Today we have the chance to interview 0xSkywalkerL, founder of Offramp.xyz, for the second time. If you guys want to refresh your memory, have a look at our previous chat. It’s barely been 3 months, but if feels like a year when I look into everything that the Offramp.xyz team pushed.
In today’s interview we will go over some of the milestones achieved, signed and future partnerships, 0xSkywalkerL’s view on competition, and many more. Let’s dive in!
Source: Offramp.xyz
[SurferInvestor] Hi, thanks for spending the time to talk to me again! How have things been going at Offramp.xyz, would you like to share a bit of an update?
[0xSkywalkerL] Indeed, glad to be featured again! As always, thanks for the opportunity to talk about what we’re building. Since our last chat, we’ve launched Offramp.xyz on Ethereum and Polygon mainnet with Chainlink Oracles fully enabled. We’re also gearing up for our public, open beta launch by the end of April. Can’t wait for everyone to try our dApp out.
[SurferInvestor] True! You had a joint announcement with Chainlink. Congratulations, this seems to be an immense sign of recognition! Can you tell us in a few words what the partnership is about?
[0xSkywalkerL] Sure thing. We were introduced to the Chainlink Labs team by one of our investors, and we were able to integrate their Chainlink AnyAPI (and soon Chainlink Functions) to the dApp and smart contract. We’ve been getting a lot of support from various teams within Chainlink Labs (tech, marketing, BD), and we expect to deepen this relationship even further in the next few months. I can’t reveal too much, but we have more things planned with Chainlink, we’re very happy to be a part of their ecosystem.
Offramp.xyz has integrated Chainlink Data Feeds to help access off-chain fiat transaction data. Source: Twitter
[SurferInvestor] You also struck a partnership with Polybase to allow users to store their data on a decentralized database when on/offramping, was it a request from the community to provide an even more trustless ecosystem?
[0xSkywalkerL] dApps and protocols are only as decentralized as their most centralized layer. For us, the most centralized layer is on the database side as we covered with our whitepaper. It’s crucial that we remove this, it’s a significant trust assumption required from users. Once that’s done, we’ll be able to make more progress towards our end goal from a decentralization perspective – i.e. create a dApp that can exist with or without our team working on it. Polybase helps us solve the data storage issue by enabling users to control access to their data. There’s more that Polybase can do too, like enable gas delegation.
[SurferInvestor] Non-KYC on/offramping seems to be a hot topic those days. A few projects have been launching. Competition is a good sign that you are onto something right?
[0xSkywalkerL] There’s a clear need for DeFi on/offramps, I’m just glad more people care about it now.
[SurferInvestor] There are also multiple alternative products appearing. For example virtual anonymous debit cards. How do you see it?
[0xSkywalkerL] Tough to say – one part of me thinks that they offer a great value proposition for users (I’d definitely use one if the fees weren’t so high), but the other part of me is skeptical that fully anonymous debit cards can work at scale (i.e. they won’t get shut down due to AML concerns).
[SurferInvestor] What is your next bottleneck to get rid of?
[0xSkywalkerL] We’re finishing up our audit with one of the lead security researchers at Spearbit DAO. It’s crucial that we pass the audit, and conduct sufficient load and penetration testing prior to the launch. We’ll also be giving more beta users access to the dApp in the coming weeks before the open beta.
[SurferInvestor] You mentioned new partners, especially in Nigeria. Have you guys started the development already or focussing 100% on WISE?
[0xSkywalkerL] Our goal before the public launch is to focus on making the user experience as smooth as possible. We’re already gearing up to add another payment option, but we’re not partnering with anyone specifically, just using APIs. Stay tuned for more updates on this.
[SurferInvestor] As an early community member, I was really impressed by how much you spent talking to users. Is it a principle you always applied in your career?
[0xSkywalkerL] I’m not a Ycombinator (YC) alum but I’ve learned a lot from YC alumni. One of YC’s most famous quotes is to build something people want. The way you do that is by talking to users and iterating based on feedback. It’s definitely something I’ve learned to do and it didn’t come naturally.
[SurferInvestor] From the AMA I remember you are an ex-VC, is it a temporary liquidity crunch or we have to prepare for something longer?
[0xSkywalkerL] It’s pretty obvious that VCs have a lot of dry powder, they’re just more cautious and selective when making new investments. Valuations are down, but it feels like a reversion to the mean rather than an industry winter – I caveat that by adding that I was only a VC for 1 cycle, I’m sure those who stayed in the industry for much longer may have a different POV.
[0xSkywalkerL] In any case, good companies will always find willing investors. I wouldn’t focus so much on fundraising, that’s a classic startup trap. I’d focus on building something people want and serving your users.
[SurferInvestor] Any Alpha you would like to share with us? 👀
[0xSkywalkerL] Be an early user at Offramp.xyz – the early bird gets the worm ☺️
We’d like to thank 0xSkywalkerL for having a second chat with us. We are baffled of all their achievement in the first quarter of 2023. We wish him and his team of professional all the best for their next steps. And thank them for improving the on/offramping experience. After all the centralised exchanges scandals it’s great to have the opportunity to onboard straight to DeFi without KYC or the need for a centralised exchange.
