这家公司让你可以“做空”以太坊

初创公司dYdX已从投资者那里融资1000万美元，用来开发让人们可以直接相互借款而不经过券商的金融软件。

该公司共有五人，他们开发出了基于以太坊网络的保证金交易协议，目的是允许人们创造出和加密货币有关的新金融产品，就像付息贷款、卖空和用了杠杆的多头仓位。和传统金融行业不同，此项技术不需要券商来充当受托中介。

dYdX创始人安东尼奥·朱利亚诺在电话上对《财富》杂志表示：“去中心化金融可能是区块链技术的第一个真正应用。”他这样描述此项技术的革命性：区块链始于比特币，或者说去中心化货币。然后它们让建立去中心化交易所成为可能，比如0x和Kyber协议，人们可以通过这样的协议交换虚拟货币，而不需要Coinbase那样的中枢型交易所。

朱利亚诺曾在Coinbase和优步担任工程师，他认为现在可以开始在此基础上开发工具。他说：“下一个符合逻辑的落脚点是衍生产品。”此类金融合约将改善当前数字货币的“原始”交易方式，还会“降低数字货币市场的波动性”。

朱利亚诺的dYdX协议整合了以太坊的所谓智能合约，这种合约可以自动进行金融交易，并通过去中心化交易所（在这里是Ox协议）提供的交易结算功能来创造衍生产品。他说，这些衍生产品有助于交易商对冲风险，并以新的方式进行投机，从而最终熨平市场波动。

做空以太坊

任何人都能用dYdX的软件来打造产品，包括dYdX在内。

本月初，这家公司推出了第一款产品Expo，投资者可以用它来“做空”以太坊，或者说押宝在以太坊价格下跌上，而且只需要买进一种虚拟代币。它的名字很贴切，就叫“做空以太坊代币”（short Ethereum token）。此前，做空以太坊的最便捷途径是在Bitmex或Circle’s Poloniex等中心化交易所里建仓。

朱利亚诺说：“Expo基本上是把用户进行的大量复杂保证金交易抽离了出来。人们无需担心贷款问题。”

理论上，当以太币（Ether），也就是以太坊的内置数字货币的价格出现一定幅度的下跌时，做空以太坊代币按美元计算的价格就会出现同样的涨幅。反之亦然，以太币的价格上升，做空以太坊代币的价格就会下滑。

朱利亚诺的团队计划推出更多产品，包括加杠杆的多头以太坊代币，以放大投资者的保证金交易损益。朱利亚诺说，今后2至3个月，他的团队将考虑增加其他产品，比如0x协议内置的ZRX代币，具体情况取决于它们的流动性。

Expo目前是免费服务，但朱利亚诺说今后dYdX可能对交易收费。或者，该公司可以创造一种代币，以便随后在基础协议层收取费用。

就目前而言，赚钱并不是这个团队的首要任务。朱利亚诺表示：“我们把重点放在让别人使用协议上。”他还指出，迄今为止最有吸引力的功能是让贷款人累积向其他投资者借款得到的利息。

押宝金融衍生产品

dYdX在最新一轮融资中筹集到了1000万美元，而且有几位投资者已经是第二次向这家初创公司投资。

领头人a16z crypto是一只以数字货币为主的投资基金，由硅谷风投公司安德森·霍洛维茨和专门从事数字货币相关投资的对冲基金Polychain Capital在今年设立。这两家公司也是2017年11月dYdX种子轮融资的领头人，当时dYdX筹到了200万美元。

Polychain Capital的创始人兼首席执行官拉夫·卡尔森-维表示，他和朱利亚诺一起在Coinbase工作时，后者的工程技巧和“强有力的成长心态”打动了他。卡尔森-维把dYdX的“做空以太坊代币”称为“逆以太币或者暗以太币”，他还说，这只是dYdX计划开发的P2P金融产品的首个范例。

安德森·霍洛维茨加密货币基金负责人之一克里斯·狄克逊同样对dYdX团队的工程水平表示赞赏。他说后者的产品有可能帮助到对借贷和对冲风险感兴趣的加密货币投资者。

其他几家风投公司也参与了dYdX的这轮融资，其中包括Craft Ventures、Bain Capital Ventures、Dragonfly Capital、VY Capital、Abstract Ventures、Kindred Ventures和1confirmation。

跟投的还有几位天使投资人，其中有初创公司助力网站AngelList的创始人纳韦尔·拉维肯特、技术界老手兼初创公司顾问埃拉德·吉尔、订票网站Eventbrite的联合创始人凯文·哈茨以及加密货币交易所Coinbase的联合创始人弗雷德·埃尔扎姆。

拿到这笔资金后，dYdX开始考虑扩张。朱利亚诺说：“首要任务是扩大团队规模。我们打算在旧金山招募工程、设计和运营人员。”（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审校：夏林

A startup called dYdX has raised $10 million in funding from investors to develop financial software that allows people to borrow money from one another without using a broker.

The five-person company developed a margin trading protocol based on the computing network Ethereum. It aims to allow people to create new cryptocurrency-related financial products, like interest-generating loans, short sells, or leveraged long positions. Unlike the world of traditional finance, the technology requires no broker to act as a trusted intermediary.

“Decentralized finance will be first real application of blockchain technology,” said Antonio Juliano, dYdX’s founder, on a call with Fortune. He described the evolution of the technology thusly: Blockchains began with Bitcoin, or decentralized money. Then they enabled the creation of decentralized exchanges, such as the 0x and Kyber projects, which let people swap virtual tokens without needing a centralized exchange, like Coinbase, in the middle.

Now Juliano sees an opening for tools built on these foundations. “The next logical thing is derivatives,” said Juliano, who formerly worked as an engineer at Coinbase and Uber. These sorts of financial contracts will improve upon the “primitive” way cryptocurrency trading is done today, he said, and will lead to “less volatility in the underlying market.”

Juliano’s dYdX project combines so-called smart contracts from Ethereum, which help automate financial deal-making, with the trade settlement features offered by decentralized exchanges, in this case 0x, to create derivatives. These derivatives can help traders hedge risk, speculate in new ways, and ultimately smooth out see-sawing markets, he said.

Betting against Ethereum

Anyone can build a product on top of the dYdX’s software—including dYdX.

Earlier this month the company debuted its first product, Expo, an application that enables investors to “short” Ethereum, or place bets that the cryptocurrency’s price will decline, simply by purchasing a virtual token called, appropriately, the “short Ethereum token.” Prior to this, the easiest way to short Ethereum involved taking positions on a centralized exchange, such as Bitmex or Circle’s Poloniex.

“Basically, Expo abstracts a lot of complications of margin trading away from the user,” Juliano said. “People don’t have to worry about getting a loan.”

In theory, when the price of Ethereum’s native coin, Ether, goes down by some amount, then the price of the short Ethereum token should go up by an equal dollar-value amount. In cases where Ether’s price rises, the reverse is true: short Ethereum falls.

Juliano’s team is planning to launch more assets, including a long leveraged Ethereum token, which is designed to magnify the gains or losses of investors trading on margin. In the next two-to-three months, Juliano said his team would look to add additional assets, depending upon their liquidity, such as the ZRX token, the native coin of 0x.

Expo is currently a free service, but Juliano says dYdX could charge fees on transactions in the future. Alternatively, the company could mint a token that lets it reap fees at the base protocol layer later on.

For now, money-making isn’t the team’s priority. “Our focus is on getting people to use protocol,” Juliano said, noting that the feature drawing the most interest to date is one that lets lenders accrue interest for providing loans to other investors.

Betting on financial derivatives

The latest funding round for dYdX, worth $10 million, sees a couple of investors doubling down on the startup.

The lead investors are a16z crypto, a crypto-focused investment fund created this year by Andreessen Horowitz, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm, as well as Polychain Capital, a hedge fund that specializes in cryptocurrency-related investments. Both investors led dYdX’s earlier $2 million seed funding round in November 2017.

Olaf Carlson-Wee, CEO and founder of Polychain Capital, said he was impressed by Juliano’s engineering skills and “strong growth mentality” when the two worked together at Coinbase. He described dYdX’s “short Ethereum” token as “an anti-Ether or a dark Ether,” and he said it’s just the first example of a peer-to-peer financial product the company plans to develop.

Chris Dixon, who co-leads Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto fund, also praised the dYdX team’s engineering chops. he said their products would be useful for cryptocurrency investors interested in lending and hedging risk.

The latest round of funding includes participation from a number of other venture capital firms as well. These included Craft Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, VY Capital, Abstract Ventures, Kindred Ventures, and 1confirmation.

Several angel investors also participated. These included Naval Ravikant, founder of startup-assisting website AngelList; Elad Gil, a tech veteran and startup advisor; Kevin Hartz, cofounder of ticketing website Eventbrite; and Fred Ehrsam, cofounder of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

With the new funding secured, dYdX is looking to expand. “The biggest priority is growing the team,” Juliano said. “We’re looking for engineering, design, and operations roles in San Francisco.”