On some level, financial transparency, especially in crypto, is good. It’s possible for everyone to see each transaction, though we may not know who is buying or selling what.
Through market crashes, the main and oldest cryptocurrency network, Bitcoin, has been working 99.9876 percent of the time. It has been up for 9.5 years, and down for 14 hours.
What are the origins of DeFi? Should people consider using DeFi, even while the current financial system works successfully? Why is default privacy important? These questions are the focus of this episode of YAP Cast season 2.
In this episode, Sam continues her conversation with Will Harborne from RhinoFi, the Co-Founder & CEO of RhinoFi (previously DeversiFi). Will first worked at a major centralized cryptocurrency exchange, after which he got into DeFi (where he started working in the privacy domain). He later went on to form ‘RhinoFi’ in 2019. RhinoFi is a gateway to the whole of DeFi, where people can buy, trade, and invest across all blockchains from a single wallet.
DeFi and its importance
With an increase in users moving towards DeFi in the last few years, it makes you question why. The traditional finance system has been part of the economic structure for many years, so why switch to decentralized? The Decentralized Financial System is starting to grow in popularity but still has a “wild west” feel to it, unless you are already in the space.
Will shares that if you live in France, the US or the UK, our local currency may be stable. If you are living in a country such as Turkey, where the local currency is devaluing, you will see a large number of DeFi users. “That’s at the moment where we’re seeing DeFi become more useful.”
Privacy in DeFi
When it comes to holding cryptocurrency in a country where the government banned buying and sharing crypto such as China, Will says there are ways to navigate through that and keep their transactions private.
One of these ways is through Tornado Cash, which operates on the Ethereum blockchain. Will says it is a proven way to hide your funds, and move currency from different wallets, without allowing anyone to see who is moving it.
In DeFi, Will expressed that users can move to private blockchains like Zcash, and in the coming years as new private blockchains are launching, it will be possible for anyone who wants privacy to trade on blockchains.
Though he shared the only way to make DeFi completely private is by making all blockahins private by default, from the beginning. The goal of RhinoFi is to offer the most important tools for users such as decentralized trading and lending, and privacy as well.
Financial transparency and privacy- where does it start and end?
Though there is no one solution to financial transparency, Will shared there is a general architecture that is starting to form. Essentially, there is a base layer, also known as layer 0, or on Ethereum it is Ethereum main chain.
These layers offer transparency due to their core infrastructure which entails network protocols such as uniswap, a mass liquidity pool which users employ in DeFi. Through using these layers, users know their information is safe, while they are able to privately interact with these systems.
In web3, Will added that he has seen transparency and privacy through the Ethereum ecosystem with Aztec, and other ecosystems using different technologies which go after the same goal of privacy.
The number one focus, he said, is to make the process of purchasing and holding crypto easier and useful for users, such as the applications and opportunities. While new tokens, coins, and NFTs have been drawing in a new wave of interested users, the modern economic challenges such as inflation and cost of living have also given rise to consider DeFi.
Find out more about RhinoFi here.
Follow Will Harborne on Twitter here.