Meet Waves Association members: Nelson Lopes
Nelson Lopes, Waves ambassador for Portugese-speaking countries and a member of the Waves Association, discusses challenges and opportunities the blockchain is facing, as well as the “DeFi bubble.”
Q: Could you, please, tell us briefly about your background?
A: First, I want to thank you for the opportunity for this interview. It is a pleasure for me to share what I feel about the Waves ecosystem. I have more than 20 years of experience as a software engineer. My first contact with crypto was in 2013 during the “second early days” of bitcoin. In 2016, I participated in the Waves crowdfunding campaign and since 2018, I have been Waves’ ambassador for the Portuguese-speaking community, which includes people from Portugal, Cape Verde, São Tomé, Guinea, Angola and Mozambique.
Q: When and how did you get interested in blockchain?
A: In my case, it’s a funny story. It all started with a conversation with a cousin of my ex-wife. At first, I was very reluctant, but from the moment I started to study the fundamental principles of blockchain technology, it was like the entrance to a place you can’t get out of. Blockchain makes sense from the logical point of view and, as I see it, it is inevitable that over time, we’ll reach a point of mass adoption.
Q: You’ve been Waves’ ambassador for Portugal since 2018. What was your first encounter with Waves?
Yes, it’s true that I have been an ambassador since 2018. But I have been involved with Waves since the beginning — first, as an investor, then as a user and, today, as an active member of the community. At this point, Waves is much bigger than many of us could have imagined, but it is important to remember that in the beginning, there were already 6,000 participants who truly believed in the disruptive potential of the project that we would reach over the years.
Q: What are your main achievements as the Waves ambassador? What else do you think needs to be done to grow out the Waves community?
In my honest judgment, I think that I have significantly contributed to the expansion of the user community in Portugal and, in some way, I have managed to arouse interest among the entire Portuguese community dispersed in different countries, particularly in Africa. In my opinion, now it’s time to approach SMEs [small and medium-size enterprises] rather than just startups. We must not forget that the market is essentially composed of SMEs. I think there is potential to make the established business models more disruptive and attract developers to work on such models.
Q: As a member of the Waves Association, what do you think are the most vital tasks that lie ahead for the association?
A: The Waves Association is a milestone in the development of Waves. It precedes the transfer of responsibility to the community, making the project fully distributed and open-source. The association must maintain its focus on supporting research and development projects. I think that we should also work together with regulators and governments in order to reach a consensus that will allow this industry to grow.
Q: What are the main challenges that the blockchain space is facing at this point? What are major opportunities?
A: The biggest challenge is to ensure that our applications are used with confidence. It seems easy for those who are inside [the blockchain space], but most users still don’t understand basic things like keeping their private key safe. Most people don’t understand a permissionless system. Meanwhile, the opportunity we have been following since day zero is bringing blockchain to the people.
On the other hand, there are challenges that are related to legal uncertainty. Honestly, these are some that should worry us least. We didn’t come to replace anyone. We are here to make everything simpler, more functional and more transparent. Today, we see major regulators looking at blockchain technology and wanting to replicate its principles. There is no doubt that we will have to work with them and they will work with us.
Q: What is your take on the rapid growth of the DeFi segment in recent months? Do you think we’re seeing a bubble?
A: It depends on what you call a “bubble.” Obviously, there is some hype, but calling it a “bubble” would perhaps be too strong. DeFi will continue to grow and in the case of the Waves ecosystem, more growth will come with the launch of new synthetic tokens, like EURN.
DeFi is just another achievement of this ecosystem, which translates into the possibility of expanding the way you use your crypto assets, increasing your financial freedom. We will not stop here and in the coming months, we will have interoperability tools that will allow us to manage our money across multiple platforms in a decentralized way. If there is a bubble, it is not DeFi!
