Gyuzaridani from Opchainlist: What was your background before web 3?
Arjun Kalsy from Mantle: Before web3, it was mostly enterprise tech and AI. You can see my background here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arjunkrishankalsy/. I was following web3 from May 2016 and then went full time in 2020 with Polygon (then Matic Network).
What attracted you to the web 3 space?
Before web3, my background was mostly in enterprise tech and AI. I became attracted to the web3 space because of its potential to revolutionize how we interact with technology and decentralize power. The principles of decentralization, transparency, and community ownership appealed to me, and I saw the opportunity to be part of a movement that could reshape the future of the internet and beyond.
What are the benefits of using Mantle's LSD solution? As far as I know, Mantle is the first L2 implementing lsd solution to its network.
Our LSD (Liquidity Sensitive Deposits) solution in Mantle brings several benefits to the space. Firstly, it introduces diversity into the ecosystem, countering the concentration of stake seen in other solutions like LIDO. Secondly, it enables liquidity provisioning dApps on the L2 network, enhancing the overall usability. Thirdly, it generates rewards that can be used for network incentives. All of these aspects contribute to increased security for Ethereum and EigenLayer, as LSD tokens can also be staked in EigenLayer.
Great, Ethereum's staked liquidity will flow to Mantle and help with this, Mantle's ecosystem will grow. What are your projections for the Mantle ecosystem in the next two years?
Our vision for the Mantle ecosystem in the next two years is ambitious. We aim to shape the future of token-governed technologies and strive to build the largest ecosystem in web3. We strongly believe that the future of global web3 companies will be community-owned, community-run, and community-governed. We anticipate substantial growth in adoption, partnerships, and the development of a vibrant and diverse ecosystem.
What are some of the key initiatives you are working on to grow the Mantle ecosystem?
We have several growth initiatives like our grant programme, ecosystem fund, LSD product, liquidity provisioning, listing on Bybit, etc. The focus right now is to grow the DeFi ecosystem so that we can build a strong liquidity layer. We have now started to also focus on socialfi, nft's and gaming. There is also a big focus from our side on RWA's, where we have also liquid staked our stable coins on Ondo finance (USDY).
I want to ask about socialfi too. What are Mantle's plans for developing a SocialFi ecosystem?
fan.tech has been very popular on Mantle, and we are excited to see its continued growth. The trick is to figure out how to make these dapps sticky in nature. We are looking into different types of social models and trying to figure out what is the best fit.
Awesome, does Mantle have a roadmap for the NFT ecosystem built on top of Mantle Blockchain? Maybe gamefi NFTs?
On the NFT side - we definitely have plans for NFTs. We are already doing the Citizens of Mantle NFTs on Mantle - which are NFTs that change traits based on the usage of the network. The Mintle NFT marketplace has also gone live. We will have more traction on NFT communities in the days to come.
Thanks Arjun for a great interview. Looking at a project from their builder’s eyes is awesome.
You are welcome. I hope we can meet at DevConnect later this year.
