#35: Josef, Co-Founder @ PWN | How a bank denying him a mortgage inspired them to build a P2P lending platform where you can use any token as collateral

PWN is a decentralized pawnshop where you can use any tokens as collateral. But it’s just the beginning. Their ultimate goal is to provide crypto loans for decades so that you will never need to sell your crypto. I spoke with Josef, PWN’s Co-Founder, who shared their story, challenges & growth strategies.

TIMESTAMPS:

0:38 PWN as a decentralized pawnshop

1:35 How not being able to get a mortgage & risk of DeFi liquidations inspired Josef to start PWN

9:30 Why they decided to give more protection to borrowers by not baking up loan liquidations from the start

13:43 How do they plan to implement filtering to protect the tool from SPAM offers while still keeping the platform open

17:31 How they designed their smart contract to support ERC20, ERC721 & ERC1155 tokens

19:16 Why it’s so hard to develop everything in a crypto-native manner, and they decided to make some shortcuts at this stage

21:10 How they acquired their first users and how they expanded from the friends & family stage by breaking the “stay focused” rule and cooperating with other communities

25:30 How will their tech let GameFi players borrow money on their in-game assets and still use them in the game

27:08 How they let you borrow money to buy NFT assets in a mortgage-like manner

29:19 Most interesting collaterals on PWN - Nation3 DAO, Aavegotchis & Beeple’s $250k art piece

31:40 Trade-offs: openness vs. niche, utilizing third parties vs. decentralized operations

32:50 Why would Josef stay at EF if he wasn’t building PWN

33:30 Why MakerDAO blew his mind

35:20 Why would he make all grifters disappear with his web3 magic wand

37:55 Where should people go to learn more about PWN

39:00 Guests ideas