This is part of a series of interviews with founders and builders in the Web3 space called the Web3 Growth Handbook. The official handbook will be released in the coming months, but you can read all of the other available interviews here.

Don Mosites, co-founder of AirSwap

"I think as builders of products in this ecosystem you have to focus on both developer experience and user experience. Users need to have simple interfaces that don’t make them think. The other thing is opportunity and access. The opportunity has to become known and available to more people. The ability to access these opportunities is important. We are visualizing DeFi as an alternative system, and creating bridges into that."

Trading cryptocurrencies can be difficult. Whether its strict regulations that require people to jump through hoops just to buy or sell crypto or complex interfaces that make the entire experience feel more like a coding session than an financial transaction, the entire experience can be improved a lot. That’s where AirSwap comes in. Don Mosites, co-founder of AirSwap, believes that by solving the user experience issues of Web 3.0, the entire market will continue to grow.

Founded in 2017, AirSwap successfully completed a token sale for $36 million. They’ve continued to build out their network with new products and features. AirSwap now provides their peer-to-peer trading platform, an over-the-counter token swapping platform, and a new delegates feature that enables automated trading based on criteria set in a smart contract.

We had the chance to speak with Don about growth, user experience challenges in Web3, and the best ways to overcome the hurdles the entire industry is facing.

How do you define growth?

At our core, we are a p2p trading network based around a smart contract. At the end of the day, unique wallets making swaps is what we look at for growth. Engagement is important. Having returning users and number of trades per user is something we look at. We have a full, traditional funnel as well. People come into the website and are placed in the funnel, and then they flow through to eventually making trades.



What has been the most difficult part of growing your company so far?

We’ve always focused on building the best products we can with a focus on usability and liquidity. More recently, with the new protocols and contracts, there’s more opportunity for integrations. So we can start focusing on developer experience which will lead to more chances at growth. The challenge for us and all of Web3 is getting new people into the ecosystem.



What do you think needs to happen to get those people into the ecosystem?

I think as builders of products in this ecosystem you have to focus on both developer experience and user experience. Users need to have simple interfaces that don’t make them think. The other thing is opportunity and access. The opportunity has to become known and available to more people. The ability to access these opportunities is important. We are visualizing DeFi as an alternative system, and creating bridges into that.

I think access is the most critical thing to solve, and I think there are a few main bridges into DeFi. On-ramps for currency adoption. That whole process needs to be much smoother. Another bridge is asset tokenization, which we think is going to be really impactful. There’s an asset bridge that brings assets in and represents them as tokens, and there’s an investment bridge that brings the investors in without having to think about Web3 and tech.

What are your predictions for Web3/Blockchain growth in 2020?

I think DeFi will continue to grow. It’s really exciting. That’s the most clear thing going on. There are a few exciting things on the horizon. New collateral types for DAI is a good combination of tokenization and DeFi. The potential to update accredited investor definitions will potentially create a new class of investors. The ongoing replication of the legacy financial system is going to make this alternative defi system more powerful.

AirSwap is changing the way people invest and move their money. If you’re interested in buying cryptocurrencies or exchanging existing currencies, you should check them out.