Robert Leshner, founder of Compound, describes how its protocol will enable people to earn interest on crypto assets, and why he thinks this will be crucial to crypto becoming mainstream. He also describes how the company is currently building an interest rate model -- a task so difficult that an early version "blew up" the Ethereum virtual machine -- and why using one of its smart contract-based money markets is both riskier and less risky than using an exchange. We talk about who will use Compound and how, which coins they're going to launch with, and how Compound plans to make money. Thank you to our sponsors! AltLending: https://altlending.com StartEngine: https://www.startengine.com/unchained Episode links: Compound: https://compound.finance Robert Leshner: https://twitter.com/rleshner Intro to Compound: https://medium.com/compound-finance/introducing-compound-the-money-market-protocol-4b9546bac87 TechCrunch article on Compound: https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/16/cryptocurrency-compound-interest/ Unchained interview with Nadav Hollander of Dharma: http://unchainedpodcast.co/nadav-hollander-on-how-dharma-could-create-new-forms-of-debt-ep80 Unchained interview with Joey Krug of Augur: http://unchainedpodcast.co/joey-krug-on-how-augur-is-like-any-other-tool-ep79 Unchained interview with Danny An of TrustToken, which is creating TrueUSD: http://unchainedpodcast.co/harbor-and-trusttoken-on-why-they-dont-mind-being-unsexy-ep77 Unchained interview with Will Warren of 0x: http://unchainedpodcast.co/will-warren-of-0x-on-why-decentralized-exchanges-are-the-future Unchained interview with Vitalik Buterin: http://unchainedpodcast.co/vitalik-buterin-creator-of-ethereum-on-the-big-guy-vs-the-little-guy