Zubin Koticha: Opyn – The Insurance Platform Which Protects Your DeFi Deposits

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Opyn is a smart contract-based insurance platform built on a generalized (supports both put and call) options protocol called Convexity. It is intended as a platform to protect DeFi users against both technical and financial risks, and a place where ETH holders can earn substantial premiums on their holdings by providing insurance.

Opyn uses tokenized ERC20 put options, oTokens, on ETH to allow option buyers to keep their upside while limiting their downside. If you buy Opyn protection, you are buying “the right but not the obligation to sell an asset at a pre-specified price”. Currently, you can buy insurance for DAI, ETH, and USDC deposits on Compound and it is completely noncustodial and trustless.

Zubin Koticha, CEO & Co-founder of Opyn, is currently working on V2 of the platform with his team. Their focus for improvements are in 3 main areas; cash efficiency, trading mechanism, and network effects. They are hoping to release this within the next 6 months.

This is a much-needed generalizable insurance solution against some attacks/ vulnerabilities within the DeFi ecosystem and it will be very interesting to see how their contribution to DeFi progresses.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Zubin’s background and how he got into crypto
• How Opyn was created and the roles within the company
• The evolution of the Opyn product
• Using options as an insurance solution
• The difference between traditional markets and Opyn
• American vs European options
• Improvements they are making in V2 - capital efficiency, fungibility, network effects
• The collateral as a different asset feature
• Trading venue
• An overview of VegaSwap
• Timelines for the new version

Episode links:

• Opyn Website
• Opyn Whitepaper
• What is Opyn?
• Opyn Discord
• Opyn Twitter
• Zubin Koticha Twitter

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst & Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/344