Recently we became a new exchange provider in Edge, the industry’s leading self-custody exchange that supports the most popular cryptocurrencies on the market.
And today, we are sharing with you an interview with Paul Puey, CEO of Edge. We’ve discussed key features of Edge, some ideas on how to keep your coins secured, and even crypto adoption. See the interview below.
Guest’s Introduction
Paul is CEO and Co-Founder of Edge, a self-custody exchange and security platform for crypto. Edge (formerly Airbitz) has won accolades including being one of the top 3 mobile apps for Bitcoin in the 2014 Blockchain Awards, being voted in the ‘Top 50 FinTech Companies to Watch’ by AlwaysOn Inc., and receiving first place in the Inside Bitcoins 2015 and Coin Agenda 2016 pitch competitions. Paul held leading engineering positions with Nvidia and Chromatic Research and has a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley.
ChangeHero (CH): Thanks for joining our interview! Let’s start with your story. What brought you to the cryptocurrency industry, and how did you join the Edge team?
Paul Puey (PP): As CEO and co-founder of Edge, I’ve been with the company since day one. I came into the industry in 2013 being very fascinated by bitcoin and its disruptive potential for large establishments. However, I felt that user experience in securing self-custody funds was severely lacking and I decided a company and product like Edge is necessary for this industry.
What is Edge?
CH: What is Edge Wallet? How did the team come up with the project’s name?
PP: Edge is a self-custody exchange that lets people buy, sell, and trade hundreds of cryptocurrencies without giving up control of their funds. The name comes from the concept of Edge-Security whereby data and values are secured at the edges of the network versus in the central servers. At the very edge of a network are the people with their personal devices. Edge empowers people with their own high-power vault instead of relying on the behemoth custodians of our world.
CH: How can ordinary users start with Edge? What are the first steps?
PP: They can simply get started by downloading the app from the official website. The user experience is very similar to other mobile apps. Users simply create an account and log in.
Edge’s Features
CH: What’s so cool about Edge? What makes it unique?
PP: What makes Edge unique is our key management architecture. Users fully control their funds but unlike with other self-custody apps, they never have to see their private key and write it down. Their private keys are automatically encrypted and backed up. We believe security should be familiar and invisible. Making people go through extra steps to gain sufficient security makes for poor adoption.
CH: Safety is generally the hottest topic among users. How does Edge help its users to keep crypto safe?
PP: Just like the answer to the previous question, simplified security is our focus and we accomplish this by making security nearly invisible to the users. All accounts created in Edge are automatically protected with a light version of 2FA, and full-strength 2FA can be enabled at the touch of a button, unlike in other apps that require pairing with a separate app. In addition, all private keys are automatically encrypted and backed up both protecting users from attackers and from their own mistakes. Edge even has password recovery capabilities making the platform both secure and forgiving to human error.
CH: Can you share some safety tips with our community? How to protect coins from scammers in 2022?
PP: The simplest way to protect from scammers is to only use well-trusted applications such as Changehero and Edge for trading your crypto. Also, many scammers will try to impersonate friends and family and ask for crypto. Always double-check through multiple communication channels before sending crypto to someone else.
CH: Is it possible to buy crypto with fiat in Edge?
PP: Absolutely, people can buy crypto with fiat in Edge. Edge has support for more payment methods around the world than any other product. In addition, people can also sell crypto to their bank account or cash in many regions. With Edge, the retail investor has no need to utilize centralized custodian exchanges to buy, sell, or trade.
CH: Edge is partnering with Aave and supports crypto loans. Could you tell us why did you decide to add this feature?
PP: Lending and borrowing are one of the highest-demand financial services in the Defi ecosystem. However, the user experience will limit its adoption for 99% of the population. Alongside our mission of simplifying complex technology, such as key management, we are now focused on simplifying Defi for the masses, and our integration of Aave is a major step in that direction. It will let people utilize their bitcoin without selling it by taking out a loan collateralized with their bitcoin.
On Crypto Adoption
CH: Can you imagine that crypto can replace fiat money one day? Is it possible?
PP: Absolutely. There’s no reason why it can’t and it’s a major reason why I got involved in the first place
CH: If it happens, can Edge become an everyday instrument for the crypto community?
PP: That is definitely our goal. Everyday users should be able to access financial services through crypto and Edge aims to be the portal for users around the world.
Edge’s Plans
CH: ChangeHero is pleased to become your new exchange partner, how will this help your users?
PP: ChangeHero has been great at providing fast crypto-to-crypto swaps at competitive rates. While we understand that transacting from a self-custody app like Edge incurs additional costs to end users, such as required network fees, integrating ChangeHero helps reduce those costs and closes the gap between using Edge vs. using a centralized exchange.
CH: Can you share some of the project’s plans for the future?
PP: Our big focus over the next couple of years is simplifying Defi. With that, expect to see heavy integration with protocols allowing people to stake their funds, provide liquidity, earn yield, and borrow assets. We also intend to integrate more advanced trading features such as limit orders, shorting, and leverage, even further reducing the need for centralized exchanges.
Closing Round — choose one
CH: BTC or ETH?
PP: Our industry needs both BTC and ETH so I cannot pick one.
CH: BTC or altcoins?
PP: Without specifying a specific altcoin, I would say BTC. However, many specific altcoins do have amazing potential.
CH: Trading or Long-term investing?
PP: For me long-term investing for sure but with occasional taking of the profit.
CH: Your favorite crypto project?
PP: Right now it’s ETH. I like their heavy attempt at scaling and advancing the technology.
CH: The most undervalued crypto project?
PP: The FIO protocol is one that delivers a great user experience to wallets and I feel deserves much heavier adoption. It’s the first protocol that really gives crypto the Venmo-like experience for sending and receiving funds.
Bottom Line
Many thanks to Paul Puey for the conversation! We’re looking forward to working with our partners at Edge and providing customers with maximum value. Click here to download Edge today.
Stay up to date with Edge in their socials to learn more about our collaboration: Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Linkedin, and Discord. And to learn about our partners and news, keep an eye on our blog and subscribe to ChangeHero on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and Telegram.
