Data Ownership & Non Custodial DeFi - Not your keys, Not Your Tokens! With Madalin Muraretiu

Welcome to Blockchain Alchemist Society!

I’m Madalin, co-founder @Sphynx Network and @Coinsiglieri. I am glad to announce that I have been nominated for the 2022 Noonies Award.

A huge thanks to the HackerNoon community and staff for considering me worthy of this opportunity. I’ve been nominated in the Startups of the Year by City 2021 and won. Now being nominated for “hackernoon contributor of the year - cryptocurrency edition” hosted by noonies.tech. Please do check out these award pages.

1. Startups of the Year by City 2021

   Bucharest Edition. : https://startups.hackernoon.com/eastern-europe/bucarest

   
   

2. HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Cryptocurrency

As a crypto project owner writing about tech, I believe the most exciting technology of the present is what NTFs can do in DeFi. Learn more about my thoughts, opinions and my journey in the tech industry via the interview below.

1. Tell us about your journey. What do you do and what do you love about it?

For the past 12 years, I've been trading on the classic financial markets and understanding economic cycles. Been developing businesses for different financial companies around the world. 2016 was the year I first split attention and time between classic markets and crypto. In 2020 I went full-time crypto. Developed a token that I launched in June 2021 and in 2022 started a crypto management agency that is providing tools and solutions to projects worldwide based on their needs and budgets.

2. Tell us more about your work. What do you manage, write and build?

Using alchemy in blockchain technology, i manage to deliver disruptive projects worldwide. Co-founder @Coinsiglieri, a crypto management agency providing every single tool required so that teams and projects willing to help build or improve the crypto space can do it in a regulated environment and provide a proper ecosystem to their communites.

As founder of @SphynxNetwork, we are building the blockchain alchemist society and infrastructure for the future users of NFT liquidity mining services. Imagine a world where you send an unlimited number of assets paying a one-time fee. Accruing rewards from multiple farms using the same assets, simultaneously is another result of using alchemy in blockchain! ! Insane, right?!

3. How did you start writing? What made you choose HackerNoon for publishing your work?

It actually started as a relief, initially. it s a state of calm and comfort experienced as stress and anxiety release. I have been trying some other platforms as well, but Hackernoon turns out much handier than the rest, like even editing articles. Being part of a crypto project, we had several interactions with Hackernoon amazing community as well.

4. What excites you in tech? Tell us about your favorite technology and why you are passionate about it.

My favorite question, let's go!

The extreme excitement comes from the chemistry levels of the marriage between DeFi and NFTs! I'm still amazed by the number of outcomes resulting from this merge, it's crazy! Imagine this! Users can actually use a LP to mint a NFT that will next act as a box that can store multiple assets and is transferable P2P

Heading more and more towards decentralization, non custodial liquidity mining solutions will start making noise and become mainstream due to the adoption of one single phrase “Not your keys, not your tokens!”

In DeFi as we know it so far, in order to accrue rewards from a farm, users have to send their tokens to a smart contract that will then start sending them rewards based on individual criterias.

When non custodial staking happens, users will never renounce ownership of their assets, but they will subscribe their tokens to different farms. Tokens will remain in the user 's wallet at all times! This way, the same assets can be subscribed to different farms that will accrue rewards, simultaneously.

All this coming right after the “0 value NFT hype” will pass, that we are currently transitioning..

5. What were some of the challenges you faced being a tech writer and how did you overcome them?

There isn't even a short version of this story, because the long version it's already short. 😃 Overcome the issues by actually bringing to life the technology I wrote about above! That's it!

6. What are you learning/reading currently? Any recommendations for our readers?

Good one, I guess because I never liked being where everyone is, I developed filters to see things other than everyone else. Unconsciously most likely, but still, this led to me having a more of a visionary way of seeing things rather than just different.

I am concerned about something that most of us are not even aware of! We all want decentralization but at what cost/risk?! MEW - Miner/Maximal Extractable Value and frontrunning.

“This concept was first applied in the context of proof-of-work, and was initially referred to as "miner extractable value". This is because in proof-of-work, miners control transaction inclusion, exclusion, and ordering.

dHowever, after the transition to proof-of-stake via The Merge validators will be responsible for these roles, and mining will no longer be applicable. The value extraction methods here will still persist after this transition, and thus the term "miner extractable value" is no longer valid. "Maximal extractable value" is now used as a more inclusive replacement.” → <https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/mev/]

When transactions are not in users wallet but not on chain either, they are in the Mempool (the dark forest). Mempool is the place where miners are fishing transactions based on gas fees, not being forced to include transactions on chain based on “first come, first served”

Looking into flashbots bundled transactions developed by Stephane Gosselin and FSS (Fair Sequencing Services) developed by Ari Juels from Chainlink, previously working together with Stephane Gosselin when flashbots was flashboys.

7. What is your biggest achievement so far?

Professionally wise, I am proudly considering myself lucky being able to help build the infrastructure of the crypto and blockchain environment in this very early stage.

8. If we gave you 10 million dollars to invest in something today, what would you invest in and why?

I’d be curious to see how NFTs work in the world of data ownership. Decentralizing the data sharing network! This will shift the whole data market structure and will give back to 6 billion people, the basic human right to own their data.

With the development of NFTs, data ownership can be encoded and stored in a Data NFT that can be traded in decentralized marketplaces. Data sharing procedures are crucial for corporations as they need it to achieve a balance between privacy, improved user experience and profit, for corporations.

9. What advice would you give to someone just starting in this field?

Just like S&P500 follows the evolution of the biggest 500 companies in the US, based on their market cap. Investors actually buy all of the 500 companies instead of singluar asset investements.

Recently we @Coinsiglieri managed a project that is launching a token and their project is an index. For example → top 10 crypto based on market cap, excluding stable coins. This suits the newcomers due to the answers to their questions: How to invest? Where to invest? How much to invest? When to invest? When to exit?

10. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Always be present and stay humble!

Voting opens on 15th August 2022.

About HackerNoon’s 2022 Noonie Awards

The annual Noonie Awards celebrate the best and brightest of the tech industry, bringing together all who are making the Internet and the world of tech what it is today. Please be sure to check out our award categories, nominate, and vote for the people and companies who you think are making the biggest impact on the tech industry today.

The 2022 Noonies are sponsored by: BingX, and .tech domains. Thank you so much to these sponsors who are helping us celebrate the accomplishments of all our nominees.