#31 Crypto Native story v1
@tn_pendle CEO of @pendle_fi
#31 Crypto Native story v1
@tn_pendle CEO of @pendle_fi
📍In this thread
TN intro
How did he fall into the rabbit hole
DeFi found journey
Most rekt crypto experience
Interesting crypto story
Most rekt crypto experience
Interesting crypto story
2023 Goal
📍@tn_pendle intro
Hello and GM, I’m TN, the CEO and co-founder of @pendle_fi . And before all of these, before Pendle back in the early days of crypto in 2017, I was also part of the founding team of @KyberNetwork
📍How did you fall into the crypto rabbit hole?
My first contact with crypto was back in university days, and this was around 7-8 years ago back in 2015/2016 by the way. My professor tasked me to research into FinTech business models, and that’s when I stumbled across Bitcoin.
There was this business that was utilizing Bitcoin for cross-border remittance and this stood out to me because of their fees. Whatever they were charging was only small fraction of what they incumbents were charging.
This got me interested in the underlying technology of blockchain, crypto and Bitcoin because it gave me a glimpse into the future of payment - seamless, transparent, decentralised. Things took off and ideas started flying when Ethereum released its whitepaper, and the possibilities of what could be achieved with smart contracts were extremely promising.
I became more and more interested in what crypto could offer, so much so that I even created the first Ethereum community in the region to exchange ideas, knowledge with like-minded individuals. I also got myself a few GPUs to start mining ETH and that is how I fell deeper and deeper into the entire rabbit hole.
📍What is it like to be a DeFi protocol founder, what is the journey like?
It’s very exciting and inspiring! Exciting because the crypto landscape changes extremely quickly, and the fast-moving pace meshes well with who I am as an individual, my personality, my temperament.
It’s inspiring because there are so many exceptional people within the space, and just as many opportunities to meet and interact with them. I strive to be a better version of myself everyday, and there’s just so much that I can learn from all of them.
Naturally, challenges will always be part and parcel of running a protocol but knowing that these can be opportunities to improve myself, to improve Pendle, I look forward to overcoming them.
There will be bad days of course, and learning how to pick yourself, how to persevere through these ordeals is one of the many ingredients needed in the space. It certainly helps that I also have my co-founders and team alongside me in the journey.
📍Most interesting experience
Pendle went live on June 18, 2021. This was a memorable day for me not just because of what it was, but also because of how it went. Up till the very last moments, we were still neck-deep in work to weed out the bugs, manage the community, the public announcements. There was a lot going on but the moment it finally went live, the moment Pendle was finally available to the public, that was a surreal experience
📍Most rekt crypto experience
When I first embarked on my crypto journey as a student, I lost some crypto stored on a crappy broken phone simply because I didn’t back up my mobile wallet.
It wasn’t a life-changing amount, but it was burned a very large hole in the pockets of a broke uni student. Ever since then, I’ve learnt to always, always back up my wallet.
📍Interesting crypto story
In my opinion, @TempleDAO is one of the most, if not the most interesting token sale we’ve seen in the space. They managed to make a usually dull and vanilla transactional process into an experiential one.
To sum it up, they required participants to solve a set of puzzles spread across their Discord server, a metaverse temple and even a custom Zelda-like game in order to progress. Participants were then ranked by the time taken to complete the puzzles.
📍What is your main goal/focus this year?
We have a couple of goals this year. The first one is to make sure that all of us on the team are aligned on our internal objectives, and to coordinate our actions towards achieving these common goals.
We also aspire to make Pendle the premier fixed-rate protocol in DeFi. Whenever someone mentions fixed-rate, we’d like Pendle to be at the top of their minds.
Lastly, it’s to keep the team motivated throughout the bear market. Times are tough and they’ll likely get tougher still. It’s important to keep our goals in perspective and channel our energy towards them, but at the same time we need to be mindful of the human elements too. Like I said, there’ll be bad days, and I’m glad to have the team with me to keep each other through the tough times.
📍What is your favourite meme?
“GM”
📍What do you think is required to make it in crypto?
Grit, hard work and honestly, luck. Lots and lots of luck.
Thanks for reading
Any cool guys you want to me to interview? dm or tag them!