Conversations with community can really brighten your day and give you a refresher course on your work.
I love my job. Reduced to its essence, it’s just talking — something I started precociously early in life. Whether over a phone call or with the written word across a range of mediums (including, of course, Medium blogs), it all boils down to talking.
As a grown up, every day I talk with members of a community that’s aware and invested in the work we do. We have our arguments, and disappointments from the general crypto ecosystem do spill over into the timeline. Then There are versions of the 2017 classic ‘When moon? When Lambo?’. But not a day goes by when some incisive comment or thoughtful question doesn’t spur us in the right direction.
Which is why I’m not a fan of the term ‘community management’. The people I talk with tend to be anonymous, known only by their social handles. Like @marh or @Panzer or @Maximilian or most recently, @Anonymousyoucantseeme. But when one claims to ‘manage’ a community, it sounds impersonal and strips the intelligence, energy and the range of personalities that make up that community. What is essentially a symphony of parallel conversations can’t be reduced to something that sounds like goat-herding.
Sometimes, a few community members keep up a steady stream of really meaningful conversation which challenges you, pushes you to think, and reminds you of why you do what you do. The past week, for instance. I’ve had many such phases over the past two years, and many community members to thank. This time, I wanted to allow you, dear reader, a peek into some of these conversations. I’m going to give it to you in a Q&A.
Q: What is the philosophy of Lendroid?
A: There’s a manifesto, which we’re currently a little shy to share, but we have spoken about what we stand for, on occasion. Our presentation at comes to mind. I’m pasting a relevant section here —
There’s this force that makes the financial world go around and by extension, affects everyone on the planet. At its best, it is a lifeline, a launchpad. However, it is often misunderstood and grossly underestimated. That force is credit. While conventional credit has been around for millennia, and has spawned a complex ecosystem, it has also evolved into a highly localized, centralized and opinionated phenomenon. On the , it is still nascent and we have a shot at getting it right — to make it global, decentralised and unopinionated. There are only three things that stand in the way — an empathetic user experience, on-chain efficiency, and liquidity. To fill this vacuum, it is imperative that we enable lending and lending-driven dApps on the . And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what Lendroid is about. We’re a that powers financial services on the . We aim to enable margin eventually, but along the way, will build ready-to-use components on the protocol that will enrich the ecosystem.
Q: In Lendroid’s white paper, point 1.3 named ‘An Ethical Parentheses’, you mentioned an aim to “take forward a culture of fairness”, “trust independence” and a hope of “Can’t Be Evil”. Please elaborate how these points and what you say of Lendroid’s philosophy will be implemented.
A: First of, thank you for reading our whitepaper. It is dear to us and is the foundation for much of what we’re trying to do today. Those phrases picked from the ethical parenthesis all allude to the concept of decentralisation. Enabling decentralisation fosters a climate of fairness, and trust independence (i.e., not based on trust, but that doesn’t mean you can’t trust it). So yes, in such a system, which is independent of someone trusting you with their assets, it is not possible to be evil.
Lendroid’s philosophy is infused into everything we do. It isn’t an end goal but a continuous process. Like the rest of the crypto ecosystem, we too are walking on the road to complete decentralisation.
Q: Is it possible for the protocol to control the content, or any have control over the dApps that will be built on the protocol?
A: Lendroid is an open, non-rent-seeking protocol. By design, we won’t be the gatekeepers of who builds what on the protocol. That will be decided by the users themselves. If they like you, you get to stay. If you try to be evil, they toss you out. Our job is to enable that to happen.
Q: What are the possibilities of being shutdown by regulators?
A: We have been meticulous and diligent to the extreme when it comes to regulatory compliance. The foundation is established in Singapore and adheres to Singaporean law, which is still evolving in the area of crypto. We have always been compliant and we continue to work with officials to ensure we remain compliant and toe the regulatory line, wherever it goes.
Q: Is Lendroid truly decentralised to the point of free natural growth without outside hindrance?
Today, there decentralised does not mean freedom. Take for example the . It didn’t matter to the that it was decentralised. Look at all of the other decentralised projects today. Innovation in this space is stifled because there is a great deal of understandable apprehension. Projects are wary of deploying financial instruments and users are wary of getting onboard. Perhaps we ought to run a hybrid of centralised and regulated convenience + decentralised transaction. At least until the dust settles.
Q: What are your views on someone building a multivendor market onion site on top of the protocol?
A: A multivendor marketplace is very much part of the roadmap, though I’m not sure it needs to be an onion site. On the margin front, we believe a multi-collateral auction market for will be of tremendous value. Even within the original MT framework, we had envisioned an as an alternative to plain old liquidation of underperforming positions.
Q: Will we the community be introduced to the team to communicate ideas?
A: The team is already available. The community has spoken with most of us on several occasions. Most frequently with who is our tech lead and smart contract engineer, or the founder , and who handles ops. We will always respond to any specific questions the community has on the protocol.
Q: When will Lendroid implement cross chain compatibility?
A: When it turns out to be viable, I suppose. There are a few ideas — either wholly or partially decentralised. But until we know what the economic and regulatory implications are, it would be premature to predict.
Q: On future projects the team build, will Lendroid offer it’s holders opportunities?
A: Why future projects? We always need help even with current projects. We’re going to need you for bug hunting on the protocol, for starters.
Q: Is there anything the team need help with, e.g. translations?
A: Yes. Translations in Japanese would be a great help, and in as many languages as you need. Some Russian brothers, even Spanish on occasion.
Q: Does Lendroid have plans on acquiring dApps and putting them on the protocol?
A: Lendroid does not make or acquire dApps. We enable them. You can build your own services on Lendroid.
Q: What makes Lendroid a secure protocol?
A: The fact that it is non-custodial, decentralised, and coded in Vyper.
Q: Do you have plans to work with security ?
We’d love to support a whole range of , across the spectrum of digital assets. However, like the cross-chain question, we need to know it’s going to be viable in a regulatory sense.
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And all that was just one day. They dug deep on a daily basis. Ultimately, it does boil down to talking. The only thing of value a talker can learn over time isn’t language, or channels. It is the ability to consistently and consciously talk ‘with’ people and not talk ‘at’ them. When that clicks, a wonderful connection is formed. Can’t take credit for it, though. It’s all thanks to people like @Anonymousyoucantseeme.
Published at Fri, 29 Mar 2019 08:13:52 +0000
