletter so far to mention my admin key opsec video & spreadsheet! The Defiant has always shown that it's not here to be a cheerleader for Ethereum - it's here to give you the real, honest info that you need to stay safe.

Camila Russo @CamiRusso

Today in The Defiant: 📈@DEXAG_TokenWire launches new interface 🤑How to go from USDs to @MakerDAO's 8.75% DSR via @argentHQ 🔑Most DeFi projects have admin keys, @ChrisBlec shows 🧙‍♂️@daveytea creates collateral swap via @AaveAave & @UniswapExchange https://t.co/cxs9jGzxV5

February 6th 2020

3 Retweets19 Likes

Bradley Miles @Bradley_Miles_

Finance is evolving and a social money stack for the web is emerging. Start streaming social money on @SablierHQ today and check out the latest issue of the Defiant to catch up with some incredible companies.

Camila Russo @CamiRusso

🐲ICYM this monster issue: Streaming social money w/ @SablierHQ & @tryrollhq Private txs on Eth w/ @aztecprotocol Community-backed loans w/ @maplefinance @idlefinance upgrades to v2 @PoolTogether_ raises $1m @DeFi_Zap unveils Zap Out #monsterdefi https://t.co/q1jO0UxyDE

February 5th 2020

8 Likes

dailydefi.eth @daily_defi

Extremely informative Interview between @CamiRusso and @1inchExchange founder #defi

Camila Russo @CamiRusso

"We eliminated the biggest problem of dexes: low liquidity and a high price slippage." "Soon, nobody will use cexes; they'll have lost trust in them." @1inchExchange cofounder Sergej Kunz says. More, including his 'manic unicorn' philosophy, here 👉https://t.co/zvAkfpnJOL

February 4th 2020

2 Retweets3 Likes

Roll @tryrollhq

@kellyreid @CamiRusso @SablierHQ Highly recommend the Defiant for keeping up with the latest in the space. Funnel some of your @AxieInfinity profits into the one newsletter you should subscribe to 😉

February 4th 2020

1 Like

The Defiant is a daily newsletter focusing on decentralized finance, a new financial system that’s being built on top of open blockchains. The space is evolving at breakneck speed and revolutionizing tech and money. Sign up to learn more and keep up on the latest, most interesting developments. Subscribers get full access at $10/month or $100/year, while free signups get only part of the content.

Click here to pay with DAI.There’s a limited amount of OG Memberships at 70 Dai per annual subscription ($100/yr normal price).

About the author: I’m Camila Russo, a financial journalist writing a book on Ethereum with Harper Collins. (Pre-order The Infinite Machine here). I was previously at Bloomberg News in New York, Madrid and Buenos Aires covering markets. I’ve extensively covered crypto and finance, and now I’m diving into DeFi, the intersection of the two.