Compound: Cryptocurrency Interest Rates with Jared Flatow

Decentralized applications, termed “dApps,” are applications that feel like normal apps but are actually deployed (mostly) on the Ethereum blockchain. This means dApps can’t be taken down, can’t be censored or blocked, typically use Ethereum accounts as identity, and would only experience downtime if Ethereum itself went down. There are a lot of things you can do with blockchain applications, particularly with decentralized finance. 

The company Compound develops protocols, built on the Ethereum blockchain, that establishes money markets. Money markets are pools of assets with algorithmically derived interest rates based on supply and demand. The Compound protocol represents assets as fungible ERC-20 token balances called cTokens. cTokens automatically increase in value from the amount of the initial underlying asset. The interest generated and managed through the Compound protocol can be used primarily for long-term investing in Ether and tokens as well as dApps and other entities. Compound provides lots of documents and discords for infusing interest and liquidity into dApps and related projects. This enables dApps to manage assets that generate interest and could lead to entirely new blockchain-based business models.

In this episode we talk with Jared Flatow, Director of Protocol at Compound. Previously, Jared worked as a software engineer at Caffeine and founded the company Quasi Convex Union. We discuss the importance of liquidity and interest-earning assets in DeFi, how Compound is helping enhance dApps and the role and growth of dApps overall, and his goals for Compound going forward.

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