Since the market boom of decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFT) in 2021, there have been a number of conferences and summits designed to grow the industry further and promote mainstream adoption. One of such summits is the Stanford DeFi & NFT Summit 2021. The event was conducted by Pledge Finance, a blockchain-powered, decentralized lending protocol with headquarters in Palo Alto, CaliforniaUnited States.
Details of the Stanford DeFi and NFT Summit
The DeFi & NFT Summit 2021 was conducted by Pledge Finance on September 24 at the Stanford Faculty Club. It was hosted by Stanford University and co-sponsored by Pledgeand streamed live on Zoom. There were a lot of notable figures in the blockchain and crypto space that attended the summit. For example, Brian Brooks, former Binance US CEO, former Chief Legal Officer of Coinbase, former Comptroller Director of FDIC, Dr. David Tse, the core-contributor of Prism Protocol and the founder of Tse lab at Stanford University., Nicole Chang, the former Senior vice president at West East Bank and also the former business development at LVMH.
The keynote speakers focused on the advent of decentralized finance, Ethereum 2.0, the NFT story, and the rising regulation in the crypto space. During the course of the summit, Brian Brooks mentioned the importance of DeFi when he said, “Imagine having a global financial revolution, with Pledge being the engine behind it, building a world that sits on top of a decentralized Charles Schwab.”
During the summit, several topics were raised and discussed, including the problems DeFi is trying to solve, risk management in the industry, different ways of generating yield, type of losses, the need for regulation, persisting blockchain problems, building the next-generation blockchain re-org attacks on blockchain networks. Other issues discussed include the revision of the problem of Proof-of-Work, exploring NFTs, and the story behind famous NFT projects like CryptoPunks, Beeple, Bored Ape Yacht Club, and many others. You can also listen to the recording of the summit.
About Pledge Finance
Pledge Finance is a fully autonomous, blockchain-based crypto lending platform built on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). According to the whitepaper, Pledge will serve as a liquidity protocol for all in the crypto space. Unlike most of the already available crypto lending protocols, Pledge Finance will not be focused on crypto traders borrowing digital assets in real-time for day trading. Pledge aims to provide the solution for longer-term financing, primarily helping crypto-asset holders to diversify their holdings with non-crypto assets. According to researchers, this is yet to be addressed in the crypto lending space. The interesting thing about the Pledge Finance protocol is that it also shields users from the pain of interest-rate volatility.
Pledge Finance was founded by a group of blockchain enthusiasts and researchers at the University of Stanford. The founding members include Tony Y. Chan, Professor David Tse, Nicole Chang, Ray Wong, and Torsten Wendl. Also, not forgetting Professor Gary LaBlanc, one of the notable blockchain innovation professors at the University of Berkeley, who contributed to Pledge protocol. According to Michael Ren, the Pledge Finance CTO who holds a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence (AI), Pledge will undoubtedly be more scalable than Blockfi. He also mentioned that the team would continue to explore all opportunities to bridge the gap between decentralized and centralized finance ecosystems. One way Pledge foundation plans to do is by getting listed on traditional exchanges such as the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE); or list onto New York Stock Exchange(Nasdaq) via SPEC.
The Pledge model is to keep innovating outside the decentralized finance (DeFi) landscape. Their focus to tap into the traditional micro-financing market is ambitious and exciting, to say the least. The team is already in conversation with institutions holding micro-financing licenses and solutions.
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