Starting ADALend CEO Kaspars Koskins interview series, one of the most promising companies that is revolutionizing the lending industry by using blockchain technology to disintermediate the traditional middlemen – providing unprecedented access to loans for those ignored by the traditional banking system and providing high yields for investors in a persistently low-interest-rate environment. I hope you are as excited for this conversation as we are so let’s jump in.
Q: We are glad to have you here, Kaspars. Although we understand that you’re very busy with the launch of ADALend token and platform this quarter, we appreciate your time. Let’s start at a very high level – can you give us the elevator pitch for ADALend that so that those of us that are new to Decentralized Finance and Crypto (or Web3 as they fashionably call it these days!).
Koskins: It’s a pleasure to be here and I am thrilled to share with your audience a little more about what we are building at ADALend and how they can participate but first let me try to summarize in layman’s terms what our mission is.
The protocol is scalable and trustless. It allows for users to be protected in an environment that’s self-governed. Since day one we have committed to using natively the Cardano blockchain. It will make it possible for the lending platform’s ability to combine protocols that help business models provide economic support to billions.
ADALend will restore the power balance between lenders and borrowers. The platform allows the collateral use of digital assets. This will allow the platform to be more diverse for the users.
Q: Thank you for that – can you tell the audience a little more about why you chose the Cardano blockchain when there are already successful DeFi projects built on Ethereum and new blockchains like Solala for example?
Koskins: Let’s be clear, I will explain that Ethereum is now not available to most people due to high transaction costs. Over the last year, Ethereum’s transaction fees have risen to hundreds of dollars. For ordinary citizens in the west, such a fee would seem absurd. However, for those millions who live in Africa or Asia without access to a bank account, ETH is useless because they have to borrow much less and can only make small amounts. Ethereum has become a layer two blockchain, and those newcomers mentioned like Solana are not reliable and have problems with centralization. Cardano is the only truly decentralized blockchain with the required security, speed and low transaction fees required to provide a truly democratic financial solution that can be used by every human on planet earth – and our vision aligns perfectly with the Cardano Charles Hoskins who is passionate about improving financial outcomes for people all over the world, regardless of race, nationality, gender or financial status.
Q: We are grateful for your words of power Kaspars. Projects like Cardano, as well as platforms such ADALend, can help us realize this dream.
Our readers include professionals, executives and owners of small businesses. They are also looking for ways to preserve capital and make a profit in an inflationary environment with low interest rates. People are seeing their retirement nest egg or children’s college fund declining in real terms due to the frankly crazy macroeconomic environment we find ourselves in today in the US, Europe and many other parts of the developer world. What can middle-class and hardworking individuals gain from ADALend
Koskins: Well this is the other side of the coin isn’t it. In Estonia, my country of origin in Northern Europe, one of the reasons I started ADAlend was because of how much work I did in both traditional retail lending as well as with savings accounts at credit unions. As someone who has seen the effects of rising prices on their lives and how they were being denied a good interest rate from banks, I know first-hand the frustrations that people feel. The banks’ hands are tied as the interest rates are set by the Federal Reserve in the US and the European Central Bank in the EU. I began exploring Decentralised Finance (DeFi) as a way to earn a yield on my own family’s savings which led me down the rabbit hole and brings us here today.
ADALend lender’s are guaranteed a secure and safe lending platform that allows them to stake their savings in Cardano (ADA), the ADAlend token ADAL (ADAL), or in stable coins such as USDT or USDC. They will also be able to earn a superior market yield of a high single-digit, lower double-digit percentages. The ADALend platform is highly liquid without long-term lockups so our lenders will earn interest for the time their savings are “staked” on the platform and can withdraw anytime.
The other side is for borrowers – many small business owners, entrepreneurs and the self-employed can find it hard to borrow money from traditional banks to buy a car, pay a downpayment on a house, invest in their business or fund a dream holiday. At ADALend we don’t do credit checks and we don’t care about salary history. Digital assets are not considered collateral by traditional banks or lenders. We will provide an over collateralized lending facility to these borrowers where they can stake their digital assets like Bitcoin, Cardano or any other major cryptocurrency and we will lend them US Dollars or Euros against their holdings. These will be crucial liquidity for many hardworking professionals as well as self-employed individuals that have been overlooked by banks. This type of collateralized borrowing against access is used for decades by the richest 1% to finance their lives and maximize tax. ADALend now offers financial solutions for everyone who was once considered a privilege to the wealthy.
Q: That is truly a noble goal – and I love to see that you are helping out the middle classes like us as well as the poorest folks in the world.
Let’s talk about partnerships, investors and technology. I know that DeFi/CeFi (centralized financing) can be very competitive, particularly before the March 2022 Initial DEX Offering (IDO). But what information could you share without our readers signing an NDA in this area?
Koskins: Absolutely – you have hit the nail on the head, the space is getting more and more competitive by the day from other new projects building DeFi on other blockchains and the CeFi incumbents like BlockFi so we need to be selective about what we can reveal. However, today I have some insight to share with you.
On the technology side – by leveraging the Cardano blockchain, ADALend will be able to tap into the vast digital cash management market. ADALend has created a platform that allows any person to transfer their digital cash, and makes it available for loans. This opens up the possibility of blockchain-powered liquidity. The platform is built using Plutus and Haskell. It will be Cardano-centric.
On the partnership side, Input-Output Hong Kong (IOHK) has listed ADALend on their “Essential Cardano List” of projects that are considered part of the ecosystem supporting and providing Cardano users with products and services. We are also listed on CardanoCube.io and I know our Business Development team is hard at work on several exciting partnerships we will be announcing in February that will really move the needle so watch this space!
We were thrilled to have Moonwhale Ventures, a respected Venture Capital firm as our principal investor. Our private sale has almost been closed. We are now in a very good position financially and more selective in who we will take funding from, as we don’t want to favor the VCs over retail investors as many projects do. Also, we have reserving an excellent allocation of ADAL tokens to our community.
Q: This is excellent news Kasparas – I am hearing all too often that new crypto projects are providing huge allocations to the VCs who then dump on to retail. You seem to be much more inclusive at ADALend, giving great opportunities for small and medium-sized accredited investor access to private sales once reserved only for the VC elite. As an experienced small investor I salute your efforts!
I will admit that after today’s discussions, I was super eager to be involved. And I think our audience will be too. Find out where they can find information about the IDO Launch, private sales and how to participate.
Koskins: Thank you for the kind words and thank you for the conversation today – I genuinely enjoyed it and sometimes I still have to pinch myself when I realize how far we have come in the past year! We are still in the final stages for the private sale. If you, or any of your readers wish to request an allocation of ADAL tokens, you can email [email protected] with the subject line “CEO Interview” and I’ll make sure our private sales team responds to them ASAP. More information can be found at ADALend.finance.
Q: Thank you for your time Kaspars, and I’ll get back to the building.
Koskins: My pleasure, and I’ll take this opportunity to wish you and your readers a prosperous and profitable year ahead!