GECO Community Spotlight
A brief discussion with the team behind Protofire.
In order to spotlight all of the incredible GECO funded teams, we decided to launch a community blog series — a monthly update that will give our readers the inside scoop on the teams behind GECO, what they are building, and most importantly how their project will impact the space!
This month, we’ll meet Protofire — the team behind FairDEX, a user friendly bidder interface to interact with the DutchX trading protocol.
Who are you?
We are a team of engineers that help token-based protocols and developer platforms accelerate the growth of their ecosystems.
Protofire specializes in super-charging developer adoption and network usage by providing hands-on coding assistance. We ship applications, engineer elegant smart contracts, craft awesome developer tools (SDKs/APIs/sample apps), and improve the performance and efficiency of oracles.
Protofire works exclusively with entrepreneurs who are builders of decentralized infrastructure protocols, applications and ecosystems.
How did you get into Ethereum / Crypto?
Blockchain technology is at the core of our company. We started working on private blockchains several years ago, but soon decided that Ethereum and other public blockchains would allow us to build the next generation of fully decentralized applications.
We’ve had the privilege of working with some amazing projects in this space, including Gnosis, Maker, AragonDAO, POA Network, 0x, xDai Chain, Etherisc, Bzx and Colu to name a few.
Why did you choose this project?
We were especially interested in decentralized finance (DeFi) and the Gnosis Ecosystem.
In the words of Vitalik Buterin, “Finance will clearly be disrupted by blockchain technology and decentralized networks.”
At Protofire, we support this vision and believe that creating a user friendly interface for decentralized protocols like the DutchX is the first step in the rise of DeFi.
We’ve been closely following the Gnosis team for some time now and believe that they are key contributors to the ecosystem. You could say we chose Gnosis before choosing the project, and we couldn’t be happier with the results!
What impact do you think your project will have?
We believe that this project proves that it is possible to transform complex protocols into usable applications. With the creation of FairDEX, we provided the DutchX with an open source, robust, and easy-to-use web application, which places an emphasis on user experience. The first of its kind.
FairDEX has already become a popular part of the DutchX family thanks to the ETH-DAI auctions campaign that Gnosis funded with $1.000.000 as well as the dxDAO launch.
We hope that eventually FairDEX will position the DutchX as one of the simplest and most trusted decentralized trading protocols.
What is the biggest obstacle your project might face?
Decentralization, long running auctions, claims and cryptocurrencies in general are not easy concepts to grasp for most people. The main goal we wanted to achieve was ease of use through simplicity, creating an application that would not only be used by seasoned traders but also as a gateway for less-experienced crypto users was and will continue to be a big challenge.
How do you think your project will contribute to the Gnosis ecosystem?
We believe good UX is something the Ethereum ecosystem has been lacking for a long time. Things don’t need to be complicated and difficult to understand. When they are inherently complex, is when you have to put additional effort to make them understandable. This is the main thing we believe FairDEX brings to the DutchX and therefore for the dxDAO as well.
How do you envision the ecosystem will change in the next 5–10 years?
We believe decentralization will become something everyone wants and demands of the products and services they consume. Hopefully in less than 10 years, this technology will become easy to use and become mainstream. End users won’t even need to know that blockchain technologies will be powering many applications they use. Not everything needs to be decentralized, but we want to contribute to the projects and software that should be.
Tell us a fun fact about your team.
We love evangelizing crypto, Argentinian asado (barbecue), and beer. We’ve been able to combine all three of these passions using the Burner Wallet crypto onboarding event instructions by Austin Griffith.
Interested in becoming a GECO funded project? Here’s everything you need to know about submitting a proposal.
Many Thanks to Kei Kreutler, Eric Gorski, and the Protofire Team!
