[Exclusive Interview] Meet Roman, Co-Founder of Savvy

Today, we have the pleasure of interviewing Roman, one of the co-founders of Savvy, an innovative decentralized lending protocol. Savvy provides users with non-liquidating auto-repaying lines of credit. In this interview, Roman will discuss the concept of Savvy, who are the experts behind it, and how the idea for it came to fruition. We are really looking forward to hearing more about this ground-breaking protocol, and how it can benefit the financial world. Let’s dive in!

Savvy is an auto-repaying and non-liquidating DeFi lending platform that gives users the ability to get an advance on their future yield immediately. Source: Savvydefi.io

[SurferInvestor] Could you please summarise briefly what the Savvy Protocol is about?

[Roman] Savvy DeFi is a protocol that lets users take non-liquidating, auto-repaying collateralized debt positions. We provide an advance against future yield using a synthetic primitive. We remove the risk of liquidation by enabling users to borrow lines of credit that stay overcollateralized regardless of price volatility. Not only are the loans interest-free, but their liabilities shrink over time as the collateral earns yield. Deposit eligible base tokens that are correlated to USD, AVAX, or BTC. Borrow Savvy synths, or svTokens, in the same unit of account. Earn yield on deposits that automatically repay the loans. Savvy is an innovation to Open Finance as a safer and more reliable form of leverage.

Get more utility out of your asset – source: Savvy

[SurferInvestor] Could you please introduce yourself and the founding team? What makes you guys the right team for the project?

[Roman] As a team, we are all decentralization maxis. Even if we worked in a centralized environment before. We have various backgrounds, for example, I am an ex-JPMorgan and started a startup called LettucePay that I then successfully exited. Akshay is a Yale graduate who worked at CERN for a period of time and has a successful tech consulting company in India. Ramsey is an ex-Microsoft & Stripe. Mian is a successful designer, and Alex worked with Google. This project is entirely self-funded before launch so we are FAIR launched, and the team doesn’t get anything before launch (on the 7th of February 2023 – so get ready!).

[SurferInvestor] Fair Launch? Interesting, so it means that the team is having no pre-minted tokens. Could explain the reasoning behind picking a fair launch?

[Roman] We have data. Fair launches in purest form do well. In our case, we will seed protocol-owned liquidity (POL) to all the svTokens and SVY-USDC, and SVY-AVAX. The more liquidity the LGE generates the more users the protocol can handle.

[SurferInvestor] How many people are there on the team for now?

[Roman] We aim at operating as a DAO in the new future. We have a few contributors but also a rockstar team:

  • Roman (myself) – Project Lead
  • Akshay – Lead dev/Solidity
  • Ramsey – Full Stack Dev
  • Mordi – Marketing
  • Alex – Product
  • Mian – UX/UI
  • IDM – Researcher
  • Tres – Solidity dev
  • Joss – Ops
  • Adonis – Front End
  • Camila – Socials

[SurferInvestor] How did you/they come up with the idea of Savvy Protocol?

[Roman] I came up with Savvy after getting rekt. I was liquidated because I couldn’t bridge funds fast enough. So Savvy solves that issue for everyone. Users deposit collateral, and get an “advance on the future yield”. They can use the future yield for whatever they need and get back their collateral when the borrowed yield is repaid. DeFi primitives are awesome and can be very customizable.

[SurferInvestor] What item in the roadmap gets you the most excited?

[Roman] The most exciting thing for me is the fact that Savvy will be the first and only protocol that can provide non-liquidating credit to Bitcoin via BTC.b/WBTC and other derivatives on-chain. I am a big fan of Bitcoin. There is more BTC.b on Avalanche now than Bitcoin on lightning. The yield on BTC.b is currently low on AVAX. However, as a composable primitive, I expect the yield incentives for pairing svBTC with BTC.b in stable swap pools and other LPs to be worthwhile. The important thing to remember is the composability of tokens and how many new options can be created with liquid tokens. Savvy gives users the ability to reduce their opportunity costs.

Price restoration through the Savvy Sage. Source: Savvy

[Roman] Opportunity cost refers to the potential gain that must be foregone in order to pursue a certain action or investment. Basically A or B? In the context of cryptocurrency, it can refer to the decision to invest in one coin or token over another. For example, if you choose to invest in Bitcoin, the opportunity cost is the potential gain you could have made by investing in a different coin such as Ethereum or Avalanche. It’s important to consider opportunity costs when making investment decisions. With Savvy you have your total deposit earn yield and liquid tokens to trade, invest, spend, save, degen, etc.

Savvy Detailed Protocol Flow of Funds. Source: Savvy.io

[SurferInvestor] In an ideal world, how should the Savvy Protocol look like in 5 years?

[Roman] In an ideal world – Because we are permissionless anyone can build on top of, or with Savvy synthetics. So in 5 year’s svTokens are widely used DeFi primitives, and have grown in scale with the impending wave of real-world assets coming to the blockchain (see Maker RWA).

[SurferInvestor] For people who wanna jump in, how to get started?

[Roman] We are a DAO of contributors – currently, there have been 12 contributors. For anyone interested in joining we welcome them to join our Fair Launch. Please join our Discord and TG, follow Twitter, and let’s work together to build a decentralized future. For people who like social quests, we will be having a Galxe campaign around our launch! Get ready for some dope badges! Also if you guys want to go deeper, this Podcast is a great way to get to know the team!


We want to thank Roman for taking the time to explain the exciting Savvy Protocol to us and we wish him and the team all the best for the upcoming fair launch on the 7th of February 2023.

Just for fun here, the teaser of Savvy! Borrow like Elon!


As a sneak peek, we managed to convince Roman to share with us some screenshots of the product! Great design!

Alpha version of Savvy!
Alpha version of Savvy! #2
Alpha version of Savvy! #3
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