Brains of Crypto: Victor Tran's Vision for KyberSwap's Future

Today, we have a great honor to interview Victor Tran, the CEO and Co-Founder of Kyber Network. Its flagship product, KyberSwap is a decentralized exchange (DEX), aggregator and home of KyberAI the first onchain AI-powered crypto trading tool.

With a background in computer science and a passion for blockchain technology, Victor has been at the forefront of the decentralized finance (DeFi) revolution, working to create innovative solutions that can unlock the full potential of the blockchain. 

In this interview, we'll be speaking with Victor about his journey as an entrepreneur, the challenges and opportunities that come with running a leading DeFi platform. We'll also be discussing his vision for the future of KyberSwap, the wider DeFi ecosystem, and the blockchain industry as a whole.

What inspired you to launch Kyber Network in the beginning?

We always committed to our mission from the beginning days till now, that is to be the best place in DeFi for users to swap and earn tokens at the superior rates, with the best user experience and security. 

Our journey began in 2017 with Kyber Network. Our mission was to bring a user-friendly decentralized chain to our ecosystem, when decentralization was not widely known. We launched the first version of Kyber Network, introducing the Cabernet smart contract and the first standardized UI for on-chain swapping. 

The potential of decentralized space was quite big, even though it was not well-established at that time. In the following years of 2018 and 2019, we introduced Kyber AMM. We focused on integrating our functions into over 200 projects, becoming the top decentralized exchange for some time. 

How did Kyber evolve and adapt to the growing DeFi space?

In 2020, we witnessed a surge in DeFi, realizing the potential of a mix of simple and professional market making. Our skepticism was misplaced, and we recognized the pain points of retail users who lacked trading tools and relied on centralized exchanges for liquidity. This highlighted the need for a decentralized and user-friendly platform.

In 2021, we rebranded to KyberSwap, our current flagship product from Kyber DMM, introducing the first liquidity concentration protocol. KyberSwap's innovative DMM optimizes fees and enhances capital efficiency for liquidity providers. Its flexibility allows dense liquidity provision for various token pairs, even in volatile markets.

What do you think are the biggest challenges facing DeFi and how can they be addressed?

I think the biggest challenges facing decentralized finance (DeFi) include regulatory concerns, lack of consumer safeguards and scalability issues. The key points for addressing challenges in the DeFi space include the need for clear regulatory frameworks to combat fraud and money laundering risks, prioritizing enhanced security measures through multi-factor authentication and regular audits, improving user experience to onboard more users, exploring L2 scaling and liquidity fragmentation solutions, and focusing on user education and protection through educational resources and safeguards like insurance options and decentralized governance structures. By addressing these challenges, the DeFi space can become more secure, trustworthy, and resilient, fostering its continued growth and adoption while mitigating risks.

What do you see as the key factors driving the growth of DeFi?

I recognize three key factors that are driving the remarkable growth and widespread adoption of DeFi. These factors address the fundamental desire for financial autonomy and inclusion, reshaping the way we approach traditional finance.

Firstly, improvement in infrastructure scaling will enable quantum leaps in speed and costs for the user. With these improvements, DeFi will be ready and welcome many millions more users. Secondly, account abstraction and overall improvement in user experience and user interfaces across all DeFi, reducing friction, clicks and time for users, will empower many more retail users to be comfortable with using DeFi. Thirdly, as the crypto and blockchain industry mature and become more and more part of everyday life, more and more users will be exposed and start to understand how DeFi can provide benefits and control in their lives.

What are the key features and benefits of KyberSwap that contribute to the growth of DeFi?

KyberSwap offers a suite of benefits for DeFi growth and success, providing users with permissionless access to DeFi and a seamless interface for trading and liquidity provision. It serves as a multi-chain decentralized exchange aggregator, offering superior swap rates across 15 chains (Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Avalanche, Fantom, Cronos, Arbitrum, Velas, Aurora, Oasis, BitTorrent, Optimism, Solana, zkSync Era and Linea). We prioritize maximizing returns for liquidity providers and promote a vibrant ecosystem with seamless liquidity provision.

KyberSwap empowers users with smart trading and superior rates across various chains, collaborating with over 60 popular decentralized exchanges and supporting a wide range of tokens. It excels in capital efficiency, requiring fewer tokens in pools to achieve substantial liquidity and attractive rates compared to other platforms. Additionally, the platform incentivizes users to contribute liquidity and stake their LP tokens in farms, enhancing their earning potential.

What do you think are the approaches DeFi protocols take to ensure the security of its platform?

To ensure platform security, protocols should prioritize user experience and benefits while focusing on user safety. Adopting an open-source approach and conducting regular audits instills user confidence. Exploring trust and safety signals, either in-house or through collaborations, provides insights on risks related to tokens, transactions, and contracts.

A non-custodial model empowers users with control over their funds and financial privacy. Allocating funds for a security reserve covers expenses for audits, bug bounties, insurance, and risk monitoring, enabling swift responses to security threats. Bug bounty programs encourage researchers to identify and responsibly disclose vulnerabilities, fostering a collaborative security approach.
An active development team and regular updates are vital to address vulnerabilities and implement new security measures. Publicizing smart contract audits ensures solidity and transparency. Combining these approaches creates a robust security foundation, safeguarding user assets and fostering ecosystem trust.

What is KyberSwap's focus towards security?

Our primary focus at KyberSwap is to enhance user experience and are wholeheartedly dedicated to maximizing their benefits to ensure their safety. To this end, KyberSwap prioritizes security by being open-source, audited, instilling confidence in our users as they trade and earn. Increasingly we are also looking at trust and safety signals, notifications either in-house or working with third parties to give better intelligence to users as to the inherent risk with any tokens, transactions or contracts they are looking at. 

To further safeguard users, we have allocated KNC for a new security fund to support expenses related to smart contract/frontend audits, bug bounties, insurance coverage, and risk monitoring tools. Additionally, the security fund would gradually expand by utilizing KNC to generate fees from KyberSwap liquidity pools. Kyber maintains an active development team that continuously works on enhancing the protocol’s security. Regular updates and upgrades help address any identified vulnerabilities, also implement new security measures, and improve the overall resillience of the system. 

Recently ChainSecurity published a new smart contract audit and we have updated the audit on github. These audits help identify potential vulnerabilities and ensure that the smart contracts governing the protocol are secure and free from critical flaws.

How does KyberSwap differentiates itself from other DEXs in the market?

KyberSwap differentiates itself from other DEXs by addressing crucial aspects of the user's trading journey. With the newly launched KyberAI, users gain data-driven insights for informed trading decisions, predicting bullish or bearish nature of tokens over the next 24 hours using on-chain and off-chain data. The tool also offers yield generation opportunities and impermanent loss mitigation strategies based on expected volatility.

In terms of trading, KyberSwap provides a seamless experience, allowing instant swapping of thousands of tokens at superior rates without limitations. Aggregating liquidity from multiple DEXs, KyberSwap finds beneficial trade routes and prices efficiently. Their liquidity protocols, KyberSwap Elastic and KyberSwap Classic, offer capital-efficient liquidity to DeFi across multiple chains, with Elastic featuring Just-In-Time attack protection and auto-reinvestment curve to maximize yields for Liquidity Providers.

What do you think is the future of the DeFi ecosystem?

The future of the DeFi ecosystem looks promising and dynamic, driven by innovation and a growing user base. It is gaining mainstream recognition and likely to integrate into traditional financial systems. The ecosystem will evolve to address challenges like regulations and security risks. Platforms like KyberSwap will shape the landscape by focusing on user experience and offering advanced features.

We can expect more dApps catering to financial services, interconnected in a robust DeFi ecosystem with better interoperability. Layer 2 scaling solutions will enhance scalability and accessibility. DeFi protocols will focus on security, transparency, and compliance, gaining trust from users and regulators.

Collaborations between DeFi projects and traditional finance will blur the lines between centralized and decentralized finance, paving the way for new products and services. Overall, the future of DeFi holds great potential for growth, innovation, and inclusivity, becoming an integral part of the global financial landscape.

What role do you see KyberSwap play in the future DeFi ecosystem?

KyberSwap's consistent goal in the fast-changing world of DeFi is to be the most used exchange globally. We will provide benefits to traders and users through superior rates, a seamless experience, integrations and valuable insights on a secure and reliable platform. As a leading DEX, we empower users to leverage opportunities in the DeFi ecosystem and aim to build a vibrant ecosystem with enhanced liquidity and superior rates.

In the current scenario, privacy has become a crucial concern for users as they continue to participate in DeFi while safeguarding their sensitive data. KyberSwap will take the lead in prioritizing user privacy and is working to offer cutting-edge tools and services for an unparalleled DeFi experience. Despite the bear market, KyberSwap remains committed to security and user satisfaction, striving for excellence in all aspects.

Can you let us in on some interesting releases that are planned for the near future?

In an effort to bring more transparency into the DeFi space and empower DeFi users at all stages of their trading journey, KyberSwap has released KyberAI, which is currently in beta. KyberAI consolidates valuable market data, filters top bullish or bearish tokens from over 4000 tokens across 7 chains (Ethereum, BNB, Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, Fantom & Avalanche) via the KyberSwap Interface. 

KyberAI also has an amazing feature called KyberScore, which leverages the latest advancements in AI to provide users with valuable insights into token performance in the DeFi markets. By taking advantage of a range of off-chain technical analysis metrics as well as on-chain signals, the KyberScore model has been optimized to identify whenever a token has bullish or bearish potential in the next 24 hours. KyberScore condenses all the complexities of interpreting multiple market factors into a single number enabling traders of all abilities to make more informed trading decisions.

Further ahead, KyberSwap is focused on introducing risk management features. We already have Kyber's Fed Price Reserve (FPR). Designed for professional on-chain market makers, it allows them to generate profits on-chain through a gas and capital-efficient market-making mechanism. FPR’s architecture customized professional MMs’s trading strategy and worked within their desired risk exposure. Compared to other market-making options — such as AMMs and traditional order books used by centralized exchanges — FPR is dynamic and flexible, with practical risk management tools. It also doesn't require liquidity capital lockup.

Any final words?

Kyber Network's vision is to be the most used decentralized exchange in the world, making DeFi easy, safe and secure for all. For all purposes, whether trading, earning or conducting analyses in the market, users should be able to trade confidently and securely with an all-in-one platform. Upcoming innovations in DeFi will truly make this a reality.

While there are many challenges in technology, economy and regulation ahead for DeFi, Kyber Network continues to champion the ethos of decentralization and human freedoms, and work with the numerous ecosystem partners, to make this DeFi future a reality, and KyberSwap, their all-in-one DEX, aggregator and crypto tools, a key contributor.