From Fair Launch to 🤯1.8B TVL
interview with gabriel, exploring the story of alpaca
OG DeFi protocol that went from fair launch to 🤯1.8B TVL at peak
happy to hv @gabrielinvest8888 from @AlpacaFinance to share about
alpaca's journey from 0 to suite of defi products like perp, money markets & vault.
their future plans, his personal stories
Some alpha
1️⃣ Can you do a short introduction about yourself?
I'm Gabriel. I have been working with Alpaca for over a year.
Previously, I worked in e-commerce marketing, fintech, banking, and financial services.
I am looking to bring Web3 to the masses with great UX and data-driven strategies.
2️⃣ How did you fall into the crypto rabbit hole & defi, yield farming?
In 2019, I bought Bitcoin because my friend wanted to start investing.
He didn't have any experience, and I had been dabbling in stocks before. I managed to exit well and took a year off to study crypto markets.
I decided to try different trading styles to find my own. I got humbled many times and realized that knowledge is not everything.
You need to develop skills over time. I decided to take things slower.
I realized that I want to be a part of the Web3 revolution because it will do a lot for personal and financial freedom and might improve the lives of many people around the world. I don't like how big banks and slow administration screw people. Blockchain can fix this.
3️⃣ Do u mind doing a quick intro about alpaca for the new comers?
Alpaca is one of the biggest DeFi protocols offering leverage.
Our main mission is to allow people to run capital-efficient strategies in a safe environment.
We are used by individuals, institutions, and other protocols that manage their treasuries or develop products based on ours.
This is why we put a lot of emphasis on security (over 20 audits within 2 years, custom security mechanisms, open-source code, timelocks, etc.).
We have a few development teams that work in parallel on different products.
This has allowed us to bring so much innovation and rapidly develop
Automated Vaults strategies,
Money Market,
Perpetual Futures Exchange.
We will soon launch a Web3 game to further broaden our user base.
Each product generates revenue that we share with the token holders and governance vault stakers.
Every week, we burn tokens and pay out revenue to stakers.
4️⃣ You must have a lot of stories to share as a DeFi OG, can you share 1 or 2 interesting stories during your time in crypto?
Maybe not stories, but general learnings.
I've seen several spectacular success stories of people who gambled with micro-cap meme coins,
running from 0 to millions and back to 0 again.
I've shared ups and downs with them, and frankly, I don't think it's a path worth treading if you don't have a proper mindset.
5️⃣ How alpaca was founded and the journey so far?
Alpaca is a fair launch project. There was no presale, premine, etc. We treat all investors and participants the same.
This required us to have a very frugal approach to spending but also gave good grounds for the trust of our community.
We wanted to solidify that trust through commitment to transparency, security, and everyday hard work.
We are a group of contributors from all around the world with a flat structure.
Many of us were entrepreneurs, worked with big businesses, in consulting companies or are crypto OGs. I think it's a good mix.
6️⃣ Alpaca has a wide range of products, leverage yield farming, gamefi, perp and now isolated lending pool.
Can you share the thinking model/process behinded it and the future plans ?
That is a good question. So LYF and Lending were the first products that we developed.
LYF offers great upside but also has quite difficult economics that include short and long exposure, impermanent loss, etc.
So our core audience was DeFi-savvy users.
As we wanted to have more users and allow for limiting risks associated with investments, we developed Automated Vaults that have no liquidation risk, offer higher leverage, and can offer Delta-neutral exposure to asset prices.
This is much easier to manage and is an offering to investors who want to have a more passive approach.
We will keep this spirit while transferring the product to the Concentrated Liquidity model on DEXes.
In general the thought process is: Find a good primitive, build enhancements to make it easier to use, widen the userbase, create cross product synergies.
7️⃣ Any special alpha for the community?
Remember that the cheaper the price of the token during the bear market, the more units we burn through our revenues. When the tide comes and raises all the ships, the smaller the circulating supply, the more explosive the dynamics.
DYOR. Check tokenomics, emission schedule, revenue reports.
Look if we have been delivering on our promises so far and what is further in the roadmap.
Everything is going according to plan. You can be a part of the plan by being a user of our products, taking part in governance, and sharing revenue.
8️⃣ lastly what do you think is required to make it in crypto?
Patience. Logical thinking is greater than emotions and hype.
Pattern recognition. Well-edited Twitter feed. Being curious and well-connected.
Recognize in which part of the cycle we are and act accordingly.
If you play the long game, you will win.
You can't force the market to do what you want. You can gamble and win once or twice, but survivability approaches zero as you play over time. Compound relatively safe profits, even if they are small.
Thank you for @gabrielinvest8888 's time & his sharing!
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