Hernan, thank you so much to take the time to answer my questions. You must have many things in mind with EOS Israel and YOLO running in parallel.
HI, Thank you for taking the time of researching and coming up with this Interview :-)
We had our first contact December last year, when I was editor at Trybe. What have you been doing mainly since then?
You are also in the EOS Community, so you know first hand that there is no such thing as a Boring day in the EOS World. In EOS Israel, We’ve had 3 amazing Events in the Community, we launched our Website: eosisrael.io and we’ve basically captured the attention of the whole blockchain scene in Israel. I also joined the Amazing Team @ Kyber leading Growth and Communications for YOLO.
What is your general background?
I’m originally from Mexico, Immigrated to Israel at age 24. I am a Software Engineer with a strong background in C++, .Net, and for the last several years, iOS Development. I’m also a Musician, I have 2 electronic projects: AirNaN and Mindelight, you are welcome to check them out. I also consider myself an educator since I’ve mentored developers, music production students, and now EOS blockchain adopters. Oh and I’m also an Entrepreneur ;-)
Today I would love to discuss YOLO, your latest project, but I don’t want to miss out asking about EOS Israel. What is your current focus and how do you feel about the status of EOS?
EOS is the most exciting technology since the early stages of the smartphone boom, but with much greater implications for our society. EOS Israel started as basically a twitter, Telegram, and Meetup Group, and has now become the Center of All-Things EOS-Related in Israel, that makes me very proud. I also can’t wait to get to talk about YOLO!
Which are the most important projects EOS should focus on from your perspective?
YOLO! (Obviously), and besides smart and intuitive liquidity solutions like YOLO, projects that have the potential of onboarding massive amounts of users (Like gaming + social), as well as projects that can allow EOS to scale even further, such as the DAPP Network by LiquidAPPs.
What is your opinion about REX? Do you think that EOS will benefit significantly from its introduction?
For Sure! I Mean: “Get REX or Get REKT” Right? (That’s my quote, I said it first). Now, seriously speaking, I think REX is going to be a massive advantage point for EOS in comparison to other crypto assets, not to mention it foments staking and voting so, I’m ALL for REX!
Let´s talk about YOLO. You are based in Israel, are people at other locations also working for you? How many people are working on the project?
I’m based in Israel, and so are Yaron (CTO @ Kyber) and Tal (Lead Developer @ Kyber), but other than that, most of the team is based in Singapore alongside the Kyber Network’s headquarters. We are currently around 6 – 8 People Involved in YOLO, but the team is growing FAST!
It is really hard to get resources these days, so you guys are in a great position.
Why do you believe there is a need for a further liquidity network?
So far, traders and speculators have been most of the early adopters in the crypto space. Let’s be honest, most of the current users are buying and selling tokens expecting future gains. That is a valid use case as long as Blockchain tech is not ready for massive adoption; EOS is quickly changing that paradigm.
The next big wave of users will not be traders and speculators, but simply USERS: Gamers, Influencers, Musicians, Businesses, Every-day people using DAPPS without a basic understanding of what a Blockchain is or what platform are they in. The next wave of users will not care about order books, price-charts, technical analysis, spreads, trading volume, or any of those indicators. Those users will care only about having instant access to the token they currently need to use the DAPP they are opening right now, and if they can do this without ever leaving the app, Great! HERE is where a liquidity network such as YOLO plays a crucial role.
Absolutely true! We tend to forget that most of us are still nerds and very early movers.
Your main competition will, most likely, be Bancor. You mentioned on Telegram, that a key difference of YOLO will be, that there will be no catalyst token as BNT necessary. Can you please explain what the main differences of Kyber are?
First of all, let me get the official disclaimer out there: I truly believe that Bancor is one of the best Blockchain companies in Israel in almost every aspect there is. I consider myself a good friend of Galia, Eyal, Beni, Adar, and the whole Bancor team. I think they have some of the most talented people, they solve a true problem, and they have been an essential part of the building of the EOS Ecosystem.
Now, having said that, I also believe that YOLO has some Key differences that make it a candidate for being a superior product. I could get very technical here but I’ll limit myself to some key differentiators:
- YOLO has several methods for optimizing price discovery. It is not only based on supply and demand calculations, but it will soon go out into other exchanges and search for the optimal price to give to the end user, just like you would do if you were shopping for a new smart-phone case, or would you just buy the first offer you see on Instagram?
- YOLO is based on the Kyber Network Protocol, which has been battle-tested extensively in the Ethereum network and has achieved a high level of success within the Ethereum Ecosystem.
- YOLO is using EOS as a liquidity reserve instead of a proprietary Token, which promotes the use and demand for EOS.
- YOLO is powered by Kyber, and maybe that is it biggest differentiator. The Kyber Network team is one of the most professional, committed, and resourceful teams I have encountered in the space. I don’t take the decision of joining a team lightly and I consider myself lucky to have been given the opportunity to join such an amazing crypto-family.
- YOLO sounds original, tasty & cool, like the YOLO chocolate dessert in Israel, have you tried it? Seriously now, do we really need another NEWEOSDEX or an EOSCOOLDEX or how about a DEXTRA-EOS? We have enough combinations of the word EOS and DEX to go around, let’s try some new stuff ;-)
YOLO is, per definition, a real “DEX”. I always ask this question as there is no fixed definition. What is your interpretation of a DEX?
My interpretation of a DEX is an Exchange that doesn’t control my funds (not all DEXes work like this), that cannot manipulate price for any asset by an external force other than the code running the exchange, and that although developed and maintained by a team, that same team has no control over the specific trades that occur in the platform.
Volume is key for all Exchanges. Do you see a real opportunity to position yourself amongst the other existing EOS exchanges? From my point of view, many are struggling with volume, especially in this Bull-Market.
Yes, this “Bull-Market” has been tough on all of us, but EOS hasn’t even started yet. Most of the volume was GONE by the time that most of the EOS projects started releasing their Mainnet launches. YOLO is one of them, and we are starting from scratch, meaning Zero, Nada, not a single satoshi being traded automatically.
We are not going to generate bot trading or fake volume, so will you see huge volumes from the get-go? The answer is most likely NO. However, YOLO has a unique opportunity to position itself amongst the first Dapp-Integrated exchanges that can bridge the experience of swapping between EOS Tokens with near-zero friction. This is a potential game-changer so I do believe in YOLO’s possibilities. It is also worth mentioning that YOLO will offer some of the most competitive spreads in the market so I believe that will also drive more volume into YOLO.
I am indeed happy you mention this. It is very obvious that some exchanges are massively using bots to boost volume. They might not be responsible, but active user to transaction ratio shows a clear picture.
I had a first look on the testnet website. For everyone out there, go ahead: give it a try, here is the link: https://jungle.yoloswap.com/ I really like the ease of use and design of the page! Well done!
Here are some screenshots in case our readers had no initial look so far:
Which are the features you are working on right now?
Thank you (Well, mainly thank the Devs, but thanks nonetheless). We are working on enabling token swaps between all tokens, currently, we only allow to trade between EOS and other tokens. Another feature we want to have ready for launch is a seamless EOS wallet experience, meaning that you will be able to access YOLO from any popular EOS Wallet out there and trade with YOLO instantly, and for FREE.
Bancor offers many trading pairs, also for ETH and DAI, will you focus on EOS for now?
YOLO will focus on EOS, KyberSwap has become the largest Liquidity Network on Ethereum and we expect to see that boundary become thinner and thinner with the implementation of the Waterloo Bridge (Coming soon).
The issue I personally have with Bancor is, that you only have very limited opportunities to influence the price you get. At least there is a possibility to reduce the maximum slippage to 0.01%, by default it is set to 2% which many people don’t know. Will you also offer this kind of functionality?
Currently NO, our Intelligent Market Making Algorithm will offer you the best price it can get for you at the time whether you are buying or selling. Eventually, maybe we will add some options for tweaking and configuring YOLO as long as it doesn’t complicate the experience. UX is king!
Which are next significant features to come? Is REX something that might fit into your concept, too?
So a few upcoming Features that we are able to disclose are:
- Dapp and Wallet Integrations
- Ethereum - EOS cross-chain support
- Potentially supporting EOS Sister-chains
Regarding REX, we might not be able to provide Resource leasing per-se, but we are working on offering a very attractive passive income mechanism for liquidity reserve providers. Let’s say you staked most of your EOS for REX, but what about your other EOS Tokens? How about setting them up in YOLO as a Liquidity reserve and earning some profits when your reserve gets used?
I am sure you are not leaking more information about this, but I am sure it will be a very interesting option!
When can we expect to perform our first live trades on YOLO? I personally can’t wait to do so?
We expect to launch YOLO on the Mainnet somewhere in Mid-May, so it’s almost here, but the final date will be announced when we are ready to roll!
Many projects issue their own tokens, are there any plans to introduce a YOLO token, soon?
We haven’t got any current plans to introduce a YOLO Token, but at the same time, we are NOT Committing to never deploying a YOLO token with Superb Tokenomics and ground-breaking usability ;-)
You are contributing a lot to EOS, I would love to hear which projects you think have real-world potential? Are there any you would like to mention?
Thank you! I’m going for the ones closest to my heart first (and I think I did Mention YOLO a few times by now) so Emanate, Platin, Karma, Everipedia, Sense, Chintai, LiquidApps, PixEOS, EOSDAC, Carbon, and then I’ll also mention some super Cool Projects like Effect.AI (EFX), PEOS, HORUS, TRYBE, INF, BOID, I also like what TELOS and WORBLI are doing, I’m for well-thought sister chains, not against. I guess I’m a big fan of EOS Projects, I Believe in the people behind those projects, they ALL have real-world potential.
Will there also be a YOLO native APP for iOS and Android? Or, at least, an integration with MEETONE or TOKENPOKET to allow mobile transactions?
Yes, Coming soon ;-)
Anything else you would like to share with us?
Sure! Thank you very much for this interview, I enjoyed responding to it and I guess you also earned a new fan and reader of all of your future interviews and articles, Congrats!