Decentralized finance applications are currently being built on protocols that were not designed to meet the needs and requirements of DeFi services. Radix uses significant technology innovations to be the first layer 1 protocol specifically built to serve the rapidly growing DeFi industry. Radix focuses on the three drivers of DeFi growth: Access: Despite the rapid growth of cryptocurrency, it is difficult and expensive to get money in and out of the DeFi ecosystem. Radix’s user-centric, vertically integrated approach makes on-ramping and off-ramping simple, secure, and as frictionless as possible. Liquidity: Liquidity is the lifeblood of the global economy, yet most of the world’s tokens and assets have limited liquidity fragmented across platforms that do not effectively interoperate. Radix provides native functionality for projects, developers, and market makers to create and access liquidity pools at the call of an API. Choice: The network effects of a public ledger are based on both the number of users and the number of connections between assets/applications on the platform. By standardizing and simplifying the way financial assets are represented on Radix, these asset code blocks can be easily scaled. Friction in the financial system costs $71 billion annually, and DeFi can only change this if we lower the barriers to entry and make it easier to get assets in and out of the ecosystem. Piers Ridyard is a Y Combinator alum and the CEO of Radix. I invited him on the podcast to share his mission and how they are turning challenges into opportunities. With $6 million in startup funding, I learn how Radix is accelerating DeFi by making on-ramping and off-ramping secure and frictionless, providing access to liquidity for investors, developers, and market makers.