Argent co-founder Itamar writes his brief thoughts on Argent, DeFi, and the future of finance
DeFi Slate Fam:
What…is…happening right now? I mean, we all knew this was coming but wow it came fast and with massive force.
Bitcoin is less than 15% away from its ATH, Ethereum is pushing $500 strongly & DeFi tokens are accumulating and getting ready for another insane push.
Whew.
We have been growing very steadily (in big part to the markets going up), a huge thank you from us to you.
We thorougly appreciate the support.
In today’s piece we have an awesome AMA with Argent CEO, Itamar Lesuisse which covers everything from the mission statement, to the roadmap and much more.
Download Argent here, the BEST DeFi mobile app.
Enjoy y’all & remember to take profits!!
-Andy
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Tap In Tuesday: Behind The Scenes At Argent
What is the mission statement at Argent?
Our mission is to empower everyone to control and prosper from their digital assets & identity.
We believe crypto has unique potential to bring about a future where money and the internet are more open and fair. And that everybody with internet should have equal access to economic opportunities.
That’s why we started Argent.
In our mission statement, the point on control is why we’re a self-custody wallet. We think that’s crucial. There is no point replacing banks with new custodians.
What does your day-to-day look like?
We have a lean structure with a very experienced team so I spend minimal time on management. I spend most of my time on product, strategy and users. On product I help the team define the roadmap and challenge new features and design. On strategy, I try to stay up to date on new trends in Crypto and DeFi. I spend a lot of time talking to other teams in the space and with my co-founders to ensure we have a laser focused vision and strategy. On users, I spend quite a lot of time looking at customer support issues, and chatting to users on Discord or Twitter; I like to know who we’re building Argent for.
How is argent preparing for the influx of DeFi users & downloads?
Our top priority is working on layer 2. We’ll share more details on this as we progress, but it’s clear there’s a burning need for it.
We’re also natively integrating more DeFi protocols so that people have one tap access to a wider range of projects, as they do now in Argent with Uniswap, Aave and more.
Outside of the product, we’re looking to produce much more content to attract, entertain and educate both experienced and new crypto users. We’ve just launched our DeFi Guide to help with this.
Is there an argent token coming soon? Why/why not?
Nothing on the immediate horizon because we’re completely focused on getting the product right. In future we would be deeply interested in finding a crypto-native way to reward our community for adding value to Argent and its ecosystem.
What are some of the biggest roadblocks Argent has seen in the last 6 months?
Gas prices have been the most challenging element (see below for more). They’ve deterred people from fully exploring Ethereum. As we want to make crypto accessible to everyone – not just whales – this is something we’re committed to solving.
Gas prices have been a huge let down for many users on Argent, with transactions costing anywhere from $5-$100 in high gas environments. How does L2 scaling look with the app?
We appreciate that gas prices have been frustrating (in Argent and across Ethereum too). But we’re extremely excited about the work we’re doing on Layer 2. I believe Argent will redefine the Layer 2 experience the same way we did on Layer 1.
We’ll bring an end-to-end native Layer 2 experience in Argent; it will be fast and cheap. More than this, we’ll bring trading and DeFi, all on Layer 2, without ever needing to interact with Layer 1.
It’s one of our most ambitious projects to date, and we can’t wait to launch early next year.
What’s coming next in development?
More DeFi integrations, better DeFi portfolio tracking and, of course Layer 2.
What is the elevator pitch for new users to download Argent and begin participating in DeFi?
Argent is the most simple and secure way to explore the future of money. Exchange, earn interest and invest – all in a tap. Meanwhile enjoy peace of mind through daily transfer limits and never needing a seed phrase.
How many users does argent currently have? What is the growth looking like & what are you guys predicting going into 2021?
We’ve got over 15,000 wallets with assets, with many having over $1m in them. We are securing now 50x more assets than at the beginning of the year. Next year we’ll tackle Layer 2, make a big push into a more mainstream audience, and localize the app for the first time, starting with Latin America.
Why should someone choose Argent over say, Trustwallet?
Security and ease of use. People are increasingly moving to Argent from hardware wallets because of our security model. No other wallet gives you daily transfer limits (so even if someone, somehow got your private key, they couldn’t drain your account), whitelisted contacts, no seed phrase, and wallet locking. Combined with native DeFi integrations so you can use Uniswap, Compound, and more in just a tap or two. And as we’re a smart contract wallet you can inspect our architecture yourself on our Github, it’s all open source.
Governance and community has been a huge topic in DeFi recently, we’re curious as to what the governance could look like with Argent. Is there any plan for getting the community more involved with governance at all? Why / Why not?
As a wallet the governance opportunities are less obvious but It’s something that we regularly discuss. We have ideas around curation, whether the protocols we integrate with, tokens for people to trade, or similar.
⚠️ DISCLAIMER: Investing into cryptocurrency and DeFi platforms comes with inherent risk including technical risk, human error, platform failure and more. At certain points throughout this post, we might get commission for promoting certain projects, if this is the case we will always make sure it is clear. We are strictly an educational content platform, nothing we offer is financial advice. We are not professionals or licensed advisors.
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DeFi Slate x TheEther: A social governance experience for Ethereum
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