Colton Conley, the founder of Prime Protocol, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that allows users to allows users to borrow against the value of their entire portfolio of assets. The episode covered a range of topics, including Conley's journey into crypto, his vision for Prime Protocol, and his thoughts on the industry as a whole.
Conley's interest in crypto began in high school, and he started investing in 2016, building a trading bot to go between different centralized exchanges. His father was a significant influence, and they both shared a desire to research and come to conclusions about the brokenness of the current monetary system.
Before creating Prime Protocol, Conley had other ideas, including creating a protocol that would give inverse derivative exposure to price movement to help match up the gamma risk and higher order risks of investing in an LP pool.
Conley believes that the goal of crypto should be to promote decentralization and help society, rather than just making money for individuals. Therefore, when onboarding new team members, he looks for genuine passion for crypto and DeFi, as well as being smart, good at their job, and a fast learner. Short-term thinkers who are only interested in making quick money are not a good fit, as they may leave during bear markets and miss out on building real products.
Conley's team at Prime is currently eight people, which is typical for many DeFi teams, especially at the seed stage. Having too many people on the code base can decrease marginal productivity per engineer, so running lean is effective.
The conversation also touched upon regulatory hostility towards the crypto industry. However, he remains optimistic about the potential of crypto and believes that the industry's goal should be to promote decentralization and help society.
The episode also discussed the recent hack of the wormhole token bridge and how Jump, a decentralized finance protocol, immediately stepped in and recovered the funds. The recovery of the funds was not driven by a for-profit motive, but rather a belief in the potential of crypto and a desire to do the right thing. Conley praised Jump's actions, which demonstrated their character and commitment to the crypto community.
Listen in to this Wholesome Crypto podcast episode with Colton Conley which provided valuable insights into the founder's journey into crypto, his vision for Prime Protocol, and his thoughts on the industry's future. Conley's passion for crypto and DeFi was evident throughout the conversation, and his commitment to promoting decentralization and helping society sets a positive example for the industry.
Links:
https://www.primeprotocol.xyz/
https://twitter.com/prime_protocol
https://twitter.com/ColtonFConley
Ep 49: From a Quant Trading to Prime Protocol with Colton