Both Preston Van Loon of Cryptex and Will Willanueva of Element Finance have helped build the Ethereum Protocol, but are now both working on DeFi apps. In this State of the Nation, we dive into what it's like for Ethereum Devs building DeFi. State of the Nations are Livestreamed on Tuesdays at 11am PST. ------ 🚀 SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER: newsletter.banklesshq.com/ 🎙️ SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST: podcast.banklesshq.com/ 🎖 CLAIM YOUR BADGE: newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/-guide-2-using-the-bankless-badge ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 💰 GEMINI | FIAT & CRYPTO EXCHANGE bankless.cc/go-gemini 🦊 METAMASK | DEFI PASSPORT bankless.cc/metamask 🦄 UNISWAP | DECENTRALIZED EXCHANGE bankless.cc/uniswap 🔀 KWENTA | SYNTHETIC ASSET EXCHANGE bankless.cc/kwenta ------ State of the Nation #42: Ethereum Devs Building DeFi Guests: Preston Van Loon & Will Villanueva Tremendous work has been (and is still being) done to develop Ethereum 2, and just as much innovation is happening in Ethereum's app layer, DeFi. In this week's State of the Nation, we bring on guys who have done both: Preston Van Loon and Will Villanueva. Preston Van Loon is a former Google software engineer who switched to crypto full-time after Vitalik put 1000 ETH into Prysmatic Labs, which Preston founded. Prysmatic labs is now the most popular ETH 2 client. Preston is also the co-founder of a brand new DeFi app ‘Cryptex’, which is a collateralized synthetic asset that tracks the total market cap of all crypto-assets. Will Villanueva is a former team member of the Quilt team at Consensys and contributed to a mountain of R&D on Ethereum sharding. Will is now the CEO of Element, which offers high yield fixed income for DeFi assets. Element works by breaking a single token into two different ones; a yield-bearing token, and a principle token. We brought both Will and Preston because their unique work histories of first helping build the Ethereum Protocol and now building DeFi apps. We discuss how their experiences have shaped their current projects, the trajectory of Ethereum and its app layer, and the timing of it all. "The Hardest Problems Draw the Smartest People." - Preston Van Loon ------ Topics Covered: 0:00 Intro. Get your badge. 8:30 Preston Van Loon 14:00 Will Villanueva 17:43 Element Finance 22:20 High Yield Fixed Income 25:35 Yield Bearing & Principle Tokens 30:36 Element Money Legos 35:49 Cryptex 38:37 Store of Value + Oracle Feed 42:28 Overcollateralized TCAP 46:02 Cryptex Roadmap 48:05 Working on Both Layers 54:15 Developing & Building 58:48 The Timing of it all 1:01:45 Always Grinding 1:05:03 Talent Drain from the Base 1:09:41 The Core Protocol 1:14:25 ETH 2 Update 1:19:16 Minimum Viable Merge 1:21:23 Learn More 1:24:43 Disclaimers. Also get your badge. ------ Resources: Cryptex: cryptex.finance/ Element Finance: element.fi/ Preston on Twitter: twitter.com/preston_vanloon?s=20 Will on Twitter: twitter.com/wjvill?s=20 ------ This Week on Bankless: ⚒️ How to Use dYdX (4/13: newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/how-to-trade-on-the-dydx-rollup 📈 Market Monday (4/12): newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/coinbase-week-market-monday 🎙️Podcast w/ Hester Peirce (4/12): shows.banklesshq.com/p/-the-sec-and-defi-hester-peirce 🧢 Weekly Action Recap (4/10): newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/the-coinbase-tsunami-weekly-recap 🗞️ Weekly Rollup (4/9): shows.banklesshq.com/p/-rollup-coinbase-ipo-fei-protocol 🏴 dYdX & StarkWare (4/6): shows.banklesshq.com/p/sotn-41-scaling-defi-with-dydx-and ⚒️ How to Crypto Tax (4/6): newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/how-to-do-crypto-taxes-for-the-lazy ----- Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research. Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here: newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/bankless-disclosures