It's time to find out who is behind dYdX...*

To begin with, it's important to understand that there are two distinct organizations associated with dYdX: the dYdX Foundation and dYdX Trading Inc.
The dYdX Foundation is a project DAO based in Switzerland, with the goal of supporting and advancing the development of the dYdX Protocol project, including its ecosystem and technical aspects. As a non-profit entity, any income or commissions earned are received by dYdX Trading Inc. In the typical fashion of the cryptocurrency industry, the foundation holds responsibility for the project and the issuance of the token, while the Trading Inc. team may sever ties with the protocol at any time.
On the other hand, dYdX Trading Inc. is registered in San Francisco and is the owner of the project's website interface and technologies such as smart contracts, order book, NFTs, and others.
Thus, while Trading Inc. (developers) own everything related to the project, it is the Foundation (DAO) that holds responsibility for its success.

Team*
The project team consists of more than 40 people, including: salesmen, lawyers, marketing "department" and all-round consultants.
There is no detailed information about the team, so we will limit ourselves to the creator.
The CEO (and founder) is Antonio Giuliano, a "Software Engineer" (MongoDB, Coinbase, Uber). Nothing special, an average developer.


Investors*
The funding history of dYdX Trading Inc. is quite impressive, with four rounds of financing that have raised a total of $87 million, including a last round that closed at $65 million. The company has secured investment from a range of venture funds, including 3AC, Paradigm.
It is worth noting that the project was developed over a period of four years before the token launch, which is a significant amount of time in the fast-moving world of cryptocurrency. The company raised $2 million in its first round of funding back in 2017, which is a testament to the confidence that investors have shown in the project over the years.
While the CEO has not disclosed the project's valuation, he has emphasized the importance of the Chinese market and the company's long-term growth strategy. With 277 million tokens allocated to investors, which is equivalent to 27.7% of the total token supply of 1 billion, the company seems well-positioned to continue its growth trajectory.
Why bother with geeks, right? They're just doing their thing, and as long as they're doing it well, that's all that matters.  But in other categories, we'll take a closer look at the numbers, because they definitely deserve to be studied.

If you are interested about the journey of the dYdX team, I recommend reading the article from medium written by Antonio Juliano (Founder), called "The History of dYdX (so far)" which delves into his experiences and endeavors dating back to 2015-2016.

Source:

dYdX is a decentralized exchange platform that offers perpetual trading options.

dYdX

***It's time to find out who is behind dYdX...***

To begin with, it's important to understand that there are two distinct organizations associated with dYdX: the dYdX Foundation and dYdX Trading Inc.
The dYdX Foundation is a project DAO based in Switzerland, with the goal of supporting and advancing the development of the dYdX Protocol project, including its ecosystem and technical aspects. As a non-profit entity, any income or commissions earned are received by dYdX Trading Inc. In the typical fashion of the cryptocurrency industry, the foundation holds responsibility for the project and the issuance of the token, while the Trading Inc. team may sever ties with the protocol at any time.
On the other hand, dYdX Trading Inc. is registered in San Francisco and is the owner of the project's website interface and technologies such as smart contracts, order book, NFTs, and others.
Thus, while Trading Inc. (developers) own everything related to the project, it is the Foundation (DAO) that holds responsibility for its success.

- ***Team***
The project team consists of more than 40 people, including: salesmen, lawyers, marketing "department" and all-round consultants.
There is no detailed information about the team, so we will limit ourselves to the creator.
The CEO (and founder) is Antonio Giuliano, a "Software Engineer" (MongoDB, Coinbase, Uber). ***Nothing special, an average developer.***


- ***Investors***
The funding history of dYdX Trading Inc. is quite impressive, with four rounds of financing that have raised a total of $87 million, including a last round that closed at $65 million. The company has secured investment from a range of venture funds, including ***3AC***, Paradigm.
It is worth noting that the project was developed over a period of four years before the token launch, which is a significant amount of time in the fast-moving world of cryptocurrency. The company raised $2 million in its first round of funding back in 2017, which is a testament to the confidence that investors have shown in the project over the years.
While the CEO has not disclosed the project's valuation, he has emphasized the importance of the Chinese market and the company's long-term growth strategy. With 277 million tokens allocated to investors, which is equivalent to 27.7% of the total token supply of 1 billion, the company seems well-positioned to continue its growth trajectory.
________
Why bother with geeks, right? They're just doing their thing, and as long as they're doing it well, that's all that matters.  But in other categories, we'll take a closer look at the numbers, because they definitely deserve to be studied.

*If you are interested about the journey of the dYdX team, I recommend reading the article from medium written by Antonio Juliano (Founder), called "The History of dYdX (so far)" which delves into his experiences and endeavors dating back to 2015-2016.*

Source: <https://antonio-dydx.medium.com/the-history-of-dydx-so-far-68bf46789f86>

vovj_p

What is dYdX?*

In essence, dYdX is a decentralized margin trading platform that only requires a wallet, funds, and motivation to use - without any need for verification or other requirements.

It's important to note that dYdX operates on the StarkWare Layer2 blockchain, which drastically lowers transaction fees and eliminates gas fees.

Why the StarkWare?*

StarkWare is necessary because Ethereum has a limited capacity for processing transactions per second. To address this, projects like dYdX use "rollups" that significantly reduce the network load. StarkWare leverages zkSTARKS technology, where all calculations are performed off-chain and then uploaded in one transaction to L1 (Ethereum) along with a validity confirmation of the data (list of off-chain transactions). This approach lowers transaction processing costs, ensures privacy, accessibility, and confirms the validity of transactions (validity proof). Additionally, since SkarkEx doesn't reveal the details of on-chain transactions, it offers maximum privacy. Users only see changes to their balance, and no one can know their trading strategy.

Liquidity*

Ensuring sufficient liquidity is crucial as traders don't want to face significant slippage when trading. To address this, dYdX employs a hybrid infrastructure model that minimizes off-chain latency in the order book. Additionally, the project integrates market makers as liquidity providers who can offer favorable quotes to users.


Now that we've covered some of the technical aspects, let's connect the dots and take a closer look. To connect to dYdX, you'll need to sign a transaction which creates a Stark key (the identifier of your wallet in L2). After that, you can deposit funds to L2 (which supports a wide range of tokens) and start trading. When withdrawing funds, you have the option to choose between a fast transfer, which incurs a 0.1% commission and covers transfer costs for the liquidity provider, or a slow transfer, which requires waiting for the mint of the L2 block (which occurs every 10 hours) and paying the Ethereum network commission.
Road Map*

Let's take a look at the roadmap for dYdX. One of the most exciting developments is the introduction of dYdX Chain, which is the project's very own blockchain built on the Cosmos SDK. By creating their own blockchain, dYdX can move away from relying on third-party solutions like StarkWare, making the platform more decentralized.

Why did they choose Cosmos?*
Because it's a flexible framework that allows for customization to suit any blockchain's specific needs. In the case of dYdX, Cosmos will enable validators to maintain their own off-chain order books, which are then synchronized with each other in real-time. Another benefit of Cosmos is the lack of transaction fees, which will make using dYdX even more accessible.

This approach to blockchain development also means that dYdX can completely eliminate centralization, creating a more open and transparent platform. All code will be open-source, and the platform will function entirely online without the direct involvement of dYdX Trading Inc.

A private testnet is scheduled for launch in March, with plans to integrate and launch the solution on the main network by the end of September. This exciting development promises to make dYdX even more efficient and decentralized.

I believe that the rise of decentralized derivative exchanges will play a significant role in the next phase of DeFi summer 2.0 growth.... And the DYDX token is positioning itself to be at the forefront of this narrative.

P.S. I rate exclusively for this category*

Source: Roadmap; Twitter; dydx.exchange.

***What is dYdX?***

In essence, dYdX is a decentralized margin trading platform that only requires a wallet, funds, and motivation to use - without any need for verification or other requirements.

*It's important to note that dYdX operates on the StarkWare Layer2 blockchain, which drastically lowers transaction fees and eliminates gas fees.*

- ***Why the StarkWare?***

StarkWare is necessary because Ethereum has a limited capacity for processing transactions per second. To address this, projects like dYdX use "rollups" that significantly reduce the network load. StarkWare leverages zkSTARKS technology, where all calculations are performed off-chain and then uploaded in one transaction to L1 (Ethereum) along with a validity confirmation of the data (list of off-chain transactions). This approach lowers transaction processing costs, ensures privacy, accessibility, and confirms the validity of transactions (validity proof). Additionally, since SkarkEx doesn't reveal the details of on-chain transactions, it offers maximum privacy. Users only see changes to their balance, and no one can know their trading strategy.

- ***Liquidity***

Ensuring sufficient liquidity is crucial as traders don't want to face significant slippage when trading. To address this, dYdX employs a hybrid infrastructure model that minimizes off-chain latency in the order book. Additionally, the project integrates market makers as liquidity providers who can offer favorable quotes to users.


______
_Now that we've covered some of the technical aspects, let's connect the dots and take a closer look. To connect to dYdX, you'll need to sign a transaction which creates a Stark key (the identifier of your wallet in L2). After that, you can deposit funds to L2 (which supports a wide range of tokens) and start trading. When withdrawing funds, you have the option to choose between a fast transfer, which incurs a 0.1% commission and covers transfer costs for the liquidity provider, or a slow transfer, which requires waiting for the mint of the L2 block (which occurs every 10 hours) and paying the Ethereum network commission._
_______

- ***[Road Map](https://dydx.exchange/blog/v4-full-decentralization)***

Let's take a look at the roadmap for dYdX. One of the most exciting developments is the introduction of dYdX Chain, which is the project's very own blockchain built on the Cosmos SDK. By creating their own blockchain, dYdX can move away from relying on third-party solutions like StarkWare, making the platform more decentralized.

- ***Why did they choose Cosmos?***
Because it's a flexible framework that allows for customization to suit any blockchain's specific needs. In the case of dYdX, Cosmos will enable validators to maintain their own off-chain order books, which are then synchronized with each other in real-time. Another benefit of Cosmos is the lack of transaction fees, which will make using dYdX even more accessible.

This approach to blockchain development also means that dYdX can completely eliminate centralization, creating a more open and transparent platform. All code will be open-source, and the platform will function entirely online without the direct involvement of dYdX Trading Inc.

A private testnet is scheduled for launch in March, with plans to integrate and launch the solution on the main network by the end of September. This exciting development promises to make dYdX even more efficient and decentralized.

_______

I believe that the rise of decentralized derivative exchanges will play a significant role in the next phase of DeFi summer 2.0 growth.... And the DYDX token is positioning itself to be at the forefront of this narrative.

***P.S. I rate exclusively for this category***

Source: [Roadmap](https://dydx.exchange/blog/v4-full-decentralization); [Twitter](https://twitter.com/dYdX); [dydx.exchange](https://dydx.exchange).

Into the playground
I am a fan of the testnet. It lets developers play around with different concepts as close to the real-world environment as possible without risking their assets.

dYdX has five fases (milestones), where they reached the final two. There's no overview to be found, just blog-styled recaps, so I will break it down for you.

Milestone 1 - Basic trading
Orderbook & Matching-Engine
Margining System
JavaScript Client
Telemetry & Monitoring
Lastly, the stress test

Milestone 2 - Functionality
Fees
Liquidations
Oracle Price Updates
Static Funding Rates
Token Transfers

Milestone 3 - Advanced
Validator Staking
Dynamic Funding Rates
Key-Permissioning & Access Management
Advanced Order Types
Documentation for Validators
Indexing Service

Milestone 4 - Public testnet
On-Chain Governance
Token Emissions & Rewards
Wallet Compatibility & Onboarding

Milestone 5 - Polish and optimize
IBC Connections to other Blockchains
Stablecoin Integration

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Conclusion
When everything is working fine, and the mainnet is rolled out, there will be three parallel networks:

Internal Testnet
Public Testnet
Mainnet

In the source of August 2022, time-bounded milestones were shown. dYdX was supposed to finish v4 in Q1, but they are still ongoing latest update May, 2023. This, and the way I have to find out about their progress, should let me give progress 4 stars, however, I find their (test)work to be worthy of 5, and quality > quantity.

## Into the playground
I am a fan of the testnet. It lets developers play around with different concepts as close to the real-world environment as possible without risking their assets.

dYdX has five fases (milestones), where they reached the final two. There's no overview to be found, just blog-styled recaps, so I will break it down for you.

## Milestone 1 - Basic trading
Orderbook & Matching-Engine
Margining System
JavaScript Client
Telemetry & Monitoring
Lastly, the stress test 

## Milestone 2 - Functionality
Fees
Liquidations
Oracle Price Updates
Static Funding Rates
Token Transfers

## Milestone 3 - Advanced
Validator Staking
Dynamic Funding Rates
Key-Permissioning & Access Management
Advanced Order Types
Documentation for Validators
Indexing Service

## Milestone 4 - Public testnet
On-Chain Governance
Token Emissions & Rewards
Wallet Compatibility & Onboarding

## Milestone 5 - Polish and optimize
IBC Connections to other Blockchains
Stablecoin Integration

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
# Conclusion
When everything is working fine, and the mainnet is rolled out, there will be three parallel networks:

Internal Testnet
Public Testnet
Mainnet

In the source of August 2022, [time-bounded milestones](https://dydx.exchange/blog/v4-milestones) were shown. dYdX was supposed to finish v4 in Q1, but they are still ongoing [latest update May, 2023](https://dydx.exchange/blog/v4-technical-architecture-overview). This, and the way I have to find out about their progress, should let me give progress 4 stars, however, I find their (test)work to be worthy of 5, and quality > quantity.

Jeroen

dYdX is worth keeping an eye on in my opinion. The project offers a number of features that are attractive to serious traders, including:

Margin trading: dYdX allows users to trade with up to 20x leverage (not the greatest). This means that you can control a larger position with a limited investment which does help a great deal when trading.

Prediction markets: dYdX also offers some prediction markets, where you can bet on the outcome of future events. This can be a great way to generate passive income or hedge against risk.

Low fees: dYdX charges no fees for spot trading. Margin trading fees are currently 0.02% which is actually amazing.

Security: dYdX is a highly secure exchange. It is fully auditable and has never been hacked.

Overall, dYdX is an interesting option for traders however if you are looking for margin trading then Gains Network and GMX are probably also on your list and it does make sense to diversify.

dYdX

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