Crypto Interviews
May 2023
Russel Ballard recently had the opportunity to interview Slava Gerashenko, the Product Manager at Orderly Network, a promising player in the world of decentralized finance (DeFi). In this insightful conversation, they delved into the challenges, triumphs, and future aspirations of Orderly Network, a decentralized trading infrastructure platform dedicated to providing backend services to decentralized exchanges (DEXs).
Orderly Network commenced its journey with an ambitious vision: to transition the infrastructure of a large, centralized exchange in Asia into a decentralized model. They chose Near Protocol as their platform of choice due to its technological edge, particularly with respect to latency. Slava highlighted that some of the founding members were already familiar with Near, paving the way for a smoother initial transition.
However, onboarding was not devoid of its challenges. "We started building over a year ago when Near was still pretty new," Slava recalled. It was a journey of mutual learning for both the Orderly Network team and the core developers at Near. The team's journey indicates that Near has made significant progress since those early days.
When asked about their experiences operating within the Decentralized Infrastructure (DI) ecosystem, Slava unveiled the close-knit community among projects on Near. "Everyone knows each other; everyone works together," he shared. This sense of camaraderie fosters an environment conducive to collaboration, as illustrated by Orderly's recent work with other projects to build an order book DEX.
The focus of Orderly Network now lies on launching perpetual futures - an area where they're directing most of their efforts. Furthermore, they're planning a multi-chain expansion to attract more users to Near. However, their ultimate objective extends beyond simply providing a service. The team aims to build an easy experience for developers to create their own DEXs.
One of the biggest challenges Slava and his team faced pertains to building their team. "The hardest thing that we came across as a project are the actual team members," he admitted. As a Rust-based system, finding people skilled in Rust, familiar with trading systems, and sharing the values of decentralization has been a significant hurdle. The challenge of sourcing competent Rust developers is an issue worth highlighting, perhaps indicating a larger trend in the blockchain development community.
This engaging interview with Slava Gerashenko provides a valuable lens into the world of DeFi development. As the industry continues to evolve, developers' skills and the fostering of close-knit communities will remain pivotal to the success of projects like Orderly Network.