Fintech Podcast - Episode 160: The Decentralized Economy - Interview with CEO of Radar Relay, Alan Curtis

In July, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, shared some choice words for centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, hoping they “burn in hell”.

These exchanges are some of the most powerful players in the digital currency market, acting as the middleman between buyers and seller, however, according to JPMorgan, one-third of centralized crypto exchanges have been subject to hacks. Over the past year, decentralized exchanges that don’t hold custody of funds and allow buyers and sellers to directly exchange tokens have been growing in popularity, gaining attention across the industry segment.

Now imagine a decentralized trading platform for ERC-20 compliant tokens the runs on the 0x protocol. Users are able to trade tokens wallet-to-wallet with other traders via the Ethereum blockchain without giving custody of the tokens to an exchange or smart contract. This improves both the speed, security, and safety of peer-to-peer trading compared to a centralized exchange.

This week, Around the Coin had the good fortune to interview the CEO of a startup that is changing the world, one user at a time in a decentralized manner. That company is called Radar Relay and our co-host, Faisal Khan sat down with the CEO, Alan Curtis.

Radar Relay is a peer-to-peer trading platform for Ethereum-based tokens built on the 0x Protocol. Hosting an open order book, Radar Relay facilitates trades between peers without ever taking custody of funds. When users complete a trade, it is settled on-chain. The crypto assets are then swapped through a smart contract without any central entity taking custody. Based in Colorado, Radar Relay recently completed a $10M Series A round, led by Blockchain Capital.

Alan Curtis is the CEO and co-founder of Radar Relay. Along with a few other founders, Alan founded Radar in August of 2017, creating a new category of wallet-to-wallet trading. To date, Alan has raised $13m from leading investors like Blockchain Capital. Responsible for setting the vision and growing the team, Alan has grown Radar to 30 employees, and the platform has served users in over 150 countries. Prior to Radar Relay, Alan was a Program Director at Innosphere, Colorado’s leading technology incubator, where he helped dozens of startups build their teams, raise money, and get to market.

Host: Faisal Khan

Guest: Alan Curtis

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Episode Transcript