Astroport interview 

Our interlocutor was one of Astroport builders — Cpt. Stoney, who has been a member of Delphi Labs and Astroport since the end of 2021. In Astroport Cpt. Stoney is responsible for managing discussions on management issues on the forum, posting proposals, putting forward ideas.

Let’s start!

Cosmobook: Please introduce yourself. What you do at Astroport? How did you get on the team?

Cpt. Stoney: At Astroport I'm mainly in charge of research and governance (managing governance discussions on the forum, posting proposals, coming up with ideas)

As for how I got in the project: in 2021 I was talking with a friend that was close to Astroport and he mentioned there's a need for someone to jump in and bring some structure to the research side. It's mainly about bringing some stucture and pushing new ideas out there and then see what the community thinks about them

Cosmobook: Tell our readers that you aren’t familiar with Astroport, what’s the essence of the project? Briefly.

Cpt. Stoney: Astroport started as a Terra 1 DEX but it's now focusing a bit more on being an AMM on multiple Cosmos chains (Terra 2 and Injective). The difference between AMM and DEX in this case is that the AMM side focuses more on the user experience for LPs whereas a "DEX" focuses more on the UX for traders

Cosmobook: I followed you during the Astroport Wars and I must say that I was very impressed with how quickly you created a buzz and won over your audience. Tell us what impressed you the most about Terra's ecosystem back then. Many have already forgotten what happened there. Tell about it.

Cpt. Stoney: Back in late 2021/early 2022, everyone in the Astroport community was excited about Terra 1 for a couple of reasons:

- It had a great user experience (e.g you could pay for transaction fees using UST which used to be hovering around $1)

- It had a large and devoted community

- It was starting to get traction on the DeFi side with many projects set to launch in Q1 & Q2 2022

I think all these reasons contributed to Astroport's ascent

Cosmobook: Then the Terra ecosystem collapsed. What did you feel at that moment? How did this event affect the team? What actions did you take at that moment to reduce the damage?

Cpt. Stoney: It was tough to say the least. Besides people in the Astro community, I had friends who either worked in the Terra 1 eco or were indirectly exposed to it. I had a full month of calls trying to calm people down and discuss about their situations. I felt completely drained in mid June last year but over the following months I slowly picked up steam yet again

Cosmobook: What is your current vision for Astroport?

Cpt. Stoney: Well I should start by saying that whatever I think Astroport could become isn't really that relevant because the community as a whole should dictate the project's trajectory. That being said, over the next 5 years, I'd love to see Astroport expand beyond Cosmos chains and being the biggest AMM in crypto that handles both fungible and non-fungible tokens

Cosmobook: I remember you had proposal 11 about the implementation of slAMM in Astroport? What did you decide, slAMM will be in Astroport?

Cpt. Stoney: There was an on-chain vote about slAMM and whether the community supports the idea. Most people agreed that Astroport should go on that direction but there aren't any efforts to build slAMM at the moment

Cosmobook: Any successful project needs a strong community that comes for a long time. Now many projects are suffering due to the fact that the community moves after the hype news, and leaving your discord does not return. How are you going to solve this problem? It is necessary that people believe in the long and successful development of the project. How do you work with the community? Are you planning to run any community programs?

Cpt. Stoney: I think most projects forget that it's much better to have a couple people that love them as opposed to lots of people that kinda like them. Generally, a project that truly wants to stick around for the long run (5-10+ years) will attract at least a handful of people that are really interested in its progress and try to help however they can. In my view, most community initiatives, with the exception of occasional community calls, seem forced. Community projects would be better off just focusing on what they built and talking with users to see how they can improve their products

Cosmobook: I'm not sure about this question, but maybe you can answer it. There is a well-known problem with appchains when a project needs to blur the focus and deal with both the network (validators) and the product at the same time. What ideology did you choose, why? Will the Astroport be an appchain like Kujira or Mars Hub or will it move to a ready-made zone?

Cpt. Stoney: I agree that building an app-chain means that your focus will be split between maintaining the chain and the product you built. While I don't know if Astroport will ever have its own app-chain, I'm happy that it doesn't at the moment. If a Cosmos project can build their product without morphing into a chain then they shouldn't stray from that path

Cosmobook: What is the size of Astroport team? Who do you have on the team? What specialists are missing? Looking for someone?

Cpt. Stoney: There isn't really an Astroport team. There are various contributors such as myself whose skills range from frontend development, smart contracts dev and community building to design and animations. Overall I think the current contributors cover all areas that Astroport needs

Cosmobook: Small blitz. Faced with Satoshi Nakamoto, what would you like to ask him?

Cpt. Stoney: "Are you proud of where crypto is today and where it's heading?"

Cosmobook: Yes, that's a good question. Faced with Do Kwon, what would you like to ask him?

Cpt. Stoney: Where do you see Terra 2 in 10 years?

Cosmobook: What inspires you?

Cpt. Stoney: My ultimate goal in life is to work in the non-profit sector, probably 20-25 years from now. So all I do is to get to that goal, specifically to help disadvantaged kids find a safe home and get a good education

Cosmobook: This is a really great goal. What are your favorite books?

Cpt. Stoney: Top 3 are "Poor Charlie's Almanack" by Peter D. Kaufman, "Skin in the Game" by N. N. Taleb and "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius

Cosmobook: Last 2 questions. Is there something you would like to share?

Cpt. Stoney: I hope crypto grows up beyond short term token games and manages to attract more people who are genuinely interested in using it

Cosmobook: It was nice talking to you. Give advice to our readers.

Cpt. Stoney: Start your own project, even if it's just a side hustle. Doing is much better than reading 'cause you'll pound the lessons much quicker in your head

Cosmobook: Amazing advice. Thank you for your time. It turned out great.

Cpt. Stoney: Thank you as well