Category: interview

Ilya Churakov is the CEO of the global blockchain platform DAO Consensus, which aims to give businessmen around the world the opportunity for development and unlimited interaction. We asked Ilya a few questions on what he thinks about the state of the blockchain industry today, and how decentralized autonomous organizations can help in building and scaling a business.

Q: Ilya, In the first months of the year, all talks were about the growth of bitcoin. Many experts forecasted the price around $100 thousand. But now we are witnessing the correction, and moreover, it is rather lingering. What is your personal opinion on the causes of it? In your opinion, should we expect the end of correction with the subsequent growth? And if yes, what could cause it?

A: No doubt that now is not the best moment for bitcoin. There are too many causes of its drop. And it is possible that this trend will continue for some time. The leading cause of the correction is, of course, China. Basically, everything that happens above all other reasons arise from the blow that Chinese regulators launched on the crypto market. By the end of this month, almost all miners, 90% of them, will have to flee the country. Understandably, it provokes a sort of crisis in the market, since the biggest companies have to prepare premises in other countries, move equipment, and set up new production facilities in an extra hurry. All this can not positively influence the first cryptocurrency’s price. Also, let’s not forget that in May, again China has forbidden their financial organizations to deal with cryptocurrencies. In fact, these actions hammered a nail in the coffin of the Chinese crypto industry that already has been living on sufferance since 2017. A new round of SEC’s interference into the life of the crypto community adds to the market’s edginess and the possibility of the major fund Grayscale selling out bitcoins. At the beginning of July, the Senate directly ordered the SEC to deal with malpractice and scam in the crypto industry. So there is plenty of unsettling news. On the other hand, there is also promising news. For example, as a counterbalance to Grayscale’s potential sell-off, the hedge fund Marshall Wace announced that it is looking to enter the crypto market and trade crypto in future. Bitcoin miners are recovering from a blow little by little and have already started to accumulate new reserves. At the end of the day, the move might even work in favour of Bitcoin as it will transfer to more ecological types of mining with the use of renewable energy.

Q: How do you see Elon Musk in regards to the crypto market? Don’t you find that the captain of the starship is manipulating the market and plays unfair – first, he cashed in on bitcoin and later caused its drop by comparing it with dogecoin, in favour of the latter?

A: I think that the influence of Musk is significantly overrated. His statements coincided with all events mentioned above. With all due respect, Musk can not possibly alone “drop” the price of bitcoin – the level is simply not the same. Yet, it is obvious that Musk attempts to manipulate the market and he succeeds with dogecoin. His personal fans refuse to think rationally and wholeheartedly believe that since Musk compares dogecoin with bitcoins, he has a good reason for it. But in reality, there is not. Dogecoin was and still is the mockery coin – it has no security, no beauty in its code which has not been hacked in a few years. Just imagine, how many people tried to hack Bitcoin all these years? In the meantime, speculative games on the meaningless dogecoin helped Musk to raise funds for the whole starship that is even dubbed DOGE-1. It should seem, the second and the third are assumed here. Who wants to help Musk to build those, they are welcome to invest in DOGE. What is more to say. In general, Musk is a very talented entrepreneur but crypto enthusiasts might want to keep a distance from his statements.

Q: In your opinion, are we really moving towards crypto mass adoption or it fails to gain traction due to problems with commissions in the major networks, in particular in Ethereum? What can cause a new jump-start?

A: Yes, it has indeed jammed. Currently, there is a huge outflow of funds from DeFi projects. Substantially, it is caused by the same reasons that influence the cryptocurrencies in general – people are trying to fix losses as it always happens in such periods. How can it influence growth? In my opinion, when people will start to see the updates that Ethereum implements, users will start to come back to DeFi projects. So far, neither staking nor sharding has been fully implemented. The commissions are still unjustifiably high. Indeed, unless and until this sore point will be solved, fully-fledged further growth is not on the horizon.

Q: Mining or staking: which one appeals to you more? Do you agree with Musk that bitcoin is a pain for the ecology of the planet? What do you think about staking?

A: Well, here we have absolutely different approaches. Mining is still very profitable, especially in the light of bitcoin’s price growth which might not be so at the moment but can happen in a year’s perspective. So far, staking can not display the same level of profitability – at least, when we consider reliable and liquid assets that you can go and sell on the majority of exchanges at a market price. From an ecological perspective, as I have already mentioned, now with miners en masse leaving China, the mining carbon footprint is declining. Miners are interested in using renewable energy, so characters like Musk would not be able to manipulate its price by stating that the currency is damaging ecology. Interestingly enough, Musk himself launches into orbit hundreds of space vehicles that damage the ozone layer. It seems he finds this not damaging to ecology. As for staking, I can say that it is of course a promising area but it is very important that the same SEC would not see the promise of profits in staking and would not apply the same regulations as to the securities. They had the same ideas about Ethereum but in the middle of June, they discarded their claims. This is very good news indeed. It means that staking has a future. And it is great – staking is ecological and convenient, anyone can take part in it.

Q: What can urge businesses to create decentralized digital ecosystems? What are the benefits for them? How soon will businesses start to implement blockchain into their processes en masse? What can act as a catalyst?

A: About decentralized autonomous organizations or DAO. In short, I believe they are the best of all forms of organizations. Decentralization immediately brings several benefits. For example, no one could possibly manipulate the organization, make it do or not do something. This is a mutually beneficial horizontal collaboration of the equal participants that is regulated by uncorrupted self-executable smart contacts. In other words, no one can go back on a promise, all conditions will be met. In decentralized systems, everything is being decided upon the community voting. The more interested you are in the agenda, the more weight you reach in the voting process by simply sending more coins to the voting pool. What else is great about DAO is that such organizations have almost no growth limits. If you enter such an ecosystem as an entrepreneur with your business, you automatically get a huge sales market of loyal to you clients. Our organization DAO Consensus works on these principles.

Q: Tell us about DAO Consensus – what motivated you to create such a platform, what is this project about?

A: I was motivated to create DAO Consensus by the realization that the crypto market needs a platform to which businesses could easily connect to. Nowadays, cryptocurrency is not just a trendy thing that raises the share’s price of the company. It is an emerging opportunity to scale the business, for example with tokenization. Today, the NFT market is absolutely trending. And it is possible to issue NFT tokens on our platform. This being said, as I have mentioned before, by joining the global DAO “organism”, a local business automatically gains a global scale. It is possible to launch a crowdfunding campaign for the project within the platform, grow and sell outside the current market. Our main goal is to unite the business community, provide tools for acceleration of business projects and career paths of the community members. We teach about all these things on the platforms, we teach how to invest and raise funds, share that in current realities business has no limitations except ones in the mindset. Blockchain community erases all the boundaries while we are just giving space for your growth, business development and scaling.

Q: Are you targeting the various types of businesses or individuals that could also come to join the ecosystem? What can potentially attract individuals?

A: You can come just as a curious observer that was invited by a DAO Consensus community member and become a real guru in creating your own business. There are no limits here – the marketing leaders can create their teams here, and we already have such leaders on a global scale. We provide a holistic education on cryptocurrencies and marketing technologies. It is possible that with time you will find partners for an offline business with the DAO Consensus ecosystem and you will want to produce, transport, organize something. If so, you will automatically have a wide client base, suppliers base and partners. In a nutshell, we are now building a huge business community without borders where everyone will be able to be useful and accrue benefits at the same time. Apart from that, with our huge experience in the media field, our members will always be kept up-to-date on the latest news and crypto analytics. It will help to successfully invest, develop new areas that will be interesting to the community.

Q: What role, in your opinion, crypto media plays in the market? Before the media was literally market makers. Do you see the correlation between news and prices now or the market became more sustainable?

A: At its early stages, media players indeed were market makers. Currently, we can also observe that a tweet from Elon Musk can drop the bitcoin price a bit. But today we see that for a change to happen, there should be a raw of fundamental reasons at the same time, otherwise the fluctuation will be quickly forced back. The cryptocurrencies market is too mature now to be directly manipulated. As for manipulations, they have always been and always will be. Also, they are often created by influential players with help of psychologists and other specialists that can influence the public sentiments. But there is also fact-based news like SEC’s claims, launches of the funds, regulators’ actions. This kind of news needs to be covered and analyzed because it is indeed important for the well-informed assessment of the current state while choosing the right time to invest. We have a huge experience in this field. We did not come yesterday to the crypto media field and we know how to write and how to separate important news from secondary.

An interview by Alyona Karpinskaya
Interviewing: Norbert Goffa

Q: What is your opinion about the post of Elon Musk, where Tesla dissociated itself from Bitcoin, regarding the environmentally damaging effect of its mining?

A: Honestly, I find it very amusing! Naturally, Elon Musk just happened to realize that the mining of Bitcoin has an environmentally damaging effect. I guess someone at Tesla just told him that we do not like Bitcoin anymore, since it is harming nature… In one word, I think this whole thing is a joke. Of course, I do not feel like laughing about its effect, since we saw what happened. However, I greatly doubt that the crashing of the price was solely caused by one tweet from Elon Musk. If it is true, then this market is standing on much weaker foundations than I had thought.

Q: If it was not caused by the opinion of Elon Musk, then what was the real reason for the 30-40% fall of Bitcoin and Ethereum over only a few days?

A: I do not want to breed conspiracy theories, but the statement of Elon Musk just came handy to certain groups who wanted to short. Let us just ask the right question! Who profits the most when the price crashes? The answer is really simple – the exchanges. I do not want to accuse anyone, but the activities of certain exchanges would be severely punished on a regulated market.

Q: What is the problem with the exchanges? Why do you think that the exchanges are responsible for the overnight collapse of the market?

A: I am not stating that the only catalyst of the events are the exchanges, I only wish to say that a situation where the TOP cryptocurrencies are moving 30-40% is good for them. Let us for one moment imagine that Elon Musk tweets something and his ideas generate a hundred billion in sales. I do not want to over or underestimate Elon Musk, but I think that he alone is just not enough to make anything happen. A market is necessary for things to start moving, a market where there is a huge gap between reported and real trade. The volumes we see are far from reality. Every exchange uses market makers. There are several companies that provide MM services. Besides this, projects use their own free accounts. So let us not be naïve. A lot fewer people sell because of an Elon Musk tweet, than what is shown in the data of the listing sites. In essence, the market falls because of false volumes.

Q: So you just don’t like the exchanges. What kind of solution do you see for the mentioned problem?

A: It is not true that I do not like exchanges. There is no problem with the exchanges, but rather with the speculative nature of the market that has arisen from their unregulated operations. It’s just like the Wild West! Let us just think – Bitcoin falls by more than 30% over a few days. Of course, there are a whole lot of people with open purchase positions at low prices, which just drags the price down. Make no mistake, the exchanges are not the only ones responsible for this. The exchanges are providing opportunities and it is also in their interest to create a situation where Ethereum falls to 2,000 USD from 4,000 USD. This is tough, very tough. I am not even mentioning Bitcoin, which experienced a much more significant drop. It just hurts the eye when you see the Binance coin going under 300 USD. The coin of the exchange that everybody knows is the biggest participant of the cryptocurrency market. Do not tell me that it is because of Elon Musk!

Q: It seems from the above mentioned, that you are more the pessimist with the market than the optimist. What future do you see for cryptocurrencies? What kind of price do you think Bitcoin will reach by the end of 2021?

A: I do not think I can be called a pessimist, because I do not let myself be manipulated. I just simply do not think that a tweet could result in a fall of 30-40%. That is my opinion. This is why I explained the reasons that could be standing behind the price fall. This is not a pessimistic or an optimistic point of view. It is only an opinion, which is good for giving a different angle at the events of the market. Yes, I am a critic of exchanges. It mostly comes from experience. We have so much bad experience with exchanges, but when asked whether I have a good or bad experience with exchanges, sadly I have to say that it is more bad than good.

As for the future, I think that Bitcoin will be one of the best investments of all time. Regardless of its current short-term discretion. Of course, Bitcoin is not perfect, but its basic concept predestines it for success. I do not like to predict, there are more than enough “experts” for that, who wish to gain popularity with a few hundred thousand dollar short term tips. I think that these are hollow statements. Nevertheless, I am certain that in the long run, the price of Bitcoin will be much higher than it is today. It needs time. Not even mentioning the short and long-term effects of the occasional regulations.

The cryptocurrency market should go up to the task. This “Wild West” like state should be eliminated with time, and a clear, stable and transparent market is necessary in order to reach success. Bitcoin will fulfill its mission and shall fill the role for which it was destined. It will have a serious role in economic life as the digital gold. It will have the same role as gold, but only with different foundations, since the technological revolution is changing everything. I hope you now see that I am more of an optimist, but I wish to stand with both feet on the ground.

Q: If we were speaking about Bitcoin, let us speak about Ethereum. What do you think about the future of Ethereum and the altcoins?

A: I don’t really like the term “altcoin”, because while it bears meaning, it is still a bit unclear. Bitcoin does not need alternatives. However, I do not want to get into this, since it would be a different conversation.

Ethereum is getting stronger. DeFi and NFT projects elevated Ethereum to a new level. Two years ago, I thought that Ethereum would be dismissed, but today, I see it in a totally different light. The network has to grow strong enough to handle the innumerable projects. It is clear  that the price of the Ether also depends on Bitcoin, just like any other project on the market. So, any talk about the future of Ethereum can only be made from the shadows of Bitcoin. If Bitcoin will be stronger, then Ethereum will also be stronger. I cannot contribute more to this question. Clearly, many more challenges lie ahead for Ethereum if it wants to stay in the role of a market leader in the long run for the DeFi and NFT markets. We will see how the future plays out. It is really hard to comment on this.

Q: If we were talking so much about the market, could you say a few words about ILCOIN? What kind of future is waiting for you?

A: ILCOIN is undergoing huge changes. Sadly, the values we were building on during 2018-19, are no longer in effect on the market. Nobody wants large block sizes, nobody wants to store data on-chain and questions about security become secondary. Now, DeFi and NFT are the top hits. Nothing is really important anymore. There may be an exaggeration to this, but if we take a good look at it, there is truth in my statement. We have developed and are still developing games, they do bear value, but today, the emphasis is not on such developments. Therefore, we do have to alter the project in such a way where we keep the valuable things, and a renewed project should be able to reach new users. Our present community has a huge role in this, in making us known among a broader audience of users.

In one word, there are new plans in focus, where we will try to validate the strength of ILCOIN, but we need time. The changes will not happen overnight. The market is changing fast. What we think to be a trend this year might not be so next year. Therefore, you cannot bet everything on one card. With more than 5 years of experience, we saw quite a few things. And that combined experience helps us a lot in building our future. ILCOIN wields the most advanced technology among the     SHA-256 PoW coins. This is very good, but when we are speaking about altcoins, there is greater need for Ethereum-based solutions than Bitcoin-based approaches. But, this can be changed. This is the most exciting thing about the crypto market. It is dynamic, unpredictable and you can win big or lose big. If one cannot handle it, then go and buy Swiss or Norwegian state bonds.

Medium: https://medium.com/p/afccbfdbf96b/edit
For more information about ILCoin, please visit: https://www.ILCoincrypto.com/
Telegram: https://t.me/ILCoinDevelopmentTeam/

About Alyona Karpinskaya: Founder of the PR-Blockchain agency, technical writer, journalist and publicist

The leading global crypto exchange and derivatives trading platform OKEx recently announced support for Bitcoin’s scalability solution, Lightning Network. Regarding the new development, we had the opportunity to interact with Jay Hao, CEO of OKEx and the Lightning Network (LN) team. We asked them few questions and this is what they had to say.

Q: Is it true that OKEx is going to adopt the Bitcoin Lightning Network? How is it going to work in OKEx’s context?

Jay Hao (OKEx): Yes! We began our integration journey with the help of Lightning Labs in January and recently completed the integration of the Lightning Network. This means that OKEx will become a participating node in the network and users on the OKEx exchange will be able to select the Lightning Network option when they want to deposit or withdraw Bitcoin for cheaper and faster transactions.

Q: What are the foreseeable benefits of Lightning Network for OKEx as well as its userbase?

Jay Hao (OKEx): For OKEx, we are thrilled to be able to support the development of the Bitcoin ecosystem by partnering with Lightning Labs and increasing the number of participating nodes in the Lightning Network. This partnership highlights our deep commitment to the continued growth of the space and, for our users, it provides them with the benefits of greatly reduced transaction times and fees – they can send and receive BTC almost instantly and at next-to-no cost.

LN: OKEx’s Lightning Network integration brings a massive UX upgrade to bitcoin for their users. Deposits and withdrawals over Lightning are almost instant and nearly free, especially compared to on-chain transactions. On-chain bitcoin is the slowest asset moving around the crypto financial system, but Lightning makes it the fastest, opening up new use cases like inter-exchange arbitrage and instantly topping up margin during periods of high volatility. We are excited for OKEx’s users to experience the benefits of bitcoin over Lightning.

Q: Can you give us some insights into the entire process of collaborating with OKEx to implement Lightning Network?

LN: OKEx made it easy! Our open-source code and documentation at docs.lightning.engineering simplifies the onboarding process and makes it easy for anyone to integrate Lightning. OKEx utilized our publicly available resources and our team was available to answer questions to support the process. Another great resource for implementation is the LND Developer Slack, where our team and the entire community is available to answer questions and help newcomers onboard to Lightning.

Q: The recent Bitcoin bull run drove a lot of people towards crypto trading platforms resulting in a surge in traffic and trading volumes. How is OKEx handling it? Will the implementation of Lightning Network make any difference if a similar scenario repeats in the future?

Jay Hao (OKEx): It’s true, we have seen a large increment in our user base from all around the globe. In the APAC region alone, trading volume shot up 3x from September 2020 until now. We are continually upgrading our infrastructure to ensure a smooth onboarding experience for new customers and a seamless trading experience for existing customers. Integrating the Lightning Network will allow them all to obtain cheaper and fast transactions. This is just one of the ways in which we aim to make OKEx their platform of choice.

Q: Where does the development of Lightning Network stand at the moment? What are the future plans to further improve Bitcoin’s L2 solution?

LN: The Lightning Network is fairly stable at this point. As node operators have learned how best to manage their liquidity, payment success rates are continuing to grow and end-user adoption is increasing. OKEx joining the network is a huge vote of confidence, and we expect their users to be impressed by how fast and cheap bitcoin transactions can be. Future improvements will be focused on UX with features like Atomic Multipath Payments (AMP) that allow for static invoices, and on optimizations enabling higher throughput for use cases like streaming payments and high-frequency trading.

Q: Will it be possible for you to let our readers know how many exchanges and trading platforms are currently using Lightning Network?

LN: There are over 15 exchanges currently using the Lightning Network, tracked in this community repository. Bitrefill recently announced that in Q1 they began receiving payments over the Lightning Network from 105 different countries! So usage is very widespread.

Q: What are the steps taken by your team to further popularize the Lightning Network?

LN: The majority of our work is behind the scenes, building the infrastructure that Lightning-enabled companies like OKEx depend on. When end-users are exposed to the dramatically improved experience of Lightning payments over on-chain payments, Lightning speaks for itself. We do shine a spotlight on the growing Lightning community in our monthly newsletter, and host biweekly voice chat rooms on Clubhouse and on Discord for those that want to learn directly from our team.

Q: What are your thoughts about the future of Bitcoin as the price continues to rise? Will it ever become a layman’s currency, or will it just end up reinforcing its position as an investment instrument?

Jay Hao (OKEx): We are still in the early days of adoption and, as each new wave of adopters onboards, we see increased volatility, which leads to many analysts and naysayers to point to Bitcoin’s inefficiency as a medium of exchange. Moreover, as the cryptocurrency appreciates in value, it is natural that its attractiveness as a store of value increases. However, I do believe that Bitcoin has the potential to become a dominant form of money. I don’t think that it will be the only one but, with the increased improvement and adoption of technologies like the Lightning Network making it easier and faster to use, and as more people transfer over to using Bitcoin, there is an ever-increasing case for it to become a layman’s currency. OKEx is proud to play a part in helping to take BTC to the rest of the world.

LN: As previously mentioned, Bitrefill recently announced that they received payments over Lightning from 105 different countries in Q1 of 2021. Bluewallet is seeing 500+% annual user growth in their mobile Lightning wallet product in countries like Brazil, Nigeria, Argentina, and Israel. Strike launched in El Salvador a few weeks ago with their mobile Lightning wallet targeted at remittances and immediately became the most downloaded overall app in the country. They allow end-users to pay Lightning invoices from their fiat-denominated balances so that the user spends dollars but the receiver earns bitcoin.

Bitcoin is a currency for everyone! It is already serving a widely distributed group of users. While hodling is still the dominant use case for bitcoin, it’s much more than just a digital rock, especially when lifted into the Lightning Network. As more people worldwide switch to the Bitcoin standard, we expect this trend to continue.

Q: Anything you would like to add?

Jay Hao (OKEx): It is our belief that the cryptocurrency industry can only grow through collaboration. By working together, industry participants can help achieve the goal of advancing cryptocurrency globally and empowering individuals to achieve financial freedom. We couldn’t be happier to be able to take this next step forward with such an innovative partner in Lightning Labs.

LN: We are on a mission to promote financial freedom by bringing bitcoin to the next billion people with the Lightning Network. Every new node strengthens Lightning’s network effect, especially when the new node has as many users as OKEx. We are thrilled that OKEx has upgraded their bitcoin UX for users, allowing them to transfer value instantly and cheaply with the same security assurances as on-chain bitcoin.

Gambla.com is a popular gambling resource platform that reviews and lists both crypto as well as conventional online casinos.  The platform has recently embarked on a green initiative, contributing towards the reforestation of Amazon rainforests. Recently, we interacted with Erik King — Editor in Chief of Gambla.com and asked him few questions about the trends he has observed in the online casino space and their much-celebrated Gambla Green Gambling Initiative.

NewsBTC:  Gambla has become known as a reliable online gambling guide. Can you please tell us more about what you do and how you do it?
Erik King (EK): We provide guidance to players all over the world on how they can play gambling products online in the easiest way possible while contributing to charity at the same time.

NewsBTC: What are the different criteria on which gambling platforms are evaluated?
EK: The new casinos in New Zealand we compare at Gambla.com are all given an average score based on many factors such as ease of use, bonus & bonus conditions, and design.

NewsBTC: What are the recent trends you have witnessed in the online gambling space?
EK: The most obvious new trend is that many gambling operators are choosing to go with cryptocurrencies as payment solutions. We think that is a great idea as the crypto market is maturing more each day!

NewsBTC:  What are your thoughts on the use of cryptocurrencies in online gambling?
EK: At Gambla we really love this development, it is making it easier for more players in the world to participate in online games and making it easier for gambling operators to provide an easy reliable payment solution.

NewsBTC: How do crypto casinos compare with conventional online casinos?
EK: The product difference is not big, it’s simply a different currency that you play with instead of fiat money. Some casinos even offer to exchange your BTC to fiat money when you play with it if you prefer that.

NewsBTC: Can you please shed some light on various crypto payment providers for online casinos?
EK: Most casinos have their own payment solution that simply lets you deposit your BTC to the casino’s BTC wallet and then they divide it out to your account.

NewsBTC: Which of these crypto payment providers you think are the best fit for online gambling services?
EK: I think that any BTC wallet works perfectly with any of the new bitcoin casinos that we compare, as that is all that is needed. I would rather go for our top-listed casinos for the best and fastest deposits and withdrawals.

NewsBTC: Tell us more about the Gambla Green Gambling Initiative
EK: Basically, when you try a new casino with us, we will collect that information and plant a tree in the Amazon rainforest. That is, every time you try a new casino for the first time, the rainforest will get a new tree.

NewsBTC: Can you please quantify the total contributions made by Gambla Green Gambling initiative so far?
EK: As Gambla is a new website, we have so far donated a thousand trees already. We did this before we got to a thousand casino referrals as a showing of our intentions.

NewsBTC: What is the future for Gambla?
EK: Our future includes that we can offer our comparison services all over the world.

Image by 5598375 from Pixabay