Christof's PreCrypto Backstory

Christof Waton is from Belgium and has an interesting background. He chose to join the military voluntarily for the challenge and he said it really helped him grow. He had a track contract when he was younger and ran competitively. He completed in the 400M, 800M, 400M hurdles, and several others. As for myself? I run the Crypto Game. The event I specialize in is the HODL Marathon.

Lunar Mission 41 Highlights

We first talked about the lockdown rules and Chrisof seemed surprised when I told him some of the wack rules we have in the US that make absolutely zero sense. He emphasized the importance of putting yourself out there when it comes to doing something you want. He also stressed the importance of hiring talented people with ethics.

When it comes to business, he believes you're either a shark or a fish. You can be an ethical shark...but if you're an ethical fish you're just going to end up getting eaten, wrecked, or both. HODL.

"I hate governments because they are the biggest sharks."

-C. Waton

2020: Year of DeFi, Bitcoin, and HODLing

Like many, Christof thinks 2020 is going to be big for DeFi. However, he still considers Bitcoin king. He thinks 95% of Crypto projects need to die immediately.

Two particular projects he's big on are Celsius and Matic. I'm also a big fan of Celsius.

When you can HODL and get that kind of interest, how can you not be a fan? When you basically get 0% interest from a bank it's great to see the Crypto world step their game up.

I honestly haven't followed Matic very closely, but I'm going to have to start paying attention to them again. If I like what I see, I may even have to pick up a big HODL bag of it.

EU: The Epicenter of the Crypto World?

Just kidding. Christof doesn't think much of the EU and said: “The EU, I don’t believe in it.” Belgium is where the EU is headed and, as Christof observes, that's where Crypto in Europe seems the most dead. Concerning Crypto, he pointed out that Europe, on a global scale, means nothing. All the big stuff in the space is happening in the US, China, S. Korea, and SE Asia. To be fair, the Crypto Valley in Switzerland, if if continues to grow, could change the perception of Europe as not being a Crypto Player on the global stage.

Crypto Exchange Craziness

He tells us how agents mostly ruined the exchange industry. They'll say the first round of funding is sold out and now they're doing another round. In actuality, the first round didn't do hardly any sales. It's all fake.

He mentioned BitThumb spoofing orders and how exchanges talk shit about each other in order to get sales. We also talk a little about "Ghosts," which are orders that don't go through. I've personally experienced this myself and it's quite frustrating. And of course we discussed front-running orders, fake volume, fake sales, and all the other shadiness you find w/ Crypto exchanges, especially the smaller and less well-known ones.

One thing that he thinks is horrible is an agent giving out fake numbers and fake sales that convince a project to sign up with them. Then, after the sale, no support at all. He thinks exchanges should think of a project as a partner and not just a client. He mentioned that having failed projects on your exchange also makes the exchange itself look bad so it's in their interest as well to provide the services they promised.

He calls out, by name, some of the worst exchanges. Want to know which ones? You'll have to listen to the podcast. HODL.

Due Diligence is now Due in Crypto

Christof said, “Malta is a pirate island.” He stressed the importance of doing real due diligence, at least 2/3 hours per project. They should be transparent. He pointed out that you have the right to ask for their license. You have the right to see their letter of legal opinion. In fact, he doesn't even think you should have to ask. He thinks it should be a standard to have it published and on the record.

Coinstruction's Crypto-Construction Plans

We then get into Coinstruction and what they're trying to do to solve some of the pain points in the exchange area of the Crypto world. They're trying to build a "liquidity framework." They want to connect w/ the API's of all the major exchanges and have one combined exchange/order book. For example, having one place to trade BTC/ETH that has all the liquidity of all the aforementioned exchanges combined.

We talked a little about market-making and order-book-management. He stressed that "Market Making is Order Book Management." This reduces the spread about 3% between the Bid and the Ask. While this is good for all trades, Josh mentioned this would be particularly helpful for low-liquidity coins that don't have a lot of volume. This is especially true when the volume they do have is spread out over a lot of exchanges. I personally think that would be a good use-case for what they're trying to do.

To hear more, listen to us on the Darkside of the HODL Moon.