DFL Erwin on gamifying DeFi for new users on Solana

0:01I'm Ashton Addison from Blockware Capital for Investment Pitch Media and the Crypto Coin Show. And today on Blockchain Interviews, we have DFL Erwin, the team lead at D 5 Land. Erwin, welcome to the show and thank you so much for taking the time to come on. Thanks a lot for having me here and thanks for the invite. I'm really happy to be here. I'm really big fan of yours

0:21and always listening to the interviews you have. So, pretty happy to be here and ready to let you know what the questions you might have and answer all of those. Definitely, Erwin. Yeah, I would I'm really excited to talk more about DeFi and the gamification of DeFi, what you're working with on the Solana platform, and the game that you your team's building. There's so much to talk

0:45about and I would love for you to kick it off for us with just a little bit of background on DeFi Land, yourself, the team, and how DeFi Land came to be. Yeah, yeah, definitely. So, to start where where we're doing it that we're the we're trying to gamify DeFi, not really traditional approach. So, we are not building just another game for blockchain, but we're trying to

1:10accelerate adoption of already existing DeFi and NFT ecosystem. And what are we trying to do is that we're building some kind of farming game where you have different kind of actions, investment based actions turned into more gamified actions, so it kind of feels way easier to understand how what are you actually doing. And for retail, it's way way easier to onboard. So,

1:32to get the background check on the team as well, we're coming from tech startup industry. We had two previous ventures, one in augmented and virtual reality and gaming, another one we had the machine learning and computer vision company, mainly working with AWS, Nvidia, Microsoft HoloLens, Magic Leap, some really good names out there. And since DeFi some basically we have been trading

1:53ourselves as the founders for 5 years on different exchanges and just doing the ordinary stuff that everyone has been doing. And since DeFi summer, we got really, really heavily involved in DeFi. And because of that, we have spent countless of hours explaining DeFi and NFTs to our friends and family members, and they just still don't get it how it actually works. They just

2:13still think it is a scam that it has really good APYs. And like, they just don't get why would anyone buy monkey PNGs and stuff like that. So, we decided that we should have done something. And there is no other way than gamification to solve this problem really, really well. As gamification helps not only DeFi, but all the other different complex industries to get the

2:34retail reach, as well as just keep your already existing customers happy, loyal, and active. So, we decided to apply gamification on top of DeFi would make a lot of sense. And the inception of our idea was kind of meme. In 2020, a lot of people were joking about the yield farming, but as the farming, like, there was a lot of memes about this going. And

2:52like, we just decided that we let's try to then build this something like this in a week. And just as a experiment. And like, there was a Solana hackathon going, by the way, by that time in May. And we saw that, okay, let's apply for that. And we went there, we won the hackathon, and like, that was really, really big success for us. And we Since that, we

3:13just saw that, okay, let's just focus fully on this because like people are really loving this. We think that the potential can be really huge. And then we added not only yield farming as a farming, but actually the banks, like, the lending and borrowing protocols, swaps, governance, and many other different features. And what I would try to do is that we're bringing

3:32gathering all the different existing protocols into the same place, adding it another layer on top of them, which is basically our game and gamified experience for them. So, let's say, whenever a player swaps apples to bananas in our market building in DeFi land, you're actually swapping Serum coin to Solana coin in a Serum swap. Or let's say, whenever you're harvesting

3:52your farms in D file and you are actually doing a yield farming on radium. So, we're turning these kind of activities in more much easier way to understand for retail, as well as enjoyable for everyone, basically. As farming games are really really relaxing and different stuff. So, like we decided to would make a lot of sense. And then we are bringing a lot of So,

4:11like you can think of us as the gamified this app experience. So, you have like the zap experience like everything you love at the same place. Plus, you we have achievements and quests. So, like the rabbit hole, maybe you have heard about that. Maybe like let's say swap 10 times in this building and you're going to get this X amount of BFL rewards. So,

4:29we're we're incentivizing learning as well. And like exploring new different protocols and the new different features of D file. And on the hand, we are having an educational mode, which is basically the practice mode for the retail users who don't know how actually crypto works. They will be able to play the guided version of our game what the wallets are, learn about that. In

4:48explain like in five style with all the different animations. All the different really good tutorials from the best content creators on the YouTube and stuff like that. And once they complete this tutorial, they're going to get the free NFT as well in the in the D file land and like they will be able to customize their land with that. That's really really good way to

5:07onboard the retail users. It will be rolling out in several months. And also like I want to say something about the NFTs. So, in our game, we of course having are having our own NFTs like the trees, buildings, cars, everything are basically NFTs. They are like just for different purposes. And also like we don't we didn't want to just go for just a random static NFTs.

5:29Even though like the in-game NFTs are really on trend right now, we didn't want to be just we didn't want to have just that. So, we decided to give the NFTs the utility. So, let's say if you have a particular building, let's say this building you have plus 3% in your yield farming. Or, let's say if you have another building in a in the default and you're getting the daily

5:49chance to get the mystery mystery boxes and they're basically air drops and stuff like that. So, we're gamifying holding a different NFTs plus we're giving already existing NFTs a use case. So, let's say if you So, our game is non-custodial. You connect your wallet so you don't have to transfer any funds anywhere. And let's say you have a Cryptopunk on your wallet. So, once you

6:10connect the wallet, our game detects that you have a Cryptopunk and you're going to see some Cryptopunks walking around the village. They will be NPCs. They will be interactable. They're going to give you some quests. So, they're going to be some kind of fun to have and hold already existing NFTs. Or let's say if you have a Solana Monkey Business, one of the popular projects on Solana,

6:28you're going to see some monkeys running around just doing some monkey stuff and they will be interactable. Just you'll be able to pet them and stuff like that. So, we are trying to not only think about ourselves, but also just help already existing ecosystem to flourish. So, like we're trying to be not only selfish, but also help everyone to win basically because like we believe

6:48that the winning if everyone wins, we're going to win as well. So, like that's the that's the best case for us. And definitely we're having a lot of mini games in our game. There are going to be crafting, the some different side stories, chat, and many many different stuff that's coming. And our game is already in the alpha testing even though we started just 5 months ago basically 6

7:08months 5 things a month ago. We are already testing the game already months and a half in the alpha testing with our nearly 1,000 active users. And we will be soon having a public release public better release of the game in nearly 4 weeks in a month before Christmas for sure. And like we would we're going to be having a Christmas update especially with different details. And we're also

7:32having the public sale in a week. So, definitely that's the that's all all about that. And also like the we have raised the money from 50 different investors. Like well, can check about our on our different on our website defiland.app and we have raised the money with Alameda, Jump Capital, Animoca Brands, Gate.io and like many many different pretty good funds out there. And yeah,

7:55we're really happy that we have managed to have all bring all the different expertise on our board and like we're really too basically right now it's up to us. So, we are trying our best to deliver the game that people really love. So, yeah, that's about our Defi Land in a nutshell. Definitely. Yeah, a lot to cover there, Ervin, and thank you so much for that

8:15and few great things I heard. The gamification part just seems so interesting. I'm curious with your vision of where you're moving Defi Land in years to come and how the Defi industry will grow and adapt as more institutions get involved, but also more retailer mom and pops hopefully can get more access to financial instruments in a decentralized

8:42way. Do you see gamification as being, you know, one of the primary things that's going to drive adoption with that latter side of new people that are looking for ways to grow their wealth? To be honest, like I really I really like the institutional adoption and stuff like that. I really think that's really important, but if we really want to see just see

9:07NFTs, Defi, and game basically blow web three to become a mainstream, you really really need to have a retail region retail have the retail on board. So, I really believe that the best way for that is gamification because it's it's just feels really easy for them to understand and they are incentivized to try different stuff. So, I'm really big fan of gamification as I have been working

9:29in the industry as well, but and I have seen that succeed in not only just just games, but also like the banking and fintech and many different stuff. So, I'm really big fan of that gamification. Now, I really believe that the gaming would be will be really really big part as like the as a new a generation is really into gaming. They going to see a

9:48lot of potential in the thing they going to spend a lot of time playing the games, but not only new generations, but because like there will be a lot of incentives to try the different games such as default and let's say because like it'll be really easy to just going to go if it's really easy to kind of get started because like right now if you want to

10:06get started in DeFi, you just have to do at least a month of research. Just watch a lot of videos, read a lot of medium articles and like if you have a one place where you can just definitely learn about everything you all all you need and just do everything from one place and just get the education on the part as well. It'll be really easy and like you get plus

10:25going to get paid for doing so. So, I believe that the best way to onboard the retailers and like I really believe that we're going to see a lot of projects coming that like us. And like there are several already so I'm really happy to see that and also like the all the different gaming projects such as the Axie Infinity let's say. Which is having a huge huge huge retail

10:45reach is really good because like the people are really seeing that what's the power of web 3 can be as like we're bringing all the different incentives to the community and like the people are going to are already seeing that, but like they will see even more as time goes. Definitely, yeah. On the retail side making it easy as possible and to make it fun fun game I

11:07think is a great disguise for actually growing your wealth and learning about finances at the same time. So, I'm really looking forward to seeing when that does come out and you talked about how you were in the Solana hackathon and then when you're doing functionalities inside of the game, you're actually you know either swapping on serum or using

11:26radium and these other Solana based products. And you also mentioned interoperability there as well. And I know a lot of people that are in cryptocurrency, but they're not yet in DeFi, and they first sort of see the Ethereum ecosystem and how am I going to get into that? And oh no, there's high fees. But what do I really need to get started? For people that are looking to

11:46learn more about DeFi on Solana and in DeFi Land, what is like the minimum that they need if they've never done DeFi before, but they want to play the game and they want to learn about this technology? Is it just a wallet and a bit of Solana or can they do it from other ecosystems? Yeah. So, the first of all, to answer the question about I believe like

12:05everyone is wondering why we started why we chose Solana. So, I'm quickly going to answer the question as well. So, like the So, we are going for cross chains. Like there will be Ethereum Land with Ethereum's ecosystem. Like there will be different islands with different their own ecosystems and like there will be connected up we are bridge. So, like

12:23that will be for us, but like we had to start with one blockchain and we chose to start with Solana as it's really cheap and fast and like for retail adoption. really, really important. That's why we chose Solana. And like if there's a person who wants to just learn about DeFi and they have these problems like how much I need, that I might lose some money, this can be

12:41really complex. To try DeFi Land in practice mode, you will literally need nothing at all. So, like you will need no Solana. You will need nothing at all. Like once you kind of come, register, you we going to create the like we going to teach you how to create the wallet. We going to just give you the best guide, I believe, that is out there. And it will be through the game. Like you

13:01won't leave you won't have to leave the game or just going to go different websites and just try to take notes or whatsoever because like everything will will be within the game. So, I believe it will be really, really good way to onboard the retail users. And like you will have to do nothing at all. Just just play the game. Amazing. And you mentioned that there's

13:21a lot of things to come, you know, the open version of the game isn't out yet and that the token isn't out yet as well. For the community that's looking to, you know, learn more about when those are coming out and just get into the socials and into the communities on whether whether it's Discord or Telegram, what's the best way for people to find that information

13:44for when the next part of the platform is coming out? So, yeah, basically we're really active on like Twitter, Discord, and Telegram. And the both like me and team members are always answering the questions directly. So, we the really good thing that we are doing, I believe, has helped us a lot to grow the communities that we're having a weekly

14:04AMAs. Like I personally do I'm doing the weekly AMAs for 1 or 2 hours per week on Fridays. So, like I'm answering all the questions the community has. And like that's really helping us because like we're getting what they what they want, what they think, like what should we do next, and stuff like that. So, I really would recommend if anyone is interested in DeFi Land or

14:24just maybe is skeptical or what maybe he loves he hates DeFi Land. Just come to DeFi Land Discord and just kind of attend at one of our AMAs, and you will be able to ask any question you need. And like I'm not I'm answering all the questions that are written like literally like like you each one of them. So, like I will be answering your questions as well. And also like if

14:47you are just interested about the announcements and like what's coming, and you will you're you'll be able to do so as well on the Twitter and the Telegram as well. We're just always keeping updated all the all the channels. And like yeah, best thing the biggest things for now are coming on 24th of the November. We're having a public sale on the Radium. And also like we're having

15:06the public beta starting nearly approximately, I believe, in a month, in 4 weeks' time, before Christmas. And like we're going to be having a Christmas update with a snow and different some New Year style. So, yeah, that's the basically the biggest updates coming. But also like we have NFTs coming on the way. So, people can expect some really, really good looking NFTs and like

15:28with some functionality as well, not only just static ones that we see all all the time, but just utility ones for sure as well. So, yeah, you're not going to say too much about that, but yeah, it's going to just going to say several words about that. Yeah, sounds great. Yeah, they'll have to follow the communities for Delyland to learn that information,

15:47but I will leave the link to the Twitter and the Discord and Telegram as well in the description box below. And I appreciate you taking the time, Irwin, to come on and talk about Delyland. There's so much to learn and there's so much to do still to get all these people involved in decentralized finance and I think your team is doing a great job of it. So, thank you so much for that. All

16:06the best with the launches in the upcoming future here and let's follow up after that. Appreciate it a lot. Thanks for all the all the good questions and like really good vibe. And I'm really happy to be here and just presenting my the project Delyland and would definitely would love to touch base with you again as time comes. So, yeah, thanks for the

16:24opportunity.