Web3 Breakdowns Ep 43 - Jared Grey: Leading a Decentralized Exchange
Primer: Jared Grey is the new CEO at SushiSwap. Before his appointment, he was the CEO of Bitfineon, a CEX. In this episode of Web3 Breakdowns, he shares about the differences in running a CEX and a DEX, how he got his post at SushiSwap, and his plans for the project’s future.
Background
Started an IT and engineering consulting company. Had it for 15 years
Have lots of friends in tech. Knew about Bitcoin
Read the Bitcoin whitepaper and its philosophy resonated with him
In 2016, he started contributing full-time to crypto communities
Was given the opportunity to lead SushiSwap
On DEXes
Where Does DEXes Fit In The Crypto Ecosystem?
His last CEO role was CEO of a startup centralized exchange
In a CEX, you custody people’s assets, match buyers and sellers, and create markets for them to interact. The exchange carries the responsibility and liability of those assets
In a DEX, everything happens on-chain. There is no centralized custodial counterparty
“DEXes are a truer extension of what the peer-to-peer cash thesis of Bitcoin and value transfer using blockchains as a tech layer.”
- Jared Grey
High Level Process Of How A DEX Work
A DEX is a pool where people commit their assets to make a market
Liabilities are transparently shown on-chain
Will DEXes Surpass CEXes In Volume Over The Long Term?
CEXes have a solid grasp on user experience
Sees this as an opportunity for DEXes to catch up with CEXes in terms of UX improvements
SushiSwap and Uniswap
Don’t think of Uniswap as competitors
A lot of the innovation for SushiSwap came from grants and participation from community members
Difficult to achieve consensus at scale. Proposals put up can be met with contention and slow things down. This is needed for a healthy ecosystem
Challenges To Run An Organization That’s Community-Led
Have to manage expectations effectively and realize that your vision may be insufficient
The community can vet your ideas and present new ideas in real time
The challenge is to maintain a logical approach and not take things too personally
Example Of How Decision Making Happens
Currently refactoring their tokenomics
Within Sushi’s business model, there’s ~25 people involved in that discussion
Distill the best idea and tear it apart again
Proposal goes through a soft poll to see whether is it worth it to bring it to Snapshot governance
SUSHI token holders vote on proposals
Currently, SushiSwap has a 1-to-1 token-weighted voting mechanism, which is not optimal. Working towards making it more equitable
Handling Gridlock
As the CEO, he presents the idea/steward the conversation in the direction he feels best
If the community decides that they do not want that, it does not go forward
His challenge is on how to present and articulate value to the community
Sushi Academy
An initiative to help educate and onboard people into crypto
Nomination Process Of Becoming Head Chef
An executive recruiter reached out to him about the SushiSwap Head Chef role
Wrote his proposal to get involved with the community
Was an 8-week long process involving multiple AMAs
Concluded with a Snapshot vote
Did He Speak To The Voters In Advance?
Each candidate had the opportunity to court any community member or investor
Pitched himself as the guy who gets stuff done
Thoughts On Voting
What Perspective Does He Take On DAO Voting
💡 Eric asked whether does he view DAO voting more similar to a corporate vote or an electoral vote.
It’s a combination of both
Ways To Improve Voting
Vitalik has wrote several blog posts on voting and has put some great ideas forward
Currently, they are in the midst of their tokenomics revamp
Have some proposals that differentiate the token’s governance powers from its value
Will have 3-4 proposals out in the next couple of weeks
Will settle on something by year end and get it voted in
Leadership At SushiSwap
The Head Chef compensation package was voted on before the Head Chef was selected
The length of employment is 24 months
Managing Regulatory Risk
Following a legal counsel to establish a framework that allows them to operate in a distributed fashion, where not any one part of the organization that makes up the DAO carries more liability than the others
His Plans For SushiSwap
Like to see an optimal organizational structure for SushiSwap
Sushi Labs, a venture arm, is going to be part of a subDAO under SushiSwap
What Is He Most Excited To See Built In 6 Months?
Sushi Labs — there’s so many products that the main treasury doesn’t have the ability to finance
Have built a lot of infrastructure for their AMM
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