After five years of deep cultivation in the DeFi world, Benedetto Biondi, founder of Folk Finance from Italy, led his team to achieve the important milestone of TGE (Token Generation Event). This mechanical engineer, who was honored in Forbes’ “30 Under 30,” has unique insights into DeFi: he believes that the biggest enemy of DeFi is not regulation or hackers, but its own complexity.

Table of Contents

• Folk Finance CEO Benedetto Background Introduction
• Folk Finance Solves the “Original Sin” of DeFi — High User Entry Barriers
  • Mobile App: Solving Entry Barriers + Liquidity Fragmentation Dilemma
• Folk Finance Future Blueprint: Connecting RWA+AI to Make DeFi More Popular
• Folk Finance Operators

(Background: Folks Finance announced its roadmap after TGE: xChain V2, mobile applications, and new LST will lead the next growth wave)
(Additional background: Folks Finance announced the launch on the Monad mainnet and launched a $35,000 incentive campaign)

The landscape of decentralized finance (DeFi) is like a grand cathedral built by engineers for engineers—its structure is extremely intricate, but the barriers to entry are very high. Participants look up in awe, which also indicates that the public’s entry threshold to DeFi is particularly high. Over the past five years, this emerging financial track has promised a future of transparency, efficiency, and permissionless access, but at the same time, it has imposed a hefty “cognitive tax” on every visitor trying to step in. In this long-lasting “user education” campaign, Folk Finance’s CEO Benedetto Biondi has proposed an almost heretical but more fundamental conclusion: When a tool needs to be widely educated about, what truly needs to be transformed is not the user, but the tool itself.

Folk Finance CEO Benedetto Background Introduction

Ben, with a background in precision mechanical engineering, was honored in Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2024. Starting from the DeFi Summer five years ago, he has been conducting a thorough “experience reconstruction” of DeFi through first principles. The ambition of Folk Finance, led by him, is far beyond becoming just another powerful lending protocol in the market. What they are doing is encapsulating and abstracting the complex underlying mechanisms of DeFi—such as cross-chain bridges, liquidity routing, private key management, and contract interactions—like a Porsche-level horizontally opposed engine, ultimately presenting users with an extremely simple, responsive, and high-performance “cockpit”—a seamless mobile application. This is a paradigm shift from “function-oriented” to “experience-first.”

Folk Finance Solves the “Original Sin” of DeFi — High User Entry Barriers

Question: You repeatedly mention mobile apps and simplifying user experience, even believing DeFi products should be so simple that “no education is needed.” This is a strong point. Can you elaborate on your product philosophy?

Benedetto: These five years have taught me a lot. We have been working hard to educate users, and we even have a “Folk Academy,” which might be the only DeFi product with an academy. But deep down, I’ve always understood: If you want a tool to be adopted by the masses, what you need is not education, but to make the tool so simple that users don’t need to be educated at all.

I believe that “education” itself is just treating the symptom of a “DeFi being too hard to use” disease, which shouldn’t exist in the first place. Blockchain and smart contracts should be hidden behind the app as underlying technology, not obstacles in front of users. My philosophy is that as builders, we have the responsibility to handle all the complexity. Users need results, not processes. That’s why we are committed to building a mobile app that, through partnerships with custodial solutions like Fireblocks, guarantees asset security while providing an extremely simple experience, allowing users to enjoy DeFi benefits without worrying about those complex technical details.

Mobile App: Solving Entry Barriers + Liquidity Fragmentation Dilemma

Question: You completed TGE after November 6, and you said this is not the end but a new beginning. In the post-TGE era, what is Folk Finance’s focus?

Benedetto: For us, “continuous development” is always the core value driving protocol growth. TGE is an important milestone, but our work has just begun. We will continue to develop excellent DeFi tools, focusing on our cross-chain lending protocol V2. Our goal is to maintain our industry leadership, making it simpler, more user-friendly, supporting more chains, more integrations, and offering more customizable DeFi strategies. Additionally, the development of the mobile app is also a top priority. We believe DeFi is an excellent way to manage digital assets, so we must make it easier to use than it is now.

Question: Folk Finance is known for cross-chain lending and has deep collaborations with Chainlink and Wormhole. How do you use these technologies to solve the fundamental “liquidity fragmentation” problem in DeFi?

Benedetto: “Liquidity fragmentation” is a major reason for low efficiency in DeFi. Imagine thousands of independent small liquidity pools in the market, which lead to larger slippage and worse lending rates. Our goal is to break down these barriers and create a unified liquidity market.

To do this, we want to challenge the standard model of DeFi lending over the past five years, like multi-chain independent markets such as Aave. In that model, if you want to operate across different chains, you have to manually bridge and pay double gas fees, which is a headache for users.

We believe liquidity should be shared, and chains should be interconnected. With message passing technologies like Chainlink CCIP and Wormhole, we can fully abstract the complexity of cross-chain operations. It’s like going to a bank for a loan—you don’t care whether the money comes from the head office vault or a branch vault; you just want to get the money. The same applies to our lending protocol: the USDC you lend may come from another chain, but you won’t perceive it—you only enjoy seamless service. This is how we solve the fragmentation problem—by unifying it at the underlying layer.

Folk Finance Future Blueprint: Connecting RWA+AI to Make DeFi More Popular

Question: Looking beyond 2026, besides optimizing existing products, will Folk Finance venture into RWA (Real World Assets) or AI integration? What roles do these two hot tracks play in your blueprint?

Benedetto: Absolutely, both are important parts of our future strategy.

We are very optimistic about RWA. We are the first to list tokenized gold and silver as collateral in a lending protocol. In the future, we will invest more in this area, currently researching how to solve technical issues such as liquidation and redemption cycles of RWA assets in a safe and compliant manner, as well as their path to compliance as securities. Our goal is to make RWA a high-quality collateral for lending stablecoins, bringing more stable asset sources into DeFi.

As for AI, we are equally interested. It will be integrated into our mobile app, playing the role of an intelligent financial advisor. AI can automatically switch between different DeFi tools based on user-set risk preferences, seeking the best risk-return strategies. This will greatly lower the barrier for users to participate in complex DeFi strategies, making advanced gameplay accessible to the masses.

Folk Finance Operators

Question: You once said “business is negotiation.” As CEO, do you have any key experiences to share when negotiating with partners?

Benedetto: My best advice to other founders is always: Ask those who have done this before you. There are always naive newcomers in the business world, and everyone is considering their own interests. So, you need to be responsible for yourself. I always recommend seeking feedback from experienced people; you can ask, “What is a reasonable price for doing this?” Others will share their experiences. Asking for free can save you a lot of money and help you make better decisions. Many people are shy to ask, but I believe the only stupid question is the one that is never asked.

Question: Regarding entrepreneurs themselves, a lot of time is lonely, even the person sleeping next to you every day might not understand your current situation. How do you find balance between the busy business world and family life?

Benedetto: That’s a very tricky question, especially during critical periods of the business. I am very fortunate that my wife is very supportive and understands that I am fully immersed in work. But you must find a balance; otherwise, work will consume you from within. Work is part of life, but not all of life. We need to live in balance, which is very important.

(End of interview)

!Question website tg banner-1116 | Question Trends - The Most Influential Blockchain News Media

📍Related Reports📍

Folks Finance Announces Launch of FOLKS Token

Fed’s Powell Turns Dovish: Fed’s Balance Sheet Reduction Nears End, September Rate Cut Reasonable, Bitcoin and Ethereum Rise Short-term