Hashing It Out: Diving into cross-chain DeFi lending

Cointelegraph’s Hashing It Out podcast talked with MultiChainZ chief operating officer Aanchal Thakur to discuss a popular decentralized finance (DeFi) use case: lending. Host Elisha Owusu Akyaw and Thakur explored what makes a cross-chain lending platform different from other platforms and the potential risks it entails. Other highlights include conversations about institutions, DeFi lending, nonfungible token lending, and how projects embrace decentralized autonomous governance. 

Thakur started her cryptocurrency journey by falling for a crypto doubling scam, which she claims taught her an important lesson to take her research of the industry more seriously. She went on to work on multiple projects before moving to MultiChainZ.

Thakur argued there is a strong case for building a cross-chain lending platform. She explained that funds are unavailable for many people globally, and that creating a lending and borrowing platform that cuts across multiple networks opens users up to more sources of liquidity.

The MultiChainZ exec also argued that overreliance on a single network may expose projects to a high level of risk. She explained that one of the proper ways to ensure decentralization is to use multiple networks.

“If a blockchain is not working for even two hours, when Solana was down for a few hours, it impacted so many users. It impacted the trust of those users. So, we realized that it does not make sense to build a product on a particular blockchain.“

Owusu Akyaw asked Thakur about bringing more institutions into Web3 through lending. According to Thakur, most institutional investors are concerned about risk and compliance. On risk, there is a need for a higher security threshold to attract major firms that manage huge sums of money. For compliance, she explained that although most Web3 developers like to look at the industry as a borderless environment, the real world has boundaries with regulations that need to be respected. Failure to work with regulators will keep more institutions away from the ecosystem, she believes.

Listen to this latest episode of Hashing It Out on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or TuneIn. You can also explore Cointelegraph’s complete catalog of informative podcasts on the Cointelegraph Podcasts page.

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