Interview Series — Dynamo DeFi
In our interview series, we talk to the chads of Crypto Twitter — people that share the best alpha and have won the community’s respect. This time we’re talking to Patrick/Dynamo DeFi, who is one of the best on-chain data sleuths out there. He’s a must-follow if you want to learn about on-chain metrics and shill-free educational content. Disclaimer: Patrick is an advisor to Clip Finance.
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What’s your background? What did you do before crypto, and how did you get into crypto?
In school, I studied economics. After graduating, I worked in corporate finance at a major food manufacturer. After realizing the corporate world wasn’t for me, I worked in a leadership role at a mid-sized nonprofit for a few years, managing data and digital marketing.
I first got into crypto in 2017, when a co-worker was shilling altcoins to me. Unfortunately, I put almost my entire savings near the top and lost everything. I kept following for a while but eventually got bored. In 2020, like many people, I started to become interested again, buying BTC and ETH this time. Eventually, I started reading whitepapers myself and experimenting with DeFi. I was hooked.
I started making videos about crypto in mid-2021. At the time, I was trying to show my dad how to send funds from the Avalanche X-Chain to the Avalanche C-Chain (at the time you couldn’t withdraw directly to the C-Chain from an exchange) and I couldn’t find any videos online. After seeing that did well, I started making more tutorials and posting my unbiased analyses of different DeFi projects.
What was your first investment?
My first crypto investment was Litecoin back in 2017.
Full-time or part-time?
Full-time
There are a lot of different sources for different on-chain data. What are some of your favourite tools and why?
My 3 favourite tools for on-chain data right now are DefiLlama, TokenTerminal, and Artemis. These 3 all have a proven track record of providing high-quality data in an easy-to-access manner.
With these 3, you can get protocol metrics, including TVL, DEX volume, stablecoin flows, treasuries, revenue, active users, daily transactions, and developer activity.
What do you think needs to be added in on-chain data space to make a better investment or yield farming decisions?
More tools that focus on piecing together token supply and demand. If you know token emissions, the % of people that sell their emissions, and net new buyers each day, you could approximate the longevity of a yield farm.
What are you most bullish about in 2023?
In 2023, I’m most bullish about blockchain scaling solutions. That includes both Ethereum layer 2s and dappchain ecosystems like Cosmos, Polkadot, and Avalanche.
Can any L2 steal the wind from Arbitrum?
Yes, definitely. Optimism has come close a couple of times. ZK-rollups could attract a lot of users because of their scalability. Arbitrum is one of the ecosystems I follow closely, but it is still relatively small. Arbitrum currently has around $1.4B of TVL and in the bull market, chains sometimes gained or lost $1.4B of TVL in a single day.
You can’t sell for the next 5 years, and can only hold one: ETH, BTC or USD?
BTC. I hold more ETH right now, but, if I can’t adjust my positions for 5 years, I don’t have total confidence that Ethereum will retain its network effects as the largest smart contract platform.
Name 3 of your current favourite protocols (and why).
Canto. I like their experiment with incentivizing public infrastructure. Most projects innovate on tech, but they are innovating on economics.
THORChain. Decentralized cross-chain swaps will be critical to eliminating reliance on CEXs.
Arbitrum. Although they don’t have a token yet, all on-chain stats are pointing towards Arbitrum becoming increasingly bullish.
Which ecosystems do you see thriving in the future besides Ethereum?
Besides Ethereum, I see ecosystems that allow alternative scaling visions to thrive, especially dappchains. The first killer app to onboard 100 Million crypto users will probably be on a dappchain. I like Cosmos and Avalanche. And, although I’ve never been deep into this ecosystem, many developers I respect tell me that talented builders are building on Polkadot.
If they can pull off their vision, the Fantom Virtual Machine has huge potential as well.
Most underrated protocol in terms of impact on the whole DeFi space?
Gnosis. I rarely hear anyone talk about them on Twitter, but they have the most decentralized validator set outside of Ethereum (with over 100K validators). Plus tons of people use their dapps for POAPs and multi-sigs.
It’s 2050. Did we succeed in building a better and more fair financial system?
Yes. By 2050, the world will be in a state of hyper-tokenization where everything that can be tokenized is.
1–3 accounts people must follow on Twitter?
Which crypto chad would you like us to interview next & what’s one question you want us to ask them?
I’d like to see you interview Thor Hartvigsen. Since he has had a high amount of success growing on both YouTube and Twitter, I’d want to know whether he sees potential in decentralized social media.
