Andre suggests using an anonymous account if you're just starting a project.
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Andre suggests using an anonymous account if you're just starting a project.
There's too much legend and emotion surrounding Andre Cronje—worship, anger, confusion...
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insights
Author: cardfarm
Translation: TechFlow Intern
Andre Cronje is gone—quietly, just as he quietly arrived. There are too many legends and emotions surrounding Andre Cronje: admiration, anger, confusion... We’ve compiled the podcast interview with Ethereum Cat Herders about Andre Cronje, focusing more on his perspective as a developer. This is a transcript of his remarks.
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Maintain a positive and optimistic mindset.
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Compound, as the first lending platform aggregating assets, was a key innovation.
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The mechanism behind Curve Finance is magical. It may be hard to learn, but don't give up.
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SolidSwap is a new project; although it essentially changes only one line of existing codebase, it completely alters the outcome of the protocol.
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Multisig is just a temporary solution until necessary processes can be properly defined. If protecting a system’s financial value via multisig becomes large enough, it will be fully utilized.
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Always interested in assets owned by multiplayer gamers and “crypto-focused economies.”
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Full decentralization from day one sounds great, but isn’t a good strategy.
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Protocols need to ensure builder safety.
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Not a big believer in on-chain Perps (perpetual contracts).
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Application layers have once again caught up with Layer 1. For the next wave to arrive, L1 capacity needs to grow and adapt again—a cycle and trend also visible in smartphones.
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This technology is at the level of Ethereum in 2016 and 2017. It already exists, but we need to keep building. When the next capacity peak comes, we’ll see another hype cycle.
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When we gain greater capacity at the base layer through sharding, parachains, and ZK rollups, decentralized Twitter, Google Maps, and World of Warcraft become possible.
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Current anti-spam mechanisms rely on payment fees. Can we use Sybil resistance to stop spam? If so, that would make microtransactions feasible.
How to get started and some advice:
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Study codebases and finance.
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Learn Java, JavaScript, and Node.js, and understand the nuances of compilers.
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Spend 90% of your time reading code and 10% writing code. From beginning to now, AC has spent far more time reading codebases than writing them.
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A close friend, Anton, played a major role in Andre's growth, discussing various ideas repeatedly before launching any project.
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AC hates DevOps; being able to outsource it makes him happy. (Sounds like he thinks K3PR could be one of the best ways to manage DevOps needs.)
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Learned trading by studying Uniswap’s code, which gave him the foundation to understand lending. Perps remain a mystery, though he learned a lot about options through collaboration with Hegic.
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Resources are limited in this space, so you'd better study others’ code.
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Much of this is still financial knowledge—an aspect that shouldn’t be overlooked, and whose importance cannot be overstated.
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A crash course in basic finance is useful for learning terminology and understanding the fundamental language.
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Yearn builds upon lenders—“everything happens to prepare for what happens next.”
Existing codebases suitable for beginners to study
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Compound – easy to understand
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Uniswap v2 – beginner-friendly
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dYdX on ETH
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Yearn v1
AC often writes code simply to see if things can be done differently from how they currently exist. It’s a difficult process, but also why he eventually discovers the optimal protocol design.
How to discover new code?
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Follow new projects.
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Browse through Olympus, Hegic, and other novel projects.
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Use Twitter to find leads.
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Explore Rust and Go, and languages across other ecosystems, to stay cutting-edge.
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Look for new financial primitives and concepts.
Why development becomes harder after both successful and failed project launches
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With increased scrutiny and public judgment, every action must be more cautious and carefully considered.
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AC’s first credit stability experiment drew strong user backlash because users were unwilling to take the time to understand the protocol’s intent.
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Going through all this has motivated him to help others experiencing similar challenges.
Pros and cons of anonymity
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If online heat becomes too intense, you can abandon an identity. But after going through so much, staying doxxed seems like the more cost-effective decision.
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Reputation is valuable in this field. Once a solid reputation is built, there’s incentive to maintain it.
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If you’re just starting a project, I’d 100% recommend using an anonymous account.
Favorite quote
Don’t accept criticism from people whose advice you wouldn’t accept.
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