Antonio Juliano is a software developer from the United States and the founder of the decentralized exchange dYdX. After graduating from Princeton University with a computer science degree in 2015, Antonio began working as a software engineer at Coinbase, where he learnt about cryptocurrency and the world of blockchain. He was captivated by the new technology, especially after hearing some of the most famous players in the space, such as Vitalik Buterin and Polychain Capital founder Olaf Carlson-Wee, give speeches at Coinbase. Hearing them discuss smart contract development and gas utilization on Ethereum got him intrigued about what blockchain technology could provide.
He was ready to launch his own startup after only one year at Coinbase while still working as a software engineer for Uber. He began by creating Weipoint, a search engine for the decentralized web. The initiative did not gain traction, and he later stated that it had as few as 10 users in total. He did, however, learn a few lessons from the event, notably the importance of timing when launching a product that outperforms its use case.
Antonio has quickly recognized the significance of creating something on Ethereum that may bring some innovation to the decentralized finance sector. As a result, he began working on dYdX, building on the structure of decentralized spot exchanges Kyber and Ox and adding derivatives to their offers. dYdX was created in 2017, and it quickly became one of the world’s fastest-growing decentralized exchanges.
A major goal of mine this year is to consistently share high quality thoughts on dYdX’s strategy publicly Here I’ll link to each one of my important tweet threads, and continue adding over time
In the beginning of October Antonio Juliano, announced the development of a custom blockchain based on the Cosmos SDK, transitioning the platform to “fully decentralized.” Currently in a hybrid decentralized state, this move can make the platform even more transparent.
Later, October 28 Antonio announced substantial upcoming movements of $DYDX tokens, aligning with the plans of dYdX Trading Inc. and other locked token holders to transfer tokens to the dYdX Chain. These transfers will be recorded on both Ethereum and the dYdX Chain, with the tokens remaining locked and not for sale.
In the interview with Bloomberg Television, Juliano opened up about his vision for the future of the crypto market; The platform continuously stays committed to trading cryptocurrency derivatives, and according to Juliano, such financial instruments account for almost 75% of all cryptocurrency transaction volume worldwide, with BTC derivative contracts being the most traded instrument on dYdX.
Juliano also thinks that developments in the DeFi space will serve as significant triggers for the next wave of cryptocurrency bull markets. He remembers the first bull market, which was driven by the ICO frenzy in 2017 and the DeFi industry’s rise in 2020. He is currently betting on Bitcoin ETFs and potentially game-changing advances in decentralized finance.
Here you can watch one of the latest interviews with Antonio:
2022
The exchange is now a hybrid decentralized exchange, which means that while most components are decentralized, some are run on servers owned by dYdX Trading Inc. and its partners. According to the company’s CEO, the challenge for dYdX in 2022 will be to entirely decentralize. The first goal will be to produce v4, the next version of the protocol, before the end of the year, which will work without the use of any central components.
The objective of the company is for dYdX v4 to be open-source, decentralized, and completely managed by the community. The company is also looking into introducing new features to the exchange, such as spot, margin, and other synthetic trading products, improved margining and collateralized options experience, and the addition of new trading markets.
The software behind the dYdX Chain has been a massive effort to develop
Building an entire blockchain including significant novel technology in 1.5y is a monumental achievement for which I'm incredibly proud of our team. True respect for you all ❤️
