Q&A: Why is it important for crypto projects to work together?

The crypto industry has exploded in recent months — but none of this is without challenges.

Exchanges are now operating in a saturated market where security remains a concern, and the prospect of tougher regulations is high.

Here, we talk to Changelly PRO CEO Eric Benz and Jelurida founder Lior Yaffe about their recent partnership — and why they encourage other crypto projects to explore integration.

1. How has Changelly PRO transformed itself from a token swap platform into a full-featured trading platform?

Eric: I wouldn’t call it a transformation — we’ve simply realized that to be able to offer the best user experience we need to provide our clients with an easy-to-use yet powerful trading platform. 

We are aiming to create an ecosystem that would ease users into the crypto world step by step — starting from buying cryptocurrency with fiat, storing it and swapping it to other coins, and moving on to more advanced activities such as trading. That’s where our new full-featured exchange comes in. It has all the powerful tools crypto traders might need, but its user-friendly interface is perfect for beginners. 

2. What are the steps you've taken to deliver a simple user experience?

Eric: Delivering a simple user experience has been our goal since day one, so naturally it’s something we’ve focused on. 

To start with, users can opt to not go through KYC if they don’t want to — they won’t be able to access all features, but the main ones will still be available. Next, we made sure our trading terminal is as intuitive as possible, and added little tips that explain how everything works. 

Finally, our fee structure is easy to understand. There are, of course, other steps we’ve taken, but I think these three are the key ones. We’re also working on creating our own crypto trading academy.

3. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing trading platforms right now?

Eric: There are several challenges trading platforms are facing right now. Firstly, there is the depth of the market. It’s obviously a great thing that crypto became more mainstream — we are looking forward to the day mass adoption comes. However, the increased popularity and the increased demand naturally mean there is higher supply, too. 

At the moment, the crypto exchange market is rather saturated, and there are obvious challenges that come with this. For one, it is a lot harder to stand out and bring something new to the table. We hope we were able to achieve this by utilizing our extensive experience to create a truly beginner-friendly trading platform. 

The other big challenge is obviously security — cryptocurrencies are a lucrative asset now, yet there is no proper regulation or, to be honest, security measures that can not only successfully prevent hacker attacks, but also help us to recover from them. 

Lior: One big challenge we are faced with when working with crypto exchanges is the lack of standardization at the API level. It seems like almost every exchange invents its own APIs with its own authentication and authorization procedures. 

This makes the task of integrating with multiple exchanges very time consuming. I would really like to see the major crypto exchanges work together to define a base API layer that all of them support and on top of that each exchange can innovate to differentiate itself by extending the base layer. 

This will be immensely beneficial for the crypto industry as a whole since you’ll be able to develop a service like a trading bot, liquidity pool, or price monitor for one exchange then reuse it across many others.

4. The industry has often found it difficult to keep user assets secure. What action have you taken?

Eric: We use 2FA, email confirmations, and whitelists for withdrawals to protect user funds. We also utilize top-notch tech behind the scenes to ensure all data and assets stored on our platform are safe. Additionally, we offer numerous guides that provide general digital and crypto security tips.

Lior: For the Ardor platform we implemented built in tools for multisignature accounts, HD wallet functionality, and secret sharing. This means DApp developers have the tools to deliver secure applications with relatively little effort compared with most other blockchain protocols.

5. In the next couple of years, how do you think trading platforms will evolve?

Eric: Well, judging by the trends we see today, I’d say that crypto is going to become more mainstream in the coming years. 

The pandemic has shown people the benefits of investing, igniting an interest among people who previously never considered it. I doubt that interest is going to fizzle out any time soon — and so we need to be prepared to welcome those new retail investors to our industry. 

This is something that we’re doing with Changelly PRO, and what I think many other exchanges are also trying to focus on more and more. Additionally, in order to prepare for institutional investors and higher transaction volume, the security side of things needs to evolve. There already are some innovative solutions aimed at protecting user funds and data, and I’m sure more will arrive in the near future.

Lior: I predict we will see established crypto exchanges become more regulated with regards to which users they accept and which coins they trade. 

At the same time, we will see a new breed of decentralized exchanges that ignore regulators based on DAO structures and decentralization. These exchanges will be much less strict about the users they accept and coins they trade. 

Essentially, this would create a “continental divide” between “good” crypto that is KYC compliant and regulated versus “bad” crypto that is easier to use but may not be accepted by the traditional financial systems. 

This trend in general will make it more difficult to do business in crypto, especially for coins based on untraceable blockchain protocols, and coins that annoyed regulators for whatever reason.

6. Are there any other technological advancements that are going to arrive in the crypto industry in the next couple of years?

Eric: Definitely. Firstly, I think some already existing trends are bound to develop further in the coming years — DeFi, for one. As the demand for blockchain technology grows, advancements are bound to come. I am looking forward to seeing how this industry will evolve.

Lior: Some interesting trends we are looking at in the Jelurida R&D are in the area of zero knowledge proofs, multiparty computation, and fully homomorphic encryption. We are eagerly waiting for these technologies to mature so that we can integrate them into our products. 

7. Why is it important for crypto projects to integrate with one another?

Eric: The majority of crypto projects are highly specialized, and many of them are created and managed by small teams. This is great because it stimulates innovation, but it also means that cooperation is needed to provide the best possible user experience. Not to mention, I think many of us are working towards the same goal — mass adoption — so it makes sense to support other players in the industry. 

Lior: Integration and consolidation are important trends for the crypto industry as a whole to provide a better user experience for users and developers alike. Alas, I don’t see it happening any time soon. 

At the blockchain protocol level it is almost impossible to integrate chains based on different consensus rules, and from a business perspective, it is almost always more profitable to create a new coin with a token supply you control than to integrate with an established chain. This pretty much ensures that the blockchain space will remain highly fragmented regardless of the clear benefits of integration.

8. And what are the main advantages of Changelly PRO and Jelurida's partnership?

Eric: I believe our partnership benefits both companies — Jelurida gains further exposure and greater liquidity for Ardor, Ignis, and NXT, whereas we get the opportunity to provide our users with more lucrative trading opportunities.

Lior: The Changelly-Jelurida partnership goes back many years, our team was one of the first to integrate Changelly-based token swaps directly into the NXT wallet, therefore it is only natural for our teams to continue working together. We are looking forward to adding support for our coins for any new service introduced by Changelly in the future.

9. Any plans to work more closely together going forward?

Eric: We had a great time working with Jelurida, so we’d love to do it again in the future!

Lior: At Jelurida, given that our main blockchain platform Ardor is pretty much feature complete, we are planning a major shift towards building applications for our blockchain products. These applications will be token based and we will surely like Changelly PRO to support these future tokens.