10:54
2018 Founded
60+ Heads
https://vega.xyz/papers/
A background in computer science, tech, and a succession of traditional financial roles preceded Barney’s journey into crypto.
Working in capital markets and trading systems, he was familiar with the demand for “fairness” and the reality of varying degrees of preferential treatment inherent in trading.
It was an incomplete view of fairness where an underclass of traders are unable to compete with the micro-second access and advantages of hedge funds. Systems may express principles of fairness, but they were ultimately rigged.
The seed for Vega was born. Barney unpacks the need to restructure our financial systems and incentivize approaches that guarantee the ongoing design of fairer trading.
We need real-world utility in DeFi that can improve the service and usefulness of centralized alternatives, whilst adhering to the values of decentralization.
We’re incredibly early on that journey and several layers of abstraction away from everyday competitive use for non-natives. Further conclusions:
There is an essential need to secure irrevocable digital rights in an increasingly digital society.
The internet and technology have been a force for good in decentralization. You would have previously needed billions of dollars and legions of servers to access what’s now achievable from a coffee shop, the cloud, and a laptop.
Its evolution has largely democratized access, entertainment, and information, but it’s imperfect and unfinished. The ability to centrally control its utility has created a crater of inequality.
There is tension in a functioning society between the necessary hierarchies and the idealism of equality and freedom expressed in decentralism.
Full decentralization is perhaps unachievable, but it will become a crucial yardstick for measuring the systems, governance, organization, and rules that we accept.
What’s critical, is to cultivate a space that deconstructs unnecessary hierarchies, allows for permissionless innovation, and offers an ecosystem for decentralised finance to function independently in.
1.00
Introducing Barney
3.26
Decentralization & Necessary Hierarchy
6:20
Rigged Fairness In Traditional Trading
16:15
Shared Ideology & Different Capabilities
20:18
The Buck Stops With Founders
24:00
Motivation
30:14 - 33.04
Why DeFi
36:00
DeFi Needs Real-World Usefulness & Utility
39:30 - 43.30
Several Abstraction Layers Away From Adoption
45:12
Everyday Financial Services Are 99% Unknown
50:00
How Demand Will Drive Direction In DeFi
53:00
Enabling More Than Is Currently Possible
57:20
Vega’s Vision
59:20
Product Parity & Deployable Capital
1:02:40
The Team & Principles Driving Vega
1:05:00
Vega’s Composable Tools For DeFi
1:08:00
Creating Our Own Chain
1:15:14
Transitioning From Research to Launch
1:18:20
Upcoming Releases From Vega
1:23:20
Iterating Protocols In An Uncertain Future
1:26:30
The Future Of Vega
1:30:10
Advice For New Founders