Today we have the chance to interview Krasavice Blasen, founder of duckpools.io. Together, we will discuss what duckpools.io is about, what is the team behind it, why the team decided to build on the Ergo blockchain, why they still prefer PoW versus PoS, and many more. Let’s dive in!
[SurferInvestor] Could you please summarise briefly what Duckpools is about?
[Krasavice Blasen] duckpools.io is a pool-based lending protocol. As a pool-based lending protocol, lenders can deposit cryptocurrencies to a pool contract to passively earn income on their assets and borrowers can borrow cryptocurrencies from the pool by placing collateral. Loans do not need to be individually matched; instead, they are funded using pooled funds, secured by a borrower’s collateral. This allows for instant, perpetual loans with loan conditions such as the interest rate and liquidation conditions dictated by the state of the pool.
[Krasavice Blasen] Or a shorter version of this: duckpools.io is a pool-based lending protocol duckpools.io is a conservative, risk-averse platform for lenders offering lending and borrowing for ERG and its native assets.
[SurferInvestor] Could you please introduce yourself as a founder? What is your background? What makes you the right team for the project?
[Krasavice Blasen] I’ve been involved in crypto for 3 years. Initially very interested in Bitcoin and to some extent Ethereum. I found Ergo in 2021, as Charles Hoskinson says, Ergo is the spiritual successor of Bitcoin which is likely why I was drawn to it. Looking to put my developer skillset to use, I began working with ERGnomes NFT project and built some small Discord bots and NFT tools.
[Krasavice Blasen] Looking for something a bit larger, I found an offer to develop on SkyHarbor and joined Quokka as a cofounder of SkyHarbor (currently Ergo’s largest NFT platform) and my work mainly focused on Smart Contracts there.
[Krasavice Blasen] Later I joined Night Owl, once again focused on Smart Contract development, and built their core protocol smart contracts. Since then I have worked on numerous NFT project launches, developed the core smart contracts of Swamp Audio, and worked on other small bots in the ecosystem. Currently not DOXXED, due to my involvement in numerous projects but I would like to be DOXXED in future
[SurferInvestor] How did you come up with the idea of Duckpools?
[Krasavice Blasen] Throughout 2022 I was fairly vocal about Ergo needing a staple pooled lending protocol. Pooled lending protocols enable heightened on-chain capital efficiency and I felt they are a requirement of any strong DeFi ecosystem. Eventually, I said to Quokka, “let’s make it ourselves” and so we did
[SurferInvestor] Everyone talks about L2 at the moment, what makes you bullish on Ergo?
[Krasavice Blasen] Layers usually involves some compromises to security or decentralization. I believe UTXO-model base layer chains are a critical requirement for genuine scalability that does not compromise and has HEIGHTENED security guarantees. Ergo is currently the most advanced UTXO chain in terms of smart contract expression, security, scalability, and ease of development which is why I build on it. As mentioned in our whitepaper, Ergo’s development process is one of a kind. The duckpools.io development budget is significantly more cost-efficient than any other pooled lending protocol ever built and this is simply a testament to the dev process that exists on Ergo
[SurferInvestor] Building on a PoW Blockchain is nowadays a contrarian strategy. What do you think it’s the right one?
[Krasavice Blasen] PoW chains are years of research ahead of PoS. This is why Ergo is so much more expressive than its UTXO counterpart Cardano. PoW chains can generally offer stronger security guarantees and Ergo is launched “fair” allowing for decentralized coin distribution. The main reason I developed on Ergo is that it is the best chain to develop scalable and secure Dapps on and this simply would not be the case if it was PoS (evidence Cardano).
[SurferInvestor] What item in the roadmap gets you the most excited?
[Krasavice Blasen] Personally, it’s margin trading integration with Spectrum DEX. 100x leverage without going through a CEX? Thats exciting!
[SurferInvestor] What is a typical use case for people to use Duckpools?
[Krasavice Blasen] Lending -> Secure, low-risk yield on ERG and Ergo assets Borrowing -> use our platform to obtain working capital without selling their assets.
[SurferInvestor] There are a lot of existing lending/borrowing DeFi protocols (Aave, BenQi, Geist, etc…) what makes you different?
[Krasavice Blasen] Massive discount in development cost. The modular design of UTXO chain allows for excellent Dapp composability and feature upgrades. Segregated asset risk-averse pools.
[SurferInvestor] How many people in the team?
[Krasavice Blasen] 2 currently but our token launch is structured such that development work is contract based. Currently, we have engaged with an additional 5 contractors (both individuals and businesses) to carry out contract-based work and the total will likely end up being more.
[SurferInvestor] In an ideal world, how would Duckpools look in 5 years?
[Krasavice Blasen] The number 1 lending protocol in crypto-based on TVL. Within 1 year we plan to be on par with the major lending protocols, but due to UTXO modular design extensions to the platform will be more efficiently implemented allowing us to accelerate into a market-leading position
[SurferInvestor] For people who wanna jump in, how to get started?
[Krasavice Blasen] Token launch: https://www.ergopad.io/whitelist/duckpools/public Live beta dapp: https://www.duckpools.io/ Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/duckpools
We wanted to thank Krasavice Blasen for his time answering our questions about Duckpools as well as the Ergo blockchain. We wish him and the Duckpools team all the best for the ongoing token launch!
