Cryptovest sat down for a chat with Anant Handa, co-founder and CSO of Mandala Holdings LLC, the entity behind the Mandala Exchange. The conversation touched upon business goals, user priorities, differentiation, and regulatory compliance, to mention but a few.
CV: What do you think is important when starting to trade cryptocurrency?
AH: For people interested in trading cryptocurrency, the most important thing would be determined by their individual needs. It could be customer support, tutorials, trading tools, or simply being part of a community. When I first started trading cryptocurrency, these things were essential for adapting to the market environment.
One thing I believe to be truly important is having a good platform interface. A lot of exchanges stopped at the basics. They provided function but didn’t take it any further. Mandala is creating a fully customizable interface which users will be able to adjust to their needs. A solid interface is essential - it needs to be clean, logical, and useful. That's part of our focus.
CV: What type of trader or investor is Mandala targeting?
AH: Everyone, really. Nobody is forgotten, be they novices, seasoned traders, professionals, or institutions. They are all integral to building an enduring ecosystem. The user base needs to have a good mix to develop liquidity and organic trade data. We have some tools and resources planned for novices and at the same time, we are working towards some unique features and tools for professionals and institutions.
CV: What makes Mandala better compared to decentralized exchanges?
AH: Mandala is not a decentralized exchange. While there are some benefits in a decentralized operating model, it is more important that a platform achieves full compliance with US and foreign regulations. I think this makes us unique - we are doing things the right way from the very start.
We do have some planned features and tools I can’t speak about yet, but I can tell you I am really excited about our trading engine. With so many transactions to be processed per second on a very scalable backend, users can rest easy, knowing that Mandala can keep up with them.
CV: Do you believe the decentralization of exchanges is important? Will the DEX model prevail in the coming years?
AH: I think the DEX model could prevail, but while decentralized exchanges offer a lot of neat features, they sacrifice speed, stability, and liquidity. It is very important that an exchange, platform, or DEX can keep pace with the market and the needs of its user base because digital asset trading is 24/7, highly volatile, and exciting.
Additionally, from what I’ve seen, these platforms need to start looking at regulation, taking it seriously, and finding a way to operate within legal frameworks around the world. I think this could be one of the biggest hurdles for the DEX model in the coming months. It is very possible that we see a crackdown, including cease and desist orders and blacklisting.
CV: What is the advantage of owning and using the MDX token in the Mandala ecosystem?
AH: Mandala’s MDX token is highly functional, and I believe our discounted trading rates will be one of the greatest benefits. We plan a standard fee of 0.20%, which is pretty typical in this space. Through MDX, trading fees can be reduced by up to 80%!
MDX can also be employed to unlock enhanced features and tools provided through the Mandala platform. Typical users will have access to a lot of resources, but MDX holders will be able to get more out of these tools, such as our trading bot, portfolio analytics, our planned social network and, of course, our peer-to-peer marketplace.
CV: Which digital assets do you plan on carrying first?
AH: We can’t really get into the specifics at this time, but we plan to carry the top utility crypto assets. MDX will also have trading pairs and can be used as a base currency.
CV: How will you encourage trading and grow your user base?
AH: A key pillar of our plan is providing our user base with an experience that just doesn’t exist today. We will achieve it by tackling the issues that pervade this space: customer support, tools, resources, accuracy, etc. Something I think will be really interesting is our plan to incorporate a social network and marketplace. Users will be able to connect with each other, share perspectives, swap strategies, and more. Building a community is a large part of fostering adoption.
Additionally, achieving full compliance with the US Securities Exchange Commission will bolster our position in the cryptosphere.
CV: How do you achieve the increased speed?
AH: As I mentioned earlier, we have a very powerful trading engine at the backend of our platform. Mandala can process millions of transactions per second with record low latency (under 100 nanoseconds), and it is something we are very excited about. All too often, I’ve seen exchanges lag and orders not even process to the order book. It is super frustrating, and we are bringing the solution. Mandala is lightweight and the engine powering everything raises the bar on speed.
CV: What is the biggest challenge when it comes to security? How is Mandala dealing with this challenge?
AH: Security is a major issue in this space. We intend to have 2FA security procedures plus IP whitelisting, anti-phishing alerts, and much more through our platform. We are also working to bring next-generation 3FA security to the space with Mandala’s proprietary hardware wallet. Users will be able to take their holdings offline and keep them safely in cold storage while also affecting or signing trades from this device.
CV: How will your token distribution help the adoption of Mandala as one of the prominent exchanges?
AH: I think people are excited. I also believe it’s time for change and it will be welcomed. We feel we are disrupting the space, not through a single aspect but the cumulative effect of our feature offering. Mandala isn’t about reaching the bare minimum - when we set out to do something, we will do it well!
It’s very exciting for me to see the project come together so fast. The team is just as excited and dedicated as our current user base. The reason is simple: although the space is young, this is people's money, and we are all market participants, so we should expect more. Focusing on the user base is what has driven us this far and will continue to drive us into the future!
This article appeared first on Cryptovest
