In a significant step towards its objective of bridging traditional and decentralized finance, AllianceBlock, the first globally compliant decentralized capital market, recently announces the Mainnet launch of the AllianceBridge. Most blockchains operate in silos, leading to challenges when different blockchains need to communicate with each other. To enable traditional and DeFi players to unlock the full potential of DeFi offerings, chains need to be able to securely speak to one another.
Korea IT Times interviewed Rachid Ajaja CEO and Co-founder of AllianceBlock about the way to connect Innovative DeFi Products and Blockchains Across the Global Financial System.
To start off, could you tell us about AllianceBlock and its mission?
At AllianceBlock, we are bridging the gap between decentralized finance (DeFi) and traditional finance (TradFi), by remedying issues that exist in both spheres and linking them more closely together. We see the future of finance as an integrated system in which the best of both worlds can work together to increase capital flows and technological innovation.
We are building this future by bridging traditional finance with compliant, data-driven access to new decentralized markets, DeFi projects and ecosystem-scaling tools such as funding and interoperability. As such, we are building a next-generation financial infrastructure that aims to provide regulated financial entities around the world with the tools they need to seamlessly access the DeFi space.
We see that there has been a lot of developments at AllianceBlock recently. Could you elaborate a bit more?
The first half of 2021 has been incredibly busy and we have made a lot of exciting announcements. In May, we announced the launch of our Liquidity Mining as a Service (LMaaS) product which provides emerging projects with the means to create their own customized liquidity mining platforms. Liquidity mining is a common practice within the DeFi world, whereby users deposit their own capital on a platform and in return receive a share of future trading fees. From our own development experience, we knew that new projects in the industry often face steep barriers to entry and a lack of effective industry tools. LMaaS gives these projects a one-stop platform where they can create customized liquidity mining platforms, access powerful analytical tools, and manage and track their assets. The first defi project to leverage LMaaS is DAFI Protocol, which enables super staking where users are rewarded based on network adoption.
We also announced the release of the Mainnet of the AllianceBridge this month. Recognizing that one of the biggest challenges blockchain technology is facing today is ensuring interoperability between blockchain systems, we set out to create a bridge that would help our own DeFi offerings, as well as others, to reach the full support of multiple blockchain networks. Launching with initial support for Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, and Polygon, and with plans to extend to EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) compatible blockchains and non-EVM networks, the chain-agnostic AllianceBridge is a landmark development for blockchain, increasing interoperability and usability industry-wide. It acts as a universal, open-source interoperability solution that is faster and more decentralized than current industry standards. Notably, it has been fully audited by leading security firm Omniscia, and reviewed by Nick Mudge, a renowned developer and creator of the Diamond Standard.
What is the partnership status?
Reflecting endorsement for the AllianceBridge, we are currently collaborating with Hedera Hashgraph, the most used enterprise-grade public network for the decentralized economy, to combine our technologies and ultimately advance the global financial ecosystem through DeFi solutions.
As well as this, we also launched our Data Tunnel and have sealed a number of high-profile partnerships with industry players including Chainlink, Avalanche, Ocean Protocol, Energy Web, and GBG, as well as joining the London Stock Exchange Group’s Partner Platform in early 2021.
What are your future plans?
We have huge plans for the future and our team is expanding as a result. We have begun onboarding a range of new C-level executives who will be joining us from some of the largest financial firms in the world including IBM, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, and Deloitte, as well as from leading tech players including Lisk, Cognizant, Avaloq and Trezor, to name a few. These new executives will be working with AllianceBlock to advance our development and success, bringing their extensive experience and knowledge from the tech and banking worlds to further supplement our excellent team.
