Privacy in DeFi may become critical, says DappRadar COO

DappRadar has recently announced that it will add support for dapps powered by the Oasis Network, and that it will join together with the web3 privacy blockchain’s ecosystem team to launch a new accelerator program for developers.

Coin Rivet spoke with Ekin Tuna, director of business development at Oasis and DappRadar’s COO Patrick Barile about the recent collaboration.

Barile commented that DappRadar is happy to partner with Oasis Network as it believes in its vision and technology.

“Oasis Network is the leading, scalable and privacy-enabled blockchain that can power private, scalable DeFi and its unique privacy features can redefine Web3, so we are happy to work with the team,” he said.

Tuna added he hopes that DappRadar’s 1 million monthly site visitors will be able to analyse which dapps attract the most trading volume, unique user wallets, or process the most transactions through the Oasis Network dapp rankings.

“This way, everybody can understand which dapps and tokens build solid communities and value on Oasis,” he continued.

“To celebrate this, we joined together to launch a $500,000 accelerator program to promote the development of decentralised applications on Oasis.”

Barile told Coin Rivet that the new $500,000 DappRadar x Oasis accelerator program, will invite 10 blockchain teams with existing projects to apply for support and funding to access up to $50,000 in funding each, along with technical knowledge and resources to boost their projects.

“All the accepted teams will be listed on the Dappradar site which will give the developer access to the million and counting site visitors on DappRadar,” he said.

Tuna added the program will also provide engineering and marketing support to the chosen projects, who can use the grant to port over to Oasis, or build an entirely new project.

“The final goal is to have the dapps integrated into the Oasis network and available for the community to use,” he stressed.

“Priority will be given to Oasis-native projects building DeFi, P2E gaming, and data privacy solutions but we welcome all submissions.

“On pitch day, teams who successfully deploy their dapp will be given the chance for further investment from the $200 Million Oasis Ecosystem Fund.”

Tuna further explained that the whole mission of this accelerator is to incentivise developers to build DeFi , ‘play-to-earn’ and privacy-preserving dapps.

“Utilising Oasis Emerald EVM Compatible Paratime, developers can benefit from high throughput and 99% lower gas fees. This is the ideal environment to build high performing DEFI and Gaming dapps, “ he said.

Talking about the fact that nowadays, so many ecosystem funds are launching for developers, Barile commented the blockchain space is extremely competitive and dynamic in every respect, recruitment included.

“We are all competing to tap into the talent pool, so incentivising developers to share their know-how is a must,” he explained.

“The greater goal here, however is to keep pushing the space forward to benefit the entire web3 community.”

Tuna replied that there is a huge demand for talent in the space, and these ecosystem funds are meant to attract existing web3 developers in addition to wooing web2 developers into the web3 space.

“Developers, front-end designers, marketers, community managers, you name it,” he commented.

“It’s a red-hot hiring market right now as web3 begins to ramp up, and ecosystem funds are being set up to incentivise builders to bring their talents to top blockchains.”

Mainstream adoption of DeFi to require more privacy

Both parties agreed that a focus on privacy in DeFi and NFTs will become more and more critical.

Barile stressed DappRadar considers control over one’s data and privacy to be a basic right and the fundamental value proposition for web3.

“Data is an asset and there is something inherently wrong with a third party taking ownership of it and using it without asking or compensating its owner, as has been the case with web2 and traditional applications,” he said.

“As decentralised finance evolves and becomes mainstream, the hunger for data will grow – it is critical that we protect it and its owners.”

Tuna further added that in web3, wallets act as the front-end experience for interacting with blockchains.

“These wallets can be seen as a digital identity that holds information about how an individual is interacting with web3 technologies like DEXs, NFT platforms and so on and so forth,” he elaborated.

“But, as more people enter web3 and interact with web3 applications, these interactions will all be recorded on the blockchain.

“We believe that mainstream adoption of DeFi tools will require far more privacy, and users are going to want to be able to control who can access their data and how they are rewarded for contributing this data to dapps or platforms.”

Tuna also commented on the lack of privacy can open up new vulnerabilities for web3 participants, like being targets of scams or hacks, or being re-targeted by their wallet address.

“Building with privacy-first approach in web3 will allow us to sidestep a lot of mistakes that we made in web2, which is not having the proper infrastructure in place for people to have data sovereignty,” he said.