Ep. 38 - Blockchain for the Real World with Alex Shevchenko, CEO @ Aurora

Wild User Interviews Podcast (Wuipod)

Alex Shevchenko is the CEO of Aurora, a next-generation Ethereum compatible blockchain and ecosystem that runs on the NEAR Protocol, and powers the innovations behind Aurora Cloud—the fastest path for Web2 businesses to capture the value of Web3.

On this wide ranging conversation with Alex we cover a range of topics including:

* The importance of staying humble. Lessons from two world class scientists that mentored Alex during is PhD.
* Transition from calculation on clusters to blockchain and early creation of Exonum Platform.
* Why Blockchain? Experiences with corruption and financial hardship that lead to the pursuit of tools to remove entities and increase trust.
* Beyond a rebellion. Why crypto needs to start focusing on User Experience and building products that users want.
* Unpacking Aurora Cloud:
* Aurora Cloud I, Silos: deploy your own custom Aurora (EVM)
* How are Aurora Silos different (better). Hint: they are not siloed.
* Challenges of scaling EVM. Synd and async environment. Evolution into NEAR VM and sharding.
* Aurora SDK for Cross-contract calls between Aurora and NEAR
* Aurora Cloud II, Aurora Pass: revolutionary wallet that removes concept of gas or fees.
* Aurora Cloud III, Borealis Business: dApps cover the cost of transactions on behalf of users (LIVE NOW)
* Centralised or Decentralised? On having strong technical teams own areas of development.
* [ALPHA] New 'External Business Development (BD)' initiative: anyone will be able to refer projects to Aurora and earn success fee.
* Thoughts on the longevity of the EVM.
* ... and more!

Resources:
Aurora - https://aurora.dev
Aurora Cloud - https://auroracloud.dev

https://twitter.com/AlexAuroraDev
https://twitter.com/auroraisnear

https://medium.com/@auroraisnear
https://github.com/aurora-is-near
https://discord.gg/dEFJBz8HQV
https://forum.aurora.dev/