How do startups seek breakthroughs when the market is in a downturn: Take Injective Protocol founder Eric Chen as an example

Editor's Note: This article comes fromInjective Protocol（ID：InjectiveProtocol）, reprinted by Odaily with authorization.

Editor's Note: This article comes from

, reprinted by Odaily with authorization.

Recently, Eric Chen, co-founder and CEO of Injective Protocol, accepted an exclusive interview with Shama Hyder, a senior contributor to Forbes. During the interview, Eric said that every excellent start-up company is committed to solving a major problem, and the inefficiency of the market Startups are provided with the opportunity to solve these problems to stimulate a huge market potential.

The Web3 and blockchain industry is currently in the midst of a digital transformation.

Recently, we have found that fully decentralized open source products controlled by users themselves are rapidly developing. Although many companies claim to be truly open source, the reality is that creating a completely self-contained product is a complex endeavor that requires a high level of skill.

For Injective Protocol founder Eric Chen, the vision of building a truly decentralized derivatives trading platform drove him on a journey from a hedge fund to being incubated by the world's leading digital asset exchange Binance. Along the way, he draws valuable lessons to help companies gain a competitive edge and differentiate themselves in the fast-moving technology space with a practical and innovative approach.

I recently had a conversation with Eric to learn more about his experience and what other entrepreneurs can learn from him.

Shama Hyder: What inspired Injective to start?

Eric Chen: Injective was originally initiated by several researchers and traders who were passionate about the industry, trying to solve a technical problem that plagued the overall development of decentralized exchanges and decentralized finance. Back in 2018, we wanted to work on finding a solution to front-running, which we believe is a major security threat facing decentralized exchanges.

It is now clear that factors such as front-running transactions, gas auctions, and miner extractable value have been driving the spike in Ethereum transaction fees. We devised a solution to create fair, verification-free, and low-cost transaction mechanisms for decentralized exchanges using a newly developed cryptography technique called Verifiable Delay Function (VDF).

Hyder: When you were building the company, how did you see the idea of ​​true decentralization?

Eric: We envision that in the near future, the trading platform will become a utility to allow users to conduct peer-to-peer decentralized transactions. For us, true decentralization means that the entire process of order posting, matching, settlement, and position management is completely peer-to-peer, without relying on any one party.

Hyder: What advice do you have for entrepreneurs regarding the problem of market inefficiency?

Eric: One of the basic lessons I've learned over the years is that every good startup is trying to solve a big problem. The inefficiencies of the market provide opportunities for startups to solve these problems to stimulate the huge market potential.

I advise entrepreneurs to first determine how to best improve the inefficiency. After building some form of idea around a potential solution, I advise them to execute systematically while maintaining a fast pace and an innovative attitude. That's pretty much how Injective started working.

Hyder: How did you get attention and investment from Binance?

Eric: From the beginning, our team has focused on developing a product that can solve a series of problems that traders face when using the trading platform on a daily basis, such as slow transaction speed, high fees, and unfriendly users experience. Investment institutions usually make decisions based on their investment philosophy and the technology and execution capabilities of startups. When we approached the Binance Labs team, who wanted to support an innovative DEX to unleash the full potential of DeFi, Injective resonated with the investment team on multiple levels. After doing some due diligence, we found that the Binance team shared our vision and formed a mutually beneficial partnership.

Hyder: What resources would you recommend to young entrepreneurs today?

Eric: For aspiring entrepreneurs, there are many great resources available. When starting out, I recommend reading business books about startups to learn the basics, such as Chaos Monkeys and The Hard Things About Hard Things. But entrepreneurship is definitely not on paper. When you are passionate about solving a problem, the best way to learn is by doing it yourself, starting with an independent project and contributing to open source repositories. I would seek expert help and communicate with potential users. This helped me to understand their needs more clearly, and then to build a product that can solve their pain points.