Building Next-Gen DeFi Infrastructure: Interview with Orbs’ Ran Hammer

Decentralized finance (DeFi) promises a more efficient and free financial infrastructure, liberated from the cumbersome legacy of when financial markets required shouting on crowded trading floors.

But the infrastructure in DeFi is still in an early stage, which is why we still don’t see fully-decentralized order book platforms, advanced trading capability, and low-latency markets.

Today we have with us Ran Hammer, VP of Business Development at Orbs, one of the companies at the forefront of developing infrastructure for DeFi and other blockchain uses. They recently announced a $600,000 investment in THENA, a major decentralized exchange on the BNB (BNB-USD) Chain. We took this occasion to learn more about Ran, Orbs, and their recent initiatives.

Hey Ran, great to have you here! In our research, we’ve seen that you hail from a career in law, can you tell us more about how you decided to make the jump to crypto? How was it to work in legal in the earlier days of the industry?

RH: My journey into crypto started during my legal career when I was neck-deep in the world of M&A and finance deals for high-tech companies. Oftentimes in my legal profession, I had the chance to work with startups just dipping their toes into the water. 

In 2015, a client of mine approached me with an interesting endeavor — he had raised a large sum of cash in Bitcoin (BTC-USD) through a crowdfunding campaign and now was using that Bitcoin to help pay his employees and continue to keep the business running.

Crypto immediately became an interest of mine after working with this client. From 2015 to 2017, I started working more and more with crypto clients, and by the end of 2017, I had acquired a significant number of clients, all in the crypto space.

When I took the leap to focusing on crypto in my legal career, there were few lawyers who were willing to even touch the topic. With crypto’s lack of clear rules, lawyers saw it as a lost cause, but I decided I wanted to be part of the action, which ultimately led me to Orbs.

Orbs is one of those projects in crypto that’s always there, but you’re never quite sure what it does. Can you explain what is the Orbs Network, as well as the vision and its driving force?

RH: Orbs has become somewhat of a household name in the crypto world, and we’ve been in the game for quite some time. Like many companies, we assess the current space and markets surrounding the crypto industry and execute calculated pivots to provide the best experience for our users.

The Orbs Network can be described as an open, decentralized, public blockchain infrastructure using a secure network of permissionless validators using Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus. But unlike other traditional L1s and L2s (Layer 1s and Layer 2s), Orbs doesn’t operate its own blockchain — instead, it’s all about the validators, which is why we call this approach the Layer-3.

Orbs operates its own PoS consensus mechanism, which has been crucial in maintaining both the security and decentralized nature of the network while still integrating it with Ethereum (ETH-USD). Orbs greatly benefits from Ethereum’s established security and transparency, providing an additional layer of trust and reliability.

This hybrid model enhances the overall security of the Orbs Network by creating a secure blockchain network where any hacker would have to be able to compromise both Orbs’ and Ethereum’s networks in order to succeed.

But the Orbs network isn’t quite like regular Layer-2 blockchains, right? With products like dLimit and dTWAP, Orbs is providing the infrastructure to execute functions on smart contracts. Can you explain how that works?

RH: Orbs can function like a network of keepers for smart contract execution, which is especially evident in offerings like dLimit and dTWAP.

Both dTWAP and dLIMIT are powered by Orbs’ Layer-3 technology and are part of Orbs’ efforts to expand the capabilities of DeFi platforms. These protocols are fully decentralized and permissionless, and they’ve been integrated into several prominent DEXs across multiple chains, demonstrating their efficiency and innovation in the field of smart contract technology.

Orbs is leveraging its unique infrastructure to enhance existing EVM smart contracts and enable advanced trading strategies and order types, which were traditionally available only in centralized finance, as fully-decentralized solutions.

Orbs recently invested in a ve(3,3) DEX on BNB Chain called THENA. How does that fit into your company’s vision, and what do you expect to see from the project?

RH: Orbs’ collaboration with THENA is a strategic alignment that enhances our involvement in the DEX space. Our investment is more than financial; it’s an integration of our advanced dLIMIT and dTWAP protocols with THENA’s advanced order functionalities in a decentralized trading environment.

This partnership illustrates our vision of a more interconnected and efficient blockchain ecosystem, where innovations like dLIMIT, dTWAP, and Liquidity Hub pave the way for more advanced and user-friendly DeFi platforms. 

For example, the recent launch of Liquidity Hub on THENA helps tackle liquidity fragmentation in DeFi and contributes to the efficiency and robustness of the DeFi ecosystem.

What do you think of some attempts at building centralized private blockchains? Meanwhile, Aztec, Fhenix, and many others are trying to tackle the holy grail of building fully encrypted but public chains. Do you think that could turn private chains irrelevant?

RH: I’m not a big believer in the widespread adoption of private chains. The nature of blockchain technology and private or consortium chains don’t align well, and in most cases, these entities could more effectively use shared databases.

As for encrypted public chains like Aztec and Fhenix, I think they are an intriguing development towards the increasing efforts to balance transparency with privacy, and it could really shake things up.

Enterprises have often leaned towards private chains primarily due to concerns over data privacy and security. Encrypting data on a public blockchain would hit two birds with one stone, preserving the decentralized and transparent nature of the blockchain while also protecting sensitive information.

The success of this approach will largely depend on how effectively these challenges are addressed. If they manage to strike the right balance, encrypted blockchains could indeed be a game-changer, making private chains an option rather than a necessity.

As Orbs is quite active in DeFi, it’d be great to hear your take on the space as it exists today. Do you think there are further synergies to be had between decentralized finance and the “Layer-3” infrastructure Orbs is building? 

RH: DeFi has definitely become a pivotal use case for blockchain technology, showcasing some incredibly innovative developments in recent years, helping in the shift from traditional financial paradigms to more open, permissionless, and decentralized structures.

Orbs’ Layer-3 technology is designed to complement and enhance the DeFi ecosystem. While our current focus includes spot DEXs, we’re also exploring how our Layer-3 technology could add significant value in other areas, such as perpetual swap DEXs. 

Platforms are evolving rapidly, and our technology could offer solutions to some of the challenges they face, particularly around liquidity, transaction speed, and cross-chain interoperability.

Disclosure