Web3 Leader Spotlight: Definikola
This week, we had the opportunity to speak with Definikola, Protocol Research & Product at DeFi Saver. With over $7.5 billion trade volume, DeFi Saver is an all-in-one DeFi management tool for digital assets and positions, providing you with non-custodial, trustless access to decentralized finance.
With support for numerous protocols, including Aave, Liquity, MakerDAO, Compound, Convex and Yearn across Ethereum mainnet, Arbitrum and Optimism networks, DeFi Saver aims to be a one-stop shop for DeFi users.
Feel free to follow Definikola on X at @definikola
What inspired you to enter the crypto space, and more specifically the world of DeFi?
I joined the space in 2020 right after the “DeFi summer”, by stumbling upon whitepapers of a couple of lending protocols available at that time including the OG MakerDAO as well as the yet to be released - Liquity protocol.
The realization of being able to create a complete immutable and self-sustainable lending system (and stablecoin) was really what propelled me to delve deeper into DeFi.
I ended up contributing as one of the first frontend providers for Liquity protocol when it launched on Mainnet, and later joined the DeFi Saver team as researcher in 2021 as they were already building an advanced frontend (management app) for multiple DeFi lending protocols.
In your opinion, what does DeFi Saver do that stands it out from the crowd? Do you have any exciting upcoming features that you can share?
No investors, no token - just pure focus on building useful features and tools. Of course, that's not the primary factor that sets DeFi Saver apart, but I would be incorrect if I said that’s something no user ever mentioned as being important to them.
Automated liquidation protection is definitely a flagship feature of DeFi Saver and something we’ve been known for over 5 years now. Started as a “CDP Saver'' back in 2019, the goal was to save MakerDAO CDPs from getting liquidated during price dips, and now being a one-stop dashboard for managing positions across numerous DeFi lending protocols like Maker, Aave, Compound, Liquity, Morpho, CurveUSD, Spark, etc.
Alongside automation, DFS offers 1-click position management features like creating or closing a leveraged position, deleveraging or leveraging up in one transaction, and even shifting the whole CDP from one protocol to another in one click (e.g. to earn higher APY or pay lower borrow rate).
One upcoming feature worth mentioning is an option to sign a transaction and let DFS handle gas settings and MEV protection by submitting it on users behalf (in a non-custodial manner), as an attempt to lower the percentage of failed txs and MEV amounts we’re seeing today.
How do you think DeFi protocols will evolve over the coming years? How will this improve the experience for the average user?
I believe we’ll see a more modular approach when designing new versions of DeFi protocols. As a matter of fact I think this is already happening as protocols like Morpho Blue, Uniswap v4, Synthetix v3, Liquity v2, Aave v4 all took a step back and introduced/proposed more generalized versions compared to their previous protocol iterations (e.g. Synthetix v2 can be built on top of Synthetix v3, Aave v4 can have a v3 borrow market, Compound v3 can be built on top of Murpho Blue, etc), aiming to be an infrastructure layer more than a product per se.
This brings a lot of room for integrators like DeFi Saver to build additional value on top of core protocols, potentially leading to a wider ecosystem adoption since it’ll essentially act as a UX abstraction layer.
When evaluating security, what should users look at and understand before entrusting their assets to a platform?
While I'm not a security expert, I can share my thoughts as a user. In my opinion, checking if the platform you intend to use is audited is a crucial first step, given that historically most of the hacks in DeFi were related to smart contract risks.
Next, consider the economic risk, i.e., whether the project is sustainable by design. This is something we try to evaluate before integrating new protocols on DeFi Saver. Another important aspect is the dependencies that a project has. These can include governance risk (i.e., who is responsible for changes to the protocol), risks from external data sources (e.g., price feeds), or similar factors.
In summary, while it depends on the type of project you plan to use, the points mentioned above are likely what most OG people would advise you to pay attention to.
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