Can dYdX Become a Decentralized BitMEX? How It Is Scaling With StarkWare - Ep.218

Antonio Juliano, founder of the decentralized exchange dYdX, and Eli Ben-Sasson, cofounder of StarkWare, discuss the recent launch of dYdX on Ethereum layer 2 using StarkWare’s scaling technology. In this episode, they cover: what cross-margin perpetual trading is and why dYdX chose StarkWare to be its scaling partner (1:13) ZK rollups and how they contrast with optimistic rollups (8:49) how many transactions per second StarkWare can handle through its layer 2 solution (16:57) lessons learned and critical takeaways from their six months spent working together (20:15) the similarities between Ethereum and StarkNet (26:07) why Antonio believes that scalability is more important than composability (27:30) the benefits of decentralized exchanges and how dYdX fits into the dex marketplace (31:54) why dYdX chose Chainlink as its oracle provider, and how it got oracle prices onto layer 2, which previously had none (38:11) why Cairo, StarkWare’s Turing-complete programming language and platform, can be the “one verifier to rule them all” (42:10) what it was like for StarkWare to compete in the Great Reddit Scaling Bake-Off (45:41) whether or not DeFi could handle a GameStop/Robinhood situation (48:56) fair launch tokens versus VC tokens (54:12) the likelihood of dYdX and StarkWare each creating a token (58:19) upcoming developments and projects for both companies (1:02:14) Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unchainedcardearnfeb2021 Download the Crypto.com app here: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/laurashinpodcasttesla Square: https://square.com/go/unchained Episode Links: Antonio Juliano Twitter: https://twitter.com/AntonioMJuliano Eli Ben-Sasson Twitter: https://twitter.com/EliBenSasson dYdX Twitter: https://twitter.com/dydxprotocol Website: https://dydx.exchange/ Exchange: https://alpha.dydx.exchange/trade/BTC-USD Reading Material Recent funding: https://www.coindesk.com/big-guns-back-10m-investment-in-defis-dydx 2020 in review: https://dydx.exchange/2020.pdf Decrypt profile: https://decrypt.co/resources/dydx-ethereum-margin-trading-platform-explained-learn Medium post: https://medium.com/dydxderivatives/introducing-dydx-2d0f0f326fd StarkWare Twitter: https://twitter.com/StarkWareLtd Website: https://starkware.co/ Reading Material: ZK roll-up explainer: https://medium.com/starkware/on-the-road-to-starknet-a-permissionless-stark-powered-l2-zk-rollup-83be53640880 Understanding Cairo: https://medium.com/starkware/hello-cairo-3cb43b13b209 Funding: https://www.coindesk.com/paradigm-leads-30-million-funding-for-crypto-privacy-startup-starkware dYdX and StarkWare Relationship Original Twitter announcement (2020): https://twitter.com/dydxprotocol/status/1295791012552597507?s=20 The Block’s original coverage: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/75209/dex-dydx-starkware-layer-2 Layer 2 is live announcement: https://twitter.com/dydxprotocol/status/1364591430447091719 Blog post on why dYdX is moving to Layer 2 (2021): https://dydx.exchange/blog/alpha CoinDesk’s coverage: https://www.coindesk.com/defi-tech-cefi-speed-dydx-touts-new-starkware-integration Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices