EthCC Voices: Stani Kulechov, Founder and CEO of Aave
During his interview, Stani shares his thoughts on the growth of the De-Fi space and his experience with EthCC.
Welcome to EthCC Voices, the Medium Series for the EthCC community. Taking place in Paris from the 20–22 July 2021, the conference organised by Ethereum France is regarded as Europe’s leading Ethereum conference for the community by the community!
We spoke to Stani Kulechov, Founder and CEO of Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol to earn interest on deposits and borrow assets. Stani discusses why the Ethereum community is so strong and his blockchain predictions for 2021.
Let’s get to it!
Stani, tell us a little bit about yourself and your experience with EthCC…
I was studying law at the University of Helsinki when I first got into Ethereum and he started exploring how it could impact the traditional financial system. In 2017, I released ETHLend, one of the first DeFi DApps ever. Since then, I have made it my mission to create tools for an open, transparent, and equitable financial ecosystem through Aave Protocol.
Aave is a community-governed DeFi protocol, so events like EthCC are super valuable to connect with the larger Ethereum community. Aave has participated as a sponsor, and myself and other Aave team members have joined as speakers. We look forward to continuing to be part of the incredible EthCC community!
How has being a part of EthCC impacted you so far?
The best part of EthCC has been getting to network, chill, and meet new people! A huge part of what makes the Ethereum ecosystem so strong is the passionate, creative, and engaged community and EthCC connects all of these people from different backgrounds who are doing exciting things in the space. EthCC last year took place right after we released the Aave Protocol on mainnet, so it was exciting to showcase the protocol at the event and get insightful community feedback.
How is the Ethereum community growing so well despite a tough 2020?
The Ethereum community is strong because of all of the interesting projects, people, and more involved in it. The EthCC feature connecting startups and investors is important, and I think this will help grow the community more and offer support to projects that need it. In DeFi, for example, we’ve seen many money legos built that are interoperable with each other to create new financial tools and services. These synergies are what keeps Ethereum growing.
What blockchain trends do you think will be big in 2021?
DeFi-powered gaming is an exciting space to watch with lots of growth and development in 2020 to be continued into 2021. Gaming provides a great way to onboard new users to DeFi and introduce them to important concepts in a user-friendly way. Aavegotchi is a cool example of a DeFi-powered NFT collectibles game, where the collectible “Aavegotchis” are staked with Aave’s aTokens, so they actually grow in value every second.
I’m very interested in the VC track at this upcoming EthCC, and a DeFi track would be interesting for Aave of course. DeFi’s immense traction in 2020 makes this an area that has dominated the conversation. Since the last EthCC, the DeFi space has grown to over $24B in total value locked.
Anything else to add?
Feel free to follow Aave on twitter or jump onto our Discord channel. Can’t wait to see everyone at EthCC this year!
This series was created by YAP Global for EthCC. YAP Global is an international PR firm with a focus on helping fintech, blockchain & cryptocurrency startups tell their stories.
