November 4, 2022: WormholeOracle
Join the live Llama Party with the great WormholeOracle at 10 AM PT
Join @WormholeOracle live for a Llama Party at 10 AM PT at the above link! ^^
We’ll be broadcasting live on YouTube via our Discord, come join the fun: http://discord.gg/Qq7mDY6Fr5
Some background on the great Wormhole Oracle:
CMC
Tell us a bit about yourself:
WO
I got into crypto during the 2017 bubble, quickly transitioned from skeptic to devotee, and have been consistently involved through all the ups and downs ever since. I’ve always been suspicious of the state’s monopoly over money and have become completely taken in by the ideology of the new financial system that more closely aligns with the interests of the people. Despite all the scams and failures that have plagued this space, we’re blessed with the opportunity to persevere and ultimately build a world that is more inclusive, transparent, and fair. You might call it cope, but I find bear markets the most exciting time to be in this space. It’s when the noise dies, and the people left behind are the brilliant and determined minds who will be responsible for guiding us on the next leg of our adventure. I love being the dumbest person in the room, and lucky for me, I’ve gotten to do that quite often lately.
I usually only talk about DeFi and Curve within my online communities, but since I’m putting things out there, I’ll share something completely unrelated. My IRL job has been in the audio industry. Precovid I worked in recording studios, lately I’ve been doing AV, installing a lot of live stream systems during pandemic times. Maybe unsurprisingly, audio guys tend to have a really hard time enjoying music. They’re always wondering if there’s enough kick drum in the mix, or if the high hat is EQ’d well. Although I didn’t realize it until recently, this has to some extent always been true for me. But then I went to a music festival this summer, and basically had a religious experience with music. Changed my life. And it isn’t only about the music, it’s also the people you share it with, the hundreds or thousands of strangers in the crowd. Somehow it does remind me of the magic of crypto, that we can be faceless anons on the internet unified by a common mission. (I’m not anon for privacy or security, I just love what it is to be anon) You can tend to lose your self, and in doing become part of something greater.
CMC
What's your role regarding Curve?
WO
My personal mission is to see Curve become a proper organization. A DAO is a set of rules about how an organization might develop, but leaves a lot up to the imagination. Curve core legitimately believes in the values of decentralized governance, which is why I consider Curve worth fighting for in the first place- but it creates challenges. How to avoid a power vacuum, as governance participants can be prone to apathy, and how to make sure the pockets of authority within the organization can scale without central planning? How to DAO is an unanswered question that I believe Curve is better equipped to solve than any DeFi protocol.
The way I’ve chosen to carry out my mission is to make sure the best minds know Curve welcomes them and is equipped with the capital and the structure they need to do their work effectively. I try to first recognize what sort of sub-org would bring value to Curve, and then I find people in the community who are qualified to lead the initiative. The Crypto Risk Assessments team (which review protocols integrated with Curve, and assesses any risks to Curve/it’s LP’s) was borne from my frustration that an easily preventable theft (read: Mochi) happened because the entirety of the DAO was distracted by pure, unadulterated bull market greed, and failed to do basic due diligence. That was on all of us, me included. We live and learn, and now we have a sub-org that elevates our fellow community members, who are paid to offer guidance on risks relevant to Curve. That’s the sort of thing I want to see, and in more disciplines. We now have an R&D department and a community bounty program, and that’s thanks to people like Fiddy and Naga who are keeping the ball rolling. We have so many talented community members, and I want them to be the foundation of a well structured, decentralized organization.
CMC
How'd you come across Curve in the first place?
WO
I had been dabbling in DeFi, but I wasn’t sold on any protocols. Uniswap LP’s were more likely than not to realize losses, MakerDAO was basically gambling with leverage long ETH. But I noticed there was a consistent carry trade opportunity to borrow on Aave and LP on Curve. This was around April 2020, I think a couple months after Curve launched. So I did that for quite awhile. And that brought me to the Telegram, where I saw how present Mich and the Curve team were. I found the culture intellectually curious and low drama, so I stayed.
CMC
You got in some hot water with the Optimism fiasco, what's your side of what happened there?
WO
I don’t know if it’s really hot water, maybe like hot and sour soup, but the sour is a bit bitter. I like governance maybe too much, sometimes I keep going when I should give it a rest.
For those who don’t know, I’m trying to get Curve some OP to incentivize liquidity on Optimism. (link: https://gov.optimism.io/t/draft-gf-phase-1-proposal-curve/3089). It’s still ongoing, so I’d rather not get into the dirty details. But during the process I’ve learned a bit about who my friends are and who I need to watch out for.
One shoutout I will make, though, is to OPuser. This individual has done an exceptional job at helping me through the complicated governance process and being respectful without bias. Some people I come across are consumed by their biases, but this person I can say has real integrity. He doesn’t shill in defense of his bags, but governs honestly in the proper spirit of Optimism’s governance. I’d recommend anyone with OP to delegate to OPuser.
CMC
What’s going on with the crypto risks team?
WO
The risk team began as a two person, salaried team, and has brought more people onboard since it began in December 2021. At this point, the original members act a bit like managers or advisors for a community bounty program called veFunder. veFunder began as an experiment in public good funding via Curve gauge. It has since expanded to be a community led bounty program that pays risk analysts for reports. In the future we hope to expand bounties to a wider variety of disciplines. If you want to be involved, come talk to us, we want to work with you!
Join our community discord to get involved: https://discord.gg/v3zWrvvDQY
See our bounties: https://app.dework.xyz/vefunder-1/main-space-95
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cryptorisksteam
Read our risk reports: Read our risk reports:
Disclaimers! The nature of live broadcasts are of course tough to guarantee ahead of time, so exercise all appropriate precautions.