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One man's effort to turn the tide and save Sushi! Forbes interviews FTX founder on the future plans of "SushiSwap".

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One man

SushiSwap, which rose to fame by copying the Uniswap protocol and launching liquidity mining, has recently been embroiled in controversies ranging from plagiarism, vampire attacks, migration proposals, the anonymous founder's token sell-off, and now being led by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). This leaves people curious about what SBF's intentions are with the project.

SushiSwap Chaos

As of now, one of the most controversial issues surrounding SushiSwap is the anonymous founder selling off their Sushi tokens for around 18,000 ETH, causing a further collapse in token price and sparking uproar within the crypto community. The key events unfolded as follows:

  • August 28: SushiSwap launched with nearly $300 million worth of tokens locked in a single day
  • September 1: Listed on major exchanges such as Binance, Huobi, OKEx, FTX
  • September 3: Anonymous founder Chef Nomi initiates liquidity migration proposal
  • September 4: SBF proposes Solana blockchain version of SushiSwap
  • September 5: Nomi emphasizes the necessity of migration and sells all Sushi tokens
  • September 6: SBF pressures Nomi on Twitter to relinquish control of keys, successfully taking over
  • September 6: SBF introduces Migration Plan 2.0 and multi-signature proposal
  • September 7: Band Protocol denies their CTO being Nomi

There have been extensive reports on SushiSwap, with FTX founder SBF taking control of the project over the weekend and promptly proposing to transfer control to a multi-signature system to restore community governance. Amid the ongoing turmoil, Forbes also interviewed SBF regarding the incident and inquired about future plans.

SBF: "Anonymous Development Teams are Scary"

SBF expressed shock at Nomi relinquishing control but also felt honored. He believed that returning governance to community management was the best way to help SushiSwap navigate the crisis. He stated:

1. I will ensure the liquidity migration plan is executed properly. 2. Once the multi-signature proposal is approved, I will no longer have the keys; my role will be limited to these two tasks.

I have many ideas for SushiSwap, such as introducing margin trading, integrating lending mechanisms, and creating a Serum version of SushiSwap, but these decisions should be made by the community, not just me.

Lessons from the Sushi Chaos

When asked about the implications of SushiSwap for future DeFi projects and the lessons for investors, SBF commented:

Having an anonymous development team with power is a frightening prospect, as users must bear a higher cost of trust. If you want to launch a project anonymously, that's fine, but your authority must be agreed upon by the community.

SBF also touched on the future of DeFi, suggesting that while blockchain technology could stagnate without innovation, another scenario could involve a vast integration of infrastructure for trading both encrypted and non-encrypted assets, with activities ranging from document transfers, communication software, to community platforms all on the chain.

How can such widespread adoption be achieved? SBF seemed to hint at Ethereum's low scalability issues, suggesting that a robust, highly scalable ecosystem is needed to achieve such accomplishments.