Five Questions with John Ennis, PhD

Do you follow John Ennis? You should. Not only is he the CEO and Co-Founder of NeoSwap, but he is also a very intelligent, thoughtful, down to earth man. If you have read my previous work you know that I am a fan of the NeoSwap party . (If you are unfamiliar go check out my piece on my NeoSwap experience here. )

Since then I asked John if he would be ok with doing an interview for my blog, and he graciously accepted. I sent him a list with five questions on it, and we later had an interview in a Twitter spaces, while participating in a NeoSwap party. Lets dive in.

The First Question

I had asked John when did he first hear about Bitcoin/Stacks, and funny enough we immediately go into territory that I am quite familiar with. Apparently John had first heard about Bitcoin in 2013 or so, after his brother had bought a life changing amount at one dollar, and sold for a double; save one coin that was later sold at a much higher price. (lets pour one out for the homie).

From there I learn that John has, unsurprisingly, spent a great deal of time studying monetary policy. Having followed Dr. Ennis on Twitter for a while now I found myself with a complete lack of surprise, the man frequently provides thoughtful commentary on the state of our monetary policy here in the US. John went onto say that while he once believed, as many do, a country requires an inflationary monetary policy; his academic interest in economic systems has led him to believe that this is actually not the case. As things started looking spicy heading into the 2020 election, John decided that it was time to make his first Bitcoin purchase. Since then and to this day he has continued to learn more about Bitcoin and the pitfalls of fiat currency. It was during this part of the conversation that we started going into how Fiat and corruption are connected, and this is where John said a truth that, in my opinion, will ultimately help change the world:

"Fraud and scams are the theme of the times, with the central scam being fiat currency"

*this is the part where you follow his twitter account if you haven't already

John said that he first became interested in Stacks around mainnet launch, at that time he was trying to build an early iteration of NeoSwap on Web 2. At this point he was already interested in Bitcoin, and was fascinated by the idea of smart contracts on bitcoin. Specifically how a smart contract would be ideal for the neo barter system that he was developing.

The Second Question

The next question is one that I always ask myself when evaluating a project: What problem does this project solve? John's answer here again took me into familiar territory. Liquidity. John pointed to the not insignificant amount of NFTs that wind up at very low valuations tend to just sit there. NeoSwap allows owners to trade these NFTs for others that they may like. So in a very real way NeoSwap is providing liquidity for NFT collectors. John then referenced some data that he and his team have collected and pointed out that 30% of NFTs in the Stacks collections have only traded via NeoSwap parties. It doesn't take much thought from here for me to see the potential for this tech, even beyond Web 3.

The Third Question

The next question where is NeoSwap at in terms of its roadmap? Here we get a glimpse into the future that makes me quite excited for where this project is headed. Ultimately NeoSwap will be "A cross chain, multilayered, ecosystem" in John's word's. In the future we will see NeoSwap conducting thousands of parties daily. If you have attended a NeoSwap party thus far, you are testing the proof of concept. The finished project will contain three layers according to Dr. Ennis:

1. The parties which are the social/bartering feature that you can take advantage of right now.

2. A prediction layer. This system will notify users via email when a trade comes along that the user may be interested in (another problem solved).

3. An automated layer. This will allow the user to transfer the NFTs he wishes to trade directly to NeoSwap, and the system will make a trade on the user's behalf.

From here we went into one of my favorite parts of the interview. I had mentioned how much I enjoy the social aspect of NeoSwap and some of the ways I could see it take shape in the future, and John again gave me something cool to think about. He pointed out how in Web 2 social and economic activity largely got divorced, and how Web 3 will bring the currently estranged human experiences together. This evolution of the marketplace idea really strikes at the heart of what I sense when I attend a NeoSwap party, I just hadn't put the right words to it. You really do get the experience of a new way to participate in commerce, yet it feels oddly familiar and comfortable.

Question four

The fourth question I asked Dr. Ennis is what ultimately will help push the mass adoption of crypto. Here, again, I had the pleasure of obtaining new insight into something that I think about often. John's take is that a good deal of what will happen with crypto is a gradual introduction into people's lives. John thinks that most people aren't too worried about technical details, and in this case people might notice faster/more secure financial transactions but not think much about the why. He then drew an analogy to how most vehicles have back up camera systems that already utilize augmented reality, and people don't really give it a second thought.

(busted. Here I am , the enlightened amongst the luddites (I jest) when it comes to the future of finance, and I just fell squarely into this category of consumer that John is speaking about.)

While I was momentarily recovering from this insight, I quickly found myself back in familiar territory when Dr. Ennis brought us around to hyperinflation as a possible driver of people into Bitcoin. It was here where we get a preview of what I think many would be a pretty ideal outcome of the uncertainties that we face, not just as Americans or Westerners, but as citizens of any government. John mentions a gradual implementation of crypto that corrects the imbalance in terms of centralization vs decentralization. Using this technology to provide for a more civil/peaceful transition into our next economic reality. This third path between ultimate control and a Mad Max style existence, is a topic that I personally will spend a lot more time thinking about.

Question 5

The final question was a simple "what do you want the readers to know about NeoSwap going forward" to which John replied: "Come to parties, its a fun experience!" I couldn't agree more.

Conclusion

Speaking with Dr. Ennis about his project I am reminded of just how early we are, and reinforces my belief in the necessity for us to be solution oriented. I strongly advise the reader to take time to explore the technologies being developed right now, not just as investment opportunities, but to figure out how we can help push solutions that will improve the lives of us and our fellow man. In terms of the format of this interview, I tried my best to do it justice. I opted against a straight up transcript in hopes that this would convey the topic and tone in an engaging way. I would definitely like to hear from you all and get feedback on this.

I want to thank Dr. Ennis for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer these questions, and as always thank you dear reader for your time as well. Until next time. Jack.

*The easiest way to DCA your Stacks here