Got my husband @wwarren (cofounder of 0x/Matcha, building in crypto 8+ years) to do a builder's AMA on Farcaster, starting in 10 min. Will share the thread soon once he posts, feel free to share any questions here in the meantime you want to ask him

Hello, feel free to AMA about 0x, Matcha, building on Ethereum, etc!

What has been most surprising is the continued dominance of DEX models that leak $100Ms of MEV from retail users, despite broad understanding / visibility into the issue and the existence of alternatives.

What has been most surprising is the continued dominance of DEX models that leak $100Ms of MEV from retail users, despite broad understanding / visibility into the issue and the existence of alternatives.

https://explore.flashbots.net/

You've been working on DEX stuff for close to a decade now. What has been the most surprising development in DEX in the last 5 years?

friendly neighborhood shitcaster // working on @pinetree

Having a clear mission and vision for the future:

Create a tokenized world where all value can flow freely. 

We believe all forms of value will be tokenized and globally accessible markets will serve as a powerful equalizing force for the world. 

Getting to work on insanely cool tech alongside insanely motivated people.

One of the most admirable things about 0x is its longevity -- you guys have been in the arena for almost a decade

How have you and Amir maintained your health and stamina after going through so many cycles?

Swap fees are the most proven business model in crypto and, for founders, the most direct path to revenue. Think about how swaps fit into your product early

Swap fees are the most proven business model in crypto and, for founders, the most direct path to revenue. Think about how swaps fit into your product early
https://0x.org/reports/monetization-across-defi-report

Whatever your decentralized, borderless, neutral, censorship-resistant open blockchain question is, the answer is YES… to Crypto!

What about limit orders (cc @yes2crypto.eth)?

/ethereum foundation | opinions are my own but more than likely they come from Vitalik's blog paragraph.xyz/@chaskin

The combination of

1. Smart contract composability.
2. Permissionless-ness.
3. Censorship resistance.

Anyone can run a node. Anyone can deploy a contract and instantly reach a global user base.

In your eyes what makes ethereum unique in this world?

That the sticker price you see in the UI isn't necessarily what you'll get in your wallet once the swap tx is mined. 

And since meta-aggregators like DefiLlama rank quotes based on sticker price, it creates really bad incentives

you probably don’t think about liquidity enough // it is what it is  // build value, not valuation

| 🎩  |  ↑  |  ⌐◨-◨

That the sticker price you see in the UI isn't necessarily what you'll get in your wallet once the swap tx is mined. 

And since meta-aggregators like DefiLlama rank quotes based on sticker price, it creates really bad incentives

https://0x.org/post/what-does-the-best-price-in-defi-really-mean

what’s the hardest thing for users to understand

Developer ecosystem @farcaster, co-founder @bountycaster. Previously: co-founder of Scalar Capital, product at Coinbase, co-producer @ethereumfilm

If given a DOGE-like role to step up and fix a 1/1 issue in crypto:

Q. What issue will you fix? How?

Eliminate token approvals as a prerequisite to completing a swap (or any other interaction with 3rd party smart contracts) because it creates a super clunky UX.

Thankfully EIP-5792 will address this issue by allowing wallets to bundle approval + swap into a single user interaction.

- Adding support for UniV4 hooks to 0x Swap API https://warpcast.com/alexfertel/0x75d3c803

- Showing matcha users a more detailed breakdown of token security attributes and sources of liquidity

- Closed beta for a new stealth product for whales @robrecht 

- A few big projects that will be landing soon

Thanks for the kind words. Proud of the impact that 0x alumni are having on the space

We're intentional about hiring for mission and values alignment. @amir and I continue to do a values interview with every final round candidate. Some of our best hires have had unconventional backgrounds. No assholes, credential chasers, or tourists.

We are intentional about every open role and try to stay lean. Currently around 60 people. 

We've historically needed to develop subject matter experts internally rather than hire them. It is therefore important to insulate the team from market volatility and the feast/famine. Switching between hyper growth / layoffs is not the way to develop talent.

Your team is well respected, and has produced many excellent founders. 

How do you think about hiring and building a team?

what is your favorite non-traditional interview question when evaluating a potential hire?

Elevating onchain creators @brightmoments @ampsfun @nodefoundation

We generally try to avoid asking gotcha questions or catching candidates off guard and instead focus on filtering for values alignment, genuine curiosity and passion for our space.

People that understand the long-term potential of tokenization + globally accessible markets don't need constant reassurance during bear markets and when sentiment is down. Because they already know we're creating enduring value and how we fit into the big picture.

Good question! Yes, 0x is a suite of APIs and b2b platform. Matcha uses 0x to power a lot of its functionality.

Mini apps will eat the internet | Latest drop: /clankermon | Building : /miniapps /large /fctrivia /flappycaster /jeeves /source @degentip @playsource /jump

Are 0x and matcha the same

It's been so long, I've been so afraid to ask

Inspiringly bold or foolishly reckless. ops /ethglobal, prev lead ops @devfolio @ethindia. 

Super bullish. 

"Talent is equally distributed, opportunity is not."

how bullish are you about Indian devs? is there something which they can improve on

When ethereum launched it felt like the most important technology since the world wide web and I dropped out of grad school. The only other technology that felt equally impactful was fusion energy.

If I wasn't doing this I'd probably still be working at LANL

What would you be doing if you weren't doing what you're doing?

PM at @coinbasewallet | ex co- founder of @bolide | shitcoins trader | passionate about UX 👩‍💻

Not sure how many hours, but it feels pretty all consuming in terms of mental capacity. I enjoy working out, video games, and hanging out with @linda

how many hours a day do you work and how do you manage stress?

Stay Curious // iixii // Head of Crypto at https://www.lazertechnologies.com/  // Prev: CoinDesk, Roc Nation // based @basedevo

There are many opportunities to be excited about. 

From a macro perspective I'm extremely bullish on global stablecoin adoption over the next years and how it will impact the entire crypto ecosystem, including 0x and Matcha.

From a technology perspective, advancements in wallet UX and blockchain interop feel like a huge opportunity to eliminate complexity for users and API integrators.

What do you think is the biggest opportunity for 0x and Matcha in the next 6 months?

Great question, there has always been some tension here
https://medium.com/@willwarren89/the-role-of-the-0x-core-team-in-the-0x-ecosystem-2d8b50354166

While it may sound convenient, building a consumer product on top of our APIs has genuinely allowed us to gain deeper insight into user problems, create tighter feedback loops, and deliver a better product to integrators.

That said, around 2020 we did make the explicit decision to not build a wallet and instead remain focused on building the very best market infrastructure.

Building better ways to earn onchain w/ @vaultsfyi |

More: 
https://linktr.ee/ryanrodenbaugh

How do you balance having APIs and Matcha when people integrating your APIs could view Matcha as competitive?

There are going to be billions of tokenized assets covering a variety of asset verticals, communities, and user segments. 

No single swap UI will dominate them all. There will continue to be opportunity to build targeted products that serve specific communities / users.

0x provides essential APIs for DEX infrastructure, but with dominant players already leading the market, how do you see opportunities for new DEX builders—especially local ones? What strategies can they use to compete effectively in a saturated global landscape?

We experimented with MEV taxes with 0x protocol v3 and, generally, my opinion is that trade execution is the most logical place for a DEX protocol to capture value. 

Specifically, if a DEX protocol can internalize order flow to generate price improvement, it can capture some of that improvement without being rent seeking.

Building a 0x protocol v5 that achieves the above isn't aligned with the immediate needs of customers, who are the priority.

permissionless, credibly neutral and programmable is the way

We experimented with MEV taxes with 0x protocol v3 and, generally, my opinion is that trade execution is the most logical place for a DEX protocol to capture value. 

Specifically, if a DEX protocol can internalize order flow to generate price improvement, it can capture some of that improvement without being rent seeking.

Building a 0x protocol v5 that achieves the above isn't aligned with the immediate needs of customers, who are the priority. 

https://docs.0xprotocol.org/en/development/_static/protocol-fees.pdf
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12J7I7VAnS22UaTe8oFA3Lz_IBftK6C988HlYfHvJPNw/edit?usp=sharing

Curious what you see as the token value capture, still own my ico tokens :)

Embed swaps in your onchain app. Access 10+ million tokens with liquidity from 150+ exchanges with a single API.

https://linktr.ee/0x.org

DEX aggregator by @0xproject. Search and trade over 22 million tokens across 180+ DEXs and 14 chains. It happens on matcha.xyz.

🍵 /matcha

who is your favorite child cc: @0xproject