- Doodhwala
- Posts
- 🔥 An Indian Crypto OG Spills The Beans
🔥 An Indian Crypto OG Spills The Beans
Arvind Krishna & Aakash Athawasya
August 24, 2022
Namooskar, this is your doodhwala! We’ll give you first batting all the time, and remember the first ball is always trials. If you get out, it doesn’t count!
Today we’ve got just one thing for ya!
It's our Desi Doodhwala Dost!
But trust us, this is one of the DOPEST INTERVIEWs about India’s growing and changing crypto scene!
It’s for founders, VCs, investors, and newbies!
Let’s get into it 👇
How to succeed in India’s Crypto scene?
It’s Wednesday!
You know what that means! You can finally get your hair cut! IKYK
But don’t read today’s doodhwala while getting a haircut.
Why?
Because we spoke to a Desi DeFi Degen and he dropped some HOT TAKES! 🌶 🌶 🌶
This week we spoke with one of India’s most experienced crypto execs.
He’s worked at TWO of the largest Indian crypto exchanges and now he’s doing his own THANG. 👀
We spoke with Sharan Nair, the former Chief Business Officer of CoinSwitch Kuber, one of India’s largest crypto exchanges about —
India’s changing crypto scene
Memes
How a crypto VC invests
His doodh preferences
Crypto influencer-problems
Memes
Bear market winners
And memes
But wait, who’s Sharan:
This is Sharan.
But seriously, who’s Sharan:
One of the first hires at Unocoin
First key hire at CoinSwitch Kuber
Been in crypto for 8+ years, even before Ethereum
Worked in crypto marketing, BD, policy, doodh-tasting, etc.
🍼 How did you land up in crypto?
I joined Unocoin as one of their first hires in 2014.
Between 2016-17, I hosted hundreds of meet-ups. In 2017, I organized an event in Ahmedabad for 40 people, and close to 400 showed up because of the price action.
At first, I spent a lot of time talking to people about integrating BTC for payments. One of the first companies to do this in BLR was Sapna Book House.
This was when I realized crypto will be a tech-focused global play and I moved to CoinSwitch.
At Coinswitch we started out with the idea of building a DEX but realized the UI and liquidity were terrible.
So, we decided to pivot and add DEXs and CEXs to a non-custody crypto aggregator model offering an enhanced UI/UX layer for DEXs pretty much like Shapeshift and Changelly till 2020 when the RBI ban was removed and then a payment gateway for crypto.
We worked with layer 1 protocols, exchanges, wallet providers, and even gaming companies to integrate crypto payments.
That’s when we moved into retail trading.
Oh damn, he’s been in crypto longer than some JEE aspirants have been alive!
🍼 Recently, you moved from CoinSwtich to start PYOREdge, what’s this about and what crypto market are you eyeing?
PYOR stands for Power Your Own Research, it’s a web3 analytics tool for institutions.
The reason we did this is that we realized institutions have no clue how to analyze crypto.
So, we want to build a Bloomberg Terminal for them. It’s under wraps how the end product will look like, but institutions looking for crypto are who we’re targeting.
What we realized was that people are going to do their analysis and then they want to execute. What if we could provide both of these?
Damn, PYOR for institutions and doodhwala for retail. What a 😎 combo!
🔥 HOT TAKE: What do you think about Indian crypto bros?
I think the crypto bros are not doing a good job. We need better thought leaders.
When CoinSwitch shut withdrawals, there were throwing memes at us.
I have lakhs of users and if one person does money laundering, it’s a kuladi for everyone.
And we need to protect the ones most at financial risk. Even the crypto bros must protect these folks.
And Crypto bros can’t claim to be the defenders of decentralization when you’re coming to a centralized exchange, giving INR, and buying crypto. 🤣
Exchanges are not revolutionary, they are businesses. They take transaction fees and give assets.
If you want to be revolutionary, be Tornado Cash.
Crypto bros are just loud trolls, who just go out there and screw things out for everyone. They’re outlandish but in a bad way.
And everyone is an outlandish crypto bro until they get an IT notice.
🍼 I know you know this but the market is not looking good! And in times like this people take weird bets. What bets do you think crypto companies and investors people are taking right now that’s caught your eye?
I have two ways to look at this — bets to take in a bear market, and bets to take in a bull market.
On one hand, when the markets are down the best bet you can take is a pick-and-shovel business. Lots of infrastructure companies are gonna get funded in the bear market.
On the other hand, when the market recovers VCs are gonna take irrational bets.
When a VC bets, they look for 2 outta 10 companies that give them an exponential return. And exponential returns come from irrational bets.
Facebook is an irrational bet.
Snapchat is an irrational bet.
Hell, even TikTok is an irrational bet.
Could you imagine if Snapchat didn’t exist, a company that puts a dog filter on your face would be publicly a publicly listed company trading for billions or dollars?
Or a company where millions of teenagers dance to trendy songs?
Infrastructure companies need a bear market to take off.
Irrational ideas need a bull market to take off.
But let's not get confused, we might be in an investment bear market, but not for tech and innovation.
Don’t worry readers, the doodhwala will cover both bull and bear markets. But we won’t do no TikTok dances. Well, maybe. 👀
🍼 Financial influencers are now marketing crypto companies full throttle. And sometimes they…don’t give the complete picture. What do you think about this shithousery?
I’ve got a very controversial take on this.
I think most financial products are scams.
If you look at the derivatives market, the futures and options, they’re basically gambling products.
All the fundamentals involved in typically financial assets don’t apply to derivatives. They’re like regulated casinos.
I believe financial products should not be sold to people. Financial education should.
Crypto exchanges should go and tell people, “what’s crypto?” without the element of Buy, Sell, and Earn profits.
OHHH! Spicy! 🌶🌶🌶 Need some lassi to cool things down
🔥 HOT TAKE: What kinda crypto founders are there in India?
Crypto founders came in cycles. We’re at the third stage of this cycle.
First set of founders: The Dhanda guys
These guys knew business and tech. They came in, and set up a shop just to buy and sell Bitcoin and earn a commission.
They treated crypto like gold, buying from one and selling to the other and they were very very profit-focused.
Second set of founders: The Startup bros
These kids came straight outta college and jumped on the hype cycle.
Being typical start-up guys they were focused on one thing – growth.
They did the whole schtick, play the funding card, go full on PR, and social media, even if it means low-profit margins.
Third set of founders: The Second timers
These are the experienced bunch.
One common thing among all of them is second-time founders.
They identified the actual problem and solved it. They didn’t make a product to solve a problem that didn’t exist.
I think there might be a fourth generation of founders who will look to consolidate where 1 or 2 guys will grab a lot of the market, or someone big enters India!
Call us Lance Armstrong, cause we’ll be riding all these cycles. We’re clean tho! 🥲
🍼 Everyone’s got an opinion in and about crypto. Anyone, whose opinion you appreciate?
Jameson Lopp of CasaHODL is a good voice on privacy and security, something which people don’t focus on.*
Balaji Srinivasan, the former CTO of Coinbase, talks a lot about people working on the fundamental rights of crypto.*
General advice — good takes on crypto comes from people who’ve spent a long time in space. Kunal Shah and Nithin Kamath have good takes because they’ve spent years in finance and so do these people I’ve mentioned.
Fun fact: Sharan had a meme page back in college! Hence, he’s got “meme dealer” in his Twitter bio. Respect! ✊
🍼 The most important question! Kya aap ready hai?!? — How do you take your doodh?
I don’t drink milk.
whomp whomp whomp
I drink tea with really less milk tho.
And I read the doodhwala if that helps. 🥲
Yes, it does Sharan! Yes, it does!
Big thanks to Sharan for speaking with the doodhwala!
You can bug him with questions about India’s crypto scene, his new project PYOREdge, education, memes, and why he doesn’t drink doodh here.
Give them a 👋 and let him know the Doodhwala sent ya!
That’s all for today peeps! Kal Milenge!
Yo! Our legal and financial advisors (aka our good ol’ conscience) have asked us to add this boring disclaimer.
None of what you read here is financial advice. We aren’t here to get to buy or sell a crypto. We’re only here to tell you what’s up in crypto today and make you laugh. So, if you screwed up on a trade, that’s on you G. Stay safe in the markets.