#30: Leighton, Co-Founder @ PoolTogether | The story behind the OG DeFi protocol which has distributed over $5 million to depositors as a reward for saving money

If you don't want to miss our episodes, subscribe to our Substack and get an e-mail whenever the new one comes out: https://web3talks.substack.com/ PoolTogether is known as the #1 DeFi protocol that encourages saving. Depositors participate in a lottery-like process where their deposited money can win prizes. But contrary to a lottery - even if they don't win, they keep their money. The luckiest winner ever deposited $73 and won over $43k, reaching a 589X return. How it's possible? How Leighton came up with the idea? How was PoolTogether built, how they got it secured, and how they dealt with the lawsuit?  Here's episode #30: 0:50 What is PoolTogether, and how it encourages saving 2:00 How PoolTogether started as the result of Leighton's research on TradFi tools that make people more wealthy 3:45 How blockchain makes the premium bonds model more transparent and scalable 5:40 How PoolTogether works technically: non-custodial design, integrations with yield sources, random numbers generation, price tiering contracts 9:19 How have they acquired the first users in May 2019? 12:10 Mitigating security risks via reducing attack surface area, no oracle dependencies, non-custodial design, internal testing, bug bounties, investing over $1M in third-party auditors 15:15 How have they educated the market about PoolTogether? 16:56 The story behind Poolies that raised over $1.5M for combating the lawsuit 24:11 At what stage is the lawsuit right now 26:00 What needs to happen for PoolTogether to reach a truly global adoption 21:30 How do they take care of the community 32:03 Why crowdfunding on the blockchain might be a killer app 34:22 What Leighton would fix with his web3 magic wand 36:35 Why MakerDAO & Gearbox blew his mind 38:42 Why was Uniswap airdrop such a magical moment for Leighton 41:20 Where people can learn more about PoolTogether 42:18 Leighton's guest ideas