A New Era for IOVLabs

I am excited to share that, on 22nd May 2023, I was appointed CEO of IOVLabs!

In the years ahead, I will lead IOVLabs on our mission of providing the next generation of fintech innovators with the decentralised tools and technology to build a new global economy.

In preparation for this moment, I have been working closely with people across IOVLabs and the wider Rootstock ecosystem to understand what more IOVLabs can do to accelerate adoption of the Rootstock blockchain, scale Rootstock with RIF technology, and make our Everyday DeFi vision a reality.

Here is what we will be focussing on at IOVLabs under my leadership.

Accelerating the Adoption of Rootstock

As the first ever Bitcoin sidechain, Rootstock was designed to expand the Bitcoin blockchain into a fully decentralised financial system that could serve any human being regardless of their economic circumstances.

Driven by the first-hand experience of the many people that built and continue to maintain Rootstock, this new financial system should be open in every sense: open for developers to create innovative protocols, open for investors to put capital to work, and open for people to use everyday.

To accelerate the adoption of Rootstock, we need to:

• Make sure Rootstock is the first choice for anyone building on Bitcoin, by promoting the incredible capabilities of the network, heroing pioneering partners, and leading the public conversation for DeFi on Bitcoin.
• Make Rootstock easy for developers to work with, through excellent documentation, and the very best tooling.
• Further decentralise Rootstock, by adding more merge miners, more pegnatories, and getting more contributors to help develop the core blockchain.
• Remove barriers to mass network adoption, by driving down transaction costs, increasing transaction speeds, and deploying state-of-the-art scaling solutions.
• Never rest in improving security, by continuing to evolve the Rootstock defence-in-depth model.

Scaling Rootstock with RIF Technology

RIF was created to make it faster and easier for developers to build new protocols on Rootstock. Today, RIF is a continuously growing collection of software libraries, example protocols, open source dapps, and tokens. It is through RIF that we are enabling the next wave of fintech pioneers to productise and scale Rootstock.

To scale Rootstock with RIF technology, we will:

• Build and launch more RIF protocols and open source dapps, so developers and innovators building on Rootstock are never starting from scratch.
• Partner with mature businesses with existing transaction flow, so we are solving real business problems and applying RIF technology to scale use cases.
• Develop the RIF Economy, by increasing access to, and building greater utility for, RIF tokens.
• Involve the community of RIF Token holders in the decision making and governance of the RIF protocols, and rewarding RIF Token holders for their participation.

There is a huge amount of development happening on RIF right now. And we have some really exciting announcements for RIF holders coming later in the year.

Making Everyday DeFi a Reality

Everyday DeFi represents a new phase of cryptocurrency adoption. It is characterised by underbanked or financially excluded users, in emerging economies, using decentralised technology, to fulfil an everyday need. This might be receiving a salary payment, paying a utility bill, saving in USD stable coins, getting a microloan, or sending money to a family member overseas.

These use cases are also heavy drivers of transaction volume. This means that not only does a focus on Everyday DeFi make sound economic sense for the Rootstock ecosystem, but it is also a positive application of decentralised technology for the world.

Since we developed this framework in 2022, the global economic polycrisis has only intensified. Rising inflation, rapid increases in interest rates, and repeated shocks to the international banking system have made millions of people a lot worse off. This has strengthened our conviction that in parts of the world where the financial system is failing normal people, decentralised finance can be a vitally important solution.

I am committed to supporting and promoting teams building Everyday DeFi use cases on Rootstock, and using our position to lead the wider crypto ecosystem towards making Everyday DeFi a reality.

Just Getting S tarted

I am hugely grateful to Diego, the IOVLabs founders, and the many people across IOVLabs and the wider ecosystem, for the trust, guidance, and support they have provided me over the last 2.5 years. And I look forward to continuing my partnership with Diego, in his role as Chairman of IOVLabs, in the years to come. Our partnership continues in this new phase.

While blockchains have been around for many years now, this remarkable emerging technology is still very, very early. We have only just begun to realise the potential of distributed ledger technology and the impact it can have on the world. And I am convinced Rootstock has a leading role to play here.

While blockchains have been around for many years, this remarkable emerging technology is still very much in its infancy.

We have only just begun to realise the potential of distributed ledger technology, its impact on the world and the wide range of real-world applications it has; from facilitating the transfer of value globally, to protecting users from economic mismanagement and the inequities of the global financial system. And I am convinced that Rootstock and RIF will have a leading role to play in bringing this powerful technology to the masses.

We have so much to do. We are just getting started. 🙂