Morningstar Ventures Team
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Vijay Pravin Maharajan

Founder and CEO - bitsCrunch | Munich, Germany 

Interview: "Combatting Fraud with AI and Data"

Interview: "The Next Generation Gaming"

Roundtable: "Web3 Adoption in Developing Countries"

Interview: "The Cross-Chain Revolution"

Roundable: "DeFi - Navigating The Future Of Finance"

Interview: "First God Game on the Blockchain"

Roundtable: "6-Month Outlook: What’s On The Horizon"

James Zhang

CEO & Co-Founder at Jambo Technology

Interview: "Web3 Adoption In Africa"

Roundtable: "Deep Dive Into NFT Utilities"

Interview: "Building AAA Games on the Blockchain"

Roundtable: "Crypto Infrastructure - Building The Future Of The Internet"

Rountable: "Brand Collaborations In The NFT And Metaverse Space"

Interview: "How ZK is Shaping Blockchain"

Roundtable: "The Role of AI in the Crypto Space" 

Interview: "How to Find Undervalued Assets"

Roundtable: "Onboarding the Next Generation of Web3 Gamers"

Roundtable: "Where are we in the Market Cycle?"

Roundtable:  “Transitioning The World To DeFi”

Roundtable: “Maximizing Crypto Safety in 2023”

Roundtable: "Building In The Bear Market"

Beniamin Mincu

Founder & CEO at MultiversX and Maiar.

Interview: "What's Next for MultiversX"

João Leite

Head of Business Development at Polkastarter

Interview: "What is the Future Holds for Launchpad Projects"

Gabby Dizon

Co-founder of Yield Guild Games

Interview: "The Evolution of Blockchain Games"

Shahaf Bar Geffen

Chairman at Monkey League

Interview: Monkey League - Shahaf Bar 

Yawn Rong

Co-founder of Stepn

Interview: "Building a Web3 Economy"

JD Gagnon

Co-Founder of Benqi

Interview: "Crypto Regulation and Lending Protocols in the Future"

Sabin Dima

Founder of Humans.ai

Interview: "Artificial Intelligence in the Metaverse"

Aniket Jindal

Co-Founder of Biconomy

Interview: "Free of Charge Transactions and Cross-chain Solutions on the Blockchain"

Sami Chlagou

CEO at Cross The Ages

Interview: "From Novels to Web3 by Building Relentlessly"

Carl Choi

Publisher at 247 Comics

Interview: "Creating a New Era for ComicBooks through Digitalization"

Bradley Kam

Co-founder of Unstoppable Domains

Interview: "Digital Identity and Crypto Domains in the Digital Era"

Eric Chen

CEO and Co-Founder of Injective

Interview: "The Future of DeFi"

Emile Dubié

Co-Founder of XDEFI Wallet

Interview: "A Wallet to Access Most of the Chains In Crypto"

Ganesh Swami

CEO at Covalent

Interview: "Navigating through Blockch-AI-n with a Unified API"

Ruben Merre

Co-founder & CEO at NGRAVE

Interview: "The Coldest Crypto Wallet: Learn How to Be Secure"

Flavian Manea

Chief Executive Officer / Co-Founder at Bware Labs

Interview: "The Web3 Engine"

, Podcast & YouTube Host at Morningstar Ventures

1. Chainflip is a fully native cross-chain DEX. 

At the start of the interview, Simon explained that Chainflip functions as a swap solution rather than a bridge. It adopts a similar approach to centralized exchanges, with its distinctive feature being the involvement of 150 independent validators distributed globally within the vault. This design choice ensures a high degree of decentralization for the swap process. The architecture of Chainflip also addresses the issue of elevated gas fees on the Ethereum blockchain. While it doesn't directly decrease these fees, users of Chainflip are exempt from paying gas fees for the actual swap. Their only financial commitment lies in the transaction fee incurred when transferring funds from their wallet to Chainflip's vault in preparation for the swap. In essence, Chainflip goes beyond a mere bridge and can be better described as a "fully native cross-chain DEX."

2. User-friendliness and simplified onboarding will accelerate DEX onboarding.

We asked Simon how decentralized exchanges (DEX) can get more market share. He shared that DEXs are becoming more user-friendly lately, while CEXs are becoming a bigger hassle to set up with increased KYC and verification processes. Nevertheless, he doesn’t think DEXs will completely take over, as buying crypto with Fiat is only possible using a CEX. On the other hand, crypto-to-crypto swaps will predominantly be processed on DEXs. Simon gives the example of Uniswap, which improves its interface and simplifies the user experience for new members. Efforts, as such,  might accelerate the rate at which people switch from CEX to DEX in the future.

3. Comprehensive market scans help Chainflip select prime chains for their ecosystem.

Finally, Simon explained that the team is constantly scanning the market. This helps them choose which new chains to add to their ecosystem. The main goal is to ensure they can save money for users. Implementing a chain on Chainflips ecosystem only makes sense if they can offer the users a way to save on gas fees or better prices. For example, implementing Phantom wouldn’t make sense as the on-chain liquidity is not big enough. However, they believe Chainflip will significantly impact the Solana network with prices and gas fees; therefore, that is where most of the focus goes.

MSV Team

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