Bringing the Next Generation of Users to DeFi with

What is up everyone? Welcome back to another episode of the D.V. Crypto Podcast. And today I am joined by the managing director of Chronos Chain, Ken Timsett. How's it going, Ken? Hey, great. Thanks. Please tell me to assist you. Yeah. I'm excited to dig in here. I've been familiar with this for a while and I've been doing my research on it and everything, but would love

insurance companies on their transformation and international expansion. I actually spent most of that time in Southeast Asia. And that led me to crypto in a couple of ways. First, because I understand financial markets, how they work under the hood. And so unrealized early on that crypto is fundamentally a technology that is rewriting, rewriting the rulebook, changing the rails upon which our financial infrastructure is built. And

so that professional experience helped me to understand the transition. It was formerly power of that technology. And secondly, on a more personal level, my job has taken me to live in multiple countries. So at various times in my career, I've had homes in New York, in London, Paris where I am currently Singapore, Jakarta, Kuala Lupeau, Hanuy. And I've really grown, to become a global citizen. Having

taken me to the market. So I was able to say, where, what's of multiple currencies in my luggage and my briefcase. And so, you know, the other aspect that really drove me to crypto and made it tangible for me on the personal level was the idea that crypto creates a financial system and a payment system that is truly borderless, that does not confine my ability to

invest or to transfer money to a single country or a single financial institution. And in the same way that you know, email and then the mobile phone made my work life much more productive and easier. I saw crypto as the opportunity to make my life as a group of cities and much more effective and enjoyable. Cool. Very cool. I like the global citizen aspect. I think

everyone in this space is doing such a good job of moving around the world, including everybody all over the world and really making this an inclusive space. So let's talk a little bit about. How cronos began. I'd love to know a little bit more from your perspective, what the starting point was and, you know, where it is today. Yeah. So I started in crypto initially at

consensus. Consensus is one of the largest tech companies in the space. And one of the companies that is driving the development of Ethereum chain and the Ethereum technology. And so when I started at consensus, really, we were, you know, building and promoting the development of the web three or crypto ecosystem in many respects. So consensus has a wallet that caters to the needs of end users,

consumers, that wallet is called the mask. It also builds many of the developer tools that are used to create smart contracts and decentralized applications, such as in fura and travel. And it is one of the companies that early on invested in the market. And in enterprise applications of blockchain and trying to explain how Ethereum changes business and can change governments. And so that phase of my

career, so working at consensus and heading up global sales and marketing there. Really helped me to touch upon every facet of the development of this ecosystem. And to realize that, you know, even though it's a technology that has immense potential. It's ability to reach the mainstream on the consumer side is still plagued and limited by, you know, high transaction fees, slow speed, user interfaces that are

hard to understand. And so, you know, later on, when I was presented with the opportunity to lead the Chronos project last year. I'll talk a little bit about it. So what attracted me was that the the the basic mission of Chronos as a chain. is to focus completely on the consumer experience, bringing the next 100 million and billion users to Web 3. And really making it

easier and safer for a large number of end users to discover the power of decentralized finance and NFTs. And so the way that it all started is that. You know, so Chronos initially started as an open source project that was. Built by various. Most people in the cosmos community, cosmos being one of the leading blockchain ecosystems. And you know, this open source community realized that cosmos

needed. Ethereum compatible blockchain technology that would enable everyone to build. On top of the cosmos blockchain technology. Ethereum chains, which are able to support smart contracts, those smart contracts are the things that. Powered central life finance, NFTs, NFT marketplaces and Web 3 games. And so what started initially as a open source project. You know, gradually captured the attention of crypto.com, which is one of the largest

crypto exchanges in the world. And crypto.com saw, you know, how. This technology, which offers faster speeds, lower transaction fees and also a better environment environment mental. So, in fact, then it's a, you know, was the key to bring the next generation of users into decentralized crypto. And so. Started as an open source. Technology. Chronos is a project that's gathered the support of crypto.com, which allowed. Then

that project to go live in. At the end of last year. As the first. Ethereum compatible chain based on the cosmos technology. And so it differentiates itself in two respects. First of all, from a technology standpoint, because it's at the. It acts as a bridge between two very big. Crypto ecosystem. The Ethereum ecosystem and the cosmos ecosystem. And therefore is able to allow. Interoperability between disparate

blockchains that were. You know, until then functioning as world gardens. And secondly, it's a project that differentiates itself because as an open source project. One of its largest contributors is a crypto exchange. And if you look at the. Big picture, you realize that the way that we're going to bring large number of users into crypto is by way of centralized exchange. If you look at the

world today, you have about 350 million people who hold some crypto. Out of those 350 million people only. 30 to 50 million have. Self custodial wallets. So hold the cryptos in well as that they control directly and are able to interact with decentralized finance. And NFT protocols. So the rest, the other 300 million people are simply people who have opened the account at the centralizing change.

They are familiar with crypto and they have maybe purchased an easter or a Bitcoin. But they haven't interacted yet with decentralized finance. And so those people are the next generation of web to users. And by associating ourselves with the crypto exchange. We are creating that on ramp that on boarding experience for users that will bring the next generation of users into. Yeah, and I been a

big fan of cosmos for a while as well. So I'd love to understand, you know, why cosmos and how that kind of came to be. Yeah. So vision behind cosmos is one that. Aligned very well with our view of the world. And that vision is that there is not going to be a single blockchain or a single blockchain ecosystem to rule them all. In a way,

you know, in the traditional way. In the traditional world, where you have our countries, each country has its own culture and language. And to some extent, the fact that we don't all speak the same language and. You know, have borders is inefficient, but it's also what makes the cultural richness of our world because each country has its own. Culture needs and personas and has been able

to evolve its own innovations. And similarly, I think in the digital world, what you're seeing is that each chain is building its own culture. And innovation and your cosmos, which is a technology that allows anyone to create a sovereign chain is very much aligned with this vision that we're not going to live in an homogeneous world, rather. Various blockchains are going to represent various countries and

cultures and collaborate with each other. And so, you know, from a technology as well as from a philosophical standpoint. That's what we found very interesting with cosmos in addition to the fact that as a consensus, so as a blockchain protocol. It is something that is very robust, peer tested and that was allowed us to create that chronost technology without having to read the wheel. Cool, very

cool. Yeah, I've enjoyed their branding, messaging, everything. I think it's really really quite cool. So let's talk about the stage that you guys are at. I mean, I think a lot of people listening are probably curious as to how far along this is and, you know, how it's being utilized. Yeah. So, I think that's really cool. So, Chronos, so far I would say that the bed

that we've made has paid off in the sense that if you compare, so Chronos went live at the end of last year in November, and if you compare Chronos with other chains that have launched last year, we've definitely skyrocketed and grown much faster. So today, Chronos is the fief largest Ethereum compatible chain in the world when measured by total value locked, which is the value invested

in this centralized finance protocols. It's the seven largest chain overall, including Ethereum and non-economic compatible ones. With respect to user activity, so altogether the crypto.com ecosystem is probably around 50 million users worldwide, and out of them already close to a million have opened accounts, you have created accounts on Chronos and started to interact with the applications there. And then finally, with respect to the size of

the ecosystem, we have about 300 developers, right, developer teams, application developers who have chosen Chronos as their home and built decentralized finance, NFT or gaming protocols on Chronos. So the growth has certainly been spectacular, but we realize that we've barely scratched the surface since there are still 49 million and counting users that we have access to that we can further bring into the ecosystem. And so

the main way that we're doing that is by investing and promoting and supporting developers so that there are more applications on Chronos, more useful things to do for users. And we know that by building the supply of applications, users are naturally going to come. Got it. Very cool. Yeah, that's exciting to hear how big it has become. And I think there's a lot to be said

about the execution of crypto.com, the overlap of the users kind of coming over. And I think there's a lot going on going on there. But I'm curious just to hear what you're excited about. I think one of the things I like to ask people that are in this space outside of what you're working on, you know, what is it that gets you excited in the morning

when you check your phone outside outside of what I'm working on. You mean, or outside, yeah. Okay. To a large extent working in crypto these days is a mission that constricts your whole life. And so you really have to believe that what you're doing is more than a job and that you're participating in a movement. Right. So when I'm not at work dealing with a day

to day business of growing the chain. I'm also interested in interested in crypto, looking at innovations that are happening in our field and how they're shaping what crypto is going to look like tomorrow. And I think there are two main ways to do that. So I think that this is going to happen. So the first way is that of course the decentralized finance is going to

be much more intuitive and akin to using traditional trading platforms for users. So I'm looking a lot at the next generation, the five protocols, like D8 DX, perpetual protocols, protocols that are able to create order books on chain. And so kind of the next generation financial technology that is going to be a lot more interesting. And so that's what is being built on decentralized networks. And

then the other topic that I'm very interested in is where three gaming many of us believe that gaming is going to be one channel that is going to make crypto much more tangible for younger generations and for whole segment of users. And so of course I have my daughter at home, who's playing role box and Minecraft and within those universities has experience what it means to

be part of a virtual economy. Keeping in touch with the latest innovations in terms of how crypto is helping to shape those game universities as well. And what else it can bring to those universities. Yeah, yeah, I think that the whole metaverse concept of ownership within virtual worlds and everything is is really, really exciting. Are you guys you know you mentioned some things around NFTs. Do

you have any exciting projects that have built on a Kronos that you could share? Yeah, of course. So today you have two big categories of NFTs. Some of them are really about the art and by what they represent and the community that gather around them. Those NFT collections represent movements. To some extent, while I'm interested in that, the and I'm very interested in the cultural aspect

of that. I think those are not the types of collections that I'm drawn to by taste naturally in terms of media as an NFT purchaser or media as an NFT user. So the project that really I find interesting are the ones that are built around games. And so for example, you know, there's a game that was recently launched on Kronos called Digi Pals. And so the

idea is that you're quite simply. You own the collection of digital assets, which are pets and those pets have various properties and characteristics. And you're able to use those pets in various games. They can complete quests, they can breed with each other, they can engage in player versus player battles. Of course, you can trade them and you equip them with clothing and different accessories. And so

I just find it very entertaining and very tangible as well to see an NFT collection that has such a clear utility and can be enriched and translated into so many games. So, what are the key resources? Well said, well said. Well, I think something that a lot of people that are listening are probably curious about is, you know, you guys have have launched this. It's a

huge project. There's, you know, I think you said a million people setting up on it. What's coming? Like what can you share about what's next that we can all get excited about? They're listening to this. Yeah. So the predicting the future and predicting what is successful. It is not easy. I mean, we are in the field, we're innovating. We're in another technology, we are probably half

of the ideas that I think are going to be spectacular, you know, fail. And maybe the other half does make it. So, you know, take what I'm going to say with a grain of salt. But, you know, for sure, we've seen the emergence of decentralized finance and NFT is on the Web3 gaming. And we're starting to see now the emergence of social on the social layer

on top of a blockchain. And so, you know, right now, when I look at what next for what's next for Kronos, I think there's a lot, which is around how we're going to create a social Web3. So in particular, so we are launching soon or probably it will have been launched by the time that this podcast is broadcast a project called Kronos ID. And so Kronos

ID is a few things. So it's a social layer on top of a blockchain. So it's first of all a domain name. You know, that is human redevelopment. And that replaces the very complex wallet address that you have if you have a crypto address. Secondly, it's also a protocol that allows you to receive notifications to your crypto address, meaning that NFT marketplaces can send you notifications

that you have received a bid for your NFT. And your defi protocols can send you a notification that perhaps one of your collateral is at risk of being acquidated. And thirdly, this protocol is going to become a messaging protocol where you can be contacted through your wallet address in a pseudonymous way or, you know, in a. Docs way, if you want, if you choose to reveal

your identity in a way that sort of bypasses and compliments the traditional messaging experience. And I think that there's a lot of innovation that is going to emerge all around that because when you think about social it's not just people communicating with each other. It's also created. It's also created by the developers, influencers making a business out of building an audience and getting rewarded for that.

I think that social layer is going to enable creators and influencers to create agencies and get and monetize those agencies in ways that so far, you know, have not been yet considered by platforms like YouTube, like TikTok, etc. And I think this is going to be a huge and rich field of innovation going forward. Very cool. Very cool. Those are all the questions I have where

you can work and people go and learn more. So the best place to learn about cronos is our website cronos.org. It is rather technical. So it's more for builders and people who are interested in the technology. If you, as a user, you want the easiest way to start playing with a chronos applications. I think a good place is the crypto.com defy wallet. So it's a self-construed

your wallet that is offered for free, of course, by crypto.com to any users. And that wallet is part of the technology. Particularly well integrated with cronos has direct links to applications and is a great way to navigate the chronos ecosystem. Nice. All right. Very cool. Well, thanks so much for coming on and everybody the links that can mention will be in these show notes. But we

appreciate you sharing your story. Thanks a lot, Steve.