Max Kordek, Cofounder and CEO of Lisk

1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? How did you get involved with Lisk?

When I first read about blockchain technology at the end of 2012, I quickly became interested in its potential to
disrupt traditional industries and transform our society. I immersed myself in various cryptocurrency
communities and soaked up as much knowledge as I possibly could. One of the first things I observed about the
industry was how difficult it was for developers to enter into the space due to the technical sophistication of
blockchain. So, in 2016 I co-founded Lisk, alongside my partner Oliver Beddows, with the aim of democratising
developer access to blockchain.

2. How would you explain Lisk to someone who has never heard of it?

Lisk will make it easy for developers to build blockchain applications on top of customized sidechains in
JavaScript, as well as its superset TypeScript. These technological tweaks enable potentially hundreds of
thousands of developers to find real-world use-cases for blockchain technology through an accessible platform to
experiment with and build upon. Throughout this process, the developers are supported by educational content,
in-depth documentation and immersive user interfaces. As the Co-founder and CEO, I’m responsible for guiding
the team with my vision and evangelising blockchain technology use-cases to inspire developers around the
world.

3. Lisk developer and investor calling himself 4fryn released an article titled “How to maximize your Lisk stake
rewards” in which he described why the current system benefits only a few selfish individuals at the top and
suggested several reasonable improvements to the way things currently operate. How is Lisk addressing these
concerns?

All consensus algorithms are a work in progress. We’re talking about designing a protocol to handle network
security, economics, and development all in one. Lisk is based on Delegated Proof-of-Stake for good reasons, for
example, its relative energy efficiency when compared to Bitcoin’s Proof of Work. Another thing DPoS excels at is
community activation. A lot of the individuals you have mentioned above have been die-hard community
members from the very start of the network. They have achieved significant fame by contributing to our code,
hosting events around the globe, or a variety of other ways. Due to their contributions to the Lisk ecosystem, they
were voted into the esteemed position of the top 101 delegates allowed to forge our blockchain and reap the
benefits that come with that. I wouldn’t necessarily say that the system only benefits a few — there is a degree
 of dynamism within the 101 and we are working on how to incentivise even more participation and fairness.
These topics will be addressed through the newly introduced LIPs (Lisk Improvement Proposals). We care about
this issue so deeply that we have a whole phase of our new Development Roadmap dedicated to further
developing our consensus algorithm, including a change to the voting system and incentivisation of standby
delegates. Not only that, the LIP process is open for all — which means any community member is welcome to
submit their own suggestions that will be considered when it comes to improving our version of the Delegated
Proof-of-Stake.

4. Why did Lisk recently choose to reduce its block rewards? What have the effects of this reward reduction been?
The block reduction is actually something that has been hardcoded into our protocol from the very beginning of
the network and will continue to happen annually. It is a fairly common network tweak among the top players in
the space and is meant to support the sustainability of our network’s growth as our blockchain expands. LSK, our
native utility token, will be used for the majority of network actions such as deploying your own sidechain. This
means that as the network grows in the near future, the value of LSK token rises due to its increased demand and
limited supply. We want to make sure that delegates are rewarded an appropriate amount for securing the
network as this growth accelerates.

5. What are Lisk’s plans for the next year?

We remain focused on democratising access to the power of blockchain. Through the Lisk Foundation and
partners like Lightcurve, we’ll continue to spread our promise of bringing accessibility to the world of blockchain
through Lisk’s own network and user interfaces. That also involves helping to develop the overall understanding
of blockchain for a wider audience — which we will focus on through our open education platform, Lisk Academy,
as well as developer knowledge through the Lisk Blog and Documentation. We’ve also kick started our business
development activities through Lightcurve. They will focus on ensuring the presence of our token on the majority
of high-volume exchanges, while at the same time seeking out legitimate partnerships relevant to our
technologies and use cases.

On the development side, we have recently made two important announcements to our community which will
remain a focus of work in the coming year. We released our comprehensive Lisk Development Roadmap, which
details the exact steps that will be taken to get to the final product of a fully functioning Sidechain Development
Kit (SDK), as well as the interoperable, trustless, and open-source platform for building blockchain applications.
As previously mentioned, we have also launched the LIPs to our community, which provides the scientific
backbone to the objectives outlined in our roadmap.
6. Where do you see Lisk in five years?

I see Lisk being at the forefront of technological disruption and building the foundations of future blockchain
infrastructures.

7. What are your thoughts on the recent downturn in the cryptocurrency markets? How has Lisk been affected by
these downturns, and what is the path forward?

I believe in this technology because I see the benefits and real work applications of it through my work with Lisk. I
have seen many bear markets since 2012, but I think once you believe in the underlying potential of blockchain
then you really aren’t going to be influenced by the position of cryptocurrency markets. It may stabilise in the
future but, for now, I’m more interested in meeting and working with people who are optimistic about
blockchain. I attend blockchain conferences all over the world where I meet people who simply just want to make
blockchain happen and that solidifies my trust that we will achieve that goal. Our financial teams are always
keeping an eye on the markets and implementing proper structures in order to ensure we have enough resources
to deliver our products, as well as foster the future Lisk ecosystem.