Metronome Minute: Don Wilson
In the Metronome Minute, we ask members of the Metronome team five questions about their role, expertise, and what interests them about the project.
For this edition, we have one of our advisors: Don Wilson, Founder & CEO of DRW, a diversified principal trading firm. Don founded DRW in 1992 while trading in the Eurodollar options pit at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the firm has since grown to include real estate, venture capital and cryptoassets. He is an influential thought leader in the financial futures industry and founder of the FIA Principal Traders Group. Additionally, he is a co-founder of the Eris Exchange and Digital Asset Holdings.
Don, how did you connect on this project and what is your role as a Metronome advisor?
I have known Matthew Roszak from the blockchain community over the years, and joined as an advisor to this product during its early stages.
I approach Metronome from two different angles. First, I was an early adopter in blockchain technology and cryptoassets, having co-founded Digital Asset Holdings and launched Cumberland, DRW’s cryptoasset arm, in 2014. I was convinced from the beginning that this technology will allow people to interact in ways previously not possible and that there would be many interesting innovations to come out of it.
I also approach my advisory role through the lens of an economist. Metronome offers unique ideas in terms of what it means to behave as a true currency — at the right midpoint between method-of-payment and store-of-value, and with new and novel rules that govern the money supply. Metronome demonstrates the opportunity in cryptoassets and their underlying technology to make peer-to-peer exchanges more fair and increasingly frictionless.
What excites you most about Metronome?
Metronome is simultaneously evolutionary and revolutionary. While many of Metronome’s capabilities have existed for some time now — like mass payments and subscriptions — many are features that have never been seen before.
Metronome’s cross-chain portability (which is designed to bolster longevity and flexibility), daily descending price auction (fairness and access), and set-in-code inflation rules that make it easy to determine what the overall supply will be at any given future date are all examples of how this cryptocurrency is moving the industry forward in a compelling way.
What do you think have been the greatest challenges in bringing this cryptocurrency to life?
This is a very ambitious project and this token launch is wholly different from what the nascent industry has been exposed to up to this point.
Most token launches serve as funding mechanisms for supporting the development of an underlying technology, while Metronome’s platform has already been built, with the exception of some final auditing, which will be completed before launch.
There has also been confusion about, and sometimes even resistance to, the decision to skip some of the customary norms of token launches such as pre-sales, discounts, bonuses, and bounties. Overcoming these challenges has led to the fairest launch possible.
What is your expectation for the most-used application of Metronome?
Metronome provides an alternative for people who want exposure to the cryptoasset market but may have been discouraged by the various compromises that many cryptocurrencies make in terms of features, community dynamics, benefits, and economic model. I’m also looking forward to use cases for Metronome that no one has considered at this stage, like machine to machine payment programming.
Where will you be when the auction starts?
I will be where I am on most days, even after 25 years+ in the trading business: watching the markets, learning, and adapting. This will likely take the form of me jumping back and forth on my large monitors to see how the auction develops.
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The Metronome team is justifiably proud of its advisors’ calibre. Its stellar spread of talent and expertise in its advisory board are essential to guiding the core team to bring this new cryptocurrency to life.
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More to come,
The Metronome Team
