Ishan Pandey: Hi, Darren Mayberry. Welcome again to our series “Behind the Startup.” Please let us know about your journey and the motivation behind dappOS.
Darren Mayberry: I have always loved history. And I can remember back to the first day of my first-grade history class, learning about early Mesopotamian and Sumerian records, which were often merchant's accounts. Civilization's earliest surviving writings were ledgers. It appears that documenting financial relationships was fundamental to civilization. And then came Bitcoin, the first ledger open to the entire globe!
History is a window into the past. And practiced study of it may give us a glimpse into the future. If civilization's earliest writings were ledgers, could civilization's latest global distributed ledgers, open blockchains, mean a new era for humanity? It may seem a bit of a reach, or even utopian, to imagine such things, much less write them out.
This year we managed to assemble a team to work on a small, but we believe to be a vital, project. We seek to unite the many chains into a single experience for the Web3 novice; to organize an interface and an operating system and to access decentralized applications. We created dappOS.
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Ishan Pandey: What are the existing business lines of dappOS, and how does it benefit the entire cryptocurrency industry?
Darren Mayberry: dappOS is akin to an onramp to the Web3 highway that everyone can figuratively drive down and, if necessary, even rent a car for their journey. We have a ready solution for decentralized applications, for dApps, that will significantly streamline the process of attracting new users to any chain.
Ishan Pandey: In what ways are you facilitating mainstream usage of blockchain technology?
Darren Mayberry: Decentralized applications can pose a real challenge to beginners. This remains the primary obstacle to demonstrating to the public the utility of open ledgers. Many only glimpse the casino aspect and deny that DeFi has any actual application.
We reduce the complexity through an interface, a chassis that obscures the pistons, the battery, and the flow of gas which all make the car go. Not all people understand the mechanics or the way engines work.
Nevertheless, most people trust that when they start their automatic transmission, they can guide their automobile to its destination. dappOS will eventually allow anyone without any advanced knowledge to operate and safely trade cryptocurrency. I think we offer a necessary step for the adoption and mainstream use of blockchain technology.
**Ishan Pandey: Considering the FTX fiasco, how strongly do you feel the blockchain sector needs to be regulated to ensure its continued growth and development? To what extent do you think DeFi should be regulated?
Darren Mayberry: We should be wary of amateurish or knee-jerk intervention into the market, as an overabundance of prohibitions, rules, and standards can hamper innovation without providing security for investors. More clarity from regulators, however, could be welcome, particularly if the rules take into account features peculiar to blockchain technology.
Ultimately, FTX’s failure has little to do particularly with blockchain, cryptocurrencies, or decentralized finance. FTX’s poor accounting practices, which perhaps included outright fraud, has everything to do with what happened to Enron or other ill-fated traditional trading firms.
Ishan Pandey: Do you believe the bankruptcy of major cryptocurrency players like FTX, Celsius, and Voyager will slow down the growth of the Web3 industry as a whole as Bitcoin’s value continues to plummet? Or will it bring positive changes to the industry?
Darren Mayberry: Of course, unscrupulous financial schemes are likely to impact new projects and their access to funding. But innovation ultimately has less to do with finance than hundreds of thousands of lines of code and the work and expertise necessary to produce it.
At the current stage of development, Web3 does not appear starved for money. During the bull run, we saw funding flow to plenty of faffs.
I am sure that teams can develop worthy products without too much external funding. As soon as the product can stand and garner demand, the money will likely flow. Therefore, I look at the prospects of Web3 with great optimism, as there will be fewer of those who strive to enter the space only for the sake of money.
Ishan Pandey: Please share your thoughts on the significance of the United States Digital Dollar pilot project.
Darren Mayberry: I am undecided on the matter of CBDCs. It is a good idea for governments and financial institutions to test the United States Digital Dollar before deploying it. If nothing else, the experiment will help them better understand the application of blockchain technology.
Nonetheless, CBDCs may result in common-day infringements on individual privacy. Indeed, if the history of technology provides guidance, widespread use of CBDCs seems very likely to infringe on privacy norms, at least for the first few decades of their use.
We strive for a free and secure Internet of the future, not a surveillance-state dystopia. Previous entanglements between government and finance, unfortunately, offer little hope that their preferred version of money will enhance anyone’s liberty.
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