Interview with Anatoly Berdnikov
There is hardly anything more interesting and more difficult than doing something that no one has done before you. The blockchain economy is just emerging and forming, taking its first steps and bumping into the sharp corners of the current reality. To explore a new technology, you either need to rely on someone else’s experience, or get this experience yourself. In the case of blockchain technologies, someone has to tread the first paths, stuffing bumps and correcting mistakes for followers — developers and end users. Anatoly Berdnikov and his team of blockchain developers have been engaged in this dangerous but fascinating business for 8 years.
-Anatoly, how did your journey into the blockchain industry begin?
-I first learned about Bitcoin back in 2011, when I returned from my military service. Then it was something completely strange for me but I was always interested finding out what things consist of. This is probably why I went to study as an auto mechanic, and when I got my first computer, the first thing I did was to disassemble it. Then I started to study what the Internet is and what it consists of, got to the bitcointalk forum, started creating my own branches where I bought and sold Bitcoins through guarantors and received my fees. This was my first experience of crypto business, if you can call it so.
-So you are self-taught in this field?
-Yes, like everyone else. There was no almost no useful practical information with public access on the Interned, and even now there is practically none. No one teaches this, because they are still in the process of studying this technology and the processes associated with it. I was lucky to have an inquisitive mind, an entrepreneurial streak and a willingness to make and correct mistakes.
-Tell us about your first serious blockchain product?
-After independent attempts to exchange cryptocurrencies on the forum, I met one intelligent developer who helped me create a cryptocurrency exchanger. It became much more convenient and safer to earn money but even then I realized that when it comes to buying/selling there is more potential for development. Instead of renting a tent on the market, I decided to create a market where people will put up their tents and earn money, and I will receive my fee. This is how P2P bit.team appeared — this is a platform where anyone can advertise the purchase or sale of their cryptocurrency. The platform itself acts as a guarantee that both sides of the transaction would fulfill their obligations.
-Is the P2P platform your idea and development, or was something similar already on the market at that moment?
-No, not my idea, there were already such sites, as usual, I “climbed under the hood”, and since I already had a development team and a certain number of clients of the first exchanger, I was inspired by successful implementations to make a user-friendly interface and set a competitive fee. It worked and today our platform is quite popular among the crypto community.
-Why didn’t you stop there? What was the incentive to create your own blockchain?
-Studying different cryptocurrencies and blockchain networks, I realized that if you can make good money on buying and selling cryptocurrencies, then what can you do being the creator of your own cryptocurrency? Then I started studying economic models and other related sciences, including game theory, which lies at the foundation of all cryptocurrencies. My team and I started validating different blockchain networks, to see how it works from the inside on our own experience. Then it became obvious that we want to deploy a business infrastructure on our own blockchain. We took one interesting development as a basis, fixed all the shortcomings, added the functionality we needed and took into account all our previous experience and the experience of the entire market. This is how DecimalChain appeared.
-If such blockchains as DecimalChain are already on the market, how does your development differ from others?
-We are not just a team of developers, we are primarily entrepreneurs who want to take their place in a new emerging market. Scientists study the world because they want to know how it works, and only then their developments are used or not used for practical purposes. This works the same with blockchain technology and cryptography. I repeat, we are primarily entrepreneurs and proceed from our own business objectives, market demands and end-user requirements. People want to enjoy all the benefits of technology, but they don’t know how. Everything that is on the market today is very difficult to use. We have created a simple designer of our own tokens and all the necessary tools so that people without special skills can independently create and use cryptocurrency for any needs.
We understand that new technologies always seem dangerous and we want to have a connection with developers. It is unlikely that I, as an entrepreneur who created my token and infrastructure on Ethereum, in which case I will be able to write to Vitalik Buterin and ask for help or some clarification. Moreover, we are categorically focused on legalization, which finally became possible with the release of the law on digital financial assets, so that large businesses can transfer their processes to blockchain rails.
-What are your future plans for the DecimalChain blockchain?
-To be honest, we are not making plans far, far ahead. This is impractical given the rudimentary stage of market development. Our main task is to respond quickly to everything that has potential for business. For example, recently there was an explosive growth of the NFT market, to which we reacted quickly and now you can create your own NFT on DecimalChain in a minute and put it on the marketplace. The market of decentralized banking products (DeFi) is gaining momentum, so we have made cross-chain bridges with the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain blockchains, where this market has settled. Soon it will be possible to deploy the functionality of creating smart contracts, due to which the first decentralized exchange and launchpad will immediately appear. Due to this, our users will be able to use all the features of the DeFi market.
In addition, there is constant work on the already created functionality on the invisible front: updating, fixing bugs and improving the interface. Therefore, our main plan for the future is to closely monitor the market and respond to its requests with a quality product.
