July 29, 2022: What Makes Alunara Tick?๐ฆ๐๏ธ
Interview with Llama Airforce Pilot 0xAlunara
Among flywheelers, Alunara requires no particular introduction. When asked in our Discord for questions for the talented dev, one user immediately commented that Alu is โa jewel in this space.โ Whether providing us easy yield and data at Llama Airforce, or hot takes on Twitter, Alunara has quickly become everybodyโs favorite 2d surprised Shin Chan.
We got the pleasure of chatting about llamas, McDonalds, altoholism, sports, war, philosophy, โwen tokenโ, โgib alfa.โ We keep our interviews paywalled for 72 hours, so if youโre unable to pay you can check out prior interviews:
CMC
Alunara, tell us a bit about yourself
Alunara
Hey, I'm Alunara. I gave up on Bitcoin in 2013 but was hooked back into crypto when I discovered Ethereum again in August 2017. I was immediately hooked when I learned that not only could you simply move money around like you can with BTC, but could basically execute any arbitrary logic on the blockchain. As a programmer, this instantly made me think of the endless possibilities smart contracts could offer. I didn't start tinkering right away though, because I was too occupied with other things going on in my life. My first experience with Ethereum's power was DAI, and I instantly got hooked to the idea of a global, decentralized and uncensorable stable currency. You could have all the benefits of crypto without the insane volatility that comes with holding crypto native coins and keeps people away. It wasn't until the end of 2020 however that I discovered Curve and yield farming in general. Ever since I still think stablecoins are crypto's biggest feature and have been on the lookout ever since.
CMC
Is it true you are also a McDonalds chef when you are not focused on computer coins?
Alunara
No, I work in web2, but truth be told I visit McDonalds often and when I see their job advertisements with the corresponding salary I often question why I still work where I work.
CMC
They don't pay in Dai I suppose
Alunara
I don't mind jobs not paying in crypto, as is sometimes promoted by companies, like "we pay our basketballers in Bitcoin". In first-world countries on-ramps are low friction.
Or was it baseball players? I don't know anymore.
CMC
what or who inspired you to code and build on Curve and Convex?
Alunara
As a kid I wanted to make video game mods and later video games. Ten years later I did have a few jobs in video games but had to quit because the pay wasn't good enough
As for building for Curve and Convex, I really am a stable coin fan and think it's crypto's biggest use case. I desperately want that to become bigger and more successful, as giving everybody equal access those is a worthy goal to pursue that will improve the lives of many people
CMC
Your primary web3 project is Llama Airforce, or are there others?
Alunara
Nope! I had a few small tinkering projects, of which the biggest one was a website that would've improved discoverability of Gitcoin projects, but Llama Airforce took priority as it was a more tangible effort that immediately could help users. It's not like the previous unreleased work was a waste of time, because a lot of work was simply re-used, making development for Llama Airforce faster and easier.
CMC
What portion of time do you spend at your web2 job thinking about web3?
Alunara
About half I'd guess? I force myself to go to the office to not distract myself too much, although Discord is still a cruel tempter. It's not all too bad, going to the office means you actually see people again and allows you to exit hermit mode. (edited)
CMC
Is there thought to move to web3 full time at some point? Or does one foot in both web2 and web3 suit you?
Alunara
I've thought a lot about it, but full web3 employment is very unpredictable. An 80% down bear market kills funding, job prospects and revenue streams. There's also the fact that web3 is mostly 100% remote. Covid has taught me I like 50/50 remote / in office, the days of 100% remote hermit mode slowly grinds you down. I've been thinking about reducing my hours next year and see if I can combine normal employment and doing my own things more. There's a lot of web3 stuff we want to do but don't have the time available for.
Unlike most crypto / DeFi founders we don't have a token, seed investors or any of that kind. We've gotten a few generous grants and have a few healthy income streams, but it's not enough to retire, or even quit our jobs.
CMC
But I heard crypto was this magic gold rush where people were making a kajillion dollars and buying private islands
Alunara
It kinda is if you don't give a crap about other people and merely exploit them as exit liquidity
I was about to say: "or when you come up with a really good idea and execute it well," but it seems even bad ideas not executed well get a lot of funding.
CMC
This brings us to a philosophical question I don't know that we ever got the answer to. Are you a bad person?
Alunara
I try not to be, but that's a subjective question whose answer depends on the person you're asking.
CMC
I'm asking you
Alunara
No
I hope my record speaks for itself
When I was a smaller, lesser known DeFi user I would often give my not-sugarcoated plain opinion.
That includes jokes pretty often, but now that more people are actually looking at me I have to tone that down a bit.
Banter isn't banter anymore when people might take it serious
CMC
I'd say your record at operating the Union is exemplary. I have a great deal of my $CRV stash entrusted to you, so it's certainly useful for me to know! Your sense of humor is also one of the best things about your account, so I hope you keep it up to some degree. Perhaps a second anon account?
Alunara
I heavily invest into my main account, I'm not an altoholic that can play multiple characters.
And thank you ๐
CMC
I could imagine where new users of The Union who don't know your track record may be concerned. It's weird dynamics where if the protocol founders are starving, they may have more incentive to rug their users, so it's almost like you want your protocol founders to be rich. Do you ever hear criticism that the Llama Airforce is not greedy enough?
Alunara
Actually yes. Users of course want the lowest possible fees, but other developers have told us behind-the-scenes that we're not asking enough and actually should raise our fees. I think benny and I approach what we do as users first, we wouldn't want to create something we don't want to use ourselves. It would be hypocritical if we'd complain about high fees on other projects and then have high fees ourselves. I don't necessarily think you want your protocol founders to be rich, because if they're rich there's a big chance they'll retire prematurely or just stop giving the best they can because "they've already hit the jackpot". Ideally it should be enough to live a comfortable life. In my and benny's case the income's a nice bonus.
But yeah, I guess technically Benny and I could've ran away with some big stashes of money during the peak Luna bribe days. But we're in it for the tech, and besides, looking over your shoulders for the rest of your life isn't appealing to begin with.
In the end DeFi is just a bunch of multisigs moving money around, right?
CMC
At the moment the Union has some 8 figures worth of TVL, so you're doing pretty good for yourself. Does your family know you're a token tycoon? Are you frequently stalked by competitors, feds, and plebs?
Alunara
Nope. No need to bore my friends and family with boring crypto that's solving no real problems and destroying the environment.
CMC
Whenever you FUD crypto, I can never tell when you're joking or not... and I suspect you're not sure yourself
Alunara
Best FUD is FUD that is based on some legitimate concern, and being open about it keeps your feet on the ground. A lot of FUD however is not based on much and has been often debunked many times. At a a certain point you just give up explaining something for the 1000th time and just start mocking it to have to comedic relief
CMC
Move over Sun Tzu, the Art of FUD could be huge
Alunara
Su Tzu
CMC
He's the Art of Poor
Alunara
Never interrupt your enemy making a degenerate trade
CMC
So Llama Airforce -- you've got an outstanding and much beloved service built up, are you looking to grow things out?
Alunara
Always, but it's hard finding something worthwhile. Our margins are pretty low, so protocols need some huge numbers before they start looking interesting to us. Aura seems to be the closest to that right now, so we're exploring some stuff and doing some work ahead in case it grows further. We're also very picky in what we pick up. It's mainly just Benny and me, so we have to stay lean. If we expand too much into too many things we'd be getting overwhelmed with the amount of work, maintenance, customer support and future work. Take for example our pounders. We've only launched three so far. When we looked at launching pounders for other Convex pools we soon realized by looking at the APRs, TVLs and gas costs it wouldn't make sense economically.
CMC
You're treating this like something of a side project, yet you've indirectly become competitors with several other players who are in this for good. How do you see the threat of competition here?
Alunara
It is a side project. We've always expected our pounders to be a race to the bottom, so any revenue we make now is a bonus. Worst case scenario we'd have to make them free, but we're not reliant on them and our costs are minimum. After all, they're just a by-product of our main Union offering. Unlike liquid CVX derivatives, the Union has no peg risk and no custodial risk, which a lot of people and protocols have told us is what they like the most about it. They remain in full control of their own CVX. Behind the scenes the system has become quite complex, as we're not only allowing people to still vote manually, but also allow them to decide how their reward airdrops should be proportioned to our three pounders. Finally, there's also a matter of trust in us handling the rewards. Competition is good for users, but looking at our work any competitor would have to catch up quite a lot, and given our low margins due to our low costs it might not be worth it.
CMC
Wen token?
Alunara
People keep asking (jokingly), so I did some napkin math. Our revenue varies greatly, but I think last month it was around ~$25k, give or take. Split it among two devs and deduct like 50% income tax. It's nice for two devs, but we're not founder rich. So if we'd make a token and decide to take half of the supply, we'd each have like $3k each per month after taxes. Now imagine we'd have to split the other $12k among ~200 token holders. Not worth it. I don't think everything should be tokenized in the same way that not every company ever should go public. I expect that in the future we'll start to see more privately held dapps.
CMC
Gib alfa!
Alunara
No alfa except don't be stupid. Just look for #RealYield among various protocols and keep an eye out for the merge.
CMC
Anything I should have asked but am too stupid?
Alunara
Not that I know