Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.
Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.
An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.
“Ethereum has the first-mover advantage, as it has had at previous times in crypto history, from taking the lead in ICOs [initial coin offerings] and smart contracts and now DeFi,” said Anndy Lian, a Singapore-based cryptoasset advisor and author.
Lian also noted that Ethereum has the second biggest market capitalization in crypto and is “one of the best testing beds for the industry. If ETH cannot make DeFi work, no one else can.”
Ethereum will likely continue to dominate DeFi in the future, yet other blockchains will play a role. The thing is, just how big and sustainable will the DeFi sector really be?
“If the current players create a proper environment and follow some form of governance, DeFi will grow stronger in the next 2 years time,” predicted Anndy Lian. “But if everyone is trying to get short term gains and every project trying to become ‘DeFi’, then this crazy period will just be a shorter ICO-like run.”
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Ethereum Won’t Give Its USD 4bn DeFi Throne to EOS, Tron Anytime Soon
Source: Adobe/mnimage
Most of the total value locked (TVL) into DeFi (decentralized finance) is locked into Ethereum (ETH)-based platforms, and in the short term, it seems like things are going to stay this way.
As for the longer term, industry observers told Cryptonews.com that Ethereum will remain the dominant DeFi platform, even if other blockchains – such as EOS and Tron (TRX) – will catch up to an extent.
This is because growth among DeFi-enabling blockchains will come from network effects as much as technological utility and capacity. And with Ethereum boasting the first-mover advantage and a rapidly growing, most likely, it will be the ‘place to be’ for DeFi.
The king network rules DeFi
Ethereum is by far and away the dominant DeFi blockchain. Taking data from DeFi Pulse and DeFi.Review, it would seem that it accounts for 90%-99% of the total value locked into DeFi platforms.
Looking at DeFi Pulse, all but one of the 36 DeFi platforms it tracks are based on Ethereum (the other one is Bitcoin (BTC)). Of the USD 4 billion currently locked into these 36 platforms, all but USD 11.5 million of this total is on Ethereum.
Source: defipulse.com
DeFi.Review tells a very similar story: only four of the 26 DeFi platforms it tracks are not on Ethereum. These four – EOS, Tron, Bitcoin, and WaykiChain (WICC) – account for almost 10% of the TVL (USD 3bn) tracked by Defi.Review.
Why is Ethereum so dominant? According to industry observers, this dominance comes not so much from Ethereum being technically superior, but from it being the first to move and the first to gain a sizable base.
“Ethereum has the first-mover advantage, as it has had at previous times in crypto history, from taking the lead in ICOs [initial coin offerings] and smart contracts and now DeFi,” said Anndy Lian, a Singapore-based cryptoasset advisor and author.
Lian also noted that Ethereum has the second biggest market capitalization in crypto and is “one of the best testing beds for the industry. If ETH cannot make DeFi work, no one else can.”
Figures working within DeFi take a similar view. A spokesperson for the Maker Foundation told Cryptonews.com that Ethereum’s current success lies largely with the fact that it was able to quickly build up DeFi activity on its blockchain, something which attracts more users and more activity in turn.
“Scope, size and amount of activity on Ethereum are critical factors driving the DeFi ecosystem,” they said.
Maker (MKR) now leads DeFi by TVL, with more than USD 1.2bn locked.
A chance for expansion
The Maker Foundation’s spokesperson suggested that blockchains that can interoperate with or build on top of Ethereum may have a chance of expanding their market shares.
“Chains that can easily integrate or build across Ethereum should be able to take advantage of that activity and grow with it by providing scale for DeFi apps,” they said.
On the other hand, the Maker Foundation isn’t entirely confident that the DeFi market share of such chains can be substantial.
“Many of these exist today, but usage indicates that the DeFi market is currently prioritizing activity over efficiency or transaction costs.”
In other words, the DeFi prize will go to the blockchain that can command the biggest network effects. This is Ethereum, and it’s likely to remain Ethereum, even if other blockchains such as Tron and EOS increase their respective shares.
These two blockchains are certainly trying to eat into Ethereum’s dominance.
Early in July, Tron founder Justin Sun announced the launch of three Tron DeFi projects, including a “JUST Lend” credit platform. Meanwhile, EOS announced the launch of the xNation platform in April, working in partnership with Bancor (BNT).
(2/3) $JST will become the core DeFi token of the entire #TRON DeFi ecosystem, which covers areas in decentralized loans, decentralized trades, and cross-chain.
It’s possible that the market shares of EOS and Tron will creep upwards in the coming months. Anndy Lian isn’t sure how fast such growth will be, however.
“The market share is starting to spread but it will be slow,” he said. “Ethereum will take the lead till 2021 on DeFi while the rest are playing catch up.”
The impact of Ethereum 2.0
The transition to Ethereum 2.0 – and to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism – may enhance Ethereum’s dominance of DeFi even further. A 66% majority of polled Ethereum holders are planning to stake their coins in the network once it shifts to proof-of-stake, potentially increasing demand for the kinds of steady returns DeFi can provide.
“When ETH goes into its full scaling mode, this will create another wave,” said Anndy Lian, who predicted a boost to DeFi from Ethereum 2.0.
The Maker Foundation also expects proof-of-stake to boost Ethereum-based DeFi. Although it estimates that the biggest boosts to DeFi’s potential scale will come from interoperability and integration between blockchains, implying that there’s space for other blockchains to grow their market shares.
“While Ethererum 2.0 should bring greater efficiency, it will likely fall on apps to find scale by integrating across chains.”
Ethereum will likely continue to dominate DeFi in the future, yet other blockchains will play a role. The thing is, just how big and sustainable will the DeFi sector really be?
“If the current players create a proper environment and follow some form of governance, DeFi will grow stronger in the next 2 years time,” predicted Anndy Lian. “But if everyone is trying to get short term gains and every project trying to become ‘DeFi’, then this crazy period will just be a shorter ICO-like run.”
Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.
Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.
An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.
Blockcast.cc: Good morning. I am Jenny Zheng, Cofounder of Blockcast.cc. We want to reach out to more people who are doing work for the blockchain industry. Blockchain is a technology that connects people and businesses together. We should not be stereotyping blockchain technology are just coding, codings and more codings. There are in fact many meaningful sectors such as charities, aviation, art that are adopting this new technology. Today we have a blockchain Artist in the house. Meet ROBNΞSS. He is joined by Anndy Lian, our strong supporter and an intergovernmental blockchain advisor where he will also ask a few questions.
Hi, ROBNΞSS, please tell us more about yourself, your work and your life.
ROBNΞSS: Thanks Jenny and Anndy for having me at this interview.
My life has been always centered around music and art, however, I entered the blockchain space at the end of 2013. During this time I became acquainted with the altcoin space since at the time it was just at the inception stage. At first, I began investigating the technology, seeing the altcoin projects and what they were about and I also partook in trading as well. When 2015 came about, many new and exciting projects were being proposed and I saw the beginnings of the Counterparty network which was the very first ‘token’ network that lived on top of the Bitcoin network. Although Ethereum takes the limelight of the ‘NFT’ space, it was Counterparty that laid the foundation of what a token could do. I became involved with testing out different projects in the community such as ‘Spells of Genesis’ and ‘Sarutobi’ which became the two very first tokenized games on the Bitcoin network. After that, I became involved in the beginnings of the Rarepepe card trading group which slowly became an underground yet worldwide art collective and the seeds of the original NFT concept began to sprout there. Over 600 pieces of art were created and traded across the globe and we even managed to make the news with the ‘Homerpepe’ selling for over 39,000 dollars at an art auction in New York. Shortly thereafter we saw the genesis of Cryptopunks, Cryptokitties and the rest is crypto art history isn’t it?
Jenny Zheng: Tell us more about your art. We love to know more!
ROBNΞSS: My artwork is broad in style and delivery, if you look at my work today it is very different from my earlier works on for instance http://Superrare.co. Coming from the music world I have been very influenced by musicians who were able to change constantly such as David Bowie, Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson etc. Most of my work is centered around futurism, what the world could possibly look like in the future, introspection and internal mind concepts and also current events. Visually I love to work in abstraction, primarily because abstract work always touches people in different ways and I love to see their interpretations to my own work. I feel their interpretations are correct because if they have an emotion, it is true and alive regardless of what thoughts I have of my own work.
Jenny Zheng: I love art and we have visited your gallery at https://opensea.io/assets/cyberpopgallery, which is your favourite and why?
ROBNΞSS: My favourite piece in my gallery? That’s a tough call, it’s like choosing your favourite child! If I was to choose one I would say ‘Seat of Self,’ it deals with the identity and ego concepts we all carry as individuals and perhaps there might be a place within us where this ‘persona’ might reside.
Anndy Lian: How did blockchain inspire your artwork?
ROBNΞSS: The blockchain inspires my work by being perfectly aligned with my futurist tendencies. To be able to advance the overall experience of art is an exciting adventure and every day we are breaking ground of what art itself can do as an experience to the individual. To be able to sell artwork to individuals across the world in an instant via NFT is the most amazing thing for me right now. I consider what the blockchain is doing to art is just as profound as to what the gramophone did with music. Music was always there with us even before the advent of music playback technology, but……it was a new way to experience music. By being able to take it home and play it back was a new way to enjoy music as an art form. With the blockchain I feel for art it has this same profound effect.
Anndy Lian: Can you share with us on your take of decentralisation? Do you think decentralisation work well in today’s context?
ROBNΞSS: I believe decentralization, in practice can lead to amazing things. Currently, we are seeing an entire worldwide community of artists being appreciated for their true works and through this, we are seeing artists truly emerge that are revealing amazing expressions that we might possibly have never had a chance to experience if this technology didn’t provide it. I thoroughly believe we are in an entirely new era of what I call an ‘Electric Renaissance’ period and perhaps we are also seeing artists that might be historically significant for the next century.
Anndy Lian: I have many artists friends. On one hand, they want to sell their artwork but on the other hand, the artwork is like their children, some took years to complete them, they want to know where they are and who is the current owner. Do you think blockchain can help to bridge artist and art owners since blockchain is known for its tracing and tracking abilities?
ROBNΞSS: As far as tracing the artwork I believe that is solely the power of what decentralization brings, that buyers can be anonymous if they choose to be. Currently, a lot of collectors seem to be fine with advertising themselves and being out in the open. Still, I am not quite sure who they are, what they look like and sometimes where they reside. I’m sure this will change in the future however, I believe the beauty is that they have a choice of anonymity as well. Presently, I do speak to a majority of collectors via Twitter on direct messages and it’s great to speak to them as well. I do honour their choices of anonymity as well if they choose. Sometimes I have buyers that just acquire my piece and the address is anonymous so I’ll never know who it was as well.
Jenny Zheng: Name 3 coins in the market that you believe in and why?
ROBNΞSS: A myriad of projects I used to believe in are now in limbo or their project is ‘still in development.’ My choices now have changed primarily because of their engagement in the real world. First one would be Ethereum of course and it was still a top pick of mine back in 2014 when I saw Vitalik’s first conference video from Miami. It has the biggest community by far and the development on top of it’s network is gigantic now. My second choice would be Dash. Dash has been gaining popularity in places in the world where currency devaluation has been absolutely terrifying(ala Venezuela). It also has the fastest confirmation times and would be perfect for actual crypto-cash in real life. My third choice would be Chainlink. Blockchain interoperability, I believe, will be of huge importance when certain chains get bogged with transactions. Also, communications between many chains will open up the blockchain universe to greater heights.
Blockcast.cc: Do you think there is a chance for another coin to take over Bitcoin’s number 1 position?
ROBNΞSS: I do not. Primarily because I believe in trading psychology and the psychology of Bitcoin’s value has been so hard-baked that any time a price rise occurs, a lot of altcoins are sold off back into Bitcoin to secure value and possibly increase when bought back into altcoins.
Jenny Zheng: Before we end this interview, can you please share an inspiring quote for our readers.
ROBNΞSS: From having the crazy dreams of wanting to land on the moon to merely wanting to sit in place and discover the inner faculties of the mind, it is your gift to be weird, never forget that. Be weird.
Jenny Zheng: This is one of the best quotes we have heard so far! Thank ROBNΞSS for sharing your thoughts with us.
ROBNΞSS: It is my pleasure. Thank you and Anndy and Jenny for the interview.
Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.
Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.
An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.
